The Columbus City Council now has three names to consider in filling a pair of vacancies on the Columbus Municipal School District board.
Local teacher Lori LeVar Pierce and independent insurance agent Eric Thomas have entered the fray, according to today’s city council agenda. They join local real estate agent Stephen Jones in vying for the board posts.
The council must appoint someone to replace Greg Lewis, who resigned in December after becoming the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority’s executive director, and fill his unexpired term through March 2, 2019. Council members must also appoint someone to fill the board post Currie B. Fisher now holds, as her term expires March 2 of this year.
Fisher has not yet applied for reappointment and did not return calls or messages for comment.
The agenda says the council, which meets at 5 p.m. today in the municipal complex, can approve CMSD appointments as early as Feb. 3.
Pierce is a foreign language teacher at the Mississippi School for Math and Science who has lived in Columbus for 11 years. She has three children who attend school at CMSD. She said she has been active with the parent-teacher associations at all CMSD campuses and has served on the superintendent’s advisory committee.
“I recognize the role of education in creating a solid economy in Columbus,” Pierce said. “The best thing we can do for our local economy is to provide a quality education for all students.”
Thomas is a Motley High School graduate and has worked as an independent insurance agent since 2007. Before that, he worked as a production supervisor at Bryan Foods in West Point. He has a daughter who attends CMSD.
If appointed to the board, Thomas said he would focus on ways to raise students’ reading levels, as well as the district’s morale and parental involvement.
“The morale of the students and teachers is low,” Thomas said. “It seems to me that everybody is blaming everybody else for problems, be it parents blaming the teachers or teachers blaming the parents. Everybody must be held accountable. That means teachers being held accountable for doing their jobs and parents being held accountable for doing theirs.”
Fisher’s term on the board began in March 2009. She filed a grievance against her fellow board members after they removed her as president in 2013. The board ended Fisher’s presidency after firing former superintendent Martha Liddell.
The council appointed Lewis to the five-person CMSD board in February. He resigned in December after accepting the executive director’s position with the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority. Lewis has worked for CLRA for more than 20 years, serving as program director before being promoted to executive director in October.
Since the school district holds several leases with CLRA, speculation arose whether Lewis’ hire as executive director would constitute a conflict of interest. Columbus Mayor Robert Smith told The Dispatch last month that he didn’t see why there would be a conflict. Still, Lewis gave his letter of resignation to CMSD board president Angela Verdell on Dec. 17.
In other business today, Columbus City Council will consider:
■ reappointing Darren Leach to the Zoning Board of Adjustments and Appeals, as well as reappointing Quinn Brislin and Wythe Rhett to the Planning Commission;
■ promoting two fire engineers to captain, two firefighters to fire engineers and hiring an entry-level firefighter;
■ renewing the Mt. Vernon Mills Lease Continuation Agreement;
■ conducting a hearing on overgrown lots and dilapidated houses.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.