A photo essay from this week’s school board meeting. The Wake County School Board voted 5-4 to end the economic diversity policy. The issue will be up for a second vote at the board’s next meeting. Read more about the meeting here.
The new school board majority was elected overwhelmingly by a small percentage of registered voters in the last school board elections, but the meeting room was filled with a large majority of diversity supporters.
Neighborhood school policy supporters were far outnumbered in the audience, virtually 3 to 1, but they had plenty of reason to smile at the meetings outcome.
As Curtis Gatewood, the second vice president of North Carolina’s chapter of the NAACP, was asked to step down by Board Chair Ron Margiotta shouts of “Security!” and “Arrest him!” rose from the crowd.
Board member Anne McLaurin, a member of the pro-diversity minority, proposed an attachment to the directive which would resolve “to avoid schools with high concentrations of poverty.” Like all votes pertaining to the measure, this addition was struck down 5-4.
These two signs were held by members of the public in the first row and visible to the school board throughout the meeting.
At 7:30 p.m. when the vote took place, the throng still packed the board room and filled the corridor.
Ron Margiotta directed his gaze to the chanting crowd shortly after delivering the tie-breaking vote to end Wake Counties diversity policy.
Members of the public stood in small groups debating the issue well after the crowd began to disperse.
