001the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence i'd like to ask our deputies mark gorman and randall purcell to lead us in the pledge of allegiance and then we'll remain standing for the moment of silence for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you may be seated we'll begin tonight's agenda with items of particular public interest and that is the public comment portion of our meeting tonight and as you know public comment is one of the many ways that the board does hear from constituents other avenues include emails phone calls and in-person meetings per board policy 30 minutes will be placed on the agenda for the chair to recognize individuals to make comment at the discretion of the chair the time may be expended extended and school
002board members do not respond to public comment during a meeting we have i have three requests to speak tonight and i'll call you up and you'll have three minutes to speak the first speaker is jennifer cortez let me turn on your mic mother of two centennial high school graduates one ken rose elementary graduate and one thompson station's thunder third grader we at one wilco are grateful to this current board for the transparency and integrity so many of you have shown as we have presented our concerns to over the past two years since we began working with the school board one wilco has presented parents of different races ethnicities faiths and voting histories all speaking up for continued work to create better support for our students of color we've worked to build trustworthy relationships with board
003members and staff showing that we are here to collaborate and problem solve we've continued to shine light on issues of discrimination in the school community without ever once shaming a student by name or face for making these serious errors in judgment we've shown appreciation for our school board members teachers and librarians with handwritten notes gifts and emails of support we've submitted feedback on the discipline policy to help make it more consistent and fair for all we've worked for better harassment reporting systems and an equity audit from an outside consultant to help see how student incomes can be improved and support provided we've continued to provide opportunities for our community to learn and grow by leading field trips to tuskegee university the legacy museum and the national memorial for peace and justice we've spoken to numerous
004media outlets in support of this board and our teachers and staff showing that we do know how to work together in this community we've spoken with numerous city and county officials church leaders business leaders parent group leaders non-profit leaders continuing to build connective tissue in this community that has never before existed tonight we simply wanted to review what we have done together and thank each of you who have supported us in our efforts in whatever way you could we are especially grateful to our chairwoman nancy garrett who continues to embody courage integrity and service williamson county owes you a debt of gratitude and we can't wait to see what the next chapter brings you thank you next speaker is trisha lycente hi i'm tricia lucente mom of one in williamson county and i wanted to
005tell you see i wanted to tell you what it's like to show teachers that you value them last year was a room mom and volunteered once a week to do math facts with the class every time i was in my child's school i asked if there was anything i could do or anything that she needed when she needed expo markers i sent them in when she needed dirt for the kids to grow seeds i brought her a bag when she needed crayons i sent them in from our class fund i knew her dog's names her favorite color her favorite treats and her coffee i made sure she was celebrated during the holidays during her birthday and during teacher appreciation i volunteered at field day in the cafeteria at the book fair and participated in pto
006events so we could raise money for every classroom to have a smart board i have a full-time job but i still give up my time to show up for my child his teacher and his school let's see i lost my place there thank you i have that we didn't need a survey to tell us how much to tell us that this board and central office is failing our teachers and our children you chose a toxic curriculum and the teachers are told to teach it with fidelity giving them no freedom to do their jobs as a parent advocating for a better and more age-appropriate curriculum my efforts are always for our teachers and our children because they both deserve better and you guys can do better thank you final speaker tonight is andrea gomez is ms
007gomez here thank you should be good to go but tall there we go thank you my name is andrea gomez i'm a parent of two at independence high school and we've been in williamson county schools since 2015. last week my son brought home the algebra 2 textbooks that were issued to him by the school i have them here they're heavy he reported we could burn them or throw them away since they were not going to be used at all this school year i reached out to the teacher for clarification and her response was quote we don't use this textbook because there are too many mistakes and not enough practice in it she informed me that they would be using an online textbook i am not here to criticize the teacher i'm concerned that this is
008a huge waste of tax payer money but i do understand that these books in front of me are eight years old and that new textbooks are going to be reviewed and adopted this year by a committee comprised of teachers and parents at last week's school board work session one board member asked if there were any requirements for the parents on the committee and while my understanding from the meeting was that while there are no requirements written into wcs policy it was shared that in the last math textbook adoption parents on the committee were math professors so eight years ago a committee of experts math professors and math teachers reviewed and recommended a product that at least one highly qualified math teacher in our district deems unusable due to mistakes and lack of practice i'm incompl
009inclined to believe it's not an isolated issue in fact i know of at least one elementary school where the entire kindergarten team avoided the go math textbooks completely so teachers and students deserve high quality textbooks parents and taxpayers deserve the absolute best product for their money the responsibility for all of this belongs to the board my suggestion is this before looking at the state approved list in october gather some feedback from all k-12 math teachers about the textbooks that they've been using for the last eight years what did they like what worked what didn't work what do they need more of what is needed in the next textbook adoption to ensure students are getting mastery of mathematical concepts asking for this feedback will make them feel valued suggestion number two you need more eyes on
010this curriculum there are a lot of textbooks that are going to be looked at and i don't believe that the current plan has enough eyes on the textbooks to really thoroughly vet these textbooks so that we make the best purchase for our money some of those members also i believe should be on the committee for the purpose of identifying any critical race theory or social emotional learning and i would also add that you could make the textbooks more available give more opportunities for the public to view them and give feedback so i just encourage you to take this next adoption as even more seriously than you have in the past so we don't waste any tax sellers on inferior products thank you dummy turned off now first our first agenda item is the approval of
011the agenda do i have a motion to approve mr welch makes the motion do i have a second mr mitchell makes a second board members cast your votes ms garrett yes to nine approve zero no next agenda item is the approval of the consent agenda do i have a motion to approve the consent agenda mr mitchell makes the motion a second from mr wimberley and no comment board members cast your votes ms garrett how do you vote can you repeat your vote please sure i vote yes vote is nine yes zero no thank you board members and with the approval of the consent agenda we have approved the june 20th school board meeting minutes the july 21st special call school board meeting minutes the school board meeting updated dates for 22 22 23 calendar approval
012of outstanding purchase orders which is an annual agenda item the approval of the annual agenda for 2223 the approval of the sick leave bank trustees the fall zone easement at bethesda elementary and the recommendation for field trip tv requests and with that i'll turn it over to mr golden for the superintendent's report thank you mr chair and i think we're going to test the audio you are alive and back on thank you mr chair yep it's working and thank you board members for being here we know that school has started student students have been in for a little over a week and y'all it has been a great start we spent some time speaking in detail about our school start at our work session and i just want to hit a couple of highlights number
013one we received our tcap data over the summer from the state and i'm glad that we're getting that earlier it used to be october or so that we received that tcap data now because it's online tests we're getting that early and oh wow our teachers and students did an incredible job and we know and we've been emphasizing to our teachers that we know that teacher effectiveness effectiveness is the most important factor in determining student growth now the state measures us in two main ways they measure student achievement and they measure growth the achievement data has come out and we were number one in grades three through eight statewide in ela and math in science and social studies in all four of the core content areas our students were number one and as part of that
014our teachers were number one in the work they did in achievement growth data should be coming out tomorrow morning we believe that the state embargo is lifted on that and so we'll be sharing information related to that growth data when it comes out i also want to let you know that we did a report on our staffing many of you who live in middle tennessee have seen the regular discussions about staffing struggles in the schools and in a lot of businesses and we spent some time talking about that thursday night we are 98.5 percent right about exactly not well i said right about and exactly really close to 98.5 percent staffed for our teachers and you all it's been a real effort to do that it's been a recruiting time for sure over the course
015of the spring and summer we continue to recruit every position that is open even within that 1.5 percent is a very important position we feel it every time we don't have a teacher but compared to some of our neighbors i've been very pleased with where we are with our teacher staffing know knowing that we need to continue to make the efforts to recruit and especially to retain and grow our teachers they do an incredible job and i very much appreciate the thanks that that our folks have received i think it should be apparent from the way our students performed what we're focused on in williamson county we're focused on teaching and learning and there's no time for for some of the other stuff that's been discussed so much in in our community when you're focused
016on serving your students so directly and we know we know that effort is going to continue here in williamson county we have about 3 300 teachers now last year i estimated every time i spoke to it about 3 200 so we continue to grow with that also i wanted to mention to you on the operational side mark samuels our assistant superintendent for operations is going to retire in early september and this is actually officially his second retirement he served a full career in the u.s navy retired as a captain and i got up for those army folks who don't understand that i want to make sure they understand that's army colonel equivalent oh whatever like mark would know that off the top of 06 off the top of his head came to us 16 17
017years ago when he finished that career and has done an incredible job as our leader there are so many stories i could give you about his incredible work and i've mentioned to him that i still hope that we can use him from time to time on projects as he's spending his time on his second retirement so i would like you all to join me in congratulating mark samuel you may not be able to notice it from a from a distance but lydia glenn gave mark samuels a candy bar bouquet and it's he really likes candy and cookies he developed an excellent relationship over the years with our food service department in large part as a result of cookies but mark thank you so much for your leadership the what you've done as my colleague and
018my friend and it's just been wonderful over these last 17 or so years i wish you well and i know you're going to be working for a few more weeks but this is officially your last board meeting so thank you very much for that so mr chair we have a lot of items on the agenda it doesn't have to be a long agenda based on what we experienced at the work session but it is a long number of voting items before we finish my superintendent's report like always here in williamson county it's time to celebrate carol birdsong thank you superintendent golden so we are just getting started with the school year but we still have students that we are going to celebrate tonight are we ready yes we are okay so what we are going
019to celebrate are some students who earned perfect act composite scores we have five of them tonight this is dalton schultz from independence high school this is brandon ingmeyer from page high school this is patrick vick from ravenwood malvika raw from ravenwood and camden walker from ravenwood high school so congratulations to these students and we're off to a great year we'll bring you more student and staff spotlights as the year continues i'm just sure of it thank you board members a smile is good medicine and i hope you enjoy the smiles of those students in those photos so with that mr chair that is the superintendent's report for tonight thank you superintendent golden and now we'll turn to the board chair report ms garrett can you guys hear me give me a thumbs up please great
020great it's lovely to see you all from this vantage point i hate that i can't be with you during my last meeting on the board but i do have a family personal matter that has occurred during the last week and then also i broke my two-year streak of not having coveted and i'm at home and chose to stay since i am still in the in the phase where i need to not be around people and respect you all enough so that i stayed home and didn't want to impose any any symptoms on any of you so just wanted to mention a couple of things first of all at our work session we did discuss the retire the required state mandated training and i know that you guys have had the opportunity to reach out to
021lydia and to find out if there were any training that you needed to complete for last year in order to prepare for this year again please go ahead and proceed with those items and get those on the calendar as soon as possible those classes fill up quite quickly also just wanted to remind you that volunteer opportunities do abound in our schools and a lot of times the ones that are the least glamorous are the most impactful to our overworked staff and teachers so please try to schedule some time to get those opportunities in as well and then finally just want to remind you that tonight is the night that we do vote on the annual agenda items and it's a great idea to go ahead and put those on your calendars too just so you
022have kind of a working knowledge of what to expect during this particular year in terms of what's going to be coming your way each month and your board work so that's all i have thank you mr hall thank care and with that we'll move to our voting items on the first group are on the 2223 school board budget the first item up for vote is grants approval of general purpose school fund amendment 08.22 carry forward reserves mr golden thank you mr chair this is carrie ford reserves from donated funds moving from last fiscal year into the current fiscal year per accounting rules recommend approval do we have a motion to occur mr cash makes a motion that makes the second any discussion on this on board seeing no discussion we'll move to voting ms garrett
023how do you vote i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you number two on the grants list is approval of general purpose school fund amendment 0822 safe schools grant carryover thank you mr chair likewise this is carryover funds from the safe school grant we have plans to spend but have not yet actually been spent yet i do recommend approval of this carryover thank you do we have a motion to approve ms cleveland makes the motion do we have a second mr mitchell makes a second and any discussion on this one board seeing no discussion we'll proceed to voting ms garrett how do you vote what's a garrett votes yes vote is nine yes zero no thank you item number three in the grants list is approval of general purpose school fund
024amendment zero eight two two middle school stem grant carryover thank you mr chair this is a carryover for middle school stem grant for for career exploration work that we are doing at brentwood fairview heritage and legacy do recommend approval for this carryover thank you we have a motion to approve ms cleveland with the motion and mr welch with the second do we have any discussion on this one seeing no discussion we'll move to the vote ms garrett how do you vote votes yes vote is nine yes zero no thank you moving to item four on the list the approval of general purpose school fund amendment zero eight two two governors give grant carryover thank you mr chair this is a carryover for a ccte program related to a mobile cyber security unit which has been
025delayed in part as a result of of mobile vehicles and the manufacturing process do recommend approval of this carryover thank you we have a motion we have a move to approve from mr wimberly do we have a second we have a second from ms apria do we have any discussion board members i can't see that okay seeing no discussion we'll move to the vote ms garrett how do you vote let's secure it yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes next zone on the list is number five approval of general purpose school fund amendment zero eight two two transition grant carryover thank you mr chair this is a carryover for a grant related to our transition program for students with disabilities recommend approval do we have a motion to a promotion
026from mr welch and a second from is a priya any discussion board members seeing no discussion we'll move to the vote ms garrett how do you vote let's hear it i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no motion passes next on the list is number six approval of central cafeteria fund amendment 0822 nslp supply chain assistant grant thank you mr chair this is a carryover for the food service budget central cafeteria fund do recommend approval of that carryover mr wimberley with the motion to and mr mr elliott mr mitchell with the second any discussion board members mr galbraith you are alive nope it's not picking it up try it try it now thank you mr hall jason do we given that we have a substantial balance now in the cafeteria fund i guess
027do we do we have a plan for for what we're going to do with that i mean obviously we're going to wait and see how how this year shakes out with going back to pay for for food again but what's our what's your general thought about your plan for that short it yeah sorry i was just checking my microphone too the short version is that james ramiti works on some capital plans related to food service there have been years where he's been able to fund portions of those improvements in cafeterias and years where he hasn't so that is something we're looking at a little bit longer term later on in this year another piece of it is you all know that we did not increase the cost of a per meal charge this first month
028or so we're going to have a better grasp of how many families are choosing to purchase meals compared to the last two years where where everyone has received a free meal for the usda regulations so he's going to do the math on that and project that out i do want to mention also that it's actually been two years ago a little bit over two years ago that we had sr1 funds we used those funds in the spring of 2020 to keep our food service employees employed we did a double check on that and per rachel that grant money for sr1 has been locked in and done so we are doing a little bit of a double check evaluation of all our food service funds to make sure we optimize the use of that of that
029fund balance that developed as the federal government was reimbursing for every meal is it possible to use those esr funds i know those weren't alone they were technically i don't know if they hit the general fund first but is there is it possible to get those to get those funds back to the general fund i'm not i'm going to invite rachel to speak to it if i state those funds went directly to food service and that particular grant is closed out so what what ms farmer has told me is there is no way to go back and recoup those or to transfer them to the general fund did i state that correctly the only thing i would add to that is that when we apply when you applied for the esser funds you had to
030submit an application and a budget for how you were going to spend it and that was locked in that's why you can't go back and change anything it's because we locked in at that point in time for the funds to be used for that particular purpose that's correct we the general fund has not loaned money directly to capture i may put a little bit of detail in that since you mentioned alone we did early on i'm estimating a year and a half ago or so i may have that wrong anticipate that food service might not have made budget but the reimbursements did start coming in from the federal government and we ended up not needing to move any dollars from the general fund to food service all right i see no more discussion on this
031item so we'll move to the vote ms garrett how do you vote if you can restart yeah vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes next in the operations list on the budget items is approval of general purpose school fund resolution zero nine two two human resources and payroll job additions thank you mr chair we are early in this budget year but we are making requests to add three positions two to our human resources department and one to our finance department related to recruiting investigation and payroll we have had a substantial increase in in the recruiting and payroll activities this summer in ways that we didn't anticipate it is very much becoming a seller's market for for jobs i mentioned teachers in my in my presentation at the superintendent's report but in addition
032to that we presented some numbers related to our classified employees especially special ed teachers assistants bus drivers and food service workers we know that for us to continue to compete we need more help in the recruiting likewise with more hires than we've ever had before 560 plus teachers this year in addition to our classified the volume of work in our payroll department has greatly increased the third item is related to investigations the federal rules related to title ix has substantially increased the number of investigations that we have to do the in the it went from single digits to if i'm not mistaken over 50 just in in one year and we anticipate that volume is going to continue so do make a do make a recommendation that you all approve this for us to for
033us to add staff to those operational positions do recommend approval thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve mr mitchell makes the motion do we have a second mr wimberley with the second and is there any discussion board members seeing no discussion we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett how do you vote i'll vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no motion passes moving on to capital projects item number one under that list is approval of education capital project fund amendment zero eight two two into a category ravenwood high edition thank you mr chair as you all know we are building an expansion of ravenwood high school and when we compare the bid amounts to the extra technology that's necessary to put into the building we do request and need an
034additional two hundred and five thousand dollars to be used out of our contingency fund into data processing equipment to complete this project to recommend approval thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve mr mitchell makes the motion do we have a second mr preem makes a second any discussion on this item board members no discussion we'll proceed to the vote please ms garrett how do you vote yes say that one more time please i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero now thank you motion passes next on the agenda is approval of education capital project fund amendment zero eight two two intra-category elementary east cox thank you mr chair we are making a request for 400 000 out of contingency into data process processing equipment for the new cox road elementary
035school project based on the same principles that i described with the ravenwood project i do recommend approval of that thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve ms aprio with the motion do we have a second mr welch with a second any discussion board members seeing no discussion will please proceed to the vote ms garrett how do you vote nancy garrett i vote yes vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving to the next item a similar name but a very different dollar figure approval for education capital project fund zero nine two two gps transfer for capital projects to east for east elementary cox thank you mr chair we are making requests for a four million dollars from undesignated fund balance to finish the funding project for the cox
036road property there are two main reasons for this one is the county planning commission asked us to to include off-site road improvements on horton highway and that's about half of this total plus there was an increase in the actual bid amount be over and above the five-year capital plan based on increases in cost in this market so do recommend approval this is an item that will go to the county commission for approval thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve mr mitchell makes a motion mr friend makes a second do we have any discussion board members on this one seeing no discussion will proceed to the vote ms garrett how do you vote your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving to item number four on the capital
037projects list approval of education capital project fund zero nine two two transferred capital projects for summit high edition thank you matt thank you mr chair sorry in addition to the other projects that we've mentioned for the expansion at summit high school where we're increasing that capacity we have a similar issue with a need to increase the funding for technology in the amount of two hundred and eighty two thousand dollars out of undesignated fund balance we recommend approval thank you do we have a motion tour mr cash makes a motion to approve and mr mitchell makes a second do we have any discussion on this item board members seeing no discussion we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett how do you vote one more time please audio is just cutting out a little bit we'll try
038it again yes got that one vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes then moving on to the last item on the budget list for capital projects is number five the approval of education capital project fund intent to fund zero nine two two phase page high phase four thank you mr chair this is based on our projections the final funding for the final phase of the page high project that included a rebuild of the high school plus an increase in capacity from about 1200 to 2000 students substantial increase as we've been experiencing with other projects there is a little bit of an increase well there is an increase over our projections in our five-year capital plan we do recommend approval for this funding thank you mr golden do we have a motion to
039approve mr preem with the motion do we have a second mr cash with the second board members do we have any discussion on this one seeing no discussion we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett how do you vote hear it i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes now we'll move to the next agenda items which are board policies for first and final reading first item is 1.102 board members legal status thank you mr chair this and the next four items are proposed board policies for first and final reading based on board policy 1.600 that allows for one reading for policies that are either required by law or have an urgency to them so i do recommend approval of the board member legal status change which includes a change
040required by state law thank you mr golden mr welch makes a motion i move to approve the policy on first and final reading and waive the second reading thank you do we have a second ms aprea with the second board members will move to discussion if there's any discussion on this item seeing none yes mr mitchell i almost hear two two motions in that do we need a vote on whether to approve it on first and final reading as well as a motion to approve the the policy change okay thank you no other discussion will proceed to the vote ms garrett how do you vote nancy garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes next policy is 3.202 emergency preparedness plan thank you mr chair the state law
041has has added a drill for remote learning and based upon that new state requirement to drill we are recommending adding that to the policy recommend approval thank you mr welch with the motion to approve thank you do we have a second mrs priya with the second do we have any discussion no discussion we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes next item is 4.600 report cards and grading systems thank you mr chair on july 22nd the state board of education passed a policy regarding grading systems and changed that structure to a system that was slightly below our current structure from a structure that was slightly above our structure but had the exact same grade for a an f based upon their
042dropping the f standard 10 points from a 69 and below to a 59 and below we need to change our grading policy so that our grading system is consistent with theirs when they evaluate a student for the hope scholarship so that the appropriate credits will be consistent so we recommend approval for you to change this on first reading thank you mr golden do we have a motion mr welch makes the motion policy and first and final reading and wave the second reading mitchell has a second and we have multiple speakers and we will proceed with mr cash thank you mr chair i just i gotta ask the point is this gonna be retroactive at all thank you for that question mr cash the answer is no the state board policy actually specifically outlined that the
043old grading policy will apply until this change so they are still under the old policy for any grades that were recorded last year and earlier likewise for us we also have a practical aspect to this the practical impossibility of going back and trying to recheck your grades so the short answer is no next speaker is ms cleveland that was my question thank you it's not customary to make to make policies retroactive even back to the beginning of school year but i guess it's just a legal question to board attorney bobby is there should we make a statement in the motion that it's that it applies effective the beginning of the school year or is it the law provides okay thank you mr mitchell jason could you explain i guess real quick our challenge of keeping
044two grading systems because there was a practicality on why we had to kind of align with the state as well which also kind of goes to a challenge around being able to to make it retroactive as well so thank you for that question for years we have had two grading systems traditionally the state grading system for the hope scholarship was a little higher 93 and above as an example was an a for us we were at 91 and above for an a we felt like 93 and above was not appropriate it was too much over the years just this past month july 22nd the state changed that example from a 93 to a 90. so in the last few weeks we evaluated that in the in the b's and the c's and the d's and
045determined that given what i described earlier with the f dropping 10 points it was most appropriate for us to align our grading scale to the state what we've experienced over the years is a student would have a particular gpa with williamson county schools and then when they would apply for the hope scholarship the gpa might be slightly lower based on the state configuring their grades to ours those difficulties will for our current freshmen when they apply be eliminated the state structure will still continue with our current sophomores haven't gotten their grades when they're freshmen and on up the line so it will take a few years for the old grades to pass through the state board of education on july 22nd wisely i think determined that the previous grading scale would continue for the previous
046years because it is a practical impossibility to go back and figure out everything some students didn't get credit because for the state and for us the 69 and below was a failure but now it's going to be 59 and below it was a practical impossibility to go back and try to determine who should have gotten credit who might have done credit recovery did they do did they not get credit then then have to take it that same course a second time and get a different grade some students have moved out some teachers have left have retired just the whole combination of all those needs make it a practical impossibility to retroactively change all those grades thank you for that what i was looking for too was what had been communicated and i guess policy is
047that the software product we have doesn't really support running and tracking and calculating to parallel grading it simultaneously thank you for that yes that's that's that's a part of it as well thank you seeing no more discussion we'll proceed to the vote on this ms garrett your vote please nancy garrett i vote yes vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes next item is 6.200 attendance thank you mr chair the state law has changed eliminating the requirement that a student must have a passing grade in particular classes to qualify for a driver's license so we're deleting that from our policy recommend approval mr welch move to approve the policy and first and final reading and waive the second reading i have a second ms cleveland with the second any discussion board members seeing
048no discussion we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett your vote please i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving on to the last item for first and final reading 6.409 reporting child abuse thank you mr chair the legislature adjusted legislature adjusted the laws relating to reporting of child abuse specifically that if if the allegation is against someone affiliated with a school then the then the reporter can report directly to dcs and the sheriff's department rather than reporting to the to the coordinator of those claims first so we are adding policy language reflecting that change we do recommend approval thank you and do we have a motion mr welch makes the motion brief the policy on first and final reading and waive the second reading thank you do we
049have a second the ms april with the second any discussion board members we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett your vote please jared i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving on to the board policies for first reading the first one is 2.805 purchasing thank you mr chair we have nine policies for first reading just as a reminder we do have a second reading for policies and any item here will go back to the to the policy committee at their next meeting this particular item is reflecting a change in law that's not required but we believe is a wise thing to do increase the minimum amount for setting a full detailed bid process from twenty five thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars this is an item that has
050been in place for decades if i recall correctly and as the legislature has finally moved that minimum up county government actually approved this at their most recent meeting as well so do recommend approval on first reading thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve ms aprea with the first and do we have a second mr wimberly with the second any discussion board members mr galworth jason at the bottom of page one and the goes over to the top of page two on page line thirty one as far as the board reserving the right to reject any bid or part of any bid so how would how would that practically happen because i don't remember i know the i know in policy and i think it's further down here that says that we're
051that we get reported i think all the all the bids that come through the kind of supplemental materials but they don't i know they don't come up for we don't we don't approve them as a matter of practice so how would how would actually that come before the board if we saw a bid that we wanted to override if we determined that thank you mr galbraith if we determined as an administration that it was not the right thing to do to accept a low bid we would take it to you with a recommendation to accept another bid typically it would be the next bid i will give you one example from years and years ago a roofer had done a job and some as they were working tar splashed over a roof and a piece
052of tar hit someone in the shoulder they were the low bid on our next job and we took it to the board and said please allow us not to not to to use that bidder because they were no longer lowest and best in our estimation so it might be unusual but that's the process we would go to so i mean obviously if we saw something we could bring it to the board but the most likely is that you feel that there's a valid reason to not take the lowest and best bid and we have to make that approval so can can the board choose a the bid that's not lowest and best and not in that scenario i'm going to have to refer to a legal counsel for that if an issue came up with
053that my answer would be let's research and double check to make sure based on the current laws at that time i don't know that i can answer that question as i sit here you are permitted not to take the lowest bid if if you see that there's something in the bid that does not meet your specs or if even if there is you've had issues with this contractor before where they breached a previous contract there are reasons why you can accept the second bid we always recommend you document it well because if you get a challenge you want to be able to prove that this is the reasons we went to the second bid but does that fall under the does that fall under lowest and best under the rationale behind lowest and best okay
054so you so you i guess under under that scenario you would you would document that it was lowest and best and take the and take the offer so it wouldn't necessarily need to come to the come to the board i'm just trying to i'm trying to figure out a scenario that we would and i and where did this language is because this didn't come from statutory oh it is okay it's just it's not it's not reference but it's i mean it's fine as long as it that makes sense thank you saying no more discussion on this we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett your vote please ansi garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving on to the next item which is 3.208 asbestos management plan this
055is a new policy thank you mr chair for mentioning that this is a new policy we do recommend approval of this policy based on the federal regulations we have a motion to approve mr cash with the motion do we have a second second for ms supreme any discussion board members seeing no discussion will proceed to the vote ms garrett your vote please garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving on to the next item which is 4.101 instructional standards thank you mr chair these are some changes to the instructional standards policy specifying among other things that how complaints regarding teaching prohibited concepts shall be submitted so do recommend approval on first reading for this policy change thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve
056mr welch with the motion do we have a second ms april ii any discussion board members we will proceed to the vote please ms garrett your vote department vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving on to the next item which is 4.401 textbooks and instructional materials thank you mr chair textbooks and instructional materials and the next item library materials are companion policy changes that also include the proposed deletions of policies that will come up a little bit later all of this for first reading we do recommend approval of this proposal for first reading in which largely textbooks and instructional materials review processes are to be separated out from library material review processes based on changes in state law so we do recommend approval on first reading of this policy thank you
057mr golden do we have a motion to approve mr mitchell makes a motion do we have a second second from mr welch open it up for discussion and seeing no discussion we'll proceed to the vote for this on first reading ms garrett nancy garrett i vote yes and yes zero no thank you motion passes we'll be moving to the next one which is 4.403 library materials thank you mr chair likewise this is proposed changes to actually we're creating a policy for library materials that includes a review process pursuant to the new state law not every element in this for first reading is required by state law that's why we have it set for second reading we do recommend approval for first reading to bring back to the committee for discussion especially based on the discussion
058that you all had at the work session do you recommend approval for first reading thank you do we have a motion to approve mr mitchell makes a motion do we have a second segment from mr welch i'll open it up for discussion and i will add that there was a good bit of discussion on this in the work session and there will be tweaks and changes to this for the policy meeting next month for second reading seeing no further discussion we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett nancy garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving on to the last not the last item the last set up on this page for first reading 5.119 employment of retirees in new policy thank you mr chair the state through
059the legislature has added an additional tool for employment for retirees many who are involved in education have heard of the 120-day contract where a retired employee can work for up to 120 days per year they have added a new process by which a teacher who is retired has through through going through particular specific process is the opportunity to work for one year after retirement in a full-time position still receive the full-time salary plus 70 percent of their retirement salary again for just one year based on a particular need one more tool in our toolbox we do recommend approval of this policy for first reading thank you mr golden do we have a motion ms cleveland with the motion mr wimberley with the second any discussion board members seeing no discussion we'll proceed to the vote
060ms garrett your vote please take two one more time please thank you your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving on to the next policy 5.200 separation for tenured teachers thank you mr chair this policy change is based upon the previous policy where we are incorporating the 120-day contract language into the employment of retirees we recommend approval on that policy to move that to a more comprehensive policy related to employment of retirees recommend approval thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve mr mitchell makes a motion to approve do we have a second mrs priebus ii opening up for a discussion and we'll move to the vote ms garrett your vote please jared i vote yes vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving on
061to the next one for first reading 5.201 separation practices for non-tenured teachers thank you mr chair likewise to the policy i just mentioned there's a recommendation to delete a portion of the policy because we incorporated it into the employment of retirees plus we are recommending to add one more line related to non-renewal of non-tenured teachers based upon a change in state law do recommend approval at first reading thank you mr golden do we have a motion for approval mr mitchell makes a motion we have a second ms aprio with the second any discussion seeing none will proceed to the vote ms garrett your vote please try again please nancy garrett i vote yes thank you vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes moving on to the next and last policy for first
062reading 5.701 substitute teachers thank you mr chair this proposed change to substitute teachers also references that 120-day contract language moving it to the earlier policy recommend approval thank you mr golden do we have a motion mr welch makes the motion for approval do we have a second msaprio with the second any discussion board we will proceed to the vote ms garrett your vote please nancy garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes we are in the home stretch on policies moving to the policies for deletion these are first reading 4.400 instructional materials thank you mr chair we do have the power to sprint on these last two these are companion policies to propose board policy change 4.101 and 4.401 these are recommended for deletion because we are incorporating
063the appropriate language into those other policies we will not recommend deletion of these unless those other two policies pass second reading as well recommend approval for first reading thank you we have a motion to approve mr cash makes the motion and we have a second mr mitchell makes the second any discussion seeing none we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett your vote please nancy garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes and then our final policy for deletion first reading 4.402 selection of instructional materials thank you mr chair same explanation four point four zero zero do recommend approval thank you do we have a motion to approve mr priya makes the motion a second from mr mitchell any discussion board members we'll proceed to the vote please ms
064garrett your vote nancy garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no thank you motion passes we will move on to a new topic altogether 2023 rezoning parameters thank you mr chair and i want to thank the board for having a pretty good discussion at the work session about rezoning parameters a lot of items were discussed a lot of it related to some of the work that we would do as school administration when we come to rezoning i want to mention three items particularly that we are considering number one we need to have a rezoning this year because we are opening two new schools one off cox road and one in the spring hill area on wilkes lane so we need to establish those zones second we have identified some areas where there
065are some schools that are over capacity and fairly they are fairly close to schools that have some capacity we know that we need to as an administration review those locations and determine if we need to make a recommendation for rezoning to you third it's been a few years since we've had to rezone and we know that conditions change parents habits change enrollment changes and likewise we've had growth in in new subdivisions etc so i've asked our staff to review whether there are any spots where the existing zoning just doesn't make sense because of transportation because of traffic patterns because of issues like that have changed since the last rezoning so i want you all to know that as we go through this rezoning process those are three core areas that we are going to look
066at with rezoning so based on all that discussion that we had that you shared my ultimate conclusion for the rezoning parameters which are required by state law well not state law we spent so much time talking about state law tonight that are required by the board policy that you all set parameters is to recommend the same parameters you set for our most recent rezoning number one minimize the impact on families as much as reasonably possible number two maintain consistent feeder patterns as much as reasonably possible and number three when possible zone planned developments prior to construction to optimize school capacities but again i want you to know based on our experience and what we discussed that the scope of what we look at administratively before we recommendation before we make a recommendation is pretty broad
067so do recommend approval of those zoning parameters thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve mr mitchell makes a motion and misaprio with the second and we have speakers in the queue i will start with mr wimberley thank you never been a fan of zoning parameters and voted against the most years but are you saying that the board has a policy that requires zoning parameters or that requires that we consider zoning parameters thank you mr wimberly for that for that question you do not have a requirement under board policy to set parameters so you could vote to set no parameters our next speaker is mr welch you're on let me click it again here should be good oh there we go okay thank you appreciate it yes gotta warm it up so
068rick and i didn't coordinate this but it's a similar i would prefer that we keep it more open-ended without parameters with perhaps the only parameter being staffed to to do the best possible rezone that they can i think sometimes when we provide these parameters it's it's becomes very subjective and open to interpretation the one that we have right now minimize the impact on the family so i'm gonna say we took that last time looked at in the very short term and the this board i frankly i feel we did not act decisively enough and here we are just a couple of years later and rezoning the same area again a second time which i would argue is not a minimizing the impact on parents if you have to come back just a couple years later
069and rezoned again because you didn't go far enough the first time it actually increases that on it so i'm gonna vote no on this just because i think we should leave it more open-ended and allow staff to do their job our next speaker is ms cleveland thank you mr chair in a way i do agree with eric the only reason why i would go upon staff recommendation is just the word reasonably possible you know it's that's the out right there we will do the best we can to follow these parameters within reason that doesn't mean we're going to follow them but if it's reasonable then we will mr galbraith oh i like the parameters it's it's clear for the parents and the public so that they have an expectation of what what the plan is
070going to be based on and so they have some expectation of what that what that looks like miss priya mentioned i believe as mr priya mentioned in the in the work session and i and i agree i would love to to find a way from a from a communications standpoint to to elicit feedback from from the areas in question prior to the report coming out it's amazing how and i and i don't think that the i don't think the feedback that you're looking for is necessarily i want to be rezoned and i don't it's more have you thought about traffic patterns have you thought about this or that the new subdivisions coming up i know allison looks at looks at the subdivisions and things but man there's i would i would rather i would rather
071find out those those those things that might impact the zoning prior to the to the report coming out and it might it might not impact you might have thought everything of everything but it certainly doesn't hurt to keep to keep parents as part of the process and elicit that feedback prior so thank you our next speaker is mr cash thank you mr chair i think the three parameters are more of goals you know we're going to try our best to have feeder patterns we're going to try our best to keep schools you know together we're going to try our best i think it's more of a just an assurance reassurance to the general public that we're going to try our best and we care about those kids and where they're going and who's going to
072be rezoned and you know the issues that come from rezoning so i just think they're more or less goals and i don't think it hurts for the general public to see that thank you i see no further further comments in the queue we will proceed to the vote ms garrett your vote please nancy garrett i vote yes vote is six yes three no chin passes i'm sorry six i think your motion fails we'll move on to the next item which is proposed resolutions resolution number one in support of wcs teachers thank you mr chair sorry i was jotting myself a note if i may take a i'm not sure if it's appropriate for me to take a point of privilege i'll send a memo to you as a board based on based upon the results
073of that of of that vote so that we have some clarity so mr chair we have in in in our board agenda packet three resolutions the first of which to me is a very important one that really talks to one of the three focus points i have for our administrators this year one is celebration of teachers and staff we also asked our administrators to focus on growing in collaboration and the third focus area for us this year is student safety but in that first one celebrating teachers and staff many of you asked us to prepare a resolution in support of our williamson county teachers and i think we all know unless we've spent the summer elsewhere that there's been a lot of discussion in this region in middle tennessee and really across the state about
074how important teachers are and i mentioned the importance of instruction in growing students earlier in this meeting you cannot i cannot overemphasize enough the importance of teachers in the context of education it just simply could not happen with our teachers so we have proposed a draft resolution reflecting your support of our teachers final thing i want to mention related to that the state board of education we've discussed them briefly tonight related summit related to some of their rules they actually passed a similar resolution on thursday at their most recent meeting so i do recommend that you all vote yes on this resolution that's been prepared as a result of your request in support of williamson county schools teachers thank you mr golden do we have a motion for approval mr mitchell with the motion ms
075aprio with the second any discussion from the board members mr welch there we go so i'm glad we finally get to do this i know there's been a request from the community for quite a while and some questions about why we haven't acted sooner on bringing forth this resolution and the simple answer course is that this is really our first opportunity to do it not having a monthly board meeting in july and a special call meeting that we did have those are done with a very specific agenda and not having the ability to add anything on so that was sort of the rationale for that of why this is just coming up now it was not because i think there was a any hesitancy or unwillingness on the part to do it i believe mr
076golden you heard from several board members that had requested that we put something very similar forth and i don't want to sit here and grandstand on this with the cameras on and everything but i do feel there is a certain obligation that as a representative of the district that i do make sort of a public comment with it and this obviously is in response to the comments by mr arn of hillsdale college which i'm going to label asinine in in general i think they were very asinine comments directed towards the professional educators in in our county as well as statewide and really the profession nationally as well in addition to that our governor sat there our governor who was educated i was given a wonderful education which allowed him to be very successful about a
077mile from here and just because this is his home county i just want to say you know governor lee your silence and sitting there not saying a word was deafening and your refusal to condemn the comments since then it really speaks volumes so i do want to put that out here publicly as we're we're voting on this resolution in in favor in standing up to standing up for our professional educators thank you i see no further discussion oh ms garrett would like to speak miss gary please we'll get your mic welch address the biggest portion of what i wanted to say which is to address the timing of this resolution and that we did not have a regular july meeting on the calendar and by policy we can't put anything on a special call board
078meeting agenda that is not part of the business voting business of that meeting but having said that and having being the child of a teacher and being in a family of many many public school teachers and librarians i can't be happier that this is on the agenda for my last meeting thank you and no further discussion on this one but i can see we'll move to the vote ms garrett your vote please nancy garrett i vote yes your vote is 9 yes zero no thank you motion passes our next resolution is resolution to review state requirements affecting educators thank you mr chair this is one of two proposed resolutions that upon your approval i intend to take to the tsba the tsba makes decisions annually as a body on items related to their what they
079take to the legislature from year to year they have set september 13th as a deadline for proposed resolutions i actually had a discussion with some of the legislative team at tsba this morning doing a double check based on the discussion that we had at our thursday work session and what they've told me is pass a resolution as an lea as a local that you feel like is appropriate and we will take it to our body and they will review that and evaluate it and make decisions on whether to carry this as a as an organization representing all the all the local education agencies in the state so with that general statement about this and the next item this particular item is born of a discussion that our administrative staff had last year asking what we
080could take off the plates of our teachers and administrators and we found a few items that we could do redundancies and those kinds of things where we were having certain reports done twice and some other issues that we could add i'll give you one quick one that you voted on in our budget increasing services to free up our school counselors for additional work because of the increase in 504 plans but one thing that became apparent is that it's time for the state to do the same thing and mr wimberley i know has has carried this thought to many of his contacts for to ask the state to do the same thing to review the state laws to review the regulations to review the state policies to determine what they could take off the plates of
081teachers that might tend to build up over time and so with that we do recommend your approval of of this agenda i mean of this agenda item for us to take to the tsba prior to their deadline for consideration thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve mr wembley with the motion and ms cleveland with the second and we have discussion we'll move to the first speaker which is ms cleveland thank you mr chair i just want to again thank mr wimberley i remember when he first brought this up and talked about you know if there's any redundancies with what the teachers were doing and whatnot and i'm really glad to see your brainchild came and i really want to give a shout out to representative whitson who is now taking it
082to the capitol on the hill and actually getting this done for the teachers within the state next speaker is mr you ms wimberley i want to give a shout out to representative as well and also representative from david davidson county great mr whibley i don't think you're click it again it's lit up test it testing one two hello again thank you miss cleveland i wanted to to share in the shout out to representative woodson and also representative jernigan from davidson county they published a bipartisan piece an opinion piece in some of the papers here and i know for a fact that they got the attention of the department of education and i think this has some some genuine legs and thank you as well for supporting this thank you mr wimberley next speaker is mr
083cash here i'd also like to thank rick and well done on this rick it's it's written not only to the state but from the local level on up we've got to do everything we can to free up our teachers a little bit and take a little bit of stress off them and i think this resolution just shows the direction we're going in and again well written and i thank you sir thank you mr cash seeing no further discussion we will move to the vote ms garrett your vote please thank you garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no motion passes moving to the last proposed resolution the third grade retention law thank you mr chair since the work session we have added a little bit of language to this proposed resolution i
084wanted to mention to mention it to you references fourth grade students in addition to third grade students in the title we've added one whereas related to fourth grade students on the top of the second page and finally we add a little bit of clarity to the final resolution paragraph and i'd like to read it now therefore be resolved that the williamson county board of education urges the general assembly to amend tca one 496-331-15 to allow school districts to make retention decisions for third grade and fourth grade students based upon all school district information on each student the law that was passed two years ago ultimately leads to some students either at third grade or at fourth grade depending on the details of the law required to be retained either in third or fourth grade based
085on how they do in tcap ela in those particular years there's a lot of detail to it but the core of this request of the legislature is don't leave it to just that specificity for whether a student gets retained because our principles in consultation with the parents know a lot more about each individual child than just a test score and just whether a student attended the summer program or did tutoring i want to say that i believe that the authors of this had their heart in the right place we know from research that if a student hasn't hasn't shown proficiency in reading by the time they reach third grade that the likelihood of becoming a dropout is much higher and some research indicates four times as high their hearts in the right place but we
086believe ultimately these decisions need to be local also the interventions that are coming earlier before third grade during third grade after third grade are much more powerful than that proverbial stick of you get retained if you don't show growth and don't follow these programs there are some practical aspects to this that may be discussed over the next few months at the legislative session but i think it's important for us to focus on that on that main thought that the decision for whether a child gets retained needs to be at the local level where people know the child the best so do recommend approval for this thank you mr golden do we have a motion to approve ms cleveland with motion mr welch with a second or mr wimberley with the second we'll move to our
087first speaker which is mr mitchell thank you mr chair i was having a conversation with a constituent today about this particular law and she indicated that her fourth grade daughter was very proficient reader it had been reading chapter books since first grade but stresses on tests and made the point that that had this law been in effect her daughter would not have been promoted to fourth grade and made also pointed out that you know this is the first time any third graders have taken tcap test is in the third grade and it's kind of a stressful event to begin with and now to add additional pressure of promotion on top of it is just kind of problematic i guess and so that i do want to point out that's one of the reasons we believe
088this law needs to have some tweaks to it at a minimum and give teachers opportunity to evaluate students on more than just a single item relative to for promotion thank you mr mitchell no further disc mr galbraith yes jason you you mentioned give it up let's pick it up i think you are now all right so you mentioned that there's evidence that third grade missing that not being proficient by third grade is a predictor of dropout rate of a of an increased dropout rate what is what is our dropout rate and do we have i mean have we looked at any tie to that to that metric at all our dropout rate is very personal to each individual student i can't count the number of times where i've had conversations with with assistant principals who
089have taken personal attention to individual students so i don't think of in terms of rate our rates in the single digits but it is very personal to those individual students to the point where it almost becomes emotional and i'm actually thinking about students i've worked with even before i became superintendent thinking about that it's low compared to our neighbors but one is high i understand but but the correlation really just doesn't doesn't exist for us and it might it might if we i mean we showed 34 i mean i guess the point was we have roughly 34 i think is that what the number that we saw of the of the third graders that weren't proficient that's right our tcap results from last year we to that's probably our best predictor right now for what
090our students will you know will look like this coming year the terminology if somebody looks up that law the terminology has changed it's now approaching expectations and below expectations compared to what the laws language had two years ago but we are at about 34 percent and i mentioned in my superintendent's report we're number one in the state so if i'm not mistaken i'm estimating because i don't have this data right in front of me the state average is in the 60s who have students who are approaching or below expectations and that was that was a part of what i've referenced with the practical aspect of this being able to staff the summer programs if it's mandatory may be difficult and i will tell you those summer camps the state law calls them camps the summer
091programs have been good these last two years i want those to continue we've we've done it voluntarily i've got a lot of neat stories about students becoming leaders in instructional classes because they've had the opportunity in those programs but that that the numbers have the potential to be overwhelming statewide to your point if a student is retained for this reason only at third grade or fourth what is it going to look like in eight years i would i would think that the that the likelihood that they that they drop out after being retained is probably greater than the likelihood that they don't that they drop out or aren't and we can't get them successful if they're if they happen to be still still under underachieving by that third grade period every year i work with
092students who are close to age 18. they can't take the high set until they turn 18 without my approval and when those questions come to me we study the student's transcript and i talk to the principals and their counselors get involved to determine can you graduate and you graduate that's until they turn 18. the moment they turn 18 we don't have any more decision-making power it's their it's their decision thank you our next speaker is mr priya jason have any other districts done a similar resolution to the state thank you for the question i'm not aware of it right now i do know that two years ago there was a lot of discussion when this law was passed and the basic content i remember was well we have two years to work it work this
093out and tweak it i do know the state board has gotten very specific about a about if this than that to try to try to make sure that they're that they're that they have interventions in place to minimize this i do hope that this prompts that and i do hope that when the tsba members meet that they have a deep discussion about this because i know this has been a common discussion the last two years among educators in the state i hope i hope this prompts that conversation statewide and i also to clarify just in case this doesn't move it forward enough where the law gets changed for families and parents who are concerned i completely agree with elliot your constituents all the points they made about basing things on a test score and the
094stress of testing for the first time on tcap in third grade that's all it all needs to be taken into account but for the families watching there are those methods of avoiding retention it's not like a done deal that you're retained if you don't meet that score you just are required to take the summer school camp which can be a positive thing as you mentioned i just want that to be out there for clarity's sake thank you for that and i'll give a little bit more clarity there are some exceptions in the law if the student is in the first two years of what we think of as an esl class e-l e-l-l depends on where you the phraseology varies depending on where on what district you're in english learners then they're they are accepted
095from this law if they're in the first two years of that program a student who has a disability that impacts his or her ability to read is exempt and we anticipate that the iep teams are now going to be discussing that question in addition to questions like do you need extended school year services when those teams meet you also did mention that and i'll give some detail because this is so important for a student who's in the approaching category the first question that's asked is have they attended the summer camp and shown growth on the post-test and the state has has experimented with a post-test the last two years and if the answer to those questions is no then the question is have they attended tutoring or will they be attending tutoring their fourth grade
096year and if the answer to that is no all those answers are no then they are retained but if the answer to any of those is yes then they proceed to fourth grade can i say one more thing and this isn't directed to you it's more to the state it seems like that would be more evidence of like a child finds law issue to to see if there's some kind of a disability that hasn't been recognized yet but there's potential for that but and y'all we're using some terminology that may not be apparent to everyone who's watching but rti we know that our students our students who did not or who were either approaching or below weren't all in rti as well so response interventions tier three tier two additional additional interventions that's an issue
097for us on the students who are below and i may i may be giving you too much detail but i want you to understand the complexity of this if a student is below expectations they the question is has the student attended summer camp and scheduled to have tutoring their fourth grade year and if the answer is no to that question then they're retained in third grade if the answer is yes then they can proceed on to fourth so we're going to be having some tutoring programs as well we've gotten some hint of the detail of that basically twice a week half hour is the basic standard they're still working on some details related to that and then finally based on all that if those students are promoted to fourth there's this question did the student
098show growth on grade four ela for those students who hit that third grade and went through that process when they're promoted to fourth then they have to show growth to be promoted to fifth so that's why i mentioned at the work session the risk at fourth grade is just as significant and that's why we made those adjustments to the to the resolution sorry mr chair perhaps too much detail but i wanted you guys to grasp a little bit of what we're what we're looking at our next speaker is mr cash thank you mr chair i agree with mr elliott and miss apruya but at the same time of our children aren't proficient how how long has that been going on is that just recently or has it been kind of 34 or 36 percent for
099the last five years or actually thank you for the question we've actually been been shrinking that number over time and you know of course with 2020 and 2021 where there was no testing we're missing a little bit of longitudinal data but we've been performing higher we've been growing at some of the highest rates but we still have those numbers part of it is families moving in and we continue to educate them our rt not rti numbers the students who need that extra reading in math intervention those numbers are highest at the youngest grades and what i see in the excellent work our teachers do is by the time they reach third grade there's a precipitous drop in those in those intervention numbers because of the interventions so it's a constant effort we haven't been maintaining
100the status quo but historically we've been making inroads on that well we've utilized rti and tutoring because my grandson had both you know and it does help but obviously there's a serious problem in the state and right here in our school and i don't you know just i guess you're going to have to keep plugging away at finding the root cause and what's going on but i agree with this resolution though that we should have a little bit more local control of what we do with our with our children but at the same time it is it is a serious problem in the state and we've got 95 counties and 147 school systems so i mean we look good on that end but is still pretty high so that's it thank you i mentioned to
101the board at the work session that i want the state to continue to fund that summer program because that is a valuable intervention so we don't have all the answers but we're just concerned that that retention just based on that is not a wise intervention long term for a student thank you see no more discussion we'll proceed to the vote ms garrett your vote please we'll do that again we did not catch the audio auntie garrett i vote yes your vote is nine yes zero no motion passes thank you that is the end of our agenda items for tonight mr chair before you before you call call this meeting over i want to mention a couple things number one i was catching some principal's eyes as i was speaking to to the question related to
102the third grade retention law and literacy i want to thank them for being here but also we have two board members who actually are leaving the board after this meeting officially august 31st candy emerson who was who is not here and nancy garrett who is participating remotely and as as superintendent i want to thank miss garrett miss garrett we have some gifts for you that we will bring to you at some appropriate time and i just want to mention those as as we as we speak mayor ron rogers anderson has declared today the 15th day of august nancy garrett day in williamson county tennessee and i'm smiling because you made it difficult for us when you had to participate remotely but if you all indulge me i'd like to read that resolution because mayor anderson
103at county commission meetings routinely reads resolutions when appropriate and my goodness you all this is appropriate whereas nancy nelson garrett is a lifelong resident of franklin tennessee in williamson county and a proud graduate of franklin high school whereas her passion for public school education began at an early age with her father serving as an educator in williamson county schools and whereas mrs garrett and her husband mike educated their child in the franklin special school district in williamson county schools where he graduated from centennial high school and whereas mrs garrett served as the president of the centennial high school pto as well as in schools across williamson county by serving in the cafeteria assisting holiday shows cleaning up and beautifying school grounds to name only a few and whereas mrs garrett has spent in measurable hours
104of her time volunteering in the community and was recognized as the middle tennessee volunteer of the year and whereas mrs garrett was elected to and has been a faithful member of the williamson county board of education since november of 2016 first appointed and then elected serving as board chair for the past two years and whereas her love of public education passion for educating all students personal satisfaction of representing the schools in which she proudly attended championing for all children to experience success through opportunities and experiences in school and believe that public schools are the reflection of the community in which we live whereas mrs garrett has been a leader during one of the most trying times in our history it should be recognized and celebrated that williamson county schools remains the top pre-kindergarten through 12th
105grade school district in the state of tennessee now therefore be it resolved that i rogers anderson as mayor of williamson county do hereby proclaim august 15 2022 as nancy garrett day in williamson county tennessee and hereby encourage all citizens to join me in appreciation of her service to the children and her dedication to placing the students first throughout her tenure signed roger c anderson williamson county mayor so with that mr chair we have we have a gift for miss garrett it's a gavel reflecting her time as chair and i'll make sure we get that to her but but with that i would in it just turn that over to you thank you thank you mr golden and i wanted to to acknowledge our colleague ms candy emerson too she spent more than 20 years teaching
106in wcs she graduated from peabody college and later received a master's degree in education from vanderbilt university taught at lipscomb elementary walnut grove elementary and hunters bend in wcs retiring in 2012 joined the board in 2014 and was a proud mom to three children all of whom attended grassland elementary middle and franklin high school candy couldn't be here tonight but if you spent any time with her you'll know she loved teaching and any time there was a board discussion that touched on the classroom experience her passion was absolutely undeniable and infectious so i want to thank candy for her service as well point we have a point of privilege from our chair oh and we need your mic if you can get closer to the microphone that'd be great sorry no audio right now can
107you hear me now yes just a couple of things first of all nancy nelson garrett day kicks off it's actually a month before my birthday as of today we're celebrating a little too late tonight so my term does end on august 31st so i'm available for lunches and celebration dinners after august 31st at midnight so board members please know that and secondly i want to say that i'm very appreciative of that honor and we'll we'll try to celebrate it i did prepare some remarks that i'd like to share with you but i do want to make sure that the audio is working are you able to hear me clearly okay so that's great brian if at any time something sounds garbled will you please raise your arm because you're the closest i can see you
108the best thank you so i just want to say you know the board chair doesn't talk that much during the meetings so the past two years i've gotten to list i've gotten to listen to a lot of discussion among the board members the board chair's role is to move the meeting forward but tonight i do want to share some thoughts with you so would appreciate your forbearance in making these remarks as you all know it's been my honor to serve the wcs community as a board member over the past six years having attended the board meetings for two years prior to my appointment i knew what i was getting into serving as the policy making body of the district making strategic decisions for the district working in partnership with our administrative team and school staffs
109and advocating for our students and families what a joy and labor of love this work is well and then 2020 came and with it so much uncertainty and our board was dealing with so many different things and had and was challenged in ways that we never were before but supported by my experiences with our district as a student parent and board member i agreed to serve as the board chair in 2020 and again in 2021 i knew it would not be easy and i knew that leading put me at a greater risk for not returning to the work that i truly love when election time came around the emphasis of the last two years was certainly on the labor part of the labor of love but i believed in our mission and our team and
110i knew that in times of great uncertainty what we have to do is put our feet forward and take the next right step together to continue to serve our school command community to the best of our ability and boy how many times did we have to do that together at our board retreat in it was either late 2020 or early 2021 we were all asked to share what we hoped our legacies would be from our service on this board and i said i hope that i would be remembered as someone who steered the wcf ship through its most difficult times and that's thought and that focus still sustains me personally i'm grateful for most of the experiences of past six years this time has taught me who i want to be and who i don't
111want to be and i don't want to be someone who compromises on quality public education for all local students i believe that public schools exist to serve all students now i said i'm grateful for most of the experiences of the past two years but honestly i am heartbroken about some of the things that have happened in our community during the last two years for example what happened at our meeting a year ago this month and i hope and i pray that people will be kinder to each other and collaborate to solve the important issues that lie before us teacher recruitment and retention student safety funding and growth issues among others i would ask that this community and this board really try to be united in support of our administrative staff and our teachers and the
112next board chair and really support them support their professionalism support their talents their ability to make appropriate professional decisions independently please understand that starting with the basis of support is different than being a rubber stamp support and respect are foundational elements for positive change there are also foundational elements for any type of professional success don't sit idly by when you see people and your fellow board members and mr golden and administrators and principals and teachers treated poorly to my fellow board members i want to encourage you in some specific ways the role of the board chair is one that is supposed to keep the board moving in the right direction the chairman may not say much but always needs to act with the end goals of the board in mind there are some areas that
113i think are very important in the current environment many of you have modeled these behaviors for me over and over again the first is not forgetting the importance of what you do board service should never be seen as casual or seen as a stepping stone to a future position treat your positions with dignity and gravity janice shelby the former superintendent of fssd said every family sings their best and they do every child in every family needs to be treated with the regard that you would treat your own family and the people who agree with you leave the board meetings according to our code of conduct which states i will accept the will of the board especially if a vote does not go your way and please make it attendance at meetings a priority it's critically
114important to be there particularly when we're voting do the work and lead by example prepare for meetings model the professionalism that we would expect from our teachers in similar meetings and treat people how you would want to be treated there is always something more to learn don't ever assume or expect that you have all the answers i think a good rule of thumb is when you're sitting in one of our meetings think about if this were a group of teachers what would i think about this meeting please please take care of your team including your incoming board members school boarding is a total team sport and requires investment in the relationships with the team members including district leaders to be healthy and functional you cannot be a team in the boardroom and work against each
115other outside it then finally enjoy your role enjoy the magic that happens when our talented teachers encourage sparks of learning in our students show up for their events celebrate them and prepare to be blown away by the accomplishments of our students and our very important future these moments with students these moments with teachers these moments seeing the art of what is possible above all have been the shining light of encouragement for me over the past two years no matter what i'm here to say that i love our schools and i honor all who have come before us and those who work for us now to create the excellent schools and the excellent programs that our citizens benefit from as for what's next for me to quote the great michael gary scott well wait before i
116quote michael gary scott let me say i don't know what's next for me i'm not going anywhere i love schools i'm here for you i'm here for the people of this community but as michael gary scott said as far as my next steps you have no idea how high i can fly thank you all thank you chairman garrett mr golden thank you mr chair with that i think it's appropriate to bookend ms garrett's farewell address in charge to the board in the wcs community with one additional thanks with special thanks to eric welch who facilitated this there will be a flag of the state of tennessee delivered to ms garrett and i would like to read a plot proclamation related to that state of tennessee state capitol this is to certify that the accompanying flag
117of the state of tennessee was flown from the tennessee state capitol in honor of nancy nelson garrett at the request of representative sam whitson august 8 2022 signed bill lee governor with that we have three and a half hours to celebrate nancy garrett day and this meeting is adjourned