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As the primary election approaches on May 17, two candidates for the District 6 seat on the Troup County School Board faced off in a forum on Wednesday. 

Tripp Foster and Miracle Lovelace-Williams will be vying for the District 6 seat, which covers part of West Point. 

Foster, a former Troup County commissioner, owns Foster’s Tree Service in LaGrange. Lovelace-Williams, a nurse practitioner, serves as director of nursing at Chattahoochee Hospice in Valley.

The forum was hosted by the Troup County-LaGrange Chamber of Commerce. Each candidate was given 90 seconds to answer a series of questions, with two minutes for opening and closing remarks. 

The full live stream of the forum can be found on the LaGrange Daily News Facebook page. Below are some of the questions asked and answered during the forum:

 

What strategies would you use to attract, retain and support high-quality teachers/staff in TCSS?

Lovelace-Williams said she hopes for more community engagement and input from current and past employees of the school system on how they can be a more competitive employer. 

“I think that our educators are struggling from conversations that I had with them,” Lovelace-Williams said. “They are struggling, they need breaks, they need some respite time. And if we take care of those people who take care of our children, I think that we’re on the right track.”

“On the school board, it’s about communication, communication, communication,” Foster said. “That must be done. So there’s got to be a great, attractive [pay and benefits] package first of all, and a great recruiting method. Secondly, we’ve got to be able to listen to them and support them in the classroom to retain them.”

 

What are your thoughts on TCSS’s policy on combating gang activity in schools, and is gang activity an issue?

Lovelace-Williams said the school system first needs to identify what they are calling a “gang” and what doesn’t fall in that category. She also said having better mentorship opportunities could benefit students.

“I also think it’s important that we have strong leaders in our school,” Lovelace-Williams said. “What I’ve noticed is that some of our schools lack male figures. I think that it’s important to have male strong figures in our school.”

Foster took the opportunity to acknowledge the Troup County Sheriff’s Office and the LaGrange Police Department for their hard work. He also mentioned the safety improvements that the current BOE has implemented, like the new metal detectors at the schools.

“It’s about establishing a professional business relationship with these students because they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, and they’ve got to know that we care,” Foster said. 

 

What is your vision for preparing our students for success? Whether they go on to college, trade school, or directly into the workforce.

Lovelace-Williams said that it’s important to find out where a student’s interest lies and “meet them where they are.”

“I really appreciate the THINC Academy,” Lovelace-Williams added. “It gives our students the opportunity to explore, to be innovative, to be creative. And I think that we have to meet them right where they are to figure out what they want to do. I think that is very important.”

Foster echoed her on the benefits of the THINC Academy, adding that “a lot of the children that are different types of learners than just reading a book, they’re engaged because of hands-on [activities]. And that keeps them in the system longer because they’re interested. They want to come to school, and they end up learning the trade that can help them be self-sustaining when they come out of high school.”