VOL. 8 NO. 31
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August 6, 2014
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Suttle hopes for new beginning
‘ROUND TOWN
By Betty Bean
➤ Time to register
businesses The renewal period for the town of Farragut business privilege license is ongoing through Aug. 31. Those businesses that currently have a business license can renew at no cost at www. townoffarragut.org/formcenter. A printable renewal form is also available for those who wish to mail or bring the form to the Farragut Town Hall. The business privilege license is a requirement for every person who conducts a business that operates from a physical site located within Farragut’s town limits. The license applies to all commercial, office and home-based businesses. The reasoning behind the registration and license is to help ensure that Farragut receives its proper share of sales-tax revenue and allows the town to more effectively communicate with businesses. Contact the administration department at 966-7057 with questions.
➤ Closing Turkey
Creek Road Turkey Creek Road will be closed to through traffic for up to 28 days beginning Aug. 18. The road will be closed between Lake Heather Road at Inverness subdivision to Lake Haven Road at Lake Haven subdivision. Work is being done to improve a slope that leaves large amounts of dirt on the sidewalk and road after heavy rains. The slope was left when the road was reconstructed in 1997 to limit the impact on the property at 11625 Turkey Creek Road. The problem will be corrected by cutting the steep slope back and stabilizing it with plant material.
They called him “Big Rich” when he was an All-American basketball player at Maryville College, and Richard Suttle, who stands 6-7, remembers those years as the happiest of his life. Now that he’s won back his job with Knox County Schools, he’s ready to turn the page on his worst year and is looking forward to going back to simply being called “teacher.” Suttle believes he has been publicly labeled a bad teacher, despite hearing officer H. Scott Ream’s reversal of Superintendent James McIntyre’s decision to fire him. Ream was scathing in his criticism of the McIntyre administration for pursuing a tenure revocation and made a point of complimenting Suttle’s ability to explain basic algebra in a way math-phobic students could understand. Last week, he got his first paycheck in 10 months – a year’s salary minus a 90-day suspension without pay (a punishment he doesn’t believe is deserved), and he is relieved to end a year of stress and financial hardship. But here is some of what he believes has been lost in the discussion: He taught repeaters at Gibbs High School – sophomores, juniors and even seniors who had failed freshman algebra, sometimes more than once. Often, these students became so frustrated with standardized tests that they gave up trying to answer questions and bubbled in answers in haphazard fashion, just to get through them. Administrators argue that these are the students with the potential to show the most improvement, which Suttle says ignores the realities of kids who may be dealing with family crises, financial, health or relationship trouble, or simply the frustration of not “getting” math anymore. “I was told by my numeracy coach, ‘If you have a class of 20 and three of them don’t try, and just “Christmas tree” the answer
The sidewalk, curb and gutter will likely be destroyed during the work, but replacement is included in the contract.
By Wendy Smith
■ Economic Development Committee – 8 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6 ■ Stormwater Advisory Committee – 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14 ■ Board of Mayor and Aldermen – 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14 ■ Personnel Committee – 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 19 ■ Farragut Municipal Planning Commission – 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21 ■ Farragut Folklife Museum Meeting – 1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26 ■ Board of Mayor and Aldermen – 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28
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The question is one that has been asked before. Should the town of Farragut relax the sign ordinance to give more visibility to businesses that help the town to prosper? At last week’s Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, the answer was yes, and the response was applause from representatives of Dura-Line Corp. Dura-Line manufactures and distributes high-density plastic piping. While the company is the largest tenant of an office building at 11400 Parkside Drive, its name is not on the building. Instead, the names of two smaller companies − with previous leases − are the only two that can appear on the building, according to Farragut’s sign ordinance. The company constantly recruits out-of-town employees, and when prospects ask for directions, they are told to look for Red Robin across the street, said Dura-Line vice president Tim Grimsley. “It’s very important to us as a corporation to have our name on the building so we can expand and grow in Farragut.” President and CEO Paresh
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but before he made a decision, he heard from Maryville College head basketball coach Rick Byrd (now at Belmont), who invited him out to the school and offered him a place on the team. ■ The early years By fall, he was enrolled at Maryville College, majoring in Suttle was a member of Farragut High School’s class of 1976, the physical education, minoring in last graduating class at the “old” math and thriving on the baskethigh school. He didn’t play team ball court. He got his degree in sports but always loved basketball 1981. His first job out of college and played recreationally every was teaching math and P.E at St. chance he got, especially after he Joseph School. One of his classes went on to the University of Ten- was algebra-readiness for 8th nessee. He was playing a pickup graders. Two years later, Suttle moved game when he caught the eye of on to South Middle School and two coach Tom Deaton during the years after that to South-Young summer after his freshman year. Deaton, who coached at Bearden High School, teaching math. In 1984, he entered the master’s High School and also assisted UT coach Don DeVoe, offered Suttle program in P.E. at the University the opportunity to walk on at UT, of North Carolina, and once he finsheet, there’s no way to recover from that,’ ” Suttle said. Simply put, Suttle’s argument is a direct challenge to the system of teacher evaluation now in use.
FBMA changes sign ordinance
➤ Upcoming at
Town Hall
Richard Suttle breaks down TVAAS Photo by Betty Bean
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Chari pointed out the irony that visitors from Google had to search to find the building. “Something’s fundamentally wrong,” he said. Farragut Community Development director Mark Shipley said the request to allow for signs on three sides of the building − two on the front and one on each end − was reviewed by the town’s Visual Resources Review Board, and a recommendation was made to allow an amendment to the sign ordinance. The change would allow for four signs that wouldn’t exceed the square footage that is currently permitted. The FBMA voted 4-0 to approve the ordinance change. In other business, Farragut Human Resources Manager Janet Curry commended the town’s safety record while asking for authorization to participate in a matching-grant program offered by the town’s workers’ compensation carrier. The pool will match up to $1,500 that the town spends on safety devices. Equipment purchased from the matching grant in past years has helped the town maintain an
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excellent safety record, she said. In the past five years, there have been just 10 OSHA recordable accidents resulting in two days of lost work time. The FBMA authorized participation in the program. The Knoxville Track Club requested approval for the inaugural Turkey Creek 13.1 Half Marathon/5K/Kids’ Run on Saturday, Nov. 1. The half marathon will require the closing of Dixon Road, Virtue Road and Allen Kirby Road, and other roads will be partially closed. KTC will conduct an extensive public outreach effort to notify affected residents ahead of time. While the FBMA expressed support for the event, it requested that Farragut be incorporated into the event name since most of the half marathon and all of the 5K course is within town limits. It approved the event application. Approval was also given to a request to place directional signage for the Knoxville News Sentinel Open, which is Thursday, Aug. 14, through Sunday, Aug. 17, at Fox Den Country Club. This is the 25th anniversary of the tournament.
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ished, his next stop was Belmont Abbey College in Charlotte, N.C., where he worked his way up to the position of director of camps and conferences, facilities and student housing. He eventually decided to come back home. As a seasoned math teacher with previous Knox County experience, Suttle had no problem finding a place to land. Gibbs High School principal Janice Walker snapped him up, and he remembers the next four years as a very good time. In 2008, Walker retired and Suttle’s fortunes changed. He got a good evaluation the following year, but by 2010, he felt he was being singled out for extra attention. “There are all sorts of ways to make life miserable,” Suttle said. “The scrutiny was very stressful.” In 2011, he got placed in the Intensive Assistance Plan, a step closer to the slippery slope of dismissal or a chance to do better. He successfully finished the IAP and earned praise from the mentors who worked with him. But on the last day of school in 2013, he was informed that he was being recommended for termination. “I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach,” he said. He sweated out an anxious summer, hearing nothing until five days before the start of the school year, when he was told not to report for work and was put on paid leave until further notice. In September, the school board OK’d his termination. A month after that, he was officially fired. Although teachers seldom win such cases, he believed he’d been unjustly terminated and decided to challenge the decision. “I had the right to appeal, so I chose to fight. I couldn’t really pursue full-time employment during that time because I would have forfeited my ability to appeal for my job back, and if I took a fulltime job, I’d have had to resign, and that would have been the end of my appeal. I did some parttime work, but financially it was very hard. I’d wake up in a sweat. I exhausted every resource I had. My hearing didn’t take place till the following March, and it was a month after that the decision came.” He said he was “very happy and a bit surprised” in April when the hearing officer not only reinstated him but also criticized McIntyre’s administration for firing him. He didn’t believe it was fair to get a 90-day suspension without pay tacked on (for calling a student he’d written up for disciplinary reasons “Billy Badass,” being late for class as he traveled from room to room, having some absences due to sickness and for failing to properly record scores from a non-credit course). In May, Suttle came back down to earth when McIntyre announced his intention to appeal the hearing officer’s decision. The case went back to the same school board that had voted to terminate his tenure last fall, and the vote was set for July. Suttle was afraid to get his hopes up. “I was fearful that they would overturn my reinstatement,” he said. He showed up at the July school board meeting accompanied by TEA lawyer Virginia McCoy, who To page A-3
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