County Commission to make 2 board appointments

When the Madison County Commission reconvenes on Aug. 21 for its monthly meeting, it will have two appointments on other boards it will need to make.

The first one is the open seat on the Jackson-Madison County School Board created by the resignation of Scott Gatlin, who was elected last year.

He announced in June he would resign to pursue a position in the school system that would oversee security for all 26 schools in the district.

Because there was no commission meeting in July, this meeting will be the first chance for them to fill the seat.

Four people have applied for the position as of Aug. 1.

Here’s a look at those candidates:

• Latarsha Hanna-Huff – According to her resume, she taught third grade, geography and special education in different school districts in Florida and Davidson County in the 1980s and 90s. She started working as an artist in 2003 and opened her own jewelry manufacturing company in 2012. Since moving to Jackson, her volunteer work has helped JMCSS, Historic First Baptist Church, NAACP, RIFA, Links and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
• Dwight Jones – A career military/security official, served in the United States Marine Corp for 25 years with various experiences including serving on the security team for the President of the United States and other diplomats, served in high-level positions within the USMC and managed more than 3,200 Marines, sailors, soldiers and civilians in various capacities. His resume says he feels his experience in leadership and management would make him a quality school board member.
• Brent Lay – Has served in various roles in his career since 1971 including the director of the Madison County Baseball association (the forerunner of the county recreation department), director of juvenile court for the county for 11 years in the 1970s and 80s, headmaster for a private school in Middle Tennessee for three years and has served in various ministerial roles for different Christian organizations with the most recent being Englewood Baptist Church. He’s also been involved with the school board multiple times in recent years trying to initiate an alternate plan to Vision 2020 in 2015 and a plan to bring a neighborhood school to the northern part of Jackson in 2018.
• Marcia Moss – A career educator who has spent more than five decades in education, teaching in Alamo, JMCSS, University School of Jackson and Jackson State Community College the last six years while also substitute teaching at three local private schools and in Crockett County.

Candidates for appointments like this typically have multiple opportunities to speak before different groups of commissioners such as the Republican caucus.

Whomever is chosen by the Commission will serve for about a year before the seat is up for election next year with four other seats already scheduled for election.

The other position the Commission will appoint is to fill the vacant seat on the Board of Health that oversees West Tennessee Healthcare.

This opening was created when Greg Milam resigned in June following his arrest by Jackson Police earlier in the month.

All three applicants have a history of public service in Madison County already.

• June Murry – She was a part of the administration that opened Liberty Tech High School in 2003 and was there until 2015. Since then she’s been an instructional leader at Andrew Jackson Elementary and is now an external reviewer for Cognia Accreditation Team since 2015, helping evaluate schools and districts seeking accreditation. She’s served on a number of boards in the community.
• Darlette Samuels – She worked for six years from 1988-94 as a reporter for The Jackson Sun before taking a job at Lane College and advancing from director of college relations to vice-president and chief of staff. She’s been a significant part of the college’s fundraising efforts for most of that time under former President Wesley McClure and current President Logan Hampton.
• Ray Washington – He was the interim Superintendent of JMCSS for a year between former Superintendent Eric Jones and current Superintendent Marlon King. He made the move to Fayette County Schools in 2021 serving as their chief operations officer. He worked in finance and banking before being recruited into education. He’s served on multiple boards locally.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news