001good evening everyone and welcome to the Williamson County school board meeting we're going to call the meeting to order and first start by recording attendance we have 11 board members present thank you I want to acknowledge and thank deputies Ron Hooper and Randy Purcell for being here with us tonight thank you so much and we're going to start the board meeting tonight with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence led by board member Jenna Priya Department of the United States of America with liberty and justice for all thank you can be seated first on our agenda tonight is items of particular public interest and this is the time of the evening that we get to hear from members of the public who have signed up to speak to us this night or tonight
002we have 15 individuals who have signed up to speak and Lydia we have not everybody confirmed or no no okay so that's a we had 15 minutes or I'm sorry 15 individuals confirmed in 30 minutes allotted so everyone will have two minutes to speak tonight so I will read through the names in pairs of two the first individual can come on up to speak I just wanted the second person I call on to be aware that you'll be next so that you're prepared to come on up so the first individual is Jody Smith and you'll be able to see the time on the screen in front of you to so you can pace yourself just one second I can't I don't think the microphone's on yet let's see here microphone professional I grew up in
003a world where many books were banned I was sheltered homeschooled churched learning about incest and rape at age 12 as I read about lot and his daughters in the Christian Bible as I asked my parents about it they were not equipped to help me process that story so I never brought up the genocide murder and fantaside and other rape stories I read in the Bible just accepted it as what God wanted at the time as a teacher as a teenager when my friend told me she was molested by a family member I didn't know what happened to her I didn't know what happened to her was a crime until adulthood I'm not proud of how I handled it and I had no frame of reference I was just shelter teenager who didn't even know what
004sex was beyond something you shouldn't do with your husband and of course the Bible the adults around me didn't handle it well either they were simply adults trying to act in the best interest of minors I was so sad for her I wish I could go back and be an adult who listened and took real action Beyond being given an apology from the predator Predators thrive on silence secrecy and shame we must do everything we can to protect our kids and one way is to give them a voice allowing children to experience the world of others through books is vital not just to their development of empathy but to help them stand up for others and for themselves we want to share them to share experiences with us both lived and in books so we
005may guide and support them and perhaps it is us who should be reading these books and seeking to work through any discomfort and questions in our own hearts and when our children come to us with difficult conversations may we model empathy Justice and love anyone pushing fear divisiveness and shame that drives censorship of books is only harming us more if you want to protect children that isn't the way thank you next on the on the list we have Emily Paisley and following Emily we'll have Danny Morales before the perfectly appointed board policy 4.402 was butchered from board policy it thoroughly described in great detail how books in school have been selected prior to October 22. now we have the ambiguous revision of 4.403 which is expected to be the guiding directive on how to proceed
006with complaints such as this one on the docket with wording like material shall be suitable and materials shall be appropriate or materials shall contain promising questions of this nature will continue and be very wasteful of Educators and board members valuable time not to mention mine to speak directly to what is being asked for removal unless these books are being made available to schools lower than the high school level then I see no objectionable way how these books do not directly correlate and resonate with high school students of today's society and in this community when my son was seven years old I wasn't ready for him to learn about hate but when he came home during his second grade year asking me about Martin Luther King Jr it was then that I had the opportunity as
007a parent to have a learning moment and discussion with him and guide him in an age-appropriate way on a topic of which he had no knowledge I realized it was necessary because other seven-year-old year olds of color were already experiencing hate firsthand in their everyday lives when a book can be a warning for a girl on a subject her authority figures think does not apply to her because of their own ignorance of the current culture I say do not stifle a child's education because of One's Own uncomfortableness if there are families that are not ready to deal with relevant subject matter then let them opt out they do not have the right to make educational decisions for my child thank you next we have Danny Morales and following Danny will have Ashley Webster hello and
008good evening my name is Danny Morales and I'm a student at Ravenwood high school as you all have probably heard time and time again representation matters but you probably haven't heard it enough because I'm standing up here today in my opinion Banning the Banning the books that are being challenged here today won't do anything except for make it harder for teens who have experienced the topics in these books such as sexual abuse assault depression and suicide to come forward about their experience and to try to seek help from any trauma they have received schools have always been a place where students can think freely and explore different ideas and perspectives by Banning books we are stripping this away and denying students to learn about different experiences the only thing that results from book Banning is
009a narrow-minded and homogeneous society when we censor certain topics and books that is pretty much just saying that there's a right way to think and that there's a wrong way to think this will be extremely detrimental to the books being challenged today that discuss the topics of depression suicide and sexual assault a society that grows up on a book ban will ultimately be a less tolerant and less inclusive Society it is not fair or reasonable to impose one person's moral or ethical standards on an entire community in my opinion as a student as a student I feel that banning books with certain topics will limit my education because I want to know about all kinds of different people and experiences to help me think critically instead of being close-minded we are teaching a new generation
010of kids to fear books to fear new Concepts to fear people that are different than them and to ultimately fear knowledge is this what we want to teach our kids as much as you'll fear these mature topics they won't go away with a band because these are real world problems that real people deal with instead of banning books and violating intellectual Freedom we should encourage open and honest dialogue and Trust our students to think critically and make informed decisions about what they want to read thank you next we have Ashley Webster followed by Elliot Franklin hi I'm Ashley Webster and I live in Franklin I want to say that a small vocal group should not get to decide whether these books are available on the public library shelves parents have been and can still restrict
011what library books their own children check out if you vote to restrict access to these books even with an opt-in system that requires a parent signature to check out the items in question that's a book ban and the system will be sued the ACLU is watching and taxpayers will foot the bill we're talking about high schoolers here 99 of whom carry a smartphone that's a portal to just about any content content they desire many of them have personal laptops and access to home computers the library is not the source of any inappropriate content they consume I only wish we had a problem where libraries were overrun by high school students clamoring to check out all the books emptying the shelves are digital cues like Costco running out of toilet paper during the pandemic I can
012assure you that the high school student who commits sexual harassment or physical assault or uses illicit drugs or calls someone a name or uses profanity did not learn that behavior from a library book the parents and children pushing for this ban should use their energy on teaching their children how to make good decisions when nobody's watching how to treat others as Jesus would how to respect authority to take responsibility when they've done something wrong and any one of a million other things than restricting what's on the shelves at the library thank you next we have Elliot Franklin and then we'll have a ravita Ramen good evening my name is Elliot Franklin we keep hearing from the media and the majority of this board that we should not be restricting books based on content or age
013that parents have the ability to block their students from checking out the books that they don't agree with and reminding us that our kids are reading and viewing much worse on their cell phones while this is probably true the bottom line is you are using taxpayer funds to purchase these books and the books in question are illegal according to multiple different laws in Tennessee they may not have been illegal when they were initially purchased but some of these laws were just recently passed such as the age-appropriate materials act and TCA 3918 902 which as of July 1st makes it a Class E felony to sell a Distributive C materials in public schools I understand that those who've been in contact with you pushing to keep these books including District legal counselor stating that removing them
014might violate the First Amendment and cost and potential lawsuits however this legal advice is not without bias the Supreme Court case of Miller versus California established a definition of obscenity for criminal prosecution and other purposes this takes into account Community standards when assessing whether the material appears to period interest and depicts or describes sexual conduct and a patently offensive manner courts have recognized that communities have the right to establish their own standards of decency and protect their members from offensive and harmful material and Tennessee has done that in 39-17 901 their obscenity code they talk about matter meaning any book or magazine that is obscene they talk about nudity showing the male or female genitals they show talk about patently offensive meaning that which goes substantially Beyond customary limits of Candor they talk about period
015interest which means a shameful or morbid interest in sex this should give you enough information to make an informed decision based on the law and remove these books instead of putting WC at risk of violating Tennessee law finally it was good to see both in April as well as the Thursday work session the discussion around reporting District bullying stats my question is to you why isn't this a standing item on the board's agenda based on the discussion Thursday hopefully we'll see it in August the bottom line is the bullying isn't getting much better and if you look at the root cause it's likely tied to the CRT curriculums restorative justice as well as these obscene books what motivation do our students have to follow the code of conduct when the school board itself is ignoring
016Tennessee law I hope that you will help to remember focusing on pursuing excellence in academic Athletics and the Arts instead of porn thank you thank you next we have ravita Rockman and next after that we'll have Tricia lucente in August 2018 before The Saga of CopyCat book ban complaints across the country I actually reached out to my sixth grade my son's sixth grade teacher at the time about a book he had been assigned this is parents rights in action involvement with my son and his teacher my concerns were resolved with the chat with my child's teacher and the librarian called me and addressed my questions that I had about the materials that my son was reading which led me to allow him to read this book this is how a parent should act to concerns
017about materials while your values may dismiss many materials in the library you do not have the right to dictate what me or my family should have access to while many children have the ability to view pornography and other inappropriate materials on their mobile devices that no one has expressed the same concern about your rights as a parent have never changed what has changed is the marching orders people are receiving regarding the materials that they are suggesting to ban I don't see the same interest or outrage when one Wilco is filled and calls from kids who's actually received bullying an unprecedented increase in numbers here in WCS instead of focusing on the boogeyman book band I would ask you to direct your immediate attention to how to change the horrible increase in bullying in this district
018is Staff going through professional development this summer to combat bullying is the WCS staff being trained how to protect students in our community from racial harassment these are actually problems that you have the ability to do something about about what kids are experiencing here a school board member once incorrectly shared the river between us discussed prostitution having been on the book review committee and reading that book I assure you that word is not even a premise in the book we need to stop succumbing to Alternative facts do the hard work you're elected to do and read add as much time and energy to some real problems that we have like Boolean thank you thank you our next speaker our next speaker is Trisha lucente and then following that we have Jeff Stewart hi good evening
019you guys are breaking the law you're breaking the age-appropriate ACT you're breaking materials you're you are by keeping certain books in student libraries you are providing pornographic materials to our children our taxpayer-funded Public School libraries should not contain explicit violent and pornographic material that offers no educational value removing a book from a school library or restricting access via mature reading list is not book Banning there are plenty of books absent from school libraries and it's not possible to carry every book ever written and parents and students are always free to purchase any of these books or check them out from the public library protecting young children from pornography violence trauma suicidal ideation gender ideology political bias and indoctrination is of the utmost importance I know that you think that I don't understand why by limiting
020a book or by providing a mature reading list it's any different than providing a firewall to your internet even if a child opens up their smartphone at school there are things they are limited from seeing because your firewall is in your Wi-Fi so how is it any different from preventing children from looking at the same kind of pornographic material in a book or on their smartphone that is not protected from us in school on their Wi-Fi or whatever it is it's the same violation of Rights if it is a violation of rights which it's not so your job is to protect children and to keep you know bad materials out of their hands in our taxpayer funded Public Schools so I'm going to leave you with a quote from the Supreme Court the United States
021Supreme Court has long held that the parental rights are among those fundamental Liberty interests protected by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution the Law's concept of the family rests on a presumption that parents possess what a child lacks in maturity experience and capacity for judgment required for making life's difficult decisions more importantly historically it has been recognized that natural bonds of affection lead parents to act in the best interest of their children thank you next on our list is Jeff Stewart followed by Angie Colvin hi thank you Jeff Stewart Franklin 12th District there is no challenge whatsoever to parents rights here parents rights are very important and as we just heard the Supreme Court talking about the right of a parent to influence what their children do and have access to is important and is
022not being challenged here the rule as it stands currently gives parents exactly that right to set rules around materials that they cannot access it does not give them the right to set rules around what other people's children can access and I think the really important stipulation here is we need to trust the professionals that you all oversee and have hired we need to trust our librarians to make determinations around what is educationally valuable what is age-appropriate when there is a challenge that comes from the community as did here we need to trust the education professionals who review those materials thoroughly come to a decision make a recommendation to this board that says these materials have educational value and they are age-appropriate we need to trust those professionals and then we need to trust parents to
023make good choices for their children we don't need to trust other parents to make good choices for our children each parent can do that for themselves so I completely understand the concerns of some of the parents in the room I think comparing these materials to pornography is quite extreme but every parent still has the right to say this is not appropriate for my child and I want them to access it please don't give other parents the right to make those decisions for me and for my family thank you our next speak Colvin followed by Stephen hickey hi I'm Angie Colvin District Five I want to say first of all we're hearing book Banning a lot and I just feel like it needs to be clarified asking to have agent appropriate materials removed from the library
024is not book Banning anyone who lives in Williamson County can get a library card and you can either physically go to the library or you can use their online services to do ebooks and audio books so kids would still have access to those books I've even read some of these through the online library so I think it's important to remember or to to understand as someone who strictly monitors what my kids any video games books they read shows they watch music they listen to all of that goes through me and my husband before it ever gets to my kids and I am constantly trying to stay on top of what's going on in schools what they're exposed to and it is impossible and I don't understand why when I read things saying that Librarians choose
025books with sensitive content in order to expose kids to that to prepare them to give the parents opportunities to discuss that with them why is there not some type some type of warning or rating system being put on the books if the Librarians already know that there's sensitive content in those books that would dramatically reduce the problem that we have right now because not only would parents be aware of it but kids would be aware of it they can make better choices and also I've heard a lot of references to to child abuse and things like that as someone who used to work in the child abuse field I can tell you that a child picking up a book that contains this content that has experienced that in their life and they have no warning
026of it before they read that content can be extremely traumatic and detrimental to their well-being so if we can't do something to get the books off the shelves or or something there has to be some type of restrictions so that parents know what their kids are reading kids know what they're picking up in their hands and this can't be put on just appearance to opt out because when we try to opt out of things it's not as simple as everybody says I've already tried to opt out of books and was told I couldn't do it the way I wanted to do I had to know every single book in the library I had to give the name the author and it's just not physically possible when you have kids at multiple schools multiple libraries to
027know all the books that are in there so thank you our next speaker is Stephen hickey followed by Andrea Gomez good evening ladies and gentlemen I'm going to read to you a piece that appeared in publication shortly after World War II it's titled when will their objectives be met corrupt the young get them away from religion get them interested in sex make them superficial destroy their ruggedness get control of all means of publicity and thereby get people's minds off their government by focusing their attention On Athletics sexy books and plays and other trivialities divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance destroy people's faith in their national leaders by holding up holding the ladder up to contempt ridicule and obliquely always preach true democracy but seize power as
028fast and ruthlessly as possible encourage government extravagance destroy its credit produce fear of inflation with Rising prices and general discontent foment unnecessary strikes in vital Industries encourage civil disorders and Foster lenient and soft attitude on the part of government towards such disorders by specious argument caused the breakdown of the old moral Valley virtues honesty sobriety continence faith in the pleasure word ruggedness caused the registration of all firearms and some pretext with the view of confiscating them and leaving the population helpless the buttress my point here's a few examples from books that we're talking about this evening that speak to these these virtues from the Field Guide to the North American team by Ben Philippe that was the exact moment Patrick chose to projectile vomit everywhere Patrick was as it turned out already quite shit-faced neither
029Norris nor Liam had a handle on exactly how many of the beers he had drunk but out of a case of 24 at least seven had gone to him this continents from where the crawdads sing by Delia Owens she didn't know raw nakedness could bring such want he whispered his hands against her inner thighs and instinctively she stepped each foot to the side slightly his fingers moved between her legs and slowly massaged parts of her she never knew existed she threw her she threw her head back and whimpered when will their objectives be met indeed thank you our next speaker is Andrea Gomez followed by Al Gomez my name is Andre Gomez I'm a parent of two teenagers and a former teacher I'm going to speak in regards to a couple of the books that
030are being reconsidered specifically the book speak it's a story about a High School freshman who's raped at a summer party rape is a traumatic event one in six women and one in 33 men experience rape as a child or an adult and those are just the reported statistics there are many more that go unreported each year more than 10 million U.S children endure the trauma of abuse and violence in the home exposing minor children to traumatic events like the rape described in this book is cruel and irresponsible just listening to traumatic and abusive stories may take an emotional toll on a child that negatively impacts their development and their world view it is the public school's responsibility to teach academic Mastery not expose children to traumatic rape scenes and empathy is taught and modeled in
031the home and through relationships that they can build at school empathy is not taught by reading about rape in a book thank you thank you our next speaker is Al Gomez followed by Harper Fitzgerald Al Gomez Thompson Station I want to read out of a book called The Perks of Being a Wallflower it's about a Charlie a High School freshman who suffers clinical depression and Charlie writes to a friend about his experiences his freshman year which was also required reading for my I talked to a neighbor's child that graduated and this was required for them to read this one couple who I was told later were very popular and in love stumbled into my room and asked if I minded them using it I told them that my brother and sister said I had to
032stay here and they asked if they could use the room anyway with me still in it I said I didn't see why not so they closed the door and started kissing kissing very hard after a few minutes the boy's hand went up the girl's shirt and she started protesting Come On Dave what the kids in here it's okay and the boy kept working up the girl's shirt and as much as she said no he kept working it after a few minutes she stopped protesting and he pulled her shirt off and she had a white bra on with lace I honestly didn't know what to do by this point pretty soon he took off her bra and he started to kiss her breasts and then he put his hand down her pants and she started moaning
033I think they were both very drunk and he reached to take off her pants but she started crying really hard so he reached for his own and pulled his pants and underwear down to his knees please Dave no but the boy just talked soft to her about how good she looked and things like that and she grabbed his penis with her hands and started moving it I wish I could describe this a little more nicely but without his without using words like penis but that's the way it was after a few minutes the boy pushed the girl's head down and she started to kiss his penis she was still crying finally she stopped crying because he put his penis in her mouth and I don't think you can cry in that position I had to
034stop watching at this point because I started to feel sick but I kept on going on and they kept doing other things and she kept saying no I don't think this is you know very appropriate for minors to be reading in school and that this does have content warning of four out of five not for minors book list review rating sorry I took a couple questions thank you our next speaker is Harper Fitzgerald and followed by Lindsay Hornick and I apologize for the distractions it looks like we're just having a few technical issues that we're getting resolved sorry about that guys Mr Fitzgerald okay go ahead hi there my name is Harper Fitzgerald and I'm going into my senior year at Franklin High School I've attended the last two school board meetings and a voice
035my opinions on the harm of banning books between the time of the last school board meeting and this one I decided to go and pick up Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close during my reading of this book I was left utterly confused as to why this board would ban this book the sexual content being flagged from this book offered me one of the most refreshing perspectives onto the topic I have ever seen it never once encouraged sexual activity but rather opened my ideas to the idea that sex is not always perfect and can be scary and confusing for many topics like these that are being banned and shunned are valuable for teens to learn about reading about these ideas helps bring other perspectives to light and ensures that our exploration exploitation of sensitive ideas is safe
036if you ban books for violence and sexual content then you open a Gateway for Banning books that just blatantly make you uncomfortable instead we must have conversations that lead to productive discourse I understand the desire to be involved in your child's education but that should be discussed within your own home no parent has the right to control what other kids choose to learn about if you have a problem about the topics being discussed in books or classrooms then it is your responsibility as a parent to explain that to your child books are already being labeled based on the content within them as young adult books or adult books which allows kids and parents to know what should be expected within the book books provide safe spaces for many kids and offer an escape from the
037stresses of high school keeping these books within School libraries allows kids who may not have any other access to the book to read about and explore new ideas I encourage this rep this board to represent us the students and our educational Journey rather than the parents trying to force their beliefs onto us thank you thank you our next speaker is Lindsay Hornick and followed by Corey Martin who will be our final speaker hello my name is Lindsay Hornick and I've just graduated from Franklin High School throughout my four years at FHS I've read books that have taken me through whirlwinds of emotions I've been deserted on an island with Jack and piggy mourned with Eleazar and his people as his people were stripped of humanity sailed down the river with Huck and Jim lost my
038mind alongside setha as her past devoured her and most recently I've journeyed around New York City with a boy named Oscar in the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan saffron fauer there's an extremely prevalent quote from this novel that reads quote the book has been so buried so I hid this time behind a group of trees I imagine their Roots wrapped Roots wrapped around books pulling nourishment from the pages I imagine rings of letters in their trunk his quote is evidence for the necessity of free reading trees often a symbol of life and literature are pulling nutrients from books in other words books are supplying life that is what reading has always felt like to me books are not just an escape from our real world but our open gate for learning about
039life here in Williamson County it is extremely important that our youth is learning about the hardships of the real world our Wilco bubble although a safe place to grow up in is very sheltered reading is one of the prominent ways that we especially as high schoolers can learn about the world we are about to go into the day that our teachers had to scan in all of their books or take them home according to the new Tennessee State policy may have been one of the most discouraging days of the entire year I walked into school watching teachers ripping apart textbooks packing up their personal libraries and mumbling due to frustration of the new policy the biggest impact of my day was walking into English class and seeing that the entire collection of mouse by art
040spiegelman that have been sitting on the shelf all year was suddenly gone as a Jewish student I was hurt and disappointed that such an important story was taken away because of State State policy please stop discouraging us don't let other parents decide what we can read and cannot read I also just want to address all the parents who are reading about sexual contact and rape wait until your child is in that situation and doesn't even know what's happening to know that it's wrong and then can't get the help that they need because they have no clue what's going on thank you thank you our final speaker is Corey Martin thank you madam chair and happy Juneteenth everyone I'm sure most of you are probably aware of this but there was a little snafu with the
041superintendent's scoring last month I think you probably all know what I'm talking about the assessments the goal was listed as a 3.17 score it should have been a 3.45 score on performance goal number three because of a an in a that was miscalculated so I've been told that's been corrected but I just wanted to make sure that was on the public record and speaking of the public record I have a couple of requests for the way that the report is done next time around it'd be great if we could have each individual board member's assessment listed out rather than just a summary of them because for me as a voter I would prefer that transparency to see who has voted on what and similarly the comment sections are really important as well to see like
042why you did what assessment why you gave which assessment I was talking with a parent the other day who was talking about how they couldn't get the test from their student from from their teacher because because of privacy issues and it was frustrating to the parent because how are they going to improve from their what they messed up on without seeing what they messed up on similarly I think Dr Golden and the rest of us could benefit from your from your feedback so that's that I wanted to address a few things that I've heard tonight regarding the book stuff Mr Franklin was using the criminal definition of obscenity here which is impertinent to the discussion Ms Colton wanted a warning system and we have that with Miss Cleveland's Amendment with the books and Miss lucente
043cited the Supreme Court so I will too in 1982 Justice William Brennan wrote local school boards may not remove books from school libraries simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek their removal but to prescribe what shall be Orthodox in politics nationalism religion or other matters of opinion so you have the opportunity tonight to either disobey Tennessee state law or federal state law I would hope that you do not restrict the books thanks thank you and thank you to all of our speakers for coming tonight we appreciate you taking your time to to read what's going on on our agendas and to show up and speak with us our next item on the agenda is our superintendent contract review and extension which is an annual agenda item that must be addressed
044before we approve our agenda for the evening so we will start with that and I'll open the floor to Mr Golden to speak to the contract renewal thank you madam chair and thank you for mentioning that this is something that's actually required to be the first item on on the agenda under Tennessee law I think you all know this superintendent's contracts for it can extend for as long as four years currently I'm at three years after having a renewal from you all last year I will tell you that I'm proud of the work our team has done over the time that I've been superintendent it's amazing I'm already in my fifth year as as superintendent and as I think back on that it's it's pretty incredible at the same time we've seen a lot of
045growth a lot of growth in our students a lot of growth in how we and how we serve students but we have a lot of growth to go I think about the Strategic plan that's on the board's agenda tonight and where we're headed and I'm looking forward to proceeding and leading that work in in conjunction with you all so if you decide it's appropriate to extend my contract an additional year to bring it to 4 four years I will accept that thank you thank you Mr Golden our first item what we'll need to do is put a motion on the floor to extend Mr Golden's contract Mr Wimberly and then Mr Haas second thank you we'll open the floor to discussion Mr Brown what a question for you Jason maybe I'm putting you on the
046spot here but what would you say in the in the last year is your proudest accomplishment the thing that you and you're most proud of either for yourself or for the team well I tell you there's so many and you know it's funny after somebody goes on vacation I might ask him what was the best thing on on your trip right and it's I enjoy hearing those stories so let me give you a couple of couple of them number one I'm proud of the incredible growth in our students we share some of the data from those students with an unprecedented number of students who who who who who scored a perfect 36 composite score in the act the highest we've ever had we talk likewise about the National Merit Scholars the the unprecedented number of
047National Merit Scholars I tell you I'm proud of the bullying statistics that we've been able to improve our process of collecting notes when I first became superintendent I thoughtfully with our team reached out to our students and spoke to many students who frankly have already graduated may have already graduated college by now and one of the consistent items that they shared was they were often not reporting incidents because they felt like nothing was being done I'm proud of the work we're doing and taking steps towards that I'm proud of our achievements in arts I'm proud of our achievements in athletics the celebrations that we've been able to add during this time especially with those art celebrations our our mission statement our vision statement talks about providing a supportive environment where students are challenged to excel
048in academics Athletics in the Arts and board members you know that I speak to that quite regularly at our meetings where we provide a supportive environment where students are challenged I'm I'm proud of that process we've been going through so when you ask that question what am I most proud of there's so many things I'm gonna and I spoke to students just then I've got to speak to our faculty and staff I'm proud of the pay increases that we've initiated we're not there yet because we're competing with the market we're competing with inflation but we've have a good relationship with the County Commission and we're working together as a team to grow that and make sure that we're as competitive as we can be in this difficult Staffing environment as a number of teachers in
049Middle Tennessee continues to shrink and the demands grow because people want to be here so I frankly I could go on and on but as I do a little bit of self-analysis I know one of the one of the key points that that I always focus on is where we go where we go from here and I'm proud that we have a proposed strategic plan that can get us to continue that road you all may recall a year ago or so we were about five years into a seven year strategic plan and I said it's time it's time for us to just to start again and Shrink that old window because there have been so many changes in our community so I'm proud of that and the truth is we don't do a ton of
050reflection because we are always looking forward and moving forward Mr Wimberley thank you madam chair Mr Golden this isn't going to be an easy one either but if we add another year to your contract what are you going to do with the next four years and can we start the timer and time in so what comes to your mind first is that strategic plan what gets attention gets done and I know you like succinct answer so I'll end it right there thank you good answers both times okay I'll just end Us in comment by saying Mr Golden is kind and thoughtful considerate he's a great leader he shifted from leading the operations day to day into leading the district as a whole and maintain the standards and grew and continues to see our district excel
051in key categories and so I appreciate him as a leader and I appreciate the way he respects the staff and respects board and communicates with us so we'll continue to cast our votes your vote is 11 yes zero no super that approval did secure Mr Golden's contract for another year extended Mr Golden's contract for another year next item on our agenda is to approve our agenda we'll open the floor for a motion Mr Beasley do we have a second Mr Mitchell thank you any discussion on the agenda all right let's vote your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you with that vote the motion passed to approve the agenda next item on the agenda is to approve the consent agenda open the floor for a motion thank you Miss Clements in a second Mr
052Mitchell thank you any discussion okay let's move to a vote is 11 yes zero no thank you that motion passed and with that approval we approved the school board meeting minutes from May 15 2023 we approved the second reading of board policies board member conflict of interest and code of ethics we approved the recommendation for field trip fee requests we approved the sac fees for 2023-24 we approved the e-plan applications for fiscal year 2024 including the esea grants idea Part B idea pre-school to school and Carl Perkins basic Grant we also approved the request from Riverside Fellowship Church to Lisa Page Middle School next item on the agenda is the communications to the board Mr golden thank you madam chair first I want to thank our speakers tonight and thank those who sent us emails
053over the last few days as it became apparent that this many months-long discussion about library books was coming up for a vote from from the board you know this work is hard you all just extended my contract and we all know our whole team knows this is hard work and the state placed a responsibility on you that differed a little bit from how the responsibility was structured in the past so when that law was passed placing the decision on you for library books our policies were modified the policies used to have a structure where curriculum and library books were in place together under one policy with a committee reviewing and making the decision that in turn was appealable to the board so when the state changed that the policies had to shift and we have
054a library policy where there's a recommendation from the committee to the board the discussion that our community had has had and I expect will continue to have is valuable in that the more we communicate about this the more parents are aware of the power and authority they have to make decisions for their own children we talked about this a policy committee a few months ago but it didn't really get a ton of public attention until this item came up so I encourage you all as board members no matter what your vote is tonight on this issue to continue to communicate that to your constituents to your to your community that parents do that do have that decision-making power on on items that that are in the curriculum years ago it tended to lean towards dissection
055in in making decisions on whether your child participates in that or not but it has always been much more broad than that the parents do have that decision-making power so thank thank you members of the community for that discussion second the last time we met as a as a full voting board we had not yet had our graduation ceremonies and those were wonderful ceremonies I know many of you attended as many of those graduation ceremonies as you could and that's one of the that's one of the one of the perks of being a school board member that you get to participate a lot of Tears a lot of happy tears watching children graduate and move on to their to their next steps I am excited about the Strategic plan because there are a lot of
056items in there about the next steps towards preparing our students for those next steps we talked specifically about students with disabilities in those next steps we talked specifically about College and Career Technical education we talked specifically about preparing students in an academic setting so I'm very excited about that Mr Brown you asked me some of my proudest items I want to celebrate at the high school level we had 61 students this past year score a 36 composite ACT score the highest possible score that's more than we've ever had we had 78 National Merit finalists that's more than we ever had in part because our team focuses on those opportunities to open doors for our students on the opposite end of the age Spectrum we talked about third grade look this year did we not third
057third the what we call a third grade retention law that if I'm not mistaken uses the word promotion in the actual code title we had 3045 third graders this year and you all remember two years ago when the legislature passed that law that if third graders didn't meet certain certain benchmarks they had to be retained you all got involved in many folks across the state got involved to allow for a little bit of an additional criteria one more Criterion for for students because we recognized that one particular test the very first time students take it was not reasonable as a result of all those efforts and as a result of our team focusing on third grade retention ultimately we had 26 students who fit that criteria of having to go to summer school and take
058tutoring during the course of the school year so as not to be retained ultimately of those 26 23 are in that summer school program right now as we speak and we had three notify us that that they were not going to be in the school district next year for various reasons so ultimately I'm proud of the of the work we've done with that over this course of the school year we really have focused especially at those youngest grades on on on Phonics on what on what we call foundational skills to help students learn to read we know and you know that it takes those early years to prepare them for third grade grade even though that particular test is that first point so we're excited about the review of where we were this past this
059past year with those grade levels and those couple of examples and I mentioned to you at the work session on Thursday night in when we were talking about graduation how especially proud I am of Vanguard virtual school it's in its third year of existence and we recognized that there was a need for some of our students to have that virtual High School option it wasn't a large number we have over if I'm not mistaken somewhere around 14 000 high school students grades nine through twelve we had 50 graduates from the Virtual School this year and it was 100 graduation rate so I'm very proud of Allison Fisher who's sitting over here you all know many of our principals come to our board meeting so Miss Fisher I want to thank you for that thank you
060for your leadership in getting that school started and the very apparent success opening doors for our students that you led this year so that's my verbal superintendent's report for for tonight and as you may notice Carol Birdsong is standing back there and we make it a point on a monthly basis when State and national awards come to specifically celebrate our students faculty and staff and Carol I know it's the end of the year so you might have a few of them we do have a few of them two to celebrate and we're going to start with this one very exciting for Nate Martinez over to Independence High School he was named a U.S presidential scholar there are only two selected for each state so this is quite an honor congratulations to him we have five
061students that we are going to celebrate tonight who earn the perfect ACT composite score these are included in the in the 61 but we have not honored them yet so this is Luke Haws from Brentwood Catherine Perez from Brentwood Lucas Mathis from Franklin Thomas Jordan from page and Sarah travilla from Ravenwood in the Arts the Tennessee Performing Arts puts on a program called the spotlight Awards each year and this is Lainey McCarter from Nolensville high school and Sawyer Curtis from Independence Sawyer performing for us those of you who are at the Fine Arts showcase this year they were named outstanding lead performers so quite an honor for them let's talk Middle School athletics next so you know what a year or so ago we joined the the state Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association and we
062continue to bring home the trophies from grassland middle this is your four by four hundred meter relay team of Aubrey Gates Sienna Thompson Liv Garrett and zombie wazuki and Alexander Eichner is their coach great Grayson door won the high jump as well from grassa middle from Brentwood middle well they won the boys track competition their coach is Dennis Harrison this is Gabe cable he won the 400 meter dash Brentwood middle Andrew Spector won both the 800 meter and 1600 meter runs and then we have the 4 by 200 relay team of Jones Merrell Cohen dabs limpton and Wyatt loot from Brentwood Middle School the four by four hundred Relay Team Andrew Spector Eli Wyatt Luke Karen and Gabe Cabell again Dennis and Dennis Harrison is their coach then over at Page Middle School Dakota Bryce
063one for the discu discus throw then Fairview Middle Schools William Edwards won both the 800 meter and 1600 meter run Ryan Pitt is Williams coach from Thompson Station Middle this is Luke Russell who won in the long jump from Woodland Middle School they brought home the trophy for the state championship baseball end middle school now we're moving to high school your track Champs the Brentwood High boys track team the 400 meter dash Hudson Allen from Brentwood High School and Aiden Carter from Brentwood High School won the decathlon from Nolensville High School this is Morgan Lewis 300 meter hurdles from Ravenwood High School this is Miles Ramer for the 1600 meter run we have a lot of them and in the girls this is Sophie Yount from Brentwood High School she won both the long jump
064and the outdoor pentathlon from Centennial High School this is your 4 by 800 relay team of Gabriel Brule Bethany Wright Larkin Johnson and Rhys amen and also Gabriel won the 800 state championship for the 800 meter run from Fairview High School we have the 4x800 relay team of Alyssa Andrea Lauren Sloan Andy Laurent and Rhys Lauren and from Nolensville High School Claire Stegall won for the 1600 meter run from page High School Cole combs for shot put and the page High boys Track Team One are your state champions and then we have boys soccer we have your state champion there and that is the Brentwood High soccer team so lots of athletic awards and now let's take a look at some staff spotlights we have four Educators music educators who were named to the Country
065Music Association Foundation music teacher of excellence and this is Elena gallis from Edmondson Elementary School this is Ashley Harris from Spring Station Middle School this is Brianna vote from Franklin High School and this is Rose helmer's for from Ravenwood high school so congratulations to all of our students and staff for their accomplishments thank you Miss Birdsong for for the for sharing that we have an amazing relationship with the CMA Foundation and I want to thank our Arts team for that also as I was looking at the all the awards for our Middle School team you may recall that when Darren joins our Athletics our Athletics director talked about moving to tws double a some of his peers said you're going to become the SEC of of Middle School athletics right and so that made me
066smile as well also I do want to mention to you when I talked about our academic success we actually posted on our website the amount of scholarships that our students had received this year and I mentioned that at the work session well just last week Mars Pet Care hosted a Juneteenth celebration and at that celebration three of our students received a ten thousand dollar scholarship so it was a great event for them and so those numbers are never quite right because there's always a little bit more than than than than what's there on paper finally I do want to especially thank you all for your for the contract vote thank you as individual board members for your trust in me for for for the good relationships that we have there's a lot of disagreement from
067time to time which is appropriate for an elected body and when you all do it the right way and I appreciate the conversations that we have when you and I have to have direct conversations and I appreciate the conversations you all have as an elected body so thank you for your leadership look forward to many years to come thank you Mr Golden on the agenda is the board chair report I just want to mention again that we do not have a meeting in July so if you show up here you'll be the only one next item on the agenda is unfinished business first unfinished business is approval of the reconsideration committee's recommendation for the following library books speak perks of being a wall a Wallflower the Field Guide to the North American teenager and where
068the crawdads sing the item the this these I this item that we're about to vote on concerns the recommendations the recommendation committee's recommendation for these books and whether to accept the recommendation to take no further action to approve maintaining the books but restrict access by age or grade or to remove the book from the library collection and we want to first start by asking if there is a motion and a second to get the item on the floor for discussion but first want to turn this over to Bobby to guide us through some items first thing is we'll take a vote on need to get it on the table okay we got a motion Mr Mitchell okay we have a second we're just getting it on the floor right now okay emotions just to get
069it on the floor for discussion we'll go through each book we'll get there yes or no what are we voting on right I'm voting on is whether you get it on the floor to discuss if there is not a motion in second to get it on the floor discuss and it does not pass then you do not take action on the item and you go to the next item okay so what you've got right now is once we get it on the floor we'll go through each book I'll explain the process and how to do it okay so the motion right now is just to get it on the floor to discuss yeah I'll I'll accept your request I don't know that's a pro that's an appropriate request but I'll I'll make a motion paralegals
070request that we put on the motion put it on the floor for discussion do we have a second thank you Miss A Priya okay Bobby would you like to walk us through yeah what you've got before you've got two different items that concern five different books each book is going to be decided on the content of the book to determine whether book is age appropriate and within the educational mission of schools because each book is subjective and because it's based on the content of each book it was recommended by Council like me to address each book separately so if there's not a motion I mean if there's not objection we will divide the question into five into well the first one will be into four books into four different actions each book will be addressed
071separately now the action before the board is determined whether the library material is age appropriate for the age and maturity level of the students who have access to the materials and whether materials are consistent and suitable for the educational mission of the school and policies established by the board there are three appropriate actions before this board for each book to find the book that issue is not suitable for all grade students but may be suitable for some because it contains material that is not appropriate for all the ages which would be to with the motion would be to restrict access to the book by grade age or however you want to do a parental consent the second appropriate action is to find the material is not suitable for any grade and that the book is
072not consistent with educational minimum schools and the motion then would be to remove the book the third one obviously is if you find the book is age-appropriate and within the educational mission of the schools and the motion is to maintain accessibility without restriction I will tell you that state law requires affirmative action to remove the books or restrict them so if emotion fails because it does not receive the seven votes as you know you need seven votes to pass then what happens is the motion is defeated and the original action by Review Committee stands and we go on to the next book is there any questions okay the first book that we have is Mr Wimberly I'm sorry I'm not tracking this we had committees two committees established to review these books each of these
073committees addressed the books within their report what we originally had on the agenda was to approve the committee recommendations not dissect them into multiple parts so how do we all of a sudden start voting on separate books not on except in a recommendation okay you've got three actions before you that I've already explained you're not accepting recommendation how do you amend somebody else's recommendation okay that's not the appropriate motion the appropriate motion or the three actions I've given you okay we don't have an emotion all we have is a motion to to discuss right and I'm hitting the first one on the floor the book speak okay why are we not just I want to restrict I'm sorry why are we not just addressing if you have an objection is there an objection for us
074to separate this motion into five into the four different books is there an objection yes now because we have an objection we can do it by motion by division is there motion divide this question into four different questions specifically to each book do we have emotion okay see now the motion dies and you address all five at the same time on the first one or four Mr Brown it may have gotten answered but you know I'm I'm trying to track with this because the agenda says in writing approval of the reconsideration committee's recommendation for the following books so we would have been deep at issue that one issue divided up to five you can do that under Roberts okay so the motion was to divide that which I would have had to be a motion
075from a board member which you didn't receive okay Mr Hall thank you madam chair I guess I had the same question too I don't understand why the agenda seemed to be changed an address but I was I was surprised how is there a motion on table for some action okay Supriya I'd like to make a motion based on the explanation and reasoning provided by the Review Committee to maintain I guess all four books in question in the first item in the library's collection without restriction of a second Mr Mitchell and do we have discussion Supriya I just I took tallies because I like to of all the emails we received and as board members we are elected to represent all constituents All Families all students and I feel very strongly that by restricting putting restrictions
076on students and families rights to check out books from a library especially our older students our high school students goes against what we should stand for as a district and so I want to just re-emphasize that we are trying to trust our professionals the committee has made this recommendation after hours of consideration and talking and discussing and reading all the books and the great thing is that we have as a board created or adapted our policy thanks to miss Cleveland to to address any issues if families do have concerns about their their students their children reading these materials we've made it very transparent very clear that any book that comes into question will send an email to all families in the district in that grade band and let them know that these books are being
077challenged so here's the link here's how you opt out it'll be very easy and clear so that parents still have the right to opt their children out from reading these materials that choice absolutely should be left to the parents and the families so I think that based on all of that it there's no reason to put any restriction on these books because they're optional they're not required reading so thank you Miss A Priya no sorry Miss Clements so my concern and I think there's been a lot of confusion going back and forth about book bands and what we are allowed to do and what we aren't allowed to do we have we took an office an oath of office to follow state law and we have a state law that we have not really paid
078attention to and I'm concerned we need to follow the state law and I feel like as a school board we need to take time together to look at the state law because you know just looking at what the state law asked us to do it asks us to periodically review Library materials and then it we also can have a procedure to do more than just ban a book but but we can have the book still there but allow the parents and I know it's a Hot Topic and a hot button but we can allow the parents to have the option to opt in because we have 42 000 students individuals they I mean data tells us that they we're going to have kids who've been molested we're going to have those situations and the parents
079know the children best and we have to let them help navigate that and give them that priority and in appearance want their kids to have full access then that's a click of a button it's so much easier but if there's an undue burden on parents who are trying to protect their children because they're like there's something that they know that they want to protect their child from there's a lot it's a lot of Hoops to jump through so I but I just really want us to Circle back and really focus on the state law that we have not paid attention to I talked to someone from the Wilson County School Board yesterday and they've had in in place for the whole last school year a mature rated section that parents could opt into and it's
080gone great and they had not gotten sued which is great but but I think we could learn from our neighbors who have already enacted that and been working on the state law to perfect it but we're accountable to follow the state law thank you Mr Galbraith thank you madam chair so I've seen a lot of a lot of talk about about banning books and restricting books and I want I was a part of this committee spent dozens if not hundreds of hours in both reading these four books as well as as discussing them and it became clear as based on the committee's recommendation that we don't have a we don't have a method a rubric a criteria by which we would evaluate these books and so we have the responsibility and the obligation under the
081law to to do these evaluations and undoubtedly more will come and we'll have to address books as they as they come to us but I truly believe that decisions on individual books without a standard is going to be considered arbitrary in the eyes of the court and so while I do not ever want to act based solely on the fear of being sued I think it is a absolute waste of taxpayer money to to go to take an action that we know is going to follow in a in a lawsuit and the only people that win are the attorneys and we to pay all of them and so that is a to me that is just a that's an irresponsible Action Now what we can do and what I've tried to do and I'll be
082more I'll be more diligent and actually getting this into into policy in the future in the coming months but I want to urge a policy to require the Librarians to create that standard that they will use and that we can use in reviewing the books in the future for age-appropriate and objectionable content but then if we a lot of people said on both sides said that they wanted they wanted parents to be able to make these decisions on for their kids and I totally agree and so but if we're serious about that I do want to I do want to explore expanding I think Sheila's Sheila's policy that we just enacted is a great start in addressing the books that are coming up for reconsideration but if we really want to provide parents with a
083tool that they can use to manage content for their kids then we've got to expand that to be to allow for categories of content and I think it's we're close I think there's keyword searches but it's not easy enough to say that it's a it's a reasonable accommodation that we can provide parents that they have the option to if they want to strict access for their kids and they might do it in a manner that who knows everybody's got everybody's got their own manner what some people are going to be I want I want my kids to be able to see everything some might be I'm more comfortable if I wait until my kid is a sophomore a junior a senior I'm you know not a minor anymore but if we but we need to
084give that more than just the books that are come to you know four five six books or whatever that come on on reconsideration the policy is still great when I do come upon reconsideration it's great that we're that we're notifying them I just want to expand that just a little bit if if that if those two things are in place I think we have a much better system than we have today right now I can't I read these books I think I think there is in my estimation I think there is objectionable content that's inappropriate for minors we don't have a standard by which we could do that of the other members of the committee largely did not think that way and so we all agreed that we didn't have a standard with which to
085base it so on that on that basis I will support the committee's recommendation but I will continue to talk about this and hopefully we can make some modifications thanks thank you Mr Hall thank you madam chair and thank you everyone for the discussion we're having tonight as well as last Thursday and we've gotten a lot of feedback from the public the things that I have noted are that we have as as I asked Mr Golden today for the official tally 14 516 high school students and if we if we were to do something tonight that limited this books these books removed these books changed the access limited the ability to check these books out that would be the first time we've done that in Williamson County as I understand from anybody's recollection correct so we
086would we would make that book unavailable to 14 516 high school students unless they opt in and we've heard from a number of people I'd say though it's a 10 to 1 ratio of people who have said please don't make decisions for my kids they want their academic freedom their academic Liberty preserved and I agree there is some content that would not be appropriate for every student there are there are things shared tonight that I can totally understand the objections to and I would say from our discussion on Thursday there are effective ways to have discussions with teachers Librarians and look at the resources available so on each website for the schools there's a digital Archive of the library books that are available is that correct and within those there is a synopsis as well
087as topics that are discussed I think that is a very positive step I'm not sure how long has it been in place would you say Mr Golden within this past year so again all these conversations are worth having and I can understand the concerns about the objection alcohol content but I think that more information is helpful more discussions with your Librarians your school of resources finding out what is appropriate for your kids having those conversations we've talked about possibly having more education sessions and information available for for families to make those informed decisions for themselves and for their kids and I'm I'm quite supportive of that and you know on the content of the books one thing I would really encourage people you know as you look at these and we've heard some quick answers
088or quick responses say ban this pull this from the book pull this from the library the book Speak deals with very difficult topics and as I read that I was braced for some pretty tough content within it but the way that is dealt with in that book is so thoughtful empathetic and considerate for the people who are going through those very difficult situations I would really encourage people to read that book if you haven't and then and then think about what the impact of that would be to make it unavailable to the kids who might need that Lifeline to be able to connect to through a fictional character but through real life experiences that unfortunately happen all too often these books are not promoting horrible activities the characters fortunately get their comeuppance in a lot
089of these books but they teach kids a way to relate to difficult situations maybe a way to articulate them and to have better conversations with their parents and peers and to be supportive and empathetic to those are going through difficult situations the power of the books is a double-edged sword but there's so much positive that can be gained and I would hate to stifle any of that thank you Mr Brown thank you madam chair let me start with a question maybe for Bobby if this motion were to fail and the board ultimately did not through all the different things we do tonight did not ultimately adopt the committee's recommendation would the books remain in the library so the absence of a the absence of adopting this recommendation doesn't automatically mean the books go away there
090has to be something affirmative done to take them away right the state law requires the sport to take an affirmative action to do that so all right that's that's an important piece of information for for me you know I've struggled with how to how to articulate some of this and I've had a lot of thoughts Thursday night I didn't really speak to this I listened a lot and tried to hear everybody's opinions and then over the weekend getting emails getting Communications from people about this and really trying to think through what's the right way to think about it and you know unfortunately this has become like almost everything else we deal with right now really divisive if you if you're a board member who wants to entertain any kind of restriction any kind of alternative
091to unfettered access you're a book Banner and if you are not willing to just outright pull the books off the shelves no questions asked then you're you're for children being corrupted you're okay with children being corrupted and I just think that's a really unfortunate dichotomy that we you have to be one or the other you know and I'd love for there to be a place that we land j-hit on some of this a minute ago in terms of getting ahead of this at the beginning of the process rather than dealing with it on the back end of the process what we're dealing with right now is the back end of this process and we're waiting until something's been in the library for who knows how long we're waiting for someone to raise their hand and
092say I have a problem with this and then we take it up now a lot of this is being driven by the state law and Donna made the point very good point we don't have the luxury of not obeying state law we don't have the we don't have the luxury also of not obeying federal law or the Constitution so this is where we find ourselves is how do you do something that passes the smell test passes muster constitutionally while also being sensitive to the concerns of parents that are legitimate and so I feel like voting tonight to allow allow all the books to stay in the library unfettered or just pulling all the books out I don't think either of those is the right decision in my opinion I think the larger decision has to
093be how do we get ahead of this we've talked we've heard criticism that if we challenge the Librarians or the process the Librarians use to put books into our Collections and curate our library collections that we somehow don't trust our librarians but you know by their own admission they haven't read all these books nor should we expect them to read all these books right Ten Thousand Eleven thousand twelve thousand books in a library how can a library Librarians read all of those no parents going to read all those right so given that fact they're relying on other third-party sources to tell them whether something is worthy of being in the library collection they're they're relying on other parties to tell them that just like certain citizens are relying on third-party information that they're getting to
094decide whether a book is bad or not let's be honest no one's doing this because they themselves have always gone through and looked at every single thing to decide that it's not good or it is good right so I just think there's some intellectual honesty that has to happen in this discussion about how we got to where we are and it's not just you're bad if you do this you're bad if you do that let's talk about a process and again Jay alluded to this idea of how can we have some kind of structure in place at the beginning when before when books are put into the library in the first place categories we've heard reference to rating systems I think that's harder to do because who adopts the ratings who creates the rating system
095but some kind of categorization to flag on the front end that this book has this kind of content and so it's maybe not a surprise to people as much as maybe we seem to we seem to be seeing right now I'll just say one other thing back a few months ago Miss Dickerson when she was making her presentation now this was on the curriculum decision that was made but on on one of these same titles one or two of these same titles I forget maybe it was just one but she brought up the fact that she and the committee made the determination that particular title was not appropriate for lower grade level high school students to be reading and to be studying as part of their curriculum that it was too mature it had content
096that was not appropriate for them maybe it should only be for seniors so our own professionals respected professionals made that determination and the process of looking at that and reading that content and deciding maybe a sophomore shouldn't be reading that maybe that's more appropriate for a senior who's 17 or 18 years old so I argue why can't we use that same standard that our own internal staff tenured people prospective professionals have used to say you know we bifurcate something's only appropriate for juniors and seniors it's only appropriate for you know certain ages I don't know how we do it but I just feel like the lack of us having a structure and a process right now has got us in this situation in addition to the state law that's forcing our hand a little bit
097so I would almost say that the options before us tonight in my opinion personally are not great I don't know that I can get behind any of them necessarily but I feel like in in we need to take the Long View of this and do something that's going to protect us and put us in a position to succeed long term thank you Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair I appreciate the comments of my colleagues this evening all of them I think they were very thoughtful and give me and otherwise I wouldn't be making a comment here so it's to your point about the curriculum of the books Mr Brown these books were all selected to be part of a classroom discussion on unconventional people folk individuals who might be considered as Outcast by their community
098and that's what and that's why these books were brought into the classroom as a optional read what the books did for me and I read them all too is that they brought insight into these characters and the personalities of these characters who and discussed what it felt like to be bullied by those characters felt like to be bullied by their community and it gave some explanations of why they were The Way They Were and it kind of and I would have thought in a classroom conversation he would have talked about the students would have talked about you know did the book make you feel empathy for this person who was the main character being bullied or being Outcast and could you understand why they acted the way they did based upon their personal experiences and
099what a great what what a great opportunity of Discovery for teenagers in our high school to think about why does this person who I don't really know act the way they are they do even and I don't understand why they do and it's so easy for me to tease and harass but really when I step back maybe I should unders think a little bit more about what has been their life experience to make them be that way and so a book that in my opinion that makes a teenager kind of dive into and recognize that everybody is different and people act based upon their own personal experiences is a valuable piece of literature that goes that's a whole lot deeper than just the subtext or the or the specific sexual content or bullying content or
100drug content that we're that's being called out here we are a public school system and I think and I another thought on opting in opting out we are a public school system and we have to provide for every student regardless of what that students socioeconomic gender or background is we don't get to pick we don't get to say we're going to provide curriculum for the 80 percent who fall into the majority or the we have to provide opportunities for everybody and so maybe the opt-in opt out rain if we look at it when your child attends and signs up to attend school in Williamson County Schools you've opted into the books that are in the library now if maybe we want to talk about making every book all 40 000 books opt out and you
101have when you sign up as a bring a child in and a parent has to identify exactly out of those forty thousand books which ones their children can read let's go the extreme in the other manner that you've got to sign up and say I'm going to let my child read all of the books or some of the books or none of the books if we look if we're going to argue about whether opt-in is the best approach or opt out is the best approach but but my point here this evening other than arguing about the opt-in opt out is that these four books were talking about what makes the main characters unique and why they are why why they are unique and it was brought for the purpose of having a discussion amongst teenagers
102about what what about these characters was different and what what made them different and what did you like about them that would after you learned about them what did you not like about them and that's really what the whole point of English literature is reading and getting into the depth of the of the material and getting past the titillating passages I guess that the author decided to add to it so thank you thank you Mr Cash thank you madam chair it's a lot of good information going around tonight I agree with a lot of what's been said I'll say this though we can we can have these conversations with students and as parents with our children on books without sexually explicit scenes described in detail in our schools it doesn't have to be that way
103there's ways to discuss every one of these issues in every one of these books I agree with Donna I agree with Jay and Josh we've been we've been looking at some way to take care of this issue since 13 folks came in the same room and started reading episodes from books well over a year ago and it was muted because it was so bad I personally was so embarrassed I couldn't look at anybody in here but they're still on the shelves we still haven't sat down and had a real conversation we were back at square one again we have we have our attorneys telling us what can happen if we remove a book and we can do this and we can do that we can't do this we can't do that we never we never
104get this the solid straight answer people have been told it's a it's an infringement on the rights of the children but no one's ever got out here publicly and said that in most of these laws we are able as a board to look supported by the state law at age appropriateness lewd Behavior violence rape sexually explicit scenes every one of them this board has got the power to do that now I'm not advocating throwing books away what I have TR I've said for well over a year let's have a rating scale if we can't do that much to help every child in this in this school system then shame on us I will vote no on this until we sit down as a board whether it's at a retreat or wherever and have a serious
105discussion about these sexually explicit and vulgar issues in these books thank you thank you Mr Wimberley sure I made the motion to approve these so you can imagine how I feel about it but I have to say and if I can personally address Mr goldbroth and Mr Brown what what the two of you proposed tonight sounds real intriguing to me I would suggest however that we go ahead and approve this get this behind us so that we can deal with these larger issues in in a you know an appropriate and thoughtful manner so I ask that we approve these the recommendations thank you Miss Cleveland I agree with Mr Wimberley and Jay thank you for bringing that up I really appreciate that and just as a side note you know my kids you know went
106here K-12 and they read those books and so when I asked them about the certain parts of that are controversy they didn't give much thought about it but they loved the book but they don't remember those explicit Parts it's because it was the book as a whole they really enjoyed it and they could not believe that there was questions about removing these books and so I just had to say that because it was you know firsthand experience thank you thank you if we have no further discussion we are now ready to move on to voting for this topic Mr Golden do you have a recommendation thank you madam chair I do recommend approval but I want to make a couple of comments one our Librarians have been talking about this as well you may recall
107that the legislature directed that the Tennessee textbook commission gives some guidance and we got the guidance and in essence it was a restatement of what was already in our policy so we will take that next step regardless of of your decision tonight with those ongoing conversations with our with our Librarians because it's on their minds as well do recommend approval your vote is eight yes to no and one abstain I'm sorry thank you so this result means that the motion was passed to approve the reconsideration committees request to recommendation to keep these library books in the library and per discussion we are you know we will commit to reviewing this in further detail and enacting policy which is how we can govern effectively as a board okay thank you all for the discussion and to
108our community for coming to speak to this as well we do have another item similar to this one approval of the reconsideration committee's recommendation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Bobby did you want to we're not going to try to okay so buy this one sofa just if you just get a motion on perfect okay do we have a motion for this item Mr ha thank you thank you Mr Mitchell okay do we have a discussion on this item Miss Clements I served on this committee and I have to say I did like the book and I requested the book to stay on I was one of the few that disagreed with the whole committee I recommend it to be 16 and older which is kind of like what we've talked about the different ages
109because I think it's really important for us to understand when we look at a high school you've got kids who are 13 14 you've got kids who are 18. this is massive amount of development that happens between those years there was some heavy duty situations in this book but it was a really good book but I do think it I'm gonna vote no for this to stay on for all because I do feel like it is much better it's a it's appreciated much more for an older reader it's like I said in work session you can ruin a good book by giving it to someone too soon and I think this is a good book to keep on the library shelves but I would again want to keep it for older children thank you the
110Priya and respond to that I agree with the original motion to approve this without restrictions just because we do have the parent parent right to opt out so our parents know our their kids the best and if they're too immature to be reading the content they can they can opt them out so I think it's better for constitutionality and Liberty do make sure that everyone has access that wants it and parents have the right to opt out Mr Golden do you have a recommendation I do recommend approval with a reminder of what you all have talked about about the new board policy that we will make sure we notify parents per that policy where members of no further discussion we can move to a vote your vote is eight years to No One abstain thank
111you and with this motion did pass with the approval to uphold the reconsideration committee's recommendation for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close thank you board now we will move on to new business the first item a new business is the 2020-23 school board budget first item is the approval of central cafeteria fund Commodities 95 000 Mr golden thank you madam chair as the Rachel farmer mentioned you during the work session this is the end of year request related to Commodities to place the USDA Commodities Revenue item and expenditure item in the same location the numbers have changed a little bit based on the USDA requirements do recommend approval of this thank you Mr Wimberley do we have a second Mr Priya thank you any discussion okay board members let's cast our votes your vote is 11
112yes 0 no thank you motion passes for the central cafeteria fund Commodities 95 000 next item is approval of the 2022-23 budget adjustments for the final year intercategory general purpose fund thank you madam chair this is the final intra category request to make sure that each one I'm sorry there was no motion do we need a motion I'm sorry Miss Clement thank you in a second Mr Cleveland thank you thank you madam chair this is the end of the year requirement to move all the items to the appropriate line so that each line to use an old line foots in and so we do recommend approval okay four members let's cast our votes your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you motion pass to approve the budget adjustments for intra category general purpose fund
113next item on the agenda agenda is the approval of the bud budget adjustments for the final year intra-category is Central cafeteria fund thank you madam chair just as the General you get a motion for this one no motion for this Mr Mr Mitchell and Mr Cash thank you now we can open the floor for discussion yeah or oh sorry Mr Golden go ahead either way I missed I may mess this up that we're treating the the same issue at with the cafeteria fund to move the items to the appropriate categories question on this item okay four members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you motion passed to approve final year intra category Central cafeteria fund next item is the approval of final year intercategory extended Child Care Program do
114we have a motion Mr Wimberley in a second Mr Pria thank you Mr golden thank you madam chair same issue for the for the school age child care extended Child Care Program thank you any discussion on this item thank you board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes 0 no motion passed to approve the final year entry category extended Child Care Program budget adjustment and final item in this section is the approval of resolution for Capital requests for 2023-24 and do we have a motion Miss Clements and then a second Mr Mitchell Mr golden thank you madam chair this number 16 million 252 690 for Capital annual Capital request is based on the budget decision that you all made a few months ago the County Commission has not yet voted on a
115final budget we know that the budget committee has recommended a 13 million dollar approval but they have not yet made a decision so for us to prepare for our Capital funding request the appropriate thing to do is for you all to make a motion now to approve that so we can take it to the County commission for their July meeting if the commission does reduce our Capital funding to 13 million we will bring this back to you for an adjustment to that but the purpose of this is to get us started so we can begin the funding process and I will I will point out and a few you know this the schedule for construction projects is getting longer and longer the the and Kevin I'm trying to remember the exact phraseology the supply chain
116is getting much more difficult so it's becoming even more important that we pass this in a timely manner so that we can get the commission to approval even if it is on just some of the funding so do recommend approval Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair a couple of couple of thoughts it's interesting how how reading is more controversial than spending millions of dollars I guess the note that you had the memo in here I found it kind of confusing it says in March you approve the capital request of 16 million 252 000. if we've already approved this why are we voting on it a second time Miss farmer would you speak to that we have to do the county requires us to put it in resolution format what you voted on was the overall
117budget but then this is actually putting it in resolution format for them to be able to vote and we're our resolution is going to be for the full 16 million correct right and if the what what part of our 16 million did the education committee not want to approve well if I'm not mistaken Miss farmer the education committee recommended approval in full and the budget committee recommended a reduction to 13 million they do not have the power to line item us but ultimately this is a recommendation that goes to the County commission for their full budget decision that they will be making on June 26th so it's a recommendation from it's a conflicting recommendation for Med committee and from budget committee what was the vote in in the committee do you know was it unanimous
118was it split I can't remember off the top of my head on my head I don't know either well and that's and my reasoning for a reason for asking that is how how strong was the sentiment within that committee for reducing our capital budget for the year and then my next question to you is if the I'm assuming those same individuals are gonna those same County Commissioners from the committee are going to press a similar reduction at the full at the full commission what's your what's going to be your strategy if we if if we have to reduce our capital and maybe you don't want to state that on a public record that and that's fair too well well thank you for that so number one let me try to answer your the core of
119your first question the budget committee talked in detail about the Tisa funding and our projections for our ultimate Revenue side versus our expense side if you recall you all made a decision on the on the on the expense side of the budget when at the moment we had a deficit projected without having teasing numbers since then Tisa came in Rachel and I'm just going to say just as clear as I can did an unbelievably good job in this new environment with Tisa to give a projection of where we were when we shared our projections with the new TSA numbers it was somewhere around three million dollars in the black based on our projections so they think we have they think we're going to have a budget surplus of 3 million and without without me speaking
120for them they rounded down to an even 13 million so okay I won't go to the next step thank you board members if no further discussion we can go ahead and cast our votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you motion passes for approval of the resolution for the capital request for 2023-24 next item on the agenda's approval of the 2023 through 2028 strategic plan I may Madam chair I believe the next item is the differentiated pay plan oh okay I may have missed it okay thank you so Madam chair as you know we had a really good discussion about the about the Strategic plan yeah and I missed that thank you all we had a really good discussion at the last work session about the Strategic plan and you all ask some
121very specific questions after Consulting with the with the Lipscomb University facilitators I made three recommended changes to you from that plan as presented at the work session so number one we added some language specific to the discussion that we had at so many of our public meetings related to school start times and we added a recommended ninth objective at the very end of that regarding the the that plan second we made an adjustment to one of the goals related to teacher and staff salaries there was a concerned expressed related to the language in the earlier iteration of reflective of a livable Williamson County Income so we made an adjustment to that so there was no implication that it might have committed us to becoming a landlord and as I sit here at this moment I'm
122trying to remember the third one but but you all got that email I know I heard from a few of you I'm responding to that to those recommended changes thank you commitment to number three oh support and lead efforts for attainable Workforce housing options thanks we made an adjustment to to to advocate for for improved Workforce housing which really opens the door for a much broader perspective rather than simply leading an effort for Workforce housing so do recommend approval and look forward to the to where we head with the Strategic plan thank you Mr Wimberley and Mr Priya seconds do we have any discussion okay let's cast our vote oh Mr Wimberley yes I guess it's more of a request and a reminder Jason to you is we need to shout the Strategic plan from
123the mountaintops and I think as we've discussed in the work session it's not enough just to print a brochure we've got to be more proactive because this is our guiding star or North Star as it says in there quite specifically for the next few years so I would ask for a commitment that we do that thank you have it thank you board members please cast your votes your vote is 11 yes zero no oper the motion pass to approve our strategic plan for 2023-2028 next item on the agenda is the approval of the differentiated pay plan Mr golden thank you madam chair obviously I missed the order this is a state requirement that we provide them information on a particular form related to differentiated pay which includes stipends for particular hard to fills differences in
124Pay based on hard to feels Etc so do recommend your approval of what you have already in the past approved in different formats whether it's budget or the pay plan do we have a motion Mr ha in a second Mr Mitchell thank you any discussion Mr Galbraith we know how Miss farmer do we do we know how much we how much we actually spent on on this differentiated I think this is the same one roughly that we had last year any idea how close we got to the million dollars we didn't spend it all but pretty close it was pretty close so it's a so it is effective at well I guess whether it's effective or not it depends on how close we are to hitting our goals that at attracting and retaining but but
125we're we're spending the money so we are we are getting we have to get the people to just spend the money so all right that's very helpful thank you it is making a difference and Miss Hall I'm looking at you just to double check me on this what I have seen is it is most effective in the early recruiting stages where we can get commitments from the best candidates early because they know we're offering them that so we lock them in seeing some nods for Miss Hall is that accurate that's correct yes Mr Mitchell can I get a an idea of how successful this approach has been specifically I guess around the retention bonuses we're paying six hundred dollars retention bonus to these professionals and what's the what's the success rate of that I'm not
126sure how we can compare it to if we didn't have it's in the maybe to your point in a great scheme of things it's a small amount but Miss Hall is there any way you can speak to maybe I'm assuming when did we start this program it's since before I came here so at least five years this or this that particular retention bonus has been in place for a long time our staff in my opinion does expect it's it has it has been a while since there's been a substantial increase would be worthwhile in my opinion to get an if we're gonna if we're gonna have signing bonuses specific to Target skills and where we've got a retention on that I guess I'm assuming that we're thinking we're out of 940 if I'm reading this
127out of 942 staff that it's targeted for were expected to we're projecting to have early signing on 70 and normal signing of 200 so we're figuring on an annual an annual basis where losing 270 of the staff is that am I reading would that be a fair great read of the med I would not have read it that way the we're talking about the entire faculty and so it's not just replacing those people who got that signing bonus that year it's addressing openings due to retirement openings due to growth Etc so I don't know that it's those individuals from one year to the next someone may have gotten it and stuck stuck with us and then as somebody else retires or moves the opportunity is there to to fill the position I will say we
128have seen across Middle Tennessee an increased Mobility among professionals one particular example that really jumped out as at us two years ago was school psychologists where one of our neighbors offered if I'm not mistaken Vicki six thousand dollar plus bonuses eight thousand dollar plus bonuses in the middle of the school year for teachers to terminate their annual contracts with us to take those bonuses so we are needing to be more flexible than we used to have to be so I'm gonna I'm I'm a supporter of this but I would sure like to see some metrics historical metrics on on how well this money has how successful the strategy has been also if we need to maybe some recommendation on whether we need to increase it or adjust it or refactor it Brown I apologize if
129you said this or if it's written here and I missed it but is there a period of time that they have to serve in order to keep the full signing bonus or the hiring bonus or and if if not is there a callback the short answer is no the I will say we discussed that and ultimately where where we if I'm not mistaken we pay a half at the beginning of the school year and then half in January for the for the early signing bonus they go ahead and they do get that all but then the hard to feel bonus is paid in two parts one the first semester and the second the second semester have it broken down that way the signing bonuses we have found that it's important to give that money up
130front we've had a good rate of of of Staff sticking with us because they do sign the contracts and for many of them especially those younger teachers it gives them enough money to make the move right then firm of the contract is just the one year though annual contract yes sir Robert thank you that was my question was around the was around the signing bonus and I'd be could you could you provide us with the with the history of Legacy the retention rates of of the people who got the signing bonuses and subsequently left like that I really want to know the numbers have left just so we know the cost so can you can you amortize that four thousand dollars over their average tenure that most of them stayed for three years or four
131years or are we are we really planning on doing that every year it's the goal is not necessarily that goal is not necessarily retention but but actually filling the positions early so I get I get it but we just seem to know how how long I mean Rachel's expensive at all this year but are we getting are we getting we're getting our bang for the bucket if we're if we're getting them to stay longer so thanks if we have no further discussion Mr Golden your recommendation I do recommend approval okay we're members let's cast our votes your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you motion passed for approval of the differentiated pay plan and our last item on the agenda is the approval of the school board meeting dates which is an annual agenda
132item Mr golden thank you madam chair we discussed this at the policy committee regarding the basic standard we have of the board meetings being on the third Monday of every month with a work session the Thursday before that and the policy committee 10 days or so before that work session however there are some holidays here and there that cause adjustments based on the discussion that we had we did make one adjustment after the work session for the February and March policy committees to actually be scheduled on the same dates as the work session in part as a result of the holiday schedule so we do have that one change for which we recommend approval thank you do we have a motion approval Mr Cash and a second Miss Clements thank you any discussion all right
133board members please cast your vote your vote is 11 yes 0 no thank you motion pass to approve our school board meeting dates for next year and we are adjourned thank you so much