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New system scheduled to go live in July

The Coffee County Schools Board of Education will begin recording and streaming its regular board meetings at Central Office so they can be made available to more members of the public.

Board members voted 8-0 to approve the video system during its regular meeting May 8. The system is expected to cost less than $3,000.

“This is just formal approval, I believe at the April Spring Retreat (Director of Technology Randy Damewood) talked about the system, he gave a demonstration of the system that he is proposing and the board seemed favorably disposed to utilization of that system,” Dr. Charles Lawson, director of schools said.

Lawson said the plan is for the system to be tested during the June meeting and officially begin recording the meetings at the start of the new fiscal year in July.

Board member Robert Ballard said he would like to commend Damewood for his work on the project and coming up with a cost-effective system for the Board to utilize.

“I think he did a great job on that,” Ballard said.

Board members also voted 8-0 to approve an easement with Ben Lomand Connect for the installation of a switch station at the edge of the Hickerson Elementary School property near where Rutledge Falls Road connects to Old Manchester Highway.

“They would be using it for dealing with broadband internet and so forth for that area,” Assistant Director of Schools Kelvin Shores said.

Lawson said the easement use would be for 99 years.

“It is a corner of the lot, obviously we are not going to build any school structures that close to the Old Manchester Highway or anything like that,” he said. “There is not really any room for anything there and so it would not impact us at all. It would help the community as far as connectivity.”

Board member Brent Parsley asked if the switch station could be anything that students could get in and hurt themselves.

“It will be all locked up so they shouldn’t be able to get into it at all,” Shores said.

Board member Larry Crabtree asked if there is any benefit for the school is allowing the easement to move forward.

“There is no financial arrangement with this easement or anything like that,” Lawson said. It is just simply that we have a spot that is centrally located that they can provide this service to the community at large.

Lawson said it could be argued that students in the Hickerson area will have improved connectivity at home.

In other news, the Coffee County Board of Education voted 8-0 to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Manchester Center for Rehabilitation and Healing for a temporary shelter at the Raider Academy in the event it were needed.

“This is something that if the board approves we can enter into and hope that we never ever need to utilize it,” Lawson said

In the event of a disaster, the MOA allows the rehabilitation center to set up a temporary shelter at the Raider Academy for a period of up to seven days. The school is utilized by the district’s 9th grade students.

“If there was a need for emergency temporary shelter, if there was a storm that completely damaged their building to the point that they could no longer inhabit it, they would need a place for their residents,” Lawson said.

Board member Freda K. Jones asked how the school could accommodate the center’s residents while still being used by students.

“It is up to seven days and it would require the modification of student schedules,” Lawson said. “Let’s say the gymnasium is finished and they are in the gymnasium, we would probably have to modify where we had P.E., where we had chorus and that kind of thing and make those modifications in that way.”

“It is up to seven days, but there is a reason it is limited to that time because that way we are not on the hook for weeks on end,” Lawson added.