Pregnancy, politics at center of BOE member, superintendent dispute?

Incoming Knox County school board member Amber Rountree said "it took a little bit of teeth pulling and the Law Director's Office to get" her into a crucial board-related orientation session that the school superintendent didn't want her to attend.

But, Superintendent Jim McIntyre says he just wanted her to reschedule as to avoid the "appearance of impropriety."

Rountree, though, isn't buying it. And she's now questioning why McIntyre appears to be turning her maternity-leave status into an issue and whether "there were some other factors in play."

"It did raise some questions for me because I had campaigned pretty strongly that I was somebody that a lot of folks considered to be anti-McIntyre . . . and then when I meet a lot of these obstacles that (the other two) new board members didn't seem to have, I was concerned," she said.

Rountree, a school librarian who is on medical leave and will resign from her job next Monday, added: "I felt like it was vital for me to go to the orientation prior to being sworn in . . . and something about it didn't feel right to me so I got in touch with the law director's office."

You can check out the entire story, as well as, McIntyre's response RIGHT SMACK HERE.

If you just want to read the emails, then click RIGHT SMACK HERE.