Elections 2020: Meet Cherokee School Board District 1 Candidates

WOODSTOCK, GA — In addition to voting for president and vice president of the United States in the Nov. 3 general election, voters in Cherokee County, will choose other candidates to represent them, including the seat for Cherokee School Board District 1.

Incumbent Kelly Poole will be running against Miranda Wicker to represent District 1.

As part of its coverage of the 2020 election, Patch has invited the candidates in contested races to participate in our election profile series. We will continue to update the profiles with links to responses to our questionnaire.

Candidates

Kelly Poole

Miranda Wicker

*note: Miranda Wicker is a write-in candidate

Age (as of Election Day)

Kelly Poole: 50

Miranda Wicker: 38

Party Affiliation:

Kelly Poole: Republican

Miranda Wicker: Write-In

Family:

Kelly Poole: Husband - Jim (married 26 years) and two children - Taylor and James.

Miranda Wicker: Dan (husband), Joshua (son), and Emma (daughter)

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

Kelly Poole: No

Miranda Wicker: No

Education

Kelly Poole: BBA Accounting and Business Administration

Miranda Wicker: I hold a BSEd in English Education from the University of Georgia and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Piedmont College

Occupation

Kelly Poole: Tax Accountant - 4 1/2 years

Miranda Wicker: After teaching high school English in Cherokee County, I began freelance writing and volunteering for a maternal mental health non-profit. In 2016, I became the non-profit's Director of Outreach and developed our grassroots ambassador program. I currently work in brand development and online community engagement and serve as the Director of Social Media for The Conferences for Women, the nation's largest professional development conference series for women. I have been a PTA volunteer since 2014 and served as committee chair for Advocacy and Multicultural Events.

Campaign website

Kelly Poole: None

Miranda Wicker: https://electmirandawicker.com

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

Kelly Poole: School Board District 1

Miranda Wicker: I have not previously held an elected or appointed political office.

The single most pressing issue facing our community, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Kelly Poole: The single most pressing issue facing our board is the pandemic. I plan to continue to advocate for face-to-face in person classes for our students and families. This model is the most effective education model for our students and teachers. Covid is not going away and we need to continue to find and try creative ways to ensure an equitable education for all our students.

Miranda Wicker: The most pressing issue facing our school system is safe reopening procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, our rolling closures and quarantines, plus the combination of digital learning, hybrid learning, and in-person learning have created systems of inequity and inequality for our students. Our teachers are doing the best they can to manage the chaos. While our students and teachers are resilient, our Board could have done better with its reopening plan, and we still can by honing a response plan that is proactive rather than reactive and which includes access to services for our vulnerable and special needs populations. I propose an asynchronous hybrid plan which would allow for social distancing in our classrooms and, when coupled with masks for all, would mitigate the spread of COVID in our schools. More information about my plan can be read here: https://bit.ly/3lp1kKL

Do you support Black Lives Matter and what are your thoughts on the demonstrations held since the death of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake?

Kelly Poole: did not answer this optional question

Miranda Wicker: Black Lives Matter. Absolutely. We must listen to those who tell us they are hurting; after all, "a riot is the language of the unheard." Systemic racism is alive and it is insidious. In the school setting, dismantling systemic racism looks like examining our discipline referrals for Black and minority students to determine if their referral rates match their school population demographics. It means ensuring our minority students have teachers who look like them, who share their cultural history, so that they can see themselves reflected back in their classrooms. It means choosing textbooks and curriculum that don't shy away from the truth of our nation's history and being unafraid to have hard conversations about privilege and power. Yes, I believe Black Lives Matter.

What are your thoughts on the campaign to "defund" the police?

Kelly Poole: did not answer this optional question

Miranda Wicker: The campaign to "defund" the police is a misnomer, and that's unfortunate because it's led to a great deal of confusion. It's a campaign to reallocate funding, to take work off the shoulders of the overworked, and to spread the load around to other community public servants, like social workers and mental health care workers. Strong communities require strong community services. But too many of our communities, though not necessarily Cherokee County, have placed all the burden on one group of people.

Teachers, in that regard, can likely relate. They are teacher, counselor, career coach, college coach, actual coach, curriculum writer, committee chair, social worker, testing coordinator, intervention specialists, and on and on. When we look at the jobs people are doing and we re-allocate those jobs to others who can help, we make the work easier for everyone.

What are your thoughts on the state and national response to the coronavirus pandemic? Do you favor such measures as limiting operation of non-essential businesses or restricting indoor/outdoor dining? And do you favor a nationwide mask mandate?

Kelly Poole: did not answer this optional question

Miranda Wicker: Over 210,000 Americans are dead as a result of ineffective and inadequate national pandemic response leadership. Nations which took harder stances in the beginning of the pandemic have seen dramatically fewer deaths and their economies have largely recovered. Many of their responses included a mask mandate, and multiple scientists and epidemiologists have stated that if we all banned together and wore masks for a short time, we could end this. So, yes, I would be in favor of a mask mandate if one were issued. In the meantime, I will continue to wear my mask and practice physical distancing and do my part to keep my community safe.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

Kelly Poole: N/A - I am the only candidate on the ballot.

Miranda Wicker: We need someone who will stand up and speak out for the students, parents, and teachers—who are voters and stakeholders in our schools—in District 1. Being complacent and lacking the want or ability to fight for all of our children is not what Cherokee County needs. Right now, many members of our community feel unheard and voiceless—and therefore powerless—when it comes to important decisions which are made about Cherokee County schools, particularly in light of the pandemic.

I will be the Board member who listens, who hears your concerns, and leads with empathy. I will serve our families and always speak up for what’s best for all of them. I will not allow anyone to dissuade me from my mission: to protect and enhance the potential of every student. Just as I have in the classroom for so many years, I'm here to serve my community.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)?

Miranda Wicker: Most recently, our School Board has failed to follow the science of the spread and transmission of COVID-19 in demonstrable and adequate ways. Our reopening plan does not and has not accounted for the two most important factors in decreasing transmission: physical distancing and masks. The reopening plan stated that physical distancing would not be possible and masks would not be required and could not be enforced.

As such, we've had a rocky first quarter of school with quarantine numbers so high we've had to close three high schools to in-person learning, and the hybrid return for those schools was poorly planned and executed. The Board has continually refused to issue a mask mandate to even attempt to slow the spread. Our entire community deserves better, from students to teachers to those they come into contact with after leaving the building each day. COVID-19 is a community public health issue and is not being treated as such by our current Board leadership.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform:

Kelly Poole: I have several issues that I have been and will continue to push.

1. I believe strongly in the CTAE (career, technical and agricultural education) program. I recognize that for some of our students college is not a goal and they want to leave high school ready to enter the workforce. The current state graduation requirements make it difficult for students to obtain this goal. I will continue to advocate that Georgia move back to the dual-diploma to allow students this flexibility.
2. I champion for continued and improved social and emotional learning resources. We have implemented new programs at our schools and have taken steps in the right direction. However, since the start of the pandemic I hear many stories from parents about their student's mental health, depression and isolation becoming a concern. This issue is very personal for me and it breaks my heart to hear the difficulties families are facing.
3. We need to create incentives to attract, retain and encourage more diverse educators to come to Cherokee County. Our student body is changing and the children need to see role models and individuals that come from similar backgrounds and have shared experiences in the classroom.

Miranda Wicker: We are fortunate in Cherokee County to have one of the best school systems in metro Atlanta and the state of Georgia thanks to a commitment to excellence which reaches every level of our school system. But that doesn't mean there's not room for improvement. Beyond COVID-19, students today are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis. While our district has begun the work of teaching mental wellness skills and social-emotional learning, there is more work yet to be done. We must focus on dispelling the myths of mental illness, train our teachers in how to spot signs and help students who may be struggling, and begin having community conversations about mental health and suicide prevention. The earlier a child can receive mental health support, the better their outcomes will be.

We have a representation gap in our classrooms which we must address. Minority students need to see and experience teachers who look like them; majority students need to see and experience teachers who don't. While we have committed to diverse hiring practices in the past, I would like to see us recommit to those efforts and make them a priority focus for future school years. We need to recruit actively in ways that make it clear we are seeking diverse teacher candidates so that our schools can more accurately reflect our communities.
Funding is a critical issue facing nearly every public school in America, though perhaps not in the sense that there's not enough money to go around. In Cherokee County, English teachers at the high school level are still teaching from textbooks purchased around 2004. But we spend millions annually on programs which have no direct impact on teaching and learning. Our goal should always be to reserve and spend in ways that will yield positive results for our students and teachers, and that means providing the necessary resources so teachers can do their jobs effectively.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Kelly Poole: I have advocated strongly on behalf of our children, their families and teachers for several years. I began my career as a school volunteer and moved through the PTA ranks at the school, county and state level. In the fall of 2015, I was appointed to the school board and won the 2016 election unopposed.

I have extensive financial/accounting knowledge and have taken advantage of opportunities to attend additional school board member training to ensure that I am following school board policy and Georgia law.
One of the first responsibilities that the board and I were tasked with was hiring a new Superintendent to replace Dr. Frank Petruzielo. The board was able to successfully hire Dr. Brian Hightower.
The board oversaw a successful ED-SPLOST referendum with an 80% approval rating. We implemented a new strategic plan with strong community participation. We rewrote the school district's mission statement which more accurately reflects the evolving needs or our students and community.

Miranda Wicker: did not answer

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office as a success?

Kelly Poole: The only accomplishment that would make my term in office a success is that the school district is better when I leave than when I began.

Miranda Wicker: In my third year of teaching, I lost a student to suicide, and I spent months wondering why I hadn't seen the signs. What had I missed? Could I have done something to stop this? I didn't have the training to know what I didn't know.

With nearly 50% of mental health disorders being diagnosed before age 14, I would consider it a tremendous success to see us change the conversation about mental health, namely suicide prevention in Cherokee County and in the state of Georgia at large. I want us to be a district unafraid to discuss the hard things, to teach our students about the resources available to them when they need help. I want to see our teachers receive the training they need, not so that they can serve as counselors or so that we can add more to their responsibilities, but so they feel empowered to identify students struggling with mental health.

Why should voters trust you?

Kelly Poole: Voters should trust me, because I have a proven track record during my time on the school board. In my career, I deal with extremely difficult and complex tax matters and people and businesses hire our firm to represent them before the IRS in high pressure situations.

Miranda Wicker: Voters can trust me because I've been in the classroom, as a teacher, a parent, and a volunteer, and in all of those roles, the #1 focus is always and will always be student well-being.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the use of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking?

Kelly Poole: I am conservative with taxpayer dollars and do not believe that we should spend money just for the sake of spending money. There needs to be a clear and concise education goal that benefits students and faculty before we expend funds. Through our budgeting process, I can submit priorities that my constituents and I believe will be most beneficial to the school district.

Miranda Wicker: We have to spend taxpayer money in ways that yield the best results for our taxpayers and students. While we are fortunate to have well-funded schools, we should always evaluate our spending to ensure the allocations we've made make the most financial sense for our students and teachers. Doing so ensures we're making wise choices without raising millage rates on our community.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or family?

Kelly Poole: No

Miranda Wicker: There is no foreseeable reason, other than my own health or the health of someone I needed to care for, which would prevent me from fulfilling my term.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Kelly Poole: did not answer

Miranda Wicker: Growing up, my mother encouraged me to speak my mind, but to do so respectfully. That has always been a guiding principal of my life. I've never been one to shy away from speaking the truth or saying the things no one else wants to say or hear. I don't see that changing any time soon.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

Kelly Poole: I would like everyone to know that we didn't choose Cherokee. We were lucky Cherokee chose us 16 years ago. We were on our final house hunting trip to Atlanta from San Antonio and were so undecided. We looked everywhere for a house. We had two small children and knew that the schools would be our deciding factor.

We asked our realtor if she would stop by Sixes Elementary after house searching in Bridgemill, so we could take a look. As soon as we walked in the door, we knew we were home. From the amazing front office staff, teachers and administrators we were welcomed and treated like family. And that is what the Sixes community has become to us - family. Sometimes we laugh, cry and fight, but at the end of the day, we know that we matter to each other.
I am respectfully asking for your vote on November 3rd to continue to represent you and your family.

Miranda Wicker: I love living here, raising my family here. I plan to retire and grow old here. And in whatever time I have, I will serve others, and I hope to serve the families of Cherokee County for the next four years.