SALISBURY — As the filing for Rowan-Salisbury School Board of Education closed on Friday, three more names added their names to the campaigns for two of the three open seats.

Bryan Wymbs and Rebecca Childs added their names to the race to fill the seat of Alisha Byrd-Clark, who is running as the Democratic nominee to District 76 of the N.C. House of Representatives and therefore will not run for reelection to the school board.

This is Childs’ first foray into candidacy in Rowan County. She works as a program manager in training services at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. She graduated in May from Western Carolina University with a doctorate degree in election. She is also the executive director of S.O.S. Youth Centers, an organization focused on tutoring high school and middle school students and assisting them with college readiness.

Wymbs is also a newcomer to candidacy. He graduated from UNC Charlotte with his law degree in 2014, and worked as a lawyer in Salisbury for Ketner & Dees before founding his own firm in 2018, focusing on estate law. He has served on the board of trustees for Salisbury Academy and has volunteered as an assistant tennis coach at Salisbury High School. In June of 2023, Wymbs was a member of a group of people that spoke to the Rowan County Board of Commissioners about a perceived need for more supplemental funding for the school system.

Both Wymbs and Childs filed on Friday. They will face Jonathan Barbee, who lost to Byrd-Clark in 2020 with 47.98 percent of the vote to her 51.3 percent.

McKenzie Kelly is another newcomer to candidacy. She added her name to the race for the southeastern seat on the school board on Thursday.

Kelly will challenge incumbent Lynn Marsh for the seat. Marsh has been on the board since September of 2021, when she was appointed after the southeastern seat was left vacant by Susan Cox’s resignation. She was subsequently reelected to the position in 2022.

The third seat up for election is the east seat, and incumbent Kathy McDuffie Sanborn will run unopposed after being the only person to file for candidacy for the seat. Sanborn has been on the school board since August of 2023, when she was appointed after the eastern seat was left vacant by Brian Hightower’s resignation. Sanborn challenged Hightower for the same seat during the 2020 election and lost by a narrow margin of 1,172 votes. Sanborn received 48.66 percent to Hightower’s 50.62 percent.

The filing period for the school board election was changed with the passing of House Bill 31 in May. Filing closed on Friday at noon.

Also included in HB 31 was a referendum that will be placed on the ballot in the upcoming election, asking voters if the election for the Rowan-Salisbury School System Board of Education should be a partisan race.