TN rewards Anderson schools for excellence

March 13, 2024 by Ben Pounds

Thanks to good performance, the state of Tennessee is giving $565,950 to Anderson County Schools.

Director of Schools Tim Parrott explained in a letter that these funds were based on student performance in the 2022-23 school year.

The Anderson County Board of Education approved a plan to distribute those funds Thursday, March 5.

It will give $500,000 to build a new elementary school for the Claxton community at 105 Fellowship Lane in Powell, the former Crossroads Christ Fellowship site.

The Board of Education will distribute the rest of the funds to the schools.

In addition, individual schools will receive bonus funds for their good performances.

Grand Oaks Elementary School will receive $2,000 for receiving an “A” on the state report card. “A” is the best rating in Tennessee’s letter-grade system.

“The calculation to generate A-F letter grades for schools, presented on Nov. 2 to the state Board of Education, includes four separate indicators — student achievement, student academic growth, growth of the highest-need students, and college and career readiness measures just for high schools — and will differentiate [among] elementary, middle schools and high schools,” an official state website states, explaining the scores.

Those the state designated as “reward schools” will also receive $2,000.

These schools have an overall federal accountability score greater than or equal to 3.1 out of 4.

This is a calculation that includes scores for student achievement and growth, chronic absenteeism, and the proficiency of English-language learners, or students whose first language is not English.

Reward schools are Grand Oaks, Claxton, and Andersonville elementary, and Clinton High School.

The school system is giving $1,000 to schools that moved up one letter grade in the state’s ranking or moved off the Additional Targeted Support and Improvement list, which refers to low performance.

These are Claxton Elementary, Clinton Middle, Clinton High, Dutch Valley Elementary and Lake City Middle schools.

Don Bell made the motion to approve this plan, and Andy McKamey seconded.

It passed unanimously among the members present, but John Burrell was not present.