Honeycutt out

Jason Vance will take over as director of schools May 16, with the option to choose where Wayne Honeycutt will serve out the rest of his contract.

Vance's contract was approved at Thursday night's Board of Education meeting, with all board members present voting in favor. Board members Ric Best and Bill Marcus were absent.

As soon as the vote on Vance's contract passed, Lisa Russell asked the chairman to grant permission to exercise the transfer option in Honeycutt's contract, which allows the board to transfer him to another job, at the discretion of his successor, Vance.

Board member Van Shaver seconded the motion.

After the second, Vice Chairman Gary Ubben asked how much money this move would cost the board of education, to which Shaver replied $5,400.

"What do we gain out of that," Ubben asked.

"We get Jason in charge, right now," Russell said.

"I see absolutely no reason to make the change at this point," Ubben said. He went on to say the two are working well together right now. Vance, according to Ubben, will now have two jobs, with the end of the year being the busiest for Vance.

"I think Jason is perfectly capable of handling his end of year responsibilities, in addition to the final duties of the director's position," Russell said. "I would prefer Jason to be in charge and to have the final say for the budget this year."

Russell continued to say that Vance would have to live with the budget next year and Honeycutt would not.

Vance's initial start date was July 1.

"Where is this item on the agenda," Ubben asked.

Shaver said it fell under "approval of the director contract."

"That's not what it was talking about," Ubben argued. "That was Jason's contract, not Honeycutt's contract."

The board passed the motion to remove Honeycutt and an amendment to Vance's contract changing his start date from July 1 to May 16.

"We will realign, and shift duties," Vance said later about the juggling of the two sets of duties. "I'll certainly take on this extra responsibility.

"I'm excited about the opportunity to help Loudon County students, teachers and administrators move from good to great," he added.

The board tabled a food service salary proposal and decided the director of schools should choose the length of time for the Pepsi/Coke contract for the school.

The board approved:
• policy per TSSAA that allows home-schooled students to participate in athletics;
• Scott Anderson as an assistant football coach at Greenback;
• summer camps;
• LHS track funding;
• budget amendments;
• tenure list;
• part-time evaluator contracts;
• and federal program consolidated application for Philadelphia Elementary School, after initially denying it.

The board changed its mind after Vance informed the board that by denying approval for this, 12 positions at the school would be cut.

The board also decided to have a special called meeting to discuss the 2011-2012 budget on May 26 at 6:30 p.m.