New school board members take office in New Hanover County

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The New Hanover County School Board said farewell to several long time board members while welcoming new ones Wednesday evening.

Janice Cavenaugh, Don Hayes, Bruce Shell and former chair Ed Higgins were honored before leaving office.

School spokeswoman Valita Quattlebaum said the four former board members leave a legacy amounting to 79 years of service to the school system.

They will replaced by Bill Rivenbark, Nelson Beaulieu, Judy Justice and Stefanie Adams.

The new board selected current members Lisa Estep as the chair and David Wortman as vice chair.

Estep knows this new board has their work cut out for them. They will need to approve new high school and middle school redistricting in the coming year.

“I want a vote,” said Estep, “I think it’s going to really open up discussion and like I said the new board members have come in with knowledge because they’ve been participating at the workshops.”

The school board will host their next redistricting workshop next Tuesday.