Nadeen Bir is most known for where she is every Wednesday from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m.: the northeast corner of Broad and Main streets, where she takes part in an “energetic vigil for the liberation of Palestine.”
Bir, a co-founder of Mothers* for Ceasefire, is running for District 2 of the Durham school board, along with incumbent Bettina Umstead and Rachel Waltz.
She helped create the Mothers* for Ceasefire group to “witness the brutal killing of Palestinian civilians who are overwhelmingly women and children.” (The group uses the term “mothers” broadly to include caregivers of all sorts, its website explains.)
One of her campaign managers, Ruby Sinreich, said that through the group, Bir has “built a powerful community that continues to advocate for human rights and justice.”
“It’s just one of many times she has stepped up to defend and advocate for others, which is the same thing she would do on the school board,” Sinreich added.
Bir also currently serves as co-executive director of Press On South, a nonprofit “southern collective for movement journalism.”
Bir believes her nonprofit experience will help her tackle Durham Public Schools’ human resources issues and budget problems that she calls “severe.”
“Two years ago, people were promised raises, and within the month, the district realized they didn’t actually have money for the raises,” she said. “That’s not a normal financial mistake.”
When asked about her qualifications to serve on the school board, Bir quickly mentions her family. She has one child at Watts Elementary School, and one at Durham School of the Arts. Her husband teaches at Lakeview Secondary School, an alternative school.
“My family’s life is deeply intertwined with the success of Durham Public Schools,” she said.
“I have a front row seat to DPS’s direct impact on children and educators.”
A first-generation college graduate
Bir, who grew up in South Carolina, has lived in Durham since 2003. Her parents immigrated to the United States from Palestine in the 1980s, escaping poverty and war. She credits public education for the success she has been able to achieve.
“Because our community invested in public schools, every one of us went further than the generation before and I became the first person in my family to earn a bachelor’s degree,” she said.
Bir said she was startled by local responses when federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents staged raids in Durham in the fall.
“It did not feel like the district had anything in place,” she said. “There should be district-wide training for all the staff and the principal so they know, just basically, what to do if ICE is spotted around the schools.”
“That stood out to me as a big deal,” she said.
During the raids, Bir, who is fluent in Spanish, helped walk kids to school, drop off groceries, and support families with other resources through Public Schools Strong.
‘We need a change’
Now it’s time for a shake-up on the school board, she said.
“The same problems keep coming up. New problems keep coming up. So we need a change. We need different people who will have fresh eyes, new eyes,” she said.
“As a leader and as an organizer, I ask hard questions, listen to my community, and make brave decisions.”
To Bir, the school system’s three top challenges are student safety, wellbeing, and success; budget transparency and input process; and supporting workers’ rights and living wages.
“I’m learning a lot from the teacher union as well about the things that they want, and the things that they want are just so basic,” she said. “They want a living wage. They want a grievance policy. They want bi-weekly pay.”
Although this is Bir’s first run for public office, she is part of a slate endorsed by the Durham Association of Educators, which represents teacher and school system workers. She has also been endorsed by Durham for All and the People’s Alliance.
“I think they’re sending out like, 70,000 pieces of mail or something,” Bir said of the People’s Alliance endorsement. “So it is a huge benefit to our campaign, my campaign, to be endorsed by them.”
While she’s new to politics, Bir is not new to Durham.
“Every interview I went to for these endorsements, I was like, ‘Wow, these people all look familiar,'” she said. “It’d be like, ‘Oh, I know this person from the YMCA,’ because I’ve used to go to the YMCA all the time.”
Bir’s other campaign manager, Brigid Flaherty, has known Bir for almost 20 years.
“I couldn’t be more proud to stand up here for Nadine because of how I know her,” Flaherty said. “So who she is, she’s an immigrant. She’s a first-generation college graduate. She’s a mother to two DPS students at the same school that my kids go to.”
Bir did not receive the endorsement from the influential Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, which endorsed Umstead.
Bir said that while she is proud of the endorsements she received, if elected, she will serve all of Durham.
“Even though I didn’t get the committee’s endorsement, I’ll still be accountable to what the community needs,” she said. “The majority of our students are Black, brown and mixed race. I have to be accountable not to the PACs, but I have to be accountable to the Black community and to the Latinx community, and obviously, to all students.”
Bir hopes to help usher in change at Durham Public Schools.
“I’m running because we can do better—and because our children can’t wait.”
Above: Photo of Nadeen Bir courtesy Durham County Board of Elections
fiona shuldiner
