001Okay, are we ready to begin? All right, we'll get started with the October 2025 work session. So, um start with a call to order. Um the the first item on the agenda is the consent agenda. There are going to be three items on the consent agenda this month. Um does anybody have any questions about any of those? We'll be approving the September school board meeting minutes. Uh we'll be approving policy 3.202 emergency preparedness plan for second reading. and um we'll be approving with recommendation for field trip fee requests. Any comments on on that? No. All right, moving on to the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you board members and uh to the to the folks in the public, I know we got started about nine or 10 minutes late. I apologize
002for that. Uh did want to let you all know um from a superintendent report perspective, we have 45 minutes on the agenda. Um, we'll we'll shoot for that. But we do have a lot of substance to share with you. I did want to start with one slide. Uh, uh, folks, if you all don't mind setting that up. Kevin Deck, our data analyst, actually had done some digging through the state website, and I thought it was just kind of a neat thing for us to show. So, Tim, if you don't mind pulling that up. Uh, Dr. Allen actually had brought this to me. The state does an analysis on projections of ACT uh ACT performance based on TECAP up to 8th grade. And then they project how those students by the time they become seniors ought
003to be performing on the ACT. And they measure both growth and performance. And this particular slide represents a scatter plot of every district in the state that has a that has high school students. Uh and Tim, if you don't mind, scroll just a little bit a little bit higher. Um just so we can see the bottom of that slide. That's what I'm asking for. Uh so Dr. Allen, I'm going to invite you to give a little bit of detail. Uh basically this is our most recent graduating class that was projected as eighth graders that was projected as eighth graders to to be the highest performing in the state. But we also had the highest growth from 8th grade to their senior year based on the method that the state uses to project what they ought
004to be doing from 8th grade to high school. So, I just thought it was just an incredible slide that that by from a visual perspective really gave evidence of what happens in Williamson County schools as our students go yeartoyear continuing to grow. And I'm I'm very proud of our of our high school folks with that focus on ACT. As you know, that is the most significant measure that opens doors for our for our graduates. Now, I will tell you, we are focusing this year on students with unique learning needs. So that represents averages and but we are making sure we focus on each individual student and finding ways for each individual student to grow. Uh so I didn't intend to spend a lot of time on it madam chair but I felt like it was
005worth seeing that just because it just was such a such a noticeable graphic that the state has on their website. >> Jason with respectful I think glossing over it too quick because the achievement seriously the achievement we all expect. >> Yeah. We've got involved parents. We've got good teachers and everything else. It's it's just what we expect, no less. But I think you need to kind of really talk explain what growth is a little bit more because it's, you know, it's a lot harder for Usain Bolt to to shave a second off his hundred yard dash than it is Eric Welch. >> Yeah. you know, because it's it's you're already in the elite. So, >> well, thank you for that. To give you a little bit more detail, that horizontal line in the middle that's
006a zero represents expected growth. Uh, and then from a formulaic standpoint, Dr. Allen, could you give a little description about how it how it what that a little hint of what that represents when we are so high above that baseline? >> Thank you, Mr. Golden. Yeah, I I'm glad you brought up the the the the heavy dark line at zero yet there. If our dot was on that zero, we would be applauding our high school teachers um and our ACT specialist for getting the students to where they should be at that level. So, anything above, I don't know exactly the number of standard deviations above the mean. Uh the growth index of 15 equals, but it's several standard deviations above the mean. So there's a there's I we're we're talking about it's it's obviously something
007special that our high school teachers have done and they really need to be applauded. I mean this is I mean it's it's one of the most single most impressive data points I've seen since I've been in my role really to be honest with you. Um for us to have that much growth coming in at such a high level to begin with. So, the high school teachers and uh uh our high school uh ACT C college and career readiness curriculum specialist is is to be applauded, but really also our elementary and our middle school teachers, giving them the skills necessary and setting them up to to be able to reach those high levels. Um just really K through 12 impacts that ACT score. And Mr. Golden, as you know, each point really means scholarship dollars for
008our families. And so that's something that we're really thankful to for because it means placement in classes at the post-secary level and it also means u scholarship dollars for every additional point that's earned for our students. >> And I'm going to give a shout out to Franklin special district as well. Uh some of those students were Franklin Special in 8th grade and uh Franklin Special is a high performing district as well. So the the combination of that teamwork that we have leads to those results. All right, with that, Madam Chair, I'm going to move to the next one. Uh, we have on our agenda the textbook adoption presentation. As you all know, we've been sharing with you monthly where we are with this year's textbook adoption. Just as a reminder, we do have on uh
009on the agenda later on the policy related to textbook adoption. And when we are initiating some additional some additional changes in this year's process which includes an explanation from our teachers as to why they might recommend a particular a particular uh content uh once once the state goes through the appro approval process but Jen Sauer is here to give you an update on where we are. Uh we have seen some movement at the state level with this particular adoption for many of our college and career technical education programs and our health science. So with that, Jen, if you would >> turned it on this time. >> Oh, there it goes. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Okay, so I want to kind of start by reminding you again. The first couple of slides are going to be
010very similar to what we talked about the last time. Just a reminder of what are the courses that we are adopting. And I wanted to go back and talk a little bit more about the health standards versus the family life because what we're expecting is that once we actually get the materials to start reviewing, there could potentially be a little bit of confusion. There could be some questions that start to come up from teachers and from parents and from community members. So, we want to be able to get ahead of that so that you all are ready if you get some questions, you're able to speak to it just like we're able to speak to it. So remember that we are adopting for health and PE really in grades 6 through 12. So as we
011talked about last time, K through five, the health standards are really minimal. They're embedded in several different places. The state is not doing any vetting of materials for health and PE and elementary school. And our teachers and our health and PE curriculum specialist agree we don't really need anything other than what we already have to approach those standards in elementary. So for the purposes of this adoption cycle, we're not talking about anything at all in elementary school. In middle school, we do have health standards in middle school as well. In middle school, we teach a single ninew weeks course that is both health and PE. The state did not reach out to publishers to get materials for that course either. So there is no state vetting that's happening for those middle school materials. But when
012we again talked to teachers and to our health and PE curriculum specialists, they expressed that they really would like some up-to-date materials to approach those standards. And so we have reached out to the same publishers who submitted for high school and they're sending us materials that they have for middle school. So we consider that a local adoption. It's not part of the state process, but we're still going to follow all the same processes that we follow for that. And then finally in high school it's lifetime wellness. It is a graduation requirement. So every student takes it. It's a fullyear course. It is again both health and PE. Most students take it as ninth graders but some of them will take it further along in their high school career. So here's one perspective that I want
013you to know because it's going to be important when we get to the next piece. in both middle school and high school. If you think about the full scope of the course, so imagine like a five day week, a full nine weeks of the course, the full year in high school, however you want to divide that up. When I've talked to our health and PE specialist, she said, really, it's no more than 20% of the time that the students are spending on the health portion. The other 80% of the class, that's the fitness portion. So they're in the gym, they're outside, they're doing all of the physical fitness pieces that go into health and PE. So that health portion is already a pretty minimal portion of the course. What the teachers have expressed and what
014our health and peace specialist has agreed with is that because we know that health portion is pretty minimal of the course. We're going to be adopting a curriculum, but we don't see the need for every single student to have access to that full curriculum because of the time that they spend on those health standards. So, the teachers are going to have the materials. They're going to then use those materials to pull the lessons that are aligned to those health standards. And that's all that students are ever going to see. Here's why I think it's really important to know that as our health and PE specialist has been starting to look at those materials that we've been able to see on the state site, has started to talk to publishers, what we've realized is that the
015publishers have included what they're describing as a supplemental resource that does address the family life portion of that little bit of the health standards that overlap. And then the family life law. As we talked about last time, we are not intending to change our family life curriculum at all. We found that the curriculum that we have meets all the standards that it needs to meet. It meets every portion of the state code. So, we're not intending to change anything in our family life curriculum at all. But where that kind of confusion could happen is as people are looking through those resources without having that background knowledge, they're going to potentially encounter some of those family life pieces. We want you all to know students are not going to see those because they're not going to
016have access to it. Students won't ever have any of those pieces. The teachers are not going to be pulling from that because remember that our curriculum is health standards focused. That's what the teachers are going to be pulling. The family life piece is the presentation that we already have that our health and PE specialist is going around to schools and presenting. I'm predicting we're going to get questions about it. It's confusing. So, I really felt like before we ever got to the point of looking at materials, I wanted to have that kind of baseline conversation with you guys and then invite you if you get questions that you need to direct to us. If you're just looking yourself and you say, "Hey, can you remind me again how does this work?" We really welcome that
017because we know it could be a little bit of a confusing part of this particular review. So, you may have questions about that. Okay. If you think of anything, please let me know. All right, CTE. I wanted you to see uh again, these are elective courses. They're not taught at every high school. So, we have some that fall into the category of information technology, some that fall into the category of advanced manufacturing, but for the courses that we teach, it tends to be the engineering ones that pop up the most. The work that's kind of current and then immediately coming up. So today you have the list of both teachers and parents that are nominating to serve in our textbook committee. We are also working on selecting schools to house review materials. Usually we have
018a really clean selection of where do the materials go because not every high school teaches all of those CTE courses. It's probably going to be a little bit more scattered this time because there's no point in sending materials to a school that doesn't teach the course and there's no point in a school that does teach the course not having the materials. So, it's probably going to end up a little bit less clean than it usually is, but we still have those five copies of materials that we'll be able to distribute out to both middle schools and high schools. And then our public reviews, which if you remember happen right here in the PD center, are going to be scheduled for January and February, which is after we'll be able to receive materials once that state
019vetting is done. If you remember, last year we had five public reviews. Based on some comments that we got after that, we decided to go ahead and proactively increase that to six this year to give a little bit more time and space for parents and community members to come and review those materials. I actually already have there it goes the time and dates of those review sessions set. We'll be making those available to parents, community members, probably starting in December because you can see that the first date is that mid January time. So early December feels like a good time to give people enough notice to start making plans for them. We will have print materials available then and as well as digital access. And then just like what we did last year, we'll put
020digital access on our website so that anyone is available or is excuse me has access to those digital resources to review at their own convenience. And we'll put the feedback form linked on the website as well. So if you're reviewing digitally, you have also have the option to submit any public comments digitally. >> And Jen, just as a little extra piece, we've intentionally included a mix of times. >> Yes. uh so that we can honor whatever schedules folks have. >> Yeah, we tend to find that being able to provide a wide variety of times allows people to meet. Sometimes people are working during the day, sometimes during the day is the more convenient time because their kids are off at school. So, we try and offer a little bit of both. We do advertise that
021in a variety of ways to make sure that parents and community members have full access to when we hold all of those dates. So, we'll follow all of the same processes that we always follow to make sure that there's uh plenty of notice that those things are happening. Also, based on some conversations that we had last time that we were together, we thought that it might be helpful for me to give you here are some direct links if you're interested and getting a sneak peek at the materials that have been submitted to the state for vetting. I mentioned last time and I went ahead and put the link in there this time. You can right now if you're interested go to that top link on the state website to access those materials that have been
022submitted to the state for vetting. I put in there as a reminder and the website tells you this as well. Remember those are the ones that are submitted for bid, not necessarily what's going to pass state vetting. I did put a link to here are the resources that have passed the first round of state vetting, but I honestly don't know exactly how useful that is because there's also that appeals process that's going to happen. A lot of the materials that don't pass on first vetting will end up passing after that second appeal is through. So really what I would want you to understand, if it says it's passed on that list, we know for sure it's available. if it says not yet, it's a it's one of those things that we're waiting for the state
023to actually release that list, which we predict to happen in uh mid November. >> So, Jen, a couple things. Number one, we're going to post this uh this this PowerPoint so that you'll be able to pull it up and actually click on that rather than having to write down the entire URL. >> Also, the last bit you mentioned, you may have a slide on this. I'm trying to remember, but it these these approval processes go through the textbook commission and then to the state board of education. >> Correct. >> And this and the textbook commission includes a list of recommended selections that the state board will then vote on. >> Yes. I have combed through everything that I can find because as Mr. Golden has pointed out just like we do at our district, we'll
024post, hey, here's the upcoming agenda. So, as soon as they have that posted, we'll be able to access it. It's not posted yet or if it is, they've hidden it so well that I have not yet been able to find it because I've dug through every single page that I can find. And I'm going to continue to follow up on that because I know we're all anxious to know what are the materials that are going to be available. So, as soon as we can find that list, we'll make it available to you. Soon as the state board So the the textbook commission has has done their work. >> Yes. >> And the next step is for the state board once they post their agenda for consideration, we're going to make sure you all have a
025link to that and you can see that the selections that are being considered. I may be overstating this, but I will tell you generally speaking, for such a relatively small adoption, historically, there's a higher likelihood that this list will be approved than some of those more complex adoptions of the larger of the of the of the larger content areas such as history, ELA, etc. Uh, just because there's fewer. Yeah, you'll see even if you pull up that link that shows what passed on first vetting, you'll see that the list of materials a lot smaller than what we're used to seeing in those bigger textbook adoptions. We might have eight or 10 resources that pass for a course like math. We might have two or three in a CTE course. Uh so at the last meeting,
026you know, you showed us that graph and it was a little deceiving because it looked like they had already selected the books in 20 what 2024 2025 and you mentioned you thought you had someone to reach out to. So I was just wanting to follow up on that cuz especially when it is larger book adoptions like if we can actually get them to stick to the timeline that it looks like they're sticking to on the website. I know >> that would make >> all the district's lives easier. So, I didn't want to I just wondered if you were able to and if we if there's anything you think we might need to do to help advocate for that. >> Thank you for that, Dr. Johnson. Um, I have had a couple couple of conversations with
027some state representatives. The superintendents have annual meetings and actually the annual meetings with superintendent that the state put on coincided with our most recent voting meeting. So, I arrived I arrived the next morning uh at those meetings after the voting meeting. And I have had some conversations with some state representatives and emphasized when when social studies comes next year, >> it's going to the schedule's going to be tight. Can you all please do that? And so I will tell you that likewise if you have those opportunities uh with anyone at the state board or the Tennessee textbook commission that that that you do that as well. Uh they have already gone through some of their processes with establishing standards for those social social studies courses. And if I'm not mistaken um you all have gotten
028an email I think from a from a local resident who who follows those. Uh I think there's a website Tennessee History for Kids. you may have gotten a a an email. I know Dr. Driggers, you and I had a conversation about US history specifically at one point. Um, so short answer is yes. Uh, and in I encourage you in the next few months to to call their attention to it as well. >> Okay. The next things that are coming up, I want to remind you that our first textbook committee meeting is on November 3rd. It'll be right here. It's during the day. The next slide actually has the hours on it. It's a half day. It is intentionally placed before we have materials because really the purpose of that meeting is to pull the committee
029together to establish the importance of having high quality instructional materials to support best practices and instruction and then to create those criteria checklists that a committee will use to guide their work. We think it's important that that happens before they start looking at any materials. So, we'll intentionally place that before the state list is available. We believe that September 21st is when the state board is scheduled to approve those materials that are available for adoption. And as Mr. Golden alluded to, the Tennessee textbook commission is going to publish that final adoption list. There's no date attached to that because we don't know when it's going to happen, but as soon as it does, we'll make sure that it's made available. And then our next committee meeting after that is December 8th. That one's a lot
030shorter. It's more of a uh I would say like a business type meeting. It's really let's just uh as a committee talk through the timeline and the process and then the committee is all going to swear that oath as required by state code to the participants have not and will not be in inappropriately influenced by any publisher. I believe you already have all of the dates of the four meetings that we have scheduled, but I wanted to put those up again just one more time. We did get a question about that January date. Unfortunately, until we know who the publishers are, there's really no way to schedule that for sure. So, that's going to remain as a TBD for right this moment. I can tell you those two dates only because those are days that
031I have this room reserved. So, I'm really hoping that the publishers are going to be able to make that happen for us. They tend to be pretty um accommodating of as many schedules as they can be because they know that everybody's in that kind of situation. So, I'm hopeful that one of those two days is going to work out, but we don't know that just yet. Okay. And that's everything that I have. Do you guys have any other questions for me? >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> So, just as a reminder, when we get that list, uh, we're going to send it to you all so that you have the the ability to compare that list to the state links that are up electronically for these for these items. Any questions related to that?
032All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, the next item in the superintendent's report is the draft capital improvement plan. I'm going to give you a little bit of a description of the why and then the what related to this plan and then finally, well, and then the when as well. I'll start with the when. You all are going to be voting on this five-year capital plan next month. But we made a commitment to you all last year to bring this to you a little bit early to give you time to percolate on it. It's a lot of detail. Uh the county commission is interested in it as well. So that's the win. The the why is that the five-year capital plan was created a couple of decades ago, Mr. Cook, if I'm not mistaken, related
033to the county going to bond market and and having a viable program that increases the value of uh what the debt service is. I may not be describing that excellently, Mr. Cook. >> No. >> Okay. Yes, please describe that. >> The reason why we have The reason why that we have this requirement for CP uh the capital improvement program is basically because we have revenue sources that we use that require this. We have what's called privilege taxes and those are development taxes on new development. Now, for us to be able to assess those, the law says we have to have this CPI in place. And so that's why you see it every year is that it's required for us to be able to implement our development taxes on new development. And that's the reason legally
034that you see this every year. It's a working document. It doesn't it changes every year. Um and you and you're not appropriating or asking for any money with this. It's just a working document >> and then the county commission takes it and they likewise have to vote on it and they actually have five-year capital plan items related to county government's work uh that they vote on as well. And if I'm not mistaken, Bobby, this has the potential at least a little bit to impact the county's bond rating. >> So, there's an element of that as well. >> That's correct. because in the bond ratings part of it what they take into um uh consideration is your desire to seek other revenue sources and so with that it does help us with our bond rating. >>
035So so that's the why. The what is we actually have over the years used it as an additional planning document even above just the requirement so that we can project out when we think we may need some of these some of these additional cash capital programs. So, I want to call your attention to some basics of changes from last year. And I know we've had a few conversations, just one-on-one conversations with a with a couple of board members related to our growth. And you all know from our budget projections that we are actually shrinking in in student numbers just uh a little bit. We actually went down 0.9% uh over from from last year to this year. uh when we we have identified especially at the elementary level uh u a decline in numbers. So
036the first section in in this c five-year capital plan is new buildings. Generally speaking those new construction buildings have for the proposed five-year capital plan pushed out to a later date those new buildings. So, for example, uh the middle school split log property last year was projected at fall of 2027 to open. This year's projection uh for this proposal is fall of 2029. Uh for the elementary school northeast and McFarland Road in the Nolanville area from 2028 to 2030 and and on down the line. And I know it's a lot to look at this detail and that again is is another reason why we're we've got a month down the road. The next section is additions and major renovations. And we do have a program uh that uh that our operations team looks at. It's
037our it's our facilities and construction uh folks led by Eric, our maintenance department led by admin, of course, Brian uh uh King uh oversees that. They have conversations with principles. They identify they identify issues in the building. talk with our safety folks, Mike Fletcher, uh, and come up with plans for major renovations for the buildings. And you can see those in that second section. Uh, and then the third section are includes m really emphasis on on traditional maintenance projects, asphalt repairs, roadways, HVAC, wastewater treatment plans, those kinds of things. Uh, and we project those out over time. I will tell you generally speaking those two sections the major renovations and the maintenance yearly request are a lot easier to predict because there are life cycles for most of most of those projects. Uh and then
038finally you can see that section down at the bottom uh safety and uh and physical and cyber security issues. What we try to do is give the county commission a heads up about what might be coming next year and the year after. So from a numbers perspective, we really focus on two bottom line numbers. That first column, that first year, which uh our proposal at this point is 44,635 for the intent to funds needed for for this fiscal year. And then the final number on the far right column, I know a lot of commissioners ask about what are you looking at for the next five years? We do try to emphasize that first number because we let them know these are the kinds of projects we are going to be requesting in this year. Don't
039get caught up in that far right number because it is so speculative as we hit years four and five. I do want to mention a um I mentioned a couple of examples uh uh at the very top. Uh I want to mention one land issue and Mr. Bosik, I know we had a conversation a couple of weeks ago that I feel like is worth mentioning specifically. One of the elementary schools on our list that currently is projected in our new document as fall of 2030 is a is a Fairview area elementary school. The city of Fairview has a lot of projects on the books, but our growth right now is quite minimal. There may come a time in these next couple of years where there's a significant move in because of the developments that are
040being planned and at the earliest stages. That's one item that I think is worth noting. Now, there's some truth to that in a lot of our locations, right? Because there's it's a possibility with price points we we have the potential for a leap. Fairview has another variable that we have talked about. Uh uh Eric has had some conversations with some Fair View developers about the possibility of buying land. We already have some funding from the county commission related to land, but we have had a very specific discussion about Fair View because Fairview Elementary is our oldest school building. Um, we have the opportunities to purchase some land from de developers that might give us the opportunity to retire the old building and move students into the into a new building at the back end of
041this five-year capital plan. We have done that from time to time in different parts of the county, but I wanted that to be on y'all's radar. Uh, related to that, I want to give this caveat. Every time we talk about something like this publicly, historically, the visual is we're building a new building next year. We're still looking at probably five or so years out based on this five-year capital plan. But I wanted you all to know that we're in the process of having some discussions with developers about buying some land where in the longer term we're going to be able to retire that Fairview building. Now, I also want you all to know that that doesn't mean we're not continuing the important maintenance to take care of the students who are there because we are
042again five or so years out just based on current uh current projections. With that, Brian, I'm going to turn it over to you. I told you I'd just give a real short I think I gave more than I told you I was going to give. Uh is there any is there any other detail you want to give and then open it up to questions? Yes, sir. So, thank you, Mr. Golden. Just a couple of uh additional notes. Uh in the uh new buildings part, we do are asking for the uh startup money for a new uh auditorium for Spring Station. Uh that's really the only thing in new construction that we're asking for. and they're really the only middle school that doesn't have a true um auditorium like the rest of the schools. They at
043the time it was built uh it was kind of part of the cafeteria if you ever been out there. It hold it has permanent seating for about 116 but it's really dated really small and so we felt like it was important to get them up uh to standards with the rest of our middle schools. That's really the only thing in new construction. Uh the renovation, if you can see, uh Eric uh and his team and with with Adam, we're focusing on schools in that that are the 30-year or older. Uh and we really u focusing on those buildings and getting those um updated. Everything else is pretty much the same. And we have the phase three in the technology department of our access control and our intercom alert systems. Um, and this will finish it
044out once uh if we get the funding this year, get that completed, all our schools will have the access control on the inside as well as the new alert systems and intercom systems. The other thing I would like to note is in last year's what we presented to the county commission and to you, we actually had like 140 million scheduled to be asked for this year. I need Yeah. Uh and we've reduced that to 40 million uh from what was uh like I say was 140 million last year. And that number to the far right, even though Mr. Golden's correct, that's just a plan. that has also been reduced from over 800 million down to 600 and something million. Uh, and there's one more that Rachel reminded me. There is a big one that we're
045asking for this year in the uh under the maintenance and that is to get the old ballast type lights on our our athletic fields at the high school. They need to be replaced. This has needed to happen for years. It's a huge issue with our schools, with our maintenance departments. They'll go out and replace bulbs twice a year and a week later they're already going out and it's becoming a real issue. We've had this on the five-year plan. This was the year we were asking for it and we really do uh would like to replace those athletic field with LED lights at our high schools. Open to any questions and I know it's a lot as Mr. Golden said, "Feel free to reach out to me before next November if you have any or before
046our November meeting, before next month if you have any questions as you look over it. Um, I'll be happy to you can email or call anytime. >> I have a question. >> Sure. Um could you tell us more about I know it looks like Grassland Middle School is you know constructed in 1986 and um like what things are being done to that because when I look at the enrollment you know they're at they were at 69% capacity last year 67% capacity um how like why was that put over o um a priority over Nolanville High at 89% and now this year at 95%. And it might be that they're like if we had sewer issues and thing I don't know like so renov renovations are just it's going to be like ceiling tiles painting floors
047it could be asbesus remediation depends on the age of the school. Grassland we're actually going to do a little work security work to their front entrance because of when that school was built. It's not that it's it's just a lagging a little bit from our other schools. Same thing we're kind of doing at Hillsborough. So, it's it's things like that uh that are based on and some schools specifically may have issues uh with bathrooms that we may do, specific works, uh work at Grassland that we may not do at Hillsboro, that kind of thing. It's based on the age of the school. Yes, ma'am. And Dr. Johnson, you also asked about Nolanville uh and its and its growth. Uh we have with the work that Allison Nunley does with Brian uh she tracks the younger
048grades and projects what we can expect at the at the upper grades. Uh, and so we we've come to the conclusion that getting that addition that that ought to ought to seat about 400 students. I'm trying to I can't remember the number of classrooms off the top of my head in those those wings that we've been Thank you. Thank you. It's actually on the document. Thank you. >> 22 I was asking. They're coming. >> Yeah. Yeah. We we've we've projected that out based on based on our numbers projection. We didn't view it as Nolanville competing with Grassland. We just viewed it as there's there's both a need based on the timing. >> I have a question. Um I noticed for the five five new schools kind of on the horizon. Um three of them are
049elementary schools and I know we've seen you know the last I think three years a a slight decrease in enrollment and Mr. Golden and I also talked about how we're seeing especially in our elementary grades. >> Yes. >> Quite a bit of shrink, you know, I mean, it is shrinking. And for example, I know um I was volunteered at Grassland Elementary um cafeteria a couple times and they only have two kindergarteners kindergarten classes. And so I'm I'm just kind of um wanting to kind of get I understand the Fair View one that that might be um but um the McFarland where would that fall on this map of that McFarland >> McFar the McFarland road property we're actually having conversations right now with Southern Land about land. They're doing a new development that is east
050of Nolanville Elementary School. top right corner >> of of Oh, and by the way, I failed to mention we did give you all a hard copy map. Uh >> literally it is to to show you where the schools are. >> Barely. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. It's going to be kind of landlocked. >> You're correct about that >> because Rutherford County is probably a quarter of a mile from that. >> That you're correct. That that spot backs up tightly to Rutherford County >> and Davidson. I mean, it's just like >> it is in the corner. A lot of that's going to depend long term on how dense the developments are and how they get how how they get approved by the town. And again, we have actually pushed this off two years from our current
051>> and there's a possibility it could get pushed off some more. >> Right. And then the the Spring Hill Thompson Station, I guess that's where could >> I mean we've got a lot of schools down there. We do not have the land for the Spring Hill yet, but that school is in there based on the June Lake project >> that has started. And again, it's on the five-year. It could get pushed out. As Mr. Golden said, Nolan'sville Elementary is uh they have a couple portables already. Uh there's a little room at sunset um you know that we possibly could relieve later down the road if we wanted to, but um it's just the area. But yeah, you're correct. If if we could move some kids from Nolanville to Grassland, that would be great. >> So
052that >> I don't think that's going to work. >> Yeah, I think I think it'd be a little bit longer than an hour bus drive. >> And to m to Mr. King's point, geography drives this a little bit. there there is a limit on how far how far you can move a student within the window of time for busing. Uh the uh the June Lake development, the developers have told us they have a 20-year buildout schedule. >> So we're Yeah, it's something that at this stage we're monitoring and we've and we've pushed it back based on what we've seen so far. >> I think the starting price is around 800. Is that right? >> I don't know. That's probably right. That's probably right. for young families. That's a lot. >> Yeah, you're right. And that
053is what we've seen for young families. We've seen what I think is starting to be a trend the last three years now. Uh we've seen we've seen that trend with with respect to the younger children. >> Jason, I notic in the uh centennial the 22 classroom additions looks like it got moved back a year. >> Yes, sir. Well, and it's driven by enrollment uh based on based on our numbers and we actually if you look at our high schools uh what we've seen and I and I I had sent you all a link where we added those percentages based on Dr. Johnson's suggestion. Uh our high schools from a quick percentage standpoint, Brentwood's at 77% capacity. Centennials at 74, Fairviews at 65, Franklin at 84, Paige at 77. Uh, and so I'm not going to
054read the rest of them, but those in particular, we don't foresee an immediate need to build on extra classrooms. >> So, while you got those numbers, who's getting the most out of zone students pulled from them? >> I don't have that data. I will send that to you all before the voting meeting. Allison does keep that. >> It's the same who it always is. Yeah. So, well, it's Franklin High School gets some in part because of their uh >> their IB program. I will tell you I was surprised. We thought Brentwood for the first time in I'm going to say 10 years we had actually open zone Brentwood. We thought it was going to fill with a available seats. It did not. Uh so that implies to us that convenience of drive is a driver.
055And so when you talk about Franklin Centennial being near each other, Independence and Summit being near each other, to your point, there is a significant choice impact there. >> Yeah. So, but it becomes when you're saying the capacity isn't there, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because it becomes a perception of the opportunities won't be there because they're not going to be in competitive as athletics because of the >> enrollment numbers or the opportunities of other programs and and everything else. So >> it sort of feeds into that and we create the problem and then we say well you know the problem exists so we can't expand it. >> Yeah. And and zoning is an issue there too. Uh what I will tell you is and Dr. Webb you and I have had some brief discussions
056related to this with the state structure of open zoning available seats. Mhm. >> There is more of a premium on principles and programs to be attractive to students. Uh and so I don't know that we have enough information yet from a trend perspective. But if a program has success, success breeds success, right? And it becomes more attractive to to folks if they've got the capacity to drive to to a school that's open zone. It's going to be attractive for that. It's It's my point exactly. >> You're right. >> So Jason, the I mean it looks like the methodology on the on the major renovations like the one the ones that are that are not the additions. I mean it looks like you're just going going down based on the age of school and that's a
057proxy for I mean that that makes makes sense just from a from a rationale standpoint. So nobody can say, "Oh, you're you're favoring this this school over over this one." And I guess I guess they might they might jump up, you know, based on a on on urgency or whatever. >> Um but could it on on the the website that you sent us with those um those maps by school zones? >> Yeah. >> Um is it possible to to put kind of a to just color code those those zones? I think it'll make a I I think we we talked about this last time, but if it's possible just to basically take that that um the percentage um occupancy rate um and and put something like if it's you know over 90% then it's red.
058If it's you know something to 90 it's it's yellow and then below 80 or 75 or whatever it's it's green. just so we can see as a visual which which spots have um have vacancies and not. I think that would just be very helpful because the commission's going to need that. Yeah. >> Um because that that piece of paper doesn't doesn't say Nolanville and and and doesn't show that Nolanville and Fairview are, you know, 60 miles apart or whatever the whatever. >> Right. Exactly. No, no problem. >> Yeah, that's a good point. We'll we'll make sure to do that. >> Okay, that'd be really helpful. And um and I just I'll Brian, I'll reach out just because a couple of these a couple of the dates just I think just need a little bit of
059little bit of work in terms of when the when the proposed um spending when it when that's done versus when we have it open. I I think I think it actually would be if you have any um if you have any data around um around our actual um intent to fund requests over the last several years um compared to um compared to what we what we thought we were going to what we what we said we're going to ask for. I mean, obviously, we continue. I mean, these things end up for so long on the list because we do a good job and we're not we're not building a school if the people don't come. But to to be a good steward um and to and to show like the worst thing that we could
060do, and it's happened before, is things have popped up on our list and jumped right up on top because of unexpected things that weren't avail. But um but I think it'll just be good to show our um our commitment to only build projects if we if we have the need. But we're but you're preparing because when you when you you couple you have to couple this with our enrollment projections and and it's okay to to to continue to to assume there's going to be growth because our county continues to grow. Um, I'm still not convinced that that families aren't coming here. Um, but maybe they're they're choosing to to to not put their kids in public school for the first for the first couple of years because we haven't seen that type of that type
061of change in middle and high school. Um, and so like I I just don't I don't know what to think. I think it's inconclusive to to make any to make any judgments necessarily on on why kids aren't why our enrollment is down and our population is up. So, >> well, to your point there there are I'm sure there are multiple variables. I will tell you that uh private schools do have a responsibility to notify leas across the state of students with addresses in in the district that they are enrolled there. Uh this is the time of year when we're receiving those reports. So when we get those in, I'll make sure we get you all a little bit of longitudinal information because we have some from last year. But that data is never 100%. Uh
062right, because because there are some variables. There might be an independent homeschooler who doesn't know that they're supposed to report it. You know, those kinds of things. >> And uh Mr. go with I'll add you remember last year part of our strategic plan was to re-evaluate and update the capacities and we did elementary schools last year and we knew that was going to be the biggest one and and with the most change we're finalizing the middle school so there will be some slight adjustments to our middle school numbers what we have now it's not I think overall it actually increases it but uh other staff need to review it for but we're hoping November that we'll have the new updated capacities on middle schools that we'll change those just a little bit and then next
063year we'll do the high schools which again I don't think there'll be a lot of change just probably some small change but you may see some slight adjustments in the middle school capacity numbers all right I want to reemphasize what Brian mentioned to you feel free to ask questions over the next few weeks as as we head towards the November work session. Madam Madam Chair, uh our our next item on my superintendence report is school start times dash uh discussion for possible action. You all may recall that in both May and June of this year, we had a pretty in-depth discussion of school start times. I have four slides where I'm going to give you a thumbnail review of that discussion with a caveat that this is a thumbnail review uh and in a re
064and I'm going to refer you back to the detail of those reports from from a year ago. So with a caveat that don't don't take uh my my very small thumbnail synopsies as gospel but go back and look. When we had those discussions, we in essence told you, go ahead and pull that up if you would, Tim. Uh, we in essence told you that we were looking for direction that we we met the strategic plan item and if and we were needing some direction from you as to whether to go further. Uh, the discussion, for lack of a better phrase, was all over the place. Uh, of course, it's been recorded. We can go back and look at it. We haven't taken any action since then. I want to give you a reminder of that
065and and know that uh a couple of board members have asked can we get something definitive from the board on whether to go forward or not. So with that, I'm going to just give you a quick reminder of the conclusions and a reminder of what if you voted we would do to take the next step. We do not in we we if there is another vote that is not and would not be a commitment that we're actually going to make a change but it would it would be a commitment that we're going to do some more work to get some more detail on some planning of what it would look like if we did change. So this slide just happens to be a quick reminder of what uh the committee went through in in analysis.
066I'm not going to spend any time on this. Uh that's the analysis and evaluation process. So, if you all would move to the next slide. All right. This is the results of the committee's analysis. Again, ultra thumbnail. And Brian, I think actually when you when you did that when you did those those those slides, I think something happened with the font on one of them. >> Yeah. But by and large, this may not be a fair representation to your de to some of the details, but by and large, what the committee found was there is a net positive impact on secondary schools if you start them later. I think we all concluded there's in fact no research that disputes that that it's pretty clear and y'all correct me if I'm wrong those of you who
067are on that committee pretty much undisputed that that a later start time for secondary schools is a positive >> with the exception of extracurriculars >> okay >> at the elementary school level you see some of those thumbnails related to conclusions related to elementary so that's the essence of of that committee's analysis the final slide, Brian, if you would. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, there there's one more, but after this, but next steps, this is some detail that I'll that I'm going to invite you all to look at uh on your own, but it centers on our next steps would be to do an indepth analysis and planning related to extracurriculars at the secondary level. That is by far the biggest potential negative for for for secondary schools in changing. And the next slide represents some of
068that detail about our next steps. Uh if we if we if you all did vote, hey, we want you to go further. We want you to drill down. We want you to show us some more detailed plans of what this would look like for change if we if we switched. Uh and Brian, I'm going to invite you to give some detail uh related to that to follow up on what we presented in May and June. Thank you, Mr. Golden. And another big piece of this the the work so far was the the strategic plan which was to anal uh analyze the start times and we did that. So the part of the strategic plan was done by a small committee who did a lot of work. If we decide to go forward, we're expanding out
069of this committee. It's going to the schools now and it's going to involve principles, athletic directors, coaches, um, assistant superintendent to get this next set of information. It would be so it would leave this committee. we'd still be part of it, but it's really would expand um into the schools and and and get into the weeds, which is if that's what uh the board wants to do, that's what we'll do. >> If that makes sense. >> So, so I I intend to have a discussion with Mr. Brown about putting this on uh the for a vote as to whether we go further. certainly invite any questions you all may have. There may be some detail. I know Mr. Galbreth, you spoke to this four four months ago in some of our public meetings. >> Yeah,
070thank you. Um yeah, I I guess I had a good conversation with um with with you Jason and uh and Brian um after our last meeting or sometime sometime after after a meeting. Um, and I guess when we it was it goes it goes back to our to our August or September meeting whenever we whenever we talked about this and you know I was I was I was just surprised. I was waiting for for another report that and y'all had a different um different understanding based on kind of reading the the board's reaction. And so my um so I asked I asked them to to bring this to bring this up and I' I'd like to just get a an up or down from the board and give some direction rather than right now it's
071just on everybody's just kind of sitting there and I mean I like at the end of the day I just want to I think we owe it to the from a strategic standpoint strategic plan standpoint I don't think it's sufficient just that we that we had staff look at it. But I think the board kind of owes the owes everyone who who participated in the strategic plan a um an answer if you will. And um and so over I mean over the last eight years we've this has been a um this has been a topic even since we since it just kind of the way the other process kind of started and fall started and ended um it just left little to like it just felt like it wasn't finished. And so there's been talk
072u I think the I think the initial presentation kind of glossed over the need. Um and then as we were as we as we got into the to the meat of the of the committee's findings, if you will, it focused all on the on the negatives. And so I I don't feel like there was it wasn't it wasn't anybody's fault. just the way pragmatically the the conversation fell. And so what I wanted to what I what I wanted to do was to to have a vote to before before they expand this and it and it creates um a good amount of work for for a lot of people to um but which I think is if if we were if we were looking to to make a decision, I don't think it's appropriate to to
073ask the public to really to weigh in until we have a good plan on what our what our plan would be. Um, and so in order to do that, we we need we need some more information to be able to make a um an informed vote as a board. Um, which would also at at at the point at which we got a so if we how I understand the process, you can just I think we're I think we're on the same page, but if we if we voted to say yes, we want to take the next step and do the due diligence to to determine what a plan would be then and we and the board said yes to that. If the if we say no, we just drop it and we move on. If
074we say yes, then you go do that. And as part and our our next vote would be you you would outline a process. We'd put all the information together. Um and as part of that process would be would be community input and all that all that stuff. And then we would prepare ourselves to ultimately like we' we'd be committing to a vote at that point at the at the end of that process whenever whenever that is. >> That's that's exactly right. you and I are are on the same page and we actually had some slides, >> you know, five months ago or so that included that process. I I it's possible that in all that detail we we got lost a little bit in, you know, what would be the next step. That's why I
075wanted to give some clarity on what Brian and I just talked about. If you all want us to go that extra step, it would involve our administrative team related to extracurriculars. And and I guess my my my particular ask if for the process would be would be that we would come up with a I would ask the committee or you and and and this as far as the the deliverable from this process would be hey here's here's our here's what we would do if we didn't have any um if we didn't allocate any capital right so I don't want I don't want the result to be we're going to need $30 million cuz that it's like oh that's that's a lot. Like what would we do if we didn't get any capital? And then ultimately
076there's another step that if we if we had more capital to put lights on fields or to build more fields or to do whatever we need to to do, then that might be a that could be a a next step, a secondary recommendation that could be implemented over a over a period of time. But um but I'd like to I'd like to not make capital the a sole issue that could just be swept away. I was like, well, we're never going to can we can't ask the the commission for $30 million right now. So, if I could that would be my only qu my only request with regards to this this vote. >> So, Mr. uh you're exactly right and we've already talked about it in the committee when we take it to the athletic
077director's principles. It's going to be with your current what you have, not you know extra fields, lights at middle schools. Currently with what you have, how would you do? How are you going to schedule lacrosse, soccer, that kind of thing? Yes, sir. >> Sounds good. >> Is it um as a reminder if we push back the start time was any number mentioned 15 minutes, 20, 30 minutes? We were actually talking about the potential of flipping the start times and having secondary start well having primary start first, elementary first, and secondary second rather than moving the start time 10 or 15 minutes uh one direction or the other. >> Okay. And the follow on, do all of our athletic fields currently have adequate night lighting? >> No. No, sir. >> Okay. So that we would get
078that information later. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. The middle schools, most of our middle schools don't, but Yes, sir. That would that would be part of it. Yes, sir. >> Okay. Um I'll go. Um so the last time we talked about it, um this was actually I I didn't I didn't mention it. This was my biggest concern was how late the um high school or middle school kids would get home. And I look at that because I know um extracurriculars and athletics are a a big deal and it's great, you know, that we have such a vibrant program and how that would impact the family time um for the families. They're always getting home late. Are they going to be able to sit down and have dinner together? What is it going to look like?
079Um and that is my biggest concern. as well as then when do they start with their homework because that takes in another hour or two away um from when they're starting their homework. So, I'm really not in favor of moving forward with it. But because I I it will impact that no matter what regardless of all these other things. And so that's my opinion. >> I was going to say I'm also not in favor of moving forward with it. I feel like over the 14 years that I've been a parent in the district, we've asked a couple different ways like people's opinions or parents opinions and um I feel like we see the positive and negatives for both. But um in my opinion, I just think the negatives outweigh the positives as far as having
080our youngest kids at the bus stops early in the morning and then also the impact on extracurriculars. And I understand about not including the capital, but I do think that the capital impacts the participation like we have to have lights to keep them safe. And so I do think that that has to be part of our consideration whenever we think about the money that is available and how that will impact the participation in the extracurricular activities. >> Does anyone else want to speak >> on the slides? few sides ago when you had the um I don't know if it was the committee findings on like the positive or negative impacts. Could you go back to that? >> Yes, >> possibly. So, and yeah. So, the secondary like there was positives which we said the negatives
081on the elementary that's based on the the studies and stuff. >> That is based on the studies. based and and let me say Amy Maf is cringing right now as a research person that we have reduced all of her research >> I know >> to a negative or >> so sorry >> so sorry >> but for the purpose of this yeah I know she's >> she's like oh my gosh I can't believe you're doing this and so >> but yes just you know >> so Brian let's have Amy speak to that >> I was going to say but overall >> she's tapping her she's figuratively tapping her footall Is it is it negative in some way or >> Thank you for asking and and I'm still going to generalize because it's it's what we're doing
082here. So have that caveat. Um but this is a compilation of all of the literature from actual schools who have had start time changes. And for each of the studies I pulled positive, negative, or not significant. And I I'd like to go back for just a minute to the secondary because there was a little bit of a comment about it before. There is no contradicting evidence to the fact that when secondary students start school later, they get more sleep. That's the part that really there is no contradicting evidence. The academic outcomes for both elementary and middle, there really was not significant positive or negative either way. Not that they balanced out, but really there just wasn't a lot of um then for secondary extracurricular extracurricular participation had a negative um outcome. All the other studies
083had positives for those other areas. Elementary now to answer your question, academics out outcomes being not significant, the other studies only showed negatives for attendance, behavior, extracurriculars, there weren't quite as many studies. You can see there were more things studied in secondary, but I did a pretty thorough search and for elementary those are um they were all negative outcomes for those areas in everything I found. Can can you define a little bit more on the secondary um the driving and accidents that it was positive to switch because that to me that's a very powerful >> Yeah, absolutely. It that was a a pretty big impact. What they found in several different studies is that um comparing before and after the change, there were lower numbers of teenage accidents, meaning the outcome on students was positive
084that their start time was later. Does that make sense? Okay. >> That's actually multiple studies and I'd be glad to put them together. powerful. >> One of the districts who those studies were based on was Cherry Creek, which is one of the districts that we talked to and um so there's quite a bit from there and I can highlight that in what we've shown. >> There's detail of the Cherry Creek study in the June board packet. That's right. Um that's still posted. So we'll make sure that we give you all just a reminder link to that. >> So Amy, help me out with the the negative impact on extracurricular for for elementary. I don't understand that one. Mhm. I'm going to pull up the specifics. I believe that was because what they ended up doing
085is having extracurricular meetings after school instead of before or changing the times when extracurriculars were offered. The outcome was number participation numbers were lower. So, for whatever reason it was in that study, elementary extracurricular participation went down. And and again, that may not that that's the study that I found that had that. >> Yeah, that just doesn't make any sense to me that the elementary are going to go earlier. They've got more time like after school like it that that one does I mean the rest of them I and I and what about the behavior at the elementary school level because Yeah, >> I'll be glad to speak to those. So the elementary the one study I found and it was from the Cherry Creek District for elementary a change to earlier start times for
086elementary showed a decrease in before school activities and after school particip um after school participation did not change but before school participation decreased and that was 24,000 students in this uh school district that they studied. So I think you're right to say after school participation, >> but it was before school participation that decreased. So the overall numbers of participation decreased, >> right? So So maybe everything goes to after school versus before, but I get that. But what about the behavioral? >> And then behavior for elementary, I'll pull up those specifics. I have them right here. Behavior for secondary, we split into school dis discipline versus other behaviors. But really for elementary it was school discipline that the studies uh were focused on and there were three. One was um really not not much change in
087elementary start times and how many suspensions they had. The other two showed um negative effects and this is kind of a backwards one but when elementary started later there were less short-term suspensions. So that was that was one study. Another one that I found said that earlier start times for elementary were associated with greater behavior problems, including harassment, suspensions, and expulsions. That was a study of 310,000 elementary students in Kentucky who had had their start time changed earlier. So those are just the three that I found. >> Really the only ones I could find with those topics. I >> will tell you our raw numbers at elementary, the suspensions are pretty pretty low. >> Yeah. Let me >> So, >> oh, sorry. Is that okay if I go or you go? >> Yeah. >> Secondary
088health positive um depression, stress, attempted suicide and things are a very serious consideration. Are you saying that those incidences went down if there was a later starting time? >> Correct. The outcome of a later start come for secondary out later start for secondary had positive outcomes on those areas. Correct. So my question um I know I think it's shared that this is part of the strategic plan but like what what problem are we trying to solve with switching the start times and is it worth the return on investment? >> Well, we've you know we've we've asked that question too. Ultimately that's going to need to be a you know a board decision. uh where we're at is we've done the studies. Uh I will say we're kind of potentially addressing that question in some different
089context with one of our one of my proposed superintendent goals, alternate delivery models. Uh one of the Doc Mr. Galbath, I'm speaking for you just a bit. One of the things you mentioned last month was things go are going really well here. are we exploring other possibilities? Right? Uh and so we've had that discussion and we're open to that discussion. I think the question here in the context of school start times is do you want to go further knowing where we are? Uh and Mr. Galborth, you also mentioned that this we this discussion has been going on for eight years. It's actually been a little bit longer. uh and and and but somewhere around eight years ago or so, we actually did what Dr. Driggers had mentioned earlier, which was move all the times back
090about 15 or 20 minutes. Uh and so there there are some subtle subtle changes. I will tell you when when we when we did that to answer your question of were we solving a problem I don't I didn't perceive at that time that we were that we were solving a problem it was just an adjustment based on some conversations that we had you trade one problem for another in in in that context so Marchie if I'm if I may I think the the the reason this is was an issue is the the research that has been relative atively overwhelming around the positive impacts on um on the adolescence for um to start later. Just the every everything around their um their sleep pattern like the people we I mean back back years ago when we
091when we went through this we got lots of we got lots of data and nobody really refutes it the like the posit the positive health benefits. Um, it really surprises me that that the that the outcomes don't don't follow. I think it's a function of of not not a lot of not a lot of data, not a lot of factual studies. I think the the ones that have been have been kind of inconclusive. Um, but the it's the it's the positive impact on um not only not only more sleep because some people might argue that that they'll go they'll just go to bed later. Um, but it's the um it's the optimal learning environment for them to be at school before their body's awake essentially trying to learn and it's counterproductive in the mornings. But
092um but the the so flipping does a couple of things. One, elementary gets home so late right now and they have, you know, maybe a couple hours of of of time at home before before they're they go to bed so early. Like you can't argue like we've got the the ones that go to the go to bed the earliest get out later right now and they've got this condensed time after after school. So they're getting home at dark and then they're going to bed by like 8:00 or I mean there's a continuum of their the older ones go to bed a little bit later maybe. Um, but the it's not it I mean nobody would argue that the older kids and it's not just because they they have more freedom and it's just their their
093bio rhythm would would say that they're they're not ready to go to sleep by I mean try to put a teenager to bed at 9:00 and they're just like I mean like like this, right? So that's the that's the reason that we were that we were doing it. I mean, I was trying to I was trying to make the case last month that, you know, when when I talked to Dr. Allen about his number one priority a couple of years ago was the was the was was kind of moving towards the the early release whenever whatever whether it was late start early release but that specific collaboration time for teachers and right now um while the the late power late start Mondays are um are are okay like they're they're they're better than not doing
094anything from a collaboration standoint. point, but they're they're not as good as he would say would be um if everybody were doing the the early release. But but everybody everybody loves the late start like all the high schoolers like don't don't take away I mean when we talked about changing those. So if y'all for those of y'all were that weren't on the board um it was a non-issue to to take away my late start, but they didn't really they don't really care. They don't really like the late starts. they would they would prefer to go later every day were it not for if you take away the if we if we solve the extracurricular problem and I know that's that that shows up if you solve the extracurricular problem the the all of the secondary
095people would not all no we can't I can't we can't get all on anything but a vast majority of the people would um would prefer the later start for the for the for the secondary and and even I mean the ear And if you look at the elementary school students, they're all getting up earlier anyway. And so like it's just it just makes more sense if we weren't on this schedule and we were doing and we were designing a schedule to be optimal for to for for everything around how these kids operate and their sleep patterns and everything like I I think we would do the flip schedule. Now if it's too much change like and I get that like I mean then then it's not worth it and we we move on. Well, and
096the question is is did Cherry Creek switch back or are they still doing it with the I mean >> what's the >> do they switch back or did they >> they stuck with it so they found it worth it. Okay, but they also didn't have a robust extracurricular activity if I remember correctly. >> Middle schools if I recall did not have that. >> That's accurate. Um the middle school programs that we have here in Williamson County who are involved with the TM TMSAA um are very robust and a lot of the studies of local and with Cherry Creek they do not have the level of middle school programs. They do not have facilities. Most of those students are recreational leagues or teams. They're not at the competitive level that we have in Williamson County. to
097that point. I I can remember experience with my kids of wrestling match going after and it was a try meet and you got three teams going and they go together and you've got to clean up and you got to do the mats and you leave after school and you get there and it was finally done and we could leave and it was at another high school. We had to drive home and it was 10:00 and we're just getting ready to leave and you know his son walks up and you know it's like hey you done all your homework already and it was just defeat. He just went no said I got an AP exam tomorrow and you know tests like that. Um, you know, and it was the first only time Alice said, "You know
098what? Just go to bed. You know, you got to go to school tomorrow." You know, it's the only time, you know, I get it. Um, push these things even back later. How late is it going to be? Is it now 11:00 that he rolls out from that thing and he's trying to start his classes in and that thing? So, a lot of this I say it's, you know, it's squeezing the balloon here. It's, you know, who do you want to shift the negatives to? Um, to your point, it's I don't want the extracurriculars to be the tail that wags a dog, but our kids are involved in a lot of extracurriculars. Um those band kids, my lord, they they are there year round. That's the hardest working group of any of the sports. But and
099then to your point, it gets dark early and especially with young families. It's the same thing that we've seen with the, you know, the youth numbers taping off. They're not coming here because they can't afford houses in Williamson County. I could not afford my house when I was starting out in my career and I had young kids as opposed to when I'm more mature in my career and and doing a little better and have older kids. And the same thing is true when a lot of families with young kids also have two working parents. So you're putting them out there at the bus stop really early at dark. So, it's, you know, there's not a perfect solution for it. I I just I appreciate all the work and everything that's done, and I mean that.
100I I do. It's a lot of work and everything that's gone into this, but I I just don't see a net I don't I don't see the the significant overwhelming positive across the board for all students. It's, you know, serve one to, you know, rob Peter to pay Paul. And I think you made a great point is it's just we don't have the infrastructure there in place for the middle schools and everything to to do it yet. So, it's kind of putting the cart before the horse. If we want to flip it, we got to make sure that we've got the infrastructure in place for the kids so that we can do it. And we don't have it there yet. I mean, that's just not, you know, and on here. So, I don't know. I'm
101I'm I'm just We talked about it for a while, but I'm I'm not in favor of of moving forward with it. >> Dr. Divers, >> for Brian and Amy, did anybody consider daylight savings time? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> Yes, sir. That's that's part of And actually uh there there was a slide in the in the u documents that we'll send you a new link to that that talked about I think it was like nautical sunset or something like that. I mean because there's like three different types of sunset >> civil twilight. >> We learned a new term. >> Yes, they looked at that. Yes, >> I Yeah, I think I agree a lot with what Eric said with that, you know. Um I don't know. To me, it doesn't seem like it's enough
102of enough of a net positive to justify it, I would think. I I don't know. I just look at myself now with like arson. So, this would affect he's obviously in elementary. is in kindergarten and getting him up earlier and it's, you know, some days it's like chasing a cat around the house, you know, it's just crazy. And I like to think that gets better when you're older that you're a little more self-sufficient. I don't know. I'll let the people with older kids speak to that, but it just seems like it's um I don't know. To me, it seems like it'd be a lot more stressful for kids. As far as the health benefits, I I do recognize the the more sleep for um the older kids, um that's probably somewhat indisputable. I just I
103don't know when you're in high school and you're getting ready to transition to college, you know, or career and you got those early days, you know, it's um maybe it's better to kind of, you know, get them a little more prepared for that early on for waking up early and going to bed earlier, you know. I don't know. I I probably would also not nec I mean I'm fine if they want to move it forward, but if I had to vote or give an up or down, I probably would just be like I don't I don't think there's enough for me to want to do it. But >> yeah. >> Well, I think they're looking for direction from the board. So, at this point, I think if everyone's comfortable, we can go around like we've
104done in the past. You say yes or no. And can we do that? >> Why don't we just say if there's any objection? >> Okay. Does anybody have an objection? >> Object to moving forward. >> Yes. >> I object to moving forward. >> Well, I think I don't know if we I don't I don't know about having a vote. I mean, my the way to me Well, we kind of are, but >> you shouldn't say vote. >> The the I mean, I guess the I guess the does anybody does anybody object to just bring it up for a vote and we let's just vote on it? Like I I've been we've been we've been talking about it for for a long time. Like I'd rather just vote not not vote on whether we're doing it
105or not, but vote on whether Yeah. We're we're just giving we're giving Jason direction to either move forward with additional studies or not. Like then just So I just don't want to I don't want to leave it and just say, "Well, we talked about at a board work session one time and then we we just dropped it." Like I'd rather just like I I mean if it if it fails, it fails. Like I just want to get it on the record and give Jason some direction and then we can he can point back to say, "Hey, why didn't you move forward with that?" Well, the board told me that they weren't interested. So, there we go. >> So, you would rather you would prefer to uh vote for it than just table it. >> Yes.
106>> Okay. >> If unless there's I mean, >> is there any reason why it can't be added? >> I'll have I'll have that conversation with Mr. Brown if that's the will of the of the the board tonight. >> Okay, >> Madame Chair, uh I I gave a prediction that our 45minut superintendent's report might be a little bit longer. Uh that is my report. >> All right. Thank you um Superintendent Golden. So now we will move on to the operations report. Mr. King. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh few construction updates. Uh Brentwood Middle School, of course, you know, we're finished with the actual building. Now we're working on the final phase, the outside uh which is scheduled to be completed November. The top stoop soil uh for the multi-purpose field is complete. The irrigation is
107complete and hope to begin uh siding uh the last week of October. The innovation center uh the roof uh installation is complete. Landscaping has uh begun. Windows uh installation is complete. Most of the drywall is complete. It's going along really well. And the flooring and kitchen equipment installation um is set to begin next week. And that's part of that's for the culinary arts program that's going to be in the innovation center. And this month I would like to just give a little shout out to our nurses. Uh if we have that slide. This is just an overview. Hold on. Just >> do we have that Nick? >> We do have a seaside landscape that was pre prei. This is where the nurses would love to be a little zen. That's okay. I'll I'll just read
108you That's okay. I'll just read you some numbers. Uh it'll be part of the uh the packet. We'll get make sure it's in the packet. Um but just in the month of September, there were 25,000 uh visits to the school nurse in one month. Uh and of those almost 6,000 were scheduled. That's doctor's orders, that's medications, that's feedings, uh any kind of procedure that is uh prescribed by a doctor. Um, and the big number that Sarah uh Whitfield, who's head of our nurses, likes to point out, of those kids that went to the nurse, 92% uh were able to go back to the classroom, which is huge for our kids and learning and not disrupting. Our nurses do a fantastic job, y'all. Uh, and under the direction of Sarah Whitfield. And so I just wanted
109to show that um number for this past month just kind of as a snapshot. >> And Brian, for years under the old funding model, the old BEP model, there was a there was a dispute over nurses because nurses were funded at a 0 point something. Uh and it was it was based on student numbers and not schools when it was apparent that we needed a nurse at every school. Uh and we were way ahead of that curve in making sure there was a nurse at every school. Uh and and they are busy. And that is my report unless anybody has any questions. >> What's the last one? >> Yeah, ice pack. >> And that's just the top ones. That's not everyone. They just highlighted the top ones. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. King. Anyone have
110any other questions? Right. Moving on. Um board chair report. We don't have one of those tonight. So, I guess we're now moving on to new business. Um, starting with the 2526 school board budget. Farmer. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. We have three items tonight. The first of which is a uh grant that student support services applied for. or it was a transportation reimbursement grant related to them totaling $136,618 to help offset um some expenses related to the bus drivers pay. No questions on that one. We'll move to the next. Um each year we bring to you requests related to bus purchases. And so for this year we are looking at replacing eight gened buses, replacing seven special education buses and then the need for four growth special education buses. That total purchase cost would be
111$3,184,000. And we would plan to use fund balance in order to be able to pay for that. And Miss Farmer, I just I would like to add this, Brian King. Um, we have on that list eight replacement general ed buses. Uh, we are actually scheduled based on the state requirements to retire more than eight. Am I correct? >> Yes, sir. We're uh we're going to retire 14. So, um, for the past couple years, I've worked really close with uh Mr. Fuller who's over transportation to reduce the fleet, the gened fleet. Uh, and right now we're just a little over 20% of uh, for subbes, which is for our size and age of equipment, we should be around 20% and we're getting really close to that. We're just a little bit over that now. And uh,
112so yeah, we're making a real effort the past two or three years to uh, reduce our fleet and get it more in line. Yes. So, so from a money perspective, we're trying to be careful not to purchase more buses um than we need, knowing that there's a that that there's a there's a need not to overspend. >> Yes. >> Special ed special education continues to grow. >> It does. And our uh our wrership continues to grow even though our enrollment overall is flat. Our enrollment our wrership has gone up the past couple of years. uh talked to Allison. It's on pace to go up again this year for special ed. And there's also we're we're looking to replace the smaller 12 passenger buses with the larger uh 22 passenger buses which will help also reduce
113uh the spedit cost down the road and the number of routes that we run. The last item tonight is related to the uh through the budget process last year. As a reminder, we put all adjustments to salary, the 2% raise, the additional supplements, the additional days for staff that was added into one line so that if it does get adjusted during the budget process, we can adjust that one line versus all of the lines you see before you. So this is the the entry to move all of those adjustments out to each individual line. And so the total, as a reminder, was 12,465 616. Again, this is no cost. It's just moving them into the correct lines. >> Okay. Any questions on that? No. >> That's all I had. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss
114Farmer. All right. Moving on. Um, under new business, we have board policies for first reading. The first policy is 4.401 textbooks and instructional materials. Mr. Golden. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. As you all know, Dana Osbrooks is on the agenda. She's was not able to come tonight. So, I'm going to speak to those uh that this this first policy. I will call your attention to page two of four. If you don't mind, Tim, pull that up. That includes the the substantive changes. I want to thank Mr. Bostic for his recommendations related to these. The the core of the proposed changes on that page too center around uh adding what we talked about in in preparing for this next round of adoption related to the teacher preference forms include written explanations of the reasons for their
115choice. Uh and then the second the second big piece includes that there shall be a presentation made to the board. We had some discussion at the policy committee about whether to have the entire textbook committee uh participate in that and ultimately on first reading the policy committee determined that the that the numbers were such that it wasn't reasonable to do that. So, there is a line out there, but it it is the uh the intent still is here to have a dialogue and discussion for board members. And I will add this extra piece that I'm not sure is actually in the policy. As a reminder, we're making sure that all of you have the dates for every single one. And I definitely invite you all to come to those committee meetings and observe those. >>
116So, Mr. Mr. G, if I may, just the the the red writing um in there on on line 17 and 18. Um the it's always been there that the that the board may serve as exeicio members and I think we're just kind of um and so the superintendent has always been superintendent and the board have always been exeicio members. I think we just clarified this that the that the board um is all members of the board may also be exficio members non non- voting members but are kind of extending the invitation to to come and visit those meetings. So >> thank you for mentioning that there's a little bit of lack of clarity I think um when you compare this language to Robert's rules exeicio versus non- voting. So that does clear that up. So
117how would that work? So would these be board members having sort of the dialogue and asking questions and and interacting with the committee? >> Short answer is yes that they would have that opportunity uh as exeicio and Mr. Cook I think from a from a standardized definition of exeicio that would be the case. >> That's correct. >> So yes that could happen. So Eric, if I may on the discussion of there and I and I think we're it's we're open to discussing this. I think we just kind of for first reading we we said okay we've we talked about this enough let's move on. U the question was do we have do we have one or two board members who are exeicio quote unquote like non- voting members like like we had one last year.
118Um and like we've had a couple of more members on the technology committee who are um who I mean there's no votes on that committee but they're they're participating in the discussion. Um the rest so the question is do we do we have one or two of those members and everybody else is invited but doesn't actively participate. So I was kind of we had some lively discussion around that. >> I'm I'm sure >> and I'm going to interrupt. I think we had a scout that I did not notice. Thank you all for coming to observe. I'm guessing. >> I'm sorry. I had to I had to do that. >> No, I'm glad you did. >> So, I guess the question I have for Jason is what's going to be Yeah. I mean, I know they're
119on the technology committee, but that's parents. So, I think that's different teachers. What's going to happen when a teacher has a different point of view on a book that the board member feels strongly about? uh what's what's going to happen to their willingness to speak up and and disagree and >> sort of put themselves on the >> the the potential is there for that. I think I think how you handle that on the front end is going to be important to let folks know that that this is a this is a civil discussion uh and that this is a professional discussion and I think that the responsibility is on every every board member and every teacher to make sure that it is that professional civil discussion uh and I know that we have had some
120conversation related to that uh even in the context of those forms and if I'm not mistake- taken. Um, Jenny Lopez, I know we've had this conversation. We talked about and Dr. Allen as well. We we we talked about those forms because I think the forms may be a partial answer to your question as well because it's not just about discussion. It's about teachers sharing their preferences. Can you all speak to what we talked about with respect to the forms? >> Yes. So the form um that the teachers fill out is um has their their identification. So it has their employee you know um email address and their name. I think the discussion we had was do we make it anonymous so that teachers feel more empowered to share what their recommendation is and I just
121um in the in the past the way we've used the form if we've actually given the committee um representative for each school the the data for what the teachers in that particular school want. So it is very um it's very open. I don't want to use the word transparent but it it's very open to um all the information and so you have a clear understanding of what grade levels because you know what teachers are selecting what. So I think having have making it identifiable has had some meaning in the past and it certainly creates a way for us to to have that information. So there there is a way to make it anonymous but we've not made it anonymous in the past. So in short, the we've having having having the individuals be able to
122speak for themselves whether in writing or in a conversation has opened up more dialogue. I think it's going to be incumbent on all of us to maintain that. Is there a consideration to add that the board members would take the oath like the textbook committee members would take? Should we be included in that? >> There's no requirement for that. Um based on the state structure, >> uh we have not had a detailed conversation related to that. Uh ultimately you all as board members have taken an oath >> already. Uh and so I don't know that there's a need, but certainly that can be discussed at the at the second reading. >> I would like for that to be discussed. I just feel like it confirms our commitment and it's a sign of our participation in
123the shared work and it is different than our board member oath. So I would like I think that that should be considered. >> Any further comments? No. All right. Then we'll move on to the second policy which is 6.312 use of wireless communication devices. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, as you all in the policy committee know, there was a there was a pretty pretty detailed discussion related to the to the proposal uh from Dr. Reeves related to uh on on the um on the proposed policy changes and I'm flipping through here and I know Dr. Reeves included some addition some details. So, we've included all that in the board packet as well. That also includes the recommendations from the from the uh technology committee. Uh um and I am flipping through my my board packet
124to find that particular the the particular document um for the proposal so that we can go through that detail use of wireless communication devices. there's a there's a significant rewrite uh and I know we had some discussion uh about making sure that that you all considered the the uh the policy as currently written compared to the rewrite. Uh Dana Osbrooks did include the lineouts. Uh so I encourage you to look at those. the the core of it uh relates Well, I tell you what, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna turn it over to you if you if you would like. Sure. >> Uh and maybe follow the lead that Dana Osbrooks occasionally does. >> Sure. Um it was a it was a significant rewrite. So, um I I to I what I explained
125at the the policy meeting um at the end of September was that I took the recommendations from the committee and um incorporated all of those. And so in the policy review request that we submit, I've summarized those proposed changes and how the policy was revised to incorporate what the committee had recommended. Um, and so the biggest things that we heard from the committee and um, Miss Oyer, feel free to jump in if I get anything wrong, but they wanted clarity around um, what silenced and um, that silence means off the body that um, they wanted to know about watches. Watches were still a concern and so they wanted to see some firmer language around smart watches. um they wanted to include uh consequences and the committees at each elementary, middle and high school levels um
126outlined what those consequences should be. So I incorporated those as well. Um they wanted at the middle school they wanted there are certain exceptions that are provided by state law and so they wanted us to more clearly define what um what educational purposes would be acceptable for teachers to allow um a mobile device to be used during instruction time. um they for for high school they recommended that we still keep the the lunch policy in place. So currently the policy is written to allow phone use at lunch. Um I wrote the policy to as a complete a bell to bell policy. So complete away for the day. Um I've been a strong advocate for that from the start. Um, I've been pretty consistent about that and I think all the data supports doing that. Um,
127so that was the rewrite. Um, I think that highlights the main things. It it included um clearer defining of what the e exception uses were. So, not just what defining educational purpose look like, but also the other exceptions that are specified by the state law. Um, and it incorporated the the consequences piece. And I think that hits the highlights. Claire, I can't help but there's a lot of I wrote in this. I mean, this is not the board policy. This is your policy. Did you did you work with staff in crafting this? >> I did not. >> Wrote this on your own. >> I did write it on my own. Yes. >> Okay. Um the bellto bell that you want to change. I mean, last time we were here, we were told it was unanimous
128among the committee and unanimous among all the the principles that they did not want that change midyear. >> Correct. But we did not ask for a recommendation on when these changes should take effect. and the committee did come back with feedback on what check what changes they would like to see to improve the policy. I >> I'm just talking about the bell-to- bell. They specifically said don't make these changes midyear. The parent committee unanimously said that and our principles >> the parent committee said that >> did not unanimously say that. The committee was asked to come to consensus and there are parents on that committee who still would like to see belltobell. >> Okay. So the consensus of the parents was not to make mid-year changes >> to not do belltobell and the principles were
129unanimous on it and saying that they don't when would this take place? >> I had proposed that the change would take effect in January. in January. Okay. >> So, to be clear, all it's adding is removing cell phones at lunchtime. >> And so, there's concerns about enforcement of the policy in general. And it stands to reason that having a clear-cut away for the day policy for the entire school day is much it's going to be much easier for teachers and staff to enforce than having a gray area. You say it's much easier for them. Our principles disagree with you on that. >> I think the principles are probably concerned about um >> I don't want to project what they're concern. They've told us that they disagree. I mean, you can we agree on that that
130the principles have unanimously said don't do this. >> The the principles on the committee said that they would prefer to keep lunch the way it is right now. Yes. >> Dr. Mr. Webb, do we have any principles in high school that have said that they want to make changes mid year? >> Thank you for the question. The um the two principles that are the secondary reps that serve on the screen time committee asked the principles that specific question. All high school principles who responded said no, they do not want to see a midyear change to that would make the u make it more restrictive which would exclude use uh from lunch. All so all of them have said that >> all. Yes. >> Okay. So this is saying that you know better than all of
131our high school principles. >> I'm saying that the data supports making this change and there's nothing in the data that says that lunchtime that somehow magically the mental health issues that kids are experiencing pauses during lunchtime. So there are 18 states now that have gone to full away for the day policies and I as a board member have seen the positive effects in my own children who have an away for the day policy at their school. >> So so sometimes we have to make >> I don't think we should be making WCS policy based upon >> where your the private school where your kids go to. I mean, I'm glad it's due, but you know, it's it's different. >> I'm saying that different population >> the data the data supports making a way for the
132day policy, putting that in place. 18 states have done that. All types of different schools are doing that and we're having the conversation about it. >> Jason, when is our graduation date? >> Graduation date. >> Yeah. >> Uh, I can't remember off the top of my head. We have a window. It is May. It's the last week in May before before Memorial Day. >> So, what we're doing is we're talking here about moving it up four and a half months. >> I sent an email. Sorry. Are you done? >> Well, I'm just saying if this is something we want to do and I'm open to this conversation, this is the same conversation we had at the start of it. If it's something that we want to do, why is it so important that we start
133it mid year which are only again four or five months as opposed to having adequate time to study it to put the plans in place? I mean, if we're going to do this, my recognition would be we get rid of the parent parent committee. They told us this was the the number one concern that they had. So, we moved it up. They came to a consensus. They parents told us not to change it. The principles told us not to change it. And so, we're going to say, "No, we know better. This is what we want." And blow them off. It it just seems incredibly disrespectful to the parents who've put all this time in reviewing it have >> so you're generalizing give >> let me finish please who have looked through the data with our
134staff have gotten feedback from the principles who have to actually implement these and they've all said one thing and we're going to go and say no, we want to do another and because we want to get it in place four or five months earlier. I mean, at what point do we want to have some respect for our staff and say, "These are the experts. Let's actually listen to them." The experts say that an away for the day policy is what's benefiting our kids. So I keep going back to 18 states have now banned phones and other wireless devices outright during the school day. That's what the experts say. Our committee was asked to come to consensus. So saying that all the parents agree with what the committee suggested is not accurate. There are parents from
135the committee that still agree with an away for the day ban. So the point of bringing this forward is to take the vast majority of the committee's recommendations and they were put into this policy. I have been very clear from the start that I strongly feel away for the day is what's going to benefit our students best. There are currently school districts in Tennessee that have had a true away for the day policy in advance of the state law being passed. One of them being Warren County. And that superintendent said in the first year there were 700 fewer disciplinary referrals. So, I understand that change is hard, but board members can have disagreements with what the committee recommends. We don't have to blanket accept what the committee recommends. So, I am voicing my opinion. I
136submitted the policy. We're now discussing it. You clearly disagree. And if that's the will, if that's where the vote comes out that we're not going to make a change this year, fine. But I feel strongly that we should because it's in the best interest of our students. >> You think it's in the best interest of our students? Again, the consensus of the policy is says otherwise and all of our principles say otherwise. >> The evidence is strong enough that 18 states have banned cell phone devices in our schools in their schools. If I may, >> Dr. Webb, can we Yeah, go ahead, please. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I wanted to follow up to the email that I sent. I am also in favor of a way to the away for the day but on
137a different timeline. I would really like for us to start this next school year. I feel like we have two major hurdles to starting it in January. Number one, I do not think that our teachers need to be the enforcers of that. I think that we need to investigate other ways um whether it is a pouch system or something like that so that our teachers are not enforcing it. the way that our lunches are set up, that is just not a practical approach um for to in what's the word to enforce that. Number two, I have some um policies at other schools. And I don't think we're comparing apples to apples when you have schools that let their students from their school email their parents. You're talking about an accessibility issue. I definitely do not
138want our students on their social media at all. But most private schools and some public schools allow their students to email from their school email to their parents to with colleges for their jobs for dual enrollment. That is not the case in Williamson County schools. So we're talking about an accessibility issue also that I feel like with time we we could work through. So when I look at the policies for Harpath Hall, Curry Ingram, and Christ Presbyterian Academy, all three of those private schools amongst others allow their students to email their parents. So you're talk that is not apples to apples when you're talking about different policies. Okay? So I just really would like for us I agree with making the small changes that the committee suggested. I do want to draw your attention to
139at the bottom of the document. It says that the committee recommended no changes this school year. Um, but I would like to see us work with encourage the staff to to figure out those two hurdles, which there might be other other hurdles that y'all can see because I would like for us to get to bell-to-bell. But my main concern is the instructional time. And like Dr. Webb said, if we cannot enforce, which we cannot enforce during lunch, the way things are set up right now, I'm afraid that that lack of enforcement is going to creep into our instructional time. And I feel like so far it is going really well. We're hearing great things. I have a high schooler that phone use those hours are way down, you know, and I'm sure you can hear
140that from other people. Overall, it is really positive. So, I'm just asking for a different timeline on this. I want to get to the same place. I just want a different timeline. >> And what if they could get it done by January? >> Let's ask. >> Yeah. cuz think about this. If we pass this, the earliest it's going to go into effect is November 17th. >> That's one week to give them. Then you have Thanksgiving. Then you have two weeks of instruction in December and then a week of of testing and then everybody's out. So you've got five weeks to try to implement. >> Yeah. But the administration I mean the issues that she's talking that the administration would work through those that we could do it in January. Well, when we when we did
141this initial policy in mid mid mid June, they started eight weeks later. I mean, it was it's not it's not versus six weeks later. I mean, it's not a and it's not a huge it's not a huge change, right? So, but but at the end of the day, I mean, this is this is kind of this is what we this is what we set out in June when we when we agreed to um to this kind of minimum to keep us legal policy in June. Um, we all said that we would come that we would we would go and we would take it to the committee. We'd let the committee go go meet on it and then we'd bring it back to the board to review. Like that's what we did. We didn't like to
142Claire's point, we did we didn't ask the committee to say when should we when we do review that, when should we when should we make it um effective? They they weighed in, which is which is fine. They gave us their um they gave us their collective opinion. Um, and now we have to we have to decide if we want to continue to to make the make the change. Um, I I think it's I think it's not exactly accurate with that. I mean, I guess it is accurate to say that they didn't ask us to to make any changes until like until next year. But they also out at the same time they said that there were um that there were places in the policy that they needed that they would appreciate um updates with regards
143to the phone the the off the words off the body that would that would remove the um the watches from the from the students. Um and the and what what I saw is right now when we when we want to talk about enforcement um yes they don't have to enforce that at the high schools they don't have to enforce during lunch but you know what at middle schools they don't have to enforce during lunch either because the because they don't they don't ever have their phones and it's very obvious if you're bringing your phone to to lunch you kind of stuck out like a stick stick out like a sore thumb because nobody else has their phones. If everybody has their phones, like that's great. But if the but right now, um, our kids, the
144last thing they do when they leave their class is they pick up their phones out of their patches pouches in the little little containers that hold all their um all their phones in the in the rooms. So, the last thing they do is they go pick up their phone um and then they walk with it to class and then they put it in the put it in the next class. This is what this is what our high schoolers do primarily. Um, and so if they So what so what happens? So yeah, I've seen I've seen my kids screen time go way down during during class periods. Um, and I've and I've seen it I see it go up like for for about five minutes an hour. Um, which is transition time, right? So they're not
145supposed to use their phones during transition, but that's the that's the one place if we're if we're talking about um if we're talking about um enforcement. Um, I know the anecdotally, well, our kids, they're not using their phones as much during during transition time. Well, I don't maybe maybe that's true. That's very anecdotal. Um, I have some anecdotal evidence to say otherwise. Um, or actual hard data to say otherwise, at least on a limited basis. But, but the pro what what's happening is we're not we're not enforcing it during transition time. So we either need to say that they can use phones during transition time or we need to eliminate phones altogether dur for for the belltobell because right now we're like we are asking our well we're not asking our teachers we're we're giving
146up. We're saying we're not going to enforce during transition time. We're going to we're going to we're going to tell the students that they're if we see them with their phones we're going to say put them away but we're not treating that as a violation. We're just making a suggestion. And so I think that's the biggest inconsistency right now in the in the policy, those couple of things. And I think so we need to change it, I believe, um now because there's no reason to have it in place for the whole school year um with the watches that are um that are still iffy. Some schools are doing it different different. It's not it's not consistent because our messaging isn't consistent. and then I I think it would be more I think it would be
147much easier for everyone and beneficial to everyone um if they just didn't have them for the for the day. Now that being said, I think it is important to like what I what I heard from the committee and I and I guess if we if we had to do over again, I would ask committee to answer a different set of questions than they than they actually answered. But because what I heard from them was was all of the reasons why the kids needed to use their phone. Um, and you articulated really well. What what you said was something and you were on the and you're on the committee, too. And I like we never we never got to this part, but you said I don't want the kids on social media at all. I was
148like, but what I do want is for them like the problem to be solved is for them to have access to communicate during during school. like how do I how do I commute because that that's what overwhelmingly that's what the committee said. Fair like they they did say that that was a that that was an issue. >> Yes. A point for the high school on the high school committee is that we are preparing them right for their next steps after Williamson County Schools and all of these students are going to go on to programs where they're managing whether it's classes or jobs and bosses and all sorts of things. So learning to manage that communication is important. And so, but right now, our tools do not let them do that. They are using their phones
149for that because if they're on dual enrollment, if they have a job after school, um any kind of uh standardized testing mostly they're doing on their phone. All of those things are on the phone. If they're communicating with their parent because track practice is the second, you know, whatever anything changes, they're doing that on their phone because they cannot do that through their school email versus other schools that are bell-to-bell. In most cases they are communicating on a school email. So they are still having that content content that that communication. It's an it's about accessibility. So I guess so I guess they they had so the the the problem statement was okay let let's just say that the committee ultimately wanted wanted Bill to bell too but they but the but the problem statement was
150well what no okay that's fair but but they but they well no but they they said they actually said that they that they do you want me to quote you Eric >> can I speak Please. >> All right. Thank you. >> Um, so what they what they actually said was they wanted to find a solution to kids not having access to communicate with the outside world during the school day. What they they gave us the sol they so I think we can all agree that that's a that that's a problem statement that needs to be solved before we can go to bellto bell. Okay. So, so we can take that, they come up with a solution that just happens to be the policy that we put together that was the minimum policy that we put
151together in one meeting and one reading. Um, and and somehow and and the reason that they like it is because it's what we have. Like it's so easy to just say, "Well, what we have it's not bad. It works okay. It works better than the than the old thing did." Um, but that's what so so they gave us they they gave us the problem and they came up with a potential solution. My my my I think what we're tasked to do is are there other ways to solve that problem? To Melissa's point, if if the if we could find a way for them to communicate with the outside world that didn't involve the cell phone that gives them the opportunity to to do all kinds of stuff on the on the phone that we think
152is not beneficial to the school day, then I think we could let's let's figure that out. I don't know if we can do that between now and, you know, November 17th, but you know, I'm I'm open to looking at it. So, >> an effort to kind of learn more about this. I was I decided to uh go visit Franklin High during lunchtime and um this week and I got to meet Dolly the little what therapy dog. Yeah, she's beautiful. And um but it was really interesting going in. I you know I've seen adults at lunches and all of everybody at the table on their phone. But it was really I I was really pleased. I looked around and I went for both lunch periods and they have more of an open lunch so you can
153go get your lunch and then you just pick a little spot and sit around and I would say maybe 10% were on their phones but most everybody had their phone away were engaging with each other and and so and and once and I agree I think one solution be I'm hesitant to do this midyear um but I think some solutions that we're going to have to have in place is can we get an email from the parent to the student? Can we get that in place? I I need that. And one of the things we talked about in the um policy meeting would be having kind of a cell phone zone where if they need to get on their cell phone, they go to a certain area, maybe the front office or the hall in
154the front area. I think every principal really needs to have autonomy over that and where, you know, where that cell phone zone might be. Um, and there was one other thing I was going to say and I lost my train of thought. Sorry. Um, but but I think I I think the intention of this is good, but I think we're going to have I know what it was. The implementation I feel like we this the implementation of this current policy. I mean, we still have kids. I saw I did see a lot of kids with headphones on and I'm like every day I mean I guess it was lunchtime but um we're not fully implementing the one we have and I want to see a better carry out of what we have now. Um I
155like the idea of bell-to-bell one day but we've got to have those solutions in place of like can't we need the parents to be able to email their kids. Um there's a lot of solutions we've got to solve before I can get behind it. But I I I agree that the data is pointing us in this direction. Um but you know I I don't know what other districts I know Warren County does. Warren County is one high school is one middle school. It's a very small we have 14,400 high school students and then you count in the parents. I mean that's a city. So this is a this is a big deal. And you know I talked to Dr. Pantel about implementing this and you know it will be a lot on the staff because
156the volunteer you if parent calls and wants to get information to their child it can't be done through a through a volunteer. It has to be done through staff because volunteers can't access their student class schedule. So then they've got to it puts a it puts an undue burden on staff. So we've got to really think through this if we're going to do this and have the solutions in place. Um, I think a temporary solution would be having a cell phone zone at where the kids go to use their phones and then they go back and have the interactions with each other. >> So, I think the most heartbreaking conversation I ever had was with the principal. This was several years ago. and um she was telling me about one of the one of her
157students who was just this brilliant child. um you know who she was really encouraging her to take more AP classes said you know you can you're so bright you've got such a great future um you can do more and her relaying the story here and I'm not trying to reveal too much was, you know, I would like to, but a lot of these things require paying after school or this or that. Said, I've got to get home and take care of my younger siblings because my parents both go off to their second jobs. So, I I can't take these other things. And I just, you know, it uh it hurts even now thinking about it. You know, the point being is we're a public school system and so we have a different demographic and we
158need to be creating policies and everything's around our kids and what our school system looks like. And to do that, we shouldn't be going off on our own and saying, "This is what I want. So I'm going to write a policy that on my own without consulting the people who are dealing with this in the school systems in the dayto-day and know what the ramifications are. This suggestion that it's just laziness or something that our principles just don't want to do it. That strikes me as incredibly offensive. um and you know that that you don't you haven't worked with our principles very much if you think that is the case. There's good reasons why they say don't do things and they say them because they are looking out for our kids and wants what's best
159for them. And so to Melissa's point this isn't about saying well let's not do belltoell ever or anything like that. This is saying let's implement on timelines that make sense. Let's put the structure in place. Let's do things so that it works and it works for our kids and let's not, you know, be so arrogant and and humble ourselves where we actually talk to the people who have this expertise and are dealing with it and get their input to help us develop policies that work rather than not knowing the the unknown and what are the implications are and not really worrying about it because we don't have to deal with that. That's that's on them. I'd like to say something. Um first of all, one of the at our first uh tech meeting, um it
160was understood by me uh through listening to the different groups that the teachers and the principles really wanted, uh the school board to make um the final decision on how the policy would be enforced and um that was very clear. They didn't want to be take have to take the responsibility for that. And what I learned from Dr. the web and what we've been discussing is that the current policy is not even being enforced. Um, another thing was in June, um, we had school board members who wanted to already vote, um, to have Belltobell and the board decided to wait for the recommendation of the tech committee and I believe the tech committee gave us the information that we really wanted and that was the information that Claire compiled for us. Um, she took all
161of that information that the tech committee gave us to us that they recommended and she put all of that in there. She didn't exclude anything and the only extra thing that she added was bellto. And the reason she did that is because we are the board members and we have the responsibility because if a parent, you know, wants this or whatever, but when we have bullying, when we have um in anxiety and depression and all those things that are stated very clearly in in the research and the data that all of you guys should have been read through if you'd read, you know, Jonathan Heights, anxious generation, Um all of that is there and if you've read that and digested it and know that that data is what we are using and we are a
162datadriven board and to come up with another reason why we should not have belltoell I cannot understand that and we would want to enforce it as soon as we can and that's what we're asking because it's our responsibility to see that the students have a safe and good environment for their mental health and for their academic achievements. And I think our our our administration, you know, they're they're very talented and I I I applaud them for all the work they do and all the different top, you know, everything across the board. And I would like to see them make an attempt to address these issues that we have tonight. And the only thing that we have to do in November is is the board has to decide do we want bell to bell or not.
163But the policy that was created here tonight that we're looking at for the first reading is excellent and it encompasses everything that we have asked the technology committee to consider. And they did a wonderful job and Claire did a wonderful job writing this. And the only thing that we have a disagreement about is whether or not we want it bell-to bell. And I'm asking our administration to see if they can do that so we can implement it in January because we are responsible for the safety and well-being of our students and that's emotional and that's academic and we have all that research and there's no reason why we shouldn't do it. >> I'd like to um address Mr. Walsh. I take exception with it being characterized for a board member to write a policy as
164arrogance. As board members, we're charged with writing policy. And we can do that on our own. We've had numerous examples of that. Mr. Bostik made the changes in the the policy that we just discussed without consulting um our our our general counsel. So that is well within our right. And to Miss Himma's point, I did take the committee recommendations and incorporated them. I happen to disagree with the committee on whether or not lunch should be included. And everybody who is, you know, we're ringing our hands over enforcement, it's quite simple. Leave your phone in your car or leave it in your backpack and done. And if you a teacher or somebody sees it out, I mean, they have to enforce it right now anyway. There's enforcement, right? because there's transition periods. There's the the committee
165asked for us to to specify off the body and store it away. The policy doesn't do that right now. So enforcement is actually harder. So for away for the day, it streams it streamlines it and enforcement is as simple as I don't want to see the phone at all at any point during the school day. And if I do, here's your first consequence. And if I see it again, this is the next consequence. and behavior changes. Where in this con conversation are we acknowledging that behavior does change? You know, yes, parents do need to sometimes contact a child during the school day, but all the other examples of employers trying to contact a student about a change in schedule. Kids should be in school and focused on school during the school day, not worried about
166their jobs. And employees, employers should modify their behavior and not try to contact kids during the school day. That's their number one job, right? We are training, we're educating students. They're going to learn how to navigate. And in fact, that's one of one of my arguments is that if kids have to plan in advance and know that, oh, I have this practice today and mom and dad can't rescue me and bring me my jersey or I forgot my lunch or whatever, they're going to change their behavior. That's part of developing those executive functioning skills. So, I I just I don't see why it's has to be a herculean thing. To me, it's a very simple. The phone's going to be away from bell to bell, and if you see it out, you get this consequence.
167And it's as simple as that. It's actually harder to enforce the way we have it right now. >> To say I have the right I have the right to show up to board meetings in a chicken costume if I want to. Doesn't mean it's a good idea. And we can spin all of this we want, but the bottom line is, you know, and say there's lots of examples. There's never been an example of a board member who has completely rewritten entire policy without any input from staff, without asking for their recommendations, asking the input from the people who have to actually imply actually put the policies that we write into action and then to go against the recommendation of everyone, every principle, the consensus of the committee. So, no, that's never been done before. This
168is a first. You're mischaracterizing it. I took all the recommendations from the committee. >> Everything I said is factual. This is a first, >> Madam Chair. >> No, it's not. I go to the Tennessee School Board Association and I've asked them. They This is good information for the school board. If you ever want to write a policy, you can go to the Tennessee School Board Association and Mr. Taus, he will help you write something up and then you can just present it to um Dana Osbrooks. and I sent it to this board of education at least in the 16 years I've been here. >> No, I've I've done that. I've presented to Dana stuff and then we've talked about it >> and I've there's no reason why a school board member cannot write their own
169schoolboard policy >> and I we're getting circular. I'm going to >> But I mean that's very insulting to think. >> It is. It is insulting. I presented I I submitted the form. I submitted it to Dana in advance of the the policy meeting. I submitted it to Ben Torres. I got feedback. So, >> Madam Chair, if I if I may, uh I want to remind the board of our policy process to to speak to this. Uh we have six opportunities to I said six with holding up four fingers. We have we have six opportunities to discuss every policy. Uh and we are at number two >> of those six. So I I encourage you all to be thinking about the substance of it. Uh obviously this is a this is a policy and an issue
170that includes some deeply held beliefs. I encourage each of you to think about the substance of it uh and and and where you want to head. We're not at the stage yet even for me to make a recommendation. Uh so in the context of this discussion, I encourage you to think about the the substance of it and be prepared for the next meeting. Um I was considering addressing specifics, but I think it's probably not the time uh for me to for me to speak to those specifics because it this is the second one. Uh Madam Chair, it's possible there may be some other board members who want to who want to speak to this, but again, I wanted to make sure you all had that reminder. >> Thank you. Yes, Tony. >> Yeah. Um I
171uh I would I would say that um I think it should be commended when a board member picks upon themselves to write policy since it's one of our key tenants of what we do. I don't seems as to me to argue another way on that, but uh we'll take it neither here nor there. Um uh I appreciate that you wrote it. I think it's well written. Um, it's not like you just dreamt it up, but it definitely took the committee recommendations and put it into policy form. So, appreciate that. Um, I I agree with Melissa on the access. I think that's something definitely important to consider. So, I would love to see something on that uh with access to email or something like that. That I think would be a great thing. Um, I also
172like the idea of a phone zone um option. I'd love to see something that flushed out a little more. Um, when it comes to enforcement, I kind of I I don't maybe I'm not understanding what some people are saying totally, but I'm like I just think by necessity teachers would have to enforce this. So, I don't know who we would think would enforce it if it's not a teacher. >> Our teachers have duty-free lunch. meaning >> so so the >> in high schools >> yeah and then so the teach the teachers are not managing the lunches the lunch period they are in the halls during transition time so so the the administrators have that responsibility to monitor during lunch >> okay well but it's the whole during transition time >> yeah yeah I mean teachers
173staff whoever I mean it's it's got to be enforced somehow and I don't I don't think the argument would be that it's lunch so therefore it's like a free-for-all or all somebody will be there to enforce it. Um it just be have to be done. Um timeline um I I personally don't necessarily see the necessity. I get the argument for doing it in January. Um I could I I think the arguments for both not implementing in January or implementing it next year. I could see the arguments either way. So I'm kind of in between on that. Um but um but overall I I think it it's a good policy. It's well written. Thank you for your time. You spent a huge amount of time on it and um I appreciate that. >> All right. Yes,
174Dr. Gers. >> The um I was out of the country for the June meeting. Otherwise, I would have advocated for a cold turkey done. But I wasn't here for that. Uh, this board makes policy, not the principles. This board has the legal responsibility and bears the consequences. And when we can, we do the best we can to coordinate, facilitate, work friendly. But the cell phone issue that we're talking about, and the science is indisputable, is an addiction. It is an addiction greater than heroin. Okay. So, I support anything that cuts addiction. So, I would go with a bellto bell. The question I do have is um the emergency that is really fluffy. That's one. The number one ex u exemption is in an emergency. Who decides what the emergency is? Is it the student who,
175as somebody said, forgot their lunch? Um, is it a shooting? And we don't want them to use their cell phones during any kind of mass emergency like that. Um, so who determines the emergency? And then the admin up front. When we talk about enforcement, it seems easy to me. All the phones are turned off and put away. Period. Unless you have an IEP or some medical exemption or an emergency. Um, and that gets resolved. Uh, if we're going to let the students determine what an emergency is for them, that's going to flood your front office, your admin folks can't take care of that. Uh, unless we say an emergency as determined by uh faculty, staff, or administrator, not not the students. So, I'm not sure what they meant when they wrote that in that policy.
176Who who's going to be it? I know the the teachers, they want to teach. They don't want to be cell phone police. So, everybody turns off their cell phone, everybody puts them away. What is there to I mean, that's easy. Somebody gets out a cell phone, you grab them and say, "Hey, yeah, as trying to figure out who's doing what." And other studies have said that having the cell phones, some using the cell phones during the lunch hour is still cognitive impairment. So even the 25 minutes for their lunch break doing whatever it is they're doing on the cell phone is just as bad as letting them use the cell phone anyway. And I have studies from four different countries on that. So yeah, seven hours no cell phone unless you're bleeding. >> Thank you,
177Miss Wyatt. >> That's all. >> Dr. Webb, can you speak to what lunches look like in our middle schools and in our high schools and how you feel about enforcement so far? Yes, thank you for the question. So, in our middle schools, um it's a more structured seating environment in our middle school lunches. Um and to the point that Mr. Bostic asked earlier, we do have some staff that rotate in with administration and they have supervision duties during lunch, but they also get their own duty-free lunch. Um so, the students, their phones are away in the morning. They don't have access to them. Uh and it's a structured environment um at the high school level. Um, and I think Miss Clemens, she described it very well. Students, um, are able to go get their lunch,
178and then they have the freedom. They don't have to sit in the school cafeteria. They're designated areas that are pretty widespread. And supervision is more loose. So, versus me in a classroom where I have 25 students and I'm directly supervising those 25 students for that entire period. In a lunch, supervision, it's more loose, right? I'm in charge of an area and then students are moving and fluctuating uh, in that area. So, the supervision is more loose. My observation has been the same as Mrs. Clemens as I'm in and out of buildings during passing periods. I rarely see a phone when I'm talking to um educators about the enforcement during class change. Uh I just wanted to speak to what Miss Hypno was saying. You so so we started the school year with our policy and
179we said to our educators and to our administrators, listen, we're not yanking phones out of kids' hands. They're just learning about this. We're educating them. We're going to correct them and we're going to see how the first se uh quarter goes, collect feedback, work with the screen time committee and then get some consistency and enforcement. What we heard from our administrators after the first quarter was students are compliant. When I see a student who's out of compliance as a teacher or an administrator in the hallway and I ask them to put their phone away, they put it away. Now, let's talk about what that supervision looks like. If I'm if I see if I'm Mr. Galbber sitting in front of me, if I see Mr. Galbirth passed by me in the hallway and I say,
180"Jay, put your phone away, sir." "Oh, yes, ma'am." He puts it away. I don't follow Jay down the hallway. I'm I'm supervising my doorway, my classroom. I'm corrected Jay. He's polite to me, and he moves on. I don't have necessarily a way of knowing what happens with Jay when he gets around the corner. Is that teacher standing by her door looking in the hallway or is she turned and she's looking inside of her classroom because she's speaking to a student, right? He could walk past her and pull a phone back out, of course. But what our educators are sharing is those interactions are respectful. Students are compliant. And from their view, from their vantage point, it isn't repeated as soon as they step away. And I can see Jay down the hall pull his phone
181back out, right? Students are compliant. Part of the feedback has been from administrators is that they think part of that compliance in the classroom has been has been really great. Um, in fact, the conversation with the kids has been we we understand why we have to put our phone in that pocket and why we shouldn't have them um during that instructional time. Part of the compliance um we think the administrator's feedback has been is that because if they have something that they have to do, they know that there's an opportunity to go do that at lunch, whether if it ends up being, you know, at a phone zone as Mrs. Clemens described uh or if it ends up being um a communication on an approved means through WCS as Mrs. Whitey described regardless of what
182that looks like they know that they're going to have the opportunity to communicate currently at lunch using their own device. My observations has been as Mrs. Clemens a majority of the students are talking and socializing with their friends. there are pockets where maybe they're talking with each other and they're looking at their phones and they're describing something that they're seeing, right? Um but a majority of the kids are interacting with one another. They're communicating. Um and so so far the feedback from the schools has been compliance from the students, understanding the relationships, the conversations have been compliant. I don't want to um mislead you into thinking that we're not following our board policy. We are following this board policy. We're implementing our current board policy. What's different is that we haven't said in board policy,
183which um Miss uh White gave a beautiful description from being on that committee of uh what the request of the committee members were, which I've heard from principles and teachers, too. Let's get to the point where we're all consistent in what we're doing when we pass Jay in the hall and he has a phone. Right now, that's our method that we're taking. I'm I'm warning Jay unless I see him a second time and then we're moving forward and calling his parent or taking the phone. um those kind of pieces down the street. So I want to share that that's currently we are we are enforcing the policy but the consistency between school uh and between what happens um from when I see Jay the first time and then someone else sees him the second time
184down the hallway. There's inconsistency of that. And in all fairness to our school administrators and to our teachers, we told them to do that. We told them have conversations. Let's teach. Let's spend the first semester teaching our students the policy, the understanding, the reasoning behind it. Let's communicate with our parents. We heard from parents that wait a minute, what's the new policy? I didn't didn't I wasn't paying attention. It was summer. And so, our administrators and our teachers are doing exactly what we asked them to do. And the report back is wow, that's gone a whole lot better than we anticipated. And kudos to our outstanding families and students um for the way that they've responded thus far. But to to all those pieces, again, I'm not on the committee. I've heard from our administrators
185the same thing that Mrs. White has communicated. I know that there are people who are here that are on that committee. They can speak more firsthand. Um but in all fairness, the question asked to our administrators, our high school principles specifically as the two reps prepared for um their their committee work is, do you want to see a substantial restriction this academic year? That was a super specific question that they were arming themselves with to go back to the committee and that answer was no. Not not not a more restrictive policy this academic year. Allow them to continue. I can't remember which board member said it but allow us to get some consistent implementation in what we're doing so far and then let's get a a solid plan of what we're looking at for next
186academic year and get a solid plan for that. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. Um I have an observation that I made after the technology committee this last time. We had a um wonderful informative uh session by um um Mr. Phil who was our IT specialist and he spoke to us for about an hour. I bet he could have spoken to us for several hours. And he gave us a broad overview of uh the safety and security measures that uh that Williamson County School uses for um to keep our our staff and our students safe when using um the devices and it was very thorough and I think the parents were very appreciative of uh getting that that knowledge. Um and they were doing the best. I mean, I
187think that Williamson County Schools is doing an excellent job in uh safeguarding um students and faculty from any kind of invasion on um on the Chromebooks and things like that. Um but then the next morning I'm looking at this cell phone and I'm thinking every kid takes his cell phone their cell phone to school and we do not know what kind of filters their parents have or have not put on their phones. And so everything that we're trying to protect them from on the school devices, we cannot protect them on on their personal devices because we are not here to mandate what the parents decide to do with their children and and how they want to and um you know what restrictions they want to give their uh their kids on their cell phone or
188or what leniency they want to give. So all I have to do is um take my phone and and like she said just show my phone over to Dennis or to Melissa and it might not be anything appropriate or I might go and um you know bullying any any kind of any kind of thing that you want um that is just not appropriate and doesn't need to be there. Um and again just you know there's the other reasons the scientific data but you know I just just saw the this just the discrepancy in in that and um that's another reason why I just think it should be done as soon as possible because um we have an obligation to that and um I I certainly think that you know the staff can um you know
189has has a capability to to to solve that answer. Um, so anyway, that was just an interesting observation I made. >> So, Claire, if I may, I know you've done a lot of you've read a lot of the research, um, probably more than any of us, but um, I know so when the when they're >> when administrators and teachers are talking about the how the current situation is going, it's >> it's mostly focused on the instructional time and the lack of distraction, which I think is a which which is definitely a good thing. I think we could all agree that that's a that that's a good thing. Everybody across the board agrees with that. But but specifically when when the the research on the phys like what the what the what having the phone on
190them means um physiologically what it does to their brain like just the cortisol, all the all this all the stuff. um like the difference there and I know that's what you're focused on is it's not it's not just a distraction thing. It's it's the it's it's looking at the research and seeing that um that actually having your phone in your pocket and having the ability to or or on you in your backpack even um and having the ability to to access it is from a distraction physiologically has the same impact. The research says it has the same impact of of you actually using your phone. And so that's the difference. So, it's it's not just that when we talked about having access to do all the things that you that that we know you need
191to do as far as communication outwards, but it's so much more than that. I don't know if you want to speak to >> to that at all. >> Um, sure. So, I had printed out an email that I sent to um a parent who had emailed us. Um, and one of the things the research shows is that um, well, an I'll just quote this. So, uh, a Yale article, it was in the the Daily News, so it was an article about what the research was showing said that allowing phones at lunch is like leaving the cake on the counter. Um, if somebody's trying to diet it, you know, that was the analogy. Uh the temptation is engineered to win and each impulsive check erodess attention and fragments focus. Studies show it can take up to
19220 minutes to fully refocus after checking a phone. So you know it's schools that have 25 minutes for lunch if kids get on their phones and you know that coupled with the underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. Um, for our high functioning kids, it might not be an issue, but we're here to steward all kids. And so, our kids who are particularly vulnerable, who are already struggling with anxiety and depression, like because their prefrontal cortex isn't fully developed yet, we're we're expecting them to be able to have that impulse control that they simply don't have to put the phone away and refocus on the rest of the academic day. So, that's just one study. Um, I think another really great analogy is um the history of smoking in schools. So, I just like to go through that really
193quickly. Um, and and how that parallels to phone use in schools. So, in 1964, the Surgeon General's report confirmed smoking's risks. In the 70s and 80s, 1970s and 80s, many schools still had smoking patios li thinking limited access was a reasonable compromise. So that's similar to cell phone zones. In the late 1980s and 1990s, evidence about secondhand smoke showed even non-smokers were being harmed. In the 1990s and 2000s, schools banned smoking entirely because partial restrictions weren't protecting kids. Phones aren't tobacco, but the similarities are striking. Phone apps and games are addictive. And even students who try to avoid their phones feel the secondhand effects of friends scrolling instead of engaging, exclusion, comparison, and and just general disruption of social dynamics. So I I mean to Mr. Golden's point, this is just a first reading because
194it was an extensive rewrite. Um, we'll be voting at the board meeting on Monday whether or not to move it to second reading. And we've had robust discussion about it. And I say we take it to the meeting and vote. And if it moves to second reading, great. If it doesn't, then maybe it sounds like we'll revisit it later. Anyone else have anything to add? >> Um, I just appreciate the discussion. Well, uh, apologize. I'm going to head out. I had a 5 a.m. flight this morning and was up about 1:00 a.m. So, I'm going to head out a little bit early. Uh, if you'll excuse me. So, thank you. >> Okay. Um, so now we are moving on to approval of the textbook committee. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, you all have in
195your board packet the recommendation for the textbook committee. Actually, could we could we take a five minute break? I think we're asking for All right, let's take a five minute break. [Music] Cheers. Mr. Galbreth. >> Well, Lindy asked me if I wanted to come. I said no. >> Okay. >> All right. So, um, we're moving on to the next item in new business, which is approval of the textbook committee. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, as you all recall, we actually added a few additional parents from our original plan based on your recommendations. I think we set the we set the final the final recommended committee about a week or so ago and put in the maybe a little bit more than that based on us releasing the packet during the during the fall break.
196I did want to specifically point out that uh Dr. Allen's memo included seven, but right before we prep prepared the packet, we did get some additional names from you so that the committee actually includes 12 parents rather than the seven that are in the committee. We do intend to recommend approval. >> Okay. Anybody have any questions on that? Okay. Um the next item on the agenda is approval of the 2526 superintendent and district goals. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a followup also from last month and thank you all for the detailed discussion we had at the previous work session. The document that you have before you includes four proposed goals with specific deliverable deliverables for each based on the conversation that we had at at our September work session. certainly any open to
197any questions that you may have but I do believe that it fairly accurately re reflects the discussion we had. I did want to also point out uh another uh item if not item thought that I had related to these and I think I may have put this in the memo. Uh yes, it is in that that last sentence in that first paragraph. I do anticipate that some of these goals may become potentially ongoing goals. uh we'll we'll we'll we may on some of these hit a point where we can give you some reports but we may decide let's take a next step as we go on. Uh so for example maybe the simplest one will be if we have a if we have a recommendation from a professional group related to salary we may not
198achieve all that in one year and we need to take the next step on a more complex level. If we're talking about uh opportunities for uh innovative instructional models, we may determine that there are a couple that we may want to pursue more aggressively in the coming year, etc. >> Any questions on or comments? >> Yes. Um so, you know, we've talked about these goals and I know at the September 15th meeting, uh we mentioned smart goals. Um, and then on September 24th, I sent an email because for me, these seem more like action item steps and I talked about a book called Coherence. And then that led me to go back and just look at my notes. And in June after we did your evaluation, you just you mentioned some topics that you wanted
199to focus on were like unique learning needs. You even said that tonight. you know, proactive engagement with parents, staff, stakeholders. Um, and then the safety issue. And so I I mean, I'm I'm a little concerned that we don't see any of those as goals and that these are not smart goals. Um I also just um once I saw the agenda I as I use chat GPT to draft some goals. These are drafts. These are you know we this is just taking pass them around. um just taking what you said you wanted to focus on as a district and then also having a goal about finances because you know obviously in an ideal world we would love to have unlimited resources however we don't and uh when I work with schools on like even trying to
200create smart goals you know one of the demonstrations I do is if you hold a piece of paper up and your hands going in all different direction you can't push your hand through it but if you focus focus and you have focus on things that you want to achieve and accomplish then I mean we're going to be able to make more impact. Uh so the first goal is just about strengthening coherence and data informed decision- making. um getting a unified district data dashboard so that we can uh actually monitor our progress toward implement you know um achieving our goals and particularly aligned to the strategic plan goals because there's three strategic plan goals you know I've asked to for at least a one pager on like can we have like what key initiatives are going
201toward commitment one, commitment two, and what data um because it's I mean I'll speak for myself, I struggle um making informed decisions cuz data gets to me or if it does get to me, it's late or it's it's in all different directions. So, just being able to create kind of a unified data dashboard. Um obviously, we're an education institution and you had already had the unique learning needs as one. So we have I mean I would like to see a goal around student achievement and growth. Uh this particular goal talks about 5% growth overall in reading and math and 7% among the underperforming subgroups. I'm not going to read it word for word. Uh goal three strengthen the family staff and community engagement. um having advisory uh groups at the schools and then also doing
202a parent survey um because we do a great job surveying teachers. We we do a survey with students. Um I asked if we did a parent survey. I know some schools might do it, but consistently we don't. And I think that's some invaluable data that we could even use in making decisions for um going forward. And then again the the fiscal accountability, the fiscal stewardship and resource alignment. Um you know as a government organization and you know I have 29 years of experience working in education in three different states we don't have a bottom line and so there's not really an onus to try to look at making things more efficient unless we happen to have a leader that chooses to do that. Um, and so one of the things I'd like for us to
203do is, you know, can we cut some costs somewhere so again we can get some more uh pay to our school-based staff and fund I even think about the uh the classroom fees, you know, funding the classroom fees, but we're not going to find that money unless we can figure out how to streamline some processes. And uh I know I've offered I've mentioned twice there's a there's someone who's willing to come in and do an operation efficiency study. Um so that might be something to consider. So I'm just putting this out there. This might be too much to do by Monday. Um but even if we don't do it Monday, like these are the types of goals that I would like to see us focusing on um like into next school year. And again supporting
204what you said is a priority for you all. Unique learning needs, >> engaging the parents and student safety. I mean, so >> that's all I got to share and we can decide. >> Thank you for that. Um, and and and thank you for thank you for working on these and obviously this is this is first glance. I will say uh those three focus points are focus points we start the year with with our faculty. So from a I I think we need to consider the timing of it and you mentioned you mentioned that as well in in your presentation. If we set specific achievement goals related to TCAP, I think we do need to be thoughtful about when we set those because it budget could drive some some particular initiatives and I want to make
205sure that we start the year with that goal in mind. So I do think we have the potential to to to consider in the coming years when do we set these goals so that we have an appropriate timing based on the school year. As you all know I've spoken to this without aggressive language. It's been a struggle with the timing of when the goals are set and when they're due. Uh so I will say philosophically I like your idea related to that because we have set those focus points for our faculty. uh the budget one uh without without respect to the specific numbers I think there's some wisdom in that uh we we we meet annually and work through budget but to your point we have not hit the point of we shall reduce by
206blank percent uh I have seen that in some organizations from time to time uh so I think there's some value in us having some particular discussions related to that uh I will tell you in that will take some detailed discussions to increase everyone's knowledge of our budget. Uh for example, 85 I think it's point4% maybe this year of our total spend is related to staff. Uh so you know when we talk about percentages we need to be real thoughtful about what we you know where where we target. Uh that's just an example. Um the other piece of it is we have our strategic plan with with specific with specific uh objectives and then we have action steps related to that. Traditionally for good or bad and it may be bad. what the what the board
207tends to focus on from a superintendent goals perspective is something that's an issue for this year that we'd like to look at. I will tell you I would like to see long term a transition more along the lines of what you're talking about that that creates a little bit of longitudinal effort uh in those goals rather than just hit something in the moment. >> Yeah, I have some thoughts too. Um, sorry. Go ahead. >> Um, I remember well this last year, um, I know the goals kind of got decided kind of late >> and then all of a sudden we had to start, you know, making that evaluation and that was a thing too cuz some of those goals weren't just like one and done. It was, you know, something that you're going to build
208upon and continue, you know. Um, so that is an issue. But I do like the concept of smart goals. I think it's just a nice way to um you know to to make evaluation easier and and to see that instead of just Yeah. Um I and I think I mean I and I like your suggestions too and I so my thing is implementing it this year but I think I like the idea of moving forward in this direction and I don't you know I'll leave it up to the other guys how they they want to do that and discussing it. Um but then like the one about um student achievement, we just at the beginning of the um of the meeting we saw where we are in achievement and so you know the higher your
209achievement is then that margin of improving is much smaller. Um but I mean I guess you could look at TCAP scores and that's what you'd have to figure out what is an appropriate goal that we could set for our our teachers or something. And then to me that just seems like a a teacherdriven goal that that maybe the superintendent doesn't really have control over. I mean, right? >> Well, we have influence and if we if we if we strategically put some processes in place and some PD in place, >> okay, >> um then we've got the potential for that. I will tell you it's difficult to measure actual performance on TCAP until the end. But we do have for common formative assessments where we can get where we can get some indicators. >> Yeah. So
210anyway, um but that's just my initial thoughts. It has there's a lot more work there, but yeah, thanks. Uh >> yeah, that's why I put draft because I didn't know like some of those percentages I was like, woo, yeah, that would be and I mean I put it within one year, but maybe to your point as a board we decide maybe we'll make like two year goals or like three year goals that and that way we can monitor progress toward that goal. And we actually uh I I sent you all a document u before fall break that was a that was a draft of the um state compliance report for Tissa. We actually what led that >> Yeah. So we actually we actually included some specific percentage targeted goals related to algebra 1 that is
211actually not required by the state because we identified that as a focus. Uh but again, traditionally with with these with the superintendent goals, it hasn't been, you know, that that that specific to academics in part because of this timing in the schedule. >> Yeah. >> And and oh, sorry, >> just real short. Um and also, wasn't the requirement that we was set in policy when we had to start writing the evaluation and giving you the the >> It's actually in my contract. >> It's in your contract. Yes. So, we'd have to change your contract. >> That's correct. And I'm and I'm open to that discussion. >> Okay. >> Uh because the annual goals the annual again the annual goals have I'm going to use well I'm going to use the word tough but it's that's
212probably not an excellent description. Uh now the the the superintendent's eval is a combination of state requirements and then we have built into my contract those annual goals which is an addition to the state requirements. I wonder um I always I I feel like this conversation that we're having is maybe one we should start having in June, >> right? So, um and I don't know, Jay, you've been around a while. Is is is that something that's feasible where we really where we could start having this conversation in June and maybe vote on it in August like goals or is there is there a reason cuz I feel like we set you up for failure because we're like hey November 17th we're going to vote on your goals and now go away for Thanksgiving and come
213back and have like two or three weeks and then >> go away for Christmas and then the New Year's and then it's like hey you got three or four months to get all this stuff figured out. I'm like, that just sounds terrible. So, I I don't I don't know. >> It's really It's really more of a of a practical thing based on when the new when the boards form and when we select a chair and then we start do I mean, so it's just not aligned. I think having having having multi-year goals probably makes more >> more sense that are aligned with the strategic plan, but but to like our existing goal structure to Jason's point is more on things that are outside the strategic plan um and are just focuses for for this like
214cell phones last year like just we wanted to we wanted to focus on a technology use was one it wasn't necessarily cell phones but technology use we said Hey, we want you to focus on this. And so it it just takes a life of its own. I I think there's I think if you merge these two things there, these are these are probably these are probably multi-year things that can be tracked over over time and these are more like these initiatives that we want to focus on more than more than goals. I don't know. But I mean, I think ultimately I'm I'm perfectly fine this year with what we with what we have and and I'm fine to to kind of move. We need to have these conversations as as soon as possible. But like
215in in an election year, it's you know, you start the conversation in June and you show up in in August and there's, you know, there's a bunch of new people and it and so you get to you get to start over and then you elect your then you elect your chair in September and so you're so I don't know. That's that's why we're that's why we're here. >> Yeah. >> Every two years you'd run into a problem. I get it. That makes sense. Um yeah. Well, something to think about, I guess, that we could wear at least moving it up some obviously. Um, but I do just one thing I would love to say is I do love the idea of the um the data dashboard. That would be huge. That would probably save us
216having to ask you guys all the time for stuff. You'd be like, go your your response could be like a signature that's already created, guys. You'd be like, check the dashboard. And I would I would love to see that, too. But anyways, >> there's a there's got to be I mean there's a there's a budget associated with that too. Like it's not it's not only in it might be using existing existing infrastructure, but it's people that's going to have to that's going to have to set that up. And the thing is it I mean I've I live in this world and once you build a dashboard like it just it once you provide more information like I mean that's not going to that's not going to quench our thirst for information. It's going to be
217okay now that you have this like we want we want to see the next 12 things on the on the dashboard. It just it it just it's it's an endless supply. I mean, what Margie, what's uh what's Metro's budget for like what what do they spend on that? >> I mean, they got race to the top funds back in 2010 and built the data warehouse. >> Yeah. >> And now there's only like one programmer that really runs it. >> Yeah. But they but they spent how much money on the >> I couldn't tell you off the top of my head >> because I was actually not there when they started it. though >> tens of millions of dollars um no doubt to uh to get that to get that up and running. >> But there
218there are software companies like Tableau and um there's some other thing ones that can take Excel spreadsheets and create vis visualizations. If someone can learn PowerBI and Excel, you could build out dashboards. >> I know. But you got to build out the pipeline to get the data consistently and update it. Like I mean it's not a it's not just a and you got to know what you got to know what you what you want to track and then you got to figure out and design it. It is a it's a it's not a it's not an easy proposition to just say hey we're going to we're going to have it in place by by May without any additional people or funding. So, uh, it's a I want I want I want good data as much
219as anybody, but and I also know that it's a um it's a it's a destination um and you never you never arrive at the at it. So, >> so one one thing I would like to just ask is um maybe at the next work session if like what would we need to do to move forward if we wanted to do like multi-year goals like I I know one of the things you said would be probably amend your contract. >> Are there any specific policies that we would also have to update? Um and I I mean I'll do looking around at that too. Um, but >> I I like that idea. >> That's definitely worth looking at. >> I love the idea of a parental survey, having getting feedback from the parents because they're our clients
220and we want to see how how they're being satisfied, what gaps they see in the program, and we need to be um more client-based. And I I like the idea of the parent survey. >> Okay. Any any further comments? So, we will be voting on the four goals outlined in the work around them. Okay. So, the um final item on the agenda is approval of board goals and affirming the strategic plan. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Brown uh included this memo for you based on the discussion at the last work session. Uh in and the two suggestions he had at the last work session included uh in included following up on that potential goal of of mine related to related to community corporate and community partnerships. And then second, he made some specific recommendations
221related to board member involvement at the schools and those are included in there as well. So it's been years and I don't know how many since the board has actually voted on specific board goals. Uh but Mr. Brown included that as a recommendation to you all. >> Any questions about that? >> No. All right. Well, then I think we're adjourned. >> All right. Thank you.