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RALEIGH – After just six months on the job, Wake County Public Schools Superintendent Tony Tata is earning praise from both Republicans and Democrats. Tata was sworn in as Wake County's new Superintendent of Public Schools on Feb. 1.

At the time, the community was divided over policy changes. More than two dozen people had been arrested for protesting at school board meetings.

The Republican school board majority hired Tata to lead the school system and try to reunite the community. But Democrats were concerned he wasn't qualified for the position and would simply fall in line with the board majority.

“A lot of people were really rooting for him to fail,” said Wake County Republican Party Chair Susan Bryant, “and it was known there were people hoping he would fail so they could return to the past.”

Tata immediately reached out to the community, visiting with civic and religious groups and listening to everyone's concerns. Since then, board meetings have been mostly uneventful and one-time critics are now singing his praises.

In a letter Tuesday, Wake County Democratic Party Chair Mack Paul said, "Given the board majority's ideological expectations for Tata and the unstable situation he faced on Feb. 1, Tata deserves praise. His biggest accomplishment has been calming a community on the edge, which took several gutsy moves." (See Paul's full letter here.)

“I honestly or admittedly even had concerns myself,” said School Board Member Keith Sutton, a Democrat up for re-election. “But at this point, I am happy to say we'll be able to look back at this time and say it was the right decision and he was the right person for the right time.”

With a majority of seats on the board up for election in October, right now, Superintendent Tata is the only thing Democrats and Republicans agree on.

Tata could not be reached to comment for this story.