Dr. John Gunn is one of 16 applicants for director of schools in Robertson County

Former Dickson County educator Dr. John Gunn is one of 16 applicants for the Robertson County director of schools position. The Robertson County School Board has launched a second search to find a replacement for Dan Whitlow after its first search ended in a deadlock. Whitlow had announced plans to retire last year but agreed to stay on until the end of the current school year when the board declined to pick any of the candidates in its first search. Dickson County Director of Schools Dr. Danny Weeks was a candidates in the first Robertson County search, but withdrew after being offered the position in Dickson County. The former director of attendance for Dickson County, Gunn applied for the Dickson County position but was not one of five finalists selected by the Tennessee School Boards Association. Weeks reassigned Gunn to a Social Studies teaching position at Charlotte Middle School but he resigned before the beginning of the school year. Former Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Wayne Qualls was hired by the Robertson County School Board to conduct both candidate searches and is scheduled to submit five finalists and an alternate to the board March 4 with interviews to be held March 23. The 16 candidates include Robertson County’s Supervisor of Secondary Education Bill Locke and Jo Byrns High School Principal Doug Haskins. Over his 24-year education career, Gunn has been a classroom teacher at all levels, principal of an alternative school and the director of attendance. Weeks folded the director of attendance duties into a new director of student services position and appointed former Greenbrier High School Principal Steve Sorrells.