Williamson County Board of Education Meeting - August 16, 2021

001good evening my name is Susan Macy I live at 9531 Sanctuary place in Brentwood and I was not able to be at last week's meeting but I did watch the coverage of it and the meeting itself and I was concerned by some of the extreme Behavior by a couple of people outside and the conflation by some people on this board the community the media between that and the anger felt by a lot of these parents and I don't think that's a fair conflation and so I wanted to speak to that last week's board meeting was attended by hundreds feeling a range of emotions predictably the whole story was not told while none of us condones threats or violence each group likely has well-intentioned even nefarious actors steering our causes in a direction that is unwanted

002unappreciated and ungodly having said that these parents have a right to their anger and it's well placed number one this board fall allowed an age inappropriate social agenda-driven curriculum into our Elementary classrooms two this board poorly vetted FHS paid them fifty five thousand dollars and invited more CRT into our schools three you supported masking tracing and quarantining of our healthy children four the state department of Ed wants to assess and aggregate our children's mental health information five our education commissioner enjoys unexplained committee changes policy decisions and conflicts of interest six your tolerance of the mature minor Doctrine is unacceptable seven in pushing masks you blame and scare our children for causing coveted disease and death eight our request for correction of these failures is repeatedly mocked we trusted and Outsource too much to you but

003we're correcting that now violent absolutely never angry you bet we're angry fix these issues or get used to it our next speaker is Lee Hardy hi there I found this information on the tennessee.gov website I'm sure all of you know but I just wanted to reiterate it I am really perplexed at the numbers when I pull the numbers on the tendency.gov website that explain or I'm sure are part of the reason as to why we have hired fostering Healthy Solutions I looked at deshan Foster and his family and it does appear as though he personally has done some pretty nice things actually respecting women encouraging women not to be harassed sexually harassed raped things like that and for that I really commend him but I'm perplexed of the numbers when I look at them as

004to why we have at Williamson County have the taxpayers paying for fostering healthy solutions for the reason that we have last year across the state of Tennessee there were 3 900 instances of bullying 250 of those were race related with double being sexually charged incidences and cyber-related incidences so the race related ones were only 2.9 percent 2.9 is not good we would like to see it at zero but I'm just not sure and I think it's a good question for us to ask ourselves that's an awful lot of money forty fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money for something that appears not that frequently and maybe we could combine it with something maybe kindness or anti-bullying training or or something like that but again just to mention that I want you all to know

005and I want to reiterate that thank you our next speaker is let me call up the next three Jay Brown Corey Martin and Justin canoe my name is Hunter Brown and I speak as a taxpayer resident of Williamson County a complainant and a citizen on July 3rd and again on July 7th I sent a request to Julia oyer requesting information pertaining to the curriculum Review Committee in its process inquiring about the basic operational rules of the hearing required by 4.4037c subsequently I also believe I mentioned that in my prior comments to the board I've had no response I'm unaware of any information it's the basic operational Provisions the rules of the process including for example notice requirements time date and location agenda names titles roles and authorities of all participants or other parties of interest

006in hearing the standing of those participants the limitations of Rights of complainants to present evidence or cross-examine limitations if any of rights of the complainants to participate in the hearing including the right to prevent to present evidence expert testimony and so forth I'd also like to know if there are any limitations of the rights of complaints to be represented by Council jointly or severally I'd like the Assurance of adequate And Timely advance notice to me and other complainants to allow adequate time to prepare my concern there being further delay is going to compromise our ability to advance our case and I guess I would add I would like Assurance that members of the Review Committee are obligated to speak truthfully without omission of any material facts or circumstances the omission of which would cause a

007statement to be untrue or misleading these issues remain to be remain unaddressed and the delay in providing this basic information is unnecessary as you know well good faith involves defining the Rules of Engagement time next speaker please Corey Martin hello my name is Corey Martin my oldest kid just started at grassland elementary school and she loves Mrs White I realized that the state government has rendered your efforts last week to be impotent but I wanted to thank you for your leadership in attempting to protect my daughter's Health with the mask mandate that you guys tried to do obviously you guys were inside during the meeting last week I was outside I stood with my wife on the grass out there as we were repeatedly verbally assaulted astonished at our neighbors as we stood with an

008African-American mama and her daughter we witnessed racial mocking and just so much hate coming at us if any Community needs Dei it's us next speaker Mr canoe I'm Justin canoe my dad in Williamson County didn't plan on speaking but here we go first of all critical race theory is not in our schools and it never was and the people here to complain about it did not know what it was six months ago and had never heard of it that's why they're going after diversity equity and inclusion instead and trying to pretend they're the same thing they aren't and frankly there aren't many communities around the globe that need Dei more than this one that we live in on another note I'm a dad of a new kindergartner and her first day was right after the

009chaos last week she went to school and was one of just a few kids in her class wearing a mask which made her ask me why she had to my answer was because we want to take care of other people she's five years old but she understood that concept and it's disappointing that more adults around here can't seem to grasp it I asked a pastor friend of mine and he was very clear there's no actual biblical justification for using the Bible to get out of a mask mandate passed by a majority of this elected board but thousands are doing it anyway calling it a religious exemption which is frankly just sad avoiding masks is not in the Bible but taking care of others is and now today we have Governor Lee's executive order to allow

010opt-outs which is government overreach undercutting a local decision if you only like democracy when it goes your way you don't actually like democracy thank you our next speakers Sally Berg Marissa diploch and Debbie pace hi Sally Berg I'm in District Four rafiscus District there have been many claims lately that those opposed to CRT don't want American history being taught teaching history accurately should be the goal students of course must learn the good and the bad of American history but far from being impartial CRT views America as a structurally Evil Nation worse CRT is an inaccurate telling of history that Embraces false narratives like the discredited 1619 project which wrongly states that the American Revolution was only fought to preserve slavery curriculums such as great minds wit and wisdom are not impartial anyway they intentionally offered

011a jaundice view of American history focusing on a negative while minimizing the many positives of America Marissa diblock good evening I'm Marisa diploch I'm here representing moms for Liberty diversity in Dei does not simply mean all Races ethnicities and backgrounds are welcome here diversity is defined by Dei programs will result in quotas Williamson County is roughly 88 white 5 Hispanic five percent Asian and four percent black our schools are representatives of our community in which they serve and will change as demographics continue to change people of all ethnic ethnicities are welcome here to increase diversity means you want to artificially influence those numbers that means quotas that means discriminating by race no parent wants their child to be numbered a number on either side of a quota that strips us of our individualisms basic humanity

012and instead reduces us to a classification by our skin color additionally diversity in Dei does not mean diverse diversity of thought it is quite the opposite CRT Dei demands Conformity of thought and does not tolerate dissent Debbie pace hi I'm Debbie pace diversity equity and inclusion are related to CRT Dei is the Trojan Horse through which CRT enters institutions this means Dei is actually more dangerous why because CRT alone is just Marxist inspired academic Theory and should only be discussed as one of the many theoretical ways to view the world but Dei insists CRT claims are fact not Theory and then cloaks its poisonous ideology in innocuous feel-good language Dei is designed to inject CRT into an institution to indoctrinate individuals and ultimately impose a caste system people with white skin will be labeled privileged

013and oppressors meanwhile people of color especially black people will be labeled victims and oppressed in other words Dei will introduce systematic racism into the school rather than remove it if individuals reject any of dei's crt-based claims they will be told it's proof they have not done the work they are exhibiting white fragility or yes they are a racist thank you I'm going to call the final four speakers up Teresa branchieri Kimberly calcote Kay Jackson and Robin steenmann Miss branchery hi I'm Teresa B and Kerry and I live in Brentwood the E and Dei stands for Equity there is an important distinction here Equity is not equality Equity is the idea that all racial groups must achieve equal outcomes that's Marxism Equity insists that disparate outcomes are automatic proof of America's systemic racism this assertion must

014be accepted by faith once Equity is adopted as the goal an institution will be required to boost certain marginalized groups while holding back so-called privileged groups how does this happen you ask it happens through reparations and compelled redistribution of resources in other words institutional and government-sponsored discrimination will become the norm in order to achieve so-called equity on the other hand equality before the law is the American ideal equality demands that Society strive to create equal opportunity for all but doesn't insist on equal outcomes equality accepts that there will be disparate Inc outcomes in America as is true in all societies thank you Kimberly calcote hi Kimberly calcote District Six moms for Liberty the I and Dei stands for inclusion in Dei inclusion does not mean all are welcomed or included a rational everyday parent is

015all for inclusion they Define it usually as including or welcoming everyone regardless of race gender religion political party Etc unfortunately inclusion as practiced by d e Dei firms like fostering Healthy Solutions it's an entirely different Beast inclusion drives inclusive language which is similar to replacing Mother's Day with birthing people's day in the name of inclusivity that's why WCS is considering changing the names of mother son and father-daughter events in the name of inclusion and inclusion will demand that the faculty and kids be asked to announce their pronouns specifying their gender identity which has really already begun in WCS during the first week of school in this year students as young as eighth grade were being asked their preferred pronouns some in front of their classmates making them extremely uncomfortable the bottom line is inclusion as

016implemented by Dei policies results enforced speech codes it's where a child may be afraid to raise their hand for fear of asking the wrong question or using forbidden words it stifles honest questions debate free speech and perversely Our concern is that it will be used to exclude anyone who dissents Kelly Jackson I am a Nolensville resident and I am in Jen's District moms for Liberty CRT imposed through Dei and curriculums like wood and wisdom turns every subject matter for Math and Science to English and music into a discussion about oppression social justice and politics CRT and Dei does not teach kids how to think but what to think instead of focusing on educational fundamentals it focuses on racial grievances skin color and sewing division in short crt's essential argument is that America is systemically racist

017that is to say every institution law and policy in America is racist to its core only invented to oppress people of color especially black people CRT states that all white people today are complicit in America's systemic racism including white students just by virtue of their skin color we are already seeing these outcomes in students after completing the first year of wooden wisdom curriculum there are WCS elementary students of different races that are now having negative mindsets in regards to their race because of what they learned in school therefore stopping this poisonous ideology from further entering WCS schools isn't a distraction it's absolutely essential next speaker is Robin steenmann Robin steenmann District 12. fostering Healthy Solutions has assessed Williamson County as a county divided and they recommend a culture reset and the hiring of a Dei

018professional does this sound unifying does it sound like diversity equity and inclusion will solve the problem diversity equity and inclusion is critical race theory in Praxis implemented as policy the work at this division be stemming from the County Commission the alderman the mayor most residents couldn't tell you what these people actually do but they know their school board I submit that the division is actually coming from the school board most people myself included are loath to get involved but you involve the children and I will and we will and you saw that in play on Tuesday of last week with anywhere from 1200 to 2300 parents you have demonstrated a lack of concern over masked curriculum pronouns diversity Equity inclusion and short parental rights CRT is born of critical theory and what does critical theory

019seek to do divide it is a Marxist idea of dividing up a society it's not even implemented in Williamson County and yet we are a county divided how is an a theory that seeks to divide going to heal division if Wilco has been rightly assessed to be divided this ideology is already accomplishing its goal without even being implemented here in Williamson County I would like to remind us of the words we all just recited one nation under God indivisible a county divided against itself cannot stand I would encourage the board to listen to the parents thank you that was our last speaker this evening we will now take a five-minute break so that those who might need to leave can go ahead and leave and we'll resume this meeting in five minutes thank you well

020everyone please return to your seats thank you gallery for your decorum during public comment one thing I will ask is that everyone can check that your phone is turned off or is silenced the phones seem to want to talk during that public comment not the people board members will now move on to our next item of business which is approval of the agenda and I want to make make note of two changes first the telework item has been moved from the consent agenda to a separate voting item at the request of a board member and secondly please strike item e in new business superintendent goals we'll be we'll be moving that to the September meeting so with those two changes is there a motion to approve the agenda Mr Welch makes the motion is there

021a second second Mr Wimberly seconds any discussion I see no discussion on that item board members please vote your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you our next item is the approval of the consent agenda is there a motion to approve I'll read it out to you afterwards Mr Wimberley makes the motion Mr Hall makes the second is there any discussion board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you and with that vote you have approved the school board meeting minutes for June 21 2021 you've approved the August 10th 2021 special called board meeting minutes you've approved the 2021-2022 annual agenda you've approved the recommendation for field trip fee requests you've approved the 2021-22 sick bank trustees approved outstanding purchase orders for school activity funds approved applications and

022budgets for idea Part B and idea preschool supplemental grants the American Rescue plan act you've also approved the city of Spring Hill right-of-way and easement on Buckner Lane and approve the Thompson Station right-of-way dedication Clayton Arnold Road our next item on the agenda is Communications to the board superintendent golden thank you madam chair and I thank thank you board members I know that this is the third meeting that you've had and right at a week maybe a tiny bit less than a week so I very much appreciate your time I do want to give you some quick bullet points since we have met in the last couple of days we're going to make sure that we give you that in the form of bullet points number one about three or four hours ago the governor

023issued an executive order that made it very clear that masks are optional so I want to make sure you know and that our community knows that effective immediately masks are optional at what WCS schools you know that a week or so ago you approved a requirement for mask at the elementary grade levels with a seven to three vote that is now shifted to optional I want to make sure that we're very clear on that and we will be communicating that with our families I do want to give you a couple of reminders about where we are with addressing the positive cases of of covet in our community and just make really make sure that we remind everyone that this year we have no continuing education plans no none of those none of those plans that

024were in place last year with the state the acronym was actually clp's continuous learning plans what that means is if we reach a point based on a health issue we are at the same position that we have been in years past that if we have to close the school for any particular reason that will count at that school level as one of our stockpile days or what we typically call inclement weather days so we're going to be making sure that we do everything we can to keep students on campus and we did that last year you all know that but I want you to know that there's a renewed effort for us to make sure that we do everything to keep our students on campus parents and staff I just want to give you that

025reminder that we mentioned a week ago and that we continue to emphasize if you're feeling ill don't come to school that old habit of I'm going to push through it give us a chance give yourself a chance to recover from whatever illness you might have please know that we have additional Tools in place we have we have extra help that we can give you so don't be worried about missing school if you feel ill want to make sure that we emphasize that to all our folks I also want to let you know that the State Department of Education let us know that they will start posting the weekly numbers on their website like they did last year likewise we are going to do the same thing so starting tomorrow we're going to give you our

026weekly covert numbers based on the information that we provide to the state so that will be renewed starting tomorrow want to give you a quick reminder of what we talked about last week last week with TCAP the TCAP T and ready test results came in as we discussed it's very difficult to compare Apples to Apples because it's been two years since we had the TCAP likewise the standards for last year were different because grades were not were not a part of that but we are in the process of drilling down to particular standards that were tested to see what we can glean from those tests for our folks you all saw that compared to the state we continue to be pretty spectacular but the reality is again it's very difficult for us to compare apples

027to apples in that context and we're going to make sure we take that test data to find ways to grow and improve our cells we posted the PowerPoint that I gave you on the on the board page of our website and certainly do encourage folks to look at those snapshots that the state provided for us in third grade Ela and in seventh grade math and also a few snapshots that we gave you of our work next I want to mention to you that our curriculum Review Committee continues their work on the challenges to to our Ela curriculum we have a schedule on our website if you go to academics and programs click on Ela you can find the schedule you can find in other pieces of data related to their work the structure that they

028set up was to divide their review by quarters so that they could address first and second quarter quickly in case they're they determine there's a need for a change and then work their way to third and fourth quarter based on their schedule they are really close to that transition period between first and second quarter and third quarter so certainly do encourage you to to keep an eye on that and Dr Royer is chairing that committee and she'll be continuing to communicate but I do want to emphasize that our website has a lot of information related to that work finally I want to let you know that we are growing if you didn't know that we are growing right now every day is a little bit different as an example on Friday we had 32 new

029students arrive that we didn't have on Thursday I don't have the Monday data yet but we'll be getting that tomorrow we continue to grow we are going through the process of of finding students who might have moved and making sure we get those records to those other school districts just as a reminder for those who are watching this the end of the fourth week is our Benchmark time for us to measure our growth but I will tell you that right now our estimates are that as of right now we have already exceeded our projected growth that we that we typically work out from end of fourth week to end of fourth week so we've got about two two and a half weeks before that window and it's already looking like we're a little over projections

030as a reminder also we were quite conservative in our estimates for for growth it was an unpredictable year but we are very gratified and positive about that growth in our community you all know this is a great place to live work and go to school and I am so proud of the work we've done as we prepare our students for this coming school year so with that Madam chair that is my report there are a couple of questions Mr Wimberly yes Mr Golden I realize the governor's announcement was only made a few hours ago but I have a couple of questions one of them is we already were making masks optional with exemptions so how does this really change because parents here even prior to the governor's announcement had the ability to opt out and

031obviously you know we've had quite a few who have taken care of it and my second question is it was pretty clear that the majority of the board supported a mask mandate with the conditions that that we made so if we're losing the mask mandate what are we going to do to mitigate thank you for your questions first of all we did talk about the opportunity for individual families and staff members to get an exemption based on health or a religious tenant we did have a number of of individuals substantially more this year share a religious tenet and an explanation that they were asking for that exception just in the last few days compared to last year how many how many we had a total at the elementary level including health and religion of about

0323 600 about 20 percent right at 20 percent of our total population in the schools had asked for an exemption the difference breakdown between religion and health Health were was in the was in the triple digits religion in the in the four digits in the thousands I can't remember the exact number for health but proportionately the religious exemptions were substantially larger than the health exemptions this year last year you may recall that we had a mask requirement K-12 throughout the year last year until the very last few weeks of school the health exemptions exceeded the religious exemptions and so the difference between what you all did and what we did and what the governor is doing is there's no explanation no exemption for a particular need it's a simple straightforward pure opt-out I will tell

033you that I've had some conversations with a number of superintendents across the state we do know that Hamilton County actually required mask K-12 but had an opt-out with a form as I see it's more like that where they where there's a national an actual allowance for someone to Simply say I understand but I don't want to do it and so that's the difference as to the as to the mass mandate and mitigation strategies when you study deeply the cdc's process that they've recommended this year would look through their 16 plus pages that are that are encapsulated plus all the supporting information we can glean they often talked about what they described as a Swiss cheese approach which includes a number of mitigation strategies and we've talked about that the CDC guidelines start with what they

034say vaccines number one and as I spoke to last week that's outside of our control and I will say Governor Lee specifically mentioned that again this afternoon and strongly encourage folks to talk to their doctor if to consider a vaccine so he has used similar language to what we've read about that being the number one which is outside our control for us there are other items including what I've mentioned which is don't come to school if you're sick now we know that some of the so some of the positive cases may not be symptomatic and we've heard we've read that from the medical professionals but what we know is that if someone comes to school sick there's that possibility whether it's covet or otherwise so that's an emphasis wash your hands maintain social distancing of

035at least three feet when you can strongly encourage Mass we're going to continue to encourage mask it's really that whole gamut of the cdc's guidelines especially during during that time I will tell you also that the discussion within the CDC guidelines is to consider what's going on in your community for how many layers and what layers are appropriate for that so that is something we're going to continue to monitor we're going to do what we can if there comes a time where we need need an additional an additional vote from you we will certainly bring it to you but I want you all to know the that based on your vote last week that exemption has shifted to a pure opt-out and will there be a form for opt out yes we've actually already prepared

036a draft form we're going to post that after that meeting because we want to make sure we honor the governor's order thank you Mr Welch thank you Jason you mentioned that closing due to illness will be as we've done it in the past will that be at the district level then or will we be able to close school by school and look at those numbers thank you for that question we do have the ability under the State Department of Education guidelines to drill down the need to use one of our inclement weather days or stockpile days to the school level okay no further so there have been times and years past where we've done that if a school got flooded we couldn't be in the building we might we have had to do that every

037once in a while there's been an illness issue I remember years ago there was a derailed train and we had to close a particular school all those kinds of things are going to apply now to to covet and if I may give you a rule of thumb where we have traditionally watched our numbers when our attendance gets down to about 90 percent for students that's something that we really start watching closely we do have one school that's hit that point in the last couple of days and so we are currently brainstorming over extra efforts to to look towards what we can do to support Staffing in in those cases hey did you say we already had one school close to the 90s yes in the past week we've had one school drop below 90 attendance

038now for those of who are watching we have 51 schools right so okay and then you mentioned we're going to begin posting the data on the website yeah what will those numbers be you know obviously know what they were last year but I don't know if there's any changes in the reporting or what we're reporting or what have you just what information can we expect to see on that so I'll give you the Baseline with a caveat that there may be more so the standard that's a state set for us last year was report positive coveted cases for students school by school we would report those and for any school that was below five on the State website it would be reported as zero the theory behind that is the the desire to avoid inadvertently

039violating FERPA which is the Privacy Act the family family educational rights and Privacy Act to make sure that if we reported one or two you didn't inadvertently identify somebody for us when we report that when we report it on our website we reported that as well school by school but we also had an aggregate total at the bottom of the scroll so we will report positive cases in the building on a weekly basis the snapshot at the end of the event end of each week we reported the first of the week when we will have an aggregate district-wide total now we've also heard from the state that they may be asking us for additional information related to some of their some of their reporting requirements we don't have any detail on that so it's possible

040that there may be some more information if if and when we get that information from the state we'll let you all know okay and then the final thing I want to address and we touched on this at the work session but we're here in an open meeting with a little bit more visibility and everything else so just talk about those TCAP numbers again and I'm going to use a different adjective Nancy so don't worry but I do want to make the point again that we've seen a lot comparing learning loss from the TCAP data and obviously it's it's a flawed instrument in order to do that it's it's critically flawed it's it's the data is garbage in terms of trying to compare 2021 to 2019 in in that case and rather than sort of rehashing

041it would you mind talking about that a little bit some of the differences in the methodology that bring to very different numbers out sure I'll hit a little bit of information related to that two years ago and under the standard state law that's been in place for a while a portion of every student's grade was based on their performance in grades three through eight TCAP and the end of course test for high the High School courses that are tested by the state ten percent for grades three through eight fifteen percent for into course test this year it did not count against the student you all as a board actually voted to approve it counting if it helped the students grade which we had the flexibility to do but again it did not count against the

042student's grade likewise these the test results are not to be used in teacher evaluations this year there was an element related to District evaluations where if the participation rate was below 80 percent it could still count for district evaluation purposes our participation rate was 96 percent usually it's higher than that because some students just this year chose not to as I understand it Statewide not one District fell below that 80 percent line so there is no District wide grading based based on based on that law those are the those are the biggies so in teacher students District so in layman's terms and correct me if I'm wrong here it's the TCAP was a hold harmless It could only help but it couldn't be used against you if you scored below that's right so a student

043going in who already has an a average in the class so we're right off the bat we're taking our highest percentage of achievers there's there's no benefit to in terms of their grade at least in in terms of doing well there's no penalty for doing poor on the TCAP exam whereas in years past as you mentioned it's 10 percent K-8 and 15 for high school I think I got those percentages right correct yeah there you're you're easily talking a letter grade especially in in high school 15 that's right so it's something that every student is going to take you know very seriously and put the effort in as opposed to if you're a student who you know doesn't want to bother with it for whatever reason including that you already have the highest grade in

044the class then there's no bonus to to doing a no penalty doing it otherwise and again the teacher's there it's not in their evaluation so just the amount of time and effort and everything else obviously is not there so right off the bat it's it's very much a an apples to Bricks comparison in that sense the other thing I think you didn't touch on in this but the standards have changed too since testing it last time to this time and that they've gotten more stringent is that accurate it's accurate for some of the tests but for some over the course of time the standards have changed over the course of 10 plus years in a lot of difference absolutely absolutely but what we're looking at really with the learning loss is comparing 2019 to 2021

045and there we've got in some cases at least two different sets of Standards one being more rigorous this time so we're using a different rubric that we're comparing between the two as well yes okay and as I'm sitting here trying to remember I can't remember the specific test whether it's an ant where that's a yes answer it's fine it's it wouldn't put you on the spot to remember the down to that granular level but the point being is we've seen so much reporting about the learning loss based upon the tcaf exams and the point here is not that you know my point here is not that we don't think there's there's any learning loss I mean obviously if the state cancels a big chunk of the school of the year and doesn't allow us to

046use the time to refresh the learning loss instead we've got to focus on meaningless tcaps that's that's an issue but it's a it's a flawed instrument for measurement I will tell you one thing that we pointed out at the work session is that very last slide of AP test where the accountability returned in the second year and we saw a substantial jump back compared to 2020 where a lot of students took TCAP after they were out you know out of school two Springs ago so we found that evidence at least at the high school level with advanced placement test encouraging I appreciate saying that so in a more apples to apples actual comparison where there is the motivation there we actually saw a jump back at least from last year that's right compared to it

047okay thank you to Priya yeah I just want to go back and address some of the things you mentioned about the governor's executive order first of all I think the wording that we use is really important you mentioned Mr Golden that the executive order made it masks optional now and I think it's my understanding that when the board voted to make masks required in the elementary levels that executive order didn't change that it just mean it just said that we had to require an opt out and it says in the order actually that it has to be in writing to the school district or School Personnel so math if I'm understanding it correctly The Masks are still required in the elementary level but that parents now have an option to opt out in writing yes

048ma'am and I'm going to read a portion of that to the governor's order do hereby order that a student's parent or Guardian shall have the right to opt out of any order or requirement for a student in kindergarten through 12th grade to wear a face carving at school on a school bus or at school functions by affirmatively notifying and writing the local Education Agency or Personnel at the student school okay so with that in mind and we can continue to use the religious and all the other exemptions that have already been turned in in writing and then if anyone else additionally would like to opt out they can do it by notifying Us in writing or you can provide a form but it doesn't change anything as far as the mask requirement that we voted

049on and passed at the elementary level it's an overlay of your of your vote okay it says Master's still required in elementary schools through September 21st with the option okay thank you and then who does this apply to in the buildings because it looks like it only mentioning students so when we're talking about staff and visitors to campus will that will they have to turn in and opt-in in writing or will they still be required to wear a mask we have still allowed we have still allowed you're actually about asking about an opt-in no I'm saying right now our what we voted on says that all answering the element Al thing staff any adult visitors and students are required to wear a mask the governor's order says that students or parents of students if they

050have a mask requirement may put in writing to opt their student out so it sounds to me like that doesn't cover the staff or adult visitors they would still be required to wear a mask well you may recall and I don't have the exact language in front of me and it's something that we'll need to work on overnight and in the morning there are a number of exceptions that the board voted on related to teachers with teaching Etc and so that is something that we're going to have to have a discussion about to make sure that we have Clarity for our teachers but yeah as the governors the governor made it clear that parents could opt their students out right okay and it doesn't override what we've voted on and passed I'm just we just

051have to have the opt out option for in writing that's right okay because just the way you said it was very concerning because I think a lot of people watching at home heard you saying that masks are optional now and a lot of Elementary parents might think I don't have to do anything it's just optional again and we're gonna go back to 20 coverage so okay thank you Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair and thank you Miss Priya for clarifying that was it was significant so Mr Golden you had stated that and maybe I maybe I misunderstood this that you're your decision to close schools is typically to what level of absenteeism I didn't give a particular percentage but when absenteeism for students drops below 90 percent we start looking closely and we ask that

052we checked to try to figure out why historically try to try to determine is does this have a negative impact on our ability to provide instructional Services look at Staffing Etc and it's a rule of thumb that triggers a discussion at our at our administrative Team level we have never and I have never established at blank percent a school needs to close because it really is based on can we continue to serve students in that setting so you may recall three four years ago we closed if I remember right on a Friday because of heavy numbers of flu cases to give to give based on our discussions with our with our health folks an opportunity for that to run its course and what I'm what I want to make sure you all know that from

053a procedural perspective that process is back in place because of the structure the state has given us so do you have a rule of thumb then when you so obviously 90 percent is when you kind of start having staff discussion where we get nervous what is the do you have a rule of thumb on your trigger point we don't have a pure rule of thumb but it's that it's that let's start talking why is it happening is there anything we can do let's have discussions about Staffing what what are what is our substitute rate look like it triggers those discussions what is your percentage of teachers out for staff out that kicks in that similar type it's about the same and then we then we look to see our substitutes yeah and you know and

054see how well we're doing on filling substitute teachers and substitute teachers assistants so it really ultimately is about that can we staff can we can we serve students if it's a if it's a faculty and staff number ten percent surprise is the point at which we start discussing that as well now our student and teacher attendance rate traditionally has been in the high 90s typically 96 97 95 on a daily basis so and maybe we talked about this Thursday night what is our substitute pool looking like for the year at this point number one I'm going to address what we call Super Subs and then I'm going to ask Miss Hall if she would to get some details you all voted and approved last year what what has been a game changer for us what

055we call Super Subs you all approved a higher pay rate for substitute teachers to serve at a 0.8 of a full-time position and they're there most days and we have two at every school and so the substitute challenge has been substantially improved because principals now have two almost full-time folks to move from place to place so that's made a difference from what we used to talk about two three four years ago but with that it's still a daily challenge we're actually short on special education teachers assistance right now district-wide over 50. now you know we have 51 schools including our online schools but that's still missing a lot Miss Hall if you would share how we are on our substitute teachers in general thank you superintendent golden we Miss Hall just a moment please let

056me try again got me now thanks thank you superintendent golden we actually have hired over 350 substitutes beginning from the end of the school year to present day we're still running a little bit lower in the field rate than we want to we are trying to you know get those substitutes to work and actually get them in the building and we're seeing a definitely higher than last year fill rate on that but we would still like to see it a little bit higher we have each each school is allotted what we call two Super Subs and they are basically substitutes that are in the building up to about 18 days a month then they are available to fill in where we have those needs thank you how many inclement weather days do we have 10

05710 and that's for the year not per semester that's correct okay and this I guess question was something I asked Thursday and I believe you said you try to go see if you could get it and I'd do a follow-up we hit it when we saw the teeth cap numbers we had indicated that our numbers typically have up at least the seventh grade numbers specifically the sample we were given had 20 percent of those students that were outside of the grade that you know that 20 percent of seventh graders were actually testing upwards and 20 of our seventh grade pool were sixth Fifth and maybe even fourth grade students so my question was what is that if if we're running about a 20 percent rate of of Any Given grade level of students who are

058outside of that grade level that from articulating that correct well what is the what does the State numbers typically consist of as well so in other words we can kind of look that if higher numbers are a 80 percent great true grade level numbers what percentage of US of the states seventh graders are also true seventh graders does that make sense yeah the question makes sense Dr Allen if I'm not mistaken we don't know the answer to that yet well at least Dr Alan found you there you are all right thank you no we don't we don't actually know a way first of all I appreciate the question we don't know a way to find the answer we don't have the answer right now but we don't know that the state tracks it in such

059a way that we'll be able to find that answer for you we'll continue to look but at this point in time I'm not sure that we can get that information can we can we make a an inquiry up to this yes to the state for that as opposed to us just poking around in the in the reports yes so okay we'll absolutely do that thank you madam chair Mr let me say Mr Galbraith sorry thank you Jason I guess on the long lines of Jen's question I did not I don't think I heard the answer but and a lot of people were confused and I guess this executive order is going to create a little bit more confusion but with regards to with regards to staff and parents well I guess I think the I

060think the executive order only related to students are you when you this change that you're making is not really changing our or you're not doing anything to our to our I don't know if we call it a policy or resolution that we passed Miss osbrooks sure no change to your Mo to the motion to the board vote right this is a change to the executive order because of the executive order that has a opt-out for students only it does not speak to staff it does not speak to visitors it is strictly to students okay so that's good to know and the and the way we're handling it is appropriate because this is a temporary order it's technically a temporary resolution but whenever if the order ever was rescinded then our then our policy or or

061the rule of law if we will for the from our policy making body would be the would be the policy as as stated sure yes that's a great question so this particular executive order right now remains in effect until 11 59 PM October 5th 2021 so that is after the current vote by this board okay so additional action would have to take place in September by this board to move it forward which is the same thing that y'all talked about sure last week right and so the so for for staff and parents obviously for staff is the same procedure that we outlined and they're pursuing that through HR if they if they wish to to elect to and get an exemption form but for for parents How would how would they because some people have

062asked like I'm coming to school if I want to elect an exemption how would I how would I do that we don't really have a form for that so Mr Roberts to your point we do not have a form for that for not every exemption do we have a form we if there is a visitor that wishes to raise an exemption they need to contact the administrator prior to arriving at school same thing that we would ask if someone needed an ADA accommodation prior to coming to a football game or a basketball game communicate with with us if we don't know of a need we can't help you sure but if you'll communicate prior we're we're happy to answer those questions that's fair thank you Mr Durham thank you Nancy question you might have addressed

063this with when when Eric was asking a question but do we how do we know that there are positive cases at the school is that reported by a family member or is that reported by the health department or how do we know we get a little bit of both and So a family member will will report to us and then the health department at some point will will typically report and Mr Anderson if you would share how it's gone this past week plus of of school starting back thank you most of the reports come to us from the students or the students parents there aren't as many that come from the health department because coming through the health department has to go through the testing agencies to get it there so most parents are telling

064us first that's how we find out so we're hearing it from parents before we hear it from the health department typically yes and when the health department tells the school is that by name or is that by grade or by age or what are they communicating yeah historically I mean I'm speaking to last year the health department would just give us the name of the student with a report Mr Anderson you know we've been in for a week and so I and I would like you to share so far this year what what we've heard how when we find out the students the health department will tell us that it is that well they send a notice to this to the student themselves or the student's parents from that point we know about it because

065they'll tell us that we have a positive result and it's verified what has to happen is they have to verify the test results to tell us that yes that's that person did have a positive covet test so we do hear about that do hear about the case how do they know where the child is in school is that is it going out to the whole District that somebody in the county tested positive or how's that well we understand from the health department is when they get a report of a positive case from a from a doctor's office or a health provider they will interview the positive case or the parent and that's one of their questions does your child go to school if so where okay thanks and then I have two other questions the

066opting out of wearing masks in elementary school so I know they have to provide that notification in writing and it stated that they could provide it to the board or Personnel at the school the form that we're putting online is that what's the process going to be for that or is it going to go to the school or to the district to the school so it is gonna and it's not that it has to be approved correct notification and since it's just notifying being an OP via an opt-out form it's a lot of extra work for the school to have to track those I heard from a principal last week who was processing the number of exemption forms Etc is there a way we can not put that on the schools and just have them

067on file because I'm assuming they're not going to like put a wristband or something on people who have opted out right there is some data entry with those I will say like I mentioned earlier about 20 percent of families opted out either well you exercise the exemption for medical or religious reasons that took a little bit more work we've created a form that's a whole lot simpler just basically one one line just to check so somebody will need to do that data entry but from a numbers perspective it will it will take some time but it will be from our estimation simpler than what it was just last week and is it an actual form that they're printing filling out or something like that so okay and I guess it would it would not be

068simple to implement some type of an automated request form that just goes and is done so that there's not all that admin burden I'm just concerned about the time and the not focusing on the education peace you know thank you for that because we had that same discussion this afternoon and we heard that you know the governor had I think his press conference started about 3 15 or so when he finished we immediately started processing through that trying to figure out how to make this as efficient as possible for that very reason we agree with you the more we the more we focus on instruction the better and so that's one of the reasons we shortened the form and we know that some individuals may May email you know they may they may scan that

069in and email it send that if this is broken up at our individual schools from our estimation it's going to be fairly quick at the secondary schools we don't have the requirement in at all anyway and so it will be at the elementary schools that we expect some more in addition to that 20 percent okay okay thanks for explaining everything my last question is about how we can accommodate and meet the needs of individuals who do need to wear a mask and do opt-in to wearing the mask or comply with our policy I spoke with a parent today who had legitimate concerns around her son Contracting covid during probably lunch time because he's wearing his mask and it just dawned on me that there should maybe be some like sections if people want to spatially

070distance but want to be social you know is there a way to set apart some section of the cafeteria where people are so that they're not isolated but can still be social but give them you know six feet or so that when they do have to wear a mask but they take that off to eat they're protected or they feel like they have a little bit more protection as they're that's totally operational and I'm kind of overstepping my wardrobe but I just wanted to acknowledge that there are there's still those needs I feel like there could be some way we could help address that sure well we with students who have health issues even before covet hit us we have worked through that with families to make sure that we do the best we can

071for an individual student I would like Dr Royer to to speak to that if if she would especially at the elementary level Beyond DR warrior let me try again hi thank you for the opportunity thank you for the question Mrs Durham the challenge really is going to be at individual schools and what's available in terms of of the spacing certainly we're sensitive to a couple of things within that question we're sensitive to families feel like feeling like students that are wearing masks are being isolated in some way but we're also some of our buildings have way more space in the ability to do that so I can tell you for certain that our principals and executive directors are paying a lot of attention to how we're doing it and trying to balance those two things

072in terms of capacity space to do it as well as as making sure students feel like they're a part of it but they know those students and they know students families that are more nervous than others and even down to those individual stories where they know this is a pretty serious situation where they want to help that student feel comfortable social and health-wise very very safe good thank you for that and the parent is reaching out to the principal just to you know communicate that because they hadn't so just good it presents good opportunity for dialogue and maybe something so that's good thank you thank you Mr Cash thank you madam chair Mr Golden I got a question you know we've got new health protocols too that we're we're really trying to get people engaged

073in watching their kids watching themselves a little bit more teachers watching how they feel a little bit more and I was just wondering if we start having you know like children with runny nose you know you normally send them to school you know they're they're they get up plugged up or whatever but as a precaution people may start keeping them at home just for that reason you know and we're we're really asking them to do that how is that going to affect our attendance for the state at the state level well I would like the attendance is addressed really in two main ways one to make sure students get get the instruction they need on a daily basis and we work through that every year all the time with students you all may recall that

074a few years ago you passed a policy that ensured that if a student missed a day even if it was unexcused they could make up the work so we have put in more Tools in place for the instructional side which includes the and I'm having a middle block on some of the some of the software but schoology thank you schoology where students can get their assignments if teachers can enter that also for those students who might be out if if the health department quarantines they'd be able to jump in on Zoom if you're doing a lecture style day that day versus a versus a test where there might not be any value in it so we have some tools on the instructional side on the state side they do still measure attendance and schools still

075we expect this year to will be measured on what they call chronic absenteeism you may recall that a few years ago we sent a chronic absentee letter out I've instructed our staff not to send that chronic letter out this year because that's really about how school systems are evaluated not how individual students are evaluated the final piece related to that is financial where this where the state funds schools based on on I think it's ADM average daily membership if I'm not mistaken Miss farmer where where the actual membership is based more on students enrolled as opposed to actually attending so I'm getting a nod from her for that so for me when you take all that in it really boils down to making sure we serve that student and whatever their needs are so we've

076had students out sick we're gonna we're gonna find ways to serve them and make sure we help make that up final thing I want to mention we do have WCS illness guidelines that give parents some some direction and some guide on when it might be appropriate for your child to be out or or when we might send you to the doctor references to Fever new cough difficulty breathing breathing chills congestion sore throat and the detail related when they might consider that right we've you've kind of updated all of that but you know not a parents have a choice to send their kids with or without a mask just wondering if the state is also going to follow suit and if if attendance happens to get up a little bit farther than it normally would thank

077you Mr Golden we've not heard that the state's going to change on that I believe those are all the questions Mr Golden does Miss Birdsong have a report tonight no ma'am cheat is not the first of the year we don't have any new student celebrations yet they're coming though thank you so we'll move on to the board chair report board members a reminder the board member goals survey is open please do complete that survey by the end of the week and we will use that survey data as the primary input for our goal setting next month so thank you all and I want to I want to really quickly address last week's meeting just want to say something publicly here that everyone who comes to this meeting to speak and to participate and be an

078active citizen needs to feel heard needs to feel respected and needs to feel safe being here and since last week we have Williamson County Schools me and our security folks Fletch and Nick have been working with the sheriff's department and working with our Sheriff making some changes to our meeting procedures going forward we're very appreciative to our deputies who are here tonight and thank you for your help but we felt like we needed to make some changes so that we could achieve those goals of everyone feeling heard respected and safe and those changes will continue I also just want to encourage us as board members going forward to lead by example in the way that we treat each other our constituents and staff this board did receive a lot of positive feedback on that via

079emails during the last week there's always room for improvement and I appreciate everyone's leadership in this area thank you then we're moving on the next items on the agenda are items related to the 2021-2022 school budget the first item is the general purpose School fund Amendment eight dated August 21st carry forward reserves Mr golden thank you madam chair this is self-explanatory this is your approval for the carry carry forward reserves from last year we do recommend approval for that do we have a motion to approve Miss Durham makes the motion Mr Welch seconds is there any discussion if there's no discussion board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you the next item is the general purpose School fund Amendment for safe schools Grant Mr golden thank you madam

080chair this is funding from the safe schools grant for the prior year you may recall that Miss farmer mentioned that the vast majority of this well over 90 percent if I recall has already been designated with purchase orders but it for accounting purposes needs to be transferred to this current year did you state your recommendation approval thank you do we have a motion to approve Miss Durham makes the motion Mr Wimberly seconds any discussion board members please cast your votes no discussion was noted the vote is 11 yes zero no thank you our next item is the general purpose School fund Amendment state Grant carryover Mr golden thank you madam chair this is a teaching is a profession Grant from last year following the theme of the first two just a little over nine thousand

081dollars transferring to the current budget year recommend approval is there a motion to approve Mr Cash makes the motion Ms Durham seconds is there any discussion board no discussion please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you our next item is the general purpose School fund Amendment for the Governor's give Grant Mr golden thank you madam chair this is the give Grant funds for a mobile classroom for our cyber security College and Career Technical education program the original plan was for this money to be spent last year for the Columbia State for the purchase of the vehicle that got delayed as a result of covet in the manufacturer so we're asking if for it to move to this current year thank you do we have a motion to approve Miss Emerson

082makes the motion Mr Hall makes the second board members is there any discussion I see no discussion please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes 0-0 thank you the next item is the general purpose School fund Amendment for the transition Grant Mr golden thank you madam chair this is a grant for transition teachers and mentors that actually runs on an October fiscal year and this transfers the funds for the first few months of this year recommend approval do we have a motion to approve Mr Wimberly makes the motion Mr Welch seconds is there any discussion I see no discussion please cast your votes oh I'm sorry I retract that there is some discussion Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair can Mr Golden can you tell us what transition teachers and R thank you for

083that question our transition program is for students with disabilities at the high school level we actually have two programs transition one transition two transition one is for students with disabilities of Traditional High School age transition two is for students with disabilities who extend their education with us up until the age of 22. so it's job mentors for those students I see so this is this is funds that will cover the cost of training those mentors then or providing for those mentors or it funds a portion of their salaries all right thank you I see no other questions board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you the next item is the extended school program fund Amendment for child care the child care covered relief Grant Mr golden thank you

084madam chair this is a grant that was approved in June of 2021 two months ago and it's for this coming school year but because of our accounting structure we need to move it from last year because of the June approval to this year recommend approval do we have a motion to approve Miss Emerson makes the motion is there a second the Supreme makes the second is there any discussion I see no discussion board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you our next item is the education capital projects fund intra-category Fairview High Stadium Mr golden thank you madam chair this is a request for a change order to allow us to replace and repair the asphalt underneath the rubberized track at Fairview High School this was an unanticipated issue

085that we discovered when our folks started working on the artificial turf field so it's time to replace that asphalt we recommend approval is there a motion to approve Miss Durham makes the motion and Miss Emerson makes the second is there any discussion yes Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair Mr Golden can can we can you explain how the item was missed I guess since this is a change request and above and beyond the cost of it and how where else if we run into this and thank you for that it was missed because the rubberized track had covered it up but to access the field and do the work on the field the rubberized track is re is partially removed when that was removed the condition of the asphalt became apparent that has not happened

086anywhere else at any of our any of our other schools but but but Fairview and a hundred and forty thousand dollars to replace the asphalt or the asphalt and the rubber track as well the asphalt we already budgeted for the rubberized track thank you see no further questions board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you board members our next item is the education capital projects fund the intra-category Trinity walking trail Mr golden thank you madam chair this is a request for additional funds for the Trinity walking trail you had previously approved some funds for what is a joint project with Williamson County Parks and Recreation for a walking trail to connect Cecil Lewis Park to Trinity Elementary School on the north side of the school it's it went

087over for what Mark Samuels our assistant superintendent for operations describes as two reasons of well over the estimate number one the impact of construction projects and funding with covid with with with just the market changes and number two the the design of the structure over the creek was added to accommodate cars as part of our joint effort with Parks and Rec so when we learned that this went over I went to the county mayor I talked with Parks and Rec leaders and said hey this is a substantial increase is this still something that we want to do as a team and the short answer was yes and so we do recommend approval we are actually proposing to use remaining funding from the contingency line from Creekside Elementary we recommend approval thank you Ms Supriya makes

088the motion to approve and Miss Emerson makes the second is there any discussion Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair so Mr Golden I remember when we were talking about this particular walking trail and the fact that you know we've had other schools that have come to us looking for funds to build walking trails and we typically don't fund it out of our budget it's generally something that's pressed upon ptos or communities or they go after safe routes to school grants and stuff so what it what is ultimately since this is a 162 000 change request as well for this Trail What's the total cost for the trail going to be the total cost including Parks and Rec plus us approximately two 350 000 dollars so what was our original plan for our original commitment the

089original estimate from Mr Samuel's staff was 106 150. subsequent to that the discussion with the County government was to make it capable of bearing automobile loads across that Creek and that was that was a key change I will tell you also traditionally what we do with walking paths is work to cover the portion on our campus if a grant doesn't cover it but municipalities would typically be able to get often be able to get safe routes to schools grants for the walking portion elsewhere this is different in that it is County Parks and Rec with us I'm sure we've done it but I'm trying to remember I can't remember one where we've done it with County government where I can't remember one either and walking trails and safe safe paths to school or whatever that

090Grant is called it has been a fairly fairly active thing that I've tracked and so I'm I'm supportive of this but I sure hope that we're going to be a whole lot more receptive for the other schools that are coming in and asking for for pedestrian for assistance on building pedestrian trails since this is you know substantial it's substantial absolutely I agree with you and I will tell you that one of the one of the points we've been making the last two years especially is to bring to the board any Capital plans that where where contingency money has been freed up for these improvements and we're making sure to talk with you and we're making sure to talk with the county mayor as well thank you madam chair thank you I don't see any other

091hands raised so we can move to a vote your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you our next item on the agenda is the approval of the application and budget for Esser 3.0 Elementary and secondary school emergency relief Mr golden thank you madam chair we've been talking about Esser 3.0 for months and this is the point at which we're asking you to vote to approve our application so that we can submit it to the state we've talked over and over again about the numbers of us compared to others we do have a proposal for this for the proposed spending of the 5.2 million dollars over up to three years and that includes 19.5 Elementary and six secondary interventionists for two years contracted work for four clinical social workers for three years plus 51 stipends

092of Thirteen hundred fifty dollars for digital learning leads at each school for two years and we do recommend approval do we have a motion to approve Miss Emerson makes the motion do we have a Miss Apria makes the second is there any discussion I see no hands raised Boardman board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you board members the next item on the agenda is board policies for second reading board policy 5.1082 telework Mr golden thank you madam chair this is an item that we discuss very briefly at the work session but had some discussion in policy and one key point to that is related to adding some language in in telework and you see the blue up on there and this is for second reading and we

093do recommend approval but I'm open to any questions do we have a motion to approve Mr Mitchell makes the motion to approve do we have a second Mr Welch makes the second is there any discussion yes Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair so Ford I was the alderman that Alderman I was the commissioner who asked that this be pulled from from the consent agenda I'd like to offer up a amendment to this motion please and my Amendment would be to strike the first additional sentence on starting on row seven an ending on row nine so I basically would like to remove the requirement for in-state residency for this and that's my Amendment and then I'll have additional comments if I can get a second for that Miss Apria makes the second we're discussing the amendment

094now is there any are there any questions Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair so from my standpoint that this is a decision that Mr Golden or his or anybody that sits in his position will have the opportunity to decide I'm not I don't believe it's appropriate for us to tie his hands on this that if he has a desire to as as the policy is written it's his call to begin with whether somebody can work remotely and it ought to be his call whether that person can live in and can live outside the state of Tennessee or the county of Williamson County for that matter so I'm that's the reason I am offering this up that I believe this is a unnecessary restriction to Mr Golden's Authority and decision-making ability Mr Cash thank you madam

095chair Mr Golden don't we don't you already have some wiggle room on that with the with the policy I mean if some if it's a necessary thing as it stands right now Mr Mitchell is correct that I have the I would have the power to say I want to employ someone who who lives out of state and does all their work out of state we do have some commuters already and that's not covered in this but for the purposes of telework what we what we have learned and what our human resources department has recommended is we haven't addressed it specifically and for clarity purposes the recommendation is to put it into policy so Mr Mitchell's correct that I do have discretion on paper right now and this would shrink it one of the reasons that

096I was I'm okay with this policy and ultimately recommended it is for clarity purposes for our employees so that they would know on the front end that we don't at this point have the capacity to to to take care of all the logistical items related to having somebody work for us and be completely out the truth is I'll be fine either way it's it's a it's a it's a Clarity purpose and my intent is if this passes that if there's a point at which we need somebody to fully work for us but but be based elsewhere the entire time we would bring it to you and I do want to invite Miss Hall to to to address that question as well thank you Mr Golden they're this section I think was added when I discussed

097this with Miss osbrooks and it had a lot to do with some financial implications that existed if we have an employee who actually resides and works outside the state because there are there are tax implications from that and this farmer here can speak to that and I think some considerations as well were due to risk management and also to our health insurance there there are several like financial implications to this Mr Golden do you want Miss farmer just Vicky had said something about Miss farmer speaking to you oh no sorry pardon me okay Miss Apria I support this amendment just because with the way things are changing the fact that we have a WCS online school and there are plenty of credentialed Tennessee teachers living in other states that could easily teach that online unless

098there's I mean it doesn't say you have to hire someone out of state but if you wanted to consider the option of hiring them if you had a hard to fill position you would be hindered from doing so by this and it may come a point where a CTE position in the technology field is filled by someone who lives in Seattle or somewhere where they have that expertise and want to teach remotely as we've been having Edge annuity do the past year for our secondary kids I don't think it's a bad idea to leave the opportunity there to hire the best and the brightest in whatever field they're in if they happen to live out of state but could legally teach our students so I support the amendment just because it doesn't require you to

099to hire them but you have the opportunity to do so Mr Welch thank you so I fully support the concept of this and Elliot we've talked about it before and I I like where you're going with it I agree with Jen is that obviously we want to hire the best people regardless of where their feet happen to be I work remote myself and a lot of people do and obviously it's it's a big change going forward but I think the concern for me and Vicki touched on it was I know companies here that I've worked for when they've had an employee move to to California and this is just one example it's not the example per se they've had to go as a contract employee not full-time because of the taxation laws there require that

100you have to pay full California corporate taxes if you have one employee there or something similar to that I don't want to be quoting California taxation law right now but that's that's an example of of the unintended consequences the concerns that I have in this case if we've got 50 different states and 50 different regulations what are what are the requirements and separation of HR payment retire tournament are so many different things that way that we just don't know so rather than not have the safeguards for us which I think this unintentionally takes away and sort of saying this is the standard that we have but we can deviate from that I think we should put those safeguards in place and then say when we get into a situation where we found the right person

101or have a need or we have to go out we can bring that back to the board and if we want to loosen that language up some if we want to give the superintendent more Authority and power to to do that to bring something to the board I'm all for that but I'm very concerned about taking it away completely especially when you know we've heard from our head of HR and our head of accounting that they have concerns about this Mr Wimberley conceptually I like the idea but I think I've had some of the same concerns that Eric has I mean the so I mean I like Eric I've dealt with these things you know pretty much all my life and they can a lot of these things can be overcome but however there are

102some landmines and I'm mentioned in California and other Western States is probably a pretty big land mine so I'm wondering if we can perhaps investigate this a little bit more because I'm not sure I guess I'm not ready as I said I like it conceptually but I'm not really supported yet do what Miss Cleveland I would have to agree conceptually I love the idea but I think we're kind of getting the cart before the horse I'd like to see us I would love to see us investigating I'd like to see administratively if we can set something up you know to you know if there's a way we can actually set up a system to be able to handle it and maybe dive into it a little bit more and if we are able to and

103we have a system that we are able to accommodate it then I say go for it but right now to open up something that we're not administerably able to do it yet I think that puts us in a situation to have to scramble and I'd rather have all our ducks in a row and then say yeah we're ready for this and then we can open up the policy so if I could miss Cleveland at the last meeting where this was discussed in June that was that was the ask of myself I worked with Miss Carson Lisa Carson and you'll see there were no changes we attempted to do just that based upon Mr Mitchell's request at the June at the June board meeting okay I appreciate it thank you Mr Mitchell Miss allbrook who is

104Miss Carson I'm not familiar with that and I don't believe I ever got a any feedback from that analysis Lisa Carson is County attorney she represents Williamson County as well as Williamson County schools in much of our litigation particularly involving torts or human resources so very familiar with slip and fall or any kind of action that would take place against the school system so was there was there something in writing then that came from Earl's discussion that was provided to staff on that it was a discussion that she and I had yeah correct no nothing in writing discussion that Miss Carson and I had so I guess a couple of thoughts this could be full or part-time doesn't have to be full-time employees the other thought is this is not opening it up it's giving

105Jason the opportunity where otherwise he would not have it you know we do health insurance for retirees Williamson County employs get to get to take their health insurance with them and retirees from Williamson County live all over the country so the county manages that and those type of litigations without any concern we spoke I guess Thursday night about the fact that we don't have an income structure that can that somebody can afford to live in Williamson County from a new hire so we're we're we've got this can potentially has a solution to some of that it's about skilled it's not just about teachers it's about all staff and skilled workers it's skilled employees and I and I frankly believe that we've got a lot of very smart people that work and hire in our central

106office and they can figure it out the fact that it's we're sitting here saying this is too complicated for our educated staff to figure out how to manage taxes or or deal with legal issues if they might arise is I find to be a fairly weak argument but that said I believe all of these all of these things could be overcome if Mr Golden so desired so that's really where I'm at is that I want to give Jason all the capability and opportunity to hire who he wants If he if he found somebody he needed and that's kind of why I'm making the motion because it's I mean it really is the world and the Paradigm that we're in due to covid and it's it's sad to see us be kind of my opinion thank

107you thinking that we're we need to only employ people that are within driving distance of the of the district if I guess if I may Madam chair I'll answer Mr Mitchell thank you for that and it is unusual for a superintendent to say hey I want you to restrict some of my decisions I will tell you what convinced me for this for this purpose right now is making sure that our staff members have Clarity on that and that they know that's our standard right now and if and when we reach a point where we're capable of doing it then we can let you know one thing that has become clear to me is that when the point comes that we're ready for this and it's not a contractor it's a full-time employee there will be

108an expense involved over and above what you all have approved from a salary perspective and so I wanted to make sure that number one prospective employees and employees who are thinking about leaving you would not either come on thinking that that this was a guarantee or that they could move and suddenly we'd be faced with an additional expense that we didn't budget for and then second to make sure that there was a trigger to have this conversation with you when we determined that there was a need and a Justice justification for it that would trigger some additional expense and additional expenses I know Miss Farmers made it very clear that would include buying additional modules for for income tax from a number of states the possibility of of getting a separate workers compensation policy for

109that individual and some of those additional expenses now to your point I'll be fine either way I think the discussion at least has made it clear that we have a record that this is that this is a potential issue but as I analyzed it as I said I concluded we're not ready for that right now Human Resources brought it to me that it's not clear to to our employees or prospective employees that we're not ready for it right now and that's why the idea of a policy came in place Mr Wimberly thank you Mr Hall thank you madam chair so I was liking the flexibility that this would offer too but that I realized that this also invites questions and requests for accommodation from the superintendent and what I'm hearing you say Mr Golden is

110that your answer is already no basically to those out-of-state accommodations and you'd rather have it kind of set the expectations with the policy not as amended at this moment I know we're not ready but it could come sure if it comes I'm gonna I've concluded that I need to bring it to the board anyway because there will be some additional some additional expenses another thing I didn't mention is we're going to have to deal you know and talk with County government before I do it as well okay I want to make sure we don't run a foul because they offer because they provide our benefits I want to make sure that we don't run afoul of that I know it's going to be in my head right this guarantee is going to be there I

111don't know for sure that it will be in anybody else's head when the time comes thank you I think it's going to happen it's just it is a question of when I see no further discussion so we're voting on the amendment and the amendment is to strike the language Miss Glenn let me turn your microphone on there you go to strike out the last section of line seven through line nine allowing employees to live out of the state of Tennessee board members please vote on the amendment now oh sorry your vote is five yes six no thank you so that Amendment does not pass we're back to the original motion now is there any discussion please cast your votes for the original policy your vote is nine yes two no thank you board members our

112next items on the agenda are board policies for first recommended first and final reading and Miss osbrooks if you can please explain the why behind the first and final reading and then you can go ahead and start discussing these policies thank you yes so all of the policies are first reading our recommendation is pursuant to policy 1.600 policy development and adoption there's a procedure for an expedited action so board members you could waive the second reading of these policies and take immediate action to adopt the new or revised policies so we would need a motion for that to be accomplished Ms supria makes the motion Mr ha makes the second is there any discussion I see no discussion please cast your votes recommend approval thank you your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you

113board now we'll go through these one at a time I will read the policy and we'll ask for the superintendent's recommendation the first is policy 3.211 new project planning Mr golden thank you madam chair I recommend approval of this change for compliance with the law board members is there a motion to approve the Supreme makes the motion Mr Cash makes the second is there any other discussion I see no discussion please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you the next item is policy 3.2 Dot 3.220 access to private facilities Mr golden thank you madam chair this is a new policy in compliance with the new Tennessee law recommended approval is there a motion to approve Mr Hall makes the motion Ms Emerson makes the second is there any discussion board

114members please cast your votes there's no discussion your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you board members the next policy is 4.101 instructional standards Mr golden thank you madam chair likewise this is the new policy to comply with new state law regarding relating to instructional standards in curriculum Mr Hall makes the motion to approve Miss Emerson makes the second board members any discussion yes Mr Cash thank you madam chair I asked this question at the policy meeting and you know the first four lines the board is charged with selection of curriculum no subjects or topics prohibited by state or federal law shall be taught the superintendent of school shall develop administer an administrative procedure to implement this policy I just want to make sure on this policy that we are 100 percent sure what

115we're teaching in our curriculums that go by the state and federal laws I mean we've heard from groups of people about you know written wisdom for one are we totally satisfied that we are abiding by the law well Mr Cash if I may this is going to take constant review every time something new comes we're going to have to review it and make sure we are so we rely on the state to approve and then we'll do the same so we've specifically mentioned public chapter 471 as a as a legal reference down below and that is the law that includes the language like the leas are prohibited from promoting Concepts like One race or sex is inherently Superior to another racer sex so we are reviewing that to make sure we are in compliance all

116right just making sure thank you I see no further discussion board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you our next item is policy 4.204 summer instructional programs Mr golden thank you madam chair this is a new new policy related to the new summer school law that the state passed in January recommend approval motion to approve Miss Apria is there a second Mr Mitchell seconds any discussion yes Mr Priya do we need to mention esy on the programs available thank you for that I'll give you want to give legal opinion oh go ahead this particular policy is related to the summer school program we are obligated to provide extended school year for students with disabilities through their IEPs so my take on it is it's not appropriate in this

117policy because this is compliance with the state law and we're going to comply with the federal law through a different avenue okay and then under the recommendation of the superintendent will give a report number seven enrollment criteria is that going to include the prioritization methods and are we going to be sure to include because I know the state says that we have to include anyone who's not proficient for certain camps anyone who's not scoring proficient on the State Testing but our students with disabilities that take the alternate assessment don't have the designation of not proficient and so but in theory should be included that's a good point we'll make sure that we review that as we prepare for next year this first year was a pilot and we did we did aim at the at

118the students based on their screeners with State approval and if I'm not mistaken we applied that screener standard to students regardless of of of disability at those Elementary grade levels I'm getting a nod just to make sure I'm saying that accurately thank you I see no further questions board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes 0 no the next item is policy 4.1 4.213 Family Life Education thank you madam chair this family life education policy is likewise a new one for many many years we did not have the obligation under the family life policy because our pregnancy relate rate was below the standard this is in compliance with the with the new state law eliminating that exemption recommend approval is there a motion to approve Mr Hall makes the motion to approve

119is there a second Miss Emerson seconds any discussion I see no discussion board members please vote your vote is 10 yes one no thank you board members the next item is 4.301 interscholastic Athletics Mr golden thank you madam chair this policy change includes a mix of legal compliance for for new laws plus an acknowledgment that was implied in the existing interscholastic Athletics policy related to the Williamson Middle School Athletic Association and as you know from conversations over the over the summer our plan is to have all our remaining middle schools join the TMS double A I do recommend approval their motion to approve Mr Priya makes the motion is there a second Miss Durham makes the second any further discussion board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no next policy

120of 5.106 application and employment Mr golden thank you madam chair you have a number of application and employment well just the one recommended changes from Miss osbrose related to changes in the law to replace the hiring policy if I'm not mistaken recommend approval is there a motion to approve Mr Hall makes the motion to approve is there a second Miss Mississippi makes the second is there any discussion board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no next policy is 5.802 qualifications and duties of the superintendent of schools thank you madam chair likewise Miss osbrooks as recommended a change to the qualifications of the superintendent and duties of course based on page two of four adding Educators who have a temporary teaching permit which is a new a new method for teachers

121to teach for us do recommend approval of that change board members I'll make the motion to approve is there a second Mr Hall makes the second any discussion please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no next up policy 5.117 teacher tenure Mr golden thank you madam chair this teacher 10-year proposed policy change is designed to replace the non-tenure and tenure policy based on changes in the law we do recommend approval motion to approve Sarah Mr Welch makes the motion is there a second Mr Hall makes the second any discussion board members I see no discussion please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no policy 5.200 separation practices for tenured teachers thank you madam chair this is what I think of as part two of a three-part related to the

122teacher tenure policy you just passed separation practices for tenured teachers do you recommend approval which is in compliance with Tennessee law is there a motion to approve Mr Cash makes the motion to approve is their second Miss Apria makes the second any discussion board members I see no discussion please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no policy 5.201 separation practices for non-tenured teachers Mr golden thank you madam chair this is the change based on the state law from the commissioner being the recipient of a of a of a complaint related to breach of contract to the state board of education do recommend approval for this legal change Mr Hall makes the motion to approve is their second Miss Priya makes a second any discussion board members if not please cast your votes

123your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you our final agenda item tonight on policies is 6.200 attendance Mr golden thank you madam chair this proposed change reflects the changes in the Law related to truancy which includes a new Progressive truancy plan we do recommend approval of this change is there a motion to approve Mr Hall makes the motion is there a second Mr Welch makes the second board members any discussion yes Mr Mitchell Mr Golden can you explain to us what triggers the truancy report the trigger point is five unexcused absences and over time the state has shifted from five unexcused absences 10 or 15 years ago meant a referral to the juvenile court immediately to plans to delay that so that interventions can be put in place prior to something coming before the

124juvenile judge this is the most recent adjustment to that and it includes conference with the students and the and the students pairing their Guardian a really detailed discussion about the school's expectations for the students trying to find tools and ways to help the student not get to the point of having to go to juvenile court for truancy so the initial the initial action then of this of the school is to kind of counsel the student and the parents at what point does the what's the process of the district to determine when when it does need to be TR be referred to the juvenile court well you go through the pro the process that's in blue and even if if after Community you get community-based services or counseling if there continues to be attendance problems then

125that's the point at which the juvenile court would be involved I do want you to know one other other item that our judge has typically asked for prior to something coming before her in this case and Miss osbrook's correct me if I'm wrong she typically asks has DCS gotten involved as well and that's something that she wants to make sure that prior to something coming before her there's already been thought and discussion about what other services that she has access to that schools don't might be available to a student even before the student arrives in court do you know how many students have been referred I guess last year in our district for truancy I don't know the number last year Dr Webb Dr Webb shaking her head no we don't know that number we

126can get that to you I will tell you over time it has reduced there's been a significant Trend towards reducing the number of of of of actual truancy filings in part because of the view towards towards providing support services well before a juvenile court gets involved what's going to be our strategy around truancy and the olp program I would ask Dr Webb to speak to that if you would Dr Webb Jen Mr Mitchell our process for our WCS online schools actually will follow this same process as the board new board policy is going to outline which is the state requirement for all schools virtual schools and traditional so we take attendance in that on the online then and that would determine the that would be the trigger I guess is that's the same trigger then

127that is correct for K-8 remember our virtual schools are synchronous and so those classes attendances taken daily for active engagement for our 9 through 12 classes those are asynchronous and so their attendance is based upon their engagement with the content but attendance is required for virtual schools and taken okay thank you Mr Priya I wanted to ask a question about excused absences and I guess it'll relate to number nine circumstances which in the Judgment of the principle warrants absence from school and over which the student has no control I feel like does that cover if your parent gets a letter stating that they were a potential close contact for kovid and the parent opts to keep their child home you confirmed with me earlier today that would make an excused absence for any case so

128do the print does it need to be included in there or do the principals know that's always an excused absence or do the families know I just didn't know the principals know that and I would like Dr Royer Dr Webb if there's anything else you want to add to that I will tell you from my perspective I don't think it'd be wise to add it to the policy that's what I'm wondering we've we've given in part because I wonder when we'll you know are we going to forget that it's in there at some point and that's so that's a that's a constant challenge let's review annually in March there you go I'm just talking life experience you know it says review annually in March but I'm not super confident every year it's it that's on

129me foreign board members there's no further discussion please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you board members that concludes our agenda Mr Golden do you have anything else thank you madam chair I actually meant to to mention a reminder about fostering Healthy Solutions in their work fostering Healthy Solutions has completed their work for us I provided you a three-page version of their conclusions and recommendations I do want you to spend some time working on that in the next few weeks and months we'll be developing a specific plan that we'll take to you for approval but I do want to thank The Fosters for their analysis for their strategic planning for for the for the work they did to to to gather Community input in so many ways and finally I

130want to let you know just as a reminder we do have a lot of the raw data at the office so if you all would like to spend some time digging through that we certainly welcome that just let us know either let Miss Hall or me know and we'll make sure that we've got some time for you to do that and that's it and thank you thank you board members this meeting is adjourned