The cramped race for the Santa Fe school board's District 5 seat boils down to a contest between those with institutional experience and those with institutional outrage.

The four-way race comes amid growing distaste among voters over the direction of education statewide and in Santa Fe Public Schools, a recent poll shows.

The school district spent $11,000 surveying around 500 likely Santa Fe County voters. Those who participated were twice as likely to say schools had worsened in the last couple of years than to say schools had improved. Additionally, voters were almost twice as likely to have positive opinions about local charter schools than traditional public schools.

All four candidates in the contested school board race — Lynn Gardner Heffron, Jack Lain, Juan Blea and Brenda Mae C

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