Gilmer County Board approves professional and extracurricular hires, ratifies unpaid suspension and terminates coach Jean McCune

At a special session the Gilmer County Board of Education approved multiple personnel actions, including professional hires, extracurricular hires, and the ratification of an unpaid suspension that led to the termination of Jean McCune as head elementary basketball coach.

A staff member read the professional portion of the personnel agenda and recommended hires including Nancy McVaney as a mentor and Ashley Barker as a social studies teacher at Gilmer County High School. The board moved to approve the professional section of the personnel agenda and voted in favor.

The board then considered extracurricular personnel items. Staff recommended hires for elementary basketball coaching and other extracurricular roles, naming Chelsea Stickelman and Sonya Hartshorn as elementary basketball coaches, noted the resignation of Danny Smith from an elementary basketball coaching role, and recommended Eileen Matheny for junior Appalachian music coordinator/guitar instructor roles. The board moved to approve the extracurricular section and voted in favor.

Later in the meeting a staff member presented a superintendent’s recommendation to pursue discussion in executive session about an unpaid suspension and possible termination for an employee who was not present. The staff member recommended that the board ratify the unpaid suspension and formally terminate Jean McCune’s contract as head elementary basketball coach for the second- and third-grade position at Gilmer County Elementary School. The motion was moved and seconded and the board voted in favor; the transcript reports the motion “carries.”

The meeting concluded with a motion to adjourn. The public transcript does not give detailed reasons for the suspension or termination and records voice votes rather than roll-call tallies.