RALEIGH -- A new majority on the Wake County School Board took immediate control at a tension-filled first meeting Tuesday, installing its members as top officers and taking the first steps toward ending the county's diversity policy.
After meeting for nearly seven hours, the new majority voted 5-4 to end the controversial, early-release Wednesdays at all schools at the end of the school year. They voted to conduct a study of the program's effectiveness and to find another way to give teachers planning time without inconveniencing parents.
Before a packed, mostly hostile audience, the new group made ad hoc additions of major items to the agenda. That drew heated public comment from those opposed to the newcomers' actions, a shocked reaction from members who now make up the board minority and a walkout by a group representing Wake teachers.
"I feel like I've been punched in the mouth," said Keith Sutton, a member representing East Raleigh.
After the meeting, new member John Tedesco said: "This is just the tip of the iceberg; we still have a lot more we want to get done." New members said they wanted to take quick action on the campaign promises.
The school board also agreed to immediately stop spending money on the proposed Forest Ridge High School site in northeast Raleigh while a review of alternative locations takes place. Supporters of the site warn that any delays will keep the school from opening in 2012.
"The next four years, as they say, will be interesting times," said new board member Chris Malone, who represents eastern Wake County.
However, the board's ruling coalition stepped away from a vote to immediately end mandatory year-round schools; instead, the district will study use of year-round schools and parental opinion of it.
New leaders installed
Ron Margiotta, a returning board member from Apex, was elected as board chairman, ousting northeast Raleigh representative Kevin Hill in a leadership change that typically doesn't take place until June.
The meeting was the debut of four members elected this fall - Malone, Tedesco, Deborah Prickett and Debra Goldman - who based campaigns on their opposition to longstanding Wake policies, including busing to reinforce diversity. Goldman was elected vice chairman.
Information withheld
The board quickly took up the district's diversity policy, which uses busing to ensure balanced populations at each school. Once based on race, those calculations have relied on the poverty of students' families since 2000.
However, no copies of the proposal on changing the diversity policy were given to members of the public before they were voted on. Instead, an overhead projector showed a copy with the phrase "creating and maintaining a diverse student body" with a line through it. The move to change the policy was sent to committee.
The board also approved a resolution by Tedesco to hire Raleigh lawyer Thomas A. Farr to audit legal arrangements by the board with longtime advisers Tharrington Smith and other firms.
"I like to study the things that I am going to vote on, but this is an unusual evening," said member Anne McLaurin, a member of the board's new minority. "I find this an interesting proposal, but I don't feel prepared to vote on it without further information."
Said ousted chair Kevin Hill about the last-minute resolutions: "To me this is a process that is very new to the school board, where essentially half the members are not privy to information prior to the meeting."
Opponents not silent
Speakers made impassioned challenges to the board and objected to the swift actions.
"Help us trust you, because right now we don't," said Jennifer Lanane, president of the Wake County chapter of the N.C. Association of Educators, which represents 5,000 school employees.
Rhonda Curtright of Raleigh represented a parent group that supported candidates in favor of existing board policies on diversity.
"What you did tonight was irresponsible!" Curtright said. "You added items ... your board members have not even looked at!"
Loud applause led Margiotta to threaten to cut off public comment.
"I've heard Goldman and Tedesco say you want to listen to parents, so I want you to listen to us," said Christine Kushner, an Enloe High School parent.
Larry Nilles, an eighth-grade social studies at Davis Drive Middle School, was one of about two dozen teachers who walked out in protest of the new board's actions.
"We can read the writing on the wall," Nilles said. "It's going to be five-four against us on anything. It's clear they are not listening to anything said tonight."
