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Calendar, construction dominate school officials’ agenda
By Emily Elders
School officials approved the school calendar for the 2007-2008 year and agreed to begin the next phase of construction at Smoky Mountain High and Fairview Elementary schools last week.
The unanimous approval of the calendar during the Feb. 26 meeting came after several months of work by the calendar committee, according to Superintendent Sue Nations.
“With the testing schedules the way they are and the requirements we’re being made to meet at a state level, I think this is the best compromise we could come up with,” she said.
Schools next year will open for teachers Aug. 21 and for students Aug. 27, and school will end for students with an early release on June 9. Teachers’ last day will be June 12, with annual leave on June 13 and 16.
Winter Break will begin with an early release on Friday, Dec. 21, and school will resume for teachers Jan. 2 and for students Jan. 3. Spring break will take place the week of April 14-18.
The calendar meets state requirements with 180 student days, 14 teacher workdays, 10 annual leave days, and 11 holidays.
Board member Mark Brooks voiced his concerns about the testing schedule and the end-of-semester crunch students and teachers are currently facing.
“I just wanted to get that out there, that I think it’s ridiculous to have to split a semester up right at the end (first semester testing is done after students return from winter break),” said Brooks, who served on the calendar committee. “I understand that it has to be that way, but I hate that our kids and our teachers have to deal with that kind of pressure.”
Most board members agreed.
“I think we all feel that moving the decision to change the school calendar out of local control is not what’s best for the schools,” said board member Thurza McNair. “It’s not about what’s best, but because of economic control, and it’s a shame that our kids have to bear that burden.”
Nations reminded board members that a bill had recently been introduced into state legislation regarding testing requirements, and that if passed, the 2008-2009 calendar could be scheduled more easily.
School officials also approved the beginning of work on Fairview’s planned six-room kindergarten addition. The work will begin in conjunction with the second phase of construction at Smoky Mountain High School after May 28, when Buchanan and Sons, Inc. is scheduled to complete the first phase of work.
Changes parents and teachers can expect over the summer months include the closing of the high school’s main entrance, which will mean that drop-off and pickup for summer school will take place behind the stadium via the Fairview Road entrance. The main entrance is being widened and repaved in front of the building, as well as having storm drainage and retaining walls added.
The second phase of work may or may not be complete by the time students return in August, and officials hammered out an interim plan with architect John Cort and engineer Victor Lofquist should that goal not be met. Parking spaces will be shifted to accommodate the work on both the senior lot, which is being raised several feet, and the road that will connect the main entrance to Jones Street. If the Department of Transportation can get a traffic light at the intersection of N.C. 107 and Jones Street put up by August, that entrance can be used as well, county Manager Ken Westmoreland told officials. He said he had notified DOT of that possibility.
The second phase of the interim plan would remove student parking from the future ball fields near Jones Street back to the current senior lot site and pave a new bus parking lot behind C building, hopefully by Oct. 15, Cort said.
– In other business Feb. 22 and Feb. 26:
– A resolution in support of a Public School Facility Bond Referendum currently passing through the state legislature was unanimously passed, showing the board’s support for more state funding for capital expense projects like the current construction.
– Field trips were approved for Smokey Mountain Elementary, one to the Rollins Planetarium in Georgia on March 27 and one to the Knoxville Zoo on April 27; and one for the School of Alternatives’ sixth-eighth grade trip to Worley’s Cave, Tenn., on March 16.
– Officials approved a right-of-entry agreement with Duke Energy for use of Blue Ridge School during emergencies. The right of entry has traditionally been guaranteed verbally between the schools and the power company, said Assistant Superintendent Steve Jones, but something in writing was necessary.
The next school board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, March 26, at SMHS.
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