With the school board election tomorrow, we got quite a few more
letters than we could print beforehand, mostly from system supporters:

Here is a piece on the Wake County school board race from Ashley Osment, a senior attorney at the Center for Civil Rights at UNC School of Law; Leah Aden, a fellow at the center, and Stephanie Horton, a third-year law student at the School of Law.

In it, they address points made repeatedly by school board critics, one being that ending 'busing' would save money (Charlotte spends more on school
transportation) and one being the dismal graduation rate for economically disadvantaged students (a doubling of the ESL population since 2000 is one cause).

Here are a dozen more letters on the issues in the Wake County
school board race, including one about a Garner group's endorsement of
Cathy Truitt and one about Truitt's spat with school board member Ron
Margiotta over whether she was "vetted" by him.

Find more letters on tomorrow's Other Opinion page and in Sunday Forum on Sunday. Also find some opinion pieces on the main Opinion Shop blog page.

One of the longstanding core values of our community is that there are no "bad" schools in Wake County. The school a student attends should not define if she is rich or poor. Can our community have any goal other than every school being an attractive place to teach and learn? That core value is under attack. The so called "community school" means that “you” can’t come into “my” community.

It is time to pull back the curtain. The opposite of diverse schools is unequal schools. Inequality creates isolation and barriers to success.

Diversity alone does not make schools strong. Teachers and principals make schools strong; however, teachers know that there are more challenges and less parental involvement in high poverty schools — proximity to a school does not overcome those challenges.

If education is, as we believe, one of the most compelling obligations of a democracy, then how can candidates for a board of education be opposed to the best opportunity for all students? There are candidates who expect you to believe that creating high poverty schools will improve student achievement. Wrong. There is a vast amount of data from across our country showing that high poverty schools are costly — in financial and human terms.

As former members of the Board of Education, we urge voters to see through the false rhetoric. We commend The N & O’s endorsement of Lois Nixon, Rita Rakestraw, Karen Simon, and Horace Tart.

We strongly agree that there are continued improvements to be made in Wake County. We look to these fresh faces to make the Wake County schools better. But we trust that the changes will be positive and that those elected to the Board of Education will be advocates for all students, not only their neighbors!

Roxie Cash

Beverley Clark

John Gilbert

Rosa Gill

Judy Hoffman

Casper and Mary Holroyd

Linda Johnson

Charlotte Martin

Tom Oxholm

Carol Parker

Susan Parry

Kathryn Watson Quigg

Jean Schilawski

Wray Stephens

Roy Tilley

Jeff York

As the school board election arrives Tuesday, we're getting more offerings than we will be able to print. Here is a piece by research scientist William T. Lynch against "shuttle busing," saying," If maximum diversity within the school were to be the preferred mix, then the schools with intermediate FRL (Free & Reduced Price Lunch) percentages would be showing the best results. If the “researchers” looked at this existing data they would find no instance where this
expectation has been realized."

We're planning to post several more things today. You can also find more letters about the school board race on tomorrow's "Other Opinion" page and in Sunday Forum on Sunday.

School's in for summer.

Got quite a few letters about the Wake County School Board's decision not to change some mandatory year-round schools back to traditional in light of lighter growth than anticipated. Also got quite a few on the decision to tinker with school hours. More of these letters will show up in the paper over the next week, but here are some others, online-only.

Kindness, I confess, was not what was welling up inside me as I sat through my son’s first high school track meet last week. Tears, yes, and some anger. But what ultimately burst forth was a realization that Mr. Mean Man at the Ticket Booth Holding Rigidly to the Rules had handed me a valuable reminder: that there is no way to divine the depths of stress so many people are swimming through these days and that, given the opportunity to choose curtness or kindness in my dealings with others, I need to try harder to latch onto the latter.

In theory, I love rules. Rules make life easy. There’s right. There’s wrong. None of my limited energy is wasted on unneeded thinking. I’ve come to realize, however, as most people do, that this love of mine is on a macro level only. On a case by case basis, we often want a splash of common sense and sometimes even a dab of decency to color the thinking
of those charged with enforcing the rules we live by. Take, for instance, the case of Kevin, my best friend’s son.

Here's a letter in high praise of the Wake County Public School System from a parent of a high-needs student. It's too long for the paper, so we're sharing it here. It reads in part, "The dedication of the WCPSS administrators and staff along with the quality of education that we have received from his teachers has been superb. From the bus drivers to the teacher assistants to the principals, we have experienced dedication and excellence at every level."