Natalie Beyer did not seek reelection this March and will leave the Durham school board in July after four terms spanning 16 years. She is a mother of three Durham Public Schools graduates.
"16 years is a long time, and it's time for folks with new energy, new ideas, new enthusiasm and just a fresh perspective," she said. "When I started, my youngest was 10. She's now 26, she's in a PhD program."
Beyer pointed to equity work as her primary source of pride: hiring educators who reflect the student body's diversity, opening a Multilingual Resource Center for families and immigrants, adopting a Black and brown Student Achievement Plan in policy, and building what she described as the most progressive LGBTQIA policy in the state. The district also shifted school start times to align with research on adolescent sleep and expanded free breakfast and lunch to every student.
She named the pandemic as the most punishing stretch of her tenure. Durham opened learning centers for children of essential workers when schools closed, and the district pushed to have teachers classified as essential personnel so they could receive early vaccine access. "In hindsight, schools probably could have reopened earlier," she said, "but who knew we were going to have a vaccine as quickly as we did?"
A classified staff pay debacle also weighed on her. "It came about from us trying to continue to pay folks more and trusting the work the staff did," she said. "It's incredibly hard to lead through and hard to repair trust when trust is broken."
Beyer described the board's position at the Fuller Building as humbling and often heartbreaking. Families, teachers, and students bring real needs to the dais, she said, but the board holds no taxing authority and Republicans in the General Assembly constrain what the district can do.
Four new board members swept the March election and are expected to take their seats when Beyer steps down in July.