These 4 people aim to join Columbia Public Schools board. Only 2 seats are available
Columbia residents will have another contested decision to make in April for the Columbia Public Schools board.
Up until Tuesday there were two candidates for the two seats. There now are four candidates: Jeanne Snodgrass and James Gordon, who had filed prior to the Dec. 26 deadline, were joined Tuesday by Alvin Cobbins and John Potter.
Potter and Gordon are running again after unsuccessful campaigns last year. Snodgrass is the incumbent and Cobbins, who previously had been interested in running, said he decided to throw his hat in the ring for 2024.
Cobbins' longtime community volunteerism is part of what inspired him to seek a seat on the board, he said.
"I believe in education and I wanted to be a part of the education system," he said. "... A year or two ago, I thought about running. The opportunity presented itself again. I was impressed with former board president James Whitt. I am an avid community volunteer and I look at it as an opportunity to volunteer for an area I think highly on."
In his new attempt for a school board seat, Potter is again calling for more transparency and answers from the school district on test scores and more. He noted his previous efforts to reopen schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and to remove Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ Pride flags.
"I got called a lot of names, but after further investigation, I realized there is a lot going on in the school district that a lot of parents are not aware of that I need to make transparent or get answers on," he said. "Transparency and accountability is the main thing on a lot of sensitive issues."
He aims in this new campaign to bring more people into the campaign who also have concerns about district transparency, Potter said.
"I think we can all agree schools aren't doing good and they aren't being transparent on what caused such poor scores in all different types of areas," he said.
The four candidates will vie for seats held by Snodgrass and Karen Hayes, who was selected in June to fill out the remainder of Katherine Sasser's term. Sasser resigned from the board, stating her intention to move out of state due to the passage of anti-LGBTQ legislation that impacted her family.
Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: These four candidates are running for Columbia school board
