http://66.225.205.104/JR20090525a.mp3
An outspoken member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education who is known for leaving meetings in a huff and taking on CMS leadership today announced he will not seek re-election. WFAE's Julie Rose has the story: When there's a colorful exchange at a CMS Board of Education meeting, chances are good that two-term board member Larry Gauvreau is involved. He ran for the school board in 2001 hoping to split the district into smaller education authorities, which he says would be better at improving student performance. That hasn't happened. So after 8 years, Gauvreau is throwing in the towel. "You could look at it that way," says Gauvreau. "I mean I've given it my best in Mecklenburg County. And sometimes you can't fight city hall. It's gonna take another decade of leaders to do that and I'm hopeful that will happen. But it certainly isn't gonna happen in the near future, so it just doesn't make sense for me to sign up for four years more on a board that I'm opposed to much of their key policy on." Gauvreau represents the 1st District on the CMS Board. Six of nine board seats are up for re-election in November. Gauvreau says he's through holding public office and will now focus on his family and his equity trading business. Until recently he was publisher of the Rhinoceros Times, a watchdog newspaper that frequently took the CMS Board of Education to task.