Coffee County board approves director-of-schools vacancy brochure after debate over educator-license requirement

The Coffee County Board of Education on Feb. 12 approved a vacancy brochure to begin recruiting a new director of schools, voting 6-0 to post the position and set an application deadline of March 14.

The decision followed a lengthy presentation of community and staff input by Dr. Grissom of the Tennessee School Boards Association and a board debate over whether the brochure should require applicants to hold a current professional educator’s license. A motion to adopt the brochure while suspending board policy to remove the license requirement failed for lack of a second; the board later adopted the brochure as written, retaining the minimum-qualification language drawn from board policy.

Dr. Grissom told the board she had collected input from multiple in-person sessions and an online survey. "We had 233 responses to the online survey," she said, and the binder at each member’s seat contains verbatim comments from meetings and the survey. She described the top priorities respondents listed: competitive teacher pay and support for teachers; excellence and after-school programs; and STEM and career-technical education.

Board members who opposed removing the license requirement said keeping the provision is important to teacher morale and trust. "I feel like...we would be neglecting their concerns of having a leader that has been in the classroom," said Miss Jones, arguing that classroom experience helps a director relate to teachers. Board member Ballard said teachers told him it would be hard to respect a supervisor who had not worked in the classroom.

Mister Cordell made the motion to adopt the brochure without the professional educator's license requirement, saying he did not want the district to "exclude someone that may not have a license, but may be thinking outside the box" and noting the statutory provision he cited as "TCA49-2-301C" that addresses the director's role. That motion did not receive a second and therefore did not proceed. An earlier attempt to accept the brochure as written recorded a 4-2 tally and was reported as short of the five affirmative votes the board said were required; the chair stated that the board did not have a positive vote at that time.

Dr. Grissom said the minimum qualifications listed in the brochure were taken from existing board policy. She also explained the application and screening process: applicants will apply through the TSBA online portal; TSBA will screen and present up to three finalists ("up to 3") to the board; the association will send weekly applicant lists to the board on Fridays; and finalists were expected to be presented at a March 31 meeting. The board will receive all applications and may elect to interview additional candidates beyond the finalists.

The board did not finalize salary details at the meeting. Dr. Grissom said the current compensation figure had not been nailed down but estimated it was "around a hundred and 40 or so." She added TSBA has statewide salary survey data the board can review. The board directed staff and the search team to post the brochure the next morning and begin accepting applications under the adopted timeline.

Votes at a glance: - Adopt agenda for Feb. 12 special called meeting — approved 6-0. - Motion to adopt vacancy brochure and suspend policy to remove the professional educator's license requirement — motion by Mister Cordell; no second; did not proceed. - Adopt vacancy brochure as written (retain professional educator's license language drawn from board policy) — approved 6-0.

The board will receive weekly updates on applicants and will set interview dates after finalists are presented later in March.