And another thing: Tunnels, Bonuses And Tests

Tunnel vision

Speaking up for your community and its residents is the right thing to do — except when it isn't.

Residents who attended a recent community forum of the North Brainerd Community Council asked about the possibility of local government and federal agencies being investigated for practicing environmental injustice involving the repair of the Wilcox Tunnel. A letter asked city, county and state officials to help "determine that under 'environmental justice' if there has been any unfair and unequal treatment, and outright neglect of this area" and to review any potential civil rights violations.

If residents or the council had bothered checking, they might have learned how much all of the governments in question had been doing about the tunnel, which opened in 1931.

Just since Mayor Andy Berke was inaugurated in 2013, for instance, area residents were canvassed on their concerns about the tunnel, the obtained information was prioritized for upcoming renovations and testing was done earlier this week ahead of the repairs. Further, earlier this year, the city applied for the third time for a TIGER grant, a program of the United States Department of Transportation, to fund repairs. But, for the third time, it was turned down.

Even Councilman Russell Gilbert and state Rep. JoAnne Favors, who represent the area, seemed flummoxed at the letter.

Gilbert said he had explained the city's plans for renovating the tunnel at a district summit last summer, and Favors said the state has no authority over the tunnel.

Just in the last 20 years, the tunnel was closed for more than two months for repairs in 1995, the city made extensive repairs again in 1998 and the city spent another $125,000 on the tunnel in 2005.

If all concerned had their way, a second tunnel would be built through Missionary Ridge, easing traffic flow and allowing safer passage for pedestrians, but a second tunnel was pegged to cost $42 million in 2012, money the local governments involved didn't have then and don't have now to spend on it.

Bonuses? What bonuses?

Whether and how often the Erlanger hospital board can or does meet in private and whether it did or did not discuss privately the $1.7 million in bonuses it decided to give last week is immaterial in the controversy about the bonuses themselves.

Erlanger officials on Wednesday answered state legislators' criticism about the bonuses, which they were accused of determining in private, by saying there is no way the hospital "could survive" if it had every board meeting in public.

However, state Sen. Todd Gardenhire said on WGOW talk radio Thursday that he'd heard some months ago the board was discussing bonuses -- despite hospital CEO Kevin Spiegel saying earlier in the year the hospital could close without an infusion of money -- and asked about it. Under no circumstances, he said he was told, would the hospital offer bonuses this year.

When the news broke last week that Erlanger planned to give bonuses, board members said they were obligated to offer them because they had met designated financial and quality benchmarks set for them more than a year ago.

A break for teachers?

Some Tennessee teachers would prefer that student achievement and growth on state tests not have anything to do with their employment evaluation.

That's ridiculous, though. Certainly, a teacher should be evaluated on how students perform in class and on their mastery of material taught for tests.

The problem has been that in recent years too much emphasis has been placed on student growth and on test performance.

Gov. Bill Haslam wants to change that and has outlined four proposals to do so. They would drop the amount the growth and test scores figure into a teacher's evaluation, offer new tests to better align what's taught with what's tested, give teachers more guidance and feedback on state assessments, and help teachers communicate and work together more effectively.

Teachers rightly will say the devil will be in the details of what he proposes, but on the surface all four make sense.

Presently, the growth of students makes up 35 percent of a teacher's evaluation. Far too many factors -- students' intelligence levels, home lives and even other students, to name a few -- come into play for the aggregate growth to be given that much weight in evaluations.

The plan also gives local districts more discretion in how they use student growth in their teacher employment decisions. That makes sense and is something parents across the nation say when asked where they want education decisions about their children to be made.

Haslam's changes require legislation, which is likely to be submitted when the General Assembly starts meeting again in January.

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