Democrats maintain control over Wake school board

The Wake County Board of Education will remain in control of Democrats following an election Tuesday that welcomed five newcomers. The board will continue to include seven Democrats and two Republicans. The board is expected to tackle issues including learning loss, employee recruitment and retention, math curriculum and equity measures, among many other things.

The new board, which will be seated in December, was sculpted from what amounted to the most candidates in at least 30 years. Most current school board members didn’t seek reelection—a sign of board member fatigue and increased interest among newcomers to take a seat at the table.

No matter what happened Tuesday, the next school board was set to feature mostly people who haven’t served on a school board before and whose ideas and priorities could differ from the current board’s.

Some observers thought Republicans could take more seats or even capture a majority of the board seats, but that didn’t happen Tuesday night.

While school board races are officially nonpartisan, it’s often clear where candidates’ persuasions lie. The new board makeup is only slightly different from the current board, which is made up of seven registered Democrats, one registered Republican and one unaffiliated candidate who has taken only Republican ballots in primary elections, records show.

The new members include public school parents, including a candidate who works at a nonprofit focused on public schools. Big money propelled many candidates, including some who raised as much as $68,000 — once unheard of for a school board election.

District-by-district breakdown

District 1. Cheryl Caulfield will serve on the board for four years, representing East Raleigh and parts beyond, including Wendell, Rolesville, Zebulon and parts of Wake Forest.

Cheryl Caulfield, a property manager with two sons in Wake schools who was endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party, pulled in 58.3% of the vote with 17 of 19 precincts reporting. Caulfield opposed increasing funding for schools.

She defeated Ben Clapsaddle, 63, the father of Wake schools graduates, who pulled in 40.9% of the vote. Clapsaddle was endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party. Clapsaddle called for more investment, particularly from the state, for more resources, pay and employees.

Incumbent Heather Scott, a Democratic, did not run for reelection.

District 2. Monika Johnson-Hostler will serve on the board for four years, representing some of the southernmost parts of Wake County, including parts of Garner and Fuquay-Varina and unincorporated parts of the county.

With all 20 precincts and early votes reporting, Johnson-Hostler captured 45.1% of the vote over Monica Ruiz’s 43.6% and Dorian Hamilton’s 10.6%.

Johnson-Hostler campaigned for more school staffing, teacher training and work on academic and discipline guidance for schools. Johnson-Hostler, 47, is the incumbent board member and has served since 2013. Johnson-Hostler runs a nonprofit organization that seeks to prevent sexual assault. She has a daughter in the Wake County Public School System, and her husband teaches in the school system. Johnson-Hostler was endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.

Ruiz, the runner-up, was endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party.

District 3. Wing Ng will serve on the board for two years, representing the northernmost parts of Wake County, including parts of Raleigh and Wake Forest and unincorporated areas.

With all precincts and early votes reporting, Ng captured 49.5% of the vote, compared to 41.3% for Doug Hammack and 8.7% for Brooks Lowe.

Ng, 54, is a physician and father of two daughters, one who has Down Syndrome and is homeschooled and one who is in the Wake County Public School System. Ng is endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party.

Ng supports physical textbooks, after-school tutoring to reverse learning loss, a return of older versions of curriculum and boost in funding for special education without boosting overall education funding. He says students shouldn’t be moved up to the next grade level if they aren’t academically proficient.

Ng said he would “fight to bring civics, U.S. and world history back to the classrooms, void of political agenda.”

Hammack, 64, a pastor and father of three Wake County Public School System graduates and four grandchildren, including two who are in the school system, was endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.

District 4. Tara Waters will serve two years on the board for two years, representing East Raleigh parts of Knightdale.

Waters, 44, is the district’s sitting board member after being appointed to fill the seat of Keith Sutton, who left the board to become Warren County Schools superintendent. She earned 63.3% of the vote with all 21 precincts and early votes reporting. Waters, a volunteer coordinator and mother of two children in the school system, was endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party. She favors more community engagement, more tutoring and more school staffing. Waters also wants to advocate for the General Assembly to fund the comprehensive remedial plan approved in the long running education adequacy lawsuit known as Leandro.

She beat several candidates, including runner up Becky Lew-Hobbs, 52, who earned 21.2% of the vote. Lew-Hobbs, who was endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party, wanted more parent involvement opportunities across the school system, physical textbooks, reduced teacher workloads and less rigid curriculum. She did not argue for more school funding and questioned how the district spends its money on a granular level.

Michael T. Williams received 9.8% of the vote, and Daniel Grant-King received 5%.

District 5. Lynn Edmonds will serve two years on the board, serving southwestern Raleigh, part of Apex and Holly Springs and some unincorporated areas of Wake County. She will fill the seat of Jim Martin, a Democrat who has held the office since 2011. Martin decided not to run for reelection.

Edmonds, 51, who works for a nonprofit that advocates for public schools and raised two graduates of wake schools, brought in 53.4% of the vote with all precincts reporting. Edmonds, who was endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party, supports increased teacher pay, equity initiatives and increased school safety measures. She wants LGBTQ+ staff and students to feel welcome and opposes attempts to ban books from school libraries that target books that explore LGBTQ+ identities and experiences.

The runner up, Jackie Boegel, brought in 29.4% of the vote. Boegel, a music teacher whose son graduated from Wake schools, was endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party. She campaigned on better math curriculum and to keep books with sexual content out of school libraries. Boegel wanted fewer administrators in the school system and more instructional assistants.

District 6. Sam Hershey will serve two years on the board, serving central Raleigh and parts of the city that lie north of Interstate 440. The seat, which hasn’t been challenged in more than 10 years, featured five candidates. Incumbent Democrat Christine Kushner opted not to run for reelection.

Hershey, 45, who has a son in the school district and is a startup co-founder, pulled in 48.5% of the vote with all precincts reporting. Hershey was endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party. He wants the school district to have more teachers and instructional assistants and considered reversing the effects of pandemic-caused learning loss to be a top priority.

He beat out several candidates, including runner-up Chad Stall, 43, who earned 16.8% of the vote. Stall, who had been endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party, wanted to increase the school system’s workforce education across all high schools, change budget priorities to more classroom staff and supplies and potentially freeze administrative salaries or hiring to pay for that.

Patrice Nealon, a marketing instructor who was endorsed by the NC Values Coalition, won 16.4% of the vote.

District 7. Chris Heagarty will serve four years on the board, representing parts of North Raleigh and Morrisville.

Heagarty, who works for a foundation and has two children in the school system, won 52.6% of the vote with 20 of 21 precincts reporting. He was endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.

He beat out Jacob Arthur, 44, who received 26% of the vote, and Katie Long, 47, who received 20.8% of the vote.

Heagarty, 52, favors high-dosage tutoring to help students make up for pandemic learning loss, like the new Wake Together program targeting younger students.

Arthur, a civil attorney, was endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party and the NC Values Coalition. Long, a marketer who was recommended by Moms for Liberty. Both runners-up favored new math curriculum and greater parental input in how the school system operates.

District 8. Lindsay Mahaffey will serve two years on the board, representing much of Apex and Holly Springs.

Mahaffey, 40, received 59.7% of the vote, with all precincts reporting.

She defeated Steve Bergstrom, 44, who received 39.6% of the vote.

Mahaffey, who was endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party, emphasizes meeting children’s non-academic needs, in addition to academic needs, and favors more investment in schools, a uniform visitor management system for safety, workforce partnerships and other efforts.

Bergstrom, who was endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party, criticized Mahaffey for not replacing the district’s math curriculum and not applying for grant money for another school resource officer.

Mahaffey is a former teacher and former substitute teacher in the Wake County Public School System and has three children in the school system.

District 9. Tyler Swanson will serve on the board for four years, representing mostly Cary.

Swanson received 55.6% of the vote, with all precincts reporting. He defeated Michele Morrow, who received 35.8% of the vote, and Tara Ann Cartwright, who received 8% of the vote.

The race pit three newcomers against one another, including two who are diametrically opposed.

Current Board Member Karen Carter chose not to run for reelection and endorsed Swanson.

Swanson, 28, was endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party, and Michele Morrow, 51, was endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party.

They differed on what the board should do for pandemic learning recovery, what teachers need from the school board, the role of public schools, what schools need to improve, exactly how to keep schools safe, whether special education students should learn certain content in general education classrooms, and what types of books should be available for checkout in school libraries.

They agreed that teachers need to be paid more but disagreed on how to fund that.

The race also generated considerable conversation regarding candidates’ social media posts, particularly Morrow’s posts against public schools and on national affairs. Morrow has pushed conspiracy theories on 2020 election fraud and COVID-19 vaccines and posted about “taking out” enemies.