February 11, 2025, Board of Education Meeting

001all the order thank you for joining us today for our Board of Education pre-work session our board meeting Cadence allows for board members to prepare for upcoming regular sessions these sessions are typically more casual are primarily for information gathering no formal votes will be taken we will begin our pre-work session with our book study the governance core governing with coherence and Synergy is chapter five this month board member James hearnen will facilitate our discussion board member hearen excellent thanks Dr Sulton um a chapter about how coherence is key I'm going to to for a little bit and then what I'm going to ask from board members H the third option is for you okay of the 10 distractions to coherence which if any you feel you may have been guilty of you can answer that

002one it'll be fine number two just give me your favorite quote or nugget you took out of chapter five or then finally Hans what would you have done differently to improve the chapter for this audience take that one I figured you'd like that one quite a bit um so talks about coherence I did appreciate this line on page 88 that sharing a Unity of purpose is at the heart of board leadership and the difference between uniform and uh Unity you can be a unified board with individuals of complete different styles it's like every section had a had a part was like you know because boards have very different political beliefs and aspirations um stood out to me how inapplicable that is to our current board and even when I've talked to I've shared publicly that

003my uncle was board shared bullet County for about 12 years and he said that a majority of their time was fighting over politics and we should do that uh don't need to do that at least not in my experience Co fight not withstanding um and then on page 92 this is my answer to the favorite quote of all the characteristics mentioned above is the requirement for creating a culture of collaboration perhaps the most important on a school board is trust lack of trust makes collaboration virtually impossible collaboration moves at the Speed Of Trust in other words very important the board as board members as a member of a theme to have a certain level of trust because honestly at the end of the day the the minua of everything requires you to take some stuff

004for Value um my favorite one that I think that I have struggled with the most as we go through the 10 and and then I'll be quiet and let you all talk is um number what was it number no bringing your own perspective your own professionalism to the board which that sorry me one second number nine me this is the one that particularly as I was elected to the board I thought you know oh I was in the classroom I know what I'm talking about or in finance I know what I'm talking about and then just to to kind of be quiet try to suck all of that in kind of realize that there are nuances there probably hardest part of being a board member for me and I and I've certainly seen with other

005lawyers they the lawyers who've come on and have certain level of level legal expertise and then you have comments with lawyers or real estate agents on the board and just they they bring such a level of knowledge that sometimes we get distracted by it um and then I I'll answer the last question that I have for everybody which is I didn't particularly care for the chapter it seemed like it could have been about two paragraphs long it's like learn to trust each other um because if you don't you can't do much else and here are some of the ways you can get distracted it's uh why say in 20 Pages what you can say in two and um a lot of it just kind of miss the mark so uh to reiterate and I and

006I'll start with you board member Anderson either your favorite quote or nugget you took which of the 10 distractions to coherence you may be guilty of or or worry that you may be guilty of or number three just like how would you have written the chapter differently to more people I highlighted it a lot and like you I did um like the collaboration moved at the Speed Of Trust um I also highlighted forgetting that they actually have no Authority as an individual member of the board because um I guess as a teacher as a parent and you know obviously as a resident of decar I take all of it to heart um you know like I said last year when we looked at the budget I think I got four hours sleep and so um

007it is something to Grapple with because I don't have any Authority um but I will ask questions and I trust that we'll listen to each other and yeah I think these chapters also I really question the premise of some of these but we can talk about that another time here and if I may ask I'm deeply curious how an English teacher would respond to her writing in the chapter you don't have to answer that question I may take a p oh yeah I I mean I think it's the thing that bothers me about this like you said James we all come to the table with World experience and so there's accepting that you know none of us is running operations but all of us has a mind and a level of expertise and so the

008balancing of knowing when you're getting the content you need to make those decisions but then when you all have questions that's it for me um this one was actually easy I think I struggle the most with uh micromanagement or accountability and that's just my own personal struggle in life as a leader um I think um there's a fine line between holding people accountable and getting into their Lane um and I think a lot of this I highlighted I was like oh this is this is direct feedback for me where you it's like those dreaded well this is my suggestion or these are my thoughts and sometimes that can be taken by people um very wholeheartedly or they can feel like you're um overstepping your bounds and I think in a lot of the leadership roles

009that I have I have to realize that um sometimes I always say my ideas are good in my mind but that doesn't mean that everybody else receives them that's good um but I think in this role in particular I think to Tracy's point we are one part of a whole um but ultimately the operations go for the superintendent um and sometimes um it can be difficult in this role to realize where your Authority ends and the superintendent ultimately takes over um so that micromanagement piece um versus when you're simply holding a superintendent accountable I think it's always a point of growth um for me that right I I bracketed dection that if an individual trustee board member chose interest in a given issue on behalf of constituent does not automatically mean that he or she

010is micromanaging something I've heard all of you do like hey I have concerns about this problem is when you cut it off like it is when you try to get a favorable decision behind a closed door you know to to point the conversation that's a problem and so your point ask questions that's great we want things to be the focus of the board it's almost like okay and then I trust you to handle this I brought it to your attention be good cabinet you know like let us know um because I think that it's just as bad when you don't raise questions about things that your constituents bring to your attention right yeah and I think you you U I think one one positive in the way that this chapter was written is in the

011next page he gives some examples of where micromanagement can occur suggestions for improvement along the way which may be interpreted by the staff as interference um so giving direct areas of suggestion to particular cabinet members if probably more along the lines of the job of the superintendent um or making the superintendent feel like you've lost confidence in them so you're giving so many suggestions or so much feedback or asking so many pointed questions that the superintendent is like well hey what am I supposed to make of that that borders on micromanagement as opposed to kind of a team based approach Dr whiter yes all all right so the part um of the book that I really thought um it says in almost every case they have a superintendent who is thought of as highly competent

012transparent focused and and motivated by the shared moral imperative and therefore is trusted by the board these truly are examples of eor buo all of the trustees and superintendent coming together as one governance system making quality Str iic decisions after thoughtful debate sometimes with negative votes that was the bottom part of the paragraph where he calls out collaboration trust and purpose which are really that those top three if you're going to not just have the team being you know team CSD but truly to have Synergy to to have coherence to really move the ball forward I think that's casy okay Mr RS um so I had reached out to um board chair I apologize to Mr hearen former board chair Mr hearen uh in advance of this because the opening paragraph I found maybe the

013first two paragraphs I found quite interesting because um the thesis that coherence is really important for school boards is important but they talk about how all elected leaders um are driven by or the effective elected leaders are driven by unity of purpose and all of this you know like working for a common good I just thought it was very ironic given uh existing circumstances but um so I found this chapter deeply deeply frustrating not so much because of its message which is difficult to argue with but because of the way that it was presented we'll talk about that in just a second uh I did feel like it pulled the airplane those it before crashing by the very end because I do act away from this around trust is just indescribably important I do feel

014like that's one of the strengths of this board that even if we disag that we're all here for the best of the students and that it's worth listening to one another and if we don't agree understanding why we disagree because within that disagreement there it's still around what is best for the kids I mean I just I find that it's one of the things that I have enjoyed working on this board for um it what would I change I would edit out all of the cyclical TR uh circular truism you know the the whole being in coherent is important to maintain coherence type language that's in the book um I found that that's why it's you know 20 pages long instead of two paragraphs um I can't I can't argue with the point of the

015of it I just feel like if we were to edit this book down we could literally read it in an afternoon and be done um as opposed to having to be told the same set of truisms over and over again actually can I be one thing to because I'm reminded of the yellow paint from the book last year and I just feel like examples of more nuanced situations would be far more helpful than the obvious ones that almost never seem to apply to us that's my so I shared uh some of the same frustrations um it was just so redundant um so often um like you said you know the points of coherence is coherence I mean this really frustrated um then on page 100 I was frustrated that he spent a whole um page

016critiquing this other book I thought he had beat with the authors or something ping and Quinn and 2016 published a book called heing to health school district focus and how school systems and different he called out two school systems that thought that they had found all the answers and you know I just was confused by why he took the time to critique this other book he's one of the authors of it the Fuller is the is [Laughter] the to that so so then that I guess that helped to know that that he was one of the authors go ahead but but that that actually part of the problem in the book though is that they almost never reference anything other than what they themselves have written another example of Fairly circular logic yeah um a

017quote that I had appreciation for uh was under the representing of cons constituency page on page 113 um the third paragraph um in the context of cont constituencies when a trustee is asked who do you represent the response should be wrong question the right questions are what do you represent what is your inter internal moral compass and how does that guide you in your trusty role and I had next to so I uh I I appreciated that um did I answer question yeah you only had to answer one and you knocked it out the proverbial Park great no I think that's good I think that that um I I I go people are like you know who who do you represent who do you represent we represent the kids who didn't get the vote and

018that's what we're you know yeah talk about all the time Bob Wilson does a good job of repeating that at nauseum um and I think it's true that's a good example that you represent what you think is best for the kids and individual voters will vote for their bottom line or their you know something great and so it is we are often in an awkward position like that quote um a quote that I found meaning pool is on page 88 or at least I think it's on page 88 in the oldest one I'm not sure but um it says a unified board is made up of individuals with different beliefs Styles and personalities working together with a shared moral imperative in a collaborative Cooperative fashion toward a common goal and I thought that this quote

019um kind of represents or yeah kind of like then to represent our board because you know everyone every board member has a different experience um but you know we all come together and you know work collabor excellent that that's it chapter five I don't have any nuggets for you to take away uh chapter six is next thank you so much thank you board member hernen next month board member Anderson will facilitate chap six governance responsibilities of the board Dr Whitaker please introduce the next item thank you Sheriff Sultan I would like to call on Mrs Amanda Lynch Chief of Staff to present four policies for feedback and exploration of one more thank you good afternoon board chair Dr Sulton Grace chair oops esteemed members of the board superintendent representative Delena and superintendent Dr GMA Whitaker

020in accordance with the 2024 202 policy calendar policy code I instructional pram of February today we will start by seeking input on three policies from this policy to igb student support team Lexia identification and support and IC curriculum development we will then revisit policy GB staff political activities which was initially discussed during pre-work in December and January finally we will seek board input from an environmental scan of idbf special education programs feedback will be used to inform a draft of this policy to be brought to the board in March as a reminder to the public policies that are presented during pre-work are new business on which we are seeking board input these policies are being presented as initial drafts they're being share together board input and feedback that can be Reed in drafting or revising

021any future version first is policy igb student support team which is being proposed as a new policy student support teams or fsts support the multi-tiered system of supports or mtss process mtss is an identified District Focus area and this policy would codify mpss expectations at the policy level as drafted igb addresses the requirement of each school to have a student support team and states that fsts are part of the mtss framework any student with a tier 3 intervention plan will be assigned an FST the policy indicates that parents and Guardians will be invited to participate in all meetings of their child's SST however parents are not required to attend in instances where families are unable to attend the school team will take steps to communicate the meeting outcomes with the family it also states that

022FS data review meetings should take place in accordance with the students needs finally the polic States the superintendent or designate shall establish support team procedures that are consistent with the state board rules so at this time I welcome any board input for policy igb student support team I was wondering um it says SST data review meeting should occur in accordance with the students needs but I I was warning if we should say that they will occur at least minimum the minimum amount of time this is part of the conversation during the drafting um both with our learning and teaching team and with our legal team and um there's a lot of conversation about how there's rules about it being at least annually and we went back and forth um because best practi is really every

023four to six weeks and then we had conversations about when there is data it should be in response to the data that's available with the need and so we spoke particularly about that language and um put it in there because it could be a little bit based on the data that's gathered and the needs of a particular student but when I was still in the classroom I know there were often conversations or parents frustrated that too long um so yes the some would say the process takes too long others would say sometimes you get a fast pass that automatically takes you there so it's really based upon that need of the student and the data Gathering that that that phase if you will but we know once a year wouldn't be enough correct right right

024I mean we know even twice a year wouldn't be enough so just it just feels like there has to be a minimum amount of time that you wouldn't let pass with out some type of meeting I want to just if I'm if I if I may um Doctor Johnson Davis to me it sounded like your question was more directed after the student was within the program how often are they meeting to review the progress and the data either with or without the parents not necessarily how fast the student got selected to be put into the program because I think there is a difference I mean I I do think that what you're asking if I understand correctly this process could lead to you being identified special ed and and so uh it could happen that

025it went too fast and then the student could be put in special yeah that's yeah that's not been my experience but um it just feels like there should be a minimum amount of time and because we know that even you know I don't know it feels difficult to FasTrack a student to tier three is there I've seen it here so so well I guess that that's that's something that should be be built into in terms of the I don't know if we have a we have a positive NPS well is this this is this is what we have right now yes yes okay because it feels like I mean it was always my experience that you have to have you know worked on these goals for a certain amount of time before you even considered

026increasing the level of support I have had that experience in my professional career prior to September 2023 is well but September 2023 in Decay there was more than one instance is that well I feel like that should be built into a policy and that's one of my when we get to the special ed that that some of my feedback um in terms of identification because in the of igd which I know we'll get to it gives some very specific detailed instructions about identification and I felt like that's missing from special ed um and so you know so I mean in order to have some some guard rails in terms of preventing fast tracking and preventing taking too long there should be some I think some of that so at the policy level this is the

027policy level I think as with policies come regulations at times and then comes the actual technical procedures by which teachers are held accountable to so the policy level based upon scan of environmental scan of other districts and what was there in addition to legals you know feedback and specifically indicator and so that's where we landed where we are but if you want to put a you want to put a minimum in in igb which tell me kind of where you where you want that the review meeting should occur in accordance with the students needs or the review meeting should occur um at least [Music] every four to six weeks back I'll get the learning and teaching experts and I'll get legal representation and we'll bring this back and understand that that's something that we're looking

028for and we will bring to you kind of what's advis based on a deeper conversation around that request okay and that La that last sentence in the second paragraph is the one we're going to um correct talk walk walk through okay and for clarification is this meeting frequency for when these children are first identified or you think for their routine right after the plan has been developed and so you know you typically have these goals and so okay it's being collected and so how often will our teachers and or the SS team getting SST team get it together to discuss that that but isn't it possible that it could differ based on whatever the issue is like some kids may only need to meet every six months often depending on the intervention monitored over a

029longer period or you know but six months I I'm totally asking but that's what I'm saying it shouldn't go six months legal has a yeah so one of the considerations that we look at with policies is that when you put it into a policy it becomes a requirement so it doesn't give the team the flexibility or the school level the flexibility because if you say four to six weeks and they don't do it every four to six weeks theyve now violated their own board policy by putting it in a regulation or in an internal operating procedure it still says hey this is the best practice that's expected but it isn't in a a policy where you could create a ministerial Duty on the school district but if best practice is within a particular period of

030time and historically we have not met those particular periods of time isn't that precisely what the policy is meant to redress I think that you want to leave your team the flex your SS team at the school the flexibility operate in accordance with the child's needs because some students may not need a meeting every students may need it but I'm not saying that it has to happen every four to six weeks but I'm saying that do we not go do the SS not go more than this amount of time without meeting like it's so if we said if we you know I think six months is not reasonable but if we said three months a team could meet before three months but just it wouldn't wait until three mon yeah I just want to um

031so with someone with experience with this not teaching as a parent and some of this predates and Dr Whitaker's arrival um I do hear the concern about timeliness but I also hear the concern that we don't want to be committing to a certain number of weeks so it feels to me like we're addressing the existence of this through policy but we might need a presentation about the implementation to better understand how it's working my technical question is with the second paragraph so I'm trying to figure out the first paragraph says that there will be a One support team so that allows for one ft One support team in a school which may be comprised of parents as I'm confused in reading this is it suggesting One support team per student and that may include a

032parent or One support team at the school that may include a parent teacher counselor because the second paragraph then says let's invite parents to be involved or something if if I'm if I'm if I may I think this is an extraordinarily important question but I I actually don't feel that we got closure on Dr Johnson Davis's question I'm wondering if we can just make sure that we are capable of capturing and ensuring we redress both so with the LA with this statement my takeaway was to come back on that second paragraph last sentence and be able to go through a drafting process or revision process and we'll bring it back to you with some with some different versions to see I mean we'll see what's out there basically yeah that's that's what I wrote down

033that we would do thank you and then I'm also very interested in Miss Anderson's question make sure I'm confused because the first paragraph reads that each school is required to have a minimum of one student support team which includes a minimum of three participants participants should include parents and relevant School personel so I'm not trying to be pedantic but is it just saying that Claremont has one ss team in totality that's a teacher a counselor and a parent or is it one ss team per student I don't understand how parents are part of the SST team parents can serve as a member of an SST team so it's saying that each school has an SST team and it has to have at least three participants okay parents can be a participant of an SS team

034but are not requ for it to occur am I it may just be I'm sleep deprived but the way I'm reading this is okay so the school has to have a minimum of one team and so it is conceivable that at one Elementary School there's just one team composed of because I'm assuming we don't want parents who aren't parents of a child to never right that's the way am I reading this wrong but it may it may be that the team may not have the same members so my f& team may be these three people but yours may have a different three people so maybe it's not where clont people are the same three folks for everybody who requires it butci that those same three people are completely overburdened is what I was thinking and

035then I think the other question I had was regarding parent or Andor Guardian notification um so I know we can't guarantee that a parent or garden receives it but and I'm hearing you know I understand what we want in policy and what we don't but I think I want a little more understanding of how we're making sure that the parents and Guardians are aware I don't know if that's to revisit in the policy writing maybe that's a understand what she's asking so parents I mean parents are invited to participate in meetings and this policy would state that as well I think that's might go in accordance with the State Board rule I see not in yet to confirm so yes the parents are invited to participate so the policy is parents are invited and then

036we'd be looking at practice or implementation to ensure that parents got the invitation the rule correct Accord to that's according to the state right so it's the the first sentence of the paragraph of the first sentence of the policy I should say is really how everything underneath is really in accordance to here to that including the invitation of parents to participate I think I think I understand Tracy's initial question about each schools required to have a minimum of one student support team really each student will have their own SS team it's saying that schools have to have in place an SST a process for SST so this is just saying student support team is this thing that has to exist at every school right but is it would it be reasonable to have that each

037student will have their own SS team because they're sing by different CH teachers the team would be different because the teachers different right so wouldn't that be a more a clearer way clearer way of Express saying that each school will have one team because the team changes per student yes but I I thought about that as you were speaking but then I was like if you take that language out then the policy doesn't have the language that makes it required that this that the schools have to have this policy in place or they have to have the team structure you see what I'm saying so yes both are true so I think you said each student has to have their own SST team so maybe you need to add that you need to add that

038sentence make yeah you need to add that add that sentence but by saying the schools are required to have an SST and you're saying that the schools must have the support structure in place even if there is on the flip chant only one there's no students that require SS at the start of the year they still have to identify that will provide that support structure you see I'm saying yeah yeah and insert sentence to say team is required these are the people who would be potentially on the team that needs to be two separate sentences not for each student so we will work on some revised language based on that feedback and we will go from there before in preparation for next month's meeting for first reading next is policy igb dyslexia identification and support

039the recommendation to create this new policy is being made in response to recent legislation as part of this initial draft teaching and learning staff met with a group of key stakeholders with particular interest in the dyslexia identification process at city schools of decada during this meeting the parents provided input on what was important in the community regarding dyslexia identification this also provided an opportunity to reflect on current processes and consider adjustments based on feedback the meeting concluded with an agreement to review the feedback and discern which key components belonged in a district policy and which components were more conducive and operating procedures highlights of the draft policy being presented today include a stated commitment to early identification intervention and support for students with characteristics of Dyslexia as summarized in state board rules using an mpss

040framework to universally screen students in grades kindergarten through third for characteristics of dislexia an indication that school teams will use data to identify students with potential characteristics of Dyslexia and intervene accordingly this includes all students even students with existing IEPs states that parent notification takes place prior to Universal screening but that parental consent is not required for Universal screening so at this time I welcome any board input for policy igd dyslexia identification an so for me this almost felt like a regulation because it was so specific as to what will happen to identify students like this this regulation I mean this policy could have read like The idds in terms of special education that you know we're going to follow what the state says um about students with dyslexia um but it's so detailed which

041is what had be thinking well then we need to explain all that in terms of how students are identified for I services and we haven't drafted IDF yet so we just done the environmental scan of so far right but it's just it just felt like this was so detailed it just felt like it would be more appropriate these steps would be more appropriate for a regulation than a policy if if I'm if I may the reason why I'm glad we're detailed at a policy level is because of how I think short we have been in responding correctly to dyslexia historically and I think there's some correction that we're making at that point right I mean so I don't mind us being more explicit within policy around something that we've historically had a challenge with but

042that's what we say I mean a policy is a policy and a regulation is a regulation so you know we're g to be consistent in terms of you know the policy explains what the what other rpls to have yes I I can feel the going yeah and so I mean because we could we could do this for so many things where we have where we have we're trying to correct things but I don't know that this level of detail is appropriate for a policy so then I have a two-part question the first one is how much of this guidance came from the state I think some of there was a lot being yeah a lot of a lot of a lot of push came from the the state and then to Dr Johnson Davis's concern

043does that mean that you just pull out the second paragraph in total yeah so so our learning and teaching team worked on this specifically right now one of the things that's interesting when we do the environmental SC the new dyslexia legislation really we are one of the first to look at adopting a policy particular to um igd um so there wasn't as much as a scan so we did have to rely on state law and legal input as well in the drafting of the policy and so so I just did a a quick scan of gifted student programs you probably wonder wi I looked at that quickly with my background in our policy manual it says the school district shall identify and serve gifted students as pres prescribed by state law rule 160-4 d238 and

044then the superintendent or design shall develop and Implement administrative procedures for the operation of the gifted education program including its criteria for continuation of services and such administrative procedur shall be available for review by the public and the Georgia Department of Education so this for gifted Ed Reads similar to the environmental scans of IDF and this is idd and gifted so I can definitely see where you're saying okay go with the first paragraph to say we we are going to do it and we will will do it in accordance to the rule which is 160-4 d239 which is interesting because it's the next one that was developed after gifted and then say similar to keep it in line and that's what would be igd and I know we haven't gotten to ID yet but you

045could stay in that same vein if that is what this board would want at the policy level but making sure your implementation and your procedures are tight and available that's a I'm just saying that to be consistent across all of these policies because even for us your gift a policy was created 12 1322 so it's only two years old but we know why we are at that point so so I want us to be very precise about language because consistency does not mean like we want our policies to not conflict but it's always going to be the case that we're going to have differing levels of detail in policies where it's necessary based upon our judgment and based upon history of the district I don't read the second paragraph As a description of how the

046second paragraph is a description of what it does still have generic language in it it's saying that we're going to you know uh intervene appropriately it's not telling us how we're going to intervene and that's all the stuff that's going to happen at the regulatory level I think yes we could have this level of detail in every policy and maybe 20 years from now we will but I think that at this phase where we are building out our let's be honest our destroyed policy handbook then we know why it was destroyed we are providing additional focus in areas where we know there's been significant concern in the community I agree actually with you that when we talk about special ed and we talk about some of those um programs we probably actually want this level

047of detail because we have historically not done that well I don't know that we need this level of detail in every policy because I'm not sure that there's a problem at every level of every policy but I just I know the parents that have been concerned I know the community has justifiably been concerned around this I know the community is justifiably concerned around special ed so maybe in those policies we should spell out with a little more explicitness if for no other reason than an interested party that wants to understand our policy doesn't have to read our policy and then go read state law to understand really what our policy is I just want to I think consistency is important [Music] because if it could look like because a certain group got the attention you

048know where we have overidentified uh black students for special ed right there has not been the same uh we have not seen the same rallying cry around that like we did for dyslexia because we know that this well that's that's truly been why I said I said about the last policy because I did see with my own two eyes like okay here they go in special education or moving to tier three so I I understand what you're saying and so I'm just saying you know if I think it comes down to our understanding of policies and regulations and it's not just because you know we want to make sure that group understands that we understand the seriousness of it because we do but if if a policy is kind of you know the what and

049this is what we believe and this is what we prioritize and then the regulation gives the how then I feel like that's how that's that's what should happen I mean and and and I think and then we are um intentional about explaining it all to the community I think that that's true however for those who are listening there are a lot of uh students of color in our communities who were who were missed or um not properly identified because of our our dyslexia um practices in the past so I don't you know I think there were um quite a few students of color that would that um whose parents were very vocal about the need for improved dyslexia practice to the or whatever that's worth um I I I don't disagree with with what you're

050saying um I think um you know is it possible that this is a particular policy that has language that is fundamentally more descriptive um that's kind of what I was thinking as I was reading through this um you know could we instead of striking the whole second paragraph just strike a to3 exhibiting characteristics of Dyslexia and individualized reading for support plan could we strike from there down that does kind of get into some detailed language um maybe that's a potential wi I don't think the right index is for us to say this is too descriptive I think the right index for us to say is we all also have a problem with special ed overidentification and the policy should be very very transparently clear and descriptive about that problem and so I would I would

051say that when we talk about special ed and we talk about the way that that get I mean and again I'm very clear I'm not suggesting that we get into the weeds of the how I agree with Dr Johnson Davis and the rest of the board that that's not what we want to be doing but I would say our job on this board is to exercise our judgment where we have lacking policies and where those policies have harmed us and I very much agree with Dr Johnson Davis there is a differential level of attention in the community on those two things but there does not have to be on this board and I would say we would very much want to provide that level of detail in the special ed policy as well okay I

052think that there's a reason why the in our environmental scan that you know um all of these uh districts have very similar um IDF policies because this is how the a policy is written I I you know I don't think is that they don't have a clear under appreciation for you know the seriousness of special ed but I think that this is just how policies are written and and all of the level of details what goes into the regulation okay um the last thing I want to say and then I'm going to pass the my to board member Anderson I think some things clearly belong in regulation some things clearly belong in policy I think we need to describe to decide not based on the content of what is here but based on the language

053what belongs where so we feel like something is regulatory language and we should strike it if we feel like a policy language not based on the top but if it you more regulatory then we should we should strike it yeah I just wanted to confirm then we're not committing to explaining um how often for example the screening will take place we're simply saying we'll have a policy though that for within these four years at some point a student will be screened for dis way I read this it I thought it said um kindergarten through third so the screener will be administered to all students in grades kindergarten through 3D but we're not regulating how often that screener is implemented as one right we're simply saying we will offer it Universal screening takes place annually right

054so I I I think I'm perfectly comfortable with having that in writing now you know if we want to move down to third and fourth sentence fine but I like the fact that we will um say that this will happen at least once in those four years and that is probably something that is the difference between this rule that is new versus 38 that I referenced before is that guidance has gives us very little room to change because it's brand new guidance um meaning that rule is brand new versus 38 it's very different in the way the state has provided it to us we don't have a lot of room to do anything much different than what's already in here besides selecting the screener the screener itself is what we can do differently but rules

055are R I feel like we should be jointly talking about special ed because I think that there is it's not it's not just special ed I think that then we need to re look at gifted I think you know what I'm saying if we're going to talk about how using this you know we're going to be using this and we're going to do this for these grades and we're going to do this for this grades and then then we we need to um we look at um other policies where we um there's a process to identify students yeah I'm just saying for 160-4 D2 d 39 we just simply stating restating what it says where 38 gives you more of opportunity to select what you want to do how you want to do it this

056is just really restating what's in the exist the exist the State Board rule I'm not sure which one you're talking about you said this the dyslexia identification and support which is 39 every everything that's in that second paragraph is pretty much in that state rule so we don't we don't have the opportunity to do much different besides out of the five screeners that the state just told us what December they said okay you need to make sure you're using one of these five other than that we have to do what the state says they haven't given us much room to do anything different where in other state board rules you have more latitude because this is brand new and it's regulatory at a state level to a different degree I mean yeah well it's just

057state law it's just say state law the policy should only be what we're doing different state law or it's just a poorly written policy oh on I I disagree with it I don't I don't think that's the case at all I absolutely think it's the I mean I don't think our policies should read in such a way that that you read the policy to say oh we're just going to follow state law like why do we have policies then we could just write our policy book in one fell swop and say all of our policies are to not violate state law and then let that be done I think it makes sense what I said I didn't just say state law and we should about places where we're doing more or different well I think

058in this particular case we want to make it because otherwise all we're doing then I think this is the case these issues where what are we doing in school systems following the state law yeah and if we're not then that's in the policy I'm unclear what you're disagreeing with I think that to put more detail in because I think that there said we haven't put more detail in we just no no that's what this is that is what that detail is it's not different from state law I'm not trying to suggest that but I I don't see why it's an issue to be clear in the policy exactly what again I think I also disagree that this is a statement of how which is reasonable and acceptable for policy I don't mind that detail in

059there the argument is for taking detail out so because it seems like the more detail we add the more we're getting to regulatory language so well then I think that's where that's what I keep saying is the argument here is not is not is not the validity of the policy itself is whether the language appears regulatory for appear policy like so if it appears regulatory then we should take it out but we're going to use a multi-tier system of supports that's a house that's that's the how we're going to do it um I mean this is all the house respon um Dr Whitaker's point there this particular regulation or state board rule said this is what you will do um so we basically this is basically just regurgitating what the state board rule say now

060I want to contrast that with the policy we just looked at before the State Board rule with regard to that policy gives you much more discretion with that you can have in your policy for example it gives you a list of 10 or 12 different individuals that can be on your SS SST teams you can choose who those are be it doesn't prescribe a minimum number of meetings that you have to have it it gives you more discretion so if you as a body you can choose to say oh well we're going to put it in our policy but once it's in your policy as a sh it is no longer discretionary so that is where you start getting into the how is telling the schools this is how often you have do this this

061is how you know that is the house so and I think you have to keep in mind do we want this to be a Minister discretionary want to create a ministerial Duty the school district meaning if they don't do it they have violated the policy and potentially opened you all up to liability you have to be careful about that kind of thing of policy and it sounds like if this is coming from the state I don't know how much discretionary how much discretion we have this is coming from the state the second paragraph yeah I'm not saying that we wouldn't do these things and so if it's coming from the state should we take it out or should it be or should to James's point should we add language that says per state guidelines or

062per state something or other what would be in the regulation what would be in the regulation GNA say and feel fre to jump in anyone um in the regulation could be something about like when we are choosing to screen so every fall we're going to give this we're going to ensure that um there might be the additional tools that we're using as part of the screening process could be in part of the regulation the what screener we are using and the rubric and yeah so that's where we got a lot of feedback from Community stakeholders was around the regulations so would we report the ram to families and our communication the um the dyslexia rubrics that I shared earlier they had lots of feedback about that so what would be in those rubrics how would

063they be communicated how often um so it does seem like there's a lot in here but I assure you that it goes into much more detail um in a regulation um in a regulation if if the administration does not feel this is stepping on their toes from a a a a regul standpoint and if this is non-discretionary language I would in all cases default to providing more detail to the public so long as it does not impact our liability I would default to providing more detail to the public so that they can understand what our policy is to the best of our ability to communicate it I I would find it infuriating as a parent to read this policy and then go have to open up state law to find out what it actually was

064and so I I that that is that is my fundamental index I would and I understand Dr Johnson Davis's point about other policies but but I am never going to argue for us to make it less clear to the public what it is that that we what not how but what it is that we intend to do or remember Anderson I think can I just make a distinction here that the policy we were looking at earlier was citing a specific team right that would be formed of a minimum of three people I don't think this is a how we're simply saying that there's going to Frameworks which I believe is different from regulating how that framework is formed or how that framework is working um Hans I I think what you're describing is a separate

065communication and so we have the policy that explains that we're going to be screening for dyslexia and then maybe we have more intelligible um understandable Communications to the parent that explain specifically what is now happening with your child based on this or that I I wouldn't be writing in the more that you're talking about in policy no no no I mean this is the amount of detail that I want to provide not I'm not asking to put more than this in there okay yeah no no no just to be clear so very clear I want to make sure understand what you're saying so if it's a policy that is essentially just yes we will do state law you want to say describe that state law so long as it is not curtailing the district's discretion

066where they're permitted the discretion so long as it does not increase our liability and so far as it is not actually uh describing a regulation if it is not doing so the cons there are as the Law changes we open ourselves to liability as the Law changes we have to go back and adjust our policies I am presuming that the pros that approach are because because for years we've had an unintelligible policy book that a parent couldn't engage with because you read it well one we for some period of time just didn't have a policy book but then two if you have a policy book that doesn't actually say anything beyond we're going to follow the law that's pretty infuriating as a parent that's that is I don't understand why a a paragraph which is

067a clear statement of what would not be included to allow a parent to understand what we are committed to from a policy standpoint that I feel like we would want to do that to the extent POS possible in every policy so in addition to the legal liability we not concern at all that it's sort of Ting authority over something that there really is no Authority which is apparent can be far more frustrating to spend my time and effort coming and having a meeting uh with this Burton here and and demanding that the mtss structure goes and then I show up principal Thomas I'm like the policy says this and I they're like oh yeah that was state law we actually have no control over that whatsoever sorry for flexing like we do no the opposite

068is what I'm saying I'm saying that what we would be doing in the classroom or in the schools would be the state law if a parent reads the policy and is having something done other than the policy in the classroom then yes I want the parent to go to the school and say you're not following state law like that's the goal I want want this to be transparently clear so that parents are empowered to take action with us if we aren't following the policy you care about state law being restated here as opposed to all of the other previous policies so a parent doesn't have to hire a lawyer to understand what it is that we're saying we're going to do okay so say that again H so like with these say with the gifted

069are we going to go back through these other policies if there is to explain the process because that's this to me is an explanation of the process of how student is identified for dyslexia will we go back through these other policies and that where you know it requires students to be identified for these other services I don't I respectfully I disagree I think this is a restating of what the state law is I think that as U Miss Burton stated the actual identification process is much more detailed and will be in the regulation and I think that's probably what the parents are going to ultimately would they want to know he and see how their particular child is going to be identified what the followup process will be what screen are you going to use

070when is it is it in the spring or is it in the fall etc etc but to me this is not a formal description of how the identification process works it's a description that there is an identification process and how it is structured per Georgia state law maybe I don't know I'm agnostic to whether or not we put that language in there but I don't I don't know if this dictates or necessitates that every single policy is worded this way to hans's point the question is or to James at this point the argument was does every policy have to have a descriptor of state law but every every one of these may not have a state law president that backs it up this one happens to so but so we're assuming that state law doesn't

071exist no state law that tells the process and I don't know for how students identify for gifted Services withd some that I know that state law and that state law is extremely long and it is extremely detailed and the school systems have a lot of different options of doing things so as a policymaking body at this level I would not suggest you try to interpret that in state in your policy just like for special education to identify for special education you are talking about all the multiple disabilities all the different types of Assessments it's very very robust but when I and I'm looking at 39 or 39 which is the state law rules and regs for 39 for which is dyslexia and what we have really does does say what is in here and it

072also says what the Lea must do and it the Lea must notify parents of universal screening prior to the implementation parental consent is now required and the administration of the universal screening if the Lea determines the additional screening is NE necessary for a student who exhibits the characteristics of Dyslexia or other disorders parental consent must be obtained prior to the administration of the additional screening and for students who exhibit the characteristics the Lea must provide the parents with the resources informations and materials regarding dyslexia and then it lists what is the informational handbook for parents from Georgia as well as the international dyslexia community so those are examples of what's required in the rule what 38 in gift it looks like it's very similar but you have so much more leeway because 38 was written

073so much more long you know long ago and it it was birthed out of special education which is as you know extremely lengthy um in its identification so I just wanted to kind of know when my boys uh we at rro and we were trying to get them into the gifted program it was so it felt so subjective and Loosey Goosey and I had nothing to reference to go to and that and so I you know if I look at at the frustration that you're saying that parents are going to experience I experienc that I'll support you that was just you know a couple sentences that I had to look at that she just read and that gifted um and and I just by a quick scan and you can see so this is dyslexia

074at a state level that's where it starts and stops gifted at a state level it's just it's so much more now if I go into special education you know it's going to go for a long long time all I'm saying is I'm leave it alone I'm just gonna go with the will of the board is that if there is certain information that we're saying needs to be in here for a parent to be able to access and understand um then just the length of it matters what what needs to be pulled from that that because we're saying that that's important and so and so it's not just this is this much short law you know what I'm saying we have massively long policies elsewhere I agree I mean I actually agree with Dr Johnson Davis

075on this I I think that excellent mean I yes because I didn't hear the will of the board saying that we wanted more communication so I I just think we need to be clear about what we're now talking about so we're looking at policies right we agreed that the previous policy needed some work right and I think we've now been told that this policy is largely confirming what the state is telling us we have to do so the other Communications to parents would have been more in an operational realm or a support realm at the school level and not board policy I I agree and I think that's an important point so that we don't spend the next two hours going back and forth with this because I think um Miss Lynch has some other

076policy she wants to go over um are we are we telling her to leave this paragraph as it's written are we asking her to or we asking that she trim some language here based on that middle paragraph which for context if I'm understanding is basically largely based in state language so knowing those facts are we telling her to leave it like it is or we asking her to edit it it's not the L it's not the it's not the length of the policy not the length and that wasn't the question based on the cont I thought I heard you say based on the content Ed it down and that's not what I was saying it doesn't have to be edited down or up are we telling her to leave it like it is or we

077asking her to add subract multiply or divide what are we going to I'd like to be very clear that we're not telling them how to do their job when it comes to screening for like we're telling them to be legal right and I I heard them say that that's they recognize and accept that within the policy as written and all I'm saying is if if if whatever we leave in this policy I want the same I would um request the same type of information and other policies that deal with how students are identified for services so you know if the will of the board is to keep this I'm want I'm I would request similar language in other policies which policies specifically do we need to go back and re-review them so that she can

078take them bring them back to us uh I would need some help on that but if you specialed GI and the special ed is there special ed is coming up right we don't have a special ed policy when we draft it cuz I asked about I asked about special that's how we got this scan I asked about special after I looked at this dyslexia one yes ex so to summarize we're going to leave this as it we're gon to leave it as it is after after all of us we're gonna leave it as it is everybody okay with that yep good I'm always goodard I see all right yeah I have a seat we're talking about I now I I I invited Miss Burton to stay with us all right next up is policy I

079curriculum developments it is being proposed as a new policy as we grow our course offerings and Pathways it is important to set standards for our beliefs on curriculum development as drafted this policy addresses curriculum design curriculum development curriculum guides and course outlines curriculum adoption and pilot projects some specifics include the curriculum shall align with the student competencies required by Georgia law and the State Board of Education but wherever possible will exceed these minimum requirements to provide enriched and engaging learning opportunities for all students and the curriculum is accessible and available to interested persons the policy further indicates that CSC will systematically review and revise its Core Curriculum in alignment with the state adoption cycle whenever feasible it states that curriculum gu will serve as foundational Frameworks for teachers it also indicates the elimination or addition

080of a basic course of study would require the approval of the superintendent or their designate at this time I welcome any board input for policy IC curriculum development um the the name of this policy that comes from the gsba Cod all right because it ini was a little confusing for me um because we have design development course outline have all these different things and of course develop curriculum development was like the second thing so I was on it a more generic title but that comes from G that does it comes from the gsba codes and again we do an environmental scan to see what other might be included in other policies and this was um kind of a common format or layout or things that were included in in as part of that can let

081ask you a few questions do we have we currently have a curriculum policy we do now okay and then in paragraph two I think it is there's um so we will systematically review and revise the Core Curriculum on a six-year uh content area rotation so then once we implement the policy is that your one if we do implement this policy then so if we don't have one now I'm just curious about the the six year not necessarily it it wouldn't be that they'd all hit it once right so that's that piece and feel free again to jump in with the state adoption cycle so for example the state has a cycle you know we just went through like Ela standard adoption and math or we're going through and math standard adoption so it wouldn't be

082year one starts and then in year six we have to do it for everything it would be just part of that cycle and then I think am I reading this correctly like curriculum guides so is that a as an example social studies curriculum guide for the school district or per grade level and then per um level level like I mean I know AP and IB are separate but you know we're talking about something like gifted we're doing honor so if that's in the weeds you can tell me and then because and then this followup to that I guess is just where does if at all I was thinking of our community engagement is on S when people were asking like Hey we're using digital are we using books and so uh curriculum guides would include

083things like sequence lesson plan so could be a variety of different things uh syllabus um but it's always going to be at the grade level level always so you know nothing like K12 Ela you know um and then tell me your second question yeah I don't if I articulated it clearly would this be an area for us if and maybe Hans you backing on your stuff from the last go around where we do visit the presentation of the CC so like some of the questions I heard of that engagement the community meeting in the fall was hey we have online or do we have books and I know we've adopted books for St K through five so would the actual curriculum in digital or print form be addressed here or is that still like an

084operational School issue yeah like do we have syllabi for every class those sorts of things yeah um so yes at secondary but not um at elementary um so that is something that we could add in I think I would recommend that for regulation um there is so I think you're asking about textbook adoption and there is a another policy for textbook adoption um so that would go under that would be does that come before that's in that's in instructional resources okay I like the policy um the praising exceed to provide enriched and engaging opportunities and then the second paragraph that are relevant and effective um either what we mean when we ask you to be enriched and engaging relevant and effective or know if I got that that'd be like what what does that mean

085um so I don't love language that's flowery without Direction The book must have been hard this week solution to that I would imagine that you know you develop them different times call for different forms of Engagement and I would we can I would say this really goes to pull in our vision and Mission it's literally the same language that you read at the top of every board meeting sure so yeah but for curriculum I guess I finish that the last sentence like the the project have a high potential for long-term success and system life benefits I like that language a little bit better better than than okay provide enriched opportunities that you know why well if they have long-term sucess benefits that sounds good to me is there is there a way to take that

086flowering language and make it line more to the language that's in the Strategic plan right like Student Success in all areas or whatever the whatever the terminology is that we already use okay got it yeah that's where my brand was yeah vision mission strp plan where that language all needs to come line right we'll take that feedback and come to you with rev visions all right policy gahb staff political activities was initially introduced in December and was also discussed through a protocol during pre-work last month based on this board's discussion a few revisions have been made to the policy the board determined the scope of this policy should address political candidates specifically not broader societal issues that may be part of it therefore a definition of political activities was added is States quote political activities

087refer to any activity directed toward the success or failure of a political party candidate per partisan political office or partisan political group end quote item number seven under employee participation was also edited slightly to bring clarification that it referred to the newly defined political activities this time I'd welcome any additional board input for policy gahb staff political activities before it moves to first read and March and I'm sorry if I should know this was this already posted for public feed no so this was based on last month's conversation still in that conversation will then go next month and then it'll go for public feedback Qui like grammar thing number seven where we've edited it says or any other political and then we have to adver don't know how happy that makes me uh or any

088other political blank I think we just need a noun there perfect Ved thank you more than likely political paralia something like that thank you all right and finally an environmental scan has been completed on policy ibf special education program these policies were shared with the board are also available for you to reference at your seats please tell me what you like from these policies that you would like to see included in our CSD policy we will use your feedback to include ID IDF in work session alongside our other policies next month for first read and I've already got some feedback that we want to be very um look closely at the level of language that we want to make sure that we're including in there for sure well I just thought if there was some

089generic overview in terms of the process identification because it seems to be that's what was included in the U dyslexia on so just some parallel language to that which is in that's that's relevant to special education similar to that which was in the dyslexia I was interested in then legal's going to jump up out of the seat and throw a rock at me as I mention this but I I do actually think it is a policy that we want to end the practice of disproportionate identification that is an objective right I mean isn't it our policy that we want to end that and why wouldn't we just state that and maybe my fellow board members are also going to throw a rock at me I'm not C legal has to say you knowy it becomes

090the requirement so are you going to put in there it must be ended by a certain date and what does ended look like and I mean well I don't want to get to the how that would be the regulations but the what is that our district I don't I don't want to try to word Smith it right now but I would like a statement that that is what we're trying to end and I I would actually look to y'all to come up with language for how to do it in such a way that doesn't massively increase our liability but I I think from a policy standpoint that's what we want I I'm wondering board goal yeah because yeah so that's a board goal I don't know if it's a a a policy but a board

091goal as defined as this is what our goal is this is by the end date and it would be ever evid by and it would be crafted as a board goal I don't know if it's crafted as policy but what we don't and that's why I said that's where believe you me my brain was already percolating so um it would be work to say that would be a board goal which is something different than the Strategic plan but at the same time it could be a board goal I'm just offering that as based upon what you said what I see in a theme Here of these all these policies is that they do mention that they adhere to the rules of the State Board they adhere to federal laws when evaluating re-evaluating determining eligibility individualized

092education prop programs discipline they are saying they start sentence off by saying they're following State guidelines and federal guidelines for whatever that's worth um that also the common theme is um whatever an age cut off is so 3 to 21 they all have that they all say that students are entitled to the same free and fair public education um so you know I agree with Dr Whitaker you know is that something that you want to put in policy or is that something that we want to set as a part of our our strap plan that we can work on outside of this language but almost all of them have for things like eligibility that they're following whatever is set forth by the state doesn't mean that we agree or disagree just what's written here yeah

093I really like maretta City but I will say bib County which is responsible for some of the finest Minds I've ever met um their second paragraph is also pretty good just sort of like and and I think it speaks to what I'm hearing from some other board members we will follow the law and the district will develop procedures within its comply and what kind of like States the goal I'm okay with that let more procedures that we're doing we're following the law and I don't know if we have the answer to this right now but I thought that was born from um or to ensure like in a state level that students are offered support if they have hav't been identified through whatever you know often it can be like private so I think what

094I'm trying to ask is I thought some of the specificity with dyslexia um identification in that previous policy and even with npss is more link to what the state is requiring whereas these policies do seem to be more law so I mean maybe there's a clarification for later if we're needing more specificity but I thought mtss was created by the state to fill a gap and that's why there are those details don't know if that matter but if we if we mention I'm confused but if we mention mtss and dyslexia what mtss is a part of this process too yep yep right I mean if it I would imagine it's either the state or federal law that is spe not I don't know actually I'm speculating here but I would imagine they have right I

095I'm not going to talk off the cup without sure of course but I was thinking I I had mentioned my interest in revisiting the equity maybe there's a space in the equity policy that we follow practices that um eliminate the they work towards eliminating like I said I think all that is reasonable work the question is does that belong in a policy or does that belong in in the strap plan does it belong in regulation does it belong in the you know something that work that we're handing down to the principles reasonable needed without a doubt not arguable the question is does it belong in the actual policy I think that's kind of the theme of the discussion that we've been having all afteron say I think that it just guess it depends on how

096we Define policies and what we think is important there I've heard I've Heard lots of different things but it sounds like it varies depending on the policy I mean I if if countering disproportionality is not our policy we ought to figure out what it is because it's one of the reasons I'm on the board right I mean that's really critical isn't that not I mean you can't that's not that that's not that's not I I don't I don't think that's the way that we should take the discussion everybody on this board believes in countering disproportionality the question is where does the language belong so so fair I and and and let me let me I do not at all by those comments mean to disparage or in some way say that isn't the intent of

097the other board members so forgive me if that is the way that it was heard that is certainly not at all my I very much know and trust we all come to this at that at that level what I am saying is in my mind you set a policy out because it is a hard um firm placement of the direction you expect the and the the compliance that you expect of the system I mean the reason why a former superintendent who sh them named ripped the policy out was so that they did not have to follow them I mean this is the reason why they destroyed the policy book as it was so that they could run Riot over the system and these are binding documents that state the that that are in some ways

098a value statement of what we feel as a board and I do feel pretty strongly that this is the place where you would make very clear statements I I am interested in hearing more about a board goal I'm not familiar with the turn on I mean I know what a board goal but I mean like it sounds like there's a formal meaning behind it that I'm not familiar with yeah it kind of goes along with board management oversight process and as you're maturing as a board there are other ways we can uh codify goals trajectory things that you want to happen in addition to St strategic plan so that's just what that meant but I think that as said we have used our policies to indicate you know what we believe and so I'm just

099looking at what policy Ka public relations goals and objectives the Board of Education believes that and then we go into what we believe and so I think that it would we could easily leave in disproportionality disproportionality that you know does not have a place in our school system and we will you know Implement practices to ensure that something something something could I have legal weigh in on this because I I feel like the public relations is different from educational services so I mean is is it an app comparison excuse me so I not I don't know I'm confused I think that when it comes to eradicating something like disproportionality that is not something that you can say in a policy um the board will eradicate this proportionality okay you can give it is the board's

100expectation or it is the board's belief that um disproportionality should be um addressed promptly however word it say superintendent is directed to develop and Implement um regulations or procedures to address disproportionality and then that becomes the job of the administration to develop the how to address that I agree you know we have used policy to give belief statements so are we you know it's just again FS back to me on you know so I think belief statements are more of um aspirational um you have to be careful in wording those things that it does not become a will or a shall kind of thing for you imposed upon yourself a I think that's an important designation putting putting a belief statement in a policy you know it's the belief of the board or the will

101of the board or the thought of the board is one thing versus putting um a regulatory practice and is completely different I think is what I'm here well I mean so in special education if we were to say it's the intent of the board combat mitigate work against disproportionality and the policy directs the administration to come up with the regulations and procedures necessary to to track and mitigate disproportionality as it arises that is perfectly fine from a policy standpoint I that in my opinion I understand that there's obviously other perspectives but yeah so anytime you look at a a policy I I tend to also look at everything else underneath the policy meaning um you're looking at state law you're looking at state board rule which is different than state law and then you're looking

102at Federal for when it comes to idea or special education you're looking at us Federal USC federal law as well it's a definitely a different um level of I won't say it's a different level of specificity that you need to have when you're talking about special education versus Ka which is public relations goals and objectives I just know that we need to when you look at ID IDF it will be one that must align in all of those different areas and just even around disproportionality for dispro for what we are dispro for remember it was three things child fine rules evaluations re-evaluations and determinations so that's only three other state board rules but there are so many others um that have to must be included in a very thoughtful idds policy one more things that

103relates to IDF because I see that I think it's important that Ida is mentioned it's not in all um IA like Mar SCH doesn't say anything about Ida mhm um f of course um some I mentioned earlier the ages um you want to put put it basically put all put them all yeah I did like Dr sulton's suggestion about taking kind of the core and and adding it there yeah bringing them together and I'll send another environmental scan of Mogi County to you um Mogi is definitely a little more verose in their presentation of idb thank you for your input we will take it back and we will swing again um in consultation with legal and of course the subject matter experts as well and uh we will continue to work on it for first

104three next months thank you Mrs Lynch the longest policy discussion I think I've had in a long time we look forward to the conversation next month in our work session on these policies and thank you board members for this discussion this concludes the pre-work [Music] session yes this just concludes the pre-work session okay in interest of time I think I comments off not all right we're gonna just're move all right okay we're going to move right into the work session and we're going to call calls order at 334 thank you for joining us today for our monthly work session Dr Whitaker please introduce the first presentation Thank You Cher sulan February is Career Technical and agric agricultural Education Month most appropriate we would have our ctae director Miss Tera Smiley to provide something is probably

105coming for you all what happening thank you e all right good afternoon board chair Dr Sultan Vice chair Mr Us St board member student board representative Z Elena and superintendent Dr thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on Career Technical and agricultural education this afternoon I will share how our ctae pathways are strategically aligned with Georgia's Workforce priorities key data illustrating impact on academic achievements and Workforce Development and highlight program achievements additionally I will discuss the challenges and opportunities we face as well as outline our future plans to ensure that ctae continues to prepare our students for college careers and lifelong success Career Technical and agricultural education continues to support Student Success in all areas by preparing students with the academic Technical and employability skills needed to thrive in their postsecondary Endeavors Jordan's

106high demand career list serves as a guide for aligning educational programs with both current and future Workforce needs by identifying key Industries and high demand High wage and high skill occupation the list helps Focus Workforce Development efforts across the state here in city schools of vcor all 10 of our career Pathways represent key Industries identified as high demand areas and address Georgia's Workforce priorities our architecture Pathways and our Fine Furniture and cabinet making pathway equip students with the technical and practical skills needed for careers in the construction and Manufacturing sector the highly popular culinary arts pathway provides Advanced Training industry credentials that prepare students for success in the hospitality and tourism pathway we offer two separate Pathways designed to meet the critical needs in the education profession the early childhood education pathway and the teaching

107as a profession pathway both prepare future Educators through Hands-On practicum experiences at College Heights and the Fraser Center as well as Elementary and Middle School classrooms across our District these students earn their NAU certification additionally as reflected in our Charter we are exploring opportunities for students in each of these Pathways to participate in the science of reading training and earn their certificate further enhancing their qualifications to enter the education field with Georgia's entertainment industry On The Rise our graphic design and audio video technology and sound Pathways both provide students with the creative and technical skills necessary for a variety of careers in this high demand industry our partnership with Georgia Pont technical college students and our certified nursing assistant program are preparing for careers in health care and Life Sciences areas identified again as high

108priority on the governor's high demand career list our commitment to career Readiness begins as early as sixth grade students at Beacon Hill Middle School can explore ccae through business and Communications computer science Design Technology and Engineering and international perspective connection courses collectively our pathway options demonstrate our comprehensive commitment to academic achievement and Workforce Development our data underscores the significant influence CTA has on graduation and postsecondary placement rates as well as the economic impact within the city who of deater the most recent data available on the Doe's website show that our District's overall graduation rate is an impressive 90.4% for non CA concentrators for students who took at least two CTA pathway courses that gr graduation rate is 99.4% and 9 point increase the postsecondary placement rate represents where students are 6 months postgraduation 94% of

109non CAE concentrators either enter the military enrolled in post-secondary education program or entered the workforce for students who took at least two CTA pathway courses that number increases to 97.6% students participating in work-based learning are making a significant impact before they even graduate with 120 active students working across the metro area they have collectively loged over 7,000 hours contributing more than $320,000 to the local economy this data shows that ctae Fosters higher graduation rates stronger postsecondary outcomes and directly benefit the decator economy while the majority of dual enrollment students attend gptc or Georgia State we are proud to have students enrolled in programs at other institutions including othor University Atlanta Metropolitan College Georgia Tech and more dual enrollment has experienced remarkable growth from 70 students enrolled in at least one dual enrollment course during fall

11023 to 125 students enrolled in Fall 24 this increase reflects the growing interest and enthusiasm among students for accessing college level opportunities while still in high school our jeul enrollment coordinator Mrs Lewis hosted a virtual interest meeting in December that further fueled interest in the program since then new prospective dual enrollment students have begun the application and enrollment process for fall 25 and to ensure a smooth transition Miss L held individual and group meetings in January to help students identify the best dual enrollment options for their goals students choose dual enrollment courses for a variety of reasons some focus on traditional core courses like English History and Science others pursue advanced math courses that go beyond the BC calculus course we offer and still others seek to earn industry certifications this year we have 11

111students excelling in the certified nursing assistant program at Georgia Pont Technical College and we are confident that 100% of these students will complete the requirements and pass the exam to earn their stfe certification our partners play a crucial role in providing our students with extending learning experience Extended Learning experiences leadership development career insights and other opportunities new this year we've launched wi CP workshops which are open to all students students not just those in CTA classes these monthly workshops planned and facilitated by our partners are designed to introduce students to various industries that are not offered through our current Pathways they underscore the importance of common employability skills such as effective communication critical thinking and adaptability as part of ccae month our partner exp Express Employment Professionals has hosted workshops focused on interviewing ski resume

112writing and mock interviews our upcoming College and Career Fair scheduled for February 26 will be the perfect opportunity for our students to demonstrate their skills several local businesses have signed up and are committed to interviewing and potentially hiring our students for summer employment and work based learning internships Danielle Jones our work-based learning coordinator recently joined the decator Rotary Club and has already identified a summer leadership development program for our students at no cost to them or the district as we continue to build connections across Industries our partnership with the capore center stands out for its transformative potential this partnership grew out of our involvement with computer science of Atlanta last January and is Paving the way for Equitable and sustainable Computer Science Education in the city schools of decada the Conor Center has committed to

113providing monthly professional development sessions fostering a strong community of practice among our K12 Educators this includes teachers from K2 classrooms upper elementary middle and high school as well as stem teachers each month these Educators come together to explore innovative ways to integrate computer science Concepts into their content papor has donated instructional resources es and will provide sions for teachers to complete the professional learning Series this spring additionally they've extended their support to our students by funding siphon siphons for three of our Advanced computer science students who are serving as interns through work-based learning these students are assisting fave and tally elementary schools with their after school Robotics and stem clubs intentionally expanding ctae to our element schools through Coor's leadership and commitment the Equitable and sustainable computer science we are closer to establishing a framework

114for computer science in our K5 elementary schools through our Sim programs beginning next fall our students are actively engaged in learning beyond the classroom our architecture pathway completers had an incredible opportunity to apply their skills in a professional setting they participated in early design discussions during the district's planning process for the new Early Learning Center these students contributed their knowledge and ideas demonstrating how CPA education Bridges the gap between classroom learning and real world applications at Beacon Hill Middle School our engineering program led by Mrs Sher Miller King is providing students with Hands-On exposure as a woman in woodworking education Miss Miller King serves as an inspiration for students of all backgrounds demonstrating that careers in trade engineering and architecture are accessible for all her leadership empowers students to see themselves as future Engineers Architects

115and Business Leaders will also fostering teamwork confidence and problem solving in the short time Mrs Miller King has been with us she has leveraged her personal industry connections to create exceptional opportunities for students Pro wood a leading Lumber Company reached out to Mrs Miller King to feature her and her students in a commercial showcasing black women in woodworking education they even donated the lumber for students outdoor patio projects again reinforcing the value of Industry Partnerships and CTA education middle school students in the international perspective course gain hands-on experience and Concepts that align with the culinary and early childhood Pathways at the high school to students in this class apply their skills in meaningful Ways by cultivating flowers and food for use in their lab activities thanks to their teacher Christ Johnson who has fostered a

116strong partnership with the wild Center students contribute their flowers to the decor Farm to school table at the wild Center fall plant sale raising awareness and support of our school Gardens as part of their child development unit Miss Johnson also takes students to the Fraser Center each semester for a culminating project students design a lesson create interactive stations based on the center's most recent themes and Lead small groups of three to four year old children through engag in five minute rotations applying their knowledge in real world day we are fortunate to receive generous grants from Cort Center toing over $4,500 through donor's Choice Miss Alicia Reno and T Street Upper Elementary School was awarded a computer science teacher equipment and Community Grant further strengthening our K2 stem pipeline this funding is being used to equip

117her classroom with Innovative resources that make computational thinking accessible and engaging for our early Learners with grants from the decor Education Foundation we were able to purchase specialized equipment and tools that enhance the Hands-On learning experience for students across multiple Pathways these generous contributions Empower our Educators and students to remain creative and curious as we look ahead to 25 26 school year we are excited to share key initiatives that will further enhance the learning experience for students these initiatives align with our mission to provide Equitable learning experience for all students our new partnership with top it off fnal case will Prov entrepreneurship education and work-based learning opportunities this local food truck vendor has designed a 10-week series on owning and operating a funnel cake Food Truck business this hands-on experience will allow students to develop

118entrepreneurial Fields including supply chain service this partnership not only strengthens our culinary program but also creates new opportunities for students interested in entrepreneurship additionally this could serve as the foundation for introducing a new pastry pathway for students who want to specialize in baking and pastry arts we're also expanding computer science pathway opportunities at the high school we've been selected by the College Board to participate in the advanced placement cyber security pilot program starting in the fall this is an incredible opportunity for our students to engage in advanced coursework that will prepare them for careers in one of the fastest growing Industries our participation in this National pilot places decator Career Academy at the Forefront of cyber security education and expands advanced placement opportunity for our students finally computational thinking is the new literacy needed to

119navigate the digital world all of our community of practice lessons taught by the Cort Center to our teachers participants this year are applicable to all content areas therefore we decided that the next iteration of our work with the Kor Center will include professional learning and resources for K5 teachers with an emphasis on computational thinking and literacy across all continent our goal remains clear to provide high quality Hands-On Career and Technical education that equips our students with the skills knowledge and credentials needed for success in both college and the workforce however we do have some challenges one of our biggest challenges right now is keeping up with the increasing demand of our most popular CTA Pathways as more students recognize the value of career oriented education we're seeing a surge and course request that exceed our

120current capacity this year 196 Rising 10th graders signed up for culinary arts however we only have two teachers sharing one full kitchen space we are unable to accommodate all students meaning many will have to select an Alterna alternative elective while we Face challenges in meeting student demand we also have a unique opportunity to expand our programs in ways that are sustainable impactful and address the future Workforce needs one of the most promising opportunities is the Fraser Center's transition into the new Early Learning Center this transition provides us with the space that we can repurpose to expand our CC Pathways ensuring more students have have access to high quality Career Training while also meeting the workforce needs as indicated by the most recent house bill 982 high demand career list some potential areas for growth include

121expanding our health science pathway given the rising demand of Health Care Professionals we could expand our life and health science program to include the surgical technology pathway this expansion could support the creation of a many Health Clinic for our community where our CNA students Gain real world experience by providing basic health care services under the supervision of District nurses we could reinv Vision the playground as a space for a respectable Raider challenge out course for our awardwinning goldar jotc program or use the space to start our a in the city initiative which would be the hub for expansion into the elementary school thank you for your time and support of our CC program I welcome any questions at this time I'm sorry this is not so much of a question as I just wanted to

122uh mention I know that I've asked the superintendence superintendence superintended this before but uh I'd love to see a way to offer for pay and safely uh opportunity for potentially adults in the community to partake in some of these programs as well yes and I've uh talked to staff about it as I said the first question I have is where did the funds come from that we purchase the materials or the outfit of the classrooms because that's often times sometimes stipulations but I'm going to look into all of that thank you I want to take the F Furniture program I I think Superior murder I just want to thank you for all your hard work I think you know these numbers indicate the job you're doing in this empty grimy bag absolutely delici thank you

123I like to point out that the designs you see on the other two items are designs created by our students and graphic design thank you so you have some original Art thank you thank you uh thank you so much Miss Smiley for just uh just being able to support our students um I know that ctae has been Best in Class for high school students via our College and Career Academy and I like that the future work will include making ctae available to students and all great bands within our district thank you so much Miss Smiley ctae provides our students with access to relevant programming which ultimately prepares them for life all righty we are going to um take a break and then come back at 410 for the regular board meeting so we will adj

124adjourn now e e e right good afternoon we're going to call this meeting to order at 4:09 p.m. we ask that you silence all cell phones at this time we will begin with a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance so moment I at this time I ask that everybody join me in a moment of Silent reflection now I ask all who are able to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible withy andice for our mission is to inspire and enable student growth through meaningful and engaging learning experiences supported by highly qualified and caring Educators and a safe and inviting environment all right we will get started board

125members there will be a revision to the published agenda work session presentations including the US VA ple update communities and schools update school year 2526 tuition update and policy first read will be added to the regular board meeting do I have a motion to approve today's revised agenda motion to approve revised agenda all right board member hearnen makes the motion do I have a second second board member Johnson Davis seconds the motion is there any discussion hearing none all in favor I the motion carries unanimously our next agenda item is the approval of the minutes from the previous board meetings meeting do I have a motion to meeting minute I move to approve January regular board meeting minute board member Johnson Davis makes the motion is there a second second board member Anderson seconds the

126motion is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor I the motion carries unanimously all right Dr Whitaker I see some people have joined us do we have any student or staff recognition tonight yes chair Sal salting yes we do to facilitate tonight's recognitions I will call upon Deputy superintendent Karen Newton Scott there we go okay thank you board chair Dr suan Vice chair UT Este steem members of the board and Dr Whitaker I have the pleasure of making several presentations tonight um beginning with T Street upper elementary school so principal Heaton will you please join us up front as we honor students and staff from each school please do not take your seat instead we'd like you to Stage along the wall to my left and your right for a photo opportunity with

127our board members we do have quite a few recognitions tonight I will go ahead and apologize for any mistakes that I made as we recognize our students and staff okay our first recognition is Natalie Buu please join us up front for girls on the run and girls on the run practice with today she might be running a little late all right so we'll move on to L and if if Natalie comes we'll make sure we read her blur next up is Tally's fifth grader lah Kramer please join your principal upfront l l had a dream to create a space where neurotypical and neuro Divergent friends that hang out from form bonds and share experiences together after some work with her fourth grade teacher Amanda Rogers lahti connected with the best buddies Club at deor high

128school members from that club sponsored by Desiree cabries visited tally to present the entire fifth grade information about brothering body Vision best buddies at tally was just approved as an official chapter and has already begun meetings and after their visit we know student involvement will only continue to grow congrats and kudos to L lah and tally Tigers thank you DHS chapter of best buddies for your leadership and support as well congratulations [Applause] lot next up we have several recognitions from decada high school's Athletics program I invite Dr spru uh is athletic director Thomas no all right not the schol you got it all right first we'd like to call up the entire deada high school girls and boys swim and dive team as well as their coaches come on up [Applause] deada High School's swim

129and dive team had an impressive showing at recent competition competitions earning top finishes against tough competition at the daab county Championship Championship meet the girls team secured second place while the boys finished fifth out of 18 teams this past weekend at the GHSA states meet while competing against 40 teams in the 5A division the boys placed ninth and the girls eighth overall Junior Isaiah Lewis was a standout finishing as runner up in both the 50th 50 and 100 freestyle added to the excitement the team broke five school records marking a historic achievement for the Kor High School 12 and Di congratulations to the team and the [Applause] coaches now to our decada high school wrestling team which finished as runner up in the tab County Championship if we could have the coaches join us up

130front theer High School wrestling has had a dominant postseason earning top finishes and advancing multiple athletes to the next level of competition the Bulldog started strong at the Decap County Championship finishing as runner up out of 2011 a special recognition goes to Ronan Sims Ronan come on up let's give Ronan a hand is a junior educator High School who claimed the county championship title in the 175 pound weight class extending his undefeated season record to 23 to zero that's right okay similarly sophomore nir Braxton come up [Applause] the spere finished at the top of the 195 pound weight class maintaining also an undefeated 31 to zero record at the regional meet we had three female wrestlers as I call your name please come up Cameron Carter mcin chuyu and M [Applause] all three qualified for

131sectionals and we also had nine boys including Sams and Bradon who advaned but also moving on were Lucian Brock come on [Applause] up Ian hoer Jak bille James theor a Murray and py [Applause] renold we didn't stop there the momentum continued at sectionals where four Bulldogs Sims Brock and NP secured their spot in the state meet this Friday and Saturday additional Wrestling champions are Mark [Applause] Robert Russell blue Liam Eli and harlie Thompson theor High's wrestling hard work and determination are paying off as they compete at the highest levels we'd like to thank the wrestlers and their coaches for their tireless commitment to Excellence which is evident in their performance this weekend their leadership has helped the Bulldogs reach New Heights and the team's future looks incredibly bright as they continue to build on this

132success at this time we would like to pause and get our first set of pictures so board members if you would join us down front we will begin with our wrestling team who's already there transition to [Music] T parents if you'd like to grab a picture as well e e e including PSAT and AP exams El students must have a GPA of a B+ or higher PS PS t or psat1 assessment scores within the top 10% of assessment takers in each state or a score of three or higher on two or more AP exams by the end of their sophomore year big futures 2025 awarde from theor high school are [Applause] y [Applause] Pia Sarah [Applause] voka Jahira Willis Jeffrey [Applause] zovich Lucas accepting on the behalf of Jackson Jeffrey because he's at indoor percussion

133rehearsal is his father Robert Jeffrey um I have other students I'm not sure if they are present but I will read all of their names Lori mawell Barrow Noel Caesar risel cook Gabriela C Jen de [Music] gramit Lee Victoria Nazario [Applause] rill Patel Hazel [Applause] Patty CAA B please give another round of applause for all of our [Applause] honores and last but not least is the NASA Tech rise Nation wide competition winners with Miss Pierce and Dr Smith please join Dr spol up front this group of five students from Dr Smith's IB higher level physics year were selected as one of the 60 winners of NASA Tech rise Nationwide competition they designed an experiment to mount sensors on a high altitude balloon and use the data to find correlations between atmospheric and ground conditions the

134group is now working with Miss Pierce Dr Smith and other members of Dr Smith's IB Physics classes to construct the experiment while meeting weekly with NASA Tech rise Engineers once the experiment is complete they will ship it back to NASA Tech rise where it will be on a high altitude balloon flight in July please join me in congratulating Kagan [Applause] Lucas Rado de [Applause] oo Lyon Warren Iris eing Owen Beck again I invite our board members down for photo op families if you like to get in on the picture please do so as well okay [Music] con [Music] we go is that NAA three congratulations [Music] happen hey Aira and we had more recognition National School counseling week 2025 School counseling helping students Thrive sponsored by the American school counselor Association W uh will be

135celebrated the week of February the 3r through the 7th 2025 to focus on public attention on the unique contributions of school counselors within the US school system and how students are are different as a result of what counselors do National School counseling week highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school Success and plan for a career this special week honors our school counselors it provides recognition for the counselor who implements comprehensive School counseling programs and that is a vital part process for all students as they meet the challenges of the 21st century we thank our CSD school counselors for being actively engaged in helping students examine their abilities strengths interest and talents for working in partnership with parents as they encounter the challenges of raising children in today's world for

136focusing on positive ways to enhance students academic career and social emotional devel velopment and working with teachers and other Educators to provide an educational system where students can realize their potential and set healthy realistic and optimistic aspirations for themselves school counselors are certified experienced as Educators with a master's degree in School counseling the combination of their training and experience makes them an integral part to the total educational program school counselors work with all students to remove barriers by learning uh barriers to learning by addressing students academic concerns career options and social emotional skills and that comes from Jill cook who is the ASA executive director School counseling programs help increase student achievement and Prov provide a much needed resource for students parents teachers and administrators school counselors are integral to Student Success more than 100,000

137school counselors Nationwide will participate in not only the festivities of this prior week as well as all month many schools will host and and have hosted uh espe events and activities to call attention to the countless benefits of a comprehensive School counseling program parents or community members with specific questions or concerns about School counseling programs should contact their school counselor at their local school and more general information can be found on the as www.s school counselor.org at this time I like to call on Mrs Francis Holt assistant superintendent of student Support Services to assist in the recognition of our dedicated school counselors in CSD all right school counselors as I call your name please come forward christon angland Jonathan Blaze Dr Rina Haron Dr Lindsay Hicks Reagan Hudson Dr Ken Jackson Dr Kimberly Jones precious

138King Dr teresca Lemon Dr Jasmine Parham Kate pasm Rebecca peacock Alan pendrick shadea white points Charmaine Pratt Laton latan Taylor pan Taylor berran Kimberly Weaver and Keo Willis if I have called your name please come forward [Applause] we're GNA go take a picture with him as they get settled we thank you con thank you for dear get one more picture teacher guys teacher just it's a good excuse middle con congratulations right Dr Whitaker can you please introduce the next presentation thank you chair salson I would like to call on Mrs Karen Newton Scott Deputy superintendent to provide an update on the work with the University of Virginia's part parnership for leaders in education and she will be accompanied by the school leaders of f partnership school good evening board chair Dr sulan Vice chair o

139esteemed members of the board student representative Delena and superintendent Dr gima Whitaker this update is part of our continued commitment to achieving Equitable outcomes for all students as you know we've partnered with the University un of Virginia partnership for leaders in education most recently we completed the winter session which had Rich learning and a rare privilege to be taught by the author of the text we are using in our book studies this evening we'll share how this learning is aiding in the progress we've made in each of the four schools in this cohort this statement of commitment has centered our equity work since 2019 and can be found on our website um I was going to read but I'm going to skip that these commitments are foundational to what is needed to change our educational

140system ensuring equity and Excellence for every student regardless of their background or circumstance and what occurs in schools and classrooms every day is the critical vehicle that turns these beliefs into reality it is through high quality instruction that we can meet the diverse needs of all students and create an environment where every child can Thrive our school leaders must blead the charge in this transformational work they must have the knowledge and tools to establish the right structures processes and conditions for all who are working with in schools to improve outcomes for our children by Leading with intention and purpose our school leaders can ensure that instruction remains both rigorous and responsive while achieving the last bullet of this commitment which says dismantling the predictable patterns of achievement based on race socioeconomic status and gender of

141the four School leaders who are at the Forefront of this transformational change will share their purpose they will reflect on how their leadership is evolving through this partnership and the successes they have already seen at the building level we will begin with fth Avenue Elementary principal Lynn Hansen thank you Miss Newton scy and good afternoon M um at fa all means all is more than just a mantra it's a commitment and we are dedicated to delivering instruction that meets the needs of every student our students deserve learning that is engaging rigorous and aligned with academic standards we are focused on creating the school culture that is both inclusive and Equitable to achieve this we emphasize the design and implementation of standard-based challenging instruction while continually monitoring progress and providing meaningful actionable feedback we arrived at

142this um purpose through a root cause analysis which revealed that our tier one instruction was not fully meeting the needs of all students especially within the subgroups students with disabilities and black students for example our winter star data showed that only 18% of our students with disabilities were projected to be proficient on GM this outcome is unacceptable and we consider our work urgent it requires a unified approach from all staff to address this challenge during my my team's time at UVA we gain valuable insights on how to effectively Implement change to improve student outcomes additionally we learned how to leverage data deriven instruction to review Summit of Assessments allowing us to objectively assess student needs and plan for targeted raching this approach has been instrumental in refining our instruction to ensure it is standard based

143rigorous and delivered in an equitable manner our leadership team has developed effective methods for monitoring student progress including the use of data driven instruction protocol paired with strategies from get better faster we have worked diligently to maintain consistency in our expectations and ensure that teaching practices are tailored to maximize each student's learning and growth we track that progress through formal and informal walkthroughs star and Freckle data lesson planning that focuses on addressing individual student needs and a newly implemented protocol for reviewing common summative Assessments in math thank you for your support and investment in school lead now I would like to invite my colleague Billy heon to speak about his work at call thank you par B Hansen good afternoon at tally we know and understand the impact that we have on our students academic

144social and emotional well-being we strive for excellence and equable outcomes and we wholeheartedly believe that every student can succeed through boss room inclusive supporting learning environment we will Empower each student to achieve their best and close the opportunity gap between our subgroups of students by using datadriven instruction instruction Diagnostic and responsive teaching implementing targeted interventions and reflective and culturally responsive teaching practices T's purpose statement aligns with cfd Equity work by having a sheer commitment to equity inclusion and datadriven decision making to support all students uva's plle strongly emphasizes analyzing student performance data to drive instructional practices and eliminate predictable patterns of academic achievement based on race socioeconomic status English langu language proficiency and disabilities through developing our 90-day plan our UA Partners have supported us in developing intentional actions to ensure that our students receive

145the support that they need UVA has also supported my growth as a leader in Chang management and building the capacity for sustained School Improvement our work with v UVA is already providing positive results we've made great strides in developing our professional learning communities our teachers work with their grade level colleagues to analyze data such as the star assessment and unit unit formative and summative assessments create instructional plans and set smart goals for improvement for all subgroups of students T Street made positive gains on last Springs Georgia milone assessment all tally Street subgroups met their ccpi closing the Gap Improvement Target with an average of 4% growth in ela and 5% growth in math though we were pleased with our progress we still have a lot of work to do to fully eliminate the gap between

146our subgroups of students I'm confident that our work with with the UVA program will help continue this upward trajectory I look forward to continuing this work as it has strengthened my Approach as a leader of Education Equity at tally I would like now to invite my colleague Derek Thomas to speak about his work at Beacon Hill thank you principal Heaton Beaton Hill Middle School aims to Foster an inclusive educational environment where every student thrives academically socially and emotionally we are committed to equity ensuring that every student regard has access to high quality education and growth opportunities we prioritize teacher support and development recognizing their pivotal role in shaping student outcomes through collaboration Innovation monitoring expect aspire to empower every student to reach their full potential and become engaged lifelong Learners prepared to contribute positively to

147society at Beacon Hill our leadership team reflects daily on a crucial question what work is most essential to ensure ethical outcome for all students we committed to professional development ensuring that every staff member was deeply knowledgeable in their subject area we provided students with necessary resources to succeed in class and Extended Learning beyond the classroom through academic field trips that enrich their educational experience additionally we conduct an inp data analysis to identify strength and opportunities for growth despite these efforts and the overall progress we saw our black students experien minimal growth and that's just not exle so while we were implementing strategies that you would typically find in high performing schools we were not fully meeting the needs of our black students the University of of Virginia played a Biblical role in helping us to

148take a deeper dive into understanding why through this reflective process it became clear that we needed to focus on strengthening tier one instruction for all students another key area of focus that emerged is providing high quality substantive feedback to our teachers both of which are critical to Student Success uva's work around transformational change is instrumental in helping our leadership team develop and Implement a plan that will positively impact all students collaborating School leaders Nationwide who face similar challenges along with the expertise from UVA provided valuable insights that reshaped our leadership practices today our team Works alongside teachers to unpack unit of study analyze data and plan standards aligned instruction for all students we monitor progress through active participation in professional learning communities lesson plan reviews and classroom observations ensuring instructional adjustments are datadriven and impactful

149my approach to tackling educational Equity at Beacon Hill has become much more strategic thank you for supporting us in this learning I would like to invite my colleague Dr spru to speak about his work with the cater high school thank you principal Thomas and good afternoon our work at the car High School is driven by a powerful purpose at the car high school we will prepare all students to engage in the world around them we will celebrate each individual's background and embrace creating a community of inclusion through strong instructional practices from our teachers and the engagement of Our Community Partners we will break down any barrier to Student Success our teachers are model change agents ensuring that the lessons contain real world significance and create opportunities for students to be changed AG agents in the

150present moment our students will enter the world with means and opportunities to make the impact they were destined to make upon graduating from De High have a plan outlin the initial steps for their College and Career Journeys After High School on day one of the UVA the quote was provided every system is perfectly designed to get the results is yes this is by Edward deing this quote continu to hunt and motivate me vely in the afternoon session of day one Kimberly bot a former principal who turned around multiple schools in Charlotte North Carolina shared this statement this would not be happening if this was my child this would not be happening if this was your child this statement motivates me too as I can reflect on the exceptional experiences that my own children have had

151in the city schools of the care the uba PL has set the stage for all T meeing all at car High School the car High School must explicitly confront the obstacles of equality we own gaps in ELC scores and key subjects particularly for black economically disadvantage and students with disability subgroups this isn't just a statistic it must be a motivator and a call to continue the change process our purpose mandate that we prepare all students and our vision provides the road map a focusing on strong instructional practices and providing targeted support for teachers and students were working on working to eliminate these disparities and ensure that every student has the opportunity to succeed and make an impact they were destined to make now let's look at how our work with UV has enbl us to

152continue the process of reducing this Gap and piggyback on the work of cult relevant instruction from the past school years this slide outlines key aspects of our vision for leading change the picture on the right is our initial meeting upon rur to school and starting with a purpose this is where we introduce to our faculty our two big rocks for this school year and our additional big rock for next school year with DHS big rock one is around tier one instruction and big rock two is around monthly actionable instructional feedback to all teachers DHS incorporate faculty feedback back on the first day of pre-planning in the first in the first image to set how we would identify our instructional look forwards as outlined by teachers doing the work the picture of the chart paper identifies

153the inclusion of all faculty members in the process and focus on teacher evidence emphasizing strong instructional practices directly aligned with our purpose we then used our 331 instructional observations during the first semester to identify how to best support teachers through coaching sites these classroom visits focus on obtaining high quality instruction consistently from classroom to classroom which includes high expectations for all students we have also identified areas of professional learning need that would benefit the whole staff the image in the middle demonstrates the risk taking that is displayed at UVA more importantly I was able to demonstrate the ability to present a solution and receive back receive feedback from peers across the country the plan includes ensuring that our most struggling subgroups have our teachers that are most appropriate to advance their educational Journey as we

154move into the second semester our training in January led to identification of academic monitoring with the eye on fully embracing data driven instruction in the 2025 2026 school year the instruction leadership team will provide teachers with the opportunity to select their own adventure based on a self assessment the adventure will be professional learning around feedback that will not only lead to teachers having additional Tools in their toolbox but DHS will also build a repository of strategy that would have been vetted by their fears words the in themselves cannot describe the learning experience in the uba ple the uba ple has been the single Mo best professional learning that I have ever attended when you talk about the impact for the benefit of students and teachers thank you for your support I would like to invite

155Miss kareny Scott Deputy superintendent back to close the presentation and open the floor for questions than as you heard from our leaders there is a strong commitment to identifying and taking ownership of the disparities and the work to eliminate them within each school we are actively engaged in learning about the strategies that will help us fully embody the beliefs and educational Equity that are shared that impation I'd also like to share that partnership for leaders in education is a collaborative initiative between uva's dtin School of Business and the school of development so we are also gaining Advanced business leadership principles alongside evidence-based educational strategies the success rate of the partnership has Spann 900 schools 180 districts in 33 states with over 50% of those in Partnership experiencing double digigit growth in student outcomes in closing

156I'd like to share our literacy rates for 2022 you will see the percentages of students reading at or above grade level by the aggregate of all students and subgroups for black students and for Advantage by socioeconomic factors as expressed in the Ed column the disparities reflected in this data highlight while why skilled instructional leadership is so critical for our the gaps are not just evidence here but are a part of predictable patterns we've seen across multiple data sets now choose a number of the subgroups from elementary middle or high focus your eyes on that number whatever it may be as I transition the slide I want you to track the difference as we move into the data for the 2024 school year with the progress we've made through this partnership we are beginning to see

157positive movements including some of those double digigit improvements that are found in the research for leaders who are engaged in this partnership as we continue this journey it's important to note that we are still fully committed to educational Equity as our statement was solidify in 2019 this work remains at the heart of what each school's work is and we are now integrating a stronger focus on instructional leadership why do that because who sits in the seat of leadership matters what they do with their time matters how and when they do what they do matters our school leaders are not just participants in this change they must be drivers of it as well thank you for listening and I'd like to ask the principles to join me as we open the floor for any questions one

158thank you uh and two I love your um enthusiasm because I imagine that translates uh to the teachers which is my next question um how if at all do you get to this the literacy writebook like we're improving that's awesome and I know you've mentioned how valuable this is I guess I'm just wondering if the teachers are the ones that are like largely the practitioners of these improved practices how are we finding out what they're saying so I'll speak for U Beacon Hill um the work that we're bringing back it is one of those um my shifts that we have where teachers are understanding that we have to do the work they understand the why and that brings forth the enthusiasm um as Dr Mrs Newton pointed out soon to be do we gonna put

159that out there now as M Newton pointed out we have the data that suggested we needed to do something different and now we have the means to doing that so my teachers are really enthusiastic about the work um one of the things we try to make a shift is taking a shift offers U my instructions coaches from coming in with's the work to have the teachers be prepared to accept the work so a large shift that's happened with the mindset when we C our plcs we mention that a little bit in regards to comy prepared for those meetings understanding in those meetings these are the four things we're going to get done in this meeting so they've done a really good job of that and again that is really in part to the work UA

160definitely for the high school um the work last summer of what we're doing as the instructional leaders and not trying to put additional work on on the teacher so we were very uh very uh selective of how we crafted our our interventions and that was that we're going to come and do the observations and then we're going to give you the feedback and our and then give you training as well to kind of change the practices and not put that on the teachers they kept emphasizing last summer this is not for teachers to do more work this is how do we work better so I think teachers really appreciate the feedback I know that because when you give them a feedback and you give them a question it's not a yes or no question it's

161how do you do this with students and they can have have the opportunity to explain it because that goes so much further than just a lesson plan so that that's why I'm seeing impact on we can dialogue back and forth about instruction going on in classroom thank you congratulations on your success um in in in all the schools um I had three questions my first question is what's the book that you all are currently reading so there are um two one is leverage leadership and that's the book for the principles um and get better faster is the book study for our instructional coaches and then um our APS are involved in a book study around crucial conversations but that isn't the same author it's a different author because you had a book you mentioned um

162an author had come for the book you already read that's the first book leveraging yes he's the um Paul B santoya he's the Au of both leverage leadership and get better okay and then my next question was for Mr Thomas what do you attribute the reduction and suspensions to so the large part of U the reduction really is about student engagement making sure that they're in class and they're enjoying their experience while they're in class take away all of the distractions that could cause them to get suspended also another thing we've done a real big focus on is relationship building through our students have several different people within the build they can connect with one of the things I emphasized when I returned to our school was make sure that every single kid connect with

163an adult so we can catch those concerns before they become bigger concerns thank you and my last question sorry for Miss Newton Scott is how do you attribute the increased literacy rates to the UVA partnership versus say our focus on the science of reading I think it's a combination of many things um but I will say between last year and this year where we had a strategic focus on really understanding if the teachers are teaching at the rigor of the standards and what that looks like how do we know and then how do we support them if they haven't that has been a major shift for us and so I do think that work has impacted what we're seeing in outcomes and um even just looking at uh today I was at oer first and

164the question was how do we know who is learning what do we do when they're not learning and what do we do when they have learned even those strategic questions has caused us to uh pause and say really how do we know that and so sometimes we're hoping for better outcomes without strategically doing something in order to get there and so that tightening of really how do we know and what are we doing is huge in in seeing some the games that we see thank you Mrs Newton Scott uh your leadership is appreciated the school leaders have clearly articulated their purpose and their vision for learn for leading change School leaders thank you for being all in for all students the presentation highlights our Equity commitment of working together to eliminate predictable patterns of academic

165achievements based on race socioeconomic status and gender outcomes for students are improving thank you thank you Mrs Newton Scott Dr spru Mr Thomas Mr Heaton and Miss Hansen for the update so this work highlights our CSD Vision with your leadership our students will realize their full potential Dr Whitaker please introduce the next presentation uh uh Dr Salon I would like to call on Mrs Francis Hol assistant superintendent of student Support Services to provide an update on our partnership with Communities In Schools she will be accompanied by Mrs tetran Lockwood principal of Claremont Elementary School good evening board chair Dr sulan Vice chair o esteemed board member student board representative Elena and superintendent Dr zma whiter City schools of deor has always employed amazing teachers leaders and support staff who care deeply about students and have

166gone the extra mile in various ways to support them but if we're honest despite our best efforts the truth is that all school districts are limited by the constraints of state and federal funding as well as resources to resources available to truly meets the needs of the whole child this is why one year ago Dr whiter introduced CSD to communities and schols to help us list the work of the building and sustaining and engaging an inclusive culture strategic accelerator CIS is an award-winning Dropout prevention program and organization considered to be the nation's largest Dropout prevention network with a proven track record of positively impacting graduation rates CIS is one of three organizations with whom we have partnered to help us ensure Equitable outcomes for all students CSC has one site coordinator at theor high school

167one at Beacon Hill Middle School and one shared between Claremont and tally Elementary School three and all these schools were selected due to their feeder pattern as well as the identified needs of their student popul bis comes with a with a bis of course comes in a couple of ways first schoolwide activities and those are supports that are identified by the school goals in partnership with the school principle CIS makes the activities a reality second case manage support these include onetoone check-ins with students regarding their individual goals students on case load receive an average of three hours of support per week across different support categories currently 169 students across these four schools are considered to be on the case load of the CIS site coordinators CSD and CIS have agreed on goals for this partnership

168with CIS as one of our Equitable outcomes Partners we expect to see our ccrpi M's hierarchy of needs is a the different levels of human needs and how they relate to motivation and growth in education this hierarchy helps us understand how students basic needs must be met before they can fully engage in the learning process this is considered a fundamental principle in creating a positive learning environment recognizing that many face challenges related to many people face challenges related to basic needs CIS is able to provide emergency assistance this assistance is available to students and staff at participating schools in both in CSD both groups students and staff have received support in one or more of the categories shown on this slide CIS has exceeded its emergency assistance budget for CSD since starting in the spring

169of last school year $3,225 have been expended we expect to see additional emergency assistance related expenditures as this semester continues CSD has invested a considerable amount of money in this partnership and I suspect that you want to know how that investment is being leveraged on the chart on the left you see that CSD has invested [Music] 195,000 the total imp of what is invested back into CSD is $335,900 CIS started working in CSD officially in the mid-spring of last school year despite this less than ideal timeline C the CIS team hit the ground running and focused their work on building relationships and schoolwide activities such as growing leaders reading in the garden at Claremont Elementary School and family literacy nights at tally pictured on this slide you will see events from this school year for

170tally and and Beacon Hill students on the left is a is an event with a partner called share the magic Foundation wrote Capital and read with Malcolm also you will see the shop the magic at Little Shop of stories which allowed 25 tally students to select five books of their choice demonstrating improved by De due to demonstrating improved academic performance on the right is a picture of student students at Beacon Hill Middle School sipping and painting as they learn about relationship skills and responsible decision making it is important to me and I know that it is important to you that our school leaders are excited and grateful for this resource School leaders see the value of CIS because they see the direct impact on our students four out of four principles agree that the services

171provided by the cisi coordinators are having a positive impact on their schools and on their students academic performance all of them are very satisfied with the level of case management student advocacy and the ability to meet basic needs I'll pause here to allow principal L to share more about the impact of CIS at Claremont Elementary good afternoon thank you for the opportunity to share claremont's perspective on our partnership with communities and schools since the beginning of our collaboration last school year CIS has played a vital role in strengthening the connection between school and families Dr Williams has truly become part of the Claremont Community recognizing that Equitable access goes beyond academics CIS has stepped in to provide critical around services such as securing temporary housing for families in crisis arranging transportation to school events for

172Parents Without reliable means and connecting families to essential Community Resources CIS understands that teachers well-being impacts Student Success they have uplifted our staff with simple yet meaningful gestures and that serves as a reminder that our Educators um are also supportive their commitment to removing barriers and fostering Equity has been an invaluable support to our school community and we look forward to deepening this partnership thank you for your time and for your Comm support of initiatives that truly make a difference thank you we look forward to continuing this partnership next SCH year and seeing the continued impact on our students do you have any questions for me at this time I have a question um the um there was a graph that shows there 169 students yes ma'am how how are those students selected so the

173the site coordinators review the data they have um access to our data for attendance and behavior course completion and they go through that data identify students and then they work with the principles and their leadership team to make sure it's the right students for the for the case load and also that it's not necessarily A duplication of case load management such as if a student has an IEP already and has a case manager um doesn't mean that they can't be on the case load but they have that conversation to make sure it's it's appropriate thank you and I have one quick question um on the slide where you talked about funding in addition to the money that the school system puts in that the other dollars are Grant dollars and donations that CIS is bringing

174in is that is that all correct correct okay thank you think can I follow up with that so is that what programming means the programming is in fact grants and donations no the programming is the site coordinators oh for three site coordinators and and what they bring in with the activities they do with the students The individualized Pa thank you all right community and schools is a critical partnership for CSD I often share publicly the study conducted by Stanford University according to this study CSD has the greatest wealth achievement Gap not in Georgia not in the Southeast but in the nation this partnership also allows us to meet the most basic needs first so that we can then meet the needs of our students academically and also their well-being thank you Mrs Holtz for the

175update members of the board have been asked how are communities and schools helping our students and what is the return on the investment for CSD this board is now armed with the information that we should need Dr Whitaker please introduce the next presentation Thank You Cher Sultan I would like to call on Dr lonita Broom Chief Financial Officer and Nicole golden Chief Deputy Tax Commissioner as they share how the decab County Tax Commission office works with staff to inform the budget process good evening board chair Dron Vice chair us Este team members of the board student representative Atlanta and superintendent Dr Whitaker this evening we have the pleasure of having attorney Nicole golden Chief Deputy Tax Commissioner of theab County join us to discuss the role of the Tax Commissioner's Office prior to acop in

176the position as Chief Deputy Tax Commissioner for the cab county attorney golden served as Chief assistant district attorney in the cab Ba's office she also served as a special prosecutor in the crimes against children's unit attorney golden is a graduate of isavia University of Louisiana and emry University School of Law she is a 24e resident of the cab and has worked in the cab county Georgia for 21 plus years I introduce to some and present to others attorneys oh go good evening thank you for having me today um The Tax Commission umil um so today I just want to say uh or talk briefly about what we do in the Tax Commissioner's Office of course we serve all citizens of dcab County including residents of city of deada um and we uh our budget is

177about one point or our collections I should say is about .8 billion across the county um we collect for the county cities um school districts um and we also have about 103 employees that do just that who work very well um and who uh without our wonderful staff we would not be able to what we do um what we um our primary collections are for property taxes obviously as well as for Motor Vehicles so we register Vehicles we Title vehicles we do not handle Driver's License Services but we handle all other motor vehicle operations um we also process have the responsibility of processing exemptions Homestead exemptions for all citizens um including senior exemptions basic exemptions exemptions for disabled adults and those of course are opportuni for our taxpayers to get a reduction in their um

178in their property taxes um we have been focused uh the last eight years I've been in a Tax Commissioner's Office on providing as many services uh online as possible obviously we still offer all those um uh all collections and bill payment and exemption um applications in person for our folks who are not necessarily Tech savy but that has been a really big push for us is to put as many of our services online so folks don't have to come to our office if they don't like um we've also created opportunities to make appointments because people have obviously have have um in their Minds that they're going to come and wait at the tax office for hours to get you know their procedures done but we've been I think pretty good at at cutting down on

179that there's no lines outside the doors um and customer service has been huge for us um providing that um especially to the tax commissioner providing that for all citizens so we provide bills obviously every Year to everyone including give decada residents for thecab County taxes and for um and then we also process exemption applications um let's see the the other thing we do for city of decar and city of Decor schools is um the digest obviously Tech digest without that none of us could collect anything so we work very closely with r with Russ Madison and his team um and we have a really good working relationship with them and anything that you know we can do to provide them with assistance especially during we don't have to do much um coach with Russ we

180we do annually um but that pretty much sums up what we do I can go into detail if anyone has any questions um our website is the c tax.org um and uh yeah we're able to um assist in any way needed we're happy to be here and happy to support the city of decada as always I don't know if there are any questions for me um so I'm not going to force you to commit to a specific date I know Dr Broom does a great job with projections but um it has been the case in years past where when we get the final estimates of the digest it starts running up against the dates that we're having to vote to accept our millage is there a sense this year of the timing when we might

181get that projected digest well let me say this um what we produce well we have to wait for the assessment the values to come in and that is a separate office so that's the tax assessor's office Calvin hix is the chief appraiser so once we get the numbers from the assessor's office then we're able to do a projection so we move as quickly as we can but that number um depends on their their okay thank you thank you Miss golden I appreciate your time and your expertise as we do develop the FY 26 budget and also looking for that support as we work with the tax assessor offices and we work hand in hand with the ass it's we couldn't do what we do without them um but yeah we every year we we advertise

182the timeline and what we expect those projections to be and what the the dod when we expect the dodes to come out but we move this we absolutely move as quickly as we can it's in our best interest too to get it done sure thank you thank you golden Echo Dr sentiment looks forward to the annual presentation from the decab tax commissioners office thank you you thank you Dr Whitaker please introduce the next presentation chair sulon I would like to once again call on Dr Broom our Chief Financial Officer as and she will be accompanied Now by Miss Andrea Arnold who is the city manager to provide an update on tax collection within the city good evening I again have the pleasure of introducing two more guests that have graciously accepted the invitation to join

183us tonight Miss Andrea Ono needs no introduction because we all are aware of the great work that she has done and continues to do in the city of eor Miss Arnold is the city manager for decor and has worked for the city since 1997 she has served in various positions with the city and has a bachelor of administration and political science from Ferman University and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Georgia we also have Mr Russ Madison who I work closely with Mr Madison has served as the finance director for the city of decada for 17 plus years he has a weal of knowledge about the city's finance and as my go to person when I need to know more about the city's Financial operations Mr Madison has a Bachelor's of

184political science from em University and a master's of public administration from the University of Georgia the city and School District finance department work closely together and today we will learn more about the revenue and property tax collection process M Arnold and Mr thank you Dr Bri thank you chair ston and vice chair boots for having us here tonight um really appreciate the invitation and as Dr Broom said um I our stat do work very closely together um not just at this time of year um when it's budget season and um and digest season but all throughout the year um so do believe that you asked us to talk a little bit about just the the city tax revenues and the the property tax collection process um and it was really a great segue um from

185Miss golden um as everything hinges on the real property tax diet dig EST and we uh we are relying on the C County for that digest um and the work of the tax commissioner and also the tax assessor we actually had um Mr Hicks and um staff from his office um speak at a work session to the city commission uh last week so encourage yall to take a look at the the work session and I'll say that it was um extremely informative and um you emphasize just the um you know the level of expertise the the type of methodology that's used by the tax ancestors um and also the oversight at the the staff level or at the state level um to ensure the the accuracy of the the digest the values in the digest

186um here we are estimating that digest in May I will say that Mr Hicks um stated that we made we we may see the digest earlier than we have in years past um because of some some of the requirements of out of house bill 581 and um so it it may result um hopefully that we'll all get that a little bit sooner because um we're we're very much in the same boat and pretty much once we complete our budget um that's when we find out whether we did get it right um know things come out with the tax digest and then that is the summary that we normally receive in May to help um help guide the budget decision making Pro detail digest um in in the summer July and August U just a little

187bit about the digest from 2024 um the the digest was 30% or 31% new value so um you new and either new Properties or Improv to properties uh versus 69% of reevaluation or otherwise reassessments and um and I believe that that new value percentage was a little bit higher in 2024 um than it was in 2023 also um just the the digest itself is over three billion dollars uh so that is the value of every building um a pce of property with the breakdown there 22% commercial 78% residential and so that just makes it clear as we're making decisions um we as our elected bodies um and staff are making recommendations um any decision related to um to taxes to the millage rate um you know that that falls heavily on on um residential property

188um as opposed to commercial I will say um the city has spent years and years and years um working on pushing up that commercial percentage uh when I first started you that number the commercial number was 15% I will also say that in 2023 um the commercial number was 24% but there were some um there were a number of appeals of the commercial property values that resulted in that that drop and the commercial property values um and that digest from um 2023 to 2024 um was just shot of a 6% increase in the digest and of course just a reminder um both parties the school system as well as the city um and and County um we're all um we're all required to comply with the state taxpayer Bill of Rights and so that's the

189number of advertisements public hearings um that must be held and those are requirements by the state and then the property tax billing so unlike um many of the other cities throughout dcab County where the tax commissioner actually does the um the billing for for those cities the city of dicator actually does Bill and collect its own taxes and we do build collect um for the the school system as well as the the city government so there's one bill that's being sent um for City and school taxes and then we collect them and then on a monthly basis we distribute those funds um to the school system and real simply you um you know how do we get the amount on your tax bill it's just the millage rate multiplied by the assess value the assess

190value um is often reduced Ed by um a number any number of Homestead exemptions that are offered by the city and by the school system and that results in the the amount that's due um we do have two due dates um so June and December and so actually two separate Billings and and two due dates um and then um the the first installment bill which is normally due on June 1st those go out in early those bills go out in early April they're due on June June 1st at that point you we have not received the the current year's tax digest so we are using values from the previous uh calendar year um really just the the purpose of this slide is I would say is let look over in the the right hand column

191showing the our collections rate and so you see um you know it's always going to it's always 99% um normally I guess can't really average that right here staring at of the probably 99.6 collection rate um so just wanted to you know assure you all that um that um that Russ and his team um you know do everything that's you know legally possible uh to collect the taxes that are due to these entities we're very proud of that collection rate um and we do distribute um the funds to the school system on a monthly basis so in addition to the the real property and real property that's what we're most familiar with with the real estate tax bill but also personal property public utilities and tangible tax property transfer tax uh Motor Vehicle Tax um

192the railroad equipment tax that that just comes in once a year um but again all of those are distributed regardless of whether we collect them directly or if the county sends us the the funds or the state sends us the funds um those are um received by the city and then transferred to the school system um also the uh the school busz camera programs uh those violations are shared um between the the city and school system and then um all of the alcohol related Revenue so we do collect excise taxes and license fees um on alcoholic beverages and and those are split 5050 with the school system as I said we're proud of our collection rate and part of that is um you know we do have a delinquent tax collections process um there's a

193a billing ordinance that's adopted by the city commission each year um we also do um schedule and most years hold um a tax sale that we place um it Lanes on the properties um and then the tax deed a tax deed um will um go up at the tax sale um I said we we schedule them we don't always have to hold the um the tax bail um you normally if you know if that tax bail is scheduled at at 10 o' we'll have you know to to make the payment on their on their tax bill and um and again any anything that we collect with the delinquent taxes those are um and your monthly distribution and then finally just to to wrap up as a as a reminder and I believe this is probably

194part of your conversation um with house 581 certainly has been a conversation with the city commission um that the the school system does have a cap on its millage rate at 25 Mills and the city also has a millage rate cap it's normal for school systems to have the cap it's a little less common for um for cities to have a a millage rate cap um and so we do um recognize that that that is just one of the many challenges um with 581 um and just a reminder about the school millage rate um under state law um in the charter the school is the recommending Authority for the millage rate um so when the school board um votes on the military you are making a recommendation to the City commission and then under the

195city's Charter while we are the levying authority uh the city commission shall adopt what has been recommended by this body um but technically we are the city is the one that actually levies that militate um House Bill 581 um I do believe that that you all are aware that um that our at our last City commission meeting the city commission um did um elect to opt out of house bill 581 um for um for for any number of uh of reasons um many of the um what we believe would be unintended consequences um of this policy um or or the the policy that is the failure to um failure to opt out uh results in a permanent decision to be U to be opted in and um the the I want to talk really briefly

196um about the schools and Seed enforcement cameras um the city and the school system worked very closely and very hard uh to get the school zone cameras installed in five locations for the purpose of increasing safety specifically pedestrian safety student safety um in these school zones um we have seen from prior to the camera installation to um now the camera is being installed a 92% reduction in speeding um it's a dramatic there has been a dramatic change in driver behavior um you that's the data but also I'm sure that you all see it just as I do when you drive along College Avenue or Scott Boulevard or Claremont um you see that um during the enforcement hours um that that that people are slowing down um so we do believe um not only do I

197believe but the data show that these cameras are effective um there is a bill um that is um you that has been dropped at the state legislature um to repeal all of these cameras um and um you unfortunately you know there um there there are areas where um representative um you know has concerns that these cameras may be you know they're used in more rural areas where children aren't walking to school um you know however you know we don't believe that um that this Hammer should be used on what we believe to Be an Effective program and I'm very I'm hopeful the will find a scalpel uh to uh to create to fine-tune the legislation so that we can continue to use these cameras to keep and to keep our students safe and then finally

198um yet the track and field at legy Park I don't know that I need to say anything more um but that's just been an amazing joint project um between the city between the school system um financially um we've gone in um they p and half um in terms of the funds um C plus the the city of land um there at Legacy Park and um and we are just at this point we believe that we are just weeks away um from getting that open now the weather would just cooperate to put the track surface down when I was there over the weekend it wasn't keeping anybody away um and so we are um it's want to say use this opportunity and help us to say thank you um for your support for that project project

199at Legacy Park just much much needed for the community um as well as for our student athletes thank you I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have sorry go ahead Andre can you um just briefly uh provide board members with some of the discussion or what the thoughts were amongst the City commissioners as to why you guys opted out of house B flat 81 that you have I brought my talking points from 581 um so there are um a number of concerns uh we talked about the the tax burden redistribution that where um this this house 581 only applies to residential Homestead Property um this this will shift the burden of taxes to commercial property into rental property properties um there's that that that is is a given um also this um this

200such a greater burden greater tax burden on new homeowners and so it's GNA and it will create disparities between life properties so you would have two homes that are identical one you know one has a home uh where the residents have lived there for for 20 25 years and um and they they've been paying taxes based off of what I believe would be the CPI um the other you know new home owners they purchase the home and the the value of that home is going to be reset to the fair market value so there's going to be a disparity in the value values and therefore a disparity in the the taxes paid um and so there's a inequity there um also we understand from credit rate agencies that that that um the credit rating agencies

201and those are the folks that um that essentially price price our our bonds um that they have some concern about this um the artificial limitation um on on our ability to pay our debt service and so again it's just it's gotten the um the credit rating analysts a little bit nervous as well so those are just a few of the concerns that have been raised um again that the um redistribution of the tax burden to Commercial and U in rental property the inequities that are created um the the concern about um the impact on um really the the cost that it would increase the cost for us to issue issue debt um or to borrow money and also the fact that um that it it will limit the turnover of the housing Supply you limit

202the turnover of the housing Supply um then that's going to um if you limit the supply even if demand stays the same if even demand will probably increase then that's going to have um an impact on home values and so it will we we share a desire for more affordable housing and instead this would just make housing like that much much less affordable um within our community if I'm Dr Sulton if I could actually add a point relative to city schools of Decor that I think probably city of Decor also faces we are principally a Personnel organization the CPI is tagged to consumer goods and services as a very very limiting measurement of inflation in fact it's the wrong measure inflation for the activities that we of selling dishw mares or repair them CPI might

203fit but in our case and I suspect it's probably similar for the city of theator our costs for Teacher insurance for example doubled last year that change alone accounts for the entire growth Beyond CPI within the city schools of the cada so um it's I we share the perspective uh with the city that this is terrible tax policy and extremely limiting for both organizations and end up putting an unequal and uh inquit um um burden Upon Our constituents I just wanted to go back to slide two and I wondered if I could get a clarification there was um 31% was either new value or newly valued versus the 69% for revalued and I just wondered if there was more specific breakup of that 31% new value in terms of what percentage is actually new conru

204constuction or new build and what percentage is renovated or is that not even something you track it's just the new value I don't I I don't have the information at that granular level um you quite often from year to year I can spot and say that was that new apartment development that drove up the value but I I don't normally have the the information of that level of detail can I just get one clarification about the new versus the exist so I'm an existing homeowner um how is the new homeowner with the house bill if it were to have pass or rather the city were to have not opted out how would the person purchase securing an undo or despair tax um so the the the new purchaser when they when they buy that house

205um you know let's say it could have been you know based off of the CPI it could have just increased you know say 300,00 it's $300,000 house next door is $300,000 but when they purchase it it gets reset to the fair market value you let's say if they bought it for $600,000 then it should be reset close to what they purchased it for and so then you will have essentially you know equal equal structures um you know possibly people with similar abilities to pay um but the the the new people who bought in their taxes you know in that scenario would be twice the amount of the people who had lived there um you know for a longer period of time and so the inequity is the fact that you have two homes that are

206um that that are otherwise at their Market values would have the same they would have the same value but your taxes you know maybe maybe dramatically different and you're receiving the same you're receiving the same service all right thank you so much Miss Arnold and also to Mr Madison and we look forward to reciprocating a presentation to the Board of Commissioners later this spring uh on our FY 26 budget the symbiotic relationship between the city of the catar and the schools of the cater has evidence and so thank you I agree thank you Dr Broom Miss Arnold and Mr Madison for providing property tax billing collection rates and the distribution here for the city of decar do uh Dr Whitaker and the board were going to take a brief five minute rep yeah yeah the

207resident of city of decator and posted on theator board of indication to the indicator's website and according with the time frame and and other conditions set forth in house L 581 copies of which are attached here to as exhibits A and B respectively and whereas on January 7th 13th and 21 2025 the Board of Education of the city of thear also issued a press release to the local media regarding its intention to opt out of the homestead exemption and advertising the public hearing copy of which is attached here to as Exhibit C and whereas the Board of Education and the City of decar has complied with all of the procedural and hearing requirements set forth in the opt out process of house 581 now therefore be it resolved pursuant to its Authority under the law

208the Board of Education and the City of theator hereby opt out as a Statewide floating conet exemption created and implemented by House Bill 581 get further resolve that the superintendent for the city of deor City School of decator is hereby directed to file with the secretary of state of Georgia copy of this resolution as finally adopted along with all exhibits no later than March 1 2025 be it further resolved that this resolution shall become effective upon filing the secretary of state of Georgia and that all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict with this resolution are hereby repealed to the extent of the conflict this resolution and the exhibit solicited are part of the consent agenda this evening that concludes my presentation thank you board members do you have any questions or comments I want

209to reiterate that this is the time to share for the public your thoughts your questions or your concerns about this issue yeah I'd like to speak please um so first um I hate the way the bill was written um it seems specious because voters could choose for it and then municipalities and school districts as most have decided could opt out um but elections matter to me and I looked up the results to see the percentage of people who voted for me for his example in uh 2023 or voted for James or voted for Hans um and I got TI looking if you wanted the truth um but overwhelmingly more people in our community voted to opt out of this um at the same time I also want to state that my income in my household

210is derived from two public teachers salaries so I'm well aware when we're talking about the risks to teachers in education and a daughter in the school district that there are difficult decisions that have to be made um we have looked at the amount of money that we need or that we would lose uh but I feel strongly that we need to listen to the people that are actually paying the tax bill what I heard multiple times was that people wanted they support our schools and by the way I did look through all the budget feedback for anyone listening so I did notice that three people who responded to the FY 26 budget for did say please up out so I appreciate that you shared that but I also listen to the people that came here

211to speak I listened to the people that were um in the hearings and what I heard multiple times is we support the school district but we want to know about those cost efficiencies um and that's what I would like to know more of for letting me share and I especially appreciate everyone who reached out and everyone who shared their questions and concerns thank you um I wanted to take a moment I strongly support opting out and there are a host of reasons for that but first and foremost I do want to make it clear to the public this was a thing that I did not realize elected to this board that I learned after why I was elected to this board my job and frankly all of our jobs on this board is not first

212or principally to be responsible to the voting public this is often misunderstood and I understand why but here is the truth we are not elected here to represent the adults that elected us that is not my opinion that is a matter of state law our job is to represent the best interests of the students in this District above of all else House Bill 581 would without question wreck the quality of this school district and so my choice is very easy on this topic I am here to represent what I believe are the best interests of the students in this District to continue to deliver the best possible education system that we can for our kids now B 581 would in multiple ways prevent us from being able to do that so I will give a

213couple of examples cill 581 is tied to the Consumer Price Index the Consumer Price Index measures the growth of goods and services if we were in the business of selling or repairing dishwashers House Bill 581 might actually be relevant to our costs but we are not we are principally a talent organization almost 70 I keep me honest Dr Broom but 70 plus percent of our costs are related to the teachers that deliver instruction within this District this year alone the in the insurance rates for our teachers doubled it is a 100% growth in the cost for us to deliver Insurance to our teachers that is not within our control there is nothing we can cut there is nothing we can change there is nothing we can alter to not pay that it is not up

214to us we are forced to incur that cost that 100% growth on that line item alone outstrips Consumer Price Index this year by itself on top top of that we are in a generational shift in the way that we recruit pay and retain teachers driven principally by the pandemic the fact is teachers are leaving the profession theing are demanding rightfully pay increases and better treatment I think for many of us that have worked in education it's about time we have increased teacher salaries the last two years in a row we are going to do that again this year every one of those changes also outstrip the Consumer Price Index simply put if the citizens of thear want a quality educational system for their children we have to opt out if we do not opt out

215I project within three years we will be cutting teacher jobs that is if our teachers are not already quitting because we are not able to match the quality of pay and services that other districts around us provide this is non-optional it is literally this binary do we want a good quality school system or do we want to opt out or do we want to stay in House Bill 581 very easy decision for me I appreciate how difficult taxes are for the citizens indicator to afford I particularly appreciate how difficult it is for seniors to afford the taxes with IND Decay which is why we have the most generous senior Homestead exemptions in the entire state if you are a senior and you are struggling to pay your tax bills for the schools in the city

216of dear please op take the senior homestead exemption this decision for House Bill 5 81 I rest well with thank you thank you the board of city schools of Decor has followed all guidance to fulfill the opt out provision of the Statewide adjusted basee Ador homestead exemption pursuant to Georgia law 48-5 d442 thank you Dr Whitaker Miss berett has provided an overview of the procedures and the resolution for the city schools of Decor to opt out of the Statewide adjusted basee adalum homestead exemption this item is on the proposed consent agenda and will be voted upon later this evening Dr Whitaker please introduce the next speaker thank you chair Sultan uh Dr Broom our Chief Financial Officer will present the first draft of the FY 26 budget good evening once again today presentation today's presentation

217will provide a brief overview of the district's fiveyear Financial history and a preliminary first draft of the fiscal year 26 budget for general fund other fund fiscal year 26 preliminary budget will be presented in March although all budget decisions and requests tied into one or more of the district's strategic accelerators the finance department operates with a specific focus on accelerated for organizational Effectiveness and Excellence through financial equity and transparency the two primary sources of revenue received by the district are state and local Revenue state revenue consists primarily of funds received from the state via the quality based Education Act also known as QBE QBE was inactive into law by the Georgia General Assembly in 1985 the formula for determining QP funds is based on multiple factors including student enrollment learning abilities of student scheduling in

218grades kindergarten through one through 12 and training in experience of Staff the state also issues grants such as the preschool disability and Career Technical adult education grants local Revenue largest source of Revenue is property tax the district receives the largest portion of general fund revenue for property tax other local Revenue consists of tuition for the Early Childhood Learning Center funds receive of alcohol taxes in the city of eer earnings from Investments and miscellaneous Revenue such as the sale of surplus property violators of the Thor camer facility rentals and other locally generated Reven this slide shows the history of revenue from 2020 to 2024 local revenue is presented in blue and state revenue is in yellow as shown the district received its largest source of revenue from local sources and local sources have steadily increased from

2192020 to 2024 state revenue decreased from 20 fiscal year 20 to fiscal year 21 and have slightly increased from 2021 to 2024 state revenue is tied directly to student enrollment which decreased by about 371 students from fiscal year 20 to fiscal year 24 the slight increase in state revenue are due primarily to additional state revenue to cover the cost of increased salaries and half benefits for earned employes the district categorized expenditures by state function codes this slide shows a list of the function codes with the percentages with the percentage budgeted for each function code in the fiscal year 26 preliminary budget a detailed description of each function code is included in the appendix the function code shows that the largest District investment is in instruction which aligns with strategic accelerator students Suess in all areas

220instruction makes up 60% of the year 26 preliminary general fund budget the instruction function includes activities filling directly with the interaction between including the salaries and benefits of teachers and instructional materials purchase for learning the second largest expenditure function is maintenance and operation which makes up n 9% of the general fund budget maintenance and operation are activities concerned with keeping the facilities open comfortable and safe for use including keeping the grounds buildings and Equipment an effective working condition and state of repair this category also includes maintenance Personnel considering the district's facilities with the exception of T and F are an average of 79 years old it is not surprising that maintenance and operation is the second largest expens the third largest expension category is school at Administration which makes up 8 8% of the general

221fund budget School administration function includes activities concerned with the overall administrative responsibility for school operations included are activities of principles assistant principles instructional coaches School claric staff and general office suppli the fourth largest expenditure is people Services which makes up 6% of the budget whereas the instruction function is for staff and material directly related to the classroom the pupil Services function includes activities designed to assess and improve the well-being of students and to supplement the teaching process activities include guidance counselors testing attendance Social Workers Health Services and supplemental pay for additional duties such as coaching or supervising extracurricular activities although all functions have an impact on students success instruction pupil Services Improvement of instruction educational Media Services and School administration are all directly related to the school and make up 78% of the budget this

222slide is a visual of expenditures history from fiscal year 20 to fiscal year 24 for the Last 5 Years the district has continued to make instructions the largest investment this slide Compares revenues and expenditures and 2020 revenues and expenditures were pretty aligned in fiscal year 21 expenditures began to outpa revenu as you may recall the co pandemic began in fiscal year 20 and contined to have a negative impact on expenditures through fiscal year 2021 the district began to recover in fiscal year 202 to and has continued to rebuild the district's Reserve or fund balance with Revenue outpacing expenditures during times like a pandemic and any emergency unplanned and unbudgeted having a healthy fund balance is critical for continued and uninterrupted operations the military history varies based on the economy and financial needs of the district

223the milit rate increased in 2019 from 18.6 6 to 20.25 with the onset of the pandemic the milit rate increased from from 2021 to 2022 from 20.25 to 21 the Board of Education decreased the milit rate in 2024 from 21 to 20.30 and currently continues to maintain a usage rate of 20.30 the fund balance history is a reflection of the previous La of revenues and expenditures as shown the fund balance dropped drastically from fiscal year 20 to 21 as a result of the pandemic the district has rebuilt the fund balance to a hey amount as you can see by the gradual increase in fund balance the 5year history of tax levy L the net digest value real and personal propery in the district has steadily increased for the past five years the village rate listed

224under the session titled rate is a percentage of the net tax digest if the digest increases and the military rate Remains the Same the district will see an increase in Revenue due to the digest grow this is the fiscal year 25 budget from board adoption in June 2024 to the president since the board adoption of the fiscal year 25 budget budget amendment one increased Revenue by 1.17% for State Grant Awards and expenditures by 1.25% for the adoption for the addition of two maintenance technician to maintain Legacy for all other F year 25 budget amendments were funded via reallocating funds from the existing budget the fiscal year 25 amended budget our budget the box to the right list the changes to the fund balance since the board's adoption of the fiscal year 25 original budget the

225beginning fund balance has increase from the project to the audited amount of $19 million which is an increase of 27% due primarily to Personnel savings from the fiscal year 24 budget after Amendment one it is projected that expenditures will exceed revenue by approximately $3 million result in a projected fiscal year 25 IND fund balance of $16 million which leavs a fund balance percentage of expenditures of 15% this slide is a snapshot of the current fiscal year 25 budget and actual revenues and expenditures as of January 31st 2025 the district has received 69% of the budgeted Revenue due largely to receiving 94 % of local property tax revenue last year this time the district had received 70% of the budgeted Revenue so revenue is trending as projected the district has expended 47% of the budgeted expenditures

226which is the same amount expended last year this time and it's normal for this time of the year based on where we were as of January 31st 2025 in the budget fiscal year 25 projection is that Revenue will come in short approximately $900,000 due to anticipated lower collection of local taxes and other local Revenue other local revenue is trending low in K12 tuition payment traditionally we have tuition pay students for new Property Owners under contract however we have had just a few shortterm tuition pay students this the year other miscellaneous taxes such as Surplus sales and facility renters are also coming in slightly less than in previous years state revenue has been reduced due to the state reduction of Pupil Transportation by approximately 64,000 from the preliminary QB allotment sheet to the initial sheet based

227on spending patterns and vacant positions throughout the year it is projected that approximate $700,000 may be under spent in expenditures if the projections were to be correct the fiscal year 25 ended fund balance as shown in the bottom table to the right highlighted in yellow would decrease from 16.3 million to approximately $6.1 million again these are just projections and as we get closer to the end of the year projections will be revised to reflect more accurate one of the board's primary priority for fiscal year 26 was a competitive compensation package for employees Miss Walker presented the board with a competition package at January's board meeting based on the board's discussion teachers would receive a minimum of a 4% salary increase teachers with a bachelor degree entry level salary would increased from $57,600 to $608 the

228total FAL impact for salary for teachers minimum 4% increase is approximately $2 million in the if the fiscal year 25 budget ends exactly as budgeted as shown in the column title fiscal year 25 budget expenditures would exceed revenue by approximately $3 million as shown High lighted in blue in the small box on the top right under the fiscal year budget column the fiscal year 25 in the fund balance would be approximately $16 million as shown highlighted in yellow the small box on the top right under the fiscal year 25 budget col be mindful that the fiscal year 25 ining fund balance is the fiscal year 26 beginning fund balance and looking at the fiscal year 26 preliminary Budget on the chart to the lab the budget was built on the assumption that local property tax

229revenue would increase by 5% and that other local and statement Revenue will remain constant with no changes as we progress through budget season and the state budget is approved and the tax assessor provides that projection on the tax digest grow Revenue numbers will be updated to reflect the changes expenditures reflect operational expenses and salary enhancements as discussed in the compensation package including a minimum of a 3% increase for all employees and a step increase for eligible employees notable changes in the fiscal year 26 budget include an 8% increase in maintenance and operations as stated earlier the district facilities with exception of the two upper elementary schools are an average of 79 years old the cost to maintain the buildings is substantial the 18% increase is due to increase in preventive maintenance custodian Outsourcing cost energy

230increases pressure washing painting and the addition of two maintenance technician for leg part and operational supplies to maintain the track the board has made a commitment to ensure the safety and security of all students and staff the 15% increase in Safety and Security will be used to enforce that commitment which includes a minimum at a minimum maintaining the license for software for recently implemented safety initiatives such as centages CES prices go and AD 10% increase in Support Services Central is due to a onetime increased cost for the district's portion of pan city of decayers for contractors to identify fiber cables prior to construction increases in other salaries and compensation including hiring incentives PRS increases State Health increases and of salaries above the average budget salary 177% increase in school nutrition is due to the increased

231cost of school nutrition services for EC and fr there is an overall 6% expenditure increase from the fiscal year 25 budget to the fiscal year 26 preliminary draft budget one this increase is due predominantly to salaries and benefits which make up 86% of the fiscal year 26 preliminary budget the top right box highlighted in Galla shows the projected in fund balance of approximately $16.3 million for the physical year 25 budget again this ending fund balance of fiscal year 25 is the beginning fund balance of fiscal year 26 which is approximately $16.3 million highlighted in green under the fisical year 26 preliminary column on the boot to the right for since for year 26 expenditures seed Revenue by approximately $7 million which means the $7 million would be deducted from the fund balance and leave a

232projected fiscal year 26 in their fund balance of approximately $9 million whenever expenditures exceed revenue in a budget this this is considered deficit budget if additional revenue is needed the only source that is available to increase would be property tax currently the district milit rate is 20.30 increasing the milit rate by one meal would generate an additional $3 million in Revenue at this time we are not recommending or proposing increasing the military the fiscal year 26 State proposed K2 education budget highlights includes amending the current fiscal year 25 budget for a one-time security Grant of$ 21,6 35,000 per cas 12 for fisal year 26 the government proposing additional funding for K2 Transportation reduction of prek class size from 22 to 20 students also included as a state mandated once again is the unfunded mandate to

233increase health benefits this proposed increase will increase the district contribution of health benefits over the last three years by $940 per month per employee R $1,280 per year per employee this unfunded mandate will have a fiscal impact right under $1 million to the general fund other proposed budget changes includes reducing the student to counselor ratio from one to 4 one teacher to 450 students to one teacher 250 students currently the district has one counselor per building for K2 schools two counselors per building for upper elementary schools and one per 450 students for middle and high schools changes to the state QB funding are also referenced as a proposal however the details of those changes are unknown the district contribution to TRS is proposed to increase from 20.78% to 2.91% codian are proposed to receive a

234one-time Grant of $1,000 the board adopted the fiscal year 26 budget priorities in December 2024 the fiscal year 26 budget is align with the Strategic accelerators and the budget priorities fiscal year 26 highlights under organizational Effectiveness and Excellence the budget was built using a zerob based budgeting process every single operational request had to be aligned to a strategic accelerator and Justified alternative funding sources such as Chick-fil-A Grant will assist with the professional development tuition is being considered for grades K5 and the preliminary draft budget one has a fund balance between four and 6% under cultivating and retaining high quality professionals the board has been presented with a market analysis of the Metro Atlanta school district salaries and has committed to a minimum 3% salary increase for all employees and a stout increase for eligible employees

235the increase in TRX from 20.78% to 2.91% is included in the fiscal year 26 budget the budget also includes $20,000 life insurance for all fulltime employees signing bonuses for special education teachers and parent professionals and the expansion of the University Pathways for staff via tuition and under building and sustaining and engaging and inclusive culture the district has made security a priority to ensure all staff and students feel safe and secure Investments have been made to increase to food entrance security enhance emergency communication processes and incorporate crisis response systems within the district funds have been allocated for social emotional learning instructional materials for 6 through 12 and design year for K through 2 under Student Success in all areas funds have been invested in Equitable outcome support at the elementary level and funds have been allocated

236for the Construction and design of an early childhood Learning Center the budget includes support for act and sat through Apple Ru Services funding has been allocated for PSAT exposure and support beginning and 8ighth grade districtwide mentoring programs in the refresh of 6 to 12 student devices the fiscal year 26 budgeting process began in October with the adoption of the budget timeline and has been ongoing since this time the next step will be the presentation of the use of federal state and Slot funds in the preliminary budget draft presentation number two in March a community meeting for Budget questions and answers will be held on March 25th at fth Avenue please also be mindful that the budget feedback for fiscal year 26 is active and located on the finance website the fiscal year 26 tenative budget

237is sched to be approved in April and there will also be a board of education Community member on April 23rd at wch two public budget hearings will be held in May followed by the final adoption of the fiscal year intive approval of the military three public military hearings and the final adoption of the property P military will be held in June another awardwinning budget book will be presented in office the attendance consist of the state various function categories with a description for each I will be happy to respond to any questions or provide clarification thank you Dr Broom we look forward to number two uh next month board members we're going to I'm going to ask you to hold your comments and your questions we just break and you back okay simp switch the color

238comment here all right the following information is included in the board policy manual and members of the public also acknowledge this information when they sign up to speak this serves as a reminder for all speakers and members of the audience the opportunity to address the board during public comment is limited to District parents students residents employees businesses and organizations persons wishing to address the board during public comment must sign up by 5:30 p.m and in doing so will be asked to State their connection to CSD Andor the city of decar to allow time for the board's other business public comment will be ordinarily limited to one hour or 20 speakers at the board's discretion public comment period the public comment period may be extended for a specified amount of time or specific number of additional

239speakers the time limit for all speakers will be 3 minutes person speaking during public comment will not be permitted to yield the floor or transfer unused time to other speakers comments during public comment should not be addressed to the board should be addressed to the board as a body and not to any individual board member at the chair's discretion persons violating this policy may be asked to step down speakers should be courteous and professional speakers are not to list complaints about specific Personnel or individuals connected with the district in a public session the board strictly prohibits abusive language threats comments jeers Applause or shouts from the floor disruptive persons will be asked to leave the meeting room the chair May terminate public comments that are profane vulgar defamatory or disruptive if any speaker comments begin

240to Verge into the areas of hate speech or defamation I will have to ask the speaker to end their comments speakers may not address confidential student or Personnel matters but may submit such concern to the superintendent in writing members of the board will not address persons presenting public comment or speak to the substance of any comments made during public comment instead a member of the administrative team will follow up with person speaking at the board meeting Dr Whitaker will you please call our first Speaker yes uh choicy man good evening Dr suton and members of the board I hope you're well today my name is Trac an I am a City School cicat parent of two girls one at Beacon and one at fave I'm an educator as well and currently a full-time public education

241Advocate um I come with you today because every single parent hopes that their child feels seen and heard and that's what really brings me here last month I reached out to the principal at Beacon Hill Middle School and the school counsel there regarding troubling incidents I learned about I learned that many of the LGB lgbtq students in the e8th grade were not using the bathroom at all during the day out of fear of their classmates intimidation such as banging on bathroom stalls and leaving Anonymous posted notes with spurs on them for them to receive when they returned it's my understanding that in most cases students have not reported these incidents out of fear of reprisal from their classmates or out of lack of knowledge around support I did speak with both the principal and the

242counselor there they were both professional appreciative of learning this information and I was sure that as counselors are work working on a plan of how to better support students within the LGBT Club Community I greatly appreciate their willingness to listen and discuss this however I'm noticing that that has not happened quite yet communication about a safe bathroom does not appear to have happened since January I've continued to learn a very troubling incidents in fact just yesterday I received an email from my daughter after school while she was there thinking about such a situation and I will submit this later to you this evening her exact email but to sum it up for you he has a friend that was called a transgender slur three times and had his bathroom saw banged on when she learned

243about it she convin him to for her to take him to the counselor to figure out what had happened she says that it took about 30 minutes just to see someone and in her eighth grade mind she thought the counselors were just chitchatting I assured her they were probably having a meeting but nonetheless she didn't feel seen and they felt dism when she returned to the counselors they said oh they're back and she had to be quite I'm going to read to you a portion of what she said just so that you understand how it feel to be an eighth grader and she says what happens if a student isn't as assertive as I am and was dealing with a crisis they just get turned away I can't tell you how badly I wanted to

244yell at someone to just make them listen their whole job is based around kids mental health and resolving problems and yet they've actively called more my friend wouldn't have told anyone about this happening I had to get another friend to convince him to let me take him and and I bet you the reason why is that kids don't actually feel like they're listened to I sure don't it took me interrupting them and saying that my friend was called a slur in order for them to even pay attention respectfully about to rage quit everything F you're a kid who could also be called a slur I have a couple of requests that I'll submit to you in further writing but in general I'm wondering what type of counseling instruction or students receiving a thought respecting all

245students regardless of their background their faith their race their gender identity or their sexual orientation I'm wondering how can CSD be more proactive and addressing prudes in our schools I do recommend or I do understand and recognize that our legisl thank you thank you for your coming the next person is Heather Crystal Al righty we would like to thank all of the speakers for taking time to be here tonight as board members it is important for us to hear the concerns of our communities we will take your comments into consideration all right Dr Dr bro you can return questions and or comments yeah I'd like to look at slide the FY 2026 preliminary draft one budget so just one clarification and one question so regarding the support services Central and there's a 10% increase is

246that only for the fiber optics or does that also include like Hans mentioned that I think was it 70% of our budget is Personnel yes that is was personel okay so then um I'm looking at school administration and I believe we have a $377,000 and change reduction um we talked about the December uh budget priorities am I correct in saying that that reduction is the result of eliminating what we decided to do in regard to eliminating the AAP positions okay so then you know I'm not sure this is a question that can be answered right now but I distinctly remember when we were talking about this and then I don't know Hans if you want to answer this because I was responding to the number of community members that had reached out regarding eliminating a

247school-based position and then I think uh Dr Sulton you had asked it was something to do with the staff I think it was three Equity workers that would be in the school helping close the achievement Gap I think the concern was that some people in the community felt like hey this isn't going to be a school-based position and I believe we were assured it was so you know what I'm trying to do is figure out how I explain to someone that we're actually not increasing you know the number of administrative personel Personnel or that if I'm looking and I'm seeing the school administration is reduced by 377,000 but Central Support Services is increased by 400 th000 plus and so I don't know how to answer that because if I look at this it looks distinctly

248like we removed AP positions and now we are increasing Central support staff so I mean I guess the the direct question is for the positions that were the AP positions that changed and the equity positions that were created what bucket were those Equity positions created put into instruction there in instruction so part of the increase in instruction is due to the shift of those but so the it's not that the 377 left school administration and went to uh which one was it support C Support Services Central it's that they left school administration and actually went into instruction um okay and then just a what was the amount you said the Fiber contract what was the amount of the Fiber contract we know 72,000 okay and so part of it but you have your hiring sent

249also in the Central and then um like if you have a position in a fiscal year 25 budget budget based on the average salary so if someone comes in with a lot of experience and they start higher up on the scale then fifal year 26 you will see that increase okay so I think just a break down of the the to miss Anderson's question just a break down of the 457 would be would be helpful um if possible I'd like to look at slide 13 and so I just want to make clear we are less than 1% off in our estimates of total revenue in fact less than 0 0.75 of a percent off in our estimate of Revenue right and this is a for so understood understood it might change but we are also

250off by less than 0 75 actually more like 6 in terms of our expenditures by projection yes so relo based on us Rel reallocating those midterm requests yes so I just want to thank uh the superintendent and the administration for the certainly the tightest budget I think I've been a part of um if we end up at these numbers that's the smallest discrepancy between uh anticipated and expended so that's I count that as good news also just to drill down on your point I had the same question I think that you had about um the um 10% variance came not that their new positions were hired or created it was very into salary so salary increase or gets bumped up or you you know had a position that was already posted you had allotted for

251the salary but they are entitled to somewhat higher than you originally posted for but for the for people who are listening it doesn't mean that we have created more positions than we had had in the previous fiscal year or budget for just because you know it's so interesting likey can be so confusing I look at these categories and I look at the amount and so I just want to be clear here that when we're looking for example at General Administration right that would be the money that pays each of us board members and Dr Whitaker as well as others and then we have Central support services that would be anything from fiber optics to Personnel right and Safety and Security would also be items as well as Personnel yes okay all of the function majority

252of the function codes are both operational thank you I think it's also worth pointing out if I'm not mistaken but historically there have been positions distributed throughout the schools which probably should have been more properly coded as central office Administration and there has been action taken to try to correctly categorize to to to miss Anderson's question about transparency uh you can actually OB fisc things in a budget by putting things into the wrong buckets and taking the steps to actually correct that by moving the things to the right buckets while that superficially looks like an increase in the bucket it's actually the that that is actually increasing transparency in the sense that we are putting the right position where they ought to have always been to can I just ask one other question on that

253slide do we have two buckets in the same column um Improvement of instruction and training yes okay thank you you any other questions so I'm correct then on 15 if I were describe this bud someone all the things we talked about 4% rate Etc but we're only expecting 2% more in Revenue preliminary yeah but that's right so the smallest the smallest increase in Decor history looking at the previous chart right because last year was the smallest increase over the last provided us five years of data but I guarantee it goes much further back than that and yet that 4% increase instruction all the priorities are being met you still have a fun balance of 8% and it has to be between five and 15 correct four and 15 four and 15 okay I just want

254to make sure that Miss Anderson I don't want the I don't want anyone listening in to feel like we aren't being transparent so is there anything else that you want to see or need clarification on so that there's no miscommunication about I don't think it's that we're not being transparent I just think that what we're providing is also requiring a lot of understanding that at times is difficult to put together um so I don't understand why because I think it was Hans that mentioned something about not putting things in the same bucket is that about transparent accounting practices and yeah we historically and I'm going to try to I'm not going to call names out but there there were an other administrations things in order to make central office look less expensive categorized things that

255should have been categorized in central office in other buckets so that we would not know to have ask the question and so what I believe is happening is this Administration is slowly but surely categorizing things correctly so when we say that 10% increase in central office what does that do to we're actually talking about the full scope of the cost of central office as opposed to picture and I think where it is confusing and again I um I want to make sure I understand what I'm doing but I also want to be able to explain to people that are asking and so there's Support Services Central but am I correct in saying that in the Administration category the general public doesn't necessarily understand all of the um Department in areas of school district organization and

256so therefore we we use something like I think H you mentioned central office but when we're looking at these categories then we have General Administration clearly that must also refer to in some way central office right question oh yeah yeah but the to ha point I mean when you're something like safety right and safety personnel but that person's staying at central office fulltime and that's where they work then as a CFO you have the you kind of have the ability to do that and that's why it's so cool that you have an award-winning budget book because we can go back and and look at that so if there any budget slops out there that want to go back and that sort of stuff I will say I would support anytime there's a change in a

257budget code that rate reaches 10% including why um I think would go a long way towards answering those questions because I I when you said the fiber optics I was like that can't be more than like oh 70,000 okay um that I think that would be good particularly as you clean things up as an Administration letting us know that would be awesome Yes um one of the conversations I had was a percent change in a budget if you go back to the FY 26 yes a percent change um that percent change and dollar amount change are very important columns because a percent change on instruction at 6% is $3 million but what but if I have looking at what's you know people are talking about which is uh student Support Services Central it's a 10%

258change but that's a total of 457,000 uh same thing for school nutrition it's a 177% change but dollar amount wise the percentage of the budget is minuscule sometimes in comparison to the total expenditures so we provide both dollar amount change and percent change and we can see what all if it was less than okay um if it were if it what that could be and we don't know why the power just went off on that TV well then maybe not a percent change but a you know a sense of a mill change I I mean I I do like the percent change right I mean the reason yeah the reason the reason why percent change is there is because it does reflect to some extent the the emphasis you know a 10% change on a

259$4 million department is still a proportionate change on that so I think both are important other question thank you so thank you for your feedback thank you for your comments at the upcoming board retreat we will discuss positions that may be added in the next draft also a reminder as we move through this process Clarity from the Georgia assembly will increase and ultimately uh the clarity that will have impact on the budget so as we hear from the general assembly then we will be able to have greater degrees of clarity on the budget so know that it will change for draft two I'm sorry is that increase to one for 250 in the governor's proposed budget or is that just a Bild that's the governor's proposed budget okay right thank you Dr Broom Dr Whitaker

260do you have a report tonight yes I do um so good evening City schools of the cater uh once again I want to thank our counselors for their immeasurable support they bring to our students and learning environments daily as a part of the national Career Technical Agricultural and Education Month celebration I also recognize the CTE CTA e staff earlier we received an update on the variety of real world Workforce opportunities the ctae programs offers our students within our schools all of the presentations this afternoon and evening are evidence of our strides towards achieving our strategic goals of assuring Equitable outcomes for all students in CSD College and Career Readiness performance index is the Georgia Department of education's State accountability measure in December I presented the component scores indexed from our Georgia Milestone student performance last

261year the final step in transparency through strategic data use and collaboration is actually led by the governor's office of student achievement otherwise known as Gosa Gosa released the 20 2 2023 and the 2023 2024 ccrpi single scores for districts on Wednesday January 22nd Fifth Avenue scores increase from 89.5 and 23 to 94.2 and 24 tally Street scores increased from 90.4 in 2023 to 97.3 in in 2024 Beacon Hill scores increased from 91 in 2023 to 94.3 in 2024 and decator high school scores increased a whopping from 81 in 2023 to 90.4 in 2024 during our modified work session and a regular board meeting we heard from the principles of these schools and I believe their student data will continue to Trend in the right direction before I continue I want to acknowledge that within the

262last few weeks our district has faced consecutive incidences that have caused disruption and anxiety within our community after a Citywide water main break and backtack severe weather incidences that ultimately led to full weeklong closure we returned to an immediate influx of executive orders that significantly affected the individual sense of security for many of our students and families and teaching and learning in our schools with all the unknowns this is a season of an uncertainty for all of us but I want to reassure our community that we will face this together as directed by our local Board of Education we will continue to support our teachers and staff in implementing the established board policies and District regulations that reflect the dicator community's values of inclusive and engaging learning environments that Foster trust understanding and respect for

263all we will also adhere to the state and federal protecting laws for students coincidentally executive orders came down on the same day of our inaugural School Safety and Security Summit before a panel discussion on how the city schools of the cater and the City of thecar Works collaboratively to ensure the safety and the well being of our students and staff in ways that parents can support I publicly address the top three issues that parents had communicated the first two were weapons detection at Beacon Hill Middle School and thear High School and those plans for next school year and even the possibility of school resource office ERS in every school resulting from the state school's safety P both of these topics will be a part of a longer discussion at the board retreat on February the

26425th the third item was amid the E executive order on the changes in Immigration enforcement and the impact on our students as I said in the latest edition of the soup scoop we will continue to monitor state and federal legislation on these critical issues while implementing our Key Safety and Security initiatives this year these initiatives include City's school safety zone cameras to ensure driver accountability which is also become a hot button issue under the gold Dome CC's new stategic mobile crisis alert system for Rapid emergency response and the district's crisis go communication tool to improve crisis management while we remain committed to maintaining and welcome and maintaining a welcoming School environment that's the Hallmark of Decor our new visitor management system will be increasingly essential we have reiterated to all School leaders and the front

265office staff the importance of adhering to safety protocols concerning the entry of visitors to our schools or District facilities during the day the new visitor management system will screen visitors against the State Sex Offender Registry and provide visitor Badges and realtime tracking of guests within the building but before one enters the building the front office staff has been reminded when the bell is rung to greet with a hello this is whatever school it may be and how may I help you this safety procedure is small but it is the first step in keeping our students safe additionally any individual serving legal documentation from any agency including Immigration and Customs Enforcement will immediately be directed to the district's administrative offices here at the Wilson Center legal documentation is inclusive of subpoena warrant temporary protective order or

266C with the introdu and with the introduction of the new CICS alert system District leaders and the local city of decator law enforcements are available to provide further assistance to schools if that is necessary these new initiatives aim to increase physical safety while adhering to Federal and State student safety privacy and laws however we know that the recent events also have the potential to impact the social and emotional well-being of everyone in our school Community teachers and support staff are with our students every every day providing guidance that addresses the academic and the emotional needs of students individually and collectively every CSD school has a trained certified school counselor and access to mental health professionals and Community Service Partners who are able to offer additional support is necessary we encourage our students and families with

267specific needs and and concerns to share these with their teachers school counselors administrators or other trusted adults in our schools as I close I want to underscore that while we may be a small community with diverse challenges beliefs and viewpoints this is Incredible strength there is Incredible strength and resilience here indicator now more than ever we must work together to safeguard and uphold our values of inclusive learning environments that optimizes student outcomes for all students in CSD finally I want to remind the public that prek registration is now open for the city of decada resid who will have a four-year-old by the age of September 1st registration will close February the 28th chair Sultan that completes my report thank you all right moving along good evening on behalf of the city schools educator Board of

268Education thank you for joining us in person and virtually for our February board meeting a lot has happened since the last board meeting like Dr Whitaker said I would be remissed if I did not begin my remarks by addressing what is on all of our Collective Minds the potential impact for the recent executive orders of classroom instruction students gender identity and immigration status and federal funding for public schools the unreadiness was immediate for us as students parents Educators and leaders indicator we celebrate the values of respect dignity and inclusion that consistently keep our City ranked among the among the top five best cities in Georgia and in the Entre ire country in addition to our Charming neighborhoods the quality of learning environments offered in our small and inclusive schools are cited as a large part

269of why our city has such a desirable place to live and work we all cherish our students and our Beloved School communities as your neighbors and elected board members we further understand our important role in partnering with families to ensure stud School of decator is a public school system under state and federal governing funding and oversight DSD is also locally funded by this board of education as a board we continue to fully acknowledge that there are still many areas for growth within our district however as a governing body we remain committed to our local board policies and strategic priorities of engaging Equity as both an outcome and an intentional process designed to achieve fair and just access to opportunity and resources that provide All Humans the ability to thrive also per our shared belief we

270remain committed to fostering learning environments that are inclusive safe secure and supportive while ensuring that no student group is marginalized for this reason we will continue to support all students regardless of race ethnicity sexual orientation gender identity learning exceptionality immigration status religion or any other identifying characteristics working together with families the school community and our educational Partners I am confident that we can and will successfully navigate the complexities that may arise while ensuring public education opportunities remain available to all students in CSD now to the second part of my remarks during the pre-work session we resumed our book study on the governance core the board is committed to professional development that focuses on improving student achievement in organizational Effectiveness and this book exemplifies this belief there was continued discussion during pre-work from the January meeting

271on policies related to staff political activities and general public relations including possession of weapons by visitors and we received the first draft of policies on instruction program specific to dis SX the identification and support student support and curriculum development with February celebrating Career Technical and agricultural education nationally our work session also included an update on the Fantastic ctae work underway at our middle and high at our middle and high school with our middle and high school students the board had a lot of discussions during our pre-work and work sessions which required a revision to the published agenda the remaining work session presentations were moved to the regular meeting where the board received an update on csc's Partnerships with the University of Virginia and communities and schools and a first draft of the fiscal year 26

272budget there was also an overview of the procedures and resolution for the city schools of Decor to opt out of house bill 581 which passed during the 2024 legislative session establishing a Statewide floating homestead exemption the board welcomed three guest officials this evening we appreciate the Cab County chief Deputy Tax Commissioner and attorney Nicole golden for her presentation on how the county works with CSD Finance teams to inform our budget process additionally we would like to thank city manager Andrea Arnold and the city's Finance director R Madison for presting pres ing on the city's revenue and property tax collection process the presentations for all board meetings are available on the district's website and assembly every month the board looks forward to celebrating our schools and the achievements of our students and staff today we recognize

273the accomplishments of Our Winning student athletes in swimming and wrestling as well as their coaches we were pleased to applaud the 19 2024 recipients of the college board's big future award the number of recipients for this award has almost doubled since my time on the board of education we also congratulated the team of IB Physics students and their advisers whose project won the NASA Tech R student challenge the culmination of today's board recognitions was a salute to our dedicated stud student counselors in CSD the board congratulates all of our students and staff on their achievements as I mentioned in the state of the city during my state of the district's remark this month we are incredibly proud that our students excel in all areas in their Journeys towards lifelong learning and success last month our

274schools were full of activities including Lunar New Year celebratin Lu J and Mrs ketta Scott King February is Black History Month and we are honoring the contributions triumphs and struggles of African-Americans throughout US history I encourage our families and the community to check School newsletters throughout weekly to support our schools in upcoming events and activities I have a few dates that I want to bring to the Public's attention the next board retreat will be held on Tuesday February 25th 2025 next door at the eper gym from 10:00 a.m. to 2m finally the next board meeting will be Tuesday March 11th 2025 as I conclude my remarks on behalf of the entire Board of Education I want to extend our most sincere condolences is to decor's Mayor protim Tony powers on the passing of his wife

275Lisa Powers our sincere thoughts are with him and which the entire Powers family with this during this most difficult time that concludes my remarks for this evening I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable winter break board members do you have any thoughts that you would like to share at this time all right we will keep moving and we're going to move on to consent agenda items um for Action information and discussion okay good evening the December 2024 Financial reports and definitions of function codes are located an assembly agenda the finance department operates based on the district's four strategic accelerators with a specific focus on accelerator for organizational Effectiveness and Excellence through financial equity and transparency as of December the district collected 46% or approximately 47 million of the budget Revenue year collected this time last

276year revenue is trended as anticipated expenditures are normal for this time of the year the district has extended 41% of the overall budget are approximately $44 million here today but the month of December expenses equated to approximately $8 million this is slightly higher than what was expended last year due primarily to salary and for the month of December that's a deficit of approximately 1.4 million and this amount has been deducted from the fund b December revenue for Capital and debt funds consisted of approximately $600,000 from earning on investment and supp St collection expenditures are normal for this time of the year and the $215,000 deficit was deducted from the fund balance which was approximately $5 million in December fisal year 25 anticipated expenditures for capital is approximately 12.7 million the district has received approximately $2

277million in Federal Grant the US Department of Education has confirmed that Federal funding P that was effective January 27th did not impact Title One IA or other formula grants we are closely monitoring all correspondence in regards to federal funds to ensure that the district is not physically impacted the district has collected 40% of the anticipated fiscal year 25 grant and expended 37% SCH and tri is trending within the same range as previous year the finance and the school Nutrition department are in constant contact with the Georgia Department of Education Nutrition department and will receive communication on any federal changes that will have that will have an impact on the National School Meal program collection for December for school nutrition was 42% and expenditures from 35% we have to respond to any questions you may have

278thank you Dr Broom any questions or comments from the board okay thank you the thought could be moved to consent me scoot back here board we will now move to the consent agenda items which include monthly items such as the financial nutrition and Personnel reports I will solicit comments from the board on each item after the item has been discussed it will be move to consent there will be a motion to accept the consent agenda at the end of the discussion of all items that was the first one consent agenda item number two which is the school nutrition report any comments from the board hearing none this item can be moved to consent consent a agenda item number three personnel report any comments from the board hearing none this item can be moved to consent

279consent agenda item number four field trips any comments from the board hearing none this item can be moved to consent consent agenda item number five school year 2025 2026 Board calendar any comments from the board hearing none this item can be moved to consent consent agenda item number six Claremont Roofing any comments from the board this item can be moved to consent consent agenda item number seven vestibule design build any comments from the board hearing none this item can be moved to consent consent agenda item number eight House Bill 581 homestead exemption board we heard the presentation earlier and all exhibits are attached to the item are there any comments from the board hearing none this item can be moved to consent Dr whiter Sheriff Salton may I read the recommendation yes please I recommend

280the city schools of theator Board of Education approve the consent agenda items 1 through eight thank you do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items one through eight move uh board member Heen makes the motion do I have a second second board member Johnson Davis second the motion is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor I motion carries unanimously thank you moving on to policy Dr Whitaker thank you chair Sultan I would like to call on Mrs Amanda Lynch to provide three policies for second read action for g m GC and bcbi additionally Mr Manda Lynch Chief of Staff will provide for first read policy Ka and K MB and then finally Mr mandoline will provide an update on the school year 2526 through wish close this out good evening

281all right so we will do it in that order so tonight we have three policies for second read action first is policy g ma drug-free workplace this policy was presented last month for first read and has been available for public comments through assembly no feedback was received through public comment and no changes have been made in the version presented last month may I read the is recommended that the city schools of decator Board of Education approv policy g m d drug free workplace for Action do I have a motion to approve the recommendation to approved policy g ma drug-free workplace for Action board member hen makes the motion do I have a second second board member Johnson Davis seconds the motion is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor the motion carries unanimously

282second is policy GC responsibility to report criminal charges to employer this policy was presented last month for first reading has been available public for public comment through assembly no feedback was received through public comment and no changes have been made to the version that was presented last month may I read the recommendation yes please it is recommended the city schools of the cater Board of Education approved policy GC responsibility to report criminal charges to employer for Action do I have a motion to approve the recommendation to approve policy gamc responsibility to report criminal charges to employer for actions move board member hearnen makes the motion do I have a second second board member Anderson seconds the motion is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor I I the motion carries unanimously third is

283policy bcbi public participation in board meetings this policy was presented last month for first read and has been available for public comment through assembly no feedback was received through public comment and no changes have been made to the version presented last month may I read the recommendation yes please it is recommended the city school indicator Board of Education approved policy dcbi public participation in board meetings for Action do I have a motion to approve the recommendation to approve policy bcbi public participation and board meetings for Action no move board member Anderson makes the motion do I have a second second board member Hearn second the motion is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor I the motion carries unanimously great we will now look at um two policies on the agenda that were

284on the agenda for work session these are policies Ka a public relations and goals and KN andb possession of weapons by visitors these policies are being presented for first read if approved for first three they will be available for public comment through assembly stakeholders can access any policies open for public comment on the right hand side of assembly homepage assembly is linked on our CSD website under the board first is policy Ka public relations goals and objectives this policy has undergone legal review and had a few minor wording changes made but Remains the Same in substance as a reminder it states the board's commitment to keeping the public informed of pertinent and public information pertaining to schools and providing the means for Furnishing transparent timely and accurate information may I read the recommendation yes please

285the recommendation being made is that City schools of theator Board of Education accept policy Ka public relations goals and objectives for first read um is there a motion to accept policy KA for first read move board member hearnen uh makes a motion do I have a second second or member Johnson Davis seconds is there any discussion I have I just want to get clarification and there's not many of us here now but on belief statements in policy it what are our feelings about that broadly I mean it came up earlier and so you know the someone sh that it was you know different in this policy yeah because of this type of policy and I'm just you know because we could make a belief statement about every policy yeah and so I I personally I

286just think that a belief policy a belief statement in a policy handbook is kind of put in a weird place like we should absolutely make statements of things that we believe in and things that are important to us and superintendent comment should as well um but like I think the policy manuals for legal guidelines that if I was a parent let me put it this way if I was a parent and I was upset about something I went policy and it said we're following state law here and that's all it said I would find that releasing i' be like oh I need to call Representative Crawford not Jan and Johnson B Because doing everything she can and then if there's a belief statement somewhere else to support it that would be great but you know

287also it's important to Signal where stuff is and policies often our only opportunity to do that because it for me it falls back on consistency and you know I I I think that's a valid point and so I just want to be consistent that if you know if this isn't the right place then we don't have belief statements but I could I could support having belief statements but I so but I just I just think being consistent is important right been his question why are you not releasing the belief statement on this sorry we just haven't gotten there yet right I don't like that I agree I don't think that this policy has a belief statement it starts with the board of educ believes that our school stronger that's why man I didn't even look

288at that's why I mean you could take that out and it would still have the same substance you could just take that strike the first line yes well is it just because would you start this policy off with our schools are made Stronger by the support the community that I would start with to promote to promote so all strike all the way through therefore so start with to promote a positive environment in City School theator that's equally as good and go from there you could take the the you could take the feel out of it and just go with the direct action all right we'll make that change and then we it go through first we'll post for make the change and that change will what will be posted for first three for public comment

289public comment yeah yeah I think that's right first okay okay we got to vote though got the motion any any further discussion all right we have a motion we have a second all those in favor of the current yeah down the three I the motion carries unanimously all right second we have policy kmb possession of weapons by visitors this policy is also undergone legal review and had a few minor wording changes made it still prohibits the possession of weapons by any school or its property and only as only persons authorized by law May possess a weapon on school property may I read the recommendation yes please the recommendation being made is that City School indicator Board of Education accept policy kmb possession of weapons by visitors for first read thank you do I have a

290motion to approve the recommendation to accept the policy kmb possession of weapons by visitors for first read so move Bo member Johnson Davis makes the motion do I have a second a second for member hearnen second the motion is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor I I the motion carries unanimously thank you Mrs Lynch and thank you Dr Whitaker we encourage the public to review the policies which are posted on assembly all right we will now move to the tuition update so as that gets pulled up um I'd like to remind the board that during the board retreat in November I provided you with initial information related to the possibility of expanding our enrollment here in CSD to include tuition pay students today I'm happy to provide you with an update as

291we move forward with this opportunity we all know that City Schools is theator is one of the top performing school districts in the state as evidenced by state and National test scores of course this is one of many reasons we are a desirable place for families to send their students and as we continue to progress towards the vision of all indicator set forth in our strategic plan we are becoming even stronger for all students at the same time our enrollment in our school buildings is under capacity certainly there are several factors contributing to this but it also follows National trends of declining K12 enrollment offering tuition based enrollment is an opportunity to advance our strategic accelerator of organizational Effectiveness and Excellence as well as an opportunity to serve more students in our amazing schools first

292it is important to frame that opportunities for tuition based enrollment are part of a larger budget process this board discussed budget priorities at the November board work session and adopted the budget priorities at the December board meeting among the budget priorities aligned to the organizational Effectiveness and Excellence strategic accelerator was the desire to seek alternative funding sources including grants rebates tuition Etc therefore moving forward with tuition based enrollment is aligned with the budget priorities of this board second the board discussed the school allotment guidelines during the November board meeting and approved them in the December board meeting these guidelines specify how we staff schools including establishing the student teacher ratios at each grade level by looking at current enrollment and projected enrollment at each school by grade level staff are allocated often as I'm sure

293you can imagine the ratios are not perfect tuition can therefore be used to round out classes this helps ensure classes are at a funding size therefore in response to the budget priorities and declining enrollment we will launch tuition for the 2025 2026 school year starting at our K2 and 35 schools in preparation we've been conducting research and Analysis this includes an environmental scan of other metro area and Georgia districts that offer tuition based enrollment options we've met with school leaders District leaders and our legal team DSC has had tuition practices in the past we've talked to staff with this historical perspective and reviewed past practices to inform our strategy going forward our legal team has been supporting us with policy recommendations to Ure a well thought out design and implementation most recently we have shared

294our vision for tuition next year with our K2 and 35 principles at their school Staffing meetings with a preview of what tuition numbers at their schools could look like based on forecasted enrollment the feedback from our principles was positive for accepting tuition students of course there's still much to be done in addition to providing this update to the board we are currently working on developing or revising drafts of policies related to school admissions we are also actively working on the details of the tuition enrollment process because we already have courtesy tuition as a benefit to current employees we have a framework on which we are building we are also currently finalizing and preparing to publish the number of anticipated tuition seats by school by grade March truly kicks off our enrollment season in fact registration

295for our Rising kindergarten families or resident families new to CSD for the 2526 school year opens on March 3rd for tuition enrollment March will be the develop and communicate phase the board can expect any related policies to be shared during pre-work for input or discussion the process for selection such as a lottery process will be established we will also launch our communication plan to build awareness of the tuition opportunity for non-resident families throughout these initial awareness building phases we will also be monitoring our regular enrollment numbers in April we will be in our engage phase during the board work session in April admissions policies will be presented for first read which if accepted will then open for public comment we will also open the application window for family seeking tuition spaces during this phase we

296expect to gain a better understanding of what the demand for tuition based enrollment may be in may we will conduct our lottery or our selection process this will include establishing a wait list if needed we will new students and families in June it is important to note that June historic Ally includes fluctuation and enrollment numbers with new families enrolling enrolling and some families withdrawing we will watch actual numbers closely and monitor our weight list to identify any additional seats we can offer as always our ongoing work will include a focus on continuous Improvement seeking to learn from this roll out by understanding the experience of our stakeholders and evaluating the effectiveness of our processes tuition is a potential alternative funding source therefore let's take a moment to explore some of the specific fiscal considerations related

297to tuition first as discussed in November the tuition rate varies annually is based on actual expenditures state revenue and Midterm FTE from the previous year Chief Financial Officer Dr Broom has calculated our tuition rate for the 2025 2026 school year at $788 this is an increase from what the current schools year tuition of $686 would be the fiscal impact to the district would be contingent upon multiple Vari variables such as the number of tuition seats actually available the actual matriculation of tuition students actual overall enrollment and the programming of enrolled students as explained on the last slide detailing the timeline we are currently finalizing the projected number of tuition seats at each school by each grade however let's walk through an example to highlight the potential fiscal impact our current projections have us opening approximately

29860 tuition seats AC across our 5 K2 and 235 schools assuming we were able to fill all 60 of these hypothetical seats this would yield $72,900 in potential tuition collections QBE would also be eared on these students and would very based on programming I.E special education gifted Etc overall we are excited about launching tuition based enrollment for the 2025 2026 school year but doing so first in a measured way with our K2 and three part thank you within your policy development will we also get some uh guidance on what eligibility criteria you have absolutely that's part of developing the actual process so there's there is both the process of running tuition and then the policy level of what it means okay thank you Bard I am aware that Tuition Options explored by former Administration suggested

299it would not be advantageous financially um we will take a strategic approach by starting with K2 to fill seats but not to the Tipping Point that would require us to open a new class so that is the key to this yeah and having discussed it before I just want to say out loud the you're allowed to stick around for um the impact on after school programming probably not at the K2 level but I know at the 3 four5 that is an issue and then also just if we do with a lottery I think that that solves it it's like Equitable access for people including special ed special education needs student those are the thank you question all right future dates our next board retreat will be held on February 25th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:

300pm at the eper gymnasium topics include a debrief from the board's visit to An Early Learning Center in Grand Rapids Michigan Safety and Security plans for the 2025 2026 school year and an all indicator strategic Plan update our next board meeting will be held here at the Wilson Center on March 11th there being no further business this meeting is adjourned at 7:36 p.m.