001All right. Hello everybody. Welcome to February 10th study session. First on the agenda, 2025 2026 strategic work midyear review. Board members, included in your packet, you will find the 2526 strategic work midyear review. So each year we engage in the strategic planning and implementation, and you receive a detailed monthly report and presentations on various initiatives. This mid-year review is intended to provide a brief consolidated snapshot of the work completed so far and where we currently stand as far as percentage complete for each goal. As you will see in the report, we have identified the level of progress for each strategic area. At this point, we are on track or ahead of schedule and remain optimistic about successfully completing all strategic goals by the end of the year. As always, we're happy to answer any questions
002or provide additional details on any aspects of the strategic work. Item number two, goal number seven, promote strategic and effective resource allocation across the district. So, chief financial officer Jeff Taylor will present goal seven. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, goal seven is just a way for us to promote our strategic and effective resource allocation across the school district. Um, excuse [clears throat] me. One of the goals for that is so that we can increase efficiency and effectiveness so that we can utilize the funds that we have in order to provide the best quality of education for our students and the best training and everything else that our teachers need. Like I said, promote our goal is to promote strategic and effective resource allocation across the district so that we can utilize these funds in the
003best way that we can possible. Um ways that we can do that, we can use it to maximize the alignment of our financial community, human capital and our material resources so that we can use those towards our student needs and our strategic goals. As we go along through this process, we'll have to revise our decision making, data driven process, decision- making and data driven processes so that we can do transparent budgeting, uh do collaboration among stakeholders and just ensure that our resources are distributed equitably and fairly across all schools so that we can meet the vision and strategic goals of everything that we want to accomplish. Uh one of the other assets that we have to use is streamline the assessment of outcomes and adjustment of allocations across the department so that the schools we
004can maximize the efficiency and eliminate the waste and enhance all the student achievement we can across all school districts. Some of our current practices uh senior leadership annually develop strategic strategic goals aligned to students needs and outcomes and also we get feedback from our stakeholders and beneficiaries and look at the operational needs of each school so that we can utilize those and work on all that information use utilize that information. um leaders in our departments. We meet with them regularly so that we can evaluate the return on investment of the programs and staffing and the resources and initiatives that we have for these students. Some of our key performance indicators are developed by each department and then the accountability and assessment and the continuous improvement teams. We try to collaborate with the leaders to just
005analyze that student achievement and performance data so that we can use that to support leadership in making data-driven decisions. Um some of the current examples we have of that right now. One of them is our operations department. They go about all our schools reviewing the data, the performance demographics of those schools and use utilize other data just so that we can ensure that those schools receive the highest level of resources and look at the needs that they have for those schools so that we can maximize the efficiency for items such as maintenance calls, custodial needs and other critical services such as bus services. Um, another example is the accountability and assessment office conducts several studies just so that we can understand the effects of district programs and the student outcomes at each school. And then
006lastly, the official office of policy and continuous improvement. They complete studies regularly just so that we can understand what type of learning opportunities we have and what they would how they would be most beneficial for teacher growth and for allocating resources to maximize our outcomes. Some [snorts] of the challenges that we have with TISA funding you have various different funds with TISA local federal grant funds. Each of them has different measurements that we have to abide by as far as state and federal regulations as well as uh reporting and allocation requirements for those. Um while we do try to streamline those in the annual budgets school system, we always continue to enhance collaboration among departments so that we can have accountability and just because we have variations in the assessment of these outcomes for each
007group. Um we have to adjust those allocations and the philosophy of those resource allocations among the departments. Um, as y'all are well aware, school system is a large district and as we continue to grow. We have to change our budgeting processes sometimes and we have to adjust as we try to continually improve to meet the needs of all of our students and the school system in as a whole. [snorts] As far as our TISA funding formula, the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, as I'm sure as y'all are aware, that changed a few years ago, where it's shifted the way that those funds are allocated. Um, it was originally done differently now. It's done as a student-based funding formula. Those dollars now, they're used based on actual cost, but they're also based on they're actually not
008based on only on actual cost. They're based on the total number of students and the characteristics of the students who are enrolled in the school system. As an example, if a school serves a large demographic of economically disadvantaged students, we'll have additional funding allocated to support those needs at those schools. some of our step last steps for improvement. Next steps for improvement will establish a shared CMCS resource allocation philosophy in collaboration with all the departments. As we go along, we'll continue to re refine and streamline the measurement criteria we used across the departments and the schools. um develop a streamlined district database for tracking the return on investment of allocations to enhance student achievement across all schools and so that we can maximize efficiency, eliminate waste and meet the needs of the TISA reporting requirements
009as well as other reporting requirements we may have with other federal funding and as we know the measurements are always going to be changing for what needs we have among these schools. So ensure those evolving ever evolving measurements and allocations and reporting requirements for each type of funding are met with fidelity and equality. Continue and analyze our key m metrics associated with these expenditures. And then lastly, continue to prioritize the schools with the greatest level of need so that we can ensure that we have exceptional service for our students and for our teachers. Do y'all have any questions? Mr. Garland. >> Yeah. I have a question and correct me if I'm wrong. Don't the states give us funds based on our ability to pay? >> They give us funds on based on our ability to
010pay >> on this community's ability to pay. Is the allocation based on that? >> So the TISA funding formula. So that's that's a combination. And what you're talking about is actually um like the tasser. And so when you're talking about the portion that county local pays versus federal versus state, all of those pieces, that is a a portion of it. And that's like where we get our dollars from the county commission. The So they basically tell us this is your county. Our funding body needs to pay at least this minimum and our funding body has has always paid higher than that. >> True. I guess that leads to my second question based on the the recent voucher program that the state has put put in place and the students that we are losing. Are we
011making money or are we losing money? >> I wouldn't say we're necessar I don't really think it's had an effect as of yet on our funding. I think we are just now getting our TISA numbers in for the next fiscal year. We haven't gotten official numbers. I think it's going to be an increase for the upcoming fiscal year. So, I don't think we've lost money as far as that goes. And what Dr. Lunoveter was referring to our maintenance of effort that with the county, they've always been well above that minimum. I know but my question my question is was is the state giving us the same amount that we was getting before Tesa or they are we making are we getting an additional fund is >> increased since then >> there's an increase >> yes
012sir >> it's a substantial or just module >> yes sir well it's like in what we were talking about too some of the funding if there's needs that we have for these students that's did taken into account through the Tissa model so we redee receive additional funding for that >> so We receive that base number for every student and then how the the funding formula works is depending on their unique learning needs, we we get dollars for that. We also get additional dollars for our students that are involved in career technical education courses because a lot of those CTE courses, it takes a lot of money. Um and so we get CTE dollars for that. We also um there's outcomes funding which essentially looks at for instance the percentage of your students passing the ACT
013the the the number of kids you have that are college and career ready the kids that you've got passing the third grade reading and we get additional outcomes dollars for that. We have been fortunate um in this district so far that um our our community has invested in public education and believes in us and we have not seen a negative impact as far as lowering of numbers. So as far as impact here for voucher, we have not seen that yet or or the the scholarship money. Um we have been fortunate that we have sustained our our population currently. So right now our projections for next school year are slightly higher than what we received this year for TISA. Does that make sense? >> It makes sense, but I still have more questions. I'll talk to
014you offline, >> Mr. Mayberry. >> Yeah, just a little bit more input into that. If we did go below the current, if our population of students went backwards, um the provision in the education freedom scholarship would actually keep our funding the same. So that's how that works and for perpetuity. It's the bill language is. So, but that that that's just that that is what the bill language is. But we if we did go backwards, we would maintain so say we are 40,000, we went down to 39, we would maintain $40,000 in funding. But as Dr. Lar said, we're growing. So, we're not in that position. >> Any questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> County Commissioner's comments. >> Board comments. I have a question. We were at one point I think Erin
015asked about a cell phone report based on just to kind of compare how how the cell phone policy is going >> help. Okay, there we go. Yes, it was Mr. Laneir had requested that and I did speak with him a couple weeks ago. What we're waiting on is our student code of conduct survey has gone out to families um through Parent Square and and to not just families, employees and and the general community. We're going to get that data back. I will share that right now we're not seeing any negative feedback specifically around the electronic um uh devices policy. I think overwhelmingly it's been positively received. Um, so we're waiting on that information and I've got some other data points um, uh, to provide and so we'll get that to you. I I would imagine
016probably maybe by next meeting or by March we'll we'll have that comprehensively for you but I can just share just quick snapshots. So far it has been wellreceived um overwhelmingly and we did see an increase uh last semester when I pulled the report we saw an increase in uh violations of the policy but that is to be expected uh when you're talking about enforcing and also having a more stringent policy. Um but it wasn't anything that was alarming but it was about I think a 15% increase from the previous year. Um so those are some of the big data points but we'll get you some more information. Yes ma'am. Thank you. All right, Dr. Luna Better. >> Good evening, board members. So, we are happy to have all of our students and employees back in
017buildings focused on academics this week. I believe the sunshine has been good for all of us. Again, a huge thank you to to those um personnel who worked extra hours during the snow and ice to make sure that our campuses were safe upon return. Just a reminder that the open enrollment period is open for all schools of choice right now until February 15th. So that's until this weekend. We feel strongly about providing parents choices in their child's educational experience. So across the district, we have over 30 different programs of study um in in career technical education that our students may enroll. We also have student zone schools. Um, and we have parents that may request special transfers for any room available. Applications are also available for Spanish immersion at Barksdale, more magnet steam school, our
018college and careermies, the middle college at Austin P and early technical college at TCAT along with our K12 virtual school. We're also excited about two new high school options this year. So, we have the Accelerated Associates program that will be at Nashville State Community College and then of course we also have the Founders Inc. that will be brand new opening in August at our BERT Innovation Center. So, we want to make sure that every family finds the right fit for their student. I also want to take a point of privilege and congratulate um I see Kathy Co in the audience. So, a huge congratulations to to Kathy. If you have not heard, she has been appointed by our lieutenant governor as the only teacher, the only teacher in the entire state of Tennessee who will
019serve on our state board of education. So, she will be representing all teachers in the state of Tennessee. And I'm even happier to report that she's going to continue to work for us as a teacher while she's doing that. I love the story. I heard um that someone came to visit and and asked her to take her to lunch um and asked her to step out to do that and she said, "Grab me some lunch and meet me at school." So, I love that. Um so, a huge congratulations to Kathy. And what year are you in? 44. Her 44th year in education. And just because they made reward status this year, she's going to keep going. So, I love that. Um so, thank you for that. All right, that concludes our study session for February.