Wendell and Zebulon commissioners are considering a resolution regarding a move toward at-large voting for the Wake County school board.

Currently, members of the Wake County Board of Education are elected by districts.

According to board member Lori Millberg, who represents eastern Wake County on the Board of Education, the districts help ensure equal representation among the nine seats on the school board.

Wendell commissioners are likely to approve a resolution in opposition to such a move. Zebulon commissioners were scheduled to make their decision Monday night.

According to Millberg, who addressed the issue at a recent meeting of the Wendell town board, the change has the support of many people from western Wake County, who see themselves as underrepresented by the school board.

She also says creating county-wide races would be cost-prohibitive for many people, because the cost would multiply by a factor of five.

Truth be told, Millberg represents a great deal more than just eastern Wake County. She also represents much of northern Wake County, including Wake Forest and Rolesville.

As Millberg points out, school board seats must be parsed out evenly so that one area is as equally represented as any other.

But the district arrangement has pitfalls as well. By electing school board members by district, we create nine little fiefdoms.

School board members are most likely to vote in favor of ideas that benefit their district, even if it is not in the best interest of the county as a whole.

Likewise, they will vote against measures they see as bad for their district even if it would clearly benefit the larger population of the county.

That’s no way to govern.

If county officials want to ensure the fairest representation of all constituents, the best way to accomplish that is to allow voters from across the county to vote for school board members from each district, but the candidates must live within the district they are elected to serve.

That way, if voters in Raleigh don’t like the way a representative from Garner has done his or her job, then they can vote for another candidate.

But they can rest assured that the candidates they will have to choose from will approach the task with the same geographic mindset as the incumbent the seek to defeat.

Millberg’s argument that county-wide elections cost too much are interesting to say the least. But they are irrelevant to most people.

For many, a $20,000 campaign is as out of reach as a $100,000 campaign.

While western Wake County parents may have an ulterior motive that is detriimental to school children in eastern Wake County, that’s not to say there isn’t a better way to skin this cat.

A little creative thinking is in order here.