None of this is theoretical. Every number is from the FY26 Hamilton County School Board budget, the 2024 board-commissioned audits, or the Tennessee Department of Education's own reporting. I am asking for your vote so I can defend these positions in the room where they are decided.
Every position below is paired with the budget line it touches, the named program it funds or defunds, and the District 4 school it changes the day it passes. I will tell you which board members are with me, which are against, and what the procedural path is for getting to seven votes.
If a position here changes after a budget hearing or a community meeting, this page changes with it. Last revised after the May 2 budget hearing.
Starting teacher pay in Hamilton County is $47,200. The Tennessee Education Association says a living wage for a household of three in this county is $63,900. We are losing the people we need most.
Tennessee HB 329 (the Teacher Paycheck Protection Act) authorized state matching dollars up to $55,000 starting salary. Hamilton County has not claimed its full share. Theodore will move to claim every dollar in the first FY27 budget.
National Board Certification is the gold-standard credential. The board's 2024 retention study found a $4,800 NBPTS stipend doubled our retention. Make the stipend $8,000 and tie it to a clear ladder to $80,000 at year 15 in District 4 schools.
Howard, Brainerd, Tyner Academy, and the East Lake campus each have vacancy rates above 14%. A $5,000 differential stipend for teachers who commit three years to those buildings would cost $1.8M against a $710M general fund. We can afford it.
District 4 missed 4,200 instructional days to uncovered absences last year. Raise the daily sub rate from $90 to $135 and dedicate a sub-pool to the four hardest-to-staff buildings.
Seven Hamilton County elementary schools qualify for Community Eligibility under the USDA. Three more in District 4 qualify and have not enrolled. The board is leaving federal money on the table while children skip breakfast.
East Side Elementary, Calvin Donaldson, and Hardy Elementary all meet the 40% Identified Student Percentage threshold under USDA rules. Enrollment is paperwork. We move on it the first board meeting after I am sworn in.
The Tennessee Department of Education will reimburse 70% of universal breakfast costs in CEP districts. The remaining $1.4M lift is well within the $4M annual surplus the district carried into FY26.
A 2024 board-commissioned audit showed 38% of lunch trays were uneaten on Tuesdays (canned ravioli day). Re-bid the food contract with a minimum 30% scratch-cooked requirement, sourced from Tennessee farms where possible.
Hamilton County families owed $84,000 in lunch debt last May. Five charitable groups in District 4 already cover lunch debt at three schools. Make district policy match what neighbors already do.
Hamilton County lost nine certified librarian positions to attrition since 2022 and refilled four. District 4 lost three and refilled one. The Age-Appropriate Materials Act is being used as cover for understaffing. Not on my vote.
A hard floor. The Tennessee state guideline is one per building. We are below it in seven District 4 schools. We will be at it within 18 months or I will keep the vote open until we are.
Every challenge under the AAMA gets a 21-day window, a public hearing, and a written board response. No quiet removals. No closed-stacks workarounds.
Per-pupil library spending in District 4 has not increased since 2018. Bring it to the state median ($14.50/student) by FY28.
A democracy that does not teach its young people to read a budget is a democracy that does not plan to last. Civics in Hamilton County deserves more than a multiple-choice test in May.
I built this 6-week unit at Brainerd. Fourteen Hamilton County social studies teachers have adopted it informally. Make it a board-approved curriculum supplement and resource it.
Every Hamilton County senior attends and writes about one public meeting (school board, city council, county commission, planning commission). The county owes its young people the experience.
Tennessee allows 17-year-olds to pre-register. The state already provides the forms. We make them part of the syllabus, not an extracurricular.
The Department of Justice 2024 report found Hamilton County school resource officers arrested Black students at 4.1 times the rate of white students for the same conduct. The board's response was a 12-page rebuttal. The community deserves a response that starts with the children.
The American School Counselor Association standard. We are at 1:415 district-wide and 1:520 in District 4. Bring it to the national standard by FY28 by re-allocating two SRO positions per high school into licensed school counselors.
The 2023 pilot at Tyner Academy cut suspensions 38% in one year. Scale it to every District 4 middle and high school within two years, with full training stipends for participating teachers.
Currently parents file SRO complaints with the Sheriff's Office. We create a parallel intake at the district level, with a parent ombudsperson and a 30-day response standard.
Hamilton County School Board meetings are public, technically. Tuesday night, 5:30 PM, no childcare, no Spanish interpretation, no public access to the consent agenda until 24 hours prior. That is "open" the way a back door at 3 AM is open.
After-work hours. The way every other functioning democracy does it.
Childcare offered in the building. Spanish interpretation live. Both are baseline.
Long enough for parents and teachers to read, ask questions, and show up prepared. Nothing of substance hidden in the consent.
Mine will be 9-11 AM at the East Lake library branch. The one I helped save in 2017. Every Saturday I am in District 4.
Disagree? Bring it to the porch. Tuesdays at 6 PM, 1419 East 9th Street. Sweet tea is on the table.