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Pamela Hill
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Pamela Hill is the District 5 representative on the Huntsville City Schools school board in Alabama. Hill won the seat in the by-district general election on August 23, 2016.
Biography
Hill graduated from S.R. Butler High School before completing her bachelor's degree in education at Athens State University. She holds a master's degree in educational administration from Alabama A&M University and an Ed.S. from the University of Montevallo. Hill was a teacher in the district for 19 years prior to resigning on May 27, 2016.[1]
Elections
2016
- See also: Huntsville City Schools elections (2016)
Two of the five seats on the Huntsville City Board of Education were up for general election on August 23, 2016. In District 1, Michelle Watkins defeated incumbent Laurie McCaulley and fellow challenger Mary Sawyer. Pamela Hill defeated Carlos Mathews for the District 5 seat. Watkins and Hill were both supported by former U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith (D) because of their criticisms of the school board's policies.[2]
Results
| Huntsville City Schools, District 5 General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Pamela Hill |
56.11% | 1,570 |
| Carlos Mathews | 43.89% | 1,228 |
| Total Votes | 2,798 | |
| Source: WHNT, "Election Results: Check results for August 23 municipal races across north Alabama," August 23, 2016 | ||
Funding
Hill reported $4,631.00 in contributions and $2,753.14 in expenditures to the Madison County Judge of Probate, which left her campaign with $1,877.86 as of June 30, 2016.[3]
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Pamela Hill 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 August 4, 2016:
| “ | I come from a family involved in public education for three generations. As such, I believe the opinions, views, and experiences of our citizens are vital for our schools to excel. While this excellence in education drives much of the economy of Huntsville, our schools should not be viewed as a ‘profit center.’ Rather, our focus must be on our students. My plan includes restoring transparency to the Board of Education. It includes returning books to the classroom to augment the Digital 1:1 Initiative. It includes our students, parents, teachers, and administrators gaining a strong leader as their voice.[4][5] | ” |
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 Alabama. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | Improving teacher relations and student achievement is my number one priority. We have to make a change so that the school system we have in place is a place where all students are learning and no student is suffering. This will include those students that are special ed and arts students. We must design our school system to be something that is open and welcoming to all students.[5] | ” |
| —Pam Hill (August 4, 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. |
| 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 be involved in the district routinely. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. Students are not standard. Teachers should be teaching students to learn, not teaching students to take a standardized test. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| Against |
| 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? |
| Offer additional training options. 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. New teachers need old teachers for mentorship and guidance. This is where they learn classroom management skills. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. Measuring a teacher’s value to the educational process is nearly impossible. A teacher is not the only influence on student success. Other factors such as family background, prior teachers and student mobility have influence on how much a student learns. When you reward teachers for student achievement, few will want to teach kids who live in challenging communities and have a hard time succeeding. Merit pay systems will open the door to comparisons between education and business. Teaching is not a business, but a service. It is not only difficult, but inappropriate to compare education to business. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| as needed, but as limited as possible. We want all students in the classroom - learning. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Parent involvement There are 3 choices that are important for classroom success. We must have teachers who are supported and realize their goals as an educator, while parental involvement is an essential function of any classroom. A classroom is best managed when there is a small student-teacher ratio. This allows for our teachers to teach to the needs of an individual and students do not get left behind. |
Additional themes
Hill's campaign website listed the following themes for 2016:
| “ |
Education
Board of Education Responsibilities Property Values School Climate Teacher Retention & Recruitment Huntsville City Schools can and will thrive with restored transparency on the Board of Education. We must expend greater energy in teaching rather than testing. [5] |
” |
| —Pamela Hill (2016), [6] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Pamela Hill Huntsville City Schools. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Pam Hill - District 5, "Meet Pam," accessed August 4, 2016
- ↑ AL.com, "See who qualified for city elections in Huntsville, Madison," July 19, 2016
- ↑ Huntsville United, "School Board Campaign Finance Tracker," accessed August 4, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Pamela Hill's responses," August 4, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Pam Hill - District 5, "Platform," accessed August 4, 2016
| 2016 Huntsville City Schools Elections | |
| Huntsville, Alabama | |
| Election date: | August 23, 2016 |
| Candidates: | District 1: Incumbent, Laurie McCauley • Mary Sawyer • Michelle Watkins District 5: Pamela Hill • Carlos Mathews |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
