City council moving closer towards picking new school board member
MADISON – The Madison City Council is getting closer to making a decision on who will be the next school board member for Madison City Schools. The chosen candidate will replace school board member Connie Spears, who has been on the board for ten years.
The city council held a work-session Wednesday evening to interview four candidates, Kim Bowen, Scott Edwards, Greg Hulsey and Alice Lessman. Three are CEOs of local companies, while one is a former educator for the Madison City Schools.
Bowen retired last year from teaching at Rainbow Elementary School. An educator with more than 25 years of experience, Bowen is a National Board Certified Teacher and a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching finalist for math.
Bowen said she has a passion for kindergarten and elementary grades due to her career as an elementary teacher. “We tend to start at the top and push down, but your house is only as strong as your foundation,” Bowen told the city council members during her interview. “Sometimes you need to start at the bottom and build up.”
Bowen added she would like to see stronger support and resources for the school district’s youngest learners. “I would like to see that happen so kids can start advance classes as young as fourth grade,” she said.
Edwards is the president and owner of Summit 7 Systems. He attended the United States Military Academy and served as an officer in the US Army Signal Corps with both the 2-227th Aviation Battalion in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the 1-6 Air Defense Artillery Battalion in Fort Bliss, Texas. He has previously worked at NASA as a senior computer engineer and the Chief Engineer and Engineering Manager for the NASA Datacenter.
Adding more skills-based training for students who want to go straight into the workforce after high school is a top priority with Edwards. “As our school system grows I think we are going to get more of those type of students, especially when you get the Mazda-Toyota plant coming in, you are going to have more students looking for those technical skill jobs,” Edwards said.
Alice Lessman is another business owner seeking to become the next school board member. She is the CEO of Signalink, Inc., a Madison-based company she owns with her husband Steve.
Lessman is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Alabama Army National Guard, and a Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner. She has recently served on the Madison City Schools Growth Committee in 2017. The committee looked at future growth projections for the school district and made recommendations to handle it.
The committee’s report indicated the school system could overcrowd soon if action is not taken. It has been the basis for a proposed plan by Superintendent of Education Robby Parker to build two new schools and expand the high schools. The school district is seeking a property tax increase this year to pay for the project.
“We really have to get that property tax passed (for the schools),” Lessman said. She said growth and schools go hand-in-hand.
Hulsey is the CEO of Maynor & Mitchell Eye Center / Eye Surgery Center of North Alabama. He was previously the director of practice and analysis and improvement for Children’s of Alabama, and he served on the school district’s capital finance planning committee in August.
“Growth is a challenge for us, because we want to provide the best for our children, and we should,” Hulsley told the city council members. He said keeping the schools performing at the extremely high level is a top priority. He said if chosen he would advocate looking at new ways to enhance it to an even higher level.
Madison City Council appoints one school board member every year, with all members serving a five-year term. The city council is expected to make a decision at the next council meeting on Monday, May 13.
