District 4 is one of Knox County’s most affluent and politically engaged districts, as well as home to some of the county’s highest-performing public schools.

The district includes West Hills and the area south of Interstate 40 from Sequoyah Hills to Bluegrass.

In this year’s District 4 school board race, incumbent Katherine Bike, a Democrat, faces Republican Ashley Sartelle, who is in her first political campaign. Neither was opposed in her respective party primary.

The 4th District covers a swath of West Knoxville from Sequoyah Hills to Bluegrass, primarily south of Interstate 40 but crossing it to take in most of West Hills. It is a traditionally Republican area, but in the past few decades the precincts closer to the city center have trended toward Democrats. 

The partisan shift has manifested itself in local races. Bike won the district’s 2022 school-board race and fellow Democrat Shane Jackson prevailed in the 2024 County Commission contest, albeit by narrow margins. Bike defeated Republican candidate and tax attorney Will Edwards by just 139 votes out of 10,021 ballots cast.

Bike has enjoyed an advantage in fundraising, collecting $50,387 during the campaign cycle through the first two quarters of the year. Contributors include fellow school-board member Patricia Fontenot-Ridley, Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon, former Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero and businessman Phil Lawson. She had $22,841 on hand as of June 30.

During the same time period, Sartelle raised less than half of Bike’s amount — $22,300 — but still had $19,604 available on June 30. Her contributors include several members of the Haslam family, former Gov. Bill Haslam among them, as well as business leaders Sharon Pryse and Nadim Jubran, and former school-board member Doug Harris.

We spoke with Bike recently about the campaign. Sartelle declined our interview request, citing her busy work and campaign schedule; we assembled her profile from her website and other media reports.

Katherine Bike

Bike said her four-year term has flown by, but she’s gained from the experience.

“It went much quicker than I thought, and I definitely feel way more seasoned than I did four years ago and even than I did two years ago,” she said.

She took office in 2022 hoping to make a difference in support services for all students, inspired by her experience with her own children — her daughter has health issues, and her son has learning difficulties. She said progress has been made, but there’s more to do.

“Like any naive person, you always think you’re going to accomplish way more than you actually can,” she said.

Bike said she understands the challenges of securing a 504 Plan, which is a blueprint for school support services for children with disabilities, in the absence of a definitive diagnosis.

“That is definitely something that I’m still working on advocating for,” she said.

Bike asserted that laws passed by the Tennessee General Assembly have caused school districts to focus on issues other than education.

“The Age-Appropriate Materials Act amendments, those were a big distraction,” she said. “Some of the immigration issues have been a big distraction. Basically, asking the school district to step outside of education and do other people’s jobs has been a big distraction.”

Still, Bike said, she’s notched some successes. She pointed to a needed change to the calendar to eliminate six early-release days, which were confusing to parents because they weren’t half-days, and release times differed for elementary and secondary students. She persuaded the Central Office to conduct a survey, and based on the results the school board voted to establish four half-days instead. Complaints vanished, she said.

Funding has emerged as a major issue, Bike said, in light of the County Commission’s decision to divert $4 million in revenues earmarked for the schools to fund general-government employees’ raises.

“I’m worried that this is going to be a repeating thing, that they’re going to continue to take pennies away, and that they feel fine to just take away from our budget at the last minute what’s already been approved.”

Bike said that student test scores have been rising and that teachers are doing amazing work, but academic success is tied to funding.

“We’ve been able to raise teacher pay (and) we’ve been able to raise staff pay, and that means that we are having less turnover in those positions, which means more consistency,” she said. “Having an advocate that’s going to keep saying, ‘Fully fund our schools’ is going to be extremely important.”

Bike, 43, was born in central Florida but moved to East Tennessee just before high school when her parents retired and bought property in Hawkins County. She graduated from Cherokee High School there in 2001 and then completed an associate’s degree at Walters State Community College before transferring to the University of Tennessee. She lives in Sequoyah Hills with her two children and works as a technology specialist.

Bike would like to clear up some misconceptions about the needs in District 4. Yes, she said, the district is relatively wealthy and several schools enjoy the support of foundations, but many of its school buildings need attention.  

“All but one of my schools has portable classrooms,” she said. “Some of our school buildings are 100 years old, and they’ve been maintained, but they still have needs, and so do our facilities. With the funding situation, we are not really able to keep up and have great facilities for all of our students.”

Bike also said the district is more diverse than many realize. 

“We have university professors from all over the world and their children speak all different languages,” she said. “We also have communities of immigrants that are here in some of our schools, and then we also have families that are struggling, that are struggling at home. We have grandparents as parents.”

Bike said her second campaign is different because this time constituents know who she is, even though she might not personally know them.

“I’m knocking on all the doors,” she said. “I’ve already knocked on more doors than I did last time. I’ve raised more money than I did last time. I’ve had more successful meet-and-greets than I did last time. So I feel pretty good about it,” she said.

Bike said she responds to all constituents who contact her with specific issues that they need solved.

“I work hard for everyone, regardless of what party they’re voting in and regardless of whether they vote for me or not,” she said. “I don’t care. I want a great school system for everyone.”

Ashley Sartelle

According to her website, Sartelle will have three priorities if she’s elected to represent District 4 — focusing on core academics, supporting great teachers and looking after students’ prospects for long-term success.

“I’m running because I believe strong schools are the foundation of a strong community,” she told KnoxTNToday. “We don’t need to start from scratch; we just need to stay focused on what truly drives student success.”

Sartelle notes on her website that about 45 percent of Knox County students are proficient in reading, and only about 40 percent are proficient in math. She asserts that renewed focus on core academics — reading, writing and math — while holding high expectations for every student is needed. 

“Our kids are capable of more, and we should challenge and support them to reach their full potential,” said Sartelle, the finance director at Trinity Health Foundation of East Tennessee. “Technology should support learning — not replace it — and students should be taught how to use it effectively, not rely on it as a crutch.”

Emphasizing that teachers are the foundation of strong schools, Sartelle said, “We must recruit and retain high-quality educators by supporting them, respecting their time, and allowing them to focus on teaching … When teachers are empowered, classrooms are stronger, and students are better prepared for life beyond graduation.”

She continued: “Whether a student’s path is college, a skilled trade, the military, or the workforce, our goal should be to ensure they are prepared to succeed.” 

Sartelle, 49, earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Mississippi. She and her husband, John, have been married for 25 years and made Knoxville home after moving from Memphis more than a decade ago. They have three children and live off Westland Drive between Rocky Hill and Bluegrass. 

Sartelle told the News Sentinel that, given her accounting degrees, she believes that every budget decision should begin with a question: “How does this investment help students learn and succeed?”

The first priority, she continued, should be to ensure that students and staff have safe and reliable learning environments. 

“We should work to maximize the useful life of existing facilities whenever practical while planning strategically for future needs,” she said. “Keeping taxpayers informed as to why certain projects are being prioritized and how these decisions are made is vital to trust and transparency.”

Sartelle doesn’t emphasize culture issues. Regarding students’ access to library materials, she said the recent controversy over the short-lived removal of Roots from library shelves highlighted weaknesses in the review process.

“The school board’s role should be to establish clear policies, ensure those policies comply with state law and provide meaningful oversight throughout the review process,” she said, stating that the school board should have the ultimate oversight authority. “The established process should be transparent, consistent and guided by discernment.” 

Parents will be an important part of her communications process, she said.

“Parents should feel informed, respected and heard,” Sartelle told KnoxTNToday. “I believe in consistent, transparent communication and being accessible, whether that’s attending school events, hosting community meetings or simply responding when people reach out. Clear communication matters, and I want parents to feel like they have a real voice in their child’s education.”

Sartelle said she would measure the school system’s improvement by looking at a combination of factors that begins with academic performance.

“Student proficiency and growth in core subjects are foundational, but we should also look at attendance, teacher retention and post-graduation outcomes,” she said. “A strong school system shows both academic progress and long-term student readiness. If we’re doing things right, both students and teachers will succeed.”