Vote
JONATHAN
Yancey
School Board - Zone 7
Less Politics. More Results.
Our county's economic success is rooted in the excellence of our schools. As a district parent, business owner, career educator, and school bus driver, Yancey understands our schools from many perspectives. He is running for School Board to replace divisive politics with practical local solutions. Together, we will protect our top-rated schools, listen to our community, and ensure our classrooms focus on continued achievement in safe learning environments.
About Me
Yancey is a lifelong educator and a proud local parent. He has one child who graduated from our schools and two children currently attending them. For nine years, Yancey has served our community as a volunteer, a youth sports coach, a small business owner, and a district school bus driver.
Driving a bus every day, Yancey sees firsthand the harsh daily realities of our district's overcrowding crisis. He also knows the deep frustration families face with constant school re-zoning. Our community is growing fast, but shifting school boundaries every few years hurts our kids. Families deserve predictability, and students deserve stability. Yancey will push for long-term planning so kids can stay in their neighborhood schools with their friends and teachers.
As a university administrator, Yancey has direct experience managing large budgets and handling complex systems. As a business owner, he understands the value of a dollar. He knows that when we do not maintain our buildings, they become dangerous and costly liabilities. Yancey has the strategic vision needed to fix our $492 million school repair crisis without wasting our tax dollars.
From the steering wheel of a school bus to the halls of higher education, Yancey has seen our system from multiple angles. He is ready to bring leadership, stability, and urgent action to the Rutherford County School Board.
Your Voice
State government overreach through top-down state mandates and local funding friction are drowning out the voices of Rutherford County parents, teachers, and taxpayers. Local tax dollars are being moved to voucher programs and outside charter networks without community consent; while critical school requests are often deprioritized by county leadership.Type your paragraph here
How I Will Deliver Progress:
Defending Local Control: Ensuring Rutherford County taxpayers have a say in how their education dollars are spent. While state mandates try to redirect funding, I will aggressively advocate for maximum local transparency, fight to protect traditional public-school budgets, and make sure our locally elected board remains the primary shield for our tax dollars.
Community Forums: Launching regular, open-door town halls to give parents and educators a direct line of communication before major district policies are decided, because a standard three-minute public comment period on a packed school board meeting agenda is not enough for real, meaningful community input.
Collaborative Infrastructure Planning: Partnering directly with county commissioners to find shared budget solutions, ensuring our schools are treated as a top capital priority alongside essential infrastructure like public safety expansions.
Educational Excellence
Explosive population growth is overwhelming classrooms, while under-maintained school assets rapidly decay into taxpayer liabilities. With RC Schools facing a staggering $492 million school maintenance backlog, delayed maintenance is no longer an option.
As a local business owner, I understand that addressing maintenance needs is important for long-term fiscal responsibility. Ensuring our school facilities are well-maintained is an investment in our future. We must protect these investments before they require costly emergency replacements.
We need leadership that chooses practical solutions. If elected, I will bring business-minded solutions to bridge the gap between our School Board and the County Commission.
My Approach to Finding Solutions:
Respect Comprehensive Infrastructure: While PlanRutherford sets a vision for managing growth, the County still lacks a permanent, stable local funding mechanism for school upkeep. I will build on PlanRutherford’s framework to secure the dedicated, long-term capital maintenance funding our schools desperately need.
Establish Proactive Budget Stability: I will spearhead a Rolling 5-Year Capital Maintenance Covenant between the School Board and County Commission. Locking in a predictable, multi-year funding baseline secures lower contractor rates, steadily addresses the $492 million backlog, and protects taxpayers from costly emergency spending.
Advocate for Growth Accountability: Explosive population growth should not mean higher taxes for local homeowners. I will fight to protect Rutherford County’s School Facilities Tax, which ensures new development directly funds school construction. I will work closely with our state lawmakers to stop special interest groups from weakening this rule, making sure big developers—not local families—foot the bill for our expanding school system.
Safe Schools
Rutherford County has grown and changed dramatically over the last few decades. As the fourth-largest school district in Tennessee, our schools now face a complex landscape that traditional safety measures were never designed to handle. Ensuring a productive learning environment today requires looking past outdated mindsets and adopting proactive, balanced strategies. We must protect the physical safety of our students, faculty, and staff; to protect our shared peace of mind as our county continues to transform.
How I will Deliver Progress:
Strong Campus Security: Working closely with local public safety officials to make sure every school has a full-time, fully funded School Resource Officer (SRO) and up-to-date, welcoming security checks.
Continue to Address School Disruptions: Continue partnering with law enforcement to hold people accountable for making fake online threats, keeping our classrooms calm and focused on learning.
Ongoing Education on Social Media Habits: Teaching students how to use technology safely. I will fully back and protect the district's Wired Human online safety curriculum, ensuring our teachers have the training, time, and resources they need to successfully guide middle schoolers away from the dangers of cyberbullying.
Early Help and Reporting: Supporting secure tools that already protect our students, like Rutherford County's STOPit anonymous reporting app. I will make sure families and students are fully aware of this resource so they can quickly and safely report everything from bullying to self-harm, allowing adults to step in and help early.