Franklin County School Board Looks at Budget, Grant and Calendars

by K. G. Beavers, Messenger Staff Writer

The Franklin County school board met in a work session on April 1 to discuss the Telehealth Grant and the proposed 2013–14 budget. Under new business, the school board discussed revisions to the Section 4-Instructional Services policies and the school calendars.

Andra Mays from the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) appeared before the board to present a resolution for board approval. The TEA is supporting the Fair and Clear Teacher Evaluation Act (SB 0838/ HB 0537), which would make some common sense changes to the teacher evaluation system. 

The bill, sponsored by Senator Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) and Representative Jim Coley (R-Bartlett) would require teachers be evaluated based on their own work as teachers and the success of their students. For teachers in non-tested grades and subjects, 50 percent of their evaluation comes from student academic achievement based on standardized testing. Teachers in non-tested grades and subject include art, librarians and physical education. They are evaluated on subjects they do not teach.

The bill is also proposing to use a pre- and post-test system that accurately gauges student learning. For more information on the bill, go to <www.legis​lature.state.tn.us/>.

Reporting on the Telehealth Grant, Bonita Nolan from the Coordinated School Health Office said a specific plan was still not in place. “Writing the protocol is a major undertaking and the doctor’s office wants to have approval in place first,” said Nolan. The school board will vote on this issue in the next meeting.

Concerning budget amendments, Director of Schools Rebecca Sharber reported some changes in the reinstatement of capital outlay inflationary funds from the BEP. The state had stopped giving those funds three years ago. “We can use the $232,000 in any manner we want,” said Sharber.

There is also a change from the state to the Adult Education Program, where the program moves to regional. Franklin County did not receive the grant to have the regional supervisor. 

“The county which received the grant had to pledge how they will operate and run our program,” said Sharber. “This means the supervisor position is eliminated, and we would use that money to pay the adult education teachers.”

The state is also proposing a 1.5 percent salary increase. Sharber said they would receive some guidance this month on how to use the money. Other changes to the budget include a one-time technology grant in order to get ready for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers testing.

For the resolution amending the general-purpose school budget for disposal fees, the board decided to disregard this resolution. Sharber reported in an August 8,1994, Solid Waste Management board meeting, the board voted to charge a disposal fee to county departments and that those departments “shall be notified in time to make adjustments to their budgets.” 

“No notification has been found to budget this line item and pay,” said Sharber. “Disposal fees have been paid for Franklin County High School and the board of education office, but the other schools have never received a bill. A contract has not yet been found,” Sharber reported. The Franklin County Solid Waste department is only going back three years to collect the disposal fee of $92,000 from this year’s budget. Disposal fees have been added to the 2013–14 budget.

Sharber reported the biggest change to the budget was the 8 percent increase in medical insurance. 

The school board is proposing $42,386,658 in revenue with an estimated $44,105,362 in expenditures. The estimated undesignated fund balance would be $1,979,631 on June 30. The proposed 2013–14 school board budget will be voted on in the next school board meeting and presented to the Finance Department on April 15.

The school board discussed changes to the Section 4 Policies, Instructional Services. The biggest change is to Policy 4.600, Grading System, where grades K–2 move toward the common core transitional grading scale. This consists of numerical grades of 4, 3, 2 and 1 to be used in ELA (English, Language Arts) and math. For grades 3–12, students will still receive grades of A through F.

The 2013–14 and 2014–15 school calendars have gone through the calendar committee and been approved by the teachers. The school board has since received a request from the Franklin County Fair Board to allow students, teachers and faculty a day off from school in order to attend the county fair. 

Proposed dates are August 23, 2013, and August 22, 2014. If passed, May 23, 2014, would become the abbreviated day, and May 27 would be the administration day. For 2014–15, May 28 would become the abbreviated day, and May 29 would be the administrative day. The school board will vote on the changes in the next meeting.

The next school board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m., Monday, April 8, at the board office, 215 S. College St., Winchester.