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McKenzie School Board Votes to Hire More SROs

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At the McKenzie Special School District Board of Education’s regular June meeting, the school board discussed and voted to hire two additional School Resource Officers (SROs) at McKenzie schools.

The McKenzie Special School District is partnered with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department, who employs McKenzie’s only SRO officer, Nick Lowe. According to Director of Schools Lynn Watkins, Sheriff Andy Dickson says despite not currently having officers in place to become SROs at county schools, the sheriff’s department will begin searching following the school board’s approval. Director Watkins says it will take at least a month, if not longer, to hire the requested officers.

McKenzie Special School District will pay the new hires’ salaries and benefits, and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department will provide training, sheriff’s vehicles, and uniforms to each SRO. As per state requirements, the hires will receive forty hours of law enforcement training plus forty hours of school safety training.

Based on Officer Nick Lowe’s current salary, the additional hires will cost the school district close to $120,000 in combined salaries and benefits.

Watkins explained current Tennessee requirements say an individual must be a current or past law enforcement officer to carry a firearm into a school or onto its campus. A potential SRO hire could be a retired police officer as long as he or she undergoes proper training. However, Watkins cautioned against hiring outside of the Sheriff’s Department, as that hire would then be under the McKenzie Special School District’s responsibility.

Because the elementary and middle schools are close to each other, board members Greg Barker and George Cassidy considered hiring only one officer due to cost concerns.

LaShonda Williams then recommended hiring one full-time officer and one part-time officer, emphasizing the need for an officer at each school. “I know it doesn’t seem like it’ll happen because we’re a small town, but the school in Texas was in a small town, too,” she said, referencing the recent elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

The board voted to hire two SRO officers.

McKenzie High School Principal Kelly Spivey presented a proposal regarding the school’s grading scale. The Tennessee Department of Education now requires all students’ grades be reported using a uniform grading scale so all students are held to the same academic standard in consideration of the HOPE Scholarship. The state scholarship is rewarded based on college and high school GPAs and ACT scores.

McKenzie’s current grading scale is 93-100: A; 85-92: B; 75-84: C; 70-74: D; 0-69: F.

The uniform grading scale is 90-100: A; 80-89: B; 70-79: C; 60-69: D; 0-59: F.

Principal Spivey and school counselor Sheila Ridley fear adopting the 10-point scale will “water down” McKenzie High School’s academic rigor. Principal Spivey acknowledged McKenzie High School’s recent athletic accomplishments. “But in Northwest Tennessee, we are known for our academics,” he said, gesturing to various banners in the school board office highlighting McKenzie’s academic achievements.

Spivey and Ridley created an Excel spreadsheet formula to easily compute both grading scales with the school’s existing grading system. With this spreadsheet, McKenzie High School’s grading scale will not need to change, and instructors can still submit GPAs on the 10-point scale for HOPE Scholarship eligibility.

The school board voted to keep the current grading scale. Most local Tennessee schools, including Huntingdon and Gibson County (whose academic rigor, according to Principal Spivey, most reflects McKenzie High School’s), are switching to the 10-point grading scale.

The board considered replacing the middle school gym visitor side bleachers. The home side bleachers were recently renovated, removing the plastic seats and replacing them with wood. Replacing the visitor side bleachers would cost around $40,000 and would create a matching set. Director Lynn Watkins assured the board there is nothing wrong with the bleachers, and replacing them would only be for aesthetic purposes.

The school board should “be mindful of the things [the school] needs, not the things [the board] wants,” said Greg Barker, comparing renovating bleachers with hiring SROs. “We obviously need one more than the other.”

After much discussion, the board decided against renovating the bleachers after a roll-call vote. Council members Greg Barker, George Cassidy, and LaShonda Williams voted against replacing the bleachers. Karen Fowler voted in favor, and Misty Aird abstained.

The school board approved adding of Amendment 6.4031, a bed bug policy, to the policy manual. According to Director Lynn Watkins, McKenzie schools have two-to-three bed bug cases with students per year, so the amendment will provide principals and school nurses with guidance on how to treat cases.

Also at the meeting, the board approved several budget amendments, reallocating budgets to balance books. They also approved budget and property taxes for the 2022-23 school year. Neither budget nor property taxes will change for the upcoming school year. Included in the $12 million budget are 4% pay raises and a $1,000 bonus for all 157 McKenzie Special School District employees.