Zoning Appeals Dominate School Board Meeting

The Cannon County Board Of Education spent most of its regular monthly meeting at the Cannon County Courthouse Thursday (Aug. 11) hearing various appeals.

All board members were present for the meeting with the exception of Cathy Hyatt.

The Board at its last meeting voted to adopt a no transfer policy, meaning that students who are zoned to a specific school must attend that Cannon County School. Some students were attending schools outside of their designated zone last year.

The board denied Gina McCutcheon's request for her child to attend Eastside School. McCutcheon's home is zoned for Woodland School, a grammar school she states is 12 miles away. Eastside is closer to her as it is only around three miles away.

The board denied Melody Chatwood's request for her child to attend Woodland School. Chatwood is zoned for Eastside; however. she says it would be more convenient for her child to attend Woodland School as she works more than 50 miles away and after school care is a concern.

The board approved Holly Parker's request for her child to attend Woodbury Grammar School. Parker explained to the board that when she bought her house, the realtor specifically stated that the zoned school for the neighborhood is Woodbury Grammar School. The correct zoned school was Woodland, but since she was sold property with incorrect information, the board felt it was unfair to make Parker take her kindergartner out of Woodbury Grammar.

A first motion of denying the request failed. The next motion was to approve the move due to Parker being misinformed by the realtor. Board member Mike Mayfield was the only member opposed to the action and the request was granted.

The board denied Diana Shapiro's request for a waiver of the out of county school fee. Shapiro stated that her children went to Auburntown School and that she rented a residence in the school zone. However, Shapiro was forced to move and with some help found a house on Marshall Creek Road. The house is at the dead end of the road and is considered to be in Wilson County even though it's on the Wilson and Cannon County Line.

Shapiro noted that she paid her wheel tax and her tags are registered in Cannon County. The Board denied the request to waive the out of county fee. Board Member Chris Blackburn passed on the vote but the rest of the board voted yes to deny the request.

The board approved Harold Whitworth's request for his child to attend Woodbury Grammar School. His child is diagnosed with diabetes and has a nanny that lives in the zone for Woodbury Grammar School. Whitworth lives in the Eastside zone but with the way schedules have been it's easier for this child to go to Woodbury Grammar so his Nanny can help with medication. The board approved the transfer only because of the child's medical condition. The transfer will be reviewed yearly.

In other board action, the board approved Woodland's PTW President Dena Thomas's request to put a low voltage spotlight on the statue they recently dedicated to Rhonda Martin and on the rock sign in front of the school.

Auburntown Principal Melinda Crook approached the Board to ask permission to apply for a $10,000 valued grant. Of that amount. $7,463.91 of the grant will be money used to purchase new P.E. equipment through the SPARK program sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield. If awarded there will be a circulum kit as well as $1000 awarded to the school. The paperwork for the grant has to be filled out by Monday and they will be informed of the awarding of the grant in September. The motion passed.

Cannon County Director Of Schools Barbara Parker reported the cooling tower has been completed and things have been running fairly smooth. Three rooms and the gym are currently without air but is being worked on.

CCEA Contracts were discussed. Parker brought up three items on the contract to consider to follow. One was an automatic deduction of member dues from payroll. The next item was severance pay. Those who have retired will recieve $100 per year.

The third item was sick leave bank. A teacher was in a serious accident and had used up all her sick days prior to the accident. Since she was a member of the CCEA, she wanted to look into seeing if there were any days available through the Association's accumulated Sick Leave Bank. A motion was made and passed to cover the three items presented by Barbara Parker for this year.

Shannon Davenport and Kathy Hyatt have been nominated to the Sick Leave Bank Committee. The motion passed.

The bridge construction next to the High School will continue until September 2012. A sheriff's deputy is helping route traffic through Kimela Drive which eases up congestion.

Chairman Randy Gannon went over the Director's Contract. Parker has two years left of the contract and instead of the bonus that she could recieve would like to add more years to her contract.  The motion was made to table the matter until all board members could be present to go over it. It will be brought up in September's meeting.

The next board workshop will be at the Central Office September 6th with the next board meeting on September 8th at the Cannon County Courthouse. The workshop and meeting will both start at 6:00