The field of applicants seeking two Columbus Municipal School District board slots continues to get more crowded, with an incumbent and a retired educator now entering the fray.
Currie Fisher has applied for reappointment to the board, as her first 5-year term will expire in March. Former Caledonia school administrator Lee Russell Peeples Sr. has also applied, bringing the total field to seven.
The Columbus City Council must appoint two board members from the applicants, as it must also replace Greg Lewis, who resigned from the board in December after accepting the executive director’s position with the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority. The council appointed Lewis to the board in 2014. His unexpired term runs through March 2, 2019.
City chief operations officer David Armstrong said the council can appoint for both positions on March 3.
The two new applicants join five others — RE/MAX Realtor Stephen Jones, local pastor Willie Petty Sr., Mississippi School for Math and Science foreign language teacher Lori LeVar Pierce, East Mississippi Community College adjunct professor Josie S. Shumake and independent insurance agent Eric Thomas.
Fisher’s term on the board began in March 2010. 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, who was accused of mishandling district funds.
Fisher told The Dispatch she prayed about whether to seek reappointment before making her decision.
“The need is great, and I believe the school board is going in a good direction, as far as following policy and statute,” Fisher said. “I see improvement, and I’d like to continue helping with that if I can…I had to make sure I was still doing what the Lord wanted me to do, which is to do for those who can’t do for themselves. That’s our children.”
Peeples said he retired in 1999 after serving as middle school principal and assistant principal at Caledonia High School. Despite his ties to the county schools, he said both of his children graduated in the 1990s from Columbus High School.
He wants to help the city school district return to better days.
“I would love to see the system become the great system it can become,” Peeples said. “I remember what it was like when my son and daughter went through, and it seemed to be stronger academically.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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