By a 4-1 vote, the Macon County Commissioners terminated a resolution asking state representatives to file a bill that would have made the county’s school board elections partisan.
The end to the partisan school board proposal during the Tuesday, Dec. 12, meeting came a month after Commissioner John Shearl introduced the resolution. Shearl was the lone “nay” vote on the motion to strike the resolution.
The resolution presented last month would have directed state representatives to file a local bill in the N.C. General Assembly to make Macon County school board elections partisan. Currently, the school board is nonpartisan.
The Macon County Board of Education made their voices heard a day after unanimously affirming their opposition to the changes. During public comment, Wilkes read the entire school board resolution. Part of it stated that under the federal Hatch Act, filers to a partisan election who are federally employed would have to choose whether to run for a partisan office or remain a federal employee. Much of the school board’s resolution focused on how a partisan election would harm their mission of best serving the students of Macon County.
Several public speakers spoke against a partisan school board, including Linda Tyler, Richard Lightner, Scott Baste, Bob Scott and Betsy Baste. No public speaker spoke in favor.
School Board Member Diedre Breeden said she’s had discussions with people on both sides and believes each side has good intentions.
“I may identify with the Republican party, but I’m not a politician, because who I identify with, No. 1, is as a follower of Christ, a wife and a mom, and that is what leads how I vote and the things I stand for,” Breeden said to the commissioners. “And all of us, on our board, have similar things that motivate us, and it’s not a D, or R, or I.”
Breeden said the people in favor of partisan school board elections want transparency. She said those against partisan school board elections want citizens to elect candidates because of their characteristics and beliefs and keep political parties out of it. Breeden said she had issue with the time spent talking about partisan elections rather than the school capital projects that were on the November agenda.
“Over the last two months and four meetings between our two boards, we have spent time talking about this partisan issue,” Breeden said. “And some of the things I have really been trying to get done over the last year have not gotten much time, and it’s a little frustrating.”
Breeden “gently and respectfully,” asked the commissioners to acknowledge the school board’s unanimous motion.
Wilkes said she was struck by how the different vantage points of the other four school board members all came to the same conclusion of being against a partisan school board.
“In my opinion, the bottom line, I do not think a partisan school board serves our students, our parents, our faculty members and quite frankly our board,” Wilkes said. “We operate very well together. We work very hard…we have time that is spent doing better things than having these conversations. I ask that you please remove this resolution…and I hope it doesn’t proceed.”
Wilkes said hearing about this proposal last meeting from third parties “quite frankly, showed a bit of disrespect to our board,” but was glad some of the commissioners reached out to express that it wasn’t approached the right way.
School Board Chair Jim Breedlove said, “If it’s not broke, why would you try to fix it.”
Commissioner Danny Antoine said after listening to school board members in recent weeks, he has changed from being in favor to against partisan school boards. Antoine then made a motion to quash the resolution, which was on the agenda for later in the meeting.
Shearl responded, saying this was not an attack on the school board. Shearl brought up the growing number of school boards becoming partisan across North Carolina.
“It seems there is a much bigger problem in education beyond Macon County,” Shearl said. “Who sets the policies above and beyond Macon County Schools. These policies are handed down to Macon County School system and you follow those, and you have very limited power when it comes to how the school system actually operates. Yeah, you guys select a schedule and everything else, I get it, but this is beyond the politics that is embedded into the public school system and people want to know who they’re voting for, whether it’s Democrat or Republican.”
Shearl then went on a brief aside, saying “this right here goes in the same mind as how libraries operate in this state and across this country.”
Breedlove responded, saying their school board isn’t worried and doesn’t care about state or national politics.
“And bluntly, I challenge anyone to find a better board that works as well together as the current [Macon County] Board of Education, or past [Macon County] Boards of Education I’ve been a part of,” Breedlove said. “I’m very proud of what we’ve done, very, very proud.”