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Pierce announces her candidacy for Hamilton County school board

By: Kelli Gauthier
(Contact)

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School Board Meeting

If there are neighborhood children in M. Fran Pierce’s kitchen at dinnertime, she feeds them.

If their computer is broken and they have homework to finish, she offers them her computer.

“I’m a mom to the kids in my community, and I want to be a mom to all the kids in the school district,” she said.

Ms. Pierce, 40, a stay-at-home mother of two, said her daily presence in the Hamilton County public school system makes her the best candidate for the District 4 Board of Education seat.

She is running for the seat against Gregg Juster, George Ricks and Anita Polk-Conley. The election will be Nov. 4, and the winner will represent nine downtown schools in neighborhoods including Alton Park, Bushtown and Avondale. The seat was vacated last month when Debra Matthews died.

Encouraging other parents to take an active role in their children’s education is one of the reasons she is running, Ms. Pierce said. Because her daughters, Jemiia, 8, and Jeliia, 6, both attend Brown Academy, a magnet school, Ms. Pierce is required to fulfill 18 hours of volunteer work each year, as well as to sign papers saying she has helped them with their homework.

It’s a level of involvement all parents should have to take, she said.

“It makes us feel like we’re going back to school, but it’s what we need to do,” she said. “All schools should hold the parents accountable.”

Even those with no children in the school system should make themselves available to help local students, Ms. Pierce said. Rather than complain about the local public schools and students, she said, churches, businesses and individuals should look for ways to make them better.

“Why are we sitting back being so negative? Adopt a child and help prepare them for the future,” she said. “Then we’ll know we tried.”

The daughter of Chattanooga City Councilman Leamon Pierce, Ms. Pierce also suggested holding town hall meetings in her downtown district to keep abreast of parents’ concerns.

Ms. Pierce said she also is concerned that the school system’s budget is being wasted on consultants and training and not on practical items that students need. Some students in her community are unable to finish their homework because they have no computers and no transportation to places that offer free computer access, she said.

“If a home can’t provide a computer for a child, let’s donate computers,” she said.

Marva Smith, whose daughter went to Howard High School with Ms. Pierce, said she thinks the candidate’s life experience has her well qualified for a job on the school board.

“She’s been a hard worker, a single mother. She is a woman of her word. If she says she’s going to do something, she will,” she said. “Wherever kids are, she’s working with them.”

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