Wake County Schools
Who's running for Wake County school board?
Find out more about each candidate here.
This year's Wake County school board races feature 29 candidates across nine districts .
Look up your school board district and voting precinct here.
An interactive map of the school board districts can be found here.
Five of the nine races feature all new faces, so the majority of the board will be new members come December, when election winners are sworn in.
District 1 candidates
- Ben Clapsaddle, 63, works at the U.S. Army Forces Command in Fort Bragg. His children are Wake County Public School System graduates. Clapsaddle is endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.
- Cheryl Caulfield is a property manager and has two sons in the Wake County Public School System. She is endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party.
Term length: Four years, reelection in 2026
Where: East Raleigh and a bit beyond, including Wendell, Rolesville, Zebulon and parts of Wake Forest
District 2 candidates
- Monika Johnson-Hostler, 47, is the incumbent board member. Johnson-Hostler runs a nonprofit organization helping people who were sexually assaulted. She has a daughter in the Wake County Public School System, and her husband teaches in the school system. Johnson-Hostler is endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.
- Monica Ruiz, 44, is a substitute teacher in the Wake County Public School System and has two children who attend private school. Ruiz is endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party.
- Dorian Hamilton, who also ran in 2020, didn’t respond to requests for an interview by WRAL News nor did she complete a WRAL News candidate questionnaire.
Term length: Four years, reelection in 2026
Where: Some of the southernmost parts of Wake County, including parts of Garner and Fuquay-Varina and some unincorporated area
District 3 candidates
- Wing 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.
- Doug Hammack, 64, is a pastor and father of three Wake County Public School System graduates and four grandchildren, two of whom are in the school system. Hammack is endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.
- Brooks Lowe has not responded to requests for an interview by WRAL News. He didn’t respond to WRAL's candidate questionnaire.
Term length: Two years, reelection in 2024
Where: The northernmost parts of Wake County, including parts of Raleigh and Wake Forest
District 4 candidates
- Tara Waters, 44, is a volunteer coordinator and mother of two children in the school system. Waters is the current school board member, appointed by the board in March to fill the vacancy left by Keith Sutton. Waters is endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.
- Becky Lew-Hobbs, 52, is a senior business operations manager at a manufacturer and is a mother of three Wake County Public School System students. Lew-Hobbs is endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party.
- Michael T. Williams, 50, has worked in education for decades and is currently a consultant for the state working to transition students from the juvenile justice system into the school system.
- Daniel Grant-King, 22, is an instructional assistant in the Wake County Public School System and a graduate of Garner High School.
Term length: Two years, reelection in 2024
Where: East Raleigh and a bit beyond, including parts of Knightdale
District 5 candidates
- Lynn Edmonds, 51, works for a nonprofit that advocates for public schools. Edmonds’ two children attended the Wake County Public School System and have graduated. Edmonds is endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.
- Jackie Boegel, a music teacher whose son graduated from the Wake County Public School System. Boegel is endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party.
- Dawn Townsend, 63, is a retired airline worker.
- Ross Beamon didn’t respond to requests for an interview nor did he respond to the WRAL candidate questionnaire.
Term length: Two years, reelection in 2024
Where: Southwestern Raleigh, part of Apex and some unincorporated areas
District 6 candidates
- Chad Stall, 43, enrolled his son in private school last year after starting him in the school district. He is a business manager at a dental office and former dance studio owner. He’s endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party.
- Sam Hershey, 45, has a son in the school district and is a startup cofounder. He’s endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.
- Patrice Nealon, 66, teaches marketing at the college level. Nealon’s children graduated from private schools after spending two years in the public school system in the 1990s.
- Dajma Livingston, 28, is a teacher at a Durham charter school, former language teacher in China and Mexico and a graduate of the Wake County Public School System.
- Mary-Lewis Freeman appears on the ballot but is no longer running for the seat.
Term length: Two years, reelection in 2024
Where: Central Raleigh and parts of Raleigh north of the Interstate 440 Beltline
District 7 candidates
- Incumbent Chris Heagarty, 52, who has been in office since 2018. Heagarty works for a foundation and has two children in the school system. Heagarty attended schools in the system as a child. He is endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party and the North Carolina Assoication of Educators.
- Jacob Arthur, 44, is a civil attorney. Arthur has four children. Three are in Wake County Public Schools and the fourth is 3 years old. Arthur attended schools in the system as a child. He is endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party and the NC Values Coalition.
- Katie Long, 47, works in marketing. Long has two daughters enrolled in private school this fall after years in the Wake County Public School System. She is endorsed by Moms for Liberty.
Term length: Four years, reelection in 2026
Where: Parts of North Raleigh and Morrisville.
District 8 candidates
- Incumbent Lindsay Mahaffey, 40, is a former teacher and a former substitute teacher in the Wake County Public School System. Mahaffey has three children in the school system. She is endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party.
- Steve Bergstrom, 44, commercial airline pilot and U.S. Air Force veteran. Bergstrom has two children in the school system. His first has already graduated and his fourth will enter the system next year. He is endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party.
Term length: 2 years, reelection in 2024
Where: Mostly Apex
District 9 candidates
Incumbent Karen Carter is not running again.
- Tyler Swanson, 28, former Wake County Public School System special education teacher and current campaign strategist
- Michele Morrow, 51, a former nurse and current stay-at-home mother and homeschool teacher. Morrow has five children, whom she has homeschooled since moving to Wake County.
- Tara Ann Cartwright, who according to her LinkedIn profile is a technical writer and editor. Cartwright didn't respond to multiple requests for an interview, nor did she complete the WRAL News candidate questionnaire. She also hasn't appeared at candidate forums and doesn't have a website.
Term length: Four years, reelection in 2026
Where: Mostly Cary
The issues before the Wake school board
The Wake County Board of Education oversees a more than $2 billion budget. Some recent issues before the school board include:
- Staffing shortages, particularly among bus drivers and teachers
- A drop in test scores since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
- A push for a $530.7 million bond issue to fund new schools and renovations, including updated security cameras where needed. That bond is before voters Nov. 8, alongside school board elections.
- More than $440 million in federal pandemic relief funds to the district, nearly $100 million of which has been spent on bonuses to recruit and retain staff or employ them during summer programs. Tens of millions more have gone toward hiring new employees or extending contracts.
- Investments in high-dosage tutoring in some lower grades levels, particularly in reading, to make up for learning loss, using stimulus funds, state funds, donations and volunteers.
- Continued annual reassignment of hundreds of students, though affecting a minority of schools and a handful of students at each school.
- A draft of a new equity plan that would ask the board to consider decisions’ potential impact on the goal of equitable outcomes and establish equitable outcomes as a focus of the district’s approaches to education. The policy would not create rights, permit discrimination or be used as the basis of a grievance or appeal.
- An ongoing safety audit and pending changes related to that audit, such as a uniform visitor policy.
- A rewriting of the school resource officer agreement to include more training, while the school board hasn’t expanded or decreased its SRO program in spite of calls to do both. The SRO program is mostly funded by the towns that supply the officers.
- Ongoing locally funded pay increases, ultimately approved by the county commissioners.
- Declining enrollment share in Wake County as charter schools have opened and as pandemic-era precautions resulted in enrollment rises in homeschools and private schools. Many homeschooled students returned when schools fully reopened, while private school enrollment kept rising.
Powers of a school board member
What school board members do:
- Hire or fire the superintendent
- Approve/disapprove contracts costing $100,000 or more
- Approve/disapprove grant applications
- Approve/disapprove agreements with municipalities, often on land-use concerns
- Approve/disapprove policies
- Approve additional salaries and wages for employees beyond what’s provided in state funding
- Determine building construction, renovation or repair schedules
- Set the annual student assignment plan
- Recommend a budget to the county commissioners
- Adopt a budget after county commissioners approve a funding amount
- Recommend ballot issues to the county commissioners, such as tax increases for construction bonds, to put before voters
- Preside over hearings when families have appealed decisions to the school board level. Often, these are reassignment requests.
- Hold regular public meetings with advisory councils comprised of their constituents
What school board members do no do:
- Hire or fire anyone other than the superintendent
- Set county funding or levy taxes to fund schools
- Approve/disapprove contracts costing less than $100,000
- Set academic standards
- Select curriculum
- Set base salaries or wages for employees
More information on the Wake County Board of Education’s responsibilities can be found in the board's policy manual.
In North Carolina, the state is charged with funding education, while counties are charged with funding school facilities. Counties can and do fund educational initiatives beyond what the state funds.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated Morrow's former occupations.
