Board of Education swears in new members
Robbinsville – Two new members were sworn in at the last Graham County Board of Education meeting of the year, which was held Tuesday.
The meeting began with Graham County Clerk of Court Tammy Holloway administering the oath of office to Jonathan Allison and Pam Knott – the board’s newest members – as well as to Rodney Nelson, who won re-election for another term on the board. All three will serve a four-year term on the board.
After the oath was administered, the new board elected Nelson to serve another term as its chair and Clark “Chip” Carringer for another term as its vice chair.
As chair, Nelson will not have a vote on the board, except for instances when a tie needs to be broken.
“We appreciate the service you’ve given to the board, and it looks like it’s going to continue,” Superintendent Angie Knight said to Nelson.
During the organizational meeting held prior to the regular meeting, the board also unanimously voted to keep its meeting time 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday of the month.
In the Robbinsville High School update during the regular meeting, Principal David Matheson expressed concerns about grades at the high school, saying the school had mailed out approximately 200 failing progress reports.
He said much of the issue came from students working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re having major problems getting students to turn work in and complete assignments,” Matheson said.
He said in some cases, students were clicking the submit button on incomplete work, making it appear to their parents that the work was completed when it was not.
“(Teachers) are doing everything they can do, but they need help from parents and guardians,” Matheson said. “What we are seeing a lot of kids are doing is they are submitting a assignments, so when a parent looks at the page it looks like the kid’s turned their work in, but there’s no work turned in, so they get a zero for it.
“I’m really worried that we’re going to have a lot of kids failing classes for the first semester because of it.”