Many people talk about the crucial role public schools play in developing the informed citizens and capable workers who are essential to our community’s quality of life, civic leadership and long-term economic prospects. Yet few citizens choose to offer themselves as candidates for the school board.
The task they would undertake is vital, arduous and often thankless. A competent board is essential to guide school policies, to promote excellence and the best interests of all students, and to ensure proficiency and accountability. For the most part, the board makes a good stab at that.
But in some ways, board members’ hands are tied. They recommend a budget, but do not control funding. And unfortunately, the board also has become factionalized.
It is divided by some members whose interests are parochial and selfishly district-driven, and who seem inclined to dismantle programs designed to promote equal opportunity and access for our most impoverished students and neighborhoods.
The board cannot allow that to occur. The school system is already diminished by the loss of civic clout and interest of the families that put over 25 percent of the county’s students into private schools – the highest level in the state. If Hamilton County is to nurture a thriving future, the board and superintendent must strive for higher, broader goals and achievement standards across all of the system’s 85 schools.
Four seats on the nine-member board, representing Districts 3, 6, 8 and 9, are open for elections this year. Here are our recommendations.
District 3, Everett Fairchild
Three able candidates seek the District 3 seat. Everett Fairchild, a former teacher and high school principal, is the long-serving incumbent. He’s done yeoman’s work over the years of his service on the board, but he faces formidable challenges this year from Marty Haynes and Ken Smith, both thoughtful advocates of public education.
We recommend Mr. Fairchild’s election. His progressive views and long experience in the educational community and on the board will serve residents of the district well. Mr. Haynes and Mr. Smith share many of Mr. Fairchild’s views. The three candidates, in fact, have quite similar visions of what schools and teachers in the county need to produce well-rounded students able to enter the contemporary work force. There is more agreement than disagreement, too, in how best to reach and to finance programs and policies that promote attainment of those goals.
Mr. Fairchild’s accumulated knowledge of the school system, his ability to work amicably but forcefully within the framework of an often divisive school board and his thorough understanding of the schools’ needs and policies make him a valuable public servant. We strongly endorse his selection.
District 6, Joe Galloway
The two candidates in this district, Joe Galloway and Gary Patterson, have become friends in the campaign, and they have some similarities: Both are 63, and both recently retired after 30-plus years as county employees – Mr. Galloway as a teacher, Mr. Patterson from the highway department.
We recommend Mr. Galloway on the strength of his 35 years in education, and the insights he has gleaned from that time in the classroom, as a coach, and as a parent of three adult children who attended public schools and became teachers in public schools after graduation from college.
His hands-on experience has strengthened his support for basic concepts, such as: Parent involvement in a child’s education is crucial; doing proven programs well trumps doing too many new programs; communication between parents and teachers is essential; so is communication from schools to parents about programs and options; strong and involved principals who have a knack for both mentoring and disciplining students make better leaders, students and schools; teachers shouldn’t be graded strictly on their students’ test scores if students aren’t graded on their effort – and that goes back to parent involvement.
Mr. Galloway has a store of such basic truisms and a long view of the circles that schools travel to compensate for the breakdown of the family unit. Yet he still seems open and inclined to consider new ideas. Among the things he says he would like to see is more consensus on the school board, and more options for students who are not headed to college.
District 8, Dean Arnold
The county’s school board has long lacked what it most needs: A forceful, articulate, courageous voice for dramatic change – change involving the entire Chattanooga community – to uplift the bottom 20 percent of students who are largely impoverished and come often from dysfunctional or fatherless homes. It’s a role that few board members dare mention. Indeed, only the Benwood Foundation has prominently undertaken a conspicuous and game-changing role in inner-city schools that serve disadvantaged children.
Dean Arnold says he stands ready to lead the larger mission of tackling achievement at the bottom rungs by getting the broader community – including volunteers and churches, prayers and the private sector- fully engaged. What he says about the value of such an initiative and why it is necessary is both urgent and undeniably sensible.
Mr. Arnold, who previously served as the policy director for the nonprofit Chattanooga Resource Center, doesn’t mince words. He is chiefly concerned about children who come, for example, from “third-generation welfare families with 27-year-old grandmothers.” His view is informed by his prior job, funded by the Maclellan Foundation, that mentored children from such backgrounds and helped provide them a better education.
His vision tracks what many public and education officials have been saying – and trying to change – for years. Kids who start school without basic reading and learning skills need to be reached in pre-kindergarten, early-learning programs to ensure that they will be on standard reading levels by the third grade. Otherwise, they are likely to gradually drop further and further behind in school, and then become drop-outs vulnerable to social problems and crime.
Mr. Dean rightly wants to tackle the problem at all levels. He believes the school system cannot just say that failure is the fault of principals and teachers: The problem, and the remedy, is holistic. The roots of the breakdown, and the consequences, are communitywide, and the problem can only be remedied with the efforts of the entire community.
The school system, he says, needs to get serious about overhauling its education and outreach programs to disadvantaged families and students to change the dynamic that generates the “failing schools” label. And the broader public, at all levels, has to help, or suffer the consequences.
Few people would tackle this urgent and complex issue. The school board, and this community, needs such an advocate.
District 9, Caleb Long
District 9 voters will elect a successor to Chester Bankston. The open seat provides an opportunity for voters to elect a board member who will positively engage in the hard work necessary to build a system that provides educational opportunity for every student. Caleb Long has the vision and the agenda to do so. We endorse his election.
Mr. Long rightly places the interests of students first. He pledges to promote teaching of the skills – particularly math and science – that he rightly considers essential to gainful employment and to access to higher education. He understands, too, the need to end or at least significantly reduce the disparity in achievement and graduation rates within the system.
Mr. Long’s emphasis on “human capital” – those who teach and those who learn – is refreshing. His desire to focus on professional development, to be a good but not dogmatic steward of public money, and to promote policies that support educators who excel are welcome. So is his desire to end the factionalism that often marks board affairs.
Mr. Long instinctively understands the dual nature of the school board – the need to consider the needs of the entire county even as one serves district interests. His will be a fresh voice on a board that will face considerable challenges. We recommend his election.