From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
BIRMINGHAM – The Jefferson County Board of Education elected a new president during its monthly meeting on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019.
Ronnie Dixon, who has served as Vice President for the past year, was elected President. Carita Venable was elected Vice President.
Dixon has been on the Board of Education for four years. He has one year left in his first term, then his second term will begin.
“The Board of Education for me is all about the children,” said Dixon. “I want to make sure our funds are appropriated correctly so that instead of being top-heavy, administratively, as many dollars as possible will go into the classrooms.”
Dixon said on average, school systems average around 7% for administrative costs. The Jefferson County School system’s administrative costs are at 3.8%. The school system consists of 55 schools, with around 36 thousand students and 4,600 employees. Dixon said the school system’s challenges include finding teachers and parental involvement.
“I think the biggest challenge we have is parental involvement,” said Dixon. “You can see it in almost every extracurricular activity that we have.”
He hopes for more parental involvement in PTA, athletic boosters and other activities.
“It’s all about motivation,” Dixon said. “I don’t know if there’s a plan that any school board could put together, but I hope we can help the parents to be motivated to come and see how well their children are doing so that the only time we are contacting the parents is not when they’ve done something bad, but when we’re celebrating all of their good achievements.”
Dixon is also the Clay city manager, and he’s a Jefferson County constable. He said he believes in doing all he can for his community.
“I think that the only way that we salvage where we need to be, is to involve the community,” Dixon explained. “I don’t think you can stand in a pulpit and preach it and elect it if you don’t do it yourself. Offering that time is important and I want to be an example.”