KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

The Tullahoma City Schools (TCS) Board of Education has taken the next step in finding its next Director of Schools by moving forward with Deputy Director Dr. April Norris as a potential candidate.

The school board held the discussion regarding the selection process for a new superintendent took place at the Jan. 20 meeting. The discussion regarding the process followed the announcement back in October 2025 that current Director of Schools Dr. Catherine Stephens would be retiring at the end of the 2025-2026 school year, with her official last day scheduled for June 30, 2026. Stephens was hired for the position in March 2020 and officially starting in her role later that June.

Before the discussion began, Board Chairman Kim Uselton said the board have been happy with the opportunity to work with Stephens over the years and looked forward to a strong finish. She continued and said that per school board policy, the board was now tasked with finding a new director of schools.

“We will discuss what this board wants to do to move forward with this process,” Uselton said. “Options: full search, led by this board, TSBA (Tennessee School Board Association), which was the Dr. Stephens search, or head hunter internal candidates only search or a direct appointment. There’s also an option to create your own process.”

Vice Chairman Teresa Lawson kicked off the discussion and said during her tenure on the board, she has been involved with the process of finding a director of schools several times.

“We have used a private firm, we have used TSBA, and each time I’ve heard from TCS employees and community members that they hoped we would consider internal candidates,” Lawson said. “One advantage of promoting from within is that we would get a director who’s familiar with our system and community.”

She stated that the board had created the position of Deputy Director to ensure that the board, and school system, had someone in line to step into the role of Director of Schools when needed. She continued and said that Norris, the current Deputy Director, has many years serving in TCS since being enrolled in 2013 in a variety of roles, which include being a teacher, academic coach, principal and special education director before stepping into the role as Deputy Director prior to the 2020-2021 school year.

“As Deputy Director, Dr. Norris has supervised alternative school, coordinated school healthcare, extended learning programs, human resources, safety and security, school nutrition, transportation, student services and maintenance, and I’m sure there’s many more hats she wore during this time,”

Lawson added she believed the board had an opportunity to be good stewards to the taxpayers by foregoing an expensive search process when they had a candidate that was prepared to transition into the director of schools’ role.

“Hiring from within makes sense because the person already knows our schools, our community, and how we do things. They can hit the ground running and I think it shows our staff and community that we value and trust the people we already have,” Lawson said. “I also cannot imagine a more qualified and experienced candidate than Dr. Norris.”

Board member Gigi Robison echoed Lawson’s sediments, saying that she too had been a part in several of the searches for Director of Schools. She said there was no one way to go about finding a new Director of Schools, but said this time around they were in a different situation because they did not have the Deputy Director position in those prior searches.

“I think that because of that, and having Dr. Norris in that position and having the experience that she has, I would support the thought of us hiring from within and moving in that direction as we begin this task,” Robison said.

Board member Pat Welsh spoke next and said that the school system has never had an internal hire for the position in the last 65 years of its over a century existence.

“I think it’s time that we do,” Welsh said. “We’ve got a more than capable candidate. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve been interviewing her for six years. I’m here to support the decision of the board, but I don’t need to have an extensive interview session.”

Board member Rosie Graham said from her experience being on the board, she saw the value of putting a person in the Deputy Director role to learn, grow and to move into the role of Director of Schools.

“To support the current superintendent is a major job, but April Norris does more than that,” Graham said. “She does an outstanding job that I’ve seen, and I think putting a Deputy Director in was a smart move from having been through the processes before, and I think we did it for the right reasons, you did it for the right reasons and I think we need to look at that direction.”

Graham added that there are other school systems who were also looking for directors and the pool was limited.

“I think in this case, and in this year, it may be time for us to step forward and say, ‘We didn’t put this position in there for the wrong reasons. We put it in there for the right reasons,” she said.

Board member Andy Whitt said from his background, it was always good to try to cast a broad net as possible to try to find many candidates, but noted the board had a great candidate in Norris and supported the board continuing with Norris as the candidate.

Board member Broc Compton agreed that an internal hire made the most sense, and said he looked at the list of requirements for Director of Schools recently and said the list almost went through the alphabet twice. He went on to say that he was not opposed to Norris for the role, as he saw her as a good fit, but agreed with Whitt that it was a good idea to cast a wide net to see what is out there to make sure they were making the most educated and sound decision, which he said could be Norris. He concluded that they should discuss it and have an interview with Norris to get her thoughts and see what was out there.

Uselton spoke last and said she too had been through the process multiple times and each time was a learning experience. She added that though they do have the position of Deputy Director, the person serving that role may rather stay in the support role rather than moving up to the role of director.

“Just because someone is in that role doesn’t mean they definitely want to move to the next position,” Uselton said. “They may not be ready for that position.”

However, in this case Uselton said Norris was ready for the position of Director of Schools.

Uselton highlighted that Norris has committed to TCS with her many roles and has worked closely with Stephens. She added the community had repeatedly said for the Director of Schools, they wanted someone with a doctorate, someone who was in the community and they would prefer someone within the school system.

“In the past it just hasn’t worked out that there has been that opportunity for some of our people, and one of the things I think most all of us said when we met with (Stephens) was we wanted opportunities for growth in leadership for our employees,” Uselton said. “I think that has been tremendous in all that you have done and set up, and we’ve seen that.”

She said she liked the idea of Norris speaking to the board and they can ask her questions and her thoughts about the district. Robison followed up and said it would be her choice to move forward with Norris, but that they should have an opportunity to have a dialogue, to ask questions and have the public be a part of it.

“They were, with the interviews that we did the last time, and I think that was really great,” Robison said. “People appreciated it and felt a part of the process.”

After some back and forth discussion, Uselton turned to the school board’s attorney Scott Bennett and asked for his suggestion. He suggested that the school board make a motion to forego a formal search process and have a formal interview with Norris at a future date where the public was invited to sit in. He also suggested that the interview be separate from a regular meeting or study session.

“My thought is that more transparency is already better than less,” Bennett said.  

In addition, he reminded the board that before the board hires Norris, or any other candidate, they must give a 15-days’ notice to the public that they were considering hiring someone for the position.

The board would briefly discuss and figure out if there was an available date for everyone to be available. The school board then made the motion to move forward to set up date, to be determined, to have an open interview with Norris, and for the public to be allowed to sit in and submit questions to board members. The board approved the motion unanimously.