School Boards Gather For Annual Convention

New legislation introduced Wednesday concerning school vouchers will certainly take center stage during the Tennessee School Boards Association annual leadership conference and convention beginning Thursday.

Vice President Jayson McDonald sits on the White County School Board. He said representatives from across the state will come together to learn about the latest events in education legislation and share resources with one another. McDonald said they will be discussing important topics school boards face such as third and fourth grade retention or school vouchers.

“The best part about it is you build those relationships with other directors of schools and other board members,” McDonald said. “To be able to rely on those folks and build those relationships to be able to go and to call and say, ‘Hey, I want to run this by you.'”

McDonald said there will be state legislators who serve on various education committees at the event to talk with school officials and take questions. McDonald said the convention will also have a delegate assembly where boards can vote on which items they want the state to focus on.

“Putnam County has one about the lotteries and the money to where they can fund raise and be able to have things such as a lottery, as a money giveaway,” McDonald said. “You know, something that they can draw in.”

McDonald said they will have several speakers throughout the convention including former UT football player Inky Johnson.

“They’ll have a leadership conference where they’ll bring in a few different speakers who are specifically focused on, whether it be safety and security, whether it be, you know, we’ve seen such a rise in school shootings, we’ll have some stuff on the school shootings and how to make our schools safer,” McDonald said.

McDonald said he hopes they will be able to talk about any options the state has to limit the role of the standardized testing in schools.

“Our teachers spend so much time worried about a mandated test,” McDonald said. “And not able to just teach the kids and have the kids to learn at their ability.”