Now March 31st

Spring Break in Sumner County will now last through March 31st, per a post on the district's Facebook page:

Sumner County Schools will be closed through March 31st. We are taking this proactive step to help keep our school community healthy and safe. We will continue to monitor this rapidly changing situation closely based on information provided by the National Institute of Health, the Center for Disease Control, and the Tennessee Department of Health. We encourage you to visit our website or Facebook page for the most current information.

This updates the previous announcement that schools would be closed through March 27th.

The new announcement comes as Gov. Bill Lee has suggested TN schools close through at least March 31st. Additionally, Hamilton County Schools (Chattanooga) have announced they will be closed through April 13th.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Coronavirus Extends Sumner's Spring Break

After announcing on Friday that there were no plans to extend Spring Break to keep students and teachers home in light of the Coronavirus outbreak, Sumner County Schools announced Sunday morning that Spring Break will now extend through March 27th. Here's the Facebook post:

Sumner County Schools, Tennessee

7 hrs ·

Sumner County Schools will extend spring break an additional week, March 23-27. We are taking this proactive step to help keep our school community healthy and safe. We will continue to monitor this rapidly changing situation closely based on information provided by the National Institute of Health, the Center for Disease Control, and the Tennessee Department of Health. We encourage you to visit our website or Facebook page for the most current information.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews 

Have news to share? Email us: newshendersonville@gmail.com

Trump, Democrats Fail to Inspire Voter Turnout in Sumner

Despite a crowded field of Democrats and an incumbent President still popular in Tennessee, voter turnout in Sumner County for the March 3rd Presidential Primary was significantly lower than in the same election in 2016.

The Hendersonville Standard reports:

Less than 20 percent of Sumner County’s registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s Presidential Preference and Sumner County primary election, held March 3.  

Former Vice President Joe Biden won the county’s Democratic nomination for U. S. President with 42.96 percent of the vote. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders came in second with 24.71 percent, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg came in third with 14.69 percent of the Sumner vote. In all, 11,630 Sumner voters cast ballots for candidates in the Democratic primary. 

On the Republican side, President Donald Trump won his party’s nomination in Sumner with 97.25 percent of the vote. Rep. Joe Walsh, who dropped out of the race a few weeks ago, received less than one percent, as did former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. In all, 10,148 Republicans voted for the presidential nominee in Sumner County. 

Turnout was around 30% in 2016, when the Democratic field had all but narrowed to Hillary Clinton and the GOP field was essentially Trump, Kasich, and Cruz. 

Democrats did edge Republicans in overall turnout, with over 11,000 Democrats voting compared to 10,000 on the GOP side. 

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

The Secret List

Who will be Hendersonville's next (first) City Administrator?

Well, we can't know because City officials are keeping the names of the five finalists secret. This seems to fly in the face of open records laws, but City officials insist their behind the scenes behavior is totally appropriate.

The Hendersonville Standard has more:

The list of those vying to be Hendersonville’s first permanent city administrator has been narrowed down to five, according to Dave LeMarbre who currently holds the position on an interim basis.   

The list will be narrowed down further before it’s made public who the final candidates are, LeMarbre added. 

The candidates include: 

A county administrator from Mississippi; a chief of staff for a city council in Wisconsin; a former city manager from Ohio; a police chief from Kansas; a chief administrative officer for a mayor in Alabama; a deputy city manager from a city larger than Hendersonville in Virginia; a chief of staff for a city manager in a large city in Florida; an interim village manager in Illinois; a city manager from a small East Tennessee town; the chief executive and administrative officer for a Pennsylvania city of similar size and budget to Hendersonville; and a town manager for a small town in North Carolina with a budget about one-fourth the size of Hendersonville’s.

One woman and one professional who is currently working in Tennessee are among the 11 candidates. None of the candidates are former or current Hendersonville employees, nor are any of the candidates current or former Hendersonville elected officials. 

The secrecy surrounding the process is allegedly to avoid further "political strife." However, it seems that by keeping the names of applicants secret, the process is only adding to the tension surrounding the process.

Typically, the selection process for public officials is relatively transparent. Lists of names are released once the application deadline is met. As the process narrows candidates, the list of finalists is also typically released. Often, meetings to narrow candidates are held in public, with opportunities for public forums or other comment on potential leaders.

It's not clear what statutory authority City Attorney John Bradley is using to justify this super secret process.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Cause and Effect

It seems State Rep. William Lamberth could use a lesson in "Cause and Effect." In a recent column in the Hendersonville Standard, he states:

Because we have invested over $1.5 billion in K-12 education, and because we have made the largest combined investment in teacher salaries than at any point in state history over the past eight years, Tennessee students were recently named among the fastest improving in the entire nation across math, reading, and science. 

Lamberth neglects to point out that the "fastest-improving" designation was given to Tennessee all the way back in 2013. He further fails to mention that since then, scores have "regressed to the mean," making the 2013 results an anomaly.

No matter how you view the 2013 national testing results, it's not possible for investments made AFTER 2013 to impact our state's 2013 designation.

Lamberth also brags about what he calls the state's big investment in education. Here's another fact check:

A state organization tasked with providing research on the operations of state and local government has released a report suggesting Tennessee’s school funding formula, the BEP, needs at least $1.7 billion to adequately fund public education in the state. TACIR — The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations — released “K-12 Education Funding and Services.”

So, despite Lamberth's crowing about investing in schools, the reality -- as told by a bipartisan state commission - is that Tennessee is FAR behind where we need to be in school funding. It seems Majority Leader Lamberth should be using his legislative influence to actually make an impact instead of repeating talking points.

On a related note, the state's own Department of Education indicates Tennessee is underfunding teaching positions by at least 9000 teachers. Filling that gap would cost just shy of $500 million.

Sumner County Schools and all of Tennessee is no doubt waiting on Lamberth to push for the systemic change necessary to truly invest in public education.

Oh, and Lamberth fails to mention that he was a leader in the effort to pass school vouchers -- using taxpayer money to fund largely unaccountable private schools. The plan is estimated to cost more than $300 million when fully implemented. Similar plans have caused local property tax increases in states like Indiana.

Investing in our schools SHOULD be a top priority. Our state does have available resources to make up the gap in funding. But, when elected officials paint a rosy picture, they gloss over a disturbing reality: Tennessee public schools need real, sustained investment.


For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews 

Wild Wild West

Sumner County has joined a growing list of Tennessee local governments in passing a resolution that asks local law enforcement to ignore duly passed state and federal laws regarding guns. On Monday night, the Sumner County Commission passed the "Wild West" resolution, essentially declaring the "unalienable right" to keep and bear arms. The resolution's language interprets the U.S. Constitution and multiple Supreme Court decisions in a way that views most or all regulations on gun possession and sale as an "infringement" on an individual's rights.

Specifically, the resolution says:

The sanctuary county resolution was first introduced by Commissioner Jeremy Mansfield and states that Sumner County “will not authorize or appropriate government funds, resources, employees, agencies, contractors, buildings, detention centers, or offices for the purpose of enforcing or assisting in the enforcement of any element of such acts, laws, orders, mandates, rules or regulations” that infringe on the right to keep and bear arms as described in the nearly three-page document.

A copy of the full resolution can be found on page 38 here.

The resolution passed 18-4 with only Commissioners Krueger, Ring, Echols, and DeWitt voting "NO."

The Hendersonville Standard reports on Commissioner Baker Ring's reservations:

“Our oath of office says we are to support and defend the constitution of the State of Tennessee and the constitution of the United States,” Ring said. “I cannot vote for the original resolution with wording in there that tells us we must violate state law if we pass this.”

Rather than take a firm stand, County Executive Anthony Holt responded in typical weasel-word fashion:

 

Sumner County Mayor Anthony Holt said Monday that he would not veto the resolution. He also called for civility among everyone involved in the debate.

“Nobody… me, any elected official (or) any commissioner is going to take anybody’s guns in Sumner County,” Holt added. “I don’t know of anybody here that… needs to be demonized because they really believe that everyone’s Second Amendment rights needs to be protected.”

If the Sumner County Sheriff's office follows the plain language of the resolution, they would be in violation of state and federal law regarding guns.


For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews


Got news? Email us: newshendersonville@gmail.com

County Commission Passes Wild West Gun Resolution

A so-called "gun rights" resolution that, if followed, would turn Sumner County into the "Wild West" passed the County Commission on Monday night, with only four County Commissioners demonstrating the intellectual fortitude to vote "NO".

The four NO votes: Caroline Krueger, Loren Echols, Baker Ring, and Deanne DeWitt.

The resolution was sponsored by Commission gadfly Jeremy Mansfield, who last year opposed efforts to direct new county funding to schools, the jail, and infrastructure improvements.

According to the Hendersonville Standard, the Mansfield "wild west" resolution would:

The original version of the resolution stated that Sumner County would “not authorize or appropriate government funds, resources, employees, agencies, contractors, buildings, detention centers, or offices for the purpose of enforcing or assisting in the enforcement” of anything that would “infringe on the right by the people to keep and bear arms as described” in a three-page document.

Essentially, the resolution calls on the Sumner County Sheriff's Office to ignore state and federal laws regarding gun possession and instead to follow a "purist" interpretation of the 2nd Amendment that means gun possession should not be restricted or regulated in any way.

Sumner County joins 25 other Tennessee counties in passing some version of this resolution.