by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

At the July 14 meeting, the Franklin County School Board approved 14 policy amendments, meaning changes to rules for cell phone use, enrollment in honors courses, and procedures for searches and interrogations. Most of the amendments were recommendations from the Tennessee School Board Association (TSBA). “These are half of what we got from the TSBA” said Human Resources Supervisor Roger Alsup. “We’ll look at the other half next month.”

By the provisions of the “Cell Phones and Other Communications Devices” policy, in grades K-5 cell phones and communication devices “are not allowed unless the principal allows for special circumstances.” For grades 6-12, “Students may possess wireless communication devices so long as such devices are turned off and stored during instructional time. During breaks throughout the school day, students may use wireless communication devices … Unauthorized use or improper storage of a device will result in confiscation until such time as it may be released to the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s). A student in violation of this policy is subject to disciplinary action.” Exceptions to the policy allow for use in emergencies, when authorized by the teacher, and to manage student health. A neighboring district had a stricter policy, Alsup acknowledged, but he stressed to implement a stricter policy, “we would need to look at punishment and enforcement.” “It would be a nightmare,” observed Franklin County High School Principal Jeannie Miller.

Rachel Shields, Secondary Education Supervisor, recommended the changes to the “Enrollment in Advance Courses” policy. “I worked with our two high school principals and two middle school principals to revamp this policy,” Shields said. “I wanted it to be as black and white as possible.” By the new policy, admission to honors courses is based on TCAP scores through eighth grade and in high school on the student’s grade and end of course score the prior year, with a grade of B or higher required. “Teacher recommendations are not considered except for high school courses without an EOC score,” Shields explained, noting a difference from the previous policy. “Everything is based on data.” Board member Sarah Marhevsky expressed concern “qualitative measures can be equally important. These are just quantitative measures.” “Students can appeal their denial if they do not have a TCAP score … or if they don’t test well,” Shields noted.

Taking up changes to the “Interrogations and Searches” policy, Alsup said, “This is a terrible law, but whether we like it or not we have to abide by it … Administrators have to receive training from the state before they can conduct searches. I haven’t heard anything about that training and what that’s going to look like. We need to get that done because we’re getting ready to start school in a couple of weeks. We have to have reasonable suspicion to conduct a search, which is a little bit less of a standard than law enforcement.” Alsup gave the example of suspicion a student had vape, drugs or a weapon.

The revised “Student Wellness” policy requires middle and high school students to have 90 minutes of physical activity per week, with sports and physical education classes not counting toward the 90-minute total. “With 90 minutes of free time to exercise, what do we do with them at the high school level?” asked Board Vice Chair Lance Williams. “I plan to get very creative in helping my teachers to come up with some individualized strategies to meet this requirement,” said FCHS Principal Miller. “I’ll fill you in on how that works out.” In the past, according to Miller, the school took the entire student body to the track. “It was a nightmare.”

Per a change to the “Substitute Teachers” policy, substitutes can now teach a class for 30 days, rather than just 20 days, without certification.

The board tabled approval of the “District Goals” policy. Plans call for a workshop to personalize the policy for Franklin County’s purposes.

At the meeting’s outset, Transportation Director Doug Philpot updated the board on the new Transfinder bus routing software being implemented “to plan the most efficient routes between multiple locations.” The software updates nightly. Philpot cited fuel cost savings, shorter bus rides, and reduced overcrowding as benefits. But Philpot conceded the setup had been “challenging.” The software did not recognize dead-end roads and roads too narrow for a bus to travel, and the software could not locate some of the student addresses because the students did not reside in Franklin County. “They were not supposed to be riding the buses,” Philpot said.

Looking to the future, Philpot hopes to integrate an app into the system which would allow parents to see where the bus is and to use student ID cards to record when a student gets on and off the bus. Board member Sara Liechty pointed to the app as a critical “safety” feature addressing parents’ concerns, ‘Did my child get off the bus?’, ‘Where is the bus?’. The app would be especially useful since elementary school children cannot have cell phones, Liechty pointed out. “We don’t want to take on too much at one time,” Philpot said. “We can add the app in the future. It’s not a budget thing.”

Liechty reported on attending the Early Literacy Foundation workshop along with board members Marhevsky and Sandy Schultz. Resources available to the county include grant funding to establish a “storybook trail” and funding for a summer book van. “The Early Literacy Foundation will supply the books. It’s not a checkout and bringing it back. It’s come choose a book,” Liechty said. “For many of our families, especially those from poverty, when they go home for the summer, they don’t have books in their homes.”