The Tennessee Department of Education has recognized Clinton City Schools as “exemplary,” its highest level of distinction.
Just nine other schools received this designation for the 2023-24 school year.
An official state news release explains how the state decides this honor.
Each year, schools and districts are eligible for designations based on their overall performance across several indicators.
They include how the schools prepared students to be proficient accelerated student learning, encouraged students to attend school regularly, prepared students for postsecondary success, and supported English learners acquiring language skills.
All three individual Clinton City Schools: Clinton Elementary, North Clinton Elementary, and South Clinton Elementary, received reward school status, which is the highest honor given by the state Department of Education, based on federal accountability.
Anderson County Lady Mavericks centerfielder and leadoff batter Kaycee Baldwin has signed a letter of intent to continue her student-athlete career at Bryan College in Dayton. - Tony Cox
Anderson County High School senior Kaycee Baldwin recently made her college plans official by signing a national letter of intent to play softball at Bryan College.
Baldwin, a centerfielder and leadoff hitter for the Lady Mavericks, said she felt at home at Bryan, a small Christian school in Dayton, Tennessee.
“I loved the campus down there, and the area around it is beautiful,” Baldwin said. “The coaches and the girls were extremely welcoming when I went down there, and I wanted to go to a smaller school.”
Bryan wasn’t Baldwin’s only option.
She also considered East Tennessee State University, but after visiting the Johnson City campus, she decided it wasn’t the right fit.
“We went to ETSU, and I immediately said, ‘no,’” Baldwin said. “At Bryan, it’s like its own community, and it’s small.”
Baldwin said her decision was influenced by her desire to attend a religious school, and stay relatively close to home.
“The other thing that appealed to me is that it’s a Christian school, and everything is Christ-centered,” she said.
“Everything they do, including softball, is centered around Christ.”
Staying within driving distance of her family also played a key role.
“I wanted to stay close enough to home where I could come back on a weekend, but I also wanted to be far enough away to have the independence of being in college,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin plans to major in mathematics and minor in business.
She said the small class sizes at Bryan were another major draw for her.
“I think that building a relationship with a professor will be really helpful for me in all of my classes,” she said.
“The teacher-to-student ratio is about 1-to-12 or 1-to-15.
“There are about 800 students on campus, and 75 to 80% of them are athletes.”
High school athletics runs deep in Peggy Crabtree Stooksbury’s family.
Her father officiated basketball and football for the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, her husband recently retired as a referee in the same sports, and her daughter played basketball and volleyball at Anderson County High School.
However, when Stooksbury graduated from Norris High School in 1965, opportunities for girls in sports were limited. At the time, girls’ sports were intramural only.
Stooksbury served as president of her high school’s girls intramural association, which was led by fellow TSSAA Title IX trailblazer Rita Hackler.
When Stooksbury became athletic director at Anderson County High School, she broke barriers as the first woman to hold the role in Anderson County.
While fulfilling her duties, she also taught two physical education classes daily. Stooksbury oversaw 12 varsity, eight junior varsity, and three ninth-grade athletic programs. Her leadership extended to directing numerous TSSAA district, regional, and sectional tournaments, as well as football playoff games. She also founded the girls soccer program.
After 37 years with the Anderson County school system, Stooksbury retired in 2009. Her career was marked by service on various committees and as a department head.
She was nominated for Anderson County Teacher of the Year and led in-service training for physical-education teachers throughout the county. Some of her classes were recorded by the University of Tennessee to help train future educators.
“To young women today, I would say: ‘Go for it and believe in yourself,’” Stooksbury said.
“You will be the example for the next generation of women, so try to live up to it.”
Anderson County Schools busy
with building projects
by Ben Pounds
From improvements to Clinton High School’s softball field to a multi-use facility, progress continues with Anderson County Schools’ building projects.
An update on these projects came in the November County Commission agenda as part of Director of Schools Tim Parrott’s report.
Softball Field
The school system stated the Clinton High School softball field is 80% complete.
The concession stand is under contract and the school is aiming for a Dec. 1 completion.
Multi-use facility
Parrott said the school system plans to build a multi-use sports facility on the Anderson County High School campus similar to the one at Clinton High School.
Half of the cost will come from the district and the other part from donors.
“The whole community can be part of that,” he said.
He described it as a “big, enclosed building,” to be used for activities such as soccer, football and track.
Parrott said he did not yet have a date for completion, but that it would be where the old practice football field is.
It’s part of the school system’s capital projects plan, which refers to projects for which the school system saves money several years out.
The report stated the said the bid will go out in next September.
Little Learning Lab activities include swings, toys, sensory tables and story time. - Ben Pounds
With Little Learning Lab up and running, pre-kindergarten children are staying and playing there.
“We’ve come so far and all the children are happy to be here, happy to learn,” said Brittany Webb, the Little Learning Lab’s director.
The Little Learning Lab describes its focus as working with The Creative Curriculum teaching strategies as well as the Conscious Discipline strategy to help children learn “the social-emotional and communication skills necessary to manage themselves, resolve conflict, prevent bullying and develop pro-social behaviors,” the Little Learning Lab’s website states.
The pre-kindergarten daycare program has eight classrooms and two outdoor play areas at 1009 Commerce Park Drive.
“We really designed this building to function for our needs,” said Webb, pointing to distinct features like 22 sinks due to the need for children to wash their hands often.
First are two infant rooms function as nurseries with cribs.
Next is the are the rooms for children who’ve lived 12 to 24 months. These children begin to start a schedule and to learn the conscious discipline and creative curriculum. On the day of the interview children were cutting paper with scissors. Every classroom above the infant level has a sensory table, Webb said, with some kind of item with which to play, such as in the case of the interview day, sand.
The Laker Leaders at Lake City Middle School organized 20 boxes filled with with four different vegetables, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, gravy, rolls, milk, eggs and a 14-16-pound turkey for Lake City families. The donations were part of a food drive by the Anderson County Lions Club and Food City in Clinton.
