Category: News

On Saturday, April 11, Get Fit! Tullahoma and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) will host the inaugural “I Am for the Child” 5k Family Fun Run and Walk. The event will be held at Frazier McEwen Park at 8 am. Your participation helps to Lift Up a Child’s Voice by donating to CASA. CASA’s mission is to support and promote volunteer advocacy so that every abused and neglected child can be safe, establish permanence and have the opportunity to thrive.
“Volunteer advocates—empowered directly by the courts—offer judges the critical information they need to ensure that each child’s rights and needs are being attended to while in foster care,” said Executive Director of CASA, Wanda Strayhorn. “Volunteers stay with children until they are placed in loving permanent homes. For many abused children, a CASA volunteer is the only constant adult presence in their lives.”
The cost for the event is $25 ($35 after March 27, so register now). Registration is currently ongoing at http://www.active.com , http://www.tullahomatn.gov/get-fit or call 455-7426 and also the day of the race starting at 7:00 am. T-shirts are first come first serve the day of the race.
CASA works for abused and neglected children in the Juvenile Courts of Bedford, Coffee and Franklin Counties to ensure that every child has the right to the safe embrace of a loving family. CASA Works recruits, trains and supervises volunteers to advocate for abused children in Juvenile Court. All proceeds will benefit CASA Works, Inc.
To learn more about CASA, visit casaforthechildren.org.

The Grundy County Sheriff’s office is looking for a missing teenager. 16 year old Autumn Spencer is a possible runaway.
She was last seen on February 20th leaving a residence on Hardbarger Road in Monteagle, TN.
Autumn Spencer is approximately 5’2″ weighing 105 lbs with long blonde hair and green eyes.
Please contact the Grundy County Dispatch Center with any information at 931-924-2079.

Some of you may have eaten at a Farmers Family Restaurant in other cities but soon you’ll be able to eat at a location in Manchester. The restaurant will open in the former Shoney’s located on Skinner Flat Road. It will be opening after renovations are complete.
Farmers Family Restaurant has two other locations – in Murfreesboro and Columbia.
Farmers Family Restaurant owners are hoping to have the eatery open within three months and applications will be available soon at the Manchester location.

A report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation underscores the importance of federal poverty assistance programs in keeping Tennessee children out of poverty. Photo credit: Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth

Every day, intervention programs assist Tennessee children and their families in surviving the effects of poverty. A report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation asks the question, “What if those programs did not exist?” The report, “Measuring Access to Opportunity in the United States,” found that federal programs cut the percentage of Tennessee children living in poverty in half – from 33 percent to 17 percent. Linda O’Neal, executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, explained the value of the new data. “This report is really important in identifying the essential supports public programs provide to help children and families be able to not only survive but thrive and support children in ways that help be successful in school and in life,” she said. Today’s report used the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which O’Neal said provides a more complete picture of how families fare, when compared to the current method of measuring the impact of programs. The current method used to measure poverty was developed in the 1960s and, according to the U.S. Census, sets a standard of $24,000 a year for a family of four, regardless of where that family lives or accounting for inflation. Laura Speer, associate director for policy reform and advocacy at the Casey Foundation, said better measurement tools, such as the SPM, are important to make improvements in public programs. “Using the Supplemental Poverty Measure, we can really see the successes and the limitations of the safety-net resources that we’ve put into place,” Speer said. “We can also see that these resources don’t go far enough. We still see that there are 13 million children below the poverty line.” The SPM takes into account living costs such as medicine, housing, food and utilities and how those costs affect disposable income. It also accounts for how government programs such as SNAP help offset those costs. O’Neal said the federal programs go a long way in determining the future of children and how they can contribute to their communities in the long-term. “What we know is that poverty has a tremendous negative impact on children, on their developing brains, and it creates what’s essentially referred to as toxic stress,” she said. “So the more we can support these children and help them be able to grow and develop in a healthy way, the better their outcomes will be in school and in life.” The Casey report recommended that state and federal governments expand access to early-childhood education, change tax-credit policies to keep more money in the hands of struggling families, and streamline food and housing subsidies.

The full report is online at AECF.org.

Tennessee State Parks is interested in finding out what park visitors think about Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park’s current condition, in addition to their thoughts on amenities, recreation activities and the various services they seek when selecting any park to visit. The survey can be accessed by visiting https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Old_Stone_Fort_Park_Survey.
The survey takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. All responses are anonymous and will be used to potentially make changes at Old Stone Fort or at other state parks — helping them deliver a better product and elevating their level of customer service.
It is requested that only customers that fit the definition of a park visitor or user of its various facilities complete the survey.

In a split vote Monday night, Manchester Board of Education narrowly passed a motion essentially breaking the lease for the new administration building under the guidance of a high-profile education attorney.
The Manchester Times reports, the move comes shortly after board attorney Mark Williams, who also owns the property the board leased for three years, said that he would be unable to allow the system out of the three-year lease. Voting in favor of the action were board members Mike Lewis, Travis Hillis and Lisa Gregory. Opposed were Susan Wood and Susan Parsley.
Included in the approved motion was an addendum by Lewis that the system would be vacated by April 30 to give Williams time to lease the property.
Nashville attorney Charles W. “Chuck” Cagle, described as “Mr. Education Law in Tennessee,” advised that the lease would only be enforceable under the current budget, until June 30.
“In and of itself, the document is enforceable, [but] it’s the term of the lease that’s of question,” Cagle said.
Cagle explained that that the state Attorney General has offered the opinion, and it is understood by the state comptroller that, basically, in order to enter into a long-term lease, the city would have to agree to that liability because the school board is not a taxing authority.
Concerning the $1.2 million the board requested to be cut from the 2015-16 budget, Acting director Sandra Morris, who is filling in for Dr Keith Brewer who is on medical leave, summarized the proposed cuts as a reduction from 14 to 15 administrators to nine at central office. She added, secretaries and book keepers at the elementary schools would return to a 10-month, 10-day contract and the Westwood Middle bookkeeper will be on an 11-month contract.
Other personnel cuts could be one maintenance position, “some” contracted positions, one teacher aide and four teachers at Westwood Middle, one cafeteria monitor from each elementary school, a total of three teacher aides also from the elementary schools and one custodian.
Morris said that the principals would advise which teachers would be cut, and said that the decisions would be made after TCAP scores are in.