Five candidates are now running for seats on the seven-member Wicomico County Board of Education.

The nonpartisan election is Nov. 6.

Bill Turner.

Now that the school board is an elected body instead on one whose members appointed by the governor, all seven seats are on the ballot.

The board will reflect the Wicomico County Council format of members being elected by districts and at large.

Four school board candidates are sitting members. They are current Board President Don Fitzgerald, running at-large; and members Bill Turner, running in District 3; Eugene Malone, running at large; and Michael Murray, running in District 3.

The fifth candidate is newcomer David Goslee, also running in District 3.

Turner and Goslee filed most recently.

Turner, CEO of Lower Shore Enterprises, was appointed in August to fill a vacancy created by the transition from an appointed to an elected panel.

Goslee had a career in law enforcement and has owned DOT Training and Service for 22 years.

Turner, a certified public accountant, was previously president and CEO of E.S. Adkins and said he will use his management experience, as well as knowledge gained from serving on multiple nonprofit boards and his financial expertise, if he’s elected.

David Goslee.

He said he believes the school system can continue to evolve “to ensure graduating students are ready to work.”

He and his wife, Nancy, a teacher at James M. Bennett High School, have two children. All four family members graduated from Wicomico County schools.

Goslee, who lives in Powellville, is a member of the county’s Wicomico County Central Committee.

“We’ve been instrumental in getting a fully elected school board,” Goslee said. “We finally got it with help from the Senate and the Maryland legislature and now I want to get in there and do what I can to push the school board.

“I’m concerned with the safety, the overall safety, and in making it safe for our children to go to school and not be intimated, in giving them a good education and getting them ready to go out into the world,” Goslee said.

“I’ve been in law enforcement pretty near all my life. I’m concerned for safety but when I get in there and see what the problems are, then I can better see how I would like to see them corrected,” Goslee said.

Current board members’ terms expire Dec. 2. Newly elected board members will be sworn in the Clerk of the Circuit Court before the first school board meeting in January 2019.