In the 2024 election cycle, Jones was narrowly defeated by Libertarian David Perry. LaRue is a newcomer to local politics.
Jones said his overarching priorities are tackling the literacy crisis among Black and Brown students in the district and the resource disparity between urban and suburban schools. He also wants to continue building relationships between the Central Office and the educators it employs.
He also thinks that the issues surrounding Title IX warrant committee work. The former school board disbanded the committee in a 5-2 vote in 2025. Only the two Democratic members, Dr. Tim Merrick and Judy Justice, were in support of keeping it.
But policies he would work on more immediately are reinstituting Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi back into high school classrooms for use, if educators choose — and to reverse the classroom display policy that regulates, for example, the types of flags teachers can have.
“Those kinds of things like the culture wars are kind of like red meat to a rabid base. I want to undo some of that stuff so that our students and our teachers can simply be themselves in the spaces that we ask them to be in,” he said.
Jones said the election results gave the Democrats a mandate.
“I think that we've got our marching orders from the voting public. You know that we won those top four seats, and it wasn't really even close. I mean, from the moment that the early voting ballots dropped to the end of [Election] night, we were one, two, three, and four, and I just think that that is a clear message to us about how we need to govern,” he said.
When the GOP members swept the school board in 2022, they made similar arguments that voters had given them a mandate.
LaRue added that she wanted to organize the board’s agenda around more student-centered initiatives.
“What's going on with our math scores? How are we doing with early literacy facilitators?” she said.
LaRue also wants to work on more school funding solutions, as she heard many of those concerns on the campaign trail. She added that she wants to talk more about facility needs for those schools not selected for updates from the $320.5 million school bond that recently passed with 68% of the electorate supporting it.
“I want us to talk about what the plan is to help our other schools,” she said.
Behind Dale was Republican newcomer Dr. Amy Dunning with 11.4%, and Republican Chris Sutton with roughly that percentage. Sutton had previously run in the 2022 primary.
Rounding out the bottom were Republican incumbents Pat Bradford and Josie Barnhart, with around 11% of the vote.
Republican Melissa Mason lost in the 2026 primary, and Republican Pete Wildeboer, who is the current chair, didn’t run for re-election.
And there will likely be another new member joining them — Democratic school board member Dr. Tim Merrick is poised to become the next NC House member for District 20, replacing longtime Republican Ted Davis. The Democratic Party will fill the seat after vetting and voting on a candidate.
The party used a similar process after Democrat Rick Southerland won the Democratic primary for school board but then dropped out under party pressure over a relationship scandal. Margie Gewirtzman, who did run in the primary but finished behind Southerland, ended up filling that position. Long-time education activist and former NHCS employee Kristina Mercier was also in the running to replace Southerland.
The newest members are slated to be sworn in at the December 1 board meeting.
