White County School Director Receives Performance Evaluation From BOE

The results of the White County School Board’s evaluation of Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger were discussed Thursday night.

Dronebarger had a cumulative score of 3.5 out of 4 on his evaluations. Board Member Bob Young said it became clear to him while reviewing the evaluations that some of the lower scores could be improved through more collaboration with Dronebarger.

“There is a segment of this that if we as a board are not clear in some of the things that we’re responsible for,” Young said. “It’s going to be hard for you (Dronebarger) to meet or exceed those expectations. So I appreciate your honesty in doing that.”

Board Chairman Jayson McDonald made a motion, that was approved, to eliminate Board Member Dewayne Howard’s evaluation of Dronebarger. McDonald said that according to the board’s attorney, Howard’s comments were not about the last school term and were deemed offensive.

Young said that in the future it would better serve the board and Dronebarger to acknowledge why expectations were or were not met. He said this is important moving forward in areas scored below a three.

“We owe it to the director and ourselves to list and say why on those specific characteristics or those specific measurables,” Young said. “I appreciate you (Dronebarger) putting that in, I appreciate the comments and I think us as a board, we need to respect his comments and where he needs support from the board. Just as much as we expect him to review our comments and follow up with corrective actions and corrective measures.”

Dronebarger said it would be to the system and boards benefit to sit down and discuss goals going into the fall during this summer. Dronebarger said that would include the curriculum team in the sit down to identify five goals they all want to achieve.

“Certainly academic, but whether it be capital plans and things like that,” Dronebarger said. “Get started on that and I’d love to work with the board and establish what those are.”

Young said that a more than reasonable plan to come up with objectives and measure progress towards those goals. Dronebarger said late-summer 2021 would be an ideal time to meet and discuss goals for the school year.