A lively discussion on corporal punishment for Elizabethton City Schools over the course of four months received a bit of closure Tuesday evening.

The Elizabethton Board of Education convened to pass the first reading of a new policy referencing discipline for students.

According to the policy, school officials must contact parents or guardians of a student before they could be administered corporal punishment. Previous language in the policy indicated a parent “may” be contacted.”

The passage of the vote did not come without opposition. Board member Susan Peters added she saw no place for corporal punishment in a public school setting.

The BOE voted to approve the policy with Tyler Fleming absent from the meeting and chair Rita Booher abstaining from the vote due to a family member being hired within the system. Peters voted against the measure.

Officials will look to officially pass the measure during next month’s meeting.

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ECS voted to remove a bus to be commissioned for the system’s “Betsy Book Bus,” which will hit the road in June of this year.

Children and teenagers from different Elizabethton communities will be able to select and keep books from the Betsy Book Bus, which will join Johnson City, Greeneville City and Greene County Schools in Northeast Tennessee that already have a mobile library. Carter and Unicoi school systems are also looking to implement a library.

While the school system will donate the bus, community sponsors are being asked to help cover the cost for renovating the bus and staffing it for the summer program.

Individuals can contact Central Office to learn more about the project.

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In other business, the BOE voted to approve an agreement with Blackburn, Childers and Steagall to perform a fraud examination in the amount of $4,000.