And until this year, our school board was mercifully free of the direct influence of the political parties. But last year, North Carolina’s legislature, with the cooperation of our state representative and senator, and over the objections of the county commission, local leaders of both parties, and just about everyone else, made seats on the board partisan positions. So here we are.
But then a strange thing happened. Instead of a rush of candidates from both parties for the three seats up for grabs this election cycle, only two are being contested. Of the incumbents, Tryon’s Rick Covil, a registered Democrat, is running unopposed. And Cindy Allen of White Oak, who’s officially an independent, managed to get enough support to get added to the ballot, and is facing a challenge only from a Democrat, Syd Mutschler. Only Saluda’s seat, which is currently held by Democrat Rob Parson, involves a two-party race. His challenger is Rick Stich, who joined me on my porch in Saluda. Rick is, well, I’ll let him introduce himself.
Sources
Polk Schools Board Meeting, Aug. 13, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L8V884pY7U
North Carolina General Statutes Section 143-318 (open and closed sessions
https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByArticle/Chapter_143/Article_33C.html
Redistricting
https://redistricting.lls.edu/redistricting-101/who-draws-the-lines/
NC State Board of Elections voting database
Polk Library Submission policy
https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByArticle/Chapter_143/Article_33C.html
Effect of school vouchers (Carolina Forward)
https://carolinaforward.org/blog/school-vouchers-fail/
