As she reflected on her 20 years as a member of the Hamilton County school board, Rhonda Thurman called the single-path diploma one of the worst things the district has done and listed facility upgrades at schools in her district as among her top accomplishments.
"She would never 'go along just to get along,'" Thurman, R-Hixson, read from a Chattanooga Times Free Press article from when she was first elected in 2004. "That's one campaign promise I certainly kept, and it's just been my pleasure and honor to serve District 1 for the last 20 years."
Thurman's remarks to the conservative Pachyderm Club on Monday at the Chattanooga Masonic Center covered the course of her career, touching on threats she's received for being a school board member, her push to keep schools open during the pandemic and changing trends she's seen within the school system. She also referenced some of her more controversial moments, including comments she made in 2022 about the rising number of Hispanic students putting a burden on the school system that led some to call for her resignation.
Thurman is not seeking another term and will leave the school board after the Aug. 1 election. District 1 includes the Soddy-Daisy area.
In her remarks, Thurman said former Superintendent Jesse Register was, to her, "the worst superintendent we ever had," citing his administration's efforts to increase the number of magnet schools, adopt a new math curriculum and impose a single-path diploma — which required the same core curriculum whether students were aiming for college-preparatory, vocational or a combination.
"We forced a lot of kids to take a GED to get out of high school, just so they wouldn't have to take all those courses," she said of the single-path diploma. "We caused a lot of kids to really struggle through high school, to get so discouraged they quit, and I lay that solely at the feet of that administration that pushed us to do that."
Register, who was superintendent from 1997 to 2006, said he thought the standards for the diploma were "quite reasonable," and it made sense to implement a basic set of standards for all students to meet when merging the city and county school systems. The districts merged in 1997.
"I stayed for 10 years and felt like we made great progress in Hamilton County Schools in spite of a diversity of opinion about whether the school system should have merged or not," he said by phone. "I still consider it to be a good time overall for public schools in Chattanooga and Hamilton County."
He added the magnet schools were there to provide students with choice and to promote greater diversity in Hamilton County public schools. Overall, he said, he thought the program was successful and had proved itself over time.
Throughout her talk, Thurman cited some of the board's actions during her tenure, including passing a policy that banned transgender middle and high school athletes from participating in sports based on their gender identity and forming a special review committee in early 2022 to review processes for selecting and objecting to reading materials.
Learning of the language and content of some books in schools' libraries was one of the most disturbing experiences Thurman had while on the board, she said.
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For that reason, she said it's important who governs and named the five Republican school board candidates. She added the county is close to having a liberal school board.
Three Republicans and two Democrats who currently serve on the school board are not up for reelection. They will likely be joined by Democrat Jackie Anderson-Thomas, who faces no opposition in the August general election. In the races for the other five seats, five Republicans will face three Democrats and two independents.
"We need to get out and work for these candidates because it matters who sits on that board and makes these decisions," Thurman said. "Because you're going to end up having a board that's going to say it's OK for boys to play girls' sports or it's OK to keep these trashy books on the shelves, it's OK to have furries in the classroom, it's OK to live with all this craziness, and people don't think it can happen, but it can."
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.