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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com 
A light agenda awaited the Elizabethton Board of Education regularly-scheduled November meeting as two board members sat in on their last meeting as board members.

After a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance, Eric Wampler made a special presentation to the board in the form of a United States flag encased in a shadow box.

Wampler, who is active in the United States military, just returned back to his principal’s job at Harold McCormick Elementary.

“I realized when I was required to travel for my military position, the sacrifices spread far beyond my immediate family,” Wampler said in brief remarks. “My work family is impacted as well.

“I want to take this opportunity to extend my sincere appreciation for the support that I have received over the last 17 years of service. I would like for this flag and shadow box to represent our sacrifice together.”

Susan Peters followed during the public’s time to speak and showered thanks on Chairwoman Rita Booher and Dr. Grover May to the school board over the years.

“I asked to speak this evening to honor the service of departing board members, Rita Booher – Chair and Dr. Grover May,” Peters said. “I also want to commend the entire Elizabethton City School staff for their extraordinary work through this unprecedented COVID crisis.

“First, I want to thank Mrs. Booher for 14 years of service and to Dr. May for his eight years. You both have served faithfully and honorable through some difficult and also wonderful times. You were also an inspiration and a great help to me when I served with you.”

During time for the Director of Schools update, Director Richard VanHuss touched on several things.

“I want to commend the staff for the tremendous work that they are doing on a daily basis,” VanHuss started out. “I think that the community has a new appreciation for those in education but still it just scratches the surface about what is going on each and every day.

“We are going to look back at this years from now, and 100 years from now they are going to be talking about what is going on right now in the Elizabethton City Schools and we are just proud to be a part of that.”

VanHuss also announced that during the December meeting that the 2019-2020 Teachers of the Year will be honored. The ceremony had been put on hold due to the pandemic that has kept many things on hold since March of this year.

“Next month we will be recognizing the Teacher of the Year winners from last year and we are very excited about that,” said VanHuss. “We have been putting that off hoping that the situation would improve where we could get a group together but we really need to do that because there will be a new group selected here in the next month or two.”

VanHuss then proceeded to echo the sentiments of Peters for Booher and May. At the end of the meeting, both were presented with appreciation plaques by the board.

“We want to thank Mrs. Booher and Dr. May for their years of service to the school board. It is certainly a thankless job and we appreciate all your service. The pay is not very good but we do appreciate your efforts,” the Director stated.

“We also want to congratulate Mr. Isaacs for being re-elected and Mrs. Jamie Schaff and Mr. Mike Wilson and we look forward to working with them in the future. The swearing-in ceremony will occur next Tuesday, November 24, at City Hall at noon.”

During the regular agenda portion of the meeting, the Board of Education approved three pieces of business including the approval of Engagement Letters from Blackburn, Childers, and Steagall, PLC, for the June 30, 2021 audits of the Internal Activity Funds and the Board of Education.

The board also approved Skyward as the School Nutrition software vendor and gave the OK for the Elizabethton City Schools Calendars for school years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023.

The next Board of Education meeting will be held on Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. in the Mack Pierce Board of Education Room.