By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
District 5 Levy County School Board candidate Devin Whitehurst, a native Levy County resident, said he believes it is important to have an informed vote when deciding on which candidate to choose in an election.
“I certainly think having an informed vote is the most important thing. If you just go on what you think you know about somebody, you’re just guessing,” Whitehurst said. “I think it’s important to find out what it’s about.”
Whitehurst said he is a member of a multi-generation Levy County family.
“I’m a lifelong resident of Levy County, 4th generation, and I have a love for this county, this dirt,” Whitehurst said. I’m a parent, I’m a husband, my wife of 19 years – I just feel led to step up and be a leader and help people in this community.”
Whitehurst was asked if is a Christian.
“Yes, I am. I attend the Methodist Church in Williston. I’m a member of the Methodist Church,” Whitehurst said.
He was asked what makes him the most qualified candidate for the District 5 school board seat.
“We have three children in the Levy County School System. They all attend the three schools in Williston. I feel like the aspect of being a parent in seeing what goes on in the schools on a daily basis is important. My wife is director of the Levy County Schools Foundation, so I see a lot from that side of it. I operate a local business here in Levy County. We’ve had a cow business since 1922, a road construction business since 1948, that I currently work for, so we see what it takes to run and operate a business. We’re seeing what it takes and what the people of this county love about this county,” Whitehurst said.
Whitehurst was asked if he plans to keep their children in the public education system for the entire time his children are in school in Levy County.
“Yes, I feel I was part of the Levy County School System; my father, my grandfather – I feel it’s very important to have kids in the Levy County School System. Me and my wife made that decision together,” he said. She’s a product of the Levy County School System. We feel that having our kids in there, they can be good leaders. I feel a lot of people are scared to keep their kids in the school system because of some discipline issues and things you talked about, but if we don’t keep our kids in the school system, how are we going to foster an environment to bring other kids up. You have to have leaders in everything from elementary school up. You have to have kids in there that are going to be a good influence that other kids can see.”
Whitehurst was asked what he as a school board member could do to improve discipline in schools across the school district.
“I know we used to have Hilltop. They used to take a lot of kids there. I’ll have to look into it. There are some kids that are pretty bad. I don’t want to just kick them out. I think some of them could be encouraged, maybe schooled a little differently, and not just kicked out. But we don’t want them to be disruptive to everybody else. Some of these kids that a really bad need to be fostered but we also don’t need to them to bring down everybody else,” Whitehurst said.
Whitehurst was asked for his thoughts on the Guardian program which allows teachers, staff, and administrators to volunteer to carry a gun at school.
“We do have school resource officers on site,” Whitehurst said. “We’re seeing a lot of other stuff. The campuses are big. You have to be able to defend a large area, so I certainly would not be against trained, qualified teachers or administrators being able to carry weapons to help defend our children.”
Asked how long his family has been in Levy County, Whitehurst his great-great-great grandparents came to Levy County about 1910 from Sparks, Georgia. They moved to Levy County in the 1900s.
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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt July 22, 2022; Posted July 26, 2022
