Brenda Owensby(Photo: Submitted)

Buzz Thomas’ describes “a lot of us” as “fat, dumb, and happy.” I may be fat and I may be happy, but dumb, I am not. Buzz Thomas would have us believing that we are on the path to failing our students. I disagree. For clarity, I will refer to Buzz Thomas as Buzz since the last name of our current superintendent is Thomas as well.

In a column written by Buzz, he claims that for years we have been on an upward trajectory … by whose measurement? Our ACT scores have languished and even decreased slightly before our current superintendent ever took office. As cited by Buzz, three years ago when the state, based on its less-than-transparent criteria, declared Knox County to be an “exemplary” school system, our ACT scores actually were in decline as the state scores were going up. Our scores from 2015 to 2016 went from 20.7 to 20.5. In addition, only 24 percent of our students were assessed as college ready.

More: Opinion | Board of Education driving Knox County Schools off a cliff

Do I think it was all gloom and doom then? No, but it is not gloom and doom now either. The ACT scores released by the state for 2017 indicate the Knox County average was 21.7, up by 1.2 percent, while the state improved less than 1 percent. We can slice and dice statistics and even mislead with statistics, but students are more than numbers, and I believe the current board and superintendent recognize that.

CLOSE

Want to submit your letter to the editor? Here is how.
Wochit

Buzz states that the board decided to leave the Leadership Academy relationship due to the involvement of Jim McIntyre and that the decision was “both political and petty.” He fails to mention that we currently have over 200 master’s-level employees already certified to be administrators and that we could redistribute the almost $1 million we had been spending on that leadership program to more acute needs of the schools while using our own talent to train our future leaders. It appears that our current superintendent and board are trying to review all of the information available to them about what is best for the students of Knox County.

The suggestion that board actions are undermining the priorities the current superintendent has for “creating a positive culture for students and staff” and “eliminating disparities based on income and race” are disingenuous and totally false. A statement that the board is somehow pitted against the superintendent’s goals seems like an attempt to create a divide where none exists. That appears to me to fall under the “political and petty” descriptors.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Last SlideNext Slide

Likewise the image that our school board is driving a bus full of school children off a cliff, as Buzz concludes, is insensitive and disappointing. It appears to me that our school board is working collaboratively with our superintendent to create the best possible schools we can for the students of Knox County now and in the future.

Let’s work together for the betterment of our schools.

Brenda Owensby is an adjunct professor in psychology at Tusculum College.

Read or Share this story: https://knoxne.ws/2raZz9x