by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

The Franklin County School Board presented Stanley Bean with a plaque honoring him for his long career as an educator at the June 12 meeting, Bean’s final meeting as director of schools. At the end of the month, Bean will retire after 43 years as an educator, 41 of those in the Franklin County schools where he also served as a teacher, coach and principal. Bean came on board as director of schools in July 2017.

“You’ve accomplished a lot as director of schools,” said Board Chair Cleijo Walker. “You oversaw the building of two new middle schools, new programming, addressed a lot of maintenance issues, roofing, lighting, HVAC, things that needed upgraded for years.”

The inscription on the plaque read: “Thank you for believing in students, guiding through example, leaving an indelible mark on the future and making a difference in so many lives.”

“My memory is too good,” Bean said, recalling being a first grader at Mary Sharp Elementary School eating lunch in the same room where the board now meets. Teary-eyed, he described the other first grader he sat with at lunch who every day brought a bologna and white bread sandwich from home, in the days before free lunch, when that was all the child’s family could afford. Bean praised the board, “You’ve all been great to work with. I’ve been very fortunate.” His plans for the future speak to his passion for and dedication to being an educator. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I looked for a part-time job, had a few calls. I’m going to wait. I think I’m going to retire,” Bean paused, “for a while.”

During the business portion of the meeting, Human Resources Supervisor Linda Foster reported on hiring for the coming school year. Foster said the school district recently signed contracts with 19 new teachers, and 14 openings remained. “We’re desperately trying to get a counselor at all the elementary school and maintain what we have at the high schools and middle schools,” Foster said. That day the district interviewed two counselors for elementary school positions and hired one of them. Half the open classified employee positions have been filled.

In her “legislative update” reporting on state government education initiatives, board member Sarah Marhevsky stressed the importance of teacher salaries remaining competitive in view of recent state legislation mandating a teacher starting salary of at least $50,000 by the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year. “The starting salary for [Franklin County] next year is $44,500,” Marhevsky said. “We are going to definitely need to increase our salary scale if we want to be anywhere but at the bottom, and we want to continue to hire teachers and fill the openings we have.”

The board will hold a workshop July 6 to review the 23 policy changes recommended by the Tennessee School Board Association.

School board meetings are now live streamed on the Franklin County Schools YouTube channel. [Franklin County Schools, TN - YouTube].