Tension ran high at the close of Thursday’s school board meeting as some members said they were blindsided by a July 10 Letter to the Editor sent to Chattanoogan.com by fellow board member Larry Grohn.
Mr. Grohn’s letter outlined concerns about a pandemic-era grading guidance memo that is still in effect. Mr. Grohn wrote that the grade repair strategies should have been approved by the school board first.
The October 2020 memo asks principals to choose one of six strategies to save a student’s failing grades. The Baseline 59 strategy reads:
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All gradebooks set the lowest grade possible to a 59 for all assignments.
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Give students the opportunity to submit an assignment to earn the baseline grade, rather than a zero. Students should not be allowed to opt out and/or accumulate zeros on assignments that measure mastery towards the standard.
Mr. Grohn stated at the board meeting that county grading policies should be uniform, system-wide, and that the school board, families and students should be notified of grading changes before they are implemented.
He said that the Tennessee Department of Education requires a credit recovery process to be formally adopted by the school board, posted on the local district’s website and provided to families and the public in writing.
“This was not done,” he said.
Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson passed out a memo to the school board members in response. He argued that the guidance memo was an administrative procedure, not a grading policy, therefore not required to be approved by the school board.
“We’re talking about system here,” he said.
He said students should be given “multiple options to express understanding,” and pointed out verbiage in the grading guidance memo that gives students the “opportunity” to “earn” the baseline grade.
Dr. Robertson suggested a board work session dedicated to a deep dive of the grade repair policies.
“We just never came together to talk about this,” board member Karitsa Mosley Jones said to Mr. Grohn. “There were ample ways that you could have had this discussion with your peers,” she said. “And now the story is what it is... I think it was in bad taste.”
Mr. Grohn said that he had learned of the grading guidance memo after the last day of school in May and had emailed his concerns to Chair Tiffanie Robinson and to Dr. Robertson in May. Mr. Grohn said he had talked privately with some members of the board over the summer. He said he emailed the information he had collected to the whole board this past Tuesday, July 18.
“You put this board in jeopardy by doing what you did,” said Ms. Robinson, and accused Mr. Grohn of an “ethics violation.”
School board member Rhonda Thurman said Mr. Grohn should not be accused of an ethics violation for disagreeing with the superintendent.
“I just don’t think it’s a productive forum,” Ms. Robinson said as she steered the meeting toward adjournment. “As chair I have the right to shut it down.”
CELL PHONE POLICY
The school board voted to approve the district-wide cell phone policy prohibiting cell phones in school except for class instruction, as approved by a principal or teacher. The policy allows each school to designate certain areas for students to use phones during lunch break.
“We talk about inequity all the time,” said school board member Rhonda Thurman. “To me, this is inequity.”
A motion to strike the line allowing each school to designate use at lunch failed, and the original policy passed 6-5.
GATEWAY BUILDING
The school board voted to approve that its own name be listed on the deed of the BlueCross BlueShield Golden Gateway property, which the county agreed to purchase in June for $10 million. The 11-acre property on M.L. King Boulevard will probably become a technical school, but Superintendent Justin Robertson said the school board will vote to approve use of the property separately.
EAST LAKE ACADEMY A/C
The school board voted to approve the purchase of “chillers” as temporary air conditioners at East Lake Academy. The school is on a 52-week waiting list for proper unit upgrades and would not have air conditioning at the start of school in August. Supt. Robertson said the chillers could be used at East Lake for several years, or moved to other schools that have air conditioning emergencies.
SODDY-DAISY REC PROPERTY
The school board approved the sale of a 2.8-acre strip of land along the former Soddy Daisy High School site to the city of Soddy Daisy. The city and the school system share use of the whole property’s fields and gym, and Dr. Robertson said the sale is “mutually beneficial.” Dr. Robertson said he did “not see any future use” of that field for the school system, and Soddy Daisy will most likely build a community center.
TEACHERS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
The school board voted to postpone acceptance of a three-year memorandum of understanding between the school district and the Hamilton County Educators Association. Board members stated that they had received the contract the day of the board meeting and needed more time to read it and get feedback from teachers. The MOU is required under the Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act.
School board member Gary Kuehn said there was a lack of clarity in the contract over length of the workday, protections for employees against legal action, seeming disappearance of certain committees, and automatic payroll deductions for dues to professional organizations.