School board candidates debate issues in Hixson as they vie to replace Joe Smith
From left to right: Sandy Pricer (I), Dr. Ruth Walker (D), and Ashley Dillon (R), the three candidate for Hamilton County District 3 School Board.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Longtime Hamilton County school board chairman Joe Smith announced earlier this year that he would not seek reelection in his district.
Three candidates are looking to replace him, and whoever does so will make history as the first to represent the Hixson area for District 3 of the Hamilton County School Board.
Republican nominee Ashley Dillon, Democrat nominee Dr. Ruth Walker, and Independent Sandy Pricer all are running for the Hamilton County District 3 School Board seat in Hixson.
Over 100 were in attendance at the Valleybrook Golf Club in Hixson to hear the candidates discuss why they want to be on the school board.
In terms of main motivations, Pricer said, “For me this isn’t about politics, it’s personal. It’s about people.”
She says that she chose to run as an independent because, “My nonprofit that I started I want to keep it very neutral. Additionally, I have values on both sides so wanted to make sure that I was able to represent them.”
Dillon said that when the opportunity opened she said that because, “I love my children’s teachers, I love our principal and so when seeing the opportunity to run, I was like yeah I’m gonna do it.”
Dr. Walker, who said she was motivated because of last year’s school board controversies over the school budget and mental health services said, “I wrote an op-ed that just talked about how important strong public schools are for the health of our homeowners and for everyone who wants to own property that wants to move into our communities.”
Topics ranging from teacher pay to refocused curriculums were discussed as top priorities.
Dr. Walker said, “The very first thing I want focus on is listening. I don’t want to go in there and just assume I know what’s best and what is needed.”
Dillon said she had three main topics, the first of those being, “We need to get back to the basics. Working on making sure that our students are able to learn with pencil and paper with hands-on material. We’re need to get away from the one to one devices where we are not so stuck with technology. Technology is helpful but it doesn’t need to be a hinderance.”
Her other two main topics were transparency in communication with parents and reducing the amount of testing, saying that she believes it is unnecessary for students to be tested at the beginning of a school year.
Pricer said that she would, “Advocate for competitive pay and making sure they have the tools and the environment to focus on students, not unnecessary burdens.”
One issue that was discussed was school vouchers, where Dillon said despite being a Republican, her family has seen repercussions from that policy.
Dillon said, “When the vouchers came out, we were enrolled in a private school and once they came out, our tuition went up by $1000 per kid. Several other families and we left the school to move to public school and the vouchers are basically the piper robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
The other candidates had split opinions on that issue.
Dr. Walker said, “Students in voucher programs perform significantly worse in math and reading than our public school kids. Our public schools are out performing them.”
Pricer said, “They can help get kids out of poor situations in that it might be the only chance they have, but it also potentially is being overused and used in the wrong way.”
Election day for this race along with follow the other county races and state of federal primaries in Tennessee is on Thursday, August 6.
Early voting begins on July 17.
