While many are focused on the U.S. Senate runoff Tuesday, a segment of Richmond County voters have another choice to make – who to represent District 2 on the Richmond County Board of Education.
Incumbent Charlie Hannah, a small business owner, faces in Tuesday’s runoff the Rev. Larry Fryer, a pastor known for his decades of work on Augusta’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration.
Neither garnered more than 50% of votes Nov. 8 in the three-way race with Yiet Knight, although Hannah finished less than half a percentage point behind with 49.56% of votes. Fryer had 33.96%.
Hannah’s two-year term as the board’s elected president ends this year, and he finishes with recognition last week by the Georgia School Boards Association for being an “exemplary board.”
“As a board president, it’s really more about trying to bridge the gaps… and communicating with each individual board member,” Hannah said. “I’ve been complimented on the manner in which I conduct our meetings and how I try to be fair with everybody.”
A significant task coming up next week for the board president is to nominate someone to serve as interim trustee for District 6 until an election can be held in March. The district’s trustee-elect, Tyrique Robinson, committed suicide Nov. 15.
Hannah said he won’t nominate anyone who considering a run for the seat in the special election, and will nominate “somebody that would be disinterested or incapable of seeking that seat.”
Robinson was one of four school board candidates who spoke of change in the system, which the state considers a failing system. Fryer posted a “report card” of those failing grades – mostly Ds and Fs for the seven years prior to COVID 19 interrupting testing since 2020.
Hannah, who ran unsuccessfully for Augusta mayor earlier this year but was not required to resign his school board seat, said a trustee’s role is to “advocate for public education, and not to bash public education.”
“Even though there are challenges in reference to the CCRPI, what they fail to mention is that Augusta-Richmond County is the leader in producing trained vocational technicians,” Hannah said.
Other challenges the system faces include school safety and the loss of good teachers to retirement and resignation, with the majority of those who leave citing student discipline and disrespect as the reason, Hannah said.
Fryer, a former pastor of Trinity CME Church of Augusta and a former parents services coordinator for the school system, said parental involvement is key and he’s reviving an organization he founded in the 1990s, Parents Against Crime.
“I see the issue of making sure our parents and our stake holders and particularly our fathers and men are involved in our schools,” particularly in light of last week’s school shooting hoax and fatal shootings in Atlanta among school-aged teens.
“I have already begun working with persons in law enforcement and working with sitting judges and some business persons, to look at ways in which we can help minimize gun violence and guns in our schools,” Fryer said.
Also critical is keeping good teachers, “making sure our certified teachers are in the schools and are in salaries that they would want to remain there,” he said.
The system faces many challenges, though, Fryer said. “Income inequality, poverty, under-funded public housing, under-resourced public services, under-performing schools, the lack of opportunity, perceptions of homelessness, easy access to firearms by high-risk people and finally, culture shift,” said Fryer.
Richmond County Board of Education trustees are paid $12,000 per year plus a travel allowance.
All polling places in Richmond County will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the runoffs Tuesday.
