001This meeting of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Board of Education will now come to order first item on our agenda is to say the pledge of allegiance and have a moment of silence 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. next item we have point of pride awards dr Luna-Vedder yes i'd like to welcome our chief communications officer Anthony Johnson to announce tonight points of pride good evening board um as you all are aware we've had some significant severe weather this evening so I know several aren't going to be here tonight do uh want to share that we've received some reports of some damage through the community but no injuries at this time but
002we just want to keep everyone in our thoughts and prayers uh but we will continue with points of pride and for those that are here and the first round we have yet again our JROTC teams are what I consider the best in the nation and they are here tonight for winning some national accolades so I'm going to call each school up if I could have Kenwood High School um all of the lead cadets that are here representing along with administrators and their coaches and as they make their way up I'm going to read because they won quite a few awards uh the drill team at Kenwood High School at the National Championship won first place overall armed division in the all service national drill championship division 3 they also uh took home first place unarmed
003commander first place armed color guard fourth place unarmed inspection team fourth place unarmed regulation team and fourth place armed regulation team additionally their fitness team also competed and took home second place overall in the all service mix division first place in the 3K team run fifth place in the physical team test fifth place in team double jump and fifth place in the pull-ups and flexed armhang we thank coaches Austin uh Serge or Sergeant Austin and Sergeant Major Aaron Keener for their support of all of these cadets and I think did we get the certificates over all right so congratulations Kenwood High School all right and next if I could have the Montgomery Central High School representatives from JROTC to please come forward Montgomery Central High School at the National Comp uh National Competition took home
004a third place overall unarmed division first place unarmed color guard team and third place unarmed color guard team and they are instructed by their coach Command Sergeant Major James Manning congratulations Montgomery Central High School and from West Creek High School if the representatives could please come forward so I'm going to start by announcing something that uh Colonel Lightner shared with me that for the first time in over a decade one of our air rifle teams made it to nationals and so our West Creek High School air rifle team qualified for the National Air Rifle 3 PAR Championship and they are under the direction of Sergeant First class Mackie-Joe Slate in addition to the air rifle team their drill team won first place overall in the unarmed division in the All Service National Drill Championships Division
0052 first place dual unarmed exhibition first place dual unarmed color guard team third place armed inspection team third place unarmed exhibition team and fourth place armed color guard team and under the direction of First Sergeant Darall Luckett congratulations West Creek High School all right and next um if anyone is here from Clarksville High School for the mock trial team I see Mr Buchanan and a few students if you all would come forward it seems like every year we have students from the Clarksville High School mock trial team earning state wins and they are here tonight I do want to give a special shout out to their coach Mr Buchanan who's retiring this year after many years of service and we're excited to congratulate Ava Heuston who won the best defense attorney in the state Adiasha
006Grimes who won the best defense witness Trinity Smith the best plaintiff attorney and Ramisha Raida the best plaintiff witness runner up congratulations to the Clarksville High School mock trial team all right is Cade Deterding here Cade all right Cade if you could come forward with along with any Rossview High School representatives so Cade has been no stranger i think this is his third or fourth time here for Points of Pride and tonight we're excited to announce that out of the tens of thousands of submissions across the nation Cade is one of just a few hundred who has won a National Merit Scholarship congratulations Cade all right and next for a first not only a first for us but a first for the state if I could have the Montgomery Central High School girls flag football
007team to please come forward so as you may know this was the first year that TSSAA had a sanctioned uh flag football state invitational and we are very excited to announce that Montgomery Central High School's team were quarterfinalist the players on this team are Isabella Rivera, Alyssa Lehman Madilynn Hill Audrey Levendusky Libby Dominiak Brooklyn Daniels Joslin Conner Katarina Vidovic Ashley Steele Awbree Willyerd Toree Oaks Kaycee Dowlen Mallory Burton Jakiyah Oatts Hope Pettys Leah Minor Kyra Kelley Jocelyn Kolozsy Ra'shya Fleming Samanya Gordon Marissa Hernandez Ree'anna Stockling Georgia Greene Amaria Moore Audra Buckley Amarionna Moore Charlee Wahl Ellyssa Coulter and their coaches are coaches Lehman, Youngquist, and Harp congratulations on this historic win and I do have to share one detail i found out that you all beat my high school the North Side High School Indians
008but they deserved it i'm on your team now so congratulations to the Montgomery Central High School girls and last but certainly not least another name that you have heard several times this year if Janiya Johnson and the Kirkwood High School representatives could please come forward in addition to several state wins that Janiah has had you might remember at the beginning of the year we started out with a national win and she's not here tonight but I do want to share that Janiya was named at the high school national showcase tournament the champion in the girls 155 congratulations Janiya that concludes this evening's points of pride thank you our next item on the agenda is public conversation and as the first speaker is making their way forward I want to make uh an introduction u need
009to welcome some fellow board members from across the state tonight that came to observe our board meeting Mr Steven Haley from Dickson County Mr Wayne Shelton and Jeff Mathis both of Houston County and we certainly are always glad to have visitors with us and appreciate y'all coming to our meeting public speaker Mr Megan Wise i mean Ms Megan Wise I'm sorry um want you know that to you have first turn on the microphone it's the right silver button then a timer will display the microphone will flash when you have one minute left of your time and after five minutes it will automatically shut off go ahead hit your button there you go good evening my name is Megan Wise and I'm here tonight as an advocate a parent and a member of this community who
010is deeply concerned about the state of behavioral supports and safety in our schools both for students and for staff i want to talk about what's happening in our buildings our district is failing to support students with behavioral needs and at the same time it's failing to support the educators tasked with teaching and protecting them and if we continue to minimize abuse as a training until the next child is heard or the next teacher quits the time to invest in behavior support training and accountability is now i don't know what I did there thank you next speaker is Malik George okay i do not think he's coming nicholas Wojack okay not going to be here okay Amanda Frost Ms Frost again the silver button to your right turns your mic on it will turn red it
011will begin to flash when you have one minute left it will go completely off after five minutes you may begin good evening to everyone my name is Amanda Frost i come to you tonight as a Clarksville native born in the Milk aisle of Publix on Madison Street if you know you know graduate of Montgomery Central class of 2011 parent of three children with varying needs in our school system a professional working in behavioral intervention and community member deeply invested in the success and accountability of our schools i'll be honest narrowing down everything I could say in to just five minutes has been one of the hardest parts of preparing for tonight let's begin with what I witnessed during last month's board meeting representative Maberry was absent prioritizing other commitments over the responsibilities owed to our
012students in that absence surrogates were sent to speak on his behalf but accountability cannot be delegated our children deserve fully present and fully committed leadership from every member of this board one delegate stated and I quote "Our schools suck and why would they change if they don't have to?" In reference to the lack of support for school vouchers while I was appalled by the language and sentiment I stayed and listened and some of what I heard stuck with me one representative challenged us to spend a day in the classroom i'll admit field day isn't the ideal example of a typical school day but I took the challenge to heart spent the entire day at my children's elementary school and what I saw confirmed the concerns that I've had all year and those concerns form the
013heart of the speech another board member stated that there was a mistake in removing prayer from schools i'd like to understand what that means while I am not personally a Christian some of my children are and they still have the opportunities to pray during the moment of silence in quiet personal moments and for those in middle and high school through student led organizations dedicated to the Christian faith churches are already involved in our schools i know Mosaic hosts an after school club described to me as a district organized program recently at my child's sixth grade orientation um and I know that several of our local churches also support the fuel program which provides snacks to some of our children often with Christian specific messages or gifts included which is effectively religious promotion so I ask
014what exactly are you wanting what are you asking the schools to do ignore the presence of multiple faiths erase the freedom our students currently have to practice or not practice religion on their own terms because that's not freedom that's indoctrination now to the part I mentioned earlier i've spent the day inside the school i've watched our children i've watched our teachers and this isn't the first time I've been present at events and in the classrooms before so I want to ask how many of you on the board are doing the same or have done the same some of you have a background in education and have stood in the classroom that is not directed at you but to the rest our district is failing to support students with behavioral needs and you are failing to
015support the educators tasked with both teaching and protecting them you are tying in the hands of our district staff fitting perhaps since one of you saw fit to post the whip on social media but I can assure you that this is not the image I want represented in our schools not for our children not for professionals who serve them i'm tired of being pitted against teachers as though parents and educators are enemies i am tired of watching teachers be pitted against their own students left without the tools training and backing or backing that they need to succeed i know some of you will say it starts at home while that is true to a degree let's be honest the environment inside the school matters just as much the treatment and training of our educators or
016lack thereof is appalling why is behavior intervention still optional training why is the district taking a negligent stance that puts both children and staff at risk behavior management isn't just a teacher issue it's a systemic and yet ignoring data dismissing staff input and input and overlooking concerning behaviors has become expected even normalized within our schools why is this okay why doesn't this board see a problem with it why is the mistreatment and the abuse of students being tolerated if it weren't wouldn't this board be mandating proper training wouldn't we be be investing in real support staff for our classrooms more why are toxic administrators allowed to bully teachers who are doing their best with what little they've been given yes I understand this is school specific i know there are administrators who go above and
017beyond to create safe supportive environments but I also know there are others who smile while telling their staff to treat their children like their own even as they actively mistreat their staff and fail to meet student needs why when asked about problems do so many administrators respond with the bare minimum that they can get away with why is this okay with giving the bare minimum when they are the very people uh who are in charge of our future some of you will say we're preparing students for future employment to that I ask why are we grooming them to accept toxic unsupported exactly what this district is modeling right now you already support the district if you think these are telling children Ms Frost your time is elapsed Christine McNemar okay thank you okay the silver
018button on the right turns the speaker on it will turn red is it the one that says press you'll have five minutes it will begin to flash when you have one minute to go thank you okie dokie howdy uh my name is Christine i am um a Clarksville resident a student at Austin Peay mother of six students in CMCSS schools uh and I am a foster parent in our community i have grown up and my children attend the North Side schools i know that there's a lot of really big initiatives that we've been talking about for our school system and a lot of them I am a little bit concerned about uh for one I mean I knew the vouchers are pretty already on the roll um and we thought we would be seeing no
019impact on our students but my son's developmental preschool uh the the busing for the special needs preschoolers was the first to go as I've been notified that he will no longer be receiving his transportation in the upcoming school year along with the fact that his schooling which has already been reszoned to Liberty Elementary the developmental preschool has been cut for that school altogether and he will now be going to Minglewood with no transportation as he's moving into year four of developmental preschool sorry um typically as my other two youngest children also went through developmental preschool in Clarksville as you moved into year DPK4 you begin to attend 5 days a week along with transportation however instead in this most recent IEP meeting I was notified that that would not be happening now due to budget
020cuts not only will he not be attending five days a week as many other students including two of my other sons have but instead he will be attending two days a week as he did in year three which he's currently in except those will not even be full school days anymore his hours have instead they will be cut to two and a half hours of education twice a week my six-year-old attends Liberty Elementary and he is in an integrated classroom no longer in special education thanks to the accommodations he was able to receive through DPK 3 and 4 my youngest student will not be able to receive those same accommodations we are seeing the impact already immediately on special needs toddlers that was the first area that we decided to cut for the vouchers that's
021not my only concern when I look at things like New Providence which currently in the cafeteria of New Providence you will find the electrical box which is being held closed by a plastic spork a plastic spork is holding the electric box in the cafeteria of the middle school closed Northwest is falling apart but we're building our 26th elementary school and where will all 26 of those elementary school kids all 26 of the schools worth what high schools are they going to attend when the high schools and middle schools are already underfunded over capacity i just I'm I'm having a hard time understanding and then we're looking at the DEI initiatives in these schools where certain members of the school board built their campaign and foundation New Providence and Northwest for us to build a platform
022on that and then immediately come back and say that DEI is the problem but not that we're cutting funding for special needs toddlers not that we are allowing the already disenfranchised students in the most impoverished area of town suffer with inadequacies within their own schools but DEI is the problem is I I I'm really having a hard time comprehending uh diversity equity and inclusion being the problem in these schools versus the misallocation of funds and where we're choosing to cut funds first i the the problems with racism has already been alive and well in these schools for a long time it has i attended New Providence myself and these are the most diverse schools the fact that we're already seeing a drastic increase in blatant racism and sexism in North Thank you next item on
023the agenda is approval of consent agenda have a motion Ms Barry and a second with Mr Garland to approve consent agenda please cast your votes is everyone satisfied with your vote please close the vote passes 7-0 next item is policy monitoring Dr Luna-Vedder board please find in your board packet information on executive limitation five financial administration this executive limitation has 12 compliance expectations to ensure the director of schools shall not cause nor allow fiscal jeopardy or material deviation from the annual budget or budget policy adopted by the board all revenues are scheduled to be spent in accordance with the approved budget no funds have been borrowed to date for the current fiscal year without approval nor have funds been expended from the fund balance without prior authorization the actual ending fund balance will always be
024far greater than 3% based on current levels of revenue and expenditures payrolls are processed per the published calendar and all other obligations are paid in a timely manner purchases are made consistent with state and district procurement codes sufficient internal controls are in place as documented in annual financial audits in addition all board accounts are audited annually by the state comptroller's office likewise individual school accounts are audited per a contract with certified public accountants and receivables are pursued as appropriate updates regarding revenue collections rising costs and capital projects are provided to the board through work sessions to conclude any proposed changes to the budget are approved by both board and county commission and quarterly financial reports are provided chairman Griffy this concludes executive limitation five thank you do I hear a motion to accept EL5 i
025have a motion from Mr Nelson and I saw a second wait second Mr Maberry any discussion please open the vote is everyone satisfied with your vote please close the vote it passes 7-0 EL 13 Dr Luna-Vedder board please find in your packet information on executive limitation 13 career technical education program this executive limitation has three compliance expectations to ensure the director of school shall not fail to develop high quality high school CTE programs specifically CMCSS has reviewed local regional state and national job markets to determine if our current programs are meeting the needs of students and preparing them for current and future jobs the fifth annual senior hiring expo was held just last week on May 14th over 50 local businesses and industry partners with at least five entry-level positions as well as representatives from
026multiple branches of the military participated human resource personnel from each participating business shared company and available position overviews salary and benefit information as well as application and hiring protocols you will notice in your packet the program expansions dual enrollment opportunities and industry certifications the CMCSS instruction team has collaborated with other agencies and funding resources to allocate funds to support effective career technical educational programs that have also extended to our middle schools finally we will continue to evaluate our five-year plan and this will include a review of current course offerings student enrollment and current and future job market trends chairman Griffy this concludes executive limitation 13 thank you do I have a motion to accept EL13 have a motion from Mr Garland have a second from Ms Barry any discussion hearing none please open the vote
027is everyone satisfied with your vote please close the vote it passes 7-0 next item reports high school academic support Dr Luna-Vedder yes so tonight we have the high school academic supports for students and Dr. Kimi Sucharski will be presenting this evening evening board we're going to be adding to the things that you've been listening to about our already high school academics like our academies etc and so in the high school academic supports we have three areas that we work with we have those items that go on during the regular scheduled day then we have before and after school and then we have non-traditional programs that go on and this is year round so supports during the regular scheduled day are things like we have a lot of literacy focused supports math interventions we have A/B
028academics courses this runs in the special ed classes that gives them the extra opportunity to uh succeed inclusion AVID um RTI ACT prep and digital um citizenship so one of the large programs one of the things that we have to navigate a lot in a highly mobile district is keeping children students on track for graduation and so one of the programs that is offered is credit recovery it's offered year round uh we uh take the students from where they're at and provide them the opportunity to pass courses they were struggling with grade recovery was developed because uh often when students failed the first nine weeks of school they often said "Well I'm through." And did nothing the next nine weeks the way grade recovery works is we provide them the opportunity to be successful in
029the second nine weeks while recovering the first nine weeks so they don't waste an academic year time is short when you're in high school um then we have additional supports that you'll see throughout the day obviously their school counselors we have the military family life count uh counselors that we work in partnership we have centerstone counselors we have Care Solace um we have the youth villages partnerships student success coaches um social workers family in transition liaison and students with disability transition to work all of these opportunities are addressing the needs of the students to keep them on track so that they'll be ready to enter the workforce or go on to postsecondary and then before after and summer and so one of the largest grants that we compete for and have in this district is
030the Army youth programs in your neighborhood a neighborhood you often hear about AYPYN we talk about we get about a million dollars in funding each year and uh this provides programming in the middle and high school and it's actually around uh several areas it's about remediation intervention acceleration but it's also about targeting students interest to keep them engaged and return to school um and then TDOE we have a large grant that comes in the summer and this is about the ELA and math supports for the rising ninth grade students we also do a high school 101 in combination with that what is it like to begin high school and then we have our before and after school so there's a credit recovery program that runs during the school for students that have an open time
031but we also run that after school and before school in case students need that opportunity grade recovery works the same way um we're doing all those supports about academics what to keep the students on track remember in Tennessee the rule is you have four years in a summer essentially to earn your regular education diploma this is just an overview so you can see how many credits students are accessing um and how many students participate so at half year we're just getting ready to finish the academic year um in December we had already had 1,489 students that participated in credit recovery and 93% of those students reclaimed their grade the one that they had failed um the group that seems to struggle the most with that is ninth grade and that's because they're early in their
032high school career those that are closer toward the end the urgency is there so after school we have everything that you could think about we have tutoring we have homework assistance we have AP support dual enrollment support we run open library programs for those students who would like to do those things we have ACT prep we have boot camps we have the TCAP EOC um and boot camp opportunities as well and then other activities you'll see is we have a lot of things that are around the science and mathematics fields and STEM so you'll see robotics cyber patriot the academic bowl science olympiad JROTC extended day fitness programs clubs and activities aligned to the students' interest they are welcome to introduce a program that they would like to have and we go through a process
033to provide them that opportunity we also remember the arts with art music and theater and just to give you an overview of what we're supporting in the middle and high um through these grants and opportunities currently um high school and middle school daily attendance runs between 2,900 to 3,100 and approximately 850 to 900 of those students are identified as military connected and now we're getting ready for summer i'll be back later to talk about what summer's going to look like um we're just now getting everything um in the in the systems and all but we'll run some traditional programs that you know about from our days um and then we'll have the um what we call the rising ninth grade programs and we'll have the high school 101 programs um and all of these are
034targeting to give students the greatest opportunity to be successful when they're in high school started off on the right foot and um just to give you an overview during the summer of uh 22-23 the participating credits earned by the students um and keeping them on track was over 2100 and so that's great for us it keeps our graduation rate as you know last year was 95.2 and so we want to keep focused that we're providing every student the greatest opportunity to exit this district um college and career ready depending on what they would what their desire is questions questions thank you for your report uh next item board discussion and consideration first item is 25-26 student code of conduct updates is there a motion to accept the updates in the code of conducts have a
035motion Mr Maberry have a second with Ms Barry is there discussion or questions Mr Maberry thank you thank you Mr chairman i wanted to bring up that I I would like to see us amend the cell phone um time frame in which we allow cell phones in within schools um I got the feedback from what the district kid um proposed but I believe with all the discipline and behavior concerns we have seen and heard about from the community a lot of them comes directly from this issue right here cell phones um I brought this up last board meeting in the book Anxious Generation but that has an incredible argument about how cell phones are affecting our children and this is how they are organizing fights and and other things like that um to allow them
036to have the cell phones not instruct instruction time but then in the hallways during lunch it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that we're going to then allow them to have that and then they can still organize and do the things which we are concerned about uh right now um this is a real tangible fix that we can have to make a real impact for teachers and for our parents and and for the safety of our kids i've heard testimonies from other districts that when they did this blackout period within the schools that kids actually spoke to one another and that there was life in the hallways there was life at lunch because they had this blackout time uh for cell phones where they weren't a distraction within the schools and again we're
037talking about cell phones I'm talking about the watches I'm talking about the earbuds and everything um I've have personally had reached out from teachers uh a tremendous amount of teacher uh reach out to me and parent reach out uh saying that they want this blackout they don't want this where they can now have it part of the days and not part of the days they they want the blackout from what I've heard um the other uh teacher uh group uh PET they have expressed to me in a conversation that they would be for the blackout from start to finish so I would like to see that we amend this to make it where the blackout period is from the moment they get to moment school starts to the moment school ends so your amendment to
038the motion is that schools do a blackout of cell phones from when from what time so from when school starts to school ends just from that school start to school ends yeah that we we don't second to the amendment i'm looking for one i have a second for Mr Lanier to amend the uh cell phone portion of the code of conducts to a blackout from beginning of school day to the end of school day instead of how it reads now is there any further discussion on that Mr Garland my my concern is that we don't uh take away the fact that there in case of emergency uh that they will be available to those children to be able to use them um we are not running prisons we're running school system uh we're running places
039where children come to be educated i understand that and the teachers need to be in a safe environment i understand that but we shouldn't be treating these kids like they are criminals Chris Lanier uh the reason that I started with this is not the intention to take away phones from students they still have them in their backpacks they'd still have them in the classroom um if anything ever were to happen I mean they they have the access to those so if they had to flee the building they would they'd still be safe and be able to communicate with their parents or whoever they need to um the whole act of this is that they you know get back to regular instructional time so I just want to make sure that was clear thank you Mr
040Johnson would you say the current way it reads currently uh yes sir so and I just want to clarify for for Mr Maberry's amendment um if if the board is okay with so currently that the two versions one said instructional day which is considered from the beginning of the day till the end the other recommendation was instructional time which would have just been class time and so from a matter of semantics I just want to confirm instructional day is is is okay with that language then the other piece in that that I just wanted to clarify the original proposal had stated at the discretion of an administrator it wasn't a requirement but at the discretion of administrator that they could implement you know whether it be a reward would that still say or are you
041proposing to remove that specific part in the language where it states at the discretion of an administrator it'd have to amend his amendment to get that in there Mr Maberry yeah my intention is not to change that piece it's but so yes the so to be clear to make it a blackout period uh during the entire school day how'd you say it instructional day during the instructional day but yes not not taking away the admin's um ability to to call a different different play if he needs to Mr Nelson uh my only question with this is um if there in the case of an emergency um will the administrative staff be instructed to pass along any information to a student who may have to pick up a youngest younger sibling or um you know get
042get home earlier to give somebody the medicine or something of that case uh some sort of emergency were to pop up will the administrative staff be there to support that yes yes sir and I do want to clarify that the language in what was uh originally presented does state the provision which is required by law so it's not something we would be able to change anyway that in an emergency situation students would be able to access their phones and uh just like I I forgot who commented that you know they could have them the the rule in the student code conduct how it's worded is that they are powered off and put away and so that could be in a pocket a backpack that sort of thing and so in the case of an emergency
043absolutely they would be able to get those devices power them back on and make contact and additionally the law requires uh a contact to parents in the case of an emergency we're already in compliance with that we already use parent square for that so we're to answer your question yes that is there and we would be in compliance with the law thank you and that would still be there with the amendment that would still be in place with the amendment yes sir okay Mr Garland my concern was the way way it was presented it was from opening a school to close a school and there was no delineation between whether or not they would have an option and so long as there's an option I can go along with that but if there is no
044option I can't go for it okay any further discussion on the amendment we're now voting on the amendment please restate your amendment Mr Maberry uh I move that we have a blackout period during the instructional time but not withstanding any of the other portions of uh the language that was already there instructional day thank you instructional day instructional day thank you please open the vote all those in favor of the amendment is everyone satisfied with your vote please close the votes the amendment passes 7-0 we go back to the original motion to accept the 25-26 student code of conduct updates we're now with this amended section is there any discussion on that Mr Maberry I just want to have a great um admonishing to you know our admins and our staff that the only way
045this is going to work is with everybody being involved so I just want to really encourage um across the district that we really enforce this so that we can have um the goal that which we are uh looking for i I've heard in the past that um maybe one school's doing it and maybe a teacher isn't and it kind of breaks it all down so I just want to make that admonishment today as as a board member to just follow through with this so that we can see this change that we're looking for any other discussion then we'll vote on the main on the sheet code of conduct updates now please open the vote is everyone satisfied with your vote please close the vote it passes 7-0 uh next item student school board member we
046as a board had discussed bringing a student onto the board as a non- voting member had a presentation on that in our last work session is there any um more information we need that the selection process is what we're voting on that they went over at the last work session but I do need a motion have a motion from Mr Garland have a second from Mr Nelson is there any discussion and and just to clarify what I think we're asking there's a proposal to add a GP17 to the board's rules and so that has been proposed which will take set the parameters of the non- voting student board member so what you're being asked to do is to approve this GP17 to put that in place but you are being asked to add an additional
047provision to your governance policy thank you for correcting me so we're adopting the the requirements and the participation amount that that student board member will have any discussion Mr Maberry thank you i uh just want to say thank you to the district for putting together the guidelines for this i thought it was really well put together so everyone who was involved with that thank you very much and um for those watching at home we're voting to have a non- voting student board member here um that students will be able to um potentially come and be a part of us so I think I think it's great any other discussion please open the vote is everyone happy with your vote please close the vote it passes 7-0 next item comments by Fort Campbell school liaison officer
048good evening Dr Luna-Vedder board members and commissioners my name is Karen Watkins-Diouf and on behalf of my counterpart uh Laquivia Garrett and the Fort Campbell Garrison we would like to thank you for allowing us to be of service and we want to wish you a great summer thank you CMCEA representative okay PET representative i apologize for being late i was sitting at school when the tornado warning came and I thought we're going to head to the basement and stay for just a few minutes i just want to wish all the board members Dr Luna-Vedder a happy summer it's been a long year but we have really pushed through and I've seen some great gains and a great achievement from our students so I don't envy you as you go through all the graduation shaking the
049right hand i practiced with my fifth graders this week i said remember don't shake with that left hand or you'll be embarrassed so they did well in their promotion so thank you very much have a good summer thank you comments by county commissioners they must have had a meeting somewhere tonight or the weather deterred them from coming we appreciate their normal support as always comments by board members Mr Garland I would like to uh thank the staff for the work and the teachers especially the teachers and the students for the work that they put in over the year uh this is a time of the year that I really do enjoy uh I have a tendency of attending all of the graduations and I do that because as a board member if I don't attend
050how can I expect anyone else to want to be there uh we set up for those children to be in class nine months out of a year uh we expect them to come in and work nine hours out of a day or whatever the case might be we expect them to get good grades and qualified to actually go out into the economy or become productive citizens of this nation uh you do um yeah I say Dr Luna and staff and team you guys do a great job we've heard a lot of complaints about uh what's not happening but they don't understand what's really is happening in the classroom uh as I uh have been with you for many years I found that being part of this district is something that is is very is important
051to me and it's a pleasure and it's an honor to be a representative i plan on being there with you for all of the graduation Dr Luna from tomorrow morning through Saturday night uh I plan on doing that simply because like I say when I sign up to do something I want to do it all the way i don't want to be a part-time anything uh again board members if you don't have anything to do I encourage you to come out and watch these kids walk across that stage because that is to me the most important job that we have as board members for Montgomery County School System thank you Mr Nelson yes uh I want to apologize to my fellow board members for being a bit late um you don't know I don't live
052very far from Outlaw Field and that's where they had it announced that uh that they had suspicions of a tornado touching down and for me and my family it takes a little while longer to get out of that that safe space downstairs so um you know that kind of put me back just a bit but you know again um Dr Luna-Vedder congratulations on another successful year and we've had many challenges this year some very unique challenges but um we've made it through it and so um just wishing all the teachers a great summer and you know thank you for your hard work um like I said uh there's nothing like a heart of a teacher because it takes a special person to educate a young mind and then stick with that mind through all the
053trials and tribulations and I just wanted to say uh I'll be at most of the graduations but uh I won't be at all the graduations so with that you know we'll be here throughout the summer and everyone have a great summer thank you Ms Bryant i have a couple things um first I wanted to mention that my company I I own a business a local business and we did the interviews with the CMCSS internship with the high schoolers and it was such an amazing experience we got the opportunity to interview two high schoolers and we loved them so much we're bringing them on before the internship actually starts so our I didn't do the interviews some people on my team did the interviews and they just were raving about these students so we cannot wait
054to get them in and helping um I know the presentation earlier was about the opportunities that our students have and I just wanted to mention this one as a really cool one i'm very excited about this so I'll continue to share our progress with you guys the other um the other thing two more things I want I wanted to comment on is the cell phones i have a child at middle school and I have a child in high school and I was one of the few parents that was able to hold off on cell phones i finally gave in halfway through my daughter's freshman year of high school and I noticed such a switch with her um and in not so positive way i have an amazing daughter she's usually here she'd be really embarrassed
055if I was talking about her right now that's why I'm bringing it up because she's not here um but she uh she her personality switched and I um I just firsthand was able to see the difference that the the impact that these cell phones have on our kids and so I think that um my my middle schooler doesn't have a cell phone yet but he learns all kinds of things at school um so I I'm 100% on board with this i'm really glad that the board is on board i I wasn't sure how we were going to vote but I think that this is going to have a really good positive impact in our schools so thank you board members and then I wanted to read a statement i was quiet today getting it all
056in right now a few meetings ago Dr Doughty presented on all the schools and programs of choice open enrollment and growing options for our families in CMCSS it was recently brought to my attention by a virtual school father that the website isn't clear on which board member represents their family as I started digging into it I realized that with so many choices and 46 school zones that it didn't align with the election boundaries the school listings didn't accurately reflect the districts we are elected to represent i personally believe that all seven of us truly represent all students employees and families at all schools however I want it to be easy for everyone to determine by their home address which district and board member is elected to represent them for example there are students from all
057of our districts who attend CMCSS K-12 virtual middle college Spanish immersion elementary moore magnet and early technical college and with open enrollment and special transfers I know there are others who live in our districts attending schools outside of the election boundaries it's also important for me to me for all citizens to be engaged and informed voters after talking with Dr Luna-Vedder I'm proposing that we replace the school listings under each board member on the website and instead provide an interactive map and other election resources from the Montgomery Montgomery County Election Commission this will make it easier for stakeholders to determine the board member elected by the people to represent their district Anthony and the communications department are very much in favor of this proposed change to reduce confusion there's no policy on this so we
058don't have to vote but I'm simply asking if anyone has any concerns with this proposal to please let me know tonight or at the next meeting if there are no concerns I will ask the team to make the change on the website so just to kind of clarify currently we have all board members listed and underneath our names are the schools that we represent but as I had mentioned in my statement there's a lot of um students that go to different schools than the address that they actually live in because of these um extra programs and so they already have as far as I know um they already have this available and so it's just integrating this technology into our current website and so that is what I am proposing thank you that's all Mr
059Maberry thank you Ms Bryant it's it's a great proposal thank you for bringing that i just want to say echo Mr Garland and Mr Nelson's uh thanking all of our teachers our our staff our district staff our director of schools uh an incredible job this year um this is a special year for me my oldest is graduating on Friday i don't know how I feel about it um I just was in high school like last week and so now she's graduating so um but I am excited for my oldest uh April who will on Friday at Clarksville High School be crossing that stage and um but thank you for everyone for all your hard work this year Mr Garland yeah I forgot to mention uh Mr uh Haley and his team that came over to
060evaluate us we thank you for taking the time to come out and to do this i I uh having that job prior to you I understand that the challenge that you make especially in this kind of weather but again we hope that you have uh that have observed and you have seen what you need to see and we pray that all go well god bless you y'all be safe going home Mr Lanier again I'll reiterate what Kacie said i appreciate the support from the staff and and everybody involved in this long process of dealing with these cell phones and uh the the full support of the board members and also I reiterate your I don't know if you saw my email but the whole school represented thing um I was looking for the other one
061for Rossview and I couldn't find it so I do support every bit you said with that so thank you Ms Barry i think it's a good idea to have the schools uh not just listed on the bus but have a map as well but I feel like I represent all of Clarksville and Montgomery County whether they're in my district or not if they contact me I'll help them or do the best I can and to refer them to get help and I want to say I want to thank the team that came from Houston County and Dickson to evaluate us tonight thank you very much and have a safe drive home in addition to that I look forward to graduation every year and that's the finale that's the We're going to have over 10,000 students
062graduate this coming week this week that's phenomenal and yes we will shake every hand and I love it it i get hyped up doesn't take much to get me excited but graduation is one of those times because the children have worked very hard many times from pre-k through 12th grade and to see the joy in their faces when they receive their diplomas it's a blessing and I pray that they all be successful and what we do is important many people think board members don't y'all you all don't do anything they don't know what we do they have no clue but I enjoy doing what I do serving this community and I thank the fellow board members that we can work together and do what's best for the children of Clarksville-Montgomery County thank you i'll be
063brief but I do want to say thank you to all the staff that made the school year a success to Dr Vedder and her leadership team and I wish the room was full of the support staff the bus drivers and everyone that made this school year as successful as it was with all the challenges we had i'd like to know how many miles we safely transported and how many students through floods and snowstorms and obstructions in the highways from all the storms we've had this year at um it's phenomenal the success that we've had and the support county Commission is not here tonight but they've been very supportive of us this year on on our budget desires and needs and I think with that continued support the continued involvement and participation of parents that next
064year is something just set higher goals and look forward to at this point because the challenges we're used to those success is not something that happens it's something you do and we're here trying to make that success with its whole team and this whole leadership team and this entire school system and the graduates that are coming off that stage this weekend congratulations to them and their families because one graduate couldn't do it without the family support and the families have something to be proud of and that concludes my report Dr Luna-Vedder good evening board members first I would like to mention last week a huge thank you to uh Mr Matt Slight and his team we tried something new this year called Middle School Rising so essentially it's fifth graders and their families who could
065go to the middle school and check it out and learn that middle school isn't quite so scary as maybe they thought and so it was a huge success if you were trying to travel around that evening and were anywhere near a school sorry for those traffic jams but it was great and we got great reports from parents so thank you very much to to Mr Slight and his team tomorrow does mark the last half day of the 24-25 school year thank you to all the administrators faculty staff members who have made this a great year i do hope that everyone gets the time to rest and rejuvenate this summer and as already mentioned tomorrow does kick off our 11 CMCSS graduation ceremonies over the next four days i'm looking forward to spending some time with
066all of you and again shaking all those hands as they cross this stage Mr Griffy this concludes my report this meeting is adjourned