Jimmy Cargle is running for the District 6 Tift County Board of Education seat.

TIFTON — After approximately 20 years teaching in Tift County schools, agriculture teacher Jimmy Cargle is running for the District 6 seat on the Tift County Board of Education.

He said that he is retiring after this school year and had been considering running for the school board a long time.

“I love Tift County school system,” he said. “We have a great system.”

Cargle said that if he is elected, he will be the only board member with recent teaching experience in at least a decade.

“Unless you have served in a classroom in the last five years, you have no idea what’s going on,” he said. “I love kids. I will have taught over 3,500 individuals when I retire. So I’m looking forward to continuing helping on a different level.”

He wants to partner with the agriculture industry, technology companies, building and metals companies, the automotive industry and healthcare industries to expand the vocational training department and get students the training industries are requiring so students can get good jobs right out of high school.

“It used to be that these technology corporations would go after kids in college,” he said. “Now they’re going to the high schools because they’re looking for kids they can bring in and train and educate.”

He said that in his experience as a teacher, “for some students their brain is in their fingers.”

“Only 26 percent of the student body at Tift County High School completes a college education,” he said. “That leaves 74 percent of the student body that needs, deserved and would be interested in developing a career with special skills to be able to advance themselves.”

Cargle also wants to improve how students with learning and discipline issues are dealt with by putting them in smaller classes.

“Any teacher will tell you that problem students take up 70 to 80 percent of their time and energy in a classroom,” he said. “Whenever a teacher goes one on one with a student, the discipline issues usually go away. Whenever the discipline issues go away, then they learn.”

His third aim is to get a top-notch aquatics center at the high school.

“We have a great athletic program and great coaches,” he said. “We have great support from our school system. But down the road I’d like to see that happen for these kids.”

Follow Eve Guevara on Twitter @EveGuevaraTTG.