Williamson County Board of Education Meeting - May 19, 2025

001call the meeting to order. This is the May 19th, 2025 meeting of the Williamson County Board of Education. Thank everyone for being here. we'll begin by recording attendance. Board members. Did you turn it on? There are 12 members present. Thank you. Next, we will have our pledge of allegiance led by Mr. Eric Welch and followed by a moment of silence. Please rise. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Want to say thank you to our sheriff's deputies who are here tonight. Deputy Cutras, Deputy Britain. Thank you, gentlemen. All right, we'll now move into item number two, items of particular public interest. This is our public comment period. We have six individuals who've

002signed up. I will call your name call the first two and then we'll go from there. because of only having six people, each of you has three minutes, up to three minutes if you want to use that. our first two speakers are Gay Rose and then Serenity Go. Hello everyone, my name is Grey Rose and first off, I want to thank you for all changing the middle school art stipen to be based on a percentage and not a set stipen anymore. This is amazing work you have done for our fabulous teachers. Now, I just wanted to come and speak again to point out number one, please don't compare any specific arts teachers pay to market value when discussing the arts teachers pay versus the other surrounding districts. Simply put, my theater teacher is not a

003carton of eggs. Did you know that in the current budget proposal for middle school arts, the teacher only gets a 7% stipen for all the hours they put in after school, but the band only gets oh gets a 10% stipen even though the theater teacher puts in way more hours after school than the middle school band teacher does. That doesn't seem fair. Or even based on the most exciting word used all the time in Williamson County schools, data. Let's think about it. Theater productions takes months of work. Rehearsals almost every day after schools, long nights after weekends, building sets, working on costumes, and just making sure everything runs smoothly. Our theater teacher is basically working two full-time jobs during show week. Now, I'm not saying that the band program isn't important. It totally is. But

004when we compare the numbers of hours both teachers spend after school, the theater teacher definitely puts in more time. So why is their prestigious stipen pay less in this proposal? It's not just about money. It's about fairness. Our school says it values all students in all programs. The way we pay our teachers doesn't show that. It often if someone works more, they should be paid fairly for their time and effort. I believe that the theater teacher stipen should be at least equal to the band stipen as well as the orchestra stipen. It's not too late to make an addendum to the budget. Maybe all middle school arts stipens to be set at 7%. At least gather the accurate data to base percentages on. Let's make it fair. Let's make it right. Thank you. Thank you,

005Gray. Serenity Go, then followed by Tammy McAllister. And I should have mentioned that the time is on the screen there for you to pay attention to. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Serenity Go and I'm speaking tonight as a parent of multiple students here in our district. My oldest daughter graduated from Paige High School in 2024. My second daughter is a current sophomore at Page High School. My youngest daughter is currently homeschooled and my son is a fifth grader at Trinity Elementary. I'm here to address an important matter regarding homeschooled students right to participate in certain school activities. Specifically, my daughter's desire to join the color guard section of the marching band program at Paige High School. My sophomore daughter and I have been involved in Paige band for the

006past two years. As a younger sibling with a highly involved parent, my daughter Amanda was drug along a little bit and has learned to love the color guard and has desired to be a part of this group. the Tennessee code clearly states that homeschooled students shall be permitted to participate in intercolastic athletic competition at their zone school whether governed by an organization such as TS TSAA or not. Marching band and color guard at Page High School meet this definition. These students compete against other schools weekly throughout the fall season. At the end of each competition, awards are given to the highest scoring teams in multiple categories. If you walk into the band rooms at many of our high schools, you will see clear evidence of this in the multitude of trophies that are consistently brought

007home by our marching band and color guard students. These activities are undeniably athletic in nature. WCS recognizes this by allowing marching band and color guard participation to fulfill the PE credit requirement for graduation. The district has already classified these activities as athletic through this policy. The color guard director, band director, and athletic director at Paige High School support my daughter's participation in color guard. They see her potential contribution to their program. Yet, district administration has denied her this opportunity despite the language of the law. No one at the district has explained this reasoning behind the policy to only allow homeschooled students participate in TWSAA sanctioned competitions. Unlike the majority of traditional athletic programs, there are no independent organizations for marching band and color guard. While my son who plays baseball has the opportunity to play

008outside of a school, my daughter does not have an opportunity to learn these athletic skills outside of a school system. I'm here tonight to ask that you allow homeschool students like my daughter to participate in marching band and color guard. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Tammy McAllister followed by Michelle Shonborn. Hi, I am Tammy McAllister. I am on here on behalf of the homeschool students for Paige High School as well. I am going to reiterate what Miss Serenity has shared with you, but I wanted to maybe express to you what color guard is. Color guard is a performance that involves a group of athletic dancers who use equipment and choreography to visually interpret music often for marching bands or drum or bugle corpse. They are the visual of a marching band. This goes

009into further. The color guard has a winter season called winter guard and they also use those skills which are athletic to compete at their competitions. Most recently, Paige was very successful at what they call the Southeastern Color Guard at Western Kentucky University for their most recent competition. And yes, Paige band brought home several awards this year. I guess I was kind of shocked when I looked up the rules for Tennessee and the Williamson County guidelines that it allowed athletics that were governed by the TSA TSASA which I found out is really governed by the high school principles. I'm not sure why that is just specific. If the marching band students are just meeting the same way as the athletics after school, there's nothing during the school hours. It is considered e extracurricular. the other program

010that homeschool students are allowed to be in is the JOTC. Unlike sports, they actually have a class during school hours. They do have many activities that are after school, but again, marching band is not during school hours. So, I'm not sure what the holdup is. I have spoke with several homeschool families in within the last couple of days. They were unaware of the challenges, but they were always told no and that they could only compete in sports. But again, if you have a student that is expressing interest to learn and be a part and support the school's program and she follows all of the homeschool guidelines under the umbrellas that you have, why can she not be allowed or why can't other students be allowed? In my research, there is a Renaissance student that attends

011a marching band and participates in that without any hiccups. she's going on her third year of that per that precip being allowed in that band. I also talked with another another family that they were oh they're they're oh I completely forgot what I had it written down in my notes but the fact that there is some exceptions for what is being allowed and what isn't being allowed and why what are the process what are the steps that we can take to change this to change this to to include marching bands to include color guard time. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you, Michelle. Michelle Shonborn followed by Kristen Anderson. Hi, good evening. My name is Michelle Shenborn and I'm here to speak on behalf of the Greeno family as well to request that the board revise their

012decision and allow AJ to participate in the marching band. specifically color guard, but for purposes of today and ease, I'm just going to refer to it all as marching band. I did familiarize myself a bit with the Tennessee code 4963050 subsection E1B. And it talks a lot about, intercolastic athletic competition without the school being a member of an organization or association that regulates these competitions, which this qualifies as. So, I'm going to kind of just dive into some of the specifics regarding definitions because I think we've heard, you know, some facts from some other women, but this is more into the specifics of the code. So, intercolastic athletic competition is defined as a sporting activity or event involving two or more schools, one of which is middle school or high school. Unlike many marching school

013bands whose primary function is to support the halftime show or pep assemblies, our specific marching band at Paige is a truly competitive program. Our directors actively seek out and plan our fall season based around these competitions. during the 2425 school year, for example, our band participated in the March to the Summit contest, the Bands of America Chattanooga Regional Contest, the Blue Devil in Inv invitation contest in Lebanon, and the contest of champions at MTSU. During these competitions, the marching band competes against numerous other schools. In order to prepare, the students have practices three days a week during the fall school year, intensive, rigorous summer camps, as well as the football games on Friday night. The season is so physically demanding that, as Serenity mentioned, the schools actually allow marching students to submit a form granting

014a PE credit for participation. It's very athletic, like that's in the nature of our marching band. I know that band is typically categorized under the arts umbrella, but it seems like for the purpose of making this decision today or whenever you guys make this decision, the intercolastic athletic competition would qualify. and as Tammy mentioned, JOTC is allowing homeschool students to participate. Our marching band has a lot of the same characteristics, including developing leadership skills, citizenship, and community service among the students. So, it's offering a lot of great benefits to these homeschool students that would otherwise not have that social ability to join a group. not only does AJ meet all of the academic requirements to participate, she has received the full support of the band and color guard directors at Paige, as well as Benji

015Gray, the athletics director, as well as the families and the band boo band boosters. in my opinion, failure to allow her to participate would not be in keeping with the spirit of the law and equal opportunities afforded to other homeschool students in other events. Thank you. Thank you, Kristen Anderson, followed by MH Hill. Good evening. being the last to speak, I apologize that I'm likely to repeat some of what you've heard already, but I do hope that only reinforces the fact of how important this is to the band boosters, to the band family. and we get kind of we're hitting home that point. my name is Kristen Anderson and I'm a proud parent of a 2024 graduate from Paige High School. Woo, it still chokes me up. And a current sophomore of Paige. I appreciate

016the opportunity to speak tonight about an important matter that directly impacts AJ's ability to participate in the PA's marching band color guard program which is a significant extracurricular activity offered by the district. marching bands and color guard do not have an organization or association with a governing body though Williamson County preventing AJ from participating with the color guard group seems to be contradictory to the general Tennessee rule. If the board is stating that marching band is strictly a fine arts function of the bo of the schools, those board members have never visited a Williamson County school in July during band practice because it's it's intense. The color guard is just as demanding as any athletic sport out there. They're learning plays or what you call movements to the performance, which is just like an athletic

017game. They are working with their teammates. They're coordinating their moves with those that are carrying instruments and those that are carrying flags. They're listening to and being encouraged by their coach and they're conditioning themselves for the upcoming season. Just like the football team, WCS contends that marching band is a physical activity. So, it gives students that PE credit to now say that a homeschooled student is unable to participate in the color guard of that marching band seems illogical. I just respectfully ask the board to reverse any previous decisions of not allowing AJ to participate with the page color guard. I believe a fair solution can be reached that will allow AJ and others in similar situations to participate fully in the color guard program just as they would in any other extracurricular activities. thank you

018for your time. Thank you. MH Hill. hello. I am MH and I am a sixth grader and it is my first time speaking at some of these meetings. So, if I'm a bit fidgety, I apologize. so I am here to stand for my fine arts teachers and what they do and that they should be held to a same typ as the band director and such as that. I am an orchestra, band, choir among many other creative arts that are very essential to a creative person's mind. I believe that my teacher should be paid more for all they do, which is a lot more behind the scenes than what they do just in class. And in that sort of setting, I also believe that in my orchestral fine arts teacher should be given the same type

019as a sports or band coach because I think that they do a lot more work than just in the classroom and such and that they just provide a lot more and do a lot more work that is maybe is on the computers or extra practice at home or videos that they send their students. students so they can so the students can follow in accordance to that and then learn more. I'm also in color guard and I think that color guard member that color guard coaches should be paid a similar amount because they also do a lot more work. They record videos. They do they record videos, they supply us with flags, rifles, everything of that sort. and they are very dedicated and I am very thankful for their work that they put in to teach

020us how to do the things that we need to do to be in that sort of setting and occupation. and I don't I haven't really wrote anything else, but thank you for letting me speak tonight. Thank you. Well, thank you to all of our speakers, especially to MH and Gray, our students. Thank you for doing that. All right, we will move on to our agenda. We need to approve the agenda. can I get a motion in a second? Have the motion in a second. We'll do this by voice vote. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Agenda is approved. We will now move on to the approval of the consent agenda. take a motion and a second on that as well. Thank you. also do this by voice vote. All in favor say I.

021I. Any opposed? With that, we approve the consent agenda. Those items are approval of the April 21, 2025 school board meeting minutes, approval of building modification requests for exterior LED sign at Franklin High School and recommendation for field trip fee requests. We'll now have our communications to the board. Superintendent report, Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. chair and I want to echo your thanks to the public speakers. we're always working through challenges and opportunities for to for growth and we're going to continue to do that especially in the context of the comments that we heard from our public commenters today. I do want to let you know if you haven't heard we have two more days of school right actually well it's Monday so we have three more days two and a half days of school.

022So yeah we got some applause. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Johnson for that. we as you all know this is that combination of stressful and happy times for our students. Our older students are going through exams right now. This is the time where there might be a picnic at one of the elementary schools in the next day or two. So parents and students, it's a it's a happy time as well. So it's that just that strange combination of of of stress and happiness. So very much appreciate the work our faculty has done this year. It's really been an incredible year. Got a couple more days. those of you I know many of you at the on the board are going to our graduation ceremonies. You may recall that we've actually given a window of from

023Thursday to Sunday for graduation ceremonies and our schools have selected Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We actually don't have any scheduled on Sunday. And if you have that opportunity, folks, definitely make your way to one of those graduation ceremonies. It's a great time. I will say I go to those graduations that I can attend. The reality is we can't attend them all because so many of them have have conflicting schedules. but I like to to look at the look at the program and look at those opportunities that our students have selected for their next steps. And it's really an enjoyable experience for me to just remind myself of those students and where they're headed next. whether it's the job market to to a technical education to the US military or and to college and some other

024choices. It's it's just a great event. I do want to mention that we do have some TWSAA events that will be finishing up this weekend. We had some great state championships over the weekend. I mentioned in a memo to you all that I prepared actually presented to you on Thursday that on Saturday we had some state championships where our stu our students were competing. We had some state championship wins in that lacrosse for the first time ever was a TWSAA sports. We're very excited. If I'm not mistaken Dr. Webb, we had three state championships both girls categories and one's one boys category. So out of four, and I think it's a testament to our community. Lacrosse has been an effort in our community, not WCS per se, but in our community for a couple of

025decades now. And so the parent involvement in raising their children to grow. And that's just one example of the great parent parental support that we have. Those activities have been going on outside of our work and they've had some tremendous success. So, we are inheriting that extra and excellent effort that our community members have been pouring into our students. We want to thank our community for that support. We hope to be good good growth managers of of that continued success for for our Williamson County students. I'm not going to repeat what we talked about at our work session. so with that I am going to call on Carol Birdong who will celebrate our student and staff spotlights. Just as a reminder we celebrate state and national honors for our students in academics, athletics, and the

026arts. And we have a little bit of all tonight. but we are not going to celebrate our lacrosse state champions until next month. So, these are not our final student spotlights of the year, but we are going to start with Ravenwood High School. They won the TWWSA girls flag football state championship, and that also was a new competition for this school year in addition to our lacrosse state champions. Ricky Rodriguez is the coach at Ravenwood. And then we have this national, this is a national award, y'all from Ravenwood High School. And this these are your national DECA independent business plan students, Abigail Gard, Mana Capiti, and Lillian Smith. Also, Franklin High School's history honor society was named the national chapter of the year. Ray Sheets is their sponsor. Over at Centennial, we have our future

027business leaders introduction to marketing concepts state champion, Alex Shinley. Robbie Reid is Alex's sponsor of that club. And y'all, we have the Tennessee Titans regional spelling be winner from Woodland Middle School. And this is Vanilla Carur. and she will be competing a little bit later on. Now y'all, we have a bunch a bunch of perfect ACT students that we are going to honor tonight. We're going to start with Brentwood High School. Chapen Clower, Grady Deon, Ryen, Ryan Gardocki, Abby Patel, also from Brentwood, Walker Schul, Zashang Shin, Brentwood High School, Ashley Sheepard, Ashley earned a true perfect ACT. Then we have Claire Jang. Now at Centennial High School, this is Sophia Bailey, Gavin Fu from Centennial, Turner Hannah Centennial, Ardan Smith, Elise Marlo, Adrien Yokum. At Franklin High School, we have Justin Clayton, Michael Zinc. at

028Independence High School. Reagan Graham, Devin Perry, Owen Sour from Nolanville High School, Charles Ger Gerald, Carolyn Renegger, Caroline Renegger, and from Paige High School, Lucy McGregor, Everett Boule, Abigail Higgins, Verun Killer, Barshini, Moin, Still at Ravenwood, Cole McGomery still at Ravenwood, Victor Shapi, Luca Tarantino, Ravenwood High School. Krishna Valleti, Ravenwood High School. Desmond Thomas, Ravenwood High School. Arouche Thiagura, also Ravenwood High School. Abigail Capila, Mary Elizabeth Moore, Sophia Panu, Summit High School, Cash Coons, and Nathan Hoger. It's a lot of perfect ACTs, y'all. So, now we're going to move on to the Technology Student Association and their state championships. And we're going to start with middle school. And this is Legacy Middle School. You know, it's not often we get to honor our middle school students. We just don't have that many competitions for them.

029But we are happy to honor Molly Pouncy from Legacy Middle School, first place in cyber security. And then also from Legacy Middle School in biotechnology, John Himmerl, Molly again, and Lyanna Ward. Also from Legacy Middle School structural design, Reed Allen and Dalton Dalton Mock. Legacy Middle School first place state video game design. John Himmerl, Jackson Lynch, Cal Mleo, woo, Max Rainey, and Ryan Silverstein. Now at the high school level from Ravenwood High School in transportation modeling, Frizzen Venut Ramen and in board game design, Tia Dy, Sophia Lynn, Karina Patel, Nonad Ramba, Anvita Subtlebody, Agumia Singh in data science. and analytics. Shakar Kusimatki, Arian Shake in debating technology issues, Ravenwood High School, Arnamea and Up Patel, digital video design. State champions Gotham Giri, Abigail Goddard, Losi Kandeli, Manus Capiti, Lilianne Smith, Invignish, Vijay Kumar. I should

030also mention their teacher is Jeremy Paisley. But in first place geospatial technology, Ravenwood High School, Philip Petir, Joseph Ibram Khan and Abdozen Recimal in senior solar sprint from Ravenwood High School. Adwick Anan Arian Chatana Vavum Rashlani Adue Yeseri from Ravenwood High School system control technology and I wish I knew what some of these were but I really don't. It is above my head so I'm just doing doing my best to tell you the titles and maybe you all can guess at what they are again. system control technology. Susant, Dara, Ani, Pulipala, Abdu Azen, Rakmanon in virtual reality, reality visualization, Pimon Civicumar, Vincetasai, Vincuma, Huntanti, Verun, Yalanki, and then in web master we have Chiagola, Lassia Condelli, Amaru Shri Mari, Sio Nadagala, Aan Aon Swan, and Vishnashi Shiti and Whoops. Music production from Franklin High School.

031Travis Wal, Kate Chadam, Luke Karkus, and Nathan Kim from Paige High School promotional design. Bailey Murray from Paige High School in forensics science. Sherui Kmani and Shruuthy Mogan from Page High School STEM mass media. Shivam Bardwat, Sapria Bendra, Shuie Mogan, Thomas Delulk, Bailey Murray, and Logan Theel from Nolanville High School in robotics. Paul Jang, Tunes, Jagenaden, Utesh Jaw, Pranov, Cardi, Prunith, Praep, and Caroline Ringer. Now, we're going to staff spotlights and we have the Tennessee Music Association Outstanding Middle School Music Educator of the Year and that is Evan Burton from Paige High School. And then we have three of our educators who have been named who have received the CMA, Country Music Association Foundation for Excellence awards this year. Nick Blue over at Franklin High School, Elena Gallas at Mil Creek Elementary School, and from

032Paige Middle School, this is Carolyn Henkins. And then finally, we have a school spotlight tonight and it is Fairview Elementary School and they've received the Purple Star Award. And y'all, that award is given for a school's commitment to serving military connected families and students. And I know they worked hard, put a lot of energy into this. Whitney Chambers Woods, who is the school counselor at Fairview Elementary School, led this charge. and we are very proud and happy for them. Congratulations to all of our students, staff, and our schools. Thank you, Carol. And Mr. Chair, if I may, I want to make a couple of comments related to Carol's Carol's comments on the awards. First of all, the CMA Foundation awards right at the very end that carries a cash prize for the teachers. So, we're

033very excited for them. Second, I want to mention the purple star award. Generally speaking, what I've seen is the schools who get that award tend to be near military bases. For example, Clarksville Montgomery County has a lot of schools get that award. I'm very proud of our school, Fairview Elementary School, for putting that effort in to make sure that they thoughtfully set up a program to support our veterans. So, very proud of that. so, with that, Mr. Chair, that is my report. Thank you, Mr. Golden. Mr. G, with you seek recognition. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jason, can you can you speak to speak to the request? I know we about the about the extracurricular homeschool activities. just want to make it clear like that's we don't we don't have a policy per se on

034that I don't believe. and no request has has come before the board. I just want to make it clear like we haven't made an affirmative decision regarding it. and so just want to if you can be clear about the about about the process to date and like what our what our options are as we as we hear about this really for for the first time in this instance. I know it's come up in the past, but thank you. And to your to your comment, I don't recall it coming up before the board before. So we do not have a policy as you said the parameters that you all heard related to the law that law was passed in the related to intercolastic athletics and it is broken up into two sections and it in essence

035says and it we can of course read it and ultimately we will probably get some advice from Miss Osbbors related to that because it is it is a the law that if you are a member of an organization then you then you an Androscolastic athletics organization, you do have that responsibility. And that's a TWSSAA reference. And then there's another reference another section that says if you're not a member of an organization and then then there's some rules governing your intercolastic athletics. So it part of that obviously does depend on the definition of intercolastic athletics and we do treat band and related activities as as arts rather than intercolastics athletics. So, we also were included in some emails late last week related to that in which a nonprofit organization included an attorney and I know Miss

036Osbrooks is having some conversations with that attorney related to the Tennessee law. So, that's the that's the state structure. Locally, to your point, we have not had a board policy in place. Our long-standing practice is that our extracurricular activities are designed to be supporting extracurricular activities for those students who are engaged in our curriculum engaged in our schools and it's that supplement to to our schools. to to your question about what options we have, Dana, I may refer to you. the board policy is silent on that. As far as I know, the law is silent on that. There's there aren't any rules governing that. It's just that long-standing practice we have. If we were to discuss it, I think it's going to be very important for us to discuss the scope of our extracurricular activities

037and evaluate all that we do and make sure that we're consistent in in what we do as we evaluate that. Dana, can you speak to that? Sure. And I will point out one other thing we did hear tonight about JOTC. There is a federal law that was passed in 2020 that does require public high schools to allow homeschool students to attend during the school day as well as in the evening. So that's why you're hearing about JOTC. So we are obviously in compliance with federal law. as to the state law, Superintendent Golden is correct. It is looking at intercolastic athletic events either those that are governed by TWSAA or those and I think you heard a definition from one of our speakers where it's two or more schools participating. Those are sporting activities or sporting

038events. we have historically, and in looking at our website, if you go to any of our high schools on our WCS website and look up arts programs, intercolastic athletics, you're going to see color guard and winter guard with the marching band, or with our fine arts or arts programs. We have we do not have a policy regarding extracurricular activities and whether or not homeschool students could participate and Tennessee state law is silent on that at this point. So that is something if that's the will of war members we would discuss like we do every other policy. I do know that we do have some homeschool students participating in our intercolastic athletic events. Thank you. I So I guess the if we were if we were to discuss it, it would just be at a policy

039meeting, right? I mean, if anybody wanted to to bring that up. That's correct. If the board wishes to discuss it, that would be the first step. Sounds good. Thank you. All right. I do not have a board chair report. So we will move on to new business. We've got a series of items related to the budget. the first item is approval of general purpose school fund resolution 06.25 custodial supervision in the amount of $20,000. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We allow community use of school facilities for Williamson County based nonprofits and we budget for that based on a in essence a pass through cost for building supervision and custodial cost. We actually had more c participation in our buildings that we budgeted for. So we had more revenue but we also had more custodial

040cost. So this is to resolve the budget for this school year to cover those custodial costs that have been reimbursed for us by those community users. do recommend approval. All right. Can I get a motion in a second? Thank you. Any any questions or comments? All right. Seeing none, let's proceed to a vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. All right, the resolution is approved. Item number two, approval of general purpose school fund resolution 06.25, 25 trustee commission in the amount of $300,000. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The state law has a structure whereby school systems will pay to the county trustee a commission based on the amount of property tax that's collected. We actually through the county structure budget for 92% of revenue. And this is an budget amendment to cover us

041to the actual receipts for for property taxes. and Rachel m Miss Farmer our CFO if I'm not mistaken this represents somewhere around 8% of the total that we've actually paid to the trustee for this year. Correct. So I do recommend approval. I get a motion in a second. Thank you. Any comments? All right, we're ready to vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. The resolution is approved. Item number three, approval of general purpose school fund resolution 06.25 esco payment in the amount of 1,163,1 173.88. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This annual payment is for what's called an ESCO energy savings grant. It's actually an energy saving structure via the state of Tennessee whereby school systems have an opportunity to improve capital and pay for it via savings on the energy bills based on

042an engineering grade audit. We initiated this a few years ago. We're able to get lights and some water systems in place without going into debt for it. And this is that payment that covers that. and so I do recommend approval for this annual payment and we are covering that energy savings based upon those those audits. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any questions, comments? Seeing none, we're ready to vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. That resolution is approved. Item number four, approval of general fund general purpose school fund resolution 06.25, additional insurance expenses, $700,000. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is an end of the year fund balance correction as well based on actuals related to liability and excess risk coverage, workers compensation, and building and content coverage. Traditionally,

043those are those items that are difficult to budget for and predict. And so this will resolve the actuals for this year in those budget lines. Do recommend approval. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any comments? Seeing none, we are ready to vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. Resolution is approved. Item number five, approval of general purpose school fund resolution 06.25, additional textbook expenses in the amount of $900,000. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we went through the budget process last year, we actually through the through through that process had had reduced our original projection for the cost of science textbooks by about 1.1 million. and we overestimated that reduction just a little bit. So, we are asking for an additional 900,000 to be taken out of fund balance so

044that we will cover the science textbook purchases u that we had budgeted for this current year. Do recommend approval. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments? I see none. We're ready to vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. That resolution is approved. Item number six, approval of general purpose school fund resolution 06.25, student support services additional expenses, $150,000. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is the last of the end of the year resolutions that we have before you this month. And we have in there additional expenses for student support services to serve our students with disabilities and additional projects. This actually is designed to cover some additional translation services for various world languages along with some mileage for our staff. We went over on that. We are

045taking this and recommending that you take this out of contracts with private agencies which we have we are actually spending less of. so in essence we have staff getting a little bit more mileage than we projected because we were able to staff and actually get provide those services directly from our staff. Do recommend approval for those two corrections from one expenditure line to another. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions? See none. We're ready to vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. That resolution is approved. Item number seven, approval of education capital projects fund resolution 05.25 intracategory creekide project traffic signal $200,000. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we went through the Creekide Elementary School construction project, the county planning commission included an expectation to to put

046a traffic light there. That was, as you know, years ago, we've closed out the account. but they are ready for the traffic light. So, our proposal is to take that out of contingency that was funded in part by the Creek Side Project. Do recommend approval. Thank you. We have a motion in a second. I do have one question. What will remain as we approach the end of the fiscal year? What remains in that contingency capital fund at this point? Thank you for the question. I don't know that off the top of my head. Miss Farmer is checking. And by the way, there's actually two accounts. There's rural debt and general debt. Just as a reminder as she's looking, rural debt covers K through eight projects and general debt is high school projects. And that's based

047on Franklin Special District being here in the county that we differentiate between those two. So let's see. For rural we will have 5,980,000 and in general there's 2,798,000. Okay. And that carries over into the next correct budget year. Correct. Thank you. All right. We are ready to vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. That resolution is approved. All right, that gets us through the budget items. Item B under new business, board policy for second reading. as a reminder, this was removed from consent agenda last week at the work session. This is policy 4.202, child find and special education. need a motion and a second to get this on the floor for discussion. We have that. do we need an explanation of the policy to start with or do we want to go straight into

048questions. Certainly open to it. I know Mr. Galborth and Miss Osbrooks lead that policy committee as a team. I know we've had some discussion in detail. I will give you a short version for the sake of those who might be watching the voting meeting rather than the work session. We have added some language in there related to childf find which is a which is a federal process to identify students who might need to go through the process of eligibility for for u for special education services. That's on page one. On page two, we have added a reference to a new state law where families are to have access to draft individualized educ individual education plans at least 40 48 hours prior to such meeting and that's the detail there that you see on page two.

049we had some additional discussions at the at the work session related to some language that's actually not in the recommend recommended policy. All right. So, we have in front of us we have language that has come through. It is now on second reading. we have a motion and a second on that language. Mr. Bosik, you're recognized. Yeah, thank you. yeah, so I had brought up at the work session possible amendment to this for service delivery log language. and we had lengthy discussion about it. I was encouraged at the work session to find out that we have taken steps to figure out if Tennessee Pulse can accommodate the service logs and calendars. And I know that some of the board members have some hesitations on voting policy for that until we kind of know what that

050might look like. And so, I think I would refrain from my amendment for now. just asking that we do take that up seriously. I intend to reach out to the Tulse reps and thank you Dana for sending that email chain over to us. Really appreciate that. and with the state as well to see if there's some help maybe they can provide. for the service delivery logs. It's it's important because for parents in the district with children who are part of the special education program that receive services based on their IEP, there's not currently a metric in place or system in place that allows us to know that those services have been given have been provided. And so service delivery log is actually a standard industry practice across the nation for special education. I'd mentioned at

051the work session that there are several states that actually have it enshrined in law including Illinois, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania. the benefits that come from this would be that it offers protections to the school in the district. it pro provides transparency for parents and necessary information for I IEP teams when meeting and try and discover when are best times of days and different things when the services are provided. without that data it's hard to pinpoint that down. it also would help in budgeting for the future. if we if we have enough providers to accommodate the need. I mentioned this in the work session, but we've gotten some information that we have just for speech language services alone, we have 3,519 students that receive services one to three times a week for 30 minutes per session. We

052have 76 and a half speech language pathologists on on the payroll which is about 46 cases for each SLP. if you go right down the middle you know two sessions at 30 minutes that's 46 hours a week just for speech language services. And it was also told to the board during policy that an average case load is actually 60 to 70. For all those reasons, I just have concerns and rightly so with other parents in the district that just want to make sure that those services are being provided and they need every reassurance they can. the case of several parents that have non-verbal students or somewhat verbal students, I'm I'm one of those. you can't ask your child at the end of the day, hey, did you receive your services? Did you did you meet

053with such and such today? They can't tell you. And currently as it is in place, it's like well just you know trust us that it that it happened and while we want to trust everyone you know you have to verify as well and currently there's no way to do that. I also mentioned at the work session ASHA does state that case loads over 40 for speech language pathologists can compromise service quality. So there's just all these different reasons. but all that to say, I would love to see as we're moving forward to try and get more clarification from TM Pulse and the state that we do use the amendment that I laid out and the service delivery log language that I had previously in the policy to kind of use as a guide when having

054those discussions with them because it's it's that data that we need. I think if we can all agree that the data is needed, then it doesn't matter fully how we get it, just that it happens. So, I'll be interested to see what happens over the next few months and have every intention to bring this back for policy in August or September. So, I don't intend to amend this evening, but I just want to give that language. And thank you for that. U Mr. Golden, any any response from the staff perspective? thank you and thank you, Mr. Bosik. I did want to let everyone know that when it comes to case loads, we actually map our the days of our speech language pathologist. And when I say map, what I mean is they project out what

055the IEP team says it says a student needs and then those professionals across the district will schedule their days. and we budget positions based on that mapping. And so we make sure that we don't overstaff. but of course the opposite is true as well that we don't understaff when those needs are there those those we make sure that we do have enough folks with those professional licenses to provide the services. so we did definitely want to be respectful of of some of those professional organizations recommendations on on staffing but again it's driven by actual time and services provided. But with respect to the another comment Mr. Mr. Bostic made related to communications with parents, we have had and will continue to have conversations related to that. and I know Dr. Allen, you and your team

056have specifically had a conversation about about especially those those teachers who are serving students who are non-verbal or maybe have some limited verbal capacity. those those those updates on on on those services to students and how their children did on a weekly basis. Is there any any detail you or Dr. Oyer would like to share related to that? Okay. That so thank you for thank you for that comment. All right. Any other comments or questions on this policy? All right. Seeing none, we're ready to vote. Oh, I do recommend approval. All right, the vote is 12 yes, zero no. All right, policy is approved. All right, item C, board policy for first and final reading. policy 4.70001 semester and final exams. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There there is one line change if you all would

057show that we have this set for a first and final reading because there is no substantive change in this policy. It's just changing the language based on a change in the state rules. up until this coming year, the state rules were that that end of course examinations would count as no less than 15% of a student's grade and that has been changed to zero. We have concluded that the appropriate line is that 15%. So we're recommending a first and final change to maintain that standard we've had for our courses. Do recommend approval of that. All right, we have a motion and a second. Dr. Johnson, have we gotten the end of course grade I guess scores back for this year? Dr. Allen, yes, we got those scores in today. Today. Okay, thank you for the

058question. I know sometimes the state doesn't get it back to us and I didn't know if maybe we needed to put something in there about if we don't have the scores, what do we do? Thank you for that. And you're right. Historically, there have been a number of years where we don't get that. but thank Thank you. I had not yet heard that today. Thank you. All right. Any further questions? All right. We've heard the recommendation, so we'll proceed to a vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. Right. That policy is adopted on first and final reading. Item number D, letter D, board policy for first reading, 6.411, student wellness. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The proposed changes to the student wellness policy are based on a change in state law. And actually, we've taken

059a little bit of a step just a little bit beyond the state law related to unstructured physical activity or or recess for elementary school students, middle school students, and high school students are also mentioned in that policy. The new rule per state law as as a minimum for elementary school students is 40 minutes per day. We were actually planning on 45 minutes for day per day. now the second piece of that related to middle school. You all may recall that Dana Osbrooks our attorney has let us know that after the policy committee meeting but before tonight's meeting that law has now been codified in a public chapter and the language related to secondary schools is actually slightly different from what we projected it was based on the legislative vote. so this is for first reading.

060do recommend that you approve it for first reading, but there will be some discussion at the next policy committee related to how it was actually codified. Do recommend approval for first reading. We have a motion in a second. We've heard the recommendation. Any questions or comments? So, this just to make a point, this was I think you alluded to this the result of a recent statutory change. That's correct. and it's just it's worth noting there were quite a few parents who were the drivers of this statutory change, many of whom are Williamson County parents. So, just wanted to give recognition to those parents who worked on that effort and to see this come to fruition. Mr. Galworth. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jason, can you speak? I guess I understand that the elementary school schedule was

061changed and we were and we did so and we got these extra 20 minutes or so without having to without having to reduce u instructional time is what is my understanding or it might be there might be a qualifier on that like maybe is a couple of minutes or whatever but can Can you kind of tell us how how that was how those changes were made without without loss of time? Thank you for that. I'm actually going to refer to Dr. Oer who is our assistant superintendent for elementary schools after I give you this short version. The original bill included one hour of unstructured time per day. The existing law up to that point, if I'm not mistaken, was 15 minutes per day. We were actually doing a little bit more then. very soon after

062the original bill was filed, there was an amendment to reduce it to 40 minutes. So, we took that and programmed in let's see if we can have a structure that relationally is similar to what we had in the past, just a little bit more than what the state required. and Dr. Oer and her team got together and mapped the day and I'm going to refer to her for some of the detail of that mapping. Yes, sir. It's a puzzle. So, let me start there. as you guys well know, and we have 30 elementary schools, so what I'm going to speak to is very broad stroke. knowing that there may be some slight differences or nuances at each particular building level, but in the places that we had an opportunity to pull from before we got

063to any true academic time, so core tested academic time, we were able to look at our community meeting time, which in most of our schools is in the morning. There is a there were opportunities to pull just a little from specials as well as lunch. We have transition time built into those the into the blocks of of time for classes. And then looking at those individual things that were happening in each in excuse me each individual building. So there are places that maybe one school might have pulled a few minutes from something where another school didn't have to. And then we really just the committee that we had really just looked at all the pros and cons of places that we wanted to be able to pull from and we were clear we couldn't pull

064from those tested areas. We set some norms of just our kind of concrete foundational agreements across all schools. and then the committee built a master schedule for a smallsiz building, a mediumsiz building, and a largeiz building. And then we gave that template to our principal colleagues who went and were able to build it and create it for their individual schools. So has everyone been able to to read Have you gotten schedules from everybody back? Yes, sir. I haven't put my eyes on every single one, but we have the affirmative that everyone was able to do it. Okay. And I do want to just say publicly I agree with the gratitude that was shared. we're thankful for that, too. We're excited to see what this brings. there's been a lot of robust conversation in our community

065and in the state and we've been a part of that as the school principles and assistant principles who are looking forward to seeing the benefits of this for our students. Sounds great. Thank you. Yeah, you guys are to be commended for taking it even five minutes beyond what the law required. So, thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. Any additional questions or comments? As a reminder, this will come back for second reading at next month's meeting. All right, we're ready to vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. All right, the policy is approved on first reading. Item number E, letter E, sorry. Approval of the school board meeting dates for 202526. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. During the discussion at the work session, there was one question raised to the proposed date for

066the policy committee prior to the January meeting. It was scheduled in the original document at January 5th. We are recommending that be changed to December 15th based on the board's discussion. That is the only change. I do recommend approval of this based on the structure of generally speaking absent a holiday. The board meeting coming on the third Monday, the work session the Thursday before that and then the policy committee a week and a half before the work session. Do recommend approval. All right, we have a motion. Can we get a second? Have a second. Questions? Dr. Johnson? I just have a quick question about the February 17th date. What Why do we not meet on February 16th? And I'm sorry I didn't ask this at the work session, but it was a long night. Thank

067Thank you for that. If I'm not mistaken, is it Martin Luther King Jr. Day? President's Day. Sorry. Thank you. the MLK day is actually in January. We changed it a couple years ago. It's a families are out. but it is actually a working day for for 12 month staff. Okay. So we do that kind of to work around our families. Okay. Just curious. Thank you. All right. Any further questions? All right. Ready to vote? The vote is 12 yes, zero no. Right. That item is approved. Item F, approval of the Pekka memorandum of understanding. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The PEKA is one of those acronyms, professional educators collaborative conferencing act that we participate in with members of our teacher teams, actually the WCA, the Williamson County Education Association. and they go through a

068process along with any other potential participant in establishing teacher representatives for us to discuss mainly these three key points of pay, working conditions and benefits. and we have over the years developed a anou a memorandum of understanding related to that. What you have before you is the product of this year's discussions. It includes some changes. I think we have a three-page document that you all looked at during the work session. I did want to give you one caveat that this includes some pay increases for some of those supplements that are academic supplements that require a teacher to actually lead it. This is contingent on budget approval from the county commission and that budget is scheduled to to to be voted on on June 20th. So with that caveat that this is that the number changes

069are contingent on budget approval. I do recommend approval. All right. We have a motion in a second. You've heard the recommendation. Have any questions? I do have one question. Do we are there any aside from the pay changes, supplement changes, any substantive change in this document from the previous one year over year? Thank you for the question. My short answer is no, but I want to defer to Dr. Lee Webb who actually led the management side of this. Dr. Webb, thank you for the question. Believe I'm on. Yes. thank you for the question. That is the only substantive change. you'll see many of the other changes were u clerical in nature or just a small clarification. Thank you. Anything else? Seeing none, we're ready to vote. The vote is 12 yes, zero no. All right,

070thatou is approved. Item G, approval of 202526 paycharts. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. you have before you the proposed pay charts. There are a number of of paycharts and I want to give you just a couple of key pieces to this. Number one, the county commission and county leadership, especially Mayor Anderson and the county budget committee talked months ago about their plan to have a 4% raise for county employees. And traditionally they include school employees in that. I let them know when they first started discussing this that we did not project that if that we would have sufficient revenue from the state to achieve that. As part of our budget process, we cut a little over 30 positions. I'm trying to remember the exact numbers something 6 34.6 positions. we cut our operations expenses

071by about a million dollars. and as we projected, we still we still landed on a gap. Our total proposed funding for pay increases this year is about $16 million. Our gap is about $12 million. And so this proposal includes that goal that we talked about in November of within the funding that we have or in this case that we project address market conditions and other issues including a focus on supplements for this coming year. And the reality is market conditions do matter because we are competing with staff for that. and so we do have that proposal for you. Our focus has been on teacher pay because that is our biggest point of competition with our neighbors and we've had some detailed discussions related to that. But for supplements as you all know we also included

072an analysis that includes moving our art supplements to that percentage structure that our athletics pro program has been on. we have some other pieces related to that. in and I'm not going to go through every bit of detail because we worked through that at the work session, but I do want to mention a couple specific ones. we do have a role for teachers that we call a role which is a pay chart for years 0 through 21 that they will receive a pay increase that we call a role. We've increased that pay chart so that those teachers in those levels, if this passes and if the commission funds it will receive more than just the role, a 2% increase on most of those lanes with a little bit more at the bottom. for our classified

073paychart in our principal paychart and our curriculum specialist paychart, we have a smaller structure for role where every five years there is a role up to for principles and assistant principles 15 years. So, the vast majority of our principles and assistant principles, I'm estimating somewhere about 85% or so, if this passes, will receive a 2% increase. With those few who happen to hit that five-year spot, something closer to a four. certainly open any questions that you may have. I know we had a good discussion at the work session. Thank you for that. we have a motion in a second. and then we'll go to Miss Clemens. Thank you, Mr. Chair. is that on? Okay. so I have lamented over the years our teachers and I do appreciate all the work that y'all done on this.

074our teachers are 27th in the state and I'd really I know that the whole budget process really is y'all are going to start back in the budget process in the fall and I would like to see us really move us up so we are higher than 27. our teachers are the lifeblood of our schools and you know they are on the front lines and they are doing all the heavy lift heavy lifting and so I would love and maybe you know Mr. Galver talked about the board directives you know if we're in agreement as a board but I would like to see us move our teachers higher than 27th in the state and I know we're going to have to do some heavy lifting but I think we can do it and I think we

075all in agreement that we value our teachers and we'd like to see that number move up. I know that a while back and maybe Mr. Golden you can kind of address this but the goal was to get teachers at the state level they required us over 50,000. So we've crossed that line but let's let's carry it a little bit better. Thank you for that. and I'm going to mention your speak to your last comment first and work my way backwards. Governor Lee had actually established that starting next year no teacher was to be paid less than $50,000 a year. We actually beat that deadline by by a year. And Miss Hall, our assistant superintendent for human resources, if I'm not mistaken, did the state push that one more year or I think they did. Yeah,

076they did. Yes. All right. So, so we project we're probably going to be two years ahead of that because they did push that this year. So, we were able to do that. You also mentioned that we are 27th in the state. The Tennessee School Boards Association, the TSBA, gives some statistical rankings. and this year our teacher pay landed at 27th based on their projections and that includes some ranges and I know many of you looked at that data. and I mentioned this the state actually reports on per pupil expenditure statewide and we are in the same data year 79th out of 148 in per pupil expenditure. And yet we're 27th in the state in teacher pay. We are also, if I'm not mistaken, somewhere around fourth or fifth in administrator pay. We do recognize that

077our principles and assistant principles and that leadership very important. so what I see in those statistics is an indication that we're putting what we have towards those teachers and towards our administrators. But we all agree there's more work to be done. revenue is an issue. You heard me speak to that we projected actually less money from the state this year based on the formulas that the state gives us and we let the commission know the county commission if we're even going to do this raise. We need them to actually fund us more than they have. So it's a substantial burden on county government. They've been really good to us over the years because they value education as well. but it's going to take that ongoing every year work and we're focusing this year on on

078teachers and we've added supplements about 1.1 million is beyond last year is actually put in towards supplements based on the discussions we've had. All right, Dr. Johnson. so today I took a look at our HR postings and most of the postings are lower paid jobs. So, I would like to make a motion, hold on, let me get the language, to amend the 2526 paycharts to reflect reallocating the funding for providing staff making $100,000 or more, which is about $600,000 to add two more system closed days for our 10 and 11month classified staff, which are the ones that are hardest to staff. And that'll be about 435,000. We already added two days because that's those staff members. They have not been paid for spring break. Now they'll at least get two days. I want to add

079two more days. So they'll get four days and then whatever is left out of the 600,000 just kind of divided again amongst the people who make a hundred and Rachel would have to do all the math but so I know that's a convoluted motion but basically reallocating the funds for people who are making $100,000 or more to add two more system close days for our 10 and 11month classified staff. That's my motion. question for second. Yeah. Do we have a second on that motion? All right, we have a second. one question for clarification is Jason or Rachel, do we need an exact dollar amount? And maybe this question for you, Mr. Cook, as well. Do we need an exact dollar amount to go into that motion before it can be a valid motion? procedural, but

080we're not amending the budget in total at this point. This is just talking about the paycharts. We would have to come back for a budget amendment with you all to put it into the right lines and that can be done later. But but in answer to your question, the don't we don't need the specific number. Is that correct? Currently it's currently all right. So anyone wishing to speak on the amendment? Mr. Galbreth. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate the desire to help out the those on the on the lower end of the scale and I've I've been been a proponent to to do that. I think it's appropriate to to do that with with any with any excess funds. I guess my recommendation would be to to address this with with any excess funds.

081If we ended up with more than our projected fund balance at the at the end of the year, then we could we could go and do a budget amendment. after that, of course, we'd have to take that to the to the commission, but u that would be a more appropriate way to to do this. what what I don't want to send the message to is our administrators who are already taking most of whom are getting are already getting less than at least half of what all county employees are getting. So I don't know if you heard Mr. Golden. because I certainly missed it the first time. but they have the administrators are getting 2% for the ones that don't have a a five-year role, fiveyear step up. they're already getting 2% when every other county

082employee is getting 4% at least. and so they're already getting half of the half of the raise. I think it's totally inappropriate to sit there and say that everybody in the county is getting a 4% raise and we value you so much for for all the work that you do to to help these teachers who are who are the most important thing. but our administrators are really important too. So if we want to the what we what we don't want to do is show our teachers that we support you but we don't support your leadership and then we see our leadership starting to go go other places and take leadership roles which they which they very much could do at other districts who probably could could pay them our surrounding districts pay a competitive wage

083as well. but what they what we can do is run them off for for not supporting them and not not supporting the work that they do. And so I just I just completely disagree that we could just give them whatever is left over, whatever, you know, $100,000. Let's spread it out over our 300 administrators, whatever we whatever we have. it's just not the message that we want to send. But that being said, I think there's a way to accomplish what you're what you're trying to do. If what you're trying to do is to reward the and incentivize and provide more more benefits to the classified employees, I'm all in favor. If what you're do if if if what you're trying to do is tell the people that are making $100,000 or more that they're making

084too much money and we don't want to pay them anymore, then I totally can't support that piece. Thank you. Dr. Johnson. So, I did some math and in 2223 our lowest paid position was paid $12.68 for 7 hours of work a day. They were paid 198 days, 17,574 was their year annual salary. the staff worked to make a considerable increase. So it went from 1268 an hour to 1719 an hour last year. So that gave them about a $6,000 raise. 23,825. This year we're giving them about a 44 cent rate per hour raise getting them up to 24,296. When we add the extra two days, it goes up to 24,542. So basically the lowest paid staff are getting a raise of $7166. If we add the two extra days they get a total raise of

085$962 annually. over the past three years there's been a 4% across the board raise which again the higher salary you make obviously the more that has been. So, it has been 4% 6% 6%. So, our highest paid staff has gotten 16% in raises. And while our lower staff has gotten a little more, again, when you look on HR, and I've had some principles tell me they can't staff those positions because the pay is so low. So, I think it would help with that. I think about servant leadership, putting others first and wanting to help those families that are the make is making the lowest paid. if of course if we had unlimited resources, yeah, let's give everybody the same amount, but that's not our reality. so just wanted to share the numbers. It would be

086about $165,000 left, I think, when I did the math. So, they would still be getting about a I think about a 700 $6 to $700 raise, which is comparable to what our lowest staff is getting. that's all I have for now. Dr. Reeves on the amendment. Yes. I think maybe Margie might have answered my question, but I wanted to ask Mr. Golden. You know, this was one of the things that we talked about at the beginning of the year and I believe this is the first year where we've done a differential application of the proposed raises. Is that correct? actually the most recent time with a 22 23 school year. We have done that. we will go through that analysis and traditionally county government talks about a percentage. and we will analyze is there is

087there a market reason or specific need to bump something up and that 22 23 school year was the time that we actually gave those substantial flat increases over and above percentages and Miss Hall I'm trying to remember some some actual percentages in that year for example the starting teachers that year received a pay increase of about 9% some of the classified positions they were in some of them in the 20% increase. So we do it every we we analyze it every year. but the most again the most recent time was three years ago. Okay. So I appreciate what Dr. Johnson is trying to do. I would need more information. How many staff members does this affect? I think this is a big change and if we deferred this to the next risk session, would that

088greatly impact the budget? Trying to think about our schedule. Can you all speak to that? So, the way the way the raise is currently in the budget, if you'll remember, it's in the board of education section and it's in one lump at this point in time. So we haven't moved it into the individual lines. so it would be work on our back end but not necessarily on the budget document itself. So what does that mean in terms of is it is it feasible or feasible to make the change currently feasible to defer to defer to defer? So short short answer is we won't make we can we won't actually make that move until the year end starts. we won't move it into the correct accounts until we let let everyone get hired and then make

089that those adjustments at that point in time. So yes, you can do that. So I will say if there if if if there ends up being a motion to to defer, I would want to make sure we had some direction from the board so that we don't run the risk of another deferral because that's really where our crisis point hits. U July one is the start of the fiscal year. I will also, if I may, Mr. Chair, Mr. Galborth mentioned the possibility of some some midyear change. I'm trying to remember what year was it 23 22 22 23 22 23 we along with county government did make a midyear change because there was an analysis of of the actual revenue that was there compared to expenses and we had the capacity that year to make

090a mid-year pay increase. One thing we learned from that is making a midyear percentage change is not a wise idea. And here's why. Our teachers are on a 10-month contract but have paid on a 12-month calendar year. And our electronic system defers some of their pay so that they have regular pay over the summer. And that required individual data entry. So, if we do that down the road, if there happens to be some revenue, I will say our finance department has made it clear to me it needs to be simple. but with that being said, the county government proposal for our for our budget right now that the budget committee actually voted on last week was a recommended 10 cent change on the tax rate with 5 cents going towards schools and 5 cents going

091towards county government. Our projection, if I'm not mistaken, Miss Farmer, for filling that gap is maybe four and a half cents, somewhere around there. They can actually only do it based on pennies, not half pennies. And so, it is possible that we may have a little bit of revenue once that budget passes that might be able to achieve something that Mr. Galbreth mentioned in in mid year. And I know Rachel's maybe proverbally rolling her eyes at me, but I thought it was worth mentioning that. Dr. Johnson, may I may I ask you a couple of questions for clarity before you speak next. Just I was jotting down some of the numbers that you had were giving in your original amendment. just to make sure I wrote this down right, you were saying in 2022 2020

09223 those employees were at around 17,000 per year. Is that correct? Yeah. And then two fiscal years later they're at 24,000. So basically, if I'm reading, if my math is right, somebody check me on this. In a two-year period, the district recognized the need to address their pay and increased it by roughly 40%. Is that number right? So, and then in this current budget, Ris Farmer, what are we percentage-wise, just to be clear, what are we doing for those same employees year-over-year percentage-wise? The classified pay chart has the 2% raise laid on top of that chart. Okay. So, so, so Mr. Chair, some of them statistically speaking, about 20% will receive a role on the classified paychart, which will be more than the two. Yes, sir. And that would be roughly what? it can go

093up to over 10%. It could be like it ranges probably from like 4% to like 12 or 13%. Depending on what payline you're on, but the majority is 2%. So theoretically, some number of these classified employees over a three-year period will have seen a 50% pay raise. Okay. If they stayed, I think that's pretty significant. Okay, you recognize Dr. Johnson. so Claire brought up a point about deferring. I'm happy to do that because I was also going to ask for a deferment specifically for the supplemental paychart, but I didn't want to try to do two things at once because even tonight we got information about the supplemental paychart. And I've shared some of this information with staff and I mean it hasn't been changed and I guess I need to do a better job of

094sharing that. I also even shared about the, you know, the salaries and trying to get some of our lowest paid staff some more, money to try to keep them because, like I said, when you look at the job postings because our leaders are paid in the top five in the state. We're not losing them. Plus, they get 21 closed system days, plus they get 20 vacation days. So, we're paying our 12 month leadership for really 11 months of pay. and our lowest paid or 10 and 11 month classified staff only get five system close days instead of the 21. so, again, just trying to to bridge that gap with that, but I'm willing to defer if it doesn't mess up anything and I don't know how to do that. So, make a motion. Okay. So,

095I will make a motion to defer the 2526 pay scales to I guess the next session policy or the next meeting. I guess the next work session, right? Okay. That's a proper motion. Okay. So, we need to withdraw the original amendment. So, I withdraw. The amendment goes with the deferral. So, the amendment will still be there. You'll have to take action on the deferral. Deferral passes, please. Would you mind? The biggest concern I have is we're right smack in the middle of hiring teachers. We really need our teacher paycheart. Contract. All right. There's been a motion to defer this until the June meeting. Is there a second? All right, motion fails for lack of a second. So, we're back on the original amendment that was proposed by Dr. Johnson to take the $600,000 roughly allocated

096to $100,000 or more paid employees to apply that to classified employees for two additional days off essentially with the remainder spread out among those higher paid employees if I said that correctly. Mr. Wilch on the amendment. Yes. Okay. So, it was a long work session Thursday night. Did I miss this amendment being discussed during it or is this a surprise? I mean, it was 11 o'clock at night when we got to this agenda and I was asking questions. So, so again, as all the questions, I was able to get a proposal for an amendment because I didn't have the exact information Thursday night. So, that sounds like a no. We didn't discuss this amendment Thursday night. This is a surprise. Which right off the bat, our code of ethics says, let's have one, let's have

097one person speak at a time. So our code of ethics says that we will come here prepared to discuss. We will read the material and frankly being discussed surprised at this meeting. I'm not prepared. I haven't talked to staff about it. I haven't thought through the implications, everything else. So, and historically this board doesn't vote for surprises. Maybe there's a change with the new membership, but professional courtesy. We just don't surprise our colleagues with pretty substantial things like changing the pay scales. Was our assistant superintendent for HR made aware of this point of inquiry? I'm seeing a no. Hang on a second. Are you Mr. Welch? Are you Who are you directing the question to our assistant superintendent for human resources? What is the question, please? Was she made aware of this amendment before tonight,

098before this meeting? I don't think anybody communicated to me. Just direct the question through the chair. Just for protocol, let's direct it to Mr. Golden then direct staff. If I may, Dr. Johnson let us know she did intend to make an amendment. We did not know the details of that amendment. Is that an accurate description? Okay. So staff has not had time to look through the implications of this is what I'm is what I'm hearing. Okay. Point of point of inquiry, Mr. This is more procedural question. Is it not within board members right to make amendment whether it's been discussed ahead of time or not? It's within the board member's right to do that. Yes. Thank you. I don't think that's ever been a question. It's a matter of courtesy, not we're going back on

099the back in the in the order for the recognition. That's fine. just wrap up by saying I don't think a 2% salary increase is too much for our principles. They work awfully darn hard. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. John. Well, I was just going to add that, you know, it's in I can make an amendment and because of the sunshine law, we're not allowed to talk about these things ahead of time. So, you know, and I was asking questions at the work session to try to to figure out the numbers and so that I could make the amendment. Okay. So, we have an amendment on the floor. We had a verbal second, I believe. Well, it's on the board. So, any further questions on the amendment? Is there does anyone need clarification on what the

100amendment is? No, we're not. No. Motion to defer failed for lack of a second. So, the amendment is I'm going to try to capture this again. So, check me. Her motion is to take the $600,000 out of the roughly 16 million, Mr. Golden. Is that correct? Yes, sir. 16 million allocated for raises for our employees. 600,000 of that roughly. Take it for those who are paid $100,000 or more. Take it away. Apply most of that to classified employees to give them two extra unpaid or paid days off essentially with the remaining balance, whatever that number is, being back being reapplied back to those people making over $100,000. That's as I understand it. That's the motion. So are we are we taking money away from principles? Yes. Some of them because they make Well, just because

101they make just because they make a a good wage doesn't mean they don't earn it. they're in these schools from 6:30 7 a.m. till all hours of the night. and I've seen them in in every high school and middle school. U so I can't I can't buy into taking money out of their pocket. Not not for anything else. Anyone else seek recognition on the amendment? All right, let's go to our devices and vote on the amendment. This is on the amendment, not the original paycharge, but on the amendment itself. I do not recommend approval. The vote is 3 yes, 8 no, one abstain. All right, the motion fails. We're back on the original motion, which is approval of the 2526 paycharts as presented. Dr. Johnson. So, I would like to make a motion that we

102defer the supplemental pay scale. The 20 Huh? Deferral's already been filled down. She's she's she's It's on a different item, but I'm only doing the supplemental pay scales, not the whole pay scale. Can I can do that. It's carving It's carving out a portion of the paychart. that was part of the original motion to defer. It cannot be done again whether you separate it or not after the deferral. So if it was part of the deferral, part of that question, you can't have another deferral. So we've already voted to not defer the whole thing. We can't now defer part of it. Correct. Okay. You wouldn't want to separate that question for a deferral. So you don't come in. So you don't have that resolved. Okay. So the ruling is that we cannot correct defer only

103the supplemental HR. Correct. All right. Any any further questions or comments on the main motion which is approval of the 2526 paycharts? Seeing none, we are ready to vote. I do recommend approval. Figures you did. Thank you. The vote is 10 yes, one no, one abstain. All right, the page charts are approved. With that, we've reached the end of our agenda. Thank you very much. We are adjourned.