Gilmer County Citizens Send Message to BOE

On Tuesday July 31st, the citizens of Gilmer County sent the Board of Education (BOE) a clear mandate after all three of Gilmer County’s BOE Incumbents in the election were voted out of their positions: Post 1 Incumbent Michael W. Parks replaced by James Waters, Post 2 Incumbent Kathy W. Jones replaced by James Parmer, and Post 3 Incumbent Foster MacArthur replaced by Angie Thomas. Based on the results from the 2012 July Election, the number one issue of better communication between the BOE and the Gilmer County citizens, mostly in the area of making major decisions, like purchasing property or making major educational changes, seems to be the main reason for the incumbents’ losses.

In April, the BOE made a decision to deny Oakland Academy Charter School’s (OACS) charter application, an application that would reopen Oakland Elementary School as a charter school, after first closing the school last May due to financial constraints which would cause more students to attend Ellijay Elementary School.

Isaac Lassiter, Chairman and member of the Founding Board of the charter school, said in an official statement from OACS after the election,

“With the election completed, the results are generally pleasing to the Founding Board of OACS and our charter school movement. The three new BOE members have expressed a willingness to listen to the charter school petition, learn about what it means to Gilmer County, and make the best decision based on their own determination. This objective approach will be a welcome change.”

This type of belief, including better communication by the BOE, seemed the main reason, along with a drop in CRCT scores, that the incumbents were defeated.

Recently, according to the Georgia Department of Education CRCT 2012 scores, there was also a considerable drop for both 3rd and 4th graders in the Math portion of the test compared to 2011. This certainly did not help things for the incumbents voted out on Tuesday night.

Perhaps the simplicity of the outcome of the election can be summed up in a single quote from BOE Post 3 winner Thomas,

“I’m not a politician. I’m just a mom and I want to do what’s right for our children,”

a quote Thomas repeatedly said during her campaign.

Even after winning on election night, Post 2 BOE winner Parmer, in a comment to FYN, still stressed the importance of communication by saying he looked forward to working hard to putting the citizens of Gilmer County and the BOE back together and having the citizens more involved.

So what does this mean for the BOE?

FYN talked with current board members Gary Hyde and Michael Bramlett, two of the five remaining BOE members returning in January, about what it would be like to work with the three new members.

When asked if he felt he would be able to work with the new board members, Hyde said,

“I’m hoping we will be able to work well together. I know we [the current board] made a lot of difficult decisions. It has been a great experience working with them and we worked well together. We had to bring the system through some really hard times. I’m hoping that we can do the same with the next. We will just have to wait and see how they are going to be on the board and see what their goals are. I’m willing to work with people if it’s in the best interest of the students.”

Hyde also told FYN that he never understood the argument about the lack of communication and that the school system is working under the very same policies that have been in place for at least 20 years, adding that it has never been an issue. He went on to say he felt like Gilmer County’s current policy is a lot more liberal than the policies of some of the surrounding counties.

“I’ve always felt that if something is broken that we can fix it. I’m willing to work towards that. I’m not convinced that the way we do things is broken. I just don’t understand that particular argument,”

said Hyde.

Lastly, when asked if there was a chance Mrs. Jones could be replaced as chair if she resigned before her current term was up, Hyde said that he didn’t think that would happen.

“We have always tried to do things the right and correct way…I don’t think any of us would ever want to do that. I certainly wouldn’t want to do it. I think Kathy will serve out her term as Chairperson at the end of this calendar year. I think it’s only fair that the next board elects a Chairperson to continue on,”

said Hyde.

When asked the same questions, Bramlett told FYN after being on the school board for 22 years that he had worked with a lot of people and, although he didn’t know all the candidates, he had five months to get to know them before they started their new job. Bramlett also said when it comes to compromising on issues of communication that he would be willing to work with the new members, but he would not compromise the way he feels and his ideas based on his 22 years of experience of being on the school board. As for the chance of current Chairperson Jones resigning from her position, Bramlett said,

“I would bring nobody in to act as an acting chair. We would have to choose Mr. Parks to fulfill that job. He would just move as assistant chair to the chairperson.”

One last thing FYN wanted to know about the current school system was how Bryan Dorsey, Superintendent for Gilmer County Schools felt about the news that three of the current BOE incumbents had lost their positions. In an email to FYN this morning, Dorsey said,

“It has been a pleasure to work with each of the current board members, and I admire the efforts they put forth providing the resources toward continued improvement while facing the difficult challenges the economy is placing on our system.”

When asked what the transition would be like working with the new board members, Dorsey said,

“I have been blessed to work with many great board members over my career and look forward to working with the newly selected members. I’m sure they will each offer strengths that will provide additional insight to meet the needs of our students, staff, and community.”

The citizens of Gilmer County have sent the BOE a firm mandate that they wish to have followed, but the question is will the structure of the BOE according to the mandate from the citizens of Gilmer County turn out to be the results they are looking for?