Breaking News
Fayette County School Board approves new superintendent’s contract; playground equipment is installed; football field is almost ready
By: Carolyn G. Rhea,
Staff Writer
The Fayette County School Board met on Thursday, July 10, 2025, with members present, Chairman Warner Speakman, Merrel Miller, Myles Wilson, Becky Trimm, David Reeves, Kevin Powers, and Hal Rounds, with interim superintendent Eddie Keel.
Public Comments
Charles Watkins spoke, saying his concern about the budget amendments is how will the school board do their business if there are not enough funds. He said it seems you would ask for those funds from the county commission. If you ask and they say no, that gives us an opportunity to move forward based on their actions. You are about to bring on a new superintendent of schools and I wonder how you will do that effectively when you don’t have an approved budget. How will this happen when teachers have to be back in school next week. He asked when will we have a finance director in place and have not asked the county commission for more money.
Elton Holmes, who is the Fayette County NAACP president, said I have concerns about the plant operations on the agenda. He is concerned about using the term “plant operation committee” because this is not a plant, it’s a public school district. This is very offensive to the black community because we can look at it as being plantation. He asked they rename this committee. He expressed concern on agenda item 14 and them not sharing with the public those against the consent order. You are supposed to be transparent with the community. Holmes said I will send this agenda to the Legal Defense Fund and point out that the board chairman is not being transparent with the community. He said I wish this board would elect a chairman that would try to have professional social abilities and that would stay off Facebook.
Holmes said you also walked away from an incomplete job at Buckley-Carpenter school that you were paying $50,000. Can we get that money back. We also need the process on how it was determined what employees to demote and where to move them to. We need answers to our questions and we need feedback, he said. I’d like an answer by the end of this meeting.
Board member Myles Wilson asked Speakman on the budget, I believe we got a message that some of the board and staff have a meeting with the county mayor to go over the budget and make some changes. Speakman replied I haven’t sent anything out and I don’t know about that. Interim superintendent Keel said there wasn’t a meeting with the mayor. It was determined that there is a county budget committee meeting next Tuesday at 5:30 pm on the school budget.
Speakman said I was just accused of sending out a meeting but the mayor has set one for next week and asked us to bring information on the budget.
Consent Agenda
There were several items on the consent agenda. It included budget amendments, 2025-26 LEA Consolidated Funding application form approval, special education contracts, 2025-26 RFP and RFP contract update-proposal, 3 policies on final reading, and 11 policies on second reading. All were approved.
Interim Director
Eddie Keel reported that last week we got notice from the Tennessee Department of Education because of some things from Washington that on our Title I, Title II, Title III, Title IV, IDEA, and IDEA prepaid funds, we will not be able to get reimbursement requests until further notice. Because of the review going on in Washington, award letters were not given to the state. He said we will continue to do payroll from those grants but I have frozen all purchase orders from those grants. This will also bring up a cash flow problem in Fund 142. County Trustee Charles McNab has recommended a couple of things we can do so we are getting info from the Comptroller’s office. One item is called an intrafund loan and we will have information on that by next week. We don’t have control on this, he said.
Keel said we have several students going to the UT Martin Somerville Kids College. We sponsor some of our second graders to go, using Title IV funds. The fire department was out there today and the kids are enjoying art and music. He and Ray Washington have interviewed two strong applicants for finance director. Wilson asked about the finance director applicants and if they had any school finance background. Keel told him that one did but both had strong accounting backgrounds.
Committee Reports
Budget Committee Chairman Miller brought up the 2025-26 salary schedule. Keel said the percentages were corrected on the schedules and other than that, it is what we recommend. Wilson asked when does the teacher salary have to start at $50,000 and was told it’s 2026-27. He also asked should we wait until the county commission ap-proves the budget before approving this. Keel said the minimum salary schedule from the state is statutes and has to be done regardless and second, the 4.15% raise is included in our budget. So he recommends approval. The board voted to approve.
Next was the differentiated pay plan proposal that has no changes since the committee meeting and it was passed. Last was the adoption of the 2025-26 budget that would go to the county commission. Keel stated it includes addendums of what was discussed and recommended by County Mayor Skip Taylor. The budget was approved by the board, with Wilson passing.
Warner Speakman of the Education Committee brought the 2025-26 schools restructuring proposal. Keel said this is the Reimagining Fayette proposal he brought to the committee and it was approved.
On the Unitary Status Committee, Keel stated school board attorney Tom Minor has the last letter which is being reviewed. The executive committee will meet on this tomorrow to review.
Chairman David Reeves of the Safety & Security Committee stated we discussed the 2025-26 Artificial Intelligence program use request proposal. We need a beefed up policy for using it, learning it and making sure it doesn’t get out of hand. Reeves said it was brought to our attention that students at Fayette Ware have to leave out of the main building, be exposed to the elements, to go to the CTE building. This needs to be addressed and fixed for safety. We also discussed phishing attempts with emails and Mr. Marlon Hill will put on a class on this at our next board retreat.
Reeves said several months ago we approved uniforms for our security personnel so they would be easily identified. He showed the board the hat and said they will wear polo shirts and pants. Keel pointed out that the policy for AI was approved in the consent agenda but you need to now approve the AI request form. This was approved.
Chairman Hal Rounds of the Curriculum & Textbook Committee stated we have a couple of book purchase requests. I asked Mr. Keel some questions on this and have to comment that I am impressed by the span and depth of all the things we asked him that he answered. After some discussion, the board voted to approve.
Speakman commented that the iReady software is very expensive for us to pay for every year. It has been commented that some board members would like review and discussion of this. Eddie Keel said remember that goes to the RFP proposal approved in the consent agenda. He said right now the iReady contract is paid out of Title I but we don’t know what that will look like in the future. He suggested this be discussed at the board retreat.
Kevin Powers of the Policy Committee brought up Policy 4.602 on emergency procedure. This regards the honor roll awards and class rankings that were put into policy. It was approved, with Trimm passing.
On the Executive Committee, Speakman said we meet each week and they are recorded for board member review at the admin building.
New Business
The proposed contract for Dr. Don McPherson was next. Attorney Tom Minor stated we have the final draft to present tonight. We use the TSBA proposed template and plug in the figures. Dr. McPherson wants to use his own vehicle instead of a school vehicle and this changes automobile expenses. He will get a $600 per month reimbursement for the director’s use of his own vehicle. This will cover all his travel within 30 miles of the admin building and any mileage that exceeds 60 miles round trip, he will fill out an expense form to reimburse him. He has to keep his own insurance on the vehicle and he needs to provide the policy to the board.
Dr. McPherson’s pay will be the same as Dr. Hamlett’s at $145,000 a year but this is a 3 year contract rather than 4 years. His salary can be evaluated each year and by law cannot be reduced during the contract. There is a performance bonus clause that provides more stringent requirements on definable progress under the strategic plan. He will have to meet this in order to qualify to receive up to a $10,000 bonus. Minor said this is coupled with the evaluation tool to be done annually but is to be first evaluated after 6 months. Added to this is that any disagreement between Dr. McPherson and the board related to the contents of the evaluation tool, then it will be resolved in favor of the board.
Minor said residency was a big thing with Dr. McPherson who will be moving from Tullahoma. We decided that the board will provide some temporary lodging for him for 60 days. He has to find a temporary or permanent residence after that time. The board will cover his moving expenses with 3 bids submitted.
Another change is Dr. McPherson will not be using the district’s health policy. Minor said in that case the board would pay him $1000 a month into an IRA set up by him. This amount was negotiated too. The board needs to work up an evaluation tool in the next couple of months. Minor said if the board approves the contract tonight, the chairman needs to sign it tomorrow morning after I make these slight changes, we will email it to Dr. McPherson to sign and he will FedEx back to us 2 originals. He would start on July 14th.
Interim director Keel said once this is signed, it goes to the HR office and there is no way this can start next Monday. We don’t know how long the paperwork will take and it requires a background check and a TB test. It depends on when Dr. McPherson does these things.
Minor suggested to add contingent upon successful completion of a background check and make it July 21st. Kevin Powers made the motion to accept the contract with the verbiage that attorney Minor has mentioned and set August 1st as date or employment unless requirements are met earlier. Minor suggested to make the date July 21st and he would assume duties upon successful completion of the background check and TB test. Powers agreed with the change and the motion was seconded by Miller. A roll call vote was held and all voted yes except for Wilson who passed on voting.
Speakman said we have 2 contracts to approve for special education so they will be in place when school starts. They were approved.
Board Comments
Hal Rounds said on the new statute from the legislature on enlarging recess time, are we ready for that. Keel said we have sent those requirements to the principals and they are working on this.
Wilson asked with football games scheduled, will the football field be ready by then. Speakman said our first home game is August 28th. The contractors had told us it would be ready by July 1st but we have had a large amount of rain. They will start next Monday to finish the press box, electrical work is still needed. They are committed to finish as soon as possible. Speakman said we have a sound system to install there too for the first game and everything for that is here.
Speakman was asked about when the old light poles at Buckley Carpenter will be finally taken down and he said as soon as the contractor can get a crane in there. He was asked if the new playground equipment has been installed at LaGrange-Moscow and Southwest Elementary and he replied yes. A fence needs to be added at Southwest. On the elevator replacement at Fayette Ware, they have had a contract with this for 2 years. It has now been installed and all left is the fire interface with that contractor.
Speakman said he has spoken with Fayette County Public Works director Wayne Dowdy about the light poles at Buckley Carpenter and getting their help. He said in the past we haven’t had a good relationship but we both are willing to work together now. We will need gravel and road patch and our departments are on the same team, he said. He told Mr. Minor that we may need a memorandum of understanding be-tween us to confirm this.