Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Carolina Curious: What's the main role of the school board?

“So school boards are actually really, really important. So the way we think about it is we have our Department of Education from the federal government,” she says. “We have usually your state education — so in North Carolina, it’s the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction — and then each kind of school district has a school board.”

In Forsyth County, the board of education is made up of nine members elected to four-year terms with no term limits. There are two seats for District 1, four seats for District 2, and three at-large seats. It’s a similar setup in other counties. 

Elisabeth Motsinger and Marilyn Parker both serve on the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education and aren’t running for re-election. Motsinger has been on the board for 16 years, and Parker for 21. The two board members, with decades of experience between them, broke down some of the main responsibilities of the board.  

“I think if you want the one-sent

Amy Diaz began covering education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD in partnership with Report For America in 2022. Before entering the world of public radio, she worked as a local government reporter in Flint, Mich. where she was named the 2021 Rookie Writer of the Year by the Michigan Press Association. Diaz is originally from Florida, where she interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, but truly got her start in the field in elementary school writing scripts for the morning news. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate