Local candidates vied for votes Saturday evening, just a week and a half before the July 31st Primary. Hosted by FYN and held at the North Georgia Community Center, candidates from all open offices participated in a three hour debate, which included a preliminary afternoon cook-out and an opportunity for candidates to speak with voters. Candidates for Coroner, Tax Commissioner, Board of Education, Post One Commissioner, and Sheriff all participated in the event.

Only two board of education candidates participated in the event, Incumbent Board Chairwoman Kathy Jones and her challenger James Parmer, a former Oakland Elementary School principal. The other candidates were unable to attend due to conflicts, such as family vacations and revivals. Issues ranged from charter schools to public participation.

During a question regarding school designation, Mrs. Jones stated the current status of the Gilmer system, which she believed to be IE2, one she seems to support. By July 2015, all school systems in Georgia are required to select a designation for their systems. The choices are status quo, IE2 or charter system. IE2 and charter systems both allow waivers to certain state regulations, while status quo, where a system goes unchanged, does not allow for waivers. Jones also said she is not opposed to charter schools.

“I think there’s (sic) circumstances where charter schools can really enhance a school system,”

Jones said, adding that she is open to anything to better educate the students of Gilmer County. Here, Parmer agreed.

“As a board member,”

he said,

“that’s what our job is, to do what’s best for those students.”

However, the candidates parted ways when it came to more specific issues, such as duties of the board and policies on public participation.

The county’s calendar for the upcoming year reflects several furlough days. When asked how to restore the calendar to a full 180 days, Jones said the board works on recommendations, explaining the decision depends on the amount of funding from the state and designated uses of funding, dictated by the state. For his part, Parmer said that, although this is true, the job of the board is to set policy, to set the laws of the local system.

Parmer also disagreed with Jones on public participation policy, a major criticism by voters of the BOE. Jones said she feels the Gilmer BOE is one the more liberal school systems regarding public participation policy. For Jones, such liberal policies include the option to sign up 24 hours in advance to make a comment at board meetings and a 15 minute window before the meeting starts to sign up for comments. She also said that everybody has the board members’ email address and phone numbers and that they “have never objected to meeting with anyone one-on-one. “We have increased public participation through televising…our meetings,” she added, and said the board posts the meeting agenda after every work session

“so the public knows in advance the issues that will be coming up.”

Answering the issue of transparency during BOE meetings (when information is concealed in notebooks only board members have access to), Jones said the board had previously tried using a power point presentation to transmit information to the public during meetings, but, she said, the text was too small to see on the screen. Overall, Jones admitted the policy is not perfect and that she is open to suggestions.

“The policy that is in place now is the most restrictive policy,”

Parmer said.

He went on to explain that the public participation policy from the state board of education is a suggestion, not a requirement. He said the local board ultimately decides the public participation policy. Parmer prefers an open public forum format, he said, where citizens can make comments following each item discussed. He also noted all issues would be discussed openly, not hidden in notebooks where citizens cannot see what is discussed among board members. Citing a positive example, he said he recently went to a Gilmer County Board of Commissioners Meeting where he did not feel intimidated and was given numerous opportunities to make comments.

The candidates were then asked about HR 1162, which, if approved by voters in November, changes the state constitution to allow the state the authority to approve charter schools even if local school boards deny charter petitions, a situation familiar to Gilmer County voters. In April, the Gilmer BOE denied a petition for Oakland Academy Charter School, the culmination of a year-long and heated public debate. Jones said she does not support this legislation because it takes authority away from local government.

“Anytime you give authority away from your local government, you never get that back,”

she said, explaining,

“You’re having people make decisions for you who have no idea what’s going on in Gilmer County.”

Parmer disagreed, saying,

“Sometimes, I think, we, as those five members, don’t get enough information to make the right decision.”

A question submitted from an audience member also called into question the authority of the school board, asking the candidates if they thought the superintendent should return to an elected position, rather than an appointed position, as it is presently. Jones would not support this legislation, she said, saying she felt it was for the betterment of the community that the board appoints the superintendent. Parmer prefaced his answer by citing that he has worked in both circumstances. He said he would support the measure.

“Sometimes, when you get an elected superintendent,”

he said,

“what you get is someone who answers to the people and not the board.”

Also participating in the event were Glen J Arnold challenging Incumbent Jerry Hensley for Coroner; Probate Judge Incumbent Anita Mullins (whose challenger Lou Jean Jones Hill was not present), Tax Commissioner Candidates Charlie Paris, Rebecca A. “Becky” Marshall, Merle Howell Naylor (not present), Ermelleana Lambert (not present), and Chela Starnes Bailey; BOE candidates Ronald Clayton, Michael Wallace Parks (I), James Waters, Foster Macarthur (I) and Angie Thomas were not present; Post One Commissioner candidates Tony Arbucci, Randy Bell, and Jerry Tuso and Shane Bowman, Leon Davenport, Tim Theobald, and Tommy Hunter running against Incumbent Stacy Nicholson for Sheriff.

Watch video of BOE Debate below