Two challengers are no-shows for only public forum for Savannah-Chatham school board election

Attendees and viewers who wanted to learn more about the candidates vying for the Savannah-Chatham County School Board were deprived of meeting two challengers when they dropped out of the only public forum held ahead of Tuesday's election.

The cancellations allowed the District 1 session to become a one-woman show for incumbent Denise Grabowski while the District 7 session gave incumbent Michael Johnson and challenger James "Jay" Jones more time to make their cases.

The forum must go on

Front Porch Improv, 210 W. Victory Drive, provided the venue for the forum. Deep Center, Voices for Schools and Migrant Equity Southeast collaborated on the event while Connect Savannah provided streaming coverage.

Forum organizers received a curveball on Friday when District 1 challenger Barbara Hubbard cancelled due to a personal conflict. On Saturday, organizers then received word that District 7 challenger Stephanie Campbell had to cancel, as well.

Kelly Pack, an administrator for the local Voices for Schools advocacy group, said the event had been planned "little less than a month ago." She said that the dates and times shared with candidates initially received "positive responses."

Fellow Voices for Schools administrator Jenny McCord expressed frustration with the late cancellations. She found it curious that both candidates opted out after the debate guidelines and rules were shared. Pack explained that "earlier this week" the descriptions about timing for questions and rebuttals went out. Included in those descriptions were the rules requesting that candidates not bring cell phones or prepared notes on stage with them. Pack and McCord confirmed that neither candidate cited the rules as their reason for cancelling,

Hubbard did not respond to a Savannah Morning News (SMN) request for comment prior to this printing, but Pack said that Hubbard's conflict arose from visitors coming into town for her husband's birthday, which was also on Sunday.

Campbell informed organizers that a campaign event planned for this past Saturday had to be rescheduled for Sunday due to rain. She responded to the SMN's comment request stating that she was "attending meet and greets and canvassing in neighborhoods that have yet to cast a ballot in this important election. She said she was sharing "my fundamental belief that 'We Can Do Better.'"

All other candidates confirmed their desire to attend so organizers moved forward with Sunday's forum.

School board District 1 forum explains board's role

Grabowski took the stage minus challenger Hubbard, even though organizers and Grabowski were willing to shift the day's schedule around to accommodate Hubbard, who ultimately declined. That gave Grabowski, board vice president, nearly an hour to assert her knowledge of school board governance and reiterate key campaign points.

Forum moderator Coco Guthrie-Papy, Deep Center's director of public policy and communications, had Grabowski start the conversation by clarifying what school boards can actually do and not do. Grabowski boiled it down to three major responsibilities: making policy (then enacted by superintendent and her team), approving the budget, and hiring/firing, as well as annual reviews of, the superintendent.

Guthrie-Papy also asked questions that covered various topics from transportation, to funding and the Quality Basic Education Act or QBE, which sets provisions for educational funding provided to school districts by the state. Grabowski said the QBE "is woefully out of date," not addressing current technology or educational needs. The QBE was passed in 1985 and the formula has not been updated since. She ended her time by touching upon her "unique perspective" as an urban planner, who understands "how our built environment really does influence the way in which our teachers are teaching and our students are learning."

School board District 3 candidates get caught up in details

The second of Sunday's three forums featured District 3 incumbent Cornelia Hall and challenger Tanet Taharka Myers. Hall presented herself as experienced and a consensus builder while Myers claimed she is approachable. Hall called upon her record and tenure on the board as evidence of her commitment while Myers invoked her experience as a graduate of SCCPSS and parent of a special needs child who graduated from the district. Both reiterated key talking points from recent interviews.

At one point, Guthrie-Papy asked a question about community requests for more counseling, support and special needs services (among other requests) from SCCPSS for the board only to meet community pushback on potential increases to the millage rate to fund those services. She mentioned the current millage rate of 17.6%, which Hall believed to be over 18%. After some fact checking by event organizers and confirmations from fellow board members in the audience, it was made clear that the millage rate had once been 18.131 mills in 2021 before the board voted to roll it back in 2022 to 17.631 mills, where it has remained since.

The current board will hold public hearings on the millage rate at the Whitney Administrative Complex, Building G in the Jessie Collier DeLoach Boardroom at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. on June 12, as well as 6 p.m. on June 20.

School board District 7 candidates discuss West Chatham growth

With District 7 challenger Stephanie Campbell out of the lineup, Guthrie-Papy directed questions to Johnson and Jones. Growth in West Chatham was key to the District 7 forum session, particularly concerning transportation. While both Jones and Johnson, as well as Campbell, live within SCCPSS's District 7, none of the candidates' children attend schools within the district. Johnson's son attends Savannah Classical Academy, an SCCPSS charter school, and Jones's son attends Virginia L. Heard Elementary School through the school district's Choice Program. Both underscored the need for equitable access to transportation and choice programs for communities in West Chatham as well as more schools in general, particularly a high school in Pooler.

While both candidates agreed that the district's staff was its greatest asset, Johnson felt the greatest challenge in the district was inconsistencies with communication, special needs access and discipline policies. Jones felt the biggest challenges were transportation and the lack of diversity among teachers, which were not reflective of the student population. Most of the discussion drifted toward calls for more fiscal responsibility, a millage rate review and the need to advocate at the state level to update the QBE.

Overall turnout fluctuated for each session with, at most, about 40 people present. Connect Savannah livestreamed the forums through its Facebook page and publisher Rufus Friday said that as of about 9 p.m. Sunday night the streams had over 1,300 views.

Polls open Tuesday May 21 at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. To review your Georgia voter registration status go to mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/.

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Two challengers drop out of Savannah-Chatham school board forum