Fulton County School Board honors retiring Chairman

The Fulton County Board of Education meeting held recently focused on improving student learning and skill development, system wide. The meeting began with the approval of the minutes and agenda, followed by Fulton County Schools superintendent Patrice Chambers giving the heartfelt recognition of Perry Turner, who will retire as board chair, effective Jan. 1, 2025.

Chambers shared her gratitude for Turner’s 11 years of service as a Fulton County school board member. Turner thanked everyone he had the pleasure of working with and shared some of his personal background.

Turner was a graduate of Union City (TN) High School, but started his role with the FCSD as a site-based member but worked his way up, serving all three FCSD schools.

Turner said, “I just thank God for Fulton County. I thank God for all that you all do for the students here, my children, all they all went through Fulton County. And I just thank you all.” 

Chambers presented Turner with a gift from the schools and noted that everyone would miss him, but we’re so grateful for all he had done for Fulton County.

The election of board officers saw Kim Haglar appointed as the new chair, Brian Emmons as vice chair with Jennifer Davis and Megan Scott reappointed as treasurer and secretary, respectively.  

Chambers acknowledged the contributions of Sondra Gibbs and Christi Cavness for a wonderful, fun reward day, making sure the students were celebrated and had fun, and ended the year on a good note. Chambers said thanked them for working out a schedule for the staff to celebrate, as well.

“Today was just a good day in the neighborhood for both students and staff,” Chambers said.

Chambers discussed the progress of the Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), emphasizing that she includes all FCSD employees as part of Fulton County’s PLC.

The personnel report for December 2024 included the hiring of Shelby HoIman as a softball coach, Tequilla Mayes as assistant softball coach, and Rose Kinney as a substitute teacher.

The report also included the resignation of Chelsea Wilson as FCMS head cheer coach and Braxton Hobson as a FCMS English-Language Arts teacher. There were no retirements, non-renewals or transfers were reported for the month.

 It was reported that the attendance average for the month was reported at an impressive 93.58% of its 613 districtwide enrollment. FCES reported a 92.52% monthly attendance rate and an enrollment of 219 students. FCMS reported a 93.24% monthly attendance rate and an enrollment of 126 students. FCHS reported a 95.42% monthly attendance rate and an enrollment of 173 students. The preK enrollment for December 2024 included 51 students.

The first reading of the 2025-2026 school calendar was presented, featuring a week-long Thanksgiving break based on staff input and attendance data.

The Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP) was a major focus, with specific goals and strategies outlined to increase proficiency in reading and mathematics, particularly for English language learners. 

The FCES Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP), was given by principal Ashton Giles. It was developed through collaboration between faculty members and the school’s advisory committee.

The primary goal of the CSIP was to decrease the percentage of students performing at the novice level while increasing overall proficiency.

According to Giles, by 2027, FCES aims to raise the combined percentage of proficient and distinguished students in reading and mathematics from 37% to 47%. To achieve this, the plan outlined specific objectives, strategies, activities, measures of success, and progress monitoring approaches.

FCES is also targeting significant improvement goals to increase proficiency in on-demand writing from 23.3% to 35%, science from 14% to 20%, and social studies from 28% to 34% by 2027.

For students in the achievement gap, the school seeks to boost the average combined reading and math proficiency from 16% to 26% by 2025, as measured by state assessments.

FCES has implemented additional strategies and activities to support these objectives and is seeing growth across all student groups, including those identified for targeted support and improvement (TSI).

Giles said that while the school does not have enough English Language Learners to be identified as a separate group, it still aims for a 10% increase in their reading and math proficiency by 2026, with ELL students showing a 5% increase.

Giles wrapped up her presentation, saying the FCES takes great pride in its positive school climate and safety, as evidenced by its high score of 80.4 on the related survey, and the plan aims to maintain this strong performance.

Fulton County Middle School principal Tiea Cross-Davis followed, presenting her CSIP, which outlined ambitious goals and objectives to significantly increase student proficiency in core subject areas by 2027.

 The first goal aims to raise the combined reading and mathematics proficiency score from 21.5% to 38.5% over the next five years. To achieve this, teachers are diligently analyzing standards, focusing on mastery learning, employing differentiated instruction, and engaging in weekly PLCs to examine student data and guide instructional decisions.

The plan also sets specific targets for each subject area, with objectives to increase the reading proficiency score from 24% to 30% and the math proficiency score from 19% to 27% by May 2025. 

The second goal focused on improving proficiency in science, social studies, and writing, with a target of increasing the combined proficiency score from 15.5% to 35% by 2027.

This includes increasing the on-demand writing proficiency from 15.6% to 25%, social studies proficiency from 7% to 20%, and on-demand writing proficiency from 19% to 27%.

To support these goals, teachers will continually revise curriculum maps, analyzing data, incorporating vocabulary instruction and using additional resources.

A key focus of the CSIP was closing the achievement gap, with dedicated 40-minute focus groups for both reading and math. Early assessments show promising growth in reducing the number of students scoring novice in reading and math, aligning with the school’s progress on the Kentucky state assessment.

The plan also emphasizes support for English Language Learners (ELLs) to ensure their academic success.

Overall, the FCMS CSIP shows a comprehensive and data-driven approach to improving student outcomes and preparing them for future success.

Finally, FCHS principal Ellen Murphy explained their CSIP outlines six key goals aimed at enhancing student achievement and overall school performance.

The primary focus would be on increasing proficiency in reading and math, with targets set to raise combined proficiency from 39% to 50%.

Specifically, the goal is to improve reading proficiency from 43% to 48% and math proficiency from 35% to 40%. To achieve these objectives, the school will continue implementing proven strategies and activities, as the current approach has showed effectiveness.

The plan clearly delineated the responsibilities of teachers and administrators in executing these activities.

The school aims to decrease the percentage of students scoring at the novice level in science, social studies, and writing from 26% to 20%. Although the school ranks 9th in the state for writing performance, the combined scores in these subjects show room for improvement, particularly in science and social studies.

The achievement gap is another area of focus, with a goal to reduce the percentage of African American students scoring at the novice level in reading and math by 5%. Recognizing that they will face greater challenges in math compared to reading.

The school climate and safety survey, in which the school achieved a “blue” rating, is also a priority, to maintain or increasing the current score from 72.6% to 75%. This survey encompasses student perceptions of staff, the principal, and overall feelings of safety and care within the school environment.

 Post-secondary readiness, which includes college and career readiness, is another critical aspect of the CSIP. The goal is to increase the percentage of students meeting these benchmarks from the current level to 99.2%.

According to Murphy, the senior class is already making significant strides, with over half of the students having achieved college and career readiness.

The school administers the KYOTE exam in-house, which is an untimed alternative to the ACT and is accepted by universities for determining college readiness. 

Students who meet the benchmarks on this exam can avoid taking remedial classes, which are costly and do not provide college credit.

Finally, the school strives to maintain a 100% graduation rate, even though the state does not count some students in this calculation.

The district plan incorporates these goals and outlines the strategic approach to supporting the achievement of these objectives through teacher meetings, walkthroughs, and professional learning opportunities.

The school is also engaged in two three-year initiatives in collaboration with the Western Kentucky Educational Cooperative (WKEC). The first initiative focuses on co-teaching, where special education and regular education teachers work together in the same classroom to create a fully supportive learning environment.

The second initiative is the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program, which aims to refresh and redefine expectations for student behavior across the district. These initiatives are incorporated into the CSIP and will be implemented in phases over the next three years.

To ensure effective implementation and progress monitoring, the school creates instructional calendars that outline important dates, events, and tasks to be completed each month. These calendars serve as a checklist for monitoring progress toward the goals outlined in the CSIP and are regularly updated and reviewed by the school and district leadership teams.

Murphy was confident that by adhering to this comprehensive plan and maintaining a focus on continuous improvement, Franklin County High School was committed to ensuring success for all students.

At the conclusion of the three reports, the board approved the CSIPs for each school.

A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to discussing a funding request for the FCHS Beta Club trip to its national convention n Orlando in June 2025.

The FCHS Beta Club sponsor, Chris Roberts, had made the request at the November FCBOE meeting. The highly decorated club has shown real promise and was confident that they will be invited to compete for several national titles, but would need to begin fundraising and donation efforts as soon as possible.

Roberts told the board that she would look at the estimated costs of the trip and present those numbers at the December meeting..

Roberts gave the cost analysis as of Dec. 11, 2024, for 10 people. Eight students and two adults.

Roberts reported that the convention registration fees would cost $450, with one fee waived for every five competitors.

The round-trip expense for a school bus driver to and from the school to the Nashville airport would be $210, the round trip airfare with Allegiant Air would be around $1,775, the airport shuttle to and from hotel round trip was quoted as $672.

Four hotel rooms for six nights at the location of the convention would be $7,309.68 and meals (at daily allowance amounts of $45 per day, per person could be around $2,250, making the total estimated cost $12,666.70. 

According to Roberts, there are many factors that could make that total fluctuate, including different prices for flying on different days and staying at a less expensive hotel.

Roberts told the board that the club was not asking for the board to finance the trip costs in full, but will fundraise, as well we all.

 The board agreed on supporting academic success and finding fair financial solutions for student opportunities, but tabled the request in order to get a more concrete view of what funding which would be necessary for the trip, while considering what would be fair to other FCHS clubs and teams.

FCSD finance officer Jennifer Davis reported the FCSD generated a revenue of $2,485,003 year-to-date, which represents 31.53% of the total budgeted revenue of $7,881,814 for the year.

This percentage is slightly lower compared to the same period last year, when the district had collected $2,077,002 or 33.69% of the budgeted revenue of $6,165,282.

On the expenses side, the district had spent $,2,306,694 year-to-date against the total expense budget of $7,818,814, equating to 29.26% of the budget being used so far.

The percentage of the budget spent is higher than the prior year, when expenses were at $2,072,000 by this point. Davis said the higher expenses this year could be attributed to factors such as employee raises that went into effect and higher property tax payments that were front-loaded in the first part of the fiscal year.

 However, she expects the expenses to level out over the course of the year and remain within the budgeted amounts.