The Putnam County School Board introduced a new Student Advisory Committee Thursday night to get student feedback about agenda items and school concerns.
Each high school has formed a committee, and will appear on a rotation before the board every month. School Board Chairman Lynn McHenry said the student committee gives the board a student perspective.
“A lot of the times, just like the cell phone policy, we don’t always see what you see, so that’s the reason for this committee,” McHenry said. “And so that you know, we are not always going to agree with everything the student brings, but a lot of times it will be something that we didn’t think of or didn’t notice.”
Cookeville High School Student Body President Ella Brown said student engagement during school and during after-school events has improved since the board adopted the new cell phone policy. Brown also said students do have a few safety concerns.
“There’s also been a few safety concerns that arise with students who have to leave the main building to go to different buildings on our campus,” Brown said. “So the weight rooms, the wrestling rooms, stuff like that. Just not having their phone if something were to happen.”
Brown also mentioned concerns about not having the phone to use for multi-factor authentication, communication with coaches and bosses, and students not knowing what to do during safety drills during passing periods.
Director of Schools Corby King said the school board will value student input.
“The student tonight mentioned student concerns about some of the safety drills,” King said. “That’s an easy one that we can take back to our safety committee. That doesn’t really need anything approval-wise from the board. We come back to the safety committee, that they will implement the changes, and it’s a good change for the students. And sometimes it’s just directing them to the appropriate person within their building, and then the board can decide on things that are matters for the whole county as far as board policy.”
King said he will meet with student advisory committees a week before the school board meeting.
In other business, the school board approved Energy Systems Group in the amount of $333,917.42 and First National Bank of Tennessee (retainage) in the amount of $17,574.60 in relation to the Parkview Elementary School renovation project.
The school board approved the 2025-2026 TISA accountability report. Data and Testing Supervisor Jason Stickler said the school system received over 300 responses from the public regarding the report. Stickler said most of the responses were positive.