A crowd of over 120 people assembled at the Civic Center in Summerville for Tuesday’s forum, hosted by WZQZ and The Summerville News

The 2018 Chattooga County Political Forum took place on Tuesday evening at the Chattooga County Civic Center in Summerville. The event was hosted by WZQZ News and The Summerville News.  All six Chattooga Board of Education Candidates were in attendance, along with a sizable crowd.   The event was broadcast on WZQZ Radio and live-streamed on Facebook.

Caleb Millican with the Chattooga County Extension Office moderated the event.  Around 120 people were in attendance at the forum.  Candidates from both political parties fielded questions from Jason Espy with The Summerville News and Jimmy Holbrook with WZQZ Radio.

Sammy Ballard, the Republican candidate for Seat Three outlined his views in favor of the five-day school week.  Mr. Ballard said that he felt that the children of Chattooga County would be better served by moving away from the four-day week.  He expressed concerned for the longer days associated with the shorter school week, saying the students that have to ride the bus are faced with extra-long days.  Ballard’s opponent, incumbent Democrat Eddie Massey, told the audience that he thinks that the four-day school week is working both financially and cited improved test scores.  Massey said “if there comes a time when the four-day school week is not working, I would be in favor of (returning to) a five-day school week. But right now the four-day (school-week) is working.”

Democratic Incumbent Alma Lewis said that she had been involved in education for most of her adult life and that the greatest satisfaction any educator can have is seeing students who are struggling, achieve success in the classroom.  Ms. Lewis said that she is confident that the Board of Education is on the right track to success, even if there is much room for improvement in test scores.  Her opponent, Republican Brad Hayes is also a life-long educator.  Mr. Hayes said that he thinks Chattooga County’s school system has achieved a lot of success in the past several years, but indicated that he doesn’t think that is necessarily due to the four-day school week.  Mr. Hayes said, “We need to put the focus on the achievements of the students and the teachers.”

Republican Julia Houston, who has stated her opposition to the four-day school week, said that she thinks that the school system has not delivered on promises of reduced costs due with the four-day school week.  Ms. Houston cites transportation costs, saying that according to her research, Chattooga County is still spending more than other surrounding counties for transportation.  Ms. Houston has compared Chattooga County to Polk County which is similar in size to Chattooga.  However, Polk County has two high-schools, three middle schools and six elementary schools, meaning that students are closer to the schools that they attend.  Houston said that she is concerned about test scores and thinks a return to the five-day school week will benefit students.

Houston’s opponent, Democrat Larry Weesner made the most emphatic endorsement for the current direction of Chattooga County’s Schools in his closing statement at the forum.  Mr. Weesner said that a return to a five-day school week at this time would mean a loss of teacher morale, a loss of stability in leadership, budget deficits and higher taxes for Chattooga County property owners.  Mr. Weesner also predicted that the school’s overall grade of “D” from state has improved from an “F” just a few years ago and he made the prediction that the system will see a grade of “C” in the near future.

Early voting started Monday.  The General Election will be held on Tuesday, November 6th.