School Board Revisits School Clubs Issue, Considers Other Policies

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

At the April 4 working session, the Franklin County Board of Education further refined proposed changes to the school clubs policy, as well as discussing changes to the dress code, attendance and drug testing policies.

Continuing a policy review that began in February in response to the formation of a Gay Straight Alliance Club at Franklin County High School, the proposed revised policy adds the stipulation that the director of schools has final approval of all clubs, following recommendation by school principals.

The proposed policy also defines and distinguishes between academic clubs which “serve as an extension of the school’s regular curriculum” and nonacademic clubs which “the principal shall designate” as belonging to one of the following categories: service, honorary, interest, religious, political and/or sports.

School board member Adam Tucker proposed students forming a club have the opportunity to recommend a club’s designation. On the suggestion of board chair Kevin Caroland, Director of Schools Amie Lonas will add the option to the club application form.

Tucker reiterated his opposition to the requirement that a parent or guardian must give permission for a student to participate in a club. Teachers serving as club advisors have contacted him about “the need to police” club participation, Tucker said. But he stressed his biggest concern was that the permission slip requirement could “bar students whose parents aren’t active participants in the student’s life, and these are the students who most need club involvement.”

Other board members disagreed. CleiJo Walker acknowledged she had “one complaint from a teacher,” but Walker suggested a student club officer such as the secretary could be responsible for tracking the permission requirement.

Board members Chris Guess and Sarah Liechty stressed that parents needed to be involved and informed of students’ activities.

Caroland raised a question about the school system’s liability for nonacademic clubs engaged in activities off school property, particularly if the group used school transportation. Lonas will research the liability issue.

The board will vote on the proposed policy at the next board meeting.

In reviewing the administrative procedures document created by Lonas to serve as criteria for implementing the school clubs policy, Tucker recommended the school supply a form for recording minutes to simplify the record-keeping requirement. The board supported the suggestion. The board does not vote on administrative procedures, but Lonas has invited the board’s input on school clubs criteria.

South Middle School student Paul McCray asked the board to consider allowing students to wear shorts, mid-knee length, during warm weather. McCray presented the board with a petition from his classmates supporting the request.

Discussing dress code policy, Guess recommended the solid-color only requirements for shirts, pants and skirts, be rescinded to allow students to wear plaids, stripes, checks and other designs. Caroland agreed. The dress code was last revised in July of 2014 to make student dress “more uniform,” Caroland said, “but there’s a lot of latitude we can put back in.”

“When I visit schools, dress code is what students want to talk to me about,” Lonas said.

In response to teachers’ concerns about excessive excused absences, Lonas recommended making the attendance policy stronger. “At one time we required a certain number of days in attendance for a student to get credit for a course,” Walker said. Lonas will discuss options with school principals.

Lonas expressed concern about the “punitive” drug testing policy at the alternative school, which requires suspension on the first offense and dismissal on the second offense. “I’ve had to expel three students this year,” Lonas said.

She recommended a proactive policy similar to the athletic drug testing policy that provides for counseling and temporary suspension from sports on the first and second offenses, and permanent suspension from sports on the third offense, but not dismissal from school.

Lonas will revise the dress code, attendance and drug testing policies and present them to the board with a view to receiving approval for the revised policies by June. Caroland said timeliness was particularly important in the case of the dress code policy so parents could begin shopping for school clothes.

Lonas announced kindergarten students will be “phased in” next fall by attending two half-day classes the first week and one full day on Friday. Four half-day classes will be scheduled with only half the class in attendance at each session to allow for more individual attention. At the Friday session, all students will attend.

The board meets next on April 11 at South Middle School.

School Board Revisits Policy & Criteria for Non-Curricular Clubs

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

Anticipating another large crowd, the Franklin County Board of Education met on March 14 at the Franklin County High School. Contrary to what many expected, there was no motion on the issue of school clubs, and therefore no vote on the hotly contested topic. The board had spent a significant portion of its March 7 working session discussing a “closed-forum” policy that would ban all non-curricular school clubs at the secondary level. 

“I do not believe the majority of the board supports such a drastic measure,” said school board member Adam Tucker, who represents Sewanee, Sherwood and Keith Springs Mountain.

At the March 7 working session, board member Sarah Liechty pointed to dire consequences if the Franklin County schools banned non-curricular clubs: “Over 1,100 students would be impacted, as well as over 80 organizations which use school facilities.”

The federal Equal Access Act of 1985 prohibits discrimination when schools allow non-curricular clubs. To avoid losing federal funding, a school system must allow all non-curricular clubs or it must prohibit all non-curricular clubs. Outside FCHS prior to the March 14 board meeting, students and community members displayed signs and banners asking the school system to keep an open-forum policy on clubs.

Inside at the meeting, the board did not revisit the closed-forum concept and instead focused on less radical policy revisions and administrative procedures pertaining to clubs.

Board Chair Kevin Caroland suggested that the school clubs policy could require parental permission for a student to join a club. Board members Cleijo Walker and Chris Guess agreed.

Tucker said the current “opt-out” policy already allowed parents to prohibit their children’s participation in a club. He argued an “opt-in” policy could create difficulty for students when divorced parents disagreed and in any circumstance where parents are not active participants in their child’s life. “We need to be expanding extracurricular opportunities, not creating obstacles that discourage participation,” Tucker said. 

Weighing in on the discussion, school system attorney Chuck Cagle said a law now under consideration by the Tennessee legislature would require parental permission for student participation in a club. Caroland also suggested revising the policy to require the director of schools join with school principals in approving formation of a club, a decision which at present falls to school principals alone. Cagle pointed out that the director of schools was already involved in the decision-making process as the supervisor of school principals.

The board also reviewed a newly created administrative procedures document that details the criteria for school clubs.

“The purpose of administrative procedures is to implement policy,” Tucker explained. “[Director of Schools Amie] Lonas is seeking the board’s input. The board will not vote on the [administrative procedures] document.”

Tucker suggested several revisions to the criteria, including more lenient standards in how students can publicize clubs, allowing students time to find a new faculty advisor if the current advisor resigned and allowing students to appeal to the director of schools if their application to form a club is denied.

Tucker also took issue with “the undue administrative burden on faculty advisors in terms of documenting club activities.” Prior to the board meeting, the advisors for the National Honor Society and Beta Club sent board members an email saying they would not serve as a club sponsor next year if the onerous documentation procedures proposed were adopted. 

Caroland recommended adding the stipulation that a club could be disbanded for failing to adhere to the criteria outlined in the administrative procedures. Cagle advised including in the policy a provision for disbanding clubs, as well as an appeals process in the event a club is disbanded.

In discussion about the requirement that 10 students were needed to form a club, Tucker noted that some clubs now in existence have as few as six members. Board member Gary Hanger recommended a club with five or fewer members be disbanded.

Turning to the application to form a club, which is also an administrative procedures document, Caroland asked Lonas to include a parental permission requirement. 

The board will likely continue its considerations of extracurricular clubs at its April 4 working session and April 7 board meeting. 

In other business, Lonas said the first round of student achievement testing “went better than expected.” She will consult with school principals on possible changes to procedures to facilitate the next round of testing scheduled for the first week in May.

Lonas expressed concern because the school system expected to receive $1.2 million from the state for teacher salary increases, but the amount was reduced by $926,000, the amount of stability funding the school received last year. (Stability funding is the monies received by a school system when its enrollment falls below the anticipated level.) Lonas hopes the school system will receive stability funding again this year, but cautioned the additional support will eventually be withdrawn if enrollment continues to decline.

School Board Hears Comments on GSA

by Leslie Lytle,  Messenger Staff Writer

Visitors packed the 500-seat auditorium to near capacity at the Feb. 8 Franklin County Board of Education meeting at Franklin County High School. The meeting was moved from its normal location to accommodate the large crowd. The recently formed Gay-Straight Alliance club at FCHS has attracted national attention and locally provoked an outpouring of both support and criticism. Following publication of the agenda last week, the board agreed to an eleventh-hour agenda change, giving four community members permission to comment publicly on the GSA.

“This is a school board meeting, and no disruption will be tolerated,” insisted Kevin Caroland, board chair, after some audience members loudly recited the Lord’s Prayer during the moment of silence at the start of the meeting. Caroland then continued with the agenda, which allotted five minutes to each speaker. 

Chris Ball of Belvidere began by asking “the forgiveness of God, the board, the faculty and the children of the Franklin County Schools for never giving the safety of students a thought.” “I don’t think clubs that promote a viewpoint should be here,” he said, “even Christian clubs. But the GSA started because a few students didn’t feel safe. I urge all of you to stop preaching hate and urge the school to implement the zero tolerance policy for bullies that’s already in place.”

Robert Weidlich, father of four with two students at FCHS, challenged Director of Schools Amie Lonas for saying the Supreme Court had already ruled on the legality of the club. Weidlich also challenged the authority of the 1984 Equal Access Act to withdraw federal funding from Franklin County Schools if the club was banned. “I’m not going to stand for my kids being subjected to homosexuality in public school,” Weidlich said in closing.

“The GSA is not a gay club. I’m a heterosexual,” said 14-year-old Kevin Hambrick, a FCHS freshman who joined the GSA at the first meeting on Jan. 19. Hambrick apologized to “Christians and GSA members for the misconduct they’ve received.” “The reason we have a club is to end demeaning treatment and dehumanization of the LGBT community. You can tear our signs down, you can tear the tears out of our eyes. I fought to be here. We need this club.”

Attorney Peter Trenchi of Sewanee, who works regularly with youth groups and children, spoke about the importance of peer contact and counseling for youth who lead challenged lives. “School may be their only safe place. This is where children learn appropriate interactions.” Citing the Bible, Trenchi said, “Love overcomes fear.”

The board reviewed the application and criterion for school clubs drafted by school administrators.

School board representative Adam Tucker from Sewanee suggested the provision prohibiting “conflict of interest with other clubs,” should be clarified to refer to “conflict of interest about use of facilities.”

Caroland said when clubs were allowed to meet needed to be clearly defined.

The board also discussed whether clubs should be required to take minutes.

School administrators will be advised of the board’s recommendations, but approving clubs and setting criterion for their establishment will remain the prerogative of the schools.

“School principals approve clubs,” Caroland stressed, citing board policy. “The school board is not involved in the process.”

“I’m pleased the club will continue,” said GSA faculty advisor Jennie Turrell, who lives in Sewanee and teaches art at FCHS. “There were concerns,” Turrell said. “Look at all the people here. Now we can begin the good work.”

In her director’s report, Lonas said Governor Haslam has recommended increased educational funding for teachers’ salaries ($100 million), health insurance ($30 million) and technology ($15–$30 million).

Discussing testing, Lonas said she had just learned earlier that day the state online testing system had experienced technical failures, and all testing would be done by pencil and paper.

Lonas said the state recently offered schools the option of using a paper-and-pencil testing format instead of an online format, and the Franklin County school principals chose to stay with the online system.

“Teachers have worked very hard to prepare students,” Lonas said. “They’ve been doing all their practice online.”

The board approved several personnel-related policy revisions. Most involved rewording for clarification purposes. There were three substantive changes.

The 30-hour orientation program requirement for new teachers was dropped. “The requirement was excessive,” Lonas said. “We’d prefer teachers spend their time in the classroom.”

The revised substitute worker policy provides for hiring substitutes when non-teaching staff are needed for enrichment and remediation practices. The revised substitute teacher policy clarified reemployment and termination procedures for substitute teachers.

The school board will meet for a working session on March 7. The next board meeting is scheduled for March 14 at South Middle School.

GSA at FCHS Draws National Attention :: Rally of Support Planned for Feb. 8

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

The newly formed Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club at Franklin County High School (FCHS) has attracted national attention. The group held its first meeting on Jan. 19 under the direction of faculty advisor Jenny Turrell, FCHS art teacher and a resident of Sewanee.

A firestorm of comments followed on the social media outlet Facebook, both condoning and condemning the club. Said one critic, “the next thing you know they will have F.I.M.A. (Future ISIS Members of America).”

Under the 1984 Equal Access Act, all federally funded secondary schools must provide equal access to extracurricular clubs.

Citing the law, Director of Schools Amie Lonas said, “If we choose not to allow this club to be established, then we would be required to prohibit all noncurriculum clubs or give up federal funding.”

The GSA “is not a recruitment tool or trying to promote an alternate lifestyle,” Lonas stressed in response to critics. “It’s more about tolerance and trying to treat people equally and with respect.”

Prior to the Feb. 8 school board meeting at FCHS, there will be a rally in support of the GSA in the parking lot left of the entrance off Georgia Crossing Road. The board meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.; however, there is no item on the board’s agenda that deals with GSA or student clubs. Winchester Police Chief Dennis Young said critics of the GSA have not applied for a permit to demonstrate.

FCHS junior Allie Faxon of Sewanee said her involvement with the GSA has made her “feel more confident.” Student participation in the GSA has more than doubled since the first meeting, with nearly fifty students attending the meeting on Feb. 2.

But there has also been “backlash,” Faxon said. 

“Students who oppose the club have made straight-pride signs and paraded around LGBT students and defaced our signs. They have thrown water bottles and food at LGBT students,” she said.

School board policy clearly prohibits “any employee or any student to discriminate against or harass a student through disparaging conduct or communication that is sexual, racial, ethnic or religious in nature.”

Students have been encouraged to report harassment, but explaining the process Turrell said, “for reasons of privacy the administration cannot reveal to the accuser the administration’s response or the nature of any reprimand or disciplinary action.” GSA students have received more than 40 notes of encouragement, according to Turrell, as well as “offers of support, financial and otherwise, from individuals all over the country with similar life experiences.” She has also been contacted by the GLSEN (Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and other national organizations.

However, the GSA has no affiliation with any other group. 

“It’s a non-sponsored program driven by students with no outside affiliation,” Turrell insisted. “It’s important for the club to evolve as the students want it to evolve.”

As a small student club, the GSA is not equipped to handle large donations. To provide a vehicle for those who wish to make a financial contribution to support LGBT youth in rural Tennessee, the Cumberland Center for Justice and Peace created the LGBT Rural Youth Program Fund. Possible use of the resources includes providing scholarships to LGBT youth or to aid in establishing GSA clubs at other area high schools. For more information contact the LGBT Rural Youth Program Fund, P.O. Box 307, Sewanee, TN 37375 or visit <www.ccjp.org/projects>.