WCS Board Work Session 2026-04-16

001test test. Okay, we will begin our meeting. This is the April 16th, 2026 work session for the Williams County Board of Education. Welcome everyone. So, let's first start with the consent agenda. We have had a request to pull item 6.30 um off the consent for second reading. Uh is that correct, Miss Wyatt? >> Okay. So, would you like to discuss um now while while we're on consent agenda? Anything particular about that? >> Now is the time. >> Yeah, we can do it now. >> I just want to I listen to the policy committee meeting. >> Microphone. >> Oh, thank you. Um I listened to the policy committee meeting. Still not on. Brian's telling me, do we think? Hello. Hello. Oh, lean in. Um, I listened to the policy committee meeting and I just wanted to

002hear um a little bit more either from Dr. Webb or Mr. Golden about um the steps that y'all were already taking considering um the from the walkouts this spring and just what that was going to look like for y'all already in the schools. >> I'll speak to it first and then ask Dr. Webb to give uh some details. One of the discussions that we had with our school administrators was was developing some consistency from school to school with the discipline. >> Uh and the particular board policy language >> uh would move uh a a skipping from tier one to tier two. Substantively, what that would mean would be that that uh that it would it it would result in some form of of uh of something more than just a conversation. Um there would be

003a consequence rather than just a conversation. >> Uh and so we talked to our school principles about that. >> Uh and I'm going to have Dr. Webb speak to the detail about where they landed. >> Thanks for the question, Miss Wyatt. Uh so every every school year at the end of the school year we pull our discipline data and have a summer conversation by grade band. So all the high school principles and assistant and several assistant principles will meet together. Same with middle, same with elementary. >> Um and in those conversations we look at we look at several things. We look at um the discipline data for the school year to to have conversations about the trends that we're seeing in our buildings. And we also talk about uh anything that the data is kind

004of leading toward in regards to consistency. Uh obviously the code of conduct has a lot of flexibility and we take a little bit of a loose- tight approach. We have some things that we hold tight to with consistency across our schools with each grade band and then for the all the other items and something new happens in a school every day. Um the the schools really have the flexibility within the code of conduct to have a consistent response to the behaviors that take place. Um, so based on activities this spring, we'd already pulled skipping class as one of those topics for conversation this summer. Uh, it was that most recent incidents or those instances that uh that you referenced that really brought to life the amount of variance that we have from school to school

005when it comes to how we respond when a student skips class. So, we want to draw some consistency. We want to hold tighter uh to that across our grade bands um versus the loose. So, where we're already headed in those conversations are going to be in that level two. Um, we would have we would have gotten there and and done that regardless of this proposed change. Uh, but this proposed change certainly is in line with where we're headed this summer. >> Okay. So, you're what y'all were already working on is about um being not about the spec specific excuse me event, but just consistency across the district. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. And then it's also that parents will still um we're not we're not taking away any of their opportunities if their student is

006going to miss school for an organized activity, state wrestling meet, a college visit that parents can still choose to do that and give their children permission to leave. >> Absolutely. The that policy is actually our attendance policy separate from the code of conduct and there's no proposed change to that. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions on this? So, so based on that, do you still want to have it be a separate vote Monday night at the board meeting or would you are you okay with it? >> Yes, a separate vote. >> Okay, do that for sure. >> So, Josh, if I may, just as long as we're as long as we're talking about it, the there there was only there was one um addition after the policy committee meeting on that um

007on that policy and it was on page it was on page four. Um, we did add a section at the bottom because we had I think some some language is either stricken or we just decided to have this more clear instead of including it somewhere else. But it was it was just about the fact that discipline of students with disabilities um and the discipline that it says not notwithstanding any information and or requirements of this policy any discipline of a student with the dis disability shall be subject to the rules regulation and laws governing discipline of those students. It was just for clarification of something that we probably have taken for granted or Can you remember exactly why we added that? >> That's right. uh and some of our other policies regarding discipline have some

008additional detail related to students with disabilities. Uh we actually have some of those cross referenced but what we talked about at the policy committee was there was no specific reference to students with disabilities. So for clarity's purposes for for clarity purposes for families we decided the wise thing to do is put that in there as a reminder. >> Okay. Any other [clears throat] questions or comments about the consent agenda? So, we will remove 6.30 [clears throat] and have a separate voting item for that on second reading. >> All right, we can move to the superintendent report. Mr. Golden. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, I have about four items that I want to give you a little bit of detail on, probably in ascending order of detail. Number one, we are in the middle of

009TCAP uh and our students are taking that. Those of you who have who uh have children especially at the high school level would have known that already uh because they are going through the end of course exams. Uh also [clears throat] uh TDOE actually extended the window for TCAP an extra week uh on the back end because of the ice storm. Uh and so the schedule is going to vary from school to school uh based on um our our schools taking advantage of an extra day or two. Uh so we do know that that TCAP will go into at least officially uh it extends until May 8th and that will include some makeup days as well. So one of the things we're doing with with TCAP those is is making sure some basic operational things

010aren't happening at the schools to to minimize distractions, things like mowing, you know, those those kinds of things. Uh to make sure to to make sure we honor that. Uh second, I do want to talk about our open zoning. Yesterday was the deadline for families to make their open zone request and today was the day that we ran through the uh the process of assigning it based on that computerized process. We this year have six schools that as of the moment that work was done have a waiting list. Uh that's a little bit more than we typically have. We have two elementary, one middle, and then three high schools. Uh Jordan Elementary, Thompson Station Elementary, uh have waiting list. Uh Spring Station Middle School has a waiting list. And then Franklin High, Independence High, and

011Ravenwood. All three have waiting list. If I'm not mistaken, Brian, those three high schools had waiting lists last year as well. >> U Yes, sir. Correct. And and Spring Station actually had a waiting list last year as well. if I'm not mistaken, it it finished up within one or two uh of that because some of those folks who have made the request end up changing their mind. So once that process was done this afternoon by Allison Nunley's group, it automatically sends emails to all families and invites them to to actually enter that they do in fact want that uh that open zone. So we we will go from now till the end of July with that with those waiting list where people will have the opportunity to step up if somebody backs out. To give

012you some numbers, the waiting list ranges from 10 at Jordan Elementary to 72 at Franklin High School. Uh so there is quite a variation uh in numbers. We do know that occasionally some families might choose two and and submit their request for two because they haven't quite made the decision yet. Our staff will be going through that process and determining determining, you know, how many of those seats that are occupied right now might actually uh open back up for those folks on the waiting list. Uh what the email that families received is that they are to make make a decision by April 27th. that's their acceptance date for the open zoning. Also, um we will our team will be double-checking for especially for those waiting list items. Uh the other portions of our policy that

013do have some other opportunities. For instance, if there's a sibling, uh then then our board policy allows a younger sibling to to go with their older sibling to to a zone. So it may be that a few of those seats actually open up because of the sibling clause in the policy. That's just one example. So our team will be working through that over these next few days into early next week. They'll be having a lot of conversations with ind individual parents uh about that. So Brian, I don't know if there's anything else you want to add uh to to that process. Uh, no sir. I would just say that uh they went through over 2,000 open zone u requests this year. The the zoning staff um they have to go through those individually. They work

014really hard. that team does. Uh, and when we ran the the lottery and it send automatically sends out the emails within 3 minutes we had 10 families that had already accepted uh that quick. They received the email, they accepted their slot. Uh, so there were people waiting on waiting on that to run today. Oh, and and just for for another step towards num for numbers sake, we had 2,120 f uh students make a request. So that's about 5% of our total student population, which is pretty consistent with what we've seen over these last few years. 2,120. >> So Jason, from >> Yes, sir. [clears throat] >> from a process standpoint, when when do they have to decide? >> April accept >> um April 27th. Okay. So the is the >> Okay, that that's that's good.

015That's a tight time frame just because I was just thinking about the waiting list people >> and the limbo that they're in in terms of there's lots of spring spring tryyouts and things like that. I've heard >> that >> um they're just in limbo until they know for sure if they're going to be able to get in. So >> yeah. Well, and since you mentioned spring tryyouts, Dr. Dr. Webb, can you speak to the to the process our schools go through, whether it's with someone who's, you know, waiting for that open zone or somebody who just moves in maybe over the summer, uh, with opportunities for extracurricular activities. >> Yes. So, for any activity that hasn't already begun, if they transfer to that school, whether it's an open zone situation or if it's a new

016student that's just moved to the area, uh they just need to reach out to the principal or to the coordinating coach sponsor, whichever it happens to be, and just let them know that they're new to the school and they'll arrange an opportunity for them. And I guess while we're on activities, can you just can you speak to the to how we how we look at these students and with with the TWSAA transfer rules? Um and so when students are are moving from from school to school, like what is what are the limitation of restrictions regarding I'm presuming that students are not moving to a zone and they're just being being electing to go out of zone. How are how is that treated from a from a sports perspective? >> So with T bless delay, it's

017the one-time transfer rule. So I would want to pull all of those details to send you guys in writing because it's new and I don't want to misspeak and anyone listening uh to take a misstep, but there there's a variety of ways when a student um wants to attend and to participate in athletics in a school that's not their zone school. One is a bonafide change of residency, which has been the standing practice with uh TWSA for decades. The other is the new transfer rule um in regards to u them having um a school change that's not due to a bonafide change of residency. And in both of those situations, there's the opportunity for them uh to participate in athletics um without a special approval. And then there's a third way is that if they

018don't meet those prior to criteria, then they could appeal to Tless for a special circumstance. And there's a a written appeals process for that. So, I'm happy to follow up um with the board and give you all those three options in detail um in case anybody askked you. >> But prior to prior is this the first year that that's been in place? >> This is the first year for the one-time transfer. >> So, prior to that, they would they would have to sit out a year. >> That's right. Yes, sir. So any any ideas just anecdotally Jason on or or Lee on on how many how many of these transfers are are primarily for for athletic purposes >> at this moment. I we really have no idea u because we've just processed it. Um I

019I have some anecdotal uh descriptions. We did have uh one parent even today say that they wanted to make sure that their child had the opportunity to to try out for cheer, middle school cheer. So we will have some >> um Dr. Rub, I don't know if you have any idea. >> Yes. So it's a great question. In our open zoning process, there's not um they don't have to indicate and and they don't indicate if it's for athletic reasons or not. Um, I would also say if if a family is concerned, like the family that reached out today, if you're concerned that you're up against a deadline, reach out to the school, reach out to us, and let us help give you some individual guidance on that as well. >> And to that point, for

020anyone who's listening, because it's TWSAA's rules, I want to reemphasize with a little bit different words from what Dr. Webb said, get individual help. um because the rules are so detailed that it's unwise for us to give a a blanket answer because there may be something peculiar to a particular person's situation that they really need to have that conversation with somebody at the school and submit that to TWSAA. In other words, don't make it if your number one thing is making sure you have that opportunity to participate, don't make a commitment to change until you have that conversation. >> All right. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. One thing, uh, could [clears throat] you, um, repeat for me the schools that are on the waiting list for sure? >> Sure. Jordan Elementary and Thompson Station Elementary, Springst,

021and then Franklin Independence and Ravenwood High Schools. >> Independence. Okay. Ravenwood. Thank you. >> All right. Um, I've spoken a little bit to TCAP and to open zoning. I did want to also mention uh I'd sent you all some information earlier today about the the uh the library policy that we first implemented this year based on changes in the law along with uh um with with with some detail about how it's going this year. Miss Hibma, I know that we've had some conversations about that especially and I know you might have a couple of questions. Uh to give you a little bit of detail, this year our librarians went through the process of of uh creating mature reading lists based on the grade level and maturity level of those grade bands at elementary school, middle

022school, and high school. Uh there are nine books on the elementary school mature reading list. I will give you one example. The Boy in the Strip Pajamas is one of is one of those nine books which has some World War II uh um references in there. Middle school books, they're 111. Uh my my experience tells me that that's the largest because there's such a variation in eighth graders maturity level compared to sixth graders. Uh so there's a number of books that might be appropriate for high school and eighth grade. And so that naturally creates a larger number. And at the high school level, there were 32 books on that list. I gave you all some detail of the process we went through with the state uh uh optin where a under the state rules and

023our board policy. Those mature reading books are not available to students unless a parent says yes, I want my child to have access to those books. So in the aggregate uh as we started this fall 58% of our parents said yes actually filled out that form and said yes I want my child to have that access. Uh that percentage varies a little bit by those grade bands elementary middle and high but that's the aggregate. 13% sent the form in and said no I do want do not want my child to have to have access to those. The highest percentage there was 18% in elementary uh and it was a single digit at the high school. But but for those lack of response when we did not receive a response the default is no those students

024do not have access. So the net result uh is that 58% of our students uh have access to those to those mature reading list um without without any more parent permission than than we already received and 42% do not have that access. Uh what we have seen is a pretty smooth process this year. Um with that uh the implementation of course we sent the reminders out to parents uh and it from from what we have heard uh Dr. Webb uh Dr. Royer uh Dr. Allen um it's it's relationally it's it's been a it's been a pretty good experience. Uh our librarians are still and will continue to go through the process of evaluating the books. Uh I know one of the questions that we had was that that there al are some automated systems that

025can identify particular words uh in in a book and and the question was in essence should we just re you know immediately move those to the mature reading list. Our librarians have used those opportunities and those systems to help to help fuel their work. But we have determined that for two main reasons, it's not appropriate for us to just automatically remove them. Number one, it's not wise to just rely on on the on those automated systems. Number two, the responsibility the state and our board policy gave is for our librarians to exercise their professional judgment. So they've been going through each each one of the books starting with those where there's been a potential notice that these might uh need to be on the mature reading list and then working through it over the course

026of time. They've gone through profession their professional many of their professional development days have had some time dedicated to those discussions. Uh Dr. Allen, I know you've popped in on a a couple of those. uh and also uh um um uh I've I' I've observed some of those discussions. I'd like to invite you to give some detail about what you've seen um related to the librarians work. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm not sure that I can add much. That was a very thorough good explanation. All I would say is that I think the exercise of the librarians uh having the collaborative conversations across uh buildings is a real positive step in the right direction. Um it opens up uh conversations and good communication among the schools for them to uh to get to a

027good place and and I just want to reemphasize what you mentioned earlier which is it's ongoing and really at this point will be neverending work. It's going to be part of their consistent work moving forward. >> Another key item I want to mention is uh there was a question about which books have been removed. Uh Steven Wulmarmac who coordinates our librarians work uh has let us know that the the the librarians have school by school list of what has been removed. They haven't differentiated in their removal the reason for it. Um and so Stephen is is gathering up those sometimes it's a circulation issue. Uh sometimes it's it's the the some of those prohibitions that we've received. He did tell me that especially at the elementary level, he does know that a number of art

028books were removed on the front end of this year uh because they specifically included some items that were strictly prohibited under that law, including artwork that depicts um uh uh you know, nudes, uh you know, Michelangelo's David, those kinds of things. So I we know that those books have been removed. We are working on gathering up all the information we have to show those the to to to share with you those books that have been removed. But what he tells me is he projects that the data we're going to have is is not going to include the wise. It's just going to include the removal. Um we can probably infer some of the wise for some of those books. Um but he says that those individual librarians actually have many years back of those that

029were removed from circulation because those were entered into their system. Another example he gave me is that particular titles might have different ISBNs because they might be different versions of the book. And so that's another thing that they're working on to make sure that that once a li once the librarians identify something that needs to be removed they address every possible it could be in a different language etc. Uh so um that's a little bit extra detail for you Dr. Allan, I thought you were about to add something. Certainly open to any questions that you all may have because I know this has this spent we spent a lot of time this fall discussing that. >> Yeah, I think it's very appropriate that the librarians al have that input, you know, not just automatically just,

030you know, use the system to to make those decisions um for various reasons. But I also but when I was looking through the report that we give to the parents, I felt that it was very um it just seemed like there was a lot of manual processes when the system itself has a lot of automated processes. And I'm just my my curiosity is uh why aren't some of those processes used to help the librarians? why aren't the librarians using some of these automated processes >> to help get the information to the parents or just to help with their own work? >> Um, and so those were some of the things that I addressed in um that email. And so that's where I, you know, and maybe just better a better uh explanation to the parents

031and where I highlighted some of those things that maybe we can update that that parent that parent form >> so that it kind of highlights that kind of stuff. >> Thank you for that. Um, I've I've sent that detail to Mr. Wulmarmac. We're going to make sure we have a discussion with our librarians about that. Uh, and some of those some of those uh those online software pieces will advance from time to time, right? And so, so I think there is some wisdom in looking to see if there's a way for us to communicate it better. >> Right. Yeah. Because Flet you can always upgrade the system because it's cloud-based. Um and also I think too that like a part of a librarian's job is to um you know remove books you know as a

032regular process for for various reasons but um and so just having a blanket list I think would be appropriate too just um because you know you don't have to put extra work on them for yeah >> separating anything like that. Thank you for that. And I don't know how specifically we mentioned this, but I want to make this clear. The librarians are working as teams to make sure that a decision is universal. Uh to make sure that if that that it's not just removed in one school library, but it's covers the entire grade band. It's not just on the mature reading list at one school library, but in covers the but covers the entire grade band. >> Thank you, >> Jason. >> Yes, sir. When we get a report, the age appropriate materials is going

033to go on forever. Oh yeah. >> So this will be something librarians are going to do for the rest of their career. >> Could we get a statement? How many librarians do we have? What's the total book count we have in our system? And what is the percentage of time that they'll be spending on just the age appropriate reviews as opposed to all the other things they have to do? We can do that. Okay. And we do know that the front end of course is going to be was was more time consuming. I will tell you every school has a librarian and any school over 1500 has two under the state regs. Um so I'm going to estimate we have somewhere around 56 or so librarians, but we can get you that exact number. >>

034And Mr. chair. Um uh I I I do intend to speak about the cell phone pilot uh to give you all an update on that. Um but because that was some of the work of the screen time committee, I think probably the appropriate thing is right now to turn it over to Andy Davis uh and share with you what we've been sharing pretty much every month this year about the progress of the screen time committee and then uh Dr. Allen or I may add some additional information. Um, I gotta give you this one little uh what what do they what do they call it? Teaser, I guess. Um, we are uh about 10 months ahead of what I think is going to become a new state law uh where the work we've been doing is

035actually now being requested or or required uh by the legislature related to a board policy. Uh there's a there's a new there's a new bill that that has passed both houses. As I understand it at the moment, it's waiting for the governor's signature. We're pretty confident the governor will sign it and I'll speak to that in a little bit of detail after Andy presents the most recent work of the screen time committee. >> Can I interrupt just real quick >> for the library? Can you also send us just like circulation data by school? Like how much are kids checking out library books and using library books? I' I'd be interested in that. >> Thank you for that. and and and that's a great prompt. We had this discussion last year at the high school level.

036The checkouts are pretty minimal, right? So, we'll get we'll get some data from this year. >> Are we ready? Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Um, good evening board. It's nice to see you all. This is kind of an awkward setup. I hate having my you all having to have your back. So, I'll kind of just stand over here in the corner. Hopefully, that works. Um, tonight we're actually going to do a more detailed catch up on the work um of what the screen time committee has done uh for you. Before I get started though, I do want to recognize um the parents, our two board members, the teachers, the coaches, the administrators that tirelessly have shown up month after month after month to do this very detailed work. and they have worked really

037hard to debate and discuss and really participate to try to make sure that the way that we're using technology in Williamson County Schools is enhancing student learning. And so I'm going to kind of rewind a little bit and give you some background that maybe you forgot because I'm sure you've slept since we gave you an update in February. And then we're going to talk about where we are currently with this work. Okay. Awesome. Okay. So this is the work that the committee is currently working on. So we started with that cell phone recommendations that we presented to you. I think that was in September or October. I think October we got those for you. And then this is the next big bucket of work that we have been kind of mission to do for the

038district. And so this is our kind of vision statement or our definition of where we're supposed to be headed. And we we literally show this definition at the start of every meeting to make sure that we're anchored in the goal of creating the WCS technology use guidance. So what it is supposed to do is establish an official district-wide protocol for standards for appropriate technology integration and instructional practices. So I've highlighted some key pieces there. It should explain the when, the how, and the frequency. It should have clear expectations, include best practices, operational parameters, not just for our teachers, but for students, educators, and families, and ensuring that technology use remains purposeful, safe, and aligned. So that is we we go back to that every single month to make sure that we're headed in the right

039direction. All right. So, here's our key progress on this WCS technology use guidance. Um, October, November, just a really quick recap, we participated in a deep dive of current practices, research, and usage data. And it took us two months. Mr. Fulmer, who is our network engineer, I think came and blew all of our minds with all of our filtering and all kinds of just different definitions and acronyms. We talked about our current best practices around instructional technology use and then we actually went into that January February piece where we really had deep grade level discussions around what was our identified topics based off of that research based off of our current best practices. Where could we shore up and improve any of those expectations? And we did that by actually kind of reviewing topics as

040a matrix by gradeband. And we'll go deeper into that in a minute. And then March and April, they the committee provided feedback on a draft. We've actually had done two revisions and you have the second revision in front of you and I'll kind of walk you through that here in just a minute. All right. So let's talk about February. So that's we Jenny Lopez who isn't able to be with us here tonight but she did talk to you about this matrix. So basically we're all sitting around tables and the committee members are really saying you know we should follow the AUG that's really important. It should be in this document. Well what about um student access? So we should we discuss that? What about monitoring? Should we require teachers to monitor anytime technology is in

041use? So we really debated, we debated by grade band and then we looked at it across grade bands and started to kind of fill out that matrix where there were any gaps. Then in March, this is when we really start to see that we saw the structure of the draft and so we identified what those areas were and what those topics needed to be in each area as a committee. What I'm most excited about, and you can kind of look at the draft that you have in front of you right now as far as the format, is that we have to create a document that is digestible to all stakeholders, right? It's user friendly in language that our families can understand it, that it's something that our teachers can really run with without, you know,

042a ton of explanation. And so where we started was we created like that purpose and vision. And that's the top area of your draft. So that's what it starts with. It's the why. The second part that I am most excited about and that I'm super passionate about is that it does have to be a shared commitment. My department, instructional technology, cannot bring this document to life. That's not going to happen. What we have to have is a shared commitment among our educators, our admins, our students, our families, and district staff. You know, that's us. um to make sure that this really does move forward and impact how students learn. Then we identified those four areas of focus. And so those are safety, privacy, and application vetting. Instructional technology best practices, that's more like teacher moves.

043And then intentional student technology use, that's a little more focused about student use. And then we really go into training and support because again this to bring it to life we have to provide training and support all along the way. Underneath each one of those areas you'll see a principle. That's kind of the mission or the vision for that area. That's the little area I was about to say in blue but you guys have black and white. Sorry. It's actually the italicized area underneath the area of focus. And then we list what are key expectations. And then another favorite part is that what does it look like and the practice for each role. So it's kind of like students will, teachers will, parents may, right? So it really identifies what is that stakeholder common vision

044to make it come to life. And then if you'll notice on the back, we have a page and a half of references. That is everything that we looked at as a committee, whether it was we emailed it out and we gave it as homework. And yes, we gave them homework or it was that we taught it, we did an activity around it or it's actually state compliance like there's actually some laws that we have to follow as far as how we use technology in the district. So that is basically the draft format that you have in front of you. >> Can I can I stop you just for a second? Yes, sir. >> I think the printout that we have may be missing a page. >> It should be front and back. It does area

045focus one to area focus. >> So if we can if we can get this electronically then that would be great. >> I will pass that on to you. I am so sorry about that. I'm not sure how that happened. >> Um yeah it should go one two and then three. Um okay so our draft feedback this is what we did in March. Again we got in those mixed grade group uh grade band groups and there was a lot of discussion. and there was moving around the room and what we asked from the committee is that we wanted them to break down each area and tell us what is the feedback, tell us what the editorial changes are, tell us what opportunities you see like where is this draft really hitting the mark for you and

046then tell us like or actually opportunities of like where can we improve it and then the successes like where where are we celebrating the work that we've done in this draft. And then they literally moved from like paper to paper. We were in this room and they starred areas of agreement and there was lots of discussion and this time they weren't in their K2 groups, their 912 groups. They were mixed because the plan is is that this is a K12 document and then they got to share out what they felt was really important during that first draft of the revision. So then just two days ago we gave them the second revision that you have in front of you. And again, I apologize that you're missing a page. Um, and what we did was something

047that we haven't done yet. We've always worked in groups. We've had a lot of like discussion, collaboration, brainstorming, but this time what we wanted to do was a digital form. And the reason that we did that is because we it really does align with our current practices for textbook voting. like we heard the board say we want to have data and we want to know reasons why and it and it really express each individual's thoughts about how they feel about the document. So this does align with the board's request for data and the reasoning for those selections. So this is what it looked like but it was actually on each piece of the document right. So the first one was about vision statement and shared commitment. So we told them here's the summary of changes

048that we made from the last time you saw the first revision. This is the changes. Next we asked them to rate how they how like how did we do? Do you agree it's clear aligned and you're ready to move forward as written? Can you do you want us to clarify the direction's clear and work workable but maybe there's some wording tweaks we need to strengthen or do you want us to just revise it like there's a key adjustment that we missed whether it be editorial or a topic that's missing and then we ask for them to explain that. Now again it was just two days ago. We haven't really done all of that information and really kind of disagregated it yet. But here is some key feedback that we just identified pretty generally. So on

049the positives and look it is five pages. One of them so impressed you were able to draft it in just five pages. Easy to digest. That was one of our goals is that it had to be able to be consumed by all the stakeholders equitably. um thorough, considerate process with input from many stakeholders. Clear, concise, and consistent. Strong support for emphasis on printed materials and hands-on learning in elementary. And actually, we don't just say elementary. We say that we prioritize non-digital approaches for conceptual learning. Um not permitted to to use technology during unstructured time. That was a major positive for the team. and then also the recognition that the process engaged research discussion, brainstorming and feedback. Some areas for some refinement that were identified quick trends is that we do need more specific AI guidance

050for teachers and students. I think that is more an education piece, right? We have a policy and we actually have an SOP around it. So, do we need to link it here, mention it here? you know, how can we kind of flush that out? They also were concerned that the 60inute K2 time limit, that's the only grade band that identified wanting to use minutes that it could conflict with some state required screeners and assessments. Um, and then sever one person mentioned that there were several clarifications needed before finalizing. So, we'll go back in and dig into that data. And then um there was also a piece where we really need to make sure that we have exception language for assist of technology users just like we do in our cell phone policies and things like

051that. I we state it but not as explicitly as we can. So that's that's some feedback that we'll work on in the next revision. All right. So that's the work that we've currently done. What we also did on Tuesday is we proposed a phased implementation to the committee. And what I mean by that is I think you guys know that change is hard, right? We have to get buy in. We have to have time to set up systems and processes. We have to have, you know, time for training um because there are maybe some training gaps that uh we need to address as a department. And so this phase implementation um is kind of in three different phases. So oh I'll start with this first. So let's start with the shifts in thinking. So the

052document that you have in front of you does align to our current technology framework. Right? We have an integration technology framework. It's very broad and it's not very explicit or really detailed. Right? It really is basically saying before you choose a tool, you should identify the standard and then the strategy and then and then only then if it enhances learning then you might select a tool, right? But that's not super explicit. And so this technology guidance that you have in front of you really goes into a lot more detail than just that that framework model that we used to use though it doesn't conflict with that. So with the shifts in thinking I want to identify five shifts that I shared with our principles last Thursday. I actually got to have three hours in principal

053PD and we went very deep into these shifts in thinking. So these are the big kind of changes that this document brings about. And what I want to say about this is that many of these came from the parents that you all chose as representatives. I think that I know that I've learned just as much from the parents in that group and thinking of of what parents needs and wishes are and from their lens than I think that they've learned from about from me about our current practices. So let's look at the first one. So the first one is application vetting. Now, we have always I I would say we are one of the strictest districts in the country, I would even say, around application vetting in our practices. And I felt very confident in

054what we were doing, and I still do. But what we've added to that beyond vetting for safety and privacy is that we are now vetting for instructional value. And what that means is is we're going to start looking at efficacy. Where are they where are student learning applications standards aligned? Right? So, our vetting practices are going to become even stricter with that piece. And let me just say, it's not Andy Davis vetting that instructional value. It really is on our TLA team. It's our curriculum specialists. It's those conversations and it's based on the efficacy research that's available. All right. So, that's a big shift that's going to happen for our teachers. The next shift that schoolisssued devices are going to be actively monitored by educators and district monitoring software. Right now we do that, but

055it's not a requirement. We don't require teachers to run digital monitoring software. And honestly, it's really even better that they use some traditional classroom practices, too. Right? It's that proximity. Like if I know that Miss Wyatt might be distracted, I get very close to Miss Wyatt while I'm teaching. Right. So, we're going to kind of shore up that there are some teacher moves that they can do that they already do well, but that there's also district monitoring software that we use in the district called securely. So, that will require some training there. The third is that technology uses planned with clear start and stop times to support f focused learning and healthy routines. So what we mean by that is that it is teacherdirected that we don't just have laptops open endlessly throughout the day.

056That it really is for a purpose and it's planned with clear start and stop times. Number four is active technology use is prioritized over passive consumption. In almost all of our research, a lot of the shifts in thinking in general nationally have been a move away. Even the American Pediatric Association has said quality is more important than quantity. And it really is about the active engagement, the active technology use of our students. Are they creating? Are they doing things that are rigorous that couldn't just be done on a piece of paper? like why would we bog them down with more screen time doing that? We've already started this conversation last fall with our teachers when we had a um PD that all of the teachers took about blended learning and the active technology piece was

057very it it's new vocabulary to them but we're already having some great conversations around that. And then the fifth shift again because we're going above and beyond we're saying that the quantity because we do think that the amount of time is important to look at and the quality of student technology use data is analyzed to ensure technology integration remains purposeful, developmentally appropriate and support of student and supportive of student learning and well-being. So we've got to look at how long we're spending, what are they doing, and how are they using that tech, right? So that's really that quality piece. So just because a product may have great efficacy, well, if you put a kid in it for, you know, not that we're doing this, this is a bad example, but I'll say it anyways, for

058six hours a day non-stop, eventually it's not going to have that efficacy anymore, right? And so for the first time, our teachers are going to have access to that data. Right now, they don't have minutes of what kids are doing in their classrooms. They would just have to kind of guess. All right, so that's the big five shifts in thinking. Let's talk about what this phased implementation looks like because even though there's only five, those are deep shifts. Like there's there's work that we have to do for that. So here's what we're already working on. I remember when we started this committee a long time ago and it's one of my favorite things Miss Wyatt said to me, Andy, please don't wait. Please don't wait. I hope you're not going to wait until this guidance

059is done to start this work. And we have started this work. So, oh, is it going to do one at a time? Just click them. Okay. So, principal training and communication and our curriculum specialist training and communication. We have already spent a lot of time with our leadership in really talking about these shifts and and and how we can best support that. Next, Mr. Golden has already communicated to our staff. I think you guys saw that in the Friday notes of what is coming, the work that this committee is doing. Um, and that we will continue to communicate with our teachers and staff about that. We've already changed our vetting practices. We have two um applications that we are revetting currently and they were actually brought to us by parents of like the we think

060that these are not appropriate and so we are revetting those using these new standards where we are looking at efficacy some gamification pieces and also advertisements. Next, we are working on and we will have it ready by 26, fall of 26, access for parents to see their student analytics and then access for teachers to see their student analytics. So that will be ready to go for 26. Learn platform. Learn platform is our digital repository of application vetting statuses. So, if I'm a teacher and I want to use um a tool to improve, you know, um maybe I want to assess and I'm going to use Schooly assessments. I can go in and look and learn and I can type in Schooly and it will give me that approval status. Well, y'all, I have been in

061this department for 12 years. We have a lot of applications in there. So, right now, we're really looking at like what can we just clear out because it's just so old. And then what can we really decide we're going to start to revet again to really impact student instruction. And then also we have a class link store. Now don't get scared. It's not like the Google store, the Google Play Store. What it is is it is a list of WCS approved apps that students can go and get off of that dashboard and pull into their own class link. We've gotten feedback from principles and they're like, "Nah, they don't need it. They don't need it." So likely that's going to go away by gradeband as well. But again, we've got to look at the data.

062We need to get feedback before we just unplug that um area. And then here we are sharing the draft with the school board. This is our second revision draft that you have. And then we do have to continue to finalize it. We did get the feedback Tuesday night. We've got some more work to do. So we will give them another revision um in May. All right. two more phases and then you guys can certainly ask questions. All right. So, back to school 2026. There is a digital literacy law. It's called the teen media, no teen social media and internet safety law or safety act. Um, and it's been around for a couple of years, but but starting in 2627, uh, 612 students are supposed to participate and there's like standards and objectives that have to

063be done. So, we're working with counselors to create those resources. Our new vetting protocols that will be ongoing and y'all, we change our vetting practices yearly. Uh, we just added um web content accessibility guidelines um at the beginning of this year. Like, we always change our practices and make sure that our vetting is the best that it can be. Again, we're reviewing that Class Link store, the analytics plus that's going to be available for educators and families. Um, we have an internal site that our teachers use. We have a lot of work to kind of clean up and make sure that that site is what they need and that it's in line with our new guidance. Part of the committee work is that family resource hub. So that is information for our families. Like some

064of it might just be some basic stuff that they need to kn know like here's where the AUG is, here's how you log into Skyward. But also there will will be we're getting this information from our committee as we speak resources about maybe limiting screen time at home or how best practices for where you should store a Chromebook like at your house like it shouldn't necessarily go in the bedroom with the child overnight, right? like so we're going to start working on um curating that information and we're partnering obviously with Corey Mason and his communications department because again that is their area of expert expertise. So we're going to lean really hard into our communications department and then we are working on districtwide PD um which will be in August and that will be the

065launch of this guidance. Okay, 2627 and I think this is we're we're getting close. So this is the phased approach. I we can't just make it happen all at once again. We've got to go slow to go fast. We've got to do some training. We've got to shore up some maybe some misconceptions about some of the platforms, technology use, all of that stuff. So remember securely that's our digital monitoring um software. We're going to train our digital learning leaders. We have one per building and our instructional coaches to help be that one onetoone support in the school buildings. Our principles that was their number one ask and to help us make sure that we can monitor students is that they really wanted a train the trainer model for that. We also get to have another

066flex PD for all teachers between October and December. Um we've we've kind of talked about like what are those digital look fors for admins when they walk into classrooms? What are you looking to see that students are doing? What is active technology at look like? What are those coaching conversations that you have with um teachers? And then professional development. We're already working on this. So best practices for tech integration, class link analytics because the teachers have to know how to use the analytics that they're going to have access to securely and that's a level one, two, and three. And then again our flex PD. What I think I'm also excited about and I know that Dr. Allen is also really excited about is we talked to our committee on Tuesday and we understand that in

067May this work will not be done. We have to spend more time with our shared stakeholders to continue this work to get feedback to make sure that we are holding up to the things that we need to be accountable for and and also to give progress along the way. So, we know that some of our committee members, they're they're tired. It's April. I couldn't believe how many teachers showed up the second day of TECAP, right? Um they looked they were tired. Bless them for showing up. So, what we want to do is continue this and we're going to give our committee members the option, right? Because some need to move on to other things, but we will make sure that if we lose a parent, we get back a parent. If we lose a, you

068know, a secondary admin, we'll get another secondary admin on the team. And we, our plan is is for that committee to meet semiannually so that we can constantly just kind of give everybody touch points of how we're doing. Okay. So, this is just our meeting timeline. Notice May 12th says finalization. Our committee members may look a little different after May 12th, but we will continue this work and we'll continue to give you all updates. um as we continue the work. So I want to give um if Miss Wyatt or Miss HMA want to add anything and obviously Mr. Golden or Dr. Allen if I missed any forgot anything you all I'll give you all the floor and then I'm happy to answer any questions. So I think you've answered my question um was that the

069the teachers who are also the digital learning leaders and coaches they will be like um getting trained as well as training their the teachers at the school to make sure that um because the big question came up was that the that the students devices were were all secure during the class time for every class, right? So that they couldn't play games and different things like that. >> So what I want to clarify is that we do have very strong content filtering that is always in place. However, sometimes kids can be distracted by opening other tabs, going places, even though they may not be inappropriate, but not being where they need to be. Right? So securely will help us fix that problem, right? And so what we have always done, we've we've had digital learning leaders.

070We have one per building and we've had those now for about three years and we work very closely with those teachers. They get a it's an additional like academic supplement stipend. And that's that is who we train and we meet with them um quarterly and we provide them additional training. And so they know, teachers know in the building if if I'm stuck or if I have a pedigogy question about technology integration, I'm going to go to my DLL, right? >> This might be helpful, too. One thing we talked about on Tuesday is that teachers have different comfort levels right now with securely. So that's why they're offering the training. Correct me if I'm wrong. It says securely one, two, and three because some are already using it a lot. But that way they're meeting them

071where they are. like if they aren't using it that much right now, then the training will help them in really understanding that that they are using it differently right now. But to try to get everybody on the same page. >> Absolutely. And we've never required monitoring before in that way. It's just been, hey, this is really something that can help you. >> Um, but now that it is in these guidelines like an expectation for teachers to do, we want to make sure that we can meet them where they're at. I just want to make sure that they can um you know that that they're all everybody in the building knows how to secure down the the student um computers when they're coming into the classroom. >> Yes. And we did share that with our principles

072as well. Our principles actually have access to a securely dashboard that really shows them the data of who's using it, the pieces that they're using, how they're using it. It's it's really great. And we actually just turned that on for them before our PD training because we really wanted them to have the data to help drive their instructional decisions as well around the implementation of that key expectation. >> Right. That way it can target who needs the a little bit of extra instruction to move from maybe level one to level two. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you. >> I was just going to ask about the I know you talked several times about training. Do you know how many total hours of training there are related to this planned? >> So we haven't

073counted it yet. Okay. And because so I just want us to remember that contracted we we only have 12 hours >> generally that 6 hours for teachers is um in their PLT time or working with PLC's. And then this year we're really highlighting the reaching all learners with Kate Martin. So some of this will be optional but I think what we're doing is that as we work with administrators more it will be more embedded inside of you know possibly a faculty meeting or it'll be like little bits and pieces here and there. Um but again and then that flex PD we do have two hours that we can it is required for teachers to attend. So, we're still trying to figure out like where do we prioritize that two hours to make sure that we

074can make this the most effective that we can. Okay. Thank you. >> If I could just add something to that. >> I think I think the key point is um the total hours of professional development for the teachers is greater than the hours that we have available to provide them professional development. So, unfortunately, that's what's got us to this point where we said we can't really do this all at once. that's led to the phased implementation, the targeting the really key pieces. Miss Hna pointing out the security training. We think that that's right at the top of the list. Um, and then phasing it in, but then also continuing that committee work so we can come back and report out on our progress and then maybe that committee can can help give us feedback on

075we really need this next set of training to be around these particular pieces. So, that could be another piece that the committee can help us with, too. >> I think that sounds great. I feel like it goes back to like what you were saying the previous slide about the just the shift in thinking it's it's a cultural thing. So it's going to be embedded in so many part like even in Mr. Golden's email on Friday. I think it's just going to be embedded in a lot of the communication. So thank you. >> And and I just want to add we've gotten off to a really good start. Mr. Golden uh and and Miss Davis alluded to this. Mr. Golden and I talked to all principles K through 12. Um, and their response and and I'll

076look to Julie and Lee to to affirm this or not affirm this. Their response was really positive. Like they were really excited about the shifts. They see the significance, but they also see that we we we have gotten to a point where we really need to reel it back into the most significant pieces of technology that we really can prove through the research that enhance the learning. And so our principles right from the very beginning are are excited about the shifts that we can make while keeping our eye on the targets. Our outcomes for students are still really really high. So we don't want to do anything that takes away from teachers something that they're finding great success with. But we also want to make sure that we're we're we're taking the charge of the

077board and and reducing the amount of time that our kids are sitting in front of screens too. >> It started with a lot of head nods from administrators as we were walking through this. And of course Andy mentioned three hours worth. We're not going to give you all three hours worth uh to today, but it it started out with those head nods and then we started getting into some specifics. I'm going to give one example. If we're talking about efficacy with an app, many apps don't have research backing up the app. Uh which means many of our apps that have been that have been used may be going away. Right? So that's that's part of the that's part of the change that we're talking about. All right. I wanted Sorry, there couple more questions. >>

078Sorry. I I did have a few questions. Thank you for this. It's excellent. So, um, securely you mentioned level one, two, and three. I just wanted just a brief explanation of what that means. >> Sure. So, it's basically what we're doing is personalizing the instruction. So, again, we have some I would say because again, the technology use is higher in middle school and high school. We have teachers in middle school and high school that know securely and they know how to limit tabs and they know how to really monitor their students and look at the reports afterwards if there happens to be some type of an issue, right? But there are some teachers that are more at the beginning. So like our level one would be like, okay, what are those key best practices that

079if you don't ever get to level two or three, >> what are we going to put in level one that we want you to walk away knowing so that our students are focused >> and where they should be during classroom instruction, right? So that's like the level one. Level two is kind of like nice to haves. You can chat with kids like you can literally say, "Hey, I see where you are." And a little message will pop up on their screen. Do I need teachers to know that for level one? Nope. That's a nice to have. So, there's some push URLs. There's some fancier fe features that we will start to use in level two and level three. But that level one is like if you do anything, do these things to really keep everybody

080engaged and focused on what on the learning. >> And then a follow-up question, thank you for that is um the application vetting. So, you know, historically, I know like our PTO has purchased apps on request by from the principal and you know, and that was fine. That's but I'm assuming that's going away because so that's I think where we have to have further discussion on loose and tight, right? So, I know what schools are purchasing because it comes through me through the purchasing finance. Anything that anybody keys in as software technology, it comes through me. I go look it up and learn, make sure that we're good before I ever approve that purchase. PTO's will definitely be a little trickier and it's not necessarily my expertise. So, I would look to Mr. Golden or Dr.

081Allen about how we would rein that in. >> Well, it's going to have to go through that same process, that same vetting process for those three key items. >> Okay. I was just wondering if there's like a district clearing house, your office or whomever that gives the ultimate stamp of approval or is it going to be coming before the board um because Andy mentioned there's a rather large digital repository with lots and lots of >> um applications in there and they all have a cost and so I just kind of wondered how that was going to work. >> So not all of the applications have a cost. Our vetting practices are that anything that requires a username and a password or a login has to be vetted through our department and we don't vet in

082isolation. We vet with the other IT, we vet with departments, SSS. So because we we do vet like the quality of those applications as well. So we lean into those other departments for that piece. So the reason why it's um applications with a login is because that tells us immediately that it's collecting data, right? And so if it's free, let's say for example, you go to National Geographic, you pull up that website, you play a video off of that, and you didn't log into it, it didn't collect any data, any student data on you. Now, there is a policy that we already have in place where teachers vet instructional materials before giving them to students. That's where I feel like those pieces fall in, right? Like I would definitely want to preview that National Geographic

083video prior to showing it to my students, right? That's an important piece to do, but that doesn't have to be vetted by our department because it's not going to collect the data. >> Yeah, I have another question. Um as we are um calling these apps [laughter] right um there's a process to make sure that all student data is been um uh protected. >> What was that? >> Purged. >> Yeah. Protected. Yeah. Yeah. Purged. Yes. Purged is the correct word. Um, and but I know there's third parties in a lot of these apps and so especially the ones that when we talked about um PTO apps that are are selected and so you know what um have we have they thought have you guys thought about the process for um purging making sure all of that

084data is is you know purged from from these apps especially the ones that are more um chosen by the individual schools. So, we have and we're working on refining that process. Mr. Fulmer and I are actually we actually had a meeting today and I had to push it for something else. But yes, we are looking at it again. We're we're looking at that process again just like we have all of the other different processes with the application vetting piece. So, yes, that is also on our radar. >> Um, so tell me more about DLLs. >> So, DLS are digital learning leaders. They are selected by their principal. they do not work for my department. Um, so they work for their school. They work they partner with their principal to and that principal kind of decides

085like what the goal is for that DLL and it's part of an academic supplement. So we have academic supplements I think. Um, so for example like a BLT teacher leader or >> so they're a classroom teacher. They're >> they have to be a certified classroom teacher >> but it's not like a separate job. Oh no, ma'am. No, it's in addition to them and that is part of the challenge is that they are in classes all day. Some of our principles provide some additional time in their day knowing that they're a DLL and kind of embed that in so that they can go and like support teachers like during other people pl other people's planning and things like that. >> And by the way, Miss Davis mentioned BLT. That's a building leadership team. she'd use that

086as another example of a supplement where a teacher might be doing a little bit extra. >> And so, and this might go to Dr. Allen. Um, with instructional coaches, is there like a criteria that they have to know how to uh use instructional technology effectively? Do we do a district pull or those hired by the principles? Like, how? Because I could see those. I mean, the coaches are there. We've got two per building for what? Elementary and middle, I think, one for high. Like, how are they being leveraged to support this work? Thank you. That's a great question. We leverage them a lot. So, we go to their coaches meetings. Generally, they have once a month coach meetings. My specialist who's here today, April Johnson, she works with those coaches. And so, that they are

087also on the front lines. So pretty much anything that a principal is being trained on, a DLL, a digital learning leader and those coaches are all hearing that same message so that they can support the teachers in their buildings. So we model um best practices and strategies um and sometimes it might be a certain tool um so yes they are heavily we we use them a lot >> and I can't remember um in the connect hub the data that we're collecting for instructional coaches do we have a bucket for like instructional technology >> so I don't think we do I'd have to look to be for sure but I don't think we do and I think part of the reason is is because it's integrated and what we do is we coach teachers I mean

088our we coach our coaches of those same types of like coaching questions right so it's like that um walkthrough that I was telling you about for administrators so it's those same conversations we have with coaches when you walk into a classroom what should students be doing what should teachers be doing like what are the moves that you're looking for and what are those coaching questions we actually have a meeting that's coming up in May and we're going to give them some time to start creating kind of their own instructional playbook of what some of those coaching moves are to help support this new guidance. >> And then the last thing I just want to say is, you know, thank you so much for leading this process. I love the collaborative nature and a process like

089this is something I'd like to see for sped for budget for like as much as we can because I think when we you know get I know particularly for my constituents when I get emails of complaints it's usually because they haven't been involved in the process and then this decision comes down and it feels like it's being done to me not oh I had you know part of the process. So like I said I'm really loving this. I think um the implementation is going to go so much more smoother and um yeah, I just would like to see it replicated. >> Thank you for that. Uh and and from a leadership team perspective, that's that a constant give and take, a constant battle about about about need versus involvement of everybody. Um we started this

090in May of last year. >> Yes, sir. >> Uh and that's actually a pretty good Well, there may be some other questions. I was actually thinking that's a good segue to uh to a little bit more information. you were talking about something coming down just uh just just from above proverbally. Uh the the state legislature, both the Senate and the House have passed a bill uh that is focused exclusively right now on K through five. Uh and so I want to read some of the requirements that they're placing on us and all LEAs across the state, assuming it's signed by the governor, hasn't yet. uh that that uh that just reminds me that it was wise for us to get ahead of this, right? We anticipated this. Many of you shared with us some prompts

091that helped us start thinking about this a little quicker. Uh and uh and some of our team members were doing the same thing that led to the discussions and the planning of this group. So th this new this bill if passed will require number one that for grades K through five schools have a policy that prioritizes in-person teacherled instruction and the use of non electronic instructional materials as the primary mode of instruction for students. I think that sounds familiar. Uh second, limit the use of digital devices to instructional purposes for which such use provides a clear educational benefit. Uh third, uh prohibit students again in K through five from accessing social media platforms through internet services provided by the LEA. That's something we've had in place for for years and we're we continue to fight

092that every day with proxy URLs, etc. Uh fourth, ensure that electronic assess assessments and instructional tools are developmentally appropriate and aligned with state academic standards. Fifth, provide parents with transparency regarding the types of digital devices used by students in the instructional purposes. Now, there's a number of exceptions uh that they that the legislature includes in that including services for students with disabilities, accommodations for particular devices. Um they even mentioned the universal screener. Uh Andy, you mentioned that one of the comments from the committee was I'm going to use my phraseology. Oh my goodness, this might conflict with the state requirements. Uh so they have some exceptions related to that. So, u my my ask of you all given the timeline that Andy shared uh with with the May finalization projected for this committee is look

093at what has been provided by the committee. Uh and over these next few weeks in preparation for their May 15th discussion, share with us if you have any thoughts or suggestions. I will tell you for me uh I have I've gotten a lot of value at looking at that section of what this looks like in practice. Uh so some of the terminology that might be in the earlier in the earlier uh pieces which includes key expectations really get some some meat for how things are going to be done at the classroom level with that what this looks like. So we we do ask that you take that and we'll make sure you have a you know the all all pages given that front and back. Uh we we I guess we try to avoid killing

094a killing a tree or two uh with that front and back. Make sure you have that. Uh share your thoughts on that. You all have have sat uh and listened and ask questions for probably nine meetings uh related to this committee. A chunk of them related to cell phones, but these most recent ones related to instruction. Um share your thoughts uh as we work on this. Once they finalize something, it will be a recommendation to you all as a board. Uh, and then we will be bringing a proposed policy to you. Uh, and we're going to make sure that those recommendations are consistent with this what I anticipate to be the new state law. And we're also going to be having some conversations about how much of this is policy, how much of this is

095SOP uh and make sure that we put that in a coherent form uh to comply not only with the state law, but to do the right thing by students and uh and and to use my vernacular minimizing the use of technology to to where it truly enhances uh instruction. So that's our ask of you. >> I have a question. Can we get a copy of this these charts? >> Yes. We'll make sure and we'll have some extra hard copies for you on Monday as well. Uh that that that have all the pages. >> And which department will be writing the policy? >> Um uh we will as a as a administrative team present you all with a draft policy to discuss at the policy committee meetings. >> Okay. >> Um I anticipate TSBA will at

096some point have a template policy. Um and so we'll we'll do a double check with them. Uh but again, we're a little ahead of the curve on this because our teams have been thinking about it. Uh and and I I'm going to share with some of those folks and let them know that that we've been working that already uh working on that already. I don't anticipate their recommendated their recommended policy will be as comprehensive as we anticipate our policy to be uh because the state law says K5. Our discussion has been uh at at all grade levels. Okay. Thank you, Andy. Thank you for that presentation, for all the great work. >> Anything else from your report, Mr. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do want to give you all an update on the

097pilot that we've been doing, the experiment we've been doing with with cell phones at the high school level. You may recall that we spoke a couple of months ago uh in response to the policy that was passed, the changes uh to our cell phone use policy where we were going to do a study uh over the course of the second half of the third quarter and the first half of the fourth quarter with students in Faraday pouches and some other uses uh monitoring both uh both uh um well I want to say objective and subjective but it's quantitative and qualitative. uh information that window for the experiment has just closed uh or is closing at the end of the week if I'm not mistaken. It's closes tomorrow. Thank you, Dr. Webb. uh based on that

098first half of the of this fourth quarter uh we are getting prepared to start sending uh requests for information out to our three main stakeholders parents students and teachers uh in those in those schools in essence about how that's gone with those variables that we introduced where we had control groups who did not have a fair day pouch experimental group who did control groups in other schools uh and experimental groups so Dr. web if you would can you share some details of uh what we're going to be asking of our folks and some timelines. >> Yes, thank you Mr. Golden. So the quantitative portion of of the of the experiment as you called it uh we'll start disagregating that data next week. uh and that is the number of um times that teachers, staff members

099in a building had to uh address a student who had a wireless communication device, whether that be their cell phone, their AirPods, their uh smartwatch, all those different things. Um and then how many repeat offenders that we had in each school. So, we'll start disagregating that information next week. At the same time, we will have our principles at the four high schools that we're participating to send communication to parents through Skyward next week. That Skyward communication will have two things in it. It will first ask parents to either um to choose to opt in after viewing the the survey questions that we want to ask students. The state does have and our local board policy have uh requirements for us to make sure that parents see the questions for a survey and have the opportunity

100to opt in before their students are asked to participate. So they'll have that in that email communication. Uh they'll also have a series of similar questions uh for them as parents to respond to. So next week will be that parent communication week. The following week, we will have um the parent the the parents that opt their students in, their students at school will have on their class link dashboard um the survey to get their feedback in regards to their participation. We'll also be asking staff members and teachers um that same week uh to give us feedback. the end of that week, we'll close those out and then we'll spend a week uh reviewing and analyzing that qualitative information in preparation of coming back to the work session in May and presenting all that to you

101guys. So, that's kind of our timeline. We'll be finalizing the process with principles tomorrow and we'll start collecting those additional pieces next week. >> And if I may also, Mr. Galborth and I have had a discussion about um potential policy uh as a result of this information. So, I anticipate we'll be having some discussions at the next policy meeting or two as well. >> Okay. >> That's my report. >> That 45 minutes was uh about an hour and 20. >> It's okay. We're going to breeze you through the rest of it. Um I do have a I mean I would like to ask for an update about the T2 program and um cuz I know we've gotten some emails about that and I know you've responded um I think we have some audience members who

102would like to hear more about that uh and what that entails and how we're going to move forward with that and how they might be more involved in the decision-m process. Yes. >> Uh thank thank you for that. Uh Dr. Johnson, uh we did send you some some information about Marie Grigo and her team having conversations with parents. Uh our our team um had a had a discussion and a plan for next year related to uh two T2 programs based on their numbers uh moving to uh neighboring high schools. And you all have some detail with that. Miss Grigo actually had multiple meetings with parents up to this point uh related to those plans for what they project to happen in about four or five months. And as you said, they have had some some

103concern shared from parents. I shared some of that detail with you uh that was shared with those parents and I don't want to repeat that, but I want to give you a couple of thumbnail descriptions uh related to that. Uh and and Dr. Dr. Allen, I invite you and and Miss Grigo, you're here as well to share some detail related to that. Uh when we were going through the process of of looking at net results for our for some of our transition to programs, um Maria, I'm speaking for you a little bit, so I may just have to turn this over to you quickly. Um Maria and her team were concerned about some of the results for for students after they left the program uh and their and their their job data after they left

104the program and they started brainstorming over how can we do better. Uh and so what we talked about and what they talked about was given the number of students in particular programs, given the proximity to to uh um to particular job locations, given the proximity to other services that some of these transition to students may be aiming towards, whether it be uh college programs or adult uh programs once they metriculate uh out of WCS. Is there a way for us to do this better? Uh and ultimately where they landed was yes there is a way for us to do this better. We were meeting all the requirements. Uh the uh the relationships at those schools have been incredible and very and very deep. But can we do better on where students end up after they

105leave us? Uh it it feels like a long time sometimes when you're in school, but those four years or so of a T2 program transition to after their cohort um after their cohort of students uh who are on a on a diploma track graduate can be really fast when you think about the course of a of a you know one of our students uh total lives. So the plan and and Miss Grigo initiated that conversation with those parents of those students. If I'm not mistaken, there maybe 17 or 18 students in the at Nolanville and eight or so students at Paige somewhere in that range. >> A little less, but yes. >> And so she initiated those conversations and that's why you heard of it. Should have given you all a heads up. We didn't

106anticipate uh you know such concern. I will tell you one one takeaway I have, it's not the only takeaway from that is and and I've seen it in schools. The emotional connection at an individual school uh can be really powerful. Uh our transition to students become such a part of a school and they go from four years often to eight years at one school. Uh I have had conversations with parents in the past whose students whose children have reached the age of 22 and have to roll out and and they've been painful conversations because we've had I've had parents ask me can they not stay? Uh and and we've had to say I'm so sorry we can't um once they turn 22 but the window of that 18 to 22 we need we do need

107to be cognizant of of that emotional connection. So Maria if you would. >> Yeah thank you Mr. Golden. Um I think one of the the primary pieces uh of information that uh we started looking at just like Mr. Golden said was what's called indicator 14 data. And that is something that each district uh and each state has to monitor as it relates to IDEIDA which is that federal law that governs how we educate students with disabilities. And that indicator 14 data looks at are we where are students one year postgraduation students with disabilities. And then districts are charged with ensuring that we are supporting students in reaching their post-secary goals whether that is as Mr. Golden said, um, a career, college, post-secondary training, adult program integration, whatever that may be, and it really varies based

108on the individual student and their post-secary goals with their family. Um, and one of the things that we examined with our indicator 14 data is that while a lot of our students who earn a general education diploma, they do go on, our data is pretty good. They go on to college, careers, things like that. But our students who are earning a special ed diploma, an occupational diploma, um an alternate academic diploma, um uh that data is not quite as robust as we would like it to be. Does it meet the state's threshold? Yes. Do I think we can do better? Yes. Um we want our students to be actively engaged and and really it's a it's part of what IDA requires that we do uh is prepare them for that next step. connect them to

109resourc also do it for a program for our students who need more supportive behavioral support. So it isn't a foreign concept. It is something that we have not done here in transition 2 um in a long time but it is something that is done across the state across the country. Um so um really our goal uh is to provide more equity across programs for all students to provide more community opportunities um for students whether that be in work or community integration for longer periods of time so that skill generalization is possible. Um [snorts] right now with six buses being stretched across nine schools from Nolanville to Fairview, our average length of time on a job site for students is an hour and a half twice a week. And I don't know about you, but not

110many jobs that's going to hire someone for an hour and a half, right? If that's the stamina that they've built up. Uh so we want to be able to increase that for those students. So, um so getting them to job sites longer and building equity across our programs. >> Um I do want to mention um I've been told that we're not broadcasting right now because of the power event. However, we are recording it. So once we are we're back to broadcasting. All right. Um, I actually got 17 weather notices about lightning strikes. I actually get text I get texts from our weather folks. Um, and so there may be a few a few coming. So, sorry about that. >> And so, I I really appreciate the explanation. Um, you know, like I had stated in

111an email, you know, I still would recommend that we do our due diligence and have a face-to-face meeting with those families because the perception that I'm seeing is it feels like it's being done to me. I wasn't part of the process. Um, I think if you present some of the data and some of the wonderful opportunities that students can have, you know, you can have a different messaging for it. Um, but right now, like I said, I'm I'm getting beat up a little bit with email and that's okay cuz that's I'm their voice. Um, so like I said, I would recommend that we do at least a face-toface meeting because I think from what I heard it was communicated via Zoom and I mean if it's only affecting two sites, we could have done like

112a community meeting or or you know something of that effect just to at least have that personal service and and letting them know that you know we are trying to do and offer better services to your students. >> Thank you for that. Miss Grigo actually did schedule both face toface and Zoom. As I understand it, the vast majority of our parents chose Zoom. >> Um, you can speak to that, but but to your point, we'll talk about having another meeting. >> Yeah, we uh we actually sent out a letter in February. We did an in-person meeting at Paige. We did an in-person meeting at Nolanville. We did a Zoom meeting inviting families from either of those schools to come. We're doing another in-person meeting at Ravenwood coming up and another in-person meeting at Centennial. Um,

113we've also met with individual families as they have requested. So, [snorts] >> thank you for that feedback. >> How um how would the IEP teams be like addressed in this sort of thing? I it would seem to me it would that it would have to be something that would need to be discuss discussed on individual basis with the IEP teams for the individual students. Correct or no? So each student uh will have a bridging meeting just as if you go from early childhood to kindergarten for example or middle to high school. But the uh there is no change in service. It is a change in brickandmortar location. So there is no change in their their IEP services. They will still get the same special ed teacher, paraprofessional, occupational therapy. So it isn't um it isn't

114a placement decision because the placement means services, not brickandmortar location. So the bridging meeting will be to introduce them to the additional school or the other school and staff. >> That seems nuancely suspect in a way to me, but that it wouldn't be considered a placement change. Um, so from what you're saying, so as far as the IEP teams are concerned, it's not like a discussion of what's going to happen. and it's just like a this is going to be where you're going type of thing. >> Well, I I will speak to that a little bit. Uh those IEP teams can discuss everything that may potentially be re related. Uh so um so there's there as I understand there were nothing that there was nothing that would prohibit the discussion. Um but again the the

115plan is for the for the services to be based at those two schools. those schools. Are there plans to do this further with other schools? I just think like if we're talking about right job opportunities or places, you know, cuz maybe it can't be met at one school or another. I just think of like Fair View. I mean, we are out there. Um, so if that's like our reasoning for it, I'm not sure why Fairview wasn't moved somewhere else, which would have been a huge problem. But um you know are are we to expect more of that in the future cuz that's I know that would cause a a huge issue for a lot of my constituents with that that are part of that program. >> We we have discussed that. I will tell you

116one of the things we saw with Fair View in the discussion is uh the expectation that especially at Fairview many of those students as adults will stay in the community uh and and Fairview is geographically separate. I can't speak to the future. Uh but um we we are going to continue to look for for ways to better serve the students. Uh Miss Grigo um uh Dr. Allen, Dr. Way, anything you want to add to that? >> Well, I would just one thing. So when we define like community in that sense? >> Yeah. >> Is that like a >> saying geographical? Because I it just >> I'm thinking particularly jobs in that example. >> Jobs in that example. Okay. Because I'm just thinking like if we're talking community, I don't know why it would be >>

117different for the other students at the other schools. >> Yeah. >> Then they're likely to stay in their community as well. >> Yeah. Well, they they'll be leaving this school at the year that they turn 22 and so that school community will have to transition to wherever they are. But I was speaking specifically to jobs. >> Gotcha. Gotcha. >> Yeah. So, we do plan at the end of this year or next year, excuse me, to evaluate where we are and determine whether we want to do more cluster sites. It's a pilot this year to see how that that goes. Um, but we do plan to to re-evaluate and look at that at the end of the 2627 school year. To your point, Mr. prostic. >> One other question and then I'll I'll let somebody else

118chime in if they want to. But but you I think you had mentioned part of the reasoning was like moving you know if there's a a school that has four students right in the program to it can be hard for one teacher to try and differentiate you know like four individual plans but then moving it to a school where you know maybe they have 20 and they've got three teachers and then we're increasing it. Let's say we put those four over there and it's 24 now to, you know, by four people. It doesn't seem like that breaks down the student teacher ratio enough for the individual plans. Is it just that we're separating it out by specialty of the teacher focus? >> What to give you an example to answer that question. If if you

119have if you have a larger number of students, you might have more who are going to a job site with one teacher. you might have more who are going to prepare for an adult um program with one teacher. Whereas if you have one there, that teacher is having to go to all of those different events with just one or two students. >> Yeah. >> Um and it's going to vary from year to year, right? As as different students come, as different needs come. >> Gotcha. Gotcha. >> But that's that's part of the thinking. >> Yeah. Uh >> just one last thing. Um help me understand exactly why Nolanville and Paige were selected for the pilot. Part of it had to do with location um availability of schools. Um we looked at um opportunity for job

120site locations. For example, the Page community. There is very little for our students to be integrated in in the Page community. They do have to travel into the Franklin area for any job site or community activity. So that's an example of why um Paige was or Centennial was chosen as the hub versus Paige. Um so that's that's one example, but we looked at you know the the number of students. We looked at the locations. We looked at um some of the things we want to take into consideration is the um trolley system. So can the students learn to use public transportation? For example, that's it available at Centennial but not at Paige. So there were several factors that we looked at when deciding the hub sites. And so the RA are the Ravenwood students coming

121to Nolanville or is Nolan Nolanville students going to or are they all going to Centennial? >> Because you know in Nolanville we do have quite a bit of business. And I mean most of those students do end up transitioning and working working in the community. So that's where I'm a little I'm a little confused about Nolanville in particular. >> Yeah. the Nolanville students will go to Ravenwood, the page to Centennial. So that was an example for the page cluster. Um for the Nolanville to Ravenwood, we looked at the number of students um the needs of the students and then where we could successfully put a cluster site. Um there is nothing prohibiting the um any of our students at the Ravenwood cluster from from having job sites in Nolanville. It's not far. As a matter

122of fact, some of the Ravenwood students actually go to Nolanville for job sites now. And some of the students, they go to Franklin, right? Some of the Fairview students go to Franklin for job sites, right? It really just depends on the needs of the students, the businesses that are agreeable to partner with us. Um, and what the students post-secary interests are. >> Maria, at the moment, how many Nolanville job sites do we have compared to the Franklin Brentwood area? Do you know off the top of your head? I don't have it in front of me, but I want to say we have three in Nolanville, but I don't quote me on that. It was in the email, but I can't remember now exactly without pulling it up. >> And how does that compare to the

123other to the job sites in Franklin or Brentwood area, for example? >> Yeah, that I think the Nolanville job sites, if you look at all of Franklin, you know, combined, that is that is fewer job sites for sure. >> But by how many roughly? maybe five, six, five or six, I'd say. I'd have to pull it up to count, but um and some of them share job sites like our larger sites, hotels, things like that. >> So, hold on for a while. Yeah. >> No, it's fine. Um, Jason, from I guess from from your perspective, I I got a I got a a slightly different um understanding of the communication that actually happened today um compared to what I thought was thought had happened based on based on the email trail. Um, so it seems

124like it seems like everybody was communicated with during the during the process. Uh I guess like the board I I think we had talked about the kind of the what maybe the miss if we were to look back is that we didn't we weren't really we didn't have a discussion about that during the during the budget process or during the right and so like so to me like that was the that was I mean from the from a learning perspective that was the miss. I don't I it sounds like y'all did everything everything right in terms of um in terms of communicating with the with the stakeholders and um you know and those I mean there's a few there's there's only a few stakeholders and it sounds like y'all reached out to them you did

125the communication um I have a feeling the ones that are the ones that are complaining like rightfully so like they might not like the they might not like the change I mean it's it's changed but you know I don't have any I don't have any criticisms of the of the process that that you guys followed. It sounds like Maria and and and the team did a did a really good job in in terms of in terms of that. So, I that seems to be most of the that seemed to be most of the of the criticism, but I don't I mean, unless I unless I'm missing something, it seems like they were all um they were all pretty well um pretty well engaged in a in a process back, you know, dating back to to

126February, maybe. I mean, could it have been longer? Maybe, but but I don't know, compared to when you guys kind of were evaluating and made the decision, that seems to be a pretty good timeline. So, I just wanted to add that. Thanks. I I think if I just from, you know, special education standpoint, I think parents are used to getting very very detailed one-on-one information when it comes to changes with the education of of these students in particular. I mean, IEP teams are serve a purpose for that. And so that's why my question earlier, it's like I'm just a little shocked that we wouldn't have had individual IEP meetings with these students IEP teams to discuss this beforehand. Um, I mean, you change one word on the the IEP and you have to have a

127meeting and bring everybody together for it, but you change the whole where they're going to school and you don't have to have a conversation about it, you know, other than, hey, this is what we're going to do. That's what I think that's where the disconnect comes for families particularly with our tier 2 students who are you know this is like we're not just talking about like a speech language you know thing here or something like this they have more detailed needs and and and stuff that they're dealing with and so I overcommunication I don't I don't think you can even have it when it comes to these students. So, I think that's the disconnect and and from the emails, you know, I know what people are saying, you know, happened, but from some of the

128parents, it's just very they're they're not saying that that's what happened with them. So, I I think we can I'm, you know, where the truth lies might be somewhere in between, but I don't think we can just discount parents as like, well, you were communicated to and what they've told us here is everything is great and hunky dory. And I just don't think that's been their experience. And um once again, for something like this, I'm just truly truly shocked that you wouldn't have a specific meeting individually with that student and their family and that IEP team over such a drastic change. It truly shocking. >> Thank you for that. we and we we want to be respectful of all parents and and you you talked about some you know some version of a middle ground

129and thank uh but between those two comments from the two of you. So thank you for that. We'll take that feedback and I I do want to me make sure you all know we are going to make sure we have more conversations. >> Um one last question I have is so what's happening to the T2 staff members at Nolanville and Paige? Are they being automatically transferred? Are they being displaced or >> that that is the plan to transfer? Yes, ma'am. >> So, are they having to apply to transfer or is it >> No, no, they there's no there's we're not having them apply. Uh we're the the plan was that they would continue to serve those students at that different location. >> I just had one comment. It's definitely not a complaint. Um, I know

130the district is very um strategic in planning on reszoning um subdivisions and families. Whenever it's time for kids to move to another location, um I know for me and my family, we work very hard to get into the Paige High School and Paige Middle. It's just not something that we just fell into. um in order for my kids to be taken out of that district out of Page High School in Paige Middle and moved to another location with a short notice and I worked most of my life trying to get into the Page District would be um you know consider be a huge um shift in my family's life. So, I'm just saying that maybe we can give some reconsideration to some things, not reconsider the program, but um give some more thought into it,

131insight, and be more transparent on communication of what the thoughts may be and get the community's input on it. >> That's so not a complaint. >> Yeah, thank you for that. Thank you for that. Uh um you all, Mr. Brown actually had to leave. Uh Miss Reeves, you are the vice chair. Would you prefer to to to go through this without us having prepared or are you okay with me leading the rest of the meeting? >> Okay. [laughter] [gasps] Uh uh any other questions related to our uh the superintendence report. All right. With that I am going to move on to the next item uh the uh operations report. Brian King, what would you like to share with us? >> So uh no updates on operations. Mr. Golden did mention the uh open zone and

132I do want to again um give a shout out to our zoning team, Allison Nelly and her team, not only going through the 2,000 plus applications, but the phone calls that they get, the emails, the professionalism that they uh when they're responding, as you can imagine, there's a lot of questions when it comes to open zoning and uh they do a fabulous job. But I do want to share something. Um, give you a little uh sneak peek at something that's coming out tomorrow. So, you know, we're doing the America 250. Uh, Dr. Webb is leading a committee. There's a lot of things in the works that are exciting. Yesterday, if you noticed in in focus, um, we have our logo that was designed by a student. And Corey, do you have the student's name? Alex

133Goldberg from Ravenwood High School. >> From Ravenwood High School. So that logo is going to be used at a lot of places. Tim, show our background now. Well, okay, never mind. So, this is going to be our new background on all our computers and Chromebooks starting I think tomorrow. >> We will still encourage no passive use of our computers. >> Yes. So, it'll be the lock screen and the background. Uh but that's uh so we'll start we'll roll that up >> as an aside. Uh what what Mr. Goldberg did, I love the mirror the as if there's water underneath that. That's that's extra extra cool. >> Yeah. And uh Keriana Nastis work with she took the image and made it where it would uh and she's in Corey's department um and worked really hard to

134make it look good for our laptops and Chromebooks. That is my report, but any questions that anybody has, I'd be glad to answer. >> All right, the next item is the board chair report. Uh oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Operations. Can you tell me about mowing services to the schools? >> Oops. Um, can you tell me about mowing services to the schools again? I'm getting some complaints about that. And >> yes, I >> like how often do they mow? Actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna let Adam, if you'll scoot that mic over to Adam, u and he can explain our mowing contract in great detail. >> Great detail. >> Oh, no. We're going to give you all the detail. >> Just trying to figure that out. >> There we go. Only one button. I added

135it. >> Okay. Uh so our mowing contract uh the standard has been uh that we get every 10 days. Uh so three times a month and that's plus or minus a couple of days because the mowers can't mow if the grass is wet, if we've had rain, that kind of stuff. Um so we do give them a little bit of uh flexibility there. but every 10 days from April through September and then there's two mowings in October. That's our that's our standard contract in March. uh in discussion with purchasing department we pulled one mowing forward uh from April into March which stretched out the period that's going to happen in April uh in order to because the grass was tall and we saw kind of some of that uh in order to get that early

136cut going um and that just is going to uh spread the April mowing instead of four weeks it'll be about five and a half six weeks we'll get those three MS But there in lies what the issue is. We had a warmer spring and the grass got greener f and grew faster. So I bet that's why they were there were some complaints about it and stuff. I >> I think Dr. Johnson, I think that's part of it. And so yeah, it it tends to exacerbate when things like that happen. I will say though in my experience here over the years, it's not unusual to get mowing complaints. Um we do not mow as often as you know once a week like many people have their yards mowed and so there there there are times where

137it doesn't look as neat uh as the neighborhood. We don't overbudget for it. So we're you know we're fighting that battle to keep it keep the budget down as much as we possibly can. So yeah, especially if if uh if rain hits or in this case TECAP, that will slow things down as well. Uh because we don't want to have those loud mowers out there while schools go while school's in session. So it's a struggle, especially this time of year. >> And I hope people, if you don't mind me speaking, and I hope people are very patient with um within mowing the grass because we do have what 51 schools in the spring, I believe. And um my only other thought other than that, are we bringing the goats back? [laughter] >> We already have

138them. >> Do we already have them? >> So you've actually So just just so everybody knows, Mr. Beasley mentioned goats. We actually uh have uh used uh some goats, especially in those areas with the rip wrap rock uh to to weed. Adam, could you you were tongue and cheek mentioning it, but if you would answer Mr. Beasley's question. >> Um yes. So, um, storm water detention basins that are built out for storm water quality tend to have these, uh, large walls of rock and and various other, uh, structures in place that make it very difficult to get any kind of machines in there, uh, in order to control that vegetation. Uh, for that, we found that bringing in a herd of goats, uh, they can navigate that area and take care of that vegetation. Um,

139we have that teed up for uh August at the locations that we've identified uh that that would be beneficial to use them there. >> And it does include Nolanville, I think. >> It it it does include uh I think there are a few locations in Nolanville area. Yes. >> Perfect. Thank you. I know the kids really enjoy it, but I know it's for a purpose, but my kids really enjoy it. So, thank you. >> All right. All right. Any other questions, board members, related to our operations report? Board chair report. I don't have anything uh for uh for Mr. Brown related to the board chair report. New business. Uh Rachel, we we spoke about you giving a short update on where we are with next year's budget before we hit the items uh that are

140here for this year. >> Yes, sir. And so, I know um Mr. Golden sent an email where we had communicated with the commission and included in that email was that the gap that was at um 22 million is down to right 19 million 192 um and that was a result of receiving the property tax assessors information uh in the beginning of April and so property values have continued to go up. I was really excited about that number. So I immediately called my counterpart and like hey can we expect this again before June? and she said, "No, we can't can't count on that." But it was a really it was a good bump for us was um $3 million. And so that's um an improvement in the gap. We're continuing to work on that. Uh I

141do want to say one thing if you don't mind. Um there's kind of been a question floating out there. I am not a teacher. I thought I had done a good job, but I want all of y'all to hear me one more time and talk about fund balance for just a little bit. Fund balance is again we call it fund balance. It is your savings account. How does money get into fund balance is when revenue is more than expenses. And so kind of the question that came up is well what's happened to the money if you you didn't spend as much that was in the budget. If we budgeted expenses and you didn't spend as much what's happened to that money? We didn't go spend it. It went into fund balance. And that fund balance

142is what's balanced the budget for as long as I've worked for the district. Um, we've pretty much had to use fund balance. We've just had to use more and more and more of it in order over the last 5 years in order to balance that budget. So being in my mind good stewards of hey just because we had it budgeted if we don't need it or we figured out we can did it for a lower cost, we're not going to just continue to spend the money. It went in back into fund balance. Um, and I know that information was provided to you, but please tell me y'all get that what fund balance is is that leftover piece. It's not our discretion to do anything with it. Um, it it's there. >> And I've used the

143wrong terminology. I talk about revenue sources for next year's budget. I've included fund balance. It is not a revenue source. It's the leftover money. >> Uh, we have never, in my experience here, this is my 21st budget. We have never spent more than we've had. Um we've always spent less. Uh and and often many years we put some version of a moratorum on spending because we want to grow that fund balance especially at the end of the year. Uh it's not that budget discussion where you might have heard some business you know the use it or lose it kind of thing. it's we're not going to spend it unless we unless we know there's a need in part because we know uh that that revenue is always a struggle and there's some value in revenue

144being a struggle because we are a public entity. Uh we are very careful about our spending. Uh we we we try to put our our our money into our mission. Uh and so as part of that, that's why that's why we we we tighten up especially on on spending late in the year. Um so what's happened with fund balance? Actually, I want to mention one other thing related to fund balance. Rachel c the county government has for years had a built-in mechanism to maintain that fund balance based on the projection of property tax revenue. Uh and that's the key point that is different this year from last. And we've talked about it, but I want to restate it. County government has had us and county and them budget over the years anticipating a 92% revenue

145on property tax when typically somewhere between 96 97 98% is actually received. That actually created a fund balance each year uh that that would roll over to the next year to partially fund the next year. and it it enabled them to keep the tax rate down at least a bit. Uh based on that for this year, this current year, uh they um to cover our the our proposed budget including some pay increases uh changed that projection from 92% to 94%. That's a somewhere around $5 million difference. Uh and that 5 million means that we're going to have that much less in fund balance this year because it also funded rate pay pay increases. It's a recurring expense. So you have 5 million in last year's budget, 5 million in this year's budget. Uh and so

146that's that's our tipping point for how we've been balancing over the years. And that's one of the reasons why we have this issue uh at a at a more noticeable level than we've traditionally had. Our our gap is 19 or so million dollars. 12.6 of that would be 4% the proposed pay increase. So that leaves somewhere around six and a half or so. That's our actual gap. And we have net $10 million less than we would have had ne last year based on projections. All right. Any questions related to this? Oh, I gotta make this comment as well, Rachel. Um, we have had a number of county commissioners ask questions and start brainstorming over how can they address this. So, I want to none of them are here tonight, but I want to publicly thank

147them because they're working on it. Uh, and so I very much appreciate those questions. I know they've been talking to their finance department, uh, brainstorming over myriad possibilities. I don't know where they're going to land, but I do know that they're asking good questions. That was what I was just going to say. I do want to say that it it is definitely a collaborative effort to try to reach a resolution to the gap. Um, and so we will continue. But I do want to plug April 27th, April 28th. Education committee is April 27th at 4:30 and then the budget committee meets again with us on April 28th at 5:30. Um and so we'll be working right up until then to come back and have further conversations um with with those two groups as to what

148are some possibilities for us to look at. So when I come back then to you in May, hopefully I'll have more to share at that point in time of what we're looking at um in total. >> Would love to have anybody that can come to those meetings. I think it's just good to hear how other people are thinking and what their thought processes are too. Any other questions related to next year's budget? All right. Um, new business. Uh, um, item A, 2526, school board budget number one, approval of general fund resolution 05-226, buses in the amount of 659848. Rachel, >> so this was some brainstorming that um, we were just talking about um, what this resolution you all had already approved for us to purchase buses and purchase them out of fund balance. Last month,

149the commission voted on the education impact fee going forward. And through that conversation and talking with the representatives that that um calculate that information for them, we were having discussions again about what can that fee be used on. And it's related to growth and we came have asked the question, well, special ed has grown and we have bought four specialed buses. Could we potentially get have gotten funding for that um instead of pulling it from our fund balance? And the answer was yes, that that would be a possibility. So, the resolution we're bringing um for you all to vote on is to make that request of the commission and then that would put another $659 um,000 back in our fund balance reducing that gap um as well. So, again, these are the conversations we're having

150is what any little thing can we work with together. and it looks a little different because um we've written it because we're bringing that resolution to them, but then the county would also have to make that agreement to do that. So that's why you see two revenue accounts and then the two expenditure accounts is because we we're taking care of it for both of them, both us and them in one resolution. >> Any questions of the board related to that? >> All right. Item A2, approval of capital projects funds intent to fund 0526 asphalt and roofs in the amount of 5,58,000. >> Yes sir. So fiveyear capital that's next to or related to it again uh the traditionally education and budget committees likes like like to see these requests so that they have them as

151part of the budget conversation. And so these again you approved on the five-year capital plan but this is bringing that intent to fund for both. But the asphalt and roof [clears throat] this year, bless you, um is $5.5 million just as a um item to think about. Last year the request for for this category for these categories was uh a little over $12 million. So again, um Mr. Mr. Christopher, who is our maintenance um director, he he worked really hard to try to say what is what do we absolutely have to have this year? and the request is is lower. >> And this is the the time of year that we bring these five-year capital plan um maintenance and safety and security items to the commission. In part, we're doing this because they've asked us

152to to time it this way so that they can have a broad picture of of of uh of of that maintenance at the time they make budget decisions. Um over the years it's changed uh from the scheduling based on sometimes when they plan to go to bond market but the last few years they've asked us to bring it at the time we bring our budget. >> Any questions board members related to asphalt and roofs? >> Yeah I just have a question for clarification. So tax exempt bonds so that means does that mean that like we're going into debt to fund these? It depends on the commission decision. Okay. >> Um they they have the power to make decisions on how uh they fund it. That is one method that they have done in the past.

153>> But okay, >> but I mean it states it specifically here. So does that mean >> that's a proposal we've been asked by county government to bring to the >> but they could fund it with revenue if they have it. Is that >> correct? and they could go back >> all capital fund all capital projects funded with the bonds. I guess that's my big question. >> Most of them are, but they would go back if they did not want to fund it that way and could amend that resolution um to fund it in a different way. >> We've seen over the years differences based on what revenue they might have available, but more often than not, it they they have done bonds. All right, next item. Number three, approval of capital projects fund intent to

154fund '05-26 security technology in the amount of 15,893,000. >> Again, this was on the 5-year um capital plan. Uh there is the the last year uh for key fobbing project is included in this. So, it's most of it is is safety and security related items. Uh, and again, we'll we'll ask and see where they land. Last year, this is just a little bit more. It was almost $14 million last year, but in order to be able to complete the full projects um that need to be done, the cost has gone up. So, it's 15 the 15.8. >> And if I may, this is part of the phase program we've had to fob and improve security at all our buildings. I'm trying to remember, Brian, how many years? I um three this will be the third

155year. >> This is this is the third of three years to to >> Yeah, it's not just the fobs, it's video cameraing, it's all the door access, the network components um that all go into that to make it work. But it's been an extensive project for sure. >> Any questions from the board? >> Yes, sir. Miss Beasley, >> I was just curious. I know uh for years we've been working on getting all the schools ballistic protected. Um is that in the budget this year? I didn't >> uh question. >> So just in case your your audio wasn't working for the those folks who might be watching this later, you asked about um getting a protection with the ballistic film on the windows. Uh Brian, if I'm not mistaken, that project is is finished. >> No,

156sir. It's still it's in the budget, too. Oh, there there's some of that in the budget. So, I I I will say >> the first floor of everything is covered. Yes. >> Um we're doing and so we're doing additional >> That is correct. Okay. Yes, sir. All the first floor outdoor windows have been completed. That piece has Yes, sir. >> So, there just it's it's smaller spaces in in various locations. >> And and to that point, I I do want to mention this. We've spoken about this publicly for the last few years. Uh and um there was a prompt from a from an event a few years ago that caused us to decide strategically we would speak to this publicly. Uh because for a few years we were not speaking to it publicly. Uh we

157do have uh uh and have been working on a project for years of having um a protection on our windows that that will prevent the windows from shattering in the event of of a hard hammer in the event of of bullets in our windows. Uh when we were studying this, it's interesting. And I look back there was there was actually media attention to the testing. We with the sheriff's office actually went to their range and and tested this product before we decided on it. Uh and you can actually you can actually do an internet search and find those news reports where cinder blocks are being thrown at this and it holds. Uh where where where rifles being fired into it and it holds. It is one of our safety measures. Uh there is no one

158end all beall safety measure. It takes constant attention. It takes constant adjustment to do everything they can. And it and as the chief executive, one of the things that truly keeps me worried uh and and sometimes awake at night is that question of are we doing enough? Because it does take that constant motion. So, every time I think about security, I feel like it's important for us to acknowledge that that it is a it is an ongoing effort. It will never be complete and it will never be perfect. >> Jason, is there any amount of capital that um and you talked we talked about the buses, but is there any amount of capital for for the schools? I just don't know the criteria for the education impact fee, but for the newer schools that have

159come on that have come on since the impact fee, um, is there any capital that can be approved for for those for those schools or does it have to be like new seats, new schools from from like this year forward? >> The criteria is for uh capital projects related to growth. That's the criteria. That's the thumbnail criteria. Um, I don't know how far back they can go. Uh, um u but that's part of what Rachel has been talking to um their their CFO about, county government CFO. Uh uh I will say we do have on our five-year capital plan a proposed new middle school in the Nolanville Brentwood region. Um that has been discussed at the county commission when we presented our five-year capital plan. uh that that that's on their minds, you know, for

160the next school. >> I said no growth as of when. >> Yeah, that's good. And I I don't know that I don't know the answer to that question off the top of my head either. >> We've got debt. Can it pay for debt service for for those for that for that growth? >> Bobby Bobby may know. Yeah, Bobb's actually been involved in this. Yeah, actually um if the debt was calculated or or um absorbed by the school board after the adoption of the impact fee when we actually assessed it, then we can go back. But it's got to still be related to growth. >> But growth since we you mean since we since we started the impact fee or or when we collected the revenue from the from the >> when we started collecting. So

161it's 27 2018 I believe is when we started collecting the revenue on that. So if we had a project after that, a school after that, >> yes, we could go back and use the depth if the bond paperwork provided. So when we do the bond paperwork, our office doesn't, but when we review it, we ensure that there's some language in there about impact fees should it be available. >> Okay. just seems like another option to I mean it's crazy to have I mean I know we could we could use it and pay for the middle school potentially. Um, but it just seems to be crazy that we've that we're that we're hoarding $90 million in cash when we when we've borrowed money on on a lot of other other buildings that we could been I

162mean I don't It just seems and I don't I mean I'm not against I'm I'm not actually against borrowing money, but I I am I mean if you I'm for spending the money that we have on projects that that we that we that that fit the purpose that we've that we've been raising this money for. >> Yeah. And one one example in my mind that's been a basic principle that I've been taught over decades is use restricted funds first. Right. Um some of those decisions are theirs. uh and they've got other issues, you know, with with whatever county government has as well. Um what we have tal been talking specifically about in these last few weeks is our operational budget with funds that could also be used with for capital. Uh but we'll make sure

163that they're also aware of that. I know they have had some discussions over the years on their side of of of uh related to their bonds, what capacity they have to pay off bonds early. Uh can they substitute rather than a bond um some of some of those funds and they've made decisions from time to time based on whatever advice they get um related to both our capital projects and county government capital projects. >> Who decides on that whether it can be used or not? Who's the arbiter? >> Ultimately, it goes to vote to the county commission. Is that correct, Bobby? >> That's correct. >> Yeah. So, they're the final decision maker. >> And then what are what is that based on? Is it is it a state laws? Is it the way that the

164um it was written? Well, I guess I'm asking what what is the set of rules that they're deciding upon, >> right? The impact Yeah. The impact fee is actually like an ordinance. It's a it's actually got um all your different steps. is basically a law for local >> local so it's local level >> correct okay correct it's based on a federal on federal constitutional um issues but yes it is based on our local impact fee resolution ordinance if you will >> yeah that's the answer I was looking for thank you >> right any other questions related to item three item four approval of education capital projects fund intra category transfer in the amount of uh 2.8 million 2.8 88 million uh um for a April 20 April of 26 LED field lights. Uh Rachel, I'm

165going to give a little preface to this and let you speak to that. Board members, you may remember two or three months ago, you voted to make a request of the county commission for LED lights for all our fields. As you know, they turned that down. Uh we are bringing back to you a request to fund the football field light, the high school football field lights only with contingency funds. Um Mr. Galbath, you and I are catching eyes because we've been talking about this for 12 years probably. Uh the the basic principle of when those when some of our projects are done there there there usually is a little bit of contingency money left over. Sometimes not. uh that contingency money aggregates and I have had over the years conversations with Mayor Anderson and with

166various board members about how to fund a particular project. And so because the county commission was not um comfortable funding that we have a request of you let's take a baby step do those fields first to get us on that road that we were recommending uh to the county commission. Rachel, anything you want to add to that? >> I don't think so. So I think that summed it up except for I know I'm going to have the question if we were to pull out a contingency um these funds then that would leave us again say it every I think every month rural in general rule is K8 general is 9 through 12 because of FSD. So in rural we would have 6.6 million left and in general we would have 2.8 million left. >> So

167if I'm not mistaken the entire fund here would be taken out of general because our project is exclusively >> the high school >> high school football fields. >> Correct. as I start open any questions y'all may have. >> And just to be clear, this since this doesn't have a a request for the commission, that's just something that we can that we can take action on, right? Don't have we're not asking permission necessarily. >> That's correct. Yeah. If you all vote on it, then we will take action ourselves. It does not take another vote. Is that correct, Mr. Cook? >> That's correct. >> All right. Next item. Uh Rachel, approval of resolution to update annuity plan. >> I want to give you a little bit of um detail history first, not t not tons, but just

168so you're aware. So any of our employees participate with TCRS in a retire in the retirement plan, and that's a requirement um related to employment. We also offer additional um other types of plans in addition to that and that includes 403bs and 457 plans currently. So, empower is the um administrator for the state of ten of Tennessee in the TCRS and we have other entities, Horseman, Lincoln, um I'm trying to think who the other one is Voya who we have these other have had these other plans with throughout the years. Horseman is one that we no longer offer, but there are some employees that are have been grandfathered into it for years. Voya um let me just give you the numbers. Horseman's got 42 people. Voya's got 43. Lincoln um had 58. And then there

169is a 457 with Lincoln that had 39 participants. So that's 182 employees that are involved. We have talked with the state and empower and what it would look like if we were able to offer a plan through them. And reason being, we've had feedback from a lot of our employees that they have a harder time um communicating with these other carriers. They do not get the same kind of customer service and we can only provide so much because they won't really talk to us because these are individual plans. And so we were looking at that. There have been a a couple of things that had come up. And so in talking with the state, we would actually have to have you all vote on a resolution for the state to provide us a 457 plan.

170Um, and so that's the resolution. This has been drafted by the state and what they would require from us. What we're asking then is the employees that currently have these plans in place, all of them except the the 457 Lincoln would be grandfathered in. They would have no change. We just would not offer these going forward. The um 39 participants that have that 457 with Lincoln, we would look at transferring them over to the 457 with Empower and the state would work individually with those people. And then going forward, we would offer the 457 plan um through Empower only, not the Lincoln part. to give you an idea. Again, it's slow low numbers, but since 2024, we've only had six new people pick up the plan. So, in two years, we've only had six people

171choose another. Um, another issue that came up is of with the 457 with Lincoln. Currently, they do not offer a Roth option. So, if you max out at the 457, you can go to a Wroth. They do not offer that. Empower will offer that. So those were some of the reasons um that we are asking that you all would consider and consider doing this. I don't know saying in four 403bs and and 457s one advantage too of a 457 is that you can pull the money out if you're if you break service with an employer. you can pull that money out and there's no penalty. With a 403b, if you're not 59 and a half or older, it's a 10% penalty. So, that was another thing. We've got some retirees that came back and said,

172"Well, I started at 22. I've got 30 years in. I'd like to be able to pull that money out, but they can't do it yet without having that 10% penalty until they're 59 and a half." >> Uh Vicki, is there anything else you'd like to add from the HR side? No, we we don't have any concerns from the HR side about um transitioning with this. And we did speak to um WCEA. We we gave talk t talk to y'all about it with the low numbers. We don't anticipate an issue. >> Any questions from the board? >> All right. Next item. Tenure recommendations of the superintendent to school board. That's that's me and Vicki. I may call on you as well to give a little bit of detail. Annually we make recommendations to you for tenure.

173Uh I like to share that years ago tenure was automatic after three years of employment. Uh so if you if you still have that visual uh that hasn't been true for probably 10 or 12 years now something something like that. The state has a plan where after in essence five years I think it's actually structured at 60 months uh I'm sorry 45 months. I had the wrong month number. Uh based on a teacher's evaluations, they may qualify for tenure after that 45 month or fiveyear period. The document that we have given you is a recommendation for those tenurs who have those for those teachers who have met those qualifications uh to receive tenure. Also, tenure is no longer uh a the old proverbial guarantee. uh there is a requirement that they maintain those uh those

174those evaluations that keep them within that window. So we are we are going to recommend these teachers uh for tenure uh on at Monday night. Certainly open to any questions you may have Vicki any detail I've missed. Okay. Is there any other matter for the board? >> If not Oh yes, ma'am. So sorry I don't want to keep y'all your faces. I just want to say after consideration I'm fine to leave the code of conduct policy on the consent agenda. So thank you for the discussion tonight um and helping me understand that the staff was already working on that regarding consistent discipline. >> Thank you for that. It actually gives me a prompt. Uh Jay pointed this out to me. We actually missed a couple of lineouts uh related to >> behavior. Behavior. Thank you.

175Yeah, thank you. I think Miss Clemens mentioned that as well. Brian, >> our senator deputy needs to make an announcement before we leave. >> Okay. >> Did y'all heard all the storms? I just want y'all to be safe going home. There's a lot of road hazards, wires down, trees down across the road. So, just be more careful. I know Southpaw, you're going that way. Shut down Blazer. So, you know, >> thank you very much for interrupting us to let us know. We are discourage you.