KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — Knox County Schools is already talking about the next school year. The Board of Education met Thursday for a workshop to discuss the school district's achievements and areas where it can improve — specifically math proficiency, literacy and staff retention.
The two-day workshop aims to bring the board and Superintendent Jon Rysewyk and his staff together. Each assistant superintendent discusses what they're working on, and the board gets a broad update on what's happening in the district.
Rysewyk started off the meeting with what Knox County Schools has accomplished over the last few years, including the launch of the 865 Academies — freshman and career-based academies housed in 14 high schools. They also discussed increasing proficiency for third graders from 38% to 44%.
Another improvement they discussed was an increase in teacher retention. Board Chair Betsy Henderson said it's something they've had issues with for years, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We saw that we had an issue attracting teachers, but also retaining them and making sure that they're happy in their job. And a big part of that is teacher pay. So, we did solve that last year," she said.
Knox County Schools' staff saw a $39 million increase in salaries recently.
"It's always just been, we're so far behind. Throw a marker way out there. So, that was a huge investment and that's likely reflected in the number of vacancies we're seeing. Probably better attendance, less burnout already in the first quarter because we're fully staffed" Rysewyk said.
Another big win for leaders was record back-to-school staffing. Leaders said 78 of the 91 Knox County schools were fully staffed by the first day of school. Paula Hancock, the Knox County Educators Association President, also attended the meeting. She said hearing those numbers was impressive.
Now, she said she wants to see more being done to ensure good working conditions. She wants every employee to believe that Knox County Schools is a great place to work. The board also addressed several areas for improvement including literacy rates, new teacher experiences and special education.
"The special education work that we're doing, we know that there's deficiencies in those and we know that's something that we want to focus on. What are those specific solutions that we want to look at going forward for families," Henderson said.
The board will meet again Friday morning to discuss their strategic plan for the next five years.