Thomas spells out funding wish-list

Tom KingFarragut, Feature

The budget that supports approximately 60,700 students, 8,400 employees and the operating costs of Knox County Schools is $485 million. At this week’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Farragut, Superintendent Bob Thomas was asked how he would spend more money if he had it to spend.

He thought for a moment. “First, I’d hire more guidance counselors because we have so many kids who come to school each day with so many different problems,” he said. “Next I would add more school nurses. We are stretched very thin there. Then I would use what’s left for raises for teachers.”

And then he added: “We are not competitive with schools around us – Oak Ridge and Maryville to name two. Their salaries are higher and they have better benefits. Those two districts in particular cherry pick some of our best teachers who can make $10,000 more in salary.”

This year, he explained, teachers did not get a raise. “Our board decided that we would build and open two new middle schools (Hardin Valley and Gibbs) this year and we had health insurance and retirement costs increase and we had nothing left for raises,” he said.

Thomas, who began as superintendent in April 2017 following former Superintendent Jim McIntyre, has been with the school system for 45 years. He was a classroom teacher for many years (Teacher of the Year at Bearden High in 1982), a coach, an athletic director, an assistant principal and principal (at Rule High) before joining the district staff.

As superintendent he has three priorities: increasing student achievement, creating a positive culture and eliminating disparities. The final priority includes closing achievement gaps within sub-groups of students (economically disadvantaged students, special education and English language learners) in test scores and graduation rates.

The recent statewide testing in reading proficiency showed that only 40 percent of Knox County third graders are reading at grade level. “We had four schools in the lowest 10 percent and yes, that truly concerns me, but I’m also concerned if we’re even at 20 or 30 or 40 percent. We have got to push reading proficiency in the schools and in the community. Our entire community needs to be involved in this. My vision is to be the best in the country.”

He stressed that the schools have to do a much better job of “getting our students college and career ready.”

Thomas addressed school safety issues and ironically, while he was doing that in his presentation, there was a “soft lockdown” of all of the Gibbs schools because of a threat a student made on social media.

“We are spending $5.2 million on school safety and we have 105 officers who get nine weeks of training,” he said. “They are bonded and armed. Plus, we have Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies and KPD officers (Knoxville Police Department) working in our schools.” He also noted that the school district made $1.1 million in capital upgrades for school security (fencing, cameras, access controls and security cards).

“My message is that every child deserves every opportunity to succeed and we can and should do better a better job of educating them and creating an environment that helps reach this goal,” he said. “Having a good ACT score does not start in high school. It starts in Pre-K and kindergarten and goes all through the grades.”

Before Thomas spoke, Greg Maciolek, the incoming governor for Rotary District 6780 (East Tennessee), presented Thomas with a Paul Harris Fellowship for his work and cooperation with Rotary on a number of fronts.

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