McMinn County Schools

As of 2022, a total of 31% of elementary school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 40% tested did so for math. Also, 31% of middle school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 40% did so for math. Furthermore 34% of high school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 22% did so for math.

The 1870 Tennessee constitution prevented black and white children from attending the same public schools, barring integration.{{Cite journal|last=Knaff|first=Sheila|date=May 1998|title=A Case Study of the Effects of Integration on Two Black High Schools in East Tennessee|url=https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4327&context=etd|journal=Electronic Theses and Dissertations|via=Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University}}{{Cite web|date=April 2008|title=School Desegregation in Tennessee|url=https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/docs/TNDESEGFULL.pdf|access-date=28 January 2021|website=United States Commission on Civil Rights}}

In 1873 an election was held on the question of whether to have a school tax, and the proposal was voted down. As a result, the county had no schools other than some subscription schools. Subsequently, however, a new school law was passed.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1No9AQAAMAAJ&dq=McMinn+County+Schools+tennessee&pg=PA100|title=Annual Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction of Tennessee for the Scholastic Year Ending Aug. 31, 1874|publisher=Tennessee Department of Public Instruction|year=1875|language=en}}

In 1875, McMinn County had 56 white schools and 10 "colored" schools. The schools taught for an average of three and a half months each year. The County Superintendent praised the focus on orthography at the schools.

In the 1920s, the majority of black children in McMinn County attended school at the Rosenwald School Building Program's schools at Athens, East Etowah, West Etowah, and Union.{{Cite web|last=Van West|first=Carroll|date=January 1999|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form - Beth Salem Presbyterian Church|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/052bad0c-12bf-4a23-90d1-9cd5753d737f|access-date=28 January 2021|website=United States National Park Service}}

In February 1942, Lake Robinson became the superintendent.{{cite news|title=Created a new school board...|newspaper=Chattanooga Daily Times|place=Chattanooga, Tennessee|date=16 February 1941|page=2}} - [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93636849/for-mcminn-school-district/ Clipping from] Newspapers.com.

In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality, marked the beginning of the end for Tennessee's African-American high schools. It took about 15 years for high school integration to work its way throughout Tennessee. Cooke High School in Athens in McMinn County was one of the African-American schools that closed down as a result of integration.{{Cite web|last=Carey|first=Bill|date=2 February 2020|title=African-American High Schools Now Long Gone|url=https://www.tnmagazine.org/african-american-high-schools-now-long-gone/|access-date=28 January 2021|website=The Tennessee Magazine}}

The 1956 Tennessee educational census reported fewer than 100 school-age black children in McMinn.

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, Tennessee began to integrate schools.{{Cite web|title=Tennessee State Board of Education Records 1815-1958|url=http://tsla.tnsosfiles.com.s3.amazonaws.com/history/state/recordgroups/findingaids/STATE_BOARD_OF_EDUCATION_RECORDS_1815-1958.pdf|access-date=28 January 2022|publisher=Tennessee State Library and Archives|page=5|quote=1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed by the U.S. Congress Tennessee begins to integrate public schools}}

A 1999 Tennessee state study of Tennessee schools found that McMinn County Schools teacher salaries were 110% of the state median (and Athens City teacher salaries were 122% of the state median), on a Tennessee Teacher Cost Index basis, ranking it in the top 17% in the state.{{Cite web|last1=Green|first1=Harry A.|last2=Lippard|first2=Cliff|last3=Robertson|first3=Kim|date=April 1999|title=Classroom Teacher Salary Disparity Among Tennessee's School Systems|url=https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/tacir/documents/teachersalary.pdf|access-date=28 January 2021|publisher=Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations}}

Parkinson became the head of the school system in 2018.

File:Auschwitz entrance.JPG in 1979 as research for Maus; his parents had been imprisoned there.]]

In January 2022 the school board, in a 10-0 decision, removed the graphic novel about the Holocaust Maus, the only graphic novel ever to win a Pulitzer Prize, from its curriculum for 8th grade English classes. The board in doing so overrode a Tennessee state curriculum review that had in contrast approved the teaching of the book. According to the school district, the reasons that it removed the book were “unnecessary” profanity (they focused on some bad words, such as "damn"),{{Cite news|last1=Montgomery|first1=Blake|last2=Siegel|first2=Harry|date=26 January 2022|title=School Board Bans Pulitzer-Winning Graphic Novel About the Holocaust|language=en|work=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/tennessee-school-bans-art-spiegelmans-pulitzer-prize-winning-graphic-novel-maus|access-date=28 January 2022}} depictions of nude mice, murder, and suicide, and what the board deemed the values of the community; in addition, a board member pointed out that at one time in the past the author of Maus had drawn cartoons for Playboy magazine.{{cite web|last=Gorman|first=Steve|url=https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/tennessee-school-board-bans-holocaust-themed-graphic-novel-maus-2022-01-28/|title=Tennessee school board bans Holocaust-themed graphic novel 'Maus'|publisher=Reuters|date=28 January 2022|accessdate=28 January 2022}} A former teacher who spoke at the meeting observed, in contrast, that “there is nothing pretty about the Holocaust, and for me this was a great way to depict a horrific time in history.” This decision to bar the teaching of the book occurred in proximity to Holocaust Remembrance Day, and during various attempts to remove reading material from other school districts.

Author Art Spiegelman criticized the move, describing it variously as baffling, "Orwellian", and “daffily myopic.”{{cite web|last=Mangan|first=Dan|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/26/tennessee-school-board-bans-holocaust-comic-maus-by-art-spiegelman.html|title=Tennessee school board bans Holocaust graphic novel 'Maus' – author Art Spiegelman condemns the move as 'Orwellian'|publisher=CNBC|date=26 January 2022|accessdate=28 January 2022}} The board's decision was covered by media in the United States, Europe, and Israel.{{cite web|last=Wegner|first=Rachel|url=https://www.tennessean.com:443/story/news/education/2022/01/27/tennessee-school-board-removes-holocaust-mausart-spiegelman/9237260002/|title=Tennessee school board's removal of Holocaust book 'Maus' draws international attention|newspaper=The Tennessean|date=27 January 2022|accessdate=28 January 2022}} Spiegelman, whose parents survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, also observed that he got the impression that the board members were asking, “Why can’t they teach a nicer Holocaust?”{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/us/maus-banned-holocaust-tennessee.html|title=School Board in Tennessee Bans Teaching of Holocaust Novel 'Maus'|first=Jenny|last=Gross|newspaper=The New York Times |date=27 January 2022}}

The Tennessean noted the swelling of significant backlash from politicians, journalists, organizations, and others.{{Cite web|last=Fronczek|first=Mel|date=27 January 2022|title=Defense of 'Maus' erupts online after McMinn County schools remove it from curriculum|url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2022/01/27/tennessee-maus-holocaust-book-banned-mcminn-county-school-board/9239569002/|access-date=28 January 2022|website=Nashville Tennessean}} Tennessee State Representative John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville), criticizing the board's action, said "Books are being stripped out of public libraries that give detailed personal accounts from survivors and about victims of the Holocaust."{{Cite web|last=Harris|first=Gerald|date=27 January 2022|title=Tennessee lawmakers react to McMinn County schools removal of prominent Holocaust book from curriculum|url=https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/tennessee-lawmakers-react-to-mcminn-county-schools-removal-of-prominent-holocaust-book-from-curriculum/|access-date=28 January 2022|website=WKRN}} Tennessee's United States Representative Jim Cooper (D-Nashville), called the decision "outrageous" and "really shameful." In addition, Tennessee's United States Representative Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), condemning the book's removal, said he hoped to see the school board's decision reversed. Tennessee Wesleyan University librarian Alex Sharp, in McMinn County, said that banning the book because "[b]ecause it has eight swear words? Okay, I'm sorry. But children see more than eight swear words in one TikTok video nowadays."{{Cite web|last=Keenehan|first=Katelyn|date=27 January 2022|title=Community upset over McMinn Co. BOE decision to ban Holocaust book from curriculum|url=https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/mcminn-county-school-board-faces-backlash-for-decision-to-ban-famous-maus-from-school-curriculum/51-aaaea576-7a19-47df-bfab-e9ca0fc5fd8b|access-date=28 January 2022|website=WBIR-TV}}

Following the board's banning of the book from its curriculum, the book became an Amazon best-seller.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/28/maus-amazon-bestseller-after-tennessee-school-ban.html|title='Maus' is an Amazon bestseller after Tennessee school ban – author Art Spiegelman compares board to Putin|first=Dan|last=Mangan|date=28 January 2022|website=CNBC}} On 28 January 2022, it was # 1 in the categories of fiction satire, and comics and graphic novels, and # 7 overall for all books (as Maus 1 was # 5 overall for books). Neither book was in the top 1,000 a week prior.{{Cite web|url=https://wnyt.com/entertainment/sales-soar-for-maus-after-its-banning-in-tennessee/6372981/|title=Sales soar for 'Maus' after its banning in Tennessee|date=28 January 2022|website=WNYT NewsChannel 13}} An Episcopal church in the county announced that it would conduct a discussion of Maus on 3 February, which would include a discussion about the complicity of many churches in the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/tennessee-school-boards-removal-of-maus-sparks-local-backlash-book-giveaway/|title=Tennessee school board's removal of 'Maus' sparks local backlash, book giveaway|website=Times of Israel}}

The owner of the Nirvana Comics bookstore {{convert|15|mi|km}} away from McMinn County in Knoxville, Tennessee, offered loans of "The Complete Maus" to any student, and donors sent him $30,000 to help fund his efforts. He said: "We’re getting requests from parents all over the country, even Europe, asking for copies," and believed the surprisingly strong response reflected the view that "That’s not what we do in America: ‘We don’t ban books.’ It triggered a very American response."

; High schools

• McMinn Central High School (unincorporated area, Englewood address){{cite web|url=https://www.mcminncentral.com/o/chs|title=Home|publisher=McMinn Central High School|accessdate=28 January 2022|quote=Central High School 145 County Road 461 Englewood, Tennessee 37329}} - It is not in the [https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/dc10map/GUBlock/st47_tn/place/p4724040_englewood/DC10BLK_P4724040_001.pdf Englewood town limits], despite the "Englewood, Tennessee" postal address.
• McMinn County High School (Athens)

; Elementary schools

• E.K. Baker Elementary School (unincorporated area, Athens postal address){{cite web|url=https://www.ekbakerelementary.com/o/ekbe|title=Home|publisher=E.K. Baker Elementary School|accessdate=28 January 2022|quote=E.K. Baker Elementary 1044 County Road 172 Athens, Tennessee 37303}} - It is not in the [https://cms9files.revize.com/athenstn/Document_Center/Team%20Anthens/City%20Manager/Community%20Development/Zoning%20Appeals/CD_2021-01_Official%20Zoning%20Map%20Print.pdf Athens city limits], despite the "Athens, Tennessee" postal address.
• Calhoun Elementary School (Calhoun)
• Englewood Elementary School (Englewood)
• Mountain View Elementary School (unincorporated area, Etowah postal address){{cite web|url=https://www.mtnviewelementary.com/o/mve|title=Home|publisher=Mountain View Elementary School|accessdate=28 January 2022|quote=Mountain View Elementary 145 County Road 627 Etowah, Tennessee 37331}} - It is not in the [https://www.cityofetowahtn.com/DocumentCenter/View/289/City-Map Etowah city limits], despite the "Etowah, Tennessee" postal address.
• Niota Elementary School (Niota)
• Riceville Elementary School (Riceville, unincorporated area)
• Rogers Creek Elementary School (unincorporated area, Athens postal address){{cite web|url=https://www.rogerscreekwarriors.com/o/rce|title=Home|publisher=Rogers Creek Elementary School|accessdate=28 January 2022|quote=Rogers Creek Elementary 137 County Road 82 Athens, Tennessee 37303}} - It is not in the city limits, despite the "Athens, Tennessee" postal address.

; Other

• McMinn Career and Tech Center

; Former schools

• Cook High School{{cite web|url=https://www.dailypostathenian.com/community/article_bada09a8-4ac6-11e7-8086-10604b9f1f4a.html|title=First Central High class came together from Englewood, Etowah, and Cook high schools |newspaper=Daily Post-Athenian|date=6 June 2017|accessdate=28 January 2022}}
• Englewood High School - A fire destroyed the building in December 1963. McMinn Central opened in fall 1966, with students from Englewood and Etowah.
• Etowah High School - It consolidated into McMinn Central in 1966.

• Athens City Schools - PreK-8 school district for Athens

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.mcminn.k12.tn.us/ McMinn County Schools]

{{Education in McMinn County, Tennessee}}

{{Athens, Tennessee}}

Category:Education in McMinn County, Tennessee

Category:School districts in Tennessee