001e e e Terry sto my little notes I got to put my glasses on so I can read it feels so formal are we recording do we recording this okay so welcome to our first joint education committee meeting for 2025 in keeping with past practice as the longest serving Board of Education member I am calling the meeting to order myself and Miss Frasier as long as serving commissioner develop the meeting agenda so first order of business will be to approve the meeting agenda so second so we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor say I I motion carries our second order of business will be to elect committee co-chairs and also keeping with past practice we will need to elect one Board of Education member and one County Commissioner to serve
002as co-chairs I think we should start with county commissioner this should be easy I nominate Kim Frasier thank okay we have a nomination in a second for Mr frer will you accept that nomination I would be proud to yes so all in favor say I I any opposed right there you thank you very much I would like to nominate chrisy Christie as well second okay so we have a nomination for chrisy Christie in a second any discussion do you accept I do absolutely all in favor say I I okay any oppose motion carries um established committee role and responsibility okay so Terry sent us saw some background information um so we did we we've had the joint education committee for years I don't think we've had it the last year or two years which is
003it that's correct the last year it's been over it's been about two years since our last meeting okay no I was at a meeting I've been you were okay which one okay okay so and I think think part of the reason it just kind of fell aside was um participation and attendance yes so um probably something we need to just be mindful of because we want to be respectful of everyone's time and as much as I love Kim I can go to lunch with her or we could all call her I mean so um that is something we may need to send out maybe just to make sure they're still interested in doing it yes um if you don't mind touching base with them um not that we don't love to see you but I
004know you share that that sentiment um my cheat sheet so committee role and responsibility cim do you want to add anything to that well one thing that I love about the joint education committee and and one reason it was created was to just Foster communication between school board and County Commission um this is something that I think is really important that we work together to address uh the the County's participation School Board Representatives um and again how how do we celebrate Knox County Schools and the work that we do and also County Commission how do we address the needs of our school system and so this is really just an opportunity for us to um really come together and work towards improving expanding um if we have if County Commission has any questions if the
005school board has questions this is just a time to come together and again celebrate Knox County Schools this district and the county Support that we provide to the district so that's that is kind of the purpose and the role of this of this um this committee so you know we can if anybody has any um specific topics or items that they would like to discuss this is the time you know one thing that I'm interested in and getting the school board's input is um from a county perspective as you all know we're one of the fastest growing counties in the state of Tennessee um I hear probably on a daily and a weekly basis and even as a citizen I advocated very much um trying to bring awareness and attention to growth and development and
006how it impacts our schools um I've had several meetings with um some of the the great team members with Knox County Schools trying to figure out how do how do we plan ahead for the impact that growth and development has on our our current enrollment in schools so that's something that I would you know I would love to have that conversation here and just if you have any suggestions any advice you know I've even met with our planning staff to talk about how do we incorporate that as part of the application process for new development that may be something that this body could um provide some insight into um is it something that we may want the school board to also be a part of um and so that that may be something that as
007a group we may want to put that on the next agenda to to bring some some thoughts forward I would agree with that because one of the questions I've had recently is around Planning Commission and the numbers like whenever they approve a development they'll say this development's going to yield six kids right yeah so this student yield formula and how they one determine that and also are there ways to improve on that because you know your six kids assumes that it's six kids spread out equally among you know K through 12 right and then if you have 14 first graders that move in MH you know that a whole classroom and teacher and completely throws that formula off right so I am interested in that formula and how that works and I'm also interested in
008how those numbers are shared and specifically if they can be shared more frequently than what they are because I believe we only get them once a year you do and with the developments coming in yes as quickly as they are I mean you might get a 20 new developments in a district in a year and you're not getting those numbers until right the end of the year after the fact so and I think that might be part of how we got here infrastructure wise to begin with that I I agree I agree and you know um Knox County is in the process of creating a unified development ordinance and what we'll be looking at is our current zoning ordinances subdivision regs and and the impact on communities both physically and fiscally and and part of
009that I I would like to take back some recommendation as a Jo effort how we want um the impact of development on our school system to be considered during the update of these policies and these ordinances right now you know as uh representative Christie stated you all get a report from planning once a year um and and we were having those discussions about how often should you all receive that information and then what are you going to do with the information when you do get it the other question that we're kind of struggling with as a challenge is what if it is a part of the planning application and consideration do we want Planning Commission and County Commission to make decisions based on those student yields and the formula and how it impacts the schools
010so we're as a county we're trying to be more proactive versus reactive and that has not historically been the the case um and has not been historically from the case from the school system as well with the conversations that I've had with um the leadership team within the school the schools is you know we have to be reactive because of funding same thing with the county um everyone's budgets are very very lean we're doing the very best that we can but also that's what I hear most from communities is the impact this is having on our schools and and classroom sizes student ratios um concerns with uh safety um and and again enrollment and capacities I know that Knox County Schools they are working on really identifying what school capacities how that should be calculated
011because there are different considerations um and so I have I have started those conversations with the school board and um I would just really like your input as a collaborative effort on how we can both look at growth and development and the impact it has on schools so I I would like to speak to the role and responsibilities but kind of piggyback on what you're saying is When does the when the data comes out when the data is available that's a great time to discuss it and if we know when data is going to be available then and you know we want to have meetings scheduled around that if you schedule meetings around doing something then people will generally want to come you schedule meeting around not doing anything then it's kind of like just
012having a meeting to say you had it so I was looking at if we had uh standing meetings like at the be and I'm not giving any dates now but like at the beginning of the school year and we talk about what are the anticipated things that we need to talk about as a as the board of County Commission and the Board of Education and then second semester uh meeting where at the beginning of the second semester and then I do think you know around the budget time uh that we might want to say hey let's get together so we may have an anticipation of things that may be coming to us uh and then uh if and and and what popped in my head when you were you all were talking was if we
013know when that data is available then we schedule meeting when data is going to be available that way when we meet we can meet after the data is available so we can have the data and we can have a discussion based on that and that may be at the end of the year or that may be at the beginning of the year but whenever it is it prompts us to say this is the data what the data is saying what will drive our meetings for the next going forward so if we were once again summing up if we were to say we have a a beginning year meeting a m year meeting and towards the end of the year meeting and we'll be able to I think we have I know I would be more
014inclined to participate yes I like that I do too I think that is a great suggestion I think that's something that representative chrisy and I could work on um with the leadership staff at both Knox County and also the school system to identify when this happens when is the best time for us to come together and I I love that suggestion I think that that is a great way for us to approach how to work together how to support each other how to collaborate and and really really make a difference and so I love that idea and one other thing that I thought would be uh in this discussion of growth and this is a question I I guess I could or should know the answer to but uh that ensuring that the funding for
015our schools is in line with the growth of our schools schools and I'm not sure if it has really been looked at to say how fast the growth is going and uh is our state funding particular is that really keeping Pace with that growth I'm not going to get into politics of money going anywhere else but but just that in terms of the number of students would we have to take care of are we getting paid at that same at that same Pace because we can't expect necessarily the County to put in more money when we have when we're not getting it from The Source we should be getting it from yeah well I know we're not getting it from the state this year I'll say it right I'll say it I'll say it yeah
016um it's I mean it is what it is yes it is um yeah that's great so any other topics can we add sidewalks to yes the Planning Commission because I am curious when you're in that my the walkability if there's any ordinances for walkability when you're in that yes so we updated we updated the sidewalk ordinance it's been a couple of years but the you're paral responsibility Zone yes so you yes we can talk about what that ordinance States and if it's something you all need the last time I checked it was going to be like I mean we've talked about eliminating it in the past because that is something you get calls about and something the school system obviously doesn't control um when it's not on campus but again it comes down to money
017right and the last time I checked and this has been two or three years ago it was over $4 million for us to get rid of the parental responsibility Zone which and we've not fully staffed bus drivers since like 2018 or 19 so even if we could get rid of it I don't know that we really could because yes and give you an example I've been working with a community who um they're within the parental responsibility Zone and and they want to be able to walk their students to school but we don't have connectivity there's a there's a gap with the sidewalk and so working with engineering I asked just for an estimate of what that would cost in case I wanted to suggest that for our upcoming budget cycle and it is it is
018probably less than a quarter of a mile and we're looking at $770,000 just for a sidewalk yeah and yes yeah so um that's going to be a hard ask I'm still going to try to promote that yeah um and and and as you all know your budget's pretty lean our budget will be extremely lean we already operate on a pretty lean budget so I I tend to look at policy and procedure and how we can improve policy and procedure and that's kind of where we are so that's why I I very much appreciate your input and if there's any anything you know just us together is there anything that you all um would like to hear from County Commission or you would like for me to take back to my colleagues I would I would
019love to hear that I love the growth topic as you know commissioner Frasier we've had a lot of growth in faragate and you know one of the things that I've heard from our administrators a good bit is with apartment complex a when it was first built that they were told there won't be any kids that come from there and then before it's even done being built they already have you know six new students enrolled um I think you said the number six obviously I just copied that number from chrisy but um it's being able to discuss that and figure out if there way are ways we can be more proactive in anticipating that and supporting our schools is helpful for sure um I would love to discuss getting how we can get um um some
020more support from the Knox County Sheriff's Office and the the areas where I've been working a lot on our our traffic situation at our faragate schools particularly um the three campuses of farot intermediate middle and high that are together and we have this it's just a little bit of a a tight spot where it we leave Knox County School's property and so there's nothing that we can do town of faragate has to play their role as well and then we need Knox County Sheriff's Office to support enforcing the laws of the road and um that's been hard to get a whole lot of support there but in order to keep our students safe and um not to mention the cars that you know are flying through our school zones by the primary school and all
021of that I think it would be great to be able to discuss how we can have a great working relationship um between our security team and and kcso um and K I know for other parts of the county KPD I'm sure right that that brings me to my question how many of you representing your districts have heard from either your principls or community members about the need for the presence from Sheriff's officers helping with traffic congestion or also crossing guards um have you all heard from your schools I I haven't heard specifically about that but you know I know that we needed we had two traffic guards at um Bel Morris and they were they'd still fly by our officer would stand in the middle of the road trying to get people to slow down
022which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but it was it was a situation where if she didn't then it would be just all yeah I think some schools have a grandfather maybe um and use Reserve officers and then the problem we've ran into you know it's kind of like a handshake agreement that's always existed but then when those officers retired right suddenly you don't have one where everybody's used to having one I've ran into a couple of those situations or or schools saying well this school has one why can't I have one so I've had a conversation many conversations with Chief who's over the the crossing guards and apparently there are nine in the district and it's a very um kind of random smattering of them the problem we have and this is to
023answer your question commissioner Kim yes yes yes yes yes we have this is a huge issue for us um I know that may not be the case everywhere but this is from parents administrators teachers everybody this is one of the biggest things that I hear about um the problem is that since we don't employ our crossing guard we have no we have there's nothing we can do and then I understand that it's not a high priority for kcso to come out and play crossing guard monitor right when they have a lot of other things going on as well and so that is something we're stuck in right now um traffic congestion crossing guard all of that and now our officers don't have jurisdiction on the right on the road yeah and we don't want to
024pull them my understanding is kcso would like to like for us to utilize our officers but we want them at the school we don't want to pull them down to deal with traffic we need them to be up where the students are up there and so um I think having this conversation with y'all would be so wonderful right and and to let to let you all know um commissioner Hill commissioner Oster commissioner Jay and myself we all collectively reached out individually to Knox County Sheriff's Office and the school board representative chair and asked put in an official request for this to be reviewed and also to come together and see if we could have a conversation about um the issue because we I hear this from every District across no County when did you put
025that in it it's been a couple of months ago okay um and I'm still waiting for a reply so I'm I'm hoping that I will hear back for them Adam um so that so that we could at least start the conversation on um staffing needs what is what is actually needed to meet the needs of our communities because again this it's a safety issue um I'm one of those that I don't like to have conversations after someone actually gets hurt I I am very concerned about the congestion and students walking and and crossing our roadways they're very conest I call it Frogger these kids are kind of playing Frogger they are um especially in some of the areas of our County where we're continuing to grow and where we have planed growth um so I
026I love that you brought that up as as something else that I feel like this committee we should we should put on our agenda for the year I did have um an email from a parent or maybe it was a teacher I can't remember the specifics and they were concerned about their crossing guard actually leaving and not even having one at Cedar Blu so this is a very that sounds like very important topic situation I've been in well um my response was not the sheriff department because most every all of our schools are in the city although the city is still in the county but it's KNX uh KNX KPD that's responsible uh for those uh and we've not had um any major problems that I know of in fact when I first moved here
027some almost 18 years ago I found out that they do do a good job because I got a ticket coming out of the scho uh but that was the that was a it was 2007 the third day of school and I saw the the 35 sign I looked at it was there and so I speed it up and the and the police uh cop waved me over and he was sitting about I mean literally about 15 yards in front of the 35 sign and he says it doesn't count until you pass the sign and I said okay so and I went to court and the judge said he was right but I but he did he did cut me a break and I just had to pay a little something Miss Morgan can sympathize not
028in a school Z but recently so so uh but I but I do think that uh it's it's something that we look at I'm not when we when I and I met the schools um driving through and seeing the traffic it's traffic and because I have a a grandson I pick up he wasn't hosting and then he's now in Austin East and traffic is haven't changed I mean it's a just a nightmare when I drive by I sell more green green every all the schools traffic is a big deal uh but I do see the presence of the U of the um the resource officer and the security officer and uh I see their presence and their presence make a difference you know I when I see uh the uh Knox County security car parked
029out there uh I see the difference and so that may be one of the answers is that make that more make it more and I understand what's going on in the schools but but at that time of day having them out and having them seen sometimes just having the car out there having the car out there because if it has lights on it it looks like a police car or sh people slow down if they see a car yes and I think the practice is the practice may be uh more more I I want to say more effective but we it' be easier to get the practice changed and get the resources there uh uh I I will stop there because I know it's about the chef yeah and I do think that some of
030it might be just being transparent and what can't be fixed and you know because people don't understand if they see something at one school and their school doesn't have it and they see the need being equal or or and people don't understand that parents can't do it it's like oh well I'll just volunteer to do it well yeah call the Sheriff's Office and tell them that and see what they say you know it just having information out there as to the rules and the you know I had a question specifically for and it's not my in my district um the Harden Valley Academy and middle and elementary school that traffic is a nightmare the track meets CU I would take kids to track meets every year I would have to get there at 4:00 in
031the afternoon just to find a parking spot yes sometimes and then we'd have to delay the start of the meat because parents couldn't get through the traffic is there any plan in the future about yes and I'm happy and excited to report that so much we we just approved um after after some advocacy work we just approved um a consultant to come in and give us some recommendations for improvements to harden Valley from Peli eventually all the way to Hickory Creek it will be done in phases but right now we've extended that work to at least Campbell Station we've also worked with Knox County's engineer Knox County Schools engineered to help us with um figuring out a different traffic pattern so that we're not clogging down those lanes and so we're working with both the
032elementary school and the middle school we've done that with the high school as well and so there is some collaboration but yes we are excited that we have included that in our strategic planning and I'm I'm looking forward to hearing what the consultant uh suggest and and hopefully prioritizing that especially from from a bud budgetary standpoint we're also going to work on um Paving Campbell Station because that also has become everybody knows that back way now we sure do and you know living in that area I can tell you that a lot of times um we we can't even get to our house like we are standing still because the school pickup line typically will block traffic and it's a little it's a little scary we're having to kind of yeah go into the opposite
033Lanes of traffic so yes we we see the need and the importance and thank goodness to you know District commissioner Terry Hill and I really just kind of staying on top of it and having those conversations it it's moved up as a priority great thank you yes anything else any other anything else anything anybody wants to add all right do we have a motion toour before I got one other thing yes uh and I don't know if this is a the appropriate place but we are uh we have voted to approve a new school uh in mcken LA bont and uh as we were talking I'm in my mind a lot of these things are going through my mind like okay we got to make sure we to have a plan to to look at
034traffic because that's going to be a big deal walk a b AB ility is going to be a big deal but the reason why I brought it up is that's something that will be coming before the commissioner the commission rather right fairly soon I'm thinking with the memorandum of understanding for the property Swap and the budget yeah cuz shipping on they're probably in March yeah maybe on our March agenda yeah so and and and that was the thought I had when when I was talking about the the items that we will be having coming up during the year does it help for us to talk about out that's coming here and if you all have any questions about that and where we are cuz we've already approved it so yeah I me I think so
035because I think when that comes to commission you have um Public Works people there I guess with the c that would be in the city is that did they come to city council or city well the school if the school's in the I guess it would be planning right cuz that's a city and county so that is those are concerns that you could help Elevate because you do have I mean as Commissioners you guys do have a seat at that table um and can help Elevate those wishes and concerns and just communicate those to us send those two commissions so that we are aware of of the school board Representatives especially that they fall in those districts what are your concerns what what challenges do you see what are things that we we could reach
036out to the different department who have to take a look at traffic pattern and Community impact that's always very important to to many of our commissioners it's better to be proactive than reactive absolutely absolutely this has been a great meeting and thank you all for your input and working together and and supporting each other that's what this is all about and we I'm really excited about establishing maybe some of the the discussion points that we want to address in the coming year and I'm looking forward to it sounds good awesome yeah so motion to aour Second motion are you asking for a motion yeah make one or did you make one or second I I'll make it motion okay we have a motion in a second all in favor by okay meeting a turn