In a few short months, candidates will trudge, skip and sprint to the Board of Elections office to throw their hats in the ring for a seat on the Wake County Board of Education.

Three of the four incumbents in this year’s race have said they will not seek another term on the board.

Only Horace Tart, from Garner, has said he will make a bid for re-election.

That means voters have important decisions to make and a great deal of learning lies ahead.

But potential candidates should also spend the next few months thinking long and hard about the laundry list of issues that faces the Board of Education.

School diversity is the hot-button issue of the day. But it is far from the only difficult topic facing school board members.

As a group, the school board has not often worked well with county commissioners — who hold important purse strings to the school system.

Candidates should consider the makeup of the county commission and decide how they can best mend that relationship. A successful school board member is one who can work across the great divide that currently separates those bodies.

And candidates for the Board of Education should also consider issues as far-ranging as sex-education and equitable distribution of resources.

Few issues work up the conservative right as much as how we discuss sex in our schools. It is, to be sure, a sensitive issue and there is no clear cut path on that issue.

Financial resources are also important debating points for school board members. Because they represent districts, school board members are sure to protect their own turf, but outside that school board members must be able to think more globally about the school system as a whole.

That big-picture mentality will serve a good school board member well. No matter how you cut it, winning an election to the Wake County Board of Education is little more than a promise of headaches to come.

But voters and candidates alike need to consider all these issues and more when it’s time to make a decision.

Johnny Whitfield Managing Editor