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The Candidates
May 3rd Primary
Jay Galbreath - R [incumbent]
August 4th Election
Jay Galbreath - R [incumbent]
Kristi Bidinger - I
Debbie Pace - I*
(*Pace initially pulled her petition to run as a Republican and switched to Independent in the final days before the deadline)
Our Endorsement
Kristi Bidinger
Our Reasons
Kristi is a very actively involved WCS parent who has done her research, so she's ready to hit the ground running with a fresh perspective. She's serious about this role and serving our schools - which is exactly what we need - and her very clearly outlined platform/issues are the focus areas that we know are shared concerns for the majority of parents here in Williamson County (e.g., teacher pay, safe learning environments) versus the made-up ones we've all had to live through lately.
Her professional experience at one of our region's largest employers clearly indicates that she can navigate complex environments and lots of personalities with the utmost professionalism and respect for others.
As an Edmonson Elementary school parent, she's personally invested in the long-term future of WCS, which is backed up by her active involvement with the PTO, including being a room parent for the past six years. We also completely agree with her stance that making School Board elections partisan was a big mistake for Tennessee students and teachers, a feeling we believe is held by the vast majority of parents, educators, and current Board members. In her words, "Why invite political division into a work whose sole purpose is to focus on our children's education, budgets, growth, and policy. School boards are a great place to show our children that the government can and does good work for the community. "
The best school board members can separate their party from their public school advocacy - and that's absolutely the way it can and should be. We see it daily with the Board members who are acting in the best interest of our kids and teachers, not special interest groups, and are confident she'll do the same.
We firmly believe she'll be an informed, pragmatic voice for *all* parents in the district, no matter their background, belief system, or political ideology.
Candidate Overviews
The information in this section was gathered from the Williamson Strong candidate questionnaires, local media coverage, social media posts, and our own historical information, which we've linked to where possible.
Website: kristibidinger.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KristiBidingerD6
Twitter: @kristibidinger
Instagram: @kristibidinger
Candidate Profiles & Interviews: Williamson Herald, Williamson Inc. Meet the Candidates Interview
Current WCS engagement: Edmonson Elementary parent, PTO member, active tier 3 volunteer, and room mom for six years
Professional: Executive Assistant in healthcare industry
Local history: Lived in Williamson Co. for 18 years
Completed our Williamson Strong candidate questionnaire: Yes - click to read.
Endorsements: Williamson Strong
Groups: legislative chair for the Williamson County Democratic Party
Facebook: facebook.com/jaygalbreathwcs
Twitter: @jaygalbreath
Candidate Profiles & Interviews: Williamson Herald, Williamson Inc. Meet the Candidates Interview
WCS engagement: Ravenwood High parent, PTO, Athletics Booster and Parent, volunteering, taught weekly Math program at Crockett in 3rd Grade
Professional: Works at Kythera Labs
Local history: Lived in Williamson County for 46 years
Completed our Williamson Strong candidate questionnaire: Yes - click to read.
Endorsements:
Groups: Co-admin in closed Back to School Facebook group with Mary Kate Brown (wife of D4 interim appointee Josh Brown), formed to push schools to stay open in-person without restrictions (masks, contact tracing) regardless of COVID levels in the community.
Notable Info:
There's a lot of history here. Galbreath has never run a challenged race before, running unopposed in 2014 as a member of Glenn Beck's Project 9-12 group, and again in 2018. A reminder that Robin Steenman of Moms for Liberty kicked off their local group's activity by going on the Glenn Beck show. There are a *lot* of people behind the scenes here in Williamson who are coordinating to influence our local elections as part of a national far-far-right conservative Christian movement, and we firmly believe - and always have - that Galbreath is a part of these political circles.
While sometimes on the right side of contentious votes partly due to his well-developed ability to read the room, Galbreath has also repeatedly shown that he sides with extremist views on things like renaming the calendar to be "Christmas break" instead of "Winter break" back in 2014:
"Galbreath expressed that he has spoken with and understood individuals on both sides of the issue. He later commented on what ultimately swayed him. "I don't feel it does much for children," Galbreath said. "But I think it's sad that we can't call things by name." - Williamson Herald.
His textbook activism was part of his 2014 platform and has been on full display during the Wit & Wisdom reading curriculum review process that dragged on forever partly due to his ongoing vocal support of Moms for Liberty's curriculum talking points, alongside Dan Cash and Candy Emerson. Here's some of our Twitter coverage from WCSB meetings with curriculum discussions if you have lots of free time. Or trust the hours we've spent watching these meetings for the past year when we say that Galbreath and Cash have been the main two pushing relentlessly on elementary reading curriculum "issues."
June 2021, in the height of the pandemic impacting schools around the globe, Galbreath was one of only two Board members (Dan Cash being the other) to vote AGAINST the traditional annual extension of the superintendent's contract, which is typically viewed in education circles as a vote of no confidence.
He was also one of only three Board members (Dan Cash and Candy Emerson being the others) who attended the Moms for Liberty Wit & Wisdom curriculum Town Hall.
August 2021: Vocal opponent of WCS mask "mandate" despite exemptions being available for any parent wishing to sign a form. Read our thread of the special-called Board meeting to review the drawn-out discussions.
Was 1 of only 3 Board members to vote against the resolution asking Governor Lee to grant WCS permission to shift to remote learning when needed for staffing shortages or individual school case counts: "District officials said because the WCS is currently not allowed by the state department of education to implement virtual learning, the district had to use an inclement weather day for that campus and students at that school did not have classes."
February 2022: Recorded and posted audio of the WCSB policy committee meeting (which is open to the public and press were in attendance,) reportedly without all other Board members and staff members being aware until after the fact.
Spoke in support of calling a special-called Board meeting to discuss the curriculum committee's review about Wit & Wisdom, further drawing out an issue that had already dominated countless hours of district staff time and resources over the past year because he apparently believes the Board-approved elementary reading curriculum is "pushing an agenda".
Debbie Pace
Website: www.votedebbiepace.com
Candidate Profiles & Interviews: Williamson Herald, Williamson Inc. Meet the Candidates Interview
Current WCS engagement: 6 children. "Three graduated from Ravenwood High School, two are currently at Ravenwood, and one attends Woodland Middle School."
Completed our Williamson Strong candidate questionnaire: No.
Professional: Former law enforcement official
Endorsements: Moms for Liberty's "Williamson Families" PAC
Groups: Moms for Liberty - Williamson County Facebook group member
Notable info: Core Moms for Liberty team member who's been fighting against the WCS elementary school reading curriculum and speaking out against CRT and diversity initiatives for the past year.
Frankly, you just need to read her website to know all you need to know, e.g. "I will fight to....Rid school libraries of pornography with policies that require libraries to disclose the list books available to our children." This is about as openly extremist as you'll see around here.
July 19, 2021, County Commission meeting public comment where she spoke out against the Ruby Bridges children's book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tabo_fZhd9M&t=9m19s
August 2021 School Board meeting public comment where she says diversity initiatives are poisonous idealogy:
Pace is one of the candidate who switched their petition at the last minute from running as a Republican to running as an Independent:
