Dr. Phillips Writes Letters, too!

Here's his letter:

Hello all,




I want to thank everyone who contacted their commissioner or attended the Special Called County Commission meetings in support of SumnerCounty Schools.

Although the majority of our funding body did not vote to address a long-term solution to our funding issue, we are grateful to each and every commissioner that voted to approve the purchase of textbooks from capital funds. It has been very encouraging to our School Board and me to see the overwhelming support for our schools. It is exciting to finally be engaged in a long needed in-depth discussion about the needs of our district in an open forum.

While we appreciate the commission’s gesture of appropriating $2.2 million in one-time money to cover some of this year’s capital expenses, unfortunately this action does little to help the long-term health and vision of our school district.

This afternoon our chairman noticed a special called meeting of our School Board for Thursday, August 9 to discuss our options, as we move forward. It is our hope that our Board can reach a compromise with our funding body, a compromise that will support the long-term needs of our school district.

However, at this meeting I cannot recommend to the School Board that we open schools until this budget impasse is resolved.


I want to reassure all our parents and students that the School Board and I desire to provide only the best education - an educationthat puts our students at a competitive advantage over students from other school districts across the state.
Our schools are already reaching maximum capacity, and we will need new teachers for new students as we continue to grow. Instead, we are looking at reducing our number of teachers.

I believe that, without a doubt, we are at a crossroads. Without attention to this urgent issue, we will be forced to cut our number of teachers and eliminate many educationalopportunities for our students.


Is this the message we want to send to prospective citizens thinking about moving to our wonderful county? What about businesses that locate to an area simply because of the school system? And what message does this send to our students about the importance of their education?

Last fall I made the point loud and clear that if our funding body, the Sumner County Commission, could not support our budgetaryneeds and support our growing population, then cuts to the classroom were inevitable. I can only assume that our County Commission did not take this warning seriously.

Our School Board has made every effort to be forthright, and we have acted in good faith to work with our commissioners. We submitted our budget earlier than it has ever been submitted.


We have made numerous presentations in open public sessions, including the Sumner County budget and education committees in both June and July.

My message today is a plea for our county commission to recognize that our population continues to grow, while our school funding from local revenue sources continues to decrease. This path is simply unsustainable.

I cannot in good conscience start school knowing that our students will have to deal with losing their classroom teacher, class schedules being rearranged, and substitute courses implemented in the middle of the school year.


It is not fair to our students, and it puts them at a distinct disadvantage because we jeopardize student performance under thesecircumstances. We place at risk the ability of our students to earn scholarships.

Last year, Sumner County students earned right at $30 M in scholarships. For every parent and tax payer, that is a large return on investment!

I am asking you to please get engaged in this debate. As a parent or student, you know what impact reducing classroom teachers would have on you personally. If the commission refuses to support our school request, we will have no choice but to start the year with fewer teachers at each and every school.


We want to get back to school as soon as possible. Please contact your commissioner and ask them to work with us to keep teachers and staff in our schools!

Your Director of Schools,

Dr. Del R. Phillips III, Ph.D.