By Delayna Earley
The Island News
The Beaufort County Board of Education is about to gain a new member once citizens in Bluffton’s District 7 vote in the Special Election being held on Tuesday, Sept. 17 to fill the currently vacant seat on the board.
The seat was previously held by Rachel Wisnefski, who announced in May 2024 that she would be vacating her seat on the Board in early June because she was moving out of the district.
David Carr is running unopposed for the open seat, and unless he is challenged by a write-in candidate, will be elected on Sept. 17.
Carr has lived with his wife in the area since 2016, and while he has not held a public office, he has been involved in local elections behind the scenes since he moved to Bluffton. He decided to run for the Board of Education seat after a friend suggested it.
Carr said he has been in education for 50 years and is still teaching courses with Georgia Southern University online.
“I have great interest in the public schools, I have great interest in the educational process – curriculum, instruction, programming, services for kids across all levels of education – I’ve had those interests for years,” said Carr.
Carr received his doctorate in Education from Virginia Tech and spent 10 years teaching public school before transitioning to teaching teachers and coaches at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. His focus was teaching health and physical education.
Toward the end of his career, he transitioned more toward online education, which proved helpful when COVID-19 hit.
Having been a regular visitor to the Lowcountry since the 1970s, Carr and his wife purchased a house here in 2010 and moved here fully in 2016. He retired from the College of Education at Ohio University in 2021.
Carr said that he knows that taking over a seat in the middle of a term will not be easy, but he is eager to get started so he can get fully caught up on everything that is currently pressing for Board of Education.
One thing that Carr thinks is an important matter that the Board needs to address is making sure that the school can keep up with the exponential growth that all areas of Beaufort County have been experiencing.
Early voting remains open through Friday, Sept. 13 and the Special Election will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
