2024 School Board county general and municipal primary candidates

Two seats are up for grabs in the Blount County Schools Board of Education race as Robbie Kirkland, District 4, and Vandy Kemp, District 2, step down. John Lowe and Don Jones will face off for the District 2 seat while Chris Pass, Sr. and Rob Spirko compete for the District 4 seat in the upcoming Aug. 1 county general elections. Phil Porter, District 6, is up for re-election and running uncontested.

Maryville City School Board members Nick Black and Candy Morgan are up for re-election and are both running uncontested in the municipal primary elections on Aug. 1

Alcoa City School Board Members Mike Brown, Jim Kirk and Steve Marsh are also running uncontested to keep their seats in the municipal primaries, Aug. 1.

The Daily Times has attempted to contact all qualified candidates to answer common sets of questions. Candidates are listed by office sought, in alphabetical order and are categorized by school district.

Answers were trimmed when candidates exceeded length limits.

Blount County Board of Education

District 2

Name: Don Jones

Age: 58

Political affiliation: Democrat

Occupation: United Methodist Pastor

Office sought: Blount County Board of Education, District 2

Brief Biographical Info: I am a native of Blount County. My roots are here. My paternal grandparents lived in the Eagleton area. I graduated from Alcoa High School in 1984. Ten years later I earned my bachelor’s degree at Oklahoma Christian University. In 2002 I earned my Master of Divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology (Emory University). I earned my doctorate from the same place seventeen years later. I am married to Kathryn King. We have four sons between us. I ran for Maryville City School Board in 2022.

What are your thoughts on school vouchers: Individual school vouchers help a few students with special needs receive an education when local public schools are unable to meet the needs of those students. However, providing vouchers for every family does not have a good track record in other states. They simply transfer wealth to people who can afford to send their children to private schools. Too many times, religious schools are merely income streams for churches and provide few opportunities for learning.

What resources/programs should BCS be focused on in terms of funding: Strong and effective elementary education provides the basis of all other education for the life of the student. I am concerned that the Blount County Schools 2024-2025 Budget had to be revised to cut 1.25 million dollars. Many of the cuts fell on our elementary schools. I agree with the present Board members that our Advanced Learner program needs to be redesigned.

What are your thoughts on utilizing AI in a learning environment: The goal of achieving Artificial Intelligence has taken more years than most futurists expected. They have been called everything from plagiarism machines to a danger to humanity. Presently, AI is regarded as a tool. Educators will need to instruct students in its proper use and understand its limits.

What role do you think parents have in the education system and how involved should they be: Parents have a duty in educating their children. Parents need to provide a home for their children, limit the time their children spend looking at screens, and make sure the children get proper exercise, rest, and nutrition. Parents are indeed the primary educators of their children, and they need to partner with their children’s schools. Parents also play a role in reinforcing the discipline the teachers give to the students. When parents are concerned about something happening in the classroom, they have a right to engage with school officials in a reasonable exchange of information.

What are your thoughts on Tennessee’s 3rd grade retention law: I tried to get our representatives in the General Assembly to listen to my concerns. They were dismissed, and one representative lied to me about what he intended to do. The 3rd grade retention law makes the decision about a child’s achievement based on only one test. Even though the schools are given options on how to help students avoid being held back, school systems must wait until the end of the Spring term to get the results of the test. The privately owned testing service makes money from the misery of children. The state government helps them do that.

Name: John Lowe

Age: 76

Political affiliation: Republican

Occupation: Pastor, Tuckaleechee Chapel Missionary Baptist Church

Office sought: Blount County School Board — District 2

Brief Biographical Info: My wife, Leecreedia, and I have been married for 56 years. We are the proud parents of three wonderful children, who are all honor graduates of the University of Tennessee.They have blessed us with eleven grandchildren and six great grandchildren. A corporate transfer, in 1986, brought us from West Virginia to beautiful Blount County, where we have lived happily ever after for 38 years.

What are your thoughts on school vouchers: The real question about school vouchers should be: Why are parents taking their children out of public schools and enrolling them in either private or Christian schools or homeschooling, thus creating a demand for vouchers? Our focus and commitment needs to be on identifying and addressing the issues that are driving the demand for alternatives to public schools. If we can work together to resolve these critical issues, then we can make our public schools more competitive, successful and so academically sound that there would be no need for parents to remove their students.

What resources/programs should BCS be focused on in terms of funding: One additional resource worthy of BCS funding would be; an official writing program that would compliment the reading curriculum. Such a program would help our students be better prepared for the third grade writing assessment.

What are your thoughts on utilizing AI in a learning environment: Utilizing AI in the learning environment is a very controversial issue, therefore, all of the education stakeholders would need to be involved early in the discussion. Specific policies would have to be carefully and thoughtfully written, approved and in place before this could be considered. Transparency at every level would be critical.

What role do you think parents have in the education system and how involved should they be: Parents should play a very important role in the education system. As advocates for their children, they need to be fully engaged in the school system. By establishing active PTA’s in their schools and arranging regular Parent-Teacher conferences, they will have greater insight into the issues affecting their student’s performance. Parents should also attend the monthly school board meetings and get to personally know the board members, especially the one representing their district. What are your thoughts on Tennessee’s 3rd grade retention law: The third grade retention law should not be necessary! We should be providing our teachers and students with the resources they need to have our students reading at grade level by third grade. BCS appears to be a little slow in identifying learning disabilities and this can have a negative impact on test scores. We need to improve our early intervention in those situations. The third grade retention law is just that ...the law! Until it changes, we must find a more effective method of teaching our students to read on grade level by third grade.

District 4

Name: Chris R. Pass Sr.

Age: 62

Political affiliation: Republican

Occupation: Pastor of Grandview Baptist Church

Office sought: Blount County School Board District Seat 4

Brief Biographical Info: Cydney and have been married for 41 years. We have one son. He and his wife are both graduates of the University of Tennessee. My career: 30 years in automotive management 1987-2016, Pastor of Grandview Baptist Church 2016-present. Vice chairman of the Tennessee Baptist Foundation Board of Trustees.

What are your thoughts on school vouchers: I am a product of our Blount County Schools and I believe in our public education system. However, we must be willing to ask ourselves the difficult question of why more of our Blount County parents are pursuing home schooling or Christian private schools at their own expense in greater numbers than ever before? Given the opportunity, I look forward to working with our BCSB and BCS Administration to address those concerns and restore our Blount County parent/guardian trust in BCS to provide the best conservative, moral, and education excellence environment.

What resources/programs should BCS be focused on in terms of funding: Act Aspire is long a term program for 3rd grade through high school that provides periodic assessments beginning in the early grades, connecting student performance with readiness benchmarks. Act Aspire is able to accurately predict student future scores on the ACT (which is the most widely used college entrance exam) at a much earlier age. In so doing enabling them to provide periodic assessments that can lead to much earlier intervention with our students who are at academic risk in certain areas.

What are your thoughts on utilizing AI in a learning environment: AI is here to stay and obviously will be further developed. It must be implemented with research-based results that indicate effective use as well as cautions.

What role do you think parents have in the education system and how involved should they be: I believe parent engagement remains critical to student success. Research shows us that students with involved parents are likely to have higher grades and test scores. When students’ parents take an active role at school, the students develop more positive attitudes about school, have more self-confidence, and place a higher priority on academic achievement. I believe that parent/guardian school involvement is vital to student success and that we can and must do a much better job of facilitating and providing the opportunities for BCS parent/guardian school opportunities.

What are your thoughts on Tennessee’s 3rd grade retention law: It is my prayer that we commit ourselves alongside our kindergarten through third grade teachers, making sure that they have the best curriculum, resources, and assets needed for our BCS students to be reading at their optimum comprehension and current grade level.

Name: Rob Spirko

Age: 54

Political affiliation: Democrat

Occupation: College teacher

Office sought: School Board, District 4

Brief Biographical Info: Originally from Morristown, I went to Tennessee Tech, UT, and then UNC for my Ph.D. before we came back to east TN to settle on my wife’s folks’ land. Our kids had the chance to grow up near both sets of grandparents; they went to Walland, Heritage Middle, and Heritage High. I’ve been teaching at UT since 2002, mainly first-year composition, rhetoric and disability studies. I’m also very involved with my church, Foothills Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and recently finished four years of work with the national Unitarian Universalist Association re-writing our national covenant and statement of purpose and values.

What are your thoughts on school vouchers: I am solidly against them. I think they’re a boondoggle. Programs in other states have demonstrated that vouchers don’t actually increase parents’ choices: they tend to go to people who are already using private schools. They drain resources from our public schools, who need more support, not less. What’s more, private schools are not obligated to provide equivalent access to disabled students or transportation and school lunches for students who need those. That’s not “choice.” Small wonder that a vast majority of people in Blount County are also opposed to them.

What resources/programs should BCS be focused on in terms of funding: Teacher pay is a key issue. But just as important are support services for students and teachers. Teaching assistants are a key part of the educational process, able to provide direct attention to students, support for students on IEPs, and backup for teachers in the classroom. Also, many students are facing challenges in their life situations, so adequate support and counseling services are crucial. If we pay teachers more but don’t provide them adequate support and resources, we’re not really improving the overall educational picture. The county should trust the schools more and fully fund their budget.

What are your thoughts on utilizing AI in a learning environment: It’s too late to put the worms back in the can, so we have to teach students how to use AI properly. AI is changing the work landscape; students need to be ready for that. They need to know AI’s benefits and limitations, plus how to use it ethically. It’s a tool; the more powerful a tool, the more powerfully it can be misused. Students need firm grounding in base knowledge and critical thinking to recognize when AI is hallucinating or providing bad answers. And no AI can replace the personal touch and human relationships of a real teacher and classroom.

What role do you think parents have in the education system and how involved should they be: Parents are very important and should be involved as much as possible. This can be a challenge for working families, so we need to pursue ways to remove barriers and help families. Because I don’t believe in book banning, this means that parents have an obligation to know what their kids are reading and communicate their family values outside of school settings. Parents see sides of their children that teachers don’t, but teachers see sides of their students that parents don’t, so parents and teachers need to work in partnerships of mutual trust for the best interests of the students.

What are your thoughts on Tennessee’s 3rd grade retention law: This is a terrible law that should never have been passed. It misuses already over-used standardized testing and makes it even more high-stakes. The law does not solve the problem of early literacy and in fact creates more problems that drain energy and resources, while needlessly traumatizing our students. As it is, they’re having to add so many loopholes that outcomes are different across systems and even schools: the schools with better resources can provide more help or navigate the loopholes better. It’s just going to get more confusing and unfair. We should repeal this law and start over.

Maryville City Board of Education

Name: Candy Morgan

Age: 53

Political affiliation: Republican

Occupation: Chief Financial Officer

Office sought: Maryville City School Board

Brief Biographical Info: Graduate of Troy University, Troy, AL with a BS in Accounting. Married to Dr. Patrick Morgan. 3 Children: Hannah, Emily, and Will. Candy is a graduate of Leadership Blount Class of 2013, graduate of Leadership East Tennessee Class of 2019 and a Junior Service League Sustainer. She has served on Blount Youth Court Board of Directors, Leadership Blount Alumni Committee, and was Chair of the Maryville City School Foundation. She is immediate past President of Tennessee School Board Association.

What are your thoughts on school vouchers? I do not support public dollars being spent on private education. When you take away public dollars from public education you are creating a situation in which there is less money, but the overhead is still the same. The shifting of revenue would affect all students in our system adversely. We have a limited budget. Many of our expenses are fixed and would not change if some students left our district, requiring us to make cuts in other areas that would lead to a reduction in the quality of education in our system.

What resources/programs should MCS be focused on in terms of funding? I believe that we need to continue to fund our technology in the classrooms. Our children today are preparing to compete on a global platform and technology is key to their success. We need to continue to fund programs that assist in the mental well-being of our students. Also, for Maryville City Schools, we have to fund the expansion projects that will allow our children to have the learning space they need for their educational purposes.

What are your thoughts on utilizing AI in a learning environment? I believe that AI could be used in our classrooms for instructional purposes if our teachers are trained on how to implement these tools and policies are put in place for such instruction. I don’t believe it needs to be used by students who are learning critical thinking and independently problem solving.

What role do you think parents have in the education system and how involved should they be? Parents should be involved in their children’s education. It is good for students that have parents that want to be involved and guide their children on the path they feel is best situated for them. I believe that it is equally important for parents to communicate with the teacher and that relationship be a supportive one.

What are your thoughts on Tennessee’s 3rd grade retention law? First, it is very important for our 3rd grade students be reading on a 3rd grade level by the end of year. However, I don’t believe setting the benchmark for all students so high that the retention levels increase just based on one test. Retaining a child at that age can do more harm to their mental health, which is why providing additional support for struggling student is a better approach to illiteracy in this pivotal year.