Gallatin News Examiner education coverage

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MURDER-FOR-HIRE AT SUMNER COUNTY JAIL, 6A

PANTHERS, DEVILS REVERSE FORTUNES, 1B

FRIDAY » FEBRUARY 15, 2013 » GALLATIN, TENNESSEE » SERVING SUMNER COUNTY SINCE 1840

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Charter changes rejected

SPECIAL REPORT: THE DEBATE TO ARM EDUCATORS

Council moves forward with only one of 11 proposed amendments

By Josh Cross Gallatin News Examiner

The Gallatin City Council began discussion on 11 proposed amendments to the city’s charter, but there was only enough support from the body to move forward on one.

Members of the council were presented with the amendments Tuesday by City Attorney Joe Thompson. The proposals were compiled from suggestions he had received from various council members regarding the changes.

The only amendment supported by the council was one that involved the city’s savings account, commonly referred to as the rainy day fund.

Currently, the rules for how money is moved Graves in or out of the fund is laid out in the city’s municipal code, but Thompson said that it needed to be in the city charter to give the voting requirement certainty.

“There is a Overton provision in the municipal code that addresses this issue ,” Thompson said. “All we’re doing is we’re cleaning up something that should have been cleaned up, or wasn’t able to be cleaned up, several years back and that’s making the charter provision.”

The charter change would

» CHARTER, 3A

Budget chairman picked Stone will lead county committee

By Jesse Hughes For the Gallatin News Examiner

The Sumner County Commission Budget Committee unanimously picked Vice Chairman Jerry Stone on Monday as its new chairman and Com. Moe Taylor as its new Vice Chairman.

Sumner County Commission Chairman Merrol Hyde appeared at the committee to “strongly suggest to this committee that Com. (Jerry) Stone be elected chairperson of this committee” because he is someone who could “step in there and do the job” to chair the “very important committee.”

Hyde added they could take care of additional responsibilities that would create. Stone is chairman of Committee on Committees and he cannot be chairman of both.

Com. Jim Vaughn quickly made the motion to nominate Stone with Taylor seconding it.

Hyde first told committee members that he had “received the sad news last month” that former Budget Chairman Kirk Mos-

Walter Todd, of Gallatin, holds photo of him and his dad, Ed Todd (now deceased), while discussing a 1978 school shooting incident in which an assistant principal shot his father three times during a confrontation. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Gallatin ’78 school shooting recalled Asst. principal shot parent three times

By Jennifer Easton Gallatin News Examiner

L

ong before school shootings were a common event, when two-parent families were the norm, drugs and alcohol were an off-campus problem and school resource officers didn’t exist, Sumner County had its own school shooting incident.

Thirty-five years ago, Walter Wytch was an assistant principal at Gallatin Junior High (now Joe Shafer Middle School), when on March 17, 1978 he shot a parent at the school.

Many who recall the event today said the unusual circumstances of the shooting shocked the community and attracted considerable media attention. “It was very frightening,” said former Director of Schools Benny Bills, who was superintendent of schools in 1978. “We’ve never seen anything like that before or since then.”

Perhaps the nation has never seen anything like the the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in December, which

Walter Wytch was an assistant principal at Gallatin Junior High in 1978 when he shot a parent at the school.

GALLATIN JUNIOR HIGH 1978 YEARBOOK

incited a new, national debate over increased school safety, gun control and mental health by parents and politicians.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, school officials have proposed adding school resource officers to all Sumner schools and making security upgrades to buildings. A county ad hoc

» SHOOTING, 6A

Teacher groups see bill as last resort “That parent wouldn’t have been shot but more likely would’ve been arrested.”

Don Long School board member

“If legislation does become law, we will have a discussion.”

Del Phillips, Schools Director

» BUDGET, 6A

By Jennifer Easton Gallatin News Examiner

The Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in December has left school officials across the nation reassessing emergency plans and building safety policies, while state lawmakers consider legislation aimed at protecting Tennessee students.

The idea of arming teachers has gained some steam in recent weeks.

The Tennessee Educators Association and the Professional Educators of Tennessee have come out in support of legislation sponsored by state Sen. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains), requiring each school to have an armed school resource officer (SRO) or a similarly trained faculty or staff member. The bill would let school personnel volunteer to carry a firearm in school as long they complete 40 hours of basic training.

TEA and PET officials say their organizations favor having SROs in schools but see arming teachers as a last-resort option.

“We feel if districts decide to allow armed teachers and administrators in schools, that decision will not be made lightly,” said Bill Gemmill, director of

233,000 people in Sumner County read our newspapers and use our websites every week.

GallatinNewsExaminer.com

committee will also examine new safety measures.

The 1978 shooting serves as a cautionary tale of what could happen if teachers are armed. If an officer had been on campus that day 35 years ago, the shooting would likely not have happened, said some local leaders.

The shooting evolved from a disagreement over a disciplinary issue between Wytch and a Castalian Springs man, Ed Todd, whose son, Ron Todd, was a freshman at the school that year. Wytch, an African-American, said he acted in self-defense after being threatened and called several racist names by Ed Todd.

“I don’t know what (Ron) done, but he was always getting in trouble at school,” recalled Walter Todd, brother of Ron Todd and a witness to the shooting that day.

Wytch, 37 at the time, was charged with felonious assault with intent and with carrying a pistol for the purposes of going armed.

The shooting stunned Wytch’s colleagues, who remembered him as a devoted family man who always conducted himself in a professional manner.

MetroMix.com

membership and media for PET and a former principal for Metro Nashville Public Schools.

“This bill will not say to districts, ‘You will allow your teachers to be armed.’ It’s saying the district can determine for itself if that’s what they want,” Gemmill said.

The legislation would benefit remote school districts, where it might be difficult to recruit law enforcement, said Jim Wyre, chief lobbyist for TEA. “We want to be sure that no administrator or faculty member is coerced into going through the SRO training,” Wyre said.

Phillips steadfast that educators not be law enforcers

Director of Schools Del Phillips said he wasn’t familiar with the TEA or PET’s position on the matter but that his opinion that the duties of law enforcement and educators should not be mixed remains unchanged. Phillips and the school board have requested

» BILL, 6A

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6A • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2013

GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Assistant principal who shot parent: ‘I believe in prevention’

»SHOOTING FROM 1A

“He was a good disciplinarian; a fair man and an honest man,” said White House Middle School Principal Jerry Apple, who taught U.S. History at Gallatin Junior High in 1978.

“He had a very good reputation,” said Merrol Hyde, who was principal of Gallatin Junior High when the shooting occurred.

Bills immediately suspended Wytch, but later moved him to a different position and allowed him to resign at the end of the school year.

“The case received an enormous amount of publicity,” said Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley, who prosecuted Wytch as a young assistant district attorney in one of his first cases here.

“There was a lot of tension – a lot of passion involved,” Whitley said.

Argument led to shooting

Ed and Ron Todd are now both deceased, but Walter Todd, 29 in 1978, recalled in a recent interview that he and his father, an electrician for the Nashville Bridge Company at the time, had taken the afternoon off from work to repair a broken furnace, when Walter’s brother called from school.

Ron Todd, 16 at the time, had called his father to tell him Wytch wanted to paddle him.

“I can’t say he was public enemy No. 1. He did have some trouble, but he was just a kid,” said Apple, who taught Ron Todd in the eighth grade. “He was a country boy in a town school. Kids would make fun of that a little, but he always stood his ground and took care of himself.”

According to Wytch’s statement to police, he followed the

young man to the bathroom because he believed he’d gone in to smoke. Paddling was a common form of punishment in schools then, and although it’s still allowed in Sumner schools today, it’s seldom used, said schools spokesman Jeremy Johnson.

During the conversation with his father, Ron Todd handed the phone to Wytch and the two men started arguing.

“My daddy told him, ‘I can’t be coming down there every day,’” Walter Todd said. “He said ‘Paddle him or do whatever you got to do, but I got to work for a living.”

“They got to arguing, and next thing I knew Daddy said, ‘I’ll be down there and we’ll get this thing settled.’”

Wytch told police Ed Todd called him several racist names over the phone. According to a police interview transcript, Wytch claimed Ed Todd told him, “I want you to paddle him so I can whip your (expletive) when I get there.”

In the same interview with police, Wytch said Ed Todd had threatened his life before that day, calling him and Hyde at their homes the previous school year.

Because of previous conversations and threats, Wytch believed there would be trouble when Ed Todd arrived. He made the decision to retrieve his pistol from the trunk of his car, Wytch said.

When Ed and Walter Todd arrived, still wearing their yellow hard hats from work, the argument continued, Walter Todd recalled.

Wytch testified at the jury trial on June 16 that he went back and forth from his office, through the office of the secretary and into the main lobby several times to avoid the two Todds.

“At one point they both got up to me on either side of me touching me with their bodies like I was a piece of meat between two pieces of bread,” Wytch

said, according to an article published on June 19, 1978 in the Gallatin News Examiner.

According to the article, Ed Todd admitted on the witness stand that he called Wytch several racist names and cussed him on several occasions.

Wytch said he attempted to talk to Ed Todd without Walter Todd present but asked the school secretary to call police when the men refused to leave. “(Ed Todd) said, ‘I am going to do what I came to do.’ He then advanced toward me and put his hand in his right pocket,” Wytch told the jury in 1978.

Wytch said he believed Ed Todd was retrieving a knife from his pocket, and that’s when he fired his .357 Magnum, hitting the man in the leg. According to testimony from both men, Ed Todd slammed the office door and Wytch fired two more times through the door. All told, Ed Todd was shot three times in the legs and foot.

“People were screaming, running and hollering. Kids were going up and down the hall,” Walter Todd said. “I couldn’t believe (anybody) would have a gun at school.”

Walter Todd told police in 1978 that Wytch then turned the gun toward him just before police arrived, and that’s when the confrontation ended.

Attorneys recall trial

Wytch testified at the trial that he didn’t intend to kill Ed Todd, and that he deliberately aimed low in order to immobilize him. In the end, the jury acquitted Wytch of the most serious charge of felonious assault but convicted him on a misdemeanor charge of going armed.

He was fined $250.

“It was a clear case of selfdefense, and the jury agreed,” said Larry Woods, a Nashville attorney who defended Wytch in 1978. “He was facing multiple years in prison had he not been acquitted.”

Whitley and Woods said the

teaching in Sumner.

White House Middle School Principal Jerry Apple, a teacher at Gallatin Junior High in 1978, said he’s torn on the issue of whether teachers should be allowed to be armed.

“Teachers are some of the bravest people I know,” he said. “When (teachers) stand and take a bullet for someone else’s child, I’d like to think we’re going to do a better job of taking care of our teachers and students.”

Instituting preventive measures, constructing school buildings differently and working on bullying programs that cut down on issues will bring less and less angry people into schools, Apple said.

“There are two types of schools: One that’s had a crisis and the others that are waiting to have theirs,” he said.

All these years later, Walter Todd concedes his father may have verbally threatened Wytch, but he doesn’t believe the former assistant principal shot in self-defense.

“You can say anything to anybody. As long as you don’t put your hands on them that doesn’t give (you) the right to shoot them,” he said. Walter Todd said his father carried a pocket knife because he was an electrician, but said he didn’t see him take it out during the confrontation.

None of the witnesses reported seeing Ed Todd with a knife, according to police interviews.

Walter Todd said Ed Todd rarely discussed the shooting, but said he agreed with his father’s opinion that Wytch should have served time.

“I’m sure if Daddy had been the one who carried a gun down there and shot (Wytch), he still would have been in the penitentiary probably,” Walter Todd

»BUDGET FROM 1A er had apparently given out letters of resignation to everyone so Hyde could not talk him out of it this time.

“I had talked him out of it for over a year,” he said. The budget chair seat for years has been a lightning rod during school funding fights.

Stone Stone is well known for fiscal conservatism and for not backing downfrom a fiscal or budget fight, especially with the school board.

The moves shift the center of budget committee leadership outside of the suburban Hendersonville core, which has been more supportive of tax increases for schools than the more rural parts of the county.

Moser, from Hendersonville, was very fiscally conservative. Stone, who has a Hendersonville address, lives in the Shackle Island community in an unincorporated part of the county. Taylor, from Westmoreland, represents an economically disadvantaged area on the Kentucky border and has vigorously opposed tax increases.

As to Taylor’s rising to the key budget committee post, his allies quickly spelled out his credentials and urged him not to be humble. Taylor has worked in management at AmeriGas and said he “works on multiple budgets every year.” He said

Contact Jennifer Easton at 575-7143.

Wytch: “I had a choice”

Retired from education and now living in Texas, Wytch, 72, was reluctant to discuss the shooting when contacted for this article.

“That’s a part of my life I really don’t like to revisit,” Wytch said. “I’d like to leave it in the past where it belongs.”

While he wished the shooting hadn’t occurred, Wytch said he believes he made the right decision that day in 1978.

“Two adults came on to my job to hurt me. They were armed,” he said. He believes the confrontation was racially motivated and that he would not be alive today had he not had his gun, he said.

“I had a choice: I had to decide if I wanted to be judged by 12 or carried out in a coffin by six,” Wytch said. “That was my dilemma.”

Following the trial, Wytch left Tennessee and the South entirely, he said. He remained in education, working as an administrator in a northern state, he said.

With national focus and debate now centered on school safety and gun violence, Wytch said he is opposed to the idea of arming teachers.

“I don’t think that teachers and principals with guns will make things better,” he said. “I believe in prevention.”

Reporter Jennifer Easton can be reached at 575-7143 or jeaston@mtcngroup.com

he graduated from Western Kentucky University with a degree in agriculture with an emphasis in business and education.

“Originally, I planned to be a teacher,” he said.

Filling vacancies

Stone notified County Attorney Leah Dennen Monday of his complete resignation from Committee on Committees, including from his role as chairman.

The form of resignation, like Moser’s, creates a double vacancy of chairman and committee member.

The Committee on Committees is expected to make recommendations to fill both vacant seats when it next meets.

Other vacancies may arise, depending on the shuffle.

Com. Ben Harris said Wednesday he was aware that his name was being discussed as a possibility to fill the budget vacancy.

“Yes, I’m interested,” he said of taking the seat.

In the past, he has not always been supportive of all of the same positions as Hyde.

“I have never considered myself to be a yesman,” Harris said.

Harris, who works as an inspector for the Gallatin Fire Department, was first elected to the County Commission in 1990. In 2006, he did not seek re-election. About six months afterward, the commission named him to fill a vacancy on the school board. He was then elected in 2008 to fill out the remaining two years of that school board seat. In 2010, he returned to the commission.

Lately, he has been at the center of putting deals together for emergency response facilities.

One was the acquisition of the new Emergency Operations Complex on Airport Road. Harris first brought the location to the attention of County Executive Anthony Holt who pushed it through.

As a result, Harris was then at the heart of seeking space for the Gallatin Volunteer Fire Department to improve the rural fire service rating for the area south of Gallatin outside city limits to provide residents closer and faster service. That would reduce homeowners’ insurance premiums.

After two months of deferrals, the General Committee on Monday finally resolved allocation of the space on South Water Avenue being vacated

by Emergency Medical Services, which is relocating to the new operations complex. The committee unanimously approved temporary use by Gallatin Volunteer Fire of a portion of the space with a temporary wall.

Children Are People Inc., will continue to use the space it already has with the plan to provide them all of the space in the future.

As part of the “splitthe-baby” negotiations, the committee recommended on to budget the intent to fund up to $200,000 to help build a new facility for the volunteer firefighters on the nine acres at the emergency operations center.

Contributing writer Jesse Hughes lives in Gallatin.

Inmate indicted in murder-for-hire plot

By Alexander Quinones Gallatin News Examiner

TN-0000871226

funding from the Sumner County Commission to put school resource officers in all 45 Sumner schools and to make security upgrades at buildings.

“If legislation does become law, we will have a discussion about how to best implement that mandate for our county,” Phillips said.

Some local leaders feel there could be unintended consequences of such legislation. It could make school systems allowing teachers to carry guns less desirable to parents and recruiting teachers difficult, said Hendersonville board member Don Long, who serves on the Tennessee School Board Association’s board of directors.

There’s also the liability cost to consider, he said.

“There are too many unanswered questions,”

Long said. He maintains the argument leading to the 1978 GEMMILL shooting at Gallatin Junior High involving an assistant principal and a parent might never have escalated if an SRO had been there.

“That parent wouldn’t have been shot but more likely would’ve been arrested,” he said.

Former Gallatin High teacher and coach Donald Porter, a witness to the1978 shooting who testified at the trial, agreed that having more SROs in schools is a better solution.

“Being in education as long as I have, (I know) there are some teachers who don’t need to be able to carry guns,” said Porter, who retired in December after 42 years of

Todd: Principal should have served time

said.

Asked if it angered his father that an African-American was disciplining his son, Walter Todd said he didn’t feel race had played a part. His father was angry because Wytch called often over problems with his brother, he said. It took Ed Todd nearly a year to recover from his injuries, Walter Todd said. His brother, Ron, died in 1998 from kidney disease and Ed Todd died a year later from cirrhosis, Walter Todd said.

Harris discussed as possibility

Long: ‘too many unanswered questions’ »BILL FROM 1A

case was unusual not only because it involved a school administrator shooting a parent and the racial tension involved, but because the case went to trial so quickly and lasted late into the night.

The verdict was read just after1a.m. on a Saturday morning with several teachers and the family members of both men present, according to published reports in the Gallatin News Examiner.

Whitley remembered feeling unsure about the outcome of the case because it had many competing interests, he said.

“It’s bad that a parent would come in and be hostile (and provoke) a confrontation,” Whitley said. “There were clearly racial epithets cast about, but Mr. Wytch handled it extremely poorly.”

The Wytch case remains the only school shooting case he’s ever tried. He prays he never tries another, he said.

A Sumner County inmate was indicted last week for allegedly trying to hire a hitman from behind bars.

Frederick Lee Dietz, 63, of Hendersonville, was in jail for felony drug charges that carried a sentence of at least 15 years in prison, according to District Attorney Ray Whitley.

Law enforcement offi-

cials learned that Dietz, who had been in jail since October, Dietz was trying to hire someone on the outside to kill an old associate.

“He blamed his troubles on him,” Whitley said.

The Tennessee Bureau

of Investigation was called in to investigate after the plot was foiled, and a Sumner County grand jury indicted Dietz on Feb. 7 with one count of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

Whitley said no one else was charged in the plot, and no harm came to the person Dietz allegedly wanted killed.

Dietz remained at the Sumner County Jail on a $250,000 bond. His next court date is Feb. 22.

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ARREST MADE IN WAL-MART THEFT CASE, 3A

LADY BISON KNOCK OFF WHITE HOUSE, 1C

WEDNESDAY » SEPTEMBER 11, 2013 » GALLATIN, TENNESSEE » SERVING SUMNER COUNTY SINCE 1840

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Cities owe schools $1.5M Liquor-by-the-drink tax hasn’t gone to education for years in Gallatin, Portland

By Tena Lee Gallatin News Examiner

A portion of the state’s liquorby-the-drink tax intended for Sumner County Schools has not ended up in the hands of the school system, an oversight that means three Sumner cities now owe an estimated $1.5 million to education.

Business owners in Tennessee cities that collect a liquor-

by-the drink tax are required to remit a percentage of their sales to the state, which sends half back to the cities. Cities are then supposed to give half that amount – 25 percent of the original total – to the school system.

In Sumner, those cities are Gallatin, Hendersonville and Portland.

The issue is not unique to Sumner and other cities across the state have been dealing with

Phillips

Foste r

the problem, said County Finance Director David Lawing.

For Hendersonville, which passed its liquor-by-the-drink referendum in 1989, that means it hasn’t been handing over the money for education for nearly 24 years. Gallatin passed its ref-

erendum in 1996 and Portland did the same in 2009, Lawing said. The cities of White House and Goodlettsville, which both contain parts that fall in another county, don’t appear to have liquor-by-the-drink establishments in Sumner.

Lawing said early estimates show Hendersonville owes the school system $975,874 for tax collections made through June 30, though it has made two payments to the school system: $127,000 in April and $148,600 in August. Gallatin owes $489,960 after making three payments: $45,550 in April; $7,467 in June

and $7,842 in July. And Portland, which hasn’t made any payments, is on the hook for about $10,400.

Lawing said when he was made aware of the oversight earlier this year, he told Sumner County Schools Director Del Phillips, who had already received a payment from both the cities of Hendersonville and Gallatin.

Phillips notified school board members of the oversight in an email Sept. 4.

“We were made aware of this

» TAX, 5A

Portland students get safer walk to school State grant pays for sidewalk from Watt Hardison to nearby areas

By Dessislava Yankova Gallatin News Examiner

Walking and biking will be easier for some 476 students in Portland thanks to a recent grant.

Watt Hardison Elementary in Portland is receiving $232,179 as part of more than $2.1 million in state funds awarded to 15 municipalities through the Safe Routes to School program.

The nationwide program is designed to make bicycling and walking to school a safer, healthier and more appealing alternative for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

The majority of the grant will pay for a 1,200-foot sidewalk ex-

» SIDEWALK, 2A

Blake Forrester practices backstage during the Owen Bradley Music Festival and Talent Search in Westmoreland Saturday. MATTHEW DIGGS/FOR THE GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Westmoreland turns out to honor Owen Bradley

By Maria Giordano Gannett Tennessee

School board eyes middle college high school plan

By Jesse Hughes

For the Gallatin News Examiner

The Sumner County Board of Education will be voting this month on a proposal to start a middle college high school program in partnership with Volunteer State Community College.

If approved, 50 students would enter the program in fall 2014.

Schools Director Del Phillips described the middle college high school program as another opportunity “to try to give our students a competitive advantage” in the global economy. He rolled out the proposal with Vol State President Jerry Faulkner at the school board’s Sept. 3 meeting. Phillips called it a “collaborative effort” between the school system and Vol State.

“These are the types of things that we need to be busy doing, making happen for our students,” he said.

The program is designed for high school juniors who might not otherwise go to college, with the students completing two years of work for a high school degree while pursuing an associate’s degree at the same time.

All classes would be on the Vol State campus. Under Tennessee

» COLLEGE, 3A

Maybe famed country music producer Owen Bradley wouldn’t have liked the moniker “architect of the Nashville Sound” or a daylong celebration in his honor.

But the town of Westmoreland came out in force Saturday to honor its native son with the unveiling of a historical marker and talent contest.

Harold Bradley, the honoree’s brother and himself an ac-

MORE PHOTOS

See more photos from the festival on page 1B or at GallatinNewsExaminer.com

claimed guitarist, said Owen Bradley was a modest man, but a visionary all the same. The Owen Bradley Music Festival and Talent Search brought out his children, Patsy and Jerry Bradley, a few members of country music royalty and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, in addition to about 800 locals.

The festival and Owen Bradley’s recognition was an idea Westmoreland newcomer Jan Braun developed. The event planner for the Westmoreland Expo, Braun discovered Bradley was born off Trammel Creek Road in 1915. Bradley lived in Westmoreland until he was 7 before moving to Nashville.

He died in 1998 at the age of 82.

With the help of local writer

» BRADLEY, 5A

State of the City highlights growth

By Josh Cross Gallatin News Examiner

Gallatin Mayor Jo Ann Graves focused on Gallatin’s continued business and residential growth during her State of the City address Monday.

Graves delivered her annual address during the monthly Gallatin Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon, held at the Epic Event Centre in Gallatin.

“The word about Gallatin is spreading,” Graves said. “With proper planning and vision, we are building a foundation for success and making Gallatin the place to be in Tennessee.”

Increasing population

Graves said people are noticing what Gallatin has to offer, citing the city’s 33 percent increase in population since the last census to more than 30,000 people currently.

Gallatin Mayor Jo Ann Graves gave the State of the City address at the Epic Event Center on Monday. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA / GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

“Another indicator of Gallatin’s strength is our sales tax collections, which have been growing,” she said. “They are up 21 percent in four years.”

In the past year, the Gallatin Department of Electricity has added 270 new customers and Gallatin Public Utilities has

233,000 people in Sumner County read our newspapers and use our websites every week.

GallatinNewsExaminer.com

Events and musical performances were held across Westmoreland, a town of about 2,200 nestled in Sumner County, near the Kentucky border.

“A lot of times, you honor the people who made the hits, but not the people behind the music,” said Brenda Lee, the voice behind “I’m Sorry,” which Bradley produced. “To honor Owen, because I loved him, means the world. He took Nashville and its songwriters and the singers that he recorded to a whole new level.”

MetroMix.com

spent nearly $4.6 million in new infrastructure throughout the city.

“As a city, our responsibility is to provide services that our citizens need for their health, safety and welfare,” Graves said.

Graves also cited four new

pieces of equipment the city either received or secured funding for in the past year.

Earlier this year, the Gallatin Fire Department received a new 28-foot public safety boat as the result of a $250,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security. The department also received a $1.2 million grant for a new 75-foot ladder truck, which is currently on order.

In August, the Gallatin Police Department received, free of charge, a mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle from the Department of Defense. Before receiving the new vehicle, the department had to either use a 1980s military ambulance with little protection from gunfire or rely on Metro Nashville to bring an armored vehicle as part of a mutual-aid

» SPEECH, 4A

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GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Hendersonville - $975,874 Gallatin - $489,960 Portland - $10,400

will allow us to pay our share of the taxes previously due over a five-year period,” Foster said. “We will discuss in more detail as details become more accurate. I simply wanted you to be aware of the situation as soon as possible.

We included the current year’s taxes in this year’s budget and have paid the latest bill.”

Members of the Gallatin City Council were informed of the issue Tuesday, Sept. 3, during an executive session, according to Gallatin City Attorney Joe Thompson.

“This is an oversight that happened decades ago and we’re confident we can work together to find a solution that’s rea-

Caroline Moss, Braun took a year to research Bradley’s history and secure the historical marker. The sign will be placed on Highway 31 before its intersection with Highway 52, which leads into Westmoreland.

The festival and talent search, which drew 52 contestants, became a natural offshoot of celebrating Bradley, Braun explained.

Vendors lined the Ricky Woodard Community Park, while visitors parked lawn chairs under trees to hear a line up of music all day. Fifty-two talent show contestants arrived from as far away as Florida and Branson, Mo. The five judges unanimously selected Bethpage resident Jessica Jewel Garner as the winner.

Garner, who sang the country classic “Mule Skinner Blues,” won a prize package valued at about $10,000.

Featuring

Southern Rock & Kickin’ Coun y tr

Free Dance Lessons & Concert Line Dancing Lessons 5:30 “Mystery Cowboys” 6:30-9:30 Outdoor Free Concert No Cover Bring Blankets or Lawn Chairs Sumner Crest Wine is Permitted But No Other Alcohol Is Allowed

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Reporter Tena Lee can be reached at 575-7116 or tlee@mtcngroup.com.

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sonable for everyone involved,” school system spokesman Jeremy Johnson said Monday.

Lawing said he estimates the additional revenue to the school system will be about $200,000 a year – still small in comparison to the system’s $230 million annual budget.

It’s not clear yet what impact the loss of revenue will have on Hendersonville, Gallatin and Portland.

“They’re all in different circumstances,” Holt said. “We just want to make sure the money is collected for the school system but be fair to all entities involved. We don’t want to put an undue burden on the cities.”

TN-0000930829

issue earlier this year and began researching the legal and financial impact to our system/county/municipalities,” Phillips said in the email. “This is not a new issue but rather one that has gone unnoticed across many municipalities and school systems in Tennessee for many years. As is the case in many counties across the state, our local municipalities have been collecting and remitting the state's portion, but they haven't been remitting the school district’s portion to the school system.”

Phillips told board members he and County Executive Anthony Holt have been working with the mayors of each city to resolve the issue in a way that will lessen the impact to city budgets.

“In the next several weeks you will likely see these municipalities discuss resolutions outlining the details of those agreements,” he said in his email to board members.

“If the governing bodies of those municipalities approve our proposed agreements, they will eventually appear on the board agenda for your approval. Our intention is to treat all the impacted municipalities fairly and equally as we resolve this issue.”

Foster also notified members of the Hendersonville Board of Mayor and Aldermen by email Sept. 4.

“We have discussed a tentative resolution that

WHAT DO THEY OWE?

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FRIDAY » FEBRUARY 8, 2013 » GALLATIN, TENNESSEE » SERVING SUMNER COUNTY SINCE 1840

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County talks safety secrecy Vaughn wants public uninvited from meetings

By Jesse Hughes For the Gallatin News Examiner

Sumner County Commission leaders appear set to try to tilt the table against open meetings and public records by requesting a state law change to exempt meetings and information regarding the recently appointed Ad Hoc School Safety Committee.

County Attorney Leah Den-

nen informed commission committee members Monday that the ad hoc committee appears to fall under the Tennessee Open Meetings Act and Tennessee Public Records Act, commonly known as the Tennessee Sunshine Laws.

Sumner County Commission Emergency Services Chairman Jim Vaughn, who is also an Education Committee member, updated Education Committee members Monday on his plan to meet privately with ad hoc cochair Sheriff Sonny Weatherford to organize the ad hoc committee. Vaughn raised the issue of such school secrecy under

Vaughn

Weaver

his Emergency Services chairman report earlier to that committee and was later asked to update Education Committee members.

“The sheriff and I are going to get together just real briefly to set out the plan,” Vaughn said.

“We’ll have a plan in place sometime this week.”

Vaughn said there were concerns with “the fact that we have security measures which we are going to be laying out to the public in our huge committee, so we are addressing that on Capitol Hill. (We’re) working on trying to get something fixed so that we can do that and not have to be a public forum.”

“So, it’ll be a private meeting?” asked Education Chairman Paul Decker.

“We’re hoping,” Vaughn said.

“We’ll have to take a law change to get it done.”

Vaughn added that Dennen

FAIRVUE HOMEOWNERS REACT

was “working on that” with Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, R-Lancaster.

Founding Strong Schools member Maria Brewer said Wednesday she was opposed to keeping the records and meetings secret. Strong Schools is a parent-led grassroots advocacy group formed during the school board’s budget standoff with the County Commission in August 2012.

“We deserve to know what our elected officials are doing,” she said. “I can't see anything in school security measures that is

» SECRECY, 3A

BOARD OF EDUCATION

‘Committees are where things die’

Wise criticized for serving on county school safety board

By Jennifer Easton Gallatin News Examiner

Sandy Olandt, who lives on Potter Lane in Fairvue Plantation, expressed concern over a residential development proposed behind her home during a Gallatin City Council public hearing Tuesday. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Residents voice concern over development changes

By Josh Cross Gallatin News Examiner

Fairvue Plantation residents voiced their concern to the Gallatin City Council Tuesday about issues they have regarding a proposed development adjacent to their community.

More than 50 people attended a public hearing to discuss a major amendment to a plan for 27 acres of land that would be the site of The Retreat at Fairvue. Originally planned to be a residential hospice center, Goodall Builders wants to change the plan to instead include 130 multi-family unit condominiums.

At issue is the proposed connection of Chloe Drive with Noah Lane along with how best to shield residents along Potter Lane from a proposed road behind their homes.

“These two items in and of themselves can make this development work and protect the integrity of Fairvue Plantation,” Earl Fischer, president of Fairvue

» FAIRVUE, 3A

Sumner County Board of Education Chairman Ted Wise overstepped his duties as the board’s leader and should not have agreed to serve on a county committee to address school safety, school board members said at a study session Tuesday.

Hendersonville member Tim Brewer said while he believed Wise had good intentions, he should not have agreed to serve.

“The board didn’t want anybody on that committee. You took it on yourself to go be on that committee,” Brewer said.

“I believe you’ve overstepped over your boundary as chairman.”

The body Brewer referred Wise to was the 17-member county ad hoc school safety committee formed by County Commission Chairman Merrol Hyde in January in response to a $5 million school board funding request following the Dec. 14 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. The committee has not yet met.

Following discussion of placing security signage on school buildings, board members lamented at the Feb. 5 meeting that there had been little action from the commission concerning the request approved by the board Jan. 8 asking for up to $5 million for school security upgrades and funding for 38 school resource officers. Part of the district’s plan includes safety audits already underway analyzing areas of concern at each of the county’s 45 public schools which will determine what those upgrades will be.

Wise told members the school board’s request had been deferred to the commission’s ad hoc committee, of which he is a member.

Board disappointed in lack of action on funding request

Gallatin City Council members Jimmy Overton, front, and Steve Camp, back, look over a map handed out by Chloe Drive resident Jim Corbett Tuesday. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Made up mostly of law enforcement from around the county, the ad hoc committee is supposed to examine several security options for

» BOARD, 5A

Defense seeks mental health expert in Davis case

By Dessislava Yankova Gallatin News Examiner

A psychiatrist will assist the defense team of the Hendersonville teen who is accused of murdering his mother with a sledgehammer and attempting to kill his sleeping 16-year-old brother in August.

Sumner County Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay granted on Thursday, Jan. 31 a motion by Zachary Davis’s attorney, Randy Lucas, to have the state pay for a psychiatrist

to assist the defense until and during the week-long trial scheduled to begin Dec. 9.

A former Station Camp High School student, Davis, 15, is charged with first-deZachary Davis gree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated arson for allegedly killing

his mother, Melanie Davis, on Aug. 10 and trying to set fire to his home while his brother was sleeping.

Following his arrest, Davis reportedly confessed to Sumner County Sheriff's Office investigators that he had killed his mother with a sledgehammer and then tried to kill his brother by lighting the house on fire using gasoline and whiskey, according to previous reports and court records.

233,000 people in Sumner County read our newspapers and use our websites every week.

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Third mental health expert to examine Davis

The new mental-health expert will be the third to examine Davis since he was arrested the night of incident. Davis’s mental health was first examined by Dr. Sandy Phillips with Volunteer Behavioral Services. That led to Sumner County Juvenile Court Judge Barry Brown to determine that Davis could be tried as an adult.

Following Davis’s arraignment in October 2012, Lucas re-

quested another examination by a state mental health expert, saying his client was not “legally competent.” He also questioned the teen’s competency to stand trial and his sanity at the time of the incident.

Lucas said he requested the expert help “because (Davis’s) mental health issues are going to be the key issues in this case.”

The attorney has previously said that anyone who would have met Davis would have

» DAVIS, 5A

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GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Weaver looking at exempting safety plans from public » SECRECY FROM 1A

top secret. When folks choose to run for office, they represent us and they should be proud to have everything openly discussed among their constituents.”

The issue may focus on who appointed the committee and who the committee members are. The current committee was appointed by Sumner County Commission Chairman Merrol Hyde and has 17 members. Three are county commissioners.

The committee also includes Sumner County Board of Education Chairman Ted Wise.

If the same committee had been appointed by the county executive, it might not fall under requirements of the Sunshine Laws but would still be subject to questions of what was being kept secret and why. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, certain types of security planning were exempted from Sunshine Laws.

Frank Gibson, public policy director for the Tennessee Press Association, declined to comment on the issue Tuesday because no bill has been filed yet.

Weaver said she had not filed any legislation and was still assessing the information and request from the county.

“We’ve never crossed this bridge before with the Newtown event,” she said, referring to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December.

Capital projects

Shortly after the school security secrecy

discussion, Schools Director Del Phillips reported on the schools capital projects list.

Vaughn asked about breezeways and access control. Additions to Hendersonville High School and Gallatin High School are in the design phase. Incorporated into architectural plans for Hendersonville will be an accesscontrol point by the relocated office. One is not included in plans for Gallatin.

“I just wanted to be sure we do take into consideration all this new security control we are trying to get in place as we go through these issues,” Vaughn said.

Phillips said Hendersonville High would be reoriented to have a more secure entrance with the new addition and Decker spelled out details of the redesign.

Decker said another get-together of county commissioners and school board members was in the works. The last was in White House and the next is planned for Hendersonville. The purpose of the get-togethers was framed by county and school board leaders as a way to build a better working relationship between the two bodies.

The county Emergency Services Committee and Education Committee will both hold their March meetings at the new Emergency Operations Complex on Airport Road. Four members of the committees overlap.

Contributing writer Jesse Hughes lives in Gallatin.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2013 •

3A

Final reading scheduled Feb. 19 » FAIRVUE FROM 1A

Homeowners Association, told council members. “Simply said, separate the streets and build the wall.”

Jim Pope, who lives on Chloe Drive, told the council that the already narrow road would become more congested if it was connected to Noah Lane, thus increasing the possibility of potential accidents along the street.

“Any vehicles, whether it be mail service, garbage service, UPS, lawn maintenance service, movers or any other number of vehicles that use Chloe now creates a temporary road block,” he said. “If you couple this problem with having to back out of a garage onto Chloe as a thoroughfare, then the traffic and safety dangers go up exponentially.”

Mike Stanton, development manager for Goodall Builders, referred to the 2008 “Super Tuesday” tornado outbreak that left 14 dead in Macon County and the most recent tornadoes that swept through the area on Wednesday, Jan. 30, as a reason to connect the two roads to allow for better response time for emergency personnel.

“When seconds and minutes are important to the lives of people on both sides, it’s important to get emergency people in, so we think (connecting the roads) is important,” he said.

An engineering consulting report performed

by Robert E. Stammer, Jr. of Stammer Transportation Engineering Inc. for the Fairvue Homeowners Association in November 2012 included an estimate of the additional traffic flow that would be generated by The Retreat at Fairvue upon completion.

The study, which used the Institute of Transportation Engineer’s Trip

Generation Manual, Ninth Edition, 2012 estimated that 132 condos would result in an estimated 767 daily trips entering or exiting each weekday. On Saturdays, that number would drop to 748 trips and drop further to 639 trips on Sundays. The total number of weekly trips entering or exiting the proposed development was estimated at 5,222, according to the study.

“I think there was a comment of about 5,000 (trips) a week,” Stanton said. “If you look back at the Sumner Regional traffic study, it was like 65,000, so nowhere near the traffic that was approved under the Sumner Regional property.”

Potter Lane residents have other road concerns

Sandy Olandt and her husband Kurt, who live on Potter Lane, said that they are not opposed to the development itself but to a proposed road 20 feet from their property line behind their house.

Currently a six-foot tall aluminum fence with landscaping is being proposed to separate the Potter Lane homes from the road behind their houses.

The Olandts said that they want an eight-foot high brick wall to maintain their safety and privacy.

“I don’t want the road, but if they build a wall, you’re not going to have lights shining in our house,” Olandt said. “Do you go to a front yard barbecue? No, you go to a backyard barbecue.

Backyards are meant for privacy. It’s an oasis. It’s where you go.”

The Olandts, who moved into their home in May 2012, said that lack of an 8-foot wall will not only negatively impact their privacy, but the value of their home as well.

“If you’re going to buy like Fairvue, and we feel a house, are you going to like that’s not a good thing look at a house that has a as far as protecting the road in both your front property values,” he said. yard and your back But Stanton said that yard?” Sandy Olandt said. the approach to the simi“Nobody is going to buy lar designs was done in orthat, so when we talk der to keep the design about property value, for consistent with that of the us it’s not neighborthat he is “(The Retreat at ing upscale developing subdiviFairvue) is made sion. condos, and I want to look like “We look that to be at it from a really clear Fairvue, and we different – it’s the feel like that’s not angle and road.” that is what Stanton a good thing as we want to told the far as protecting make sure council that we are that the de- the property in harmony velopers with, what’s values.” had alin Fairvue,” ready Stanton told EARL FISCHER made nu- President, Fairvue HOA the council. merous “Could we modificago in and tions to the plan, including strip down things and do the elimination of two lots things differently and to include a proposed save money? Absolutely, roundabout, and that they but that’s not what we still want to connect Chloe wanted to do in this proDrive and Noah Lane, as ject.” well as keep a 6-foot aluThe anticipated averminum fence and land- age sale price after cusscaping in the plan in- tomer purchased options stead of opting for a brick over time is anticipated to wall divider. be about $250,000, with an “We feel that we have estimated monthly homeprovided all that we can owners association fee bewith our plan,” he said. tween $250 and $275 a “We believe that there month, Stanton said. should be connectivity.

Stanton urged the We believe that a brick council to vote to accept wall is unacceptable and or deny the proposed plan an unacceptable use when without any further you’re dealing with resi- changes. dential to residential.”

“We’ve given everything we have to give, and what we’re presenting Residents feel and what we have submitseparation will ted is what we’re going to protect property ask you to just vote yes or values no on,” Stanton said.

The second and final Fischer cited a petition signed by more than 320 reading for the proposed residents that he said major amendment is shows the support of the scheduled to go before the Fairvue Plantation com- council at its meeting at munity for the changes to Gallatin City Hall, 132 W. help separate the two de- Main St., Tuesday, Feb. 19 velopments and protect at 6 p.m. their property values.

“Like I presented tonight, (The Retreat at Contact Josh Cross at 575-7115 Fairvue) is made to look or jcross@mtcngroup.com.

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Halls left education legacy Board to discuss school name change Tuesday

By Jennifer Easton Sumner A.M.

Remembered as a generous, hard-working couple who helped others realize their potential, Billie James “B.J.” Hall and his wife, Evelyn Parker Hall, left their mark on education in Sumner County and influenced two generations of African-Americans.

Now, more than four decades after Sumner schools segregat-

ed, some want to see B.J. Hall’s name returned to the school where the late principal made strides to expand educa- B.J. Hall tional opportunities for black students.

The Sumner County Board of Education meets March 5 to discuss a proposal to rename Union STEM and Demonstration Elementary, originally built as an all-black elementary school, of which Hall was principal from 1949-69.

The honor is long overdue

said Bethpage school board member Will Duncan, who is proposing the name change.

Duncan and others who Evelyn Hall knew the Halls, both deceased, recalled their dedication to students and desire to help others.

“Mr. Hall never wanted any child to come to his school hungry,” Duncan said. “If they didn’t have clothes, he and his wife would buy clothes for them. Many times, Mr. Hall went to the bank and (co-signed

on loans) for people in the community.”

Before Sumner schools integrated in 1970, it was customary for the white schools to pass on their used books, furniture and other equipment to the black schools. The Halls were known to spend their own money on classroom resources to help level the playing field, said local historian Mary Malone, who attended Union Elementary in the late 1950s while B.J. Hall was principal.

“He (was someone) who believed that an education was not only to improve your life, but it enabled you to improve the lives of others, your community

and the world,” Malone said.

Malone remembered her former principal as a joyous man who delighted in handing out candy “that seemed to always be conveniently available in his coat pocket.”

Randy Offitt, also a student at Union Elementary in the late 1950s, remembered B.J. Hall as a respected authority figure who always took time for students but emphasized strong work ethic.

“If there was work to be done, you might have been given a little project to do, like moving rocks,” Offitt said. “He

» HALLS, 3M

Missing Wix girls case still unsolved

HEALTHY LIVING

By Sherry Mitchell Sumner A.M.

Health coach Nora James, left, trains Christian music singer and Hendersonville resident Jason Crabb at Destiny Cheer and Fitness in Gallatin on Wednesday, Feb. 27. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/SUMNER A.M.

Coach’s crash inspires career Once overweight, James now trains celebrities

By Dessislava Yankova Sumner A.M.

Doing sit-ups while throwing a weight ball back and forth with her health coach, Linda Torres reflected on her fitness progress.

“I couldn’t do a single sit up when I came here; not a single one,” Torres said while working out at Destiny Cheer and Fitness in Gallatin Wednesday. “Now, I’m so much stronger. I have muscles that I didn’t use to have, and things don’t hurt like

they used to hurt.”

Torres, along with many adults and children, some who are celebrities, come from near and far to the Gallatin facility several times a week to get healthier through a balanced diet and custom exercise, the simple wellness formula of their coach, Nora James.

A health coach and a personal trainer, James’ wellness philosophy grasps the belief that it’s never too late and no barriers are too high to achieve physical health, which reflects as an outside beauty.

“People stress themselves out too much about losing weight than being healthy,” said the 52-year-old James.

“And they have to know that eating and exercising go together when you want to achieve a healthy, fit lifestyle.”

With warm months around the corner, many people are starting to get in shape for the summer, but James emphasizes that healthy living should be a year-round pursuit.

“Fitness and good nutrition are so important, not just for a certain period of time,” said James, who lives in Hendersonville. “You want to build your muscle strength, stamina and nutrition over time, and you want to keep that as a lifestyle. Once you get all that in place, the outside will look good.”

Relating to clients

This isn’t reciting from wellness guides but words of wisdom from James’ own experience. While the mother of two grown children is more fit than most women her age, she didn’t always look that way.

“When people walk in here, I can understand their overeating,” she said. “You want to go somewhere, and your pants feel too tight, and you get upset, say forget it, and you get something to eat.

I can understand that because I used to be an overeater, and I used to be overweight.”

» CAREER, 5M

Schools could get 13 more SROs Officers would cost $1.2M in first year

By Jennifer Easton Sumner A.M.

In the first meeting of the county’s Ad Hoc Committee on School Safety Feb. 28, members unanimously approved a proposal to add 13 additional school resource officers to Sumner schools. Sheriff Sonny Weatherford initially recommended the addition of 12, saying it would be a proactive step toward the goal of putting an officer in every school.

The school board in January approved a request for 38 SROs and fund-

ing to make security upgrades to schools. The request was tabled by the county until an ad hoc committee could be formed to examine school safety.

“I think progress was made,” said school board Chairman Ted Wise. “Timing is a major factor because we’re competing with law enforcement agencies across the state and nation who are also trying to hire officers right now.”

Committee member County Com. Mike Guthrie, a school resource officer for Gallatin High School, amended the motion to include 13 SROs, with the recommendation that officers be assigned to the county’s 11 middle schools, Merrol Hyde Magnet School and R.T. Fisher Alternative School.

Weatherford’s office oversees the

SRO program, which currently includes eight officers stationed in seven Sumner high schools. He would ultimately decide where officers are assigned.

Weatherford School board members will meet March 5 to hear a report on recommended security upgrades, Pat Conner, Sumner Schools coordinator for Safe Schools, Healthy Students, told the committee.

Conner and law enforcement officials have worked for the last two months conducting safety assessments of all

» SCHOOLS, 2M

233,000 people in Sumner County read our newspapers and use our websites every week.

GallatinNewsExaminer.com

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It has been nearly nine years since Hendersonville resident Kathy Nale last saw her 21-year-old daughter, Jennifer Wix, and 2-year-old granddaughter, Adrianna. The pair vanished from the Cross Plains community of Robertson County on March 24, 2004.

The case remains unsolved after nearly a decade, leaving Nale with no idea whether her girls are even alive. On Saturday, April 6, hundreds of supporters are expected to attend the third annual Chain of Hope for Jennifer and Adrianna Wix — a bike ride aimed at keeping the girls’ names and information in the public eye, making sure they are never forgotten.

Nale last spoke to her daughter just days before her disappearance.

An official with the Robertson County Sheriff’s Office, who asked not to be identified, declined to comment on the case, saying only they had no new information to release and were continuing to follow leads.

The annual bike ride helps to keep information coming in, Nale said.

“Until we started doing this, there were a lot of people who never even knew the girls were missing,” she said.

“The more people who know about Jennifer and Adrianna, the more leads that are generated, and I don’t ever want anyone to forget them.”

The April 6 event will begin at 11 a.m. at the K-Mart on Long Hollow Pike in Goodlettsville. Riders leave at 12 p.m. and head to the Wal-mart in Springfield on Tom Austin Highway. A balloon release in honor of Jennifer and Adrianna will take place at 1:30 p.m.

From there, the ride will continue to Pine’s Saloon on Fred Perry Road in Springfield, where a live auction will be held at 4 p.m., and the band Gentry will perform.

“Last year, we had rocking chairs, guitars and certificates for haircuts, oil changes and meals at auction,” Leggo said. “We are also going to have a raffle this year.”

The event is free and open to the public but donations are accepted. Leggo said she hopes families will come out and support the girls.

Nale’s husband, Larry, said he expects between 500 and 1,000 bike riders for the event.

“I’m glad so many people are helping

» WIX, 2M

Jennifer Wix and her daughter Adrianna have been missing from Cross Plains for nearly nine years. The girls vanished on March 24, 2004. SUBMITTED

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Evelyn Hall was education veteran

Humble beginnings

Halls were a team

*21 AND OVER R

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B.J. Hall, principal of Durham’s Chapel School, is pictured with the eighth-grade graduating class of 1941. Seated: Deotha Malone, Ruby Banks Scott, Sallie Bragg Barr, Margaret Sadler Bransford. Standing: B.J. Hall and James Hudson. SOURCE: AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE IN SUMNER COUNTY

Halls said they not only cared for their students’ education, but also cared about them personally — for their safety and their souls.

As active members of First Baptist Church on East Winchester Street in Gallatin, the couple served in various leadership roles over the years, overseeing vacation Bible school programs as well as the Baptist Training Union. B.J. Hall was a deacon and clerk at the church.

“He’d say, ‘It doesn’t matter where you go in life but how you apply yourself: Work hard and things will happen,’” said Andrew Turner, the current principal of RuckerStewart Middle School.

Turner knew the Hall family well, having graduated from Union High School and attended college with Edward Hall, the couple’s only child.

Edward Hall died near Rosedale, Miss., in 2001.

Turner recalled how when he and Edward Hall were roommates at Mississippi Valley State University in the mid-1960s, B.J. Hall would often give the young men advice.

“When we would get ready to go back to college, he would stress to us how important our education was and pray over us to stay safe and out of harms way.”

Education and faith were always foremost in everything the couple did, said Rosie Hall Davis, who was married to Edward Hall from 1971-79.

“You couldn’t find any better people anywhere,” said Davis, who lives in Greeneville, Miss. “They really went out of their way to help others by giving their time, money — anything they could do to help someone, they would do.”

The pair’s retirement from education coincided with integration in 1970.

B.J. Hall, however, continued to work for the school system as a safety engineer until 1980.

Those who remembered the couple’s contributions to the community said they’d like to see both B.J. Hall and Evelyn Hall acknowledged with a school named in their honor.

“Anytime that we can acknowledge someone who served the community in the manner they did, I think that needs to be recognized,” Turner said.

School board policy requires proposals to rename an existing school facility be made publicly at a voting session and reviewed in a subsequent study session before a vote may be taken. The board is expected to take up the issue Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the district’s cen-

tral office at 695 E. Main Street in Gallatin.

Reporter Jennifer Easton can be reached at 575-7143.

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Together, the Halls worked as a team and in many respects were far ahead of their time, said local historian Velma Brinkley, who with Malone has authored two books chronicling AfricanAmerican history in Sumner County.

According to Brinkley, the couple was known to host parent-teacher events, birthday parties and enrichment programs after school and in the summers.

“These were things (aimed at) bringing parents in, because if you were an educator in a rural community and you didn’t have support of the parents, it would be exceedingly difficult (for the children),” Brinkley said.

Many who knew the

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TE IN TY T VO BESICIAN OUN C YS ER PH MN SU

A Sumner County native born in 1904 in the Hall’s Chapel community north of Gallatin, B.J. Hall learned early the value of education and hard work.

In his autobiography, B.J. Hall described how through hardship and poor means, he graduated high school in spring 1926 and soon after married Evelyn Parker, a home economics teacher at Union High School.

He began his teaching career the same year — in the fall of 1926 at Parker’s Chapel School in Portland — after earning a teaching certificate with 18 credits from Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Normal College (now Tennessee State University) in a single summer.

For the next 20 years, he worked toward completing his degree while also working during the school year at Union High School and Durham’s Chapel in Bethpage.

He put himself through college and supported his family in the summers by taking various jobs, including as a rubber plant worker, railway porter, farm laborer, and dishwasher, he said in an interview with the Nashville Banner, published May

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really wanted us to take pride in our school.”

Maggie Brown, of Gallatin, who was the cafeteria manager at Union Elementary when B.J. Hall was the principal there, expressed her support for the name change.

“Other schools have people’s names on them and I think if (Union) should be called anything, it should be ‘B.J. Hall,’” Brown said.

27, 1980.

“The going was very grim, as funds for this work was scarce,” B.J. Hall said in his autobiography. “We have labored hard and long in the county in order to make life’s work a bit more comfortable for those who follow.”

Evelyn Parker Hall worked for the school system for 46 years, for most of which she was the school system’s “Jeanes supervisor,” overseeing black teachers. The position of “Jeanes teacher” and “Jeanes supervisor” was unique to AfricanAmerican education in the 20th century, named for Anna T. Jeanes, a white Philadelphia Quaker who established a fund for black education in the early 1900s. Sumner County’s first black Jeanes supervisor of schools was Fannie Harrison, who was appointed in 1918.

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Uninsured in Sumner estimated at 21,000 Federal health care exchange opens enrollment Tuesday

By Sherry Mitchell Gallatin News Examiner

With enrollment opening for the federally facilitated healthcare exchange next week, an estimated 21,000 uninsured adults in Sumner County may be faced with the decision to buy coverage or face penalties from the IRS.

Volunteer State Community College student Jacob Marina, 21, is among the uninsured, working part-time while he’s in school.

Standing outside the Wood Campus Center Thursday, he said he was aware of the upcoming mandate, but wasn’t sure how he would pay for it on his limited income.

“I honestly don’t think I can afford it, but I guess I will have to try to get some,” Marina said. “I think, overall, it would help if we had a (totally) funded government healthcare system.”

Marina is among the 21,253 or 15.1 percent of residents in Sumner County between the ages of 18 and 64 who are Marina currently uninsured, according to information released in September by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Starting Tuesday, Oct. 1, residents can go online to sign up for individual coverage and see if

PERCENTAGE OF UNINSURED

BY COUNTY Williamson

9.2 Wilson

13.8

they qualify for a government subsidy on premiums. Local residents can choose a plan from the federally facilitated healthcare exchange – a requirement that has been received with mixed feelings by some. The mandate was implemented after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare.

The new law requires every resident to have coverage by 2014 or pay a fine. For individuals, the fine for the first year is $95 and

» UNINSURED, 5A

Sumner

15.1 Rutherford

16.5 Robertson

17.7 Davidson

19.4

Project may be boost for economy

A purr-fect friend

TVA plans to bring 900 workers to city

By Josh Cross Gallatin News Examiner

Sugar the cat is eager to get a treat from resident Virginia Gilliam, 90, on a recent Wednesday afternoon at Morningside of Gallatin assisted-living home. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Judge rules no abuse in civil suit against schools

By Sarah Kingsbury Gallatin News Examiner

A Sumner County teacher may have treated six special needs children in a “rough and inappropriate’’ manner but it did not rise to the level of abuse and the school system is not responsible for what happened, a judge ruled last week.

The suit, filed in 2011, involved six children who had attended either Beech Elementary or Station Camp Elementary.

In many instances, the special judge Jane Wheatcraft found that even if the incidents could be considered abuse, half the fault would be on the parent or teacher for not immediately reporting it, making the civil claim moot. The ruling cited several incidents addressed during the trial that were not

ONLINE

Read the complaint filed against the school system and the judge’s ruling at GallatinNewsExaminer.com

found to be abusive, such as requiring a child who often took her shoes off to walk around barefoot, or pulling or shoving a child in a rough manner but without causing physical injury.

One of the alleged victims “was made to clean up her own fesces (sic) to teach her to take control of her bodily functions” but the court “did not find that to be abusive.”

Wheatcraft ruled Sept. 16 that the parents who sued the school system did not sufficiently prove that abuse had occurred, though the behavior of the accused teacher,

» LAWSUIT, 4A

Two teams from the White House volleyball league square off inside the old gym at city hall on Thursday, Sept. 19. A renovation project will soon begin on the gym. NICOLE YOUNG/GANNETT TENNESSEE

White House invests in rec hall

By Nicole Young Gannett Tennessee

Work is slated to begin next week on a gym renovation project at White House City Hall.

The board of mayor and alderman took its first steps on the project, approving a bid of more than $75,500 to replace the roof over the old gym, during its Thursday meeting.

“That gym goes all day long every day,” said White House City Administrator Gerald Herman. “From seniors walking

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Local leaders hope the $1.1 billion project at the Gallatin TVA Fossil Plant to reduce emissions will benefit the city economically when 900 workers arrive in Sumner County to help with the project.

More than 50 people, including local business owners and representatives, attended a TVA business outreach meeting at city hall in Gallatin Monday to talk about how they can best prepare for the influx of workers in the community.

“We are excited about (the project) not only because it keeps our plant open, but also because it provides jobs and an economic boost to this community,” Mayor Jo Ann Graves said during the meeting.

As part of the multi-year project, four scrubbers will be installed at the plant to cut sulfur dioxide emissions and reduce nitrogen oxide levels. Once complete, the project is expected to help reduce certain emissions by as much as 96 percent.

While TVA estimates that as many as 900 contract workers will be needed to complete the installation of the scrubbers, the majority will be on-site during a12-month period beginning next year.

More than 750 of the workers will be at the plant from April 2014 until April 2015, said Ron Nash, vice-president of major projects for General Construction, the company responsible for building the addition.

Clay Haynes, owner of Haynes Properties, attended Monday’s meeting.

Haynes, whose company manages multiple rental properties throughout the city, said that the TVA project presents a “tremendous opportunity” for both the real estate industry and local businesses.

“One of the biggest reasons why I’m here is (to see) how I can support the local businesses that I lease to and help empower them to market directly to these new customers that are going to be in town,” Haynes said. “The more income they have coming in, the more viable their businesses will be.”

early in the morning to kids playing basketball in the afternoon, it’s always hopping. And it is desperately in need of some work.”

The board had originally set aside $300,000 for the project, which includes replacing the gymnasium floor, putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls, adding air conditioning and refurbishing the heating system, in its 2013-14 budget.

The roofing project was not

The Gallatin Area Chamber of Commerce plans to give each new worker a bag when they ar-

» GYM, 3A

» TVA, 5A

Business outreach

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GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Portland hosts second 5K for Relay for Life

Shavanna Blankenship at the 5K for Relay for Life and 1-mile Fun Run/Walk at Watt Hardison Elementary School in Portland on Saturday, Sept. 21.

MATTHEW DIGGS/FOR THE GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Bryson and Dylan Hill help direct participants in the 5K for Relay for Life and 1-mile Fun Run/Walk at Watt Hardison Elementary School in Portland on Saturday, Sept. 21. MATTHEW DIGGS/FOR THE GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

ONLINE

See more photos from the Portland 5K for Relay at GallatinNewsExaminer.com

Katie and Jeff Todd have a great time together at the 5K for Relay for Life and 1-mile Fun Run/Walk at Watt Hardison Elementary School in Portland on Saturday. MATTHEW DIGGS/FOR THE GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Jackie Wilber and Portland Mayor Ken Wilber participate in the 5K for Relay for Life and 1-mile Fun Run/Walk at Watt Hardison Elementary School in Portland on Saturday, Sept. 21. MATTHEW DIGGS/FOR THE GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Judge: treatment ‘inappropriate,’ but not abusive »LAWSUIT FROM 1A

Donna Weidenbenner, was in some cases “rough and inappropriate.”

Weidenbenner, was indicted on three counts of felony child abuse in 2009 but pleaded no contest and received six years of probation. As part of her plea deal, she agreed to have a criminal record that includes three child abuse convictions and to have no contact with children through any volunteer organization, or ever teach again. The criminal investigation “involved children with special needs that were force-fed,” according to the court transcript.

The civil case was originally filed in federal court but was dismissed. An appeal to the Sixth Circuit also was dismissed.

“The court found we fell short and that happens in lawsuits but at the end of the day these children had to have their day in court and we made sure they got it,” said Clint Kelly, of The Kelly Firm, which represented all of the families in the

state case. “We just did not have any evidence of physical abuse, which would have been a totally different case, but what this teacher did was totally unconscionable.”

“Somebody’s got to take these cases and they’re hard to take, especially with handicapped children,” Kelly said.

“But if we don’t speak for them, nobody will.”

Todd Presnell, a partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Nashville, who served as lead trial counsel for the Sumner County Board of Education, called the ruling a “victory for the school board and the teachers and the principals and everybody in the school system.”

“These children were not abused and that’s what a large part of this trial was about,” he said.

Presnell said the lawsuit was “a tough case all the way around” that at times “rose to the salacious level.”

The school system has not made any changes as a result of the criminal charges and civil lawsuits that stemmed from

Weidenbenner’s actions, Presnell said. “The policies and procedures that we have in place are very strong with respect to observing and reporting child abuse type incidents,” he said.

The out-of-pocket expense to the school system to fight the cases was about $250,000, with the rest covered by insurance, said Sumner County Schools spokesman Jeremy Johnson.

That number might come down because the plaintiffs were ordered to pay $67,000 in attorneys fees in the federal case, he added.

Judge revisits records

The majority of evidence related to the case will have to be reviewed before it is made public, Wheatcraft decided last week. She plans to review thousands of pages of documents to determine whether the public will ever have access to the records, which detail how school administrators handled the alleged abuse of the elementary school children.

Wheatcraft was appointed by the Tennessee Supreme

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Court to preside over the case after Sumner County Circuit Court Judge Buck Rogers recused himself. Rogers’ wife, Lyle Rogers, works for Hendersonville High School.

“I have written to the attorneys on both sides and said that probably what I need to do – I understand these are public records – but what I need to do is probably go through each of the 177 exhibits and see which ones need to be under seal,” she said Thursday. Exhibits of evidence attached to lawsuits are typically public record unless sealed in a court.

Wheatcraft decided to revisit the the thousands of pages of exhibits related to the suit after the Gallatin News Examiner tried to obtain copies of some of the records Thursday. The court specifically refused to release copies of letters frequently cited in the civil case that were written by two teachers whose reports of the abuse led to Weidenbenner’s dismissal from the school system.

When the News Examiner requested copies of the letters,

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court clerks questioned whether they were public record and contacted Wheatcraft, who decided to withhold the documents. She also decided to reexamine whether the other thousands of pages should be retrospectively placed under seal.

Sealed court records are typically separated from the rest of a court file and are often placed in an actual sealed envelope and labeled as such so they will not be accidentally mixed in with other records. The records requested by the News Examiner were in a binder with hundreds of pages of other documents.

But Wheatcraft also said it was within her power as a judge to instruct a clerk to withhold a record that was not sealed. She said the intent was to protect the children from being identified, though the court clerks also refused to release copies of the records with the children’s names redacted. She said it was “not uncommon” for a judge to review and seal records after a case has been ruled upon.

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WEDNESDAY » MAY 29, 2013 » GALLATIN, TENNESSEE » SERVING SUMNER COUNTY SINCE 1840

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New standards raise questions

WALTER DURHAM 1924 | 2013

Educators say Common Core sets higher expectations

By Jennifer Easton Gallatin News Examiner

While the push toward the multi-state educational standards known as Common Core has drawn recent debate in Tennessee and around the nation, a panel of local educators addressed questions and misconceptions about what implementing the standards will mean for students and teachers at a meeting hosted by the Sumner County Republican Women’s Club May 18.

Adopted in Tennessee in 2010, the Common Core initiative was a statedriven, bipartisan effort spearheaded by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. The movement was aimed at reforming schools to better prepare students for college and career readiness.

In all, 45 states have signed on. With Common Core, states will for the first time be teaching the same standards at each grade level across the nation.

But opponents of the Common Core movement have accused President Barack Obama’s administration of bribing states with Race to the Top dollars to get them to sign on to an unproven set of standards. Less challenging standards, loss of local control, involvement of federal dollars and invasive tracking of student data are among opponent’s concerns.

The pushback is perhaps being fueled by a misunderstanding of Common Core, panelists said. The new standards will emphasize not only student knowledge, but students will also be expected to be able to apply what they know through higher-level, critical

» COMMON, 4A

Tennessee state historian and longtime Gallatin resident Walter Durham died Friday, May 24, at age 88. THE TENNESSEAN/FILE

Historian and lifelong Gallatin resident Walter Durham dies at 88

By Sarah Kingsbury Gallatin News Examiner

and Joey Garrison Gannett Tennessee

Lifelong Gallatin resident Walter Thomas Durham, Tennessee’s state historian for the past decade and author of 24 books on Tennessee history, who left a lasting mark especially in his hometown, died on Friday at the age of 88.

Durham, a longtime Gallatin

ONLINE

Read about and see photos of Walter Durham’s funeral service at GallatinNewsExaminer.com.

tion of Nashville during the Civil War, Tennesseans’ roles during westward expansion to California, and a commemorative timeline of Gallatin’s history for the city’s bicentennial, for example.

» DURHAM, 3A

April murder suspect arrested

By Josh Cross Gallatin News Examiner

Station Camp High School English teacher James Dittes asks students questions about passages in a reading assignment. Dittes applied Common Core standards to his classroom this year. JENNIFER EASTON/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

businessman and a walking encyclopedia of Tennessee and Sumner County history, was appointed state historian in 2002 by then-Gov. Don Sundquist. He had already served as president of the Tennessee Historical Society, founding president of the Tennessee Heritage Alliance, later renamed the Tennessee Preservation Trust, and chair of the Tennessee Historical Commission.

His books spanned a wide range of areas: the Union Army’s occupa-

A Nashville man was arrested Thursday and charged with shooting and killing 23-year-old Rameon Wilson outside a Gallatin apartment complex in April.

Police arrested Keanthony Dillard, 40, also known as “Cruna” Thursday, May 23, and charged him with first-degree murder.

Wilson was shot in the head at close range in front of building three of Green Wood Apartments on Green Wave Drive next to Gallatin High

School April 15. Wilson, who had multiple gunshot wounds to the head, was transported by helicopter to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he died the next day.

Dillard Police interviewed Dillard and another person of interest April 25, but both were questioned and released. As the investigation continued, a confidential informant contacted authorities and told investigators that he was present when Dillard

shot Wilson, according to an arrest affidavit. Two other people also gave statements that Dillard had admitted to the shooting.

The affidavit said police determined Dillard shot Wilson because Wilson had allegedly attempted to rob Dillard at a party April 13. Dillard has known gang affiliations in Nashville, a Gallatin Police Department press release said.

Dillard was still being held in the Sumner County Jail without bond Friday. His next court date is scheduled for June 19.

Reporter Josh Cross can be reached at 575-7115.

THE BELL TOWLES

Highway safety is hurry up and wait proposition

There’s never a satisfactory “why” to explain the cause of a serious traffic accident, especially a tragic mishap where death is involved. Common factors include alcohol, sleep deprivation, tailgating, weather, speeding or disregard for other rules of the road, or a combination thereof.

While such tragedies are horribly painful for loved ones and friends of the deceased, some highway deaths strike deeper because of the circumstances involved. I’m thinking

» MIKE TOWLE of the recent May 18 head-on crash on Hartsville Pike in Gallatin that took the lives of siblings Kyle Shrum and Amy

Shrum. They were both in their 20s, and from what we gleaned in Sarah Kingsbury’s elegant piece in this past Friday’s Gallatin News Examiner, Kyle and Amy were about as close as a brother and sister can be.

Heartbreaking.

The driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash, looking to avoid cars stopped in front of him waiting for another driver to turn left into a residence, swerved his Chevrolet truck into the oncoming lane, putting him on a deadly

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collision course with the Shrums’ vehicle. No doubt he wishes he could have a do-over of those few seconds.

Certainly, the driver of the Chevy truck faces some type of culpability, possibly even criminal charges, although two-lane roads on which vehicular traffic typically whizzes by at speeds in the 50s, or even 60s and 70s and above thanks to clueless morons, can bear bad consequences even for drivers otherwise responsible and law-abiding. There’s little

room for error on these highways, and Tennessee has lots of those outdated roads.

A word to the wise that never gets old: watch your speed and keep plenty of distance between you and the car in front of you. Drive busy two-lane roads always assuming that beyond the next curve or dip there might be a car ground to a halt in your lane, waiting to turn left, perhaps even without use of a turn

» TOWLE, 7A

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GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Survey finds teachers need tools for Common Core »COMMON FROM 1A

thinking skills, educators said. Common Core puts less focus on traditional instruction and memorization and emphasizes collaborative learning.

The number of standards taught will drop dramatically. Fewer concepts will allow teachers to drill down main content and spend more time exploring different ways to solve problems.

“Common Core is the key to putting the thinking and learning back to our students,” said Linda Cash, assistant dean of graduate education at Union University’s Hendersonville campus. “(It’s going to) have them analyze critically, make decisions and have them back up what they’re saying and not just how they feel about it,” Cash said.

At Union, teachers are being taught to “integrate everything,” Cash said.

“We’re not just going to have math, science, social studies: Students are going to be reading across the curriculum, writing across the curriculum, so it all begins to connect.”

Concern that local school districts no longer have control over curricula is a misconception, said Len Silverman, owner and director of Huntington Learning Center of Hendersonville.

“Its like if you’re going to build a house … the very first thing you have to do is find out what the codes are in your area and you have to abide by the codes, and that’s it: you can build the house anyway you want to build it,” Silverman said.

“They’re saying: ‘These are the things we want for your children to be able to do,’” he said. “(The federal government) is not telling you how to do it.”

Common Core in practice Station Camp High School teacher James Dittes also rejected the notion that Washington D.C. is telling him what to teach in his English classes.

Just before the school year ended, Dittes’ had his 11th grade English class read passages from three books: “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac, “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain — all material Dittes chose.

“As a teacher I can pull out any tools for any assignment and use them; that’s my freedom. I’m not given a blueprint of what some teachers in Kansas or Michigan are using,” said Dittes, who also serves as a Common Core coach for the state Department of Education.

Applying Common

ducted in March 2013, found strong support for the standards, but a great concern about districts’ inadequate work to successfully implement the standards. AFT President Randi Weingarten called for a moratorium on consequences of Common Core-aligned assessment outcomes for teachers, students and schools until it can be properly fieldtested and implemented.

In Sumner County, the district will decide within the next few weeks, after the release of spring testing data, whether to fully implement Common Core for the 2013-14 school year, Brown said.

Common Core and student privacy

Station Camp High School juniors Chandler Tolbert, McCall Cantrell and Bailey Tucker defend their analyses of different authors’ writing style in a classroom debate. The students’ teacher, James Dittes, this year began more focused application of Common Core Standards that require higher-level critical thinking skills. JENNIFER EASTON/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Core, his students wrote an analysis of what each author was communicating in particular passages and style. Later, Dittes’ students defended their viewpoint in a classroom debate and challenged one another. Dittes began applying the new standards this year, which he explained pushes students to the highest of educational goals in Bloom’s Taxonomy, a classification of learning levels developed by educators in 1956. Common Core focuses on getting students to learn at the highest levels on the Bloom’s Taxonomy scale, which takes learners from the remembering and understanding stages up to evaluating and creating stages. “(Before Common Core,) a lot of times I would teach for comprehension, asking ‘What happened in the story? Do you know who the main characters are?’” Dittes said. “That used to get by, but now we’re asking tougher questions like, “How did the person write it?”

“Kids now have to put more thinking into not only what they are writing but also at the time they’re reading,” he said.

The new standards are rigorous and hold all students accountable in the same way, said Scott Langford, an assistant principal of White House Middle School who serves on the state’s Common Core Leadership Council.

“What I’m excited about (with) Common Core is that from the time a child enters kindergarten, we will have the same expectations for them that we do for that child in (honors classes)” Langford said. “There’s no reason we can’t do it.”

Scott Langford, assistant principal of White House Middle School and a member of the state’s Common Core Leadership Council talks about new Common Core Standards being implemented in Tennessee schools at panel discussion hosted by the Sumner County Republican Women’s Club on May 18. The panel included five education experts from Sumner County and around Middle Tennessee. JESSE HUGHES/FOR THE GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Critics: New standards unproven

Rather than raising student achievement and accountability, Common Core standards will dumb down academics, opponents said after the meeting. Not enough time has been spent implementing and testing Common Core, some said.

“I’m very concerned,” said Debbie Tallman of Hendersonville. “These students are our doctors and lawyers coming up.

Do I want a doctor operating on me that (hasn’t been taught as well?)”

Brenda Causey, a Robertson County mother of six who home schools, attended the panel discussion and expressed concerns about how it could impact her children.

“The thing that bothers me most — that I know will affect my children —is that home schooling curriculum is heading toward that,” Causey said.

When her children graduate and take college

entrance tests, they’ll be unfairly tested on Common Core-aligned material, she said. Causey also expressed concern about the possibility of the collection of student data she fears could be sold to third parties.

“We’re not saying education doesn’t need to be better; it does,” Causey said. “But not in this federally mandated kind of way.”

Cheri Lamb of Hendersonville feels her grandchildren “lost a year” of learning in their elementary classrooms where Common Core has been applied. She plans to spend the summer reviewing math skills with her grandchildren and teaching them cursive writing, she said.

While it’s true that Common Core doesn’t address cursive writing, Sumner teachers do still teach the skill, although they spend much less time on practicing it now, said Jennifer Brown, director of instruction for Sumner County Schools.

“Quite frankly, because our entire society is writing less and less and typing more and more, we need to be in the business of preparing students, from a very early age, to type and develop keyboarding skills,” Brown said. “While beautiful penmanship is a coveted art, I do not know of any employers who request a sample or demonstration of cursive handwriting."

Her staff has spent the past two years researching and implementing the standards, which she said are more rigorous than before. Algebraic concepts are now introduced in kindergarten for example, Brown said.

Survey results

A survey of 800 K-12 teachers, released May 3 by the American Federation of Teachers, showed 75 percent supported the Common Core initiative, yet only 27 percent said their school districts provided them with the tools needed to teach the standards. The survey, con-

The idea that Common Core invades student privacy is a “major myth,” said J.C. Bowman, executive director for the Professional Educators of Tennessee (PET). The same laws that have governed student assessments and privacy still apply, he said.

Bowman said PET advocates and encourages that local school boards go the extra mile by crafting policy banning the collection of identifiable student data from the federal government.

“If that’s the No. 1 issue people have with (Common Core), let’s address it,” Bowman said.

Sumner County Director of Schools Del Phillips said he doesn’t take a side on the issue, but has a simple answer when parents ask why the district is using Common Core.

“Because the state says we’re going to,” Phillips said. “Our students are going to be tested using Common Core state standards. If we don’t prepare for that, that’s a disservice to students.”

Standards have consistently been revised in education, he said. As far as data-mining of student information goes, only diagnostic information for individual students is collected to help them improve. “(We) were data mining when a teacher graded a test and gave them back with three red check marks and (then) wrote it down in the grade book. That’s a key component for doing what’s necessary for the student,” Phillips said. “If (opponents) are talking about us giving that information to the state, that’s another issue with how the state holds districts accountable. You have to establish testing programs and have some way to rate your schools. That’s happened for a long time and it happens in every state.”

Reporter Jennifer Easton can be reached at 575-7143 or jeaston@mtcngroup.com

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SUMNER A.M. SUNDAY » APRIL 28, 2013 » GALLATIN, TENNESSEE » SERVING SUMNER COUNTY SINCE 1840

50¢

School fees pay for basics

By Jennifer Easton Sumner A.M.

Sumner County Schools collected about $1.8 million in school fees for the 2012-13 school year, all of which is money parents can’t be required to pay, but school officials say they couldn’t survive without.

The fees, ranging from $45 per student in elementary school up to $150 for a high school cosmetology class, can’t be legally required of parents

for normal instruction during the school day.

The money collected in elementary and middle school goes toward Silkwood classroom materials such as workbooks and technology. It also pays for items such as report card envelopes, copy paper, batteries, and printer ink,

according to principals’ requests on file at the district’s central office.

In high school, students are asked to pay fees – most ranging from $8-$15 – for nearly every class they take.

“Most parents realize without the fees, we couldn’t do what we do,” said Hendersonville board member Vanessa Silkwood, who has pushed to reduce and standardize the fee scale.

Last year, the board approved Silkwood’s proposal to reduce

elementary fees from $65 to $45.

The district in last year’s budget provided a $10-per-student allocation for instruction.

Increasing that allocation would be one way to reduce the fees next year, Silkwood said.

“We can’t eliminate (the fees) completely, I don’t think, but we’ve also got to look at how we’re prioritizing our spending on the school board level,” Silkwood said. “There are different things maybe we could not

ONLINE

View a breakdown of school fees by program at GallatinNewsExaminer.com

spend so much money on and try to reduce the fees and the things that we rely on parents and (Parent-Teacher Organizations) for.”

Being hit with extra costs can be an eye-opening experience for families who move in

» FEES, 4M

Audit committee aims to head off repeat findings

SETTLEMENT HEARING

By Jesse Hughes For Sumner A.M.

Mitchell Beverly Jr., 23, in Sumner County Criminal Court Thursday before pleading guilty to his involvement in two 2012 home invasions in Gallatin and Castalian Springs. His mother, pictured at right, was the person in attendance besides the judge and attorneys. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/SUMNER A.M

Accomplice pleads guilty in home invasion cases .

Beverly reaches plea deal in 2012 Sumner rapes and robberies

By Dessislava Yankova Sumner A.M.

One of three men charged in two 2012 home invasions and rapes pleaded guilty Thursday and could face up to 24 years in jail.

Mitchell Beverly Jr., 23, pleaded guilty April 25 in Sumner County Criminal Court to eight of

15 total charges that followed after he and co-defendants Dewayne Fleming, 21, and Emonnie D. Branch Jr., 19, were arrested in 2012 for their alleged involvement in two incidents — one in Gallatin and another in Castalian Springs.

Branch and Fleming’s cases were in court earlier Thursday for a settlement hearing that was continued to June 10 to give Branch’s newly appointed attorney, Gary Williams, time to prepare for the case. Williams is the fifth attorney the state has appointed to defend Branch, court

documents show.

Crimes

The first home invasion leading to charges against the defendants took place on Harsh Lane in Castalian Springs in June 2012.

During a preliminary hearing in October, the wife and husband who were victimized testified that they were almost asleep when two men wearing masks appeared in the doorway. The woman said she was raped multiple times in the bathroom while her

» INVASION, 5M

Lowe will serve life sentences at same time, judge adds 25 years

By Tena Lee Sumner A.M.

Paula Lowe hugs her daughter Lindsey Lowe before the jury returned a guilty verdict during Lindsey’s murder trial for killing her newborn twins in March. The convictions meant two automatic life sentences for Lowe. On Friday, a judge sentenced her to an additional 25 years for an aggravated child abuse charge, and ruled that all three sentences would be served at the same time, rather than consecutively.

FILE/GEORGE WALKER IV/GANNETT TENNESSEE

The testimony Friday of Lindsey Lowe’s friends and family, as well as more than 80 letters written on her behalf, didn’t prevent Sumner County Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay from handing down the maximum sentence for two counts of aggravated child abuse.

The 26-year-old Hendersonville woman was convicted in March of two counts each of felony firstdegree murder, premeditated first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the 2011 deaths of her two newborn sons.

The murder convictions carried automatic life sentences, and Gay decided Friday that those sentences would be served at the same time instead of back to back. He also sentenced Lowe to the maximum sentence of 25 years on each of her aggravated child abuse counts. Lowe will be eligible for parole in 51 years.

More than 60 Lowe supporters – friends, family and fellow City Road United Methodist Church members – sat in the courtroom at Friday’s sentencing, wearing stickers on their lapels with a pho-

A “very unfavorable” financial audit led the Sumner County Commission to form a special committee April 15 to review the repeated findings and prevent them from happening again.

The fiveFrank Freels member committee, which will be chaired

by County Com. Frank Freels, was a voluntary effort of the county, though in some cases the state can require the formation of such a body if certain criteria aren’t met, a spokesman for the state Comptroller’s Office said. The requirement would typically be enforced if a county has problematic recurring findings for three years or more.

“We have got some discrepancies in some departments, and we want to get them corrected and

get everybody following our procedures,” Freels said Friday. “Everyone needs to be familiar with our procedures.

“We just cannot have some of these write-ups in these audits,” he added.

State auditors listed 12 unfavorable findings on how county offices conduct their business in ways that affect financial reporting, are not in compliance with auditing standards and/or federal laws, or whose internal controls do not adequately safeguard taxpayer assets.

The audit from the state came in with an unqualified, or clean, opinion, though some uncorrected findings were similar to those in prior years.

Of the12 findings, one was a material weakness in internal control. To auditors, “material” means it is important. There were seven significant deficiencies in internal control. There were also four findings of noncompliance.

The audit committee’s first meeting is scheduled

» AUDIT, 6M

ONLINE

Read the full version of the county audit at GallatinNewsExaminer.com

Comedian entertains at Educate A Woman lunch

The Volunteer State Community College Foundation held its sixth annual Educate a Woman Luncheon April 26 at Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville. Nearly 400 attended the event, which serves as a major fundraiser for scholarships for local women to attend Vol State. So far, the foundation has raised nearly $100,000 to help further the education of more than 25 women in Sumner County.

Pictured above, renowned comedian, Sylvia Leake provided the entertainment for guests. SHERRY MITCHELL/SUMNER A.M.

» LOWE, 3M

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NEWS

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Cottontown fire destroys sheds, vehicles Wednesday

By Josh Cross Sumner A.M.

A fire destroyed two sheds and two cars at a home in Cottontown Wednesday.

No injuries were reported.

The blazed on the 200 block of West Biggs Road started around 2:30 p.m.

No one was home at the time of the fire, said Sumner County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Brad Rowell.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

A fire destroyed two cars and two sheds in Cottontown Wednesday. JOSH CROSS/SUMNER A.M.

SUMNER A.M.

Holt says he will run in 2014 For Sumner A.M.

Sumner County Executive Anthony Holt said Tuesday he plans to run for re-election in 2014.

His campaign kickoff event is scheduled for May 9, within one year of the May 6, 2014, partisan primaries that will decide the ballot for the Aug. 7, 2014, county general election.

Holt, who is again running as a Republican, passed out invitations to his $50-per-head fundraiser in the parking lot

throughout the county.

His year-end report showed a $22,469 balance on hand.

Holt first won the county executive seat in a November 2008 special election. He was unopposed in both the primary and general election when he ran for a full four-year term in 2010.

Holt entered politics in 1990 as one of 16 new members of the 24-member County Commission.

after the County Commission Budget Committee adjourned its first budget hearings

By Jesse Hughes

Holt

April 23.

“I feel good about the direction the county is heading,” he said. “I’m running. Ultimately, the people are going to decide.”

Holt said other fundraisers would follow

Contributing writer Jesse Hughes lives in Gallatin.

Administrators see fees, fundraisers as vital to maintain level of education »FEES FROM 1M

from other states where they don’t pay fees, said Goodlettsville board member Shannon Dunn.

Schools are too vague when it comes to communicating what those fees are actually buying, she said.

“If there’s a fee for a science class and that’s going toward buying new beakers for the science lab, then put that on (the fee schedule),” Dunn said.

“I think if we were more open and transparent about that, people would know what our needs are.”

Some parents feel it’s a lot to ask for when the cost of supplies, fundraisers, dues and other extras are tacked on beyond the normal collection of property and sales taxes.

“A lot of the fees go toward some really basic things that should be provided by the county, like workbooks that (supplement) their textbooks,” said Hendersonville parent Caroline Krueger. “I don’t understand why parents are paying for that.”

Krueger agreed there should be more transpar-

ency and consistency across the district. Parents often are unaware the fees are voluntary because they’re not told the fees are optional, said Krueger, who will have four children enrolled in Sumner schools next year.

“At registration you’re paying for a locker, but the locker is already there,” she said. “So what are (schools) providing me that they don’t already have?”

Fee rules clarified

State law prohibits public schools from charging fees to students as a condition of attending school. They also can’t be charged for equipment while taking courses.

The State Board of Education in 2009 further clarified the rules to give districts more guidance on the issue. Schools can’t charge money for activities during normal school hours, or for activities or supplies needed for schoolwork that will be graded, including interscholastic athletics or marching band, if taken for a grade. That means schools can’t require fees

Dunn

Phillips

for workbooks, field trips, lab fees or use of equipment during the normal school day.

The rules do allow schools to charge for outof-county tuition, late fees for library books, parking violations, and voluntary activities outside the school day such as athletics and optional trips for clubs and band.

Summer school and graduation ceremonies are examples of voluntary programs, though schools can’t require fees as a condition of participation.

Voluntary fees are waived for students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, which is about 40 percent of Sumner County’s student population. Costs to cover students on free and reduced lunch comes from the district’s general purpose

budget, according to Jeremy Johnson, spokesman for Sumner County Schools.

Without payment of the fees as well as fundraisers to boost school budgets, administrators said they couldn’t provide their current level of education.

“It’s not like we’re collecting these fees and then we’re building a big pot of gold,” said Jeff Cordell, principal of White House High School.

“I’m a taxpayer, too, so I understand parents’ frustration. You wonder, ‘Where are my taxes going to?’ but it really is something that is needed,” Cordell said. “The (fees) are depleted as soon as we get them.”

The fees are used for classroom supplies as well as for materials used for technology, art, music and physical education classes.

Watt Hardison Elementary Principal Susie Turner said she spent about $5 per student last year toward a computer lab teacher, when she needed to purchase iPads to be ready for new online

achievement tests.

Being ready for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) online test is a top concern statewide for educators who lack enough computers to give the test, said Turner, who also serves as a Common Core leadership trainer for the state.

The PARCC, which measures math and language skills through an online test, will replace the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) assessment beginning with the 201415 school year.

Turner estimates she’ll need a minimum of 50 computers to be ready for the assessments. Currently she has about 23 that work, she said.

Her school raised about $16,000 from fundraisers this year, all of which will go toward purchasing iPads, which are less expensive than laptops and desktop computers, she said.

“We’re supposed to be preparing our kids to be career and college ready, but it’s hard when you

don’t have the resources you need,” Turner said.

The fees schools collect from parents still don’t cover all materials needed in classrooms, which is why teachers spend their own money to cover expenses, Turner said. This year, Turner said she reported $6,000 in receipted expenses on her 2012 personal income taxes for things she personally provided at Watt Hardison.

Budget talks in May

School board members are tentatively scheduled to begin discussion of the 2013-14 budget in a special-called meeting May 14.

Director of Schools Del Phillips in a recent interview said his budget plan would address the district’s technology needs.

He said he wants to establish a rotation cycle that would call for replacing computers every six years.

“If I can allocate any dollars in our (technology) budget to really just start any kind of rotation, that’s better than where we’ve been,” Phillips said.

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SUMNER A.M. SUNDAY » SEPTEMBER 22, 2013 » GALLATIN, TENNESSEE » SERVING SUMNER COUNTY SINCE 1840

50¢

Schools stop religious trips District changes practice after mosque controversy

By Tena Lee Sumner A.M.

A field trip to a mosque that was part of a Hendersonville High School course started a new controversy about religion in schools this month.

TENA LEE/SUMNER A.M.

Directors for codes, planning picked

Students will no longer be allowed to take field trips to religious venues after the stepfather of a Hendersonville High School student accused the school system of promoting Islam, starting another debate about the role of religion in Sumner County schools.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the school system in 2011 over teacher-led prayer and promotion of Christianity on school campuses. In

the settlement, Sumner schools admitted no wrongdoing, but new rules were put in place barring teachers from praying with students or leading Bible studies on school grounds, and prohibiting youth ministers from visiting schools other than to see family members.

The latest controversy, which has gained national attention on talk radio and cable news outlets, started at the end of August when some parents asked about a planned field trip to a mosque and a Hindu temple during a back-to-school night,

said Mike Conner, the stepfather of a freshman at Hendersonville High. Concerns were raised about why the 36-week world studies course would only take students on visits to two religious venues, rather than houses of worship related to all five religions studied in the class.

“If we as parents don’t begin speaking up, no one will,” Conner said.

The honors course – which is an elective – has been offered

» TRIPS, 3M

TREATMENT PLANT GETS $2.1 MILLION UPGRADE

Gallatin council fails to appoint HR head

By Josh Cross Sumner A.M.

The Gallatin City Council picked new directors of codes and planning.

Bill McCord was selected as the new planning director at an annual salary of $69,730, while Chuck Stuart will be paid $73,260 to serve as building official. The city will pay for up to $3,000 in moving expenses for the new employees.

McCord is the principal planner of transportation for Port Orange, Fla., and Stuart is the building official for Washington Parish, La. Interim Personnel Official Amy Summers said she would be sending a formal offer of employment to both candidates Wednesday.

If they accept the jobs, McCord could start in about four weeks, while Stuart may not start until Jan. 2, 2014 because he asked for at least 90 days to prepare for the move, said Summers.

Before Tuesday’s votes, interim Codes and Planning Director Katherine Schoch and interim Building Official Addam McCormick were both nominated to fill those positions permanently. The council did not pick either of them.

The council conducted interviews with eight candidates for both positions in August.

The search for a new director of codes and planning started after Tony Allers resigned in March. The council then decided to hire different directors for codes and planning rather than keeping them under the same manager.

HR director

Following two more rounds of voting Tuesday, no decision was made to fill the city’s director of human resources position after none of the three candidates failed to receive enough votes to appoint them.

Public Works Superintendent Thomas McCormick stands by the city lake that supplies drinking water to the Portland water treatment plant on Thursday, Sept. 19. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/SUMNER A.M.

Portland invests in better water

By Dessislava Yankova Sumner A.M.

This photo shows the algae growth in the basins at the Portland water treatment plant before the walls and roof were added as part of a $2.1 million upgrade. The sunlight allowed the growth of algae, which can be harmful in large quantities, officials said. SUBMITTED

PORTLAND 2011 WATER RATE INCREASE PER 1,000 GALLONS OUTSIDE CITY LIMITS INSIDE CITY LIMITS » Residential: $3.76 to $4.46 » Industrial: $6.38 to $7.58 » Commercial: $5.26 to $6.25

» Residential: $8.63 to $10.25 » Industrial: $9.57 to $11.37 » Commercial: $8.93 to $10.60 Source: Portland city recorder’s office

Portland residents may get cleaner water that is treated more efficiently after the city’s water plant recently underwent a $2.1 million upgrade – its first since it opened 11 years ago.

“We do these upgrades to improve water quality and keep cost down,” said Portland Public Works Superintendent Thomas McCormick, who oversees the city’s water system.

A major part of the upgrades is the addition of walls and a roof around six basins where water is treated with chemicals to remove silt and other parti-

» WATER, 5M ONLINE

See video of the upgrades to Portland’s water treatment plant at GallatinNewsExaminer.com

» DIRECTORS, 3M

Gallatin preps for influx of TVA workers

By Josh Cross Sumner A.M.

and Josh Brown Gannett Tennessee

TVA workers on the roof of the Gallatin Fossil Plant during a tour in 2012. TVA plans to install four large scrubbers at the plant to cut down on sulfur dioxide emissions. GANNETT TENNESSEE/FILE

Workers are ready to start pouring concrete at the Gallatin TVA Fossil Plant this week as part of a $1.1 billion project to cut certain emissions by as much as 96 percent.

The Gallatin plant burns 13,000 tons of coal a day and produces enough electricity to power the equivalent of 300,000 homes. The project will install four scrubbers to cut sulfur dioxide emissions and reduce nitrogen oxide levels.

For their part, several busi-

233,000 people in Sumner County read our newspapers and use our websites every week.

GallatinNewsExaminer.com

MetroMix.com

nesses in Gallatin are looking forward to the project as a way to spur more economic activity in town. TVA estimates that as many as 900 contract workers will be needed for construction of the emissions devices.

Monday, TVA will host a business outreach meeting to educate local business owners on how to prepare for the influx of workers in the community.

“Hopefully, (the workers) will come in here and improve revenue for the city and for ourselves,” said Ash Patel, owner of the GuestHouse International Inn in Gallatin.

In November 2012, Patel bought the West Main Street ho-

IF YOU GO A business outreach meeting will be held in the dining room at Gallatin City Hall, 132 W. Main St., Monday at 8 a.m.

tel and spent $300,000 renovating 70 of the facility’s 80 rooms purchasing new carpet, beds, appliances and curtains.

Patel hopes a discounted weekly rate for the contract workers and others needing long-term lodging will help bring in more revenue.

“Since we put a lot of money into this hotel, we are expecting

» TVA, 4M

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NEWS

SUMNER A.M.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2013 •

3M

Humphrey: ‘I’m glad to be here to clear my name’

By Josh Cross Sumner A.M.

George Humphrey, the second man charged with first-degree murder for the April shooting death of Rameon Wilson, made his first court appearance Friday.

Humphrey was arrested Sept. 12 after he was indicted by a Sumner County grand jury earlier this month.

“I’m going to face those charges,” Humphrey said in court Friday. “I’m glad to be here to clear my name.”

The charge stems from the April 15 shooting of Wilson outside of Green Wood Apartments on Green Wave Drive in Gallatin. Wilson died the following day.

In May, KeAnthony Dillard became the first person arrested and charged for Wilson’s death.

Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley said Friday that the death penalty was “not likely” to be sought in Humphrey’s case but was still “under consideration” for Dillard.

During a July 12 preliminary hearing for Dillard, Humphrey was the only witness called by the defense to testify.

The state’s key witness, Gerald Wade, testified that he saw Dillard shoot Wilson on April 15 and that he had sold a 40-caliber handgun to Humphrey in March.

“The testimony was that he (Humphrey) was with Mr. Dillard and provided the gun to Mr.

Dillard,” said Assistant District Attorney Ron Blanton in a previous interview following Humphrey’s arrest. “That's the theory that we're proceeding on.”

When questioned by prosecutors during the July hearing, Humphrey repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, including when asked if he was the one who gave Dillard a 40-caliber gun to shoot Wilson.

Both Humphrey and Dillard remain in the Sumner County Jail without bond.

Humphrey’s next court date is scheduled for Dec. 17. Dillard is set to appear in court Nov. 14.

Reporter Josh Cross can be reached at 575-7115 or jcross@mtcngroup.com.

George Humphrey made his first court appearance Friday since he was indicted by a Sumner County grand jury on a first-degree murder charge for the April shooting death of Rameon Wilson outside of a Gallatin apartment complex. JOSH CROSS/SUMNER A.M.

Mosque trip sparked HHS controversy

Reporter Tena Lee can be reached at 575-7116 or tlee@mtcngroup.com.

» DIRECTORS FROM 1M

The three candidates are Amy Summers, interim HR director for Gallatin, Ann Whiteside, executive assistant to Mayor Jo Ann Graves and Debbie Johnson, a benefits specialist for SMS Holdings in Nashville.

It was the second time the council voted on and failed to name a new human resources

director, lacking the five votes necessary to approve a new hire. The mayor does not typically get a vote on the council, but the human resources position is one exception.

The council deferred the item until Tuesday, Oct. 1.

Reporter Josh Cross can be reached at 575-7115 or jcross@mtcngroup.com.

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Equal time

Conner said he’s OK with students studying five religions, but he found it problematic that only two houses of worship were visited.

“If you can’t share equal time to all five, you shouldn’t do any of them,” he said.

The school system seems to agree, issuing a statement Sept. 17 saying all field trips to religious venues are off.

“After receiving a parent complaint regarding field trip locations, our district has reviewed the practice and decided to eliminate field trips to religious venues from this class, as it does not provide equal representation to all the religions studied in the course unit,” read the statement. “This decision was made due to the fact that equal representation in regards to field trips for all religions studied in the course is not feasible.”

Conner believes that between the trips and the assignment, the school was promoting the Islamic faith.

“The teacher was pushing Islamic tolerance,”

traveling the world,” Fussman said.

In a statement released Friday, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed urged Sumner County Schools to continue the field trips to religious venues.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that awareness about other religions created by such trips would make Sumner County students “wellnurtured, well-balanced, and enlightened citizens of tomorrow.”

He also said that trips should be made to all the religions covered in the classroom.

TN-0000928545

ville High School, took the world studies course in 2008, visiting a mosque and a Hindu temple. She said she was disappointed to hear about the decision to halt the field trips.

“The world studies class was really the one and only class that allowed for such an open dialogue of faith and religion,” she said. “To be able to experience what we were talking about firsthand – you can’t get that through class discussion and a textbook.”

The teacher of the course, Amanda Elmore, was among the first who made Fussman think critically about the world.

“Without her pushing the limits, I wouldn’t be so open to new cultures and

TE T IN TY VO ESICIAN OUN B C YS ER PH MN SU

by Hendersonville High for a decade. The curriculum includes world religions, and students spend three weeks on that topic, learning about Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, said school system spokesman Jeremy Johnson. In the past, the students have typically visited a Jewish synagogue, a Hindu temple and a Muslim mosque without parental complaints.

Conner said his stepdaughter opted out of the field trip and instead was asked to write an alternative assignment comparing and contrasting the religious teachings of Jesus, Gandhi and Muhammad.

The materials she was given contained a page of Bible verses, two-thirds of a page about Gandhi and five pages about Muhammad.

When his stepdaughter decided she could not compare and contrast the three because she was given unequal information, she was initially told that she would receive a zero and would not be given another assignment, Conner said. That’s when he really became upset.

However, school officials later agreed to give a second alternative assignment.

That assignment was to choose three of the five religions and compare and contrast them. Conner wonders why his stepdaughter wasn’t given that option in the first place.

Conner said other students who attended the Sept. 4 field trip told him copies of the Quran were given to students, who also participated in meditation in the Hindu temple. The school system’s spokesman said materials were handed out at the mosque but he wasn’t sure if they included Qurans, and a tour guide demonstrated how Hindu meditation is achieved but students were not required to participate.

Conner said. “We did not want to make this about religion – they forced us to.”

Sumner County Board of Education member Vanessa Silkwood believes some of Conner’s points are valid.

“I think his initial concerns are right on,” she said. “Whether or not there was true bias, I don’t know. At least there is a perception that this course is skewed and they get that because they only went to two religious venues.”

She said there’s not enough instructional time or funds to tour five sites representative of all five religions.

Kelly Fussman, a 2012 graduate of Henderson-

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ONLINE For the latest in local news and updates, visit GallatinNewsExaminer.com

Sumner Station gets a buyer Future of former fitness center’s space still unclear

By Josh Cross Gallatin News Examiner

Three years after the bankruptcy of Sumner Regional Health Systems, the 100,000square-foot Sumner Station facility on Big Station Camp Boulevard is set to get a new owner.

The building once housed a 42,000-square-foot, state-ofthe-art fitness center that has sat empty since 2010.

HighPoint Health System Chief Executive Officer Susan Peach said that her company could finalize the Peach deal as early as November.

The purchase would include both the building and the 23.7acre campus on which it sits.

“It’s fantastic,” Peach said.

“It will enable us to grow and offer additional services that are needed in our community.”

Gallatin-based HighPoint is buying the property from KBC

Bank, Scotia Bank and Citadel Properties, but is staying mum on how much it spent on the deal, said HighPoint spokeswoman Rachel Lassiter.

Sumner Regional underwent a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010 and was purchased by Brentwood-based LifePoint Hospitals. The center, known as Fitness Center at Sumner Station, was among the casualties.

LifePoint rebranded all of Sumner Regional’s properties as HighPoint because the former health system was tied to the bankruptcy proceedings for

» STATION, 5A

HighPoint Health System Chief Executive Officer Susan Peach announced Monday that a deal to purchase Sumner Station could be completed by the end of the year. JOSH CROSS/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Longtime educator, civic leader Thigpen dies at 71

SCHOOL SAFETY

By Sherry Mitchell Gallatin News Examiner

already in place. Two more officers are completing training and should be assigned by November in middle schools, at which point all middle schools will have SROs and each elementary school will have at least floating coverage. A total of 21 officers will be serving the county’s 46 schools, Sum-

Virginia “Ginny” Holtman Thigpen, a well-known educator, community leader and pioneer for women in the Sumner County political arena, died unexpectedly on Tuesday. She was 71.

Former Volunteer State Community College colleague and longtime friend Mike McDonald said Ms. ThigThigpen pen would be missed.

“She was highly regarded by everyone — students and faculty,” he said. “It was her personality, her intellect and her enthusiasm.”

Ms. Thigpen and her husband, Walter, moved to Gallatin in the early 1970s. She was among the first professors at Vol State, where she eventually served as chair of the communications department. She retired in 2008 after 28 years in education, but continued part-time teaching until 2008, according to biographical information from the college. The Thigpen Library at Vol State is named

» SECURITY, 5A

» THIGPEN, 3A

Station Camp High School Principal Art Crook shows where a new magnetic locking door will be installed to direct visitors through the main office before entering hallways as part of ongoing security upgrades. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Security upgrades on track 11 new school resources officers now in place, two more expected in November

ONLINE

By Dessislava Yankova

See video of the ongoing upgrades at Gene Brown Elementary and Station Camp High School at GallatinNewsExaminer.com.

Gallatin News Examiner

and Jesse Hughes For the Gallatin News Examiner

Measures to improve safety are in progress at some Sumner County schools, with more armed officers on hand and $2.4 million in projects underway to update communications equipment, enhance security technology and modify 18 school building entrances.

When classes began in August, 11 new school resource officers started work, joining eight SROs

City cites itself for violating state job site standards Project on Stephanie Street did not meet requirements to protect nearby stream

By Josh Cross Gallatin News Examiner

Materials stored too close to a nearby stream on Stephanie Street were expected to be moved after Gallatin Public Utilities was issued a notice of violation by the city’s engineering division last week. JOSH CROSS/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

The city found itself in the unusual position of having to cite itself for violating environmental standards at a job site last week.

Gallatin Public Utilities was issued a notice of violation by the city engineering division Oct. 18 after an inspector found that some requirements meant to keep contaminants out of a nearby stream on Stephanie Street were not being followed.

The job site is part of a citywide $1.5 million sanitary sewer rehabilitation project to replace old, leaky sewer pipes, said GPU Assistant Superintendent David Kellogg.

According to the violation notice, a silt fence for erosion control was not installed properly and a dirt pile from the project was being stored too close to the nearby stream. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation does not allow dirt or rock material to be stored within 50 feet of the wa-

terway.

The requirements are meant to prevent sediment and other items from seeping into the nearby stream, which feeds into Town Creek, said City Engineer Nick Tuttle.

“A written notice of violation (to another city department) is probably not all that frequent, but this one was a little more severe than normal,” Tuttle said.

“You need to make sure you keep your job site in order, so we wanted to make sure that we were sending the message quickly, and if any further action needed to be taken, then we

» CITATION, 3A

a...

Sant Dear

Attentionn Parents P and Grandparents!

There’s not nothing othing like reading letters to Santa written by those who hope and believe Santaa will bring the gifts they are asking for. Have your little one write their letter to Santa and drop it off at our office, mail or email it to the address below.

The letters we receive will bbe published in a keepsake edition on December 20, 2013 in both Gallati tin News Examiner and Hendersonville Star News. the Gallatin

Hurry Huurry,

the deadline to have the lette letters tters published is December 1, 2013.

Our office is located at One Examiner Court, Gallatin.

Email: Eand Eanderson5@tennessean.com anderson5@tennessean.com If you need eed mor more information, please call 575-7100.

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233,000 people in Sumner County read our newspapers and use our websites every week.

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NEWS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2013 •

5A

Schools get new resource officers, upgrades in security »SECURITY FROM 1A

ner County Sheriff Sonny Weatherford said.

All high schools previously had SROs. Elementary schools located on a campus with a middle or high school, such as Station Camp or Beech, are handled by the two officers at those adjacent schools.

Local law enforcement agencies also now provide patrols and drive-by or drop-by visits. County leaders have provided few details about the patrols and have not used written reports for security reasons, other than stating that the activity is randomized as much as possible around the school schedules to prevent pattern analysis.

At the beginning, some middle school principals did not know if they wanted the SROs, Weatherford said. “Now they are tickled to death to have them and they would fight you if tried to take them away,” he said.

The SRO program falls under the sheriff’s budget.

The new 13 officers were hired in April after the County Commission

approved the money for the new positions. The sheriff’s office applied for a federal grant through the U.S. Department of Justice that would provide up to 75 percent of funds for seven more officers for next school year, Weatherford said. If the grant doesn’t come through, Weatherford plans to ask the commission in February 2014 for funds to hire as many school resource officers as affordable in order to place one in every school.

“We’ll definitely consider any proposal he brings,” Sumner County Budget Committee Chairman Jerry Stone said. He cited the finding of a school safety ad hoc committee that each school should have its own SRO as being current county policy. “No one has refuted it.”

The policy came shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut last December.

“Having a school resource officer in every school makes the community feel safer,” Weatherford said. “They’re not seen just as security in uniforms, but as a big

Ron Bargatza, project manager with Hewlett Spencer, shows where a magnetic locking door would let visitors into Gene Brown Elementary School in Hendersonville.

DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

brother or big sister to give students somebody to go to if they have a problem in or outside school.”

Building upgrades

The $2.4 million spending package, approved by the Sumner County Commission and Board of Education this year, will go toward safety modifications, including $793,000 to upgrade telephone communications at all schools and about $349,000 for security cameras, cellphone boosters, portable radios and panic devices.

One major goal is to make sure entrances are

secured.

“When the work is complete, you will not be able to get into any Sumner County school without going through the office by being buzzed into the school,” said Ron Bargatza, project manager with Nashville-based design and building company Hewlett Spencer, the firm handling the project.

Upgrades are partially completed in at least 13 schools, according to the latest progress report from the construction firm.

The system is now being installed at Gene Brown Elementary School in Hendersonville,

which was built in 1956.

While the school has been using a buzz-in system at a commonly used entrance, that entrance is about 160 feet from the main office and close to the gymnasium and several classrooms. This is considered a safety threat.

“If they’re buzzed into the school and they don’t have good intentions, they’d have a quick access to the school,” Bargatza said.

Four elementary schools — Gene Brown, Union in Gallatin, North Sumner in Bethpage and J.W. Wiseman in Portland — have needed more upgrades than other facilities, but not necessarily because of the age of their buildings.

“Wiseman is the newest of them, but the design of the school created a unique situation,” Bargatza said. “All schools are built in different years and have different design features that dictate what we had to do to make them more secure.”

While most buildings getting upgrades are elementary schools, two middle and two high schools are also undergoing improvements. One is Sta-

tion Camp High, where much of the work was done over fall break, Principal Art Crook said. The school will have an outside buzzer and security locks added to its main doors.

“That way, someone lays eyes on everyone who enters the building,” he said. “We do that all day, but this will be more efficient and make a big difference of knowing there’s no way to get into the building without going through the office.”

The installation of panic alarms at all schools will be another major upgrade.

“It works like a bank alarm,” Bargatza said. “It sends a signal to law enforcement for a quicker response.”

Another progress report is expected to be released Friday, Nov. 1. The construction upgrades could be completed as early as December.

“We’re on schedule,” Bargatza said. “And we’ll be done before the end of the year.”

Contact Dessislava Yankova at 575-7170 or dyankova@ mtcngroup.com.

Former fitness center’s space has sat unused since 2010 » STATION FROM 1A

many months afterward.

“For the community, this is the last piece of the former health system’s bankruptcy that has been resolved,” Peach said.

“Sumner Station will be a department of Sumner Regional Medical Center.

It will be a wholly owned facility offering services that will build upon our growing outpatient service offerings already provided there through the hospital.”

While the fitness space in Sumner Station has remained empty since the bankruptcy, leases continued on about 30,000 square feet of the facility used by imaging, diagnostic and rehabilitation services. Those services were not interrupted.

Fitness Center at Sumner Station had been open about two years when it was abruptly closed, to the shock of its 1,600 members. Roger Kaiser, Sumner Regional’s CEO at the time, said the health

club was plagued by “major problems” and had lost as much as $2 million in 2009. The gym’s lease was rejected during the bankruptcy because it was unaffordable, even after the terms were renegotiated with Chicago-based owner Citadel Properties.

At one point, the YMCA was interested in leasing the fitness space from Citadel, but that deal never came to fruition.

The health and wellness facility offered services that included child

care, massage therapy, personal training and a variety of health and fitness classes, and included advanced exercise equipment with a 75-foot lap pool, a warm-water therapy pool and sports facilities.

In 2010, Lassiter said HighPoint had no plans to reopen the fitness space.

Future plans

While the future of the fitness space is unclear, Lassiter said there have been discussions about

what additional services could be located at Sumner Station.

“Our first priority will be to move our cancer center from the hospital to Sumner Station, offering state-of-the-art radiation oncology services with a community room for education,” Peach said. “We’ll also add office space for medical oncology services and other physician needs.”

The site currently has 31,000 square feet of physician office space avail-

able.

Sumner Station may also become home to the Tennessee Oncology office, currently located at the Sumner Regional campus on Hartsville Pike, Lassiter said.

“These are conversations that are being had,” she said. “Nothing has been decided on yet, but this is something we are working toward.”

Contact Josh Cross at 575-7115 or jcross@mtcngroup.com.

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WEDNESDAY » JULY 3, 2013 » GALLATIN, TENNESSEE » SERVING SUMNER COUNTY SINCE 1840

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ONLINE For the latest in local news and updates, visit GallatinNewsExaminer.com

State reforms pay for teachers School board will craft plan in coming months

higher test scores, assuming more responsibilities or accepting hard-to-fill positions.

It’s another education reform of many handed down in recent years that has signified a culture shift for Tennessee teachers, who already have lost collective bargaining rights, and adjusted to tougher tenure rules and evaluations tied to student achievement.

The plan does away with long-established automatic annual salary increases through a teacher’s 20th year and puts

By Jennifer Easton Gallatin News Examiner

Sumner County school board members in the coming months will decide what kind of teacher pay structure to adopt following changes approved June 21 by the State Board of Education.

The plan, proposed by state Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman, gives districts more latitude to create a differentiated pay plan tailored to meet local needs. Districts will now be able to reward teachers for

less value on advanced degrees and years of service.

With the new plan, teachers will receive a minimum of three pay increases after their first year of teaching: New teachers with a bachelor’s degree will earn a base minimum salary of $30,876.

Pappas They’ll see a $570 increase after year one, a $3,190 increase after year six, and top out with a $6,585 in-

crease after 11 years.

The state’s old plan rewarded teachers for four levels of education beyond a bachelor’s degree, including masters, master’s plus 30 hours of college credit, education specialist and doctorate.

Now, new teachers with any level Lea of advanced degree will start out with the same base salary of $34,291, see a $7,030 increase in year six and

GALLATIN CELEBRATES

$10,890 increase in year 11.

No current teacher’s pay would be cut, but there’s no longer a requirement to increase their salaries after the 11th year.

School districts are free to develop their own pay schedules as long as they meet the state’s minimum salary. According to the state Department of Education’s website, 134 of 137 Tennessee school districts pay above the minimum. In Sumner County, a first-year teacher’s minimum starting sal-

» TEACHERS, 3A

Fourth of July sales rebound

By Dessislava Yankova Gallatin News Examiner

Katrina Bond and her son, Jacob Bond, 5, try on 3D glasses at the fireworks stand on the corner of State Route 25 and State Route 109 in Gallatin on Monday, July 1. DESSISLAVA YANKOVA/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Record-high temperatures and drought led to a ban on fireworks shooting last summer, putting a dent in firework sales across Sumner County. But with moderate weather and rain this season, fireworks sales are popping, some vendors say.

“Right now, we’re a little ahead of where we were two years ago,” said Mike Presley, who manages the fireworks tent off Saundersville Road in Hendersonville. “With last year, people not getting to shoot fireworks, they’re anxious to shoot again. They missed it last year, and they’re coming all excited about it.”

Presley, a retired teacher who lives in Lebanon, has man-

» FIREWORKS, 5A

THE BELL TOWLES

I guess I’m just easily baffled

Things I simply don’t understand or am unable to comprehend: » I don’t understand how the Sumner County Commission can fall all over itself in 2013, in record time passing a school budget and multimillion-dollar bond earmarked largely for schools with barely a peep, when in 2012 it acted as tightwad misers, forcing a showdown with Sumner Schools that delayed the start of school nearly two weeks. » I still don’t understand why the school year starts so early in Sumner County. This year, the first day of classes is Aug. 5.

Gosh, we just stepped into July, and now it’s almost time to flock to Walmart to clean the shelves of school supplies. » I don’t understand how pro athletes making tens of millions of dollars get themselves involved in murder or manslaughter cases, not to mention felonious assaults and the like. These guys are rich and revered, so what’s the problem? Do they just wake up one morning think-

» MIKE TOWLE ing, “Today, I’m going to kill someone”? It all boils down to a warped sense of entitlement.

They’re over 21; they can just say “no.” » Granted I’m not a road engineer, but I don’t understand why it takes so long to get roads and streets repaved, or to finish the expansion work on interchanges like the one at Exit 7 (Indian Lake Boulevard) on Vietnam Vets. The bridge looks built, and I assume all this work is paid for. So let’s go, guys and gals, while we’re young: get that tar down and those lines painted. Actually, so as not to sound like a total moron, I do understand. This heat and high hu-

midity just makes me impatient. » I don’t understand why that corner spot on the Gallatin square, where Larriviere’s Restaurant used to be, has remained unoccupied more than 18 months. That’s got to be a primo spot for any business, right? » I don’t understand why a TV celebrity cook gets relentlessly hammered by some media and hung out to dry by her book publisher and former endorsers, all because of a stupid mistake she made using the N-word in a deposition to describe someone who held a gun to her head during a robbery 20plus years ago. Until last week, I barely knew who Paula Deen was, having never watched a minute of her cooking show.

Now she’s Public Enemy No. 1.

Yes, the N-word is despicable and hurtful, and it should be stricken from our vocabulary, but enough with these retroactive witch hunts. » I don’t understand why rap

» TOWLE, 3A

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JOSH CROSS/GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

Few show up for homeless fundraiser

By Josh Cross Gallatin News Examiner

Volunteers and staff with the Good Neighbor Mission had hoped to pack the bleachers and basketball court of the Beech Cumberland Presbyterian Christian Life Center in Hendersonville Saturday for their inaugural Hooping for

the Homeless fundraiser.

But over the course of two hours, there were just two official participants in the threepoint shooting contest that was held to raise money for the Gallatin-based organization for the homeless.

“Are we disappointed in the

» HOOPING, 3A

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233,000 people in Sumner County read our newspapers and use our websites every week.

GallatinNewsExaminer.com

Gallatin resident Greg Quesinberry, a junior at Montgomery Bell Academy, was one of the participants in Saturday’s Hooping for the Homeless fundraiser for the Gallatin-based Good Neighbor Mission.

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GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER

WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2013 •

3A

Gallatin’s business appeal gets boost with ‘shovel-ready’ label City hopes industrial park gets certification by end of summer

By Josh Cross Gallatin News Examiner

In a move that could help lure new industry to the city, two adjoining pieces of Gallatin property have been declared “shovel-ready” by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

The lots, owned by the family of the late Charles Haynes, are known as Langley Hall Industrial Site East and West, locat-

ed on Airport Road. They were among six sites in all certified by the state under the Select Tennessee Certified Sites program, the department announced June 25. “(This certification) means that the Langley Hall sites are among the most prepared in the state based on the professional opinion of the site selectors and criteria of the program,” said Erin Holt, deputy communications director for the state

agency.

The six- to sevenmonth certification process, which cost each applicant at least $20,000, involved proving that the sites had water, sewer, gas and electricity available, said James Fenton Fenton, executive director for the Gallatin Economic Development Agency. The certification also required an environmental study at the sites and geotechnical borings to make sure there were no sinkholes or other is-

sues with the properties.

A total of 40 sites across the state were pursuing certification as part of the program that was established in June 2012 to help provide certainty and eliminate risks for businesses looking to locate or relocate to Tennessee, Holt said.

Industrial park

Fenton said the certification puts the city on the radar of many more companies that are looking for

a relocation opportunity.

“They need to know that there is no uncertainty, and that’s what this does,” he said.

Businesses looking to locate or relocate use third-party site selectors, Fenton said. In the past, the Langley Hall sites have been offered to some manufacturing companies, but did not make the final cut.

“Often times, we don’t get to discern why we don’t make that final list, but the fact that it wasn’t guaranteed to have all of the utilities certainly could be playing a part in

that,” he said.

The Gallatin Economic Development Agency is currently in the process of getting 207 acres at the city’s industrial park certified under the Select Tennessee Certified Sites program, Fenton said.

“We fully expect that, by the end of the summer, we’ll have the entire park certified as shovel-ready under this program,” he said.

Reporter Josh Cross can be reached at 575-7115 or jcross@mtcngroup.com.

Wise: ‘If we don’t put value on higher degrees, we’re defeating our purpose’ »TEACHERS FROM 1A

ary is $34,290.

Teachers react

Performance pay doesn’t bother Station Camp Elementary teacher Jenny Isble, but changes that put less value on advanced degrees is disheartening, said the nine-year teacher, who is currently working toward her doctorate.

“My biggest concern right now is that I’ve invested money in furthering my education to become a better teacher with the hopes of recouping my money, and now it looks like I’m not going to be able to,” said Isble, who teaches special education.

Close to earning her education specialist degree (Ed.S) at Union University’s Hendersonville campus, Isble fears she’s

already capped out on the maximum salary she can earn at $43,000 per year, regardless of how many degrees she earns. She would have seen about a $4,500 bump in pay under the old plan when she completed her Ed.S., she estimated.

“I’m going to be $30,000 in debt making $43,000 a year; I don’t know if it’s going to be worth it financially for my family (for me) to finish,” she said. “Teaching is a dead end job now.”

The state is putting too much trust in local school boards to implement and execute competitive pay plans that reward teachers in a fair way, said Mary Pappas, past president of the Sumner County Education Association and teacher at Shafer

Middle School in Gallatin.

“Can you imagine the (Sumner County Board of Education) going to the County Commission with a budget that gives teachers more money than what the state says we have to have?” Pappas said. “Are you kidding me? Our County Commission is not going to do it.”

Pappas, a 39-year teacher who holds a master’s degree in education, said the new plan will encourage high turnover among educators and discourage young people from pursuing the profession.

The merit-based pay system is flawed because it could allow for a plan that financially punishes teachers for what a student might have missed in prior grades, she said.

“Unlike products that are put into a mold and have one specific thing that they’re designed to do, students don’t have one specific thing to do; they don’t all fit into the same mold, yet they’re evaluated by the same mold,” Pappas said.

Higher learning

The state board’s action is another of many education reforms recently implemented in which universities have adapted programs to ensure teachers have skills to face new challenges, said Charles Lea, executive director of Union University’s Hendersonville campus.

“Teachers in Tennessee are not overpaid,” Lea said. “I would have hoped a merit pay system would

build upon the current base pay plan, and not replace it.”

Other professions reward successful experience and enhancement of skills; teaching should do the same, Lea said.

With 114 students currently Wise seeking advanced degrees in education at Union’s Hendersonville campus, Lea anticipates the university will see an increase in master degree level students but education specialist and doctorate program degrees could see an initial decline.

Time will tell what approach Sumner County takes.

School board Chair-

man Ted Wise said Monday the board will seek guidance from the state as members work to craft a local plan.

While he’s not opposed to offering performancebased pay for more responsibilities and hard-tofill positions, he wants to keep financial incentives in place for advanced degrees, Wise said.

“If we don’t put value on those higher degrees, we’re defeating our purpose,” he said.

Reporter Jennifer Easton can be reached at 575-7143 or jeaston@mtcngroup.com.

Lil Wayne Good Neighbor Mission to host gala fundraiser in August gets a pass » “We can sit at home and rock and watch television, but HOOPING FROM 1A

there are a lot of people in our communities that sometimes just need a hand.”

Thomas Staten Board chairman, Good Neighbor Mission

school age category, said that it’s important for the community to come together to help support those in need.

“I have tried to tell our kids that you’ve got to try to help out in ways that you can,” she said. “Anybody can be in this (homeless) situation at any moment.”

The Alfiero family is already planning to participate in next year’s event.

“Anytime we can just reach out and touch just one family who is willing

to spread the good news about this organization, we feel like it’s worth it,” Staten said.

The organization’s next event will be a gala fundraiser on Friday, Aug. 23, to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The fundraiser will take place at the First United Methodist Church in Gallatin.

“We can sit at home and rock and watch television, but there are a lot of people in our communities that sometimes just need a

hand,” Staten said. “So we just want to do our part to make the world a better place.”

For more information about the Good Neighbor Mission, including how to donate or become a volunteer, call 452-7337. The organization’s office is located at 600 Small St., in Gallatin.

Reporter Josh Cross can be reached at 575-7115 or jcross@mtcngroup.com.

COMMUNITY EVENTS Send your community event to gnenews@mtcngroup.com.

dusk, at the Gallatin Civic Center, 6 p.m.

Wednesday, July 3

Friday, July 5

» Second annual Rotary Club Firecracker 4 Miler, Veterans Parks, Hendersonville. Registration begins at 140 Scotch St. at 5:30 p.m. Race starts at 7.

» Westmoreland Care and Rehabilitation Center’s 4th of July celebration, 5-9 p.m. Includes cake walk, kid games, live music and a firework show.

Open to the public.

» Freedom Festival, Drakes Creek Park in Hendersonville, 6 p.m.

Thursday, July 4 » Gallatin’s 4th of July Celebration featuring 48-piece 129th Army Band, Garage Band Revival, Tower of Foam, fireworks at

July 5-7 » Sumner Trails Chapter of Tennessee Trails Association will sponsor a weekend of activities in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, carpooling from Hendersonville.

347-2623

Saturday, July 6 » Americana Independence Day Celebration, White House Soccer Complex, 4-10 p.m. » Sumner County Republican Party monthly meeting, 9 a.m., Hendersonville Christian Academy. A buffet style breakfast is available for $7 per person. » Rippy’s Family Reunion, 12 p.m., Parker Chapel Community Center in Portland. Call Pamela at 230-9002. » Hendersonville Farmers Market, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at The Streets of Indian Lake Plaza.

D

Contact General Manager Mike Towle at 575-7122.

interested in,” Diane Quesinberry said. “Gregory loves basketball, and it was just a good opportunity to come out here and support the Good Neighbor Mission ... I’m just sad that there aren’t more people out.”

Despite the turnout, Executive Director Stephanie Meadows said that the Good Neighbor Mission plans on holding another Hooping for the Homeless fundraiser in 2014.

“We’ve already got some good ideas (for next year) coming in,” she said.

Hendersonville resident Karen Alfiero, whose son Antonio participated in the event in the middle

TE IN TY T VO BESICIAN OUN C YS ER PH MN SU

and hip-hop artists, many of them multimillionaires and owners of beaucoup music industry awards, get a free pass to spout the N-word in songs that also contain gratuitous “MF” and violence-against-women references. In his song “Ice Cream Paint Job,” rapper Lil Wayne uses a slightly modified form of the N-word more than a dozen times. This from a guy who recently stomped on an American flag in the making of a music video. When do his endorsement deals get yanked? This is messed up, man. » I don’t understand why drivers of big rigs, the 18-wheelers, move over into the left lane on a freeway to pass another big truck when they are going all of about .02 mile an hour faster. These big trucks then take about five or six minutes to pass one another, an eternity to the 20 vehicles stacked up behind. Yes, it’s a two-way street; there are auto and SUV drivers who can be a real pain for truckers, but, hey, Rubber Duck, if your pedal to the metal can’t do better than that, stay out of the way. 10-4? » I don’t understand what’s so difficult about getting a city budget passed. Are you listening, Gallatin? » I fail to understand why the likes of Howie Mandel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patrick Dempsey and the entire cast of “Glee” have been so popular in the entertainment world. I considered putting Lady Gaga on this list, but I’ve heard her sing and she’s actually somewhat talented. » P.S. Actually I do understand the bit about the County Commission suddenly giving our schools sufficient funding on a silver platter. All 24 commissioners, who serve four-year terms, are up for re-election in 2014, with election season coming at us faster than a runaway bullet train. A time for “heroes.”

numbers? Of course, we are,” said Thomas Staten, board chair for the Good Neighbor Mission. “But, the money raised will go to help those in need, and that’s what’s important.”

Since 1983, the Good Neighbor Mission has served more than 900 working poor families with children throughout Sumner County.

Scott and Diane Quesinberry’s son, Greg, who will be a junior this coming fall at Montgomery Bell Academy, was one of the participants in Saturday’s fundraiser. The Gallatin family said that taking part in the contest was never about winning.

“That’s not what we’re

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