Current Board Vice President Frederick Sparks submitted his application Wednesday for reappointment to the Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees.
He is the third applicant for the post this cycle.
Trustees are appointed by the Columbus City Council to serve five-year, staggered terms with one seat coming up for reappointment each year. The five-member board oversees the district, which serves roughly 3,080 students with 590 teachers and support personnel.
Sparks’ current term on the board expires March 5. The council will appoint an applicant to the seat Feb. 20.
Sparks, a graduate of Caldwell High School, earned his bachelor’s degree from Mississippi University for Women and is the postmaster for the Caledonia Post Office.
He was first appointed in 2016 to complete the term of Stephen Jones, who was elected as Ward 5 city councilman. Since then, he said, the board has seen the district through many changes, including the tornado damage that destroyed the Hunt school building in 2019 and improving to a C in the Mississippi Department of Education’s Accountability Ratings in 2022, following a 13-year stretch as a D-rated district.
If reappointed, Sparks said he wants to work for an even better accountability score as well as stemming CMSD’s falling enrollment.
“I’m also concerned with the number of students we currently have in the district,” he said. “We’re starting to stabilize, but when I first came on, we had more students in the district than we currently have. Of course, accountability (ratings) will probably help with that.”
School safety and quality education will also be priorities for Sparks if reappointed, he said.
“As a parent and citizen of Columbus, I believe all students should be afforded a high quality education,” Sparks said in his application.
Two other applicants, Beverley Odom and James Richardson, are also vying for the board spot. Odom is a graduate of CMSD with experience both as a classroom teacher and an administrator. Richardson is also a CMSD graduate and former district employee.
The deadline to apply is noon Feb. 14.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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