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VOL. 52 NO. 10 1
School board will ‘buy local’ By Scott Frith The Knox County Board of Education is picking a new superintendent, and some are surprised that both finalists are from East Tennessee. Don’t be. Political trends swing like a penduScott Frith lum. When looking for new leadership, folks often go in the opposite direction. Not convinced? The best local example may be in the county mayor’s office. Remember those feuds between Dwight Kessel and Victor Ashe? By 1994, voters grew tired of the bickering and elected Tommy Schumpert on the promise of peace. For the most part, Schumpert succeeded. Yet, as he finished a second term, some viewed his “getting along” and calm demeanor as not aggressive enough in promoting economic development. They looked to then-County Commissioner Mike Ragsdale, who possessed enough charisma and sound bites to fill the entire City County Building. Ragsdale was elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. But then, voters elected Tim Burchett, who couldn’t be more different. Think Lexus sedan vs. beat-up Jeep Cherokee; tailored suits vs. a brown Carhartt jacket. You get the idea. The same pattern emerges with the superintendent of schools. State law changed in 1992 to require school board appointment of superintendents. In 1999, our board picked Charles Q. Lindsay, a Mississippi native best remembered for relocating principals and getting directly involved in the messy politics of school board campaigns. Lindsay left in 2007. The next year, the board hired Jim McIntyre, an education technocrat, whose roots in Boston (and lack of political skill) couldn’t have been more different from Lindsay’s southern drawl and political brawling. McIntyre left last year. And now the school board appears to be buying local. Finalists are Bob Thomas (assistant superintendent since 1990) and Dale Lynch (superintendent of Hamblen County Schools since 2001). Thomas is the favorite to win. Do not be surprised. Both are the opposite of McIntyre. Scott Frith is a local attorney. You can visit his website at pleadthefrith.com
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Making music for Mount Olive By Betsy Pickle It was homecoming for all who love Mount Olive Elementary School. Former students, teachers and administrators joined their current counterparts in Music From the Mount, an evening of song and celebration held at Mount Olive Baptist Church, across the street from the school. Mount Olive folks packed the sanctuary for the event organized by music teacher Rob Huffaker. Performers ranged from 5 years old to, ahem, much older on a program that featured several outstanding performances. The talent show was formed as a fundraiser for the music classroom, which boasts chairs older than most of the students’ parents. Huffaker has tracked down chairs made specifically for young musicians to replace the current ones, which are in woeful condition. A grant helped him procure one-third of the seats needed. But purchasing all the chairs and accessories needed will cost $4,200. The Mount Olive PTA has established the “Musical Chairs Fund” to cover the cost of the chairs. Longtime music teacher Barbara Hensley was honored with a plaque affixed to one of the chairs. The talent show helped make a good start on the fundraising, and
Look for more photos on page A-3
lots of performers did their best to encourage generous giving. MVP for the evening was South-Doyle High School senior Thomas Bush, who not only served
After their humorous sketch about the music-room chairs, Thomas Bush and Cody Edds look on as former music teacher Barbara Hensley checks out a chair dedicated to her. More pictures on A-3
as a comical master of ceremonies but also performed twice – in a duet with younger brother Grant and singing solo the
popular song “You Raise Me Up.”
Park manager proves persistence pays By Carol Z. Shane
As a young adult from Northport, Long Island, with no concrete plans for a career, Justine Cucchiara had no idea that someday she’d end up loving her job as lands manager of Seven Islands State Birding Park, now part of the Tennessee State Park System. The route that got her there was circuitous, but Cucchiara firmly believes she’s right where she should be. “I want to make sure that people continue to connect with nature. Being able to share that exuberance and fascination with it is important to me.” With a lifelong affinity for water and wildlife, she lived aboard a 37-foot sailboat for several years based out of Beaufort, N.C., and worked as an observer for the state’s marine fisheries. “That’s how I first became interested in natural resource management,”
she says. After that, she moved inland to Asheville but, as a lifelong flatlander, underestimated the impact of moving to the mountains. A Craigslist ad from Beardsley Farm led her to East Tennessee to teach aquaponic farming to at-risk kids. “I made more friends in two weeks in Knoxville than I’d made in eight months in Asheville,” she says. She also decided to pursue a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology at UT, but “got in the wrong line.” She was loaded onto a bus and taken to the UT Ag campus, where she ended up in the office of Dr. Richard Strange, a professor in the department of forestry, wildlife and fisheries. Cucchiara decided that would do just fine. She ended up earning her bachelor’s degree in wildlife and fishery science with a minor in forestry.
Along the way, she says, “I made a pest of myself” in pursuing a position with CAC AmeriCorps – a nine-month term with Legacy Parks Foundation at Seven Islands Cucchiara Wildlife Refuge. “I served two of those terms and then they kept me on, creating a position for me as science research coordinator.” When the refuge became a state park, Cucchiara underwent 14 weeks of training in law enforcement to qualify for park ranger status. She was promoted to assistant lands manager, and then awarded the plum: lands manager, which includes a residence on the property. Now she’s working toward a
master’s degree in habitat restoration and management. “I get really focused on the park and it becomes my whole world sometimes,” she says. “Going back to school is good for me.” One new project she especially wants people to know about is the Wild Yards Garden, which showcases native plants and offers information about how to turn your property into a sustainable, birdcentric wildlife habitat. As you might imagine, it goes way beyond hanging out the feeder. But it’s not only desirable, it’s doable. “It’s important that, as leaders, we continue to make parks relevant and important to individuals. I am responsible for this little piece of dirt,” Cucchiara says of the Seven Islands’ 416 acres. “That is my mission and I have accepted it!”
Will rezoning bring resegregation? By Betty Bean While some worry that the proposed middle school rezoning plan will undo years of desegregation efforts and land Knox County Schools in federal court, the two players most likely to be on opposite sides of the courtroom look at the issue from very different perspectives, but do not seem overly concerned about that possibility – for now. “This (plan) is a good first step, as far as it goes,” said NAACP president John Butler, who filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after the agreement to build a new Gibbs Middle School was unveiled.
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Knox County Law Director Bud Armstrong said desegregation was not the primary purpose of the 1991 rezoning plan that closed schools and bused inner city kids to distant parts of the county. He cited a 1991 opinion by U.S. District Court Judge Leon Jordan that found no evidence of intentional discrimination by Knox County Schools. Jordan said the only question the court could ask was “whether the motivation in adopting the plan was invidious discrimination on the basis of race, and the Court finds that there was not.” Armstrong said: “They did not close Gibbs and move them to Holston Middle School because
those schools were segregated. Conversely, if they reopen Gibbs, it won’t be to resegregate those schools.” Whether intended or not, the rezoning will result in some schools having a higher percentage of African-Americans while others have lower. To paraphrase former school board chair Sam Anderson: We can be sure black kids are treated fairly when they are sitting next to a white kid and both are treated the same. That’s what the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1954 (Brown vs. The Board of Education): “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” Are we entering the post-Brown era?
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Knox County has built new schools in recent years only in predominantly white communities. “Now that you are zoning (minority students) back in, we need to Armstrong have facilities and staffs looked at and steps taken to eliminate inequity,” said Butler. He wants new, state-of-the-art middle and high schools staffed with faculties who understand the needs of minority students. He will not withdraw the complaint, even after Buzz Thomas, interim superintendent, asked him to do so.
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