Challengers may put Wake on new path

RALEIGH -- Wake County's public schools could be on the brink of a historic remake as candidates critical of the current board and its approach to school diversity swept three districts in Tuesday's election.

However, a race in which a fourth board opponent leads could result in a runoff crucial to the board's makeup.

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 had victory margins that averaged 22 percentage points over opponents who wanted to preserve current policies.

"We'll be focused on how to educate children, not moving them from place to place," said Deborah Prickett, a state Department of Public Instruction employee who posted an overwhelming win in District 7, North Raleigh and Morrisville. "We'll improve academics."

Candidates backed by the change-promoting Wake Schools Community Alliance won by convincing margins in Cary; in eastern Wake communities, including Knightdale; and, in North Raleigh and 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 for those who favor current school policies.

"I'm thoroughly disappointed," said Calla Wright, president of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children. "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."

The District 2 race in Garner and Fuquay-Varina ended without a clear majority and appeared headed for a runoff between school system critic John Tedesco and retired educator Cathy Truitt, who said she'd like to emerge as a swing vote on the nine-member board. After the election Tuesday night, Truitt said the county could preserve diverse schools without mandatory busing by giving parents choices among neighborhood schools and increased magnet school and career academy offerings, she said.

"I have nothing to win or lose by going to the runoff," Truitt said, adding that she'll likely make a decision sometime today.

"If we were to win that swing vote, we might be able to stave off segregated schools and return to the task of educating children for the 21st century."

Tedesco: People spoke

In response, Tedesco rejected any implication that he favors segregated schools, noting that he campaigned on community schools and the idea that low-income students are poorly served by the current system. In early results, he came within a percentage point of gaining the majority of votes necessary to avoid a runoff.

"I feel good that the people of District 2 felt strongly enough about who I am and what I am bringing to the table that they spoke loudly in favor of my efforts," Tedesco said.

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.

Looking forward to her service on the board, Prickett 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.

"Every community deserves to have good schools," Prickett said. "I can't see why every community in Raleigh and Morrisville can't have good schools."

Retired firefighter Debra Goldman outpolled her Cary opponent, Lois Nixon, by a 3-2 margin in District 9.

"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," Goldman said.

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.

The stakes in the election were the highest in years, observers said. The victorious challengers to the status quo bolstered their arguments against 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 falls short of the stated 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 Republican Party lined up behind the challengers. Demographics seemed to play in the challengers' favor, as the four districts up for grabs generally leaned more Republican in recent voting than the "old Raleigh" districts whose representatives were not up for re-election.

Although the outcome has countywide implications, the results hinged on voters living in four outlying districts that were picking school board members. In the four districts, 11.6 percent of eligible voters turned out Tuesday.

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 gain control over school system policy with victory in all four districts.

Board policy lauded

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 apparently convinced voters with a platform that emphasized neighborhood schools and said the existing approach shortchanges individual students from low-income backgrounds, who they said 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.

Big guns came out

As the election neared, high-profile supporters of the current approach came 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. Tedesco and other opponents of the current board's policies showed up at the news 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 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 cuts and planning for the next school-construction bond referendum to deal with growth.

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