CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Clarksville-Montgomery County School Board voted Tuesday evening to approve the County Commission’s requests and separate the pending school year budget amendment into two parts so the county can vote on each.

This comes after the commission voted April 12 to reject the 2021-22 school year budget amendment back to CMCSS, citing disagreement with a proposed $60,000 raise for Director of Schools Millard House.

Fumbled meeting

There was a lot of uncertainty about what the votes were actually regarding, with several members asking what the votes were pertaining to, and board attorney Mark Nolan having to step in several times.

The result was a board meeting that left many confused.

First, Kent Griffy of District 4 made a motion to remove the budget amendment from the consent agenda and vote on it separately. The motion was seconded for discussion, and then Griffy made the opening comment.

“My only concern is the timeframe. There are a few items on the budget that I don’t know if I’m for or against since I just got it a week ago,” Griffy said, adding that he was not completely prepared to vote.

After some confusion about what Griffy’s motion was for, and then what board chair Carol Berry of District 1 was calling on a vote for, Nolan corrected the board.

“You are voting on item six, approval of the 2021-22 consolidated budget as presented in your packet. That is what you are voting on,” Nolan said.

“We just voted, but let’s vote again,” Berry said.

The vote was then taken, and the motion passed 6-1.

Call out

After a report on the school’s plan to implement an employee attendance campaign, there was a consideration of the County Commission’s request to separate the pending budget amendment into one for teachers and one for the schools director.

First, board member Joshua Baggett of District 7 made a motion to have the teachers’ pay portion, which includes the bonuses, separated and to send that item back to the commission.

Charlie Patterson of District 6 seconded, and then revoked his second when Carol Berry called for a vote.

There was then some confusion again about what the motion was for, which Nolan clarified was for the commission’s request for the amendment to be split.

This did not include the director’s salary.

Another motion was then made to also send back the director’s salary, and that was passed 5-2. The meeting was then opened up for board comments.

Without naming them, Patterson mentioned “four or five county commissioners” who were possibly creating extra costs for taxpayers by pushing back against the budget.

“In this particular thing, Mr. House has a legit contract with the School Board, and that was our decision, not the County Commission’s decision. Their decision is to fund our budget, not to tell us how to do line items,” Patterson said.

Patterson then thanked the commissioners who were working with the board on the budget, not against.

Continued confusion

Then there was confusion again on what the vote was actually on. Griffy asked for clarification on what the board had just taken a vote on.

Berry, visibly frustrated, clarified for Griffey what the vote was on: a raise and a bonus.

However, it was not both.

Constance Brown corrected Berry’s statement, adding that the raise was not on the table, the teachers’ pay was only including the bonus, and called the chaos of the meeting “craziness.”

County Commissioner Joshua Beal was quick to correct two things Patterson said about the unnamed county commissioners.

“Number one, I do not know of one county commissioner that was against teachers getting a raise, not one. And I knew that somebody was going to say that as soon as we pushed (the budget) back,” Beal said.

“The other thing is that when we deferred this to come back, we did not designate line items. We asked them to simply consider separating it out and that was it,” Beal said.

Beal added that when the the budget amendment is again considered by the commission, he would vote in favor of the teacher bonuses, but he would vote down the director’s raise if it remained unchanged.

The commission is expected to vote at their next formal meeting on May 10.