Dissatisfaction Drives Proposal for County-Wide Wake School Board Seats

RALEIGH, N.C. — One bit of political fallout from the ongoing dispute over year-round schools in Wake County and frequent reassignments is legislation that would make all nine school board members compete district-wide.

Some critics wanted to vote school board members out of office, but realized they could only vote for the one seat in the district that covered where they lived.

After hearing complaints, local Republican lawmakers filed legislation Wednesday that would make the Wake County school board at-large, like county commissioners.

“We have a county-wide school system. A lot of people say, ‘Why don't we have a county-wide school board? I can vote for one-ninth of the members and yet the other eight can have a direct effect on my child's education,’” state Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake County, said.

School board vice-chair Rosa Gill told WRAL that the proposal is driven by special interests who want to control the board and that running county-wide would cost candidates more time and money.

She doesn't think the current system is broken and doesn’t need fixing, she said.