This year’s school board races are none like none before. In years past school board elections often had low turnout and interest. However, with heated debates over mask mandates, vaccines, and other hot-button issues, it’s become a heated and anticipated election.

“School board elections are all of a sudden at the top of the news all of the time and that’s not usually the case,” Hilliard school board candidate Beth Murdoch said.

School board elections have become a hotly contested race and a political battleground.

“I was kind of prompted to do this because of my interactions with our current school board,” Murdoch said.

Parents including Murdoch and Zach Vorst said dealing with pandemic issues all last year from remote learning, mask mandates and vaccines caused a lot of frustration.

“I went and I spoke at many different school board meetings, and I felt like I was talking to an empty room,” Murdoch said.

Feeling unheard is what is now motivating her to run for Hilliard school board.

“There was no communication, there was no dialogue. The comments were respectful, and they listened, but they had already made up their minds and it was clear that it didn’t matter what anyone had to say during public participation,” she said.

“So, a group of parents kind of got together and when we vented our frustrations together. We kind of said the only way to change this is to have representation on the board so a group of us were there and we said, alright who wants to run, and I was one of the folks who raised my hand,” Vorst said.

However, it wasn’t just pandemic issues that caught the attention of parents.

“There was some social unrest around the country and a decision from the school board was made to move the school resource officer,” Worthington school board candidate Brian Steel said.

Since the race started, many are shocked at just how heated the race has become.

“If you asked me, did I expect my car to be vandalized I would say no way. If you asked me if I expected my opponent to be threatened, I would say no,” Steel said.

So as the countdown to Election Day is on, several candidates said they’re doing everything they can to make it clear where they stand.