School Board Retreat

The school Board Retreat, February 22-23 in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

The agenda was as follows:

Friday 1:00-5:00

Listen to presentations by three architectural firms. Cope Associates, Upland Design Group and Kattz, Binkley, Jones and Morris.

Each group gave a 45 minute presentation on their firms, the schools they have built in Tennessee and their method of operation, and their strengths as builders of schools.

Saturday 8:00 am-1:00 pm

8:30 – Review of our Current Facilities Plan
9:00 – Talk of establishing the Board core values. (What we think our grade configuration should be, what size school is optimum for student success, zoning goals, uniformity of applications (e.g. what roofing materials, HVAC systems uniform across the county), master construction plans (use same design on all schools?), uniformity of programming (e.g. should all high schools be alike community values).

10:00 – 11:30 – Discussion of current status and future plans for school needs.
11:30 – 1:00 – Discussion of architectural firm’s presentation.

All of the above were discussed to get an idea on how the Board felt on the issues. There was a lot of discussion, sharing of ideas and thoughts, and general brainstorming. No business could be conducted and no decisions made.

School Board Meeting, February 21, 2008

Summary of school board meeting, Thursday, February 21, 2008.

The Board room was almost full. In attendance was county executive Mike Farmer. Zach Williamson, Band director of Roane County high school had some band members’ play in the lobby prior to the meeting. In the past, Zach has done this and it is an effort that is appreciated by everyone. Last year, he set up some band members outside in the parking lot and played for people as they entered the building.

All Board members were present except for Mike Taylor, who had a prior commitment.

In the hearing of delegates, five people spoke. Topics included the school calendar, advanced placement courses that could be offered and discussion of cell phone policy.

Everyone who addressed the Board did so with thought provoking comments. It is good to have good dialogue from the public, especially when presented in the positive way these five people did.

Committee reports that were filed were from the Technology committee and the Negotiation team.

In old business the Board voted 7-2 to approve a revised school calendar for 2008-2009 that started on August 11th and contained a fall break. Approval of the 2009-2010 calendar was deferred until the next month to ensure that all the dates and school days met all state requirements.

In new business, 17 policy revisions and one new policy were voted on and approved on 1st reading. Next month, if there is no opposition, the policies will be approved on second reading, which means they will become part of Board Policy.

There was an approval of a Memorandum of Agreement with Well Child, Inc. Well Child is a company that was started in 1978. Well Child is committed to make preventative state-of-the-art health care easily accessible for the communities’ children by offering services on-site at participating schools and agencies, to assist in removing health-related barriers in the education of children, to provide health care in partnership with the child’s family, school and community, to provide preventive health care that is age appropriate and culturally sensistive for the community’s children and youth, and to promote good health and disease prevention amongst our schoolchildren. There website is http://wellchild.com/. (appears to be under construction at this writing).

Also in new business, a discussion was held to decide on the purchase of a rapid notification system for the school. This is the type system where everyone in the school system can be notified of emergencies and school closings in a few minutes. A quick demonstration was given to the Board by SchoolCast. The Board voted to review other offers from other companies before proceeding, but the general consensus was that all attempts will be done to have a system like this in place for next school year.

The Board voted to use some BOE reserve funds to re-wire Kingston high school and both Oliver Springs schools due to the bad state of wiring in those schools. Technology Director, Jerry Yarbrough explained to the Board that the school system is experiencing a high number of network outages due to the school networks severely out dated, wiring run improperly, split pairs, and bad switches.

Meeting was adjourned around 9:00 p.m.

School Board Retreat

The Roane County News wrote an editorial and a headline news story questioning the school Board’s retreat this weekend to Pigeon Forge. The paper’s major question was as to whether or not the Board violated the state’s sunshine law and why the retreat was held at a remote location.

The retreat hardly was an attempt to do something in secret. In our January meeting this was discussed by the Board and three dates were discussed as the days to have the retreat. The specific dates were read in the meeting. Information on the retreat was also released to the media 48 hours prior to the event.

The retreat was only to discuss the school system building plan. There was no hidden agenda and certainly no business was going to be conducted.

Our school Board attorney, Chuck Cagle, who represents a large number of school systems in the state was contacted and informed of the opinion stated by the attorney that the Roane County News quoted and Mr. Cagle said absolutely that our Board did not violate our policy or the Sunshine Law.

So we are down to two attorney’s opinions and a splitting of hairs as to whether or not the Board retreat violated the Sunshine law. The Board discussed the retreat in a public Board meeting and met our own media notification policy. To me the intent was clear that the Board was not trying to do something illegal.

Now, what is debatable is whether or not to have a meeting at a remote location is a good thing. Here we are getting into philosophical debate. This is not a legal issue.

I personally like to get away from the influence of local distractions when I want to really concentrate on an issue. Others may feel differently, but I wonder if they were in the same position how they would feel. It isn’t like the Board went to a large extravagant hotel and convention center. A modest motel in Pigeon Forge was the location chosen, and I think most Board members simply went right to the retreat and went right home afterwards.

February Meetings

Policy Committee meeting on Monday February 4 at 5:30
Negotiation Team meeting on Thursday, February 7 at 6:00
Educational Council meeting on Wednesday, February 13 at 4:00
School Board meeting, Thursday, February 21, at 7:00

All meetings in the Boardroom at the Central Office