Lebanon Special School District extends director contract

Abbey Nutter, The Lebanon Democrat, Tenn.
·2 min read

May 15—The Lebanon Special School District Board of Education has approved the renewal of the Director of Schools Brian Hutto's contract for another year.

"I think Brian's done an excellent job," LSSD Board of Education Chairman Mark Tomlinson said. "He communicates well with us, and I think all the teachers are happy with him. I just think he does a good job."

After Tomlinson recommended the extension of the contract, board member Joel Thacker questioned whether keeping the contract for four years for directors was typical.

"I'm going to vote no because I think it's not a very good precedent to set for our teachers, when we're giving him a four-year contract and they have a year-to-year contract," Thacker said.

The contract renewal passed in a 2-1 vote.

Care4You Clinic Funding

The board approved the use of outcome funds, totaling $355,348, received from Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) on the Care4U Clinic during the upcoming school year.

The school has engaged with the clinic in the past. The total cost of the clinic is around $450,000.

"We have a lot of our people that have been able to utilize that service," Hutto said. "It's cut down on substitutes, it's cut down on wait time, it's cut down on costs out of pocket."

The allocation of funds was passed unanimously by the board.

TCAP Testing Updates

Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) testing has concluded for the year.

"A lot of schools had celebrations when it was over to celebrate the hard work the students did," Director of Teaching and Learning Pam Sampson said. "I did want to congratulate all the schools for how they tried to make it a less stressful time for every student so that they could do their best and really try hard each day."

As the school district waits for the TCAP testing results, preparations for summer school are already underway. The summer learning program will start on May 28, and TCAP scores will come out on May 20.

"We have our budget and that will be submitted to the state," Sampson said. "We have our screeners completed for the end of the year and we were hopeful. The scores turned out a little bit better. This year, they have a pathway for students who score in the 40th%ile or above can appeal if they score approaching on TCAP, and you can go to fourth grade and have tutoring."

After looking at the screening test scores, 61% of LSSD third graders scored in the 40th%ile or above in the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). For AIMSweb testing, around 41% of third grade students met the requirement to continue to fourth grade based on screener test scores.