001good evening much of the chagrin of both parents and board members alike there are no defined thresholds or metrics for decisions on mass masking as such we really need to default to the reason for the mass mandate that was assigned back in august that children were too young to be vaccinated parents at this point deserve a reasonable opportunity to have our kids vaccinated in that age group before the mass mandate ends wonderful story that as of november 5th our kids can be vaccinated it's a five-week cycle though let's keep that in mind until that five-week cycle is complete they are not fully vaccinated so reasonable compromise is an order at this point what i'd like to suggest is that any child who begins his her vaccination schedule by december the first will be fully vaccinated
002by the start of the second semester so the goal tonight let's keep the mass mandate through the end of this first semester and start the second semester annual give our students please give our students and our parents a reasonable opportunity to get our kids fully vaccinated before the mass mandate ends thank you our next four speakers natalie showalter kate keese sharon kinser and ravita rachman this is going to be gruesome sorry this is homegoing by yaga c and it's on the savas recommended list in multiple high schools like my heart is beating so fast and i'm going to blush when the men started to harass willie a female character she spit we are we are not muting the feed here folks please go ahead next speaker kate keys hi everybody my name is kate keiss
003i have one child at brentwood high and my oldest graduated from there in may first i want to thank superintendent golden and all of you board members for all that you do and for engaging fostering healthy solutions and for your serious consideration of the best way to implement some of their suggestions it seems to me that the work of fostering healthy solutions is like preparing for thanksgiving dinner we want to make sure that everyone is considered that everyone has a place and that everyone feels welcome i've taken several courses through my church over the last year and a half exploring our country's history and legacy there's much i didn't know and at times it's been uncomfortable to learn we have come to believe that we should avoid discomfort but discomfort is how we grow taking
004the steps outlined in the plan from fostering healthy solutions may be uncomfortable and we will learn where to add another chair and how to make a new dish to welcome another person at the table because there is enough time and we are always better when more of us are gathered and welcome sharon kinzer hey good evening thank you for letting me speak my name is sharon kinser i'm a native middle tennessean i'm going to be reading a excerpt from the from the book crank by ellen hopkins she has several inappropriate books that are found in multiple williamson county high school libraries this particular one i've got a reading sample from crank these her books contain graphic pornography violent sex and drug abuse just relax you'll love it my brand new victoria's secret shredded and i
005felt here is ravita rotman sorry i wanted to talk to the board today one of the things that concerns me is the issues that we continue to have when a little white girl feels bad about being white our legislators in the world moves for her laws are generated credibility and trust in teachers is removed but what about the kids of color who experience discomfort do they matter at the last meeting i reported four incidents of kids i know that had been called the n-word on the school bus since the last meeting one wilco has been made aware of more situations and students feeling unsafe and unprotected one was racial bullying from an elementary school where a parent removed their child another elementary kid was called a slur and their friend reported it and finally a
006kid was called in middle school was called the n-word by someone he didn't know school board please continue to have these conversations and find solutions for a safe district for all of our students be the example on doing what's right we're all in this together but in these situations the schools were proactive in getting one school was proactive and getting involved and the others not so much thank you our next four speakers are christy bittinger maya neely mike proctor and kristen mckinney go ahead ready sure i'm the little person i guess good evening i am christy bittinger i am a mother to a fifth grader at edmondson elementary and part of one wilco in 2019 i read the story of the two sunset middle school teachers that had an assignment where students were asked imagine
007you were a slave owner i had to read the story a couple times and still couldn't believe what i was reading then to learn recently that the same school also had a white students forming a wall preventing black students from passing it gave me a wake-up call to do a deeper dive into the multiple examples of hate racism violence minority students in williamson county schools students have faced this past summer i participated in the fostering healthy solutions listening session and heard multiple stories of racism aimed at our students the problem this problem is touching every one of our communities black hispanic aap pi queer and muslim when coming when superintendent golden and the entire board came together and brought in fostering healthy solutions okay thank you maya neely good evening my name is maya neely
008and i'm a pediatric hospitalist and a mother of children in williamson county and i want to thank you first for your hard work i know that we are navigating through very difficult times the cdc and other tracking websites still show that we have substantial spread of covid within williamson county and just over the past two weeks student cases within our county have approximately tripled from 24 to 74. at a time when vaccines are just becoming available for elementary school children the winter season is upon us requiring us to spend more time indoors and there are back-to-back holidays with people traveling out of our community to be with family and friends it feels like any decision to withdraw the mass mandate would be premature each person has their own individual risk comfort but you all have
009been tasked with thinking about what risk you want your entire community to accept and not only the healthy children within it but the ones who have underlying conditions younger siblings and family members sick with cancer at home i ask that you please continue to consider that as you make your decision today thank you time mike proctor good evening congratulations on cutting the feeds of everybody that's actually trying to present some truth here tonight it's very very nicely done this is from tricks another book found in multiple williamson county school libraries quote i met more than one pervert but i never let them do me nope since you guys won't be able to go back and watch the replay of this i've created handouts for you all of everything which contains way more than what's in
010here you can also go to kbezy.com and you can see all of this as i begin cataloging it the glass castle by jeanette walls is on the savas recommended reading list it's also one of the three books a teacher can trade out to teach in the classroom it's in multiple high school libraries including 29 copies at summit which 27 of them are in an english language classroom how about this mom uncle stanley's behaving inappropriately i said oh you're probably imagining it she said he groped me and he's wanking off our next speaker is megan heim continuing in that vein traffic is the sequel to tricks another book by ellen hopkins seems to be a favorite author in our high schools this is in multiple high school libraries speakers is adrian king daniel hemerly heimerle jen
011baker and shannon hill my name is adrian king i'm a page middle and page high school parent i'm a proud member of the franklin high school class of 1992. i appreciate the opportunity to lend my voice in support of the district's diversity equity and inclusion initiatives it is all too easy for those who benefit from inequity to fail to make equity for all a priority our children will be entering a global workforce and will need an empathetic understanding of dei i strongly and proudly support a public school system administration that is willing to teach what children need to know to become contributing members of a global society as a school system i understand the expert opinion on dei was requested and received please now follow the recommendations of the experts not the opinions of uninformed
012parents who believe they somehow benefit from the current lack of dei initiatives thank you daniel heimerle yeah thank you i just wanted to share personal experiences related to the vaccine mandate i think i was hoping that we could get together today and actually celebrate the lack of that and i guess that's not going to be the case but what we hear as parents is that we should be okay with a vaccine vaccine mandate because they exist already and i was having a conversation with a i was gay public health expert maybe we would call them and they were you know explained to me that you know kids get sick from coba there were 63 000 hospitalization from covid last year and i think the thing that they leave out is that there were nine million
013others for other respiratory issues in that covent is actually not even on the top 10 list of hospitalizations for young children and it kind of begs the question all right if the flu vaccine for example the cdc says they're actually our kids are safer if we actually mandate the flu vaccine versus the covet vaccine actually have a significantly higher impact on the hospitalizations time okay thank you jen baker so i've got another book called later greater it's another one by lauren miracle and it is in multiple high school libraries if you have seriously take it out our next speaker is shannon hill leaving masks do not work those of you that have continually voted for this mandate have been using our kids as pawns in your political agenda the insanity needs to stop i hope
014recommendations for mr gold investigated last thursday will be an end to this mandate for all grade levels the vaccination status of students should not be a factor in this decision the vaccine only protects yourself not others you've played these games long enough and you lied to us long enough there is no federal mandate as has been stated in numerous wcs email communications this mandate was passed by members of this board in this board alone your statements try to make parents believe your hands are tied in this in this matter while taking no responsibility for the current mandate based on your flat out lies and disregard for the truth our trust for most of you is gone you are all elected to make decisions in the best interest of our children as a whole not yourselves
015and you have failed at this time and time again stop the games stop the lies and this ridiculous mandate our last group of speakers shelby rollins julia julie nimmins and marissa diplock julie nimmins and marissa diplock please thank you very much and i considered a pleasure and an honor to be able to speak i had an opportunity last thursday night to listen to your working session you all had a very long day and an even longer evening appreciate the work i also heard a great deal about the rapidly and staggering increase in mental health issues facing children in our district i also heard concern about the ability to find enough school psychologists to come in and help with this issue what i did not hear and what i hope you will consider isn't is taking
016some time out and getting to the root of the issue instead of just trying to treat it only please do some work take some time find out what is the basis of these issues why are these children suffering because unless we can get and unless you do get to the root of these issues they will only continue and just throwing other help won't solve the problem our last speaker is marissa diplock in a matter of weeks you the board will be bestowed the task of making the final decision on the outcome of the whitten wisdom reconsideration as you know upon the panel's announcement we will have 15 days to submit an appeal to you if we find the outcomes unfavorable i'm here to ask you the board to take steps to fix an issue of
017this issues with this entire process only one board member on this board can truly understand or comprehend the issues as only one member of this board actually sat on the panel upon the panel's announcement i asked you to arrange a meeting with all plaintiffs together with yourselves so that we can have an open discussion asking questions and listening to answers without this kind of communication you do not have enough information to make an informed judgment on these findings this process was lacking on so many fronts again i asked you the board to meet us in the middle face to face let's do this let's make this happen and show that you actually care thank you that concludes our public comment for tonight we're going to take a quick five-minute break so that those folks who
018want to leave can go leave and then we'll move on with the rest of our business at least thank you board members we'll move to our next item on the agenda which is the approval of the agenda do i have a motion to approve mr welch makes the motion to approve is there a second mr galbraith makes the second any discussion i see no discussion board members please cast your votes mr mitchell how do you vote in favor of the agenda vote for the agenda she i think we need to keep going i'm sorry did you not hear me yes we did thank you mr mitchell mr king i just know we would just show him absent for this one motion yeah i can put him your vote is 11 yes zero no thank you
019board members the next item on the agenda is the approval of the consent agenda we have a motion to approve mr welch makes the motion mr brown makes the second board members any discussion if not please cast your votes mr mitchell how do you vote yes mr wembley your vote's still in process your vote is 12 yes zero now thank you board members with that vote you approve the october 18 2021 school board meeting minutes you approve the recommendation for field trip fee requests you approved independence high school athletic lockers you approve approve the lea compliance report and you approve the 2021-2022 hearing officer list we now move on to the next agenda item communications to the board mr golden thank you madam chair and thank you board members for attending the work session as
020you all know we did have quite a long work session on thursday and had a lot of discussions related to a number of items of course the items on the agenda plus my superintendent's report i do want to hit and talk briefly about three items tonight one the mask requirement that currently stands with the school board i want to give you a little bit of a of a history of where we are really the most recent history related to that as you know at the work session i mentioned that i was i intended to to recommend on monday night that we eliminate the mass requirements absent something absent something extraordinary based upon that we also talked about the state bill that might have been signed by the governor at some point prior to tonight's meeting
021and that bill was signed by the governor on friday as a result of that bill the mask requirement that the board had previously voted voted on became inconsistent with state law and based upon that we issued a notice on friday to our families that we were no longer under the mask requirement over that time over the weekend there was actually a separate federal lawsuit filed against the state of tennessee we are not not a party to it but the federal judge issued an order sunday afternoon in joining the enforcement of that state law so we went from friday to the state law applying to us and no mask requirement to sunday where that state law was enjoined and we were back to your board vote which up to this point included a requirement to for
022mass through january 18th after the january meeting so as a result of that state action in that federal action we actually sent two notices out two days apart about where we are as part of that new lawsuit the federal judge held a hearing today and our litigation council actually attended that federal that federal hearing as part of that the judge today in that case against the state related to that state law announced that they were to have a hearing this coming friday on that state law and actually during that time and you may have already seen some secondary news reports some because the media members were there at the hearing the judge asked our litigation counsel to approach and they talked about our issue because the federal lawsuit against williamson county schools and franklin special
023school district as co-defendants with the state is still pending under a temporary order where the judge where the governor's executive 84 allowing for an opt-out is currently enjoined as part of that discussion we ended up having an attorney-client meeting just a few minutes ago prior to our board meeting and if i'm not mistaken miss birdsong announced to the public and posted on our live stream and on the public educational and government channel where your meetings are broadcast that there was a delay in starting this meeting because we were having that attorney client meeting as a result of that meeting our litigation council recommended that the board defer item 6a which is on our agenda the covet mitigation strategies until after further guidance from the court is received based on that friday meeting and so i
024want to make sure everyone is aware that our litigation council has recommended that and i intend to make that recommendation to you when item 6a occurs i will tell you like i told you on thursday i'm encouraged by our numbers going down i know that you all have received a request from members of the community that span the spectrum of recommendations based on their experience and their thoughts and but again our litigation council is recommended we defer until they have until there is additional information related to that hearing second i do want to talk about a curriculum review and i want to thank the folks for speaking to issues related to library books and our curriculum we do have a board policy that describes the process for requesting reconsideration of instructional materials and number one
025i want to encourage anyone who has any problem with any book to submit that request we have gone through this process a number of times over the years and i your you the board has for a number of years had that process in place and i and i asked that if if there's any question please follow it there there is in some of some of our books profanity that's sometimes there a few years ago the novel to kill a mockingbird was challenged that includes profanity that includes depictions of of bad events this process can work and so i again encourage folks to do that right now a number of our families are going through that process with written wisdom asking that written wisdom be be reconsidered and a number of books are specifically challenged we
026have on our website in our ela web page a lot of information related to that we have every book listed that's being reconsidered we have a timeline related to that process and we have some frequently asked questions i encourage folks to go to our academics tab scroll down to english language arts and that information is there as part of that the review committee place that timeline there and the last date entry on the timeline was november 10th which included a continuing review of fourth quarter materials as you know from our work session the committee anticipates that within the next few weeks they will provide you that their conclusions either anyone challenging that or anyone interested that can appeal their decision within 15 days and then it is to be reviewed by you aboard at the
027next meeting and again we went through the details of that at the work session so we do look forward to receiving some some detailed decisions from that committee in in the next few days it is very important for us to do right by all our students and we know that individuals can differ on what that means and how that is handled because of that we have that structure in place that has parent representation teacher representation for our from our education association board representation and representation from from an administrator at that grade level as part of that however ultimately you all as the board are the final decision maker on that so i do want to remind you to expect that in in the next coming meeting finally i do want to mention a third item
028that we discussed in on at our thursday meeting like so many other employers in middle tennessee we have a number of positions that are not filled we have staffing challenges we spoke to specific challenges related to teachers teachers assistants cafeteria workers etc i want to thank those folks who are volunteering i know some of you have volunteered in the cafeteria to help out and we know that middle tennessee is a growing place where people want to be we've experienced that here with growth here in williamson county schools and i want to continue to do that call out for those of you who want to work in in our in in the school system and help what we have heard is that there are a number of folks who prior to covet didn't really have to
029work but chose to and many of those have left the workforce because of covet and might not have come back if you're in that position and want to do some good work we invite you to come back and come back for williamson county schools as part of our planning we are currently brainstorming over some interventions we can do to help improve our staffing based on market conditions i anticipate that in january we'll have some recommendations for you as a result of that for for new teachers we do have hard to fill signing bonuses et cetera but right now especially with teachers every school system in middle tennessee is struggling and trying to brainstorm ways to to to to attract teachers when we have a limited pool of teachers so that continues to be a challenge
030for us with all that said madam chair i've certainly opened any questions the next sub item on the agenda is carol birdsong with our student staff and spotlights okay mr mr golden miss birdsong before i do think there are some questions about your report would you like to address these now or sure i think that'd be appropriate okay mr cash thank you madam chair mr golden we have had complaint after complaint on these texts and books that are in the schools high schools middle schools i have spoken to mr allen and according to him he has looked at some of them and pulled some of them this is and i hope you get a copy of this mr allen and miss webb these are more books this is this isn't follow language i mean this
031is getting getting into it pretty deep i mean what what are we i'm sorry board member there's distractions in the audience go ahead mr cash what are we teaching what are we you know teaching i had a gentleman confront me the other day he said i took my child's chromebook and went through the whole thing and this a middle schooler he said 50 percent are video games i know there's protections on our computers big time but when you can go to the library and check out a book this is ridiculous this is ridiculous and the policy that we're using for witten wisdom takes way too long the books the books that are in question the staff and everyone else knew about them last year they were told about them they were listed i was even
032told in one instance i believe the river between us that talks about prostitution in fifth grade we were just wanted to make sure it was historically correct to talk about prostitution one of the oldest professions known to man what what are we doing why are we teaching this stuff we're teaching stuff to children that don't understand cannot understand the breeding of seahorses for crying out loud that was just the other day you know going over the 1964 civil rights act and the things that changed our nation then that people have worked so hard to do in teaching second graders they can't things they can't understand third grade what about george versus george hatchet all of them everything in these books is dark and negative we are pumping negativism in these elementary kids and now there's
033a whole other group out there showing us not not asking us to look this stuff up but showing us where it's at and nothing can be done i'm i'm you know i just don't know what to do i just don't know what to do and i mean we can put a motion on the floor that we investigate this but you're just you're going to tell us just to go to policy this is taking way much way too much time and teachers i i apologize to teachers because this just falls right in their laps on everything we talk about teachers being depressed i would be depressed with what they have to do and what they have to go through i just want to make sure these copies get around there if you will but something's got
034to happen a little bit quicker a little bit faster so folks know what to do pull their kids out of the schools or whatever thank you miss cleveland thanks thank you mr cash thank you mr cash obscenity is not appropriate in schools we you spoke to two items as i as i understood your comments the question of obscenity and then a second and then a second question related to witten wisdom i spoke to the process of witten wisdom i will tell you that when we talk about the work of teachers they do an incredible job they are professionally trained in their college classes they are professionally trained on issues related to obscenity that's part of what they learn in college and so i again thank you for the for mentioning the list we will make
035sure our staff looks at that there but again i do want to emphasize anytime a parent has a concern about a book submit the request we do through our professionals eliminate and make decisions on books but we also encourage parents to do the same thing and submit those to us miss cleveland and audience may i remind you there's no speaking out during this period of time thank you miss cleveland thank you madam chair i understand that we have a process for curriculum and for reconsideration and the process does take long based on our policy but what about the library books because library books aren't part of the educational process and so personally i don't think that should follow a policy route because it's just it's a library book it's not in the kids curriculum or
036their education so is it is it is there a faster way we can get event library books to get out versus because it's not something that they're thank you for that number one our librarians and our instructional staff do make decisions when they when they purchase books there are thousands of books in the library if it is determined that there is an obscenity in there then those those are removed we actually do we actually do the same thing and we have done the same thing with the curriculum process mr cash actually mentioned one book that was actually in the whitten wisdom curriculum where our administrative staff removed it pending investigation and it was more than simply historical accuracy that they were reviewing so we have multiple routes we have our professional staff review and there
037are times where they remove particular books we also have that process for for individuals any citizen in williamson county to make a request in addition to our staff review i do think given the questions you've asked it is appropriate for us in a subsequent meeting to speak to this at a work session to give you all detail about the process we go through with with with our library books so just a clarification then not all books in the library curriculum books though correct oh that's yeah that's true the majority of library books are not part of the curriculum those are the books i'm talking about that aren't part of the curriculum that they're just there for the kids readings and on those how those are vetted and how quickly if we find something do they
038really have to go through that same long process because if we're not dealing with a curriculum we're dealing with just a book that's on the shelf that may need to be removed because it slipped past the vetting process so again our professionals have the power to remove a book whether it's in a library or within curriculum and we have done it both ways based on that professional judgment dr alan and his and his staff work with the grade level supervisors to review those items that are challenged mr galbraith thank you madam chair jason do you have any do we do we have any record or how do we how do we track if they're first have their bit have we tracked any requests for for i don't know i don't know what it's called if
039it's reconsideration of of library books or if it's just if it's more of an informal process but have the books that were read along tonight and along with the along maybe along with others have have you had any any requests for for review of those library books this year i'm not aware of any requests for reconsideration but we do have conversations from time to time with parents or grandparents or or any citizen who who ask recently we have had a review and a reference to a list of of online library books we actually post every library book the name of every of every book that we have in our libraries and so from time to time we do have questions related to that yes so because i believe and i haven't seen i haven't gone
040back through my email but i believe we got a list of of a complaint with with a number of with a number of books on it and i think the i can't remember if it was you or or or dr allen that said you know we've got you know hundreds of thousands if not millions of books in our in our library so i guess so these people have have gone through and have identified somehow they're like you said there might be on the if if the titles are online they can identify which schools the books are in but the appropriate what's the what's the appropriate way for them to to voice that complaint so step one if if they want it out it is always appropriate to submit a request for reconsideration that is always
041appropriate is that under is that under the yeah yes sir that is under the existing policy also we encourage them to speak with their principals their librarians dr allen's staff to your point you mentioned formal versus informal that is less formal and they can certainly do that and have those conversations with dr allen staff and i've gotten multiple multiple reports that the that the live stream was selectively muted as these people were reading and so i guess i just would ask for you to to review if if it happened i haven't had a chance to to look at any of the videos but i suspect we'll see some in the coming days but i will say if we are muting people and censoring the public comment of books that are in our library that's not
042a not a very good look so thank you for that just just to clarify mr galbraith i have not muted anyone from no i'm not i'm not saying i'm not saying you didn't see it's only on the live stream yeah i know i've yeah i've i've already gotten emails that are asking me about that so i want to make sure we clarified in the meeting mr brown so just to pick up on that point can we definitively answer the question as to whether that live stream was cut i'm i'm asking the mrs birdsong is walking down i'm asking the staff just one moment please audience i would love for you to be able to stay at this meeting but the next person that talks out deputies please escort them out thank you very much please
043continue mr brown one moment board members i made that decision as we were directing and we had speakers come to the podium saying that they that whatever they were going to speak was offensive we had to make that decision because we are broadcasting and we are broadcasting under fcc guidelines and i'm not going to take that risk but the county government's education access channel so i take responsibility for taking that action and there is a five second delay because we are broadcasting with fcc so oh there's not a five second no no no we there is no delay there's no delay that's why we needed it we have no way to control that if someone were to say something inappropriate so i don't know what was said but when people came up to say that
044they were saying things that were going to be inappropriate i made the decision to mute it so madam chair if i may this is the first i recall in my experience with the district where that question came up where somebody made you know notified that they were might be saying something that deserves us to review our process double check the fcc rules evaluate the difference between the written word and the spoken word and the nature of the audience is so i'll make sure that we do a review of that process with that being said though obviously board members you were able to hear all of the public comment and the public comment is for you board members as the elected officials mr cash i'm sorry no oh are you do you need to continue let
045me go back can we there you go can we also either right now or later in the meeting if it takes some research confirm whether in fact the books that are part of this packet that was handed out are actually on library shelves currently can we can we confirm that we will we will certainly do that i'll make sure that dr allen staff does that in review we do have an electronic record of all our libraries i just would say i mean i'm sure there are others but i for one would be concerned if these books were in our libraries based on what i've read in the packet and i certainly appreciate the people bringing that forward it's it's troubling to say the least and i think to jay's point if if we're going to
046make a decision to censor or mute comments that are coming directly out of books that are that we're we are putting in our library shelves we should rethink kind of our approach on that and i know you said you would so thank you thank you mr cash thank you madam chair i just wanted to i didn't really get a good answer from jason when jay asked him if they had had any correspondence about these books i will answer that and i have correspondence if anybody wants to see them it's it's out there and mr allen knows about it and he's trying to work in that area he assured me of that and so yes staff is very well aware of what's going on with these books thank you and if i made a follow-up on
047that i can't speak to any particular any particular title but but i do know that dr allen and his staff is looking and one of the focus points we have is making sure that list is available and i'm encouraged that we're getting questions related to that emphasizes that we are making sure everyone knows so i do want to thank those who who brought that up so that you know because it is important for parents to know what is available for their children i see no further discussion and with that we'll move on to the student staff and school spotlights with this birdsong thank you and thank you guys for your patience you have been waiting a long time to be honored we are going to start with our perfect a.c.t composite score students so mr
048kaidel if you will come forward this is alex wilson alex is from brentwood high school and earned a perfect composite score on the act during the october testing period all right very good you've got your paperwork there our next honoree is liam smith from centennial high school liam could not be here but we go dr dyson dr dyson will deliver that liam earned the perfect a.c.t during the september testing period and from independence high school and unfortunately no one could be here from independence but this is alexandra hazmere and scored the perfect composite act score in october from congratulations next we have ravenwood high school and lana come on up lana car taylor did i do that right lana okay great and dr baden there you go lana earned her perfect composite score in the
049september testing period turn around and get your picture made right there very good congratulations lana and chase featherling chase is not here but chase is a student at renaissance so mr bass will be sure and get that to chase and chase earned his perfect act composite score during the october testing period now we are turning to athletics and this is the knoxville high school volleyball team they are coached by brett young this is the third consecutive state title for nolansville high school and this is the first year that they earned it in 3a which is the largest division so they moved on up so congrats to nolinsville and so exciting for the first time ever in school history the page hi girls brought home the state soccer championship their coach is nate clapp and we're
050moving into cross country second year in a row for the brentwood girls team one in 3a rob paltinas is the coach for the brentwood girls and we have a ravenwood individual champion his name is miles ramer and he won the individual medal state championship his coach is pete mueller congratulations to all of our stakeholders and our perfect a.c.t students you guys thank you again and feel free to to go to to take your leave board members as they're leaving i hope you saw your shirts that are by your seat we as mr golden said we are encouraging folks to get out and volunteer in the schools so if you would like to go help we encourage you to wear the t-shirt and so you will be clearly identified those of us at the central office
051who are also going out to volunteer have them as well and we encourage you to show your wcs pride thank you thank you miss birdsong in a very short board chair report i just want to echo that volunteer opportunities abound in our schools right now and even if you work full time like most of us do it's very easy to sign up and connect and serve lunch at one of our local schools it's a lot of fun it's great to be with the children and really great to see the love that our cafe our cafeteria staff and so many of our staff members show our children every day so volunteer challenge before december love for everybody in the board to volunteer at one of their schools so thank you moving ahead to new business we
052are moving to covid mitigation strategies mr golden thank you madam chair i referenced the code of mitigation strategies item on this agenda related to the attorney-client meeting we have and litigation council's recommendation that we defer this item until after further guidance from the court is received with the caveat that they have a hearing this friday and there will be a we anticipate that there will be an order subsequent to that thank you do we have a motion to approve was that worry okay this is not for discussion it's emotion okay okay mr galbraith yes i would with all due respect to to our advice i would like to to move that we remove the existing mass mandate as it currently stands do we have a second mr cash seconds discussion mr wimberley i was prepared
053to make a motion do what you may have talked yes i'm not sure where if i have the opportunity to make a motion now but i was prepared to make one that in effect states that based on the recommendation of our litigation council a motion to defer the coven 19 mitigation strategy discussion until our litigation council receives further guidance from the federal court so we do have a motion and a second on the floor do we have any further discussion on the current motion yes mr brown so we're on that we're on the original motion from we are okay so i would say two things our case count if you just look at it statistically is effectively zero we would have to increase we could still increase our case count significantly we hope it doesn't
054happen but it could happen and if it did we would still be effectively zero when you think about forty two thousand forty three thousand students less than a hundred cases it could it could increase substantially and still be effectively a zero percentage that's one thing the second thing is thanks to the great work that our administrators and our teachers have been doing and i sincerely mean that this has been a hard hard work and they've done a great job with the mitigation measures with finding opportunities to address concerns from individuals who want who feel their children need to be received special attention and deserve special attention we've taken we've tried our best in taking great pains to do that so with those things in mind i support the motion any other discussion board members so
055that so i guess let's see let me just take a quick look now there's no one else board members please cast your votes yes to support mr gower's motion no if you do not support yes mr hall pardon me oh sorry yes there you are you're on mr thought just one moment mr mitchell we've had a request to read the motion mr galbraith made the motion to remove the existing mass mandate and it was second by mr dan cash so board members please cast your votes did you get a recommendation from the superintendent yes i'd recommended the advice from litigation council so i cannot recommend this motion and can you repeat that advice from litigation counsel please litigation counsel recommended that we defer this item until after further guidance from the federal court is received
056and as much as you are comfortable saying so can you explain why litigation council made that recommendation or can you not make explain that i'm getting a head nod from dana on that one correct i think that superintendent golden has provided as much information as he ought to at this point tiptoeing a little too close to that line i understand thank you mr mitchell would you please cast your vote yeah i had tried to get in on the list for comments has the votes been cast yes okay counted i vote in favor of the motion i'm your vote is eight yes four now excuse me my vote is incorrect i voted no you can change her vote okay i'll ch so the vote is seven yes five no thank you next item items related to
057the 2021-2022 school board budget number one is the approval of the general purpose school fund sro grant mr golden thank you madam chair this is approval of of re funding we've received from the state to help offset expenses for the third year for creekside elementary school which is our newest school so that there is a delay in the receipt for funding for sros recommend approval do you have a motion to approve mr welch do we have a second mr cash any discussion i see no discussion board members please cast your votes mr mitchell in favor of the motion your vote is 12 yes zero no okay motion passes next item let's see approval of the general purpose school fund tennessee foundational skills curriculum grant mr golden thank you madam chair this is a 300 000
058grant that we've been offered in and based upon our doing some work with our teachers to help other state leas engage in phonics instruction so we recommend approval receipt of this grant do we have a motion to approve ms emerson makes the motion and mr brown makes a second board members any discussion if not please cast your votes mr mitchell i vote in favor of the motion thank you mr mitchell your vote is 12 yes 0 no thank you our next item is approval of the general purpose school fund for disproportionality mr golden thank you madam chair this is structured as 10 of the idea part b funds and it is year three of a requirement that we have to fund fund that percentage towards disproportionate disproportionality related to school discipline recommend approval board members
059is there a motion to approve mr brown is there a second mr welch any discussion board members if not please cast your votes mr mitchell how do you vote i vote in favor of the motion your vote is 12 yes zero no our next item is approval of the general purpose school fund enter category page high mr golden thank you madam chair back about a year and a half ago actually march of 2020 the county commission funded a number of our items that were on the five-year capital plan based upon the interest rate dropping very low if i'm not mistaken even below one percent and that they made that decision for some of the page funding based on what was in our five-year capital plan year and a half later the bid came in just
060under 24 25 000 we were asking that you approved funding to complete the funding for the next phase at page high school with the contingency funds that are available in our general funds recommend approval i'll make the motion to approve is there a second mr cash makes a second any discussion if not board members please cast your votes mr mitchell how do you vote i vote in favor of the motion there was somebody requested oh i'm sorry too fast mr brown clarification on the timeline for completion of that project thank you mr samuels this is actually the second to last phase so i would like mr samuels to speak to the detail one moment mr samuels there you go this will be the third phase this phase building will complete in august of 2023 and
061then we'll have one more phase that goes so we bid it two tuesdays ago or the tuesday the tuesday i mean the thursday of the work session last week so it's pretty fresh and we with your approval today tonight we'll have the ability then to proceed with discussions with the contractor and if i may mr brown this represents the second large development of the new classrooms so we've done the first the first phase that really is the mat the large portion of the classrooms this will finish the really the main capacity for the new building and one more question and this will add capacity how much capacity to the school we are going from about 1200 student capacity at page to 2000. wow okay thank you i see no further questions board members please cast
062your votes mr i mitchell in favor of the motion your vote is 12 yes 0 no thank you our next item is approval of the general purpose school fund buses thank you madam chair this is our annual request for replacement buses for our buses that have to roll out of service due to either age or mileage just as a fyi we do have the power to extend the age of the buses up to 18 years upon a review from the department of safety those last three years so we do recommend approval of this request any any discussion board members mr hall mr hall makes the motion to approve is there a second mr wimberley and now moving to discussion mr galbraith sorry there okay thank you so jason i know we discussed this at length
063and i've had a good conversation with with mr samuels who has he's provided some information but can you can you just can you help me out because i'm i'm just i'm having trouble with being down you know we're the count is i believe 46 double routes and honestly without mr samuels now we're talking but we couldn't we don't we don't have any numbers and we didn't have a we didn't we didn't have a chance to to sit down kind of face to face and look at and look at everything i know i know the reality is you're trying to trying to get ahead and want to just with the supply chain stuff is there is there any way that we can that we can pull this for a and pull this to january like what
064would that what would that do because here's my issue is we don't have enough bus drivers to to drive the buses that we do have and now we're trying to replace we're trying to replace buses that go out of service and ordinarily that's not that's not a big deal but we but we also have a number of buses that are that are sitting there and not doing anything and so and given that we given that some of our buses can we have to get rid of them by either age or mileage and there's kind of a it's a it's an either it's a is it either ore or an and i guess but i'd i just a struggle i don't know i don't i don't know i don't have enough information to say that we
065need these buses or not and so just wanted to get your thoughts on what it would look like to delay well number one we try to be as efficient as we can in our bus purchases we have a budgeted number of bus drivers and as everyone knows we are down below that we also make sure that we have a replacement and cycle fleet so that when a bus is in the shop we have a bus that's ready for that right and then you factor in growth that each year we project the need for growth buses and we are actually not this year from requesting any growth buses even though we grew by you know a little over 1800 students that's in part because we know that we can't staff every single every single route it's
066also good because we had the same number of students two years ago it's actually not the same number we've actually grown by net six or six hundred or so over over two years ago and we've we've had some some additional bus riders related to that special education is different no i'm talking about but we're talking general about general buses exclusively so mr samuels does have numbers related to that and so mr samuels if you would answer mr galbraith's question related to numbers you're on thank you we currently have 220 buses general ed buses and yes there's 171 drivers but we also have 46 second loads which means the drivers we have have to go back back out and do another run which basically means those students are getting to school late if we had another
06746 drivers then we would fill those buses and none of those students would be late we do have a certain percentage overall that we use put in swing bus mode we have 10 that are pre-staged at school so in case a driver has a problem in the morning or the afternoon quickly can go to close by bus we have others that are in our compound of the transportation compound which gets cycled through every day mr galbraith i wouldn't characterize that we have buses that aren't really doing anything for the most part we're cycling through that other 15 to 25 we need each day because of the maintenance cycles for those buses and the call outs and stuff that we have so long term we will be in a position i think to draw down the
068number of buses we have but right now we've got a group of buses that if we got more drivers we got buses to put them in and still maintain the swing vehicles that we need the swing vehicles is important because a little bit of history on what we've done in the last few years we've pulled in-house all bus maintenance with the exception of tires you go back five six seven years ago it was quite the opposite we were sending a lot of stuff out we had a lot of buses will be out for over two weeks to three weeks in some cases tires just to do tires it was it was an extended period of time we have improved that by a couple things we've made investment in tools and equipment we've made investment in
069the frankly the salaries that were paying some of the mechanics because of the training that they went to do to do turbocharger overhauls to do transmission overhauls to do the kind of stuff that we used to send out and have to wait and wait and wait for it now we do those things in house and the downtime has has been turned down to a number of days as opposed to a couple weeks and mr samuels if you would answer that second question mr galbraith about the schedule for purchasing if we were to delay like what would that look like oh i'm sorry i got excited about you know explaining the great work that our transportation we're excited for i'm i'm pretty sure the contract has already been been let and the pricing has been received
070so as soon as we get the money we need to go ahead and do the purchases because the 21 buses that we need to replace are over aged over miles and we need those for august of this coming school year so if i may mr galbraith related to your question there is always a demand to get first in line this is early compared to what we normally do and your question was related to whether january would be an appropriate time if my experience is and mark correct me if i'm wrong given the market right now if if a school system said hey listen we don't want a bus they'll find a buyer right now but from us from from a scheduling standpoint our transportation director has told us because of the because of the demands
071right now related to the supply chain this is an appropriate time and i think your question was if we defer until january will that be a problem mr samuels can you answer that question i just know in the general automat automotive industry right now trying to get orders out and get slot times for new manufacturers is pretty tough i would prefer not to wait so mr golden from a from a county commission standpoint if we when when do they get this with committees and what when do when would they get this and would we meet would we meet before again before ultimately it is it is approved by the county commission in every one of our meetings when we when when the when the board approves something it goes to the county commission for the
072next meeting so we don't have meetings scheduled before the county commission's next meeting based on our schedule it's only one reading that it goes to the committee and then it goes to the county commission and when is that next meeting is that's in january so they're meeting yeah they don't meet they don't meet it they mean in january but they meet before we meet again that is correct education committee education committee has already been set for the 22nd of november yesterday yeah and then the commission doesn't vote until till january to you to the core of your question about the numbers we are actually below what would be optimal were we fully staffed and able to run every route without the double routes or the first and second loads what is what is that what
073does that mean below fully optimal because if we were if we were fully staffed and with enough drivers to run to run every single route mark how many would how many buses would that be 252 buses if you add in the percentages that we need for the swings that we're doing right now so we're asking for 220. subtract out the percentages for swings how many actual routes for general-led buses that's 217 217 we have 220 buses if we're optimal 217. so we have slowly reduced the last few years knowing that that we can't fully staff right now so we're trying to be efficient with that could we get by with a couple fewer buses in the short term certainly yeah that just and this is just my difficulty not having the information enough information because
074with the with the information that mr samuels had had had sent to me and i'm trying to apologize i'm trying to find i can't i thought there were there were somewhat on the lines of 171 routes that were being run and we have a hundred we have right about that a number of actual drivers but then on a daily basis we have fewer drivers than that have to drive that number i didn't think it was anywhere near 220 routes that you had to run what 171 is actually his answer to your to your question about current well current that's current bus drivers but that's not the current number of bus drivers that drive every day so we have fewer numbers than that and i don't think they're driving 220 routes i think they're driving in
075the 170 routes right am i still i know yeah it was 171 routes plus 46 second load routes so that's where you get the 217. those are being done every day as we speak now okay again it's i mean you guys tell me if y'all are y'all are comfortable getting a bunch of school buses when we when we don't have enough school bus drivers to drive them if y'all are okay with that then you can go against my no vote i'd like to get i'd like to defer and get some more information but if everybody else is good with it then go for it thank you mr galbraith we have reviewed this and this year we've determined that it's appropriate to do a replacement of all those buses that are that are cycling out we
076haven't done it every year but this year we are recommending that ms cleveland thank you madam chair mr samuels and mr golden already answered my question about the lag time for the ordering between the time of ordering and when we would actually get the buses so thank you mr brown thank you mr golden you said we don't haven't done it every year when is the last time that the district did purchase buses we purchased annually we have a cycle that we that we structure it so we don't have to buy a large number of buses any one particular year compared to each year in the past i can't speak to specifics as i sit here but there have been times where we have reduced our number with the practical knowledge that look we're not going
077to be able to get that many drivers this year so when mr when mr samuels tells you that if we were fully staffed and you know and were able to run every route regularly we would have 252 buses and yet we have 220 that reflects those decisions we've made over the years i do know that our transportation office looks to to the extent they can make that rotation as even as possible knowing that's a 15 to 18 year window is it based on this recommendation would it be projected then the next year we would purchase even would need to purchase even fewer we would have to number one check on how many buses were we were required to retire based on their schedules and then we would evaluate where we are with staffing and evaluate
078growth so one of the one of the truisms we've experienced these last few years as licensed drivers truck you know etc are so hard to come by is we have slowly grown our total staff but we have also grown with students and so we're either holding our own or just you know just catching up just a little bit so it would it would vary depending on the particular year's retirements thank you mr cash thank you madam chair yeah mr golden i'd just like to compliment mr mark samuels they're doing a fantastic job and what he's done with the maintenance crews and whatnot and i remember the tire issues getting them done buses sitting down in certain areas you know in in the training the technicians and paying them some some decent money for their their
079knowledge base has worked i've seen i've seen buses go down and minutes later another one shows up and you know that's what we've got to have i do understand what jay's kind of saying though but i think with the retirement of buses and whatnot and hopefully we're going to get this hiring issue is going to get a lot better in the near future so we'll be able to fill those buses and but i did have one question for you mr golden is how is the double routes affecting the tardiness of students and how much how much instruction time are we losing there well first and second loads are generally aimed at those shorter routes especially at the elementary levels where where we can schedule at least on paper well when i say on paper in
080our computer system routes that will complete in time to get on time to school so that depends on projected traffic every day i think probably every day there is a late bus for some reason whether it's they hit unusual traffic or their you know they get behind an accident those kinds of issues as we sit here i don't have exact numbers but it is a challenge and especially right now where we don't have sufficient substitute drivers yeah i was just i was just curious thank you and mr cash i finally i do want to thank the the board a few years ago you may recall that you voted for a mechanic one in mechanic two position and that's really helped with retention of those highly skilled mechanics mr mitchell thank you madam chair i'm i'm
081supportive of the of of this fun funding we don't need to take a risk of getting out of line for our replacement buses only to discover that getting back in line cost us 12 15 months potentially so i would ask mr samuel what's his if we if we pass on this allotment that we would get what's the possibility that we wouldn't be able to get back in line for for the unforeseeable future given supply chain issues sir i don't think i can i can give you a high degree of accuracy on that what i can say is supply chain issues on on and the backups that we're seeing in some of the contracting side of the house in terms of getting allotments for vehicles is unpredictable at this time it's similar to what's happening in
082in the construction industry as a whole so i my the best thing i can give you is it may not be that we would have the replacement buses by the time august comes around yeah all right thank you i'm supportive of this funding board members i don't see any other request to speak please cast your votes mr mitchell how do you vote vote in favor of the resolution okay your vote is 12 yes zero no thank you it was meant to be a no your vote is 11 yes one no thank you i understand thank you our next item is the approval of the general purpose school fund enter category transfer salary mr golden thank you madam chair this is the four percent raise approved by the school board you all and the county commission
083it was approved in one line item and our finance department is distributing it to all the appropriate line items so we recommend approval of this do we have a motion to approve mr welch motions mr paul makes the second any discussion board members i see no discussion requested if so please oh mr galbraith no plea board members please cast your votes mr mitchell please cast your vote thank you madam chair i'm in favor of of this motion your vote is 12 yes zero no thank you our next item is approval of education capital projects brentwood middle school intent to fund mr golden thank you madam chair this is the first significant investment in the replacement of the brentwood middle school building earlier you all had approved some a small amount of funding for the architectural
084work this is to to start the major phases recommend approval motion to approve ms cleveland makes the motion mr galbraith makes the second any discussion board members mr galbraith thank you mr golden can can you tell can you tell us when we're going to have some some public meetings about this i remember back back to the brentwood high school big renovation and the page high large campus renovation as well as the franklin one got a good a good bit of fanfare and public support behind it i've i mean i've we've been lucky enough to see the plans and i know i don't know there's others they're constantly changing and that staff has has looked at them and i think the i think the school and staff have looked at them and they're making some tweaks
085but before it's finalized i'd really love the opportunity for for the public to as i mean particularly obviously the the brentwood community to be able to to see it i'm super excited about it exceeded my expectations when i when i saw just some of the some of the things that the architects through i mean with with all you guys leading the way to to work on it but but i really i really want to have that sooner rather than later i mean we run the risk of by the time they get to it's going to be come christmas time and everybody's going to be be busy and so just thank you for that i think that's a i think that's a great suggestion and i do know that there's been some discussion with the pto
086leaders about that as well i will tell you one key point i think it's really important for us to communicate with the families is the schedule right and what that means from a phasing approach so we'll have a conversation with with mr samuels and get something set up so that we can present that to the community thank you thank you board members i see no other discussion or members please cast your votes mr mitchell how do you vote i vote to approve this mission thank you the next item is approval of education capital projects i'm sorry your vote is 12 yes zero no thank you board members i apologize i have one more technology input than normal tonight and i think it's put me over the top our next item is approval of education capital
087projects synthetic turf football fields intent to fund mr golden thank you madam chair you all may recall that from the time nolansville high school opened with a synthetic turf field we initiated a phased approach for our schools this is the final phase for all our comprehensive high schools to have the turf field so we do recommend approval for funding this final phase this represents independence and summit high schools and mr mitchell thank thank you madam chair i moved to to approve this funding mr cash makes the second board members is there any discussion if not please cast your votes mr mitchell i vote to approve your vote is 12 yes zero no our next item is approval of education capital projects transportation building addition intent to fund mr golden thank you madam chair this is
088an item that's been on the five-year capital plan for expansion of the transportation building really for offices we had a discussion a couple of years ago about the dispatch area and how how tight that was how difficult it was for them to do that work and so this is the funding for that and we do recommend approval of emotion mr wimberley makes the motion is your second mr welch seconds board members any discussion if not please cast your votes mr mitchell thank you madam chair i vote to approve mr wimberley your vote is 12 yes zero no the next item is the approval of education capital projects asphalt roof and wwtp intent to fund mr golden thank you madam chair this is our annual request that shows up on our five-year capital plan and then
089ultimately goes for funding as as we are working on tonight for asphalt roofs and wastewater treatment plant needs we break that down between rural and general debt based upon elementary middle schools versus high schools and we do recommend approval and mr samuels is here if you have any specific questions okay do you have a motion to approve mr cash makes the motion miss emerson seconds any discussion if not please cast your votes mr mitchell thank you madam chair i vote to approve your vote is 12 yes zero no our next item is approval of the educational education capital projects fund for page high school phase it's phase three correct that is correct intent to fund mr golden thank you madam chair this item is related to the next request related to continuing the project at
090page high school you see that the estimated complete is the estimated completion cost is listed in the resolution i will tell you that we're actually bringing this is actually phase four i apologize it's the it's the beginning money for phase four we're actually bringing this a little bit earlier than we traditionally do because of construction schedules this is something we might typically bring to you in about march or so so we do recommend approval for the initial work and getting the phase four started motion to approve miss apria mr cash makes the second board members any discussion if not please cast your votes mr mitchell thank you madam chair i vote to approve mr brown your vote is 12 yes zero no our next item is an annual agenda item the five-year capital plan 2021-2027
091mr golden thank you madam chair there were of course a lot of funding resolutions many of those were based on prior years five-year capital plans that have adjusted from time to time the five-year capital plan includes includes planning that the commission looks at for their long-term planning related to land acquisitions new school building construction additions major renovations maintenance and information technology capital and transportation i do want to point out that this year we have the i.t capital is being added and has not been in the five-year capital plan over the last few years but based on a conversation i had with mayor anderson we thought it was wise to include that so that the commission would have a grasp of the projection that we anticipate in that five-year capital plan you may also notice that
092there are there are some changes from last year and mr samuels actually in his memo included some examples delayed the opening of the elementary school south until 2023 and middle school east cox road to 2026 and we actually pushed the proposed middle school on the jordan elementary school property from 2023 to 24 and we have some other changes related to that this is for us a significant planning document knowing that plans can change the market conditions can change as part of that a lot of our numbers are higher this year than they were because market conditions have changed and i want to thank mr samuels and his team for working on that so certainly open any questions you may have with a final comment that we will bring when we determine its appropriate proposed funding
093items based on based on our draft schedules and as always they will that would take your approval and the commission's approval when those times come recommend approval is there a motion to approve mr welch makes the motion mr hall makes the second board members any discussion if i have your capital plan mr galbraith thank you madam chair trying to make sure i comment on everything just kidding of course jason we had a we had a good conversation and we and continued at the at the work session i thought i guess after after our conversation this morning i appreciate mr samuels and allison kind of walking walking me through some of the details and i think what i think my recommendation if it's appropriate is to is to take this take this process up through policy
094i think part of the reason that part of my hesitation at the at the work session and then now is that we're seeing we're seeing new projects on here which is not not entirely unreasonable given the given the growth but but there's there's no context and i know we do you have you have bigger planning documents but but i think what i'd i'd like to discuss with the board what we would like to see in this document and before we approve a five-year capital plan i just i just i don't think that any of us are qualified to answer the questions that i know some of the commissioners are going to have before they vote on this and i i get that it's they're really just voting on on year one things that we that
095are on there and the rest of it is not any commitment on their part or on or on our part but but i would really i would really like us to think long and hard of of the of the board's role in in producing this document and i at a at a minimum i think i'd like to propose that we make this a two reading event rather than a rather than a single we're getting this on tuesday and we're talking about it on thursday night and then we're voted on monday like i mean that's that's the or maybe we got it on monday but still we had we had we had four days to to review and very little opportunity to to talk to to staff about this as well as we could we could
096define because what i what i would like to see as we discussed a little bit today is the capacity planning on on these on these schools i it was it was noted by by by some a board member that you know that me or maybe just people anybody who questions things around the planning it is or or rezonings that you know says that we that we don't want to or i'll just say that i don't want to re-zone and that really couldn't be further from the truth i want to i want i want to plan and i want to i want to see a long-term plan and if things happen that the that the plan doesn't work out because growth doesn't happen exactly we say then we pivot from the plan but at least we
097can explain and when schools open up there's a reasonable expectation and we had some good good conversations about about things that we can do in the interim potentially to to push back the building of a school by a year or two or to bring one forward and what those what those things might look like so i mean ultimately given given what's in year one i have i have one i have one question because we didn't talk or at least i don't remember us talking about the early childhood development center did we do we talk about that on thursday or maybe can you can you talk about that's been on the it's been on there i think it's been off i can't remember it's kind of on-again off-again relationship but do we do are we actually
098recommending that we that we create a standalone ec center so you're right that it has been off and on and we have had from time to time discussions about it the idea behind it is that in a time of growth in certain of our more densely attended areas could we have an early childhood center for early childhood and potentially pre-k as well to to give additional capacity at some of our elementary school building so the the one we talked about most over the past few years is longview elementary school because longview has the same capacity as any other elementary school but if i'm not mistaken maybe four maybe six classrooms are actually being used by early childhood program so what's on paper is not its actual capacity so we we've in in that example we've
099talked about bus transportation for those youngest children and how far someone might have to travel so ultimately we did put on the five-year capital plan an early childhood center especially in that spring hill area might one be able to go in the nolensville area over time with growth as as that area grows perhaps so to your to your larger question about about planning i certainly welcome that discussion you know from the you know from the potential of a policy committee discussion we do spend many months internally administratively talking about these items and it's a mix of of intentional plan schedules and those those conversations with city planners that just happen on a day-to-day basis so if it's the will of the board i certainly welcome us talking about this earlier and preparing and i will
100say the more we talk about it the more the commission is going to know right because ultimately they're the ones that we ask for funding so i'm certainly open to that okay well i just i was just i was just sitting here in in light of the other conversations about capacity and feeders and how elementary schools and middle schools and high schools fit fit together in in a in a cohesive plan you know dropping a drop in taking pulling those ec ec people out it depending upon the planning that we did to just to figure out what how big our elementary schools need to be and how big our middle schools and high schools need to be like it might it might overload those and i don't know what that's going to look like right
101it might yeah it might it might actually right-size them to the to so that it feeds correctly but it might do it might actually have some unintended consequences on on what the ultimate feeder pattern looks like and yeah and therefore like we might have an elementary school that doesn't have a place to go except for like a high school way further out well thank you for that and that is true you know feeder patterns are a challenge in a growth area and to the extent we can we want to keep those clean feeder patterns as you all know in many many of our zones are split that tends to vary just a little bit from time to time as grade levels are different especially in high growth areas traditionally i know ms nunley and our
102staff talk about this when we have a high growth area traditionally parents arrive with children in the younger grades and you know but and then and then they of course within just a few years matriculate on up to the middle school but you're right that the capacities can't have an impact on that thank you mr wimberley i have a tendency to agree with mr galbraith it does seem like this year that we spent although we spent a pretty good bit of time on it but i recall work sessions in the past where we talked about nothing but the five year plan and perhaps multiple work sessions and i'm not so sure that we need to change the policy i'm not sure this is a policy matter but and i support us moving forward with this
103but it seems like it might be better in the future if we could get it in sooner or in pieces that we can digest and go over and mark did a great job summarizing no doubt about that but it just seems like we could spend more time on on some of the individual items you know i was caught up a little bit off guard about a change in the location of the high school and i think we spent 30 seconds at my request thank you not that jay had talked about other things but so i think in the future that i think we can do a better job on on this personally thank you we also have it on our on our annual agenda so we'll talk about moving it maybe even a little earlier
104on the annual agenda to give additional time and almost dared to suggest that we have a work session specifically on the five-year plan like we do the budget but and i will just remind board members that this is a agenda item for the county commission in january so to your point we may want to look at moving it to an october work session or meeting knowing that the commission will vote on it in january okay mr brown this is really more clarification for me as the new guy what exactly are we being asked to vote on with this item you are being asked to vote on the document itself no funding the county commission this originated many years ago with the county commissioning commission and their bond structure needing a document for planning purposes that
105they would present to bond for bond ratings for us it became something much more to help us with planning so that we could project and i think for the commission as well that over time they like to project out and see what we anticipate and so but ultimately to answer your question you're not voting on any funding you're just voting on this document being sent on to the commission for their review in january and if i may the commission uses it for bond preparation overall debt as well as privilege tax information so we have to have this document voted on presented to the commission so that the commission can then it's a requirement for collection of that so it needs to be fairly definitive if they're going to the financial markets with it it traditionally
106has been a forecast so that yes it is but it is a piece in the structure that the county wants for bond market i'm going to abstain just simply because i don't have enough information based on my time on the board to really vote in favor of 650 million dollars of projected funding but i'm not opposed to it necessarily thank you mr mitchell thank you madam chair so just to make sure we're all i'm understanding to kind of piggyback on mr brown's question the this is strictly a planning document we could we could submit an intent intent to fund i guess motion with that did that was not included on the five-year plan if if we so thought it necessary and the urgency was there is that a true statement yes sir that's correct okay
107so it doesn't have any teeth it doesn't prevent us from making adjustments it just kind of gives and i guess the other point is that the county doesn't go to the bond market every year that's that's i don't i think typically something they do every few years but it is strictly just a planning document not and not something that restricts us based upon what's on it or what is not on it thank you mr mitchell that that is correct as of their bond as to the county going to the bond market i have seen some years where they've gone twice in a year i've seen some years where they haven't gone and i think it really depends on their analysis of the need what funds they have available interest rates many many factors that they
108consider on that mr wimberley i have nothing thank you okay i see no further discussion board members please cast your votes mr mitchell vote to approve your vote is eleven yes zero no one abstain thinking the next item on the agenda are board policies for first reading the first item is policy 6.411 student wellness and this is a new policy thank you madam chairs mrs osbrooks explained at the policy committee and the board work session this is a new policy pursuant to state law this is first reading and we do recommend your approval on first reading is there a motion to approve mr ha a second mr welch seconds board members any discussion if not please cast your votes mr mitchell thank you madam chair i vote to approve your vote is 12 yes zero
109no thanks the next item is policy 4.214 virtual education program thank you madam chair in the policy committee this was presented as a compliance piece of language related to the state standards for students participating in a virtual education program as opposed to a virtual school and so based on that we do recommend approval of this language and it is if i'm not mistaken and i'm looking for a nod for mrs osborough is it specifically related to the covet standards yes it is specifically related to quarantine okay thank you so based on the rules of the state board of education we do recommend approval of that is there a motion to approve mr hahn is there a second mr welch any discussion board members i see no discussion board members please cast your votes mr mitchell
110thank you madam chair i vote to approve thank you the next item is the approval of the 2022 i'm sorry today go ahead sorry your vote is 12 yes 0 no all right the next item is the approval of the 2022-23 school calendar mr golden thank you madam chair this is this calendar this proposed calendar is the product of a committee's work based upon the discussion the board had just a few months ago about not setting a particular parameter for the calendar but discussing how well things went at least in the early stages of this year based on the calendar especially related to the fall break i did want to point out a couple of items maybe just one something that jumped out at me when i first reviewed the work was the teacher day
111in december after the students these students left for winter break and it's a monday only just as a reminder this the plan based on the conversations with the w the williamson county education association is that will be a flex day where where teachers could put that time in over the course of the year in the event they did not want to be working in their building that particular day so based on the recommendation of the calendar committee i do recommend approval and thank that group for their work motion to approve ms emerson makes the motion is there a sec mr galbraith makes a second board members any discussion i don't see any discussion board members if you'll please cast your votes mr mitchell chair i vote to approve your vote is 12 yes 0 no
112thank you the next item is approval of school board norms board policy 1.107 and this is an annual agenda item as well thank you madam chair this is a standard of norms that you all set for each other and i know that you madam chair has solicited any input from board members related to any proposed changes based on the discussion at the work session i'm not aware of any proposed changes so do i do recommend approval do you have a motion to approve mr wimberley do we have a second miss supriya board members any discussion any discussion if not please cast your votes mr mitchell thank you madam chair i voted to approve your vote is 12 yes 0 no thank you the next item is also an annual agenda item it's the approval of
113the code of ethics for school board members which is board policy 1.2.021 annual agenda item thank you go ahead mister thank you thank you madam chair this is actually listed in your packet with a blue line code of ethics being changed to code of conduct for school board members and i may be speaking for you madam chair but you did a little research related to the code of ethics which is structured for financial issues and is located in a different spot in the policy manual versus the code of conduct for school board members and we recommend the change in the title based upon that and the additional feedback that you all gave at the work session so based on that certainly recommend approval based on what i heard from from the board at the work
114session thank you i'll make the motion to approve is there a second miss emerson any discussion board members i will say that this change brings this policy in line with the suggested policy title that is used statewide at this time if there's no further discussion board members please cast your votes mr mitchell thank you madam chair i vote to approve your vote is 12 yes 0 no thank you the next item is the approval of the wcs online school names mr golden thank you madam chair this non-traditional the process of naming an online school was brought to you by the committee following these policy governing the name of naming of schools so with this committee chose to make a recommendation including three possible names with actually an emphasis on on their preferred name both for
115our k-8 online school and our 9-12 online school so with that with their with the committee's recommendations i do recommend that you approval the k-8 online school name to be discovery virtual k-8 school and the 9 through 12 online school to be named vanguard virtual high school yes mr mr mitchell thank you madam chair i would like to place the motion that we named the k-8 school discovery virtual school mr welch is that a second or mr welch makes the second any discussion board members there's just one it's on the agenda once well that is correct it's so mr galbraith made a point of order my recommendation is for both schools if we have one vote i mean i'll defer to you mrs ostbrooks about it being on one i would since it's one agenda
116item we need one vote so both i did not hear from mr mitchell both names i can i can modify my motion to that point i was thinking that we would do two two votes one for the k-8 and one for the nine through twelve but with that with your point of order i'll modify my motion to put to a move that we named the k-8 school discovery virtual k-8 school and that we named the nine through 12 school vanguard virtual high school mr welch continues his second board members any discussion mr welch do you want to discuss this okay thank y'all clear mr galbraith thank you i just want to reiterate my my request to to review the review this policy and i actually written it down thursday night and i'm cannot place it
117but the school naming policy and we pulled it up and looked at it on on thursday but so since we we basically in the definition of the of the committee that the duties of the committee we essentially pulled out any reference in the in the current policy to whether the committee the naming committee would would actually make a recommendation towards or make a just list of three schools that are the three names that are that they would recommend so in in our two times since we've done this since we reviewed this policy twice actually over over a six month period one time they've made a recommendation the other time they haven't and anytime when we have policy that is that is vague and actually creates creates more more questions than answers then i will i
118probably misspoke and i apologize if anybody took it as though anybody was doing anything anything wrong with i said they violated policy upon further review for from my perspective we just exposed the the lack of clarity in the policy and so i think the board needs to needs to review this to to to determine what we want the what we want the policy to say and i think we should decide if they should make a recommendation or not so i'm supportive of the committee did a great job i'm fine with the with the names and they did looks like they and the explanations went through a great deal of work and i appreciate that and i actually and as i like the i like getting the recommendation of the committee personally because otherwise we have
119we try to replicate what all the work that they did and we can't possibly do that at this at this meeting so i really appreciate it thank you mr wimberley i'm going to agree with mr galbraith again i've been about every time we've named a school in the last 10 years i brought up the same thing to me it doesn't make a lot of sense to have a committee that gives you three names the committee makes a recommendation we don't have to take the recommendation but the committee should make a recommendation and not throw out three names thank you we'll make sure to put that on the policy committee agenda thank you board members i don't see any other requests for discussion please cast your votes mr mitchell thank you madam chair i vote to
120approve both names your vote is 12 yes zero no next item appointment of the pekka special question committee mr golden thank you madam chair as i mentioned at the work session there's a peculiarity in the pecca law that actually has a special question committee that actually calls for the for the equal unequal number of board members and representatives from from the education association the gist of what they do is just oversee an already defined question series of questions that must be asked related to teacher selection of that process so do recommend approval of you and ms leanne white the current president of the williamson county education association to to be that committee recommend approval is there a motion to approve emerson makes the second any discussion board members i see no discussion board members please
121cast your votes mr mitchell chair i vote to prove your vote is 12 yes zero no thank you board members our final agenda item for tonight is the recommendation to support the city of spring hill in renaming twin lakes drive to austin's way mr golden thank you madam chair mr mitchell brought this to the board after discussions with some of some of the elected officials in the in the city of spring hill and they have been having a discussion about how to honor austin corbett and one strong possibility that they're going to consider is naming twin lakes drive renaming twin lakes drive or at least a segment of twin lakes drive as as currently constructed austin's way and based on the board work session discussion i prepared a draft letter that we've included in your
122packet that in the event you vote yes i will add the vote to that letter and send that on to mayor hageman and i want to mention a couple things if i may in in my letter speaks of this austin was beloved at summit high school he was a transition ii student who graduated just a couple years ago he passed away he and his mother actually both passed away and his family was a was well known in the community and i have a lot of respect for the city of spring hill leaders and their discussion about how to go about honoring austin this is ultimately not your decision but the city of spring hill representatives asked for for your thoughts and so certainly certainly recommend approval that in the event they decide this we support
123this out of respect for us they had some concerns as to what this might mean for us with a name change to a road because of that the address will change and frankly from a chief executive's position we'll be we're going to be fine if anytime they want to do something to to honor their citizens we'll we'll we'll certainly support that and especially this example with austin mr mitchell you have do you want to make the motion to approve yes yes madam chair i moved to to approve this recommendation mr cash makes a second any discussion board members mr hall thank you chair i just want to thank mr mitchell for bringing this to the board and this is a really good example of working with local elected officials in the communities so i also
124applaud as mr golden did the spring hill elected officials who are advocating for this as well so thank you ms cleveland thank you madam chair i just want to this is for the public that to make sure they realize that this is great that we're doing this for austin and it's immortalized and you know and in town he loved and people loved him but the people need to understand this vote only gives our approval to include our names into the letter into spring hill for spring hill showing our support but renaming of the streets is under the jurisdiction of spring hill and this is no way the board has no authority to approve or disapprove the renaming we are just voting to support spring hill and the naming mr mitchell thank you madam chair and
125i appreciate comments from my peers and miss cleveland is correct where that this is just a request from the city that we also indicate our support of this move and that's why i have brought it forward so i respectfully ask everyone to to support this recommendation of of mr golden sending a letter of support to the city of spring hills board of mayor and alderman thank you and madam chair if i'm if i may since there's no other board members listed it says austin's way without an apostrophe and that is deliberate because it's our understanding from the city that road names do not have apostrophes that's true that's not a the united states postal postal service doesn't allow posture doesn't allow punctuations within mailing addresses i guess suddenly thompson's station's making a lot of sense
126board members if there are no further questions or comments please cast your votes mr mitchell thank you madam chair i vote to approve your vote is 12 yes zero no thank you board members i think our voting devices have told us that it's time to end our meetings for the semester they need some fresh batteries so board members thank you so much for your work and i just want to close out our last meeting of this calendar year just by saying a thank you to all of our teachers and our staff and all the people who who give so much every day to our students thank you and this meeting is adjourned you