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Eighth grade students end the year with "prom night" at Tusculum College.
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State Education Commissioner Dr. Lana Seivers, seated second from left, talks to students in the pre-kindergarten class at DeBusk Elementary School on Thursday as part of her four-hour tour of three Greene County schools with state Rep. Eddie Yokley, D-11th, of Greene County, seated at left. DeBusk pre-K teacher Mary Schumacher is seated next to Seivers, and Dr. Joe Parkins, director of Greene County Schools, is standing at right.
By: By Nelson Morais/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
10-20-2006
Tennessee’s commissioner of education spoke of the benefits of pre-kindergarten classes when she toured three Greene County schools Thursday with state Rep. Eddie Yokley, D-11th, of Greene County.
Yokley, who is seeking re-election, later also made public appearances with Paula Flowers, the state’s commissioner of commerce and insurance.
Yokley’s opponent in the Nov. 7 general election is Republican Charlotte Leibrock, a retired schoolteacher. Leibrock narrowly lost to Yokley when she ran against him two years ago.
School officials — including Dr. Joe Parkins, director of Greene County Schools, and school principals from the three schools — joined Dr. Lana Seivers, the state’s education commissioner, on parts of her four-hour tour of this county.
Seivers praised pre-K classes and the program’s overall concept in the three Greene County schools she visited.
At present, Seivers said, pre-kindergarten classes in Tennessee are restricted to “at-risk” kids, those children with “special needs,” kids in state custody, and the children of military parents stationed overseas.
“The governor (Phil Bredesen) wants a voluntary universal pre-K program” to be offered throughout Tennessee, Seivers said.
Seivers emphasized the word “voluntary.” She said both the governor and she hope that the Tennessee General Assembly will expand the program.
There are currently more than 500 pre-kindergarten classes offered in the state, Seivers said.
Seivers on Thursday dropped in on student classes at McDonald Elementary School, DeBusk Elementary School and Mosheim Elementary and Middle School.
At DeBusk School, Seivers asked some students in different grades general questions about school, including their ideas for improving education.
Seivers said she was a former teacher and administrator in the Oak Ridge School System, and a school superintendent for more than 13 years in the Clinton City School district before Gov. Bredesen appointed her to her current position almost four years ago.
Seivers talked to 15 students gathered together in teacher Mary Schumacher’s pre-K class.
After asking the students how old they were, Seivers introduced Yokley and Parkins to them. She asked the children, “Do you think we’re four years old?”
When several replied “No,” Seivers asked, “Were we little bitty like you?”
When she didn’t get a response, Seivers told the kids, “You’re going to be as old as Dr. Parkins some day.”
Seivers asked four-year-old Jaden Scruggs what he liked most about school.
“Playing outside,” answered Scruggs.
Seivers, Yokley, and Schumacher then sang a song about colored tree leaves falling to the ground in the fall.
Before leaving the class, Seivers complimented the students.
She told them, “You really did a very good job” listening to Schumacher, their teacher.
Later in her tour of DeBusk, Seivers said, “It appears the pre-kindergarten classes (in Greene County) are doing the job fantastically.”
She said, “Little kids learn from each other,” which is a big benefit to having a group of children in a pre-K class.
Yokley: Proud Of Pre-K Program
Yokley said, “I’m very proud of what I see in our schools.”
Yokley said the pre-kindergarten classes currently offered in Greene County schools are so popular that the most frequent responses he has received are from parents of young children who want to know how they can enroll their kids in a pre-K class.
The Greene County School System has 14 pre-kindergarten classrooms located at the various elementary schools, Bruce Opie, director of legislation and policy for the state’s education department in Nashville; Kathryn Crumm, the Greene County school system’s supervisor for pre-kindergarten through third-grade classes; five county school board members; and principals from the three schools joined Seivers on her tour.
Insurance Commissioner Here Following Seivers’ visit, Yokley appeared with Paula Flowers, the state’s commissioner of commerce and insurance, in Newport, then at Greeneville’s Town Hall.
The two met with police and fire chiefs, community leaders, other officials, and other citizens in both towns.
Flowers is also the state fire marshal. On Thursday evening, Yokley introduced Flowers to 30 people gathered for dinner and a regular meeting of the Greene County Democratic Women’s Club at party headquarters in downtown Greeneville.
“I’m just here to support Rep. Yokley’s re-election effort,” Flowers said. She added, “The governor (Bredesen) asked me to be here on his behalf.”
Flowers credited Bredesen for expanding the pre-kindergarten program, and for leading efforts to raise teachers’ salaries.
“The average pay of teachers (in Tennessee) is above the Southeast region’s average,” Flowers said.
She added, “None of that important work could have been done without legislators like Yokley.”
Flowers said, “He’s easy-going and so personable (and) finds common ground” with legislators from both parties in Nashville.
“He’s very committed to the people in his district,” she said.
“The governor’s looking forward to having him back in January,” Flowers
said.
Updated 9-1-06
