001You would stand and join me Who's recording me? [Music] I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] So to get started, we've got to get our questions figured out what we're doing. Make sure everybody understands the process goes smooth when the candidates get in here. Um, you turn in your books. Questions are listed by criterion 1 through 10. had a suggestion that we should try maybe let the person from each district that matches the criterion number ask a question from that group. In other words, criterion one would be Miss Doll. She could pick a question one, two or three to ask on the first go round and swung down the line. So,
002not being that she's not here yet, kind of hard to ask her. She was supposed to be the last one to ask questions. I know exactly. Yeah, she may be. We start off if she's not here with number two. So, Scott, yeah, you have a preference for questioning two. I had I had chosen number two as my first choice for the question on two on two. Yes. Two two. Now, if we come back around for some reason and we have time to ask a second row of questions, you can go back and ask the other questions. But if we do that, we have to do the same with the second count. I just want to be the same on each one of these on criterion three. You want to ask question one or two? Two.
003Okay. Two and four would be five would be Nick. Three choices. I was going to do 10. You have a choice. I didn't even hear you ask me a question. I apologize. Uh in criterion five, there are three questions. Sure. Which one would you like to ask first? Let's go with uh number one. And if we come back around on the second one, be ready to pass that. We'll ask whatever one you want. Second candidate. Gotcha. So, John number seven. Chuck number three. Okay, I'm number six. So, I'm going to ask question two, but I'll I'll be in order as we go. Okay. And then Travis, I'm going to start with uh number three and if it comes back around, I'll go to two. Okay, Shannon. Uh number two, please. [Music] Is there a volunteer
004to ask questions for number 10? Make it Scott. I'll be happy to ask you. Okay. So, you want me to do um the one where's the one I did? Number two, Mr. Kings. He picked all the ones I picked. Scott, I know. Mhm. Now, Miss Elizabeth didn't give you that. Who would ask a question? I have to be the same. We could flip. Say we could flip flip her and Nina. H if we wanted to. You're asking 2110. Is that what you said? Yes. I don't mind doing number one if Miss Doll is not here. Okay. Miss Stole is here, right? You see her? Awesome. Okay, good. All right. So, what do we want for? I can do. Which question will we um number two? Two for Anita. That was number four. Yes. Scott, which
005one did you say you was going to do? On number two. 10. Two. Number two. Number two. On two. Okay. Two on number two and two on number two. Yes. All right. So, you want to go down the line just make sure we have them. I think the door was locked. Okay. She's right there. Oh, there she goes. List them off as a recap so everybody knows. Perfect. So we'll have question number two and criterion two will be Scott first then we will go to criterion three question number two is shar criterion four question number two we'll be asking for if she doesn't show which one question number two for criterion four going by district and for criterion five criteria one pick a question that will be number question number one for Nick and for
006criterion six question number two that will be me criterion seven question number two I'm sorry question number three will be John did you say two for you Mr. King yes two for me three for Mr. M Jones. Then criterion eight will be Travis asking question number three. Criterion nine will be Shannon asking question number two. And criterion 10 be Scott asking question number two. If we go back around for another loop, let me tell Miss Elizabeth there. Criterion one, you get to pick your question. District one for criterion one. Number two for the first round. Okay. All righty. You just know which one you want to do. And when we go back through that, if we come to number 10, we still got plenty of time, which I don't think we will, but if we
007do, we'll start back number two with you. Okay. [Music] And you're going to ask We'll go to Elizabeth. Elizabeth. [Music] Okay. And you're going to ask the first two questions, Mr. Chairman. Yeah. the general questions. Okay, I think I remember said general question. So in the general questions that first page there are three questions. [Music] Y'all have a preference on which one we ask there? I'll ask you. [Music] Mine's number three. [Music] That's a hard pick cuz I like all those. Actually, I think they're all pertinent. Is that an option just to ask all three? I actually had all three of them circled myself. That's Yeah. Okay, we can do that. I don't think the answers would take a real long time on those. I think they're important. So, question number one, what were you
008a general of? Hm. I said, so question number one is what exactly were you the general of? The general of So, let's see. Anyone else want to ask any one of these questions after the list on the general one me? Yeah. I don't want to hog the show. Do you want to ask a general question? I will. I don't mind. I'll say I'm happy to do any questions. Two and three. So, let's see who's already asking questions. Two two questions. I'm asking Scott and I are both asking two questions. Mhm. Shar Elizabeth, you want to ask a general question? Which one? That's in the very front of the question. I have one. Oh, whichever you pick. Yep. You pick. Number two. Okay. Travis, which one would you like? None to do number one. So, we
009ask these first. Yes. I'll go through the welcome and that sort of stuff. Then I'll say, okay, question number one goes to Travis. Question number two goes to Elizabeth. Question number three. Anybody want in? Sure. Take it. You do it. You do it. Go for it. Okay. Nick on three. On three. Okay. Okay. Then we'll go through these, get all these first questions asked. We still have time. We'll go back and start through the second question. Whichever one it is, we'll mark it down and then you ask it the same to the next candidate. Right. So, we we want to have a hard stop time for our questions in order to allow time for their questions. Right. Yeah. I'm going to watch the clock there. Generally speaking, I think we should give them a couple
010of minutes to warm up and say what they want to say, introducing themselves and then we'll start in on the questions and we'll ask them to keep their answers to 3 minutes. But that gets us use up most of our time. If they're if they use it up quicker, make a 30 second answer, then we'll get to it quick and we'll have to go to round two. So, are we going to have them ask their questions after the second round or after the first round? At the end, I'm going to stop at the 50 minute point, have them to give their summation of what they want to say in five minutes. Then I'll give them five minutes to ask questions. Then we'll turn them go to the next do the same thing. That works for
011everybody. Mhm. I determine who answers their question. What's the preference there? like they're not going to know any for well Dr. understand. That will probably be the only part about the interview that's different, whatever they ask cuz we don't know. Yeah. So, if they ask a question, somebody wants to take it, raise your hand. We'll let you take it. All of you raise your hands. You can just have them. [Music] Um, do you want parliamentarian time? Scott from the Tarian, do you mind tracking the time on things? Just to ensure we keep them moving along. Who's doing official transcribing recording? Um, special call. It's going to be Jason. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Officials. Yeah. This right here. Yeah. Jason's the one who usually. Anything else you want? say no. Yeah, we'll do our best to do
012what we said. Exactly. [Music] on the wall. Do I should have the music? Yeah, we can ask all three of these questions. Oh, that makes sense. We only have Shar. We only have one copy of this. So, I wasn't writing on this. Oh, I only have one copy. So, what I did is I wrote their names on here on here. And then I'll put what I just on here for this one. And then for the next one, put That is for you. [Music] Good. [Music] Thank you for making the trip up today. We appreciate that. Nice drive. Thanks for having me. You had a good Well, except for a little rain this morning. And you had a good weather day for it. Yeah. Well, I actually didn't have any uh my the rain for me
013was next to nothing. I had a few drops. So, when I got into town here, there looked like it the bottom dropped out um coming into the main part. Well, I don't know what main part of town, but look like a bottle dropped out there, but I didn't get any of that. Good. Good. Thanks for a safe drive then. Dr. Shannon, we're glad to have you here. This is the board tonight. Um, we've got our names up here. Got a couple members not here yet. So, they show up. We know what to do. We've got our plans. Okay. Does that seem comfortable? Oh, yes. Perfectly fine. Thank you. You got the wrong one, man. I like good jokes. So, way we're going to do the process tonight, we're going to give you a few minutes
014to speak up front. Maybe keep it two or three. toward introductory comments. We'll go through a series of 10 questions. Okay. At the end, we'll give you a few minutes to make a wrap-up and then ask us any questions. Okay? You try to get this done in an hour. Just one hour is all you got to worry about. So, as we go here, got a couple of general questions. Going to start off with Mr. Cole asking your question. Howdy, Dr. Shannon. We've read your resume. We know some things about you. Is there something else that was not included in your resume that you would like for us to know? Well, um I as far as professionally, I think that's uh everything that that I've done of of any note. Um, I will say one of
015the things you don't put in your resume, I I suppose is that uh my desire is just to uh help people be the best version of themselves they can be. I like to have that in my life. I work by those two uh driving principles that I told all the other groups that I live by intentional actions and living a life of contentment. So, um, that's not in my resume, but I, uh, so whatever your decision ultimately here is, I'm okay with it. Uh, whether it's sitting in a more uncomfortable seat or or enjoying the the beauty of my home, uh, that I've been in for the bulk of my life, it's okay, too. Is there anything else? Unless you have anything else to help as a part of that, if you'd like to do
016your introductory comments. Well, my name is Randy Shannon. I am a uh a 30-year veteran in the school system. I've been uh an administrator for over 20 years. Currently serving as a supervisor of college and career readiness in uh in Benton County, which is about a third of your size. So, we have six schools and but all the same problems. Um and uh we u uh have population a little less than a third of your population here. Um I have been the CT director for about 20 years now. served as principal of career technical education center which is supplemental high school to um to them and um did that for several years. Worked three years as an assistant principal in a in a middle school that served grades six, seven, and eight. I've come to
017understand that you're looking to see if you want to break up some of your uh your prek8 schools into middle schools. Um so that'll be an interesting u conversation to have. Um, I uh along the way I I tried to to pivot my life so that I was prepared for the for the the rigor of being in school system. And so among along the way I decided to go to law school, did that. Uh I have a little private practice on the side where I do wills and trust. And every once in a blue moon when I take a vacation day or two, I'll uh I'll step into court for a small matter. Uh but uh it's uh it just keeps you engaged, keeps your mind going. But um I work as uh the title
018n decision maker. I was told that you're not having a lot of problem with title N now, but I think it's coming to a school near you soon. Uh that seems to be a wave that's that's pushing through lots of districts. So I don't envy you when it does get here. Um I'm married uh to uh the love of my life. Her name is Jamie. And even though my she's the love of my life, she left me to go to a 5-day vacation. Just got back from Daytona Beach, uh she went with my son and his fiance and her aunt and uncle. Uh so they had a great time without me. Uh just got back all safe and sound, so we were pleased with that. And um our son works for the postal service. Uh
019he's a city carrier in the great sprawling metropolitan area of Camden. Um so uh he enjoys that. my uh future daughter-in-law is um an LPN um about ready to start back on her BN uh BSN. Um and so um BSRN, I'm sorry. Got a lot of letters there. So uh that's what uh that's what's going on in my life. And uh I've got a a little boy at home whose name is Boomer and he's a Aussie poodle. and uh I stayed home with him and we we had a great time uh enjoying the bachelor life for a few days. So that's uh I guess in a nutshell good enough for me. Thank you. M start with this general question. All right, Dr. Shannon, thank you for coming today. Um what will you do to create
020an atmosphere in the schools that will lead to educational excellence for all students? Well, I believe that um educational excellence starts with uh personal motivation and personal motivation starts with a the ability to see a goal. And so until our students can see the value of education, it's hard for them to want to give their time for education. Somewhere along the way, we we lost the path where people think that education isn't valuable anymore. Um, and so we've got to work to sell ourselves as a school system back to the community that we're a valuable commodity, that it does mean something to have a high school education, it does mean something to do well in school. And so to help get that, I I think that if we can uh retool ourselves to get out
021of the model that we've been in where they come to us and we we work with them to more of an engaging model where we're trying to seek out those active partnerships with parents and community stakeholders. I think that's the way that we turn the ship around. Now remember, we didn't get here overnight and we're not going to turn it around overnight. Mhm. So it takes a long time they tell me to turn a uh a aircraft carrier in ocean. So uh we but we do have to start. That answer your question. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Um Mr. Davis. Hello Dr. Shannon. I'm Nick Davis here in the fifth district. Um what do you believe to be your strengths that you would bring to this position? Well, um my um absolute strength is I'm an
022obstacle remover. If we have a problem, then I uh I work I'm a very good problem solver. I uh do a lot of out of the box thinking. I think that plays into my law training to see matters from multiple perspectives. How can we do something that we may not have been able to do? So uh I think that is my uh greatest strength to uh to see problems from multiple angles and to provide alternative solutions. Thank you sir. Back to criterion one. just can you share an example of a time when a staff member or community member um proposed an idea you initially disagreed with but later embraced after listening to their perspective? I tend to be a a person that that when you you come to me um I I work under the
023premise that sometimes if it isn't broke, let's not fix it. But anytime and there are are countless minor examples u that that would be throughout the time uh but but anytime somebody has a a plan that takes them forward and says well here's what we could do. I I don't it doesn't matter if I I like it or not. We let's give it a try if you think it'd be successful. And in that area, uh, one of the things that we did is start up some, uh, new programs that, um, we didn't always have and they wanted to, uh, give it a try. So, we we started some new CT programming. Um, and, you know, they turned out, uh, okay. You know, despite the fact that I was going, I don't know if the community
024is going to engage in this. I don't know if this is going to be a big big deal. um how we're going to to fund the programming that we're going to try to start. But uh they proved and did well with it. Did I answer your question? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Bing. Hello, Dr. Shannon. just got a question on u this is actually the criterion that speaks that you speak and write effectively communicate the successes as well as the needs of the school system. My question is how do you balance sharing the successes of the school district while also highlighting areas where improvement is needed and can you give an example of when you've done this? Well, uh so let me make sure I got the question right. So when have I talked about sharing
025the successes of the school while also talking about the needs of improvement? Yes. So you do that with every teacher every year. You know, as a principal, one of the things that you have to do, the supervisors that you meet with the teachers that yours to do with and do a a very intimate um evaluation of how well they did or didn't do. You do that with your own observations going on and then collectively to to have staff meetings where you're looking at the at the whole school. And uh one of the areas where we um weren't really moving as forward as as rapidly as I wanted to was the embracing of industry credentials. One of the things it's very hard for us to get them um where we're at because we don't have a
026lot of industry partners and it's a smaller area, not as much industry in the in the region around us. Um, and so we began developing partnerships and where we transition more into dual enrollment opportunities with some of our classes through our TCAT partnerships uh which is our closest higher education partner. Uh we our community college of Jackson State which is about 45 60 mi away. So um it's not as easy to interface with them but we did uh transition and pivot to that. And then the question is how well are we working with those partners to make sure that we're meeting their needs because the TCAD has got responsibilities as well. They're getting taxpayer money just the same as anybody else. So they need to be make be good stewards of that. So that's uh
027looking at the engagement there. And we we stopped a program that wasn't doing so well. Uh and we're not going to start it back up right now because everybody's got to understand that we just don't go in waste money. We don't go in and waste people's time. So if it's not going to be productive then we need to step back on. So that's part of the overall evaluation. Nice. Yeah. Thank you. Hello Dr. Shannon. Hey, I'm Sherry Nichols Mystics 3. So mine is it has the wisdom to know when change is necessary and the ability and determination to generate such change even in the face of opposition. And my question would be, what process do you use to determine whether a change is truly necessary for the school or district? And how do you gather
028input and make decisions? Well, as I told the groups that I met with, I think I said this in all of them, but if not, I apologize, but um I believe that a that an effective director of schools should listen to the board, should listen to the students, and should listen to the community. Now when I say listen to the students that means that there is an embracing of of the teachers also and parents and all of that. When I say listen to the board I also mean the supervisors and the teachers and the bus drivers and the custodians and all that. So when you're listening to the people that you have to do with um that's how you know where the where the issues are. And so when you have what is the most
029there's always a problem always. There's never a day when there isn't one, right? It's what you spend your time on. The trick is not get caught up in taking care of the um emergency that isn't urgent or the urgent that is an emergency. You know, whichever way you want to say it. What I mean by that is that there are some things that just seem to grab grab all of your time, but they're not really where you need to be spending your time for the biggest buck that you keep getting focused on those things. and to see that there is a larger problem that if we worked on it, it would solve a lot of the smaller problems. Good. Yeah. Thank you. Hello, Dr. Shannon. My name is Shannon Stout and I'm district representative for
030nine. Did you say Shannon was your first Shannon? Mhm. Good name. You're right. Um, Miss Anita Hail, who's our fourth district representative, is not able to be with us this evening. So, I am going to handle her question as well as my question. Um, so we would like to know about a difficult decision you had to make that affected multiple stakeholders and how did you ensure that that decision was fair and impartial? Well, we stopped a program that we had that nothing. I'm not going to get into what it was because it's be too easy to identify what's going on, I guess. But, but um we stopped a program that wasn't working well for us. Um and then having to uh let that person go. Um that was not, you know, not a pleasant decision.
031um it just wasn't generating the the student participation we needed it to and it was a sad thing all around. Uh we we obviously we're a small area. We're a small um community. We have a good CT concentration of programs in our area for our size. Um and the things that we had to let go of were needed, but it just couldn't sustain them anymore. So that had an impact that not pleasant, not something anybody wants to do, but it had to be done through um years passed and then we looked at it again and we were able to bring it back and um it's thriving again or thriving now. Uh so sometimes you just have to um root it up, give the ground some time to uh cure and then replant. Mhm. That's good.
032And you made those determinations based on the evaluation process of how the program was doing based upon on the the effective use of taxpayer money because you can't have the you can have a program where only five kids are in it. Teachers may not make a lot of money but you can't justify that. So that's that's it was a fiscal I am if anything uh fiscally uh uh good steward. taxpayer responsibilities are um big time to me. It's important everybody's paying into the pot that we're spending, right? We make sure that, as you say, they're getting the best bang for their buck out of it. Okay. Thank you. Hello. Question five, um here again from the fifth district. What strategies do you use to build trust uh and maintain a strong relationship with your staff,
033parents, community, and could you give an example of where those strategies uh were effective? Well, I I I like to talk to people. I like to see what they think. I like to know where they're coming from. I like to I like to break bread. Uh let's let's let's have a conversation. Um, and once we get to have I I believe that that we're far more alike than we are different. And sometimes uh problems come from misunderstandings of intent. Sometimes problems come from misunderstanding of where you think something's going. And usually we can talk it out. Uh I am a uh rule 31 listed um family general civil mediator with the department of uh with the Tennessee Supreme Court. And uh so I believe very much in talking through a problem. And many people who
034worked with me have said that I was uh a great boss to work for with. Um you never know when to say that because I don't like saying that because I don't I don't pat myself on the back a lot, but but I guess it's I guess the game we're playing today. So, uh, anyway, I I I do genuinely like to know what people think, and I I the only people that I don't want to be around are those people who will not ever consider an alternative perspective. Just not a lot to be done there. And and to that end, I have been very successful with working with all my teachers for the most part. I've lost a few along the way, but nobody matched a thousand. Is there a specific example where having that
035open dialogue um proved to be well going back to the dual credit and the industry credentials? So now we we we've gotten everybody on the page that we need to and we have uh more alignment with dual credit than we've ever had. We've got more uh students uh taking um industry credentials than ever before. Uh for our size, we had a pretty good chance. We start with our freshman and got that going now. And uh this next year uh we're we're looking to transition into a different uh set of of industry credentials, but everybody is on board. We've got the key players uh ready to go and uh so that all came about through conversation. Very good. Thank you. Mr. Matthews. I'm John Matthews. I'm SE district. Um my question goes with uh um foster
036support, confidence, and pride within the community for the school system through timely information sharing and providing meaningful opportunities to be involved. Um, can you tell us about a time when you created or enhanced meaningful opportunities for parents, students or community members to get involved in the decision-making process and what was the outcome? Well, I uh again, I like to talk to people. I like to uh hear what they have to say. I don't uh sometimes I feel that um you know I I don't want to bother people but at the same time I want to know what you think. Uh what I find here's where it doesn't work out too well when people don't want to talk, you know, they don't want to ask the question, they don't want to engage. But when they do
037want to engage, when they do want to ask the question, um we weren't able to pull this off, but one of the things that we wanted to do is uh start a cosmetology class. We couldn't find anybody to do a cosmetology class. You may have it here, but to do a cosmetology class, you have to be a licensed cosmetologist. and then you go have to go back get the the license to be a teaching cosmetologist. Well, couldn't get that second step. Nobody wanted to do it. But I went around and talked to everybody. I went around talked to all our cosmetology people. Um all the various things that are going on, everybody. I never met anybody didn't like it. Uh so that was But to me, if you would said we need a cosmetology class,
038I would have laughed at you. I said, "Oh, come on. Get out of here." No, everybody wanted one. So we were determined to do it. We just couldn't find anybody that would would I guess I don't know if they take a pay cut or not. I don't know what it I don't know what it is with what coat colleges make. But um but that was an area where we we solicited lots of community involvement, lots of participation. The only regret is we could not find the person and I put out failures, you know, whomever. I said let's can we get somebody can we can we you know start them now and get them and then it just didn't work out. Did that answer your question, sir? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Cole, Dr. Shannon, my next
039question is going to show your experience as a teacher who understands the day-to-day operations of the classroom and has sound knowledge of instruction, curriculum, and educational programs. Uh, how does your understanding of classroom management and instructional time influence your approach to district policies that impact teaching and learning on a day-to-day basis? Well, when you're instructional time is the most critical time that we have. We have been employed by the youth through being elected. We through being hired and um through various mechanisms to educate our the students that it's our our opportunity and privilege to do so. Instructional time is that time when we meet that obligation. So it is the most sacred of all things. Uh so I absolutely believe that we it starts with effective relationship between the teacher and the students. If you
040have an effective and by the way all the data shows that the most effective element in any environment is the teacher. So if the teachers feel that they're supported, if the teachers feel that they're coming to a work uh place that is safe and secure and nurturing for them as well, then they can provide that same thing to their students. That being said, then once they engage with those students and develop those relationships, classroom management goes out the door because you don't need it anymore. It's just a natural byproduct of relationships. You know, two walk together because they're friends. Um, so when you walk handinand with somebody, it's you usually don't have as and even if you do have disagreements, they're not arguments. They're not fights in the sense that we use that. So if
041we can get our teachers to see the uh the the need for good relationships where we have principles and supervisors and directors of schools and school boards who are helping those teachers see that need for um relationship building where when they come to school when they come to work that it doesn't matter what happened in their home when they come they're there for the kids. As I told one group, I said, "I've had a headache every day since February." I'm not kidding. It's the way science works in my head. I've got I've got a headache now. Um, but you come and you do what needs to be done and you do it with a cheerful attitude because that's the only thing we really get to decide, how we respond to environment. And so once we
042help our teachers see that, the kids will then begin engaging with them. They always will. I've had teachers who could get students to walk through the fiery pits of hail and I think, "Man, I wish I had your skills." Okay. Then we've got other teachers. They couldn't get them to find their way out of a wet paper bag. That's regrettable. Did that answer your question, sir? Yes, sir. St. Would you go ahead? Do you mind? Okay. Um, when you typically develop long-term strategies, how do you ensure that the district remains adaptable to changes in policy, which there's a lot of those, especially after the legislative session, right? Technology and educational trends. And the second portion of that is how do you plan on engaging key stakeholders including students, parents, staff, and the school board in
043the process? Well, I'll start with the second part first because I can remember it. The uh and so I may need you to repeat the first one again. Okay. The uh there's not going to be a thing that I do that you're not part of. If the board is not working with the director of schools, then we've got a problem. And that's so we want you part of all of those decisions. You make the policy. You set the vision. I just enact what you want. So that's going to be how you're taken care of. Any principal and supervisor that's working with me, not for me, but with me and we're going to be working to enact those policies the best that we can and where we find opportunities to make enhancements and improvements. We will
044approach you to consider changing your your policy. But at the end of the day, I think that took care of the second part. and then transitioning to the first. At the end of the day, even with some of the stuff that goes on after any legislative session, we're still just educating students. And I don't mean that we're just there in a in a in a condescending way. I mean that's really our function. We educate students. That's why we're here. That is our primary responsibility to provide for the sound educational advancement of our students wherever they are to where we can span of of a school year. So with that being said, even with changes and there are some changes that are and I won't specifically point out any unless you want me to that seem
045to be just silly and that we really struggle to try to accommodate those new laws that have been mandated. But still at the end of the day we're just educating students and that hasn't changed. Now the mechanisms have improved the instructional strategies for delivery have greatly been enhanced. But as I said earlier to his question, it's really about the relationship that exists between a teacher and her student and by extension their parents or guardians. Okay. Did that answer your question, ma'am? I think so. Tying that into long-term strategies because long-term strategies. Yeah. We've got we've got a five-year plan right now that we revisit every year. We're in the second year of that five-year plan and there needs to be little tweaks and modifications with every year, but we've also had a lot of changes
046in administration and the director and the board members. So, we're revisiting it with new people. So, kind of tying that long-term strategy into all the changes that are occurring, what what kind of um outlook do you have on that? Well, I will be reaching out to whomever and and to get as many resources available, but at the end of the day, I'll be working with you to develop those long-term strategies to be looking at where we need to put and allocate our resources. Um, as I said, there's always problems. Um I do recall that that there are a few buildings that need to have some repairs done to them. There are some but that's everywhere. Right. Okay. So uh but I imagine your five-year strategy would look a lot like our five-year strategy. You know
047that you want to improve the technology of your school district. You want to improve the facilities of your school district. You want to improve the the the security and safety and welfare of your school district. So, I mean, they're they're they're I don't mean to belittle them because no, they're not. They are absolutely essential as guideposts and you need to come back to them every year and see them, but they will remain in those broad categories anyway. And how do we need to cuz you probably do what most boards do. You have a 5-year plan and something came up that was more pressing that this roof needed to be fixed and even though this one was going to get fixed, we had to move it to to another gear. That's just the way you do.
048So come back and evaluate it again and I will bring in expertise of talking with colleagues, my years of experience and all this to give you as a sounding board on where you think you should allocate your time, resources, and money. Great. Thank you, Dr. Shannon. Chris King, District 6. Two-part question. How do you stay informed about federal, state, and local funding changes that impact the school district? How do I stay ab breast of those? Well, I read the uh the toss legislative update every year. Um I try to stay a breast of uh current uh lawsuits that are happening. Um I am just naturally curious about schools and what's going on. So I think that's just a natural extension of what I do already. Can you name an example of something that you've recently
049changed or had to deal with or are changing? Well, I think we're all dealing with cell phones. So, that's that's that's the new one. What do we do with that? So, we're all having to to to do with that. I thought it was very interesting that there was a new law now where the state board of education has enhanced subpoena power. I wondered what that what the impetus of that particular law was. Uh but uh so yeah, we we've we've got a well, here's another thing. Statewide dual credits going away cuz uh and so when you have statewide dual credit going away, we use that in Benton County. I'm sure you use that here. What are you going to replace that with? So we're having to look at a variety of areas to supplant that
050with uh something just as effective. One of the strategies that we're using is we're enhancing our industry credential offerings so that we're our students have a greater opportunity to get tier 2 and above um industry credentials across the board. Okay. Can I answer your question, sir? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Van Winkle. Question. And so this is our 10th and last criterion. It's a a respected instructional leader with a strong academic background. And I think this criterion comes from um our survey that we did throughout the community. So um the question is what systems or structures have you implemented to ensure instructional consistency and excellence across all schools under your leadership? Well, um when I started in uh as assistant principal in the U junior high, we were we went through and did a comprehensive look
051at where we were at and where we wanted to be. And we our our goal at that time, now we're we're getting a few years away from that, okay? But our goal at that time is that we said that we should be preparing our students to transition to high school the greatest success rate that they can because every time you change a building you change you know there's anxiety uh students don't to be do as well. So the more changes you have the more blimps you have in your data. So we we went through and and comprehensively redid the way we did our middle school to get so they were in essence serving what the high school's needs were. when I took over the career and technical education uh building, uh we hadn't updated the
052equipment there in a while. And that's not anybody's fault. It's just it's hard to do. It's expensive. And so I set out on a path of uh of diligent purpose to modernize the equipment. And I'm proud to say that I have done that without ever having once having to go back to the director of the school board for additional funds. uh we had, you know, grant money, but this is long before innovative school came along and long before Esser came along. So, we were putting in equipment that were needed. We wrote grants where we could. We we did what was necessary to get the equipment up to where what they were going to see in industry. Now, one of my weaknesses is that I tend to want to get a piece of equipment that's going
053to perhaps be a little bit more than they needed. Um, because I keep thinking, well, you know, that kid could see this, could see that, you know, and I so I need to that's a weakness where I need to drill back to get to just what's essential for a high school kid to get to. But that is um engaging with what they need. It's hard to teach machining when you've got a a welder that's about as big as that podium there. You know, it's not what they're going to find when they go out in into the workforce. So, we went about doing that and making sure they had what they needed. Now, each I usually had just one teacher in an area like one automotive teacher, one health science teacher. So again, small district, I'm
054sure you have multiple, but whenever you uh look at those, I had to work with each one individually on what their needs were to make sure that they had the curriculum that they needed to make sure that they had the resources that they needed. So we did all of that without ever having to ask for additional funds. We did all of that without ever having to have an increase in our budget other than the normal salary increases thing came that way. Um, and we did all that uh just through the fact that we were trying to be good stewards and effective educational leaders because well, you just make it work. You know, there's no joke in education. We've done so much for so long with so little, but now everybody thinks we can do everything
055with nothing. Thank you. Yeah, we've got some time to go through some more questions. Miss Doll, you'd like to ask the second question there. All right. Um, what steps will you take to maintain open lines of communication with staff and community, especially in times of crisis or rapid change? Well, in dealing with a crisis and rapid change, I think transparency is the greatest advocate that you can have. it's the uh uh if if the if the community and stakeholders know that that you are going to tell them. So if we have uh you know that's the policy that our directors taken and I absolutely support him and in fact I run the notification system in Benton County. So um I will I'm sure you've got something similar here. Uh we will make sure that those
056are u maintained or broadened if you don't have them and that whatever we have it's going out. People know it. We we should have nothing to hide. And as far as uh maintaining open lines of communication, um we should be talking and when I say we, I mean you and I, the board, we should be talking regularly. And I plan on meeting with uh on a very frequent basis with all of our supervisors uh and and principles and assistant principles. And then certainly taking time to go to each school and talk with the teachers to let them have an opportunity to meet with me in private and confidence to uh to go over their things that they have that are problematic for them or they may just want to talk about how great how great
057their job is. You know, that may be it too and that'd be wonderful if it work. So that uh hopefully that answers your question. Yes. Thank you, Mr. So my next question would be um um how do you ensure transparency and clarity when communicating complex or challenging issues to parents, staff, and the wider community? What a great question. What a great question. I uh I like to pride myself on on being maybe not verbally, but when I am writing, I try to be an effective communicator. And so my my strategy has always been that unless it just absolutely has to go out right then that I will craft it and shop it around. And I used to have one back in the day when I when I did things. I I asked it to the
058person who was the most least offensive person I could find. Never had, you know, never. And I say, "What do you think about this? What do you think this says? Do you think I was too harsh too?" And so that's how I try to do that shop around. Now, if I can't, then uh I do rely on uh AI technology to help me uh sound more friendly sometimes than I come off. So I do use those uh skills uh that are available to everybody. And but I absolutely believe that that unless we're telling people what we're doing, they're not going to know what we're doing, but we'll assume they do. And it is typically bad because people for whatever reason today believe everything is worse than it really is. And I I wish society were
059not that way, but uh you know, gosh, Facebook, Snapchat, all those things probably are not helping us as a society as a whole. Thank you. Okay. Can you share an example of time when you recognize the need for significant change in a school district and how did you identify that change was necessary? Well, when we when we alleviated the problem of u having a you know it just wasn't getting wasn't working that that was an easy one to to see. Um, I'm a good one for let's let's run it for a year and see what happens, then come back, talk about it, and if it doesn't if it didn't work the way we wanted it to, then, you know, drop it, change it, modify it. So, I I have no trouble doing that, and I
060do that in my life. I mean, I I look at the things that work for me, and uh change them all the time because I I I strive to be u I am a sinner, but I strive to be the best version of me I can be. There you go. I don't always get it right, but I do try to be better. And I do that with my work too. I said, 'Well, how can we make this better? And every time any colleague I've ever dealt with, uh, I always say to them, I said, 'Now, next year when we come back and let's look at this again, maybe we could do this, this, and this. And, you know, we take notes and and and I've got a colleague that I just love working with, and
061she does a great job cuz she's a far better notetaker than I am. And we'll come back and and she'll remind me and said, "Well, we talked about this." Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, let's do it this way. And so, we we we tweak and change all the time because you never get it right. gener because there's no right. It's just simply what you do. Right. Good. Thank you. Do one more. All right. Hey, Dr. Shannon, can you think of a problem that was brought to you recently and what that problem was and how you handled it? [Music] Okay. Um, here here's an example of outside of the box thinking. I don't know about you, but u sometimes we have trouble finding teachers and we didn't really have everything we needed and we needed to do
062some shifting around to get u a particular endorsement to a particular area. This is middle school and u there's also a thing about computer science and you have to teach computer science starting with your whatever your middle I don't know where y'all start because your K8 that's that'd be an interesting question but since we started sixth grade but by the time they get to the eighth grade sometime between sixth and eighth grade they have to have nine weeks of computer science class and we've implemented it in our middle schools to do um in the sixth I mean in the seventh grade. So everybody does seventh grade. So the outside of the box thinking was is that we the computer science the person who was endorsed to do computer science was the person who had the
063right endorsement to do what was needed but there is no waiver for computer science. You can't get a waiver. So the a potential solution that I came up with is that we could take the hit for one year and not teach computer science and move it to the eighth grade and then pick those kids up who would have been in the seventh grade and take that year where we could move that person with the endorsement where they needed to be and then um pick up with computer science in the eighth grade. So we'd shift our focus from the seventh grade to the eighth grade because we had a by year. Uh so that was some outside of the box thinking. Um luckily it worked out where they didn't have to do that. But that was
064a solution that would have met the need to uh to take care of it. And it it also shows it demonstrates that you know you're not rigid thinking. It's got to be seven. No, it doesn't have to be. You just have to get it done before the eighth grade's over for us. Okay. Thank you. Help us understand how do you foster a culture of open dialogue and then the collaboration among the staff and admin to kind of prevent those conflicts that may arise from escalating and really focus on the nuts and the bolts. like how do you make that happen? I talk to people. I absolutely talk to people. I believe that if we can see things from different perspectives that we're all we're all enhanced as human beings. I genuinely genuinely believe that. And
065so, um, sometimes when I have who've had teachers come in and and they've had problems with other teachers or whatever, I say, "Well, have you thought about it from their perspective?" you know, or when we have teachers who've had problems with students, I one of the first questions I'd ask is, "Do you know the student's history?" You know, what is it? Because it may be that that student uh was uh kept up all night because one of their parents was arrested for drug abuse and uh and they were running a meth lab and they had any sleep. So, do we know where they're coming from? So looking at it from the other person's uh perspective is integral to any sort of growth as an individual and any sort of bonding as a group. Thank you
066Mr. Matthews. Um, how will you ensure that the community stays informed about both successes and challenges in the school system in a timely and transparent manner? Well, one of the the thing I hate social media, but but if it if the dog's there, we might as well run with it. Uh, so uh we would we would increase our and I'm sure you do a great job. I have no doubt. Uh, but we would make sure that if we're doing a great job, we continue doing a great job. And if we're not, we're going to step up the game because I know, I've never worked a day in this place, but I know teachers, I know people who put themselves up to be schoolboard members that you have the best interest of these kids at heart.
067Rarely have I ever met somebody that I thought you should never have come into this profession. That's rare. uh across the board, across the state, across my career. However, uh when we're looking at putting out that social media, there's far more good things going on here than bad things by a long shot. And since that is true, let's sell it. Sell is the wrong word because it has a connotation of trying to be a sham artist or a, you know, a a snake oil salesman. That's not what I mean. But I mean, you're promoting your strengths. You tell people I don't do a good job of that. Me uh myself, but but uh but you do you you enable people to be their own cheerleaders to say the good things going on. I love the
068the posters you got out there, the pictures of all your uh people of the year for 2425. Great idea. I'm taking that back. I'm stealing. So, we're going back. I'm going to say we need to do that. We need to have that up. Ours is a smaller district so we can have better pictures. But I'm I'm going to steal that when I get back. But that's how you do it. And when it comes to the bad things, well, you need to let people know about emergencies when they're happening. Need to let them know about outcomes when they're over. Uh but now I don't know that I want to put a newsletter out about how how bad how bad a third grade went or whatever. But but we do need to have that uh engagement with
069the community where they they can come in and ask me any question and if it's not illegal, unethical, or immoral, I'm going to talk to them about it. There are some things I can't talk to them about because it'd be illegal. It'd be unethical. However, outside of those two or those three parameters, uh whatever you want to talk about and you know, let's go eat lunch, buy a tree, let me know what you think. And that goes for y'all, too. Let's go eat lunch. Let me know what you think. See, how do you ensure that the instructional practice and curriculum in the district meet the diverse needs of students and align with educational standards? Well, the state of Tennessee has uh kind of said a lot of that for us. Uh but so I guess
070the the biggest part of that question that that we would have responsibility for is making sure that we appropriately utilize the textbook money we get and use it to buy the best curriculum that we can cuz you know it has to last us a long time. That means that we've got to have actively engaged supervisors. We've got to have actively engaged teachers who are vetting this material to make sure it's what we need and to try to do what's very difficult to do. Go back to that five-year plan and look down the road because well, nobody saw co nobody saw the fact that we would be having school with Zoom conferences. Um but we're there now. We can do it now. So um and seeing that we just make sure that our supervisors are monitoring
071our teachers appropriately. and that hopefully they can have time to actually be in the classroom to provide instructional support so that they are helping them to grow and to be nurtured and that our teachers have appropriate mentors that they can go to and have uh time which they can assess and and look at common planning times where it's possible look at areas where they can interface with others to step up to step down to see what where they need to be where they've come from. So these communications are both lateral and vertical. uh and to engage with what we're using cuz I mean I don't know about y'all but I mean our our our uh latest rounds of of books for English, math, and science. They that was a costly dollar right there. So uh
072we need to make sure we're getting the use of our money and that means we're implementing it. Now the state's got some they call it what is it? High quality or high accountability. I forget, but there's always new names with the state, but they want to make sure that we have high quality instructional material, you know, but we got to be sure we're using that, too. But here's the other thing. It can't just be that curriculum. You can't just have the curriculum do it itself, cuz it won't. It can't do it. I don't care what what you know, you've got to have that relationship. You've got to have that teacher who is a grade level uh uh content area specialist that they know their content. They know what's needed. If you talking to a seventh
073grade math teacher, that seventh grade math teacher knows seventh grade math. That seventh grade math teacher knows what uh sixth grade math is and what's eighth grade math is in terms of what they should have when they're coming up and what they need when they're going forward. And they need to know that. Teaching's hard. I mean, it is hard. Yeah. People think it's just off in the summer and and we're just out laying on the beach, you know. Yeah. Uh but that ain't it. I it I don't know if that is ever it, but it sure ain't it now. And so we've got to make sure that we are engaging with what we've got to do because you can't turn around ask these good people in uh Cumberland County here to uh give you another
074however many millions you spent on your textbook. I mean, we bought a lot of uh don't come that way. So, we got to get it right and then make sure we're using it. But that relationship and engaging that material with the students, that's the key. That's a success. Thank you, Dr. Shannon. Let you ask us some questions now. You have any? I do have a question for you. Uh um actually, it's not it's not a question. I do want to uh uh whatever the outcome of this vote is whenever you have it, I am perfectly happy with whatever happens. And I want to thank each and every one of you for giving me a wonderful interview, for giving me a great uh chance to drive up here. I got to listen to a good book
075on the way up here. I'm going to listen to another good book on the way back. And I might even go by bies. I'm sure you got to go by bies. I I truly Yeah, you got to go. You got to go. I tr I want to say this from the bottom of my heart. I'm not trying to sway a vote so I don't care. Okay? Do care, but I don't care. I'm going to go with you. I'm being genuine and honest. Thank you for running for office. This is what makes our democracy work. People who get a lot of flack. I know you're paid well. So, that's uh to be appreciated for what you do and thank you for that. Thank you for giving me a great interview. Thank you for uh giving me
076the opportunity to come and see this lovely old building. It is so great, isn't it? I drove past it. I went on down, looked at the at the the Jets and and I didn't get a chance to go see Panther Country, but but I did go see the Jets and as I was driving by, I said, "This has got to be the longest central office I have ever seen." So, it's it's wonderful. Uh so, anyway, thank you for the time and uh for having me. It's been a genuine pleasure for everybody that I met today, including the young lady from the Chronicle, Jessica, who who was entertained me when I when I was sitting there and we had a great conversation. She's got some grandparents live in Dixon, of course, which is close to me.
077So, and she drove there last night and came back. Isn't that nice just to be here with us tonight? So, anyway, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Anything else? I think that's all. We appreciate your time. Thank you, sir. We appreciate your time. Thank you. Now, I'm assuming I'm free to go. You are free to go. Listen to that book and enjoy your ride home. Thank you. Thank you for all coming out being here. [Music] Take a quick recess and come right While we're waiting on her to show back up in here, we'll be off what we're going to do. We've got pretty much one hour to set up for this. Hopefully, we're we're going to go through the same exact questions that we just asked. Same order, same way. Generally, 3
078minutes per answer. You don't have to use the whole time. If you do, that's fine. If you don't, then we'll go to the next question. I'll wait on Miss here in just a minute. try to give you a quiet time to get nervous here. We do appreciate you applying for the position, too. Got our ground rules. Um, [Music] on the first question, it's going to tie into a similar question that is giving you time to introduce yourself and we'll have about three minutes for that. When we get to the end, we'll give you time to ask us questions and make a wrap-up summary if you want to. Okay. Thank you. So, we'll get started with uh question one. Dr. Farley, we've read your resume. We know some things about you. Is there anything that you'd
079like to tell us that was not included in your resume? No, I didn't think that was working at first. So, if you would, even though it's kind of awkward, you know us, we know you fellow people that are listening something about you. So, thank you all for the opportunity that you have given me to lead Cumberland County Schools. Approximately two months ago, I stood before you telling you that I was consistent, determined, industrious, and goal oriented. I think in our brief time together, you could say that you have seen these qualities in me and my work. Consistency through my communication with you all with Farley's follow-throughs every Monday. Determination in our time together working on the budget. We set meetings, came together, discussed and pondered, and arrived at a budget. A goal of mine in
080the brief period of time that I was in the position was to leave it better than I found it. I feel I was able to accomplish a small slice of this through the sense of calm and stability I brought. Numerous employees have thanked me for less tension that was felt. employees know that I have been here and that I will continue to be here. I can say that Cumberland County Schools closed the 2425 school year by meeting all state requirements and completing them on time. I was able to visit every school and talk to employees. I attended numerous extracurricular activities. Our students are doing wonderful things and it's because of our amazing people. All of our amazing people. Again, I thank you for the opportunity that you gave me to serve. Second question, Miss um
081what will you do to create atmosphere in the schools that will lead to educational excellence for all students? Well, we are getting to adopt new science textbooks and when I met earlier today with the community and the teachers and staff and the principles and supervisors, I looked at that as an opportunity and an obstacle uh because you know with new science books now we that will give us our third new textbook relatively new that has been adopted under the Tennessee guidance of the textbook books cover 100% of the standards. So, we have those those resources. Now, we have to get our people ready and we have to make sure that we have clear expectations as to what we expect of our teachers in the line of rigor and what an effective lesson looks like. And
082we need to make sure that we are teaching every moment that we can with all of the requirements that we have. And uh that would be uh set forth by me as the instructional leader for this district when I have outcomes outcome meetings with the principles and supervisors. You're welcome. Mr. Dave, uh Dr. Farley, what do you consider to be your major strengths that you would bring to this position? My relationships without a doubt is probably my strongest. Um I think most people respect me. Uh sometimes when you are in a leadership role, not everybody's going to like you. Uh sometimes that's hard to accept. Uh just the human side of that. Uh because you have to make difficult decisions sometimes and you have to do things that are not always fun and easy. But
083I think relationships is a strong piece. Um I know most of the employees, know several of them's names. Um, so that's one piece. Um, organization. Um, I think most of the principles and supervisors that are sitting behind me would say that, um, yeah, I could probably organize anything to a fault. Um, uh, community. Um, not everybody obviously in Cumberland County knows me. Uh but um I would gladly serve as CC school's ambassador and be at everything I could promoting you all and our school system and the great things that's going on. Thank you. You're welcome. [Music] Okay. Um, can you share an example of a time when a staff member or community member proposed an idea you initially disagreed with but later embraced after listening to their perspective? In 2018, we were 12 years out
084from adop adopting a reading language arts textbook. A colleague that worked with me very closely came to me and proposed the idea of the school system participating in the Lyft network. That stands for leading innovation for Tennessee. Well, I just really wasn't excited about that. Uh I didn't know what that would entail for our teachers um or for principles for that matter. Um she was pretty passionate about it. So, uh, I went ahead and agreed to do that. And through that, uh, network, our schools, uh, and our langu English language arts teachers especially was able to get resources that was not available to us for two more years because of the textbooks. Um, so that was huge. Um and um I saw that she was correct and um that also uh gave me more knowledge
085of what uh an appropriate rigorous English language arts classroom and lesson should look like. So yes, I was reluctant. Not only did I benefit from it, but our teachers was able to benefit from it, which is the main thing. Thank you. criterion two. How do you balance sharing the successes of the school district while also highlighting areas where improvement is needed? And and can you give an example of when you've done this? So, everybody likes to hear about successes. You know, what we're doing good, that's great. Um, so obviously if you're going to be straightforward in your presentation, start with a success, give the bad news, end with a success. Um, but when you're giving those challenges, um, I think it's important not only to give those challenges, but you know, we have to look
086at, okay, so this is where we are. We have to arrive at why we're there. And at this point, it is what it is. There's no need to lay the blame. Let's all own it. Let's all come together, figure out how we're going to fix it. Share that with everybody that needs to know. And then once we have that plan, follow through with that, and make sure that we're seeing what we said we were going to see. Then end on, hey, you know, we also did this well as as well. Um, yeah, I've done that. Um when I present the standardized test scores at board meetings, uh that's usually an example of what I would do. Uh we do have a few successes, but sometimes we have more areas to focus on to improve in.
087You're welcome. Hello, Dr. Farley. Hello. So, what process do you use to determine whether a change is truly necessary for the school or the district? And how do you gather input and make decisions? Well, obviously if you have data and numbers, that is absolutely the best. It's very difficult to argue with numbers as we all know. [Music] If you don't have that, I think your leader has to know your organization. You have to know the people because if you know the people and you have a relationship with them, they may come to you and say, "This isn't working. We've got to change it." But if no one's comfortable enough to do that, if you know your people, you can read them and read their emotions and go from there to make the change. um I
088would really want to include them in their input on how to make the change happen and what they think is best. And then um after that's that decision is made, let's step back from this and let's take a day or two and see and weigh out the pros and cons and see what's going to be best and how to proceed. But I think that input from the stakeholders is huge because if they help to fix it, they're going to be more invested. That's good. Thank you. Thank you. Tell us about a difficult decision that you had to make that affected multiple stakeholders and how did you ensure that your decision was fair and impartial? Well, as an educator, as an educational leader, anytime that you're dealing with staffing, whether that's hiring or dismissing, that's going
089to affect multiple stakeholders. And I think what you have to do is you have to be sure that you have all of the facts and data that you need. And that would ensure that you are fair and impartial, I think, is what you said. Mhm. equally terrible. And you've had to deal with some changes in staffing recently, haven't you? Just a few. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. use to build trust and then maintain the strong relationships essentially with those stakeholders. Um, and can you provide us with a specific specific example of where those strategies were effective? I think you have to be visible and I think you have to be responsive, consistent and timely. Um, if you are visible and people know who you are, they're probably going to feel like they can approach you
090and let you know a concern or issue that they're having. Um, and then, uh, once you're made aware, uh, you have to be responsive. Um, I shoot for 24 hours. If something's brought to my attention, I try to get back to the individual within 24 hours. I don't always accomplish that, but I give it my all. Um, I think you have to be consistent not only in your dealings individually, but make sure that you are consistent in handling all of the topics and issues that are brought to you. Um, and again, timely, you know, making sure that you follow through and follow up with these individuals. And I can give you a very specific example. You and I were just discussing it out in the hallway. So the day after I was named interrum, I
091received a telephone call regarding Stone Memorial Football Field and the progress on that. I really hadn't been involved in that plan and the situation and didn't know where we were. So um I reached out to Miss Bray to see where we were in the process, see what the process was. Um within probably an hour, I called the individual back to let them know where we were. At that point, we were having to wait for the bids to come through, which those were opened, I do believe, May 15th after the bids were opened. Um, that was on a Friday, I do believe. I did call that individual back and let them know the bids were open today. This is the person who got it. But before I called the the parent back, I called the individual
092that was awarded the bid. I wanted to know his timeline. Where did he think he would be? you know, how long did he think it would take? Um, he got back to me and I reported that to you all in a Farley's follow-th through the following Monday as well. So then, uh, we got ready for the work session on Thursday. Um, I was told he would start the second to third week in June. So last week being the second week in June, before we came to our work session, I called Miss the individual back, asked him where he was. He I reported that out to you all, told you what all we had accomplished, where we were, and today I followed through again with that parent to let them know where we were. So I
093think uh in my dealings with that situation, you could see my responsiveness and my timely inconsistency. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Um, can you tell us about a time when you created or enhanced meaningful opportunities for parents, students, community members to get involved in the decision-m process and what was the outcome? So, every year the school district has to submit an improvement plan. So that has goals. Typically, they're academic goals. Math, ELA, college, career readiness. Me personally, I'm a firm believer in three goals because along with those goals, you include action steps and strategies and the individual that's going to be responsible for carrying these goals out. So two years ago, we worked together uh with our stakeholders, which is community and parents and teachers um on our district improvement plan. Well, they were
094just astonished at our chronic absentee rate. Some of the parents were there, you know, they make sure their kids goes to school every day and they couldn't understand that kids didn't. So, you know, we explained the process and sometimes if kids are sick, even though we get the excuses, they're still considered chronic absent. So, this group was really passionate about that chronic absentee. So we came together as uh supervisors in developing our plan and we from that meeting and their passion we added chronic absentee as a fourth goal to our district improvement plan. That has enabled us to put more of a focus on that because now we have goals, we have action steps, we know what individuals are responsible for what. We haven't received as much as we would like in a decrease in
095our chronic absentee, but we have seen a small decrease in that. Dr. Farley, how does your understanding of classroom management and instructional time influence your approach to district policies that impact teaching and learning on a day-to-day basis? The educational demands placed on our schools, our principles, and our teachers are unreal. Not only are we expected to teach the standards in the elementary setting, we are also required to teach or to provide 40 minutes every day of physical activity. We also address character education and social emotional learning. When you put all of that together and you think this through, we have each child roughly from arrival to departure for 8 hours a day, 6 hours of instruction. We cannot afford to waste a single minute with a single child. We have to ensure that they are
096engaged meaningfully every day. You're welcome. you were just talking about some long-term strategies, short-term long-term strategies, and we've got our five-year long-term strategy goals that we're working towards. So, when you're developing your long-term strategies, how do you ensure that the district remains adaptable to the changes that we have that occur in policy and technology and educational trends? And how do you plan to engage stakeholders including students, parents, staff, and the school board in the process? With any plan, be it a strategic five-year plan, the district improvement plan that I have mentioned, it has to be a living document. Um, you have to follow through. You have to revisit it frequently. Check your status, check your progress. If you do that, you're going to ensure that you're going to be adaptable with policy changes and trends
097to involve stakeholders. You uh would if it's your strategic plan. For instance, for each area, the academics, the athletics, the CTE, the operations, uh, resources, we would need to ensure that we have a parent, we have a student, we have a teacher, we have a board member, we have a supervisor, we have all of those individuals working on each component of that plan. Now, you know, when you get that many people together, it's really difficult, but we would have to be flexible. uh you know maybe think outside the box as to when and how we're going to meet. You know three o'clock every day may be great for some but it might not be best for all and we would need to definitely be accommodating and try to get participation from all stakeholders and be
098flexible in those times. Thank you. You're welcome. I think I have the next question Dr. Barley. Um, what what systems or structures have you implemented to ensure instructional consistency and excellence across all schools under your leadership? I would assume you're talking about not just the 53 days that I've been in place. when I served as the prek through 8 supervisor, I was able to get out into the schools and uh visit with the principles and and try to find out what was best for them and their needs. Um, you know, I think being there for them is important. Um, I've never really been in a place to say this is what we're going to do. This is how we're going to do it. Um, you know, as a pre-K through eight supervisor, I had a
099supervisor that was over me that reported directly to the director. Um, as chief academic officer, I was still under the director of schools. Um, but if I am chosen as the director, um, I have a transition plan I'd like to share with you all. Within the first 30 days, I would like to meet with each principal and develop outcomes and set goals for their schools. And at that time, I think we would need to look at some things. We've talked before about third grade and our proficiency rates. Um, I think establishing some priorities that we every third grade would have to meet um would definitely get us that consistency and hope it hopefully help us to get that proficiency up. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, Dr. Farley, tell us how you stay informed about federal,
100state, and local funding changes that can impact the school district. So, the Tennessee Department of Education contributes multiple multiple multiple newsletters. Some they put on a weekly basis, some are on a monthly basis. Um, I try to read all of those, but I don't read them immediately. I wait till I can read them. digest them and think through what they're saying. Um I also think that uh being involved in professional organizations and attending meetings is very very helpful. Um me personally I like to read. Um so trying to stay a breast when I hear about something that's coming up or a publication or if you all share something with me um I try to read that and digest that as well. Okay, second part of that second part of that question is provide another example
101of when you successfully navigated the changes such as the 30 whatever new laws that came out. Well, I don't know if number one, I don't know if this will answer what you're saying or if it would qualify as a successful change, but it is a change. So, currently, as you all know, we're under TIESA funding for our school system. Well, in 1999, when I began my teaching career, uh we were under the basic education program or BEP. So that funding focused on itemized resources whereas now with TISA we have a per student basis. So you know getting used to the changes and the um recommendations requirements that come with both of those plans. I have dealt with that. You're welcome. Go for round two now. Miss What steps will you take to maintain open lines
102of communication with staff and the community especially in the times of crisis and rapid change? I have a proposed communication plan. Um, I would, uh, publish monthly in the Crossbow Chronicle, um, a newsletter, uh, and it would be from the desk of the director letting the community know of happenings in schools with the, um, uh, employees. I would send them an email quarterly letting them know. Um, but I have in my brief tenure I have and would continue to work with local law enforcement and with uh emergency management to send out uh information quickly and when we need to. Uh we currently use Facebook, our website and X and we would continue to use those means as well. uh for the 2526 school year um we will be going to a uh communication platform called
103parent square and that allows us to use multiple modes of communication uh cell phone uh text message um email uh and a phone call and it also allows us to do that in um uh multiple languages and dialects. Cool. Thank you. You're welcome. So, the next question is, um, how do you ensure transparency and clarity when communicating complex or challenging issues to parents, staff, and the wider community? I think that it has to go, communication has to go out in various forms. Uh sometimes it's best if it's written, sometimes it's a text, sometimes it's a phone call. Uh email, not all parents have emails. Not all parts of our county have reliable internet access. So, I think we have to use multiple methods to get that out to make sure that all individuals have access.
104Um, I think it needs to be written clearly where everybody can understand. I will admit educators typically can be the world's worst people to use those $10 words. So, it needs to be clear and easy to understand. Um, and if we need to get it out in multiple languages and dialects, I think that would need to be done. uh and it needs to be gotten out as quickly as we can get it out. Thank you. You're welcome. So has the wisdom to know when change is necessary and the ability and determination to generate such change even in the face of opposition. Can you share an example of a time when you recognize the need for significant change in a school or district? How did you identify that change was necessary? Well, we all know that
105we've struggled to find teachers. You've heard that in your time on the board. Not only have we struggled to find teachers, but we've also struggled to find at times uh principal and assistant principal candidates. So in looking back um the last couple of years our leadership meetings with principles and assistant principles have kind of been uh done different ways not sure that they were always effective. So in looking at that and in looking at a decline in the number period of candidates let alone qualified candidates for assistant principal and principal positions. Um I I thought it was best to revise and figure out a leadership program for the school system. So this year we changed our assistant principal meetings. Uh they had a format um and I can share that here in a little bit
106or I can share it now either one but we changed our assistant principal meetings and we also revised our aspiring adminmmies. Um, in order to take this district forward, we have to prepare leaders to be ready to step in and lead us and to continue our momentum. Good. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, can you think of a problem, just one, because you can probably think of many, but can you think of a problem that was brought to you recently and what that problem was and how you handled it? Absolutely. Um, so during standardized testing, I was the testing coordinator. I had an appointment that day out of town. I was getting ready to back out of my garage when I received a call from a principal and they were doing online testing and
107they lost the internet. Oh gosh. Now, we had to maintain testing integrity and what that meant was we had to keep those students quiet and together until this issue was resolved. So I had to report this incident to TDOE. I worked with a principal at that time. We came up with with a plan, you know, and you think, okay, it's just like when your lights flicker at home, okay, this is going to be brief. Okay, so 3 hours later after these students, and when I say these students, I'm saying sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. So you're looking 80 90 kids had eaten lunch in their classroom with their Chromebooks under their desk. They had gone to the restroom one at a time. Um the internet came back. Someone had spliced a cable and they were
108able to restore our internet. The school, the teachers, the principal, the testing coordinator did an amazing job. um they maintain that security and that integrity of the test. We were able to complete the test with no issues. So what I did in that process, you know, several times I was on the phone with TDOE. Um when I arrived at my appointment, I'm like, "Look, sorry, I've got something going on. I'm going to have to take my phone calls." So I was on the phone with TDOE. I was on the phone with the school. They were giving me updates. So can our kids do this? Can we do this? So, uh, I took the calls. We arrived at a plan. The first thing I did when they told me, I thought, "Oh, it's something minor." So,
109we had a school that wasn't testing. I sent the technology tech from that school to that school. Never had been there to my knowledge to work with kids, but sent that tech or the teachers either. Sent that tech. So, uh, provided the support, followed through, developed a plan, and then at the end of the day, I followed through with TDOE, I followed through with the school, I followed through with the administrator. But here's the most important piece. I followed through with the kids. Later on, when they were given their reward day for staying quiet for 3 hours and getting to go to the bathroom one at a time, uh, I provided them extra refreshments when they got their day out. So, we had a big old cake and we had uh frozen pops and we
110had flavored water. That's good. Thank you. That's a good example. You're welcome. Real life. Real life happens every day, right? Absolutely. Mr. Dick, moving right along. Um, how do you foster a culture of open dialogue with um or and collaboration amongst your staff um and the administrators to kind of prevent those conflicts that could potentially arise? Would you care to repeat that? I'm sorry. Sure. Um, how do you foster a culture of open dialogue and collaboration among your staff to prevent the potential conflicts from escalating? The most important and best example I think would be to lead by example. Um if I want a principal or a teacher to be open to a teacher or a parent um I feel that I have to be uh open uh and communicate. Um if the need be
111and there was conflict I would step in you know to to try to make peace between the parties. Um, I really can't see that happening because most of the time our people here handle their own. Thank you. You're welcome, Mr. M. How will you ensure that the community stays informed about both successes and challenges of the school system in a timely and transparent manner? [Applause] [Music] So, as I said earlier, I have a communication plan where I would meet with or I would put an article in the newspaper. Um, I would also, um, email, uh, our CCBOE and let them know. Um, we would use the parent square communication, as I said, multiple modes and multiple languages and dialect. Um, here in a minute, you'll see my, uh, transition plan. Um and uh I would
112also want to get out and be in the schools myself uh and uh share things when that need arises. How do you ensure that the instructional practices and curriculum in the district meet the diverse needs of students and align with the educational standards? So, as I stated earlier when we were talking about our recently adopted textbooks and when I say recently that's you know within the last six years. Um, since that time, the state department has placed the requirement that in order to be adopted, 100% of the academic standards for that subject has to be covered in that textbook or it's not even put on there for it to be adopted. So, the standards are there. It It's just us and making sure that we follow through. Um, can you repeat that? How do you
113ensure that the instructional practices and curriculum in the district meet the diverse needs of students and align with the educational standards? I don't know that here recently we've done a really good job uh of meeting the needs of diverse learners. Um we have reached out recently with our core office and they are starting and working on an initiative called acceleration for all. Um and through that that allows school districts to develop a plan to reach those learners with the exceptionalities. Um, so we would need to come together as a district, um, and that would be supervisors and principles, figure out our plan, what that's going to look like, um, make sure we share that, uh, with all that need to be aware of the expectations, and then follow through and see if we see that
114going on in our classrooms. You're welcome. Okay. Now, Dr. Farley, we're going to ask you to ask us any questions you have and make a closing presentation. May I approach you all and give you something? [Music] Limited 30 minutes. Limited 30 minutes. I think I can make it. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] I love pink. So if you look at the um at the first page um this tells you uh aptitudes that I bring to the job as director. I have extensive experience, vast knowledge, strategic planning, leadership development, and a fierce work ethic. I'm not going to read these to you. It would take me past my 30 minutes. Timer started, by the way. Oh, did you start it already? Okay. So the next page is what you all could expect from me um as
115a director of schools communication. Um you would receive a weekly email every Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. called Farley's followth through. You would get an immediate text or email in emergency or need to know situations. you'd probably get a text, but just in case, an email. Uh, parents and community, as I have stated, um, monthly via the Crossville Chronicle, uh, a newsletter, uh, from the desk of the director, Facebook post and videos, and, um, a staff email quarterly letting them know of happenings in the school. Um, I would be and have been consistent in my dealings, uh, transparent. This has been brought up as well. Responsiveness, again, there's immediate when possible or within 24 hours. Um, I would serve as a Cumberland County school ambassador. I would be at county commission meetings. I would be
116at the orchestra performances. Um, I would be at the TICA meetings. I would be at school events. um and uh work ethic. You're probably tired of hearing that, but that's something that my parents instilled in me and uh I take that very serious. So, this has been shared with the community. I shared it with the teachers and staff, and I shared it with the principles and supervisors. These are what I see as opportunities and obstacles for Cumberland County Schools for the next school year. If you would look, you would see several things appear on both list. Uh the new science textbooks, that's so exciting. We know that they're going to cover the standards. We've got to prepare our teachers. We know we're going to have a day or a half a day to train them.
117We know that that's not going to be until close till school starts. Those textbooks, for the most part, have been ordered. I think finishing up and working on finishing touches today. Um third grade is an opportunity and an obstacle. Yeah. And benchmarks. Um the opportunities there is to give teacher input uh to get their knowledges and their strategies. Uh, but an obstacle is it's got to align and we have to analyze it and we have to make sure that it's truly predictive to let us know where we're going to be at in December and where we're going to be at in March before we get that final autopsy that's done called TECAP. Um, accomplishments as interim director collaborated and communicated with you all. Um, you know, we had several budget meetings and we've had a
118few work sessions. Uh, again, you've got the farley followth through every uh week. Uh, let you know some other other things, some hiring decisions that's been made. Um, I think we had a bus bump one time that I made you aware of. We had, shockingly enough, in May we had a 2-hour school delay due to weather. Who would have thought that? Um, uh, the school budget has been an accomplishment. Uh, personnel have addressed hiring, non-renewal, and discipline of, uh, school personnel in preparation for the 2526 school year. Stability. We I concluded the school year with a sense of cohesion uh, for school personnel, students, and family. And again, the Cumberland County Schools Ambassador So here are some proposed ideas if I am given this job that I would do for the 2526 school year. Um
119we had this a few years ago but I would like to bring back the parent advisory council, the student advisory council. Um this would be beneficial to TIA as well as for some of the projects they're doing. They need student input. So, you know, this would probably be high school and uh middle school students. Um, also today uh as a result of my uh teacher and staff meeting, uh a classified advisory council was brought up too and that would definitely be something that I would want to do. Um we also have a teacher advisory council that I would like to continue to establish. um begin budget preparations for the um 2627 school year in August. I know in the work session you guys said July, but you know, if you give me the opportunity to
120do this job, please give me a month to get school started before we start working on the budget. please uh uh to continue to um revise uh monthly assistant principal meetings in the aspiring uh administrator academy to develop school leaders. Um working on the agenda based on feedback given um from both of those groups. Um collaborate with principles to develop a plan for third grade to increase proficiency in ELA. um continue to visit schools, be available to all to increase morale and build a positive culture, increasing job satisfaction, which will positively affect our students environment and learning. I think that's huge. Next, you will see a transition plan. What I would hope to accomplish the first 30, 60, 90, and 120 days of school. This is a little bit of a snapback, but hold a
121meet and greet the first week in July on the courthouse lawn. That's good. Um, hold outlook meetings. These meetings would be with supervisors, principles, and central office staff and that would be within the first 30 days. Uh, 60 days we would have our convocation meet with school administrators to develop yearly goals. what do they hope to accomplish for the 2526 school year in their building and these don't have to be solely academic um visit every school attend a faculty meeting I would want to participate in back to school meet your teacher open house at as many schools as possible each school calls it something different but I would like to be at as many as I can and also within that time I would like to publish uh an organizational chart within the first 90
122days. Meet every school employee. Uh, and I have them all listed there. Uh, begin staff temperature checks. Um, anytime I have gone into a new leadership role, this is what I've tried to do. Reach out to teachers and staff and find what's going well, what's not going well. And that would be in your school and your district. And that way you can, you know, get a pulse. And hopefully that would help also in building morale. Within the first 120 days I want to spend one day in every school. By that time I would have completed one round of communication with every stakeholder group and I would also meet with the school administrators to check the progress and status of the yearly goals that we developed in the first 60 days. So next is leadership development.
123So you've heard me talk of these. I have this. I didn't print you all 95 copies. I thought I would save just one tree or two. But this uh includes and I'll be happy to leave it, share it, whatever you need me to do. This includes the activities and events from our assistant principal meetings as well as our aspiring administrator meetings. Both of those groups met once a month. The assistant principles I think we started in August. Uh the aspiring admin we started in September. Um we met monthly. The format for those meetings was very similar. We did a book study. Assistant principles was the book called Get Better Faster. And with the aspiring admin, it was what great principles do differently. Um we had topics that were pertinent to either assistant principles or to
124aspiring admins and uh then we had a scenario portion in each in each group. Uh the individuals would look and think about the issue themselves and then they would get together with the group and collaborate. Assistant principles was a little bit different from aspiring admins because they're obviously they're at different places in their career. an assistant principal has to begin thinking as a principal and they have to um ground their thinking in policies. So each one of their um scenarios they had to list the CCBOE policies that it pertained to. So if you will humor me just a second I will tell you one scenario. [Music] This was the uh assistant principal uh and this was September. Maddie, a junior, continually violates dress code. She may wear skirts too short, pajama pants, or inappropriate shirts.
125Mattie is pretty slick and will be in dress code at one time and the next time she will not. It is the sixth week of school and she already has three dress code violations. As an administrator, how would you address this habitual h behavior? So that was for the assistant principles. The uh aspiring admin wasn't as bad. Um this is February. This is kind of interesting. And I used uh weird names so I would not infringe upon anyone. Mr. Black, a teacher in your building, apparently attended a bachelor party this past weekend. Pictures of him on a bar with a topless woman have shown up on Facebook. How would you address this with Mr. Black? Um now that we get everybody back together. So, um I was able to use these this information um when
126I presented at the perspective superintendence academy. That was my problem of practice because it's a real problem, you know, not having uh leaders. Um and uh I was really honored when the uh retired superintendent that I presented to who works with districts asked if he could use my stuff to share with his people. But next you can see um we surveyed the assistant principles on what they felt was most beneficial uh and we surveyed the aspiring admins as well on what portion of uh the meetings that they felt was most beneficial and what they thought needed to be changed. So um when we started the school year last year at the beginning in August we had the agenda set for the assistant principles and we had that for aspiring admin for assistant principles that's not
127going to be said in August because I want to get their input because that's what they suggested getting their input and seeing what they thought that they needed. So, may not be able to, you know, whip it all together and organize it like I would want to, but if that's necessary and it best fits their needs, that's exactly what I want to do. But, um, you can read through those. If I went through every one of these, I would really be here for a long time, so I know I'm probably down to about 15 minutes. But, I do want to share just a little bit of information about the Aspiring Administrators Academy. We did have 11 participants, six females, five males. Only 10 completed the survey. One was on maternity leave. We had three elementary
128people, two district, and six high schools. We've had two people apply for admin jobs that were in the aspiring, which I think is huge. Uh next, you can see my um total transparency obviously. You can see my uh evaluations from the principles for the last two years. There's my scores. Uh on the additional documents, you can see where I was appointed to the um state textbook commission and where um I completed the perspective superintendent academy and obviously in total transparency on the last page. Uh there I have given every one of you two pictures of me without a stitch of makeup on. However, I am justified in both instances. I had just completed 26.2 miles. Um, I have completed two marathons. The first one in uh November of 2018 and the last one in December
129of 2024. Again, um as consistent as a hair and a biscuit, they used to say. Um, next on the bottom is a crossstitch project that I started in 1994 and I completed that in 2020. Questions? Thank you, Dr. Farley. I do have a closing if that's okay. I just wanted to make sure no one had any questions. Okay, go ahead. When you think of your years in school, you often think of relationships. Whether that's your friends, groups, or a school personnel that you had a special relationship with. Those bonds are invaluable and they help make the school experience what it is, as well as mold us as individuals. Theodore Roosevelt said, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." This is definitely true for students as well as for
130me. I know many of the employees of the school system and many of them by name. I care for them and the students. I want the very best for our employees. All of them and all of the students. My dedication to Cumberland County Schools is evident in my professional record. 26 consecutive years in various capacities. I want Cumberland County Schools to be a leader, a leader in academics, athletics, and operations. I want us to be the systems others call and want to follow. Many will say they know I care. I ask you for the opportunity to show what I know and lead Cumberland County Schools. Thank you, Dr. Appreciate the extra packet as well with all the information. Well, you know, I've got this if anybody wants to peruse it. Yeah. [Music] Thank you. Thank
131you. [Music] Thanks. 13. Oh, I can read every book. Thank you. [Music] I'm sorry. It's okay. It's okay. That was amazing. Yes. Yes, it was. So, Thursday, we need to be prepared to vote. Excuse me. That is going to be on the agenda. Yes, we will discuss and vote Thursday at the regular meeting. Okay. Okay. If y'all have other questions, do we hand in our summaries or No, they're just for us. Thursday, that's for us. We vote. Okay. Thursday, we'll hand them in. Yeah. Okay. So, once we vote, those are submitted the end of the meeting. Summaries. Summaries. Summaries. They'll go on file. They go on file. Okay. So the next steps in the process like we're going to deliberate, discuss, vote on a candidate and then go into who's going to negotiate contract for
132say candidate once we decide on who we're picking. Yes. We will nominate someone to negotiate a contract. Okay. And then they come back to us with the negotiated contract for us to discuss and vote on. We'll either do that at a special call meeting or at the next meeting. We need to do it pretty quick. July one's coming. Exactly. Right around the corner. Yeah. So, also depending on the conditions of the negotiation, how long that takes, right? So, if we could if we can come to a negotiated contract, then it would need to be a special called meeting because that won't be before our board meeting, right? But when we select someone Thursday night, kind of be prepared to put some parameters out there for a contract, ranges of salaries, some requirements, any anything you
133want to be in the contract, then we'll select somebody to negotiate that. So basically using the format of the one that we worked with with Billy. Yeah. Unless you got a better plan, not me, Scott. Okay. So, does everybody still have a copy of that to look at in order to come with dig out? I think we have Diane. I think at one time we had one pretty well agreeable. Glad I think we should use that as their starting point. Yeah. Okay. Well, as long as everybody has a co I was asking if everybody had a copy of that. So, get it out and read it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, if everybody's got that, then you can refresh your memory on it and come to the table on Thursday with the parameters like Mr. King
134mentioned. Would you all like me to email it for just to have or I will say yes. Thank you. You got a sanitized version without names and stuff. Yeah. Okay. I can do that. There's no other questions or comments or business before the board this evening. Jessica, no. Good. We will adjourn. [Music]