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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
The Elizabethton City Board of Education is scheduled to meet in their regularly-scheduled March meeting on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 5:30 pm in the Mack Pierce Board Room at the Central Office.

On the agenda for the meeting, as always citizens have the opportunity to address the board by calling and requesting a time to speak during the meeting.

The board will then move to approve the consent agenda which includes the minutes from the previous February meeting as well as other items including the approval for
Professional Leave for the Director of Schools to attend the TSBA 2021 Summer Law Institute in Gatlinburg, Tennessee on July 16 and 17, 2021.

Also, several principals and school administrators have presented requests for equipment disposal that will be included in the consent agenda.

Director of Schools Richard VanHuss will be sharing with the board of any news or events that have happened since the last meeting and BOE Chairman Eddie Pless will also give a board report.

City Councilman Michael Simerly who serves as the liaison between the two boards will present any important news that may be relevant from the City Council for the BOE’s knowledge.

Veronica Watson, the student liaison from Elizabethton High School, will follow Simerly with any news to brought to the board from the students.

The board will then move to the regular agenda where they will consider approving an agreement between Elizabethton City Schools and Frantz Law Group for representation to pursue damages associated with electronic cigarette litigation.

The suit was initiated in 2019 by the Frantz Law Group against Juul Labs, Phillip-Morris, and other defendants in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

In the suit, it is alleged that the defendants deliberately designed vaping products to be attractive to youth and specifically marketed to them. The suit has already survived a Motion to Dismiss filed by the defendants and is scheduled to proceed to trial in February of 2022.

Also, the board will consider on first reading to approve accepting markups to five board revisions.

Other items that will be considered will be to approve Thomas Weems, Architect to complete the plan and design work for a proposed classroom addition at T. A. Dugger Junior High School.

The classroom will be a new 15,000 square foot +/- addition to the north side of the existing school building.

An employee bonus will also be on the table as the BOE is looking to approve a general-purpose 2020-2021 budget amendment No. 1 during the meeting.

Lastly, the board is looking to approve travel for the Elizabethton High School Girls Basketball team to travel to Tampa, Florida for the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational on December 27, 2021, through January 2, 2022.