Costellar Ledbetter is a candidate for Suffolk’s School Board, and she is running for a seat in the Cypress Borough.

Ledbetter is a retired educator with 35 years of experience in the classroom in North Carolina public schools, and with the lives of young people at the front of her mind, she is ready to run for a seat on Suffolk’s School Board.

“I feel that I can make a difference in the lives of young people and the communities that the district serves,” Ledbetter said. “I have always had a mind to help the youth. There are things going on that need to change.”

The former educator has specific changes in mind for the school division, and both of them are centered around the students.

Ledbetter wants to see cursive brought back to the public school systems everywhere, but she would be happy just to see it within the Suffolk Public Schools division.

“They don’t teach our children cursive writing anymore, and it sets them up for failure. In any type of situation where you have to fill out paperwork, there is a line for a signature,” Ledbetter said. “That means you have to write your name in cursive, and they don’t know how to do that. It’s a hindrance.”

Ledbetter hopes that cursive can be implemented into the curriculum for the division, and she hopes that the School Board, if she is elected, can bring these same issues to the state level.

“School Board members have to advocate at the local, state and federal level,” Ledbetter said. “Many people feel that it should not have been taken out of the schools. It sets them up for failure.”

The biggest change Ledbetter wants to make within the division is funneling programs from the College and Career Academy at Pruden back into the main schools.

“These used to be directly in the facility, but then they took the trades out of the schools and put them in a special building,” Ledbetter said.

Ledbetter believes having these programs in the schools will save time and money for the school division, because they won’t have to bus students back and forth between their home schools and the academy’s location on Pruden Boulevard.

Running for the School Board is something that Ledbetter is happy to do.

“It is an honor and a privilege to be able to run for the Cypress district,” Ledbetter said. “I think the people should vote for me, because I will serve them well.”