Therapist Ashley Dillon wants to promote transparency and parental involvement as a Hamilton County school board member.
“I’m a huge fan of public school,” she said in an interview. “I think we have a good public school system. I think we can make it even better. My kids are in this system, and so I have a vested interest in it being good.”
Dillon, a Republican from Hixson, is running against Democrat Ruth Walker and independent Sandy Pricer in the race to replace Chair Joe Smith, R-Hixson, as the District 3 representative on the Hamilton County school board. The district includes the Hixson and Lakesite areas.
The general election is Aug. 6, and early voting starts July 17.
Dillon, 36, is a licensed professional counselor at her solo practice, Stained Glass Counseling, where she works primarily with children, teenagers and families. She previously worked at the Transformation Center, a local faith-based counseling center, and before that worked in community mental health, largely serving children in foster care.
“I do have experience with counseling lots of kids from in and around Hamilton County, and I have heard bits and pieces about all different types of schools in our area — things that other people don’t get the privilege to hear,” she said. “I think I’m uniquely qualified as a therapist to be able to listen to multiple perspectives and help people meet in the middle.”
Dillon spent most of her childhood in Sumner County in Middle Tennessee before moving to the Chattanooga area 18 years ago to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The oldest two of her three children attend public schools.
She wants every school in Hamilton County to be as successful as the one her children attend, she said.
If elected, her top priority would be transparency.
“I think we have parents in Hamilton County who really do want to know what’s going on, but they don’t know the questions to ask,” she said. “I’ve been told by teachers and principals and even other board members that, ‘Well, if they want to know, they can ask and I’ll tell them.’ But I think a lot of times, we don’t even know what we need to ask, so I think it’s important that information is a little bit more readily volunteered.”
Among other items, Dillon said, she would like more transparency around how discipline issues are handled and how schools spend the additional money provided to principals to tailor their staff to meet students’ needs. She’d also like for school staff’s contact information to be more readily available.
“If they’re working with my kid, I want to be able to talk to you,” she said. “I want to be able to send you an email.”
Dillon said she would publicly post after meetings to explain what the school board decided and why she voted the way she did in order to promote transparency.
(READ MORE: Hixson area Hamilton County school board candidates talk priorities, healthy schools)
Ensuring teachers want to work for Hamilton County Schools, she said, requires a three-pronged approach: finances, support and parent involvement.
She believes respecting and celebrating teachers is important. She said that’s why she advocates for including parents in that conversation, she said. For instance, if a teacher were to tell her that one of her children was disrupting class, then she could give that child consequences at home. That changes her child’s behavior, she said.
“If we invite parents back into the discussion a little bit more … I think that ultimately will be a bigger support for our teachers if parents are able to come alongside the teacher and help with homework and discipline and celebrating the teacher,” she said.
School board candidates are elected to four-year terms.
Heather Weaver, a Hixson resident who met Dillon while she was campaigning, said Dillon took everything she said to heart and took notes about her concerns. Weaver said she respected Dillon for taking the time to visit her home, and she appreciated Dillon’s Christian values and focus on children.
“I like the fact that she’s going to look into the testing,” Weaver said by phone. “I like the fact that she wants to put the children first and their safety and their needs and their education.”
THE ELECTION
The general election is Aug. 6 and early voting runs July 17-Aug. 1.
OFFICE DETAILS
Duties: Approving the budget, creating policy, hiring and evaluating the superintendent
Schools represented: Big Ridge Elementary, DuPont Elementary, Hixson Elementary, Hixson Middle, Hixson High, Loftis Middle, McConnell Elementary, Middle Valley Elementary
Key issues: Facilities, school staffing, preparing students for the workforce
Start date: Sept. 1
Salary: Around $14,000
WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND
Parental rights
“As parents, we have the ultimate say as to where our children go to school. I think parental rights need to be extremely respected. No one is forcing a parent to send their child to the zoned school, and we should treat parents as such. … There are so many different options in how to educate your child that the school board and the schools need to be mindful of that, and there’s a lot of laws surrounding parental rights that we need to make sure that we’re respecting and following. I just think it’s really important that we’re honoring and respecting the role of a parent.”
— Ashley Dillon, Republican
“When they’re in school, we’re not the ones schooling them. We are giving a lot of those rights over to the school system, to the individualized school and teacher, but that does not remove our parental rights in the equation at all. There are opt-outs and opt-ins and PTOs, PTAs (parent teacher organizations), ways that we can be involved and have our voices heard as long as we are involved. I think parental rights are huge, and I really wish that more parents were involved in all the schools. … I think that could continue to better the schools, the community and our students if more parents were involved and understand that they do have a parental right for their child’s education.”
— Sandy Pricer, independent
“It is so important for parents to have decisions and the ability to be involved in their child’s life in the school system. … Sometimes when they feel like parent rights are being infringed on, I think it’s because they just don’t feel involved with the process. If we can get them involved with the process, they can understand they have every right. They have every right to say that, ‘I don’t want my kid to read that book.’ OK, they don’t have to read that book. They have every right to come in and say that ‘I have a concern about our curriculum or I have a concern about this.’ And they have every right for the teachers and the principal and everyone to sit down with them and to talk them through that and to help them understand and to make accommodations where needed. If we can get them more involved, I think that we can help them feel more empowered.”
— Ruth Walker, Democrat
School-based mental health providers
“One person that I had spoken with, she said that it takes longer for a student. If they’re getting the services, it’s taking longer to initiate because now they have to go through five different providers and call and do the research. It’s just an added step, and it’s an added barrier. When we’re already 50th in the nation for youth access to mental health services, why are we creating additional barriers and additional steps to do that? … They need to be credentialed. They need to be licensed, and we need to, of course, vet them appropriately. All of those things. Centerstone had all of those things, and so now I’m concerned about who’s not receiving services that needs it.”
— Ruth Walker, Democrat
“I know through my experiences firsthand that a child cannot learn if they’re hungry, if they’re scared, if they didn’t sleep the night before. The mental health providers give them something that they might not be able to get anywhere else. I know there’s an argument that after-school is the time for that. A parent needs to set that up. Well, there’s situations where a parent can’t. A parent’s working two jobs, and if the child doesn’t get that mental health in school, they’re not going to get it. Our job is to educate the youth, and if they literally cannot be educated because of being hungry or scared or feeling unsafe, … then we’re not doing our job.”
— Sandy Pricer, independent
“I think that one’s already been decided, and it was a very hotly contested issue. I don’t think it’s going to come back up. The things that they are doing now, as long as they’re following the law and the ethics code, it’s been decided. I don’t think it’s an issue that has to come back up. Now, I do think that we need to be mindful that everyone is staying in their lane. There are ethics codes around who is allowed to do what and any licensed professional counselor should know the ethics code for their job. … This also goes back to parental choice and making sure that parents, one, they know what they’re signing their kid up for and they know that they have options.”
— Ashley Dillon, Republican
Contact education reporter Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.