The Kingsport City Schools Board of Education held its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, October 1, 2015. Several key items were discussed, including:

• A presentation by the John Sevier Middle School Chorus.
• A demonstration of Google Classroom and how that technology is being utilized by KCS.
• Recognition of Tennessee Teacher of Year finalist Rebekah Haren.
• A review of school calendar survey results and the proposed calendar for the 2016-2017 school year.
• The KCS audit report for fiscal year 2014-2015.
• The fourth quarter financial report for FY 2014-2015.

• Three Sevier students, Taleshia Allen, Alissa Davidson, and Summer Hiatt, spoke about their participation in chorus and the impact that chorus has made on them.
• Following the student reports, the chorus sang two songs highlighting their talents.

Mr. Andy True, Chief Administrative Officer, reviewed community feedback from the recent 2016-17 School Calendar survey, shared the designated holidays for the 2016-17 year, and reviewed a potential 2016-17 school calendar.  Significant survey results included:

• A total of 1,754 people responded to the calendar survey, with 1,238 being parents/guardians of KCS students.

A potential 2016-17 calendar was reviewed.  The calendar was built with the following priority considerations:

• Protecting the amount of instructional days, especially prior to student testing each semester (due to such scores counting toward a student's grades and teacher evaluations).  Testing dates are set by the state and not movable.
  
• Building a balanced calendar that places an equal number of instructional days in each semester (providing the maximum amount of instruction for each semester-long class).
• Balancing the results of community input from a variety of different stakeholders, each having expressed oftentimes opposing wishes and priorities.
  • Such information includes desires regarding the start date, holiday schedules, breaks, and professional learning days.
• Protecting the length of summer vacation, which has traditionally been 73 or 74 days long.

• Typically, KCS has started school during the first full week of August. 
• Given the location of specific calendar dates, this creates a situation where the first full work week of August in 2016 begins on August 1.  In projecting the calendar in future years, this appears to be a one-year situation that would not occur again in the near future.
  • For instance, initial projections for the 2017-18 calendar point to school potentially starting on Monday, August 7, 2017.
  • While starting on August 1, 2016 was recognized as a concern, it was also noted that it was a one-year situation before the calendar "flipped," resulting in a later potential start date.
• The length of the proposed summer vacation in 2016 remains consistent to previous years, lasting 73 days.

• After much consideration and discussion, the 2016-17 calendar was adopted by a vote of 5-0.
  

• This annual review, required by law, indicated KCS is in sound financial shape overall, with a few accounting discrepancies noted and corrected at the school level.  
• The full audit report, a summary of audit findings, and a summary of issues addressed were included in Mr. Frye's report to the Board.