thehunterreport.com
Four Candidates vie for School Director
2011 TSBA Legislative Agenda
BY: PAT HUNTER
March 4, 2011
"The Loudon County Director of Schools Candidate List Update", and 2011 TSBA Legislative Agenda was distributed to the Loudon County Board of education prior to the start of Thursday's March 3rd school board workshop meeting. Interestingly, the information was not distributed to the public or press.
Prior to the meeting being called to order, I made a request to view the records, and reluctantly, I was handed the information by the secretary. When I requested a copy for the News Herald reporter who sat next to me, as per the reporter's request, the secretary refused to give the second set of information (Candidate's List and TSBA 2011 Legislative), only saying that they did not want the names of candidates published in the newspaper. There was no mention of the candidates list or an update of the director's search at the workshop meeting. Why the big secret; all candidate names will eventually be released?
Day on the Hill -
Director Wayne Honeycutt spoke about the Day on the Hill, which was held on February 24th. He and four school members (Rick Best, Bill Marcus, Gary Ubben, and Leroy Tate) accompanied him to Nashville. The five-some met and spoke to Senator McNally, Rep. Jimmy Matlock and Rep. Hurley. According to the TSBA website, "Each February, TSBA sponsors a legislative breakfast in Nashville bringing school board members, superintendents and state legislators together for a discussion about pending legislation and public education." Although, Director Honeycutt did not discuss the fine details of this year's TSBA's 2011 Legislative Agenda, as you can see below, the TSBA and school boards across the state have been busy little bees lobbying for laws including taxing authority for school boards, changing school tenure, etc. SEE BELOW - TSBA 2011 LEGISLATIVE.
TSBA School Director's Search
Candidates List:
For the week of Feb. 21-25:
1 - in-state
For the week of Feb. 28 - March 4
2 - out-of-state
1 - in state
0 - local administrators.
NOTE: The Loudon County Board of Education pays yearly membership dues to TSBA.
School board delegates meet yearly in Nashville to vote on various resolutions.
TSBA, school board members and school board administrators meet with lawmakers to push their legislative agenda,
in hopes that new laws are enacted. TSBA Website http://new.tsba.net/
TSBA
Tennessee School Board Association
2011 Legislative Agenda
TSBA firmly believes in the success of Tennessee's
public schools and the opportunities they have provided
and continue to provide to children. The association
acknowledges the challenges that public schools face
as well as the need for continued improvement, and its
member hoards of education are dedicated to
reaching the goal of every child achieving his or her
highest potential. We believe we can help accomplish
this goal by
focusing our legislative efforts on the following
areas:
Basic Education Program/State Funding
TSBA believes the General Assembly should continue to emphasize education and its sustained funding
as the top budget priority while making every effort to recognize increased costs due to' inflation and growth.
At-Will Employment for Support Staff
TSBA supports legislation to recognize the support
staff of school systems as at-will employees
in order to provide superintendents the actual ability
to manage productive, efficient, and safe
schools.
Teacher Tenure
TSBA supports legislation to change the support of
statutory provisions regarding tenure to require school
boards to review a teacher's performance and evaluations
every five years whereby tenure may be
renewed or revoked.
Fiscal Independence
TSBA supports legislation to provide fiscal autonomy to boards of education.
Federal and Private Grants
TSBA supports legislation clarifying that any federal
or private grants that a school system
receives are not within the scope of negotiations for
systems involved in collective bargaining.
Absence for Military Service
TSBA supports legislation clarifying that there is no
vacancy in office when a local school hoard
member is serving his/her country.
Appointed Directors of Schools
TSBA supports the appointment of the director of
schools by the board of education and opposes
any measure to revert to the process of electing
superintendents.
The Tennessee School Boards Association will
actively support legislation relative to these and other
issues,
as determined by our 2011 Resolutions and Position
Statements.
03-04-2011