Pickler, Wirth back suburb schools
Seek unified board seat despite views
David Pickler and Kim Wirth may be battling for one of seven seats on the consolidated Shelby County Board of Education, but both say they support suburban efforts to break away from the very school district they hope to serve.
Both candidates also say they won’t run for a municipal school board if they aren’t voted onto the unified board to represent District 5, which encompasses Germantown, Collierville and parts of Cordova.
Wirth, a mother of three who works at International Paper and has never run for public office, is selling herself as “fresh blood” for the unified board. Yet Pickler, the former longtime chairman of the Shelby County Schools Board who was first elected in 1998, says his experience will be crucial during a transition scheduled to transfer administration and operations of Memphis’ schools by summer of 2013.
When citizens across Shelby County decide on school board candidates in the Aug. 2 elections, suburban voters will simultaneously cast their votes for or against mu- nicipal school systems and new taxes that could fund them.
Wirth, who has served as chairman of the board of the Memphis City Schools Foundation and has worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on behalf of the MCS Teacher Effectiveness Program, began distributing yard signs this week and said she wants voters to know they can have a Wirth sign and a My Germantown Schools sign on the same lawn.
Wirth’s youngest children attend Dogwood Elementary School and her eldest is enrolled at St. George’s Independent School.
“I’m concerned with a ‘one size fits all’ approach to education,” she said. “I’m a mother with kids in school right now. I think all the kids in Memphis and Shelby County can be successful, but we can’t take the approach that bigger is going to be better.”
Pickler said he thought suburbanites should have “the same right as the people of the city of Memphis had” with a special- district status the MCS board, City Council and voters all voted to dissolve.
“I believe in the right of self- determination,” said Pickler, who was one of the chief opponents of Memphians effectively forcing school consolidation by getting out of the schools business.
If Pickler loses in the District 5 race, he will retain his current position on the Shelby County School Board until August of next year, a point Wirth has tried to use to her advantage on the campaign trail.
“If you elect me, you are guaranteed to have two on the board that support municipal districts,” she said.
If Pickler wins, the Shelby County Commission will appoint someone to serve until next summer, when the MCS and SCS seats fall off of the current 23-member board.
“I find it interesting that my opponent is saying a vote for Wirth is a vote for Pickler to stay on the board,” said Pickler. “I thank her for the endorsement.”
Pickler said he needs more than the year he currently has left with the Shelby County School Board to “finish the job” of a merger he’s credited by some with helping to create. However, it is unclear how long he or Wirth would remain in the seat — if suburbs do vote to form their own municipal districts, the County Commission could move to redistrict the county school board seats to exclude the municipalities.
That could happen as early as November, when municipalities are hoping to have elections to create their own school boards.