By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Carter County School Board had a full agenda for its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday, March 17. The board heard reports concerning school safety, which included a potential weapon detection system, and options on how to protect students from unsafe drivers. Of particular concern to both school police and administration are drivers failing to yield right-of-way to school buses while students are both being picked up and dropped off. There was also an update on the construction of the new high school, which is progressing on schedule.
A central topic of discussion for the evening was a state bill that would allow an amendment to the school year. House Bill 241 (pending the governor’s signature) would allow the end of the school year to be set for May 30. Pending that passage, it would allow Carter County Schools to keep their Spring Break as scheduled and also schedule the balance of the 24-25 school year. The board voted unanimously to approve the schedule, pending the governor’s signature.
West Carter will graduate on Friday, May 30, at 7 p.m. and East Carter will graduate on Saturday, May 31, at 10 a.m.
The board voted on bids for uninterruptable power supplies, in essence backup battery power to ensure continued operation of networks in the event of power brown outs, surges, or outages. This would add an additional uninterruptable power supply to each of Carter County’s schools, with a total of 27 such UPSs. The board voted to accept the bid from CDW.
The board also discussed the possibility of subsidizing mileage for extracurricular activities.
“I would like try this,” board member Chris Perry told the board.
Perry said he believed the board was at a point where they could consider this, so that students would not be required to fundraise to pay for transportation to sporting events and other school extracurricular functions. Perry also said that it bothered him that most of a student group’s fundraising is dedicated to this, or that the students might be forced to drive their own personal vehicle to represent Carter County Schools.
“Let’s try this for a year and see how it works out,” Perry urged the board.
The board discussed the issue at length to determine a means of helping students to attend not only sporting events but academic events as well. The issues with the expense included more than the fuel required for the vehicles, and the major expense was paying the wages of the bus drivers, which could be up to three times that of the fuel. Perry made a motion, to take effect in the 2025-2026 school year, that mileage is not charged for extracurricular trips for competitions (within the state), which include both clubs and sports. The board voted unanimously to approve the motion.
The board also discussed the 2025-2026 school calendar, and which model to utilize. The discussion centered around recommendations from the calendar committee. The variable calendar is based upon school hours and would begin the school year on the Monday closest to August 26. This model would give more flexibility to scheduling, but might necessitate an adjustment to staff contracts. The board voted to adopt the variable calendar for the coming school year.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
