Chris Augustine dropping out of District 2 school board race

Hello, I AM John Tedesco.

I am discouraged to have to write this blog post. It had been a desire of mine not to dive into this arena where too many of us nit-pick each other to death. If I say the slightest wrong thing or heaven forbid mis-spell something while running for school board then I will be labeled. I will try to sneak a few in for those of you looking. But my goal and God given talents have been in community building, so I could no longer sit by and let that be eroded by some of us who pose concern for children while acting like children. So to this end I will set the record straight and clear some points; forgive the rather lengthy post as it will likely be my last and will serve as no doubt to who I am and my writing style for future questions. Any of you are welcome to contact me directly and share coffee and concerns with me face to face.

I had just registered my account here and the info the system collected was my date of birth and zip code and full name, so our host Mr. Hui can verify I am me and anyone else posing is not.

First off, to G88 - I appreciate so your passion for our efforts and am honored to have you and so many others willing to fight for our campaign. It has been the privilege of my life to fight for thousands of others as I have had to for my self and my family since I was a boy.

Next Mr. Augustine, I am very disappointed in your approach here. I personally reached out to you on several occasions. I asked to share coffee and ideas. I had hoped to see what sparked your passion. I am a reasonable man and care first and foremost for our families, so if someone would have brought a better vision to the table I would have supported such. Republican Candidate Arnie Osborne and Democrat Chris Marsh both sat with me and afterwards felt it was best that I press on for their children and all of us. I am proud to have both of them working with us. The withdrawal of Mr. Marsh is why there is no Democrat candidate now. Should you have had like minded vision and skills for our families, I would have done the same. You ignored my requests. I then reached out to you at a BOE Candidate training and spoke briefly where you noted you didn’t know of me before choosing to run but just wanted to stop Cathy and Horace. I then offered chance for collaboration again.

Chris your approach to dealing with citizens and parents as seen here is exactly what we do not need more of. We need to STOP fostering an adversarial relation with our parents and our communities. We need to put our children first. I still believe you have some sound insights to the financial management of our system, I still am willing to work with you for our families if you are. I offer this as an invitation.

Now let me answer some of your questions and concerns about me. First, I was a child of poverty moved 32 times in 18 yrs from project to shelter to and various low-income communities. I was a F&R kid (well just and F, we were real broke). I am the oldest of 6 children with a 20 year span. I grew up in the Pittsburgh area where I worked in steel mills to save money to put myself through college, where I studied public administration and committed myself to helping communities and children like me for the rest of my life.

I started my professional career out in the NYC/NJ area managing a $55 million dollar campaign for Pace University to help provide scholarships to other first time students, while there I also taught at NYU. During that time I served in my community across the river in NJ on the various community boards for Business and Community Development. My success and insight there afforded me the opportunity to be appointed the youngest City Manager in the State. I managed millions of public dollars, understood public service and accountability; build schools, community centers and infrastructure, negotiated with unions and legislators.

What was unfortunate for us at that time was the fact that we were the NYC ferry transportation hub during 9/11. That day the city closed roads and bridge as we all choked under the dust, so we used the ferry system to evacuate 10s of thousands of victims and for the next several months I continued to lead during crisis as we were a staging area for supplies and rescue gear.

Shortly there after, I was offered the opportunity to partner with friends in Child Protective Service and Non-Profits to take on a new challenge. I served as the Director of Development for Harbor House where I built shelters and supportive programs for over 8,000 kids annually who were homeless and abused.

During that time my mother passed away and with my father dying of liver disease, I moved to Garner to raise my 3 youngest siblings through Garner middle and high school. I was blessed with the first opportunity of anyone in my family to buy my home there in Garner, where I will be proud to root my life.

At that same time Big Brothers Big Sisters of America asked me to lead their Development efforts here in our region as our community growth continued to challenge their ability to serve the demand for at-risk children. I have been honored to build collaborations, public private partnerships, and programs for thousands of local youth here over the last few years.

I am further honored to have had the opportunity to lead my two sisters with special needs onto graduation (Sam in 07 and little Allie this 09), and my brother Jamie is a junior (and a tougher challenge, but we are working on him) He is wrestler at Garner where I work with all the wrestling moms to provide snacks. So while I do not have my own children in the system, I consider ALL these children mine, and will fight for them and all of us.

As for my age, I am proud of the fact that I have had such broad opportunities to lead at such a young age. In fact in 2008 I was named a Goodmon Fellow and a graduate of Leadership Triangle reserved for a small number our regions best and brightest (members include CEO's of companies like GSK, IBM, Fidelity, along with leaders in State and local Government). I am 35 and by God's grace alone I have accomplished all of this and more in the service of others.

If you have more relevant life experiences, convictions, and a clear vision on how to help bring all of us together for the best interests of our children and communities, please share with me and I will entertain stepping aside. If not, please join me in the hard work ahead.

I say hard work because I do not pat myself or cheerlead for myself. I am concerned gravely so about the work I need to do to win this election. Mr. Tart and Dr. Truitt are strong and formidable. They along with Ms. Lucas seem to be nice people but not what our community so desperately needs right now. Mr. Tart has told me on several public occasions that some things are just the way they are and can not be changed. I fundamentally reject that idea.

Dr. Truitt, I believe to be fine woman as well, but she is contained in a silo of 35 years of educational experiences, similar to current Chair Mr. Hill, Ms. Goette, and half a dozen others in the last 10 years. She preaches preparing students for the global economy and we agree, but we also need to prepare youth for the local economy – we will not be outsourcing plumbers and electricians. This may be a valuable path for many of our children. The latest board appointee of the current establishment is calling for the board to have Taxing Authority – heaven forbid. We need a strong voice on the board that has a broader understanding of the system and the ramifications of the system to tax payers, families, and communities.

Mr. Tart and Dr. Truitt both have strong financial support from the old establishments in Fuquay and Garner respectively. I am working solely with grass roots efforts so it is critical that I raise supporters, volunteers, and funds – so again I do not presume to be even close to securing this yet. I accept any help at www.4wakekids.com. I do not presume I can do all the heavy lifting alone, but I believe I am a voice and a heart that needs to be on that board for our children and our families.

We need to build a community again. We need a system that challenges our most gifted and raises our most vulnerable. We need to engage parents and build collaborations. We need to look to innovation and stop fighting old arguments. When we fail to educate and adjust for the social inequities in our community we perpetuate poverty. This will be the civil rights issue of our generation. We CAN solve these problems with limited government/board controls and increased fiscal accountability.

Mr. Augustine, again I will offer the olive branch. We may not agree on all issues but where we do, we can work together. Consider joining all of us families with the heavy lifting and together we can dare mighty things.

Thank You,

John Tedesco

Tue, 08/11/2009 - 12:30 — AngelaW
so did you "choose" not to run so you could now blog and trash others (whom BTW are not John??)

I'm still here
Tue, 08/11/2009 - 13:39 — caugusti
and you might want to read to see who is trashing who. I never said I was quitting. Anyway not many ideas here...

I *am* reading, you *are*
Tue, 08/11/2009 - 13:51 — AngelaW
I *am* reading, you *are* trashing, and what are you 12? funny you were asking "John" how old he was.....

there *are* ideas here, just more than the status quo and those are the ones that you don't want to see...

prove that G88 is John Tedesco...

So intelligent
Tue, 08/11/2009 - 13:58 — caugusti
The old remark had to do with the level of comments he made. Just like you are doing.

It is so easy to hide and spout off in blogs. You know who I am. Who are you?

hide????
Tue, 08/11/2009 - 14:05 — AngelaW
you MUST be joking!! and if you didn't just show up yesterday you would already know.....I am one of the FEW who has put herself "out there", that's my name, not some blog handle....and my life is an open book on these blogs...good thing you aren't officially "running" as your attitude is so extremely antagonistic, I can't imagine anyone wanting to vote for you.

dear god, so insulting and aggressive.....

And here you are insulting me...
Tue, 08/11/2009 - 14:21 — caugusti
on a story that is hard to find now deep in the N&O pages.

The brick and mortar capacity for LES is what? 650? 700 base are attending? That leaves 450 applicants for seats that are really not there because of all the trailers. Now 2 miles down the road there are 2 YR, over 35 million $$$ schools that will sit half empty (backed up to Durham County) for 3 Years???? They crammed them into LES, fired almost ALL of the TA's, raised the classroom sizes, and because there was so many students decided to hire a Part time assistant principal. 1 Principal, 1 full time Assistant principal and 1 part time assistant principal. So for ALL those students there is 1 guidence counselor, the teachers have to eat lunch with their children because they let ALL the TA's go and creates another admin position (pt assistant principal) way to go WCPSS/Delany and crew.

Two-thirds of the funding for the county's school system comes from the state, and 80 percent of its costs are in salaries.

Wake schools will lose approximately $21 million worth of state funding, and that will likely result in larger class sizes and educators' jobs lost

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5767039/

We can if we get the Federal government out! There is a reason why Thomas Jefferson rallied for separation of church and state.

A decision to re-hire hundreds of teachers in Mecklenburg County has leaders in Wake County on the hot seat.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6958097

We WANT TO KNOW why Nelson Dollar is running Horace Tart's status quo campaign????  For a buck???  He stood at the first WSCA meeting and said he is against what this school board and this school system has done, and is doing, and like us, wants change.  Nelson Dollar's own party has endorsed John Tedesco YET Nelson Dollar wants to run the campaign of a man who is everything Nelson says he is against. Nelson won his last election by less than 400 votes! Does he think running the campaign of Horace Tart is going to help him get elected the next time he, Nelson, needs support at the polls? Well let me get this one for ya', NOPE, it's not!

How about it Nelson, care to weigh in?

What unfunded federal mandates is Chris Augustine referring to? WCPSS has over $94 million in revenue from the federal government in the 2009-10 budget. Yes, there are laws that WCPSS must follow in order to accept that money, but to pretend it is unfunded is ludicrous.