Denning plans to retire next year

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Cleveland City Schools Director Rick Denning recently announced that he will retire next year after 16 years in the job. Dr. Denning spoke recently with the Times Free Press about his career and future plans.

Q: You announced you will retire next June. Why then?

A: I gave them a year’s notice because our school board, I have an excellent school board, they’ve got their plate full right now. They’re doing a lot of planning for upcoming facility needs. I didn’t want to cramp them, so to speak, timewise.

Q: Why retire now?

A: I wanted to see the two (construction) projects finished. I just think it’s time to spend some time with my wife and family. All my family lives down in eastern North Carolina, near Wilmington. In my business, you don’t want to stay at the party too long.

Q: Do you plan to keep working?

A: Not as a school superintendent, no. I am retiring now, and I’ll move to North Carolina. My plans are undecided at this point. As active as I am, I’m not one who could sit around a lot. I may do some volunteer work.

Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of?

A: I think I will be remembered as the one who is responsible for approximately $70 million of construction, which is quite phenomenal for our size community. I also hope I’d be remembered for having a good sense of humor. I enjoy a good laugh.

Q: What should the school board look for in the next superintendent?

A: I would hope they’d look for someone who first had prior experience as a school superintendent. Who has a doctorate degree, has a track record of success, academic as well as interpersonal relationship successes.

Q: Do you have any regrets about your job?

A: I wished I could have done more with salaries for staff. Our staff hasn’t had a raise in two years, Bradley County has almost caught up with us. We’ve got facilities, they’ve got salaries. Our maintenance department is woefully lacking in salaries compared to those around us.

Q: Why did you accept a raise in 2008 and then give the money back, but stay at that same salary level for retirement purposes?

A: My old contract called for a 4 percent salary increase (in 2008). I didn’t feel that getting more money in my pocket was fair when our employees hadn’t had a raise in two years.

I took it but had the actual money transferred to the Bradley-Cleveland Education Foundation for the purpose of beginning the national board certification. I turned around and helped teachers who wanted to better themselves with this prestigious certification, hopefully without much cost to them.

Q: What do you see as the future for Cleveland City Schools?

A: The city systems in Tennessee are the lighthouse systems in the state, a lot of innovation comes from those. We have a little more money generally than the other systems.

The other thing, what we have in Bradley County and Cleveland is perfect: healthy competition. We don’t want them to do better than we do, they don’t want us to do better than they do. If you want to improve public schools, set up a situation where there’s competition between two school systems.

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Article: Denning to retire from Cleveland Schools post in 2011