Write-in votes will decide one of the two Isle of Wight County School Board races this fall.

For the other School Board seat and two openings on the Board of Supervisors, the field is now set.

County Registrar Lisa Betterton said no candidates had qualified as of the 7 p.m. deadline on June 17 to get their names on the ballot for the District 3 School Board seat. For that seat, voters on Nov. 4 will have no other option but to fill in the bubble next to a blank and write in someone’s name.

Michael Cunningham, a former substitute teacher and Army veteran elected to his first term representing the District 3 seat in 2021, said in April and confirmed at the June 12 School Board meeting he isn’t seeking another term.

The second School Board seat on the ballot, which is for District 5, saw only one candidate – John Collick – turn in paperwork by June 17. Collick, the incumbent, initially said he too planned to step down but in May said he’d reconsidered and would qualify. Collick, a retired Marine, was first elected in 2021.

The District 3 and District 5 seats on the Board of Supervisors are also up for election this year.

Rudolph Jefferson, who since 2013 has held the District 3 seat, was the only candidate to qualify by the June 17 deadline.

The District 5 supervisor seat is the only contested race. Don Rosie, the incumbent and current Board of Supervisors chairman, and Robert Eley, a former School Board member, were the only candidates to qualify.

Rosie has held the seat since 2018 and previously served for many years on the county’s Planning Commission. Eley served on the School Board from 2012 to 2016.

There are also no declared candidates yet seeking to fill the remainder of the late William McCarty’s term representing the District 2 seat on the Board of Supervisors. Candidates seeking to enter that race have until Aug. 15 to turn in their paperwork because it is a special election that will coincide with the general election.

McCarty, 48, who’d served on the Board of Supervisors since 2016, died of double pneumonia just over a year into his third four-year term in office on Jan. 25. On March 6, the four remaining supervisors voted to appoint Thomas Distefano, formerly of the county’s Planning Commission, to temporarily fill the vacated seat through election day. Distefano told the Times on June 13 he isn’t planning to run in the special election.

Surry County will hold its own special election Nov. 4 to fill the Claremont District seat on its School Board. Laura Ruffin, who’d held the seat since 2012, died at age 77 on April 28 just over a year into her fourth consecutive term. Prospective candidates seeking to enter that race also have until Aug. 15 to turn in their paperwork. The person elected will serve the nearly three-year remainder of Ruffin’s term.

The Surry School Board voted May 28 to appoint Wayne Gholston to temporarily fill Ruffin’s seat until the special election.