Because of Tuesday’s election, Heather Mims will be District 7’s new member on the Bulloch County Board of Education beginning in January, while Cheri Wagner will continue to represent District 1 for a second four-year term.

With the May primary serving as the general election for the nonpartisan school board seats, new members-elect such as Mims often wait more than half a year before beginning their service. Mims and Josh Mattos vied for the District 7 seat that Mike Herndon will vacate at the end of the year after not seeking re-election. Mims captured 884 votes to Mattos’ 276.

“I’m going to take some time to go ahead and start learning some things about what’s to be expected, and start getting those ideas from the community of things that they want  to see changed, improved and that sort of thing, and I’m just really honored to have this opportunity,” Mims said.

“It was pretty humbling to watch the numbers go up the way they did,” Mims added, noting that her numbers had been lower in proportion to Mattos’ early in the vote count.

Mims and her husband, Greg, both grew up attending the Bulloch County Schools. They have five children, enrolled at Nevils Elementary School, Southeast Bulloch Middle School and in the Georgia Cyber Academy. She has served as a school council member at two schools and worked as a substitute teacher before seeking the board position.

Also phoned Wednesday, Mattos expressed thanks to his supporters and said he won’t rule out running for office again.

“It’s something I’m interested in doing in the future, so if the opportunity arises, I may,” he said.

Wagner had two challengers in District 1. But she received 1,227 votes, or 56.4 percent of the total, so no runoff is needed. Shalah Hendrix drew 565 votes, while H. Lee Jones collected 383 votes.

 “I truly feel blessed and I truly am humbled, honestly, by the results,” Wagner said. “I’m extremely grateful that I get the opportunity to serve the students and the staff and the community.”

‘Work to do’

Together, the board members set policy, oversee budgets and local funding, and make personnel and facilities decisions for the 15-campus Bulloch County school system, which had 10,370 students as of the March state report. A discussion of the fiscal year 2017 budget and a decision on employee compensation are on the agenda for Thursday’s 6:30 p.m. meeting.

“We have great staff, we’ve got great community resources and a great community behind all of that,” Wagner said. “We will be one of the leading school systems in the state. We just have a lot of work to do.”

Hendrix appears to share her optimism for the schools, and doesn’t rule out running again.

“I do want to thank everyone that supported me, and I do believe that we have a great school system and a great district,” Hendrix said, “and in four years I’ll still have children in school in Portal, and I really do believe that I may try it again.”

Jones sent a Statesboro Herald reporter a Facebook message Tuesday night.

“I would like to congratulate Cheri Wagner on her win and also Mrs. Hendrix for (being) willing to put herself out there to make a change,” Jones said. “This has been a fun and unique experience, and I have really enjoyed getting out and meeting folks. I would encourage all of Bulloch County to get more involved in the school system.”

He added, “Thank you to my supporters, and God bless.”

Unopposed winners

Stuart Tedders was also formally elected Tuesday to the board as the new member from District 3, but was unopposed. The district’s incumbent member, Dr. LeVon Wilson, did not seek re-election after taking a new job last fall as associate provost of Clark Atlanta University, but has remained on the board.

Maurice Hill was re-elected without opposition as the board member from District 8.

Districts 2, 4, 5 and 6 will elect school board members in 2018.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.