White County School Board Chairman Bob Young said the County Commission should share in the system’s recent academic success, as its funding partner.
Young said the district posted strong results, including five Level 5 schools and seven campuses earning A or B grades on the state report card. Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger added that the district also performed well on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test (NAEP), which measures academic progress for students in eighth and eleventh grade nationwide.
“According to that test, White County is one of four districts in the state of Tennessee that have surpassed where we were pre-vocid on the NAEP test,” Dronebarger said. “We were one of 100 in the whole nation. So that little White County is performing exceptionally well when it comes to testing.”
White County Schools also ranked among the top two districts across multiple grade levels in English/language arts, math, science, and social studies compared to 16 counties in the Upper Cumberland. Dronebarger said he is pleased to see the progress that the school district has made in recent years.
“We are going to be recruiting new teachers here in a few weeks at Tennessee Tech, and we feel very strongly with our academic performance, our pay, and just the culture that we have built in our school system, we have an attractive place for people to work,” Dronebarger said.
Young said the county provides funds for 20 percent of the school’s budget and that the commission deserves to know how that money is being spent. White County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said he was pleased with how the school district is performing.
“Our schools are great,” Robinson said. “Very proud of our teachers who make this happen.”
Young said the school district’s performance is being monitored and that how well they do makes a difference. Young stressed to the commission the school district’s concerns, especially about how the state has changed its funding model.
“Now we are funded per student, and it becomes a little bit challenging because obviously homeschool is something that some people are choosing to do,” Young said. “That does impact our district because when that happens, we lose money. We totally respect people’s choice to educate their children, but I would say that they need to consider the fact that, in White County, our education system educates students well.”
Young said White County Schools has many teachers who have obtained tenure. Young said he attributes part of the district’s success to the many teachers who opted to stay and teach in White County.