Eliot Mitchell

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Eliot Mitchell

Prior offices

Williamson County Schools, District 3

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Education

Bachelor's

Middle Tennessee State University

Personal

Religion

Christian: Presbyterian

Profession

Director

Contact

Personal website

Eliot Mitchell was a member of the Williamson County Schools in Tennessee, representing District 3. He assumed office in 2016. He left office on September 1, 2024.

Mitchell ran for re-election to the Williamson County Schools to represent District 3 in Tennessee. He won in the general election on August 6, 2020.

Biography

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Mitchell was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He works as a director for OpenText, Inc. Mitchell served as an alderman for the City of Spring Hill for 12 years, and he served on a principal search committee, a playground committee, and multiple technical advisory committees for Williamson County Schools. He also served on a community advisory committee for Williamson County and on numerous committees for Spring Hill, including the economic development committee, the parks and recreation committee, the library board of trustees, the historical commission, and the chamber of commerce board of directors. Mitchell is the president of GE ELFUN, a volunteer organization, and a co-founder of the South Williamson Athletic Association. He is a ruling elder for First Presbyterian Church. Mitchell earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Middle Tennessee State University. He and his wife have three children, all of whom graduated from the district.

Elections

2020

See also: Williamson County Schools, Tennessee, elections (2020)

General election

General election for Williamson County Schools, District 3

Incumbent Eliot Mitchell defeated Jennifer Moss in the general election for Williamson County Schools, District 3 on August 6, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Eliot Mitchell (Nonpartisan)	55.1	1,084
	Submit photo	Jennifer Moss (Nonpartisan)	44.9	884

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,968
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2016

See also: Williamson County Schools 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. 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.

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

See also: Campaign finance in the Williamson County Schools election

Mitchell reported $3,948.62 in contributions and $2,146.78 in expenditures to the Williamson County Election Commission, which left his campaign with $1,801.84 on hand as of June 30, 2016.

Endorsements

Mitchell was endorsed by the WillCo Rising PAC. Click here for a list of Mitchell's endorsements in this election.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Eliot Mitchell did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

2016

Candidate website

Mitchell highlighted the following statement on his campaign website:

“	As your elected School Board representative, I will bring honesty, integrity, accountability, transparency, and dedication. I promise to listen, research, communicate, and respond to the citizens of Williamson County. A school system requires expertise in many disciplines (transportation, food services, entertainment, athletics, facility management, social services, health services, etc.) in parallel with educating our children. I bring decades of experience working in teams, serving on committees, and leading multi-functional groups to success. I will use my years of leadership experience to make sure that WCS continues to offer the BEST education to each and every one of its students.	”
—Eliot Mitchell (2016)

Franklin Home Page interview

The Franklin Home Page asked Mitchell the following bolded questions. Mitchell'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 needs to be seldom. It needs to be avoided at all costs. But over time, the school system has been building a classroom a week. What comes down to is the challenge of putting the empty desk where the students are. My children over their career were rezoned at least seven times. All three of them went to new schools. My children now 23, 25, 27 went to three new schools between the three of them. I can relate to the challenges from a parental standpoint. I think that my philosophy is the school system needs to synchronize with the municipalities on where the growth is occurring, so they can help project and improve their projections of where they need to plan schools. Open zoning needs to be done as much as possible so it's more of a parental choice rather than a board edict. We took advantage of grandfathering and open zoning. My daughter opened up at Independence and moved to Page. The reality of rezoning is the friends remain friends. They don't quit being friends because they are at different schools. By the time they got to be students in college, their roommates in college were the friends they had in elementary and not necessarily high school. So the side effect is that the children create a network of friends across all the schools. What is your position on standardized testing - is there too much, too little? There is too much of it, and it creates stress on everyone involved from the administrators to the teachers to the children. What is your position on Common Core and the state phasing it out? I am fine with the state phasing it out because it's become so controversial. The concept of standardized teaching and curriculum makes perfect sense. You want to ensure that graduates in Memphis are every much learning something as high school graduates in Knoxville and Spring Hill. What do you think of current state education standards? I am not a teacher, or a trained educator. So I don't profess to be an expert on education. We all think we are experts because we went to school. But my caveat is we need to leave the teachers to be the experts we've hired. That said, my personal opinion is the standards of teaching are so tight and specific that teachers aren't empowered to deviate from it at all. You have 45 minutes to teach these specific points, and when you have a moment in the classroom where children show engagement in a subject, the teacher doesn't have the flexibility to take that passion to run with it because he or she has to stay on schedule. So the standardization - we have to find a balance - we have to find balance to give teachers the flexibility to explore the passions of the children. Do you think world religions should be part of history or social studies curricula? Yes. I think you need to teach about religion but not teach religion in schools. The world business community values diversity. I lead a team of computer experts that includes Orthodox Jews, Muslims, Christians, gay and lesbians, Hindus. So the reality is and I work with them every day and I have to be respectful of them every day and if you are wanting to be successful in the world and business you have to be knowledgeable about cultures. Religion is key to culture. If you want to be successful in business, you have to embrace diversity. What is your opinion of the current state of WCS and the current leadership? The school board has one employee and that's Dr. Looney. That's who we need to manage. I am fine with the leadership Dr. Looney has given. I won't be a rubber stamp, and I will challenge and ask questions. It's what I do. I don't have a problem understanding concepts and principles, and asking questions to get to my understanding of it. I am a detailed type of person. If I get enough details, I will determine whether the recommendation is consistent with my best judgement. What is the best thing about WCS? I think it's probably the culture of expectations on the students. The fact that it has an expectation of high achievement and success all over the county is a culture and key quality driver. I don't think you can identify a single item that is the best thing. I think the dedication of the teachers and the staff is phenomenal. I think quality of our facilities is world class. I think our parental involvement is excellent and should continued to be embraced. What needs attention and what aspect of it could need adjustment? I think we need to consider if we are over testing because of the stress that it puts on the children. I've heard some concerns from parents and administrators on the allocation of special needs resources. I don't have a solution to that, but I think that's one of the things as I've talked to parents. That's a comment that's come up multiple times. I think the transportation system and strategy seems to be under pressure. We don't have enough bus drivers, and you have them running multiple routes. So here's an example. You've got busses running multiple routes for Summit and Spring station. So you have a group of kids every day in middle school that have to be managed and waiting for the bus to come back and get them. It creates a challenge of the administrator for the middle school they have 40 or 50 kids keep under control for an extra class period basically. I also think the teachers need to be able to have the freedom to break standards to take advantage of student engagement when it occurs. ” —Eliot Mitchell (2016)

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