TERRI CARTER

Contributor

The School Board convened for its first meeting during summer break on June 9, highlighted by an update on LifeWise Academy — a Bible-based curriculum that will be offered to participating students this fall.

Linda Johnson, LifeWise Academy director, gave an update on the program’s launch at Cowan Elementary School.

She provided a list of frequently asked questions regarding the program’s introduction to schools and offered a more detailed response to any concerns board members may have. 

Johnson explained that LifeWise Academy is a Bible-based curriculum that will be offered to students, and the parents will make the decision of whether their child participates.

The classes take place off school property at a host site, and Johnson said Cowan Elementary Principal Cynthia Young had agreed to let participating students take the class during their regularly scheduled STEM class. 

“LifeWise does offer a four-credit class of biblical world views that can substitute as a half-credit per semester for social studies,” Johnson said. “But that has to be approved by the principal, the local school board and the state school board.

“We’re working on that. We have a couple of pastors from Oaklawn Baptist Church who have offered to teach that class and have offered to be the host site for those classes.”

Johnson showed the School Board a copy of the Bible that would be provided to each student for the class, and the curriculum comes from The Gospel Project.

She said there is a four-year plan to teach the Bible, and every lesson focuses on a character trait, whether that’s humility, honoring parents, gratitude or respect, among others. 

“From kindergarten to fifth grade, they will learn about the Bible from the book of Genesis all the way to Revelation,” Johnson said. “We’ve already been able to purchase 30 Bibles, even though we haven’t been able to enroll the students yet.

“We have to have everything in place before we start enrolling students. We can’t accept any taxpayer money. All funds have to be raised in the local community.”

Johnson explained that what makes this program different than other programs offered by the school, such as after-school programs, is that it takes place off of school property, and parents enroll their children.

 “It just gives parents another option to give Bible education to their students during the school day” Johnson said. 

No policies or procedures were voted on during the meeting in regard to the LifeWise Academy, but after several questions from School Board members, they did offer their support and showed excitement to see the hopeful upcoming success of the program at Cowan Elementary in the fall.

In other business, student field trips for the Franklin County High School boys basketball team, the FCHS girls soccer team and the FCHS Future Farmers of America were approved.

Newly appointed Director of Schools Dr. Roger Alsup gave the director’s report, sharing project updates and a report on personnel and employment.

Updates were shared on projects including an upgrade being made for the Clark Memorial heating and air-conditioning system, the installation of carpet for the FCHS library, the installation of new tiles for the basement floor at Huntland, the construction of new office space at Broadview Elementary, the installation of emergency lighting at South Middle and the upcoming arrival and installation of new windows at the Central Office.

An annual work-order performance report showed that out of the 2,250 work orders that have been received, 2,110 have been resolved. 

The personnel and employment status report showed that a total of 289 applications have been completed with 27 positions remaining open as of June 2. 

The legislative update was delivered by Board Member Sarah Marhevsky.

While she reported that the legislative session is over for the year, she did share some information about last session, stating that around 1,300 bills were filed, not including the bills that were still alive from last year, and about 200 of them were relevant to education and school boards.

According to the Tennessee State Board of Education, about 90 of those bills became law. 

Under new business points, multiple policies were mentioned.

A request to approve the transfer of the Clark Memorial activity account from Truist Bank to Citizens Tri-County Bank was approved along with the fees requested from Franklin County High School and Huntland School for the 2027 fiscal year.

Huntland Principal Lisa Crabtree presented a request to the board from Huntland School to rename Jeff Street to Majors Way.

The name change came as a way to help identify the road as part of the school campus, enhance pride in school property and pay tribute to the Majors family that has contributed significantly to Huntland over the years.  The road is property of the Franklin County School System.

The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held at the Franklin County Board of Education Building on July 13 at 6 p.m.