Special meetings continue to be held by Bedford County Board of Education and community business leaders to garner input for the school superintendent search criteria. Tammy Grissom, executive director of Tennessee School Board Association, led the most recent gathering and discussion at Blue Ribbon Circle.

  The search is on with somewhat expediency, but the board continues to seek clarity from their leadership for search criteria. Current Bedford County School Superintendent Don Embry will be retiring Dec. 31. Embry said recently that he will mark his 40th anniversary at the end of the year; he believes now is a good time to step down.

So the school board meeting agendas of late have included possible search criteria for his replacement. Grissom is TSBA executive director and is striving to lead BCBE in what criteria is best at this time in local education in the way of Central Office leadership.

The TSBA executive has a bachelor's of business education from Belmont College and a master's degree as well as her doctorate in education administration and supervision from Tennessee State University in Nashville. She’s also served as an adjunct professor for Union University in Jackson.