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Angela Durham
Angela Durham was a member of the Williamson County Schools in Tennessee, representing District 1. She assumed office in 2016. She left office on September 1, 2024.
Durham ran for re-election to the Williamson County Schools to represent District 1 in Tennessee. She won in the general election on August 6, 2020.
Durham participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 school board candidate survey. Click here to view her responses.
Biography
Durham is the vice president of anesthesia for AMSURG. She was the PTO president for Fairview Middle School for the 2015-2016 school year. She earned a bachelor's degree in management from Lipscomb University. Durham has two children who attend Williamson County Schools.[1][2]
Elections
2020
See also: Williamson County Schools, Tennessee, elections (2020)
General election
General election for Williamson County Schools, District 1
Incumbent Angela Durham won election in the general election for Williamson County Schools, District 1 on August 6, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Angela Durham (Nonpartisan) | 100.0 | 2,418 |
| Total votes: 2,418 | |||
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2016
Seven of the 12 seats on the Williamson County Schools Board of Education were up for by-district general election on August 4, 2016.[3] The District 1, 3, and 11 seats were left open for newcomers when incumbents Kenneth Peterson, PJ Mezera, and Mark Gregory, respectively, did not file to run for re-election. Richard Davis and Angela Durham ran for the District 1 seat, and Durham won the election. The District 3 race featured candidates Christy Coleman, Kimberly Little, and Eliot Mitchell. Mitchell was elected to the seat. The District 11 race featured candidates Stuart Cooper and K.C. Haugh, and Haugh won the election. In the race for the unexpired term in District 4, incumbent Anne McGraw defeated challenger Joey Czarneski. In District 5, incumbent Gary Anderson defeated challenger Julie Ellen Mauck to win another term on the board. District 7 incumbent Robert Hullett won re-election against challengers Jennifer Luteran and Christopher Richards. The District 9 race featured incumbent Rick Wimberly and challenger Denise Boothby. Wimberly was re-elected to the seat.[4][5][6]
Results
| Williamson County Schools, District 1 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Angela Durham |
53.38% | 694 |
| Richard Davis | 46.38% | 603 |
| Write-in votes | 0.23% | 3 |
| Total Votes | 1,300 | |
| Source: Williamson County Election Commission, "Summary Report: Primary and General Election August 4, 2016," accessed August 5, 2016 | ||
Funding
Durham reported $1,200.00 in contributions and $940.39 in expenditures to the Williamson County Election Commission, which left her campaign with $259.61 on hand as of June 30, 2016.[7]
Endorsements
Durham was endorsed by the WillCo Rising PAC.[8]
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Angela Durham did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Angela Durham participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on July 8, 2016:
| “ | I hope to represent the families, teachers, students, staff and administration of the four schools in my district at the broader county level. I have an investment in the community as a long-time resident with two children in the system. I will professionally and respectfully represent all educational matters with the sole interest of enhancing and improving the educational experience of all of our county's students.[9][10] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Tennessee. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| “ | In our district in particular, the parents and teachers I have interviewed, to better understand their perspectives and interests, have expressed the most interest in seeing my top three priorities above addressed. The most common issue I have heard is that parents feel their special needs children across all spectrums are not receiving enough assistance in being prepared beyond high school and aren't being properly guided through areas where their academic achievement is suffering.[10] | ” |
| —Angela Durham (July 8, 2016) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer nine questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| No. My answer to this question is based on the evident need for focus on other, higher priorities at this time. If there comes a time when we are meeting and exceeding goals and objectives and have fewer significant debates, then this could be explored. For now, we need to be focused on the lowest hanging fruit and on the matters that affect the vast majority and not a select minority of lottery winners. |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should defer to school board decisions in most cases. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| Yes. Yes - however, not as currently administered or designed. Focus has shifted to testing as the main priority, and time is not being allocated to ensuring that students (1) are truly mastering key objectives in learning; and (2) are being given time to catch up and receive more individualized attention when needed in order to ensure maximum possible achievement. I believe with the proper work group and experts in education, along with the help of psychologists, training specialists and other key representatives, we can reach the same end goal of measurement and achievement without the immense pressure being placed on students and teachers to perform to unreasonable or poorly executed testing. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| We have stifled our local experts' and educators' freedom to utilize their training and creative skills to customize their classrooms to meet individual student needs. Focus needs to return to the classroom experience as a whole, and our state and local districts should be allowed to use their knowledge of their own school systems to create plans for improving academic achievement. Perhaps we should study the top performing districts and evaluate their best practices to document and roll out where relevant as an alternative to a mandated set of standards that are not widely successful. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. As a leader and manager in the healthcare business community, I have extensive experience and success in managing employees up or out. Most employees truly want to succeed and advance in their careers. Those employees should absolutely receive mentorship, coaching and honest feedback in order to improve and grow. For those employees who are weaker and simply lack the drive to push forward and make improvements, then ultimately, they should be released, but only after having been given ample opportunity to correct his/her performance weaknesses. In any case, a strict performance management policy and system for objectively and consistently managing and assessing performance should be in place to ensure fair and meaningful evaluations and development plans are implemented. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. Should a secretary, doctor, businessman/woman, retail manager, sales rep or any other individual in any profession receive merit pay? If the answer is yes (and in fact, the answer is yes - most do receive merit pay), then why would we ever make the decision to withhold merit based compensation from one of our educators - the individual who is preparing our future generations to do great things and be highly functioning, contributing members of society. We need, in fact, to shift a substantial amount of money to our education system and invest in our children, their futures, and subsequently the future of our entire country. There should be objective, detailed and specific performance measurement plans established in order to effectively assess the teachers for allocation of merit pay. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| There should be a clearly written policy outlining behaviors warranting expulsion, and the policy should be strictly and consistently enforced with no bias or special treatment. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers Despite all the parent involvement in the world, and despite the best written textbooks and the smallest ratios, the ultimate success of a student lies directly in the hands of a skilled and invested teacher who will take his/her responsibility seriously and use his/her training and expertise to create effective teaching plans and curriculum that meet the individual needs of the students. The right teacher will know when to escalate matters to his/her administration/leadership for assistance or permission to course correct. The focus absolutely has to be on getting our teachers the support they need and on ensuring we have the right ones in our schools. |
Candidate website
Durham highlighted the following statement on her campaign website:
| “ | District One of Williamson County deserves to have adequate representation at the broader county level. Angela possesses a diplomatic, logical, reasonable perspective that will equip her with the ability to hear multiple viewpoints in an objective and unbiased way in order to represent District One's opinions and interests with the leaders who can make an impact. Angela's interest is solely to support Williamson County Schools, leaders and families in the continuous growth and improvement it already achieves. She possesses a strong business background and expertise that will be helpful in supporting initiatives with which the School Board must participate.[10] | ” |
| —Angela Durham (2016)[11] | ||
Franklin Home Page interview
The Franklin Home Page asked Durham the following bolded questions. Durham's responses are shown below.
| “ | Rezoning is one of the first issues the new board will deal with together as the Nolensville schools open and Thompson's Station being on the horizon. What's your philosophy on school rezoning, grandfathering and the anticipation of future growth for rezoning?
Rezoning is a non-negotiable. If we desire to continue seeing growth in our county, we must project the growth and adequately plan for the impact the new families will have on our schools. We have an excellent group of individuals focused on building new schools and renovating existing schools to accommodate the incoming students. A natural result of this growth is going to be the need to rezone students in the most logical way. Nonetheless, we can do our best to be empathetic to those families who are more adversely impacted than others due to the rezoning. We can make it as painless for those families as possible by offering grandfathering in certain situations such as those where a student may be in his/her last year in that school or where he/she have siblings. There will be some families who will not mind the rezoning and some who welcome it. For those who need or want an exception, we simply need to continue our current process of accepting applications for an open-zoned school in order to be as flexible as reasonably possible. What is your position on standardized testing - is there too much, too little? I grew up in Tennessee and can remember looking forward to that one week near the end of the school year where we had no homework and got to bring games and snacks like Moon Pies and cheese crackers to school to have between tests. While it was stressful to know I would be scored and evaluated, I knew it wasn't an option, and I did my best. We have to have a way to measure performance of teachers and students, and the standardized tests are as good of a way to do so as any, as they offer unbiased, cross-cutting shapshots into the students' level of understanding in key areas. If given my preference, I would structure the testing where it occurs over a shorter period of time on a more regular basis (say, every 9 weeks over a 2-day period, focused only on the content the students are expected to learn for that period). Coming from the business world where we set goals and key performance indicators in the beginning of each year, I think that if the leaders held an in-depth, annual teacher orientation of the year's expectations for teaching and learning metrics, and then gave the teachers adequate time to submit their plans for achievement of those metrics, then the teachers would have a very clear-cut series of goals to accomplish with the students. I believe we need to take into consideration retention of information learned and conduct our assessments while the information is fresh in their minds. All in all, the tests are important because at the end of day, we need to understand our strengths and weaknesses in order to make course corrections and impact change. These standardized tests allow for that evaluation and subsequent change. Having said that, I also recognize that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and I am always open to hearing alternative ways of accomplishing the end goal of high achievement in our schools. Additionally, I recognize that it adds a lot of stress to some students to be subject to the scrutiny our tests impose. It puts us at a disadvantage to put those kids in a situation where we know they won't perform well. I would be interested in having someone evaluate whether we could possibility implement some type of alternative testing for those students whose families request an exception to the typical testing methods. What is your position on Common Core and the state working to phase it out? Kudos to the experts who acknowledged something wasn't going well. Our leaders and educators recognized a gap in learning and gave it a valiant effort to try Common Core as a solution. If the experts agree that perhaps we aren't getting the results we had hoped for, then let's get rid of it. We should always have measures and evaluations in place to track our success in initiatives. If an initiative fails, let's move on to the next potential solution. There is never just one way to achieve success, and I believe it is our job as leaders to explore and research and identify those alternatives. What do you think of current state education standards? My perception based on what I see with my own children in their homework and ongoing testing is that the standards are reasonable and straightforward. I am perhaps overly practical in my views about education, but I believe that we have a few key responsibilities: (1) ensure that the students are exposed to as much as possible in the various subjects, because only exposure can help them find themselves and learn their passions and interests - without the exposure, they won't have the opportunity to determine what they are good at and where they want to go with their lives; (2) ensure that the content we are teaching them is reasonable for their levels of education; (3) ensure that we have special programs in place to help those children who have different learning styles, special needs or who simply need extra attention to succeed. Do you think world religions should be part of history or social studies curricula? Let's face it. World religion is a vital part of our history. It should be acknowledged at a high level, in an unbiased and factual manner. Period. I personally find all of the various religions fascinating and believe that we should take an interest in understanding others' religious histories in order to empathize with and support others with different beliefs. However, the reality is that religion is one of those areas where people can be passionate and emotionally charged, and in the public school system, we should avoid encouraging open discussion in the learning environment about matters that, for some, contain a lot of sensitivity and personal agendas. Given the sensitivity and personal belief systems at play, we should limit the teaching to specific facts, limited discussion and with no bias by the teachers conducting the lesson. Having attended a Christian school, I have seen religion taught in a classroom setting with individuals of varying beliefs. It can be done if presented the right way. The bottom line is that, as with any history subject, it needs to be taught. We can't deny that religious groups and beliefs have had major impact on our country and world. Would I prefer, due to the sensitivity and emotional charge related to religion, that I be the one teaching my own children? By all means. Perhaps a compromise might be to allow parents to review the specific content associated with the class and provide written consent for the student to be part of the class. Or perhaps the teaching should only occur at the high school level as an elective, allowing other parts of history to be addressed in the younger years. I don't have the answer, but I am open-minded enough to hear other perspectives and have open dialogue about the pros, cons and arguments for or against. What is your opinion of the current state of WCS and the current leadership? I think it's great. I love the way Dr. [Mike] Looney communicates openly and shares his vision. He leads with passion and conviction and is open to hearing the ideas and opinions of others. He makes decisions in what I believe to be a thoughtful and conscientious way and has our school system's best interest at heart. He has great ideas and thinks strategically and outside the box, which is important for any leader. We cannot grow without vision, and he has it. Additionally, I believe we have excellent school leaders in the Fairview system. Our principals clearly have a passion and commitment for our schools. We have the right people in the right spots. What is the best thing about WCS? The parental involvement, engagement and investment in our schools is amazing. I have never seen so many generous and engaged families, from donating money, resources and time, to promoting school events, sports activities, etc. People come to this county for the excellent schools, and their involvement and support of the schools is evident. Additionally, the community support is amazing. In Fairview alone, our local businesses and large businesses provide an incredible amount of donations to our schools. The teachers, staff and school personnel are also heavily engaged and committed. I love it when we attend a school-related event and we see our school personnel at the events, participating, smiling and supporting the initiatives at hand. What needs attention and what aspect of it could need adjustment? I want to give myself time to hear what the opinions and experiences are from those who have been in this for a while and who have lived through generations of children flowing through the school system. I am the first person to admit that there is plenty I don't know yet, but I am also extremely open-minded, unbiased and interested in supporting this county to continue growing and thriving. Sitting on the board of my church, I have learned that my job isn't to dictate or force my own agenda, but rather to represent the voices of those in the community and to ensure that the vision, mission, values, goals and objectives are adhered to and accomplished. The only way an individual can be effective is to seek to understand by listening. We are here to support those who carry out the day to day operational matters related to education. I view the board as the business arm of the school system. If given an issue to address, I will dedicate the time to investigating and understanding the issue in order to offer an educated opinion.[10] |
” |
| —Angela Durham (2016)[12] | ||
See also
2020 Elections
External links
|
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ The Tennesseean, "Fairview PTO leader to run for Williamson school board," April 6, 2016
- ↑ Williamson Strong, "District 1 WCSB Candidates," May 26, 2016
- ↑ Tennessee Secretary of State, "Election Calendar 2016," accessed March 31, 2016
- ↑ Williamson County Election Commission, "Candidate List-August 4, 2016-State Primary/County General Election," accessed April 8, 2016
- ↑ Williamson County Schools, "Board Members," accessed March 31, 2016
- ↑ Williamson County Election Commission, "Summary Report: Primary and General Election August 4, 2016," accessed August 5, 2016
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Chad Gray, Williamson County Administrator of Elections," July 29, 2016
- ↑ The Tennesseean, "Williamson PACs endorse school board candidates," June 13, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Angela Durham's responses," July 8, 2016
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Angela Durham for WCS Board, "About," accessed May 25, 2016
- ↑ Franklin Home Page, "Election 2016: Fairview mom wants to become advocate for parents in District One," May 11, 2016
