Rutherford parents: Academics, curriculum top priority as next schools director is chosen
Employees rank retention/recruitment as top priority
Scott Broden- Parents and employees ranked nine priorities
- Rutherford County Schools expects to add 1,000 students next year
- District has 49,300 students this year
- School safety ranked second as priority by parents
Surveys from Rutherford County Schools show how parents and employees define priorities they favor in hiring the next director of schools.
The top ranked priority for the parents was academics/curriculum, according to 1,816 of those surveyed. The surveyed employees had 1,287 participants ranking the top priority being retention and recruitment of a workforce that's currently budgeted for 5,815, spokesman James Evans reported Monday.
The results of the surveys came out three days before the Rutherford County Board of Education will be interviewing finalists Thursday for the director job.
All three finalists are district administrators:
- Andrea Anthony, assistant superintendent of human resources and support services
- John Ash, principal, Central Magnet School
- James Sullivan, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction
The majority of the board hopes to offer a contract to an applicant to start July 1 and replace outgoing Rutherford County Schools Director Bill Spurlock. The board also could appoint an interim director and continue the search.
Although school board members praised Spurlock for academic success of students since he became director in 2018, they were critical of his communications in their evaluation of his performance.
Spurlock agreed to vacate his position a year early by June 30.
Only 16% of surveyed Rutherford County Schools parents and 13% of employees favor hiring a director from outside the district.
The employee survey showed 55% (897 of the participants) preferred an internal applicant to be promoted, while 32% had no preference. The parent survey had 49% (1,123 participants) backing an internal candidate, while 35% had no preference.
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Surveyed parents rank nine priorities
The following shows the number of parents responding to each of nine categories as a top priority:
- Academics/Curriculum: 1,816
- School Safety: 1,275
- Growth/Zoning: 1,167
- Employee Retention/Recruitment: 1,155
- Parent Relations: 626
- Employee Relations: 393
- Special Education: 378
- Building Program: 342
- Stakeholder Communications: 117
Kitchen table conversations:Parents, teachers share opinions with Rutherford officials
Surveyed employee rank same priorities
The following shows the number of employees responding to each of nine categories as a top priority:
- Employee Retention/Recruitment: 1,287
- Academics/Curriculum: 973
- Employee Relations: 834
- Growth/Zoning: 818
- School Safety: 336
- Special Education: 270
- Building Program: 186
- Parent Relations: 154
- Stakeholder Communication: 89
Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden.
About Rutherford County Schools
- Number of students: 49,300
- Number of students expected next year: Over 50,000
- Number district typically adds each year: over 1,000
- Number of schools: 50
- Number of employees: 5,815
- Number of proposed additional employees next year: 182
- Proposed budget for next year: $494.3 million
- Budget at the start of current fiscal July 2021: $441.8 million
Source: Staff with Rutherford County Schools