Candidate for vacant Fayette County school board seat withdraws application. Here’s why

One of the four applicants the Fayette County school board was considering to fill a vacant representative seat confirmed Tuesday that he had withdrawn because his employer has a contract with the school district.

Jamie Jackson told the Herald-Leader he had to withdraw on Jan. 6 from consideration to represent District 1 because his employer is under contract with Fayette County Public Schools, creating a “conflict.”

In a text, Jackson said his only other option to stay under consideration was to resign from his employment.

“I work for the Klausing Group. A landscaping company here in Lexington. We have maintenance contracts with FCPS which were in place prior to my employment starting last August. 8/1/22,” he said in the message.

In response, district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said Tuesday: “Mr. Jackson asked to rescind his application for the District 1 vacancy.”

School board members want to select a new board member for the 1st District seat by Jan. 27 as required under a new state law. Recent changes in state law have made local school boards responsible for filling vacancies on their panel. The seat became vacant when Christy Morris resigned in late November saying she wanted to spend more time with her family.

The three remaining candidates, Marilyn Clark, Edward “Alex” Dixon and William Swope, all answered questions from students at a forum.

One question was:

“How do you define diversity? What are your thoughts on providing an equitable education to each student...?

Here are the applicants edited answers.

Swope: If you don’t have diversity...oftentimes those individuals are left out of the conversation. ..If you don’t have a seat at the table, your voice isn’t being heard. So I believe in inclusion and diversity. I think that it makes for a well- rounded conversation and understanding of thoughts, ideas, and where our students may be.

Clark: Inclusion and equity is what I think we need to work towards. Inclusion is really having a seat at that table, people having a voice. But equity is really about giving each student what they need to be successful. So I have two children and what one child needed versus what the other child needed was almost like night and day, and they’re in the same household. So you can imagine teaching a class and you have to think about equity. So equity in terms of where a student is with what they’re learning, where they are mentally, where they are physically. There’s a lot that goes into equity, and I think that’s what we strive for.

I know here we have diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. And so the data and the research around belonging is really, really critical because when someone doesn’t feel like they fit in or they don’t belong, then a lot of the other work that you want to do with that student or with that person ... it gets shut down.

I totally believe that it is crucially important to the district to really take a look at how each student is doing regardless of their backgrounds.

Dixon:

Diversity for me goes beyond just looking at what we can see. Diversity to me is to take into account everybody’s unique traits that make them them. Growing up, something I’ve always struggled with being biracial, is identity. I’ve never had a biracial teacher. My first black teacher was my second grade teacher, and I never had one since. It’s really important for me to look out and see people that look like me who have had experiences like me, and at the same time meet other people who have had other experiences, people who have lived a different life than I’ve lived to get that broader world view.

As far as Fayette County schools, I think it’s really important to make our school board diverse, obviously, but to make sure that the kids see themselves and the people that are teaching them, that they see themselves in the staff members.

This is a developing story.