Mar. 6—Wilson County Deputy Director of Operations Travis Mayfield gave an update regarding the renovations at Mt. Juliet Middle School during the district’s board of education meeting Monday night.

“Currently we are waiting on the official abatement plan from Terracon on removing the asbestos,” Mayfield said. “I did get the report that there’s only really one closet that has asbestos in the floor tiles. There is some black mastic, which is the glue underneath. At some point, some tiles were replaced, and they didn’t remove all the glue.”

Mayfield said that the removal would cost the district approximately $100,000. Air testing would likely cost another $15,000.

“Anytime you discover things like this, it is expensive,” Mayfield said.

The work would happen without students or personnel in the building, according to Mayfield.

“We did do some air quality tests and all of our students are safe to be in the building, and we don’t have any concerns in regard to that,” Mayfield said.

Director of Schools Jeff Luttrell said that the rebuilding of West Wilson Middle School is coming along. The school was initially damaged during the March 2020 tornadoes.

“Please understand, we really worked being in that (school) after spring break,” Luttrell said. “That was a goal I set. The contract is not up until June 28. Our construction company, our engineers, our architects, all worked towards that goal, but due to not having some supplies delivered — bleachers in the gym specifically and seating in the auditorium — that’s the main reason we will not (be back in West Wilson Middle School).”

Students will not be returning to the building until the start of the next school year.

4th Grade Retention Update

Wilson County Schools Deputy Director of Academics Jennifer Cothron said that letters have been sent to parents of fourth graders who are in danger of being retained.

This stems from the state’s third grade retention law, which requires all third-graders in the state to earn an “on-track” or “mastered” score on the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of their Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test. If they receive a score of “below proficient” or “approaching proficient,” the student may be retained in the third grade.

Students who did not achieve the required scores can retake their TCAP test, attend a summer learning program and show growth on the post-test administered at the end of the program, or can be assigned a tutor through the Tennessee Accelerating Literacy and Learning Corps (TN ALL Corps) for the upcoming school year.

Students who chose to be tutored are required to show “adequate growth” on this year’s ELA portion of the TCAP test.

“We got our TN21 data back this past week,” Cothron said. “Our schools will be looking at that (data on Tuesday) during the stockpile day to really identify with those students who have to make that adequate progress what next steps (are) and what will they need to go back over and provide additional interventions and supports over the next few weeks before we hit the TCAP in April.”