Property tax and literacy rates are among top issues for the four candidates running in the special election for the Post 3 Walker County school board seat.
Early voting runs through Nov. 1, and the election is Nov. 5.
In July, school board member Mike Carruth stepped down, citing health reasons, after serving on the board for nearly 20 years. Carruth was one of two board members targeted by a lawsuit alleging they violated state nepotism laws by serving on the board while their respective adult sons work in the school system. A Walker County Superior Court judge rejected the nepotism claim.
The board appointed Tina Painter to fill the seat until the election. Painter, who is running to retain the position, will face Rita Groh, Bill Oliver and Travis Middleton.
If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, the two candidates with the most votes will advance to a runoff election Dec. 3.
(READ MORE: No action taken against Walker County school superintendent, but questions remain)
While the seat’s candidates must live in the Post 3 district, voters from all school board districts can vote in the election, Chuck Fletcher, elections assistant for the county’s Elections & Voter Registration office, previously told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Post 3 includes the Chattanooga Valley and Flintstone communities.
Walker County school board members serve four-year terms, and the winner of this election will take office in January.
In May, voters selected incumbent Phyllis Hunter and newcomers Dennis G. Willerson and Stacey Meeks to serve on the board. All three ran unopposed during the Republican primary and do not face opposition during the general election.
Contributed photo / Rita Groh is running to represent Post 3 on the Walker County school board.RITA GROH
As a parent of an elementary school student in Walker County, Rita Groh is in this for the long haul, she said. She wants to make sure teachers and students have the resources they need — not just to ensure her own son is growing and learning, but other children in the community as well.
Groh, 40, is a political science professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a substitute teacher for Walker County Schools. She moved to Walker County about six years ago, and her son attends Fairyland Elementary, she said.
The district should learn from the best practices of other school systems to tackle these issues, she said.
If elected, she intends to focus on increasing literacy across the district, and she’d like to see Walker County Sheriff’s deputies patrolling school campuses to give a sense of security and safety, she said. She also wants to support teachers.
“It’s not on the shoulder and the burden of my son’s teacher to teach my son to read. It’s on my burden as a parent,” she said by phone. “It’s on our burden as a community to show our children what an example is of how to act, how to read, how to think, how to live and how to grow. Our teachers are fundamentally underpaid. They’re fundamentally overworked.”
Groh does not support the school board having taxing ability, and she said she would go out of her way to vote no on excessive taxes.
Contributed photo / Travis Middleton is running to represent Post 3 on the Walker County school board.TRAVIS MIDDLETON
Travis Middleton’s campaign is centered around three pillars: transparency, accountability and growth. Right now, he said, he doesn’t feel like the public has enough input and knowledge of board decisions.
“I want to be sure that every stakeholder from the teacher to the parents to the taxpayer is informed and engaged and knows what’s going on,” he said in a phone interview.
To do that, he said, he wants school board meetings to be livestreamed.
Middleton, 50, is a supply chain coordinator at Solmax, a geotextile manufacturer. He has lived in Walker County for 40 years, and his three children attended county schools, he said.
From his perspective, the biggest issue facing Walker County Schools at the moment is the need to teach young students how to read, he said. Middleton said he likes the district intervention efforts and he’d want to see more of that.
As the only non-educator running for the Post 3 seat, Middleton said he comes from a different perspective.
“I bring a fresh set of ideas from being in manufacturing,” he said. “We’re always looking at continuous improvement in the industry that we’re in. We’re looking at how can we do more with less.”
He’d like to use those strategies to help get kids going in the right direction, invest in professional development for educators and increase test scores. Voters, he said, are also tired of the school board rubber stamping tax increases, and the district can do more with less.
Contributed photo / Bill Oliver is running to represent Post 3 on the Walker County school board.BILL OLIVER
Bill Oliver wants to serve as a voice for teachers on the Walker County school board, he said.
“I’ve been a teacher,” he said by phone. “I’ve actually been in the classroom. I know what teachers experience, and I know what kids go through from having two kids in the system and now a grandson in the system at Saddle Ridge. I have a lot of experience that way. … I think it’s important for the voter to choose somebody that’s actually been in the fight, on ground zero.”
Oliver, 60, taught at Ridgeland High School for 28 years before retiring. He moved to Walker County in 1997 to be closer to the school and raised his family in the Flintstone area, he said.
With him on the board, he said teachers would have one of their own representing them. Teachers are also affected by the board’s decisions, he said, and he wants to listen to educators and advocate for their needs. He also intends to work to keep teachers in Walker County.
(READ MORE: Walker County receives grants to survey historic structures)
Oliver said his biggest priorities are accountability and transparency. The district has to work within its means and can’t always increase the budget, he said, because residents cannot afford the property tax increases.
“I’m not going to raise taxes,” he said. “There’s got to be another way. You know, especially after six times of raising it, people are exhausted.”
TINA PAINTER
Tina Painter, a retired teacher, did not respond to calls or emails seeking an interview about her campaign. In an opinion article she sent to the Times Free Press, she said she plans to fight for a complete overhaul of Georgia’s education funding system.
“The days of quietly deferring to the superintendent and rubber-stamping budgets must end,” she wrote in the editorial. “I’ll push for greater transparency in how your education dollars are spent. I’ll advocate for policies that empower our local schools and teachers, rather than out-of-town bureaucrats.”
On her campaign website, she lists addressing reading skills, optimizing the budget and setting clear goals for school leadership and holding them accountable as among her top priorities.
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.