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McKenzie Schools Eliminate Daily Temperature Checks

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McKENZIE — The 2020-21 school year at McKenzie Special School District included daily temperature checks of students and the mandatory wearing of masks. In the April 6 meeting of the Board of Education, members voted to eliminate the daily temperature checks for the remainder of the school year.
In a survey of principals from McKenzie High School and McKenzie Middle School, only one student was flagged with an elevated temperature during the spring semester.
Millions of federal dollars are headed to the local school systems. According to documents released by the Tennessee Department of Education, the relief allocations are based on the number of Title I students served in the district. Those are students with low-income families or high-need students.
Local public school districts will receive the third round of stimulus funds known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) 3.0 - two relief allocations during the President Trump administration and one during the Biden administration.
The allocations are as follows for area school districts: Benton County $5,955,621; Henry County $7,863,862; Hollow Rock-Bruceton - $1,788,500; Huntingdon - $3,048,351; McKenzie $2,500,583; Milan $3,516,983; Paris City - $4,395,905; South Carroll - $865,882; Weakley County - $8,694,049; West Carroll $2,331,749.

McKenzie’s Director of Schools Lynn Watkins said the funds are restricted in their use. He said the Tennessee Department of Education believes a ESSER 4 round of funding will allocate funds for facilities.
ESSER 2 and 3 will provide funding to air condition the gymnasiums at the elementary and middle schools, replace windows at MHS, hire teachers and assistants to help students who struggled during the pandemic, buy educational equipment, software, install water-bottle filling stations, buy a new food freezer at MMS, and perform maintenance and repairs. Watkins said one of the priorities of a previous school board was to construct a multi-purpose facility at MHS for teams and the band to practice, and use to hold sporting events. MHS has a lone gymnasium, which is in high demand during the school year. In 2016, the cost of the multi-purpose facility was estimated to cost $2.6 million. Today, the estimated to cost is $6 million, said Watkins. He asked board members to consider the priorities of the school system before committing to a large capital expense.
As an annual housekeeping process, the board approved the fourth block of the school day for team practice - girls’ basketball in the fall and boys’ basketball in the spring.
MHS Assistant Principal Randy Thomas and MMS Teacher Roxie Walker are both retiring at the end of the school year.
Resignations were acknowledged for the end of the 2020-21 year. Those are Renee Hobson (special education at MES), Rachel Johns - eighth grade math, April Stepp - first grade, and Angela Winstead - fifth grade English-Language Arts.
The board approved June 7, 5:30 p.m. as the date and time for a budget workshop and June 10 for the monthly board meeting.