Supporters of new school board say Burns needed to go

Aside from the need for a national search, it looks like supporters of the new Wake County school board majority thinks it's for the best that Del Burns resigned as superintendent.

As noted in today's article, supporters of the new board questioned whether it was realistic to expect Burns to carry out the sweeping changes that were being proposed. It's in contrast to the wailing and gnashing of teeth from critics of the new board over the resignation.

"Dr. Burns has devoted 30 years of his life to Wake County schools and has done a lot of good things," said Kathleen Brennan, a founder of Wake CARES. "But in his tenure as superintendent, I don't feel we've seen much forward growth and there's been a lot of dissatisfaction."

Brennan said the school system needs a leader who can propose innovative ideas and put them in effect.

"I think it's time that we get new people in there, and we can involve the media and people from the business community to discuss what can move the school system forward," Brennan said.

Similar thoughts were echoed by Joe Ciulla, a leader of the Wake Schools Community Alliance.

"The new board majority clearly has a direction for our schools and if Del doesn't want to be part of that, he's made the right decision," Ciulla said.

Dallas Woodhouse, state director of the conservative Americans for Prosperity, said that it's vital for a new superintendent to be fully in tune with the majority's plans for revamping the system.

Woodhouse said it was unrealistic to expect that "the author and administrator of many of the policies that were voted down by the electorate would be the right person to oversee rolling those policies back.