Haywood County School Board announces committee appointments

All members of the Haywood County School Board were in attendance at the monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 10. Board members discussed out-of-state travel for several classes, school policies, the system’s compliance report, teacher bonuses, committee appointments, budget amendments and school safety.

Board members received a list of teachers who were recommended by their principals to serve on the textbook adoption committee, and approved the list as submitted. Supervisor of Instruction Teresa Russell will coordinate these committees.

School Board Chairman Patricia Gruenewald also announced committee appointments for the board. She appointed board members Robbie Jarrett King and Joe Barden IV to the Family Friendly Committee. Pearl Hess and Mrs. King will serve on the Catherine Calhoun Scholarship Committee, and Director of Schools George Chapman and board member Harold Garrett will serve on the Calhoun Endowment Oversight Committee. Mrs. Hess and Mrs. Gruenewald will be on the Negotiations Committee, and Mrs. Gruenewald and Mr. Garrett, who was recently elected to the vice-chairman position, will be Budget Committee members. Mr. Barden also accepted the TLN (Tennessee Legislative Network) Representative position, with the duties of informing board members about pending legislation that effects education.

Board members also approved out-of-state travel for two sets of students at Haywood High. HHS softball coach Chandra Franks will be taking her ladies softball team to the Disney World Wide World of Sports Softball Tournament in March. The HHS team last year advanced to the state competition. Ms. Franks and her players will raise money to fund the trip.

Also approved was a trip to take 12 HHS students to the National Future Farmers of America Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 24-28. This request was made by HHS Agriculture teachers John Joyner and Gary Butler.

Director Chapman also requested and received board approval for the System/School Compliance Report that he must submit to the state.

Director Chapman also explained the bonuses that all teachers received in the last pay period. Instead of giving teachers an across the board 3 percent raise, as other state employees received, the state set aside money for state-wide bonuses using a formula that equally distributed the money among all teachers. This year full-time teachers received $257.43.

Board members also discussed several policy changes proposed by the Tennessee School Board Association, three of which are in response to legislation passed in 2006. These policies related to the schools’ grading system, attendance, medicines, use of personal communication and electronic devices, and interim employees. Several were adopted, and Director Chapman has submitted this information to the TSBA for final approval.

After all items on the agenda were discussed, Chairman Gruenewald asked for a report on safety in local schools from Director Chapman. (See School Safety article below.)

The next school board meeting will be held Tuesday, November, 14 at 6 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

Director Chapman discusses school safety

In light of the most recent news about violence in schools, Director George Chapman spoke to board members at the October meeting and said, “We don’t want to alarm anybody, we just want to be more vigilant,” when it comes to the safety of our schools and our students.

He is meeting with all school principals, and they will be updating all the plans and procedures already in place concerning the safety of our children. Among those procedures, visitors to all schools must report to the main office and receive a visitor’s pass and permission to conduct business in any other part of the school. No students are allowed to leave school during the day without the permission of their parents. Also, in the elementary schools, no one is allowed to pick up students other than parents or guardians without the permission of the parents. All school system employees at the schools wear ID badges. Teachers at all schools help monitor the arrival and departure of students each day. Both the junior high school and high school have a School Resource Officer, and extra security is present at all school sporting events.

Director Chapman said he also met with Mayor Webb Banks and HHS School Resource Officer Barry Diebold, and they both are more than willing to help in any way. Among the measures they discussed, policemen, especially new officers who are not familiar with local schools, will be given an orientation at all the schools to become more knowledgeable about the facilities, and security will be beefed up at school sporting events.

“We have all gotten more sensitive about safety, and we will look at everything we have in place to be sure we are doing all we can,” Director Chapman said. “I guess you could say we are being proactive. We want our kids to be safe.”