001Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our regular monthly board meeting for May of 2026 the school board. Thank you for being here. We got a full house tonight. We thank Fayetteville Middle School for hosting us for this meeting. It's been fun over the the last few months to be able to meet in the different school buildings. Kind of gets us familiar with what's going on in the in the building. So, thank you all for hosting us and we appreciate FMS tonight. Uh board members in front of you you have an agenda uh that is proposed for tonight's meeting. Floor will be open for a motion that we approve this agenda or make any changes that you see fit. >> Make a motion to approve. >> Okay, have a motion. >> Second. >> And a second. Any
002comments or corrections? All in favor >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed say no. Great. Uh and if everyone would please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> And board members we had provided to us earlier the minutes from our April 6th board meeting. We need to approve those or make any changes that you deem necessary. >> Make a motion to approve. >> You got a motion. >> Second. >> And a second. Any comments or corrections? All in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed say no. Thank you. And also then today in Ms. Williams' email we had the disbursements for
003the month. If you haven't had a chance to look at those, please do so now. >> Make a motion to approve the April disbursements. >> Okay. I have a motion. >> Second. >> I have a second. All in favor say "Aye". >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed say "No". Thank you. Our principal principals' reports for tonight. For Amoral's best? >> We are all busy. >> You're the one that's off. I just saw you. Thanks for coming out. >> Okay. Good evening. Um subbing for Miss Baker. Um and for upcoming for the month of May, on May 6th, we have um first grade going to Farm City Day. That's at Deer Valley Farms. On May the 7th, we have a group of students going with Miss Jennifer Walker to the Blue Ribbon Junior House Walk. We were
004able to raise um $1,100 to donate to them. That was good. May 8th, fourth grade will travel to Farm Safety Day out at the fairgrounds. May the 13th, Beta Club will go to Dave & Buster's. May the 15th is our Tiger Tracks. The walk will start around 8:30 with games to follow. May the 18th, we have our pre-K graduation at 9:30. May the 19th and the 20th, we will have an awards uh our our all of our awards are for K through 5 with fifth being at 1:00 on the 20th for a nice farewell ceremony. And summer school will begin June the 1st and run through June the 25th. We have already signed up 100 students. >> Is that typical? >> No, we had 125 on roll most years, so. >> So, they do such
005They do such a good job. They're in high demand for it across the state. They They give us guidelines about how many weeks we should try to get in the summer and we we multiply those. They do such a great job. >> That's really good. Any questions? >> It's a busy time of year. >> We finish school and then we start again. Any questions? >> Thank you very much. All right. Fayetteville Middle School. >> Uh my name is Jillian. >> My name is Jordan. >> And my name is Asher. >> Um our final benchmark will be given this week. It measured achievement and growth and we hope to see growth. >> Eighth grade night was a great success last Saturday night. >> This week is teacher appreciation week and we have treats for teachers throughout
006the week to celebrate them. >> Tiger Bracket Night will be held on Monday, May 11th on campus. >> Our athletic awards and yearbook dedication will be held on May 13th at 10:00 a.m. >> Our Beta Club will be attending field day on May 14th. >> Our final awards day for the school year will be held on Monday on Monday, May 18th at 10:00 a.m. >> Special thanks to Pam Bryson for the U Trust donation that provided TCAP incentives and rewards for our students. >> Do you have any questions? >> All right. Well done. All right. Fayetteville High School. Mr. Perry. >> So tonight I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Michelle Mitchell and some of our students that attended SCOPE in March also. >> Okay, so I will just give you a little brief
007overview. I had no idea what to expect nor did our students. Um for I think various reasons we haven't been able to attend the last couple years. I know last year it fell on spring break. Um they're all involved with student government in some capacity and they all said yes. And so we were thankful for that. Um going to Belmont that morning, we were all a little bit of strangers together and then by the afternoon the van was full of chatter and just, you know, recounting the day. So that was really special. Um before I introduce them, what I wanted to say that I was so proud of and that they emphasized at SCOPE, if you're not aware of what happens, um I'll see the board now. Um there's debate there's a debate and they
008work towards the debate the whole day. They're divided into different groups and these are the four subjects they went over. The world language graduation requirement shall be an elective. Number two, the ACT shall be substituted for end of course examinations. Number three, students shall have the option of substituting club sports, kickball, club soccer, water polo for physical education requirements. And number four, all students shall be required to participate in at least one extracurricular activity, 4-H, chess club, sports, beta up per year. What I was so impressed by is that um whether they agreed or disagreed, they were encouraged to be confident in that, to talk to each other and have that civil discourse and that's not something that our culture is especially good at right now. So um it was really a blessing to me
009to get to sit back and to see them, you know, go at it in a good, healthy, conversational way. So, I was super proud of that. Um I'm going to let Natalie Austin go first. I didn't tell them the order I was going to go in. So, I'm just going to go by age. >> Hi, I'm Natalie Austin. Um I was not originally going to be going, but then Helena got hurt, and so I was going to come in behind her, and my group got picked to do all students shall be required to participate in at least one extracurricular activity. My class decided that we were going to be against that, and for the reasons that forcing these students to go and do these extracurriculars would betray the integrity of these clubs. That it should
010be compulsory, and that people should want to be in these clubs and to excel. And I've also made some good friends out of this class, and I got to see the different people from across the state that I wouldn't have been exposed to prior. So, I was really happy that I got to go, and I learned a lot. Thank you. >> Uh next up we have our junior, Miss Maya March. >> Hi, I'm Maya March, and my group was debating that students should have the option of substituting club sports for physical education requirements. And we thought that yes, they should be able to because we had a young man in our class. He had very strong opinions about it because he was in very extreme sports in his school, and having physical education just tore
011him down every morning. So, he was very adamant about that, and I really enjoyed going to the school because it everybody was just so smart, and they were just so kind, and it was nice to see that the youth could debate without arguments, like true arguments where they got physical or anything like that. So, >> Awesome. >> Our sophomore is Mr. Jacob Limbaugh. >> I'm Jacob and my team argued that the world language graduation requirement shall be an elective. And my team argued that it should not or it should be an elective because it'll free up scheduling and it'll help um free up scheduling for CTE courses that'll help post high school. Um and yeah, from this experience I learned that Sorry, I just lost my train of thought. Um from this experience I learned
012that Sorry, I'm getting nervous. >> It's okay. >> No reason to be nervous. >> Would you go back? >> Sorry. >> Would you go back? >> Yes, I would go back. Back of it was very fun to hear the different viewpoints and perspectives from all the young individuals and it was a really good time to focus on my critical thinking skills and communication. And yeah, it was a really good time. >> All right, and our freshman was Mr. Evan Lauret. >> Hello, my name is Evan Lauret and I did um the world language graduation requirement shall be an elective. I think we were um in the naysay and we actually ended up winning. Uh my class leader actually ended up winning the whole conference, so that was pretty um awesome to see. Um I think
013that SCOPE is very important and it shows um young individuals like all of ourselves what it means to um be one of you guys and it and it really provides some insight. So, I would definitely enjoy going again next year and I think it was an awesome experience. >> Thank you. >> I'll come around Brian because while you're here, we'd like to present you a certificate for your participation cuz from our perspective, when you when you go to scope we've some of us have actually been to scope, you know, you had adult leaders in the groups. As most have done that, so we know what a valuable experience that can be for you guys. And we also know that you're representing us when you go do that, the Fayetteville City school system. You really are
014and I I know from what you just from what little you said tonight, obviously you represented us well, so uh we do want to present uh you with a certificate for being our representatives there, uh Natalie. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Uh Jacob. Appreciate your work. Evan. Thank you uh-huh. Thank you. And I've kept Maya for last because um not only did you represent us at scope but of course scope was put on by the Tennessee School Boards Association. As you well know. Whoops, sorry. Um it's put on by TSBA and it involves uh students and the school systems from all across the state. I hope you made a new friend while you were there, all of you, uh somebody that you met and uh and you have a new friend. I hope you
015learned a little bit about how school boards operate. I'm I'm really thrilled because I know that you do debate these topics and uh as Ms. Michelle said, our our nation could benefit our the our world could benefit by learning how to have disagreements without being disagreeable uh and being uh hostile toward each other and so those are just great life skills that you guys learned. Uh Uh, another thing that TSBA does each year is they allow school systems the opportunity to um nominate a student as our outstanding student for consideration uh for a statewide award. And so, there are there are about eight or nine districts across uh the state of Tennessee. Uh and we are in the South Central District. And so, this fall there will be consideration to determine who the South Central
016District's Student of the Year is. And that will be determined by nominations from individual school systems in uh in the South Central District. And so, our nominee for that uh student award for this year is Maya March. And so, thank you for for representing us at SCOPE. And we're anxious to hear how you do in the competition uh uh for for Student of the Year for South Central District. >> That's great stuff. And by the way, you you mentioned that that your group leader won uh won it all. Do you mean he or she was elected uh president of SCOPE? >> Yes, sir. >> That's awesome. Do you remember what school system? >> Uh I don't remember what school system. >> Maury Williams. >> Okay. Okay. Well, we have actually had a Fayetteville City School
017student elected president of SCOPE in the past. So, so aspire to that if you go back next year or when you talk to the representatives who do. Um it it can happen right here from Fayetteville. So, inspire yourselves to uh you know, if I I as you saw, the leadership kind of comes out in those debates and in those small groups. And so, it really uh those leaders emerge. And so, it'd be awesome to see another tiger emerge into that role. So, well done. Thank y'all. Okay. Next on our agenda is time for public comment. Uh and I It was my understanding that no one requested the opportunity to speak. >> That's correct. >> So, we'll move on to supervisors' reports. Thank y'all again. Appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. You need I'm not really
018sure who has a report, so I just >> I think we're all going to speak just a little. >> Okay. >> Uh I wanted to let you a couple things that we're going to be adding that I'm excited about through some grant money. We have a pre-K AALN grant that Claudia and I have been working with, and through that grant we're going to be able to add communication boards to our playgrounds at Askins, which is something that the teachers um and our speech therapist thought would be a great idea. We have a couple kids that carry communication devices, AAC devices around. Of course, it's hard to take on the playground. So, these will be installed um this summer, and it's allows them to communicate on the playground without taking those outside. So, we're excited to
019have those. And then at the high school, over 6 years ago, several years ago, there was a PACE lab that was given uh through grant funding was brought to the City Seed classroom. Um of course, you can imagine that technology's come a long way since then. So, um through an IDEA grant, we have purchased an upgrade for this, and we're going to receive training for all of our teachers. It'll benefit our City Seed kids at the middle school and the high school because they work in and out of Miss Ortego's room. So, those things are being delivered in pallets tomorrow. Tell Spencer to be prepared for that, and then the training will take place next Friday. So, this will just allow our kids exposure to over 300 jobs, hands-on activities. So, we're excited to have
020that upgrade to in place for next year to benefit our kids. >> That's good. Good. Thanks. >> Good things going on. Any questions for me? >> No, thanks very much. >> Good evening. Um we had a great turnout for our TikTok to Table Talk. We That was last week and we didn't have We had 70 parents and families sign up, but um the weather kept some of them away, but um it was it was really interesting. Investigator uh Jacob Campbell presented. SRO Darren uh Dickinson was there and also uh Rick George with HopeLine and they presented to our families and gave a lot of good information and even had some parents asking some questions about um online apps and social media and different outlets. Some of them I wouldn't was not familiar with, but I
021learned a lot during that time and we had a We had child care provided and we also had it catered by Bino's, so that was nice for our families. Um we used our um stronger connections grant to fund that. And then Mark attended and we appreciate you being there. >> I learned a lot. >> That was That was nice that you you came for us. Um and I also want to say that our pre-K will be recognized in the next issue that Elk Valley Times. We were voted um or they our pre-K was voted Lincoln County's finest. So, it'll be fun to get the out the the those people promoted and our teachers recognized for their hard work. >> That's fantastic. >> Thank you. >> Well deserved. Well deserved. >> Mr. Gorman. >> All right.
022Uh nothing too spectacular tonight, but a big one for me. Testing is pretty well complete. We'll get the last of the material shipped out from Askins tomorrow. Our online testing uh we pretty much wrapped up last week. We don't have as much paper to send back with that, but one of the things that I do want to brag about is how well the buildings did with the testing procedures and all the security. You know, we spend all year going to these meetings and the running joke is is how do you not become an example at regionals? And they literally have a slide that says that. And so, you know, they never say any districts' names, but you always hear of kind of the things that happen and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I hope nothing
023like that ever happens here." But this year we we did a great job. Like we had no regularity reports, attendance was amazing. I think we only had a handful of kids that missed during that time and we were able to get them all made up well beyond when the window closes. So, kudos to the teachers and the faculty and the building testing coordinators making sure they were doing everything right. And uh you know, just can't be any more pleased on how things went. So, hopefully we'll get all that in and we'll get some numbers back on the 20th and then we'll reset and start again. So, >> That's right. >> But thank y'all. Do y'all have any questions? >> When did it cause too much disruption on Wednesday with all the guests in the library?
024>> No, I I will say this one was a weird one. We did have some power issues one day and Jeff and Mr. Giffin and all them did and my FPU, kudos to them cuz they had us back up and running before really I think any of the kids or anything else was kind of having an issue. And then a few technical glitches which you always have, but we've kind of trouble shot most of those by now. We kind of know what to expect, so smooth cycle. It's it's done. I get to take a little bit of a breather, but again, it'll start again before you know it. So, but appreciate y'all. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Since we're going through supervisor reports, I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't express our sympathy
025to Steve Griffin on the loss of his father last night. And just if you will, just let us know when when the information is made public about the arrangements. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> But, I know his dad's been a big tiger supporter over the years and uh we uh that's a hard time for that family. In our CFO report, Ms. Williams. >> The year-to-date revenue and expenditure reports were emailed earlier today and they are from July 25th through April 26th and these reports are for your review and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> All right. Thank you. And then our committee reports. Facilities and transportation is always listed first. And after 6 and 1/2 years of asking this question, I feel like I should ask this first and that is is
026there any update on the dome project? >> Well, we were fortunate to have a really lovely groundbreaking I was super proud of that. Uh I've also had the question of when are they in earnest going to start building the dome. The answer to that is the Monday after school's out. They'll be staging a lot of concrete material out there um to uh to get ready and uh after a pre-construction meeting, we decided that'd be best um because they're going to go pretty aggressively to start building. So, uh it'll be the safest and they'll be able to make quite a bit of progress over the summer. >> Yes, sir. >> And and I guess all of us should prepare for it getting pretty messy around that >> They'll >> before it gets better, >> Yeah, get
027quite messy. >> We'll have 18 months plus of pretty significant disruptions as as far as availability to use that part of the campus, but it won't interfere with the school days. They'll put up fencing and everything will be compliant with all the laws and rules and regulations. And interesting side note, just as I thought I think this is neat. Um for about 6 years the fire marshal's been coming by quarterly to do a report to see the progress. And so very soon the report will have meat to it as opposed to just no progress. So we're excited about that. I think he's excited about that as well. >> We certainly are. >> Yes, sir. >> Cool. Anything else from transportation or facilities? >> No, sir. >> All right. Um board members you see on your
028agenda several things under the finance report. Uh we have some invoices to be paid to JBH number three R and this is for architectural services uh for the project we just discussed. I'd make a motion that we approve that invoice to be paid. >> Second. >> And I have a second. Any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed say no. Thank you. I'd also make a motion that we approve JBH invoice number four to be paid. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed say no. I would also make a motion that we approve JBH invoice number five to be paid. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >>
029Anyone opposed say no. Thank you. And finally JBH invoice number six. I'd make a motion that we approve that invoice to be paid. >> Second. >> And I have a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed say no. Thank you. Uh we also have a few uh budget amendments. Uh you you saw these. These are I'll just say across the board for all of these. There's no new funding and there are no new unanticipated expenses. We're just realigning funds. It's getting close to the end of the year budget year, which is June 30th. And we're trying to get the books in order uh for the year end so we don't have findings when audit time comes and um I'm sure you're very familiar with the uh battle rhythm of doing this
030each year. The first one, I would make a motion that we approve line item amendment number three to the 26 uh general purpose budget. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any questions on that amendment? All in favor, say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Thank you. Uh there's also amendment number one to the FY26 cafeteria budget. I would make a motion we approve that. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any questions about that? All in favor, say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Thank you. I'd also make a motion that we approve uh FY26 capital budget amendment number one. >> Second. >> I have a second. All in favor, say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Thank you. And then finally,
031uh amendment number three to the FY26 general purpose budget. >> I would make a motion that we approve. >> Sorry. >> Well, I was inconsistent with the way I did it. I make a motion we approve this. >> Second. >> I have a second. Any comments or questions? All in favor, say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Fantastic. Uh thank you all. And insurance and policy is next. >> Okay. We got a few. Um the first one is I make a motion to approve the revised policy 1.804, alcohol and of drugs in the workplace on the first reading. >> Second. >> Okay. Got a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Thank you. >> I make a motion to approve the revised policy 5.114
032personnel records on the first reading. >> Okay. Got a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Thank you. >> I make a motion to approve the revised policy 5.1151 the telework during emergencies on the first reading. >> Second. >> Got a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Thank you. >> I make a motion to approve the revised policy 5.4000 personnel health examinations communicable diseases on the first reading. >> Okay. Got a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Thank you. >> I make a motion to approve the revised policy 5.606 political activities on the first reading. >> Second. >> Got a motion and a second. All in
033favor, say aye. >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Thank you. >> I make a motion to approve the revised policy 5.800 director of schools on the first reading. >> Got a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Anyone opposed, say no. Thank you. >> I make a motion to approve the new policy 5.608 tutoring for pay on the first reading. >> Second. >> Got a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed, say no. Any nays? All right. Well done, policy committee. All right, Mr. Jones, superintendent's report. >> Um my report, I'd just like to take the opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all the teachers in the school system for teacher appreciation bonus. Um no one appreciates their teachers any more than I do.
034They're great to work with. Um their hearts are in the right place and I literally trust too much over to them every day and I know they're good at what they do. Thank you, Tigers. >> Absolutely. And that's all right. >> Thanks for bringing that up because we many months during the year we have the UTrust certificates of appreciation and resolutions we pass and we don't have that this month, but we do want to make sure and say thank you to our teachers who are the heart and soul of what we do here every day in the classroom affecting lives in a positive way every single day. All right. Um let's see in the in the chairman's report earlier today we conducted the annual evaluation of our director of schools performance for the year. Appreciate
035your inputs and appreciate all the comments made by the board members. We we rate Mr. Well, we read our rate our director of schools. We did this before Mr. Jones was director and we are continuing to do this in the same um uh essentially the same evaluation system we've used for several years. Uh on a scale of zero to five with five being the highest rating that that board members can give and we evaluate across a whole host of categories um where performance of our superintendent is critical. Um and and today the average score across all those categories across all the board members was 4.94. And so I think that score demonstrates um a lot of confidence and a lot of appreciation for a a great job that you continue to do for our system
036and so we we sincerely appreciate that. >> I appreciate that. >> Board members cited things like good financial management of the system and strategic vision and planning as areas where you particularly excel and and so uh we're we feel very fortunate to have you on in this position working for our system. We're blessed to be able to do it. Thank you. >> Right. >> And next on our agenda is to recognize our student board member. Um we really appreciate you having having you here with us. It's been great. It's been fast, hasn't it? Didn't senior year go fast? Let me come over to you and present you with a small token of our appreciation. >> Thank you. >> Uh just for serving on our board, for bringing inputs to us. You you've talked to us
037about ideas and things that are going on in the school and what not. Hope it Hope it's something that has uh we talked about scope opening up eyes of students, but this is a this is really a way to open your eyes uh to what goes on in the school board and where elected officials come together to make hard decisions sometimes. So, any any comments you'd like to make as you graduate? >> want to thank you guys. Uh I think one of you guys I think it was actually Mr. Mark Clark. He told me one time he was like, "I think this is boring and I'm sorry you have to sit here sometimes, but it really is nice to sit here and express your opinions and just really see what goes on behind the scenes."
038You don't really think about it when you're a kid just going through the school. You don't think about all the people that sit here every first Monday of the month and just do all the real dirty work. So, I just wanted to thank you guys for all that. >> For the record, I was assuming she WOULD BE BORED. I THOUGHT THAT BOARD WOULD BE BORED WITH THE WORK WE DID. >> I THINK YOU'RE NOT A GOOD LIAR. >> My assumption was a student might not find this compelling. >> I can note that. >> You're right. Well, good. Well, I'm glad you found it more more than boring and and actually interesting. So, cuz we need leaders like you rising up as you become uh independent and uh when you finish and get into your career,
039we need good people right to come up and and run for office, all sorts of public office. So, keep that tucked away in the back of your mind as you as you mature more and and get into life. Uh so so the um frame is a is a typical is what we typically give to our rep. Figure there's probably a senior year picture or something that you would enjoy in that. And you also get your name plate, which is your school board name plate. You get to take that tonight. Um you can use that in your college desk or cabinet to remind you of your your colleagues back in Fayetteville. So, thank you for serving. It's been it's been a joy. Any comments for Great idea. Okay. Um board members, our next board meeting on
040the calendar will be Monday, June 1st. That is not Memorial Day weekend. That is actually the next weekend. So, I assume everybody is on a normal schedule that day and we'll meet at 5:00 on June 1st to um have our regular board meeting for the month of June. It'll be It'll be at the central office. Right. Right. Having made our rounds, we'll go back to the central office for now. Um final remarks? Okay. Well, thank y'all very much. We'll stand adjourned.