District 9 school board race commands big dollars

Lee Limbird and Alan Coverstone are in the fund-raising lead for the District 9 school board seat.

Thirty grand can buy a lot of yard signs.

To date, the school board race for District 9 — which encompasses all of Bellevue and much of what many associate with Belle Meade — has garnered far more in campaign contributions than any other race in the city.

Alan Coverstone has raised more than $32,000, as of the end of June, according to publicly released figures. Lee Limbird has raised $23,000. Even Paul Brenner — who with about $8,000 comes in third in District 9 in terms of dollars raised — is working with significantly more than candidates for any other Nashville school board race this year.

Those aren’t necessarily record-setting figures, at least not yet. In 2006, for example, Hillsboro school board member David Fox, by his own account, raised about $63,000 in his campaign to unseat incumbent Kathleen Harkey.

Coverstone, for one, says his level of fund raising is a matter of wanting to operate a professional campaign. He referred to a conversation with former Board of Education chair Betsy Walkup, in which he says he was advised to run a campaign serious enough to reflect the importance of public education.

“Schools are every bit as important as Congress and every other level of government,” Coverstone said.

Limbird, in an e-mail interview, also equated the level of funds raised with the importance of public education to the community.

“I see the contributions for the School Board candidates principally as an indication of how important our community at large sees public schools, and thus how important it is to provide resources to candidates to share their experience, views and reactions to current issues with the larger community,” Limbird said. “Selecting a school board member is an important decision for our community.”

Chamber influence

The fund-raising success of Limbird and Coverstone has played a part in allowing their opponents — Jim Lech, Steve Hicks and Brenner as well — to turn contributions into something of a campaign issue. Lech and Brenner have publicly thrown barbs at the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the candidates it supports. Both Limbird and Coverstone received Chamber endorsements last week.

With some members of the public at large claiming that a recent school board rezoning decision reflected the will of the Chamber rather than that of individual board members, the time is especially ripe for such campaign methods. At a recent school board candidate forum at a north Nashville church, for example, Lech proved a crowd favorite for associating the rezoning decision with Chamber influence of school board members.

“It’s an issue because if you focus on the consequences of the “haves” telling the “have-nots” how to live their lives, it’s no wonder the have-nots have nothing,” Lech said in a Thursday interview. “Consider the power structure of Nashville. Everyone who’s in control has largely gone to private schools, and they send their children to private schools. They’re telling the poor folk how to live and how to learn.”

Brenner — whose $8,214 of total receipts includes $3,000 from teachers’ union the Metro Nashville Education Association (MNEA) as well as a $5,214 “self-loan” — says it’s a problem when he’s raised more money than any other candidate for school board in the city other than two in his own race.

Brenner, a retired Metro teacher, said Coverstone and Limbird have an immediate leg up on the competition based on who they associate with. Like Lech, Brenner associates the Chamber with wealth — and with contributions from private school parents. He called the Chamber’s endorsement of both Limbird and Coverstone a case of the Chamber “hedging its bets.”

“The Chamber of Commerce and Limbird and Coverstone basically associate with different people than I do,” Brenner said. “I’m a schoolteacher. Teachers don’t make a lot of money.”

Hicks said he believes Nashvillians don’t currently trust the Chamber, in part because of the recent associations between the Chamber and rezoning. He said he believes members of the Chamber’s Political Action Committee knew who they would be endorsing before they interviewed him. But he is trying, largely, to keep his campaign positive, he said.

Both Lech and Brenner have associated big campaign contributions with big favors due from school board members, in the event they are elected. Coverstone and Limbird — as well as many current school board members — deny that this is the case.

Private school parents play significant role

Concerns of private school parents influencing public school board races are not limited to District 9. With many Nashville government and business leaders having graduated from private schools, or currently paying for their children to attend private schools, the city’s private school landscape plays a very real role in public education.

A recent Vanderbilt University study found that about 18 to 19 percent of Davidson County kids are enrolled in private schools. And District 9 is home to about one-fourth of the private school students living in areas zoned to Metro Nashville Public Schools, according to 2006-2007 figures from the district.

Coverstone, a teacher and administrator at Montgomery Bell Academy and the parent of one MNPS student and one private school student, readily states that the bulk of his funds have come from parents of kids he has taught over the years. He considers that to be a positive. Close watchers of the race also attribute much of Coverstone’s fund-raising success to the support of the Montgomery Bell Academy community.

Coverstone rejected the idea — voiced by some citizens and some of his opponents — that those with a vested interest in private schools have an incentive to allow public schools to fail. He said educators of all backgrounds want to see children succeed, and many private school parents would like to feel comfortable sending their children to public schools.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Coverstone said. “I would encourage anybody who has that idea to get to know people in private education.”

According to Coverstone, the biggest indicator of private school success is the economy — a sluggish economy means less enrollment at private schools, and vice versa.

Current school board member Fox — who represents the area including the Hillsboro cluster of schools — also attributes much of his campaign funding to private school parents.

Many private school parents, Fox said, are aware that there are problems in public schools, and will readily support candidates who want to work to fix those problems. Most Nashvillians would probably rate improvement of public schools as a high civic priority, regardless of where they send their children to school, he said.

“I think folks who take uninformed cheap shots against people in the community are not doing things that are helpful to the students in our system,” Fox said.

Brenner and Lech, however, both equate support from private school parents with public school outsiders exercising undue influence.

“Those are the well-heeled citizens who gave up on Nashville public education a long time ago,” Lech said. “The only people I’ve talked to on the campaign trail who have turned around and walked away are the ones who said, ‘My children are in private schools. Good luck to you.’”

Business community supports Limbird and Coverstone

In addition to their Chamber PAC endorsements, which included $5,000 contributions not reflected in the publicly reported receipt totals referenced earlier, both Coverstone and Limbird have garnered donations from many recognizable names from the business community.

Limbird said much of her early fund-raising success was due to contributions from individuals who are, in their own words, “blessed by being financially fortunate.” While she says she regularly volunteers for causes ranging from public schools to combating homelessness, she has not sought contributions from all avenues accessible to her.

“I did not want anyone to choose between supporting my campaign … and supporting an extremely fragile nonprofit organization,” Limbird said, “though I do think who ultimately serves on the school board will make a distinctive difference in the rate at which we achieve a better future for all of our children, those most gifted and those most challenged.”

Notable donors to Limbird’s campaign include Orrin Ingram, Thomas and Constance Cigarran, and Chamber PAC chair Phillip Trella. Coverstone contributors also include Ingram, as well as former Metro economic development chief Thomas Jurkovich, Chamber of Commerce Chairman Ron Samuels and attorney James Weaver.

Coverstone said he’s raising the money to pay for the same campaign expenses one might expect — yard signs, a headquarters, and mailings, among others.

“From the beginning, nobody knew who I was,” Coverstone said. “The money just goes fast. We’re not doing any big television or blimps.”

Brenner, Hicks and Lech all said they have hope that votes will split between Coverstone and Limbird, allowing an opportunity for someone else to have a chance. There are no run-offs in school board elections, meaning that a winning candidate for the District 9 seat could command as little as 20 percent of the total vote.