The Cheatham County School District is proud to provide students in grades 3-4 with a Windows laptop and students in grades K-2 with an iPad during the 2021-2022 school year. We were able to purchase the new devices with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. Our elementary schools are sharing information with their students and families about how the devices will be used during the year. If you’d like to learn more about our 1:1 program, please click here.

The Tennessee STEM Innovation Network, a public/private partnership between the Tennessee Department of Education and Battelle Education, announced the 2021-22 cohort of the Tennessee Rural STEM Collaborative. This year, 46 educators across Tennessee were selected for the collaborative. Lindsay Greer, the STEM teacher at Ashland City Elementary STEM Academy, is a member of this year’s collaborative. The collaborative is a yearlong professional development opportunity for rural educators designed to share promising practices in STEM education and encourage the development of a targeted STEM solution for each community or school represented.

A new Cheatham County sports program has been launched and airs on the Cheatham County Sports Hall of Fame Facebook page. The program, which is broadcast live on Friday nights before the high school football games, features interviews with coaches, athletic directors and principals. The program will be set up at all the county rivalry games featuring Cheatham County Central High School, Harpeth High School and Sycamore High School as well as other to be determined games throughout the season. Jeff Hobbs, the Cheatham County School District’s new athletic director, is the host of the program.

The Cheatham County School District, in partnership with Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation (GELF), announces the launch of a Book Bus that will bring books and literacy resources to neighborhoods in Cheatham County. The Cheatham County School District is one of 15 school districts in Tennessee that was awarded Book Bus grant funding from GELF this year. The bus will begin traveling in June 2022. More details can be found here.

We are excited to announce that art is returning to our elementary schools this year! We have hired three part-time art instructors, who will work a few days each week in our six elementary schools. There will be one art instructor in each cluster. Elizabeth Wooten will be at Ashland City Elementary STEM Academy and West Cheatham Elementary School in the central cluster; Sara Taylor will be at East Cheatham Elementary School and Pleasant View Elementary School in the northern cluster; and Elizabeth Collins will be at Kingston Springs Elementary School and Pegram Elementary Fine Arts Magnet School in the southern cluster. The art instruction will begin Sept. 7. Offering art in our elementary schools is part of our five-year plan, and we are thrilled about this opportunity.

We are continuing to do everything we can to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our schools. Click here to read about some of the COVID-19 protocols we have in place, review important information from the Tennessee Department of Health and review updates from the Tennessee Department of Education regarding virtual learning.

For a sixth consecutive year, the Cheatham County School District’s school funds audit report had zero findings. Finance & Operations Specialist Angela Patterson and the district bookkeepers are to be commended for this outstanding achievement. The district conducts ongoing training classes, which provides the bookkeepers with the tools they need to achieve success.

The first Book Walk of the 2021-2022 school year will be held on Saturday, Sept. 25. The Cheatham County Literacy Council is sponsoring the walk, which will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at the East Cheatham Elementary School walking track. This month’s book is “The Invisible Boy.” This is a free event and all families are invited to attend. Check out the flyer for more information.

The Tennessee Department of Education recently announced that all high school seniors will have an opportunity to boost their scores on the ACT college entrance exam. Tennessee is the first and only state to offer a free retake opportunity to every high school senior. Because results from college readiness tests like the ACT are often used to determine eligibility for scholarships, including the Tennessee HOPE scholarship, ACT retake opportunities empower students to fulfill requirements for college admission and demonstrate readiness. Seniors in the Cheatham County School District will have the opportunity to take the ACT test on Tuesday, Oct. 5. Our high schools will provide additional information to seniors.

Our transportation department is hiring bus drivers for the 2021-2022 school year. We have openings in all three clusters, especially the north and central clusters. Potential applicants must have or obtain a Class B Commercial Drivers License (CDL) with a P and S endorsement. We will provide necessary training to obtain the license to drive a bus, if required. Applicants must be 25 years old and pass a Department of Transportation physical, drug test and background check. We offer a perfect attendance bonus up to $1,000 a year. Anyone interested may pick up an application and a study guide from the Board of Education, 102 Elizabeth St. in Ashland City. For more information, contact Maureen Gilmore at 615-746-1428.

We are looking for substitute teachers/employees! For the past few years, we have partnered with ESS, and they are responsible for recruiting, scheduling, hiring, placing and managing all substitute teachers/employees in the district. For more information, follow ESS on its Facebook page at "ESS Cheatham County, TN" or visit www.ESS.com.

Want to know what’s for breakfast and lunch in September at your child's school? Click here to see the menus for each school. If you are on a mobile device, please click on the school link, choose either breakfast or lunch at the top and then click "Export PDF" to see the entire two-page menu.

If you are on social media, we invite you to like and follow two new Facebook pages: "Cheatham County Schools Nutrition Program" and "Cheatham Co Schools Transportation Dept." Additional news and information about these two extremely important departments are shared on these Facebook pages.

Labor Day holiday

All Cheatham County schools and the Central Office will be closed on Monday, Sept. 6 for Labor Day. Classes will resume on Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Early Dismissal Day

Our first early dismissal day of the 2021-2022 school year is Friday, Sept. 24. Schools will dismiss at 11:45 a.m. Lunch will be served for students on this day. Teachers will participate in professional development in the afternoon.

Fall Break

All Cheatham County schools will be on fall break the week of Oct. 11-15. Students will return to school on Monday, Oct. 18.