HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Early voting is underway across the state and we are just days away from the June 9th election.
There is one Houston County school board race on the ballot.
Dallas Anderson and incumbent Rick Unruh are running for the District 1 seat, which includes Centerville and the northern part of the county.
We asked each candidate the same series of questions to help you, the voter, get to know them better.
Dallas Anderson graduated from Mercer University with a degree in Human Resources Management.
She also has her Doctorate in Theology and is an Elder at the Agape Outreach Ministry.
She has lived in Centerville since 1990 and this year, her friends talked her into running for the District 1 seat.
"It kind of fits in with my desire to serve the community. I wanted to go outside of my church and do something in the community to where I can make a difference and I thought the school board might be an area where I could," says Anderson.
Rick Unruh moved to Central Georgia in 1979.
He was a teacher in the county for over 30 years. Now retired, he has served on the school board for the last seven years.
Like Anderson, he says his friends talked him into filling out the application the first time.
"At first, I kind of laughed about it because that just didn’t seem to be me, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be involved in education still even in retirement," says Unruh.
Anderson says the school system is already doing a great job with keeping their buildings updated to stay ahead of growth.
She says she is very impressed with what Superintendent Dr. Mark Scott has done.
"I just feel like he is doing an awesome job as far as progress with the school system, the technology and just pretty much the way they deal with the parents and the involvement of the community. I really see a lot of good things happening with the school system."
Unruh says he is proud of how they reinstated their chorus program and built up their arts program.
He says Houston County provides a well-rounded education for their students.
"I think we do a good job of providing a well rounded education for the kids. We have great athletics. We have great extracurricular and co-curricular activities. The ag program is one of the best in the state."
Anderson says three of her grandchildren went through the Houston County school system. One of her granddaughters has ADHD, so she says she would like to see how she can help being struggling with the same thing.
She also says before she decided to run, she didn't know which district she is in and who her representatives are.
"I didn’t know that there were certain districts for certain people, so I think there could be some improvement so that people would know who their representative is for a particular district so that they can get more involved with that particular person," Anderson says. "I would like to involve the community more so that I wouldn’t be speaking from what I want, but I would be speaking from what the people in my district want."
Unruh says despite the recent circumstances, the district's switch to online learning went well, but he would like to see the board continue to adapt.
"We’re finding some things can be improved in our ability to adapt. This last spring, we really had to do some different things," says Unruh. "I think our leaders did a great job of trying to meet the needs in unprecedented times."
Anderson says she knows people may not be familiar with her, but would like for voters to trust her to represent them.
"I’m hoping that they would probably feel my honesty and my sincerity, that my only purpose in being on the board is to serve and I have no other reason to do that and I only want to serve if they want me to serve."
Unruh says he has loved being on both sides-- the classroom and on the board. He wants to continue to move Houston County forward.
"I really believe in what we are doing. I think we have made great progress in the last seven years and I really believe that I can add to that progress and I want to keep doing it," says Unruh. "I’m just really not through doing what we can do. I think more improving to do. I think we have made great improvements as far as the academic success in our district. The graduation rate continues to increase."
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