![\"Tom](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Denton-600x401.jpg\")
<\/a>Lauren Ramsdell <\/p>
Tom Benton, right, is the newest member of the Wake County School Board.<\/p><\/div>\n
Benton, a Democrat, was one of applicants for the job. The a former teacher and school administrator is a 27-year resident of Eastern Wake County.<\/p>\n
Wake County School Board members will now go through the seat-filling process again, this time with Debra Goldman’s District 9 position. Just days before applicants interviewed for Malone’s seat, news spread that Goldman had transferred her voting registration to Wilkes County. By state law, public officials must be able to vote for the position they hold. Goldman officially announced her resignation Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will obviously start the same process that we just went though in filling the District 1 seat in filling the District 9 seat,\u201d said Board Chair Keith Sutton. \u201cIt\u2019s taken us just slightly over a month, I think, the timeline for filling the District 9 seat will be about the same. I think by the second meeting of March will be wrapping that process up.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the board is technically nonpartisan, most members were backed either by Republicans or Democrats in their candidacy, and tend to vote along party lines. With Malone and now Goldman\u2019s departures, those leaning Republican find themselves even more outnumbered on a sometimes bitterly divided board.<\/p>\n
School Board Considering Lobbyist to Bat Against County Commission<\/strong> Wake County Commissioners last month approved their 2013 legislative goals, which include taking control of the oversight of school sites and buildings. Commissioners also want to change the way school board members are elected, creating five districts instead of nine and having four seats elected on an at-large basis.<\/p>\n The question then becomes what role the Commissioners\u2019 decisions will have in the Board of Education\u2019s ability to enact its own policies.<\/p>\n After a closed session, Sutton suggested a lobbyist could defend the school board’s role as the body that makes those decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cIn order to effectively respond to these proposals, I feel that our school system needs to act expeditiously to retain the services of a lobbyist,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that we need to be in the best position to defend ourselves and maintain what is in the best interest of students, families and schools in Wake County.\u201d<\/p>\n Sutton said that the power to retain a lobbyist falls under a provision that gives the Superintendent ability to hire outside assistance to present its views to the state legislature. Sutton further made a point that Acting Superintendent Steven Gainey did not ask for this, but as the largest school district in the state, the implications of these potential changes reach far beyond Wake County.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have no choice but to be defensive,\u201d said Board Member Susan Evans. \u201cI wish it weren\u2019t the case, but it is the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Just minutes after his selection, Benton also weighed in on the Commissioner\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a Social Studies teacher, and I remember teaching the students the advantages of electing at-large members,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there\u2019s good debate about it \u2026 but right now it\u2019s moving so fast there\u2019s not debate.\u201d<\/p>\n The school board is setting aside $100,000 from its savings in the fund balance to pay a lobbyist.<\/p>\n The debate about control over school decisions is likely to flare up regularly during the next few months as Commissioners and Board of Education members work together to produce a plan for a new schools construction bond.<\/p>\n The last bond passed by Wake County voters provided more than $1 billion dollars for school improvement and construction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New member Tom Benton joined the school board this week as members discussed their turbulent relationship with the County Commission and considered hiring a lobbyist. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24056,"featured_media":17296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23,55],"tags":[1159],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24056"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMeanwhile, board members Tuesday expressed interest in hiring a lobbyist to protect their control over the school system.<\/p>\n