TOP PHOTO: The Campbell County Board of Education met Tuesday evening at 6pm. The BOE meetings during the winter months were voted to be moved to a starting time of 5pm.

By Charlotte Underwood 

JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF) – The Campbell County School Board met Tuesday evening, electing Sharon Ridenour as the vice chair of the board.

Jeffrey Miller was nominated as vice chair of the school board, as was Sharon Ridenour. Ridenour received the majority of the votes and was elected as vice chair.

 

The board of education also discussed and approved the creation of an alternative elementary school to be located at the Campbell County Board of Education annex building. 

According to Director of Schools Jennifer Fields, this will require “no additional staff and no additional funding.”

“We would just transfer staff to that location. The school will be for first through fifth grade and will provide regular classroom instruction,” Fields said.

Students will also have access to a school counselor. The alternative placement would be zero tolerance.

According to Fields, Sandy Wilson will over see the elementary alternative school. One of the staff members, Karen Hendricks, will come from Valley View Elementary School. 

“She has a background in special education and also in administrative,” Director Fields said. 

Another teacher will come from LaFollette Middle School to staff the alternative elementary school. 

In other business, school board members discussed rebidding the roof replacement for LaFollette Elementary and Caryville Elementary schools with modified specifications.

The re-bid was to add another option to the bid specification stating it either had to be a Carlisle syntec roof or “equal to.”

School board member Johnny Byrge said he had concerns about adding this option and that he wanted to keep the bid specifications set by the engineers they had hired.

“I reccomended we stay with the original reccomendation of a Carlisle syntec roof,” Byrge said.

School Bbard member Jeffrey Miller suggested adding the “or equal to specification” in order to open it up to more bids. 

“I would say Carlisle syntec or equal to, that ensures a competitive bid. All I’m seeking is to make it a fair competitive bid,” Miller said. 

A motion to approve the roof rebid with the new specification was made by Miller, but it failed.

Byrge made a motion the board go with the reccomendation of the Roof Management’s engineer bid specifications, which is a “Carlisle roof.”

“This is recommended by the engineers we hired. We’re just acting on the recommendation of our engineers. There are plenty of contractors who install Carlisle roofs,” Byrge said. 

The motion to rebid the project under the recommendation of the Roof Management engineers calling for a “Carlisle syntec roof” was approved by the board.

The traffic flow problem at Jacksboro Elementary School was discussed and a new route approved.

Board members approved the new traffic route at the first entrance of the maintenance entrance.  The new route was a recommendation from county road Superintendent Ron Dilbeck. 

“We have that input from the Road Superintendent and we’ve been up there, there is a definite problem,” School board chair Steve Morgan said. 

The new traffic route is tentative on their not being any utilities interfering with the change. 

Morgan thanked Sheriff Wayne Barton for his input as well, saying he had “been very helpful.”

In final business,  the board voted in approval of a Master Service Agreement for Scribbles Software Solutions. The software is being used by the school to make its transcripts digital. 

Fields reported a clean audit to the board and it was also announced that BOE meetings will be moved to 5pm through the winter months.  (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 11/15/2023-6AM)

Related