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Q & A with school board candidate John Tedesco

By Paul Tambasco
News Editor

With less than a month till Wake residents vote to fill four seats on the county school board, the contest for the District 2 seat is heating up.

John Tedesco

In his first run at public office in Wake, Garner resident John Tedesco has joined Cathy Truitt in challenging incumbent Horace Tart. If elected, he will draw on a range of experiences in public administration, child advocacy and fundraising throughout the Triangle and the New York City metropolitan area.

Read the quotes: Tedesco sounds off

The following interview is abridged.

Q: Tell me about who you are and why you’re running.

A: I knew that education was the key to upward social mobility, [so] I worked hard, put myself through high school and through a small private college. I got a degree in public administration and immediately got a job at an educational foundation in the New Jersey area where I got the chance to speak to college kids around the country about education and scholarship.

I did so well at that, that I had an opportunity to work at Pace University in New York City. [Next] I became the youngest city manager in the state [of New Jersey].

I committed myself to still having a passion for kids, so I worked with the schools, built parks and playgrounds, but … when I built a new skate park, I had public hearings for the kids in the schools.

So I’ve sort of been on both ends of the spectrum. It has given me a different perspective than most people have, and that perspective has allowed me to be able to create positive results for people.

Q: How is the school system working? If elected, what would you change? What would you leave alone?

A: We have done a pretty good job in attracting teachers to Wake County, but I don’t think we’ve done a great job at retaining them or supporting them by overcrowding the classroom or not giving them the resources they need. It’s astounding that we don’t know how to plan properly in our schools. I think we’ve gotten so big as a school system that we’ve lost the principle of serving our parents and children.

Healthy schools don’t mean a thing if there aren’t healthy students in those schools. Our graduation rate has dropped 10 percent in 10 years since we’ve focused on the idea of healthy schools. We have 56 percent of our minority students and lower-income and disadvantaged students who graduated this last year. When that happened at 67 percent in Halifax County last year, [the courts] called it “academic genocide.” We’re doing worse than they were, and that was academic genocide. The idea that we’re shifting these kids around every year is not helping them.

Q: What will be your approach to improving policies?

A: Every policy that comes through that board will have to answer three questions: Is this child-friendly? Is this family-friendly? Is this community-friendly? Is it focused on those aspects before we look at “Is it central-administration friendly?”

For example, I don’t think it was very community-friendly to send our kids to school on Memorial Day. I don’t think it is very family-friendly to do this wacky Wednesday thing we’re doing where parents have to leave work early or find extra money for child-care costs. And I don’t think it’s very child-friendly to be bounced around to three different schools in four years.

Q: How would you reach out to disenchanted parents?

A: As a school board member, I’d like to keep regular hours for parents to come and meet with me. … I’d like to have [regular] meetings with local leaders where parents can voice concerns. I’d also like to encourage our school board to add a family resource office in each region. That office would help parents understand the system and advocate on their behalf.

A: How would such a program be implemented? Would this be a sort of volunteer community liaison?

Q: When we’re talking about the current redistribution of kids, some people want to say, “Well, that only affects or upsets affluent people in Cary.” That’s not true. The truth is I’ve got a mom in our program that lives in southeast Raleigh. She’s got three kids. She works in the local hospital in the cafeteria and then takes the bus to Wake Tech to take GED classes. She’s trying, and what do they do? They bus one of her kids to Knightdale and one of her kids to Apex.

How’s she supposed to go to a PTA meeting? You know what they told her? “You can check the kid’s grades online.” She said, “Well, we don’t have a computer, and I don’t really know how to use one because I didn’t graduate from high school myself.”

What that says to me is that our school system as a whole doesn’t understand our community and the challenges it faces. We can add some terminals to help teach a parent, and it doesn’t have to be an extra cost or burden. It can be something that’s done by managing efficiencies better, by tweaking roles and responsibilities.

Q: Publicly, you’ve touted your ability to work as an advocate with other policymakers at the county and state levels. What are your experiences in that realm?

A: Mr. Tart has said, “Some things you just can’t do.” In one of our debates, he gave an example: “We tried to build a new school, and we realized we couldn’t because we were so many millions over budget because of the public purchasing acts.”

I said, “You’re in the state capital. Walk out of the room across the street to the legislature building. Knock on Sen. Hunt’s, Sen. Stevens’ door and say, “Can you help me draft an amendment to the public purchasing act that exempts schools from building new properties? Because I’m representing the largest school district in the state of North Carolina. This is hurting us by x-millions of dollars.”

Those dollars could then be used for teachers and books. [I would] go to the appropriations committee and … testify on behalf of the state’s largest school district. If that’s not working, and we’re not getting some traction, I bring in some media attention, and we put pressure on these people.

Q: You mentioned some of your differences with Tart. What contrasts do you draw between yourself and Cathy Truitt?

A: I think she is a nice woman who has seen the system through one set of eyes for 35 years as an educator. … We continue to send people with [a] limited view about community. I think we need a broader view.

I don’t think she understands the reality of the world of the community that we all have to work within if she’s being divisive. She’s already doing negative attack ads in the paper. She’s calling me a pawn; she’s calling out Ron Margiotta. How are you going to build consensus? That’s not helping. That’s going to have more board members up there fighting. She’s going to be marginalized and ineffective.

I just think we need someone who understands the community a little better. I’m the only one in this race who lives in Garner, pays taxes in Garner and works with kids in Garner schools today. I have helped thousands of kids in Wake County; she’s never lifted a finger for a child in Wake County.

Q:  What is your take on reassignment? What would be your approach to reconcile the differences in opinion across the county?

A: First of all, the research shows that children need continuity, so bouncing them from school to school is hurtful. Communities need continuity too.

Our parents don’t need mandates. Mandatory assignments to [year-round] schools that don’t work with a family’s schedule are not great. I think our families should have a voice and a say in this system, and I think they should have a representative that knows how to fight to get them that.

Q: So do you want to get rid of reassignment altogether? Do you think it is a noble goal? Should it be tweaked?

A: I don’t think you should shuffle the kids like they are a deck of cards. There should be continuity unless the parents choose. So if a parent wants to send their kids to a specialized program, that’s a parent’s option.

But if a parent doesn’t want to send one of their kids to Cary and another kid to Knightdale, they shouldn’t have to. We are smart enough to design a system that involves parents, engages them, gives them voice and gives them power and choice while effectively managing for growth and student assignment.

In very limited bases, we may need to do [reassignment] in a manner that works for parents and in a way that encourages them to take the reassignment.

Q: What issues do you see as priorities specific to Garner and District 2?

A: We have to be good stewards of the tax dollars in Garner. We have to work with our local leaders, and we have to start producing results in education in Garner.

Garner High School is one of the most failed academically. I think it is a great school, and there are great people there, and they are doing great things, but we as a district need to put the resources there that are appropriate.

All Garner schools should be able to give the most quality education to all of our students, and that’s not the case. All of our schools are not equal.

Some local teachers are struggling in these classrooms that are way overfilled. We need to work with our local leaders better, too, to handle growth.

Q: Despite the positive features of local schools, they continue to have a poor overall reputation to many outside the town. Why is that, and what can be done to improve those perceptions and the circumstances creating them?

A: I’m proud of our Garner schools. Despite the powers of the school system, we have fought and managed to develop a sense of community. We have to be sure that there is room in Garner schools for Garner students.

I told my brother to buy a house in Garner. He said, “I can’t.’’ [His wife] won’t let him because she doesn’t want the kids to go to Garner schools.

Wake County schools is doing a great job touting how good Wake County schools are, but they are doing a terrible job producing real results for Garner’s schools. Real results need to happen for everyone in Garner schools before [perceptions change]. We have to start helping parents, and we have to start closing that achievement gap so our most failing students rise up.

Q: From now until Oct. 6, what are you doing to win this election?

A: I’m hitting the streets and hitting them hard. … Whenever we’ve had forums, when I’m in front of people and they get to listen to me and the others, they say, “This is the guy.” When they hear my message, they know this is who they want.

Cathy has a group of 10 or 12 wealthy people who were able to give her a thousand here and a thousand there to pump up her campaign. Horace is a builder and has thrown literally thousands of his own money into it, and the N.C. Builders’ Association has given him $4,000 again. I don’t have the money they have to do these direct-mail marketing pieces. So I’m trying to talk with people everywhere I go. I’m going to coffee shops in the morning.

From the 4th of July, we kicked off our efforts and started shaking hands. I haven’t stopped since. When I get in front of people, I’m all right, but we’ll have to see how it plays out.

Related articles:

• John Tedesco sounds off
• Truitt affirms anti-busing stance
• Truitt to seek run-off

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