Katie Allen ready for new role on Columbia County Board of Education
COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ga. (WJBF) – The Columbia County School Board is getting a new member.
Katie Allen beat incumbent candidate Lee Ann Meyer for the District 4 seat with almost 53% of the votes in Tuesday’s primary election.
As a mother whose kids are students in the district, Allen said she knows firsthand what’s going on in the county’s schools – and is ready to take on the role of making them better.
She holds multiple college degrees in subjects like business management and law. Paired with her military experience, she thinks this will make her an asset on the board.
She’ll be taking over for Lee Ann Meyer, who held the District 4 seat for eight years.
“I think it’s just part of the natural progression,” Allen said. “We’re grateful to those who have served the community before us, but we’re ready to kind of step up and try to fill their shoes and bring a fresh perspective.”
That fresh perspective is part of her “Back to the Basics” campaign slogan, something that voters seem to align with.
“Really just thinking, what can we do across the board to address so many of the issues we’re seeing in these young kids?” Allen said. “And I feel like a great starting place is that solid academic education.”
While Allen hopes to address a range of concerns within the school system and her district, her platform is as simple as ABC – Academics Always, Balanced Budget, Community Commitment.
“It’s not easy, but it’s simple,” she said. “It’s the academics, the budget, and the concerns and I think the starting place is taking that message that reached so many people and brought us all together across all walks of life and putting that message into action, and that’s where we’re going from here.”
Allen vows to remain accessible to constituents.
“I hope the community feels that they can reach out to me and I’ll be continuing to monitor those and respond,” she said.
She will be sworn-in in January.
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