EASTON, MARYLAND — Talbot County's Board of Education races are nonpartisan and easy to overlook at the bottom of a ballot. This year they should not be. Four of seven elected seats are up on Nov. 3, which means a majority of the board can turn over in one election.

In District 1, Xavier Rahim is unopposed; the appointed incumbent, Dyshekia Strawberry, did not file. In District 3, incumbent Amy Dodson faces Anne Rosen. In District 4, incumbent Emily Jackson faces Mike Butler. In District 7, Lisa Hayes faces Kate Taylor Logan, with Deborah Bridges — elected in 2022 — not filing.

How the board is built: nine members — seven elected to four-year terms, plus two non-voting student members who serve one-year terms.

What the incoming majority actually inherits. The board reappointed Superintendent Sharon Pepukayi in February 2026 for four more years. It does not walk in and hire a superintendent in December. It does inherit how that contract is evaluated, the weapons-detection matching-funds standoff with the County Council, and an FY28 budget that has to be built against a fund balance the district just drew $2.7 million out of, while Blueprint salary mandates keep climbing.

Three questions get you most of the way with the seven candidates: would you match county funds for security capital; how do you close an FY28 gap without fund balance; and what is your standard for evaluating a superintendent mid-contract.

These are the seats that decide what happens inside the buildings. In most Talbot elections they draw a fraction of the attention the Council races do, and this year they may matter more.