Board puts Christ in Christmas

By TONY STINNETT Courier Sports Editor

Members of the Cannon County Board of Education put Christ back in Cannon County Schools during their regular monthly meeting at Woodbury Grammar School Thursday (Oct. 10).

Board members unanimously approved the 2014-15 schools calendar but with one change.

Before the calendar was approved board member Chris Blackburn addressed the group concerning the use of the words “winter break” instead of “Christmas break.”

“What is the possibility of calling Winter Break, Christmas Break instead,?” Blackburn asked.

Supervisor of instruction Marcia Melton told the Board it was their calendar and they may call it what they wanted. She also informed them of what neighboring school districts call their break.

“I am frankly tired of being pushed around by people that want to take Christ and God and Christmas and everything out of the school system,” Blackburn said. “They want to take prayer out of school and they want to take it out before ballgames. I am in favor of this calendar as long as we call it Christmas break.”

Board member Nathan Sanders agreed.

“We put this (calendar) in the paper, on our website and it makes me wonder what kind of statement we are making,” Sanders said. “I don’t want to take the bully aspect here but those same people who wanted it called ‘winter break’ before can come back and we could address it at that time, but I share some of the same concerns (as Blackburn).”

The motion was made to change the name and the calendar was unanimously approved.

Director of Schools Barbara Parker presented awards for each school’s attendance for last school year. Woodland won the award with a 98.7 rating. The  award generally is between Auburntown and Short Mountain but Woodland stole their thunder in 2012-13. Woodland was first, followed by West Side (97.9), East Side (97.0), Short Mountain (95.9), Woodbury Grammar (94.7), Auburn (94.4) and Cannon County (93.2).

All schools in the Cannon County in the Cannon County School system reached the state attendance mark.

The Schools were also recognized for reaching the mark on the School Wide Positive Behavior System. East Side received a perfect 100 percent, followed by Short Mountain (99.1), Woodbury Grammar (99.1), Auburn (94.7), Woodland (94.1), West Side (87.3) and Cannon County (80.4). 

Additionally, the Board approved McMinnville Fire Extinguisher Sales and Service to continue servicing the fire extinguishers.  They also approved Kirklands to continue providing pest control services for the school.  They also approved Mental Health Cooperative which has an office in Murfreesboro to provide mental health services for the schools.