The final seat on the Wake County School Board is up for grabs today. Voters in Wake County’s District 3 will decide between Republican Heather Losurdo and Democrat Kevin Hill.
The runoff campaign has been intense, personal, and expensive. Counting all five school board races and the District 3 runoff, school board candidates have spent around $500,000. Outside interest groups have spent tens of thousands more. Losurdo says these messages are distracting to voters in District 3.
Heather Losurdo: "I guess I was taken aback a little bit was the outside interests groups that came into Wake County, that don’t have what’s called skin in the game. Their children aren’t in our schools. They don’t pay our taxes and they aren’t in this community."
Student assignment is the primary issue at stake. Losurdo says a vote for Hill is a vote for the old diversity plan. Hill disagrees.
Kevin Hill: "I’m on record that the old plan is water under the bridge. Staff invested a great amount of effort on this. I’d say we’re getting close but there rough edges we need to work out."
Hill says he wants the new plan to have better controls against creating high-poverty schools. Losurdo wants proximity to drive the choice plan. The polls close in Wake County tonight at 7:30.