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Six to be interviewed
MCKENZIE (April 22) Sixteen persons applied
for the position of director of schools for
the McKenzie Special School District (MSSD).
Applications came from seven states and had
varying levels of teaching and
administrative background. During the April
22 meeting of the Board of Education,
members decided to interview a total of six
candidates, including two applicants from
within the school system. A motion to
interview just five candidates failed on a
vote of 3-3, with Jon Davis, Monte
Cunningham, and Brad Davis voting for five,
and Greg Barker, Karen McCaleb, and Lance
Rider voting against. A later motion to
interview six was approved unanimously.
MSSD established a minimum of 10 years in
education and three years of administrative
experience for applicants to receive an
interview. The interview process is
scheduled to begin the week of May 11. A new
director of schools will take office July 1.
Phillip White, representing the Tennessee
School Boards Association, the agency
conducting the statewide search, presented
the names of the applicants to school board
members.
In-system applicants were automatically
granted an interview. The field of 14 other
applicants will be trimmed to four by the
TSBA and forwarded to the local board to be
interviewed.
The board voted to interview McKenzie Middle
School Principal Lynn Watkins and McKenzie
Elementary School Principal Richard Davy,
both administrators in the MSSD system. Lisa
Norris of McKenzie, currently employed as a
substitute teacher at MSSD and an adjunct
faculty member at Bethel (2003-present)
while she pursues her doctorate degree, was
not granted the automatic interview because
the documents presented by the TSBA to the
MSSD indicated she lacked the necessary
administrative qualifications.
Norris filed a complaint with the TSBA,
indicating they misrepresented her
educational history. Norris has an
undergraduate degree from Bethel College, a
M.A.Ed. degree from Bethel (1997), and is
working on her Ed.D. at Walden University.
She expects to complete that degree in
August 2009. She was the co-founder of
Carroll Academy, where she worked 1994 to
2000. She also worked at Bethel College as
the director of planning, 2005-2006. Norris
was a McKenzie school board member for two
years (1996-98) and served on the board when
Dr. Bentley Rawdon was hired as
superintendent.
MSSD Board Chairman John Austin contacted
the Banner and said TSBA mistakenly released
some incorrect information about several
applicants' work history. He said the TSBA's
spreadsheet was a working document and was
prematurely released by TSBA. He
additionally asked The Banner not to print
the work history of the applicants. However,
he indicated the release of the names and
current work positions of all applicants is
acceptable.
Besides Watkins, Davy, and Norris, other
applicants include: Betty Wallace,
supervisor of instruction/assistant director
at West Carroll Special School District,
Atwood; Dr. Debbie Doster of McKenzie,
supervisor of Secondary Curriculum and
Instruction with Weakley County Schools;
Gordon Clay Lindsey, principal at W.O. Inman
Middle School with the Paris Special School
District; Dr. Tammy Knipp, elementary
instructional supervisor with the Henderson
County School System; Dr. Michael P. Bull of
South Carolina; Dr. Rita C. Cook, executive
director of Smokey Hill Education Service
Center, Kansas; Douglas W. Cotton of
Kentucky; Robert J Egley, principal at
Clewiston High School in Hendry County
School District, Florida; Carla H. Franklin,
principal at Hawkins Mill Elementary,
Memphis; Loren L. Harris, principal at Pearl
River (County) Central High in Mississippi;
Nancy Sharpe Strawbridge, principal at Bay
Creek Elementary School - Walton County,
Georgia; Lt. Colonel Corwin Robinson,
district discipline coordinator for
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. |
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