School board candidates forum

Incumbent school board members Chip Baker and Debra Matthews should be voted off the Hamilton County Board of Education for supporting Superintendent Jim Scales’ contract extension, board hopeful Gregg Juster said Friday.

The deal was done in secret and with prior knowledge only of the board members who voted for it, Mr. Juster said during a candidate forum hosted by the Chattanooga Association of Realtors.

“Chip Baker and Debra Matthews don’t deserve to be on this school board ever again based on what they did,” he said to a round of applause. “You want dirty politics? That was it at it’s worst. Get them off the board for that reason only.”

“Could we have a little rebuttal on that?” Mr. Baker asked as the applause died down.

Mr. Baker said he never got a single negative call from constituents about Dr. Scales’ contract. He also said he talked with County Mayor Claude Ramsey and Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield, as well as members of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, all of whom supported the measure.

“They want stability in our leadership and in our community,” he said. “I think it was the right thing to do, and I have no regrets in doing it.”

He added that he never makes a decision by himself, but always seeks input.

District 4 incumbent Ms. Matthews, who did not attend Friday’s forum, was not available later for comment.

Mr. Baker’s District 2 opponent, Dr. Joe Dumas, said he felt “disenfranchised” by the contract extension, because it excludes him, and any other board hopeful that may win, from choosing the district’s superintendent.

“(Dr. Dumas) doesn’t know what discussions happened or where they were,” he said.

It also was unethical for school board member Joe Conner, an attorney, to draw up the contract and then cast a vote in favor of it, Dr. Dumas added.

“I think it’s wrong, and frankly I think it should be overturned,” he said.

Insisting that renewing the contract was the right thing to do ultimately will cost Mr. Baker his school board seat, Dr. Dumas said.

“If this is the issue my opponent wants to stand on, he will lose, and he will deserve to lose,” he said.

District 7 opponents Linda Mosley and Michael Dzik agreed that the contract extension was premature. Neither has anything against Dr. Scales personally, but they wished they’d had an opportunity to talk about the contract publicly, they said.

“I’m just sad I didn’t get the opportunity to do that,” Ms. Mosley said.

School board member Rhonda Thurman, who is running unopposed for her District 1 seat, said she and the other three board members who voted against the contract renewal — Chester Bankston, Kenny Smith and Everett Fairchild — had only the legally required 15-day notice before the vote came before the board.

“We had 15 days, but they already had the contract drawn up. They already had the plan,” she said.

What took place followed the letter of the law, but not the spirit, Mr. Juster said.

“There’s legal and then there’s ethical,” he said. “There’s a big difference between that.”