School Board meets on November 11

In honor of Veterans Day, the East Side Intermediate School Chorus, directed by Lynn Holt, performed for Haywood County School Board members and guests at the November 11 board meeting.

Among the items on the agenda, board members agreed to delete Policy 5.111 about Career Ladder Educators on second reading, and agreed to policy changes in Policy 1.704 about Charter Schools, and changes to Policy 5.112 about extended contract, both on second reading.

Superintendent Teresa Russell announced that the State Report Card had been released, and that she would go over it at the December board meeting.

Board members voted to approve out-of-state travel for 15 members of the HHS Basketball team to play in the Lighthouse Basketball Classic in Corinth Mississippi on November 28. Coach Kendall Dancy made this request.

Superintendent Russell also submitted mini grants for approval by board members. The mini grants this fall were all literacy-based projects based on the system’s Reading Initiative. They approved the following grants:

Stacy Taylor – 3rd Grade – HES Study Island

Elizabeth Lovelace – 1st Grade – HES Hot Dots for Red Hot Success

Pamla Reagan – 3rd Grade HES Spectrum Reading

Rhonda Jones – 3rd Grade HES Spectrum Reading

Baillie Lauryn Goss – 6th Grade HMS Classroom Library Extension

Shalondria White – 6th Grade HMS Higher Order Thinking Literacy Projects

Greg Bontrager – 8th Grade HMS Enrich Scholastic Reading with Emphasis on Current Events in Science and Technology (Scholastic Science World)

Mrs. Russell also presented the system’s 5-year plan for 2014-2019, which board members examined at their retreat on October 28. They also added other items they discussed at the retreat and approved the plan.

Board approval was also granted for the System/School Compliance Report.

Mr. Vincent Harvell presented the quarterly report on the Catherine Truss Colhoun Scholarship fund. As of September 30, 2014, the fund was $231,639. This fund is used each year to give scholarships to HHS seniors.

In the Director’s Report, Mrs. Russell talked about Gov. Haslem’s announcement about a state website that will provide the public with the opportunity to review and offer feedback on what students should be expected to know by the end of each K-12 school year in both mathematics and English language arts. The Tennessee State Board of Education will work in conjunction with the Southern Regional Education Board to collect all of the comments submitted to this website. The website is https://apps.tn.gov/tcas/.

The next board meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 9, at 6 p.m.