001are we on ready all right this is the uh March 31st 2025 special called meeting of the Coffee County Board of Education uh we're here to discuss the tsba director search we have one item on the agenda tonight um we want to get going with a prayer so Beth could you give us a little prayer of discernment tonight yes father we thank you for your presence here tonight and that is our main prayer that you would give us understanding and discernment of the next steps we need to take you know exactly who's supposed to be director of our schools who will take us to the next level so we're seeking your wisdom tonight and we thank you for being with us in the name of Jesus amen amen amen you want to lead us in
002the pledge flag the United States of America and to the rep for it stands naiv I thought about it I did all right so uh we are here to discuss the uh tsba director search they're going to um uh present the results of their search chch and their recommendations tonight um I would call your attention to the and we're going to talk about this a little bit more to the uh uh director search timeline which you should have on your computers and also in your um should have a hard copy on your desk also and we're at uh 33125 so we're here tonight to select candidates and after this we're going to um we've screened the cand Cates we're going to notify the unsuccessful candidates and then schedule up for interviews which are scheduled for
003um April 21st 22nd and 24th so a few weeks coming here in three weeks so we need to get a move on and and I would just remind everybody this schedule is really designed to get a director on board uh by June 1st so they can be here ahead of the the the new school year so with that I would turn the presentation over Dr Grom and your presentation thank you chairman Ballard and members of the board we're going to jump right to because I know you're going to go straight to that in the notebook we've provided each of you a binder our job that you all hired us to do was to assist you all with your superintendent search and our job was to uh convene a screening committee that reviewed all there were
00416 applicants uh Macy has emailed you those applications and we've also brought a hard copy of all applications and we've given those to Melissa our job was to select the finalist that best met the criteria that the board adopted that criteria was listed uh in your brochure and we're going to go over the timeline again the interviews um sample interview questions but we're going to go through the top finalists the first finalist if you'll look behind tab one in your binders Mr Scott Hargrove he is currently the principal of East Lincoln Elementary School in Taha and has been since 2014 he served as interim superintendent from 2019 to 2020 in t he's the former assistant Middle School principal in T from 2012 to 2014 former dean of men for tah High School from 2011 2007
005to 2012 for former teacher and coach from T High School from 1994 to 2007 former teacher and coach from Rutherford County from 1989 to 94 he has a master's degree in education and administration he has a total of 17 years as a teacher seven years as an assistant principal 10 years as a principal one year in the central office and one year as interim superintendent he all of his information is be behind tab one if you'll turn to tab two Dr Amy lonus she is currently the Provost for joint Special Operations University and has been in that position since 2022 she's the former dean of faculty and academic Affairs at joint Special Operations from 2020 to 2022 former DEA faculty and acade academic programs at National Defense University 2017 to 2020 former director of schools
006and superintendent of the Franklin County School District here in Tennessee from 2015 to 2017 former dean of academics with joint Special Operations University 2012 to 2015 former director of Faculty development with the joint Special Operations University 2010 to 2012 former administrator with the Jefferson County Schools from 2005 to 2010 former teacher in marville Tennessee from 1993 to 2005 former military experience from 200 to 2009 she has a total of 12 years as a teacher five years as principal and two years as superintendent Dr Amy lonus those are the two finalists that our screening committee is recommending for the board to interview okay so two right correct okay I guess uh did you want to go to anything or we before we go to discussion here get a motion and go to discussion or um either
007way you want to do it there's some things I want to go over in the notebook with you the process and how the interviews should go and the interview questions so I don't know if you want to accept the finalist first or do it at the end what does everybody want to do do they want to get a motion on the floor to discuss we don't have to if you're going to disguise yeah all right then I need a motion to um uh to accept the uh tsba recommendations I so move okay Mr answered second I'll second Mr seconds all right we go to discussion then so who wants to be first I can open that go ahead now Mr Mr har grve um does not have a PhD which was one of our requirements
008right you said preferred oh not required it says doctorate preferred oh doctorate preferred okay not required okay I'm sorry then yeah all right that's settles that I don't know why but I thought there were going to be three recommended uh as I mentioned before I said I wouldn't bring you a number just to be bringing a number this this is if we the committee met and these are the two we think best meet the criteria adopted by the board these are the two your warranting that's who we're recommending we think best meets your criteria you you as a board have to obviously interview them and it's up to the candidate uh we don't participate in the interviews that's strictly up to the board but I thought that was the the what we paid for as
009far as the if we go a year from now and this doesn't work out and we have to go through this process again that was all covered in the fee because these were recommendations by yeah that's on the search yeah we're going to stay on the positive note yeah I know we don't we don't want to talk about that yeah we already got beat up on that one so any uh further discussion I'm thought that we would interview more than two I mean have has everybody reviewed all these I mean I I have reviewed every one of them yep yeah yeah and uh you know is now the time to bring up who else we might want to interview or is that a discussion for a later time is this only to accept these and
010then we can add to it what I don't really know what we need to well the discussion is well yeah we're the motion on the floor is to accept these two but if you know we can discuss the the validity of that or adding somebody else and we can modify the motion or we could withdraw the motion and put put in a new motion if you want but if you you know but now is the time to discuss that if you'd like to see somebody else interviewed can we accept these and then have a discussion on who else we might want could we if we I say we decided to accept these two and interview these two what if neither one of those or who we would propose you know is it still open any
011of the two that you interview then you start all you can just yeah pull others yeah but I mean you all chose Plan Three just to review Plan Three was for tsba to screen all applicants we brought a committee together and spent almost a day and a half two days going through all of these applic applications we wouldn't have done that if y'all hadn't chosen Plan Three if you all wanted to just look at the resumés which you still still can that would have been planned too where we don't do any of the screening from tsba so the reason we're bringing our recommendation is is because you chose Plan Three and that was for tsba to bring in a committee and we've reviewed all applications but at the end of the day you all can
012obviously do what you want but that was the difference in the plans that's why we're bringing finalists this this motion that's on the floor is just to accept the two that they've recommended for now yes what they've picked so we could it's like we could have another motion if if we accept this if we pass this you could just amend this motion to include tsb's pick with some others if anyone else has other we wanted to do that or you could have you know another motion to to interview some some additional people to add some names that are not associated with the tbap there probably two ways to do that if I'm correct Mr Shores I'm sure you'd be okay either way but I I would suggest doing the amendment then you can actually vote
013on the amendment and then that would put them onto the motion with the with these two and then you can vote through that direction if you'd like so either way he's basically doing the same thing okay let me ask this these two people could be interviewed and then if we did not feel that one of them was the best best then we could come back and interview others way I understand it that yes I think that's what we had talked about to start with yeah I just want to leave it open if you know that if neither of these work then we've got a backup plan H are saying that we've sent letters to all the applications that we didn't choose that said we didn't select is a candidate that doesn't mean this board they
014can do what they want but letters came from us saying our committee did not select you for this search and when you said you screen them does that mean you check the background or is that so everything's been checked for for official background checks we do a background check just on the finalist okay we don't do background on all 16 but those two have been yes but as I mentioned before we have contacts in every state so if it's an out of state candidate we know people to call and on all these candidates anybody you list as a reference is going to give you a good reference we call people that are not listed as a reference so we have thoroughly checked on all applications now Dr gome if we decide we want to interview
015others we would y'all do that same background check on the ones that we want to well depending on how many because it costs money every time you have a a candidate we we tsba is paying to have those background checks I've done a lot of Googling Google's a good way you can you can track a lot of people down with Google yeah I did a lot of that we use Google ourselves that's the first thing you should always do I think we all did yes or Facebook is there on Facebook check that's the first place you start of course you can't believe everything on social media but Tom I make the recommendation that we interview these two and if we don't get a feeling that one of them is the one we want then we
016go back and begin to bring others in which is what yeah which is essentially what the motion is I mean that so do we have to amend amend the one that we're on to do that I don't think so because if if they don't work out then we can go back and interview others I think that there are at least two people that we should put in this pool before we interview the other two I would like to go ahead and interview these two I have in mind at the same time and that's Dr Cornelius and Dr craftree from our own school system I would like to interview them and see what they have to offer and how that goes I don't want them to be Runners up I would like it to be even
017with the other two that we already have recommended by tsba so are you proposing amend yes okay so Chan is proposing to let me write the stem all right so we would need to have a second on that Amendment I'll second that Mr Gilly seconds all right we want to vote on the amendment we need to vote on the amendment and then vote on the um the main motion then so the amendment is to um to add Dr Cornelius and Dr Crabtree to our interview list is that correct yes sir okay any discussion now we only have three days double up on one day okay we did that okay further discussion all right vote on that Mr Gilly I Mr Cordell hi Miss Yin hi Mr hanser I Miss Jones I miss h i Mr
018I I will vote I also all right so we move back to the uh main resolution um any further discussion there all right Mr Cordell would you state the I'm sorry the motion is to uh accept the two candidates the tsba has recommended for interview as amended as well as as amended as well as the amendment yes as well as amended Dr Cornelius and Dr Crabtree so yeah the motion has amended so I miss y hi okay Mr answerer hi Miss Jones I Miss Hodge hi I Mr I Mr Gilly I and I will vote I so that passes 8 zero in both cases all right all right next yes you all had selected if you'll turn to page two in your notebook the timeline You' selected uh April 21st 22nd and 24th as the
019three interview dates you'll need to select one more date uh to interview the four fourth person if you'll turn to page uh 12 we recommend a full day for the interviews obviously the board can do what you want but on on page 12 we think it's a good idea if you bring in each candidate and let them meet with principal central office staff in the morning let them it's an hour long let them give a 10 minute here's who I am and let f FKS ask them questions for 50 minutes do the same thing with uh business and Community leaders let the candidate give a 10-minute here's who I am and let folks answer questions same thing with faculty and staff and then that evening is the actual interview with the school board only the
020Schoolboard members can ask questions of the candidates the interviews have to be conducted in a public meeting and that's the schedule we're recommending I think it works out great for the community and faculty and staff to get the opportunity to meet each candidate and then each evening will be the interview with the board so these meetings we're suggesting the board does not need to be in attendance at these the only thing the Board needs to be in attendance is that actual interview night so that's the schedule that we're recommending and like I said that's up to you all Macy has emailed you I believe it was yesterday or Friday the questions the interview questions also in your notebook in the front pocket there's a hard copy of the interview questions these questions are directly tied
021to your selection criteria they're not yes or no questions each candidate's going to have to share what they have done in these questions so they're not yes or no you don't have to use these questions but I think it's a good start but whatever questions you choose make sure you use the same questions for all four candidates and I would suggest you divy the the the questions up Mr Balor would always ask this question Jennifer is always going to ask the second question so you're asking the same questions each night with the candidate so I would do that before you before you get into the interviews make sure you determine what your interview questions are going to you be used and use the same ones each night I have a question for you our meetings
022are on YouTube do you recommend us giving the questions to all the candidates so they can all prepare because I would recommend you give the questions no matter if you video them or not number one the interviews have to be conducted in the public so if you're candidate one everybody knows the question but once again these are not questions that you can copy someone's answer to you're going to have to the questions are tell me an experience that you've had in decision ision making how did you involve people so there are questions that it doesn't matter if you have the questions or not so we we say share the questions up front if you all decide thank you yeah good question Mr chairman I have a question Mr chairman I'm gonna suggest that we don't
023actually televise it or put it on YouTube because then the other people can watch and see how the others are answering that you could video it but I wouldn't think we would put it on YouTube exctly what I was either way but it's a public meeting so they can actually attend the meeting more than likely they probably would not but I I would like to make a motion that we do not uh put it on YouTube that night it's a public meeting but I think it would be a disservice to the people that are being interviewed because the first one that's interviewed uh you can see a lot by people's expressions and and if they want to you know it's a public meeting if anybody wants to come they can come but you know if
024I were going to be interviewed I'd certainly be watching it and thinking oh okay you know and this didn't seem to go over too well with that board member I'm going to change my I I mean I just know how things can work so I'd like to make a motion that this not be uh on on video I mean we can video it but not publicly not live I'll put it that way yeah mean kind of one up on everyone else cuz it's going to be public if somebody's watching somebody wants to come they can come yeah if somebody's watching it they'll know what's going to be coming the next night whenever they come when they get interviewed to me yeah I agree with that well I agree they're going to have the questions ahead
025of time but I I understand what you're saying you can see the reactions and things so so and we did discuss that before before the meeting is is not not doing it so so we do have a motion by Miss Jones do I have a second I'll second I'll second that oh forgot it all right so the motion is to um not um live stream on YouTube the interviews so any discussion on that we just out of discussion no I agree with u with Miss Jones too I mean it it it does s you know prepare somebody else that's going to be coming in for the interview the next night and um I I agree facial expressions and see how people U lean back in their seat or uh you know discontent with a question
026or something it just uh I think it'd be fair for everybody you know and and it is it's a like Miss Tammy said it's it's open meeting so we invite everybody to come out and and uh and watch you know each night all right further discussion Miss ych Mr chairman oh I just want a clarification I'm sorry to interrupt but is audio recording okay or we going to do video I just understand we're not streaming it but what kind of recording do we need to do if we're not going to stream it then there's no reason to do the video part or do you just want audio or how do you want to do that we can we can audio it so we have a record so that Melissa can go back and and uh
027document the meeting so I think video that way people can watch it and see where so you expect it to be posted then later yes that way people can watch I'm just trying to get that clarifi how you want to do it's fine that's just what I think that way you can go back and we're doing we're doing real good at keeping a good audio and visual record yeah I believe we we still need to record maybe not live right until we get past that point then we can post but recorded on video okay okay that makes sense yeah I think it ought to be video and then post the videos after the interview process is over with absolutely right that's fine it's just that wasn't part of the motion okay good question Mr dwood
028all right so the motion is not to live stream it but still the video so um Miss ych I Mr hanser uh Miss Jones H Miss Hodge hi mron hi Mr Gilly I Mr Cordell I and I will vote I that also passes 8 to zero all right anything further Dr and the last thing I have is on page four there's some interview tips and techniques that I would suggest that you all review before you start the interview process and then starting on page nine there's some Equal Opportunity Employment guidelines please review this these are questions you can and cannot ask during an interview so please review Pages 9 through 11 and that concludes my report all right any uh I have a question uh in our last uh director search each board member got
029to ask a question you know that was that was important to them that wasn't you know just dictated over the interview process if we should decide to do that each board member uh we could come up with a question where everybody would know what it was going to be and then the next interviewee would have that same question it wouldn't be like me asking one person this next time asking them something would that be appropriate because I do feel like that each of us have a we have our own thoughts of of a good candidate and uh and maybe if we got together and and each one of us put down the question we'd like to ask and have it on there do you understand what I'm yes yeah the these questions we provided are
030not you're not they're not required we just did them they they're sample questions so you can use them if you want and you don't have to use any of them if you don't you can come up with your own questions it doesn't matter doesn't matter to us I think it's a good good thing but I think the Board needs decideed as a whole that they want to use your question I don't think right I think the board all of you ought to submit if you've got questions then the board will take a vote vote on the set of questions you're going to use and you're going to use that same set of questions for every candidate yes ma'am so we could do that uh we probably at the April 15th board meeting which would be
031the week before interviews okay yeah and then Mr chairman you'll need to notify these uh candidates to schedule their interview and the Board needs to decide on the fourth date you've just got three dates identified we'll get working on that yeah since they're both from our school system and they don't have to do the tours and things is that still something you feel is necessary they don't have to do the what they already know the system they wouldn't need to go to the schools and tour it I wouldn't think unless you think that there wouldn't a tour on there I thought it was talking to censor office and going to schools I might have looked at it wrong but like the whole day yeah it's it's given people an opportunity uh it's more so for
032faculty to ask them questions okay so that's still it's not a tour of the schools it's it's an opportunity for people in the community and faculty and staff to get to ask each candidate questions okay because when it comes to the interview at night only the school board's asking questions that night yes ma'am and you don't have to obviously use that schedule but yeah here it is a question sure okay so on here we're going to be providing lunch hotels and dinner all four nights or if you use that schedule yes okay and then who will be so if the board's not carrying them around who will be taking them around and doing lunches and you have to identify someone to do that we'll sign Mr Gilly no knew that was coming you're the only
033one that's got a big enough vehicle I don't my I think my driver's license is suspended so so that would be like lunch and dinner for the community to come in also no the lunch in is just for the community leaders just like we did for the in-person meetings just for County Commission mayor School Board that's not lunch in for everybody no no and then uh so the evening dinner would we go out or have it well you probably are not going to have time to interview all of you get in a car go to a restaurant so I think it'd probably be good my suggestion is have something cater and that's just for the board and the candidate and you get to know a lot about people when you sit down and sure as
034they say break bread with folks that makes sense I thought we paid you to do that to take them around and handle all this I know you all picked your candidates so all right any further questions for Dr Grom or comments all right with that I need a motion to close the meeting are we going to get a date of interviews before we leave we got um I I had four days down anyway I don't know why I had the 22nd the 23rd 24th and 25th 22 20 21 22 24 we didn't have 23 because some people have church on Wednesdays but we can do that so okay so those four days may have to or going or either do it on a Friday or go to the next week and I think we ought
035to get it all done in one week I agree so does anybody have any problem with with a Wednesday we need to make a motion for that I don't I don't think so I think we can just decide yeah I don't have a problem with it yeah 21 22 23 24 so since there's four four candidates all right further questions comments jokes okay uh motion to dismiss so move I second answer and Gilly all right Mr answer so much thank you uh M Jones m h hion Mr Gilly Mr Cordell M hch vote I we are dismissed so this