Indya KINCANNON 2nd District School Board Representative

Good morning,

I hope your summer is going well. I’ve enjoyed the break from school-year routines for my kids, but have been staying quite busy with school board activities. Read all about it below!

Indya

As most of you probably know, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in late June that over-turned the use of race as the sole determinant for student assignments. Our current transfer policy uses race as a factor in granting and denying transfers. We are having a special called meeting on Monday, July 23^rd at 4pm at the Andrew Johnson Building to discuss and possibly act on this issue.

I see this as a challenge and an opportunity. First we need to resolve all pending transfer requests as soon as possible. School starts August 9^th and we can’t keep families in limbo. Based on the information given to us by the administration, there were a total of 1738 transfer requests this year. Of those, 23 were approved on the basis of race alone, and 63 were denied on the basis of race alone. The vast majority of transfers are approved or denied on other grounds.

My proposal for the near term will be to suspend the racial components of the policy immediately, make sure nobody is denied a transfer due to race, but allow those transfers that were approved due to race to continue for one transitional year.

Second, during the coming months we should examine our transfer policy and make it better. The current policy is imperfect, but hasty modifications could make things worse. We need to ask ourselves whether racial and/or economic integration have academic and social benefits (I think they do), and if so how best to encourage it within our schools.

There are many school districts that encourage integration in a way that is legal and fair. I’d like to examine best practices and see what would work best for Knox County . My hope would be to encourage integration in an affirmative way - through carrots, not sticks, through choice, not coercion.

We have been meeting since January, but progress is very slow. There are a lot of complex issues. We are starting to talk about concrete plans, but no decisions have been made. My goal is that we directly address the shortcomings cited in the UT evaluation and that we take advantage of this opportunity to innovate.

The magnet school model may no longer be the most effective way to promote excellence and diversity in our schools. Our magnet schools were initially set up as a way to promote racial integration and avoid bussing. With the recent Supreme Court decision, we need to re-define the purpose of magnet schools. I see magnet schools as way to add more public school choice and specialization in our schools, and ultimately as a way to revitalize urban neighborhoods.

People contact me often with innovative ideas on how to improve our schools. Why not uniforms? Year-round school? Single-sex education? Montessori curriculum? Foreign language starting in kindergarten? International Baccalaureate? These are all interesting ideas, but can’t be offered system-wide due to cost, and also because they’re not universally desired or appropriate. We need to provide excellent academic opportunities for every child no matter where they live. I see magnet, or choice, schools as a way to offer specialized opportunities to those families who want them, while simultaneously promoting racial and economic integration.

I read an excellent book on these issues recently. It’s called All Together Now: Creating Middle-Class Schools Through Public School Choice by Richard Kahlenberg. He believes that the best way to improve schools for all children is make sure every child has access to a middle class school, meaning no more than 50% of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. In middle class schools the culture for academic success is easier to instill. He presents lots of empirical evidence showing the benefits for low-income children and society as a whole. He also provides solid evidence that economic integration benefits middle and high income children too. His arguments resonate with me – public schools should be engines of social mobility, not systems designed to reinforce the advantages (and disadvantages) of birth. The book offers real examples of school systems that are attempting to promote economic integration and their positive academic results.

We issued an RFP for an Executive search firm and the deadline is next Tuesday, July 24^th. I hope we’ll have multiple proposals by then. You can read the RFP here. Once we have some proposals, we’ll evaluate them and select a search firm. After a firm is selected I expect the search process will proceed smoothly and expeditiously.

If there are no proposals, or if the ones submitted are not acceptable, we have several options: modify the RFP, disseminate it more effectively, or decide to do the search ourselves. I hope we get to select from among several high quality proposals.

In the meantime, our interim Superintendent Roy Mullins’s steady leadership and willingness to serve give us the time to conduct a thorough search and not rush the decision. Hiring a Superintendent is one of our most important responsibilities, and I want to get it right.

The legislature approved a new and improved formula for funding the Basic Education Program (BEP). Under the new formula the state’s contribution to each school system will be based on each locale’s fiscal capacity, as measured by property and sales tax bases. This is more straightforward and equitable than the previous formula.

· Funds 100 percent of at-risk students. Currently, the formula funds 38.5 percent;

· Funds English Language Learners (ELL) at ratios of one teacher per 20 students and one translator per 200 students. Currently, the ratio is 1:45 and 1:450;

· Funds schools based on current year enrollment. Currently, the state funds school systems based on prior year enrollment and only growth above two percent is funded;

· Encourages principals to exercise more authority over budget and staffing decisions within their schools;

· Allows for possible bonuses for principals when standards are met and consequences when they are not;

These improvements to the BEP will be funded through a 42 cent increase in the tobacco tax. The total state tobacco tax is now 62 cents, still below the national average of 80 cents.

Needless to say, I am happy to have additional funds for our schools. I’m particularly pleased that the money is dedicated in part to help at-risk students since we have a lot of at-risk students in Knoxville and it takes more to educate them effectively.

Thanks to our legislators and all those who lobbied them for this positive change!

With BEP improvements many people have asked me how we’re going to spend our ‘surplus’. Last year our operating budget was $332.2 million. This year we requested $368m, and with BEP reform and our continued local funding efforts, our budget will be about $357.5m, which is an 8% increase!

Based on a preliminary review of the budget with the Superintendent it looks like he’ll recommend additional funding for:

· the Excellence through Literacy initiative, which is designed to improve reading instruction at all levels, with a special focus on grades 6-12;

· More teachers to better meet the needs of our growing population of English Language Learners;

· More teachers to meet the needs of at-risk students. These positions are sprinkled throughout the system, including some 2^nd District schools;

· Enhanced pay for unused sick leave upon retirement, to reward teachers who give advance notice of retirement and to discourage absenteeism;

· Improvements to security, technology, and an automated parent notification system;

· Fixed increases for salary schedules, utilities, transportation costs and health insurance;

This list has a lot of good initiatives, but given our unexpected increase in state funding, this seems like a good time to explore some innovative ideas too, such as performance pay for teachers, in addition to cost of living adjustments. I also want to make sure we give appropriate resources to middle and high-achieving students, not just at-risk students.

The Board will have an opportunity to modify the budget at upcoming hearings. Let me know your thoughts. We’ll probably have a special workshop to discuss the budget and vote on it at our regularly-scheduled meeting on August 8^th.

We’ll be discussing several other items at Monday’s meeting, in addition to the transfer policy:

· Mike Edwards will be presenting a report from the Chamber of Commerce’s Education Task Force;

· Dr. David Dupper, UT Professor of Social Work, will present a proposal in response to the Racial Disparity in School Discipline Task Force Report. The task force found that African American and low-income students are disproportionately suspended from our schools. He will propose a pilot program to help train teachers to be culturally responsive classroom managers;

· Presentation on grants. Last year for the first time we budgeted money to hire a dedicated grant writer for Knox County Schools. On Monday we’ll learn how effective that has been in winning more grants for our schools.

Ijams Nature Center sponsors the Earth Flag program to encourage environmental stewardship in our schools. This year Belle Morris Elementary won the Best School Award and Fountain City Elementary won Best Cafeteria Staff. Linda Denton, a North Hills Resident and science teacher at Gresham Middle School , won the lifetime achievement award. Congratulations!

We had a successful campaign kick-off in May. Thanks to everyone who co-hosted, supplied the excellent food and drinks, and helped spread the word. I am actively campaigning to seek a 2^nd term on the school board and appreciate your votes and support. Contributions to help get the word out are welcome.

I’ll be attending PTA/PTO meetings, neighborhood and community events, and knocking on doors throughout the coming months. As always, if you know of a neighborhood event or meeting in the Second District, please do not hesitate to tell me about it and I’ll try to attend.

The election is February 5^th, the same time as the Presidential primary. I’ll post upcoming events on my website as they are planned.

Thanks for reading this update! I appreciate your interest and welcome your feedback. For our school staff and students, enjoy the last few weeks of summer break and good luck in the coming school year.