To hear the members of the Wake County school board tell it, their job gets harder every year.
The nine-person board sets policy and approves the annual budget for the state’s largest public school district, serving about 160,000 students. There’s never enough money to go around because North Carolina funds public education abysmally across the board, and gives Wake County particularly short shrift. The school board often has to sign off on unpopular, painful funding cuts. The Trump administration’s dismantling of the department of education hasn’t made the board’s job any easier; nor have the right-wing commentators from Moms for Liberty and Libs of TikTok who use them as punching bags.
So it’s not shocking that some board members are ready to step away. Of the four positions up for election this November, two are wide open because their incumbents—Cheryl Caulfield in District 1 and Chris Heagarty in District 7—aren’t running again. Districts 2 and 9 will also be on the ballot, and only voters registered in these four districts will cast ballots this fall.
School board seats are nominally nonpartisan, but the Wake County Democrats and Republicans usually end up backing their preferred candidates. The Democrats generally lobby for more state-level funding and better protections for LGBTQ students, and against the private school voucher system that siphons money from public schools. The Republicans generally advocate for parents’ “right” to supervise what their kids are reading and learning, and against diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in schools.
Democrats currently command a 7-2 majority on the board. This election year, the Wake GOP will do its best to claw back a stronger foothold. The county party has already taken to social media to throw its support behind the four Republican candidates who have filed to run. They have an uphill battle ahead of them in deep-blue Wake County.
Eleven total candidates filed to run across the four races. Some are newcomers to the local political scene and don’t yet have campaign websites or readily available information about their candidacies. Two are incumbents. The INDY will continue reporting on all 11 candidates as Election Day approaches.
Here’s who’s running and what we know about them so far.
District 1
District 1 covers Wake Forest, Rolesville, Knightdale, Zebulon and Wendell.
After serving one term on the school board, incumbent Cheryl Caulfield is not running for reelection. She posted on Facebook this week that she needs “to focus on my family and health.” Caulfield is one of two Republicans on the eight-person board, and the Wake County GOP will want to make sure her vacancy is filled by another Republican.
The county party is backing Bonnie Greaves, a political newcomer who doesn’t appear to have a campaign website. She wrote in an email to the INDY that she taught special education in public schools for 15 years and worked as a federal analyst for Disability Determination Services. Her kids graduated from Wake public schools. If elected, Greaves hopes to “elevate our special education programs,” she wrote.
“I want to serve to ensure that every child—regardless of their learning needs—receives the support they need to thrive, and every teacher feels valued enough to stay,” she continued.
Jasmine Zavala is a WCPSS graduate who worked as a policy analyst for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and then joined Teach for America to teach elementary education in low-income communities in Eastern North Carolina. According to her campaign website, she currently manages her family’s restaurants in Wake Forest, volunteers as an immigration specialist, and runs an online community she organized for Latinos in Wake Forest.
Zavala ran unsuccessfully for the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners last year. This year, her endorsers include Wake Forest mayor Ben Clapsaddle and former school board chairs Christina Kushner and Lindsay Mahaffey. Her campaign announcement focused on supporting students and families, alluding to recent immigration crackdowns in and near schools: “My focus will be ensuring every child, no matter their background, or where they live in our county, receives the resources and support they need to succeed,” she wrote.
Sebrina Pierce is a Democrat running for school board for the first time. She doesn’t have a campaign website, but wrote in an email to the INDY that she is a longtime Wake County resident with a background in “business and family collaboration” and that her children attended WCPSS schools. Pierce said she wants to expand the district’s entrepreneurship programs if she is elected.
District 2
District 2 covers Fuquay-Varina, Garner, and Southeast Raleigh.
Christina Gordon, District 2 incumbent, was appointed to the school board in early 2025 after longtime former board member Monika Johnson-Hostler was elected to the state House of Representatives. This is Gordon’s first run for a full term. She works for the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) as a professional learning specialist and has taught elementary schoolers in Wake and Durham public schools. She’s also a parent of three kids in Wake public schools.
Gordon has served through two budget cycles on the school board now, and has voted against the final budget both times. She’s taken the position that she won’t support any funding cuts that impact students and teachers—tight budget environment notwithstanding.
Ann Schubarg is a Republican first-time candidate who does not appear to have a campaign website. According to Linkedin, she’s a WCPSS substitute teacher and a Harris Teeter personal shopper.
District 7
District 7 covers parts of Cary, Morrisville, and Brier Creek.
Incumbent Chris Heagarty, a Democrat who’s held this seat for nearly eight years including two as board chair, isn’t running for re-election.
Heagarty has endorsed Maddie Segal to take his place. Segal, a registered Democrat, is a first-time candidate with a professional background in food policy and nonprofit work. According to LinkedIn, she is the director of industry engagement for the Plant Based Foods Association, a trade association for plant-based food companies. She’s also a WCPSS parent and serves on the WCPSS District 7 Advisory Council.
Along with Heagarty, Segal is endorsed by current school board chair Tyler Swanson and former chair Christine Kushner. Segal’s campaign website lists paying educators competitively, fighting for state-level funding for universal free school meals, and organizing across counties to lobby the state and federal governments for adequate public school funding among her top priorities.
Also a first-time candidate and a Democrat, Amita Gupta writes on her campaign website that she wants to pay WCPSS teachers competitively, invest in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) education and digital literacy and expand mental health resources in schools. Gupta owns Wize Computing Academy of Cary, Apex, and Morrisville, a franchise of a national company that offers computer science courses for K-12 students. She’s a WCPSS parent and president of the Mills Park Middle School Parent-Teacher-Student Association.
Republican Jacob Arthur is an attorney and WCPSS parent running for this seat for a second time after an unsuccessful bid in 2022. He owns a law office in Raleigh specializing in small business, personal injury, and estate planning law. According to his campaign website, he would focus on school safety and involving parents in their kids’ education if elected.
District 9
District 9 covers parts of Cary and Morrisville.
Democratic incumbent Tyler Swanson is seeking a second term on the school board. The first time he ran in 2022, at 29 years old, he handily defeated the conservative conspiracy theorist Michele Morrow to become Wake’s youngest-ever school board member. In late 2025, his school board colleagues elected him board chair. This spring, Swanson oversaw his first budget cycle as chair and led his colleagues in rejecting the superintendent’s proposal to cut millions of dollars in special education funding in order to balance the budget. A former special education teacher himself (he taught at Enloe High School for three years), Swanson has translated that experience into advocating for better school funding at the state level and better pay for teachers and school staff. His campaign website also names school safety as a priority; his definition of “safe” is a learning environment that is fully staffed and “free from bullying, hate speech, or violence regardless of gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, race, or religion.”
Cary resident Brian Olson, also a Democrat, is running for the first time. His campaign website is under construction.
Republican Cheryl Alexis is yet another political newcomer. According to Linkedin, she is a human resources consultant with past experience in career counseling and law. She doesn’t seem to have a campaign website.
The INDY’s efforts to reach Olson and Alexis this week were unsuccessful. Check back for updates.
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