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Officials strive to keep students safe
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Warren County schools are currently being evaluated to determine if any are in need of immediate upgrades to bolster security.
“This is something we’ve been looking at since October, way before the Sandy Hook incident,” said Director of Schools Bobby Cox referring to the school massacre in Connecticut where 20 students were killed. “We’re doing threat assessments at all of our schools to see if there’s anything we can do in the way of camera systems or buzzers on doors so visitors have to be buzzed in. We’re looking at entry points and exits points and even the hardware we have on our doors. I hope to have something ready for our School Board by the next meeting.”
Building and Grounds director Donnie Caldwell and school resource officer Bobby Pennington are in the process of visiting every school. They were at WCMS on Monday and West Elementary yesterday.
“We’re trying to look at ways to put in extra layers of protection to make it safer,” said Caldwell. “There are a lot of things we could do, but it all comes down to funding.”
While many school districts are looking at adding more school resource officers (SROs), Cox said he first wants to focus on what can be done to make the schools more secure.
“Our buildings are our first line of defense,” said Cox. “We want to make it as difficult as possible for someone who wants to come in and cause trouble. We don’t want a school to become a prison with bars on the windows, but we want to do the best we can to keep everybody safe.”
Several Tennessee school systems are looking at additional SROs as their first course of action. Rutherford County is considering a plan to add 13 SROs to place an officer in every school. After initial start-up costs, the plan is estimated to cost about $687,000 annually.
Warren County currently has five SROs. Three are assigned to WCHS with one at WCMS. Pennington serves as a floating SRO who serves the county’s other schools as needed.
Cox said if one of the SROs at the high school is assigned to Hickory Creek, and Pennington is assigned a permanent school, Warren County is six officers away from an SRO at every school, including Warren Academy. If an SRO isn’t deemed necessary at Warren Academy, the school system is five officers away.
“Funding for those positions probably won’t be available until next year,” said Cox. “We’re trying to do as much as we can, as quickly as we can which is why we’re looking at our buildings right now.”
The next School Board meeting is scheduled for Jan. 24 at 6 p.m. at the central office.

Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Warren County Schools has beefed up lunch menus this school year through a new community partnership. Thanks to a collaboration between the district’s School Nutrition Department and Barton Creek Farms, students at Warren County High School, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Eastside Elementary, and Dibrell Elementary are enjoying locally sourced, farm-fresh beef in their lunches as part of a pilot program.

The initiative, spearheaded by Terri Mullican, Director of School Nutrition, has already shown great promise in its first few months. The partnership with Barton Creek Farms, located in Rock Island, Tennessee, ensures that the beef served is not only local to Warren County but of the highest quality. Barton Creek Farms specializes in farm-to-fork beef, with grass-fed and grain-finished cattle. Each calf is born and raised in Rock Island and goes through USDA-inspected processing, ensuring it meets the strictest safety and quality standards.

“When the opportunity arose to provide fresh, local beef, we knew it was a no-brainer,” Mullican said. “The fact that it’s a product from right here in our community makes it even more special. We can’t wait to implement it district-wide.”

Barton Creek Farms delivers fresh ground beef to the district monthly, and the nutrition

department incorporates it into homemade recipes such as lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and tacos.

As of now, the beef is being served at five schools, but the ultimate goal is to expand the program to all ten lunch-serving schools in the district.

The pilot program originated from a conversation between Mary Roller of Barton Creek Farms and Mullican. Roller, recognizing the farm’s potential to support local schools, reached out to gauge the district’s interest in serving local beef to students. Around the same time, a Warren County school board member contacted Mullican to share information about a similar partnership in neighboring Dekalb County, which helped push the initiative forward.

The timing worked in the district’s favor, as the nutrition department was able to fund the purchase of the beef using existing resources, eliminating the need for additional funding. Now that the pilot program is enjoying a successful run, the department has budgeted to extend the partnership district-wide for the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Grant Swallows, Director of Schools, praised the program’s economic approach to student nutrition.

“This pilot is a perfect example of how we can use local resources to continue providing nutritious, healthy meals for our students,” he said. “We are grateful for partnerships like this one that benefit both our students and our local community. We always strive to support our local businesses when we can because our community is so good to us.”

In addition to working with Warren County Schools, Barton Creek Farms also partners with local restaurants to offer farm-fresh beef on their menus. The farm’s offerings include ground beef, steaks, roasts, and custom cuts by the quarter, half, or whole cow, meeting diverse consumer needs.

As the program continues to grow, the district hopes to expand its focus on farm-to-school meals, benefiting students’ health and connecting them to the agricultural roots of the community