Durham school board hopeful Pete Crawford puts basics and community access at the center of District 3 bid

Four Durham school board seats will be on the ballot in the March 3 election, and the District 3 race features three newcomers running strong campaigns. One of them, Peter "Pete" Crawford, argues that the district's most pressing problems come down to basic competence in how it is run.

"So many of the things that we ought to be discussing when it comes to our schools over the next several years are really pre-political issues," Crawford said. He described them as questions of organizational competence and excellence, and of managing resources well. He spoke at Oak House Durham, his go-to coffee shop near his workplace.

Crawford is a Marshall Scholar and Army veteran. He co-founded Acre, a Durham-based start-up where he handles sales and operations. Acre lets tenants buy a "value share" in an Acre-owned home without mortgage or transaction costs and share in the home's appreciation. He also works part time at West Point, his alma mater, teaching economics and mentoring upperclassmen in the Dawkins Scholars Program. A product of Texas public schools, he has three children in District 3 elementary and high schools, and he has served as a PTA treasurer and soccer coach.

Student learning tops his priorities. "That is our core purpose, to educate folks," he said, naming reading and math proficiency as key measures of "student flourishing." Teacher and staff retention come next, followed by fiscal accountability, goals he sees as "mutually reinforcing."

Crawford says his experience in large institutions such as the Army and West Point has shown him how hard it is to change a complex system. He is therefore wary of detailed policy promises. "I'm holding loosely any specific policy prescription," he said, preferring "a posture of curiosity" over a ten-point plan for day one.

He wants school leaders to engage more directly with the community. In January he held several virtual, 45-minute office hours for residents. At a Jan. 11 candidate forum hosted by the NAACP, he cited a friend's view that school board meetings are "structurally designed to make people feel unheard" and proposed holding more than two meetings a month, which drew murmurs of agreement from the audience. He also wants a stronger committee structure, with separate committees for budget and operations, so members can make better-informed decisions.

Crawford sees promise in Durham Public Schools but says weak governance holds it back, and he favors "proactive" systems over "reactive management mechanisms." He pointed to the ongoing debate over possible tuition increases for district afterschool and summer programs, on which board members have been sharply divided. The budget process, he said, is so opaque that it is hard to know what is being traded off.

He has also challenged the influence of local political groups. In an INDY Week op-ed last January, he questioned the "stranglehold" that organizations such as the People's Alliance hold over school politics, noting that no school board candidate had won in the last four election cycles without the group's endorsement. The Friends of Durham PAC has endorsed Crawford. Asked whether "righteous anger," a phrase from his op-ed, drives his campaign, he smiled and shook his head, saying he meant to question the disconnect between voters' interests and political outcomes rather than attack anyone.

Crawford closed by saying he is not running "to make noise or push an agenda." He wants all children, his own included, to have schools that prepare them to flourish wherever their lives take them. "We owe them this much," he said.