CNF posted an online poll last Friday with one question: Should the Cumberland County Board of Education rehire Janet Graham as Director of Schools.

In the past, Ms. Graham has received favorable marks in her evaluations.

Last year, Board members were complimentary of Graham’s performance on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning “never meets expectations” and 5 meaning “exceeds expectations.” She received no marks below a 3, “usually meets expectations.”

Director of Schools Janet Graham was named the 2018 Supervisor of the Year for East Tennessee by the Tennessee Principals Association.  Her current contract is up June 30, 2020.

The School Board in their last meeting voted down her 3-year-contract extention by a 6 to 2 vote.  Several of the Board members had concerns about voting on the contract for one reason or another.  One particular member, Jim Inman, said he had heard there was a ‘morale’ problem among faculty and teachers in the school system and asked the Board to conduct a survey to find out if that was true.  The Board voted against the survey of teachers, staff and faculty. So CNF opted to do our own poll.

Even though anyone could vote in the poll, we encouraged parents, teachers, staff and faculty of the school system to use the poll as a feedback mechanism to the School Board.  Normally, the margin for error in a public poll is 3 to 5 percentage points plus or minus with a confidence level of 95. Because the poll was open to anyone with a device and persons who may or may not be connected to the school system,  we have given the poll an unusually high margin for error of 10-percentage points plus or minus.

QUESTION:  SHOULD JANET GRAHAM BE REHIRED AS DIRECTOR OF SCHOOLS?

TOTAL VOTES: 7925

YES: 1080 (13.62%)

NO: 6845 (86.37%)

Margin of error: +/-10%