Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Metro Nashville Public School District Eight candidate Amy Pate in studio to discuss growing up as a Nashville native and her mission to reinstate the ABCs of learning.
Leahy: We are joined in studio by two candidates for the Metro Nashville school board. One, is an incumbent who is the only sane member of the nine-member Metro Nashville Public School board right now. Fran Bush. Good morning, Fran.
Bush: Good morning, everyone. I’m glad to be back.
Leahy: You’re running for reelection?
Bush: Yes.
Leahy: In District six as an Independent.
Bush: As an Independent.
Leahy: As an independent. Very good. And joining us here also for the very first time in our studios for the very first time ever on radio.
Pate: Yes. I’m so happy to be here. Thank you.
Leahy: You are an independent candidate in District 8.
Pate: Pate for 8.
Leahy: Now tell us, Amy, where is District 8?
Pate: District 8 Oak Hill, Green Hills. Forest Hills. I live in Oak Hill. We kind of go to the Williamson County line. We’re south and then they’ve just redrawn some of the lines of the district. So it also incorporates 12 South area, too.
Leahy: Who is Amy Pate?
Pate: Oh, that’s a great question. First of all, I’m a Nashville native.
Leahy: Nashville native.
Pate: Yes! We exist. Native by the way.
Leahy: Born and raised.
Pate: Born and raised. Baptist Hospital. That’s how old I am. It wasn’t even St. Thomas. Midtown. Born and raised.
Leahy: Born and raised in Nashville. And I grew up in Antioch, 37013. And I went to Metro schools. I went to Tecum elementary school. I went to McMurray Middle School. I graduated from Overton High School.
I’m not going to tell you when. A long time ago. So I’m born and raised here. My mom taught for 35 years in Metro schools. She was a single mom for most of that time.
So her school, Haywood Elementary was kind of my home away from home. And I really have a heart and a love for public schools. And now I have three kids.
Leahy: You have three children. Do any of them attend Metro Nashville Public Schools?
Pate: Three of them do.
Leahy: All three of them are in school. And what grades?
Pate: High school, middle school, and elementary school.
Leahy: You have the full array.
Pate: I do. I will be rushing out of here to do three school drop-offs. So I know Fran had me beat with five at once.
Leahy: Three school drop-offs. What do you do for a living?
Pate: So I’m in sales. I work for a construction company. I like to tell people I’m not trying to be a school board member to put it on my resume.
Leahy: What does this construction company build?
Pate: They’re a competitor to Serve Pro. It’s called Accu Works and fire damage, water damage, and mold removal. We are a restoration company.
Leahy: You probably have a lot of business.
Pate: We do. The Nashville storms keep us quite busy.
Leahy: How long have you been doing that?
Pate: I’ve been doing that now for about three years.
Leahy: Do you like it? Do you like sales?
Pate: I do like sales.
Leahy: What’s your territory?
Pate: I go out to Dickson in the west. I’m in Nashville. Of course, I go up to Clarksville. Since I graduated from college I’ve always done sales and always kind of spanned the state.
Leahy: Why oh why did you decide to run for Metro Nashville school board in the 8 District? Because you know the school board has one sane person, Fran Bush sitting right across from me over here and then 8 left-wing lunatics who are doing everything possible to destroy Metro Nashville public schools.
Why are you volunteering to put yourself through all of this agony to run for office and then if you and Fran were to win and I guess there are even a couple of others that have a shot this time. There’s still a four up? Mark Woodward.
Bush: Say when we win.
Leahy: But there will still be five to four. There’ll be five left-wing lunatics and four sane people. So why are you going through all this aggravation?
Pate: This is nothing I ever planned to do. Nothing I ever thought I would do. I’m not trying to run for the school board to put it on my resume to get consulting jobs or to be a lobbyist. I’m doing it because I love my community. I love Nashville.
Leahy: And what in particular is going wrong with Metro Nashville Public Schools that you want to address? What’s the first thing you’ll do?
Pate: We only have a little bit of time.
Leahy: Just give me the very first thing you will do.
Pate: We’ve got to get back to the ABCs at Metro schools.
Leahy: Actually teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Heresy!
Pate: And when I say that I say absolute accountability and transparency. There are so many times over the past two years where I would just ask simple questions.
Leahy: That’s A. What’s B for?
Pate: Build trust?
Leahy:Â What’s C for?
Pate: We got to catch our kids up on ABCs.
Leahy: Well, you got a lot of work to do to catch up because the scores are awful and they’re going down.
Listen to the interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Yippee! Glad to see Pate4Eight running for the school board. Still trying to decide who I am going to vote for in #9. I know who I don’t want to win in #9 though.