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Hamilton County: Board candidates discuss school choices

By: Elizabeth Ryan
(Contact)

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Gregg Juster, Joe Dumas, Debra Matthews, Michael Dzik, Chip Baker, Linda Mosley,

School choice was the subject on the minds of many of those who attended the Hamilton County Board of Education candidates’ forum Monday night.

Sponsored by the Hamilton County Council of PTAs, the moderated discussion required every candidate to answer every question posed by the audience on issues such as financial transparency, open enrollment, magnet schools and charter schools.

Rhonda Thurman, District 1 school board member, and Joe Dumas, candidate for District 2, spoke strongly in favor of open enrollment, while others such as Debra Matthews, District 4, said allowing students to go to any school in the county they choose could lead to overcrowding and ultimately create more problems than it would solve.

Michael Dzik, candidate for District 7, agreed.

“It’s a slippery slope,” Mr. Dzik said. “It would be a big problem to tell somebody who moved into your district that (they) cannot go to your district school.”

Gregg Juster, candidate for District 4, supported the idea of an open enrollment policy but said it could work only within a context where all schools are succeeding.

“The key is to bring all of the schools up. Then open enrollment is not the problem that people think it might be,” Mr. Juster said.

When it came to the issue of charter schools, all candidates agreed that they could offer a viable alternative for those whose needs are not being met by their local school.

Ms. Thurman was careful to point out, however, that introducing charter schools would not hurt the other schools the county oversees.

“Charter schools are public schools,” she said.

Hamilton County does not yet have any charter schools. An application for an all-girls charter school recently was received by the Hamilton County Department of Education, while the application by the environmentally themed Ivy Academy has been rejected by the board four times. It is awaiting a second hearing before the state board of education next week.

Candidates were split on the question of performance-based pay, but many said that any changes in compensation need to begin with a pay increase for all teachers to stem the loss of quality teachers to neighboring counties and states.

“I think what we need to do is to start back at the beginning and find a way to increase our teachers’ salaries overall on an annual basis to make us more competitive,” District 7 candidate Linda Mosley said.

But money should be only part of how teachers are recognized for their work, she said.

“I think we need to take time more often to say to a teacher, ‘Job well done,’” Ms. Mosley said.

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