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by Joe Sullivan

The man who has just assumed one of the hottest seats of any elected official in Knox County is keeping his cool in the cooker full of pressures to which he’s being subjected. More than that, the new chairman of the Knox County school board, Dan Murphy, is resolved to ward off any encroachment on the board’s prerogative to decide how school funds get spent or the imposition of deadlines on its decision-making process.

Demands from county commissioners to get a new West Knox high school built quickly to relieve overcrowding head the list of pressures on Murphy and his nine-member board. Lack of confidence on the part of some commissioners and others within the county administration in the school system’s capability to carry out the project has led to talk of having the county build the school and then lease it to the school system for $1 a year.

Murphy recoils against that approach. “It’s very important for the school system to construct that facility, because we’re responsible for designing the curriculum and providing the proper environment for the kids, and to divorce ourselves from the design and construction of that building would be an abdication on our part,” the school board chair asserts.

At its August meeting, County Commission reallocated $40 million to school construction from scuttled plans for a new downtown library. Then, on Sept. 8, Commission approved an 18-cent property tax increase to assure a source of funding for the school work and the rest of County Mayor Mike Ragsdale’s capital budget that had been put in jeopardy. But neither the $40 million nor any of the property tax proceeds were actually placed in the school system’s budget, over which the school board has control. Until they are, Murphy is taking an expectant rather than an expeditious approach to proceeding with the new high school.

“I’m expecting the funding to come to our school construction fund, and when it does, we’ll put in our capital [spending] plan and put the amended plan up for a vote of the board,” he says. In the meantime, the new school board chair plans to conduct workshops on alternative approaches to getting a new school built that seem in keeping with his pedagogical orientation as a UT accounting professor. “Over the next month or so, in addition to relooking at the way we’ve built schools in the past, we’re going to be looking at the design/build method used by firms like Community Tectonics and Denark, and we’re also going to look at getting a private property developer under a contract that would encompass architectural, engineering and construction services and perhaps extend to leasing the school from the developer on a basis that would cover maintenance and custodial services as well,” Murphy says.

At the same time, the board will begin to address specifications for a new high school, encompassing everything from classroom sizes to corridors and closets. The school system has a set of high school specifications on the shelf that were developed several years ago. And if they were drawn upon, a design/build contractor or a developer could make a running start on getting a new school completed in perhaps a year and a half. But Murphy believes they need to be reexamined. “I think we need to ask ourselves whether we can afford them. We’ve had a tendency to want to build a Cadillac when we can only afford a Chevy,” he says. Moreover, the concept of incorporating smaller specialized academics into large high schools that’s one element of Ragsdale’s Great Schools initiative begs to be taken into account. “They definitely figure into the design of a facility, and we have to ask ourselves what are our objectives for that facility.”

All of these deliberations seem well calculated to yield a well-conceived and well-built new high school for the long haul. But in the absence of its immediate incorporation into the school board’s capital budget, they also seem well calculated to exacerbate tensions with County Commission in the short run. “My constant frustration is with the school board. At some point we’re going to lose patience and just build the school ourselves,” says Commissioner John Griess, who lives in Farragut where high school overcrowding is horrific.

Murphy, who’s been of the board for two years, assumed the chairmanship earlier this month when his long-time predecessor Sam Anderson renounced it (though he remains an influential board member). Anderson had tired of being the point person in constant budgetary battles and turf wars with County Commission and the county mayor.

Murphy is determined not to let flaps over the new high school or other school funding issues get in the way of developing an overarching sense of mission on the board’s part. When the board convenes for its annual fall retreat this weekend, such issues won’t even be addressed. Nor will the retreat be a forum for Superintendent Charles Lindsey to present his 12-month agenda for the school system, as it has been in prior years.

“This year is going to be different,” Murphy says. “Instead of dealing with a lot of specific issues, I’ve worked with Dr. Lindsey and with Leadership Knoxville on getting us focused on leadership, visioning, mission-statement building and strategic planning. My biggest goal as chairman is to make our board the most effective, highest performing team that we can possibly have.”

It remains to be seen whether this textbook approach will steer clear of “Murphy’s Law.”

September 23, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 39 © 2004 Metro Pulse