Clarke County School District Board of Education President Dr. LaKeisha Gantt stands in front of Clarke Central High School on Feb. 17. Gantt spent most of her first term working on the Board, itself, but she hopes to take a different direction in the future. “I need to spend more time with families in these communities, and so that is the most important thing that I look forward to, I want to be in people’s living rooms and on their porches. I want to be where they are, if it’s at the barbershop, if it’s at church, if they’re in the grocery store, I want to spend time with people.” Photo by Aza Khan
CCSD Board of Education President Dr. LaKeisha Gantt speaks on her time on the Board of Education, what has been accomplished and goals for the future.
Journalism I student Henry Abbe: What originally got you interested in serving on the Board of Education?
Clarke County School District Board of Education President Dr. LaKeisha Gantt: I’ve always felt compelled to advocate for students. That’s really what got me interested and I started to feel that there was a disconnect as we were working on discipline. We saw that there were significant disparities between how and who was punished, how often they were punished, and for what reasons they were punished for. There was often a disconnect between the student and the school, or the student and the teacher, the teacher and administrators, or the parents and administrators which then made me wonder, there probably is a disconnect between the policymakers or the Board of Education, and all of these stakeholders.
HA: Does being a psychologist affect you as a board member?
LG: One person told me this when we were going through really stressful times, they (said), ‘You are not the board psychologist,’ And for some reason when I heard that I was like, ‘You’re right.’ And maybe I’ve been trying to operate like (a psychologist), coming in and listening and fixing and validating feelings and things like that, and there’s a place for that. At the same time, we are tasked with the job, we have work to do, and we have to take action on things. So, I think it has impacted how I lead.
HA: What is it like serving on the Board of Education?
LG: It is probably one of the harder things that I have done. But it’s all done, or most of it is done under a microscope. And so it’s a lot of things. It’s rewarding. It’s challenging. It’s overwhelming. Sometimes it’s frustrating. It’s empowering. It is exciting. It’s difficult. It’s all of those different things at any given time. It’s been a learning experience, we’ve navigated some pretty trying times over the past four years, including parting ways with a superintendent, navigating our Cognia reviews, as well as COVID. And so it has been trying at times. But I think it’s made me stronger. I think it’s made my board colleagues stronger as well.
HA: What accomplishments have you gotten out of those trying times?
LG: So we’ve spent a lot of hours with professional development or in professional development, focused on how to become a stronger board, how to become a healthier board, how to become a better board, and I think any governing body should do that any group, we should always be looking at ways that we can continuously improve. We have acquired space and moved into a new Board Office, which then gave the (Athens Community) Career Academy more space to expand its programs, as well we’ve opened a headstart on the east side. These are things to me that mean something. And that’s just more at the board level. There are so many good things happening in our schools as well. But yeah, as a board, I think we have tried to be sure that we make decisions that overall positively impact students.
HA: What are your goals for the future and your next four years?
LG: I am looking forward to spending time listening in our communities with people who are typically unheard. In my first term, I had to be a different board member, right? We were navigating a lot of different crises and putting out fires and one thing that became apparent to me is that equity is important, but not just racial equity. There are students that are differently abled, there are students who identify as LGBTQ students who are racial minorities, (students) where language may be a barrier, (students) who are experiencing poverty. I want to spend time with (these) people so that I can be sure I’m advocating for people who are unheard and whose voices are often either left out or who may not have the capacity given their work-life balance, the time, or the privilege to show up at the meetings that we’re at. So, out of all of the things. That is where my heart is, that is what I’m looking most forward to.
