School Board Looks at Budget, SES Renovation

By K. G. Beavers, Messenger Staff Writer

The Franklin County school board met in a work session on Aug. 5 to hear the director of schools report, discuss the 2014–15 calendar and the superintendent evaluation.

Sewanee Elementary School volunteer Karen Keele was selected to receive the 2013 Tennessee School Boards Association South Central School Volunteer Recognition Award. In May, she was nominated for a school volunteer recognition award. Keele organizes a tutorial-enrichment program matching retired residents with students who need extra academic help at SES. As one of seven district award winners, Keele will be considered for the statewide award. The statewide award winner receives a $1,000 grant to the public school of their choice.

The end-of-year financial report “ended better than planned,” said Rebecca Sharber, Franklin County’s director of schools. The school board used approximately $618,000 of its fund balance to balance the budget, instead of the projected $2 million. 

“We don’t spend money just because it is there,” said Sharber. The school board is projecting a fund balance of approximately $2.6 million at the end of the 2014 fiscal year.

Sharber reported that the full county commission approved the Franklin County budget on Aug. 1. The budget did not include any tax increases.

SES principal Mike Maxon thanked the school board for approving the renovation project at the school. 

“We are in the process of wrapping a few things up such as the grass on the playground,” said Maxon. He said there would be an open house in the next couple of weeks, and all are invited to attend to see the renovated school.

Sharber reported on the standardized test scores for the district [see adjacent story]. The state looks at three main areas in testing: annual measurable objectives (AMOs) in achievement, gap closure and improvement between the subgroups.

Tennessee has specific AMOs to achieve on testing each year because of its waiver from No Child Left Behind. These AMOs include benchmarks to be reached in third-grade math and reading, seventh-grade math and reading, third- through eighth-grade aggregate scores in math and reading, and specific benchmarks in Algebra I and II, English II and III. Achievement gaps between subgroups should also lessen.

“There are places where we did well on the tests and some where we declined,” said Sharber. Overall, achievement scores declined on all four TCAP tests for grades 3–8. “Seventh grade was our bright spot, where we did better and improved on testing.”

At the high school level, there were gains in Algebra I, Algebra II and English I. The other four tests showed a decline.

For gap closure, Franklin County made improvement in the black/Hispanic/Native American subgroup. Franklin County did not meet a majority of gap closures or targets in economically disadvantaged or students with disabilities subgroups. Approximately 65 percent of students are economically disadvantaged, and 17 percent are students with disabilities in Franklin County.

In subgroup improvement, Franklin County only improved in nine areas.

“Overall we are not quite where we need to be,” said Sharber. “I would like to have higher achievement and grow every year.”

“Every year there has been something new from the state, including new expectations to meet,” said Chris McDonough, district five school board member.

“It is not surprising really that our scores have gone down when the government keeps introducing new standards and benchmarks to cause distractions,” McDonough said.

Sharber is implementing five new strategies this school year to help reach the AMOs. These include more focus on instruction, especially in math and reading. There will be a new reading program at the elementary schools, and 105 minutes of uninterrupted reading in all classes. The schools will be professional learning communities where teachers will plan, assess, talk and collaborate on what is working well and on which students are not learning. There will also be instructional coaches and more technology help.

The proposed 2014–15 school calendar will be changing. Since the PSAT (Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) is given when Franklin County is usually on fall break, the school board will vote on the request to move the break to Oct. 6–10 in their next meeting.

The superintendent evaluation was also discussed. The school board members rated Sharber on a scale of “1 to 5” (“5” being the highest) on six standards. Sharber received a “4” on most of the goals. 

The next school board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 12, at the board office, 215 S. College St., Winchester. The agenda will include policy updates, budget amendments and the Telemedicine program.