A recent article in Rutherford A.M. gave the citizens of Rutherford Co. an inside look at the candidates for the Murfreesboro City School Borad election that will take place on April 15, the candidates also have shared their views at two forums and other appearances on multiple educational issues.
Among the issues they've talked about include socioeconomic balance vs. neighborhood schools and public participation at board meetings vs. policies requiring personal issues to be dealt with by educators outside the public events.
Now it is time to take an indept look at each candidate:
Name:Susan Andrews
Address:910 Hazelwood St., Murfreesboro, TN 37130
Phone:615-896-9323
Education:AttendedPercy Priest Elementary and Parmer Elementary in Nashville and graduated from Harpeth Hall High School in Nashville in 1970; earned bachelor's degree in zoology from Duke University in 1974; achieved medical degree from Vanderbilt University in 1978; and served as resident at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
Career:Family physician.
Family:Husband, Randy Rickard, family physician; three children (who attended city system's Reeves-Rogers or Northfield elementary schools), Dorsey, a resident physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, David, an employee for Microsoft, and Katie, a graduate school student at MTSU studying to be a French teacher.
What are your qualifications to serve on the Murfreesboro City School Board?
I'm passionate about children and their education because I think teaching children is the most important thing we do as a society. I've spent 12 years working on the city school board and have learned a lot about our educational system and how things work, as well as how to accomplish our goals.
What kind of letter grade would you give Murfreesboro City Schools Director Marilyn Mathis for her job performance, and why do you feel she deserves this grade?
I'm not going to give her a letter grade. I'll just say she has been and is doing an excellent job. We've had state evaluators come in and tell us that we have one of the strongest director of schools in the state. And she's very strong fiscally. She manages our system very well. She has set up a strong central office and has hired very good principals. Our system is quite successful and noted to be one of the stronger systems in the state, and a lot of that is due to her work. She would get an A-plus if she was in school, but she's not.
What are key problems the city district faces, and what do you think should be done to resolve them?
One of the challenges we are facing is No Child Left Behind. Without changes in this law, it will become impossible to meet those standards, but we still have to do the best we can as long as we can. The law says 100 percent of our children have to be proficient by 2014.
I think that the real challenge is to help each one of our children reach his or her potential. That's becoming more challenging as the demographics of Murfreesboro change. I really think we've been doing a really good job with the students we have. We've adapted pretty well with the influx we've had with English as a Second language children. And we've had an increase of children on free and reduced lunch. I think we've done well with children on free and reduced lunch. The average yearly progress has been really good. We have to keep working on that.
The great thing about our system is we don't look at these as problems. They are opportunities. Our teachers, when they go to work, know they may have a lot of children on free or reduced lunch or have a lot of children who don't speak English very well, but they also know what they do with those children makes a difference. Our teachers are committed.
Why are you seeking a four-year term to serve on the board?
I can make a difference. I think our overall goal is to assure academic and personal success for each child. I want to keep our eye on that ball. I have seen it as my role to keep our focus on the classroom. You can get caught up on finances, on peripheral issues. I really want to keep our focus on the classroom because that's where the learning happens. I really want to focus on what we can do for our teachers, so they can give our children the best education possible.
There are still some important issues that I want to keep working on. I believe that having our children ready to enter school is very important. And I want to keep on working on increasing our number of preschool classes to help us meet this goal. And I'm committed to small classroom sizes to give our teachers the best opportunity to reach each child on his or her own level.
Daniel W. Hayes, Realtor
Master Plan Realty
615-598-4236
