Mary Baker wins school board seat

Only about 6 percent of Clayton County voters turned out Tuesday to elect preschool teacher Mary Baker to the school board.

Baker, a Jonesboro mother of two, captured the vacant District 6 seat in a special election against U.S. Army analyst Marcela Bodkin.

Baker, who will be sworn in Monday, will serve the remainder of Eddie White’s term, which expires at the end of the year. She is unopposed on the Nov. 4 ballot for a four-year term on the school board, which begins in January.

Baker received 91.3 percent of the 1,175 ballots cast, unofficial election results show. Those numbers include absentee ballots and advance votes, along with two write-ins, said Annie Bright, the county’s election director. Clayton has 18,309 registered voters in District 6.

“I expected [turnout] to be low, but was hoping it would be better because of the situation,” Baker said. “I just want to get started on the business at hand because we have a tight deadline.”

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked the school system’s accreditation effective Sept. 1, citing a dysfunctional board. School officials have pledged to meet nine improvement mandates by April in time to have accreditation reinstated for the 2009 graduates.

Baker said she ran because of the district’s accreditation troubles. “If I have to learn to do a cartwheel for SACS, I will,” she said Tuesday. “Whatever it takes.”

Jane Thomaston, poll manager at Jackson Elementary School in Jonesboro, said she was shocked that the majority of the voters who cast ballots Tuesday were elderly and did not have children in the school system.

“I kept hoping it [accreditation loss] would awaken this county that you have to take responsibility and vote,” said Thomaston, a retired Clayton teacher and mother of five Jonesboro High School graduates. “This is the lowest turnout we have ever had.”