by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“The children build a connection with books. That’s vital if we want them to be a lifelong reader,” stressed children’s books author Christina Soontornvat at the Nov. 9 Franklin County School Board meeting providing the board with an overview of the new Visiting Authors Program for Franklin County fifth graders. A Franklin County resident and the author of over 30 children’s books, Soontornvat joined with Elementary Supervisor Amy Greer, Secondary Supervisor Rachel Shields, and board member Sarah Marhevsky to brainstorm and launch the program. Through a Penn Foundation Grant secured by Greer, all fifth graders received a copy of Legends of Lotus Island: The Guardian Test, the first book in Soontornvat’s middle-grade fantasy series about kids training to become magical Guardians who protect nature. On Dec. 8, the children will meet with Soontornvat for an author-reader Q&A.

Soontornvat has travelled nationwide, meeting with students and talking about loving to read. Student questions have ranged from “What is your favorite book?” to “Did you ever feel like giving up?” Passionate about the program and getting kids “excited about reading,” Soontornvat waived the speaker’s fee for the Dec. 8 event. Soontornvat and Shields zeroed in on fifth graders so the children would carry “the love of books” with them into middle school. The Franklin County Library and Homeschoolers Group signed on, joining the public-school children participating. Through Soontornvat’s connections, next year’s visiting author will be Gordon Korman whose books are favorites of fifth and sixth grade boys.

In regular business, Coordinated School Health and Safety Director Chris Hawkersmith reported on threats since the beginning of the school year, two written and 15 verbal. “That usually constitutes most of them,” Hawkersmith said. Outliers, one threat involved a knife and another involved physical aggression. Each school has its own Threat Assessments Team. Team members participate in eight hours of training.

Board member David Van Buskirk asked if the district dealt with students lured by “the dark web” to provide photographs later used to blackmail them.

“They can steal photos and generate an AI bot,” Hawkersmith acknowledged. “One person did that with 20 something females. It was not illegal. We had it shut down, but it took a visit to the house. The AI generation stuff is way ahead of legislation. We’re keeping an eye on it, but a lot of it is management from the parents at home.”

In the Legislative Update Marhevsky reviewed provisions of the Federal Tax Credit Scholarship Program. Beginning with tax year 2027, anyone can claim the credit, up to $1,700 for individuals and $3,400 for couples filing jointly, if they donate to a state-approved nonprofit scholarship granting organization (SGO) that grants scholarships for educational expenses. “While this program is geared at helping families send their children to private school, the money can be spent on students at public schools, too,” Marhevsky said. The money donated must be spent on non-required learning enhancements, “not on things the [public] schools are already supposed to be providing, like required tutoring.” “The Tennessee Organization for School Superintendents is going to be our SGO,” said Director of Schools Roger Alsup. “We’ll be able to take advantage of this program through them.”

Greer summarized district TCAP results for 2025-2026. Compared to students tested in 2024-2025, grades three through eight showed modest gains in English Language Arts, but Math scores decreased. At the high school level, English scores decreased, but Math scores increased significantly, especially in Algebra II. Greer observed, “We’re lower than the state average, but we’re trending with the state. When state averages dip, we dip, and when the state averages excel, we excel.”

Taking up policy, the board approved three changes recommended by the Tennessee School Boards Association. The change in the Grading System policy stipulates the scores of eighth grade students taking high school courses would be included in applications for post-secondary financial assistance. The change to the Promotion and Retention policy allows third grade students who score “within the 50th percentile” in ELA to be promoted to fourth grade. The change to the Testing Programs policy provides a new formula for weighting TCAP scores in End of Course grades.