This past week the Knox County Commission and Knox County School Board Joint Education Committee met.
Knox County Commissioners Randy Smith, Carson Dailey, Dr. Dasha Lundy and Courtney Durrett are the Commissioners on the committee.
Susan Horn and Randy Smith at the Joint Education Committee meeting
Knox County School Board Members Daniel Watson, Virginia Babb, Betsy Henderson and Susan Horn at the Board Members on the committee.
Betsy Henderson, Dr. Dasha Lundy and Virginia Babb
First order of business was to elect one from each group to serve as Co-Chairs. Smith and Horn were selected.
The presentation and discussion centered on the school budget. An interesting part of that discussion was individuals thoughts on state funding and potential funding changes that occur after the legislature and Governor have a study about education funding.
Daniel Watson and Carson Dailey
Commissioner Dailey said that the states County Commission association will oppose taking public tax dollars to fund private schools. I was kinda hoping a Board Msmber would remind him that Knox County already spends millions on the Emerald Foundation Charter School. But Dailey is known to miss a item or two of reality.
Babb made some great points about there are 75 open Teachers Aide positions the school District can not fill. The starting wage for food service employees is $8.65 an hour and custodians is $10.08 while you can go to Target and make $15 an hour. The inflation rate is 6.2% and this year the School District for once in a great long time gave an 8% raise. However, normally the non teacher positions rarely get any raise, other than a step raise and if you are a long term employee that has exceeded the steps, you do not get that. You can watch the hour and 15 minute meeting, here or below.
