001um from our own school district and uh I'd like to thank you for for coming and and agreeing to the inquisition here. So um and uh I know you have something to pass out, but before we do that, let me just explain what we're going to do is we basically got a set of questions, suggested questions from TSBA and then we came up with our own questions from the board. We took and we threw out a lot of the questions from TSBA that were that seem to be duplicate things and whittleled it down to like 31 questions. We didn't throw out any questions at the board members. However, we did kind of randomize things so that people are probably not necessarily going to be asking their own questions to avoid any bias, keep it transparent,
002and to keep it on on level ground. that we're going to go through and we're going to do a round robin on on the questions and that that's it's going to be as as fair as we can possibly make it I guess is what what I'm saying here. So um we would like to have and Melissa's going to be checking on this like to have three minutes per question. I understand that some may take a little longer so there's a little latitude there but with 31 questions it's still going to take us an hour and a half. So um and for the audience uh all questions are to be asked by the board to clarify that and please please refrain from any talking and silence your your cell phones. So with that um uh Mr.
003Cordell, would you open us in prayer tonight? Sure. We're glad to. Thank you. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this another day, a beautiful day to enjoy the beauty of your creation. And we thank you, Father, that for the rain you sent to water the earth. Thank you, Father, for this time in the history of Coffee County. We pray, Father, for wisdom and discernment as we evaluate our candidates. Father, we just thank you for this opportunity. We thank you for those four that that are here. We pray, Lord, that you would bless them and use them in special ways. Father, thank you for this team. Thank you for the board members that here. As I said, give us all wisdom and discernment. And father, we just thank you for this opportunity to help
004frame the future of Coffee County. Father, we thank you for our teachers and our professionals, our our all of our everyone in our system. I pray Lord for protection and wisdom and blessing upon them. We thank you, Father, for the role they play in the history of our children and the future of this county. This we pray in your son's precious, precious name. Amen. Amen. Okay, Dr. Cornelius, you got something to Yes, I do. Um, I just wanted to give this to each one of you. This I did not take and I prepared this way before any questions have been provided. Thank you. But as you open it, this is a set of personal goals that I have made for myself if I were to get. Thank you. There you go. But I did not
005I just was going to tell you I did not take that lightly and I did this before any questions were given. I basically put it in smart goal form and format also. And I want to thank everybody else that's out here too that I see a lot of friendly and familiar faces and that sure does make an interview like this a whole lot easier when you see those. Now I've already told them some that hey I may use some of they may understand some examples that I might give. I won't use names, but they may relate to some of those situations. All right, thank you for that. And uh with that, we will dive in. All right, because the clock is ticking, I guess. So, um I I'll open up uh as the director of
006schools, how should you navigate the emotional stress and professional challenges of terminating an employee, particularly when that employee is a close friend? What strategies can be implemented to maintain professionalism while minimizing emotional distress for both parties involved? Okay. Well, first of all, no matter what I no matter what I've done in any situation I've been in, I've always made it a standard practice that I don't ever uh socialize outside the workplace with any direct report that I have ever that I've ever had. I consider that to be a standard practice among leadership. And the other thing the other thing that I would ensure if that situation arises is I would keep strictly a professional approach and eliminate any kind of emotion or anything like that in the process. Um, I would hope that in a
007situation like this that the individual would have had a chance at an improvement plan and they would have had a chance at uh addressing some deficiencies way before it ever got to termination. Um, I would also make sure that, you know, we adhere to policies and procedures that the board has when terminating an employee. I would also make sure that any of those decisions are based upon sound data, facts and evidence, not like I said, not opinion and not emotion. So that I think it's very important to maintain that degree of professionalism. I also know that as director, my job is to always do and consider what is best for the district. Okay? and what is best for the advancement of the district. And that's how I would that's how I would approach that situation.
008I have had to terminate I've had to terminate individuals. It's not it's not pleasant. But again, you keep separate uh any emotions and then that that line with professionalism. For myself, how would I how would I navigate that? Well, we have within the South Central region, there's a strong cadre, you know, of directors that work with each other too in each of the districts. I would definitely reach out to some of them and ask them say, "Hey, how have you handled this when you whenever you've had to first as a director when you faced your first termination? What did you what did you do? How did you navigate it? How did you handle it?" And I think that's important to get some input from them and see what see what they see what they've done.
009But that's how I that's how I would maintain my self-care in that situation. Um and that's okay. The jokes. Okay. Um, my question is, if chosen as director, would you support and help implement the community eligibility provision C program systemwide and why or why not? And for the sake of the audience, uh, if they do not know what that is, the community eligibility provision is a universal meal plan under the National School Lunch Program permitting eligible districts and schools to provide meal service to all students at no charge regardless of economic status. That's right. I absolutely would do that. I mean, anybody would be remiss in my opinion to say that, hey, if you've got a chance to have every family, every student to be fed breakfast and lunch with no charge, then why would
010you not undertake it? I mean, that's that that's the approach I would use there. I would also want complete buyin from the principles at the buildings. We'd have to make sure that breakfast, you know, is served, is included. That would be something they would need to navigate. But I feel very confident that the people in those positions could work out those logistics. It wouldn't be up to me to work out those logistics, but it would have my full support. I would say this and this is something I would do no matter what program or no matter what initiative we might be involved in. But as director, it would be my job to give you also a fiscal note that would be attached to any endeavor that we might take because you do have to look.
011There are some downstream effects that you might have with the C program. One of them is title one and I've already talked with Miss Cole about this too and she is also we we do this all the time. She'd also reached out to some other districts also, but um it would not necessarily and it may not necessarily reduce the funding for any of the federal programs for the titles, but you could have some resources, some staff resources, maybe have to you may have to reallocate some of those, reassign some of those positions to other schools. So, that's an impact. And then Mr. Dame would also it can affect rate and um depending on what the what the free and reduced percentage is that can affect the e- rate we have here for our internet um
012provisions but I would give the board a complete fiscal note too so that they would know that ahead of time but I still feel like that deep down the pros are going to outweigh any cons with that with that program. I do know that there is because I do naturally in my job that I have right now, I have to keep up with all of this, but I know that there's a move toward maybe raising the percentage even from 40% to 60%. Now, that would be a little tougher, a lot tougher for us, but next year the state is doing away with just the direct certification. You will have we will now have to break in my office we will have to break that down into um who gets SNAP tanniff Medicaid free Medicaid reduced
013reduced by application foster or homeless we have to and then district identified. So we will have those all classifications will come out now instead of being lumped into um one major group. But I absolutely would support that. But I would also want the board to know and understand that there may be some makeup in other departments that we might have to do fiscally so that they don't hurt at the same time because you want it to be a win-win situation at all at basically at all cost if at all possible. But I do consider it my job to keep the board the board would always be informed of the fiscal note that's attached to any kind of endeavor that the board wishes to pursue or that we wish to pursue and that I might bring
014to you. Okay. How would you uh get the principles to support this? Well, first of all, how would you go about that? Well, you would have to. They've not always been breakfast has not, like I said, been mandated in the past, but they would just, it could be. One idea I've had, and I even told I even told Miss Cotton this. I said, "One idea is instead of maybe um directing students when they get off the buses, instead of directing them straight to the gym, direct them to the cafeteria and have your supervision, have your morning supervision in the cafeteria. That's one that's one way to do it. And that's an easy way to do it. Every minute, especially this day and time, every minute that we have those children is so important and so
015jam-packed. So, we have we we can we can maximize where they're sending the students at the beginning of the day. And like I said, the cafeteria would be the easiest place. Also, put all your supervision there and then you then you have it. just move it away from the gym to the cafeteria and you could be breakfast is also easy enough that it can be portable too. It could even be portable to the gym. But the schools I would trust my principles enough to that they should know their building well enough and know how to logistically meet that because it's important in that program that we count. We have to count for every meal that is served. And that's one way that we would get that's one way we would get reimbured through USDA on
016that. Massage. Okay. My question has two parts. So I want to ask you those separately. Okay. Yes ma'am. Our new director of schools needs to be the total package, excelling in every aspect of the role. This includes effectively performing job duties, gaining the professional respect from all the stakeholders and being a visible presence in the community. How do you plan to foster relationships with community members and build trust amongst parents? Okay. And that that get on my personal goals, you can see that that also deals with goal number two where I want to um enhance community involvement and improve what we do with parents. So one thing that I one thing that I've said there is first of all for myself I will attend community events, events that are in the community and community based.
017I think it's important for the director of schools to be involved and be out in those areas. I would also um encourage the parent nights. We could have parent nights quarterly, you know, at each school. And some schools do that. Some schools do that already, but we could do that. I would attend those also. I would um also um want parents to feel welcomed and involved and openly encourage them to attend. I would want it to be focused also those nights on student successes and what the parents can do to build some student success. That's that's what we need more than anything else. Sometimes I think and I I've even put this down and jotted it down in another question, but I think that we don't mean to, but sometimes maybe we aren't as welcoming
018to parents as we should be. Um, that's something we could work on as a district and as schools is to make them feel invited and want them invited in and want their input. I even put down about a parent advisory committee. We had one of those a long time ago in Coffee County Schools. It's been a while, but we could have parent advisory committees again too and bring bring those active have even an open forum, okay, where the director is transparent, the director does answer as many questions as possible, but most of all that if a question is put to you and you don't know the answer, say, "I don't know." It's okay to not know an answer, but just come back with one and circle back around. people appreciate that and um members of
019the community, they appreciate it too. And I'll get into that in some more in some further questions about community relationships and especially what I've been able to accomplish with the judicial system, which has worked very well. Additionally, what role do you see social media playing in your strategy for engagement and communication? Okay. Is it all? Yes. Oh, yes. We have we do have a Facebook page. We would continue that. Um I also think again the open the open forums are fine too. That's a that's a form of social media because you're opening up to the public. And again, I think circling back around and closing the loop of communication with parents is very important because most of the time you can solve a majority of problems if you simply close that loop and don't leave
020people dangling. Don't don't have something don't say that I'm going to get back with you and then not. Now, there's nothing that irritates me more than somebody to say, "Okay, I'll get back with you." And then you don't I mean we all have things that irritate us. Hey, that's one of them. I'm human. So that's one of the things that will irritate me. But you've got to you've got to circle back around and close that loop. I've even thought about podcast. I mean, you know, we have we have people we at our high school, we have an audiovisisual department, right? That can Huh. Okay. We have an audiovisisual department at the high school that could help with that. So I even thought about that too. And that was a little longer question. So, it needs
021six. All right. Miss Matthews is is not here, so we're going to hold her questions. Mr. Co, question number five. How do you envision your goals and intentions for enhancing employee morale while maintaining discipline and accountability for staff? Okay. How will you how will your approach student discipline align with these goals and what innovative ideas do you have for establishing fair and constructive discip disciplinary measures? Okay. For employee morale, I think what and I know for myself too, what I would want to see and what employees want to see is a that that I can bring to the position is a calm and stabilizing presence. That's what they want to see. They want to see a director that is going to work with the board, a director that's working for the board, and a director
022that is engaging the board in a collegial manner. Okay? And that alone can go a long way to boost employee morale. Employees want to know that they have a director that is supportive of them, that has their back. Okay. Now, our teachers, our employees, are we always going to do right? No. We're not always going to respond correctly in every situation. But what you do, they want a director that's going to help guide them to that and say, "Hey, this is maybe not how I would have responded. Think about this in the future, but hey, let's do let's do our let's do what we need to do right now and put on that united front." But they want to see somebody that is supportive of them. And when you do when you have when you
023have thing when you do things like that and you show consistency, you show fairness, you show support, then with student discipline and any kind of discipline in the school, that's going to go hand in hand. That's going to that's only going to augment, supplement, and make student discipline be even better. when they see fairness, supportiveness, consistency, that's what that's what students want to see. And then also at the at the discipline part because teachers teachers can and I've done it before in in certain situations, they don't always see what administration does with a student when and as to see how administration disciplines a student or what the outcome is. as administrators, perhaps we need to do a better job to inform the teacher, this is what we did. But when the teacher hands in that
024referral to the administrator, they're telling that administrator, hey, I've done all I can do to discipline this child. So now I'm turning that over to you. So teachers morale will increase when they see the administrator in their building paying attention to them and giving some credence to the referral that they turn in. But at the same time, you turn that around and your building level administrators, if you're saying, "Well, I don't need all this piddley stuff sent to me as a referral." Well, then that's when you take that moment and train your teachers and equip them and empower them on what they can do in the classroom at the classroom level to improve to improve student discipline, too. But I believe in supportiveness, consistency, and fairness. when I was at the high school and I
025could have lined them up. I could I could have called some of them and lined them up out here, but they would have told you one thing that with me when they got sent to me, I was fair. I was consistent and I listened and you don't show you don't show partiality. Okay. You're you're you firm and they know where you stand. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Gilly around this way. All right. When considering the proficiency of our students alongside employee retention, how would you rate this priority within our educational context? Please elaborate on your reasoning and discuss why both factors are crucial for our success in the education setting. There's a lot of research out there and research uh excuse me, research shows this. There is no greater influence on student performance than that of
026the teacher. The teacher's impact, what the teacher brings to that classroom, what the teacher brings to that student. And based upon that, the higher teacher retention rates that you have, then the better that indicates job satisfaction. For one thing, that indicates that they're not wanting to they're not wanting to jump ship. That means that they feel support from administrators not only the building but district level administrators too. We have to show I think it's important for us to show teachers and principles that we support them too. We're not just here the district the central office isn't here just to exist. We're here to support and we're here to help and we're here to lead also. And that's why you have supervisors here to do that very thing because they have that experience. All of us
027do. And I think it's very important to offer that professional development to them. And mo more than anything else, when we have experienced staff, we're going to have improved scores. We're going to have improved outcomes because that they work in conjunction with each other. And the the longer you have teachers, think about this. Think about the community impact that you can have here because you can you can have such good benefits from this that students when they see teachers that are invested in the community and invested in the system and invested in the learning. then they will be more willing to come back here, raise their raise their families, come to this community, bring it back and and bring it home and and raise their raise their families here. And I think that's very important.
028So that's how all that that is a I don't know who did the question. I will say this, that's a very good question. I I like that question because um it is important and we we must we we're fortunate now you believe it or not we're very fortunate in Coffee County we don't have a high turnover rate. We have a turn but we don't have one that's exceptionally high. So we have the ability to have very good rooted invested educators and it will show. Thank you. Okay, Miss Yench got it a little bit out of order here on the C, but that's okay. That's fine. Uh, Dr. Cornelius, what are your expectations regarding the relationship among the board of education, the director of schools, and the system employees? How do you perceive the hierarchy among
029these three? Specifically, who's accountable to who? Okay. Well, first of all, the director of schools works for the board and with the board and I think that's I think that's very important to understand. But the director of schools is also the liaison for the board and that go between between parents, teachers, students, community members, all stakeholders. Okay. So that's what the director that's what the director is hired for. I also consider it what I call a reciprocal accountability. I'll favor my math my math teaching background and use that word reciprocal because it's not just it's not top down, but it's bottom up, too. We're all accountable to each other. And the director of schools is accountable not only to the board and the board members, but the director of schools is accountable to everyone else
030also. But like I said, at the same time, it's reciprocal and it works all around, works both both ways. So I think it's very important to to understand that that the director of schools, like I said, works for you and works with you. And again, I'll go back to it many times, that ultimate outcome is what is best and what's going to be the better for our students no matter what. And I'll I that if you say you hear the old cliche, is that a sword you want to die on? Yeah, I'll take it. I will. Mr. Cordell, what is your perspective on the significance of athletics within our school system and the broader community? How would you compare the role of athletics to other extracurricular programs? And what value do you believe these activities
031bring to student development and community engagement? Well, I'll be honest with you. There is nothing else that's going to get a community more engaged and give you community pride than when your teams are doing well and bringing it home and bringing to state and everything else. We want to see that in every area that we possibly can and that that's the honest truth. Now, athletics is going to do some things that the classroom can't do. That's the bottom line. It's going to teach, it's not only going to teach how to work as a team, but it's going to build that common good. It's also going to build that that brotherhood and sisterhood that working together, working for a common purpose. You've got you've got to have that because it helps you it helps students with
032goal setting. Also, here's something here's something else that helps when you're on a team. You want you you're not going to be you're not going to be the star. Not everybody can be the star and the best at whatever position, but you want your players that may not be the best at a certain position. You want to get them there so that when you go on, they're ready to take your place and they can and they can move on and the team sustains. So that's the kind that's the kind of attitude that you the kind of attitude you want and you can learn a lot of lessons in athletics and on these teams that you won't learn in the classroom. There's a lot of bonding. there's a lot of um mutual respect that's that's learned
033and like I said working for that common good. I also bring that in with a lot of our uh service organizations, our student service organizations especially that we have at the high school because they focus on service. Athletic teams also focus on service and helping each other. um the like FFA, FBLA, HOSA, DECA, SkillsUSA, and if I left any out, then you can send me an email and say, "Shame on me for leaving you out." But to be truthful and honest, those organizations serve about the same purpose as athletics do, too, because they're teaching students valuable life lessons and how to be of service to each other. Because one thing you'll notice, they focus on service industries. Marketing, business, those are all very good for our community. Farming, the future farmers of America. We need
034that. Health workers, skilled workers, that so that I feel very strongly I feel very strongly about that. Mr. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Thank you for being here. Um, given the current TCAP proficiencies in the 35% range and the state goal of 70%, how would you propose to raise the TECAP scores and boost the performance of students in the non-proficient and approaching proficiency categories? My goals would be this. In fact, it would be it would be something that we would do. Every teacher at the beginning of the year, every every principal, every assistant principal that in within that area, every teacher should know exactly that what your student where your student is when they come to you on August 1st. They need to know. Now, it's up to and well, I'll get into that in
035a minute. You better give me more than three minutes. But um I will make sure that teachers are equipped with that. We're very lucky here. For one, I get all the scores. I send it out to them when I when I get it and uh send it out in spreadsheet form. I put it on our student information system so they can access that. But we have to do we have to let them know that first. Then we have a litany of reports that are available through TDOE and through Pearson standards analysis reports as to how the student did teacher analysis reports that show the teacher this is where you were strong this is where you were weaker. Okay. But we have to we have to do that. We have to educate them as district leaders
036and as building leaders. We have to train our teachers to do that. They need to know that, hey, this is where this student was in this scale. Maybe they're approaching. Where are they on that scale score for approaching? How much work is it going to take for me to bring them up? I can grow them. They may not reach achievement, but hey, I can sure grow them, but maybe they're way up here on that approaching scale. And it's just going to take a little bump and they're proficient. They're at the next level. They're at level three and they meet proficiency. And I do I I go back to this and I'm a strong believer in this. I will have committed educators and competent educators. If I don't, they shouldn't be working in Coffee County in
037the first place or any county wherever that is. But here's what here's what's up to me. Here's my part in that. And here's the district's part and here's the building level administrators. We must give them the capacity to achieve what I'm talking about the teachers. When we give the educators the capacity to achieve, then students, it'll reciprocate right back to them and we'll have we'll have better outcomes. Now, we may not like the game. We may not like the rules of the game, but we have to play it and we have to be active participants because the public judges us on that letter grade that comes out every year because that's what the public understands and we don't need to sit around and make excuses about it. Thank you. Okay. What role do you see
038parents having in their children's education? I would hope and pray that we have active participation with parents. We need it. We need teachers to not be afraid to initiate parent contact. We need we need parents involved. We need to teach them this is how you can help your student. And I'm talking all the way from 12th grade down to kindergarten and prek. I mean, high school struggles with parent involvement. But again, it's just invite them in. Let them know what they can do. Whenever I've picked up the phone and talked to parents sometimes, really I can do. Yes, you can do this. Yes, you can help. Here's how you can help. But we need we need to make them feel invited. Like I got back, like I was saying a while ago, we need to
039make them feel invited to school functions. We need to engage them on parent nights. And we need to be deliberate in how we're trying to bring parents in because after all, they are sending they are sending the best asset that they have to us and that's their child. Okay? That's what they're sending to us. And we get we get the best of what they have given us and we need to look at it that way. So, we've got to be helpful and we've got to have that symbiotic relationship as a school, as educators, with our parents. Like I said, welcome them in. And I I'll I'll continue to say that. Miss Jones. Okay. U How would you propose the school system partner with parents to encourage reading and improve literacy in the student population? And
040that means K through 12. Yes. especially those that might be struggling with these skills. Well, even at um and hopefully hopefully we've intervened at the earlier at the earlier grades, it is very disheartening to know that if we have anybody in that high school right now that's in like regular classes, etc. And I'm not talking about I'm not talking about children that have uh disabilities with learning there, but I'm talking about general population. We should not have anyone struggling with reading at that level. We should be able to identify that at a very early age. But how you involve the parents in that goes back to what I've said goes back to what I've said in my own personal goals that I've made for myself. And that is teach them at parent night. One thing
041you could do is have at a at a certain I I'll use third grade as an example. I'll just pull that right out. You could have a third grade at a school or you could have your parent night and the parents go to their classroom or the teachers could partner together for their grade level and maybe a seven to a 10 minute activity. This is how this is what you can do at this grade level to increase literacy and help us with your child and improve their reading. Okay. Middle school can do, middle school can do the same thing. High school can do the same thing too because there are techniques that are out there for uh high school reading and um they can they can do the same thing because parents are more willing
042I think parents are more willing than sometimes that we get than we give them credit for. I think they're much more willing to participate and get involved with their children than maybe what we what we anticipate. And again, I go back to the same thing. We must make them feel welcomed in our buildings and in our schools and that they are an integral part of their child's education. I'm a firm believer in that. Great. One second. I think you've already answered this, but I'm going to ask it anyways. That's fine. How do you define the working relationship between the board of education and the director of schools? Yeah, I'll even I'll even um you know go a little further, enhance that a little further. I think it's a mutual I think it's a mutual respect
043and a mutual understanding of each other. And I also believe in keeping the board informed. I mean, um I I wouldn't want the board to be blindsided by your constituents on something that's going on because you're elected. you have constituents. I'm not elected. I would be appointed. Okay? But at the same time, it's important. I wouldn't want to be I wouldn't want principles to be blindsided. I wouldn't want I wouldn't want parents up here calling me and a principal know, hey, this has gone on in my school. Well, you know, I on the phone, oh, okay. Okay. Well, I I couldn't say, well, I didn't know about that. But it's important. It's very important for that mutual respect and that mutual understanding, that mutual relationship that the board is completely informed of matters that are
044that are going on, okay? That something may have happened, something may have happened at a school. You need to know about that. You may not need to know the particulars, but you need to you need to know because I can tell you, you're going to get a call. And wouldn't it be a whole lot easier if the call came or an email came from the director of schools that said, "Hey, because you know what? You can tell your constituent. You can tell your caller, I already know about that. I've already been informed. It is being handled and here's who you can here's who you can get in touch with." And that go that goes a long way. So part of the director's job too in supporting the board and working for you is to make
045the board shine as much as possible. And then the more the board shines and looks good in the public, the better we look. And I think that I I think that's very important. You're welcome. Okay. So, welcome. I'm sorry. I apologize. I had to pick my daughter up. That's all right. come first though, right? So, what we'll do is we'll back up. We'll catch you up. We'll back up to question four. Okay. And then I think we held uh question 13 and go with 13. Go with four and 13 and then we'll go on to Mr. Co. Okay. So, I'll two in a row for me, right? Yeah. Okay. Hopefully, that won't be too bad. All right. So, number four. Um, can you hear me? Okay. Yes, you may. Okay. What methods would you employ
046to ensure that the school board is consistently and comprehensively informed about key issues and decisions that affect the district? Can you provide specific examples of how your communication skills have previously enhanced decision-making processes in education or other environments? Do you need me to repeat any of that? No, I think I'm good. Okay. First of all, what I would do is you would also be provided weekly updates. That's important. Um, I plan to always let you know, hey, this is what I've done this week. These were the highlights. Now, some weeks it might be, it might be half a page. Some, who knows, some weeks I hope not, but some weeks you might get five pages. I hope not. I hope it's not that bad. But, um, you would know you would know what I've done,
047what issues that I've heard, what's happened in the district. Again, like I said earlier when as you were walking in, I would not want the board to be blindsided by anything and what you've got there that I gave you that you might not know that little red folder. I did a lot. This was way before I even got any questions or anything, but I've put a lot of thought into this. Those are my personal goals. No matter what goals you would set for me as director, those are my own personal goals that I would definitely plan to meet and hit the ball, hit the ground, hit the ground rolling. Okay. And I even put them out in smart go pretty much smart goal format. So that was just a side note for you. Yes. Thank
048you. And um but I also can provide here's another thing that I would do. I will provide because it's my anal I have a very analytical brain. People that know me well know this. And I will give you when I make decisions, my decisions will be based on research and they'll be based upon data. If there's one thing, if there's one thing that I learned even in in in getting my doctorate, that was one thing I took away was research and data. Always base it upon those facts and learn to critically think. But I can give you a rationale for every decision that I make. you you would I I'll be glad to give you the rationale. I'll be glad to tell you what I researched and what data I used to arrive at that
049decision because I think that's important because that way again if you get constituents that complain you would you would have some heads up in saying well this is what this is what I observed or this is what this is what the director observed this is what the principal observed but again it's that it's it's it's keeping the communication lines open but also closing the loop okay you've got to you've got to you don't want that circle You don't want it broken, okay? You've got to you've got to close it and keep it keep it going. And that's the way I feel about that. Now, one thing that I've done, how did I use communication skills? We've had I'll use attendance sometimes as a lot as as an example in many areas in many of these
050questions. But we have a problem. We've had a problem with parents sometimes, you know, I would hear whenever I'd bring them to TRY board or even before then and call them or be on the phone with them. Well, I have to have excuses. Yes, ma'am. You have to have excused absences or Yes, sir. You have to have them excused. Well, I have to run to the doctor. I have to do that. That costs money. So, I solicited input first of all from other districts around me. Then I involved my uh building level coordinators and I involved the school nurses. The school nurses play a very integral role also in attendance. And I said, "What can we do to lessen the impact on um forcing parents sometimes to run to the doctor's office for an excuse
051for everything?" Now, they get their five parent notes, and I always tell people, use those judiciously and use them wisely, but um there are children in this district that have chronic illnesses. So, we developed what's called a chronic illness verification form. And with the help of the nurses and the attendance coordinators, you would be surprised. It does not happen. And it's designed not to encompass a large number, but a very small number. The physician receives the uh release of information and they receive a cover letter from me that was written by me, signed by me that explains the entire process. And I know most of the physicians around here anyway because I've worked with them for years and years. And um so most of the time they'll I've even had two of them pick up
052the phone and say, "Hey, you know me. I am not going to approve this. They need to be in school. I have told this parent that they need to be in school." But sometimes there are those children that need that cushion and it saves the parents some money because they honestly have that chronic illness. There's probably right now I would say to give you an exact number, I'll hit this give or take one. There may be eight in the district right now that have a chronic illness uh verification but it is certified by a physician and I made I made sure and the nurses wanted to make sure that it was certified by a physician also. So did I. Okay. But that's how I did it. I involved many disciplines instead of being you know
053very little very little time to use something unilaterally. And then 13. Okay. Okay. Uh, what kind of relationship should exist between the board? I'm sorry, let me start over. What kind of relationship should exist between the director and the school board? And um, yes, sometimes I've sometimes I have answered this, but I'll be glad to again. That's okay. Okay. But um again, it's a it's a very collegial working relationship built upon mutual respect, mutual understanding. I have respect for the board members that have been elected to their position and hopefully if you choose me, you would have respect enough for me in my position. But it is a mutual understanding and we work together for the common good. We have to be and as I said earlier the director of schools answers to the board.
054You work for the board and with the board but at the same time the director of schools is that conduit or that person that liaison that's going to be there for teachers, students, parents, community, all constituents. And I I mentioned it when you when you weren't here, reciprocal accountability. We're accountable to each other continuously. Top, bottom, bottom, top. There's no there's it's it's constant. So, and and I'm very strong about that and that's how I feel about that. I'm I can be accountable to anyone and I would want them to be accountable to me. Mr. How much emphasis are you going to put on school safety to protect both our students and our staff? There is absolutely nothing that's more important than school safety. Now, I'm just going to say it because when a parent
055sends a child to school, they expect them to come back home. I am so glad that the good Lord has blessed this county so far that we have not had a tragic incident. Um I know in court many times it's been said that we may just be on a powder keg. I hope not because I know that at the district level and involving EMS, law enforcement, uh, fire departments, homeland security, all of those entities. We have a strong plan. Now, I won't go into great detail about it because we don't want to give those bad characters any insight into what we into what we would do or how we would respond. So, um, but there's nothing that's more important than that. And we must we must, uh, allocate our resources to where we can. We
056did a real good job in this district with our ESSER money at improving school safety. The laminate on the windows. The board the board helped us out so much with that in approving those initiatives. The redesign the redesign of the entrances. um how how the students are how parents are checked in and just controlling sometimes and you want to be welcoming to parents, but at the same time you tell them this is when we do you know this is when we do want you here but we have so many bad characters today that we have to be very careful of who we let in and when. But your question about school safety is so it there's nothing that's more important than than that in my opinion. We work with all these agencies around the district
057does a very good job with that. In fact, we're going to be involved in even more um this summer. Even during the summer, we were going to be the district leaders are going to be involved in some tabletop discussions and working things out before we have before we have any kind of drill or anything like that. We want to be ready. But we're partnering and I believe in developing those partnerships. And I'm telling you, I have a very good and I'm going to toot my horn on this. I have a very good relationship with law enforcement in this county. And that is something that I have worked on from day one. And um that goes all the way up from judges to um deputies, etc. I can get on the phone and I can basically
058call any of them and they'll say, "What do you need?" And I'll give you an example of that in a minute in a future question. Thank you. Okay. I guess we skipped Mr. Gilly on this one. Oh, don't do that. I'm I'm hard to spot. You forget I'm even here. If you want, you can take question 18, which is mine. And so, go ahead and do that. You You want to skip Mr. Cordell and Well, let's uh take 18 and then we'll come back to Mr. Cordell. Okay. How do you feel about school discipline policies and what is your solution to school discipline issues? Okay, school discipline policies. First of all, we have to strive again and I've answered it some already. Consistency and fairness and the application of school discipline. We also have to
059communicate it. Now, students need to understand what's expected of them. that begins on a classroom level. Okay? And it's up to those classroom teachers to go over those expectations and teach and train students what they're expected to do. They need to teach them and train them what happens when you don't live up to those expectations. But also, I have found that my experience with discipline is fairness and consistency. And again, I could line them up out here and they would tell you that that's one thing that I am and that's why I that's why I didn't have some of the problems I had. I've got people I've got some people in the audience from the high school right now that was there when when I was there and they would tell you they will tell
060you right now that students would say that, oh yes, if you go to him, you know exactly what to expect and and he's fair. But you also with discipline, you've got to have you've got to build in that empathy. Also, you've got to have you've got to understand where a student is coming from because one thing I've learned in attendance and one thing I learned in discipline, we have our policies, we have our procedures, but not everybody is in a cookie cutter situation. Okay? There's there's a lot there's a lot that goes on in getting a student to the level where they need to be disciplined with you, where they need to see you. So you've got to be open to that and you've got to empathize with that somewhat too. So when you can
061blend when you can blend fairness and consistency with the empathy and the understanding that's what makes a good discipline system. Also positive sometimes accinuating the positive aspects you know and catching those catching that kindness catching that catching those good behaviors. but for teachers and administrators to also have a mutual respect for the student too. And and again understand where a student is coming from. I'll give you an example like I said in a few more you you'd be surprised. You would be surprised at what some of our students go through go through here. It would it would shock you. Okay, Mr. Cordell. Question 15. What strategies would you use to ensure all students, including those from diverse backgrounds, feel valued and included? And that goes along kind of with the answer that I gave just
062a while ago. Not every child is going to have the same experiences. Not every child is going to come from the same experiences. We have to recognize that as a district and district leaders. Now you also you also have to allow students to learn from each other okay and build that empathy like I was talking about and the empathy comes along and that builds critical thinking too among they don't they don't see it but it does you know when you I don't know if you've ever done that exercise sometimes today you'd have to be careful about whose shoes you might put on but you know walking in walking in my shoes so if I took my shoe I put might take my shoe off and you put it on and walk there and just see
063if you can see what see what you think. But that's what that's what we have that's what we have to do. Now I think too we can incorporate character education anytime we can. I'm not saying so principles that are out there don't start oh my god he's going to make us do character education too. He's going to make us do this. No I'm saying incorporate it. Just incorporate it into your school. incorporate it into what happens on a daily basis. There's nothing there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes we forget those soft skills that a student needs and that that they need to hear. Um, you know, parents are busy. Parents are busy, too. We have them for seven hours. I've told you this before. We have them for seven hours. We can control what happens
064in those seven hours. We cannot control what happens in the remaining 17 hours, but we can control those seven hours. And that needs to be sometimes for what we have that needs to be the best seven. And sometimes it is the best seven hours that some of our students will ever have during the day to no fault, no fault of their own. Also, with that particular question, we've got to be sensitive not to ignore what I call those microaggressions. They're little subtle microaggressions where students don't realize it, but they'll hurl insults to each other and things like that. They may not be trying to be intentionally hurtful, but they can hurt some others. And we've got to be we have to be sensitive to that. So, the more we take the more we take a
065proactive approach to um those those kinds of issues, the better off we're going to be. But the the the thing I emphasize the most, not every student is going to come and have the same experience. And we can't cookie cutter everything. We just can't do it. We'd be we'd be telling a fib if we if we said we were. Okay. Min question 60. How do you deal with teachers and parents who disagree with you? I like that one. That one's that one is easy for me for real. Okay. I want if as a leader if I surrounded myself with people that are going to agree with everything I say it would be a boring world and it really would be because I wouldn't I number one I wouldn't get any entertainment. Okay. But number two
066in all actuality I want people that are going to disagree with me. I want people to challenge me. I want people to say, "Hey, did you think about this in this situation? Did you consider this?" I want people that are going to give me a different perspective. And number one, don't ever be afraid to disagree with me because people that know me, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. And I'll admit it. I'll gladly admit it. Um, but I do want to surround myself with people that will challenge me and give me a different tell me that, hey, think think about it this way. Have you considered this? Anybody that knows me knows this. One thing wins out. Logic wins out. If your argument is logical, and again, that gets to my analytical, mathematical brain that's just
067built into me. I I didn't ask for it. It was given to me. Okay? I didn't ask for that brain. It just got given to me. So, um, I'm going to make I'm going to make sure that logic wins out. So if it's logical and your argument is logical and tears mine apart, that's good. I used to tell kids in math class, they'd say, "But Dr. Bernice, this can work. This can work this way." I said, "Okay, can it?" Okay, challenge me. Challenge it. Can you put that in every situation? And sometimes they'd get they'd get pretty good and okay, yeah, you can. But I try to find something that would be wrong with it. So, and to prove to you that I would be, and I get students to tell you this, to prove
068to you that I that I could be corrected when I'm wrong, I used to give sometimes I'd give a little monetary award if I had a $5 bill or a couple of dollars in my pocket and say, "Anybody catching me a mistake today, it's yours, okay? Or 10 extra points if you catch me making a mistake." Because I said, "I could work 10,000 15,000 problems in a year's time. I'm" And they would that tunes them in. They'd get it. I said, "Oh, yeah. I did forget that negative sign." Okay, you win. you win. You win. But I do I want to surround myself with people that are not going to think like I do and that's important. So yeah, disagree with me because that only leads to growth for me. Mr. Hanser, Dr. Kissen, this
069is a uh seems to be a question that a lot of people are uh looking toward and looking for an answer right now. Yes, sir. What do you feel like a valuable solution to school bullying would be? And how would you navigate issues with bullying, whether it be bullying between students and peers or teachers to student bullying? Okay, here's my here's my answer to that. The biggest complaint I hear number one from educators and administrators sometime, well, everything's bullying. They just say everything is bullying. Well, if they do, that's the perception that's out there. So, we need to deal with it. Okay? Instead of trying to argue that it's not, let's deal with it. So, the also the other biggest issue that I get in there on that phone in my office, I'm going to
070I'm going to pull my kid out and I'm going to go to homeschool. Okay. Why? Whatever. What's going on? Well, my kids being bullied. Have you talked to the building level? Yes, I have. And there's not been anything that's been done and it's constant. So, those are the kinds of things that we get. Now I'm not saying that that happens all the time but what we have to do is this to combat that do the investigation I have we have reports I have to turn in reports you know that I have to turn in reports every year I have it fixed I have a very fixed and detailed mechanism for every administrator every assistant principal in the district they can put allegation of bullying okay as a violation It can remain an allegation, but the
071allegation has been made. Now, it's up to that administrator, that principal, that assistant principal to determine if that allegation actually goes to the level of bullying. If that's the case, bullying and harassment, I told you the state combined those a few years ago, then they mark that and they show that because I've had them say, "Well, that's double work." No, it's not. It's not double work. Because if you simply put allegation and it stays there, that's all it is. If you determine that it's bullying, you don't mark allegation and you go through your steps. And the other thing is we have to close the loop. Now, you can't say I can't say I can't say that. Oh, well, yeah. Um, Mr. Hansert, um, your son, your son was bullied by Mr. Ballard's son. And I
072can't say that. I can't say I can't say what. But I can say, yes, Mr. cancer. Your son or your daughter um they made an allegation of bullying today from another student. I can't tell you that other student's name, but from another student. Here is what we have done. We have investigated. Here's what we have done. We have encouraged your child to do the following. Those kind of loop is missing more often than not. It's what I get back to talking about is closing that loop of communication. We have to be proactive and that can that can help that perception of bullying and and what's going and what's going on with it. And also there's no room I'm going to say this right now. There's no room in my system for teachers bullying a student.
073So there you go. There you go. So, if you're if you're if you're bullying a student, I that's one of my that that's one of my non-negotiables. If that's proven, there's no room for you here. If you're going to be if you're going to be a teacher and you're going to bull and you're going to engage in bullying students, that should be the last thing the student should be coming to you for that positive role model. Okay, beat the clock is over there. So, it's time for me to time for me to go on. I feel like I'm on the clock game on the Price is Right. 8.99 898 96 96 95 94 Okay. All right. Miss Jones 19. Do you have any u ideas or or specific programs to improve school climate and culture?
074We know how important that is. And what do you feel is an ideal or optimal optimal school cult culture that fosters the well-being for our students and our employees and our staff, everyone in the school? Absolutely. And that was one of my as you can see on that if you look you can see that that was number three that was one of my my personal goals too is improving u school climate and culture. I use that shared a shared and collaborative approach. Okay. I would ask every administrator I want you to identify and I know the print is fine. I have very good eyes except right here. I have to use them. I have to use them just for this. Okay. And I know the I know the print is small there, but I I
075mean every bit that I said on here about the district climate and culture, but um I would have every school building and teachers, they need to identify the top three challenges that they see in their building. I want to know that because if you if you narrow that down to the top three, that's what's important to that school because that school in itself is a microcosm of its own. Okay? Each school is going to have its own culture and its own identity no matter what because they're serving they're serving different communities. They're serving different grade levels. They're ser they have a whole it's it's just a it's just its own microcosm. So I want to know that then like I said my shared leadership but maintaining honesty and integrity there with um schools and keeping
076that open communication that goes a long way in improving your climate and then listening to teachers engaging the teacher advisory committee. I think that's important too because they have a pulse also on what's happening in their buildings and we need to listen to them. We need to give them we need to give them some credence too. So and ideally the other thing you can do as an administrator the ideal school culture is one where students will feel safe and respected. The kindness goes a long way. That empathy, teachers building that relationship and building that rapport with their students that goes the furthest in having that positive school climate and positive school culture. That's what we need. We are in a competitive business now. Okay? Whether we think so or not. But public education is in
077a competitive business and we need to understand that and we need to be sensitive to that. Miss Hodgej, one second. Sorry, I read a lot. That's okay. Don't write it down now. I will forget. Some school districts teach Bible as literature and history in all grade levels. We currently have it as a course in our high school. How do you feel about opening up courses for all grade level purposes? Well, there's no greater book, period. That's my stance there. And I'll I'll end with that on that one. But the Bible offers a cultural perspective, historical perspective, and a lot of allegorical and life lessons perspectives. Okay. Um, we can look at expanding courses into other grade levels. Now, I'm going to say this. At the middle school level, we would have to petition the state
078for a special course. Okay? We would have to get with the middle school and see when they could work that in. Most likely it's during intervention times u when they may not be when the student may not be involved in direct instruction with um their inter if they're not in tier 2 or tier three you know some of those pull outs that may be sometime or their related arts rotation I'd have to get with the middle school principal on that but other the other thing I would like to make sure that we do we need to get input from the community and parents on what they want from that, okay? What they want our role to be in that area. We also make sure that we adhere to legal guidelines. As director, one of my
079primary jobs is to keep you out of a lawsuit and keep me out of a lawsuit also. Okay? So, we would want to make sure that we adhere to all legal guidelines, but we would we would gather input from our stakeholders and see what do parents want, what does the community want from there. We also need to make sure that we maintain a neutral and an academic approach. Okay, that would be that would be very important because we're not there to force a religion or a particular religion on a student at all. That's not our job. That's not how that's not what we function as. But we would want to make sure that the high school level they have a very set st they have a set of standards. It's prescribed for that course. It
080is followed. It is elective. And we would have at any grade level, we would have the parents ability to opt out because we have to have that respect for the parent and they may have reservations and we have to honor that and we have to respect that. But learning from the Bible and taking that neutral and academic approach, there's no greater book really that gives us a lot of cultural, historical, and allegorical lessons. There's 34 districts in the state that offer that teach that. Now, Hamilton County, Hamilton County Schools has an organization. It's called Bible in the Schools, and that's a 5013C organization, I believe. And they come in and they offer that. They provide all of that education to them free of charge to grades six through eight. And they have it at all
081their schools in grades six through eight. and they take that but it's a very prescribed curriculum. I don't know I haven't researched as to how much is involved in that and bringing that over to here but it would take it would take community input parent input like I said stakeholder input but it's definitely not something that you just close the door to. It's something that we would you know research again what is what I've said research and bring back to you. Miss Matthews, uh, what do you consider the three major strengths of your career? Okay. And I, when I looked at that question, I I substituted because I think question 23 on down is almost the same. So, I kind of, if you don't mind, I took the liberty of taking the word strengths in
082my mind and putting accomplishments maybe, you know, for that one. And then in number 23, I can answer with others. But um one of my one of my major strength or my accomplishments that I had was in Rutherford County schools whenever in 2007208 I was teacher of the year in my building that that really that that it does something to you. It makes you feel like oh my gosh oh wow really because you didn't see it coming. And that was at Thurman Francis Arts Academy. Oh and by the way I told y'all some of you my very first elementary principal in Rutherford County is here too Mr. Campbell. And that's a great he we had a lot of good times at Walter Hill and u he's he's he was a very good mentor also to
083me in Rutherford County and um but getting teacher of the year in 2007208 then when I came to the high school here in Coffee County two years running I was able in my position to help that high school. We achieved reward school status two years running in 2012 and 2013. I know Mr. Stein remembers that. Miss Shyel's in the audience. She remembers that. And we worked hard for that. And how we did that was he knows I went around and I taught teachers how to use that data and how to interpret it and where to see where their kids were. And that makes a difference. That makes a difference in teachers. Teachers will use that. But most of all, they bought into it because they knew it was somebody that had experienced that pressure cooker
084course. Like I said, because I lived it. I lived in in Rutherford County for years and years where you know you're constantly assessed and and judged in those EOCC and TCAP courses. And um then this is the other accomplishment I have is I feel like the community respect that I've earned in my current role. I I wouldn't trade anything for the respect that I have and it it and you earn it. It's not something that's given to you. I have respect from those judges up there at that courthouse. And I know for a fact, and I won't name the one that said it, but I had an administrator tell me that one of the judges said at a summer training, and of course I've told Mr. Kaggel this, too. I didn't pay for this. I
085didn't pay for that freebie or that endorsement. Um, he said, "I I believe I believe everything Dr. Cornelius tells me. I believe everything that he brings to me because he he's done he's done his homework and he does he does his research and he he knows he know he knows he I know what he's doing and um he comes to me with he comes to me with facts and not fiction and not anything made up and and the the respect that I have with YSO and how I work with them that youth services officer the juvenile court and then um like I said the law enforcement period. The deputies, the SRO's, that that is something that that is something that I feel very that I feel very good about and it's something that I've earned
086and that is something that continue that can continue in the job of director too. Mr. Cool, what will you do to create an atmosphere in the schools that will lead to educational excellence for all students? Well, first of all, be visible in the schools. Don't just sit up here. And I've got that in my goals up here, my personal goals in under number two where I said that I would get around to um each CL by the end of the year, by the end of my first year as director, I will have I will say that I have been able to step foot in every classroom. And that's important. That's important to me. Okay, I can knock a lot out at one time, but I would step in even if it's for one minute or
087two minutes. I'd want to be I'd want to be in there so that way teachers know that, hey, I care. And I emphasize that I would be a supportive mentor and I would care. It's important that as director of schools, just like when I was house when I I told you I've been house supervisor at the hospital for many years and just, you know, quit recently on that. But you have to be able to do every job. Every job that exists, you have to be able to do it because when you're there, you're the administrator all the way down to the floor washer. And yeah, at the at the hospital, we've had I've had to wash I've had to wash those floors before, too. you know, as as supervisor, you have to do you have
088to be able to do anything that shows and I I I capitalized that word in my note, C A R E. You've got to care. You've got to care. And um so being visible in the schools, being that supportive mentor and caring for people that's how that's the philosophy that I use. And the other philosophy that I use is this. There every child can achieve no matter what background they come from. every single one of them they can achieve. It doesn't matter what ethnicity they are. It doesn't matter what socioeconomic status they are. All those little accountability things that we have to monitor here at the district office and that I see and that I'm on all those webinars about that doesn't matter one iota. All that matters is we have that belief that every
089child can achieve. It doesn't matter where they come from and I emphasize that. And with that proper nurturing and that proper guidance, that's how we'll get there. Thank you, Gilly 23. I think you've more than cleared this question up. I'm going to ask it again. If you've got anything else to uh add to it, I'd appreciate it. Okay. Okay. What do you consider to be the major strengths you could bring to this position? Yes. First of all, a growth mindset. That's one. You've got to think outside the box. Like I said earlier, we're competitive now. We have to be okay. So, we know there and we we've got to be we've got to be creative and and challenge ourselves. That's one. Number two, a strong work ethic. I have a very strong work ethic. Okay?
090That's still ingrained. That's still ingrained in me. And I believe if you demonstrate that then others will follow and they'll want to have they'll want to have the same thing. And then the other thing that I bring that I feel like very strongly that I bring to the position is I know the district. Okay. Now I don't know I'm not saying oh you're the know all. I'm not saying that. I know what the needs of the district are at a district level. I can see things from a district viewpoint. Okay. I can see instead of each individual school, I I'm able to see what the district needs and how we can better how we can better ourselves and come together in that matter. So, I think it's very I think it's very important that I've
091had that district lens going on now. Well, I'm in my seventh year, so I'll be student soon starting my eighth year in that all together at the at the district level. So that kind of that kind of knowledge base there too and experience that I I feel like I can bring to that position. Hey, Mr. Cordell, how do you ensure transparency and clarity when communicating complex or challenging issues to parents, staff, and the community. Be clear. Be concise. That's the most important thing. They don't need a lot of flowery words. Okay? be clear and concise, but be always willing. You know, it's not always an insult. If somebody asks you why or wants to know why you made it, that's not don't that's not an insult. That that's that's asking for clarification sometimes, but be
092willing to back that up and provide a rationale, like I said, for your decisions. and mine will always be based on evidence and research. But and and let me say this, there is no decision that I would make as director of schools or anybody that's director of schools, there is no decision that's going to please everyone. If you think that you can make a decision that's going to please everybody, then you need to leave and you need to just close the folder and say, "Thank you. I I need to go on because you can't do it. Nobody can make a decision that's going to please everybody that's involved. But like I said, always be clear and concise and be ready to give your state give your rationale for the decisions that you have made and
093and and live with them because a board hires a director to make decisions. A board hires a director to make recommendations. We make decisions and then we make recommendations to you. And then this gets back to some of your other questions. Then it's a trust relationship too. You know that's basic to all relationships. Trust versus mistrust. So you have to have that trust in your director also that when you ask for a recommendation that the director has researched it and done that homework so that they bring their best recommendation to you. And this begins 25. Dr. Cornelius, think of a problem brought to you recently. What was the problem and how did you handle it? Okay. I may have I may have two because you use the word recently. And I'm going to watch the
094little timer over there real quick to make sure I get them make sure I get them all in. All right. I had an incident and I won't use any names naturally but we had an issue where the district office was concerned about a neglect issue. We had a student that and they were considered about they were very concerned about marks on the student um the hygiene of the student. They said the student looked malnourished. Um the student asked them to read the test to them. them. I won't even tell you which gender it was to be to be fair, but ask the um proctor to read the test to them. Of course, we can't do that. And so um they were they were at a home environment that I knew because when I heard the
095name things started cl I thought, okay, I've watched that program before. Where was it? And uh so I remembered and then I told the district exactly what to do. They did it. They followed their process. And I won't even mention department names there, but um I didn't like the result of their process. And so when you talk about relationships and having relationships with people and having that respect, I called YSO and I called some more people and I said, "What can we do about this?" So I went to visit one of the judges last Tuesday. They gave me some information and to make a long story short, now there's been a positive outcome because of what I was able to do and what I was able to do with those with those individuals helping me
096and guiding me and telling me and advising me. Again, it's all about bringing people in that you know that can help you and get you to a positive outcome for that student. And we're able we're able to do that. we're able to do that at this time and um that student's going to be reenrolled with us and we'll provide those services again that that student needs. And then the other one was I had an issue with a parent, I won't even tell you what grade level because it might give it away where this parent was needing some medical treatment. She said, "Well, I don't want to get in trouble with truency." And I said, "Well, what's your what's your issue? What's your problem?" and she told me that she had to have some cancer treatments
097and she had to go and she wanted to go on a spiritual journey with it and all this and I thought okay she's very serious and that is her that is that is definitely her business and her what how she want she got into the holistic approach. I said, "Okay, okay." And I listened and um she said, "But I want to keep them out of school for this amount." And I thought, "Okay, how can I let a student stay out days and still accommodate a parent and whatever?" So, I even called I even called a couple of more districts and I said, "What can what can we what can we do? What can we help them with?" And these are good students, by the way. So I came around and I called the mother back
098and I told her I said here's what you can do. You won't get in trouble with truency if you and what we did is I said withdraw as an independent homeschool for now and here's what you would do. Here's the forms you would fill out. do this and then here are some resources that you can use and I can assure you that during this time when your students come back and when you come back from this that you know we can reenroll them with no problem and they were good enough students to where it wouldn't be wouldn't be an issue and I knew I could trust that person. So, those are some examples of what you can do. But you always, like I said, think outside the box and you can tell. I've been around
099a long time and you can tell when somebody is telling you the truth over the phone and I knew I knew she was I knew she was just by just by listening. So, those are a couple of examples. Okay. Mr. Hanser 26. Dr. Cornius, could you tell us about a decision um that you had to make that affected multiple stakeholders and how did you ensure that your decision was fair and impartial? Okay. Well, the I'm going to use a real life example with what I went through when I very first came to the attendance office. Okay. When I took over for Miss Spears, Miss Spears is here. She was a good one. She was a good one, too. But um when I first came, I was tasked I had six months to get a new
100student information system in get one in place because the one we were using was no longer going to be compatible with some of the state needs that were coming. So I knew I had a short amount of time to take parents, students, administrators, teachers, everybody to a completely new CIS is what we call it. So what I did was is I started getting and the state provided us the vendors. I didn't have to do that but I started contacting vendors and then I put together a committee and I made sure that I involved stakeholders that of people that would use the system the student information system in different ways. administrators, special ed, registars, um teachers, counselors, any role I wanted to be re I wanted it to have representation from every role. So I had
10114 people on that committee that evaluated each vendor, okay? Because I knew ultimately I had to take it to the board. So there was the fiscal component too, but we vetted each one of them. And then what I did was we developed an impartial rubric, okay? And evaluated each vendor by that and then used the financial what they were going to give us for a price and then brought that to the board. But I was able to accomplish that within two months. Okay? Because I was able to take that to the March board meeting. Now, that took a lot of work, but I was able to take that to the March board meeting that year to get approval for that vendor. And that was a very detailed process. I know I only have three minutes
102to answer the question, so I can't get into it a whole lot, but it was a very very detailed process and took a lot of time. And um that's how I ensured that's how I I bought in I let all the different kinds of users that were going to be using it. I brought them in to get their input so that they had buy in and that again I was not about to unilaterally decide, oh, this is what we're going to use. No, because if you do that, you're not going to get the participation in the buyin that you want when you make unilateral decisions like that. Now, there's some as a director, there's going to be some negotiables and non-negotiables. That's just the way that's the way it works. But that that was the
103biggest task that I had and it's been it's been successful so far. In fact, there's another large district close to us that's going to go to that particular vendor. Thank you. Um, can you site an example of what you have done to build or maintain high morale among staff? The attendance coordinators, I'm going to use them, the attendance coordinators in the building. Um the process the process for truency and the truency board process is very very um prescriptive might be the good word to say it's very prescriptive and um what I did is I let them know and I told them that you you have a process to follow but let me see what I can do to help you. So in other words, they know that when they send when they send a problem
104to me and when they send truency to me, they said they know I'm going to handle it. They know I will follow through and they know that I will that I will definitely use everything that I can to get the outcome needed. Okay? And they promised, you know, they said that because they know and they see me doing that and supporting them, they know I have their back and basically they'll do anything for you. That I mean, I'm being very honest with you that that's the way that's the way it is. Uh but I do the attendance coordinators I back them and they said each one of them will tell you they know that whenever they come to me with a problem they can count on me that they know I've got their back and
105they know that I'll take it over and they're very supportive of me and then I'm very supportive of them. I've got some in here that would tell you that Jones. Okay. uh when developing long-term strategies, how do you ensure that the district remains adaptable to changes in policy, technology, and educational trends? And as director, how do you plan on engaging key stakeholders including students, parents, staff, and the school board in the process of developing like say for instance a five-year plan or individual school improvement plans? Absolutely. First of all, I I use the continuous school improvement model because we're always as school systems, we're working with students. We're working with what's called human capital. So, you're always going to be in a state of continuous improvement. And what I mean by that is it's very
106simple. You plan, you do, you assess, and then you u evaluate. So, plan, do, assess, evaluate, and go on. It's a constant it's a constant um circle there. And that's what I that's what I would do. And I would also use we have a very strong informed TN plan here, our um school improvement plans for for each school. But I would involve I would make sure that I get the district involved, the district leaders and the school leaders and the teachers involved in our strategic plan and five-year plan. And you know what else that we need to do with our five-year plan? It's technically for the board, but it's for the school system. So, we need to all come together. We need to work on it together as a team. Okay? And it's not just
107the board developing one, but it's the board developing with us, with supervisors, with district leadership. We come together and we develop a strategic plan. I think that I think that's something that's been missing a little bit also is remember a long time ago you you were here we did that was done a long time ago in some of the retreats that we had um where you came together and um developed the plans with each other and I think that's important again to have that collaborative approach and involve everyone we need to have we need to have community involvement in it too because in that's what's that's what's the most that's what's the most important but I do believe I do believe that the strategic plan and the five-year plan they can work together and we
108can come together and and get one done and get one it's not just a checkbox but we you want it to be a living document you don't want it to be you don't want it to be just a document that sits on a shelf and gathers and gathers dust you need to constantly evaluate it and update And that's part my doctorate is specialized by the way it's specialized in assessment, school improvement and brainbased learning. Those are the three components of my doc. So my doctorate is specialized. What did you say your doctorate is specialized in? It's in assessment, school improvement and brainbased learning. Okay. But yeah, I would use that continuous school improvement model because that's what it is. It never stops ever. Okay. How will you ensure that the community stays informed about both
109the successes and challenges of the school system in a timely and transparent manner? Well, again, there's nothing wrong with open forums, hosting one periodically. There's nothing wrong with that. Being visible, being out in the school, being there at parent nights. If I'm going to ask us, if I'm going to ask schools, hey, let's hold a parent night at least quarterly, then I need to be there. I need to be there at some of them. Like I said, that's important to me to be out and to be visible and to not only care, but to listen and let people know. let people know that you're listening. And um we can provide social media updates. We, like I said, we've got to market ourselves. We've got a high school out here that has whole marketing classes, a
110whole marketing program of study. Let's use them. There's a project. Let's use that. Let's develop a marketing plan for us. So, you know, I think that's I think that's extreme I think that's extremely important and but that's what I would do. And I I I've I've answered some of that I think other other questions too if that's okay. But that I I mean it I stick with what I stick with what I mean. Thank you. Yes ma'am. Matthew number 30. Okay. Tell us about a time when you created or enhanced meaningful opportunities for parents, students or community members to get involved in the decisionmaking process. And what was the outcome? Okay, I'm going to use parents and um I'll use parents and community involvement for this one because again in the context of what I
111do right now, I'm not director of schools right now, so I can't do I can't say what I've done as a whole district, but my our truency boards, I work very closely with YSO, the juvenile division of the court up there. And um truency board is not punitive and truency board is not designed to be punitive. Parents come up there and they think, you know, oh, I'm in trouble or I'm I'm going to be I'm going to be in a lot of legal trouble or what else. But we tell them and we've worked it such that parents know when they come in there. That's one of the first things they're told. This is not punitive. We're here to work with you and we're here to identify barriers that might exist between your student and your
112student coming to school on a regular basis. Okay? That's what we're trying that's what we're trying to do. So, we're trying we want to find out what is hindering that process. What do you have going on that we can help you with? We'll involve we'll involve children's services, the DCS liaison sometimes in our truency board meetings. I've had try board meetings where um I mean I'm just going to say this real quickly. There's things that would actually break your hearts if you knew exactly what exactly what we go through, but there's been tru there's been truency board meetings where we've actually had to change custody at the truency board. That's how that's how bad it gets. And that goes back to those relationships that you have with judges when you're able to walk down to
113the judge's chamber and say, "This is what's going on. I need a bench order." And you get it and you get you get the ch you get the change made because they trust you. They know that you're not blowing smoke and they know that if you're saying something that you mean it. So, we've used we've used that with parents and community involvement. We try to help them and you would be you would be shocked. I mean there's one and I'll use this example. This will be my last one just recently and the student was truent. The student had been to truency board. We had done everything we could do. We had tried to help the parent too. Still not having the outcome. So that means I have to go I serve a petition. I have
114to take out a petition. I serve the student a petition. Well, the student comes to court and everything and in court the judge, you know, well, where are you where are you living right now? Well, we're living in our car. Yeah. Because he was about to change custody that day and he looked he honestly did. He looked at me and I was kind of like that, you know, don't let's not go but let's get some services in. Let's help. Let's be helpful. So that's what we're doing. And um the next day, and this is where empathy comes in and you have to grow from it and understand it. The next day I was at the high well I said it well you know it's a high school. Oh well big deal. I was at the
115high school and that particular stu for something else and that particular student happened to be in the SEC and I said what's wrong because that particular student was in court the day before. I thought well what what's wrong you okay? Well I'm just anxious. And I said okay about what? And I said hopefully not about yesterday. Said remember we're being helpful. We're trying to help you, not hurt you or anything. I know. I know. And she just started talking about, well, eating, things like that. Oh, yeah. It gets it gets heavy sometimes. Taking a shower. So, I worked with the school and said, "Can we get some privacy for her and at least Oops. Well, at least let the student take, you know, a shower, clean up." They said, "Yes, of course." And then, well,
116can we get some food? Can we get some Can we make sure we're getting some evening food out there, too? Yes, of course. So, things like that is when it really, you know, it'll get you. Yes, I see. Okay, Mr. Tone. All right. Describe your experience in developing, implementing, or evaluating an instructional program that has improved the educational achievement of students. Well, the one that I'm going to use is when I very first came to the high school years and years ago. I think it's been about gosh what 13 14 is Mr. Maybe about 14 years ago now, I think. But when I very first when I very first came out there in a few in a couple of years into it, we finally opened up. I was the one that uh basically started that
117dual enrollment the dual enrollment program. I mean, it's grown hugely today, but we had a group of students back then that wanted to get their associates degree when they graduated high school and um there were eight of them that ended up doing that and started that program and they finished and we recognized them at graduation. They graduated Mllo first and then a couple of weeks later they graduated high school, got their high school diploma. So starting that and it was the one that that I think that was basically the beginning of the seeing the dual enrollment program starting to hit starting to hit the high school. I'm looking at him to help him refresh my help Mr. Stein you can help me refresh my memory. That was about the beginning of the dual enrollment initiative
118back then I think. Yeah. And that was I was very proud of that and had had those eight students to finish their finish their degree their two-year degree at the same time while they were enrolled with us and getting us the high. So that was that was one of my proudest achievements that I was proud of in helping to be able Dr. Apple Mary Lou Apple Dr. Apple was president at MLOW at that time and I went I went out there in a couple of meetings with her and Mllo and Charlie Coffee was there then and you know to help out and see what we could do because we wanted to be on the forefront and start breaking ground with our dual enrollment program and you can see how much it's grown today. I mean
119it has exploded. So that's something that's that's an accomplishment that I was that I was very proud of. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us today. Um we're doing interviews all this week. So sir, we hope to have uh make a decision by April 28th, which is next Monday. So, but and so we'll contact you on that obviously. But before we wrap up, do you want to make a closing statement? Well, I will say that with your with your questions and your 31 and 31 time 3 93 and I believe I did 96. So when I when I look So I did go I did go a little I did go a little bit over but um no I can tell I can I can assure you that if you
120if you were to if you were to go with me which I hope you do I can offer you I can offer you the smoothest transition for the for the position okay in the in the district. I can offer you the smoothest transition that you would have. Um I would take my replacement very seriously. I've already given a lot of thought into that and that is something that I would keep my fingers in for quite a few months because that's not something you can turn over just in one day or a week. But that we're talking months there and I can do it because I have that I have I have that particular department running basically as such a fine oil machine that I could do that. I could easily get a the right person
121in there and train train them and mentor them at the same time. So I can assure you that I could offer you the smoothest transition. And like I said earlier, I wanted to mention that my doctorate is specialized. It is a specialized doctorate and I do hold um naturally my certifications you know in administration too and my masters was in curriculum instruction and administration supervision. So I did the masters and the then the plus 30. So I did that and the doctorate and the bachelor's and the and the nursing degree too. I have I have a lot of I have a lot of different lenses that I can look at things with you for and I have a lot of experience that I can bring to it. So that that would be it. And I
122got that done in three minutes. All right. We were going to give you more a little more latitude. Okay. Closing statement. Okay. Well, that was that was fine. All right. Fine. Well, thank you very much for for meeting with us tonight and uh thank you. Well, guess we'll make a decision on Monday. Okay. Thank you. I hope it's good. I hope it's me. Thank