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The Coffee County School Board voted to offer the Director of Schools contract to East Lincoln Elementary School (ELE) Principal Scott Hargrove amid concerns over the search process.

Hargrove has held his current role as ELE principal since 2014. He also served as the Interim Superintendent for Tullahoma City Schools from 2019-2020.

At a work session preceding the special-call Board meeting held on April 28, board member Holly Matthews suggested a second round of interviews for each candidate with no questions provided beforehand.

Matthews cited the Tennessee School Boards Association only referring two candidates, including Hargrove, to the Board to interview and wanting to see how the candidates answered questions under pressure as reasons for the suggestion.

After the withdrawal of Amie Lonas from consideration after taking a position in another school district, Matthews said she felt as though TSBA (Tennessee School Board Association) only offered one candidate.

“Giving us one is no choice,” she explained. “That’s one of my issues I’ve taken with the process.”

In the meeting, board member Chris Koon made a motion to amend the agenda to add a second round of interviews which was seconded by Matthews.

The motion failed when Matthews and Koon were the only members to vote in favor of it.

The board voted by paper ballots which were distributed and collected by Interim Director Dr. Prater Powell and then read aloud by Board Secretary Melisa Westmoreland.

Board Chairman Thomas Ballard and board members Freda K. Jones, Scott Hansert, Robert Gilley, Beth Yentsch and Gary Cordell all voted in favor of Hargrove.

The other three votes went to Dr. Kathy Crabtree from Koon, Matthews and Board member Jennifer Peacock Hodge. Hodge also gave public comment in favor of Crabtree at the beginning of the meeting.

Ballard gave each member an opportunity to address why they voted the way they did at the end of the meeting.

Hargrove’s experience at many different levels of education, his six years of military experience and, his ability to remain undeterred when asked tough questions were some of the reasons cited.

Each member who voted for Hargrove noted how difficult a decision it was and how the Board was presented with three very capable candidates.

Board approves new director’s contract

Before making the vote to offer a contract, the Coffee County School Board approved a new Director’s contract during its April 15 meeting.

The contract includes an annual salary of $165,000 with the potential for up to a $10,000 annual bonus if the new Director meets each objectively measurable benchmark established by the Board with each benchmark achieved paying $2,500.

An annual mileage allowance for in-county travel not to exceed $2,500 is also included in the contract.

After a motion to approve the contract with a cleanup of a gender specific wording in one of the sections in the document by board member Robert Gilley and a second by board member Gary Cordell, board member Jennifer Peacock Hodge questioned a clause in the contract requiring the new Director to live in Coffee County.

“I feel like that should say surrounding counties,” she explained. “Say you live on Woodbury Highway or say you live right inside of Morrison, that’s so close. I think that’s insane to make someone move a couple of miles to reside in Coffee County.”

Both Gilley and Chairman Thomas Ballard explained that the contract is negotiable.

“As a Board we would have to use discretion and suspend policy or negotiate, and obviously the candidates would want to negotiate that as well,” said Gilley.

“Quite frankly, contracts are negotiable so we would probably end up negotiating some of these terms,” added Ballard with Hodge joking that she’s never hired anyone. “We’re starting off with a contract, but I imagine whoever the new Director is going to be will request some changes to the contract.”

Interim Director Prater Powell explained that once negotiations were completed between the Board and the new Director, the final contract would be brought back to the Board to be approved.

Hodge said that she just wanted it stated that the clause could be negotiated and thanked the group for explaining the process.

The contract was approved unanimously 8-0 with board member Freda K. Jones absent.