VOL. 8 NO. 31
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Student’s love for kids creates First Day
IN THIS ISSUE Bean’s election predictions
By Wendy Smith Back-to-school shopping during the state’s sales-tax holiday is a given for most Knox County high school students, and West High School rising junior Bailey Butler is no exception. It’s her shopping list that makes her exceptional. She, along with a team of friends, will purchase new clothes and school supplies for children who attend the Vestal Boys & Girls Club. Two years ago, when she was just 14, Bailey was touched by a girl she met at the club, where she volunteers a few days a week each summer. The girl told Bailey that her dress used to be her favorite, but since she wore it every day, and it was tattered and stained, she didn’t love it anymore. That comment made Bailey think about how good it felt to put on new clothes and carry a
“This time next week, Stacey Campfield’s going to be cleaning out his Nashville office. He and Steve “Extra Crispy” Hall can discuss their future plans on the way back to Knoxville because Hall’s going to lose his primary, too.” Ouch! Betty Bean’s not mincing words with her predictions for Aug. 7.
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Read Betty Bean on page A-4
A-B-C’s of politics Have you got what it takes to run for office? Larry Van Guilder tells you the A-B-C’s: “For your supporters: Always Bring Cash. “Let’s recap. Be a man, raise the voting bar, get a family, off with their heads, guard the border and cash is king. See you in Nashville!
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August 6, 2014
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Read Van Guilder on page A-5
Interns finish Shopper-News interns finished the summer with a picnic at Oakes Daylilies. They will start high school next week, but on this day they were still kids.
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Read the recap on pages A 8-9 First Day founder Bailey Butler shows off a backpack of goodies that will be given away at this year’s event.
Food fight rages August is a good month on the Cumberland Avenue Strip. Anticipation of the influx of student consumers that fall semester at the University of Tennessee will bring starts to build and hits a high point with the first home football game (this year, Aug. 31). But as the Shopper-News reported last week, the runup to the new school year is off to something less than a Big Orange high note for 10 Cumberland District business owners and managers.
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Read the latest on page A-11
Meet Brian Hann As the new chair of the Knoxville Greenways Commission, Brian Hann sees connections as top priority. “There are just a lot of missing links, and I think it behooves us as a city to connect those missing links and allow for more mobility,” says Hann, known for his achievements as president of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club. “Reaching from the center city outward is where I would like to see the focus and just start moving with the connections that are missing from the center out.”
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Read Betsy Pickle on page A-12
10512 Lexington Dr., Ste. 500 37932 (865) 218-WEST (9378) NEWS news@ShopperNewsNow.com Sherri Gardner Howell Wendy Smith | Anne Hart ADVERTISING SALES ads@ShopperNewsNow.com Shannon Carey Jim Brannon | Tony Cranmore Patty Fecco | Wendy O’Dell
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By Cindy Taylor
Ten West Knox schools will be among 52 schools countywide to serve free breakfast and lunch to all students this year. One principal estimated a savings of $720 per child per year to families who buy both meals each day. Community Eligibility Provi-
sion will eliminate the need for schools to collect paper applications. “There are no qualifiers for students who attend a qualified school regardless of income. “CEP is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provides criteria to assess which
(and breakfast, too)
schools qualify,” said Jon Dickl, executive director of school nutrition for Knox County Schools. “Through this federally funded program, all students in the qualifying schools receive meals at no charge.” To take advantage of the breakfast, students will need to be in
their seats no later than 7:30 a.m. as the meal will be served in the classrooms. Lunch will be served in the cafeteria as usual. West Knox qualified schools are Bearden Middle, Fort Sanders, KAEC, Lonsdale, Maynard, Pond Gap, Ridgedale, West Haven, West Hills and West View.
Reinstated teacher hopes for new beginning By Betty Bean They called him “Big Rich” when he was an All-American basketball player at Maryville College, and Richard Suttle, who stands 6-7, remembers those years as the happiest of his life. Now that he’s won back his job with Knox County Schools, he’s ready to turn the page on his worst year and is looking forward to going back to simply being called “teacher.” Suttle believes he has been publicly labeled a bad teacher, despite hearing officer H. Scott Ream’s reversal of Superintendent James McIntyre’s decision to fire him. Ream was scathing in his criticism of the McIntyre administration for pursuing a tenure revocation and made a point of complimenting Suttle’s ability to explain basic algebra in a way math-phobic students could understand. Last week, he got his first paycheck in 10 months – a year’s salary minus a 90-day suspension without pay (a punishment he doesn’t believe is deserved), and he is relieved to end a year of stress and financial hardship.
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Michael Spurgeon grins as he examines a new pair of shoes during the 2013 First Day event at the Vestal Boys & Girls Club. Photo submitted
backpack full of new supplies on the first day of school. She called her mother, Heather Bailey, with an idea. She wanted to provide clothes and school supplies for the children at the club and call the event First Day. With the help of her mother and support from her church, Calvary Baptist, Bailey brought the idea to life. That first year, she asked for gently used clothing donations and school supplies and distributed them to the club’s rising kindergartners and first-graders in donated bags. Last year, she asked volunteers to sponsor specific children. Each donor received a picture of a child, along with information about sizes and tastes. She asked for donations of new clothing because everyone has a different definition of “gently used,” she says. Each child received two outfits and a pair of shoes, along with school supplies, in a new backpack. Since the creation of a Facebook page for First Day, donations have come from across the country. Those funds and additional support from the community enabled Bailey to include rising second- and third-graders in First Day festivities. This year’s event on Aug. 7 will serve approximately 90 children. Her motivation is simple: She loves kids. She hopes to teach inner-city children someday. The children at the Vestal Boys & Girls Club have a special place in her
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tential to show the most improvement, which Suttle says ignores the realities of kids who may be dealing with family crises, financial, health or relationship trouble, or simply the frustration of not “getting” math anymore. “I was told by my numeracy coach, ‘If you have a class of 20, and three of them don’t try and just ‘Christmas tree’ the answer sheet, there’s no way to recover from that,’ ” Suttle said. Simply put, Suttle’s argument is a direct challenge to the system of Richard Suttle breaks down TVAAS teacher evaluation now in use. Photo by Betty Bean
High School and also assisted UT coach Don DeVoe, offered Suttle the opportunity to walk on at UT, but before he made a decision, he heard from Maryville College head basketball coach Rick Byrd (now at Belmont), who invited him out to the school and offered him a place on the team. By fall, he was enrolled at Maryville College, majoring in physical education, minoring in math and thriving on the basketball court. He got his degree in 1981; his first job out of college was teaching math and P.E at St. Joseph School. One of his classes was algebra-readiness for 8th-graders. But here is some of what he be- The early years Two years later, Suttle moved on lieves has been lost in the discussion: Suttle was a member of FarraHe taught repeaters at Gibbs gut High School’s class of 1976, the to South Middle School, and two High School – sophomores, juniors last graduating class at the “old” years after that to South-Young and even seniors who had failed high school. He didn’t play team High School, teaching math. In 1984, he entered the master’s freshman algebra, sometimes sports but always loved basketball more than once. Often, these stu- and played recreationally every program in P.E. at the University dents became so frustrated with chance he got, especially after he of North Carolina, and once he finstandardized tests that they gave went on to the University of Ten- ished, his next stop was Belmont up trying to answer questions and nessee. He was playing a pickup Abbey College in Charlotte, N.C., bubbled in answers in haphazard game when he caught the eye of where he worked his way up to the fashion, just to get through them. coach Tom Deaton during the position of director of camps and conferences, facilities and student Administrators argue that summer after his freshman year. these are the students with the poDeaton, who coached at Bearden To page A-3
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