Good will and good fortune
Thursday's lead editorial.
No one saw this one coming.
Even the most passionate supporters of the $412.3 million Guilford County school construction bond package that miraculously passed Tuesday seemed tempted to pinch themselves when it was over. We won?
Voters have blessed other school bonds in recent years, but this one had so much going against it:
• teetering local and national economies;
• a fistful of other bond projects that tugged on voters’ purse strings to the potential tune of more than $671 million — and that guaranteed sizable property tax increases;
• lack of faith among some in the school system’s ability to successfully manage construction projects.
• opposition from three black school board members who say the district has not met the needs of minority contractors and black students.
• opposition as well from the George Simkins Memorial PAC, which typically wields considerable influence in black voting precincts.
• the county commissioners’ decision to split the larger package of school bonds from a $45 million bond to help rebuild Eastern Guilford High School, which was destroyed by fire in November 2006. The premise was to remove any likelihood that “sympathy votes” for the Eastern bonds would boost the other school bonds, had they been combined on the ballot.
In the end, ironically, the general school bond package performed slightly better than the Eastern bonds, garnering 54.79 percent in “yes” votes versus 53.94 percent for Eastern.
Among likely reasons for this resounding — and utterly surprising — good news is the effective sales job school bond boosters did of communicating the various projects’ wide-ranging impact throughout the county. The bonds also enjoyed solid support from the business community, which has stepped up in recent years to invest in public education as an economic engine.
A local political consultant, Bill Burckley, also cites the high female turnout, arguing that female voters are more apt to favor bonds. Heavy doses of Democratic voters and new voters energized by the Obama-Clinton race probably helped as well.
As for the impact of opposition from the Simkins PAC and the black school board members, it appears negligible at best. The school bonds passed in most predominantly black precincts, nearly 58 percent in the district of one African American school board member, Deena Hayes.
So the bonds ultimately may have benefited from a confluence of good will and good fortune.
Now district leaders can breathe a sigh of relief and get on with making the overdue construction and renovation projects as efficient and cost-effective as possible.
This is an opportunity not only to build buildings, but to build trust as well.