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Burke County voters sent the county's school board chairwoman to a resounding defeat Tuesday, electing all four members of a coalition that promised to change a number of school board policies that had angered residents in recent months.
The election results in four Burke County School Board races appeared to be voters' answer to the question as to how they felt about the board's controversial decision this summer to oust longtime superintendent David Burleson.
The board majority also had drawn heavy criticism for a series of decisions that included limiting public comments at meetings and conducting interviews for a new superintendent in Charlotte.
The big loser was board Chairwoman Tracy Norman, the subject of many residents' ire during a series of meetings that led to Burleson's ouster. Norman, running for the two remaining years of a four-year term in the Western District, received only 940 votes, compared to 13,042 for winner Susan Stroup.
Stroup was a member of the SWAT coalition, so named for the first letter of the last name of its members -- Stroup, Sam Wilkinson, Buddy Armour, and Catherine Redman Thomas. SWAT members promised in a series of candidate forums to allow more public input at meetings, and to encourage school system employees to voice opinions on controversial subjects.
They also said they will end the board bickering that had caused a national education organization to threaten the removal of accreditation from the system's three high schools.
The three board members who had sided with Norman in the 4-2 vote to buy out Burleson's contract in July did not face re-election Tuesday. But the victories by SWAT members will give them a 4-3 edge on the school board.
In the Eastern District race, Wilkinson received 13,298 votes, to 1,405 for Dianne Mobley.
Armour was the Central District winner, with 12,924 votes, to 1,369 votes for James Stamey and 420 for Creag Hanson.
And in the Western District race for a full term, Thomas got 12,620 votes, to 1,154 for Linda Minich and 946 for Justin Tate.
Nearly 7,000 voters cast ballots in the early voting period, almost equalling the total that voted in both the early voting and on election day in 2007.
In the weeks leading up to Tuesday's vote, Norman urged voters not to support SWAT.
"If they are elected, we will sink back into the educational delay we were in," she said. She added that election of SWAT members would lead to more of what she called "mobbish behavior" at school board meetings. At several meetings during the Burleson contract dispute, the school board asked for extra police protection.
But Wilkinson, who joined Armour as the only board votes in support of Burleson during the dispute, said SWAT members "want to rescue the schools."
Voters obviously were galvanized by the campaign. Nearly 7,000 ballots were cast in early voting -- compared to 8,096 in both the early voting and election day balloting in 2007. Elections board supervisor Greer Suttlemyre reported heavy voting throughout the county on Tuesday.
The dispute over Burleson's contract and other battles by board members put the Burke County Schools in hot water.
In September, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement placed the district's high schools on probation. A review team from the organization cited frequent bickering among board members and ordered an improved atmosphere within a few months. A lack of accreditation from the organization could damage the ability of Burke County high school students to be admitted to colleges and universities.
"By fighting with each other, the board members have created an environment of chaos," the SACSCASI review team said in its report. "The focus of the board is clearly not on school improvement."
Stroup, 52, a retired principal, said before the election that the board must rebuild trust with the community and added that she would fire the board's attorneys, who have sued Burke County commissioners for additional funding. "I saw the mess the current board majority was making, trying to destroy our schools," she said. "They would intimidate and harass school personnel and tried to micromanage the schools."
Thomas, 43, of Morganton, said the board majority has tried to stifle public input into the decision-making progress and vowed to change that. She is a lawyer who said the board has "done a lot of damage, and the only way that will be changed is to listen to the public."
Wilkinson, 67, of Valdese, has been on the school board for 12 years and despite his opposition to the Burleson ouster, said the board must support the new superintendent. However, he added, "It was the systematic tearing down of the school system that got most people involved." He is a retired teacher at East Burke High School and the system's teacher of the year in 1992.
Armour, 55, is a 12-year board member who said the board majority wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in its effort to replace Burleson. "He was the superintendent that the community loved and did not want to lose," Armour said. "It cost us our financial integrity."
Special correspondent Dianne Whitacre Straley contributed.
