A former Columbus Municipal School District official has entered the running for an appointment to the district’s board.
Yvonne B. Cox is a former special education teacher and administrator. Her son is a CMSD graduate. She told The Dispatch she’s seeking the post because she is concerned about CMSD.
“I’ve lived in Columbus for over 20 years now,” Cox said. “I’m not going to go by hearsay, but things in our district need to come up to par. I have questions of what has happened to the legacy of our district. Columbus has been known for many years as standard of excellence in education in our state.”
Cox began working for the district in the early 1990s as a special education teacher at Union Academy, then at Cook Elementary School. She worked for eight years as the district’s assistant director for special education. In 2006, Cox began working as the West Point School District’s special education services director. She has also served on advisory panels for the state’s special education department.
Cox retired in June 2016. She now works as an independent education consultant.
With her application, Cox will seek the seat of current board member Jason Spears. Spears has served on the board since 2012, and applied at the beginning of the month for a second five-year term.
Cox said she’d like to focus on several areas, such as community and parental involvement with the district. One of the most important areas to her, she said, is teacher enhancement and motivation.
“You enhance teachers to want to stay in your district and excel,” she said. “You want to motivate teachers to want to teach our children from all walks of life–that includes students with disabilities. Whatever their race is, whatever their religion, a child is a child. Parents sent the best they have to the schools to be educated.
“Teachers have to be motivated to love teaching,” she said. “You have to love what you’re doing in order to have a positive impact on a young life.”
Cox also said she wants to look at the district’s curriculum and work to improve matters such as the dropout rate.
“My vision is that children come first,” she said. “In every decision we make, we have to think about what’s best for the children, and we’ll do what’s right.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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