Parents & Residents of Smith County
Time Is Ticking
JULY 21st Is The Next SCBOE Meeting
At the June 16 Meeting the School Board agreed to fill out written evaluations on the Directors performance and turn them in by the July meeting. The appointment of the Director is one of the only things the Board has authority to do and his evaluation should be important to anyone interested in the schools. There was no discussion about allowing any public input or involvement. In fact, it appears that the members of the school board do not realize that they are public officials and should ask for your views.
As residents and parents of Smith County we all need to do three things:
1. Call or write your Board member and give your honest opinion on the Director.
2. Call or write all Board members and tell them your own opinion even if they are in a different district. They are responsible for a whole system not just their district.
3. As tax payers we need to ask them for a public hearing so anyone can have a reasonable opportunity to state his/her views before the whole Board. We need to remind the Board members that they are our representatives and they should at least be willing to listen. This is the first evaluation of the Director and is only done once a year so now is the time to have your say.
Smith County School Board Members
Scotty Yeaman
664 Ridgeway Drive Carthage, TN 37030 - Home-735-2024
Larry Taylor Wilkerson
639 Lebanon Hwy Carthage, TN 37030 - Home 735-9568
Dick Fulton
33 Morris Dr. Carthage, TN 37030 - Home- 735-2656
Tommy Manning
313 Pig Branch Rd. Brush Creek, TN 38547 - Home 683-6299
Pat Massey
7 Stonewall Hwy. Carthage, TN 37030 - Home 897-2241
Shane Campbell
233 Rural Academy Lane Brush Creek, TN 38547 - Cell 584-2874
Karen Shoulders
202 Toetown Road, Pleasant Shade, TN 37145 – Home 677-6136
Sonja Hammond
434 Hogans Creek Rd, Carthage, TN 37030 – Home 735-1065
Look at the Board Agenda from the last meeting. See the board voted to rehire the teacher that this blog was started over. If they are willing to rehire her and look the other way then why should we think they won’t look the other way for Roger Lewis. Our school systems need change. Everyone needs to get involved. It is sad to go to meeting after meeting and have only a handful of people present.
ReplyDeleteWe voted these board members in so we need to make sure they represent the best interest of the schools, students, teachers and tax payers of our county as a whole not just by district.
Quote from just about every board meeting - "Why are you bringing that up here if you have any questions ask Mr. Lewis he will explain it to you" - Sounds to me like Lewis is running the show. Had high hopes these new memebers would get things done looks like they are just falling in line with Massey & Wilkerson. Let Lewis run the show with no questons asked.
ReplyDeleteWe need board members to listen to the public before they finish any evaluation of our Director. There are a lot of unhappy residents in our county that have dealt with him with little to NO action taken to resolve any issues.
ReplyDeleteOur new members started out good & strong only to be pushed down by Pat Massey & Larry Wilkerson. I'm not sure what Mr. Lewis has over them but they are definitely in his pocket. The Director is supposed to be evaluated like any other employee, so why did Massey & Wilkerson fight so hard against doing it. Is there something they are afraid of? If Mr. Lewis is doing his job properly then why not allow an evaluation? Does the public know that they have fought this and he has never been evaluated since taking the job in 2000?
How can the board members feel confident in renewing his contract without any evaluations or public input? Everyone needs to call Massey & Wilkerson to find out why they feel Mr. Lewis should get a free pass.
We all know Larry and Pat bow down to the almighty Roger but how about the rest of the board. Anyone witnessed them in action at the meetings?
ReplyDeleteI read the blog in the link. I am not surprised Roger Lewis never did anything about the complaints these parents brought forward that is his signature. He has not listened to parents in our county for years. Why because we have allowed it. He allows the bad teachers, coaches and all his buddies to do whatever the flip they want to for the good of our kids. When you have teachers grabbing and cussing our students we as a community need to take issue with that. We have a director passing up qualified folks by putting his buddies in jobs. We are losing good teachers, principals and helpers in our school system only to get more and more of his buddies in.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find completely nuts is that this family had to hire an attorney to force Lewis to do his job, while he sat their with the school attorney their taxes paid for. What happens to those parents that can’t afford to hire an attorney do their kids just have to suffer? Are we as parents suppose to keep our fingers crossed that our children aren’t being verbally and physically abused when going to school in Smith County? Are we to wonder if our children are being treated equally and fair in Smith County? We all know that Roger Lewis has his favorite schools, principals and pet projects that get to call all the shots. Why is it we allow that? Don’t we as a community pay for our schools and his salary in our taxes? If he works for us then why are we allowing him to destroy our schools?
Everyone in this community wants to give him kudos for our high scores but isn’t it really the teachers and students that are doing all the work? Does Roger Lewis only care about these kids getting the scores while they are in school to make him look good or do the scores he likes to brag about there to help our kids in their future? Why doesn't he work with the school counselors to help more kids in our community get into college? If our scores are so high in this community then why is the college drop-out rate so high after these kids leave our county? Maybe because he cares more about his report cards then our kids being prepared for their futures.
What is Janice Fox's job? If her job is taking the reports then we need someone new. I have come to an understanding due to her actions that Janice Fox’s only job in our school system is to do what Roger Lewis tells her to do. When you have a complaints coordinator telling parents to move to another school to correct the problem we as a community need to step up to make sure she is moved to another school system.
My biggest wonder is why did the board that we elected to look out for our community not step in to help this family. Are they just going to sit there to take orders from Roger Lewis? Do they sit in these meetings Roger Lewis is running only to talk about what he allows them to talk about? I read in the blog where they gave their contact information but did this family ever get to speak with any of them or did they receive any help from one of our board members. Do we want people in office that are looking out for Roger Lewis and his buddies? Think about that - Call your school board members to say “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”.