Updates are at the bottom of the post

Wake County school district races are starting to take shape.  All nine seats are on the ballot this year, fellow education blogger Allison Backhouse points out:

All nine school @WCPSS board seats are on this year’s ballot. https://t.co/cZrutW632T #wcpss

— Allison Backhouse (@ajbackhouse) March 1, 2016

This assumes the the courts will not turn this election into the mess as they did earlier this year over the 2013 redistricting maps.  A hearing on the Wake school district map is set for May 9th.

Elections have consequences. Parents need to arm themselves going into the polls this Fall.

District 7, which is being vacated by Susan Evans* who is running against incumbent Tamara Barringer for the NC-17 Senate seat, now has two candidates in the running.  As far as the Evans/Barringer race goes — I’d personally rather drag razor blades up my arm than see a far leftist bully as my Senator.

Peter Hochstaetter and Gary Lewis. Both are Republicans.

According to the News and Observer, Lewis cites his long-term PTA involvement and being involved in WCPSS’ “strategic plan”. I’ve written about that plan before. It’s been an expensive venture and touts more Common Core.

Hochstaetter seems more like the outsider choice. According to the same article at the News and Observer, “Hochstaetter, 35, is a corporate trainer who says he’s “a proponent of neighborhood schools and restoring power and decision-making authority to parents and local families.”

The News and Observer article on these two candidates for the 7th District does not mention their position on Common Core. Parents should ask them.

The District A seat has Don Mial as a candidate. Mial is a Democrat.  According to the News and Observer and Mial’s own press release, he seems to be interested in the ‘school to prison pipeline‘ issue. WNCN confirms this.  Mial ran for the WCPSS board before and lost.

A list of active campaign committees in Wake County can be found here.

One of the campaign committee’s still active is that of Keith Sutton.

Sutton was recently and quietly added to the staff of ‘education non-profit’, BEST NC.  I have yet to get a response to my tweet to BEST NC on whether or not Sutton will be relinquishing his seat now that he is on their staff.

Related:

Wake school board member calls #AkielDenkins shooting a “murder” https://t.co/jHqc4WkfFY pic.twitter.com/H3q7YjMij3

— newsobserver.com (@newsobserver) March 16, 2016

UPDATE: I am told that Mr. Lewis has been endorsed by Susan Evans.

* Evans was redistricted out of 7. Her response was to run for State Senate instead of take on chsllengers in the new district 6.