001e e e welcome to the Board of Education June 2024 work session please stand as we observe a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mr Wright flag United States of stand andice thank you Mr Wright Mrs Henderson and Mr Watson will not be in attendance this evening due to out of town travel um the Strategic plan committee will meet on Monday June 24th at 2m in this boardroom and Miss Christie will be providing us an update on the committee's work in just a little bit also the naming facilities committee will meet on Tuesday June 25th at 3:30 to consider nominations for the naming of the Austin East Magnet High School gym floor and the faragate high school state I want to thank all of you for being in attendance this
002evening uh we do ask that you be respectful and courteous at all times and if you need to speak to your neighbor take a phone call anything like that if you'll step out of the room to do so uh are there any any requested changes to the agenda all in favor I motion passes Dr riswick superintendent report all right thank you sir um board members thank you for uh the chance to provide some updates I'd like to begin by congratulating KCs seniors from the class of 2024 uh who graduated last month Celeste is in the crowd I got to hand you your diploma that was pretty cool that was fun I enjoyed doing that I was like I know you uh in the middle of the rain but we're not going to talk about the
003beard and rain right we just pushed on through uh I had the privilege of attending 19 commencement celebrations and I know many of the board members were able to participate as well uh I was encouraged to see many graduates families and friends celebrating together and I'm grateful for all the work that went into these ceremonies I also want to highlight some statistics from the class of 2024 this year we had more than 4,300 students graduate from KCs high schools um a lot of handshaking that was awesome though uh combined these students had more than $187 million in scholarships that's uh I know several of those and again a lot of you were lot of you were there a lot of those were records for a lot of the schools that we were at um more
004than of students committed to serve in some form of military service and that was kind of a neat thing to see I think all of our uh classes gra showed or or or recognized the uh folks serving in the military as well as industry certifications I was glad to see that happen a lot of people did that uh as well as scholarship recipient so uh they includeed enlistment ROTC scholarships appointments to Service acmy uh and service in the guard of reserves um and so again want to say congratulations to the class of 2024 as always it's inspiring to see countless Educators who attend these ceremonies to celebrate their students that wouldn't be one of my favorite things to see uh a lot of our schools uh continue to do things like walk back to their
005elementary schools to be able to thank those teachers too I think that's just really a great sign that really is a 13-year sometimes post that if they're pre- students of ours as well uh commitment and it's great to see that you know all of our uh faculties get to enjoy in that um over the last two weeks I also heard many students give shoutouts to adults who influen their lives it's kind of fun to hear those speeches what they say with that uh it was common to see students giving fist bumps giving hugs high fives to principles at the ceremonies those are neat moments too uh we often mention the importance of relationships in K12 education and graduation is always a great reminder of the important role Educators play in the lives of our students
006uh so congratulations again to those seniors also want to take a moment to recognize the student athletes who won state championships this year or placed in the runners up category uh we actually had um quite a few as we started seeing them kind of roll in from Spring uh I reached out to to Dr Wilson reached out to Brian Brown too and I was like you know we had quite a few in the fall and in the winter too and what was kind of neat is it was spread out for schools we had majority of the schools at the high school so just to go over the ones that won state championships that were Runners up this year so West High School football uh Bearden High School soccer faragate boys cross country Fulton boys basketball
007uh South oy boys soccer Bearden boy soccer Gibb softball faragate baseball beard dance faragate dance and Halls dance and I think wasn't there did Bearden boys oh it does say Bearden boys my fault I can't read okay yeah beard Boys on there as well all right um so that yeah that was I mean that's quite almost every school had a state champer runner up was impressive and I just want to say this too to Brian Brown he's not in the room but um I know that was kind of an intentional thing for us to focus on making sure we had everything even at the district level to support the schools to get that done and he's done a tremendous job he actually won't say this but he attended Every Spring championship uh made the trips
008back and forth to get that done so really appreciate his support there um before I wrap up I want to take a moment to share that we begun notifying employees of their placement on the new salary schedules uh that that you all approved earlier um this year this has been a tremendous undertaking from the business and talent team and I appreciate their efforts to get this uh completed in a short period of time according to Evergreen which is the organization that we partnered with no District our size has ever overhauled their salary schedule in a single year uh and as I've stated before I firmly believe that prioritizing our KCs team members is the right thing to do uh with that being said as you know more than 9,000 employees at KCs we recognized from
009the beginning of this process uh that were there were bound to be some challenges uh the business and talent team has been diligent and thinking through that process and addressing questions staff have uh you know again we know that was going to happen I I just want to say this before I turned over to miss G to give you guys an update uh I appreciate their proactiveness and thinking about designing something like a form that that was not not a reaction to Sal's going out on Friday that was something they did on the front side to say please give us input uh we know this is going to be uh something that that happens that that could there could be questions on I also appreciate that this is May or just may when they sent
010those out the salaries actually don't change to July and August so uh that gives us time to uh to improve on any situations that need to be improved on uh and also um I want to say you know I was thankful I had several people stop me when I was out and you know thank thank us for that thank you all as the board for uh investing in people so uh in the end if there are issues we're going to work those out um but for most people I think we're in good shape and heading the right direction and with that I'd like to turn it over to miss himar and then I'll be finished to uh give you guys an update on that process on Friday thank you Dr risewick Vice chair Mr triplet
011and members of the board uh we're excited to share I like Dr riswick said that we have begun um the notific individual notifications of salary for the 2425 school year the majority of those went out on Friday May 31st um with the remainder to hopefully go out this Friday with with one small caveat um that we still are waiting on Final approval uh from the state of our Consolidated federal funds application um so the the remaining notifications of employees in those positions will be contingent on that approval but hopefully this Friday or next if not this Friday like Dr riswick also shared um we have created a dedicated email address salary at knoxschools.org and also a Google form uh for employees to request clarification on the process or alert us to something that might not
012have been considered uh in the transition and placement on the new grade bands we did anticipate that there would be Room to Grow um in this transition because it is it's a lot of employees nearly 9,000 and we're also doing it in a relatively short period of time so we we expected um that there would be some feedback that would cause us to provide clarification and in many cases cause us to provide corrections as well so we we expected um and are excited to have received a little over 700 responses to that Google form since we sent it out on Friday and those responses fall into a variety of categories clarification on the process um consideration of Step placement um verification of degrees some employe we've given the employees a pathway to upload degree verification
013if they're if they're moving to a new degree schedule um next year as well if they've attained a degree or are going to um at the close of this semester so excited about uh all of the responses and the opportunities to engage with those employees we will ask for a little bit of grace and patience in that process um with the 700 we do intend to respond to everyone but it will take us a little time to do so and like Dr riswick said that's why that's why the notifications came May 31st and then through the next week or two so that we have time to engage engage with the employees um and provide clarifications and make Corrections where necessary prior to those first paychecks going out in either July or August depending on the
014employee status and employment agreement length um so we would encourage people to continue using um those avenues that salary KN schools.org email address um or the Google form we would also encourage employees to visit our website there are some resources on the website as well um there's an FAQ there is a grade band placement form the employee categories how to how to find your spot on the new scale as the board remembers the transition is done was done in two different ways so we have two pay scales the teacher scale and then all other employees on the general scale and for the teacher scale um we've received a lot less questions there because it's a little more self-explanatory um if you've if you've held several positions in the district it's just step as a teacher
015plus one in the transition um the the transition on the general scale is using what's called class year parody which is a little more situation and employee specific it's either number of years in their current position uh or current salary on that grade band whichever is higher because as as we said to the board um our commitment has been that no one will go backwards in salary um in this transition so there it's a the the general scale transition is a little more individual spefic specific um so that that's where we've gotten a lot of the requests for clarifications uh so we're we're excited about the about showing uh our employees our appreciation next year by moving all employees to market value um we look forward to continuing to engage with employees and encourage employees
016to continue using those Avenues um so that we can provide clarification and Corrections uh Miss Owen thank you Mr Vice chair um um is now an appropriate time to discuss that whole salary situation or is there a better time in the agenda to do I don't know that we have a spot in the agenda other than this so I think this is as good as any okay unless somebody else has an objecting thank you um so looking at the tutorial video that that our employees have looked at I think it's not at all clear that they are supposed to be looking at either number of years or their current salary I'm also not convinced that that is an accurate way to look at market value um if I were on the the very front end
017of this and not at all where we are now I would assume that finding someone's market value would be looking at their Year's experience their current step and finding the market value for that spot and then filling that in and that seems to be what the tutorial video also shows it very clearly shows our employees to go and find their step and then go up one but that's not at all what we're being told right now um repeatedly throughout the meetings and I've gone back and watched them this week we were told again and again no one would go backwards the words in salary were not part of that it was no one will go backwards so our employees don't understand why they've gone backwards I don't understand why they've gone backwards I understand the
018rationale for why they've gone backwards I don't understand why that wasn't told on the front end um in some meetings I recall Mr Bolton was going through and did give a disclaimer that there are some people who were currently above market value I would assume that that would be a small number based on the way it was presented to us but a small number of people is not what I've heard from over the weekend I've heard from an incredible number of people who are incredibly unhappy who have already applied for other jobs um and whose situations I can't even figure out how they would make sense to anybody people who have been given credit to come to Knox County maybe they had nine years in another industry they were given credit for that nine years
019as an incentive to come to Knox County and now those years have been taken away and they don't understand why I don't either if you were incentivized to come here and given your years's experience I would think that would stay I've talked to um a person who earned a master's degree who was given credit for that master's degree who has been earning additional money for that master's degree and has now been told yeah we're not going to count that master's degree anymore that seems incredibly wrong to me I've talked to people who have told me that they have an incredible number of years that they've taught in their or worked in their position um some of them well over 25 that they've been in their position and that other people in the same position are
020at a different step than they are and they don't understand that I've heard from a lot of people at the very bottom of our salary scale who have been knocked from 11 expecting to move to 12 and they're now down at 3: or 4 and they don't understand how that can be I've also heard from a lot of people who left the classroom moved to a position downtown and so they are not NE necessarily A supervisory position but they are somewhere in that chain and they are at a higher position than they were before they are now working more days and their hourly is less than if they had stayed where they were so they have more more days more responsibility a higher title and their hourly rate is now less than had they stayed
021in the classroom I'm hearing that from um some school level administrators I'm hearing that from some folks in central office I'm hearing that from multiple people across the scale I've also heard from some people who have relatives who work in their same position and so they've discussed it at length they have a lot of years in the position they have a relative who was hired recently and that relative is now at a higher step than they are and they don't understand why they assume it's a mistake they are really hoping it's a mistake I heard from one person who was so distressed to learn that her raise is going to be 30 bucks that she didn't even want to tell her family when I looked up at the screen I saw mine mine was very
022clear to me my raise if I were in the classroom would have been about $10,000 I could be real happy with that when we talk about having his historical raises that's a historical raise but to our employees who are getting a raise of bucks they don't feel that they feel something very very different right now and I am hoping that we can find a way not just to slightly correct that but to move them to where they expected to be the steps that they earned they earned so they should still be there and that's their expectation based on everything we've given them to this point Thank you m helard any anything sure uh Vice chair Mr triplet Miss and members of the board uh thank you for that um and we encourage I'm hopeful that
023some of those people have submitted to the Google form because if there there likely are errors to correct I I will say that um we've we've discovered some today in the responses which which we expected and that's that's why we got the notifications out and we're hopeful that together us with the employees um that we discover all of those prior to them receiving their first paychecks so so thank you and and thank you to the employees that have continued to reach out there are we did engage in the study with Evergreen um who determined market value for us um who set the market value for us and there are like you said there are employees that were already closer to market value than others um so the the increase for employes in the district is
024not the same it's it's not as we've traditionally done increases like a a flat 4% across the board for example it will look different um for different categories of employees based on how close they were to market value uh but we encourage employees to continue to let us know um their concerns and you know some will result in corre ctions um and some will result in clarification on how how the transition worked and and that's what some employees have asked for is just clarification on how the transition has worked um but yes we we want all of those employees to reach out so we can make sure that we're doing this right that's our intent um is to pay all employees at market value uh Mard one other question no one is going backwards in
025pay that is correct that is correct and then I know that 700 responses is a lot it takes time to go through obviously when you mess with people's pay in anyway it's you know it's concerning people get anxious if it doesn't come out the way they expected do you have a timeline you know if I'm I'm an employee I've I've reached out I feel like it's off do you have a timeline where you say okay in three weeks three months you know a month what like a timeline where they can say okay by this time I should at least have an answer from you all as to to where what my issue is and if it if it's resolved sure so some employees um even today some employees do have an answer as far as
026responding to all 700 um our goal is in the next couple of weeks um Mr Bolton has convened a team already um to start working through those um and and respond to the ones that are quick responses um as quickly as we can um and then put Priority on on the employees that are paid in July um next so that we can make make sure that those those issues are addressed before those paychecks um are issued in July and then of course we have some paid in August so I don't have an exact time frame um but they've already started responding um and the goal is over the next couple of weeks very good thank you I I know that folks get nervous and anxious about that and just know that you know their this
027team is working very hard to answer all of those and and and get a response out so any other discussion uh Dr Adams is not here so we will do a custodial update or are you prepared for the custodial update as well she's got it covered all right Vice chair Mr triplet members of the board uh I am filling in for Dr Adams today uh we currently have 70 um custodial openings um with over or no with 51 of our facilities fully staffed thank you and then our strategic plan committee update Miss Christie thank you Mr triplet and the Strategic plan committee met on May 10th to further discuss our stakeholder engagement processes following board approval of our contract with M Milan Chicago we discussed a methodology of feedback that will be used including surveys
028and person sessions focus groups and interviews as well as what documents and resources to frame engagement around such as the districts for priorities and annual plans the committee will reconvene as you stated on June 24th at 2m to meet with representatives from Milan Chicago uh to further finalize the community engagement pieces I also believe we will have uh more information regarding our RFP for strategic planning by that point as well so I will keep the board informed as we receive that information and we may even have another contract coming in July thank you Miss Christie any questions or discussion Mr Butler um I do not have a discussion point on that I I wanted to go back if if I could for clarification sure so the uh naming committee what is the date and time
029for that again please sure it is uh June 25th at 3:30 and will there be any uh opportunity for po public uh comments or engagement the last meeting uh we had uh some some folks come and discuss why they wanted to name the facility after someone so if somebody wants to come and speak to that they can and that's at 3:30 at 3:30 yes sir thank you we will move on to the uh regular assession agenda so we will go to C any any discussion on c one or two three or four five or six seven or eight nine or 10 11 or 12 13 or 14 15 or 16 17 or 18 uh 7A Miss Horn do you want to speak to that sure thank you Mr triplet um so obviously over the last
030several months we've had uh several questions regarding books that are in school libraries and classrooms um and in addition to the concerns from the moms group that we've heard from I've heard from several people in my district with serious concerns about some of the books and as I've stated as other members of the board have stated I don't think that um books that have sexually explicit images should be in our our schools and uh particularly since these books are paid for with taxpayer dollars furthermore um the state legislature has amended TCA 49-6 d383 to more clearly Define books that are not age appropriate for students as those books depicting sexual images so this amendment goes into effect on July 1st um typically our board reviews new laws that go into effect in July during our
031policy review meetings but since we've talked about this topic multiple times over the past couple of months we um I thought it was probably better just to address it sooner rather than later um and and again that Amendment goes into effect July 1 in April the superintendent team outlined a review process for books that are challenged at the school level and that certainly is needed um particularly with regard to content um that may not be graphic but may be um in written form um and that also that review process is also a part of that that um Amendment to the law um so specifically um the books that or this policy specifically calls out or brings attention to books that include visual imagery that hopefully would be um easier to identify than perhaps if you
032have to read a whole book and have it reviewed um so this is this this really is not in response to this law being brought um this has been a conversation you or or this law this amendment to the law we've been talking about this for a while um but on July 1 and Mr dupler can speak to it further but on July 1 when we get to July 1 these books will not be um they can't be in our schools so we we're going to have to deal with this um sooner rather than later in my opinion um and basically our current policy says that books with with sexually explicit content should not be in our schools but obviously we've had a lot of a lot of question about that so I think that
033this will help bring some clarity so that people can um more clearly understand what is and what is not um appropriate for for books to be in schools um I think that this line this also lines up with the Tennessee state standards that actually call for abstinence so I don't think that we should have content that um that is out of line with Tennessee state standards and um and I think that I would hope that all board members would want to protect students um from books that are inappropriate and not not age appropriate for students so that's my reason for bringing this now um and so thank you Miss Horn thank you I appreciate you bringing that Mr Butler I would uh yield to if I la director was going to make any comments about
034it thank you Mr Vice chair thank you Reverend Butler um I mean what I would say is that Miss Horn and I have been talking about this uh since uh the discussion has come up through the board meetings and M horn was looking for some some language that that that would make it more clear for this specific type of of graphic sexual acts and so so so I think we both felt like that that the suggested language on the board agenda this month is s you know something that um Librarians and administrators could look to to say okay well this is this is this is very clear um since that time or or since M Miss Horn was looking at this language uh you know the the Tennessee legislature did amend 496 3803 and in
035my review of that uh certainly I think the legislature is trying to go further than what uh Miss Horn is suggesting here uh you know in fact what the legislature has done is they've they've referenced a lot of definitions from the criminal obscenity statute uh but haven't referenced obscenity itself so where is this going to go ultimately uh that's you know that's hard to say because there's going to be some gray area here uh but but certainly um what what Miss Horn is talking about here with this with this suggested language there's no question that this would be covered under under the new uh amendments to the statute thank you Mr hoer so uh I heard the Tennessee State Standards and the Tennessee state law and the way way that is is is uh we're
036looking at it with what Miss Horn has given us it meets both of those is what you said what I'm hearing you saying or not I mean what Miss Horn was trying to do I believe is is to make it clear that that you know a picture a depiction an image of a sex act should not be in the school library and so so so she's tried to make that clear here certainly that's that's consistent with existing state law uh existing state law when it comes to sexual education U is in favor of abstinence so it's certainly not in favor of depicting sex acts uh so but but again if you look at the amendment to the state law that's that would take affect July 1st certainly it appears that that law is going even
037further so do we need to go further at policy review I mean certainly I mean you know so so I think your point Reverend Butler is could this board be looking at this again very soon and you you know in July or at policy review absolutely and and that was my thought is that let me just be clear I don't want any of our kids to be subjected to anything that's going to cause them any harm whatsoever uh unnecessarily or not or on purpose or not so I so I support us looking at this number one to meet uh our desire for our kids not to be harmed number two is to meet State Standards state law and state standards so that's why I was wondering why not let us make sure we get it
038right doing policy review because the other state laws that we have to look at we have to pass we have to look at policy review as well and then we also have the time to really get the language right so that we can not have to revisit it um and and and and constantly coming back and and hitting at it I think we we we would do it a policy review and really spend that quality time getting it right cuz I'm not sure how all of us feel but I know how I feel and I just want to make sure we get it right and once we get it right our staff can carry it out Miss Pike thank you um yeah I was essentially going to say very similar to Reverend Butler um it
039sounds like that so am I correct that this law has not taken effect that's July 1st that we will have to come back to this that this will not suffice is that correct what Miss Horn suggested does not include all of the language in the new law so if it doesn't include that if we had just this would we still have to come back and change it possibly I mean the board and the school system is going to have to follow the state law whether you change the policy or not M well we typically come back and bring them back so I would wonder what uh you know what would be the rush to do this now similar to what Reverend Butler was saying instead of bringing it to policy review and talking about it
040then um because I certainly you know agree that I don't want any harm to be done to any of our students or kids in the county Etc um and I'm curious if if we are working with our library review system Library review team in looking at this policy will they be present at policy review to be a part of this conversation does anyone typically when we have policies regarding a particular topic those that are in central office that are involved in that are at policy review so I would assume because I would I would love to hear from some of them as to to why these books are in our schools and why they're Chosen and and all of that I'm I'm not a librarian or did not go to school for education so I'm
041not going to claim to have that um information um so is this something that we would just push to policy review is there some sort of timely manner where we need this to be done this week if you don't mind miss someone I'm like Miss Hornet is the one who brought it any particular reason why we brought it now sure yeah I would be happy to address that you know for one thing I mean I we have been talking about this since October November so so this is not a new conversation so um so the reason I think that we need to address it now versus later if and and frankly I would like to see us approve this on first read and forego a second reading so that at least our Librarians know that
042this is this is the policy it highlights a change to our policy and then if we if we need to um go further in policy then certainly we can do that um at the June policy review and review that in in July um so that's that's my preference I think that I think this is an important topic I think it's important that we be clear on it and I think it's important that Librarians know now rather than pushing it down the road another four five six weeks if they're ordering books it would be helpful for them to make sure the reviewing those now based on based on policy um I think our policy already includes this but I don't I think that obviously it's we need some clarification so the clarification needs to be there
043in my opinion regardless of the law I was planning to bring this you know regardless of the fact that there's an update to the to the to the statute so so for those reasons I would prefer that we go ahead and approve it um and you know like I said on first read so so that it's in policy and then if we need to address it further on we can do that thank you Miss bike did you have anything to add to that yeah I just wondered if we need to Define define any of these or are they already defined in law um like sex acts sexual activity is is there any sort of specificity there or is it just anything visual so so it's images so it's visual like one of the um emails
044I think we all got today they brought up kissing as some people Define that as a sexual act are we including that not to my knowledge no is does that need to be put in there because I would also hate for our Librarians to order something thinking that they were in line with this and then it would turn out to not be in line with this further clarification could be added um we could use language that calls out particular sex acts I mean I don't want to do that but but I I want I do I think it would be good something some other guidance so that you know our people choosing the books are not getting in trouble missen thank you um our policy policy is that changes should go through policy review first
045and I think that's a really important policy because that gives us an opportunity to discuss and find a lot of things that we might not otherwise notice for example the change to um i211 is in a paragraph regarding that the director of schools will establish an administrative procedure etc etc any material containing images on and on shall be excluded if I am a librarian reading this paragraph that says that material containing images depicting a sex act act shall be excluded from this procedure not excluded from the library not excluded from a school not excluded from being checked out that that says that we are going to go through this process particular attention will be paid to addressing the suitability and age appropriateness of the instructional material but if it dep depicts the sex act that's
046excluded that's what that says so before we um jump into quickly to approve something we need to be really clear about our intent and what it actually says if I'm an English teacher which I am and if I am a librarian which I'm not if I'm reading that paragraph we're talking about the administrative procedure and we are talking about the attention being paid to those materials and we're saying that the ones that we consider most concerning are the ones that are excluded thank you the fact that we even have to have this discussion makes me sick just G to be honest with you the fact that we are at the point in our world and our society and our schools that there are these books are are in our system that we have to have
047a discussion to create a policy to keep them out just seems absolutely ridiculous that we are here having this discussion that it's even like an option or a thought that somebody's going to put these in the school like it just just absolutely just blows my mind that we're even have have to have this discussion um but I I think making it very clear now not waiting Mr dupler can dive into the gray aspects of it and figure out what the law says and bring further changes if he feels that necessary U but I feel I feel like this is a is a right move Mr Butler was next uh Mr Wilson do you have something to add if you don't mind Mr Butler before yeah just quickly the only thing I was going to add
048just from a from a Time sense um our Librarians obviously are off contract this summer um in terms of actions to be taken and things like that and then two normal timeline Sarah s is kind enough to text me during this uh for budgeting and those sorts of things is usually October when they receive those budgets so just in terms of like purchases being made Librarians working over the summer to do that type of thing um that's that we're kind of in a dead Peri period for that too so just wanted to add that to the conversation thank you Mr brother thank you uh that was uh somewhat what I was going to ask was what what was the time frame for the Librarians uh duties and so that kind of takes us back and
049then also the students won't be back before July and uh when is the policy review for July well it is June 28th would we have policy available for this by then yeah for that law you would already have that ready to go even though the law doesn't go into effect till July 1st okay so I think that policy review and and I'm not disagreeing with the reasons that you want to bring it and also for the reasons that we need to have the clarity I I do agree that talking about a lot of issues we talk about uh takes us out of our comfort zone but live in a world that you watch the news it takes you out of your comfort zone so I I do think these are things we have to discuss
050and having the clarity I think is is is is most important especially for those who have to do the job so they don't have to guess whether or second guess or third guest themselves so and I think that the polish review would give us the time to make the sufficient effort to really come up with something and at that time if we need to pass it on first first read we we can but uh but I do think we need to really spend time getting it right so that there's not any type of questions that we have to come back and examine because Mr triplet I don't want to have this discussion again and we've been having it for a while so I think it's time for us to put it to bed but let's
051put it to bed the right way thank you Miss Owen thank you um I would guess that tsba would give us some kind of model policy sometime in July probably um I I think we would be wise to look at that at least for consideration but I also want to note that in i212 we have the same language issue my mouse just quit moving um oh there it goes um and I'm going to paraphrase a little bit and then I'll just say the rest if upon reconsideration so this is the reconsideration section if upon reconsideration the material is determined to be inappropriate for the age and maturity level of the students Etc um the school shall remove the material from student access in the collection or grade level for which it has been deemed inappropriate
052any material containing images depicting a sex act or sexual activity shall be excluded so shall be excluded from being removed I I think if we want this to say what we're discussing and if we want it to be consistent with the law then we need to make sure that that is in a paragraph where it says what we intended to say Thank you Mr dupler I was just going to say since Miss Owen has this concern I mean the simple fix would be to add excluded from the school's collection on the end of the sentence and then that would remove any type of ambiguity uh as far as tsba is concerned I don't know when they're going to come out with a model policy and and you know that would that would likely need to
053be you know worked out with them so okay Miss yes thank you I was going to actually make the same suggestion on 211 that um I think the the the purpose was to clarify what comes prior to that where it says sexually explicit you could even remove the parag the parentheses and then um an add um from classroom libraries or me and media centers or whatever you just said um to make it clear and then and I and I first of all Miss Owen I appreciate you raising the concern because I want I do want to make sure that it's clear and it's correct um in 212 I think this the um added sentence could be moved probably up to number one um where it says whether the materials are appropriate for the age and
054maturity levels of the students who may have access that's um that new sentence could actually just be added to number one which would make it clear so I can make that um so I would say we could we could make that change but that would be much more clear so I appreciate you bringing that Clarity to that any more discussion all right item 8 A or B C or D e or F nine A or B C or D regular agenda items 10 A or B A sorry go ahead 10 a is that will R yes ma'am um yeah I have a question on um 10 a let me pull that up so sorry I had already closed it um basically that 430 million I think that was on the detail for special education um
055I've had several inquiries about this over the past few months and I know we've kind of gone back and forth what was it million or is it thousand thousand sorry a lot of numbers today um four uh so it says under program designation it's uh it's the second one it's special education support um Services other 430,000 and it's special education training um do we have any more information on exactly what that is if that is an RFP process what services those are and all from there miss H thank you Vice chair Mr triplet Miss bike I I I'll take the first part of that and then um Dr Brown has more information so you correct that for the 430,000 it's in special education Support Services other and special education training which is the same thing
056that we told the board back in April the special education training um Dr Brown has informed us that that is an error that should be special education outside Services instead of training um for the $430,000 um so that's a slight change um to this fund balance designation but I'll let Dr Brown answer your second question about the RFP Dr Brown M bike I I just responded to your email a little while ago giving you the answer but that's okay everybody deserves the answer too um so and I will admit I think there's been a lot of confusion in this process um and obviously we've we've batted around some ideas and and U and some explanations and and I think we've hit all over it but um I talked to Dr ly today to get clarification
057because even I have probably misinformed some people uh I understood it to be some trainings that we had but actually that training money is coming out of our Ida budget which is not this is not a part of um so this money actually is money that is a budgetary requirement and so uh when an IEP team meets there are times that uh the team will decide that the student needs a certain level of services so labeling it as other services is correct um so for example um you you know a child comes in and you're doing an evaluation and the parents don't agree with the results they can request an independent educational evaluation and so at that point in time that we would have to pay an outside vendor to do that evaluation that's what
058this money is for additionally you may at an IP meeting determine that a student needs some other level of service which is not so common that we would provide it internally like for example uh we we employ our own occupational therapists physical therapists speech therapists all of those things would be Services we could provide but say for example it was determined that a student needed Music Services or music therapy we don't that's not common so we don't do that so the whole purpose of this line item is to ensure that we can provide the Continuum of services through special education so it could be you know music therapy it could be that independent evaluation it could be a residential placement we would you know if the team decided that those were the appropriate services for
059that child's education then we have to pay for that so if we don't have this line item in the budget um then we would be predetermining that we could not provide services for a child um which you know we we cannot do um and and again this this is not something that should be a fund balance transfer and uh and I will just say in the in the transition uh of me into this position I don't know why that was neglected from the budget but moving forward this really is a budget line item that we are required to have each and every year for that reason we have to be able to show that we can provide services outside of those um that we can provide internally so that's why this that's the that's the
060reason for this and moving forward it should not be a fund balance transfer okay so next year it'll be in our general it should be and and I I think in previous years it probably was uh the timing this year with uh the transition of Mr Myers leaving and me stepping into this position somehow that fell through the crack so um I'll take ownership because it's my budget now but moving forward this will not be a uh it would not be a fund balance request this will this should be a regular budget line item do you know how the total was come up with the 430,000 I don't um I can ask that that's the the request came directly from Dr ly so I would assume that it comes from previous years and um you
061know looking at the potential for you know what is the cost of of things like U residential placement have we historically had to pay for again it's an estimate and if this money is not spent then it would roll back into fund balance obviously uh but but that's you know that's it we have to have a an amount available so that we can provide those Services if need be um I I would love to know at a future date um you know how that total was come come to and then um also and I understand that there are Services um and and all of those things that you know we don't employ those people on a regular basis but are there any sort of guidelines guard rails or anything like where like it's yes this
062but no definitely not that I'd love to know those things at some point too okay yeah I I I would say that again the the whole purpose of this is just to provide the funding for whatever decision that the IEP team agrees upon so you know at that point if if the team agrees that services are needed then this is how we would pay for it okay um I you know yes I'm sure there are limitations we can't you know provide somebody with a new car um that wouldn't be necessary but any necessary servic wouldn't recomend no I again and obviously that was a yeah okay extreme example yeah thank you yep miss Helen thank you um could we get an updated document maybe attached to the agenda so we can make sure that that's
063accurate thank you all right item 10B any other discussion all right there is no public forum so we will move to board forum and Celeste your last work session right and uh we've been thrilled to have you anything Mr Butler I just want to thank our superintendent for attending all of the graduations and I want to thank all of the uh principls and staff for doing such a wonderful job uh and then congratulate all of our students and wish them well and pray for wise thinking along the way thank you Miss Owen Miss Spike thank you um definitely happy graduation to all of our graduates and Celeste and thank you for attending all of them I got to attend a few of them and it's very exciting to shake all of their hands and see
064all the different personalities that we're putting out into the world it's very exciting um but also we're in June already which is kind of crazy but that comes with uh a couple different celebrations this month besides my daughter's birthday um juneth is something is a that we're celebrating this month is a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States the name juneth reference referen references the date of the holiday combining the words June and 19th on January 1 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation um but uh the slaves were not actually freed um until Freedom finally came June 19th 1865 so a few years and um I hope that everyone celebrates this day no matter how it touches you and then um also it's pride month so happy pride month uh
065the concept of Pride began with the Stonewall riots a series of riots for Gay Liberation that took place over several days beginning on June 28th 1969 happy Pride Miss Horn thank you I would join in thanking the superintendent for attending all those graduations and uh they were extremely well done and and it's always a fun fun thing that's my most favorite thing we get to do as board members um and then also congratulations to all the teams that Dr riswick read in the beginning that's a lot of representation at the state championship we just kept getting notification after notification of all the wins and I'm sure that um there were a lot of people and that were not real happy with Knox County because they just kept hearing Knox County so I was very proud
066of that and congratulations to the faragate baseball team Mr Wright also wanted to add to that uh what you said earlier um with the Gibbs High School girls softball team that was their 11th state championship but I want to also commend the runner up which was Carter High School so it was a district 8 battle in the uh class 3A girls soft uh also on a lot of your teams too there were some track state champions too probably too many to list but lots and lots of those to to add to that list M Christie what a great problem for the eth district to have right playing each other in the the championship game um and yeah just to piggyback um thank you Dr riswick for graduations well done and thank thank you for holding
067umbrellas I'm sure your arm got really tired um at least one of those nights and also thanks to our regional teams I know they do a whole lot of behind the scene work to make those graduations happen at football fields and you don't see them on the stage but but they're there and Carly and her team yes and you know just thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make that happen um and again you kind of took a the wind out of ourselves but congratulations to the southw soccer team um we are still celebrating in South Knoxville um even today and also I would just like to um recognize and thank Emerald Youth Foundation because a lot of times these things can't happen without our Partnerships and they did literally help us bring the
068trophy back to South Knoxville as they provided transportation for us so um I do appreciate our partnership with them and and the work they do to to help our students and schools as well thank you Miss Christie and with that meeting is adjourned [Applause]