Durham Public Schools Board of Education District 3: Lauren Sartain

Name: Lauren Sartain

Age: 44

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: www.sartainforschools.com

Occupation and employer: Professor of Education Policy at UNC Chapel Hill

1. What is your past or current involvement with Durham Public Schools? What makes you qualified for this job?

My personal experiences with DPS and professional qualifications give me a unique perspective that I would bring to the School Board. First, I am a professor of education policy with 20+ years of experience supporting school districts. I am an outside-the-box thinker and an analytical problem solver. I know what works to strengthen school systems. I have the expertise to weigh the evidence and to develop concrete solutions because I do it every day. For example, I’m working with Wake County Public School System to learn more about what makes a school a great place to work where teachers want to stay (Sartain & Estrera, 2023) and to identify best practices for supporting new teachers who entered the classroom without training.

I am a mom of a third grader and a sixth grader in DPS. My kids have multiple neurodiversities that make learning hard for them. In advocating for them, I learned that their elementary school did not have a reading specialist, even though half of the students were not proficient readers. I worked to get more reading support in the building, developing a partnership with the Hill Center and organizing volunteers to work 1-1 with students. My efforts didn’t stop with my own children or their school. I’ve demanded transparency about District resource allocation to schools so that student needs are met. Parents and educators shouldn’t have to fight so hard for the system to work like it is supposed to.

With DPS, I’ve done my homework, and I’ve shown up. I have served on DPS working groups and committees. Because of my expertise on school choice, DPS asked me to serve on their Growing Together working group (2022-2023). I have also sat on DPS’s Title I Family Engagement steering committee, which works to identify ways for schools to improve relationships with families. I’ve met with individual Central Office leaders to share findings from my research on topics like strategies to develop a strong principal pipeline. 

Since 2020, I have given public comment at numerous School Board meetings, speaking repeatedly on issues related to budgeting, pay, and building conditions. We can all criticize leadership, however, when I make public comment, I also offer workable solutions. I’ve heard the concerns of employees and community members, and I’ve experienced them firsthand as a parent. DPS needs systems that function for all schools and all students. Because I understand our context in Durham and the nuances of policy development and implementation, I would be able to hit the ground running from Day One. 

2. For incumbents, what has been your greatest accomplishment on the board? For newcomers, what change would you bring to the board?

When the elected Board members are sworn in on July 1, they’ll go into closed session, be handed a personnel report, and be expected to take action. The learning curve is steep, and we don’t have time to waste. I was the first to file as a candidate in this race because I am confident in my ability to guide DPS. Unlike other candidates, I have a deep knowledge of best practices, what data are available from what government agencies, and how other public institutions have solved many of the same challenges we face today. This means I can bring a new level of rigor to solving our problems while also speeding up the Board’s policymaking. 

As a Board member, I promise to govern with integrity, an openness to engagement and evidence, and transparency. Leaders make difficult decisions all the time; as a Board we cannot promise perfect policy that will make every parent, student or staff member happy. But we can promise our large, diverse community that we will be leaders who are decisive, straightforward, and focused on priorities. As a Board member, I also promise to be clear. You will understand how I came to my decision even if you do not agree. In fact, I want the public to hold me accountable for making sound policy decisions and requiring regular updates on how those policies are being rolled out.

We face major challenges ahead. Most importantly, our district is talking about having to close and consolidate schools because of decreasing student enrollment and aging buildings. Sentences like that hurt to read. We need a Board that can make hard decisions and turn things around. 

3. For the past two years, the district has uncovered budget shortfalls and had to make midyear cuts and adjustments. How can the board ensure that every DPS dollar is being put to best use?

DPS’s budget is the roadmap for achieving the District’s vision of providing a high-quality education for every student. The current approach to budgeting is not sustainable. We cannot recycle the same budget every year and expect different results. Asking for more from the county each year is not a long-term solution. Because the county’s revenue comes from Durham’s taxpayers, raising property taxes will just exacerbate Durham’s affordability challenges. 

Instead, the Board must ensure that the District’s $700 million annual budget is spent in a way that best supports student learning. That’s why I’ve repeatedly called for the District to use an approach called zero-based budgeting. Simply put, we need to start from scratch and put students at the heart of resource allocation decisions. 

Everybody is demanding budget transparency, and rightfully so. My professional background as an education policy researcher means that I know what it takes to implement zero-based budgeting. Here are some concrete processes the Board and District could use to develop a more efficient budget: 

Visiting each school and learning from school-based staff, parents, and students about what is working, what is not working, and what they need. Those conversations can point to investments (training, curriculum, technology, etc.) that are effective while also identifying places the budget can be cut.

Applying an equity lens to resource allocation decisions. The District must assess student needs school by school, acknowledge that some schools serve student populations that need more support to be successful, and put more resources in those schools. 

Making sure our large investments are backed by evidence. For example, DPS has maintained a 1-1 Chromebook policy since the pandemic. It’s an expensive policy, it’s cumbersome for school staff, and it’s not supported by research. When resources are limited, we cannot afford to spend them on things that we know don’t work.

Finally, the Board needs regular standing updates on the District’s core functions: finances and budget, student enrollment, teacher and staff vacancies, and various student outcomes (e.g., attendance, suspensions, test scores and grades). Having regular updates would allow the Board and District to identify issues and address them proactively rather than letting them get to the point of crisis.

4. The superintendent is the board’s sole employee. The current board recently unanimously extended Anthony Lewis’s contract for another year. What letter grade do you give Lewis, and how could he do better?

Nationally, districts are struggling with turnover and vacancies in the superintendent’s office. School boards are increasingly using contract extensions as a way to signal that their job is safe and to entice them to stay in a competitive market. The Board’s extension of Superintendent Lewis’s contract was not surprising to me, especially since DPS was in crisis on multiple fronts when he started in August 2024. At the same time, I understand how a contract extension would frustrate the broader community when so many of those same crises persist. 

Supt. Lewis inherited a big hole to dig out of: broken systems in Central Office, with little trust between the Board and District administrators and employees, parents, and students. Conducting another superintendent search less than a year and a half into Supt. Lewis’s tenure seems short sighted. 

I’d grade Lewis’s performance as “Incomplete.” Here’s why:

On the one hand, I’ve seen some strong positives. He hired the District’s current Chief Financial Officer, Jeremy Teetor, who has been very forthcoming with the Board, the County Commission, and the public about the District’s financial challenges. The District is finally moving forward with a comprehensive assessment of its school buildings, putting together deferred maintenance needs and promised construction projects with the realities of DPS’s student enrollment projections. I’ve also seen Supt. Lewis elevate student voices and experiences. For example, he has introduced students as honorary Board members, and they are often the most-perceptive, well-informed players in the meetings. Centering students is something I’d like to see continue.

On the other hand, some crises that Supt. Lewis inherited are… still crises. In particular, the District still does not have clear pay scales for classified staff, and employees often have errors in their paychecks. HR is an essential function for every organization, and fixing DPS’s HR processes is beyond urgent. Recent indictments of District administrators also raise red flags about whether Supt. Lewis has the right people he needs in his cabinet. 

Ultimately, the culture of the District must change, and Supt. Lewis needs to lead the charge. We need to move away from a culture where Central Office protects itself above all and pushes work down onto schools. From Day One, Supt. Lewis has said that Central Office exists to support schools and serve students. He’s still working to make that the reality in DPS. Supt. Lewis can build trust by sharing data and information transparently even if the picture the evidence paints isn’t rosy, addressing problems openly and collaboratively, and co-constructing solutions with constituents. In turn, the Board can both push him to be more strategic in decision making while also supporting him in being honest about the state of Central Office and our schools. 

5. Nearly every public school district in the state saw a decrease in enrollment this year. Durham’s was particularly dramatic, with over 1,000 fewer students than last year. With kids leaving for charter and private schools, what can DPS do to convince parents that public schools are the best option for their students?

In recent years, DPS student enrollment has remained stagnant or even declined at the same time that the county population is growing. About one of every four youth in Durham County attends a charter school – a much higher rate than in surrounding counties. Families are “voting with their feet” because DPS is not meeting their needs. We cannot vilify parents who make what they believe is the right choice for their family. As a Board member, I would want to understand why families are seeking other options and work with District leaders to ensure that DPS is the best option. 

Every family – not just more affluent families – should have options. Therefore, striking the right balance between investing in and improving the quality of neighborhood schools while also providing well-designed school choices (e.g., magnets) within the public system is critical.

Choice systems are complicated. I know because school choice is an area of my own professional expertise (see, for example, Barrow & Sartain, 2019; Barrow, Sartain, & de la Torre, 2018; Sartain, Lewers, & Barrow, 2025). Districts have to decide what programs to offer, where to locate those programs geographically, what curriculum and materials schools will need to implement the programs well, how to train teachers and staff, and so on. Districts must also design systems that are easy for families and students to navigate. They must also plan for increased demand for transportation services and how to ensure that aftercare is available for families of elementary-aged children. It’s a lot. 

As a District, we can only focus on what’s in our control: making sure our budgeting process, our HR systems, and our operations work as best they can so that our investments go back into our classrooms and to DPS students. Parents want their kids to be successful, to be able to read and write, to think critically, to have good options after high school. To make their lives work, parents also need basic things like reliable transportation and affordable aftercare at elementary schools. These are the things that can keep a child in a family’s local public school, and they are the things that the Board can control. So let’s focus on that.

6. DPS is committed to equity in education, but the “achievement gap” between white students and students of color persists. How can the district better fulfill its most basic mission of educating every child?

Any child should walk into any DPS school and get a high-quality education regardless of what that student looks like, what the student needs, or where the student goes to school. And we know that isn’t happening right now. In Durham, our values are clear: We believe in equity and racial justice. But we don’t always live those values. 

Achieving equity always starts with the budget, and how resources are allocated determines whether all DPS students will succeed. Ensuring that students have access to things like high-quality instruction, advanced coursework, and school-based mental health supports regardless of the school they attend is a must. To do that, we must create a budget that puts more resources in schools that serve student populations who have the most need. 

An equity-oriented budget explicitly acknowledges that schools serving more students who are exposed to violence outside of school, have learning disabilities, or are refugees or immigrants (for example) need more adults in the building in order to ensure that they have the support they need to thrive academically. We talk a lot about equity, but to date, our school budget has not put our money where our mouth is.

Suspensions are one place where inequities in the budget play out in our schools. In DPS, Black students are about seven times more likely to be suspended than white students, and Black male students are the most likely of all demographic groups to experience suspension (source: my calculations using publicly available data). The fact that some students are more subject to suspension than others is without a doubt an equity issue. 

DPS’s approach has been to ask schools to move away from punitive exclusionary practices and adopt restorative practices. In my own research, I found that when suspensions are shorter, students come to school more often because they feel safer at school and are more engaged; notably (Sartain et al., 2015; Hinze-Pifer & Sartain, 2018). However, I also learned that effectively implementing restorative practices requires high-quality training for teachers to feel well equipped to implement these strategies in their classroom. It requires additional adults in the building – like social workers – to connect students and families with appropriate mental health resources. It requires staff to work closely with students who are involved in conflict at school and mediate conflict with care. 

Implementing restorative approaches effectively, and thus reducing suspension inequity, requires a clear investment that shows up in the budget. It means earmarking dollars for support staff positions, to train teachers well, and to build partnerships with organizations that could work alongside schools. 

Whether we’re talking about restorative approaches, teacher retention and recruitment efforts, or rigorous curriculum, as a Board member, I would push DPS to clearly indicate how they plan to achieve their goals, including adequate funding.

7. North Carolina recently received an “F” grade from the Education Law Center, which reported that the state is second to last in average funding per student. As of January 2025, the state legislature hasn’t passed a budget, leaving educators without a cost-of-living adjustment. What can the Durham school board do to help student outcomes with a state government that seems uninterested in supporting public schools?

In the US and especially in NC, school funding is extremely complex with different revenue sources, ways of allocating positions, and complicated rules about spending money. I understand the various funding sources in our state. I know when our hands are tied because of the state or federal regulations and when we have discretion – and that’s with our local resources. Local dollars make up a considerable portion of any District’s budget. And, in Durham, our County Commissioners have generously invested in public schools. The County’s primary means for increasing revenue, though, is by raising property taxes, so continuing to ask for more from the County isn’t a sustainable strategy. 

Instead, we have to control what we can control, and that means DPS must better manage how we spend our local dollars. The Board and District must put spending under a microscope. It’s the only way to put more money into our classrooms, allocating resources efficiently and effectively in service of students. As I described in my earlier response about the budget, DPS teachers, staff, and students can–and must–be our partners in planning our spending. They know the realities of how budgets impact their buildings, and what they are missing. They see waste in inefficient policy implementation and new construction overruns. I plan to partner with these stakeholders to ensure their voices are included in the budgeting process. 

Related to local spending on public schools, as a Board member, I would explore ways to expand the District’s partnership with the County. One idea I have is outsourcing building maintenance to the County. The vast majority of our building and maintenance funding comes from Durham County already, and dollars in the District’s budget are subject to a charter tax. If the County maintained the buildings, every dollar spent would go much further.

Another way to expand District capacity to support schools is through formal partnerships with Durham’s extensive nonprofit community and faculty from local universities. Other school districts provide concrete examples of successful partnership development and implementation. For example, I have working relationships with districts like Wake County Public Schools System and Guilford County Schools. Wake has built systematic partnerships between Central Office and university faculty members to analyze student data to evaluate programs and identify specific ways to improve their school system. Guilford has used partnerships to provide innovative programming in Career and Technical Education, academic tutoring, and support for newcomer student populations.

At the end of the day, NC’s investment in public schools is among the lowest in the country, largely due to willful underfunding of our system by legislators in Raleigh, and that isn’t going to change any time soon. Durham County’s Board of Education cannot solve this problem alone, but the Board can collaborate with our peer districts to advocate for our shared interests in Raleigh. However, my first priority would be getting our own local budget in order. 

8. The majority-member staff union Durham Association of Educators (DAE) has, at times, clashed with the superintendent and the board over policy and procedure. What kind of relationship should the board have with the DAE, and how can you balance pressure from staff with pressure from administrators and taxpayers? 

In recent years, the Durham Association of Educators (DAE) has grown in membership. It’s easy to see why, given the persistent failure of Central Office to implement clear HR policies regarding teacher and staff pay and benefits. In 2025, thanks to the organizing efforts of the NCAE and the DAE, the Board passed a Meet and Confer policy to give employees a “seat at the table,” the first of its kind in the state. 

My understanding is that the purpose of Meet and Confer is to provide a shared space where District leaders and groups representing DPS employees can co-develop policy related to personnel. I believe the space should also be used to elevate employee concerns to Central Office leadership and the Board, as well as for the Board and District to get input directly from employees. All of this policy work is happening in North Carolina, where no worker group has legal rights to collective bargaining. 

After the Board passes any policy, all efforts should be devoted to making sure that the policy is being implemented as effectively as possible. The Board’s responsibility is to make sure that Meet and Confer is as productive a process as possible, and makes positive change. In my opinion, that means collaborating on modernizing HR systems and increasing District transparency related to personnel policies and practices. As a community, we need to move forward, not backward.

It’s important to note that the DAE represents only one of DPS’s critical constituencies. Our Superintendent and the Board must have positive, working relationships with every constituency to have a healthy system. Meet and Confer is the vehicle the DAE specifically designed to bring their voices forward. As a Board member, I would also seek to elevate the voices of each of our constituent communities – including the DAE, other professionals, students, and parents. 

The current Board, all of whom were previously endorsed by the DAE, led us into many of the challenges we face today – including passing a budget without understanding the financial decisions they were making. In the coming years, we will be facing some hard truths: school closures, budget shortfalls, unfilled teacher vacancies, etc. So the Board must have the independence to keep all its constituents in mind as it navigates these challenging issues. As a Board member, I would prioritize gaining input from the DAE, other constituencies, and making decisions that are in the best interests of the students we serve. 

9. With Durham School of the Arts and Northern High School moving to new buildings, the district still owns the defunct former sites of those and other schools. What should the district do with those sites? If it is beyond the jurisdiction of the school board, how can the board work with the county to make those sites useful for the Durham community?

First, we must acknowledge valid community concerns about the Board and District leadership’s decision making on both the new DSA site and closing the old DSA building. The Public has repeatedly questioned the authenticity of community engagement, the validity of the cost estimates for construction and renovation, and whether legal requirements were met. 

I also have questions regarding the location of the new DSA. The new site is very close to Riverside and Northern High Schools in North Durham, when other parts of the county could have benefitted from additional capacity. For example, in South Durham, Jordan is over-enrolled and the building is in very poor shape. There are many new housing developments in East Durham, suggesting that the area will grow in student population. Further, moving the high school out of downtown Durham means that it is no longer a central location, and it will be more accessible to residents of North Durham than to families in other parts of the county. These questions were not adequately interrogated in the planning stages, and they are exactly the kinds of questions I would ask as a Board member. 

The Public has also raised concerns about the quality of new construction projects at Northern and Lyons Farm. Given these issues with new construction buildings, we need to take the time to make sure the building plans for the new DSA are appropriate and adequate. Yes, the timeline might get delayed, but because the new DSA is such a big investment, it is critical to get the construction right. We cannot risk wasting District and county resources, which ultimately hurts students. 

DPS’s vacant school sites are valuable. And, right now, the public doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the Board’s or District’s ability to make decisions about large-scale projects. We have to take a step back to reflect on how we got here: a patchwork approach to managing school buildings without clear processes or priorities to guide the work. The Board needs to rely on experts in real estate and finance to guide the sale or redevelopment of these properties so that the District can use any proceeds to fund budget shortfalls, pay employees competitive wages, and fix DPS’s current school buildings. This is another area where DPS could benefit from partnership with other government entities like the County in order to avoid paying the charter tax. 

The needs and safety of students and school-based staff should be at the center of Board and District decisions about improvements and renovations of old buildings, construction of new buildings, and plans for vacant sites. Superintendent Lewis and his team are in the middle of developing a long-term buildings plan, including an assessment of the physical state and maintenance needs of each school building. As part of their planning work, Central Office staff have identified a deficit of at least $1 billion in deferred building maintenance and construction that have been promised to school communities. Durham County residents will be asked to foot the bill. Going forward, staying focused on this plan is the best way to ensure that the District’s buildings are safe places for teaching and learning.

10. Thousands of students have stayed home from school during federal immigration enforcement sweeps. On one November day when agents were in the Triangle, over 20% of DPS students stayed home from school. What can the board realistically do to make DPS a welcoming and safe environment for all students, regardless of immigration status?

Students cannot learn if they feel threatened and are too scared to come to school or focus in class. Schools need clear emergency protocols, and families need honest, immediate communication about what’s happening in case of a crisis. DPS has a critical responsibility to the safety of all the students in its care. Today, we are failing to live up to that responsibility in several ways. 

Training for Staff: The District has taken steps to strengthen its law enforcement engagement policy. But now, the District should use existing professional development time to train staff on stronger implementation and critical safety issues – from restorative practices to emergency procedures for ICE and other crises. This is something the DAE has also requested and I look forward to pushing those requests forward as a Board member.

Community Partnerships: DPS can also partner with advocacy groups that already have deep knowledge and networks like Public School Strong, Siembra NC, and the Durham Educators Association. Partnerships like these would systematically expand the District’s capacity to support schools, families, and students. 

Building Safety: Close observers of Board meetings are aware that the District’s buildings have pervasive maintenance issues. These include mold in classrooms, inoperative air conditioning and water fountains, and non-functioning door locks. The latter is a serious concern when it relates to ICE having easy access into our buildings. These issues place students and staff in jeopardy on a daily basis. As a Board member I will advocate for a more proactive and prioritized building maintenance program to address these critical issues. I would also explore modifying the District’s visitor dress code policy to require adult visitors to remove face masks and hats (unless they are religious in nature).

Fully Staffing Buildings: Student safety requires schools to be fully staffed. Without a capable HR department, the District struggles to fully staff schools at the beginning of each school year. When there aren’t enough adults in schools, students don’t have the supervision or guidance they need to thrive and to stay safe in the event of an emergency. Beyond an acute emergency, lack of staff and teacher turnover also make it hard to identify issues of bullying among students, including our immigrant students who we know are having negative interactions in our buildings. As a Board member, I will work with the District to improve HR operations that will enable us to fully-staff funded positions. 

11. Give an example of an opinion, policy, vote, or action you changed based on constituent feedback. If you have not yet held elected office, describe a time when you changed your position on an issue after listening to those affected by it.

My approach to research is different from a traditional academic. Instead of approaching a district and asking them for access to schools or data to answer questions that are of interest to me personally, my research is centered on the needs of districts. In my work, I have built sustained and collaborative partnerships with school districts, university systems, and other public education stakeholders. Trust and mutual respect are at the foundation of my work, putting myself on equal footing with policymakers and practitioners and recognizing the expertise that everybody brings to the table.

I have been working in collaboration with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) since 2008, and I have maintained that relationship even after moving to Durham. Like DPS, school choice is extensive in CPS, including both charter schools and their own magnet schools. Students and families were having to navigate a complicated landscape of school choices – with different application deadlines and requirements; some applications had to be hand delivered to schools, while others were centralized on a web-based application. CPS worked with charter schools, foundations, and nonprofits to develop a centralized enrollment system called GoCPS. Ultimately, the system would make it easier for families and students to navigate the school choice and application process and for the District to construct accurate enrollment projections for each school. However, it was a really big policy change, and I served as CPS’s research partner to offer an unbiased third-party assessment of how GoCPS was working. 

Our research team analyzed the choices students made on their applications coupled with their actual enrollment decisions. We found that most students received a seat at one of their top-ranked schools, which was a good thing. However, we also uncovered some equity issues in the process itself. Specifically, we saw that Black students were much less likely to apply to International Baccalaureate (IB) programs than non-Black students. We shared that finding with our CPS partners, and then we kept digging in the data to look for an explanation. It turns out that the District had a requirement that IB applicants attend an in-person information session, and that requirement was a barrier for Black students. In response, the District was able to add a virtual session, and the race gap in IB applications closed.

My approach to research and this specific example illustrate my style of leadership. I believe that we cannot make good policy decisions without first co-developing shared goals with key stakeholders. I know firsthand that evidence and data can be a good starting point for having productive conversations, especially when there is tension. And, as a Board member, I promise to govern with integrity, an openness to engagement and evidence, and transparency. 

12. If there is anything else you would like to address, please do so here.  

My approach to research is different from a traditional academic. Instead of approaching a district and asking them for access to schools or data to answer questions that are of interest to me personally, my research is centered on the needs of districts. In my work, I have built sustained and collaborative partnerships with school districts, university systems, and other public education stakeholders. Trust and mutual respect are at the foundation of my work, putting myself on equal footing with policymakers and practitioners and recognizing the expertise that everybody brings to the table.

I have been working in collaboration with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) since 2008, and I have maintained that relationship even after moving to Durham. Like DPS, school choice is extensive in CPS, including both charter schools and their own magnet schools. Students and families were having to navigate a complicated landscape of school choices – with different application deadlines and requirements; some applications had to be hand delivered to schools, while others were centralized on a web-based application. CPS worked with charter schools, foundations, and nonprofits to develop a centralized enrollment system called GoCPS. Ultimately, the system would make it easier for families and students to navigate the school choice and application process and for the District to construct accurate enrollment projections for each school. However, it was a really big policy change, and I served as CPS’s research partner to offer an unbiased third-party assessment of how GoCPS was working. 

Our research team analyzed the choices students made on their applications coupled with their actual enrollment decisions. We found that most students received a seat at one of their top-ranked schools, which was a good thing. However, we also uncovered some equity issues in the process itself. Specifically, we saw that Black students were much less likely to apply to International Baccalaureate (IB) programs than non-Black students. We shared that finding with our CPS partners, and then we kept digging in the data to look for an explanation. It turns out that the District had a requirement that IB applicants attend an in-person information session, and that requirement was a barrier for Black students. In response, the District was able to add a virtual session, and the race gap in IB applications closed.

My approach to research and this specific example illustrate my style of leadership. I believe that we cannot make good policy decisions without first co-developing shared goals with key stakeholders. I know firsthand that evidence and data can be a good starting point for having productive conversations, especially when there is tension. And, as a Board member, I promise to govern with integrity, an openness to engagement and evidence, and transparency.