Director of Schools Dr. Jimmy Carter and Finance Director Missy Brown shared estimates in revenues and expenditures for the FY23 School Budget at the Union County Board of Education Meeting on April 12.
Projected increases in revenue include local sales tax, the virtual school payment, and BEP growth funds. Salaries as well as equipment and supply costs account for most of the expenditure increases.

The Union County Board of Education will partner with East Tennessee Children's Hospital to offer telehealth with parent permission for routine minor illnesses. The service will be available at Luttrell Elementary, Paulette Elementary, Horace Maynard Middle School and Union County Pre-K.
The partnership was approved with Brad Griffey in charge of the meeting on March 10, due to the absence of chair Coppock and vice-chair Gibbs. Dr. Jimmy Carter, director of schools, chaired the workshop.

The Union County Board of Education recognized two school leadership groups and two state legislators at the February meeting. Dr. Kim Turner organized the Big Ridge Elementary Student Council as a way to grow school leaders. The council began small, but this year grew to have representatives for each grade level.

At the workshop of its January meeting, the Union County Board of Education recognized and congratulated the Paulette Elementary School Beta Club for its achievements at the Tennessee Elementary Beta Club Convention. Dr. Lauren Effler, Supervisor of Instruction, introduced each student and presented each a Certificate of Recognition for Achievement.

The Union County Board of Education approved Lewis Group of Knoxville as architects for the proposed middle school in its December meeting.
Carrie Cooke, Purchasing Agent for the Union County Finance Office, chaired the nine-member committee. After several meetings over more than two months, the committee interviewed the highest qualified from the eleven firms who were interested in the project. Those firms made presentations and were ranked by the committee.

Periodic absences for various reasons continue to cause the Union County Board of Education to barely have a quorum.
At the November school board meeting, Chairman David Coppock and Vice Chairman Marty Gibbs were absent along with Brad Griffey from Luttrell. Dr. Jimmy Carter, Director of Union County Schools, chaired the workshop and oversaw the election of Andrew Reed, who represents District 6 (Paulette), as the Chairman Pro Tem to preside at the November meeting.

In less than a half hour of discussion and less than four minutes for the actual meeting with barely a quorum, the Union County Board of Education completed its work at the meeting on October 7.

Dr. Dale Lynch, Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents, appeared before the Union County Board of Education during the workshop in August to announce that Dr. James (Jimmy) Carter is the East Tennessee Region Superintendent of 2022.
The award is bestowed on the superintendent or director of schools who has exhibited outstanding leadership not just in his or her own system but through holding various positions of leadership throughout East Tennessee and the state.

Director Jimmy Carter offered the Union County Board of Education a balanced budget with no tax increase at the regular April meeting.
The budget meets Governor Lee’s request of a $40,000 beginning salary for teachers and building the current salary bonus into the overall certified employee pay scale.

The impact of COVID-19 on learning, especially in elementary reading and math, continues to be a concern for Union County as well as our state and nation. To mitigate some of the pandemic's impact on learning, Dr. Jimmy Carter announced at the March Union County Board of Education meeting that summer school will be from June 1 through June 25 with a maximum class size of eighth students per teacher.

At the regular January meeting of the Union County Board of Education, Dr. Jimmy Carter announced that the school system is applying to be a distribution site for COVID-19 vaccine in order to vaccinate school employees according to the established age groups.

“Union County Schools are not spreading COVID-19” was the message Dr. Jimmy Carter, Director of Union County Public Schools, stated as he updated the Board of Education at the December 10 board meeting on the status of COVID-19 in the schools.