New board members offer praises and promises

The new school board members have now taken their seats.

All four new members made brief speeches after being sworn in. Deborah Prickett singled out the Wake County Republican Party and the Wake Schools Community Alliance for their support during the campaign.

“This was a non-partisan race but as you know this became fairly political,” Prickett said. “I want to thank (Wake GOP Chairman Claude Pope) and the Wake County Republican Party for stepping up to the plate. It shows they’re totally for families and children in this county.”

Pope was among the people present today.

Prickett also publicly thanked WSCA leaders Joe Ciulla, Sarah Redpath and Kristen Stocking for paying for today's reception.

New board member Chris Malone stressed that the "reform" efforts that voters wanted would be carried out.

“This is just the beginning,” Malone said. “I will strive to make sure that the promises I made become a reality. The next four years as they say will be interesting times.”

In his remarks after the members were sworn in, school board chairman Kevin Hill urged the new board members to "challenge this board to weave new ideas with current practice pushing the Wake County school system and its students to even greater successes."