by K. G. Beavers, Messenger Staff Writer
The Franklin County school board met in regular session on March 10 to discuss common core standards, information on revenue from the mixed-drink tax, the county desegregation lawsuit and a resolution opposing legislation threatening the county educational system.
As part of a civil rights study released in 2008 by the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, 12 Tennessee school districts have been released from a desegregation order, and 17 districts remain under court jurisdiction. Eleven counties still have active school desegregation lawsuits brought about by the U.S. Department of Justice. Franklin County is one of six public school districts where private desegregation lawsuits remain open in federal court.
The report identifies all school districts in the state that have ever been subject to a school desegregation court order and those school districts that have been declared by the court to have “unitary status.” The Supreme Court established the term “unitary status” to describe a school system that has made the transition from a segregated or “racially dual” system to a desegregated or “unitary” system.
According to the report, in Franklin County eight families joined a lawsuit in 1963 to compel the Franklin County school system to provide a “unified, nonracial educational system.” In 1964, the court issued an order to desegregate the schools. Objections to the order were filed by the school district. In 1966 the plaintiffs made a motion to reinstate the case on the active docket. Since 1970 there has been no action on the case. The case has not been dismissed, and the district has not been formally declared to have “unitary status” or released from court order.
“This is a loose end, and we have to clear this up,” said Franklin County Director of Schools Rebecca Sharber. “The school system will be in better shape because we have achieved desegregation.” The lawyer for the school board plans to file a motion for unitary status, which may cost between $10,000 and $15,000. The school board wants to consider other bids for representation before applying for the status.
Sharber presented an overview of the common core standards. For more on the presentation, go to <http://tncore.org/sites/www/Uploads/Family/Common%20Core%20State%20Standards%20PowerPoint%20Presentation.pdf>.
Common core state standards were adopted in 2010. These are goals that every student at each grade level is expected to learn, including math and reading standards for all students. These common standards are used to ensure that each student will be prepared for success in college or the workplace. These standards make sure that each teacher (K–12) knows what the best practices are in order to better teach their students. It does not tell teachers how to teach but helps them best use lesson plans or maps to reach a common goal.
Sharber said common core is more complex than could be presented during the meeting. “But it is a strong link to critical thinking and problem-solving skills,” she said. “Common core sets standards to meet goals. This has nothing to do with curriculum. Curriculum is a road map for meeting those goals,” she said.
Many of the school board members expressed concern over the amount of testing students now have and the way the common core standards have been implemented in the schools.
“All of us are in a state of transition as the schools move toward the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test,” Sharber said. In 2014-15, there will be a transition to the PARCC test, which will be given on computers. PARCC will replace the TCAP math and English/language arts tests starting in fall 2014 for the high school. For classes such as biology and history, the end-of-course tests in spring will still be the TCAP tests. For grades 3–8, the PARCC tests will be two parts: the first will be a performance-based test in April; the second will be a multiple-choice test in May. TCAP tests will still be given in social studies and science. The state offered training for teachers during the summer.
“The state has not made funds available to each district to pay for mileage and teachers’ time,” Sharber said, “so most of our teachers have not been trained in the new standards.”
Chris McDonough, district 5 school board representative, requested the board consider adding money to the school board budget for teachers to attend training during the summer. “This is an unfunded mandate that teachers should attend training, give up their time during the summer, not get paid for the time or travel and be held accountable for the test results they were not trained on,” said McDonough.
In other matters, Sharber described how a mixed-drink tax has been collected across the state, with half of the revenue earmarked for the county school fund and the other for the town or county where it was collected. The total due to the Franklin County School System is $189,158 from taxes collected by the state from 1980 through 2013.
“This is money we should have been paid,” said Sharber. “The City of Winchester has agreed to pay $50,000 initially, and pay the rest in installments during a five-year period. We have not been presented with a plan yet for payment from the county.” Franklin County is not the only county where this has happened in Tennessee. The school board also passed a resolution opposing state legislation threatening the county educational system. This includes opposition to H.B. 2293, which seeks to restrict the ability of boards of education to provide information and communication to state legislators regarding education-related matters; H.B. 2250, which seeks to enlarge the state’s control over local school systems and remove decisions from locally elected boards of education; and S.B. 0677, which will give more control to the Tennessee Commissioner of Education concerning fiscal outcomes and financial operations for schools.
The next school board meeting will be at 6:30 p.m., Monday, April 7.
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