The County School Board on Tuesday night voted to pay $4.4 million for a new edition of math textbooks for K-12.
Several board members who supported the move said they had spoken to principals and math teachers, and they were in favor of the new textbooks from Curriculum Associates.
Greg Martin was opposed, saying the board should have used all fund balance instead of sources that include fund balance and the $1.4 million left from the city's first payment of liquor tax funds. He said the liquor tax funds should be kept on hand for other purposes.
The city agreed to pay the county schools $1,960,000 per year for five years for liquor taxes that were due but not remitted. But the schools agreed to deduct $260,000 per year for a stormwater charge. So the net to the schools will be $1.7 million per year.
Also against were Rhonda Thurman and Jonathan Welch.
Stacey Roddy, math director, said the firm had agreed to update the printed books yearly as needed by the county schools to meet the latest standards. She said the digital edition could be updated more often.
She said the new textbooks would meet 80 percent of the current state requirements.
Ms. Roddy said the current textbooks "do not meet 50 percent of what teachers need to teach. It may be just one-third."
She said the staff had provided a large number of supplements to try to keep up with standards with the old math books.
Former teacher Donna Horn said the former Everyday Math books "had teachers' heads spinning."
Ms. Roddy said it uses a "spiral" method that is not followed by the new edition.
Board member David Testerman, a former principal, said the problem is that standards "are continually changing. When you are able to get to the point when you can hone in on them, then they change again."
He added, "We need to get the politics out of education."
Ms. Roddy said the Tennessee standards, which she said are Common Core, would not change over the next two academic years. "I don't know after that," she said.
The board voted to approve a list of school fees charged parents. Ms. Thurman and Dr. Welch were opposed.
Ms. Thurman said, "This is just a form of a tax. We keep raising these, and now we are going over the top."
She said, "If we are ever challenged in court, we are going to lose - and our attorney knows that."