Christy Coleman
Christy Coleman was a candidate for District 3 representative on the Williamson County Board of Education in Tennessee. The general election was held on August 4, 2016.[1] She lost the election.[2]
Coleman participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 school board candidate survey. Click here to read her responses.
Biography
Coleman has lived in Spring Hill, Tennessee since 2012. She is a sales technology specialist for Mars Petcare. She has experience working in business project management, business process improvement, public speaking, IT strategy, and complex data analysis. Coleman earned a degree in political science from Volunteer State Community College. She has one son who attends Williamson County Schools.[3]
Elections
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.[4] 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.[1][5][2]
Results
| Williamson County Schools, District 3 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Eliot Mitchell |
45.60% | 477 |
| Kimberly Little | 31.74% | 332 |
| Christy Coleman | 22.56% | 236 |
| Write-in votes | 0.1% | 1 |
| Total Votes | 1,046 | |
| Source: Williamson County Election Commission, "Summary Report: Primary and General Election August 4, 2016," accessed August 5, 2016 | ||
Funding
Coleman reported $994.36 in contributions and $994.36 in expenditures to the Williamson County Election Commission, which left her campaign with no cash on hand as of June 30, 2016.[6]
Endorsements
Coleman received no official endorsements in the election.
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Christy Coleman 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 12, 2016:
| “ | Candidate did not respond to this question.[7][8] | ” |
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 relations with teachers | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | There is a massive trust gap between the current board and teachers. We need to repair this disengagement quickly as a board if we want to recruit and retain best in class talent.[8] | ” |
| —Christy Coleman (July 12, 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. Public schools need to be accountable to the community. When we start privatizing schools it becomes a for-profit venture at the expense of the tax payers. |
| 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 only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| Common core failed because it was created in a vacuum and then forced down onto the states and districts. If we were to attempt national standards (an ideology I support), all state school boards need to collaborate along with local educators. |
| 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? |
| Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. There needs to be a step process that we go through before we dismiss a teacher. The first is to help them identify where they need development and then provide the tools to get them there. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| na |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Parent involvement |
Candidate website
Coleman highlighted the following issues on her campaign website:
| “ | What will be your top three priorities while in office?
1) Repairing relationships between the board, superintendent and community. Until this is done, we cannot be successful at any of the other priorities. I feel a lot of the community would be more involved if they knew how to, and I will provide the tools for them to do that be it through newsletters, monthly town hall meetings, social media outlets, and active communication with local PTOs and parent groups. We do not have that currently for district 3 and I know my experience in project management, requiring me to bring in people from all over the business will help me achieve this. I am already taking efforts to bring down the us vs them walls currently existing on the board by engaging all the board members (with a few to go). I have already begun having conversations with most of the current board members on what they feel can be done to repair this. Lastly, I feel the board can do a better job at supporting their own employee by showing a degree of respect. I would like to see a session happen between the board and Dr. Looney to not just do a performance review, but also have an open conversation on how the board can help him achieve the items on the school vision plan. 2) Addressing growth. The planning commission does a wonderful job at projecting capacity rates into the future based on current and active development projects. I feel there is an opportunity to work more closely with local developers and what their plans 2-3 years are. We can not build schools ahead of time but we can begin to scout out land and discuss what we would need should the projects move forward. I plan to achieve this by building a network with local developers, local BOMAs and businesses to work with them to optimize placement of new schools. We need a stronger partnership in this area to get ahead of the growth instead of always responding to it. Land use and sponsorship to build schools in larger developments that are designed to appeal to the younger family demographic. As a result this will ensure buyers have access to schools that are not overcrowded which will increase street appeal home values. 3) Giving freedom back to teachers in their classrooms. I don’t like to throw buzz words around such as “high stakes testing” but that is one of the root causes of teachers not being able to teach to unique needs of their classrooms. As a board member I will support the superintendent in his efforts to push back against the state testing until they get their act together. I am confident that there are viable alternatives to explore in order to provide accountability back to the state. We are limited on options on refusing testing because of how funding works but I believe the board can move forward with a unified front to make a stance. I will also keep teachers in mind when voting on policy on if it could hinder their success or be burdensome in the classrooms.[8] |
” |
| —Christy Coleman (2016)[9] | ||
Franklin Home Page interview
The Franklin Home Page asked Coleman the following bolded questions. Coleman'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 on the horizon. What's your philosophy on school rezoning, grandfathering and the anticipation of future growth for rezoning.
It's obviously going to be a massive undertaking the next 10 years. My philosophy is to be on top of it and ahead of it through work with developers and city planners. When a developer is building an area, they know what demographic they are going for. In Spring Hill, it's a lot of single family homes. I think the administration already does a good job, but lets do a five, seven and 10 year plan. Another big thing is working with developers and board of mayor and aldermen. It needs to be that partnership. If developers are building properties where we can't keep up with growth, new residents may not want to live here. But if a kid has to be rezoned more than once, that is too much. Is that reasonable? Probably not. But it's doing that planning and making sure we aren't rezoning kids too much, so they can keep social circles and be in schools with their siblings. If a kid is already attending a school, we should have provisions for them to stay, but for the siblings to follow behind them when their sibling is moving on to middle, it should be a case-by-case basis. When you start rezoning, you have neighborhoods split. From a transportation standpoint, that is not the best option. You can't fit any more kids in District Three, so they probably won't be touched much. But if we have a new middle school built, kids will be touched by its construction. There's a ton of building, but not in District Three. But it will obviously impact things in this district. What is your position on standardized testing - is there too much, too little? Right now, my child is in first grade, so he doesn't do TNReady. There should be a solid intention, and testing has become testing for testing's sake. I've worked in data for a long time, and you can have too many metrics pulled, plus you've worn out students and some of them start to hate school. I want to get kids outdoors more. I know there are some studies in Texas of kids who have three or four recesses today of about 15 minutes so they could stop and burn off energy. When it comes to testing, just from a fallout of my friends who have kids in that range, it's way too much. What is your position on Common Core and the state phasing it out? I think if anyone is talking about it, it's pure political pandering. We want to watch what's being phased in and make sure it's state controlled. The bigger issue is testing, but that doesn't mean we don't stop watching as a state. We want teachers to have the opportunity to teach and not teach to the test. It's a thing of the past, but you have to learn from those mistakes and make sure things don't become worse following it. What do you think of current state education standards? I would say, from a state standpoint, I think they are great. Are they perfect? No. But we will exceed them anyway. I don't have an issue with them. Do you think world religions should be part of history or social studies curricula? On the subject of religion in schools from a historical standpoint, you have to. You can't pretend it didn't exist. The basics of beliefs I am OK with being taught. I think it's a fuzzy line, and that's what people get upset about - at what point are we teaching about and teaching religion? It's hard for teachers to be unbiased when teaching. I hate the term "separation of church and state" because it diminishes what people believe. It tells a kid their faith doesn't matter or belong in school, but it's still important. It matters to me as a parent. There has to be a line. I think what happened in Maury County - I can't speak to that county - but I do feel like someone took it, and basically used it as a political platform without thinking how it will affect children. There are proper channels to get things resolved before blowing it out of portion. I don't think our teachers are indoctrinating our children. Kids should always feel free to express their religion. What is your opinion of the current state of WCS and the current leadership? I definitely support Dr. [Mike] Looney. He's doing a great job, and I've been impressed with him in the past few years with the drama being spun up by members in the community and school board. He's graceful in those situations. When it comes to administration, they are doing a great job. There is always room for improvement. When it comes to the board itself, it needs a little more conclusiveness and more bridge building. You are going to get everyone sitting on there right now to participate, but it would be great if they could just sit down and put the tensions aside. The last few months, they've started to gel and work better together. It's great to have polar opposite viewpoints on the board. Everyone on the board loves children, but there's too much tension for them to work together. We can't grow as a community until we get that working well. What is the best thing about WCS? Honestly, when I think about the school system, I am going to throw out the word passion. We have teachers passionate about education. I see that with my own son's teachers. I see that with those trying to be involved with the school board, even though they are getting a hand to the face. You've seen the parents really come alive in the past two years with them wanting to protect what we have here. I see a lot of excellence coming out of every facet. What needs attention and what aspect of it could need adjustment? I would say the No. 1 thing that needs to be fixed - it's nothing about policy - it's that trust between teachers and the board and administration. One thing I want to do is bring that old school concept of town halls. Yes, you have public comment at the board meetings, but there are so many meeting spaces. For example, I would say 'hey, we are going to come talk about the new social standards.' But the biggest thing is that trust and integrity, and until they can trust each other, it doesn't matter what we try to do. If there is no trust, it's doomed to fail. The biggest thing that needs to be done first is tap the breaks. It's come to that point with how we are operating right now overall. I think the administration and teachers are doing a bang up job. There needs to be this refocus on loving children, and not seeing the other as not caring.[8] |
” |
| —Christy Coleman (2016)[10] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Christy Coleman' 'Williamson County Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Williamson County Election Commission, "Candidate List-August 4, 2016-State Primary/County General Election," accessed April 8, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Williamson County Election Commission, "Summary Report: Primary and General Election August 4, 2016," accessed August 5, 2016
- ↑ Coleman 4 WCSB, "About," accessed May 25, 2016
- ↑ Tennessee Secretary of State, "Election Calendar 2016," accessed March 31, 2016
- ↑ Williamson County Schools, "Board Members," accessed March 31, 2016
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Chad Gray, Williamson County Administrator of Elections," July 29, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Christy Coleman's responses," July 12, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Coleman 4 WCSB, "On the issues," accessed May 25, 2016
- ↑ Franklin Home Page, "Election 2016: Spring Hill mom wants to ease tensions if elected to District Three seat," May 16, 2016
