Today was a good day at Vance Middle school.  With a standing room only crowd, I was thrilled to see so many students receive the recognition they deserve.  As a board member, we tend to get entranced with the day to day mundane tasks we have to do, but days like today is what makes all of work worth it.  It was good to see the other board members, Gwen and Mary, as well as board member elect Kelly Buskell in attendance.  Also having Mayor Staton and Councilman Testa there was great for the children.  Hats off to the staff at Vance for putting together the program. Most of all, congratulations to the students honored today, may you continue to be successful.

Tony

I must admit today was humbling.  All of calls of support and congratulations was overwhelming.  Again thank you all for all of your support.

Most of the things the Board of Education does goes unseen. We take our lumps and keep going.  We understand that with public service comes criticism and little praise.  It takes a selfless mindset.  We keep doing what we do for the children.  School leadership is about taking care of the whole system, setting priorities and treating all people (students and staff) fairly.  We cannot tell one child or one teacher you are more important because of invisible lines. True Leadership does not afford the nepotism of privilege to the same school your child attends.  Leadership is about leading those whom place their faith in you.  Yesterday you placed your faith in me and I thank you all.

In all sincerity,
Tony

After a long day at the polls,  we did it.  I want to thank all of my supporters for their efforts.  This has been a long process which culminated in a very long day working the polls.  I got to talk to the voters and got to share this experience with the other candidates who worked today.  At the end of the day, I feel it was safe to say that we all agreed on one thing, we are glad that its over.

The greatest part of today, was the affirmation from the voters that I have represented them well and fairly.  I have done this in every decision I have made and will continue represent all Bristol Tennessee City Schools to the best of my ability.  As I have from day one, I will always endeavor to improve communication with the parents, the community, and the City Council.

Congratulations to Gwen Ellis, Kelly Buskell, and Nelson Pyle.  I look forward to serving with you all as we seek to improve the lives of our children.

I want to thank all of the voters, even those who did not vote for me, for getting out to vote.  That is what today was all about.  For those who voted for me, thanks again.  I am humbled by your support.

A special thanks to my Wife and my friends for working the polls all day for me.  Your hard work paid off.  Most of all thanks to my daughter Morgan for being my biggest campaign supporter.

With humbled appreciation,

Tony

We had a brief update last night with the City Council about the budget.  We still do not have all of the details on the budget but we should get that Thursday night at our work session.  This means a long weekend.  Well that plus campaigning as much as possible.  As you probably know this is the last weekend for us before the election.

Today I had an interview with the Opinion Editor at the Bristol Herald Courier.  That went well and was productive.  We had a pretty good conversation about my abilities and goals as a board member.  For the time I have been on the board, I have been proud of what we’ve done so expressing my accomplishments and passions was easy for me.  In the next couple days, the paper will publish my profile and over the weekend, they will give their endorsements of the city council and board of education candidates.

Early voting has been underway and I have been working the polls as often as I can.  If you have not voted, please get out and vote for me before early voting is over (Thursday).  Also, please contact everyone you know in Bristol TN and ask them to vote for me.  We are coming to the home stretch and I feel we have gained alot of ground going into election day.

As always, thank you for your support and votes,

Tony

Good afternoon all,

After reading today’s paper, I thought it might be a good idea for me to create a page on my site that will let me give you my thoughts on the current issues published in the paper.  My main motivation here is to give you the unfiltered, straight from Tony’s mouth opinions to eliminate any ambiguity or incorrect inferences.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or need clarification on my stance on the issues.  You can do so by going here http://tonyturner.net/contact-me.

Well, its finally over.  Not knowing what to expect tonight, I must confess that I had some apprehension about how the forum would turn out.  Fortunately, it went better than I had imagined.  I think we all did pretty well tonight.  Each of us had our moments but over all it was a good discussion.  I had hoped for more turn out because I love it when the community comes out to participate.  But I am much appreciative for those of you who attended.  I have a scheduled interview with the newspaper on Thursday and hopefully I will be able to share with more of you my thoughts and hopes for our School System.  It was good to see my opponent there and I thank him for his willingness to be put under public scrutiny.

Tonight was another great moment for our democracy.

Tony

Today I finally received my yard signs.  Hopefully you all will be seeing them out and about.  Of course if you would like to have one decorating your lawn, let me know.  I would appreciate any support I can get.  I am also printing other materials that I plan on distributing to may campaign team, more information to come…

Show your support, help get me elected, get your yard sign today...

I would like to congratulate Dr. Gary Lilly for becoming our next Director of Schools.  It was an privilage for me to cast my vote for someone so dedicated to our system and community.  I will strive to support you any way I can as you lead us into the future.

I would also like to thank those many individuals that assisted us (the Board) in this long process.  Todd, thank you for spending countless hours with us and the candidates and making us all feel like we were taken care of.  Connie, thank you for the many hours of work, especially right after your return to work.  Becky, thank you for all the research you did for us, without it we would have been lost.  Again there are many others I have not named but you know who you are and I hope you believe how appreciative the Board is of your many efforts during this process and in your daily duties.  I also want to thank all the teachers, principals and administrators who attended the interviews and question sessions.

I want to commend my fellow Board Members on your service , especially throughout this whole process.  I feel we have all grown together and learned much from this search.  I am proud of the fairness we all incorporated in this process and feel that we could not have been more fair in our conclusion.

Lastly, I want to thank the candidates for your time and interest in leading our system.  Thank you all for letting us turn your life upside down for the day and putting you through the ringer.   Dr. Gray, thank you for doing this twice.

Thank you all,
Tony