by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer
At its June 1 and June 8 meetings, the Franklin County School Board grappled with policy decisions about corporal punishment and tardiness.
A proposed revision to the corporal punishment policy, drafted by board member Adam Tucker of Sewanee, was approved on its first reading on June 8. The policy will have to be approved on second reading to take effect. Board member Sara Liechty, who has repeatedly stated she opposed corporal punishment, voted against the policy.
The revision takes into account input from school principals at the June 1 meeting and the subsequent discussion, Tucker said. The goals of the revised policy are to minimize the school system’s liability, engage parents and reflect the current practice by principals of phoning parents before administering corporal punishment.
The revised policy proposed three significant changes to the current policy. At the beginning of the school year, parents (or the student’s guardian) will be asked to sign a disciplinary preference form indicating either “I consent” or “I do not consent” to the school administering corporal punishment. If no form is on file, the school cannot administer corporal punishment. An attempt will be made to notify parents of the decision to administer corporal punishment and invite parents to witness the punishment.
At the June 1 meeting, the board heard from three system school principals.
Sewanee Elementary School principal Mike Maxon said SES sent home a form at the beginning of the school year asking parents to select from three choices for their child: allow corporal punishment, forbid corporal punishment or undecided.
Maxon said only seven or eight parents replied they were undecided. Forty-eight percent gave the school permission to use corporal punishment in disciplining their child; and 52 percent had forbidden the school from using corporal punishment. The responses were evenly distributed across socioeconomic lines, Maxon said.
Huntland principal William Bishop and Decherd Elementary principal Allison Spears said they always phoned parents before administering corporal punishment. Both Bishop and Spears had experienced parents changing their mind about forbidding the school to administer corporal punishment when confronted with the options of suspension, picking up the child or bringing the child to detention.
Spears said she would like a revised policy to include requiring the school to phone the parent before administering corporal punishment.
Asked about the effectiveness of corporal punishment, Spears said, “By the time we get to that, we’ve exhausted all our options.”
“If you need to spank a second time, it’s not working,” Bishop said.
To avoid showing a bias, director of schools Rebecca Sharber suggested the school system allow parents to express their preference with a form similar to that used by SES.
The board also approved a revision to the attendance policy on June 8. The new policy defines “excused tardiness” as “circumstances that, in the judgment of the principal, create emergencies over which the student has no control.”
Board chair Kevin Caroland said the Franklin County High School (FCHS) tardiness policy caused more absenteeism. According to the FCHS policy, students who are tardy a third time in one semester must attend Saturday school. The policy makes no provisions for excused tardiness, and does not differentiate between excused and unexcused tardiness.
Caroland said FCHS students frequently chose to be absent rather than exceed the limit of number of times tardy and have to go to Saturday school. State law allows five unexcused absences.
Bishop said Huntland High School’s policy required students to attend Saturday school after five unexcused instances of tardiness.
The new county-wide policy will allow for leniency at FCHS in determining when tardiness counts toward the maximum number of allowed instances.
In the interest of deterring absenteeism, Sharber proposed a revision to the grading system policy. To encourage high school students to attend school, the policy revision would exempt students from taking the final exam if they had no more than five absences and an A average; no more than four absences and a B average; and no more than 3 absences and a C average.
Revisiting her proposal to provide rising fourth-grade students with Kindle Fire reading devices to foster summer reading, Sharber said that her survey of parents showed most families already have electronic reading devices in the home. The Franklin County School District has partnered with myON digital library to make ebooks available free of charge to students throughout the summer. Sharber sent a letter to parents providing information on participating in the program.
At the June 8 meeting, Tennessee State Representative David Alexander read a joint resolution of the Tennessee House and Senate recognizing the accomplishments of and congratulating Sharber, who will retire on June 30. Sharber served as director of Franklin County Schools for six years and as superintendant of Williamson County Schools for 14 years. The new director of schools, Amy Lonas, will begin her overlap time with Sharber on June 15.
The school board’s next meeting is a working session on July 6.
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