Lewis Jones Running For Decatur School Board

Lewis Jones, a lawyer and the chairman of the School Leadership Team at Renfroe Middle School, is running for the District 1 seat on the Decatur School Board.

Marc J. Wisniewski, the chairman of the Decatur School Board for the last two years, announced last month he will not seek re-election to that seat.

In an email, Jones said,

I am running because I want to help the Superintendent make Decatur one of the top ten community school districts in the nation.  I hope to strengthen School Leadership Teams, improve community outreach, promote arts and music, and establish value-added performance standards to ensure that our schools are working as hard as our children.  I also want to help manage the master planning process to ensure it does not distract us from the academic program.  

With five kids in the system, I am totally committed to the City schools, and our own experience has been terrific.  As Chair of the School Leadership Team at Renfroe Middle School, I know that we're doing a great job already, but I also think there's more to be done to get us to the next level.

Another incumbent on the five-member board is not seeking re-election. Valarie Wilson, a board member since 2002 and chairwoman 2005-11, said she is giving up her at-large seat.

Annie Caiola announced on her website that she'll run for Wilson's seat.

Bernadette Seals, the current vice chairwoman of the school board, is running again. Garrett Goebel and Julie Rhame are not up for re-election this year.

For more information about Jones, go to his election website.

Qualifying for local elections takes place the last week in August. The election will be held Nov. 5.