I do not know Dr. Kirk Kelly, the new interim superintendent of the Hamilton County Schools system.
By all accounts, he is a fine fellow.
My dad is also a fine fellow - one I admire greatly and respect without end - but I do not want him running our school system, arguably the biggest and most broken professional group in our county.
Jay GreesonStill, the politics of last Thursday left Dr. Kelly sailing the ship. My problem, as stated in Saturday's column, is with the process, not the person.
Why, after a history of bad test scores and poor crisis management from the previous administration, did five members of the school board think promoting from within was the wisest plan?
That remains my question.
The reader feedback varied over the weekend. Here are a few examples of the angst in my inbox:
"Have you even met Dr. Kelly?" asked one reader, before enumerating some colorful personal descriptions.
The answer is "no," but do we really need to meet people in high-profile jobs to have an opinion about their work? Case in point: Have you met President Obama? Do you have an opinion about him?
In fact, most of the complaints were from readers who have never met me but, well, you know.
"Why are you a racist?" another reader asked. Call me what you want, and that's cool. It's your dollar, and you have bought that right by reading our paper. But playing the race card takes this discussion to a place that is not at the heart of the issue.
Then, there was a clairvoyant email from a dear friend.
"Have you noticed that the University of Tennessee strength coach makes more than the superintendent of Hamilton County Schools?"
Bullseye. And there's the crux of the problem.
We want a full-blown CEO to run a school system with a budget approaching half a billion dollars and with thousands of employees for about $200,000 a year. Board members had a real chance to show good faith last Thursday, but five of them put personal choice and personal politics of whatever merit above that opportunity.
We want quality, apparently, but we want it at a rock-bottom price. That's not on Dr. Kelly. That's on the school board - and on us.
Even though we can't afford the Vols' strength coach, maybe we do need a kindred spirit to be our motivator-in-chief. Maybe we should forget the debate about whether we need a business CEO or an education whisperer.
Do we need a Richard Simmons-like motivator with a powerlifter's determination?
Testing time?
"C'mon weaklings. We need 15 more reps on those long divisions. Go. Go. Go."
Getting close to graduation with grades in doubt?
"What is this? Push it, push it, push it. Do not quit."
Jokes aside, there is no easy solution, just confounding problems.
That the defense of the choice turns to accusations of racism and defending the character of Dr. Kelly - rather than trumpeting any hope for drastic change for a better tomorrow or how this will help the system - is unfortunate.
It makes me sad.
And our school system weaker.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com. His "Right to the Point" column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.