Officials are considering how best to run a Knox County student clothing center

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) – The Knox County School Clothing Center is an organization that helps students who need clothes for school. On Tuesday, we heard from Knox County Schools and Clothing Center members about how the center should be run.

This came after the center moved from the old Sears building to the Cedar Bluff preschool. The Clothing Center was established in 1935 during the Great Depression, when student demand for clothing was high. Today it fulfills the same mission.

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For the past several decades, the organization and KCS have operated on a handshake. This arrangement is currently in question regarding who controls operations. Several options for its operation are being considered. The only issue raised by PTA members was two school system-funded positions that went unfilled.

“Where is the staff you promised us?” said PTA Apparel Center President Sylvia Woods. “You’ve already run this twice to hire workers. Why haven’t we seen anything like this?”

Woods has worked at the Clothing Center for over forty years. She said they were moved from the old location without warning.

“I went to the May meeting and it was announced, it was just announced, that ‘we’re moving you from the Sears building to Cedar Bluff,’” Woods said.

Knox County Schools Deputy Superintendent for Strategy Kori Lautner told 6 News there are many reasons for this decision. the greatest is accessibility to residents of the more rural areas of Knox County.

“This is because the need is not limited to one zip code. We know the demand for clothing is district-wide, and we are a very, very large district,” Lautner said. “The idea of families going to one place in the city center is really inaccessible to families who live in remote corners of the district. With this move, we wanted to move towards a distribution model.”

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In this distribution model, the center currently distributes clothes to those in need. People working at the Clothing Center do so as volunteers. They are not paid and spend their time sorting, packing and shipping clothing. Susan Hager, vice president of the PTA Apparel Center, said the company needed someone full-time to be able to process applications more quickly and efficiently.

“The fundamental issue is employees. The most important thing we need are the two people the school system promised us,” Hager said. “They would be full-time, so they could work much more efficiently than volunteers coming in once or twice a week and trying to fulfill orders.”

Discussions about the appropriate direction of running the Clothing Center began even before the decision to move the group to Cedar Bluff Kindergarten.

“This is a conversation that has been going on for a long time about thinking about the ability of a volunteer organization to do this work,” Lautner said. “The facility’s previous leadership was really honest with us and admitted that they were struggling to maintain leadership and stay afloat under a volunteer-run model.”

PTA members had to overcome several obstacles when moving to the new building.

“We couldn’t use or access the computers here because we’re not employees, so we couldn’t access their computers. We worked it out, we use our own computers and email addresses,” Woods said. “We don’t see the child’s name, but we do have the name of the social worker and the code. We responded to everything they told us or what we should do. We’ve done everything.”

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In speaking with both KCS and the PTA, we were told that two employees promised to the PTA are in the budget for this school year. Woods says that when they ask to interview people who have applied, it is always postponed.

When it comes to running the Clothing Center, three options are being considered;

Both parties sign a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, stating that the PTA will control the Center.
Look for other community organizations that could come and help the center.
Knox County Schools controls the facility internally.

If you would like to donate gently used or new clothing, you can drop it off at 709 N Cedar Bluff Road. Please call 865-594-3791 before arriving and making a donation.

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