Clyde Jackson disqualified, then reinstated to Post 7 runoff election

HOUSTON COUNTY – Houston County School Board Post 7 candidate Clyde Jackson has gone through a disqualification, then re-instatement of his candidacy this week.

The Houston County Board of Elections announced Tuesday Jackson was disqualified from the race after a challenge was submitted by candidate Caly Hess to the elections board regarding the employment of Jackson’s wife, Dr. Traci McKenzie-Jackson.

At another Board of Elections meeting on Thursday, County Attorney Tom Hall said there were strong feelings on each side of the issue. He also said Hess’s challenge, which was submitted after the primary, was not submitted in time, according to Georgia code. 

“Her challenge had to be filed within two weeks of qualifying and that was not done. That was well beyond that,” he said.

According to Hall, the Board of Elections has the right to challenge before an election the qualification of the candidate. However, he said in this case, he believed the proper party to challenge the qualifications was the Houston County Board of Education. 

“There was a phone call from somebody at the Board of Education office that raised this issue by phone the day qualifying ended, but the Board of Education chose not to put that objection in writing as required by law and requested by Debra Presswood,” he said.

Hall also shared an hour before the meeting started, the Board of Education sent information from other boards, but he said he was not looking into it.

“If they feel strong enough about it, they should have done it right when they said something and that was not done,” he said.

The board originally disqualified Jackson due to a GA Code § 20-2-51 (2022):

“No person who has an immediate family member sitting on a local board of education or serving as the local school superintendent or as a principal, assistant principal, or system administrative staff in the local school system shall be eligible to serve as a member of such local board of education.”

According to Hall, the first paragraph in the section also states: “If you don’t live in the district you can’t qualify.”

He believes the legislature had a reason for changing the terminology. He said if a person is elected and the Board of Education determines that person elected is in violation of the code section, the person cannot serve on the Board of Education.

“To me this is the reason the language had changed, because if you’re going to run for the Board of Education, your spouse has a job at the Board of Education, why are they giving up their job before the election? Because the person may not even win the election and so it only makes sense that is what the legislature was looking at,” he said.

Hall also said the courts have not heard about the issue therefore, there are no cases. He said if the Board of Education asserts their authority on grounds of not allowing an elected person to serve on the board, the elected person can seek the court’s review of the board’s decision.

He said this was a Board of Education issue, not a Board of Elections issue. Hall shared while looking back on the issue, he noticed many problems in the way the situation was handled, which he takes responsibility.

“My council to the Board of Elections is to rescind the action of Tuesday night and allow the runoff election to take place as it has been set,” he said.

There were two opposed on the decision and five approved. The decision was rescinded, allowing Jackson to continue running. 

McKenzie-Jackson said she serves as a consultant for principals and has works for the board part-time for two years, averaging around 19 hours a week.

“I have no administrative duties, I’m not administrative staff. I’m a 49 percent worker here, at will worker. I have no supervision responsibilities, there’s nobody under me. I was hired to go into schools to work with teachers, students and administrators,” she said. “Not supervising, not even required to take the certification that we have to take in order to evaluate anybody and none of that is part of my duties. I don’t have any of those responsibilities but yet they are trying to say that I am administrative.”

She also said she would never have taken her job if it was administrative, since she retired from 20 years as a principal in 2022. She said her passion is in the classroom and in the trenches with teachers. 

She shares her current job gave her the opportunity to go back and do that work and it is the only reason she took it. McKenzie-Jackson added she does not recieve benefits and is not under contract.

“This job was described to me — It was the dream job that I said I wanted once I left the profession: to be able to go in schools and work with teachers and kids and not have any of the stress of what administrators have to go through,” she said.

She also vouched for her husband’s heart in running for the Board of Elections.

“We’re in the business of children. Clyde has been running for this seat because we want to do what’s best for the children of Houston County. It’s nothing about a power struggle or trying to have an agenda to be on the board, it’s about doing best for these students here in Houston County,” McKenzie-Jackson said.

The runoff election will take place June 18. Jackson will face Angel Bowen Brown for post 7 on the Houston County School Board.