May 2008 Sevier County School Board Meeting was called by Chairman Mike Oakley. The evening included the annual awards ceremonies for academic and athletic achievement. Almost all of the students were honored before some parents decided, “Hey! We've got ours! Let's all get out of here.” The pressure of waiting respectfully another 3 minutes was just too burdensome for some to bear. After the award ceremony was a five minute break as the room calmed down from the hustle and bustle of the remaining parents and students filtering out of the room.
During the remainder of the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Jack Parton declared Toby Ward principal of Sevier County High School. All board members agreed and the “interim” title was officially removed.
Reports by representatives in various capacities was as follows;
Mr Harmon stated that the building programs were moving along.
Catlettsburg Elementary has walls up in the center of the building and the goal is to be under roof by September.
Pitman Center is undergoing a great deal of interior work with the goal of being in and having the pre-engineered gym in by fall.
Boyds Creek is in the dry and once finished, the original plan will be complete.
Sevier County High School is seeing work on an irrigation program for the stadium.
May 14th, the Tennessee Education Association (teacher's union) will be at Sevierville Middle School at 4:15 P.M. discussing the negative impact of the cities moving highly taxable properties to tax-free zones in order to spur economic development and the negative impact on teachers and the others in the school system.
The last day of school is June 4th.
The organizers of the project to bring “Smoky” back to the roof of Sevier County High School were thanked. Becky Barnes mentioned that SOLAR lights would be used to shine on Smoky through the night.
Dr. Parton noted that children were giving fine examples of how to conserve energy.
He expressed concern that families should call their local representatives in favor of more taxes out of their pocket for the schools. The current tax is ¼ of a percent.
Dr. Parton explained it as such, “When purchasing a Tea from McDonald's you pay $1.10 even though with tax the cost would actually be $1.095. You already lose the money because you don't get the ½ cent back.”
In his example, using 2000 census numbers of median household income at $40,474, the family would be impacted to the tune of $101.19 per year or half of a grocery bill.
Dr. Parton hopes that the city governments, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Pittman Center, sets aside the tax increase specifically for school use. If so, he hopes to see $7 million extra for the school instead of the projected $3 million for the schools per year.
At the end of the meeting, I asked Dr. Parton the biggest taboo question, “Can the schools not request the county and city governments to push for liquor by the drink to fund our schools with tourism money since we know that Sevier County citizens do not drink?” He stated that such an action could only be done by referendum. In other words it is by far easier to raise taxes on locals and tourists than allow a seemingly unpopular product requested by tourists to fund our schools but in another breath we, as a community, are perfectly fine with our kindergarten to 5th grade children going to school behind a sex shop.