We could see a seismic shift at the Knox County Board of Education. Come Sept. 1, 2022, at least three members will be gone: Patti Bounds, Virginia Babb and Evetty Satterfield. Two others, Kristi Kristy and Betsy Henderson, face re-election opponents.
Board of Education trends since 1940:
The Mildred Doyle era: School board? We got one of them? Don’t worry about it. Miz Doyle will pick us some good ‘uns.
The Retired Principals: Starting in 1976, during the tenure of superintendents Earl Hoffmeister and Allen Morgan plus two interim terms for Roy Mullins, the school board was dominated by retired principals. Notables included Dr. Paul Kelley, Cecil Kelly, Jim McClain and D.M. Miller.
The Tug-of-War: Between business types, mostly men, and PTA types, mostly women. Memorable combatants include one-termers Steve Hunley, Doug Harris and Bill Phillips vs. Diane Jablonski, Karen Carson and Diane Dozier. This bunch gave us Dr. Charles Q. Lindsey and actually sued Knox County government and won.
The Reformers: Let’s put Carson, Indya Kincannon and Lynne Fugate here. They wanted “change” for the sake of change and passed over Dr. Donna Wright to give us Bostonian James McIntyre.
The Teachers: In reaction to excessive, high-stakes testing, weakening of tenure and churning of principals, teachers were empowered to resign and run for the BOE. Former teacher Mike McMillan (2010) was joined by Patti Bounds, Amber Rountree and former school social worker Terry Hill in 2014, and Jennifer Owen and Tony Norman in 2016. Boom. The rabbits’ got the gun. McIntyre resigned. The teachers hired everybody’s pal, Bob Thomas, as superintendent and here we are.
The Know-Nothings: I fear the 2022 election will start a slide toward a school board controlled by folks who don’t respect teachers, don’t respect traditional curriculum and don’t even like public schools.
- Beware when candidates say that parents, not educators, should determine curriculum. Do you really want the folks down the street setting the math or science or social studies curriculum? One word: Evolution.
- Beware when candidates pledge support for vouchers – tax money to private schools.
- Beware of one-issue candidates – “I don’t like those anti-covid masks. I’ll run for the school board.”
Over 80 years, we’ve seen school boards that were passive or aggressive, pro-teacher or pro-change and churn. But we’ve never had a board that tried to decimate public education. The good news from history is that elections often are reactions. Nothing stays the same.
Sandra Clark is editor/CEO of Knox TN Today.