Jeremy Chance of Purvis will return to the Lamar County School District’s Board of Trustees as the District C representative after last Thursday’s special election victory over Gladys Parker Rodgers of Lumberton.
Chance, 38, the current board president, defeated Rodgers 595-290. He said is pleased with the results, although he had hoped more people would have voted. Of the 6,171 registered voters in the newly-redrawn District C, only 14.3 percent voted.
“I was a little disappointed with the turnout, but I guess I should have expected that, being a Thursday with one thing to vote for,” he said. “If people were like me before I was on the school board, they probably don’t understand the importance of the school board. I’m glad it’s over; I’ll be honest with you.”
Rodgers said after the votes were tallied that the election was “a good experience” for her.
“I thought it was a good race by everyone involved,” she said. “When you are dealing with a leadership position that involves children, you certainly don’t want an election to get out of hand. I thought there was a lot of respect shown.”
Chance said running a political campaign wasn’t the easiest thing he has ever done.
“I never had any political aspirations,” he said. “I never thought of joining the school board as being a political role, and it’s not. It’s not a political job and it was difficult for me to go up to people and say, ‘I would appreciate you voting for me.’ That’s hard for me to do.”
Chance, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, was appointed to Lamar County School Board in early 2016 and elected in a special election in November 2016. He has two children who attend Purvis Lower Elementary.
Rodgers, 61, is a lifelong Lumberton resident and has two children who graduated from Lumberton High School.
Both candidates received overwhelming support in their home precincts. In Lumberton, Rodgers carried Lumberton 228-66 (77.5 percent), while Chance dominated in South Purvis 229-10 (95.8 percent).
The district was redrawn because the Lamar County and Lumberton schools will be consolidated beginning July 1.
Seven precincts in Lamar County and two in Pearl County were used during the election. Lamar County precincts included Lumberton, Yawn, Baxterville, Greenville, Pine Grove, Purvis and South Purvis.
Circuit Clerk Martin Hankins said, “We just finished redrawing the District C lines to include Lumberton because of the school consolidation. We mailed out voter registration cards three or four weeks ahead of the election. Some voters moved out of the district; some moved in.”
The other members of the Lamar County School Board are secretary Deborah Pierce of District A, vice president Buddy Morris of District E, Carolyn Adams of District B and newly-chosen Tony Ingram of District D.
The District C board term is from July 1, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2024.
