School Preview — Tanner Elementary

Published 8:00 am Thursday, August 22, 2019

Editor’s note: The following is 21st in a series of articles previewing the upcoming school year at each public and private school in Athens and Limestone County.

School name: Tanner Elementary School

Principal: Angie Barnes

Amount of time as principal: Entering third year

Grades: Pre-K through 5th grade

Total number of students: 374

Total number of teachers: 32

Total number of support staff: 20

New programs: “This time we’re doing a STEAM club. We’re also doing First Priority … 21st Century, our Beta club, and we have 4-H.”

What makes Tanner Elementary special: “I’m gonna tell you, we are more like a family down here. Our parents and teacher works through and community. We have so much support from our churches. We all get together and look and plan for what’s best for each student, not just academically, but what’s best for the whole child. We also hire intervention teachers to meet the needs of each child.”

“Our scores are moving. It’s going to take us more than one year to get where we want to be, but we’re working with our intervention teachers and our art, music and library and our P.E. teachers so we’re all working on the same standards and goals. Those extra teachers are reinforcing those standards in their classrooms as an extension of what we’re teaching in our classrooms.

“… This year, we received a grant for shades for the playground, so we’ll be putting those up so the children will be cooler and it’ll be nicer for things like that.”

Primary objectives for 2019-2020: “Well, we are teaching the whole child. We want them emotionally and academically to have those scores move and be lifelong learners. That’s one thing our teachers say: ‘We are learning every day.’ We want to move our children and ourselves, so we can better help our children.”

What the principal is looking forward to: “I love to come see my children. We’re like a family, and there are some I really miss. … To see those smiling faces and the academics at the end of the year, how much we’ve accomplished.”