by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

At the Feb. 13 meeting, the Franklin County School Board voted to interview the top three candidates for the director of schools’ position. The board also reviewed the PECCA committees pay scale recommendations calling for 10 percent wage increases for certified and classified employees and Maintenance Consultant Gary Clardy’s recommendations on critical maintenance needs.

Providing an overview of the director search conducted by the Tennessee School Board Association, TSBA Assistant Executive Director Ben Torres said the three recommended finalist “best matched the criteria” set by the board. The top candidates, in alphabetical order, are Roger Alsup (Principal Franklin County High School with six years teaching experience, six years as an assistant principal, 17 years as a principal, and two years of central office experience); Cary Holman (Principal LaVergne Middle School with five years teaching experience, 10 years as an assistant principal, 20 years as a principal, and one year of central office experience); and Chris Treadway (Principal Poplar Grove Middle School in the Franklin Special District with eight years of teaching experience, three years as an assistant principal, and 11 years as a principal).

The director search yielded 18 applicants. The board reserved the right to interview other applicants, if necessary, following the interviews with the three TSBA recommended candidates. Alsup and Holman will be interviewed Feb. 21; Treadway will be interviewed Feb. 22. The interviews will be conducted at the board of education and begin at 5:30 p.m. The public can attend in person or via Zoom and submit written comments and questions during and following the event.

Human Resources Supervisor Linda Foster reported on the PECCA committee’s recommendation for across-the-board 10 percent wage increases. The Franklin County PECCA (Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act) team consists of representatives from the Franklin County Education Association and the board of education management. “It’s unreal the staffing issues we’ve been facing,” Foster said. “This is a major step forward.” The pay scale also added a years-of-service wage increases for certified staff serving 23 years or more; previously years-of-service wage increases stopped at 22 years. Foster said the starting salary for maintenance employees, and a few other classifications, might be “bumped up” above the 10 percent level if there was a “need.”

Clardy cited low wages for maintenance and custodial employees as among the critical school maintenance issues facing the district. In addition to a wage increase, Clardy recommended hiring a director of maintenance as a half-time position to improve efficiency and communication; providing employees with tablets to record data; making maintenance deliveries directly to the schools; allocating an additional $418,000 annually for the next five years for replacing HVAC units, school roofs, windows and doors, and rehabilitating parking lots and gym floors; and allocating $70,000 annually for vehicle replacement. “Maintenance vehicles are in really poor condition,” Clardy said. Of the district’s 18 maintenance vehicles, only six had less than 100,000 miles.

Looking to the future, the board approved two 14-year contracts with TRANE for energy efficiency upgrades totaling $8.4 million. The services TRANE will provide include an LED lighting upgrade as well as programs designed to help the district address deferred maintenance needs and coordinate efficiency monitoring of HVAC and other systems.

The Board will have a budgeting workshop at 8 a.m., March 4. Director of Schools Stanley Bean said according to the state’s new Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding formula, the schools would receive a set amount for each student based on the student’s category, e.g., economically disadvantaged. The district does not yet have final figures from the state. “We can do our own calculations … and get pretty close,” Bean said.