Article originally posted by the Gallatin News (Tena Lee) on August 7, 2024
Sumner County Director of Schools Scott Langford received an overall score of 88.8% in his first performance evaluation by school board members recently.
Langford was first hired by the school district as an English teacher at White House High School in 2009. He steadily worked his way up in Sumner Schools leadership, and was named Chief Academic Officer in 2021. Hired by the school board to replace outgoing director Del Phillips in the spring of 2023, Langford started his tenure as director on July 1.
Per school board policy, the schools’ director is evaluated annually based on the categories of Board Relationship, Community Relationships, Facilities and Finance, Vision, and Student Achievement. Langford was graded on a scale of 1 to 10 on five metrics within the categories such as “has a harmonious relationship with the board” and “builds public support for the school district” by each of the 11 school board members.
Chairman Tim Brewer referenced the evaluation near the end of the school board meeting on July 16, noting that the full evaluation is public information and can be viewed in its entirety on the school district’s website (www.sumnerschools.org)
“I was really glad for student achievement,” Brewer added. “He’s doing what his background is so he’s doing a good job.”
Five school board members gave Langford a perfect score – a 10 in all 20 different areas. They were Tammy Hayes of District 1, Brewer, who represents District 2, Andy Daniels of District 7, Ted Wise of District 8 and Glen Gregory of District 10.
Langford scored the highest (94%) on Student Achievement. His lowest scores came in the area of his relationship with the board (84.7%). Langford scored an 88% in the areas of Community Relationships and Facilities and Finance, and an 88.7% in the category of Vision.
Here’s what school board members had to say about Langford’s job performance in the five key areas:
Board Relationship
“Dr. Langford is an exceptional communicator. We receive timely updates on personnel and any other board business. He is easily accessible when we had questions and needs.” – Tammy Hayes, District 1
“With the make-up of this board, this task is about impossible. Dr. Lanford is to be commended for his ability to maintain professionalism.” – Ted Wise, District 8
“While I think Dr. Langford has maintained a good relationship with most members during our meetings, it’s his comments outside of meetings about certain board members which makes it difficult to agree he has maintained a good overall relationship with the board. For example, at a recent political rally, the Director insinuated he could not endorse any particular candidate, but did state that a member who coined the phrase “bleachers over teachers” has never supported teachers. This statement was clearly regarding me, a person who has donated most of [my] monthly stipend to purchase supplies for teachers, fully fund concession stands and donated a large amount of time volunteering for teachers over the years. Not to mention my wife has been a room mom and teacher appreciation chair for over 10 years and I surely supported her volunteering. This is an outright lie and passive aggressive attack on my character. Therefore, I conclude from my standpoint, we don’t have a very good relationship.” – Josh Graham, District 9
Community Relationships
“Dr. Langford is a great representative/ambassador for Sumner County Schools.” – Tammy Hayes
“I appreciate the vastly improved communication between the community and the director of schools during your tenure. I think you may be too vocal on social media with those you disagree with occasionally that doesn’t work to bridge any division.” – Allen Lancaster, District 3
“Between social media posts, videos, and live sessions, I have heard from parents that they feel the most informed this year than ever before. Dr Langford often attends community events to promote the school district.” – Sarah Andrews, District 4
“Dr. Langford is a great speaker and does very well in front of the public speaking. The lower marks I gave is because I feel he can be very politically motivated.” – Andy Lacy, District 11
Facilities and Finance
“Dr. Langford has navigated the bleacher issue with great leadership. The facilities have ongoing needs and we budget to address those maintenance needs.” – Tammy Hayes
“Dr. Langford’s time on the county commission has provided him with great insight into our county’s finances, and how that impacts our facilities’ needs. He was actively involved in working to provide funding to our schools, resulting in upgrades to almost every building, removal of portables, annual pay increases for staff, and more. So working with a commission that is comfortable with only a maintenance of effort budget – meaning limited additional investments in our schools, facilities and staff, Scott has worked hard to make sure we stretch our dollars as far as possible.” – Andy Daniels, District 7
“I do not trust that he will address safety concerns at some of our schools. One of the safety concerns I am referring to was on the Nashville News recently. We also have a track at GHS that has huge potholes in it. He started pushing hard for new stadiums and tracks and he recently has changed his focus to stadiums only. At our June budget meeting he presented a revised 2024-2025 budget minutes before the meeting started. How can I vote on something that I have not had an opportunity to look at? I would like to see the director be more conservative with taxpayer funds. – Andy Lacy
Vision
“I want to see more defined annual board goals to work towards each year.” – Allen Lancaster
“Dr. Langford has a great vision for our county. The best staff, the best facilities, the best opportune / classes / certifications our students need to excel now, and in their future careers. We are limited by a commission (not all commissioners) that doesn’t necessarily support this vision, but I appreciate that he continues to work hard to find ways to make this happen.” – Andy Daniels
“Dr. Langford has spent much time explaining in detail via power point presentations plans for our system. I think the term “long range” is subjective and I personally don’t feel like we have long range plans nor goals outlined just yet. I will say, Dr. Langford has only been director for a year now and I am hopeful more presentations with long range plans are made available in the near future so we can prepare financially.” – Josh Graham
Student achievement
“I would like to see student achievement incorporated as part of annual board goals with definable metrics.” – Allen Lancaster
“As Director of instruction, Dr. Langford spent significant time building a vision that would help our students excel, and has continued that as Director of schools. While it’s easy to look at state-testing and use that to determine whether one test defines student achievement, what’s more important is looking at what we’re doing to prepare our students to be educated, well-prepared members of our community when they graduate. Year over year we continue to see great results on the ACT / SAT, more students excelling in AP courses, growing scholarship dollars, highly-ranked CTE programs, an ever-growing list of certifications available, and more. We have a great team producing great results at every school in our community.” – Andy Daniels
“I would like to give numbers higher than a ten. Well done!” – Ted Wise
