The Cumberland County School Board agreed Thursday night to consult with the Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA) as a staring point in the search for a new director of schools.
The school board will also use other resources, including the system’s Human Resources Department, as has been used for past director hiring. Board Member Travis Cole said TSBA involvement will show a skeptical community the board is trying.
“First off I don’t think this whole process is necessary,” Cole said. “I don’t think it’s what the community wants. I don’t think it’s what our constituents want but if this is the path that’s chosen and we are gonna go I think we need to have some pretty heavy involvement with TSBA to prove to the public and the community that the process will be sanitary.”
Board Member Shannon Stout said consultation with TSBA would not cost the school system anything as that is part of their membership fee.
The board will look to schedule a consultation with TSBA and meet with them during a future work session. The board will also consider TSBA plans to possibly help with the search for a new director.
Stout said TSBA could help lay out the groundwork for details of the director position and hiring process to prevent the school board from making the same mistakes during the hiring process.
“I’m not opposed to some format of getting them involved especially if there is no cost associated with it,” Stout said. “I think it is important for us to take this very seriously and do things maybe a little differently this time around because we can’t keep repeating the things that have been occurring in the past,”
Board Member Jon Matthews said he believes having TSBA as a consultant is a good idea.
“I think we would be better served to go ahead and hire TSBA and get them involved early,” Matthews said. “At least get them here. They offer the first free initial thing to instruct us on what to do.”
Stout also said TSBA offers three additional plans that the school system can use to further assist the director search but would cost some additional money. Stout said she believes an additional plan is not necessary.
“After the budget meeting and some of the things that have been discussed, I don’t think that we have a lot of money to throw around if we have viable resources here to utilize,” Stout said. “It’s important for us to get an excellent director in place but it’s also important for us to provide what we need for our students and our teachers as well.”
In other business, the board tabled a decision on Stone Memorial High School’s request for reimbursement funds. There was no discussion or motions made.
Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Turner said the second TISA funding estimate came back $80,000 less than the first estimate. Turner did not disclose why it was less but said it is not the final estimate the school system will receive.
The board approved a field trip for the Stone Memorial High School Football team to attend a seven-on-seven football camp this summer.
The board approved updating the job description for the director of schools position. Many of the updates are correcting words that are misspelled and rewording some things for more clarity. The board is not fully finished with eh job description as there are some other changes they would like to make and will go over those with TSBA.
