Roy Exum
Two out of every three people, according to a poll on Chattanoogan.com, believe every incumbent on the Hamilton County School Board should be ‘dismissed’ in the Aug. 4 election. As one who has developed more than a passing interest in the school board’s antics and our floundering school district, I believe that would be a mistake because Jonathan Welch has done a heroic job of keeping his head when others seemed to be losing theirs.
As a matter of fact, Welch was the one who emotionally apologized for the gross mismanagement of the most heinous act ever committed in school-boy history after three Ooltewah High School basketball players raped some of their teammates. The popular Signal Mountain dentist then almost single-handedly steadied a violently rocking ship in the months that followed and there is no telling what might have happened if certain others on the board had been chairman instead of Welch.
“All I have ever wanted was the chance to make things better,” he said not long ago. “I understand the resentment and the frustration that has happened in the last year, but I also believe we are going to straighten this out and get our school system back to what it should be.”
The biggest piece of the puzzle – obviously – is to hire a new superintendent and Welch is far more concerned “who” instead of “when.” The board will begin interviewing search firms after the Aug. 4 election because all agree any new board members should be included in the total process.
“I think our interim team is doing a good job. I know I am pleased and other board members seem pleased. Kirk Kelly (the interim superintendent) and Jill Levine (chief academic officer) have really done a lot already and thus far the transition has gone smoothly,” said Welch.
Levine quickly hired Zac Brown and Justin Robertson, two of the system’s top principals, and “The Three,” as they are now called by some others in the HCDE, have been “listening to every idea, comment and solutions wherever we go this summer,” Levine said earlier this week.
Welch, who has three children in the school system, is held in high regard by many principals and staff in the system and was the lone incumbent endorsed by “both sides” of the Times Free Press editorial pages. He is being opposed by Kathy Lennon for the District 2 seat.
Asked about the tumultuous five months that followed the gruesome Ooltewah travesty, Welch was honest. “There is no guidebook but I’ve always tried to do what I felt was best. The Chattanooga 2.0 Report was a huge wake-up call and there is enough blame for everybody to take their share.
“There are nine members on the school board and each of us are different. Actually, since so many things were going wrong, or at least seemed to be happening all at once, I sensed the board really began to work together because we all want to be better. I think our interim team is moving forward and believe there is optimism we will get our literacy scores back to where they should be.
“The Chattanooga 2.0 project is really going to be good but because it is just in its first stages, it will take time for it to have the impact I feel it will bring. We know we have to get our graduating students job-ready. Our young people need to be able to take advantage of every opportunity.”
Welch said a pilot program that will put school nurses in contact with physicians at Children’s Hospital will begin in the coming school year but that a system-produced report on bullying in the schools “is concerning. It is not a problem that is limited to Hamilton County but one the school board takes very seriously.” (An investigation by District Attorney General Neil Pinkston and Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond will also be released soon.)
And Welch’s biggest regret? “I really don’t like campaigning and talking about myself. I don’t like it at all,” he admitted with a laugh. Welch even financed his entire re-election campaign “because I don’t ever want to ask somebody for money. I’ve had some great people who have offered to help but I’ve asked them to give their money to the public school of their choice. I’m grateful that people have confidence in my efforts and share the wish to make the school system better.”
Sometime earlier, Welch defined what he thought the school board should be. “I’ve never been involved in anything where the pursuit wasn’t excellence. This board is a unique board in that it is a public board. It is made up of a diverse group that is not of our own choosing but chosen from the collective wisdom of people we serve.
“And just because it is a public board it is by definition a prominent board. There is significant focus on and critique of our decisions and statements about education and the school system and significant emphasis placed on our vision of where this school system both is and aspires to be,” he said.
“I can sum up my personal goal in these words: make it better. I think that should be our goal every day because we should always be looking for ways to improve. I’d like to see us make this system better. To achieve that goal may lead to uncomfortable conversations. It may make headlines and may make people upset, as we have most certainly witnessed,” he added.
“But let’s think of it this way: Comfortable is common. Common is average, common is easy, common is the same, common is the enemy of excellence. But committing to make it better, regardless of if it’s easy is uncommon,” he mused. “Our school board has the opportunity to do something uncommon which is to make it better. We are given that opportunity to make it better by our position. And it has been said that to whom much has been given much will be expected.”
That is precisely why we need to retain Jonathan Welch on the Hamilton County School Board.
royexum@aol.com