A. Kamau Hull
A. Kamau Hull was a candidate for District 8 representative on the Clarke County Board of Education in Georgia. Hull lost in the general election on May 24, 2016.[1]
Biography
Hull earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Virginia Military Institute. He received his J.D. from John Marshall Law School. Hull is an attorney specializing in family law.[2] He has volunteered time with the Whit Davis Elementary School Council, the Clarke Central High School Peer Mediation Program, and the Athens Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.[3]
Elections
2016
Four of the nine seats on the Clarke County Board of Education were up for general election on May 24, 2016. There was no primary. District 2 incumbent Vernon Payne, District 4 newcomer Jared Bybee, and District 6 incumbent Charles Worthy ran unopposed. John Knox defeated A. Kamau Hull in the District 8 race.[1]
Results
| Clarke County School District, District 8 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 John Knox |
52.18% | 431 |
| A. Kamau Hull | 47.82% | 395 |
| Total Votes | 826 | |
| Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016 | ||
Campaign themes
2016
Hull's campaign website listed the following themes for 2016:
| “ |
Opportunity School District First, changing any constitution is a big step. The current proposition is to change the Georgia Constitution, which means 2 things: (1) creating an Opportunity School District is currently illegal, and (2) before it can be legal to create, we would have to not only change state laws, but also amend the Georgia Constitution. That is red flag No. 1. Second, were this amendment to pass, it would usurp the powers and budgets of local school districts and boards of education. Such legislation would allow the governor’s office to take over up to 100 schools across the state (a number that is subject to change, and has changed several times between 100 and 139, thus far). The schools that would be targeted by this district are labeled as “chronically failing public schools” (the definition of which is subject to change, and has changed several times, presumably to include certain schools). By the state’s measure, District 8’s own Gaines Elementary School has already been listed as such a school. This means seizing the buildings and funding for those schools for five to ten years, and placing it in the hands of a “superintendent” (appointed by, and reporting directly to the governor) of this independent school district. This “superintendent”—who will be housed at the State Capitol—will have the autonomy to hire and fire whomever they choose, with no input from local school districts, boards of education, or the State School Superintendent. Such carelessness for our democratic decision-making process is red flag No. 2. Third, if the governor so chooses, he could privatize the entire district. This would presumably and simultaneously shield the governor’s office from any measure of accountability, and put more money into the hands of not only for-profit educational entities, but also testing companies, consultants, etc. To know how well that works, we only need look as far as Ombudsman Educational Services to realize that it does not . The only question that remains in my mind is this: Exactly for whom would this school district be an “opportunity”? Neither the children of District 8 nor the Clarke County School District and other boards of education that may be affected and displaced by this vote will benefit from it. The solution is simple: Vote “No” on the amendment, and maintain local control of our schools. School Discipline When I finished laughing, I told him that I was not the type of candidate that would try to buy his vote with campaign promises, but that I was sincerely interested in knowing what his issues were with the Catwalk stick. Again, his response was simple. “It doesn’t work,” he said. “When kids get put on a lower color, most of the time they don’t come back up. Most of the time they don’t know what they did wrong, and they usually get more frustrated and get put down to red. Then they spend the rest of the day trying to make it back to a good color.” I have learned over the years that to improve in life, there are two important groups you must always listen to, whether you agree with them or not. The first is your elders, because they have experienced what has and has not worked in the past. The second is kids, because their lack of experience sometimes illuminates a different view of the world that we may not otherwise consider. Whether or not I agree with my son’s assessment of the Catwalk stick given his 7-year-old wisdom, several things are clear from his statement. First, our students are well aware that our schools have problems with enforcing current discipline policies. Second, unclear standards and sporadic enforcement make those problems worse for our students. Third, such policy problems can detract from the learning environment just as much as the behavior problems they are meant to address. When I was a Clarke County School District student, clear, appropriate standards were set. I cannot count the number of times Ken Sherman or Lillian Kincey (former assistant principals at Clarke Middle School) sat me down in their offices, showed me the rules, explained to me how I had violated that rule, and why my consequence was appropriate for my particular offense. A lot of how I view the law today came from those experiences. Those experiences are also part of the reason I chose to study school discipline policies while on Law Review at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. I spent a good portion of my last year reviewing school discipline policies across the state in response to a 6-year-old having been arrested in Baldwin County, Georgia for having allegedly committed a battery on her principal. One of the districts I studied was the Clarke County School District. What I found was that much of the clarity I experienced as a student had changed. Many of our policies were either nonexistent, not enforced, or were aimed more towards avoiding and defending lawsuits rather than teaching our children to act within the standards of a civilized society. We need to revisit the standards. We need to set clear disciplinary objectives and expectations for our kids. We need to empower our administrators with the freedom and support to enforce those objectives impartially. Teacher Retention What did surprise me is that benefits and compensation was only No. 5 on the list. In conversations on the same topic over the years with other current and former CCSD teachers, they confirmed that benefits and compensation were only portions of a larger problem—teachers constantly feel pressured and devalued in our schools. One teacher in particular, who currently lives in Athens but commutes to teach in Atlanta, explained, “It’s rarely the money that makes a teacher leave CCSD. It’s more about being appreciated in the learning environment.” GDOE’s report, which surveyed more than 53,000 state educators, echoes these same sentiments from a statewide perspective. According to the report, not only do 44 percent of public school teachers leave education within their first 5 years, but also close to 67 percent were unlikely to encourage high school graduates to become teachers. The unique part of the report is that the list was comprised of reasons that could be “directly affected through policy.” Reasons ranged from the number and emphasis of mandated tests, to unfair and unreliable teacher evaluation methods. Also noted were constant changes within the school environment being made without input from the very people tasked with implementing them. To a large extent, benefits and compensation given the amount of time and money teachers invest in our children’s learning environments seem to only add insult to the previously mentioned injuries. We cannot continue to allow our teachers to feel this way. As a community, we have to foster the respect and appreciation that our teachers need. We have to rebuild the trust between our parents, teachers, administrators, and students that seems all but lost lately. As a district, we have to display our gratitude more than our displeasure, and not let our testing control our learning environment. As a Board of Education, we cannot afford to refuse to hear the voices of those that implement our policies, and we must consider the effect of every change that we make. To do anything less than this is to—as the report reads— invite “a problem that is quickly becoming a crisis.” [4] |
” |
| —A. Kamau Hull (2016), [5] | ||
Additional themes
Hull submitted his statement of political philosophy to Ballotpedia on May 15, 2016:
| “ |
My hope is to achieve a greater connectivity between the Clarke County Board of Education and our community—the community where I was born and raised and came to understand the importance of education. This is where my wife and I chose to raise our children, and I want to be a voice for the entire community. |
” |
| —A. Kamau Hull (2016), [3] | ||
Clarke County School District is located in Clarke County, Georgia. The county seat of Clarke County is Athens. Clarke County was home to 116,714 residents in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau.[6] The district was the 30th-largest school district in the state in the 2013–2014 school year and served 12,826 students.[7]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'A. Kamau Hull' 'Clarke County School District'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Georgia Secretary of State, "Qualifying Candidate Information," accessed April 18, 2016
- ↑ A. Kamau Hull for Clarke County Board of Education, "About the Candidate," accessed May 18, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Biographical submission to Ballotpedia on May 15, 2016.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ A. Kamau Hull for Clarke County Board of Education, "Issues," accessed May 18, 2016
- ↑ United States Census Bureau, "Clarke County, Georgia," accessed May 14, 2014
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed November 16, 2015
| 2016 Clarke County School District Elections | |
| Clarke County, Georgia | |
| Election date: | May 24, 2016 |
| Candidates: | District 2: Incumbent, Vernon Payne District 4: Jared Bybee |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
.svg.png){kind=small}
