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VOL. 56 NO. 17
www.ShopperNewsNow.com |
April 26, 2017
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FIRST WORDS
Dividing the pie By Lauren Hopson A wise teacher from Bearden High School once said (actually just last week), “Parents don’t withhold food from one of their children, and then blame the other undernourished Hopson child for greedily demanding too much.” That is exactly the situation we have in Knox County, however. Last week, the primary headline floating around the local media outlets involved how teachers were getting raises, but an entire special education department, that of Assistive Technology, which aids some of our most vulnerable students, was getting cut. In regard to a budget with pages of line items, nothing else was mentioned in relation to the AT program’s demise, just the issue of teacher raises. Knox County ranks third in the state in fiscal capacity to pay for its school system, but 39th in average teacher pay. That is actually a step up from 45th last year. Thanks to a 3 percent raise, there are only 18 other districts just in East Tennessee that pay better this year, instead of 19. Three years ago, the Knox County Board of Education made a commitment to the educators of Knox County to make their pay competitive with other school districts in Tennessee. Through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Knox County Education Association, KCS agreed to raise teacher pay by 4 percent a year, on just the portion of salary funded locally, until 2020. This was agreed upon by both negotiating parties as an attempt to bring pay in line with the top 20 districts in the state and attract and retain the very best teachers for our students. How many times has Knox County Schools met this financial obligation in the last three years? None. Zero. Zilch. Granted, our previous superintendent took great liberty with the “if funds are available” clause and decided that money for consultants, six-figure-making Broad Academy Fellows for Central Office, funds for the Leadership Academy, layers of supervisors, laptops for 9-year-olds, and his own car allowance and raise were important enough to ignore the plan outlined in a legal document. To page A-3
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Comcast Cares for Copper Ridge Comcast employees Bruce Wiggleston and Roy Harmon remove brush from benches that were once part of an outdoor classroom on the campus of Copper Ridge Elementary. More photos on page A-3. Photos by Ruth White A little rain doesn’t stop Layla Kitchin from having fun while helping clean up the campus of Copper Ridge Elementary.
rain) and this week to help our school.” Project lead Austin Myers called volunteers together for assignments, including spreading mulch on the playground and cleaning up an outdoor classroom and nature trail. Earlier in the week, volunteers pressure washed the sidewalks, added landscaping timbers to stop erosion, installed new basketball nets, planted flowers and seeds, and spruced up the school sign. To page A-3
Scarbro details telephone company history By Shannon Carey
Willard “Snooks” Scarbro delights in tales of the early days of the Powell Telephone Company. He was there from (almost) the beginning. The youngest son of Lula and Charles N. Scarbro Sr., Snooks was born on June 7, 1927, in the room next to the switchboard in the family home (now torn down) on Commerce Street. The Scarbro family took over a “whoop
and holler” system with wires strung on fences and trees. It was owned and operated by the subscribers who paid $10 to get hooked up and $1.50 a month for service, according to a Bell South article when Snooks’ brother Tom retired. Snooks and his wife, Cleo, brought their daughter, Linda Dietz, and multiple pictures and scrapbook articles to share. Folks in the audience told their own sto-
ries about the local company. “I’d call the switchboard and ask to speak to Daddy,” said Laura Bailey. “Mrs. Scarbro would call the water company and track (Allan Gill) down.” Cleo interjected: “When we started dating, Snooks told me if I ever needed him to ‘Dial zero and ask for Snooky.’ That’s what his mom called him.” To page A-3
With the Tuskegee Airmen
Local man looks back at changing times By Betty Bean One of the things Chester Bragg remembers about Dec. 7, 1941, was wondering what was happening to his brother Raymond. Chester was only 15, and had no clue that Pearl Harbor would begin something so big that it would swoop him up three years later and land him with one of the most famous fighting units in American history. “I didn’t think it would last long enough to get me,” said Chester Bragg, who is 90. “But I got drafted. The Army turned me down, the Navy turned me down, the Marines. Everybody wanted big men, and I was a little man, 130 pounds. That left me to the Air Force.” The family finally heard from Raymond, who survived but was never able to leave Pearl Harbor behind. “Raymond suffered,” Chester said. “He never did get over that, he never did. He was shell shocked, seeing all that killing; some of his buddies got killed. He drew disability from the Veterans
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By Ruth White Each year, Comcast employees across the country gather tools, pull on work boots and head out to provide assistance in their local community. Copper Ridge Elementary was fortunate to be one of the recipients of the assistance and principal Jennifer Atkins called it “a blessing” to the school. “We are so thankful for all of the volunteers that came out today (in spite of the
Administration and never did really get back to himself.” He was a student at Nelson Merry High School in Jefferson County in 1941, and moved to Knoxville the following year. Everybody was worried about Adolf Hitler. “I heard he was going to conquer the world – the whole world, the United States and all. He and Japan got together and they were going to whip us. He’d done whipped everybody in Europe except Russia, and that’s where he made his mistake. He overran his supply line because he was moving too fast…” After basic training at Fort Benning, Chester was sent to Texas and then to Tuskegee, Ala. No draftee had many choices, and Chester’s were limited by his race. “You didn’t have no options. You went to where all the Blacks were stationed, and that was Tuskegee, where they had an Air Force base. We got there in a group and they put us all in barracks…” Chester was assigned to be a supply clerk for the Tuskegee Air-
men, the first African-American fighter pilots. He remembers the sharp buzz of single and twoseater fighter planes taking off and landing at the air field – P39s, P37s P40s, P51 Mustangs. His biggest adjustment to military life was being in Alabama. “You still had to get in the back of the bus in Knoxville, but it
Chester Bragg holds a photograph of himself in his military uniform. Photo by Ruth White wasn’t too bad here. Where I was at in Alabama, you was a n….. everywhere you went, except for being a soldier. And they still called you a n….. soldier. It was rough. Worse than it was here in Knoxville. They were still hanging peoTo page A-3
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