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By Brandon Johnson, 3rd District School Board Member
CAMPBELL COUNTY, TN (SPECIAL TO WLAF)- Over the past several days, many members of our community have reached out asking about the process to select the next Director of Schools for Campbell County. Given the level of public interest and concern, I believe it is important to clearly explain how we arrived at this point and why I have concerns about the direction the process has taken.
When Director Jennifer Fields announced her intention to step down, the Campbell County Board of Education unanimously agreed to hire the Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA) to conduct the search for our next Director of Schools. The goal was straightforward: to create a transparent process that would build public confidence and remove as much local political influence from the search as possible.
In Tennessee, the Director of Schools is no longer elected by voters. That authority was removed from the electorate by the Tennessee General Assembly years ago and placed with local boards of education. Because the responsibility ultimately rests with the board, it is especially important that the process used to select a director be structured, fair, and transparent to the public.
TSBA conducts superintendent and director searches across Tennessee each year and is widely used by school boards to ensure professional, structured hiring processes. With their assistance, candidates were recruited from across the country as well as here locally. In total, fifteen individuals applied for the position.
The criteria used to evaluate those applicants were developed through input from the school board as well as feedback gathered from teachers, staff, parents, and community members through surveys and in-person sessions. The goal was to identify the qualities our community wanted to see in the next leader of Campbell County Schools.
At the beginning of this process, the school board’s attorney strongly advised that whoever was selected as Interim Director of Schools should not be considered as a candidate for the permanent position. The reasoning was simple: allowing the interim director to compete for the permanent role can complicate the process and make it difficult to fairly compare candidates when one person is already serving in the position.
An easy way to think about it is this: if a business is hiring a manager and one of the applicants has already been sitting in the manager’s office for several weeks while the others are simply submitting resumes, it becomes difficult to objectively compare everyone on equal footing.
For that reason, the Board of Education unanimously agreed at the start of the search that whoever was selected as Interim Director would not be considered as a candidate for the permanent position. Every board member agreed to those terms before the process began, and that understanding was communicated publicly throughout the search.
After reviewing the applications, TSBA narrowed the field to two finalists based on the criteria established by the board and the feedback received from the community.
However, the board later voted to allow Interim Director of Schools Nancy Lay to enter the process and interview alongside those finalists.
Let me be clear: this is not a criticism of Mrs. Lay. She was an exceptional principal, and in the short time she has served as interim director I have found her to be responsive, hardworking, and dedicated to the students and staff of Campbell County Schools.
My concern is not about Mrs. Lay. My concern is about the integrity of the process.
Fifteen individuals applied for this position under a clearly defined set of rules that the board publicly agreed to follow. Changing those rules at the final stage of the process raises legitimate concerns about fairness for those applicants and transparency for our community.
Several applicants have already expressed that, had they known the terms of the process could change midway through the search, they might have made different decisions about whether or how to participate.
The selection of a Director of Schools is one of the most important responsibilities entrusted to a Board of Education. The person chosen will help shape the direction of our school system, influence the education of thousands of students, and lead hundreds of teachers and staff members.
For that reason, the process used to select that leader must be fair, consistent, and worthy of the public’s trust.
I remain hopeful that the Board of Education will ultimately reach a good outcome for our school system. I care deeply about Campbell County, our students, and the future of our schools.
Public service is not always easy, and reasonable people can disagree. But when a board sets the rules for a process, it should follow them. Transparency, fairness, and integrity are not optional when the future of our schools is at stake. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-03/11/2026-6AM)