By Bill Grubb
News Editor

ROGERSVILLE - Hawkins County students will back in the classroom the first Monday in August next year under a school calendar adopted Thursday.
    The original proposal had students reporting Friday, August 2, 2013, but the version adopted by the Hawkins County Board of Education has students reporting August 5, 2013 for an abbreviated day.
    Principals and high school counselors must report to work July 17, with July 30 an optional in-service day for teachers at their individual schools and July 31 a required in-service day, which includes a general system-wide meeting at Cherokee High School.
    Other highlights of the county school system's schedule include:
    -  No school on September 2 for the Labor Day holiday;
    -  October 7 - 11 as the fall break;
    -  November 27 - 29 as the Thanksgiving break;
    -  Christmas break, which begins with an abbreviated day for students on December 20 and resumes with a full day of classes on January 6, 2014;
    -  Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on January 20;
    -  President's Day holiday February 17;
    -  March 10 - 14 as spring break;
    -  April 18 as Good Friday;
    -  May 22 as an abbreviated day for students to pick up their report cards; and
    -  May 24 as graduation day for students at Cherokee and Volunteer High School.
    Perhaps because of the mood created by the gift giving season, the board also voted to approve changes to the 2010-13 contract between the Hawkins County Board of Education and the Hawkins County Education Association, giving full-time employees a "one time" $500 bonus, paid from the system's undesignated fund balance.
    Although school board members did not discuss any details of the item at their meeting, Finance Director Myron Dale told the Hawkins County Commission's Budget Committee that the move will cost "around $756,000, including social security and medicare."
    The bonus will be awarded to slightly more than 1,200 employees.    
    In other business, the board honored the Rogersville Middle School football team players, coaches and school administrators.
    Earlier this year the team won the Big Three Conference championship.
    "That encompasses large schools in Sullivan, Washington and Hawkins counties.  They accomplished this by defeating the Gray Middle School 34 to 22," Director of Schools Charlotte Britton said, adding that it had been 10 years since the school won a championship.     
    The team avenged an earlier season loss to Gray, and finished the season with a seven win and two loss season, the director added.
    "This is a real hard working group of boys.  We had fantastic assistant coaches and we had really great support from our parents this year.  Without all that, this wouldn't have been possible," Coach Steve Taylor added.