Board Members Grady Akins and Carol Carter Estes both spoke about renewing a 200K thousand dollar contract with University of Memphis consultants for advisory services.
When the State of TN stepped into the operations of our system due to NCLB test scores they brought with them U of M consultants. This was a cost that was supposed to be paid by the State but ended up costing our county 100 thousand dollars.(half of the contract). According to Superintendent Zambito the contract was not going to be renewed this year. She reported after discussions with State Education Rep Dr. Connie Smith she had concluded other uses for those resources would be better served. The State is going to provide 300 thousand dollars to help with the Fresh Start expenses of JCM.
Grady Akins and CCE asked the Supt to talk to the state about helping pay the expense again for U of M.
Quotes
Grady Akins :
“We weren’t doing “it” til Unv of Memphis team came on board”
Grady Akins:
“They can save us and without them . .. we don’t want to go back to where we were”
Grady Akins:
“We were in the dark when they got here” They were critical to us.
Carol Carter Estes echoed Akins comments
Supt Zambito said
“we absolutely were not in the dark” stating when the Memphis team arrived last year and looked at what procedures the central office was putting in place their comment was “You’re on the way” You’re almost there”. One thing the Supt gave a lot of credit to U of M for was recognizing and pointing out the “disconnect” the poor communication between the CO and the schools. Dr. Connie Smith form the State Dept of Ed is scheduled to be in Jackson to meet with board members at a later date.
