BY MATTHEW E. MILLIKEN

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM -- A forum about running for the school board on Monday night turned into an at times heated seminar on racial politics and the shortcomings of the current board.

The meeting began with Mike Ashe, director of the Durham elections office, describing the electoral basics. Four board seats (Districts 1A, 2A, 3B and 4B, collectively covering the entire county) are up for grabs. Residents who are registered voters and at least 21 years old may file to run in the districts in which they live; voters may only vote on candidates in their districts of residence. All balloting is in May, with run-offs in June, if necessary.

A few minutes in, Lavonia Allison, the chairwoman of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, told the group of about two dozen people that the electoral system was designed to ensure that whites hold a 4-3 school board majority.

Referring to the three board seats not up for election this year -- the countywide at-large seat and Districts A and B, where A is Districts 1A and 2A combined and B is the other two numbered districts combined -- Allison said: "At-large always is detrimental for minority individuals. ... That's a fact that everybody needs to understand."

Talk soon turned to the duties of school board members. There were plenty of experts in the room: five of the seven current members plus a past member, Jackie Wagstaff.

Minnie Forte-Brown, the board chairwoman and District A office-holder, said there are four monthly board meetings, three made up of committees of the whole. There are also ceremonies and school visits.

Member Kirsten Kainz, who is not running for re-election in 3B, said that the board's key responsibilities are crafting and evaluating policy, not advocating for individual children.

Forte-Brown and Allison, two of the pre-eminent black women in Durham politics, briefly argued about when the district first had data showing that black students were doing poorly. Kainz, who is white, backed Allison, saying it was available years ago.

"Why didn't we use it?" Kainz said. "Was it because ... we were willfully racist, or were we just structurally racist? Did we not have policies in place that could cut through the inertia of large systems, the tedium and red tape of bureaucracies, and provide better opportunities and outcomes for students? We didn't have the policies."

Donald Hughes, who intends to run against incumbent Omega Curtis Parker in District 1A, also said the board had failed to generate public support for policies. He also criticized the board for not responding to comments or questions voiced by the public at board meetings.

Forte-Brown said the board had limited the time for public comments, and its response to them, to preserve decorum. Hughes -- whose mother, Wagstaff, lost a 2006 board race after a series of confrontational meetings -- said the changes had disenfranchised the public.

The meeting featured a debate on whether the board's constituent services process, which allows parents and others to funnel complaints through school board members and get response from administrators, adequately engages the public. It ended with a loud dispute between Allison and an audience member on what the election of President Barack Obama meant in terms of racial progress.