The Bartlett City Schools District pulled out its checkbook to write a long stream of numbers this week.
The first payment of $608,198 was due to Shelby County Schools as of Nov. 1, and the superintendent and school board ensured it would be delivered early.
Teresa Winter, the chief financial officer (CFO) for Bartlett City Schools, personally delivered the check to Alicia Lindsey, the CFO for Shelby County Schools, on Oct. 29.
Superintendent David Stephens mentioned the payment at the Oct. 23 school board meeting, where board members also approved a pilot consulting program, congratulated Bartlett High School golfers for a great season, made holiday changes to the board schedule and approved several resolutions for routine district business.
Pilot consulting program
The consulting program agreement, discussed in more depth at the board’s Oct. 16 work session, will draw on the expertise of community members or retired educators brought back into the system on a limited basis to assist in the district. Debbie Nelson, a retired theater arts teacher from Bolton High School, will be in the pilot of this program.
Stephens explained that Nelson will assist a fairly new theater arts teacher at Bartlett High School with running shows, setting up booster organizations, mentoring and providing guidance as needed, and working on vertical alignment between the middle school, high school and community theater. The pilot program will pay Nelson on an hourly basis up to a capped amount of $16,000. Stephens said he doesn’t believe the pilot will reach that ceiling.
“It was kind of a coup to get Debbie,” Stephens said, mentioning that she was very successful at Bolton High.
Also at the Oct. 23 meeting, the board amended its meeting calendar to accommodate upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays:
- November’s business meeting will be Nov. 13, and there will be no preceding work session.
- December’s business meeting will be Dec. 11, and there will be no preceding work session.
Golfers honored
Stephens congratulated Bartlett High School’s golfers, head coach Kirby Grisham and assistant coach Kevin Hill and presented certificates to students for ranking sixth in the state and earning top results from the Memphis area.
The students were the school’s first golf team to go to state since 1999, Stephens said. They finished the year with a 47-11 record and brought home the district and regional championships.
Senior Clayton Gregory made all-state by finishing sixth in individuals.
Tori Wilson, a freshman, finished 12th in girls’ individuals, just missing all-state honors, and was the 2014 district champion and regional runner-up.
Other Bartlett High golf team members included Mason Hester, senior; Dawson Jones and Brandon Smith, juniors; Toby Wilson, sophomore; and Garrett Underhill and Tanner Wade, freshmen.
Board approvals
In routine business, the board also:
- Approved the Tennessee Department of Education 2014 Local Education Agency (LEA) compliance report. This report says the district fully complies with all state laws and state Department of Education rules without exceptions.
- Directed the superintendent to pursue accreditation through AdvancED (a non-profit, non-partisan organization) for the district as a whole, rather than for individual schools. District-wide accreditation is what Shelby County Schools uses. The process will let Bartlett City Schools District maintain its current accreditation this year and pursue it on a district-wide level going forward.
- This was the first reading of this resolution.
- Approved policies on recruiting, selecting and evaluating school superintendents. This was the first reading of this resolution.
- Approved policies on maintaining school board records. This was the first reading of this resolution.
- Approved a visitors’ policy to keep a safe and effective learning environment at Bartlett schools. This was the first reading of this resolution.
Resolutions must pass two readings. These will become official after their second reading at the November board meeting.
Earlier in October
The board held a long afternoon retreat on Oct. 16 to discuss a mission statement, vision statement and core set of beliefs. These items will be brought for a vote at the November or December board meeting.
Also at the board’s regular work session the evening of Oct. 16, the board discussed the following topics:
- Stephens reported that the state Department of Education has applied for a preschool developmental grant in which Metro Nashville and Shelby County would go into a consortium to expand pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs. Any district that has existing pre-K can choose to participate if the grant is awarded. It’s not binding for Bartlett City Schools to participate but it would allow the district to expand pre-K if needed. “We didn’t want to close the door on that since there was no cost to being part of that,” Stephens said.
- Oak Elementary’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) raised more than $25,000 over several years in partnership with the school to put in a new Macintosh lab, Stephens said.
- Nedra Jones, the planner shared among the new local municipal school districts, outlined how the Bartlett City Schools’ five-year capital improvement plan will be developed for enrollment, programs and facilities. Phase One will gather data about current and future student enrollment and the student body’s makeup, the adequacy and efficiency of academic programs, a complete facilities inventory and assessment of suitability, and more. Phase Two will analyze and integrate this data into a cohesive plan to allocate resources strategically. “Although this is a five-year plan, we will look at this and update it on an annual basis,” Jones said. “So it’s not something that we’ll work on, we’ll create, and it’s going to sit on the shelf.” She estimated that a first draft could be ready for board review and approval by January or February.
Written by Carolyn Bahm, Express editor. Contact her at (901) 433-9138 or via email to bartlett.editor@journalinc.com.
