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Board approves 16 for tenure

Members of the Coffee County Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to approve expenditures for additional security measures at some of the district’s school buildings during its regular meeting Monday Nov. 13.

One of those improvements is additional electronic doors at Coffee County Middle School as well as Deerfield, Hickerson, Hillsboro and North Coffee Elementary Schools totaling $31,259.40.

“What we are looking for is putting it so we have two electronic door entrances at each school,” Assistant Director of Schools Kelvin Shores said during the meeting. “That means that parents or visitors to our schools would have to be buzzed into the foyer part, or into the office and before they could actually get into the rest of the building they have to be buzzed into the rest of the building.”

Shores said some of the district’s buildings already have the double sets of doors in place.

“This is just getting everybody up to that point where we need it to be,” he said.

The district’s Capital Outlay Committee previously allocated $20,000 to pay for the project.

“The price came in a lot higher,” Shores said. “It is about $30,000, so that is where the Capital Outlay will jump in to help take care of the entire project to finish it off.”

Board Chairman Dr. Gary Nester asked when the doors are expected to be installed.

Shores said the Knoxville-based Central Technologies Inc. is expecting to have the project completed in January or February next year.

Board members approved the additional electronic doors, voting 6-0 with members Freda K. Jones, Kathy Rose and Robert Gilley absent.

The second security improvement to be approved by the Board during the meeting is additional electronic door locks totaling $75,368.81.

Shores said the district is finishing up and putting the final touches on the Medeco Door Locking System installed at the district’s elementary schools, and is now moving on to the Raider Academy and Coffee County Central High School.

“We are looking at the outside door looks coming in as well as classroom door locks,” Shores said.

The cost for the high school is expected to be $52,896.86 while the Raider Academy comes in at $22,471.95.

“Now understand this is going to take care of a couple of problems,” Shores said. “It is going to give us one thing is the security of the doors, of having the looks there but also we are making those doors ADA complaint as well.”

Shores said the Medeco Door Locking System is a layering system used throughout the district to provide more security for its buildings.

The district’s Safety Committee had allocated $60,000 for the door locks. The remaining $15,368.81 will come from the district’s capital outlay fund.

During the meeting, Board members also unanimously approved 16 district teachers for tenure.

Director of Schools Dr. Charles Lawson said in order to qualify for tenure, Coffee County educators must complete five years with the district. They must also receive a score of four or five during the previous two years for growth scores, which are the two highest levels.

“These people have completed all those requirements and been recommended by their building principal,” Lawson said.

Teachers approved for tenure during the meeting include:

-Coffee County High School: Wesley Rutledge, Dana Newton, Lacey Brown, Kristy Evans, Lora Whaley

-Coffee County Middle School: Rachel Williams and Juan Smith

-Coffee County Raider Academy: Sarah Persinger and Tiffany Brown

-Deerfield Elementary: Rachel Holder and Devin Spearman

-East Coffee Elementary: Rhonda Meeks

-New Union Elementary: Victoria Adams and Helen Dougherty

-North Coffee: Tierra Miller and Amberly Hodges

The next meeting of the Coffee County Board of Education will be 4:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 11.