Dear Editor,

For many issues, election season has already wrapped up. However, Vicksburg’s local public schools’ future is at stake on November 29.

This runoff election provides us the opportunity to have a say in who we want to represent us. We owe it to our youth and community to let our voices be heard this Tuesday and elect a candidate that values finding innovative ways to improve our schools and offer programs to meet the needs of all children.

Bryan Pratt is the best leader fighting for education. I have known Bryan personally and professionally for over 30 years. What you may not know about Bryan is that his passion is helping the youth in our community. He understands our children hold the key to what our community will be in the future. Additionally, his own educational background demonstrates his commitment to valuing education. As a devoted Christian, his values align with supporting all children in the community that face various challenges such as falling behind due to COVID-19, language barriers or learning disabilities. Bryan plans to continue and improve his previous work of improving school safety, implementing more trade opportunities, providing better early education and supporting our at-risk youth.

Bryan understands that education for every child looks different and supports finding the best path for each child to have the highest quality of life. 

If you visit the Parents Campaign website, you can see he has the education, knowledge, experience and expertise to be our school board trustee.

Here are just a few initiatives he has supported during his tenure:

– District-wide expansion of the Leader in Me

– Successful launch of the River City Early College program

– Expansion of the 7th-8th grade Academy of Innovation STEM School

– Creation of Career Academies at WCHS and VHS

– Expansion of our Pre-K program so that no Warren County family who wants to enroll their child in Pre-K is turned away

– Growing our technology resources so that every student and teacher has a device to use.

These initiatives (along with a lot of work on the part of our board, administrators, teachers, students and families) are paying off. VWSD’s four-year graduation rate is the highest it has been in 30 years at 89%. Since 2019, our students have had a head start on their careers and have collectively earned 21,063 free college credits. This has saved families in our community more than $16 million in tuition and college costs. Additionally, 80 of our graduates have even earned an associate’s degree at the same time as their high school diploma.

I hope you join me and the many others who enthusiastically support Bryan Pratt as school board trustee. Bryan is the right person to keep moving our schools in a positive direction.

Sincerely,

Shelley Tingle 

Vicksburg, Miss.