Board Meeting December 16, 2008

School Board Meeting
Tuesday December 16
5 PM
Smith County Board of Education
Parents, Taxpayers and Citizens of Smith County attend board meetings, you have the power to make true change in our public schools.

SCBOE Policies

Please see the below links to the Policy & Procedures I collected regarding our complaints. I hope these can help others.

* Student Concerns, Complaints and Grievances
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8790326/Student-Concerns-Complaints-and-Grevances


*Staff - Student Relations
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8790323/Staff-Student-Relations


*Policy Against Harassment and Sexual Harrassment
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8790321/Policy-Against-Harassment-and-Sexual-Harrassment


*Goals & Objectivies
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8790316/Board-Goals-Objectives


*Administrative Procedures On Bullying
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8790315/Administrative-Procedures-on-Bullying

Ideas From Concerned Citizen

Below is a post to the website from concerned citizen which I feel deserves front page attention for all to see. Thank you for the information. I also included a copy of the resolution that was posted for all to print or e-mail.

concernedcitizen said...
Because we want a change and here are some ideas to help us reach our goal. Which is a better school system for our children.

The resolution from Smith County will be sent on to the state Rep. and senators. But if you know commisioners, county officals, or state officals in other parts of the state you need to copy the resolution from this site and send it to them. For the people to have a say this issue has to come before the state officals and it must come out of the education committee to allow the Rep. and Senators to have a chance on voting on it. The more counties and people contacting them at the state level the more likely it will be that is could be addressed. Many of the large Metro type systems like appointed and it works for them, but many smaller systems are having major problems. The resloution that Smith county passes gives the county the right to chose elected or appointed. This option gives the power back to the people. Shouldn't we have the right to chose for our own school system, that we suport with our tax dollars. So I would like to encourage you to copy this resolution and send it on to your friends all over the state. Encourage them to talk to the officals about it being voted on in their county and sent to the state. It truely is trying to allow the people a voice in their system. Start contacting you elected officals now so that when they take office they know you want to see action on the Director of Schools issue.

Here is Terri Lynn Wearvers new state email address:rep.terri.lynn.weaver@legislature.state.tn.us
office phone number Phone: (615) 741-2192

Mae Beavers state email address:sen.mae.beavers@legislature.state.tn.us
office phone number Phone (615) 741-2421

This is the link to the state general assembly website that has all of the house and sentate members. You just need to use the link of the left hand side of the page. Remember they may not live in our district but they are down there representing the people of there district and the state of Tennessee. They are all paid for by our tax dollars.http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/

RESOLUTION 11-2008-08

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Thank You & Blog On

I just wanted to write and say thank you for the support. As parents, taxpayers and residents of Smith County I feel that we as a community need to become aware of everything that is going on in our schools. This is important for both the students, school support and our teachers.

I haven’t posted any personal information updates on my blog because I don't have anything to post at this time. I do need to clear up some of the facts. My daughter has been asked to return to cheerleading for the basketball season by Mr. Medley. She was given uniforms and because of the uniforms not fitting she was asked to return them to the school by her coach to get the uniforms that were issued to her and that she has been wearing for three years. The coach requested she return these uniforms after the game so she could get her the proper size before the next game. I also feel that my families story is a very small part of the issues that need addressing within our school district. At this point I can not discuss anything further but I can assure you that I will continue to learn the process of the way our school board and district work so I can continue to share on my blog.

I have learned a lot on my journey and realize that the problem with my fight is that I spent so much time being involved in sports, activities and what was happening at my children’s school that I missed the big picture. I blame myself for not taking the time or paying attention to the important things within our school system such as policies and rules. In all of the years that my children have attended Smith County Schools I have never attended a board meeting. Part of the reason was the time it took place and another part is I just always felt that since my children didn’t get in trouble why go. We followed the rules and policies why worry. Little by little over time the power of the people was taken away right in front of our eyes without our knowledge. Not because they were being sneaky but because no one took the time to check what was going on.

Attending Board meetings is an important step in becoming aware of the things going on in our schools for the students and teachers. We have several new board members that appear to be there for our children and need our support as they fight for the change we are all fighting for. We elected them to these positions now we need to support them by attending the meeting, asking questions and sharing information. I started this blog about Gordonsville but would like to change it to Smith County Schools as a whole. I plan to start collecting all of the policies, school rules from each school and scanning them to this blog. We need one place for all the members of the community, parents and students to come for information and advice. While it will take some time to collect all of this I would like to invite anyone that can share this information with me to e-mail me at ghsparent08@yahoo.com. Continue to blog so we can get the information out there for everyone. Thank you for your support and I will see you at the next meeting.

Policy For Consideration - November 2008 Meeting

I am posting this Policy that was introduced at the November meeting. Please give some input on your thoughts. I am also including a link for: TCA 37-1-131 Delinquent Children
http://dept.fvtc.edu/ojjdp/tn.pdf




Juvenile Offenders Policy Consideration

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Document Request Form

I called the Board of Education to request a copy of the November Board Packet to view a policy that was being voted on for consideration. I will include that policy in my Board Meeting post this weekend. I called the BOE and requested the packet and was told I needed a Request Form. When I asked where that form is I was told you had to obtain it from an attorney. I wanted to share the below form with the public to maybe save the cost of an attorney to others. In my search for the form I also found that you can obtain a Board Packet with the attached form and a payment of .15 cents a page. I would call ahead to request your documents and give them a heads up you are coming. I was also told that Mr. Lewis has to sign the form before the information will be released.

There is a lot of information in these packets that I feel should be viewed by the public. I am gong to start scanning these packets along with the meeting minutes to help the public become more aware of what is going on at our board meetings.

Documents Request Form

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Tennessee Code Annotated Section 10-7-503
http://tennessee.gov/sos/acts/105/pub/pc1179.pdf