During his director’s report, Dukes congratulated Forrest School junior Brooks Lamb who was named Student of the Year at the Tennessee School Boards Association South Central Fall District meeting. He will go on to compete with eight other district winners for the state award at the TSBA’s annual convention in Nashville in November. Board member Ann Tears achieved her Level III boardsmanship award at the same meeting. Dukes praised Moses, Keny and Tears for attending the district meeting and urged more board members to go next year, stating, “Some unique things go on there.”

Patricia Crane, the parent who signed up to address the board about Virtual School, did not come to the meeting.

In a phone conversation Thursday, Crane said she didn’t go because her daughter, a 6th grader, was now a student at the virtual school.

“She loves it,” said Crane enthusiastically. They got their approval letter from K12, the company running the virtual school for Union County, and were able to log on and “start trying to play catch up.” Then, last Friday, Crane heard from K12 the approval letter was sent by mistake. However, they assured her that since it was their mistake her daughter could continue at virtual school, even if the company had to pay for it.

Siemens, the company that has been making energy-saving improvements to the schools has presented their final bill, but board members agreed to delay paying it until all the work is completed.

“This is the last leverage we have,” Moses pointed out, and Harvey Jones Jr. added, “I’d like to see a representative from Siemens at our next board meeting.”

On Jackson’s advice, board members agreed to turn in a claim for the structural damage at Forrest School to their insurance company, to see if the repairs to the foundation might be covered. Therefore, they decided not to give maintenance supervisor Sheldon Davis the go-ahead to bid out the work of installing 24 piers, until they hear from the insurance company.

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School vouchers are a program that allows parents to take some or all of the tax money that would otherwise be used to educate their children in the public school system and apply it instead towards the cost of private school.

The state senate passed a voucher bill in April, but the house deferred it for further study. As with charter schools, proponents say vouchers would give parents more choices but opponents say they have the potential to cripple the traditional public school system.

A third option possibly pulling students out of the public school system is the online “virtual school” being run on behalf of Union County by a for-profit company from Virginia, and recruiting thousands of students statewide. Connor said virtual schools have potential to benefit education but also the potential for abuse.

In order to prove to bond rating agencies that Tennessee deserves to keep its high rating at a time when the federal government’s bond rating has been downgraded, Gov. Bill Haslam has directed state agencies to draw up a worst-case budget planning for a loss of up to 30 percent of the state’s federal funding. Federal funds make up 40 percent of the state budget, Connor told county commissioners, almost half of that is for TennCare. Federal funds also drive food stamp and assistance programs, school lunch programs and play a significant part in transportation programs.

Drastic cuts in school lunch funding and in transportation funding would have the most direct impact on local governments, said Connor, although local economies could suffer as well if local residents are denied assistance.

Connor praised the announcement this week by the federal government that it is loosening rules that had required local governments to replace all road and highway signs with more-reflective, more-readable versions. Now, instead of having a deadline to replace existing signs, local governments will be able to phase in the new signs by installing them over time as part of the normal replacement process.

Bedford County commissioner and planning commission member Linda Yockey asked about halfway houses for those with mental disabilities. Yockey said such facilities are being built in residential subdivisions, “and nobody knows they’re there until they see activity going on.”

Connor said that legal precedents in some federal lawsuits prohibit homes for those with mental disabilities from being treated differently by zoning from normal homes or apartments.

He asked if any other counties present Thursday night had such situations, and commissioners from Hickman and Lewis counties both indicated they did. Connor told Yockey he would research the issue and get back to her.

As many as half of the more than 2,000 students applying to attend the state’s first public online academy have yet to be enrolled some three weeks into the beginning of the privately-operated institution’s school year, officials say.

Union County Schools Director Wayne Goforth and officials at K12 Inc., a Herndon, Va., for-profit virtual school company that runs Union County’s Tennessee Virtual Academy, blame problems on a variety of factors.

They range from more students than expected applying to issues some parents face in gathering and submitting by e-mail or fax documents establishing state residency, birth certificates and proof of immunization.

“This whole concept here has just really surprised us all in Tennessee in terms of enrollment and demand,” Goforth said.

But another issue involved, Goforth said, is the refusal by some school districts to approve the transfer of their students who did not meet the July 24 deadline on such transfers between school districts.

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