View our 2018 Voter Guide
No asset may be more important for Hamilton County than a sound public education system. For many students in recent years, it's been stellar. For many, it's been a sorry slog.
The Hamilton County Board of Education hires a superintendent for that system and develops its policies and procedures. So who governs that system is important.
In August, and in early voting beginning Friday, five of the board's nine seats are up for election. The other four seats, Districts 1, 2, 4 and 7, will be up for election in 2020.
In this years's races, the Chattanooga Free Press page recommends:
Smith deserves full term
Joe Smith was appointed to the school board in November 2016 and now admits "I didn't have a clue what I was doing."
Now retired after a career of working with youth, he believes "I'm right where I need to be." And while he acknowledges the work is very complicated, he loves it.
If Smith, 64, continues to do his homework, examining situations from all sides, we think he'll be fine. So we endorse him for a full term in District 3 over Miracle Hurley, a parent with a child in a Hixson public school who is employed by a grant program at Volunteer Behavioral Health Care System.
He says he enjoys a good working relationship with his county commissioner, Greg Martin, and that may say something about him since he lost to Martin in a special county commission race earlier in the same month he was appointed to the school board.
Smith has been involved in his share of controversy since joining the board, insisting it send the commission a balanced budget - though the board sought more money - in the spring of 2017, and signing his name to a letter earlier this year blasting the need for the schools to "racially and economically integrate," as suggested by school advocacy organization UnifiEd.
He understands he'll "never be right with everybody" but says he doesn't take anything personally.
Going forward, Smith says he'll continue to advocate "you can only spend as much as you make," be "the best professional beggar in Chattanooga" to help all students get what they need, "support [the district's] young, energetic superintendent" and be answerable to 43,000 students, parents and constituents - his "bosses."
Hurley is passionate about the school district being able to meet the needs of all children and believes that expanded bus routes and car-pool services allowing for a better integration of schools tailored to students interests, and wrap-around services for struggling students involving assistance from local organizations, are ways in which those needs can be met.
The district is "starting to earn public trust" again, Smith says. "I want to be part of that."
We hope voters will give him that chance.
Jones works for district
Incumbent District 5 school board representative Karitsa Mosley Jones perplexes us at times. On some occasions, she appears to understand the serious issues facing low-performing schools in her district. She seemed to have a breakthrough a year ago when, after often making excuses for the schools and low test scores, she acknowledged the state was serious about taking over some of the district's schools and that things couldn't go on for those schools the way they had been (eventually leading to a state/district collaborative). And in a meeting last month with Times Free Press editors, she admitted "we all know busing does not work."
On other occasions, though, she appears lost in the community rhetoric that "if there was just more money" or "if they just had enough resources," the schools would be fine. And she lamented to editors that "we're still dealing with same stuff as we did 50 or 60 years ago."
We're sure Jones, 37, knows that things are not the same for minority students as they were 50 or 60 years ago, but we also know she truly feels passionate about the students in her district, says she is accessible to and communicates with her constituents, and wants the best for all students. Believing she would be a more energetic, hands-on advocate, we endorse her re-election over challenger Ann Pierre, a retired TVA manager.
In a second term, she'd like to see more schools with wrap-around services, more school relationships with businesses, faith-based organizations and nonprofit groups, improved technology, and special education equity.
Pierre, 72, said she would use her TVA analytical experience to assist the board, doing research, developing models, and improving policies and procedures. She has no personal problem with Jones but believes she hasn't been "productive for people in District 5. There are problems that haven't been taken care of."
While we support Jones, we hope as she continues to advocate for her district she develops a holistic understanding of why things are the way they are.
Hill better of two choices
As a business owner and parent of two children in public schools, Jenny Hill is the ideal candidate to take over the District 6 seat being vacated by longtime educator and two-term board member Joe Galloway. We endorse her in that bid.
Seeking election in a district populated by haves and have nots, she says the school board must make it a priority that all students have the opportunity to have an excellent education and that all students leave with something more than a high school education. In other words, not every child will go on to college, but all should graduate better prepared for the future.
Hill calls for a multi-year strategic plan for the district with input from the county mayor, commissioners, school board members and the community so "we're all working from the same playbook." That plan, she says, would have measurable goals. "Otherwise, we don't hold expectations high enough. We don't want high-fives for [scores in the] 70s."
She also believes a district-wide facilities audit from an outside voice is necessary, multi-year budgeting should be implemented, and communication between the school board and commission should be ramped up.
"I think we need to take a long view of where we need to be," Hill, 39, says.
Her opponent, Michael Henry, 28, has had a variety of educational and professional experiences - including time as a teaching assistant in several struggling schools - and believes that combination is right for the board. He says his background in business analytics and marketing strategies might assist the board in how to use schools, how to maximize their energy use and how they might work with other organizations in the community.
We prefer Hill, and trust that if she is elected she will both advocate for the haves and have-not schools and, through her business acumen, keep a wary eye on reality and the taxpaying public.
McClendon deserves a shot
District 8 pits incumbent David Testerman, who has 30 years of experience as an educator, against Tucker McClendon, a recent college graduate. It should be a no-brainer but isn't.
The incumbent, who received our support four years ago, talks a good game. He seeks more arts in the schools, the need to replicate the district's successful magnet schools, the establishment of Future Ready Institutes in area high schools and more vocational education, all of which we support.
On the board, though, he doesn't appear to passionately work for what he advocates. He gives thunderous speeches but often winds up voting for whatever the district office suggests. Indeed, he wanted to hire then-interim Superintendent Dr. Kirk Kelly in the fall of 2016 and forgo a superintendent search. That would have established the district's status quo at a time it needed to be shaken up.
McClendon, an assistant market manager for Public Markets Inc., believes as do many that Hamilton County is at an educational turning point.
"We can buy in," he said, "or do the same thing."
Like many candidates, McClendon advocates student resource officers in every school, better accountability and transparency, and a better relationship between the board and the commission. He believes the district needs to look "outside the box" at "innovative ways of funding." Corporate sponsorships of football stadiums and gymnasiums is an example, he says.
For District 8, he believes better communication lines from the board to parents and students are in order. "They don't feel they have a voice," he says.
On racial and socioeconomic integration, and equity, McClendon doesn't claim to have the answers but believes wider community conversations, better use of underutilized schools and strategic open enrollment can help.
In this race, it's a close call, but we endorse the challenger.
Give Highlander second term
As school board chairman, Steve Highlander has shepherded the body through two tumultuous years, but he is willing to offer himself for a second four-year term. This page supported him in his first race, and while we have had our differences with him during the past two years, we believe he is the better choice in District 9.
While he has a spent a term on the board and 40 years in education, his opponent, D'Andre Anderson, 19, is a rising college sophomore who spent a year as a student representative on the board.
Highlander led the board two years ago during its search for Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson, who has been worthy of praise in his first year, and last year during its high-wire act in preventing a full-scale takeover by the state of the district's struggling schools.
He has been on the winning end of several 5-4 votes, indicating at least some degree of conciliation, and before any controversial vote, he takes a random sample of 100 constituents, including teachers.
We opposed Highlander in shielding from the public an initial vote on superintendent candidates in the spring of 2017, despite a pledge of transparency in his first election, and in not giving the public an airing of a broad facilities plan that was added to a school board agenda and voted on with almost no discussion last fall.
To his credit, he heard the Times Free Press editorial board's concerns on these matters but respectively defended the lack of transparency out of concern for candidates' jobs. On the lack of public discussion on the facilities plan, he said, "You may be right."
Anderson is a thoughtful young man who we believe can make an impact in the career he ultimately chooses. In the school board race, he is similar to other candidates in wanting to end what he perceives as a disconnect between the board and commission, in putting more student resource officers and guidance counselors in district schools, and in seeking partnerships for schools with a variety of organizations.
Nevertheless, we believe Highlander should be re-elected.