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Hamilton County: Candidates qualify for school board race

By: Kelli Gauthier
(Contact)

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Gregg Juster

The race for the vacant District 4 school board seat officially has begun and it includes at least one familiar face.

Gregg Juster, who gave the late Debra Matthews her biggest competition for the District 4 spot on the Hamilton County Board of Education, said he’s back in the race. Mr. Juster, who picked up his paperwork Monday, will run against Mia Pierce, George Ricks and Anita Polk-Conley for the spot that was vacated when Ms. Matthews died in August.

Ms. Pierce and Mr. Ricks have turned in their paperwork and are qualified to run, said Charlotte Mullis-Morgan, chief deputy of the Hamilton County Election Commission. Ms. Polk-Conley also has turned in her paperwork; it was unclear Monday afternoon whether she had been qualified by the commission to run.

In a news release about his second campaign, Mr. Juster said he still wanted to “expose the corruption, help eliminate back-room deals, eliminate the wasteful spending and lend an ear to everyone in my district.”

“It’s still my duty,” Mr. Juster said. “I owe it to the people that donated their time and money to my campaign against Debra Matthews.”

The school board position will be on the ballot during the Nov. 4 general election, and all interested candidates must turn in their qualifying papers by noon Wednesday.

Mr. Juster said it took him several weeks to decide whether he wanted to run again because he already had moved on to other “business possibilities” and elected offices. Several people approached him about running for Chattanooga mayor against Ron Littlefield in March, he said.

“If you run for school board ... I couldn’t start anything new,” he said. “I just put so much into it.”

Mr. Ricks, who works for the Southside/Dodson Avenue Community Health Centers, said he would have run for the District 4 seat in the past, but he believed Ms. Matthews was doing a good job. His wife, Maria, was Ms. Matthews’ cousin.

“There was no need to run against someone I thought was doing a great job,” he said. “After we lost Debra, I prayed about it and decided to run.”

Mr. Ricks said he would have no problem garnering support in the less than two months before the election.

“I’ve been volunteering in the school system for more than 30 years — my resume speaks for itself,” he said. “My name is out there.”

Ms. Pierce, who is the daughter of Chattanooga City Councilman Leamon Pierce, said running for the school board was a natural fit. She quit her job last year as an insurance collector at a doctor’s office to spend more time with her daughters Jemiia, 8, and Jeliia, 6, both students at Brown Academy.

“My time was being dedicated to my kids, and then to other kids in the community. I’m the community house,” she said.

The other two candidates have children who are grown, she said, so she is more in touch with the current school system.

“(The school board candidate) needs to be someone who’s in the system and can reach out and touch some of the things parents feel,” she said.

Ms. Polk-Conley could not be reached for comment Monday.

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