12/5/24 KCS BOE Regular Meeting

001e e e hello welcome to the Board of Education December 5th 2024 regular session meeting please stand as we observe a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Miss bike flag I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all just a few announcements before we begin Miss Elkins will not be in attendance tonight due to her participation in a choir event at Hall's high school so we wish her the best in her choir concert this evening and board members just a reminder that each of us needs to complete our annual Charter authorizer training you received an email from Miss KY with information to the training module a couple weeks ago so if you have not

002completed that yet please do so as soon as possible and as you know the timeline for our annual superintendent evaluation process has started since the evaluation is to be completed in January of each year you did receive a copy of this year's schedule by email so I just wanted to remind you that our individual evaluations are due by Monday December 16th and they should be submitted by by email to Dr risewick and myself with uh and then also copy Miss cotney on that as well if you need any assistance with your evaluation tool or printing that out Miss cotney is on standby to assist at your convenience so thank you Miss cotney for offering to do that um and on behalf of the board I just want to wish all of our family students staff

003and Community a wonderful well-deserved winter break as Knox County Schools closes starting with a half day on Friday December 20th and students returning for this spring semester on Monday January 6th which also happens to be the date of our January work session so it's going to be a busy day for some of us that have kids in school are there any requested changes to the agenda move to approve motion by Mr Triplet a second by Miss Christy all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries moving on to our agenda I know it's a little different tonight we do have our presentation um from Milan Chicago so welcome guys and this is on our stakeholder engagement survey findings for the public so thank you all um we very much appreciate the opportunity to

004share the results with you tonight I know you have a you have the slide deck you also have the primary report and then you have an appendix which has all of the analyses in it um so settle in because we'll be here till well p last midnight um it's a pretty big package it is a very big package so we're going to try to hit the highlights in our presentation here and kind of give you a sense of what we're seeing overall but you know there's a lot of information in the in the results uh that we certainly hope you can find valuable as you Undertake and really get into the the strategic planning effort uh before I say anymore I do want to just comment that you know Jennifer and I we work with

005a lot of municipalities organiz ations institutions around survey writing surveys for them and then doing analyses I just say we very much enjoyed working with your community and with you all um the people that we met with the folks that shared their ideas and perspectives and thoughts very genuine very honest and and again I think there's a lot of good data in in what what's here and we really do hope that it uh helps you as you move forward so you know just to give you a little bit of a sense of what I want to do tonight in in terms of kind of walking you through what we see um the the the project really was you know to give you information that you can use moving forward and in particular to focus on

006information from three key stakeholder groups parents families you know folks that have students in a KCs School uh KCs staff and then just general members of the Knox County community so those three groups were sort of separated out in terms of identifying key questions and topics that we'd want to sort of solicit uh from folks across those three groups and so there's obviously some common elements right there's things that would be common across the three groups uh but then there's some unique pieces as well and so what I want to walk you through here is um I'm going to talk first about those aspects of the surveys that were consistent across all three stakeholder groups so we can kind of lay them side by side and say how do those groups see things when they're

007looking at through the same lens um then we're going to walk through each of the three separate surveys and highlight the key findings with respect to the the family survey the staff survey and the community survey and I'm going to wrap up with uh some of the results associated with the focus groups then that were done on the heels of the surveys to try to sort of better understand some of the results from the surveys themselves so overall I'm going or sort of big picture going give you those items that were in common first so we can take a look at those and then I'm going to go through survey by survey and and we'll get to the focus groups as well so just uh in terms of procedure so the data collection itself uh

008occurred the the survey data collection I'm going to start with that occurred between September 25th and October 18th um you can see here that across the three surveys we about 7,000 uh folks respond to the family survey 2600 respondents to the staff survey and 260 uh responded to the community survey now we do have uh folks that may have started a survey and for whatever reason didn't consent didn't want their data use so those folks are are excluded and obviously some folks didn't choose to answer all the questions so the reason I say that is for any given analysis any given item that we're looking at those numbers may not be exactly the same throughout because people kind of drop in and drop out uh of the survey the other thing just to sort of

009lay the foundation here so many of the survey questions had fiveo response scales right ranging from things like strongly agree to strongly disagree so to try to sort of keep this at a relatively uh basic kind of fundamental kind of level we create a favorability score which is just the percentage of folks who respond strongly agree and agree right so you're kind of seeing okay these are the folks this is the percentage of folks that are on the positive side uh of responding to this item so as I go forward here and you're seeing some of these numbers that's what those numbers are reflections of now not all of the items were on fivepoint scales there were some items that were that were uh responded to on fourpoint scales I'll call those out as I'm

010going along but just to kind of give you an overall view of of what the results are going to look like so one of the common elements across all three surveys were questions around your current strategic priorities four strategic priorities and in particular folks were asked how well is KCs performing with respect to each of those priorities and how important are each of those priorities and the response scales here for how well very good to very poor and for importance very important to very unimportant so again if we think about the favorability scores for the how well it's going to be the percentage of folks who said very good and good so the fives and fours and for importance the very important and important so the fives and fours so here we see for the

011Excellence and foundational skills priority and I'll I'll just preface us right now if you haven't had a chance to look through any of the report yet or anything for the four priorities this slide does not look like it will not look like it changes very much it's going to be consistent as we go forward so performance on the left side importance on the right side what you can see here is that on the importance element more than 90% of folks across all three surveys said yep that's an important priority for KCs right Community is 98% the lowest is the parent family survey was 92% so folks see this as an important priority very clearly on the performance side right 59% % of respondents on the parent survey said yep KCs is doing well if you

012remember that those anchors 58% of Staff less than slightly less than 50% of community right so when we look at this through our lens what we would see is that folks say Yep this is an important priority but KCs has some work to do in terms of achieving the goals associated with that priority the second priority is great Educators in every school again you can see all those importance ratings lining up above 90% uh the performance ratings ranging between 48 at the low end for Community up to 68% uh for staff so again same kind of thing uh important uh priorities uh performance there some opportunities there to improve the third priority was career empowerment and preparation importance rating still very high not above 90 this time but very two of them very close all

013three of them really very close in the high 80s uh and then on the performance again hovering around 50 community at the low end of 49 staff at the slight slightly higher at 55 and then the last of the four priorities success for every student again on the important side 90% plus of respondents saying Yep this is an important priority uh performance this would be the lowest one across the the four um for parent parent staff and community so again when we look at this and I know we're not we're not engaged with you all in actually driving the Strategic plan developing the Strategic plan going forward but just when we look at these numbers and in other context what we would see is hey we're on the right track in terms of the North

014Star we're pointing towards seems to be the right one but we have some work to do to get there and or at least there's a and this is the point that I want to make sure is clear this is the perception right the perception is we have some work to do get here now the good news is for you all you you probably have some objective data not probably I know you do you have objective data about how you're doing with respect to these four priorities so it gives you a lens to say how are we doing objectively and do these perceptions line up with that objective reality right so what we'd be concerned with in another context might be if if an institution or an organization is doing incredibly well but the perception is

015they're not okay we got a communication problem somewhere that information is not getting out but if the perception is we're not doing we could do better and the objective data tell us we we could do better that that sort of falls into lock step so we don't presume to know what your objective data are telling you but just to sort of think about that as you're piecing this together this is the perception of how you're doing that you might want to couple with the objective data so those are the four uh primary priority or your four current priori areas um the other piece that was in common across the three surveys were questions related to uh how well KCs is preparing students for life after graduation with respect to the five characteristics in your portrait

016of a graduate right so the response scale here is a little bit different it's a four-point scale great preparation to no preparation but there was an option here for no opinion so the scale is a little bit different here these are now fours and threes that are being combined and so how well does KCs prepare students for life after graduation we can see here that um in general right where the highest ratings are coming from staff 50 to 60% uh parents down in the low3s up to 40 community members slightly higher than that right so parents have the least favorable perceptions of how well KCs is doing with respect to these five characteristics staff has the most favorable uh impressions but again not there's not a lot of difference across the five characteristics okay so

017those are the items that would be consistent across all of the surveys right so folks who took any of those surveys saw those kinds of questions so I'll now do is turn our attention talk some of the specifics about the family survey and you can tell me if you want me to go faster slower however whatever you want me to do okay so in terms of responding characteristics and I do want to pause here and just say something so for the surveys we did ask people some basic demographic kinds of questions but we also told folks is we're not using those questions to to sort the items basically we're not going to use that information in that way all we want to know is what's the representation in terms of the survey respondents to your

018overall population so the only the only difference to that is when folks identified where their children went were they preschool preschool elementary middle or high those were those are used to break down but individual identity questions are not you can see that uh almost two-thirds of the respondents had had students in preschool or middle school or sorry preschool or Elementary School and about a third of respondents in each of the middle and highs so that gives you just a flavor for who the respondents were so now for the individual survey items these are the favorability scores for each of the items and right so you can see here that right between 2/3 and 3/4 of folks uh see these items as as favorable uh preparing students to be skilled readers uh successful in the next

019grade math skills I I won't read each of those individually but what I will call to your attention to is on the right side where you see that elementary and then an arrow up um that just indicates that that grade band had sign significantly higher favorability scores than the other grade bands and so on this slide here for example question one question three and question four have nothing so there are no differences across the grade bands for the other two Elementary Preschool and Elementary School respondents had more favorable responses to these items uh some specific items related to Great Educators in every school um highly effective Educators in every classroom and invest in its Educators neither of these hit 50% favorability um but in both cases those folks that had children in elementary school had

020higher favorability than those in middle and high right so again just to orient you these are now specific questions related to each of your four priorities these are not those overall questions so only the families were seeing these questions questions in the sort of area of career empowerment and preparation there were few questions related to the 865m right uh less than 50% or just slightly more than 40% actually actually said they heard about the 865m a quarter of the folks had favorable responses to Preparing students for life after graduation but 92% do agree that it's important that students are supported in the way that d865 Academy support them right so again uh this might be a question of communication and getting some of this information out what you see on the right side is there

021were several programs that were identified there were actually eight programs that were identified and opportunities and the question is if you wanted if you were to rank order these in terms of importance and what KCs should be devoting energies towards these are the rank orders so the highest the most highly ranked uh be to invest resources in stem then industry experience early postsecondary opportunities Humanities came in fourth and then Advanced academics came in fifth and I will say just just sort of as an aside I know the numbers aren't here but stem is twice as important in terms of the rankings as the second one it was far it was by far the most highly ranked some of the specific questions in the success for every student section and by and large these are on

022the higher side compared to what we saw on some of the prev on some of the prior slides um three qus of folks uh endorse that or have a favorable reaction to that KCs clearly communicates behavioral expectations to students down to 55% uh providing extra support when children struggle but you can see here that for every one of these items folks with preschool that were respondent preschool and Elementary had higher favor abilities than either middle or high some questions now moving away from so a lot of the qu many of the questions uh did sort of Orient to your four current strategic priorities but then there were some other areas on the survey that moved away from those priorities so for uh one of those areas was just sort of generally we call the student

023family experience right so the top one there you see KCs offers opportunities to participate in activities see 3ars of folks had favor able reactions to that this is one of the unusual cases where respondents with middle and high school students had more favorable responses than Elementary but you can see for all the other ones we go back to that pattern of elementary students having higher uh favorability scores in terms of uh providing enti environments that are respectful and welcoming maintaining safe and secure campuses families feeling welcome and included and students feeling valued and important but in all cases more than two two thirds of folks endorsed those items or had favorable responses to those items another theme topic area is communication and you can see quite a bit of variability here um in terms of

024the responses uh 88% had favorable responses to the KCs keeps me informed um and elementary students or parents with elementary students uh higher than the others and you can see that was true for all of them here uh down to the low end about a third of folks uh favorable responses to the question KCs offers translation interpretation assistance to parents or Guardians who need it right so you can see pretty pretty wide range in there there some 79 and higher Bunch there in that in the mid-range and then that one that's sort of on the Lower Side the only one that's a little bit unusual there is towards the bottom uh KCs provides me with information and ideas on how to tell my children at home both elementary and middle school they were not different

025from each other but they were both higher than high school this just sort of summarizes those top five bottom five so the most favorable items that we saw on the family surveys uh highest was n at 93% uh the lowest of those top five 79% so you know we often do and I'm not just saying this because of the group that we're presenting this to and that we're talking to but we often think about this as a grading scale when we present this organizations if you're above 90 that's usually a really good sign that things are going well that's like an a if you're above 80 that's like a b c d and you can kind of go down from there and so when we get down to those lowest ones you can see there

026there are a few that that definitely are have some areas of opportunities right so this is terms of favorability so at the lowest end only 26% had favorable responses to the 865 acmy are preparing students for life after graduation but but keep in mind there too that a lot of folks said they didn't know about those acmy so again it's important to to take that all into context so these now if for those of you that remember the survey or that you may have taken the survey there was a final sort of catch-all question that gave folks a chance to say hey anything that you want to talk about that wasn't Incorporated in here somewhere this is a very simplified summary of those open-ended responses um you can see that you know slightly more than

027a third of the folks had qu had suggestions around curriculum um and another third around improving the student experience about a quarter of folks made comments related to communication uh ways to improve communication uh 15% had comments around KCs staff and another 12% commented on things that we would sort of bucket as infrastructure now in the report you'll see those get broken down into sort of sub themes uh and actually when you have the you know the raw data will be yours you can see the individual comments themselves um but just to give you some flavor for what were people seeing or what were people saying sort of unsolicited okay so that's that's sort of the overview of the family uh in terms of the staff survey uh Again by way of just sort of

028giving you some feel for for uh respondents um we had respond across the regions uh the the two that might be a little bit unusual there we have region 1 through five then we have prek and then there was districtwide so District y was a catchall for people that weren't solidly in one of the regions um so that's just a snapshot of who responded to the staff survey um in terms of you know the roles that people had uh you can see that uh about two a little more than two thirds of the folks were in the in the group of teacher counselor social worker instructional coach um and down there 12% for instructional support uh 4% District school or District 6% administrator and then 9% and get districtwide picking up folks that don't fall

029cleanly into one of those so when we look at student expectations uh you can see here that about 80% of Staff uh AG read that KCs sets high expectations academic expectations for students down to 50% uh for behav high behavioral expectations so there's definitely some dis uh differences there between the two and I I should have pointed out too that in all cases for um families we had a a margin of error of 1% uh for students or for staff it was I think it was 2% uh and for the community because we had fewer we're up around five and six% so just to give you flavor that's in the report but I realized I didn't say that at the beginning uh overall experiences with KCs as staff members so there's some couple questions related

030to communication a couple qu questions related to professionalism uh overall pretty positive reactions pretty favorable responses to being kept informed uh that my principal and supervisor communicates effectively and pretty high responses too on the professionalism questions treated professionally by both co-workers and uh principal slup supervisors infrastructure and resources slightly lower favorability ratings uh safe and security about 80% favorable down to 58% for a school being clean and wellmaintained and then in terms of resources and 60 to 70% uh having access to high quality materials and having the resources necessary to do my job uh training and professional development it's again sort of ticking down just a little bit uh between around hovering around 50% up to 60 um the lowend having opportunities to advance less than 50% uh endorsed that or had favorable responses to

031that uh 50% offers meaningful professional development opportunities so again we would see that as potential area of opportunity in general training and development and in terms of doing my job a lot of of variability here right so people definitely feel trusted to complete their work as needed so 83% uh down to 32% saying they have the time needed to complete their tasks during contract hour so about a third right so a lot of variability in those I I would say the one the one question that always draws my attention in in this kind of set is that third one down in doing my job I feel valued right those are often indicators that that you want to if you can Benchmark that and sort of track that over time and see how that's moving that's

032often a good indicator of are you on the right trajectory or not and just like with the families staff were given the opportunity hey anything that you want to talk about that wasn't Incorporated in the closed ended responses to the survey 61% of the comments were related just broadly around staff experiences they have uh 32% around accessibility and 32% related to student experience notice that those do to more than 100% that's because people could say more than one thing so the same person could have more than one code and again in the report that's broken down by sub themes and specific examples again highest and lowest in terms of favorability uh treated professionally comes up at the top there trusted to complete work and being kept informed coming up at the top uh the areas

033of opportunity the least fa the less favorable responses again the lowest one there was time needed to complete necessary tasks uh opportunities to advance feeling valued uh and then the last one there was setting High behavioral expectations for students and so that's sort of the high level view of of uh staff for the community survey again I would just caution we have 260 responses in here so it's not nearly as large as either of the other two so just bear that in mind um you see here that three4 of folks had favor can I can I just ask a question I'm sorry yeah of course no could you kind of explain to us what encompasses the community so the community was designed uh anybody who it was really was anybody in Knox County okay right

034so it could be folks that uh employed or worked with folks that were graduates of KCs they could be nonprofits that work with KCs okay could just be somebody who comes to the KCs websites and says hey I don't have a I may have had a child here at some point maybe I don't it really was anybody who wasn't really in one of those other two specific buckets okay thank you I just wanted a snapshot of who that involves yes awesome thank you um and I do think in the report that might be broken down a little bit to so show you where that where they're coming from uh about three quarters of the folks uh would agree the community members agree that KCs provides students with opportunities uh to explore colleges and careers before

035graduation um prepare students to be skilled readers again these are these are questions that are designed to sort of be analoges to what we see in some of the other ones uh it's un you know again coming from the community we don't know what someone's specific experience and how would you know that right so this is definitely putting different people together uh but it was just an attempt to capture that that constituent group I think the lowest the the per the least favorable items here from the community at least invest in Educators at 44% and effectively prepare students for life after graduation less than 50% right so again from our perspective you know the areas of greatest opportunity once we hit around that once we drop below 60% or so that's where we would really

036start to look at and go hey can we move the needle here are these places where we want to devote some energy some resource some attention uh we did ask some questions about uh you know being involved with KCs and and engaging with KCs in some way so we see here that you know about four and five so 78% know how to find information about KCs about two-thirds say they know how they could get involved uh 60% 61% say they feel welcome on KCs campuses uh and then again we drop down to 49% is that lowest score KCs engaging with the community on the specific engagement side there was a question are you currently involved in supporting a school are you or the organization with which you work currently involved in supporting a school right

03766% are currently involved and you can see the way that they say they're involved School support organization provide resource support after school programming school day volunteers and tutoring students then there were also asked would you like to become involved or do some additional be involved in different ways uh so again you can see the percentages as they break down there so folks do seem like they want to be involved uh from the organization as a whole for folks that said they were were part of an organization that works with KCs they weren't responding necessarily as themselves at this point they were saying they represent an organization or work for an organization right only about a third said they do right that that they work for an organization that is currently involved or would like to

038be involved um about a third said in the past year our organization has hired KCs graduates um and so we also asked that or they were also asked uh in terms of how you think you could engage with KCs around the current four priorities where do you do it and where would you like to do it or where do you think you can do it and you can see there that we're most the the highest percentage is there on the career empowerment and preparation um on the current but the future by far almost three quarters uh success for every student so there's an OP potentially an opportunity there to engage folks on that fourth priority area Okay so the the surveys were administered we collected the data and more often than not these raise questions

039right okay what did people mean by this and so what we did is we ran a series of focus groups uh some in person some virtual um to try to get a little bit more flavor to flesh out maybe some of this a little bit more so this data was collected uh between November 6th and November 14th again some of it was in person some of it was done virtually uh there was six family groups three staff groups and one community group um again trying to see is there additional information that didn't come out in the surveys that we want to make sure is covered uh now the from our perspective given the just sheer amount of information we got from the surveys we didn't expect that the focus groups would reveal things that we

040hadn't heard about but again it's important to give that as an opportunity at least see is there anything else out there and I realize these are small but there's a lot that came out so we kind of wanted to see this um from the parent focus groups right and these were organized around family staff and Community right so in the in the family groups these are the things that we see uh kind of coming out here right that folks saw a need for increased play and recess uh decreased frequency of an assessment uh limiting use of technology in schools ensure the curriculum is engaging um I realize there there's a typo that second one down should be uh educate great Educators um increase the number of personnel a lot of families said you need more

041support staff um there were questions about the organization was the organization hierarchy to topheavy um focus on retaining and attracting high quality Educators increased pay and giving Educators more autonomy again these are all things that came out of those parent groups um the career empowerment and preparation really a lot of the the the primary topic that came out of that were some questions around these 865m again some of it was we don't really know what they are some of them were we don't really we know what they are but we don't really understand how they work uh the success for every student I think one of the one of the common themes that came out most frequently were were questions around how to address disruptions in the classroom um and then on the student family

042experience side uh are there opportunities for creating more uh chances for parents to become involved um that you know maybe there's opportunities for thinking about parent work schedules as school calendars are created uh again infrastructure came up and one of the things that did come out to us uh that definitely came out several times was the growth in your community just the influx of people into the community both now and into the future and what is that going to mean for the schools as you go forward again my guess is that's not anything you don't know but it was something that most definitely came out of these uh meetings the other things that came out of the parent groups around communication uh some concerns about differences across the websites so there's an overall KCs website

043but then each school has its own website and is there a way to maybe streamline those or create some commonalities across those improve some of the functionality around parent Square um and more consistent communication across different schools um okay on the staff side and around your one one of the primary priorities excellence and foundational skills uh much like with the parents we heard from staff there's too much testing um perception that there's too much testing um again on the Personnel side retain attract attracting high quality Educators increasing support staff also questions around the organizational hierarchy excuse me um communication side we heard from staff that you know our our Educators as involved as they could be in some decision-making processes and if there are opportunities for more involvement that would be appreciated um on the

044doing my job side again things that you've already seen in those survey results uh folks feeling feeling overworked feeling that they don't have enough time necessarily to do the things that they need to do um and uh on the infrastructure side again current and future needs as your community grows and probably will continue to grow and then on the community side just ensuring that the skills that students are leaving with are are preparing them for the future community members also reflected that the organization might be a little topheavy uh increased communic uh with public entities Eng better engagement with the community around 865m and so there wasn't really anything new in the focus groups that wasn't in the survey results it sort of reified a lot of what we saw in those closed ended data

045but that's important too um and so what I think our takeaway here is what we see if we really try to boil this down into some very specific um points your priorities are clearly seen as is important the four that you're working towards right now you saw those numbers there there's a lot of uniformity around that um communication is viewed as a positive right it could be improved in some ways but overall there's there's a perception that communication is a net positive and your overall culture is viewed as positive the overall culture of your schools as positive um I think the places for opportunities the performance associated with those priorities is a place where I think we see some places that that could be improved uh on the staff side um I think there are

046opportunities in terms of the the question of workloads and things of that type are their ways to engage and make that more attractive for folks and and allow them to do their jobs more more uh successfully and then the success for every student Dimension was one that routinely was coming in sort of on the lower side and so of the four priorities that would be one I think in particular uh to if there's a place to devote energies and resources that from the day at least would suggest that that would be well spent and I think that's it yes so I know that's a lot I know it's a lot to digest there's a lot of data and I will say you all should be committ there's a lot of information here that can be

047useful as you're building this um again some of it's positive some of it are places where I think you know you can grow and that's important yeah no I think it's good to hear uh you know the strengths and opportunities um and I appreciate you coming and kind of giving us that 30,000 foot view so then we can we can dive into this yeah and all the data Mr triplet question about the were the focus groups primarily ask questions about concerns as you look through the list you don't find anything in here that says hey we're doing this well and if we are looking at our strategic plan the things we are doing well we want to continue to do well but nothing in the in the focus group results really frankly all right nothing's

048positive in that I mean there're you know this is an area we need to proove which is fine we do need to know where we need to improve but was there any conversation about what we're doing well yeah I mean so the focus groups really were targeted towards certain questions we tried to start with certain questions but the nature of those is we do want them to be somewhat organic and and for them to grow there are certainly positive comments and you'll see in the full report there are positive comments in there it it's just the when you look at it from a proportional standpoint they tend to be more these are places where we see there could be Improvement as opposed to hey these are the things that are I mean I know there

049are things that if I could cherry-pick certain ones for you but that wouldn't be fair to just cherry-pick certain comments but no there are some in there and when you look through the full report where you have a listing of all of those comments you'll see that there's some positives and those dovetail with the things we saw in the surveys okay right again I think there's a belief that the directions you're going in and when I say that By Priority importance that's pretty consistent and that came out in those focus groups we're hearing that yep you're you're pulling in the right direction folks seem to be you know the they rallying behind that the question is are other ways to improve on that so yes I think that's a good question good thank you yeah

050awesome does anybody else have any questions right Corey do you mind kind of speaking on next steps the next phase of this work yeah absolutely and what that's going to look like so I will say thank you so much for the just breadth of work that was done this was a very comprehensive process as you all can see um just based on the weight of the packet that's in front of you um and so something that's worth keeping in mind is that there is a lot of context here what there is not um in front of you right now are just various data points on the current status of the organization so I know Ron shared that kind of at the beginning that this is perception data we also need to look at some of

051um our uh achievement data and some other numbers as well and so as Milan closes out this pH of the process we'll beginning uh we will be beginning the I would say strategic planning the core strategic planning phase of this work with Accenture they'll be taking uh data from a variety of sources working with staff to contextualize these findings and kind of boiling all of that down into a set of ambitious but achievable goals for us to work toward and so you heard from Ron that we've got some positive things that we'd like to sustain and continue to build on we also have some opportunities the work over the next couple of months will be identifying how much of these are you know communication gaps and is this a communication solution that we need to

052be looking at uh versus how much of this is you know real and tactical work that we need to also embody in a specific way in the Strategic plan and so that's kind of the nitty-gritty next steps that we'll be working on um with our next vendor who has uh already come on board and started working with us awesome thank you for that recap and and kind of what what we're expecting in the next phase of this work and thank you for being here and sharing all this data I know it was a heavy lift but we appreciate you guys coming and and doing that work for us and looking forward to next steps in our strategic plan well thank you all very much and wish you all the best with your uh planning process

053thank you thank you all right moving on in our agenda Miss coutney we'll start uh our voting meeting now thank you m the voting portion of our meeting I should say all right item six consent agenda sove motion by Mr trip second by Miss Christie any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 7A approve second reading of knots County Board of Education policy I 171 inter Scholastic Athletics as amended second motion by Miss Christie a second by Mr triplet any discussion seeing there's none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 7B approv second reading of kns County Board of Education policy j110 equal educational opportunities as amended second a motion by Miss bike a second by Mr triplet and I believe before

054we have discussion we do have some public form speakers on this we do we have one so Alexis rhs Alexis if you'll state your name and County residence and then you'll have three minutes hello my name is Alexis and I live in Knox County uh my son has an IEP and some of you also have some students with IEPs is my understanding and some of us know that in order to have an IEP and receive that specialized instruction the student must first be found eligible for those services and that eligibility is based on one of at least 13 categories now I won't go into all of them it'll take too long but my son's for example is under autism there are multiple others these disability Cate or disabilities are categorized to Simply put it it's

055necessary to identify common struggles and resulting needs amongst the populations to allocate necessary resources even still the I AP eligibility evaluation process is complex and at times mismanaged however imagine if that list of 13 Cate ories was replaced with on any basis Not only would that further mismanage the process of identifying the unique needs of these students it would inundate the system entirely these categories are designed and necessary to Target specific groups in the struggles that they often share removing the language that ensures protection of federal civil rights Within These policies would leave people in these groups without objective standards for which that they are maintained AED these words within these policies are not frivolous and are necessary to identify the specific needs of these marginalized groups aside from the legal consequences and systemic inequities

056that would result from the removal of this language it sends a clear message to your students and families that they are not worthy of identifying or supporting my son is different and that's okay it's absolutely okay to understand that he is different different is okay he's still a kid that loves a recess the most at school and he loves Minecraft but he can also name nearly every species of flower and can hear a toaster from six rooms away it's kind of crazy he's different and different is all around you but different is not less and just because somebody is different doesn't mean that they shouldn't have Equitable access different needs to be identified so we can understand and Safeguard their unique needs just as Reverend Butler stated on Monday is your actions will ultimately maintain

057these standards however words still matter and the language to vote on tonight will define those standards without objective language how are we to trust that those actions will align with our students unique needs will your actions tonight further their struggles or will you act to ensure that they are seen and heard and supported the follow the follow through may not always be perfect but you can at the very least lay a foundation to maintain the language that safeguards these standards that you claim to have for them thank you thank you public for right I know we have some discussion on this item um this bik thank you madam chair um I guess well so I guess the the first thing I'll ask um you know I saw that we have a second option that was

058shared with us this afternoon or last night or somewhere between Monday's meeting and now um and I had the opportunity to talk to Mr dupler earlier today and I was wondering if U my first question could be to ask him to maybe speak to the um option b like the alternative language Mr dler yes thank you Miss bike thank you madam chair uh so so uh yeah as we discussed uh you know after the discussion on Monday night and after uh the discussion that's kind of been ongoing through policy review and and these other meetings uh I went back to look at it and say you know hey can can some other language be put in there and as I mentioned on Monday night uh a lot of these other uh policies in uh surrounding

059counties have uh more General language uh they're not just referring to students so on on this this policy in particular uh I I have recommended a an alternative to uh restore the uh the language that was in there but make it more of a general statement uh because because these categories um do still exist um but by making it General uh we're not saying that that that this applies just to students I mean which it does but it also applies to employees uh student enrollment specifically and it also implies to contracts with the school system so that was the reason for that change uh and then on some of the other on on the other two uh some language was added in there that came from the legislature uh when they were explaining uh their

060change in the law So yeah thank you um and then I guess secondly to kind of speak to this and like one of my stances on why I'm like somewhat dying on this hill is um and to be a little bit vulnerable and I guess also to kind of ping off of our public forum speaker is I have an Autism diagnosis and I have an OCD diagnosis and those are things that I have struggled with for nearly 42 years and I have heard the gamut of things of you don't look like you have this you don't look like you struggle with this just you know all all the all of the things um and you know what what can naming something actually do um naming something for me has done a lot and knowing that

061it is protected and that someone is going to protect it and a body is going to protect this is very important to me and for our students you know know I went through school without that diagnosis and I struggled a lot and I didn't feel protected I didn't I always felt othered and that's not what I want for our students for our 60,000 students and however many students who are either have a diagnosis or are not yet diagnosed or it will take until they are an adult to realize that these are things that they struggle with um so out of inclusion I would really love for option b to be considered tonight I think it's really important to name things and um that's kind of where I'm coming from this and so I I really

062do I appreciate um Mr duper's work in coming up with this option um and I think that this is a great compromise thank you thank you I just wanted to speak um into you know we had a public forum speaker and I have heard from several special ed families this week on this policy work and you know we have a policy too that currently lists out um you know has an extensive list and I also just want to speak to the fact that whether you have listed out or not listed out we have to make sure that we are acting on these things as well students should not be harassed and on another note you know we did unanimously pass this resolution to be a model District for special ed a year and a half

063ago so a year and a half ago we all came together and passed that and you know there's been some frustration from the community I've been frustrated I don't think that we've seen a lot of change in the past year and a half and I just want to make sure whatever we do um I want to see real change and I want to see real action in this work and I would love to you know um Dr Brown I would love to see an update in January on where we are in that work but ALS so what are some what are some real changes that we're going to see and what is what is that going to look like going forward so that's just I just wanted to speak into that that while we're talking

064about the wording of these policies I also wanted to talk about the action that we really need to see going forward Miss Templeton first thank you for that um I wholeheartedly agree that um actions are bigger than words um and are incredibly important um in front of you I I'm I'm new so I didn't know I could send this out ahead of time so I apologize you did not get it ahead of time but I did want to offer a friendly Amendment as well um and my reasons are all of those that we that I stated on Monday um the um legislature did not tell us to do this and all of the issues that I have with the terminology um but I feel like this is a situation that um we can compromise on

065we all want the best for our kids and I feel like sometimes um we can get hung up in semantics so I feel like we can have all of the words in there together and work together um and also to Echo um Reverend Butler on Monday um not take away the words out of the policies but to add to the words um to better serve our student body so you can look at I guess we're talking about J10 so that is actually on page four and you can see what I did um was include everything in red um at the top that came from Mr duper's um section and I also took out base on discrimination because it was redundant I agreed with that and then all I did was change the because of to

066on any basis um and I did add including but not limited to because I feel like that's an an important um piece of it um and then that last line students May report you anonymously or Anonymous reports will be investigated with the same level of urgency as other reports um that was added by Mr dupler um last time so I'm happy to go through all three of these but essentially all I did was take out for any reason and put in on any basis and I kept the same language um across the board so they're all um it is exactly as it has been for years and it is not broken um so I feel like making that quick change um is a solid compromise so I would like to submit a motion substitute motion

067what else right second what is the subtitute The Substitute motion is to consider these changes Instead This friendly Amendment second you made a substitute motion I did and Patricia has seconded yes a substitute motion so when this item started Miss bot made a motion did you mean to make a motion to approve this policy or to just for discussion um um if it's to approve the policy is it the original or yeah since you made the original [Laughter] motion I guess I think we need an a a b and a c right we have one that's on second reading now and then we have one offered by Mr dupler yesterday option b and that's option b and then mine would be C it's the most recent yeah okay so miss Bach made the original motion

068to approve option b and Mr triplet you seconded that motion did you mean to second that [Laughter] motion sorry can we just one more time hear the clarity of that so we we made the motion and approve and second it for option b she is asking for a substitute motion I am to move to C not B correct is that correct correct and that has been seconded so we will need to vote and we can continue discussing but we will need to vote on your substitute motion if it fails if it passes we're good if it fails we go back we go back to the original which is option b great for clarity what's the difference between option b and this one that's that's what I would like just Clarity on B and C the

069difference is the only thing that I changed where I kept all the language the same all the rights were enumerated um and then but changed on any basis for any reason so instead of saying for any reason we put any basis so it would say on any basis I'm sorry what line is that on sorry 11 are we talking about 110 that's what we're on right okay yeah 110 okay so it is on third paragraph on any basis including but El limited to so I took out because of race color creed religion national origin sex or disabilities the rest of it is the same as Mr dup's so I'm keeping the original language and changing on for on any basis making that what the legislature changed that's what I changed that sense you're looking what

070did you you look like you say something so you're saying that on policy j110 correct line 12 on your version that I'm looking at here it says but not sorry on any basis including but not limited to race color you have race color creed religion national origin sex or disabilities listed that exists in the current policy what does black exists currently so we back to the original policy as it stands and I made adjustments off of the original policy so perfect what is changing we're keeping what is there but adding in the legislative language okay which is on any basis and to make it make sense I did include including but not limited to thank you okay hold on there's a lot of lights on so I'm trying to miss font no Ridley I believe

071you were you were next thank you like Christmas in here um I appreciate Miss Templeton your um motion to substitute um we're as a board and everybody knows we're elected to um protect and Advance our students and staff um as a board we're responsible for doing everything we can in our power to carry out what we are charged to do um sorry I just wrote this down a minute ago uh the language being taken out of our Bel and harassment policies causes concern among families whose children identify with these groups compromising by combining the language as Miss simpleton did seems to be a way to come together and show the students and staff that we care about the protections we're sworn to uphold so uh we've kind of run around and come back to almost

072the same policy we started with that we were editing I guess or changing and so we've kind of come full circle with a little bit of different language so I just wanted to say I appreciate the work that everybody's put in to what what it's come to miss bike thank you um a question for Mr dupler um I guess if looking at option b and lines 11 and 12 I think those are those are the big differences here legally how do you feel these to differ in the having on any basis including but not limited to versus the against on any basis but having the other up top thank you Miss bike uh thank you madam chair so uh our office's recommendation is option b um if this board wants to go with option C

073uh this board is has every right to do so this board is the policymaking body uh we simply wouldn't uh wouldn't sign off on it um you know again it's not it's not a change in the law that that we have any control of uh I hear that that that uh people uh don't like the change in the law want to have things listed out uh but but but the legislature made that change um and again that's why I've you know our office's proposed option b to try and capture as much of of the list as possible so um so that's where we are and and you know if you look at the at the legislator uh move um they want it on any basis that's what they want so thank you I I appreciate

074your office's work on this Miss Morgan okay I'm a little confused I mean I'm I'm feeling better now but because I'm sitting here and I have uh the original revision I have the original policy I have the first revision I have option b and I have Miss templeton's um and I'm a visual person so it's helpful to have these here so just to clarify for those who are in attendance and those watching the meeting who may not have all versions of the policy in front of them the proposed policies in front of them um what Miss font o Ridley said that we have kind of done a runaround here with the language is how I see it as well uh and there are a couple different versions here the way that I see it option

075b as Mr dupler has proposed since our meeting Monday and as he just stated as the law office's recommendation does add back in some of the language that was removed moved um in that first line so I appreciate that Mr dupler took what we heard Monday I know um Dr Butler said some things that were very impactful and Dr Butler I appreciate you sharing and and I want you to know that I I heard what you said and um the same for our public for speakers who shared as well as some emails that were received and um while I would never assume to know what it's like to be in somebody else's position that's in one of these groups um I can certainly listen to people and and know what it's like from my perspective

076myself and and with my children um but I hear what people are saying and I never want anyone to feel unseen or unheard in Knox County Schools um I don't think that's the heart of anybody on this board and so I appreciate that Mr dupler has presented us with an option that does put back in some of that language which was what we were hearing from people was problematic in the version that we were that we have discussed at policy review twice um and in meetings before so because this version does have language put back into it and um is the recommendation of the law office and in light of seeing that we do compromise because that is important and most importantly making sure people do feel seen and heard um I will vote for

077option b to go with Mr duper's recommendation from the law office Mr triplet you haven't had an opportunity I'm GNA let you go ahead and um I don't know that the language on any basis writing that in I know it doesn't ultimately change how we do this in practice um but I would be acceptable to option b as well would you be you willing to pull that substitute motion and just stick with option b truthfully no um I think it's important to name um we've heard from I've got numerous emails um and so on behalf of the constituents that have emailed me a lot over the last four days I think it's important to consider it as a even though it's named above in well up above it's talking about the opportunities that are available

078to students um making sure that there are equal opportunities for programs and activities regardless of race coloring Creed um it takes out down below the discrimination and who's being discriminated against does that make sense so it's still it's listed at the top to promote opportunities with regard to programs and activities regardless of race color creed relig national origin sex or disabilities but that is not directly speaking to discrimination Mr D uh thank you madam chair it it uh the language up top refers to both Miss Templeton discrimination or harassment and promotes uh equal opportunities so it's so it's referring to all those things yeah Miss F Ridley thank youor um um I agree with Miss Templeton um there are policies and of course I've read all of them because I was a teacher thoroughly um

079but there are all kinds of policies that have language in there that is not um necessarily in the actual law and um the law actually doesn't say say to delete it the bills do and from what I understand we go by what the law says and not necessarily what the bills say because the bills go from where they started to where they were voted on and passed so um I don't see any reason why we should not keep in the language of the protected groups since it is not in the law that we have to take it out and I think it it benefits people to see it in the policy because if I'm looking at it as a parent who I feel um my child has been discriminated against I want to know that

080it's there and that it's um agreed that that's important I mean it doesn't doesn't mean that we're not going to follow it if we take it out but I think the visual of it is important and I think a lot of families feel the same way from the emails that I'm sure were sent to me too do you want to respond back and then I'm gonna go to miss Chris D's I do um Mr dupler am I reading it wrong um me because I am open to conversation for sure um and you and I have talked quite a bit and I appreciate your time and willingness to do that so when it says up at the top what you have REM what you have Rewritten in general I'm going to just read it out loud

081because it's how I learned in general the Knox County Board of Education Knox County Schools prohibits any form of discrimination or harassment and promotes equal opportunities with regard to programs and activities regardless of race color creed religion national origin sex or disabilities this is the paragraph that we are discussing right now so when it is listing it out the way and it might be all the cross outs and the underlines and the colors the way it's reading to me is that we're promoting equal opportunities for all of these groups but down are is that second line referring to the discrimination and the harassment as well is the short question uh Mr Templeton yes okay all right legally I mean you know then that's that's that's pretty common legal language that applies to everything right and

082I am not an attorney and that's why I'm leading on you for clarification okay in this case on this one which we're not discussing the others so I'm happy to I will have alternate motions for the other two because they are not listed in the other two uh um additions um I am comfortable with Plan B for this one based on what you just said so are you withdrawing your substitute motion I am withdrawing my substitute motion for j11 okay Miss Christie I just have whether it's option b or c um a question about just how the policy starts I mean the words in general kind of strikes me a little bit as a very odd way to start a policy on harassment and I mean like in some circumstances it's okay and I mean

083it just seems odd to me to start a policy with in general I I don't know if Miss Templeton or Mr dupler either you want to speak to that I mean it's there reason that that those two words are there rather than just starting with the Knox County Board of Education I guess is my question yeah I would agree with that I would I want to start strong that we do not allow or put up with any harassment Mr deepler thank you madam chair thank you Miss chrisy I mean again I go back to the to the comments on Monday night uh you know the legislature when talking about Educators and students um you know has has directed to remove the language anguage uh but when you look at uh other districts other districts still

084have some permutation of the language and that's the other thing this language you know some of the some of the um policies that that we looked at on Monday night have four of the categories or five of the categories and don't don't don't have all the categories that are listed here um you've got some that apply to employees but don't apply to students such as age or vet status so you know so that's that's the reason for the words in general because uh you know these these categories apply uh to all types of discrimination so instead of just focusing on the students alone so that was the reason for the language so is it problematic to remove that I mean and to start with the Knox County Board of Education yes it Isa I mean

085is it problematic legally to to remove the in general I can't answer that have to ask the legislature Reverend Butler uh thank you madam chair um I'm not a lawyer either but I've read enough policies to know that certain words um Carry certain meanings but when you read them from a legal perspective what I'm hearing is is that we we we may not be able to put the categories that this will apply to whether it may be teachers or whether it may be students or whoever So when you say in general in general in this sense means it applies to everybody so if you don't put in general then it may not you have to put it exactly who it applies to and that's what you're trying to avoid so in general means the opposite

086of what we might think in general in general I think everybody's good I I think my concern is that people reading it might misinterpret the meaning of in general and and I don't dis if that makes sense I don't disagree with you because I think when you said that I thought yeah that is a strange way but when you think about what the alternative is of making this policy work in general is the legal approach what I'm hearing you hearing being said that in general is means it applies to everyone that's my understand is that the understanding if you can say that I well I think you're right Reverend Butler again I mean you know the point was because because a lot of these other districts are doing this is you know these things can

087apply to employees to student enrollment to contracts I mean you know just just a wide variety of things so saying hand you the intent is to say you know whether you're talking about students or otherwise this is Knox County Schools and the and the board of education's you know policy so miss F Ridley thank you madam chair um I tend to agree with um Miss Christie in general generally speaking but maybe not in all circumstances I can see how it could be interpreted in that way so I agree with with that OBS observation thank you sorry I'm thinking very Miss douet I just have a very quick question when um in this case do General is it intended to imply across the board like is like is that how you would Define that like across

088the board the Knox County Board of Education I mean obviously it's not the language we would use but is that the intent of in general Mr deer yeah thank you m Madam chair Miss templon yes I mean that's that's the intent again that it that it doesn't apply just to students that it applies across many categories is there any more discussion all right well we'll go ahead and vote on this why don't we do a roll call vote Miss Cy to clarify we're voting on option yes yes for clarification we are voting on option b which is the alternative language that Mr dupler supplied to us earlier today or yesterday yes Dr Butler yes Miss Templeton yes Miss mono Ridley yes Miss bike yes Miss Morgan yes Mr triplet yes Mr Wright yes Miss Christie

089yes Miss Henderson yes that's nine yes votes motion carries I know there's a lot of papers item seven C approv second reading of KN County Board of Education policy j180 rights and responsibilities as amended move to approve option b thank you for that clarified motion uh clarified motion by Mr triplet second by Miss Christie do we have any discussion Miss Templeton I'm back yes I do um because this really is a cut and pay situation so you can see the only change I made to the original it's is on any basis including but not limited to and everything else is the same I feel like this is the truest form of compromise um just using the language and the in the law and the suggestion by our Law Department and adding that in and I

090would like to make a motion substitute motion a substitute motion a substitute motion yes okay second substitute motion by Miss Templeton and second by Reverend Butler right I guess we'll we will discuss this Mr triplet Mr jup do you sign off on either one of I mean on the second would you sign off on the third option I guess uh thank you Mr Chet I mean our recommendation was was option b so um that's our recommendation so no yeah Reverend Butler so um I see the difference between B and the substitute motion which we can call C and including but not limited to is the same it's just it says all applicable federal and state laws regarding protected classes and then it gives uh the references and what uh option C does is says what

091those classes are particularly the federal classes and what it does when you list it out because those uh list unless I'm wrong Mr dupler is the applicable federal law is that correct yes in general yeah in general so uh and that's pretty good so in general and so uh what it does it it gives us an understanding so we don't have to go look them up that so we're going to list the reference anyway and you don't list the whole federal law you just list those those those classes and since we have them listed in a previous one we just passed why not list them here and that way we have those categories identified the reason why I think j110 worked was because you had them listed somewhere in the document that you didn't have

092to go and look for them so uh I think we we when we say who who's who's looking at them well everyone who looks at them can see these are those uh protective classes you can even say if you want to do a a b plus C uh all applicable federal state laws regarding protective classes which are and then you list the protective classes so that's that's the reason why I have seconded uh the motion uh because I think those protective classes is being listed is a is an asset to the [Music] policy thank you Reverend Butler Miss bike thank you madam chair um Michael question is for Mr dupler um can you explain um any sort of reason like I'm I absolutely understand how on option b lines um 11 through 13 kind of

093um seem to Encompass or are encompassing you know all of those named categories um but was there any reasoning to not include um a in general sentence like what was incorporated in the previous one uh thank you Miss bik yeah I think I understand your question I mean why not why not put the same in general phrase uh and the answer to that is um is that there wasn't that type of language before that there was that type of language before in one 10 uh so that's why uh it was put in you know it was it was put back in with the in general language and um and we added um and I thought we added uh I I know it's on 210 uh we added a cross reference to um to 110 uh

094so I would say that you know on option b i mean the intent is to have a cross reference to one 10 uh for J10 so um so that's why yeah so there is a cross reference there should be and I'm not seeing it on this version but yeah there should be a cross reference uh to uh j110 and then I need to look at 210 I think I think 210 has the has the cross reference I hope um let me look real quick yeah yes 210 has the cross reference but I mean that same cross reference needs to be in in j180 okay how how would we handle that if we are voting tonight and the cross reference is not there is that something that an amendment needs to be made we can I

095mean the board's uh said in the past that you know cross references can be easily added and you know that's something we do as a matter of course and I'm telling the board that it that it that it needs to be there and it will be added okay thank you do we have any more discussion Miss Morgan Mr dupler I think we just want your suit to get plenty of screen time tonight is why the man of the hour got to highlight that turn those lights on please this about time to do that I think the batteries can last the rest of this meeting so Mr dupler can you please just for thank you I don't know if I can take you serious that does help very much my mood is lifted instantly very festive

096uh Mr dupler just for Clarity on this policy can you reiterate why we are taking out the specific listing and replacing it with including but not limited to all applicable federal and state laws regarding protected classes yeah thank you because I I wanted clarification again on this as well so yes thank you madam chair um thank you m Morgan so the uh again if you look at the new state law uh that you know um is um is not universally liked and it it it says on there to uh Delete you know the listing that that we've been talking about and and it goes into even more of of of a laundry list than what you see in these policies but it says delete this listing and substitute instead on any basis so when coming

097up with this with this option b that you see tonight I looked tried to look further into what the legislature was doing and the legislature did have some additional um notes about why they did what they did and it talks about in those additional notes and it's a fiscal note on the on the bill it talks about that their intent was to uh require an educator to follow all applicable federal and state laws and to not generally exclude discrimin against or unfairly treat students so I saw on one hand where they were trying to take out the listing but on the other hand they're saying hey we do want want school districts to continue to follow federal and state laws so that was the reason why I added the the language in there because because

098the legislature didn't say you you could you could exclude that type of phrasing so that's why I put it in there okay thank you for explaining that so is it your recommendation from the Law Department then that to be in compliance with the state law we need to take out that listing yes that's our recommendation is that you know based upon our reading of the new law uh that would that would still include and let everybody know that the federal and state protections are all still there but we're but we're doing our our best to comply with what the legislature has said okay thank you and I appreciate that addition of the federal and state laws Miss F Ridley thank you Mr dupler so the document that you're referencing is the language in the bill

099that they say to get rid of the language uh thank you Miss F no really so what you have is you have the law itself uh which which which directed uh the the delete and the substitute that that that's in the actual law uh what I was reading from was uh some additional language that was included in uh the notes with the bill um uh you know explaining the law so yeah so what I'm reading in the law right now it says um on number 10 B B1 not on any basis unfairly exclude the student from participation in any program deny benefits of the student or Grant advantage to the student but I don't see where it says to take that out what I where I see it is where it is listed in the

100bill the house bill and the Senate bill so what happens is uh when a bill becomes a law uh it it becomes a public chapter uh and it's and it's signed by the governor uh on April the 23rd of 24 uh and in that public chapter it says that delete uh this this particular section that you just cited is amended by deleting on the basis of race color creed disability sex national origin marital status political or religious beliefs Family Social or cultural background or sexual orientation and substituting instead on any basis so that's what the law says am I looking at the right law 10003 yes 495 13 B10 um if you have the latest version you're looking at the version that has deleted all that language and and substituted on any basis so it

101deleted it didn't say to I'm just trying to get my mind wrapped around it yes the law deleted it it deleted it okay thank you Miss Templeton so I understand that the bill that was passed and the conversations around it were um uh in felt instructional in nature for us to do that um but I do think it is worth noting that the legislature did not eliminate this language throughout all of our laws they did not cart launch change to on any basis everywhere um and for that reason I question if it is a requirement for our board to make that sweeping change um and I don't believe and and based on kind of our previous conversation and your statement on Monday um other boards aren't making this change um so they don't see it

102the same way um and I think that is worth a question of whether or not we need to do this at this time Miss bike thank you you um I have some clarifying question a clarifying question on the law for Mr dupler um is it meaning to delete and replace from the law or delete and replace from our policies thank you Miss bike so that's a good question uh you know the laws rarely uh direct boards to do something specific with policy I mean it happens but it's rare uh normally what happens with the law is uh the legislature changes their law which they've done here and the policy is based upon their law okay so so really sorry I am re again trying to wrap my mind around all of this um so realistically

103what they are saying is they are removing from that from the law the law previously had told us to have that in there but they are just removing that they're deleting and replacing in the law but they're not guiding us to do that in policy is that what the legislature is saying yes I mean I mean rarely does the legislature say hey your policy has to say this they change the law and then and then the policy is based upon the law okay I see Miss Morgan so I very respectfully I'm gonna say this Miss Templeton I do see your point about the other boards and I know we looked at other boards policies Monday night um I am really just interested in what this board is doing and I am not an attorney and

104I cannot interpret the law like someone who's been to law school so I am just going to follow the advice of our Law Department um and vote for option b thank you is there any more discussion okay so clarification we are now voting on Miss templeton's substitute motion which is option C on this one can you please do a roll call vote Miss cotney I it's a lot going on tonight Dr Butler no I'm sorry I'm voting for The I am this is option C option C yes I'm sorry yes Miss Templeton yes Miss fono Ridley yes Miss bike yes Miss Morgan no Mr triplet no Mr Wright no Miss Christie no Miss Henderson no that's four yes votes and five no votes motion fails so we will now then go back to option b

105and discuss that Miss Christie did you have oh okay sorry so we are now on option b and we will vote on that do we have any more discussion on this seeing there's none can you please do a roll call vote Miss Cy thank you madam chair Dr Butler yes Miss Templeton yes Miss fono Ridley yes Miss bike yes Miss Morgan yes Mr triplet yes Mr Wright yes Miss Christie yes Miss Henderson yes that's nine yes v motion carries item 7D approve second reading of knots County Board of Education policy j210 harassment of students as amended move to approve option b motion made by Mr triplet second by Miss Christie any discussion Miss Miss Templeton I have a substitute motion I do and it's right in front of you um yes and you can see

106the changes um that I made the um I did keep the only thing that I changed that I personally changed was swapped out for any reason with on any basis the rest were the same as the original changes Mr duer made okay so substitute motion made by Miss Templeton a second by Miss bike we will now discuss the substitute motion uh so miss Templeton you're saying the only change you made to this was changing from right for any reason to on any basis from the original from okay from the from the original I went back to the original option a option A no actually no I went back to the one that is in existence right now okay yeah yeah current current current currently approved most recently approved okay got um and swapped out for

107any reason for on any basis okay the other red lines that you see on there were from Mr duplers down below where it says students May report anonymously and all the things I'm going to pull the option b up real fast sorry yeah he added the anonymous from um yeah sorry you see it where he changed investigated and treated on Monday and then he had also made the change at the very last um paragraph any student or staff member m yeah so I kept those and my reasons are the same um it's the compromise on language to have it all oh sorry Miss bike I was reading I apologize that's that's okay thank you madam chair I was also reading um um yeah I think having the kind of newer understanding that the legislature's directive

108was to delete and replace their language and that it wasn't necessarily a direct to us to change our language um really what leads me to kind of stick with what we have um we are a very large school district that is very diverse and so I think keeping keeping these is is important yeah so I I definitely will be voting in favor of option C thank you anyone else okay seeing there's no discussion we will vote on option C Miss cotney can you please do a roll call V thank you madam chair Dr Butler so this is for the substitute motion correct yes Miss Templeton yes Miss Fon o Ridley yes Miss bike yes Miss Morgan no Mr triplet no Mr Wright no Miss Christie Miss Henderson no that's four yes votes and five no

109votes motion fails so we will now go back to the original motion which is option b do we have any discussion on on that Miss F Ridley oh sorry oh no okay no problem okay seeing there is no discussion on that we will vote Miss cotney can we please do roll call yet thank you Dr Butler yes Miss Templeton I'm G to pass Miss font Ridley no Miss bike pass Miss Morgan yes Mr triplet yes Mr Wright yes Miss Christie Miss Henderson yes Dr I'm Sorry Miss Templeton would you like to change your pass vote Miss bike okay so that is six yes votes one no vote and two pass motion carries right item 7e approve first reading of kns County Board of Education policy d190 payroll as amended a motion by Reverend Butler second

110by Miss chrisy do we have any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 7f approve first read of knots County Board of Education policy D200 expenses and reimbursements as amended second motion by Miss Christie a second by Mr triplet any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 7g approve first reading of KN County Board of Education policy d233 technology purchases as amended motion by Miss Christie second by Mr triplet any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 7h to approve first reading of KN County Board of Education policy d241 internal School funds as amended a motion by Miss bike and second by Mr triplet any discussion seeing there's

111none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries seven I approve first read of KN County Board of Education policy d280 fundraising activities as amended second this this one needs to be W this one needs to be approved on we need to wave the next it's the next one okay sorry um that's the next one sorry about that a motion by Miss Christie a second by Mr triplet any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 7j approve first read of KN County Board of Education policy I 341 uniform grading policy as amended to approve first second motion by Miss Christie a second by Mr triplet any discussion I apparently was one ahead so thank you for for that seeing there is no discussion

112all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 8 a approved Tennessee Department of Education secondary transition indicator 14 Grant in the amount of $ 6,380 a motion by Miss Christie a second by Mr triplet any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 8 B approve Knox County retired Teachers Association grants in the total amount of $2,000 for B Morris Elementary School Dogwood Elementary School Green Magnet Academy Hall's high school and sore green Magnet Academy motion by Reverend Butler a second by Miss Christie any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 8 C approved Tennessee Environmental Education Association minig Grant in the amount of $250 for South Middle School motion by Miss Christie second by

113Miss bike any discussion seeing there's none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 8 D approve Great Smoky mounts National Park Education Program travel Grant in the amount of $200 for westf elementary school motion by Miss Christie a second by Miss bike any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 9A approved contract with Baseline Sports Construction LLC for provision of tennis court services up to $200,000 annually for the term of January 1 2025 through December 31 2025 which may be extended for four additional years motion by Miss Christie second by Mr triplet any discussion seeing there's none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries nineb approve contracts with East Tennessee Fence Company Stanley fencing and Landscaping Incorporated and

114TS Wells Incorporated doing business as Tim's fencing for provision of fencing Services up to two $2 million annually for the term of January 1 20 2 through December 31 2025 which may be extended for four additional years motion by Miss Christie a second by Mr triplet do we have any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries N9 C approve amendment to contract with Accenture LLP for provision of strategic planning Services motion by Miss Christie a second by Reverend Butler do we have any discussion seeing there is none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries item 10 a approve Emerald Academy Charter School evaluation report a motion by Miss Christie a second by Mr triplet Reverend Butler yes just wanted clarification on uh

115What uh we we're doing here because in January we're going to have a report uh we have to have approval as well right so what are we exactly doing with this are we just receiving this report as their actual report I'm glad you brought that up Dr Wilson will you kind of explain what this what this does sure so what you're what you're seeing on this uh board agenda is the annual performance review that is uh that follows the board's adopted framework for for evaluation on the charter schools um you see that for Emerald this year which we have seen for several years in a row you don't see that yet for Knox prep because they're in their first year so you would see that coming into next year you'll have an evalu report for

116their annual performance uh what's coming in January for Emerald Academy would be in relation to the renewal so they're coming up finishing their 10th year going into their 10th year um so that's where we come back to renew our agreement with them to provide the charter service so in the past so in the past year two years since I've been here we've done this but we didn't do what we going to do in January correct okay I just just want to get that straight yep thank you I'm glad I'm glad you brought that up for clarification yep Miss bike thank you um I guess more clarification on this um when we are passing it is it just saying that like we're accepting this report or is this saying like yes something else what is what

117are the implications on us passing this I think you're accepting the report um I I probably would have to go back and look a little bit at the at the language on that myself um but that is I think you're accepting the report that again the board has adopted a framework for evaluation that that process has been conducted and that we're coming back to make a recommendation based on that framework that they're still in good standing and and we would recommend continuing on with uh with that service okay so we accept this report and then there's a point where is that your team that make would make potentially make a recommendation so so the renewal again the the next item actually on the uh agenda is the Charter School uh committee uh the team the

118review team we would use that committee on an annual basis uh for a full calendar year to handle any Charter Business so that'll be a team involved in in uh anything that comes up with the charter in the next year and then we have an internal team as again as we're looking at um new applications renewal that would be experts our finance department people like that would they would be involved in looking at those applications as well so if there are things that we want them to improve on when is that recommendation made based on this report I'm gonna be honest with you Miss B I'd have to look a little deeper into that to to get you the uh to to get you the firm answer on that okay would you mind to do

119that at I would I'd be happy to and actually miss Nixon's not able to be here this evening um she would probably be able to answer in a much more detailed way um but i' be happy to to to get that with her and and back to you okay thank you we have any more discussion on this item seeing there is none we'll go ahead and vote all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 10 B approved Charter School application review team appointments a motion by Miss chrisy a second by Mr triplet do we have any discussion seeing there is none we'll go ahead and vote all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries Mr triplet I believe we have some public form speakers thank you madam chair we

120do have public forum speakers Justin jentry is Justin jentry here we'll move on if he happens to be in another room we Stacy Reese Stacy state your name County residence and you'll have three minutes Hello friends you've seen me here before um I'm Dr Stacy ree I live in district 7 and I teach in District 4 on the KCs growing readers website in the drop down menu of the how we grow readers tab there's a section on core beliefs that includes the following books belong in Learners hands readership is best grown when barriers to reading are removed any action that makes it easier for a reader to choose a book is an action that supports positive growth and readership additionally the primary support section of this tab has these four points under the school library

121section it's the largest selection of reading materials for all possible needs and interest curated by trained experts supported by Educators broad expertise in literature and inquiry skills consistent experience for all schools in all students in school regardless of background once again our state legislature has succeeded in making our profession more difficult by demonstrating a clear disregard for the expertise of Educators and Librarians taking a stance that directly contradicts the values and beliefs upheld by KCs while KCs policy recognizes and and relies on professional expertise our legislature seems intent on undermining it the irony is not lost on me and that on this same page with all of these wonderful statements about reading there's a tab called titles to remove again let me reiterate it's the legislator that's put legislature that's put us in this position

122furthermore our harassment policy says KCs will not tolerate any harassment defined as conduct that unreasonably interferes with the students work or educational opportunities we know that removing books limits students access to perspectives and experiences which directly interferes with opportunity and again our legislature has put us in the precarious position of wondering if we're harassing our own students book bands overwhelmingly target books about racism gender and sexuality many by black indigenous people of color and lgbtq authors for students and staff who identify with the themes or characters and remove books this removal can feel like a direct attack on their identities sending a message that their experiences are not valid or worthy of discussion possibly creating a hostile learning environment which goes against the very principles of inclusive and Equitable education that our schools should uphold

123my first question is how do we stay true to our core beliefs about reading when legislators have proven that they don't hold the same values as we do here at KCs my next question is how can we as a district support our students and staff who feel marginalized by this removal of books and furthermore how can we effectively communicate to our District's Educators and Librarians that we do truly value them as Professionals in light of recent legislation that seems to say the opposite I do not envy the position that you're in as you navigate the vagueness and the chaos of this language I appreciate your willingness to do this though and your supportive teachers knowing that throughout history no one who has banned books has ever been viewed favorably thank you again for our service

124to our schools and as always any of you are welcome in my classroom at any time 109 West come on in thank you William Rose and if you'll state your name and County of residence you will have three minutes William Rose um KNX count Knoxville I'm I'm here for my for my kids kids that can't [Music] talk I've earlier I've Dred heard that there's been that they have been trapping or not trapping but putting kids in little rooms and this is making me starting to think a school is tur into jails and just making that solitary confinement I've just I've wanted to know I just hearing about this makes me feel a lot less wanting to go back into school and just want to stay homeschooled I really feel bad for kids that have to

125be put in there they really shouldn't need this stuff like this shouldn't happen I really feel like this should be better and they should trade kids more like human beings instead of people that have done bad things I feel like I feel like people should really think and teachers should think and principal should think about what they're doing to students especially students that have special needs and can't talk they should really thank this before they do something especially if if they don't like their surroundings they shouldn't just be put in a load room like they're just being put in solitary confinement that this really shouldn't happen and that's all I have thank you [Applause] William Jenifer Rose if you'll state your name and County's residents as well you'll have three [Music] minutes Jennifer rose Knox

126County good evening I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving while my family and I were having lunch today I read the article by wvlt about the 8-year-old child being put into an isolation room at Carter Elementary my 7-year-old son William who has ASD and other neurodevelopmental disabilities made the remark what are they trying to turn schools into jails I replied that perhaps he should ask the board members of Knox County himself so here we stand tonight I'm thankful that the Board of Education voted to keep the policy allowing individuals to sign up before meetings this story is heartbreaking and very concerning and it's just one story how many more are out there how many other children are experiencing this why is this happening is it because these individuals can't verbally speak so people can

127get away with it in June of this year my husband stated in an article that we fear the unknown We Fear what we don't know this right here is why as parents we send our children to school trusting they are in good hands yet here we are while we understand that some outliers such as school shootings can't be controlled or predicted the dangers our children face can be stopped and prevented I'm not by any means suggesting that teachers or staff should be abused daily what I'm saying is that there should be supports documentation and proactive measures taken before situations escalate to this point it's December school started in August why wasn't something done then to help the child the article states that the school didn't have funding to provide the necessary Services the child required

128the lack of funding is not the child's fault the school does have the funding if the supports needed are properly written into the IP if that is done correctly the supports the child needs also support the teachers and staff this benefits both if the city can build new art statutes then we can fund the education needs of our students and teachers please don't Reb with the argument that it's two separate funding sources we all know the school's budget must be approved by the County Commission and comes from the county mayor it's time to stop fighting against each other for political reasons of being red or blue and start working together to make purple start putting the children first start being purple thank you all have a Merry Christmas thank you Jennifer Owen Jennifer you'll state

129your name and County resident you'll have three minutes Jennifer Owen Knox County asking good questions is one of the most important things you do and that includes request questioning repeatedly even when you know the answers please don't rely just on the law director's office for information because when they fully investigate those are issues related to litigation they may have no reason to even know of issues like individual staff complaints and it's not their job job to help you look for trouble you must understand that you are the only one you can rely on to find good information what I'm about to share is no longer deliberative between us so you need to hear some things related to miss bannister's tragedy that I was not allowed to tell you previously at least 43 complaints were filed

130by staff members regarding one administrator in addition to and separate from student and parent complaints at least 20 of those were shared with their board member and then with me issues were reported to the superintendent at that time as well as to the executive team members including your current superintendent who claims no knowledge and the board was given a packet of some of those complaints I want to be sure you each understand that none of those 43 staff complaints from at least two schools that I know of are recorded anywhere in KS over and over I ask how how there could be no documentation of 43 staff complaints against one administrator I got shrugs until my last day in office when I was granted time to View files I knew would not be there after

131evaluations transfers and other records I ask again how can 43 complaints just not be here and I got a new answer a formal complaint was never started please look at your policies what your employees are told constitutes a complaint 23 people compiled complaints and delivered them to supervisors exact exactly as required in your policy another 20 directly complained to two Schoolboard members who went to the superintendent exactly as required please ask how HR can cite an imaginary process that ignores your policy to hide at least 43 staff complaints no telling how many more 43 we know of filed against one administrator please ask how a current superintendent an executive team m at that time could have no knowledge or how HR and supervisors could fail to tell him any of this once he became superintendent

132I also encourage you to ask how this board has put itself in a position to allow a superintendent to create a six-figure salar supervisory position with authority over all principles for a person who had at least 43 uninvestigated staff complaints against him please ask how even in a deeply troubling culture of bullying Behavior there can be no records of 43 complaints and no accountability for any of the supervisors task with upholding your complaint policies your harassment policies and your bullying policies thank you Madame chair that concludes public forum thank you with that we are adjourned for