VOL. 8 NO. 21
IN THIS ISSUE
VBS 2014 It is Vacation Bible School time. Check inside to find a VBS near you.
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Adios to Bulldog teachers, staff Ten faculty and six staff members retired this year at Bearden High School. One of those is Jewell Eubanks, who, according to official records, has worked in Eubanks the school cafeteria for 47 years. She thinks it’s been only 45 years, so she only wants credit for that long. That’s the sort of person she is.
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‘Get off the hill’ Second Presbyterian Church’s senior pastor Bryan Wilson has always encouraged his congregants to “get off the hill and into the city.” So they did. On a recent Sunday morning, the entire congregation skipped church, and nearly 250 members boarded buses that took them to service sites across the county. Wilson asked Julie Simpson and Jim Wallace to organize an event to serve the city. They found eight service sites.
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Politics and more Shopper-News publisher Sandra Clark weighs in on city pensions and this newspaper’s position on them; Betty Bean talks about all the Republicans at Daryl Fansler’s fundraiser – so many she forgot to photograph Fansler; and Victor Ashe ponders whether Troy Whiteside will ever come to trial.
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See columns on page A-4
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‘Crimes’ this week The Powell Playhouse will take to the stage for “Crimes of the Heart,” the debut for director Gina Jones. It runs May 29-31 at Jubilee Banquet Facility with three dinner plays and one matinee. Info: 947-7428 or 256-7428.
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Golden silence
May 26, 2014
Second-graders end year with new skill, new friend
By Wendy Smith
During the last week of school at Bearden Elementary, Connie Lewis instructed children in Leslee Tarbett’s second-grade class to line up at the door. First, she sent those wearing yellow. Then, she sent those wearing sandals. Finally, she sent a group of wiggly boys. And she did it all without speaking a word. Tarbett’s students spent the year learning sign language. She has always used signs for classroom management, but this year, with a deaf student in her class, Tarbett ramped up her instruction. Having an expert like Lewis on hand has helped. She is the full-time interpreter for Kaiden Bonds, a deaf student who was able to fully participate in the class, with Lewis’ help. She served as an interpreter for 17 years before switching to a teaching. This year, she returned to interpreting after nine years as a teacher. Tarbett met Lewis at the beginning of the school year before either of them knew who Kaiden’s teacher would be. Tarbett hoped Kaiden, and Lewis, would join her class. It was a good fit. Tarbett’s firm ru ule less and and boundaries boundari ries es m ade herr ad rules made
Bearden Elementary School second-graders Nikolai Truan, Logan Waller, Eva East, Owen Keim, Mary Caroline Bowman, Kaiden Bonds, Diana Martinez and Hollee Lowe sign to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Photo by Wendy Smith classroom the perfect setting for a student like Kaiden, Lewis says. At first, Kaiden’s classmates were curious about him, especially when he made loud noises. But they adjusted quickly, and after daily lessons in sign language, they began communicating with him. They even supplemented formal sign language with made-up signs.
“They find ways of communicating,” Lewis says. Tarbett thinks learning sign language was beneficial to all the students. Because some words need to be spelled out, it helped with spelling. Because some signs are like acting out words, it helped students remember vocabulary. The kids liked it because it allowed them to “talk” in the halls,
Donations fuel West High project By Wendy Smith West High School students will have an improved strengthtraining facility next year, thanks to strong families and community and business partners. Ground was broken last week on a 4,000-square-foot addition to the “Doc” Simpson Training Facility. The expansion will include new locker, media and training rooms. Construction has begun and is expected to be completed in early August. Knox County school board chair Lynn Fugate, a former West High School Foundation president, says the project is a continuation of the strong community support she’s seen for the school. Community partners have stepped up to help with major projects that would never be cov-
ered by funds fund ndss from the county, like the school’s new state-of-theart lecture hall, she said. Blaise Burch, lead contractor for the addition, that apLynne Fugate said proximately half of the $350,000 construction cost for the project was covered by in-kind donations. Contributors include Shoffner Kalthoff Mechanical Electrical Service, Superior Steel, and Total Demolition Services. Jim Bush, whose grandchildren attend West High, is credited with the successful fundraising effort. Lance Boyd, president of the school’s football boosters, said the first serious discussion of the
expansion expa ex pans nsio ion n happened happ ha ppened d just two months ago. Several of the project’s backers have sons who will be seniors this fall, and they hope the improved facility will be a legacy for future players. The addition won’t just benefit the football team, which is expected to include 100 players this year. Weightlifting students will also use the facility, said head football coach Scott Cummings. West High students demonstrate excellence in the classroom and on the field, said principal Katherine Banner, and enhancements like the new strength training facility will enable students to reach their full potential. James “Doc” Simpson was a teacher, coach and administrator for several years before serving as principal at West from 1975 to 1986. He passed away in 1987.
where they are expected to be quiet. After spending part of the year encouraging the students to use sign language, Tarbett noticed they were signing across the classroom − while she was teaching. That’s when she made new rules to govern the new skill. Don’t sign To page A-3
Cullom is principal at Maynard Maynard Elementary School is getting a new principal. Kim Cullom, principal at Gap Creek Elementary School since 2012, was named to head the school where her grandfather once taught. Cullom joined Knox County Schools in Kim Cullom 1991 as a speech and language pathologist and has served as an administrative assistant at A.L. Lotts and East Knox County elementary schools. Cullom holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in speech pathology from the University of Tennessee and an educational specialist degree in educational leadership from Lincoln Memorial University.
Career Magnet Academy meeting enrollment goals By Betty Bean Knox County’s new Career Magnet Academy, on track to open in August in the former Panasonic building on Pellissippi State’s Strawberry Plains campus, also appears to be on track to meet enrollment expectaMike McMillan tions. It has also won over at least one important skeptic. The $3.785 million academy is in school board member Mike McMillan’s 8th District, not far from Carter High School, which has a thriving vocational department of its own. McMillan had some initial reservations about the new school, primarily about how it would affect Carter, but says he’s gotten in-
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formation that has persuaded him to put his misgivings aside. “It’s still a little too early to tell, but if it does what they are promoting it as doing, it should be a very positive thing for our students. It gives them more choices. “I had some concerns initially, about how the school would affect the traditional vocational classes, but now I’ve come to believe that it won’t hurt them because this school is trying to attract a highercaliber student.” The Career Magnet Academy will have 13 classrooms, two science labs, a media center, a wellness center, teacher workrooms and a cafeteria. It will be housed on the ground floor of the former Panasonic building. The upper floors are utilized by some 300 college students. CMA students will choose one
of four “learning pathways” – advanced manufacturing, sustainable living, homeland security (pre-law enforcement), or teacher preparation – but still must meet Common Core academic requirements. They won’t be expected to choose a career path until sophomore year, and dual-credit courses will be available for juniors and seniors to earn college credit while still in high school. CMA principal John Derek Faulconer has visited every middle school in the county to talk up the Career Magnet Academy, and McMillan said he has been “pleasantly surprised” with the success of those recruiting efforts. “So far, they’ve got 110 students enrolled, which means they’ve still got about 15 slots open. They didn’t have to hold a lottery,” McMillan said, noting that Faulcon-
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er’s efforts to attract students to the school on the eastern fringe of the county were particularly successful at Holston and SouthDoyle middle schools but diminished in West Knox County. “They say they are rebranding vocational education. It’s not going to be the vocational education that your mom and dad experienced. And the thing about this school is kids will only be six hours short of having an associate’s degree when they graduate, so theoretically, if you are a go-getter, when you graduate, you can go to work for somebody, take three hours in the fall and three hours in the spring and have your associate’s degree.” McMillan said. “And here’s the thing: It’s really going to benefit the 8th District more than any other district.”
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