Schools director Johnny McDaniel gets good evaluation in Bradley County

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Bradley County Schools Director Johnny McDaniel scored a cumulative 4.68 out of a possible 5.0 on his annual evaluation by the county school board.

“That’s about as good as you can get,” board Chairman Troy Weathers said.

Scores range from a “one” at the low end to a “five” as the highest possible score.

The evaluation includes six categories: board relationship (a 4.70), community relationships (a 4.81), staff and personnel relationships (4.58), educational relationship (4.54), business and finance (4.71) and strategic planning (4.71).

The board will review McDaniel’s contract at its August meeting. Weathers said McDaniel has three years remaining on his contract now and the board could opt to add a fourth year. Weathers said his announcement Thursday night satisfies the state requirement for a 15-day notice before changing the contract.

Before then, board member David Kelley said, the members might want to reconsider McDaniel’s salary, too.

“I would like to propose we have a comp study done” by the staff, Kelley said. “Our schools are doing a tremendous job with test scores and all, and yet our director of schools is ranked [in salary] below halfway in comparison with other schools our size.”

He referred to a ranking by the Tennessee School Boards Association. McDaniel makes $112,600 per year, according to the system’s 2010-11 budget.

In the grade report released Thursday night, McDaniel received “fives” in most sub-groups within the six categories from board members, who do not identify themselves on the score cards. But there were some “threes” and “fours” and some “twos.”

The lowest scores were in the staff relationships category.