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Across the Board - May 23, 2018

Published May 23, 2018

The 2017-18 school year may have ended, but the Williamson County Board of Education was still honoring students and staff for their accomplishments during its May 23, 2018, meeting. Six students were honored for receiving a perfect ACT composite score including Brentwood’s Caroline Overton; Centennial’s Rhea Zaverchand; Franklin’s Grace Simpson; and Ravenwood’s Emily Lu, Daniel Pert and Grace Sullivan.

Several students were recognized for winning first place at the National Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences Student Awards. From Brentwood, Max Volpintesta and Billy Mahaffey won for Best Public Affairs/Community Service; Madison Hebert and Ashley Gracia won for Best News Story; Reagan McKay won Best Writing; Garrett Linney, Matthew King and Nicolas Walter won for Best PSA; Jacob Trauscht won for Best Photographer; Barrett Hall, Jack Cerrato and Austin Collier won Best Music Video and Dawn Nieman, JJ Blanton, Cameron Johantges, Sam Dillard, Gavin Robb, Bethany Foust, Nicolas Walter and Ryan Schumpert won for Best Newscast. Their teacher is Ronnie Adcock.

Independence High’s Joy Davis won for Best Fiction. Her teacher is Matt Balzer. Nolensville High’s Dylan Stovall won Best Commercial. His teacher is Brian Bass. Ravenwood’s Jackson Stofka won for Best Director. His teacher is Heather Orne.

Collin Maldonado and Sailesh Sitaram from Brentwood High won first place at the Tennessee High School Speech and Debate League for Public Forum Debate. Their teachers are Matt Grimes and Harriet Medlin. Also winning state championships were Summit students Jared Schmidt for Extemporaneous Speaking and Austin Cushey for House Outstanding Speaker. Their teacher is Jackie Zigelsky. From Ravenwood, Laura Asmussen won for Set Design. Her teachers are Brian Kaufman and Elisa Dirkes-Jacks.

Students from two schools won state championships at the Tennessee Technology Students Association competition. From Fairview High, Alexis Miniat was elected the State Vice President and Keith Stubblebine from Page High was elected as the State Secretary for the 2018-19 school year. Also, from Page High Justin Baker, Rian Gober and Josh Price won in Architectural Design; Elijah Tidwell, Nicklaus Campbell and Ethan Weinstein won for Dragster Design and Nathan Davis won in the Prepared Presentation category. The Fairview teacher is Kevin Sizemore, and the Page teacher is Beth Foreman.

Four teachers were recognized for receiving the Music Teachers of Excellence Award by the Country Music Association (CMA) Foundation including Heritage Middle’s Lisa Benton; Franklin’s Jacob Campos; Nolensville High’s Benjamin Easley and Ravenwood’s Lauren Ramey.

Principal Juli Oyer was recognized for receiving the William J. and Lucille H. Field Award in Support of Excellence in Tennessee Secondary School Leadership.

In the Superintendent’s Report, Dr. Mike Looney updated the Board on TNReady testing. He also thanked the WCS staff for a great school year.

In the Board Chairman’s Report, Gary Anderson also thanked the staff and the School Board for a great school year.

In Unfinished Business, the Board:

Approved two 2018-2019 School Board Budget revisions including: General Purpose School Fund in the amount of $350,543,584 and Capital in the amount of $13,229,496.
In New Business, the Board:

  • Approved amendments to the 2017-2018 School Board Budget including: General Purpose School Fund amendment for collaboration with MTSU and CTE teachers; Central Cafeteria Fund amendment for Actual Commodities Budget Adjustment; General Purpose School Fund resolution for Trustee Commission; General Purpose School Fund resolution for Workers Compensation Claims; General Purpose School Fund resolution for SROs Salaries; and General Purpose School Fund resolution for Utilities.
  • Approved one policy on first reading, Assignment.
  • Approved a student nomination for the Tennessee Board of Education, Sara Ali, Ravenwood.

In other business, the Board:

  • Approved recommended field trip fee requests.
  • Approved two policies on second reading, Safety and Suicide Prevention.
  • Approved ePlan Applications for FY2019 to include ESEA as Amended by Every Student Succeeds Act, I.D.E.A., I.D.E.A. Pre-School, I.D.E.A. Discretionary Grant, Carl Perkins Basic, CTE Perkins Reserve Grant.
  • Approved Change Order over $50,000 for Brentwood High School concession stand building.
  • Approved Brentwood High School soccer dug outs.
  • Approved Sunset Elementary School storage shed.
  • Approved Winstead Elementary School storage shed.

The next regular meeting of the Williamson County Board of Education is scheduled for Monday, June 18, 2018, beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Administrative Complex.

Board packet information can be found on the school district’s website www.wcs.edu.  Select District; select Board of Education; select Board Meetings; and select School Board Meeting Dashboard. Supporting documents are linked from the agenda.