001e get started welcome to the board of education's December 4th 2023 work session please stand as we observe a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Miss Christie face the flag pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for IT stand One Nation God indivisible andice for all I'd like to recognize the elected officials out in our audience today we have commissioner lson Jay Welcome to our meeting tonight uh board members thank you to all of you who attended Friday's policy review meeting our next policy review is scheduled for Friday January 19th at 10:00 a.m. in the Summer Place community room which is just that room g410 in the building also just to note Mr McMillan will be absent tonight due to
002illness uh thank you to everyone else who is in attendance tonight I just want to remind you that this is the board's public business meeting to discuss items that come before us for consideration we would ask that you be respectful and courteous at all times and also please be mindful that the sound does carry in this room pretty easily so if you need to speak to your neighbor or take a call we just ask that you take those out outside of this room so thank you are there any requested changes to the meeting agenda do we have a motion to approve okay a motion by Miss Horn a second by Mr Watson any discussion all those in favor I opposed motion carries Dr risewick thank you madam chair members of the board uh thank you
003for the chance to give a few updates it seems like my updates get longer and longer so I apologize for that but um I'd like to start by highlighting our principal for a Day event that took place on November the 16th uh this year we had 152 leaders throughout our community that participated in the event these Community leaders represent countless businesses and organizations throughout Knox County we know that their time is tremendously valuable and we want to thank everyone who participated and chose to spend the morning with a principal shadowing their day uh we're always grateful for the opportunity to share and work with the community and I'm equally grateful for the feedback that our principles for today share with us uh regarding their experiences uh that really is a neat event where I think
004it's kind of eye opening to just what happens in a school every day um and so we enjoyed being at that lunch as well uh next I'd like to address an issue that's been a topic of conversation actually here and also across our country uh within the last month uh we've received some inquiries regarding library book challenges uh and this is not something that comes up every year so uh if you'll bear with me I kind of want to walk through just for the public kind of what that process is um first I just want to be clear that these questions are related to books that were available in school libraries not books that were being used for classroom instruction uh last week uh as Miss uh Henderson just mentioned uh that we were able
005to discuss this topic in our policy review uh meeting so I appreciate the board for raising very thoughtful questions and for engaging in the open and constructive dialogue uh because it is you know some a lot of these issues that we deal with and you all help us deal with are really gray so thank you for that also want the community to know that we do have a process for challenging library books and it's a process that I feel has served us well over the years uh again these things are never easy um but it's also important that we have processes to be able to address those so for those of you in the community who may not be familiar with our process library book challenges begin at the school level challenges can be submitted
006by a KCs student a KCs parent or guardian or a KCs staff member uh this is an important element of the challenge process as it focuses decisions closest to the school and we've talked a lot about that we really believe that you know our community is large vast has a lot of different beliefs and values uh and a lots of times the closest we can get to the school to make those decisions matter so that's where this policy begins um beginning with localized decision- making is a is a critical step in accounting for The Unique values and interests of each School District uh students parents and staff who want to formally request a removal of a book from the school library can submit a form and the form number is mc14 14 uh and that
007goes to Dr Phillips our executive director of literacy and learning uh and this form is available on the KCs website under our forms page so you can find it there and fill it out uh once a formal request uh for removal has been made Dr Phillips works with the school where the request originated and establishes a Review Committee in accordance with KCs administrative procedure I 2112 or excuse me 2112 i212 uh this school level committee will consist of this is laid out in the procedure um a certified School librarian classroom teachers and it could be more than one certified School librarian classroom teachers parents and students uh and they are charged with reading the material in its entirety reviewing the general acceptance of the material by uh reading recognized and evaluative reviews determining the extent
008to which the material supports the curriculum judging the material for its strength and value and making a recommendation to the school principle uh if the complaint and requests further review after the school level decision made is made they can make that appeal to me the superintendent at that time I would form a district level committee to conduct a second review uh of the book using the committee's recommendation I would then make a recommendation to the board regarding that request and the final decision would rest with the board so there is an appeal process that could go to a district level uh and then we'd make we bring that uh to you all the board uh I do want to add two notes in relation to this process first our school librarians are routinely re reviewing
009and evaluating their Collections and they often remove books from circulation if they no longer fit the needs uh of their intended audience and second uh books that are under review do remain in circulation until the reconsideration process has concluded uh that's laid out in our policy so in short just really wanted folks to be able to understand because we don't deal with this every day that it's a very comprehensive and I believe very effective process uh for us to be able to get that done in some cases we actually have removed the books from the library uh on these challenges and others the books have remained uh but in every case we will continue to take these challenges seriously and conduct thorough reviews uh when the issue is warranted um next I'd like to invite
010our assistant superintendent of Student Success Jason Myers to the microphone to provide an update on the Student Success Deep dive specifically with reg regard to special education improvements thank you Dr riswick I'm happy to provide an update for the board here leading up to our presentation in January on November 27th we've held the first meetings for both the special education Council and the Student Success Leadership Council as I mentioned last month each member of the task force was invited to be a part of the special education Council I'm thankful for the opportunity to engage with our former task force members I can share that this has already been a valuable opportunity to hear about their experiences navigating special education and what motivates them to engage in this work as a reminder I tasked the Student
011Success Leadership Council with identifying opportunities for Meaningful improvements in all areas of Student Success the special education Council will provide critical feedback and serve as a sounding board for our continuous Improvement efforts in special education specifically I am thankful to the members of each group for their commitment to this important project each Council will meet again on December 13th I also want to update the board on the ESS contract to date our special education staff and Human Resources have worked with ESS to fill approximately 30 ta vacancies in our district I want to express my gratitude to the special education t Force the board and Dr riswick for their support of this contract finally I'm excited to announce that we have hired our Student Success advisor and Improvement officer Chelsea price Miss price has already
012hit the ground running and is having uh providing important insight into our change process in special education in her role Miss price will be responsible for looking at Best Practices and always with an eye toward continuous Improvement and the quality of our student and family experience Miss price is unable to be with us tonight as she is attending a legal conference I want to thank the task force the board and Dr riswick for supporting the development of this new position Dr riswick that concludes my update thank you Mr Myers and and uh very excited I know I've had a lot of conversations with Jason as he's thinking through how we can be better and I think we're starting to take some of those action steps toward that and uh reconvening the Task Force and and
013and building these structures for the future so that we can uh vet through those and then also hiring of Miss price um got to talk to her a few times very much uh ready to do this work and excited about it she did mention there's a lot of acronyms in education uh which we said yes you'll get used to them uh but anyway so thank you Jason uh finally I'd like to direct your attention to the KCs annual report that's on your desk uh this is the first time that KS has produced an annual report to our knowledge uh and we're very hopeful that will be a valuable way to provide transpar transparency and openness not only to the board but also for our community more broadly uh in it you'll find the results of
014our progress made toward the objectives in the 2022 23 annual plan as well as reports about our work over the past year and a look ahead to our continuous Improvement efforts the KCs annual report is also available on our website and I would encourage anyone who's interested in learning more about our work to read it uh you can access the report at knoxschools.org uh and I would like to say a special uh thank you to our Communications team this was a lot to put together uh but we understand that being transparent and telling our story really matters um and so I want to thank them for that also our Rea team that pulled a lot of data together to make this happen so a lot of inter the strategy Division and we're thankful for the
015work that's done there so uh Madam chair that concludes my report for the evening thank you Dr riswick I'm excited about this um annual report thank you for putting that together and to all the staff who made it happen and thank you for those reports I know a lot of parents have reached out to me on both of those topics so I appreciate appreciate those uh next we have Mr Taylor from Knox Ed Foundation he's going to give us an update um on the play Space fund welcome Mike thank you thank you for opportunity to be here with you this evening and uh share some information with you but I'm excited to share that today at Fountain City Elementary School uh the noox Education Foundation officially announced the launch of the place Spas fund uh
016the place space fund is a public private partnership established to provide funding to address the inconsistencies and play spaces across schools and KNX County the launch of the fund provides for a standard of quality of play spaces throughout the district KF worked with uh the Knox County Schools playground team to identify the standard for school playgrounds taking into account factors such as the school size the student population whether a prek is located on site Ada needs um and the available playground space uh on the school campus leveraging the combination of public and private contributions the place based fund seeks to reduce the burden of individual School Place space funding while ensuring that play spaces throughout the district meet the standard of each school um in phase one of the play Space which was uh fund
017which was announced today there are 11 playgrounds at seven schools that will be funded and uh those schools include Bel Morris Elementary School Fountain City Elementary School Fair Garden Early Learning Center Knoxville adaptive education center Sarah Moore Green Elementary Spring Hill Elementary and West Haven element entry uh the schools support in the first phase were determined to have the highest need based on review by a certified playground uh inspector uh I also want to thank the school board for your leadership and commitment to this effort um your initial contribution of $250,000 was the lead gift that helped kick the the place based fund off and and your support will have a Hu a huge impact and has been instrumental and helping leverage additional Community Support uh for the fund approximately $4.5 million is needed to
018standardize play spaces across the district KF has secured a portion of the funding and is launching today with the announcement of the fundraising campaign to raise the remaining $2.3 million needed by the 2026 2027 school year and we're asking the community to help us reach that goal by making a contribution to the fund and I wanted to say we're excited about this partnership with KCs and look forward to continuing to support uh additional schools with you beyond phase one um and there's additional information about the place space fund available on our website um and I know it's great to see a number of you uh at Fountain City this morning for part of that uh for the kickoff but I'll I'll pause you may have questions but I wanted to give some background and information
019about the fund and share that uh with folks and then see if you you had specific questions does anybody have any questions for Mike we're an easy bench tonight there you go all right thank you very much I appreciate it Mr Watson no questions but uh Mr Taylor I mean we got to give a shout out I mean we just we really appreciate you and the leadership um of the foundation uh commissioner Jay um I know he been a been helping spearhead this and to already come to us with half of that money committed uh we're just extremely grateful and I know quite a few of us got to go to the event today and um it was interesting watching the reveal of each of the seven uh schools and the kids that were there
020from Fountain City you know they OED when it was there as first and then I I kept hearing them say oo I think I like that one better o I think I like that one better right like kids I mean they they get it right and they're all about it and so that's uh that was enough for me just seeing seeing their response today so appreciate you and and the leadership of the of the foundation thank you thank you we're excited to be a part of thank you I agree thank you Mike thank you next Miss Nixon is is going to give us an update and talk to us about uh the academic support updates for the charter schools welcome Teresa thank you good evening Madame chair Dr riswick members of the board thank you
021for giving me the opportunity um to share with you a little update um on some different items that you will see on your agenda for this month um I believe you probably remember back in September I gave you all this kind of one sheeter on um charter schools and if you want another copy I did bring extras if anybody wants one a teacher's always prepared right um but the way I thought this would be important is for us to continue to talk about this and Charter work in these three kind of categories so that it makes sense that when I show back up I can say hi we're here talking about the application section hi this part is about opening and monitoring and this is us as an authorizer because there are components that happen
022all year long but we've also discussed that maybe what we would like to do is come to you at different times and kind of to um as I've found in the last four and a half months there are a lot of pieces and parts to this um work and so we're going to start with the application process all I did was legitimately take what was on here and kind of give a timeline um so as you can see that currently um on our website we have our request for proposals we put that up every year um by KCs all letters of intent are due on December 3rd unless that happens on a non-b business day and then it's the next business day um which happens to be today and I'm sure some of you are
023probably saying oh did we get anything um technically they still have until 11:59 tonight Central Standard Time to turn it in which I may say set my alarm for 12:59 to wake up and check but late in the afternoon like right before I walked over here we did get one letter that was sent to our Charter authorizing um we have an email address as well I have not had the opportunity to dig into it but there has been an expressed interest and I will be able to look at that more um tomorrow um applications are submitted in February what I am here to talk to you about is um the charter review committee um I'm going to talk about that a little bit more on the next slide but that's going to be one of
024the items on the agenda tonight I know we have said that we have a charter Review Committee and it's I think it's been attached just to applications only but as we were going through our authorizing I realized that if any of our Charter Schools want to change their Charter for any reason we are supposed to have a Review Committee that is to review and look at the amendments so that Charter Review Committee role would be yes applications but also expanded to amendments and now that we're entering into our ninth year with Emerald would be working with renewals as well so my plan moving forward is that every year I would be bringing to you a charter Review Committee that would be for that calendar year so this one is for the 2024 calendar year that
025would address any of the three items that would show up whether it's the application an amendment or a renewal um when we do have an application it would be similar most of you all went through this last year where there is the written application with the state that goes against a state rubric and capacity interviews and then you can see the remainder of the application timeline with recommendations and a board decision usually in March or April what's on the board agenda tonight as item 9B is that list of Charter Review Committee um that is in accordance to our KC uh KCs board policy um i450 and that actually outlines members of different departments parent members Etc within Knox County and so I have um submitted to Dr riswick and team as well as to you
026that list of charter members um as you look at you will see there is not only the memo but I did take time to just put a second page that was a graph that legitimately took those board roles and kind of marked off why they were on that committee um some I wanted you to see had participated previously so we have some returning my hope is that it becomes a cycle so that we have some that are returning and some that are new and then I also added on their school district because I felt it was really important to balance representation across all the districts um additionally I asked everybody as they were completing a form for me to State what of the different organizational legal um Human Resources Financial experience they had as well
027as if they were a parent because those of you that sit on the board now you're here as a board member but you're also here as a parent you don't take that hat off so feel like they get to serve in both roles so if anybody has any questions about the charter Review Committee I'm happy to address any of that at this time are there any questions at this time oh miss bike um I just want to thank you for putting this all out there and really taking the time to make sure that you're covering all the spaces um this makes me feel better about that this year than last year so thank you thank you I had too many things for this little area so I'm the other two items that are on here
028are in the open and monitor section um one being the noox prep agreement you can see I kind of put made them yellow in the little you are here um logo um that will be on nox prep obviously we have not completed any of the other items that's going to be on um the discussion for tonight as well and then you will see also in the emerald work they already obviously have their agreement you can see that we continue their check-ins monthly support Etc they've done their fiveyear review and they will be up for a 10year renewal next year um so the two items in particular tonight are 9C um which is the agreement with Knox prep we approved their application on April 27th and um our next step is to find finalize that agreement
029to outline our working expectations um in the previous slide you saw there where it says within six months this these are just authorizing standards that are recommended that we complete an agreement um I think due to the transition Etc I mean we're not going to get a fine there's nothing like that but due to the transition I will be more knowledgeable um in the next round um to be able to ensure that we get that agreement and hopefully we've worked really hard on getting this one in a better place so that um we'll be able to use that as well um the other portion of the um open and monitor that we have with Emerald is the performance review now that's going to be item n9a the reason that is on there is in the
030agreement in section 1.4 it states that every year we will be bringing at least annually a report to the board to talk about the performance both or across academics organization and fiscally and so that then comes to you all the board voted in November of 2018 for this framework to be used that is being shared tonight so I'm going to go ahead and kind of do this in reverse order does anybody have any questions about the emerald performance review and I'm also going to ask Ron to step up and talk about a little bit of the fiscal part as well thanks TR yeah just just one thing that I we would like to bring to the board's attention so on the uh performance uh review that Teresa mentioned with Emerald um all of their metrics
031they get a meat we we scored them as meat standard if you if you go back and actually look at their um uh their their operating statement their Financial reports as of June 30 and you try to crosswalk that back there's a couple of metrics where you look at you go gee this doesn't seem like they met the standard what's going on um so what happened is Emerald spent some dollars a considerable amount of dollars out of the reserve for Capital needs waiting for eser3 waiting for the state to actually reimburse for that so what happens is there was a timing difference and we we didn't feel like it was it was right to penalize them for something that they really had no control over right so they have plenty of resources Emerald is really
032strong financially their their current assets is something like 35 times more than their current liabilities they have a they still have a healthy like if you look at their cash today it's like more than 60 days if you look at they've got a$1 million doll line of credit they don't even tap into so they have plenty of resources but if you went back and just did the math and it could lead you to some erroneous conclusions that's kind of the the downsides if you just look at a couple of metrics and you don't look at the full picture it can give you the wrong impression so we just felt like it you know it wouldn't be fair to to to score them lower on something that they have no control over as they a wait
033for those those funds have come in and have been replenished um so anyway um they're they're they're in good shape financially we just wanted to be really transparent that if any board member uh kind of if they went back and looked at financials and tried to crosswalk it back you kind of wait a minute what's going on here so that's the only thing we just want to bring that to your attention okay thanks I appreciate that thank you any other questions about the emerald performance framework no okay okay and then I I'm looking at Gary dupler to see I don't know if we want to entertain questions now about the agreement or if we prefer to wait until later in the meeting I mean I'm done with that yeah well uh thank you Teresa but
034I think that would be more up to miss Owen I I believe she's she's provided some um some questions and some and revision to talk about you maybe some Revis portions of the contract but I I think did we want to talk about that later all right yeah that works go ahead that works yeah okay so at your seat you should have um a copy of the charter agreement that has some red lines and I want to be very clear that these are not all my revisions so as I I'm going to try to go through kind of quickly and let you know which are mine and which are not mine some of them are were made by staff as a result of questions that I ask so therefore they made me do it so
035um as I was going through looking at different things I'm going to try to do the red lines that you have and my questions at the same time in the opening paragraph where it says governing body in line six of the charter agreement there was it was defined further down in the agreement and it I think it made it confusing and so um I just asked for for a definition to be scooched up into there and so that is right around the middle of the paragraph where after governing body it says in parenthesis the board of directors of Knoxville Preparatory School um and then further down this document requires as part of this document it says throughout it that the original application is to be attached and when we got this last month the original
036application was not attached that was not actually attached in until today and so that is something that I asked for and it is listed there as exhibit one and the staff has pulled out the others and listed them as Exhibit 2 and three and those are also listed in the agenda so if anyone wants to refer back to any of those those are all there now um when we get to the next page there were several legal references that went back and forth between whether they were listed as title and then chapter and then part or whether it said t AA number number number and so I I thought it made it really confusing going back and forth between there because a lot of them some of them are the same thing it made a
037lot easier to see when they were all in the same format so that is a change I ask for um something that I have asked about but that I think we would need to discuss a little bit is further down in 1.1 any future waiver requests shall be approved d by the KC booe so it says that any requests that have already been done have been approved but I I think it helps to be clear that if they're going to make a waiver request that it should be approved Jennifer can I speak to that real quick is that all right sure Mr dup is that different from the like what we do with emerald and does that create something some sort of problem with them or is that like it's a change that now requires
038them to come to us maybe in a way they Emerald did not yes thank you Mr shiplet I think you know and I wanted I wanted Miss Owen to kind of go through you know the changes I but I I guess to and I hate to jump ahead but uh but I guess I will um you know a lot of these changes that she's suggesting I believe are are kind of a cleanup type of thing you know certainly with the TCA and things like that um I can't speak for Knox prep but you know knowing they're attorney I wouldn't think there'd be any objection to those types of things uh but when it comes to uh you know the end of 1.1 on page two and I kind of highlighted a couple others on page
039three and Page uh six maybe uh hold on well four we can talk about but uh no eight uh so so on those pages I would certainly think that um that Knox prep and and and their attorney Chris mccardy would want to take a look at that and and my suggestion would be if there's no objection from the board members tonight I could I could take this back to KNX prep um and and and hopefully I mean knock on would have an answer by Thursday uh but but I I would like for them to take a look at this to to see if they have any objections yeah go okay shall I go on oh Mr Watson thank you madam chair um related to 1.1 um is that a role and a function of an
040authorizer after the initial contract is put into place I mean can we technically approve future waivers is that our place to do that question Mr digler do you know the answer I mean I don't know if we really have any authority to do that I guess that's the question that's a good question so the um what they mostly recommend is allowing the schools to go directly to the state for waivers and then informing us and allowing the state to determine the waivers if we decide that we need to be the approver of the waivers then we do then have to pass that along to the state so it's it's possible it's not common practice it is not common practice correct thank you I would also be be okay with language there that said something to
041the effect that we would be informed when a waiver was requested and um an example I would give there is that recently when we were discussing waivers this board was told that um that our other charter school had not requested any waivers but that wasn't accurate so as long as there is language that ensures that this board is aware of any waivers that are being made either way I felt that language to say that we approved it would more greatly ensure that we were aware but I'm fine with language that says that we have to be made aware so either way is good with me so the next thing is in 1.5 which is on page three and it said that the Charter School is located temporarily at n uh 967 Irwin Street and staff
042went ahead and made that change and I said I don't want that to look like that's my change because I don't have any authority to make that change so it's my understanding that it is temporarily there however in our initial application we were told temporarily so now we're being told permanently and a lot of things change with that new permanence um it changes where we believed the location was eventually going to be because I think there was some discussion when they brought the application that it could be um closer to where the Beardsley used to be um having this school as a permanent location from all reports that I've been privy to it's my understanding that this would also change the relationship with the boys and girls club because previously we were told that the
043school would be there during the day and then in the afternoon it would be the boys and girls club we are now hearing that the Boys and Girls Club is going to put push out into the schools which is also going to raise our expenses and that this will be a permanent location for the charter school that's also a concern for folks because there's also a swimming pool at the charter school and I question whether having a CH a swimming pool if that's going to be part of their school or not and if that's going to cause a disparity when we have an all boy school that has access to a swimming pool and we have no other school with that kind of access so all of those questions kind of go along with that
044temporarily so I I think we need some answers to some of those if we could find any of that out do you know any of that I do I had the opportunity to go um to their board retreat where they were talking about this um they um have a three-year lease to purchase with a plan to purchase of this so it is not officially theirs until it is fully purchased at the end of three years they are not planning to use the pool at all okay even fill it with any water is what they stated at their board retreat so the pool won't be used by anybody no okay all right and once they own it I know they are going to be doing more Construction in different areas for things but they did not
045get into that those would be further out Capital plans for them thank you so we don't have to worry about a Title Nine issue there no Miss B had a question do you want to yeah I have a question on one one .5 um where it says um at the bottom of this page uh the charter school shall notify the chartering Authority at least 30 business days prior to such change of location uh 30 business days for a school change I guess it it says at least but to me it seems like it should be longer than that um is this standard that it's just 30 business [Music] days I don't know if that's a I don't know that's a legal reference I think it would be hard to move a school in 30 days
046yeah yeah I mean I mean I I don't know of any specific legal reference for that I think that's just what we had again this has been uh kind of synced with the old Emerald agreement too and trying to bring it up to date so so that's what was in place for emerald and it's just been kept yeah I think if we're going to if you're going to be taking it back to them that I might like to see this be 90 days if possible 90 business days Mr triplet I don't think we would have any authority to stop them from moving anyway is that correct I mean you know they give us 30 days I mean we are the authorizer a year five years or 15 minutes I mean they can you know I
047don't know we have any Authority anyway so when they it's good to be informed but I don't know that it matters from a I think I don't I don't know that the location would be you know topic of discussion I think I think more of the topic of discussion may be like what Miss Owen brought I mean you know does the facility meet the needs are they able to conduct School within a new facility so so I think that's probably the more relevant aspect of the of notification yeah and and just to let you all know too as part of our open and monitoring part we do meet monthly with the charter schools we also attend their board meetings so that we can stay aware of any of those types of that type of information
048because they would be talking about that much in advance of 30 well in advance of 30 days I would think yeah okay on to two all right oh go ahead I'm sorry yes uh just uh Mr triplet comment just to make sure I'm understanding so if we put something in the agreement you're saying we don't have a authority to enforce it is that what you're saying no I'm saying they can inform us but they add information we don't really do anything with that it was the question I was asking if they inform us 90 days are we going to stop them from moving because they you know if they inform Us in you know 10 days before they move you know what what do we do with that information does that do we are we
049changing anything because of that information is the question I was asking and if we're not then it really doesn't matter when they inform us and just to be clear I mean this Bo would have to approve the the change in location but again it would be more for are they able to provide the services that they claim to to want to provide yeah so that that was I want to make sure we're clear that if we put something here is here for a reason and not just for show that correct because I'm just confused by that comment no if you read the next sentence of Reverend Butler I mean it says the determination of such location shall be be subject to the approval of the chartering Authority so so we do have authority yeah okay
050just to make sure thank you okay so in 2.1 um this agreement says that they don't discriminate on the basis of sex but based on everything that we've been told that's not true because it's supposed to be an all boy School obviously um so my question is why would it say here that they don't discriminate on the basis of sex when we know that it's an all boy school so that seems conflicting um I've also asked several questions in the past that I don't have answers to yet that are related to this and how much funding we could potentially lose and so what I've asked and then I hope we can get by um Thursday maybe is that since we have made this decision to have this charter school as a whole I would think
051that that could potentially impact our federal funds things like Federal nutrition dollars Title One title two title three title four and all of those federal grants so I would like to know if this was found to be um a discriminatory School within KCs how that could impact our federal dollars and how much that impact would be and if there is actually a court precedent as I believe Mr mccardy claimed previously I'd like to kind of see that that would be great and then if we can go on to 2.4 Mr a question in relation to that thank you um Miss I think that's a a good point and I I appreciate pulling that out in terms of discrimination I know um in the organization that I oversee U we work with uh Federal entities including
052HUD and and we able to to discriminate in certain circumstances uh based on uh sex uh and so I think it is important for us to kind of nuance that and figure out is there is that such the case here because it would be probably not appropriate if we're saying they don't discriminate or they're saying they don't discriminate when they do based on the definition I I mean in the in the Nuance within the code um because again I've seen it in situations where depending on the circumstance you actually can discriminate and not lose those federal dollars um depending on what the situation is so and I'll add to that I was thinking that in the original application that sex was not listed but I haven't I haven't had a chance to look at that
053yet and Miss oh no go on and I was just going to add to this as well in um state board rule um D14 D 01-04 for enrollment section three set States a charter school May submit a charter school application that seeks to limit enrollment to a single sex as long as such enrollment proposal is in compliance with federal law um and that was revised June 2023 this summer thank you we haven't heard from Miss Christie Miss Christie I just have a question for Mr dupler because I know Title Nine came up um when we originally discussed this and it was my understanding if something happened where this was deemed a Title Nine issue that one possible solution would be closing the school right did I understand you correctly when you said that yes thank
054you Miss Christie thank you madam chair so so yes we discussed that during the time that the application was pending and uh their attorney did Chris mccardy did did provide some information uh what I mean what they're claiming is that um sort of like what Mr Watson's saying is that uh they're saying they're not discriminating but they're also saying that that there's an exception uh under under federal law as well as state law uh and then the then the discussion was well okay what if what if a problem arises what if what if there's a Court ruling what if there's an administrative decision from a you know from from a federal agency then at that point certainly uh closing the school would be would be an option that would have to be discussed so yes
055thanks Miss mik do you have a question for Miss Owen um I don't have a question for Miss Owen but I do have a question on 2.3 which might be before 2.5 but I'm okay wherever that needs to go go ahead um the cost for special education I reading through this um you know this bottom line here on this page for this paragraph says the charter school's financial obligation begins uh once a student has an IEP and this talks about the process and um child fine being responsible I'm really since this is a um a sixth through 12th grade school um and typically child find it seems like as for like entering Knox County Schools before kindergarten but I know has other things um what would that process look like if a student if they
056have a student that's in sixth or seventh grade and that doesn't have an IEP or 504 has not been identified but then the parent or someone is concerned and then brings that up to an s team what does that s team look like if they are not responsible financially because as I understand then their teachers would be in the Este team but would that be us what does that look like I would like to defer that to Jason Myers thinking Madam chair Miss B yeah so the um so the so the Este team piece of of our child found process the stam process is a is a KCs process so actually that part of the process the charter can handle however they want to uh our child find find obligation under the Ida is is
0573 through age 22 um so you'll see in the language here whereas it relates to identifying those students conducting those initial evaluations KCs that is a support KCs actually does provide so our school psychologists go in and do those initial evals in terms of the costs associated with uh determining a student eligible under the idea the charter is actually that is their responsibility they do get um they get services and they get some staffing for example uh at our current Charter School um and we would do the same with with the new Charter once it's approved uh they get support through professional learning they get support through our special education supervision uh Behavior Liaisons any of those things that would be typical of any other school uh in KCs as it relates to meeting the
058specific needs of of that student they are obligated to provide appropriate programming for that for any student with a disability uh so the example I always use is a really easy one if the charter school needed a ramp because a student in a wheelchair enrolled at that Charter School the charter school would need to build that ramp and they would absorb the costs for building that ramp we are not under any obligation to provide those services for the Charter School uh but we are there to support through positions that we have in our idea budget uh that is how we support the charter using those federal dollars so if a parent had a concern they would uh go to the school first or would they come to KCs first so so the process would start
059at the school so a parent could still go to the Charter School say hey I think my student uh may have a qualifying disability either under the idea or Section 504 uh the charter then follows their process we we conduct the evaluation our we use our resources to conduct the evaluation and um for that initial Este team meeting are any would any KCs employees be required to be in that that's really good question and unfortunately the answer is it would kind of depend on where they're at in that process right certainly if they are looking to get um permission to evaluate a child uh that school that school psychologist which would be a KCs employee should be in that meeting because that's the person who's going to be able to articulate to the family uh
060what sort of Assessments and what that process of evaluation looks like okay thank you Mr Watson thank you madam chair uh not to be a did horse but going back to 2.1 real quick um the school from what I remember is roughly 5 years old correct the chat prep version of KNX is that right five years old um you know the the point that's being brought up related to this is a is a potential Federal issue um do we know of any issues that they've had with the federal government in the past in Chattanooga they also have a a girl school that's all all girls so it's different no I I get that but they don't operate that and what I'm what I'm hearing you saying is that this particular school could is potentially discriminating
061scho District okay operates I got you it's a charter under the school district so your concern isn't with the individual School itself but you're talking about as an authorizing as as our school yeah I just wanted to clarify thank you that's my thinking um okay so I appreciate Miss bike's questions I had some similar ones that I asked several years ago and never got answered and I rolled those sort of into the next question which is about private and non-public schools so in 2.4 I just ask for some clarity about whether we actually meant private schools or whether we meant non-public schools which is the way it's written in law and so um I believe staff has changed that to non-public did we find that that's correct or okay so at some point not as
062part of this agreement but separate from this agreement I would like to see a total list of services that we provide to our non-public schools sort of enumerated to the board including any kind of estimated cost for staff time materials mileage the services we provide with Clarity around which of those Services we could be required to provide to nox prep or Emerald or any other charter school this is some information that I asked for several years ago about emerald and at the time I was basically told we have no idea how much time our staff spends there which is concerning to me if at that time we couldn't say how many hours we were sending staff to non-public schools um and it concerns me more now actually because I know that we have folks who
063are going into our schools and checking our teachers and making sure that every teacher on a hallway is saying the exact same words at the exact same time in their reading curriculum and if we can be that particular about our reading curriculum we should at least know where our staff is so that's uh something that I would like to see board members have access to that information at some point then the next thing um in school nutrition at the end there was a line that said the parties authorized their respective agents to execute anou and my question there was whether who would be executing thatou would it just be someone in Knox County Schools and someone with their schools creating anou that we would never see um so that has been taken out now so
064has that been discussed with them at all what's do we I mean I didn't take this out so okay in in our previous agreement with Emerald it was with the school Nutrition department as well as Knox County as well as with emerald and it was brought to the school board as a typical mou would be so the same thing would happen here I've talked to Miss Foster and she is in agreement with conversations around that in order to help ensure that we have the right Staffing and the right support if that is the need or the will of Knox Pratt to use so if they wanted to have anou with some other nutrition provider they would have to come back to us no they can make their own third- party agreement we would we would
065know about it we would be informed but we would not vote on it here okay so the second line where it says if mutually aged agreed upon the chartering Authority and the charter school may enter a separate mou so that is just with us and with our Nutrition department so that's the only part that has to be mutually agreed on is whether we do it with our folks and so they could do their own thing without our approval yes ma'am would we have information on what that agreement would be if they made a separate agreement would we see that agreement as the chartering Authority board know not necessarily um it would be public information from their governing board would vote on it so it should be public information there um but the same is with
066Transportation as well both School nutrition and transportation they have the opportunity to enter into their own agreement for for their own transportation or School nutrition okay but we would not vote on the particulars Mr duper I think did you have something to say oh I was just going to say I mean so I agree with with what Miss Tres Nixon is saying there but I was also going to clarify Miss ow and that I mean these these edits were were proposed edits uh you know in in answer to some of your questions and and of course Knox prep would need to weigh in on each of the edits so I mean that's so nothing's set in stone know yet I guess I just wanted to clarify that I just want to be clear to the
067board that these are not all mine um so that leads me to another Transportation question clarification please yes so on number five we have the line out red so if that is something that the staff is recommending or that something that Miss Owens is this is not mine that's not yours so the L out is that something that we that the board is considering that it's well I mean number five came out Miss Owen asked a question as to whether or not the board would would would be able to to approve a future mou but with the the last line in section five no the board would not have to to to to approve a potential new mou it would be done by uh KCs Administration so again I think the question is one does
068this board want to have to approve a future mou and two would Knox prep agree to that language so it's just a just a a proposed change I mean you know but again both sides both this board and Knox prep would have to agree to that change okay thank you okay in number six I have some questions about Transportation it says if the charter school elects to provide transportation we would have to provide them with the funds that would otherwise have been spent to provide transportation and I think there's otherwise is a problematic word there because those funds are not funds that would change if we are still running those buses okay 8.4 is a new subsection looks like it's before 8.3 though looks like that needs to be switched um my question in 8.2
069was why the reporting of the chartering Authority was under complaints and so there's now been a number added there but I think that number should be 83 and the next one should be 84 and if we go all the way down to 12.2 where we're talking about closure as Miss Christie talked about earlier closure and dissolution um I think I would like some clarity that says that if it is found to be a violation closure would occur so that there could not not be an instance where we would be required to open an additional school to make up for that disparity so I would like something that made that clearer thank you Mr triplet yes um so I I don't mind some of the cleanup changes but like the future waver requests I'm not sure
070I'm I'm approve that um and I would also disagree with um the number five the school nutrition the rest of it you know a lot of the cleanup I don't necessarily mind I did have one question about on U Mr dupler on page 10 it says the scheduling and posting is that something different I mean is that what they're supposed to do anyway that's yes that's according to the open meetings act that's that's that's supposed to be done anyway so again I would I would classify that more as some clarifying language so I you know again I don't mind the clarifying language I think that all make sense even the the TCA and all that kind of stuff in there but the future waiver in the school nutrition I think I would not prefer to
071be in there I don't know that I would I would vote that for that I would rather leave it as is so and I don't know how you handled that Mr dupler I mean we're not really voting on on what you send to them but at same time you know she may want one thing I may want something different I don't know how you handle what you give to them to review so I think I can I can certainly I mean I mean this this meeting's public record and I can I can communicate with with Knox prep's Council and say Hey you know these are these are some proposed changes I think I think you know he'll he'll see the same thing that I do that some of this is kind of clarifying language and
072and I don't expect too much push back on that but but they may have push back on some of these other changes that we're talking about we'll just I can just report that at the at the next meeting Miss hor thank you madam chair I I would agree on the um on 1.1 any future waiver request shall be approved I think that needs to match whatever we're doing with Emerald I don't think that it should be two different things so if Emerald if the if the request uh for waivers is going through the state I would think that that would be better for it to match and that we be informed I agree Mr Watson thank you madam chair um also 1.1 way in there um um Mr dupler I'd like to see um their
073board or their attorney um see both potential changes any future waiver request shall be approved Miss Owens suggested change or also the possibility of just them informing us um and I think I mean it sounds like what will happen is you'll go to them they're going to decide what they can agree to or not but then to your point Mr triplet ultimately on Thursday even if they agree to a change that doesn't mean we have to approve that change right because certainly they would also agree to keeping it the same because that's what they presented to us right so it's it's almost like they get first right a refusal and then we kind of get to take it up from there like what do you like what do you don't so yeah and I'd have
074to agree with Mr triplet um I'm fine with the you know kind of cleaning up and kind of clarifying some of the the TCA and things like that but in reference to the Future waivers nutrition I'm fine with the way it is and like Miss Horn said um I'm fine leaving it how it's also in the emerald contract so miss Nixon do you have anything else go on not on the agreement I do have one more slide but yeah not on the agreement I think this has been robustly talked about already Mr uh Reverend Butler yeah thank you madam chair uh and I don't have my comment is not based on any particular decision is more of I don't think the process should be that we do it because we did it with Emerald because
075Emerald may we have may have learned something for them and I would like for it to be we do it because that's the best efficient way for us to do it uh because I think that with Emerald uh there was some decisions made that we probably have already figured out that we need to do a little bit differently and we have and so I think that that would be that's my general statement that that that we in terms of the process we're not doing it because we did it with them we're doing it because it's more efficient thank you missen thank you m chair I think we need to clarify what we're talking about in number five School nutrition um because it was my understanding that staff took that out because they have the ability
076to do that with their board and so they took out the piece after I asked the question so I'm I'm not sure what we're disagreeing with there so their board can make the agreement do we need that that last section that says that we need anou Mr so so that was that was a recommended change because because M Miss Owen I think staff had a had a question as to whether or not you felt like future agreements needed to come before the board versus Administration that that line doesn't doesn't necessarily talk about outside agreements it talks about you know if there's some future agreement that that uh the charter school wants to make with KCs to and as it says redefine the obligations of the parties so that's what that Line's referring to and and
077if you're okay with that line then we can then we can leave it in I think if if their board is making that decision it doesn't matter either way I mean I mean we can leave that and and then that won't be I just want to understand whether whether they're they are making theou through just with us and with them or if they are making outside US I think that's not necessarily clear that they can make outside M us I mean it says that they can make anou with us but if they are going to do it with outside parties I think that needs to be somehow clearer because obviously if they can that language isn't there at all it doesn't talk about that specifically it talks about that it has to be pursuant to
078state law which so if they do an outside mou it has to be pursuant to those qualifications okay thank you okay moving on Miss Nixon thank you madam chair um the last little bit is the third bucket which is the authorizer column um just to remind you all that as an authorizer we are assessed yearly in this year we had the opportunity to submit all of our documentation to be reviewed by the state board then in the alternating years so next year um depending on Miss Madam chair Miss Henderson was with us on our preliminary report and I just want to make sure you all are aware that this will be presented to the State Board of Education on February 16th and they will talk to everyone and it will be posted on their website
079about us as an authorizer so that it is also us being evaluated and then depending on if we are satisfactory or above then we will do a self assessment next year if we are below then we have to um create a plan which I will not be creating a plan next year but we can't talk about what our public record is officially yet but miss Henderson was there with us and was able to represent you all as the board and I look forward to bringing that back to you all in February to inform you all about our Charter authorizing um and uh we plan to post this we're really working on beefing up our website so that it becomes a much more um robust place for people to find not only our schools but also
080our own information for transparency as well any questions about the authorizer evaluation Reverend Butler no I just have a comment uh from my uh neighborhood we had a game that I didn't do well in called Double Dutch it was jumping rope and uh I just want to commend you because you came in into the somewhat up the middle of this with the ropes already moving and you jumped in and you've double dutched Like A Champion so thank you so much for your thank you very much yeah I appreciate everything you do Miss Nixon thank you for that I just wanted oh go on no I didn't say anything oh no do you have more oh okay thank you for all you do and I just wanted to a point of clarification it was said a
081couple times in this conversation that you know this is a non-public school and that private private charter schools are not a thing in Tennessee the charter schools in Tennessee are public schools run by KCs so I just wanted to clarify that this is a public school in our district so okay moving on to leg ative update Mr triplet oh custodial update sorry I'm moving ahead Dr Adams thank you madam chair members of the board uh So currently out of our 398 positions we have 75 openings uh that leaves us at six schools that exceed 50% or more uh I will say on a on a good note uh we have filled 15 custodial positions uh since October uh just to put it in perspective we were at 90 vacancies and so we are now at
08275 I do want to recognize missor uh and uh our maintenance team especially Lorie Hall uh for working diligently to fill those positions um I know Miss Hall personally uh makes contact with all with majority of applicants we have and sits down with one individually with those applicants and goes over the the applicant application process so I certainly appreciate their efforts and also appreciate um the HR team for their enhanced digital advertising methods that they've been using that has been very beneficial uh we are currently planning to gather our entire custodial team uh and that will be once we return uh from um the the winter break um very excited uh for us to uh recognize those individuals uh that our custodial staff um is no secret to anyone they work extremely hard and they're
083invaluable and they're an intricate part of the way that we function on a day-to-day basis so we're looking forward to um convening when we return from break uh and recognizing those custodians that's something that is in the works and this is something that uh these are conversations I had with some of our custodians last year this is something that uh that they they wanted and this is you know when when we talk about our Ops Team across the board families is key and that's I use that I don't use that term loosely we spend uh more time with our um colleagues and we do with our family and so that is something that they were very interested in and so we were going to push to make that happen once we uh return I do
084want to um address what we are going to do in the future uh in the winter break despite our efforts uh we have a number of schools in need of uh additional support so we plan to use uh the winter to provide a deep clean uh which is a supplemental cleaning service U for our high need schools now keep in mind this is no different from what we do for for our information U technology and what we do for our maintenance department uh where we follow short uh we certainly reach out and use uh supplemented contracts uh to ensure our custodians are able to spend time with their families during Christmas uh or over during the holidays uh we want to ensure that uh they have that time so what we plan on doing is
085ex Expediting that process and working with Duncan and Suns and the reason we're using Duncan and Suns is because uh theyve already been vetted through the background um check process with with our with our HR department uh moving forward beyond that um uh you know while we are fortunate to be in a position of um relief for those six schools uh we have to address uh the ongoing concerns and so so we are prepared uh once we return from the winter break it is my goal to begin the process of opening an RFQ through the Knox County procurement to identify potential supplemental uh Services uh for a service provider uh starting that bidding process will assist us in identifying viable candidates to provide much needed supplemental cleaning services at schools that have vacancies at 50%
086or higher and so this is something for us to keep in our back pocket I I'm I'm very hopeful and optimistic uh that we are closing the Gap uh as as as you can see within a couple months we've hired 15 custodians and that has not been the norm uh looking at this last year when we were at 90 and we stayed in the 80s uh it's great to be in the 70s so uh that's where we are currently uh and if you have any additional questions uh please feel free to ask now or reach out to me directly thank you I appreciate that Dr Adams thank you uh Mr Watson thank you madam chair uh so Dr Adams the RFQ that you were talking about for additional supplemental support um that would be an
087addition to an ongoing contract with Duncan and Suns so are you looking at potentially having access to another provider similar to Duncan and Suns is that the is that the goal uh thank you Mr Watson that's an excellent question so we would not have a contract with Duncan the Suns like we had a contract before this would would we would be paying for a service so they would come in and they would do a service over the winter holidays and and and and and that I'm sorry I'm I'm actually asking about the last thing that you mentioned you mentioned coming back and having a new RFQ yes so the RFQ would be it would go through the bidding process and so we would if we needed to use a vendor uh we would identify a
088viable vendor to use as a for a contract so what you're saying is you we would potentially have access to more than just Duncan and Suns there may be another and and are you suggesting maybe even two or three depending on how the bid process goes that is correct they would be on standby and this isn't something that we're moving toward this is something just in case um an emergency situation sure U the tourniquet um example that Reverend Butler used uh if we're ever in that um predicament then we would be able to move forward with that re Butler's got a lot of quotables that's that's one of them I remember that one uh okay thank you I think Dr rwi do you have something to add I I think I'm hearing this right so
089just a point of clarity um The Duncan and Sun contract that we used last year actually expired so we are not currently working with them I think the deep clean you're talking about would be one that would be just like a one-time thing that they would if if potentially if they want to apply for the RFP through procurement and do that they could but we don't currently have a contract with them it expired last no I understand that but I think Dr Adams is actually speaking about two different things you're speaking about a deep clean during a specific period of time over the winter but you're also talking about after like into January getting another RFQ out there for access to a potential vendor or vendors correct that is correct that is correct that's what
090I wanted to delineate they're they're not the same thing you're not talking about an RFQ for the deep clean itself that is correct all right thank you thanks Dr Adams Mr triplet legislative updates good just a couple things lot of updates today yes there's a lot of updates today just a couple of things uh as we look ahead to January a lot of um big chatter around um a couple things that I just want to highlight the first was um you've heard I'm sure on the news about Tennessee rejecting federal funds and some of the some of the investigation and hearings around that um I had the opportunity to speak actually with speaker seon he was in Knoxville and there is at the moment there's no legislative path outline for that it's just more of
091a information gathering to find out what requirements we have to meet to accept federal funds and what strings are attached to that so at the moment there is no plan to reject that you know they don't have a path forward in that at the moment um though they have done some research the second uh thing that's been a big deal is obviously the uh educational savings accounts that Governor Lee announced and lots of conversation I think tsba sent out a a pretty pretty lengthy and informational email uh that everybody should have gotten and uh obviously we expect to see that on on the docket uh in January I would assume that would be something currently it is available in a number of counties um some of the other larger metropolitan areas U but not in
092Knoxville but we would expect based on the way um he has proposed that that that would um be available all across the state is the way the way it seems so I'm sure we'll hear more about that and then the third thing um I read an article um that representative white who is the house education chairman um has uh he is looking to propose a measure I'll just read his quotes similar to the third grade retention law a measure of similar to third grade retention law needs to be enacted to make sure fourth graders have an Avenue to move on to the fifth grade so I know there's been some concern about exactly what's going to happen to third graders who may or may not have seen the the recommended progress uh it appears there's
093at least some conversation around figuring out a method and Avenue for those fourth graders uh what that looks like to get them to fifth grade so um those are just three things that that I've highlighted that I've I've read about that are coming obviously there'll be lots that will happen as as we move into into session in January so thank you I appreciate that looking forward to January and seeing what comes out this year session yes rever Butler thank you madam chair and thank Mr triplet for his jumping in and and hitting the ground running uh is this too premature to ask about a legislative time that we would meet with our legislators have we talked about that have we set that dated did I miss it no we haven't yet um I'll get in
094touch with Senator Massie and get some dates usually the chair and Senator Massie kind of spearhead that and so I'll get with her and see what dates work on their end I'll get some dates from us and I'll start working on that for us Ball Park still January the ball yes so I'll start working on that this week so that way we can get something nail down okay moving on to our regular session agenda board members following discussion at Friday's policy review meeting an item was added to the regular session agenda regarding approval to change all of the references uh to the work Guardian to legal guardian throughout our policy manual so that agenda item is uh 6s so moving into that agenda starting with 5 C one or two is there any discussion on
095items or contracts one or two three or four five or six 7 or eight nine or 10 okay moving on to board policies and we did have public um or we did have policy review on these so these have been discussed um in that policy review six A or B C or D Mr Watson thank you madam chair on um c i i420 I think there is a um there's a just a grammatical error on page two line 22 says it is recognized that citizens of the community have a right to petition slash complain the word to should be left in it's right now marked out okay I know it's minor but good grammar KS right let's get it done I do appreciate you grammar so thank you for that D or e f or
096G H or i j or k Miss Owen thank you madam chair um I have a tiny little suggestion for a change in the second page near the bottom line 45 and 46 where it says reason to transfer it says parents Andor legal Guardians may wish to may wish to apply for a student transfer for any number of reasons including I think the words wish to are Superfluous there and it should just say parents Andor legal Guardians May apply for a student transfer for any number of reasons including instead of what they wish to apply for okay thank you okay good okay is everyone okay with that yeah I think are we we're talking about J correct yeah yeah page two line 45 through 46 where it says reasons for transfer okay are we good
097to move on from that one okay thank you I don't know if I said K or L we may be going through K again um M or n o or p q or r s Mr Watson thank you m chair I think because this is outside of our Norm in terms of practice it'd be good for maybe Mr dupler to speak to the change itself but also functionally how it would occur if we approve it for legal guard yes yeah yeah I agree Mr deepler do you want to just speak on that a little bit well I mean I would say that you know legally the term Guardian uh has uh I mean I mean it has a legal meaning uh so you know a guardian and a parent under the law are um you
098know are are very similar so uh but I mean I mean with that said uh with the board changing the term to legal guardian that that doesn't affect the legal meaning of the term guardian and if that is is helpful and clarifying to KCs families I mean you know that's that could certainly be done uh yes I think I think Mr Watson's also referring to the fact that the board usually does a policy piece by piece you know each each individual policy uh but with a wholesale change like this um it it to me it just makes sense to do it you know in this fashion as opposed to going through and and looking at every individual policy because because then that would take you know a much longer process as well the board just
099looked at the J policies and then you know would have to look at the different sections so it's it's it's certainly something the board can do and and and I see no no legal issue with it yeah and I think the thing I would want to point out from our policy review meeting is int correct me if wrong um Miss Coty but the for those wholesale ch changes we're not going to change the review date because we didn't technically review it necessarily yes sir it would just be changed based on this motion if it's approved on Thursday all right thank you Miss bike thank you madam chair um I received a handful of emails on this one and just wanted to say that um while I wasn't at the last policy review the one before
100last I do think that we had some really great conversation about um the implications this and uh the things that it would solve and that we also talked about um you know what the difference between guardian and legal guardian and parent and then relationships with grandparents and things like that and to make sure that we have those processes in place um so I think that this is a good change um to make it more clear for staff and for families when because oftentimes um you know if it's 2 am and you're going to go research something because you are disgruntled and you look up on our website and find the policy it's going to be there so I think that um that this is a good change so and I'm in support of it thank
101you anyone else on that one thank you for clarifying that Mr Watson moving on to Grant 7A or [Music] B C or [Music] D e or F G or H or I okay moving on to contracts 8 A or B C or D oh I'm so sorry Mr Watson no that's okay uh I know a lot of times those those types of things don't get questions but I it may is my own ignorance I have no idea what a wireless clock system is or what it's for like what's that thing about what's that oh I'm sorry item a under contracts Dr Adams so it's basically clocks in the building so the building just okay so like a battery operated clock is what we're talking about okay I just never heard it called by that term
102I just call a battery operate clock just a clock item D1 okay moving on to section nine A or [Music] B or C you any discussion on those and we did have robust discussion so okay moving on then to public forum Mr tripa we have no public forum speakers no public forum seeing that there's no public forum we will move on to board Forum Celeste Reverend Butler yes yes Miss Owen Mr Watson thank you madam chair I know we already spoke to this and um Mr Taylor was here and commissioner Jay but again I just wanted to thank everybody who's been involved in the place based fund it's a Dr itic shift uh in our practice over the last 30 years um and I think it's going to pay dividends long long into the future
103um way past our current cohort of kids um so it was a pretty substantive change and I know it took a lot of people to do it and Dr R would appreciate you and your team being at the table um and not only uh encouraging us as a board in that process but also uh doing all the work to make sure that we had our ducks in a row and we could plan accordingly and really prioritize the schools that needed it first but but have a plan to take care of all the all the schools so thank you Mr triplet yeah I know we uh typically cover lighter topics in board Forum so I apologize for a weightier matter but after the books that were read last month and then I know Dr riswick made
104a statement uh and kind of discuss the administrative procedures he and I have discussed this at length privately so it's not like this is a shock to him we've agreed respectfully to to agree to disagree but um I don't agree with the way it's currently done um on Friday policy review I attempted to modify our existing educational material policy so that books uh that contain sexually descriptive acts uh that come to the attention of KCA staff would be placed under review um and that request didn't receive support from the board or or from um the superintendent his team um and uh this is not just a I think a personal issue that's a conviction of my own uh but I think I represent uh district 7 very very well in this position and I firmly
105believe that no minor Knox County should be able to find books with sexually descriptive acts in our school libraries and so to the parents I just simply want to say this I I cannot guarantee there are no books uh containing sexually descriptive acts available to your students in our libraries nor can I guarantee that if KCs is aware of them that they will be removed and I also cannot um guarantee as it stands currently that if those books are are are found in our library that they will even be reviewed for appropriateness um all of this to say that as the policy stands the only way books containing these sexually descriptive acts will be reviewed and potentially removed is for a parent you as a parent to research the books in your child's library and
106ensure they're appropriate and then file a challenge for yourself and I just simply want to say if if there's a parent that needs assistance with this please let me know uh I'll do my best to assist in any way I can thank you thank you Mr triplet Miss bike yes thank you um I want to congratulate West High School I'm trying to represent them tonight uh with the on their backtack Championship which is super cool um and I want to thank the staff and the teachers and the administration that supported all of these students to be able to get to this back-to-back Championship thank you that's awesome Miss Horn thank you madam chair um I'm I'm also concerned about the books that are in our library so I would encourage parents to be involved and
107utilize the um process that we have in place to have to question those absolutely um and I also wanted to thank the community members who have come out to the listening sessions that we've had in fargate last week and we have another one tomorrow night at 5:30 I believe it's at faragate middle school is that right faragate middle school so um those have been great and there's also a parent survey Community member any Community member survey that you can fill out um I'd like to thank Dr Garfield and Mr Dillingham and Mr SCH and Miss Harrington for spending three nights in faragate between last week and this week that's a large time commitment but we have had several people come out and so um I appreciate the process and I think that it's going to
108help us get to a better um a better uh end result and so I just appreciate all the time and effort put into those Miss Christie all right well I didn't turn on my light to speak about the books but I would just like to encourage parents that you know um the things our children are exposed to aren't limited to books and libraries I don't think kids are necessarily storming libraries to find this information um so I think it's also important you know to know what your child is doing on their cell phones or tablets and things like that because most of our middle and high school children have those but what I did turn my light on for is to compliment Mr dupler on his festive Christmas suit we had this discussion the other
109day and I did request that he wear it so now I'm going to request that you you turn it on for us so everybody can get the full effect oh wait there's there's lights well have to stand up no no oh there you go look at that there you [Applause] go now I do have a question for the board though that is is uh did you all hear about the gingerbread man that went to the doctor with a sore knee the doctor told him has he tried icing it oh that's so great and I do think that Mr dubler does have a third suit that because you wore one Friday so I think Thursday night you will please wear your third suit and I just appreciate Mr triplet for your remarks I did ask Miss
110or Dr risewick to um um lay out that process for parents so that they know that there is that review process um and we're being transparent about it and again I have parents that reach out to me with this issue so please continue to do so I'm here to help you uh navigate that as well so with that oh Merry Christmas everybody so with that we are adjourned