The Cumberland County Courthouse
A week or so ago I wrote about the school situation here in Cumberland Country. You can read the entire post HERE, but in a nut shell the Board of Education decided to delay the start of school because the budget for the year had not been approved.
The latest news when I wrote that first post was that the county mayor had filed two lawsuits against the Board of Education, the second claiming that the board had violated Tennessee’s Sunshine Law at the meeting during which the opening of school was delayed.
Yesterday the Chancery Court judge hearing the second lawsuit ruled that both special-called meetings held by the Cumberland Country Board of Education were held in violation of the Sunshine Law and are considered void. The judge said there was not enough adequate notice for the public for those meetings, and the subject of the first meeting differed from what was on the agenda.
The judge then ruled that Cumberland County schools must be open on or by Wednesday, August 27.
Of course, the judge’s ruling does not solve the money problem. The Board of Education is facing a five million dollar shortfall for the coming year. Among steps being considered to close that gap: elimination of the entire transportation budget (no school buses), cut the Security Coordinator position (there was a shooting in a Knoxville high school yesterday), dropping all advanced placement and honors courses in the high schools (that should help us compete in this high-tech world), and potentially eliminate all extra-curricular activities.
Schools may open next week, but I don’t think the problems have been solved!
Tags: Cumberland County, Politics
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