In a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, the White County Board of Education approved hiring a new high school girls basketball coach. That decision has been surrounded by controversy after Quint Moss was named the interim head coach for the 2023-2024 season last August. Moss’s appointment was made for the upcoming basketball season, with a re-evaluation of the coaching position to be conducted at the end of the season.
Two weeks ago, the board received a recommendation from Superintendent Laurie Burkett to hire Banks County High School Coach Steve Shedd to lead the girls basketball program this next season. However, several people expressed their opinion at that time, mostly on social media, that Moss should be given the job.
Because the board had just received the recommendation and lots of calls from the public, the board decided to postpone the appointment until April 9th in a special called meeting.
Prior to that meeting Tuesday night, the BOE heard from ten people about the issue, and most of those expressed their desire that Moss should be selected. Some also attacked the overall process that led up to the decision-making and called on the board to look at that process.
After an executive session, board members Charlie Thomas, Jon Estes, and Linda Erbele voted to hire Shedd, with John Solomon and board chair Missy Jarrard voting no.
Steve Shedd led the Banks County girls to the 2023 Class 2A state championship. He spent the past eight seasons in Homer, leading the Lady Leopards to three Elite 8 appearances overall and the program’s first state title game since 1965.
Jarrard commented to reporters after the meeting that her vote to go against the superintendent’s recommendation should be a strong message to the public, “we will be looking at the hiring process, hiring procedures,” she said. “We’re going to look at what happened here and we are going to ensure that does not happen [again]. We will change how we conduct those interviews. We’ve got a lot to do.”
Jarrard emphasized even though she voted no, as a member of the board, she respects the board’s decision on the matter.
