Q&A with WCS Board candidate Margie Johnson

The News has reached out to all Williamson County School Board candidates for this election. These are their complete answers. To read all of the Q&A responses visit the landing page here.

Name: Margie Johnson

District: 5

Personal bio: I am a licensed TN educator and administrator with 28 years of experience working in education at the school, district, and regional levels. My most important title is as Mom to my 3 amazing sons via the gift of adoption. Caleb, from Korea, is 19. Samson, from Ethiopia, is 20. Asher, from Ethiopia, is 14. My oldest sons graduated from Nolensville High in 2023. My youngest is a freshman at Nolensville High.

Share your education experience: I obtained a bachelor of science and master of arts degree in Middle Grade Education–Math and Science from Western Kentucky University. I have a master of arts in Educational Administration from Trevecca Nazarene University. In 2014, I obtained my doctorate degree in Educational Leadership, Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Phoenix.

Career: I am a licensed educator and administrator with 28 years of experience and counting in education. My career began serving as a middle school teacher for 7 years, where I taught mainly science in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In 2003, I began serving in central administration for Metro Nashville Public Schools in a variety of roles, including instructional technology, professional development, and data use. Currently, I still work for Metro Nashville Public Schools helping with data governance for the variety of data systems in the district and leading the efforts to migrate cumulative student records from paper to electronic.

Volunteer work: 

• Active Member of The Church at Nolensville, where I serve by leading DivorceCare and the Foster and Adoption Ministry
• I have served my community in a variety of roles since 2011, including Nolensville Youth Sports Football and Basketball programs as coach, practice schedule coordinator, and director of coaches; Mill Creek Middle and Nolensville High School basketball and football volunteer; Keep Nolensville Beautiful Clean-up volunteer, Broken Wheel Festival volunteer, Star Spangled Event volunteer; Art Helps Cancer sponsor

Why did you decide to run in this election?

I am running for this office for two reasons. First, public education is my lifelong passion. I have had this passion for public education since I started as a kindergartner myself. I was the first in my family to attend and graduate from college. I went on to obtain my doctorate degree in educational leadership in 2014, and have had a successful career as a middle school teacher, regional educational consultant, and district administrator. Currently, I am the parent of three amazing sons, and an active volunteer in my community and our schools.

Secondly, I feel a deep calling to be a representative for WCS district 5 school board. I have a strong ambition to further serve my community, and its students. I remember looking online in 2018 about running for this office, and learning that I had to wait until 2020. I was the first candidate to pull my petition during the 2020 election, ran an ethical, fiscally conservative campaign, and lost by fewer than 300 votes. I was proud of my campaign in 2020 as it was a great learning experience and allowed me to meet so many wonderful district 5 constituents.

For the past 3 years, I have been asked continually by community leaders, parents, and educators if I planned to run in 2024. After much consideration and prayer, I again feel led to run for this office. I want to continue to serve my community by using my extensive experience in education and as a parent to advocate for ALL children and constituents in district 5. When the time comes, I hope you’ll honor me with your vote, as I intend to be a child champion and advocate for a great education for all WCS students.

What do you think most qualifies you to serve on the board of education?

I have 28 years of experience in education. My career began in Kentucky, where I taught middle school for 4 years. I then spent 1.5 years teaching middle school in North Carolina before moving to Tennessee. I taught 1 year in Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) before moving to the MNPS central office. Over the past 21 years with MNPS central office, I have served in a variety of roles, including instructional technology coordinator, director of professional development, and currently am the data governance and student record coordinator. I also was the instructional technology specialist for the Appalachia Regional Educational Lab, which served the state departments of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Overall, I have expertise working in education at all levels of education–classroom, district, state, and federal.

What is the most important issue facing the Williamson County board today?

The most important issue facing the Williamson County board today is being fiscally responsible with taxpayers dollars. Williamson County taxpayers fund approximately 70% of the Williamson County Schools budget. While Williamson County invests heavily in education, WCS school-based educators and staff are not being compensated competitively. Therefore, one of the first things I want to do if elected to office is to take a deep dive into the existing WCS budget to see where funds might be strategically reallocated, particularly for school-based educator and staff raises. The Williamson County board must work to ensure school-based educators and staff have competitive, livable wages in order to help retain and recruit high quality staff in Williamson County.

What do you plan to bring to the table for your district's parents and children?

I am committed to bringing my wealth of expertise in education and passion for serving our community and its children to advocate for fiscal accountability, transparency, and increased community engagement in order to protect our children now and prepare them for successful futures.

This is the first time your districts are voting in a partisan school board election. Why are you running a candidate for your representative party?

If you look at my public voting record, you will see that I vote in the Republican primaries because I agree with the Republican parties’ stances around the limited role of government and fiscal conservatism.

What role does politics have in the education system?

I know some people claim that politics does not belong in education. However, I have observed politics playing a huge role in education, particularly in the last 20 years. Throughout the years, I have seen educational laws and policies from both sides of the aisle be harmful for our children. I even write about some of them in my book, Child Champion: Advocating for a Great Education (2022). If elected, my priority will be to serve all Williamson County students, families, educators, and community by using my expertise in education to ask the right questions in order to advocate for what is best for WCS students.

We've just hit a new fiscal year so the board is under a new budget and the superintendent's contract has been renewed. With that in mind please answer the following questions as if you're sitting on the board a year from now.

What kind of questions would you have when reviewing the budget?

As stated in some of my earlier answers, I have many questions regarding the budget.

• I would like to see a performance audit conducted at the central office to see where processes and procedures might be made more efficient and cost effective.
• WCS has a considerable line item for technology; yet, I am unable to find a district technology plan, so I have some questions about technology expenditures. Are we getting our return on investment? Can I see the usage data?
• When I was a middle school science teacher, I only used a classroom set of textbooks. Instead of purchasing a book for every student, can we purchase class sets and then reallocate that funding?
• Are there any unfunded state mandates? If so, how might we petition the state to fund them, so we can reallocate Williamson County taxpayer money to our school-based educators and staff?

What changes do you think can be made to benefit the schools in your district?

Schools are the hub of the community and face more complex issues today than ever before in history. If elected, I want to find ways to foster transparent school-family partnerships, so we can address the complex issues facing our schools, such as meeting diverse student academic needs, staffing issues, discipline issues, overcrowding issues, etc. Working together, we can find solutions for best supporting our county’s most valuable resource–our children.

What do you need to see from the superintendent's annual review to renew again and/or what would make you not renew?

I reviewed Jason Golden’s evaluation from the June 17, 2024 school board meeting. I was disappointed in the vagueness of it. I did not see SMART goals established that could be measured with data to determine the overall effectiveness of WCS performance. The evaluation seemed rather subjective without any real criteria to define success. If elected, I want to work to align his evaluation to the WCS Strategic Plan. I want to see SMART goals created where on-going measurable data is collected and can be used by Jason Golden, his staff, the school board, and the community to continually monitor progress for supporting student success.

What's a final statement you'd like to leave for the community?

Local elections matter. Be sure to get out and vote for the experienced conservative educator, who is committed to bringing my wealth of expertise in education and passion for serving our community and its children to advocate for fiscal accountability, transparency, and increased community engagement in order to protect our children now and prepare them for successful futures.