CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Assuming contract negotiations go smoothly, the next Clarksville-Montgomery County director of schools will be Jean Luna-Vedder.
The CMCSS School Board voted to select Luna-Vedder in an initially split vote during Tuesday night’s meeting.
Luna-Vedder is currently chief of student readiness with the Tennessee Department of Education. Prior to that, Luna-Vedder was with the district for 12 years. She was CMCSS’ director of high schools and also has experience as a principal, assistant principal and teacher.
The board will now enter into contract negotiations with Luna-Vedder. She is expected to begin as the Director of Schools in July.
The other three candidates were:
Mason Bellamy, the chief of academics and schools at Metro Nashville Public Schools.
Angela Huff, the interim director of schools for CMCSS. Before her appointment to the interim position, she served as the district’s chief of staff.
Sean Impeartrice, the district’s chief academic officer.
Selecting the candidate
Tuesday night, multiple board members said how impressed they were with the slate of candidates.
“As I sat and watched all four candidates and listened to each one of them individually, it made me proud that they all came out of CMCSS,” Jimmie Garland said.
“I’m not a mind reader or fortune teller, but I predict all four of these candidates will be directors of schools somewhere someplace,” Charlie Patterson said.
“We would be proud for any one of them to represent Clarksville-Montgomery County as director of schools,” Carol Berry said.
Board members were then asked to make nominations. Huff was nominated by Garland, Luna-Vedder was nominated by Patterson, and Impeartrice was nominated by Herbert Nelson. Bellamy received no nominations.
During voting, Luna-Vedder received four votes (Margaret Pace, Kent Griffy, Patterson, Joshua Baggett), Huff received two votes (Carol Berry and Garland) and Impeartrice received one vote (Nelson).
Following the vote, Patterson moved that the board make a unanimous vote in support of Luna-Vedder, which they did, with Garland abstaining.
This is a developing report and it will be updated.