Five of the six members of the Hamilton County Board of Education up for election next year aren’t running to keep their seats. Since the board went from nine to 11 members for the first time with the 2022 election, the number of seats up for re-election (six) is a record.
One member leaving, Rhonda Thurman (District 1), will have served five terms. Two members exiting, Tiffanie Robinson (District 4) and Joe Wingate (District 7), will have served two terms. And, Marco Perez (District 2), will have served one. And the fifth member leaving is Faye Robinson, who was elected to one of the new seats (District 10) in 2022. A sixth member, Jill Black (District 11), has picked up papers to run for re-election but hadn’t qualified as of Dec. 6.
What is causing the mass exodus? Parents? Time? Paperwork? Phone calls? Disunity? Discouragement?
We thought the member who had served the least time — Faye Robinson — might best answer the question.
As it turns out, she is leaving for none of those reasons, and for her, none of the reasons listed above are particular concerns. For Robinson, she and her husband are considering returning to Middle Tennessee, where they previously lived, in the next four years, and she wanted her successor to be elected this year rather than appointed by the Hamilton County Commission if she and her husband decided to move during the next four years.