ASHEVILLE – For Asheville school board, Nov. 5 was a historic night: Voters have selected the final three members to round out the city’s first elected Board of Education. In a four-way nonpartisan race, Pepi Acebo, a longtime schools activist, led the way, with 27.61% of the vote, according to unofficial results.
Just behind was Jesse Warren, former ROTC instructor at Asheville High School, with 26.17%, and George Sieburg, the board’s current chair, with 24.65%, per preliminary election results from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Acebo, a local manufacturer of children’s blocks, also ran for a board seat in 2022, trailing only narrowly behind the four candidates that clinched the spots. He has applied for school board appointment several times, and was considered most recently in 2023 after a member resigned from the board…