'Passing the baton': Several WCPSS board member seats on ballot for midterm election

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A major shake up is coming to the Wake County School Board.

All nine seats are on the ballot in Tuesday's election.

It has happened before but it's unusual five incumbents have decided they are not running for re-election.

"It is sad to me to see the hate and animosity," said Dr. Jim Martin, who is leaving the board after 11 years. "It is my hope that the candidates elected will be pro-public schools, and will not be fomenting this 'us versus hate.'"

Dr. Martin said he's not leaving because of the political climate. He wants to focus more of his attention on research discovery, and on his true day job as a professor of chemistry at NC State University.

District 6 board member Christine Kushner has been on the board just as long.

She wrote an op-ed in the News and Observer as to why she wasn't running again after 11 years. Part of her decision is the parental criticism, according to the article.

"I have endured two years of angry, inwardly-focused critics. At times, that criticism has seemed overwhelming and isolating, and that's one reason I'm passing the baton."

Roxie Cash, Karen Carter and Heather Scott are also not running again.

"Is the vitriol worse now than it was back in 2011?," Dr. Martin wondered. "I'm not sure it was a whole lot different sadly. It seems like we go through waves."

Nearly 30 candidates filed in the middle of the summer including incumbent and current board chair Lindsay Mahaffey.

"I love what I do, I love supporting our teachers and students and the work that goes on in the classroom," she said.

She is running in District 8 against Steve Bergstrom, a Wake County father of four.

"It's not just parental alienation," he said. "It's school safety, it's the lack of resources to teacher it's the fact that administrator salaries at the top level of the Wake County School system have gone up double digits while our teachers are making $45,000 a year."

The new board members elected will take their seats in December.