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Lakeland School Board recognizes students and coaches but takes no formal action after lacking quorum
Summary
The Lakeland School Board proceeded with planned student and staff recognitions but did not conduct any formal business after the chair announced the board lacked the three members required for a quorum; presentations included SCOPE conference delegates, state qualifiers in wrestling and swimming, and middle-school robotics teams.
The Lakeland School Board met in a recognition-only session and honored students, coaches and staff from across the district after announcing it did not have the three members required for formal business.
Chair Laura Harrison told attendees that only two board members were present and “we're actually not going to do the meeting part of the meeting tonight. We need to have three people to do the meeting,” so the board moved forward solely with the scheduled recognitions. The board had called roll earlier and listed Chair Laura Harrison, Vice Chair Jeremy Bernett, Keith Actton, Deborah Thomas and Michelle Childs during the roll call.
The board first recognized four students who had been selected through a competitive process to attend the SCOPE (Student Congress on Policies and Education) conference sponsored by the Tennessee School Boards Association in Nashville. Elena Wright, one of the SCOPE delegates, said the group ran a mock school board and debated funding choices and testing policy: “I learned like a myriad of things ... we got to be on a mock school board,” she said. Kylie Davis said her group debated EOC versus the ACT and “my group ended up picking me to go up for the mock debate. So, I got to go debate the the EOC topic and we won.”
The board also recognized student athletes who qualified for state competition. William Martinez was singled out as a Division I wrestling state qualifier; the chair noted he is only the second wrestler from Lakeland to reach the state championship. Liam Sheridan was recognized for qualifying for the Tennessee Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association state meet; coaches Katherine Booth and Sabine Fiad were acknowledged, with Fiad absent.
Miss Hess and several middle-school robotics teams were honored after qualifying for the IQ Robotics State Championship. A student explained the robots’ tasks and scoring method for the audience, describing how teams stack pieces and aim for center goals to maximize points. The board praised the program as a hands-on STEM opportunity that started small and has grown.
Board and staff announcements at the close of the session noted that video of the presentations would be posted on the Lakeland School System YouTube page and photos would appear on the district Facebook page. With no quorum present to transact business, the chair adjourned the meeting.
Because no formal actions were taken there were no votes, motions, or policy decisions at this session; the meeting served only to recognize district students, coaches and staff and to allow selected students to report on their experiences at the SCOPE conference.
