Four aiming to fill District 5 seat held by Rob Varner

Muscogee County School Board Chairman Rob Varner has decided not to run for re-election, and four Columbus citizens are vying to fill the seat representing District 5.

They are attorney Laurie McRae, attorney Robert Wadkins Jr., former teacher Todd Robinson and retired businessman Pete Taylor.

Three of the candidates met with the Ledger-Enquirer. Taylor answered questions by email.

Laurie McRae

The 42-year-old Laurie McRae is a former vice president for financial and estate planning consultant at Synovus and currently works as an attorney doing contract work in estate planning area.

She is the mother of four children ages 7-14 and has been active in the PTA. She feels this gives her a good sense of what parents and teachers are looking for in the school district.

“Education is the foundation of a community,” she said. “It is my desire to be the voice of a parent on our school board. Running for school board is part of my commitment to my children and the future of Columbus.”

She feels she can be a positive influence on a school board, as was her father, who served on one in another county.

McRae was asked about the role of the school board. “I believe that the board should provide oversight. I also think it is important to trust the people we hire. I don’t have an education background, so I believe it’s important to listen to those who do. As a school board member, I would listen, research and become as informed as I could to make my own decisions without influence.”

McRae says funding is a big issue. “We must spend money wisely. We must use the money to get resources where they need to be. We must listen to the teachers about their needs. I feel like my accounting and corporate experience would help me in analyzing the budget and in making decisions that allocate money wisely.”

She was asked what can be done to help failing schools. “We should look at the resources allocated to the struggling schools and what support they could be given,” she said. “I feel like these schools need increased parent involvement and could be helped by programs like FAST (Families and Schools Together) through the Family Center and agencies such as the Boys & Girls Club and Girls, Inc.”

Todd Robinson

Todd Robinson, 55, is a former Army Ranger with 21 years in military service. Robinson spent eight years as a classroom teacher in Stewart County and saw the graduation rate at Stewart County High School go from 43.5 percent to 85.6 percent while he was there, he said.

“I know what it takes for schools to be successful,” he said.

Robinson believes his experience as an instructor gives him an insight into what teachers need.

He pointed to Columbus High School as a great school. “I want all of our schools to be Columbus High,” he said.

When it comes to failing schools, Robinson said, “We can’t make excuses. We have to come up with remedies.”

He said failing schools should copy some “best practices” from successful schools.

Robinson said when a school is considered failing it is about attendance and disciplinary problems in addition to academics. “It is hard for teachers to teach and discipline at the same time,” he said. “We must minimalize disciplinary problems. Parents need to build a personal relationship with those who educate their children. A teacher must be able to reach out to a parent to find out more about the student.”

Robinson wants the school district to be consistent with policy and procedures and see positive behavior intervention strategies implemented.

As for the school board, he said its role is to set policy and not run the school system. “We hire a superintendent for that,” he said. “As board members, we need to make sure our expectations for the superintendent are met.”

Pete Taylor

Pete Taylor, 63, successfully owned and operated an auto body shop before retiring.

Taylor wrote in an email that the overall goal of providing a quality public education for the 32,000 kids in the system is “job one.”

“There are many challenges facing our school system, the biggest two being the overall academic failure of our school district and also the near total lack of accountability to the taxpaying public,” Taylor wrote.

In his campaign literature, Taylor says if he is elected, the “underappreciated teachers will receive both the respect and pay raise they deserve.”

Taylor also says the school system will end what he calls the “unfair practice of no-bid contracts.”

He said he will see to it that Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax dollars are used to employ local workers and not people who live in other cities and go home on the weekend.

He said the role of the school board is to establish policy for the school district.

Robert Wadkins Jr.

Robert Wadkins Jr., 33, is an attorney who recently became a father.

He sees safety in the schools as a big issue. “I have heard it is a problem,” he said. “If kids are afraid to go to school they will not learn. We must make sure bullying laws are enforced to provide a safer learning environment.”

Another issue that concerns him is inequality among schools.

“Some parents feel it is education by lottery,” Wadkins said. “We need to start talking about the problems and address school inequality in the system.”

He said in his job he comes across many children in trouble who attended failing schools, and that plenty of good kids are falling through the cracks. Wadkins said the school district must make sure the right people are in place to turn those troubled schools around.

The school district must be forward thinking, he said. In order for students here to be competitive in the business and STEM world, a basic understanding of technology is essential, he said, and he proposes the addition of basic computer programming knowledge to the middle school and high school curriculum. “The kids already know how to use computers,” he said. “We must go further than that.”

Wadkins said he is committed to unifying the school board so the students’ best interests are at the forefront of the conversation, and he thinks compromise and unity are important when making decisions regarding the future of the students.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 9:59 AM with the headline "Four aiming to fill District 5 seat held by Rob Varner."