Foster looks to fix Polk School District issues if elected in November
Local school board candidate James "J.P." Foster is certain about one thing: the way the school board has operated over the past several years has not always been in step with com- munity expectations.
He can point to several instances where decisions have been made that have been questionable, to be sure. His one overriding issue, and what got him into the race was the choice back in June following the May primaries to immedi-ately announce the replacement for retiring superintendent Dr. william Hunter.
"I submit they could have taken some action in regards to his involvement with Polk School District immediately," Foster said. "And in the same meeting, there was an announcement there was someone to succeed him. I didn't attack the individual who was named to succeed him, I attacked the process or lack thereof... It wasn't fair, open or transparent. It may be 100 percent legally right, but I submit to you it's not ethically or morally right."
He said due to the decisions of the board thus far including the June approval of Dr. Darrell Wetherington as the super-intendent in waiting, he said that morale has gone down in the school district, thus being one of the many reasons why teacher retention has gone down over the year.
Foster, a former Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent and now local business owner, got into the race in July as an in-dependent candidate for the District 3 race against Scottie Worthington, who narrowly defeated challenger Michael Gravett in the May Republican Primary.
He said that he has close connections to Polk School District, namely his sons Matt being a teacher at Northside Elementary School (and also a Cedartown City Commissioner) along with his youngest in high school now.
After living for four years in Colombia, which he said was a "fantastic experience" with his wife who worked with federal authorities, he returned to Cedartown and eventually started YA Delivery Service patterned after businesses running down in Colombia.
"It's gone over well," he said.
A third son was also the product of Polk School District and lives in Atlanta, Foster said.
Foster said back in a September interview that "eight weeks ago no one would have ever seen my name in politics," and that the June board meeting made up his mind to run.
Among the areas Foster hopes to engage in if he's elected in November include solving the teacher retention issues, among others.
"I immediately want to be a part of a board that helps set the tone that teachers will be respect- ed, that they will be valued, that they will not be intimidated or retaliated against," Foster said. "I think we have many administrators that are in place that would share that. If we don't, we have a real big issue. I believe if you have a teacher that isn't performing to their duties or capabilities, OK. There are things that can be done to encourage or help that individual instead of making it so much of a burder for him or her to show up to work. This district has lost many educators who have gone to different districts."
He also added that he felt that ultimately the students are the ones who are losing out in Polk School District with the problems that have come about with "a purge of teachers out of this district over the past 3 years."
"I want to be part of a dynamic school district, and I've had several people say 'it's been like this, it's not going to change,'" he said. "And my question is, why does it have to be this way? I want to be part of a district where the bar is raised instead of lowered. This retesting in order to manipulate the graduation rates is joke."
“I don’t think we’ve done ourselves any service by touting our graduation rates here in Polk School District,” he added.