New Kosciusko School Board member Farrah Robinson’s top priority will be ensuring good communications between parents, teachers, administrators and school board members, she said.
“For me, as a parent and part of the community, that bridge of communications between parents, administrators and board members could be better,” she said during an interview with The Star-Herald. “Communication is the key to a lot of things. If we can communicate, we can help each other out in deciding what is best for these kids.”
Robinson said she hopes to encourage more parents to attend school board meetings to be more aware and involved in the schools. She said it is a lesson she learned herself when one of her children faced bullying years ago in Florida, and then again when it came time to help her child navigate a path toward college.
“From that (the bullying), I was always going to be involved with my kids at school,” she said, but she again found herself more detached from the schools than perhaps she could have been as her daughter got older.
“They didn’t see me until senior year,” she said of her daughter’s teachers.
It is an experience she thinks will help her engage with and involve parents of older children more.
“It helps me on how to help other parents get involved. Parents usually help with homework, etc., but there is so much more,” she said. “I would like for parents to know that the school board is open to the public. If you want to be involved, attend the meetings and get involved.”
Robinson has four children, Mahogany Perteet, 18, a freshman at Alcorn University in the pre-dentistry program, Savannah Perteet, 14, a Kosciusko Junior High student, Morgan Wilder, 7, in the second grade Quest program at Kosciusko Middle Elementary, and Carter Wilder, 11 months, who is in First Baptist MB Church childcare.
Robinson, an assistant funeral director who has completed a two-year apprenticeship at Winters Funeral Home, is preparing to take the state board exam for funeral directors.
She is scheduled to marry Harold Wilder on March 9. She is assistant secretary of the National Association of Negro Women – Attala, an associate member of the Carthage-Leake Alcorn alumni association, and oversees the Young Women’s Ministry at First Baptist M.B. Church.
Tina McNeal, who completed the unexpired term of previous board member Andrea Myers, said she will continue to be involved in the community.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to have served on the Kosciusko School Board,” she said. “I look forward to continuing my support for the Kosciusko School District, as well as the students of Attala County as a parent/supporter.”
