Board chairman, Mitch Ledbetter, stated that "we have decided" then caught himself because the board couldn't have decided anything unless they were in a public meeting, but then went on to say the board wanted to begin contract negations with Ms. Smith to be the new director.
Ms. Smith has been with the city school system for about 8 years. She is the current assistant director of schools with a combined salary of $133,532.00. Out going director Jeanne Barker's salary is $170,500.00. The city school system has only 3 schools.
Apparently, the city school board doesn't plan to post the job opening nor take applications. But why would they. As the assistant director, she should already have a great understanding of the city school system and should be well qualified to step into the top position. A candidate from outside the system would have a learning curve to learn the city system. Of course, if Ms. Smith does take the top job, that means the assistant director job will also need to be filled.
Ledbetter stated that they would be discussing the contract at their May 18th Pigeon Forge retreat, where ever it is and hoped the vote on the contract at their next board meeting. There are several legal requirements the board will have to comply with before they can have their vote. I'm sure the board attorney will explain that to them.
Below is a link to the May 9th board meeting. The Barker resignation and the Smith contract discussion begins at the 2:50 mark of the meeting
Millicent Smith
Her
love of history and reading coupled with strong
influence from several teachers throughout her schooling
is what inspired Millicent Smith to pursue a career in
education. Presently in her 29th year in education,
Millicent’s career began as a secondary social studies
teacher in Blount County & Sevier County, TN, and
subsequently Knox County Schools in Knoxville, TN. Over
the years, Millicent taught U.S. History, AP Government,
Psychology, Sociology, World History, and Geography and
currently maintains a social studies 7-12 professional
teaching license along with a K-12 professional
administrator license and K-12 superintendent’s
license.
In addition to classroom teacher, Millicent served as assistant/ curriculum principal in both urban and suburban settings; a content supervisor; and executive director of curriculum, instruction, and professional learning for Knox County Schools. During her tenure there, Knox County Schools was the only large metropolitan district to earn Exemplary status for the 2014-2015 school year. Millicent left Knox County after 23 years to become a founding member/director of instructional support for Instruction Partners (formerly D2D). Instruction Partners serves districts across Tennessee with curriculum, instruction, and professional learning support. This learning experience afforded Millicent the opportunity to create lasting friendships with colleagues across Tennessee.
Millicent is honored to serve as the Assistant Director of Schools for Lenoir City Schools in Lenoir City, TN, which is her hometown. Her role includes federal programs director, district testing coordinator/accountability officer, and any other all instructional leadership supports needed from coaching, evaluation, feedback, etc.
A few notes from Millicent:
“I am passionate about the how high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) lift the burden of materials mining from teachers. I am happy to talk to anyone about this and about how HQIM supports Tier 1 instruction for ALL students, moving the focus from intervention.”