Facing the voters: Shelia Canipe - School Board

By Chuck Thompson | The Shelby Independent

Shelia Canipe

Shelia Canipe wasted no time, immediately starting the interview by stating, “It bothers me that at one time we had nine underperforming schools, and now it is much better than that, but we still have kids graduating that can’t read, write, or count.

She continued, “I know adults that, if it weren’t for technology they couldn’t count – they can’t make change at a cash register. I’ve been in a store where I have had to tell the cashier how much change to give back. I’ve seen my friends who are still teaching that have verbatim scripted teaching lessons of what to say without their own interpretation allowed.”

Canipe taught school for 30 years, with 21 of those years here in Cleveland County.

“I went to college to teach, and so did other teachers and they should be allowed to teach and not told what to say word for word out loud,” she added. “It’ not fair to the students nor the teachers.”

Born and raised in Cleveland County, Canipe has lived here almost her entire life, except for nine years when she lived at Lake Lure, where she taught school before retiring and moving back to Cleveland County, buying a house in Boiling Springs, where she also attends church and works part-time at a pharmacy.

Canipe is a graduate of Gardner-Webb University and Appalachian State, when she earned a Masters in Principalship.

This is not her first time running for school board. Two years ago, she put her foot into the ring, learning how things can go when under the scrutiny of the public.

“I’ve learned a lot of lessons since then,” she said. “I had letters in my mailbox that were not addressed. They told me who to talk to and who not to talk to. I also received messages from burner phones telling me whom I should associate with and what not to say.”

She said she’s not afraid to speak out this time.    

While she said they weren’t exactly threatening, she said they felt threatening because she was worried they would say things about her that weren’t true and the idea of someone putting an anonymous letter in your mailbox and mentioning people she had spoken to, gave her the feeling she was being watched, “Which felt like an invasion of privacy,” she noted.

She said she has since put up cameras but has not received anything since that time.

(Shelia Canipe continued below..)

Canipe has no qualms with telling it like she thinks it. Canipe believes she is very authentic and what you see is what you get, “I am a very straightforward person and tell you professionally, not ugly, but I don’t hide things. I’ll tell you like it is. You may not like the answer but that’s how I like to be treated in return; so, shoot straight with me!” she laughed.

“Some people don’t like to hear the truth, but I do,” she continued. “I want to know if I haven’t answered your question, please tell me, and if I don’t know the answer I will tell you I don’t. 

She said accountability goes hand-in-hand with honesty, “You can’t brush everything that's wrong under the rug and expect it to go away, you have to own it and deal with it and correct the problem. Otherwise, it just causes more problems if you don’t fix it.”

“Communication has to be improved,” she said of the school board and the administration, down to the schools, noting that communication is the basic key to improving schools and staff retention. She also feels a survey should be sent out to teachers to air their complaints, but as of now they are afraid to speak up because their jobs would be on the line. 

Working together is important to Canipe, “They’re not working together now, although I don’t think it’s as bad as it used to be, but they don’t communicate with each other and that’s disappointing. It’s embarrassing – the arguments, the fights. It’s comical, but embarrassing.”

She also feels that the chain of command has been reversed. Canipe believes the board works for the superintendent, rather than the way it’s supposed to be.

“It’s as if the board has a paper pushed in front of them and the superintendent says what needs to be done and they just do it without questioning anything," Canipe explained. “So, I was surprised when they tabled the sale of Marion for later, since they just seem to do what Dr. Fisher says.” 

She noted not all of them do, but believes the majority just take him at his word and let him do whatever he wants to do.

She doesn’t like the scripted classroom where, “Specific words and sentences are expected to be said for all students when each child is different, and some curriculum is being instilled without proper training.”

Also, she believes more educators need to be on the board that know what all the teachers and staff go through on a daily basis.

“If you’ve never been in that classroom how can you fully understand what the teachers go through?” she asked.

“Unless you’ve been there and done that, you truly don’t know what teachers go through. I think that’s why it’s important to have teachers on the school board that can relate to the struggle over just what looks good on paper. It helps to have people willing to roll up their sleeves and be there for you.”

At the end of the interview, she closed by stating, “I want the taxpayers to know that I have been there, done that, and I know where the staff, teachers, students and parents are coming from. I have always put students first and had open communication with my fellow teachers, respect all employees at every school, and will continue to be that way if elected to the CCS Board of Education.”

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Chuck Thompson is a reporter and columnist for The Shelby Independent.