Wake County School Board member John Tedesco resigned from his job as the chief fundraiser at a Raleigh nonprofit Friday amid rumors that political pressure was responsible for his departure.

Elected in November as the crucial fifth vote of a conservative school board majority, Tedesco has emerged as a top spokesman for a switch to neighborhood schools. That’s also made him a lightning rod for attacks from those who support the school system’s current policy of busing students for socioeconomic diversity.

“I am departing my role with Big Brothers Big Sisters to commit full time over the next few months to my role as a member of the Wake County Board of Education,” Tedesco said in a statement released just before 6 p.m.

“Being elected by an overwhelming number of those who voted in my community remains both an honor and a responsibility,” Tedesco said. “I believe in times of challenge, leaders need to make sacrifices to serve a greater public good. As we launch this new course over the coming months, I am committing to working beyond full time in the efforts to bridge those gaps on our path to ‘great.’”

In March, the News & Observer of Raleigh reported that diversity busing supporters were gunning for Tedesco’s job at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle — a nonprofit that pairs at-risk youth with older mentors — on the basis that his views as a school board member were at odds with the group’s mission to help poor children.

The newspaper also reported that opponents of the school board majority had questioned the nonprofit’s diversity in light of Tedesco’s position there.

Reached by telephone late Thursday, one of Big Brothers Big Sisters’ board members declined to confirm or deny whether donors or advocacy groups had pressured the organization to oust Tedesco.

“I wouldn’t express an opinion one way or the other,” said Bill Fletcher, a Cary realtor and Republican candidate for superintendent of public instruction in 2004.

“We don’t have public board meetings. We don’t have an open meetings law. So I won’t offer any comment on that,” he said. “How a board interacts with its employees is not public information, even if one of the employees happens to be a public figure.”

Fletcher also wouldn’t say whether he supported or opposed Tedesco’s employment at the nonprofit, but he praised Tedesco for doing “a fantastic job” raising money there.

Attempts to reach the board of director’s president, Jeff Benson, failed Thursday.

In an interview last week, Tedesco declined to say whether he was leaving on his own or being forced out.

“They’re not giving me any kind of pressure,” he said. “This is a wonderful organization and I hope people continue to donate, regardless of what they think of me.”

But in an interview with the N&O in early March, Tedesco acknowledged that opponents of the school board majority were pressuring his employer.

“If they can’t get at me but go after my job, I have no fear of walking away from my job and sleeping in my car to help the kids they’re abandoning,” he said.

School board chairman Ron Margiotta, a fellow conservative, said he was “very disappointed” in the development.

“[Tedesco] is an extremely sincere, wonderful person,” Margiotta said. “He loves the kids, loves the job, but just doesn’t want to attack [Big Brothers Big Sisters] in any way.”

Tedesco’s exit underscores the tense political atmosphere in Wake County over the busing issue. Three protesters with a history of left-wing activism were arrested at a school board meeting March 23. At the same meeting, a high school student plastered Tedesco’s Kia SUV with fliers. The car was also dented and scratched, Tedesco said.

Opponents charge that a switch to neighborhood-based schools would result in racial re-segregation, while supporters say it would expand parental choice without hurting diversity.

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.