A fifth applicant is seeking appointment to the Columbus Municipal School District’s board.
Local pastor Willie Petty Sr. has submitted his name for consideration, according to today’s Columbus City Council agenda posted online. The council must appoint two members to the board and can make those appointments as early as March 3, according to city Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong.
The council will meet at 5 p.m. today in the municipal complex for its regular session.
Petty, 59, has pastored Jerusalem Baptist Church in Columbus for 28 years. He said he worked as a teacher in Missouri for eight years before moving to Columbus in 1987. He taught one semester in Columbus schools and has served as a substitute teacher ever since.
Both of Petty’s children graduated from Columbus High School, and Petty said he had been a foster parent for several years.
“I’m familiar with children and the aspects of what they need,” Petty said. “I’m not happy with the way things are being done (at CMSD), but I don’t feel like I can make it change unless it changes from the top.”
Petty unsuccessfully sought appointment to the CMSD board in 2014. He joins four other applicants — RE/MAX Realtor Stephen Jones, Mississippi School for Math and Science foreign language teacher Lori LeVar Pierce, East Mississippi Community College adjunct professor Josie S. Shumake and independent insurance agent Eric Thomas.
The council must replace Greg Lewis, who resigned from the board in December after accepting the Columbus-Lowndes Parks Authority’s director’s position. His unexpired term runs through March 2, 2019. Councilmen also must appoint someone to the seat currently held by former board president Currie Fisher, whose five-year term expires March 2. Fisher has not applied for reappointment.
In other business today, the council will consider:
■ a resolution in support of financial incentives for additional air service at Golden Triangle Regional Airport;
■ advertising for exterior repairs and window replacements at city hall;
■ awarding a contract to the lowest bidder for obstruction removal at Columbus-Lowndes Airport;
■ hiring a police officer;
■ approving budget amendments for fiscal year 2014.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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