For Claremont School Board member, race is only part of a bigger picture

By ALEX HANSON

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 01-15-2023 12:15 AM

It isn’t that there aren’t racial justice issues to tackle in Claremont. It’s that, as a member of the city’s School Board, Whitney Skillen is looking at the bigger picture.

Elected as a write-in candidate 10 months ago, Skillen campaigned by talking to parents in the school drop-off line. Their major concerns were bullying and resources for students with special needs. So in her first year on the School Board, Skillen has delved into those and other topics that residents have brought to her.

“To me, poverty is a much more severe issue in Claremont than racism,” Skillen said in a phone interview.

And even if she felt obligated, as one of Claremont’s relatively few residents of color, to tackle racism, there’s only so much a single school board member can do.

With race a back-burner issue, she hasn’t made a point of reaching out to families of color. “I don’t want to go looking for problems where there aren’t any,” she said.

But by her presence in Claremont, Skillen is making a stand as a public figure. She had talked for years to family and friends about running for office and decided, not long after moving to Claremont, that she couldn’t wait any longer.

“It was always one of those future dreams,” she said, something she knew she wanted, but also was a little afraid of. “It just kind of hit me in the face that now is the time,” she said.

Skillen, 31, and her wife, Kimberly Valcin, moved to Claremont a little over a year ago, but she has a long history with Sullivan County’s lone city. She grew up in North Carolina. Her father, who is white, was matched there for his medical residency and met his wife, who is Black. Skillen’s father’s family has deep roots in Claremont, and Skillen and her three sisters spent summers at her grandmother’s house, the home where Skillen now lives.

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She and her younger sister were only 18 months apart and raised almost as twins, she said. Each summer they played in their grandparents’ yard, swam in the public pools and rode their bikes to the candy store downtown. It was a pleasant experience, if odd at times.

“We couldn’t really go anywhere without being remarked upon,” she said. “It just didn’t happen at home.” So they kept mostly to themselves, visiting mainly with family, both from Claremont and farther afield.

The worst racism she faced in the Claremont of 20-plus years ago came from a family member, a cousin.

“He was not shy about his racism toward my mother,” or toward Skillen and her sisters. Her father steered them away from family gatherings where the cousin was present.

Skillen’s mother’s family has equally deep roots in North Carolina’s Chatham and Orange counties.

“We live on the same land that our ancestors sharecropped,” she said.

Skillen has life experience that gives her a rare perspective on race, particularly among her fellow Claremont residents. But that rarity is part of what keeps her from bringing up race, even though she knows racism is all around her.

“As someone who experiences racism, I can tell you, Claremont has a long way to go,” she said.

Someone spat at her wife in the parking lot at Dollar General not long after they moved. A friend who visits from New York, a tall, dark-skinned Black man, is always the target of stares and unwarranted approaches.

“People are generally suspicious of his presence in Claremont,” Skillen said.

One school board member isn’t going to change that, she noted.

Only a broad educational campaign or a big influx of people of color would influence public attitudes.

She spoke up at a School Board budget meeting last year, and Rob Lovett Jr., who planned to step down from the board, approached her about running for the open seat.

“It has been incredible, in good and bad ways,” Skillen said.

Serving on the School Board has been a crash course in New Hampshire politics, especially in education. “That’s a scary place,” she said.

While it underfunds the neediest public schools, Skillen said, Concord lavishes federal money on opening dozens of new charter schools around the state. Skillen said she supports charter schools but only after public schools are property funded.

“The economic challenges that our schools face can only be addressed at the state level,” Skillen said.

Whatever its support from the state, Claremont has its own work to do. For years, officials have talked about reorganizing the city’s elementary schools. The potential benefits seem clear: It could free up funding for universal pre-kindergarten and reduce bullying in the middle school by bringing children together in the lower grades.

“Right now, the bullying and social issues that are going on in the middle school are nightmarish,” Skillen said. Kids form social cliques in the city’s three elementary schools, which leads to middle school bullying, parents and school officials have told Skillen.

Having settled in Claremont, Skillen wants to have a hand in making those improvements. She’s in it for the long haul, working on cleaning out her grandmother’s house, a home she’s always loved and wanted to live in. She and Valcin both have master’s degrees in public health degrees from Columbia University, where they met. Skillen works from home as a consultant, and Valcin works at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.

If race does come up as an issue, Skillen said she’ll take it as it comes. In the meantime, parents and community members remain free to reach out to her.

“I hope that my public presence makes people feel they can approach me,” she said.

Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207.

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