Thursday, January 05, 2006

Elected -vs- Appointed School Superintendent - KNS Gets The Story Wrong

In todays Knoxville News-Sentinel Ericka Mellon authored the story, Board is backing appointed superintendents. The story rports that last evening the Knox County School Board passed a resolution requesting that the Tennessee General Assembly allow them to continue with the appointed superintendent route.

I witnessed the school board meeting and was surprised in Ms. Mellon's report that a vote of 4 yes 3 against 1 pass and 1 absent would constitute a vote in the affirmative. An elected body of 9 must have a quorum to meet, 8 members present constituted a quorum. A vote of 5 in the affirmative is still required to pass an item, not a simple majority.

I did not rely simply on my own beliefs that I was correct, This afternoon, I contacted an official of the Tennessee School Boards Association, as well as several school board members across East Tennessee and they concurred that my understanding is factual and correct.

It is unfortunate that the morning after the West Virginia Coal Miner story that was inaccurate, that this story too is inaccurate. I sincerely hope that the KNS corrects Ms. Mellon's story.

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