Local & State Headlines

Former teacher to run for vacant BOE seat

• A retired educator takes the plunge and enters the race for the at-large seat on the Dougherty County Board of Education.

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 — As a former teacher and assistant principal, Anita Williams-Brown is no stranger to academics.

About six years ago, she retired from the Dougherty County School System, but she wasn’t able to stay away for long. On Friday, Williams-Brown said she will seek a seat on the Dougherty County Board of Education, a move she’s mulled for two years.

Williams-Brown will vie for the at-large seat that board member Richard H. Anson will vacate. That seat also is being sought by Albany attorney Tommy Langstaff, who announced his candidacy earlier this week.

“There are a lot of changes that I think we need to make here,” said Williams-Brown, 61. “I have some qualifications that I think will enhance the school board.”

Among her “qualifications,” the candidate said that she participated in the America’s Choice (Academic) Coaching Program; she was an assistant principal at then-Dougherty Middle School and Willie J. Williams Middle School in Moultrie; she taught at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, where she also coached basketball and track, and coached basketball at Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C.

Williams-Brown holds two master’s and one doctoral degree in education-related fields.

When it comes to the school board, three of her priorities would be increasing parental involvement, reducing the amount of time children spend on a school bus and improving instruction without raising taxes.

“We are going to have to design some type of assistance, of training, for grandparents,” she said of the trend in which grandparents raise their grandchildren. One example of such training, she said, is something as simple as “how to help with homework.”

As far as transportation, “I think children need to go to school in their neighborhoods. ... They shouldn’t be bused across town,” she said, adding that it would be easier for parents and grandparents to be involved if children attend schools that are closer to home.

Touting her budgeting experience, Williams-Brown said she sees opportunities to enhance education without increasing the millage rate.

“I think we have positions that the school system could do away with,” she said, and supports thinning out management at schools and the system’s administrative office. Also, she said, there’s room to improve efficiency when it comes to school books and school/office supplies.

Williams-Brown admitted that she would prefer not to have competition for the at-large seat. Still, she said, that won’t deter her.

“My focus is on winning so I can help the children,” she said.

“What happens at the Dougherty County School System affects everybody here,” she said. “What we produce from the Dougherty County School System helps the businesses with employment.”

But if she doesn’t triumph in the fall general election, she said, “I will always be a supporter of the school system.”

Williams-Brown is a 1964 graduate of then-Monroe Senior High School in Albany. She has earned degrees from then-Albany State College, American University in Washington, D.C., and Sarasota University. Her daughter is a graduate of Westover High School, and her son-in-law is assistant principal at Lee County High School.

Since 1975, Williams-Brown has owned and operated Anita Williams’ Bookkeeping Service.

Williams-Brown will officially announce her candidacy for school board Tuesday at 5 p.m. at 200 Pine Ave.

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