001good evening Welcome to our August 15th regularly scheduled board meeting at six o'clock P.M we will have our inspiration by Miss McRae well hold on thank you so very much quite inspiring our Pledge of Allegiance and character word today will be brought to us by downtown Magnet Academy Elementary School Dima downtown Elementary Magnet Academy so we're going to do the pledge first and then the character word all right this week our character word focuses on positive attitude and we all know how important it is to have a positive attitude so we're teaching and teaching their children about your attitude determines your altitude there is power in having a positive attitude and positive thinking our daily our daily affirmations help us our daily affirmations remind us that I am created on purpose and with a purpose
002I can do all things and I will be all I can be because it all starts with me [Applause] thank you before they leave before they leave if you would pass the mic with each student you're going to give us your name grade and teacher my name is Abigail Vinnie and I'm in fifth grade and my teacher is Miss Anderson I am Zechariah Stallings and my teachers Miss Wagers my name is Noah short I'm in fifth grade my name is my teacher name is Miss Anderson I am Azaria Stallings I'm in fourth grade and my teacher is Miss Kelly my name is Keon my grade is third grade my teacher name is Miss Parker my name is Kylie Caldwell my grade is fifth grade and my teacher's name is Miss Anderson and the boy I'm
003in fifth grade and my teacher name is Miss Johnson I'm Miss Johnson teacher at of fifth grade at downtown Elementary Magnet Academy my name is Tamia Atkins and I am an interrelated paraprofessional my name is Miss Anderson and I'm a teacher at downtown Elementary fifth grade my name is shadesha I am in third grade my name my teacher's name is Miss Parker I am Derek Jackson I am fifth grader and my teacher is uh hmm Miss Waffen my name is the Adrian and I'm in the fifth grade and my teacher name is Miss Anderson my name is Zayden I'm in second grade and my teacher is Miss Warren my name is Taylor Pitts I'm in fifth grade and my teacher name is Miss Johnson my name is Michaela Nichols and wait what oh my grade
004is fifth grade and my teacher's name is Miss Johnson and your name before you leave very good and I see the principal uh Dr Wiggins Elementary and thank our parents can please stand you can't give us the microphone at Dima thank you parents for bringing your kids thank you parents and supporters and thank you Dima engineers thank you so very much [Applause] foreign need a motion to approve the agenda all right motion by Miss Williams second by Miss Buckner all in favor hand raised that passes also the demon Engineers left us these treats very nice meet them in about 15 more minutes nice snacks Miss Buckner there it is I want to offer a motion to excuse um Mr Mark Cantrell and also Mrs Vanessa Jackson all right motion to excuse Mr Cantrell and Miss
005Jackson by Miss Buckner second by Miss Williams all in favor raise your hand that passes thank you so very much and always we want to recognize our visitors I will save the awesome green and gold for last but I know that we have um meef here miss Marquette McKnight and we'll hear from our reigning teacher of the year [Music] um Library all right nice to have you here and miss richner y'all changed seats on me and any principles or assistant principals or anyone on the leadership team at our schools if you would just wave we want to thank you for being here thank you so very much and of course the mighty mighty green waves are here thank you for all that you do and all of your support District recognitions that's the first thing
006on the district recognitions okay so 3.01 is the mcsd 2022 teacher of the year thank you the Muscogee County School Board for inviting me to once again come before you and present our reigning 2022 teacher of the year before I get to that I would like to introduce some folks we have here representing me and those are board members or our vice chair Josh Reynolds and Rita Ellis who is also a meth board member and our a previous Teacher of the Year from Muskogee County who's also the assistant principal Aaron Cohn Stefan Lawrence is also here too so I'm just going to assume he was also representing me as well as the school district so it is my pleasure to introduce you for the second time you heard from her back in March I think
007it was when we introduced the top three teacher of the year honorees it is my deep pleasure to introduce you to formally tonight to Vanessa Ellis our 2022 mcsd teacher of the year a veteran teacher of about 10 years Vanessa has a unique way of articulating the need for deeper better relationships between teachers and students and how that leads to their success in the classroom and as all of you already know there's success later in life as functioning adults he has a lovely way of in being very inclusive and diverse in her thinking and her representation of teachers in the top 10 teacher of the year interviews that meef does to select the teacher of the year for Muskogee County we were quite frankly shocked at the positivity when we ask how has it been
008these last three years of covid with virtual teaching hybrid teaching and then now in classroom teaching and Vanessa led the way in those discussions talking about not the challenges and the daunting task of having to do that kind of teaching but about what they learned from coven and what she learned and what made her a better teacher and it was again reinforcing this understanding of getting to know her students as all good teachers do before they can teach them and it is my pleasure today to introduce you to the Muscogee County School District 2022 Teacher of the Year Vanessa Ellis from Veterans Memorial Middle School [Applause] good evening superintendent Lewis members of the Muskogee County school board members of the Muskogee educational Excellence Foundation teachers staff students parents and community members my name is Vanessa
009Ellis I'm an 8th grade social studies teacher from Veterans Memorial Middle School and I'm the 2022-2023 Muskogee County School District teacher of the year it is an honor and pleasure to speak with you all this evening firstly I want you all to know that this school Year is off to a great start ing in the summer teachers have the opportunity to attend mcsd's Empower conference in which local teachers and Community Partners hosted professional development sessions for new teachers veteran teachers District staff and administrators this year I was a presenter and a participant and truthfully I am in awe and humbled by the greatness of the teachers in our district the sessions I attended touch my heart introduce me to new and effective strategies to reach all students and gave me the opportunity to network with
010amazing teachers and I was so proud of those who willingly gave the last few days of their summer to show up and learn it was a wonderful experience and I left the conference feeling empowered thanks to the Muskogee County the Muskogee educational Excellence Foundation current Harvard fellows received the opportunity to attend a one-day Harvard Sparks virtual conference we met in a reserved room here at mcpec we brought our headphones and our earbuds we attended sessions on zoom and we reflected with one another in person we learned about teens and what they're facing in the digital age we learned about how to design powerful learning about good work what it is and how to teach it and we put all of our notes in a shared drive so that we can support other Educators with the
011knowledge that we received additionally meath in the Harvard fellows hosted our first connecting the community in the classroom event a conversation between teachers and Community leaders including Dr Lewis mayor skip Henderson police chief Freddie Blackman Sheriff excuse me Sheriff Greg Countryman and mcsd chief Greg ARP teachers sent in questions in a cure mewborn from Jordan Vocational High School moderated the discussion it was live streamed on me's Facebook page and available for all interest interested stakeholders to view personally I found this event to be very informative as well as comforting knowing that our community leaders are working so hard to keep our schools safe I look forward to more of these conversations in the future now this was all before we welcomed students back into the classroom so the first week of school was wonderful I
012mean truly things are starting to feel back to normal teachers are enjoying seeing all of their students beautiful and smiling faces and those who choose to continue to wear masks do so unbothered teachers are grateful for the recent textbook adoptions for their respective content areas and grade levels teachers are excited about revamping personalized learning and are so are learning so much through the pl mindset module in canvas there's just this renewed sense of optimism among administrators veteran teachers new teachers student teachers and District staff it is truly refreshing as teacher of the year it's my message to humanize education seeing each other and the students we serve as people as full humans with lives within and outside of school we need to rethink and restructure education in ways that honor the humanity of teachers and
013students in our school district so humanized education we have to prioritize our teachers with every decision that we make there has to be a reckoning between what needs to be done and what teachers can realistically do our time our mental health and our professionalism must be taken into consideration our profession cannot continue to perpetuate burnout by relying on overworking and overextending our teachers to get the job done we must reimagine education so that it is sustainable at least and life-giving at best leaders have to listen to teachers and treat them as the professionals that they are teacher concerns are not complaints nor deficits they are legitimate cries for help and we have to go beyond just listening we must Center and amplify our teacher voices with that being said I ask you all tonight to
014consider the proposal to pay teachers for providing coverage in the event that schools cannot secure substitutes not only do teachers want this we deserve it teachers are not only covering classes during their planning periods they are often expected to stay after school to cover late buses especially at the middle school level voting yes to the class coverage extended pay proposal will affirm that teachers are viewed as professionals and not just employees that are asked to give freely of their time without proper compensation the 2022-2023 school Year is off to a great start morale is high and we want to keep that momentum throughout the school year the teachers and staff of Muskogee County are excited ready and willing to put in the work we just need the continued support from our leaders giving the teachers
015what they need and deserve so that we can Inspire and equip all students to achieve their unlimited potential thank you so much [Applause] thank you Miss Ellis and congratulations again we're moving into our public agenda we do have three individuals sign up you will be called in the order that you appear field Schuler Jennifer Rosa Orozco and Theresa element first Mr Schuler is over here and while you're making your way I'll read the disclaimer all official meetings of the board shall be open to the public and the Press however the board may meet an executive session citizens are encouraged to address items on the board agenda or to initiate presentations of issues appropriate for school board consideration the board meeting is not the appropriate place to review individual employee performance or individual parent complaints that
016have not been addressed by the principal or superintendent citizens are encouraged to follow normal channels to address such issues or concerns which would be through miss Karen P Jones in the superintendent's office and each speaker will have five minutes Mr Schuler go ahead thank you so uh my heart is filled with many emotions uh tonight but the first of those that I'd like to express is gratitude um thank you I know that each and every one of you works very very hard and is so desirous just like the the mission uh describes that you want to inspire and equip all students to achieve their highest and limited potential so thank you thank you for what you do thank you for the many hours that you put in beyond what people even realize thank you tonight
017I I'd like to to kind of consider that idea of the destinations that we want our children to reach those great things that we want them to accomplish the achievements we want to see in their lives and to do that I want us to kind of think about trains for a minute um I was reading about the bullet train in Japan uh the the newest ones can reach fees of almost 400 miles an hour and they take passengers from one destination to another or the freight trains that we see coming all around our County um that pull just tremendous weight in many many cars taking them from uh one place to a specific destination the thing that they have in common is the tracks if those trains stay on the tracks They will reach those
018destinations but if they get derailed and get off those tracks They will never reach those destinations that people want them to reach so the same for our kids the tracks that they've got to stay on to reach the destinations we want them to reach are the Tracks Of Truth and there are so many things in our society that are trying to derail those kids and take them off of those tracks of Truth and lead them into the fields of confusion and chaos um thinking about that I picked up a book in the Maine Public Library a few weeks ago and it was in the children's section of the library on display and it's called you know sex so it's a sex education book and it's it is indicative of the the broader sex education curriculum
019that we use but as I read through this book it just it just broke my heart and it made me sick to my stomach because it was filled with misinformation misrepresentation and the outcome for the children that read this book and are influenced by it is going to be manipulation of their thinking that's going to take them off the Tracks Of Truth and it's going to throw them into the fields of chaos and confusion and if that happens they'll never be able to reach those Heights of a great achievement and destinations that we want them to reach some of the things is and I don't have the time to kind of read anything from the book but as I read it and if you've not read it again it's called you know sex and it
020was in the main Public Library if you read this book you will realize that it encourages children to disregard their authorities to think well I know better than my parents or my other authorities it encourages children to explore sexual activities that are dangerous that are harmful that will lead them into so many problems it encourages them to live their lives based on their feelings the to explore what feels good and and what you know just just dive in there and then it it downplays sexually transmitted infections it downplays sexually transmitted diseases and it creates it creates in the minds of children who would read this book that oh man this is going to be great and I don't have to worry about anything and as a father of seven kids myself man I it would
021kill me if I knew that any of my kids read a book like this and how it could warp their thinking um some statistics that I looked up from the CDC over half 53 percent of all reported STDs are are among adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 24. 53 of all STDs um there was also a press release from the Centers for Disease Control that reported on April 13 2021 that STDs have reached an all-time high for the sixth consecutive year I want to I want to ask us to think about something why would that be and I want to ask you to consider that one of the big factors as to why that might be that these STDs are going up and up and up that mental illness is going up in our
022kids that all these things are happening in our children's lives is in large part because of some of the things they're learning about sex and sex education some of the misrepresentation misinformation one example in this book probably the pictures they were about 80 and just guesstimating about 80 percent of pictured relationships or homosexual that is a gross misrepresentation of reality because that the homosexual relationships are a very small percentage of relationships but yet this book presents them in all the pictures and it doesn't say that it just presents them again misrepresentation misinformation and I just want to ask you number one please take this book out of the library and please consider what the curriculum is in our sex education and don't let our kids get derailed from the tracks of truth because we want
023them to achieve great things thank you Mr Schuler and we do have a representative from the library so they heard your presentation as well thank you thank you Karen Jones has my email if anybody wants to reach out at all all right miss or Rose orozo Orozco pronounce your name when you get to the mic and forgive me oroski hello um I've probably spoken indirectly with a couple of you guys on this particular issue already I have three kids two of them are in Middle School one of them is no way all of them all of them two of them are in Middle School one of them is high school so um my shoe is transportation and I'm not here to blow up at anybody or anything else like that I just would like to
024express the concern that I have um my son has not been on a bus this year at all he's in he is in the eighth grade now and he is in special ed at or the autism Wing at Double Churches Middle School I have spoken with his teacher every day this week she's great I love her to death no complaints at all and I have actually spoken with a couple people in transportation and they are working on it okay I understand they're working on it not hard to please I get it um my daughter goes to Randy McCullers she is a junior um she gets to school late her it is what it is she's about 15 20 minutes late for her first period class not that big of a deal even though it kind
025of is because you know it's cool I don't really mind them getting home late as bad as it sounds but with my my Arnold baby my sixth grader she gets picked up at 9 50. school starts at like what 8 20. I think they're late at 8 20. and and I've talked to all all of these you know wonderful people in the office and they are not counting these absences toward her or anything else like that and they're not doing that for my son as well but my problem is I was made to sign a paper that said if I did not actively have my kids in school that I could be put in jail okay every that is it's fine but at the same time if y'all hold me to that standard I think
026I should be able to hold transportation to that standard they asked if my babies needed Transportation when they got accepted into these magnet programs and these are magnet programs except for my son both my kids are in the mac program okay so these are hard classes and my baby's tested in for these classes and they work really really hard and they deserve the same amount of attention and schooling is ever everybody else so I know that there's a bus driver's shortage as well I was told that and I understand that last year I think it was like 20 people and I think there was another 20 or 30 added I get it or extremely extremely short I don't know what I can do to help do I I mean I I'm at this point where
027if I need to do something if I need to call somebody or if we need to call somebody because it's not just my son and that's another thing is I could have seriously just sent you an email I've done it before like hey hey Miss Kathy how are you you know and I know that some people have sent y'all emails and y'all fixed it okay that's fine I appreciate that I love that that you can just fix it I really do it and I couldn't even express how grateful I am but there are other parents who can't send emails or don't have time to send emails or come up here and talk to you guys I know in my son's class there's another student who hasn't been there at all either I don't know but
028her situation is or anything else like that but I do know it's extremely frustrating when I work 45 hours a week to have to worry about if I can get my kids to school and they deserve it they they do they're great and like I said I love all their teachers and everybody I have spoken with that Transportation has been extremely polite you know I haven't had any issues and they have gotten back to me as quickly as they can but I do know that other parents haven't had that luxury to where they were completely and totally ignored and it's it's a problem and I kind of just want to know how it's going to be fixed and when it's going to be fixed but that's that's my issue thank you so very much hit
029it again so we typically we typically don't respond to those things but I will share with you just making sure that everybody understands this is probably one of the most frustrating things that any of us have dealt with because there's not any one particular issue that we can point to to say this is the problem it's not a scheduling issue it's not an incompetence problem it's a lack of personnel we have increased salaries we have provided incentives we've done all we know to do and this is a problem that's not germane just to Muskogee County or Georgia it's all over the country that doesn't help you I realize we all are experiencing the same level of frustration to tell you though we do have help on the way because everybody needs to understand out of
030safety and out of requirements our drivers and those who are trained to be drivers have to go to a certain amount of requirements in terms of training and then have to go through a certain amount of hours where they transport students all of that takes time we have worked hard we've increased our training rate all the things we can do we have actually done um all I can tell you is that we have drivers about 24 of them roughly that are in the process under varying stages of completing those requirements and as soon as they're available to go on a bus um they will do that we want to do make but we're not going to rush them to point where something would jeopardize safety and Welfare of students or anybody else on the road
031and the best thing people can do is until we get this resolved and get more people on the road because this like I said it's not an incompetence problem it's not a training issue it's not a scheduling issue it's simply a lack of drivers pure and simple uh up until that point we're asking for patience if there are people who can develop carpools that's one way to might be able to help address these situations there are people in the neighborhood can take turns driving whatever it might be we are asking for everyone's patience understanding and cooperation do whatever they can do um we are doing everything we possibly can on our end we know it's frustrating like I said in in my 43 years of doing this I have never seen a situation as frustrating
032as this but it's it's one that's shared with people throughout the country it doesn't make any easier I understand that for other people but we're trying to do everything we possibly can and still maintain the safety and Welfare of everyone that we transport coupled with the fact that we had a large one thing that people can do and I want everybody to remember this moment we need everyone's help uh when we registered for school if you wait till the last week of school and we had 4 000 students more riding the buses this year than we've had in the past several years that's not something we can anticipate we had hundreds registered the last week of school and some people would say as I would well let's let them wait for transportation the problem with
033that is if we do that eventually they have to be put on a stop and that will eventually cause disruption down the road for all families so we're trying to do it in the least disruptive way possible and I have I will tell you our transportation people were nights weekends they've done everything you can and trying to they've revised routes they've been creative and Innovative trying to make the situation the best it could possibly be but we know it's not up to what we expect or you expect but as soon as we can get drivers trained properly and get them on the buses we will certainly do that and just know how much of a frustration it is for everybody to deal with this but it's I won't say it's an insoluble problem it's just
034not when we can fix right now given the current conditions same thing if you know people who are interested in a job that want to drive we are taking applications we have taken those all throughout the summer we've been recruiting uh there there are some stories about me going recruiting and we'll do whatever we have to do to try and recruit drivers but again we want to make sure that obviously they have to there's a lot of background checks for obvious reasons so we have to maintain uh again for the safety and Welfare of all and that's Paramount for all of us in terms of Transportation so we're now transporting well over 19 000 students that's the most we have transported in probably the last decade from what I can determine on our records all
035immense amidst the driver shortage so I like as you can see it becomes a problem of just basic numbers so we are working through that we are better than some not as good as we'd like to be but we are working diligently every day and for our transportation folks they're working into the night and as I said on weekends trying to solve this so please again we just asked for your patience cooperation understanding to this point and if there are things that you all can do we do hope over the next several weeks it'll plane out but it's still going to be a shortage going forward so we need more drivers more interest in being drivers and then we need the time to be able to get them trained so in the meantime people if
036you can if there are those who can uh like I said carpool share rides coordinate those Transportation um we would certainly be most appreciative and thank you again for your understanding as we work through this and Dr Lewis I see you here Miss Williams um while we are doing all of these extra things to recruit for positions not just bus drivers maybe we can work out a partnership as we did during the pandemic with employers for the employees who can transport their students for them to see if there's a way to adjust start times at work to assist us with this crisis yeah anybody can do anything thing creatively at your place of work whether it's coming in late or helping to coordinate those things and get get off a bit early to take kids
037home whatever you can do we had a greatly are very grateful and appreciative of that up front um so we're just going to have to work through this situation like I said it's not something that's just a matter of scheduling or whatever it's going to be a long-term fix but it's going to be something that we've got to work on and constantly recruit going forward which we've been doing for the last couple of years seeing the problem coming as it was but again it's just one of those things where and it's not just to education and it's not just the bus drivers we're looking for culinary we're looking for basically workers in every part of our industry but I know other Industries are working to try and fill their vacancies as well so I have
038first of all before I had my question uh thank you Jennifer for for coming for us I want to applaud the transportation department I know uh excuse me that they have tried to be as responsive as humanly possible to every single parent on an individual basis in helping them and um I know they worked all weekend because I was getting Communications with them uh Sunday while I was at church so um there I know they're working very hard above and beyond and and we appreciate them and I hope you'll pass that along my question is so would 24 drivers in some stage of getting their CDL does that give us a light at the end of the tunnel I mean is it I don't you know the shortage is it's so profound that yes so
039then my next question is if we have 24 that we know are in some stage of getting their license saying finished and I know this is a heavy lift but are we prepared as soon as a driver comes out with everything having been rescheduled in order to immediately put them on the bus and have everybody you know literally do we have 24 schedules built around these people so that we can I'll let Mr Anderson speak but I can tell you all the while we have people asking for new routes new stops so all those routes are changing all the time because of New Edition so we do have the capacity to accommodate that kind of rapid response to a driver coming online well there are some other things we're doing we're trying to also encourage
040recruitment like we're trying to couple and Cobble together things like for example we're offering if if a culinary person would like to do a full-time job we're looking at how we can have them drive a bus stop working culinary and driving the bus afternoon so we can give them a full-time job basically nice okay trying to do but all that is not easy as you might imagine but I'll let Mr Anderson respond to that thank you for the question so yes once those new drivers are trained and ready to go they will be added to routes that are extremely long or that are getting to school late so right now we are doubling our route and so those new drivers will be able to shorten those rides thank you I just want to make this
041point and agree totally with what um Mrs Williams has said Kathy has said and the superintendent has expressed all the problems that we've had and we are working so hard to get a handle on this problem it's just a very very hard problem to have but I do want to say one thing um about that knot I just at 9 50 times it's the one that caught me and I know like I was and I know like we said we are doing absolutely everything we can but I do want to come back to a student in middle school getting to school at 9 50 and I guess it's um it struck me because I don't know much math you know and I'm thinking that if my child got to school if that's a math class
042the first period the kid has almost missed that whole class and if there was some way we can accommodate when we have a kid that is a missing over half of most of an academic class and with me something especially like math I hope we are coming in and you don't really have to address I'm just saying I was just making this point I do want to share that some of our schools knowing that they were going to have some students late whether it be middle school or High School they've tried to adjust their schedule accordingly to allow for a class that might not no I don't want anybody to be offended okay very good but maybe there might be an elective class that doesn't require them to be there ilt or ilt or some
043of those classes we're trying to rearrange the schedules so they're not missing really critically important core academic disciplines are all important having been a band director I can honestly say then but I also recognize that in elementary school reading is absolutely Paramount and that we teach reading based on the research usually first block in the morning so we're we've made sure our elementary kids are there by and large right on time it's because we have a tiered system that causes everything from that point on when they start doubling up routes it makes the middle school and the secondary in the high school later as just the dynamics of it yeah but we're working the schools are working to do everything they can like I said to make sure that they like I said the ilt
044maybe we have in there which is kind of an open period for tutoring those kind of things making those available we're right now looking at putting Wi-Fi Rangers on a few of our buses that we know we have longer routes on so the kids can work on their computers either to or from school to try and adjust and adapt to those situations going forward again we understand the frustration nobody is more frustrated than the people who want to do a good job like those in transportation like all of us so we're all experiencing that same frustration but be patient and we will work on it and we'll get better over time but it's going to take time I can't make a square peg going around hole thank you very much our third speaker MS elamine
045foreign thank you madam chair Dr Lewis school board members uh what has given me joy over the past 20 years is connecting with parents starting in Durham North Carolina where we graduated our first class on strong parental involvement in Community Education spice and I am so happy this may be her first school board meeting but ah Miss Jasmine Outlaw and I are working uh together on getting parents involved we had the pleasure of meeting Dr portraits and she was so fascinated with the notebooks uh could we get the Wilson notebook but first if Jasmine if you could come to the mic and introduce all your three children who all ride the bus by the way foreign this is Adonis James he's a student at JD Davis this is zakai Walker he's a student at downtown
046Magnet Academy and this is just all you were there she goes to Double Churches Middle School she's in the sixth grade this is his first year writing Transportation so that's all of our issues now I understand more that he explained because having two kids going to two different elementary schools is hectic um can't be at both bus stops at the same time and I are one of those parents with um I have otd with my children I don't trust them to say stand at the bus stop by yourself um he's eight but there's nobody else at the bus stop with him if it was another parent I trusted I would leave him with him but not many parents come to the bus stop so that's been an issue but she's helped me so some days
047I can drive my kids to school instead of waiting for the bus and I'm being late well it is such a pleasure to have a family of my own with Jasmine and the children but this notebook has lots of surveys that parents completed are there three notebooks that we're turning over to Dr Vickers Ward because Dr pothrus was so fascinated when she looked at the notebooks and she saw what the parents were saying so we do want to give them to you uh Jasmine works at Warren Williams so she will continue uh to build uh the relationships with parents at Warren Williams um we were not so blessed at Elizabeth canning Farley or Wilson homes to find parents who would do what Jasmine is doing uh there are other parents who are not in Housing
048Authority properties who also have these kind of notebooks so we're determined uh to build an organization of parents and I've I really see it after 11 years Dr Lewis I moved here 11 and a half years ago and to now see the possibility uh that their parents we did a training on Sunday where Jasmine and the other parent made phone calls so that we could see how to make the phone calls Jasmine has set up a meeting at Warren Williams on September 12th where the parents are coming to meet at Warren Williams uh so I'm glad to be able to turn this over so that Dr Porter's because many of the children are exceptional and have special needs and some of the parents write about it but there are three notebooks like this so we
049want to turn over to you but finally I did make the arrangement Dr Lewis with the Marriott we would not be at the DoubleTree we'll be at the Marriott on November 12th where you'll be speaking and that's going to be another Summit where hopefully many of the parents will be there Dr Lewis spoke last year and he really made it clear and we know what we have to do the most important factor in children succeeded in succeeding in school is a participation of their parents I watched this over 20 years when parents care and participate it is the difference it's a game change it's a game changer so that's what we're trying to do uh and so I won't keep you any longer uh I'll get on Jasmine to help me uh Dr because Ward
050would you raise your hand so we can drop off yes and so you'll find it quite interesting what parents are saying about what they need I think Dr portrait she was quite fascinated with it so uh we're gonna say good night thank you and I'm gonna go home with my adopted family here good night thank you so very much this is thank you all right students have a wonderful year [Applause] yes ma'am all right moving into our action agenda item 5.01 Madam chair um as a proud member of the William Henry Spencer alumni I would like to make a motion that we approve 5.01 by reading the abbreviated the abbreviated introduction I read the full page and a half last week at the work session but I would like to read about who William R
051flew Ellen was Mr Fluellen was a 1969 graduate of William Henry Spencer high school and a lifelong resident of Columbus Georgia in which he contributed greatly even during his illness he also attended Columbus State University Mr Fluellen was the strength of and proud president of the national William H Spencer Alumni Association often going above and beyond his Call of Duty he reminded and encouraged each and every graduate of Spencer that they were indeed a sponsorian and that that in itself was something to be very proud of because of the rich Heritage involved with that educational institution Mr Fluellen was known throughout the community of Columbus he was a member of the Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame and and the Muskogee County superintendent's Roundtable as he was a strong supporter of the education Community working
052to pass several floss to support Capitol building projects to include our new Spencer his wife Mrs Annette Fluellen currently serves as the president of the Spencer Alumni Association Mr Fluellen was a staunch supporter for Spencer High school and it's students throughout the decades and so I'm of approval of the request from the William H Spencer High School to name the auditorium in honor of Mr William R flewellyn second second by Ms Chambers are there any questions we're ready to vote electronically now and while we do that when I ask Miss Mrs Fluellen if you would please stand so that we can recognize you thank you so very much for all that you do and the commitment and also thank you to the the alumni who are here wearing that green and gold um thank you
053for all of your support of not just William Henry Spencer high school but for public education in Muskogee County so we really truly appreciate you and thank you for all that you do I'm wearing the championship pendant of the basketball team very nice we need a hand vote all right all in favor we need we need a handbook all right that passes Miss Jones thank you so very much congratulations it's outstanding item 5.0 t two superintendent is recommending the class coverage extended pay proposal just wanted to say there were a couple of questions that came up last week I responded and emailed to you all and those been cleared up and resolved I believe so uh yeah I proudly make this recommendation on behalf of our employees who deservedly received would receive this based on
054your affirmative vote I heard a motion by Ms Chambers second by Miss Buckner are there any additional questions all in favor raise your hand all right that passes Miss Jones fight item 5.03 is policy ieda it's the revised unstructured break time motion by Miss Williams second by Miss Buckner are there any additional questions all in favor raise your hand that passes item 5.04 is the new policy ikbb for divisive Concepts complaint resolution the superintendent is asking for 30-day waiver so we're ready to take action on it now motion by Miss Williams second by Miss Tillery are there any additional questions all in favor raise your hand that passes Miss Jones item 5.04 is the amended mou for the Columbus Museum project motion by Miss Williams second by Miss Buckner are there any additional questions all
055in favor hand vote raise your hand that passes I thought motioned by Miss Williams second by Miss Buckner to approve the consent agenda are there any questions or you want to pull out anything ask any vote separately or ask any additional questions not we are ready to vote by hand all in favor that passes Miss Jones but miss Buckner has her standing disclaimer thank you um Mrs Williamson as uh when I finish you can also do the same thing to our donors I like for the public to know that we have thoroughly discussed all these items we're not just running down a list if you listen at all last last week in fact we discussed it for several hours so so uh we have discussed the people's business and we're just voting on on that
056on tonight thank you so very much do you want to add anything before we I don't know just a reminder that we do have a couple of uh Community meetings one tomorrow afternoon at 5 30 for reviewing And discussing the American Rescue plan expenditures uh that we are trying to make sure we get as much possible Community input as possible and to do that we're having a meeting at 5 30 here in the boardroom tomorrow evening and another one at noon on uh Wednesday Wednesday so that way you have an opportunity if you have work schedules that don't permit one maybe the other one will so again 5 30 and tomorrow and noon on Wednesday oh mines are clear all right motion by Miss Williams and second by Miss Buckner to go in executive session
057in pursuant of a security property and legal matter all in favor raise your hands we are in executive session