Board

Board
 Members
 

Board of Education

L-R: Bill Brown, Evelyn Rockholt, Dr. Murl Dirksen, Peggy Pesterfield,
Dr. Rick Denning (Supt.), Dawn Robinson, Tom Cloud, Max Carroll
 

Members

Board Members

Dawn Robinson (Chairman) represents the third district.  She was born in Rock Island, IL. and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Dawn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, which she followed with classroom teaching experience in Memphis. Dawn is a bookkeeper for  Drs. Robinson and Anderson. Dawn is a member of  Broad Street United Methodist Church and has served on their Board of Trustees. She is a past president of the Bradley County Medical Auxiliary, past president of the Stuart School PTO, past president of the Cleveland Middle School PTO, and served four terms as president of the Cleveland High School Band Boosters. She and her husband, Dr. Don Robinson, have lived in Cleveland since 1977. They have four children who have been educated in the Cleveland City Schools. Dawn has achieved  Level 5 Boardsmanship (Master School Board Member) from the TSBA. She was the 1998 recipient of the C. Hal Henard Distinguished Service Award as School Board Member of the Year for the State of Tennessee and Chairman of the All Tennessee School Board that year.  She is a member of the Board of Directors and  Immediate Past President of the Tennessee School Boards Association. She is a member of the Board of Examiners for the State Department of Education and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Tennessee School Boards Risk Management Trust.  She holds a certificate from the Local Government Leadership Program from the University of Tennessee.  Dawn was appointed to the Cleveland City School Board in 1995 by the Cleveland City Commission and re-elected in 1998, 2002, and 2006. She has served six terms as Board Chairman and was again elected to serve as Chairman for 2008.

Peggy Pesterfield (Chairman pro tem) was elected to represent the Fourth District in August of 2006. Peggy has a BA degree in Psychology and French from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and an MS degree in School Psychology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She has thirty years of experience in education as a classroom teacher of French, Psychology, and Sociology, a school counselor, school psychologist, and as the Supervisor of Student Services. As Supervisor of Student Services, she had supervision over Special Education, School Counseling, Health Services, and the Homebound Program. Twenty-eight of her thirty years in education were served in the Cleveland City School System. During her tenure with the Cleveland City Schools, she was named a State Finalist for Tennessee Teacher of the Year, achieved Career Ladder III, was honored by the Hiwassee Council for "Outstanding Service to Children and Families" and recognized by Kappa Delta Pi for dedication to students and the field of education. Peggy and her husband Joe Pesterfied are active in Broad Street United Methodist Church were she currently serves as Staff-Parish Committee Chair. Peggy is a Board member of the Bradley-Cleveland Services, the Behavioral Research Institute, the Cleveland Symphony Guild and Friends of the Library. She and her husband have three children and five grandchildren. Two of their children and their spouses live in Cleveland and one in Birmingham, Alabama. Brian Pesterfield is a local Builder, Andy Pesterfield, a CPA in Birmingham, and Aimee Pesterfield Salazar is a local veterinarian. All three children attended Mayfield Elementary, Cleveland Middle and graduated from Cleveland High School before going on to receive their college degrees.

Max Carroll, a twenty year veteran of the Board of Education  is an at-large representative.  He was born and reared in Cleveland, TN. He attended Blythe Avenue School and Bradley Central High School. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. Max is a member of North Cleveland Church of God. He is a realtor and co-owner of  Carroll & Greene Auction and Realty Company.   Max and his wife, Patsy, have two grown sons. He has served several terms on the Cleveland City School Board and was re-elected in 2000. Max has been recognized with an Award for Distinguished Service by the National School Boards Association.   Max was also recognized as a 25 year school board member by the TSBA in 2007.

Tom Cloud (Vice Chairman) represents the 5^th district on the Cleveland City School Board of Education.  He retired from Cleveland City Schools in May 05 after 12 years of teaching elementary school. Most of that time was at E. L. Ross Elementary School. Other experience includes Arnold and Prospect Elementary Schools. Prior to teaching, he was employed with the State of Tennessee Department of Correction and Employment Security. His total years with the State and teaching totaled 32. Tom is a veteran of the U.S. Army having served in Vietnam in the early 1970’s. He hold a Master’s Degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in Supervision and Administration, a Bachelor’s Degree from the State of New York, and attended Lee University. He graduated from Bradley Central High School in Cleveland, TN. His goal on the Board of Education is to reestablish harmony and trust with the staff of Cleveland City Schools. As a teacher, he fully understands how trust between the two can create an atmosphere to continue to move our system forward and increase teaching, learning, and performance of our teachers and students. He also wishes to strive to be accessible to everyone in and out of his district.  He is married to his wife Jeanie.

Bill Brown  was born in Cleveland, TN and practices law in Bradley County. He is an at-large representative on the School Board. Bill graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and  a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree. He has held positions as Assistant District Attorney in the 3rd, 5th and 10th Judicial Districts. Bill is admitted to practice law in Tennessee, in the Federal District Court, in the US Court of Appeals and in the United States Supreme Court. He has successfully argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Bill and wife Marsha have two children in college who were educated in the Cleveland City Schools. Bill has a Level 4 Boardsmanship Award from TSBA and was named to the All Tennessee School Board in 2000. Bill has served as the President of the Tennessee Legislative Network for the Tennessee School Boards Association and was a Director of TSBA.  He was appointed to the Cleveland City School Board in 1995 and re-elected in 1998, 2002, and 2006.  He was elected Chairman of the Cleveland City School Board in January of 2005 and served 3 terms in that position.

Murl Dirksen is a veteran member of the Department of History and Political Science at Lee University. He has served more than 10 years as the department chair and is one of the few Lee professors that has received both the Excellence in Scholarship Award (1993) and the Excellence in Teaching Award (1991). He also completed post-doctoral studies at Duke University and has been a visiting professor at University of Florida under the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the cultural anthropologist on a multi-disciplinary research team working on the Karak Plateau in central Jordan. He spent a several years in China at Henan University and Anhui Teachers College in the late eighties. Under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Dirksen serves as the project director for developing curriculum and student travel to Latin American.   Locally, he serves on the Board of Directors of the local affiliate of Habitat and is a member of the Hopi Mission School Foundation Board in Arizona. He has travel and lived in over 35 countries.  Dirksen grew up in the village of Kykotsmovi on the Hopi Reservation and attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. He holds the following degrees: B.A., M.A.T., University of Tennessee at Chattanooga,  Ph.D., University of Tennessee at Knoxville.  He and his wife Carolyn, Vice-President of Academics at Lee University, have a daughter, Sara, who attended Arnold Elementary School and is a graduate of Cleveland High School.  Sara is presently a music major at Lee University. Dirksen enjoys “teaching”, skiing, swimming, and playing tennis.  Murl represents the second district on the City School Board and was elected in 2004.

Evelyn Jenkins Rockholt was elected in the First District to the City School Board in 2004.  She is a native of Cleveland and has lived here most of her life. She is married to Chuck Rockholt, Principal of Cleveland High School. They have four children and three grandchildren. She has worked in the medical profession for over twenty-eight years and currently works with TriState Orthopedics. The schools represented in District One cause the School Board position to be meaningful to her. Those schools are Blythe-Bower, Arnold and Stuart. She spent part of her elementary school years at Blythe Ave. Elementary; was in the first class when Arnold became Arnold Jr. High and was very active in the PTO and other activities when her children attended Stuart Elementary.  Evelyn is a graduate of Bradley Central High School and has attended classes at the Continuing Education Seminars, University of Alabama School of Optometry in Birmingham; Cleveland State Community College; Tarrant County Junior College in Fort Worth, Texas; and the Leonard Institute in Arlington, Texas.  She is involved in extensive community service through the Women’s Ministry at First Baptist Church.

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01/14/08