Last night a majority of the Knox County School Board selected Mike McMillan as it’s Chairman. McMillan has been known as the one vote odd man out. McMillan has become the Burchett vote of personal angst against Dr. James McIntyre, Jr..
Last night was no different. The last action of the board was to hear the termination of 29 year teacher Danny Sanders. First, Board Member Terry Hill announced she would recuse herself from the vote.
Sanders TEA (Tennessee Education Association) Attorney exceeded her 10 minutes in painting the picture of a teacher left behind. Knoxville Attorney Ruth Ellis spent less 10 minutes explaining the 5 charges against Sanders and the rationale of the hearing authority in ruling that he be terminated. The board had a brief discussion and a motion was made and seconded to uphold the decision of the hearing authority. The vote was held with a majority voting yes and McMillan voting NO. Then the Maryville, TN attorney appointed by the Knox County Law Department (the law department had a conflict, probably the fact that Sanders son is a lawyer in the law department, I presume) announced they would mail a letter announcing the boards decision, which would then start the clock on an appeal should Sanders decide to appeal. McMillan then announced the vote as 8-1, which was not accurate as Hill had recused herself, the vote should have been 7 in favor, 1 in opposition and 1 recusal.
But, the bottom line is McMillan as Chairman is still the one vote odd man out. Some things never change.
