Durham Public Schools Board of Education District 3: Peter Crawford

Name: Peter Crawford

Age: 42

Party affiliation: Unaffiliated

Campaign website: www.petefordurhamschools.com

Occupation and employer: Operations, Acre Labs, Inc.

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

My experience over the past several years has firmly grounded me in our community and its public schools. I am a parent of 3 current Durham Public Schools students (2 elementary school, 1 high school) and served as a PTA officer at Brogden Middle School for the 2 years prior to the current school year. I have also volunteered in various capacities (e.g., career day speaker, concession stand worker, theater set builder, band instrument mover). All of this has exposed me to the realities students, families, and educators face every day and in how strong systems and follow-through matter at the local level.

This has led me to closely follow the issues facing DPS (e.g., Growing Together, financial audits), to become a regular attendee at board meetings, and to engage directly with DPS educators, principals, families, and staff across District 3. Particularly in my engagement, I have focused less on quick opinions and more on understanding how board-level decisions translate into classroom realities.

My qualifications for the role on the board start with being a product of public education myself and a first-generation college graduate. I know first-hand the power of public education and the opportunities it creates. In my case, it created a path to West Point and, from there, graduate school in the United Kingdom as a Marshall Scholar.

My personal and professional experience repeatedly involved navigating through complex situations and organizations. This started during my time as an Army officer and continued in businesses large and small, including the Durham-based business I co-founded nearly 5 years ago. Across those roles, I’ve managed large budgets, led teams through uncertainty, and learned how to set priorities, measure outcomes, and course-correct when systems are not delivering. I have taught in higher education, worked alongside educators, and led large teams in environments where listening to those closest to the work was essential to success. Experiences such as these are exactly what effective school board governance requires.

I am not running to manage optics or ideology. I am running to bring steady, pragmatic leadership to our public schools for students and workers alike.

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

My goal is a Board of Education that provides clear direction, stability, and consistent accountability. Being on a school board isn’t the same as being an executive or a consultant – this is a legislative function with oversight responsibilities. The board needs basic structures like committees and documented decision-making processes to do its work well. That only works if board members are willing to work with each other, focus on shared goals, and respect the process.

I am running for an open seat, and the biggest difference I will bring is a strong focus on disciplined governance, execution, and accountability. Too often, we undermine our good intentions with unclear timelines, inconsistent oversight, or programs that do not deliver on their intended purpose. Our current board processes also do not allow for adequate collaboration with students, families, educators, and staff before plans are finalized. We need to bring those voices into the decision-making processes earlier. Finally, I would push the board to be explicit about our expectations of our superintendent – how we will measure success for his role and when we will push for changes in direction.

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 faces real funding uncertainty from the state and federal levels, but internal financial management has also been a serious challenge. The delayed 2023–24 audit made clear that many of the issues driving recent budget disruptions were within our control. While district leadership has made progress stabilizing operations, the work is not finished.

The board’s responsibility is not to manage individual line items, but to ensure that our superintendent and his staff provide transparency on process and alignment between spending and district priorities. That starts with strong financial governance: clear budget assumptions, regular monitoring throughout the year, and honest conversations about risks and tradeoffs. Routine midyear budget cuts indicate structural problems with our budget process, and our educators, staff, and students pay the price.

Budget priorities must always align with learning. That means examining central office spending relative to classroom and school-level investment, benchmarking DPS against high-performing peer districts, and correcting imbalances when they exist. Responsible stewardship is not about cutting for its own sake; it is about freeing resources to support priorities like teacher and staff pay, instructional stability, and direct classroom support.

Strong stewardship results in fewer surprises, clearer priorities, and consistent reporting so educators and families can trust this important community institution.

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?

We should evaluate the superintendent across clearly defined areas of responsibility that are informed by board priorities, expectations, and accountability metrics. A meaningful evaluation must, therefore, assess both the superintendent’s performance and the board’s role in setting the conditions for success.

At a minimum, I would expect the board to evaluate the superintendent across four core domains:

1. Academic leadership and outcomes: Are academic priorities clear, evidence-based, and supported consistently across schools? Is the district making measurable progress in reading and math, in particular? 
Current assessment: Mixed progress (shared accountability)

The board is responsible for setting clear academic priorities, aligning resources to those priorities, and monitoring progress, and the superintendent is responsible for executing a coherent academic strategy. DPS has made targeted efforts but overall student proficiency in reading and math remains unacceptably low. Improvement here requires clear expectations, sustained focus, and consistent follow-through from both the superintendent and the board. Dr. Lewis needs to be leading with site-by-site updates and showcasing district trends – both positive and negative. 

2. Operational and financial stability: Are budgets built on realistic assumptions, risks surfaced early, and financial information timely and transparent? Are systems in place to prevent recurring disruptions like midyear cuts? 
Current assessment: Improving but incredibly fragile and significant improvement needed (shared accountability)

Dr. Lewis has begun building a strong cabinet to provide operational and financial stability. Mr. Teetor (district CFO) was a great hire by Dr. Lewis, and he has already made himself indispensable. We need to see similar strength of leadership in district operations. We need confidence that another large investment in capital improvements will be accompanied by a comprehensive, sustainable plan for maintenance. We need consistent, reliable transportation and clear performance metrics to understand where we have made gains and what is still not working.

The superintendent executes these systems; the board must provide oversight of our financial and operational assumptions, identify risks early, and support Dr. Lewis when he wants to make changes to personnel or organizational structure in service of desired outcomes.

3. Organizational culture and talent stability: Is the district retaining educators and staff? What is the average tenure of our educators and staff? What professional advancement opportunities have existed? Are working conditions improving, and do employees feel supported, informed, and able to focus on teaching and learning?
Current assessment: Uneven across the district

Educator and staff retention remains a critical challenge. Dr. Lewis, thankfully, does ensure that cabinet members visit and interact with every school which is critical to understanding the ground-level realities in the district and reinforcing the fact that central office exists to serve schools, not the reverse. However, there remains a deficit of trust in senior leaders among many of our educators and staff members, and while compensation is a serious issue, working conditions, communication, and consistency also matter deeply. The superintendent plays a central role in shaping culture, but the board must ensure policies, expectations, and resource decisions support—not undermine—stability and morale.

4. Communication and trust with the community: Are families, staff, and principals receiving clear, consistent communication? 
Current assessment: Inconsistent 

Clear, timely, and predictable communication is essential, especially during moments of uncertainty or crisis. I do believe that Dr. Lewis is making progress here. He has led with a humility that has enabled him to identify where DPS has done great work and also where our district has fallen short. I appreciate and believe in Dr. Lewis’ willingness to create space for both the challenges we face and the areas of tremendous success.

There also have been moments of extreme tension, especially during Meet and Confer sessions. I believe that Dr. Lewis needs to improve the manner in which he and his cabinet members present themselves in these sessions, namely, respectfully and without any hint of defensiveness. We have also seen real challenges with school safety in the form of lockdowns and a high profile criminal case related to the mistreatment of an EC student. Dr. Lewis needs to hold DPS to high standards of transparency and partnership with other local institutions to ensure we are providing our students with a safe learning environment.

Conclusion: Overall, I would give Dr. Lewis a B, and considering the context of significant instability in which he joined, I think that says a lot. I do believe that Dr. Lewis is the Superintendent for DPS, and the board must take responsibility for ensuring that it is creating a place where he – and our students, educators, and staff, by extension – can succeed.

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?

Families want confidence in their local school system, and what gives confidence are academic quality, student safety, school climate, and strength of leadership. DPS cannot message its way out of an enrollment decline.

The only path forward is in consistently delivering high-quality academic outcomes, retaining strong educators, and communicating clearly and honestly with families about progress and challenges. When schools are stable and outcomes improve, trust follows. We should approach this issue with a sense of curiosity, rather than defensiveness. We need to connect with departing families to understand how DPS lost their trust and what would have to be true for DPS to be their place of choice for their children.

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?

Equity is not a slogan; it is a discipline. The board must ensure that instructional priorities, staffing decisions, and resource allocation are aligned appropriately and that progress is measured honestly. That includes setting clear expectations for literacy and math outcomes, monitoring data regularly and by subgroup, and asking whether initiatives are improving learning or simply adding complexity.

Strong instruction, early intervention, and sustained educator support are the foundation of closing gaps. We should highlight campuses within the district where student achievement among students of color is strong or improving. As an example of this, Burton Elementary serves predominantly students of color and saw academic growth in the 24-25 school year. We need to engage the school leadership (and, perhaps more importantly, the teachers) on this to understand what is working within Burton from instructional approaches to teacher experience to drive such success.

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?

The board must be both an advocate and a steward. Effective stewardship of our county resources is important for its own sake, but it also gives us credibility when we advocate for more resources from state (and federal and private/grant) sources. Governance choices still matter, even in resource-constrained environments. Prioritizing classroom investments, stabilizing schools, and improving working conditions for educators are actions within the board’s control.

Our advocacy efforts should start with our Durham legislative delegation to the General Assembly. We should also explore opportunities to collaborate with other districts and local governments to elevate the consequences of chronic underfunding.

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? 

The Durham Association of Educators is a critical partner, not an adversary. Meet and Confer has brought worker voice to the table in a structured way, creating space for involvement in decision-making and bringing DPS leaders across departments into the conversation. I have taken the time to observe the process in person, and it represents real forward movement compared to more fragmented or informal approaches to addressing both working conditions and students’ learning conditions.

It is part of what should be a larger system of DPS governance designed to improve trust, communication, and outcomes. Educator voice is essential, but it is not the only voice the board must consider. School board members have a responsibility to represent the full public interest. This requires regular, intentional engagement with families, students, and community members. Well-informed decisions will result from engagement at Meet and Confer meetings and also with PTAs, School Improvement Teams, student government, principals, and community partners.

Student learning should be at the heart of any board engagement or action, whether that directly involves the DAE or not. This focus should not serve as a way to sideline DAE priorities; rather, it should reinforce the shared purpose all parties have – DAE members, non-members, the Board, and central office leadership. We will build mutual trust by showing follow-through on the promises that come out of processes like Meet and Confer and by showing results in the classroom. My hope is that all parties see the work so far as foundational, not final, and continue the work to create a governance approach that centers students, respects educators, and serves the entire Durham community.

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?

The primary purpose of Durham Public Schools is to educate students and prepare them to flourish as adults. When facilities no longer directly serve that purpose, the district should consider divesting and refocusing resources where they matter most (classrooms and learning environments).

With the soon-to-be vacated Durham School of the Arts, vacant Northern High School, and other vacant and aging properties, the district should consider returning the building and land to the Durham County Board of Commissioners. Any proceeds would, by statute, be reinvested into the County and DPS capital budgets. This would reduce DPS’s maintenance burden while potentially unlocking funds to improve existing schools.

Those investments should focus on the highest-impact upgrades: replacing aging systems (HVAC, boilers, chillers) and improving building envelopes (windows, insulation). Investments like these typically represent the highest impact per dollar from both an efficiency and environmental responsibility perspective.

Beyond these immediate concerns, there are a number of opportunities I would like to explore related to facilities and environmental responsibility, including:
–> Working with County Commissioners to repurpose former school facilities for teacher and staff housing. This supports recruitment and retention while allowing DPS to stay focused on instruction.
–> Preserving land for a future high school to relieve overcrowding at Riverside and Jordan, potentially also with the benefit of lease revenue while we wait to break ground.
–> Adjusting capital planning timelines to allow DPS to make longer-term investments in green energy resources on campus. Often there are long “payback periods” for solutions like solar energy, but this could reduce the DPS carbon footprint and make our facilities more resilient. There may also be pathways to partner with Duke Energy in this effort and reduce up front or operational costs.

More broadly, these issues point to the value of DPS having a formal role in joint city-county planning, ensuring land use, transportation, and facilities decisions consistently support student safety, access, and sustainability.

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?

Durham Public Schools has a responsibility to ensure that schools are safe, inclusive, and welcoming for all students regardless of immigration status, race, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Students cannot learn if they do not feel safe showing up. At a minimum, that responsibility includes protecting student privacy, ensuring staff are properly trained, and communicating calmly and clearly with families during moments of fear or uncertainty. 

While this question focuses on how federal practices affect student attendance, it is also important to acknowledge issues we can control. During the fall semester in 2024, gaps in DPS transportation services over several weeks prevented hundreds of students from getting to school. Then, beginning in January 2025, reductions in transportation services placed additional strain on families.

When we get the policies within our control right—and execute them well—we build trust with families. That trust matters, especially when families are navigating challenges created by policies outside the district’s control.

In times of crisis, the board’s role is to speak clearly about its commitments and to provide oversight of the implementation of its policies. Thorough implementation will include clarity about roles and responsibilities across the district, check-ins with teachers and staff to ensure they understand procedures, and engagement with other local institutions to ensure that, for example, federal law and immigration enforcement officers are kept off of school grounds.

The issue of creating a welcoming environment ultimately comes down to trust – not just issuing statements. We build that trust with clear policies, consistent follow-through, and ongoing oversight so families are confident that what the board says will be reflected on campus.

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.

Like many parents, I have been reconsidering the role of technology for our children in their learning environments, particularly when it comes to the concept of remote learning. In a business context, I had experienced how beneficial it can be for companies and workers to have flexibility in their work environments. My post-Army career has been marked by distributed teams, something that became a necessity under COVID conditions.

Initially, many of us believed that we could apply a similar approach to our children’s schooling when in-person learning was disrupted. Observing how that played out at the time and how it has impacted our students’ development over the long term, I have become skeptical of the value of remote learning and the role of technology in the classroom, particularly for our youngest students.

There is power in the human connection, both between teacher and student and among students. This is critical to their understanding of the subject material and to their social and emotional development. Even now that school is largely an in-person affair again (barring winter storms, of course), we are also seeing school systems create technology-free spaces. The initial results show interesting trends – for example, greater socialization during lunch hours and greater use of library resources.

Examples like this give me a sense of humility about what lessons can and should translate between environments. They also reinforce for me the importance of listening to the experts “on the ground” who know the tradeoffs we are implicitly making with our policy decisions.

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

A leader I respect once said, “Your soldiers will forgive you for not being the leader you ought to be, but they will not forgive you for not being the leader you claim to be.” This applied to my previous professional capacity as an Army officer, but I am convinced that it is relevant for leaders in any organization. 

I am running with humility and seriousness about the role of governance. No one expects our public schools or our school board to be perfect, but our community rightly expects us to live up to the values we profess. 

My commitment is to steady leadership, honest communication, and respect for the people closest to our schools (students, families, educators, and staff). I am not running to manage optics or ideology. I am running to help DPS become a trusted institution in which our community can have pride.