Sam Anderson is eligible for a teacher salary retirement from the State while he was a Knoxville City Schools teacher and Football Coach at Austin East. He was appointed Director of Parks & Rec. at the City of Knoxville. He was appointed shortly after Victor Ashe was elected and served Ashe and Haslam. He retired from there with a healthy retirement funded by the City taxpayers. While a City Director, he was elected by first district School Board Member and earned a nice salary and a third healthy retirement by the County School taxpayers.
Now, Victor Ashe reports in his weekly column that Dr. James P. McIntyre, Jr. has hired Anderson as a Special Assistant for inner city schools and state standards. First, it would surely violate a nepotism policy if the schools had one. He has at least two brothers (one who is an Assistant Principal and the other who oversees construction contracts. ie. Hardin Valley Academy, Powell Middle) plus other family members that have classified and certified positions. Second, Anderson served on the School Board and had various positions of leadership while on the school board. He represented the inner city schools. The schools failed and continued failing during his term, what expertise and solutions could he provide that he failed to provide as an elected official. The school district can find money for another AJ Building “consultant” but wants the Mayor and County Commission to start funding security measures NOW. Really?
Ashe reports that Anderson will only bill the district for 16 hours of work per week. This is a step in the wrong direction, in my opinion.
The problem is not Sam Anderson, the problem is McIntyre, what does Sam bring to the table that McIntyre has to have. I am not aware of Anderson being critical of McIntyre such that he needs to put Anderson on the payroll to hush him up. In the big picture, I’m not sure what some additional central office person is going to do about improving inner city education, it’s either a parental priority or it is not. If it is not, there is very little the school system can do and the more money McIntyre spends on the students who cannot learn and those whose families could care less about education, the shorter and shorter his tenure will be.
In my opinion, Anderson has been at the public trough plenty of times, what does he bring or what does McIntyre have to have from Anderson this time around?
There is a reason we don’t work and repair cars in the left lane of the intersate, we get them off the road and into the garage for repairs and then, when they can perform at the minimum speed limit, they go back out onto the interstate. Same thing with public education.
McIntyre is paying a number of former supervisors, at $49 an hour positions to be “principal coaches” for 3 days a week. It will say “retiree-supply” under “other personnel” on the Knox County Schools database on the KnoxNews website. Put in a few last names of any supervisors you knew under Dr. Lindsey. You might be surprised at what you find.