“A deeply personal stake:” A Q&A With Christina Gordon, Wake County’s Newest School Board Member

View This Email In Your Browser

Good morning, readers.

Like school districts across the country. Wake County Public Schools, North Carolina’s largest, is bracing for the impacts of what Trump administration policies could bring. 

Wake County Public Schools received $217 million in federal funds last year, money that pays for a number of initiatives including Title I for high-poverty students and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

“Eliminating or severely cutting these programs doesn’t center the needs of students at all,” says Christina Gordon, a professional learning specialist with the North Carolina Association of Educators who the Wake County school board selected last month to fill Monika Johnson-Hostler’s District 2 seat after Johnson-Hostler began her first term in the state House of Representatives. Gordon says it’s hard to predict exactly what’s coming.

But Gordon, who was inspired to teach by her grandmother Annie King-Street, a longtime leader in Wake Schools, says there are reasons to be hopeful. Those reasons include the county board of commissioners’ commitment to filling the education funding gap and the election of state superintendent Mo Green, who promises to ensure that “the democracy of public education” is protected, in Gordon’s words. 

We spoke with Wake County’s newest school board member about her work with the NCAE, supporting educators’ mental health, and the personal stakes she feels in the decision-making that impacts local schools. Read the interview here.

And while you’re visiting our site, Best of the Triangle voting for Wake County is officially open. The Triangle’s most anticipated reader poll is back, and we’re rolling out categories for one county at a time, with Wake up first. Have your say and nominate your favorite businesses, places, and people.

 —Jane

---

Durham

A group of African American undergraduate students known as “the first five” enrolled at Duke when the university had no Black faculty, administrators or trustees. The Duke Chronicle reports how they influenced the institution.

Wake

A long-standing LGBTQ-owned gift shop in Raleigh is closing its brick-and-mortar location, WRAL reports.

Orange

The town of Chapel Hill is launching a $20 million loan fund to help finance preservation and creation of affordable housing, according to WCHL.

North Carolina

North Carolina will be the first and only state where elections oversight is within the state auditor’s office. The Assembly reports how North Carolina ended up with a Trump-backed voting chief.

---

If you’d like to advertise your business to the Daily’s 30,000-plus subscribers, please contact [email protected]

---