Register named honorary chair of Obama Inauguration Ball

Newly appointed schools director joins 'collective effort'

Email | Print By Amy Griffith Graydon

Jesse Register

He hasn’t officially taken charge of Metro schools, but Jesse Register is already making tracks in the community. The former Chattanooga schools chief has been named an honorary chair of the Music City Inauguration Day Charity Ball, a major local event slated for Jan. 20.

The decision to involve Register, who will begin work this Thursday, was made very recently, according to Tim Chavez, the local journalist handling media inquiries for the event. It came about after a meeting between Register and Rev. Enoch Fuzz, one of the chairs of the Inauguration Ball.

“Rev. Fuzz has chosen a positive way of bringing the new director into the effort here,” Chavez said. “I like his background in closing the achievement gap. … It’s got to be a collective effort and that’s what the ball is about.”

Nashville’s Board of Education voted Jan. 6 to hire Register, who worked for 10 years as superintendent of Chattanooga’s Hamilton County Schools before retiring in 2006. Register has said that some of his first orders of business will involve reaching out into the Nashville community, learning about the school system and cultivating buy-in locally.

Organizers of the Inauguration Ball represent a wide range of professional Nashvillians. Government, ministry, business and nonprofit community members are among the organizers – Fuzz, Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors, Sheriff Daron Hall, state Sen. Thelma Harper, Juvenile Court Clerk Vic Lineweaver, school board member Karen Johnson and Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Chair Yuri Cunza are identified as “hosts” by the event's Web site.