CLEVELAND, Tenn. - They had gathered here just a week earlier, in a room with fewer people, fewer cameras, less weight.
Cleveland City Schools Director Martin Ringstaff stood before them, and the Board of Education said he was doing a great job. On a scale of 1-5, they evaluated him at a 4.96. They signed his contract extension, locking him down with a $140,000 annual salary through the 2018-19 school year.
Then came Sunday, when an unidentified man posted pictures of Ringstaff's sexually explicit private messages to an unidentified woman. Then came Monday, when Ringstaff told police officers someone was impersonating him and told board members he had simply made the mistake of sending stupid messages - nothing more.
Then came Tuesday, when a picture from another message came out, this one of Ringstaff showing an image of his penis to the woman, who is not his wife. Ringstaff's wife is a math teacher at Cleveland High School.
Then came Friday, when the board gathered to discuss Ringstaff's week for the first time publicly. So many people showed up that some stood outside the doors, craning their necks to see what was going on inside. Some quietly complained they couldn't hear a word.
Inside the room, the conclusion was foregone. Ringstaff had already cleared out his office two days earlier, said Murl Dirksen, the school board's vice chairman. Among the board members, compared to last week, their tone had flipped.
"These revelations have seriously impaired his ability to be an effective school leader," said Peggy Pesterfield, reading a prepared statement.
"We were paying him while this was going on," said Steve Morgan, who opened the meeting with a prayer to acknowledge the human condition. "I in no way want to contribute another dime. If anything, he should owe us."
"Did we get his moral fiber wrong in the first place?" asked Dawn Robinson, the board's chairwoman. "Or was it just one of those situations where - and we're not going to know the answer to this - power and ego turned him into something different than who he really was?"
The board then voted, 5-2, to fire Ringstaff with cause - the cause being "conduct unbecoming." As part of the vote, the school system will not pay him any more money, barring an appeal from Ringstaff.
Dirksen, who along with Pesterfield voted against the firing, said he wanted to give Ringstaff until 5 p.m. Friday to hand in a letter of resignation. If he did so, as part of Dirksen's plan, Ringstaff would have received payment for the 17 1/2 days of vacation he had not yet used.
Dirksen hoped such a deal would convince Ringstaff not to fight the board's decision.
"I'm not ready to go through the appeal process with his attorneys," Dirksen said.
As part of his contract, Ringstaff can ask for a due-process hearing, where he could try to convince an independent hearing officer the board's decision was wrong. For example, he could argue the firing was without cause and the board should have given him some money, seeing that he was under contract for another three years.
The hearing officer then would make a recommendation to the school board, which could decide whether to listen to the officer.
On Thursday, a lawyer representing Ringstaff sent a letter to Board of Education Attorney Chuck Cagle, arguing that the elected leaders do not have a justifiable reason to fire Ringstaff.
"The alleged conduct that is presumably giving rise to the Board's action is completely unrelated to Mr. Ringstaff's professional conduct," attorney William Moffet wrote. "We therefore believe the Board lacks a basis to terminate Mr. Ringstaff's contract for cause."
Moffet wrote that Ringstaff would be willing to resign, but only if the board agreed to pay him 18 months' worth of salary, which would be about $210,000. In addition, Moffet said Ringstaff wanted his usual benefits for those 18 months, including health insurance and retirement benefits, as well as for himself and the board to issue a press release explaining the decision to part ways was mutual.
On Friday, after hearing about the board's decision, another lawyer representing Ringstaff said it's too early to predict his client's next move.
"I don't know what will happen next," Brad Stallard said. "I'm sure Dr. Ringstaff will evaluate his options."
The board hired Ringstaff, 45, in June 2011. In 2014, the Tennessee Association of School Superintendents named him superintendent of the year for school systems in the southeast section of the state.
On Monday night, days after the board ratified his contract extension, Ringstaff said in a statement the explicit messages were from a relationship with a woman that ended about a year ago. The messages showed Ringstaff proposing to have sex with the woman in a parking lot, complimenting her on her breasts, offering to perform oral sex and sharing an image of his penis.
The woman, in turn, told him she would show up to his meeting in nothing but a raincoat.
The board will meet again Monday morning to vote on an interim director as it launches a search for Ringstaff's permanent replacement.
Earlier this week, after some of the messages leaked on the Internet, Ringstaff talked individually with school board members. Robinson said she met with him and his wife Monday night at First Baptist Cleveland. She said she asked Ringstaff if anything else might come out about his relationship with this woman. She said he told her there wouldn't be any more damaging information.
The next day, a third message leaked, this one with a picture of Ringstaff's penis. In the exchange, Ringstaff and the woman promised each other they would delete the messages.
"What he did was horrible," Robinson said Friday. "But then he lied about it. And that was just the straw that broke it for me."
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@times freepress.com or at 423-757-6476.