Those little books loaded with valuable coupons go on sale throughout Knox County and Knoxville today and the Rotary Club of Farragut is selling the books for our Partner in Education – Ridgedale School on Oak Ridge Highway.
Ridgedale is a specialized school. Principal Kristi Phillips and her staff serve two distinct populations: special education students in grades K-12 (ages 5-22) who have a variety of disabilities and middle school alternative students in grades 6 through 8 who continue their education during long-term suspensions from their base school.
Kristi Phillips
Knox County Schools officially began selling the books today, but Farragut Rotary has been taking pre-orders and has already sold 30 books at $10 per book. Of that $10, Ridgedale receives $9. This year our club has a goal of selling 100 books, says Sonya Ford, co-chair of service projects. That would mean $900 for Ridgedale.
Phillips says Ridgedale also has a sales goal – 500 books to raise $4,500. “That’s a chunk of change for us and we have some projects already identified,” the principal said. “We need a new marquee sign for our school. We need new seating for students and visitors in our lobby and we need to create a special outdoor area for our alternative students to get outside.”
The sales deadline is Oct. 22.
Since school recently started, their student population is only 42 today. That typically increases as the year rolls along. Phillips says the number of alternative students is really low so far. She attributes that to the Covid issue. “A great unintended consequence of Covid are the changes schools had to make and we’ve seen a major reduction of problems and incidents,” she explained. “Students can’t use lockers, the social distancing and not allowing students to be in large groups has helped and the virtual learning has greatly reduced the number of problem students.”
Order books through Farragut Rotary here. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4faba622a6f8c25-coupon
If you would like to buy coupon books directly from the school, you can call Ridgedale at 865-909-9099.
To explore membership in the Rotary Club of Farragut, email tking535@gmail.com or call 865-659-3562. Tom King has served at newspapers in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and California and has been the editor of two newspapers.