VOL. 9 NO. 23
BUZZ Ball Camp gets new principal Sarah Brengle is the new principal at Ball Camp Elementary School, replacing Brandon Pratt, who was named principal at Northshore Elementary School. Brengle has Sarah Brengle been an assistant principal at Ball Camp since 2012. She began her career with Knox County Schools in 1997 as a teacher at Karns Intermediate School and taught several years at Hardin Valley Elementary School. In addition to serving 15 years as a classroom teacher, she coached girls’ basketball at Central and Karns high schools. Brengle holds a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary English from Emory & Henry College and a master’s in educational administration and supervision from the University of Tennessee.
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Dayton’s art is
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Test, test, test “Excessive testing makes the kids who care anxious while further shutting down the kids who cannot keep pace: special ed, English-language learners, itinerant, low IQ. “Excessive testing is bad for kids; we should make it stop.”
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Vets get sweets Veterans at Ben Atchley Tennessee State Veterans Home celebrated the 78th annual National Doughnut Day with the tasty goodness of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, courtesy of The Salvation Army.
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Read Sara Barrett on page A-3
Sock hop happy Dr. Charles Q. Lindsey and his musical group, Four Dots and a Dash, entertained last week at a fund-raiser.
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Pictures on page A-2
Ball Camp resident Ruby Dayton sits on the floor of her studio with one of her paintings.
By Sara Barrett Ruby Dayton loves to paint. She recalls being mesmerized by the colors of squished purple pokeberries and green grass stains on her clothing as a child. Her family lived below the poverty line, so she learned to work with what she had. Dayton lost both parents by age 9. She faced daily abuse from her stepmother and never attended school. She remembers kneeling to pray at age 7, but she doesn’t remember anyone ever showing her how to pray or telling her about God. It was just something she felt led to do. “My take is, when my parents died, God took me over. I never had any desire to smoke or drink. He just took my hand and gave me
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started.” When she was 19, Dayton married her husband, Ralph. They were together 60 years until his death almost two years ago. “He was my promoter,” she says with a smile. Until Ralph began encouraging her love of painting, Dayton never had anyone express interest in her work. “He would say, ‘You’ve got such a gift.’ He never ceased to pay me a compliment. I first painted in our kitchen with a baby on my lap, and then I moved to a studio next to our house.” One day, Dayton was invited to show her paintings at the old Karns Library. When one of them sold, she thought the person was taking pity on her. Popularity of her work grew, and she was able to pay college tuition for all three
By Betty Bean Copper Ridge Elementary School parents aren’t the only ones protesting the loss of a beloved teacher, and Copper Ridge’s Christina Graham isn’t the only non-tenured Knox County teacher whose spotless record couldn’t save her from an abrupt, unexplained termination because she didn’t “fit the vision” the principal had for her school.
Early last month, Mount Olive Elementary School teacher Gloria Ray-Scheberle achieved rock-star status when she helped coach the school’s Destination Imagination to the global finals. No Knox County team had made the global finals in the past five years, and the team had enthusiastic community support. The day before the finals, Ray-
School board members weighed in and Ray-Scheberle was allowed to stay with her students through the competition. She is reluctant to discuss her situation because she’s hoping to find another job within Knox County Schools, and she has not initiated any contact with media. One thing she will say is that she loves Mount Olive. “When I started there I told my husband, ‘I hope this is my forever home.’ I figure I’ve got another Members of the audience at the June school board meeting stand in sup10 years to teach, and I wanted port of Christina Graham. Photo by Betsy Pickle it to be at Mount Olive. I love the school, the faculty, the parents Scheberle – a veteran teacher who on Tuesday afternoon that she did and the community,” she said. is a few courses short of a doctor- not “fit the school’s vision” and Mount Olive loves her right ate, is certified in elementary edu- would not be allowed to finish out back. They showed up in force last cation and special education and the week with her students, who week to tell the school board what has 12 years’ teaching experience, were scheduled to begin the comthey think about losing her, and but has worked in Knox County for petition on Wednesday and had three-time PTA president Holly only two years and is not yet ten- already lost their other sponsor Child gave them an earful. She ured – found herself out of a job. due to illness. said she asked principal Brown to Mount Olive principal Paula The reaction was swift. Kids Brown informed Ray-Scheberle cried. Parents made phone calls. To page A-3
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of her sons while her husband put food on the table as a truck driver. She wound up being the top-selling artist at the 1982 World’s Fair. Dayton plans to host monthly gatherings at her studio, 8417 Ball Camp Pike, beginning in July. Other local artists will be on hand to showcase and talk about their work. “People ask me all the time where I took lessons to learn to paint,” says Dayton. “Sometimes I think it’s better to not be taught.” Being self-taught teaches you to be optimistic, she says. “You can’t go through life as a pessimist and assume you can’t do something. “As long as you’re optimistic, and you’ve got God, you don’t really need another thing.”
Parents weigh in on teacher terminations
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the desire to paint,” she says. “When I was little, we were migrant workers, and we slept on the ground,” the 81-year-old continues. The work ethic she learned then has stuck with her, and she still works daily in her yard on Ball Camp Pike. “I just get up and start working like crazy. No one helps me. I stop to eat, and I’m ready to go in 30 minutes.” Dayton applies the same mindset when painting. Sometimes she paints all day, and she has been known to bring her supplies into her bedroom and paint while sitting on the floor. A mural on her bathroom wall is the result of a day she was bored. “I painted all last winter,” says Dayton. “Some days I couldn’t get out of bed fast enough to get
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