Local & State Headlines

Mother, teacher running for seat 3

• A woman whose family has been in politics for years hopes to also enter public service.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

OPEN BOE SEATS The Dougherty County Board of Education districts up for re-election this fall are: District 1, held by David Maschke District 3, held by Judge Willie C. Weaver District 5, held by the Rev. James C. Bush At-large, held by Richard H. Anson

ALBANY — Touting her experience as a mother of three Dougherty County School System students and her time spent as a substitute teacher, Velvet Edwards-Riggins announced her candidacy Thursday for the District 3 seat on the Dougherty school board.

The seat is currently held by Judge Willie C. Weaver, who earlier this year announced his run for a Dougherty County Superior Court judgeship.

“I can, I will be a part of the solution,” said Edwards-Riggins, field executive for the Girl Scouts of Southwest Georgia, Thursday.

Edwards-Riggins, the daughter of Dougherty County Commissioner Muarlean Edwards and sister of former county commissioner Victor Edwards, made her announcement surrounded by family and friends and with the support of Albany City Commissioner Jon Howard.

“She’s young, she’s energetic, she has children in the Dougherty County School System,” said Howard, who represents the city’s Ward 1. “We need to take the school system to another (level) and be competitive ... and create more Schools of Excellence.”

The board’s third district overlaps some with Howard’s district, he said. Issues that those districts face include high dropout rates, truancy and low adult involvement.

“We’ve got to make sure that we get more parental involvement,” Howard said. “Too many of our children come to school half-prepared.”

Edwards-Riggins, 38, said, among other things, that she wants to improve student education through better communication, and pointed to a time in her daughter’s life when a breakdown in communication had academic implications.

Since working through the issue, which involved some modifications in how information was presented to Edwards-Riggins’ daughter, a freshman at Albany High School, “everything has been great.”

Edwards-Riggins is an AHS band and basketball team booster, is involved with the Parent Teacher Organization and participates in Read Across America at Albany Middle School.

She is a 1987 graduate of Dougherty Comprehensive High School and later attended Claflin College in South Carolina from 1987-1991. She played basketball for both schools.

Edwards-Riggins said she’ll officially qualify Monday at 9:30 a.m.

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