County BOE retreat staying local

A couple reasons prompted Ubben to make the motion, including hotel arrangements changing, but more importantly he felt it would give residents and county commissioners a better opportunity to attend.

“At those sessions we asked each of the principals to do a presentation about the strengths of their school and things that are going well, as well as requests for things that they need,” Ubben said. “I think that those are questions that the public needs to hear also. I think if we have the meetings here (it) will simply be able to encourage greater community participation.”

A tighter budget year also led to the decision, which Ubben hopes will show a sign of good faith that the school board is trying to save money.

Board retreats in Gatlinburg have cost at least $7,000-$8,000 and potentially as high as $10,000 in years past, Jason Vance, director of schools, said.

“I think it’ll be an opportunity for maybe more people to contribute to discussions that we might have in regard to our budget, which is probably a good thing this year,” Vance said. “We’re going to obviously save some money by not traveling out of town and ultimately bring the community to understand what our budget challenges are, and to help us come to a decision that will be beneficial for both the students and teachers and the community of our schools in Loudon County.”

Past local retreats have had BOE members distracted with interruptions of day-to-day life, Scott Newman, school board member, said. Hopes are it will be different this time.

“I think that we’ll have a better layout and we should be able to be all right,” Newman said. “... I think we take a lot of hits for people just think we’re going up there and it’s a mini-vacation, but it’s not. There’s a lot of work that goes on in there, and so but we’re going to try it here. I think it’ll be good. We’ll just have to remind everybody that we need to stay focused because sometimes when you’re just down the road it’s easy for people to get a hold of you.”

Specific days have not been set, but Vance said it should be held in March.

“When we’ve gone to Gatlinburg we’ve gone up Thursday night, but we really started our meeting Friday morning,” Ubben said. “So we’ll probably do a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, or we may start Thursday evening, do a Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday, but that’s not been decided yet.”

In other news, Loudon County Board of Education:

• Voted Simon as board chairman and Ubben vice chairman.

• Approved Sarah Hafner as a non-paid coach for North Middle School basketball.

• Passed the 2018 Disciplinary Hearing Authority of Tom Hankinson, Mike Garren, Melanie Amburn, Mike Casteel, Christie Amburn, Cheri Parrish and Kevin Gentry. Alternates are Bobby Amburn, CJ Martin and Matthew Brookshire.

• Moved forward with first reading on policies impacting school district planning, district water testing, homebound instruction, weighted courses and attendance during postsecondary visits. Second and final reading policies passed were insurance management, transcript alteration, application and employment, background investigations, recommendations and file transfers, family and medical leave act, qualifications and duties of the director of schools, zero tolerance offenses, corporal punishment, child abuse and neglect and compensation guides and contracts.

• Authorized budget amendments in Funds 141, 142 and 143, including $861,477 for insurance claim expenses for roof repair at North Middle and Eaton Elementary schools.

• Passed a pay application of $96,900 for the North Middle School fine arts building.

• Agreed upon a BOE calendar, which includes a workshop at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 1 and a 7 p.m. meeting Oct. 4. Board members will also meet at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 5 for a workshop and at 7 p.m. Nov. 8 for a meeting.

• Formed a budget committee comprised of Ubben, Newman, Bobby Johnson Jr., William Jenkins and Kim Bridges. Board members also made a policy committee, which will look into the non-resident student policy 6.204, comprised of Ubben, Newman, Bridges and Zack Cusick.