MEET TONJA

Tonja Hibma is a wife, mother, grandmother, and a professional educator with 18 years of real classroom teaching experience.  She is also a conservative Republican and on March 5, 2024, she won election as the Republican nominee for the Williamson County School Board in District 11. She graduated from Dordt University with a Bachelor Degree of Arts and then earned a multiple-subject teaching credential from California State University, Long Beach.  

Tonja and her husband, Ed, came to Middle Tennessee with their children when Ed’s job with Nissan was moved here in 2006.  All three of the Hibma children attended Williamson County Schools and graduated from Fred J. Page High School. As an educator and a parent, Tonja has seen first-hand the changes and challenges to our public education system. The academic environment her children experienced just 15 years ago was vastly different from what children and teachers have in the classroom today.  Today our schools face unprecedented challenges. These have been brought on by changing curriculum standards, safety issues, and personal technology. Additionally, a radical social-political agenda has been slipped into many of America’s schools that is harmful to both our children and our society.

Tonja has decades of experience working closely with teachers and parents and is driven to answer a distinct call: to get our schools back to traditional standards that have a proven track record of success.  She believes we must return to the fundamental principles that safeguard our teachers and students.  This begins by championing our teachers, securing discipline and safety in the classroom and revitalizing our approach to curriculum.  Parents’ Rights must be protected and there needs to be full transparency and open communication with the parents and our schools not only about how our tax dollars are spent, but what children are being taught and what they are exposed to.

Tonja loves the quote from Robert Hutchins, a former President of the University of Chicago, who stated: “The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.  It is not to fill the minds of students with facts, it is to teach them to think!” 

In addition to her love and passion for teaching, Tonja has enjoyed serving as a leader in her church and community for many years. Since 2017, she has served as a Charter Representative on the American Heritage Girls board for Troop 4031.  She believes the strength of a community is created when family values are lifted up and when citizens are actively involved in their society.