All five Macon County Board of Education members decried a plan to make their elections partisan during its monthly meeting on Monday, Nov. 27, at East Franklin Elementary.
Board Chair Jim Breedlove added the discussion to the agenda just before approval. The consensus is that Board Attorney John Henning will draft a resolution supporting the current nonpartisan elections for Macon County school board members and pass it on to the Macon County Commissioners.
The agreed-upon plan is once Henning finishes a draft ordinance, he will send blind copy emails to each of the board members so they can’t respond to each other and violate state Open Meeting laws. Board members will respond to Henning with corrections or addendums, and the process repeats itself until everyone individually agrees to the plan. If “big pieces” of the resolution need discussion, as Board Member Hilary Wilkes termed it, the Monday, Dec. 11, school board meeting at Franklin High School will be the venue for those. If the resolution is agreed in an email vote before that Dec. 11 meeting, Macon County Schools will send out a press release.
The resolution, once approved, will be presented at the County Commissioners’ Tuesday, Dec. 12, meeting.
“I would let [the commissioners] know, there will be members of the [school board] at your next meeting, I can promise you that,” Breedlove said to Commissioner Gary Shields, who is against partisan school board elections. Shields was the only commissioner present at Monday’s meeting.
On Nov. 14, the commissioners didn’t act on Commissioner John Shearl’s request that Macon County’s state representatives introduce a bill to make school board elections partisan. This would mean school board candidates would have their party affiliation on the ballot and be subject to primaries. A plurality of commissioners expressed support for the proposal. Most of the school board members were out of town on Nov. 14, with only Board Member Diedre Breeden present.
Breeden said the subject has been heavy on her heart for two weeks.
“I feel like at least for me, it reflects the heart of what we’re trying to propose with the resolution,” Breeden said, explaining that there were “a lot of feelings” expressed at the Nov. 14 commissioners’ meeting. Breeden pointed out that despite how heavy the discussion got at times, MCS CTE Director Colleen Strickland positively changed the mood during her aviation students’ presentation.
“I mean, that’s the heartbeat of what Macon County Schools is,” Breeden said. “I just hope this resolution puts forward that is what our purpose is.”
Breedlove said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and complimented how the current system isn’t broken and works “extremely well.”
Board Member Stephanie Laseter said no one on the board felt like they were running for political office and “feels emphatic about that.”
Board Member Melissa Evans said it’s public knowledge what party affiliation everyone on the board is, but that doesn’t matter on the school board. As a grandmother, Evans said her school board vote shouldn’t come down to party affiliation.
“You put a letter past their name, you’re not voting, a lot of times, on that person’s character, their moral values,” Evans said. “A lot of times, people tend to just circle the R or circle the D, and they don’t know anything about that person. And I think that is detrimental in any election, especially when you’re dealing with your children. And you need to know what kind of character and the values that individual believes in…. I think you are stripping those children of getting the best person from a lot of people who don’t see anything but that letter.
“I totally think our children deserve better than that, I really do.”
Wilkes said she was “very offended” by the way the commissioners brought up partisan school boards without any consultation, mentioning the “In the Best Interest of our Students” mantra in their central office meeting space.
“I did not see how it served our community of schools and faculty and parents. I was pretty angry about being excluded from a conversation that is so important,” Wilkes said, noting she talks with her fellow school board members regularly. “We work extremely well together; this is a high-functioning scenario. Anything that’s going to mitigate it or muck it up, it’s something I will fight passionately to avoid. The five people who put their names on a resolution like this are representing every school, every principal, every teacher, every student and every parent. And we’re here to do that and nothing political needs to be involved in that.”
Wilkes said she sent a public comment to be read into the record at the Nov. 14 commissioners meeting as she was out of town, but it didn’t happen. Wilkes said she’ll read it at their next meeting.
“I hope we can find a resolution to stand behind,” Wilkes said.
Henning said state lawmakers have pushed partisan school board elections in recent years. Before this year, Henning says, there was discussion with a community before making that change, but “not so much during this calendar year” at the N.C. General Assembly.
“Several of our clients found themselves suddenly the subject of a local act being pushed through the General Assembly without their knowledge, let alone their endorsement or discussion,” Henning said, noting that in 2015, 17 of 115 N.C. school districts had partisan elections. That number is close to 50 now in 2023.
The Macon Board of Education elections have been nonpartisan “since at least 1968,” Henning said, noting it’s hard to find records from beforehand.
At the end of the discussion, Breedlove asked Henning to “keep them out of trouble” with the resolution.