001of the Williamson County School Board. Um we will uh we'll call our meeting to order. Um after uh an afternoon marathon session of fun for working on our strategic plan. So uh so thanks thank everybody for uh for that. And uh because of that, I I have a feeling we might uh we might try to go through this as expeditiously as possible, but we do have a couple of things on the on the agenda to talk about. Drayson, is that you? >> We just did hear you there. >> Okay. um we will hear him when if he wants to be called on. Um so first uh first item on the agenda is um consent agenda. Um we we went well in addition to the um approval of the minutes um and the um we had
002several board policies for first and final reading on the um at the policy meeting last week and um largely u largely law changes that were that were reflected in policy um which is why they're on first and final. Um, does anybody have any of those that they want to discuss or pull from the consent agenda? Okay. Um, we will uh they will stay on the consent agenda anytime. If anybody wants to do that, they can talk to Jason or Josh before uh before Monday night. Um, so I guess we move on to the superintendent report. Jason, >> thank thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and uh thank you, board members. I did want to let you know um uh Mr. Brown actually just let me know that he is listening in. So we
003thought it was possible that both Drayson Beasley and Josh Brown might be able to spend some time listening into the meeting. Uh so so uh just want to make sure you're aware of that. If you hear another beep, it might likely be Mr. Beasley. So for the superintendent report, I wanted to give you all some school opening updates. Uh and I'm going to give you some stats. Certainly open to any questions you may have. And I'm going to hit really about six or seven kind of new things related to to this start of this school year. I hope that each one will be some short just bullet points on where we are. So I'm going to start with enrollment. Traditionally we base our enrollment numbers on day 20 which is typically the day before Labor
004Day thereabouts. Uh so we are now eight days into school but I wanted to give you a little snapshot anyway. uh knowing that there might be some adjustment to that as we compare apples to apples on a on an annual basis. So as of yesterday we are actually 60 students over our projected amount and you all may recall that we projected a reduction of 0.44%. So if that holds steady and it will probably decline just a little bit based on our experience in past years um we our our our total decrease from last year will be probably about 0.2%. 2%. So fairly flat regardless, but I thought it was interesting to point that out. Related to that, right now, every single one of our grade level cohorts has actually increased in numbers. So last year's
005kindergarten class, as an example, is now this year's first graders, and that has increased by 99 students. Every grade level has increased. However, we have about uh 1,300 fewer kindergarteners this year than last year's graduating senior class. So, I thought it was important for you guys to get that visual. We have had people moving in at every grade level. Uh but we've had more seniors metriculate out than kindergarteners coming in. So, we s we are still seeing growth, but the but the numbers are appearing different. uh that the the increase that we've seen right now is largely at the high school level, middle school somewhat uh but but high school as well. Uh so at the moment our numbers show 125 more seniors than last year's junior class. So visualize that we've had 125 more
006moveins for that last year of high school. So I just felt like it was important to give you all a snapshot since we had this work session. We'll again finalize the year-to-year numbers at the end of uh day 20, which is at the end of four weeks, right before Labor Day. Um, but as a general rule, what we're seeing is pretty accurately tracking what we had predicted. And the trend that I've been talking to you about about the higher grades tending to be larger rather than the lower grades is tracking as well. Uh related to that staffing, I sent you all a report just a few days before school started uh that Wednesday, five days before related to our staffing. I thought I'd give you a little bit of repeat on those numbers since this
007is a public meeting. Our teacher staffing is at 99% plus for general education teachers. We do have just a handful of kind of those hard to fill spots here and there uh at particular schools uh that they're that they still need to fill. Uh, our special ed teacher positions were staffed at 97%. Um, 347 of our 358 budgeted positions um uh are staffed. That is substantially better, about 5% better than we had last year. We were hovering around 91 92% for special education teachers last year. Again, we're up at about 97%. Uh, special education TAs, we are staffed at about 95%. Last year we were in the 89 to 90% range. So, uh, we're very pleased with the work and I know Vicky Hall, our assistant superintendent for human resources, has been tracking that. We
008we attribute that to two main things. One, better retention than we than we've historically had in previous years. And two, our numbers have been flat. And so, so the combin combination of those two things has been pretty good. Final number I want to mention related to our staffing, our bus drivers. Uh we started this school year just last week with 238 bus drivers. Uh oh, I'm just actually Yeah, that's that's what we had. 238 out of 251 that that and uh and we are we are we are three we have three substitute drivers. So, we're still for practical purposes short uh because realistically we are going to have more than that uh on the absence uh schedule pretty much every day just because life happens. Uh we do still have first and second loads at
009those locations where we can get two loads done within that window of time we have. It's not ideal. Uh we we would prefer not to have any first and second loads. I know that some of you all might have gotten a question here and there from folks related to that. Uh over the these recent years of us having that first and second load, we have tried to balance that out where one group of families don't have the exact same schedule year after year after year because it does have some impact uh on families. So uh felt like that was important for you to be aware of. Uh I want to jump to the next item, facilities. Uh we did a ribbon cutting last Sunday afternoon at Brentwood Middle, total rebuild of that school. Uh and
010I want to thank you all as a board for for the work you've done over the over recent years and talking to your commissioners about the need for those replacements to some of our older schools. Uh and also thank the commission for funding it. Uh there's a little bit of work to do still outside the building. The building itself is 100% done, but the uh field and the the yard on the east side of the school is scheduled to be completed sometime around late October uh uh in early November. And then that that entire campus uh will will have a substantial change based on what they've been going through the last three years or so. We are doing a ribbon cutting at both Paige Middle Page Middle School and high school on Sunday. 2 o'clock
011p.m. is our Paige Middle ribbon cutting. 3:00 p.m. is our Paige High School ribbon cutting. I'm sorry. >> 3:30. Thank you for that. So 3 3:30 at the at the uh at the high school. Um we're we're very much looking forward to that. page middle has actually been done a little bit longer, but uh but we're having both of those ribbon cutings at the same time. Again, thank you to the county commission for funding those those uh those building replacements. Paige High School was opened 50 years ago, uh 1975. And their first graduating class was the class of 1976. Uh so it's hard to it's hard to imagine that but but a 50-y old building built in the early to mid70s was ready to be replaced. Uh um from a I want to give you
012a handful of changes that our families and our students uh are experiencing. Some of these are related to state laws. Some of these are related to some board policies uh that we put in place and some implementation of some practical changes uh that are worth mentioning. So from a safety perspective, uh we are rolling out a badging system for folks who will visit inside the school building and have not gone through our tier three volunteer process where they actually get a WCS badge. Uh they will scan their driver's licenses in and they will have a sticker printed out where they can place it on themselves if they go behind the secretar's desk. In other words, go into the school building itself. It's going to be a very obvious sticker so that any school personnel will
013recognize that that's a visitor who's been screened. Many of you have experienced that kind of badging system either visiting the state legislature, the offices uh downtown or a lot of corporate offices here in town. Um some of you may have jobs where you have that where you have that simple screening process. We are not having everyone scan in uh their driver's license if they're on the list to pick up in carline. We're just making sure continuing to make sure that's the right person. So, that's the most significant and obvious uh safety measure that we're implementing this year. And again, that will be rolling out. We had actually piloted that uh at a few of our schools last year. And so, there will be a roll out to that. I wanted to give you an update
014on the physical activity law. Uh you all may recall the legislature passed a law with some minimum uh activity periods both at the elementary school and gave some detail related to the secondary schools. Uh at the elementary school there's a the the requirement is 40 minutes of uh recess per day. Our schedules are have 45 minutes in there and and the elementary school schedules have all been structured to give that extra time. uh that I will say generally speaking was a lot simpler than the secondary schools uh because our secondary schools have varied schedules. Uh Dr. Lee Webb sent you all a spreadsheet if I'm not mistaken this morning uh with some detail for for each of those schools and so everyone's a little bit different based on their lunch schedule, based on their home
015room schedule. Uh and so I encourage you to look at those details. I'm going to do a little bit of MIAPA on us as a district. The law related to secondary school free time actually did not change substantially compared to this current year. There was a 90minute requirement. Uh when some of our administrators went back and looked to apply it for this coming year, they recognized that some of their classrooms where they had scheduled some time just over time just might have gotten missed on a particular school day. And so we've made sure that the structure was firm enough where we could identify and be able to go back and say yes in fact this happened. So where we might have had in the past some informal middle of the class period take a break
016time that's not how we have this scheduled anymore. We're making sure that we have defined time uh within the within the school day for that. Uh so again, I invite you to ask any questions with that with that caveat that what may happen at one particular school could be different um in another spot across the county because the uh the school schedules are different. I want to give you a quick update on the library policy that we implemented based on your vote uh in in late spring where you all created a structure for our librarians to put together a list mature reading list and some with some very specific criteria for that. When we did the reenrollment process, we included that option for our families uh to say yes, I would like to be included.
017uh the the re the recent data I have from last week is 13% of our parents did ask for for them to be placed on that list where students would not have access to those books without parent permission. That's the district-wide average. Uh at the elementary school it's 18% happen to be 13% in middle and 7% at the high school level. Districtwide 13% average. skewed heavy towards the elementary schools. Um, and our librarians are working on that. Uh, uh, we do anticipate that there'll be a significant number of books at the middle school and high school level. Uh, but very few, uh, that fit that criteria, if any, at some of our elementary schools. Again, we've had that discussion, but u, because that's new to our folks, I want to make sure you're aware of
018it. Next item that's a change I want to mention is our cell phone policy. Uh the early results uh are in from a from a week and a half or or so of school. Dr. Webb, I'm going to glance over at you and invite you to share a little bit at the elementary and middle schools. Frankly, we haven't seen a substantial change from last year uh because we had we had set a standard where students did not have their devices out at the high school level. You may recall that that we took a little bit further step than what the legislature had done by including a prohibition against using cell phones during transition time. We had a pretty substantial discussion about should we go ahead and and eliminate that use during lunchtime as well or
019uh turn over to our uh our our uh uh device. We actually set up a committee and I'm having a mental block on what we've been calling it. Uh electronic device screen time screen time and electronic device committee uh uh and uh and and that committee has committed to looking at cell phones as their first priority. And we actually have a couple board members on that committee. I will invite you all uh um uh Miss Hipma, Miss Wyatt to give us some comments in just a minute or two. Uh but when I mentioned the early results are in Dr. Webb, can you give us a nutshell of how our high schools have been with cell phone usage during class time change? >> Absolutely. Thank you for the intro to that. Uh we're pleasantly surprised at
020the transition and um so you'll see in the spreadsheet that I shared with you, each school principal um just like our middle schools had slowly transitioned over time to eliminating cell phones um during the school day. Many of our high schools were in a transition phase of that as well. So there are many schools who already had no cell phone use in u their academic time with um little shoe holders at the front of the room for every student to drop in. those schools are reporting um a a really great transition. Um it's not that different than what we were already doing. The addition of study hall and then the addition of the the class change um has been a smooth transition. Um I think that we were pretty anxious about the change, but uh
021it's been a a really smooth transition. uh we tried to ensure that we're not um going overboard in our response as we see students out of compliance and we are making our approach much more relational. Uh we've had our class meetings. I think today's Thursday so I think today we were concluding all of our uh class meetings uh from the kickoff from all of our high schools. Um so all the students are educated not only on the change but the why behind the change. And I think uh as I was sharing with Mr. Galbreth earlier. I think it's a a good change that we are doing two things at once. One, we're emphasizing the importance of physical activity and we're reigniting our uh initiative to ensure that we are approaching those 90 minutes in a
022strategic way moving forward and ensuring that those 90 minutes of physical activity are not embedded into an academic period. That it's separate from an academic period and we're being strategic about how that occurs. At the same time that we're talking about the importance of being away from your devices, I think it's a a natural transition period for us at at the high school level and the conversations have been wellreceived. Students are super our kids are pretty amazing anyway. I just want to kind of add that. But um as our students are in the hallway and they out of instinct pull that out to do whatever it is that they want to do on their phone, whether they're checking a uh a notification that they've received because it's in their pocket between class time or if
023they're checking a calendar or whatever. um if a if they're approached by an adult, they're like, "Oh, yeah, that's right." And they're sticking it right back in their pocket and they're moving on. It's been um a really respectful exchange and I think it's one that has um taken place with the two of those together, as I mentioned, in a very natural way. Um that kind of supports our our overall well-being as young adults. Um so, the transition's been great. One of the questions that we asked as we checked in, and again, we're we're a week and a day or two in when we uh did this check-in, this pulse check, uh we asked about uh what does lunch look like? You know, are you seeing that because students don't have now their phones really at
024all during the academic day, at all in the in the transition period, at all in study hall? Are you seeing that students are burying their face in their phones to get caught up on all their notifications? And we have not seen that. What we've seen is that students are still really excited to be socializing with each other, to having lunch together, catching up on all the things that have taken place in their academic day. Um the we're asking them to really pay attention now that we're going to get in a rhythm in the next several weeks. Um, I've asked uh for us to do like a a more formal check-in at the end of the first quarter specifically on that lunch piece so that we can help inform um the committee that's uh looking at
025that about what our student activities do look like at lunch. We have two uh high schools that still have an hourlong lunch and so the physical activity is partnered with lunch. So that's a good place to look at how it's happening there. And then a majority of our traditional high schools um are incorporating the physical activity as an option during study hall. Um one of the pieces that our uh administrators we had a lot of conversation about is what's happening in study hall and I think I shared with some of you guys that what they saw that students were on their devices on study hall a lot. So, one of the things that we brainstormed together was how can we substitute that phone time that's going to be away now with some physical activity and
026some more productive use of their time. So most of our traditional high schools that don't have an hourlong lunch are looking at a rotation so that certain days of the week if I have first period study hall um if Dave and I are two of the study hall teachers maybe we're the ones that are sending our study halls to another location and then he and I are going to take any student who has first period study hall giving them the opportunity for physical activity. We're partnering with our PTOs, which we've talked about. What kind of physical activity equipment can we get donated and we're getting them outside, getting them moving, and uh what we're hoping over time is that more students see that this is this is a healthy transition for them and they opt
027into that physical activity piece. Uh what we've already seen with the schools that didn't start off with that study hall rotation and they were trying to incorporate it like in an activity period during their day, it was a little chaotic. Uh, so we had one high school that wanted to start with an activity period and everybody doing physical activity at once. Um, and it was difficult to get the time in with kids, everyone at the same time trying to go to the same locations and be involved in a physical activity. So that school is transitioning now to the study hall rotation, small groups, more intimate groups. We're also focusing and um really K12, but I'm speaking for secondary today um on building community. Our hope is that with two things happening, the study hall on
028those physical activity days will be smaller because some students are going out and doing physical activity, it'll naturally produce the environment for more casual conversations with a small group of people who aren't interested in physical activity. And then on the uh opposite of that, students who are are out and participating in the physical activity in the small groups, uh it's easier to manage and there is the opportunity to build community um with students who are in other study halls. Um so we're excited about the transition. We're optimistic and honestly a little relieved um on how the students have responded and uh the conversations that it's provoked. It's still early, a little bit of a honeymoon period, I'm sure, in some aspects, but we're going to continue to monitor. Uh, as I shared with you in
029the email, this is where we're starting with our plan with physical activity with the open-mindedness of our students are going to tell us what are the kinds of things now that they're feeling this emphasis away from devices into physical activity. What are those things that they would like to be participating in? Uh, what are the physical activity aspects? What are the do they want to play spikeball? then let's talk to our PTO about getting some donated spikeball kits. So, uh we're just going to lean into conversations with our students um to make sure it's the type of activity they want to do and we're going to be open-minded to adjust especially this academic year of meeting them where they are. But so, I'm happy to report a not only a fantastic start to the school
030year overall, um but um a good start with these two initiatives specifically. >> Thank you, Dr. Webb. Um, I think that's a good transition to a discussion about the technology and screen time usage committee. Uh, and as I mentioned, u, Miss Wyatt and Miss Hipma, uh, are members of the committee and also Jenny Lopez and Andy Davis who are sitting uh, behind some of you are leading that committee's work. So, I did want to invite either one of our board members to share uh, any detail you'd like to share related to the to the work of the committee. I'll give a quick overview. Uh like I mentioned, the committee has committed itself to looking at cell phone usage as it as its first priority. You all know that it's that the that the content and
031the scope of what this committee intended to work on was broader than that. It includes use of technology in general and even use of technology outside the schools. Uh but they did because of the will of the board related to to the policy we were just discussing uh spend their most recent meeting really drilling down into that policy and their view of uh of what information they needed to make some recommendations for what's best for WCS. So I'll pitch it to you all if you have anything to share. >> Okay. Yeah. Okay. >> That sounds good. So, um I am in the grade band with the third through fifth graders and um uh last was it Tuesday? Yeah, on Tuesday um we were given handouts uh with all the parent feedback which I thought was
032very helpful for our grade band on what you and how they felt on the different um topics of interest. So, that was very helpful to see if there was a lot of consensus or or mixed views. Um and then um individually we went and put our own input on a on a piece of paper and then as a group we discussed um we we tried to come we came to consensus and so our third through fifth grade group um it all of us uh believed or came to the consensus that um the students should once they get on school property um whether it's a bus or just walk into the building that their phones or their you know like their watches should be away until they leave the school property. Um and and that so
033that would include any time on the bus because it was our understanding that a lot of the issues that happen on the bus are because of cell phone use whether they're you know just getting in trouble because what they're you know watching on the cell phone or just taking pictures and bullying and things like that. Um and we realize that um we want to respect the bus drivers and that they need to be um uh driving the bus and thinking of safety first. And so that was where that consensus came in at. And um and and one area that was very interesting was uh the parents the parents views for emergencies was very mixed and a lot of them wanted to see their children um have a phone so they could be contacted but uh
034and then that's looking at from a parents perspective and so that's where I think the parent education um will be very helpful um because the teachers and the principles were saying that um No, no, we don't want the children, you know, we want those away in a cubby or things like that because we want those children listening to our instruction so that we can keep them safe. So, it it is a safety issue. Um, what else? Um, oh, and then another consensus was that, um, so some schools like like uh Jason was saying is they were already practicing um the the policy that we had, but if there was another school that and so then they were fine with that, but if another school had a little bit uh lacks lacks um rules, then there
035was a little bit more push back. So um but you could see that um if you set the expectations at a certain level then that's what those children expect and they get used to it and so I think if you know over in time once you know the the other group of kids once they know that these are the expectations that that will be um you know just just the protocol and that's um that's what we should expect from them. And the other thing that I was just talking uh to Dave Allen about was um as we um as the the committee puts forth these recommendations to the board uh we also need to include um input from uh the professional data that is out there. Um because that that's really a really important component
036um and that needs to be discussed with the committee and then so that they can present that to the board. Um so we just need to make sure that that com um aspect is included in in the uh in the discussions. I'll just piggyback a few things. Um like Tanya said, I think that there does need to be a little more education for parents and like what Dr. Web said about the why behind what how we handle emergencies just to help our our our parents feel better about that and that their children not having the devices because we could be actually compromising their safety if they are trying to be in touch with parents or respond to notifications on their phones when we are you know in a terrible lockdown situation. And so I think
037just educating about that and then back in July, you know, we sent out um as Jay joked about a one question. It wasn't a survey. It was more like another touch point for parents and we had over 2500 responses. So that's the replies that Tanya was talking about. And Andy and Jenny did such a great job with this, but they made a word cloud. So, if y'all are familiar with this, and sorry for the people listening or watching, but the bigger the word is how many it was it was mentioned more by the responses. So, you can tell what was of a cons what was concerning and what people were thinking about. And I just want to encourage anybody listening or watching that that is still available, I think, until early September for any parents
038now that their kids have had a couple of weeks with the policy. we would still love to receive your input and just know how it is impacting your family. So again, it's just a one question, let you declare if you're a parent, student, teacher, administrator, tells us your grade band because that's really important and and helpful with the feedback. Um but then just really helps us moving forward with the committee. >> Uh thank you all for that. And I want to touch a little bit on that. You mentioned the uh the the feedback from parents. Yeah. Uh Mr. Mr. Galborth and I actually had a had a short conversation and and yeah, our reaction was this was not a researchbased survey. Then I was actually pleasantly surprised at how how much feedback we received from
039our parents and after being able to observe the discussion of the committee. It was it it really did inform the committee well. Uh so we it would we haven't sent a survey out asking for a vote or anything like that but the committee did want to get some feedback from parents as a touch point really to prompt some in-depth discussion. So related to that I want to do a double check with uh uh Miss Davis or Miss Lopez um from a timing perspective from a scheduling perspective next steps and when could you could you share where the where the committee is? >> Yes absolutely. Um the next meeting that we have is on September the 9th and at that time we're going to pick up where we left off. I'm looking at what the committees
040submitted because each um group there are four groups in the committee uh and that's representing four grade bands K2 3 5 6 8 and high school. And each group submitted their ideas right now as a consensus. Um, and we asked them to where they reached consensus to let us know and where they hadn't to also uh point that out um in the in the document they submitted. Right now they've reached consensus on everything that they've written and actually it seems like they went to the places where they agreed and started there because not every group started from the top to the bottom of the document. Some started in the middle of the document because I think they probably all felt like they could reach consensus on those points. And so the homework now is um
041they received this document. I emailed it today so that they know what the groups um discussed and they're going to think on the rest of the different topics that they're coming back to discuss when they get back together September 9th. they'll have an opportunity to pick up where they left off, continue to work on reaching consensus on all of the different points that that we gave them. And basically, they're looking at language in the policy, what is not considered in the policy. Um so they are going they should I don't I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be able to get back together September 9th look at uh the rest of the points fine um consensus for refinement recommendations and that means that we will get back to you at the next work session
042on I believe that is the 11th September 11th and come back to you with recommendations from that committee uh by gradeband and with a lot of detail. So, some of it is just going to be feedback to you to inform you on what the committee um has reached consensus on as far as all the points um that are addressed in policy and some that are not addressed in policy. >> Thank you for that. And the work of the committee will be ongoing even past that, but largely on other topics um related to technology use. So, a couple things related to that. I strongly encourage you all as individual board members, if you've got time on September 9th, come and sit in and listen. I think it'll give you some insight. Uh and and uh the
043timing may not work for your schedule. If I'm not mistaken, it's from 4 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Um but but uh especially for me as a superintendent, seeing that interaction and listening to that was very valuable. Second piece I wanted to mention to close out this piece of the discussion. Uh, one of the things that I specifically mentioned to the committee when when the topic came up related to the policy versus the law versus what the committee might think is best for the district is make a recommendation on what you think is best. We don't know whether it might conflict with the existing state law. Uh, and if it does, it may lead to us having some discussions with our legislators. For example, the safety issue that you mentioned, uh, Miss Wyatt, uh, you know,
044within the policy is that students shall not use their devices except in the event of an emergency. Well, you may recall that the emergency has not been defined in the law and so we may have some more work to do uh, related to some of those items. Um, final thing I want to mention related to technology in general. When it comes to changes for this year compared to last, we have not assigned devices to our elementary grade students and sent them home with them. Uh, so more particularly at those youngest grades, you may remember that when we went through the budget process, we let you know we would not be buying a device for every student. So it is a it is an impossibility for us to send those home uh for the youngest grades.
045Uh we have however had a small number of parents already ask for the older elementary grades, hey can my child bring the device home because there's some good math math apps for example uh where my child can do some quick drills on some on some math standards etc. Uh and the short answer we've given is yes. We'll make sure that your child can take one home. uh to do those things. So, uh I wanted you to be aware of that that that if if a parent sees that opportunity, uh we want to make sure we facilitate that for them uh as well. And and Mr. Chair, I've got um just uh one more just in time change and then I've then I've got a little bit of data to share with you all that will
046be a followup from the strategic plan meeting that you had earlier today. uh we made a change with respect to how we describe school fees for this coming year. Uh and you may recall that for we've known for years that any quote unquote fee for a class is not truly a fee in that it is not required. Uh but the state describes those as fees, voluntary fees. Uh so we made it a point to change our terminology and let folks know that we were we are changing that terminology and that rather than having school class voluntary fees, we would ask them for a donation. Our schools are in the process right now of rolling that out. Some schools rolled it out, if I'm not mistaken, late last week. others even even today I think tonight
047at uh at open houses are rolling that out. So we don't have any really good data yet. Uh but uh but I wanted you to make sure you were aware that we have made that change. We have had some some questions from parents along the lines of what does this mean? Does this mean this this money is not going towards my child's class? Is it going to be used for the general fund? Why? You know, we've gotten a series of questions related to that. So, we're fielding those questions. We have published uh and our communications department through Carol Birdong published a story very specifically on this. And on the website, there is a letter from me trying to succinctly explain this that that they're not required fees. We're changing the terminology. When the when the
048request comes, the request is just like it always was. We're making that request. So, we won't have good data, I don't think, really good data for probably a couple more weeks about the numbers. Uh, but if you recall, last year we had a little bit over a total district-wide of a million dollars uh in class fees. Uh so we will be comparing that uh to to what we receive from the from the solicitations for donations that our folks give out. Uh and may bring something to you later on related to that. So with that, those are those quick bullet points on on changes that we we have across the district for this year. Uh Mr. chair, during our discussion of our of our strategic plan, as we prepare to affirm our strategic plan next month,
049uh we as anticipated ran out of time. We had a couple other items on the agenda to share with you just in case we did run out of time. And um we did have a specific board member request related to some data on the third and fourth grade retention law uh and how we fared um this past year related to it. So I've got some data some some nutshell data related to uh this year that that just completed and the prior year. I want to give you two-year window uh for for where we are with that with that. So th this year, this past uh spring and into the summer and the year prior to that, we had almost the exact same number of third graders tested uh through TCAP. Uh in 2024, we had
0503,57 students tested and in 2025 we had 3,027. So uh a difference of difference of about 30 students out of that 3,000 plus. Uh last year of those students uh went to the re required tutoring based on their performance at TCAP. That was 11.6% of our total students. This year 307 went to tutoring. that was 10.1% of of uh of last year's third graders. So an improvement of of of about one and a half percent uh if if you look at it from from that perspective. Last year uh 297 third graders in 2024 297 third graders attended summer school uh um and this year 379 attended. So we actually had more third graders attend summer school this past summer than were required to do so. So so that was we were able to based on
051our staffing allow allow more students than needed to. But here's the here's the key bottom line number. 2024 we had three third graders retained based on based on discussions that the principles had related both to TCAP uh and the tutoring and based on the discussion of what's best for the child uh best for the student. This year we had two uh students retained and each of those two were based on some indepth conversations the principles had with parents about what's best for the child. So I want to emphasize to to everyone those tiny numbers of students that are retained aren't retained because they quote unquote fail some test. uh they're retained because in conjunction with school administration and parents the ter the determination is that that's what's best for that child. Uh and I will
052tell you fundamentally that's the kind of work our principles have been doing for years uh with our parents at the elementary level. developmental issues are are considered. Of course, yes, student performance is considered as well. Um, but it is a parent administrator conversation about what's best for that child. So, that's my nutshell. Uh, certainly open to any additional questions you may have uh related to anything I've shared. Mr. Chair, >> does anybody have any question for Jason or staff? >> I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Is there any data then on the 297 from 2024 who went to summer school and how they did on the TCAP in fourth grade ELA TECAP? >> Uh thank you for that. Um I don't have that as I sit here. I will make sure we get that to
053you all. Um uh Dr. Allen uh I don't think we have any record of retention at the fourth grade, but I will do a double check. >> No, there's a there's a pathway for every student to move on. The specific question about how they performed on TCAP will be good data for us to pull though. We don't I don't have >> Thank you for that. I missed that. >> Well, it just speaks to the whole mechanism. The state requires the summer school specifically for ELA for reading comprehension. >> So, is the sum is that working for those kids? I think we could speak to that. >> Yeah, I think we could disagregate it by students that had to attend summer school only and then disagregated it by students that had to attend the summer school
054and the tutoring to see if what kind of increase in performance they had. It's a good we can give you some data on that. I will tell you what what what I have heard and again this is anecdotal. It's not it's not data driven is the students who've been able to go to the to the uh summer school program which is the four weeks in June. Uh being able to extend the school year has been a net positive for them. Uh they do now the state uh have have a have a test at the end of the program uh to show to show some indication of mastery. Dave, I'm gonna I'm gonna use some real real simple terminology. It's quite a simple test. Is that a Is that too much of a >> It's a
055It's a really short assessment. >> Yes. >> To Are you I was making myself a note about pulling that data. So, I missed the first part of the question. The question >> talking about the the the assessment at the end of the post test at the end of the summer school program. >> Correct. So, the post test is a really short assessment. Um, we had some students that were able to progress and then not have to attend tutoring because they met the threshold. I think it's a 5% increase um in their score. Um, it's really hard to measure a student's increase in reading comprehension with such a short assessment. It's not not a great measure. I hate to say it that way, but it's just not a great measure. We'll make sure we get you
056that fourth get all of you that fourth grade data before the Monday um board meeting and I'll be happy to speak to it at the superintendent's report at the voting meeting as well to make sure that we share that detail. >> This actually goes back to the cell phone policy and the wireless devices. Um I know that with I know and I'm so pleased to hear how that's going. Have you also because I know it also applies to Apple watches because mine keeps dinging during this meeting. I kind of want to take it off and and and AirPods, you know, are are the kids letting go of those as easily or are you all going to kind of roll it out slowly? So, um yes to both of those things. They continue to be issues.
057So, uh classroom in the academic setting, u the watch is something that the teachers are having to address. Um because if if my phone is in the the the little bag up front, it's still going to ding. And so they're collecting those or having them turn them off and put them away. Um the AirPods, some schools specifically talked about, and you'll see that in the feedback about the AirPods in the hallway. And um I think that that's going to continue to be something that we just have to address and convince the students to to put away. And again, we're taking a relational approach now. My hope is by the end of the first quarter that we've kind of just started really reteing those behaviors and hopefully it's not as much of an issue. Um it's
058interesting though because I think the culture in different buildings have been different. I think there um are some campuses where that was that's a pretty common thing in years past to have your have one AirPod in and one AirPod out uh in the hallways. And there are some schools where that really isn't part of their culture uh at all. And so, um, it's really just addressing it where it's happening and hopefully we're going to just change those behaviors. Yeah. But it's funny that you that you asked that question because I really anticipate the phone was going to be the the big stickler, but in some schools, those two things that you mentioned were 100% the hot topics. >> Um, I had a question for Miss Lopez. when you when you said that we've we've got
059several several points that we're getting the each each group to to weigh in on like what what specific do you have specific questions that you're that you're asking them like three or four things that regarding the cell phones that they're that they're weighing in on? >> Sure. Yes. I actually have uh I have the form right in front of me. So we basically separated it into um different buckets. So it's places during the school day where students would be would you know where they would give feedback on on cell phone use or or device use and that is um like hallways um um early arrivals. So even when students arrive at school they're on school grounds but they may be there early or staying late. So we asked about where those places are in those
060times during the day. So that was one bucket that they're looking at. Another one is language in the policy specifically devices are silenced. There was a lot of conversation around what it what is it silenced or is it turned off? And so they had conversations about the the difference between silencing phones and turning off phones. Also, um they had some discussions about when authorized by teachers for educational purpose because that's another language in in policy that they had conversation about and devices are not used during the school day. That was another one that was discussed. Then they talked about um during the school day, class change, lunch, study hall. Um and then we left it open for are there additional times or areas in the school that they would want to provide feedback. I will
061tell you most of the conversations where it was very robust were watches um um that you know devices like we that what we were just talking about right now and another one not so much AirPods as watches I think were were were an issue the students that were not removing the watches and have connection on their watches and the other one was about um whether to whether to have policy that students need to put their phones in a certain place. So, is it like lockers, phone lockers or phone pockets? Lots of conversation about that which students not possessing phones on their body or at their desk uh because that's not really explicit in policy as well. So, well, it it is it actually says may possess. So, they were talking about can we have it
062so that so that there's a place that they're setting their phone. So, lots of conversations about that. The other one was about silence versus off. So all the things you predicted at the last, you know, at at the board meeting where we talked about these were discussions you were having, those were the same discussions they were having at that meeting. >> Sounds good. Anybody else? Any any other questions for for Jason regarding all the different topics? Um if not we'll move on to u the operations report. Oh sorry >> I have I have one related to >> the um physical activity. So I guess more for Dr. Webb. Thank you so much for for compiling this feedback from the principles or it helps us see what what's going on at each school. And what what
063jumps out at me is is a couple of things. Number one, some students get it every day that the time for physical activity every single day because as you mentioned there's a couple schools where they have a 1-hour lunch period and so it's easy to build it in right there, right? Um and I think that is the intention behind the law is that we want kids to get outside even if they don't get physical, you know, that they're getting some fresh air, getting some sunshine, getting outside. So I I guess a question for you is what is the feasibility of of getting to a spot where at every high school kids are having that opportunity every day of the week? That's the first thing. And the second thing is the study hall piece is um
064I I don't know what to think about that exactly because in our cell phone policy we are treating study hall kind of like instructional time and we're asking that phones be put up during that time and yet for for this portion of it we're allowing them to have some physical activity time. So those two don't really um sync in my view. But thank you for the questions. So um on the difference between the hourlong lunch campuses and those that don't have an hourlong lunch, um how they manage their non-academic time, it is unique to their individual campus. So if if we see that we have a lot of students who need intervention, then we're going to have an intervention block and then we're going to have that built in um to the school day. If
065a school feels like there's other ways that we can get intervention to kind of embedded, maybe they go a different route. And in my vantage point, um what I want to do is look to see how do students take advantage of the opportunity. If we have an hourlong lunch and only 10% of the students participate in physical activity but we have the study hall rotation which is new and we're trying it and 50% of the students or 40% um take place in physical activity then my preference would be when where where the kids want to go. You know, we talked about block schedule earlier in our in our uh conversations and certainly if a class only meets every other day, those across the state are not getting physical activity every every day either b based
066on they have it built in. Um so to me it's about feasibility, meeting the kids where they are, ensuring that they are actually taking advantage of the opportunities and hearing their feedback. So, I'll have more information, I think, at the end of the semester where we can kind of just look and see and um you know, I want to go see what it what it looks like in in those study hall times. Are we truly pushing for students to take advantage of these opportunities? Or are we going to get to the point where the students say, "I'm exhausted. I don't want to do this. I want to sit and talk to my friends or I want to be social in some other kind of way." Uh so, I really just want to lean into what
067the kids are telling us. Um and then maybe we'll have a recommendation to do something completely different a year from now. the study hall piece um about the academic time uh was a conversation point for us as well. And of course, in this conversation here that we had about the use of the phone, uh, and we've we've considered that, okay, let's not let the students have their cell phones during study hall time. And actually, we've we've supported that. That that feels like a very natural place to be based on how often students were utilizing their phones during study hall time. But it isn't an academic period. In fact, a lot of schools across the state of Tennessee and the country don't have study halls. And so when we're trying to figure out how can we
068encourage physical activity, how can we um not take away from instructional time to to make sure that we have a balance of all of those things. It felt like a natural place because what we're hearing is that not a lot of students utilize that study hall time to study. They've been on their phones, right? So, uh, it felt like a natural healthy place for substitution just to see, uh, if the students take advantage of it or if it or if they don't. But I agree with you like it's it's something new, something that we're trying, I think it's it's, um, worth the effort to figure out is this something that's going to be our remedy long term or if we see that the physical activity kind of needs to happen in some other place and
069some other time, but we don't consider that to be an academic um, class period. I don't think the state does as well. And that goes back to the fact that not many schools across the, you know, state necessarily have a study hall either. >> So, it just felt like a good place to start, especially in small groups. Um, and as I mentioned earlier, that sense of building community in small group versus everybody go at once for 20 minutes. Um, >> we'll just see where we land. I think it's worth the conversation. >> Yeah. Is the every everybody go up once for 20 minutes. Was that like because of that there was a home room type um situation shifting or >> Yeah. How we shift the time? Yeah. How we shift that extra time. So like
070uh we have some schools, not many that have a traditional home room. >> Uh I'll give Ravenwood High School as an example. They've had a traditional home room for a long time, but they utilize that home room for embedded activities. So, as an example, um they're a school that embraced a freshman mentorship program um for probably the last 20 years, and it's a part of their culture where during home room, every freshman gets mentored by a group of students who really battle to be one of those treasured um freshman mentors. Like, it's super competitive and that's built built into their culture. Um other schools are kind of doing it in different ways. Um, but for them, as an example, having that home room time where every student is is going out and being uh physically
071active isn't where they wanted to land because they don't want to lose some of that rich programming that doesn't necessarily happen every day, but to get 90 minutes in, it would have to happen every single day. Um, they just want to try something different. Um, so I I kind of embrace the philosophy of let's not all try the same exact thing at the same time and then likely get the same results. Let's all try something a little bit different and figure out what works for our school community. And we kind of embrace that approach. We take like a I call it a loose tight. It's part of the Rick Deor model of how you run schools, a loose tight approach. What are we holding tight to and what are we going to be loose in?
072And so uh I think we put some guard rails in place. Let schools try some different um activities and figure out where the schools kind of gravitate to. we may see and because we see this a lot with our schools, our school community across the district are vastly different. So giving them the chance to individualize what takes place between the first bill and the last bill has really reaped for years a lot of great success for us. So we're holding tight to a few things, being loose on others, but just being honest and sharing best practice and figuring out where the sweet spot is for each campus. So, our my personal commitment is that we're going to continue to have these conversations and share those best practices. I have intentions of watching some of those
073things take place firsthand and then talking to our superintendent advisory that actually cranks up here in a couple weeks and hear all their great feedback on it. I know that they'll come ready to share some things with us, too. >> Thank you. >> From a data gathering standpoint, Dr. Webb and I had a discussion. I'm going to make sure I'm I'm in some of our high schools during lunch as well. Um because what I've heard just this first, you know, first five or six, seven days is uh it's just it's just as loud as they want to be. Uh which is actually something we want to hear, right? Because because of that verbal interaction. >> Well, thank you Dr. Web for pulling together that information. That was my request. You were probably going to do
074it anyway, but I really appreciate it. It was helpful. >> Concluding your >> That's my report. >> All right. So, uh, Mr. King, operations report. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Mr. Golden already update you updated you on the Brentwood Middle project, so I won't rehash that. Uh, the innovation center. Uh, the block installation is complete. Uh, they're working on the steel joist installation is complete. They're beginning roofing. Uh, interior walls going up and framing. uh and the canopy installation has begun. This project is uh scheduled to be completed in April uh and be open next year to our students. So, uh we're on schedule there. Um I do I'm going to do something a little different tonight. Our operations I'm not going to go through every department uh do a lot of work in
075the summer uh to get ready for school. And if anybody ever wants to call and talk about it, I'd be glad to. But I do want to hit on a few items uh from maintenance and this is just a few items that were done over the summer. Uh the Fairview Elementary plumbing project was complete. Uh we replaced three elementary play playgrounds. Uh HVAC at Fairview Middle, Grassland Middle was complete. We're starting ring staff now. Our uh wastewater treatment plant at Hillsboro Elementary Middle was done over the summer. There were seven schools that had paving projects. Uh, and like I say, the list goes on. There's a lot of work and all our departments, uh, on the operations side as well as instructional. There's a lot of work that goes on in the summer to get
076ready, uh, for teachers to come back. And so, but that's my update unless anybody has any questions. >> Any questions? Um, >> all right. Thank you, Mr. Um, well, board chair report. I will uh I'll utilize 30 seconds of the board chair report to get us back on on tac, but a few of us went to the Brentwin Middle School ribbon cutting and and really just invite everybody to the Paige Middle and Page High um ribbon cutings on um on Sunday if you're able to uh to make either or both of them. Um it was great to get a tour of the of the facility. I hadn't seen the the hallways. I've seen most of the most of the rest of it um at Brentwood Middle, but um the the students the students love to
077uh to give their uh give their give their tours and they were awfully proud of their school and um and it was a it was a great event. Long time in the coming um for for all of these. I think uh I think Paige High School's been going on longer than uh than Britwood Middle School, if that's even possible. Paige High School. >> That's correct. The phase the phase >> it was like seven it was like 12 phases, right? >> Yeah. It was it's it's been a long time. >> Yeah. >> So, um >> you had in there's been a lot of construction on our road. >> Yes. So, it was great. Y'all y'all did a great job and concur with the uh with all the summer work that you've done. It was great to
078great to get back and uh and see all that all the good progress. Um, so any no other questions? Um, so we have new business. Um, Miss Farmer, you have the first couple of items on the agenda, starting with the adjustments to the 2526 budget. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first uh amendment is bringing forward any outstanding uh restricted donations we had last year and just putting them back into this year's budget. So a donation would have been given all of it wasn't spent and so because it was restricted we will go back and put it into the 2526 budget. Uh the total amount of those donations was 84,42151. There's no questions on that one. And the next one is the transition um grant. Uh that particular grant's year runs from o October through
079September. So we will have to put back in into this year's budget three months. Um and the carryover amount for that particular grant was $31,83. No questions on that one. The next is resolution, which is the $2,000 teacher bonus that the state uh provided through the Education Freedom Act of 2025. The funds did come in. And so, we actually have gone ahead and paid that bonus to those teachers that qualified. Again, qualifications were you had to work 121 days and spend 50% of your time in direct services with students and be a certificated teacher. So um the amount that the state provided to us was 7,68,76350. This is putting it into the budget and again that was paid teachers would have received that those that qualified no later than Monday of this week. >> And
080Mr. Chair, just to give you some perspective on the numbers, uh 3,59 teachers from last year received this fund. 33059. of our certificated teachers did not qualify for one reason or the other, either because they came late during the school year or they were part-time or their work did not include uh more than 50% of direct instruction time to students. So 3,59348. The average amount that we received from the state per teacher was $2,310. So that I I point that out to just remind you that the $2,000 included taxes and the retirement um amount that we pay back into TCRS. The design of it was to get a net $2,000 to those teachers. Is that >> an employer taxes? >> Employer taxes. this the employees taxes were not covered. So on average our teachers received
081right around $1,300 >> um is what they netted out of that. >> So the employer pro portion of FICA and Medicare Medicaid >> social security Medicare and retirement was what they included. >> So just to set proper expectations they're uh when they look in their >> when they look it's not all of everybody is not exact. It depended on what kind of retirement um plan you fell into and then also some of our staff had additional uh deductions coming out going into 401ks, various other retirements and so or or there could have had garnishments. So every check was not exactly the same, but on average it's around 30. >> So I want to thank our our payroll staff because it was so individualized and personalized based on where the teachers were on their experience levels
082and retirement amounts. It took a lot of individual data entry. >> HR helped. They were they were instrumental in making >> Thank you both. All right. No other questions on that. Uh, Miss Farmer, the uh, outstanding purchase orders. >> This last item is just an annual requirement by the state for us to provide a listing to you of any open purchase orders at the school level. And so, this is the 52 schools reporting anything that was outstanding. Why would it be outstanding? They either haven't gotten the items that they have ordered or they may have received the items but not actually received the invoices or they could be waiting on credits. All of that information is listed out for you. Again, just an annual requirement. >> And if I may, just as an FYI, if
083you printed this on standard paper, the the the far right column might not have come through, but it should be available electronically. And so just in in preparation for for Monday, Miss Farmer, just know that I'll ask you what our fund balance was, our ending fund balance compared to what we uh what we expected just >> I'll go ahead and tell y'all. We won't know that answer just yet. The auditors have not finished and so we'll still have some year in, but based off of the calculations, we are almost spot on exactly where where we predicted we would be. But I'll have that for you. >> Sounds great. Thank you. Um, next, Mr. Golden, approval of sick bank trustees. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, we have a memo for you for recommended trustees of
084the of the sik bank. Um, u Mr. Brown has actually recommended U Mr. Beasley, Miss Clemens to serve on the certified sick bank. And the WCA has those two recommended representatives, Beverly Pervvis and Bridget Day. So, we expect to recommend approval. uh come uh Monday's meeting. >> All right. Um next on the agenda, rolling right along, um board policy for first reading 5.310, vacations and holidays. So, Miss uh Miss Albbrooks been isn't here, but um but we did review this um this policy in our policy committee for um last week. and the the changes that we have um are largely in related to the change that we made at the budget time. Um so we needed to update our holidays for um paid holidays for um for our classified staff. Um, and then just a
085couple little editorial changes on the increments that vacation can be uh can be taken, but um and how and how vacation is is on on line 19 on page one. Um they basically are going to receive a lump sum when they when they leave for any uh acred vacation, which is which was our our our practice. Everybody did it anyway, right? So, um, but other than other than that, does anybody anyone have any questions around this policy? >> Mr. Chair, if I may, I just want to I just want to specify that this actually places into policy what we did with budget uh with respect to adding two additional holidays for 10 and 11 month employees. And as we discussed at the policy committee, we intend for this to be an ongoing discussion to continue
086to try to find opportunities uh to to increase that. >> Well, that was that was part of my part of my question around the around the fund balance if we if we had a we we had a discussion around if we had incremental fund uh fund balance that we were going to uh potentially asked to ask to modify it. So, no pressure, Rachel, but if you if you have any extra extra fund balance laying around, we'll uh we will be a continuing discussion. Um next, um one of our discussion topics at the um at our strategy session this this afternoon was the annual agenda and u so Mr. Golden approval of the annual agenda. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's just fun to say this. This is the uh annual agenda item to approve the
087annual agenda. Uh we in we through this process establish those items that we know for for various reasons must be discussed. Uh what sometimes at a particular month but sometimes just at some point during the school year. It's to inform you about some basic things that we will be bringing to you on a monthly basis and to ensure that we comply with those annual requirements from the state. So, uh, certainly open to any questions or discussion, uh, you may have related to those. That's a followup to our earlier discussion today. No questions. Are you sure? Going once. And we have officially adjourned our shortest work session in recent history.