Longtime Richmond County Board of Education member Venus Cain clinched another victory Tuesday after facing three opponents vying for her District 9 seat.
Cain, who has served on the board for the past 15 years, spent Election Day campaigning and the evening thanking voters for trusting her for another term.
“They knew where my heart is,” Cain said. “They know where my passion is. They know I have served this community and I do my job in which I was hired to do.”
The military veteran ran on improving academic performance by focusing on educating students early, strengthening school safety, and completing the school facilities projects she helped start.
“Focus on student achievement 100 percent,” Cain said. “We have to have student achievement. Continue to raise our graduation rate, our SATs, our ACTs, our state required, mandated tests. Continue getting all those back up to snuff, get our reading scores up.
“I also, with everything in me, I want to see T.W. Josey College and Career Center Comprehensive High School open up, and I want to be around to see that 15th Street corridor develop just like we did the Belair corridor when we put that school there.”
Voters shared with Capital B Augusta what they want the next school board members to focus on post election. Regina Rouse, a mother who resides in District 3, said she plans to enroll her daughter in Richmond County Schools when she’s old enough. But she said she knows there may be struggles because she has heard that from family members.
“I know teachers need a lot more help,” she said. “It’s no reason why the teachers don’t have the materials that they need for these kids. Having a 1-year-old, that’s one of the most concerning things,” Rouse said. “I’m like, is she going to have the books that she needs, paper, pencil, whenever the teacher needs it? They should not be stressing about ‘Can I get stuff for my classroom?’”
“I think we can do better,” said Nicole Wells, an Augusta voter. “I think teachers need to be paid more. I think we need to give more to the school system, the school board because it’s needed.”
Herman Kirkland Jr. has a daughter at John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School who plays volleyball and flag football. He’s hoping the board can help lower some of the costs associated with playing sports.
“I hope they make it cheaper because my daughter play sports and it’s like $300 for uniforms, you have to pay to get in, they don’t have a bus,” he said.
When asked about voter concerns that students and teachers aren’t getting the instructional resources they need, Cain said that she’s wanted to raise teacher salaries but that bidding wars between local counties make it hard for Richmond County to remain competitive.
“I think what it’s going to take is it’s going to take Columbia County, Burke County, and basically the CSRA [Central Savannah River Area] coming together saying, ‘OK, we’re hurting each other because if I’m going to raise my salaries by 5%, then you turn around and raise your salaries, Columbia County raises by 6, Burke County raises by 7, it comes to the point where it becomes a bidding war. And in the long run, everyone is going to lose,” she said.
Cain said in an interview with Capital B Augusta’s partner, Local Matters Podcast of Georgia, that she believes Richmond County School districts should improve school safety by instituting a zero-tolerance policy for school fights.
“I do not feel that any child should go to school and feel like school is not a safe place for them,” Cain said. “Not only should the student, but a teacher should not feel that a school is not safe for them.”
