Bone up to run for School Board

Ann Doss Helms

The Charlotte Observer

Oct. 27, 2008

Another election may be getting all the attention, but people interested in running for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board in 2009 can start preparing Saturday.

Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group, will hold a free session on school board issues, duties and campaign financing from 9 to 11:45 a.m. Saturday at Queens University. Speakers will be board members Molly Griffin and Trent Merchant, along with John Dornan of the nonprofit Public School Forum of North Carolina.

Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education, which will not endorse candidates, expects to hold more candidate information sessions in 2009. All six districts will elect their representatives in November 2009. Eighteen people have already signed up for Saturday's session, said Executive Director Kathy Ridge.

The early training may be especially helpful for people living in Districts 2 and 3, who could get a chance to apply for an appointment to vacant seats this year. Mecklenburg's Democratic party has chosen District 3 representative George Dunlap to take the county commissioner's seat left open by the death of Valerie Woodard. District 2 representative Vilma Leake is the Democratic candidate to represent that district as a county commissioner; strong Democratic registration in that district makes her the favorite to win in next Tuesday's election.

To register: www.mecked.org or 704-335-0100.

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Better Schools start at the top, group says,

MeckEd aims to raise $2.3 million to help find and train ‘nontraditional' principals for CMS.

By Ann Doss Helms
ahelms@charlotteobserver.com

Posted: Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008

More Information

• Think you might run?

  Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education will hold a free session for potential school board candidates from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Saturday at Queens University. Speakers will be board members Molly Griffin and Trent Merchant, along with John Dornan of the nonprofit Public School Forum of North Carolina.

  To register: www.meck ed.org or 704-335-0100.

  Learn more

  Information about the efforts MeckEd is raising money for:

  New Leaders for New Schools: www.nlns.org

  Parent University: www.cms.k12.nc.us (click “Parent University” under Bulletin Board on left).

Saying better principals are the key to boosting public education, an advocacy group hopes to raise $2.3 million to help Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools recruit and train school leaders.

Kathy Ridge, executive director of Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education, knows she'll be making her pitch with the economy tanking and community needs skyrocketing. But she hopes corporations and foundations will respond to “the leverage of the leader.”

“They understand when you invest in one new principal, that principal can impact on 2,000 students a year,” said Ridge, who was recently hired as the education group's executive director. More>>

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Got Charlotte's To Do

Economic Development - Education #5

Colleen Brannan

Ventures Charlotte

Fourth Quarter 2008

" How will we contune to improve public education and support the vision of Dr. Peter Gorman and the School Board?"

We must capture the interest of employers and the community about public education as a major, difining priority.  Our public schools are much better than other metro areas, but that is not setting a high enough standard for Charlotte/Mecklenburg.  We are in a position to creat the best public school system in the country that is viable for all students - those at risk and those pursing advanced degree careers.  We need to engage in talking about the issues; expecting and asking for highest performance from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS); holding CMS; including out school board, accountable for this performance; and bringing leadership and financial support to the most pressing areas for improvement."

-Kathy Ridge, Executive Director of Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education

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Meck Ed Founded

In March 2005, the Citizens' Task Force on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, comprising business and grassroots leaders from across the community, convened to look at ways to improve CMS and to prepare for the additional 54,000 students expected by 2015.  In December of that year, the Task Force, headed by Harvey Gantt and Cathy Bessant, presented to the community 21 recommendations enabling CMS to meet it current and future challenges more effectively.  One of the recommendations stated the community needed an independent entity that would support the reform of CMS.  A subcommittee of the Task Force studied various structures found throughout the nation and then made its recommendation for a single organization to serve that purpose.  Thus in August, 2006, Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education (Meck Ed) was born -- the result of the programmatic merger of four of the community's strongest educational reform groups: Charlotte Advocates for Education, Education Program of the Chamber of Commerce, the CMS Public Schools Foundation, and the Citizens' Task Force. 

Today, Meck Ed is a Local Education Fund (LEF). LEFs are non-profit, community-based organizations that work closely with public school administrators as well as business and community leaders to improve the schools within a particular geographic area. Meck Ed does that by mobilizing leadership, rallying resources, and engaging the community in stimulating change that improves our public education.