Teeter Totter

Looks like Marcum being an inexperienced first time AD is really going to bite them. This was exactly why certain members of the TTA Advisory council were against Caleb being the new AD; this and because of the family connection with HPBC. Caleb has all the makings of a good AD but experience is worth it's weight in gold (balls) so it seems. But the inexperience doesn't stop there does it? The new Headmaster seems like a sharp lady but once again, inexperienced as a Headmaster. I know for a fact that this is a combination of ignorance and ignored warnings on the part of previous and current administration. BTW, TTA has a long history of students not paying their school bills. I recently heard that there were over $100K of unpaid tuition going back several years. The question is...were any of those athletes?

Govols78...you still got any 06 TTA apparel left? Methinks it now is worth something...How's your son taking all of this?

Does everyone know that Dragoo is a Temple High graduate; mid-70's I think. I believe he was in the same class as Les Compton, the AD at Grace Academy.

As of 4 weeks ago, this verdict came down from Bouler and the deacon board of HPBC that all paid employees of TTA , not TTU, who has its own policies now, must attend HPBC, unless the husband serves in a formal capacity at another church. This edict came long after renewed contracts with current staff and without provacation. For the most part, very few, maybe less than 5 actual TTA staff attend other churches in years past. BTW, the TTA staff is paid via tuition monies not from Sunday offerings. TTA is not its own 501C3 rather an umbrella ministry of HPBC so all the financial accounting and the checks actual come from HPBC.

Bill Clinton is a smooth talker and for that matter consider how well spoken and articulate Hitler was while committing horrendous crimes against his own people, all the while thinking it was in their best interest. Hmm...an interesting pararell. The facts are the decline of Temple High School by over 300 kids and the decline of Highland Park Baptist Church membership from 7,000 to around 500 has occured while under his leadership. He, most of all, has the most to lose as all fingers point to him. It was he who recommended and gave the blessing to hire Chastain, it was he who intimintly knows the fiscal arrangments of the school as the church handles the finances for the school, it was he who recommended the new Headmaster with no experience, it was he who brought football to Temple in the first place, it was he who never made good on his verbal promises for 4 years that he would raise monies to build a football field on campus and it is he who runs the school and who makes major decisions. And you thinks he deserves a standing ovation . Of course he hasn't put the blame on anyone because then he would have to blame himself. If Temple truly wants to recover and move forward they should seperate from Highland Park like David Brainerd did with Brainerd Baptist. The church cannot financially support Temple anymore. Otherwise, they should rename it Highland Park High. Chastain is reacting because he knows that he isn't the only one that has committed infractions and thinks it isn't fair that he is the only one that should be made to suffer. It's the "if I go down, i'm taking you with me" speech. Works good in the movies but backfires in real life.

Temple is in trouble and in more than athletics. There is alot more to the Temple story that hopefully will come out and in doing so will clean their house to make room for the right leadership so that more innocent people keep from being victims. There are much deeper issues at work and this is just one of the results. Temple has a history of cutting corners, double standards, walking the gray line and mis-managing monies and people. The biggest problem comes from the mindset of the administration (head pastor) and filters down. They've been able to cover their tracks and keep things under the table due to their history of "inbred" hiring of "yes people" who do not have experience or abilities to do the jobs their hired for and who are too nice to say or do anything to bring things to light. Case in point, their new AD who is the son of the Senior Pastor and is too young and too inexperienced for the responsibility in most people's opinion. Last year i understand that all but 4 of the teacher's made less than $22K and the Director of their Early Learning Center made less than $15K. I heard that she was recently fired because she grilling out on her back porch on Sunday night rather than attending church and it offended a deacon. Apparently, another teacher was told she would be fired if she didn't start attending Highland Park until a parent threatened the school with a law suit. I've heard recently that Temple is making all of their teachers go to Highland Park which i am sure violates some laws and is more proof of their "cultic" nature. What really makes me mad is that it is because of these self-righteous "protected" people that the kids and parents are the ones who suffer. If more parents knew what was really going on at Temple, I would have to think they wouldn't want their kids there. My advice; don't be lured by the "cheaper" tuition cost as compared with Grace, Silverdale, CCS and that "free college tuition" offer. Pay the extra monies and get a higher quality educational, scholastic and athletic experience without all the unnecessary negative drama. After all, aren't your kids worth it. That, in my opinion, is what made Wadley and Skogen finally move on. I hope the hammer falls and that with it comes sweeping reform in that school for the sake of the school.

Many of you "posters" who are obviously parents or students, your comments alone are disrespectful towards Dr. Pearson. If you truly respected Dr. Pearson or the school you are a parent in or the Lord whom you profess to follow, then you would not use this forum as a place to speak out negatively rather you would use this forum as a place to promote positive things and encouraging things. Although Pastures posts are opinionated, his are at least more objective and supportive of our school, the fans, parents and players than yours. More people are "judging" our school on comments like yours. Why can't you be more supportive of the school you are part of? If you have a problem don't smear on here. Do the right thing and go talk to Dr. Pearson. Your negativism on here does nothing but hurt the school. Before you respond take a moment to read Matthew 18:15-18 and James 3:5-6,9. I would like to encourage those parents and students who were there and who have a more positive outlook on Temple to "post" up. Why should we let a few bitter people ruin things for us? I'll begin. Decorations were top notch. Speaker was awesome. Thunderfoot Weaver! NFL record holder. Top that! Coach Kell drove all the way from Dalton dispite having food poisoning. That shows how much he believes and plans to be a part of our program. Awards given to the players were nice. Signed Nike 2000 footballs in case for all the coaches. Priceless. Professional video highlights. Just to name a few.

Why not ask Mr. Eldridge personally your question by contacting him at 423-493-4337 and then post your conversation with him? I have found him to be approachable and open.

We have had a 15% enrollment increase so far this year which equates to over 50 new students and the administration is already planning for another 50 more by fall of 2007. Mr. Eldridge was hired to help with this transition and it appears he is doing his job well. Families are coming to our school because of the excellence we offer in academics, fine arts and athletics and because they want a better environment for their kids to grow up in and around. They are tired of dealing with and worrying about gangs, drugs, sexual issues, etc. and want a safe and enriching environment for their kids to learn in and are willing to sacrifice to provide that for them. Our school has a rich history of excellence and with the new adminstration at the helm, including the Development Director, who is new and finding his way, we are looking forward to the future. It is a proven fact that when subjected to positive environment people perform better. So when he is "misquoted" that 12 people may transfer in next year, he is actually being kind. Yes, misquoted. Has that ever happened before? the media misquoting And by the way, these people aren't all transfering in to play sports but at the rate we are expanding and growing....who knows? I personally think you all make this recruiting issue a lot bigger than it is. I've always thought that there would be no comparison when a public school has access to 300-600 students in grades 10-12 to I would like to think that one could find 15-25 good football athletes in that number year after year whereas us private schools have to struggle to field teams and our seasons are always based on athletes staying uninjured. Even if we did "recruit", it shouldn't make a difference. The sheer numbers and system that public schools offer should win out everytime as proven by the very successful and long standing winning programs of SP and Trousdale. By the way, we don't offer scholarships unlike those in D2, so what incentive does a family have to come to our school other than the reasons I mentioned earlier? There is no guarantee of a winning athletic program and the family that makes a decision to go to a school based on that decision alone is making a mistake and a shallow decision in the long run. Let's keep this thread going so let's watch what is said about the misquoted article regarding Mr. Eldridge and stay on track with what this thread is about and not turn this into a "Eldridge trashing" thread. Haven't you guys beaten this "dead horse" long enough? We, yes, I am a parent at Temple, are going to keep moving forward and plugging away just like we always have done and pray that God continues to bless our school and protect our students. Right now, it looks like a tough road ahead in the football department.

It is true that our website is "heavy" on the football side but there is a logical explanation for this. First, one of Mr. Eldridge's first big jobs to tackle was to get a new website built as the old one was, well it was pathetic. He and the webmaster have been creative geniuses and have been working around the clock to get up what it currently on the site. They have only been working on the new site for only 5 weeks and felt that due to the success of the football team that they should go "all out" for them. Consequently, we believe they have created the best high school athletic website in town; in the region for that matter. We are quite confident that the same kind of excellence and attention to detail will continue throughout the other sports and throughout the other areas like the arts, academics, etc. In fact, I believe our Academics page is now fully functional and have you seen our Tour our Campus page yet? Our campus is second to none. Keep checking back on the website. I understand that it should be "finished" by the end of the year and it will be over 150 pages in depth. For the record, we have had for the past 26 years nationally award winning fine arts program and our average SAT's range from the 82nd to the 95th percentile. Oh, we have also won state titles in soccer, tennis, cross country and basketball over the years, the most recent being back to back state basketball titles in 02 and 03. Lord willing, we could add 06 to that list with both our girls and boys varsity teams this year and last year the JV went 21-1. Our basket has been and will continue to be full and well rounded. We see the new administration plans to apply to football our school's rich history of excellence as we move forward. Families come to Temple for their education and for the Christian environment and athletics is just one outlet that is available to the students.

I've been following Temple this season and was introduced to Coach T as a place to find some information regarding the football games. I have bit my tongue several times as I came across posts from people who were down right attacking Mr. Eldridge. It seems to me that these people, like yourself must have a personal issue with him the way they make blatant accusations and personally attack him. Many of the posts I read I know for a fact were not true and only made from one sided point of view like this article that you are referring to and I have seen where two threads were taken down because of this kind of rude and blatantly negative posts about him. I happen to know that he was disappointed that his converstation was not 100% reflective of his interview and he has posted on their website, at the bottom of the article, what he remembers saying. Anyone knows that the media will print whatever they want and put whatever spin on it to suit there purposes. So I ask you and the others to keep this in mind. I keep waiting for him to stand up to his accusers but I guess that he is a better man than you or I as I have yet to see him weigh in. I'm sure he doesn't need me to fight his battles but I am sick and tired of seeing malicious and unwarranted comments made against him. I checked other posts from other schools to see if this is a common practice and it appears only to happen on Temple threads and directed at Mr. Eldridge. As a parent in the school I want to go on record to say that I and many others that I talk to in our school are thankful for him and are excited for what we see him doing so far. Has he made some mistakes? Sure, but who hasn't and as far as we can tell they are honest mistakes from someone whose heart is in the right place and I can't think of anything that he has done that we would label "bone headed". I was raised if you have a problem with someone, the proper way of handling it is to talk to them directly about it. Have you or the others like you who continue to attack him done this? Here is his very visible school email address, reldridge@tntempleacademy.com and the number there is 423-493-4337. Might I suggest you and the others that I have read, take the high road and keep your negative and accusational comments, that are only typed to cause harm and damage to a genuinely nice person if you actually knew him personally, to yourselves and keep these threads on target and worth reading. From my perspective, unless you are a parent in our school, I politely ask you and the others that have spoken out, not to openly criticize one of our administrators. If you are a parent or associated in some way with our school, this is not the place to air your personal issues and I ask you to reconsider your personal testimony and ask yourself, "What would Jesus do?" Please remember that people are judging our school based on your less than pleasant posts. Imagine how you would feel if people were saying about you the kinds of things you are saying about him? And to those who have read these harrassing, attacking and rude posts regarding Mr. Eldridge, don't believe what you read and please don't misjudge our school based on these few people. I would like to apologize for their misrepresentation of what the majority of our school and it's parents are made up of. I hope that my future posts are shorter and lighter.