Now its effects could pit two of them against each other on the ballot as early as this fall.

Meanwhile, school board Vice Chairman Bruce Jones said he’s leaning toward not seeking re-election this year, and Chairwoman Bettie Starr is not sure if she will.

School board member Kay Norman lives in the Summerfield subdivision, one of several subdivisions on N.C. 150 affected in redistricting.

The board’s 4-3 vote moved Norman, the West district representative, into the Salisbury district, which is represented by Vick Bost. She is the only board member affected in the redistricting.

Norman has two years left on her four-year term. N.C. statutes provide that Norman can finish out her term in the West district, but she could not run for re-election to that seat under school board policy.

Norman said she might not wait until 2002 to seek election to the school board again.

“According to the policy, I was exited from West and would be in the Salisbury district at this point, if this stands,” she said. “Wherever I am, I will run for the school board again.”

And that might mean challenging Bost, whose Salisbury seat is up this year. He said Friday he’ll run for re-election.

Although all school board members are elected by voters county-wide, all but the at-large member must live in the district each represents.

If Norman runs for the Salisbury district, she could keep her West seat while campaigning to unseat Bost.

“I don’t see why not,”said Bob Joyce, assistant director of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Elected officials run for other offices all the time and keep their offices while doing it. Councilmen run for mayor, county commissioners run for the General Assembly.

“So Iguess you can be on the school board and run for the school board,” Joyce said.

Norman said she’s considering it.

“Now I know what all of my options are, and I’ll decide very shortly what options I’m going to exercise,” she said.

If Bost and Norman do square off this year, they already have some campaign issues. They disagree vehemently on the redistricting plan passed Tuesday.

Bost’s plan is “totally knee-jerk, and it’s a kick in the rear to this community,”Norman said.

She said Bost “very deliberately” culled particular areas to change demographics at Salisbury High School and “railroaded”his plan through while “trading children like Pokeman cards ... I’ll trade you this one for a vote.”

Bost says those words amount to sour grapes.

“It’s so easy to accuse the other person of railroading something, but it’s usually because they failed to railroad something themselves,”he said.

Bost says board members who opposed his plan tried to force their own plan to delay redistricting high schools, and “that train didn’t make it to the track.”

Starr, Jones and Norman voted against Bost’s plan.

Bost said he believes Norman has “made her views on Salisbury quite well known over the last few weeks,”by opposing moving students from her community to Salisbury High.

And he said that while he believes Norman has an obligation to finish her term in the West district, he would welcome a challenge from anyone interested in serving on the board.

“I serve at the voters’ pleasure, and no hard feelings if they want to vote for somebody else,” he said. “The important thing is to get somebody who will vote their conscience and in the best interests of the children.”

Three school board seats up for election this year — Bost’s Salisbury district, the East district seat held by Starr and the at-large seat held by Jones.

Filing for the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education begins July 21 at noon and ends Aug. 18 at noon. The election is Nov. 7.

“Today I’m leaning that I’m not going to run again,” Jones said Friday. “I want to wait until we get closer to filing until I make my final decision, and I’m weighing several issues.”

Jones said he was “very frustrated with the process and what took place” on redistricting. He considered resigning after Tuesday night’s vote.

“I am going to go forward. I feel that I can still do more good by continuing to be there for my remaining term,” he said. “I still feel like there’s a chance to make a difference between now and November, and I plan to stay and do the best job I can for the children”

Starr said this isn’t a good week for her to decide, either.