Thanks David.

David Turbeville has been concerned about the school board for quite some time, and he and I have had long discussions about the board and its actions over the past months. David would be an outstanding school board member. This selfless act - of refraining from running for a seat on the board at this time - speaks to his selflessness and heroism. The following is his letter to the Editor that was printed in the Morganton News Herald Tuesday, July 21, 2009:

I have been asked by numerous people why I am not running for the school board. While I know I would have done a good job in representing the families and children of the Western District, there are two people who are running in the Western District who are much, much more qualified than me and any other candidate running in the Western District. These two people are Ms. Catherine Thomas, who is running to fill Tracy Norman's seat and Ms. Susan Stroup , who is running to fill David Barnard/John Aulgur's seat.

Ms. Thomas is a lawyer who can easily understand the educational laws. She will not need to depend on the “special” counsel that the school board needs to have now. Ms. Thomas has been actively following the actions of the school board. She still has children in the school system, so she will always have the best interest of our children at heart.

Ms. Stroup is a retired principal from our school system. She understands the in’s and out’s of the schools, the needs of the teachers and students and the importance of having a good school board. She will listen to the people she represents.

Both Ms. Stroup and Ms. Thomas have great communication skills. They will both answer phone calls and e-mails. They will not ignore them as the present school board does. Both will not be intimidated by telling us the truth about issues or by other board members. Ms. Thomas and Ms. Stroup will be open, honest, intelligent and caring representatives for the Western District.

I encourage anyone who would have voted for me to vote for Ms. Stroup and Ms. Thomas in the Western District as well as Mr. Sam Wilkinson in the Eastern District and Buddy Armour in the Central District. We can’t allow the board to continue on the destructive path they are on and by electing Ms. Thomas, Ms. Stroup, Mr. Wilkinson, and Mr. Armour, we will be able to correct many of the mistakes of the current school board majority. By electing these four individuals, then and only then, will the “public” be placed back into “public” schools.