Education Forum Gives Board Candidates a Shot at Sharing Vision, Qualifications

By Hamilton Richardson

Staff Writer

Candidates for the Autauga County Board of Education came together Thursday for a Chamber-sponsored candidate forum, where they shared their vision for the future of education in the county and let people know what made them stand out from the others in the race.

The non-partisan education forum was sponsored by the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce and held at the Doster Center and featured most of the candidates running for spots on the board, however Jamie Jackson and Kevin McNatt, both of whom were running for a seat in District 3, were not able to attend the event.

During the event, all candidates running for a position in a specific district came to the stage at the same time, had an opportunity to make an opening remark, answered questions from the moderator (Chairman-elect of the Prattville Chamber Board of Directors Catherine Porter) and then also had the chance to give a closing statement. Each of the five districts were represented during the forum. 

The public turnout was significant and included numerous local leaders including Mayor Bill Gillespie, Superintendent Tim Tidmore, Commissioner Larry Stoudemire and Sheriff Joe Sedinger, among others.  

First to come forward and address the crowd were the candidates for District 1, Tracye Strichik and Eleanor Ballow. 

In detailing her experience and qualifications for re-election, Eleanor Ballow said, “I’ve been with Autauga County schools for 27 years. Most of them at Prattville Intermediate School. I worked in the Central Office. I also have been on the Board of Education and I’m very proud of the work we’re doing right now. I want to continue where we are because we’ve worked hard to get there.”

In answer to the question about the biggest priority in the district, Ballow said, “The biggest issue is money. We need it for school improvements and for new schools.”

Next, Tracye Strichik laid out her qualifications for the District 1 seat.

“I taught Kindergarten and First Grade and Third Grade Gifted at Daniel Pratt,” she said. “I left there and got my PhD and worked for Alabama’s First-Class Pre-k, which is the number one pre-k in the nation. After that, I went to the State Department of Education as the Director of the Alabama Reading Initiative and there we implemented the Alabama Literacy Act. I am currently retired and work for Faulkner University as a professor. I teach literacy courses to future teachers and do some part-time work with the Afterschool Network, because that is where my heart is.”

Strichik answered regarding the biggest issue in the district, “We need new facilities due to overcrowding.”

She also added that she believes there is an achievement gap and that there needs to be a better quality and quantity of teachers in the system.

District 2 candidates were next to step onto the stage, including Jim Manderson, Kim Crockett, Wayne Lambert and Jonathan Jett.

Kim Crockett shared her qualifications first, saying, “I’m super organized, a very good communicator and I have a track record of doing what I say I’m going to do. I have great relationships with people inside these schools.” 

Crockett, who also said she volunteers in the school system, said she desires to bring community back together. 

“We’ve been so divided for so many years,” she said. “I would love for us all to work together to create a super school environment.”  

Jonathan Jett, who works at Auburn University Montgomery as a Campus Services Coordinator and adjunct professor, said his education has prepared him for a role in the board.

“My Master’s degree prepared me to look at an organization and find its greatest weaknesses, opportunities and threats and find areas that we can improve, and then create those solutions to make what could be good, great,” he said. “I believe I can bring that to the table.”

Jett added that concerns he hopes to address are the negative effects of virtual learning, which he says was not well planned or executed, and issues with student behavior.

Wayne Lambert, who is a retired CFO and is currently a part-time strategic planning consultant, said he has over 40 years’ experience in accounting.

“If you look at the board itself, it is a business,” Lambert said. “It’s the second largest business in Autauga County. I think I can bring value because my discipline is every time anybody’s asked me to be on a board, I always ask myself, what value can I bring? I can pool both the business side and the education side together and move things in a positive way.” 

Lambert also shared his desire with the crowd to help students catch up from what he called, “Post-Covid”.

Jim Manderson, who is also up for reelection, has been on the board for 12 years and he said being a board member is much more complicated than it looks from the outside. 

“I’ve worked in construction management. I have 30 years of IT experience. I’ve sold real estate. I understand the impact of real estate and property taxes on the quality of life and the property values in the county,” Manderson commented. “My vision is to allow every child in Autauga County to reach their potential.”

Manderson said that two other key issues for him are working to improve the performance of students and addressing a shortage of personnel.

In the District 3 race, three candidates are running but only Ell White II was able to attend, however the moderator did read a statement from Jamie Jackson.

“I have a Bachelor’s in Accounting from Samford University, and an MBA from Auburn Montgomery,” said Jackson in her statement. “I am a Certified Public Manager in the State of Alabama Comptroller’s Office as Accounting Director.”

Jackson communicated that her priorities as a candidate include better communication, equitable education, personal involvement in the schools, fiscal responsibility, organization and strategic planning and recruitment and retention of faculty and staff. 

Ell White II gave his qualifications from the stage, saying, “I am a retired Army Major. The military gave me the opportunity to go to school.”

White went on to explain that he had also been in the Navy, had a Liberal Arts degree in Humanity and Social Sciences at Auburn University Montgomery and a Master’s in Human Resource Management. 

“I served in many different positions in the military. Human Resources, budgeting and training soldiers,” White said. “I had to train the soldiers that if I die, they have to pick up and continue. Our children are our future. Our children have to pick up where we left off.”

White added that the biggest issue he sees in Autauga County right now is inequality.

“The inequality of buildings, inequality of teachers, inequality of instruction material,” he said. “You look at each school. Each school don’t look the same. We have to do something to close the gap.” 

In the District 4 race, Roger Dempsey is going up against Billy Hollon.

Roger Dempsey approached the mic and began to share his experience and background.

“I have a background in management with the Postal Service for 36 years, also in personnel and finance,” he said. “I have the ability to make decisions but work with other board members.”

Dempsey stressed the fact that students are the most important thing.

“One thing I would like to do is partner with some businesses to help the students learn different things about the real world,” he explained. “Such as balancing the checkbook and telling time and handling finances well. We got to go back to basics. We also need to lower the pupil-to-teacher ratio, but that requires more money. Everything goes back to the money.”

Dempsey’s biggest issue in the race is giving the teachers the help they need, such as with discipline issues and being “stressed and overworked”. He also wants to promote members of the community stepping in to volunteer in the classrooms.

Billy Hollon, who said he has many years of experience in education, said, “I’ve been a teacher, a coach, an assistant principal, elementary principal, high school principal and now I’m at the State Department of Education. I’ve seen all facets.”

Hollon said that one important thing he has done is learn from his failures.

“I see things all the time and I say I wish I knew those things before,” he said. “One of the problems with education is we get locked into a building and education should be ever-growing. We should be teaching kids to be lifelong learners. We have to always incorporate new ideas.”

The candidate added that he wants to make sure the county has good leadership and support in the classroom. He also said that morality is a big issue, both in school and in the community, and that he feels that transparency with the public and with employees of the system is crucial.

The final group of candidates, this time for District 5, included Kyle Glover, Ledronia Goodwin and Hazell Stoudemire, all of which addressed the audience.

Kyle Glover is a local business owner, but was also an educator in the system, chaired Economic Development at the Prattville Chamber and chaired the Industrial Development Board. 

“If there is an economic engine that runs the community, it is the education system,” he said. “My experience not only as an educator, a coach and athletic director, but also my tenure as a small business owner make me uniquely qualified because those things are connected. The monies we have in the county have to spent as efficiently as possible. I’ve been in the classrooms, the fieldhouses and the gyms where the resources are so scarce.”

Glover also commented that he believes it’s going to be important to be a good representative if he is elected to the school board.

“To strike that happy medium between representing the people, representing the educators at the school, representing the students and doing that the best way,” he said. “The combination of business experience, the combination of educational experience, I think makes me uniquely qualified to do that job.”

Ledronia Goodwin, who has served five terms on the board, is up for reelection.

“There was a line drawn in the sand when I first ran and that line was covered up by improvements,” she began. “But guess what? I see those lines coming back again. I’m always out there for the child that doesn’t seem to receive services.”

Goodwin said her qualifications include, “mom, citizen, grandmother”.

“All of the children in this county belong to me,” she added. “They all belong to me and deserve an equal education. What makes me qualified is that I’m my brother’s keeper. The idea that we’re letting students leave the system not fully qualified is not what we should be about.”

Having pastored two churches in Tallassee, Hazell Stoudemire said, if elected, he will work for the citizens of Autauga County. 

“When I first started pastoring, we had to take 20 courses of dealing with church members, dealing with situations that we come up upon, with all of that I would like to say that to be able to be a board member, you have to be able to have availability, with the parents, personnel and the community for the best of the kids.”

Stoudemire said that he will be available for the school system 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

He also shared that he wants to see one disciplinary code for all students. 

“We all should come together,” he said. “We all might not agree, but I believe we all have to disagree to agree.”