School bond elections are generally about as thrilling as an accountants' convention. That's changing. In urban North Carolina, bond elections are becoming high-profile political battlegrounds. In Mecklenburg County in 2005, and in Forsyth and Wake counties this year, voters deciding on bond issues have more on their minds than new schools and higher tax rates.

In Wake, the $970 million bond election on Nov. 7 is morphing into a referendum on the performance of the Wake County school board. The board inadvertently gave opponents a gift when, in order to maximize capacity in a fast-growing district, it designated nearly all the bond-funded new schools to be operated on a year-round calendar.

Not a smart move.

Not only has the mandatory year-round question reframed the bond debate, it's given political leverage to anyone with a beef against the board. They've coalesced into groups like Wake Citizens for Quality Education (WCQE). For starters, WCQE opposes the bonds for traditional reasons. It thinks the amount is too big and will lead to an unnecessary property tax increase. But the group also can't stand the mandatory year-round policy. The alliance wants attendance zones, community-based governance instead of Central Office mandates, less busing and fewer reassignments. And it wants to scrap the district system and have school board members elected at-large.

Legitimate issues for sure, but they have little to do with the bonds. The phenomenon is not limited to Wake County.

In Forsyth, the local NAACP chapter and the African American Caucus of the Forsyth Democratic Party are opposed to a $250 million bond proposal for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. NAACP President Stephen Hairston told me that instead of new schools his group wants more resources directed to poor, predominately minority, schools in order to boost graduation rates. The NAACP wants to attract better teachers to these schools through higher pay, better working conditions and empowered principals. The poor schools are underutilized, according to Hairston, and money should be spent renovating them instead of building new facilities in the suburbs. He also fears that new suburban schools will only accelerate the district's geographic segregation.

Hairston knows that many of his issues are policy-based and have little to do with the bonds. And that's his point. "We need to get our focus back on our children, not bricks and mortar," he said.

Caucus Chair Harold Hairston told me that growth has overshadowed student achievement, a decision with dire economic ramifications. "It's much better for a child to graduate from a dilapidated one room-school, because he can go on (to continued schooling) or can get a job, " he said. "What good is it for a student to go to a nice school, but not earn a diploma?"

Winston-Salem/Forsyth school board Chair Geneva Brown and Wake County Vice-Chair Carol Parker both told me that issues greater than the bonds are clouding the campaigns. "This election is about overcrowding." Brown said. "It's unfair to oppose the bonds over disagreements that aren't addressed by them."

Parker has similar frustrations. In her mind, what should be a single-issue vote now encompasses matters far beyond the school board's control, such as immigration, growth and taxation.

While I sympathize with Brown and Parker and their respective boards, they're missing a much larger and more important point. The Hairstons and every Wake board opponent I've spoken to over the past few years are leveraging their newfound political clout not because they're opportunists but because they believe the school boards have become arrogant and unresponsive.

By dismissing that perception -- or fact -- these boards risk confirming it. And that will have much larger implications than losing an election. Just look to Mecklenburg County. Voters there turned down a $430 million school bond issue last year. The board's post mortem was a dagger to the heart. Those who voted no had simply lost confidence and trust in the board and school administration. The key to turning these voters around, according to Charlotte/Mecklenburg's consultant, is to forthrightly address equity, accountability and cooperation -- the very issues ignored before the election.

That's advice Wake and Forsyth officials should heed now. If they don't, building schools will seem like a cakewalk compared to rebuilding trust.

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