Posted by Kevin

I sent out a letter to many of my supporters today explaining my reasoning for withdrawing from the Hamilton County School Board Race.  Below is a copy of the email:

I hope this message finds each of you doing well as we approach the summer months.  As many of you have already heard, I have withdrawn my name from the Hamilton County District 7 School Board race for the election that will be held in August 2008.  I regret not getting this message out before it was published in the newspaper, but I was contacted by them before I had the chance.

I wanted to take the opportunity to inform you of my decision, explain the reasoning for my decision, and thank you for the continued support you have shown.

I’m currently finishing up the last couple of semesters of my Finance degree at UTC.  I am also a partner at Varsity Team Sports & Apparel, where I work between 45 and 65 hour work weeks.  In addition to that, I am coaching a 5 & 6 year old baseball team at Ooltewah Youth Association.  As I began to campaign for the School Board seat, it became increasingly apparent that my time was being stretched more and more.

Over the two months I was in the race, I met many people.  It was both challenging and rewarding to be involved in the education conversation in this great county.  I also learned many things about many people, including myself - all of which I will use moving forward with my life.

Ultimately, my decision to withdraw from the race came down to my inability to ensure that the School Board would be my first priority.  Family, School and Business are my priorities right now, and to put such an important position like the School Board Representative fourth, would not be responsible.  Although I feel confident in my ability to be an effective School Board member if elected and if the timing was right, the students of Hamilton County and the citizens of District 7 deserve a representative that will make them their first priority NOW!  At this time in my life, I cannot commit to that.

I will never be able to fully express my gratitude for those of you who have supported me through this entire process, but I can sincerely say that I truly am grateful for the encouragement, constructive criticism, hard work, time, money and friendships you have provided to me.  Even though I’m not running for the School Board position, I would love to keep in contact with all of you.  I can also assure you that any money collected for my campaign will be reimbursed to the donor as soon as possible.

I invite you to join me on my personal blog at www.kbb2.com - I shut it down when I announced my candidacy - and I started it back up this week!  Here I will discuss my family, school, business and even the Hamilton County School System!  I would love to hear back from each and every one of you.  I apologize for the long email, but until next time, enjoy your summer, and I’ll see you at the polls in August!

Respectfully,

Kevin Brent Burke, II