Gary Nelson "Gary's World" Published Jan. 21, 2005

Should we change the law the elect a superintendent?

Before I start I must say that I respect all of the people who hold a local public office in county and city government and I respect all the members of the Cumberland County Board of Education. These truly are courageous individuals who hold thankless positions. Their work and stress levels are tremendous. To all of you - a pat on the back. That being said ...

It was during a recent Cumberland County Commission meeting that commissioners passed a resolution urging the Tennessee General Assembly to allow the return to the election of a director of schools by popular vote. In other words the county commission wants the legislature to change the state law back to the way it used to be and let the county vote for whom they want to be superintendent of schools.

Ah, the good old days.

Now granted, the entire county commission doesn't want to this. There are six members who want to keep the state law the way it is now and have the Cumberland County Board of Education hire or appoint a director of schools.

What strikes me as interesting in this situation is that many of the commissioners who voted to change the law back to the way it used to be say they are voting this way because "that's the way their constituents want it."

Let me explain a little further. The people who elected them want to have a voice in electing the superintendent. Several commissioners said they had received phone calls urging them to support the resolution to have the law changed back.

However, several commissioners reported calls urging them to keep the law the way it is. What struck me even more interesting or peculiar is there were voting districts that were split in this matter. One commissioner voted to support the resolution, one commissioner voted against it within the same voting district.

First District commissioners Harry Sabine and Jim Inman; 2nd District Commissioners Nancy Hyder and Don Ivey; 5th District Commissioners Thom Hassler and Sharon York; and 8th District Commissioners Dennis Hinch and Jeff Brown were all split in their voting.

If the commissioners are voting on how their constituents want things to be, then there must be a lot of multiple personalities out there in Cumberland County. Heck, that's almost half of the voting districts that were split. It's kind of odd that all the people aginst it call one commissioner and all who are for it call the other commissioner. I could see it happening in one district, but in four? Something seems a little off here.

When asked repeatedly by fellow commissioners and members in the audience, no one could give an advantage to going back to having an elected superintendent rather than an appointed director of schools. The reasoning for the vote was that's how the constituents want it. Almost each commissioner will certainly admit that even with the resolution passed, it is highly unlikely that the General Assembly will change the law back. In spite of that, the reasoning remaining is that's what the constituents want.

Well, this got me thinking. The county commission just might be on to something here.

There are a lot of laws that I don't like and I'm sure there are a lot of laws other constituents don't like. Now if we constituents get together and call our commissioners, then maybe they will draw up some resolutions to change a few other laws here in Tennessee that we don't like.

Here's an example:

·Lower the sales tax in Tennessee. I can't think of anybody in Cumberland County who likes to pay taxes when making a purchase. If the county could adopt a resolution to lower the sales tax in Tennessee, then I'm sure the constituents would support that. This would be a sure fire ticket to re-election. Oh, I'm sure the state won't change this law, but hey, it will be what the constituents want.

·Lower the property tax.

·Lower the gas prices.

See where I'm going with this? Where do you draw the line?
There are a lot of things people might want to change, but just because you're unhappy with a particular situation doesn't mean the law needs to be changed back to the good old days when everything was so wonderful.

Louise Gorenflo made an excellent point while addressing the county commission. She said that not too long ago we had an elected superintendent and many of the same county commissioners who were in office back then were unhappy with that situation. I can testify to that. I was at many of those meetings and the differences between the school board and the county commission were similar to those now. Whether the director of schools was hired or elected made no difference.

A director hired by the BOE has to answer to the BOE. A director hired by the BOE can come from anywhere. An elected superintendent must come from Cumberland County - this puts a limit on the choices. An elected director can be influenced by staff and personnel and parents/voters. An elected director is going to worry about re-election and focus more on that than the needs of the students. An elected director represents the voters and not the BOE or the children under 18.

With an appointed director the people do have a vote in the matter. The people vote for their board of education representative. If they don't like the choices their BOE representatives make, then they can elect someone else.

Again, I pose the question along with the other citizens. What are the advantages in going back to an elected superintendent?

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Gary Nelson is a Chronicle staffwriter. His column appears periodically in the Crossville Chronicle. He can be reached by e-mail at gnelson@crossville-chronicle.com.