SPEAK responds to school 5-year plan

Students, Parents and Educators Across Knox County – or S.P.E.A.K. – has released its response to the school system administration's 49-page "Strategic Plan – Excellence for Every Child" that the Board of Education approved on first reading earlier this month and will take up again next week.

Look, I'm not going to get into all the nitty gritty about this 'cause I'm on vacation. But the administration's plan really didn't say a whole lot. The first 10-15 pages talked about a number of achievements, and then the rest mentioned vague goals – nothing concrete – about how to make local students smarter during the next five years. There also was mention of moving to a balanced school calendar, which isn't the same as a "year-round" school calendar. We reported about that RIGHT SMACK HERE.

The S.P.E.A.K recommendations are 73 pages long. Again, I'm not getting into this 'cause I'm counting all the money I won in Atlantic City. Heh.

You can find S.P.E.A.K.'s proposals RIGHT SMACK HERE.