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Former Johnston principal, teacher enters race for District 2 seat

By Paul Tambasco
City Editor

It may be April, but competition for the District 2 (Garner, Fuquay-Varina) Wake County school board seat is already heating up.

Cathy Truitt

Long-time Johnston County educator Cathy Truitt (cathytruitt.com) has announced she will challenge incumbent Horace Tart this fall. It will be Truitt’s first run. If elected, she will bring three decades of experience as an educator to the role.

Truitt sat down last week with City Editor Paul Tambasco to explain her reasons for running, why she believes a focus on reassignment is harmful and the difference between Wake and Johnston County schools.

Paul Tambasco: Why are you running?

Cathy Truitt: I’m choosing to do this for a number of reasons. First of all, it is my greatest passion in life. Second, I have experiences that have made me highly qualified to work in the educational arena at that level, and I have the time to do it. I consult, but I work no more than about three to four days a month. …I have in-depth knowledge of research, much of it at my own expense, immersing myself in literacy and the poverty framework as well as working with the ICLE…

Those experiences led me to realize that we can change America’s schools. …I have come to realize that if we as educators don’t realize where our real threat lies and realize the critical need to take even our excellent schools from the 20th century and move them into the 21st century, then America’s way of life and our economic future will not get better and it will indeed deteriorate. I believe that with all my heart.

PT: You have been a consultant, an administrator and a teacher in Johnston County for more than three decades. How do the issues of public schools there compare with the ones in Wake County?

CT: I’ve had a lot of people ask me if Johnston County has better schools. …Johnston County has some excellent schools – so does Wake. The biggest difference that I see between the two districts is that we 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.

PT: How’s that different than what you have seen in Wake?

CT: I believe there are some parents who are heard. They are the lucky ones. I know there are others who obviously are not. …There are parents who are completely alienated. They could be the school system’s best supporters, but they feel that they are not heard and that their children’s school lives are unstable.

That’s the second difference in Johnston County: If you have a child in school, unless you move, you will be able to stay in that school. …The research points to: If you want to accelerate learning and reduce dropouts, you’ve got to have some consistency over time.

In my last year as a principal, I had zero out-of-school suspensions. It took two years to get to that. I like to think it is because of our programs … we put in place that students were a part of. But more importantly, I was their principal for six years.

PT: The four Wake school board seats up for election this fall raise the possibility of significant change to the group. Did that influence your decision to run?

CT: It did. …Some leaders in the community talked to me about running, and I didn’t seriously begin to entertain it until a few months ago. I attended some meetings, and I came away thinking, “Good Lord, this is going to be really tough.”

The argument is focusing entirely on the policy of reassignment, busing and the [percentage of free and reduced lunch populations]. I thought, “Where is the right focus?” That is not it. That doesn’t align with my vision. So if that is what the focus needs to be, I’m not running.

PT: What changed your mind?

CT: I changed my mind because the dialogue about schooling in Wake County needs to be focused on 21st-century issues. We can no longer stay stuck on 20th-century issues. This first decade has been spent on disagreements and communities pitting themselves against each other and children being moved around. Sometimes that has to occur, but the policies…. When I asked myself what I believed about the success of these policies … in 2000, only six schools in Wake exceeded 40 percent [of students with free and reduced lunch]. In 2008, 51 schools do.

PT: What do you take from that?

CT: That tells me that a policy that may have been successful for a very short period of time is unable to meet the demands of 21st-century students.

Out of 153 schools in Wake County last year, 125 schools failed to meet [Adequate Yearly Progress]. I know the principals and teachers who are in that category are heartbroken. I’ve been a principal, and I know what it is to be under the gun.

I don’t view that these schools are failing, but I do view it as an issue that says we’ve got to address schooling from a 21st-century perspective. We will never go back to segregated schools. It will never happen – no one would allow it. …We have an African American president. We will never go back. …It’s a different world.

PT: How do you think current school board members are doing?

CT: I have not scrutinized their decisions. My guess is that they made the decisions they knew how to make at the time. The school system appears stuck, paralyzed by fear, and the current economic crisis is fueling it.

I see a school system that is scared of the racial discussion, the busing discussion, of the policy discussion. I think that as school board members, the reason three people are not running again – when you look at the outcomes, it isn’t what they wanted. It isn’t what anyone wants.

I have talked to a significant number of African-American parents and community leaders, as well as those from other backgrounds. Everyone wants the same thing: an excellent education and some stability for their children.

There will always be some busing going on in Wake County in the forseeable future, and there will be community schools – as there are now. So what’s the argument? We already have them. How can we argue over something that exists? It’s a misplaced focus. …I have asked myself, “Can this dialogue be lifted to create a shared vision for 21st-century schools?” That’s where it needs to go. For America and for Wake County. It can be done.

PT: How does the concept of a 21st-century school translate into a diversity policy?

CT: We have diversity. Are you asking me point-blank whether I believe the school system should stop busing period and have everyone attend community schools?

PT: What is your view of reassignment? How would you improve it?

CT: If you look at the best parts of the school system, some of those are magnet programs. Ripping students out of those to put them back into their communities; is that the way to go? 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. …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.

PT: Is that benchmark valuable to you?

CT: It is valuable to me. When I was a principal and [No Child Left Behind requirements came along], like everyone else, I chafed. I had to have a private conversation and think about what I believe.

I believe it is a noble goal to leave no child behind. To reach that goal, though, we cannot focus on policies any more; we have got to focus on what it takes to meet that goal. America’s future and our economy depend on it.

There is a way to reduce the amount of busing to maintain the integrity of our schools and then make adjustments for each of the schools.

PT: So you would keep the policy of reassignment in place, but scale it back?

CT: Diversity exists, and it exists not because [WCPSS] is busing for diversity. The diversity is already there. Not only that, the policies are not successfully spreading that diversity around. So why have a policy that doesn’t work?

Would I redo the policy? I’m not going to tell you what I will do with the policy. I’m just going to tell you that I will look at the results.

Here is how I would word it because I have thought about this:

[Reads from prepared remarks.] One of the issues in this campaign is that simplistic views when dealing with complex problems will lead us to fail the children. There are no silver bullets or quick fixes. [Stops reading.]

I draw a parallel to the state of our national economy. When you look at the response of our Congress and the president and Wall Street and the banks, no one really knows what to do. It was an easy, quick fix at the beginning. …But gradually our leaders have come to realize that the situation is much too complex for quick fixes. I think Wake County’s public schools are in the same situation. It is now much too complex for simple answers.

I don’t think parents are looking for quick fixes. They just want to know that it is getting better and that their children are going to get a 21st-century education. In this campaign you’re going to have people who will tell you, “I’ve got the answer.” It’s to move to community schools or it’s to continue busing for diversity. But they won’t have those answers because simple answers like that fail to grasp the complex demands our schools are facing in the 21st century.

PT: Come October, folks will have a choice between you and Horace Tart – assuming no one else enters the race. Why should folks vote for you?

CT: Just as I stopped comparing my school with another school, I’m not comparing myself to Mr. Tart, but I will say this: He has had an opportunity for four years. [Leans in.] I want my opportunity for four years, and I’m asking voters to give me that opportunity.

I will bring a set of skills and experiences and background knowledge that underpins educational change today, and it will only enhance what the school board is trying to do. I’m asking for that chance.

I see a way out of this paralysis in Wake County schools with the argument over busing versus community schools. I see a way above that. Those problems will resolve themselves. They will resolve themselves if we have our vision and understand what we need to know to help every child and student achieve that 21st-century level of excellence.

Related articles:

• Truitt affirms anti-busing stance
• District 2 candidates share plans for board’s future
• Truitt to concede

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