Dronebarger Scores A 3.2 On Director Evaluation

White County Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger received a composite score of 3.2 out of 5 on his Director’s Evaluation Thursday night.

Chairman Bob Young said the six board members filled out assessments in May. He said the results of the evaluation bring closure to the board’s decision to extend Dronebarger in December. Board Member Jayson McDonald said he believes the board gave helpful, honest feedback and assessed Dronebarger a fair score

“Lots of great, constructive criticism in there that I saw and read,” McDonald said. “And I know that Mr. D will pull from those and be a better director in years to come.”

The board discussed the need for a new evaluation model in February, but opted to use the existing model for the 2023-2024 school year in fairness to Dronebarger. McDonald said he is ready for a new system.

“There’s a lot of those items on there that we don’t have any knowledge of as a board,” McDonald said. “So I’m looking forward to the fact that we can sit down and get a metric that we’ll know more about so we can be more prepared.”

Young said he plans to draft a new evaluation format and work with Dronebarger, along with the board, to generate a more informative amalgamation of comments and data from which Dronebarger and future directors can draw. He said the creation of a new format will is not to be created by the board alone, but with the participation and perspective of the director.

“We’ll work on that to get something in place that does focus on, maybe, more objective metrics, and eliminates some subjective,” Young said. “Because you’re right Mr. McDonald. We don’t necessarily see all of the information necessary to make a constructive evaluation.”

In other business, the White County School Board approved changes to the attendance policy and approved the curriculum for the 2024-2025 school year, including the addition of a new fourth-year math class on second reading.

The board also added Juneteenth to the school’s calendar as a paid vacation day for full-time staff. Board members also approved Buddy Discus as the district’s Internal auditor.