This week, I was honored to be able and come speak to 6th graders at Fort Loudoun Middle School about meteorology. I am thankful to Mr. Breedlove and Mr. Tinker for the opportunity. It is great to be able and share my passion and interest for meteorology while contributing to the education of our students.

Photo Credit: @FLMSBraves on Twitter

I was also able to visit some facilities in Polk and Monroe counties in order to get some ideas for Phase 2 of our building program as well as for some ideas on improving school security. Our current schools being built and updated are having security enhancements added as part of this process. We are looking at adding security enhancements to the other schools (such as Eaton and North) as well.

On a personal note, I would like everyone to please pray for my aunt, Barbara Hankla. She was diagnosed with cancer today and faces challenges ahead. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. I know that she would greatly appreciate it.

-Jeremy

Recently, much has been discussed about the Loudon County Board of Education retreat. I have publicly and personally made statements that I did not favor going off-site for a retreat. I believe that we could have a special workshop session at the county office building or Loudon County Technology Center. This would restrict costs while being able to accomplish planning activities.

I did stand up against it and gave the reasons above. However, I am only one member of a ten member board, and the majority of the Board told Director Vance that they would prefer to have a retreat like many other Boards (such as the Lenoir City Board of Education) have across the state. Therefore, it has been planned for March 8-9 in Gatlinburg. I continue to hold my belief that it could be done local and cheaper. However, the decision has been made, and I will be at the retreat to represent the 5th District. It would be reckless and a dereliction of my duty to 5th District residents, our students, and our schools for me not to attend.

If there are issues that you would like discussed at the retreat, please let me know. I am going to represent you, so let me know what you think. I am here to help you in any way that I can.

The Loudon County Board of Education was well represented in Nashville Wednesday, Feb. 22 during the annual “Day on the Hill” event.  Board members were working hand in hand with legislators to promote education, especially for Loudon County.

The Board had nice visits with Representatives Matlock and Calfee as well as Senator Randy McNally. I thank them for their kind hospitality and their service to our county. I was also able to have a separate visit with Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey later in the day. Many good bills are being brought through the General Assembly such as school resource officers (SROs) being required in every school. The state will pay for this with no local dollars needed. It was a good visit to Nashville with Loudon County well represented and standing up for our students in the classroom.

You can search through many of the bills being brought up in Nashville on the Tennessee General Assembly website. Let me know which bills you support or oppose and be sure to contact your state legislator about them as well.

Over the past week, February 18-21, a team of evaluators interviewed parents, students, community members, teachers, administrators, and members of the board of education. On Thursday, a presentation was made to the Board and community on the findings of the team’s review.

There were many strengths that the team found. One of the strongest points of the review was the purpose and direction as well as the governance and leadership of Loudon County Schools. The review team felt that there was good consistency across the entire organization in regards to moving in a positive direction from the Board, to the administrators, and on down to the classroom. They also liked the way Loudon County Schools used data to drive results in the classroom by focusing our curriculum and resources to the most necessary subjects and areas. The lowest scores were in support services, especially the use of technology in the learning environment. While teachers had access to adequate technology, the review team felt that students did not have as much technology resources as might be necessary. Overall, Loudon County Schools received a very good score.

Every school system receives a required action. It is not punitive in any way. The required action for Loudon County Schools is to focus on improving Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) among teachers and administrators.

At the end of the review, the team was very impressed with Loudon County Schools and has recommended the school system for reaccreditation with SACS.

I am very proud of our students, teachers, and administrators that contributed to this standard accreditation review. It is a testament to all of their hard work in working toward reaccreditation for our school system.

I wanted to update everyone on the current happenings of the Loudon County Board of Education.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion in the media and at meeting regarding the ability of the public to speak at regular meetings and workshops. There has been proposals to limit that speech to only items on the agenda at meetings. Other items would have to be approved by the Direct or Chair to be placed on the agenda for discussion by a community member. I have opposed these changed, and I seconded the motion to table the change in policy at the last Board meeting. The policy changes were added to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, and the proper paperwork outlining proposed changes in the policy were not provided. This was not acceptable to discuss or vote on with such little information and being added to the agenda at the last moment, and therefore, it was tabled for a future meeting. As always, I have and will continue to support the right of the public to discuss items on or off of the agenda as it has previously been. For several years, policy has been in place to allow discussion of items on or off of the agenda, and it has worked perfectly fine. If the community is not allowed to discuss items on and off of the agenda, the Board becomes a body that transmits information to the public but does not receive information back. The Board needs to be a body that listens to the community first and reacts second. In order to listen, we must not put tougher restrictions on community speech at meetings.

In December and January, a retirement incentive was also passed that will save the school system thousands of dollars. This is not a pension plan program, it is an incentive for teachers that have been with Loudon County Schools for at least ten years to retire when they have reached thirty years of service with the state. After that time, the incentive to retire shrinks drastically. As part of the program, I requested that there be a section added to the program to ensure that teachers who retire are not rehired by the system under contract for the same salary. If a teacher retires and comes back to fill a need under contract, they will be brought in at a starting salary ensuring savings for the county. Moreover, I requested that the incentive payout be on a regressive scale that encourages retirement as soon as allowable in order to save the county maximum dollars. This system has been used in other school systems as well with positive savings throughout.

We are making progress on planning for our next phase of capital projects. The combination of Loudon Elementary and the old Fort Loudoun Middle School, additions and renovations at Loudon High School, an addition and renovations at Highland Park Elementary School, and a traffic solution at Eaton Elementary School and North Middle School will essentially be ‘Phase 2′ of the building program. These four projects are deemed as the most necessary by the Board, and the county commission will have to approve the remaining school building fund monies for these projects.

I have been out to the new Greenback School, and it is coming along nicely! There is great progress being made, and if we can get some descent weather, we are on track to finish the project by December 2013. Attached are some photos with special thanks to Mark Byerley. Fort Loudoun Middle School should be finished and open for the start of the 2013-2014 school year.

As always, please email me with any comments, questions, or concerns. I try to represent the 5th District of Loudon County the very best that I can, and in order to do so, I need to hear from my neighbors in the district.

With gratitude,

Jeremy Buckles

I wanted to update you on recent happenings by the Loudon County Board of Education as well as some of my positions on current issues.

First, at the previous meeting, it was decided to move forward with Phase 1b of the building program. This would include a combination of the current Loudon Elementary and Fort Loudoun Middle School into one Loudon Elementary School campus. Of course, about 12 of the 20 pennies of the tax rate have been used on Phase 1a of the building program leaving about 8 pennies for future construction. The county commission has indicated that they will not touch these pennies for the operating budget of the county or for other items besides education, and I hope that they keep their word on this promise.

The Board feels that the Loudon Elementary campus construction is at the top of the list in importance followed by some renovations of Loudon High School and some focus on the northern side of the county. At this time, the plan consists of the Loudon Elementary campus combination and renovation, Loudon High School additions and renovations, renovations and additions at Highland Park Elementary, and traffic solutions to the Eaton/North campus. As this continues to develop, I will continue to update here. I believe that it is important that we move with both urgency and caution with the building program to make sure we are making good progress while also ensuring that we are doing everything appropriately.

Also, a retirement incentive program is on the agenda once again. I support the program because it will reduce cost and be fiscally responsible. At the last workshop, I brought up that any employee that takes the retirement incentive should give up their seniority on the salary scale. This means that if for some reason a staff member came back under contract for a period of time, they would come in on the salary scale with zero years experience. I made sure that this was added to the resolution for the program to ensure that any retiring employees would truly save the system money. This will be discussed further at this Thursday’s meeting at 7pm at the Courthouse Annex.

The issue of public discussion and input regarding items on and not on the agenda has been hotly debated recently. This is now finally going to come before the policy committee on Thursday. After that, it should come up for Board consideration. As I have previously stated, I believe in the public right to speak at meetings about items on the agenda before agenda items are taken up, and then about to speak about items not on the agenda at the end of the meeting. I believe this allows the best communication between the Board and the public.

Some have also asked me about the issue of a Board retreat recently. I have indicated to Director Vance and publicly indicated that a retreat is a good thing for the Board to utilize, but that I am in favor of it being held locally (such as at LCTC) where it would not cost the Board and it could be used as a long workshop type session. I believe that a majority of the Board will prefer to have one at another location, though. Whichever direction be the will of the Board, I will participate in the retreat and represent my district. I have clearly indicated my preference on the matter, and I am but one vote.

Recently, I have been to the TSBA Annual Convention with our Board. It was a good experience with educational sessions on legal issues facing school systems, the changing state standards, and recent changes to state law and how these changes affect our system. It was a rewarding and educational convention.

I was also honored to have the opportunity to pronounce the words for the Loudon County Spelling Bee this past week as well. It was a wonderful opportunity, and I am so proud of students across the county. They are doing a great job!

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to e-mail me or call me at 865-635-6193.

I also urge you to check out www.LocalWeatherTN.com for any of the latest weather information as well as my profile at Examiner.com where I am a freelance meteorology contributor.