School Board member Matt Sears resigns, joins privately-run DPS Foundation
In an open email to friends, colleagues, neighbors, and supporters, Matt Sears shared news of his resignation just months after winning his third election.
In a late Tuesday afternoon email, Matt Sears unexpectedly announced his departure from the School Board, leaving his constituents with reflections on his last 8-plus years serving as the District 3 representative. First elected in May 2014 on the heels of the tumultuous departure of former Superintendent Eric Becoats, Mr. Sears won an open seat race after the single-term incumbent Nancy Cox chose not to run for re-election. In what amounted to a wave election that year for candidates backed by the People’s Alliance, Mr. Sears collected over 58.6% of the vote in his four-way race. It would turn out to be the closest election of his career after being re-elected in 2018 with 71.8% of the vote and winning for a third time in 2022 with over 80.3% of the vote. (Durham County is divided into four true district races for School Board which means only voters who reside in that district can select their representative, unlike the ward system for City Council races which allow all voters within the city limits to choose Council members from all three wards.)
During his tenure on the School Board, Mr. Sears was present for numerous accomplishments, challenges, and crises. Although he had been criticized lately for his lax choice of attire at Board meetings and at times seemingly ambivalent postures, earlier in his Board service Mr. Sears, from within the armor of a tailored suit, issued direct challenges to the administration of then-Superintendent Dr. Bert L’Homme. Perhaps his most striking critique came during the March 23, 2017 Monthly Meeting where Mr. Sears pointedly requested the former Superintendent to “go back and review the video” as he chastised Dr. L’Homme for underdelivering on data-centered goals expressed by the Board. Less than two weeks later, Dr. L’Homme announced his retirement. (The School Board directly hires—and fires—the Superintendent, the chief executive of the school system.) Mr. Sears, having inherited the brand new Superintendent in 2014, eagerly pursued an open selection process that brought Dr. Pascal Mubenga from Franklin County in October 2017 to serve as Durham’s Superintendent.
This marks the second School Board member to resign their post less than a year after re-election to take a position at the DPS Foundation. Xavier Cason won re-election to his seat in March 2020 and resigned before his next term officially began in July 2020. Mr. Cason currently is employed by the DPS Foundation as the Director of Community Schools and School Partnerships. Mr. Sears will be employed as the Director of Partnerships. It is unclear at this time what the distinction will be between the two roles. Mr. Sears had been working with the Duke University Talent Identification Program (TIP) since 2017. Before that, he had been employed by North Carolina New Schools, an education nonprofit that rapidly and surprisingly shuttered its operations in 2016.
Due to the breaking news element to this story, more investigation into the salaries, positions and operations of the DPS Foundation have not been completed by the time of publication. But BCPI plans a full series on the history, funding sources and political links associated with the independent and privately-run DPS Foundation.
