- 2 of 5 who backed Sharp to be chairman a year ago want change
- Former chairman Coy Young also wants change in leadership
- Vice chairman Caleb Tidwell supports Sharp remaining as chairman
- Board members question Sharp leadership on charter school approval
Rutherford County Board of Education chairman Tammy Sharp may be in jeopardy of losing her leadership position.
Two of the five board members who supported Tammy Sharp to be chairman in a 5-2 vote want new leadership to preside over meetings and work with the administration on preparing meeting agendas. Sharp needs four votes to remain as chairman, but the two wanting a change after backing Sharp last year are Frances Rosales and Claire Maxwell.
“Change is good, and new leadership is not a reprimand against the past,” said Rosales, who won her seat in 2022. “It’s just about moving forward.”
“I think it should be a one year thing,” said Maxwell, who won her seat in 2020 “If you are going to be on the board and serve out your entire term, you should have the opportunity to be chair or vice chair.”
The board will decide whether to keep or replace Sharp during a 5:30 p.m. Tuesday meeting at the district’s administration office, 2240 Southpark Drive, Murfreesboro.
Sharp described the loss of support from Rosales and Maxwell as being “self serving because they want the chair themselves.”
“Neither one of them have the experience or the years on the board that I have,” said Sharp, who won her seat in 2018 and was reelection unopposed in 2022.
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Sharp touts her leadership
Sharp and her fellow elected board members oversee Schools Director James “Jimmy” Sullivan, and vote on budgets, contracts, campus zoning and policies. Sullivan manages a district with over 6,100 budgeted employees serving about 52,000 students attending 50 schools in fast-growing Rutherford.
“I think Dr. Sullivan and I have made a great leadership team, and we’ve had lot of successes this year,” said Sharp, who touted the district earning a top Level 5 score from the Tennessee Department of Education for demonstrating academic growth on all standardized tests. “I would like to continue that. Why change something that is not broken.”
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The incumbent chairman also touts leading a board that was able to do the following:
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Former chairman Coy Young also wants change in leadership
Sharp also had the backing a year ago to serve as chairman from vice chairman Caleb Tidwell and Katie Darby. All three joined Rosales in winning their seats as Republican nominees August 2022.
Fellow board members Shelia Bratton and Coy Young opposed Sharp serving as chairman and wanted the leadership position for Bratton, who had previously been the vice chairman.
Young said he’d like a new chairman.
“I think it’s good to rotate people in and out of that position,” said Young, who served as chairman for one year in 2020-21 and as the vice chairman for two years before becoming chairman. “I don’t think it’s good to have someone in that position long term. We all bring different things to the table. I think it’s good to give everybody the opportunity to perform at that level.”
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Vice chairman Tidwell supports Sharp remaining as chairman
Sharp has the backing from Tidwell to remain as chairman while working with Director Sullivan in leading the district.
“I feel like having these two working together to steer the ship helped us to develop a strong strategic plan,” Tidwell said. “I felt like we had a conservative and efficient budgeting process resulting in a balanced budget, increased transparency and a focus on long-term results.”
Sharp, Tidwell said, has been very supportive of Sullivan in returning focus back to results in the classroom with the Level 5 academic recognition from the state and promoting a positive staff culture.
In addition to supporting Sharp to remain as chairman, Tidwell said he’s willing to accept the vice chairman role again but will not stand in the way of another board member wanting to serve in this position. The vice chairman fills in to preside over board meetings when the chairman is absent.
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Board members question Sharp leadership on charter school approval
Sharp’s leadership included a 5-2 decision in April that approved the application of the American Classical Academy charter school that can operate with tax dollars independent of the board.
Sharp upset board members, however, when she didn’t permit a hearing on the charter school from both a staff-led committee that recommended denial and the applicant.
“That was wrong,” said Rosales, who wanted a more transparent hearing. Rosales had planned to ask the applicant questions about addressing the staff-led committee’s concerns before joining Sharp, Maxwell, Tidwell and Darby in approving the charter school.
The vote without a hearing from the staff-led committee and the applicant also upset the two board members who opposed the charter school: Bratton and Young.
“I find this very nefarious,” Bratton said during the April meeting prior to the vote on the charter school.
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Sharp said she chose against having a hearing because the board and public had written reports available on the district’s website from the staff-led committee and the charter school application.
“I knew what the votes were,” Sharp said. “I didn’t want to put the central office staff through that.”
The school board later responded by unanimously agreeing to a new policy to require hearings from staff-led committees and charter school applicants before voting on charter school proposals, confirmed Sharp, adding that she was fine with what the majority of the board wanted going forward.
Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at [email protected]. Follow his tweets on the X social media platform @ScottBroden. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.
Meeting time and location
The Rutherford County Board of Education will choose a chairman and vice chairman to serve in one-year terms during a 5:30 p.m. Tuesday meeting at the district’s administration office, 2240 Southpark Drive, Murfreesboro.