Board of Education Meeting - November 20, 2025

001We'll be opening the meeting with a brief moment of silence or prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States Flag. No one is required to participate or be present for any of these and being in this portion of the meeting is completely voluntary. Ms. Rosales is in charge of our prayer and our pledge this evening. Thank you, Madam Chair. If you can please bow your heads with me. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for allowing us to be here today. Thank you, God, for giving us traveling mercies and for allowing us to be here safe and sound. Lord, I just pray that you give each and one of us wisdom and discernment as we're about to make decisions on behalf of so many people, Lord God. I also pray, I

002also ask that you be with our teachers, our staff, our students and parents as we're getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving and possibly travel around the holiday. God, allow us to get back safe and sound so that we continue to do your will. Lord, thank you for all that you do and for loving us because we are your children. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Today, I have the pleasure of inviting an amazing group. It's led by Ms. Isamari Pozo, who is going to do the, they're going to do the pledge, and then after, they're going to give us a little presentation, a sampling of this group. They are the Laverne High School. Latin dance club. Mrs. Isol Maripozo, if you want to share a few words, please do so. Good evening, everyone, school

003board members, administrators, and honored guests. My name is Isol Maripozo. I have the privilege of being the ESL instructional coach and ESL department lead at Laverne High School. I'm also the sponsor of the very first Latin dance team. And as far as I know, I think in the entire Rutherford County Schools. So this is very exciting for us. Thank you so much. It's really, really special for us that we're here today because we want to share our love of dance, our love for our students, love for their cultures, and love for the pride that they carry in who they are. At La Verne, we are a beautifully diverse community, and many of our students come from families from... Many different places that are learning new languages. They have rebuilt their lives from the ground up.

004And in the midst of all of that, they bring with them a rich tradition, music, rhythms, and stories that deserve to be seen. So the Latin dance team, that is our purpose, to give these students a space where their accents are celebrated, their culture is the spotlight, and they feel empowered, confident, and proud. So this is part of a culturally responsive teaching strategy that we're utilizing at La Verne. It's not just a concept, but it's a living, breathing experience where students see their identity reflected and honored. And so when these students dance, they're not just performing. They are reclaiming their voice. They're sharing their heritage and reminding us of the beauty of our community. So tonight, I am so grateful that you guys get to witness their joy, their pride, and their talent. And each

005of these students represents the spirit of La Verne High School, which we are resilient, we are talented, and we're beautifully diverse. So thank you so much for giving us this opportunity, and I thank you for your support, and I will let the girls lead us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, individual, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. That was excellent. My husband and I took a dance class one time. I have no rhythm. It wasn't good. It wasn't pretty. Our security guys would volunteer to help them to dance with him. I think it'd be good. Did you want to dance with him too? That was excellent. Next we have the approval of

006the agenda. Second. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Thank you, Mr. Tidwell. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have the approval of the consent agenda. Move to approve. Thank you, Ms. Vaughn. Second. Thank you, Ms. Darby. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next up, we have public comments, and we do have five that are signed up for this evening, and I would ask when I call your name to please come to the podium, and you'll have three minutes. First up, we have Ms. Lindsay Hebden. Hello. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Lindsay Hebden, and I'm here to speak about the potential rezoning at Stewart's Creek Elementary. My family and I recently relocated this past

007January to the Cedar Hills community and neighborhood right outside of the Stewart's Creek campus. We made the decision to relocate our family to maintain our students' enrollment at Stewart's Creek Elementary with the zoning changes that went into effect for the 25-26 school year. We built a home that was in close proximity to the school in hopes that we would prevent any future rezoning and to also provide our children with a school and a community that they could grow up in. My main concern with the current proposals are the multiple changes and re-zones within such a short period of time and how that is going to disrupt the stability of our students. Elementary school is a critical time in our students' developments where they need security, comfort, and support. Moving them from school to school each

008and every year can be very detrimental to those needs. For most individuals within my area, these proposed changes would be the second move for our students in two years' time. Not to mention the other transportation and logistical concerns, social, financial, and educational impacts that these moves would have on our children. With reviewing both of the proposed concepts, they provide similar movement within the enrollment numbers at Stewart Creek Elementary over the next two to three years. Per the projections, the largest difference comes in year three, and it equates to a total of 93 students. However, the real main difference between the two concepts is who will be affected. Concept number one will impact current students that are enrolled at Stewart's Creek Elementary School, the majority of which were just impacted last year, as I stated already.

009While concept two does impact some current students that are going to Stewart's Creek, those students were not impacted by the zoning changes that went into effect this school year. More importantly, concept two leans to affect more of the future students that are going to move into our area as the greatest area for growth is in the rural land that is yet to be developed on the south side of Rocky Fork. My neighborhood and those within the box along Rocky Fork, Martin, and Amaville are almost fully established and or well underway. This should provide confidence to not only our community but to the board as to what they are planning to what the growth will look like. While the other side of the road is a completely different story because it is open land that none

010of us know anything about. I hope that the board will see benefit in selecting Concept 2 over Concept 1 to not only address the immediate needs and the primary focus over the next two years, but to also allow for the future expansion within our area without impacting the enrollment numbers at Stewart's Creek Elementary. As mentioned by some of you during the working session on Tuesday night, there are likely other options to be considered other than the two that have been proposed. While I understand the underutilization at Browns Chapel and the want to move students there, I do feel that a more balanced approach across the entire area would be beneficial and grant greater stability towards the total planning horizon. To simply name a few, there are opportunities in the Rock Springs area at their current

011utilization rate of only 80% and are projected at 90% over the next five years. And there's also an option to increase the boundary lines for Poplar Hill. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Julie Bodine. Hi. Thank you for listening to me today. My name is Julie Bodine. My son is in his second year at Blackman Middle School. Our neighborhood is almost certain to be rezoned for Poplar Hill Middle School for the upcoming school year. And Louis, my son, would be sent there for his final year of middle school. I came here today to ask that you at least consider making an exception to the new zoning and allow the current seventh graders at Blackman Middle School who are... who are going to be rezoned to other schools for next year to remain at Blackmon

012Middle School for their eighth grade year. I have several reasons for asking this. Some are general and some are more personal. I understand that you are all doing the best you can with what you are given in regards to the zoning. The situation is very difficult for you, so many children and where to put them. And making everyone happy is an impossible task. Yet, I feel that my reasoning is sound. Middle school is arguably one of the most difficult times for kids. Just last year, the now seventh graders were forced with the uncertainty of attending a new school. And not just a new school, a new everything. Middle school means more independence, more responsibility, and more accountability. I, as well as many other parents, shared in this uncertainty. By this year, the kids are now

013seventh graders and most have adjusted. They know the teachers, the administration, and what is expected of them. Many have become involved in clubs or sports. They've become more comfortable and more confident. They're also looking forward to next year being an eighth grader in their school. The special privileges that are almost always granted to the oldest class. The traditions that they have been waiting to be a part of and the feeling of pride and accomplishment that come with it. Is it right to move them to a new school when they have finally earned this, especially for only one year before they will have to change schools again and face an entirely new challenge, high school? I do want to say I'm confident the Poplar Hill Middle School will be an excellent school. My younger son is

014very happy there at the elementary school, and I look forward to him spending all three years at the middle school. My feelings have nothing to do with the schools, per se, but rather the stability and consistency that we owe our children. Zone changes are unfortunately a necessary thing in our rapidly growing county, but I believe that we can minimize the stress of these situations by giving special considerations to the most vulnerable groups. Back to Lewis, my seventh grader. When he found out he was in band class last year, he was not thrilled. He wasn't at all interested, but I convinced him to give it a try for a few weeks. And if he didn't enjoy it, we would try out a different elective. After a week or so, he loved it, and it has become

015a huge part of his middle school experience. He loves his instrument, he loves his teachers, and he's incredibly proud of his accomplishments in the area. He's been talking about eighth grade band and how it will be, marching with the Blackmon High School Band, playing at the Veterans Day. ceremony and many other opportunities that are limited to the eighth grade band students only. It breaks my heart that every time I have to remind him that he will likely have to attend another school next year and miss out on these things he's been looking forward to in the past two years. I only ask you that you consider my son and all of the others in his situation. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Next we have Karina Maldonado. Hi. Thank you for letting me speak. Hi,

016my name is Karina Maldonado, and I'm a mom of five school-aged children, and I'm here to speak about the rezoning for the Griffith Park and surrounding area. I believe that the 231 corridor should remain the clear split between Oakland and Segal when heading towards Walter Hill. Oakland Middle and Segal Middle are both direct feeder schools that have established high schools and middle school in the absolute critical and middle school is an absolute critical developmental stage. These are the years when students begin discovering who they are, building consistency in their learning, development, and extracurricular activities. Stable partnerships between the middle school and high schools are essential for students' growth. Splitting these schools disrupts far more than numbers on a page. I would love to see the data showing how many students continue their extracurricular activities when

017they are moved to a high school that was not connected to their middle school. When students spend years building relationships, participating in programs, and being seen by coaches or directors, and a sudden change can significantly affect their willingness to want to continue. This isn't just about academics. It impacts their confidence, their continuity, and their sense of belonging. This decision does not only affect students, but families as well. Many parents would end up with one child at Oakland Middle and the other at Segal High. creating unnecessary hardships. Families rely on their kids being geographically close to each other in emergencies or daily pickups. Parents shouldn't have to drive kind of across town, simply because of zoning changes that split establishment, established feeder patterns. For example, tonight, my two older boys are wrestling, one at Segal Middle,

018seventh grade, and one at Segal High School, ninth grade, and they practice together. If this were to go through, I wouldn't be able to get them both on time after practice. Sorry, I lost my spot. I wouldn't be able to get them on time after practice. Sorry. I wouldn't be able to get them on time after practice. We would have to drive across town in traffic, losing precious time in the day. So truly, I would probably just not allow my younger ones to do sports due to that hardship, which is not fair to them, being student athletes, making my children miss important sport years. I can also speak directly to the busing from the Walter Hill area. We already struggle with students arriving to Siegel sometimes not on time, and currently middle school and high

019school in our neighborhood ride the same bus together. Adding yet another bus route for middle schoolers when we are already short on drivers doesn't make sense logistically. Even if you set aside all the academics and emotional concerns, their transportation challenges alone make splitting the zone between Segal and Oakland unreasonable. For these reasons, students development program continuity. Ma'am. Yeah. It's gone way over. Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you. Next we have Sarah Jade Berta. I hope I said that correctly. Good evening, and thank you for letting me have the opportunity to speak. My name is Sarah Berta. We just moved here from Pennsylvania a year ago due to a job change from my husband. We have a very large family, five adult children, four little small ones that are all in Stewart's Creek and will be affected

020by this change. We're here tonight because we strongly oppose the option one for the rezoning for Stewart's Creek. This proposal creates a hardship for us, and I want to explain why. First, the distance. Stewart's Creek is the closest school to our home, and it's the school that our daily routines, work schedules, child care plans are all built around. Brown's Chapel is significantly further away, which would add time, cost, stress to every single school day. The difference matters. In fact, just this past summer when we were talking about having the children that lived within a certain area, walk to school, our children were close enough that we were going to be those children that were going to need to walk to school and lose our bus transportation. That decision reinforced what we already knew, that our

021home is in a genuine walking proximity to the school. Being reassigned to a school so much further away directly contradicts that reality. Second, our children have already been moved once. In the 2024-2025 school year, we were placed at Browns Chapel because Stewart's Creek was capped for capacity. We accepted that move because it was presented as temporary for just the year. We handled the longer drive and the disruption because we believed things would return to normal afterward and the hardships were short-lived since our kids were supposed to come back to their zoned school. Being moved again, this time permanently, is a much different and very heavier impact. More importantly, we have made very thoughtful, long-term decisions as a family based on the existing zoning. We purchased and built our home specifically within that Stewart's Creek Elementary

022zone that was intentional. We believe in the school, in the community, and in the stability that the zoning map represented. Changing that now significantly affects our children and the investment that we have made in our home. I know rezoning is complex and the district is trying to manage all of the growth, but families rely on the commitment set by these zone lines and we build our lives around them financially, logistically, and for our children's well-beings. For these reasons, I respectfully ask that we consider the proposed change to be the first one and not the second. Thank you very much for your time tonight. Thank you. And lastly, we have Laura Miller. Good evening. My name is Laura Miller. My family moved to Smyrna in June of 2024 so that I could attend University of Tennessee's

023College of Pharmacy. As a nontraditional graduate student going back to school later in life, I do not take education lightly, not my own and certainly not my children's. Every decision that we made was a thoughtful and intentional one. We built our home one mile from Stewart's Creek Elementary so that our kids could attend a school close to home and be part of the community where we live. When we moved in, we learned that Stewart's Creek was full and our children would have to be bused to Brown's Chapel. We accepted that because we were told that we could attend Stewart's Creek in the fall of 2025. This past year was the hardest year our family has ever had. My children woke up at 5 a.m. every morning, rode the bus for 40 to 45 minutes each

024way, and as a full-time graduate student and a mom, I watched my kids struggle with exhaustion, long days, and the feeling of being disconnected from their own neighborhood. We did everything that we were asked because we believed that it was temporary. That we were working toward finally attending the school that we intentionally chose for our home and for our lifestyle. Now with this rezoning proposal, our neighborhood may be sent back to Browns Chapel. And I cannot express how devastating that would be. It would mean repeating an experience that drained my kids, strained our family, and made managing school, after school activities, and my graduate program almost impossible. I don't have the privilege of extra time or flexibility. Every hour matters. Every mile matters. Just six months ago, our neighborhood was coming together as a community

025to coordinate carpooling because we lived so close our students were going to be asked to walk to school. I'm asking you to please choose us over the new developments and the future developments. We are already here and we're not going anywhere. Please keep our neighborhood zone for Stewart's Creek Elementary. My children deserve a stable, reasonable routine. They deserve to attend the school in the community where they live. The school that we planned our lives around and the school that we were told we could finally join in 2025 and where they're thriving at. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Rutherford Proud. Mr. Harris. So for Rutherford Proud, we have our Eagleville Volleyball State Champions that we are going to recognize. Good evening everyone. It's an honor as always. I take a lot of pleasure in

026recognizing our young people and their accomplishments throughout our school system. It's a great opportunity tonight to recognize the Eagle Bowl Lady Eagles volleyball team for an outstanding season. which culminated in a state championship this season. The Lady Eagles overall record was 43 and five and they secured their first ever state championship. And they defeated Gordonsville 3-1 on October 24th. MTSU's Murphy Center claimed the Class A state title. They also have two assistant coaches who went to Eagle Bowl, and Kerry Leathers and Gretchen Thompson, and head coach Deanna Fryze, if I'm saying that correctly. She's has done an outstanding job and it just continues the tradition of Eagleville with state championship. They just keep collecting them. So I'm just proud to introduce her so she can talk about her team and her individual accomplishments for her

027team. Thank you. I just like to thank the board for inviting us here tonight to be recognized for our school's first state championship and I believe the first for any Rutherford County school in volleyball. So I'm so proud of my team for that accomplishment. A little about our season. We did end the season with a 22-match winning streak, culminating in that state title and an overall record of 43-5. I would also like to recognize that these girls are not only great athletes, but also great leaders in our school as members of multiple organizations and clubs, all while excelling in the classroom with a cumulative team GPA of 3.82. That may be the biggest accomplishment. I do have two assistant coaches as well as myself. They were all raised in the Eagleville community. We are all

028alumni of Eagleville School and of the Eagleville Volleyball Program. We are so proud of the accomplishments of this team and just the way that these girls represent our school and our community. Thank you again for recognizing them tonight. It's a pleasure to be here. We have the, yeah, yeah. Can you introduce your team, especially your seniors as well? Yep. Yeah, you can have them come up. Yep, that works. We've got three seniors this year, Rosie Johns, Presley Campbell, and Lily Smith. Just got to fill in right around here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Juniors, Presley Knowles, Harper Bug. Down the list here. Kalen Baker and Ella Lee. Sophomores, Campbell Leathers, Kenny Rose Campbell, Autumn Burns, Sophie Smith. And freshmen, Briley Bain and Liza Frazee. Some of these ladies are taller than you, so stretch. Yep, let me

029recognize my assistant coaches. Kara Leathers, Gretchen Thompson. Somebody said they wanted to make a motion for a snow day. Mr. Evans feels like it's January 12th. I feel like it's January 8th. So I just want, that's the days that we're feeling already. So congratulations, ladies. Ready for it? We are. So this is our monthly Strong Outstanding Staff Awards, and I first want to introduce Chris Braggins and Alan Squeer. They both have volunteered to lead a dance for us tonight. If you fellows would like to. No, they're both managing partners with Sonic Drive-Ins of Rutherford County, and they have graciously, for the second year, sponsored these awards. And so we have five tonight. The first is for Justin Smith, who is the principal of Blackman High School. Mr. Smith. Okay, and this is where I read

030nice things about them, okay? So, Mr. Smith, the person who nominated you said that you're caring, compassionate, deliberate, reasonable, no-nonsense, good-humored leadership in the midst of many tasks, demands, and responsibilities. We would all agree with that, so congratulations. The next up is Candace Thompson, who is an instructional coach at Oakland High School. to get this next word right that's dr thompson continuously goes above and beyond for the administrators teachers and students at oakland high no task is too small or too large for her she is often pulled in many directions but handles it all with grace and professionalism oakland high school and rcs is so blessed to have her that was what their nomination was next up is miss emily marshall who is a cte specialist here at the central office Ms. Marshall joined us

031midway through our cohort as a Teach Now instructor two years ago, and from day one, she has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement. She goes to the above and beyond to support new teachers, guiding them with practical strategies, patience, and unwavering positivity. She mentors and equips educators with the tools they need to prepare students for real-world success. She also keeps Mr. Marshall in line, and we appreciate that. All right, now, these three have been great, but the next two are really good nominations, and I'm about to earn some husband some big brownie points here. So next is Ashley Fitzgerald. Do you know who nominated you? Okay. It is with great pride that I nominate my wife, Ashley Fitzgerald, Special Education Assistant at Walter Hill for this award. As a National Guard military spouse,

032she carried the tremendous responsibility of managing every aspect of our household during my nearly year-long deployment to Kuwait. all while excelling in her professional role. She approaches her work with patience, compassion, and unwavering commitment, making a daily impact on the lives of students with unique needs. All right. That should at least get him out of the doghouse once this year, I would hope. Right. Okay. One get-out-of-jail-free card. This next one is great, too. Bus driver Shay, I'm sorry, Shy Dackerman. Well, this is a really good one. So, not that you guys aren't, but this is a really good one. Ms. Shai is a shining example of dedication. Going above and beyond is something we are proud to see in our transportation team. And Ms. Shai recently showed what true care for students looks like. One

033of her students accidentally left their backpack at home and the family had no way to bring it to them at school. After finishing her bus route and on her own personal time, Ms. Shai went to the student's home, picked up the backpack from the student's dad, and delivered it to Rockville Middle School. Because of her kindness, that student was able to have his books, assignments, and a normal school day. So we're going to do one more photo here. Again, thank you to our partners at Sonic for this award, or these awards. And we have one more set of these in December before we take a break until February. Next, we have a presentation from Colonel Gaylord regarding ROTC. Dr. Sullivan, Chairman Maxwell, I am your JROTC Director of Army Instruction, and tonight I have three

034outstanding cadets, our Brigade Leadership Team for the Stones River Brigade, that's going to give you a very brief presentation on RCS JROTC school year 2526. Without further ado, I'll turn it over to our Brigade Commander. Good evening, whoa. Good evening, Board of Education. I am Cadet Colonel Catherine Wilvington. I am the Stone's River Brigade Commander, and I'm the S3 Operations Officer for the Blaze Battalion. I'm going to start off. Whoa. Okay, so on this side of the screen over here you can see the Blaze Battalion color guard at American Legion World Series where they've set up the colors and then if you look on the other side of the screen you can see the mission statements of JRTC and the mission statement of Rutherford County District. So you can see how they parallel in helping

035students better themselves and others. On here we can see the SY 2526 student enrollment where we can see that we have 1265 students in JRTC. If you look over at the ratios, you can see that the 7.4% of students in Rutherford County are in JROTC. That's up from 7.2% last year. JROTC is a nationally accredited by Cognia, and you can look at our JROTC goals, which a lot of people assume are to bring more people into the military and recruit for the military, and that's not true at all. In my experience, JROTC has given me a lot of preparation for after high school. It's teached me how to be a leader, how to be a follower, and how to work with my higher ups and my lowers. I will now be followed by the Stone

036River Brigade Executive Officer. Okay, good evening. I am Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Kenzie McCoy, the Stone River Brigade Executive Officer. I am from Oakland High School and I am their battalion commander. So on the left side of the screen, you're going to be able to see all eight of the JROTC programs within our brigade. Now, last year we had 151 cadets that were graduated. Of those 151 cadets, 29% chose to pursue a military service, 15% chose to join the workforce, and 56% continued their education through college or vocational college. Now, there was 126 scholarships offered last year, totaling over $2.6 million. Our cadets and JROTC are very active in our community. We have totaled over 9,550 community service, service learning, and volunteer hours. The picture above is our Smyrna color guard for the 2025 American Legion

037World Series. Now, some comparatives from our school overall and JROTC itself. The average daily attendance last year was 94.1%. Within JROTC, we had 97.3%, which you can clearly see is higher. With school and discipline, we only had seven members of JROTC, which was lower than last year's. And around the school, there was over 1,000. Dropouts to JROTC, we had zero. Average GPA scores within the school is 3.12 as of last year. With JROTC, we averaged 3.42. And ACT also was higher than the school average of ours being a 21 and the school's being an 18.9. I will now be followed by our brigade CSM. Good evening. I'm Cadet Command Sergeant Major Lydia Knight, and I'm from Rockwell High School as I am their S6. Today I'm going to be talking about the Jersey Sea co-curriculums,

038and we have eight different co-curriculums in the program that consist of the Raider Team, Rifle Team, Drill Team, Sabre Guard, Color Guard, J-Lab. robotics team, and drone team. All these co-curriculums are a way for the kids to be more involved within our program and lets them create more friendships and relationships to let them open their varieties to the new worlds and new things that they like to try. Now, many of these teams are competed within the county, but they're also nationally competed, such as last year we only had three teams competing at nationals for our Raider team. As of this year, we were supposed to have five teams going to Raider nationals, so every year it keeps increasing, as well as our drill team, our marksmanship team, and our J-Lab team, which has gone all

039the way to the levels of being able to compete in Washington, D.C. Now some key points about jury to see is that this is a class in high school It's not mandatory and it's completely voluntary So the kids decide to do this now that it's a class in the high schools This means that they do get class credit So when they're in for two years they get PE credit and then for three years they get their government credit and their personal finance credits Now, since it is in high school, people do know that you're in JTC by the uniforms that we wear, such as our Class A's that we are wearing here today. And these are completely free for the cadets. They get it their freshman year when they're a Let 1 or whenever they

040join, and then when they leave the program, usually as a Let 4, they'll give it back to the program, and it continues through the cycle of each cadet wearing it. Now with this, it is a military-based class. It is JDC in the Army. However, though, this does not mean that you're obligated to have any service in the military afterwards in high school. It's just a taste of what the military could be like and if the cadets do want to take this into their life after they graduate from high school. Now with this, is there any questions or comments about our JDC program? No? This is very impressive. Thank you. Y'all do a good job. Good job. Just one last thing. As of this evening, I was notified by VEX Robotics that the Stewart's Creek Robotics

041team, all three of their robotics teams have qualified for the JROTC National Championships in Sandusky, Ohio. So they'll be traveling there in January. And our five Raider teams will be heading back to Fort Knox in April to compete. So outstanding cadets, and that's what it's all about. Thank you all very much for your time. Thank you all. You all do great work. And thank you, Colonel Gaylord, for your leadership. John, can you connect Rob? See you there? Okay. Alright, so a couple things on rezoning if you can pull up the presentation as well. So we have a couple updated slides from Rob based on our conversations on Tuesday and just to kind of set the table so everybody understands there will be no decisions tonight. Our decisions will be another work session December 9th and

042board meeting December 11th where I hope that we can make a decision so that we can have enough time to do scheduling, choice seat applications, all those different types of things to happen. But just to give a little bit, so elementary, I definitely understand the angst between Stewart's Creek Elementary School. So concept one and concept two are different on purpose. And so they provide two complete separate areas to look at rezoning. The Rock Springs Elementary, I know that part of that, I think it was Woodmont Subdivision came down that was rezoned from Rock Springs Elementary to provide space for that school. So I was looking at their enrollment at Rock Springs just so that's been a common question. Rock Springs Elementary last year was at 1,206. They have a capacity of 1,265. And so if

043that subdivision goes back, they're very quickly going to be overcrowded again with all of the growth that is on west of I-24 on the Waldron Road, between Waldron Road and Sam Ridley. So that was the reason that that subdivision was removed during the zoning last year. STEWART'S CREEK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO BROWN'S CHAPEL. OF COURSE WE DON'T WANT TO DO REZONING. I HATE THAT WE'RE HERE BUT OUR CURRENT ZONE IS NOT SUSTAINABLE. THERE ARE TOO MANY STUDENTS IN THAT UNLESS WE JUST CONTINUALLY ADD PORTABLES. THERE'S NOT ENOUGH BATHROOMS, THERE'S NOT A GYM BUT WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING AS WE TALKED ABOUT. FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL, THE MIDDLE SCHOOL PORTION WE STARTED TALKING ABOUT IN 2022. Passed one in 2023, discussed again in 2024, and now here we're excited. I hate that when you're opening a new

044middle school that you have to rezone kids, but it's an exciting time to open a new middle school because it is a brand new middle school for us. The last middle school we opened was in 2017. And so we have opened a high school and two elementary schools since we last opened a middle school, and that's been where some of our highest numbers of growth are. And so we have, I do want to, I know there's been a lot of talk about We need more seats, but we have added 4,300 seats in the last three years with construction. So I want to thank our board and our county commission because we have funded quite a bit over the last three years to get us in a little better shape. It doesn't help our hard conversations

045right now, but we are working, this board is working, to move in the right direction. The other portion that we heard about tonight was from... Segal Middle currently to remove students from Segal Middle to Oakland Middle School. And so we've got a couple of really options there. Segal Middle School does depend on portables right now. Oakland Middle School has an annex. And the only other option we have to not use 231 west of 231 or use 231 as a boundary is to split downtown differently. The original proposal had 231 go or had downtown going pretty much primarily to Oakland Middle School. We discussed using downtown to follow similar to the high school model. And so we split the downtown area very similar to the high school model, which is where to move additional students to

046Oakland Middle, which is where those students came from, from Segal Middle. So that's where those students came from. I mean, I know we've got Robin. He can go over some stuff as well, but I want to go ahead and start the conversation before we go. All right, so what you mentioned there at the end is this is a balance more on the feeder schools going to the high school that they are zoned to do. So that change mimics a lot of that. Could you speak a little bit to the process? I know you spoke about this a little bit on the work session, but usually there's more of an audience tonight. So just the process, what led up to this and how extensive it's been to this point. So it was actually the board in

047the summer of 2022. two, three boards ago, started looking for somebody to help us with comprehensive rezone and capacity and enrollment analysis. So in the fall of 2022, we partnered with RSP. They had worked with Clarksville Montgomery and some other places. They started an enrollment analysis meeting with all of our municipalities, planning department, then along with that, visiting every one of our campuses to determine what is our capacity, how many students can fit in each one of our buildings. Did that for six or seven months, presented all of that to our board in May of 2023 to where our board at that time decided what are the priorities. Priorities were utilizing available seats. And so we... With that passed went through rezoning conversations with the community in September in October of 2023 passed initial zone

048lines in elementary middle and high school in December of 2023 with a caveat that it had to be revisited six months before implementation That got us to last year in November and December we revisited elementary and high school because those were going online with the opening of Poplar Hill Elementary and the high school additions and middle school. So past those for elementary and high school, which now gets us to our middle school concept since Poplar Hill Middle is on track to open in August of 2026. So it's been something we've discussed over and over again. Any other questions or comments? I think we have Rob. We've got him on the feeder if you want to talk, asking questions. I think he was going to go through some of this information as well. Rob, can you

049hear us? He's not going to be able to see him, or he's not going to be able to see us for sure. There he is. Can you hear me? Can you see the video? We can hear you now. Right, wonderful. So again, just to rehash this process, building most currently with what you're seeing tonight and what you saw a couple nights ago is a process that's led to trying to balance our enrollment. And our focus was the middle school opening and some changes in Stewart's Creek Elementary. And so if you look up on the screen, I think I'm sharing my screen. Are you able to see the screen I'm sharing? Yes. So again, just like on the other night, we needed to be more clear. Please. Go ahead. We're trying to get your volume up.

050Is this any better? Yes, much better. All right. closer to my mic. So some of the data for everyone to understand is we're tracking towards 56,000 students in 2030-31 and so our elementary is going from about 18.6 to 19,500 students. Our middle school is going from about 13,800 to 15,700. So those were our primary concerns in this iteration. And as I mentioned last time, we've been moving things quite a bit, but we've made a lot of progress when we look at our current enrollments and the capacity of our buildings. We are down to just one elementary zone that's having some issues with growth. And what I'm going to share with you tonight is a request. that I heard, maybe not directly, but what's happening in the Stewart's Creek boundary is impacting not only why we're

051making a recommended change for next year, but planning that there will need to be future changes with the amount of development that's going to be occurring in the Stewart's Creek boundary. So we have our existing boundaries for the middle school here in the presentation, what was initially proposed for 26-27. And then what our enrollment was at the middle schools. And again, you see a lot of orange here, which meant, hey, is there something more we need to do at some of these other buildings? The challenges that we had, I mentioned Stewards Creek Elementary needing some relief just because of the amount of growth that's occurring there. And then the middle school planning for Poplar Hill opening in 26-27. And then what we were seeing with enrollment at Blackman Middle, Christiana Middle, Rockville Middle, that we

052need maybe a little bit of relief in those zones to be able to make sure that we have the right. experience for the students in each of those buildings. And so the preliminary concepts, what you'll see with the maps, the solid colors represent what that attendance zone would look like in 26, 27. And we're zoomed out where the entire county, there's primarily two areas that we're showing on here for concept one that would change. My cursor, can you see my cursor moving on your screen? Yes. All right, so the area A up here, just west of 231, we have a change going from Walter Hill to Wilson in this concept. And then this area B. that we're looking at is areas that are south of Stewart's Creek Elementary and south of Morton Lane Road, specifically

053the areas of Cedar Hills, Derby Run, and Amberton. And I think I have a slide here in a little bit that lists everything possible. But those are generally the areas that would move from Stewart's Creek into Browns Chapel. That was concept one. If we zoom in a little bit, you can see some of the aspect of this area down here off Allmovelle Road. That's at area B. And then this area up on the west side of 231, that was area A. So it gives you a little bit tighter. look at what's happening. What we've done since our last meeting is, you see kind of this weird lines that are up here on this screen. What we did was based on the road network, we did a one mile distance from the driveway into the facility

054and a one and a half mile. Green is the one mile and the yellow is the one and a half mile. And so this just gives you a sense of like how some of those areas, how close they might be to Sturge Creek Elementary. Then if we look at what this means with the projections, you can see that we're able to have Stewart's Creek good through 2028-29, and then by 29-30, 30-31, we're over that 1,125 capacity. Can I stop you right there, Rob, because there's something I want to bring up. So I do want the board and everyone, this number includes the number of people that reside in that area because it is a large, and this is not what I'm recommending at all. In fact, I would not recommend this, but that number does

055not include the large number of employee zone exemptions. So whatever we do, you still have a large number of employee zone exemptions to be added onto that. Between 75 and 100, between the three school complex. Between 75 and 100. I would guesstimate closer to 100. And so you're looking at whatever those numbers are still needing an extra 100 or so seats. And again, that's not my recommendation because that would be a different recruiting tool for the rest of the county to not be able to have a teacher take their kid to their building. But it's another conversation point. So when you're looking at dropping it to 891, you're really dropping it to 991. You can continue on. All right, you bet. And then if you look at the other. element that I heard at the

056workshop was trying to give you some information about whichever of the elementary concepts that you chose. What does that look like with the number of units that potentially could move and how are they designated in that growth pattern of current five years or 10 years? And so in concept one, the areas that are being listed in this recommendation. You can see what zone they're currently in, what they're proposed to go to in this concept, and the growth timing of whether it's current or it's not being built. And then as you move to the right in that table, the current units that are available and the potential units that could be built over the next likely five years since this is a current development areas for Cedar Hills, Turby Run. Lakeview Glen and Stewart's Glen. And

057then we've also listed the number of current students and then the number of students that would be forecasted in that particular attendance zone or that planning area. So that's that top table. I also want, there's some disclaimers of some information in here. What we're giving you the total potential units built into our modeling. It's how many units get built each year. So not for instance with I think Lakeview Glen, there's 176 units. In order for that to be built out in the next five years, just divide that by five and we need what 35 units a year being built. Some of these developments go a little bit faster, some years they go a little bit slower. The other thing that I wanted to bring to your attention so you don't think it's a funny number

058is when you look at Amberton and you see seven potential units and we're saying it's no for growth, it's because for all practical statistical purposes, we're saying it's built out. And so that's already factored what that may mean. Then when you look at that bottom table, what we're indicating is what is the gain or loss, depending on which building is receiving the zones. In this case, Browns Chapel gains 369 more units and Stewart's Creek loses 369. That's just with what the current development trend is in these particular areas. So again, just trying to give you a sense of where... The difference between concept one and two is gonna be how many more future units are moved between one and two. I wanna stop there. Any questions about that visual? That's something new that you guys

059did not see. Any questions for Rob? Okay. Keep going. So that's concept one. Concept two, again, we have some information here. with the A and the B. And so the A is the same in concept one off of the west side of 231 that's going from Walter Hill to Wilson. And then the difference in Stewart's Creek with B, you can see that we take quite a bit of things a little bit different on Seminary Road. So up here on the east side. Where you can see my cursor off of Seminary Road, we're moving Belmont and Sagefields to Chapel Hill. And then we have these areas that are off of Rocky Fork. So as we come down here, Rocky Fork and then Amable Road. We're moving those areas as well. The name of the subdivisions are

060Hidden Valley, Blakeney, Saddle Grove, Briley Down, Riveria, Music City, Tucker's Point. So all those are moving to Browns Chapel. We zoom in a little bit tighter. You start to see what that means for tightening up Stewart's Creek and expanding Browns Chapel where it goes all the way to the county line. And then again, that same amoeba shape of the one mile and one and a half miles. So green being the one mile, yellow being one and a half. I did want to note, the reason we did network or the streets is this really takes on what you're going to experience if you're walking, biking, car, or auto. So what that impact is, the farther you get or the closer you are to that facility. step one of looking at that type of analysis. The numbers

061here, more students would still be at Stewart's Creek. And so by 28, 29, we'd have over 1100 students and you can see it just grows towards 1300 by 3031. And I think with Dr. Sullivan saying about 100 more kids, you'd have to add to this with the employee options. And Rob, I just counted it. It's 31 that don't actually live in that Stewart's Creek zone. So it's less. So there's a lot that actually live in the Stewart's Creek zone. So not 131. So that could always fluctuate a little bit. So that number makes me feel a little bit better. So 31 that don't actually live in that zone. That's just the elementaries, yes. and then that same table that you can see what this means. So very much a difference in concept one to concept

062two is we're moving a lot more future growth areas. And so longer list. And you can see, again, each of the planning areas that we're tracking from the city, from the county, what's happening. So you see where they're at with Stewart's Creek on Brown's Chapel, the timing of growth. Here we have some five-year areas that are put in here. You can see there's a lot of units potential in this area that we're calling Lindwood. There's like 1,500 units planned in that, and that's a five-year projection period. And so you can see there's a lot more units, a lot more future kids that could be impacted or planned for. And so when you get to that bottom table, you can see that that means that Browns Chapel gains almost 2,600. potential units and stewards creek loses

0632 600 units in most of these we don't have kids we don't have units even built because they're in that five-year category it's almost 1900 units fit in that category i stopped there with elementary any questions about elementary any questions yes mr rb rob can you put together a chart that you could send to the board please of what it looks like if we put a cap back at Stewart's Creek Elementary and what the projections look like if we cap it and those incoming into the district go to Browns Chapel? I can. So let me ask some clarifiers of the capping. Is that getting at students that are there now would remain, couldn't remain there? Correct. Or is this just saying, okay, we definitely can look at that. Yeah, if we could take a look

064at that so we know, like, if we capped it kind of like we did last year, but we just put it almost at a permanent cap, what that looks like for the surrounding elementary schools, please. You bet. And then one other clarifier. So let's say this boundary goes into effect next year. So would you say the current students attending there is K-4? That would be next year. They would have that option of capping. And then the two years out, it becomes who was K-3 this year. And so you start to reduce that. Is that what you're thinking? So are you kind of saying adopt one of the concepts, but whoever's there stays? Is that the cap that you're, is that kind of what you're thinking, Ms. Dorr? I'm trying to. I'm not sure. I think

065I don't quite understand. Because every year we're going to have a kindergarten class come in. And so we're going to have to have new enrollees of kindergarten students. When we did the cap initially, we did it with the exception of the kindergarten kids. Yes. Because you have to have a kindergarten class, so you can't. But that new kindergarten class is going to have to have some zone to come from. And so the current zone that we have isn't going to be sustainable. So we're going to have to, we're going to be able to cap new kids moving in, but that kindergarten class is going to be too big every single year. Okay, so you'd have to create almost an incoming zone. Yeah, one of these two concepts or some form of a zone would need

066to be, and then you would have to... For the kindergarten to come in. Yeah. Okay. Does that make sense, kind of, Rob? Yeah, because I think what I was hearing the other night and what I think I'm hearing again tonight is it's trying to minimize the students that are in this zone from having to move. And so I look at this... for year one, which would be next year, would be this year's K-4. They would be first through fifth graders. We'd work an option that would show them being able to be able to stay there. Year two, it's this year's K-3 that in year two would be our second through fifth grade. And then year three, our current K-2 students that now would be two, five, three years out. And so you kind of just

067follow that where it would end up being five years where this year's kindergarten would be the last class that would have this capping or student option for them to be considered with what I think you're requesting. I think we can try. I think that's something to look at, yeah. I don't know how accurate it can get, but I think we can try to model it the best we can. I think we would then have to look at transportation. There's definitely going to be some increased cost. staffing, transportation costs. I just don't know how accurate the model can be, but we can see what it does. I don't think anything works. Well, I mean, all of it's modeling. There's nothing that's... Mr. Lee, Dr. Sullivan and I were talking earlier. We can get three schools on

068the Lee Road property? Should be able to, yes. Because we technically don't have it yet, so... I guess that's the only. Do we yet, Mr. Reid? Have we closed? Yes. But we have it identified on here like we do. So, yes. So we do have the potential of another elementary school in that general area. Yeah. I think that would, just speaking transparently, I think that would be a tough sell to the county commission when we have an elementary school with 400 open seats right beside it. But as far as do we have room, yes, we do. Ms. Maxwell? Ms. Rosales. Rob, can you please explain why, just your professional opinion, when the board voted the first time around in 2023 and then just nine months ago before the school opened, it had different projections for

069Seward's Creek, Brown's Chapel, and Poplar Hill? where the first year only, Searress Creek wasn't as over capacity and Browns Chapel was going to have about 640 students. And then now it's sitting at, when Poplar Hill opened, it's sitting at 500 students versus 640 students. And I believe Poplar Hill was, projections were about 800 and something, but it's a little bit more, it's more now. It's close to almost 900. So what is your professional opinion of what's happened? Since the data was looked at, reviewed, when we were giving these projections to what happened when the school actually opened and we had enrollment and then it was quickly noticeable that Brown's Chapel was not getting the capacity that it was projected to be. And just to be clear, even in that... projections for Browns, for Sears Creek,

070it didn't show that it was really having a relief of enrollments in years on, it was increasing two, three, four, five. So it was kind of like what we're at in this scenario. But I think my question I'm asking regardless is what caused that dip in Browns Chapel to where now we're looking at rezoning back to back? I mean, so I just want to understand that you're a professional. Just so that you have. Thank you. Just so there's accurate enrollment numbers. Brown's Chapel today has 583. So I know it was said 500, it's 583. So I don't want any media or anybody to misconstrue that. 583, Poplar Hill has 892, and Stewart's Creek has 1177. Right, but the projections. The first concept had Brown's Chapel higher. 630. 630. And Poplar Hill was lower. So, yeah.

071So that's, I just want to understand, from your professional opinion, because you deal with this way more than I do, to kind of explain why we are where we are when it was noticeable that Brown's Chapel. was not at the capacity because it's hard. You're right. It is a hard sell. It's very obvious we need another school. And we've had a very difficult time trying to get funding and looking at a school that has a 51% capacity, it's a hard sell to go to the county commissioners and say, hey, we need another new school. And they're going to turn back around to us again and tell us we're going to rezone and to fill up those seats. Because that's been their pushback on the board when we go ask them. So I just want to

072understand that piece because that's what's cost this rezone right now. Rob? Yeah, so let me try to go ahead. You're going to say something or you want me to respond? No, you're good. All right, good. So there's lots of good things that are happening there, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to this so you can understand some of the dynamics that are occurring in your community and why we look at this every year to make sure that the latest information is tracking. in a way that we can feel more confident on the decisions that we need to make for getting the kids in the right school with the right capacity. So the first element that's kind of impacted us is the number of units that are being built and then how many students they're

073yielding. And so if you looked at some of our past data sets that we have where you see enrollment inclines or declines visually as we look at each of those planning areas, there's something unique happening in all the planning areas. So a single family, duplex, townhomes, apartments, mobile homes, something unique is always happening with how development, demographics. are influencing what we see for the number of students. So what we try to track at that smaller level of those planning areas is what's happening. And so with this area of Stewart's Creek, where we have a lot of development, some of the developments as they've been built are not yielding maybe as many students as anticipated. And so when we go through this examination, this analysis every year, We're reevaluating what's happening and what's the newest information

074to be able to get at. Honestly, it's a social science. So we're trying to get at if there's no units in these new developments and as someone moves into these brand new units, what's the chance statistically that we have an elementary, middle school or high school? And then specifically, are they a kindergartner, second grader? Are they? yet to be in our system because let's say they're in that zero to four-year-old category. And so we use a lot of the data that's already in your district with the roughly what, 52,000 students. And so we get a sense of things that we look at, like the value of the home, the age of the home. the square footages that these units are. We even have some different variables that when we have the national builders versus those

075that would be more of our local builders to be able to try to really get you the best information we can. And in some places, They're just not yielding. So in Browns Chapel, they just didn't yield as much or we didn't get as many units built. And that's what resulted in a examination of Sturge Creek that we have too many kids. We needed to pull more from Sturge Creek to Browns Chapel. But there's another layer to this. If we went back in time, we did explore other options to bring other development into. Brown's Chapel, but just like what we're exploring in this option, they're not as maybe as nice as we'd like them to be because they're closer to Stewart's Creek, depending on which option you're looking at. And so we've kind of tried to

076have this idea that the closer you are to a building, the more likely you would go to that building. But where our buildings are located and the amount of growth that we see in this area, it just didn't, even back then when we looked at that elementary boundary, it just is a hard sell. But now we have just so many kids at Stewart's Creek, we really have no choice but to find ways to bring other areas out of Stewart's Creek, in this case, into Browns Chapel. That's a long, long answer, but hopefully that gives you some understanding of the model and some things that we looked at before, and now we just have no choice. We have to get kids out of Stewart's Creek, regardless of maybe how close they are to Stewart's Creek. It

077just seems that... That area is growing so much. I mean, there's just a lot of new development. And the county does not have the control of what those new developments are because it's done through the city limits of Smyrna. It seems like, and I know we've talked about this before, but how do we create a committee or something where we bring the people of Smyrna, the county and representative of the board to talk about what's coming down the pipeline, what's happening, so that we can be a little bit more prepared, informed, I don't know. Maybe there needs to be more dialogue to happen between all three. I wish they would listen to what Rob presented. Exactly. The problem is, every time I turn around and try to talk to someone about doing something and having

078us be in the room with them, they're told that that's just not going to happen, that they don't have the authority to say no. Yes, but then we're tasked with... Exactly, with cleaning it up. Clean it up. And we're tasked with... And I'm going to be honest, I'm not a big fan of rezoning because I was in the neighborhood that's on the shopping block constantly. I do not like revisiting and rezoning over and over again. So I would like to do this and not have to do it again. But it seems like with a lot of that growth, Maybe this is where the parents need to help us in communicating with the city of where you guys live and tell them, hey, you guys need to stop talking to the county and maybe get a

079plan that works together with the county and the city and the school board. Because now I brought my children to Tennessee where I once lived, where I graduated from college. to offer them a better opportunity in education and we specifically chose our neighborhood based on being in a reward school and living literally from door to door, 0.8 miles. My children do walk to school on fun, sunny, beautiful days. We do not utilize a bus system. I carry my children to school. Going to Browns Chapel will charge me 54 minutes to get my children to school, my middle schoolers in middle school, and then myself to work in the market. I'm going in a completely opposite direction. I do zero business in Murfreesboro. Our children, our families, our community has all pulled together to work together

080in order to partner. I hate to do this, but you're not supposed to speak to the board without. Well, I think my point that I'm trying to make is that everyone is frustrated. I'm extremely frustrated. I think we're all frustrated at this issue, but we have zero control of the permits, the building, all of that. Like our job is to. task we're tasked with educating these children and then when we come before this county commissioners to ask for funding because they're hold the purse strings their rebuttal and their solution is looking at the utilization of the schools and there's something under capacity they're wanting us to reason they're wanting us to fill the seats There's already been said that they do not want to raise property taxes. So if they do not raise the property

081taxes, then how are we going to get the funding to pay for the new schools? It's very obvious from the data, and it continues to grow. We're going to need a new middle school, new high school, and new elementary. And all I'm saying is the same way that everyone here in the room is advocating about... Their area which I totally understand I will be doing the same thing Take that energy and also speak with the city councilmen of your city and in the and also the County Commissioners Because they also need to feel what we're feeling We have no control of that. That's my point that I'm trying to get to. Mr. Tittle, you're next, please. Thank you. Sorry. A couple things here. Rob. I agree. We can't control growth. We can't do anything about

082it. We only have a few tools in our toolbox. We've used every one of them to the max. We've done the district rezone. We're doing everything that we can. But let me just paint a picture here. So I've got all three maps pulled up. I've got the current map, I've got the concept one, and I have concept two pulled up here. Can you hear me all right, Rob? Are you still there, Rob? Okay. All right. So the difference between concept one Leaving things in place, it's already overcrowded. I don't even see that as an option. So leaving stuff in place, it doesn't look like that's an option to me. As far as the concepts, you have a concept one, which is using Rocky Fork Road. Actually, it's not using that yet. Concept one is grabbing

083a more densely populated area of growth across from Almaville Road, because that used to be a boundary point. It's grabbing a more dense area, so Stewart's Creek zone remains fairly large. And those that have been in that zone for years, in the rural area part of Stewart's Creek, further away geographically, they're going to keep in the zone, but you're going to lose a huge chunk right there beside the school. That's concept one. And I'm just talking about 30,000 foot view here, Rob. Concept two, a little bit different, that densely populated zone of new builds, I would imagine. I'm saying new builds. I actually don't know that. It's just a densely populated portion. That Almaville line stays mostly intact, except it takes a sharp cut at Rocky Fort Road. And then all the rural individuals that

084were there, Previously, in a further distance, it basically just contracts the whole Stewart's Creek zone and the rural individuals, I'm saying rural based on the size of this map here, they get cut out and those that are closer to the school zone remain in it. That's the difference I see between concept one and concept two, which leads me to my last question. So we're forecasting here, we're trying to guess, all right, what's gonna happen next and we're trying to make a plan. Is the building, the continual building, the developments to come, are they north of Rocky Fork Road or are they south of Rocky Fork Road? They're going to be in both locations. Okay. Is it more evenly split or is it higher in one side than the other? And I'll tell you the reason

085I'm asking that question. is because if we go with, say, concept two and we shrink the Stewart's Creek map to a smaller version by keeping the homes closest to Stewart's Creek, continuing to go there, and taking out a large geographic portion of the Moore Rule, then as more development happens closer to the schools, then it will shrink again in the same manner. So it's going to continue, depending on whether development continues to happen. If it continues, it's just going to keep shrinking Stewart's Creek smaller and smaller and closer and closer. And then those on the outskirts of the boundary now, you will be cut out the next time. And as that development continues to increase. So I don't want to say that we're punishing. Well, I guess it could be argued that way. The developers

086that are continuing to build inside the closest proximity of Stewart's Creek, those people moving into the zone. are taking away the rights of those that have been in the zone for so long. And that is only going to magnify. Is that a fair assessment of what's going on? I think it's exactly what happened in the Blackman zone. And so Blackman was extremely spread out. Now it's extremely dense. And I went back to, if you don't mind, can I bring one point? Because I think it goes to yours. I was going back to Rob's original presentation from August or September of 2023. His original concept. had Rocky Fork Road south going towards going to Brown's Chapel. The Hebrew, which is concept two. It did not have seminary as well because Stewart's Creek wasn't that big yet,

087but he did have Rocky Fork Road going to Brownstrap, which is concept two. And look, I think Ms. Rosales has made a good point here in the fact that it is going to take more than talking to your school board leaders to get something done with the growth because if the growth, and I'm going to make this point, and I'll be quiet here, on the concept two, It shrinks the zone geographically of proximity to Stewart's Creek. If development continues to happen inside the zone, then all those on the outskirts of the zone, they will be shrunk out next. And if development still continues in the heart, then they will be shrunk out even tighter. So as long as these developers continue to build in the areas inside the smaller zone, the greater the reduction of

088the zone is going to be, and we'll be right back here. We have no control over that. We just don't. So I'm just putting that out there. Dr. Sullivan, I request that you set up a meeting maybe with the mayors of different municipalities in Rutherford County and meet here or whatever, any time of the day, just so we can start to have an understanding and let... have open communication lines of, and see if we can solve some of these problems because, I mean, we're the ones that haven't answered to the parents. These people tonight, you know, they all got legitimate complaints. There's not a single builder tonight sitting here had to take, you know, we got to sit here like a mutant hail storm and they don't have to listen to any of it. They

089just. Take the profit and move on. I haven't heard that analogy in about 20 years, Mr. Vaughn. Thank you for bringing that back. It still works, too. Can I ask Dr. Sullivan and Rob, are we seeing the same pattern? Because I think in my head, every time I go down to Rockville, I see the same thing happening there. They're just a little behind where Stewart's Creek is. So something's going to have to give. And I think I do want to hit the button. We started a funeral council. about five weeks ago. And so what you're going to hear from mayors is as long as the state law allows it and your development and your planning allows it, then their hands are tied as well that developers and property owners can do as they wish. And

090so I think if we met and started a dialogue, you know, we can start trying to solve these problems anyway. And, you know, there's a solution to it. What is the solution? If you're sure you want to hear it. I'm baited. Okay. Both ears. We could go a multi-track system at Stewart Creek schools. And again, you educate a third more kids with no more bills than anything. So it's a multi-track. And certain people have got 180 degrees here, 180 days. You just rotate them on and you've got a multi-track. It's three tracks. And you just keep going. Nobody likes it, but I mean, you know, that's the way to solve the problem. If we want to solve the problem, keep everybody happy in Stewart's Creek Zone. I think it would be a hard sell, but

091I appreciate your out-of-the-box thinking. When we used to have more teachers, I think it would have been an easier thing. That'd be tough nowadays, but we've looked at that in Chavon as well. We have. It's been four or five years, but... Elementary is the one spot you can do that in compared to middle and high, but I still don't know that we have the staff to be able to do it. Anybody else have any questions for Rob or Dr. Sullivan? Thank you, Rob. I appreciate you being here tonight and being available. Thank you, Rob. I know that was loud. I appreciate you. You were not on the agenda and you just volunteered yourself. So thank you. We do appreciate it. I'd like to make one more comment. You know, we talked about property taxes and

092all like that. You know, people got to realize that if people don't want to raise property taxes, we're going to have to put a we're full sign at the county line. As long as they keep letting them in here. We don't have any choice but to raise property taxes. I know the mayors are having to, we've got local rights going on and county commissioners, but sometimes you're just going to have to face the music. That's quite a conundrum. Okay, thank you. We're going to move on to number eight, human resources. This is the Collaborative Conferencing Committee and this is the District Committee. So pursuant to section 495605, the Board of Education is required to appoint management personnel to serve on a committee following a majority vote in favor of collaborative conferencing. Our recommendation is Dr.

093Andrea Anthony, Dr. Kelly Chastain, Brian Sears, Brian Lewis, Suzanne Fries, Latoni Murray, Dr. Latoni Murray, and Larry Creasy. So moved. Thank you, Ms. Sharp. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any abstain or any opposed? Opposed? Opposed. Okay. Motion passes. Just say you're opposed. Yeah. Okay. Next we have instruction. Segal High School is requesting authorization to begin the process with Cambridge International. Cambridge is a comprehensive pre-K-12 academic program that includes world-class curriculum assessment, teacher resources, professional development. More culminates in college credit at the advanced level. Cambridge offers over 50 courses at the high school level and a wide range of subjects, CTE, humanities, language, STEAM, that are taught by Segal teachers. Cambridge Pathway prepares students for both college and careers through skills content 21st century learning.

094Cambridge currently partners with 10,000 schools in 160 countries and has strong higher education credit policies. For the state of Tennessee, Cambridge can help to make a positive impact on state and federal graduation measures, early post-secondary opportunities. Cambridge AS-A levels qualify for the following episode status in the Tennessee Ready Graduate Indicator, Tennessee Report Card CCR, College Career Readiness Indicator, and TESA Outcomes Funding Models. Dr. Chastain, what was our cost for that? So just to move forward with the application and the authorization process, it's $3,700. The school is willing to take that cost. We've also been talking with Cambridge about doing a pilot and a slow rollout for like over the next three years at no cost. After that, it would be unless they change their cost, which always can happen, roughly $10,000 a year. Thank you.

095Do they have to send their teachers off to get them trained? Do you have to use their textbooks? The textbooks are similar to our AP classes, IB classes, where there's supplemental materials that will help that. But the training is done similar to AP, IB. Cambridge, in our experience with Smyrna, has a lot of available local trainings. There's several schools around the area that also are using Cambridge. So I don't expect that to be a huge cost. Okay. Any other comments or questions? I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Thank you, Ms. Darby. Thank you, Ms. Sharp. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstain? Motion passes. Next, we have the TISA Accountability Report. School districts in Tennessee are required to present their Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, or TISA Accountability Report, for public review

096and comment and board approval prior to being submitted to the Tennessee Department of Education. TISA Accountability Report will be reviewed annually to determine whether a school district is taking proper steps to achieve their stated goals. The report will be submitted annually to the TDOE in November. Any comments, questions? I entertain a motion. Move to approve. Second. Thank you, Mr. Vaughan. Thank you, Mr. Chidwell. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next we have legal. If it's all right with the board, I'll just read the title and the numbers. I read these on Tuesday. This is the policy adoption first reading of two readings. The policies below are recommended on the first reading. These policies will be brought at the next scheduled board meeting, which is December 11th, for a second and final

097reading. Policy changes, policy 1.703, school attendance zones and exemptions, policy 3.206, community use of school facilities. Policy 4.601, reporting student progress. Policy 4.605, graduation requirements. Policy 6.204, attendance of non-resident students. And Policy 6.701, student solicitations and fundraising activities. Move for approval. Thank you, Mr. Vaught. Second. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstain? Motion passes. Next we have disciplinary hearing. Disciplinary hearing appeal 25-11-01. The board's been requested to review a decision of the director of schools, disciplinary hearing authority. The DHA upheld the school's decision to zero tolerance of a student from Eagle Bowl School. Director of schools modified the offense to a remandment. Based on review of the record of the DHA and of the director of schools, the board may A, affirm the decision of the director of schools,

098B, overturn the decision of the director of schools, or C, grant a hearing before the board. I'll entertain a motion. Yep, Ms. Darby. Affirmative decision. Madam Chair, the parents in this situation did ask me just to state they unfortunately could not be here this evening, and they wanted me to just let the board know that they were asking to be granted a hearing, so I'm just doing what I was asked by constituents since they were unable to attend. Okay, thank you. Mr. Vaughn has said to motion to affirm? Mm-hmm, yes. Second. Okay, second. Mr. Vaughn? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number three. Transfer student under discipline, and this is labeled as number one in your packet. Board has been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under

099discipline. The student was remanded for possession of THC. According to policy 6.318, the board may deny admission of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system while under suspension or expulsion. Director of Schools recommendation is to admit and place into alternative school. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Thank you, Ms. Sharp. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number four. Transfer student under discipline labeled number two. The board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline. The student was placed in an alternative learning center for a student assault. According to policy 6.318, the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system under suspension or expulsion. Director of Schools

100recommendation is to deny admission. Motion to deny. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number 11, engineering and construction. Murfreesboro Water and Sewer Department requests for land purchase at Segal High as part of the Thompson Lane T-DOT road widening project. Murfreesboro Water and Sewer Department, we are required to make water line adjustments. They have provided drawings and the appropriate land purchase documents for approval. The value offered is $4,746.65 for both permanent and temporary easements. Engineering and construction has reviewed the request and has no objection. I do wish they would round that up to a nice $5,000. I would have taken $4 million like I read the other night. Yes, Mr. Vaughn. I'm going to make a general comment here. Listen to this. Take it for what it's worth.

101I have dealt with this already. My recommendation would be to grant them approval for construction but wait to settle. until after the construction is done. There is some thought process in that the appraisals that the state will do on all the widening out through there will be significantly different than what the city has proposed. And the reason I know about it is I own a piece of property across the road. And so that would be my recommendation. I don't want to slow the project down. That's not what this is about. I think the board needs to be treated as fair as any other landowner up and down through there. That would be my recommendation, is to go ahead and sign the easement, execute the documents, but not settle until after the project's completed. I agree.

102Trey, do you think this would damage the project? Mr. Reed. Mr. Reed? That would have to be negotiated between Mr. Reed and the city. Correct. Whether they would... agree to that and at that point they just do eminent domain, come do the work and then we argue about it later. And I guess I'm being a little liberal in telling you my experience with it. We have been very candid. They're not exactly sure. I don't mean to speak for the Water and Sewer Department, Legal Department at City of Murfreesboro, but we've run into the same situation and there's a There's a school of thought here that the damages could be greater, the value could be greater. I don't know. They won't be any less, I can tell you that. But I do not, I'm not advocating

103that we slow the project down by not entering into an agreement. So my agreement was changed two weeks ago. That's the reason I know a little bit about this. This is not a condemnation. The school board may be a different posture than you are as a landowner, private landowner. Their approach to you is a private landowner. Correct. And I don't know. The easement you're granting here is a very specific easement. It's not a blanket easement. So to the extent the alignment of the line differs than what this easement provides for, the city would have to come back and get a different easement. That's not what I'm talking about. It's the settlement amount. The easement is the easement. We know where the easement is. We know where the drawings are, where all the utilities are going

104to be located. Everything's in place. It's the value. That's the only thing I'm saying right here is that we could postpone settling the value until after all the other appraisals are done and after the state appraisals are done. Yeah, and you're a different posture as a private landowner than you are as a governmental entity. I mean, the county's the landowner here. Right. The county has to approve this as well, so the county has to go to approve this in addition. I'm just making a suggestion. It's probably not a significant amount of money. It could be, you know, another $5,000 or $10,000. I don't, but. That was just, I thought I'd make this. You know, in my sense, the road improvements out there will improve things at the school. So I think the school system as

105a whole is in favor of the road improvements going in because it does kind of improve the traffic situation out there. To the extent we can get a waterline move just to help with the road improvements, you're getting a better road situation for your school there. Would there be any harm pushing this off to the next meeting before we actually? The city needs to go ahead and move this. I know because they had thought they had already gotten this approved. which they had not done. So they approached Trey Lee and myself a couple weeks ago thinking it had already gone through the process and not gone through the school board or the county. And I said, well, it's not been approved, so we have to take it to the school board and the county to

106go through this process. But I know they're in urgent need for it. So, I mean, I think, I don't think the money is as material as just making sure the water line gets put in a location that does not disturb our use of our property. You know what? I'll move for approval. Let's just get on with it. I can see the hesitation in everybody. I am a different entity. I will grant that. But thank you for bringing that to us. I appreciate you bringing that to us. I thought you wanted me to have to fight the city again, Stan. No, no, no, no. We have a great relationship right now. These appraisals were done by a third party, and they're not aligning with the state appraisals right now. And so, you know, he asked me,

107he said, Stan, would you just go ahead and sign? I said, yeah, I'm not going to stop Thompson Lane getting widened. I said, we'll settle in two years. It's fine. I'm good with it. Let her go. Thank you for making the motion. I'll let her go tonight, too, if somebody will say. Thank you. And Mr. Vaughn, he seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next we have number two. Oakland High School change order number one, engineering and construction input from Principal John Marshall requests to utilize $500,000 of available site construction funds to address additional renovation of areas inside the existing building. This work will include additional flooring, ceiling replacement, additional fire alarm replacement, and paint. The work has been reviewed by GMC Architecture and the cost approved. This is not a

108request for additional funds, but the reallocation of unused site funds for the project. Engineering and construction reviewed the request and has no objections. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Thank you, Mr. Tidwell. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number three. Town of Smyrna cedar stone sewer realignment request. Town of Smyrna has undertaken the extension of the sewer system along Morton Road. In doing so, the city has portioned the sewer on RCS properties under the winged walls of the bridge, and they are requesting relocation of this section while making the adjustments for this project. The adjustment will not affect the roadways or service to RCS, but will require an updated easement agreement. Insurance Construction has reviewed the request and has no objections. Thank you, Mr. Vaught. Thank you, Ms. Sharp. All in favor say

109aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number four. Transportation contract termination of bus 96 pursuant to section 8.1 of the Rutherford County Board of Education bus contract. Transportation department received a letter dated November 4th, 2025 from Angela Gilley, contractor for bus 96, requesting voluntary termination for a contract with the board. She has stated her termination date is December 1st, 2025. Based on previous board approval, there will be a return of insurance stipend funding for insurance to RCS of $2,399.76. We're going to talk about that. Like we talked the other night, are we going to put that out a little bit? It's going to be a pick-he's-up. Yes. We're going to wait. It's further down. Further down. Okay. Move to approve. Thank you, Ms. Sharp. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

110Motion passes. And then transportation contract termination bus 201 pursuant to section 8.1 of the Rutherford County Board of Education bus contract. Transportation departments received a letter dated September 22nd, 2025 from Christy Taylor, contractor for bus 201 requesting voluntary termination of her contract for the board. She stated her termination date as November 30th, 2025. Last day of drive is November 21st, 2025, which is tomorrow. Thank Ms. Taylor for her service. Based on previous board approval, there would be a return of insurance stipend funding to RCS for $2,421.98. Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Tidwell. Thank you, Ms. Short. Darby, rather. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. And she has been a longtime driver for us, and her kiddos loved her. So she will be missed. Next, we have the communications report. We've got transportation

111route awarding. I'm sorry. So on September 24th, the follow-up we talked about on Tuesday, transportation emailed all contractors, excuse me, the new RAD awarding procedure and application for existing contractors. Deadline for application was October 14th. There were 11 applicants. We received calls from a few contractors that either did not read the information, had that information go to their junk mail, or did not understand that the board had initiated a new procedure for awarding routes per the new procedure 3.4, pages 3 through 5. We are prepared to begin the new awarding process, but want the board to be aware of the situation prior to receiving the notice. Ms. Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Tidman. All right, so I talked to Trey about this, and I know we had some discussion at the work session. I'd like to make

112a motion that we give Trey the ability to open it back up until December 1st, if that's a good date for Trey and the Department of Transportation, to allow those to miss the opportunity, if it went in the junk mail or whatever, how it got lost in communication, to give them just one more grace period here before we move forward. So that is my motion. As long as Trey's here. All in favor say aye. Aye. Can we have a discussion? Yes, sir. You know, I tell you, it's unfair to the 11 people that did what they're supposed to do. I mean, if we keep saying, okay, hey, it don't make any difference, do whatever you want to. If you don't like it, come back and we'll change it. If we're not going to enforce what

113we say and what the rules are, why do we even have them? Throw them out. Just trash them. Just let them do whatever they want to. But it's unfair to the 11 people that did what they're supposed to. I don't know who they are. But I'm going to tell you what, if I was one of the 11, I tell you, I'd be an ill cat because, I mean, to me it's just unfair to them to open it back up. And I'll tell you what let's do. If we open it back up and some of them don't like it, we'll just do it again. We do have a new transportation director. I didn't have anything to do. This has been, Mr. Lee, when did this go out? First letter went out in September and the second

114letter went out in October. So they were given another chance, right? Second chance? At the board's direction, yes, sir. So now we're going to give them a third one. So if they don't like this one, we'll just keep on giving it until everybody's happy. So I don't agree with this at all. Y'all can vote whatever you want to, but it's unfair. I believe in the future our new transportation director is going to take care of this. We're talking about tonight. It's unfair. I won't say you're wrong. That's a roll call. We can do a roll call. And can you repeat Mr. Tidwell's motion? This is motion to allow the Transportation Department to open the route awarding system back up with a deadline of December 1st. That's correct. All right. Mrs. Rosales? Yes. Mr. Vaughn? No,

115but hell no. Mr. Tidwell? Yes. Ms. Sharp? Mr. Bott? Yes. Mrs. Darby? Yes. Mrs. Maxwell. Yes. Okay, put it back on the agenda next month and we'll just keep rolling it. Andy Board Member can put anything on the agenda. You're not wrong. He is a military man, so. Communications report. Follow that, James. I'm happy to speak as long as you all want me to, but I plan to be brief. So in front of you, you do have the communications report for October. I'm not going to go over all of the courts. I do want to highlight a few things that we have spotlighted as a district under Director Sullivan's leadership this past month. One of the most exciting ones we had was the introduction of our mobile lab fleet, the first of its kind in

116Tennessee. I keep hearing great things about it. I heard today that they're wanting to use it at the state fair next year where some of our FFA. students will be too. So it is getting a lot of attention and it has really nice branding all over it that carries our message. There's also numbers there, and I know I joke about this, but the arrows are all pointing up, which is a good sign. We're increasing our impact. I want to give you a couple of highlights of some other things that are on the horizon. Of course, Dr. Sullivan did ask us to put out additional signage this year with the rezoning. We've had good feedback from that. People are getting the message. Those are the yard signs you'll see at the schools that are affected by

117rezoning. That was a great idea, and it leads them to a hub page that we're maintaining. And so all of the board's discussion. on rezoning will be clipped from that video from the video file tonight and put on there as well there's some other information coming to the board too he's asked us to do a survey of parents the border will be receiving that that information too soon and then we're on the verge of hopefully approving a new communications platform that will go into effect for next school year but we'll start doing the migration in january and it's going to we're excited to tell you more about it once we have it adopted but There's some more capabilities that we'll be able to do to just further engage parents with information. And also our employees,

118we're looking to launch an intranet so that they'll have better access to information too. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. You do a great job. Was that a question or a statement, Mr. Vaughn? That's a statement. I didn't hear a question mark. I just want to make sure. I love seeing all the different things going on in our schools and all of our, some of our teachers that are up for awards. We come from a great system that's got competent people. Well, you all see every month we bring a lot of things here for the Rutherford crowd. There are so many things that we could be spotlighting. We really have to pick and choose. So it's a good problem to have. Wonderful employees. Thank you. Thanks. Next we have, I think we

119talked about this a little bit. We did. So the last couple of years, at least two or three years, central office, again, we do not close for Veterans Day where most places do because we're open to honor our veterans. So in return, the last couple of years, we have closed central office on Wednesday as a paid holiday for payroll purposes. So if the board is as willing, we would need a motion to do that. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Thank you, Mr. Rosales. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Director's update. So a couple quick things. Thanksgiving break, of course, tomorrow is our last day with staff and students. Central office will be open Monday, Tuesday. I imagine it will be a little bit of a skeleton group. People take vacation days.

120Wish Blackman and Oakland best of luck as they play tomorrow as well in quarterfinals. Is that correct? Quarterfinals of 6A state playoffs. Lunch debt, to give everybody an update of where we were, because this is always something that has a lot of topic. This time last year, let me give you numbers real quick. I had it pulled up and I went off of it. So lunch debt this time last year, we were at $505,000. $553.94. So I'll read it again. $505,553.94. As of Tuesday, we were at $195,963.86. So I know some of this conversation hasn't always been fun, but that is a huge, huge reduction. So, huge reduction. So, great job to everyone involved. Next, we move on to general discussion. I'm sorry. Yes. I'm sorry, sir. We still have one transportation thing to bring

121up before we get to all the... I didn't want to miss it. I still need y'all's direction on what we want to do on the route descriptions that have not been sent in that we've sent out the two letters on. We discussed last time that we sent out a letter in September asking for route descriptions that's part of... Our contract 2.6D, we sent out another letter in October and we still have some that are outstanding. Do you want me to give them, send another letter? No. What does it say in the contract? Yeah, I was going to ask Mr. Reid, what does our contract say? What are our repercussions? There you go. I'll make a motion that we enforce a contract and we... Let's hold payments. Let's hold payments. Second. Yes, second. Thank you, Mr.

122Vaughn. Question. Which pay period? When? Effective immediately? Would that be immediately? Right now? What does the contract allow? Ms. Maxwell? Yeah. What does the contract allow us to do? Enforce it immediately? Next week? Yes, sir. Immediately. Withhold payment immediately. To where it's saved? Yes, sir. I guess my question, Mr. Vaughn, was that effective immediately in your motion? No, so we need to... I'm making an amendment to the motion that is effective immediately. Does she have a second? Second if it's in question, yes. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Let me have a question, Mr. Lee. What time? These people haven't turned it in. What's our backup plan? They're still running their route. We need the information to help us update our systems and make sure that what they're doing and what

123we're showing on our computers match. It's to help us make sure everything that we've got on the website is accurate and correct. Okay. We voted on her amendment, but we need to vote on the motion itself now. They devote a lot on your emotional your regional motion and adding what I? Exactly your emotion. Do you have a second for that please? Okay, thank you all in favor say aye Any opposed? Now motion passes Can I expand on that just a second? Yes, you can I've had the opportunity to sit with in with tray with some of the contractor meetings and with the new director And just as a fly on the wall, no comments. I'm trying to learn. I'm watching the dialogue. I'm watching the interaction with staff and with Trey's staff, the new director's

124staff, with the contractors. And it is these route descriptions, because I kind of thought, ah, what's the big deal, you know, a little bit. But the whole, because, and looking, and this goes with zoning right now, okay? This goes with what we're talking about. There are so many people that move in and out of the district every year that if these route descriptions aren't up to... the minute, basically, I'm going to say up to the minute, transportation has no idea where to send them to a bus stop. And if you're new coming into our community and, you know, out my way, I mean, I know all the bus drivers, right? If somebody moved in next to me, I'd say, well, here, call such and such. They're your driver. But in a lot of areas in

125this county, it's not that way. And I got to looking at the GPS, and this information is critical. It is super critical. Not only that, I mean, the routes need to be verified from a mileage standpoint. We pay all these people on a mileage basis. We've got to know that we're getting the value that we have guaranteed these people. I'm not accusing anybody. I'm not saying anybody's doing anything wrong, but all of this stuff has to align, and that information, I don't know how Trey has been as patient as he has, really, after really studying how the system works. And I want y'all to know I am attending some of these meetings. I'm not trying to know. I'm just trying to understand where I can convey back to you guys, you know, what's going on

126and the adjustments we need to make. So anyway, Trey, thank you for your patience, I guess, what I would say here. You've been more than patient. And I'm praying going forward we don't have these problems going forward because something's got to happen. This can't keep happening. Yes. One of the things that we said from the very beginning is I expect Mr. Johnson to uphold the contract. Love our bus contractors, but he's been asked to uphold the contract. He wasn't here. I'm sorry. He's been asked to uphold the contract. So if he gets any flack, because I've asked him to uphold the contract. So I know that's going to have some uncomfortable conversations. Okay. Any other general discussion? Yes. Ms. Maxwell. Thank you. I have three things I want to say. One. Seeing how all of

127this stuff has been playing out with the rezoning. And I know that we're doing things right now because it was the direction of the board they give, but seeing how things are constantly changing and there's moving parts, I will make a recommendation to the board that if the next school that we're looking at to rezoning, whether it's a middle school, high school, or middle school, elementary school, doesn't matter, that if we start looking at The boundaries in changing that, like a year in advance, not to take board action on that, but to wait until when it gets closer to the date to open that school because... parents are thinking that their children are going to go to one school and then nine months later we're changing things because of the change and the with the

128developments in the units and all that. So I know that we that is a tough decision that has to be done. There's no way to go about it. But all I'm saying is that moving forward into the future to delay the final vote of that rezone that's going to apply to everyone that's impacted when it gets closer to the school that's been opened because we're having to re-vote and rezone twice. That's my recommendation. So the other thing that I wanted to bring up is that I'm getting emails about the new school. And so I wanted to bring up some questions about the new school. So when a new school opens, is it opening with a football program, with a basketball program, with a golf program, a robotics team? I'm getting all kinds of questions about...

129Yeah, with TSSAA, so they are, all students are eligible even if they are transferring to a new school. So you're eligible the first time that you attend a school of that zone. So when that school is now open, it's the first time they're eligible to attend that school. So they are eligible to attend that school. we will have tryouts on the very first day that they're technically a student at that school which should be may 29th which is right after the which is right after the two hour day i can speak to that very well because i opened rocky fork middle school and every one of my tryouts were the two hour day you spread them out over about a week so that everybody can if you want to try out for multiple sports which

130usually with a new school you need kids on multiple sports but it's it's a great opportunity because at a huge school and we're rezoning from some huge schools. Some really great student athletes aren't able to participate because they are at a basketball team may keep 20, 25 varsity and junior varsity kids of a school of 1800. You have some really talented kids who aren't able to make it and now they're going to a school that is smaller. who is starting from scratch. So there's going to be a band program? Everything. Everything that every other traditional middle school has. Well, I'm just wanting to bring that up. Say that from experience. What have you been in emails about? Yep. what's going to be available when the school opens. And then the last thing is that, and

131I think you touched on it a little bit, Dr. Stillman, but tomorrow, which is Friday, Blackman football team, the high school, is in the playoffs with Maryville, and it's a home game. So this is pretty exciting, and so we'll see how it goes, but they're getting closer and closer to the championship, so go Blaze. You need to mention. The defending state champion. I know, it's Oakland. Oakland had a point at home tomorrow night also. Great, but you know what does not take away the fact that Blackman is playing tomorrow. We hope they both advance. Both advance, yes. But it would be kind of nice if Blackman does get a championship. If it helps anything. I hired Coach Creasy. Oh, good. Yes, it does help. At Oakland High School. So we taught him how to win.

132Oh, good. You know, they know how to do it. And if both of them win tomorrow night, they'll play next Friday. You know what? I will ask that just like you got inducted in the Hall of Fame for Oakland, I will ask you to do the same thing for Blackman. So you can continue your root on for the Blackman plays. As long as y'all beat Maryville. I don't care. We're going to beat Marable. We've had this county's number. Oh, yeah, beat Marable. Mr. Tittle. By the way, let me say something about Blackman. By the way, I just happened to open Blackman Middle School. They fed Blackman High School, so we've got a lot of influence there. That's right. You should be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Justin Smith. I think I hired him. I'm

133not a smart guy. I hired great people like Dr. Sullivan and those people. Thank you. I'd just like to make a clarifying point on the collaborative conferencing vote earlier. I don't support collaborative conferencing. It's required by the state for us to enter into these MOUs with... teachers unions has nothing to do with the individuals that are serving on this particular committee i just want to make a clarifying point on that i will actually be bringing a resolution that was supported by tsba but not necessarily the delegate assembly at the state conference about this at our next board meeting and then i'd also like to make or ask a question which you typically don't ask a question to the gallery but there was a lady that spoke Ms. Sarah, and it sounded like during her discussion

134that she was in favor of concept number two on the elementary side, but she ended her statement in favor of concept one. So I just wanted what you were in favor of. Okay, because the last sentence flip-flopped it. So I just want to make that public because I think that's what she was aiming at. So thank you. Concept two. Yeah, that's on the elementary side. Okay, Mr. Vaughn, but it's not about football. No, this is one other thing, too. Rutherford County Schools made an impressive showing at the 38th, 39th, 38th, 98th National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis. There was more than 73,000 attendees from across the nation. Chapters from Blackmon, Eagleville, Laverne, Oakland, Riverdale, Rockville, Segal, Smyrna, and Stewart's Creek proudly represented the district through competitions, leadership experiences, and national recognition. Among the standout

135performances, Oakland FFA emerged as a powerhouse, earning a national title, multiple runner-up finishes. and top 10 placements in agriscience and proficiency events. Collectively, both local FFA members demonstrated the excellence, innovation, and leadership that continues to make RCS agriculture education a model for the nation. So hats off to the FFA folks all over the county. Love FFA. Mr. Vaughn, if it goes as planned, we're going to have those students here at next board meeting. Great. Wonderful. That would be great. Dr. Sullivan would like to end. Yeah, so. Oh, Ms. Sharp, too. Go ahead. I was into. Go ahead, Ms. Sharp. Go ahead. Okay, well, this is a high note. Oh, and then Ms. Darby. I represented Rutherford County Schools today at the DECA 2025 convention. There are two locations at Nissan, one at Nissan and one

136in Lebanon. I thought Laverne was going to be at Nissan, but they moved them to Lebanon, and I judged the students probably from Davidson County in the West Nashville area. They had some good competition, but I'm sure we're going to get a good report when they finalize the the grades and everything. I was gifted this thumb drive, and if anybody would like that, because I've got a lot of them, so if anybody needs this one, this would be great. And then our next board meetings, we'll be having some finalization with Jazz Fest. Okay, thank you. Ms. Shaw. No, Darby. Sorry. Sorry, I do that all the time. We'll get a giant name tag for you. I know. I don't really have a whole lot. I just wanted to kind of touch a little bit on

137the rezoning in terms of just kind of bringing it back around full circle. When the board met and we decided to hire RSP, I know we talked about some of our top priorities. I know feeder schools were in the top of that list. I know it's an extremely difficult thing to do, but I do want to kind of keep at the forefront that we were really trying, and Ms. Rosales brought this up earlier as well, We were really trying to get to a place where we're not doing this over and over and over again. And I get it, and I hope the community gets it, that we don't have control over it. I know I have spoken to several of our mayors, and there's a lot of stuff that they cannot do if somebody meets

138all the requirements and stuff like that, although I wish they would stop rezoning to high density. At least it would help slow it a little bit. But I did want to just kind of bring it back around full circle to the board that, you know, we are charged with educating these kids, with doing what is best for our students. The constant rezoning, I don't believe it's what's best for them. I also don't believe it's best to rezone people where traffic ends up being sitting in a bus for over an hour every day to school and back. And I know we have a little bit of time, not a whole lot, before we have to vote on this, but I would encourage all of us and anybody out in the community that has any out-of-the-box ideas

139or anything that you can think of, reach out to your board members, your county commissioners. Maybe there's going to be some really crazy, creative thing to think of. I don't know. I think it's a possibility. I'm looking forward to Rob's numbers on... capping Stewart's Creek and seeing what that looks like because maybe if we cap it for two to three years we can have a solution at the end of that two or three years that rezoning because I do just want to say constantly moving lines just for the sake of filling empty seats is not in the best interest of our students So it doesn't make sense to just constantly keep moving boundary lines for a couple years to just move kids again later. And it's easy for people to sit up here and say,

140well, we have to or it's numbers or whatever. But if it was your kid, I know we had this big problem with the last rezoning with the Blackman area and your neighborhood being constantly. And I'm hoping that Poplar Hill has eased some of that there. And we're going to see it across the county. Rockville is another area that we're seeing the beginnings, I think, of what's happening in the Stewart's Creek area happening over there. But I want to encourage us to stand our ground, to ask for what we need. We tend to sometimes get caught up in what we think we can get approved, but it's our job to talk about what we need and ask for it. Whether we get it or not is not in our control, but it is in our control

141to ask for it. Just some thoughts. I want to kudos to what Ms. Darby said. Because when I came on this board, renovations at Riverdale and Oakland were not in the cards. But it's the thing that I'm the most proud that we were able to do. At the same time, we were able to open. new elementary schools and now a new middle school. So yes, you do need to advocate what you need in your area. And that's, and I kudos to you. Yes, that is what we need to do. What we also need to do is we finally need to get some collaboration with our cities and our county, because that's not sustainable either. Dr. Sullivan, you had something you wanted to say? To that, I would just say, I think we probably at some

142point need to update our guidance to Rob. In May of 2023, we, the board, voted that for Rob's guidance to be building utilization as the number one thing for him to consider. So I do think if we're going to take a different approach, we need to give him different guidance. Because it's hard for him to meet different guidelines if that's not what his guidance is. And hitting the celebration point. Tomorrow at some point, the State Board of Education is meeting at 9 o'clock tomorrow. They are going to officially approve reward schools. And the rumor mill should be that we should have the highest number of reward schools that we've ever had. Unofficially. Unofficially, it's the highest number of award schools that we've ever had, but officially we can say something tomorrow and announce those schools.

143But unofficially, you can go to their website and see if they're listed now, because they have to for public comment. But we can talk about that tomorrow. I'm so proud of all of our schools. You've done great. All of our schools are good. All of our schools are good schools. Thank you. Yep. And that's the end. We are adjourned.