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The Hamblen County Board of Education recognized several students who received state level distinction and approved the creation of a new Speech Language Pathologist position at its meeting Tuesday.

“We have some exceptional students and we hear about it from people across the state,” Board Chairperson Carolyn Clawson said. “When you go to these competitions or events, you are representing Hamblen County and thank for making our district look so great, we are so proud of you all.”

Several students were recognized for making All State in their respected activity. Alexia Nash from East High and Lexi Shephard from West High for Cheer, for choir from East High are students Ryan Wheeler and Lydia Whaley, from West, Jackson Collins, Savannah Farmer, Seth Lassiter and Allie Moore and for football from East High, Max Baker.

The board recognized the first place winners at the State Beta Club Convention. From Lincoln Heights Middle School in first place for Living Literature are Cora Sanders, Addison Sanders, Jake Pompeo, Meghan Whaley, Isaac Quetsecua, Artica Eyler, Jill Lynch, Briley Livesay, Logan Spurling and Thomas Richey.

East High School took home first place for engineering and the students who participated were Sawyer Stacy, Conner Cope, Jared Guzman and Landen Branham.

Students from West High School won first place in several categories. For Marketing and Communications, My Tran, Bella Swanson, Lauren Gray and Kaila Evans, for Performing Trio, Melanie Gal, Samantha Barber and Savannah Farmer, for French Spelling Bee, Tennessee Darby, for Speech Division 1, Dayan Hernandez-Guarneros, for Hand Drawn Anime Division 2, Samantha Morales and for Pottery Division 2, Rebecca Landefeld.

The board discussed creating a position for a Speech Language Pathologist within the district.

This discussion comes after Mandy Lloyd, special services supervisor, was approached by a parent who inquired about such a position. The district currently outsources a SLP from a private company and in creating this position would cut costs from the special services’ budget.

“This position is usually extremely hard to fill and my hope is that I will be able to decrease my contract by adding this position,” Lloyd said. “I prefer having our own SLP because contracted companies cannot screen or test students and determine a need. Our staff within the schools will determine the need and the contracted companies serve, but I’d rather have our own person to test, determine and serve rather than dividing the tasks.

“The new third grade retention law has created a large increase in our referrals in my department,” Lloyd said. “We really increased the speech numbers since November and I anticipate we are going to have to do some financial shuffling to ensure our students’ needs are being met.”

The board voted unanimously to move forward in creating the new SLP position.

Superintendent Arnie Bunch recognized the winner and runner up at the district wide spelling bee. Thomas Drinnon, a seventh grader from East Ridge Middle School, won first place and Noah Frank, a sixth grader from Westview Middle School, was runner up.

“It was great watching all of our young spellers go through this,” Bunch said. “It was a fantastic event and quite enjoyable. A lot of the kids did better than I would have if I was their age so we are very proud of them.”

Bunch recognized all the teachers who were nominated teacher of the year at their respected schools.

“I went to all the schools this week and presented them a certificate, a challenge coin and took pictures with them in their classrooms,” Bunch said. “They are rock stars and they are making a big difference in these kids’ lives and if you see them thank them for the great work they are doing.

“They are dedicated and committed to educating our youth so they are better prepared for the future.”

At the next meeting the board will recognize District Teacher of the Year for Elementary, Middle and High School grade levels, principal of the year and supervisor of the year.

During the director’s report Bunch informed the community about textbook adoption day and other updates on the school system.

The district is still in need of more bus drivers to transport students. Bunch urged qualified drivers in the community to apply for the position.

“If you can drive a bus and got certifications, we want to talk to you,” Bunch said. “We had a couple of bus drivers resign last month so if you can drive a bus we would love for you to join our family.”

Bunch then discussed textbook adoption day which will be held on February 6, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

“So we have been going through the process of adopting our math curriculum that will be for the next 5 to 7 years,” Bunch said. “We have had outstanding teachers in the county that have been working through all the criteria and textbook materials from six different companies.”

“The materials have been approved by the Tennessee Department of Education and we will have a meeting that gives the public the opportunity to review the materials.”

The public has from now until March 1 to request access to the materials that are being considered for adoption.

Bunch informed the board that the district is working with the NSCAA and have drafted a note and that has been shared with other surrounding school districts on name, image and likeness.

“We are making sure we are in sync on how NIL will apply at the high school level,” Bunch said. “Our biggest focus is making sure we don’t lose eligibility for our students.”

Bunch said the district has released the request for proposal for the Lincoln Elementary project and is accepting bids that are due on February 7.

Bunch then discussed the district’s plan to conserve energy throughout all the schools.

“We have been working to find ways to conserve energy,” Bunch said. “The first thing to come up is LED lights. We have talked with the principals at all the schools to see how many lights each school had and how much it would cost to replace those with LED lights.”

Bunch thanked law enforcement officers through the district for maintaining safety within the schools.

“We have needed them for many things and they have rapidly responded and have done a remarkable job and we just want to thank them for their service.”

The next school board meeting will be held on February 14 at 6 p.m. at Central Office.