001thank you for joining us and they said we have to be very expeditious tonight because there's TCAP in the morning so all right we're going to start off by recording our attendance of 11 board members present and next we're going to have our Pledge of Allegiance and a Moment of Silence by Jay Galbraith board member of the United States you may be seated the first item on our agenda is items of particular public interest and we do have eight members of the public who've come to speak with us tonight I'm going to call you up in pairs but you don't have to come up if you're the second person just wanted you to be aware that you're next our first two speakers are dindies andrejack and April Garza Wright so we'll start with Denise and
002your time is on the screen so that you can pace yourself know when you're coming up okay Andre Shack and I'm here to speak for a great read in my opinion Charlie is a Wallflower so his upper class high school friends who praise him call him he sees things and you keep quiet about them and you understand but Charlie grieving for a friend who succumbed to Suicide begins to write letters to his dear friend the identity unknown to the reader and maybe to Charlie himself because he confides to the reader I'm afraid something is wrong with me and he just accepts things he probably shouldn't because again I don't know what else to do and Charlie cries a lot sometimes privately sometimes not so privately maybe Charlie doesn't understand as much as his older friend's
003claim after immersion into every single word of The Perks of Being a Wallflower I will say the Reed is chock full of high school rite of passage decisions drinking smoking not always tobacco illicit drugs sex and then Charlie even helps his big sister obtain an abortion reality ladies and gentlemen of the Williamson County School Board copyrighted in 1999 by Stephen chboski's perk is in its 20th Edition and the librarian at Williamson County Library remembered reading it herself in high school and yet now in 2023 with social media Surplus surpassing literary confines book bands could be considered outdated if it were not for a known oppressive history Charlie finds some Solace at times from his parents who really just don't want to have those conversations and from his friends who listen and often give good advice
004and often make poor judgment calls themselves but could make him feel infinite in an aura of human humor reminiscent of the Peanuts Gang and from an English teacher who encourages an admiring Charlie to read and write and participate and Charlie under a psychiatrist's care for some earlier regret behavior and rageful learns from his history of repressed sexual abuse from a much-loved deceased Aunt Helen Charlie ends the book with a letter dear friend because I write to tell you thank you years ago there was a very sad kid who needed a whole lot of help and writing to you was the beginning of that help whatever I've learned as an adult I have never forgotten what it was like to be that kid thank you wrote back I would encourage you to vote against book bands
005there are many sad kids out there that could use this sort of back adding thank you thank you Denise next we have April Garza Wright and after April we have Kim Long hello and thank you for your time today and the opportunity to share my view with all of you in our school board Representatives there has been much discussion surrounding the Banning of books and the difficulties surrounding which books to be on I don't see it as your job to determine for my children what is okay for them to read and what should be banned from them parents in the past have been able to choose for their children whether to wear a mask parents historically have been given the ability to determine what is best for their child based on their own educated decision
006I ask that you continue to allow parents to determine what is best for their child each person has a different set of factors that influence their decisions your concerns regarding books are different than mine I don't prefer that you dictate to me what my child needs to exclude from their education or what is inappropriate for my child based on your morals my experiences are not the same as yours what you value is not going to line up with what I value what I see is exposure to life challenges you see as inappropriate I don't feel that your opinion trumps my decision as the best person to make the decision about my children's education parents are perfectly capable of making decisions regarding book selections just as much as they are regarding masks books are about sharing
007experiences and knowledge stories tell us what happened and why we all have to re a right to read a story to understand a story this role you are trying to create for our school board doesn't fit your job description it doesn't fit within the Liberty we are guaranteed by living in this great country by Banning books for others you are taking away the right to choose from parents when you ban books you take away an opportunity for a story you restrict what gets to be shared and learned you take away voices you are not elected to limit our voices you don't get to make our voice your voice you may not agree with certain situations words characters within a book but that is the reality of the world in which we live those are the
008real things our kids our kids face in their life books give our kids exposure to what other experiences are and they share these experiences in a way that isn't conveyed simply by saying it by naming it or Banning it a book gives the author an opportunity to share with the reader how so many things play into an outcome or an action it helps a reader to see and feel Beyond a word use to see the humanness surrounding every situation reading about an array of subjects gives our kids opportunity to prepare and consider how their actions and thoughts will be in relation to various experiences books allow our kids to face hard things in a story that they relate to there's comfort and shared experiences people find extreme comfort in these shared experiences and it's a
009way that helps them to get through these hard times whatever classification or grading system you're coming up with it will never be one exempt from biased in opinion that is why our founding fathers wrote the first amendment they didn't put restrictions on our freedom of speech they knew that I the way I know and many others here know acceptable free speech is relative and those are the things that those are us excuse me acceptable free speech is relative and those of us living in America get to live outside the relative restrictions of Freedom we get to simply be free to read period the rest is up to the parents not this board to freely choose what ideas they open their child's Minds to thank you thank you next we have Kim long and then Jody
010Barnwell good evening I am Kim long and I am a teacher at Centennial High School I'm also the girl who gave you the packet of handouts and if you would bear with me and let me flip through these quickly I will try to wrap this up in three minutes I'm used to having 47 each period so I will Begin by telling you that I've been a teacher in Williamson County for the last nine years I actually started teaching in 1995 in Memphis City Schools East High School if you're familiar with it for my five years there I taught advanced placement literature for the last as I said nine years I've been in Wilco last two in Centennial High School prior to that seven in Ravenwood high school for the last three years I have taught
011advanced placement literature and I have included the text Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in my classroom and that is why I'm here tonight and I have heard conflicting accounts of what is going on with this book in terms of it being removed from a library and the implications that might have for me in my classroom and I want to speak to you all and let you all hear from a teacher who actually teaches the book about how valuable it is in the AP classroom on the first page I've given you a course description students receive this for me on the very first day of school and if you'll look at the very first paragraph I'm going to go fast for the for time's sake I do tell students that some of the selections do contain
012mature subject matter and themes I then go on to say this is because this course is a college level course in fact I would liken it to a sophomore literature course at most most universities as you can see my list of texts we read Extremely Loud in the fourth quarter as we do our final preparation for the AP exam on May 3rd following page is the what I would call the standards of advanced placement literature and I would direct your attention to the back of that page and I want you to take a look at the format of the assessment specifically the question number three literary argument this is where students are given a prompt we never know what the prompt is it's very wide-ranging but AP will then provide a list of texts that
013would be suitable but students also have the choice to pick one of their own if you'll flip over next page and again I apologize for my quickness that I'm running out of time 2016 the question was about a character's dishonesty if you look in the First Column there is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as an option if you'll flip over to the next page that is last year's question and if you'll when you have time I hope that you'll go and look at this selection of texts some of them are Classics standards you'll probably recognize but there are going to be quite a few on there that I bet you don't I did not recognize them myself and what this means is this is a very wide-ranging diverse set of books that our students need
014to be exposed to so this goes beyond just my AP classroom but I think it extends to all AP classrooms and all of our students we here in Williamson County encourage enrollment and advanced placement we want our students to do well on these scores nationally and we need to make sure that they have exposure to these books and I don't mean just an advanced placement their 12th grade year they need these books throughout their High School experience we need them in our libraries we need to have them access accessible in our classrooms finally almost out I would have you look at the quote by Jonathan Fowler who states it's not his job to tell anyone what a book means and it's not mine either thank you thank you next we have Jody Barnwell and Matthew
015Spencer my name is Jody Barnwell Smith author Sunil yapa said empathy is a profound Act of imagination and human connection in fiction we imagine ourselves into other people's experiences and of course another word for that is reading empathy is being aware of and sharing another person's feelings experiences and emotions and as a parent an ally of teachers and Librarians I believe that by censoring books and banning them we are essentially robbing Children of the opportunity to develop empathy we are letting the fear of the other close our minds to the experiences and emotions of many who may not think like us or live like us but whose voices must be heard and as school board members you represent us all not just those who look like you and live like you it is up to
016you it doesn't excuse me it is not up to you to define the experiences of others but you ensure that our teachers and Librarians are supported in their expertise to provide books that grow our children's Minds and that may bring up questions we ourselves have never thought of and when our children ask us these difficult questions I hope we open our minds and search for answers together tragically teen suicide gun violence bullying racism discrimination and sexual assault are rampant within our communities sometimes in our own homes the othering of these situations by Banning books only leads to further trauma of the survivors and silences them some of these survivors are our children our loved ones ourselves and we must prepare our children with empathy and compassion to respond to these experiences and share these experiences
017with us so that we may guide and support them today I ask you to partner with the teachers and Librarians who are already doing an incredible job and to let parents have the opportunity to navigate difficult conversations and continue teaching empathy to their children through many ways including reading books without the censorship of the government it is not the school board's job or government to censor books if I don't want my child to read a book I'll handle it thank you all very much thank you next we have Matthew Spencer and then we'll have Emma Rose Smith thank you members of the school board superintendent golden and others here assembled thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight I was born and raised in the Nashville area spent most of my life here now I have
018two daughters ages 10 years I want to spend a few minutes there talking for a second about parental rights as it relates to proposed Banning of these books parental rights it's considered the meaning of those words for a second they mean parents should have the right to be involved in decisions about their child's education in this case whether their children have access to certain books what one person may choose for their child might be different than what I choose for mine and I respect their right to do so my understanding is that there's already an opt-out in place where any parent can choose to keep their children from accessing certain books I don't understand why that isn't sufficient in this case fully removing these books or any for that matter takes away my right to
019choose for my children to be able to access them with the opt out the complainants who have challenged these books already have an easy and viable alternative instead of spending the board's time to review debate books they don't agree with they can simply take the list of books they want to ban paste them into the opt-out forms and submit it per the policy to keep their kids from accessing them job done it's that easy continuing to pressure you to ban these books is not about keeping their kids from possibly reading them it's about ensuring that my kids don't and that's a direct result on my parental rights when these book come books come up for our kids my wife and I will decide for ourselves if we think our kids are mature enough to read
020them and then only with supervision from and discussion with us that's my choice as a parent to make for my child nobody else's Banning these books or any books is not about parental rights in fact it's the exact opposite Banning books is about placing your own personal moral beliefs above the rights of parents to make choices for their children thank you for your service to the community for your consideration tonight and for the opportunity to speak and then we'll have Ruby Lindstrom hi my name is Amaro Smith and I go to Franklin High School I'd like to say that books are not just ink and paper they are the repository of our intelligence our dreams and our hopes they are a gateway to knowledge a window to different cultures and a tool for building empathy
021understanding and cultural competency therefore Banning books restricts our freedom to think and to learn censorship is unconstitutional Un-American going against everything that our country stands for education is in its Latin form means to lead out of or lead into to me being educated means the ability to change your community and the power to make your own choices even as a little girl I knew education was powerful books teach you how to interpret and Tackle problems as a means to give back to others over the past year I've had the honor of hosting a monthly book club alongside a friend of mine that focused on books centered around women of color through this I've learned so much about different cultures and the struggles of black women and people who are part of the lgbtq community students
022deserve to have easy access to these experiences in their school libraries I shouldn't have to take time outside of school to learn these things when it's my right to learn them inside please allow students the opportunity to read allow students same opportunity that every single one of us in this room were afforded please allow them to grow into citizens that can change the world and please do not ban these books thank you thank you next we have Ruby lindstrot and Jennifer Cortez will be our final speaker hi I'm Ruby linsdroth and I'm a senior at Franklin High School first I want to say thank you for having us here today and thank you for letting us express our thoughts on book Banning my personal belief and the from what I've heard the belief of many
023people in this room is that book Banning infringes on freedom of speech and parental rights my parents gave me guidelines for reading growing up if they didn't think I was ready to read a book they would tell me to do so and I would listen to them because they're my parents and that is their job for example I wasn't allowed to read The Hunger Games until I was 12. I listened to my parents and even though and when I was allowed to finally read The Hunger Games I was able to get it at my school library which was wonderful and it's one of my favorite book series now book Banning it's usually targeted at books that explore topics divisive topics such as sexual assault the lgbtq community and race relations Banning these books that dive
024deep into what all of these things can the impact that all of these things can have on a person can hinder empathy and understanding in children we read to children as they grow to help them learn not only about the world but about empathy in the world if you choose to ban a book for your child that is okay because that is your child but please do not exert your parental rights and put them on the children of others because that's not fair if you want to have rights for your child then give rights to only your child do not interfere with the beliefs of others censorship is dangerous history can be erased through censorship and that is not something that should happen I think this is I've read 1984 and book Banning is really
025in Fahrenheit 451 in Fahrenheit 451 all of the books were burned so people could have no access to knowledge as a way of government oversight so please reading these books warns us of the dangers of book Banning please please keep these books in our libraries because there are kids who need it and these books have made at least one child felt safe and heard and they've given them a way to understand what is going on with themselves thank you thank you our final speaker is Jennifer Cortez yes to speak it was late 2019 when I began interviewing local parents and students who were suffering in our school system they were suffering because those in charge didn't always know how to handle the issue of race-related bullying and harassment and that hasn't changed yet but thanks
026to the efforts of many steps are being taken to make things better and safer for all students we must keep going we appreciate the work that has been done to make reporting harassment incidents safer and more standardized we need that data so that we can see where help is most needed and because without it many will continue to deny the problem at one Wilco we've been encouraging students to speak up and report it when they are called monkeys or when they are teased for their almond-shaped eyes or when they are told their ethnicity is probably the 911 kind but you can see how difficult that is for them and how much courage it takes especially when they don't trust that things will be handled skillfully and well one Wilco continues to assure families who reach
027out to us that this board and our County cares about their well-being and wants to create safety and support for them but we need each of you to be an active committed part of that solution we have a lot of work to do and a long way to go and there's a lot of fear in our country right now and when parents themselves are afraid of those who are different from them we can only expect to see harassment incidents among students continue to rise so we need to be the leaders that we say we are and step up to meet this very real need I believe we can do it let's keep going thank you I want to thank all of the speakers who came tonight it does take time to come out and meet
028with us so thank you for preparing for signing up them for coming to speak next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda thank you Mr Welch do we have a second Mr Mitchell thank you board members cast your votes thank you we approved the agenda so we'll move on to our next item which is the approval of the consent agenda do we have a motion Mr Wimberly and Miss Clements seconds any comment we can go ahead and move to vote your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you and with that approval we approved the March 27 2023 school board meeting minutes the facilities use fee schedule and the recommendation for a field trip fee requests next item on the agenda is Communications to the board Mr golden thank you madam chair
029and thank you those of you here in the audience especially want to welcome the Boy Scout Troop 1 30 and thank you for coming especially on a tcat night TCAP actually officially started today it was the first win first day of of our window I think they all start really in Earnest tomorrow so I do appreciate you all being here I want to make sure that I comment on the public comment tonight I continue to be amazed and impressed with our students every time I hear them speak it reminds me of the of the quality of parents the quality of the teachers and especially the quality of our young people who are here in Williamson County and we always want to do right by them and make it a point to to to open doors
030for them to that point we had some discussions on Thursday night about our strategic plan and we'll be bringing you some more information about the Strategic plan in the coming weeks about where we're headed I'm excited about that but we also talked about three very important areas at our work session I'm not going to share any additional details beyond the depth of our discussion at the work session but we talked about student safety we talked about the commitments we've made Aid to counseling and supports for students and we talked about bullying and where we are in in that process of growth as school leaders in support of our students and and I encourage folks to look at that I encourage you all to continue to let us know when we have opportunities for growth very
031much appreciate those conversations from you with that I'm not smiling because our next step is our student staff and school spotlights Carol Birdsong has a plethora it's that's an act word I think typical word the words right out of my mouth superintendent a plethora of celebrations as we continue to work to give those opportunities to our students so with that Carol if you would share our spotlights I would love to thank you very much yes board members tonight we are celebrating history once again in Williamson County Schools as we celebrate 78 National Merit finalists last year's record was 71 and we're at 78. so sit back thank you relax and enjoy because we're going to start at Brentwood High School audreolino and then we have Lucas Bowman and then here is Logan Brownfield Jesse Tsai
032Colin Carpenter rise Clark Owen Cullum Brent driver do a fazili Raymond godaki William Hong Angela Houle Morgan Colin Nathan Lee Grace Lou IE McCullen Reagan Nelson Landon Parker core imperata Niar sanco Lucas and Tilly Zachary villaroos Amy shu Elaine Zhang and those are just from Brentwood now let's go to Centennial Presley Anderson Sean Baker Emma Burrell and karaoke from Franklin Aiden Culp Leah gallers David Haskins Joshua whoops Joshua Murray Jack Parker van Shaffer Townsend Schultz and now to Independence Ava Gordon Kyler King Riley Lent Nathaniel Martinez Dalton Schultz Lillian Valk and now to nolansville William Flanagan darsh candelwal from Paige Bryce and Boone Jeff Dosh Joseph doe sorry Abigail kazancha Broderick labaugh Cynthia Liang Ferris Livingston Elijah Ray Eugene Smalley and Paxton Whitehead now from Ravenwood garia Dosh Tyler Allison Emily Barnes Thomas Bork Brown
033Busa Atlanta car Taylor Sullivan Dickerson Salah Grace Justin Megan Hopkins Burger Andrew Kim Joshua Liu she of metal ayush Mishra Ella Montgomery Matthew Mueller a shiny Nath William perrotti Truman Porter Caitlin Rowan Andrew Salman Edward sarawadi Caitlin waltek Cynthia shu Linda shu Deborah Zhang those are your 78 National Merit finalists people now we're going to celebrate a few more students who earned first place honors at the Tennessee High School press Association competition from Brentwood High School best news package Isabella spinski Kyle Jordan and Sydney Lloyd and also from Brentwood High School best newscast news magazine we had some ties you'll hear those from Brentwood High School their level 4 News team Sloane Ashworth is their teacher from Franklin High School Anna Ray Jones won best videographer her teacher is Carrie Thompson and also from Franklin
034High School Blaise Cameron and Emeline Warden again Terry Carrie Thompson is their teacher and blazing inline one for best public service announcement at Independence High School best newscast news magazine the IHS news staff Matt balzer is their instructor from page High School this is Lincoln Campbell who won for best sports video and Haley zinder who from page who won for best commercial David Holt is their teacher and from Ravenwood High School Jack Foster who won for best public service announcement and his teacher is Megan Sanchez and Chelsea kite and this little guy Liam for Liam Dothan first place in the Pre-K second grade division of the Tennessee Civics essay contest he goes to Crockett Elementary School that cutie and his teacher is Stephanie Higgs oh now we're going to sports and y'all seems like wrestling
035happened so long ago and it really did but we're just now getting those honors out here and this is Jarvis little from Summit and Jarvis is your state champion tws double a division 2A wrestling 126 weight and his coaches Pete Miller and also from Summit Landon to sell in the 138 division our state champions Pete Miller again their coach and here's Raleigh Lynn again from Independence High School she is our girls wrestling champion in the hundred class Dalton Howard is her coach and there you go that is it that is all congratulations edit Madam chair I expect we'll probably have some more celebrations next month in again finally good luck to all our students on TCAP I know that the preparation work has left them ready for those tests that is my report thank you
036thanks for all of the celebratory updates next on the agenda is board chair report and I don't have any updates for you tonight so we'll move on to unfinished business and the first item is the approval of the reconsideration committee's recommendation for the following library books speak perks Savannah Wallflower the Field Guide to the North American teenager and where the crawdads sing Miss Clements did you want to speak yes thank you madam chair I know we had some good debate about this at the work session and we're at the end of April May is when Librarians stop checking out books and then we've got all summer I know we are waiting still for information from the state about the guidance I think we need to recognize that in Tennessee the Tennessee legislature passed in 2022
037the age-appropriate materials act and that's going to require schools to adopt school boards to adopt a policy for developing and reviewing School library collections because of this new law we as a school board need to adopt a policy that provides an objective way to determine what degree of violence sexual content vulgar language substance abuse can be allowed in our school libraries or what level and do we need parental approval and that's that's the law it's not we don't have a an option so we're we have to follow the law the state law and with that in mind I mean movies have ratings video games have ratings TV shows have rating podcasts have ratings YouTube channels it goes on and on there's ratings on a lot of things for children's viewing and so I know with
038all of the books that we are having to recognize and look at I think we need as a school board we might need more time to do this correctly according to the state law so I would like to make a motion to postpone this to September so we can have time to to have the best policy well I thought about August and I thought I know how long it takes us to write and get through readings and so I thought September especially with July off September might be more reasonable so I just wanted to make that motion out there thank you Miss Clements we will need a second to proceed with a vote Mr Cash thank you and we'll open the floor to to comment Miss Cleveland yes personally I don't know if I could
039vote to defer it for different reasons but I don't know I really think it should we should make a decision before the opening of school it just it's my decision but my decision for deferring obviously is not for because of procrastination or kicking the can down the road mine is I do agree that we need more guidance there's no question about that and it is the end of school year so I believe there's no harm in deferring it should we but I can't do September that's just too late my reasoning for wanting it deferred though is we have a policy that we're going to be speaking of later on in this meeting and that policy will help the process of how we make decisions and how we have a transparency out to the parents and
040everything so I would like to wait until see that policy through first and second reading seeing how it how it plays out and then that way it'll make it easier for me to at that point I'd make the decision on the ducks and we'll talk later about that policy As We Know Mr Welch I think when clarification needs to be to be made the board did not develop policy because of anything that the state legislature passed we've had a policy in place for for years it predates my time on the board where there was a policy in place where we could go we could evaluate books in the library or books in the classroom this is a long established policy where it changed is when the latest literature made a political decision about this and
041clearly it was a political decision because there was not a process that was done they've let me be very blunt they kind of hung us out to dry on this one and we are not waiting on something to follow the law we have followed the law to this point we have done everything that needs to be done we are 100 percent in compliance with every law that is out there and in following that law we developed a policy and updated our policy we had our staff go through the committee we had two senior members of our staff with the combined more than 75 years of education experience in this District who spent dozens if not hundreds of hours between the committee reviewing this and then it came to us and we delayed another three months
042because an amendment that was made and the staff needed to review and we took that time and everyone here sat in the same legal meeting that I did and I'm not going to reveal anything Bobby before you get nervous with that but I am going to reference it and say everyone here heard the same things that I did and you know the impact just as I do I think it's time that we make a decision and we move on whether or not the kids are there or not to me it's immaterial either the book should be there or the book shouldn't be there we have a recommendation we have a unanimous recommendation from the committee and at this point frankly we don't have correct me if I'm wrong superintendent golden but the individual who made
043the complaint about the books said they were satisfied with the resolution of the committee is that accurate I can't speak to that directly I know that we had some discussions if I'm not mistaken that was shared at one of our at one of our meetings and I confirmed that with Mrs Dickerson then my recommendation was the individual who made the complaint Mr Galbraith said that he can confirm Albert was on one of the Committees and confirmed that the individual said that they were fine with it with with the resolution of the committee well no I need a clarification right now while I'm speaking Ms Dickerson did the individual who made the complaint was it with respect to the library books because we haven't made a decision it was with respect to the decisions that were
044made on the curriculum on the yeah but they were fine with the decision of not pulling them from the library hasn't been made yet so they didn't it wasn't individual he didn't he didn't gotcha that individual was fine with the recommendation to not pull them from the library there's the event the question raised from that particular individual was related to curriculum and a second one related to the library books the committee had decision-making power over curriculum and did not have decision-making power over library books but I think Mr Galbraith if I'm not mistaken what you stated was he accepted the decision of the committee related to curriculum but said that he would not appeal that decision but we haven't okay so then we don't have anyone who has made a complaint to pull them these
045books from the library then in that case there was never anyone before there's never anyone now if that individual who made the complaint says they are satisfied with it we don't have an ongoing complaint to do this what are we waiting for it's been going on long enough I think we need to make decision and kind of get on with our lives and let the community know where we are with this Mr Galbraith thank you madam chair so I guess to to be clear there is a there is a complaint before us the com the complainant was satisfied enough with the with the decision upon to the modifications that we made on the on the curriculum and for our deliberation and the time that we spent in the effort and so he didn't appeal the
046curriculum decision this is still the outstanding the process to finish to complete the process of of that initial review of the second half of his request which was the which was to review it for the library so the I guess coming on the committee and not speaking for the committee but understanding the report that the committee put put out and that both of the Committees put out really on both of these books but they both qualified their remarks to say that due to and in no small part due to the lack of information that we have from the state as far as how to judge these books against some standard where that was the that was the qualified recommendation of the of the of the Committees and So based on that I still feel that
047there's no no harm in in delaying until we get better information that the committee didn't have that we don't have now at the end of the day deferring I mean I'd be I'd be okay to defer indefinitely until we get the get the updated law that's passed or clarification on the on the existing law from the from the state textbook commission or the legislature or the department of Ed whoever decides to decides to weigh in I would be fine to get that and then and at that time we could decide how we how we move forward whether it's additional policy discussions or what at the end of the day at what what we're left with in the interim is the books are still in the library and so the only the only people that were
048that were impacting right now is the complainant that we're not in a timely manner reviewing his review of acting upon the review and I believe that our Council told us that there is no there's no timeline on the on the review I think if we think if we deferred it indefinitely and we didn't act upon it in some reasonable amount of time that might end up being an issue so I'm fine with the September if we're not ready in September then I'm fine to push it back back in so thank you for cash I don't chair I agree with Miss Clements and Mr Galbraith I think it would be sad we've we've spent a lot of time on these issues and we're just trying to abide by the law we have what looks like a
049good policy shaping up I think with this feedback from the state book commission that we could finalize that and I'm for waiting I think it gives everybody a chance to think about this it's not about banning books it's more about age-appropriateness and I think that's very important to folks and I also I think to teachers and everyone else so I think it's wise to wait until September I guess thank you thank you Mr Wimberley thank you madam chair I too have thought about this a lot and I trying to look ahead at what clarification we would get and what the range of possibilities out of that clarification would be because you know the law has already passed the laws on the books it's just simply clarification of this and I cannot imagine any clarification that
050would cause me to change my mind about these books we have a strong committee recommendation and I just you know I must agree that it's time to move forward and vote on it and dispense of it I mean it won't be the worst thing in the world if we do wait but I just can't imagine what benefit we would get out of that weight I think at the end of that time I suspected the clarification won't give us much more information than we already have so I'm a no vote on the amendment thank you mister Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair I don't think the content of the books is going to change I don't think that there's going to be any more clear direction from the state on what we should do I don't
051think that any direction from the state is going to change anybody's opinion on this board on these books and everybody's vote will be the same tonight as it will be in September regardless of what the state says let's get the let's let's get the work done and move on and if somebody doesn't like what we do and there's a different state law then they can or a different direction or guidance in a month or so then somebody can anybody from this board can challenge those books a second time and have them reviewed at that point against the new new guidelines or new clarification and but in the meantime it really is just I think that we're neglecting what we should be doing by just letting this motion sit on on action for another couple of
052months so I'm in no vote on the amendment as well Miss cypria somehow I managed to agree with just about everyone even though you're all saying different things I particularly am picking up on what Sheila said I think it's wise to maybe at least wait until that policy goes through because it does provide some transparency to parents who would prefer to opt their children out it isn't going to change probably any of our votes on how we would vote on the books but it at least kind of closes that loophole and makes it clear for everyone and we'll still be following the law and everything else we'll just have clearer policy so I think I don't know if this doesn't pass you're like can I ask this question are you going to put up a
053second amendment if we vote no for September but maybe August or after second reading can can I ask that okay okay what I was going to ask I was going to ask Jason should we vote on this tonight and the policy that I'm the redrawing of the policy that I'm doing could this policy apply to the decision tonight should it pass so after second reading should it pass can we apply that policy to these four books regardless of the way it goes Brooks is asking to respond oh good okay and so I don't want to put a policy in place until it has been voted on with two readings however superintendent golden could decide administratively to provide the parental notification or request you know provide that parental notification it wouldn't be per policy it would
054be administratively he could make that decision okay well therefore I can vote tonight I will say to answer your question my intent would be if this policy passes we would do that and apply it back we have also had the discussion about previous books that have been challenged it's been a few years since we've since we've had a challenge that AP human geography textbook was challenged to maybe 10 years ago to Kill a Mockingbird was challenged so we've had a discussion looking back through our history to see how much we could put on our website to fully inform parents we're still at the brainstorming stages on finding ways to maximize information we share with parents to facilitate their making their decisions this idea that you have is a I'll give you we haven't hit first
055reading yet but it's a good one and so I would I would apply it just in conclusion I agree with what Donna said that we have so little time left and the fact that the books would remain in the library if we did defer it even at least until the second reading of the policy that I'm in favor of waiting a little bit Miss Clements yes Mr cook and I were talking earlier and he mentioned that there were some developments even this week according to the state law and we were just passing in the hall and we didn't get to is there anything you want to share with the board that happened this week with this law sure the general assembly is actually looking at amending the law almost rewriting it completely it passed the
056house today it has not gone to the Senate but it will rewrite the process it does give you some clarification on what would be considered appropriate to remove the books from they've got a couple definitions in there so I think my recommendation would be to to defer this until we can see that legislation because it really is rewriting almost the whole bill and it has passed the house thank you Mr Brown thank you so I guess the question then would be based on that information from Mr cook whether the motion could be amended would you would you consider amending the motion to defer until such time as state legislation passes and which would be sooner than September obviously correct we would still have to change policy we would need time to do that but we
057would at least know by the May meeting what the new statute says we might not have regulations we might not have guidance on any of that but we would know what the state law says at that point and to be clear our next our meetings our calendared meetings at this point are May June and July but not August is that correct August not July but but August okay so would you entertain amending your motion to a sooner than September where she could amend her own motion I guess okay then I would move to amend Miss Clement's motion to delay until August actually I'm going to say June because we will know what the state state law says at that point and we will be better informed I just I think waiting until August or September
058in my view is cutting it too close to school at the start of school so I would say amend your motion to delay until June our June meeting the second for that Mr Priya seconds okay any discussion on the current Amendment Mr Cash did you want to speak on this current Amendment now I know you had your mic pressed one sec I think I think you're you're on now check for us yeah I just yeah I just like to say we keep hearing about the law and everything and then the policy that we're working on developing I believe in that policy age-appropriateness shows up two or three times so it's when we talk about the law we need to know what age appropriateness truly is so that's why it's important to extend this all I
059wanted to add thank you thank you Mr Welch is there anything in the law that currently restricts us from voting on these books tonight if you're asking me no sir nothing thank you Mr Brown to further add on a comment about the motion on the floor and I guess the rationale for a delay I wasn't you know thinking before Mr cook talked about the bill that's moving through the legislature I wasn't convinced that the guidance we would get from the state on the current law was really going to be substantive enough to change the outcome of this decision or cause the committee to make a different recommendation than they've already made I'm not convinced that's going to happen hearing that there's a new bill moving through that would rewrite the law gives me pause to
060wonder you know could that could that a rewrite of the law actually be something that would then trigger a different decision by the committee or have different parameters they have to go by that they weren't they didn't have to go by before I mean does that so that's the only thing that gives me the pause to and the age-appropriateness that you're talking about Dan is in the state in the current state law that's where the name comes from I believe so if the state law is Rewritten are they changing that terminology or but or defining that differently so I mean I just think there's so many unknowns so not to just go on and on about this but I do think what you what you pointed out gave me a different position on the delay
061than I previously had I just want to give that context thank you just for record Miss Apria was the second not Mr Beasley if we need to is that okay okay thanks all right I think we're ready to vote on the amendment to miss Clement's motion to delay until June Mr Golden would you have a recommendation thank you madam chair based on the discussion the movement from September to June I do recommend approval of this amendment hi board members we can cast votes oh this is this is amending yes your Miss clemence's motion to delay the vote on this recommendation until our June meeting vote on mending the amendment and then we will vote on the amendment itself right that's right correct the June date yeah June your vote is 10 yes one no that
062passed so we approved Ms Clements or we were approved Mr Brown's amendment to June now we're on to the motion Miss Clements made to to move to the motion to delay the vote until June this is what we're going to vote on now so now we're voting to delay our vote on the decision until June okay we were voting to amend her Miss Clements September date to June that's all we voted on this is to actually defer until June now Mr Beasley yeah clarification okay Mr Wimberley did you press yes thank you madam cheer I changed my mind okay I'm gonna vote for it okay if we have no further comment we can vote for this motion yes Mr Alden if there's no more discussion I do want to make a couple of comments just
063for clarities sake because of all the discussion I want to make sure that we're all on the same page so this law was passed the age-appropriate materials act and it changed a long-standing policy that we've had in one significant way traditionally we had committees review and make decisions on challenges to curriculum and to library books the law that went into place in 2022 changed the decision maker the first decision maker from the committee to the board and it used to be that there was a decision on both you all could be an appellate body now under the new law you all are the first decision maker on the library book challenge with recommendation from the committee and that's what we're here on the discussion often included in these last two committees that are before the
064board one of which by the way we're voting on at this time we haven't even touched item number two yet the Challenger can challenge curriculum and the library book the curriculum decision is made by the committee it was not appealed we're exclusively looking at the library book now so I want to make sure we had Clarity on that as part of that law the legislature put the response put responsibility on the Tennessee textbook commission to give guidance on application of that new law that guidance was scheduled and requested by the legislature to be issued by the Tennessee textbook commission by December 1st of 2022. we know that some of the representatives from the textbook commission spoke to representatives of tsba the school boards Association that they had asked for some legal help to make to
065create some guidance had not gotten that legal help in recent weeks we have we have heard that the state is working on getting in some guidance so there's a possibility that they may at some point give some guidance with legal help I think you all know that you need legal help on these issues this is a First Amendment is something that needs to be very carefully thought through before any decisions are made that might have that might have implications on that first amendment which is gonna it's it's it's going to outlive all of us so that's so the next step is do we wait for that guidance that's the question you all have to decide I agree with Mr Brown I'm not optimistic about the substance of the guidance in the contest especially of what
066does age-appropriate materials what definition do they have for that I'm not I'm not optimistic that we're going to get good clean Clarity that will give us a good black and white answer ultimately it's my opinion that these committees and you all are going to have to make a decision based on some broader guidance than a specific definition with that given Mr Cook's recommendation that we'd look to see what this new legislation gives with me not knowing the details of that legislation and the seriousness of the first amendment I do recommend that you approve this delay for two months okay board members we can cast our votes your vote is nine yes two no okay the board just approved to delay the decision to uphold the approval of the reconsideration committee's recommendation until June next on
067the agenda is the approval of the reconsideration committee's recommendation for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Mr Golden thank you madam chair this is the second committee just recommendation to you on this particular library book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close same discussion as last time certainly open to any any motions you all may have a motion Miss Clemons okay do we have a second Mr Brown okay Miss Clements just move made a motion to delay this decision until June as well Mr Welch okay we need to take a Voice vote starting is it a boy's vote or do we need Kuma you push our button or we can push the button no I think we have to have a Voice vote right okay so okay point of order here real quick because we couldn't quite hear
068every on this side what was going on what was going we couldn't hear on this side what was going on on that side so I think we have a motion on and a second on the floor to delay this vote until June and I believe there's also a motion on the floor from Mr Welch to call the question on this items to basically to close off debate do a Voice vote in order of District because there's not a it's not on the agenda so okay yep we'll have to go ahead Angela Durham yes Dan cash Elliott Mitchell yes Josh Brown Jennifer Priya yes Jay Galbraith yes Sheila Cleveland yes Donna Clements Rick Wimberly Eric Welch Grayson Beasley your total is nine yes and two no ocean pass to call the question which means that we
069proceed directly to a vote on the amendment and this amendment is to delay the board's vote on the approval for the recommendation committees reconsideration committee's recommendation for the library book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and to delay until June Mr Golden what's your recommendation I recommend you approve delay till the June board meeting board members you can vote is eight yes three no thank you so that motion did pass so we'll delay the vote on this item as well until our June meeting and now we'll be moving to new business and the first item under new business is the 2022-2023 school board budget Mr golden thank you madam chair the first item approval of general purpose School front 4-2-3 donation for Fine Arts forty seven thousand three hundred dollars that is a request that you
070approve a donation from Gibson guitars and place it in the appropriate line described in the memo recommend approval Mr Welch do we have a second Mr Wimberley thank you and do we have any comment okay let's vote your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you with that approval we approved the general purpose School fund for donation for Fine Arts Mr Golden approval of general purpose School fund for carry forward donation for flag football thank you madam chair likewise this is a donation that we're asking your approval for for a carry forward Amendment for flag football from if I'm not mistaken the Tennessee Titans so do recommend approval of this resolution have a motion Mr Welch Mr Mitchell Mr Wimberley yes all right we can move to vote your vote is 11 yes zero no
071thank you with that vote we approve the general purpose School fund carry forward for the donation for flag football from the Titans thank you and Mr Golden next on the agenda is the approval for capital projects fund thank you madam chair the approval for capital projects fund 5-2-3 asphalt roofs and wastewater treatment plan intent to fund 11 million 169 thousand dollars Madam chair and board members the this is a capital request coming to you from the five-year Capital plan and we recommend that you approve that and we will then take it to the County commission for presentation do we have a motion Mr Cash in a second Mr Pria thank you any comment all right we can move to vote your vote is 11 yes 0 no with that vote we approved the capital projects
072fund for asphalt roof and waste water and treatment plant thank you next and final item under School Board budget is the approval of capital projects fund for information technology thank you madam chair this is the next five-year Capital plan request related to technology for 12 million 200 2 560 000 for networking Computing computers and Safety and Security recommend your approval and likewise we will then take this to the County commission for discussion the motion Mr Brown is a comment okay we can vote is 11 yes zero no thank you and with that vote we approve the capital projects fund information technology for 12 million dollars next item on the agenda is board policies for first reading first item is the board member conflict of interest which is a new policy Mr golden thank you madam
073chair as miss ossberg explained the tsba has made adjustments to its recommended board member conflict of interest policy in the in the one following this particular agenda item this is first reading we do recommend your approval first reading we will then take it back to the policy committee for further discussion do we have a motion Mr Mitchell Mr Prius seconds thank you any comments okay board members let's cast our votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you with that vote we passed the first reading of the board member conflict of interest next item is code of ethics thank you madam chair likewise I have the recommendations from first reading for adjustments to the code of ethics to re to reflect on Tennessee school boards Association recommendations do we have a motion Mr Beasley
074and Mr Welch seconds thank you any requests to speak all right let's move to vote your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you and with that vote we approved the first reading of the code of ethics policy next item on the agenda is the library materials policy for first reading Miss Cleveland would you like to say something about this policy oh okay I can't miss Mr Golden thank you madam chair this is the first reading for Library changes to the library materials policy which is the iteration of the current law with some recommended adjustments from the policy committee Miss Cleveland motion the second for that Miss Cleveland motion to approve wait a second and Miss Clements thank you thank you madam chair this policy is a an addition to our current policy and the
075only way I can best explain it is using the four books that are up for reconsideration right now and the idea of it is for example should the board vote to have the books remain on the Shelf at that time the board at that time the superintendent between legal superintendent the principal a letter would go out to all parents in that grade band and in this case it would be like Franklin High School and all gray bands and all parents will be notified in that gray band of the four books that were up for reconsideration what the committee's recommendation was and how the board voted and at that point all parents could either they could opt out and they can do it by either calling the librarian the principal or opt out online and with
076that we'll give the instructions of the online process of opting out and the purpose of this is to give full transparency of all books that are available because what we've found in the past what I have experienced is there's a lot of parents out there that don't even know what books are being up for reconsideration what's threatened to be pulled or what's threatened to be put on back on the shelf and this way full transparency of all books that we're dealing with and the parents then it puts the parents parental choice where it should belong and the parents have the option of whether their child should read the book or should not and so that's why I recommend this policy thank you Mr Wimberley pardon my confusion but the books the four or five books
077which wasn't they were challenged because of curriculum and we're could someone clarify that and then there was one challenge for the library I may and miss osbrook you may want to fill in the two items that are in The Unfinished Business 6A and 6B are both related to library book challenges and those are decisions that you all are asked to make that have been deferred till June at least one and perhaps two I can't remember on the second one I know that 6A included a challenge on both a challenge in to for use of these books in curriculum and a challenge in the library books the committee has the authority to make a decision on curriculum and did so you all are the Appellate body on that and that decision of the committee was not
078appealed you are the decision maker on library books under the current Tennessee law and the committee review includes a recommendation so that's why it was on as 6A for you to make a decision based on committee recommendation Ms osbrook's my correct about 6B in that same exact context Library okay so is 6B did not have a curriculum challenge was exclusively a request to remove it from the library the committee has a recommendation on that and that's why it's on for you all to make a decision no further comment we can move to a vote your vote is 11 yes zero now thank you with that vote we just approved the first reading of the library materials policy Amendment next on the agenda is the dress code policy Amendment Mr golden thank you madam chair there's
079a pretty substantial discussion at the policy committee after pretty substantial work from a from a staff committee and we do recommend approval of this dress code recommendation at first reading and I know that there will be some more discussion at the upcoming policy meeting question Mr Wimberley and Miss Clements thank you any comment Mr Wimberley this was good work the large number of people who were involved in putting this policy together and while we may have some tweaking to Don to do it does look much better real good thank you all Mr Galbraith I agree thanks to Dr Webb and your and your committee we've been we've been talking about this for for a while and Jen and I brought it up again to to try to get to conclusion and thanks for for reconvening
080your committee y'all y'all dealt with a couple of things so far this year but I think my big things in in addressing this were to have some consistency and the not only not only across schools but for I guess regardless of gender so it's not specific but also the ability to enforce and so I appreciate the enforcement parameters down below to so that it's clear to to both students and staff and parents on how I think it's just going to be easier to to administer and so I'm I'm really really excited I think I think even Dr Webb said they've got a couple of a couple of changes I don't expect them to be substantive but but just cleaning it up for policy next time thanks Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair it's my understanding
081and hope that the that one of the intense if not effects of this new dress code is to kind of take gender out of it can we get a commitment I guess to kind of track how successful that is on on violations and enforcements if we're still if after we implement this we're still at a 90 percent female you know call out situation then we've got to figure out we gotta we've got more work to do thank you Mr Mitchell we will be tracking that thank you I just wanted to point out that you know when I think back to all the things that have come up since I've been on the board or or among the first things that came up when I joined the board dress code was pretty much top of the
082list interestingly and I even had two families invite me to their homes to talk to their children who are in in our schools about dress code so I could hear their perspective on what this means which I found really interesting and hopeful and of all the emails I've gotten of all the comments I've gotten there's four words that have come up around the dress code decency reasonableness consistency and fairness and I really think this policy the way it's written reflects all of those so thank you Dr Webb and everyone who had a role to play in writing this Cleveland I'm just seconding with Mr Brown I just said and also one of the biggest things I know we're working on and we're very diligent about is consistency of the policy throughout all the schools thank
083you all right no further comment we can move to vote your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you and with that vote we approved the first reading of the dress code policy Amendment and the next on the agenda is the medicines policy thank you madam chair also for first reading some some suggested changes to the medicines policy from our nursing staff recommend approval for these proposed changes largely related to carrying medical devices do we have a motion Miss Apria in a second Mr Beasley thank you any comments okay we can move to vote the vote is 11 yes zero no thank you with that vote we approved the first reading of the medicines policy amendments and next we will go to our 10-year recommendations at the superintendent to the board thank you madam chair
084in your packet is tenure recommendations under the law that I actually still think of as new tenure law it's really been in place close to about 10 years with a list of teachers who've met all the requirements for tenure including student performance teacher performance Etc do recommend approval as a significant move towards honoring our teachers who've had a long-term commitment to the district thank you do we have a motion for approval Mr Welch in a second Miss Apria thank you any comment okay let's move to vote the vote is 11 yes zero no thank you that was your final vote of the night and you approved the 10-year recommendations of the superintendent to the board yeah and if I may Madam chairs thank thank those teachers they've been with us a minimum of five years
085have had consistent performance ratings over the course of time the requirements get more and more difficult every year and I'm just very proud of the professional commitment of those teachers absolutely thank you so much for your participation in attendance and with this we are adjourned