The newly elected Deon Temne wants to bring a diverse perspective to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board Of Education.
Temne said he prides himself on putting others first and wants to bring that energy to his position on the board. When the results of the election came in, he had more important things to pay attention to.
“I was actually cooking dinner for my kids,” Temne said.
Deon’s background in volunteering displays a long-standing commitment to serving those who need help most. He serves as a mentor for the National Urban League, an organization that is committed to eliminating racial segregation and discrimination and helping African Americans participate in all aspects of life.
“A victory for me is if we can actually get the masses to understand that our curriculum is doing the most injustice to our minority students,” Temne said. “And also understand that we create all these segmented groups of kids and honestly the bar should be set at a certain level for all students and start teaching to that level for all students.”
Temne places a high level of urgency around supporting all students equally. He said he thinks that we may not be approaching education in the most effective way right now.
“What we do is create this segregation of, this little group is more special than that little group which is more special than that group,” Temne said. “If we have one set curriculum for everyone, we’ll pull up all the children to the higher level for the whole district.”
The Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis found the second-largest racial achievement gap in the United States belongs to the Chapel-Hill Carrboro school district, out of the cities studied.
