Justice was the top vote-getter with 17.42% of the vote. She previously served on the board from 2018-2022.
The board's partisan makeup will remain the same—five Republican members and two Democratic members. Perry joins four sitting Republicans: Pat Bradford, Pete Wildeboer, Melissa Mason, and Josie Barnhart.
Former Democratic board member Stephanie Walker tentatively appears to have won a seat on the New Hanover County Commission, and Democrat Hugh McManus and Republican Stephanie Kraybill didn't run for re-election.
Justice said her top priority upon taking her seat is hiring the next superintendent and starting to work on the budget.
"I know many people are calling for [interim superintendent] Chris Barnes to just stay in his position. He's doing a good job, but the thing is, he's not experienced. And after everything we've been through, I think we need to do this right and look at all options," she said.
She’d also like to participate in the district’s Turnaround Task Force, which focuses on low-performing schools.
“I would like to take that up because I think it's really important that we have these schools that are struggling so hard that they continue to have the focus on them so they can improve,” she said.
Merrick (16.92%) and then Perry (16.71%) followed Justice’s number of votes.
Like Justice, Merrick also said he'd like to start the search for the superintendent and organize budget priorities. He added that he'd like to advocate more to the county commission for school funding.
"I was terribly disappointed when our school board wouldn't even ask for the full amount that we needed to balance our budget this year, and we lost a lot of teachers because of it, something we just can't afford to do,” Merrick said.
David Perry told WHQR he plans to advocate for teachers.
“Just get our teachers back to actually teaching and not worried about all the other little hats we try to make them wear and making sure that they're well paid," he said.
Democrat Jerry Jones (16.53%) and Republican Nikki Bascome (16.43%) took fourth and fifth place, respectively, but they are still in the recount range. Republican Natosha Tew placed last, outside of that range. Votes added by the final canvass — namely provisional ballots — could change that, however.
All results are official as of canvass on Friday, November 15. Candidates can request a recount until 5 p.m. Monday, November 18.
Aaleah McConnell contributed to this reporting.
