Indya Kin­can­non has bro­ken our run of Com­mis­sioner hope­fuls with her can­di­dacy for Knox County School Board. Mrs. Kin­can­non is seek­ing the 2nd Dis­trict seat.

1. Intro­duce your­self to Knoxville, who are you, and why are you running?

Indya KincannonMy name is Indya Kin­can­non and I’m run­ning for re-election to the Knox County Board of Edu­ca­tion, rep­re­sent­ing the 2nd Dis­trict, which includes North Knoxville and Foun­tain City.

I’m 36 years old, have been mar­ried 12 years and have two daugh­ters, one dog and a ham­ster. We moved here almost 7 years ago when my hus­band accepted a job as a UT pro­fes­sor. We’ve been really happy here in Knoxville.

I was born and raised in Vir­ginia and attended pub­lic schools there. I earned a B.A. in His­tory from Haver­ford Col­lege, worked for sev­eral years, and then was for­tu­nate to earn a full schol­ar­ship to attend grad­u­ate school at Prince­ton, where I earned a Mas­ters Degree in Pub­lic Affairs.

I’ve worked as a teacher, High School Span­ish, and a bud­get ana­lyst (for the Ari­zona leg­is­la­ture). I have been involved in var­i­ous vol­un­teer activ­i­ties, includ­ing lead­ing Habi­tat for Human­ity groups to Guatemala and Bolivia and coach­ing bas­ket­ball and soc­cer.

You can read more about my ser­vice on the school board at www.indyakincannon.com. Unfor­tu­nately the site has not been updated
recently due to tech­ni­cal dif­fi­cul­ties that the web­mas­ter (me) has not had time to over­come.

Four years ago I ran for School Board because I was very con­cerned about the qual­ity, per­ceived and real, of our local pub­lic schools. I firmly believe that every child should have access to a high-quality pub­lic edu­ca­tion, no mat­ter the cir­cum­stances of their birth or neigh­bor­hood. I have made some progress on this front, but would like the oppor­tu­nity to con­tinue work­ing on these issues, includ­ing reforms in our mag­net pro­grams, Project GRAD schools, and embrac­ing effec­tive inno­va­tions. I also want to hire a Super­in­ten­dent to lead our school sys­tem to the next level.

2. We think it’s bet­ter know­ing what not to do rather than hav­ing an exten­sive plan. What areas or inter­ests would ben­e­fit Knox County not to ven­ture into?

We shouldn’t embrace every new edu­ca­tional fad that comes through the door, but we should not be afraid of inno­va­tion. We shouldn’t allow unbri­dled devel­op­ment with­out regard to the impact on schools (not to men­tion the envi­ron­ment, roads, etc.)

3. What 5 things could you not live without?

1. My hus­band and best friend, Ben
2. Family/friends
3. Books — all kinds
4. Being out­side
5. Music