While the board of education had planned to finalize new Director of Schools Patrick Cripps’ contract Thursday night, the matter has been put off until counsel is consulted to verify that none of the document’s provisions conflict with state law.

Meanwhile, the director is still working under a temporary 30-day contract until an agreement is reached.

While the contract has already been reviewed and condensed from its previous form, some discrepancies were found at a workshop before Thursday’s board meeting, and Chairman W.J. (Dub) Evins, III said he would like to run the paperwork by counsel again to clarify some of the changes. Board members agreed.

"The contract is a good viable contract, but there are some mistakes in it that our attorney may have not seen. He condensed it some. We want to make sure that everything we want in the contract coincides with the Tennessee Code. I will check with him Friday. He called me today, but it was on my way to the board meeting so we didn't have a lot of time to talk about it. He is available all day Friday, so I am going to talk with him then. What we will do is work on getting the wording exactly like it needs to be. We have until Aug. 17. If we get this information back have it emailed to the school board members, and if everyone is agreeable with the contract and sign off on it in the form of an email making it official to us, then the Director, myself, and the Vice Chairman will sign the contract and at the next board meeting," Evins said at the meeting.

Board member Danny Parkerson moved to adopt Evins' recommendation, and Jim Beshearse seconded the motion. The move was approved unanimously by voice vote. Jerry Wayne Johnson was unable to attend the meeting due to illness.

The board voted 7-0 in July 16 special session to name Cripps to the director’s post. Cripps accepted an a two-year contract with a base salary of $85,000 per year. A temporary 30-day contract was signed so that Cripps could begin work.