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Chatham, Chipman compete for School Board Pos. 2 seat

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Daniel Chatham, a 37-year-old pediatrician, and Jeffrey Chipman, a 50-year-old educator, are both vying for an open seat on the Germantown School Board.
Both Pos. 2 candidates were recently asked to complete an election questionnaire supplied by the Germantown News – Shelby Sun Times.
Early voting begins on Oct. 19 and election day is Nov. 8.

• Daniel Chatham
Current Occupation:
Pediatrician at Pediatrics East
Education:
BS in Biochemistry at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
MD from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (graduated with honors)
Pediatrics residency at LeBonheur Children’s Hospital (Awarded the Russell Chesney award for excellence in pediatrics residency)
Family:
Education runs in my blood. My grandmother was a teacher. My mom is a teacher. My dad is a former teacher and vice principal. My mother-in-law is a retired math teacher. My wife is a former teacher.
My wife Allie and I have three little boys who are in the fourth grade, second grade and Kindergarten in GMSD. We also have a golden retriever named Jedi.
Organizations/Groups/Activities:
Member of Harvest Church
Board Member of Agape Child and Family Services
• List three significant issues in this election, and how would you approach these issues?

  1. Funding will always be a pressing issue for our school district, and it’s important that our school board members foster relationships with those elected officials who make decisions concerning school funding. I’ve been fortunate to build relationships with our local board of mayor and aldermen, our county commissioners and our state legislators that will help tremendously as we work together to ensure our students receive the best Germantown can offer.
    Recently the state legislature passed the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement law (TISA) that completely revamps our public schools funding formula, moving to a base amount for each student with additional money for things like their grade level, individual learning needs, or districts that are in poor or rural areas.
    We’re going to have to watch this new funding model closely, and if it affects us negatively, we’ll have to urgently advocate for a change so we can continue to provide the world class education our parents and students expect.
  2. We have the most passionately invested group of parents you’re going to find anywhere, and our schools are stronger for it. We have to ensure their voices are valued and heard, and that they have clear pathways to have their concerns addressed.
    When it comes to their concerns, one consistently rises to the top. We live in a world full of sensitive, deeply personal issues that parents should be allowed to discuss with their kids at home in a manner they deem appropriate.
  3. Our teachers are the best there are, and we need to continue to recruit, retain and support top teaching talent. We need to ensure they are well paid and given the tools they need to succeed in the classroom. We need to ensure they have a voice and that their concerns are addressed so that our district remains a target destination for top teachers.
    • What do you think is the biggest concern facing our school system at this time, and why?
    I think the most immediate concern facing our system is the state’s new 3rd grade retention law. I think this law has a noble goal of making sure kids are on reading level by third grade and not just passed on to high school without being able to read. This happens in some districts, but not ours.
    Germantown does a fantastic job of monitoring kids’ literacy early on and intervening appropriately when necessary. Our literacy scores are off the charts. I’m worried about basing a kid’s advancement to 3rd grade off of a standardized testing score on one day out of the year. So much can go wrong on one day, from waking up with a sore throat, having a family member sick, to your sock being wadded up in your shoe while taking the test.
    I’d love to see the state give a district like ours more flexibility here.
    • What specifically makes you best qualified for the position you are seeking?
    I’m a pediatrician. My entire life’s training and practice from medical school here at UT, my pediatrics residency at LeBonheur to my last 8 years at Pediatrics East have been focused on taking care of kids – ensuring they grow, develop and thrive appropriately.
    Every day at my office I take care of kids, everything from yearly wellness checks to helping kids with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, anxiety and depression.
    I’m a partner in a large pediatric practice with 14 partners who have to understand and reach a consensus on decisions ranging from our budget to practice policies affecting our staff.
    I bring a viewpoint and skill set to the board that it’s not had since the district was formed, and I think I would be an incredible asset over the next 4 years as we continue to move GMSD forward.

• Jeffrey Chipman
Current Occupation:
Educator
Education:
Bachelor’s Degree, University of Mississippi; Master’s Degree University of Mississippi
Family:
Husband, Adam Kalin; Sons, Jayden (14) and Ian (12)
Organizations/Groups/Activities:
National Association for Music Education, Tennessee Music Education Association, West Tennessee Vocal Music Educator’s Association, Germantown/Arlington/Lakeland Education Association, American Choral Director’s Association
• List three significant issues in this election.
A. Third Grade Retention Law
B. Facilities upgrades at Houston High School.
C. Recruiting and retaining the best talent for our district.
• Specifically, how do you plan to deal with each of these issues, if elected?
A. The district is already strongly lobbying the state legislature to amend or repeal this law. It has the potential to disrupt the educational progression of tens of thousands of students across the state, including here in Germantown. This will create a significant operations nightmare for each district, but more importantly, it will but students and families in difficult situations that need not be in. Studies show that retention often does more harm to educational progress that it helps. The state has given little to no guidance or funding to assist in dealing with the issues created by basing retention on a single high-stakes test. I would continue the work the district has already begun in lobbying our elected leaders to change course and allow our schools the local control they deserve in these matters. Parents and educators who work daily with our kids are the best people to make these decisions, not politicians in Nashville.
B. Our flagship high school is doing amazing work with our students. Yet, when we compare our facilities to all other municipal districts, our facilities are woefully lacking, especially for many of our arts programs. Our city has immense capacity to support a major renovation and expansion at Houston High. It must become a priority and be properly funded. That funding will need to come from a mixture of sources working with the city, the school district, private sources, and business and industry. We can do this. Our teachers need this, and our students deserve this investment,.
C. Our district is has some of the very best professionals you can find staffing our schools and district offices. There is no doubt about that. What are we doing as a district to ensure we keep the best of the best and recruit the best of the best? Investments such as increasing the stipend schedule amounts for coaches and sponsors, opening the new health facility, and continued focus on salary and benefits are all great starts to this. However, another major aspect of this is ensuring our teachers have the support of our community at large. I want to focus on helping develop programs that continuously feature the amazing work our teachers do. I want to increase that visibility throughout our community and leave no doubt that our schools are the best in the state and deserving of our unwavering support as a community. With this type of respect for the profession of teaching I hope to foster deeper connections between our schools and community. Relationships are everything in education. Whether we have kids on GMSD schools or not, our success as a city depends on the success of our public schools.
• What do you think is the biggest concern facing our school system at this time, and why?
The third grade retention law is the biggest concern currently. There are many unknowns at this point.
The law requires lots of different things depending on the success for the student, yet we don’t seem to have a full grasp of the state’s expectations for how these will be funded or accomplished. We could see retention numbers for our third graders at exponentially higher levels than in any previous time. This has operational and organizational mountains to climb.
We are likely to have need for a significant summer school and tutoring programs that will need to be developed, staffed and implemented. The state has yet to give us complete details of what we will need for these to be fully accepted under the new law. We need a tremendous amount of information that we just don’t seem to have at this point, and that is putting us in a really challenging place as a district, as parents and most certainly as third grade students.
• What specifically makes you best qualified for the position you are seeking?
I am a 26-year veteran teacher. I have worked in a public-school setting for the entirety of my career. I have worked in elementary, middle and high school settings as well. I have a wealth of knowledge from this experience.
I have an ninth grader and a seventh grader in GMSD schools. They have attended GMSD school since kindergarten giving me a significant length of time to understand how our school function at all levels, elementary through high school.
I have worked in public education advocacy through the Memphis Education Association and the Tennessee Education Association. I have worked as a lobbyist in Nashville as a representative of TEA. I have served as a state teacher evaluation trainer for the fine arts. I was a lead teacher in Memphis City Schools who planned, implemented, and offered professional development to colleagues, mentored new and/or struggling teachers, and wrote curriculum for the district in accordance with state standards. And I have worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a teacher consultant for teacher evaluation, compensation, support, and retention.
No other candidate has the depth of experience in all aspects of education that I command.

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