Gloria Dent, the District 1 representative on the Anne Arundel County Board of Education, has filed to retain her seat.
Dent, a Severn resident, was appointed to the seat in September 2021 to replace the late Candace Antwine, who died that July. Dent served 26 years in the U.S. Army where she was an expert in acquisition and logistics. The Greensboro, Alabama native has lived in Maryland since 2013. She now owns and operates her own logistics company.
Dent will be running against Sarah Lacey, a former District 1 County Council member; Cierra Harlee, a Baltimore City Public schools teacher and Hunter Voss, a Linthicum resident and economist.
“I’m excited about running, but I’m even more excited that there are [three] other candidates running for District 1,” she said. “It took a while for anyone to confirm so I was worried, but it’s good to see that people care about District 1 like I do.”
District 1 is the northwestern part of the county spanning from Brooklyn Park to Jessup. Nine schools were rated 2 star or below on the recent Maryland Report Card. A school’s performance is evaluated using a balance of academic and non-academic factors, such as standardized test scores and student and teacher surveys about school life.
“One of my goals when I started was to help create a higher education expectation and thanks to help from Superintendent [Mark] Bedell, I believe we have done better with that than I expected but there’s still plenty of room to improve,” she said.
Her primary goals if reelected is to follow through with the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a 10-year education reform initiative. and to continue figuring out the most efficient ways to transport students to and from school.
“Missing days of school makes things harder on our students,” she said. “The challenges aren’t just not having a bus driver shortage but sometimes we have transportation maintenance issues. Not that that isn’t to be expected, but it hurts more some of our already underserved communities.”
Win or lose, supporting Anne Arundel students is all that matters, Dent said.
“I’m a team supporter,” she said. “Whether I win or someone else does I just want the children of District 1 to know they aren’t being left behind.”
After 37 years of federal service including 26 years in the active-duty U.S. Army and four combat tours, Dent completed her military career as the former and first national director for Veterans Employment & Initiatives for the US AbilityOne Commission. In this congressionally mandated position, she executed the first apprenticeship employment program focused on creating employment opportunities for wounded, ill and recovering Veterans.
Dent is also the owner and CEO of Genergi, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business management and consulting company designed to aid veteran- women-, and minority-owned businesses regardless of their background.
She believes her military background has helped her understand how to cut through some of the bickering that can occur when discussing certain topics among her fellow members, allowing them to focus back on the mission at hand.
“One of the things I’ve been able to do is help focus on how can be better while having differences of opinion,” she said. “The mission is bigger than the personal in the service. In the county, the point is to do right by our stakeholders, which are AACPS students, family and faculty.”
More than a dozen people have filed for the seven school board seats held by adults. A student is appointed to the eighth seat.
The elections are Nov. 5.