District 1 won't be part of WTVI debate

WTVI's televised school board debate won't include north suburban District 1,  and incumbent Rhonda Lennon isn't happy about that.  Fifteen-minute segments on each of the other four contested races will air from about 4-5 p.m. Sunday,  after the Charlotte City Council debates.

Mast

District 1 challenger Christine Mast told me she couldn't make today's scheduled taping because she has  "other commitments with parents."

Lennon says she offered to adjust her schedule to fit with Mast's,  but instead the sponsoring League of Women Voters pulled the District 1 segment.  "The policy is that if one candidate in a 2 candidate race is unable or unwilling to participate there will be no debate,"  emailed Amanda Boo Raymond,  the league's executive producer.  "I appreciate your understanding and best of luck in your campaign."

Lennon

"I am very disappointed I will not be allowed to participate since my opponent cancelled," Lennon told me. "I would have loved the opportunity to talk about my record and my priorities going forward for CMS."

The league's voter guide has been released, with 15,000 print copies going to libraries and other locations, but there are a lot of gaps from candidates who didn't reply. There's no school board race with all candidates responding, and neither contender for Charlotte mayor replied. I'm not sure what this says about this year's campaign and the way candidates are trying to connect with their voters. But check the right rail on this blog for links to the Observer's voter guide and other sources of more complete information.

And an update on campaign finance: The pre-election reports, which were due Monday, are still trickling in as the mail arrives and the Board of Elections gets them posted. Lennon says her total is more than $4,000. And I just plain messed up on Bolyn McClung in District 6: He reports having $11,337, including $10,800 in loans. We've corrected it online, but the print story is off.

McElrath splits time between homes in two districts

District 2 school board member Richard McElrath said Thursday he moved out of his longtime home in that district during a period of family turmoil but has been spending nights there for the last couple of months,  since he decided to run for re-election.

McElrath

In a phone interview from his home on Lake Norman outside Huntersville,  McElrath said he still likes to spend days at that house, which is in District 1.  He keeps his dogs there and enjoys the quiet,  he said:  "I work better here."

But McElrath said he and his wife are now living in the District 2 house off Beatties Ford Road,  where he's registered to vote.

That qualifies him to continue representing District 2,  which covers west and southwest Charlotte,  says Mecklenburg County elections director Michael Dickerson  (see a map of school district zones here).  "Residency is where they plan to return when they leave,"  Dickerson said.  McElrath's situation  "sounds fine to me,"  he said.

Don Wright, general counsel for the N.C. Board of Elections, agrees  (read a 12-page report on N.C. voter residency requirements here).

McElrath's District 1 house

McElrath said he and his wife were among the original residents of the Garden Park subdivision in west Charlotte.  Mecklenburg County property tax records show the couple own that house,  a four-bedroom home built in 1968,  and a two-bedroom home outside Huntersville,  purchased in 2007 for $430,000.

When McElrath ran for school board in 2009, there were rumblings about his having a house outside the district.  McElrath said at the time he was fixing up the lake house as a weekend place.  No one has ever filed a challenge to McElrath's District 2 residency,  Dickerson said.

I visited both homes this week and asked McElrath about his living arrangements as part of the backgrounding we do on candidates for public office.  I found no one home at either location,  but saw McElrath campaign signs stashed outside  and two dogs in a fenced enclosure at the District 1 house.

Campaign signs at lake house

McElrath, who filed for re-election on the last possible day, said he was wavering as he tried to resolve a difficult family situation.  He said his daughter and granddaughter moved in with him and his wife at the Garden Park home,  but conflict with his daughter led him and his wife to move into the lake house.  McElrath said they eventually asked their daughter to move out.  "Now we're back in it,"  he said of the District 2 home.  "We've been there every day for the last couple of months."

Residency questions aren't uncommon in local races.  Charlotte City Councilman James Mitchell,  who was defeated in the Sept. 11 Democratic mayoral primary,  told the Observer shortly before the primary that he had moved out of the home in District 2,  which he represents,  and into a new house in the city's District 4.  No one has formally challenged his eligibility to serve out his District 2 term.

In 2003,  Vilma Leake faced a challenge from County Commissioner Bill James and other residents about her eligibility to represent District 2 on the school board.  Leake,  who is now the county commissioner for District 2,  owned a home in District 6 and rented an apartment in District 2 at the time. The Mecklenburg Board of Elections held a hearing and ruled in Leake's favor.

Byers-Bailey

Dickerson said McElrath's arrangements are unlikely to create problems:  "There are plenty of people I know who have a vacation home on Lake Norman and live here in Charlotte."

McElrath will face Thelma Byers-Bailey,  a first-time candidate and resident of Charlotte's Lincoln Heights neighborhood,  in the Nov. 5 election.

Little money in school board race so far

Eric Davis,  who's seeking re-election as the District 5 representative to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board,  has the fund-raising lead by a long shot in the early financial reports that were due Friday.  As of June 30,  Davis reported he had raised just under $7,700,  including $500 from former N.C. Board of Education Chairman Howard Haworth;  $500 from John Belk,  president of Belk Inc.;  $250 from current state Board of Education member John Tate;  and $500 each from Anna Nelson of the C.D. Spangler Foundation,  co-chair of Project LIFT,  and her husband Tom Nelson.

Davis

Davis'  mid-year tally falls far short of the $27,767 he had at the same point in 2009,  as he was gearing up his first political campaign.  He said Tuesday he now has $15,000 lined up.  "I intend to run as vigorous and successful a campaign as I did in 2009,"  he said.

But it's definitely a different scenario this time,  with five of six incumbents seeking re-election.  Four years ago five of six elected incumbents had either decided not to run or resigned to become county commissioners,  clearing the way for a five-member majority of newcomers to be elected.

Byers-Bailey

Thelma Byers-Bailey,  seeking the D2 seat,  is the only other candidate who filed a report disclosing fund-raising before June 30.  She reports having $2,755 as of that date,  including $675 from herself and smaller contributions from a number of donors.

Davis' D5 challenger,  Edward Donaldson,  is one of two candidates who filed statements saying they don't intend to raise or spend more than $1,000,  which frees them from having to file additional reports. The other is Doug Wrona,  one of three D6 candidates.

None of the other incumbents  --  Rhonda Lennon in D1,  Richard McElrath in D2, unchallenged Joyce Waddell in D3 and Tom Tate in D4 -- has filed a midyear finance report,  an indicator that they hadn't started their fund-raising by June 30.  McElrath and Tate haven't even filed organization papers to create a campaign committee.

Likewise,  candidates Queen Elizabeth Thompson in D4 and Bolyn McClung in D6 have yet to file organizing reports.  Paul Bailey,  the third D6 candidate,  reports giving his campaign a $500 start-up loan.  Christine Mast in D1 reports having $160,  including $100 from herself.

Longtime Elections Director Michael Dickerson says it's not unusual to see a slow start to school board campaigns.  The nonpartisan race has no primary before the Nov. 5 election,  and tends to be overshadowed by city races until the Sept. 10 primary is over.

More join crowded school board race

After a tumultous year filled with budget cuts, school closings, teacher layoffs and the superintendent's resignation, you might think one of the hardest political jobs in Charlotte right now would be serving as a school board member.

If that's the case, it's certainly not scaring people away from the race for three at-large seats up for grabs on this November's ballot. Today, Ericka Ellis-Stewart, a Harding University High parent leader and a leader in the MeckFUTURE parents' group, is filing to run. That makes her the second MeckFUTURE member to file, joining group co-founder Elyse Dashew. Ellis-Stewart said in a press release that she plans to bring "thoughtful and practical leadership" to the board, with an emphasis on greater openness in decision-making, effective use of resources, and rigorous coursework.

Lloyd Scher, the outspoken former Mecklenburg commissioner, told me yesterday that he's about to jump into the race, too. He said he plans to file on Friday morning at about 10:30 a.m., which would put him at the board of elections right before incumbent Kaye McGarry plans to appear and announce her plans.

Scher, who served on the commission from 1992 to 2000, didn't have kind words for former Superintendent Peter Gorman. He said Gorman misled the public and the school board this year when he said schools were struggling with a $100 million budget gap. CMS officials have said that gap only disappeared after the state and the county came in with better-than-expected budget support for local schools, but Scher doesn't buy it. Gorman, he said, was too far out in front of the school board on the budget and on pay-for-performance plans for teachers.

Darrin Rankin, a Huntersville insurance agent who ran at-large for city council in 2009, told me he's also announcing at 11 a.m. Friday. Rankin, who ran for city council as a Democratic candidate, said at the time that he hadn't tried for office previously and was running as a concerned citizen and businessman.

Ellis-Stewart brings the number of officially filed candidates to nine. With McGarry, Scher, Rankin and former teacher's union leader Mary McCray voicing plans to join them, it appears there will be at least 13 candidates vying for three seats.

A crowded field, indeed.

Election filing season opens

Filing for three at-large seats on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board opened at noon today. As of 1:30 p.m., five candidates had put their paperwork in: Elyse Dashew, Keith Hurley, DeShauna McLamb, District 6 school board member Tim Morgan and Hans Plotseneder.

They were joined by Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte and most of the Cornelius commissioners in being some of the first folks to file. (That's them in the picture above, bracketing Dashew, who's second from left). In addition to the school board seats, offices in Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews and Mint Hill are also open for filing now through July 15. There was no sign in the initial hour of at-large school board member Kaye McGarry, who holds one of the school board seats on the ballot in the November elections. She has said she's still weighing her options.

The board race shapes up as a crucial one, with a new superintendent to choose and with the departure of two members of the five-vote majority that usually holds sway on crucial policy questions. The three new members could completely change the direction of the school system. Many of the challengers said that's exactly why they're running.

"The cards are going to be dealt a different way" after the election, McLamb said.

McCray jumps into CMS board race

For most of Superintendent Peter Gorman's tenure, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher Mary McCray has been a public voice for her colleagues.  Now she wants to be part of the board that hires his replacement.

In her five years as president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, McCray was sometimes supportive and sometimes critical of Gorman and the board.  Most recently, she raised questions about their performance-pay plan and opposed the CMS-backed legislation that would let the school board launch such a plan without teacher approval.

McCray

"I know we're going to have to have pay for performance,"  McCray said Wednesday, noting that it's part of North Carolina's Race to the Top plan for federal money.  But she said she wants CMS to slow down and get its approach in sync with what the rest of the state is doing, instead of rushing to launch new tests and push the plan when money is tight.  "If there is no money for it, I don't know how we're going to do it."

McCray said she has just stepped down from the CMAE post and retired as a teacher after 24 years with CMS and 10 with Union County.  (To address a question that pops up occasionally:  When McCray worked for CMAE full time, she remained on the CMS roster to allow her eventual return but the teachers group paid her salary.)

She says she wants to hire a superintendent with education experience, and wants to help the board do a better job of listening to the community and earning the trust of CMS' 18,000-plus employees.  "Trust and morale is at an all-time low,"  she said.

McCray, 58, is a registered Democrat making her first bid for public office.  Filing begins July 1 for the November election of three at-large board members.  For posts on the race so far, click here and here; also look for candidate web sites and other information in a rail at the right of this blog.