Rutherford school board race turns divisive with GOP RINO insult

Voters will choose between Republican Stan Vaught and independent Robert Brooks

Republican school board member Tammy Sharp and other La Vergne officials are backing Brooks
Rutherford County Republican Party Chairman Austin Maxwell says Republicans should support Vaught, the GOP nominee
Vaught is looking to the county to build career and technical education centers
Brooks advocates parental choice and parental voice
Thursday’s Aug. 1 election includes primaries for those seeking state and federal legislative seats in the Nov. 5 election.

Rutherford County School Board Zone 2 race pits Republican nominee Stan Vaught against Robert Brooks, an independent backed by Republicans.

The election also offers geographic differences with Vaught coming from Milton, one of the many rural communities on the county’s north side, and Brooks living in Smyrna near Nissan car factory and to be closer to La Vergne.

Brooks, for example, has the support of Tammy Sharp, a school board member from La Vergne who won unopposed Republican re-election in 2022 for her Zone 1 seat.

“He’s going to represent everybody,” Sharp said, a former chairman of the board who worries that the majority of the board has ignored the educational needs of students from La Vergne.

“We are not all treated the same”: Rutherford County Schools construction plans are irking La Vergne leaders

Vaught has support for vice chairman of the school board Claire Maxwell, another unopposed Republican in the Aug. 1 election for the Zone 5 seat.

“I think he’s a great guy, a strong conservative God-fearing churchman,” Maxwell said, noting that Vaughn taught Sunday school for his children at First Baptist Church on East Main Street in Murfreesboro.

Zone 2 ballot too includes independent John Duncan, but he does not appear to be active in the campaign after facing a criminal investigation that recently cleared him. Duncan agreed to resign from his former teaching job at Daniel-McKee Alternative School after the Rutherford district accused him of taking an inappropriate photograph at his former teaching job at Stewarts Creek High School.

Update of the investigation: School board candidate cleared of crime, resigns over inappropriate photo allegation

Local GOP Chair Calls Sharp a RINO

The vice chairman’s husband, Austin Maxwell, is chairman of the Rutherford County Republican Party. He questions why Republicans like Sharp support Brooks.

“Republicans who don’t support the Republican nominee are RINOs, Republicans in name only, and that’s for Ms. Sharp and anyone else,” said Austin Maxwell.

Sharp stands by his record as a Republican who sees Brooks as a conservative who should have been allowed to compete in the March 5 GOP primary against Vaught.

“According to Mr. Maxwell, I have a perfect Republican voting record,” Sharp said. “I have lived in Rutherford County for over 22 years and have consistently voted Republican in every primary, presidential and general election.”

Vaught has a strong record of supporting the Republican Party, which requires its bona fide candidates to vote in three of the last four state GOP primaries, Austin Maxwell said.

Republican Quarrel: GOP conflict erupts in email between Chairman Austin Maxwell, Mayor Joe Carr over Assessor property

Brooks could not run as a Republican because he voted in the 2018 Democratic primary, said Austin Maxwell, who also won a partisan election in 2022 to serve on the Murfreesboro City Council.

“We don’t support independents when we have a Republican on the ballot, and we don’t support independents, especially when they’ve previously voted Democratic,” Austin Maxwell said.

Brooks said his position aligns with conservative Republicans even though he voted in a 2018 Democratic primary and has been a bona fide GOP candidate with the state Republican Party since 2022.

Who runs the campaign? Candidates qualify for the August 1 election in Rutherford County

La Vergne officials back Brooks

Brooks has the support of other officials representing La Vergne, including Mayor Jason Cole.

“Robert is the only school board candidate for La Vergne this cycle who has actually asked about La Vergne’s needs with the school system,” Cole said. “No other candidate has done that.”

Although he served in a nonpartisan office in La Vergne, Cole said he considers himself a center-right Republican and sees similar values expressed by Brooks.

“Robert Brooks is a fiscal conservative and he believes in parental involvement in the schools, and that I believe as a parent is critical to our schools,” Cole said.

Trial of La Vergne: City sexual harassment case involving fired police officer reaches $500,000 settlement

Brooks also has the support of Laura Davidson, a fellow independent who won her seat on the Rutherford County Commission to represent District 5 in downtown pLa Vergne, which is a different part of the city than the northern area represented by the school board’s Zone 2 seat. She serves on the Commission’s Health and Education Committee which includes reviewing school board funding applications.

“I look at the person. I don’t look at the party,” Davidson said, noting that she has known Brooks for many years. “He is a fine upright young man. I feel he would be a wonderful asset to our school board.”

The 2022 election means leadership changes: The 21-member Rutherford County Commission will see new faces with 9 elected officials

Vaught is looking to the county to build career and technical education centers

Vaught presents a background of being a sixth generation resident and owning and operating a farm in Milton on the northeast side of the county. He is also a long-time real estate auctioneer and manages two real estate offices.

Vaught also serves as an appointed chairman of the county’s Public Building Authority, which includes oversight of public health and safety building projects with combined fire and ambulance stations.

Vaught previously served as an elected member of the Rutherford County Commission from 1986 to 1998. He recalled being one of the strong advocates on the commission in the 1990s to keep high school grades at Eagleville School in the far southwest part of the county when district officials considered remove grades 9-12 from campus.

“This high school has thrived,” Vaught said, adding that he will support the needs of students throughout Zone 2 and the county. “I am a very strong advocate of community schools.”

“We are very excited”: Open house to celebrate Rutherford County’s first public health and safety building in the Rockvale community

Vaught also advocated for high-achieving magnet schools, including the McFadden School of Excellence where his sons attended. One of his sons graduated from the county’s Oakland High School and Vanderbilt University in Nashville; and the other graduated from the county’s Central Magnet School and Rhodes College in Memphis.

“Education has been very important to me,” said Vaught, who earned a degree in education and agriculture in 1985 from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro before pursuing a career in real estate. “My mother was a high school teacher.”

His late mother, Nettie Laura Vaught, taught home economics at Central High (now Central Magnet) and Oakland High.

Republican Primary Opponents for Zone 2: Vaught, Rourke is running in the GOP primary for the Rutherford County Zone 2 school board seat

Vaught said one of his goals will be to help the school board build two or three career and technical education (CTE) centers that would be open to students throughout the county to train for jobs. He envisions the county winning state grants and donations from businesses that need a skilled workforce to help fund CTE centers.

Vocational teaching may be a great opportunity for teenagers who would rather avoid the burden of student loan debt from college educations, Vaught suggested.

“I think we owe it to our youth to allow that path,” Vaught said. “The vast majority of people are in a profession that may not need a college education.”

Vaught also said listening to parents is important. He also wants to bring a voice to help calm a sometimes divided school board.

“There’s been a lot of disagreement about that board for a few years now,” Vaught said. “It’s not a good way to get things done.”

Republican primary results: GOP voters elect Vaughn, Vaught, Tidwell and Maxwell to Rutherford County School Board

Brooks advocates parental choice and parental voice

Brooks and his wife, Toshua Brooks, operate the Tennessee Baptist Adult Home for residents with special needs.

The couple has four children, ranging from age 2 to the oldest, who is pursuing a doctorate at Michigan State University. The family has one child who attends Smyrna High School and the other is a homeschooler, Brooks said.

Brooks said he wants to make a difference in the community by advocating for parents to make decisions for their children.

“I want to make sure that parental voice and parental choice remain at the forefront of our education system,” said Brooks, who spoke to the board in April in opposition to limiting public comment to meeting agenda items.

“Political expression is freedom of expression”: The county school board postpones the vote to limit comments

Brooks supports high-quality charter schools that offer parents other choices for educating children.

“I always believe we can always get better,” Brooks said.

Brooks said one of his priorities as school official will be for the district to improve the county’s literacy rate, which he believes is too low.

“You have to find ways to be more innovative, to be more creative,” Brooks said.

Another goal is for the school board to move faster to buy land to build needed schools to keep up with growth and relieve overcrowding in a district that relied on 179 portable classrooms last year, Brooks said.

“We should plan for what’s coming and not sit idle,” Brooks said.

“My hope is that the charter schools will provide some relief until we can actually get some plans in place.”

Questions about school choice: Three charter schools could cost Rutherford up to $15 million: “Funding mechanism should be fair”

Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at [email protected]. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.

2024 Election Schedule for Rutherford County

Election Day for Rutherford County and Murfreesboro offices, as well as primaries for state and federal legislative offices: 1 August
Election Day for President and Federal, State, Eagleville, La Vergne and Smyrna Offices: Nov 5
Last day to register to vote in the November 5 election: Oct. 7
Absent per postal voting period for the November 5 election: August 7-Oct. 29
Early voting period for the August 1 election: 16-31 Oct

Source: Rutherford County Election Commission website