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The Blount County Board of Education elected new school board officials and addressed the system's technological problems with the Star Student Information System at Thursday's board meeting.

Chris Cantrell replaced Dr. Don McNelly as the school board's chairman. McNelly is the board's new vice chairman.

The Star system is a Web-based student data management system that allows educators and administrators to access grade, attendance and discipline records. Another aspect of the Star system is a Web portal by which teachers and parents may access a student's records.

Blount County Schools adopted the Star system after the state changed its own information systems two years ago. "We were forced into adopting it, because we had to have it match up with what they want," said McNelly.

Many teachers, parents and students have reported numerous problems with the Star system. The system's problems have not been software-related, said Dr. Brian Bell, the system's director of facilities. "They're access and infrastructure issues," he noted.

Blount school officials have contacted Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Dr. Tim Webb, state Rep. Doug Overbey and state Sen. Raymond Finney about the system's problems to no avail.

The problems have been so numerous, in fact, that the 2008-2009 school budget initially included funds for the school system to purchase its own server. "If we host Star here on our own intranet, we will speed things up. The only thing we (won't) get is real-time state data. We will have to manually upload the data every night," said Bell.

Board members do not know what the best solution is. "I don't know how to remedy (the problem). We had the money (in this year's budget), but we had to cut it," said McNelly.

Letter to state

The board later authorized Cantrell to meet with Director of Schools Alvin Hord and write a letter to the state Department of Education that addresses the school system's problems with the Star system.

Board members also approved $24,000 in fund balance to reimburse transportation costs for parents who have decided to opt their children out of Union Grove Middle School. Only two students have chosen to change schools, but officials have decided to set aside money for transfer students who might exercise their public school choice.

A lot of misconceptions exist in the Blount County community because of the Tennessee Department of Education's AYP results concerning Union Grove Middle School, said board member Mike Treadway.

"This is not a regular education issue -- it is a special education issue," he said. "I for one do not appreciate it. Regular education at Union Grove Middle School stacks up with all schools (in Blount County). (Principal) Alicia Lail, (Assistant Principal) Rhonda McLemore and all the staff have gone out of the way to see students in that district receive a great education.

"It's unfathomable what (the No Child Left Behind law) has done to the reputation of the school and this system," said Treadway.

The school board also approved raising the mileage reimbursement rate for Blount County School employees to 58 cents a mile. Board members authorized Hord to find the necessary funding in this year's budget and report back to them at October's meeting.