By Beth Christian
Broschart
The Parsons Advocate
HAMBLETON – Teresa Brusak, principal of TVEMS, told Tucker County BOE members Monday at the first of the school year, her school’s Local School Improvement Council brought two concerns to her attention.
“First, they said they thought the school had a severe bullying problem,” Brusak said.
She said that perception came from a Facebook saga which was difficult for folks to understand.
“The second concern was about safety in the school, prompted by shooting around the United States,” Brusak said. “The two main things they talked about was an extra set of locked doors and metal detectors.”
In addressing the bullying issue, the school counselor taught students and parents the difference between conflict and bullying.
“We constantly have to remind them that bullying is a persistent pattern of unwelcome or aggressive behavior that often involves an imbalance of power,” Brusak said. “It’s intended to cause harm. In conflict, the power is kind of equal and both parties give and take. 90 percent of the complaints we receive in our school or greater are truly conflict.”
Brusak said the school’s curriculum team implemented a behavior of the month and she said they re-established the behavior awards. She said the school participated in the Wear Blue for Bullying Day, Oct. 5. She said the school was looking for alternative activities for recess. “Most of our discipline problems happen during that unstructured time,” she said.
Addressing the safety issues, Brusak said visitors to the school must stop and register.
“We have a barricade to get folks to register,” Brusak said. “We have reminded teachers to keep doors locked and the windows uncovered. We talked with Glenn Sweet at Barbour County Schools and he said part of the problem there was no one could see into the classroom to ascertain what was going on.”
Cindy Murphy presented a program on fire safety and presented smoke detectors to kids in kindergarten through grade 3. Brusak said a speaker will present a program to the middle schoolers about internet safety.
In other business, Jessica Wamsley spoke about block scheduling during the delegations/public comments time during the meeting.
“I just wanted to say a few things about possible block scheduling,” Wamsley said. “I went to TCHS when there was seven periods a day and I did fine. Some of them struggle more and my son is one that struggles.”
Wamsley said sometimes a kid that is a thinker takes a few minutes to check into class.
“My son has a hard time keeping up because he is a thinker, and he is getting lost somewhere,” Wamsley said. “To have a completely overhauled system for a student like my son would mean he has a better chance of mastery of the subject.”
Wamsley said the school has a great staff and having the extra time in class would be better for some kids. “This will be better for some kids – the kids that are already doing okay are only going to do better,” Wamsley said.
Before Monday’s BOE meeting, board members met in a statutory session to approve the levy order and rate sheet. They approved 38.80 for class II property and 77.60 for class III and IV property.
The next meeting of the BOE is slated for 4:30 p.m. May 2 at the Davis Thomas Elementary Middle School.
