Being better than the best.
That’s the goal of the Elizabethton City School system’s faculty and staff in the coming school year.
Teachers and administrators in the ECS system prepared for the upcoming school year by sharing encouraging words and recounting last year’s successes during an in-service session Monday morning.
One big change coming for the school system this year is that all Early Learning Center and elementary school students will receive free breakfast and lunch through the Community Eligibility Program.
Director of Nutrition Mary Ann Williams said the program was a major plus for the system.
“Through this program, every student in pre-k through fifth grade will get a free breakfast and a free lunch. Maybe in the future will be able to extend this and offer it at T.A. Dugger (Junior High School) and Elizabethton High School.”
Williams said under the new program, early learning and elementary students would not have to fill out applications for free or reduced meals. Instead, parents have to complete an income form for Title 1 purposes. Middle and high school students will still need to complete the free- and reduced-meal applications.
Director of Early Learning and Data Services Ed Pless commended the faculty for the student’s performance on recent testing, especially ACT scores for the 2013 graduating class.
Pless noted that the ECS scored in the top 20 in the state of Tennessee for all areas of the ACT for that class.
The system placed 20th in science, 16th in math, 10th in the composite score and 7th for English and reading.
“We are really pleased with these scores,” Pless said. “It says a whole lot about what we have done in those areas.”
Superintendent Ed Alexander informed the faculty of changes that had been made in the past school year, including two new athletic fields at TAD and new curtains for the TAD auditorium. He said a groundbreaking for the new music room and stadium at EHS was planned for the fall.
During the inservice, principals introduced new faculty members to the rest of the ECS community.