Randolph Legislators Change Structure of ACS Board of Education
Asheboro City Schools Board of Education and NC House Bill 58 (HB58)
by Susie Scott
Download this article as a PDF: Effects of HB 58
History of the Bill
Changing the structure of the Asheboro City Schools Board of Education was requested by Gidget Kidd and presented by Senator Dave Craven and Representative Brian Biggs at the end of the Board’s retreat in a contentious session on February 22, 2025. At that session, seven of the Board members were against the changes and only four supported them. Those against changing to a partisan Board were Board Chair Baxter Hammer, Board Vice Chair Ryan Patton, Phillip Cheek, Linda Cranford, Hilda DeCortez, Beth Knott, and Michael Smith. Those supporting it were Melissa Calloway, Adam Hurley, Gidget Kidd, and Hailey Lee.
At their next regular Board meeting on March 13th, the Board voted on whether or not they wanted to change the structure. The vote was against the changes 6 – 3. Hammer, Cheek, Cranford, DeCortez, Knott, and Smith voted against. Calloway, Hurley, and Kidd voted for. Ryan Patton was absent from the meeting, and Hailey Lee left the meeting just before the vote took place.
There was no state legislation filed to make the changes until March 18th. Before that, HB58 was a local bill affecting only the Town of Kittrell. It had passed the State House and was in the Senate on March 18th when it was changed. In spite of the votes of no confidence taken by the Board of Education, Dave Craven persuaded someone on the Senate Elections Committee to file an amendment adding the section about Asheboro City Schools to the bill in a Committee Substitute. The substitute passed. The changed bill then passed the Senate Rules Committee on March 19th and the entire Senate on March 20th.
Because the bill has been changed from the version passed in the House, it has been sent back to the House for concurrence. If the House concurs with the changes, then the bill becomes law. (Local bills do not require the Governor’s signature and are not subject to a veto.) If the House votes against the changed bill, then a conference committee may be formed with members from both chambers to work out any differences. After that, the bill is presented to both chambers again for an up or down vote. The next meeting of the House will be at 1 pm on Monday, March 24th.
What’s in the details for members of the Board?
Currently, the Board is composed of the following members:
Terms expiring in 2025
Phillip Cheek (Republican)
Linda Cranford (was a registered Democrat until very recently, now registered Republican)
Hilda DeCortez (was a registered Democrat until very recently, now registered Unaffiliated)
Michael Smith (Republican)
Under HB58, these members will face two elections. The first will be in 2025 where only two of them will be elected in a nonpartisan election, but they will only serve one year. The second will be in 2026 where they will face election for those two seats again (this time to continue serving a full four-year term). After the 2025 and 2026 elections, the new Board will have 9 members. (Note: only the members whose current terms expire in 2025 have to face two elections. Members whose current terms expire in 2027 and 2029 will have their six-year term extended to seven years so their next election will be in either 2028 or 2030.)
Terms expiring in 2027
Baxter Hammer (Republican)
Adam Hurley (Republican)
Beth Knott (Republican)
Hailey Lee (Republican)
Under HB58, these members will serve seven years instead of the six they were elected to. Their next election will be in 2028 for three seats. The winners will serve for four years. After this election, there will be 8 members on the Board. In a strange move that was not requested by either the Board of Education or the City Council, the Randolph County legislators crafting this bill decided that one more member will be appointed by the Asheboro City Council for two years only to break tied votes on the Board. This tied-vote situation could have been avoided by electing four members in 2026 and 2028, then electing three members in 2030 (when the members elected in 2026 will have to run for re-election against the members whose terms were extended to 2030) and alternating between electing four members and three members after that. In that situation, the Board would have continued to have 11 members until the 2030 Election when it would shrink to 7.
Terms expiring in 2029
Melissa Calloway (Republican)
Gidget Kidd (Republican)
Ryan Patton (Republican)
Under HB58, these members will serve seven years instead of the six they were elected to. Their next election will be in 2030 for four seats. They will face the two members elected in 2026 if they also choose to run for re-election. The winners will serve for four years. After this election, the Board will have 7 members.
Who crafted the legislation pertaining to Asheboro City Schools?
Larry Penkava (of the Randolph Hub) quoted Senator Dave Craven in an article about the changes, “the bill was crafted by the Randolph County delegation at the General Assembly …”. That would be Dave Craven who represents Asheboro in the NC Senate and Brian Biggs who represents Asheboro in the House. The other Randolph County members of the Legislature are Neal Jackson, Amy Galey, and Robert Reives. Of these, Robert Reives is the only Democrat and had no part in this legislation.
What effects will House Bill 58 have on ACS Board elections?
Switching to partisan elections will mean that our city school board will become more politicized. Candidates will have to compete in partisan primaries. This means the best candidates may be eliminated in the primary by someone who appeals to the more extreme views of their party. The primary winners will run in the November Election with their party printed beside their name. To ensure their candidacy will survive future primaries, board members may feel pressured to vote on decisions according to party politics rather than what would best serve the students and teachers in their district. Movers and shakers in their local party will have more control over their political future.
Moving to elections in even-numbered years will place the school board candidates near the end of a long ballot, and many people will vote on those positions based only on whether they are registered as Republicans or Democrats. This has caused a lot of division on other school boards where it’s been implemented by the Republican Party as a way of locking in power in districts where they already have majorities.
It also means that vacancies on the Board due to resignation or death will be filled by the executive committee of the party they are registered with instead of the other members of the Board. In Randolph County, those vacancies will usually be Republicans and the local GOP will determine their successors.
The final effect will be on potential unaffiliated candidates. In a nonpartisan election, these candidates can file and run for office like any other candidate. In a partisan election, these candidates will not need to run in a primary, but they will have to gather and submit signatures from 1.5% of the registered voters in the school district to get their name on the ballot. There are currently 17,053 registered voters in the Asheboro City Schools District. An unaffiliated candidate running today would need 256 confirmed signatures from voters in the district to place their name on the ballot. The signatures have to be submitted no later than 12:00 noon on the Friday preceding the seventh Saturday before the election.
Sources
https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/h58
https://www.asheboro.k12.nc.us/BoardofEducation.aspx
https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2025/Bills/House/PDF/H58v4.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/ToddDulaneyforAsheboroSchoolBoard/, post on March 14, 2025 at 3:00 pm
https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_115C/GS_115C-37.1.pdf (as of March 20, 2025)
https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_163/GS_163-296.pdf (as of March 20, 2025)