001address I can do that I call to order this meeting Montgomery County School Board we all rise for pledge of allegiance and 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 is public conversation we had two to sign up I'm getting the names Savannah Rose Dunn is she here okay Catherine Susanne Garigan you may walk to the podium um you'll have you'll see there when you get there to turn on the microphone pressing the right silver button and the timer will display on your screen microphone will flash when you have one minute left of your time again when you're ready silver button I like the sign says
002my name is Catherine Garigan I'm a native Tennessean and I've lived in Clarksville for the past decade I have two children in public schools and they are also uh excuse me they're also uh involved in having meetings with IEPs and all that that entails and I think we all know that the voucher program was passed in Tennessee a few weeks ago and I had a front row seat to the Committees um and watched as it was basically rammed through legislation um there were several moments where we wanted questions answered and concerns that I think we kind of all have about the voucher program how it's going to affect our students how it's going to affect affect us as taxpayers and when representatives in the committee raised their hands to have these questions addressed they were
003not they were actively dismissed and it was moved for a vote and that was the end of it it didn't matter that our elected officials had questions and had concerns in my experience if you don't invite questions and interest to the people who are going to be affected by this the most I feel that's a red flag personally um as a parent especially with two kids who have IEPs um I have a lot of concerns about the entire program throughout the state but especially in this area the vast majority of Tennessee are rural communities I myself come come from west Tennessee where I mean the the closest and only private schools that are in actively right now really are in Jackson maybe outside of Memphis but I think out of the 96 counties in Tennessee
004about 51 have no access to a private education aside from homeschools Etc um so in that vein we're all trying to find the answers whether or not you support this bill I think that we can all agree that everyone's here for the same reason and that is for our kids or just because we have concerns about wanting to make sure that we can give them the best we can um one thing that came up a lot on the hill a few weeks ago was the uh the idea that um competition a healthy competition will make our schools better um across the board right um the issue that I have with that is that there is already a competition that Tennessee is losing and has for some time when it comes to the amount of money
005per student across the nation Tennessee comes in around 44th the national average per student invested is around between 20 to 24,000 per student per year Tennessee is somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 even on par with our um competitors that you know have the same means and have the same population and students we're still behind to my knowledge the bill has said that the remedy for that is between three and 5% a bump each year for the existing budget for public schools but 3 to 5% is essentially a cost of living raise that does nothing to address the huge gap that we have in spending and in education that that competition is very real and we're not really allowing our kids to even compete whenever they're graduates all these other states have kids who have had
006so much more advantages so February 25th we're getting together having a concern members meeting if anyone is available I welcome anyone who is up here behind a microphone anyone who is in the audience at Burt Cobb community center 5 to 7 February 25th I appreciate you allowing me to say this we are having a meeting to all of us community wide collectively navigate how this is going to affect our county going forward for generations of Tennesseans to come and I feel like it is not something that we can afford a misstep in I appreciate your time thank you ma'am next item is approval of consent agenda I have a motion Mr Garland the second Ms Berry you would just please open the vote is everyone satisfied with their vote please close the vote it passes
0077-0 thank you next item policy monitoring Dr Luna-Vedder board please find in your board packet information on Executive limitation 3 Personnel Administration this executive limitation has 15 compliance expectations that the director of schools shall assure the recruitment Employment Development evaluation and compensation of District employees consultants and contract workers in a manner necessary to not jeopardize its end policies fiscal Integrity or public image of the district as the Director I have not changed my own compensation or benefits nor has any employee been promised nor implied permanent employment the human resource department has an applicant electronic tracking system and selection process to identify qualified certified and classified candidates additionally there are easily understood policies and procedures developed and available for all employees to review there are also multiple venues available for employees and the public for registering
008complaints and concerns all positions in the district have current job descriptions and applicants are interviewed and hired based on documentation verifying the requirements identified in the job descriptions State Employment standards and federal guidelines to include a criminal history background history checks the employment investigations evaluations and personal information are kept confidential pursuant to Tennessee code annotated CMCSS salary schedules are reviewed on a yearly basis and compared to similar districts finally the culture and work of the district is annually reviewed and realigned through strategic planning process chairman Griffy this concludes executive limitation three have a motion to accept the report a motion to accept and a second um any discussion seeing none please open the vote is everyone satisfied with your vote please close the vote it passes 7-0 and I and I didn't say it out
009loud but the this the motion was made by Chris and the second was made by um I can't call his name tonight Aron on the end report CMCSS school programs of choice Dr Luna-Vedder yes board a few weeks ago a board member had asked for um additional information about our programs of choice so tonight Chief academic officer Dr. Schanda Doughty is going to share a few more details about the choices available for CMCSS families good evening board it's always a privilege to get to present the great work of our teachers assistant principals and principals and the great things we have going on in CMCSS tonight I'm excited to present to you the CMCSS choices that are available for our families let's first start by talking about the things that we classify as choice for our
010families we have schools and programs of choice we have Career and Technical programs we have a pre-kindergarten program that continues to grow and explode we have open enrollment opportunities and we allow special transfer requests I'm pleased to stand before you tonight and let you know that over 20% of the families in CMCSS have made decisions including these programs of choice which equates to around 7,500 of our kids let's talk a little bit about what programs of choice entails we offer our families several non-traditional schools and programs of choice each is designed to allow our families to choose schools and programs to help their children reach their potential CMCSS provides an application window that's open for a set amount of time so that families can choose to apply or enroll in these programs let's define several
011of these let's start with the CMCSS K-12 virtual currently we have over 800 students in our district that participate in education through our CMCSS K-12 virtual the joy of the program that we've created in our district and what makes it very unique is that our kids are educated every day by certified Tennessee teachers not only are they educated in all of the traditional subject areas they're also provided with RTI intervention and extracurricular Sports and activities that makes our program very unique and special continuing on our students have the choice of the Moore Magnet STEAM School if you're like me a few years ago we called it STEM well they've added the A which makes it even more special now and it stands for science technology engineering arts and math our students that attend our Moore
012Magnet STEAM School have the opportunity from kindergarten through fifth grade to be immersed in a variety of problem solving activities centered around all of those activities very engaging environment additionally Moore Magnet was the first um school in the state to receive the STEM designation a few years ago and they are our first CMCSS Green certified School very exciting for the teachers and the students in that program of choice also we have the Spanish Immersion program at Barksdale and this year we expanded that program to Richview for the sixth grade we're proud of this program as it fully immerses our kids from kindergarten through sixth grade they learn everything in Spanish and in English our students leave that program completely fluent when you enter a Kindergarten class in the Spanish Immersion program if you don't know
013Spanish like myself you're not going to know what they're talking about because everything is in Spanish and it is so exciting to see the engaging activities and opportunities that our students have there again this year we expanded that to Richview Elementary school and they're uh fully immersed there in English and in social studies also you'll probably recall that the Spanish Immersion program at Barksdale was a blue ribbon school which we're very proud of we also have the Middle College at Austin Peay the Middle College at Austin Peay provides our student with a college-bound pathway it's a transitional program there are three options our students can enroll in there and I think sometimes our community misses that there are three Pathways with the Middle College people think it's just the Middle College but there's actually three
014options there one of those is the Fine Art pathway and I'm going to consult my notes so I don't miss any of those important Pathways our students who um choose the Fine Art pathway at the Middle College have the opportunity to study alongside the esteemed professors at Austin Peay in Music Theater dance and visual arts so I think that's very important additional there's a transitional pathway program which is what the majority of our students study on it means that while they're still finishing their high school credits their Junior and their senior year they're also taking college credits and they will graduate high school continue on and then also have a college diploma the last um pathway at Middle College is an associates degree pathway these students are very dedicated because they actually go to school
015during the summer too and when they graduate High School in may they also graduate with an associates degree so three great programs of choice there for our students the next one is the Early Technical College at TCAT the Early Technical College at TCAT provides our students the opportunity to study diesel powered equipment HVAC mechatronics machine tooling and Pharmacy technology so even with in that um ETC they also have the opportunity to pick their pathway there you'll also remember this as we've referenced it several times as students in these programs go out in the community and they work as well so not only are they finishing their high school diploma studying trades at ETC but they're also out in our community working so that they can be experts in that field upon completion of their high
016school diploma and the ETC pathway that they're studying the next program of choice is the adult high school this is a great um opportunity for our community students 17 and up and as you can see from the picture here we have lots of community members who come back to the adult high school it's Unique in that it gives our students no matter the age the opportunity to earn their high school diploma so they're not getting a GED through this program they're actually earning a high school diploma um it shows CMCSS's commitment not just to the kids that are 17 18 and 19 years old but also to our community members let's continue on and talk about our um career and um College and Career academies that are offered at each High School basically our college
017and career academies are a school within a school the students that participate in the College and Career academies have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a program of choice um and they get to participate in problem-based learning opportunities and they also have work-based learning opportunities as they progress through their programs additionally our academies partner with local employers um to develop the curriculum we bring um our local uh community in as guest speakers and we create real world relevant student experiences for them so that when our students graduate high school from one of our academies we know that they're solving problems in high school that they would also see as a future employer employee in our community let's outline some of these options that are available for our students the first one is the Academy of
018Business and Marketing at Clarksville High School Engineering and Design Academy at Kenwood High School as I circulate through these you will see that these are all topics and um Pathways of study that are very hot career opportunities in our state for our students right now and they were selected for that reason Additionally the Supply Chain Management Academy at Kirkwood High School that's our newest Academy The Academy of Plant and Animal Sciences at Montgomery Central High School Computer Information Technology Academy at Northeast High School the Health Sciences Academy at Northwest High School Digital Media Art and Design Academy at Rossview High School and West Creek High School actually has two academies The Academy of Law and Criminal Justice and they also have my personal favorite The Academy of Teaching and Learning that one's special so in
019addition to the academies that are offered at all eight of our high schools students can actually go to their own high school and study a variety of these CTE pathways so while they won't be going to a different school to study that we have over 35 options of CTE Pathways that are available over the eight high schools so I'd like to display a slide now that shows you all of the different Uh current programs of study that are available in CMCSS so just two to highlight here one of these is actually our structural systems program my own son participated in the structural systems program was able to obtain an OSHA 1010 certification that gave him a priority placement for an internship in college where he was actually eventually able to be offered a job um
020so I've personally benefited from that one but that just gives you an opportunity of the ways that our CTE programs prepare students I was thankful he'd kept that little card he had obtained as a High School Junior and was able to show it as a junior in college that he'd obtained that certification but these CTE programs of study are more than just classes that our kids are participating in they're also participating in dual enrollment so if they want to go on in college to study that or something else they have college credits and they're earning industry certifications like the example that I just gave you with my own child our newest program of study which is very exciting if you're not afraid of heights like myself is the aviation and we've actually had students who
021have studied and already obtained their private pilot license and the aviation program is offered at West Creek and at Rossview so very exciting they have a flight simulator people say it's wonderful maybe y'all can tour it sometime but I won't be there with I'll go with you but I'm not getting in so um additionally I want to talk and highlight another program of choice here and that's our pre kindergarten program in CMCSS as most of you already know we have developmental um pre-k and we have voluntary pre-k classes these provide our students my favorite words in this presentation are a joy of learning and that's what we want our three and four year olds to do we want them to learn um how to be educated and to love learning and that's what our pre-k
022programs um offer our kids in addition to setting that foundational those foundational skills that they need we also offer a peer model program for our students that serve as peer models for our students who are receiving special education services you'll recall with me that we had the opportunity this year to open the St Bethlehem Early Learning Center we like to call it the St B ELCof course in education we like to give everything an acronym um this year we have 16 classrooms at the St B ELC but we're excited about next year when we will open at full capacity we'll have over 30 classrooms of pre-k students in that building again that Joy of learning starting early here in CMCSS for kids who choose to participate in that also we have we offer open enrollment
023in CMCSS um open enrollment is an option at specific schools in grade levels with available capacity this rotates year to year because the capacity at the school must be less than 90% um with no more than 10 open seats per grade level with existing Staffing ratios so there's lots of factors that go into play with open enrollment um and if more requests are received than we have spots available we select those based on a lottery system and last but not least we also offer special transfer requests for our families in CMCSS in particular families May complete a special transfer request um it's now available online through March 15th um to transfer a student to a school outside of their regular school zone we've highlighted here some of the reasons that um families could request a
024special transfer the most prominent one per se is curriculum so if I'm a high school student and I wanted to study Aviation but my typical zoned school is Northeast I could apply for a special transfer transfer to go to Northeast or Rossview to do the aviation program so again lots of great op you'll see other things listed there like military continuity um house contract and of course things like medical family situations etc any questions for me Mr Garland can you hear me yes sir to be a part of the Spanish immersion class can a child be of Hispanic descent and be part of that yes sir yes sir because I thought at first it wasn't it had to be I I've never been told that but I've only been in this role for two years
025and in these two years they take applications and they go through an enrollment process and they take they can be any any nationality any background it's just not designed for fluent Spanish speakers already so if it was a student who grew up and they were actually Spanish as their first language um because part of the the screening is that students also have to um be fully fluent in English if that makes sense but yes their background does not matter okay thank you Mr Maberry thank you thank you for the presentation incredible programs uh just curious the uh a couple of questions here STEAM is that the new like industry standard name for that it is okay I was just kind of curious about that it's the first time i' ever heard that STEM sounds a
026little better for some reason well when you think about the STEM art is always involved when you walk in these classrooms the kids are drawing they're creating it does have a creative processing side to it so I think that's probably why they added I I get it yeah um Spanish Immersion going to Richview just kind of curious how that looks at the middle school of course Elementary School it's their life um and for as I was hearing this being built for the future it sounded like it was not going to be like their entire classroom experience was going to be certain just maybe specific classes so could you uh tell us a little bit about that exactly what you described yes so it's ELA and social studies with a fluent Spanish-speaking teacher we purchase curriculum
027so that those kids could um learn that in a fully immersive program everything else they're out in their regular day with their peers thank you that that sounds awesome I know that that was very important for those parents as they got into middle school years and it's amazing that we've gotten to that point at already it's we're already planning for ninth grades there we go I love that um I do want to point out that I think it's funny that the Kirkwood slot had a box said Rossview for you I just want to say that as a Rossview graduate I did too every it distracted me every time I couldn't I couldn't look at the slide because I wanted to say Rossview right um uh open enrollment you talk about that that's going on right
028now right correct until March 15th that's that's one want to put out there the the date for that March 15th I I do want to say um I feel like the seeds of some of the stuff happened when I was in high school so back like in 2000 back when I was with you at Rossview uh and I actually learned a lot of web development stuff back then um and have had a career for 20 years in web development graphic design all that and it really started from back when I was in high school so being able to have these seeds within you know development within uh and actually I mean not even seeds in some cases a lot of these kids are very talented um but when you go to out of high school
029what they can do with this is just absolutely incredible and I and I love this and I do want to encourage uh my for uh my um board members here my fellow board members that if you've not gone through leadership CMCSS I'd highly recommend you going through that program because you actually go and deep dive into these programs uh and it's it's an absolutely incredible program and um I've seen most a lot of these programs right up close within within leadership CMCSS and um just the Spanish immersion was my favorite part because I've seen kindergarteners speak fluent Spanish and I thought wow this is just absolutely incredible but that's all I can say thank you Ms Bryant just a couple questions I have friends that are like super excited about the Spanish Immersion program I
030feel like I hear it from friends all over the place um what is the plans in the future and you might not be able to answer this right now but for growing that program because I know there's definitely interest for it and I don't don't disagree there is a lot of interest however right now we're not looking at expanding it beyond for a variety of reasons and one of the big reasons honestly is staffing finding people who can um teach those early literacy skills in both Spanish and English and cross it's it it takes a very special teacher um to be in that classroom but uh the next time we go on walkthroughs there we'll invite you we'd love for you to come and see it and to see what it takes to uh make
031that program run and be successful because it it is amazing but you'll see why almost you know we have to kind of keep it small to get it right and sometimes I think that's okay yeah I have some friends that are going through it and it they absolutely love it and it is crazy because they don't speak Spanish and you go and their kids are like speaking Spanish it's nuts it's kind of scary when they get old they're gonna be talking about you and you're not going to know what they say right exactly yeah um the other question that I have is the other academies and the CTE programs what is the capacity of those and are do they fill up is there a lot of extra demand beyond what we can offer for those
032programs just like with anything I think what you're referencing are the academies where kids would go from one school to the other um some of them do yes and I was actually just reviewing the numbers today of um the applications uh for each one of those academies some of them will fill up um but again um I think a lot of times kids apply for an Academy to go to a different school not realizing still um that that opportunity may also be available at their home school so it won't necessarily be that fully immersive experience they would get in the academy but they can still study that CTE pathway um so several of them did have more applications than they would have spots but several of them still have spots available okay awesome thank you
033hit or miss yeah Mr Lanier correct me if I'm wrong but I know people have asked me lately about Open Enrollment open enrollment you need to transfer your child or transport them your you on your own for transport that's correct yes sir and then the special transfer um to the different academies so you can actually attend one high school but then go for just that specific study at a different High School you would go there for the whole day so let's say for purpose of example if I were zoned for Clarksville High School and I went to the academy at Rossview I would be a student at Rossview once I was accepted into that Academy okay thank you when did that change at one time you could be a student at say Clarksville high school
034and attend an academy at at a Rossview and still be a student of Clarksville high school and and we bus them back and forth and and we do still uh provide transportation from some high schools to others uh but for if you're in the academy experience um you become a student at that school so for clarification let's say I'm living in the Montgomery Central Zone I can catch my bus from my house at Montgomery Central and take that to Clarksville High and then catch a bus there to go to my Academy okay that's what I remember then I thought it was um most of my questions were answered um no Tech College has flexible hours I believe you didn't mention that it does yes sir so they got to work around the students needs to
035get their education yes sir and um and we do not have transportation that either do we we do have transportation to all the hours are just during regular school hours uh so the the buses run that's a 10 to 5:30 um or 10 to 5:00 program part of that reason is so we can provide busing so after the elementary routes the high school routes then they will pick those students up drop them off for any students who need that the other part of it was just to work around the technical because they've got a full program with adults so some of you know our kids after they shut down at two can then still have those same courses okay it also allows for that work-based learning in that time that she was mentioning about some
036actual work had several wrote down but I think this the only one someone else didn't ask so I appreciate thank you for your report all right no problem thank you all for giving me the opportunity next item comments Fort Campbell School Liaison officer don't see her tonight uh CMCEA representative good evening over the past few months there's been much discussion about what is best for public education in our state the primary focus of the Educators in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School District is to provide the best education possible to every student who enters our school buildings and it remains so despite the passage of the education Freedom Act of 2025 assurances that our Public Schools will not be adversely affected by this program are difficult if not impossible to keep based on what we've seen in
037other states who have created similar -programs despite our concerns the members of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Education Association remain steadfast in our Focus to partnering with District leaders school board members and families to advocate for the resources policies and laws that will ensure Clarksville-Montgomery County is a best place in which to live teach and learn as we all follow the happenings in Nashville please commit to having discussions with CMCEA about how legislation considered in Nashville will realistically and directly impact our school district let us join together to monitor the general assembly to ensure that great Public Schools remain open I will also be in the meeting on February 25th at Burt Cobb um to have these discussions that was previously mentioned so I hope you all join us PET representative good evening Dr Luna-Vedder and school
038board members it's already snowing outside and I am going to get home really fast so this is going to be quick and short I just wanted to let you be aware of a bipartisan bill that's coming up in the legislative session right now it is Senate bill 0124 I think and then House Bill 0081 and I think it's something that's very very important to across all districts across the state because it would require school districts to send a student's disciplinary record to their new school within three days of their transfer date being at the elementary level we get the education records we can get the IEP but we don't always get that disciplinary record if there is one available so I think this is going to help impact our middle schools and high schools more
039so because we know they deal with more intense disciplinary actions and procedures than we do so I just want you to be aware of that law or that bill that's coming up comments by County Commissioners comments by board members Mr Garland yeah I would like to thank all everyone that actually spoke uh tonight uh and truly uh we do have we do have concerns about what's going on down in Nashville uh Nashville can be a plus it can be a minus right now uh it's not our best friend uh and I tell you I tell you the reason why they've gotten the voucher bill through now they're talking about tackling DEI DEI diversity equity and inclusion and I think this is something that we as a community we need to be proud that we do
040have diversity within our district if this bill pass I think based on what Trump is doing if this bill pass then we're going to have to cut it out of all of the curricular and of it when we're going out recruiting teachers um people Educators I believe that this is what this bill is intended to do and the person that's carrying the bill they say they're doing it because this is what Trump want but my question is what do we want as citizens of Montgomery County we need to be very honest with our legislators with ourselves we need people down in Nashville that's representing the people of their Community not a party not an individual thank you Dr Luna for uh all that you and your the teachers and the staff is doing uh you're
041doing an excellent job uh what you briefed here tonight shows that we have a district that's Second To None we don't need what they're trying to spread but because of what happened uh in January we are going to be caught up in it simply because our tax dollars is going to be going to send rich kids most of them are not going to be black to private schools and I'm just serious I'm just it's just me I might be out of my lane but the bottom line is I've been around long enough to know that when you go across the nation those schools never never bring forth the the uh the ideal circumstances that they say they are ask Arizona ask Texas ask those people that actually tried it and it has failed and you
042know what Tennessee we're going to fail too but it's going to be after we have spent many local tax dollars to try to make sure that we can get rich kids in private schools thank you so much Mr Maberry I had an opportunity to watch a board meeting this week and I was just kind of shocked how like wild it was and how they did not follow decorum rules and I just want to say I appreciate uh the decorum that we keep as a board especially in uh looking at that board meeting how we follow Robert's Rules of Order um and how we uh by and large have mutual respect for one another I just want to say that I appreciate that amongst our board thank you Mr Lanier just want to add something to
043a future agenda I'd like um for Dr Luna-Vedder and the staff to look over at the policy and the student code of conduct as it relates to the use of communication devices uh with students and um just asked that you put that on the agenda at some point in the future thank you is April okay for that for it to be on the agenda work session We'll add it to the April work session Ms Bryant I just want to say I love seeing so many people here thank you guys for showing up I've been showing up to Schoolboard meetings for about five years now and there's many times when this room is completely empty and I just even though we might not agree on a lot of things some things we might I don't know
044um I just really appreciate you guys showing up and getting involved so this is great let's get more people here and involved for our kids um the other thing I wanted to say is we had um my my daughter's on the wrestling team at Central and we had a kid that was very badly injured Emanuel so just keep him in your prayers I know they have a GoFundMe started for him usually I'm not a big fan of GoFundMe but I think this is a good a good thing so Ms Berry it's one thing to say that you're committed to CMCSS but when you love something or someone you commit yourself to that love you exemplify that love you sacrifice for that love and you serve that love faithfully you don't cross over and support one
045thing and say another I'm here because I love education I love the children I love the uh educators and what we do to make this a better society and community and when you're on the flip side of that you need to take a look at yourself I'm not trying to judge anyone but it is what it is I love what we do I love what I do as a board member and I do what I say I'm going to do and that is advocate for public schools so I just want us to search ourselves and you'll find the truth are you in it for the right reasons thank you I hate to be the last the only one that doesn't speak from my board tonight so I won't be um I asked for the report
046on the schools um programs of choice be presented tonight and the board member that Dr Vedder mentioned I did that because I wanted us as a school system and us as a school board to be more familiar with the ability to share the school choices that we have within our own District I had lunch with Dr Vedder about two years ago and told her that my goal one of my goals was for the system to be the system that everybody wanted to come to because the employees were so happy that ours weren't leaving but others wanted to come here and also now I want to say that I want this system to be the one that our students want to stay in whether it's choices that they need to make they have within the system
047and I'd like to see the system work really hard on creating opportunities for more of the school choice within make it more accessible and become the school system with school choice that everybody knows about we can't change what's happening in state law but we can do our part by making it not affect Montgomery County and I'd like to leave it with that Dr Luna-Vedder good evening board members with the impending snow it sounds like beginning we will have a day out of calendar tomorrow this will be our second of five inclement weather days hopefully our students employees and families can enjoy a snow day together we will continue to monitor weather and road conditions and make decisions on a day-to-day basis for the remainder of the week our thoughts and prayers do remain with Emanuel
048Gilmore and his his mom who's one of our lead bus drivers in the Montgomery Central Community during his recovery process Mr Griffy this concludes my report and that concludes our agenda I want everybody to enjoy your second winter break