Father, salesman elected to school board

By Michelle Floyd (2853)
michelle.floyd@newtoncitizen.com

As of Tuesday, August 21, 2012
© Copyright 2013 Rockdale Citizen

CONYERS -- The seats on the Rockdale County Board of Education are now set.

After one of the five seats that were up for election this year led to a runoff race, Williams "Tony" Dowdy, 51, was elected for the Post 5 seat.

Dowdy received 1,239 votes, or 62.86 percent of the votes, while his opponent Willie Washington, 48, received 732 votes, or 37.14 percent."I'm so excited and feel so honored and privileged," Dowdy said Tuesday after the results. "I know there will be a big learning curve coming up, since this is the first time I've ever done this, but I'm very excited to have this opportunity. I can't wait to jump in there."Dowdy has worked as a concrete sales representative for Ernst Concrete for 23 years and has served as associate vice president of the Rockdale County Home Builders Association for more than 15 years and also is on the Rockdale Rotary Club's board.

He has six children and three grandchildren.

He previously said he hopes to help provide a high quality education to students during these hard economic times.

In the primary election, Dowdy received 6,783 votes, or 45.70 percent, while Washington received 3,350 votes, or 22.57 percent. A candidate had to receive 50 percent plus 1 of the votes to secure a seat.

A little more than 4 percent of voters, or 2,012 voters, turned out for the runoff election, including about 1 percent in early voting. Rockdale Board of Elections supervisor Cynthia Welch had projected a 14 percent turnout, or 6,790 voters, in the runoff, which she has estimated will cost the county about $40,000.

Dowdy will join fellow newcomers Mandy North and Sharon Pharr, who were elected for the Post 1 and Post 4 seats, respectively, in the primary election. They will serve four-year terms beginning in January.

They will join Brad Smith, the incumbent for Post 2 who will retain his seat following the primary. School board Chair Wales Barksdale also retained his Post 3 seat, since he ran unopposed for this election year.

Board members Katrina Young and Jim McBrayer were not up for election this year.

More like this story

Three school board races decided, one headed to runoff ( July 31, 2012 )
Early voting continues through Friday ( August 15, 2012 )
Rockdale County to hold runoff election Aug. 21 ( August 8, 2012 )
Voters League hosts registration drives ( August 11, 2012 )
School board candidate yet to file campaign reports ( August 16, 2012 )

Sookie 9 months ago

Congrats to Tony!

deathtotaxes 9 months ago

"learning curve"...great pay someone to learn the position at the tax payers expense!

Southside 9 months ago

I hope we pay several new people to learn their positions after the election.

Elmo 9 months ago

In my 45 years of business experience, as both worker as well as management, "hiring" a worker is not based purely on his knowledge of the work, but on his attitude, trustworthiness, work ethic, reputation, and demeanor.

Even a medical doctor - after years and years of training - still has to spend some years in internship to learn the job and hone his/her skills. Upon completing that, s/he still has to "learn the job" by actually doing it day after day, for years.

A person who went to school, then college, and put their children thru school and college - if the payed attention - already has quite a bit of training needed to serve on the BOE. the rest is procedure and paperwork, which differs from job to job, even in similar professions.

We have elected officials who have been in their offices for decades, who still don't seem to know their jobs, but they were given chance after chance to learn...those are the ones we need to watch.

Southside 9 months ago

When I graduated from college, I knew everything--then I got a job

smshep5 8 months, 4 weeks ago

Don't be an idiot! This is called humility, recognizing that with the budget concerns, personnel and policy decisions, and new superintendent there is no way for anyone to walk in and know how the system operates as a new board member. I would be more worried if Tony thought he already knew it all. Deathtotaxes move back to your shack in the woods while the rest of us work hard to pay your way. I for one and glad my vote helped bring in some fresh perspective to this board and best of luck Tony!

IamBabybird 9 months ago

Glad you were elected Tony. I was pulling for you. Congratulations.

deathtotaxes 8 months, 4 weeks ago

I don't remeber seeing on an job application: 1) hows your additude? 2) are you trustworthy? 3) how about your work ethic? Past experience and education are at the top and determine if you get the job. The rest you speak of determines if you keep your job.

Elmo 8 months, 4 weeks ago

That's true, but a smart employer doesn't hire based on the standard application questions alone...that's why the usually do personal interviews. I've never known anyone to get hired to any kind of meaningful job based solely on the application.

Personal interviews offer the employer an insight to the applicant's personality, demeanor, attitude, as well as experience, honesty, and appearance.

If the intangible questions you stated appeared on an application, how do you think the applicant would answer them? "Sure, I've go a gret attitude!". "Sure, I'm trustworthy, and I have a great work ethic!"

Years ago I hired people based on their application, and they all told me how "great" they were, but due to my inexperience back then, I wound up with some real duds.

Prevention is worth a pound of paperwork and laws that makes it very difficult to get rid of bad employees, and anyone can put together a flashy resume'.

But you are free to take the gamble based an application, if you like.

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