Board Meeting - December 13, 2007

We had a very short and routine Board meeting last night. This is usually the case in December.

There was one person who spoke from the audience about the school calendar and made some good points. Setting the calendar is never an easy thing to do. Everyone has a different view of what it should be. Teachers, parents, administration, and Board members all have their own thoughts -- and everyone generally makes valid points on why they want the calendar a certain way. It is not an easy thing to do and basically the final calendar is a result of compromises from each party.

We learned from the Directors report that our student attendance is up from 91% two years ago to 95% now. This is the result of constant attention to the attendance issue by our staff and new programs that have been put in by the Director. This is good news.

The Board was introduced to the new technology director - Jerry Yarbrough.

On business items - there were 12 policies approved on second reading (to pass a policy it takes two meetings), 9 were revisions of old policies and three were new ones. All Board policies can be found on the Roane schools website.

(Note: New policies and revised policies may not be posted on roaneschools.com until after the first of the year)

The three new policies were Scheduling and Routing (3.17A), Security (1.34) and Tax-Sheltered Annuities - Classified Employees (5.42). Policy 3.17A addresses bus routes, policy 1.34 addresses security issues at schools, and policy 5.42 addresses classified employees that meet Federal Internal Revenue Code 403(b).

The revised policies were generally wording changes and additions on policies Student Suspensions/Expulsions/Zero Tolerance (3.25) (Lines 33-38, 104-106, & 110); Student Disciplinary Hearing Authority (3.26) (Lines 25-27); Bids and Quotations (4.22) (Lines 17-18); Vendor Relations (4.25) (Lines 27-28); Goals and Objectives (1.03) (Approved to delete current language and insert new goals); School Board Meetings/Meeting Notification (1.11) (Approved language addition on line 6 and reference #1); School Day (1.27) (Approved language addition on lines 3,4, & 6); Interrogations and Searches (3.11) (Approved revisions on lines 5-8, 75-76, 81-82, and 84-103); Bus Conduct (3.17) (Approved revisions on lines 30-35 and 59-61).