Fall break is being held during National School Lunch Week so the school board chose to honor the employees with a pin and certificate in honor of their hard work and dedication to the students.
It’s over four centuries serving the students in Claiborne County and they wanted to take the time and thank them personally for their hard work by providing good meals for the students and showing them they really care about the children in Claiborne County.
Chairman Sam Owens and Board member Cindy DeBusk helped with the presentation.
Serving between 20 and 25 years were Thelma Helton, Mary Bolton, Ruby Carroll, Jaetta Gibson, Dorothy Graves, Kathy Brown, Shirley Barnard, Ingrid Coffey, Pat Surber, Sharon Beeler and Dorris Eastridge.
“I’m very happy we take the time to recognize our many workers,” Chairman Sam Owens said, “Because without our dedicated workers, we would not have a good school system.”
Serving 25 years or more were Darlene Bussell, Lucille Daniels, Kathy Harmon, Libby Harmon, Phyllis Simmons, Pete Cosby and Jobin Singleton.
“Everybody knows about test scores,” Chairman Sam Owens said, “I’m afraid we’re in for a drastic change.”
The grade card standards took center stage as Dr. Janet Barnard went over new test standards and new curriculum standards and how it will affect schools scores in the spring when they take the new tests. Adjustments have already been made but state grade cards may still be affected.
“School year 2009 and 2010 which is the school year we are in, Tennessee has implemented new curriculum standards,” Dr. Barnard said, “Those standards, which came out last year and we got those in the teachers hands and we’ve had standards training on them both last year and this year.”
Dr. Barnard said the new curriculum standards are much more rigorous than the old standards and have been written at a much higher level.
There is only one other state with more rigorous standards than Tennessee and that is Massachusetts.
There are also new state mandated tests that will be administered this year and the new tests will be to assess the new curriculum standards. Dr. Barnard said that because the standards are more rigorous that the tests will be more rigorous as well.
“The level of proficiency will go from somewhere at a “D” level to a “B” level just to give you an idea of how much harder the tests will be,” said Dr. Barnard, “Thus fewer students may score at proficient or advanced levels.”
She said that is how schools are judged as far as making adequate yearly progress, is if the students make the benchmarks for adequate yearly progress. If students are scoring at the benchmark levels with the new tests they may not be scoring at these levels.
“It will not just be Claiborne County,” she said “It will be the entire state. It may look like we’re not doing as well but really we’ve got a lot harder tests to deal with.”
Something else that will affect Claiborne County’s grade card, that is getting ready to come out, is TVAS, which is the Tennessee Value Added Assessment. Which is where students go into a teachers room at a certain level and how much growth that teacher has added to the students instruction.
The state has recalibrated TVAS and had previously been using 1998 as a baseline. They are now using 2009 as a baseline year. The impact from 1998 to 2009 the students have done a lot better.
“But with the value added from a 2009 baseline and us trying to show growth it will look like we’ve not had much growth with the 2009 baseline,” Dr. Barnard said, “So, due to those recalibration of the TVAS scores, the our TVAS scores might be lower when the grade cards come out.”
Dr. Barnard said the state report card, the system and school state report cards are expected out sometime in November and the grades may not be as high as last year due to those recalibrated TVAS scores.
“Dr. Barnard, do you see this as being just a one year drop or do you see it taking several years to even back out?” Board member Cindy DeBusk asked.
“It might take several years just because it’s unknown to us right now,” Dr. Barnard said, “It’s a new test, we don’t know, that’s why I say they may be lower, maybe not. They may do as well, that’s the word the state has gotten out to us, is that because of the rigor and the increased level of questioning that the test is going to have, that our students may not do as well. It’s really unknown to us.”
“With four targeted schools now that we have in Claiborne County with the tests being more difficult than it already is, do you foresee that we’re still going to be in trouble, possibly with these schools and have to flow over to another year?” Board member Dave Chesney asked.
“That’s always a possibility with this new test and it being harder,” Dr. Barnard said, “The targeted schools, if they don’t meet those targets for the next year, that would be the current year that we’re in. If we did not meet it for the current year, it would cause those schools to advance as far as the sanctions and become high priority. So, is it a possibility yes.”
Dr. Barnard said that the level of proficiency is higher and once you get into that high priority level, an Exemplary Educator would be sent from the state to go into those schools.
During the discussion on the Resolutions, Dr. Shoffner addressed the Trane Energy Project that took place over the summer when Trane evaluated all schools air systems in Claiborne County.
“County Commission also commented they would like to be involved in this project,” Dr. Shoffner said, “To sum it up, it would save around $330-thousand dollars a year in air conditioning and electrical.”
There were four resolutions for the board members to look over but board member Dave Chesney had some concerns about one of the items.
“Chairman, I have one question on Resolutions. Third page, travel $16,112, what kind of travel is that, that’s an awful lot of money,” asked Mr. Chesney.
“Mr. Chesney, that’s not travel, that’s the total grand for job training partnership act, is that the one you’re talking about,” Chairman Sam Owens asked.
“Third to the last page,” Mr. Chesney said, “Claiborne High, Midway, Forge Ridge, Leaves Grants, what kind of travel is this?”
Mr. Shoffner asked Dr. Meta Banks to step up and speak on behalf of the travel fund.
“Ladies and Gentleman, the Leaves Grant, Claiborne High School was granted approximately $78,000 in money to spend on the after school project,” Dr. Banks said, “The travel portion for Claiborne High School was in condition that we had to go this certain in-service training provided by the state.”
Dr. Banks explained that she had recently gone to training and the figure included hotel, travel and the conference fee.
“What that does is supplement what we provide for our students,” Dr. Banks said, “The leadership training was in agreement that if we got this money, we would increase our training appropriately.”
“Thank you Dr. Banks for explaining this,” Dave Chesney said.
The board approved the Resolutions and will take the Trane Energy expenses before County Commission.
The purchase of three new school buses were discussed in the workshop before the school board meeting and the board approved that the request by taken in front of County Commission.
The board also approved the bids after a short discussion between Mr. Chesney and Mr. Owens about the gas and propane in the packet.
Other items on the agenda that were approved were the School Approval that will be written and sent to Nashville.
The board approved a request from H.Y. Livesay to purchase new student desks.
Field Trips were also discussed in the workshop and during the school board meeting. The board approved the field trips but a packet will be brought before the board at the next school board meeting.
Before the meeting broke, the board wanted to remind all supervisors and principals that if they had any paperwork to turn in make sure it there before their meetings so they have enough time to look over it.
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