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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: Wake: Vote likely will reshape schools By Thomas Goldsmith - Staff Writer RALEIGH -- Update: 9:15 p.m. Wake County’s public schools could be headed for a historic remake as candidates critical of the current board and its approach to school diversity swept three districts in Tuesday’s election, and a fourth candidate led in race that likely will end in a runoff. If seen as a referendum on the board’s policies on diversity, the election showed that the voters who turned out in the four districts at stake decided in large numbers to reject the status quo. The candidates who won outright won by an average of more than 22 percentage points. “What I think really came across to voters was that citizens want a choice, citizens want a voice and citizens don't like irresponsible busing and irresponsible reassignment,” said Debra Goldman, a retired firefighter who outpolled her Cary opponent, Lois Nixon, by a 3-2 margin in District 9. Board member Horace Tart, the lone incumbent on the ballot, placed third in his district and narrowly failed to make a two-candidate runoff, based on unofficial totals. Candidates backed by the Wake Schools Community Alliance won by convincing margins in Cary, in eastern Wake communities including Knightdale and in North Raleigh-Morrisville. Their victories mean that the board’s policies of busing to ensure diversity and mandatory year-round schools will at the very least face opposition from four members on the nine-member panel, a disappointing prospect to those who campaigned for their opponents. “I'm thoroughly disappointed,” said Calla Wright, president of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children. “Wow, I just guess people didn't see the urgency to get out to vote. It's the result of people not knowing what the issues are.” District 7 victor Deborah Prickett, who won handily in North Raleigh and Morrisville, said changes in board policy won't be made hastily but will be based on evaluating the data on what works as opposed to what makes people feel good. “We'll be focused on how to educate children, not moving them from place to place,” Prickett said after her victory. “We'll improve academics.” In Eastern Wake’s District 1, former Wake Forest town commissioner Chris Malone won convincingly over former teacher Rita Rakestraw, one of the election’s most outspoken champions of diversity. A runoff appeared likely in District 2, which encompasses parts of Garner, Fuquay Varina and Willow Spring. Candidate John Tedesco, a Big Brothers Big Sisters official who campaigned hard for a change in board policies, took nearly half the vote total in the district, but not enough for a clear victory over consultant and retired educator Cathy Truitt, in second place. Truitt said that she likely will request a runoff. Tart trailed by fewer than 60 votes at press time. Results in today's Wake County School Board election will be closely watched for what they reveal about voters' attitudes toward mandated diversity in the schools. Although the outcome has countywide implications, the results hinge on voters living in four outlying districts that are picking school board members, with an incumbent running in only one of the races. Opponents of current school board policies such as busing for diversity and mandatory year-round schools already have one ally on the board, Ron Margiotta, and could govern school-system policy with victory in all four districts today. Supporters of the current board cited Wake County's national level of recognition for its innovative method of ensuring each school's diversity based on families' economic background. But opponents have campaigned on a platform that emphasized neighborhood schools and said the existing approach shortchanges individual students from low-income backgrounds, who are "hidden" among better-achieving peers in higher-income areas. The opposition got significant backing from local Republicans, who donated heavily to the principal political action committee that funded their campaigns, the Wake Schools Community Alliance. The group got started early, said member Allison Backhouse. "We went around in January and February, all around the county," Backhouse said, noting that the elected officials who turned out then stayed on to back the candidates endorsed by WCSA. As the election neared, high-profile supporters of the current approach seemed to come out fighting. Raleigh Charles Meeker, Capital Broadcasting owner Jim Goodmon, Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen and prominent attorney Wade Smith were among those who publicly warned that the diversity-based, highly regarded schools could change direction following a single, low-turnout election. "We know, if you have all low-income kids in a school and they have no power and no voice, we know what will happen to those schools," Goodmon said at a public event Monday. Leaders who leaned heavily to the Democratic Party said a revamped board could reverse results for which civil rights leaders, politicians and parents had worked tirelessly in decades past. Opponents of the current board also ramped up their efforts as Election Day neared. Candidate John Tedesco and other opponents of the current board's policies showed up at the rally and press conference put on Monday by supporters of those policies. "Do you know who cares about those people?" Tedesco asked after the rally. "People Inside the Beltline." The support of high-profile Raleigh figures such as Goodmon and Meeker wouldn't matter to voters in Garner and Fuquay-Varina, he said. The stakes in the election were the highest in years, observers said. The challengers to the status quo bolstered their arguments about the folly of busing not just by reciting tales of long, inconvenient rides for students. They also cited statistics in aid of their position that busing for diversity did not even achieve its goal: a better education for students from low-income families. Challengers painted the board and administration as arrogant and distant from the concerns of students and families. They cited the "wacky Wednesday'' provision that allows teachers extra planning time this year, but leaves many parents wondering how to deal with students who are released early every Wednesday. The race also took on a pronounced partisan flavor, despite the officially nonpartisan nature of the race. Democrats largely supported the current board, while the county Republic Party lined up behind the challengers. Demographics seemed to play in the challengers' favor, as the four districts up for grabs were generally more heavily Republican than the "old Raleigh" districts whose representatives were not up for reelection. The new board will have its first meeting on December. In addition to the high-profile, contentious issues that dominated the race, they'll have to consider how to educate students during an age of budget cut and planning for the next school construction bond referendum to deal with growth.
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