Roy Exum
Towards the end of Thursday night’s quarterly meeting of the Hamilton County School Board meeting, the idiocy that has been the earmark of the elected group since January began to seep into the conversation. It started with a play by the “Good Ole Boy” representatives that the interim superintendent must be an “educator,” as if a central office filled with inept “educators” are not the first and foremost reason the Chattanooga school district is today the worst in Tennessee.
We saw the “top educator” tuck tail and run – without so much as a bitter goodbye – when Superintendent Rick Smith, after causing more damage than the Japs did one morning at Pearl Harbor, abruptly resigned by sunrise on Monday. This came six days after he pledged to work out the remaining 3 ½ years of his contract yet only one day after a scathing report of our poorest schools was revealed after being carefully hidden from the school board since January.
So the first order of business was to appoint Dr. Kirk Kelly as the temporary interim superintendent with Dr. Lee McDade as the co-temporary interim in a brief stint until the school board -- eager to do nothing further until the next regularly-scheduled meeting on April 14 -- could get around to deciding what steps to take for a “real” interim.
Understand, the application deadline for the interim was set by the board for March 4 but Thursday night chairman Jonathan Welch instructed the human resources office to continue to take applications for (a) an interim, (b) an interim who would also be eligible to be the permanent, and (c) the permanent superintendent that could be elected in the interim.
As if that wasn’t funny enough to be a skit on the old Carol Burnett Show, the outspoken Rhonda Thurman then went on another verse of her hit single, “Stay In Your Own Lane,” blasting outside groups that are eager to help the school board regain respect and a return of academic excellent that has fallen quite dramatically in the years the same Rhonda has – in stark truth – played a key role in the premature demise of the past three superintendents.
“We’re elected officials” and “We don’t need any outside help” and “We run the schools . Period.” What is laughable is no one is questioning that. What is factual is the Hamilton County Board of Education is not producing enough students to fill the demanding job market in Chattanooga. Not one outside person has voted on school board matters, but Rhonda screams, “Do you know how much money these (Chattanooga 2.0) people make?” as if that has anything to do with anything.
What matters is how much our students can make with an education versus what the school board has allowed to happen. My goodness, what Rhonda claims “are only statistics” were supplied by the central office itself. Smith shared more with the Benwood Foundation, the Public Education Foundation and the Chamber of Commerce than he would ever reveal to those who were, rather jokingly, his actually bosses.
And then Chairman Welch (who is actually a sound thinker) rose to the bait and dreadfully showed his colors. “The 2.0 initiative has been in the works for about two years and the first 18 months we didn’t hear a word about it!”
My goodness, Jonathan, that’s embarrassing; stop sulking … Rick Smith was in the 2.0 framework from the very get-go and the fact he told the school board less than a KGB operative is hardly anyone’s fault except for Fallen Rick. Then again, it is just as much the school board’s fault for failing to angrily pursue truths that have yet to be revealed in much of the past four years. Admit it, it happened! This ain’t Algebra I (where Hamilton County is in the bottom 10 of 161 school districts statewide.)
Dr. Welch, a dentist, then actually asked his school board colleagues the most bizarre question of the night. “I have been asked to be on the 2.0 steering committee. Do ya’ll think I should or shouldn’t?”
Oh my gracious. It is worse than waiting yet another month for a voice of leadership and reason within the central office! Rhonda opted, “You sure better take it … without a seat at the table you can’t call ‘em off or help control them…”
Them? Them is us, Rhonda. This petty and juvenile behavior is humiliating to the 3,200 teachers and 41,000 students who want better. One member said, “Our teachers would feel better with an educator as a superintendent” and I can promise that is a lie. They’ve seen what Smith and his regime did.
No, the teachers in Hamilton County want leadership that cares, leadership that will eliminate the awful factions that have fractured the system, a central office completely rebuilt based on trust and professional integrity, and all the outside help they can get.
Before the regular meeting the school board members were discussing the budget and Rhonda yelped, “I don’t see why we are doing this … we won’t get the money” while George Ricks added, “But we ought to ask because the wish list has some things we ought to do.”
In my way of thinking, as long as the school board insults and fights and balks at the Chattanooga community’s earnest efforts to help where it has clearly failed, the distrust and ridicule of the Hamilton County School Board will simply continue to mount. Good luck on the budget, kids, when you could be getting extra revenue from the private sector that you brazenly insult and shun.
Do you not think County Mayor Jim Coppinger and the Hamilton County Commission have noticed your circus? The business community is mortified. The philanthropic groups could really help but until everybody plays together, our school district will continue to suffer and, as an ancient Pogo cartoon once immortalized, “The enemy is us.”
royexum@aol.com