Here come the school board candidates: meet Jaggers and Satterfield

Betty BeanUncategorized

With Gwen McKenzie’s win, East Knoxvillians finally reached the other side of a hard-fought District 6 city council race – but political season never really ends, and it’s time to talk about school board, a non-partisan position that has become as politically charged as any public office.

While the city council candidates were fighting it out, two young, well-qualified and energetic first-time candidates were laying the groundwork to make a run for the first district school board seat, which pretty much covers the same ground as the city council’s sixth district. If history is a guide, other hats will be tossed into the ring, as well. Qualifying petitions will be available at the election commission office tomorrow (Nov. 17), and Feb. 15 is the deadline to return completed petition forms.

Both candidates have campaign events this week.

Incumbent Gloria Deathridge hasn’t said whether she plans to seek a third term, and both Dametraus Jaggers and Evetty Satterfield said they have discussed the matter with her. Both said the conversations were pleasant and that Deathridge did not discourage them from proceeding. Both have endorsements and organizations in place and are ready to hit the ground running. Both say they will run regardless of who else runs.

Dametraus Jaggers

Dametraus Jaggers is native of Cleveland, Ohio, who moved here in 2012 to take a job in Student Life at the University of Tennessee, where he started a peer mentoring program and oversaw academic and student development programs. He stayed at UT for three years, and then accepted a job with Johnson University as director of a youth theology institute for young people and to operate a satellite office in the Regas building on Gay Street that focuses on adult education.

He said that growing up in a single parent household in Cleveland made him keenly aware of the role public education can play in shaping young lives. He has an undergraduate degree in marketing from Kent State University and a master’s degree in higher education from Kent State, and is finishing a doctorate in higher education administration at the University of Tennessee. He is married and has two young sons, Davin, 7, and Dallas, 5. His wife, Kristen, is the community schools coordinator at Christenberry Elementary School.

“We decided early on that Knoxville was the place we wanted to settle and call home,” Jaggers said. “It was about creating stability for our family and engaging work life and community. I started volunteering, and that’s how I learned about Johnson University. And because of my own background in education and my desire to impact the lives of youth and families, I began to pay more attention to how I want to be involved in the community.”

Evetty Satterfield

Evetty Satterfield has an undergraduate degree in special education from Alabama A&M and a master’s in social work from Washington University (in St. Louis), and work experience that includes teaching special ed in Alabama, social work in Chicago and retooling the academic program at an American-based college prep school in Abu Dhabi. She travels the state as manager of school partnerships for a national organization called Academic Approach.

“We work with schools and principals and school leaders to help them identify the skills students are lacking,” she said. “We focus on removing barriers (to admission to a four-year college), because we know that a four-year college gives students the best chance to prepare themselves to ‘play’ with the big dogs. They hired me at the end of September, and I like it a lot. I like that it’s teacher-focused.”

She grew up in suburban Atlanta, but spent summers and holidays in Knoxville with her maternal grandparents, Evelyn and John Fortson, who owned Klean Rite Janitorial Service headquartered in Burlington near Chilhowee Park and operated an eatery when the fair came to town. Her first name – Evetty– is a mash-up of her two grandmothers’ names – Evelyn and Betty. Satterfield’s father, Hurley Satterfield, died when she was young, and her mother, Joslyn Johnson, moved the family back to Knoxville, where Satterfield enrolled in Austin-East High School, where she would graduate in 2006. Jones heads the culinary arts program at A-E.

Both candidates oppose any move to privatize public schools, and both oppose charters and vouchers. Both engaged in months of conversations with members of the community before making the decision to run for office.

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