White County Tennessee Schools: Always In The News For All The Wrong Reasons (Op-Ed)

Submitted by James Wilson –

White County TN Schools have made state and national news in the last few years, not for excellence in education, but for incidents in the schools such as the following:

• A middle school teacher was recently charged with three counts of rape of a child. The White County Sheriff’s Office and Office of the District Attorney report that the investigation is ongoing.

What steps have the School Board and Director Kurt Dronebarger taken to make sure this does not happen again? It is the Director’s job to approve the hiring of new school employees and maintain employee discipline. It is the School Board’s job to hold the Director accountable.

• Another middle school teacher gave her students a writing assignment in which the students were expected to contemplate what it would be like to kill someone. The public was outraged. After the urging of her superiors an apology was issued by the teacher. In a unilateral decision by Director Dronebarger, no disciplinary action was taken against the teacher. Requests from the School Board that the teacher answer their questions were denied.

• An elementary school teacher was temporarily suspended for stalking an extramarital lover during school hours according to local news in Sparta.

• In some cases, the School Board has been shut out of the decision making process altogether. Director Dronebarger has made unilateral decisions that caused the People to have no representation through their School Board members.

This was the case when the yearly Baccalaureate service was planned by members of the community to be held at the White County High School in honor of students graduating in May 2023. 

The FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation) threatened to bring a lawsuit against the White County school system if they held the service on public property. Director Dronebarger gave in to the FFRF without consulting the School Board. 

The FFRF has bullied and bluffed other communities into submission out of fear of being sued. But the courts are settled in favor of schools in these cases and the FFRF knows it. But Dronebarger didn’t know it, nor did he check into the matter even when urged to do so. He was quick to allow religious freedoms to be trampled in White County without resistance.

However, with the help of local pastors the community event went on as originally planned and religious freedoms were protected. It had been a time-honored tradition in White County since 1909, over 114 years.

All of the above happened under Director Dronebarger’s watch. Unfortunately, this is not a complete list of incidents. There are too many to name here.

Director Dronebarger recently made a request that the School Board vote to renew his contract early – at their next meeting December 14th 2023. The School Board’s normal procedure would be to vote on renewal of the Director’s contract April 2024 to go into effect June 30 2024.

Why did Dronebarger request an early renewal of his contract? 

When questions were asked at the Nov 9th meeting, School Board Chairman Young urged “it’s a lengthy process” indicating they needed more time than usual. The answer was not logical considering the new contract is now ready for public review online for the next fifteen days (beginning Wednesday Nov 15th 2023). The “lengthy process” managed to be on time in past years when voting to renew in April. What’s so different now? 

There is only speculation and suspicion. And suspicion is warranted considering the Director’s track record above. Will there be a change of School Board member(s) in the near future that would make a difference in voting on early contract renewal? Does Dronebarger intend to resign before His renewed contract is up? In that case White County could be on the hook to buy out his contract.

In conclusion, a few important points to consider:

• Every school board member is required to hold the Director of Schools accountable by mandate of the State of TN.

• Tennessee laws require that information about government activities must be made public and available to the People.

• In America’s system of government the People are the last line of defense for checks and balances of the system and are responsible to keep it within proper bounds.

• It is important to note that Opening Prayer has been removed from the White County School Board monthly meeting agenda. Prayer for wisdom in our public institutions is more important now than ever if we are to confront the widespread evil in today’s society. Especially when it comes to protecting our children.