Melvin EdwardsRINGGOLD, Ga. – Instead of textbooks printed on paper, school board candidate Brent Williams thinks the Catoosa County School District should spring for Kindles and iPads for its students.
“It’s expensive,” Williams allowed at a Thursday night candidates’ forum held at the Colonnade Center outside of Ringgold. “It’s money that you’re not going to spend on textbooks … that are out of date before they’re even printed.”
Meanwhile, incumbent Melvin Edwards touted such improvements as the district’s high school graduation rate increasing from 69.4 percent in 2007 to 82.4 percent last year.
Edwards, who’s been in office 14 years, credited a number of initiatives for the improvement, such as a graduation task force, graduation counselors, an industrial certification program and partnerships with Dalton State College and Georgia Northwestern Technical College.
The two men, who are vying for the “at large” seat on the board, took strong stances against bullying.