Green launches Muscogee County School Board re-election campaign

Muscogee County School Board vice chairwoman Pat Hugley Green on Tuesday launched her re-election campaign to remain the District 1 representative.

Green, an insurance agent, is in her 12^th year on the nine-member board. Two retired educators, Al Stewart and Joann Thomas-Brown, seek to keep her from a fourth four-year term. The nonpartisan election day is May 24; early voting starts May 2.

Green spoke to about two dozen supporters in the office of State Farm insurance agent Carolyn Hugley, where Green is the student mentor coordinator. Green also is the administrative officer for Hugley’s Facility Management Janitorial Service. Hugley, a Columbus representative in the Georgia Legislature, is Green’s sister-in-law, married to Green’s brother, Columbus city manager Isaiah Hugley.

“We hear a lot of campaign rhetoric out there, and the lay person may not understand,” Green told the gathering. “But what I want you to know is that education today is different. … It has changed since my children started school. So it’s important that we keep my message out there, that I’m allowed to go back and continue to serve, because I am abreast of the current changes.”

Green’s message contains an objection to the term “failing” schools. Ten of Muscogee County’s 53 schools have been stuck with that label since last year, when the legislature approved Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposal to put a constitutional amendment on the November 2016 ballot that would create an Opportunity School District, allowing the state to take over 20 failing schools per year and control as many as 100 at a time.

The Muscogee County School District took another hit to its reputation last fall, when the state released results of the new and tougher standardized exams, the Georgia Milestones Assessment System. Three-fourths of MCSD’s schools scored below the state average passing rate.

“The measurement is brand new,” Green said about the Georgia Milestones that first were taken last spring. “You’ve got to have three years of data in order to see a trend. So to call a school failing, to say that our teachers are failures, to say that our parents and students are failures is unacceptable, for me.

“What they are, are hardworking. What they are, they’re committed. What they are, they are the puzzle masters, the Lego masters. They’re building our new foundation. They’re building our new future. And we should applaud them for that.”

Green insists the community must partner with its schools.

“We should come together and reach out to parents and help parents understand, ‘OK, you have a part to do now. Get them to school on time, because that’s a part of the new measurement,’” she said. “We’ve got to work together to encourage parents, ‘When you send them off to school, make sure they understand there are rules and you’ve got to follow them. You’re going to do what the adults tell you to do.’ That’s what we have to do.”

The Ledger-Enquirer interviewed Green before her speech. Reflecting on what she has brought to the board, she is most proud of “being able to collaborate with different government entities, with my colleagues, in order to stay focused and keep the main thing the main thing as we do the work for public education that we need to do.”

Asked to be more specific, Green said, “I really try to be a voice for our most precious resource, the children. I try to be a voice for their parents, a voice for the employees.

“I just try to keep focused on our purpose, our role as a board member, which is to govern, which is a legislative function, and I try to be that liaison between the community and the school board, the city and the school board, so that we can work collaboratively and stay focused on our ultimate goal, which is making this a better city. We’re turning out the workforce from our public school system, and we want to just stay focused on those efforts to make sure our children are prepared to compete globally.”

Asked for evidence of a positive impact from her leadership, Green said Rigdon Road Elementary and Carver High would have been renovated instead of replaced if she hadn’t spoken up for the construction of new buildings for those schools.

“It was the right thing to do,” she said. “It was just a matter of working collaboratively with the board, with my colleagues, in order to see the need there.”

Green said she had a similar influence on Fort Middle School. It is the district’s lone middle school without a regulation basketball court, but it is scheduled to receive a new gym. Her constructive relationship with the district’s administration helps make such projects possible, she said.

“I’m fortunate that they’re willing to answer my questions,” Green said. “I’m never combative or have any kind of agenda but just, ‘How does this work and how we can improve it?’”

Other accomplishments she listed on the flyer at her campaign launch include fighting for pay raises for all school district employees, for which the administration has promised to plan, and initiating the policy that requires guidance counselors to meet with all students and their parents or guardians to discuss career and graduation eligibility.

As for why District 1 residents should vote for her and not her opponents, Green said, “I have the experience of being a school board member, which is a legislative function that neither one of them has.”

Board members must “stay in your lane,” Green said, crediting her mother for giving her that advice.

“We have the professional educational leaders in place to guide the day-to-day, to execute the day-to-day, and the day-to-day operation is absolutely not a board function,” she said.

Green, 49, graduated from Central High School of Phenix City in 1985. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Johnson C. Smith University and a master’s degree in strategic leadership from Tennessee State University. Her son and daughter attend Forrest Road Elementary School. Her husband, Kevin Green, is a firefighter.

Among her community activities, Green does volunteer work through Franchise Missionary Baptist Church and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, where she serves on the social action committee.

Green’s campaign manager is Isaiah Hugley Jr.; her campaign treasurer is Crystal Shahid.

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Green launches Muscogee County School Board re-election campaign."