Partisan election, redistricting, mean changes for Hamilton County school board

General elections for local offices are less than a week away, and when they're over, the Hamilton County school board may look quite different - and so might the district's libraries.

This year marks the first in Tennessee history that school board candidates are running on partisan tickets, a change made last year as the Republican-controlled legislature sought to respond to its political base in a special session aimed at reining in mask and vaccine mandates during the pandemic.

Twelve partisan candidates and two independents will face off in contested school board elections on Thursday. Those on both sides of the aisle have expressed discomfort during the campaign with making school boards partisan, but their differences have shown.

The most visible sticking point between the parties has been the school materials policy: Who controls what children can read and learn? Generally, Republicans favor parental oversight, while Democrats say they trust educators and librarians to make age-appropriate selections.

What's also at stake is whether parents and community members can choose not only what their children read - to which all candidates agreed parents have that right - but what other children can read.

District 8 candidate Larry Grohn, R-East Ridge, said leftist ideology has infiltrated public schools.

"It's utter madness that's going on here," Grohn said in a phone call. "And it's all fueled by this intersectionality, this divisiveness. And (critical race theory) and diversity, equity and inclusion. And all this garbage that's just superfluous. We don't need it.

"It's not about black and white," he said. "It's not about Black Lives Matter. It's not about antifa or Proud Boys. It's about educating our children with moral standards and showing them even with all of our flaws, that America is still the best country on this planet.

"(Our country) has centuries of Judeo-Christian heritage in it. Those are the foundations of our country and should be the foundation of our school system," he said.

District 10 school board candidate Jeff Crim, D-Chattanooga, is skeptical of some of the rhetoric around the issue.

Looking at the themes of books being challenged by parents and others in Hamilton County and across the nation - which are overwhelmingly about race, LGBTQ issues and gender identity - the effort seems to be about ideological control rather than age-appropriateness or obscenity, he said.

"The books they end up challenging are books by and about people of color, books by and about LGBTQ people. Not pornographic or obscene books, but books about the world that we live in and the lives that people live," Crim said in a phone call. "This is not an issue about obscenity. The whole thing about obscenity in schools is a red herring that has been manufactured. This is about erasing the voices of large parts of our community from the curriculum and the libraries because certain people think that those voices make them uncomfortable or people don't want their children asking questions."

Policy change

In a unanimous vote in late July, school board members passed a new materials review policy that will only allow parents and guardians of children attending Hamilton County Schools to make formal book complaints.

The decision came after the board heard complaints by community members, some of whom had no children attending schools in the district. A book policy committee was formed at the request of Chairman Tucker McClendon, R-East Ridge, and reviewed the matter.

"If you want to let anybody come and read from a book without context, you're inviting chaos," independent board member Jenny Hill, of North Chattanooga, said. "That is not productive. And I would question if that was a good use of the board's time. I would say it is not. And I pity the board that decides to sit through that again."

Grohn said, if elected, he wants to revisit the materials review policy.

"What the school board did was disenfranchise every single person who pays property taxes and sales taxes that support the Hamilton County Schools," Grohn said. "I think that's unconstitutional. Personally, I think that it's a lawsuit waiting to happen."

A larger board

Changes on the school board will not just be spurred by the entry of partisan politics. The size of the board is growing as well, from nine seats to 11, to reflect the redistricting process using 2020 census data.

Six seats are the subject of contested elections on Thursday, with two incumbents - Republican Joe Smith, of Hixson, in District 3 and Democrat Karitsa Jones, of Chattanooga, in District 5 - running for re-election.

Hill, who represents District 6, and McClendon, who represents District 8, are not seeking re-election.

After Hill's departure, the board will have two holdover political independents who are not up for re-election this year: Marco Perez, of Signal Mountain, in District 2 and Vice Chairwoman Tiffanie Robinson, of Chattanooga, in District 4.

Voters decided on Republican Gary Kuehn, of Ooltewah, for the District 9 seat during the May primaries. Kuehn defeated incumbent James Walker, of Birchwood, and Tate Smith, of Chattanooga. No Democrat is seeking the seat.

The most competitive races may be in the two new districts. District 10 includes Apison, Ooltewah, Silverdale, Collegedale, Summit, Georgetown and Savannah Bay. District 11 includes Alton Park, East Lake, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Valley and St. Elmo.

Range of outcomes

Currently, the nine-member board is made up of five Republicans, one Democrat and three independents.

A Republican sweep of all six contested seats would grow the party's majority to nine seats on the 11-member board, with two independents remaining in office.

A Democratic sweep of all six contested seats would give the party a slim majority of six seats on the 11-member board, serving with three Republicans and two independents.

If voters split the difference between Republicans and Democrats, the board would end up with six Republicans, three Democrats and two independents.

With independent candidates running in both of the new districts, Districts 10 and 11, there are a number of other possible outcomes. They are complicated, however, because independent Christine Essex is running as an independent but says she is a Republican.

Contact Carmen Nesbitt at cnesbitt@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327. Follow her on Twitter @carmen_nesbitt.