I guess there aren't any local political consequences for stupid if the governor has your back from over in Nashville.

Unbelievable. How does anyone support him now?

If some sort of political calculation, quite possibly the most stupid ever,

One thing that bumfuzzles me is that her (soon to be former) job as a librarian and her elected position as a school board member are entirely separate. She's not doing these BOE activities as part of her job.

Makes sense Ms. Rountree wants to avoid a gap in insurance coverage or paying COBRA premiums before she gets insurance for being on the BOE. I suppose Mr. McIntyre would prefer that she stay in her librarian job and hand it off to someone else a couple of weeks into school? Or maybe he's talked to her physician. His petulance isn't cute no matter what its motivation.

And he's making clear who he thinks is working for whom in the BOE-superintendent relationship.

I don't think BOE members get health insurance.

I think Amber and the baby will go on her husband's policy this fall.

I also don't think this arrangement is unique to her.

Were Mrs. Rountree on leave from a job outside the system, this would not even be an issue......except one of discrimination.

he will claim this is about policy.

The correspondence on the 13th may have given him an out, the unnecessary specifics not withstanding.

The correspondence on the 18th makes clear his problem.

Couple of things:

I learned of these events Friday afternoon, and by the time I could get the story confirmed, it was too late to get both sides to comment. Given our cumbersome deadline/publication lag, all I could do was stick to the correspondence, which pretty much speaks for itself – and is considerably more voluminous than the snippets I had room for in my story.

This 'lag' problem is supposed to corrected soon by way of a new SN blog.

Ah, the injure and destroy your enemies at all costs mentality results in stuff like this. Just glad he's not elected, because that would be really embarrassing and he would be political and everything.

Has he become too much of a liability for Haslam yet?

The political calculation?

Probably this: Rountree doesn't go to orientation or other BOE events, then McIntyre and his lackeys begin spreading the word that Rountree doesn't "prepare" or isn't "ready" or is "overwhelmed" in her BOE position. I'm betting that's the calculation.

I think the next dumb move for McIntyre is to try and rig the vote for BOE Chair by excluding Amber from voting. Except that might make a 4 to 4 tie. Let me guess, the current Chair or Super is the tie breaking vote? Call the PR team, imminent stupid ahead.

McIntyre needs to go, one way or the other.

McIntyre on the Rude Awakening this morning. (link...)

They don't like him and neither do I. How bad is it when Amber had to be escorted to orientation by the Assistant Law Director?

Here's my post about Betty's piece, which included quotes from Rountree, a statement from McIntyre, and all the actual emails for your downloading pleasure:

(link...)

A new low from McIntyre. Very telling about how HE perceives the employER / employEE relationship between he and the board.

I think he's about to learn a "rigorous and robust" lesson about how that actually works.

Fire McIntyre tourettes are coming straight out of crazy land and are not progressive allies

Hmmm. Tourette syndrome is a serious issue, glad you are able to make light of it though. Is anyone else offended? Is anything below McIntyre supporters?

I didn't listen to Rude Awakening. Didn't have to. I trust Bean. Is the new tactic to characterize all critics of McIntyre as being RWNJs?

If it is, I suggest you go back to your drawing boards and come up with a Plan B.

Pregnancy is not a physical disability. It is an emotional disability that presents in fathers-to-be.

Rountree had a doctor support that she has a physical disability that made her eligible to use her sick leave when this school year began and to remain on sick leave until she terminates her employment. Places I've worked do not allow an employee to use sick leave unless the employee is expected to return to work (of course there are exceptions due to employee death). Where I've worked you can use up your vacation time prior to termination, but not sick leave. Seems to me the Knox Co school system has a generous sick leave policy, particularly since the Family Medical Leave Act is available.

As a taxpayer, I too would have questions about her participation in other activities while on disability. It looks a bit suspect to me that she is able to participate in both a school tour and an orientation meeting while on disability during August when school is in session.

Her resignation effective Sept 1 will qualify her to remain on the Knox Co schools active employee health insurance plan thru the end of September, thus covering her delivery and avoiding costly Cobra plans for Ms. Rountree. Keeping the employee health insurance during the pregnancy and the delivery may have been the motive for Rountree's disability. Plus she's drawing a paycheck for August while using up a bunch of banked sick time, and maybe she'll get paid for any banked vacation time she had remaining at her termination.

I'm curious, do members of the BOE have health insurance available, and at what cost?

Rountree worked until the end of the school year. Last I looked, teachers weren't working this summer, so she got no special privilege there. She's been on unpaid leave this year, and her resignation will be effective Sept 1. Her insurance, as per contract, expires Sept. 30. Just like anyone else's.

She will then be covered under her husband's policy (not that it's any or your business, or mine).

The state has lumped maternity leave under the sick leave category. Maybe they should change the language. Whatever the case, Rountree's not receiving any special treatment.

The school tour and the orientation session are activities connected to her position as a school board member-elect, not her soon-to-be former job as a school librarian.

This is just a dumb, hair-splitting argument that doesn't live in the real world.

Here's the state law re maternity leave for teachers:

0520-1-2-.04 LEAVE FOR TEACHERS.
(1) The term “teacher” shall mean any person employed by a local board of education in a position which requires a license issued by the State Department of Education. The term “teacher” shall not apply to a substitute teacher.
(2) Sick Leave. “Sick leave” shall mean leave of absence because of illness of a teacher from natural causes or accident, quarantine, or illness or death of a member of the immediate family of a teacher, including the teacher’s wife or husband, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, mother-in-law, father-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law. Upon written request of the teacher accompanied by a statement from her physician verifying pregnancy, any teacher who goes on maternity leave shall be allowed to use all or a portion of her accumulated sick leave for maternity leave purposes during the period of her physical disability only, as determined by a physician.
September, 2008 (Revised) 8

Is special treatment being granted disability ostensibly due to pregnancy? Maybe Knox Co Schools does that on a routine basis, I dunno. FMLA offers 12 weeks of time off for pregnancy/birth. Maybe in Rountree's case 12 weeks wasn't enough for her to stay on the Knox Co employee health insurance thru delivery, so disability was granted. I dunno.

I have some friends that are class room teachers, and they worked this summer for Knox Co Schools, so they only had about 4 weeks off this summer (most of July). I don't know if there are summer jobs available for librarians.

Was there special treatment? Maybe not in the Knox Co School world. In the rest of the world, once an employee gives notice they are leaving I would find granting disability a rarer event, particularly to an employer who is trying to keep their health care costs down.

Y'all are missing the significance of this whole thing.

“I certainly appreciate the opinion of the deputy Law Director, but I’m not willing to accept the potential risk or any potential appearance of impropriety,” he said.

This is the opening salvo intended to smear by implication the reputation of Rountree.

Already some commenters on here are spreading the smear further.

Use of "disability," "appearance of impropriety," code words to damage Rountree before she even starts.

McIntyre is the most political superintendent we've ever had. Fire him now.

whatevs.

Where can the document be found?

But this is Knox County, so that's probably where it ends

I doubt it. McIntyre has seriously messed up on this one.