Cary Dist. 26 challenger says board not doing its job

The lone challenger in the race for Cary Elementary District 26 says the school board has not adequately handled the district’s finances, leading many constituents to view the board as a failure.

Joe Alfe, a professional negotiator, said he is unhappy with the leadership of the board, a sentiment he said he heard repeatedly from voters.

Alfe is facing incumbents Jason Larry, board vice president, Kevin Carrick and Scott Coffey for a 4-year term. There are three seats available.

“Part of the process for getting on the ballot was collecting a minimum of 50 signatures,” Alfe said during a recent interview with the Daily Herald’s editorial board. “... Not one person was satisfied with the way things are headed. Not one.”

Alfe said much of the frustration stems from the district’s plan to trim $3.2 million from the 2011-2012 budget, of which, $2.5 million depends on wage and benefit concessions from the teachers union.

“There is no concrete or set plan on how to achieve those goals,” Alfe said.

But Carrick and Larry said the sweeping generalization was misguided. The pair said a group of dissatisfied residents does not represent the community as a whole.

“There are certainly small segments of the community that are not happy with what the board is doing and there are individuals that are not happy with what the board has done,” Carrick said. “But on a daily basis there have been community members who continue to stand up and thank the board for what they have been doing and the direction they have been going ... To make a broad generalized statement that the community as a whole thinks the board is failure ... I think that’s a little disingenuous.”

Larry, who was appointed to the board in 2009, said residents are starting to see some stability on the board after years of jostling.

“The board passed a balanced budget for the first time in nine years,” Larry said. “The act alone of closing a school, laying off 30 percent of the staff and deciding to change the delivery model — those are acts of the board that have been consistent with what we said we would do and have done.”

Coffey did not participate in the candidate interview.