BOE District 6

District 6 for the Bibb County Board of Education comprises Carter, Lane, Springdale and Taylor elementary schools and Howard middle and high schools. The incumbent in this race, Jason Downey, an attorney, is facing two challengers, Valarie Wynn, who works in the insurance industry and Bob Easter a former business owner. Wynn doesn’t feel the schools are producing a quality product anymore. Though she hasn’t attended school board meetings, she plans on retiring this year and will be able to devote time to the position. While reading is a primary focus of Superintendent Dr. Curtis Jones, Wynn is not sure why extra programs are needed to teach children how to read.

Easter, when he retired, didn’t retire, he became certified to teach and he’s taught in public schools and now teaches business at Mercer. He was a co-chair of the Business and Education Partnership, part of the One Macon Plan that recommended — and then financial supported — the “Leader In Me” program at Burdell-Hunt Magnet School and Sonny Carter Elementary School. The partnership also recommended that an independent Citizen Advisory Committee be formed to collect community input for spending ESPLOST money.

Downey is in his first term on the school board. His area of law is mediation and he showed those skills in the first few months of his tenure.

Downey came on the board when it was basically dysfunctional and he can take credit for working through that process. However, it was a bumpy ride. The board took two years to hire Dr. Curtis Jones as superintendent. The system marched in place and the CCRPI (College and Career Ready Performance Index) shows that. And while Downey touts a higher graduation rate, if you take credit, you live with the blame.

The district has 13 schools on the governor’s failing school list. Bibb schools trail the state CCRPI average at every level by nine percentage points or more.

Downey was also one of the main figures who held up — at a very crucial moment — the Kumho Tire deal. The board’s action unnecessarily put at risk a half billion dollars and 400 jobs.

It’s for those reasons we are endorsing Bob Easter for District 6.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "BOE District 6."