VOL. 8 NO. 34 NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ
Sports in Section B Check out Pages 2-3 in Section B to find regular columnist Marvin West, new columnist Stefan Cooper and pictures from Friday’s games.
Teacher info State Rep. Gloria Johnson wants to make sure teachers of subjects that don’t have TCAP tests know about the Sept. 1 deadline to comply with a new state law that could affect the way they are evaluated. In the past, 15 percent of their evaluation scores have been based on school-wide or county-wide “literacy” or “numeracy” scores (i.e., reading or math scores of students they never taught). Johnson posted this announcement: “Is everyone aware that teachers who teach untested subjects now have the ability to choose whatever relevant method they want for their 15 percent as of 7/1/2014? “You can make up your own measure as long as it is relevant! It has to be approved by superintendent and if there is a disagreement it will go to state BOE.”
IN THIS ISSUE Meet David Moon He grew up in George Wallace’s Alabama and had a picture of Richard Nixon’s Oval Office on the back of his bedroom door. His grandmother dated Wallace’s predecessor governor, Big Jim Folsom, whom Moon describes as “not quite a benevolent dictator, but as honest as you could be as an executive politician in the South in the 1950s.” He remembers crying the day Nixon resigned.
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Read Betty Bean on A-12
Showdown at the K-12 corral It’s high noon, and Jim McIntyre faces Tim Burchett on the dusty street. “Not room in this town for both of us,” says Burchett. But McIntyre can’t draw. “It’s the doggone Common Core,” he says. “I have to conceptualize all the steps involved in pulling the gun from the holster. I know engineers who can’t do it.”
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Read Larry Van Guilder on A-4
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August 27, 2014
Moye honored at fire hall celebration
Knox County Fire Chief Gene Blaylock, honoree Dr. Robert Moye and Station 15 lieutenant Robby Nix Photo by Cindy Taylor
Story on page A-3
Bow-wow baths Free washes turn 1,000 messy mutts into perfectly primped pooches By Anne Hart Who could have imagined what a phenomenon it would become? Certainly not the attorneys from Ogle Elrod and Baril who started it all. And probably not the throng of volunteer radio and television celebrities, local veterinarians and their staff members, along with representatives of a variety of animal rescue groups and a whole fleet of just plain old dog lovers who showed up to donate their time and energy. And likely not the dog owners who brought more than 1,000 of their furry friends to be washed and dried and fluffed and petted and loved on in the parking lot at the Food City in Hardin Valley. A thousand dogs. That’s a lot of woofs and wags. Not to mention soap and water. The big event was the fourth
annual Free Dog Wash. The OEB law firm sponsors it each year to raise money for dog rescue groups. Attorney Jason Baril says the first year about 400 dogs were washed and almost $400 was raised from donations by pet owners. This year, with the huge increase in the numbers of pups, At Risk Intervention, a local organization that houses dogs for rescue groups as they travel to homes across the southeastern United States and parts of Canada, will receive a check for more than $5,000. Approximately $8,000 was donated, with $3,000 of that amount going to veterinarians who traveled with their staffs to the site to micro-chip, trim nails and give shots to the dogs at half price. Baril, who left his own seven rescue dogs at home for the day, Cassie Freers, Jason Baril and Matthew Ooten, all of the Ogle Elrod and Bari To page A-3 law firm, dry off one of the pooches at the free dog wash held at Food City in Hardin Valley. Photo by A. Hart
Mama makes three: Rountree attends orientation By Betty Bean
Superintendent James McIntyre is off to a rocky start with one of his new school board members. Ninth District school board representativeelect Amber Rountree will be sworn in Sept. 2. She is due to have a baby Sept. 6, and stayed on her job as an elementary school librarian through the end of last school year. She has taken “sick time” as medical leave this summer to preserve her health insurance and will resign Sept. 1. Her Knox County Schools coverage will remain in force until Sept. 30. Rountree was elected to the school board on a “no rubber stamp” campaign promise and was one of the most vocal of the teachers who spoke out last year against McIntyre’s policies. Her maternity-leave status became an issue after she participated in a tour McIntyre conducted at Dogwood Elementary School Aug. 11. Her former opponent, incumbent Pam Trainor, also attended the tour. On Aug. 13, McIntyre sent Rountree an email informing her that he had “fielded a few questions … about your status, which I answered tactfully. I’m starting to become a bit
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concerned that some people may perceive it as inappropriate for you to be accompanying me on school visits while you are a paid school librarian out on medical leave. “Sorry to broach a potentially sensitive subject, but I just wanted to make sure you know that such questions are being asked.” On Aug. 18, McIntyre sent another email informing her Rountree that she would not be allowed to attend an Aug. 21 orientation session for incoming board members “given the fact you are out on maternity leave due to physical disability.” He said he’d set up a separate session for her after Sept. 2. Later that day, Rountree sent McIntyre an email reply telling him she’d checked with David Buuck, the chief deputy law director, who assured her that there was no legal reason to bar her from attending the orientation session with fellow board members-elect Terry Hill and Patti Lou Bounds. McIntyre responded the next day:
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“I certainly appreciate the opinion of the deputy law director, but I’m not willing to accept the risk, nor any potential appearance of impropriety.” Rountree again asked the law director’s office for guidance. Buuck replied quickly: “Amber, I am astounded at the disrespectful response of Jim McIntyre to a member of the BOE which body is his employer.” Buuck shot off an email to McIntyre: “I can find no reason that she should be denied the right to attend the orientation meeting on account of her pregnancy and have so advised her.” McIntyre responded: “Unfortunately, I believe you have significantly mischaracterized my correspondence with Ms. Rountree.” The next day, Buuck escorted Rountree across Gay Street to the Andrew Johnson Building where she attended the orientation. McIntyre tweeted a picture of the three new board members. There were smiles all around. The Shopper-News obtained the emails last Friday after submitting a public information request to the law director’s office.
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