001e e e please stand as we observe a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Miss Christie face the flag pledge I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice we do have a bit going on this month the naming facilities committee will meet this Friday March 7th at 9:00 a.m. in this boardroom to consider the nomination of Morgan Wallen for the naming of the Gibbs High School baseball field our next policy review meeting is scheduled for Friday March 14th at 10:00 a.m. in this boardroom the clothing Center committee is scheduled to meet on Monday March 24th at 9:00 a.m. in this boardroom and it's hard to believe that it's this
002time of year again that we but we are accepting applications from candidates for our board student representative for for the next school year um but I am happy to announce that the application window opened on February 13th information has been communicated to every high school as well as through the regional directors and supervisors and applications for the 20 25 2026 board student representative will be accepted in the board office through Thursday March 13th at 4 pm detailed information can be found on the board web page so please encourage interested students to apply Miss bike is our board representative on the selection committee this year so I know we all look forward to receiving updates from you once the committee has convened to review applications and thank you for serving I think you'll have fun with
003that one I think it'll be a good I think it'll be fun yeah and finally board members due to the training schedule and start of next school year I can't believe we're already starting uh conversations about next school year uh a school security officer graduate had to be scheduled on Thursday July 24th in the evening so the superintend uh superintendent riswick and I have agreed to cancel our July 24th quarterly work session we have a work session shortly thereafter on Monday August 4th so we can deal with any necessary items on that meeting agenda and we just wanted to give you as much time as possible in case you needed to rearrange any of your summer plans are there any requested changes I that was a lot are there any requested changes to the meeting
004agenda motion by Miss Christie second by Mr triplet all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries Dr risewick do you have a report for us I do and it's actually short this month so that's good we covered a lot last I figured well say I fig the last few months I've taken a lot of air time so we're going to shorten it down but anyway uh good evening Madam chair members of the board it's always a privilege to be here and celebrate the incredible work happening across our district tonight I'm especially excited to recognize the dedicated the dedicated an impact of our teachers uh our teacher of the year on February 25th saw all of you there we had the privilege of recognizing more than 20000 outstanding teachers at our annual Teacher
005of the Year celebration this is one of my favorite events of the year because it's a chance to celebrate the people who defi who Define the day-to-day work experience or School experience for our kids and families um I often say that is the school system it is uh the the people who are in the car lines who teach the students every day that is Knox County Schools and it's great to see them celebrated this year's districtwide teachers of the Year winners were Ellen Monroe from enip elementary uh Emily Butterfield from beard and middle and Keith Leonard from Fulton high school so please join me in congratulating our districtwide teachers of the year and educ other Educators who received this award this [Applause] year uh to be selected as a teacher of the year is an
006incredible honor uh but more than that it reflects the impact of these educators ERS and what that they have on their classrooms the schools and our communities great teachers do more than deliver lessons I'm grateful to have so many great Educators working in Knox County Schools thank you to all the board members who were in attendance that was a fun jump in the picture jump out of the picture y'all did a great job with that that was really good uh I also want to say thank you to Dr Anthony wise the president of Peli State Community College who delivered the keynote address he spoke on the lasting influence Educators have on their students and the important role in inspiring future teachers it was a reminder to all of us the importance of having great Educators
007in every classroom Anthony's a great friend and great supporter in N County schools great to have him there as well uh great to announce tonight uh our chief of security Mr Carlo greno uh school security is and will always be top of mine in KCs that's why I'm excited to share that we recently named Carlo Grano to fill this important role uh in fact he started his first day on the job today I know some of you got to meet him before walking around hopefully you felt more secure today he was here uh so uh Chief granello brings Decades of experience in law enforcement and school safety to this role and his wealth of knowledge and experience will help us build on our safe School safe students initiative ensuring that every child feels secure and
008supported in their learning environment I'll call him up in just a second for him to be able to address but uh I think you know I think the the the feeling we had during the interview process and then even conversation today is he said it feels like home and I think that's exactly how we felt uh in the interview process as well so it's going to be a great fit for us and we're excited about what he brings to us uh and then I just I want to say spring break just want to acknowledge that some that's what something that's on a lot of people's mind is spring break is almost here which is crazy like you said bet it's great we're here so March 17th through 21st schools will be closed and our students
009and staff will be have been working hard uh and this time away from school is welld deserved Paul and I were just talking about that a minute ago when I came in going I think we're ready for this uh I hope everyone takes the opportunity to rest recharge and come back refreshed for the final stretch of the school year uh thank you for the opportunity to share these updates tonight and with that I'll have Chief grenell if you'd like to say a few words we have you step up and that'll conclude my report thank you good evening everybody oh perfect it's on as a superintendent um thank you for introducing me board chair board members my name is Carlo Grano uh bring over 30 years of law enforcement experience and of that 30 years as
010a lieutenant as a flag officer with a large Municipal U agency uh retired as uh number four in command of 300 person Department and then ultimately was uh asked to come on board as the school police chief for the district that this the school district that was within the city uh that policed uh over uh 30 37,000 kids and about 34 uh 34 different campuses over 56 Square not not so square miles so uh very blessed of those uh 15 last 15 years of my 30 I actually look worked very closely with the school district and with also the schools uh with their training their programs their policies procedures and all that so I was very vested and very uh had a lot of experience and fortunately working with uh with that staff and that's
011what also led to the opportunity when I was asked to come on board as a chief of police there completed that this last year um on an interim basis they asked me to stay longer but as uh superintendent mentioned Tennessee is Home East Tennessee is home so my wife and I fell in love with the area about three years ago and in the process of building our home and doing that and and so it feels good it feels good um I know you're is valuable I just want to really stress the fact that um it's about where we go in the next five years where do we get through the next decade where are we at 20 years from now we need to forecast out and we need to utilize all the different resources and
012have those conversations and considerations because we have to absolutely we we can't fail in our mission which is the Safety and Security of our children of our loved ones our staff to the Knox County Community as a whole and I'm committed to that I've been very passionate about that throughout my whole life um and to be called still I use this as a calling and Educators my hats off to you we everybody in this room and parents and people viewing we're here and involved because we care and I've mentioned that before our greatest treasure is our children we have two adult children that are very successful in their own right doing their thing but they're never off your book says do Adams and I talk they always need a phone call my daughter checked in
013on me today made sure I was doing good and I didn't run away and I said no honey this is home so but I I share that with you because that's my passion that's my dedication and I'm looking forward to working with everybody here the community our leadership team our security team and seeing where do we go from here how do we get it even better and that's can taking in consideration how do we get the absolute best out of our staff which is our best resources our our Personnel at our campuses working with our site supervisors our our education team but also having those considerations and talks about the technology how do we supplement that and we need to have those conversations as we as we move forward um so I'm very excited about
014that I very feel very welcom everybody throughout the whole process and recently being uh moving out here we cross the country my wife and I uh everybody's been extremely welcoming and supportive and it is home um also wanted to share with you um just didn't start today so I got a little head start and I was reaching out to our County Partners and the city Partners had some great conversations with the chief and and different folks in different positions and already starting those relationships and building on those and my goal here is just to see how do we get even better how do we coordinate with our Allied Agency State Federal local to ensure that we're doing the absolute best to keep everybody in our community safe I'm dedicated to that failure is not an
015option I've been very blessed to work with some amazing teams um amazing folks that are passionate about that so first and foremost thank you for your support and your confidence superintendent as well the board I look forward to working with you and uh seeing where the future takes us and that's the Safety and Security of everybody that that we touch in our community so thank you again I'll be available for questions make myself available at any time so thank you very much good thank you thank you welcome again and thank you for your thoughtful leadership we're excited to have you on board and I agree it's it's about the future where you know the next five 10 15 20 years so thank you and welcome again Steve you're up all right legislative update so board
016members you're aware that when the uh State Legislature passed the education Freedom scholarship act it included a requirement uh for school boards to adopt the resolution uh if their districts wanted to receive state funding for this $2,000 teacher bonus and I know there's been some question about why when are we going to get that on the agenda uh the original sample resolution from tsba came early in February um kind of getting that started uh but then the Senate requested some changes we received I think a new resolution on Thursday which is after this agenda was published uh so we we kind of took our time to make sure we're getting that right it doesn't have to be approved until June so we will obviously get that taken care of as soon as we can hopefully
017we'll get it um on the April um on the April agenda um but so the administration and Mr dupler are working on that to make sure we get that uh get that taken care of Mr dupler do you have any updates on that sure thank you uh so a whole document yes yes well so the public chapter just came out last week as well uh so you know and that's that was the reason why uh I didn't want to move on that on that first draft especially because we didn't even have the actual law at that point so so so at least the public chapter's out I've gone through that I have looked at the updated tsba form and it's certainly something we can work with so so I agree with you um that that
018we can do this you know certainly by the next meeting the next month's set of meetings so and which is plenty of time like you said before June 1st and that's the deadline very good thank you Mr dupler great let me do the clothing yeah you want to go ahead sure Absol you might as well so as uh last month's meeting we announced that the clothing Center committee uh they communicated via email uh requesting proposals and Miss Templeton did a great job getting all that information out I appreciate that and um so the deadlines for the the letters of intent uh was this past Friday February 28th we received one letter uh from the KCs School culture team and the Knoxville Dream Center and they plan to bring a joint proposal to us so March
01924th is that meeting is um Miss bety announced uh so we'll discuss that and figure that out and then have a uh a proposal for uh the April board meeting so cool good that is it got a lot of stuff to put on the April agenda let's see Miss Christie you have strategic plan committee update that is always a mouthful thank you madam chair we actually met today um with Accenture to review finalize stakeholder engagement information and a high level overview of um proposed strategic playing goals committee members were able to provide feedback today and over the next couple of weeks District leaders will be meeting with the regional councils and family councils to discuss the proposed goals identified by by both Milan Chicago and Accenture the committee will reconvene on March 31st to see
020our first draft of the Strategic plan and the hope is that we will have a plan ready for board consideration in May or June awesome thank you next up Dr Wilson we have a presentation on early release days and board members you have a print out um at your desks as well I feel like when I do that when you're chewing Madam chair members of the board thank you very much Miss lner is going to be helping me with a portion of this presentation as well so uh as we uh discussed earlier on we made some adjustments to the um calendar for the 25 26 school year I guess it was a couple of months ago that we did that um and at that time we discussed uh early release days in the future of
021those and as we had promised we wanted to do some additional data Gathering um and we've done some surveying of our community of our staff and of our principles and so the presentation tonight is going to be uh bringing that information back what we've collected through that survey and then also making a recommendation for uh early release as we think about the 25 26 Calendar and the adjustments that we need to make to that so to start off a little bit just to give a reminder of um kind of the discussion around early release days where did this begin kind of where are we now um back in the spring of 2022 just prior to my taking this role um the curriculum instruction department at the time academics uh brought a proposal to the board
022um and it was based on the recommendation from our uh elementary middle and high school principles really identifying a need for them to have more time built into the school year uh that was available for them to provide professional development that was more school specific centered on the needs of the students and teachers in their building and to be able to engage more regularly in that with their staff uh as a part of that proposal as a result of that proposal uh the board did approve a two-year pilot um and that was uh in the original model for us to bake bake in six early release day opportunities that were approximately 2 hours each and so we had that early release uh wasn't quite the half day in the original version of that plan uh
023and again that was a two-year pilot so from the fall of 2022 the following school year uh through spring of 2024 we followed that two-year pilot um and we did have the full six days in that 2223 school year unfortunately in uh 23 24 our uh capacity for inclement weather days was exceeded and so we had to reclaim those in the spring semester um in order to be able to cover our snow days that we that we needed um we throughout that two-year pilot and and currently in this current year uh we have always provided annual guidance to our schools and to our principles around the use of early release daytime um and we've also adjusted that feedback over time as as we've gone I'll talk more about that uh later on in the presentation
024so for the current school year again based off of last year and some surveying that we' done information we Shar with the board we modified that schedule for the current school year 2425 to to be four full half days or or tradition half days uh parents and families are are are more used to that schedule and thinking about what a halfday schedule looks like so we moveed to that um that did not cost us any more in terms of the time that we were pulling out of our inclement weather days so it was really just a trade-off in terms of number of of opportunities um this was based on those survey results that we received last year um and some additional guidance we gave is to to again push in to structure around more collaborative
025uh time for the staff but also to provide some opportunity for for teachers to have some individual planning time and so that was not something that we had articulated in the plan previously but we added that last year to kind of strike a balance between a couple of hours of Staff Development um principal planned and led uh work and then also to protect about an hour of time for the teachers to take that back and do some application for their own planning or work time in their classroom if that's what they needed in that space so that brings us to our results from our early release day survey this year uh and and Miss ler is going to walk us through that thank you all right as you heard from Dr Wilson I'm just going
026to do a quick tour of the early release day surveys that were pushed out earlier this semester for those of you who were who were with us last year this slide in particular should look very similar we intentionally maintained the purview um and sustained the questions from last year's survey into this year um so our goal has been the same last year to this year uh to look at perspectives as they relate to the continuation of early release day the impact of these days on families the preference regarding the number of early release days in the district and the use of early release Days by keeping the survey as consistent as possible we've been able to map any changes and shifts in perspective as they relate to um just our familiarity with early release days
027in general from last year to this year and we did see uh some changes in those perspectives and we'll get into those in just a moment but before we do um who responded to the survey so we actually had a pretty healthy response rate um a very healthy response rate in regard to our families in particular over 11,000 respondents to the survey the survey was open for about a month we were able to run it about two weeks more two weeks longer this year than we were last year you can see the breakdown in respondent categories um in terms of who was uh who made up the family group the staff group and the principal group in each of these categories I will note um when you're looking at families in particular families could represent
028more than one grade band um so you may have families with a preschooler and also a middle schooler or a high schooler um and so you see that percent breakdown reflected here our staff response rate was about 199 you can see kind of who the staff were that made up that 109 respond 199 respondents and principal respon rate about half of our executive principles and you can see the breakdown of the grade bands that they represented as well and so what did we learn uh we asked respondents across all three stakeholder groups our families our staff and our principles a series of questions um probably the most important of which was whether or not they support the inclusion of early release days for students in the KCs calendar to allow teachers time for lesson planning
029and professional development all respondents were given three options three ways that they could answer this question they could say yes I support that inclusion um yes I would be supportive of early release days but with changes or no I would not be supportive of early release days so what you see on your screen is the breakdown of the responses that you that that we received um what you'll see in terms of the colors on the the screen are that families are are represented in purple staff are represented in that blue teal color and principles are represented in Orange um under each answer choice you also see two sets of graphs so that's comparing last year's data in the lighter colors to this year's data in that slightly Bolder set so you can actually see how
030perspectives have changed from last year to this year I will summarize all of this to say that as a community we're getting more accustomed to more used to early release days so our familiarity with early release days is increasing among families in particular the overall uh percent that supported early release days either by answering yes or yes with changes was 75.2% so about 3/4 of our families who responded said yes I would support the continuation of early release days that's up 6.1% from last year it's pretty big difference from one year to the next uh among our staff 70.5% % overall would support the continuation of early release days that is up 2.5% uh among our principles who were already very much highly in favor of continuing early release days we did see an increase
031there as well so the percent of principles who would support the continuation of early release days is 96.1% so we can see that they do feel very strongly about early release days that is also up from last year by about 5.5% and so moving on one of the questions we asked last year we asked again this year was around the impact on families so we asked all of our family resp respondents in particular do early release days create any challenges for your family and you can see the breakdown of responses here in that greenish blue color you uh can see families who said no early release days do not uh create any challenges for my family at all the two uh bars on the right in kind of the orangey pinky color there do reflect
032the percent of families who said that yes they either experience minor or significant challenges as they relate to early release days so you can see based on the graph this is pretty close to a 50/50 split it's almost right down the middle uh something that I will note is that again to illustrate that we're getting just a little bit more used to early release days as time goes on the percent of families who responded no challenges whatsoever they do not experience any challenges at all did increase this year to 5.1 or by 5.1% so that's 46.2% overall by that same token the percent of families who responded that they experienced significant challenges related to early release days fell by about 4.6% so you can see kind of the shift in perspective over time there we
033also asked families what concerns do you have about early release days the vast majority of the family respondents 37.5% said no concerns um but a number of other concerns were articulated about 15 3% responded that they do have concerns regarding the disruption to routine 15.2% identified child care as a concern 11.4% identified Transportation as a concern all right the big question so how many uh early release days do respondents prefer we asked this question across all three stakeholder groups and there's a lot going on on this screen so I'm going to take it in pieces if you look on the left side first at that purple section this is the response breakdown among family respondents you can see that by and large the families that we surveyed preferred a two full day model for early
034release days you can see uh the remainder of those responses there I would say the status quo option either our respondents who said they had no opinion or would be comfortable maintaining the four half day model our current model did Total 28.3% if you add those two options together another 15.1% of families said that they would prefer no early release days at all and another 13.7% of family respondent said they would actually prefer to return to the original model which was 6 days leaving uh 2 hours early so that was the breakdown of family responses this time last year when we were reviewing the last early release day survey something that the board asked for was to look at responses um broken down by kind of A ranked Choice option so to give respondents an
035opportunity to say this would be my first choice this would be my second choice this would be my third choice this would be my fourth choice you can see kind of how that shakes out if you look at the right side of the screen so this is looking at the staff and and principal responses so you can see two sets of um numbers on this side of the screen the first that I would call your attention to is at the end of the tales of each of these horizontal bars that reflects the weighted score so if we looked at that ranked Choice option if we give your number one choice a point value of four if we give your number two Choice a point value of three and so on and so forth and we
036average that you'll get a weighted score out of four the closer you get to four the more favorable that option was for that particular stakeholder group so you can see that on the right there if you look kind of down the middle the percents that are closest to the option labels that reflects um what you're looking at with the family option on the uh left which is the of respondents who said this would be my first choice I say all of that to say that no matter how you break down the staff and principal responses the result is the same staff and principles both prefer a four half day model so to bottom line this entire slide families prefer to full days staff and principes prefer to um stick with the four half day model
037so to continue our current model we also ask staff and principles what their preferred use of early release days would be they had five options to choose from and they could select uh as many as they wanted so any um one of these uses that felt valuable to a respondent they could select their options were lesson planning and preparation collaboration with colleagues assessing student progress professional development workshops uh and individual study or research this looks like a very Pro Miami slide this is like very Miami Dolphins sorry I just realized the color scheme was a bit of a bird walk um that was unintentional uh but if you look at the Miami Dolphins um display up here you can see the percent of each um category of stakeholders that selected that option as a preferred
038use of early release day and then you can also see in between the two bars the average so we took the average between what principes found valuable and what staff would find valuable and we offered that to you as well the options here are um listed in order of preference overall with lesson planning and PR operation being the most preferred use of early release days I will say this we saw the same thing last year we saw it again this year there is um a bit of a disparity when it comes to um principal and staff perspectives as they relate to the use of early release dayses for professional development principles find this exceedingly valuable staff not so much so you can see that discrepancy there so we did ask staff if this time we're
039used for professional development what would be the most valuable topics for us to cover in those professional development sessions and you can see their responses here as well 40.5% would prefer to see that professional development used for classroom and behavior management 32.6% um would like to see some workaround instructional strategies 27.9% plc's and collaborative uh Frameworks 21.6% special education and 13.6% uh using HQ and so if I were to summarize that entire tour of the early release St survey it really boils down to two key themes the first is that families principles and staff all prefer um and support giving teachers more time for professional development and planning as a community we are getting more used to early release days support for the time has increased uh since last year the majority of our families
040and principles do support that continuation without any change whatsoever and the majority of Staff support the continuation of early release days with some changes uh approximately half of our families had no challenges with early releasee day half of our families did report some challenges with their early release day fewer than a fifth or around a fifth uh reported experiencing significant challenges the most significant challenge cited was that disruption to routine and to kind of highlight it all um really preferences regarding early release days fell into two categories families prefer the two-day model staff and principles prefer that 4-day model with lesson planning and preparation and collaboration with colleagues being the most valued or preferred use of of early release days as cited by our staff and those are the results of our survey I will
041pause there and turn it back to you Dr Wilson all right so in light of again uh thank you to miss lner and that team that uh handled the survey in light of the the results there I wanted to come back again and just sort of anchor back into as we think about moving forward and we think about you know proposing a calendar for next year the purpose you kind of where we started again with our early release days um the the goal has been along the way to provide our school Leaders with this series of opportunities that they can have over the course of the year uh to be able to engage the folks in their school the staff in school-based learning and collaboration and the goal of all that is really around student
042outcome Improvement and attending to what's in their school Improvement plan like how are they how are they showing progress are there places along the way they need to course correct are they seeing the results that they want to see over time um more frequent opportunities actually give you know more U uh opportunity for the for the staff to to get information in a timely fashion uh it allows us to be more responsive to teacher and student needs so as we're thinking about things that arise throughout the year uh when you have multiple opportunities to do that you're able to attend to those uh in a fashion across time and then again when we think about application to practice if we're giving uh our if we're giving new learning if we're thinking about those instructional strategies
043if we're seeing things in the data that that need responding to uh being able to take take that back to practice over time uh again more opportunities for that support us in doing that in a in a better fashion um I'll said I would touch on this again too as we think about the guidance we've given to schools and to principles over the last few years um that has included expectations for communication with families and staff so just to make sure folks are uh uh being reminded that this is coming up this is how we use this time this is what you should expect on these days for when your students are at school and then also once they leave what we what we do with this time um they have been required for the
044past three years to submit a early release day kind of long range plan at the start of the year they give that to their regional directors and supervisors um and the the job there for the for the directors and supervisors is to look at that plan to see how it aligns back with the things that the school has identified in their school Improvement plan what they're going to be working on we have made a priority in that after the first year we we definitely heard that around kind of I think the more py heavy Workshop type uh sessions that maybe some of the schools used uh that time for in the first couple of year or the first year um and and really tried to steer the schools towards not thinking of it so much
045as a as an opportunity to kind of Stand and Deliver kind of whole staff type things but to really think about the learning that could happen more collaboratively learning from one another uh even think about extending or expanding the time that you would think about a traditional like PLC where teachers are working in uh different groups that that may be either extended time for a group of content teachers of the same content or an opportunity like for some vertical planning for you know the sixth grade math teachers to see to work with the seventh grade math teachers and the eighth grade math teachers thinking about the progressions that happen within those standards but just thinking about that and then kind of right sizing the amount of information one of the things we heard in that
046first year because because we took feedback from our our teacher councils at the regional councils was you know I'm getting a lot of information and a lot of learning but I don't have a lot of time to process it and take it back and think about it from my classroom so again thinking about how to rightsize that information is part of what we have sort of laid into these plans over time and then new for this current year uh after again last year's survey and feedback we we shifted a bit to say let's make sure we're giving at least a dedicated hour of time for our teachers to have some individual um opportunity to go back take whatever they've learned whatever they discussed in collaboration and think about that individually in terms of their own
047classroom practice or again if there's uh you know work things like that that they would prioritize with that time they're able to do that as well so again these two when you look at the two big preferences which Miss lner has already outlined we have we have an a uh a preference in our parents for the two full days we have uh among our staff and our principls the four days so you see sort of the breakdown on on this as we think about kind of that preference piece on those first three uh layers there obviously the family preferred model is the two full day the staff and principal agree in that the four half day model would be uh be the the option they would choose we think about minimizing disruption to routines just
048by the fact that there are more and less right we have four days versus two days uh the the disruption to routine obviously is a little less with the the two full days um thinking about how again how timely we are in response to things like data and just the needs that emerg throughout the school year uh the four half days gives us more opportunities and especially as we talk about you if you've got an example of the calendar there as we talk about these dates how we place those throughout the year and data that's coming back as part of uh the benchmark assessments and things that we do uh when those are scheduled correctly it gives us a lot of uh useful information and time set aside to to layer that into the work
049that we're doing on these days and then last but not least uh going back to the purpose uh the 4 half day model is a bit more aligned to what we originally said and kind of why we brought this proposal in the spring of 2022 which was to have these embedded opportunities throughout the year again it's about frequency and it's about the spread of those and the responsiveness that uh that schools can have when they have more opportunities for that so our proposal based on again the survey feedback I also had a chance to to share some of this survey feedback with a group of principles that I convene for the academics division our academic Council uh and share with them and so we had a bit of a calendar change on that as we
050as we'll talk about that we would propose to remain on the 4 half day schedule um what that would mean and you'll see that reflected in the uh hard copy of the the draft calendar that you have there would be to keep um the September 17th uh date that is already on the calendar for next year uh as one of our four half days and keep November 19th as well January would be a change uh because originally I think that was an earlier date in January but because of um some assessment data which I'll talk about and then also um not wanting it to fall in the same week uh too too close to the MLK holiday just to have more disruptions too close together uh we looked at pushing that one off a little
051bit and then the March 25th date was one of the original dates for early release we would maintain that one as well you see a series of asteris there uh one or two there uh that are that are highlighted and they're noted because when you look at the September 17th date and the January 28th date those kind of align with what we would expect based on this past couple of years to be the testing windows for our students uh around as web and I ready if you're unfamiliar with that as web is our Universal screener that we use in uh literacy and numeracy we use that in grades k through eight and I is also a screener we use for our um our math curriculum and that goes all the way through the Middle grades
052as well so at those points in the year students have completed those benchmark assessments that data is readily available in terms of where they are currently um that information is used for a variety of things uh it it's used for making decisions about interventions and about intervention schedules it's used to make decisions about uh in the regular tier one classroom it's used to make decisions about grouping and about ways to um think about tailoring your instruction in the classroom to the needs of the students so that is data that's relevant and it's timely uh as they're as they're giving those throughout the year and those two dates the sep September 17th and January 28 would align nicely to those uh giving teachers the opportunity to work and meet around that in addition I will say
053that when we think about these days that are sort of sheltered and and we don't have students and schedules to kind of work in you know our teachers do meet in plc's and they me in different ways during the school day on a normal school day but often you know having an opportunity for your your General Ed regular grade level classroom teacher and your elll support and your special education teacher and the people who have lots of different responsibilities having opportunities for them to be together in a space is very challenging in a normal school day schedule and so again in talking especially with our academics Council principles that was one of the things they noted and highlighted was just how challenging it is to have these different groupings and different folks who really could
054benefit from having these conversations with each other uh if just we're having a regular school day type schedule um I'll note to the November 19th and March 25th align to our Master review predictive assessments that's another set of benchmarks that we use that are really predictors for our teap success um and then that that would be again true for I think grades 2 through eight it's a it's an optional thing for kindergarten through first and obviously they don't take the teaps we use those at the high school level as well and in addition a lot of our content areas maybe that don't have State Testing will also build um their own sort of content uh specific assessments and common assessments that they use during PLC times and that as well so MVP has a set
055of standardized things but then also we have uh schools and and teams teachers of teams that use those to build their own assessments as well so just kind of giving you a paint of what what data they might use in that how would we suggest we use these early release days we would stay pretty much with a recommendation that we've had this year um to look at that kind of two to one balance uh two hours of that approximately three hours obviously we've got to allow folks to have time for a lunch break and things like that but the approximate three hours we look at two hours of that being principal developed uh really focused on collaboration on analysis of data that may be available that could help inform our planning and our lesson preparation
056and then again groupings and things like that that might be uh necessary around uh in the regular classroom or in interventions and then protecting that hour for more teacher directed and planned individual work uh whatever they identify as the need for them on that uh half day and that brings us to the end of our presentation and I'll be happy to take any questions that you may have Reverend Butler thank you madam chair and thank you for great presentation databased and Purpose Driven uh had one question question uh is there any evidence there is an impact from the early release days on attendance I don't have that data de cor do you have I don't have the exact numbers I will say over the course of the first semester um we did see some correlation
057we can look into that and get that information to you all ahead of the Thursday board meeting if that helps yep Miss Spike thank you madam chair um and thank you all for your willingness to find something that works for everyone um if we move forward with the 4day schedule will we still call them early release days or will we call them half days thank you for that question uh Miss bike so no I if you'll even look at the draft on the schedule and I think we made that adjustment in the calendar that was published this year because we moved from the early release we we would just call those half days in the schedule um essentially they become half day in service days if you think about how we build the timeout but
058that's a that's a good question that's how we would characterize them um so if we move forward with that and we're reaming them kind of um would our website then remove anything that's termed early release day like would that still be listed on there again when I think about where that would be outlined on the website is most likely in relation to the district calendar and so what we publish I would imagine would all be align to say half days okay um I think there is there are some sections or there's a a page that says like release times and it has like prek elementary middle and it's not specific to the calendar and I'm just bringing this up because on our last early release day I had a few parents um call me asking
059why they were late picking up their kids I got you so we may have some outdated information on there is what I hear you saying I got you um but I get that it was still on there because you know this this calendar we're talking about is still includes them so sure but yeah so I think I think that would be great um I'm curious if we have the total number of responses from the last one if we had an increased number of responses we did have an increase across certain stakeholder groups um so we saw an increase among family respondents uh last year we had approximately 10,500 responses from families this year we were a little over 11,000 um principles were pretty consistent we had 53 executive respon principles respond last year 51 responded
060this year staff is where we saw the biggest discrepancy so our staff response rate last year we had uh approximately 2400 staff responded this year we saw 199 staff responses um and then I'm curious with the that one graph um where it had the yes yes with changes and no um yes I think that was it um no further earlier on I I think that was another one I know what you're talking about yes so that one I'm really curious about um the principles on on that really high rank with or seemingly higher um the yes with changes if principles were able to comment or or what changes were they looking for so that wasn't an option connected to this survey all respondents did have an opportunity to do just kind of what else would
061you like for us to know um and I don't recall seeing any principal specific responses identifying changes it is worth noting though with only 51 respondents that this is probably I'm doing the math off the top of my head this is probably um 41% of 51 I mean this is like 13 some odd 10 13 um principal so this is not a large group of principles um and it would be tough to track down which respondents those were yeah that not fair M I would add and this would be my conjecture but I did have like I said I spoke with the regional family Council or I'm sorry the regional or the academics Council which is a small group of principles that work with us with just academic issues in the district uh and shared
062this data with them and again the only change I would note that they we spent some time discussing about in there was the timing of when these fall and so again could see you know if there are better opportunities in certain times and we did make a calendar adjustment around that one date that would be the only thing I could tell you that I would note that that came out of that group but that's not to say that's what everybody in that group would not do and that that makes sense um and then the only other thing is that I'd be really curious about the attendance like Reverend Butler mentioned thank you Miss Templeton yes um I am looking at let me pull it back together in my head I was listening and I lost
063my train of thought of what I was going to ask you because I was listening instead of thinking um okay I was curious about the um the parents the families you've got 11,000 which is a great respondent rate I thought that was fantastic um but I was curious if you also ask zip code of where they go to school or if you have any idea because the child care 15% of them are expressing concern about child care um and if my rough math is correct that's about 1,600 families of the respondents that are really going to struggle with child care and I was curious if we know where those struggles are that we could some if they are in one area over another if we could look at mitigating some of that um because they
064are not going to be alone in that struggle um if it is zip contingent but do we know I will say we don't know the ZIP code um I know Dr Wilson had worked with uh Teresa Nixon and um it sounds like our after care providers that are already serving students have been able to accommodate the 4 half day model this year and we would anticipate the same next year um but in terms of using this survey to identify like pockets of need no sorry but we have found that they are amable to helping so they've done that this year I will say that that's not to say it doesn't come with challenges uh and and they label those uh effectively in terms of like some of that and a lot of it is Staffing
065I think a lot of them are dependent on folks that are available later in the day and so when they have to Pivot and adjust and and be able to to get that group together one thing they labeled and again it is a a nice uh with our calendar change would would help with that is they depend a lot on college kids for for uh their staff and so in periods of the year when um our College age folks are not back to school they have a really hard time getting getting staffed on those days and so um that January date being much later in January was a help to that um so that that's there again there are challenges but they have been working to try to mitigate those as best they can so
066that did come into um account for the later January possibly even the September date well I'll be honest it was it was fortuitous that that uh that that had already happened because I had had uh Teresa Nixon works well with our our uh it's the Knox area Aftercare Network and she had been to a meeting I said hey when you're there let's just ask this question let's let's collect that so it was definitely informal uh in terms of that but they lifted that up in as a discussion point in there okay um I also found it very interesting that the percentage of families who said yes we're great with this was 48% but then 43% wanted two full days so the percent of families who said yes we're great with this no changes whatsoever was
067actually 51.9% so we also found that very interesting yes so um how exactly they interpreted that question um is anyone's best guess like it's left to interpretation but yes with no changes to us would insinuate that there wouldn't be a need to change the number of days um but then you did see that 41% uh preference there too so there is some discrepancy there um um and we'd have to identify individual respondents to know why um but it was a mystery okay so I read that correctly you did uh and we were all fascinated but have no explanation for it I couldn't quite put that one together okay that was the last question Miss bike thank you um just one more question um do we and I know that you all specifically might not know
068this answer and it's tangental but um do we know how how many of our um Aftercare Partners serve lunch versus not serving lunch because I know there are some that you know absolutely require you to send a packed lunch I don't know the answer to that uh exact I I'm sure we could probably find that out if we needed to I would love to know yeah thank you yeah awesome anyone else those are some great question y'all thank you so much Dr Wilson thank you for this presentation and Miss lner as well thank you we will move into I think we're done with just make sure we didn't miss anything all right we will move into our regular uh agenda starting with item c one or two does anybody have any questions or discussion on
069c one or two yeah on the spike um I don't have any questions um but just need to say that um for C2 that um I have a personal relationship uh with someone that would be tied into this and um but I don't think I'll have any issues um voting on this or being fair awesome awesome thank you right three or four five or six seven or eight nine or 10 11 or 12 13 or 14 15 or 17 all right moving on then to board policies A or B C or D or e all right moving on then to Grants A or B moving on then to contracts a Mr triplet yeah um Mard I have just a couple of questions uh for you just curious I I was kind of looking through the
070stuff I know U uh superintendent sent out an update included a little bit of information U but had a question as to why I know we've all got emails that kind of thing um why make the change at all you is kind of the first question and obviously I think if I'm correct that the only people this affects really is the teachers right I mean is there is the contract that affects directly them but why make the change at all why not leave it the way it is you know if it's not broke don't fix it but maybe it is broke and I just couldn't find the reason why we needed to go to procurement so what what's the reason the motive for that thank you uh Madam chair Mr triplet that's a good question
071um why and why now are two of the questions that we've gotten um we don't currently have a contract um with any of the 403b providers um the district executed a plan document back in 2008 and we have information sharing agreements with certain vendors right now our board policies just require that we maintain 50 participants for a payroll deduction so the two active vendors right now have that um in in an effort to come into full compliance with our fiduciary requirements around transparency and fees um compliance with uh department of labor standards and the IRS um administration of the plans um we believed that it would be best to go through the procurement process to obtain a contract with a vendor the why now question um is because over the years we've had varied numbers
072of vendors we've thought about doing this at several points along the way and have and have thought we should at several points along the way um now being a good time because we are down to only two current vendors that have that active payroll deduction um whereas over over the years we've had more than that at times so is it fair to say that previous to this contract if this gets passed we we've been out of compliance is that is that correct correct um I wouldn't say fully I would I wouldn't go that far and say out of compliance this a contract gives us a greater chance at compliance because we have a complete oversight into the terms that our employees are agreeing to um we participate in the education of our employees and an
073education plan um so I I wouldn't I wouldn't go as far as to say that we are out of compliance but this gives us the greatest chance at full compliance and the other question I have and you know I mean ultimately I don't know that I like some really strong opinion on this I just know that some teachers there's a significant number of teachers that use um you know one or the other so the other question is could we not just have two contracts if there are only two providers could we not create a contract with two of them and get all the necessary documentation to be transparent the way we need to be to be you know in compliance with both providers since there are only two just go with two and then kind
074of going forward that's where we live is there is there a reason we couldn't just do that uh so so that's a that's a good question too um we did feel that to enter into any contract with a provider we needed to go through the procurement process um we we put out an RFQ for a provider and a plan administrator um so it would be difficult to award a contract like that um to two I don't I don't know that we could um have two plan administrators um we the respondents to the RFQ um submitted um because they they thought they would be the the only one um when they submitted so I think it may have looked a little different um if we had intended to award multiple contracts um I we also uh
075did the two current vendors um did not or were not the successful bidders um on the RFQ as well so that's that would because we've gone through the process that would prevent us from from awarding contracts to just the two current gotta okay thank you appreciate it you take my questions Mr triplet Miss bike thank you madam chair you know what Steve I think we rarely agree but this time we absolutely do we absolutely do here we are um you can always find Common Ground exactly exactly um so I'm gonna ping off of the the two and why we can't have the two we currently have you know with the requirement of that they need to at least serve 50 um I know we don't have Scott Bolton anymore but I had talked to him
076about this I don't know a few months ago some time ago sometime in the fall maybe and um he had said that it would be possible to do more than one um but maybe he was misspeaking um I just I really struggle with limiting teachers to just one option and I'm curious if there is any wiggle room I know with the procurement process and how you just described it that that would be hard to award to but are there options where we can do that are there other ways so I don't want to get uh too far over my skis into the procurement process uh Mr Myers is here for the procurement process specifically um but we we went through the procurement process to have the competition during the procurement process rather than in presenting
077products to our employees so that the competition could be during the procurement process um as far as inter executing contracts with multiple providers at this point in the procurement process I'm not sure that that's an option I I may have to to defer to Mr Myers on that because of what we've asked for uh we would have to I believe select one as the plan administ rator um only I don't think that we could we could award plan administrator and vendor um to multiple providers um I just it seems interesting especially hearing that the one that's potentially awarded this one slot is not one that is already existing and serving our teachers is there any concern with that like why they weren't already doing it um or chosen by teachers I don't I don't know
078that I have a a concern with that after going through the procurement process the um the the successful bidder does have a relationship with the county already so they're they're a known entity but I I you know going into it we didn't know who the successful bidder was going to be in the RFQ and invited all of our current and past vendors to participate in that process too okay thank you did you need to say yes go ahead yes Reverend Butler thank you madam chair I have a qu couple of questions um plan administrator and vendor can that be two different ones or do can you explain what the plan administrator responsibilities are and then what a vendor provides as well it sound like it's two different position sure the so the vendor offers the
079products um the provider offers the products um and then the plan administrator um would would administer um the the clients interactions with that product the plan administrator um would would administer for all products that are offered so current current 403bs um that that are no longer actively contributed to the plan administ administrator would administer the the client's participation in those as well so the the uh company that's been awarded is doing both of those jobs that that is what we what we put an RFQ out for is for both of those jobs yes so if but could you have a plan administrator as one and then the vendor can be more than one company and that and then also you said the vendor that's a question let me stop and answer that question so so
080that's um I don't know that we could at this point in the process because we put out the RFQ for both of those together so the provider and the plan administrator okay I'm processing that okay sure uh because [Music] uh but but the the RFQ has to be accepted by the board correct correct so if the board decides not to accept it and want to say hey can we we have a plan administrator that could provide or handle more than one provider one of the reason I asked that question is because a 403b can have more than one type of investment correct it can and what I'm understanding is this current uh provider who's been who's been accepted only offers one type of product or do they offer variety a variety of products so they
081offer all the all of them all the choices that the people what let me just say like this one of the complaints that I've got one this one complaint from several different ones is that the provider that has been chosen does not provide the type of uh investment product that they that they're currently using and I don't know how accurate that is but that's just a complaint I received so we would like with a specific type of investment product um it would depend on which which specific product they're they're referencing and then we would I could tell you specifically um after a conversation with USI what if they offer it too so that's that's something that we can we can look into I I don't want to answer without knowing which specific product they're ref
082and and I understand that and I would love to tell you what that product is but I I can't tell you right now uh uh the biggest um the biggest question I have is is it comes down to choice and and uh as uh a person who who has has had a an employee provide uh these type of products having a plan that gives me Choice was very important especially when you have um members of your staff that are just starting in employment and going to be investing for a while in those who are near the end and know that our investment days are limited and so there's two different mindsets of how how aggressive you might want to be and what kind of product you might want to use so I think that that
083was one of the concerns I've heard is what what's our choice will I have a choice and either that has not been uh explained very well or they understand something different than what's what what the RFQ has has said because that's been the biggest thing so I I think the concern I would have is Choice do do because I know what I'm hearing is is that the why thank you for that that was one of my questions the why the why sounds like it benefits the district but I'm hearing from a number of of of Staff persons that as investors it doesn't benefit them and once again this just may be an education piece that they have not been made aware of but that's the concern I would have if we were to accept accept
084this we would are we limiting those who we really want to benefit are we not we may not be blessing them as much as we I'm sorry we may not be benefiting them as much as we like to right I I it would limit the choice in providers not necessarily the choice in products but it would limit the choice in providers I I will say that the District specifically is not benefiting from this the district is not um getting monetary compensation from this the the intent in putting out the RFQ was to provide a benefit to the employees but so let me let me clarify what I mean by the by the district benefiting the why was so that we can ensure that we were doing we would we were living up to our fiary
085requirement and we felt like we can do that better by doing a contract and therefore doing the RFP that's what I mean by the the benefit the benefit to the district is to make sure we're more effective and more efficient and which I'm for but also I think we have to be looking at as as we become more effective and efficient we're also maintaining the benefit to the to the staff and that's the the tension the tug that that I have because I'm all for us making sure we're doing it right and contracts help us make sure we're doing it right but on the flip side of that we want to make sure we providing the what because a lot of the me members that I've heard from are saying that they're losing something versus
086gaining something and that's that's that's the that's what I'm hearing Mr Templeton yes and thank you for that conversation and thank you for answering all this inquiring minds so many questions um so thank you for that and I do want to say thank you to um all of the people who have emailed us um thank you for raising this to our attention and thank you for offering Insight on how this is going to affect you I think it's very important um that we hear from the constituents that's going to affect the most especially when there are 2800 of them that um or 28% um of our teachers that um currently have their or or a portion of their retirement with value teachers um so I think this is an important conversation um and I understand
087the need for Knox County Schools as the fiduciary to know what's being offered to teachers that's important to know what is being said in an assembly is accurate and good good for them um and I can appreciate that the procurement process was looking for a company that could offer everything that's being offered right now and more is that correct that I think yes okay so there is under USI there is a 503b plan being offered and there are other options as well well mutual funds Etc is that correct like the gamut yes 43b plus other options okay um if so from what I understand and I'll need your yes or no just tell me where I'm going wrong um and we had talked earlier with by passing this we have three options teachers can um
088if we pass those teachers can um keep their 43b open with value teachers but will not be able to continue to contribute and can open another 43b with USI yes or they can keep their 403b with value teachers and just let it acrew or they can no longer contribute right and then or they can move their 43b investment to USI but more than likely there would be some sort of a penalty um from value teachers that would naturally come with moving that money to something else that's correct that would be dependent on the terms of the agreement with with value teachers or Corbridge and their clients our employees yes okay so do we do we know I don't know if anybody this might be a group question and I know that there are value teachers
089Representatives here um and maybe they will let us know um do we know what that percentage is to move the money like what will that Financial hit be for teachers I do not know the answer to that that would be in the agreement with um the provider and and the client or our employee okay um all right is there any option that current participants in this 403b plan could continue and it would phase itself out as people retire not if the contract is approved with USI okay they would be the Sole Provider okay if we we do not approve this and we maintain course for where we are right now that opens the door to anybody else coming in and getting 50 subscribers and being a part of the options yes provided yes okay I
090believe they have to have uh 250 initially and then maintain 50 250 initially and then 50 whatever it is yes the threshold would have to have a certain amount whatever that right fair enough okay all right that's what I need to know thank you good Miss font Ridley thank you and thank you for all your work on this um I have several questions okay um number one the um procurement process I understand that there was a score given to the two or more yes um people that are applying um does it make a difference since value teachers only does a 403b and the other company does 403b plus there's a discrepancy on how that score is going to be based on what they can do is that it I it doesn't seem fair that we're
091kicking somebody out because they do something one thing and they do it very well um I had a policy with them when I was teaching and they were amazing I mean they were always they were always answered their phone they were always there they come by the school whatever we needed but I'm just it it almost seems like an apples to oranges kind of thing and like one is so much bigger that it just kind of pushes the other one out as far as the score goes um and when you I'm concerned about taking the decision on how to invest that is should be the teachers decision um from what I understand they can no longer contribute to the 43b privately that they have currently is that correct through a payroll deduction if if the
092contract with USI is approved then the then the payroll deduction contributions would only be to USI so they could write a check to them and be taxe but it wouldn't be taxfree that's correct I I don't know um the terms of the agreements whether post tax contributions would would be made because that was one of the big yeah that was one of the big benefits I think it was pre-taxed what or no tax um so is there risk involved with the other company's products like the 403b with value teachers it never lost value I mean if if if you get to retirement and you're still going to have at least exactly what you put into it there's no chance that you're going to lose money does the other company provide that um security I'm not
093sure that I could answer that question for USI because there there are multiple products they offer I'm not sure that I could answer that question for them okay so okay um yeah I've got I've got a lot of Pap from procurement is here if if he needs to pop in at any or pop up here at any point too who is Matt from procurement he's wonderful hello Matt oh is the oh do we have a representative from USI as well yes welcome I did not realize you were here um are you comfortable asking question or answering questions you if you want to come on up Sir Welcome to our meeting is there a value teachers person yes by the way my dad was a principal in uh at laning Elementary in Morgan County so a
094little bit different seventh and eth were in one room 10 kids in each each class so my dad walked about 10 yards from the seventh to the eighth grade and I was pretty bored in the eighth grade I have to say so my name is Bob cross I live at 425 heathermore Drive Knoxville Tennessee I'm president of the Central and Southern regions for USI Consulting Group okay okay I'd be glad to answer any of your questions awesome thank you Miss font really do you want to ask him a question again um yes uh uh do any of your products um guarantee that there's no loss of in we have a thank you we have a variety of uh so one we don't have any USI funds these are all Mutual funds uh the mutual funds
095mirror the mutual funds that are used in a nox County Retirement System uh and the comparison chart that we sent on the RP response by reason of that uh the magnitude of those assets were're able to provide that to employees at the Board of Education the average is about half of the expense ratios you're going to find on on typical funds and there is one option yes that would have a guaranteed uh rate return and a guaranteed to principal that wouldn't be one option okay would there be any way for teachers to move the their investments from their current account to a new account without any kind of loss of investment I these are individual contracts and so we'd have to go through and we have a great deal of personnel Janet Samar as a
096matter of fact is one of our staff she worked at here at the board of education and uh uh also Jennifer Ral so we have a couple of people that worked with the school system but we'd have to meet with each individual and by the way my staff they're all salary people they get no bonus or no it's strictly you know does the individual want to move or not move that's up to the individual but we'd have to look at the contract and then provide that information and then the individual could make a decision if there was to be a penalty they'd have to again uh evaluate that whether it's worth them or it makes sense for for them to move but that's that's you would we wouldn't know that until you became the administrator
097it's going to vary the contracts going to vary from person to person in terms of the penalty and so you'd have to literally meet with each person but there will be a penalty for them to Move It from one to another it depends on how long they've been in the contract they be some contract to contract okay I couldn't speak to that without actually looking at the contract person by person would that be something that the value teachers people would know what kind of penalty would happen well for us it if they should stay where they are they should stay where they are I mean we're not going to push them to to move if there's a penalty that they don't want to incur except they can't invest anymore in what they have if that's
098their choice CU I mean I guess my question is we're taking away a lot of choice choice for a lot of teachers you know at the same time the choices they're going to have are going to be significantly reduced cost from the terms of the all of the shares that are offered to participant are at net asset value they're institutional share classes there's no commissions of any kind whatsoever so plus the fee that we're charging is based on the $500 million that the Knox County has in their retirement system so participants here are going to be able to take advantage of that to get significantly reduced fees it's is just who just that simple okay who is paying the fees uh they inherent fees in any mutual fund it's just a matter of the share
099class and the share class could be and in this case the example it's twice what the share class fee is in the noox county system you have to understand I don't know anything about money just asking some questions that's all these are good questions I'm good um I'm trying to figure out what else GNA say next um and this may be a question for missar um is there just something that came up that requires is to have a contract so Knox County Schools as a as a employer does have a fiduciary duty in in overseeing our payroll deductions and contributions towards retirement as far as is did something come up no um this is an opportunity for us to come into full compliance with our fiduciary uh the opportunity um was that over the years
100we have had um a varied number of vendors um and we are down to only two now that have active payroll deductions um so that was an opportunity that would that would provide the least disruption okay so would there be um like people have already asked would there not be a situation where they could service our Kno County Teachers side by side and you know and have contracts with both we would not be able to offer the the fee concession if there was another provider we just I mean it's up to you we we would not be able to do that so so that just being honest right if the the RFQ was was to be um the provider and the plan administrator um so the the respondents to the RFQ were under that impression
101when giving the pricing structures in response so at what point did was their discussion about um moving to one planed administrator I mean it just seems kind of all of a sudden and of course I'm the new people on the board have only been here for six a little over six months um it just seems like all of a sudden we've got to make this huge decision about our teachers and what they feel they need to have some control over um I just I I don't know sure I just think it I just think their financial freedom to choose whoever they want is extremely important I'm just going to interrupt real fast just are there any other questions for our guest so that way he can sit down um that are specific to the contract
102Miss bike and then we can get back to some more of the RFQ process questions out of respect of your standing there um thank you so much for being here sure um I'm curious with your offering of the 40 3B and um I'm sorry if you've answered this and I've didn't it didn't stick but um when someone chooses to let's say you get the contract and uh one of our teachers chooses the 403b option with your company um is there a potential risk for them losing the money that they have put in it depends on investment option that they've chosen there is one option which is a Guaranteed Rate returning guarantee is the principal and there there's a myriad of other fund choices and those involve either Equity stocks or bonds and either one of
103those potentially there's always an investment risk There's an opportunity for gain of course but depending on the market there could be a loss at some point in time but that would be up to the individual and that's all in the material that we provide to the to the individual so all of your plans are Market based Yes except the one option again there is one option that is has a guaranteed rate of return and guarantee to principal okay so let's say uh someone puts in $40,000 to that specific option then they could potentially come out at the end with 40,000 or more yes not L guaranteed rate of return is 3% right now that varies so 40,000 plus 3% but you know who knows where we're going to be in five years um where would
104there be an opportunity for them to not come out with their same 40,000 that they've put in not if they put that in that fund they would not okay y thank you you're welcome thank you sir you can go ahead and sit down if you'd like by now well does anybody else have any questions for him all right I think you're good sir oh okay great thank you glad to have yeah all right Miss font rley do you want to go back to your questions for missor then we'll get to if I if I could remember my question um I guess my concern is you know coming from the people who are concerned about this and we've gotten so many emails it 80 plus emails people really want to have um control over how they
105invest and I know that they could go with a private company and they could um invest privately but I feel like that would be a financial burden like they'd lose money po potentially with the I'm not sure what what what the answer was to that question um I'm just concerned that we're not respecting our teachers and allowing them to make their own decisions on how they invest and having two um companies after we've had at least six in the past why that's um not something that we can that we can do that Miss Christie thank you madam chair I just have um couple of comments and a couple of questions um first of all I think that like Mr triplet I don't have overly strong feelings on it I do think there's some misconceptions about
106the intent um it does bother me some of the things that I've seen out there about that you know Knox County schools is not making money off of this first of all um I do not think the procurement process was sketchy and I think we did it like we do just about any other procurement process and Mr Myers I'll probably have a question for you here in a minute um I kind of see it differently because I I'm over here really concerned about the fact that we do not have formal contracts with people who have been coming in and we have been doing payroll deductions with fortunately everybody seems to have had a great experience but what kind of conversation would we be having if people were retiring and found out that the company they
107invested with was less than reputable or maybe wasn't transparent or maybe there were more fees than they thought there should be um I mean we would be having a very very different conversation and the emails would be very very different than what we're getting now so moving forward again company strong feelings no but I do have very strong feelings about having formal contracts with people who come in and we do payroll deductions with for teachers I have very strong feelings about that um and feel like that had that needs to change regardless um I do feel like this was entered into to provide that level of protection I got that sense from my discussions with you and I I do appre appreciate that I understand people's frustrations with it but I do appreciate the fact
108that we do need to do better make sure that we know who's coming in and what they're offering and what the fees are and that we're very transparent in that um and Mr Myers did you are back there right I'm just curious if you could just speak to the basics of the procurement process and I know someone had said that um the 457 with ower that it didn't go through the procurement process but I'm guessing that's because it had went through the procurement process at a different level maybe with the state or I mean you can piggy back off those right if Madam chair Matt Myers Knox County procurement director hello Mr Myers I appreciate you going through the procurement process too because I think it's good for new board members to just kind of
109understand in that process as well I remember getting a call from uh Mr Bolton in the early fall and he was telling me what they what he had in mind and what he wanted to do and and over uh several conversations um went through the process um we got a scope of work from school system and uh early fall late fall excuse me uh we developed an RFQ for that uh send it back over for uh you know approval make sure it say is what they needed to say um I think it was advertised on December 7th um and um subsequently you know opened and U uh five individuals were on the evaluation we had three from the school system um we had uh one of my employees and then we had uh Jennifer Schroeder
110who's the director of the uh Knox County Retirement Board uh were're on the evaluation committee um it was uh scored based on what the RFQ had asked for and uh see USI came out number one uh by a pretty good margin too uh so same same type of process we do for for every uh every solicitation that goes out on an RFQ or an RFP bid's a little different we don't ask for price in the rfqs it's based on qualifications only can you in that process kind of go over like what's the score card what is each entity scored on like those categories are the categories yes I have that yeah I'm making you work you got put your glasses on Pardon so you got to put your glasses on I make you work tonight
111I'm not getting any younger mean sir um the evaluation criteria that was organizational qualification and experience Personnel clients Consulting Services investment advisory services recordkeeping and administrative Services participant services and references and they all had U different you know points attached to them okay on percentages thank you Miss Chrissy do you have any okay okay M Tim had a really quick question um you said that I think was himl Gard said that um there is a current contract with the county is that right for with um yes USI USI currently has a contct with the county has the has the county ever had any issues with not to my knowledge okay no I mean they are our closest right currently serving Knox County now in half for a few years Bob I'm not sure how long
11220 years 20 years or so a few years thank you just a little bit um I do have a question I don't know if Miss himar maybe if you can answer this I'm not sure so whenever like whenever the USI contract would expire like 5 years or 10 years is there a penalty at that point for employees to roll their money [Music] over Mr Cross may be able to correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe there is a surrender fee in or a surrender penalty in the contract yeah yeah so the uh now these are all mutual funds that are publicly traded they are no penalties uh they can be liquidated at any point in time and we don't assess any any fees of any kind for moving the money so there are
113no penalties thank you Miss fer Ridley is is there a representative from value teachers that can answer a question for me or two I I think because and correct me if I'm wrong because the contracts with USI I think questions need to go to and now value teachers are they are signed up for public forum so could we ask them questions at that time just because this specific contract is with us since we've gone through the process I'm not really sure how to I don't want this to be a back and forth you know thank you madam chair I so so the so the presentation is as you describe and and the contract proposed is with USI I do think if a board member wants to recognize someone else uh that board member can make
114a motion then there's a second then there would be a vote as to whether or not um you want somebody else to speak and that's that's certainly been done before another make sure we were following the process to make sure that okay okay so do I need to make a motion yes make a motion to ask a representative from value teachers to come up and answer a question or two all right motion by Miss F Ridley second by Reverend Butler all those in favor say I I any opposed all right come on up thank you madam chair board my name is Brandy Gerald I'm the regional manager for Value teachers um I had a question um how long have you all been in Knox County with working with the teachers yes that's going to supersede
115me I have been here 11 and a half years and so I'm the oldest um representative here has been year the longest um but we have been here um before that and I believe it's um 20808 since it started Miss hgar might have that reference to but I believe it was then 2008 yes ma'am oh because I feel like I've started investing with you all well that's when the plan was put into place and so we've been here since the the beginning of the 403b plan in Knox County okay so where's the rest of my money just kidding I'm just kidding um have you ever had any any instance with um people complaining or filing complaints because you all were not doing your fiduciary duties no not to my knowledge and once again the HR
116department could help with that but not I have not been aware of any complaints to us excuse me okay okay that's the only questions I had right Butler I'd like to ask uh question was asked earlier if uh USI was to get the uh contract and the members of that's with you all would have to move over there would there be a penalty assessed thank you for the question so there are different ways companies make money um it was said earlier that mutual funds have fees attached to them that are part of those mutual funds we do not have fees that we charge our clients we have surrender periods they go into the contract understanding that the surrender periods are there and that their full contribution monthly is going into their fixed indexed annuity which
117is different than a fixed annuity or a fixed account that was mentioned earlier it grows differently it's a completely different kind of um Avenue that we have and so yes um our surrender periods vary based off of the policy that the um teacher chooses to go into um that will be anywhere from 0 to 10% of their account account value uh but teachers could leave their funds in correct they will not be a yes thank you could add more on they can but they cannot um it was mentioned a little bit earlier that they might possibly be able to contribute or move that fund or do anything with that fund um they it would be frozen essentially they will not be able to move it to a private account that is an IRS regulation on
118403bs so it's not a simple just let's but that that money would just basically sit there and continue to grow interest of course and then they could withdraw it upon retirement correct that is correct very good uh just one other thing Miss helar thank you for asking answering a thousand questions I I appreciate all that um I don't have any more more questions uh for Value teachers but I do what I I do feel like I agree with Miss Christie on the fact that you know I've never been a part of company that just let you pick whatever you want and that my company wrote checks to a bunch of company or whatever company I chose for my 401k I've never never been a part of anybody that did that we just everywhere I've worked
119I've always just had one option and then within that within that one company I could choose some some variety but which just with one company so it does make sense that we have some sort of oversight over exactly what we are sending our employees money to and there's some confidence that our our staff should have in in the fact that we've chosen a company that's that's reputable so kind of ultimately I've sort of settled and listening on this conversation that I will probably vote for this um just because it makes sense to have one W they went through a process um you know that vetted them fairly well and and then and then uh I feel confident that you know they've gone through the vetting process and and feel like this is they've landed on
120this option and I I will support that so miss bike thank you um trying to figure out how to word this of let's say the teachers Knox County teachers that have already signed up for plans and have been contributing for however long if they if we make if we pass this and um they're no longer able to continue to Tribute to their plans will there be a penalty if there is no penalty for not contributing to the plan the penalty would be in transferring the funds within the time period so it would just be kind of absolutely Frozen just potentially ACR whatever interest it could acre correct okay thank you does anyone have more questions for her thank you very much foring those that was helpful thank you so much Miss Templeton one final question
121for miss hogard you ready okay uh when does this take effect so in the contract I believe that um USI indicated a need for a 6 week implementation um so about that amount of time um we would allow plenty of time for education of employees and election of of what they want to do so I did I remember seeing an email I can't remember if everybody was copied or not on someone who was retiring um very soon like even possibly this year I mean could we make the start date at the beginning of a contractual year like could could we so that those who are retiring can finish out what they're doing and we start fresh with the new year I believe the answer to that is is yes um Mr dupler I may defer
122to you but I I believe the the board would be able to pick the start date yeah I mean just so we're consistent so that if you are retiring we can at least just be aware Mr dupler thank you Miss timilon thank you mrar I honestly I don't know I mean I I'd have to refer back to the contract I mean if this board states that it that it wants to adopt the contract but you know has a has a different start date than what's in the material uh then then it would be back on USI to accept that start date you know at the worst I mean you know if there's no uh specific start date in the material and and and I haven't looked to see if there is but if there's not
123a oh oh so miss Coty says it's March 1st so then then you know um this board could say hey we would like to accept it and then and then do it at the end of the school year uh or fiscal year or whenever that is so and they be to USI to accept that yeah we would be will to accept that thank you Mr Cross yeah there you go that was helpful Mr Cross thank you any more questions all right that was a great discussion thank you all right moving on contracts B or C no did you have something Mr okay uh N9 a okay go ahead Mr Wilson or maybe it's C I'm not sure who answers this but is it possible to get any access to like I know we're going to
124you know we're looking to approve a slate of books any any possible way we can get access to like an ebook or something just to you know skim through review before we approve is there any way to do that thank you Mr tripet I'm going to look to miss Barry who is in the audience and in charge of our signs is that something that is an option okay perfect yeah anything any anything that you have be good yeah thanks appreciate it great question Mr triplet thank you nine B or C give you all a second I know we did have a discussion about C with the revised calendar oh miss bike yeah I thought you might thank you madam yeah um I just want to say thank you again for doing this survey and this
125whole process and really um looking for something that again it fits for everyone you know know it's hard to please everybody um but I do I am really happy with the the 4-day um option and also calling them half days as opposed to early release days so that is probably something that I'll be in favor for thanks awesome all right d or E anybody well yes Miss bike sorry the only one okay um this would be in regards to e the resolution yes let's talk about it yeah um so I I went through and sorry I'm not talking into this I went through um you know because I've had some some limited experience with the third grade richin and stuff and um I'm curious I tried to look through the bill as best I could
126but is there any sort of fiscal note promise uh that the Department of Education like if this bill passes that the Department of Education will provide these things to the district um essentially free of charge to the district that the state will pay for right that's a good question I'll have to look into that more because I do know that that professional development piece is in there for this particular curriculum yeah and my understanding is yes but I will double check that that would be great to know because it is my assumption is because it would be required by the state that it would that piece would be in there but I'll double check for you okay yeah um and then let's see my notes um I'm curious the the difference also on this between
127the sorry I've got too many windows open here the um literacy Act of I think it's 2021 that's not the official title tennessy liter literacy success act yeah that one um because I looked through that and I looked through the frequently asked questions on that one and it seems to cover it pretty well you know um it talks about the screener that's provided and um that it it covers many things but also dyslexia yeah and then uh number five that that this um align that the SC screener that they have aligns with the literacy success Act and the say Lexia bill right and then also that this was implemented in May so I'm really curious on kind of what the difference is um between this and what we're asking for so I think this this
128bill takes it a step further where we are screening children but what we're seeing and this is by the way parent driven I have parents come to me you know asking if if I would support and bring forth this resolution but and it's very you know I have a lot of parents coming to me my child is slipping through the cracks and it's taking they may have been identified but it's taking a very long time to get the accommodations or the things the supports that they need and this bill just kind of reinforces that and I think you know supporting this legislation just Builds on our priority as a board to become a model district for special education and just kind of uh reinforces the priority to for excellence and foundational skills so it just
129kind of reinforces that and you know right now we have a lot of kids I think that are are just not getting the help that they that they need yeah I I definitely agree there that there are some people slipping through the cracks I'm the only the only issue I would have is that if the district is going to be out of pocket for this because I think if we're going to be out of pocket I would rather do the tutoring that um that we you know we had been a little bit more intensive with I've really I heard from a lot of people that that was really a benefit we're doing both I'm almost a fan of all the above can definitely look into that get I can let Miss Cy know and then
130you could let everybody know that okay okay that would be great a great question um and then uh my last question is for um Mr Brown um I saw on this bill that um Michelle caringer is one of the sponsors and I was curious if you've had potentially had a conversation with her at all about this no ma'am I have not um do you think that's a a possibility um I I would default to Dr riswick on that we typically don't get in the uh business of of legislation um and this is a legislative bill I mean obviously we're going to do whatever we're asked to do uh but I think currently we have a pretty robust system in place and uh for screening and for provision of services that is mandated by the state
131um so I no I have not reached out to Miss K oh I didn't mean if you had reached out I just a conversation in general yeah no we have not had one no ma'am okay thank you yeah Dr yeah I would I would just jump in and and Echo what Dr Brown said I mean we we have a good relationship with all legislators and they typically will reach out um if if they have questions on stuff and and uh and in this case I know you know Michelle too we haven't we haven't had a conversation not that we wouldn't but we'd be happy to talk to her if she wanted to uh and I don't I I just want to Echo again what Dr Brown said I mean our our current system is aligned
132with everything in the state and we taste test every k through eight student multiple times a year three times a year um I know uh Miss Jones Alicia Jones is probably in the crowd too and and this is this is what she does all the time especially around dyslexia that that changed in 2023 so uh we we do have those things in place for that not I don't know anything about this other system so I'm not saying Pro or or against it I'm just saying and I think Dr Brown's saying the same thing um but I mean we would if if any legis later had wouldn't have a question about what our current practice is and maybe talked about what those other practices are we would we would have that conversation when we typically don't
133reach out because we didn't generate the law so or the bill so we would uh we'd be happy to have conversations if they wanted to have them and again routinely legislators do reach out I don't think in this case we've had that conversation though so my question is what you just said about what change in 2023 is that correct what did change in 2023 this I'll give back I know Dr Brown has this answer cuz we talked this afternoon yes thank you madam chair Miss bike um in 2023 the H the um and and I may need to get Miss Jones up here to back me up on this one I don't mess it up uh but I think the state rule changed uh requiring mandatory screenings for all students prior to that with the
134the law that came into place in 2016 around dyslexia um parents had to bring it to our attention uh so there was probably a good period of time there for seven years where kids may have fallen through the cracks now we screen every student kindergarten through 8th grade um with am web plus is the system we use which is provided by the state um and then we have if you will um I I did share this Miss Henderson reached out earlier today and I shared with her kind of our flowchart so I've provided a copy of that for everybody that's out of our RTI handbook that we provide to all of our staff members um but you can see there that we do a universal uh reading screener with as web Plus for kindergarten through
1358th grade uh in high school that's a little different there's an early warning system uh but then after that we use additional screeners of quick spelling and a quick phonics assessment uh so we can drill down deeper to the individual skill deficits that students have uh and I can't give the numbers that's why I asked Miss uh Miss Jones to come join us today but we have actually this year in the implementation of that qpa and qsa have actually seen students go in intervention get the things they need and be exited out of which is the which is the intent um we have not seen that in the past um most of the time students go into an intervention they're behind and and even though they're probably making up some ground because the other students
136are gaining new information they never can close that Gap so this has really enabled us to to close those gaps specifically around the skills that they are missing and get them back into tier one instruction to where they're not continuing to broaden that Gap I see Miss Jones a step forward is there anything that we can get her to add yeah I do have a question too for you so since this has been put in place how many more kids has that identified I do have that number because it should have gone up kindergarten through fifth grade in the last two years we have created ipds which is the individual learning plan for students with character of Dyslexia for 1,943 students in grades K through 5 233 in grades 6 through 8 and 24 in
137grades 9- 12 do you know the numbers be prior to this going into effect I do not M Jones May but Madam chair members of the board I do not have that information with me but I can tell you we have definitely seen a huge increase in the number of students but I can get that information for you I do have it already Okay don't have it with me tonight okay I appreciate it I didn't mean to like interrupt I just back and I just have one more question that be for either one of you um so in in going through all the third grade retention stuff and um I know Miss Phillips is not here but I had been and I know that we cannot diagnose dyslexia but and but we can you know
138look at kind of marks that show up probably um but what have we done to kind of ensure that those students that have those um characteristics of Dyslexia not get caught up in the third and fourth grade retention because that is something in that first year when I asked about that there were students that were held back and that's really sad to hear I've heard the same thing and even kids like I think last year because they were identified earlier on but haven't been getting the help in now they're at that third and fourth grade level and it's not a qualifier to be exempt right is that correct is not yeah okay so in Knox County we do have a structured lersy approach and since Dr Phillips and I have joined KCs one of the
139things that we both were intentional about was utilizing that structured literacy approach across intervention and tier one um instruction and not just that we've also extended into the tutoring realm that you just mentioned has been very successful also our English language Learners also are receiving the benefit of having that instructional coherence across all uh areas so with that with the third grade retention we have seen with the instructural coherent model that we have implemented since being here in KCs and kind of when I first started I'll just give you an example we our coherence map um our intervention map we probably had um over 30 different options we've now narrowed that down to make sure we're utilizing a consistent um way that students are having that repetition across all areas where they're getting the repetitive
140content the teachers are seeing that model across all areas where they're able to go into uh different parts of the building and you will hear the same language you will hear the same content being uh taught so that those students are getting that exposure that's needed do you think sorry um do you think that this has been definitely helped with retention and students ability to not get caught in that yes because of that instructional coherence model yes okay thank you yes is am web specifically does it screen is it a dyslexia specific screener there are components within the am web um okay screener yes that actually addressed the characteristics of Dyslexia they are subtest that we use as a matrix that the state has provided for us to identify those students who are at risk
141okay so my qu so with my personal experience so my daughter's dyslexic she's now in e8th grade so she's been doing as web since kindergarten and no one caught her until fifth grade and we went to the school system in second grade like there's something going on like no no she's fine she's fine she's fine she's fine and now in fifth grade she had not been receiving services at all in elementary school now she's in eighth grade and reads at like a fifth grade level so so one thing we also little concerns about a web one thing that we've also added because of that that drills down is the qpa and the qsa the quick fining assessment and um the quick spelling assessment that that does allow us to drill down further than as web
142and all students are also screened three times a year along with as web okay when were those pieces implemented in am web we we did that last year last year okay so when this okay okay so that that yeah M Henderson that's what I was going to say is part of the reason your daughter may have experienced that is because we didn't have those components in place since she took it in kindergarten yeah all right I'll move on the questions because I can talk about the all day and I'll probably come back uh Miss Christie you're up next so I do have one question for you um should the state mandate a switch in a curriculum do you think that would what would that look like for what we are doing in Knox County and
143would that hinder the progress that we are making with some of our students that have been identified or do you know I feel as if um right now with our current model we are seeing the growth that's not to say that adding another intervention would not hurt however as I was just explaining about that coherence across all areas right now we did invest and we were very uh strategic and intentional about the money that we did spend to make sure that all areas were covered um and so in adding another intervention it would require of course additional funds um and then we would also have to look at all those areas that I just named elll special education uh tutoring all those other components how that would align with our current model you so that
144that was my only question um for you I do have just a couple of comments um Miss Anderson I totally appreciate the resolution and I know um in your advocacy I do have some concerns with naming um Orton Gillingham and I know that board members we all received an email from Miss Johnson over the weekend who was the Knoxville president for decoding dyslexia let me just say she doesn't give herself enough credit she was the Knoxville parent that helped write the 206 2016 law that is current ly in place um and you know one of the things she mentioned was she feels like it's more of a compliance issue especially in the rural districts and I I'm sharing this with her permission she said she would be happy to come and speak um so so
145I do have some some concerns about naming that and then also the international dyslexia Association the Tennessee chapter if I can pull it up actually issued a statement about this legislation um I'm not pull it up now that where that it was the same concerns they had concerns about listing the or oron Gillingham because um they felt like there are other practices that are being implemented or programs that are being implemented that are um just as effective that districts are already using um and that might cause some you know confusion or additional costs or uh training time which could be spent more directed toward the progress that's already being made with those students so I I am curious about everyone's thought on thoughts on those I'm I'm certainly not an expert in in dyslexia I
146um appreciate you all speaking because you know far more about literacy than I do and um I appreciate Miss Johnson's input as well obviously she's been working on this a long time so th those are my concerns my concern really is just naming this one specific program um in this resolution I do know that this specific program allows teachers to be creative with their students so it does allow um it does allow for that but I do think and I would be welcome to you know curriculums similar curriculums I could change that but um you know it kind of adds that continuity within the district because I I don't see districtwide that's happening in all of our schools and there are a lot of lot of kids slipping through their cracks I hear from them
147every day uh so I think you know just those two things like it allows teachers the flexibility and the they can be creative I have the statement I found the statement okay I've got it pulled up it says um in part it says however limiting District um dist districts educator preparation programs and Educators to Orton Gillingham methodology as the sole option is concerning the OG approach contains instructional practices which have been proven effective by extensive research and those practices are prominent in other Nono labeled methods as well strong evidence exists for direct explicit instruction that is systematic and synthetic intensive and responsive to student progress and that is um multicomponent with applications to reading and writing so so they did they also have issues with naming that specific methodology and I guess that that's my
148biggest concern with with the resolution itself I do know Bine uses this curriculum and they are a gy in our community for helping kids with dyslexia an sorry I know you you looking at something you're next I was looking up an email I was trying to find it is what I was doing and then it all went black so it's we're going to give up on that and we're just GNA stick with the phone um apparently it gets a better um sorry yeah I had a question first thank you for doing the research and bringing this to our attention and having the conversation I think um It's always important to know what we need to be talking to our legislators about so this is great and healthy um conversation and I also appreciate you looking
149into the financial piece of this because what we don't want isn't is something to be passed and then we're settled with a bill that we've got to figure out how to pay for it um so um to know that in advance is very important um as we Advocate or choose not to so thank you for digging in a little deep on that um the I had a question about um just this process and the implementation um I understand that this it is a method of um helping children with dyslexia me I understand that um is it an additional test on top of our current testing procedures I am not sure if it would be an additional test but I will say that in our tier three intervention we do use spire which is an Orton
150Gillingham approved approach we do currently use that right now for intervention that does not require an additional test that is just a part of our Universal screening in the qpa and qsa but I'm not sure if that if it would require anything additional to use Orton Gillingham so we're already incorporating pieces of this yes because we have found it successful yes we actually also use it Benchmark Advance has same actually that is our tier one tier two and um components of it is also in tier three so that is our structural literacy approach but Spire specifically has been named as an Orton Gillingham approved approach a Spire or Spire Spire just Spire okay thank you and um so would you say that this legislation would then actually restrict us on what we can offer instead
151of allowing us to use what has in the past year been working I think which includes it if it is solely the only intervention that we are able to use for students with dyslexia or characteristics of Dyslexia then yes if it's the sole option yes okay and that is how it's currently written um I did think it was interesting um it was a different email that was pulling up um that actually spoke to the same it was um Miss Wood Marty wood um who's a certified academic language therapist but also was the past president of the Tennessee dyslexia Association um her recommendation was that the resolution would um change the Restriction meaning Orton Gillingham method to Orton based methods or science of reading methods which would then allow us the flexibility to use as well
152as expand off of that like a springboard from that um and I thought I thought that was an interesting um perspective from two um highly decorated folks who have spent their lives in the craft okay there were there were a lot um so and I and I do think you know we read things that different things kind of pop out to different people um but it was interesting that there were two people that offered the same suggestion and I think I I do hesitate to restrict as opposed to open up the options what if we and this is just an idea what if the board made a recommendation and amended you know recommended an amendment to the legislation to say something like similar you similar programs or similar curriculum that are aligned with the science
153of reading that way we can make that recommendation to the legislature that says hey we agree with this is a priority for us and we want kids to get help but we don't want it restricted to one but we do you know we're open to curriculums that are science-based in the science of reading or evidence-based in the science of reading does that make sense yeah no I think that justes make like a jum that up in my mind um I got really close um no I think that does make sense um and also to continue funding what I mean right now they're funding right so we would want to make sure that that so I could update that and bring that Miss cotney if I if I make that update can you then send that
154out to everybody okay that way it's not limiting to one and then we can tell you know this was something that this came after the legislative priorities otherwise I would have suggested for the legislative priorities this was brought up in February that's why I'm bringing it as a resolution but if we do that we can tell the legislature hey this is what we'd like to see as a board and open it up to those other options Miss Henderson could we also make maybe see a side by side of the existing law because I'm not sure that it's going to look I don't know how that looks it might already have that language kind of the evidencebased um I know it doesn't name that specific programming but my conversations with with Miss Johnson was um she
155went into detail and who all was on the committee that helped write the law and and I think they wrote those things in so I it would be interesting to see how if how removing that one piece compares to the existing legislation I guess does that make sense I think maybe keeping it vague like similar science of reading methods something like that I can bring some wording you next sure yeah interesting love in a conversation with Miss ker about this Bill she was under the impression I think based on a conversation with Miss Christie that Dr Brown and Dr Wilson were not in favor of this particular Bill and I'm not sure how that all how that all worked out but is um you all don't necessarily have an opinion for or against you're just
156so I came really prepared to ask that question like do we as a as a is there something in the bill because to be honest with you I mean if there is some problem with it from kcs's perspective I would love to hear that so that we could you know if there's something we need to change I would you know I I'll jump in for the two doctors and then they can defend themselves so I would say this I think Miss Jones has done a good job of explaining and and I know she you m Dr Phillips didn't here when she's talking about that um coherence when I talk to teachers when I go visiting classrooms and I talk about it I think we've we've hit this place where our high quality instructional material is
157also aligned to our intervention and like when I heard I was at Sunny view the other day and that's what they were talking about they were saying oh no wait our intervention aligns with what we're doing so I think what we're saying is we have worked hard to get that done and the coherence is so you don't you no longer leave a classroom and go do something that doesn't tie at all to the curriculum you just had it ties back in So when you're talking about instructional coherence that's what we're talking about I I don't know that anyone on staff has an opinion whether this is good or bad I think what we're saying is we've worked hard to get this coherence set up um and it would be as M Jones has said some
158level of challenge to go back then and introduce another kind of third um intervention to talk about how that allign back could it be done sure is this a bad thing I don't think anyone really necessarily thinks it is we do have a lot of things that are already aligned to uh that OG method as we've talked about um so I I think it's not I think our questions are more what's and not to you Miss but miss caringer would be more what what what's driving this if since 2023 we've had these systems in place we're identifying a lot more as M Jones has talked about I think we're just curious to know more what what's driving this bill at the state level that's different than what we're already doing because we've worked hard to
159get our teachers trained in these two things and to add you know sometimes less is more and trying to simplify so that teachers can kind of use that um it's not saying we're opposed to it we just would like to understand more behind why another another piece is needed so I think I think that's where we I don't know if any guys would jump in and add to that but can I just speak to that too what I what I said to Michelle and I have it here was that um I had talked to you all and there might and there might be some concerns with it I didn't say that I did not say anyone was against it I said there could be some concerns with it not knowing what it looked like no
160no need to defend I just was I was under that impression I just wanted to make sure if there was something I wanted to know what it was so we could you know I also have some you the same concern about locking into one particular and the question I have for either one of you do you feel like currently there is more we could be doing in this realm of just like I mean I guess there's always something else but like like our is if if we pass this or and if we send this and and the state passes this and maybe we remove that that one piece about one specific method what does that change for us I mean are we already taking as deep a dive into dyslexia as we should or could
161I will default to M Jones on that I mean I I think in general there's always room for improvement sure um I I think like I said we have a screening process where we screen every child we do it multiple times a year we're able to identify and diagnose those individual characteristics of Dyslexia um this this is another tool another method like I said as Dr riswick said I I'm not opposed to the OG method or or whatever that is but if if you look at all the time the energy the resources we spent and you know Dr riswick ask us all the time to take complex things and make them simple this is a very complex thing and we have tried to simplify it as much as possible for our classroom teachers so that
162you know they don't have as Miss Jones said a minute ago they don't have 60 tools they're pulling from we've got seven or eight or we really tried to narrow the focus down to say these are the tools that that help now does that mean that every kid gets caught absolutely not I mean that's you know that doesn't happen in any classroom in any you know school system Across America uh but but I do think you know we have a very uh robust program I think um you know our screening is solid it's the tool provided to us by the state we follow all the recommendations and requirements that the state has put in place for addressing students with characteristics of the dyslexia um M Jones any anything else you add or I mean you
163you've covered it we have been very intentional and um even with the incorporation of the individual learning plans for characteristics of Dyslexia all those things were new qpa qsa all these things have been done to try to improve in Catching every student who may have a need in that specific area and I appreciate the work I I do think that maybe making that change to that would be would be good but I would challenge you just based on folks that that have gone through this method there is such a I've known folks who it has really helped and so to investigate that maybe further would be even if it's not like the required I'm not sure I'm a fan of just locking us into that but just taking a a look at it because of
164the value that it is provided to folks that I know at Bri and it it may you know it may be worth looking deeper into to see if there's more of it that we could get involved in so yeah no I'm happy to make that update I mean I know my own daughter with her tutor used the wison program and it was great it was great for her and another another good program um my question Miss Jones and thank you for all your work I know it is it is not an easy it is not easy and it is there's not one Magic Bullet um to this when a child is you know gets that diagnosis or identified as having characteristics of Dyslexia can you walk us through what that looks like like how long
165does that take until they get the help they need like what does that process look like so all students in Knox County are um screened with the universal screener um they also are screened with the qpa and qsa the school teams then meet to analyze all of the data um once all results are in every student is then um you know their data is analyzed to see what are the specific skill deficits at that point the team decides what intervention group um the student needs to be placed in if the student does qualify for an iopd the team will then convene again they have to contact the parent the parent has to be involved uh to determine if they will accept the iopd if the parent does agree the team then moves forward in writing
166that plan that again is very individualized and specific to that student also in the tier one space um the results of that qpa and qsa also helped to drive what that tier one instruction will look like um and so then from that point the student starts intervention uh and then the plan is continuously monitored there's progress monitoring there are Fidelity checks teachers are observed through walkr R there's a constant touch point with the RTI team um depending on what level the student is involved in it could be through the tutoring office it could be through English language Learners where wherever that student lands there's a constant touch point to ensure uh students are being um you know there there's some type of um conversation continuing to happen about the student there's constant um data team
167meetings that are happening parents are also given this information um three times a year there is that Universal screener report that is sent out along with um the math data as well for ready all those things are reported to the parents um and from there we just continue to monitor the student we did also add a an mtss platform which is that multi-tiered student support system this year um with full implementation and what that just means is that every plan that is being written is now in one system so if you have an IEP P if you have a 504 everything now is in that one system so we're also able to monitor success of every single intervention through that that is our compliance model that was implemented uh last year and with full implementation
168this year so that is another piece of compliance and we are analyzing that data on a different scale than we were before that sounds good so in a timeline what is that like so let's say my child you know has these characteristics is that Within the school year is that the the goal is this a year and a half that it the child's getting help within that within that semester like what is a typical time frame from when they are diagnosed I don't know you know for like a better terms diagnose to day one you are getting the help you need so the beautiful thing about the qpa and the qsa it is um a very easy and quick process that the teachers are the ones who are giving that assessment um and so they
169are the ones who are receiving that data and so when their students are flagged in as web um it is a fairly quick process um we typically I will not give an exact time frame but it is curious it is a quick process um in terms I hear the other I hear from other parents that it is not and we're looking at a year and a half we're looking at more than a a full school year before kidss are getting the help they need that that should not be occurring um um we are analyzing the data that is actually being reported to the state as well anybody that is identified with characteristics of Dyslexia the state does give us timelines that we have to um once we identify the students they're looking for a plan
170and we are we are held in compliance with that as well okay Reverend Butler I know you've been patiently waiting sir well thank you so much Madam chair and um thank you for the uh resolution uh and bringing this to our attention and uh thank you Mrs Jones if I was in church I'd say you go sister is as she was talking I was really thinking about how um many services we provide to so many different people and how important it is and and I thank you madam chair Bessie Henderson for representing and for putting it out there because I know you you you not only know this as a school board member but also as a parent so I appreciate your concern and your passion about this and uh I just will Echo what
171I've heard already as number one uh this is an area we definitely need to continue to put uh emphasis on number two is that I have concern about it being one specific method and one of the reasons is one of the reasons already been stated but also what what what what happens when another method comes you got to go back and change the law again but if you put in something that will fit that as we go forward and we learn more and we get more uh and better methods uh because that's what has happened we we started in way back when 2016 now 2023 now we're going forward so as we improve on meeting the needs of of students the method won't be locked in and also you want to have something that we
172that we we able to pay for so it's already been funded what we're doing now so I would support the changes that we had uh my my my reason for putting my light on was unrelated to just this specific topic but uh the process of bringing resolutions to the board uh when I got someone who someone who called me say hey where did this resolution come from I say well that's the process so can you uh talk about what the process is to bring it to the board so those folk can understand this is how it works yeah no absolutely so you know the board speaks in resolutions and policy changes and so a parent had come to me um expressing interest in the law and hey will you do and also his child suffers
173from dyslexia as well and so he ask hey this is important to me would you um would you be willing to do a resolution I know this is important to you as also with your daughter and so that's kind of what drove this particular resolution and I've brought resolutions before and I just think you know as a board if we all you know at the will of the board if this is something that we believe in and it's a you know tells the state hey we really believe in this and this is what we want to see you do so that's kind of where this resolution came and you know people can can contact us if you have a constituent that has a resolution idea and then I just create the language and send it
174to Mr dupler and he puts it on his fancy template there so it's just a statement from the board what is important to us so in short any board member can bring a resolution to the board uh put put the data in there get it to D to any board member can bring a resolution I know Miss bike brought the resolution regarding the third grade retention law last year um I worked on the language but Mr deepler and Law Department is also willing to um work with that board member to create language or create it in resolution form I guess I should say but any board member can bring a res and then the board member presents it to the board chair to put on the agenda yes and yes and so you would um
175send that to miss cotney and then she will put it on the agenda and then when John and I sit down it's we put on the agenda and it shows up thank I just want to make sure everyone know no that's a good discussion like how does it actually you know what is what does this look like what does this process look like thank you once again for bringing this rtion I appreciate that and I appreciate walking through this process Mr dupler uh thank you madam chair and I was just going to elaborate someone on the process for the resolution um sometimes when a board member brings a a resolution then that's all we do is we just put it into the into the proper form and that's it and that was that was indeed
176the case here because because chair Henderson she she already had the language that she wanted and you know put it in there and then it's and it's good to go frankly I had not looked at this bill at all uh and still haven't looked at the bill I've looked at the at the existing law but I haven't I haven't looked at the bill so but that that that's one way it can happen sometimes Dr risewick and the administration would like to vet a resolution and then it comes to the board that way so that is another way that a resolution can come to the board and the last thing that I would say about resolution utions because there's been some misconceptions in the past there's been a misconception that a resolution uh has no weight
177uh doesn't mean anything and that's that's not the case um I mean resolution of this board expresses the will of this board now sometimes this board has has more power than others uh so when you are asking the legislature to do something this board does not have the power to direct the legislature to do something you are you are truly asking the legislature to do something uh whereas you could have a resolution that does actually direct the superintendent and the administration to do something so there's there's various types of resolutions as well yeah that's a really good point because like with the special ed resolution I brought last year or a year and a half ago that directed the staff with specific things to do were this is just um a d you know just
178saying to the legislature hey this is what we you know as a board this is what's important to us this is what we would like to see in the legislation you guys are creating so there are different types of resolutions but I do think they're important because it is how we as a board speak and and can communicate with either staff or with the legislature hopefully that made sense yes Miss Templeton yeah um that's great thank you st um but um I would very much like to know um I realized that um representative kinger is sponsoring this bill and was not the initial author of the bill and can certainly appreciate that um I know that that happens all in committee and it's passed out of committee and that's kind of where we are um
179because I did look it up and um just to see where we were in the process um I realized that she has not been in touch with her home County School System to find out you know what is working here what isn't working here um and that's fine I'm assuming she's spoken to someone um and I would just kind of like to know um if you speak with her again or if Miss chrisy speaks with her again um who she's who who she's getting the information from I would just like to know the origination origination the origin the origin thank you the origin of uh ironic um the origin of the bill and the need that they're trying to fill so I'm assuming that they have spoken to a school system or to Educators or
180practitioners I would just be interested to know how that came to be Miss Christie yeah I just have one more comment and I would also paragraph two I would prefer to see that omitted just because I'm hesitant to hold any living person up as a model because if a scandal breaks next week we're all going to work really bad I I'm totally finding that out I was just trying you know I was trying to show that like you know some people that that have certain disabilities that they can't achieve really great things but I'm not married to that that paragraph So that is fine you paragraph too we at list famous people that have dyslexia or people that have achieved um certain things yeah I do love Kiera nightly though but yes I I understand
181where you're coming [Laughter] from any other comments or discussion on this all right well thank you for this I I really appreciate this discussion thank you guys uh with that we will move on to public forum Mr triplet thank you madam chair we do have several folks I appreciate yall waiting us out and sticking around and being here for this so we will start Brandy Gerald Brandy you'll have uh if you'll state your name and County of residence and you'll have three minutes Brandy Gerald Knox County thank you madam chair members of the board Miss hgar I appreciate you for the last 11 and a half years I've had the P privilege of serving the ks schools as a supplement supplementary retirement excuse me I got nervous I was fine earlier and now I got
182nervous um for uh value teachers National life group it hasn't been a part of my business KCs has been my business we feel passionate about our mission to ensure quality and accurate retirement education for all staff members and assist them in walking towards Financial dignity in retirement I ask you to say no to the procurement in order to continue to offer value teachers as a valuable service provided at no cost to the district earlier this year the board voted to approve and power as the sole 457 provider this was done without the procurement process the 457 and 403b are very similar in nature why has it been necessary for the district to place a procurement for the 403b when the 4057 did not I understand the procurement was for a third party administrative service plan
183Administration can greatly assist a district with IRS compliance and administration but why have we couped the 403b with it amongst other districts the three parties involved in the 403b are the district the 403b providers and a third-party plan administrator this um separate of the other two parties in order to ensure IRS compliance and processing by placing a procurement for a company that is a mutual company that ad ministers their own plan we are placing staff at risk for a lack of diversity in Education Service and plans that multiple providers are able to provide the fixed indexed annuity including the lifetime payment option will be removed from your District 2,232 clients will which includes 31 of your executive principles will be told that they no longer can contribute to the plan that and Company and Personnel
184that they've trusted for for years that would be two and half two and a half of the board members sitting here and six of the people UPF front would be told that they no longer can contribute to the plan that they are in USI will still have to administer our plan if people have funds in them but yet we were being told they will not be able to contribute to our plans we can all agree that the more case yes employees saving for retirement the better the district is in a whole it is proven to D drive employee satisfaction and retention by providing more options we'll be more people saving you currently provide multiple companies and options within that company for healthc care providers this does not put pressure on the teachers to have um
185on having multiple options but ensures that everyone has a plan that is a fit for them the 403b will work in the same manner I thank you for considering we shouldn't be saying at this point in the procurement it's too late we should be moving forward with what is best for this staff members and the teachers 28% of staff is not the least disruption sorry thank you thank you Sandra rocliffe Sandra if you'll state your name and County residence you'll also have three minutes Sandra riff Knox County good evening to all of you um I come before you tonight because you have the power to do the right thing for your employees your people by voting against this USI third party administ ministrator procurement recommendation back in September of last year Scott Bolton the HR
186Director at the time emailed me my teammates with value teachers to notify us that all except two 403b vendors were being removed from the approved list due to lack of participation meaning employees with KCs had not participated in those company's plans with the exception of the two remaining approved companies one being value teachers the other being Corbridge Financial in layman terms this basically meant that only two companies were approved now to work in Knox County schools offering retirement benefits outside the state plan one a variable annuity and one a fixed indexed annuity so both offering very different solutions in supplemental retirement options then in October this procurement process began with the intent of moving to one Sole Provider eliminating any and all choice for your people that's your people we at Value teachers were told
187based on one consultant's suggestion that KCs was focusing on a mutual fund option what KCs had mutual fund options back in September but because no employees participated in them those companies were eliminated from the approved vendor list back just to Mere four months earlier so I ask you who is looking for this mut mutual fund option not teachers or principls or classified staff because if they were they would have already had mutual funds with an approved vendor long before today but they didn't let me offer you an explanation as to why that is aside from our personal service record our intentionality with training and education about retirement information in general and our very low pressure sales approach our goal at Value teachers is to create in your employees a sense of lifelong saving we want
188them to be lifelong Savers we do this by showing them how to start small and increase their contributions as they earn raises through the step system that KCs offers we offer opportunities for savings that have no risk they will never lose a penny and we don't charge fees unlike mutual funds no security company is going to offer that same guarantee nor service when investing in Securities or variable retirement pro products many people stop investing because the market becomes volatile and often tanks and due to their personal loss it becomes very difficult to get started again when your people become lifelong Savers they stay committed they stay the course and they retire with the financial dignity they deserve thank you did you guys even ask them what they wanted thank you Emily simino I may have
189said that name incorrectly I apologize but if you'll state your name and County resident you also have three minutes you said it correctly I'm Emily seino Knox County thank you Dr risewick Madam chair and members of the board my name is Emily simino this is my third year with value teachers National life group and I love our mission working with um KCs staff with care we love partnering with KCs and being able to help educate teachers and staff on their Tennessee State retirement benefits and their other retirement benefits over the years they have become like family to us we truly love what we do as representatives of value teachers inlg we we recognize the board's commitment to offering KCs employees the best benefits and financial opportunities available we understand that on Thursday you will vote
190on whether to make USI the third party administrator and the Sole Provider of the 4 3B plan however we respectfully urge the board to reconsider moving to a single vendor system limiting this Choice could inadvertently reduce the quality diversity and security of retirement options available to KCs employees value teachers provides a unique service to your staff we have four full-time Representatives completely dedicated to KCs schools this team of four has 2,232 clients in KCs we average over 3,000 free personal consultations per year whether they are clients or not we meet with teachers individually on site at a time of their choosing we explain complex Financial Concepts and easy to understand terms education is our priority helping them achieve their goals including navigating their state benefits we do all of this free of charge how will
191you replace this service one valued educator States I have been with valued teachers for years and have greatly appreciated the person personal service that I have received I appreciate the ease with which I have been able to keep up to dat on my account and adjust my contributions as circumstances have changed I am happy with my option we have other accounts including mut mutual funds and IAS this is why I want to keep this option I do not want to deal with any penalties that may be associated with moving my account or accessing funds I do not want to move to another provider with the knowledge that KCs can change providers and I may have have to do this again as adults preparing for retirement I hope you realize that we should have options forcing
192a change and limiting options is not in our best interest please allow us to stay with our current providers should we decide to do so please don't remove options from us on Thursday you will vote on whether to make USI the third party administrator and the Sole Provider of the 403b benefit if approved value teachers nlg will be eliminated as an option for staff members and our service will be eliminated it as well I ask you tonight to reconsider saying no to the procurement in order to continue to offer value teachers as a valuable service provided at no cost to the district thank you thank you Julia Whipple Julia if you'll state your name and County resident you'll have three minutes thank you hi my name is Julia Whipple from Knox County thank you for
193the opportunity to speak value teachers has been serving Knox County since 2008 and I myself joined in 2015 I became passionate about educating teachers after my husband at the age of 50 learned what his pension would offer through a value teachers presentation value teachers is currently one of two vendors available in Knox County with differ growth strategies among these we hold the largest number 403bs over 2200 teachers love us why are we having to prove ourselves when the number speak for themselves if asked the vast majority of your principles would tell you who we are by name they would express to you our consistent appropriate education if you were to talk to non-clients who have had questions they would Express how we had their best interests at hand and helped answer their questions without concern
194or profit if you were to sit with classified employees on the county asset plan managed by USI you would hear how we helped them to start receiving their maximum match that they were not even aware they had if you were to talk with hybrid employees you would hear how we help them to log on to their 401K check their Auto enrollment started if it needed and updated benefit and update beneficiaries we have sat with families and filled out death benefit paperwork sat with teachers walking through babies divorce and medical leave we have laughed with teachers and cried with them so why are we doing this one of the reasons what that we've heard is you want a contract okay well make us a contract we're happy to sign a contract additionally we've been told the
195district is Seeking a fidu a fiduciary specifically in a mutual fund platform we assume that the concern hairs that they feel with the fiduciary they will have less liability well KCs will have no more liability with an insurance license agent than a fiduciary because we offer fixed index annuities tied to market index but not invested directly in the market we don't manage Investments ero we are bound by something called suitability standard which is parallel to fiduciary duty this is a semantics issue is this about processing paperwork with liability predictions you can have both with an independent third-party administrator who processes multiple vendors while maintaining liability protection all without freezing the choices of thousands of teachers an independent thirdparty administrator of which USI is not assumes the burden of liability by specializing in IRS compliance the
196more vendors they service the more options provided the more people are saving for retirement and that helps keep the district compliant even you has multiple four a3b vendors as do Memphis city Williamson and retherford counties all with tpas what you have before you is a radical plan that fixes a problem that doesn't exist on the vendor side only the plann administrator side it throws out the baby with the bath water without service options and education supplemental retirement will die on the vine I know you don't want that vote no on this procurement seek an independent third party administrator and keep choice in vendors thank you thank you Amy plumbley she had the lead she okay all right uh Carl Whipple Carl if you'll state your name in County residence you'll have three minutes Carl Whipple
197KNX County thank you for this opportunity to address the board I am here to speak about the recent 403b procurement I want to start with full disclosure that my wife is a value teachers's representative but this also gives me a unique perspective since I'm an employee and principal of the Knox County school I hope we can all agree that the more employees who participate in the 403b program the better we should all be encouraging employees to activ actively plan for their retirement this includes having a good understanding of their participation in the state tcrs plan as well as Social Security it is good that knoxx County Schools sees the need to get a thirdparty administrator because this will speed up the processing of paperwork and remove the burden of liability and work from KCs staff
198at no cost to the school system or the employees however this can be done without eliminating multiple vendors an independent TPA can fairly handle the paperwork of all vendors however the recent procurement also eliminated multiple vendors from the 403b program and this makes no sense employees should have choices with the types of financial products offered through the 403b this move to a single vendor was not a result of any feedback from the employees who currently invest in the 403b and I believe if you ask most people they would say that they satisfied with the choice they made and don't understand why changes are being made without their input moreover by not choosing value teachers as a sole vendor you remove the one vendor that actively Services the needs of KN County Schools teachers they are
199the only vendor who consistently took the time to come to the schools and inform teachers of what they could expect from their tcrs and Social Security Investments because of this high level of service because of it value teachers became the largest provider of 403b plan to KCs employees with over 2200 current policies I'm lucky that I started working in Tennessee Public Schools before 2014 so I invested in the in the Legacy pension plan but even I can only look forward to receiving 47% of my top salary the IRS recommends a minimum of 80 of your salary and retirement social security only Covers Part of That Gap the hybrid plan only guarantees 30% we need supplemental retirement options as a school admin administrator I have worked in three different schools that were serviced by value teachers
200Representatives they work respect respectfully with administrators invite people to request an opportunity an appointment with no Act of solicitation they are respectful of teachers time and they bring homeade cookies they come to us they come to us USI will not do that unless I as a principal request it that is not my job and more than likely will not happen if you move forward with and vote Yes on this procurement you will not only freeze the assets of thousands of employees but more importantly you will see a drastic decrease in the number of employees investing through the 403b program this is not a win for the hardworking teachers of NS County Schools therefore I ask that you vote no on this procurement and work to provide a 403b program with a TPA and multiple vendors
201thank you thank you honey Lewis honey you'll state your name and County resident you'll have three minutes thank you Knox County I am a sixth grade teacher honey Lewis um at Northwest Middle School your only Avid demonstration School in the district and in the state of Tennessee go rangers I'm here tonight to petition you to vote no on removing value teachers as a financial planning option for the 403b benefit for KCs employees as a second career teacher I turned 40 went back to school for an additional degree to teach I came came to Knox County with a significant 401 balance that I had no idea what to do with I met with Julia Whipple through value teachers Who provided me with options and guidance to put me back on track to building my retirement I
202had such a positive uh customer service rep uh experience with her that when my husband retired from his first career that he too went to her for financial guidance and service with his 401k to say that we trust her and value teachers with our money is a financial understatement we have seen nothing but Financial growth with our money and have a strong level of comfort for our investments I implore you please do not remove value teachers as a financial benefit option for KCs employees I'm happy for there to be consideration to add another Financial benefit option such as USI or any other company but I do not want to lose value teachers as my option for my money for my retirement if KCs is capable of offering multiple providers I please ask you to vote
203no for this resolution or this situation whatever it be and open it up with a new offer a new vendor to have the option of multiple vendors by removing the option KCA is effectively limiting our financial freedom and disregarding the unique needs of of its employees different families have different financial goals different risk tolerances and different investment strategies please vote no on this thank you thank you madam chair that concludes public forum thank you Mr triplet we do have board Forum this evening Miss Elkins you look like you have something to say thank you um I'm sure you all are aware of what happened happed at Halls Middle last week um so I just wanted to shine a light on Halls because I feel like it's really easy for the bad to overcrowd out all
204the good I want to compliment KCs security there was not a single time in those situations that I felt unsafe and they acted really fast and they did a really good job I want to shout out to one of our female wrestlers Sophia saterfield she is the first female wrestler to be a state Titleist at halls High School and I would like to shout out to all my talented band friends who went to Indianapolis last weekend and they competed in an indoor drum line competition and they actually got scored so high that they moved up a class which is the second highest that you can be classified in WGI and I would like to invite all of you all next week to attend the KCs Coral showcase because all of the high school choirs will
205be there performing it starts at 6:30 and it's at Bearden high school thank you what day is that on um March the 10th okay March 10th hold on I'm G to put my yeah so March 10th at what time I'm so sorry it starts at 6:30 okay gotcha thank you Reverend Butler shout out to the uh best uh Middle School basketball team in the state of Tennessee Vine middle school and I'm going to shout it out B Middle [Laughter] School golden [Applause] Bast can you just randomly do that in the middle of meeting so I love that was awesome that was awesome thank you how do you follow up that Miss Templeton Miss partner Ridley I have a couple of things I want to say first of all I want to congratulate Daria Turner for
206being elected to the kcea presidency for the next four years um I know the organization does everything in their power to help protect and um support our teachers in this County um second of all is a little personal um my mother taught me a lot but she did not teach me tacked or delivery so I did not mean to imply that the procurement process was sketchy so I apologize if some if anybody took it that way so oh and I want to say congratulations to the Bearden boys middle school basketball team for their performance and their um competition at the State final four in last month yeah awesome great thank you Mr triplet yeah shout out to Sophia she did a great job covering all of the Halls events and all the good things that
207are happening Halls I've got nothing to say but I Echo all those comments so great job I do appreciate our staff at Halls Middle and and our security officers and County uh for all their work I know that's been a difficult few days and uh but I do appreciate all that they do so thank you Miss bike well I'm just goingon to continue our theme um I know West Valley is not one of my schools but I don't have any middle schools and um one of my very good friends daughter is on their basketball team and they just won a championship and so I want to shout out to them and congratulate them on their hard work for the girls basketball team specifically the girls basketball team anyway that's all I've got awesome um I
208do want to say I've really appreciated appreciated this meeting and all of the board members and how much we're talking and working together and I'm so thankful for that Miss Morgan congratulations to West Valley girls basketball team I do need to recognize them as well um and then on a different note um I want to um recognize one of our teachers at faret Middle School who passed away earlier um in February we had um Mr Lance England who passed away um suddenly and it's been heartbreaking for uh his family and our community he was a beloved teacher and member of our school Community um who dedicated nearly 27 years to Knox County Schools and uh 29 years as an Adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee and 28 years as a skilled instructor in the
209martial arts was a world-renowned martial um arts expert um so his loss has been deeply felt in our community and um I want to thank our staff our administrators and teachers at faragate middle school for how well they handled that and and are handling that and walking with our students and Educators who have known him so well um and he my children have had him and um so I just wanted to make sure that we honored him and um thinking of his family as they deal with his loss and our community in faragate Mr Wright I don't have anything specific to say except for uh this is the first um JV game for Gibbs middle school and my son's pitching So Co delete oh that's chrisy go yeah he just got a text that he's
210pitching I keep telling him to go go by Travis yeah so um first Miss F Ridley that the the the sketchy was based on something I saw online it I did not get that impression from you at all just so you know no no I literally I literally saw that written somewhere those words um but I do want to say just congratulations to all of our teachers of the year at all of our schools and our district level teachers of the year it was a fabulous celebration and thanks to um the team for putting that together and recognizing them um just want to note that and my appreciation for the work they do yes I Echo that thank you and I want to Echo what Miss bike said um as well you know I know
211some sometimes our meetings are long but I think tonight was full of healthy collaboration and I really appreciate what everybody had to say um you know we all have a common goal working for our kids working for our staff and having their best interest at heart so I want to appreciate you guys I know I know it's been a three-hour meeting but I think that we got a lot done tonight we had a lot of great discussion and I appreciate each and every one of you Reverend Butler close J uh in just 15 seconds uh wanted to call out uh Paula Hancock who was the outgoing president of the Knox County Education Association I just like to say thank you for your service thank you for that and on that happy note we are adjourned
212for