Flanked by two of his new fellow school board members, John Tedesco celebrated winning the District 2 seat on the Wake County Board of Education, calling the 3 to 1 margin of victory a "clear mandate" for change.

"This sends a clear message that the parents and the taxpayers in Wake County can take back their schools," said Tedesco. "And now they have a team that's going to go there and fight for them."

A runoff for the District 2 seat gave Tedesco an extra month to rally his supporters to the polls. And they came.

"My wife and I unfortunately don't have any kids yet, but I do teach for Wake County and I think that's the direction that I'd like to go in is Mr. Tedesco," said voter Brian Reeve.

Despite her failed attempt to withdraw from the runoff, Truitt received more than two thousand votes. After congratulating Tedesco on his victory, she reflected on the campaign.

"I am here to celebrate the close of this election and the fact that many voters have been heard," she said. "To celebrate that we've given ourselves this extra month to look more closely at the issues."

While many issues were discussed in the campaign, ranging from 21st century schools to teacher retention, the overwhelming issue was the school system's method of maintaining diversity. The NAACP held two "Get Out The Vote" rallies over the weekend where leaders spoke out against the push for neighborhood schools.

Ronald White, president of the South Central Wake NAACP, said he welcomes Tedesco to the school board, but warned that the board's actions will be getting close scrutiny.

"We want everybody to know that we're going to monitor the school board, regardless," said White. "It is 1960 no more. We're not going to do re-segregation and end of busing."

Tedesco called fears of re-segregational a "generational" issue, saying that minority parents he has met are less worried about segregation than about being involved in their children's schools.

"How we build to our neighborhood schools model,we're going to move as fast as we can but we want to be diligent and do it smart," he said. "In a way that protects the integrity of our system while being sure that we do not lose any of our children in the process."

Tedesco noted that turnout for the election was more than double the turnout for the 2005 school board election, when Horace Tart was chosen to represent District 2.