Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
At Monday’s monthly Swain County Board of Education meeting, the board honored bus drivers, Swain High School shooting sports team, the State Champion winter track team, discussed options to make the current track usable, and how to combat vape use amongst students.
Finance Officer Stephanie Treadway presented the budget as of April 30, which included an allotment of $157,858 for new vape sensors in the middle and high schools. At a previous meeting, Superintendent Mark Sale had discussed the schools having issues with students using vapes in the bathroom and that they couldn’t be detected by normal smoke detectors. The board also continued the discussion about purchasing metal detector wands to find vapes without physically searching the students.
Vapes, also known as e-cigarettes, are relatively new devices that have grown popular among adolescents, due in part to their sleek design and fruity flavors, but over 99% of these devices contain high amounts of addictive nicotine and some even contain THC.
“We currently have one of the (vape) sensors at the high school, and it is working to detect vapes, but it is a little bit delayed because once the sensor goes off and we get across the school to that area, the bathroom is empty and we have cameras outside of the bathrooms in the hall but sometimes it’s five or six students in there at one time, so it’s hard to know who has the vape,” Swain High School Principal Sonya Blankenship said.
Blankenship went on to say that she nor her staff feel comfortable physically searching a student, so the wands would help them find which student has a vape without touching them.
“We have tested a metal detector wand from the Sheriff’s Office to see if it would work to find a vape and it will,” Swain County School Resource Officer Dave Zalva said.
Superintendent Sale said Macon County is already using this technique to lessen e-cigarette use. The board is waiting to hear back from the school’s attorneys to decide on changes, if any, to school policy regarding labeling vapes as an illegal substance. Swain school’s campuses are already labeled as tobacco free.
SRO Zalva said that the sensors in the restrooms also pick up loud noises like fights that might break out, so they are useful not just to prevent e-cigarette use.
No grant for new Middle School facility
The board also discussed school improvement needs as Superintendent Sale explained that the school system was not chosen for the grant, they applied for back in March for school improvements, but plan on reapplying as early as August. Sale asked the board to look over the school needs and try and decide what should be worked on first.
“I believe we need to at least try and get the current track ready in the least expensive way that we can, not necessarily cheapest way, because it needs to be good enough to compete,” board member Gerald McKinney said. “I am thrilled to see so much talent and excitement around track and we really need to get the team a place to compete, as soon as we can.”
The board agreed there is a need for a track to compete on, and plan on looking into options to possibly resurface the existing track and create new triple and long jump areas.
“Unfortunately, the rubber over the top to resurface would be the most expensive part,” said Swain County Human Resources Director, Tommy Dills.
Kindergarten tours
Next, Trish Chapman from Bright Adventures Pre-K gave an update and spoke about recent kindergarten tours where they took students to visit the “big schools” at Swain East and West Elementaries to help them feel more comfortable making the transition in the fall.
The board then went into closed session for about 20 mintues to discuss a pressing student matter.
Upon returning to open session, the board took the following personnel actions: accepted the retirements of Patty Mathis, Patty Renee Evans, Norma Pattillo, and Fay Moon. They also accepted the resignations of Ned Clapsaddle, Gabriel Jacobs, Dakota Masuko, Ramius Mith, Valerie Bates, and Angie Manley. They moved to employ: Kevin McFadden, Julianna Vosman Sotto, and Matthew Smith and several end-of-grade tutors.
The next board of education meeting will be a special called meeting next Monday, May 16.