Princess Milledge kicks off school board campaign

ALBANY — Princess Milledge officially kicked off her campaign Wednesday for Dougherty County School Board District 6.

Joined by friends and supporters, Milledge paired some social time with strategic study with political advisers including Michael Windom, former District 6 school board member and Jon Howard, Ward I Albany city commissioner.

“I certainly hope the voters will give her serious consideration,” Windom said. “She’s qualified and ready to go.”

Milledge, a former teacher and administrator, served as assistant principal of Mitchell-Baker High School. She has a Ph.D. from Walden University. She believes her experience in personnel, budget and academic affairs at Albany State University will make her a valuable member of the board.

“I’m good with test scores,” Milledge said. “I’m good at data analysis, and I’d like to show certain people how to increase test scores. But mostly it’s a lot of old-fashioned hard work. I’ve seen scores go up from 79 to 92 under my direction, because we were consistent in the methods we used with the students. We did certain activities on certain days and regardless, we did just that. If you keep working with (the students) they’ll get it.”

Milledge said she sees parental involvement as the major key to educational success. She wants to entice parents to attend education-oriented meetings either at the schools or at special Saturday meetings, similar to the town hall meetings presented by Howard.

Another key is current teacher pay and furloughs, Milledge said. If teachers get more pay, it might motive them to come in earlier and stay later, thereby improving education and test scores.

“Teachers not getting a raise is a big problem.” Milledge said. “Teachers should have raises if at all possible. Now they even have to pay for their own supplies. If they had the money they need they would do a better job.”