School board approves TSBA-based superintendent evaluation as starting draft; will refine with superintendent

The Hamilton County Board of Education voted to adopt a merged evaluation rubric based on a Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA) sample and the district's existing instrument as the board's starting point for the superintendent evaluation process.

The board approved the draft as a working document and directed staff and Superintendent Dr. Robertson to refine it and return a revised version in July. Board members said they want a clearer, shorter instrument that aligns with the superintendent's contract timelines and the state data calendar.

Board member Ms. Schaefer, District 7 and the policy committee chair, presented the draft and said attorneys had merged the TSBA template with the district's prior format. She told colleagues the intent was not to impose a final rubric immediately but to provide a comprehensive starting point for discussion. "This is the starting point," she said as the motion to adopt the draft for further work passed.

Discussion that followed focused on three practical concerns: (1) the volume and wording of the TSBA material, which some board members called "wordy" and in need of local tailoring; (2) the timing of state data from the Tennessee Department of Education, which several members and staff said can arrive as late as August or December and complicates a July evaluation; and (3) giving the superintendent an opportunity to review and comment on the instrument before final adoption.

Several board members urged the administration to pare the rubric's length and to identify which measures come from state data and which come from locally collected metrics so the board can begin evaluation steps even when state indicators are delayed. Chief Strategy Officer Shannon Moody and board counsel were asked to work with Dr. Robertson to produce a trimmed draft for the July meeting.

Board members also asked administration to circulate two items mentioned in the discussion: the recent Gallup survey the district commissioned and a compensation-study report (the compensation study itself was discussed later in the meeting). The administration said the Gallup poll results would be distributed to board members the next day.

The motion approved the TSBA-merged document only as an initial draft; board members explicitly directed further edits, and several members said the board must finalize a shorter, locally tailored rubric before using it to evaluate the superintendent.