001Welcome to the board of education's January 5th, 2026 work session. Please stand as we observe a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance led by Miss Spike. To the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Miss Spike. Um, a couple of announcements. Uh, the board met in executive session at 3:45 this afternoon with members from the Knox County Law Department. Mr. Dupler, um, would you like to explain the purpose of executive session for the public's benefit? Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh so uh the board is allowed under the uh open meetings act to have discussions with uh legal counsel and that's exactly what happened. And there was no deliberation, no kind
002of voting or any of that anything of that nature, but uh our office did discuss with the board uh pending lawsuits uh uh that that that the board needed to know about and that is allowed again under Smith uh versus Anderson County Board of Education. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Dupler. Uh board members, Tennessee School Board Association's annual legislative and legal institute will be held February 16th and 17th in Franklin. Please let Terry know as soon as possible if you would like to attend. Also, our student rep is running just a little bit late tonight, but I do believe he will be here shortly. Is that correct, Miss Cody? All right. Are there any requested changes to this agenda? So, we have a motion by Miss Henderson, a second by Mr. Triplet. Um, any
003discussion. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, Dr. Eiswick. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. I hope everyone had a restful winter break. It was great to welcome students and staff back as we begin the second semester. The start of a new year is always a good time to pause and reflect on how far we've come and to be clear about where we're headed. You each have a copy should have gotten it's like the one that won't totally fold. Uh you each have a copy of the 2425 annual report in front of you. We like to think of this kind of as our yearbook. In it, you'll find the evidence on the strategies we're using to move the needle for kids. Um I just want to say shout
004out to our communications team that's worked really hard to put this together. Uh it it's something we started I guess three years ago now, but uh it's really been wellreceived for us to be able to kind of show uh everyone the the work and and everything that's been done. So appreciate the work that they put into it. As I said before and I'll say again, the team with the best players wins and that's what we have. I'd put our administrators and teachers up against any district in the state. We know what got us here and we know what we will take to continue moving forward and that's what you'll see in this annual report. Over the last year, we've made steady progress by staying focused on high-quality instructional materials, recruiting, supporting, and retaining great educators,
005expanding the 865mmies to every high school, and developing a clear five-year strategic plan for special education. The impact of this work is real. As you know, KCS was recently recognized as an advancing district. I'm immensely proud of the fact uh that we were that that I'm immensely sorry proud of the fact that we are where we are right now and the work of our schools is what's led us there. But this isn't our finish line. The work in front of us now is about consistency. Taking what we know works and scaling it to every classroom every day. The 2030 strategic plan is how we will maintain that focus. We've already pulled together exploratory committees to begin that work. things like our best practices in co-eing, the upcoming alternative school study, the middle school redesign, which
006will focus on the unique role of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade in a student's academic career, and how we can better leverage technology, particularly AI, to increase efficiency and return valuable time to teachers in the classroom. This work is further strengthened through the ongoing collaboration with our regional teacher and family councils, our CEO champions, the 865 steering committee, and the council for accelerated student learning. When we say it takes a village, this is supported. This is this is truth of what we mean by that. I'm also pleased to support, excuse me, I'm struggling tonight. It's been a long break. I'm also pleased to provide an update on two major capital projects. First, we broke ground in Farragate back in the fall. I want the board to know that construction is on schedule. We plan to
007announce a principal this summer, which is typical for us to do a year out. Uh so we can do the next set of decisions from then. Once the principal is named, things like zoning conversations will take place. Things like naming mascots, doing all that takes place after their name. So that will happen this summer. Last month, we also re-engaged families in programmatic planning for the new K8 school in region 5. This is a new process for Knox County schools. As an innovative school, there are programming decisions that differ from what we usually consider for a traditional learning environment. Uh the architectural design is on the agenda is not only a reflection of what we heard from the community, but it's truly an innovative state-of-the-art school. As you'll see, as both of these projects move closer
008to completion, we look forward to keeping you and the community updated on the next steps. One thing that should be clear from this report is that none of this progress happens without people. The growth we're seeing across the district is a direct result of teachers, principles, and support staff showing up every day committed to delivering on our mission. With that in mind, it's a privilege to recognize the 245 teachers being considered for tenure this year. This milestone reflects years of commitment, professional growth, and determination, and demonstrative effectiveness. Tenure is earned, and achieving it speaks volumes about the educators receiving it. In that same spirit, I hope that you'll join us for our annual teacher of the year celebration next month on February the 24th at the Knoxville Convention Center. This year, we also will recognize
009our first ever principles of the year. We've had principles of the year before, but this is the first time we're recognizing them as a district-wide uh as part of that, honoring the critical role school leaders play in shaping strong, supportive learning environments. And finally, the community budget survey will open later this month. Staff and families will receive the link through parent square and it will be available on our website as well. We encourage everyone to participate so community feedback can help inform decisions for the year ahead. Madam Chair, that concludes my report for tonight. >> Thank you, Dr. Icewick. Um, next on the agenda, we have our internal school funds audit report. Miss Himlgarn, did you want to >> Yes. >> into this? >> Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh, we
010have Ted Hoes from PewCPA's um to give an overview of the audit report. We appreciate the thoroughess of Pew in conducting the audit report and also the participation of our schools in this process. Uh I believe that uh the yes it is now attached to the agenda. It's a pretty lengthy report. Um and this will be a condensed overview. So if you all have questions after having a chance to digest some of this feel free to reach out to myself or uh Mr. Hodess directly. But we look forward um to strengthening our practices over the next year to continue to reduce these audit findings. Right. >> Thank you, Jennifer. Yes, I'm Ted Ho with QCPA and we appreciate uh the opportunity to serve as the auditors. This is the audit of the internal school funds
011which just to be specific are the funds basically held at the schools. Uh it excludes the central office transactions. So these are normally smaller dollar transactions that occurring at the schools, but there's still a lot of those transactions and we'll talk about that in a moment. The audit u is a smooth process. A lot of we we appreciate the assistance of Garrett Raiden who's the director of internal school funds and his team along with the oversight from Ron McFersonen and and Jennifer Hamlgarn during the audit plus our regular contact with with bookkeepers and and principles as need be. Um to start off with before we get into the audit report, I'm just your uh our final product. This is a draft, but our final product will also have a short letter, which is basically a
012audit communication letter for an audit that's really a cash receipts and dispersements type audit. It's not exactly, but but uh it's predominantly cash with little assets, little other assets or liabilities. there there's not a lot of other things in there, but the letter does talk about what responsibilities are regarding the financial statement audit the plan scope and timing of the audit significant accounting policies um and internal control matters which basically we'll go over shortly in the finding section of this report and shared responsibilities for independent. So when that letter comes out um and anything in if that you needed to know would be referenced either in that letter or to uh really the audit document. So which which is the case here and we're going to go over the audit report. Um as Jennifer said
013this is a big report. Um it's over 400 pages I believe. So we're not going to go over all 400 pages uh for sure. But u just some key things in the beginning. I'm going to start with uh and for reference since it's a really big report if you later want to look at individual schools their activities the table of contents is on pages two or four of the PDF uh here and you can use that to go to any page um I think the table of contents is based off of the actual page numbers that we've assigned as opposed to the PDF numbers that you might be easier to follow but um on PDF page eight move there. Um, this is the audit opinion report and it's for internal school funds in the state
014of Tennessee. It's a unique report because it will say it's an adverse opinion on US generally accepted accounting principles, but that's because the state of Tennessee requires a regulatory basis of accounting. So really, this is the same report. This is still a clean opinion report that you would which is what you would like to see for an internal school funds. If we had any exceptions, it would be up in the in the first two paragraphs there, but it's it's the standard report. I wanted you to know that u on page pages 11, PDF 11 and 12, well, 11 through 14 really are the summary, combined balance sheet, and combined income statement. At the bottom of page 12 will show in the very first column. you know, this bank accounts basically held at the schools, but
015you'll see in that very first column, the total cash from all the schools at the end at June 30th of 2025 was over $18 million. $18,600,000. So, it's a lot of lot of money that runs through these accounts. And if you go to the bottom of page 20, um, excuse me, bottom of page 14, the second column and the third column, the second column basically is revenues and the third column is is expenditures. So 25.7 25.8 million is spent through these accounts. 27.5 million was received. So, a lot of activity even though small transactions a lot of activity and that's why it's required to have an audit u with that immediately after this page and I'm not going to go through it are the individual school balance sheets and income statements but there's any school
016you want to take a look at for activity feel free to do so I'm going to move forward all the way to page 401 and this is basically the internal internal control report. It will reference certain findings which is not unusual for an internal school funds. Um and I'm going to skip forward from this report page two pages further to page 403. And this starts basically the the findings that we had during our audit. uh keep in mind that uh during the course of our audit if it's an issue at one school out of 90 plus schools we generally are required to report it. So uh you know you some of these findings are were really difficult to go away. But with that said what's what I consider important as an auditor is which ones
017are improving you mean less instances and which ones are moving the other direction. Uh more instances um I'm going to skip well you can basically go page by page. The first one is segregation of duties and second one is uh negative fund balances. Third is dispersements. I think there's two pages there. Um fourth is receipts. Fifth are purchase orders. Then ticket reconciliations, fundraising and resale activities. Eight is school support organizations. um nine's approval of transfers, 10's travel policy. These 10 findings have been in the report for for a few years now. Uh each finding area will have criteria or specific requirement, uh condition, cause and effect, recommendation, and then management's response. So as you're looking at them u normally would take a particular look at a condition and management's response um for a summary of
018which ones have improved and there's two other findings we'll go through in a minute but basically some of the ones that are documentation related had a few more instances being dispersements and purchase orders um and sales tax matters which is number seven but several of them in segregation duties, but several of them had significant improvements being we had only one one to two schools or two schools that had negative fund balance issues, significant increase um significant improvement over nine the year before and one of those just a timing difference. So you could argue that really had just one instance there. Um others are we had improvements in getting school number eight school support organizations registered. Um so that that is a positive as well. So you have more control more communication and control in that
019situation. Approval of transfers and travel policy are two other areas that were had significant improvements in. Um there were two new findings this year which were numbers 11 and 12. Go ahead and go one more page. And on 11 it's we had one instance there was a supplemental salary payment made through the internal school funds uh where it should be made through central office and then uh this last one dealt with again with SSOs where participation fees were collected directly by SSOs when they're required to go through the schools only so much control the schools have over that and uh I know the schools trying to do everything they can to control that. But but it does happen and u but we're we're required to report it. On the following page is as a let's
020see I think one more page. This is the last page here. This is kind of the summary of the prior year findings. Government auditing standards require us to report on the prior audit findings and uh the first 10 are showing as repeated. Uh the last two are showing as corrected. Uh one comment on number 11. The prior year there was a matter with uh external fraud dealing with credit cards. Again that was external um primarily related to raising credit limits or unassigned cards. There were no such issues in this year but there was a charge back significant charge back by the bank during 25 regarding the 24 matter. So I'll inform you on that. One thing I want to point out regarding let's go back one page. U actually let's go back to page 401
021believe okay two more pages sorry uh in the manage one one more page uh yes go down to the management response at the bottom. Yeah very good. You notice at the end of this uh most of these findings well every finding has a management response and um I think one thing important to point out part of management's response this year actually go one more page sorry yeah same to the bottom yeah you notice u the end of this says beginning in FY26 principles at cited schools will be required required to submit a a assigned corrective action plan to the director of internal school funds detailing school specific mitigating controls. Lastly, Knox County Schools has engaged few CPAs to evaluate our current practices and oversight of internal school funds with a focus on best practices. So,
022this is two significant steps that the schools have committed to this year to try to address um audit findings. And again, many of these findings will not go completely go away, but we would like to see some of them go away. The ones that have lower numbers are usually targets for ones that could be resolved, like negative fund balances. Uh, but others we'd like to see instances go down. Any questions at this time? And as Jennifer had stated earlier, um it's been over the holiday and I think it was submitted on the evening of the 30th. So uh not not a lot of time to review a 47 plus page report. Um if you have any questions now, I'll be glad to answer and if not, you can always u direct questions through Jennifer Hemlgarn
023or directly through myself u as you have a chance to read in more detail. Go ahead. Yes. I just have a quick question um regarding um SSOs, PTAs, booster clubs, all the things. Um a as a cursory glance, this may be a question for Miss Hemarn. Um how often I mean do all PTAs run their finances through givebacks now? Is that a change that was made across the board? all the SSOs or are they um still kind of a a hybrid system? >> Madam Chair, Miss Templeton, so internal school funds are all through mostly I won't say all through givebacks, mostly through givebacks. There are still um nominal cash payments accepted at any um given school. Uh so all internal school funds are run through givebacks um that are electronic. There are still SSOs that
024have their own bank accounts as well. One of the findings that Mr. Hoes mentioned was collection of student fees um that were executed by an SSO. That should never happen. All student fees should go through the school through internal school funds. Um so I I think that answers your question. All internal school funds, yes, those there is an opportunity to collect those through givebacks and we maintain um accounting through givebacks. Um, but SSOs, uh, registered SSOs would still likely have their own bank accounts as well. Right. Does anyone else have any questions? All right. So, Mr. Hoes, thank you. And it is a very lengthy document, so you may be you may be hearing from board members later uh once >> that's perfectly fine. people have time to digest it, but thanks for being here
025tonight. >> Yes. Uh we're in the final stages, so we wanted to present here and then we will proceed with adding the corrective action plan which will mirror the management responses and then finalize the report. So, thank you. >> Right. Perfect. Thank you. And thank you, Miss Himarn, for your work on this and Mr. McFersonen, who I believe is back there as well. And next we have our legislative update. Mr. Wright. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh board members, as you may already know, the 114th General Assembly of the State of Tennessee will reconvene on Tuesday, January the 13th at noon central time. Uh, you received an email from TSBA on December 29th with a link to all the education related bills already filed and um there are many. If you'd like me to, I
026can start reading them. >> Let's just look them up. Uh, also just a reminder that we'll be meeting with our state delegation this Friday, January the 9th at 900 a.m. at Bridgewater Place for our discussion on the upcoming legislative session. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you, Mr. Wright. Um for a strategic plan committee update, the um committee met on Monday, December 8th to continue our work on aligning the superintendent evaluation tool with our new 5-year strategic plan. As with previous meetings, the committee tasked staff with compiling information and updates, and we will be meeting again in early February to finalize our recommendations for the board consideration in March. So that will be coming up soon. So, moving into our regular agenda for our January 8th meeting, find it here. Um, any questions, comments
027on the consent agenda? Item C, one or two, three or four, five or six. Seven or eight, nine or 10. Moving into board policies 8 A or B, C or D, E or F, G or H, I or J, or item K. Moving on to grants. 9 A or B, 9 C, 9 D or D1. Is that supposed to be? >> It's supposed to be E. Sorry, it's a typo. My seen it. All right. Regular agendum items. Um 10 A 10 B C. All right. And finally, we have um 10D. Exciting time for region five. Dr. Iceick, would you like to lead that off? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. And I echo that, too. I know the folks from Lewis group are here and uh just very thankful for them. Uh great to work with
028in the process and even even bringing us full uh table length maps to look at that they rolled out for us uh in the process of doing this. So very excited about it, very appreciative of them as as partners in this. But uh I also wanted to call the board's attention to one thing. We've tried to do everything very transparently. Um you should have an addendum to the original memo that you were handed today. Also got that in email form today. Um just want to say say uh something real quick about um this before you vote on it on Thursday. So one, you know, these these things are always fluid um as you're moving closer and closer to it, especially when you're building a project that's three years out before it'll open. Uh but one
029thing I did want to address and make sure you saw on that addendum is uh building capacity. Uh initially when we started this there was a conversation about um a building that would have a capacity of 1400 programmatic capacity of 1400 um due to one you'll see in that schematic design uh more space to accommodate the state-of-the-art integrated arts program uh different spaces are needed for that uh which cut down on some of that. So that now that programmatic capacity is going to be about 1,200. So wanted to make sure you knew that. Uh that was the major driver in that. Uh the two constraints on that one were the space that we have um and trying to make sure that we uh listen to what programs we wanted to put in that hearing from
030multiple community meetings and also looking at the schools that will be feeding that. And the second was that thing called the $66 million budget. Uh we could always go up in that budget if we want to build more money but or build more to this building but um the building that you have before you is priced out at that to make our capital plan work as is. So it wasn't a reduction in that. So for those two reasons, just wanted to make sure that you guys were uh aware that that was in there originally 1400 and now it's going to be a 1,200 capacity uh programmatic capacity. Uh and the other thing that I know will be on people's minds u is just that our next steps in the process after assuming this approval when
031this approval happens uh will be to follow what we heard earlier in the Farragate one. Um we hire that principal a year out. Um and again that will be for us appointing the principal the summer of 2028. So we still have a little time on that just so you guys know and that's when those conversations again as we just mentioned in fairgate around zoning around uh you know mascots around all that kind of stuff uh happen during that time. So I know there's been a lot of conversation in this one around you know nailing down a number of transfers. Um our commitment is obviously going to be first and foremost to zoned kids in that region. uh the school was is designed uh with the intent of bringing transfers in and allowing transfers to be
032in. I think the wild cards that come become part of that are uh you know the city continues to grow. We don't know who's going to build where and what developments are going to go in and all those will have to be taken into consideration over the next three years to see where we get. But uh again there is there is if everything is where it is now, our capacity is to have that. But I know that through this process, people will want to push out to try to get that. And we're not going to be able to have that till we get closer. It's probably closer to 2028 before we know the exact number of transfers that we're going to have. So, uh, in all transparency, wanted to make sure you knew both of
033those going into your vote on Thursday. >> Thank you, Dr. Ice. Um, Miss Templeton, regarding transfers, I think you knew this question was coming. Um, is there a way to ensure that current transfers are next in line? So zone kids clearly need to be admitted into the school first. I think that's understandable and the reason for the school. Is there a way to ensure that the next kind of admitted group are the current transfers that are in these schools already would then be grandfathered in next? Madam Chair, Miss Templeton, it's a great question. I think um I think you know again I'll say our number one is we have to take care of the kids in the zone. We all agree with that. Um but capacity our our hope is and in this original design
034of the 1200 is that there is room for transfers. I think two things we need to keep in mind. First of all being different than just a straight replacement school. This is not a replacement Bowmont school, right? So this will be one of those applications for a transfer into a school. Um, I think that's one thing that makes it different than just a school that would go, I'm already in the school. Technically, nobody's in the school, right? So, uh, you would have that. I think the second thing is, um, we have to think this is three years out. So, I know right now we have families who are Bowmont's, the place where they transfer in on the magnet. Um, and where their kids may or may not be in three years, right? Could be one
035of those factors, too. So, if you had a third grader right now, no, a third grader wouldn't go. you had a a fourth or fifth grader right now, you know, they probably would already be out before the school opens. So, I think there's some of those things that will play out too as time goes on. Um because the the opening year is not till the uh 2930 school year. So, it's still pretty far out. Um so, I think people will be thinking about their kids now as opposed to their age in three years. Um and I would say the other part is it's too early for us really to tell yet, not knowing. Uh, I know the, you know, the city's taken on this Western Heights revitalization plan. You know, we've seen lots of different
036numbers over the how it's fluctuated over the course of the last five or six years that they've moved through that. Um, it could be that, you know, some of these things never fully happen and so there's plenty of room for everybody who wants to be there. It could be that, you know, there's a huge boom and everybody moves into this area and we are where we are. So I think it would be premature for us to make any kind of commitment to say this is how we're going to do it today not knowing what we're going to be looking at in the year you 2930. >> Well I think the question is a kindergarten parent now >> looking to transfer in and also understanding that there would be an application process certainly you would have
037to reapply for that transfer. I think that's understandable. >> But in the on the priority list, >> Mhm. >> a current, >> I guess that child would be in third grade >> in 28. Would they have a priority to move into that K through eight to stay with their cohort and finish through 8th grade rec with the understanding that zone students get priority? >> Sure. >> They are number one. Are the current transfers next in line? >> Yeah, I I would say again those are all the things we'll have to consider because I go I don't I don't think I don't think we could say that today three years out and know that because we don't know what that population is going to be. I do say again our intent was to build a school
038with as much capacity as it could have so that we could understanding it's a school that people are going to want to go to. Um I think the things we'll have to look at as we get closer to that time are again there may be kids who are on transfer to Westview or Maynard or those things too and we'd have to you know do that same kind of thing. I think it really does come down to what will that capacity be and then we'll we'll try to be as fair as possible. It may be a situation where we can you know everyone who is transfers and brings it in. I just I think it would be um again I understand that's what people want us to be able to do today, but if we commit
039to that now and things change drastically in three years and you know there's not a lot of seats for transfers then people say well wait three years ago you said there'd be this many seats guaranteed and you know we can't build walls at that point. So I think our we'll kind of have to kind of wait and see what happens with the overall population, but know that our intent are both one to take care of the zone students first and then second to make this an innovative school where kids can transfer in like Ellen and STEM and the other schools that have done that as well. So um I expect that people will want to attend a school. Uh and my hope is that we'll be able to to bring them in. Uh but until
040we get closer to time, it'll be hard to tell exactly how many seats there are. Okay. All right. Any other questions, comments? Dr. Butler, >> just as a comment, I'd like to say that I know that uh I'm excited and I think a number of folk are excited excited in in uh district one. And uh we we uh uh tried to check all the boxes that the uh those who attended the community meetings expressed. I think we've done a very good job. Uh when I've looked at the schematic diagrams and and and looked at the beautiful pictures of a new school, I know it's not going to look exactly like that, but it's exciting to see that and can't wait for it to happen. Uh and and one of the things is seeing that the
041way that they use the uh the the the way that topographical look of it, it just seemed like it was designed for a K through eight where you have a designated space for kindergarten uh through second grade through first grade. Second grade to fourth grade have their dedicated space. Fifth grade has dedicated space. Sixth grade and then seventh to eighth grade and having uh areas where there will be common use but they still have their own dedicated path to that common use today. So the communities uh large school, small communities, grade level communities I think is just awesome. I'm excited about it. >> Thank you Dr. Bel. Miss Bike. >> Thank you. Sorry, LA. Just a random question that kind of popped up. So, because it's a K through eight um and kind of looking
042at zoning and things like that, will there be students who are zoned for it for K through five and not zoned for it for the six, seven, and eight, or do we know yet? or will there be students who are not zoned for K through five but are for the middle school portion? >> Thank you, Miss Bike. Madam Chair, the I said that backwards, but um man, I'm just all still on holidays. But anyway, uh that's a great question. I think and and Dr. Adams may address that. I think our goal is when they're in this school, they're in this school. But I'll let Dr. Adams address that. >> Thank you, Dr. Risick. Madam Chair, Miss Bike. Uh so when you look at that geographical area that the students in that area would be zoned
043K through 8. So it would capture your elementary students as well as your middle school students as well. That's the conversations that we had originally of ensuring that students who are within that community are able to attend their middle school as well. >> I just wonder if there are any other students that would be also zoned for it for the middle school portion. >> The lines >> that wouldn't be >> okay. So they'll so they'll have new students that will join in like sixth grade. >> So normally when we look at those areas and it's again to Dr. Riswick's point um it's a little preliminary but once we get to the zoning conversations that's where we go and we clean up those feeder patterns. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you Miss Spike
044Dr. Adams. Um and it is a great design. I I concur uh Dr. Butler. It's really exciting. um to see it all drawn out. I also want to note our friends with Loose Group are here tonight. So, thank you all for all of your work on it. Um you know, it it's exciting. Miss Timon, did you have something else? >> I do. I do. Um I did go to two, maybe three. it all started to blur together and I'm also still on vacation brain of the um community meetings and want to publicly thank Dr. Adams and Miss Lner for your time and commitment. Um the entire week was spent talking to the community and um I I was impressed with the number of people at the various locations and the feedback that was received there
045and I know that that was an exhausting week right before the holidays. So thank you both for your time doing that. And Dr. Wilson as well. Sorry I you were there. You too were there friend. and Reverend Butler. Um, and I'm sure so many names, but uh, anyway, but thank you. And I was excited to get this last week and I know I can clearly see that so much work has gone into it and a lot of best practices because I've done just enough homework to be dangerous and um very much appreciate some of the layout aspects that have been incorporated and really looking at the longitudinal study and how to maximize the land usage. um for just a logical layout and I appreciate that there's not a lot of um I appreciate the intuitive
046nature of it. Um so thank you. Thank you for your hard work. I can only imagine how many revisions hit the trash can to get to where we are today. So truly thank you. Um, you know, I was looking through it and um, yeah, I did have I had one question um, regarding layout that I'm sure will be kind of kicked out to you guys um, in regard to kind of the use of gym facilities and I know that the way a gym is utilized at a um, middle school versus an elementary school. I was just kind of interested in how um when you guys were doing the research, you know, a gym, a library, the auditorium, how that works um with such a a a wide um yeah, range of ages. Um and how
047you guys foresee best use of those shared spaces. Were you expecting this? >> Um, so let me start by so your question about the gymnasiums, right? So one's a competition gym, one is is a essentially an auxiliary gym. >> I was excited to see those two things. Yeah. Well, right. And that was that was part of the program that was that was developed. And uh I think it makes a lot of sense, you know, and and um I think the comment about trying to keep um sort of we know that this is a huge building, so it's going to be really important, especially we think about little kids breaking the scale down, you know, so they're not, you know, approaching this aircraft carrier every every morning when they go to school, right? So, so that's
048really important. So, we'll within the interior design, there's a lot of work to be done, right? Right. I mean, there's a lot of work that has been done, but there's a lot more to be done, right? And breaking down scale and use of color and wayfinding and everything within the school. So, it's it's really exciting. But uh but yeah, I mean as far as the programmatic uh items like those gymnasiums um you know as you you probably noticed pretty quickly the the middle school is is on the essentially the east end of the site and which is topographically the in elevation the top the highest part of the site and then the the elementary school is you know starts at the the lower end of the site on the west and uh so you know
049it was really important And you know, if you think about the location of the uh the cafeteria, you know, there's a lot of things tied tethered to that. You know, you have loading that has has to connect there. And then the the uh the cafeteria is the one that and the media center, they're truly the the the sort of shared core spaces and then there's even divisions within within the the cafeteria dining in particular. But we wanted to minimize that travel distance, right? I mean, so that so kids are that are on the far end of the elementary school don't have to hike a mile just to, you know, get to the gymnasium or the cafeteria. Um, but, you know, so that had a lot to do with the placement of of the those core
050pieces and the the gymnasium for the for the younger kids that's immediately adjacent to those classroom wings. So, uh, and then of course, uh, the other thing that worked out well on the site was the middle school gym being the competition gym where the the main where the bulk of the parking for after hour events, basketball games, and those type of things that happens on the the far east side. So, I don't know if I'm really totally answer answering your question, but I think just sort of addressing the way the uh the program sort of laid out on the site. And then you've got the integrated arts happening lower level floor plan. You've got three >> stacks um floor. So this the integrated arts wing and um which will allow for use for all students.
051Is that >> Yes. >> Corre correct? That's correct. >> Okay. and then the auditorium and then another flex space kind of on the other side. Um, so and I I possibly unpopular opinion, I don't think it's a terrible thing for kids to all be in the same, you know, to be passing each other. I think that's part of a family. Um, so yeah, I think it's great. Um I was just more curious about you know your thought process with flow of kids and kind of how you envision that working the best and I think you've answered it. So >> yeah, I mean I think the other part of uh the answer in addition to what Paul said is that you know our um our kind of understanding of arrival and departure from the school day
052on a day-to-day basis um takes into consideration where little kids go, where bigger kids go. Um, in addition to who's on the who, you know, who's on the bus and who's in a car, we have the bus drop off on the uh, Maryland Street entrance and the car drop off on the Vermont Street entrance. And, um, the kids that are coming in from the bus will kind of come in that lower level entrance. The younger kids will be held, you know, and this is not our decision. And this is, you know, something that's going to have to be decided by the school operationally. But our kind of our schematic idea of how this might operate or could operate was to say some of the holding could happen for the little kids maybe in the um
053uh in the auxiliary gym right there at the bus entrance, minimal walking distance, and perhaps the older kids can go into the other gym or something. But again, those aren't things that we can really dictate or control. Those are things that are going to be um determined by you guys later, but the opportunities are there and the choices are there for how you do it. So, >> thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. U Miss Ser, was there anything that came out of those meetings that was a surprise that resulted in any kind of changes or did you feel like I'm just curious. >> Thank you, Miss Templeton. Uh Madam Chair, members of the board, that's a very good question. I don't know that we were surprised by any of the feedback we'd received. Um
054certainly, you know, not surprised by uh the results of, you know, the various choices that we had offered to the community. Those were staked in kind of that prior round of feedback already. And so we were already kind of grounded in some inclinations as to where we thought the community was going and what would be of most interest to them. I think not a surprise but just really rewarding to see was the profound care and consideration and dedication that went into not just the conversations that we had during the meetings but all of the conversations thereafter and just really amazing questions that were asked. Um and a lot of interest and excitement in the fact that this is being brought back to the community as a a true educational space. And so to have seen
055that rule high sight for so so long. Um and to talk to folks who either had potentially attended rule themselves or had family members who had attended rule to be able to reprise that facility and kind of hear their stories about what they hope that that will mean for their children. I think you know those are stories you can't anticipate and so those were surprises. Um but they were just really really great moments. >> Great. Yeah. >> Wonderful. Thanks for asking. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? All right. So, moving on to public forum. Mr. Wright, do we have any public forum speakers? >> Madam Chair, we do not have any public forum speakers this evening. >> Thank you. So, moving on to board forum. We will start with our student rep tonight.
056>> Thank you. Um, not much from me. I think we're just all excited to get back to work and um, we're looking forward to a great second semester. >> Thank you, Dr. Butler. >> Uh, from a personal standpoint, I uh, recovering from toe surgery. So, I'm I don't know if I call it vacation or holiday, but letting the body heal. And during that time, I decided to offer myself again for reelection to this seat. So, I'm excited for that time off to really consider that and looking forward to what comes next. >> All right, Miss Templeton. >> I don't have anything prepared, but I'm excited for 2026 and what it has to offer and excited to um yeah, continue to work together. Miss Font Ridley, >> I don't have anything prepared either, but I'm excited
057about being back and about changes that are coming in the new year. >> Awesome, Miss Spike. Thank you. Um, just want to welcome the students and teachers and faculty or staff. I'm also suffering from a vacation brain. um and hope that they had a really ease eased time back in on Friday and today. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Morgan. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break. I know my uh family and I did. We played more board games than I've played in a long time. Um I would also like to thank the superintendent and his leadership team for their continued hard work, which is clearly reflected in the superintendent's evaluation. and congratulations to our teachers who are receiving tenure. Thank you for your commitment to our students in
058schools. And finally, I would like to recognize and extend my deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Blunt County Sheriff's Office, Deputy Mauy, who tragically died in the line of duty on December 28th. Deputy Mouri was a graduate of Farragate High School, and I can speak for our entire Farragate School community and saying it was an honor for his funeral procession to move through our campus today. I'm praying for peace and comfort for his family. Thank you Miss Morgan, Miss Henderson, Mr. Triplet, Mr. Wright. So with that, we are ajourned.