Maury Co. school board candidates for Dist. 9 share their goals and experiences prior to the race.
Chad Howell
What specific experience and qualifications do you have that make you the ideal candidate for this position?
I am a civil servant at heart. I have always served people. As an Eagle Scout, I learned the value of being a good citizen and the value of community service and volunteering. I have continued to pass that on to others as Cubmaster of the Culleoka Pack 166 and later as Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 111, which is mostly made up of Culleoka students. I have been a police officer for 10 years and in that role I serve people every day. As a police officer, I see what some of our children have to go through every day. I am also volunteering in the schools my time. While interacting with students, I have the opportunity to talk to our frontline teachers. Being on the board for the past 3 and a half years has also given me experience of the best ways to help our students, teachers, schools and communities.
What do you see as the top 3 priorities for Maury County and how do you plan to contribute to achieving those priorities?
In my opinion, the top three priorities are;
- Student achievement and academic excellence,
- Hiring and retaining teachers
- Building adequate facilities for ALL students while retaining ALL faculties.
The number one priority is that ALL students in Maury County deserve a quality education, which starts with ensuring students have the tools they need to learn. We started by making sure that textbooks and electronic devices are in the hands of every student. In the 3 years that I have been on the board, we have bought more textbooks than in the previous 13 years! We have plans to continue buying textbooks. We are one-on-one with electronic devices, which means we have enough for every student to have a device. We buy a teaching package for our teachers. We put tools in the hands of our students and teachers. This gives each student different options for learning, some may learn better with a textbook and some may learn better with a device. I don’t care what is used, as long as the students learn. The second priority is to ensure that we can recruit and retain good teachers. The two main issues I hear from teachers are pay and discipline. We completed a payroll survey comparing Maury County to 14 other school districts of similar size or around us, we ranked 14th. We invested just over $6 million to get us to the 75th percentile. So that puts us somewhere around 3rd or 4th. It’s not just about teacher pay, it’s about ALL employees. We cannot educate students without teaching assistants, bus drivers, substitute teachers, cafeteria workers, maintenance workers, bookkeepers, nurses and secretaries. Our payroll survey included all those positions, because we also need to retain and hire them. To address disciplinary action, we are completely changing disciplinary policies to hold students and parents accountable. The third priority is to build adequate facilities and maintain our current facilities. We have a five-year capital building plan that is reviewed annually. This is a completely new plan based on the needs of our school district. We send a copy of it to the County Commission so they can see what our needs are too. This way, the County Commission and the school board can align when discussing capital budgets.
Maury County is one of the fastest growing counties in the state and country. This massive growth requires new and improved infrastructure (ie schools, roads, water, etc.). How do you plan to make these infrastructure improvements, including any needed funding?
As mentioned in a previous answer, we have developed a 5-year plan that will accommodate the growth. We review that plan annually to ensure it is up-to-date. We have discussed doing a semi-annual review because of the rapid growth we are experiencing. While new buildings are being built, we also have a maintenance plan in place to ensure our existing buildings remain in good condition for years to come. For example, the Culleoka Unit School is being repainted on the inside, but also the outside of the building has a material called dryvit that is molded and moldy. This exterior material is also cleaned and repainted gray to keep it looking good for years to come.
Steve McGee
What specific experience and qualifications do you have that make you the ideal candidate for this position?
I am a taxpayer for one. I was manager of the Radiation Oncology Department at the former Nashville Memorial Hospital (now Skyline). I was president of the former Mid-South Society of Radiation Therapist and a member of its board of directors. I was president of the Nashville Area Beekeeper’s Association and a member of its board of directors.
What do you see as the top 3 priorities for Maury County and how do you plan to contribute to achieving those priorities?
The 3 priorities I see are lack of teachers, poor discipline and financial accountability.
- TEACHERS: Investigate the reasons teachers leave and adjust policies to address those reasons
- DISCIPLINE: put more responsibility on the parents.
- FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: Ensure that the allocated money is spent on the requested need.
Maury County is one of the fastest growing counties in the state and country. This massive growth requires new and improved infrastructure (ie schools, roads, water, etc.). How do you plan to make these infrastructure improvements, including any needed funding?
Questions 6-8 are similar in nature. The Commission provides the funds and the school board must ensure that the requested funds are spent on the areas requesting the funds. In short, one cannot spend what one does not have, any more than it can come from where it has not been.