It looks like Horace Tart will have at least one competitor in his bid to be reelected to the District 2 school board seat.
Cathy Truitt, a retired Johnston County principal with three decades of education experience, has announced her candidacy. In an interview in the Garner Citizen, Truitt takes some shots at Wake's reassignment policies and doesn't give Wake high marks for responsiveness to the public.
While Truitt doesn't advocate the complete elimination of busing, she does find that some aspects go too far.
"If you suddenly stopped busing any child in the school system and put everyone in their local schools, is that going to solve our issues of high quality education? No, it won’t. It may make some parents happy," she said in the article.
...To me, the argument is a smokescreen with underlying and more fundamental issues. It is painful and frightening. …There is forced busing and students that are bussed by choice. But to have children sprinkled across the county to try to make school scores look better, it doesn’t work - as you can see by the number of schools not making AYP."
Truitt doesn't say that schools in Johnston are better academically than those in Wake. But she says there is a clear difference in how both deal with the public.
"The biggest difference that I see between the two districts is that we [Johnston County] have a history … of listening to the voice of customers. So we have a history, and it is an expectation. We expect to listen to our parents and our business community," Truitt said.
She also says that students in Johnston can expect to stay in the same school unless they move.
In contrast, Truitt said parents in Wake feel they're not heard and that their lives are unstable.
Comments
Thank you for your
Tue, 10/13/2009 - 07:48 — fasminThank you for your interesting comments.It is about how does each individual learn.Schools need to learn to identify the different styles of learning for each student.Not easy to do but they are definitely progressing in this area.Lab Test
Tedesco 4 Wake Kids, School Board D-2
Mon, 07/06/2009 - 17:41 — jjgabe30Mr. Hui,
It appears we may finally have a real champion for kids & families in this race; and a man who has the expertise, senior level leadership, and track record to make real change. My family and I were at the Garner Independence Day Celebration and we met John Tedesco candidate for School Board District 2. Are you familiar with him?
This Garner family man and apparent political outsider gave us his card. He was direct which was refreshing from candidates. He and his card told us that, "it is possible to be pro-diversity & anti-busing..., (and) that FORCED mandates from busing to year round assignments only hurt the continuity needed for a child's overall development, strips our families of their empowerment in the educational process, and further has the inadvertent effect of deteriorating our community."
It sounded on the mark so we checked him out. His card also said "Fighting for a Children and Family 1st School System" and (laid out like a math problem) "Our Kids + Our Taxes = Our Schools. It listed his website - www.4wakekids.com. We looked it over this weekend with some friends. It was refreshing - it wasn't Dem/Rep spin with flags and eagles and notes of national issues; it was about us, our kids, our families and our communities.
When we looked at his extensive and impressive experience, we noticed a project my neighbor worked with, so we decided to ask her (who will remain nameless as she works for the state) about him. We asked if he was too good to be true, she laughed and said, "oh, he's the real deal alright". She noted (now mind you this is hear say), he had been whoooed by the partisans on both sides for so-called "bigger" roles, such as commissioner or legislature, and that his response to them was that, "it's time we recognized our school board was worthy of BIG leadership, and that our families could no longer do with-out it."
Do you know any more about Mr. Tedesco for District 2 School Board or any of the various efforts he is involved in, as noted on the experience page of his web site?? Is anyone else familiar with him or is he really an outsider and the Board Member we have been looking for?
Please help as I am hopeful we might have found what our family has been looking for.
Need more information
Sun, 05/10/2009 - 10:16 — designmanWhat does Truit stand for? Keung's blog says almost nothing substantive about her ...not his fault as she may not have been forthcoming. Also, what is her motivation to run for a seat on the school board in Wake County considering she spent her career in schools in Johnston County?
Currently, I am a bit wary of this candidacy. I need a lot more information.
What does Cathy Truitt stand for?
Mon, 07/20/2009 - 10:09 — wctruittI am Cathy Truitt, and I want you to know what I stand for...CHILDREN!
My motivation for running comes from the fact that my husband and I have 5 sons who have served our country and been in "Harms Way" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar, and on a fast attack submarine immediately after 911. If America's Sons and Daughters can put their lives on the line, I can serve my country by helping improve public schools in my home state and county.
I will have a granddaughter in 3rd grade in Wake County this fall, and I want the best for all children. I am strongly opposed to forced reassignment! If elected to Wake School Board, District 2 my immediate agenda will be to:
1. Aggressively pursue a balanced approach to community schools and expanded Magnet programs,
2. Immediately move to bring better socio-economic balance to District 2 schools,
3. Promote parent and community involvement in establishing School Board direction and policies,
4. Improve discipline, reduce dropouts, increase student motivation, and raise student achievement.
I look forward to talking with you in the near future. Go to my website, cathytruitt.com for more information.
Cathy Truitt
all admirable goals...
Mon, 07/20/2009 - 11:09 — JSBinNC...but HOW?? Tell us HOW you are going to accomplish the goals - even at the highest level.
thanks!
Can we expect a ruling in
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 22:07 — Big_PictureCan we expect a ruling in the Wake Cares case tomorrow? What a glorious day it would be to see WCPSS forced to give parents choices. Dreaming? Maybe.
Separate Blog
Fri, 05/01/2009 - 10:44 — Lisa_BHey Big Picture:
Keung started a blog about this today.
I don't know... it's an
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 12:08 — rr77rr99I don't know... it's an educator. People say anything to get elected and then boom.... lower the ax... can you say BEV?
I agree. In my
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 12:59 — gwaihirI agree.
In my opinion, what the BOE does NOT need is yet another educator. Even if she gets the support of WSCA. There's been too many unimpressive educators (like Goettee and Hill) for the prospect of another educator to fill me with any confidence.
Whether a candidate is an
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 13:36 — designmanWhether a candidate is an educator or not is not the issue. They do not all think alike. To me it is more about the what a person's core values and vision are. Clearly some current schoool board members would rather hide problems than confront them, which explains Wake's obsession with busing kids rather than dealing directly with the issues that are causing some populations of kids to struggle academically. We need candidates who will not be afraid to identify the real issues and find effective sustainable solutions that genuinely have the best interest of individual students at heart.
Have Mercy!
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 11:27 — g88ky07Is there contact info available for Mrs. Truitt?
Horace just said, gulppppppppppppppp. And is now off to change his Depends!
Mr. Hui
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 17:07 — g88ky07Is there contact info available for Mrs. Truitt?
She doesn't have an official
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 17:34 — KeungHui (author)She doesn't have an official campaign site up yet.
Thanks!
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 19:27 — g88ky07Please let us know when she does. :c )
Well, I don't know if she'd
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 13:07 — gwaihirWell, I don't know if she'd be strong competition for Horace Tart. Speaking only for myself, of course. I've read her comments a couple of times now, and I can see enough that would make me wary of her. I think I'd need to hear a lot more from her first.
What, pray tell, do you
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 14:44 — CaryCurmudgeonWhat, pray tell, do you think Horace has done to endear himself to voters?
Nothing that would endear
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 16:41 — gwaihirNothing that would endear himself to the disaffected, of course. But I am a practical person. I can see that even Horace Tart will have supporters, who will turn out and vote for him. I really don't think you will see his scorecard on Election Day bearing an 0.
This being the case, you need candidates that appeal to the disaffected. The danger is not that they will vote for Horace Tart. The danger is that they will stay home and not vote, because the new candidate also does not appeal to them. Then he needs less supporters to win.
I personally wouldn't just vote for someone marketed as "At least I'm not Horace" which seems to be what you are suggesting in your brief snippet above.
In any event, it really doesn't matter to me any more. I've given up any hope that the parlous educational standards and the instability will get fixed to the point where I could put my children back in public school. They're staying out, and I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll be paying private school fees till my sons both graduate - or till the economy improves to the point that we can sell our house. (And on the subject of the economy - it is beginning to look to me that come next year, WCPSS is not going to have much money to play their games anyway!)
Exactly!
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 15:23 — g88ky07He's done NOTHING, except to see to it that we have a bunch of under
capacity MYR schools in FV! He voted for reassignments from Ballentine
to go to 2 other schools and did not have enough common sense to figure out how
NOT replacing those kids would affect the school! The result
of that stupid decision left families with collapsed classes, teachers not
needed and parents up in arms now that their tracks have been forcibly changed!
All those I have spoken with, and voters those people have spoken with,
100's, all say Horace will NOT get their votes even if Johnny
Dumb Butt runs against him!
...
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 15:25 — SideburnsFrom what I've heard, Johnny Dumb Butt isn't running. :>)