Rutherford County Schools says most bus routes are covered despite staffing challenges

The Rutherford County Board of Education discussed transportation and staffing concerns along with updates on funding for technical education programming at Tuesday’s work session meeting.

According to RCS Chief Operations Officer Trey Lee, most of the district’s bus routes are covered as the new school year gets underway, despite some staffing challenges. Lee said the district started its first official day of school on Wednesday with 325 routes. He noted that the district has also added additional buses for routes to and from Stewarts Creek and to accommodate special education students.

“We actually already had buses rolling because the School for the Blind started yesterday, so we've had buses on the road for a couple of days now. … Currently, all of [our] routes, except for Route 13, are filled," he said. “Route 142, which is a Stewarts Creek school zone, is uncovered at this time. It's being covered by multiple buses. For Route 319, which is also a Stewarts Creek [route from] Stewarts Creek to Brown's Chapel, we have a contractor that will cover this route for the first week to 10 days, and we will have a special ed bus in that area that will not be starting its route until Monday.”

RCS Director of Schools Dr. James Sullivan also provided district officials with an update on state funds awarded to the district for career and technical education (CTE). He said the district will use about $755,000 from a Carl D. Perkins grant awarded by the state to fund program improvements and professional development for CTE instructors during the current funding period, which runs through June 30, 2025.

In other business, school board members are expected to discuss and vote on changes to district policy relating to library materials in K-12 schools at their next meeting on Thursday, following discussions during a July 31 special called policy committee meeting about how to better align district policy with a new state law that recently went into effect instructing school districts to ban books with inappropriate or sexual material.

According to documents emailed to Tennessee Firefly about the July 31 policy committee meeting, officials are revisiting language in district policy 4.403, which would give parents the ability to opt-in for “a mature reading list for their student,” and make removed material available to students who have parent permission.

The documents said the policy committee recommended revising book policies to state, “If a local board of education or public charter school governing body does not make a determination [on a book] within 60 days from the date of which the feedback [from a parent] was received, then the student’s parent or guardian or school employee who submitted the feedback of the material may request a state textbook and instructional material quality commission to evaluate the material.”

RCS Chief Communications Officer James Evans said that the policy committee’s revisions now await final approval from the board.

“The policy committee voted on it and now the School Board must vote on it,” he clarified in an email to Tennessee Firefly following the board's July 31 special called policy committee meeting.