School Board Enthusiasts Blog: October 17 Board Meeting

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The UnifiEd Student Voice Team's School Board Blog

First off, this meeting was an average meeting. There was minimal fighting, some boring presentations, and some helpful information. With the start of the board meeting, the first thing that is easy to notice are the new additions in the room.

With the four new TV’s along with new banners, it’s very hard to miss the extra add-ons to the room. It was said that the purpose of the new TV’s were to help the viewers who watch the board meetings from live streams or on media sharing outlets such as YouTube, to be able to see the presentation from every angle. My question is, where did the money come from to be able to afford these commodities and was four TV’s really necessary? We wanted to congratulate the schools that were recognized as reward schools during the Exemplars of Excellence section of the meeting.

Coalition of Large School Systems (CLASS) Presentation
The meeting started off with a presentation by CLASS. This presentation was rather boring, however, it seemed very helpful for those looking to stay updated on education law from a state perspective. This presentation covered all sorts of things from issues discussed this past year and issues that are predicted to come up this coming year.

• Why would they start paper testing when all we are used to is online for standardized testing? After all the effort they have put into moving all resources online to make it easier and faster, it doesn’t make sense. It will cause so much chaos with grading.
  
• Vouchers were brought up with the concern that they take money away from school systems. This is true; however, the main concern should be that vouchers do not cover the full costs of attending a private school and do not solve the inequality that they are trying to fix.
  
• One potential issue that was brought up was the conversion from a “93-100” grading scale to a “90-100” grade scale across the state. This would be incredibly beneficial to the students of Tennessee as it allows our grades to be seen on the same plane as that of other states. Previously, students in Tennessee could earn a 92 for a class and receive a B, while students in other states would receive an A for the same score.
  
• Earthquake drills: One of the more interesting mentions in the board meeting was the proposal for earthquake drills. Now, if we lived in a notable earthquake area such as California, this would make complete sense; however, we do not. In Tennessee it has been reported by TheTennessean.com that there were 301 quakes back in 2018. Now, that sounds like a big number until you compare it to California’s average of 58,000 and note that most of Tennessee's earthquakes only clock in at about 2.5 or less on the Richter scale. This information begs the question: Why these drills? The reasoning behind them is that Hamilton County as a whole just needed to improve its safety measures but let’s start focusing on the drills we already have and not adding on new ones.
  
• At one point at the end of the presentation during questions, Rhonda Thurman commented on the lack of civics education. In this comment Rhonda mentioned that our students do not know anything about the way that government works. We found this comment rather discouraging as we know so many bright, young students that are involved in trying to change the world around them by being involved in government.
  

Future Ready Update
Although Future Ready is supposed to be a program established and made clear in all schools, most students are unaware of this program and how it works. We believe that all students will be made aware of this program within their zoned schools. Students are having to go to schools across the city to obtain the education they strive to receive.

Student Code of Conduct
The Student Code of conduct is a guideline set in place to let the students know the repercussions of their offenses and to set the standards for what is acceptable conduct in schools, but how were these “hefty” hand books actually set in place? At the Superintendent Student Advisory Council, held on October 16th, Dr. Johnson asked the students how they felt about the booklets so he could bring this information to the school board meeting. Some common themes of the comments were that students shouldn’t just be punished for unacceptable behavior, but should be rewarded for exceptional behavior; the wordiness/lengthiness of the booklet; and how the chart with rules and punishments were not easy to follow. As a student, I couldn’t agree more with these comments and concerns. A lot of students mentioned the booklets were just being passed out and turned back in for a grade in their classrooms, instead of actually being looked at and thoroughly read. You can not go from a three page pamphlet to a forty page document and think that will be received well.

SRO Recruiting Bonuses
Giving recruiting bonuses to SROs seems like a smart way to help hire SROs. However, this seems like a very business-like thing for a school system to do. Akin to when phone companies offer discounts for customers switching phone companies. Regardless, it seems that the board has the safety of students at heart as it attempts to speed up the hiring process of these SROs.