Wake County's public schools appear to be on the brink of a historic remake as candidates critical of the current board and its approach to school diversity swept three districts in last week's election.

Wake County school board candidate Cathy Truitt says she won't back busing for diversity if she's elected. Truitt, who supports an expanded magnet program as well as neighborhood schools, is still seen as a possible swing vote between newly elected members allied with current member Ron Margiotta and the current board members who favor busing for diversity.

Truitt officially requested a runoff election on Nov. 3 against front-runner John Tedesco for the board's District 2 seat, which represents Garner, Fuquay-Varina and Willow Spring.

She called "forced assignments" a dead issue in Wake County. She said she, like Tedesco, will back abandoning the diversity policy in favor of having neighborhood schools. "Now that busing is out of the way, we can move forward," she said.

Board shifts

Barring a change of heart by Tedesco, Truitt or the three candidates who won outright on Election Day, for the first time in a generation there will be a majority on the board that backs neighborhood schools -- no matter who wins the runoff.

Tedesco, a Big Brothers Big Sisters official, got 49.4 percent of the vote, just shy of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Truitt, an education consultant, received 23.7 percent of the vote, 59 votes ahead of third-place finisher Horace Tart, the lone incumbent who ran this year.

Truitt says she's hoping to get the support of Tart, who backs the diversity policy.

For almost four decades, Wake's school leadership has been committed to maintaining diverse schools, even though this policy has meant busing students to schools outside their neighborhoods.

Diversity's role

In 2000, Wake switched from balancing the percentages of black students in schools to balancing the percentages of low-income students.

A well-organized opposition campaign in all four districts turned resentment about busing, student reassignment and mandatory year-round schools into a winning message on Election Day.

The three candidates who scored outright victories are opponents of the diversity policy in North Carolina's largest school district.

Truitt contrasted herself from Tedesco by saying she would be a swing vote against de facto resegregation of the schools. She said she'll try to maintain diversity by expanding the number of magnet schools.

Tedesco said he supports magnet schools, but argues they should be used differently, such as to help high-achieving students instead of to promote diversity.

It's uncertain how much of Wake's nationally recognized magnet school program, in which suburban students voluntarily attend inner-city schools for special programs, will be preserved.

"We shouldn't be using magnet schools as a false tool for socio-economic distribution of kids," Tedesco said.

Beyond District 2, the election showed that the voters who turned out in the four districts at stake decided in large numbers to reject the status quo.

Opposition spoke

The candidates who won outright had victory margins that averaged 22 percentage points over opponents who wanted to preserve current policies.

"We'll be focused on how to educate children, not moving them from place to place," said Deborah Prickett, a state Department of Public Instruction employee who posted an overwhelming win in District 7, North Raleigh and Morrisville. "We'll improve academics."

Candidates backed by the change-promoting Wake Schools Community Alliance won by convincing margins in Cary; in eastern Wake communities, including Knightdale; and, in North Raleigh and Morrisville.

In District 9, which includes portions of Cary, retired firefighter Debra Goldman outpolled opponent Lois Nixon by a 3-2 margin.

"What I think really came across to voters was that citizens want a choice, citizens want a voice and citizens don't like irresponsible busing and irresponsible reassignment," Goldman said.

In Eastern Wake's District 1, former Wake Forest town commissioner Chris Malone won convincingly over former teacher Rita Rakestraw, one of the election's most outspoken champions of diversity.

Their victories were disappointing for those who favor current school policies.

"I just guess people didn't see the urgency to get out to vote," said Calla Wright, president of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children. "It's the result of people not knowing what the issues are."

Diversity supporters

Supporters of the diversity policy hope to persuade the new board members to back away from their campaign positions.

"Obviously, there will be some tweaking that needs to be done," said school board member Keith Sutton, a supporter of the diversity policy. "Hopefully, they won't want to come in and make wholesale changes like their rhetoric was saying."

Malone said it's the current board members who should be "flexible" about their positions. "I'm convinced in the word of my fellow candidates that we want to get neighborhood schools," Malone said. "They're very passionate about that."

Malone also expressed wariness about board members and others who oppose neighborhood schools: "They may try to divide us."

School board member Lori Milberg, whose seat Malone will now take, is worried about the future of the school system.

Milberg, who chose not to run again, had backed diversity policy supporter Rita Rakestraw over Malone.

"It's a scary proposition, but we're going to have to deal with it," Milberg said.