001good evening i'm here to stand against bias presented in this textbook's content that is an attempt to sway popular opinion to excuse acts of violence towards israel in the beginning the foundation of education in america was to teach people to read and write for the sole purpose of reading the bible i believe that good leaders don't concern themselves with issues like popularity they go out of their way to glean a small remnant of truth to stand for and become advocates of it what are you advocating in the cultural landscape curriculum it asked if a palestinian suicide bomber killed several dozen israeli teenagers in a jerusalem restaurant is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against israeli government policies and army actions for what educational purpose does this line of question and serve it seems
002to me you're provoking a way of thinking that encourages violence and retaliation toward a nation who we should be encouraging our youth to be grateful to wouldn't it take a blind person to not see the attacks on the jewish people and the christians around the world wouldn't we be repeating the horrors of the holocaust if we sat silent in our comfort zones as even our children's textbooks were splattered with anti-semitic anti-israel unconstitutional and anti-american propaganda is islam presented in a manner in which facts are embellished and its virtues exaggerated while unfavorable negative or detrimental information about the religion is omitted glossed over understated or rationalized thus amounting to indoctrination rather than education is my time up yes ma'am and for the record could you please state your name and your address please my name is
003lita miner my address is 1075 savely road pigram tennessee thank you 37. next individual is les cleveland my address is 1104 savannah avenue in gallatin and i'm here today to support not changing the textbooks the statement as far as i can see is okay these our children can think for themselves and most likely what they would say when that one comment that everyone as opposed to comes up that's terrorism but you need to expose them to these different types of ideas so that they can grow in this area the second thing i want to point out is that this is an outstanding school district until recently i was a resident for 10 years and people around this state and possibly around the country are watching what you do we need to make sure that we
004provide students with this opportunity and finally mrs laurie cadoza more she goes around the country attacking different muslims verbally in her speeches and we've had those problems here in tennessee where we have a mosque that where where that mosque we have people attending it that are professors at mtsu and have been there for decades and yet we still find that this kind of attitude is a prevalent with with her and i think that please don't give in to this is religious bigotry and hatred and you in williamson county can put a stop to it thank you ladies and gentlemen this is a business meeting of this body we have this forum to allow citizens to communicate to us it is very difficult to hear what anyone has to say if there are others in the
005audience that are talking out above them we've all sat and listened respectfully to different points of view and it is my hope that as you see here tonight you will continue to sit quietly and listen whether you agree or disagree with what someone is saying if you don't feel like you can do that i would invite you to leave right now otherwise we will proceed on next is lori cordoza more as you said i'm lori cardoza more here to defend my position and my address is 1858 wilson pike in franklin tennessee since my presentation before the williamson county school ad hoc committee on june 17th i have expanded my research into pearson prentice hall publishers and their audit their authors and editors the information i have uncovered is very disturbing and only the tip of
006the iceberg according to a report by citizens for national security a consultant with the council on islamic education in dealing with pearson prentice hall shabir mansouri has publicly stated that he is waging this is his quote not mine just for clarification waging a bloodless revolution promoting world cultures and faiths in america's classroom and that the council on islamic education has warned scholars and public officials who do not sympathize with its request that they will be perceived as racists reactionaries and enemies of islam the phrase enemies of islam is not a veiled threat and it can be directly linked to the numerous islamist terrorist factions such as the muslim brotherhood al-qaeda hamas and others this threat is very troubling and indicates that the council on islamic education will go to any length to drive their anti-american
007anti-jewish anti-israel dogma into our children's minds through their textbooks students in k-12 schools lack the experience and skills to validate most of what they hear they easily absorb propaganda and tend to believe what their textbooks and their teachers tell them i'm asking you to please remove the textbook next is cantor nathaniel berman yes ma'am cantor with birmingham a jewish cantor 3322 highway 76 cottontown tennessee there's a new kind of anti-semitism israel has now become the jew of the world the cultural landscape proves without question that the text which we are referring to connects both israel and anti-semitic propaganda and disinformation and it only fuels the hate that must be removed from the classroom because hidden behind the smoke screen of anti-israel fervor is a familiar hatred of the jew blood libel the elder of zion
008the powerful secret international conspirator the pariah and the scapegoat of the world our children's minds are like sponges especially at these years i have a 13 year old son alexander who when he was six years old attended a private school in gallatin sumner academy when alex was six years old he was sitting in the cafeteria next to one of his classmates he was the only jewish child in his class and was very proud of his heritage and his religion his classmate turned around to him during lunch and said you killed jesus she got up from her chair and walked away when my son came home he was understandably upset and could not fully understand why he was blamed for this story speaks volumes about what is taught to our children as a renowned pulitzer prize
009winner and holocaust survivor ellie wiesel said what hurts us as jews is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander and you my friends are the bystander remove this book please next is paul lovett's my name is abby wolf 801 percy warner boulevard in nashville i represent the jewish federation of nashville and middle tennessee the jewish federation of nashville middle tennessee opposes the use of this textbook as as it is currently written we're concerned that williamson county students are being led to believe that terrorist acts of palestinian suicide bombers can be justified as wartime retaliation against israeli government policies in our opinion this question never should have been asked in such an inappropriate manner to create moral equivalency between acts of terror and legitimate territorial disputes that are political in nature
010serves to legitimize premeditated violence against innocent civilian victims this paragraph should be deleted because of its error its bias its inconsistency with the definition and explanation provided in the previous paragraphs on terrorism and its misrepresentation of international law and the positions of palestinians and israelis if the school board is unwilling to remove the print version of this book as it's currently written the jewish federation has offered to work with the williamson county school district specifically the ap human geography teachers and students to help them understand why this book is problematic as it's currently written with no additional education teaching from this book in its current form is a disservice to all the students of williamson county thank you thank you next is tiffany workout did i say that correctly sorry little so i broke my
011toes this weekend so tiffany borgelt 1228 kelly court franklin in the last few months parents have brought their concerns regarding our textbooks their approval process as well as common core standards and yet it seems like our local board has done little to address them everything seems like business as usual and the system continues to chug along this leads me to believe either our concerns don't matter or be that the school board has really no power to make any real changes or maybe specifically you've been told that it is not within your jurisdiction to do so if that's the case then the school board is really relegated to nothing more than an implementation board of federal education policies where is our system of checks and balances i thought we elected the board to represent our concerns
012and to be a watchdog for our community not to just blindly implement what the governor signed us up for especially when there is a national debate raging about this in our united states many of the men and women here tonight have collectively spent hundreds of hours researching these issues they've spoken to state legislators gone to mtsu to search out books that haven't even been fully written all in an effort to be informed but despite these efforts they are seen more likely as the enemy or people who just don't understand instead of being seen as the neighbors and the friends and the community members that elected you and supported and campaigned for you school board members in states like georgia colorado utah texas and oklahoma are taking a stand and saying no to certain textbooks and
013standards in the face of their governor's decision and sometimes to the public disapproval of their superintendent has the road been tough for them are they being told they can't yeah i'm pretty sure they have but isn't that what america is about we are a government for the people of the people and by the people and we voted for you to represent us not to be an implementation board for federal policies and regulations next is darla spears i'm darla thompson spears at 186 sturbridge drive in franklin i would just like to as a fellow williamson county parent i've served just like you my most recent services the ptso president at centennial high school and so i just want to thank you for all that you've done and who who you represent in this county i would
014ask that you would let me read my notes here that you would remove this book the cultural landscape if you have not read the book other than the one paragraph that gets a lot of immediate attention i do not think you have enough information to make an educated decision in this area if you have read the book as an american citizen you must have noticed the anti-american anti-christian anti-semitic marxist comments with more than 14 inaccurate statements i do not find it to be a credible source for any students much less our youngest high schoolers this is a college level course being taught to 14 and 15 year old students that do not have the capacity to understand and process the different thoughts that are being presented to them as a follower of christ i am
015deeply offended at the crusades as being our defining moment they did not discuss jesus and the actions and the words of jesus yet when we get into other other world religions the positive things are being produced and being presented to our children so in in in conclusion i believe that we need to teach our children how to think and not what to think and this book to me is an outrage thank you next is julie west and because of a growing concerns for my safety and that of my family my husband has requested that i offer my driver's license for anyone on the board or the officers to examine but i think we all know by now that i live in district i proceed okay after the april school board meeting many of us here
016distinctly remember dr looney saying that the decision had been made that the human geography textbook had run its course and would not be back that statement was repeated several times on fox news including fox and friends with gretchen carlson since that time not only is the book back but the changes that pearson promised to upcoming editions are non-existent if anything that book is worse in addition we've received an email from mr squires questioning whether the statement that the book wouldn't be back or might not be back was ever made my question is once again we feel like we've been lied to and we have to ask who is lying is it i'm sorry but dr looney and williamson county schools or is it the reporters at fox news and the parents of williamson county who
017know what they have heard thank you that concludes public comment for this evening we move on to the next order of business which is the superintendent's report dr looney thank you madam chair and board members good evening and thank you for your participation in the board retreat from this past weekend i hope that you too felt like it was a productive meeting i wanted to give you an update on student enrollment our current enrollment numbers are exceeding our projections the report that i got at the close of business today was that we are 89 students over projection that number will continue to fluctuate quite a bit until labor day or right after labor day so i don't have school specific numbers but i can tell you and from a global perspective we are exceeding our
018expectations in the area of kindergarten and ninth grade students across the district and so i'll be glad to give you more reports in the days to come as enrollment begins to stabilize mrs birdsong is going to be available now to discuss some very important news to include the announcement that governor haslam and commissioner huffman made today about our school district's performance this is birdsong thank you we're going to save that for last though just in case because we're going to open up our school year with da da da da a perfect act score this is gerald reigns he goes to independence high school and we are very happy for him and his perfect 36 on the act and we're excited for summit high school and ariana ackerman because arianna earned summit its first national honor
019in school history she won first place at the national hosa in contest and prepared speaking her teachers are christina isong and denise asbury and we have a staff spotlight tonight the 2013-14 president of the tennessee educational theater association is mark sotomachia and the kids call him salty and that is why is because i'm sure i did not pronounce his name correctly but anyway wonderful wonderful teacher over there at franklin high school now we're going to talk about the awards that were given out at the superintendent's banquet on august the 1st and superintendent's award for academic achievement at the elementary school level went to walnut grove elementary school at the middle school level it went to woodland middle school and at the high school level it went to ravenwood high school and that is for academic
020achievement for academic growth at the elementary school level clovercroft elementary school for academic growth at the middle school level brentwood middle school and at the high school level page high school now on to the information that dr looney was speaking about that was announced by the governor today folks we have 26 count em reward schools that is the most in the entire state and gosh dr looney can tell you i think we increased it by what 300 or something like that i was an english major not a math major but let's read off the list the 2012-13 reward elementary schools for performance and they give out in two categories performance and performance in progress edmondson grassland kenrose lipscomb nolansville oakview perry creek scales walnut grove and winstead now we put hillsborough over here with the
021middle schools even though they are awarded hillsborough elementary middle hillsborough page middle sunset middle and woodland middle were named reward middle schools for performance and at the high school level brentwood franklin independence and summit high school for performance and growth at the elementary school level allendale clovercroft crockett sunset trinity brentwood middle grassland middle and page high school congratulations to all of our student staff and school spotlights this evening madam chair just for public consumption i'd like to further articulate what that word growth means from the state's perspective for those schools that had growth reward status that means that on average a student in that school grew more than one full academic year that concludes my report thank you dr looney and i'd just like to say wow we have a lot to be proud of
022and i want to thank everybody for their hard work and their participation in making all that happen for our students next item on the agenda is the board chairman's report i too would like to thank the board members for joining us on saturday for our retreat we had a interesting day and very productive i also like to welcome our new safety director is here with us this evening mike fletcher is in the back of the room thank you for being here look forward to working with you and that concludes my report and we will move on to the next item on the agenda which is under unfinished business on page 73 the 2012-13 five-year capital plan adjustments dr looney the command chair and board members i do recommend your approval as submitted someone like to
023make a motion motion from mr mclaughlin not here second mr welch mr anderson yes thank you i'm seriously concerned about moving the raven the east brentwood nolensville area high school back with the crowding at ravenwood and page high growing to its capacity rapidly those would be the two closest schools as far as feeder zones and i'm very concerned that we wait another year it's going to put that much more pressure on raven with that many more portables out there dr looney is there some alternative plan here to handle this growth that's there because that side of the town is the fastest growing in the county so i'd like to know that and if it's possible if the county commission has a approves the funding in the near future at least for planning could the planning
024piece happen because i know construction wise opening a school in 18 19 months is very difficult but the plans are in place the construction can happen in 15 16 months i believe for a high school i'd have to lean on kevin forney for that but i kind of like to have the answer to those two questions because i am really concerned about this yes sir thank you for your question and we too share your concern ravenwood high school is approaching 2 000 students this year we intend on adding a couple of portables there there are some some plans being developed as relates to how to relieve that capacity in the near term assuming that the board grants permission to make this move tonight we will be asking the county commission for design and site preparation
025monies for that property and obviously we'll begin the design work just as soon as we get authorization as i discussed in the work session there is some there is a potential to do something creative in a 810 configuration there or eight nine configuration there to relieve some some of the high school strain that we have at ravenwood in the 14 15 school year so i hate i can't give you more than that i understand you're concerned we share it as well and as soon as we get funding in place we'll begin design the design work and with all do haste yes sir go ahead so if this is approved at this evening's meeting we are pretty sure that you're going to have something in place that the community will not be having 2200 kids at
026ravenwood that you'll be able to do something in in 2015 with the proposed elementary middle configuration whether it be 9 12 added or whatever 9 through 10 grades 9 through 10 added because i'm very hesitant to vote for this knowing that we're going to be pushing this out if we're not going to be assured in some form or fashion that something's going to be handled for the 9th and 10th graders and i know you know people will say well sports wise they can't compete well at that level they can't compete anyhow as the first year is in to two aaa as far as varsity football and stuff that is still going to be like a jv schedule so a ninth and tenth grade configuration would be okay not perfect or ideal but at least something
027so we're not so far overcrowded that school we can't handle it yes sir there's certainly multiple events and decisions that this board would have to make in advance of that but my intention as your superintendent is to provide relief as soon as possible at ravenwood and the only way that for that to happen is for us to have an option for at a minimum 9th graders in the 15th year thank you mr mclaughlin dr lennyson so the people can't see what we're seeing here as far as our five-year capital plan and the changes made can you talk about the designs not just being requested designed for high school but also the other design so that they would understand what we're seeing here yes sir thank you for your question as the board knows and members
028of the public may may or may not know the board saw fit to purchase with the county commission's approval approximately 100 acres of land and the reality of it is the nolans feel the northeastern section of the county is growing so much so that we not only need a high school but we need an elementary and a middle school all three and so the design work that we're talking about is to develop a comprehensive campus that serves all of those students and it may be a k-8 campus it might be a sunset type of configuration on one portion of the of the property with a traditional high school on the second portion of the property but once again this the money that we're asking to for you to approve and therefore ask the county commission
029for approval at a later time in september is to begin the design work and the site preparation for that property so that when the architectural designs are complete and we have gone through the submittal and approval process we can begin construction and secure funding full funding from the county commission for those construction projects i hope that answers your question it does thank you ms hammond and probably just two for a little bit more clarification if we can just go back to that since we're asking for funds we proved for the design is it possible that as part of that process it could be that those dates change or that the high school comes first or is there is there even a possibility to be thinking along those lines or really even with the design phase
030going on are these really the dates that we are now looking at and saying this would be the order of the schools well thank you for your question this is the best estimate that we currently have based on current data as with all five year plans this is subject to change depending on what happens with student population over time but based on today's enrollment numbers this is our best guess miss mills dr lenny when you were talking about the campus and it being potentially an elementary middle and high school campus in the request for funds for design work are we looking at a k-8 are we looking at an elementary middle are we going to go back and revisit that or because i'm not i know the board was going to have conversation about what
031type of school configuration it was going to be elementary middle right and yes ma'am i haven't had that conversation and i just was curious as if that plan includes that k-8 design or is it a or where are we on that right that decision has not been made by this board yet it's a conversation that you will have in the days and months ahead okay is there any further discussion are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes 0 no motion passes next item is 4 b this is on page 77 it's the sac financial assistance program dr looney thank you madam chair and board members as you know we have had some discussion at our work session about using a sliding scale for families that qualify for freody's lunch for the sac program
032just as a reminder the sac program is not a tax based program it is a fee based program and it covers 100 of its own expenses so those students that qualify for free or reduced lunch would have a discounted rate which was paid in that program someone like to make a motion motion for miss mills second from mr gregory is there any discussion miss vote dr looney could you explain whether or not the other alternative the ymca does the same thing thank you for your question the answer is yes ma'am i actually believe it's the same rate miss goodwin is that correct it's very close to the same rate but not the exact same rate so this is offering it out of both options that's correct yes ma'am thank you is there anyone else that
033wishes to speak are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes next item on the agenda is 5a reconsideration of instructional materials the information is located on page 79 dr looney thank you ma'am chaired board members i appreciate the importance of the issue at hand and your decision i took the time to set in on part of of the hearing process that was convened as relates to this textbook as a result of what i believe to be the work the sound work that the committee did i recommend that the board uphold the textbook review review committee's decision someone like to make a motion decision motion from mr hullett second second from his vote and the motion is to uphold the decision mr mclaughlin i am i think we should have
034a hearing but the motion is on the floor i would like to make amendment to the motion though to be considered page seven of the committee's conclusions they say that the committee recommends that teachers of the course be made aware of the publisher's decision to remove page 260 paragraph from the electronic version and subsequent editions my motion is a little different than that my motion is that the teachers must inform the students and parents that this paragraph about bombing jewish teenagers cannot be used as part of this class in any way that's my motion my amendment to the motion would you repeat that please yes i will luckily i wrote it down okay my motion is that the teachers must inform the students and parents that this the paragraph about bombing of jewish teenagers cannot
035be used as part of the instruction in the class in any way okay we have an amendment to the motion that teachers must inform students and parents regarding the paragraph regarding the bombing of jewish teenagers cannot be used in any way is that correct that's part of the instruction in any way yes that's part of instruction is that information on a particular page mr mclaughlin it is it's it's it's the paragraph from page 260 i think that's chapter eight as well do we have a motion we have a second from mr gregory mr gregory did you wish to speak to the amendment that's currently on the floor okay miss hammond did you wish to speak to this amendment i would i also would be in favor of a hearing but and i do support this
036amendment that mr mclaughlin is putting forward i also would like some additional verbage added to be communicated is it appropriate now to bring that up as part of this amendment it would be furthering just more the communication that came out of the ad hoc committee's findings you can certainly add that to the amendment but i think it might be easier if we handled one at a time all right that's fine okay okay i have miss mr mezra did you wish to speak to the amendment no i don't i don't have your mic on because i won't take you out of the queue until i until i know if you want to speak to the amendment okay thank you mr wimberly did you wish to speak to the amendment well that wasn't my original intent but
037i do have questions hold on just a moment because i don't have your mic on may i speak now yes sir okay go ahead so may i ask mr mclaughlin a question so you're saying that you would be okay if we don't remove the book but you want this particular text removed is that what the amendment would say am i on yes sir okay i'm not necessarily saying that but i am saying that based upon the amendment or the motion that came forward that if that motion goes forward that this is the amendment that i would like to to add to that motion and as i understand it the ad hoc committee said the committee also recommends that teachers of the course be made aware of the publisher's decision to remove the page 260 paragraph
038from the electronic version and subsequent editions so they intend to remove this paragraph correct okay understand the committee it wants to remove it no it says the publisher is going to remove the paragraph yeah is that not correct the publisher it has been can i talk yes sir okay the publisher has said that he's going to remove that in the electronic versions that are coming out but that doesn't take care in my opinion of the books that are that were out there that are going to be used nor does it take care of new books whether it's taken out of those books that would the students would also be using and not everybody can use electronic version not everybody will have that available to them okay i think i understand your amendment to the motion
039now thank you thank you miss mills did you wish to speak to the amendment on the floor i have would like to ask the question of i guess jason and dr looney in what i believe is our policy and our procedure that is spelled out in board policy and in what i believe to be our options in regard to what we are to do with the decision out of this committee is either to uphold the decision of the committee to throw out the decision of the committee or to grant a hearing and the question that i have is does this do do we have the authority and are we doing the right thing by making a decision on whether or not to add or subtract language from the decision of the committee because i'm not
040sure it appears to me that steps outside of the scope of what we've been asked to do in this situation and i think that's amending the decision and if we're not comfortable with the decision of the committee then i think we should vote to say we're not comfortable with the decision grant a hearing and see what comes out of that or throw out the decision or uphold the decision so i'm curious as to what we're supposed to do yes sir go ahead dr looney because mr golden was the hearing officer for the review process i think the question would be more appropriately directed to the board's council and that's mr bill squire bill would you comment on that and then i'll have a closing comment sure thank you for the question you know ultimately you
041know you start with the overarching premise that the board is responsible for curriculum and textbooks in any classroom i will say going to miss mill's question the way the policy is written what it contemplates is that the lion's share of the review hearing take place with the committee and then the decision itself come to the board if on appeal like by ms cardoza moore and that the role of the board then is to as you described uphold it turn it down or have a hearing to do get additional information or questions you may have answered is it possible for you to adopt all or part of the committee's decision the answer is technically yes is it wise to do that i can't really tell you that but i will say that what the policy really
042is looking for is for you all to discuss and review the committee's decision decision itself and take a vote on what you think about that decision as it came to you okay then i need to say i can't support your amendment tim because i think that if we are going to if we want as a board and believe that we need to hear the case and we feel like that the committee has not made a reasonable judgment and that would be the reason in my mind that we would exclude that i think i can't support that because i think our role at this particular point is to do one of those three things and if we believe as a board that we need to have a hearing and hear that i think that's what we
043need to do but i don't i can't support amending the recommendation of the committee so that's where i am i respect that is there anyone else that wishes to speak to the amendment that's currently on the floor if you would just signal with your hand welch thank you yes i think you brought up a great point and bill i guess i'm going to go back to you on this as kind of a point of order if the original amendment put forth by bobby is that we're going to accept the recommendation of the committee can we add amendments to that because that would seem to be contrary to the motion that is on the floor to accept this would be seemed to be a an amendment to to have the hearing or make additions that way
044in which case i think we would either need to vote the amendment up or down to accept or to not accept and then move forward on additional options including mr mclaughlin's recommendation to add a change to it the second question that i had i guess for mr mclaughlin and it is a question i think i'm asking for kind of some help from the assembled board here to help me think through this is i understand the philosophy and what you're looking for it's kind of a the stated belief of the board that this is not an appropriate statement to make my concern is the cure worse than this disease in this case and i would want to sort of go to the fact that dr lenny how many members are outside members how many students do
045we have currently signed up for ap human geography this semester just under a thousand just from how many did we have last semester tim can you answer that 600 tim is telling me okay so we've had a what a two-thirds increase from laughter this year based upon the publicity that we've had upon this issue probably not solely on this issue with a growing district and you know it's hard to attribute just to this but i would say it's it's hard not to attribute a large portion of that growth to the publicity that this issue has garnered in the media so again my concern and i'm not saying i disagree with you but i'm just having trouble kind of thinking with this is that by this action by having the teacher point out trying to think
046the mentality of a teenage child having been one myself years and years and years ago the teacher at the cloud at the front of the classroom saying whatever you do don't read this page this chapter and verse and then that student the very first thing i can see them doing let's go into that phase in that chapter and verse and reading that thank you is there anyone else that wishes to speak to the amendment on the floor i do i'm there do you wish to speak to your amendment i do yes sir i just want to answer mr welch i don't disagree with what you're saying in regards to the curiosity of a 14 15 year old that's what's probably going to happen but i think there's a big difference of them reading it and
047that them being part of the curriculum and being taught that and so i think that's the thing is as part of the instruction i just really feel so that you understand everybody understands why i feel this way is i think it's a horrible thing to compare bombing any teenage innocent person and trying to compare that to any political stance of anyone that is coming out there i think to take that to a 14 year old i don't i was a 14 once too probably a little further back than you were just a little but i think the thing about it is i have four kids and hopefully by friday i'll have eight grandkids and the maturity of a 14 year old no matter whether they're taking a college class or not is greatly influenced by
048what they're taught in school and i think that this type of thing is horrific in my mind that this would be taught in any fashion about any group of people or even if it was compared and even talked about in williamson county the innocent killing of children has anything properly based upon a government decision to do anything i just don't think that's has a place at all in the instruction of our children and that's just that's my opinion so that everybody understands where i stand okay but i appreciate it as well and i don't argue the fact that the enrollment and the curiosity of 14 15 year olds contributes to how many people are that have signed up for the class now is there anybody else that wishes to speak to the amendment i have
049several people in the queue but i'm not going to click on your mic because that will take you out of the cube before we vote on the amendment that's on the floor does everybody understand what the amendment is before we vote are we ready to vote dr looney mister you'd like to talk mr anderson okay as far as if this amendment is approved what does that mean to the main motion on the floor since there seems to be a contradictory point here what are we saying legally we go here mr squires thank you for the question my understanding is that the original motion was to uphold the decision rendered by the committee i understand mr mclaughlin's amendment to be a modification of the actual opinion that was provided to you so my understanding would be
050that you're upholding the decision of the committee with that one change by mr mclaughlin i think we need to really make this very very clear because i see them as contradictory to one saying this is what it is and the other one's saying this is what it is but if i can speak dr looney thank you madam chair board members once again i can appreciate the difficult position that you're in consistent with the way that we do business in winston county my recommendation would be to not support that amendment i agree with mr anderson's position i think that they contradict each other my opinion is that you have one of three choices to make and there needs to be a motion a second and a and a vote on one of those three outcomes and
051if you choose to have a hearing which is certainly your prerogative then these other issues would be surfaced and come to the forefront but the decision to be consistent with the way that you have done business in the past you need to vote up or down or vote to have a hearing does that bring clarity my beliefs i unclear what he's saying that if we do vote for this then he dr looney if i'm saying israel believes that then we've decided to change the decision of the of the committee that's correct okay is there anyone else that wishes to speak miss vote could you simply restate the motion on the floor and make it clear what a yes vote what a no vote is just so everybody's on the same page a yes vote will
052be to uphold mr mclaughlin's amendment that teachers must inform students and parents regarding the paragraph on page regarding the bombing of jewish teenagers that it cannot be used in any way as part of the curriculum and i think as a point of clarification for the board that paragraph was cited in the work of the committee and the publisher has indicated that he is going to remove that paragraph from online version and from future publications did that provide clarity ms vote thank you before we queue up the vote ms ms hammond so again just for clarification the committee's conclusion that are in here and they made they put forth some directives to teachers to to communicate some things out about their their findings are those communicated is that inherent in it that those would be communicated
053out if the if it was if the book was if their recommendation was upheld yes ma'am it would be an administrative function to make sure that we've communicated our expectations of all of our employees based on the hearing panel's recommendation should this board uphold that recommendation and then again just for clarification i know we've asked it a couple different times so if the one more time would you clarify if the yes or what the yes or no vote would mean based on this amendment is the yes vote saying then that we have already made the decision to in to uphold the decision and does the no vote mean what would you clarify that one more time currently the motion on the floor is an amendment to the original motion the original motion was to uphold
054the decision of the textbook review committee right the motion currently on the floor which is an amendment changes that motion that was on the floor so it's an alteration to supporting the decision of the textbook committee so a yes vote would be that you're supporting that amendment a no vote means that you are not supporting that amendment and we move back to the main motion excuse me following that vote either as amended or at the main motion depending on which way the vote on the amendment the results of that mr anderson yes textbooks in tennessee are on a six-year cycle when is the social studies this textbook up for redoing it's being reconsidered this year for adoption for the next year so it's got a one year window with this textbook is what you're saying
055right yes sir the review process and the public input process is taking place in the current year right now for purchase for next year the purchase for next year in the new textbook then that's being reviewed right now is this section that's been in question is that in the new textbook edition that's being reviewed our communication with the author has been that will be removed in the print and edition edition for the next adoption cycle okay so they have told you that it is going to be removed now there's no guarantee that the state's going to say that's a an approved textbook right is the state is reviewing it at this point or is it down to the local level now no sir it's still at the state level state level that's all right so
056there's no guarantee that the state's going to approve that this textbook is within the tennessee guidelines or the ap guidelines for this class right my understanding is they have narrowed the list because there were only a few publishers that submitted textbooks for review i believe that the revised version of this book is actually on the list to be reviewed what ultimately happens i don't know as you know there's also a legislative hearing process coming up to address the matter so i have no idea okay so if it's a one year window and they are going to take it out next year that gives a perspective to where this is yes all right thank you very much okay by signal of your hand is there anyone else that wishes to speak at this moment mr wimberley
057so in the meantime until the decision is made by the state and that i assume us to whether this textbook would continue as i understand the ad hoc committee's recommendation they are recommending that teachers be made aware of the publisher's decision to remove the paragraph from the electronic version in subsequent additions is that do i understand that correctly yes sir that's correct okay thank you is there anyone else are ready to vote on the amendment if you vote yes you're voting to support the amendment as stated if you vote no you are not supporting the amendment as stated does everyone understand okay are we ready to vote your vote is five yes seven no motion fails we're back to the main motion which is to uphold the decision of the committee mr mezra thank you
058madam chair i would not like to uphold the committee as it as it currently stands i really would prefer to hold a hearing in order that we may be able to inter interact and actually dialogue with the complainant i was not given that opportunity not being on the committee and i would like that opportunity thank you mr gregory thank you i wish i had mr wimberley's voice for speaking into the mic i think this book has some redeeming qualities found some of the parts of it very interesting and i could see where it could stimulate some vigorous and enlightened debate among students and their teachers however i think we need to be aware and alert to the sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle attacks on the founding principles of america christianity and judaism and
059capitalism for us to sit back and ignore these attacks i think it would be akin to like an ostrich with their head in the sand just if we could i think it's page 179 there's something that got my attention that hasn't been brought up by many of the folks that have been participating in this there's a section on the origins of religions and the first one that we come to is the origin of christianity and in that we read that christians believe that jesus died to atone for human sins that he was raised from the dead by god and that his resurrection from the dead provides people with hope for salvation christians believe that the next religion to be studied in this section is the origin of islam so one would think that there we
060would find what muslims believe but instead we are told this muhammad received his first revelation from god through the angel gabriel the quran the holiest book in islam is a record of god's word as revealed to the prophet muhammad as he began to preach the truth that god had revealed to him muhammad suffered suffered persecution and in 622 he was commanded by god to immigrate christians believe god revealed it's not even subtle i just think that for us to ignore these attacks and i would say it's radical muslims main street media liberal elite that come after us in subtle ways and not so subtle ways so i think there comes a time when you draw a line in the sand and i think maybe that time for us is now mr wimberley perhaps this is
061a question for mr squires if there is a hearing what would the hearing consist of what would be kind of the rules for the hearing now to put this into a little bit of context it's been roughly seven years since you all have had a book request or book review request of any kind the last time was 2006 and the book was to kill a mockingbird at that time you all did not vote to grant a hearing based on what was presented to you to me it's not even clear that you've ever done this before so i say that just to give you a framework to think about this in the appropriate way to have a hearing if you voted to do that would be to consider it in the nature of oral argument based
062upon the record created by the committee as you all know i've provided to you under separate copy the entire record the committee created including audio recordings of the hearing they conducted all of the written materials from ms cardoza more and the written decision of the committee itself ordinarily you would give the complainant with a person presenting the appeal a span of time i believe in this case it's 10 minutes to present whatever they wish to present in advancing their argument after which you all could ask questions of the complainant in response on the other side you would also hear from the committee chairperson which in this case would be mr golden who would also present what the work of the committee entailed and what they decided after which you could ask mr golden questions about
063the position of the committee after that you all would have to vote to uphold or deny the decision made by the committee thank you miss vote as a member of the committee it was my privilege to have the opportunity to read this book pretty thoroughly and to listen to miss cordozo moore's presentation and i just want to assure everyone here that it was a very professional and respectful exchange and it was very thorough and somewhat lengthy but i felt that it was a fair process i do want to remind everyone that this subject matter is a very broad subject matter human geography we've talked about cultural landscape as being a curriculum it's it's really not that's the curriculum is human geography and the goal of the course is an ap course and it's a survey
064course and like i said it's it's broad there's a lot covered in the time that is covered in this course there's a just a wide variety of subjects although that religion is covered in it to some degree it's not any more covered and i wanted to also let you know that one of the big takeaways for me was the fact that this is but one resource used in the course the ap teachers who teach this course utilize many resources in fact at the end of every chapter as you know there are a lot of resources listed so i would like to remind this body that in the context of the course this is but one resource that is brought into the classroom for discussion so i just wanted to share that perspective thank you thank
065you mr peterson i just want to i appreciate miss boyd's her comments and mike you know the way i look at this and i reviewed the committee's decision quite extensively and i just you know for me ultimately as we as we just heard a thousand students have signed up for this for this course this year and i don't see a lot of those students here so clearly those individuals want to learn they're they're they want the opportunity to to be taught and ultimately you know our policies that we put into place was to provide the committee the opportunity to to review this and they did and the what we received back from them was a well thought out response i think that everything that was in there all the all the things that were brought
066up were explained very well with regards to how they perceived it to be and i think that we should think more on the lines of educating the children of williamson county which is what we're here to do under the idea that they are you know they're receiving instruction inside the classroom and as we know this book's been in inside the classroom for five years correct this is the sixth year yes sir this is the sixth year in existence it's the third year that we've used it okay so you know and we know that you know as we've heard the ap cores or the ap scores are good i just think that we should look more at the idea of allowing our students to be taught rather than being told what we're going to teach them
067so that's just kind of the way i think of that miss mills i think that we have we are led by our policies and we say that's how we operate and that's how we do business and i think that we have given this complaint fair and adequate hearing through our process and in our process i think our committee went to length to try to understand and be objective and open-minded and it was all people from different walks within our community and i think they came together and made some decisions that they found probably not to be easy decisions because there's a lot of responsibility that goes with this and i think they came to a decision they made some suggestions within their decision and i and it now because the decision wasn't what we want
068what ms cardoza moore wanted she has the right to appeal to the board and i think it is incumbent upon us to stay consistent with what we have done in the past regarding these type of of issues and i think those three things we talk we have talked about what are what our responsibility is and what it is that we should be deciding and i think in my mind and from my perspective if i think that if you don't believe that the committee made a reasonable judgment about this book then i think you have to do something different but i believe that this committee went through a lengthy process and they came back with a thoughtful reasonable decision and i think when we start getting in to changing what we've allocated through our policy to
069do then we need to go back and revisit our policy if we don't feel strongly about it and i think you know at this particular point i can't see where the committee didn't make a reasonable judgment and a very thorough judgment and so i can't support overturning or going back and revisiting that because i think the opportunity through our policy has said this is how we evaluate and i think to go back and continue to give information and add information is not where i think we should be so i'm i can't support anything except for upholding the decision of the committee mr mezra thank you i just wanted to clarify that in not supporting to uphold the committee decisions not that i disagree with in total or in part what the committee's decision was and
070i do appreciate the hard work that the committee did put towards that decision and the hearings that they had in in saying what i did i just wanted to clarify that i have questions that weren't asked during that committee time and i would like to have the opportunity to do that thank you mr wemberly to make sure i have this straight before us now is not the motion to approve but an amendment that would create a hearing am i correct about that no sir the motion that is currently on the floor is to uphold the decision of the committee the review committee we haven't been asked whether or not there is to be a hearing no sir there is only one motion on the floor currently and that motion is to uphold the decision of
071the hearing committee okay i think that i can be supportive of upholding the decision without the necessity of a hearing the committee's work based on what we've been given has been very thorough very deliberative and certainly miss cordoza moore has done a professional and complete job of presenting her her opinion so i think i could support the motion to accept the committee's report without the hearing mr welch thank you i think janice's point about having kind of a reasoned and thorough discussion i think we've had that i think we've had that by both sides and to your point i can find someone's rationale reasoned and thorough and well thought out and at the same time simply disagree with them as well i can respect the opinion of people whose points of views are different than
072mine as long as it's well crafted and factually based sometimes there's just different philosophical beliefs that run up against one another i had the opportunity to listen to the recording of the hearing i was not there either but did listen to it from start to finish i think both sides did this and as you said in his vote in a very respectful manner and i think it's important to say too i don't know if it's it's been said by this full board yet but i think we owe a debt of gratitude to that committee which which was you know taken from the community we had a pto member had a representative of our teachers from our central office from our board of education so it was a cross-section of our educational system each one as
073well as the administration as a principal as well i forgot that one one of the challenges i think we have sitting up here is where we have to be decision makers and it's real easy to sort of sit on the sidelines and criticize the choices say what's wrong with the decision that's real easy because it's very rare that there's a perfect decision that can be made and so the simple route the easy route is when someone does make decisions to just point out well here are the flaws here what's wrong with it and no matter what we decide tonight i think there's going to be some things there's going to be some downsides to it unfortunately we have some very limited decisions that we can make very limited we're not able to just kind of
074start from from whole cloth create and put something forth from the start we also need to take in consideration the classes to start do we have a thousand students that are currently in the classroom that are currently taking this course they currently need to take apparently need to use curriculum so i guess one of the questions going on through my mind here is if not this then what else i think we need to address that and kind of come up with that answer because it is important as we vote to whether or not to accept the committee's decision or whether we look for an alternate option now i understand the book as gary pointed out was six years ago it was introduced and at that time i believe it was the only approved textbook for
075this course is that an accurate statement i believe that's correct okay and put that kind of in context what it is the state board of education is one that approves these textbooks and that is our universe to choose from now since then i believe there have been other textbooks that have also been approved is that i believe there's one other textbook that's on the potential list that particular textbook as i understand it is actually not approved by the college board and the college board is the vetting agency for giving college credit for that course okay so then our decisions here as it would seem as we have a choice between the current textbook and one other textbook that is not approved by the college board and for those listening that don't understand what that is
076this is an ap class it means that it's a very challenging course that the students at the end of it can opt to take a test and receive college credit for that and so this book is not recommended which i assume means that it is not going to properly prepare them for that curriculum and i want to clarify just to be transparent my understanding is that there are other districts in the state that have received approval exceptions to use the alternate book whether it's a good book or not i don't know i will say that i can speak to our ap exam pass rate in that course which is second to none exactly absolutely is there an option to go outside of either those two books that the state board of education has approved yes
077sir there's always a way the butt part of that is it's a process and quite frankly it would not be feasible to do in the short turnaround time that would be required to continue offering the course this year to that group of students so what that would require then is to form a committee to evaluate these books one that we would hope it also aligns with the college board curriculum if such a book exists then we would need to order that book wait for the months for it to arrive if it does come in before the end of the course our teachers would then need to themselves read develop a curriculum from it begin teaching that curriculum midway through the session if we want the third option all of this again good until the end
078of the year when a new textbook adoption would happen from the state that's great okay that doesn't seem a reasonable option to me and mark i can go through this book i agree with you there are limitations to it as well there's there's things that i don't like in this book it's not a perfect textbook i don't know if a perfect textbook does exist i wish this wasn't the textbook that we had but it is and i really don't see any other options that we have to replace it so i think this is one of these times where we need to be a leader it's very easy to kind of pound the table and point out flaws and everything else and there are but to be a leader you got to kind of step up
079and say what is your option what is your alternate choice then if not this then what and so i'm open to another what i'm not here to say that i love this book this is the greatest book ever but i'll be darned if i've found a better option if anyone has here can give me one please provide it thank you mr gregory well to address eric's questions of what else or what options do we have we can only find out through a hearing if we vote to support the motion then there's no chance for a hearing it's a done deal so there may be opportunities to address this book and get it to where we're much more comfortable with it but we'll never know that unless we vote to decline the current motion if you
080will and move on to a hearing that's the only way to find out what options we have mr mezra thanks mark again you spoke exactly what i wanted to say just to reiterate i think there are probably some other options i understand mr welsh you're you're well-stated problems with both the academic and financial issues and turning down the textbook flat and in the current as we've already started the school year but i believe there may be other options available to to to meet the disagreements of the complainant and yet continue with our academic school year unhindered and i think one of our speakers that came up for the public speaking miss abby wolff stated that there may be some other options available to us if we were given the opportunity to speak with them and
081try to come to a conclusion thanks mr welch pj i appreciate it but again what are they to just say there's i think there's other options good tell me what they are so that i can consider them but what i can't do is say let's just pull the rug out from underneath our students feet in the hopes that there's other options because we think they are we don't know what they are but we think they are so please provide me other options and i will gladly consider them it's not you can ask miss hammond i just wanted to say and go back to policy a little bit janice i appreciate miss mills your obviously your expertise on that but the policy does allow for those three options i wasn't aware that mr mezra had additional
082questions to ask my feeling for saying that i supported a hearing was just to give opportunity available for communication mr mclaughlin i just want to add you know i i still think there should be a hearing as well and i think that there's a number of things to talk about number one miss vote when she was talking about the committee when they went through and considered this they said this is just one of many resources they used for this course probably of an important resource but one of many resources and i think that's what was said if i misquoted you can correct me they so it's it's only one of of one resource so it's not the only resource you know that the course doesn't you know you know lift or die you know according
083to you know using the entirety of this book i think the other part is the committee on the downside and i understand the time frame dr looney but the committee also recommends that williamson county schools should include in his adoption review process a review of other human geography textbooks so that a comparison can be made i think one of the things that we've continually run into is the fact that the state gives us one or very few choices on a lot of our textbooks and then we have to choose the best of the worst in some cases and i think that you know as we move forward we shouldn't allow that i think we need to go through and i understand the short time on this i understand the time frame on this but i
084think you know it's not the only option and you know i have to agree with my colleague to the right i think the that we need to i think there can be more discussion on this i think more discussion would be very positive mr wimberley mr squires when the hearing if one is held beyond the record and not on options wouldn't there be another forum we could discuss the options sure and thank you for the question technically the hearing would be about the complaint itself and the resolution of that complaint so going to mr gregory's statements to the extent that the idea is that we would consider options tonight as part of that hearing that is not what would occur thank you miss males i would like to call the question we have a motion
085to call the question second from mr hullett do an oral vote on that we have a motion on the floor and a second to call the question all in favor any opposed was your vote no yeah okay are we ready to vote mr king is everybody aware of the motion that is on the floor before we vote okay just for a point of clarification the motion that is on the floor that you're going to cast your vote for is to uphold the decision of the textbook review committee your vote is eight yes four no motion passes next item on the agenda is item 5b1 it's board policy revisions for first reading 5.1 5.115 transfer this information is on page 81. dr looney thank you ma'am chair and board members from time to time it comes
086necessary to transfer employees this policy changes some language as it relates to that it eliminate eliminates the locally negotiated agreement since that no longer exists i do recommend your approval someone like to make a motion motion for miss mills second from mr mclaughlin is there any discussion are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes next item is five c one is their 2013-14 general purpose school fund budget resolutions the first is on page 85 it's the park state funds for technology dr looney thank you madam chair and board members this has been a topic of conversation for a couple of months we finally have received the final notification of this grant award for one million one hundred thirty three thousand nine hundred sixty seven dollars i do request your
087approval motion from his vote second for mr welch is there any discussion mr wimberly dr looney what would this money be used for technology infrastructure and computers for classroom use all of it i mean all those things 100 yes sir okay thank you mr mclaughlin question dr looney if for some reason the state made a decision not to use parcc then we still get to keep the technology money well whether a federal government's involved i'm not sure there's ever our understanding is yes sir okay thank you is there any further discussion are you ready to vote your vote is 12 yes 0 no motion passes next item is 5 c 2 this is a coordinated school health program this information is on page 87 dr looney thank you ma'am chair and board members good news
088we received some additional funds for our coordinated school health program thanks to mrs boykin i do recommend your approval of this screen someone like to make a motion motion from mr wimberley second from mr mezra mr wimberley you didn't have your button pushed i didn't mean to if i did okay sorry that's all right not a problem is there anyone that wishes to speak to the motion on the floor are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes next item is five c three this is cte equipment needs dr looney this information is on page 91 thank you ma'am chair board members i recommend this approve approval as submitted someone like to make a motion motion for mr hullett second second mr peterson is there any discussion are we ready
089to vote your vote is 12 yes 0 no motion passes next item is 5 c 5 4. this is on page 93 it's invest now dr looney thank you madam chair and board members before i make this recommendation i'd like to thank ms deb dr deb enright for helping us put this program together as board members as you know there is a feature directly off our web page where individuals can make donations tax deductible donations directly to the schools called invest now and as a result of those donations we have received 27 499 dollars for the purpose of buying computers and i'm very very proud of dr enright and her work and particularly thankful to the community members that have supported us in that way i do recommend approval motion from mr wimberley second for
090ms hammond is there any discussion mr mclaughlin i don't i push the wrong button is there anybody else that wishes to speak to the motion okay or ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes next item is five c five this is located on page 95 it's the united way grant dr looney thank you madam chair and board members we have a fantastic partnership with united way they participate in a program called raise your hand where they provide direct tutoring to students in some of our at-risk schools this grant award is for twenty thousand dollars i do recommend your approval someone like to make a motion motion for mr peterson second from mr wimberley is there any discussion are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion
091passes mr mclaughlin did you wish to speak okay thank you next item is 5c on page 97. this is a verizon grant dr looney thank you madam chair and board members this too is good news we have a great partnership with verizon we have a thousand dollar seven hundred and seventy four thousand seven hundred nine dollar grant that we need to reallocate for professional development for teachers do recommend your approval someone like to make a motion motion from his vote second from mr mclaughlin is there any discussion are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes next item is 5d these are capital funding requests this information is on page 99. dr looney thank you madam chair and board members before i make this recommendation which is an intent to
092fund for 15 million 410 000 this takes care of the discussions that we had about the five-year capital plan i just want to make sure that i remind you that this may or may not include the seven hundred thousand dollars of additional general purpose reserve fund monies that we have as a result of closing the year out so the county commission may decide to use some of that money for this intent to fund or for some other with some other directive so this may or may not include that money i just don't know based on what the county commission wants to do regardless we're going to ask the county commission for funding of 15 million four hundred ten thousand dollars for these various projects someone like to make a motion motion for mr peterson second
093from mr howlett is there any discussion mr mclaughlin i'm just going to say i understood from the newspaper that we found a million dollars i assume that's the 700 000 you're talking about yes sir it i think interest went rates went way up leslie i'm not sure how that worked is there any further discussion are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes next item is 5e1 this is 2013-14 central cafeteria fund budget amendments this is a two percent employee raise dr looney thank you madam chair board members this is for the two percent raise for the cafeteria workers once again this is this is a self-sustaining fund this is just putting the dollar figures in the appropriate categories to get them their two percent pay raise motion for miss
094mills second for mr peterson is there any discussion are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes next item is 5 f 1 this information is on page 103 it's the 2013-14 extended school fund budget amendments this is also a two percent employee raise dr looney this too is a self-sustaining fund used with fee monies collected no taxpayer dollars this funds the pay raise for those two those employees at a two percent rate somebody like to make a motion motion for mr wimberley second for miss mills is there any discussion are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes next item is 5 g this is on page 105 it's the board resolution to reopen the tcap appeals process dr looney thank you madam chair
095and board members this is provided at your request this if passed would provide a resolution formalizing the board's opinion or position that the tcap appeals process should be reopened should the board pursue any additional action to include legal action obviously that would come back to you as an action item i do recommend your approval as submitted someone like to make a motion motion for mr welch second from mr hullett mr peterson yeah i've got based on the work session i do have an issue with the last line the board further authorizes the superintendent dr mike learning to take all reasonable steps in effectuating this resolution up to and including any necessary legal action i'm not in favor of that so i'd like to amend that be stricken from this resolution so you're making a motion
096that the last sentence in the paragraph is stricken from the resolution correct is there a second okay the motion dies for lack of a second we're back to the main motion which is approval of the resolution mr mclaughlin dr looney i think it would be good for us we've had a lot of discussion on this but i don't think a lot of the public have and i think it would be hooves to spend just a few minutes of you talking about why we feel this resolution is necessary i fully support the resolution but i think it would be good to talk about it just a little bit yes sir thank you for giving me that opportunity and let me be clear we're not alone there are 41 other districts i believe it's 45 other districts
097in the state that have similar concerns and so to make a long story short we identified after the testing cleanup process had occurred that three of our students three of our high school students were mislabeled miscoded as being white students rather than hispanic when in fact they are hispanic that resulted in our district being identified as needs improvement for hispanic subpopulation gap closure we took that on the chin because we thought that was right the problem or or the disconnect came into existence when dr david snowden from franklin special school district was notified that despite the closing of the window according to the state guidelines nashville metro schools had received an exception and their native american students were in a similar situation and they were able to get the record corrected and so our position
098is simply this the record needs to be right whether it works for us as a school district or against as a school district we hold teachers schools i mean today we identify 26 reward schools part of that is gap closure and so we have all these stakes associated with the data and it's imperative from our perspective that the data is accurate mrs hammond asked me specifically about one school today why was school x not a reward school and we had the discussion that it was because of a small group and so it's important it's imperative from my perspective that the data is accurate if we're going to hold teachers principals school officials accountable for those kinds of results i just think we should we should have an accurate record and because the state provided an
099exception for one district we just feel like everybody should be afforded the same opportunity that's not in any way meant to disrespect or disparage nashville metro public schools they've done a great job and we actually think that it's great that their record is right that they're that the report is correct we just want that same opportunity miss anderson can i ask one more question on that yes sir my understanding too that you have already talked to the state about making this right and that and that they have not been willing to do that is that correct yes sir i have corresponded with the department of ed and personally have talked to the commissioner of education mr kevin huffman without success in getting this reopened and so from our perspective this would be the next logical
100sequence in a chain of events to ask formally from the board thank you mr wimberley as i understood our discussion at the work session and your introduction to this that we would be authorizing you to urge the department of education to reopen the tcap appeals process which i wholeheartedly support but it looks to me that this resolution reads that we would in effect be authorizing you to take legal action without coming back to the board and i think i'd have to go back to mr peterson's motion had i been awake i think i would have seconded that because i don't think that's what we intended to do or did i miss something there yes sir thank you for your clarifying question i do not think this entitles me to act unilaterally without the board's approval
101to file a lawsuit i do not take that i understand that to be true could could someone help me understand that because it does clearly say the board further authorizes the superintendent to take all reasonable steps and affecting this resolution up to and including any necessary legal action that sounds like we're authorizing you to sue am i incorrect jason on in the four corners of the document i would have interpreted it the same way dr looney has stated that he doesn't see it as as the case he's created a public record that he doesn't see that as a k as the case based upon that based upon his statement to you publicly if this passes i would advise him not to sue unless he got your authorization separately i think i would advise that as
102well but that's not what we're saying here well my understand let me clarify if i can my understanding of the conversation and consistent with the letter that we sent the department this week it talks about the potential of legal action so for me to talk to the department about potential legal action without the authority of the board i think would be short-sighted and i have forwarded that letter to the commission based on the conversation that we had at the work session so well i'm quite comfortable with that but i'm not so sure i'm comfortable with this last these last few words of this statement here of the resolution if if we took those out would would you feel like you would have less strength i do okay thank you mr hallet mr squires mr golden
103might be able to help me out with this but i believe what we're doing is with that statement is we're putting it on the table so it's just out there saying that this is an option it's putting some teeth into it but if we were to come back my question would be to go to what kenneth had said originally is what i'm hearing is that jason said he would recommend that you come back to us to go through with that if we do go forward as it is would he or is it carte blanche you can you know the system and dr looney could just go ahead without the board's approval or knowledge well before you answer that i have confirmed and affirmed that i will not pursue legal action without your express authority miss
104mills i'm good i couldn't figure out how to un-push my button i pushed it three times tim keeps pushing his i can't figure out how to unpush mine okay mr welch thank you this is very simple well it boils down to two items for me the first is equitable treatment and i believe mr peterson you kind of brought up the good point of if this wasn't an issue before we knew about metro nashville why is it afterwards i think that's a great point that you've brought up for me the issue is when we speak vector full treatment we speak about it both ways at that time the district was told by the state that there would be no reconsideration of the data now that doesn't mean we agreed with the data it doesn't mean with
105the decision rather we didn't think didn't agree that it was the right choice but it was the choice and for us to have a reconsideration of the data solely would have been inequitable treatment for every other school district we would have been treated better than anyone else and that would be as equally wrong for someone else to do it now we find out that what the state said was not accurate the state said that we won't consider any appeals but they did they did consider appeals they did allow changes to be made and they treated metro nashville differently correctly i don't see any issue with what they did for metro nashville i think it was the right decision but it should be the right decision for every school district that has similar concerns so that's
106that's the distinction right there so i think you bring up a very valid argument but i would i would make the case that what we're talking about is equitable treatment in both cases both positive and negative towards the school district the second point this comes down to is accurate data what we're asking the state to do is very simple not saying treat us better we're not saying change the standard or anything else we're just saying use accurate data into many a high school wrestling match where the referee will throw up a two or three points and that person at the scoring table gets it wrong now when that's done the coaches go to that table together they review the scoring and they correct it they don't reward the wind to the wrong athlete and that's
107what we're asking here simply use correct data now why this is so important to us well for one we're rolling into an era of more and more top-down dictation from the state about what our curriculum will be how we measured how we will evaluate our teachers and so if we're going to have this we need to be able to as a local district to trust that the state is playing fair with us that they don't have their thumbs on the scale that the inputs that they provide to give us our scores is accurate and it's not we know it's not and the impact here is great our most valuable resource as community our public schools the one that drives our economy here in williamson county is being inaccurately tarnished by the state by their refusal
108to use accurate data so i wholeheartedly support this resolution up to and including any necessary legal action i support that far that going that route as well if need be i hope it's not i hope secretary hoffman will see reason i hope he will correct the inaccuracies in the state data and i hope we will change the missed label that the state has provided the school district so i do fully support this document as written mr peterson i just want to make make it very clear that i completely support the document you know i support the idea that the data has to be right i support the idea that you know i have no problem saying it i mean ultimately you know we had you know the same type of issue last year with regards
109to you know the exemplary and the intermediate and that type of it that type of thing but i think we all can ultimately say you know the 12 you know that we're absolutely an exemplary district you're number one in the state you know all of those types of accomplishments i have nothing you know i mean i want the accurate data i want the data to be correct i think the state should hold themselves accountable for giving us the correct data but at the same time you know i don't like i said my only issue is with the idea that you know i don't want to use district money to go after something that ultimately wouldn't have been correct in the first place and we were resigned to the fact when they told us there wouldn't
110be any appeals so i understand that once there was an appeal that changes the playing field but that like i said my only issue was and still is that i would not support us using any funds county funds to to fight the state when we ultimately know that they're wrong we know that they did something they shouldn't you know that ultimately they said they wouldn't but i think that ultimately we should hold them accountable certainly for the net for this upcoming year and if this if this is a fight that we have to take then we ensure that it's a hundred percent correct this year and they and they realize that you know that we are going to stand up and this resolution goes to that we are going to hold you accountable going forward
111but like i said i mean my only issue was that specific line item but again if dr looney says that he will ensure and come back to us and tell us that you know if that's the route he's choosing then we would have the opportunity to revoke then i will support this resolution mr mclaughlin i know the board is going to find it's strange for an engineer to offer a change of word usage but would it be a problem dr looney to change the word necessary legal action to potential legal action which i think would be a little more along the line it does that take away strength no sir i'm amenable to that change so mr mclaughlin are you making a motion to change the third to the last word at the end of
112this document to potential i am we have a motion from mr mclaughlin and a second from mr peterson and that is to change the last sentence to read the board further authorizes the superintendent dr mike looney to take all reasonable steps in effectuating this resolution up to and including any potential legal action is that your motion mr mclaughlin yes it is there anyone that wishes to speak to the motion that's currently on the floor mr michael i guess what i was going to say is germaine to the motion i was going to say that i was comfortable with the language the way it was with dr looney's assurance that he wouldn't sue without the board knowing about it i wholeheartedly support it as it's written but i certainly don't have any problem if the word
113is potential instead of necessary thank you miss vote do you wish to speak to the motion it's currently on the floor so we have a motion on the floor to amend the main motion of which is the approval of this resolution to change the last sentence and the third to the last word from necessary to potential does everybody understand do you have that on the queued up are we ready to vote your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes so we're not back to the main motion as amended miss vote dr looney could you talk a little bit about the other school districts that have taken issue with this specifically are we leading the charge or are other school districts taking it upon themselves to draft resolutions like could you give us a beat
114on what you have heard through the grapevine from the 45 schools that do take issue with this yes ma'am i can i can tell you that toss the tennessee organization of school superintendents has passed a resolution similar to this asking the state to reopen the appeals window i cannot speak to whether individual school districts have done so i will say that i have spoken to a number of colleagues that have expressed a willingness to take this issue as far as necessary in order to get the record straight okay and specifically would that include taking a legal route if it were deemed necessary would some of these other schools be interested in pursuing that path absolutely okay thank you for answering mr wimberley would you push your button again please and confirm thank you your vote
115is 12 yes zero no motion passes that concludes the business that is on this evening's agenda there's a number of staff and principals that are present with us this evening some already have slipped out because of the late hour but i do want to take a moment to recognize you and thank you for being here so if you'd please stand and let us recognize you and i actually think all of them received some sort of recognition earlier this evening so congratulations on your reward status absolutely congratulations we appreciate you've been here this evening we appreciate your support also i think it's important that on behalf of the board i express our sincere appreciation to the ad hoc materials review committee i don't know that if everybody realizes what that committee actually did during that review
116process but i think it's important that the community understand the importance that this committee the importance of their job that they read the textbook in its entirety they didn't just read an excerpt they read it in its entirety they also reviewed other materials and they listened and attended a four plus hour hearing with the complainant and i think that is commendable that they took that time out of their time and did that work on behalf of this board as a result of our policy additionally they wrote the very lengthy report that we all received as part of that report and so i just want to express my sincere gratitude to each and every one of those individuals who worked on behalf of this board on that ad hoc materials review committee so i thank you
117very much on behalf of the board that concludes the business that's on this board's agenda this evening i want to thank everyone for being here and this meeting is adjourned thank you do we have to give our books back yes if you've got them just leave them here you can leave them here tonight or you