In the primary election for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board, 26 candidates are vying for nine seats in the board's first nonpartisan race.
For three seats in the At-Large District, challenger Robert Barr and incumbents Donny Lambeth and Elisabeth Motsinger are the most qualified among 10 candidates in the primary. For two seats in District One, challenger Chenita Johnson and incumbent Vic Johnson are the best among six candidates in the primary. And challenger Carla Farmer and incumbents Buddy Collins, Jill Tackabery and Marilyn Parker are the most qualified among 10 candidates in the primary for the four seats in District Two.
The top vote-getters in each race -- six in the At-Large District, four in District One and eight in District Two -- advance to November's general election, in which we'll also make endorsements.
The challengers in the At-Large race are Robert Barr, 44, a minister and former teacher in the local system; William H. Roberts, 73, a former library director for the county; Lori Goins Clark, 40, a substitute teacher who works in marketing; Stan Hill, 56, a retired science coordinator for the school system and the assistant director of the Center of Excellence for Research, Teaching and Learning of Wake Forest University Health Sciences; Nancy Sherrill, 63, a retired principal of Brunson Elementary School; Malishai "Shai" Woodbury, 36, a teacher at Mount Tabor High School; and Joyce McAdams, 69, a reservations agent for US Airways and a former teacher.
Lambeth, 59, the board chairman and the head of Baptist Hospital, has provided good leadership. Motsinger, a 52-year-old physician's assistant finishing her first term, is a liberal who's worked well with conservatives on the board. Jeannie Metcalf, 58, a veteran board member, has become more progressive in the last few years, particularly in standing up for teachers, but she's not known for proposing fresh ideas. And a switch she did with Collins -- with her running as an At-Large candidate and him in District Two, potentially giving him an easier race -- suggests that her heart may not be in staying on the board.
In contrast, Robert Barr is more passionate about the race. He was educated at Winston-Salem State and Wake Forest universities. He has good ideas about what he'd like to do on the board, such as building a broader community coalition to raise the graduation rate. He has two children in the system.
The challengers in District One are Jimmie Lee Bonham, 55, a community activist and the owner of a hair salon; Diana Williams-Cotton, 59, an economic-development consultant and community activist; Chenita Johnson, 50, an advertising consultant for the Phoenix newspaper; and Regina Barnes, who did not respond to repeated phone messages seeking comment for this editorial.
Incumbent Vic Johnson, a 75-year-old retired assistant principal in the local system, is the founding mentor of a program that works with students who have discipline problems. The other incumbent in District One, 79-year-old Geneva Brown, a retired school principal, deserves the public's gratitude for helping to improve the school system through wise and progressive input. But she's had serious health problems in the last year, missed several meetings and hesitated before filing for re-election. She recently said that "if my health doesn't get much better, then I'm going to quit."
Chenita Johnson could become an important new voice on the board. She has a daughter in the school system, and she wants it to be more transparent and accountable.
The challengers in District Two are Carla Farmer, 38, an executive with Chicago Title Insurance Co.; Donald Dunn, 49, who runs a family-owned day care and is a former president of the Winston-Salem Forsyth County PTA Council; Jim Toole, 47, a health-care actuary; Tom Hackelman, 44, a senior account manager for Applied Copier Concepts; Stacy Walker McElveen, 33, the director for the Child's World Learning Center in Clemmons; and Norman Hill, 47, a UNC Greensboro teacher and IT consultant.
Incumbent Buddy Collins, 53, is a lawyer who has provided sound leadership as the chairman of the building and grounds committee. Tackabery, 59, has good ideas, such as building more community support for raising graduation rates, starting with efforts to prepare children for kindergarten. Parker, 53, is also an attentive board member, and is on the board of the state school-board association. Goins, 65, the vice chairwoman of the board, doesn't give much input at board meetings and lacks innovative ideas. Her support of the At-Large candidacy of her daughter has caused unease among some incumbents on the board, who have stressed unity.
Farmer, who has two children in the school system and is the secretary of the Flat Rock PTSA, has good ideas, such as incorporating programs that have raised graduation rates in other school systems. She would also like to see studies done on why the system's low-performing schools continue to have poor results.
The Journal endorses Robert Barr, Donny Lambeth and Elisabeth Motsinger in the primary for the At-Large District of the school board. We endorse Chenita Johnson and Vic Johnson in the District One primary. And the Journal endorses Carla Farmer, Buddy Collins, Jill Tackabery and Marilyn Parker in the District Two primary.
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