001foreign okay Josh if you can hear us would you here I'm going to text Josh too if you can hear us could you unmute and there you are he's good okay fantastic thank you and I would like to acknowledge and thank deputies Mark Gorman and Ron Hooper for being here with us tonight thank you both so much and next on our agenda is to rise and say the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence One Nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all you can be seated each month at the Williamson County School Board we do offer the opportunity for the public to come and speak with us and this month we do have five members of the community who have signed up online to speak to the board and I'm going to start
002with calling two members of the community at a time to come and speak and if you'll just come up to the podium when your name is called you don't have to come up with the second person just is for awareness that you're going to be next you will have three minutes to speak no is that right yes three minutes and you'll be able to see that time up on the monitor just gonna confirm and we'll all be able to see that time as well our first two speakers are Lillian Stone and Ella Griffin so you can go ahead and come up and these are students so we're not going to have these individuals State their addresses and no one has to state their addresses but we do have them on file thank you hello superintendent
003golden and school board members thank you for allowing me to speak tonight my name is Lily Stone and I'm a junior at Ravenwood high school I'm here tonight to bring attention to the growing prevalence of anti-Semitism in Williamson County Schools I have personally experienced anti-Semitism multiple times during school hours and it has gotten progressively worse I had the opportunity to meet with assistant superintendent Webb last week and explain my Encounters in depth anti-Semitism is a global issue with the FBI hate crime statistics showing that 55 percent of all religious crimes Target Jews and yet Jews are only 2 percent of the U.S population I would like to see a zero tolerance policy enforced for this type of hate speech in addition to a zero tolerance policy I have two suggestions that I believe will make
004Jewish students feel safer and more accepted one I believe Williamson County Schools should know on internal calendars the dates of Jewish holy days and avoid scheduling exams tryouts or other things outside of the day-to-day Norms on those dates there have been multiple times when I had to choose between my faith in education are my absences excused yes is this enough no I have to sacrifice my religious beliefs and attend school instead of services because of tests and assignments I have a twin sister who is the female scholar athlete of the year in eighth grade but during those years had to run a county-wide cross country Championship meet on Yom Kippur and missed a day of soccer tryouts because of Rosh Hashanah which was not received well imagine for a moment having to sacrifice your faith
005on Christmas or Easter in order to avoid being penalized in other aspects of your lives 2. I feel the school board in Williamson County Schools should collaborate in making a stance against anti-Semitism I believe that when you know better you do better and I would like to operate myself my family and my Rabbi as sources of information as well as information available online to quote the associated Jewish Federation hatred of Jews is not solely a Jewish issue making hatred of Jews socially unacceptable requires Jewish allies to be invested in creating a more compassionate and caring community I have ideas such as websites for information a hotline for reporting issues and other ideas that I would love to discuss at another time I was inspired to speak tonight after personal recent anti-semitic encounters and hearing a
006sermon delivered by a new Rabbi at the temple where he stated being different requires a certain strength a certain courage nothing heroic but real it would have been easier not to be different we are different in a world not built for us to continue to be free to be us we'll take the strength and the courage to say I am Jewish and this is not right while I don't have much time left in high school I intend to leave Williamson County Schools a better place than where I started please join me in finding ways to make our schools a part of the solution in the fight against anti-Semitism I left with you a binder of information including the most important holidays for the next seven years thank you for your time thank you Miss Stone
007we have Ellen Ella Griffin next and then Eli Givens hi everyone my name is Mars Griffin I'm a senior at Ravenwood High School in the face of racism it is not enough to be non-racist you must be actively anti-racist in the first two weeks of this semester two racist events happened at Ravenwood and despite the policy change requiring racist actions to be punished by 10 days minimum ISS neither the student who posted the swastika Pizza on social media nor the student who defaced a black student's artwork with the KKK shooting black people have been adequately punished by the school you claim to take every threat against our school seriously and in context yet the students who commit hate crimes where the context cannot be escaped never see the consequences of their actions the fact that
008I had to call the organizations and parents standing behind me on a Saturday night when I could have been doing other things with my life to handle this situation because the schools could not speak to the level of disrespect that black students are being shown I think it's funny how in my senior year instead of thinking of all the wonderful memories that I could create here and the amazing people that are around me I'm honestly just ready to get out of here and I know that a lot of other black students feel the same you say you prioritize student safety and yet in your silence you tell us that we don't matter in your silence you tell us that white students will be prioritized and will be given preferential treatment to students of color you
009tell us that feeling unsafe in the school district means absolutely nothing to you and you tell us that even though we alert you to racism you would have done nothing to present it in short we are exhausted and angered by the willful ignorance being shown and the complete lack of justice for black students in our schools so I am asking you to do something about both events and by something I mean a clear and effective investigation into both of these hateful events and for that investigation to lead to the just punishment of both of the people involved because we will continue to fight until you decide to truly appreciate us as people thank you and good night thank you Miss Griffin next we have Eli Givens and Jennifer Cortez hello everyone my name is Eli
010and I'm a non-binary senior at Summit High School as Dr Mike Michael Eric Dyson so brilliantly said we are the United States of Amnesia quick to ban quick to ignore quick to ostracize our youth matter more than being political Pawns in a power chess game our youth matter more than marching the streets and begging our schools to be more for our students our youth are worth more than depriving them a diverse and quality education in which they can see themselves you see we shout from the rooftops how our kids matter and need to be protected but how is this represented in our actions in Williamson students of color are experiencing brutal and racist attacks in their own schools in Williamson transgender students are being mercilessly targeted and unsupported in Williamson LGBT plus youth are unable
011to find places of solace in such a polarized County we can no longer ignore the consequences according to the Trevor Project's 2022 survey 45 percent of lgbtq Youth seriously consider it attempting suicide in the past year with over half being students of color 51 percent reported their school to be a safe space while 32 percent reporting their homes were a safe space for many of the kids served in Williamson County school is their Oasis a place where they can see people who have the same skin the same identity the same story we as youth will continue to step up but we need help we want to see not just punishment for bigotry but conversation we want to see our youth affirmed heard and respected exactly as they are we want to see our lawmakers admin
012and staff unafraid to do what is right our youth matters more no one person has the answer but I hope this brings about a larger conversation thank you next we have Jennifer Cortez and then ravita Robin so proud of the students for speaking for years now month after month community members of color have been expressing the need for something to be done to keep their children from facing explicit and implicit discrimination in our schools Williamson County isn't alone in this happens everywhere but it certainly happens here our counselors and administrators need to be equipped on how to handle and talk about race and they need the full support of this board they need clear widespread support in that it needs to be included in the new strategic plan in bright bold letters as clear as
013day every single one of you who has been through an election knows full well there is a power Dynamic at play here they're Power Players there are those on the inside and those on the outside and that power Dynamic up until this day encourages people to stay silent when it comes to race it keeps the burden squarely on the shoulders of the students families and staff of color there are many of you who are making good faith efforts to change that many counselors many teachers many students and we're thankful for that at one Wilco we want to every student and family who ever faces the slightest discrimination to feel free to speak up and know that they will be fully supported this is how we can Thrive as a diverse Community I once heard it
014said that Unity is diversity protected and maintained by love that can still be us but only if we're willing to stand against hate I call on each of you to listen to your neighbors of color listen to those who live different experiences from you when they tell you they need your support stop trying to silence them and dismiss them listen to them and believe them thank you thank you and our last speaker of the evening is ravita ramen I had a recent conversation with a parent I'm a former student from WCS who shared some insight from the experiences she had in WCS in the 90s she shared some racist experiences she personally experienced here we are still seeing remnants of this culture in WCS today almost 30 years later we were notified of three incidents
015last week and that's just the ones that we know about the calls we've received about racist incidents continue due to the culture here that is displayed outside of our schools across the state we take pride in WCS in our outstanding student accomplishments but there are other accomplishments that are being seen in other areas of the state that are nothing to be proud of as students graduate and go off to colleges like University of Tennessee and when a racist incident happens there their parents shared that some of the staff can usually guess where that student came from WCS why is that because the culture here is not inclusive and accepting to others who don't look like the majority is that how we want to be viewed we paid for an equity audit with Foster and healthy
016solutions we learned the challenges we face and we have a plan of action how are those action items going or is that report on the Shelf collecting dust we appear to be bound by others who don't want change and are afraid to train staff on how to handle these issues we still have students joining swastikas calling their peers the n-word a monkey and drawing a klansman killing a black man in our schools today I applaud WCS for the equity audit but are we doing enough to make WCS safer for students of color people move here attracted to our schools only to leave and go to other areas that are more welcoming many still have in their heads their heads in the sand denying racism these kids are experiencing even exist I implore you to get
017out of your bubble imagine your response if these were your children being bullied harmed or taunted you'd move with swift action only because it doesn't affect you does it not seem to matter we need WCS and the board to collectively do better for these students when one Wilco stops getting reports of students being harassed I'll stop showing up until the end I'll see you next month thank you so much to everybody who came to speak with us tonight and next on our agenda is the approval of the agenda and I will open the floor to our board members to make a motion for Mr Welch Mr group and Mr Hall seconds that motion and we'll all cast our votes and then we'll get Mr Brown's vote as well Mr Brown how about yes your vote
018is 12 yes zero no thank you and just to repeat that was a vote for yes for the agenda for the evening 12 members voted yes the next item is the approval of the consent agenda and if we have emotion from a board member thank you in a second I'm sorry that was Mrs Clements in a second Mr Mitchell working on calling people by their last names all right thank you and we'll go ahead and cast our votes and Mr Brown how about yes your vote is 12 yes zero no thank you and to repeat that was the approval of the consent agenda and with that approval we approved the November 28 2022 school board meeting minutes the recommendation for field tree field trip fee requests the annual review of the board policies the city
019of brentwood's request for sanitary sewer utility easement at Scales Elementary School and the resignation of math textbook Committee Member and approval of the replacement of that Committee Member next on the agenda we do have communications to the board and Mr Golden start with the superintendent's report thank you madam chair and I want to thank everyone who's here tonight I especially want to thank the students and parents who spoke to us at our public comment time it is important for us to continue to talk about issues related to race religion and how we how we create a sense of true safety in our schools and I thank you all for that I do want to mention what Miss Rockman mentioned that we a little over I think a year and a half ago went through the
020process with fostering healthy solutions of setting some goals this fall we included in our in our student handbooks consistent discipline for for actions especially related to to the student sense of safety in in discrimination issues and in bullying issues and it is something that takes constant effort and constant attention and I want everyone to know that's on our principles Minds on a daily basis it is a continuing effort to make sure that students feel comfortable letting their teachers and administrators know when something happens and so again especially students thank you thank you for sharing that with us we do have our website our cultural strategy plan there's a web page with that so I encourage folks to to look at that as well Madam chair I also want to mention a couple of items that
021we talked about at the work session just as a reminder the third grade retention law is is having its substantive effect this coming summer so per the state law by February 1st we are to give parents of third graders a letter notifying them that their students May their children may be at risk for for the for those impacts of the third grade engine law and that includes potentially one or both of summer school the four-week summer program basically in June along with tutoring over the course of the next year so TCAP is the standard for that and students take TCAP in third grade for the first time so when we project out what students may be at risk it's based on other tools our screeners which are also state approved to to identify students who
022are ready to receive that grade levels instruction and some of the work of the teachers as they're preparing students for mastering those standards so that's a key point just in about a week and a half that families will get that notice so that will trigger a lot of conversations between our principals and parents over the over these next few weeks I also want to let you know that we had a classified job fair late last week and we had 120 individuals come looking for us as a potential employer as a potential career I'm confident those folks are looking looking and trying to decide on jobs because y'all it's a seller's market out there for jobs so I want to thank Miss Vicki Hall and our human resources department for putting on that classified job fair
023it was strategically scheduled right at the beginning of the calendar year because they know based on their research that is a key time maybe not the only one but a key time where folks are looking for looking for for career thoughts and job changes I also know that a number of those who came to that job fair were new to the community and so I'm very happy about that of those 120 Vicki I may be overstating it but I think we had maybe about 40 who were potential special education teachers assistant candidates and so we are at 89 Staffing in that particular metric which means we are about 70 short for special ed teachers assistance when you think about our size the raw numbers can feel overwhelming we have a right at 700 special education
024teachers assistants across the district so again thank you for for that work bus driver candidates there were a few not nearly that many I just got to tell it like it is bus driver bus drivers continue to be a challenge across the state and across Middle Tennessee as well my peers and I actually had a brainstorming session at our regular monthly meeting on on that particular job among many other discussions that we had so we're excited about where we're headed with that with the potential that we have to grow even in the middle of the school year which is often tough for school districts our strategic plan has gotten started with with Lipscomb University they're their very first conversation was with our leadership team assistant superintendents and me we have met with the WCA building
025representatives and and then our core conversations regarding our strategic planning process are going to happen in February and I want to make sure I articulate these at the meeting I know we're sending notices out we've told you they're on your calendars Etc but we have five Community meetings in February Regional meetings February 7th we're going to be at Independence High School 5 30 to 7. February 9th at Brentwood middle school again 5 30 to 7 February 13th at Franklin High same time February 21st at Fairview High same time in February 23rd at Mill Creek Middle again our end goal from a scheduling standpoint is to bring you a strategic plan recommendation in a final recommendation for your vote in May you will be participating in those including individual conversations with our with our facilitators and
026hopefully in those meetings with our Community we're going to have a PTO meeting scheduled additional meetings across the across the district with teachers Etc so I'm very excited about where we're heading on that and I want to thank the parents who spoke as well mentioning the Strategic plan because we want as many Community stakeholders as possible to come to those meetings and participate in our in our goal process we had excellent results from the last strategic plan and I'm excited about where we're headed with with this next plan I also want to mention to you finally that next week is a school board member Appreciation Week here in Tennessee nationally January is School Board appreciation month and it's it's 31 days so congratulations and thank you board for the work you do you get occasional
027thanks I know but the reality is it's the kind of work that is often thankless we got you a little buntini cakes so we take those home with you as a as a small thank you from us and we very much appreciate your leadership and the community sacrifice that you give all the students that we serve so thank you for that Madam chair final thing I want to mention is we celebrated our teachers of the year just this past week we had kind of a prize Patrol to use Carol's phrase to celebrate our district-wide teachers of the year there's a there's an in Focus article article naming those those teachers and our principal it was so much fun to go out there and congratulate those teachers a lot of gasp we actually had a really
028neat experience with students who recorded a video for their teacher congratulating their teacher on teachers of teacher of the year one one fun fact and I'm being little tongue-in-cheek on this is when they win this award district-wide they get to write an essay because their their name gets submitted to the state and the state makes Regional decisions and then Statewide decisions for teachers of the year so I'm very proud of proud of those folks and Madam chair as regularly Carol Birdsong is here to give us some celebrations for Statewide and National recognitions Carol thank you Mr Golden and board members I know you are going to anxiously be awaiting the videos that will be coming out tomorrow in in focus of our prize Patrol visit so stay tuned and watch all the fun so we
029are going to start this evening with our perfect ACT composite score students and board members we have 15 students to recognize for scoring a perfect ACT composite over the last several months of testing now our sengupram Brentwood hi Zachary villaroos from Brentwood High Franklin High has five students Jason Bowles Jade horn Joshua Murray Jack Parker and Jonathan Zink from Independence High Riley lent from nolansville high William Flanagan from page High evaning Meyer Ferris Livingston and Marissa Smalley from Ravenwood Margaret mcgurn Caleb Park and Siddharth Singh now we are going to talk about students who have been named to the All-State Band by the middle Tennessee school board a school band and Orchestra Association we have 19 students who were named to the All-State band we're going to start at Brentwood with Helen Corey and jayan
030sungy also from Franklin High School we have Harley gaylors caidman gotel Judy Shu Jessica Wong and renes Jamal also from Franklin High School Jason Johnson Finn sailor Sam Swann Lucas Barden and November Varden from nolansville high school it's Nora Romano who is named to Allstate band from page High School Jack Jones Kaden Monk and Peter Singletary from Ravenwood High School Emily Barnes Joseph McCoy and Isabel most sinkerbocker sinkbucker sorry about that Isabel and then we're going to move to Allstate Orchestra we have 23 students from schools high schools across our County who were named to the Middle Tennessee school band and Orchestra Association All State Orchestra from Brentwood Ivy Allen Andy Gann Noah Kim Joanna Lee Gunn Park also from Brentwood High School Elizabeth Park Gordon Shang Amy Shu and Brian shu from Centennial Noah
031Murray from Franklin Dylan cook and Chloe Robinson from Independence William honkin Krauss from nolansville Jason Lim and Ethan o from Ravenwood Sydney Doak Luca Hernandez Palmer Phoebe Kelso Megan Lowe also Mitchell Lowe Jason Wong Sophia Wong and Braden John and then we have a staff Spotlight this evening board members this is your 2022 literacy Association of Tennessee reading teacher of the year and this is Lauren Hawks and Miss Hawks is a second grade teacher at Mill Creek Elementary School so congratulations to all of our students and staff member and that's my report thank you Mr Golden and thank you Miss Birdsong next on the agenda we have the board chair report just wanted to acknowledge the board for getting together last week for the board retreat we did have a nice Retreat and actually have
032a follow-up mini retreat that we're going to conduct in a couple months so thank you again board members for that and for Mr Golden and Lydia for helping to coordinate and participate as well and next on the agenda we do have new business first thing is the 2022 and 23 School Board budget approval of the general purpose School fund Amendment Mr golden thank you madam chair this first item is the CT Middle School Grant approval and we recommend your approval thank you Mr Wimberley and Mr Miss Cleveland thank you for the second any discussion board members okay we'll cast our votes and Mr Brown will catch your vote on the phone I vote Yes your vote is 12 yes zero no thank you again that was 12 votes yes for the approval of the general
033purpose School fund Amendment CTE Middle School stem grant for 29 998 next item is the approval of the general purpose School fund resolution Mr golden thank you madam chair this is the annual request that we have to move the pay raises to the appropriate Lines within the budget this will be moving from inter categories unlike the grant for the U.S soccer association drone program at middle schools that you just approved this one actually requires County Commission approval do recommend approval of these Finance moves into the appropriate categories super do we have a motion Mr Beasley Mr Haas seconds thank you no comment we will cast our votes and Mr Brown we'll go ahead and get your vote over the phone I vote Yes your vote is 12 yes zero no thank you with that vote
03412 yeses we approve the approval we approved the general purpose School fund resolution in our category transfer salary of 9.2 million dollars next on the agenda is board policies for first reading first one is field trips Mr golden thank you madam chair this is a recommendation that many of you as board members have discussed that in now with approval of this that first reading when it passes second reading would include that Juniors may visit post-secondary institutions for visits per the policy so we do recommend approval of that at first reading super do we have a motion Miss Clements and Mr Mitchell thank you any discussion all right no discussion board members cast your votes please and Mr Brown I vote Yes thank you the vote is 12 yes zero no thank you with those 12
035votes yes we passed the field trip first reading for board policy and the second item on the agenda is report cards and grading systems thank you madam chair there are a handful of changes related to this policy that center around the methodology used to calculate grades for for if I'm for college courses taken while in high school and I'm looking at my academic leaders over there make sure I articulated that well the intent of this policy change is to bring our calculation in line with the state structure and we intend for this if it passes second reading to be applicable this fall so that students planning for planning now for taking for courses in the fall can make an informed decision is about as to how those grades will be calculated do recommend approval for
036this at first reading thank you Mr Golden do we have a motion for approval Mr Galbraith and Mr Mitchell I think I saw your hand any discussion Mr Galbraith I just want to make sure that the I think we talked about the motion is actually for for approval of well actually I'll take that back this is first reading so it doesn't matter never mind I still make the motion I was when we when we approve it next next month presumably the motion will will the motion will be that it will be it will be effective August or for the 23 24 school year thank you for making sure we pointed that out thank you any further discussion okay board members cast your votes and Mr Brown I vote yes thank you your vote is 12
037yes 0 no thank you school board members with those 12 votes you approved their report cards and grading systems the first reading so we'll do our second reading next month the next item on the agenda is vacations and holidays thank you madam chair this first reading is a change a recommended change to include five additional paid holidays for a 10 month and 11 month classified full-time employees you all actually approve that for this past winter break where those those individuals will actually now if this passes regularly get the same number of paid holidays as our teachers 10 built into the calendar whereas up to this point as I mentioned at the work session we received a lot of positive feedback from our staff members for this time as I mentioned before you voted for this
038a few months ago to make that change many of those staff members paycheck which which would actually be this past January 15th has historically been tiny because they're not working during the during that two-week break so thank you for your consideration of this do recommend approval thank you and do we have a motion for approval Mr Wimberley in a second Mr Hobb any comments all right we can move to a vote and Mr Brown about yes your vote is 12 yes zero no Uber that one passed with the majority of the board members that's the vacations and holidays on first reading and next on the agenda is for the first and final reading for the promotion and retention policy thank you madam chair this was discussed at policy committee meeting almost exclusively related to the
039third grade retention law and it includes all the changes that are made necessary by that as a result of the discussion at the work session we moved it from first reading agenda to First and final because this is in compliance with the existing state law we don't know what's going to happen at the legislative session over the course of this winter and spring but we are under this law right now and so we do recommend approval on First and final reading of this policy thank you do we have a motion Mr Cash thank you miss a Prius seconds any discussion Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair I just want to State for the record and for the people watching watching the meeting that we are getting ready to send out as Mr Golden superintendent Golden
040State earlier we're getting ready to send out letters to students that fall in to this mandatory retention category and those letters are scheduled to be mailed first of February correct it will be I'm trying to remember the exact date but that's the deadline so I believe it may be a day or so before that so we are mailing these via U.S mail and there will also be will there also be emails as well yes sir we'll send that electronically also through the through the system and our plan is over the course of these next few months to to follow that up with a lot of individual conversations with parents and so parents who to that point parents who would like additional information on this law and what the letter to them means for their children
041their student can contact the teacher the principal is that's that's right and I know our principles will be leading that effort Mr Welch thank you I just want to add to what Mr Mitchell had said that we're sending these letters out not by our own decision but because this is something that was dictated To Us by the state legislature and in fact our board supported a resolution that went before the Tennessee School Board Association where we were opposed to to doing this we as a board the hole came together and said that you know we don't believe that one test given to third graders should dictate their entire academic year whether they Advance or where they repeat it so when we some of our parents get these letters and our understanding set and want some
042things to change I would encourage them to communicate to their state representatives about those feelings thank you Mr Welch Mr Galbraith Oh I thought I thought the gym was so I do want to I just want to make sure and Jason I don't think we can say this enough but Jason can you can you tell I know we're sending the letters out to to more than just those students who who are below like we're we're sending a broader sending it to a broader number of people because there's students that are at risk we feel like based on the on the testing we do and we don't have we don't have any testing because they haven't done TCAP testing so can you explain how we're how we're choosing the students that we're sending or not sending
043these letters out to sure thank you and and I to your point I don't know that this can be emphasized enough the measure that the state is using is tcat third graders take TCAP for the first time so when we project out students at risk we don't have a Apples to Apples measure TCAP measures Mastery of the Tennessee standards we do teach of course the Tennessee standards at at all grade levels and work our way up so teachers do have some assessments where they're able to evaluate as students progress through through the through the course of their years through the course of their young careers the extent to which students are mastering the standards as we test so number one that puts a premium on our assessments being aligned to the state standards and that's
044something our teachers continue to work on number two however the state also includes screeners and for those parents of elementary students that's Ames Webb they would might recognize that term that's the state approved screener that we use is that measures something different that measures a student's Readiness to receive grade level instruction so there is some relationship but it's not a pure Mastery of Tennessee standards relationship generally speaking the the we place those students in support tiers based on the results of those screeners when you hear RTI you know we live by acronyms response to intervention the screeners trigger us including additional interventions for students who show that they need that to help them grow and be more prepared to receive that grade level instruction so screeners are part of what we use the assessments that
045our teachers are giving as they progress are part of what of what they use as well and so I've given a nutshell Dr Allen I'd like to look over at you and ask if there's anything you would like to add to that description Mr Golden I that's a good summary I think I would add and reinforce to what Mr Galbraith said we are going to send letters to those that we would identify as being at risk taking into account those screeners that Mr Golden mentioned and you've heard us use language common formative assessment so those common formative assessments are given in the classroom by the teacher every four to five weeks those are many tcaps really it's measuring the students grade level progress at that time and what's it why that's important to us and
046why it's important that teachers collaborate about that data is they're doing it very early in the year so we've been intervening with these kids since really the first day of school so we're going to send letters to every student that we feel possibly could be at risk of not passing that third grade TCAP however it's possible that students have been doing very well and a student just does not do well the day of the test to the point that Mr Welch made about a single test being an identifier so it's possible I think all third grade parents should be aware of of what the requirements are should you fall short of should a student fall short of that requirement but we'll do our very best and our schools are doing it right now to identify
047anyone that might be at risk and if I may the state has four categories for for for TCAP below basic approaching expectations meets expectations and exceeds expectations the requirement a requirement would be on students who either land on that third grade test on Ela English language arts at below basic or approaching if they land in the below basic category that means they must do the summer program plus tutoring the next year if they land in the approaching category they must do either those now I'm paraphrasing but that's the that's the core of of where they are the window of time between us receiving the test and the moment that summer school must start is not exactly known to us we can estimate it but it's fairly short so there we can just we can just
048imagine all kinds of possibilities let's say let's say the child's parents are divorced and a parent lives out of state and their parenting plan indicates that the out-of-state parent will have that child for the summer well if they hit this and they happen to be below basic if they don't go to that summer program we have an obligation to retain them that year that's just one example Dr Allen mentioned another example if they just do poorly that one day somebody's sick there's all kinds of possibilities we do know that there's a lot of mitigation efforts that the State Department of Education is working through for example there is a process to retake the test electronically but we're concerned about that window of time again so there are there are a handful of unknowns to it
049but this February 1st is going to be a watershed time for parents to be aware and we have concluded we need to make sure that if you might be at risk you need that notice thank you Mr Golden and just as a as a follow-up or a summary I want to I want to make sure that everybody understood that you know that getting this letter is just a make sure that it's on that it's on the radar but second just want to make sure that everybody understands that the test itself does not say that you're not going to pass the third grade it just sets in motion a series of of events that you either have to based on based on your level whether you're below or a significantly below below basic or republican or
050approaching on whether or not you have to do the summer school or tutoring or both and so I just want to just want to make sure whenever you're going to get you're gonna I know I know how much response we got to the first time we sent out the chronic absentee letters which which were for all intents and purposes meaning meaningless as far as impact on the students it's more upon the school this has direct impact on the students but I just anticipate lots of lots of questions thanks thank you Miss Clements okay I just wanted to clarify that students who had some learning differences in Reading who have 504 and IEP how does and I think we talked about this but it does not they are not can you can you talk to that
051thank you for that one exception to this law is if there's an established disability in reading a reading related disability the students are not subject to this that is correct and I just want to double check miss osbrooks that I articulate that well do you want to include a couple other words so the if a student with the disability has a reading disability then that student may be identified and they may receive a letter from the district then the student would work with either the five of the family would work with either the 504 team or the IEP team the losses in consultation with them they may not be subject to the retention law but I do want to be clear that would be decided after they may receive some kind of documentation thank you
052Mr Wimberley thank you madam chair to say the least this is confusing so Mr Golden let me ask you this what is the best advice that you can give to parents if they receive one of these letters what should they do talk with your principal talk with your teachers be engaged and have those regular ongoing conversations with our educational professors professionals about the progress of your child I'm going to add one other piece many of our schools also have tutoring programs now ask that question what can we do now to prepare for this thank you Mr Cash if I may that Mr Cash I'm going to interrupt I was at the County Commission meeting last week and that very microphone was having trouble so it predates you sitting there we ought to move this one
053over there for a couple of weeks no thank you madam chair I just I want to say that most of the schools have already sent out a link to a website at least they did in my area asking parents to get on there and really look at this you know I mean explain it explains a whole lot the other thing is exactly you know we've got all kinds of programs Ames Webb and you know all that just going on kids have been tested early on already and we're getting graphs and charts of where they're at so parents shouldn't be really surprised you know if they've been following what what's being sent home so and when exactly is the TCAP test we have a testing window and Dr Allen Dr Webb you may you may remember
054off the top of your head I can't remember the exact dates of the window but it's it's April yeah if you would Dr Webb the first week of April thank you everybody Mr Mitchell so now Let's Dance thank you testing that works okay so anyway as we communicated to our state representatives when we had our meeting with them a week or so ago we believe this is a while it might be a well-meaning law well-intended law the tool that they're using is not a good tool and I don't support the law I and so therefore I'm going to vote against this particular policy as a result thank you Mr Mitchell all right if we have no further discussion we'll open the floor to a vote but Mr Brown I know you're on the phone did
055you want to speak at all to this and that's okay if not we'll just go ahead and let you cast your vote okay okay thank you four members you can cast your votes and Mr Brown how about yes your vote is 10 yes two no thank you board members we had 10 votes in support of this first and final reading of the promotion and retention policy so the vote the this did pass and two board members voted no thank you next on the agenda is the approval of the opened and or closed Zone schools thank you madam chair we are in the second year of a new state law that sets up a structure for school systems to notify families of available seats at their particular schools so that students can attend open zone for
056many years we have done that and you have done that as a board but when this new law passed last year it expanded what we had been doing we traditionally had done it to allow for students and overcrowded schools to move to Stu to to to move to nearby schools that might have had some room but but again that's been expanded we have before you a list of our schools with the number of open seats we recommend the state also has a structure by which if the Stu if if every seat is filled plus the number there's a lottery system for for students to select so that's a substantial change what we've done in the past it used to be first come first serve now get your request in by the deadline if if if
057there are more students there than the available seats then we will structure a lottery for for those students so we went through a multi-meting process to evaluate the capacities that our school buildings included projections and all that data that we that we obtained from Land developers from from city and county building decision makers and the those those review processes did some numbers on our on our students matriculating up including our growth projections and we have these numbers and recommendations for you for each of the schools that may have room for students so I am recommending approval of our this recommendation related to open Zone schools thank you Mr Golden do we have a motion Miss Apria do we have a second Mr ha do we have any comments from the board or discussion Mr Brown
058thank you madam chair I do have an amendment to offer to this proposal but I'm happy to wait until other comments are made if you'd like you can go ahead and make your motion Mr Brown okay just a just to preview the motion referring back to the conversation we had at work session on Thursday I talked about I won't get into all the details that I mentioned then but just to remind the board back during the zoning discussions there were some things that were brought to my attention by some parents regarding a situation at Page Middle School which we discussed where the the split has gotten the split of students who go to page versus Centennial has gotten severely out of alignment from what the original intent might have been as we talked about that
059number is somewhere around 12 percent of the students going to Centennial being Zone to Centennial 88 or so being zoned to page and we talked about the need I believe the need to try to remedy that given that was never the intent of of any of our zoning proposals in the past and that unintended consequences of that have been that students are left in that situation and this really only applies to one subdivision as we talked about so I think I really want to thank Jason and the staff for for working with me helping me think through this over the past few months listening to parents on this there's been a lot of good back and forth a lot of good discussion about how to get to a solution on this and so I want
060to bring a motion that I think addresses this concern and I think it would also apply currently to one other Middle School in the district that being Heritage but the motion and by the way I've emailed this language to you madam chair and Dana and to Lydia I'll read it and then happy to have have any discussion the motion would read as follows Rising 9th graders attending any Williamson County Middle School that has less than 15 percent of its students zoned to a different High School than other students may choose to attend the out of Zone High School in the theater pattern prior to any open Zone requests for that High School are granted and provided the high school has capacity and is eligible for open zoning okay thank you Mr Brown and at this
061point in time we'll open the floor well we need a second okay Miss Cleveland seconds this and now we can open the floor to discussion and Mr Mitchell say something very well so what was the ratio on this motion less than 15 when we had a middle school that was 85 15 split or greater is that correct a middle school that has less than 15 percent of its students zoned to a different High School okay so and if that was so how would that apply if I don't know if we have any middle schools doing this but potentially are split across three high schools or three zones because I think the intent of this is where it's a it's a dual split but if we ended up with a situation with a three-way split how
062would we apply it to that this may be a question a double check question for Mr cook or or Miss osbrokes but as I understand that motion if it happened to be three it would still be based on whether one of the one or more of the particular schools had less than 15 percent of their students so it could it could apply to two of those three if if the percentage was going to either one of those schools if I interpreted that correctly Mr Wimberley thank you madam chair Mr Golden what is staff's recommendation and why based on our study and discussion I do intend to recommend approval pending any other discussion certainly want to hear from what the board hear from the board related to that ultimately my thinking is within this policy we
063have set a window a cap of how many students can seats are available so in this example page happens to be 100 page High happens to be 100 in this recommendation Independence and Summit have a similar issue but there's zero at Independence because we Independence is already at 96 percent we would not go over that recommended cap it would simply give a priority to particular students who were nearby and so because of that I've concluded that it that it can work and that it does not alter the intent of of the of the policy and the law do we have any oh Mr Mitchell thank you thank you madam chair one more question so this in theory would have applied to Heritage Middle as it is a it is split over 85 percent to Independence
064and less than 15 percent to in to Summit but but there's not any space at Independence for those students correct that is correct and I just want to I'm going to do another double check with the attorneys based on the wording of the of the motion make sure I've stated that correctly too yeah that's correct so to that point that would apply this year my advice would be that the board policy committee discussed this long term as well right that was my second question so this is a vote for just this year if I describe that now I'm going to do another double check with the attorneys on the language of this motion I think I turned it off by accident so this would be moving this would be for this school year to your
065point yes I do anticipate based upon the feedback at the work session that and the policy committee we will be bringing this policy back up February or March so it while this vote would be for this school year because that's in essence we're asking you to approve them for next school year not this school year next school year I anticipate it would it would yes I'd recommend a policy change if we want to go past that thank you and Mr Welch thank you so did I understand correct this is for Rising 9th graders only sauceworks what are your thoughts on having us also apply to our sister District who well not our students currently would be writing ninth graders that would be coming into our system Mr Welch I think it would be appropriate for
066them too if this pass is it should apply to Franklin special as well and if if I may put a little bit of detail into that Franklin Special School District has two middle schools we don't currently have the data for that what percentage of of each middle school students are zoned however we do have our data right now district-wide 20 percent of Franklin Special School District students attend Franklin and 80 attend Centennial so it is very possible that one or the other of those schools those middle schools could be in this situation and have that ability to be a priority for Centennial or it may be a moot point if it's and I think this one was answered this is being done on the open Zone and not policy but the grandfathering policy with for
067out of Zone attendance would that still apply so anyone taking advantage of this future siblings would would also have that door open to to follow yes sir as the as the policy stands right now the policy committee discussed this particular policy board policy 1.703 at their meeting last week and we are in the process of evaluating the long-term impact of of this law and it is possible that we may come with some change recommendations as a result of that discussion again just to make sure that the impact of this law is appropriate thank you Mr Cash thank you madam chair is this is this a policy we're setting now as I understand it no this would be a one-time vote however this is my opinion is this is something if this passes this is something
068that should be discussed in policy to determine if it's appropriate to make it long-term this is for one year and it's it's the 15 percent of the children due to the way the zoning goes it's it's not any fault of theirs or anyone else's it's just the way you know it falls so this would be for one year only and Mr Welch was asking a question and I didn't hear the answer but the if these children are given preference their siblings do follow correct their siblings can continue under our existing policy continue in the in the with their sibling if in this example it's a high school example they can stay in that out of Zone school for the four years of their career if they have a sibling who would be at school with
069them in other words could have a senior with a sibling who's a freshman that's that younger student would be able to go to the school where their older sibling is zoned yes sir well this is going to include three schools is that what we're talking about that's three split feeders well for for this year as I understand the motion it would it would include Page Middle to to page high and could include one of the Franklin Special School Districts based on their percentages because we don't actually have their current eighth grade data the other item and again I'm doing a double check based on the language of the policy Independence does not have any recommended seats so it would not include the Heritage students who are currently zoned to Summit FYI for y'all right now
07011 of the Heritage students or are zoned to Centennial I'm sorry I'm confused I'm confusing everybody's thank you Zone to Summit and 89 are zoned to Independence again because of changes in communities Etc over time if I may if I may make a final comment one of the items that we discussed as a leadership team is this puts a premium on being a little bit more proactive in our zoning when we see changes not wait until there's a necessarily A capacity issue at a school but consider this additional issue so that's something for you all to be considering long term as well well Mr Golden we've we've done some things differently with this whole zoning process and I believed it worked so far but again we've got to get into the High School zoning I
071believe as Mr Welch brought up before it needs to start there and go down from there but I think we've done a real good job I think people were very satisfied and I think for one year I think this will help out but in the process of going over this further than one year I think we need to really start delving into what we're doing with the high schools completely thank you hey thank you Mr ha thank you madam chair can I hear the amendment as written again and just because we haven't seen it in writing yes Rising 9th graders attending any Williamson County Middle School that has less than 15 percent of its students zoned to a high school to a different High School than other students may choose to attend the out of
072Zone High School in the feeder pattern prior to any open Zone request for that High School being granted I'm suggesting a word change to being granted and provided the high school has capacity and is eligible for open zoning and to Mr Welch's question as as written this would apply to fssd is that your understanding it could right now based on our current high school students 20 of those of the students from fssd are attending Franklin High and 80 percent attending Centennial because there are two schools that particular eighth grade class could be less than 10 less than 15 percent and we'll have to get that data but it could apply to one or both potentially of the current eighth grade class at Franklin Special with a priority two Centennial thank you Mr Brown thank you
073madam chair and I agree with your rewarding change by the way I know there's that as well so I agree with that board being replacing R before granted the other thing I'd say is in response to a couple of the comments is I fully agree that this is really should be a precursor to a larger discussion about High School zoning and I think most if not all of the families I've spoken with about this matter would agree with that they realize that this is a something that's developed over time and again not intentional and not something that anyone planned for but just a result of the way things develop over time with subdivisions aging out things of things that happen but it does force us to think about the larger question of High School zoning
074and perhaps one thing we might learn by doing this for this next school year is just how many students who are eligible to take advantage of this choosing an AutoZone High School actually take advantage of it I mean we might learn some information and get gather some good data from that for future discussions thank you Mr Brown and we have Mr Welch yes I'm sorry just as you're thinking is through had something else come up first time I've heard it the language as written I think the intent of it is within those open seats that are available does the language say that though hearing you read it so for example if the open Zone School Moving Two has we decide has 50 seats available that would be the cap the 50 seats and it would
075not be a hundred people could could move over who fall into the category that's my understanding of this language it's still capped at the number that you all vote on for open Zone seats one more time because I thought that was two and then when you read it brought up the question sure so the rising ninth graders attending any Williamson County Middle School that has less than 15 percent of its students zoned to a different High School than other students may choose to attend the out of Zone High School in the feeder pattern prior to any open Zone requests for that high school being granted and provided that the high school has capacity and is eligible for open zoning so it has to meet three criteria essentially I don't think it has that cap language
076in it though so my interpretation of the capacity would be that the open seats capacity that you all vote on this is an amendment to the motion the motion on the floor is capped at every so this would not be the language that you would hear at policy but this is the language for the amendment for this year because we are the motion is to approve you with me that makes sense thank you Mr Galbraith thank you madam chair so just to just to clarify I don't I think it's unlikely because we're talking about this narrow situation but if there's a hundred seats if we had 120 people request prioritized under this amendment then those 120 would just be subject to the to the lottery just like the just like anybody else would but that
077but it wouldn't be extended but the lottery wouldn't be extended to anybody who didn't qualify under this amendment is that correct that's my understanding as well in this particular example there's less than the available seats so if in this example this year we had more than 100 students asked to attend out a Zone every student who was in this situation would get it because there's fewer than 100 but to your point long term that is something that we would need to discuss thank you Mr Brown yeah thank you madam chair I just want to also point out that one of the things I didn't mention last week at the work session but I've been looking at the information that was in the packet over the weekend one of the things that stood out to me
078is that there are I believe I have the number corrected there I think it's 45 somewhere somewhere in the 40s number of students currently who are zoned to page High School who actually who attends Centennial out of Zone by their choice and I guess that just maybe underscores that there's going to be a little bit of built-in offset here that we don't talk about we were talking about the ones who are making the proactive decision potentially to go out of Zone but which which might then theoretically cause a loss to in this case Centennial but there's also a certain number of students who are Zone the page you were choosing to go to Centennial AutoZone did a little bit offset some of this so I just I want to point that out it probably happens
079it'll fit all of our high schools and but it's it's a factor in this too for thinking about the big picture thank you for that so at the moment this particular year there are 96 students attending Centennial out of Zone and 91 students attending page high school out of Zone Mr Cash thank you madam chair that was a good point that Mr Brown brought up about like Centennial knot getting students and I just wanna I just want to make sure that we're not going to have a rezoning in the next two years or so and be full at page and other places and send other subdivisions and whatnot to different schools and I'll just say we had we had the North End of District Two slated to be rezoned to Centennial and that was about
080120 some kids so now with this with this amendment we could possibly be sending 45 or 50 to page is that correct Mr golden so it's it's potentially correct but the underlying motion would include 100 open seats for page High so we already so if however many would choose this if this amendment passes would be put towards that 100 right so that leaves 60 that would leave like 60 seats potentially yes but I just I just don't want all of a sudden we've got to rezone right now and they take this subdivision that you know because of this you understand what I'm saying I just I just wanted a say that I don't think it's going to happen but thank you for that with this new law and again we're in our second year of
081it the law and in Miss osbrooks correct me if I'm wrong the law gives school systems substantial discretion based on the current conditions in that school system on how many seats we open we want to make sure we honor the law and yet be thoughtful about our projections so these numbers if you study them you can see the architectural capacities as written and our number recommendation and they're not the same because we have factored in potential growth Etc as an aside we know that even the architectural capacity given all the programming we have including the RTI that we mentioned some of the interventions that have changed that have been added on since we even built these schools sometimes the architectural capacity is overcrowded so to you're 100 right about that and that was a very
082serious concern that we had related to the decisions that we made thank you to everybody for your comments I'm just going to recap where we are right now so we had our original motion to approve the open and zoned schools and then we had an amendment by Mr Brown and some language that was read we did have a second by Miss Cleveland we need to just verify that Miss Cleveland that you're okay with that wording tweak I'm going to read that one more time so that everybody hears the final wording that's on the table that's an amendment to the original item that's on the agenda so this is the amendment Rising ninth graders attending any Williamson County Middle School that has less than 15 percent of its students zoned to a different High School than
083other students may choose to attend the out of Zone High School in the feeder pattern prior to any open Zone request for that high school being approved and provided that the high school has capacity and is eligible for open zoning if you are in agreement that this language be included as an amendment to the of the prior item go ahead and vote Yes and I think discussion is closed and just to recap Mr Golden you do approve or you do support this amendment based on this discussion yes I recommend it okay thank you board members you can cast your votes Mr Brown I vote Yes vote is 12 yes zero no thank you board and so we did pass that Amendment and now we're back on the original motion thank you Miss Apria and Mr
084Hall for your motion and your second and Mr Mitchell is going to have the floor thank you madam chair I would like to also make an amendment to this at his own resolution my Amendment would read that eighth graders taking advanced classes at an out of Zone High School shall be permitted to attend the same out of Zone high school as a ninth grader I'm going to read that to you again that would be great eighth graders taking advanced classes at an out of Zone High School shall be permitted to attend the same out his own high school as a ninth grader okay okay so now we need a second for Mr Mitchell's motion to amend and I'll read that one more time and we so the SEC the amendment is that eighth graders taking
085an advanced advanced classes at an out of Zone High School shall be permitted to attend the same out of Zone high school as a ninth grader okay this is Mr Mitchell's Amendment on the floor do we have a second Miss Supriya seconds okay and we can open the floor to discussion Mr Priya I'm not sure if I support it or not but I think if we're going to add the amendment it needs to include this similar language that states a lot okay there you go okay what was the wording again sorry that will be allowed I think it would be would be given priority to apply for the school out of Zone if there's space available like that extra caveat so we cannot amend an amendment twice you've actually got to deal with the amendment
086that's on the floor right now once that's dealt with then you can come back and amend his motion should it pass Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair so and I appreciate Miss priya's second as well as her her recommended adjustment this particular rule would would have very limited impact there's a particularly it heritage Middle where I'm kind of targeting this towards there's only 15 students that are actually taking classes and as we've already talked about over 90 percent of or almost 90 percent of Heritage Middle is already zoned to Independence so all of these students at Heritage Middle regardless of where they're zoned if they're taking advanced classes at the high school they're taking them at Independence across the district there's about 200 8th graders that are doing this and in most cases they're probably
087taking classes at the school that they're already zoned at this is strictly for eighth graders that are going to and out of Zone school for an advanced class who would wish to continue on with that same school and those same teachers I guess that they've already learned met and become comfortable with so that's my request for for an adjustment to the how to Zone I will make the point that I'm not looking for the cap on this I'm asking that this be that this small amount of these small amount of students be allowed to continue on to that out of Zone School regardless whether there's open Zone seats available or not we do know that from The Matrix that we've received that there are there is an anticipation of around 100 seats available at Independence
088even with with our even though they're not opening it up before out his own so it's not like it is not Independence is not over over enrolled thank you Mr Mitchell Mr Welch thank you so I guess Mr Golden first question is how many of these students are would fall within that I heard Mr Mitchell just say that there's 200 of our eighth graders taking it do we have any idea of how many of those are taken out of Zone and what the greater implications of this is to answer your question I don't have those exact numbers I suspect he's right it's relatively small second we have not evaluated all the implications of it for example I'd want us to have some conversations with our principals to evaluate the extent to which those students engage
089in the in the schools get some recommendations from those principles we do set the classes up based on availability of high school schedules in High School courses for example is there do you have a geometry teacher at the middle school if not is there room in a particular class at a nearby high school are there seats available at a first period geometry class or a last period geometry class if not at that high school look at the next high school and so it tends to vary from year to year based on the detail of what courses students are taking and where I'm at right now is that needs a little bit more study and conversations with our principals before I can make a recommendation that then sort of dovetails into the other questions that I
090had with it first I guess why not their Zone school why wouldn't these students be at their Zone school to take that class if you didn't have the geometry why wouldn't you take geometry at your school year zone for or these specialty classes and well let me let me kind of give you the totality of it so you can give kind of the full answer instead of being shopping and then I guess does this open up the ability to pick schools with that no we had the IB Program several years ago was kind of in many ways being used as a way to to get into Franklin out of Zone and then would drop out of that and stay in there and we'd seen that with some other different programs at schools as well and
091we tighten that up and fixed it I guess my concern is does this now create that back door of if I want to go out of zoned I just need to find one class there does that occur and then I guess the other thing that I'm struggling with with the bit is just the overall rationale so if you're taking one class there what we've we've just sort of done the change we just made the rationale was based upon the 15 percent that it's a small portion being pulled from their classmates here I guess I'm struggling to say you know you've taken that one class there as a as an eighth grader it's out of Zone what is the need for that exception because it's not academic it's not space it's not growth it's it's simply
092just taking that one class so I'm open to hearing wide but I just to be honest that's that's where I'm struggling a little bit on it not that you can answer that third one the other two well but thank you for that and you've articulated some of the concerns we had as as a leadership team too and why at this point I can't I can't recommend approval we in you know the underlying motion is the open seats the recommended open seats based on our growth projections and so this has the potential to shift that and it's going to take some more discussion we have very similar again we have very similar concerns to what you've articulated Miss Cleveland I do understand what Mitch Mr Mitchell is saying but logistically that's kind of where I'm hung
093up on you know how this would how this would affect moving forward and then also I'm having I'm trying to wrap my head and I think Mr Welch touched points with this if a child is taking six classes already at their Zone School and they're taking one class somewhere else I guess I have a hard time understanding why that child would want to totally uproot themselves from their Zone school to go to where they've just had one class and I don't know the you know the reasoning for that and that's where I'm trying to grasp it's is that what that's basically the intent is to just because they have one class at a school that they're wanting to go to that school that they just have that one class at if I may if I
094may answer that and I don't want to speak fully for Mr Mitchell but I want to give one example that it's a part of a discussion that we had just in the last few days a student has been to that school they recognize to some extent the building layout they have some familiarity with it that's an element of of of what Mr Mitchell I under my understanding of what Mr Mitchell was talking about but there are conflicting conflicting issues too and that's why I'm just I'm not there at this point we need some more work Mr Mitchell you can go ahead and respond to me thank you I'll try to do that to Mrs Cleveland and Mr Welch so the student is currently going is an eighth grader at a middle school and that's the
095where to your point the six classes are at they take one class at with 15 other students 15 other middle school students of their peers at Independence High School so they're zoned for Summit High School the next year they're not taking any classes at Summit at this point so they're not they're not leaving Summit to go to Independence they're basically requesting to go to Independence as a ninth grader instead of summit as a ninth grader the to Mr Welch's and did I Sheila do that did that Artic so to Mr Welch's question the way the parents have communicated to me on this request is that their their child has developed relationships with teachers and other students at at Independence and would like to continue forward with those relationships with in this case it was a
096math class I guess honors geometry class that they're taking at the high school and they would like to continue to take they would just like to continue their education at Independence since that's where she has excelled at and is comfortable going so that's the reason that's the way it was explained to me so hence requesting this on behalf of those parents and constituents for cash okay not yet one sec one sec the glow on it okay Heritage is one of those Middle School zoned for Independence and Summit correct and what is that percentage it's under 15 percent going to Summit so I guess my question is what's the difference here versus what Mr Brown and what we've just voted on the difference is actually the articulation that Miss Supriya mentioned this the difference is opening
097up seats to a school where we are not recommended any open seats Mr Welch Mr Cash were you finished with your yes thank you Mr Welch so I guess first I'm sorry a lot a lot of button pressing tonight so I do apologize for that but I guess it was something that Sheila just said I think has triggered this for me of with the six classes and so the difficulty I'm having here is that we will rezone a freshman out of their high school if there's a capacity issue and that freshman has taken the six classes there they've potentially been part of the school clubs and on a team they've had relationships with their entire class everything else and we will move them out of the school if we have to not we don't enjoy
098it but if we have to because of capacity issues at the same time we're saying we're going to give that eighth grader who has taken one class priority to move in there even though there is no capacity I think that's that's the hurdle right there is that the established student we're moving out whereas the younger student with one class which is not as school we allow them to move in that's that's I think you've represented it really well Elliot and I appreciate your fighting for the family but I think that's the challenge for me is just sort of the basic fairness issue of those two scenarios and who has the greater claim on it thank you board members for for the comments we are now to a point where Mr Golden if you could just
099summarize your recommendations I do not recommend approval but do want to continue to research this with discussions with our principals so we do have a motion on the floor for I'm going to read the amendment that's on the table for the current item that is out for vote so this is the Amendment states that 8th graders taking advanced classes at an out of Zone High School shall be permitted to attend the same out of zoned high school as a ninth grader we have a motion on the floor from Mr Mitchell and a second by Miss Apria it's now time to cast our votes Mr Brown I vote no your vote is one yes 11 no thank you board so with this series of votes we have not passed the amendment it's 11 votes no and
100we're back to the original motion motion with the amendment that we have already approved then the approval is on the opening or zoning of the schools with the amendment so we are now able to cast our votes for that Mr Golden I do recommend approval thank you Mr Brown how about yes your vote is 12 yes zero no thank you board for all of the discussion on this item so the Madam chair if I may add one one piece of one fact that hasn't been mentioned the deadline for application is April 15th of this year April 15th is the deadline okay so with that we did pass the open and zoned schools item on the agenda with unanimous approval by the board next item on the agenda is the approval of the proposed calendar Mr
101golden thank you madam chair in some pretty detailed discussions that we had that actually included part of the board retreat as well as the work session I we have made an alteration in the agenda related to the calendar from the from from how where you saw it at the work session we have broken this up into two separate votes it includes the calendar recommendation that you approve the calendar dates from the committee but not approve at this first vote the recommendation for late start early release then have a second vote related to late start early release and Madam chair I do want to make sure I'm very clear on this I support the calendar committee's recommendation for early release and late start and ultimately their recommendation for early release for all based on the proposed
102schedule but based on the discussion that we've had in at the at those work sessions plus additional conversations we've had it's very apparent to me that you all as a board need more discussion related to this whether it's in the Strategic plan or otherwise and so ultimately after so many possible choices related to this I recommend that you approve the calendar as written and then I'll give you some detail about my recommendation related to the late start early release after this vote thank you Mr Golden and just to recap are there any changes to the calendar from Thursday night thank you for that I do want to look over to Dr Webb who is the chair of the calendar committee because they did meet after after the work session to discuss that detailed discussion we
103had Thursday night Dr Webb thank you Mr Golden yes the counter committee did make a recommendated recommendation for a change there was an error in reference to the election day on the calendar based on that error the recommendation is to move the professional development day in November to November the 6th and that is reflected in your new packet that you received today Uber so bored we are opening the floor now to a motion to approve Mr ha do we have a second Mr Welch now we can open for a discussion okay no discussion we can move to a vote Mr Brown oh yes about his 12 yes zero no thank you board and to recap we just approved the proposed calendar for 2023-2024 with the unanimous vote by the board next item and final item
104on our agenda is the approval of the late start early release schedule thank you madam chair as you know the calendar committee recommended the early release for all grade levels which is actually what I recommended to you last spring we've had many discussions about It ultimately I am convinced that having strategically placed time for teachers to work together and prepare really along that detail of what Dr Allen alluded to earlier in the meeting to discuss common formative assessments make adjustments on their scope and sequence of the of the coursework is the best thing and the wise thing to do however you all as board members have made it clear that they are conflict conflicting priorities that includes school start times for the secondary Etc and just to be as clear as I can it was
105very apparent from our discussion that you're not there yet for for for that for that change we had we're going through the Strategic process right now we're just getting started we're going to have discussions with our community starting the first week in February we spent some time at the board retreat talking about that item school start times your your description of of families needs related to that and I'm just going to tell it like it is from my perspective I think it's unwise for us to continue this discussion with a pending board vote on late start early release while we're going through the strategic planning process we need in essence to make a decision now on late starter the release so that one issue is not dominating the discussion at the strategic planning process I
106do anticipate that long term we will be coming to you with some strategic changes I want our community I want our stakeholders I want our teachers to share that with you through the strategic planning process I am convinced that longer periods will be better it's good right now if we're going to continue to grow this is one item that you all need to take into deep consideration strategically as as a district it's high performing we know that high performance is tenuous success is tenuous and I want this to be a strategic thought process that all our community is engaged in and ultimately all our community recognizes is the appropriate thing we're not there yet so based on that I do recommend for this coming year that we stick to where we are this year with
107our late start early release and strategically planned for next year with our whole Community involved thank you Mr Golden do we have a motion to approve Mr ha Miss Apria thank you any discussion Mr Hall Madam chair and thank you Mr Golden Can can I get clarity then on what we're approving are we just approving the current early release for elementary and the current late start as well thank you for that I recommend that you approve the existing schedule with 27 late starts for secondary schools and 11 early release start times for elementary school for this coming year thank you and I appreciate that consideration and I'm willing to support the early release as it was initially proposed but I won't fight that uphill battle tonight given given what you've said and what the recommendation
108is but I do like that we are having this discussion I think that I we heard from multiple board members last Thursday that were 100 that expressed 100 support for giving this time to teachers and I think it's important to to articulate the embedded nature of that it needs to be spread throughout the year you know there have been suggestions we'll give them a full day you know instead of doing this disruptively through the 11 days and we know that there's more benefit to doing this strategically throughout the year I think that I appreciate that it's been kind of honed down to those 11 days and over the course of a school year I think that is minimally disruptive while still giving the teachers this benefit so I'd like to see us commit to that
109I hope that is part of the Strategic plan because over and over we've heard from teachers and administrators is that they need more time and that is the finite resource that's out there that we are going to have to make some changes to so anything we come out with for our strategic plan is going to be different than the status quo if we're going to to make impactful changes just inherently and there are going to be some difficult trade-offs with that but I do hope that we have set the table for some of those discussions to look at start times students mental health and you know what kind of biological clocks those kids are on so I will be supportive of those joint efforts going forward Mr Wimberley thank you madam chair Mr Golden what
110have we learned about the early releases for elementary that we didn't know going into the project or the pilot well number one instructionally our experience this semester has confirmed what we projected that it's it's good for teachers to spend that time because they can adjust when they have a common formative assessment they can adjust their scope and sequence when I say scope and sequence I'm talking about scope is what they teach sequence is when they teach it so if their particular group of students learn differently from the previous year's cohort they can make adjustments in real time to what standards they're teaching and when they're teaching them so instructionally it's it's reinforced what experience and research dating back to 30 years when adley Stevenson High School started this process of professional learning communities what we've
111learned from it is some of the logistics transportation the vast majority of our families have chosen that first time to leave school rather than wait but there are some who need that because of work schedules so we've learned that it was actually a little bit higher percentage of students leaving when school lets out than than we had projected we've learned that school bus schedules can be better when there are fewer students on the bus that Gary Anderson mentioned this they've done some research on those days the buses finish about 20 minutes earlier than their regular schedule at the at the first load and then the second load so volume volume made a big difference for that those are the those those logistical items are some of the keys we've we've also had are concern about
112secondary schools reinforced that having a large number of students on campus during that time reduces the value of that teacher time because they have to take turns caring for those students Mr Welch so Mr Golden I think you said something that just really encapsulated it and it was the phrase continue to improve if we want to do that and I think it's it's an honest question we have to ask ourselves you know I mean the obvious answer well yes of course we do but do we really or are we satisfied with where we are as a high achieving District because if we want to improve we're going to have to make hard choices because the easy choice is to improve have already been done if it was easy we would have done it before and
113we're kind of at the point where there's going to be trade-offs there's going to be it's not going to be politically expedient we're going to have to expend political Capital we're going to have to get disagreement we're going to have to go out there about five years ago well a year ago we passed a salary increase for our teachers and two years ago we did the same thing and we were all very proud of that and Pat ourselves on the back and frankly it was pretty easy voting against a salary increase would have been very difficult but in order to get there we have to go back five years when we had to go to the community and ask the community to vote itself a tax increase and the community voted two to one to
114do that so let's I never want to sell our parents short on their ability to support the school system because we did not know how that would be here in one of the reddish or the red areas and states the community came out two to one and said yes we will support a sales tax increase if we know that it's going to support our schools they were willing to to make those sacrifices and one of the reasons they did that is because there were a lot of us who went out into the community and did those things and put our names on the lines and said I stand for this and this is important and here's why and we educated the community and told them the rationale and they agreed and said that's right here
115we are now it's the second year in a row that the district staffed have asked us to do an early release schedule and going back even further they've communicated for years that you know I like you said you know what we have is good but the truth of it is what we have now is insufficient and we all know that these 40 minutes of time which it really comes down to is insufficient for a group to get together and really have in-depth strategic conversations anyone who's worked in a professional environment knows that you can't have a strategic conversation with back and forth communication exchange of ideas you can do a presentation where you sit and listen to someone else talk but the back and forth it's just not time and so we know staff feel
116so strongly about this because we can look at the level of work that they've done to try and convince us to get there everything they did previously but this time in preparation for it you know we had 6 000 or so parents surveyed we had 2 000 teachers right we had all of our principles sorry then every one of those the results were very Pro for doing this they showed us the research that supports doing these things they went out to our Consortium of other high achieving school districts nationally and said this has been benchmarked this has been accomplished before there was really nothing that says that this is a net negative for the students except that there are hard trade-offs and I think if where is this is so frustrating for me personally is
117I listen to us discussed the other night the arguments for it were not I don't think this is in the interest of the students which this is ultimately for we talk about the time for the teachers but it's it's taking care of our staff so they can take care of the students which force for the trees that's really what we're here for it's providing a better education and we're mixing it in with these different things and going off these tangents but at the end of the day it's providing a better education for our kids it's that we want to continue to improve and if we do at some point I think we're going to have to make these hard decisions and as a board quit rejecting the needs that District staff bring to us your
118cash all right yeah you know we talk about challenges I'm still for getting the teachers this time to collaborate a couple of the emails quite a few of them and they were they were probably from teachers in the middle of the secondary said that but most of those are teaching one class you know one topic where Elementary is teaching all the topics so they naturally will probably need a little bit more time but the challenge I'd like to see is a clean schedule a clean schedule you know I said it before send them in the school put them on the bus at noon everybody go home and give to that rest of the day to the teachers whether it's three hours or whatever a clean schedule that people can rely on every week that's part
119of the problem is this the middle of the day people are at work and I know you know we've got to support teachers and therefore they're supporting steer students but we have to consider the parents in all around this is the middle of the day you got to leave work you're taking kids back home or whatever it is the bus situation two two bus routes we're running our bus drivers you know crazy and they do their best but you never know if they're going to be home at this time or at that time because of the situation and those are those are challenges right those are challenges clean schedule bus route runs now everybody goes home if you can work that out you're gonna you're gonna really be a successful bunch and that's that's just
120how I feel about it thank you Mr Galbraith thank you madam chair so I guess I wanted to I want to share the in the presentation that the Dr Webb made they we did did pull lots of teachers I think two-thirds of them roughly roughly responded back but it was it was mixed the all the there was not a delineation made between elementary middle and high school and so they subsequently gave us that and I just want I think it's really important to know that the that the high school High School teachers were pulled and 56 percent of them said that they would prefer the late start status quo so 27 late starts at the middle school level 35 percent said late start and so there was actually a the plurality said early release for
12111 11 weeks and then there was 15 percent of a majority actually at the middle school level said thoroughly so it was a little closer there that was actually the closest one and then so that would I guess it was 38 to 35 percent that wanted the late start status quo and then at the elementary school school again it was kind of overwhelming not quite a majority but 46 percent said that they wanted early release 11 times just like they have today so I don't think it's accurate that we're going against the what the teachers want I think what it what it reflects when you've got this kind of got this division at the at the board level kind of the administration wants something and I believe it's the right thing to do ultimately I
122think when you have this when you have this friction it could be two things it could be that the that the people are never going to be ready for it or it could be that they're not ready yet and maybe it's because it might not just be the passage of time it might just be there there might be other factors involved that when we when we dig into it through the strategic planning process I think this is going to come out because what I saw overwhelmingly with the with the comments that I received and the detail with which they said there that it's this is more than just I don't want to get rid of my late start Mondays whenever everybody said that one day we go to school so early that one day I
123was like I think this is just a this is a symptom of a bigger a bigger issue and I think once we solve it we have the potential to to be not I'm not seeking 100 but I think I think we can rally everybody around it the board included Jason I told you that I'll I'll be 100 just like we did with with the sales tax that Mr Welch mentioned I think once it becomes apparent that we have a solution that we can that we can move forward with I'll I'll be 100 there with you because I do think that I think the fewer days is really important I think it's just trying to find trying to find something that works within the with the works within the start times that's the that's really the
124issue that's preventing me from from supporting the original recommendation but I hope that we can get good support for for the status quo for now and then we kind of address it going forward thank you thank you Mr Brown thank you madam chair just a just a couple of comments what go back to something that Mr Welch had said about as he laid out the scenario of The Proposal that came forward from the administration and I guess I guess I get concerned a little bit that we would describe this as a situation where or any situation in which the board might have a difference of opinion from the administration on something that might represent us not supporting good education or good teachers or good outcomes I think that's what this represents I think is actually
125really healthy which is that we've our job is to take into consideration what's in the best interest of the students I think we'd all agree with that doesn't just mean from an academic standpoint it also means from a logistical standpoint from a home life standpoint from a convenience standpoint those are all factors we have to take into consideration when we hear from families and parents about the impact this is having on their lives we have to take that into consideration I mean I'll speak for myself I have to take that into consideration overwhelming number of emails from from parents suggesting that they wanted to continue with late start we can't ignore that so I think this is actually a good compromise and Jason I appreciate where you've landed on this I think it's a recognition
126that the community needs more time to think through this I think it does make a lot of sense for us as we talk about multiple times to put this into a conversation a larger conversation at strategic planning to think where do we want to go with this in two years five years where do we want to be but in you know everything involves compromise every every job any of us are involved in every activity always involves compromised that's what this is in my opinion this compromise we've gotten to a place that our instructors can continue to have some time is it the best scenario is it what they asked for no but I just cautioned us not to represent something that is a difference of opinion from the administration that somehow equals us not supporting
127good education but I don't think anybody in the community really believes that and I certainly don't want that to be the frame that this is put in tonight after we vote on this thank you madam chair if I may respond to all your comments number one we brought this last spring as an administrative recommendation and then we all agreed that the appropriate thing for this coming year was to take it to the calendar committee and so the calendar committee made that recommendation and long term I think it's a wise recommendation Mr Welch touched on something that was very prominent in in my thoughts and in the discussion I discussions I had with our leadership team because the board policy calls on me to make a recommendation and I worked through all possible not all possible
128scenarios but many possible scenarios and bounce some of those thoughts off off many of you as board members what about just vote voting on the elementary and having some discussions the next few months about secondary Etc when Mr Welch mentioned the sales tax that's my recollection too the general consensus was the community is not going to do that because we're conservative and we're not going to support additional funding because it ain't because it meant higher taxes what we did learn in that process was our community does value education and when they recognize the need they're going to find ways to support education we did that through multiple meetings met with with just I think every PTO at some point or another and discussed that had had broad Community meetings the County Commissioners got involved in
129those meetings and with this particular issue with with a calendar we haven't done that to this point I am convinced that when when that discussion is had over time we'll get that support but you heard me say earlier that ultimately we're going through the strategic planning process right now and we're thinking about five years out and that projection of where we want to be in five years I'm convinced it needs to be and I want to make sure we do this the right way I'm convinced the calendar committee's right but given all that again my recommendation is for this year it'll give us some more data even on the elementary schools and and we'll we'll have that discussion multiple discussions with our community Miss Clements Madam chair so since we don't have it in writing
130in front of us I just want to ensure what we are voting on when we say next year we're talking about 2023 24 . yes we're voting right now to approve the 27 late start days for the high school and the 11 early release days for 2023 2024 only the early dismissal would be for the elementary elementary school that's correct and the middle school would be the late start that's those that would be oh that's right because they're secondary okay I just wanted to double check yep yeah yeah that's fine thank you absolutely and to your point Miss Clements first of all I thought everybody had spoken so I apologize jumping in ahead of you oh okay okay great the calendar committee included the specifics of those of those early release days actually detailed in
131that Dr Webb included an email to you with just in essence a restatement of last year's 27 days schedule okay thank you board for discussion we will proceed with our votes and Mr Brown vote Yes vote is 11 yes one no thank you board this item passes with 11 votes yes one no that is the approval of the late start early release schedule and that was the last item on our agenda and with that our meeting is adjourned thank you