Blountville Middle School

Bloutville Middle School is located in Blountville, Tennessee. It has 6th through 8th grade with about 500 students annually. Akard, Blountville, and Central Heights Elementary Schools feed in to Blountville Middle. The school's mascot is the tiger.

Sports

The school has a variety of sports including volleyball, football, basketball, baseball, softball, cheerleading, and track. All sports are open to 7th and 8th graders. But 6th grade can only do track. The girl's basketball team won the state championship in 2005. And in 2006 were the runners-up in the state championship. In 2007 they were the county champs. The football team also won 2nd place in the 2006 season conference, after losing only to Holston Middle School in their last game of the season. Boy's track were runners-up also, yet again to Holston Middle School.

Fun Facts

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen and his wife visited the school in the spring of 2005.

Representative Harold Ford Jr. visited the school in the spring of 2006 beginning his campaign for the senate.

Building Condemned

On January 26, 2007 The Sullivan County Board of Education deemed the 1932 section of the building unsafe because of the floor sagging. All because of rotten floorboards and missing wall supports removed years earlier. All 180 6th graders and teachers were moved to Holston Middle School. And About 20 behavior modification students and teachers were moved to Gunnings School alongside alternative school. All 7th and 8th graders remained. All 10 classrooms had to be moved. The five 8th grade classrooms were put in the 6th grade rooms. The chorus room was moved under the gym to make room for the one 7th grade class affected. The School Board then had to decide whether to tear down the affected building, repair it, tear down the whole middle school and remodel the elementary, or completely tear down both schools and build a middle an elementary school complex. One plan called for the next year's incoming 6th graders may to be held at their elementary schools, or modulars would be built until the problem was fixed which will probably take around 8 months for remodeling or 2 years to rebuild. The Board made their decision that April.

Board's Decision

At the April '07 board meeting the board decided to just fix the floor trusses in the building, so that hopefully the 6th grade could return from Holston by August. They also said that they would consider building a new building at a later time.

Another Semester

In May '07 it started to look like the building's renovations may not be completed by the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year. So during the week of May 18, the three feeder school's 5th graders that were going to Blountville Middle started orientation to Holston Middle, because they will attend their first semester at Holston. So by the 2008 semester 6th graders may return to Blountville Middle, having been gone almost 1 full year.

Building Reopens

The building was finished in December '07. The renovations fixed the floor system, and also added a science lab. All classrooms were shrunk giving them extra rooms. There was also new laminate tile floors put throughout the building with stained oak running boards, new paint jobs on all of the interier of that building and some of the other, with some on the exterier. There were also Smart Boards installed in the rooms. Even though the building was finished, classes remained at Holston until the second semester, when they returned to Blountville. On December 18th, 6th Graders returned to move things into their new rooms. Both hallways were opened to the students that same day. All 8th Grade teachers had to move back and two 7th grade teachers moved into their classrooms.

Clubs

Art Smart, Bible, Beta, Drama, 4-H, Golf, Jazz Band, and Yearbook staff

Administration

*Michael Wilson - Principal
*Earl Millard - Assistant Principal
*Patty Seeger - Guidance Counselor

Teachers

There are 19 teachers, six for 6th grade, seven for 7th grade and six for 8th grade.

References

*http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=3724129
*http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-30715323_ITM
*http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-29635768_ITM
*http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9004571
*http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=3730907
*http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-29394923_ITM

External links

* [http://www.scde.k12.tn.us/metadot/index.pl?id=2205 Blountville Middle Homepage]