VOL. 54 NO. 4
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Winter wonderland
IN THIS ISSUE
My
Life
UT Professor Emeritus Cynthia Griggs Fleming can tell you a lot about AfricanAmerican history. She can tell you about the three books she’s written, and about the times she took her students into the heart of civil rights country to walk in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. Stokely Carmichael himself sat in on her classes. She can tell you about all those things, and more. Problem is, you’ll have to catch her first. If she’s not astride her horse, chances are she’s muscling one of her classic cars down the highway.
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January 28, 2015
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By Ruth White Sterchi Elementary hosted the annual father/daughter and mother/son dance last week, creating a magical winter wonderland. Many of the girls dressed in beautiful, glittery dresses and tiaras while the boys wore dress shirts and ties. Moms and dads had many opportunities to dance with their child but had an equal amount of fun line dancing with the crowd and even watching the dancers from the sidelines.
Michele Tsetsakis takes a twirl on the dance floor with her son Max at Sterchi’s winter wonderland dance. Another picture on A-3.
See the special section inside
NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ
Powell is eligible for revitalization grant By Sandra Clark
Hall seeks golfers Kids Play Free is more than a slogan at the Beverly Park Par 3 Golf Course. George Hall, retired teacher from Halls Middle School and PGA golf instructor, spoke last week at the Halls Business and Professional Association. “I’ve coached about every sport there is,” he said. Hall led softball teams from both Halls and Gibbs high schools to multiple state tournaments. His son, Andrew, was a two-time all-state golfer for Halls High School. George Hall was seeking donations to the Tennessee Golf Foundation, which manages the Beverly Park course that is owned by Knox County and located on Tazewell Pike. In addition to free golf for kids, the course offers junior camps, clinics and competitions. The course has a brandnew, full-size driving range. Holes range from 80 yards to 170 yards. Adults as well as kids can play golf there, and Hall is available for lessons for adults and teens. Info: 423-794-0747.
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Powell is perfectly poised to obtain a community development grant from a $10 million program sponsored by Frontier Communications and DISH network. The deadline to apply to America’s Best Communities contest is mid-March, said Mike Byrd, general manager of Frontier Communications in Knox and Grainger counties. Byrd said the contest is straightforward. “We just have to have a good plan.” Initial discussion included Halls in the opportunity, but a deeper reading of the rules showed that the applicants must be within Frontier Communication’s service area. Frontier serves Powell (prefi xes 947 and 938) and Grainger County. John Bayless, technical servic-
es supervisor for Frontier, is president of the Powell Business and Professional Association. He said PBPA will take the lead on submitting the application, but he asked for comments from residents. Byrd said the Frontier initiative supports revitalization of small towns. Powell qualifies because of population and because it falls within Frontier’s service area. Knox County Commissioner Charles Busler went to Nashville with Byrd and others to meet the CEOs of participating sponsors. Later, Busler pledged his support to whatever plan the community produces. One idea is to target the area from Powell High School to the new Front Porch restaurant at Spring Street and Emory Road. The plan could include sidewalks, facade and landscaping grants to property owners and even a “train
station” visitors’ center and restaurant. The America’s Best Communities top three competition winners – those with the most inno-
vative, effective proposals – will be awarded a total of $6 million in grand prizes in October 2017. Info: www. americasbestcommunities.com.
Richards heads KTA
Jim Richards, general manager of Mast General Store on Gay Street, is the new chair of the Knoxville Transportation Authority (KTA) board. Liliana Burbano Bonilla is vice chair and Knoxville Area Transit employee Lauren Robinson is recording secretary. Richards is an avid alternative-transportation advocate. He has served on the KTA board since September 2012. Renee Hoyos is the previous board chair. The nine-member KTA board sets policy for all for-hire intra-city passenger transportation services, including bus transit service, taxicabs and Jim Richards private for-hire transportation services. KTA sets schedules, fares and routes for KAT services.
Push back on push-out By Bill Dockery African-American children in the Knox County school system are suspended from school almost three times more often than their white fellow students. And that rate has not changed since 2007, when a community task force recommended ways to fi x the disparities in discipline. State statistics reported for 2012 show that black Knox County students are Sheppard still about three times more likely to be suspended than white students, despite the negative results such suspensions will have on their educational and legal futures. Those facts are part of the information presented at a workshop on “school push-out,” the name given to discipline policies that result in children leaving school and getting caught up in the criminal
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justice system. A group of parents, students, school personnel and civil rights activists gathered Thursday at Mount Calvary Baptist Church to share stories and strategize about ways to change county schools so that their discipline system does not discriminate against blacks, people with disabilities and other minorities. Local activists with the NAACP and the Children’s Defense Fund sponsored the meeting. “We want parents to understand that suspensions are not an individual problem with you and your child,” said Andre Canty, one of the organizers of the meeting. “School push-out is a systemic problem that has some students being arrested for no reason. That’s messed up.” Amy Sosinski, a law student at the University of Tennessee, presented totals from 2012 state records that show that some 8,300 black students in Knox County schools are about 2.7 times more
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likely to be suspended than the system’s 44,600 white students. Among students with disabilities, slightly more than one in 10 white students will be suspended; around one in four black students with disabilities will be sent home from school. In November 2014, the Education Law Practicum filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education based on those disparities. That complaint is still pending in the department’s Office for Civil Rights. Maya Sheppard presented information on an innovative plan in Baltimore that had dramatically reduced school suspensions. Sheppard is a lawyer with the Knox County Public Defender’s Office who serves in the county’s juvenile court. Other speakers discussed similar programs that have improved racial disparities in discipline in other school systems. “These are proven methods for reducing suspensions and arrests,”
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Canty said. “What needs to happen from the people is a collaborative effort among parents, teachers and students.” Canty asked the attendees to share their own experiences of problems with the school system’s disciplinary policies. He then led the attendees in a discussion of how they would like to see the system change and how those changes can be brought about. Suggestions included mentoring programs for students, cultural sensitivity training for teachers and school personnel, increased parental advocacy and changes in special-education laws and policies. “We want all our kids to have a bright future,” Canty said. In late December, Canty participated in a discussion with Superintendent Jim McIntyre on WATETV’s “Tennessee This Week.” During that broadcast McIntyre announced that he would create a working group to look at solutions to the disparity problems.
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