Will November 2018 election swing school board’s direction?

With the beginning of 2018, The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette will preview some of the biggest local issues expected to impact the lives of residents, workers, business owners and tourists in Beaufort County and surrounding areas.

Seven of the 11 Beaufort County Board of Education seats are up for election in November, and the results could produce sweeping changes in education in the county and how the school district is run.

The board directly manages one employee — superintendent Jeff Moss — who generally has been backed by a majority of board members in the wake of his 2015 ethics violations.

Five of the board’s six-person majority are up for re-election — District 3’s Cynthia Gregory-Smalls, District 5’s Geri Kinton, District 7’s Evva Anderson, District 8’s Mary Cordray and District 10’s Bill Payne.

Two of the seats currently held by the board’s five-member minority bloc will also be open in November — District 2’s David Striebinger and District 4’s Joseph Dunkle.

Four seats held by District 1’s Earl Campbell, District 6’s John Dowling, District 9’s Christina Gwozdz and District 11’s JoAnn Orischak are up for election in 2020.

To find out who your school board representative is, go to http://bit.ly/2AZSCvK.

This story was originally published December 30, 2017 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Will November 2018 election swing school board’s direction?."