With the new fiscal year underway and the fall semester quickly approaching, Trigg County’s Board of Education Thursday night unanimously awarded an evaluation rank of “exemplary” for Superintendent Bill Thorpe and his efforts in the last 12 months.
Required by state law to analyze one of the district’s pivotal roles, Board Chair Jo Alyce Harper — following notes from members Charlene Sheehan, Theresa Cunningham Allen, Gayle Rufli and Clara Beth Hyde — called his leadership “active and engaged.”
Thorpe first took office effective January 1, 2020, under a unanimous decision, following his tenure at Marshall County as director of pupil personnel.
In other school news:
— Thorpe introduced Bridgette Bacon Sykes as the district’s new assistant to the superintendent. Following in the footsteps of Sarah Jessup Elliott, Sykes, too, is a Trigg County High School graduate, coming from the Class of 2011.
— Both Thorpe, and Director of Personnel and Student Services James Mangels, reported nothing but glowing feedback from more than 40 teachers that recently paid visit to Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta.
The non-profit model school allows for educators to see firsthand what a personal, engaging, cognitive classroom should be like. It’s a training ground and functioning facility where more than 100,000 teachers worldwide have engaged in its campus learning.
Hosting fourth through eighth grade students, mostly African American in ethnicity, roughly 60% of its students venture into the prep ranks, 90% of its graduates end up attending some form of post-secondary program, and 100% of its students graduate with a high school diploma.
Mangels described it as a transforming experience.
Furthermore, Mangels reported that online registration has already opened up for the 2023-24 school year. As of Thursday, more than 550 students and their families had already begun the process. An online registration training is once again planned for 4-6 PM, July 25 at the school cafeteria. Current enrollment expectations sit at 1,852 students.
— Chief Finance Officer Holly Greene noted that the district’s bus order, placed last October, still haven’t arrived. It’s a $200,000 order that has to be accounted for now, but isn’t yet tangible.
Also, Greene addressed a question from board member Charlene Sheehan, surrounding the differences between the cost of rehiring a retired teacher from the state’s pension system, versus seeking a younger, less experienced one.
Retirees, she said, can only work 130 days at their daily wage threshold before penalties are exercised.
— Speaking of busses, she and Director of Operations Matt Ladd both noted that conversations continue between the district and the Tennessee Valley Authority, in regards to the EPA grant surrounding electric busses. Ladd said the district should have enough time to make a decision before the grant’s acceptance deadline. Greene said these bus bids will be opened August 4.
Ladd also gave a considerable construction update for the campus. He said the co-curricular building still has concrete work ongoing, but that an August 1 date still seems possible. Flooring has been laid in the elementary gym, with a pesky wall leak all but honed and secured. Painting and curing there could be done by August 5-6. And a massive electrical switch for the vocational building has been located, and should be on the way from a re-route soon. Foundation has also been recently poured for the school’s greenhouse.
— The Board of Education will not meet again until classes begin in early August.
— The collective also entered into executive session, without action taken, regarding proposed or pending litigation, against or on behalf of a public agency. A ruling on the board’s call for the nickel tax, one in favor of the petitioning party, has come since the board last convened.
