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The Claiborne County Board of Education voted unanimously to extend the contract of Director of Schools Meredith Arnold for two years during their December meeting, which was held at H.Y. Livesay Middle School.

Arnold thanked the board before she started her committee report.

“I’d like to say thank you to this board,” she said. “I appreciate the opportunity to extend our time working together.”

The board took time to recognize the Cumberland Gap High School boys and girls golf teams, who both qualified for the state tournament this past season. Coach Chris Fultz thanked the board for recognizing the team and the parents for their support.

“We couldn’t do it without the support of our school, our faculty, our staff and administration. Woodlake also takes good care of us,” he said. “I’ve coached everyone up here since they were in the sixth grade, I’m super proud to be able to say that.”

Fultz coached the girls team this year and was joined by Richard Hoskins, who coached the boys. The girls’ team included Madeline Fultz and Mahala Walker. The boys included Alex Booth, Neil Bunch, Kolton Goins, Luke Horsley, Matthew McCorkel, Eli Russsell, Waylon Sandefur and Jack Scott.

“We had a fantastic year. From the beginning of the season to the end there were just a couple of matches on either side that we didn’t dominate,” Fultze said. “It was a much better year than Coach Hoskins and I had hoped for. There were very few times we didn’t come away with low medalist honors on one or both sides.”

Cumberland Gap’s golf team were both the men’ s and women’s District Champions. Men’s Regional Champions and Women’s Regional Runners-up and both teams advanced to the state tournament.

“We shocked a lot of people,” Fultz said. “We’re not from an area that’s supposed to go down there and do well. We came back fifth in the state in our division and you’re looking at a team that’s only going to lose a couple of graduates and we’ve got more coming up. We’re looking forward to a bright future and this is a great bunch of kids.”

He added that every member of the team works hard in the classroom and they have the highest GPA of any athletic team in the school.

“I’m super-proud and I appreciate everything that these guys have done,” he said.

There were two UTrust presentations at the meeting, from the BETA Club at Forge Ridge and from 4-year-olds at the Alpha School.

Mack Robinson, Amalya Bussell, Preston Johnson and Isabelle Surber from Forge Ridge BETA Club shared information and a video from the school’s Director Appreciation Day. Arnold made a visit to the school where students provided notes of thanks, gifts, breakfast and performed the UTrust Ice Ice Baby remix-leader style. They also share information about two big community service projects they completed over the last month. Students made a trip to the local nursing home to deliver donated items as well as student-made Christmas cards to the residents. They also raised over $800 to help with the medical bills for Noah Fultz, who suffered a serious leg injury playing football for Cumberland Gap High School. Laps for Noah was a walk-a-thon held in the Forge Ridge gym and the school was able to present Noah and his family with a check for $820.

The group finished their presentation with a surprise Christmas gift for UTrust director Sharon Tolliver.

Up next was a special performance from Mrs. Allison Myers’ class at the Alpha School. The students did a special routine to the poem “Chubby Little Snowman” and danced along to the song “Reindeer Pokey” for the school board.

Arnold then started her report with an update on the remodeling at Midway to allow for a CTE Classroom.

The board voted to establish a sick leave bank for their employees. Board member Dan Pearman said he had found out that office staff, cafeteria staff and custodians only draw five sick days per year.

“That’s not enough. If you have somebody working as a custodian or a cook and they’ve got a sickness in their family, they’ll use those five days up before they can get out of the dirveway,” he said.

He asked the board to come up with a consensus to add more sick days for those employees. He asked to form a committee to look into how many sick days could be added for those employees. Arnold added that adding those days will also be part of the planning for next year’s budget.

The board also approved the LEA Compliance Report.

Arnold addressed dual enrollment issues during her report on schools.

“Central Office has received concerns from parents about inaccuracy and information on dual enrollment. I’ve got trusted folks doing a full data dive into the situation. Once completed I will have enough information to make a decision,” she said. “I am under direction from our board’s attorney on this matter as Chris McCarty is overseeing how we proceed. I’m hopeful to have this resolved by the end of February as we will need to process these occurrences through the attorney and the state.”

She added that every teacher in the district will be getting an emergency backpack with a Stop the Bleed kit for every classroom. Each classroom already has the backpacks, but they are being refurbished. Each school is also getting a weather radio and a large Stop the Bleed kit for their main office.

Arnold closed by recognizing Cumberland Gap High School for having a 100% graduation rate. She added that CGHS Principal David Hamilton is up for the University of Tennessee’s William and Lucille Field Award for Excellence in Secondary Leadership.

The next board meeting will be on Thursday, January 9, at Soldiers Memorial Middle School.