Students from Argentina visit West Ridge High

KINGSPORT — Sullivan County school board Chairman Matt Price and community member Rodney Padgett are singing the praises of a West Ridge High School exchange group from Argentina. Price and his family, including his daughter, hosted one of the 19 students, and Price said he hopes other such exchanges can be arranged in the future. {{tncms-asset alignment="left" app="editorial" id="4ca25032-1065-45f4-a44e-bb90a1eb5b30"}} "She taught us a ton," Price said near the end of Monday's Sullivan County Board of Education meeting, adding that he probably enjoyed the visit more than his daughter did. Padgett, during public comment at the meeting, said that his family hosted the only male student of the 19 Argentinians, accompanied by two of their Argentinian teachers. Like the Prices, Padgett said his family took their visiting student to various places. Both families live in Blountville. Both said they visited Dollywood with the Argentinians, as well as other points of interest in Sullivan County and Northeast Tennessee. In addition to Dollywood, destinations for Padgett's visitor included Bass Pro Shops, the Haunted Forest, going trick or treating and attending a high school marching band competition. "It was an amazing experience," Padgett said, encouraging others to consider hosting a high school visitor from another country in the future. He said his younger son, a student at West Ridge, is studying Spanish, and talked with the student from Argentina in his native tongue. The exchange students were fluent in English, Price said. GENESIS OF VISIT Dr. Sarah Mould, a Spanish teacher at West Ridge, said the exchange came about through her contact with a former student teacher when she worked in Greene County Schools. That individual later taught in Hamblen County and then moved to Argentina to teach adults how to speak English. Mould said the 19 students were from a language school that has exchange programs with England, France and a U.S. school in Chicago. The name of the school in Argentina is Lenguas Vivas. "It had gotten so popular they needed another school in the United States," Mould said. "We are planning to take students down the end of May and first of June." She said the students from Argentina are nearing summer break, while the West Ridge students going there later this year will be on summer break. "This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the administration," Mould said Tuesday, thanking Principal George Laoo, Director of Schools Chuck Carter and school board members for their help. "Spanish teachers Jennie Case and Sarah LaGuardia helped make this happen," Mould said via email Wednesday. "The two teachers from Argentina stayed with Sarah L. during their time here and Jennie's family hosted a student. I also had two students who stayed with me." TEACHER WINS GRANT On another matter, the Sullivan County Retired Teachers Association or SCRTA President Diane Castle Monday night had Director of Schools Carter draw the winner of a 2025 Teacher Grant from the group from a hat. {{tncms-asset alignment="left" app="editorial" id="0bde2ba5-128c-4f26-bb87-7d391555f39d"}} Castle said the 11 submissions were so good it would have been all but impossible to choose a winner except by chance. That winner is Michele Harbaugh of Mary Hughes Elementary School in Piney Flats. Harbaugh will get $750 for her project. The school will get an additional $250. Her funded project focuses on a Christmas around the world social studies project. Angela Shaffer, a group member, spoke to the board in character as Willia Lorna Fleenor, her grandmother born in 1900. Shaffer as Fleenor spoke about the founding of the National Education Week in 1921. She said it stemmed from findings in 1919, after World War I, that 25% of draftees were illiterate and a "significant portion were physically unfit." The National Education Association and American Legion founded the education week, the first of which was Dec. 4-10, 1921. This year's event is Nov. 17-21. The local retired teachers group has 275 members. SOCIAL MEDIA, WEBSITE, CTE NEWS The school board also got an update in a work session before the meeting on new system websites and social media efforts from Eric Maynard, the school system's technology facilitator. It includes the artificial intelligence-drive "Hey Sully" offering for school system employees, as well as a similar "Solace" offering to be launched in about two weeks for parents and the general public on the school system webisite. The system also received a Silver Level dual enrollment award from the Tennessee College of Applied Technology or TCAT-Elizabethton Vice President of Instruction Richard Richard Church. The system had 484 Sullivan County students in grades 9-12 in TCAT dual enrollment for career technical education or vocational courses.