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Candidates for the Franklin County Board of Education spoke Saturday at a forum sponsored by the Republican Party. (From left) Alan Mitchell and Greg Cary are running for the Post 4 seat while Robin Cato and Matt Brannon are running for Post 5.
By Shane Scoggins
Publisher
FRANKLIN SPRINGS – Candidates for two seats on the Franklin County Board of Education participated Saturday in a forum hosted by the Republican Party.
Post 4 candidates Alan Mitchell and Greg Cary and Post 5 candidates Robin Cato and Matt Brannon were asked questions submitted by the audience that gathered in the community room at Franklin Springs City Hall.
Among the topics included in the 10 or so questions asked were how to deal with growth in the system while keeping taxes low; test scores; hot-button education issues like critical race theory, transgender policies and the role of teachers in children’s lives; and how to attract and keep teachers.
• Post 4 candidates.
Both incumbent Mitchell and challenger Cary said they were against critical race theory.
“If indoctrination shows up at our doorstep, I’ll be the first to step up,” Mitchell said.
Cary said CRT should not be taught in schools.
Mitchell said teaching transgender issues is also indoctrination and he’s against that.
As a Christian, Mitchell said, “there’s not a gray area, it’s black or white.”
“Let’s just keep it simple,” he said.
On how to keep test scores up without teaching the test, Mitchell said he is not a fan of standardized tests but they have to be done.
The school system has a great career academy that teaches students how to work when they leave the high school, he said.
Cary said to get test scores up, the system has to have the best educators.
Some kids don’t test well and some will do better in the career technical areas like welding and automotive maintenance.
Asked how to plan for growth for new schools while keeping the costs as low as possible, Mitchell said the most important thing is to keep children as the focus.
Mitchell said the county needs to control growth and make sure it does not become a bedroom community.
Industry is needed to help the tax base, he said.
The school board is forced to be reactive because schools can’t be built until the school population increases, he said.
Mitchell said he’d love to work with commissioners.
As soon as the new elementary school is built, the school board may be looking to build another if subdivisions continue to come in.
Cary said the system can’t build for projected growth but for what it has now.
To attract teachers, Mitchell said the system has to be competitive in salary and supplements.
“Franklin County is the best place in the world to live,” Mitchell said.
The school system likes to have parents involved, Mitchell said, but sometimes that does not happen.
Teachers work to make students more productive.
“You just have to love on them,” he said of a teacher’s role. “You have to make them feel wanted.”
Cary was not able to answer some of the questions posed and left the room because he said he got too nervous.
“I got so nervous I couldn’t think,” Cary said Tuesday. “I could not put together a reasonable thought.”
Saying public speaking is not his strong point, Cary said, “I guess I’m a public servant.”
• Post 5 candidates.
Like the Post 4 candidates, Cato and Brannon said they were against teaching critical race theory.
“There’s a big difference in indoctrination and education,” Cato said.
Brannon said the schools’ job is to teach basic curriculum and other issues should be left to parents.
The key to good test scores is to find people who are passionate, Brannon said.
The college and career system and teaching things like how to balance a checkbook are important for students who may not go to college.
Cato said the key to good test scores without teaching a test is to reach children in grades kindergarten through second grade.
If students are on level by the time they reach third grade, teachers can teach a curriculum and students will test well organically.
Planning for growth will take collaboration with the Franklin County Board of Commissioners, Cato said, but the school system is not in charge of growth.
“We don’t know how many children are going to be registering for school in the fall,” she said.
Currently, the school system is at capacity.
Brannon said the system should be financially responsible.
The new school is going to be a huge cost and he said his experience would be a benefit to the system in managing those costs.
The system needs to work with commissioners to make sure Franklin is “a community as one.”
To attract teachers and keep teachers, Cato said salaries and supplements are important. The system has implemented a salary schedule so that it doesn’t lose teachers to other counties.
Brannon said the employment market right now is insane and it will be hard to attract people for anything.
To do so, the system needs to construct a pay package to attract teachers and keep them here.
On the role of parents and teachers, Brannon said most people in Franklin County are Christians and he would love to see teachers stick to the curriculum and not indoctrinate children.
Parents should be allowed to raise their children, he said.
Parents are important, Cato said, in making engaged students involved, but that does not always happen.
Teachers are often called on to fill voids in the lives of students, Cato said.
Teachers have been known to send food home with students to make sure they can eat or to help students find after-school jobs.
“There is no way a school system can be a parent,” she said, but the system does go a long way to help students.