Two contested county school board seats are on the ballot this year, with incumbents representing District 6 (Vinemont) and District 4 (Hanceville and Welti) defending their elected positions against challenges from newcomers.

All four of the candidates seeking spots on the Cullman County School Board are Republicans, and on Thursday, the local GOP hosted a forum Q&A to give each a chance to put their ideas before local voters. District 6 incumbent Mike Graves didn’t attend the event, leaving the remaining three — District 6 challenger Jamie Weathersby Smith, District 4 challenger Travis Eskew, and District 4 incumbent Kenny Brockman — to field questions from moderator Ken Brown.

Challenged by Brown with test score statistics that reflect poorly on county schools’ overall metric performance against other systems in Alabama and nationwide, the candidates generally agreed that objective measurements like testing don’t always present the full picture. They also pointed out the school system’s recent ‘A’ ranking among county-level public schools in the the Alabama State Department of Education’s latest state Report Card.

“I don’t believe in standardized testing — I’ll just tell you,” said Smith. “I know that’s politically incorrect. But our kids are tested to death… it’s become more [about] testing and comparison of schools than what are our children learning, and whether they’re ready for the next step. And we know more about that from what happens in the classroom than from test scores.”

Smith similarly expressed (and the other candidates agreed) that measuring students’ performance should be more a function of local standards; the values and ideals intrinsic to Cullman County, than of regional or national ones. In communities where parental support is lacking and demographics trend toward poverty, she said, it’s possible for a school’s students to overachieve — even if their test scores don’t reflect that.

“When we’re talking about standards, we’re talking about more than test scores,” said Smith. “…One of the things that a lot of people don’t know, or, I think, maybe we just don’t want to face, is that if you’re a Title 1 school [which receives free and reduced lunches], you have poverty. Research shows that test scores are directly related to the socioeconomic status of the families who live in that area.”

No matter how student performance is measured, though, how can elected members of a local school board help to elevate it? Brockman said the solution partly lies in securing more funding, combined with a more tailored approach to allocating teacher units.

“I don’t know if the board would ever be able to do it, but to reduce the classroom size; to do more one-on-one with students” would help, including assigning dedicated teacher units to work with struggling students to free up classroom time for the rest of their teaching peers.

Schools and school boards, though, are only as strong as the individuals and families that attend and sustain them, he also observed. “The biggest thing [to overcome] would be the lack of parenting,” he said. “…The teachers are doing all they can do, with what little time they have with the kids. But we do need more parenting guidance.”

Brown asked whether it makes sense for school board candidates, who’re legally required to have a high school education to qualify for office, to be set in charge of six-figure salaried superintendents with Ph.D.-level professional training and teachers who hold bachelor’s degrees at a minimum. Each candidate responded by defending the pay and performance of the county school system’s current superintendent and teaching staff, while maintaining that it’s community service — not credentials — that should qualify school board members to hold their seats.

“I think anybody should be able to run,” said Eskew. “If you are interested in bettering your community, then why not? There shouldn’t be a requirement.” Smith and Brockman agreed, with Smith adding that narrowing the pool of eligible school board members based on their educational background “sounds a little elitist. I think there are people who could serve on the school board just as well as I could — or any of these other people who serve.”

Smith and Eskew are both first-time board candidates, and Eskew, himself a Hanceville graduate, said he’s seeking the District 4 seat in order to serve the community where he was raised. “I just want to build on my community; to advocate for the kids at Hanceville and Welti,” he said.

For Smith, who maintains professional ties to education after retiring from a 26-year career as a public school teacher, service on the board would be informed by her experience with students in the field. Local results — the kind that students and residents can see and appreciate firsthand in their home communities — is a key feature, she said, of how she’d approach her role.

For her, that means a return to academic fundamentals, more emphasis on vocational training at an earlier age, and a retreat from policies and programs (like the pervasive mass adoption of one-to-one technology initiatives) that benefit systems rather than students. Reading, writing, and mastering basic arithmetic, she maintained, hold the greater value for local kids.

“We are so immersed in [technology adoption] that we have failed to teach children some of the basic things that they need to know in order to move up through school,” she said, noting her experience with elementary students who struggle with reading and basic math. “…I’d like to pull away from that and go back to the basics.”

Candidates for the District 4 and District 6 seats on the Cullman County School Board will be on the ballot later this spring, when the Republican Party primary election is held on May 24. There are no local Democrats on the ballot in either school board race, meaning that the winners of the May 24 primary will face no opposition in the Nov. 8 general election.

Forum schedule: county commission candidates will be on March 10th and 31st, district attorney on April 14, and state senate and state representative on May 12. If a single candidate does not have an opponent, there will be no forum.