ELIZABETHTON â The Elizabethton City Board of Education has begun the process of replacing a legend.
In Thursdayâs monthly meeting, the board unanimously approved the creation of a summer band coordinator position. The purpose of that position is to begin the process for the next band director to prepare to take over Elizabethton High Schoolâs Betsy Band when Perry Elliott retires as band director at the end of June.
Director of Schools Richard VanHuss explained the coordinator position to the board. âWe are all very sad that Mr. Elliott is in the process of retiring at the end of this school year. My goodness, we can all stand up here and talk for days about what Mr. Elliott has done for the band program, the school, as well as the community. He is going to be very, very hard to replace, there is no question about that.â
Northeast Tennessee reported its 500th novel coronavirus-related (COVID-19) fatality on Thursday, doubling its count in the 40 days since Halloween.
Half of all deaths in the region have been reported since the beginning of November, with 253 reported dead since then. November was the deadliest month of the pandemic in Northeast Tennessee with 176 new deaths reported, though December is on pace to shatter that record. Seventy-nine deaths have been reported since Dec. 1, an average of 7.9 per day. If that rate holds, the region could see more than 240 reported deaths this month.
There were six new deaths reported across five counties on Thursday, with Carter (+2), Hawkins (+1), Johnson (+1), Sullivan (+1) and Unicoi (+1) counties each adding to their tolls. Washington County still leads the region in virus-related fatalities with 128, two more than Sullivan County.