001Welcome to the board of education's March 2nd, 2026 work session. Please stand as we observe a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance led by Mr. Triplet. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Mr. Triplet. Just a couple of announcements. Um, a reminder that the next policy review meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 27th at 10:00 a.m. in this boardroom. Also, board members, the annual budget development season is upon us, and each of us will have an opportunity to meet with superintendent and the budget team individually in the next few weeks. Available dates will be communicated soon, but Terry is glad to assist as always. Um, so please work
002with her to get on the calendar as soon as possible. Do we have any requested changes to this meeting agenda? >> So motion by Miss Henderson, a second by Mr. Triplet. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. So, it looks like we have a special recognition tonight. This is like Gibbs High School night at the board meeting, isn't it? Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Risewick, is my pleasure to be here tonight to recognize the National Federation of High School Sports National Softball Coach of the Year Award. Carol Mitchell has coached at Gibbs High School for the last 32 years. In that time, she has,3 wins, which is the state's all-time leader, and puts her 10th nationwide in the history of the sport. She has won 29 district titles, 21
003regional titles, and been to the state tournament 30 of her 32 years. She has seven state championships and four state runner-ups. Uh, Coach Mitchell's Eagles finished the 2025 season up with a 41-3 record, uh, wrapping up back-to-back state championships. And, uh, I present for your recognition the NFHS National Softball Coach of the Year, Miss Carol Mitchell. I would also like to add that coach Mitchell, let's see, four championships that you played in, right? Seven championships that you coached. >> Yes. So that means you've had an impact on 11 state championships out of 12 that Gibbs softball has won. >> Yes. >> It's crazy. >> Thank you all for recognizing me for this award. Um it's just been a privilege to be able to um take something that was special and a gift to me and
004now be able to share it with a a lot of different uh student athletes uh over the last 32 years. So really appreciate you all uh having me out today. >> We also have >> and I didn't see Commissioner Thompson out there earlier. I'm sorry. I should have recognized you. Welcome. Welcome to the board meeting. >> I didn't recognize you from that far either. So, we got Commissioner Adam Thompson from the 8th district has something for Carol. >> It it um do I have to say my name and county residents here or no? Okay. Um now, Tra Travis had mentioned that uh you'all were recognizing Coach Mitchell tonight and it didn't seem like that long ago we recognized the team for the state championship. And so instead of having you come all the way over
005to commission, we figured we'd do it all in one big party and celebration for you here. >> Good. It's softball season, >> right? >> And I'm missing practice today. >> She does have priorities in order. So um and Travis and I were both privileged enough to neither of us played on the softball team, of course, but we did have her uh as a teacher at at Gibbs High School, too. And I I liked your your your quote where your your your your uh your players are are students first. Um and and you're not just developing players, you're developing people. Um and that's that really speaks to the heart of of of of her program and and what you've done. So um the this is a proclamation honoring Gibbs High School softball coach Carol Mitchell. Be
006it known that Knox County Commissioner Adam Thompson does hereby honor and celebrate Gibbs High School softball coach Carol Mitchell for being named by the National Federation of State High School Associates Associations as the 2025 NFHS National Softball Coach of the Year. Whereas the Carol Zachary Mitchell began playing ASA softball at the age of seven at Gibbs Ruitton Park. And whereas coach Mitchell is a 1987 Kibs graduate and played on the school's first four state championship softball teams. And whereas since 1993, Coach Mitchell has led the Lady Balls to seven state championships and thus played a key role. >> Hagles. >> Eagles. Did I say Lady Balls? That's where she should be coaching. um has led the Lady Eagles to seven state championships and thus played a key role in 11 of Gibbs 12 state softball
007championships. And whereas under coach Mitchell, Gibbs has also finished as a state runnerup four times, won 21 regional championships, taken home 29 district championships, and whereas Coach Mitchell is the winningest high school softball coach in Tennessee with a record of 113 to 321 in 32 seasons. She ranks in the top five in the nation in winning in wins among active high school softball coaches. And whereas in addition to being the 2025 softball coach of the year, Coach Mitchell has received numerous other awards, including the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association 2025 Coach of the Year, many Knoxville Prep Coach of the Year awards, several Tennessee Coach of the Year awards, a distinguished service award from TWSAA in 2018, and the AF Bridges Award. And whereas Coach Mitchell was honored in the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of
008Fame in 20 in 2003, the South Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame in 2007, the Carson Newman University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009, and the Tennessee Softball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2016, and now therefore be it proclaimed that I, Adam Thompson, Knox County Commissioner District 8, so hereby recognize and congratulate Coach Carol Mitchell as a recipient of the 2025 NFHS National Foot football national softball coach of the year award and extend sincere appreciation for her service and dedication to the young women of Gibbs High School. And be it further proclaimed that Knox County honors Carol Mitchell for her commitment to excellence, student development, and community service and wishes her continued success for years to come. That's right. Congratulations. S Coach Mitchell and again welcome Commissioner Thompson. And I just want to go on record
009as saying that board member Font Ridley also played in 87 and >> played against them. Uh so well well there you go. >> So all right Superintendent Rice. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh, as you know, the annual budget survey opened last month. I'd like to begin by thanking the families, staff, and community members who took time to complete the survey. We received more than 3,100 responses. The survey is one of the many ways we gather feedback from the community, and that insight is important part of our budget process. Our team is currently reviewing these responses to ensure that budget items align with our 2028 promise. As you know, this is our commitment to invest in our people by adjusting salaries to market value. We look forward to sharing those key takeaways
010with you during the individual during your individual meetings uh and also with the community at the community budget presentation on Tuesday, April the 14th at 5:30 here in this room. Speaking of investing in our people, it was a privilege to recognize over 200 great educators and six principles as the teacher at the teacher of the year dinner last week. I'd like to congratulate our district winners once again. Our principal of the year was Miss Trina Spista of Amherst Elementary. Teachers of the year were Mr. Jake Albbright from Green Magnet, Kathy Pernell from Gibbs Middle, and Hannah Berkeley from South Doyle High School. And also our supervisors of the year that we were able to recognize a month or month or two ago, it all runs together, I can't remember, was Miss Janice Cook, who is
011our executive director of school culture. I want to say thank you also to Miss Tarsa Smith for serving as our keynote speaker and thank you all for all of you who were able to en uh join us for that evening. Uh we are officially in our first year of implementation of the 2030 strategic plan. So I want to take a few moments and share updates on a few key objectives. I'll start with the middle school redesign. As you know, last year we partnered with Accenture to conduct a landscape analysis of our middle of our middle school grades. Based on those findings, we're launching several committees focused on the unique needs of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. We know each of these grades is vastly different, and our approach to learning needs to reflect that. Our
012goal is to ensure that scheduling models, staffing expectations, and instructional time are intentionally designed to reflect those differences. We're seeing similar progress in the innovative schools initiative. When the innovative school survey was shared earlier this year, respondents expressed a strong interest in learning focused on integrating artificial intelligence, data science, and robotics. We are in the process of developing a framework for this initiative and identifying where we can embed more innovation across the district. We know it'll take strong partnership to support this work. I recently visited the Nyswonger Foundation with a small team from our district office to explore two future focused pathways that they've developed. one being bio STEM and another being data science. Conversations like these are actively shaping our next steps. While we're working to prepare students for a technologydriven future, we're also
013looking for opportunities to increase our efficiency as an organization by identifying ways to use technology like AI to give back more time for high impact work. We recently presented at our approach to AI in the East Tennessee Superintendent Study Council. This will be an emerging focus of our work over the course of the next year. We look forward to sharing more updates as we make progress on the 2030 strategic plan. And finally, spring break is just around the corner. Uh schools will be closed next week. We look forward to welcoming everyone back on March on Monday, March the 16th, energized for the remainder of the semester. Madam Chair, that concludes my report for this evening. >> Thank you, Dr. Ricewick. Next on our agenda, we have our quarterly threat report. Is this you, Dr. Adams?
014>> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, as you know, state law requires us to report on threat numbers each quarter. Our second quarter ran from November 1st, 2025 to Jan January 31st, 2026. During that time, we had recorded six threats that met the qualification for public reporting under state law. This brings our annual total up to 17 threats that meet the reporting requirements. Our school safety departments takes every threat seriously. Uh which means we investigate every tip and every concern we receive, not just those that meet the parameters shared last month. Anytime a threat is reported, they are rapidly evaluated and dealt with swiftly. We also do our best to over to overcommunicate. In the last quarter alone, we recorded approximately 50 parent square messages from schools to families families notifying them of incidents or concerns
015on or near our campuses. Like the threats uh we're reporting on tonight, these incidents were rapidly evaluated, vetted, and swiftly dealt with to keep our campuses safe and secure. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Adams. Um Mr. Right. You have a legislative update. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, obviously the state legislature has been very busy up to this point. Uh, there are lots and lots of bills filed, way too many to address here, but I'm going to hit some high points. Um there are several bills um that will be going to the House Education Committee and I believe that is Wednesday at 2 o'clock. No, I'm sorry, the Senate Education Committee is Wednesday at 2 o'clock, but the House committees are tomorrow all day long. So that's the K12 subcommittee, the House Education Committee,
016Instruction Subcommittee, and the Administration Subcommittee. And some of the ones, some of the big bills that they're going to be discussing are uh Senate Bill 24 uh 2434. Uh this one talks about uh would make a criminal offense of capturing images or videos over school grounds uh if done with the intention of conducting surveillance with a drone. So that basically is trying to clear the airspace over top of schools. Uh there's also the house joint resolution which is uh set for discussion on Wednesday in the ways and means subcommittee. Basically this is the what we would we've talked about the cakewalk bill. Uh this is amending the state constitution uh to allow uh school support organizations to have lotteryies and games of chance in order to raise money. So that's been a long time coming
017and it takes a while to get that through because it is a constitutional amendment and it has to follow certain uh years when that can actually take place. Um, one other one, uh, Senate Bill 2310, uh, as introduced, it would prohibit eleas and public charter schools that serve students in any of the grades kindergarten through five from allowing students to access digital devices at school, but also from allowing employees to use a digital device to provide instruction. from administering assessments to students in an electronic format except in certain circumstances. So this basically this bill wants to ban electronic teaching and electronic devices uh in kindergarten through fifth grade. Uh some of the other bills that are coming up for discussion this week uh include things about budgeted local funds, enrollment of out of school or
018I'm sorry out of district students, participation of private school students in interastic athletics at the public school they are zoned to attend. Uh student transportation services, this one's more about PRZ type issues. Uh collaborative conferencing and also reviewing virtual schools. uh grades and being able to take them out of the rotation for a while if they're not uh hitting the numbers that they should hit. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Right. And the strategic plan committee also met on Tuesday, February 24th to continue our final work on aligning the superintendent evaluation tool with our new five-year strategic plan. At the meeting, the committee voted to recommend a new evaluation instrument. So, what you have at the desk are copies of the current as well as the new recommended tool and
019the strategic plan. Um, the committee talked about adding the new recommended evaluation to the March agenda for consideration, but ultimately we decided we would um present it to board members this month. So you would have some time to look through them both and compare and um digest it all and ask questions if if you needed to and then bring it um back to the board and put it on the agenda for our April meeting um for consideration. That way everybody has plenty of time and um we have asked Corey to provide you with a brief summary on this tonight. So Miss Lner, >> thank you Madam Chair. Members of the board, I uh as promised will be brief. So, you do have a handful of documents in front of you. The packet that has um
020black text and has a date at the bottom, that's your active uh superintendent evaluation tool. This is the one that's currently in use. We're providing that as just a source of comparison, a point of reference, but it is the packet that has the blue text, no date at the bottom. That's the proposed tool that I'm going to talk through this evening. Um, and again, I'm going very very high level just to give you all an idea of the work the committee has done, but please do reach out if you have questions over the course of the next month. If you would reach out to Terry, she can make sure that those questions uh get to the right person on the committee uh so that we are in a position to propose a final tool officially
021on the March sorry, the April board agenda. But if you open that proposed packet, what you will see on page two, so the very first page that you open to are some initial changes, but these are changes that should be familiar to the board. So you'll see some changes to the mission and vision language. That's to reflect the work that the board did during the strategic planning process. And so that's the updated language there. You'll also see some change in the language for the four priorities. uh we've grown a lot as an organization over the last four years and we've gotten a bit firmer in what it is uh you know that we have what stakes we've put in the ground and so this language is the language that you'll see in the annual report
022um and really just better defines those four priorities in a way that is more reflective of the work that's being done now compared to four years ago. If you turn the page you'll see a few changes under the performance evaluation guidelines. I'll go ahead and call those out now. Um item one received some added clarity. This was something the committee just felt was worth noting that because the superintendent's evaluation takes place in January, uh the previous tool did not call out that the evaluation was based on the superintendent's performance the prior year. And so there's some added language at the end of that sentence just to add some specificity to the timeline and what's going on there. If you look at items three and seven, these two are interrelated. So if you uh if I
023take you back in time four or five years ago when the evaluation tool that is currently in use was formalized there was no annual action plan. So the current annual action plan was called for under the superintendent's evaluation was called for under this tool um but had not been created yet the first time that it was used. And so what you'll see are two things. Um I'll start with item seven. I'll work backward. Uh the original tool did require that that annual action plan be proposed to the board in October. If you all recall, every year since we have had to propose uh an extension on that timeline to move from October to November. This is due to state reporting timelines. Um we want to propose a plan that is fully informed by all of
024the data we have at our disposal and we don't usually have that from the state until later in October. And so this is to rightsize that timeline. If you go up then to item number three, what you'll see is a change and this is probably the biggest structural change in the evaluation tool overall. So the committee felt strongly about uh you know the the task that they had been tasked with was to align the evaluation tool to the new five-year strategic plan. Something that the five-year strategic plan does um very uniquely is build on its progress through the annual action plan. you have those five-year targets in the strategic plan. And you do have this in front of you since it's been a moment since we talked about the five-year strategic plan. Um, but really
025calls out uh that objectives will be formalized by the board and voted on by the board on an annual basis. And so now that that process has been codified, has been formalized, you have an opportunity to also align the data that's being provided and the evidence that's being provided uh by the superintendent on his annual evaluation to that exact same process. And that's what this does here. So you'll be receiving a summitive report based on the annual action plan every year that will include some longitudinal data relevant to the objectives you all approved that year and asked for. uh as well as a narrative specific to the strategies uh that you know worked or did not work or just needed a little bit more time to incubate. And so you'll get all of that in
026one package uh moving forward as opposed to three kind of disperate packages that are doing three different things. Uh that's probably the biggest change being proposed by the committee. The other thing that I will call out on this page is item number six. So you will see in the active evaluation tool that there is currently an appendix F. So, appendix F is a non-scored component of uh the evaluation and um honestly we've just not received the response rate to that appendix F that made it seem worthwhile for the committee to recommend keeping it. And so, you'll see that drop in language there, but appendices A through E are remaining the same. So, I'm going to take a breath going to flip another page and I promise we're almost finished. So, if you look at the
027glossery, I'll say this, it is a little bit more comprehensive. It's a larger glossery, but the glossery you see here is aligned to the one that's in the strategic plan. So, the thinking is that any of the terminology that might be used or might appear in the annual action plan over the course of the next five years should be defined here just by Meredith being present in the five-year strategic plan. And then finally, this is the meat and potatoes and probably what I will say the least about because there's a lot to unpack and to read. And so, we'll let you all do that on your own time over the course of the next month. But if you do open up to appendix A, I'll start here. And it's probably easier to also open to
028appendix A in your existing packet. So if you look at the current tool, you have an objective. You have under appendix A, objective one, just an item number one underneath that. And then you also have some supporting evidence. So if you flip through the packet, this was something interesting that the committee unearthed as they were going through the tool. Sometimes these three factors align and sometimes they do not. And so there wasn't the amount of cohesion and coherence there um that the committee wanted to put forward in a new tool. And so what you'll see under the new tool is an overarching objective. That language to the extent possible should actually reflect the language in the current tool. There were some areas in which uh we've just grown as a district. Um addressing the teacher
029shortage fortunately is one of them. And so you'll see some changes under great educators. um that's a problem we're not actively tackling, but we all we have some additional challenges um that we're tackling and pursuing. And so you'll see some updated language there, but to the extent possible that objective language has stayed the same. What's changed is the indicator. So you'll see a more explicit indicator and it's called out as an indicator to say this is what you should be looking for to determine whether or not the objective is being fulfilled. And so that's just some added clarity there. And again, all of that supporting evidence, the longitudinal data, the narrative, all of that will be taken care of through that annual action plan summitive report. And you can anticipate knowing what will be in
030that report based on what you approve the prior fall. And so that is the extent of the updates and the the tour that I intended to give, but I'll pause for just a moment. I know Miss uh Henderson, Miss Christie, Reverend Butler, you all have been doing this work with us for how it feels like two years now. Um, so if uh I left anything out or if there's anything else that we should call out, please do chime in. >> Well, I felt that was pretty thorough considering um it is a lot to unpack and again that's why we decided to not present it this month um for a vote just to just everybody has plenty of time to look through it and ask questions um to Miss Cotney or Miss Lner or Mr. duper
031as needed and then we'll bring it back in April for discussion. Mr. Triplet, >> where do the are the indicators directly out of the strategic plan or are they who determined that those were indicators of success in that particular performance objective? >> So, uh, Mr. Triplet, members of the board, to the extent possible, the indicator language mirrors the language that's not labeled as an indicator. I think that was the initial intent. And so where it was relevant as a reinforcement, and I think you see that under objective A, you're going to see a continuation of that language. So where it was a continuation, it really was just a continuation. So identify two strategies that reinforce um or fulfill this objective. So most of the time it's going to come from the original uh or the
032existing evaluation tool where new objectives were formed. That then uh would have been a recommendation from staff based on the strategic plan to the committee. We did massage some language here and there uh through discussion during committee meetings. And again, off the top of my head, I think you're going to see that most prevalently under grade educators in every school because the objectives changed. The indicators also had to be adjusted. Uh where those indicators were adjusted, I would look in the strategic plan under the previewed work over the course of the next five years. Um, so that's largely where those indicators would be coming from. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions on that? >> Okay. Thank you. And thank you, Miss Lner. Moving on to our regular agenda. Put my glasses on.
033Sorry. Um, any questions, comments? Five, A or B or C? Got C one or two, three or four. Moving on to board policies. A or B. C or D. All right. Section seven, grants A or B, C or D. >> Mr. Triplet. >> Yes. I had a question about C. Obviously, we're dealing with facilities at PAL and I know that comes up later. Uh but there is a this says Knox County government facilities grant um which was obviously awarded to Carter High School. Not taking it away from them, but if there was a need at another school, is that grant still available? Can you still apply for that grant? How does that work? >> Madam Chair, thank you, Mr. Triplet. Uh no, that grant was three years ago. Uh and so the the schools that
034were awarded that grant, they applied three years ago and and so they they're most of the schools have have matched that grant at this at this time. Go ahead, Mr. Dup. You may want me to say saying I believe the the reason for that delay, Dr. Adams, 100% right, is um that grant and Mr. Dupler, I think you were part of that process required matching funds from the school and I think it took um that school a little longer to raise the dollars to match. So, I think that's why awarded three years ago, to Dr. Am's point, but why is it just showing up here period now is because they were just able to match the dollars. I believe >> you're absolutely correct, Dr. as we can. And I was just going to say as
035well, I mean, although the framework for that grant still exists, there's been no more funding for that grant. >> All right. Um 7D, 7 E or F. Moving on to contracts. 8 A or B. All right. Regular agenda items 9 A 9B or C. Mr. Triplet, >> are you doing a presentation on Thursday? You doing one tonight? Okay. I thought it was tonight. Okay. Thank you. All right, Madam Chair, members of the board, Mr. triplet. Uh, I will be quick, but the goal tonight is to be as thorough as possible because we know that this is a big decision for the board, but also just a a big decision for the Powell community and the impacted schools. And so, we want to um just pause and take some time to make sure that everyone understands
036the memo that's been proposed and the decisions that are before you all. And so, with that in mind, I will say this. Um there'll be an opportunity to ask questions at the end. Um but if you have a burning question and it makes more sense to hop in um I'm also not going to stop you if you want to chime in and ask a question along the way. I'll begin just with a quick reflection on what brought us here. So what problem is it? What challenges are we faced with that we're trying to solve or trying to address? The image uh outlines that pretty clearly. There are currently 200 students uh roundabout uh at Powell Elementary School that the building uh was not built for. So we are approximately 200 students over capacity at Powell
037Elementary School. We know based on projections for the area that in three years that number is going to look like 300 students. That's untenable. Um and the amount of challenges a school is faced with when you are that far over building capacity are immense. Uh and so the challenges at the end of the day that we're trying to address through the proposed solution are the anticipated growth uh with limited capacity at Pal Elementary School, traffic congestion at the school, limited parking at the school, all of which comes from being that over capacity, and then also just keeping in mind that anytime we address a situation in a community uh in this way that we're also looking for an opportunity to move away from temporary classroom spaces. So, those portable classroom spaces, it's not necessarily a
038problem we'd set out to solve um because we could not do that at scale across the district, but when we're in a community and we're making changes, we also want to keep a pulse on those portable classrooms and try to the extent possible to move away from those uh as well. And so, those are the challenges we've been faced with. As we think about some of the opportunities in the area, Powell is very unique in that immediately surrounding Powell Elementary School, we have a number of schools that are currently underutilized. We have about a large school's worth of available empty seats currently in the POW in the surrounding in the area surrounding Powell Elementary School. So over,00 available seats currently surrounding POW elementary school. When we think about then how we make decisions uh and
039how we are tasked with making decisions uh to address overcrowding or capacity constraints within a school. We know we always have three options. We could reszone, we could build an addition, we could build a new school. Our goal is always going to be to try to lock in as close to the top of this framework as possible to identify a solution that is uh as immediate as possible is as affordable as possible. And so based on that available capacity surrounding Powell Elementary School, the long-term viability of those schools and the fact that we have some feasible transportation routes to and from those surrounding schools, we were able to lock in on resoning as a viable solution for POW elementary school. Because we are already talking about POW elementary school, we have another opportunity as well.
040And so this was something that was brought up um and has been brought up in multiple communities uh is that we've got some fractured uh or unaligned feeder patterns for the school. And so our goal is always going to be to strengthen feeder patterns when possible. Reszoning is disruptive. It's a big conversation. It's not necessarily we something we would set out uh to pursue by itself. Um but when we're in the community and we're looking at elementary school, we also have an opportunity to look at middle schools. And so that's what we've done as well. So, we've looked at the middle school zoning patterns um to identify whether or not there's an opportunity to strengthen those to build some continuity across graduating classes to enhance program continuity whether that's acade academic or extracurricular and then
041also for this community in particular to mitigate transfer flip. So we've seen historically between Powell Elementary School, sorry, Pal Middle School and K's middle school that the transfer pattern when metriculating from middle to high school has essentially resulted in about a 100 students swapping back and forth. So we've got about 50 students zoned for Powell High School who are choosing to transfer to Kins High School and about 50 students who are zoned to KS High School who are choosing to transfer to Powell High School. And so we talk about mitigating transfer flip. We've got some families that are already voting with their feet. Uh and it seemed like a good opportunity to kind of zero in and see what we could do about that to help ease that transition as well. And so we had
042reported on all of that last month to the board. In that time, we've also had an opportunity to go out to uh POW High School uh last Thursday. I think it was last Thursday. Seems crazy that it was only a week ago. uh last Thursday uh spent some time with over 175 uh individuals from the community. Had a great conversation. Um truly inspiring to hear the passion um and the input that was offered. Um it was a long meeting, but it was an incredibly worthwhile meeting with the community. There were three zoning scenarios for elementary school that were shared at that time and one middle school zoning scenario that was shared at that time. And so I'm not going to unpack these because we now have a final proposal. But you can see the four
043scenarios that were shared. Uh and they were radically different scenarios intentionally because the goal of that meeting was to say these are the various ways in which we might draw zoning lines to address the challenge at hand. And so to do that, we knew we had to target a reszone of at least 200 students from Powell Elementary School to adjacent schools. That was the only way that we were going to relieve the current capacity strains at Powell Elementary School and create space for future growth. When we looked at the middle school scenario, the goal at that time was to align the middle school zones to the high school zones to create as much continuity from middle school to high school as we could. We know as a district we have more elementary schools than we
044do middle or high schools. And so that elementary to middle school continuity is sometimes challenging, but to the extent possible, we're going to at least try to pursue that middle to high school continuity. Right. And so coming out of that conversation, uh, the team was able to really unpack some great feedback from the community and that feedback fell into five core themes. And I'm going to take a moment to share those with you all today. They're also in your memo if you want to reflect back on these, but these are um areas of input that Dr. Adams and the operations team really took to heart in generating that final proposal. And the goal was to try to address as much of this and incorporate as much of this into that final proposal as possible. So
045those themes were to um pursue a scenario that concentrated zoning efforts to the extent possible on newer developments to uh pursue a solution that uh pursue a middle school scenario that purified feeder patterns from elementary all the way through high school to the extent possible. there was a desire for a more gradual implementation timeline. So to slow down that potential transition for families and for staff uh to give folks time to adjust to the the potential implementation of new zoning lines. There was also a desire for an opportunity um for existing POW elementary and existing POW middle school students to remain at their school through the terminal grade. We're going to talk about that in just a moment as well, but just to be able to finish out their time at their currently zoned school
046with their peers. And finally, there was a preference for a capital plan solution, either new construction or an addition at Powell Elementary School in lie of resoning. We're going to talk about all of these themes um and how the team has been able to incorporate as many of them as possible into the proposed solution. But I do just want to pause on that last one to go ahead and say just right off the bat based on everything we know about the community, the available seats in the surrounding area, we know that pursuing a capital plan solution, recommending that to you all would be it honestly would be financially irresponsible of us. And so we are not recommending that we pursue a capital plan solution, but we do want to honor the fact that that was
047of interest to the community. The solution that Dr. Adams and his team uh have put together truly has been as responsive to that community input um as I think it could be. And I want to take a moment just to preview some things that Mr. Dillingham is going to come up and walk through with you all in more detail. But I will say this for community members who attended the community meeting. Uh the scenario that we're about to share most closely reflects scenario three. And that was a scenario actually that Mr. Triplet asked us to pursue. uh and I think it's a testament to uh your connection in the community that it wound up being the scenario that community members found was most advantageous um and most reflective of their desires for the the reszone
048as well. Uh but I will say this and Mr. Dillingham will talk a little bit more in detail about this. It has changed. So while the scenario we've proposed does closely reflect scenario three, it is not identical to scenario 3 because there were some adjustments made based on the feedback that we heard uh and the input that we received for uh from the community. One thing I will say that has not changed is that to the extent possible the proposed zones do concentrate changes on newer communities. That's not to say that we're not impacting long-standing communities in the Powell area. there was no way to reach that targeted reszone without impacting some uh historic communities in the Powell area. But to the extent possible, the zoning changes have been concentrated around newer developments. You can
049see that on the screen here. And then uh this yellow circle here in the this um arrow coming off of the yellow circle does point to one of the changes that was made on scenario 3 that Mr. Dillingham's going to talk through. And really this was just a great catch from the community. They identified that there was an area that was scheduled to be reszoned out of POW Elementary School to K's Elementary School. Doing that would have actually created a disruption in the feeder pattern. And so there's a change that's been made. That's still an area that's going to have to be reszoned. It will need to go to Bricky Mloud as opposed to K's Elementary School, but by moving to Bricky Mloud, those students will be able to go from Bricky to Pal Middle
050School to PAL High School. So you still have that continuity with your peer group. Even if it's not beginning at POW elementary school, you're still with a group of peers that are going to metriculate to PAL Middle School and PAL High School. And so there are some changes that have been made to that proposed solution. The proposed middle school zone probably has changed the most. I think I mentioned just a moment ago that originally when we went out to the community, you saw a middle school uh proposal that mirrored the middle matched the the middle school zone to the high school zone. Uh what we were confronted with in moving into scenario three was some really great feedback from the community that that also created some discontinuity and some misalignment in the zoning pattern. So
051Mr. Dillingham is going to talk through those changes with you in just a moment, but just know that the proposed middle school zone has changed and those changes were being done to balance two competing objectives. So purifying feeder patterns from elementary through high school to the extent possible while also maintaining consistency for families. So we have an area of POW, this kind of gray area that the yellow arrow is coming off of that will remain at POW Elementary School. And because they are remaining at POW elementary school, the original middle school zone would have proposed zone would have moved that group uh to KS Middle School and KS High School. This is a group that uh is already going from POW elementary school to POW Middle School and then to KS High School. So without
052touching the you know K's high school feeder pattern, we can't reach full purity from elementary school to high school. But what we can do is we can maintain consistency for that community. And so that's the proposal at hand. It is to draw the zoning lines as you see fit. So we can get some uh purity from elementary school to high school for the extent of the community um that it's capable of receiving that purity without touching the high school zoning lines while keeping a pulse on the high school zoning lines and potentially coming back and revisiting those at a later time. So, with that in mind, I'm actually going to pause for just a moment and I'm going to turn the mic over to Mr. Dillingham to talk through the proposed school zones uh with
053much more specificity than I can. >> Thank you, Miss Lner. Um, Madam Chair, members of the board, thank you for having me again. I'm going to talk about some specifics. So, um this is our zoomed out um this is our zoomed out map of the proposed elementary school zones. Uh you can see the the three schools that are affected. Uh when we talked to the community on the 19th there, um the three scenarios that we brought, one of them included Amherst Elementary. This scenario does not. It is centralized in KS Elementary School, Powell Elementary School, and Bricky Mloud Elementary School. So you can see here in the chart the uh capacities of those three schools the um projected enrollment for our uh 2728 and then again in 203031. We wanted to uh kind of echoing
054the theme that we've talked about this is not uh that we've talked about repeatedly throughout this process. We are well aware of how disruptive resoning is. Um it's not it's not a thing to be entered into lightly. It's not something that we take without due gravity. Um, you know, I changed schools when I was in elementary school. It's not a little thing. That's something that we take in into account when we're looking at all of these. So, we try to approach it with intentionality and, you know, gravity due the moment. Um, and so if we're going to go through this process, if we're going to do all of these things, we want to make sure that it is a short-term solution in the next couple years, but it also has some staying power as well.
055We don't want to come back here in another year and say that this is a thing that we need to do once more. So, as you can see, the proposed elementary school zones uh offer more immediate relief, but then also a a long-term potential for a long-term solution as well. So, details of the areas. Um, and I'm going to use my uh pointer here to try to provide a little bit of context. Um, I know it could be a little bit difficult to see on some of the screens. I was thinking that using the mouse might be a better option than the laser pointer. So, um, moving left to right, this is, uh, this is Clinton Highway right here. So, you can see the red outline is the current POW elementary school zone. Obviously, blue
056is KS Elementary School, pink is the POW elementary school zone. So, this is one area that we are um proposing to move from Powell Elementary School to K Elementary School. Um, this line right here, this is Beaver Creek. Um, so that's why it's so squiggly. um we try to draw zone lines so that you know we basically draw the the zone lines not along roads necessarily but along property lines. So that's why some of these things look more jagged than perhaps you might otherwise expect. So this this proposal takes everything west of Clinton Highway and north of Beaver Creek. Um and to Miss Lner's point earlier about um trying to look at newer uh construction, newer developments as um as sort of the the heart of the resoning that we're looking at. This right here
057is Belltown. So, it is currently building out and we expect it to continue to build out. It will fill this entire parcel here. Also come below Emory Road as well. Uh there's some apartments, condos down here as well as a park, some commercial. This is all going to be primarily single family residences on, I believe, quarter uh acre lots. They do have some third acre lots and then there are 14 lots in the back that will be larger. It will be almost a full acre. It also includes the Stanley Road corridor here. There's a number of developments up there as well, but uh in this for this portion, Clinton Highway would be the dividing line between KS and um POW. So, shifting over um this is um the sort of the s what is now
058the southern POW elementary school zone. So, this is Callahan Road here. Clinton Highway comes through here and this is I40. So this uh part of the reszone would take and again the red zone line is the current um elementary school zone. So it currently divides Bricky here um from Powell. Bricky is this sort of purplish brownish color. If I knew what color ochre was, I might say that that's ochre, but um it has been a minute since I watched Bob Ross. So like this one is Bricky. Um, so, uh, the the as I said in the community meeting, the the distribution of of kids of population in Powell, so there's a ridge line that runs here. There's a creek here. There's another ridge line that runs along here. So, the population in Powell is east
059to west along these roads. These are essentially running in valleys. Um, and so this is Callahan Road, this is Beaver Creek, this is Emery Road. So when we're looking at a targeted reszone such as this where we're trying to alleviate provide relief for Powell, um we have we have to move students out. So the zone lines have to go where the students are. And so that left us with looking at east west corridors for a lot of this. So in this we're looking at moving the Callahan Road corridor a portion of the West Beaver Creek corridor you can see here in order to essentially move enough students. Um the change that Miss Lner um alluded to earlier is in the previous scenario three when we talked to the community about it. This portion right here
060was blue. Um we were looking at taking that to Kins Elementary School. Um it's um basically one neighborhood. Um and there's access off of Clinton Highway and access off now access off of Shod Road. So we have um one bus route that comes in here. It actually picks up these students then goes across the street to Cherrybrook. So my thinking in trying to pull this to KS was now we just access offshod road. We can keep a school bus from having to cross Clinton Highway. Um but that wasn't a very good idea. Um so um thankfully one of the uh one of the community members and I haven't seen her tonight. I don't know if she's watching but she came up after the fact and pointed out to me that this would uh create a
061discontinuity in our feeder patterns. Like it works for the elementary school doesn't make any sense after the fifth grade. So um we took that back. She I asked her to put it on a sticky note. God love her. She did. Um so like when we were looking through the sticky notes, that one popped again. I remember the conversation that we had had and I realized she's absolutely right. So um the bus will continue in this proposal. The bus will continue doing what it's doing. Uh and we will leave these students at Bricky. They will stay at Pal Middle School and they will go to PAL High School. All right. The final detail on the right uh this is sort of the call your road corridor. So this is the existing elementary school uh zone line
062between Bricky and Powell. Um and this is Collier Road here. Emory Road is coming through here. Um so this is um backing up. You can see Pal Elementary School there. It is it's getting close to Pal Elementary School. But again, in a targeted reszone such as this, when we are looking to provide uh relief uh to a school, it's about moving a number of students. And so the um we looked at this corridor because there are a number of neighborhoods in this area. is I guess a thing that I should have said earlier but um like makes sense to me but probably not to other people is like when you look at maps like this when you see lots of black text or lots of lines that usually that's a correlary to people. Um so
063if you look in this area over here there's not a lot of lines that means there's not a lot of roads there's not a lot of houses. Belltown this area this is the part of Belltown that's still a field or it's still in construction down here where you see the roads where you see the the text that's where people live. So, when we're looking at this, you can tell there's not a ton of kids live in this area. There are some, but down in here, down in these areas, those are more developed neighborhoods that um yielded a number of students. Um and again, when we're looking at a targeted reszone, a number of students is one of the first things that we look at. All right, so that was the elementary school zone. Now, for
064the the middle school zone, again, as Miss Lner alluded to, uh we have made some changes here as well. So again, you can see the capacity numbers for each school, the 2728 enrollment for each school, and then the 203031 uh enrollment for each school. Uh this is a resone of a different type. This is not a targeted rezone. We're not looking to provide uh capacity relief at either one of these schools. This is in an effort to true up um feeder patterns, if you will, and try to make sure that we can give families some shity and some fidelity um of what kind of school uh community their their students are going to be through uh be in all the way through their their time with us. So, our previous um proposal had this area
065here south of Beaver Creek also being reszoned to K's Elementary School. We have essentially made the middle school proposal match the elementary school proposal. So this is talking about taking um this area north of Beaver Creek and moving it to Kins Elementary or Kins Middle School, excuse me. And again, here's the detail. So this is the same area we talked about before. Here is Belltown. This is Emory Road. This is Clinton Highway. This is Beaver Creek. So everything north of Beaver Creek and west of Clinton Highway in this proposal would go to K's uh middle school lining up so that a family that lives here would go to Kins Elementary School, Kins Middle School, Kins High School. The families along uh this portion of West Beaver Creek uh would remain at Pal Elementary School and
066would keep their current zoning pattern which is Pal Elementary, Pal Middle School, KS High School. The students also it is worth mentioning the students that are being reszoned to Bricky um as a part of the elementary school uh proposal would remain Bricky Mloud Elementary School, PAL Middle School and PAL High School. So there is no change for them at any past the fifth grade. All right, we are almost finished, but uh do you want to take a moment just to talk about the proposed implementation timeline and also some special transfer provision provisions because these are unique to this memo uh and not something that we've been in a position to recommend um or to propose with prior resonings um both for this administration and really in the past as Well, so what we're proposing is
067fairly unique. So I'm going to take it one step at a time. So one thing that I will say is that when we began this conversation both with the board and then when we carried it into that community meeting with the POW community, we were talking about the potential for implementation beginning next school year. And that was in response um to the fact that we know we need some relief at Powell Elementary School. Also in response to the fact that we know once we change zone lines, you really have two groups of families then that you're balancing. You have families that are looking for continuity to the extent possible. They want to make sure that students have as much time as possible in the same peer group in the same school. And so once those
068zoning lines are out there, you've got families who know I'm impacted and I want to stay and I want to stay through the year that I finish. But you also have families that may have rising kindergarteners, that may have first graders, that may have second graders who know they're going to move, that also want to begin at their future school as soon as possible. And so what we're proposing is an opportunity to try to strike a compromise between those two competing interests and to the extent possible address the needs of both sets of families. So, we're proposing that we uh implement a more gradual transition for families that zone lines go into effect not next school year, but for the school year. So, that is a response to what we heard at the community meeting.
069What it also does is it gives us an opportunity to do something very unique with this coming school year with the 2627 school year. So, we are proposing what we're calling an early exit. This would be new to Knox County Schools and this early exit would say, "We know that there's a year gap. We're pausing. We're stretching this timeline out to give folks an opportunity to prepare. Um, but you already know families what your future zone school is going to be. If you have a rising kindergartener, if you have a first grader, a second grader, and you want to go ahead and move your family to the school that you will be zoned to, you have that opportunity. And so I'll just say this. Uh we've heard from the principal at K's Elementary School, also
070a principal at Bricky. Um and they're getting a lot of calls from families wanting to take advantage of this opportunity to the extent that if the proposal passes, uh I know that at least Kins Elementary School is looking at uh putting on an open house for families. Um and so there's a lot of urgency behind acting now to be able to serve this group of families. uh if we are to offer the early exit to families for two main reasons. We will need to make that decision this week and we will need to get that opportunity out to impacted families as soon as possible so that they can make their decision by April 1st. The reason for that is as follows. We have some staffing decisions we have to make. So we will have to
071staff the schools to the students that may be moving out of POW elementary school into either Kins Elementary or Berky Mloud. We know our staff have to follow our students. So there's some pretty rapid decisions that we have to make there. Uh I was actually talking with Miss Spike before the meeting and she was asking about, you know, supports for students um and how those will be navigated when we think about bump up meetings for special education students or students with 504s. Those are all things that need to start happening as soon as possible if there's going to be a change in location for students. So, there's some real urgency to act on behalf of this group of families. And so, again, that early exit very unique to this proposal. Please ask questions if you
072have any questions. But in summary, it is a one-time transfer for families who are currently living in areas that will be impacted by the school zone and want to go ahead and move to their future zone school. As with any transfer that we offer at the district, and this is going to be true in my next slide as well, any transfer does require that families provide transportation to and from the school. So, bus transportation would not be offered in this circumstance. So, that's the early exit. Hold on to that because that's one unique item. The other unique item is this grandfather transfer. So, grandfather transfers are not new to resoning. They're not new to Knox County Schools. The expansion of the grandfather transfer that we are proposing here is very new. So, what we are
073proposing, I'm going to go slowly because it's a lot to unpack, is that any family, any student that is enrolled at POW Elementary School or POW Middle School next fall, any student in one of those two buildings will be eligible for a one-time grandfather transfer when the zone lines go into effect for the 2728 school year. So, what that means, if I am a kindergartener next school year and I want to remain at POW elementary school, I'm going to be offered a grandfather transfer. If I accept it and I have transportation, I will then stay at POW elementary school for my first grade year, my second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, and that's when the transfer ends. It ends in the terminal grade of the school. So, for an elementary school, that's fifth
074grade. For a middle school, that's eighth grade. And that provision would be the same for our middle school students who are enrolled at PAL Middle School next fall. The uh emphasis on fall again comes back to staffing. So we have to have a moment in time in which we uh ask families, do you plan to remain at the school so that we can get those decisions in? We can finalize those decisions so we can staff accordingly. Staffing decisions begin as early as December for school. So it's a pretty rapid turnaround. The other provision that we are recommending with this grandfather transfer, and again this is another unique recommendation is that any student who qualifies for that grandfather transfer, if they have a rising grade sibling, it's a term we made up for this proposal because
075we've never had an opportunity to use it before. But if they have a rising grade sibling, that's a rising kindergarten sibling or a rising sixth grade sibling, they can also claim that sibling for their grandfather transfer. any future siblings. If I have a three-year-old sibling who would not be a rising kindergarten sibling, but may be school age while I'm still in school at POW Elementary School, would then in out years be eligible for a general transfer just like any other sibling um for any other Knox County school. So when that student came of age, when it was time to enroll in kindergarten, family could then submit a general transfer for a sibling transfer for that student um as long as they still have a sibling enrolled at Pal Elementary or if they're uh if they
076are applying for a transfer for the middle school, if they have a sibling at Powell Middle School. So I will say one more time uh that transfers are contingent on transportation that this uh provision is being proposed to be offered to all students enrolled at PAL elementary and also at POW middle school next school year with the understanding that those transfer decisions have to be made by November 1st. So bring me back to this if you all have questions at the end. Again, it's very complicated because we've not done anything quite like this before, but we did feel like it was important to be able to address the concerns from the community. We are in a unique situation in that as of right now. Um, we can offer that to families and we think we
077can sustain that for families. So, we want to do that if at all possible. And so, this is a slide. It's my last slide, but it's one you've seen before. It's one we've showed at the community uh meeting, but it h it does have three changes. Um, and the changes that have been made are those overtime parentheses. So, as we're recapping, you know, what this proposal does for the POW uh elementary school community, what it does for Knox County Schools is it provides us with uh a fairly immediate solution. It is the financially responsible option. Over time, it will eliminate the need for portable usage, relieve traffic congestion, and address parking concerns. That overtime has been added because we do want to be very transparent by offering that extended grandfather transfer the way that we
078have. We know that that relief is not going to be immediate. So, it is going to be a uh relief that is felt over time. It's going to take us some time as students age out of the grandfather transfer. We'll get closer and closer to that projected enrollment number. And then finally, the middle school proposal does give us an opportunity to strengthen some school feeder patterns, knowing that we'll also still need to keep an eye on those high school feeder patterns and see if there's anything we can do in outy years to continue to strengthen that continuity as well. So that is the proposed solution. It's what's reflected in the memo and I'm happy to go back to any slides along the way if you all have any questions. >> Mr. Triplet, >> thank you.
079Obviously, this affects my community. Obviously, it's a it's a PAL PA pal thing. My my goal in all of this has been really twofold. One is to listen to the community. I'll stand with PAL families. Um I know that this proposal or really any proposal wouldn't make everybody happy at any any you know I don't expect it to accomplish that. Uh but loud by and large they've been pretty loud and clear in their disapproval of a reason. Um so ultimately I will represent my community and and probably vote no on Thursday uh to the proposal. The second part of of that is also to really press into it to make it the best it could possibly be based on community feedback. So, uh, if this proposal does pass, I want it to represent the priorities
080of the PAL families and the feedback we have received to make it the best we could possibly be. And I I do appreciate Dr. Adams, Miss Lon, or others, Ryan, all all of you for listening to the community feedback and kind of reshaping and redeveloping and doing some things that are maybe outside the norm to try to make this as smooth as possible. So, I I I do appreciate that. I I feel in a lot of ways that Powell Elementary is a little bit of a casualty in a longstanding lack of of foresight and planning by the county and the and the county commission. We've known the growth's coming. We've we've, you know, known for years that it was coming, uh, but haven't really adequately prepared via infrastructure or even really finances to be ready
081for it. We're, you know, the county itself's, you know, 800 million in debt. So the ability of Knox County schools to say, "Hey, I need more funding for more schools, all those kind of things, uh, is is limited in that that situation, which is why we end up with, you know, an Adrian Bernett that has a temporary school for so long or, you know, a Halls High School's gymnasium gets to the point of near crumbling before they get it replaced." And of course, Pal Elementary with, you know, 42y old portables. Um, and so now we're at the point where we're asking, you know, PAL's 37849 zip code. these these folks have if you don't know the community that is a it is not a Knoxville address it is a Powell Tennessee address that's their address
082and so we're asking them to leave that community and go to go to go to KS and and that's a challenge and I I can appreciate and I understand our our community so I do think overall and I know there's some folks county commission we've got to figure that out for the long term uh because we we continue to have you know aging schools and and lack of resources so at some point you know at these points that continues to cause cause trouble Couple of specific questions for you. So current projections on the screen showed PAL elementary at 578 out of 600 in 2030 2031. There's a concern from from the PAL community that this reszone removes Pal Elementary from future considerations like we've reszoned so now they're off the map there's nothing to worry
083about you know removes them from future investment addition new build anything like that. So if in you know whatever you pick the year 2031 32 whatever it is PAL goes over capacity are they considered then for an addition or are we hey let's just reszone again I mean what what is the answer you know to that to that question? >> Yeah Mr. Tiplet uh Mr. Triplet members of the board it's a great question. So I will say this um and then I'll look at Dr. Adams and Mr. Dillingham and see if they want to chime in as well. Um so there is not a recency list. So, you know, touching or addressing a challenge in a community does not mean, you know, you've done your time and then you have to wait uh for 91
084schools to to get back up on the list, right? Um and so that's not a concern that I would carry. What I would say is that if these projections uh turn out to be underestimations or if in year 2035, 2036 we're looking at additional overcrowding considerations, we keep a pulse on that. And so when we've gotten to a point where we're looking at overcrowding, we're going to go back through this exact same scenario again. Something I'll say actually uh that may benefit the POW community is that if you look at that very first check of the box, it's usually the box that we're not able to check. It's usually the reason we are not able to pursue a reasoning. We would have probably used the underutilized capacity by merit of having done this reszone for
085the community. And so we may not be able to check that box in the future. there may not be underutilized capacity that we can address in the surrounding area. If that's the case and we fail to check that box, then we would need to proceed to addition. We would need to ask ourselves those questions. If we're not able to proceed there, we would need to proceed to new school and see if we can check a box on one of those scenarios as well. And so that's the process we go through anytime we're faced with overcrowding. And I will say it's a large district um and there are a large number of schools that are overcrowded. And so we're currently um you know grappling with this in other areas as well. And so every decision we
086make is made in an ecosystem. Um and they're often comparison and trade-off decisions that are made who whose need is most urgent at any moment in time. But by reasoning now um you know the goal is to find relief and get to a point where there's not intervention that needs to be pursued. But if those numbers again don't bear fruit or they are underestimations, we will be going back to the drawing board uh and reconsidering our options. >> Um second question, uh you mentioned the sibling transfer, obviously the rising whatever new term you just came up with. >> Um but there are folks who don't have a somebody going into kindergarten in 20, you know, in the next that fit that category, but they do have them in years to come. Do siblings get and
087then I look at it from a a middle school perspective. If my child's in middle school, >> but they've they hit the grandfather out of the elementary school, but now they're going to the middle school, but they're not >> grandfathered in, right? >> Do siblings have some level of priority in the transfer portal? >> They do. So, great question. Uh, there are two transfer categories uh that we try to honor if at all possible. So as long as there is not um just outstanding capacity constraints or um a reason that that student would not be able to be served programmatically. So a CDC classroom for instance um would be a good reason that we may need to have a bigger conversation. But beyond those constraints, siblings um and uh students of KCS employees are the
088two categories that above and beyond um are going to be considered first in those placement opportunities. And then the third, that'll be my final question. I I've had some folks that are concerned they're going from a school of, you know, 700, 800 to, you know, 1400. You know, it's a much larger school, >> sending their elementary students to a different place. So questions about you know does does the size of the school change the capacity or the uh you know the the number of students per classroom you know how does how does that work the teacher student ratio just ensuring that the level of commitment and attention that they get at palent now at a school of 1400 will they get that same same level >> that's also a great question so our class sizes
089and I'll talk about them in terms of studenttoteer ratio so studenttoteer ratio uh is defined through our staffing allocations. Um so these are available in our budget book. You all will see them again uh in the upcoming budget book that will be proposed later in April. Um but those are allocations that are made through a formula districtwide. Uh the consideration made is not size of the school when uh running through that formula. It's uh at risk ratio for the school. So the at risk percentage of students is generally correlated around uh the school's economically disadvantaged percentage. So of the three elementary schools we're looking at uh POW elementary school and Brookie Elementary School for kindergarten through third grade, they're at a 19:1 studenttoteer ratio and a 24:1 studenttoteer ratio for fourth and fifth grade. It's
090always a little bit higher for fourth and fifth grade. uh K's elementary school their economically disadvantaged percentage is a little bit less. Um so it is 20 to one for kindergarten through third grade and it is 25 to one for fourth and fifth grade. So there's a one student difference per class uh between Brookie Powell and then compared to K's elementary school but on balance they're essentially the exact same when we think about you know what class size can I anticipate walking into regardless of what school that I'm in. >> Very good. Um, one other thing I want to say is there are folks that may be watching that are not here from PAL. If there are questions as you've watched this or those that are here, um, feel free to shoot me an email.
091Happy to kind of seek out those answers as they as they look forward. So, thank you. >> You miss. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I will try to not repeat any questions because I think you asked some that I had. Um, one I want to say, um, obviously the PAL community knows how to advocate for themselves and I am so thankful for strong communities like that. Um um I think my first question is so um this was what some parents had asked via email about um when their students are reszoned if this passes. Um are is there support that we're going to offer them in transitioning schools? I am only mildly familiar with the communities in that area, but it sounds like there are a lot of strong feelings and a lot of um
092people who feel an identity and I think that that could carry through to the kids. So, how are we going to support them if they get um I guess transfer is the wrong word >> through the resoning process. Yeah. So, great question. And I will say one thing that I think is of advantage uh with the proposal we've been able to make is that we do have a year to prepare. Uh and so really when we think about just navigating that transition, having a year-long runway makes everything a lot easier. But if we think about um those students who may take advantage of the early exit as a good example, right? That would be a group of students that may be leaving their current zoned school to go to a new school environment. Um, part
093of again that urgency is to make sure that those bump up meetings can happen so students who need a little extra support that we want to make sure you know the educators in the school are able to talk to the educators in the receiving school and make plans and know what to expect and families know what to expect. You know, all of that's going to follow that normal bump up process. Dr. uh Brown can share a lot more about what that looks like than I can, but again, you know, you can anticipate that happening um for any student that's going to be moved through resoning as well. So, a year from now when the bus lines change um and students are moving from this zone school to that zone school environment, those same provisions will
094be made. Um I want to go ahead and commend again uh principal uh Daniel Champion at KS Elementary School. He's already anticipating having a an open house if this proposal passes to give families an opportunity to acclimate to KS Elementary School to see that environment um and to determine whether or not they want to make an early change for their families. And so our principles do a pretty phenomenal job just being as um welcoming uh and supportive to their families as possible. And they know this is disruptive. Uh, and so I anticipate that you could see a lot of that same thing happening this time next year, uh, in anticipation of those changes being made. >> Um, if this goes through, is there a time where f those families would have to decide whether they're
095going to take advantage of it early? >> Yes. So, there are two timelines to keep in mind and they are both very important. So for families that would like to take advantage of that early exit, they want to go ahead and transfer to their future zone school, the date we are laser focused on is April 1st of this year, so a month from now. And so if this vote passes on Thursday, there's some pretty rapid communication we'll be getting out to the community. We know spring break is in the midst of all of this. And so there's just a lot of communication um that we'll be pursuing probably beginning on Friday and then again after spring break to make sure that families know that option is there and they've had time to communicate it to
096us so that we can go ahead and finalize everything that needs to be finalized. That's one date to keep in mind. The next important date to keep in mind would be for those students who would like to remain at their current zoned school when the zone lines go into effect 2728. And so the month of October, October 2026, next October is going to be the key month for us. So that'll give families an opportunity to have been in the building, get settled, um, and for us then to begin communicating with families that this is coming, this opportunity exists, uh, and to please take advantage of if that is something that is of interest to them. And so we'll need to have all of those decisions locked in by November 1st. If they're doing this, are
097they applying through the regular transfer for >> That is a great question and I apologize. >> A different one. >> It is a different one and I should have said that. That's true for both of these. So neither of these because they are special provisions will run through the general transfer process. There will be separate links um and separate forms. Uh honestly, it's a lot less uh information that we require from families than we would normally require for a general transfer. We try to make it as easy as possible. Um but both of these opportunities would exist outside of the normal transfer portal. >> And I think this answered my next question of like if we were to delay this that I mean that April one is so soon. If we were to delay this,
098I will say um while nothing changes with the year-long runway, right, that we have to adjust for families um that would be impacted 2728. The big impact in the collateral here would be those families that have already reached out to say, I'm interested in making a change. I have a rising kindergartener. I've got a first grader. I have a second grader. I really want them to have continuity with their peers as much as possible. those families um could take advantage of the general transfer process, but honestly, we wouldn't be able to serve nearly the number through the general transfer process that we're going to be able to serve through an early exit. Okay, cool. Um and then I have two PRZ adjacent questions. Um, the first one is, so I heard from one family that
099they are they believe they're in the PRZ for Powell Elementary, but they feel like on this that they'll be reszoned. Can you speak to that? >> So, uh, Mr. Dillingham and I were talking beforehand, and I think he can give you a little bit more confidence. It sounds like he's going to go uh and take a look at those zoning lines, but the intent is never to move students that are in the PRZ out. We may be very close. Um and we are very close, but the intent would not be to touch the PRZ. >> So, um thank you, Miss Pike, and I appreciate you forwarding me that email as well. Um when we're talking about stuff like this with a PRZ, we have to parse these hairs pretty fine because there are there are
100places like you know, the line has to be drawn somewhere for all lines. So there are places where the house across the street is in a different school zone or the house across the street is not in the PRZ and I am or something like that. So before I give you a specific answer, I want to go back and look and make sure that I'm giving you an informed answer about so that you know you can inform those families like yeah, this is what it's looking at. So like um as Miss Lner said, I'll do that tomorrow. I'll get you some specifics as quickly as we can. >> Okay, cool. And then um this the second one might be for you too. Um with if this passes um and some of those like main roads
101that we looked at, are there any PRZ zones that cross over a main road? And I'm asking this specifically because I know that in my district um Kingston Pike where it runs through the Sequoia Hills and um West High kind of PRZ's that intersection is an absolute nightmare. And me as a very conscious adult, I struggle to want to cross it. And I see families holding their elementary school kids' hands, crossing that road, walking them to school because driving is a toss-up. So that's why I'm asking this question. >> So we the way the PRZs are drawn right now is draw uh driving along public roads irrespective of how wide they are, what they look like or anything like that. So Emery Road is a state route. It's a it's a busy road. Emory Road
102is contained in multiple PRZs uh within the PAL community, >> I guess. Um Oh, I'm sorry. To be more clear, are we moving people into that situation? I know they might currently be there, but are we adding to it? >> So, like people that are be would be reszoned into their new school and be in the PRZ in their new school. >> Yeah. And crossing a main road? >> Okay, cool. Um, hold on. Uh, my last question is the middle school numbers. Why is there so much space at the middle school and not so much space at the elementary schools? >> Sorry. >> No, it's a like so I took a deep breath because it's a complex question. Um, and so and some of it is also, you know, we haven't built a middle school
103in a really long time. So the answers to some of the like why did we build um a middle school of this size or this type or in this configuration, some of those answers lie with boards from 40 years ago. Um and so it's a little bit they're an artifact of where we are. Um you know our um our middle school, we have 54 elementary schools and 17 middle schools. So they're designed to hold a higher capacity of students generally speaking, but the some of it is also a lot of our middle schools used to be something else. We also used to define middle school grade bands differently. And so some of it is, you know, if you're housing four grades in a middle school, you need a larger building. We now only house three
104grades in our middle school. So there it's complicated because our the answer is probably different for every single middle school that we have. Um but there are a lot of things that go into that. Elementary schools there are we we have more of them. They're you usually smaller. There are the requirements both like you don't have a baseball field in an elementary school or a soccer field necessarily like you often do in middle schools. Um and it's not the best example, but there are different requirements for those grade bands. That plays into it as well. Um you know, again, we we have seven uh or excuse me, six grades in elementary school and only three at a middle school. So there's a I guess it's not really an answer to your question, but the bottom
105line is for a variety of reasons, we don't see the capacity issues at our middle schools that we do at our our elementary schools. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Miss Henderson. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, thank you so much to the POW community. I got a lot of emails and like like uh Cat said, you know, the the POW community really comes out and advocates for themselves. So, thank you so much for sending those emails and calling. Um and thank you so much, Corey, for for doing this presentation. And you know, one thing that I'm struggling with is, you know, when we went into the Fargate community to build um the new school, you know, we had proposed a middle school and the community didn't want that. So, we went back to the drawing
106board. There were, I think, like four community meetings. So, I'm struggling with how rushed this process has been. Um there was only one meeting. 179 people showed up. So clearly this is something of great importance to the community. Um and so you did listen to them which I appreciate and came up with a new proposal and a new plan but in two days we're voting on it. And so I think that this should go back to the community to get more community feedback to see okay is this what you were looking for? Does this is is this um is this what y'all want? And so that's where I'm really struggling. some leaning towards voting no just because of how rushed this process has been when we had this before and it was such an amazing
107process and I was very proud of that. I just feel like this one is very rushed. >> Madam Chair, thank you Mr. Henderson. I do want to speak to that. So when we were looking at building the new elementary school, um one of the things that that was a different administration. And so if you remember, uh we we took we went a different route. Uh we purchased a different property. And what we did is we we brought um several different options to the community. It's it's very similar. Uh, one of the reasons it may it may feel rushed is because there was a plan already on the table as far as a new elementary and we brought uh I believe three different plans and one one even included a um freshman academy and so it
108wasn't that we we just brought one option. It was that there was already an option on the table and we brought an alternative just just to get the input. It it wasn't a vote. Um it was to get community input and we took the input back and we came back to the board and the the big change was we built the largest elementary school in Knox County School's history uh because we we wanted to address the needs of of of capacity and growth within that area. Miss Henderson, I'll chime in too just to say that one thing that's worth noting here that is a little bit different is that you know the work had already been done to lock in to a new school build as the solution to ease the overcrowding constraints in the
109Farragate community. What's so different about this situation is that you know once you're talking about a new build to an extent that timeline is yours, right? You've got a pretty long runway. um you know what the design window is going to look like, you know what the construction window is going to look like. So, when we're talking about resoning and we're responding to the projections that are coming in in December um from the planning commission, what our timeline looks like is really again that kind of balancing act between you know the families that we want to give continuity to those early exit families and then also that desire to say we also want to give families an opportunity to retain continuity. And so that's kind of the challenge once you know you're going to reszone
110um and you know that that's the direction that you're headed and the proposal that you're going to make. It's tough to withhold that from families because every subsequent year means another generation could begin at a school that they're not going to end in. And so that's the one thing that's just so challenging when we're talking about resoning. And at least for those of us sitting around the table from a staff standpoint, we've not been confronted with that choice yet. um because the boxes haven't been able to be checked. And so with this being the case, it felt felt most prudent, most responsive to the community to say we're going to tell you as soon as possible. Um but we're going to try to give you this long runway to adjust. Um and so I know
111that it's still urgent. It feels urgent for us as well. Um but that was the balancing act that we were up against. >> I appreciate that. And I have just one more question. Um, I've heard from some families, you know, that talk about the age of the building and that the building is aging. Um, and I know that we aren't talking about obviously an addition to the building, but is there any talk or what would it is there any talk about maybe a building refresh? Is that in the works or does the building need that? I've just heard from many families that have expressed concerns about the aging facilities. >> Madam Chair, thank you, Miss Anderson. Uh so we have been in close communication with the principal. Uh we've done several walkthroughs. There are some
112things that we have done to the building. We will continue to do uh one being flooring. Uh and so we've looked at different areas. I will say uh the building itself is it's it's in better condition than 50% of the buildings uh within Knox County schools in comparison to elementary schools. So uh the building itself uh the roof, the HVAC system, the structure, it's it's structurally sound. But the >> like the bones were good, right? >> Yes. Yes. Yes. But but the re the refresh uh we're having ongoing conversations. As a matter of fact, Miss Frost reached out to me today and we do have some some refresh plans for for the school as well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you, >> Miss Morgan. >> Thank you, Miss Christie. I do just want
113to fact check for the record a little bit. So, the Farragate situation was different because it was not ever set to be a middle school. Dr. Adams and his team brought before the community. These are different options and ask for community input. Um much like with the MLB solution and um holding a community meeting here. I think this is different because in the past the administration I without having sat on the board then in previous administrations they would have just said we're going to reszone that works. And I appreciate the administration's efforts here to involve the community, get their feedback, and make changes. I mean, even hearing uh Mr. Dillingham talk about one person came up to him and said, "Well, if you do that, that's going to throw this off." Um I I hope
114that people can see that everybody is really sensitive to the disruption that resoning is, and it's not an easy conversation to have. Um, I so appreciate the PAL community reaching out and I know it's easy. Uh, I've had some people say it's super easy for you because you have a new school. We do have a new school being built and so I do want to be sensit sensitive to that. Um, however, I have discussed in great depth with Dr. Adams, the condition of the other schools in my district and our students there are u the crowding will be alleviated at our elementary schools but our middle school is very crowded and those buildings are all quite old and in much worse shape than um the PAL elementary building and so I don't want to get
115into a building versus building tit for tat but I think the hard part is I would absolutely want a new school for my kids and I'd be advocating too for it. It's it is um totally understandable and it is really hard to disrupt a community like Mr. Triplet said that your address is Powell. I get that my address is Baragget and if someone tried to split us apart that would be really hard. So I am so sensitive to that. I think at the bigger picture level, you know, we talk a lot about being fiscally responsible and um we're stuck with the funds that we have and I know I sit on the board with people who um are are fiscally responsible minded people and we can't do new schools just because our buildings are old.
116If we could, I think everyone in here would be wanting new schools um for their students and their families. So, I think this is the best solution with what we have. I also was going through today um some of the old emails and and news articles from I think back in November um with PAL parents saying standing here and saying that they don't feel like the portables are acceptable, that they don't feel like their kids are safe in them, that they don't think that the overcrowding is acceptable. And so, this is a solution that the administration has brought before us that solves that problem. and um I think that it's the best we can do under the situation. So, I'll be voting yes for this. >> Dr. Butler, >> thank you, Madam Chair. I I
117want to echo um the thoughts of reszoning that this community is having. um and knowing that it's going to affect you uh in a lot of different ways, some that you may not even realize yet. Uh my question, my thought has been uh that we we've already it seemed to be that we've already said that um building a new school is not an option. So that seemed like something we've already said. So voting yes or no it seemed to me wouldn't be a yes for a new school and um the so my next thought would be uh what is the advantage of of a yes vote and that would be to fix the problems that you talked about. Uh what would be the advantage of a no vote? It could be to give more time
118for consideration. Is this the best answer? And having listened to this though it was presented last month and we started listening I started listening to this. It seems if you turned over every stone and you have uh looked under every rock and so we may have the best best solution now and what would what would make it less than the best is to wait. You lose those things you want to do. The other thing I think is is that um sometime we want to wait to make a decision because we want not to make the decision. So at this point my question is do we have the best solution because if we vote no then the problem will persist. It won't go away. So, so if you're voting, so I'm stuck here because I do
119feel for the for the community most definitely because I know in district one there, you know, we went through reszoning a long time ago. We tried to get we had kids that was living in I view of a school going to South Knox and South Knox had some issues as well. So, so um what I think is that if this is the best decision that it's time to make it, the question I have is and we and I asked that question earlier. What if we delay it? What do we what happens? What do we gain? And that's what's what's it what's the alternative to to to no? If we if I vote no, what's the alternative? What do we what do we do? How do we resolve the problem? Uh, Reverend Butler, members of the
120board, I will say this on um, honestly on Ryan Dillingham's behalf uh, because I had the opportunity to spend some time uh, with him and a member of his team in front of their computer and just observe and I know this is what Dr. Adams has spent probably the past month of his life doing. Uh, so I had a sneak peek um kind of into into their lives. And what's so unique uh and I'll I'll let them hop in here in just a moment to you about this zone in particular is that this isn't, you know, wide open space, right? Um, this isn't undeveloped territory. Um, this is a pretty constrained area and based on the information they have at their disposal, the resources they have at their disposal, there really are only so many
121ways you can draw those lines and still generate the targeted amount of relief needed to conduct school in a way that is not overcrowded or taxed or strained at Powell Elementary School. So, from a staff standpoint, um I feel like we can say with with pretty great certainty that these are the lines we feel best about if the goal is to not be back here a year from now, two years from now, or three years from now when we're overcrowded, 100 students more than we currently are overcrowded, and we're faced with potentially making a decision for next year with significantly fewer students who are able to remain on grandfather. And so when we think about the reason we've made the proposal and the time we've made the proposal, again, it goes back to that balancing
122act and wanting to give families that opportunity um to exit so that we can have some immediate relief next school year ideally, but also so that those families can begin the school that they're going to be at. Um but to be able to also offer the community a longer than usual runway to be able to adjust. And so that's the hope. It's hard. It's disruptive. It is challenging. Um, and so the intent behind that expanded grandfather transfer and we're not generally in a position to be able to recommend that is to give those students who have formed a relationship with the school, built those peer bonds um with their peers a chance to remain through fifth grade and then through 8th grade if they're at the middle school. And so that's that's the goal for
123our uh from our standpoint. I don't know that we would have a different proposal to bring a month from now. Oh, and I saw Dr. Ice looks like Hold on. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Re but I would I would say this too long term. I think what Miss Lner said and what Dr. Adams and and Mr. Dillingham said is this is our best thinking on that. The truth of the matter is I mean we've had a long discussion at the board retreat this year about where we are financially. Um you know, you all approve a capital plan for five years out. That's as as far out as we do that. um our current plan and and a lot of people don't know this in the general public. We are part of the counties and
124this is not a shot at the county. Sorry Adam, not a shot at you guys at all. It's just the reality of of how things are built and how things are done, but we're all part of that same debt service. So, we work with Chris Cwell at the county to talk about um how much debt we can take on our portion of that debt every year and that's how we get our caps for the capital plan. So, um you guys know because you've voted on that five-year plan. a five-year plan. Um, still has MLB Farragate to be finished, MLB to be built. Um, there's a South Knox solution that is part of that, too. That is on the tail end of this five-year plan. So, you know, we're we're capped for 5 years. And that's
125just so the public understands that, too. That's not just a matter of moving a few dollars around. Like, we don't have a few, you guys know, 87% of our of our of our um budget is is personnel, which and it should be. Um, so when you look at where would the next time if there were any bills additions andor I mean we're talking like $60 million right Dr. Adams where we are right now on some of these builds of schools it's probably 8 to 10 years before we would even have the capacity or clearance from the county to be able to put any other debt on because every time we build these buildings that debt now is just like our lo our home mortgage payments. we're paying on that now um to the tune of
126you know 15 to12 million over what that cap is that goes in our general purpose budget. So uh again your your long-term question if you were asking on that but if this is if this isn't the solution I would just say not a lot changes probably for the next 8 to 10 years uh in that community. Um population continues to grow. We continue to use the portables. Uh we have to use the the facilities as best we have at what we have. there's not an easy plan to just move $60 million in the next year or two to get that done, especially with other projects ahead. So, that's kind of the long long-term runway for that. >> Miss Fonta Ridley, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Um, first of all, thank you for the emails and
127I'm sorry that I could not keep up with them. Um, I do, um, want to go, well, going through them, reading everybody's comments and proposals and everything, it brings me back to 2008 when my son went to Beardon High School and he was a upcoming junior when they opened up Harden Valley and it was um, kind of a smaller scale grandfathered in type of situation and he was able to go to Ver high school as long as he could get there. We were two miles away from Bearden and nine miles away from Harden Valley. So, um I couldn't take him to school. So, he just had a friend in the neighborhood that could take him and I appreciated that um at that point. Didn't realize what goes on sorry in the background when those decisions
128are made. And I appreciate the work that the committee has put in to trying to um compromise on timelines and zone lines and because those are never easy to make because what about my neighborhood? What about my street? What about everything? And um I realized that I was on the tail end of a zone of zoning issue. But um it's it's extremely difficult behind the scenes and especially since being on the board. I see that in just about everything that we do. You know, I talked for I taught for 30 years and I thought, "Oh, I know everything about what's going on." I knew nothing about what was going on behind the scenes and how they are um making plans and trying to make it the best option for everybody involved. And I know that
129it's hard on some, but I mean the community in West Knoxville has, you know, oh, we got to res. We were reszoneed for Harden Valley. A lot of the people around me never even knew that. So, um, it's it's been something. So, I appreciate you all's work. Thanks, >> Miss Templeton. Um, so much in my notes has already been said, so I won't echo that. Other than to say thank you to the Powell community, I think that um, every opportunity I can take to tell our constituents to reach out um, and to do it often and to do it clearly, we appreciate it. Um, I've had many conversations um, primarily over email in the last two to three weeks and um, the passion and commitment of this community as a neighborhood and as um a
130collective um is a powerful one and I commend you for that. Um we've started hearing um from you last year so um we thank you for reaching out and doing that. Um I have so most of my questions had been answered but I did have one u Miss Lner you spoke about portables and when we talk about possibly kicking the can and not and waiting to do what sounds like is inevitable because it's not a capital a capital uh possibility to build a new school or to do the additions um in an imminent nature. Uh, one thing that I've heard recurring as a issue from parents are their kids in portables and they want their kids inside the actual intended space for in the school building. And um, if we kick the can on this
131um, I I recognize that in your slide you said that movement out of portables will clearly be over time, but that is an ultimate goal. Can you a confirm that that is a goal and b also um confirm that that puts that in danger if we kick the can? >> Yes or no? >> Uh so I'll answer your first question first and then I might need some clarity on the second. But yes, the goal would be to move away from the need for portables at POW Elementary School. um anytime that we do this amount of work in a community, uh if we can, we're going to get out of portables. Um and so the the compromise there and that overtime that you see, what makes that a challenge to predict is really going to be
132the number of families and not knowing the number of families that are going to take advantage of that grandfather transfer. Um, you know, if 50% of eligible families choose to take advantage of that grandfather transfer, that's probably going to be using uh portables for, you know, two, three, four more years. Um, if fewer than 50% choose to take advantage of that transfer. It may be less than that. The good news about this solution though, um, and I'm going to look at Dr. Adams too uh to help provide some context is that I believe we have is it one or two new units. >> Uh Madam Chair, Miss Hamilton, uh Miss Lner, we have two we have we replaced one completely and we added one. So, and they were repurposed portables, but they're newer portables. >>
133Okay. So, two newer portables, four portable classrooms um that are relatively new uh currently on site. Um, I would say definitely newer than most of the portables that we have across the district. Uh, and that as we move forward in time and more and more classes kind of graduate, metriculate out of that grandfather transfer, the need for those portable classrooms is going to continue to reduce. Um, and so it's going to be a little bit of a rolling target. Um, but again, we're not going to go through this amount of work uh and come out on the other end uh with the anticipation of still needing the portables. Out of curiosity, what happens in four years to these portables? >> Madame Chair, uh, Miss Templeton, what happens to all of the Well, it would depend
134on the conditions of the portables. So, uh, that I mean, we could repurpose portables or we could just do a demo to the portables like we did the one we replaced. >> So, if they are no longer used, at what point after they are no longer used, are they removed? It just depends. Okay. It it it to remove a portable to demolish a portable is roughly $60,000. >> So it it would have to be what's in our existing capital plan as far as how we remove or repurpose the portables. >> Okay. >> Um thank you for that. Um you completely distract me. I'm sure. >> Did I answer your second question? Uh well my my second question was in regard to not making this decision now >> and um >> I could probably I think
135I know um now what the question was. Um so I can say if we don't make the decision now portables continue to be used >> right and you know and I agree with uh you know Reverend Butler that um often we don't want to make a decision because the decision's hard. Um, so I'll be willing to make a decision on Thursday. Um, I still have some conversations that I want to loop back in with some folks over email and phone. Um, but I I feel like it's important to make a decision one way or another. Um, so that we can um, if it is a go, we can make it as smooth of a process um, as possible for the folks that will be affected. Thank you, Miss Templeton. Um, I do have a question,
136Dr. Adams, Mr. Dillingham, I don't know who this is for, but um, the projected enrollment numbers that do we still get those once a year or have they changed that? >> That is correct. We get the projected enrollment numbers around December, >> right? And we have I know we've had some discussions about maybe with all the growth it might be nice to get those twice a year instead of instead of once. Have you heard any problem? >> No, we've had conversations about it unless Ryan you unless you have something um new. I know we've had conversations but I don't know if we're moving in that direction quite yet. >> I got a sort of kind of for you. Um so the um so planning sends us monthly uh enrollment impact notifiers. So every month they
137look at the um the permits that were pulled uh for the entire county the things the um developments that they're expecting. They run a miniature projection off of those developments and say at full yield this is what we expect. So we get those uh every month now uh and and we track those every month now by school zone. Um, so the time like it's not a full projection because the timelines are all over the place. Like this is this development will be done in four years and there's going to be 30 kids. This development is going to be done next year and there's 40 kids. Like it's so it's not a fullblown projection suite, but it is uh it's really useful for keeping a pulse on where we are and what things are looking like
138in between the full blown projection suites. and and they are the ones that do the formula that comes back with numbers like they the planning commission will say we expect this neighborhood to yield x amount of students. Correct? >> They use a um they use a program called Davis Demographics that is um recognized across the K12 community for doing enrollment projections. And so um we jointly pay for the license but they do the bulk of that work of working the algorithms. um they they do the bulk of the the dividing the county up into um study areas. They do kind of the math part. We provide student information. We work with them on um divi on what the study areas should look like, provide them demographic information, those sorts of things. >> Thank you. So,
139and just I've got notes all over the place, so I'm sorry. I want to try to sort through them here. Um, and and I'm very sympathetic to um, you know, the PAL community and please know I have read all of your emails. I apologize. I have not responded to them yet. Uh, but part of the reason for that is I wanted the opportunity to go out and visit Pal Elementary. I wanted to see it for myself. Um, and I was not able to do that until last Friday. So, thank you Dr. Adams for clearing some time in your schedule. So, um hopefully I now that I have seen it and hopefully I can start responding to some of those now. Um, you know, we have I I can honestly say, um, what I did see
140at PAL, I have seen it many of my schools, and I know that everyone's sick of hearing about New Hope Well being built as a temporary school in the 70s, but it was um, you know, and they're struggling right now, too. And I am thankful we finally got got them on the plan. And I I know we have I don't know whose district it is. We have a high school it might be yours a high school cafeteria where students are having to hike out of the cafeteria and eat their lunch elsewhere. Um and this is not to I'm not saying this to minimize um the concerns in PAL. I'm just saying this to frame it in the sense that you know there are some things we can't control. The board cannot control um and it's
141not meant as a political statement but we cannot control growth or where the growth happens. Um we do not control the amount of funding we get. Uh we can control how we spend it but as we said a large portion of this does go to staffing. Um so there are challenges. I mean, I think we would all love to give everybody new schools because we do recognize that there's a lot of aging infrastructure, but you know, we also have to be fiscally responsible and um have a process for evaluating our facilities and prioritizing those and and that's where I'm struggling with this. Um, you know, reszoning is not easy. I think the more time we can give people to prepare for that that you know that the flip side of not doing anything now is
142then if you don't do anything and you come back and the answer's the same then it's you haven't given enough time to prepare um for those transitions. I do like this in the sense that it gives plenty of time to for families to prepare and I' I said this with when we were talking about Mil Creek. It's very difficult and we hear it all the time. I bought this house so I could send my child to this school and the reality is we can't guarantee that anymore. I mean I don't feel comfortable. I don't know if you do, Mr. Dillingham or Dr. Adams, but just with the growth we've had, it's hard to, you know, I mean, I can appreciate that. I mean, my kids went to Sweet Pony Kate and I would be devastated,
143you know, or it would have been if we were having this conversation and, you know, as a PTA mom, I I feel all the things I'm hearing from Pal because I can, you know, put myself in that position. What if this had been us at, you know, the school we love so much? Um so those are some of the struggles. So you know I just want you know people to hear that these are our challenges. We have challenges with funding and we hear a lot about growth but you know we do our our best to accommodate that when we are given those numbers but we do not create these numbers and we do not have any control over that or where that's happening. So, these are just, you know, and I am going to try
144to get back to responding to to those emails, but I do want everyone to kind of hear that and understand um where our challenges are as a board member as board members as far as you know what the options are and giving people time to plan and prepare for those. So, Mr. Right. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to echo that. Um, we've talked reszoning is just it's not easy. It's not easy at all. Um, I got reszoned out of fifth grade uh when Gibbs Middle School closed in the early 90s. And I'm glad that Coach Mitchell is not here to hear me say that because she would probably tell me that I'm dating uh or showing age here, but um you know in in our area and Gibbs and Cory Ridda uh I think
145it'd be nice to just have 1100 seats. I don't think we anywhere near that at all. Um, so I as hard as this is, as hard as resoning is, uh, I think we need to make a decision and at least, uh, give these parents and students a, you know, enough notice as to their options and how to move forward. So that's all I've got. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. I've lost my agenda. >> All right. So, is there anything else on that? So, moving on to public forum. Mr. Right. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. We got two public forum speakers tonight. Uh, first is Nathan Vada. >> Nathan, if you would just state your name and county of presidents, you'll have three minutes. >> Absolutely. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, board members, Mr.
146Superintendent, my name is Nathaniel Vada, and I'm a PAL resident. Uh, I reside in District 7. Um, and I'm here to respectfully ask you to vote no. The proposed resoning for PAL Elementary does not solve our problems. This request is simply grounded on data, impact, and process. Let's address the first capacity because it is the primary justification for this proposal. According to Knox County Schools and their enrollment data, Pal Elementary currently serves approximately 776 students. The school's state rated functional capacity for that school is roughly 850 students. And that places Pal Elementary below capacity levels, not over it. Over the past several years, the enrollment at Pal Elementary has actually remained stable and actually has declined slightly, not increased. This directly contradicts the narrative that resoning is required to relieve overcrowding. A school operating below
147capacity does not meet the threshold for urgent boundary changes. Much attention has been placed on these portables. The portables, however, are not an evidence of overcrowding. They are a longstanding district-wide tool used across Knox County, including schools that are not being reszoned. The problem is not that portables exist. The problem is that they have not been adequately maintained. Maintenance issues. HVAC, agent materials and infrastructure. These are all facility issues, not enrollment failures, and resoning does not repair repair the portables. Proper maintenance does. Second, this resoning proposal will only result in job loss. Reducing enrollment at PAL Elementary will lead directly to the loss of teaching positions, administrative roles, and support staff. These are experienced educators who serve our students, our families, and our broader PAL community every day. and eliminating these positions at a school
148that is not over capacity is not strategic and is highly avoidable. Third, the speed of this, it feels completely punitive. I know I've had discussions with many of you about it being that and feeling that way, but this proposal has moved forward very rapidly without comprehensive facilities plans, without phased alternatives, and without a demonstrated attempt to stabilize the PAL elementary through an investment rather than a reduction. These decisions are of this magnitude are rushed and it really erodess the trust and signals that the outcomes were predetermined before the community input was even really fully considered. PAL is not failing. It is not overcrowded and it does not need reszoned to be to succeed. What it needs is maintenance, planning, and commitment. And tonight, you have that opportunity to pause this process, protect the jobs, respect
149the data, and uphold responsible governance. I respectfully urge you to vote no on this reszoning proposal. Thank you. >> Thank you, Nathan. Next is Bo Bennett. Please state your name and county of residents. You'll have three minutes. >> Absolutely. My name is Bo Bennett, Knox County, uh the PAL community. Uh good evening and thank you for this opportunity to speak and thank you for your service. I truly appreciate the hard work that the administration superintendent have invested in this PAL resoning proposal. Out of the potential options, this is likely the most reasonable. That said, the statement was made that this is your best plan. Yet, as we heard moments ago, the community feedback brought good and reasonable changes to that plan already. Let's have more of that. We had one meeting, right? Since the meeting
150on the 19th, I've spoken with many in our community. I'm also speaking with our PTA tomorrow. What I'm hearing is clear. People feel this process unfolded without them. They felt ignored and unheard with unanswered emails, concerns being dismissed, and now we're rushing to the finish line with limited public input. The families who are most affected, those with kids in our public schools or working in them, deserve our best. I agree with many of Mr. V's points. I'd add this as well. Since we're already planning to delay the implementation for two school years outside of the transfer issue, why the urgency to vote now? Most folks I have spoken with would support resoning if it came with a genuine long-term commitment, conversation, and a real plan to address our growth so that we don't face these
151same issues again in a few years. I'm respectfully asking you to table this vote or defeat it for now. Let's pause, hold more open and direct community conversations, and collaborate to build a stronger future for our county and our kids. I also want to recognize some of the outstanding work happening across our school district. Miss Christie and the team at New Hopewell, Reverend Butler and New Londale, Miss Henderson success at Mil Creek, Miss Morgan and the beautiful new Farragate Elementary, Mr. Wright, Miss Spike, our newer board members. Each of you have been strong advocates for your district. Public service is tough. You can't please everyone, but on behalf of my community and my children, I'm asking, will you help us in the seventh district? We need your support, especially in the PAL community. Finally, we've
152been hearing parents, teachers, and even students speaking up. It shows how much people care. They want to be truly seen and heard. This isn't a plea to do nothing. It's to have more conversation before this vote happens and locks in our path. The impact to families, teachers, jobs, and our future is real. Thank you for your time, Madam Chair. I yield the rest of my time. >> Thank you, Bo. That concludes public forum. >> Thank you. So, moving on to board forum. We'll start with our student rep. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, nothing from me really. Just looking forward to a restful end of the third quarter and a wonderful spring break for all of our students. >> Dr. Butler. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank the uh staff for supporting
153district 1 with uh the annual reports and information. We had a wonderful town hall meeting on Saturday comprised of our uh state representative that represents the district one area uh city council, county commissioner and myself and we had a good good amount of uh citizens there that had a lot of great questions. Some of them which we could answer. So we just thank you for all your your work to help us reach out to our community. Thank you, Miss Templeton. >> Um, I want to say congratulations again to all those who were honored last week at the um, teacher of the year awards ceremony. That was really, it's always fantastic to be in a room um, overachievers. Um, it was great um, just to be a part of that. I was kind of in and
154out, but saw some really um, excited teachers who are um, investing in our kids. So, thank you for your time. all of you. Um, and I want to wish everyone a wonderful spring break, whether it keeps you home with a station or takes you far away. So, be safe and see you next month. >> Thank you, Miss Fonta Ridley. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I again want to emphasize how much I appreciate the advocacy from the PAL community. Um, a lot of times we kind of sit there wondering what people are thinking about some of the issues that we're dealing with and there is no doubt how you all feel about what's going on. Um, I also want to know if anybody knows the score of the Beard and POW girls basketball game because
155I have not been able to find it on my phone at all. So, if anybody can help me out with that. Mr. Triplet, you do you have any inside word? Go Bulldogs. Miss F. >> Thank you. Um I have three asks tonight. The first and most important one is an ask for you to keep um the KAC, the Knox Adaptive Education Center staff and students in your thoughts. um during the month of February, they had a um sudden loss of a staff member. And I'm so thankful that our district has trained professionals that they can send out to help staff and students and that we have such a caring central office to be on top of that. Um I've certainly been thinking of them. And my next ask is I would love to see um
156maybe in the next six months or by our next um board retreat a comprehensive plan on our portables and um conditions. I know we have a fac we did a facilities assessment, but I would specifically like to focus on the portables and kind of across the county and places where like ages and um and and things like that and what our plan is if we plan to continue using them. Um and then the next ask is um for a facilities report on tickets per school. I know that's probably going to take some time, but I'd love to see like in a certain period of time, up to you all, um how many tickets each school is kind of submitting and then also um repeat tickets, maybe the top three to five repeat tickets for those
157schools. Thank you. And happy spring break. >> All right, Miss Morid. >> Well, I It's hard to follow that. I'm like cat's brain's going and I've already moved on to spring break. Uh I would like to recognize uh the students at Farragate High School who uh were named National Merit finalists. We had 18 National Merit finalists name, which is the most from any high school in the whole East Tennessee area. And uh there's a lot of amazing things at all of our high schools. and I love all the different areas that our kids can uh get involved in and just wanted to recognize those outstanding academic students and everyone have a great spring break. >> Miss Henderson, Mr. Triplet, >> like to thank the PAL community for lots of emails and all all the things.
158I I appreciate um so many folks I've received emails say, you know, I prefer you vote no and I I don't want this reszone, but if we do, you know, here is my thoughts on the proposal. So, I appreciate their willingness to speak into the proposal even though the preference is is for a no. So, I do appreciate their their representation and their feedback. >> Mr. Drake, >> thank you, Madam Chair. Um, just a couple more things to continue highlighting one of my high schools, which is Gibbs. Um, in addition to Coach Mitchell getting her national award, we also had the uh head baseball coach Jeff Davis was inducted in Tennessee Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame last month in January as one of four inductees. He is also just like Coach Mitchell, he was a
159graduate of Gibbs and went back and just like she did has spent almost 30 years at the school that they grew up at. So, congratulations to him. Congratulations obviously to her and also uh congratulations uh the athletic director Dustin Minet and the principal Jason Webster. They've already skipped out, but that's okay. Uh wanted to highlight that in December, Gibbs High School was officially awarded the quality program assessment exemplary level recognition for the national intercolastic athletic administrators association. Gibbs is the only the fifth school in the state of Tennessee and the first noncharter public school to receive this award. Uh it's the QPA award recognizes schools with outstanding intercolastic athletic programs operating at an exemplary level that meet rigorous standards across 10 distinct comprehensive categories. It is not an award for a single person but rather
160an accreditation for the entire school's athletic department highlighting excellence in administration, safety, educational and and educational alignment. Uh the award signifies that a school's athletic department is ensuring athletic programs prioritize student athletic or student athlete well-being, integrity, and safety. So again, I just want to say congratulations to Gibbs High School and athletic director Dustin Minet for that awesome achievement. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. All right. Well, I just have a couple of things again. Um pal, thank you for coming out tonight. Thank you for the emails um and the advocacy. I think um all of those we you know have had children in the schools and some of us have been PTA moms and teachers and that's such an important part of community and and so thank you for that. Um teacher
161of the year was a wonderful celebration. I want to do a little shout out to our high school teacher of the year, Hannah Berkeley, who is our um South Southville course teacher. She does an amazing job. And also, I would just like to give a shout out to our school security officers and our chief Grenillo and Dr. Adams. We had a a really good celebration at our graduation the other night with our most recent cadetses officers. And I will leave on this. I was impressed with the class president is her name Oglesby. Officer Oglesby I think. Okay. Um when addressing her fellow graduates she ended her speech with be the person you needed when you were younger. and it it was just, you know, and I I think that kind of speaks to the heart
162of our security department. So, thank you all. Um, thanks to the guys that are here tonight and and to all of our officers and congratulations to our new cadetses. So, with that, we are a journ.