Elijah Kresses is running for the district seven seat on the Troup County School Board. 

Kresses is a life-long resident of LaGrange, and a product of the Troup County School System (TCSS). Kresses graduated from LaGrange High School before completing his bachelor’s degree at Georgia State University and managing a large retail store. He said he’s running because he cares about LaGrange, Troup County, children and schools. Elijah said the sky isn’t falling but the school system has major problems that need to be addressed. Kresses said he’s built his platform around these issues and around common-sense solutions.

On school safety, Kresses said he supports continued funding for school resource officers in Troup middle and high schools, and wants to add SROs to elementary schools, especially after the March 28 incident at Hogansville Elementary School. 

He said he realizes this isn’t free, but adds that the cost of hiring officers for all TCSS elementary schools would total less than 1 percent of TCSS’s annual budget. 

Kresses said he believes it’s unfair for parents to pay more than 50 percent of their county property taxes to the school system if the school system won’t spend 1 percent of its budget to protect their elementary school students. 

Kresses said TCSS loses enough teachers each year to staff an entire school to resignation alone. He said the problem is that nobody’s looking for the real cause. 

He said the problem is when staff members leave, no one conducts detailed exit interviews, and TCSS doesn’t allow current teachers to confidentially and anonymously submit feedback, meaning teachers can’t be heard without risking retaliation. 

For more information on Kresses’ platform and improving post graduate success, visit www.elijahkresses.com