Incumbent Orange County Board of Education members Bonnie Hauser and Jennifer Moore will compete in a runoff election on Tuesday, May 14. The winner will not only keep their seat for four more years, but also determine which bloc—progressive or moderate—has a controlling majority on the school board for the next two years.
Moore and Hauser came in third and fourth, respectively, in the March 5 election for three school board seats. Moore won 482 more votes than Hauser but did not win a majority of votes as required by North Carolina law to take office.
In the March election, which INDY previewed here, Moore ran on a progressive slate with incumbent Carrie Doyle and newcomer Wendy Padilla, who won first and second place and cleared the necessary majority. Hauser, a moderate, was the top vote-getter for her slate, outperforming her more conservative allies Cindy Shriner and Michael Johnson by around 300 and 700 votes, respectively. Moore and Hauser are both registered Democrats. INDY covered the initial results here.
Now, each bloc is set to hold three seats on the seven-member board for at least the next two years. That frames the runoff election as a referendum on which group should wield the chair’s gavel.
“Sometimes we have to fight extra hard for the things we love,” Moore wrote in an email to INDY. “I look forward to continuing to make progress improving our schools.”
Hauser did not immediately respond to request for comment, but previously told WCHL-Chapelboro that she “can’t wait to talk to voters about my track record in supporting equity, and how we can do more to get needed resources to every student.”
In the initial election, voters weighed topics including the racial achievement gap, the “Parents Bill of Rights,” the definition of “equity,” crumbling facilities, and a $300 million education bond. It was also the first election since the current board, controlled by moderates, pushed out its last superintendent in a behind-the-scenes process that members still haven’t explained.
An analysis of precinct results shows that Hauser’s slate won in the more rural northern and western areas of the county, in precincts including Caldwell, Carr, Cedar Grove, Cheeks, Efland, St. Mary’s, and Tolars. Moore and her allies were anchored by strong showings in the Hillsborough area, in precincts including Coles Store, Grady Brown, Hillsborough, Hillsborough North, Patterson, and West Hillsborough. The majority of early votes and absentee by-mail votes also went to Moore’s slate.
In its meeting to certify the election results, the county Board of Elections did not anticipate particularly high turnout in the upcoming runoff. Rachel Raper, director of the board, said that the last school board runoff was in 2010. Turnout in that election, which was paired with a Democratic U.S. Senate second primary, was 7.8 percent.
Every eligible voter in the Orange County Schools district—which is separate from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools District—can vote in the May 14 runoff.
Registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters who did not vote in the March 5 Democratic primary are also eligible to vote in the Republican second primary for lieutenant governor and state auditor.
Editor’s note: The school bond amount has been corrected to $300 million.
Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at chase@indyweek.com. Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
