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Corbett says key aspect is fundamentals

• A former Merck & Co. employee is running for the Dougherty County School Board District 1 seat as a Democrat.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Judith Corbett is the kind of woman who believes every student who enters high school can graduate. And she hopes that etting a seat on the Dougherty County Board of Education can help her turn that belief into reality.

"I really believe in doing instead of talking about it," Corbett said in an interview last week.

"I'm a process-driven person and I believe education, like many other things that occur in the world, are processes."

Corbett said she first began thinking about a run for the District 1 school board seat, currently hel by Republican Davd Maschke, two or three years ago.

Corbett is running unopposed as a Democrat.

"I was in Leadership Albany in 2004," she said. "Coming out of that, I said, 'What is it that I could possibly to to serve the community more?'"

Now that both of her children have graduated high school and attend colleges in Atlanta, she said the time has come for her to seek the seat, she said.

"The timing was right," she said. "Based on my personal life and everything – the planets were aligned, so to speak. So this was my time to go for it."

Corbett says it is her background that sets her apart from other candidates. As a chemical engineer, she looks at things analytically.

"I do want to, hopefully, bring some diversity of thought to the board. Because of my background, I'm a little different than some of the board members," she said. "The fact that I'm an engineer andhave actuallycome through corporate America makes me different from the other board members."

Corbett received a degree in chemical engeineering from Cleveland State University Fenn College of Engineering in 1983.

After that, she began a career at Merck & Co., where she stayed until they closed last year. Since then she has been working as a consultant, she said.

With the state's release of Criterion-REferenced Competency Test scores that were abysmal, Corbett said school systems should focus on "fundamentals."

"I really think we have to make sure we have good fundamentals, from Kindergarten forward, that we teach, and reinforce those fundamentals," she said.

"I just don't believe that in 2008 in the United States of America there should be any child that does not graduate from high school."

But with the changing times must come changing educational tactics, she said. With a culture that is so fast-paced, via the technology age, children are faced with learning challenges because society keeps them so busy, she said.

As a School Board member, she would have the responsibility to ensure that students can succeed, she said.

"Educating them is a different task than it was 10-15 years ago," she said. "it's up to us – me as a board member – to affect policy that awards them every opportunity to be successful. I really want to influence policy ... that ensures we graduate educated students."

Corbett said an inportant aspect to education that is often overlooked is encouragement.

"Everybody needs encouragement and I'm just not sure there's a lot of that to go around," she said.

"(We must) make sure we have methodology to motivate and encourage students and teachers to get it right."

Corbett is running as a Democrat in the race.

Incumbent Maschke faces fellow Republican Laura Calhoun in the July 15 GOP Primary before the winner meets Corbett on the ballot.

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