In an ‘olive branch’ to the community, Wake schools may create ombudsperson position
The Wake County school system may create a position to handle complaints from the public and school employees.
Wake County school administrators presented Tuesday a proposal to create an ombuds position, also called an ombudsman or ombudsperson, to serve as a neutral party to handle complaints or concerns from the public. School leaders said the new position could help rebuild public trust in schools that has been shaken in recent years.
“i grew up in a time when people trusted the school system — no matter what school system it was,” said board member Monika Johnson-Hostler. “That’s not the case now, so I also see this an olive branch to rebuilding the trust in our district that we do have someone dedicated to hearing what the concerns are.”
Rise in complaints
The position comes as Wake and schools across the nation face complaints from parents over issues such as the books that are in libraries and the materials used in classrooms. But Wake Superintendent Cathy Moore said that the idea for the position had been brought up in 2020 before being put on hold during the pandemic.
Ombudsman positions are relatively uncommon for school systems but more common in other government agencies. Administrators presented Tuesday how five school systems, including Guilford County, use their ombuds position.
In Guilford County,the district’s ombudsman is charged with developing and implementing a system “to investigate, respond to, and resolve issues, complaints, and concerns of parents, community groups and other public stakeholders.”
Guilford is North Carolina’s third-largest school system, behind only Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools created an ombudsman’s position in 2017, hiring Earnest Winston. He would later become the district’s superintendent before being fired this year.
CMS no longer has an ombudsman’s position.
Place for people to get help
There’s already a process in place for people to file grievances. But Moore said that Wake is such a large district that people may not know where to go to get help.
“it is incumbent upon us as a district to find ways to ensure that we can connect our families and our community members and our staff members and our students to the places where they can get questions answered and their problems solved,” Moore told the board.
Moore asked board members to provide her information on what they’d like to see if this new position is created, such as whether it’s one person or a new office with multiple people.
This story was originally published September 6, 2022 at 5:48 PM.
