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Belew Christmas @ Wildwood Park for the Arts — 12/13/13
12/13 — Former The Voice contestant Cody Belew serenaded the audience with Christmas classics and tracks from his new album.
The six children killed in the tragic Woodmore Elementary School bus crash on Nov. 21 were remembered during the Hamilton County school board's meeting Thursday night.
Board member Karitsa Mosley Jones, who represents Woodmore, led the crowded room in a moment of silence in honor of the students. The board and audience also applauded Woodmore Principal Brenda Adamson -Cothran, who has led the school through the tragedy.
Mosley Jones said the school district and community must continue standing with the families whose children were killed or injured in the crash, and the entire school.
"We will work diligently to make sure the legacy [of the students who were killed] lives on through the academic success of their peers," Mosley Jones said. "Let us never forget our beloved Woodmore six."
Hamilton County Schools Interim Superintendent Kirk Kelly thanked everyone on his staff and across the community who has supported the school since the crash.
Kelly also updated board members on TNReady results for the district's high school students and on the extra support being provided to five low-performing priority schools facing the threat of state takeover.
The state released the standardized test results for high school students this week. Since this was the first year students took the new, more rigorous test, TNReady's proficiency scores cannot be compared to previous years. But the state's academic growth measure, Tennessee Value- Added Assessment System, known as TVAAS, does provide a year-to-year comparison.
Hamilton County high schoolers earned the top score for improvement in literacy, with a TVAAS score of 5, but struggled in math earning a score of 1. The district's overall academic growth score also improved from 1, the lowest possible score, last year, to 2 this year.
Kelly especially highlighted Brainerd High School's TVAAS score of 3, meaning its students made expected progress.
"Brainerd made a big improvement," Kelly said, thanking the school's staff for their hard work.
Brainerd is one of the five priority schools that will be placed in the state-run Achievement School District if they do not earn TVAAS growth scores of 4 or 5 this year. The five schools have received more than $13 million in federal grants and extra support over the past four years but have struggled to post gains.
The district is working to provide even more support in the coming semester to each of these schools - Brainerd High, Dalewood Middle, Woodmore and Orchard Knob elementaries and Orchard Knob Middle, Kelly said.
Brainerd has a new administrator whose primary focus is on attendance. All five schools will have truancy officers in the coming semester to help ensure students are attending school.
Chief Academic Officer Jill Levine said extra staff also are working on improving literacy in these schools. And Justin Robertson, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said new teachers in these schools are getting extra support.
"I'm really excited about the things in place and the things that will start up next semester," Robertson told the board.
Mosley Jones said everyone must work to keep the five schools out of the Achievement School District.
"We need to do whatever needs to be done to keep those three letters away," she said.
Lee McDade, assistant superintendent of student services, spoke about how some municipalities are considering leaving the county school district.
Signal Mountain and Red Bank are forming committees to investigate the feasibility of starting separate school systems, and other municipalities are talking about doing the same.
McDade and Kelly said they have offered assistance, not only to aid the towns but to help the district learn what it can do better to serve all areas of the county.
"We [think] our system would certainly be a whole lot stronger as one than it would be splintered," McDade said.
Kathy Lennon, who represents Signal Mountain and Red Bank on the school board, said she also will work with both communities and doesn't want to lose them.
"They are going to find out, goodness gracious, look at all that we are doing right now, no one wants to leave the county," Lennon said. "We've got it going on."
The board did not vote on a contract that would give East Ridge High School's athletic facilities to the city of East Ridge, as discussed last week. McDade said East Ridge asked to have a few more meetings with school officials before agreeing to the contract.
Contact staff writer Kendi A. Rainwater at 423-757-6592 or krainwater@timesfreepress.com. Follow on Twitter @kendi_and.