Excitement continues to brew for the 2018-19 academic year for Elizabethton City Schools.

The City Board of Education is expected to meet on Tuesday, Aug. 21, at 6:30 p.m. inside Central Office, located on South Watauga Avenue, for their first meeting of the new school year.

With just a week under their belts, Director of Schools Dr. Corey Gardenhour indicated that staff were positive and seemed excited for the 2018-19 year.

“Everything really went smooth,” he said. “It it a testament to our teachers and students. We’ve received positive feedback and we’re definitely looking forward to this year. We have a lot of different projects and ideas coming through that we hope will be a benefit for the community.”

Along with the first days of school, ECS also received some good news in the form of a recent passed resolution by City Council. Earlier this month, Council voted unanimously to allocate $275,000 from the half-cent sales tax to fund a variety of projects eyed by the school system.

According to the information provided by the school system, $150,000 of the funding will go toward the creation of six new classrooms at Elizabethton High School to accommodate the system’s Bartleby Program expansion. Also on the docket is the creation of soccer fields behind Northeast Community Credit Union on Jason Witten Way ($85,000) and $40,000 being allocated to fund roof repairs at Central Office.

While Tuesday’s agenda is relatively tight, members will look to approve a variety of board policies ranging on multiple topics. A pair of purchase agreements and a contract between the school system and Scribbles software is also on the docket.

BOE members will also have a chance to hear reports from school system members, including Carla Whiles. The Harold McCormick Elementary instructor served as the instructor for the Betsy Book Bus’ inaugural year and will be in attendance to share the story of the program.

During its first year, the bus was able to visit various communities in Elizabethton and provide a free book to school-aged children as part of the state’s goal to bolster children literacy. Whiles indicated during the last week of the event, the program pushed out over 2,000 books and had over 450 unique visitors.

Betsy Book Bus is anticipating to have a presence throughout the school year and the public can assist by either monitoring donations or by submitting children-appropriate books.

Contact the office for more information.