Houston Co. BOE candidate reinstated after disqualification

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Editor’s note: The video attached to this story is from previous coverage.

Just days after disqualifying a school board candidate, the Houston County Board of Elections reversed course Wednesday.

In a unanimous vote, the Board of Elections agreed to reinstate Clyde Jackson in the Houston County School Board Position 7 runoff. This means Jackson will face Angel Brown in the June 18 runoff.

Jackson, a longtime principal and coach who has since retired, was excluded from the ballot Tuesday because Georgia law does not allow a school board member to have an “immediate family member” who is a school administrator. school or administrative staff.

Jackson’s wife, Traci Jackson, is a retired principal but still works for the district as a part-time coordinator for district and school effectiveness. According to a district spokesperson, she earns $68,208 in this role.

She describes this position as helping teachers reach their full potential.

But during a brief emergency meeting Wednesday, Houston County Attorney Tom Hall said there were problems with how the election board handled the disqualification vote.

For starters, Hall said the challenge wasn’t submitted on time and these issues were raised during the qualifiers, but the board didn’t put it in writing. Instead, the problems arose after Houston County voters had already sent Jackson to a runoff election.

“If the Board felt strongly enough about this issue, they should have done something – and they didn’t,” Hall said.

Jackson and his family appeared relieved after the vote came back in their favor, embracing supporters who showed up to the meeting to show their support.

The Georgia law that the board initially disqualified Jackson prohibits a school board member from having an immediate family member serving “as a local school superintendent or as a principal, assistant principal or administrative staff of the local school system,” the law states. .

But Jackson told 13WMAZ on Wednesday that made no sense to her since she chose to leave the administration.

“That’s the first thing I said was, ‘When I come out of administration, I don’t want to do anything from an administrative standpoint,’” she said.

His position within the school district is 49%. Because she is a retired educator, the amount of work she can do during retirement is limited. However, if she were full-time, her position would pay her a salary of $142,000, according to the district.

13WMAZ’s Anthony Montalto was at the election board reversal and explains why the board reversed course. Watch this story on WMAZ News at 11 p.m.