Paris, Tenn.–Beginning this school year, Lakewood School will operate as a single entity instead of as Lakewood Elementary and Lakewood Middle Schools. Lakewood School Principal will be Amber Ryan, with Emily Townsend serving as Assistant Principal. Both Ryan and Townsend are veteran Lakewood staff members.
Director of Schools Dr. Leah Watkins said Denay Kibble will now serve as behavior support coordinator, serving the entire district.
“It seemed good timing to make this move and reestablish Lakewood as one entity,” Watkins said.
At Thursday evening’s meeting of the Henry County Schools board of education, Watkins and the board recognized the Middle School Speech Team for its tournament success and recognized Linda Miller and Marti Owens on their retirements from the district.
Watkins said the District Kick-Off will be July 27 to welcome staff back to school. Back to school nights are being held at individual schools and information can be found on the school’s websites and Facebook pages. August 1 is the first day of school and it will be an abbreviated day.
Watkins and Maintenance Supervisor Jamie Kemp provided an update on the Tower Building. As we reported in April, structural issues forced personnel to vacate the historic Tower building and relocate to Henry County High School.
“We’re in a holding pattern right now” with the Tower building, Watkins said. “We’ve had the structural study completed, but we don’t have the costs yet. When we have that, we would have a buildings and grounds meeting to discuss it further.”
Kemp checks on the building at least once a week to see if there are any changes or anything needs attended to, she said.
In other business:
–It was reported the district has made a 7.6% increase for Grade 3 proficiency.