The board has voted 7-3 to suspend Vance with pay pending a negotiated buyout of the final three years of his contract. A rough estimate of the cost to buyout is a half million dollars, maybe even higher depending on the final settlement. Voting for the settlement were board members, Scott Newman, Kenny Ridings, William Jenkins, Bobby Johnson Jr., Kim Bridges, Brian Brown and Zack Cusick. Voting no were, Phil Moffit, Gary Ubben and Craig Simon. 

Due to budget shortfalls, the board has submitted a budget this year that cuts 13 positions and gives no raises to any teachers or board employees. However, they apparently have an extra half million for a buyout?

Buyouts can generally go a couple of ways, the board can just cash Vance out with a lump sum of cash. This rarely happens. Secondly, Vance could be left on the payroll of the school system for the next three years and be paid his salary but not actually work for the school system. UT does this kind of thing ever so often. Usually, the former employee is termed a consultant when this happens. The board attorney and Vance's attorney may find a different solution, who knows.

Any way it goes, it's going to be very expensive.

Just eliminating Mr. Vance doesn't solve the board's problem. After 8 months of infighting and bickering over the director's position, is it even possible for the board to ever get back to actually overseeing public education in Loudon County? Hard to imagine. At some point, they're going to have to hire another director, if they can even find one willing to take the job.

I'll go way out on a limb here, as dysfunctional as the board has become, they might all consider resigning. Not just one or two from one faction or the other, but all of them. The education of the 5,000 students in Loudon County should be more important than the ego's of 10 elected officials. Commission could appoint 10 competent individuals to clean the mess up till the next election if we need to.  

Either get your act together, or get out.

Previous story

Loudon County Director of schools, Jason Vance, has been suspended with pay pending a negotiated buyout of the final three years of his contract. The value of that contract could be as high as a half million dollars.

The first motion, from Scott Newman, was to immediately terminate Vance. When that motion failed, the motion to suspend was passed.

Assistant director, Mike Garren, will be the interim director during the suspension and negotiations.

More details Monday.

"Ongoing problems" prompt suspension of Loudon Co. Director of Schools

LOUDON COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The Loudon County Schools Superintendent Jason Vance has been suspended with pay as of June 13, according to Loudon County School Board Chairman Craig Simon.

Chairman Simon said the suspension is a result of "ongoing problems" with Vance. The board member did not mention any specific incident; however, Vance had previously been connected to an issue in the earlier part of the 2019.

On March 5, 2019, the Loudon County Board of Education held a special meeting to discuss Vance's contract. At the end of the meeting, the school board did not come to a decision, but said it would continue to investigate concerns raised in a January meeting where members of the public voiced concerns about the Loudon High School boys basketball coach. According to the board meeting's minutes, 10 people came forward on the issue.

That March special meeting concluded with a report from the investigation gives a recommendation that Vance should "receive discipline and corrective instruction." At the time, Chairman Simon said that the board took all the attorney's recommendations and Director Vance went back to work.

The school board's lawyers are now looking into buying out Vance's contract, Chariman Simon told WVLT News.