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The Chambers County School District superintendent candidates had a chance to share their vision at a candidate forum on Tuesday night. Candidates for the two contested county races gathered at the ALFA Insurance building in LaFayette for a live-streamed forum hosted by Gator Media and BeeTV.

CCSD superintendent candidates Dr. Sharon Weldon and Dr. Winford Ashmore gave their responses second after the CCSD District 1 candidates. 

The forum was not intended as a debate, but rather as an opportunity for candidates to present their “vision,” according to Joseph “Gator Kincaid” Williams, the organizer. Five questions were provided for the four candidates ahead of the forum. Each prepared a response in advance. 

Where do you see the Chambers County School System in the next four years?

Weldon said that in the next four years, “I see us moving forward with improved student achievement, improved unity, improved athletics and arts and improved planning for our teachers.”  

“I see us working to continue celebrating a lot of our good old traditions and forging ahead and celebrating and making some new traditions too,” Weldon added. 

“My goal and objective will be to do what’s best for all students of the county. Again, that’s all students from all different perspectives of the county,” Ashmore said. “That will be my goal. I have to do what’s best for all students.”

Referencing that CCSD is ranked 113 out of 137 Alabama school systems, Ashmore continued, “I can assure you up under the leadership of Doctor Winford Lee Ashmore, that will change. I can assure you that we will move up into the first 50th percentile within our first term in office, and after the second term in office, I will say the sky will be the limit. We’ll be one of the best school districts in the state of Alabama.”

What’s your vision of the consolidated high school and thoughts on the site?

Weldon said that she hopes the community can become united on the vision for consolidation. Her focus will be on the bond rating and making the community aware of it before moving forward. Weldon added that the site location was a 4-to-2 vote by the board.

“It would take another vote of 4-to-2 to even open it up to say that it’s going to be reviewed,” Weldon said. “… Would I be open to looking at those sites? Absolutely, but with the approval of the board, and that’s an important thing, because the board and the superintendent, we have to work together.”

Ashmore said consolidation is not urgent and it’s more important to have a school that is equitable for all students than to just consolidate regardless of the burden it causes to certain students. 

“The talk of a consolidated high school at this one time has only divided the county even more,” Ashmore said. “Trying to decide where the school should be built at, we need to be transparent and tell the truth. The money is not there to build a consolidated school. It’s not there.”

What are your thoughts on the 2025 private school in-home school reimbursement and how that could affect the school district?

Weldon said that the CHOOSE Act will replete funding in the long term as students leave because state funding is determined by how many students are enrolled. 

“I think it also is a major punch to public education systems all over the state. But the one that it concerns me the most about is our Chamber County Schools. It is diverting money away from our school systems,” Weldon said. 

She continued, “I think we got to build our school system, all of our schools back up to draw those students back in. I want our students to walk across the stage at the end of their 13 years, and I want them to be equipped with so many opportunities that the other communities are just envious of the things that are going on in Chambers County Schools.”

Ashmore said that he understands why parents would send their children to schools with higher state test scores but that he hopes to change their minds by implementing more accountability. 

“You should do what’s best for your child, if it means Chambers County losing money, I understand,” Ashmore said, “But I can assure you, up under my leadership, that won’t happen. We will do whatever it takes. We will not sleep properly. We will not eat properly until we have got all the schools off of the failing school list.”

What is your vision of unifying both LaFayette High School and Valley High School? 

“It can’t be something that’s forced, it can’t be something that’s rushed,” Weldon said. “It has to be something that we all work together for, taking baby steps to make it all happen and come together. I think a really good example of how that can happen is the decision that was made about 10 years ago concerning career tech.”

Years ago, the Valley and LaFayette high school and middle school classes were merged at Inspire Academy, the district’s career tech school, which has allowed students to work together and find common ground.

Ashmore said he would like to introduce a public learning center (PLC), invest in planning periods and increase school-to-school communication.

“The schools could be unified and not be up under one roof. What I would do, I would survey the faculty and the staff to get a better understanding of the faculty and staff needs. I would hire instructional coaches and a consultant firm if the need is there,” he said. “This will help us to strengthen the instructional piece of the education spectrum.”

How would you address state test scores and plan to bring them up?

Though she worked in the central office for 11 years, Weldon has spent the last two years in the classroom as a teacher. Using that experience, she said, “First and foremost, I think we have to build time in our school calendar for teacher planning the time before the school year starts, we’ve got to make sure they have time to plan.”

She also focused on looking at class size, protecting instructional time and outsourcing for state exams. Weldon mentioned that the growth scores, which measure how much a student has progressed from the last time they took a test, are good.

“And what that tells me,” Weldon said, “is we’ve got students that can learn and that want to learn, but it also tells me that we’ve got teachers who, day after day, are busting their rear ends to give our students the things that they need.”

Ashmore said that the superintendent needs to look at the factors that impact student test scores like “teacher effectiveness, teacher credential, teacher retention, professional development, class size.”

“And then we need to hire a staff that mirrors closely the demographic of the student population, once we consider all those factors,” he said. He added that he would utilize differentiated instruction, test-taking strategies and one-on-one instruction.

Ashmore then made a statement about the test scores during the time Weldon was working in the central office as director of secondary education. 

“She was the secondary education coordinator for 11 years, from 2011 to 2022,” Ashmore said. “Look at the history. Go to the state website, you’ll notice that up under her range of time, the majority of the schools that [fell under] the secondary education were low performing.”

After that, Kincaid, the forum organizer, gave Weldon an opportunity to respond to the claim. Weldon said that during that time, the state changed the way the graduation rate was calculated, but it had begun to increase and was approaching 90 percent.

“I haven’t been in the central office in two and a half years, but I can tell you what it was like when I was there. I can tell you that we broke down our data and we looked at the things that were going on,” she said. “We worked with the Department of Justice, and we worked with the Legal Defense Fund, and we made sure that we were moving things in the right direction, not just for some of the students, but for all of the students.” 

The general election will be on November 5.