Elkin School Board to vote on new member

The Elkin City Schools Board of Education is expected to vote on a new member at its upcoming meeting on Monday, June 24 at 6 p.m. School board member Johnny Blevins submitted his resignation to the board at the May meeting. Blevins was elected to the board in 2022. His resignation was due to a move outside the school district.

As the school boards throughout Surry County are now partisan boards, selecting a replacement for Blevins, a Republican, was a task for the Surry County Republican Party. School Board Chairman Richard Brinegar said this week that a replacement member has been recommended by the GOP. The nominee for the seat is Patricia Crosswhite. The board will vote to approve the nomination at its meeting next week.

Crosswhite is a former Elkin High School educator who ran in the Republican primary for the 2022 Elkin school board election.

The 2022 Elkin City Schools Board of Education election was the first to be a partisan race, a decision made by the all-Republican Surry County Board of Commissioners and approved by the state legislature in 2019. Neighboring counties Wilkes and Yadkin school board races remain non-partisan, however, according to reporting from The Daily Tar Heel, more than 50 school boards state-wide have made the move to partisan elections. The Surry County GOP said the decision was made to give more transparency to the race.

Brinegar will be up for re-election in November. He claimed a victory in the GOP primary in March against fellow Republican Jill Bellia, which will leave him running unopposed in November for a city district seat. Longtime educator and School Board member Larry Wagoner who currently holds the East District seat did not seek re-election, his term ends this year. Republican Haley McCoin Sullivan ran unopposed in the GOP Primary for the East District seat and will be on the November ballot.