Williamson County Board of Education Meeting - May 20, 2024

001good evening everyone we're going to call the school board meeting to order you are at the Williamson County school board meeting our first item on the agenda is to record attendance Schoolboard members if you wouldn't mind recording your attendance big names today there are 11 members present thank you next item on the agenda is for our Pledge of Allegiance and moment of silence and that's going to be led tonight by board member Casey Haw alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation indivisible withy and justice for all thank you may be see this the first the next item on our agenda is the approval of the agenda thank you Mr Welch and do we have a second Miss Pria thank you we'll open the floor

002for discussion okay no discussion board members we can cast our votes the vote is 11 yes Zer no thank you agenda is approved so we will go on next to the approval of the consent agenda oh oh we should do that yes can skip public comment so sorry about that you guys have shown up with all good intent to speak to us and I will thank you very much board member we do have next on the agenda the public comment items of particular public interest this is where several of you have shown up tonight to speak with us and we do allow for 30 minutes of public comment each board me each board meeting tonight we have around 28 members of the public who have signed up to speak with us so we are going

003to allow one minute per per member of the public and as I call your names up I am going to called two people at a time that's just so the second person is aware that you'll be next you don't have to come up just know that you're coming the screen at the podium we'll have your time so that you can track to when your minutes about to be up so our first two members of the public are Tiffany Wilson Mobly followed by Amy Cook hello to you and thank you so much for your time and all that you pour into to our children at our last school board meeting several students spoke to you about their concerns regarding the inequitable pay structure for our stiens some teachers very few teachers but still those teachers receiving

004a fixed rate whereas other teachers received a percentage-based pay that increases each year after listening to their their talks their their speeches and listening to your discussion it was evident that we all agree that the stien schedule is not Equitable and so I'm just here tonight to say please don't let this fall off your radar we're all encouraging and praying that our County Commission members follow their responsibility to to serve our children and fund this remaining shortfall and I know that you're working through some some problem solving modes right now but regardless please don't let those uncertainties change your mind about rectifying that inequitable situation just I'm out okay thank you so much for your time appreciate you thank you the next member of the public is Amy Cook followed by Eden cook hello and

005just want to start off by saying I'm Amy Cook District 5 thank you Jen for all your work in our district and I want to thank you Mr Golden because like the last lady said we are so appreciative that now y'all are getting ready to I think meet with the w Kea whatever it is and so I'm thankful that you're taking that next step you heard what the students said before and since I only have a minute I have so much to say but let me just tell you our theater teacher let me just tell you what she made last year or this year $320 or 78 that's only direct student hours so I spoke to her yesterday and that's per hour $3.74 our Tech Teacher that's here today worked over 800 hours and got

006$250 I think so that's what they're getting supplemented for I'm not saying I love sports I hope my son makes the football team so like I'm not saying we need to change anything about sports but it needs to be Equitable we need to make sure that they get paid not only on their how much effort maybe a season per show but we also need to make sure that they're paid on their tenure like one of our theater teacher and our choir teacher are both the team leads and they get paid the same amount as a new theater lead so just no please don't let this fall through because we really really want to support them thank you thank you next we have Eden cook followed by Noah cook good evening evening everyone my name is

007Eden and I'm 11-year-old student at mcees I want to talk to you about something very important the importance of supporting our Fine Arts teachers here's the thing our Fine Arts teachers are not given the same support and pay as the coaches every Fine Arts teacher should receive a supplement that is comparable to what the athletic coaches receive athletic coaches are very important and I do not want them to receive any less however the fin Arts teachers work all the school year and get paid less than what our first year teacher gets paid in for an athletic season I know only I know I'm only 11 years old but even an 11-year-old can recognize that is totally unfair and if you're a county commissioner listening to this please give our teachers a raise I did the

008math and if you have an a million dooll home your taxes would go up $816 and I'm pretty sure that's just less than one McDonald's value meal for us thanks for your time thank you next we have Noah cook followed by Erica boutton good evening everyone my name is Noah and I'm 12 years old and I'm a student at mcms I'm in band choir and theater and I want to talk to you about something important the importance of supporting our Fine Arts teachers here's my thoughts first every show that should be considered a season and they should be paid accordingly based on their years of service Additionally the this site should be support supported our choreographers tech crew and costume designers they play a crucial role in success of our fine arts program and they

009are contributing should be recognized I have a urge that you to counter paying every choir teacher and theater director for every show they are involved in even if it is beyond their requirement and this would be this would prove them with the recognization and pay that they deserve for all their hard work thank you next we have Erica Bon followed by Mary Smith hi my name is Erica I'm a Williamson County mom of three School AG kids and I am here to express my support for the changes to Title 9 that include gender expression it's hard to put into words how hurtful it is to hear within Williamson County Community push back to these changes people complaining about non about gender non-conforming kids trying them to make them out to be monsters but I know

010many of them and they are beautiful smart caring kids deserving of protections from the Relentless abuse they receive they are not the en they are not the enemy they don't want to assault kids in bathrooms they didn't change their identity to get ahead in sports the harassment that they receive at school is devastating to these kids ask them and ask them how they feel when parents lash out when they just want to use the restroom respecting someone else's identity is not coercion if I don't like the name Phil and I decide to call you Bob because it suits me that's bullying so I've drafted a resolution and I will send it to you in your inboxes so that Williamson County can best comply with Title 9 we need gender neutral bathrooms and locker rooms and

011we need policies training and resources let's protect the kids who actually need protecting thank thank you next we have Mary Smith followed by Brady Clark hey everybody it's kind of different to be on this side of the podium so just want to say thank you first all for everything you guys do I also want to extend my sincere appreciation to your thoughtful discussion you had during last Thursday's work session regarding the budget I also want to thank the board members and Schoolboard candidates who attended the recent education and budget committee meetings it's evident based on those discussions that there are several avenues for us to explore in pursuit of what one Schoolboard member aptly termed a common sense compromise as a WCS parent of 14 years and a friend to numerous Williamson County and Redford

012County Teachers I deeply empathize with the challenges you all face in recruiting and retaining highly qualified Educators during the recent education and budget committee meetings there were references made to whether for County with comparison drawn between their expenses and ours while I acknowledge this isn't an exact match it's evident from the numerous emails we've received that our teachers are making these comparisons so where do we go from here given the current state of the economy and the financial concerns many of us are grappling with raising taxes appears to be the least attractive option the County Commission did recently pass a resolution urging the state to provide more funding when passing Ed additional Educational Staffing requirements to local school districts this is a C crucial issue to address as it places additional strain on local funding

013authorities to bridge the gaps when we are already contending with aging infrastructure and growing populations for now it's imperative that we work together in finding creative ways to address our 0.02% budget Gap without further burdening our property owners and ensuring our teachers they know they are valued thank you thank you next we have Frady Clark followed by Laura C hi my name is Brady Clark and I am in e8th grade I'm here to advocate for a change in the payment structure for Williamson County Fine Arts teachers I know there are bigger budget issues at stake right now especially the 6% teacher raise but we still want to honor our Fine Arts teachers and stand before you with our support for the past three years I have taken a part in theater in choirs at my

014middle school during that time my directors have put in countless hours of their time working for the benefit of my school myself and my peers the knowledge I've gained in theater and choir has not only helped me grow as a performer in middle school but will benefit me in the future the Fine Art directors persistently go above and beyond their contractual obligations their work is visible to see through the Productions they produce and the skills that shine through their students I believe that all fine art teachers and athletic coaches should be supplemented for their time and service to our students this supplement however needs to be equal and fair across the board this discrepancy in our Fine Arts teachers are supplemented leave students and parents along with our amazing teachers feeling like they are not

015appreciated for their craft this is not to take away from the great work of our coaches but a greater recognize the amount of work that fine art teachers do thank you thank you next we have Laura C followed by Steven hickey thank you I am also here to speak in support of continu Williamson County Schoolboard compliance with Title 9 and particularly with the rule changes that are going into effect on August 1st that some members of our community are ignorant about and apparently terrified of transgender children does not mean that the school board can or should defy Federal Title Nine regulations please know that the vast majority of decent people in this County support you in continuing to comply with these regulations some of our neighbors here tonight want to scare us they're afraid that

016a child who uses a private restroom cubicle is somehow a threat because they're taking care of their private bodily functions there or that a child using puberty blockers which as the name tells us stop puberty thereby negating any potential athletic advantages that might come from going through male puberty is somehow going to keep their child off the Middle School soccer team these are not real problems the changes that go into effect on August 1st do not even address athletic issues quite frankly I'm far more concerned that some of these adults seem to be concerned with the body parts of other people's children please just ignore these voices and continue to comply with relevant federal law thank you for your time thank you next we have Steven hickey followed by Peg riti good evening school board

017members thank you for what you guys do we appreciate it I'd like to ask where did the 10 million and two votes come from the County Commission education committee apparently voted on a 44 54 5 million budget that included a 5% cross theboard raise but that apparently wasn't good enough for the School Board what got transmitted to the school board was a $555 million budget and all five members of the of the of the County Commission voted for that it was actually a 33 vote and they only authorized 545 after a after a discussion so I'd like to know how you guys came to know 555 million and five votes versus what actually happened and I think you need to get to the bottom of that thank you thank you next we have Peg reiti

018followed by Corey Martin on August 1st the feds will have a new regulation for Title 9 they have demanded that Local Schools who receive federal money why the. 3% of the school budget must implement or they will lose federal funds where I come from in New Jersey this is called a shake down it demands that boys can use girls bathrooms and locker rooms and vice versa the regulation say it is for those who identify as trans but who decides that the students themselves this resolution is of the slipperies of slopes currently there are schools in this country who have put litter boxes in the school bathrooms because the students think they are cats and it's true now use your imagination on where this can go there is no ruling as of yet on girls sports

019but we all know that soon they will take away girls Sports as we know it already is happening across the country AG Sketti is filed suit due to these new regulations and I say that the Williamson County Schools need to follow the state thank you thank you next we have Corey Martin followed by Christine Udi thank you madam chair my name is Corey Martin I'm with Juan Wilco I'm here to follow up on what Pastor Bryant Herbert spoke about last month specifically what actions has WCS taken in response to the fostering Healthy Solutions report that was commissioned in 2021 and what further actions are being planned it feels like there's been a lot of attention committed to policy around disciplinary actions and reporting of bullying which is great but I want to make sure that

020we don't forget that the recommendations didn't stop there since this report was released we have seen a steady decrease in the percentage of African-American Educators employed by WCS in 2021 it was 1.7% of teachers and the next year was 1.6 and the year after that was 1.5 African-American administrators went from 9% to 7.6 to 7.5 so this is a metric in which our schools are actively declining golly I had more to say but I would love to know what the plan is and who's responsible for communicating the progress that we're making thanks thank you next we have Christine yudy and I apologize for the pronunciation followed by Maxwell yudi good evening my name is Christine yudi I'm a student at Renaissance High School and I have been involved in theater all throughout my middle school

021years and the real reality of it is that being in those Arts programs have given me so many opportunities I've been in intern at Nashville Children's Theater where I shadowed the stage manager and got to get real professional real professional experience as well as winning technical theater Allstar at Junior theater Festival 2023 and the part like real thing behind that is that I would never get there without my theater director Miss Allison eam and she is not getting paid in an equitable way she is not being she's at a flat rate in which she's being paid as opposed to coaches and that is completely fine I love the way that the coaches are paid but I feel like any fine arts teacher should be paid in the same manner because of just how that works

022thank you thank you next we have Maxwell yudi followed by Gary Moore hello I am Max yudy and I'm a sixth grade student at mil Creek middle I have witnessed firsthand how hard I faret our fineit our Fine Arts staff have been working and the fact that they're not getting equal they're not getting equal pay as the other teachers or as the athletic coaches kind of bothers me they work really hard and one of the teachers has put in over 800 hours and that has a hourly pay of about $250 there's a $2 $2.50 sorry yeah they guys sent am of $1,925 a year and honestly I think we should reduce the pay Gap thank you for your time thank you next we have Gary Moore followed by Barb sturgeon okay whoever controls education controls

023the future because they have the key to the hearts and minds of all children okay adults have choices children do not if they did then we'd let them vote they'd get drunk they'd smoke do drugs they' do all kinds of things that we other adults do but they don't so let kids be kids let's think about the things that they should or shouldn't be doing because we're what you people are Shepherds of the flock You're The Shepherd of this group of County Board the County Board of the Shepherds of the children so we need to look at all children see what what their desires are I guess but we have to make the overall decision according to what God would want us to do he'd want us to love everybody but we can love the

024results of some of the things that are going on so please stand up and act appropriately and do this in favor of all children thank you next we have Barb sergeon followed by Eli given thank you good evening and thank you for serving our students in Williamson County I'm sorry if I'm abrupt but I thought I had more than 60 seconds we all agree that teacher salaries need to be raised and I hope that the school board chooses to make this their number one budget priority it's up to the Williamson County School Board not the County Commission to make these priorities the budget committee this year recommended a budget that required no property tax increase and all the other County departments tightened their budgets and we're able to provide a 6% pay increase while staying

025within the guidelines by the county budget committee this year the budget committee voted to give a 5% increase to the schools or a budget of 545 million not the 555 million that's before you tonight based on last year's budget that's a $28 million increase which is more than enough for a ra School raise of 16.7 million Williamson County taxpayers fund a whopping 71% of the budget for schools where other counties only fund 11 to 30% so I would argue that the County Commission has and is strongly supporting and fully funding our schools approximately 75% of the county budget pays for schools the County Commission is doing their part while respecting taxpayers in their hard-earned dollars not everyone in Williamson County is Rich I'm sure by now you're well aware of the comparison with Rutherford County

026who funds who who educates about 25% more students at the same budget the budget committee is recommending of 545 RCS pays their teachers more RCS is the fastest one of the fastest growing districts in the state and the enrollment in Williamson County has been relatively flat for the last three years thank I still I have to make one more Point have you yeah have you guys done an audit the budget an independent audit to look for cost call time yeah I know we have to we have to call time all right well I would think I would hope that you would show taxpayers that you're doing your due diligence and looking for tax savings cost savings next we have Eli given followed by Robin Robert mcnamer good evening as a proud transgender student and graduate

027of Williamson County Schools I can tell you firsthand how difficult it was to Simply Be a high school student here when you think back to your high school experience do you recall having to fight hateful legislation in school policies while continually having to find the courage to set foot on campus each day the first memories that come to mind for most are likely your first prom or a winning football game but for transgender students this experience is drastically different these Title 9 expansions are intended to protect the rights of all students and Foster an environment that allows for each and every kid to thrive the very definition of the word educate is to draw up potential yet there are many students in Williamson County who are simply fighting to survive through the supposed best years

028of their life as you debate these issues remember that you are discussing the lives of students who are simply looking for safety support and acceptance from these adults let's be honest if we were truly interested in protecting children and I mean all children especially our most vulnerable we would be extending protections like those in Title 9 children are fully human and should have rights that no one can alienate especially those who love them most thank you for your time thank you next we have Robert mcnamer followed by Eve Boger good evening I'm Robert mamera I'd like to state that I am in full support of the new title 9 regulations that are set to go in effect on August 1st I think it should remain the goal of this school board to protect all students

029and to promote growth and Harmony in all schools bullying and harassment of any sort should be condemned and appropriate consequences implemented please understand the courage that it takes for these individuals that live authentically as transgender or gender non-conforming person By ignoring these regulations that would protect said individuals as as some are calling for for this school board would essentially be promoting discrimination and that is unacceptable thank you next we have Eve Boger followed by Carolyn Brown hi I'm Eve Boger she her pronouns and I'm here tonight to speak in continued support of you our school board members and all that you do for our schools thank you for serving our students so well Title 9 regulations help ensure that our schools remain safe and welcoming for all students and employees in part by clarifying protections

030for sexual assault survivors pregnant and parenting students and our queer and TR students our expectation is this the school board will follow this federal law as required as we are a fully federally funded institution there's no need for debate we fully trust that you will work with legal counsel to review and implement the new rule as required to ensure continued compliance with Title 9 I also want to stress the importance of using a person's preferred pronouns in the classroom studies consistently show that using preferred pronouns convey and affirm gender identity creating safe spaces for students misgendering results in marginalization and an increased risk of bullying and as I aside our organization wico Iris which serves queer youth is always happy to be a resource for you all anytime that's needed thank you so much thank

031you next we have Carolyn Brown followed by bronwin Windam when talking about the county it to some of my County Commissioners they expressed a need for assistance in researching issues that are being brought to to them for discussion I imagine this holds true for each of you as you're facing issues that confront our public school system by now most of you are aware that more than half the stes have filed lawsuits contesting the overreach of President Biden's Administration when it comes to changes in both Title 9 and title S I know that there have been individuals talking about how important it is for the children to feel safe but we're only hearing from one segment of children according to this there's a whole group of kids that are going to feel intimidated if they use

032the wrong pronouns the other thing we've got to look at is the big picture the way these changes have occurred has not been constitutional they have not gone through the legislative process instead President Biden's Administration has made an interpretation of Title 9 and this Title Nine interpretation is not agreed upon among the legislators as a result these guys are stuck in the middle okay what thank you I've submitted a resolution to all of you through your email thank you so much next we have bronwin Windham followed by Diane co co hi my name is bronwin Windham I go by she her I am the mother to seven children four of which in the Williamson County School District I am also the first openly gay Real Housewife I moved here recently and it has been such

033an amazing platform an amazing place to learn and grow from all the people here Studies have shown from the Trevor Project that 41% of our queer youth contemplate suicide 14% attempt it's even higher for our transgender students three qus of queer youth say that the local acts in their in their government contribute to their good or not so good mental health so by upholding section section nine title n we can save children's lives we can keep our kids alive live I am the mom to a gender non-conforming child and it's not easy it's hard and when you're met with bullying on a daily basis you want to stand up for your child this will help protect our kids and keep everyone safe thank you thank you next we have Diane Cochran followed by Lucy pit

034thank you madam chair and thank you board my name is Diane Cochran and after watching your working session last week I was really concerned about the discussion around the new law that outlines appropriate content for our libraries in schools personally I wholeheartedly disagree with that law I believe it's an overreach however I also understand it's a state law so it has to be followed I for one trust our school professionals to select appropriate literature based on their years of experience and their education restricting certain books can limit students access to diverse perspectives and valuable educational resources which can potentially hinder their intellectual development it creates a better understanding of their peers and their real world around them seeing diverse viewpoints enriches our understanding of History traditions and our values we communicate more effectively and it

035Fosters creativity by combining ideas with various mindsets these skills these skills for our students are needed when entering the workforce for our diverse local community and for life in general with the small amount of discretion that's afforded to this board My Hope Is You Will sde to keep as many books available as possible thank you very much thank you next we have Lucy pit and our final speaker will be Darlin Jordan good evening I'm a graduate from Franklin High School's class of 2022 in Williamson County Schools as someone who participated in sports and extracurriculars the entirety of my C 12 experience I agree that the activities are crucial to Social Development depriving any student from this experience is reprehensible as most of the these were most of the places I often felt most accepted as

036an lgbtq Plus student including lgbtq plus individuals specifically transgender and gender non-conforming individuals within Title 9 does not jeopardize women's rights or student privacy and in no way destroys fairness within Sports this new world actually increases fairness by allowing students of all allowing all students regardless of gender to participate in everything claiming the addition of gender identity to Title 9 strips parents of their fundamental rights to direct the upbringing of their children and then claiming to care about all children is absolutely deplorable all children must include lgbtq plus children it is still your right as a parent to discriminate against lgbtq plus individuals and make your hate known publicly but I urge you to ask yourself how that benefits your child I urge the board to continue to enforce the additions to Title 9 and

037work to protect all students in Williamson County thank our final speaker is Darlin Jordan hi yes good evening school board members my name is darling Jordan and I am here to bring to your attention the recent developments regarding changes to the Title Nine regulations proposed by the Department of Education which may have significant implications to our school district as a concerned educator over 20 years experience in the Williamson County school system and as a current substitute teacher of the last five years within the community I feel it is ENT poal for our school board members to be aware of these developments and their potential impact on our educational environment which is our classroom the Department of Education has recently released a revised title n rule scheduled to go in effect as you all know August

0381 while these changes are slated to take effect in August it is important to note there is anticipated legal action additionally school districts are not obligated to align their policies with the new regulations at this time super attendant of other states such as Florida Louisiana Montana Oklahoma South Carolina are taking legal action along with Tennessee we should follow their lead as an educator I am deeply concerned about the potential implications such as male students identifying as females access to facilities designated as female only female athletes denied opportunities for sports teams and students and teachers forced to submit to compelled speech and losing Free Speech thank you for your time thank you all right we appreciate everybody for coming in and speaking with us tonight I know it's super hard to stay within that one minute

039and I really really am sorry that we do have to limit that time but thank you very much for coming in tonight and for all of your participation and comments our next item on the agenda is the approval of the consent agenda right before we do that I want to acknowledge deputies Phil hunt and Matt Smith for being here so thank you so much for being here with us tonight so board members we do need to approve the consent agenda Mr Welch thank you do we have a second Mr gber thank you we'll open the floor for discussion okay board members we can cast our votes the vote is 11 yes Z no thank you did pass to approve the consent agenda and with that approval we approve the April 15th Schoolboard meeting minutes Schoolboard

040policies for second reading the online learning program and the attendance policy Kingdom Chasers church at Creekside Elementary School the request for Middle Tennessee Electric easement at the maintenance building the request for the Middle Tennessee Electric easement at the transportation building and the recommend recommendation for field trip fee requests the next item on our agenda is Communications to the board and the first item is the superintendent report Mr golden thank you madam chair and thank you those of you who spoke tonight very much appreciated I as as you all know and have shared with me multiple times hearing from students is a great thing so we very much appreciate the students who've shared I'm going to speak a little bit to some of the public comments but first I do want to let you all know

041that back on Thursday night I told I told you that the state Department of education was scheduled to get us what I call the quick scores or the raw scores from TCAP by today they have in fact gotten those gotten us those scores I want to give you a little bit of an update about third grade and fourth grade all our third grade parents will get a letter in Skyward tonight it's scheduled to go out tonight to to let them know where their child is on that third grade promotion and retention law so it will vary a good bit because the Avenues for that have changed a little bit over the last year or so do encourage parents to look at the Skyward we were actually sending an additional email to parents to let them

042know that's there as part of that our elementary team and instructional team is working together to prepare for the summer school what they call the summer camps to you know for the for the to give those students who need that option that ability to to prepare for that and again that is actually scheduled for June also wanted to let you know that last year's third grade class this year's fourth grade class obviously had 134 students who you may recall at the time were at risk of retention in fourth grade as we sit today based on our first review of those quick scores we have 38 of those students who now will be waiting for the growth scores which are scheduled to come in early July in other words of that 134 would down to 38

043students who might be subject to that as part of that this the legislature did alter that requirement for fourth graders as well in the most recent legislative session and Miss osbrook if I'm not mistaken I'm trying to remember if the governor's actually signed this yet or if it's gone into effect that there is now an Avenue based on the legislative action in the most recent legislative session where principles and parents of those number of those students in fourth grade can have a discussion and make a decision make a team decision about what's best for fourth grade promotion so I do want to especially thank our legislature for listening to so many folks across the state about those concerns that were initiated a few years ago with it with what we call the third grade retention

044law and give you that bit of an update on where we are for us that has been a really important issue over the last few years and I'm very pleased with where we are and very pleased with what the legislature has done related to that students who mentioned the fine ARS pay thank you for that we've heard some we heard from some students last month about that as well as I mentioned last month we made a commitment with the Williamson County Education Association our teacher leaders to have that discussion about pay in the in the coming months to prepare for the next budget season it takes a lot of work to look at to look at comparables to do an analysis of time I have a suspicion that there's been some adjustments over the last

04515 years or so with how much time has put into our to our extracurricular activities so I look forward to that process with our teacher team and just as a reminder we do have a responsibility to talk to those teacher leaders about pay issues that's part of our obligation under the Pekka process the professional Educators collaborative conferencing act that we do per state law but it's also the right thing to do even if we didn't have that obligation talking to our teachers about their pay is important I want to thank those folks for mentioned in Title 9 we're at the study stages of those regulations and we are aware that the state of Tennessee has joined a number of states to to to file a petition to the federal courts related to that so we'll

046be monitoring that over the course of the of the of the summer to determine from a procedural perspective where we are with those regulations that were put down we did also get noticed through a publication from the US Department of Education that Athletics regulations were still to be shared so they're not finished yet at the federal level on that I but I do want to make sure all our students and families know that we're committed to creating a safe environment for all and we have bullying procedures in in place and we act on those so no matter what the issue is if a student is behaving inappropriately we want to know about it so that we can investigate it and take action we've talked about this repeatedly over the course of years and you all

047I got to share this because this this is something that strikes me every time I think about those issues related to our students when I became superintendent I had conversations with student leaders and some seniors at a couple of our high schools five six years ago told me we've just stopped reporting behaviors because we felt like nothing's going to be done and so we've made it a point to take action no matter what the issue is related to to to investigating and protecting those students that's just one little piece of of what we do so I wanted to make sure you all are aware with that aware of that we are going to comply no matter what the law is on either side we're going to comply we actually had that discussion in a different

048context at our work session related to an item that's on the agenda tonight with respect to library books finally I do want to talk briefly about budget because we did have some some conversations from our from some of our public commenters related to budget I want to make sure that I give this synopsis that we started the request for a 6% pay raise for our staff in collaboration with County government Administration we knew on the front end of this process that we did not have sufficient funding we did not project sufficient increases in funding for us to be able to cover a 6% pay raise so in collaboration again with County government we made that request but knowing that knowing that we didn't have enough we've taken a number of actions related related to doing

049what we could to prepare for that possibility we froze our purchase orders we made sure that any purchase order payment from from our staff was reviewed by either me or one of our assist assistant superintendent we did that to make sure that we increased the fund balance as much as possible so that we could close that Gap that we projected we cut budget requests this year to what we knew had to happen to get the work done we looked at every Staffing line based on our staffing standards to make sure especially with our growth stabilizing that no school or Department was overstaffed we actually cut 28 positions specifically over the course of our 52 schools related to that and ultimately ended up with a net 10.4 position increase half of those are actually computer science

050teachers a 0.5 at all our high schools for a new for a new state requirement we also looked at every operations line to see what we could do to cut we cut about a million dollarss out of our operations budget compared to our current Year's budget again for the to try to narrow that Gap knowing that was coming so our our Gap has dropped by about $15 million from where we started in part because of County government's working on some of the insurance costs and in part because of what we've done the last few weeks we have had a lot of questions and some of those questions are to be expected questions about couldn't you cut and I and I just wanted to emphasize that you we've we've looked at that and we know that

051we're going to either need some more funding for that 10.5 million or we're going to have to cut either programming or or the pay increase we very much appreciate the County Commission I will tell you I encourage folks to look at our WCS by the Numbers website the County Commission has done some pretty amazing things to help us increase our teacher pay over the last four or five years the governor just a couple of years ago set a standard that the minimum pay for teachers starting in 2025 is to be $50,000 this proposal keeps us one year ahead of that minimum standard from the governor but the reality is that because of the the funding structure in Tennessee the burden is more on our County than most everyone if not every school district in the

052State as an example I know Rutherford County was mentioned and we've spoken to that once or twice in some of the County Commission meetings at our work session last night we well Thursday night we mentioned to you that we did a little bit of a deeper dive into what's been published at Rutherford County one one example the largest gap that we see between our budget and Rutherford County that we mentioned was that our special ed funding on our operational budget is a little over $40 million more than what shows up on Rutherford counties that's one example and what we know is that the federal fund is substantially different and we don't know for sure because of what's actually shows up but it looks like on its face that likely that because of the federal funding

053being at a little over 50 million for Ruther County compared to 16 for ours a year ago it's probably a little bit of that difference what we do know is that it's very difficult to compare budgets to budgets and that's one example why that you really need to to drill down I'm going to give you one other example just as we just as we prepare to discuss this our insurance cting claims is a little it looks to be about a little a little more than 20 million more compared to that county in part because of the insurance structure we have with County government and in part because we actually offer that individual coverage to our employees and no and no charge so we're pretty proud of that benefit that we give that we give our

054our families especially that individual coverage so with all that just as as a point of emphasis we do a great job you all our teachers do a great job the county has done a good job supporting us we know that the pressures continue with funding and another com comment in public comment mentioned the question of the education committee versus the budget committee going to give you one last reminder related to that the education committee took our original budget and voted 3 to three to send it which meant that it to send it on on with a recommendation which mean the means the recommendation failed the county budget committee almost 3 weeks ago just a little under three weeks ago voted to reduce that budget to $555 million based on a couple of items one was

055the county reduction in their ask of us for insurance and second an additional 2.5 million two weeks after that the budget committee did not vote to include a proper tax increase in their proposal and that failed 3 to2 which means in effect we do not have any additional County funding beyond what was projected at this point so what we have for you on the agenda tonight is a $255 million U request and then we have till June 20th the ultimate County a government decision on what they will fund to to talk and work through our budget I am going to encourage you to continue that work to continue that discussion we believe that there's a there's a chance that we'll be able to narrow that Gap even more based on our fund balance and I

056expect to have some ongoing discussions knowing where we are with with budget so with that Madam chair that's my report we may have some more questions later on related to budget we'll see okay sounds good Carol sorry we do have some comments Mr Brown Chason just for context and little historical framing and I know I thought about asking this in the budget discussion but since you just talked about it I'll ask it now remind us and the public when we when this body first approved the 2024 2025 budget you approve oh sorry go ahead go ahead please March at our at our March regular meeting and the and the amount of that budget that we approved then was trying to remember the exact number Miss farmer I'm going to estimate it at 200 I mean

0575 70 something 566 566 thank you 566 millon I just wanted to get that on the record so we passed a budget two months ago at 566 million I don't remember if that was unanimous but it was close and then and then we are now we now have a budget before us that's $1 million almost $12 million less than that is that fair that's right okay thank you okay anybody that's my that's my report Madam chair Carol bird song has our monthly celebration student staff spotlights thank you thank you thank you and yes we have lots of students to celebrate this evening we are going to start with something cool this is the Summit High they call themselves The Kitchen team they competed in the MIT create Challenge and one in the product feasibility category

058now they created a tool for those who have struggles with their grip or who might have arthritis and they are James Rayfield and Cole wats Watson now we're going to move on to the National speech and debate Association first place in the sen Senate is parsa KIRO and his instructors are Harriet Medlin and Matt Grimes and also from at Nolanville high school first place in the house is Jonathan ukar and his teacher is Wilson Boyd from in the Tennessee high school speech and drama league public forum debate state champions are Meredith Y and Jasmine Merrick they are from brenwood high school again here at Medlin and Matt Grimes from Summit High School this is Ella Mulla and she is our state champion in Congressional debate Christina Crutcher is her coach and we're gonna now talk

059about the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences student awards and board members our schools pretty much swept this competition this year this these are called the student Emy Awards actually I'm not supposed to use the word Emy but the student awards produced by the same people who do the emys so it is Big Stuff This is brenwood high school's wb9 there crew W for best newscast for best commercial this is David Ward from Brentwood High School from britwood High School also this is Eli price for the best music video their teacher is Sloan Ashworth from Fairview High School Jacob howford and Christian howford and they won for best non-fiction their teacher is Rob GRE Gregory from Franklin High School Braden Fox won for the best news story Carrie Thompson is teacher there and best

060writing Nick lazris Kyle dyra Canon Paisley Liam Phillips and Braden Fox best sports Anna Ray Jones and the best in arts entertainment and cultural Affairs and this was for their Franklin lip dub where they celebrated their 10year anniversary and they won in that category Again Carrie Thompson their teacher from Independence High School this is Ryan canaban and who won for best editor Matt Bowser is their instructor there and from Nolanville High School best fiction Eric yunkin Mason Davis cash Street and Cameron olenick Brian bass not the principal Brian bass but the TV teacher Brian bass and then let's go to paig high school this is haly zinder who won four best talent and Best Director yes two awards for Haley best photographer Kaylin Hemingway their teacher is David Holt and at Ravenwood High School best

061public service announcement Mia Johnston and Caitlyn Brothers Lily Kean is their teacher now we're going to talk Science Olympiad and oh my goodness Science Olympiad your state champions code Busters from brenwood high school Katherine Perez and Katie Wang from Brentwood High School in detector building Andrew Gan and Luke Halls from Brentwood High School in ecology trist trita Paul and Tira Paul from Brentwood High School in microe missions Ryan guli and Andrew Gan their teachers are Margaret Bernard and ab Abigail hacking from Ravenwood high school and y'all they are your state champions of the Tennessee science state Science Olympiad and individual categories in astronomy Sophie mcy and Sophia Wang in geological mapping Ang bag and Sophia MC and from R High School in the Optics category Christina chin and Ryland Hoskins and in the robot tour

062category ran KERO and AD prip and in the tower category gwy moer and Grady Landry April Bretta is their coach teacher and we have a staff Spotlight tonight y'all this is Rose helmers from Ravenwood High School our Tennessee music Education Association Young music educator of the year and before I leave leave you I'm going to leave you with just a little tease for next month and if you want the scoop before next month's board meeting you can read and focus tomorrow comes out on every Tuesday sometimes on Wednesday where we are going to announce 26 perfect ACT scores by our students just adding up to that total okay congrats to all of our students and staff members thank you Carol our next item on the agenda is the board chair report and I just want

063to remind everyone again I know we went through this at the work session but there are some very important celebrations again this week the graduations it's what we work all year for Thursday night 7 o'clock we have Centennial Franklin Independence and the Vanguard online graduations so if you know anybody at those schools head on out to celebrate with them Friday night 7 o' we have Fair View Nolanville page and Summit graduations Saturday we have Brentwood at 1:00 and we have Ravenwood at 10 o'clock and then Friday at 5: we have Renaissance so celebrate big time with all these students you've worked so hard for four years well for 12 years right 13 including kindergarten so thank you than you to everybody who's poured into these kids for their entire careers and can't emphasize enough celebrate

064them all right next item on the agenda is new business first item under new business is the revised 20242 School Board budget Mr Golden thank you madam chair you see here the recommendation that we talked about at the work session we do recommend that you approve the reduction of our of the budget from March to 555 million 6 $60,000 $6,279 from the original the approved balance then you can see some detail in that and we can certainly speak to it in a little bit more detail with any questions you may have okay thank you do we have a motion Mr HW and a second Mr Welch thank you we'll open the floor for discussion Mr Welch thank you I just want to reiterate what said at the work session which is to thank you and

065your staff for all the diligence they've done putting this budget together this is a very lean budget there's contrary to to what some individuals out there are saying there's there's no fat on this budget this is a budget of meat and Bone and I appreciate you doing this I also appreciate the leadership of our County mayor and helping us do this Williamson County didn't get to What It Is by accident there's a lot of history and hard work that made us the Envy of the state and this school district right here as well as our sister District Franklin Special are huge parts of that and so I'm very happy to put my name on this budget I think the raise that we have for our teachers in it is both reasonable and welld deserved also

066appreciate some really kind of good questions and good points by some of our colleagues that we talked about Thursday night Jay I thought you had a absolute wonderful call out the 3% of our budget is when you combine Finance Human Resources maintenance Communications all of them together 3% of our budget that's pretty darn lean and Josh also want to compliment you for sort of telling up what the increases are that we're mandated to have we're mandated to buy new textbooks we're mandated by our County for an increase in the health care cost were mandated for these positions for computer science and that when you strip those out this is a flat budget there is no increase here so I'm very supportive of this I appreciate this and I think it's important to go on record

067and say any reduction in this budget is a reduction in either student services or it's reduction in the pay raises for our teachers that they've been promised our teachers are aware of that and I plan on doing everything I can to make our families aware of that as well so thank you thank you Mr Welch Mr Brown thank you madam chair I said a lot at the work session on Thursday night so I won't repeat everything and I think a lot of a lot of things have been said both at the work session and or will be said even you know more tonight I too want to acknowledge the county mayor and the County Commission if you think back historically this county has prioritized public education and I think there're to be commended for that

068I mean this Eric just said it doesn't get to where it is if there haven't been Decades of people in County government who've prioritized public education and the 71% we talked about that Thursday night as well 71% of the burden of funding public education is on the county it is a burden but it's it's also a choice that the county makes I think that's important to say too and again to their credit they've made that choice to fund it and really gone probably above and beyond what they're even required to do in some cases so I think it's important to say that because the County Commission is a partner in this they're not adversaries and we should we should acknowledge that and treat it that way but it's also obviously evident that we're in different

069places at least we in the budget committee are in different places in terms of where the number that we're talking about considering for this budget and I think unfortunately what's happened is there's a lot of misinformation out there and I think most County Commissioners again to their credit are operating in good faith most people in the public are operating in good faith to try to get to a solution an outcome here that's favorable but the misinformation is really unfortunate it's come up in some of the emails that we've received over the last 48 hours it's it's not based in fact and I think you know those who really want to get to an outcome here that's favorable and be able to support the teacher is which I think most everybody wants to do they've stated

070that publicly we've stated that publicly if we really want to get there we got to operate in good faith hopefully that's what's going to happen over the next 30 days before the County Commission makes its vote and you know I want to just want to say that I think the right approach for us given the actions that we've taken starting in March approving this budget once already with the raises included with the prioritization that we've already agreed upon I don't think those priorities have changed so I think the right posture for us for me is to pass the budget as recommended tonight let's let's have conversations in the interim with the County Commission let's see what the will of the full County Commission is we're talking about budget Committee Action we're not talking about the

071full act the full action of the full commission so let's see what the full body of 24 County Commissioners decide to do I think there's been some conversation about other other possibilities for Revenue sources other things that can be looked at between now and then so let's see what what that yields and then if if the result is a cut in the budget we'll come back and make adjustments that's my view of it thank you Mr GTH thank you the I think one of the Commissioners said that we that we fund I guess that we already fund as a county more than more than most other counties and that's true which is a function of how the state has set up our funding formula so we pay the second most money out of the out

072of the funding formula as anybody in the in the state I think first is was severe County so their their tax base relative to their population is more than ours but we're second and so which essentially means that the funding for formula assumes that we have more money than we actually do to fund our budget so if we at at one point this was pre a lot of inflation but it was it was about an $80 million amount if the if you take the average property tax that the formula assumes we have and our and we have the lowest property tax rate in the in the state but we pay the highest amount of per capita per household U taxes and property taxes ac across the state so we have the lowest rate and pay

073the most in property taxes but at the end of the day the way the formula works out the state thinks that we have this $80 million plus of of money in our form in our in our budget to fund everything in the county not I mean obviously a big portion of that's is going to go to schools but if we had $80 million in the budget a lot of it would go to schools a lot of it would probably fund other things in the in the county that we've the County Commission has over the years made sacrifices to have the tax rate as low as possible and still fund our schools and probably to the detriment of of some other things that we could probably do in the in the county if we didn't so

074it's completely up to them I think what what we have as a as a common goal I heard out of the out of the budget committee and the and the unanimous U resolution that they that they passed to to talk about the iniquity of the of the formula itself to the state is we can all get behind that so there's I'm I'm welcome to to work with the with the county and anything that we need to do to to go petition our State leaders and to get more funding to bring back a couple of you know pieces of the formula that have been taken out over time and things that I believe should should be done legally but I think we can we can we can all agree that it's the state formula that puts

075us in this in this boat and I don't want to make it the problem that our teachers have to have to bear the brunt of this year so until we can figure that out I think we have the obligation to to provide the needed needed amount and I've provided multiple in in discussion with a couple of Commissioners there are multiple ways that you can fund this $555 million that don't require a tax increase so our continuation with this 555 is nothing more than than the acknowledgement that this is the amount of money that we need after thank you Jason for cutting 28 positions out of the budget to fund granted 38 positions right but but so and then a million dollars of operating expenses I mean we're cutting where we can but there's not a

076whole lot of not a whole lot of fat to cut so I appreciate the scalpel that you've used to to do that but I just I'm in full agreement that this is the right amount and then we wait to see what the what the full County Commission says thank you thank you Miss Clemens thank you madam chair first of all I just I love that our County puts such a high precedence on our education that we fund our schools so well and we've always funded our schools so well and that being said when we found that there was going to be a shortfall it just dis enhearten me to see how the first thing that people were saying was oh no the teacher salaries we're the teacher raises we're going to have to they're in

077danger and I shared this with superintendent Goldman this past Thursday and he encouraged me to reiterate this that should be the first thing we protect above all our teachers are the heart of our schools they are our front line and we have to let them know that no matter what they will get their raises it may be that we take a lower percentage of we bought not all the Chromebooks at the secondary level it might mean that we cut some other things but we have to know that the we have to let the teachers know that we are behind them and they will get the raises because that helps morale and what we are seeing is whether we whether whatever we do in our comparisons with other districts we know that we are losing teachers

078to other districts because they're paying them more so I do I do really want us to look at that and I know that there was a change in the amendment in the budget committee voted so there's been this discrepancy between 555 or 545 and when we really look at it that difference is less than 2% of our budget is there a way that we could meet in the middle could we cut 1% and come back to the County Commission but I think there are ways that we could still stay within this and not exceed our property tax not increase property taxes and then later even amend the budget to include the cost that we might need later down the road and work with the County Commission let's see have a list you guys the other

079thing that I want to say is that in this whole process and it's it saddened me because I see this level of skepticism on both sides and that being said I'd like to build that back and one of maybe one of the easier ways to do that is to have an external audit to say maybe there are ways that we're not seeing because we're the only eyes on this budget is there other way so could we have an external audit that would be a fair way to look at this and I think that would appease both sides and and just looking at ways that we could possibly cut the budget I know we always talk about 6% teacher raises but that's across the board and we do have some exceptional staff admin and they're paid

080a lot more maybe we need to look at you know salaries that are 100 to 120,000 they get a 4% raise 100 to 20 120 to 150 they get a 3% raise people after that get a 2% raise I mean we could schedule that we also could buy less Chromebooks and just finally I do want to work I do like to spend summertime talking with my state delegation and our representatives and senators and I'm going to go to bat and say you know you have all these you know mandates on us help us out because I think again I mentioned the voucher money that's just sitting there we could use that so thank you thank you looks like we have no more comments so Mr Golden you have a final recommendation I do but but

081again I want to make sure that I thank the County Commission and as much as I can make it clear the net the net effect of the commission vote at the most recent budget committee meeting was that 545 million in change I just want to make sure that is clear and I'm encouraged by the comments you all have made that I think the wise thing to do is for us to work through the next month or so just as a reminder we do have a June 17th meeting scheduled so it may be that over the course of that time we'll get some more information I know for sure we'll have a little bit more definitive information on our fund balance which is one of the one of the sources for our for our budget do

082recommend approval okay actually we do have some more comments coming in Mr Brown thank you I'm I'm sorry I just something that Miss Clement said prompted a question and that is Jason I'm assuming you're already doing this but but I think for the good of this conversation between now and June 20th or even June 17th if we have a little more Intel on where the commission may be going are you all working on contingency budgets that in the event that we have to cut like what where would we cut and so that we can be thinking ahead of and we're not having to do that spontaneously yes we are we're we're we're drilling down we're doing in that proverbial triple check and it's not actually proverbial because we did a double check already on on

083all our on all our expenses what we do know is that finding $10.5 million is not going to on the on the expense side isn't isn't isn't going to realistically happen without cutting some kind of services or us making recommendation regarding salaries short answer is yes we will be working on that and we've already started some of that work thank you thank you Mr wiberly did you have your button pushed yeah but yeah you want to go ahead be last you want to be last okay Mr Welch just to confirm we do an external audit every year don't we external external the state yeah we are audited by by the comp controller's office yes sir okay and can you remind me what the results of that external audit were we had no findings most recently

084Rachel I'm trying to remember the last couple of years the most recent finding we had was it 3 years ago or two years ago the most recent finding we had was we were too conservative on our budget because there that year two years ago the sales tax jumped and so they considered I want to emphasize that or double check that so over the last several years no findings except for one which that we were this is a state com trollers office we were too conservative onor budget that's that was the only complaint we had from the state com controller's office on this external audit so that's my that's my language Rachel because she's our accountant I want to make sure that she describes that language more accurately that is an accurate statement it was a

085not a adequate projection of Revenue so it was an under we under base and it was on the projection for the month of June so we would not have had actual mbers yet thanks very much okay thank you Mr R go ahead I joked to May that was the last time I would make this speech but here I am again I weberly have an immediate family member who is employed by williamon County Schools who may be affected by this proposed budget resolution my vote on this budget resolution is nevertheless in keeping with my oath of office to fulfill my responsibility as an elected Board of Education member signed Rick Wimberly thank you Mr wly okay board members we are ready to cast our votes the vote is 10 yes one abstain thank you board members

086you did approve the general purpose School Fund in the amount of next item on the agenda is the approval of the central cafeteria Fund in the amount of 19 milon 668 669 Mr golden thank you madam chair this proposed fund includes a reduction in the in the projected cost for insurance and claims based on that discussion we had with County government okay thank you do we have a motion Mr Welch thank you in a second Mr Brown thank you any discussion on this item okay and Mr Golden we have your recommendation do recommend approval thank you board members let's cast our votes the vote is 11 yes Zer no thank you motion passed to approve the central cafeteria Fund in the amount of1 19 milon 668 669 next item on the agenda is the approval

087of the extended school program Fund in the amount of 7,10 to39 Mr golden thank you madam chair likewise to the one we just spoke to this is this is a proposed reduction of our budget reflecting that reduction in in insurance claims expenses in this budget that actually does not include any County government tax funding okay thank you do we have a motion Mr Welch and a second by Mr Beasley thank you do we have any discussion okay no discussion Mr Golden we have your recommendation recommend approval thank you board members let's cast our votes the vote is 11 yes Z no thank you motion passed to approve the extended school program in the amount of 7,10 $239 next item is the approval of the education capital projects fund inter category transfer for technology and the

088amount of $2.5 million thank you madam chair this is the proposal oh I'm sorry you don't have a motion yet this I interrupt okay we did thank you this is a proposal from from from WCS Administration to take that 2.5 million reduction that that arose out of some of the County County government discussions and move that expense to contingent Capital funds based on the discussions that we had to your comment Mr galberth and yours Miss Clemens that's an that's an example of what we're talking about with finding another way to fund some of these do recommend approval thank you do we have a motion Mr Pria in a second Mr Cash thank you open the floor for discussion no discussion Mr Golden we have your recommendation recommend approval thank you board members let's cast votes

089the vote is 11 yes Z no thank you motion passed to approve the education capital projects fund intercategory transfer for technology in the amount of $2.5 million bringing us to the 2023 2024 Schoolboard budget first item approval of the general purpose School fund Amendment for summer learning campus or camps Grant in the amount of $4.4 million 725,000 thank you madam chair this is a restricted fund from the state of Tennessee for the summer learning camps what I referred to earlier is a summer school it's a revenue item to to cover that state requirement do recommend approval okay thank you do we have a motion thank you Miss Cleveland in a second Miss Clemens thank you any discussion Mr Cash thank you madam chair I was just wondering does this cover all summer school yes sir

090it will well it will cover all the elementary and middle Summer School some of our high school students might take an additional course here and there this does not cover that okay so it's not really covering High School correct it covers the it covers the state required middle and middle and elementary school summer school programs okay thank you Miss Clemens thank you madam chair I know that we talked about this when we met with our state delegation in January but we learned last summer that there were some schools that did not have an SRO present and then we asked them have we heard are we going to will this cover so that every school has an SRO maybe maybe this is not something we answer publicly well well we're we're having those discussions we don't

091have every one of our schools offering the summer school program we've Consolidated them in the schools and I know we're having some discussions with the sheriff's office about Staffing as we sit here Mr King I don't think I know I don't have a definitive answer Mr King do you no sir I know that Mr Fletcher is working with the sheriff's department and the plan is to have somebody there the summer is a little bit difficult because of of schedules but the plan is to have somebody there okay great great okay no additional comments Mr Golden we have your recommendation do recommend approval okay thank you board members let's CEST our votes the vote is 11 yes Zer no thank you motion passed to approve the general purpose School fund Amendment summer learning camps Grant in

092the amount of $4.4 m725 next item is the approval of the general parisal fund Amendment for summer learning Transportation Grant in the amount of $798,000 learning camp program and the transportation to achieve that summer learning Pro camp program this is the ladder to pay for the transportation cost related to the summer school okay thank you do we have a motion Mr Wimberly thank you and Mr Welch seconds any discussion Mr Brown did you want to yeah make a comment you Jason does that number fully cover our transportation cost for that yes we project it will fully cover so to be specific we don't project that we will have any general fund expense related to the state required summer school program for elementary and middle it is possible that the that the SRO security issue might

093need to be funded elsewhere that's part of what we were discussing and is there any reason to believe that funding would not be recurring funding from the state we have been told that so far it's recurring so heard that story before yeah so they've done well so far right they introduced this requirement and I think last year no two years ago was our first year so this is our third year I think so far they funded it and that is something that we'll need to continue to talk about on an annual basis but but we don't know whether they call it in their bud budget whether they call it recurring or one time I'm going to ask Miss farmer do you know the answer to that I don't yeah we do not know the answer

094to that okay thank you okay looks like we don't have any further comment Mr Golden do recommend approval okay thank you board members let's cast our votes the vote is 11 yes Zer no okay thank you with that we did approve the general purpose School fund Amendment summer learning Transportation Grant in the amount of $798,000 gift this time from gibbson guitars on a really great fundraising program they have this is a donation for our Orchestra program great do we have a motion Mr wimy in a second from Miss Cleveland thank you any discussion Mr Cash thank you madam chair I was just wondering and I wanted to thank all the people that came and supported the Fine Arts tonight and 48,000 that's a great donation but some of the kids I'm just really impressed they

095spoke from the hir on this issue and I happen to know one director that has 800 plus hours the second half of the Year invested with the kids so yes these children and the folks that support the IR we really do need to do something about this because it's just not right it's not fair and we don't want them getting disillusioned and just quit thank you thank you Mr wimbley thank you Gibson thank you okay no further comments Mr Golden do recommend approval thank you board members let's cast our votes the vote is 11 yes Z no thank you motion passed to approve the general purpose School fund Amendment for the Fine Arts donation in the amount of 48825 next item is the approval of the general purpose School fund resolution for the reallocation to

096contracted services in the amount of $275,000 thank you madam chair this is a request to fund some contracted Services through our student Support Services special education department for some of our school psychologist just because we were under staff this year just as a reminder the bulk of what our school psychologists do in the context of special education is test students and make recommendations for services this is for those Psychological Services as opposed to Clinical Psychology okay thank you do we have a recommendation or a motion thank you Mr Welch and a second Mr Beasley thank you any discussion Mr Cash thank you madam chair Mr Golden I was just wondering how many psychologists do we have on staff let me check my position control report on how many budgeted then I'm going to look over

097to Miss Hall to see if she can give you a snapshot in the moment it is around 52 I'm not sure if that's the exact number so we get you we'll make sure that we give you an exact number but approximately 52 you all may recall and I believe it was 2 years ago that we added school psychologist as a hard-to-fill position in midyear when one of our neighbors actually started offering a if I'm not mistaken Miss Hall either a $4,000 signing bonus or a $5,000 signing bonus and we were losing school psychologist in midye so they are they are hard to fill and they received that additional hard-to-fill supplement they did if I may just correct myself we have 59 and a half 59 and a half huh right 509 and a half no

098I was just wondering though this is over and above that yes so we had the contracts more out that is correct so we map to to schedule some of these positions school psychologist speech language pathology occupational therapist physical therapist we map their days based on the services that are requ re ired the school psychologists were understaffed and could not get the testing done quickly enough and so the while we didn't actually fund positions we had some remaining funds for that we did have to contract for some Services yeah thank you okay do we looks like we have no further comments Mr Golden do recommend approval okay super board members let's cast our votes the vote is 11 yes Z no thank you motion passed to approve the reallocation to contracted services in the amount of

099$275,000 next item is the school fund resolution for student support services for legal expenses in the amount of $300,000 thank you madam chair this is one of those hard to budget U expenses related to student support services or special education department Department legal expenses as as issues arise so we do recommend approval of the this fund balance move to cover those services at at the end of this year okay super do we have a motion Mr Wimberly in a second Mr Welch thank you'll open the floor for discussion okay no discussion Mr golden thank you madam chair do recommend approval okay thank you board members we can cast our votes Mr Brown Mr Brown the vote is 11 yes Zer no thank you motion passed to approve student Support Services legal expenses resolution in the

100amount of $300,000 next item on the agenda is the school fund resolution for trustee Commission of $800,000 thank you madam chair this represents another end of the year budget item that we traditionally bring to you for the for the difference between what we budget for property taxes and actual at the end of the year we have an obligation to pay a trustees Commission on on the on that and so this is a final number based on actual receipts from from property tax okay super do we have a motion Miss Cleveland and do we have a second Mr Beasley thank you oh was that Mr Miss Clemens Sorry Miss Clemens was the was the motion sorry okay and any discussion Mr Brown thank you madam chair I have to ask yeah is does this 800,000 represent

101the entire amount that we're paying or is this only a portion of the amount we're paying for the fiscal year this represents a portion of the amount we're actually paying for the school year and actually relatively small portion we budget property tax revenue on 92% and so there's a gap there and then if there's a little bit of change from the actual budget we might have to fund a little bit more Miss farmer can you speak to that more specifically sure so trustees commission is based off of property tax 1% on property tax 2% on sales tax and then a flat fee of ,900 and some change a month and so what we originally had budgeted was 4.85 million and so this would be adding an additional 800,000 to it so just for context is

102this considered part of fund balance or is this a separate line item in our budget it is a line item in our budget for next year I believe the I believe the expenditure that we budgeted was 5.1 million so I just think it's important to point out and this is not intended to be a criticism of anyone or anything but it's I think it's important in the context of budget discussions to point out that nearly $5 million of our budget is paid back to County government that's correct thank you thank you Mr galberth yeah thank you and Rachel is the so that formula is it is it mandated by the state that how that calculation was supposed to go it is a state formula that was put into place I'm guessing at least 20 25

103years ago okay so everybody everybody does this the same way or is there some other departments with County also do it the same way and other counties in the state would do it the same way they do it similarly or the or the same or the exact same formula since it is a state formula I would assume that they are using the same formula but the other departments within the county use the same formula I do know that sounds good okay thank you Mr Cash thank you madam chair my question goes along with the Josh and Jay it seems ridiculous to be paying out this kind of money to trustees and paying the county back I wish our County Commissioners wasn't a left but maybe that's something we could work on with our state legislature

104and the County Commission thank you for that we'll make sure that that we have a discussion with County government about that and and do that okay thank you if there are no further comments Mr Golden will take your recommendation I do recommend approval okay thank you board members let's cast our votes the vote is 11 yes Z no thank you motion passed to approve the general purpose School fund resolution for trustee Commission in the amount of $800,000 next item is the approval of the general purpose School fund resolution Esco payment in the amount of 1.41 92232 thank you madam chair this is the annual payment for the energy audit guaranteed savings for the for the Capital Improvements we did to to our buildings from lighting to to water to HVAC and I have to mention

105that we are coming out ahead on that so this is paying for itself based on that energy audit that's great thank you do we have a motion thank you Mr Cash do we have a second Mr Pria thanks any discussion on this okay board members let's cast our votes do recommend approval oh thank you the vote is 11 yes Z no thank you motion passed to approve the general purpose School fund resolution for the Esco payment in the amount of 1.14 million 92232 next item is the approval of the general purpose School fund resolution for additional Insurance expenses in the amount of $800,000 thank you madam chair this is the another end of the year request to cover the insurance items in there liability excess res risk workers comp and billing in Contents some of

106those predictable charges okay thank you do we have a motion Mr Welch thank you in a second Mr Brown thanks any comments okay Mr Golden do recommend approval thank you board members let's cast our votes the vote is 11 yes Z no thank you we just approved the additional Insurance expense in the amount of $800,000 next item is additional operational expense in the amount of $200,000 thank you madam chair as as stated there this is a request to to finish this budget year based on our projections of custodial work the work that our finance department has done is has established that we need about 200,000 out of fund balance to cover the final amount for the total janitorial work okay do we have a motion Miss Apria thank you do we have a second Mr

107Beasley thank you any comments or questions okay Mr Gold have thank you board members let's cast our votes Rachel keeping us busy tonight the vote is 11 yes Zer no thank you board members almost done that was the approval for operational expenses in the amount of $200,000 last item under budget is the extended school program expenses of 263,000 balance to the appropriate lines based on salaries okay super okay board members do we have a motion Miss Apria thank you in a second Miss Cleveland thank you any comments or questions on this one okay board members let's cast our votes after Mr Golden gives his recommendation recommend approval thank you the vote is 11 yes Z no thank you that was approval of additional extended school Pro school program expenses in the amount of 263,000 we've

108had a library materials policy in place for years that set up a structure to establish our standards for library and also a process by which U someone could request a reconsideration the state law has recently changed and this proposal reflects that change so did want to mention that Miss Lisa Carson is here she participated with you all at the policy committee meeting given advice on on the changes related to this certainly open any questions you may have okay thank you do we have a motion Mr Cash thank you do we have a second thank you Mr Brown we'll open the floor for discussion Mr Wimberly I think the policy before us is Impractical perhaps even impossible I mean first of all you can't help but ask why this is even been required by the state

109since we vet the library books with our professionals and they consider age appropriateness when they do that and we've been advised that the law is constitutionally suspect but for a moment let's park all of that the proposed policy states that we will review 15% of our library books or materials let's call them titles in our libraries each year and on the surface that kind of sounds doable but consider this there are 600,000 titles in our libraries across the district 600,000 of them so 15% of 600,000 books means 990,000 titles each year we have 50 some 50 libraries in the system so on average that 1,800 pieces of material reviewed per Library per year by Librarians who already have full plates I don't know how long it will take to do a review but just for

110the sake of Rick's math let's assume 15 minutes that's 27,000 minutes or 450 hours a 10-month contract for our employees would have some $1,500 hours in it so this policy as it's written would require the Librarians to spend 30% on average of their time on conducting these reviews now granted I've done some averaging and summer estimates but you can double what I've said or cut it in half you know the point Remains the Same and that's one piece and then there's another piece if someone wants to challenge a book or some material in the library per the state law th our policy school board members must read and review those materials within and make a decision about whether or not their age appropriate based on the new law within days that too sounds doable but

111what if the board gets multiple challenges or has multiple challenges at work how at one time what if it happens during zoning or during budget time so how is a board going to be able to meet this standard within 60 days we can't implement this policy without sacrificing other things and the reality is a lot of the things that we're required to do are required by state law which we can't sacrifice we already have a tough budget this is going to make the budget even tougher you have to wonder if the legislature did the math and it doesn't look like it to me I'm going to vote for the resolution tonight because it's first reading but I have a hard time getting comfortable with us implementing this policy or any policy that's simply not practical

112it can't be done as it's written so I suggest two things one have our attorneys and our policy committee look at it again and take in consideration the workload issues and the cost of doing this maybe something could be changed also our association tsba is working on a suggested policy and I suggest we work with them collaborate and find out what they recommend because certainly we're not the only ones in the state who can do the math here and yes there's no doubt about it we need age appropriate books in our libraries and classrooms of course we do and yes we need to look at how we are making those decisions what we can do to make it better but we don't need to pass a policy that we can't do thank you thank you

113Mr Haw thank you madam chair I share many of the misgivings that Mr Wimberly mentioned I also want to reiterate a few of the things that we discussed in the work session I think that I like the policy better when it started with a statement of principles addressing the First Amendment and academic freedom I think that we do need to start there rather than having a policy that is focused on removing materials I understand that we do need to have a policy by law in place I just am very concerned about much of the language in this and I do feel as discussed on Thursday this does not effectively accomplish it stated goal of addressing age appropriateness I think that this casts everything into the same pot and does not make the distinctions that it

114seemed to be intended to or maybe maybe that wasn't the intent and we're being sold to biller Goods with this legislation I do appreciate the work of the policy Committee in trying to make the best of a challenging situation with this I think the decision tree is effective and is a good tool to work from I'm on just not there on this policy thank you thank you Mr GTH thank you Madam chair I just want to I guess the I think I share I share some of the concerns with especially around the 15% I think we should should hopefully be able to to find a better way to manage that across make sure that nobody's reviewing the same titles across the across the district and making the most use of everybody's time but and the

115fact that we have to have this policy in place by by July 1 which is kind of the urgency here but U but I want to thank Dana and Lisa and everybody who who helped developed the flowchart the I don't even know what we're calling it I don't have the policy in front of me but the flowchart that we that we're using the decision tree thank you was I think it's really well done in terms of just showing that we're addressing all of the First Amendment and Federal statutes and federal case law that's that's been going on and also using the same same process to flow through all the state law to that's there it does it does require a bit of a bit of duplication I think we talked about that in terms of

116your reviewing kind of age appropriateness maybe twice during the process but under a different standard so I really appreciate all the work that's gone in I think that'll serve us well regardless of how much kind of edits that we have to make I think those are I think that's a really good framework that we'll that we'll be able to kind of carry through the wording of the policy I get and we always make some Wordsmith changes as we as we go to Second reading but but I really like the like where we've come it's it's it's a far cry from from the lack of direction that we were that we were faced when we were sitting in committee trying to trying to assess this in last year so I really appreciate the help thank you

117Miss Clemens thank you madam chair I just wanted to comment a couple things I think Mr wiberly and I probably be going down to the state delegation I'm trying to talk our state lawmakers into working with us on some things but as far as the 15% review I think that is is a tall order one of the things I would like to see is some transparency and that and so that the community knows what is being reviewed and we can we need to make that accessible to our community also along the same lines I think I had spoken at as at the work session and I just want to reiterate that I think we need to have because we have 51 different Librarians 52 different librarians making all different decisions on these books and they

118might come up to different one different decisions about the same book I think we need someone at central office for organization of this policy and oversight of this policy so I really I don't need think we need to add a new person but I think there's some branches that we already have that can take this over and help oversee that finally I I wasn't going to bring this up unless it was discussion on this but on the decision tree I had a question on question 8 it talks about is the material age AG appropriate for the age maturity levels and at the very end of that question 8 it says and how the material Compares with material consumed by students outside of the school where did we get that standard is that in the state

119law where did we find this standard to compare what they're being exposed to outside of the school I don't know who thank you Miss Carson's going to come up and address that question thank you thank you the state statute is not the only consideration in determining age appropriateness as as you know as I mentioned I think at the policy committee meeting there are certain things in the state statute that leave the board with no discretion as to what's age appropriate they Define certain things that kind of take away the local community standard but there are also things such as let's say you had a particular text at or particular book at the elementary school level that was full of profanity the state law doesn't have an abolute prohibition on that so then you would have

120to use your discretion and weigh those things and so question eight when you're weighing age appropriateness you have those mandatory things that are in the state statute but we still also need to incorporate the age appropriateness criteria that have been in constitutional law since the 70s and one of the things that's included are what would you expect an ordinary child in this age group in this grade band to be exposed to in in the world and that doesn't mean of course those standards were set before you know every kid had a phone where they could access all kinds of things but what that's directed toward is what would a reasonable parent allow their child to have access to you know if they took them to the Community Library if they took them to the bookstore

121that kind of thing so that's where that comes from is actual constitutional law and it's just one more factor in those areas where the board has discretion to bring into play okay I'm I'm not a big fan of that one because I think it sets the bar pretty low just because this is our library but but we can dig into more of that a policy and thank you if I may mention we do have a Grade B coordinators for Library Elementary and secondary central office folks who work together along with the library leads at each each of the three grade bands we'll make sure we have that discussion about the possibility of just one one person but I just again just wanted to make sure everybody knew that we do have that team with some

122central office support okay thank you Mr Welch thank you Rick I appreciate bring up the point about in the policy the 15% the 60 days and your question what if we get multiple challenge well it's not a what we have had multiple challenge simultaneously in fact I think the most recent one was five books at the same time and I'm GNA ask if either Miss Dickerson or or Jay I know you were on that if if one of you might remind us how long did it take you to go through those five books ballpark I mean it took us I guess probably October to Jan it probably about it was probably two or three months two three months Five Books Okay thank you it didn't take us that long no sure and granted there was

123we read them and then we and then we met but conversation alysis and discussion what we do we can do five in that time I want to point out we've had a group that's already submitted a list to us of 118 books that they disagree with in the library that exists so I don't know if you can get through and this these are high school level novels if you can get through 118 books in 60 days and read it critically and understand to a point where you can make an evaluation you're certainly a quicker reader than than I am so I I think that's flawed in in the policy to have that in there it sets an impossible standard at the same time I understand why because how do you make decision to remove a

124book that you haven't even read so it's it's it's an impossible position that they have and also to Echo what what others have said Thank you to the policy committee that's done the work on this thank you to our legal staff that have have been given this fist task to to roll the boulder up the hill and give us a policy where or something like that is impossible real quick I want to read a few passages this is from a book that I got out of one of our high school libraries it's been there for about 50 years never had any complaints on it and just going to read a handful of passages out of it and I want you to sort of think about would this pass the criteria that we've now been giving

125so he wondered if he had gone mad naked chain Shackled he woke on his back between two other men in a pitch Darkness full of steamy heat sickening stink and a nightmare bedum of shrieking weeping praying and vomiting he could feel and smell his own vomit on his chest and belly his whole body was one spasm of pain from the beating he had received in the four days since his capture but the place where the hot iron had been put between his shoulders hurt the worst a sudden chorus of cries brought the chained men jerking up children came running naked and without chains from behind the barricade heading to gritting tubab with whips toe Bob is word for white people he instantly recognized the girls who have been brought on board with him as with

126flooding rage he watched all the tuob Ling at their nakedness some of them even rubbing their photos photos is a word that means penises by sheer force of will he fought the urge to go and lunge at the nearest toe Bob despite their weapons hands clutched and fists he sacked sucked hard for air to keep breathing wrenching his eyes away from the terrified women the toe B the cloth were yelling and pointing toward the water turning that direction the naked people saw the girl bobbing in the waves and not far away a pair of dark fins coursing swiftly toward her then came another scream a blood Shilling one then a frothing and thrashing and she was dragged from sight leaving only a redness in the water where she had been maybe two more I won't

127just point and these are not the worst of them most of the men's backs were bared and glistening with sweat his eyes searched for any of The Branding marks such as his back boore but he saw only the scars that had been left by whips standing before him the bleeding one began making guestures he pointed to his genitals then to the hunting knife and his belt then he pointed to his foot and then to the ax and his belt when he understood he howled and kicked and was clubbed again deep in his marrow a voice shouted that a man that a man to be a man must have sons and His Hands flew down to cover his his you know just photo two were wickedly grinning and then it goes on to about chopping off

128his his foot in half to hobble this person there's also copious amounts of racial slurs in here including the N word I didn't want to say those but that's in here and there's there's much worse quotes there's sexual assults there's rapes what have you when we read this out of context there's some hard sentences in here so I ask us judging by the criteria that we have in the policy and I don't know maybe we could pull that up real quick and see those four from the state law how do we not pull this book out there out of the of libraries it's been there for 50 years no complaints but how do we not based on this criteria this book is roots that I've been reading from was published in 1976 New York Times

129bestseller list 50 weeks won the P surprise in 1977 there's an eight episode miniseries on on it that became the most watched miniseries in the history of Television it's it's I guess it's number three still and I think those of us from a certain generation now it had an impact on society like almost nothing else it shaped the way we viewed race Rel race relations public policy how we dealt with one another it's it's it's a cultural behemoth I chose this one in particular not because it you know I saidwell it has the hardest language or have you I chose it because this year this also became an official state book of Tennessee our legislature passed that bill in fact it was Gino BSO who was the co-sponsor of the bill and I think he

130was right for doing it who named this an official state book of Tennessee the secretary of state of Tennessee is mandated to have this book listed in the state Blue Book Lamar Ander at Lamar alander former governor of Tennessee and Senator but before that he was also the president of the University of Tennessee and he was the Secretary of Education of President Bush so he has a education background he spoke at Alex Haley's funeral author of this book and based upon this book described Alex Haley as God's Storyteller so putting all that in context I ask you how can we pull this out of the library I'm say the quiet part out loud if we take it out we're going to get sued and we're going to lose and if we don't take it out

131we're going to get sued this is an impossible task that we have been placed upon us it's a task that we should not have this is an anti-intellectual law it is anti-education it is terrible law and it was snuck through late at night as we talked about in our work session it was not debated openly and with comments it was push I talked to a member of our legislature and asked about them voting on this and they said I hadn't realized I did because it was put on the consent agenda and so I don't know I don't have a solution with it's it's I'm voting against it just out of principle because it's it's bad policy it's bad for kids it's bad law and I say that also again I want to emphasize with with

132full respect and appre iation for our legal team and policy committees that has has tried to Cobble something together out of this pile of crap that we've been given by the state legislature to to put it won't stand but hopefully it's not us that get sued this time it'll be someone else who who takes the hit we've had enough of these thank you thank you Mr Welch Mr Brown oh sorry that's a good question on that book what M Miss car Miss Carson that's a good question that we could ask Lisa whenever we get that okay do it now if you want you want to do it right now yeah Miss Carson can you come address that question how do we how do we keep he's asking if we could go ahead and have Miss

133Carson address Eric's question yeah so that's a that's a challenging question because one of the things that I've really struggled with is I can write a policy in a vacuum that I think is constitutional that's not to say I think it's necessarily good policy but it complies with state law and it complies with federal law but the as applied is exactly what plagues me and keeps me awake because I think that Mr Welch is correct under the plain language of the state law Roots would be excluded so my suggestion and I'm getting way ahead of myself here but since you've asked the question I think it's appropriate to share with this board after doing a lot of research on this I don't think you have standing as a board to just challenge the law or

134ask a court to tell us what the law means as it stands now I just don't y'all know we've we've argued standing in in Reverse in in many cases and usually been successful although not always but I think we would run into those same problems but if you have an as applied challenge if you got a challenge to A Book Like Roots after adopting this policy I think there are a couple of avenues you could take and one is that Tennessee state law allows you to ask an agency that's charged with enforcing a law for an interpretation of that law and so my contention would be if you get a request to remove something like roots or something like an art book with a photograph of the David which also would fall outside the provisions

135of this policy then I think as a board you could make a request for a declaratory order from the state textbook commission and I know I'm not saying the full name because they've changed it but you know what I'm talking about this the commission that now is also in charge of library books and ask them to to tell us what does this law mean does it really mean what it says because if it means what it says the if it means what it says the only way you can comply with it without violating the first amendment is virtually to shut down your libraries or to remove hundreds of books from them and I hear what Mr Wimberly is saying as well just about the burden on Librarians and I but what the state law says

136is you have to have some process for continuous review so we can certainly look at the percentage but you've got to have some process but but my thinking is the best that I can come up with after really agonizing over trying to find a solution for y'all because this is an extremely difficult situation is if you get that kind of challenge where it's a book that clearly is a history book is a book with historical or artistic or scientific value and you feel like we're either going to violate the state law or we're going to violate the Federal Constitution then you can make that request of the state agency and if the state agency declines to take it up you have the right to file a declaratory judgment action at that point in time and

137so unfortunately it's not very satisfactory to have to basically adopt a policy that some of you find distasteful that others of you aren't sure works or doesn't work but I think that's the only way to get there because as I've talked about before we have an obligation to presume the state law is constitutional we also have an obligation though as a government body to apply it in a constitutional manner if there is a constitutional way to apply it and so that's the best recommendation I can come up with about how to do that when and if you're faced with that and I shouldn't even say if but it's going to be when I there's not there's not much question I don't think that there's going to be a challenge that you're going to be in

138that quandry but I think I think that at that point there is an Avenue for you under the state law as it as it currently exists and will exist on Ju 1st to make that request and it wouldn't be a constitutional challenge to the statute it would be a request to the agency to the state agency about tell us what it means the other thing about the volume issue is one thing the new statute does say is if you don't get to it in 60 days the individual who raised the objection can take it to the state textbook commission so there is a remedy for them if the board can't read 700 books that are the subject of an objection in July there you thank you Mr Brown thank you madam chair and I'm sympathetic

139to some of the concerns that have been expressed and I guess there's two things that are true one is that this is going to be difficult to implement that's the understatement of the year but it's also required to be in place by July 1 we heard that at the work session last week that from our Council so it's seems to me that I would we would be wise to think about whether we should be tearing this policy apart over the next 30 days when we really have only one meeting left before July 1st and maybe the better course of action would be to move it through and make make minor some minitor changes possibly at the next policy committee meeting and then maybe if we want to make changes Beyond July 1 we can make

140them as we go if we learn more about the implementation of the law if we if we observe things that are happening in the courts make changes as we go but rather than not have some run the risk of not having something in place that's solid because as people have said there's a lot of good work that's been done on this we spent probably what an hour and a half close to an hour and a half at the policy committee meeting going through to create this or to work through it as it had been created with all the things Rick that you mentioned being contemplated just the difficulty of volume and everything else I just wouldn't want to see us undo all of that when we know we have to have something in place by

141July 1st and we have a limited amount of time to do it and I just would say too I don't as much as we can find flaws in this law I don't think it really is beneficial to spend a lot of time debating the state law because we really can't do anything about it so I just say we we have what we have let's do our best to make it work and recognize the challenges that we're going to face thank you Mr Wimberly before I say anything else just let me say thank you policy committee thank you attorneys for what you've done the truth is when I first saw it I said you know what it's not perfect but we're not dealing with a perfect situation until I did the math and then but I

142think that one of the things that we need to do is we need to be able we need to communicate to the state as a board the we don't have to get into the legal challenges but the implementation challenges that we face with Implement with with with this policy and perhaps pass a resolution because no we can't change it now but there's little doubt in my mind that this is going to be a Hot Topic on the legislators plates when the new session begins so perhaps we should officially have some input into that although I'm not quite sure what the resolution would say myself but you know maybe at some point around the time the policy is imple implemented if it does pass we should officially express our concerns while appreciating the intent of the

143law is to make sure that the libraries serve our students with age appropriateness but to to cause some some thought about how this can be done practically speaking around the state thank you thank you Mr Cash thank you madam chair and thanks for letting me sorry I interrupted but I thought it was a great time for Miss Carson to answer Mr Welch's question and all good questions and I'm concerned with with some of these these books like Roots books that have a his historical background how they're how we're going to handle that and the law is pretty explicit they it's it's yes or no but I and I I go along with Rick too on how we're going to get this done but you know our Librarians are the only people that can remove a

144book without any any problem and I think we need to look at ways to find out some of those these books that are vetted supposed you know they're all supposed to be vetted there's plenty of books in the libraries that folks know are not going to pass muster on this law or there's many books in the libraries like Mr Welch just presented Roots Holocaust there's all kinds of them that can be tagged cuz I mean most most Librarians know which ones are going to be disruptive with this law but and then get a get in touch with the state like Miss Carson was saying and say hey we've got a group of books that are very historical and tell them what's going on and maybe that's how we get this how we tweak this law

145instead of instead of getting all crazy about all this stuff in a policy which you know we've got the law and we got a beginning policy and I think it's it's halfway decent right now but we can tweak this and we can tweak it after we put it into effect but we can pick this apart we can look at worst case scenarios we can look at a scenario just like Mr Welch brought up and it shouldn't take a lot of time because people know what's in those books that would be an age appropriate book for something like 10th grade it's just like the Holocaust I don't believe we teach the Holocaust until they're in high school because it's not age appropriate but this whole law stems from not just Williamson County it stems from the

146whole state there are books that are in the libraries that should not be in the in the hands of children and that's why it's here and we had the law come out a few years ago and we didn't know what the heck to do with it now we got some strict rules and we don't know what to do with that so we're just going to have to work our way through this and work together on this because there's everyone that spoke tonight has a good point and we just need to keep that in mind and make this work thank you thank you Mr Beasley thank you madam chair so I just want to thank like the policy committee for putting in all this hard work that we have had so far a lot of what

147I've heard for the last 2 years is that we've been looking for age appropriateness books and content the policy that we have before us we have some of the greatest County attorneys that we would want in Tennessee and they put a lot of effort in work into this so we didn't have anything and now we have something so often times we get to the work sessions and we bring these policies to the work sessions and we get a lot of board members that want to strike through a lot of things in the policy okay so what I'm proposing is that some of the board members actually come to the policy meeting there's a lot of beautiful work that happens during those policy meetings and so if we can get your input on the front end

148of it then maybe just maybe we can be more proactive when it comes time to voting for the policy and we have something better that we can have so I'm just asking for you guys to come to the policy meeting and bring your input there and I think we can move forward a lot faster just like Mr Brown said we have until July 1 to get this done so and that keep us out of litigation so that's all I have thank you Mr Beasley why are you looking at me if I'm in town I'll be there it's good all right Mr Golden do you have any followup thank you madam chair I do want to mention a little bit of the evolution of of of the process we've been going through and things that have

149been happening at the state in this context over the course of the last few years with a lot of discussions related to library books there's a lot more information out there for members of the public and for parents I encourage parents to pull up our website pull up the specific even even down to the teacher level items that are that are in our libraries both in our physical libraries and in our teacher classrooms and have those conversations with your Librarians and and with the teachers then we've had some of that but I just it f i felt like it's was important for us to send that reminder out to folks if I'm not mistaken Miss Carson this policy is a little bit different from some of the old policies in that the challengers include parents

150and staff members is that correct parents staff members and students parents staff members and students so it's those three it's those three entities that have the capacity to challenge U that's different from the older versions so just as a reminder of that as well if there's no other comments I do recommend approval for you all so that we can get this to Second reading before the July 1st deadline okay all right thank you for the discussion board members we can move to vote the vote is nine yes two no thank you the motion did pass to move this policy forward to Second reading and that is the library materials for with the new statutory amendments thank you so much board members for your engagement tonight and this meeting is adjourned thank you