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Oconee County Board of Education Candidates Debate in Forum

Athens Banner-Herald

When it comes to public education, the Oconee County community proved last week that they care just as much about who governs the schools as they do the children within it.

On Thursday, October 4, Oconee Enterprise and the University of North Georgia Oconee’s American Democracy Project hosted a forum for the four candidates of the Oconee County Board of Education election.

The candidates for Post 2 were Amy Parrish (incumbent) and Andrea Wellnitz, and the candidates for Post 3 were Kim Argo (incumbent) and Fran Thompson.

Parrish is a financial advisor who is currently serving on the board of education, and she stated that her experience listening to clients in her financial job has helped her with the board of education. Her challenger, Wellnitz, has spent a number of years working in the field of social work, which she says has given her the opportunity to meet and work with many different people.

Both women also have children in the Oconee County School District.

Argo is a retired teacher from the Oconee County School District and has served three terms on the Oconee County Board of Education. Thompson has been a public school educator for 13 years is currently a school social worker in the Clarke County School District, and like Parrish and Wellnitz, she has children in the Oconee County School District.

During the forum, community members were allowed to ask candidates questions. The major topics covered at the forum were the role that the Board of Education plays in the school system, transparency from the BOE, major hurdles and major successes, and the pressures of state testing on students.

Each of the candidates stated that the Board of Education has many different roles within the school such as setting policy, employing the superintendent, ensuring legal compliance, and determining funds.

“I think the Board can serve, in what my experience has been is, we don’t want to micromanage or get into roles that aren’t ours, but we are a liaison between our constituents and the school system,” Parrish answered.

Following the question about the Board of Education’s roles, one citizen asked how each of the candidates would like to improve the perceived lack of transparency between the board and the community.

Wellnitz’s response relied heavily on her own experiences as a parent trying to get information from the Board of Education.

“It’s a concern when you hear something on social media about something that’s going on in the school, but you’re not hearing it directly from the school,” Wellnitz said.

Argo, likewise, used her experience as a current member of the Board of Education in order to answer the question about the board’s biggest hurdle.

“As far as the biggest challenge, in my opinion, it is growth. We are the most rapidly-growing county in northeast Georgia,” Argo said.

The final question brought the district’s children back to the forefront of the discussion. There was some concern amongst citizens and amongst the candidates themselves that children within the county face too much pressure from state testing.

“Our children are not test scores. Our children are so much more than test scores. That is one of the reasons I decided to run for the Board of Education,” Thompson said.

Regardless of who wins the Board of Education positions in November, Thursday night’s forum made one thing clear: the community and the candidates care deeply about the Oconee County School District.

Election Day is November 6, 2018. The final day to register is Tuesday, October 9, 2018.