WakeEd Partnership

06/04/2026

Please join us in welcoming seven new members to the WakeEd Partnership Board of Directors!

✅ Patricia Bartis | Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP
✅ Ashley Lewis Ingram | JLL
✅ Keir Jenkins | John Deere
✅ Jodi Lewis | Cherry Bekaert
✅ Pierre Marcella | WingSwept
✅ Terry Parker | Bank of America
✅ Daniel Talley | TowneBank

We're also pleased to announce the re-election of Braxton Anthony, Rich Commercial Realty as Board Chair and the election of Shannon McSwiney Delta Dental of North Carolina as Chair-Elect.

A special thank you to our outgoing Board members for their years of service, leadership, and commitment to WakeEd's mission. We are grateful for all they have done to support educators, students, and schools across Wake County.

Strong Public Schools. Stronger Wake County.

Full news release: https://wakeed.org/2026/06/04/wakeed-partnership-elects-seven-new-board-members-re-elects-braxton-anthony-as-board-chair/

06/03/2026

🎉 Congratulations to our 2026 Coach Bob Pittard Scholars!

WakeEd Partnership has awarded $350,000 in scholarships this year to 28 outstanding student-athletes from Apex High School and Green Hope High School n the Wake County Public School System.

This year's awards are especially meaningful as we launch our new four-year scholarship commitment, providing eligible recipients with support throughout their college careers.

We are proud to welcome four new Pittard Scholars:
🎓 Sarah George
🎓 Brianna Stewart
🎓 Malak Makhlof
🎓 Stuart Piqueras

Since 2018, the Pittard Scholarship Fund has awarded $1.67 million to help students pursue their dreams through higher education.

Congratulations to all of our scholars and their families!

Full press release here: https://wakeed.org/2026/06/03/wake-ed-partnership-awards-350000-in-scholarships-in-first-year-of-expanded-pittard-four-year-commitment/

06/02/2026

We're cheering on the Carolina Hurricanes just like they cheer on Wake County Public School System students all year long. As the Canes compete in the Stanley Cup Finals, the entire WakeEd Partnership team is proud to root for our hometown team and celebrate the positive impact they make throughout our community.

Good luck, Canes! Wake County is behind you. ❤️🖤🏒

05/29/2026

One of the nation’s largest school systems was born nearly 50 years ago in an act that continues to shape the future of Raleigh and the Triangle. On July 1, 1976, Raleigh City Schools and the former Wake County school system faded into the history books. What replaced them is the unified Wake County Public School System that 50 years later is the biggest school system in North Carolina and the 14th largest nationally.

"To be able to integrate the school system — and to do so without tearing the community apart — took a lot of leadership, took a lot of vision,” said Keith Poston, president of the WakeEd Partnership, a business-backed school advocacy group, in an interview. “Wake County has grown and Wake County Schools have grown, and I don’t think those are separate.”

Read more at:

The 1976 merger created what is now North Carolina’s largest school system and one of the biggest districts in the nation.

05/28/2026

In 1982, Wake began the program — which still exists today — of a network of magnet schools with unique academic offerings to attract families to campuses that might otherwise be empty or almost exclusively minority. There are now over 50 magnet schools offering more than 30 different themes, such as world language, technology, arts and engineering.

“The merger created the system, the magnets made it work,” said Keith Poston, president of the WakeEd Partnership, in an interview with The News & Observer. “It created a unified county — not a unified school system but a county — that was committed to strong public schools.”

The WakeEd Partnership was formed by the business community in 1983 to help support the school district, including the newly formed magnet schools.

Read more at:

Wake says its size allows it to pool resources to offer a network of more than 50 magnet schools across the county.

05/26/2026

We’re growing at WakeEd Partnership — and we need your help spreading the word!

We’ve posted three new opportunities for people who want to make a difference for Wake County Public Schools students and educators:

📘 Programs Manager (Part-Time) – Help lead key WakeEd programs including Partners Read and the Pittard Scholarship Program.

💙 Fund Development Intern (Paid) – A great opportunity for a college student interested in nonprofit fundraising, communications, and community impact.

📦 Tools4Schools Volunteer Operations Lead – A new leadership volunteer role helping support our free teacher resource program serving Wake County teachers.

Know someone who would be a great fit? Please tag them, share this post, or send them our way.

View all openings and application details here: https://wakeed.org/jobs-and-internships/

Strong public schools. Stronger Wake County.

05/26/2026

Proud to see WakeEd Partnership’s Tools4Schools highlighted in Biogens new Corporate Responsibility Report. We’re grateful for Biogen’s partnership and their employees’ hands-on support helping assemble supply kits for Wake County Public School System teachers. Strong partnerships like this make a real difference for educators and students across our community. 👏🍎
Check out their full; report here (we're on page 31!): https://www.biogen.com/responsibility/reporting-and-principles/esg-report.html

In our Corporate Responsibility Report, gain insights into our sustainable practices, community engagement and corporate governance strategies. Discover our efforts towards access and health equity, social responsibility and ethical governance, as we strive for long-term value creation and positive....

05/21/2026

Some of the most important school-year stats aren’t test scores.

They’re the ones that tell the story of confidence, consistency, literacy growth, and relationships.

Our Partners Read program supports four key components of the Science of Reading:
✔ Fluency
✔ Vocabulary
✔ Comprehension
✔ Language Development

And it does it with something equally powerful: community volunteers who show up in Wake County Public School System schools each week.



Want to learn more? https://wakeed.org/partnersread/