Left to right are Civitan program chairman Neal Thompson, school board candidate Missy Crutchfield, House candidate Allison Gorman,, Crutchfield campaign manager Nicole McDermid, and Civitan president Ashley Evans .
A Crutchfield will be back on the Hamilton County ballot come the primary election March 5. Ms. Crutchfield, daughter of the late Senator Ward Crutchfield, is running against Jackie Anderson Thomas for the District 4 seat of the Hamilton County School Board. She spoke to the Civitan Club on Friday about teacher salaries, healthy school meals and yoga in school.
“I had a come-to-Jesus moment over the summer,” Ms. Crutchfield said, a time when public school boards across the country stole the Internet limelight and she decided to run for the school board. “It validated my intuition, my prayers, my meditation,” she said.
Ms. Crutchfield touched on her own family’s past of addiction, mental illness, single parenting, bullying, Gandhian non-violence, and her involvement in local and state film commissions, and compared public education to an onion or a rose, whose layers complement its true purpose.
“It’s really the bedrock of our democracy,” Ms. Crutchfield said. “Right now we’ve got a lot of failing schools in Hamilton County.”
She went on to describe a thread of direct cause and effect starting with ultra-processed school meals, which lead to failing students, to failing schools, to big businesses rejecting Chattanooga, to low economic impact, to high crime.
“So free breakfast and lunch for our kids, right?” she said. “How can you think clearly if your health is bad?”
If elected, Ms. Crutchfield said she would act on a connection she has with the Humane Society animal protection and welfare charity, which would “fly down” to train school cooks and share recipes for better nutrition in school meals, and to pass on the “cost savings.”
“I want to make Hamilton County a pilot,” she said. “I’m not asking all of you to turn plant-based. That’s your decision.”
Ms. Crutchfield said Hamilton County should emulate Bradley County, Tn., and offer free breakfast and lunch to all students.
She said attracting and retaining “the best and brightest” teachers by raising teacher salaries would be a priority if she is elected.
“Our teachers are leaving,” she said. “Our teachers need raises and our teachers need support.”
Ms. Crutchfield said she would bring yoga breathing techniques into schools as a form of anger management for students.
“That simple thing can save lives,” she said.
She said she would also focus on restorative justice theories as a form of discipline, because teachers don’t feel safe at school, she said.
Allison Gorman, who is running for State House District 26, also spoke.
Missy Crutchfield and Allison Gorman