Tonight at Powell High School, Dr. Jim McIntyre, Jr. presented his second ever State of the Schools address. A crowd of about 300 were assembled in the high school auditorium. The School Board Chair recognized every elected official except Sheriff Jimmy J.J. Jones. When Mayor Burchett got up he recognized Sheriff Jones and the County Commissioners. He asked that every educator to stand and be recognized because they are the real heroes. All but about 75 people were standing. Not many parents attended, those individuals with a vested interest attended.
Last years theme was “we can do better and we will do better.” This years theme was “we are doing better” He highlighted islands of success, like the 10 schools in Knox County that had attained the “reward school” status which included the host school Powell High. He highlighted some gains by the total school district in achievement and assessment on the core subject matters. He highlighted the increase in the graduation rate increase and the .02 increase in ACT scores.
He then outlined his intended focus is updating the five year strategic plan. The four main ares to work on Teaching, Teachers, Technology and School Safety. He is proposing an armed officer in every school.
He too asked every educator to stand up.
The School Board Chair then introduced Randy Boyd the CEO of PetSafe. He was to discuss investing in technology. During his talk he mentioned that he is on the board of privately owned Webb School of Knoxville. Clearly this irritated many of the public educators in the audience. Thee meeting then concluded and I left.
Of the 75 not standing. 9 were school board members…about 6 were county commissioners, 5 were county employees, about 10 were from Jimmy’s PR staff and I am guessing the rest were parents who had to be there for their children who were in the “school play.”
Wonder if the teaching coaches stood up?
BTW, in the former USSR, the “teaching coaches” were known as political commissars who sought out “disloyal” workers.