001Uh I want to say that we're ready to kick uh school off for another great year. It's it's been fun talking to principles. Um and just hearing I I still think just the the level that we're staffed at is still making a huge difference. Um to hear them going into second year of that and I'll speak a little to that. Um it's neat to hear principles talk about I've only lost one staff member. I only lost two staff members and the momentum they have going into the year. So very excited about that. Uh I do want to I do want to point to a sheet you have on your table uh which is an impact sheet. Uh and I want to spend just a little time talking about this because uh this is the time
002when data starts coming out uh and just to get a little view of of some of the things that have happened. I know we talk about data but this is this is kind of good data because it's kind of a summary of work for the past couple years and just wanted to point to some of that as we go into the new year to tell you why we're excited. Uh for the unprecedented fourth year in a row, fourth year in a row, students made gains across every subject area. Since 2001, just want you guys to hear this because this is a pretty big deal. Since 2001, proficiency rates in math and ELA have increased by more than 10% across the board. Um and I know we go, well, it's 10%, right? But that's a that's
003a big deal across the board. >> You said 2001. >> I'm sorry. Well, it's only taken us 20 23 years. Re should be pretty good. We like incremental gains. No, 2021. Thank you for that correction. 2021 proficiency rates in math and ELA have increased by over 10%. Uh we also celebrated over 4,200 graduates in May. That's a big deal. Um our graduation rate is hovering around 91 to 92% and we're seeing increases across every student subgroup. I think that's what's been so impressive about our grad rate rates staying up as we're seeing our uh all of our subgroups our our BHN black Hispanic Native American our low socioeconomic our sped all of those rates are going up to just speaks to the work that our folks are doing um thanks to the 865 academy this
004is a neat thing too the average graduate also earned approximately three uh EPSOS early postsecary opportunities and for those of you who don't know what those are that means AP course uh credits dual enrollment credits industry certifications so not only are they graduating uating, but they're graduating ready to show that they're, you know, they've done something while in high school to be ready to do that. Uh, that's a lot. Again, back to our 865 academy. I've been with the district for more than 20 years, and I can't remember another time when we've seen this level of momentum. Um, typically, unfortunately, we go up two points and then back a point, up two points. So, he's kind of back and forth in these areas, but to see these kind of stacked four years in a row,
005uh, is something I haven't seen. These results speak to the work of Dr. Phillips, who you'll get to hear from in a second, who's leading uh and excellence in foundational skills and her team's unwavering commitment to ensure every student has access to highquality uh grade level instructional materials. They also reflect the work of the impact of the 865mmies and the leadership of Shannon Jackson and the college and career readiness team. It's amazing to think uh just four years ago the 865mmies were only an idea on a piece of paper that we were talking about and the fact now that they exist in all 14 high schools and we'll have our first senior class this year that's been through that it's pretty amazing. Um we know that we have the right people on our team and
006we know that the strategies are working. Uh it's been neat to see people take ownership as this data comes out to uh that they know they're doing that in their classroom every day. And there's nothing as a teacher myself that's more encouraging to see your kids uh have that kind of impact and know that that was the work you did. So I think a lot of folks are centered on that right now. This one's cool, too. I can't say too much, but I'll I'll I'll say this as a how about as a teaser for later in the month. Uh we learned today from the state that our student growth data reached a level that we have not seen in over a decade in Knox County Schools. Um that data is embargoed for now. uh but
007I'll just tell you that by the end of the month we'll be celebrating these these results uh in a big way. Uh the task is now uh not only to maintain that momentum but to accelerate it. Uh I think that's what's encouraged me too when you talk to principles and they're seeing these gains uh and talk to teachers you know they talk about man we're like they really are just getting started like this is not you know we had a great data sweep or certain kids didn't take the test. They're going I was at Austin East this Saturday with a group and and saw Dr. speeds and and they made incredible gains this year. Uh and he said, you know, John, the funny thing is all we've done right now is really kind of align
008things. We haven't really dug in yet to get what we need to do. So that's really encouraging for our kids moving forward to hear hear principles and and teachers have that idea. Um so the recent change I say this too, so having the right people in the right places and having the right plan is extremely important. Uh I want to address the recent change to the gifted and talented program. Uh it's a good example of one of the many ways that we're challenging ourselves to think differently and to think more intentionally about the work that we do. As you know, we didn't go into the summer expecting the federal uh funding freeze, but our team, it did cause our team to have to work rapidly to reorganize resources within the district office to ensure that
009we would be in a position to meet the needs of schools and students before the start of the school year. This means that the support of our academic the support for our academically advanced students will be led by the teaching and learning department under Dr. Dr. Phillips. Um she now has all a lot of the members of the of the former GT team on her team now as well. Um so moving forward they will serve as content area coaches in math and ELA ensuring that teachers re receive the proper support they need to continue to grow every student whether they need academic intervention, tier one instruction uh and that's just regular instruction for people who aren't educators. Tier one's like what everybody gets uh or academic enrichment. So for students and families, the new model
010will mean more frequent access to academic enrichment rather than once a week pullouts. Academically advanced students will be exposed to more rigorous small groupoup instruction and will have access to challenging materials designed to stretch and grow their academic strengths. Um I've asked her I've asked Dr. Phillips to come to the podium after I finish my remarks to give a little more information uh on that. Um and also potentially answer a few questions. But I'm excited about the new plan. Um, it makes sense. We do that for our students who are behind and struggling. They have a small group while instruction's going on. They get challenged every day to overcome those interventions. Now, our advanced students will get that same chance to be able to be in smaller group for instruction in elementary uh to get
011challenged on a day-to-day basis, which will be good for us. Shifting gears, I also want to highlight that we'll be kicking off the school year with our annual safe schools, safe students event tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. at West Hills Elementary. This is a great time to recognize the people who work hard every day to protect our students and our staff to recognize the support we receive from our law enforcement and government partners. Uh and it's also an intentional reminder that safety and security is always our top priority. We'll be talking about our core safety strategies. First, having a highly trained armed officer in every school individual. Second, individualizing safety plans to meet the unique needs of each of our schools and their environments. And third, a commitment to make every threat take every threat seriously
012and encourage every member of our community to say something if they see something. Uh this has served us well in the past years and we'll continue to reinforce that as we start the year this year. We'll also talk about our approach to our safety continues to evolve and how we're adapting to the challenges our students and staff uh face every day. Chief GIO will be there as well as the team tomorrow. Uh look forward to that. We'll have KPD and a lot of other law enforcement agencies there with us as well. I'm also excited to share that we launched our new district website on July the 23rd. Two years ago, I asked our communication team to reimagine how we engage with families uh and to share important information. This new website is an example of
013that effort. It represents two years of work shaped by numerous uh rounds of feedback from staff, students, families, and community partners. The address for the district site hasn't changed, but you'll notice that website content and navigation has been significantly revised to make it much more familyfriendly. As part of our roll out to the district website, all staff specific resources have been moved to an employee intra or internet, the KCS intercom. This means that staff also now have a one-stop shop for all the resources and tools that they need to effectively do their work every day. Our communications team is applying the same lens of intentionality and focus on families to the roll out of our new school websites, which will take place over this fall semester. And in the spirit of when you when you
014pull something off this big, it takes a lot. So, in the spirit of continuous improvement, we continue to ask anyone who has feedback to share. Uh, please use the link at the top of the popup form when you go to our website. So, if you go on, there's a popup that asks and you got a chance to go in and and ask questions or give some feedback as well. So, uh, again, it's it is an amazing site, very visually pleasing, a lot easier for kind of click on and find things that you want to find. So, we hope that helps our families, too. Finally, in closing, I want to thank Mayor Jacobs for hosting his annual school mania. Uh, I had the privilege of helping distribute more than 3,000 school supply bags at the main
015drive a couple weeks ago. Then on Saturday, our faith-based organizations across the county distributed another 5,000 bags. Um, thank want to thank the mayor and all the volunteers who help with that. That's always fun. I had one uh person when we're passing out the bags uh I reached in to put the bags in and she asked me, she said, "Are you the superintendent?" And I said, "Well, I don't know. Is he doing a good job?" And she said, "Yeah." And I said, "Of course I am." I took my sunglasses off. So, you always want to be careful when you answer those questions for sure. But, uh, thank goodness there was one person who thought we were good. So, Madam Chair, that concludes my report. Thank you for the opportunity. With that though, I would like
016to ask Dr. Phillips before I turn over the mic to, uh, come share a few words about our future of our academic enrichment program. Dr. Phillips. >> Awesome. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Risewick. It's my p uh privilege to be able to speak to you tonight about the plan and the transition from our GT department to supporting our advanced learners. In recent weeks, the teaching and learning department, the special education department, and the talent and acquisition department have been collaborating collaborating to refine how KCS provides our advanced learners with academic services that meet their unique needs. Our goal is to align services for advanced learners with rigorous instruction that all students in KCS reserve receive by integrating instruction in both tier one and intervention. So let's talk about what's changing.
017Previously under the formal former model um students with advanced learning needs received those services through the gifted and talented department. Now those students will be supported by the teaching and learning department. Um, as Dr. Risewick already mentioned, our former GT coaches now work in the teaching and learning department, in the ELA department, and in the math department. So, we get to tap into their expertise and think about how we best serve all students, including our advanced learners. We're going to continue to support our students using highquality resources. All students get access to highquality instructional materials in ELA, math, and in science this year. We're so excited about a new science adoption that qualifies under high-quality instructional materials. And so, how do we advance learning considering the rigorous standards our students are required to meet? We're
018going to be doing that by supporting our general education teachers with small groupoup instructional support in tier one instruction. As Dr. Risewick mentioned, that's what all students get. Um, so what does their core literacy instruction look like? their core math instruction, their core science and social studies instruction look like? How do we support them in smallroup instruction in that core period of time? But then also, how do we support them during the intervention period of time? So, in our elementary schools, every master schedule has at least a 40-minute segment of time where students are in small groups receiving specific instruction to meet their unique needs. and that will include our students who need enrichment. Our goal is that we increase the amount of small groupoup support our students receive. So, under the former model, our
019students who had advanced learning needs met with a GT coach one time per week for a pull out small groupoup support session that would cover academic support, prevocational support. So, how do we function um and interact with the uh students? How do we make sure we're organized? Uh tending to those gifted characteristics that allow us to interact well in all of our environments and succeed. Um and then also elevating types of thinking and problem solving. That is not going away. We are going to going to continue to do those things in enrichment in both tier one small group and intervention small group. The service provider is going to change. So instead of that service provider being a GT coach, the service provider is going to be a general education teacher. that general education teacher is
020still going to have access to all of the fantastic resources that were developed by our GT department. Those resources elevate thinking and problem solving, but they also extend our highquality instructional materials. So the GT part department did a wonderful job of thinking about the high quality instructional materials we utilize in tier one instruction and then tapping into the extension opportunities in those materials. Those materials are not going anywhere and they're going to be highly encouraged to continue to be used to support students in small groupoup instruction. Let me make sure I've hit the highlights of my notes because I haven't looked at them in a minute. Um yeah, so I did hit the highlights of the notes. That's great. Um but the goal is that we increase the amount of small groupoup support moving from
021one time a week to multiple times a week and thinking about what is uh the right course of small groupoup support moving forward. There is going to be no change in how we provide service to our intellectually gifted students. Our intellectually gifted students are those that have been formally evaluated and identified as intellectually gifted under the special education umbrella. Those students will continue to receive the services they have always received and they will be managed by someone who has the gifted education uh criteria in the state of Tennessee. That means they either have their gifted endorsement or they have the Tennessee employment standard. In addition to that, um if a direct service provider is not holding one of those two qualifications, they would be under consultation of someone who does. That is required by law
022and those things are not changing for intellectually gifted students. Let me go back make sure. Um this also has no change for our students in middle school and high school. Our middle schoolers are going to um continue to receive access to those honors courses. Our high school students are going to continue to receive access to those advanced academic courses, AP, IB, honors. Um, that is not changing for our middle school and high school students. The biggest impact is at the elementary level. So, we should probably also highlight um, nope, already said that. Um, we're also going to work toward ensuring that every school has gifted educators in the building. This is what I'm most excited about within this plan is we are going from a districtdirected service where 14 individuals held their gifted endorsement and
023provided service across all schools to ensuring that there's um employees at each school site that has their gifted qualifications. So, we are partnering with the University of Tennessee to help us reach this um exciting exciting um shift. And what we plan to do there is tap into the special ed and the gifted education continuum. So, we are going to be increasing the amount of educators who can support us in special education as well as have the criteria to support our gifted students. Um, these integrated investments will support Knox County Schools to better support all of our students, increase our investments in the special education continuum, and refine our service model to be embedded within the school community rather than be a districtdirected service. What questions might you have, Miss F? Thank you. Um, I have
024a few questions. So, um, will each person that we have in the district currently and in the future that has the GT endorsement, will they be working in some way um, in conjunction with this new plan? >> My answer on the surface is yes. Um, currently our former GT coaches are now part of ELA and math content teams and they are supporting our principles and our teachers with thinking about this new service model and providing guidance and support to uh those people at the school level. Um, when we think about increasing the amount of people at the school level with these qualifications, yes, they would be working with students who need advanced learning opportunities. Um, so with a student um that has an IEP, >> will someone be available for each one of their IEP
025meetings that has a gifted endorsement? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >> They will be case managed. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. They will be case managed by someone with the proper qualifications, meaning they have the gifted endorsement and case managers are present at IEP meetings to ensure that we're doing what's right for students. Okay, sounds good. Um, and then when you say that um that the general education uh teacher is the one that will still be kind of um carrying these things out rather than the once a week pull out by the coach. Um, when you say general education teacher, do you mean the classroom teacher that is the student's classroom already? >> Yes, ma'am. But there's extra. So, it could be that teachers or that student's classroom teacher or it could be
026another teacher on that grade level. So when we think about providing service in the intervention uh time period, we generally work collectively as a grade level team to think strategically about how we group students based on their need. And so it may be that the general education teacher is providing service to the advanced learners in during that time or it could mean one of their colleagues who also teaches that grade level is providing that service based upon the strategic small grouping that happens during that time. >> Okay. Um I just you know I'm always hear you know that teachers have so much on their plate and I want to make sure that this isn't adding yet another thing without something else being taken off. So what I would say is it is the general educator's
027role to think about how we support all students and in anyone's classroom they have a continuum of learners. Learners who might be struggling, learners who need advanced unique opportunities and it is our job to serve all of them well. In addition to that, we are not erasing resources that were previously in the hands of educators. those resources are staying in the hands of educators and many of them are um developed to the tea. So a teacher could pick them up, think about where they are in their tier one material, choose the material that aligns to what they're teaching in tier one and then use that extension or enrichment material in the intervention space. >> So it's not a development from scratch. It is find the appropriate aligned resource and utilize it well. So, um, how
028I'm curious how this will be communicated to all of the general education teachers in reference that, you know, especially intellectually gifted students, but and I'm sure that you know this, so I'm just curious for your answer, but that they can learn at different paces and learn differently. It's not just about like advanced work. >> Yeah. So, it depends on what's written in the student's IEP. So for our intellectually gifted students, if acceleration is written in their IEP and they're getting through content faster, we're obligated to meet that need. And that happens both in the tier one setting and also in the direct service being provided for the students um to reach their goals outlined in their IEP. Um we also need to have good conversations as collective teams about what is in the best interest
029of students. Is it accelerating the coursework and going faster? Or is it going deeper? Ensuring that we can apply both abstract concrete thinking to complex ideas and being able to respond to those complex ideas well using advanced academic language in our speaking and in our writing. And so it's taking that comprehensive vision of a student and really pinpointing what is the right educational course for each individual student who has an intellectually gifted IEP and ensuring we're carrying that out in every educational setting. >> So how is that information being delivered to all the general education teachers? >> It's a great question. We had a meeting with our principles last Friday and again this morning for anyone who wasn't able to attend Friday. We shared all of our plans with our principles and our principles are
030charged with sharing communication with their staff prior to Thursday when we welcome students on site. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you, Miss Morgan. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Dr. Phillips, for the information. I know I've heard from a lot of parents who have been eager to find out what's going to happen next, and so this is really helpful. Uh just from my understanding and I think you've answered this but are you thinking of the students being in groups like they would be for RTI groups and being with different teachers? >> Yes. So when you think about the RTI continuum, it spans all students, right? So we have students who have um maybe some learning disabilities who have an IEP. Then we have students who need tier 2 and tier
031three intervention, meaning they have some type of uh knowledge gap that needs to be shored up and they need a push towards reaching grade level proficiency. We have students who might need some tutoring, meaning they have some partial understanding of grade level under grade level standards, but they're not fully mastering that yet. So, they need a tutoring touch. We have kids who are showing they understand what we're doing in tier one instruction, but then we have some on the other end, right? Right? We have students who are showing they understand, but they need a push toward mastery. Meaning, they need instant recall of what we're doing so they can free their brain or their cognitive space from having to retrieve information and instantly apply it to more complex thinking and tasks. So, we have this
032space of mastery practice that needs to happen. A lot of times we skip that as educators because we think they know it and when we think they know it, we move on to enrichment. we need to ensure they know it. So this mastery practice needs to exist and then we move on to enrichment. So how do we take grade level learning and go deeper and require more independence at the student level and require the way in which kids respond to what they're learning to be more rigorous and then we have intellectually gifted students with IEP. So the the RTI continuum actually stretches to meet every student and so yes I am thinking about RTI groups but in the sense of providing enrichment. >> Okay, that's great. Thank you. And is are we changing at all
033the way that students qualify for GT services or is that going to stay consistent with how it has been? Yeah, so let me be completely transparent. We do not have that detail completely um determined as of yet. However, we are continuing to have conversations as um uh interdep departmental as we can. So, we have academics coming to the table, special ed coming to the table, um RTI's coming to the table, and we have talent and acquisition, talent acquisition coming to the table in order for us to firm up that detail. >> Thank you for your work on this. I know uh nobody wanted to have to do a shift in people's positions and um I know that was such a a big deal and have so much heart for all of our educators who had
034to move into different positions. Um on the other side of this, I do think this is a great opportunity to reimagine how we are doing um the best to serve our gifted students. So, thank you for taking that on because this sounds really great for our students. >> You're welcome, >> Miss Templeton. So, I just have a couple questions. Um, Dr. Phillips, thank you for your work on this. I This was not expected by any stretch and I think you've made um some really great strides with this. I also had the initial question about qualifying and qualifications and all that and you answered that very well and I appreciate that. Um, I wanted to think through how this looks um for an elementary students day. Um, you said that they currently have 40 minutes in
035the old All elementary master schedules, >> right? They have 40 minutes a week or a day. >> A day. But they were currently being only pulled out >> once a week. So now we're maximizing the time that's already been built in. Is that correct? Okay. I wanted to make sure I had my metrics correct. And then um when you were talking about putting um folks with these qualifications in all schools, >> that includes middle schools, that includes high schools. And how does that work when you're working on content specific? I mean, when you get into middle school and high school, these are very narrow in content. >> Um how does that work? Yeah, actually best practice is to serve our gifted education students in the core content area with someone who understands the full spectrum
036of students present in the classroom. And so when we increase the amount of educators in the gened space that have this criteria, they're able to consider the needs of their students on the um enrichment side of the spectrum and embrace and embed opportunities for students to utilize their skills at higher levels in the tier one classroom. And so part of gifted education learning is learning about those gifted characteristics and being able to apply them in any content area. >> Okay. And then giving the teachers the ability in the content to implement that. >> Yes. >> Um taking a little bit of a step back if if I'm remembering correctly from emails, there were 14 gifted and talented teachers. >> Yes, ma'am. >> That were affected. >> Yes, ma'am. >> By this federal freeze. And I
037know that in short order we had to find a place for them which the team did over in like 24 hours which is wow. Um how did this reorganization work? You know how and now they're all underneath do we have other positions that are like how did this work? And this might be a Miss Himgard question. How did that happen? >> Madam Chair, Miss Templeton. Yes, there were several positions that were funded um from titles two, three, and four, not the GT coaches. So, the the ones impacted um were the facilitators, the content area facilitators um out off of Aaron's team and then the GT coaches were reassigned to Aaron's team. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Miss Flner Ridley. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just have one question.
038Um, the resource, you say the resources were created already, so they are available to the teachers to use. My concern is like Miss Bike's concern, the teachers already have so much prep that they have to do and this just adds another level of prep for them. Um, I just want to make sure that they un that we value their time and we value their work. Um, because >> I know that they feel like sometimes they have so much so much so much that they have to do. >> Um, the fact that the materials are already there helps quite a bit. Um, but it it concerns me about the time that they're going to have to spend creating that extra um small group work. Um, that's just I just wanted to share my concern. Sure. Um,
039I do appreciate um you all pivoting because of the funding issues. Um, I am u just want to make sure that everything is everybody's taken care of and everybody's able to do their jobs as well as we've been doing. So >> yeah, this shift is not absent from support. So uh one of the um beautiful parts of this transition is that now our content teams have people with gift education expertise and the support we provide at the school level can include that level of support for our teachers. Um and there shouldn't be much creation at all. um what material the materials have been developed. It's about utilizing them and our team is fully equipped and prepared to support our teachers in utilizing them well and not feeling an extra burden. So the the when you
040say the gifted um require not requirement but the the teachers who are going to be working with this in each school have they received more training or were these already teachers in each school that had this? So the next step after this is to continue to partner partner with the special education department and the talent acquisition department um to put together a list of people that we can reach out to and uh seek interest in continuing to pursue their knowledge, their increased knowledge um around gifted education and special education. And so we're working on compiling that list now. We will be in touch with stakeholders very soon in the next coming weeks. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Yes, ma'am. Reverend Butler. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, first of all, thank you
041all for the effort that you you're making. Uh, it seems like you took what was seemed like an obstacle and and turned it into opportunity and I really love your excitement about it. Uh, my question is at what point do we look at this again? What's the timetable and we expect that? How at what time? Because right now a lot of what you're talking about is projected. >> Yes sir. >> So at what point are we saying what when do we see success or how do we evaluate success? >> That's a wonderful question. >> Yeah. So a part of just how I operate my department is with constant reflection. So we have ongoing reflective conversations in my department about the work. How is the work going? What are the areas of success? Where are our
042challenges? How do we approach those challenges? understanding the root cause of those challenges so that we can approach them strategically and improve over time. Um so as we're in this initial initial phase right one of our initial goals is to increase the amount of people at the school level with these qualifications. We'll do number checks throughout our partnership with UT to see where are we where are we in um alignment with each school having multiple people on the sped side and on the gened side. We'll also do some reflective conversations once we increase that school level work to see how's it going, right? Um receiving feedback from our principles, receiving feedback from our teachers and our parent stakeholder group to see how we're doing in this shift. I don't anticipate that we'll do that very
043early on because we haven't increased the school level um ownership just yet by increasing the amount of people with the qualifications. But as we increase those qualifications at the school level, initiating some type of uh reflective uh scheduling so that we can have uh those conversations be ongoing conversations. >> So will we as a board expect to hear something? >> It's a great question. Um I don't know that I have a very uh firm answer for you. Um, but what I will say is I think that mid year we're going to want to do a checkpoint on where we are. End of the year we're going to want to do another checkpoint and then as we start the fall um the work that we're trying to do with UTK is approximately a 9 to a
04412 month process. Okay. So, uh in the fall we should have those increased people on site. Um, we're also looking at uh doing some assessments with people who already have some licensing that allows us to do those assessments to increase people at the school site sooner. So, I think once we get to the fall of 26, we'll be able to know how many people we have positioned at the school level and then mid year of the year of 26 by winter break being able to say, "Hey, how's it going now that we have the people in the position at the school school sites? You're welcome. >> Thanks. That was a good question. Any other questions? All right, Dr. Phillips, you know, I I I would clone your passion 50 times over. Thank you so much
045for, you know, taking this on. It was a big challenge and a big obstacle um in a program that was well loved by the parents. I had heard from from several parents. So, thank you for taking this on and I think really taking it to the next level. So, I'm really excited to see this work. I'm excited. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with all of you. >> Thanks. >> All right. Oh, yes. Legislative update. I was going to move into the agenda. >> That's okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. That's all good. Not offended at all. Just pass me over. It's all right. Um, couple things. The uh uh deadline for the uh resol submitting resolutions for the delegate assembly at the n the November annual conference is September 16th. So if there's anything
046anybody wants to submit um that would have to be done before then. Also a couple of uh updates on a couple of state level committees that were established through new legislation. The first one's a state advisory committee on innovation and K through K12 education. Um their their responsibility is examine things like you know the volume of statemandated tests, educator evaluations, uh that kind of thing. They had a meeting on July 24th. They have another one on August 20th. Those are livereamed through the the Tennessee General Assembly website. and the recordings are there. The second committee um that met met on July 29th and the recording can be found in that same place was the federal education deregulation cooperation task force whatever the name but what their their responsibility is to prepare for changes to federal
047funding federal education funding and identify funding sources and then what strings are attached to those dollars um in light of some of the recent things we've dealt with with federal funding. Um that may be an interesting watch. So that is the federal education deregulation cooperation task force. Um that was on the it was on July 29th and the the information can be found on the Tennessee General Assembly website. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. That concludes the update. >> Thank you, Mr. Triplet. All right, then moving into our regular agenda. Okay. Item C, one or two, three or four or number five, six or seven, eight or nine. 10 or 11. 13 has been withdrawn 14 or 15. Oh yes, Miss Font Ridley. >> Thank you. I had a question about 15. Um, in looking at
048the agreement for the rebranding >> of West High School, um, I noticed that the agreement had already been signed by, um, the principal and Miss Reeves, and I was wondering if that's getting a little ahead of the of the game. Is that normally done or is that legally binding? >> Mr. Mr. Dler, you want to take that one or Cy? >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Miss Font Ridley. So, um, the district has not treated that as legally binding when a contract requires the board the board's approval. Um I know in this particular instance due to discussions with the with administration um central office administration that there was some confusion around this because it includes the word proposal. Um I mean it is it is a proposal but it it is also a
049binding contract um upon approval. So um so there was that but I mean the answer to the question is uh the the board should approve contracts before a principal sign. Now I mean there's all kinds of situations where uh once a contract is approved principles can sign um over over sometimes multiple years but I mean but but that's my understanding in this case. Uh as to whether or not it's it's effective uh I know Dr. Dr. Roswick can correct me if I'm wrong, but I mean the district is taking the position that it's that it's not effective until the board approves it. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Sign language is better. No, yeah, we uh we've worked with the law department >> on that and have the same understanding. >> Um so I think
050you're right. That's my recollection too. I think the proposal was the confusion, but um Right. But so it's a good catch on what you're saying. Yeah, that's my understanding as well that we have to the the last say. >> Miss Chris. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. No, no, go on. Gohead. >> Oh, I I just I just turned it on. She was >> Okay. Yep. Miss Christie. And looking at this agreement, this is more just like a cosmetic type issue with logos and signage. Is that correct? as far as rebranding goes. >> Miss Christie, Madam Chair, members of the board, thank you for the question and I can answer two items real quick. Um, so yes, that's correct. And West, just like so many of our high schools, has a variety of branding represented throughout the
051building. They have the One West trademarked logo. And so our understanding through this contract is that the school is really working on um kind of bringing that trademarked branding into consistency throughout the BR building. So One West has one logo um and that that brand recognition is reflected throughout. And I will also say that um and I'm speaking a little bit on behalf of the school, but we had worked with them on this contract and I believe their signature um while it appears kind of premature on this contract was their intention was to reflect that they agreed to the um the stricken through language and so I do not think they would even consider um their signature as final. So I'm speaking a little bit on their behalf, but I feel pretty confident that's the
052answer they would give as well. >> That's good clarification. Thank you. And until it's signed, it won't be sent to uh Robin Easter Design until the board signs it as well, just to add that clarification. >> Yep. >> Um and the other question I had was there have been some questions about funding. Um but I've spoken to Miss Himgorn and um so to understand correctly, no funds are coming from Knox County Schools to pay for the rebranding. All the foundations. >> That's correct. >> Okay. >> Yeah, it's from their foundation funds. Yes. >> Yeah. M. >> Yeah. No, my light was actually it was a question of whether or not we are redoing the entire brand of West or if if it um or which I just >> that was my question, but I think
053that Miss Lauder, it's the consistency factor and hiring somebody to make it consistent across the land >> makes complete sense to me. >> Great, >> Miss Morgan. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, not to hit a dead end here, uh, can each school choose their own who they want to do a redesign or this type of thing. >> Misser, Miss Morgan, Madam Chair, thank you for the question, members of the board. So, we do have a contract um for trademark logo design. So, while the logo development is done in concert with a vendor, it would be at the school's discretion as to whether or not they want to perform kind of a a brand audit to see how well that brand is represented throughout their campus. And that's really what West is doing here. >> Mr.
054Dupler, >> thank you, Madam Chair. And I would just add to what Miss Lner is saying is that the district has um spent some time and effort to make sure that each school has at least one trademark logo and that was one of the changes to this agreement was that that logo cannot be changed without school district approval. So >> awesome. Okay, any more questions? All right, moving on. 6A board policies. And we did get an email about approving this on first reading just because it does uh deal with the cell phone or the mobile device policy as well. So that way we can um make sure that's that's done by the school school year. All right, moving on then. 7 A or B C or D, E or F or G. All right, moving
055on then to contracts. 8, A, or B, C, or D? Okay, moving on then to regular agenda items 9 A or B, C or D. Miss Templeton, I have a question that is probably for Dr. Adams. um regarding the Sturky Elementary School project because I'm coming in on this a little bit on the back end and so I'm just asking for historical how this happened. I re from what I understand and please correct me where I am wrong. Um the original plan was for classrooms as well as um new spaces renovation as a whole and over the course of time and that was like a 22 2122 something like that and then that that did not immediately happen and now we are only doing the renovation portion of it and there is some building when
056I looked at the schematic last month. It's clearly you we're we're adding building space with Encore and things like that. Um but then there's $4.2 million left over. We want to transfer that to Hall. So I'm curious um if I have the timeline correct and what I'm missing, which I'm sure there is something in there. Um and then why we are moving it as opposed to using that money where it was originally promised. Uh, Madam Chair, members of the board, thank you, Miss Templeton. So, typically what we do is when we have uh any budget overages, we look and we identify current projects that are within the capital plan. Uh, I will give kudos to Mr. Schaver uh and the work that he's done. He is an architect by trade. And so when we looked
057at the design uh for Sturky uh elementary, what we identified was when we looked at maximum capacity and programmatic capacity and we looked at projected numbers, um it just did not fit the scope of work. And so uh part of the reasons why we looked at the redesign is it came in uh well over budget. I believe we were looking at 26 million is what it came in at. And then we um quickly identified the need in the school. And so we identified office spaces, a new gym. We talked about special education classrooms u that were not currently at the school uh which we were able to reinvision with the with the redesign. And so it it it identified all the needs at the school level. Uh and then when we when we rebid it,
058it came in sign significantly under budget. And so just again looking at the market, it's up and down as you can see. Even though Sturky Elementary came in significantly under budget, halls uh came in over budget. And so uh again, normally what we do is when we identify any savings within the capital plan, uh we re allocate those funds to u pro to projects that are within the capital improvement plan budget. >> This may be something that you and I can take offline. Um but I'm curious what the uh how do you get to capacity? what the capacity number is. >> So that's a it's a combination of things. >> Okay. >> So we look at we work real closely with uh Miss Himgard's team and we look at the staffing formula. Uh but we
059also look at um like what it looks like capacity within the building. So there's maximum capacity and there's programmatic capacity which basically you're looking at uh not really getting into the schedule but how many teachers you have, how many students you have within classrooms. And then we also identify areas of needs whether it's special education or ELELLL or or any of those services as well. So it it's a we have a formula for it. And so we've really worked on that for the past three years and we've worked with teaching and learning and we've worked with again with Miss Himgarn and her team to to identify and it looks different across the board for for different schools. So we we have more of a standard and we can share that information. I've I've had I
060believe Kat has asked me it quite a few times with some of the school her schools to look at what the programmatic and maximum capacity looks like and so when um members of the board ask that question we identify those areas and we send that information to board members. >> Okay. Um and I can request that. Um so is Stury at programmatic capacity or max capacity or they're under both of those so they don't need these classrooms. So the wing that was going to add, I think it was 11 classroom wing at the time, uh they would have been well over capacity if we had added that wing to the school. And so we were looking at identifying a need. And so the need was not to add an additional wing. But again, we did
061need to create some space within the school. And so we identified those areas and added those spaces. >> Dr. Riser, do you want to chime in too? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. If I could just piggyback off what what Dr. Adams said. um recalling there there was there was a plan years ago that was looking at kind of that I think it was called I'm I'm trying to remember Northwest corridor or something like that was the idea >> I think it was the North Knox solutions >> northnox solution it was a and I think at that time I was the academics guy but what little do I remember from that was there were there was a there were a series of schools in that kind of corridor that they were going to do different renovations
062to understanding where the population was And if I'm remember correctly, Bricky was part of that. Adrien Bernett was part of that. Um, Insip was part of that. Like all in, you know, I mean, they don't touch exactly, but that kind of whole space. Um, those projects were done. Uh, and and continuing to monitor the um the scope of kids moving in or the projected scope from enrollment that we get. Uh, that actually I think ended up relieving as those were done what they thought the growth was going to be. So, by the time I remember Dr. Adams brought that to me a couple years ago and was like, "We don't have any projections that are showing uh what they thought initially when Stury was going to be built, what they needed." So, there wasn't a
063need to to spend that money to put that extra wing on there because there wasn't the the projected enrollment to go there. Uh now, again, the assumption would be that the additions to Bricky and Insk and the new agent brunette absorbed some of that need in that in that general area. Um so when that we brought back to the board in the capital plan at that point that there wasn't a need for that but to your point worked with uh principal Dorne there too at the time there were some commitments made to upgrade the school. Uh and I think that's what Dr. Adams worked with her on as well and and that's where the gym and the and the office complex and the I think CDC classroom and a couple other things were still uh
064left in there for that portion but the the need for the enrollment um wasn't there anymore. Um, so that was kind of what was brought back to the board. Maybe two years ago. Everything feels like it was two years ago to me. Uh, sometime around that was was brought back. So I think what it was there was an initial kind of broad net about what that corridor would need over time. But I think as those projects came in, enrollment shifted. Uh, there didn't seem to be the need to build it at that point. So that was kind of the what was brought back to the board was how do we upgrade the school but didn't necessarily need the other wing of capacity. >> Right. Is there any way that I can look at just population
065data by school um over the course of the last five years? Like I'd be really interested just to see how those growth numbers have shifted um just for my own personal benefit, you know, just the makeup of these schools. Um, I think that would be really interesting and then you and I can sit down and talk about programmatic and max capacity, the difference in how all of that pans out. >> Absolutely. We work with Knox Knoxville Planning and we look at projected numbers. So, we do have that over a course of five years and and that's with our transportation department and enrollment and so we can certainly share that information with you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Awesome. Thank you. All right, moving on then. I don't know if we said D, D
066or E, Miss Bike. Thank you. Um, so speaking to E. >> Um, this is obviously a resolution. Um, and I know that some could think, you know, like, well, we've got the funds now, so why is this still here? Um, but I think we can all agree that kind of the last month has been tumultuous with the ups and downs and the roller coaster and I would really love to not go through this roller coaster again and um, as was mentioned earlier um, you know, to be considered for the delegate assembly. That's something that I would like for this to be um, considered for. Um, I've worked with TSBA and their law department in creating this. I've also worked with our central office in creating this, but mostly talking about kind of, you know, those
067federal funds that fund IDA and all of the titles, title programs, and how important they are. And you know, I talked to some other districts and it's, you know, it's easy for the community to see like, oh, well, this other district isn't as worried as we are, but when we're thinking about other districts, um, might lose $150,000 versus us at almost $4 million, you know, that's quite a bit of a difference. Um, and definitely with, you know, it's been brought up so many times that I think Knox County is so unique in that we have urban, suburban, and rural communities that we're serving. And, um, you know, we're talking about facilities and everything we need. I think we really can't afford to lose any more money. And I know that, uh, several members of the
068general assembly had mentioned last year and they even did a study about the state's capacity to take on this funding. So, I would really love them to for them to dig into that as kind of, you know, is outlined in here. So, if anyone has any questions, I'm happy to, but I also really wanted this to be a spaceholder for us to kind of discuss this and have it as an agenda item because I think the community is so worried about what we're going to do, how we're looking at this. And my one question that kind of comes from this is um now that we've kind of restructured repurposed all of those um positions, what will we do with the funds now? And in that plan, is that something that the board has to approve?
069>> Gary, Miss Templeton, >> I have a question. >> Yeah. >> For you. >> Okay. Um, is this something that that Sorry, I was a little loud. Um, is this something that you are asking us to support to send to the state legislature to say we want you to fight for this money? >> Yes. >> We just want you to fight for the money if the money gets cut. >> Yes. This is what we're asking. >> Yeah. It would be my hope that this would be asking them to in the you know I guess sometimes like that uh in the whereas in the urging them to take immediate action I don't think that immediate action is always you know go find the money but it can also be advocate for the money I and that's
070why it's left a little vague of like that it's not a directive of what to do but kind of like a please make sure that we get this. >> Okay. >> Does that make sense? Yes. Fight for us. >> Call people. >> Yeah. Like we need this money, please. >> Um I would like an answer to her question about you know when this money is reallocated, will that come back to the board for approval? >> Sure. And thank you, Miss Templeton. Thank you, Miss Bike. Um and and Miss Templeton and I corresponded on this a little earlier as well. And uh I've I have checked with several folks uh you know Dr. Riswick, Miss Imag issue. And traditionally what's happened is uh when these title monies are brought to the board, it's more of an
071application plan as opposed to a final document. Obviously the contracts that are brought before the board are are in final form, but these types of things are not. And then what what what happens invariably is that once the money it is state approved and eventually awarded there are some changes you know in the in the plan itself just based upon what funding is provided. So what I looked into when you had asked the the original question, Miss M. Templeton, was, you know, is there some requirement? Is there some uh something in the law that says, "Oh, okay. Since there's this amount of change uh does it does it kick in an automatic re-review, if you will?" Um, I couldn't find anything like that. But, but what I would say is that and in talking to
072administrators is that, you know, uh, it is it is it is great to be transparent about it, talk about it with the board, and then the board has every right to take this up again and re-review the plan pursuant to whatever changes are made uh, if it if it so chooses. So, yeah. Miss Christie. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I guess just a couple of comments, questions, and Mr. Triplet, you might know this. So, I know that maybe it was year before last, the um they were talking at the state about wanting to not accept any federal education dollars. Did that get held up in the finance committee because they could not create a fiscal note on Do you know? Do you know why? >> Yeah, I I know that there was something some
073hangup when it came to creating that fiscal note and where that money would come from. Um I do think that there is a chance that the more likely scenario is this might prompt the revisiting of do we want to accept federal education money? um because many felt very strongly about that at the time. Uh as far as and I and I appreciate all the reasons this is here. Um, I do think that in looking at how we fund these positions and we were very intentional when we had the ESSER money in saying we do not need to fund a lot of positions with this because it will not be coming back and we don't want to lose people. Um, I do think there is some wisdom in rethinking how we do some of those processes
074because nobody wants to be in this. I mean, this has been a horrible situation to be in. Um, and I know that no one has the desire to be here again. >> Yeah, thank you for that, Miss Christie. >> Miss Spike, or did you have >> No, I just I just left it on in case anyone had questions. >> Sounds good. Anyone else? All right. Well, then moving on then to public forum. Mr. Triplet. >> Yes, we have one speaker, Lance Nicole. If you'll state your name and county of residence, you'll have three minutes. Okay. I'm Lance McColl, Knox County. Madam Chair, members of the board, um I wanted to speak about the uh proposed changes to uh J 191, the policy. Um but before I do it, I wanted to comment on the um
075Miss Bike's um resolution. You know, the the things that these federal funds uh fund are important things that our schools do. And I think it's totally appropriate to ask the state to backfill if the federal funds are pulled. The state in this last uh legislative session uh committed to spending almost $150 million on vouchers. And if we can afford to spend that, we can afford to make up monies that the federal government decides not to spend. That's a certainly, you know, that spending on vouchers is a total waste. Now, end of that, I want to say 191 brings us um is an interesting It caught my attention because you instituted because of the new policy on cell phone usage and I saw there that it came in this category that includes suspending kids, you know,
076if it's got A, B, and C, added an A for real minor things. But the whole idea that a student would be suspended for not putting his cell phone away, you know, this is ridiculous. Now, I I don't know if that's the intent. If it's not, it was ridiculous. If a kid can't didn't put his cell phone away, then you take it away from them. It's already in J240, you know. So, there's no reason to ever suspend somebody for that. Now, of course, if they have the phone and they won't give it up, you know, you get a whole different kind of behavior issue, but it doesn't it's not a cell phone issue. It's now a a behavior issue. So, as I thought about this, I thought, well, this is crazy. Why would we suspend
077a kit for this this new thing? But then I see really what the problem is with J191 and and this particular part of it, but probably more broadly is you've got a whole bunch of different behaviors. That particular this this particular thing involves several different kinds of behaviors that are related to the internet to cell phones. It's all jumbled up together. And as a result, you have things that are very serious like, you know, harassment and and bullying that are blended in with something like some kid forgot to put his cell phone away or looked at it during lunch or something like that. So, we need to we need to clean this up because this is going to be very confusing both to the families, the students, and when somebody gets suspended because the the
078teacher looks at this thing and says, "Oh, this kid didn't." So, you know, it's been three times and I need to suspend them. Um, I think you need to give that some closer attention. Thank you. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. That concludes public forum. >> Thank you, Mr. Triplet. Moving on to board forum, Albert. >> Um, I would like to talk about what the gentleman there just said. Um, I want to say thank you first of all because that's something that I had an issue with as well. Um, I didn't bring it up uh for whatever reason, but I think that clarifying the distin like making a distinction between different types of electronic device misuse would be really helpful because like again blowing and harassment, cyber bullying, all of that is like one thing that
079should take like a stronger course of action. But, and I know it's not likely that anyone would ever get suspended or any like um administrator at a school would suspend a child uh for having a phone out in school, but just making sure that there's a distinction there that says like you can actually do that I think would be really helpful and give a lot of kids like some confidence there. So, that just my piece about that policy. >> Thank you. Thanks, Reverend Butler. Jeff's thoughts and prayers and wishes for a wonderful school year for all of our students throughout Knox County. Awesome. Miss Templeton. >> Um yeah, I want to thank all the people who passed out school bags last week. I was unable to be there, but I know several people who are
080recipients of bags and um so thank you to all those who were able um to serve in that way. Um I have a rising freshman, a rising sixth grader. We are moving up in big ways in my house and so I feel all the feels along with all of the parents and the students who are going back to school this week. Um wish you well. This is going to be a great school year and looking forward to it. >> Awesome. And both yours have orientation tomorrow. >> Yes, >> Miss Fner Ridley. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to um express my appreciation for the work done at the teacher depot. I worked there on Saturday um for part of the day helping to restock shelves and talk to people and talk to teachers
081and um see how they're feeling. And I just wanted to thank um several entities for being there helping um Salserita with their donation of a reading incentive bookmark. I think if it's like the student reads five books, they bring it in and they get something at Salseritas. Um the Knoxville Teachers Federal Credit Union supplied us with pizza for lunch. Um Partners in Education, volunteers, there were several and I don't know that I got to meet all of them. Um Tommy Watson, the region three supervisor was there and he was busting his butt. Um, and our two lifetime volunteers, Connie Smith, um, she brought her grandson Kaden to help and he worked really hard, too. And Trish Russell. Um, without those two women, I think, um, it would have been a lot more difficult on Saturday
082to make sure things ran smoothly. So, I just wanted to express my, um, appreciation for them. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thanks, Mr. Triplet. to Miss Christiey's point, I think the end result of that uh that legislative stuff was this committee as the end result. Um I think that's what they're investigating, but I can look a little further and if I have anything else I can bring in, but look forward to a great start to the school year. My kids are done, so I don't have any of that, but exciting time. I know, >> Miss Bike. >> Thank you. Um I can't believe it's time to go back to school. Um, thank you so much to our teachers, educators, staff, everyone in the schools and our central office for all the hard work that you do
083um even over the summer to prepare for these kids to come back to school and learn at their potential and full capacity. Um, so it's so exciting. You know, I've also been doing all the school shopping as I have a rising sixth and eighth grader. Um, yeah, so it's pretty exciting and the summer went by too quickly. Um, but then also I just wanted to kind of like say that I appreciate um our board chair and vice chair and the work that you guys have done over the last two years and that I would just like to voice my um want for the opportunity to potentially serve as vice chair this next year and or the legislative representative. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thanks, Miss Bike. Miss Morgan. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh this time
084of year always makes me want the bouquet of sharpened pencils. You've got mail throwback. Uh it's exciting and it's always fun to find out who our teachers are going to be for the year and I've gotten to be part of some really great conversations with some staff members and uh got to go to lunch today with uh the coaches at Farragate High School and see all of them excited and ready for the year ahead and the season ahead and uh just lots of excitement right now. So echoing everybody else's thoughts and wishing everybody a great start to the school year. >> Awesome. Mr. Wright. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Just looking forward to another great school year. Um, appreciate everybody's hard work here. U, all the administration, all the teachers at all the schools. It's
085going to be fun. Um, looking forward to it. So, I'm a rising sophomore and I feel old. So, >> Miss Christie, >> a rising sophomore that can drive, right? I mean, that makes it >> that's that whole other level. Um, yeah, I just want to welcome everyone back. Um, and also as someone who lives in the parent responsibility zone of two schools, um, just thank our law enforcement partners and remind everyone to be very mindful that, uh, those flashing yellow lights will be coming back on if they're not already on and that we will have a lot of students walking and out there on the roadways and just to be mindful of that and watching out for them. That's a good reminder. And stop at the school buses that are stopped as well. Um, I
086just want to I echo what everybody else said. I just wish everybody a good start to the school year. I don't know where the summer went. Every year I say this is the fastest summer, but I truly think that this summer went the fastest. Uh, both of my kids are at back to school events tonight. So, I'm excited to go home and see how those went. Um, and looking forward to another school year. And with that, we are adjourned. I'll see y'all Thursday.