3 seek Monroe County District 6 school board seat

For the first time in 16 years, voters in Monroe County will be electing a new school board member in District 6.

The departure of Tammy Fletcher, who expects to be moving out of the district, brings three fresh faces to politics: Wesley Cone, Stuart L. Pippin and Virgina B. Wilcox. Michael Turner qualified and will be on the ballot, but he withdrew his candidacy.

All three have close ties to Monroe County schools.

Cone, a Forsyth native, not only attended kindergarten through 12th grade in his hometown, but his wife, Kasey, is a first-grade teacher at T. G. Scott Elementary.

Pippin, who also is from Monroe County and attended Monroe County Middle School in between elementary and high school at the now-defunct Monroe Academy, has a 6-year-old in kindergarten and a 2-year-old. He not only is married to a teacher at Rutland Middle School in Macon, but his mother was a teacher and his brother is a coach.

Wilcox, an educator who grew up in Macon, has had three children in all levels of Monroe County schools over the past eight years. With a doctorate in education from Auburn University, she prepares Wesleyan College students for the classroom as the chairwoman of the education department at the women’s college. “I’m not only familiar with being a classroom teacher, but what it takes to hire and retain one,” Wilcox said. “I think I have the full circle.”

Her first foray into politics is a way of “giving back,” she said.

Pippin has a special place in his heart for the political arena. He met his wife while he was volunteering on the Mac Collins for Congress campaign several years ago. With 17 years in banking, Pippin said his financial expertise gives him the necessary skills to protect the investment of property owners who contribute 59 percent of their property taxes to the school system. “I don’t really want to go in there and start cutting rates, but I think we should hold the line,” Pippin said. “If we’re asking for nearly 60 percent of the taxes, we should be out there engaging more with the public.”

Cone, a managing associate with the Piedmont Group and an ordained minister who coaches Little League, has been married a little more than a year and does not have children of his own, but says he has “a lot of kids” in Monroe County schools. He said teachers should not only prepare students for graduation, but also instill necessary life skills beyond high school, such as how to handle job interviews. “They have three choices — no school, trade school or university,” Cone said. “Our goal should be to develop these students to their highest potential to be the best they can be for our community and our country.”

Fletcher, the incumbent, is endorsing Cone, whom she thinks will do a “phenomenal job” because “his heart’s in it.”

This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 5:17 PM with the headline "3 seek Monroe County District 6 school board seat."