With 98 percent of the votes counted, it appears a preschool teacher and an attorney have been elected to the Clayton County school board.

The winners are:

District 4: Michael King, an attorney.

District 6: Mary Baker, a preschool teacher.

Both take office in January.

Meanwhile, in District 2 MARTA bus driver Wanda Smith won a Democratic runoff and now faces Republican Della Ashley in November.

In District 5, retired teacher Ophelia Burroughs won a runoff to face Republican Diana Nicholson in November.

As of Tuesday night, with 59 of 60 precincts in, District 3 was still too close to call, with Charles Davis and Jessie Goree in a dead heat with all but provisional voted counted. Davis is a retired Atlanta Public Schools maintenance supervisor and Goree retired from Clayton County schools as director of an adult literacy program.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools gave Clayton until Sept. 1 to meet nine mandates or lose accreditation.

Candidate Mary Baker garnered the most of the 10 school board candidates vying for the five seats.

"Tomorrow, some rest, and then we get ready for back to school," Baker said Tuesday night. "After that, we'll see what to do next."

Some parents said they were disappointed with the low turnout: Only 13 percent of Clayton's 136,901 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday.

"This is dead," said Katie Hendon, manager of the North Clayton High School precinct. "I thought people would have learned and there would be lines with what's going on in the schools."

As of 4 p.m., only 52 of the 1,493 registered voters at North Clayton had cast ballots, said Hendon, as she and five other poll workers thumbed through magazines in the non-air-conditioned school gymnasium.

For Daphne Buck, voting on Tuesday was one of the ways she can help secure futures for her three children.

"My oldest girl has been having crying spells over accreditation," said Buck, of Jonesboro. "I'm looking for somebody who is going to be consistent and not argumentative on the school board."

Buck's daughter, Chandra, will start her senior year at Jonesboro High School on Thursday and hopes to attend Valdosta State University next year.

"We've been in Clayton 18 years and I don't want to move, but we probably will be forced to," Buck said. "I'll rent a house elsewhere if I need to."

All of the candidates pledged to work to retain the district's accreditation.