001ation's February 5th, 2026 regular session meeting. Please stand as we observe a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance led by Miss Morgan. flag 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, Miss Morgan. Um, we have a couple of announcements. First, the strategic plan committee was scheduled to meet on February 3rd to finalize work on aligning the superintendent evaluation instrument with our new strategic plan, but due to hazardous road conditions, the meeting was rescheduled to Tuesday, February 24th. The meeting will begin at 300 p.m. in this boardroom. And also board members, um, a little bit of housekeeping. You may recall at our November 6th board meeting, or you may not.
002That's been a hot minute ago. Um, that a contract with Tyler Technologies was approved for provision of human resources and payroll information systems. The contract was approved for a three-year term and the term dates listed on the contract were December 1st, 2026 through November 30th, 2029. Following our vote and routing, the um contract for signatures, Knox County Procurement alerted the law department that the dates listed on the contract were incorrect due to a clerical error error and should have been listed as December 1st, 2025 through November 30th, 2028. So the years were wrong on um that. So for expediency purposes and to correct the dates, Mr. Dupler has recommended that this information be shared publicly, which we are doing now, and for all parties to initial next to the corrected dates on the original signed
003document. So without objection, I plan to initial on behalf of the board um for the correction to be made. >> Would you like to add anything, Mr. Dupor? Did that sum it up? No, Madam Chair, you said you said it beautifully. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Um, so with that, are there any requested changes to the agenda? >> So, we have a motion by Dr. Butler, a second by Miss Henderson. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. So, moving on to our agenda. Just my agenda. All right, I think we have some special recognitions. Dr. Ricewick, is that you? Dr. Wilson. [clears throat] All right. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Um, we're always excited to have the opportunity to celebrate the meaningful accomplishments that we
004have here in the district. And tonight we have some recognitions to share as we reflect on the important work that's happening across our schools. As you may recall in November, the Tennessee Department of Education recognized Knox County Schools as an advancing district, one of the highest distinctions that a district can receive. It's also the time that they announced the most recent list of reward schools based on the 2024 2025 school year. This is the state's highest designation for schools and recognizes those demonstrating strong performance in both student achievement and academic growth for all students and student groups. This evening, we're proud to recognize 18 of our schools that earned the Reward School designation. Uh, as Dr. Rasuk often says, achievements like these don't happen by chance. They're the result of the hard work, dedication, and
005persistence of our principles, our teachers, and our students. Their focus on our four district priorities has remained strong, and that consistency is producing real results. So, at this time, we're going to invite representatives, many of which I think are standing behind me, um, from each school to come forward and be called for a photo. We're going to begin with our region one schools and we're going to invite our board members to join their schools uh for pictures as well. So we'll do a region at a time, take a photo and move on to the next region beginning with region one. So to get started, principles, I'll ask that and guest I'll ask that you come forward as I call your name. Uh for region one, Al Lots Elementary, Tracy Marsh is our principal and she's
006here tonight. [snorts] [applause] Get in here. Okay. Do you want to do those first? Okay. So, just to clarify, we're going to have an individual photo and a group photo. So, there you go. >> On your way. a little higher. >> It's a souvenir. >> I'd also like to recognize as we're doing this that we have uh Dr. Shelley Maddox and Seth Smith, our region one director and supervisor who uh who contribute also to this work. So, we're we're excited to have them here and represented tonight. Uh next, we're recognizing Bluegrass Elementary Dr. Casey Cutter and Assistant Principal Misty Jenkins. [applause] >> Next, Farragut High School and Dr. John Bartlett. [applause] All >> [snorts] >> right. All right. Farragut Intermediate and Suzanne Pum. [applause] I'm trying my hardest. I'll always get your name right. Thank
007you >> from Northshore Elementary. Principal Kimberly Harris and Assistant Principal Stacy Hillyard. [applause] >> Thank you guys. Sequoia Elementary Principal Shay Soler. >> [applause] [applause] >> Yeah. And rounding out region one, we have Farragut Middle principal and I like to think the better of the Adams brothers, Gregory Adams. [applause] >> Can we get a quick picture with Albert, too? Can we get Albert? >> Yeah, sure. Go. So, do we want to >> real quick? We're going to do another jump. >> We're gonna do Albert first. >> Do you want to kick Greg out? Is that [laughter] >> Okay, here we go. There we go. That's good. >> All right. So, do we want all of our region one principles, >> Carly? All right. >> Should be good. All right. Three, two, one. >> Got it.
008>> Let's give a hand to our region one principles. Thank you [applause] guys. Thanks. >> Thanks, John. >> All right, let's move on to region two. And our first school will be Amherst Elementary and principal Dr. Trina Spista and assistant principal Dr. Sarah Williams. [applause] All right. Three, two, one. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Also want to recognize Nate Langlo and Christy Dal, our region 2 director and supervisor. Appreciate you guys being here tonight, too. Yeah. [applause] All right. Next, Harden Valley Elementary Principal David Claxton and Assistant Principal Heather Records. [applause] >> Two. And our last region 2 school, Pleasant Ridge Elementary principal Jennifer Morurell and Assistant Principal Jenny Scott. [applause] You can leave your posters over there if you want them. >> Three, two, one. Perfect. >> All right. All right.
009Region three. Our first school is Gap Creek Elementary and principal Carl Whipple and Miss Rebecca Sers. [applause] Thank you guys. >> Also joining us obviously are Megan Odell and Tommy Watson, our region 3 uh director and supervisor. Appreciate their support for our schools. [applause] Next we have Mount Olive Elementary, Dr. Jennifer Atkins and AA assistant administrator Kylie Pennington. [clears throat] [applause] >> [laughter] >> There we go. Perfect. >> All right. Three, two, one. >> Next, Career Magnet Academy and principal Dr. Charlene Lewis. [applause] >> [laughter] >> Thank you. >> And our final region three school is the LNN STEM Academy and Principal Jim Allen. [applause] The region three schools come back for a final group photo. >> You can leave your card wherever you want. Just pick it back up when you're next. There you
010go. [clears throat] Three, two, one. >> Thank you guys. [applause] >> Hey, aren't you tired of doing this at this point? All right, we'll move on to region four and our first school is Bricky Mloud Elementary. Principal Dr. Susan Hutton and assistant principal Wes Adcock. [applause] Yeah. >> Can we get one of them in there, too? >> And I'll take a moment to recognize Cindy White and Adam Parker, our region 4 director and supervisor. Thank them for their support of our schools. [applause] Next we have Gibbs Elementary Principal Joe Cameron and Assistant Principal Michelle Natz. [applause] >> Or just >> That's good. Thank you. You're here with us, too. There you go. All >> [applause] >> right. And rounding out region four, we have Shannondelle Elementary principal Renee Rapika and assistant principal Terry Fischer. [applause]
011They're going to get a picture with everybody now. >> [laughter] >> All right. Three, two, one. [applause] >> [applause] >> All right, moving on to region five and Katie somewhere. Come on up here, Dexter and Katie. [clears throat] We're happy to welcome Chrisenberry Elementary and principal Dr. Tanya Cash. [applause] >> Huh? Tell them to come on up. [clears throat] I also want to recognize Katie Lutton and Dexter Murphy, our region five team, director and supervisor that go out and help work with our schools in region five. [applause] Thank you guys. With that, that brings us to the end of our reward school recognitions. Let's give all those schools and teams and teachers a big hand. [applause] All right. So, congratulations to all of our reward schools. Next up, we have a legislative update. Mr. Wright.
012[clears throat] >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, got a lot on the agenda, so I'm going to be brief. Uh, as you already know, due to the winter storms in Nashville and surrounding areas, our state legislator legislature did not conduct business last week. They resumed normal business on Monday, February 2nd, and several of the House and Senate Education Committees have also met this week. All of the committee meetings are livereamed if you'd like to watch those. Um, we will be receivingformational updates via email on Friday in TSBA's weekly legislative update. Uh, in last Friday's legislative update, TSBA included a link to a bill tracker. That's basically the education bill tracker with detailed information on education legislation that has been filed so far. Now, that was as of last Friday. As I understand it from TSBA
013[clears throat] this week, when they got back on Monday, there were between 500 and 600 bills that dropped that day. So, they're catching up on things. Um, just a reminder, too, that several of us will be attending TSBA's legislative and legal institute to be held in Franklin, Tennessee on February 16th and 17th. We look forward to sharing up-to-date information from that event. Um, and another note on those 500 to 600 bills that were filed. Um, also remember that legislators in the House were cut from 15 bills to 10 bills this year. So there there's not going to be as many items as you may think, but there's still a lot due to the storms. So, thank you, Madam Chair. Right. Thank you, Mr. Wright. Next, we have our PAL area solution presentation. Mr. Triplet, would
014you like to lead this? >> Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to welcome some folks from the PAL community that uh showed up on a cool Thursday evening to be here and I hear the presentation. Appreciate Dr. Adams, Miss Lner, and others on their team putting together the presentation. Uh we've been talking about this for about a year and a half, two years, looking for a solution. We've got a great school, great community, great teachers, great staff. Um, but PAL has its challenges. So, we're a landlocked facility with uh in a growing community with aging portables and difficult traffic pattern. So, been looking for a solution that checks all of or as many of the boxes as we can that is fiscally responsible, can be done in a timely manner. I know these folks
015have put in quite a bit of work. So, we're going to kind of review that presentation, then we'll have an opportunity to discuss it at a community meeting later on. But appreciate it, Dr. Adams. >> Thank you, Mr. Triplet, Madam Chair, members of the board. I appreciate you all giving us the opportunity to share some information with you tonight and bring a proposal to you all. I just want to go over the agenda fairly quickly. Uh tonight, we're going to discuss the PAL area and the challenges within that area. We're also going to discuss uh KCS future planning process. Uh if you all will remember, this process is something that uh I don't want to say we adopted. uh we basically changed the way that we've done things for the past four years. Uh when
016when I came on board and and worked very closely with our board and you that reflected in Mil Creek, that reflected in Farragate, that reflected in the work we did in the Mechanicsville lawns down Bowmont uh area uh Westview as well. Uh and and so basically when we look at things, we look at a whole community or a whole geographical region solution. I also want to discuss or we we will discuss tonight uh the future planning and consideration for PAL. So what you will see in the proposal are um the way that we got uh to the decision that we made tonight. When I say decision I mean proposal and it's very reflective on the work that we have done. It's very transparent. Uh we will recommend a solution tonight and then we'll also discuss
017next steps. So some of the current challenges when we talk about the the anticipated growth uh Mr. Dillingham and his team, they do an exceptional job working with the Knox Knoxville planning uh committee and basically we look at a 5-year projection. We received those numbers in December and that those projected numbers uh show an increase in that geographical area. Uh the congested pattern uh at Powell Elementary School, a first ba first Baptist Pal uh right next door, we utilize their parking lot and drive which um really makes that area problematic. Uh it's a very congested area uh and so getting in and in and in and off that hill in that area uh can be quite difficult especially uh during um dismissal times and arrival times for for both organizations. Uh we also want to
018talk about how we want to eliminate the need for portable usage. Uh we have not made it a habit in purchasing portables uh since my tenure in Knox County Schools. Uh norm typically we would look at purchasing a portable uh every year. uh there's a budget for that. Uh the cost for portables have increased significantly. Uh portables have went from 200,000 to 500 to 800 and at one point they were at a million dollars per portable. Uh so as we look at that, it it's just not a uh feasible uh solution. Uh so uh what we did is we did add uh repurposed two portables at PAL, much newer portables, and we invested that money. Again, that would cost you anywhere from a half a million dollars uh just for the setup and so forth.
019Uh but we did need to repurpose some portables and we wanted an immediate um answer uh to some of the needs at POW at the time. So, uh the only other portable that we have purchased for the district is the one that um had burned down and so [clears throat] that was just an immediate response to an emergency situation. Uh we also want to look at strengthening uh school feeder patterns. Anytime we have an opportunity uh to uh look at a geographical area and any types of changes we're making in that area, we want to really strengthen those feeder p patterns. It is ideal uh that it's a clean feeder pattern. Uh so an example would be a student would go to that elementary school, that middle school, and that high school. Um you know,
020if you are identify yourself as a panther, a lot of those kids in elementary school, they see themselves as being a pal panther. And it's no different in in several communities um just like the the admirals right when they get up to elementary, middle, and high school. So when we have an opportunity to clean up those feeder patterns, that is something that we certainly take advantage of and it's something that is a great benefit to the community. So I'm going to turn this over to Miss Lner uh and then uh Mr. Dillingham will uh wrap us up for tonight and then I will take any questions that you all may have. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Dr. Adams, Madam Chair, members of the board. So, you've heard from Dr. Adams, you know, what our
021challenges are that are on the table, what our opportunities are as we think about the PAL community and its surrounding area. And before we go into the nuts and bolts of our proposed solution, we do just want to take a moment to take a step back and talk about how we approach these decisions. So, these are big decisions with a big impact whether that's financial or family or school or both or all of the above. Um, you know, we take them very very seriously. And so, we do just want to pause for a moment and reflect on our decision-making processes, the variables that we're consistently balancing and how they all play out in the form of a proposed uh solution to the board. And so this is a slide and these next few slides, this
022is true of both of them that we shared back in the fall at the annual board retreat. And it felt timely to bring them up again this evening just to take a look at where we're at as a district and again those variables that we're balancing as we go into these decision-making processes. So over the last 10 years, you can see that our student enrollment has decreased by about 1,400 students. In that time, we have built five new schools. And based on our current capital plan, we anticipate bringing on an additional three schools. So, you might be wondering, why are we building an additional three schools? And we'll get into that. Um, that definitely plays a part in our decision- making and the the variables that we're balancing. A lot of it has to do
023with where you're seeing population growth and where you're seeing population decrease. But at the end of the day, what this tells us is that we have some net capacity throughout the district to capitalize on and to leverage when possible. And so that's something we want to keep in mind as we're considering any sort of capacity constraints in any school or in any community. And part of the reason we want to keep that net capacity in mind is that we know that new construction is very expensive. Again, this is a slide that we shared with the board back in uh the fall, but we haven't necessarily had an opportunity to really unpack with the community board members. You all know that any of our major capital expend expenditures are funded through county's debt service. So, Knox
024County government's uh debt service. And what that means is uh kind of exactly what it sounds like that when we incur debt, we also owe on that debt. The more debt we incur, the more debt we owe on. And so when we're making those debt payments, so when we're paying on these major capital expenses, that's coming out of our general purpose budget. So our general purpose budget for members of the public who may not be as familiar with uh debt service, general purpose, and all that terminology, that's the fund that we're really paying the lion share of all school operations out of. Whether it's salaries for staff, instructional materials, technology purchases, innovative initiatives, it's all coming out of that same pot of money. And so this is true in personal finances as well. A budget
025is a budget. When you spend money in one place, it means you're not spending money on something else. And we would like to spend as little on debt as possible so that we can maximize those resources as close to our students as possible. So this is something else that we're just constantly carrying and keeping in mind as we think about making these decisions. If you look at the chart on the right, you can see just a snapshot of our recent year's debt payment um burden that we have carried in our general purpose budget. So if you look at the top 2022 2023, we were spending on average between 13 and $18 million on debt out of the general purpose budget. Again, that's an an immediate and inherent competition with salary increases, instructional materials, technology expenditures.
026And so in 2024, something kind of exciting happened. So some of you were with us for this moment in time. Those of you who were not, the state changed its funding formula for districts. When the state changed from the BEP for uh funding formula to the TISA funding formula, there was a one-time bump for districts. So we had some money that we could put towards something. We made a decision that year, that year 2024, to take a lot of that money and put it into debt service to bring down our overall debt payment. So that's where that $35 million is coming from. That was a choice that we made as a district to try to free up money in outy years to bring down that debt burden in our general purpose budget. And so you
027can see kind of the impact in subsequent years based on some of that decision-m that was made. One thing I do want to call your attention to is what's happening as we look around 2028 moving into 2030. We're ticking back up again. And so there's some necessity in taking on some additional debt and we're going to get into that as well. But that's the result of some added capital expenditures that have been improved in the capital plan to address various concerns throughout the district. So we want to keep an eye on that funding because we want to keep that number as low as possible. That's not to say that we do not entertain new builds. We absolutely do and we're going to go through how exactly we entertain and we vet the need for new
028school builds, but it's something that we want to keep in mind as Mr. Triplet said, being as fiscally responsible as possible because we do know that our resources are finite. So, what does that look like in practice? This is something that has been kind of a behind-the-scenes calculus for Knox County Schools for a long time. You heard Dr. Adams mentioned this, but we haven't necessarily represented um in a in an easy to package kind of way for the community to understand our decision-making process. And so, if you look up here, this future planning framework, what it does is it essentially walks you through the mental exercise that we would go through anytime there's a capacity constraint at a school or within a community. So, when we know we're faced with a capacity constraint, we know
029we have three options on the table really. You can reszone, you can build onto that school in the form of an addition or you can build a new school. If if you move from top to bottom here, you've got your most cost effective option at the top. Uh so you've got your lowcost option in resoning moving down to your most cost prohibitive option of building a new school to generally speaking in addition being somewhere in the middle from a cost standpoint. And so our goal is always going to be to be as close to the top of this rung as possible to stay as close to the most cost-effective option that we can. And so if you look at the example on the screen, this is a generic school. This is not a school um
030that uh is real to us, but wanted to walk you through kind of how this would work in practice. If you have a school that is experiencing, say, overcrowding, we may take a look at that school, start at the top, work from left to right, and ask, is there underutilized capacity in the target area surrounding the school? If the answer is yes, we're going to camp there for a minute. We're going to experience or we're going to explore whether or not resoning might be a possibility for us. So, as we move to the next box, we're going to ask ourselves, do the surrounding schools have long-term viability? Do we want to love them? Do we want to live in them for a long time to come? So, is the energy efficiency there? Is the infrastructure
031there to support continued use of the school for decades to come? Because we do know that resoning is a big change for families and we want to know that that's a permanent solution to the extent possible. In this example on the screen, the answer was no. So, when that answer is no, we're not even going to ask ourselves, is transportation feasible? We already know we've taken resoning off the table. we're going to move to that next rung. So, if you follow the the process here, the flowchart, now we're going to consider, could we support an addition? Does the school have long-term viability? Yes, it does in this example. Is there space on the existing campus to support an addition? Yes, in this example. Is the cost acceptable compared to a new build. And this one's
032tricky because additions are always tough, right? Anybody who has ever added onto their house knows that additions are tough. there are a lot of unforeseeable costs and so there's a lot to consider in terms of whether or not an addition is the most fiscally responsible option. So there's going to be some feasibility studies, there's going to be some ecological considerations, there going to be just some spatial considerations. And in the example on the screen, it turned out to be no, that was not the most cost um cost affordable option. So then we wound up in new school territory. we were able to check all of those boxes and now we're pursuing a new school in the form of a capital plan proposal. So this is kind of what that framework looks like in practice and
033how that decision-m is vetted by the ops team on a regular basis anytime we have capacity constraints and so let's look at how that played out in the form of two previous projects uh so these are two that should be fairly recent to the board and they both wound up with different solutions. So if we look at the Farragate solution, both of these actually and the uh the Harden Valley solution here, both of these solutions dropped off uh from resoning, we eliminated resoning as a possibility. When we looked at the capacity for uh the underutiliz the underutilized capacity in the surrounding area, when we asked ourselves, is there capacity in the schools uh surrounding each of these two target areas? And the answer was no. There was no additional capacity to capitalize on. So at
034that point we did not ask ourselves the rest of those questions in resoning. We moved on to considering the possibility of an addition. So if you look at the possibility of an addition for Farraragut, we almost got there but the feasibility study just wasn't there. The cost affordability was not there. We had to move down to the next rung. Now we're building a new school in Farragate. If you look at Harden Valley, it's similar, but we were also able to check all of the boxes on the addition row, which is why we pursued and we proceeded with an addition at Harden Valley instead of Farragate. Does that make sense? All right. So, what does that mean for PAL? So, if you apply that same calculus to PAL, we were able to check all of the
035boxes in the top row to pursue resoning as a viable solution for the community. There is underutilized capacity in the surrounding area. the surrounding schools do have long-term viability and transportation is feasible for the community that we're looking at and the families that may be impacted by the reszone. So, at that point, it is not fiscally responsible for us to pursue any additional uh thinking or consideration of an addition or a new school because we know that we can address the challenges that Dr. Adams laid out and those opportunities that Dr. Adams laid out in the form of a reszone. And so to tell us just a little bit more about what that's going to look like in practice, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Dillingham. [clears throat] >> Thank you, Miss Lner.
036Um, Madam Chair, members of the board, I'm going to go ahead and apologize up front. I've got some stuff going on up here, so if I have to cough, I apologize. Um, so this is sort of at a very high level the things that we are thinking. Um, as you might notice immediately, we don't typically zone in perfect ovals. Um, so this is not meant to this is meant to reflect the fact that we're looking at generalized things in generalized areas as opposed to have already come up with a zone. When we are looking when my staff is looking at a reszone such as this where we have a problem like overcrowding, um, we have a sort of set target that we're aiming for. we have x number of students more than this school can
037easily um hold. So we need to move that x number of students somewhere else. So it gives us a very finite and defined target when we're looking at zoning but we're not to the point of like okay everything to the west of this road goes to this school so on and so forth. Um but I do want to highlight the four schools that we're looking at right now. Um what we are um what our thinking is at this point is students would move out of Powell Elementary School, some would move to Bricky, some would move to KS and some students would potentially move out of KS Elementary School and down into Amherst. So the capacity column you see there I think is probably pretty self-explanatory. Uh as is the current enrollment column. Um a note
038about the enrollment. Uh enrollment changes regularly in every single one of our schools. So that's a snapshot moment in time. If you look at it tomorrow, K's could have 947 kids instead of 948. So the um two right columns and outlined in red though, so those are projections based on a sort of general reasonzoning that we came up with. So you can see that in 2627, so were we to reszone in a general sense next year, that's what those capacities at each one of those schools would look like. and then 2030, the final year of our five-year projection suite that we work with planning on. Um, that's the column. That's what those schools would look like at that point. Um, as you can see, uh, in both the 26 projection and the 30 projection, um,
039all of the, um, projected enrollments are beneath the capacity of each one of those four schools. So, as has been alluded to a number of times tonight, when we're looking at resoning, one of the things we have to make sure of is, well, if you're taking out of school A and moving to school B, do you have enough seats in school B? and not just this year but in like looking into the future as well. Um projections are not perfect. My crystal ball broke yesterday. Um but they are a useful um and I think vital tool um to look at the direction that we are moving um across the county. Uh the second portion that my staff has been looking at is um strengthening feeder patterns. You know, we're going to we're talking about resoning.
040Reszoning can be a um disruptive thing in the life of a student. Um so if we're going to do all of this, if we're going to impact families in this way, we want to try to use it as a an opportunity as well. Are there other things that we can also do at this time to clean up feeder patterns or to address some long-standing issues? So that that is another thing that we're considering. Again, you can see my highly scientific oval that I slapped on there. So this is a general area about things that we're looking at on the middle school level as well. Um so the things that we're trying to keep in um keep in mind is you know making it so that neighborhoods that are as the example says zone PAL elementary
041pow metal KS high make that so that it is you know you stay your cohort goes in one feeder pattern stays with it. You don't have a split um at at one point that's hard on everyone involved. Um, so we're trying to look at this as an opportunity to try to clean some of those things up while we're talking about resoning. Are there multiple goals that we can achieve simultaneously? And with that, I'll hand it back over to Miss L. >> We almost finished. >> All right. So, if we think about what this recommended solution does for us and we think about um, you know, the problems and those opportunities that Dr. Adams laid out at the top of the deck, this is an immediate solution. Going back to to Mr. triplet's um opening remarks.
042We want something that provides this community with relief and this is the only option that does that beginning next year. Everything else would be an 8 to 10year out solution. Um this also has the added benefit of being the fiscally responsible option. Uh we can do this essentially for free. Uh and that is compelling uh when we think about everything else that we are carrying and funding through our general purpose budget. This would eliminate the need for portable usage at Powell Elementary School. Again, going back to that idea of when we touch a community, we want to leave it better than we found it. So, to go ahead and remove the need to use those temporary spaces is very advantageous um and very appealing. It would relieve traffic congestion at the school. It would address
043parking concerns at the school. And as Mr. Dillingham laid out, it would strengthen those school feeder patterns. Um, and just in case, you know, you're wondering because I was I'm not as uh intimately familiar with the POW community, what that means in practice, we have students that are beginning their educational journey at POW Elementary School, going to Powell Elementary, going then to POW Middle School and ending at Kins High School. So, spending nine years of their educational career with one cohort of students only to finish their educational journey in their last four years with a different group of students. So to be able to give that uh streamlined feeder pattern back to the community both in KS and in PAL, it's not going to be perfect. It's not going to impact every single student, but
044to the extent possible, that's an opportunity we want to be able to capitalize on through this potential solution. And so as we think about what those next steps are, this is not a proposal that we're asking for action uh from the board on this evening. We would uh want to do our due diligence, engage the community um in February. And when I say community, I would say all four impacted communities. Um, so we've got four schools uh that potentially would be impacted uh by a reszone. And so we would be looking at uh working with Mr. Triplet, scheduling an opportunity to gather the community, gather feedback, and then using that feedback to generate an official zoning proposal that would come back to the board ideally in March. We do know that time is of the
045essence. If we want an immediate relief solution, we would want to give families as much heads up as possible as they go into planning for next school year. And so, we do hope to be able to present that memo and that voting item to you all in March. And so, with that, before we turn it over to questions, I'd like to just turn it over to Mr. Triplet to close us back out and then we would be happy to answer any questions you all have. >> I appreciate it. Thank you all for putting uh that together. Um, we are making we're going to make just this presentation available. Is that right? in some way so that if there's folks that could not be here, could not watch it live, they can get just that portion.
046They don't have to watch the whole meeting just to find the presentation that impacts them. Is that correct? >> Yes. So, it will be posted on the agenda. Um the actual physical PDF uh will be posted on the agenda, but then what we will also do, Mr. Triplet, is provide you with kind of a truncated video that covers just this portion of the meeting, so you don't have to, you know, slog through the rest of the meeting. Um and then also uh make that available as needed as well. >> Perfect. Thank you. Appreciate the work. >> So any other questions, comments? All right. So thank you all for that. Thank you Mr. Triplet for leading that off. So moving on. Um Miss Cotney. Thank you, Madam Chair. Item eight, consent agenda. >> Motion by Mr.
047Triplet, second by Miss Henderson. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> 9A approved second reading of Knox County Board of Education policy I371, early graduation as amended. >> Motion by Mr. Triplet, second by Miss Henderson. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> 9B. Approve second reading of Knots County Board of Education policy I 373 graduating with honors or distinction as amended. >> Motion by Dr. Butler, second by Miss Henderson. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> 9C. Approve second reading of Knox County Board of Education policy I383 test security as amended. >> Motion by Mr. Triplet, second by Miss Henderson. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> 9D approved. Second reading of Knox County
048Board of Education policy I420 controversial issues as amended. >> Motion by Dr. Butler, second by Miss Henderson. Discussion. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. >> 9E approve second reading of Knox County Board of Education policy I440 wellness policy as amended. >> Motion by Mr. Triplet, second by Miss Henderson. Discussion. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. >> 9F approve first reading of Knots County Board of Education policy J123, summer school attendance as amended. Second. >> Motion by Reverend Butler, second by Miss Henderson. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 9G. Approve first reading of Knox County Board of Education policy J 152. Student transfers within the system as amended. >> Motion by Mr. Triple, second by Miss Henderson. Discussion. >> Who was first? Miss Bite. >>
049Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I want to apologize for not being at policy review, but I don't think you all would have wanted me there. Um, my dog got skunked that morning and uh, we we are still working on that situation. Um, so hopefully I'm not smelling right now. Um, but uh, my questions are um, as I'm reading this and what I'm taking from this. So, if there is a student, what would the case be? If there was a student that did reside in Knox County Schools or within one of our um zones and then moved out, would they be prioritized if they applied through this um situation? if they if they moved outside of Knox County um but wanted to go to their same school, is there a cons? Is this would they have
050a priority or are they just starting fresh or do we even know yet? >> It looks like Dr. Brown is uh ready to answer that question. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, Miss Bike. So, according to the priorities we've set out, all students internally would have first right to transfer within the district. So, there's employee priority and sibling priorities and those other things are laid out in the policy. after that then an out of county student would they uh become the next level priority. >> But if they were an outofcount student that was previously an incounty student. >> No, that that would not make a difference. Out of county is out of county. >> Okay, cool. That's the first one. Okay. Um which one to ask first? Um when if they are applying are they applying
051to a specific school or are they just applying to Knox County schools? So our current they will use the same transfer form that we currently have and it allows them to prioritize schools that they would like to transfer to. So obviously our first uh would their first choice would be our first option but then just like with any family we would move through the options and and call them with an offer um to to see if they would like to accept that transfer. Actually they'd mail out a letter. Mhm. So, um, so in a school where you're going through the priority list that kind you just kind of mentioned, basically if you get down, they are near the bottom. They would be near the bottom of a priority. >> That's correct. We would have to
052prioritize our inzone students uh and we would go through do they have a a family member who like like if it was my child applying for a transfer, they would have priority over other children. If I had a child in the school and this was a sibling applying for that transfer, that would also be a higher priority. So, we'd go through all of our priorities for in district students before we would get to any out of district students. >> Okay. Um, and then does this would this affect any sort of like title one funding? >> I wouldn't imagine. um simply because there's also a tuition fee that is >> that goes along with an outofcount student transfer. Uh so typically a student who would qualify for direct certification probably would not have the funds to
053pay the tuition to transfer into the county. >> Um and if they're paying that tuition, is that tuition coming to the largest large pot of Knox County schools or is it coming to at a school level? Uh, I will defer to Miss Himgard on all these questions because this is more finance than it is. I can answer the transfer question. [clears throat] >> Miss Himmler. Madam Chair, Miss Bike, I I'll back up to um the federal funding question. So once the student becomes a student of Knox County Schools, then whatever demographic that student falls in would would become part of the school that they attend. So that could be considered in distribution of or allocation of funding. Um, as far as any tuition payment that would come to Knox County Schools and not the school
054specifically. >> Okay. Um, last question is kind of a two-parter. Um, so is this similar? I have I know that we have other districts around us that do this. Um, is this similar to what they do and kind of how they admit students? And then also how does that funding or the tuition compare? >> It's a good question. So part of what we did in this process was to look at surrounding counties, look at their policies and procedures. So yes, I it does everyone prioritizes their own students before allowing outside students in. Uh and and again there was a and I don't have that in front of me but um I think that tuition we are asking for is is fair and comparable to outside districts. um it may be higher than some, but it's
055also lower than some. So, um you know, we looked at a lot of factors and and compared and and then also um this is something that we vetted through a principal counsel to make sure that, you know, they understood the process and had some input as well. And Miss Jones actually just uh texted me a few minutes ago to let me know that, you know, we're looking for some continuation clauses to be added to the procedure so that, you know, once a student is in, you know, they have some assurance just like any other student on a transfer with us that they would be able to continue that uh pending the things that, you know, apply to our students as well. Good grades, behavior, attendance, those kinds of things. >> And then I lied. One
056more question. Okay. Um but I promise this last one. Um, is it um the same for K through 12? Like it's all any of our schools? >> K through 12 doesn't elementary, middle, high school, the whole thing? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay, cool. That is all my questions. Thank you. >> Okay, >> Miss Morgan. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank Dr. Risewick and Dr. Brown and the team for working on this. I know this is something just in my short time on the board that I've had a lot of parents contact me about wanting their kids to be able to go to Knox County schools and I understand it depends on space and all of that. So, I know um all the people who might want a certain school may not be
057able to get it, but I think this is a brilliant use of um the opportunity that we have in schools we have capacity in and a creative way to do this and I appreciate your all's effort on that. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Morgan. Is there any other discussion? All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? [clears throat] Motion carries. >> 9 approve first reading to rescend Knox County Board of Education policy J 153 sibly pri sibling priority admission. >> Motion by Dr. Butler a second by Miss Henderson. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Nine I approve first reading of Knox County Board of Education policy I341 uniform grading policy as amended. Motion by Mr. Triplet, second by Miss
058Henderson. Discussion. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 10 A. Approve Tennessee Department of Education 5-year comprehensive literacy state development literacy materials implementation support grant in the total amount of $2,400,000. Motion by Dr. Butler, second by Mr. Wright. Discussion. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. >> 10B. Approve grant contract with the Tennessee Department of Military, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency for an increase to the previously awarded public assistance grant in the amount of $68,290.76. >> Motion by Mr. Triplet, second by Mr. Wright. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> TNC approved. Tennessee Department of Education Turnaround Action Grant 6 in the amount of $1,168,728 and State School Improvement Grant 3 in the amount of $866,760. >> Motion by Dr. Butler, a second by Miss Henderson. Discussion.
059All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 10 D approved Tennessee Department of Education additional targeted support and improvement 25 grant in the total amount of $300,000 for Morland Heights Elementary School and Cedar Bluff Gresham Holston and South Middle Schools. >> Motion by Mr. Wright, a second by Miss Fontno Ridley. Discussion all in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 10 E approve Air and Space Forces Association grant in the amount of $500 for Kins High School. >> Motion by Miss Henderson, second by Mr. Triplet. Discussion. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 11A. approved contracts with Bliss Products and Services Incorporated, Carolina Recreation and Design, Great Southern Recreation, Playgrounds Solution Corporation, and PlayWorld Preferred Incorporated for provision of playground equipment for the term of April 1, 2026 through March 31,
0602027. >> A motion by Miss Henderson, a second by Dr. Butler. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 12A approved fiscal year 2026 budget line item transfers for the period of October 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025 in the amount of $25,925. Motion by Dr. Butler, second by Miss Henderson. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 12B. approve amended resolution to surplus a small parcel of property on the Fulton High School campus to facilitate the city of Knoxville's Woodland Avenue sidewalk project. >> Motion by Dr. Butler, second by Mr. Triplet. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, moving on to public forum. Mr. Wright. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. We have two public forum speakers this evening. First is Teresa Ba.
061Please state your name and county of residence. You'll have three minutes. Hello, my name is Teresa P >> and I live in Knox County. Hello to my school board. My name is Teresa. and thank you for all the work that you do. The recent KCS budget survey did not allow participants to provide comments. So, I wanted to bring up what I and other parents believe is an important special education position to add to next year's budget conversation. that be that being the hiring of a full-time music therapist. It is time to consider what other similarly sized districts do like around Nashville, which is hire one or more fulltime board certified music therapists just like we hire related service providers such as speech, vision, occupational, and physical therapists. My understanding is that several students have recently
062received music therapy evaluations and that the IEP teams at all these different schools have agreed to music therapy services when recommended by the board of certified music therapists. >> This is really encouraging news for sure. It also requires a fresh look at current practice of contracting out with private music therapy company which I think served a total of one or two students last year only. Now, there are, I believe, at least seven students whose IEP teams have agreed to music therapy that should be provided them, some twice a week, and some requiring compensatory services for weeks, months, and even years of lost service hours due to the past KCS >> determined contractual limit of one evaluation per year being performed. Our daughter, who is a sophomore at West High School, is scheduled for music therapy
063evaluation that her middle school IEP team agreed to back in 8th grade. There are also several other students being evaluated after years of waiting. So potentially there could be more than 10 students with this service on their IEPs by the end of this school year. >> And who knows how many other students whose IEP teams will propose this kind of evaluation. Please look at the rising need for change as soon as possible so our district could post a position and attract a music therapist candidates from all over the nation [snorts] including those about to graduate from music therapy programs like at UT Chattanooga. >> Thank you. Next we have Laura Laura Bean Allen. Please state your name and county resident. You'll have three minutes. Oh gosh, >> I'm scared. Okay, this is a little short.
064Okay, that's probably fine. Uh Laura Bean Allen live in Knox County. Uh my name is Laura Bean Allen and I am an ELLL teacher at Fulton High School. I came here tonight to speak about the increasing crisis facing our English language learners um and their families. While some of this information might not be in the direct purview of the school board, it is imperative as schoolboard members that you understand the realities of the families that you represent. When the statement related to ICE was released a few weeks ago, our students and families understood it to mean that ICE will be given full access to schools. The next day, so many students were talking about how ICE will be led into our school buildings. And one stu student even told me her mom received an email
065saying ICE is allowed to enter Northwest. While some of us know there are protections, at least for now, surrounding students personal information, our families do not understand these policies. in the news, on social media, and from their friends and family. They only see law terrorizing people they know and love. Our students and families feel hunted, hated, and scared. We have already had one current student taken by ICE, as well as two former students. I've lost count of how many mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles have been taken. students coming to us in distress has increased from weekly to multiple times per day. Our attendance and enrollment have declined. I know there are many things we cannot fix in this situation, but I would like to focus on what we can do. In light of
066that, I have some specific requests. A clarification of students current protections regarding their personal information and their safety in our school buildings. While some of this was shared in the statement, I've witnessed firsthand that there is still great confusion and fear among our families regarding sending their children to school. Um, actually had a neighbor over for dinner and she they are citizens, but she told me she was scared to send her preschooler and I told her that ICE wasn't allowed to enter and she was so she was so shocked. She had no idea. Um, we also have a need for counseling for for our ELLs as they navigate losing family members and operating in a constant state of fear. Most school social workers or therapists that we do have access to do not speak Spanish
067or other second languages that we have. Um, lastly, I've heard several schoolboard members remark that talking about undocumented families is political. I believe you can only feel that way because you feel like they're not your kids. Our students are not political. They are children and it's my job to teach them and I'm asking you to help me do that. [applause] >> Thank you. [applause] Madam chair, that concludes public forum. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Wright. And with that, we are ajourned.