Four years ago, Seattle voters swept out a School Board known for fractious, activist politics and installed a new majority of sober, business-minded professionals who had been heavily backed by business.

Now, four years later, the activists are back.

Nearly all of the 11 challengers indict the four incumbents up for re-election for being too sober, for missing signs of a looming financial scandal and for an upswell of frustration among some parents with key policy and curriculum decisions.

They hope to make the upcoming August primary a referendum on former Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson, describing the board as her rubber-stamp.

It was more than symbolic when the board seated Goodloe-Johnson on a dais traditionally reserved for board directors, said challenger John Dunn, a former president of the Seattle teachers union. "This board was defined by the superintendent."

But the four incumbents — Peter Maier in District 1, Sherry Carr in District 2, Harium Martin-Morris in District 3 and Steve Sundquist in District 6 — dismiss the criticism, noting that they fired Goodloe-Johnson in March when a state audit found up to $1.8 million in useless or questionable spending in minority-contracting programs.

They say they reacted decisively, adding new auditing and ethics watchdog functions.

Voting in the Aug. 16 primary is by district, with the top two vote-getters in each race advancing to the citywide general election in November.

That puts neighborhood issues at the fore for now, including the controversy over the firing — then unfiring — of Ingraham High's principal and the 2009 closure of a West Seattle elementary school.

Several challengers verge on being single-issue activists, with several campaigns based on the district's math curriculum. Two have sued the district over math and other issues. A third had an altercation at her son's school over his math instruction.

In 2007, the incumbents collectively raised an unprecedented $500,000 for the unpaid, four-year position, much of it from regional business leaders. They've out-raised the current challengers 10-to-1.

Paul Hill, a University of Washington education professor, said individual School Board directors often pay a price at the ballot box for scandals. That was the case in 2003, when another financial scandal overturned a Seattle School Board that was slow to fire the superintendent.

It's unclear if the current board's quicker firing of Goodloe-Johnson will be enough to save those now up for re-election, he said.

"Whatever faith the community had in the board was shaken by the events," Hill said. "They look vulnerable."

Here's a look at the incumbents and their challengers:

District 1

The incumbent most vulnerable to criticism regarding the audits is likely to be Peter Maier.

He is the only board director to acknowledge seeing a 2009 report flagging serious problems with Silas Potter, the district's facilities employee at the center of the recent financial scandal.

By some estimates, failure to dig in at that point cost the district about $500,000 in contracts that the state auditor later said were either wasteful or questionable.

"I think in retrospect I wish I'd done more. I've learned my lesson," said Maier, a consumer-law attorney.

The board is in the process of adding two new internal auditors and now has two outside experts on its audit committee. It also hired the city of Seattle's respected ethics office to investigate whistle-blower complaints.

One of Maier's opponents, Sharon Peaslee, faults him for giving Goodloe-Johnson a raise in 2009 and a positive performance evaluation in 2010 even as she lost support from teachers and community members. "He is ready to rubber-stamp, but he is not ready to investigate," Peaslee said.

She is among the challengers focused on math, particularly on a high-school math textbook the board adopted in 2009.

A third candidate, John Cummings, was fired last year from his job as a special-education teacher for the district, in part, he said, because he struggled to teach the district math curriculum.

District 6

In January 2009 — after nearly 40 years of steadily falling enrollment in the district — incumbent Steve Sundquist was among a 5-2 majority voting to close five Seattle schools, including the century-old Cooper Elementary in his West Seattle district. The decisive board meeting was raucous with protest and calls for recall of the board.

But the district's enrollment is now rising — albeit by just a few thousand students — and the district is struggling to find seats for all the kids. Sundquist, a wonkish retired Russell Investments executive, now acknowledges he "could have made a different decision" on the school closures.

But he said the current board "inherited a mess" from its predecessor, and the new student-assignment plan and teacher contract represent the board's willingness to work hard.

Joy Anderson, one of Sundquist's three challengers, is a fiery activist who sued the district over the closure of Cooper, her daughter's school. She also participated in suits over the district's new magnet program at Cleveland High and in two unsuccessful petitions to recall Sundquist and other board members.

"What else can you do? If it's a law, they manage to get around it. If it's policy, they ignore or change it," she said of the current board.

Marty McLaren, a soft-spoken retired teacher, also filed to challenge Sundquist after suing the district; for her it was the math curriculum. She said the board enabled what she called Goodloe-Johnson's top-down management and culture of intimidation because board members are disconnected from the community.

A fourth candidate, Nick Esparza, who has worked in food services in Yakima restaurants and briefly in Seattle schools, was rated "not qualified" by the Municipal League of King County.

District 2

Like McLaren, Kate Martin's campaign sprang from the math debate.

In 2009, she was so adamant that her son be assigned a new math teacher at Roosevelt High that school staff had Seattle Police escort her from the building, according to a district incident report. Security staff asked that Martin be permanently barred from the building.

Sherry Carr, the incumbent Martin is challenging, acknowledges some mistakes, including the process to adopt the math textbook, but she disagrees with the challengers' approach.

"The way forward is to work with others. This sort of rugged individualism, pursuing a personal agenda, ensures instability and discontinuity at the top," said Carr, a former district PTSA president.

Another of Carr's challengers, University of Washington business-school lecturer Jack Whelan, is a strong opponent of the education-reform movement and advocates backing off on student-assessment testing.

"Education reform is just Republican talking points for school privatization," Whelan said.

A fourth candidate for Carr's seat, Mark Weber, was under supervision by the Department of Corrections in the early-1990s for an out-of-state check-fraud charge. He was rated "not qualified" by the Municipal League of King County.

Another challenger, Terrence Menage, suspended his candidacy.

District 3

With two strong challengers, incumbent Harium Martin-Morris faces criticism for his vote to allow high-school students to graduate with a D average and for failing to heed warnings about problems in the minority contracting programs.

But he, like other incumbents, says the board's shift away from the previous boards' "splintering, fractious approach" is progress. "To move the district ahead, you need a certain level of professionalism, collaboration, of stability," he said.

Cohesion is fine, said challenger Michelle Buetow, but the current board is hands-off. "The administrative staff have been driving the board for years, but the board needs to be driving their vision to the staff," said Buetow, a marketing consultant.

John Dunn, the challenger who believes the board was too influenced by Goodloe-Johnson, emphasizes his 45-year teaching experience in Seattle schools, including his four-year stint as head of the teachers union. He notes that the district never regained the 30 minutes trimmed from the elementary-school day after the district's 1975 levy failure.

He doesn't expect the city education levy on the November ballot to fail but finds parent frustration at a similar level as in 1975. "People at that time felt they weren't being listened to. Money wasn't being spent well. There wasn't transparency and accountability," he said. "It feels like one of those times now."

A fourth challenger, David Blomstrom, did not respond to an interview request.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com