Anne McGraw

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Anne McGraw

Prior offices

Williamson County Schools, District 4

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Education

Bachelor's

Georgia Tech

Personal

Profession

Senior manager

Contact

Personal website

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Anne McGraw is the former District 4 representative on the Williamson County Board of Education in Tennessee. She was first appointed to the board in September 2015 by the Williamson County Commission. McGraw did not file to run for re-election in 2018.

McGraw sought another term in the general election on August 4, 2016. She successfully won re-election to a two-year term.

Biography

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McGraw moved to Williamson County in 2012. She is a senior manager at Nissan Motor Co. and works on the global digital marketing team. McGraw has served with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for over 10 years. She also serves as a coding club instructor in the SACC after school program at Trinity Elementary, as the website manager for the Trinity PTO, and as a member of the Williamson County Schools Career & Technical Education Advisory Council. McGraw earned her bachelor's degree from Georgia Tech. She and her husband have two daughters who attend school in the district.

Elections

2016

See also: Williamson County Schools elections (2016)

Seven of the 12 seats on the Williamson County Schools Board of Education were up for by-district general election on August 4, 2016. The District 1, 3, and 11 seats were left open for newcomers when incumbents Kenneth Peterson, PJ Mezera, and Mark Gregory, respectively, did not file to run for re-election. Richard Davis and Angela Durham ran for the District 1 seat, and Durham won the election. The District 3 race featured candidates Christy Coleman, Kimberly Little, and Eliot Mitchell. Mitchell was elected to the seat. The District 11 race featured candidates Stuart Cooper and K.C. Haugh, and Haugh won the election. In the race for the unexpired term in District 4, incumbent Anne McGraw defeated challenger Joey Czarneski. In District 5, incumbent Gary Anderson defeated challenger Julie Ellen Mauck to win another term on the board. District 7 incumbent Robert Hullett won re-election against challengers Jennifer Luteran and Christopher Richards. The District 9 race featured incumbent Rick Wimberly and challenger Denise Boothby. Wimberly was re-elected to the seat.

Results

Williamson County Schools, District 4 General Election, 2-Year Term, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Anne McGraw Incumbent	62.22%	886
Joey Czarneski	37.71%	537
Write-in votes	0.07%	1
Total Votes		1,424
Source: Williamson County Election Commission, "Summary Report: Primary and General Election August 4, 2016," accessed August 5, 2016

Funding

See also: Campaign finance in the Williamson County Schools election

McGraw began the race with an existing account balance of $2,032.84 from her previous campaign. She reported $4,950.00 in contributions and $2,540.76 in expenditures to Williamson County Election Commission, which left her campaign with $4,442.08 on hand as of June 30, 2016.

Endorsements

McGraw was endorsed by the WillCo Rising PAC and the Williamson Business PAC.

Campaign themes

2016

Candidate website

McGraw highlighted the following issues on her campaign website:

“	Student Population Growth The #1 challenge we face, both short and long term, is the explosive growth taking place here in Williamson County – everyone wants to live here and for good reason! The majority of our schools are already at or over capacity and we must focus our collective time and energy on a strategic plan to properly educate the thousands of new students coming our way within an already underfunded annual budget. There will be difficult decisions to make with rezoning, school sizes, and where and how to build news schools, and all of it will involve public input and engagement at every point along the way. I have organized a community meeting in March 2016 for the Page Middle/High cluster, and I look forward to fostering open communications as we all work together to address areas of concern across the entire school district. Special & Gifted Education As the parent of a child with an IEP, I know firsthand the unique challenges that parents face in navigating such a complex and sometimes overwhelming educational path. WCS has come a very long way in recent years, but I believe there’s more to be done for these children in cooperation with teachers, administrators, and the community as a whole. Having personal experience with the process of getting an IEP in place and now managing it in partnership with our school makes me a natural and passionate advocate on the Board for this segment of our student population and their parents. Testing It’s the universally agreed-upon topic: Our kids are being tested too much. Our teachers are having to spend way too much time teaching to the tests, and the high stakes of the tests themselves are creating environments of anxiety and stress for everyone involved. We must find ways to evaluate and measure academic progress in a more reasonable manner, and it’s a primary area of concern for me as both a parent and Board member.	”
—Anne McGraw (2016)

Franklin Home Page interview

The Franklin Home Page asked McGraw the following bolded questions. McGraw's responses are shown below.

“	Rezoning is one of the first issues the new board will deal with together as the Nolensville schools open and Thompson's Station's is on the horizon. What's your philosophy on school rezoning, grandfathering and the anticipation of future growth for rezoning? Rezonings and school size decisions are going to happen in early fall, and we will need a board member who's completely up to speed on the multiple dynamics and complexities involved to best represent our district's unique needs. Many of our District Four schools are near or even over capacity, and we need to be thinking strategically about things like feeder patterns, grandfathering and where and how to build new schools in order to minimize the impact on our families and taxpayers. We are really feeling the burn with the new home construction in the southern portion of the county. So rezoning is going to happen, and we are already out of space. We need to build new schools, and as soon as we build a school, it's full. What might seem obvious and easy never is, as I've quickly come to learn in this role. Open communication and intense focus on this pressing issue is critical during this time. What is your position on standardized testing - is there too much, too little? State testing has been a nightmare for our students and teachers this year. To say everyone is frustrated is an understatement. Testing certainly has a place in public schools, but the high stakes environment and instructional time spent preparing for them needs to be reined in immediately for everyone's sake. I think we're at a tipping point right now, and districts across Tennessee need to stand firm with what we will and won't accept while working with the state to find common sense solutions. I think there needs to be healthy conversation about what is reasonable. I think most people involved don't think it's the way it should be. It's a state issue, and we don't have much control. If school boards stood united across the state, that could become a unified voice. The momentum is swinging for a reduction in testing. What is your position on Common Core, and what do you agree with the state phasing it out? I'm glad that our legislators just voted to phase it out here in Tennessee so it's no longer an issue we need to worry about at a district level. I don't know anyone that was a fan of Common Core. What do you think of current state education standards? The new standards have certainly had a great deal of public involvement and scrutiny, and I believe they're appropriately rigorous and will thereby prepare our students for their next stage of life, whatever that might look like for them after graduating from Williamson County Schools. Do you think world religions should be part of history or social studies curricula? Absolutely. There is no way to learn about world history without knowledge of the many religions that influenced events throughout the centuries. Our children will be living and working in a global community and need to have academic, contextual knowledge of past and current cultures and societies in order to be successful. I live this firsthand in my job at a global corporation where cultural diversity is the norm, not the exception. The fear of indoctrination from religious awareness is unjustified and baffling to me. When I was in school, I was part of a role-playing project where we reenacted the Nuremberg trial over a few weeks, and I can promise you that having to comprehend and even play-act the words and arguments of Nazi leaders didn't turn me into a Neo-Nazi. Rational people understand the difference between exposing or explaining belief systems versus imposing or promoting them. We need to give our kids - and our teachers - more credit than that. What is your opinion of the current state of WCS and the current leadership? Current leadership is exceptional, and I believe we have the right team to see us through this time of growth. Working in public education right now isn't for the weak of heart. The team we have in our schools and running the district is truly excellent, and I believe they truly have our children's best interest in mind with everything they do. There is always more when it comes to underfunded schools, but I am confident that's what we will figure out how to do together. We need to trust our teachers and administrators to do their jobs and speak their minds. When we all work cooperatively as an educational ecosystem, everyone benefits. What is the best thing about WCS? First, we have amazing kids. But we have amazing kids because we have amazing parents. Seeing it through the PTO events and the level of parent involvement is off the charts - both the time and financial commitment. They are keeping our schools the best in the state and the country. I don't think a lot of people have any idea how lucky we are to have the level of parent involvement that we do here. I think that makes a huge difference. The teachers, really, they go above and beyond. Their passion and energy is contagious. I hope they know how valued they are. What needs attention, and what aspect of it could need adjustment? Our schools are underfunded in general here in Tennessee, and we're having to make really tough choices when it comes to maintaining buildings, adequate staffing levels and even academic programming and school service offerings - choices that I don't think we should be forced to make at the expense of our children's educational experiences. We're incredibly smart with every dollar we have to spend, but there's only so much magic you can pull out of a hat that isn't growing along with our student population.	”
—Anne McGraw (2016)

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Anne McGraw' 'Williamson County Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Anne McGraw - Google News

See also

• Williamson County Schools, Tennessee
• Williamson County Schools elections (2016)

External links

Suggest a link

• Williamson County Schools
• Office website
• Campaign website
• Campaign Facebook page
• Twitter page