NORTH / EAST VOL. 2 NO. 27
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‘Burlington Gang’
NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ
Beaumont gets co-principals Daphne Odom and Missy Beltran will be co-principals at Beaumont Magnet Academy for the 2014-2015 school year. They will share administrative responsibilities at the school for one year, after which time Beltran will continue as the principal at Beaumont and Odom will be appointed a regional supervisor as Superintendent James McIntyre reorganizes the structure for supporting school principals. Odom currently serves as supervisor for magnet schools and the Gifted and Talented program. She joined Knox County Schools in 1999 as a teacher at Daphne Odom Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Academy, and she entered school administration in 2008 when she was appointed assistant principal at Beaumont. Her degrees, including a Ph.D. in education leadership and policy, are from UT. Beltran taught in the Baltimore County public schools for Missy Beltram 17 years. She joined KCS in 2003 as a special-education teacher.
IN THIS ISSUE Payouts to paramours It is not often a serious candidate for the U.S. Senate has in his past a state Supreme Court decision that delves into his personal life, thereby making it public. But such is the case with Gordon Ball, a wealthy Knoxville attorney and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in the Aug. 7 primary.
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Read Victor Ashe on page 5
McIntyre’s mojo melting away It started as Alice’s Restaurant. Superintendent James McIntyre could get anything he wanted at any time, generally by an 8-1 vote. But now McIntyre’s board majority is melting, and neither his contract nor his long-range plan nor the August election will save him. He’s done. Alice isn’t cooking here anymore.
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Read Betty Bean on page 4
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E.L. Henson and former neighbor Peggy Claiborne get reacquainted.
Bennie Jean, Carolyn Owen and Jean Strange check out scrapbooks and photos from Burlington’s past.
By Betsy Pickle Any event built around fried chicken, deviled eggs and banana pudding is going to be a treat, but Ye Olde Burlington Gang manages to make its annual covered-dish dinner something special for folks from the old neighborhood. The 2014 version was no excep-
tion. More than 40 people who lived or worked in Burlington “back in the day” attended the dinner and meeting at Macedonia United Methodist Church. The joy was palpable as old friends greeted each other for the first time in a year – or in some cases many
New greens for Whittle After a chemical treatment apparently damaged the greens at the city-owned Whittle Springs Golf Course, the city and its golf course management contractor will replace all 18 putting surfaces. Work was scheduled to begin last week on converting the greens from bentgrass to Champion Bermuda grass, which will grow faster than bentgrass and should allow
the greens to return to use within about two months. The golf course at 3113 Valley View Drive will remain open with reduced fees and temporary greens. “It is obviously unfortunate to have our greens out of commission at the peak of the golf season,” said Joe Walsh, the director of Parks and Recreation. “But Whittle Springs will remain open, and we
years. President E.L. Henson said he was puzzled when he saw the nametag “Peggy Claiborne” until Claiborne told him her maiden name. “I hadn’t seen Peggy Neal since I moved off Alma Avenue,” said Henson.
To make matters more confusing for her old neighbors, Claiborne lived as a child with grandparents J.O. and Wanda Bounds, “and most people thought my last name was Bounds,” she says. Ye Olde Burlington Gang was
encourage all of our regular golfers to continue to make use of it or the Municipal Golf Course.” Both courses are operated for the city by contractor Billy Casper Golf, which manages more than 170 properties in 28 states. According to Walsh, Billy Casper personnel on June 23 applied a routine chemical fertilizer to the greens at Whittle Springs. Over the next week, the putting surfaces began to decline. Samples of soil and fertilizer have been col-
lected and sent to an independent laboratory for evaluation. The cost of replacing the greens is estimated at $87,000. The city anticipates a full recovery of any expenses and damages arising out of these events, according to a city press release. Whittle Springs Golf Course averages 28,000 rounds of golf a year. Rates for an 18-hole game range from $7 to $29, depending on age, time of day and whether a player walks or rides a cart.
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Demoted Earl speaks out at school board By Betty Bean Former Brickey-McCloud Elementary School assistant principal Sheila Earl was moved to tell her story at last Wednesday’s school board meeting after hearing board members at the Monday workshop talk about clamping down on teachers who bypass the KCS “chain of command” by going public with complaints about the administration. Earl is fearful of retaliation but promised her daughter she’d be brave because many colleagues have received the same treatment she has and don’t know why. The last year she was an assistant principal, she was evaluated by Knox County Schools’ elementary schools director Nancy Maland, who gave her the highest possible rating – a level 5 score. This result was typical for Earl, a 23-year KCS employee, so she had reason to be excited when she got a phone call from the KCS human resources department July 19, 2012.
“I naively believed that my time had finally come and I was going in to interview for a principalship,” she said. “After all, I had spent nine years as a successful assistant principal after 14 years as an award-winning teacher. I had even completed the D-21 program with excellent results as well.” When she went to the meeting with Maland and HR director Kathy Simms, she was stunned to hear that Superintendent James McIntyre had decided to return her to the classroom, a change that carried a 25 percent pay reduction. “When I asked for the reason why, I was reminded that administrators serve at the pleasure of the superintendent. (Nancy) Maland acted as a scribe, but she remained silent. (Superintendent) McIntyre was conveniently out of town.” Maland retired at year’s end. Earl, a single mother, was given very little time to clear out her office, prepare to teach third grade
and readjust her family budget to the pay cut. Her former principal said she had no idea why Earl was demoted. Her new principal suggested that perhaps this was a test to see how gracefully she handled difficult situations and speculated that she might get a promotion the next year. “That, of course, did not happen,” Earl said. There was a bit of a silver lining, she thought. Under state guidelines, Earl’s evaluation score qualified her for an APEX bonus, so she had reason to expect some financial help that fall. But when she checked the APEX website in November, the words next to her name were “Employee no longer in good standing.” She attempted to find why she had been labeled a loser, but multiple phone calls and emails got no response until her sister (acting without Earl’s knowledge) contacted the county ethics board. Finally, in April 2013, she heard
from KCS chief accountability officer Nakia Towns, who informed her that being reclassified as a classroom teacher after having been an administrator automatically made her ineligible for the bonus. Earl, who said she has been shocked at the level of micromanagement that classroom teachers have to endure nowadays, was required to submit her emails to board chair Lynne Fugate in order to be allowed to speak at the meeting. Many of the teachers who have been speaking out in recent months were present, although they were harder to pick out in the crowd because most were not wearing their familiar red SPEAK (Students, Parents, Educators Across Knox County) T-shirts. Members of a newly formed group, Educators for Excellence, identifiable in bright blue TTo page 3
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