School Superintendent Buddy White Announces Plans to Retire

Director of Schools, Superintendent Buddy White Announces He will Retire at the End of the School Year

Sept. 12, 2012, Jackson TN - The Jackson Madison County School Board held it's first regular meeting since the election of 4 new school board members

Deputy Superintendent Doris Battle recognized Ms Susan Johnson, School Nutrition Supervisor, A USDA Award Winner

There were numerous items on the agenda for discussion with the new board tackling a variety of items in their first meeting:

Board members would like to invite legislators and legislative contacts to a soon to be decided Board Retreat meeting. - commenting that it would be a good opportunity for legislators to hear from the board about the need public education is facing in Madison County

Board members want a system for tracking education scorecard for key results

Northeast Middle School principal James Bailey was asked to give board members an update on his school's “middle school turnaround” progress.

The Middle School Turnaround” is part of the Jackson Madison County's Strategic Plan for school improvement.

Bailey told board members about plans he has put into action since arriving at Northeast Middle School just over a year ago. Actions taken to improve discipline, improve morale, and give teachers more time for individual attention with smaller groups of students focused on improving achievement. He also told the board that while he was seeing measurable improvement he had much bigger hopes for his school and was determined to make Northeast Middle School a school every parent would want their middle school child to attend.

The board elected officers for the upcoming school year.

David Clifft elected as school board chairman

Dr Joe Mays elected as school board vice chairman

Bob Alvey elected as Parliamentarian

At the close of the meeting the Director of Schools, Superintendent Buddy White announced at the close of his report that effective the end of the 2012-13 school year he would be retiring. He told the board he was giving early notice because he realized the selection of a new superintendent was a lengthy process and he wanted the board and community to have plenty of time to make a good choice.

One of the earliest decisions the board will have to make is whether to go back to the search organization used in the last search which did not produce a successful candidate or to seek out another search organization such as Tennessee School Board Association.