001right welcome to the board of education's May 1st 2023 work session please stand as we observe a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Miss Horn face to flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag thank you Miss Horn and a couple of announcements a joint education committee meeting is scheduled for Friday May 19th at 8 A.M and also a policy review meeting will be following Friday May 19th at 9 00 a.m both and the joint education committee and the policy review meeting will be held in this boardroom unless noted otherwise and also just a reminder for those in attendance tonight this is the only opportunity the board has to discuss items that come before us as an elected body so we ask that you and refrain from cheering or booing
002or clapping and all that good stuff and if you do want to have a conversation with someone beside you please step outside to do so this helps us hear each other better and people at home hear us as well and just a reminder to board members when you do speak to make sure you speak into your mic so people at home can hear us so are there any requested changes to this meeting agenda so we have a motion by Miss Horn to approve a second by Mr Watson any discussion all in favor I don't like any opposed motion carries superintendent rice white you madam chair members of the board I'd like to begin by saying uh to you again to excuse me I would like to begin by saying thank you again to the students
003families and staff at West High School for their understanding and support following the events on Friday it was a frightening situation and we're extremely grateful that no one was seriously injured Chief period and his team will conduct an internal after action review of Friday's event so we can learn from this incident and adapt accordingly that's something we do to try to continue to get better the last few weeks have been challenging for our community and we know that it's understandable that people feel scared and sometimes feel helpless in these situations I want to reiterate that we are committed to providing a safe learning environment for our students and staff school security is a complex issue unfortunately there are no easy simple answers but I can promise you that we will continuously look for ways to
004improve our Safety and Security processes and procedures next I'd like to let you know that as you know in February I announced that Jason Myers assistant superintendent of Student Success would be conducting a deep dive analysis or special education ell RTI services and supports Mr Myers is not here tonight because he is currently at Fulton High School kicking off our first round of regional focus groups we have secured third-party facilitators to moderate these focus groups so no KCs staff members will be in the room once these conversations begin so he'll be there for the welcome and then we turn it over to the facilitators from that point I look forward to hearing the final report on what families share there earlier today I also shared the names of individuals who have agreed to serve on
005our special education task force I'm pleased to announce that this task force will convene their first meeting later this month and we'll meet over the course of Summer to generate a set of meaningful and actionable recommendations to share with our staff and to the board again this is a committee that I just want to say that those folks have been willing to look at and be part of that for us and I know it's one of my committees as a superintendent and a layer that I felt necessary for us to be able to get to that so I look forward to what they have to say as well I also want to provide an update on the formal review being conducted into the incident that transpired on March the 30th at Hardin Valley Academy last
006month I announced that Jennifer himmel Garn assistant superintendent of business and talent would review two items the scope of that work would be the actions taken by school and District leaders in response to that incident and the protocols and procedures that are in place to address similar situations and whether any changes are needed so at this time I'd like to turn it over to miss himmelgarn to give us that update Dr roswick Madam chair members of the board as Dr reiswick said the scope of the formal review of the incident at Hardin Valley Academy on March 30 2023 has focused on two items the response of school and District leaders or the actions in response to the incident by school and District leaders and the protocols and procedures that are in place to address similar
007situations as and whether any changes are needed as we've worked through the formal review our process has crossed over into items that are also being investigated by the Knox County Sheriff's Office because of the ongoing criminal investigation we're unable to provide a detailed update at this time we're grateful to the Knox County Sheriff's Office for their partnership and appreciate their efforts to keep the citizens of Knox County including our staff and students at KCs safe once we are able we put we plan to provide a more specific report to the board I'll just go a little further with that too and say I will be messaging that to Hardin Valley families as well tonight because we know not everyone has a chance to watch the board meeting and I want to thank you Miss immigrant
008for being thorough and in that process and and also just you know we're talking about a lot of challenging things but the sheriff's department and Knoxville Police Department have been great Partners to us we're in conversation with that with with members of their team daily multiple times a day for multiple things that are going on right now and we do appreciate even in this situation that um that they're that they're a partners of ours finally I want to provide a few updates as we approach the end of the school year as you know our district recently completed their testing window for a variety of Assessments including our TCAP exams I want to thank our teachers our staff and families for your hard work over the last two weeks helping students show that academic growth as
009a team effort and our schools did an amazing job I actually was able to be out in schools and see that happen and see I didn't go into any classes where they were testing to try to lead them along for that but to go into other classes and talk to the staff while that was going on I also want to remind our community that graduation ceremonies for the class of 2023 are scheduled from May 18th to June the 2nd the complete schedule is available at Knox schools.org seniors looking forward to that and as you all recall the decision to stay at the football field so we will pray for dry weather when that happens but are excited for That season kicking off soon so we're very excited to celebrate these students and recognize their achievements
010if you're a senior please make sure to congratulate them on a job well done if you see those and thank you to the seniors for the work you've done and last but not least I want to point out that may is teacher appreciation month in the state of Tennessee it's specifically teacher appreciation day will be celebrated tomorrow May the second and teach your appreciation week will be celebrated next week I want to thank our teachers for their tremendous effort encourage students and families to thank them for the month of May they really are an incredible group of individuals and we couldn't do any of this without them Madam chair that concludes my report for the evening all right thank you Dr Isley I am excited I got your email about the task force and I
011am excited about that and I just want to thank the people that um are willing to serve on that because I know a lot of times we put people on committees and there's some criticisms there or you know we talk about the reopening committee right it's like you know one of my regrets was suggesting someone for that because they they took a lot of abuse after that so I I am very thankful and grateful for the the people who signed on and are willing to help us with this work um so moving on Miss Horn I believe you have an announcement thank you madam chair yes this year's student representative selection committee process began back in February with the announcement and distribution of application packets to every High School Rising seniors had until Friday March
01210th to submit applications to the board office 19 applications and recommendations were received for students at the following schools Bearden Central Farragut Fulton Gibbs Halls Hardin Valley Ellen and stem Powell and West high schools once received the applications were redacted of all personal information including the student's name School gender address and reference names for the first phase of the scoring process thank you Ms coatney for all that hard work that is a tremendous amount of time tremendous the selection committee consisted of assistant superintendent of strategy Liz Norton as well as the interim assistant superintendent intendant of strategy Corey Lautner I don't even know if I'm pronouncing your name correctly um the principal at South Doyle High School Brad Carr current student representative Grace Deckard um student and Mr Austin East High School um shakies Duncan
013Hall's high school student and class president Erica Beals and myself as the board representative the committee met on March 30th to receive instruction on scoring the application in the areas of leadership communication organizational skills academic achievements community service extracurricular activities and recommendations each Committee Member submitted their individual scores for each application and a total score was then calculated each year the committee commits to interviewing the top scoring candidates taking into consideration any natural break in the scores this year the top four candidates were interviewed by the selection committee on Wednesday April 26th once again each Committee Member submitted interview scores which were then weighted and added to the student application scores for a grand total and the top scoring student was contacted and offered the position for the 2023-24 school year her term will begin
014on July 1st and end on June 30th 2024 and I'm happy to introduce Celeste you'll have to tell me how to pronounce your last name ertle Celeste Ertl of Bearden High School traditionally the incoming board representative will sit in on the June meeting but Celeste will actually be attending Governor's School in June so she's sitting in today with Grace and perhaps Thursday she can be here also but um we will share more detail about Celeste when her term begins in July but I wanted to be sure and welcome Celeste and congratulate you on being appointed to serve and we're thankful to have you and look forward to hearing your voice as you represent your the students so thanks for being here thank you Miss Horn and welcome Celeste we are so glad you're here yes
015absolutely [Applause] and we're glad to have you back again Grace to You Know Grace is our valedictorian at um Hardin Valley so we'll be celebrating her later in the week with our other valedictorians so it's nice to have you both here tonight all right so next on the agenda Ms Spike I'm going to turn it over to you because that is the um Aba policy thank you madam chair um this again it says for discussion I really feel like starting this with a discussion and having the ability for us to all come together and weigh in on this is really important I know ABA therapy can be really controversial for some and also sometimes misunderstood and I think that that's where conversation needs to start um last year last fall Courtney Piper had reached out
016to me and was just kind of struggling with some stuff and um being a member of the autism community and things like that I have some experience and some experience with my son so I was glad to help and went through many meetings and kind of was really curious about how private therapy comes into Knox County Schools or doesn't come into Knox County Schools and um so her group had kind of drafted this with an attorney and I felt that it was really important for us to go over it and I hope that you all would have questions or if you do have questions can we take questions you know I'll just start I I am not opposed to Aba therapy at all and my only concern with this well with any first of all
017with any policy I feel like it to really be in a good place that needs to go to policy reviewed but I appreciate having this discussion tonight um my only concern with an ABA policy specifically is I think it's limiting because I think if we have Aba this meant that we might have another therapy that's not requested a lot next month and then another so um and I was glad to see in your update Dr Rice with that the board's working more on an outside provider type of policy but but I think it would be a good idea to you know just even have the two side-by-side and policy review just to kind of the hammer out and just just to the um to our parents here tonight because I know there are events signed
018up for aid for ABA to speak on that after a policy review there will be time for input to for for you to see what what's come out of that meeting uh before the board would consider it right so so it there will there will be that period between May 19th and assuming we're going on a good place and it goes to the June meeting um but but we could potentially you know have this in place and plenty of time for the new school year but I would like to see a broader a policy that is more comprehensive I guess it includes other therapies if that makes sense I I definitely agree with you um on because I know that especially once one parent has something else that they're going to be like well me
019too um and had I known that Jason's team had been working on something I might have done some different things um but I hope that these can be Blended together so that we can have a little bit more understanding of these different therapies to really help our kids and I did I had a meeting with Mr dupler and we talked about what a process it would be for this that it would be discussion policy review potential meetings potential readings and stuff like that so I know that it's going to be a long process but I think it's I mean I'm I still think it's good to have this discussion tonight because I know that parents are concerned you know with the timeline of it and want to get it in place before the next school
020year so I you know I think it's good that you added it and we have it on tonight as well um I think Courtney had mentioned that a bcba is in the audience and I was curious if she might be able to even give a quick description of what ABA is I think she signed up oh actually should we have that then or yes but since we're not voting we usually do it at the end okay if that makes sense okay miss that one I'm sorry madam chair um since it's on this agenda wouldn't it be appropriate to do it during this meeting I'm not opposed to that if there's no objection from board members no objections all right so are are we talking about the one that I yeah I think there's only one
021pcba um I'm open to that wow Ashley are we talking about you do you want to come up and say a little bit about um about Aba now that conversation we had when you signed up may make sense to me now so sorry my name is Ashley Drysdale I'm a board certified behavior analyst for PBS um I was kind of requested last second so ABA is a science-based effective therapy to help usually with autism but it can be prescribed for other diagnosis and we use um positive and negative reinforcement to kind of shape and change behaviors typically most the time we use positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement within schools we do not use punishment procedures um I'm definitely open to questions if you guys have them anybody have any questions um maybe what would an
022ABA session look like or what would it what would it look like and then also what would it look like in a school setting so School setting we usually have a behavior intervention plan already developed based on a functional Behavior Analysis so we've determined what the functions of those maladaptive behaviors are and then we start to intervene on them we collect maladaptive data Behavior so we can collect data on every single Behavior that's occurring is it increasing or decreasing based on the interventions that we have prescribed and then we individualize those according to the setting the person what's working what's not working and then we change if necessary if it's not working for a teacher then we change what needs to be changed if there needs to be a token economy or something like that
023going on to help increase those replacement behaviors then we do that as well would you have a specific example I know that you can't talk about children and there's privacy and stuff there but of something that would happen in a classroom where you would help a child okay um so I've had clients that we have a lot of out of sea Behavior a lot of elopement they're running around the classroom being very um disruptive right so the function of that can typically be attention they're trying to get the teacher's attention even in a verbal reprimand so our replacement would be for them to gain attention appropriately raising the hand tapping shoulder those kinds of things so we start reinforcing and shaping them raising their hand in the classroom before they're getting up and eloping in
024the classroom and disrupting that teacher sorry so do you have September okay thank you madam chair um so when you say a prescription you're talking about a medical prescription yeah it's prescribed by a doctor thank you so does anyone else have a question for Ashley specifically okay I'm sorry I thought you were pointing no no no no I was pointing to my life okay this guy right here sorry thank you madam chair um can you speak a little bit about how maybe ABA therapists in a classroom setting would fit within the context of that classroom as a whole so obviously you're engaging with a specific student that you're walking with and have been prescribed to but um tell me about how the therapist kind of um I in some ways I would assume what kind
025of falls into the background of what's happening in the classroom as a whole yes so we definitely try to not be intrusive to a teacher um we're there merely to support them so say a teacher needs help and support getting that client to gain their attention to complete task work that's where we kind of step in and support them but our goal is not to be between the teacher and the student like we we want them to be engaged and directed onto the teacher thank you that's anything else for Miss Ashley sorry no okay okay let me go see who's next here sorry I think that's you Mr Reverend Butler Dr Butler I added Mr s hornhead well I I turn my light off you I can wait yeah I mean it goes by did
026I just turn them off wait hold on hold on okay thank you sorry my question thank you madam chair my question is concerning the sixth paragraph and uh I guess it falls on if it was a heading would be economic equity I do understand that there are insurance policies that pay for it uh I think some research indicated that 10 care may pay for it but what about those in between having Insurance to pay for it and and in the uh TennCare how is it that because if students are not they're eligible for it only because if they can afford it it seems like it's not not fair that might be a question we need to ask um Jason in policy review because he might have more details on how he and his team would
027work through that is that correct Dr ricewood yeah but that we can definitely make note of that and have that discussion in policy review Miss Owen thank you madam chair um I have kind of some complex reasons why I don't believe that this is appropriate so hang with me if you can as a teacher I spent a lot of years trying to get medical accommodations they were incredibly simple accommodations that literally impacted nobody else yet I it took years to get somebody just to sign off yes that's okay um when we start putting Medical decisions into educational policy I I think we're in a place where we shouldn't be frankly I think we shouldn't be talking about a policy at all because this should have happened a long time ago the students have a prescription
028they have a prescription from their doctor just like if they were taking a medication just like if they needed crutches they have been prescribed a medical intervention it's not an educational intervention we and I mean the district we are not qualified to question a medical diagnosis we are not qualified to question a medical prescription and we are not qualified to create policy around a medical prescription because it's going to be different for every student so when we are looking at medical needs for a student we should be deferring to The Physician of that student that's the person who should be making the medical prescription which obviously they have educational interventions are different from medical interventions while they may crisscross and while they may be similar we aren't qualified to question that that medical diagnosis on
029that same kind of track talking about behaviors that are disruptive like elopement when when you have a child in a school who runs out the door every day it's not disruptive to that classroom it's disruptive to absolutely everything in the whole school so anything that can be done to keep a child from running from going out of the room from running around the building that would be massively helpful for the entire staff when a child runs out the door everybody stops what's going on because they have to through whatever plan is in place bring that child back to where they should be and that may that may entail running through lots of parts of the building or outside or anything else so every person who is involved in that is disrupted every classroom that's anywhere
030near there is disrupted um anything that could help with those behaviors I can't imagine why we would not want to do that and if it's a question of having one more adult in the classroom for whatever reason I think that shows a real lack of our understanding of how many adults are in and out of every classroom every day there was a point when I had I literally had 27 people who could have evaluated me and any one of those people or all of those people could have come in and out of my classroom any day having one person with a plan and with a medical prescription I can't even wrap my head around why we are refusing to accommodate the medical needs that a child's doctor has prescribed all right Miss Horny thank you
031madam chair Miss Mike I'm just curious if you've had a chance to speak with Jason Myers about this and and how this fits in with the um the task force and that kind of thing you kind of touched on that before but yes ish um I had a meeting with Jason Myers and with Karen Loy some months ago before I knew that they would be also bringing a policy and this is one of the things I think that came out of some parents frustration that they were looking to have a certified ABA bcba come in and it was my understanding that Karen said that we train people in Knox County Schools and it was really confusing as to whether we actually had certified Personnel or whether they just did an online training which is a
032lot different than being you know going to school for it versus doing an online training um Jason we had a really really great conversation and he was really open to all of this but then that was a few months ago so that was before I knew about that so that's also another reason I think that this is just a part of the conversation of bringing these together um because you know I don't want to speak for Courtney and I think that she had signed up but one of the parts of her story that spoke to me and was that I've also experienced with my children is kind of the disconnect between [Music] um communication of the principal understanding what we will and won't do and a parent being told yes we're going to do it
033sounds amazing and then central office being like no no we're definitely not going to do that and that can be really confusing for parents and I think that's where a policy came out of that so I completely agree with Jennifer that we shouldn't be making these medical decisions for parents but I also think because I've also done research to see and I do with the inequity of you know if you can afford it and I think that that's where the argument is where um children are being taken out of school 70 to 180 days to go to these therapies I don't remember offhand how long or how many hours a week Courtney's child goes to therapy but I'm sure that she will let us know that it is many many hours of the week and
034they miss a lot of school and so this would be something to keep children in school and still learning and still being a part of that I think that there's some Middle Ground there for us to figure out and that's kind of also why I just wanted to have a conversation so that we could find that space all right so Mr Watson thank you madam chair I'm sorry I thought my light was actually on um Miss Mike thank you for elevating it and getting to the point where we're having an initial conversation I believe obviously uh parents have been advocating for this for some months and really appreciate you all continuing to lift up your Collective voices and bringing attention to the issue and the challenge I do agree with Miss Owen too that for
035something that's being prescribed I know if something's prescribed to my child for any reason I want them to be able to have access to that um I know it gets a little bit more complicated when you're talking about that prescription being an actual human being that's engaging with somebody during a school day but that to me doesn't mean that we shouldn't consider that and figure out how to make every path um possible um I don't presume to uh to understand all the needs of a child and with autism and their family and helping them navigate that but as a as a parent with a son with sensory processing disorder I understand that he needs some things that um other children in his educational setting doesn't need and I want him to have access to that
036uh within all reason and and also think that I I do think that probably the best way to handle this is not a specific policy about a specific therapy but I do think it's about how do we create a policy that allows for the appropriate access to individual medical and therapeutic interventions for individual children that can accommodate lots of different things this is certainly a starting place and I'm looking forward to having the the larger conversation and policy review and do and would want us to act in haste uh to be able to get this done in time for this coming school year I mean we've heard over and over this year how many of the students that are represented by the parents who have come out have missed tremendous amounts of school and I
037understand I mean I understand why that choice would be made right like all of us want our kids to be able to learn an educational setting but at the end of the day I also have to be thinking about my child in terms of what's best for them lifelong and to be able to from what I understand from my limited knowledge to be able to have access to this therapy ongoing is going to have a lifelong impact on these children and so there's like it's like it's like telling somebody who doesn't make ends meet are you going to pay your rent today or are you going to buy food right like it's like it's a tough choice and I got to make the one that I think that's best for my kid and I think
038that's what parents have been doing and I think what what I'm hearing parents say collectively is we don't have to make that choice anymore right like we don't want to have to make the choice whether or not our kid accesses this therapy that's really important for them versus being in an educational setting I think what they're asking for is both and I think that's reasonable so thank you yeah and I would agree with that Mr Watson I would even say if you know the board board felt like if we felt like we were in a good place coming out of that May 19th policy review I would even maybe suggest approving it on first reading to give people time to get what they needed lined up before the first of the year right so I
039do think we have time and I think it's good that we're having this discussion now so that we can make sure that um we get that information out prior to August bike did you have yeah I just want to add a little bit of my personal story that my son went through early intervention and I was even married at the time and had a very supportive partner that where I didn't have to work at the time and we attended four therapies a week that couldn't be scheduled all in the same day so it was four days a week for a year and a half of therapies and they only occurred during business hours and that was really really difficult the transportation um you know not being able to work because I was prioritizing my son
040and then also having another child and having to find child care or bring them with me um and I expect that some of these parents are also having the same situation where they're having to leave work pick up their child from school take them to the therapy bring them back potentially and all of that stuff so I think that those are also things to consider Miss Horn I um thank you madam chair I was I think you made the point already and I think Mr Watson made it too about just looking at I think maybe we've heard it several times looking at this from a bigger perspective because I want to know that was that's one of the questions I have is what are the other Ripple effects or other things that we may not
041be thinking of if we just look at a policy just for this so I like I like what um I think Miss Owen said and Mr Watson about looking at it more broadly because you know there will be other things so I think we need to make sure that whatever is reviewed is comprehensive so that we have an answer for this and other like issues that will come up Mr Triplett thank you madam chair Dr rizwick I assume basically the end end result of the task force and all that is to find the answer to these these questions is that correct and we'll ultimately get there and do we have a estimated kind of end and date of all of that thank you Mr Triplett um so I said something as an update to you
042all last week but um so all these things are a process and so I mean I'm I'm glad discussion is happening among the board too and I want to say you know kudos to Jason and Dr Loy in there because they you know they've inherited a system and it takes a lot to be willing to look into that to try to get better and I think they really are doing that so much so too that they their plan is to bring exactly what you guys are describing uh I know it's not I haven't seen a finished version of that and I know Mr dupler will see it too as they process through to get ready uh for the 19th but that is the plan so I think we have a couple things going on here
043we have uh kind of this deep dive that will continue you know the name of the task force today will be part of that process we have an educator portal that's open uh the focus groups that we talked about that are happening right now but we also reserve the right to get smarter and so in the middle of that we don't have to wait till the end and I think this is one of those cases where our staff feels very strongly that we don't have to wait for the final recommendations whenever those come but if there's something that we need to move forward on that we would do that so I think it's a both end I think there'll be some things that that we see through the process that we'll bring to you all
044before that process is complete and I think there'll be some other things that will be probably recommendations that may not be a you know policy fix or a a shift in staff fix but it may be some is probably a longer Journey that we have to try to look at and build around so I think you'll see both of those in that our hope is the Task Force you know to be able to come and be part of probably early fall that kind of thing you know and again we'll see we'll see that happens once they start meeting you know later this month and kind of have those things but uh again there are other pieces to this from the focus groups from the uh from the educator portal and then also us just researching
045and taking a close look too it'll be part of that so I don't know if we'll have an end date that it's all done and then we'll start moving I think we'll continue to bring things to you all as we see uh the you know the need for that and discover way to be better well sounds good thank you appreciate it all right does anyone have anything else so miss bike it sounds like we're all good with just moving forward to May 19th and having a more in-depth discussion at that time right okay perfect and thank you for adding this all right so before we go into the discussion of our May 4th regular session agenda board members who received an email this morning but I wanted to alert you that superintendent risik and I
046agreed to the addition of item 10A which is consideration of a an addendum to our current contract with tra for our school accounting software due to its time sensitive nature and as always we can entertain questions and discussions as we review the rest of the regular session agenda so with that sorry I need to get my glasses on if you can see probably obvious I can't see all right so going in to that agenda um item 7 A or B are we good item C going into contracts item and D items one or two three or four five or six seven or eight Miss Owen thank you madam chair I have some concerns about number seven and Dr roswick and I talked about the I teach program several months ago um I just want to
047be sure that it's on everybody's radar as something that says that there is support for the for the student teacher or the the teacher who is becoming certified but that support is far away and so if if we are going to be using the I teach program I would very strongly recommend that we put a very strong Mentor in place for each of those potential teachers because there's not one I mean they they can call Dallas and talk to a person but um I've I've seen a couple of versions of this some of them quit after a couple of weeks some of them go on for the whole year and in each of the cases that I've talked to the difference has been how much support they had right there at their school so if
048if we just put them into the school and depend on I teach to Mentor them that's not really going to happen yes they have classes through I teach yes they are doing they have high expectations but that personal mentoring where you can reach out to that person in your school is not there [Music] speak to that Madam chairman so and you're corrected as a virtual program but the candidate or the employee of KCs would also have the same mentorship as first-year teachers in the building Mr moseman's here he may have additional information on additional mentorship but we will we'll keep that in mind thank you so items eight or nine 10 or 11. I don't know who was first over there hold on Mr Triplett yeah item 10 uh the East Tennessee Freedom School just
049a little bit of research into that organization and their parent organization the children's defense uh fund they certainly have they may do well with reading but they also have a pretty strong alternative agenda that they're promoting and seem to be using the freedom schools as part of that Avenue with which to promote that agenda and it is not one that um I can support nor do I think would be beneficial to the students of Knox County and so I just would encourage you to vote against giving them access to the students in Knox County Miss Owen [Music] Mr Watson thank you madam chair actually Miss Denise Dean is here from Freedom schools Mr Miss Dean would you mind coming and speaking a little bit to the work of Freedom schools and especially its history within
050engaging Knox County School students thank you for being here I am the executive director of East Tennessee Freedom schools we're about to start our seventh summer Freedom schools is a literacy and empowerment program and we serve Elementary children as well as middle schoolers at this point our morning is focused on literacy from typically eight to twelve I'm sorry nine to twelve mid in the afternoons we have broadening experiences from stem to music to math we started teaching phonics in our afternoon program self-care we'll actually have the Girl Scouts with us this summer that's what we do thank you and can you speak a little bit to the main Freedom schools yeah Freedom schools um as someone they kind of noted Freedom schools is a franchise that's under the umbrella of the children's defense fund and
051the children's defense fund is a National Organization that focuses on children's policies around Education Health moral development things of that nature and the founder of the children's defense fund Marion Wright Edelman she has been involved in the Civil Rights efforts throughout the 60s and into the 70s part of the Poor People's movement Etc so she founded the children's defense Fund in 1973 and then in 1995 she started the freedom schools program and the freedom schools program was built on the model of Freedom Riders so when college students in the 60s went down south to help more rural people of color get smarter about English and math and everything else to to augment what they had experienced in their own school system it made a difference in terms of their ability to be able to be
052fully engaged in the offerings of citizenship and voting and so she took that model and that was the foundation of Freedom schools can you tell me why in your mind I mean obviously you've been running Freedom schools in Knox County since the beginning correct yes sir um so what why do you think it's important to have an option like Freedom schools for students here as an alternative to you know there's other Youth Development programs and literacy programs summer programs that are very good that people know and have been involved with so why is freedom schools important in terms of being an option for students in our community yeah so again we're coming up to our seventh summer um when I started Freedom schools here and this is not the first time Freedom schools has been
053in this area um Thrive is has was a Freedom School um tribe one was a freedom school this has one in Oak Ridge um years ago I just wanted to help children be better academically and socially Etc and what I learned as I started that initiative in terms of because you have to raise money for this right this is a free program so when I said so what's the argument for freedom schools in this area the argument is in addition to my own desires was just literacy rate um it was um very poor and it was extremely poor for black Latino and economically disadvantaged children so that is by Chance the people that we serve and what we find is not only is it about helping children get better at reading and comprehension and reasoning
054and problem solving um there's a whole lot that goes into their own self-confidence one of our aims is to help children fall in love with reading as well as helping them understand all the ways that they can make a difference from for themselves their family their community and so on to really kind of we tell them there's only two ways to make a difference in America uh it's either your vote and all of our staff are registered voters or it's your voice and for our children that's what they have is their voice so we want to help them better understand what's going on in the world and be clear about some of the challenges that exist for them and their families and think about ways to address those challenges in a productive way well uh
055mistine you know you and I have engaging for been engaging for years out in the community and I appreciate all the work that you're in in the community and appreciate the work that you've been doing with freedom schools and continue to do I know Miss outers field our pre one of our previous board members was very involved for even prior to her time um when South County Schools so thank you for that work and thank you for providing that alternative and um and I appreciate the Heritage from what I understand of Freedom schools and being something that's come out of the civil rights movement and continuing to keep that Legacy alive so if I could add one one more point we talk about Freedom schools as one of the things that helps stem summer learning
056loss as all of you know right kids leaving the spring come back in the fall it's like someone put a hole in their head and stuff fell out right um and what we found is that we do pre and post assessment with our children on comprehension and on average over our six years 87 percent of our children either maintain or improve their reading instructional level um so we have a great track record we have 30 to 50 percent of our Scholars who join us every year we have middle school now because kids have grown up with us and their families want to continue this journey um and it's a good thing so thank you would there be an opportunity this summer for board members who have an interest to come out and see what you're
057doing absolutely absolutely if I one other thing I would share is um so our day starts with breakfast but we start by greeting the scholars in the morning then we have breakfast and then we have something that is akin to a pep rally we call it harambe which is a key Swahili word for let's all pull together and during that time members of the community come in and read aloud to our Scholars we have cheers and chance and a motivational song we have recognition things of that nature and one summer I believe it was in 2018 when we were at Sarah Moore green the third grade pod from Sarah Moore green was in the school doing a summer reading camp and they heard us in the morning and they're like what are you doing you
058know and they wanted to come up and see and they came up and they started doing it in their program then the magic though was when they took it back to their school and as you know absenteeism is one of the biggest challenges we have and when they started doing harambe with their students in that third grade pod there are a lot of reasons for absenteeism but the numbers plummeted in terms of people not showing up kids wanted to be there so there were things about Freedom School that I would offer to you that similar to Charter Schools right if there's something really good going on you have an opportunity as a public school to kind of wrap your arms around it and see how you can leverage that in service to your interests at
059school thank you Miss Owen thank you madam chair I guess this is a question for Dr reiswick is there any cost to Knox County Schools Miss Owen I actually Dr Wilson is probably more familiar with the with the parts of the mou for this one so I'll let him interested uh yeah so again just to say a little bit about the mou I think that the uh the the Genesis of it was kind of rooted in data sharing I think at the beginning so that's uh Miss Dean has mentioned we've had summer programming for several Summers where Knox County students participated with freedom schools um but that's been handled primarily through more of like a facilities use kind of agreement that that that's occurred so having the memorandum of understanding has expanded in a couple
060of ways one of those being in data sharing and she's mentioned some of the tracking they do for for their students and that information as far as like reading uh growth and retention of those reading skills over time um the other piece of that is allowing them to take advantage of Transportation that's already occurring uh in moving to and transporting students to our summer programming at those sites where they're going to be and so there's some contingencies in the mou around Transportation if space is available um and uh traveling to from those zones to those schools where students will be participating in the summer learning program them so the the cost there is cost uh it's in those buses that we are already using and transporting students on and again dependent upon availability of seats
061on those buses we'd be able to provide transportation to some participants from the from the summer program for Freedom schools Okay so we've we've already been having these in our schools through facilities use the difference in this mou is that we are working with them on Transportation that we're already providing to other students anyway and this is a lot to be running for our summer programs yet and sharing data sharing so that they can better track whether they are how well they are improving learning loss that's what I understand you have any concern at all about potential conflict of interest because the former board member was involved um I mean the the former board members involvement in any of the conversations that started around again conversations with with Miss Dean and staff here in Knox
062County around ways to capitalize and expand on providing service to students in the summer has been free from Miss Evans involvement as far as I know okay thank you um Miss Horn thank you madam chair um thank you mistine for for going through that I really do appreciate the um focus on literally literacy and we know that's certainly important my concern and I think um I have gotten some emails from some community members about the children's defense fund and so in in my research of that the the one of my concerns is just really around curriculum I and I know I do remember that we've had these in the past but when this when somebody raised this concern I started doing a little research and so there um push on I'm looking at the national
063reading month book list for March and it can it has some concerning curriculum in their reading list such as the 1619 project and um you guys probably remember a book called something happened in our town from a couple years ago that was an issue so and that's just a few of the book a couple of them that I recognized so that's my concern is um is the curriculum and what what that curriculum would be do we is is this completely separate or is this something that the curriculum is submitted to KCs um can you talk about that Dr Wilson yeah so so we actually did reach out to get a little more clarity um Julie Thompson was part of the team that worked on the mou uh it's actually uh Laura Denton and Dr Liz
064Norton had kind of started that conversation but then Julie kind of helped with her playing it with her piece being the planning of the summer learning uh so that to be said I had Julie reach out this afternoon because again this mou does present a shift um in terms of how we've provided Freedom School service in the past to our schools which has really just been sort of external to the district coming in using the facility as lots of different organizations do um and so with the TR with the addition of the transportation one of the asks that we have have made because it does change the stance of Knox County a little bit in terms of the providing that resource of the transportation and helping students you know get to access the program we've
065asked them to provide that materials list and and text list for the parents who sign their students up for the program which would be in line with our expectations um that we do for uh under under our policies that we do for all of our classes in terms of providing syllabi and curriculum and materials list that students will have access to so we've asked them and they've agreed to provide those text lists for us uh for the grade levels of students that be participating and then again to have agreed that they would follow the policies that we have as far as uh content and information that's shared through our our supplemental materials and materials in our classrooms and do you when do you expect to have that curriculum list from them well again what we've
066asked was for them to be able to share that with parents who register for the program uh prior prior to the start of the program that's been the request thus far okay thank you for Butler uh thank you Madam chair so Dr Wilson what I'm hearing is is that they will be complying with the Knox County Schools policy when it comes to the area of concern of those particular books yes sir our ask was again to provide those materials so that we're transparent with parents as they make a choice about programming and then two to be aware of those policies that guide content that's included in our classrooms and to to adhere to those policies and and they have agreed to adhere to the policies my understanding is yes after Miss Thompson's conversation today so
067um if if it's appropriate I'd like to ask what is it that other than those books because it sounds like whatever that book list is whatever the curriculum question is is that it will be reviewed by Knox County Personnel and if it's not in compliance with Knox County Schools then it wouldn't be done what other issues or areas do is there so just uh they have a we have a blog post dated March where they celebrate what they call banned books um and they list the content that is in those banned books and one of the things that they list is sexual encounters and so I just you know that concerned me as something that I didn't feel was appropriate for Knox County students and if that's the organization that's leading this I certainly wouldn't
068want them as part of their literacy effort to provide that kind of content to students in Knox County so that that was one of the primary primary issues and they list on that blog you know several other things that are concerning I mean they are very very focused on they have you know they are very proud of the fact that a large percentage of their books have certain themes and and lgbtq themes and that kind of thing and um so I I just have some concern around them using that I I think that the heart of for literacy is great I think that's a certainly a need and something we would all support I just think that the you can do that in a way without having content that I I would deem inappropriate for
069students so Jazz and and I and I appreciate you sharing that but just to make sure if those things are in violation of Knox County Schools then they would be told that and they've already said that they would follow what Knox County Schools policy is correct yes but so just to clarify because again what we've asked for is a list of those materials to be provided for parents who are who are signing students up for those programs there is not a formal review process of all of the freedom schools curriculum on the front end and our policy uh as we follow for for classrooms where we may be dealing with content that parents find questionable or a staff member finds questionable or a student raises is questionable that happens through a challenge process so that
070is on the back end that's not on uh there's not a there's not a plan this time for a full-scale review of the curriculum of Freedom schools so I want to make sure I'm understanding so the requirement for Freedom schools that we would apply here is inconsistent with the policy of Knox County Schools the policies of Knox County Schools is that the parents and or students that are enrolled into the program if they find something that they think is inconsistent with what they want their children to have and they can raise that issue and at that time it would initiate a review yes sir and I'll say this too like the the way materials find their way into adoption in classrooms in a school district has a process that is established that begins at the
071state level and flows down um we we are we our policies aren't necessarily currently crafted specifically towards like summer learning providers and things like that they have agreed to participate and to try to mirror the policies as much as possible as they can with the curriculum that they have so the uh thank you so much the other question I would ask is um the website that you reviewed was at the East Tennessee Freedom Schools website it is um it is the children's defense funds website which is the parent organization of Freedom schools so uh and let me ex Miss Dean she would come back up so miss Dean do you receive curriculum directions and and guidelines from the um children's defense fund yes so that you have to do what they tell you to do
072I'm a franchise okay so yeah so the documentation he's talking about is that something that you all do it say that again the the information he's that Mr triplet has brought up is that the information you all use some of those books have been in our curriculum okay as any parents ever no had to complaint about it or a concern about it no we're I mean you come to Freedom schools because you want to come to Freedom schools right it's not mandatory okay okay so thank you so much so this is my concern we have schools in the district Knox County Schools that are on the state list we have a program that's been offered for seven years to help with literacy students and the parents who are attending the school don't have an issue
073with the curriculum that's provided number one they're happy that their kids have a summer program that's free not only is it free it's effective and it's also providing food education and socialization I can tell you that the Knoxville entry nominational Christian ministerial Alliance has supported Freedom schools for those seven years providing money and resources supplement for food and volunteers this is a part of our community that we know we need to help our students move forward in school especially with this new third grade retention law I don't understand what you're saying I have a concern about the access to music internet content books and even what we see on our streets that causes our kids cause us concerns concerns if our kids were to adopt some of these ways and my concern may not be
074someone else's concern someone may be concerned they may adopt my ways but the point I'm making here is this is a proven program that our community needs and and I think it would be a shame if this board does not approve this contract that this community has come to count on and utilize I can assure you that I know a number of the parents and the number the teachers who are not going to give kids information that's going to cost them harm I know them but what I also know is is that is that well I won't say I know it but I would be let me just ask have you visited the Freedom School have you observed the Freedom School do you know what the freedom school provides it's really time for to support
075the needs of the community that I come from we feel like a great deal of time we gotta fight for little simple things that we need now I understand what you're saying I'm not saying your concern is not valid but I'm saying in this situation we know we have kids that need this program it's just simple we have a great need here and we got to fight for this so I'm going to beseech ye brothers and sisters really look at this for what it is I will not say I agree with everything that anybody teaches or preachers but I do know that this is a great need here so as the school board representative comes out of this community I can tell you I will vote for this and I will ask every one of
076you to vote for this we need this program it has provided for these kids for seven years and every time we have Community Support we have people going there and carrying things there so the way that they're able to do it for free is not because they have money is because they have people who are willing to support this effort so if you want to anger a community vote it down because the community will be upset and will be angry because we have a program that we're not asking you to pay for you're going to have kids getting on a bus that's already rolling classrooms there's already been cool uh providing utilities for it's not really costing the school system anything why would you say no to something that has been proven to be effective
077for our school what are you going to offer as a substitute of it so we're not asking you to say if you want to bring your kids fine if you have a problem with something bring it up and I'm sure uh Mr Nice Dean will work with you I know if Miss if you can't work with Mr Nice Dean you can't work with nobody and so we have a uh she she is like a wonderful executive director has worked to make this happen and we're not asking for a whole lot we're just asking for your approval and something that we already have set up and going so take it away but explain to us how we're going to do it otherwise what are you going to give us in place of that it's not costing
078us anything but what we already spending I could say more but I'ma stop right there Mr Watson I'm going to ask a couple of questions if you don't mind then I'll go to you so Dr Wilson just just to be clear and we're already providing best service to these schools because I assume that Knox County Schools already has summer programming in these schools correct we do we have 29 sites that we're going to be running our summer learning games and this is it three three of those 29 sites so we this this is not a replacement for our summer programs this is it would expand it would expand this was an opportunity this is a choice it's a choice that parents can make or not make and just like the charter school is the choice
079parents can make or am I correcting it's been saying that okay so um that was my first question my second question is um I know we talk a lot about literacy and summer loss and I'm curious I know that this program's been running for a few years and this might be a question for Miss Dean but I believe there's some data surrounding that they've already collected um surrounding their success of the program is that yeah I would definitely have if you want specifics on data I would definitely have to refer to miss Dean on that one but I know it was part of their their websites you you share data sets uh based on past summers and so misting could you share that you can share it tonight or maybe just send it out to
080board members if you want to send it in an email what whatever's what might be good for people to die I mean you can share it tonight but I think when we all go home you know it might be good to just have that visual be able to reflect on the conversation I'll just share two because it's really simple so one is percent of Scholars that may improved or maintained their instructional reading level and the other one is parent satisfaction so by year in 2017 84 of our Scholars improved or maintained 100 parent satisfaction 2018 100 of our Scholars improved or maintained parent satisfaction 90 in 2019 86 percent of our Scholars improved or maintained this is their instructional reading level um and 90 parent satisfaction we didn't have data in 2020 because of covid
081um but we put a lot of material online for our families um and the children still got books each week for their home library in 2021 79 of our Scholars improved or maintained their instructional reading level 100 parent satisfaction and last summer 84 of our Scholars improved or maintained their instructional reading level 100 parent satisfaction if you could you could immerse if you if you don't mind doing that thank you so um and Dr Wilson you said that the challenges would be the same policies we have in place correct so again our administrative policy and procedure is written in language that that feels very much like it's being facilitated through a school process and a principle we would have to modify that a bit but Dr Phillips has already I've already had a conversation with
082her about how we could address that Watson thank you madam chair uh Mr Dean can I ask you one more question I'm sorry you sat all the way in the back so uh I know most meetings I'm in with you you sit toward the front so um my question is um in response to Mr triplet's concern in terms of um I know what the process is if somebody has a concern within Knox County Schools related to curriculum or books that kids might be accessing and things like that but can you talk to us a little bit about um your process if a parent had a legitimate concern I'm not and and from what I what I think I heard you say earlier is you've never had a concern brought up but suppose you did what
083I would imagine what we would do is they would not be in a classroom that morning and they would be with our site coordinator and doing some reading of a different book so you would just provide a different opportunity for the particular child sure where the apparent expressed concern and and then to Mr Wilson's uh Dr Wilson's point I want to make sure that I was hearing that correctly as a part of this particular program for this summer and I don't know if this is something you've done every summer if there's something that will be new you are providing a curriculum list and a resource list of parents ahead of time correct is that what I was hearing is that the intention well one of the things I can say is we have orientation before
084those the freedom school starts and we always give our parents uh book summaries of all the books that are going to be read that summer right so they're informed okay thank you I appreciate that Miss Dean I don't have much more to add but I I mean I do think it's interesting that this conversation is coming up right on the heels of our Charter School conversation and how many times we talked about uh different members of the board talked about parent choice um I I understand that everyone and of us in this room have different levels of comfort related to educational materials related to specific books I don't know the specific books that freedom schools uses uh but I would expect that any parent that accesses it like any other Educational Opportunity would would bet
085that um and I I don't know that we should be basing a decision on an mou with freedom schools about blog posts from a National Organization um in that I understand that there are legitimate concerns for some uh culturally politically obviously that's been all throughout the news and political circles I totally get that and I understand that for those folks those concerns are extremely valid and actually I have no doubt your concerns are extremely valid um my guess is uh if your kids were still of that age I don't know that they are you probably wouldn't be signing your kid up for Freedom schools I would assume I don't know that to be true uh but I think it's important for us to understand just like I tried to communicate the other night that we
086are all representing very different constituencies and we need to be willing to hear from one another and from what I understand from this mou we are providing uh we are trying to make it more accessible for students in terms of limiting some of the barriers around transportation and things like this uh but miss Deneen Miss Denise Dean and her team are going to continue to run Freedom schools like they have been running Freedom schools and I think regardless of this mou kids would still have access to it I think what this is this is an opportunity for Knox County Schools to be a good Community partner and make it easier for those kids who frankly tend to have transportation challenges when we're already running the buses um so I I would implore us as a
087board again not to get sucked up into I mean I'm just going to call it what it is culture wars National politics um around this very particular decision uh because like we already elevated uh around Charter Schools parents do have a choice and uh Mr Triplett you were one of the people who are most vocal about parent choice um and um you know again I think Mr Reverend Butler uh you know obviously is speaking for his very specific community and the work that's there and I know Miss Owen brought this up around the charter school conversation too I think it is important for us to hear from people in the communities that are impacted about the things that are being represented um and um you know I don't know this to be true but my
088guess is probably very few kids from your particular Community I've ever gone to Freedom schools for lots of different reasons but I don't think that should impact the accessibility of somebody else so thank you torn [Music] clear about my support for parental rights so I do appreciate your comment on that um Dr Wilson I would like to better understand the difference between last year and this year because if um so when we've had these Freedom schools in the past basically it's been they've been leasing the space and it hasn't been endorsed by Knox County Schools is that correct yes so in the past we have allowed our schools to be used in the summer by East Tennessee Freedom schools to run their summer programs the agreement that you see before you has a new data
089sharing component to it so it's it's a data sharing agreement between East Tennessee Freedom schools and Knox County Schools which I presume has not existed before I'm new in this role I didn't I wasn't involved in that program last year and then again a a granting of when space and funding is available because this is an mou that can be re-upped for several years when space and funding is available for transportation where we are running on-site summer learning camps in the same facilities that they're running their freedom schools that if we can accommodate that we would have uh Transportation available for them to to ride our buses that are already going to those locations okay thank you and Mr dupler I have a question regarding the the fact that this can be extended for for
090additional years so going back to my concern about the curriculum some of the curriculum that is on the and and I think Miss Teen alluded to the fact that they do use the curriculum because it's a it is a franchise so some of that curriculum is is problematic for because it's against state law there's there are problems in the curriculum that um KCs would not have some of those books because there's some there's some problems in that curriculum so let's say and I appreciate that that parents are going to get a copy of that curriculum ahead of time I think that's great and parents then have the the option to opt into that if there is a concern with curriculum then what happens when we we this would not come back before the board since
091it's renewable is that correct so my question would be let's say there is a problem with curriculum that correct we you know this board is aware of curriculum that is um taught that would fall under the those Concepts that are whether it's sexual content or the the fact that the 1619 is not the curriculum that is taught by the state of Tennessee regarding history would that play into the fact of that being renewable that contract does that does my question make sense I think so Miss Horn I I think what you're asking is I mean if the board approves this particular mou it would be renewable which uh for the four years after this year that could happen just administratively but if the board if any board member had a concern about the curriculum uh
092you know in years following I.E the the four years where there could be a renewal a board member could lift it up to the board for a full Board review and and possible you know action at that point okay thank you Mr Triplett yes uh just a question if if they are at schools that already have summer learning camps and there is no East Tennessee Freedom schools in the building can they go to those summer learning camps is that is that an option for them to enroll in advance you're reference in the Knox County Schools provided one um so yes and no because we are um our big lift this year is as everybody well knows is going to be meeting the ones that are required to attend for the rising fourth grade and Miss
093Thompson has been working diligently to ensure that we've got enough staff to cover that requirement first um and so we do have limited capacity from Knox County school side to offer seats for our first graders our second graders we are accommodating all the requests right now that we're getting hopefully for our third and fifth graders and then we certainly have to for our fourth graders because of the requirement so um I I can say that maybe it would depend on site and it would depend on how many teachers we actually end up having available because our first priority is to meet the needs of that fourth grade class thank you um it's your comment about uh parent choice Mr Watson I do appreciate that and I am a fan of parent choice I'm a fan
094of of parents having a choice in their education which is why part of the reason one of the main reasons I voted for for the charter school um and but to me this kind of organization and their their agenda seems to go beyond just simply education to to some sort of um I don't know whether term to use but indoctrination of of certain ideology that I I can't support and I know you talk about a kind of culture war and politically to me um it's not really about not even sure what a culture war is per se or a political agenda in that way really to me it's just a matter of personal conviction it is what what I firmly believe the Bible teaches and I firmly believe these topics should not be discussed with
095with uh with young people so it isn't really for me at all about kind of hot button issues in in the world that's really just personally a matter of conviction and I I can appreciate being willing to give and take with other members of the board I understand the concern there and wanting to provide that resource for students and I can appreciate that Mr Butler you know Desiring having that that option for students to to have a meal and a good program and reading and improve literacy and I think all of those are great goals but I cannot support those with the addition of of this type of material so ultimately in the end it's it's not a matter of of anything else but just it's just a personal conviction that I have that I
096can't vote for Miss Owen thank you madam chair I have a question for Mr dupler um do we have the ability to deny a community group access to a school based on the materials they choose to use thank you madam chair um schools have a duty to remain neutral whether it's political or religious so I believe what you're asking is if a community user wants to come in and use a facility it has to be on a neutral basis which are we applying it to this situation okay uh you know this this mou as has been discussed is asking for more than just facility use so if it were just facility use it wouldn't even need to be before the sport so that would be my response Okay so is our facilities they could still
097if we did not approve this if we if we choose not to approve this agreement they could still use our facilities they could still have other their program they could still do everything they've been doing for the last seven years and we could not say no correct so I I would say yes with the caveat and the caveat is no matter what group is using uh a facility that group still has to follow state and federal law so that that could be an issue and I and again I'm not saying that that is an issue in this case but I'm saying that you're asking me a very general question and I'm giving you a general answer thank you so the only thing so we are not considering approving the program at all is my understanding
098what we are looking at has nothing to do with approving the program the only thing we are approving is bus use and data sharing to see how well their program is working when you're approving the mou that's before you which which I mean includes that but you know puts the mou has you know various aspects to it I mean you know but I think Dr Wilson has accurately described that that's that's the big difference yes thank you Mr Watson thank you madam chair mistine I have one more question for you sorry I really do promise it's the last one and if you don't have access to this information tonight I'd like to if you could submit it to the board can you tell us about the um socioeconomic and racial demographics of the students in
099Freedom schools roughly yeah about 80 percent of our Scholars are black in 80 to 90 percent are eligible for free reduced lunch something in that range okay and again I'm not trying to speak to any one specific book I don't think we should I mean I'm I'm not I don't make decisions based on one book like but in terms of the curriculum as a whole would you is the intent of Freedom schools to leverage a curriculum that in the view of Freedom schools is more culturally accessible to the specific demographic that it serves yeah we talk about our books in two ways some of you may have heard this before but we talk about them as mirrors and windows right so we want to have texts that children reading them can see themselves or people
100that look like their family members or hear stories that are familiar those are the mirrors and then the windows right give children a view into other cultures other Lifestyles other places Etc and that's part of it is our empathy you know trying to cultivate more empathy and understanding about people who are different from us right in your opinion is that some of the strength and benefit of Freedom schools and why it's able to get the results that it does on the literacy side that the curriculum feels more accessible to those students that are engaging in it I think that helps a whole lot yeah yeah I think that's an important point in that where I might access that particular curriculum given my background and my upbringing and my sister economics and even my race it
101may not speak to me as much as somebody else who's accessing that curriculum and I think that's an important point and I think regardless of what happens with this particular vote I mean I think that's something everybody who's in education needs to be conscious of that the materials and the curriculum that we are putting before students are accessible to those students in ways that keep them engaged and interested in the mirrors and windows and that they see themselves in it so thank you for that appreciate it um Miss Horn thank you madam chair um Miss Owen going back to your question about facility use if this were simply a facility use question I think that we different organizations of any type can use our facilities and it's not even an issue I don't think that
102any of us would question that because various groups use our facilities on on a daily weekly basis so to me that's not a question at all I think when we enter into an mou that that's where it becomes a partnership and so we have a more of a responsibility to ask questions on the content and um so I just wanted to make that point that to me that is where we have to it's incumbent upon us to ask the questions because we know that KCs is held by certain State Standards on curriculum or standards of course we choose the curriculums that curriculum that fits into those standards so I think we do have to ask questions about the curriculum I'm just troubled by the fact that you know in a quick overview of some of
103the curriculums that are possible that there are some problematic texts that could be used so um anyway that's that's what I'm struggling with here spy thank you madam chair is there anyone that could speak to the value of the data that we would get from this as I understand that's a part of it correct [Music] Dr Wilson is that would that be you I'm trying to move to that section of the agreement sorry um it seems as if the data that we would be sharing with uh Freedom schools thank you Freedom schools would be um tied back into again that reading performance data so the assessments that we use in the spring window actually three times you're using the spring window in the fall window or the Ames wave assessments which actually dig into more
104specific skill sets within the student reading profile and so the data we would be sharing with them for students that are participating in their program would be that kind of ending Spring data for the year prior and the First Data of the Fall window the next year so that would be um the assessment of I guess what the summer impact of that that learning loss or capturing that learning loss would be so would this be just us sharing data or are we also getting data we jointly agree ment okay it's um so if we were is there a plan to get the data from them that would help Knox County Schools to better assist these kids in the continuing year again the assessment data we would be relying on we would collect already for our
105purposes through the aims web so we wouldn't be getting anything extra to what I've seen in this agreement now do you see additional data okay is that to maybe help them judge the success of their program it is and I would also add I think the additional data we may be able to glean from this is the impact of the program ourselves so we would be looking at the same data but that is not something that we could personally speak to at this time okay in the past is there anything have we shared data affiliated with that that'd be a better question for probably our ra department but we could we could find that out okay yeah I think it would be really helpful for us if we could get that information before Thursday thank
106you madam chair I just want to clarify the purpose of the questions I ask the reason I asked was because there seemed to be confusion over what we were approving and I want to be sure everyone understands that we're not approving the program we are only approving access to the program which is something that is in our our mission statement and approving the data sharing so that it can be determined how successful the program is and as far as using it for our own data I think having that information to compare with other summer learning programs might be useful to us even if we don't currently have a plan to use that thank you all right anyone Reverend Butler yes um struggling with this quite honestly but I do see um page four of the
107agreement number four says compliance with laws ETFs agrees to comply with any and all applicable federal state and local laws and regulations so if there's anything that they were to do that violated state law they would have to stop it's in the agreement they can't break state law so anything that you got a problem with state law wise they can't do that so um the other thing is that there are times when I hear things from the people in my community that I personally may not agree with but I was elected by those Folk so that is what uh as long as it's legal that's what we got to follow we got to follow state law we got to follow state regulations so I think once again I would say that this mou is something
108that we can and should vote for because this community had needs it it's it has been a blessing or benefits I should probably say in this setting for this community so I know there's a lot of reasons that one might want to find a vote against it but I really quite honestly say that if we're in the business of educating kids this memorandum agreement has what's in it to make to ensure that they're going to do what they need to do to to comply with whatever Knox County needs us to need them to record to to comply with and also once again parents are not just saying we want the program but there's it was just an elementary program it's been extended to a middle school program because of the need for the program and
109in our community and because of the parents appreciation for the program so um what I'm fighting for right now is is our community this neighborhood these are programs once again is not just supported by Knox County Schools and and I go on a limb and say if Knox County Schools said no Freedom schools would still find a way because dead garment we've always had to do this this is not new for us to have someone say no to us that you should be saying yes to it's not new for your personal opinions to be applied to our community that's not new it ain't about racism it's about having someone have power over what your community and what you think your community can do so we've this this organization has reached out and said hey let
110us work with the school system it haven't asked for anything it extravagant just simple things to work with you and you're saying no we don't want to work with you because of the book you read well I can tell you the person who the person and you tell me if I'm wrong is Dean but the person who's running who's in charge of running these is it the Green School is a member of the church I pastor she she's been our music director so if she reads if she reads a book and she said I don't know about this she's going to run it by Miss Dean and they're going to look at it to make sure that this is something that she wants her child to read so this is not something that you're saying
111oh I don't like this book I don't want to read it well if they don't like the book They're not going to read it we're not stupid we're not we're not ignorant we know how to take care of our kids and so the bottom line is is that to me it's a slap in the face to take what a National Organization is doing and applied to what this these three schools are doing in East Knoxville so you know I'm saying I'm having a tough time with this because I hear what you're saying but it just don't it doesn't just don't calculate in my mind that what I know about Freedom schools for the last seven years and how it has blessed our community and benefit our community and it hasn't been affected by any of
112those books none of those none of those issues come up those are not issues for us at that Freedom School you even had a Freedom School across from my church which was mainly we had volunteers at that school so this is this is supported by the community so you're not just saying no to uh children's defense fund you're saying no to East Knoxville and we have a lot of Community Support a lot of focal feeding into this and all they asked was the school system help out by sharing some data and letting kids ride a bus that's already running that's all they've asked for additionally so once again I I would be ashamed if this board said no Miss Horn thank you madam chair I Reverend Butler I do I appreciate that you have that
113you know the people that are working here I absolutely appreciate that my going back to the what I referenced about the 1619 project that book or that concept is not against state law so that wouldn't apply like number four wouldn't apply in that situation however if there are the fact that this organization has that on the reading list if that was taught in the summer program and then the kids come to school and they're hearing different history that could create issues for the kids because then they're hearing different issues different history so that I think that is that's kind of my concern because the curriculum it's not against state law so it wouldn't go against that contract respectfully Miss Horn that's already happening that's already happening um if we talk about Thanksgiving talk about Columbus
114Day and I can go down the list of History how it's being reported by one segment of population and how it's being reported by another talk to a Native American they may not see American history the same way a European American might see it it's how you it's who's telling the story so that's already happened and one of the reasons why we where we are right now is because we don't want to explore what the truth is when you have different stories being told let's sit down and talk and see what's the truth you may find out that neither one of them is purely the whole truth but that's part of the process of thinking and exploring educating so it's already happening there's a great deal of people who don't agree that it's something wrong
115with 1619. it's a book that somebody wrote from their perspective you read it there's some things Gonna Be True in it and things are not and that's been true by every book I've read to get my the ba my my BS my my my uh Masters and my and my Doctorate of the ministry every one of them had stuff in it that I agreed with and didn't agree with that's part of the process of learning and thinking so I understand what you're saying there's going to be some books on that list you might not like there's some books on that list I may not like but at the end of the day what the teachers are they're going to do is teach kids how to read They're not indoctrinating anybody people are not indoctrinated by
116reading those books people are are socialized by their families if your kids think about something more about a book they read and what they put what you're saying at home then maybe something wrong so the bottom line is is that I think that we're we're we're using this piece of information to push back against this and I think it's unfair it's unfair to evaluate this Freedom School has been providing this service for this long it's unfair to evaluate them by that book list because number one they didn't make up the book lesson number two I know what they do on the ground every every every week every every summer that I've been involved with with freedom schools that they teach kids how to read they help teach kids how to act in school they help
117kids stay involved in something positive during the summer and they give these kids something that the Knox County school system can't give them because you have people involved that are not involved in Knox County school system from the community this is a place we talk about getting Community involved communities already involved with Freedom School and then you're going to yank it away just because of a book that book is not going to make as much difference as it would not have in this program because of that book that's what the difference is going to be made that's what if you really want to think what black folks feel Black Folk don't feel about what they read in the book black folks feel about what you do to us and that's real we want real talk
118real talk is is that it's that book don't really matter to us it's just the book we living life right now and right now we're saying hey we want to have a program that we've been having we've been paying for we've been supporting and all we want for you is to let us help doubt us so we can make sure that we're meeting the kids needs better than we think we are and number two is that we just went around the bus you already running that's all we want from you but you want to argue about a book okay go ahead and vote against it well you won't have the community support that we're trying to build because one of the things that one of the most frustrating things is is to try to work
119with somebody that when you ask them for something a little bit of something they push back at you over something like this I understand what you're saying I don't disagree with you there are some ministers on our board they're not our lives we say hold it I may have a problem with that book and they go and talk with Miss Dean about it am I right about it and we deal with it so no we're not in a we're not morally corrupted we don't care about the book what's in the book we do but we don't handle it by not offering the support that's needed you said tell us what you need we tell you what we need and then all of a sudden we got to fight over it and I'm gonna tell you
120what what you providing ain't worth that it is not worth that and the reason why I'm passionately arguing about it is because I know the community needs it but we can just say go ahead and make your vote we'll make it work the way we need to make it work but we ain't gonna ask you for nothing and don't ask us for nothing because that's what we that's what I'm feeling here that when you need something in your side of town you get it we need something outside of town we don't and I want to work with everybody but if you're not going to work with me they're gonna what makes me think I want to work with you all right so is there any more discussion on that Miss Dean thank you for coming
121and if you don't mind sharing that I've seen it but I don't know if everyone else has um and I I mean there are some impressive um statistics there as well so that would be great if you could do that all right so moving on to agenda item 11. 12 or 13. 14 or 15. foreign 16 or 17. so one thank you madam chair I just have a question about this whole bunch of these for Mr dupler is it possible for us to have some kind of contract in place with Music Theater International so that we don't have to approve every single one of these every year Mozilla we've tried that and they've said no it's awesome okay yeah is this probably collection of the agenda and uh the agenda set meeting um all right
122so I think we were on 18. items 19 or 20. all right going on to board policies item eight A or B C or D e or F G or h I or J K or l m and item in I believe um is this the one we discussed needing approval on first reading possibly would you like to speak to that or Dr Wilson [Music] way you can because I haven't had enough time to talk tonight um no just kidding um so yes the Summer School attendance policy this actually is a policy that we put on maybe a month or two ago and we've been trying to be ahead of the eight ball with all things summer learning and the penalty we pay for that is that the state provided additional guidance on the policy
123and what needed to be in it so we do obviously with Summer learning starting in June it would be ideal to have the policy in place the additional language really just does some clarification around attendance days and makeup days the documentation that be required and uh and that we're calling out we will have a procedure for communicating with families around that all right thank you so moving into grants item a items b or c D or e F or G H or I contracts 10 a Spike you had mentioned is this the one that you had mentioned that something came through um earlier in the oh that was yeah oh that was a different one it said I did say TNA though you're corrected now sorry you did not know because my it looks like
124I have TNA written written down there is this the the one the same one that we had discussion on a few months ago and kind of brought some other stuff up um and and Mr dupler might be able to speak to that one but this actually we had this discussion and and the agenda set meeting because there seemed to be some mixed feelings on the board when we talked about it in policy review it is suspended for this year so it won't be happening this year but in order for it correct me if I'm wrong Mr dupler for it not to have to go back to their procurement and all that mm-hmm and for future years or whatever the term of it is we would need to take action on it now that's why fights
125there is that correct Mr Dipper yes that's correct um there's already been discussion and um the uh the issue is I mean it was difficult to secure this this vendor through procurement so uh but if the board votes for this particular item uh this vendor would not be able to uh to collect for any uh overages or or do balances this year the school year um and then what would have to happen is for this vendor to actually be able to start collections next school year um the contract would need to be renewed but but if the board votes this down now then it would have to be a completely new uh procurement process in the future if this moves forward and does not get voted down is this something where Brett Foster would she
126would turn people to this collection agency or would they just know everyone that was in default and move forward that way Miss Foster do you want to speak to that thank you thank you madam chair Miss back the process in the past has been that we also have a procedure that goes along with this policy for us to determine which accounts to send to the collections agency so the process in the past has been that we have someone in the school Nutrition department who is work specifically in it and so we get that data together and submit that to this company so when you do that um so you're not necessarily sending every single one like if there's a 20 default or something like that or if there is a family that is in need
127that might need to apply for free or reduced lunch you st you're still working with them absolutely so the way the procedure is written right now the policy references that the superintendent will set the procedure the procedure that we've worked off of Ever since we started doing this is a cumulative family debt of 25 or greater so that's one of the things that we do when we look at the data is consolidate that into family debt as opposed to individual debt we take out anyone that had qualified for free reduced price meals during the school year there's a couple other things but there's some procedure set of what things we take out of that before submission to the company okay thank you Mr Watson uh thank you madam chair I apologize I was not able
128to come to policy review in March because our groundbreaking for the Early Education Center we started got moved um so I didn't get to hear the discussion I know it was being brought up there can somebody summarize that because I know I know the intent was to review the policy that this contract that's impacted by this contract or that impacts this contract but I'm I know there was some conversation about possibly adjusting the policy right and I think there was also some conversation as to why we even had the policy to begin with right which Mr dupler maybe you can speak to I think that was an audit finding or um something along those terms um and I think in board members weigh in I mean there was some discussion on um wanting to see
129the impact at the end of this year and and where we were um I think we talked around we talked about expectations that these are not pre-introduced lunch families and that Brett's team she and her team are working with families that can't you know to identify those families that need help and walk them through that process so she went through I think it was at that meeting that she went through the dollar amount that had been increasing and it was it was going up and up and up and up and up and so basically I I think is that true and we talked about the fact that you know this that money has to come from somewhere so if it continues to go up we're going to have to you know make adjustments in our
130in our general purpose budget to allow for additional funds so if we can it's more it wasn't really the conversation as I remember it wasn't about the dollar amount it was more about having an expectation that you know we all are kind of you know if we know there's negative consequences that we're all a little more likely to make sure we do though um make sure we pay our bills so I think it was that kind of what the conversation was yeah you're correct that is a good summary of the conversation and just the expectations and the dollar amounts that were going up and Brett did a really good job of summarizing those dollar amounts I think monthly or almost weekly like this is what it looked like the first week into two weeks she
131yeah do you mind going over those yeah you talked about also like when you were doing the calls versus not doing the calls and what the impact that made and so she kind of has data that shows that yeah the threat of it is really kind of helpful if I'm the only one that didn't get to hear the date I'm happy to just have it emailed to me I mean I mean I don't mind if it's re-shared I'm just whatever's easier for you either way it's it's 13 which is when the calls were turned off through essentially today there is one week that is missing because we for whatever reason didn't pull a report that week but the week that the calls were turned off it was negative 213 557. the week so these are
132all starting the week on Monday so um 220 was 235 000. 227 was 258 351. 3 6 was 282 906 so this was the this was the week we turned calls back on because in policy it is written that we do that while school is in session so we don't make those calls during breaks so prior to Turning those calls on on Monday 321 it was 325 152. on 324 it was 283 920 so it went down from 325 to 280 in the 280 range once we turn the calls back on and started sending letters again 327 was 281 894 3 was 295 8.95 410 was 311 039 we don't have the I don't have a an actual number for 417 but 424 was 298 and then this morning it was 300 171 but after
133lunch it was 304 871. I did both yeah but thank you Miss Foster if you could send that that would be that would be great and just to be clear those are actions that the school was taking internally that's you talked about the different pivot Points in terms of turning on and off things those are levers that we're moving ourselves that's correct correct yeah thank you and then um Mr dupler just to clarify I want to make sure I understand so the contract because it's um because this policy has been suspended would not be in effect this year and what you're saying is even if the contract gets approved this year it has to come before the board again to get renewed before it would be acted on in the future year uh no the
134the administration would have to renew it to the administration next year for the contract to actually take effect because because this year it would not take effect because the collection agency doesn't begin until the summer so it wouldn't be board action that renewed its Administration correct administrative action okay thank you all right so is there any more discussion on that item sorry I've lost my face so item 10B 10c 10d or 10 e and the spike 10e was actually what I meant to say so nothing okay so moving into public form oh 11. I'm sorry another page I gotta wear my glasses more I am so sorry yes 11. I'm sorry yes 11 a our calendar that's a big deal too I can't believe I just move that off no discussion um 11b all right
135now public forum is Henderson yes now we have public forum Madam chair um Jennifer rose Jennifer welcome you state your name and County of residence and you have three minutes thank you um Jennifer rose Knox County I just want to thank you guys for taking the time to have the discussion tonight about the ABA policy draft and moving forward for the May 19th policy review um I do I know some of you guys had some questions and one of the other ladies speaking will be can we'll be giving you guys some more information especially regarding like payments and funding for parents or kids that don't necessarily have insurance um I do just want to make sure when we when you guys are talking about it um on May 19th that we keep in mind in
136the policy and for as far as who deems it medically necessary um because for me and a bunch of parents we Face the same issues time and time again as we get told in IEP meetings that it's the IEP team that has to determine something parents are also supposed to be a meaningful participant in those IEP meetings or medical doctors are prescribing this so there's not necessarily someone on the IEP team that can Trump that um same as you know I'm going through with my son and issues that I've talked about before that we're having at school with bullying and feeding his RBT his ABA therapist can be there to help with that being told no just flat out no with no reason for a medical necessary essential needed service for him is not okay
137um it's also Behavior doesn't necessarily mean just looking at the physical aggression or property destruction um behavior is you know in general it's how someone acts it's anything that a live body can do crying is a behavior interrupting our behaviors there are several different forms of behaviors out there that ABA can help with allotment is one of the biggest concerns um I had a client today that goes to a Knox County school that eloped during school hours if our team had been there with him this would not have happened so I just if you guys have questions concerning ABA how we can help what it looks like I'm in the schools every day in other districts we have a team that are that's in our group anything we can do to help support you guys
138through this policy review process we're here to do thank you Jennifer Courtney Piper welcome hi Courtney Piper Knox County I want to recognize and encourage KCs and the Board of Education to maintain forward progress with this new comprehensive external therapy provider policy and ensure it specifically allows for students with autism spectrum disorder order to have their applied behavior analyst or ABA therapist join them in the classroom this is welcome news that it will be on the May policy Review Committee agenda I hope our draft policy specific to Aba and the citations used to draft it proved helpful again I would like to reiterate my in our groups which now has more than 140 parents willingness to collaborate with KCs staff as this policy is being drafted we live this life every day and will gladly
139share our knowledge to develop sound policy there are three points I'd like to highlight an effort to make sure they are considered during the Drafting and review phases first it's critical that any policy redirects the current mindset at KCs which treats ABA therapy as if it were elective and provides a clear process for autism spectrum disorder students to receive medically necessary treatment at school second current KCs central office staff can supersede orders from a medical doctor and licensed board certified medical medical professionals when recommending medical interventions in short the question of who deems what to be medically necessary is an item of high importance third I want to make it perfectly clear that we want our insurance provided ABA therapists in the classroom we are not asking KCs to incur the costs of providing ABA
140therapy for background I'd like to share information about ABA therapy in a classroom setting from my son's board certified behavior analyst my son is in kindergarten at Sunnyview primary uh my son also receives 30 hours a week of ABA therapy and he goes to Clinic every Thursday now instead of going to school so he can get this therapy it was a decision we made in March after asking this question for nearly five months um again my son's bcba says ABA is a medically necessary treatment for individuals with autism and should not be considered elective in nature ABA is the only therapy approved to treat autism spectrum disorder while it is possible to implement behavioral strategies to gain compliance and increase learning in various settings ABA in its entirety is a therapeutic intervention designed to treat
141core deficiencies of autism and cannot be reduced to behavior management strategies finally I want to express my appreciation for being selected for the special education task force and hope my contributions will affect positive change thank you and I can answer any questions that you all might have too and thank you Courtney for your willingness to serve on that as well Allison Pasternak hello state your name County residents please good evening Allison pasternack Knox County I want to reiterate some of the things that my fellow parents here have discussed first of all thank you so much sincerely for actually having a discussion about this I personally have been asking for these services for my son for over three years and have been told no so I can't tell you how much it means that we're actually
142having meaningful discussion about this um so just to address some issues or some concerns that we as parents have about the policy that maybe drafted first thing is that as parents we must be given the ability to choose the providers that work with our children many of our children have been participating in ABA therapy for quite some time and already have well-established relationships with these providers all of the parents speaking about ABA tonight feel very passionate about the improvements we've seen in our children and yet most of our children do not even use the same provider like many practitioner patient relationships ABA is most successful when you find the right provider for your child and we all believe we have done that for our children the next item that must specifically be addressed in a
143policy that allows any outside providers to work with children in school is who gets to decide whether or not a child needs this therapy my son has documentation from three independent medical professionals who have all recommended ABA therapy as an appropriate form of treatment these providers have worked with my son for many years and are very familiar with his needs and the outcomes that are possible for him if he has the proper support despite this members of my son's IEP team have stated that it is actually up to them to determine if my son needs ABA at school it's imperative that the policy put in place allowing outside ABA providers states that the recommendation of any form of therapy from a medical professional be the final say in whether or not a child receives these
144Therapies in school ABA can be extremely beneficial in preventing and de-escalating disruptive behaviors it can also be life-saving for children who elope we've discussed that as well my sir my son doesn't currently exhibit any disruptive behaviors but he still has what ABA professionals refer to as maladaptive behaviors these are such things as difficulty attending to non-preferred tasks delayed start time of tasks and trouble completing tasks without prompting and redirection while these behaviors are not disruptive they do prevent him from being as successful as he could be working on these behaviors requires a trained ABA professional to be with him to answer I believe one of the questions my son currently receives 20 hours of therapy per week this is only because we have forfeited some of the hours he's been approved so that he can
145go to school and even with that he's still missing two days per week as opposed to the three days per week he missed for the entire year of sixth grade so please approve a policy which allows outside providers to work with our children they need this they need it soon and they need it with us having a say thank you so much thank you Allison Jessica hello Jessica Thompson Knox County hello again um I want to thank you all first um it's refreshing to hear some of your perspective and testimonies and understanding as well I wanted to touch base on a couple different things as far as the evidence-based practice of ABA and you know with moving forward with the policy review process looking the reason why in the school um the natural environment teaching
146which we've touched base on that is the natural environment for this the child the student so for us to be able to be in the school helping the teacher gain that instructional control with us and looking at fading outs we're not taking over we're not taking over that instruction from the teacher we're helping to increase that so we can Target those maladaptive behaviors which also are targeted behaviors of concern so whether that is communication whether that you know are those self-stems or the aggression and we're looking at helping fix those when it comes to Insurance under the Tennessee Department of mental health and substance abuse they do have the behavioral health safety net program and they have some other ones too which are for children that are ages three to the 17 that qualify have
147a qualified mental health diagnosis so you know there's that's for uninsured or undone Shard there's lots of other things through the states and then also TennCare that can support that but that was just through research I've been a professional in the field um and working directly for 15 years and so a lot of that was just based on Research that's available so we're just here um like you all stated looking at more of that policy for us to be able to come inside an outside providers in the school setting to support to help those training so then maybe some of those things can be replicated from the teacher to then you know fade us out so that there aren't those needs the reason why so many hours because our are approved if they are is
148because ABA is an evidence-based practice and that repetition and that and generalization there are targets that the analyst is is doing in the behavior plan that meets and is approved them by insurance and looking at this is what those hours are spent doing this is the progress that is to be seen and so that's why every six months then we look at getting reassessment with the idea of um decreasing hours that's what everyone wants to see so thank you so much and if you have any questions please reach out or um you know we are here thank you so much [Music] thank you Jessica Keith oh you're ready you're up hi Keith Britt 506 Milton Drive um like you uh board member bike I had two of my three triplets enrolled in the teis early
149intervention system and that is an incredibly impressive program and I was particularly impressed by the way it integrates with kcs's children age into it my both my boys did not need to integrate into kcs's preschool program but I I did get to see how that worked you know it it was seamless it was great it was very thorough and that's why I was so surprised um when I heard these parents come for several months now talking about their struggles about getting ABA therapy providers in the schools because as I've I heard in the discussion on the board tonight it just seems like a no-brainer there's really that no cost to this it's augmenting teachers not replacing them it should uh it should keep kids in school it should help reduce violence in schools which is
150uh obviously a priority right now um so I I am really grateful for the discussion I heard tonight uh outside providers for kids that are going to help keep our kids in schools and push uh push lunar learning forward seems like it's going to better fit the entire school system not just the children receiving it um but I think I think it's important that you guys explore the the Providence of why we don't have this yet because it had they have been asking for this for quite some time so why has there been resistance to this and I did some background research on it and it looks like it was simply a security concern maybe originating uh out of covet times um so I I don't think the the concerns have to be that may
151have existed before exist anymore um so I don't see any uh I don't see any barriers to this um so I I very much hope you you uh adopt a policy and uh uh uh board member Christy uh I I fully I fully agree with you there this does need to be an accelerated process because if you're planning on getting this in place in August we saw this with the Knox prep vote it was just bad State policy um it was it was they hadn't gone through it yet they didn't understand that there could be a 4-4 tie so what do you do in that case um and so you guys need to get this on the plate before the school year starts so we can work out the Kinks um before kids start needing
152that assistance in schools so uh thank you for your time and Godspeed thank you that concludes public forum Henderson so moving into board Forum Miss Deckard I just want to welcome Celeste to the board and express my excitement to see everything that she does this year and I'm just excited to see what she does [Music] Ertel would you like to say anything for um so hi my name is Celeste erdel I'm from Burien high school and I'm very excited to be working with y'all for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year and if you have any questions about me or what I'm like please feel free to come up and talk to me thank you and we're excited to have you here joining us as well Reverend Butler Miss Owen would just like to thank Cedar Bluff
153Elementary for letting me sub in the music room this week it was great fun Mr Watson Miss Henderson yes thank you um I just wanted to say um that we kicked off one book read city today in all of our 50 elementary schools uh so superintendent rizwick and I were at two of the schools this morning they did school-wide assemblies to kick that program off and this is just our community-wide reading experience and the shared goal is to promote reading at home and at school while engaging families in community activities so I also want to thank mayor Jacobs for helping us spearhead this initiative and Knox Ed Foundation the library y'all it takes a community to lift up this program and execute it and we've got a scavenger hunt for kids going on in the
154community right now at Community locations so I hope the kids take advantage of that for a chance to win a pizza party with mayor Jacobs at the end of the school year thank you Miss bye um I would like to say thank you to um superintendent rezwick and KPD and chief Perry yard for their Swift action on Friday and communication I really appreciated that and I have gotten a lot of emails and a lot of calls and I have not responded to them but I have read them and I am going through them and taking it very seriously um so I'm so sorry to all the students and Families at West High School thank you Miss Horn thank you madam chair I would just say to all those administrators and teachers who are watching thank
155you for um for your hard work this year and the last several days of school are always challenging so hang in there it's almost you're almost at the end so just thank you and I'm sure we don't have graduates watching but congratulations again to the for uh to the 2023 graduates and it's always I know many of us have said before that's literally like the most fun thing we get to do as school board members so I look forward to that and congratulations to those graduates and their parents right that's like the Super Bowl every year right and and we are recognizing um many on Thursdays and Thursday's meeting Mr Triplett all right with that our meeting is adjourned