Anne McGraw

The #1 challenge we face, both short and long term, is the explosive growth taking place here in Williamson County – everyone wants to live here and for good reason! The majority of our schools are already at or over capacity and we must focus our collective time and energy on a strategic plan to properly educate the thousands of new students coming our way within an already underfunded annual budget. There will be difficult decisions to make with rezoning, school sizes, and where and how to build news schools, and all of it will involve public input and engagement at every point along the way.

I have organized a community meeting in March 2016 for the Page Middle/High cluster, and I look forward to fostering open communications as we all work together to address areas of concern across the entire school district.

Special & Gifted Education
As the parent of a child with an IEP, I know firsthand the unique challenges that parents face in navigating such a complex and sometimes overwhelming educational path. WCS has come a very long way in recent years, but I believe there’s more to be done for these children in cooperation with teachers, administrators, and the community as a whole. Having personal experience with the process of getting an IEP in place and now managing it in partnership with our school makes me a natural and passionate advocate on the Board for this segment of our student population and their parents.

Testing
It’s the universally agreed-upon topic: Our kids are being tested too much. Our teachers are having to spend way too much time teaching to the tests, and the high stakes of the tests themselves are creating environments of anxiety and stress for everyone involved. We must find ways to evaluate and measure academic progress in a more reasonable manner, and it’s a primary area of concern for me as both a parent and Board member.^[9]

Rezonings and school size decisions are going to happen in early fall, and we will need a board member who's completely up to speed on the multiple dynamics and complexities involved to best represent our district's unique needs.

Many of our District Four schools are near or even over capacity, and we need to be thinking strategically about things like feeder patterns, grandfathering and where and how to build new schools in order to minimize the impact on our families and taxpayers.

We are really feeling the burn with the new home construction in the southern portion of the county. So rezoning is going to happen, and we are already out of space. We need to build new schools, and as soon as we build a school, it's full.

What might seem obvious and easy never is, as I've quickly come to learn in this role. Open communication and intense focus on this pressing issue is critical during this time.

What is your position on standardized testing - is there too much, too little?

State testing has been a nightmare for our students and teachers this year. To say everyone is frustrated is an understatement.

Testing certainly has a place in public schools, but the high stakes environment and instructional time spent preparing for them needs to be reined in immediately for everyone's sake. I think we're at a tipping point right now, and districts across Tennessee need to stand firm with what we will and won't accept while working with the state to find common sense solutions.

I think there needs to be healthy conversation about what is reasonable. I think most people involved don't think it's the way it should be. It's a state issue, and we don't have much control. If school boards stood united across the state, that could become a unified voice. The momentum is swinging for a reduction in testing.

What is your position on Common Core, and what do you agree with the state phasing it out?

I'm glad that our legislators just voted to phase it out here in Tennessee so it's no longer an issue we need to worry about at a district level. I don't know anyone that was a fan of Common Core.

What do you think of current state education standards?

The new standards have certainly had a great deal of public involvement and scrutiny, and I believe they're appropriately rigorous and will thereby prepare our students for their next stage of life, whatever that might look like for them after graduating from Williamson County Schools.

Do you think world religions should be part of history or social studies curricula?

Absolutely. There is no way to learn about world history without knowledge of the many religions that influenced events throughout the centuries.

Our children will be living and working in a global community and need to have academic, contextual knowledge of past and current cultures and societies in order to be successful. I live this firsthand in my job at a global corporation where cultural diversity is the norm, not the exception.

The fear of indoctrination from religious awareness is unjustified and baffling to me. When I was in school, I was part of a role-playing project where we reenacted the Nuremberg trial over a few weeks, and I can promise you that having to comprehend and even play-act the words and arguments of Nazi leaders didn't turn me into a Neo-Nazi.

Rational people understand the difference between exposing or explaining belief systems versus imposing or promoting them. We need to give our kids - and our teachers - more credit than that.

What is your opinion of the current state of WCS and the current leadership?

Current leadership is exceptional, and I believe we have the right team to see us through this time of growth. Working in public education right now isn't for the weak of heart. The team we have in our schools and running the district is truly excellent, and I believe they truly have our children's best interest in mind with everything they do.

There is always more when it comes to underfunded schools, but I am confident that's what we will figure out how to do together.

We need to trust our teachers and administrators to do their jobs and speak their minds. When we all work cooperatively as an educational ecosystem, everyone benefits.

What is the best thing about WCS?

First, we have amazing kids. But we have amazing kids because we have amazing parents. Seeing it through the PTO events and the level of parent involvement is off the charts - both the time and financial commitment. They are keeping our schools the best in the state and the country. I don't think a lot of people have any idea how lucky we are to have the level of parent involvement that we do here. I think that makes a huge difference.

The teachers, really, they go above and beyond. Their passion and energy is contagious. I hope they know how valued they are.

What needs attention, and what aspect of it could need adjustment?

Our schools are underfunded in general here in Tennessee, and we're having to make really tough choices when it comes to maintaining buildings, adequate staffing levels and even academic programming and school service offerings - choices that I don't think we should be forced to make at the expense of our children's educational experiences.

We're incredibly smart with every dollar we have to spend, but there's only so much magic you can pull out of a hat that isn't growing along with our student population.^[9]