Muscogee County District 7 school board candidates host forum

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - A special election is coming up soon for the Muscogee county school board District 7 seat. People living in the Fountain City got the chance tonight to hear from two candidates running in the race.

People in the community filled the library auditorium seats to hear from Laketha Ashe and Pat Frey, both running for the district seven school board seat after the current school board member Cathy Williams stepped down. Ashe says she Is running for this seat because she feels more can be done for district seven.

“I promise that I will be engaged with the community, with my parents with my students, with my schools as well as listening for what they have to what they want. I would engage with them just to find out what it is that you want, how do you see yourself, how we can work together, how can we get those available resources needed center situation for you,” Laketha Ashe said.

Pat Frey says she chose to run for this seat because she has lived in Oakland Park for over forty years. Frey says she has also been working in the community in health care and in housing for over a decade. She says she wants to bring collaboration coordination into the school systems.

“I have had an awesome opportunity in those roles to work with some of the some of the schools and with the different departments of the Muscogee County school district and bringing it full circle to treat the whole family, the whole community, and the whole student so that we can meet all of the needs so the schools aren’t trying to do everything I want that collaboration and coordination,” Pat Frey said.

Shawna Love, a resident of district seven, came out to hear from both candidates.

“Felt very good because we want to get familiar with the ones that is coming up. We have a lot of things going on with our youth. I’m glad that they put this on so that we can get a more intimate one-on-one on who’s going to be representing us for district 7,” Shawna Love said.

Early voting starts May 30th through June 16th, and election day will take place on June 20th.