Incumbent Gary Kuehn, R-Ooltewah, hopes to continue increasing career and technical education opportunities and supporting teachers with another term on the Hamilton County Board of Education.
“I take to heart the oath that we take before every meeting where it says we will do what’s best for all children in Hamilton County,” he said in an interview. “That’s what I try to do.”
Kuehn is facing a challenge from Democrat Jordan Hammond of Harrison in the race to represent District 9 on the board. The district includes the Harrison and Birchwood areas.
Kuehn, 67, was first elected to the school board in 2022. During his time in office, he said, he’s proudest of working to reduce the number of benchmark tests and increase the amount of career and technical education opportunities — two of the items he ran on the first time.
He’s still working on the third priority from his 2022 campaign: opening a school in the Birchwood or Georgetown area, he said
Before retiring, Kuehn spent 40 years as a teacher, coach and administrator in Hamilton County Schools — the vast majority of which was in District 9 schools. When he first ran for office, he believed the board needed more educational voices, he said, which is something he still believes.
“Whether it’s me or somebody else, there are times when board members need an inside opinion on how it was or how it is, that you can’t get if you haven’t been in the schools before,” he said. “I still feel that I have the energy and the enthusiasm to be a good school board person. I definitely still have the love for kids.”
He is originally from Alaska and moved to the Chattanooga area nearly 50 years ago to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His children attended public schools.
If reelected, his priorities include continuing to increase the number of career and technical education programs, as well as creating more partnerships with local businesses for those programs. He also wants to increase support in the younger grades, particularly by lowering the teacher-to-student ratio.
“We’re making great gains in our facilities,” he said. “We’ve got great teachers, and we’re at a point where if we don’t provide either more help in the classroom or smaller numbers in the classroom, then … we’re going to hit a stalemate because we’ve made some growth gains in the last few years that we’ve not made previously. And now we’ve got a budget that, I hate to say it, but it restricts what we can do.”
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Making more gains will require a partnership between the school system and Hamilton County Commission, he said, and Kuehn would support asking commissioners to come up with a way to increase school funding specifically to hire more teachers to lower the teacher-to-student ratio.
The additional funding doesn’t necessarily have to come from sales or property tax, he said, but having a lower ratio is the only way the district is going to be able to compete with private schools. Beyond paying teachers more, he said, having them teach fewer students and administer fewer tests helps show educators they’re valued.
School board candidates are elected to serve four-year terms.
Julia Hillian, a constituent, said she’d known Kuehn for 25 years because he’d taught and coached her sons. Kuehn goes above and beyond for students, she said, and he truly cares about each child.
“He does a lot for the children,” she said by phone. “He’s very involved. He doesn’t sit back and take his school board position lightly. I mean, every day it seems like he’s doing something to help the children in the schools.”
Contact education reporter Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.
OFFICE DETAILS
Duties: Approving the budget, creating policy, hiring and evaluating the superintendent
Schools represented: Brown Middle, Central High, Harrison Elementary, Harrison Bay Future Ready Center, Hunter Middle, Snow Hill Elementary, Wallace A. Smith Elementary
Key issues: Facilities, school staffing, preparing students for the workforce
Start date: Sept. 1
Salary: Around $14,300
THE ELECTION
The general election is Aug. 6, and early voting runs July 17-Aug. 1.
WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND
Racial and socioeconomic disparities
“That’s the role of every citizen. … Our administration knows it can’t be tolerated, and that’s right now what we’re doing. We’re trying to prevent it from happening in our schools, but we also have to do the same thing in our communities.”
— Gary Kuehn, Republican
“The board should be aware of disparities that are amongst their student population or their teacher population. I think they should be actively mitigating any disparities or harms that might be done to certain populations, whether it be well-established policy or whether it be in zoning. I would say that part of the board’s job is ensuring that we shouldn’t be having any student left behind or treated differently because of their birth status or because of their skin color. Actively working toward removing disparities is a high priority, I would say, of the board because that’s directly tied with ensuring that every child is taken care of.”
— Jordan Hammond, Democrat
School-based mental health services
“I think as long as these are qualified individuals, as long as they’re trained professionals, I think that’s a great service for the children.”
— Jordan Hammond, Democrat
“They should allow them in but not during class time. If a student can be there before school or after school and receive these, then that’s an option that they might not have because of lack of transportation or whatever. … Our last board meeting, we approved the five counseling services again. We’ll put a few more data points in there to look at now, but the goal of the board previously was to find more support through different services than just what was previously provided, with regards to parent choice of companies.”
— Gary Kuehn, Republican