Cooper: Vying for 'most important position in the county'

Hamilton County Board of Education members study information packets during their meeting in September.
Hamilton County Board of Education members study information packets during their meeting in September.

With five of nine Hamilton County commissioners and two of eight seated members of the Hamilton County Board of Education present, six candidates for the vacant District 3 school board seat on Monday night enumerated to an audience of 60 at Hixson Middle School a list of problems local public schools face in the coming months.

That the problems are many and serious is an understatement. That the six want to help tackle the problems is a testament to their passion for service and for their community.

The County Commission will choose one of those six today, its members having interviewed the candidates privately, attended Monday's forum or decided to make their choice in another way.

We trust those commissioners who didn't attend have given the matter the attention of those who did.

The commission's choice will serve the remaining two years of Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Martin's term. Martin was elected to the commission in August to serve the remaining term of Marty Haynes, who was elected county assessor earlier this year.

Undoubtedly, commissioners will have reasons for making their individual choices. Commissioner Randy Fairbanks, for instance, said after the forum he wants a candidate who would allocate the county's money wisely. The school board, he suggested, shouldn't ask the county for more money if it doesn't effectively spend the money it has.

Commissioner Sabrena Smedley said she is looking for a candidate who is sincere, passionate and committed. She had asked candidates privately, she said, about their "long-term plans" and "political aspirations."

While all six candidates agreed choosing the school superintendent would be the most important item on the board's agenda, they also suggested to the board criteria with which to make that choice.

The next superintendent, they said, would need to be "dynamic," "accountable," "tough," a communicator, a people manager, a buck-stops-here leader, unafraid of failure, experienced with nonprofit agencies, and possessing either educational or business experience or both.

We, too, hope Superman or Superwoman applies.

Many of the candidates also mentioned that the board will need to deal with, as candidate Randy Smith mentioned, "the elephant in the room" - the board's contract with Durham School Services, which hired the driver charged in last week's bus crash that killed six Woodmore Elementary School children.

Opinions ranged from teacher Jim Watson's desire for the county to only employ individual contract drivers, to candidates saying the contract needs to be "looked at," to Michael Kirk's acknowledgement the district's decision to use Durham was "an economic decision," though not necessarily "the best decision."

Whatever the commission decides today, we hope its appointee will roll up his or her sleeves to be a part of - with its myriad of challenges - what Kirk said was the "most important position in the county."

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