I noted last week that Meck Deck is prepping for the Rev. William Barber’s traveling circus —– featuring Guilford County Commissioner Carolyn Coleman —- to make its presence known in the Queen City.

As Forsyth County prepares for its first non-partisan school board race in years, the Winston-Salem Journal’s Scott Sexton warns the circus is coming to the Triad:

It started when the partisan political tags were removed from school-board races, and it came to a head when the group backing that move — Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment, or CHANGE — asked a simple question of candidates:

Are you willing to commit to a formal public exploration of alternative school assignment plans that will increase diversity and improve student achievement in partnership with interested community groups by 2011?

That question begets others: Increased diversity or forced busing? Neighborhood schools or resegregated schools? Old-school race-baiting or new-school political correctness?

…..Raleigh and Wake County are neck-deep in a similar debate that’s been raging for months. It’s coming here, too.

How we conduct ourselves will say a lot about how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go.

Meanwhile, both the High Point Enterprise and the N&R endorse incumbents Nancy Routh and Garth Hebert in the Guilford County school board race. No change there —even if Hebert carries a bigger stick, he’ll still be only one of 11 votes.