Name as it appears on the ballot: Lynn Edmonds

Age: 53

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website:   lynnforwake.com

Occupation & employer:  Outreach Director, Public Schools First NC

Years lived in the area:   30

  1. What are the three main issues that you believe the Wake County Public Schools Board of Education needs to address in the upcoming years?

Safety & security, facilities needs, and funding. All of these areas support academic success, and student well being which is our core business and a constant focus for our board.

2. Employee pay across the system has been a consistent concern, and while the board was able to raise wages for many workers this year, underfunding at the state level will likely persist. How can WCPSS remain competitive in terms of compensation, and how can the school system support its lowest paid workers who make less than $40,000/year on a 10-month pay schedule? 

It is extremely hard to remain competitive with regard to compensation whether it’s teacher pay, bus driver pay, or hourly worker pay. However, we have made some gains with regard to pay at all of those levels: with the support of our county commissioners we re-instated master’s pay for qualifying educators. We raised bus driver pay to $20/hr and also offer hiring and retention bonuses for drivers. Beyond pay, the biggest thing we can do is ensure WCPSS is a great place to work and ensure all of our employees feel valued. We do that through our policy work and in partnership with our superintendent who is in community and conversation with staff at all levels.

3. Do you support the Biden administration’s new federal Title IX rules that ban discrimination based on gender identity and expand protections for LGBTQ students? Please explain your position. 

Yes. We are a public school district and are open to all children regardless of how they show up to us. Every child and staff member deserves to feel safe and welcome in our schools, and that includes members of the LGBTQ+ community.

4. Do you support North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarships (otherwise known as vouchers for private schools)? Why or why not? How do you think they impact public schools?

Absolutely not. I believe public dollars should be used for the public, common good and that includes public schools. NC’s voucher spending is outrageous! With the passage of HB-10, NC taxpayers will spend nearly $1 BILLION per year on vouchers within ten years. Our public schools educate the majority of school-aged children and that is where state funding should be prioritized. School districts, including WCPSS, will have to ask more and more from local taxpayers in the absence of adequate state funding. That’s not how our system is set up; it is the legislature’s responsibility to fully fund our public schools.

5. WCPSS administrators just released the first draft of a new school reassignment plan for the 2025-26 school year that will populate four new schools in southern and southwestern Wake County. Do you support the draft plan? What, if anything, needs to change in the plan?

Generally, I support the first draft of the plan but we have not completed our process of collecting feedback from the community. I will consider that feedback before voting on the final version in November. Reassignment is always a challenge but a necessary tool in a growing community. When taxpayers fund new school buildings, it is our obligation to fill those schools and relieve over-crowding in other schools. This process also helps our proficiency which supports our commitment to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

6)  What is the role of School Resource Officers (SROs) in schools?

SROs are one safety and security tool for our schools. However, we must recognize SROs make some students feel less safe. I worked to ensure our most recent SRO Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) included required training in restorative justice practices, culturally responsiveness training, and de-escalation training. I have and will continue to work with community partners such as the Education Justice Alliance when making decisions concerning our SRO program.

7) The ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ law seeks to give parents more control over their children’s education. How should WCPSS balance compliance with the law with students’ rights to privacy and teachers’ ability to provide a sound basic education?

I am opposed to the Parent’s Bill of Rights. Much of what is in SB-49 was already state or federal law. However, as a school board member, I took an oath to follow state and federal laws whether I like them or not. We worked with our legal team to update our policies related to SB-49 while aiming to respect our educators and school librarians as the professionals they are, and protect students’ freedom to read and learn.

8) How should WCPSS deal with efforts to ban books in schools?

In response to SB-49, we strengthened our policies concerning book/materials selection and book/materials challenges. For example, we now have a multi-layered process for book challenges; challenges that can only be brought by a parent with a child at the particular school where the book or material is challenged. We must also respond by lifting up the professionalism of educators and school librarians. They are trained in child development, education, and pedagogy and we need to trust them to do what they are trained to do for our students.

9) Recently, Durham Public Schools implemented a Universal Free Lunch program that provides nutritious free breakfasts and lunches to all of the system’s students. The Wake County school board, on the other hand, voted to charge more for meals this academic year. Was this the right move? Should WCPSS follow DPS’s lead and find a way to provide free meals to the district’s students?

Yes, while this was not at all what we wanted to do, it was necessary. WCPSS does not have access to the same level of funding for school meals (at the federal level) as DPS because we have less students that qualify for free or reduced-priced meals. We chose to prioritize staff compensation and more mental health professional positions in our budget ask of county commissioners verses universal meals. We have worked with our CNS staff and the community to fund a districtwide “Angel Fund” to help cover the costs of school meals in schools that don’t have as many high-wealth families to support such efforts. It is my belief that the child nutrition program needs to be overhauled at the federal level. It should NOT operate as an enterprise system. I support universal school meals for all children regardless of need. Universal meals for all NC children would be a much better use of tax dollars than private school vouchers!

10) Research has shown an achievement gap for Wake County Schools students based on race and socioeconomic status. What specific policies would you support or what actions would you take to help close the gap so that race and socioeconomic status don’t persist as predictive factors?  

The data we are seeing as a result of our 2023 Strategic Plan is getting results. If we continue to focus on equity as a key element to student achievement, we will close these gaps. We are also seeing tremendous results from our tutoring program known as Wake Together (using the HELPS curriculum). Because of this, we are expanding the HELPS model into more schools.