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ISSUE 41 VOLUME 24
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FARRAGUT, TENNESSEE
THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2012
Kindergarten Tennova honors heritage days to be lengthened ■
ALAN SLOAN asloan@farragutpress.com
Adding 105 minutes to kindergarten days in all Knox County Schools, beginning in the 2012-13 school year, has been sold as vital toward improving children’s skills, notably literacy, while being “cost neutral.” All KCS kindergartens will be on the same schedule as first- through fifthgrades, with full days running from 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Julia Craze, outgoing Farragut Primary School principal, had roughly 340 kindergarten students in 17 classes last year. “Children these days are different these days than children were even ten years ago,” Craze said. “They come with more knowledge. More of them have had pre-school experience. They’re exposed to more technology. “It gives the teachers an opportunity to do more in-depth instruction,” she added. “Now, there’s a lot to pack into a day … physical education or art or music. And then 30 minutes of lunch.” Upon arriving at day care after 1 p.m., Craze said “some of them are picked up at 6 o’clock and they never stop. ... The majority, they don’t wear out. They’re amazing.” “People move into the area and wonder why we dismiss at 1 o’clock,” Craze added. Karen Carson, District 5 Knox County Board of Education representative (Farragut area), voted in favor of the extended time. “What we’re finding is that here was a certain percentage where we then extended the day, I think it was 25 percent, for intervention because they were that far behind,” she said. Of the remaining 75 percent, “More than half of those were going to afterschool care” at the school, Carson said. Moreover, extended time would become a reality “without any real, measurable increase in dollars because the teachers are still on contract for that time.” Carson did point to “follow-up research” studying the effects of increased kindergarten days and concluding “‘Well, maybe the impact wasn’t as strong as we thought.’ I didn’t see anything that said it was negative.” Based on “the feedback that I got,” Carson said most parents of kindergartenage children in her district were “predominantly positive” to increased time. Dr. Jim McIntyre, KCS superintendent, said the decision “really emanated from our schools,” adding that Hardin Valley Elementary had a couple of kindergarten teachers “come to the school board meeting a few weeks back to say, ‘We’re so glad that you’re doing this because this is something we have been talking with our principal [Tod Evans] … we need more time with our kids,’” he said. “We’re leaving almost 300 instructional school hours on the table each year for every kindergarten student,” McIntyre added. McIntyre pointed out one negative perSee KINDERGARTEN on Page 6A
Final land use meeting June 26 ■
Heather Beck/farragutpress
Turkey Creek Medical Center chaplain Brad Hood celebrates the installation of two stained glass windows in the east and west lobbies of the Parkside Drive hospital. The windows — originally installed at East Tennessee Baptist Hospital in July 1962 — were placed in Turkey Creek Medical Center Saturday, June 2. Hood said the stained glass windows, which depict Jesus with Mary and Martha and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, were important connections to Tennova’s spiritual heritage through both the Baptist and Mercy hospital systems. “I remember how the light would come into that Chapel at Baptist through these windows, and I remember how that made me feel. Then, all of a sudden last week, here they were. I still catch myself looking at them like a favorite old quilt from a grandmother,” Hood said. The displays were installed by studio furniture maker Scott DeWaard, and made possible through a contribution from Mercy Foundation to maintain the history and heritage of Baptist Health System. Turkey Creek’s windows originally were dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. C.R. Wallace and Mr. and Mrs. Doyle Wallace, given by Mr. and Mrs. Ray Bradley and Mr. and Mrs. John Wallace.
HEATHER BECK hbeck@farragutpress.com
Farragut will hold its next — and likely last — public meeting for the Town’s comprehensive land use plan at 6 p.m., Tuesday, June 26. “It’s going to be an open house, so it’ll probably be more of a Q-and-A and a walk around. We’ll probably have a lot of visuals set up and allow some more personal interaction with Winston [Associates],” said assistant Town administrator Gary Palmer. The meeting will be set up as an open house, with a brief presentation beginning at 7 p.m. Winston Associates, the Town’s consultant to construct the plan, will present a summary of input from previous public meetings and focus groups. Those meetings covered topics as varied as historic preservation, land use, a Town center or downtown district and aging shopping centers. “Winston is going to highlight what they took back and analyzed and digested about what we did May 8,” at the previous focus groups and public meeting, Palmer said. They’ll set forth ideas they’ve come up with following citizen feedback. “I think it will be talking more but also getting people’s direct input ... I get the sense it will be more of a relaxed atmosphere,” he added. During the meeting, Winston Associates will use three-dimensional renderings of various concepts and will allow event attendees to provide feedback on those concepts, as well as other questions, using See LAND USE on Page 6A
Northshore/Choto roundabout planned ■
HEATHER BECK hbeck@farragutpress.com
Knox County is planning to make a change to the Northshore Drive and Choto Road intersection by installing a roundabout. “The roundabout is going to be safer; it’s going to operate better from an efficiency standpoint with less delay both now and 10 years out,” said Knox County engineering spokesman Jim Snowden. The intersection already has seen changes this year as development at The Markets at Choto has gone underway, including lowering the grade of Northshore, widening the road and installing turn lanes. Snowden said the roundabout would be similar to that at Northshore and Concord Road — a single lane roundabout — with a price tag of about $500,000. “There were about 40 people who attended last night,” Snowden said of a public meeting held at Farragut Town Hall
Heather Beck/farragutpress
Traffic on Northshore Drive at Choto Road speeds along Friday, June 8.
June 4, “and they were all in favor of the proposal as presented. Everybody had really good comments and they feel like we’re addressing the right issues and are going to make the intersection safer.” According to Snowden, a roundabout was the best of multiple options, including converting the intersection to a four-way
stop or installing a traffic signal. “From a safety and capacity standpoint, everything pointed to the roundabout being the better solution,” Snowden said. John Huber’s Markets at Choto project would have required the intersection to See CHOTO on Page 6A
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