WCS Board Work Session 2025-05-15

001All right. My apologies for being a few minutes meeting. We will begin the May 15th work session of the Williams County Board of Education. Uh, a couple of agenda changes just to point out before we get in get started. We've had a request to move uh policy 4.202 and and policy 4.601 from the consent agenda. So we will move those down on the agenda in new business that will they will become item E new item E and then the three items after that will be relettered to follow that. Is everybody good with that? All right. Any questions on the remainder of the consent agenda? Okay, then we will move right into the superintendent's report. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, board members. Uh, thank you for being here. Uh, when we Well,

002since we've last met, we've had a few celebrations. Those of you who came to the military uh the military, thank you. Very much appreciated. We also had our arts event. Thank you all for being uh those of you who came to that. That was that was uh important. Um and uh I I I want to mention one short story related to the military event. I had a conversation with a Vietnam vet who was the grandfather of one of our students who had committed to the army uh after after the event. and he sent me a Folds of Honor t-shirt and it and it prompted me to to to to look that up. And Folds of Honor is a is a program uh where where group of veterans have set up a scholarship program for children

003of veterans and and it was just really really good conversation I had with that Vietnam veteran. Just reminds me of the high quality of of community members we have. Uh, and I I know some of you guys had similar conversations uh with with veterans. So, I just want to reiterate the the appreciation we have uh for for our veterans here in our community. From a superintendent report perspective, uh I do want to give you a little bit of information on where we are with the county commission in their budget process. I intend to save that for Rachel Farmer's update on the budget, her agenda item, but certainly if you guys have any questions before we hit that, I'll welcome that. Second, we are we are going to give you a presentation led by Brian King

004and some team members on one of our strategic plan objectives. The the uh objective nine of the uh environment for students uh the learning environment which is analyze and evaluate school start times to assess their impact on students and on the objectives of the strategic plan. Then the third big chunk I'm going to give you tonight is a relatively short uh report on where we are with my annual goals that you all set for for me about six months ago. Next month is our evaluation. And so my intent with that particular item is to give you some information and open the door for you, review it and ask me some questions over the course of the next few weeks as we prepare for my annual evaluation in June. Certainly open to any questions you all

005may have on any other topics related to that. But uh the big content item I want to share is is our team's work on that. So Brian, I know you you and uh if I'm not mistaken um well, I'll let you I'll let you introduce everybody, but I want to give you guys this preface to be thinking about when this presentation comes up. As you know, that objective I mentioned is one of our strategic plan objectives. This committee has analyzed and evaluated school start times to assess their impact on students and on the objectives of the strategic plan. But they have hit a point where if they if they go forward, it will start deeply involving our community. Uh and so what we really want you to be thinking about is given what you see,

006is this something that you're looking for us to pursue further? And I'm going to give you a little backdated timeline to be thinking about. November of each year is basically our deadline to make a decision if we are going to change start times for the following school year. So if you look at it from this year, uh we have to make a final decision. You all would have to make a decision in November. Uh so this is going to give you some detail that many of you have never seen before. There are pieces of this that some of you board members who were who were here six, seven, eight, maybe 10 years ago uh may have some some recollection of. Uh but that's the big question we're going to be asking of you over these

007next couple of months. Is this something you want us to pursue further? Uh because something like this has the potential to be that proverbial stone rolling down the hill uh and and take on take on a life of its own. And so I want you to be thoughtful about that. Uh I do want to give a special thank you to Jay Galbreth. Uh he was he was involved in in uh in a good bit of the committee work. Uh Jay, I want to tell you that our our our team who was on that committee individually and as a group spoke to me and specifically thanked you for the good questions that you had uh related to that. So it was very very good conversations over these last few months related to this process. So with

008that, um, Mr. King, I will turn it over to you. Thank you, Mr. Golden, and good evening, school board members. Uh, before we get started, I do want to introduce uh the members of the committee who have worked really hard on this objective. It's been a lot of work. um Allison Nunley who is our planning and zoning manager, Laura Chance the who is executive director for elementary, Heather Hayes who is executive director of secondary and Amy Mafy who's director of student information systems and some of those will be helping out with the presentation tonight. And I also want to say there's a lot of information in this what you're going to get tonight. So, what I'm asking, we have time at the end to answer all the questions that you have, but if we can

009wait till the end, um, I think it'll be smoother and hopefully as we go through, we'll answer some of the questions that you might have. Um, sorry, Mr. Golden already went over the strategic plan objective, but I'll let you look at it. So, the goal of this presentation is the first thing we'll do uh was we'll give you a little history of how we're at the start times we're at now. Uh we'll give an update on what this committee has done so far, including the research. Um and then at the end, as Mr. Golden said kind of our next steps if we decide if you as a board decide to move forward. So let's go to the history. In 2016 2017 um the previous superintendent put together a committee to look at the potential of

010flipping start times. And so I want to explain what that means. When we say flipping start times, it's taking the same format that we have now and just flipping it. So elementary instead of going last would go first and then middle and um and then secondary would go second. And we'll get into kind of the reasons why that they looked at that. This is actually a slide um the bullet points from one of the presentations that was done back in 2016 17. And you'll see as we go through our analysis that a lot of the considerations or obstacles are the same that they were back then in 2016 2017. So after community meetings, input, surveys in 2016, 2017, it was decided not to flip start times. Uh instead, the decision was made that the secondary

011schools would not start before 7:40 a.m. And I'm going to show you the times here in just a minute. Um, and a lot of that, like I say, was was based on surveys, community input from students, parents, and community that the decision was made uh to push it back. And so what we have now you'll see the start times before 201617 where high schools started between se the high school and middle schools started between 720 and 7:30 and they got pushed to uh 7:40 and 750. The only difference now is between that time we have uh made adjustments to elementary schools when we implemented early release Wednesday. So that has adjusted their time a little bit to what is current as you see there. So now let's go to what this committee has done and

012this is kind of what we're going to go through. We're going to go through the research which Amy's going to speak to next. The input that we've gathered which Heather will speak to. I'm going to speak to the operations ba uh mainly transportation facilities as it relates to extracurricular and then we'll talk about what this objective does uh in relation to other items in the strategic plan. Thank you. One of the things we did was look at I'm Amy Maf. Hi. One of the things we did was look at the science of adolescent sleep, which is different from young children's sleep patterns. Uh so that you can see some citations here. But even if we tell them to go to bed early, the teen body isn't as ready to fall asleep. And that does not

013mean they need less sleep. So when we have to get them early and they miss out on that sleep, what they're missing is the REMM sleep, which is really when memory processing and consolidation happen. And I'll let you go ahead and read through that for a minute. We have several researched articles that we have linked there. And I'm going to point out a few of the outcomes from some of the studies of students who went through a starttime flip in their school district. You can hit the next slide, B. Thank you. And by the way, uh um Amy mentioned that she has some links. This is going to be posted on the on the on the website for you all and you'll be able to click that active link link and uh and look through

014those if you'd like. So, I'll show you some outcomes of studies. Of course, these are one sample, one snapshot in time. We're not generalizing to all WCS students, but um some some good overview, I think. Brian, if you'll flip to here we go. These are topics that really the studies all had categories that fell into these topics. And one area I want to be sure to point out and touch on is extracurriculars. This overlaps one of the other parts of our strategic plan, which is one of the topics we'll cover later. But one study of 28,000 students who had their start times flipped, meaning elementary went earlier, secondary went later, saw elementary students before school activities decrease, which makes sense. They're in school earlier. There was no significant change for elementary afterchool activities. and extracurriculars

015for secondary had a slight decrease. Another bullet point on there that's notable is sleep duration. So there were multiple studies and the results were pretty clear that while secondary students went to bed a little later, they got up much later which led to an overall significant increase in the weekday sleep duration for secondary students. Elementary students on the other hand, their sleep decreased by about 4 to 11 minutes per week night. Um, and then looking at the other areas, there were some positive results for secondary in sleepiness, attendance, depression, teen motor vehicle crashes. The elementary results were mixed but primarily negative for behavior, slightly negative for attendance. And then academics including test scores, retention rate, graduation rate, they were really mixed and really not significant in outcomes either way related to start times. So next

016we looked at um just in the process of an analyzing and evaluating the start times, we gathered input from administrators and directors around the district. So listed on the slide are just some overarching themes that developed from those grade bands. But in general, the secondary feedback is that there are more obstacles to overcome than benefits. Uh with specific concerns regarding athletics and extracurricular activities and the overarching theme for elementary school is that there are more benefits and obstacles for flipping uh because the specific emphasis is that elementary age students are more focused, alert, and ready to learn in the mornings. So that was the feedback from both secondary and elementary administrators as well as some of the directors around the district. The next thing that we did was we um talked to the superintendent advisory

017council just to get some initial thoughts from from those kiddos. Um and and and Dr. Hayes, if I may, I have a I don't know that we've we've probably mentioned this once or twice, but uh I have a superintendent's advisory council which is uh high school students. We have three high school students from every high school uh who advise me and we we bring up issues and this is one of the topics we mentioned to them. I think we have about 30 and we meet quarterly. Um yes. So just so you guys know what that advisory committee is. Yeah. Um they give us excellent feedback anytime we need it. We're really proud of them. Um but for this just some highlights here. These are the pros that initially when we asked them what would you

018think would be the benefits of reversing the school times or flipping the start times and the these are the things that they shared. Um one thing that I think is important for you all to note is uh for the morning extracurricular opportunities, morning workouts for athletics and club meetings. It is something that you all would need to consider if in fact you do decide to flip the start times because ultimately we would be saying it's important for kid to get kids to get more sleep but then we would be giving them opportunities to do extracurricular activities in the morning. Um so it is something that you guys would need to think about. Um these are the cons. The next is going to be the cons that you'll see. Um you can see that this this

019is similar to the feedback. uh there are trends um from these the from the students that participated in this advisory committee and gave us feedback. There are trends from administrator and fine arts that are similar in both the pros and cons here as well. Um some highlights here are you know kids are thinking about the time that they have to do things after school. Um it some of them we have to remember though some of those kiddos on that that committee they're very high achieving students as well and they're concerned about their ability to do homework and can to end their competitive sports or athletic events after school in a reasonable amount of time. Um the next thing that we looked at was um we did a consultation. Um really we we met with the

020Cherry Creek School District which is an affluent they they live their area is in an affluent suburb in Denver, Colorado. Uh they're pretty similar in size to Williamson County and they actually initiated a flipped start time back in 2017 when Williamson County was looking at it in the first the first goround. Um the overarching takeaways from this uh from these conversations were actually it was really helpful for us because the things that we see that came from that their overarching trends or kind of guidance to us um is very similar to what we've looked at. So they just talked to us about the importance of if you would like for us to move forward the importance of including uh as many people as possible to make sure we educate them. Um, but what was most

021interesting is that their barriers, their largest barriers are exactly what our largest barriers would be as well. So, next we're going to talk about operations. Uh I and I feel bad I forgot to mention uh when we were talking about the history there was a survey put out and one of the questions actually was select your level of satis satisfaction with current start times and there were 17,000 responses uh from parents and students and staff and 67% were satisfied. 25% were dissatisfied and 8% were indifferent. But that was in 2016. So do Yes. Said that that was the only question. Yes, it was a question. That's correct. [Laughter] Dan like that, sir. Yeah. Just a ask and answer. Yes, I agree. We will let Mr. King finish the presentation. Uh so next we looked at

022transportation and Allison reached out to Transfinder who uh is a software company that does our routing. We had them do some analysis on possibly flipping start times and also looking at three tiered start times to see if that could help with our number of routes. U we looked at that two different ways with uh splitting elementary into two start times or doing a true three tier with elementary going first, middle second and high last. And the results was basically both of those scenarios would add routes which would be a cost and drivers and we know how difficult that is right now. But if we kept the c the current format and just flipped with the same format, we would have to do a little adjusting on the front end. So, as Laura Le Chance, who

023was on our committee, she likes to call it a flip and slide, but we could um do that without adding routes, facilities. I'm not going to read through this and again there'll be a link to our inventory, but I do want to highlight that um after we got feedback from administrators and athletic directors um that the consensus was that if we were going to do this, we would need to add at a minimum uh lights to our middle school uh ball fields. And Eric Gardner, I had him get me an estimate. This is not a quote. This is an estimate as of today. Just that alone would be around $4.6 million just to light our middle school fields. It's possible that we would find out we would need to light our practice fields at the

024high schools because if you've known uh since 201617 this this past year we've added two TWSAA sports. We've added lacrosse and we've added flag football which take up practice time and practice space. So that could be another um financial impact. This right here, uh, the civil twilight ranges. The reason this is important, and we're not going to go through all the time, this just shows basically when it's dark in our area in the mornings and afternoon. The key takeaway from here is there are days in eight months of the year, not the entire month, but days and eight months of the year where elementary students would be waiting on the bus in the dark. And this also, if you look at the afternoon, this kind of confirms that we would need to put lights uh

025in our middle school facilities. And finally, this is uh the impact on other strategic plan objectives. Um it's in line with C32 which deals with facilities and and assessment of those facilities and upgrades. Uh it's in line with C4 if you look at it from the sleep standard and studies show that the more sleep students get at that age it helps uh mental health and emotional wellbeing. But there's also studies that show extracurricular activities help u mental and emotional needs of students and this could potentially lower that. Um and then it's also so it's in conflict with could be in conflict with C12 which deals with uh participation in extracurricular activities. So, as Mr. Golden mentioned earlier, these are kind of our next steps. Um, what we need to do, if you decide to move

026forward, we're going to have to meet with the community, parents, set up meetings, educational meetings as to why we would want to do this. Um, we would have to finalize the the bus routing um through Transfinder, make adjust possibly make adjustments on middle school and high school athletics. There's a lot to do if we want to do this. Um, and so as Mr. Golden said earlier, just to do the routing piece of it, we would need to know by November of the previous year. And just for the routing piece, the next slides, and you'll get these, we're not going to go through this. This is a lot more detail of the next steps. All right, Mr. Cash, what are your questions? No, seriously. Any questions? And look, this was a lot. So, if you look

027at this, review this in the next week or two and you think of questions, call, email, because I know we just dumped a lot of information on you in one sitting. So, any if you can't think of anything now and hit you later, feel free to reach out. So, let me say one thing to frame this before we because I think there's going to be a lot of questions. Um, Jason and I talked earlier about the the timeline. He mentioned November. You you've also mentioned November as when the decision would need to be made. And if we walk back from that, just think thinking ahead, we've got after tonight, we have four work sessions, if my math is right, um between now and November. Um I had suggested to Jason that provided there's enough interest

028in this, and I think there is, to at least continue the conversation and decide uh what further input we need to get from parents and so forth, um that we would have some kind of update. It might be brief, it might not be brief at every one of those work sessions coming up just so we know we can expect and count on uh continuity. Um we we know we're going to have an opportunity to ask more questions and and in the when we read things and study things in the interim, we're going to have a an opportunity to engage Jason and his team on this and Mr. King and his team. So just setting that as a framework um from a calendar perspective just so we all know we if we're serious about this and

029want to pursue it. We've got four opportunities before we would ever have to vote on whether to do one of one of these options or not. So just wanted to frame that up is we don't have to solve all of this tonight. If you got questions obviously ask the questions but um the intent is for there to be further opportunity for us to flush this out. Um and certainly if if it's if it's the will of the board to get to do a parent survey um a more complete parent survey then um we need to start preparing the staff to get that uh created so that that because I think that needs to happen sooner rather than later. Okay, I saw Dennis and who else? Go ahead first. Congress is considering ending daylight savings time

030for the entire nation when we do our time daylight calculations. You might want to keep that in mind. Yes, we actually discussed that and you can see some of those months are standard time that does affect the Yeah. So it would depend if Yep. That's exactly right. So it would depend on where they landed. Um, I have a question about Cherry Creek. When they flipped back in 2017, so it's been eight years, did they feel like it was a good change for the kids, did they did they opt to have extracurriculars in the morning or workouts in the morning? And I guess I'd like some more details around all of that. they chose not to opt in for anything available in the mornings for students. They they said if we're going to go with the

031research then that's that's what we're going to do. The difference um I I could speak to the athletic piece of it is they do not have the same level of competition at their middle school level specifically as we do here. So we as you know we have state champions in our TMSAA which we'll give a little shout out. We've got that going on today right now actually. Um but they don't have it's not apples to apples. So um ultimately they were pleased with the change. Uh but they they were able to do different start times too. Um which was a cost implication. I'd have to go back. I believe they have three start times in Cherry Creek. I'll have to I'll have to go back and confirm because we've done a lot of research on

032that. Um but I believe they have three start times there. Did any other I mean did one of our one of our um what is it the mental health the the bullying the the emotional well-being of kids. Was there any data around that or testing outcomes? Is your question about Cherry Creek or research we found in general? Yeah, still still about Cherry Creek. So we will we I'm sorry. Will you repeat the topics you were asking about? Again, I just wanted to know more specifics about like some of the reasons why you would want to do this for improving student outcomes, whether it be academically or their they didn't see significant academic outcomes. Um similar to what the research is, they didn't see that. Um they did talk to us about how they did some

033they did some post surveys and if that's something of interest then we can look at doing a presentation for you all including that in one of the future presentations. They did do some post surveys. They did see that kids were more alert in the mornings. Um they felt better about their participation in class earlier in the mornings. Um when I say earlier I mean earlier for them whatever their new start time was they felt better about their participation. What time were they starting? Was it 8 closer to 9:00, 8:50? They they don't have consistent times similar to what we do in our district. That's a that's a I'd have to give you an outline of the difference of what the ranges are, but they but they did do the same thing. They flipped back. So,

034roughly 8:30 to 9:00 would be the range. And I would add, not to muddy the waters, but part of their transportation, what they did was they also went to a parent responsibility zone. Yes. Which saved a bunch of routes, which helped them with this process. I believe it was a mile and a half parent responsibility zone for the L. That's a flat mile and a half. There was didn't matter if there were side. It was a true parent responsibility zone. If you live with inside a mile and a half, it was your responsibility. There was no bus transportation. It was a two- mile for the high school, mile and a half for elementary school. And we actually did some research and looking to some other districts. I won't be able to speak to specifics of

035the names for those off the top of my head, but um there were some that were high school students didn't have transportation afforded to them at all. And I believe Heather, they only had like two sanctioned middle school sports. Yes. It was like track and and I'm talking about outdoors like track and I forgot what the other one but it was way different than what we do here. Yeah. The level of competition is is starkly different. If I may just uh to give you all a reminder on our parameters here in Tennessee for transportation. Strictly speaking, Tennessee does not require school systems to provide transportation other than for students with disabilities. But if you do provide it, uh you have you have to provide it. um uh any for any transportation outside a mile and

036a half. We've actually taken some steps in certain areas to to to approach that. But we have still made sure that every student has the has the option of riding the bus if they live in the school zone. And I will tell you I think that's important for us uh to make sure we do provide that. Um yeah, I have a question. If we were to move to a late start for the high school, how does that impact the sports like um going to different schools and things like that? And well, that's we know it would be a huge impact for road uh for away games. Um it's going to affect practices when it gets dark. Like I say, a lot of our high schools have a practice field but with no lights. So yes,

037whether JV, some districts move JV to the weekend, uh because there's not enough time to play JV and varsity on districts that start later. So that would kind of be the next piece of figuring that out, especially because there is no budget right now to light middle schools or the practice fields. So there would be a lot of of work to try to figure out how to make the athletics work in the high schools and middle schools. And and Brian and Heather as well, if if I'm not mistaken, every once in a while we will have a a team who needs to leave before school lets out. Dr. Webb, I think about when when Henry County was in our district. Um you know, there were there were those occasional times. Realistically, if we if we

038do flips time flip times there, that will occur more often. U is that is that a safe? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So, how do you cover the uh educational time in that? Yeah. So, I know you guys have done some research on that because there are some districts in in in Tennessee who actually are on similar start times to what could happen. Can you all share how those school systems handle handle those uh those athletics? Well, the the school districts that we looked at, again, it was kind of apples to oranges. They really don't have the athletics that we do. A lot of the especially in middle school, they just don't have uh the sports that we do. We looked at several that had flipped. I know you looked at Knox County, Knox County, Rutherford County.

039So um so they have they have to do a lot of different things. They have to get really flexible. So basically they do so in Knox County they do not have baseball and softball teams affiliated with their school. They work solely with the recreational um recreational communities uh community outreach for sports and they their kids just participate that way. They don't participate in school. Um, when we talk to our friends at Rutherford, for example, they often have a difficult time completing games within the allocated amount of time. So that what that could look like for us is that would mean potentially if we want to continue to have varsity and JV, especially at the middle school level, we might have to play at two different sites. We might have to have those JV teams play

040on the weekends. um which then you get into searching for coaches and people who are available to then give that time on the weekends. Um so that that's a little bit of what that would look like. Eric, do you have a question? Yeah, thank you. So Heather, did you say I just want to make sure I heard Did you say academics was not impacted by the flip? It's slight. It's a slight impact. That's what the research supports is that it's a slight impact. Slight impact. And then was it a slight positive impact? I should say slight positive. And for all cohorts for for all Oh, you mean elementary, middle, and high? Is that what you're saying? The are you talking about the research or Cherry Creek? The the research on Okay, I can speak to

041that. It It varied. Like I said, either way, it was overall not strong universal impact. Um, and I have a couple of examples. such as end of course results did not show a significant relationship except in small schools biology scores were higher. Those are the kinds of of takeaways. Um elementary later start time was actually associated with a higher retention rate. So that would be after a flip. Um whereas elementary sorry later elementary start times were associated with higher retention rates whereas earlier elementary student start times had poorer performance in schools who had fewer students that qualify for free or reduced lunch. So kind of a mixed uh result multiple variables. Yeah. And so similar just very mixed. So speaking very broadly and with the understanding again you're saying it's it's not extremely significant or

042large. Is it fair to say whoever sort of flipped to the earlier that's where it tends to be the a little bit more the negative and whoever's flipped to the later tends to be a little bit more positive for for either start time or am I oversimplifying this and getting this wrong? I don't know that I would generalize it to that extent. I think I think there was a slight positive for the secondary students who went later. Okay. The elementary school students who went earlier, it was definitely mixed results. I got you. I would I would say that. Okay. Thank you. Jay, do you have a question? I do. First of all, thank you um for I enjoyed talking with you guys for um probably a couple hours. I don't know how long we It

043was a long lunch. Um but um just wanted to to bring up um a couple of things that I that I would like to see um if the if the board agrees. But um as we as we make this flip um I would like to understand um your proposal on on the early release late start because probably we would we would go away from the late start Mondays because we're going to have late start every day. Um, and then presumably to a to an early release. And I know kind of thrown out if we could if we moved it to I've advocated for moving it to Friday as as opposed to Wednesday to um that would be a lot more um advantageous for for parents and and students. So, um, and then with that early

044release schedule comes a lot more, um, what what I would call an assembly schedule, um, or a pep rally schedule, like a shortened shortened day. Um, and in order to make the best use of that time, I would love to see the impact on on the schedule if there's any any proposed changes to our to our school. um academic day. Um if you if you think that it would make sense, I'd love to look at the at the impact of of kind of a rotating or or block schedule or something where we we where we can, you know, reduce the transitions and especially for the secondary students to um to have um maybe maybe longer classes and and switch fewer, you know, fewer fewer classes in a day. But I just love to understand the

045the research on on those and uh and how it would work because I one thing I don't want to do is have I think assembly days are disruptive and when you're used to going to you know if you're if a if 20% of the of the Fridays you're or whatever early release day you're you're going to a 25 minute class instead of a 40-minute class and you can't take a test and there's there's all kinds of things as opposed to So the other options, thank you for that. I can speak to some of it now. Uh and then other other pieces will be some things we'll need to work on more long term. Uh so number one, uh to give you all as board members a little bit of background, two years ago, I think

046it's two years now, it may already be three, we added a early release elementary schedule for a total, if I'm not mistaken, of 11 11 days over the course of the year. Those were strategically placed to to be scheduled after appropriate times for CFAs so that so that teachers would have time uh very soon after a particular CFA to evaluate those results and make make scheduling plans in case they needed to spiral back on particular on particular um standards at CFA. Sorry, thank you. I'm living by acronyms. common formative assessments, those quick snapshots of of of test to identify whether students are mastering the content that they've just recently been been given. So, and then teachers would evaluate that and then make adjustments to their pacing of their of their content uh to increase the

047increase the number and of of students who master and the depth of that mastery. We did that strategically. You may recall, those of you who were on the board at that time, we actually asked to move the secondary early relate starts to that early release schedule. And the short short answer is we ended up not doing that. The late start um from everything we've heard from our community, although when it first started there was frustration, people love it now. If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Web, we have something like 20 27 uh late start Mondays over the course of the school year. We know that based on what I just described at the elementary level for those strategically placed times, we could get more bang for our buck with fewer of those periods placed at the

048right time for more minutes uh to to help that work that the teachers do at the secondary level. We made that request. uh there is no appetite for that. If we do switch start times, we will ask for early release for everybody. We know for we've talked about that in depth. Um what we haven't talked about in depth is what particular day we need to drill in a little bit to that. Uh your your other question was uh impact on the schedule. I can speak generally to my long-term knowledge of some research, but it's been a few years. Generally speaking, what we've seen on block scheduling is it improves um graduation rates, but does not have a positive impact on student outcomes on results other than graduation rates. And part of that is because of

049the schedule and when in and when the state the state exams are are set. So there's some complications related to that. We will need to do some work on that and and an analyze is is there is there something we could do on those particular those particular u early release days that might make sense. Dr. Webb, I don't know if you have any thoughts about that off the top of your head. I'll invite that. Thank you, Mr. Golden. I do believe that we just need to continue to explore it. Um there's a lot of pros and cons. You know, Mr. Galbra's explanation is one of the arguments um for late start versus early release because of the bigger chunks of time. It is an impact on the day and so we do have to be

050creative. Block scheduling is is tricky when you do it one day a week and it stretches over two weeks. So if you block uh a Friday this week, you have to make up that time with a rotating class at another time. And so it does get tricky in the scheduling. It's something that uh is on our list to discuss after we we're a couple decisions away from that of course, right? What are we going to do with school start times? Then what we do with early release and then what's the most um academically advantageous schedule uh to make sure we're getting the biggest bang for our buck on the instructional minutes. So, couple things to work on. Yeah. And the last thing was um if regarding early morning pract practice um I mean I know

051probably all the high schools um are are lift or at least lifting weights in the in the mornings um you know starting at pre6 a.m. And so u would they would they still go at 6? They they'd still probably do it before school. Um it just it would it would save an hour of of practice. Would it would it allow would other sports potentially come come and do before school? Maybe. And I know we talked back when we talked about this before, there was some mention of whether we would could potentially implement a an athletic period at the we used to have one um back at Brentwood in the day, but the 80s um and so well maybe 90s. Yeah, 90s. Um so uh the uh but but the the thought process is you know

052in lie of of study hall during your sport that might enable practices to start earlier and potentially leaving early from you're not leaving early from from class but from from that athletic period. So just some some mitigating factors that are options to kind of address some of those potential negatives. That's right there those are some options. We've had some discussions related to that even even related to particular sport schedules. For example, basketball and wrestling cover both semesters partially. Football the actual season is one semester, but there's might be some weights issues in the second semester. Dr. Webb, any it's just some things we know we need to work on. Um, I have one more question. Um, how does it affect like the extracurricular clubs and theater? What time do kids get home? What times would

053you expect kids to get home um from those kind of activities after school? Brian, can you speak to that? Sure. I mean, it would just be obviously later, but the the research is those kids stay up later anyway at the high schools. So, but yes, they would be getting home later and that is that is a concern. Yeah, that would be that would be one of the concerns. Um, for sure. I got a I'd like to go back to the traffic and transportation situation. You mentioned uh walkers. Yes. Up to a mile and a half. That's state law, isn't it? That is the state law. The state law requires that if you live more more than a mile and a half, if transportation is provided, they must get that service. We actually do more. uh

054we we we do provide it to anybody even when we have created those parent zones especially Mil Creek has been the most successful area we have provided the service we just reduce the number of bus stops to speed the routes a little bit um and that discussion you got if you all look at local news you will see that discussion pop up from time to time in in many counties and usually the discussion comes because of staffing struggles okay so Um, was it uh talked about at all that um the amount of people driving their elementary kids to school will probably double? Yeah. Can you all speak to that? That's one of the issues that will be that would kind of be in the next step there. There also the issue of the high school

055students would be driving more during rush hour than they are now for stu for for student drivers which is another it's not anything that we can control. It would just be a result of that's what would happen if we flip start times. So I mean there's a lot of you know if we go through all these reports here there's a lot of pros and cons. Yes, sir. So, when are we going to have another meeting on this? Well, a couple things. One, um, like I mentioned when we started, we really got we want to get a feel from you about how how how much further we go. Uh, if if you want us to continue to explore, we will uh, as uh, as Mr. Brown mentioned, we do intend to revisit this at the next

056board meeting. uh and and to give you all time to process this and in essence there may not be a particular vote I don't know but but in essence do do we want to go ahead and and and and schedule that that will start involving community members and get parent feedback uh and those kinds of things that we've discussed. So next public discussion will be at the next work session. Okay. All right. I'll wait. Thank you. I think that's the question that um we need to take up right now is is is there anyone who's opposed to the idea of us continuing the conversation uh to try to move the ball down the field on this? Um if there's not then the plan would be that at every work session we would dedicate some time

057to have a a different aspect of this discussion to get more information and get us closer to being able to make a an informed decision. So, we're looking at um I guess June is the next work work section. We're off in July. That's right. Correct. And so, are we wanting to move forward with this in August? Is that the plan? Talking about The thought would be we would discuss it in June again. Um we'd then have another opportunity in August at the work session and again in September at the work session. So, three more work sessions and possibly four, but we what we've said is we need to vote on the calendar for 2627 uh in November. So, working back from that, we've got multiple opportunities to discuss this, but I think we need to

058give them some concrete guidance on what do we want the next step to be? What what additional information do we want rather than leaving it open-ended? I think I'll just for one thing I think speaking just for myself I think a parent survey is really important. I mean I think it's critical to this. So if there's agreement on some kind of survey then I think we need to give direction that we'd like to see that be one of the next steps that happens in this process. um maybe ask them to com to complete a to put together a survey with a list of questions that we could see in advance before it goes out. And then when it goes out, we'll see the results and dedicate one of our work sessions to getting a briefing

059on the results of the survey. Administratively, as we dig into the details, if we have questions or comments, how do you want us to submit them? individually to Brian or hold them until the next work session and dump them on you. I will tell you, Brian, I'm gonna speak for you just a little bit. We like getting them right now. Uh so So you answered it correct? Yeah. Uh it's as soon as you have a thought, let us know. That will give our team time to process it. I I don't know about y'all, but starting the meeting about sleep like I'm already like hoping it's the end of the meeting, but um can we get more information on the the Cherry Cherry Creek? Do we have any data on that? Because I would love to

060see more about that school and Sure. and how long they've been doing it and you know, maybe just more concrete data on that. That would be great. And I would like to add, and this is for me, no, nobody I'm not speaking for anybody else on the committee. It does give me pause. This is a big deal, a huge deal. And it has impacts on uh families. It has impacts on our staff, on our athletics. It worries me to push to rush this. And that's one thing we did learn from Cherry Creek is so it's not a matter of, you know, not wanting to do the work. We'll do the work. Um, but this is one of those things that scares me if we try to push it through too quick. uh because it's going

061to be tough no matter how much time we spend, but if we don't get it right as much as we can beforehand and think everything through, like I said, we don't even have the lights at the ball field, so we'll have to figure that. And so, it concerns me, and again, I'm speaking for myself, to rush this. Um, but I just wanted to get that out there. And um just remind me when was the one question survey? What year was that? And that was 2016. That was when the start times were moved. The decision was made to move from 720 to 740 750. So I think that would be I'm with Josh. I think that would be the immediate next step. I really want to understand from our community of families if this is something

062that they're really interested in because I quite frankly can think of lots of other things that might have more impact on student wellness and mental health like tech use and phones and recess than than this based on what we've heard about the the the data. um not producing strong academic changes one way or the other. So Dr. Reeves, to that point, we are taking bites out of a lot of different issues right now. And so this item notwithstanding, we definitely will need to prioritize. Does anyone disagree with the next step or one of the next steps being the formulation of a parent survey? Well, I don't disagree with it, but I think we got to think through it very meticulously because in the past we've we've done these things and we've asked the question, but

063we've not provided any context behind it. And and so it's, you know, you ask parents, do you like A or B? and you know, you get the answers back, but you don't say, "Here's the ramifications of A and B and things like we don't have enough fields that are lit." Um, and and I don't know where I stand on this both. It's it's interesting. Seems like there's positives and negatives with it. So, I'm not there's no agenda here trying to drive the choice one way or the other, but you know, surveys are just not this magic bullet. This is what I do for a living. And professional researchers who who do this for a living, who've done this for all their lives, that work for Fortune 500 companies, they struggle with these things. and we

064think we can just whip them together and get usable data back and analyze the insights and it's it's not quite that simple. So, I'm fine with it, but I think we haven't really asked a question of why are we doing a survey? What are we trying to get the answer on? Who are we using the data? Who's going to be analyzing the data? Um, and I'll just give one example. a couple years back, you know, um when we had a calendar survey that went out and it was do you like option A or B and it split the community and everyone was upset and it didn't give any context for it and then it came back and we didn't use either answer. People were kind of irked of why did you bother asking us if

065you're not taking information and it's like well because there was no context there. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I again I think just speaking for myself, I'd love to see the questions be not just the start time or that start time, but questions like if you knew it was going to cost $5 million to put lights up, would that change your decision? If you knew that kids, elementary school kids were going to have to get on the bus in the dark, would that change your decision? What What are the opportunity costs? Yeah. Yeah. Um I'll just piggyback off of what both of you guys said. That's kind of where I was at, too. just make sure that the survey talks about the pros and the cons, the expenses, um you know, the little young kids being

066in the dark at the bus stop. Um how it's going to affect affect your family life, uh dinner times, doing any kind of extracurricular things in the evening as a family. Um there's multiple things. And then I do think we have a lot of stuff coming up this coming year with the recess and the uh the technology things that um it almost seems a little overwhelming and um because we want to do things right. So yeah. So I guess I I don't know that I don't know that we're ready for a survey and I'm not sure to Eric's point I'm not sure that a survey is the best way to to solicit solicit feedback. I mean, we've done we've done the we've done the community meetings and have like I think I think giving giving

067a presentation of not only this is this is kind of raising some of the questions that they have. I think on the other side of having some of the answers to these things would be a better time to go to go out and talk with the community about what it is and get the feedback that way. If you were going to do a survey, I would want to do it after everyone is educated on on all the all the pros because there are there's no way there's no way around it that that there aren't going to be pros and cons. And then it's just a matter of of getting a feel for um for what the what the appetite is for it. I I suspect it's going to be it's going to be fairly fairly

068split. Um but I mean there might there's going to be some I mean we could probably predict how how they're going to how they're going. We just don't know how split or which sits which side. So you what you run the risk of with the with the survey is um is when it is split and it's not very conclusive but there is a majority versus it it's like do you do you take that as as scientific and say well you know people are against it. Um, and I I think that's where that's where you you want to get the feedback, but it's not a it's not a vote on whether or not to do it. It's just to get it's just a be another some more data for us to be able to make an

069informed decision. Yeah. Yeah. So, just help me understand, and I probably should already know this, how did we get here? Is there a lot of parents that are have grievances about time changes and how did we end end up with this on the agenda? Um, I can speak to that. Uh, the strategic plan has a has an item to analyze it. Uh, that strategic plan item was the result of multiple community meetings where at multiple meetings in different parts of the county, the request came in. So, when the board voted to pass the strategic plan, they included that item. And it wasn't to change, it was to analyze. Uh and and that and if you would Brian flash to that first slide, the very first slide. So this is this work is a result of

070a schedule. I'm thinking we gave the board this schedule maybe 10 months ago or so. And I think if I'm not mistaken, we're actually running behind a month on the on the schedule we gave about when we were going to we were going to present this. So that's that's that was a result of the plan. Um, if I'm not mistaken, and those of you who are at the strategic plan meetings, help me. It was mentioned at every single meeting, but sometimes they were the same people at some of those, right? Community meetings. Exactly. But to to to to the to the point back in 2017, you know, it was a two-third split on that one question. And so so it is obvious that there that there are folks who who would be interested in this.

071Our neighbor to the north um Metro Nashville Public Schools, if I'm not mistaken, they have three start times that um high schools start somewhere just a little bit after seven, then elementaryaries and then middle. Uh our neighbor to the east to Rutherford County has in essence a flip start time compared to us. Uh so so there is a lot of variation around and I know folks talk to their friends and might say okay I I've seen what they do I might have a preference here or there. So short version which I you know I never give uh is it's a result of the strategic plan. So I agree with Eric 100%. I think he hit the nail on the head. We can't we don't want to ask before we actually know what we're doing and

072knowing what we're agreeing on and Jay alluded to it too that I think the parent survey should be after you know the last time we did that we met at uh four four schools four locations and invited everyone in and had had pretty good results and explained everything and it was after that that the survey went out. So I I think uh we need to hold back on that and at least have one more meeting to where we can dig into this and feel more comfortable making a decision on it at that time. So how does everyone feel about not moving forward with survey or community meetings until after the June meeting? Anyone feel strongly that we should get moving on something or at least having staff explore how and when we might do community

073meetings? I mean, is there is summer a factor in this as far as when you when you would do community meetings? Because if we don't if summer's a factor, then we're not going to be able to do any of those till August. Summer is definitely a factor. Um I glanced over at Carol Bird song because that's a mantra she shares with us uh about our community. Uh don't push anything through in the summer because folks aren't going to be engaged and I'm going to paraphrase and they'll come back surprised. Some version of that. So yes, that is a fact. I feel like there's no rush on it. Why why are we rushing to get something pushed through if it's not a high priority? Well, the only reason is because if we're going to make a

074change, we have to do it by no and we have to vote no later than November to do it in order to prepare for the next school year. So, I'm just thinking about having enough time prior to November in order to make an informed decision. But that but that would only be if we were going to do it the next school year, right? That's that's the assumption is if it were if it were for 26 27, then that's the timeline. what we might decide is we need more time and you know what I'm saying and that's what I'm saying. Sure. I don't want to rush it. Uh there's nothing in the strategic plan that says we have to do it or we have to do it next year. So if we feel like we need

075more time, more community meetings, I would feel better about it personally um than rushing it. We could always we could always make a decision in November and that decision could be that we don't make we make it effective the next I mean in in 18 months versus versus in eight months. So, uh I mean that I'd rather I'd rather get the get the process done. I think we we've got plenty of time to to go through and get the get the feedback, get the information. um I'd rather not draw it out for for another series of time with with the open being when do we want it to be to be effective. So unless anyone objects to this, I think we plan on another discussion of this in the June work session uh with some

076more maybe more concrete information, maybe information based on some of the questions that have been asked here and then revisit it again at the August work session since we're not meeting in July. Right. That's that's correct. But that we might think about having if we're if there's a desire to do a community meeting or a series of those, we could consider doing those starting those in August if if that's the will of the board because then we'd at least start getting feedback on the merits of the plan or not. August, September potentially. I think that's a possibility. Okay. So for next month, Mr. Chair, um we've got some of some of the questions that you've asked. you'd want a little bit more information on just as an example some more information on Cherry Creek. Uh

077I would also invite you all to if any questions come up like Dr. Driggers mentioned u ask those over the next couple of weeks so that we can do what we can to answer those. I will tell you this. Um, this is a little bit tongue and cheek, but the but the the committee started out with uh 50 page 50 slide um presentation something along those lines close and and this was in the in the 20s. So they do have a lot more detail. Uh and so we can provide that to you. Uh that might give you some prompts on some questions with some of that additional detail that we had. Uh and so if you all are okay with that, we'll send that to you and that that'll give you some some extra some

078extra detail that might trigger some questions. So Mr. Brown. What I heard one of the things I think this committee will do is get some some more data on the Cherry Creek. I I've heard that. Um and then any questions that come in between now and u our next meeting, we'll we'll try to address those as well. But if we're not going to go to the community because that's kind of the big thing now. We're kind of at that stopping. So, the next presentation would probably won't be to this degree. We'll probably touch on a few things and then if y'all have more questions, but we'll put, like I say, any feedback we get from y'all between now and June, we'll try to include that as well. We'll expand on the Cherry Creek um research,

079and that's where we'll start if if everybody's good with that. Can we possibly get uh a lot more data on student outcomes? I mean, because the way this is presented today, well, there was a slight increase in academics the first two hours for secondary school and a slight decrease in elementary school. Um, and it's going to create traffic. It's going to create this. It's going to create that. So based on what I saw, just reading over as quick as I could, I I'd be a no vote on the whole thing. That's why I say wait and and give it some time. Dr. Maf nodded nodded her head when you were asking that question, Dr. Maf. Sure. Thanks. I I nodded to the part about student outcomes because from from the studies that we found and

080there's not an overwhelming right amount of studies but I had a lot more examples that I wanted to share so I can I can do all that as far as academic outcomes again traffic in our cities we won't have the data yet but I can definitely elaborate all the data on that everywhere you go right right right now everywhere you go but the studies I've got for So we don't have to dig into that too deep. The north south corridors no matter where. Um for the next meeting would it be possible to get the presentation as part of the agenda so we can look over it and then use this time to ask questions. Thank you. Thank you. That's a we'll definitely do that. uh this particular presentation had placeholders that included some some some

081you know verbal oral shares but if I'm not mistaken the other presentation had had a lot that was self-explanatory and at at the least it could trigger questions. Yeah. Um and again I was analyzing this whole thing and I would say the same thing as as Dan is like why are we doing this? Um obviously it's for well initially I thought it was for sleep and for better academic results and all the other things are pros and cons of um yeah on the on the outside of it and um so I would definitely like to see that as the core reason for doing it. Um and then look at the pros and cons if if you know if we don't see a good academic benefit or the kids are still going to stay up late

082and just you know get up you know later you know that kind of a thing. So um yeah that's where I'd like to dig into um research and things like that. The other half for me would be mental health. We have a real crisis with mental health among our students in general. So maybe if the academic improvement is marginal but there would be significant improvement in mental health by giving them that extra 30 minutes of sleep. There seem to be a lot of studies on that. So I would look at academics and mental health. Could we uh do what get more data on another thing? How many of the students take their phones to bed with them? And I'm not joking. So all that's to be considered in this. It's it's huge. Thank you. All

083right. We've got some good takeaways and and things to follow up on for the next meeting. So um thanks for all that feedback. You still you're still in your report? Yes, sir. I'm still in my report. Uh the the next sub item on my my report it is I have a three-page synopsis of my of my annual goals that um we're posting and I invite you to spend some time looking at it over the next couple of weeks. I'm going to give you some nutshells of each one. Tim, if you would scroll up uh to annual goal number one, establish a district task force on student behavior and bullying. And uh you all may have some recollection of that. I want to I want to let you know that task force has has been established.

084Their first meeting is actually tomorrow. They're looking at uh preliminary data on this year and I think if I'm not mistaken also we'll have some longitudinal data for that team to look at. Uh and if you would Oh, you've got it well enough. So there's an attachment a one-page attachment to this uh with the action steps and some additional information related to what we've done so far related to that. And if you would Tim, scroll down to page four of this. Just I just want you to have a glance at it. I I don't want to take up the public meeting to go through this detail. Keep on going to the next page. And there it is. That's that's that particular document with steps taken to date. And then and if you scroll down just

085a little further, there's action steps related to that. Uh and so I encourage you all to look through that. I will tell you related to this first goal, if you would go back to page one, uh this is a work in progress. Uh we expect the work to be done in July with some potential recommendations for change. And I'll give you a couple of thoughts that are on my mind kind of in the context of a doctor's differential diagnosis more likely than not. uh what we're looking at from my perspective and and Vicki if you would add add on to we're going to look at what we've done this past year in standardizing discipline uh and setting those parameters that that the previous board asked us to do and analyze the impacts of that. Uh

086what we've done is created a a a more standardized discipline for harassment and bullying behaviors uh districtwide and we want to look at the impact. We do know that be because there are multiple variables. We're not going to have a very clear line that because of this this happened. Um but we're going to be looking at those things I mentioned in those bullet points. Uh review of whether has there whether there has been an improvement in recognizing bullying. uh and that includes the reports and then the the relationship between the accusations and the and the conclusions of investigations related to bullying and then the the impact of the discipline guidelines. And I know Vicki and I have had this discussion and Vicki's basically told me, look, you're not going to be able to say that

087that um that a particular discipline impacted that statistically. There's just too many variables. But it's worth us looking at. One thought that I have in my mind is this question that that we've talked about over the over the course of this year. Are these guidelines looked at as a firm no matter what it has to be? Or do we spend some time talking about it if if an administrator wants to have a discussion about it? In other words, administrators not living alone, but but having discussions with team members about that particular student. That's that's a big a big topic for us. Uh and uh um Vicki I want to invite you to speak to that as well. I just have kind of like a little summary of it which is you know pretty easy to

088to figure what what we are really trying to address is what do we need to do to prevent the behavior? What do we need to do to train our staff to recognize the behavior and then how do they respond to it? So those are kind of the three elements that we've been working on for the past several years. And all of these are just parts to it that we try to collect the data all year long and look through it. And then at the end of the school year, we bump it up with some of the discipline and try to um and see what kind of headway we're making is if if there's any impacts that can be indicated. And bullying is a very very serious issue uh not just here but everywhere. But we

089we we we spend a lot of time talking about bullying behaviors. What we want to do with discipline is not treated as punishment but truly as discipline to give an appropriate consequence to students and give them tools to make a better decision next time. I will tell you what I have experienced as the superintendent and I am the ultimate decision maker on any discipline that exceeds five days. Uh the law has given me that power to reduce. So I will have conversations from time to time with families. The vast majority of of families and students you know take the discipline and move on. But I will have conversations. uh what I generally see is and it's this is not every single time but I often see parents whose children have received discipline say this is

090a lot and some version of that that that this you know I'll hear stories about this is my child's first experience with discipline. So when somebody's appealing to me, inevitably it's can you reduce this? On the other side of the equation, I often hear from families whose children have been the victim of bullying, it's not enough because I haven't seen I I haven't I haven't been able to see what's happened to that child. And that's very difficult because you all know we can't share personally identifiable information about one child. We can't share details uh about that what that particular child's going through. And you all know also with students with disabilities there there are restrictions on what we can do. Um and so it's it I feel the emotions of the parents who I talk

091with um because both of those issues are very real. And so part of what we're what we're working through is finding ways to improve communication as well. Um so anyway, from a from a from a goal perspective, there's some detail of that uh with with that task force. Um, second item on the annual goals is a propose to and that's number two there. Tim, if you would scroll up propos Can I ask a question about the district task force? Yes. Like who is on that? Yeah. Thank you. Vicki, can you speak to that? The task force is comprised of teachers, administrators, other staff, parents. Um, help me am I leaving any group out? Student. We have students too. Did we get representation from our community groups like one Wilco, Moms for Liberty, Iris, any others

092that wanted to be part of that? We we have a couple of representatives from parents that I believe may be affiliated with those groups. But that's I mean that's something that that certainly we could look at expanding to if if that's a board member. We were trying to get honestly we're trying to have a a body that can look at it without becoming too large. So we didn't have a lot of we had two or three representatives from each group. We do not have a board member on that task force. Okay. Second item is the uh is a proposed pay increase within available funding. You all see the details of that. I presented to you in February a preliminary look at it and we've made a few adjustments based on feedback we've received from you

093and I have bullet points related to that. That item is actually on the board agenda tonight and so I plan to share that detail with you when we hit the board agenda. But again, I have some written documentation related to that. You can see a couple of those bullets just at a glance. So with your permission, we'll hit that item when we when uh when when that hits the board agenda near the back end of that. Uh third item, third annual goal uh identify opportunities to access alternative funding sources uh through collaborative efforts with PTO leadership. I want to mention a couple of bullet points related to this. We heard from our PTO leadership over the course of this time that that they have a good handle on their work and they are not interested

094in continuing a uh a group that we've had with some leadership to to look for local. The essence of what they've shared is we have really good fundraisers right now and we want to we want to protect that and keep that to ourselves. They they've got corporate relationships that they want to maintain. Uh and so from a PTO perspective, that's what I heard. I think the last meeting I had with the PTO leaders was okay, nobody's told me they want to participate in this in this PTO leadership council that we spoke to you in months prior. and they all smiled uh at those PTO presidents and I know many of you were there. But their experience as PTO leaders and in fundraisers is very different from athletics. Uh and a few examples of that include

095the the contract for for apparel that we've done districtwide. Another example is the trend that we've seen towards getting I know Jumbotron is a is a brand name but the large video screens and those opportunities to sell and you see some references to that and you'll see some references to that in my in my uh in my document. So my plan is to offer something similar to the athletics leaders. I'll give you one other example. How they do fundraisers on campus. There's a variation between athletic athletic boosters doing concession stands and receiving the money for for them to for them to plan versus school administration. So when we get our new presidents in place early this fall, my plan is to meet with athletic boosters, the the presidents and have a strategic discussion with them

096because I think that group has the potential to to hit corporate potential corporate sponsors in a different way. And so there's some detail related to that. Third big piece districtwide, I mentioned in that bullet point that the education foundation has been reinstated and I want to specifically thank uh Matt McGallanes who was the board chair of the old foundation and Rick Rick Wimberly helped him as well to get that entity reinstated. We have had some discussions with potential corporate sponsors in the context of the EIC and the innovation hub that's coming online from some corporations that say we cannot donate to a government entity but we can donate to a nonprofit. And so that's opened the door for us to do some exploration uh for for some corporate donations. I have some detail on a

097on a on an attachment that gives you a a view of where we are right now with corporate donations. the document I have. If you can, Tim, uh, run or Nick, run to the page five. Right now, you're on page two, three. I have some information about where we are with district-wide corporate sponsorships. And this is not comprehensive because there are a lot there are lots of little things that that are here and there. uh we talk about what we're doing with the hub sponsorship CT support systemwide scroll down a little bit and you can see some relationships that our folks have built uh with for example Atmas Energy Walker Chevrolet Gibson gives Gibson guitars related to related to our arts programs etc. Uh and then finally, there's some detail related to an amazing environment

098that our students with disabilities have in our community with local businesses and local corporations. And scroll down a little bit. I'm not going to go through all that detail, but all those entities are spending time helping our students with disabilities. And we don't talk about it enough. Uh so I have some of that where we are uh in where we're headed re related to related to alternate uh opportunities for funding. I do project that really we're just getting started in thoughtfully approaching this and so I thank you all for the prompt for that. We're not a private school. Uh and so what we have found is generally speaking it's going to be hard to get someone to just give an unrestricted gift without a plan. what we have found is that people will contribute to

099something that's as close to their heart. Uh and so that's that's the target for where we are. A final piece related to that that I failed to mention uh but I did mention a month or two ago uh that close to the heart piece. Um, we have an opportunity with a local university uh to create a scholarship program for students and we believe we've got a chance to get some donations that we have not tapped with that for scholarships for stu WCS students who intend to who intend to go into education. I think I mentioned that a month or two ago. Uh, but I want you to be aware of that. Uh, so from an overall perspective related to my annual goals, we've been working on it for six months. I think we got a

100lot more work to do. Uh, and I'm I'm pleased that two of those three goals I think are more longer term than just annual. Uh, for us the the setting the setting the pay uh, we'll deal with that at through the budget process. It does have a long-term impact because once we're once we get those, we're committed. But the other two, I think have have the potential for us to move the needle. I want you all to know that I'm not going to put these those two especially aside with this report for a couple of big reasons. One, I'm not done. And two, we've got the potential to for it to be for it to help us have a better environment for our community. Um, so uh with that, Mr. Chair, uh that's that's my

101the main content of my report. I again I encourage you to to read this and and feel free to call me with any questions you may have. Couple of small relatively small time consumers. We are a week from school releasing. We actually have four and a half student days after today because th next Thursday is a half day. I know many of you all have committed to attend the graduation ceremonies. If I'm not mistaken, one of you has said I may need to make a schedule adjustment. If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Webb, the the uh commencement ceremony Oh, I'm having a mental block. Thank you. Programs uh have been published, but is it is it safe to say if you need a change in schedule, come on. Thank you for that, Mr. Golden. That we

102do often print the outside of the program and the agenda, the inside um within a week of graduation, but we want to go ahead and welcome you. If you have not been able to RSVP, uh you may not be in the program at this point, but we do want to invite you to have a seat on the graduation stage and celebrate the wonderful things that our students continue to do every single year at that commencement ceremony. And one one one neat thing that I saw a week or two ago, an assistant principal sent an email out uh to the board members who had a piece of their of their school district. I mean their their their school zone and we basically replied board members committed to attend your graduation but every other board member in

103your area is commit committed to attending another graduation that same night. So thank you guys for that. I think it'll do your heart good. Uh some of them some of them can be long, but I will say some of the some of the principles compete on uh on speed uh at some of those larger some of those larger schools. Dr. Web, anything you else you want to share related to that? Had a quick question back to the superintendent goals. Yes, ma'am. Um the first goal about the bullying, I know we've gotten some emails and that's a you're correct. It's a very um heartfelt situation on all sides. Uh and when you have the three bullet points, the longitudinal data, will will we get any more specific as board members because it I appreciate that you're

104collecting all this, but will we be able to see kind of how that's shaped? Yes. Thank you. Uh and if I'm not mistaken, the last few years we've given that to you sometime in June or July when it finalizes. I'm sorry. It's a little later. August, August. Yes, we will give you that data. We won't have finalized data before before the evaluation. Um, I'll talk we'll talk about what we can give you the preliminary data because I know that that committee or that task force will be looking at it. I'll make sure we share what they what they look at with you. That would be great because that that is one of the hardest parts I think in education is you know dealing with that and managing that and so that would be really helpful.

105Thank you. I was wondering if you or Dr. Orier can speak to the TCAP scores especially for our third graders what that looks like as far as timing for the scores the retakes and what the communication looks like to the families. Sure. Dr. Oyer, can you speak to that? Yes sir. Thank you for the question. Um, it's long and elaborate, so I won't give you every bit of the details. Um, but I'll tell you that we there's a very intense timeline that begins on the on Monday or excuse me, May 20th. Um, the reports come from the state and and just so you know, everything I'm about to say is contingent upon the state getting everything to us, which they've done fabulously in the last few years. Um, I know one concern that folks have

106in the um in the community is how will we get the information specific to my child's testing? It will come in two ways. It'll come through the Skyward system. Um, and it will also come in what we call snail mail, right? Just the old school way. We want to make sure we're getting information in both ways to families. Another driving question this time of year is what if I want my child to take a retake? What if they're eligible to take a retake? Anyone who does research will see that that window is open starting on May 21st and goes through May 30th. So any student who has a need to take that retake will have that entire window. They are going to hear from their school administrators that we want them to take them right

107away. So on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, those are the dates that we're going to be encouraging students to take them just so we can get them in. They're there. we're able to have them do it right there at the school building and then we get those results. The results are rolling so they they come in um we get that information and then we immediately let families know that. Um what other questions might there be about that? Um and that communication, sorry Mr. Ben, that communication will be ongoing. So the the expectations of what a particular student needs based on their particular score is outlined in the letter that they will receive. I did want to speak. Oh, sorry. You have a question to ask your question. Okay. So, that's a letter from the district,

108not from principles. It's from the school. It it is prepared at the district level, but it will be sent by the schools. Okay. Got it. And from the student from the Skyward perspective, that'll be uploaded the minute that we have that information on the 20th is our goal. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. So I I think it's worth noting that the third what we called the third grade retention law a few years ago was an ongoing battle that we fought uh the last three and a half four years. The state legislature made some change legislature made some changes related to that because when this started there were some students who had to be had to be retained depending on their test scores. That is no longer the case under the state law, but there are

109some conditions by which they which they must follow depending on where their scores land. It's actually, if I'm not mistaken, it's their cut scores, right? And and so this is this issue for third graders is very important. It a lot of it includes going to the summer school program that they actually don't call summer school. Uh but uh we we've had a lot of work already related to that. Right now the state is funding that program in full. Uh and in fact we actually project that the available funding is more than we are going to actually need because they project out statistical information of each district and say we've earmarked this much for you and we don't think we're we're we're going to spend it all based on our numbers. Dr. Allen, I know you

110and I had a discussion about the numbers for that. Can you speak to that just a little bit? the numbers that are currently we're currently expecting for this summer about 1,600 K through rising kindergarten through 8th grade I think is where we're at. Um somewhere in that ballpark. Um and then we will have uh additional students that to Mr. Golden's point that will be required based on their third grade scores. Um I will also I just want to give a shout out to our team. We start planning we we we have it really down pat right now, but we start planning in January for summer school. It's only 16 full days, but it really takes us six months of planning to recruit teachers, to develop curriculum, to put together a plan. It is really, really

111good experience for our kids. I know. Um there's even though it's the middle of the summer, we have a lot of smiling faces there because our teachers do an awesome job with them trying to uh make it uh make the learning as fun as they possibly can, get them moving around as much as we can, provide lots of activities. Uh it's a great experience and I'm proud of the the the program that we offer and I'm proud of the team that puts it together um to make it the best experience possible for our kids over summer. So that program is four days a week, four weeks in June. Uh Monday through Thursday, they Friday off for each one. Uh Dr. Royer, if I may just add one more thing at this point. So what I

112just gave was the the generalities at this point once those scores come out, I really encourage you as board members to ask your constituents who reach out to you to reach out to their principles or assistant principles. It becomes a very individualized conversation at this point. So we want to make sure that the the building level communication is very very tight and we we start with those form letters that go out but the personalized conversations start that same day as well. So please anybody listening and then from from your mouths to their ears if you can help them know to to reach out directly to the school that will help immensely. And there's a fourth grade impact on this as well. Uh so we spent a lot of time over the last couple years talking

113about third grade, but there is a fourth grade impact uh related to uh the ELA portion of of TECAP for those fourth graders. Dr. Allen, you were about to say, well, I was just going to say the fourth grade impact is this the required tutoring that some of the students uh would be required to attend a minimum of two days a week, 30 minutes a session. So yeah, there's that followup for the fourth grade as well. Thank you for the question. Um, back in March, I asked about the the CREP surveys. Ah, thank you. Uh, how is that coming along? Dr. Webb, I know you, if I'm not mistaken, you manage the crepe survey. And by the way, that's the Center for Research uh and education policy from the University of Memphis. We have longitudinal

114surveys that we uh that we do school by school and if I'm not mistaken, we've done that with the University of Memphis maybe 15 plus years. That's correct. And so yes, we have the results are in um from our crepe survey. Um it we get it district-wide data and student uh school specific data. So could we have access to that? I'll reach out. Thank you. Sure. We'll make sure we'll make sure to get that to you as well. Uh, anything else for Mr. Golden? I'm just going to mention about the goals. Just going back to that for a second just as a reminder because half of you um have not participated in this process before. So we're getting essentially a month in advance his um own sort of self reflections on his goals and uh

115the data behind that and then we will get the evaluation instrument in a couple of weeks. Is that right? That's right. And and actually if I it was in the board packet a few months ago but um we'll Dana will send that out. Um we can probably send it out next week. Last year we sent it out the Tuesday after the meeting after the May meeting we sent it out the following day. Okay. So next week we can get through Wednesday. Okay. So sometime next week we'll get the evaluation instrument that we will all use to uh do our individual evaluations of Mr. Golden and then um those will be submitted check me here. Those will be submitted back to you Dana. Correct. Um to me and Lydia. Okay. And then they will become part

116of the board packet for the June meeting. Correct. When we vote to adopt the evaluation. Correct. And as a reminder, those are public records, right? Any questions about that? I'm just primarily saying that for the benefit of the six new members because it's a new process for you, but just wanted to make sure we all understood the cadence of that. Will you give us like the deadline that you need it? Yes, ma'am. You'll include that. Okay. When I send out the Right. Yes. I'll put everything in the email. And then she'll send us reminders when we don't turn it in on time. Lydia Lydia will take care of all of that. Which does happen. I know. Good question, Mr. Chair. That that that actually prompted one more piece just as a re as another reminder.

117uh the state has required elements that are in the that are in the the evaluation and then we have chosen to have those additional annual goals. So you're really you've really got two sections the the state required plus the annual goals. I thought I could let this go but I do have one comment about the the PTO piece. Yeah. because um when we talked about that initially at our um retreat, it's really wasn't about how sharing protecting um PTO's ability to raise funds. It was more about providing an outlet for PTO presidents to share ideas about best practices and and you know discuss sections of bylaws and and things like that. you know, some PTOs are much better at raising funds than others. And so I think it if if there are any PTO leaders

118listening, I think it's a missed opportunity. Well, thank you for that. And actually, we've actually um initiated that opportunity about a decade ago and went through details with that. What we heard generally speaking related to that was that the transition from that there was an appropriate transition from a handful of regional help to the detail that we have on our website. And so what they shared with us was with what we're doing right now with the detail you share with our quarterly meetings that need isn't there for that for that individual relationship nearly as much as it was a decade ago. So, my hope is that what we've done is created a sustainable process. Uh, those questions still come up. Um, and we've we've gotten better over the last 10 years or so in responding

119to PTO member questions as well. Rachel, I know you're itching to say something, chomping at the bit. We actually have a meeting tomorrow. Um and so what when I say we finance takes on our internal auditor myself um have periodic meetings with the PTO leadership and we asked this time we met um I guess last month um several of us on the leadership team met with PTO presidents and president I principles seated and went over various topics and one of the questions was when's the best time for you what does it look like so we're actually what was recommended was Zooms so we have a couple of Zooms scheduled one in May one in June and then generally do one in the fall and come back in the spring. And so that has helped. I

120mean, I think that also bridges that gap a little bit is that we do periodically have those. And Dr. Ree, thank you for mentioning that because I I didn't I didn't mention that and I'm I'm glad we had that opportunity so that the depth of that was shared. What we haven't done on the athletic side is a lot of that. Uh and and so we do see that gap. Once a year we will have a meeting with our we have traditionally had a meeting with our athletics folks but it's generally compliance issues. Um so that's that's the that's the difference between the two. Okay, Mr. King, are you ready? Operations report. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh brief update on some construction projects. Uh Brentwood Middle School coming along. Uh they've got drywall complete

121on the first and second floor. Ceiling grid on the first and second uh first floors has uh complete and begun on the second floor. Uh and painting continues around the building. I do want to mention uh just because the uh county commissioner went with us last week. If anybody ever wants to go visit, take a tour of Brentwood Middle or any place we're doing construction, reach out to me or Eric. I think it's still hard hat though, isn't it? Right now, but we'll have a hard hat for you. Eric has extras, so if you ever want to take a tour, just reach out. Uh transportation building, uh should be uh just some punch list items. should get our final inspection soon on phase two of the transportation building. The innovation center uh they've poured the

122first slab. Remember we it was going to be in two pores. One was completed on May 5th and the second one is scheduled for next Tuesday. Uh and block installation is begun at the innovation center as well. So, oh, and I do one other thing I want to mention because I always forget. Summer is huge for our maintenance department. And I I can't list all the projects that they're going to do this summer, but uh Adam Christopher, our maintenance director, had a great quote today. And if I mess it up, I apologize. There's more work than there is summer. Is that what you Is that how you put it? So, school's out and that's great for the kids, but his department will hit the ground running as soon as school's out. And by the way,

123related to that, the the summer learning camp or summer school locations actually varies, if I'm not mistaken, Adam, from year to year because it it has an impact on your ability to do some of the some of the summer work. Yes, sir. That's correct. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And that goes to some of the discussion that Dr. had said about starting planning back in January to help us work through some of those conflicts. The old tradition of schools being closed in the summer just isn't true anymore. And that's my report unless anybody has any questions questions for Mr. King. All right. U board chair report. I just have one thing to bring up and that is uh we talked about doing this has been a month or two ago talked about the possibility of doing

124a board planning session to um primarily look at some of the items in our strategic plan given that a couple of the things that we're talking about now relative to technology, relative to start times, you know, there's several things that we're discussing that are substantive um and it might be a good checkpoint um for for us to get together for half a day. So, I'm proposing uh July 30th. We we have talked about this um and we think that might be might get us through most of the summer. People may be back from vacations by then. Um throwing that out there. We don't need to decide right this moment, but we do need to decide fairly quickly for planning purposes. So, uh would you all check your calendars for July 30th? The thought would be

125maybe 12 to 4, 12 to 5, something like that. just basically the afternoon. Um, and the thought would be that we would dive into the strategic plan um, in some some level of detail for those of you again who weren't on the board when that was adopted to give you the benefit of walking through the different things that this board signed up for in terms of long-term commitments. Um, and then just to see if there's any of that that we want to tweak based on the new makeup of the board and different input that we or any if we want to change course on any of that. It's not to reopen the entire plan. It's not to rewrite the plan, but it's to just give us a look at it and make tweaks and edits

126if we need to. So, check that date and if you don't mind, maybe by the middle of next week, just give me feedback on if that date works and then we can get it on the calendar. And we don't have a should should have said we don't have a board meeting that month. So that um just to flag that too. All right. New business at 750. Um Miss Farmer 202526 budget status updates. Thank you. Uh there's really actually not a lot to report on updates as far as the budget goes. So, since we met, we had multiple meetings with the commission, different committees, and several of you intended, and I would just want to say thank you for that. Um, the commissioners noticed, the county noticed, and um, as we did, and it was support

127for us. So, thank you very much for doing that. Um, on May the 5th, the budget committee did um, vote to approve our budget that we presented to them. And, um, this week, the committee met to look at the budget as a whole. um to be able to post it in the newspaper. So what happens with the entire county budget, it has to be posted in the newspaper. So the next thing that will come up is um a public hearing and that's related to what's been posted. So public can come and make comments or have questions related to that. That's going to be on June 3rd at 5:30 in the auditorium um where we normally have our board meetings. And then after that, June 20th is when the actual full commission will vote on the

128budget. There's not really been any major changes um ex um revenue at to any of the revenue at this point. So if you have any questions, let me know. But that's what I that is the report. And and if I may, Rachel, give you give you a little bit of detail related to the where the county commission is. Um number one, the full commission will vote on June 20th on our budget to start from the you know, begin with the end in mind kind of thought. June 20th is their final vote. They do have a public hearing uh June 3 and if I'm not mistaken, Rachel, between June 3rd and June 20th, they do not have any scheduled meetings. They have regular scheduled um just committee or board committee meetings, but nothing necessarily related to

129the budget. Thank you. So, so no, no budget meetings then. So, so June 3rd is the is the public hearing where anybody any member of the public can come and speak about the budget. What the budget committee did it was is based on the new certified tax rate. Uh and the they they let us know at that meeting the new certified tax rate uh is a$124.33. So it's 1.2433. The old certified tax rate was $188. So, the values of the properties in Williamson County in four years have uh have increased basically by to use an old country phrase half again. Uh so the the rates dropped from $188 to $124. The proposal from the county budget committee is a is a tax rate of $134. So the certified tax rate dropped based on property values

130from $188 to $1.24 and change. The budget committee is proposing a tax rate of $134. That's 10 cents basically on the tax rate. The proposal would be five cents of that would go to schools and five cents would go to county government based on the projected based on the projected u budgets. uh that would fill in that gap for us that we presented that you all voted on a couple of months ago. Um obviously with county government including that proposal, they've got some issues too related to their budget, but I want to give you that bit of detail. Another piece that um I think is important and I'm speaking for them just a little bit. I got to give you that caveat. I think we all got our bills. All right. Or our postcards. Am

131I That is not actually a bill. Am I correct, Rachel? Correct. That is a postcard identifying their projection. Those numbers are based on, if I'm not mistaken, the$188 tax rate. So, the tax rate is already dropped, but certified. So, one of the comments we heard from some of the folks at that meeting was people see those numbers and feel overwhelmed, but it's not based on what the rate has already dropped to. Um, so they spent some time talking about that. Uh, so there's a lot more detail they're going to work on, but I I that was a key piece I took out because I think we all saw our tax bills. Well, so the bills, it's not a bill. Well, the appra the appraisal cards don't have a number on. They just have your appraisal.

132They don't actually have the tax, right? You have to do you have to do that math by yourself with and without they come out right before they set the the certified rate. So it Yeah, that's exactly right. the the appraisal card shows the value in the in the change from the from from the previous value. Right. Um Jason, can I ask a question just what's the what's the under the new with the with the new um lowered certified rate? What's the value of the penny at that rate? I believe it's right at 2.7. It's crazy. Used it was 800,000 when I got on the board. So, so a penny is worth 2.7 million or so in revenue and they gave estimates. So, we don't have the exact number yet from them, but that was their

133estimate. So, is it accurate to say that based on the budget committee's vote to raise at least for now raise property taxes that there's no gap between us and them on our budget the giving allocating five cents to us would cover the gap that so yes. Okay. Thank you. Um any shouldn't underestimate how significant that is, right? Um all right. Anything else on the budget update, current budget update or upcoming budget update. All right, Miss Farmer, I'm going to just let you go through these one by one rather than me reading them off if you don't mind. Thank you for that. Get to them as you as you're ready. Sure. Um, this time of year, what we we generally come with is looks like a whole lot because this is our what we would call

134our year-end cleanup. Um, a budget is a budget, and we have to look at it when we get close to the end to determine, have we allocated correctly. Things change, costs change, um, needs change. And so, um, several of the items tonight are just just that. It's putting money into the correct lines. And so the first one um that we'll go over is a custodial supervision. We actually have had more long-term um usage in our facilities mostly with churches. And so with that um increased use, there's a need for additional um custo when we say custodian, we mean someone that's there in the building supervising um that's one of our employees. And so revenue is up um in that line over what we budgeted. but we also need to increase the expense line to be

135able to pay these people. So there's no effect on fund balance. We're just taking the additional revenue and applying it um over as an expense and that was $20,000. Questions on that one? The next is trustees commission. We get this question a lot of what is trustees commission? It is statutory that um we are required to page back to the county to the um trustee uh funding throughout the year and it's based on 2% of our property sec tax collections, 1% of sales tax and then a flat fee each month. And so uh because we never exactly know what that's going to be, we do need to increase uh the trustee commission line by about $300,000. Um again, property tax collections have been higher than what were budgeted and so no effect on fund balance.

136Yeah. I have a question on uh the first budget for custodial supervision. Sure. Sorry. Um I find it interesting that we're paying for the custodial services for the churches. What's what's the history behind that? It's not custodial. When I say when I said custodian, it's custodian meaning the person that's supervising. It's really a supervisor. It's an employee. Right. But I mean we're still that's a pass that's a pass through. The community users actually do pay. Okay. And so we have a revenue item that that offsets that expenses. Right. So it's it's we we have it on our budget, but then we get reimbursed for it. That's correct. That's correct. And the reason one of the reasons that we have an adjustment is if I'm not mistaken, Rachel, we actually had more community use than we

137project. We did. So that revenue line is about it's running right now about 30,000 over. Um and you have to include in your budget. That's right. That's right. I'm going to ask this because I do it every year and I want to be on record to hearing it again. Okay. Um, the trustee commission, I know this is only 300,000 for right now, but can you tell us or remind us annually how much it's around $5 million? $5 million of our budget goes to the trustee for the administration of property taxes that we collect. That's that's correct. We technically do not have our own checking account. The trustee um manages that for us. When I say that, we cut our own checks. we reconcile, but the flow through of property tax and sales tax is coming

138through the trustes office. And so that is our payment back to them for those services. So this is $5 million of revenue on paper that we don't get to use for anything related to students or teaching. It is $5 million that we do have to we're statutoily required to to allocate back to them. Yes. I'm not putting words. I'm I'm saying this. You're not saying it. I just I want to get it on record because I do it. I do it every year. I would like to ask what services do we get for the $5 million? Again, they manage they do um hold or they're the holder of our checking accounts. And so the we make deposits. We don't actually go to the bank and make a deposit. We make a deposit to the trustes

139office. And so they post the deposits for us and then push those through. But their expenses are significantly less than $5 million. What happens with the trustees commission is that at the end of the year if what's in the trustes budget is left over it will carry forward to the county's general fund. So the trustees office itself doesn't hang on to those funds county's general fund state. Yeah. We to be clear we don't have any option but to do it but I always relish the opportunity to mention it. All right, please proceed. The next item is related to our energy ser systems conservation debt. So, ESCO is a project um that we went into in 2017. It's a 15-year project where the county funded for us to do energy savings um capital projects and they

140are pay they pay them they took the debt out in bonds. we are basically paying them for the principal and interest on those bonds and we have that requirement. Um, like I said, it's it's a 15-year agreement between the two of us. The idea is that anything that we're paying, we have made up for in energy savings. And so that is evaluated every year um through train um goes through and does that evaluation for us to validate that it did save us that money. And and if I may, I want to give a little bit more detail related to this. This is one of those items that when folks hear about it, they ask questions to try to understand it. The state has an office that actually assists local districts in improving capital, paying for

141it with the savings of the en the energy savings. Uh you we go through a very detailed audit of of the hardware that had that could be installed that could save energy with the actual energy bills. We went through that detailed process, y'all. I'm going to estimate six years ago, maybe seven. Uh that allowed us to to replace lights uh from from uh older older light systems to LED. uh even things as as as as detailed as backflow preventers on on our water system that they analyzed and determined would you get a return on investment that would justify the expense of the capital improvement uh on your energy bills. Uh they go through a a annual process related to that. If we don't get the savings, then the corporation who's taken the risk, in this

142case, trained, actually owes us money. We would get it back in a rebate. Thank you. We would get it back in a rebate. This has paid for itself. And so the the all that analysis establishes that that this 1.163 million plus a little bit more is actually saved has been a savings for us. So that's the annual that's the annual obligation. last year to help us balance our budget and give a pay increase. County government forgave this particular annual payment. Uh right now, as you just heard, the proposal from the budget committee is to address that gap with property tax. Any other questions on our ESCO payment? Okay, the next item is related to various insurance um lines. And I should have said this too, we're looking at projecting out through June. So, we're not

143necessar we want to get it the money in the budget lines in case. And so, these are were running kind of close for us and so we're going ahead and asking to put additional funds in there. That doesn't mean we necessarily spend them, but they would be in the lines in case we needed them. And so, um, liability, excess risk, workers comp, and building and content insurance, all three of those, um, for a total of 700,000. And again, that's based on existing claims we have and what open, um, cases are out there. They may or may not close this year. So this is a insurance question not related to property and casualty but did we for the for the budget next year um did we would did did did they look at the did they

144look at our health insurance benefits I know and evaluate the state option um I'm I'm gonna ask Vicki to respond to that because she attended those purchasing and insurance committee meetings by the way the PNI committee meetings have changed dates and times. They are now at 4:30 the Thursday before the work session. Uh so they they have gone through the through the uh RFP process on that. On our budget side for this year, county government did not tell us that we needed to budget for an increase uh in our um FTE full-time equivalent cost. Um so if I'm not mistaken, we did not increase that particular item in this year's budget. many years as you know uh in the past we've had substantial increases here and there but we didn't have to this year Vicki

145can you talk about where county government is on the on the on their RFP process so they did meet this evening and it's my understanding and I had to I I did not see the the end of all of that I believe though the decision has been made to go forward with the sign that we've that we currently have um we did uh speak quite a bit about reviewing the state plan to see if that would make uh more sense for us even and county government. It was a a consideration factor. Um they don't submit RFPs because it's the state plan and it kind of is what it is. um they did accept RFPs and they did um at least report back about the state plan, but it's my understanding that they are planning to

146stay with the Sigma plan that we currently have. But was it I mean I'd love to see that if you have any analysis that they did. I'd love to see if they're like what I mean is it just cost better like benefit plan design or or what's the I mean is it really is that much cheaper than than our than our existing plan? I I don't have that information. Who would we request that information from? From the for the county county government. Yes, you could request it from the county benefits. Well, and if you all are asking, I'll make sure that I make that request on on your behalf. I'd like to see that. And yeah, and and by the way, just just for clarity, we are provided health insurance benefits from county government. They

147are the decision maker. Um that that and that varies across the state. Um, some counties are self, some county school systems are self-insured, others are on the state plan. We are in with county government. So, our our employees are members along with county government's employees. So, all their departments and our our departments receive that that benefit. And just to make sure I understand what are what are you asking for? Um, they they did they did have some proposals. Um but as as as as Vicki mentioned, C state government did not submit a proposal, but they as I understand it, they did look at the state plan. So So we the only thing that we were privy to was a a very a top sheet overview. Um there may be additional information. I really can't speak

148to it. Um the the state did we talked to them. I know that they talked to benefits um administration about about the plan. Um and that's that's really all I can give you. I don't have any insight into the analysis. So I just I mean like to see the RFP and the response from including the response from the state. I guess that would that'd be the first place to start without without causing any more. I mean that's pretty easy to hand over. And what is the deadline for making this decision? The county government. The question from Dr. Ree is what's the deadline for their making the decision? I don't know the answer to that. Okay. I don't really know for sure. So, I'm just going to caveat with that. I believe if pinch if if

149if purchasing an insurance if they actually voted to go forward with the sign this evening I believe that's the end of that. Is that correct Dana? That's what we think. I don't I don't know for sure. Right. No. Is that voted on by the entire commission? That was my next That was my next It's just Yes, it's just it's just purchasing insurance. And Bobby, if you would, I know you've got some knowledge of this process. I do. Um the first thing I want to uh let you all know is that those um proposals are confidential until we've made until the county's made the decision and issued the letter of intent to award. So, as I'm speaking right now, those documents are confidential. Once that award has been made, that can be provided to you and

150you can see what um the responses were. Um what else? The votes. Well, right, the purchasing insurance committee, their their role is they choose who's going to provide it. And then what happens is that you enter into a period of contract negotiations. Once you've come up with those terms, it goes to the county commission to approve the contract. So that's when it gets to the county commission. You will be able to see those proposals long before it hits the county commission. But is the contract for a calendar year or is it for a fiscal year? This particular one I believe is for three years, but I'll have to double check. But to take effect January 1, the beginning of negotiating it. Yeah, we don't have the contract yet, but and it was my understanding there

151was still one year left on the current contract. So, we're negotiating for the future. So, we put the largest majority of the insurance for this county. And from what I hear, you were involved very limitedly in making the decision. Is that a correct statement? I wasn't involved at all in the decision. Okay. I did I did I did I did I requested that it be considered. I mean, I I think that that it's been a conversation for a while and and I'm sure that they heard from from some others about that that that they at least take a look at the state plan to see if that made more sense and offered more choices, right? Because the state pays like 45% of it for teachers and I can't imagine that what we're paying and I've

152compared it to other districts. We're paying a lot more than other districts. So, okay. I know some of us had conversations with commissioners just as employees. Yeah, I would say I have the insurance and I'm not impressed and I've heard and I've heard that from many other employees as well. So, okay, I'm gonna I will I'll offer I'll offer a different observation and and that is the the value of our benefits is far I mean far exceeds anything that you're going to get in a in the uh in the private sector. And I mean it's I mean we're talking we're talking $184,000 a year of uh of of benefit just for the just for the medical benefits. It's a it's a pretty rich plan. Like I I pay much more than that and my employees

153paid much more than that. That I mean they're they're paying 13,500 bucks a month and and it's much much less. So I just it is I mean whether people like their I mean the Sigma network and all that kind of stuff like that's you know who who knows but the the value of the plan can't can't really be um can't really be debated. So, um, you actually prompted this. Vicki, can you speak to the the benefits that our that our employees get if I'm not mistaken, if they have individual coverage for the traditional plan, uh, there is no premium, but if they take the family plan, there is a premium. And then there there are a handful of options related to that. That's that's correct. We do offer I think one thing that we offer

154that a lot of districts don't offer is that zero monthly premium for employees who only are are single coverage and they choose that particular plan. Any any other questions on that item? Okay. Next um is an additional need in textbooks. So I want to say this clearly. Last year when we came through the budget process, we um one of the areas that we looked at reducing was textbooks because we did not know exactly what the cost was going to look like. So this particular line we reduced $1.1 million last year going through the budget process. So, now that we have purchased the books, we're coming back and we would need to add $900,000 back to that line in order to be able to complete the the purchasing. And Rachel, if I may, based on what

155we did in last year's budget, we anticipated that there was a possibility that we would need to do this. How did you factor that in in the in the 2526 budget? We did we did budget for um textbooks. The conversation came when we were looking at what we needed to cut last year is what some of the bigger unknowns and textbooks was a large item that was an unknown because we did not know which um what the books were going going to cost and so that was just an area where we thought we could reduce and then if we needed to we would come back which is what's happened. So when you projected fund balance, when we projected fund balance for 2526, um I I went ahead because of this last year and had factored

156about eight between 800 and a million dollars of needing to ask for that for at this point in the year. So that was already projected in in the numbers I gave for fund balance. Any other questions on that one? Okay. Next, um we do have some additional um expenses related to special education. However, we had um a line in special education that did that we had budgeted for that has enough funding in it because there was less of a need for contracts with private agencies. And so, we're just going to move um do a transfer from that line to uh mileage and other contracted services. Those other contracted services are related um I believe to some translation services for our students and then mileage because we have been able to better staff our mapping. We

157have uh people going all over the county trying to provide services and so that was an area those two lines where we did see we needed to add an increase for these contracted services. Do they provide us service logs for their work? I'm gonna ask Miss Grigo to to answer that. So for the contracted services, we get an itemized list of when they are working in our county and what they are doing. Any other questions on that one? Last one is uh an intracategory transfer requesting when Creekide was built. there. Part of the um requirements from the county was to install a traffic light at Goce Hill and that project was completed and that work actually was not done and so it's come back up that we didn't we had not fulfilled that and so

158we had taken funding that was left over in the project and moved it to contingency and so now we're asking to move those funds back out of contingency to be able to start working on that project. And that's all I have. That's all. I will say I want to next month we will come back. These are all the reason why we have to bring these to you is because we're either moving from one major category to another or we're pulling something from fund balance. Next month you'll have one more um larger transfer list that you'll look at where within categories money may have transferred throughout the year when we realize that there was um a line that needed more versus less but it's in the same category. So again, you'll have that one more um

159that comes up in May, but all these have to go before the county commission, which is why you're seeing them, I'm sorry, in May. That will come in June. Thank you. And I will say to our um Mr. Golden sent out an email, but I will remind y'all too that the um commission did approve our five-year capital intent to funds um at their commission meeting on Monday. And then they've also when I said that they approved our budgets, the budget committee has approved our budget that included um the capital and then um annual capital and then the extended school care cafeteria as well as GP. So now I want to add just just that reminder caveat. The budget committee approving our budget doesn't mean that our budget is passed. We still have to get that

160final vote on June 20th. And so that's the the commission still has that power. However, those five-year capital items that you all approved in the last month's board meeting, the funding for those did get approved with that detail I gave you. that uh HVAC repairs, asphalt safety, etc. did get approved. All right. Thank you, Miss Farmer. So, we still got a few substantive items to discuss. Is anyone want to do a short break before we get into all of that or just plow through? Short break. Short break. Yeah. All right. Let's reconvene at 8:30. That's 10 minutes. That's like anybody can take something off the consent agenda. It only takes one to you. Do what? Our energy. I don't think I mean it does be all Let's see. All right, let's uh resume the meeting,

161please. [Music] Let's resume the meeting, please. Um, all right. We will now discuss board policy for first and final reading for policy 4.70001, semester and final exams. Uh, Miss Osbrooks, this is a um change based upon an update to state board of education um regulation. The um end of course examinations grades the recommendation is that grades will incorporate these exam results at a weight of at least 15% of the semester grade. The current policy um says a minimum weight allowed. At the time that this policy was created, the minimum weight was 15%. Now the minimum weight is 5%. So the the new range is 5 to 15%. Uh staff recommends a updating the language to 15% to be consistent with the weight that we have had for um numerous years. So just as a reminder,

162this was talked about as a minor and editorial change, mostly editorial change. So we made it first and final reading. So my only my only question on this is um is that given given that it's given that it gives us the discretion um why is is there any is there any thought to to making that a um making that a range for um for different classes for teachers to uh to do. I get why we had it at the at the bottom end of the range and that because it was, you know, I mean that that made sense, but do we is there any any wisdom and making that giving them an option? U I'll let Dr. Webb and Dr. Allen speak to it u after I speak briefly. A lot of the thoughts surrounding

163it was we wanted to kind of a value judgment. We wanted to count for something but not be so overwhelming at the end of a semester. Uh, and so the range, if I'm not mistaken, used to be 15 to 25%. That was the old rule. And so we chose 15 because we wanted it to count but not be that overwhelming amount. Uh, and of course y'all, Mr. Galbber's question was related to giving teachers some potential variability. Could you speak to that? I'll do my best to speak to that. I'm not certain um if we can. I I I believe it's a possibility. I would need to look to see if we can choose a variability by course if that's a possibility. I haven't looked at that specifically, but we could look at that. Our recommendation

164is to remain consistent across all of those tested subject areas uh for the uniformity of um the conversation around state testing and how we address state testing. Um I would need to look specifically at that for that answer. Mr. Galbreth to be able to say if that's possible to vary it by content area. I don't know that answer. Well, and I I asked partly because the we were we were we chose to to do the lowest rate applicable by by law before and we just happened to I mean it it just happened to be 15%. So, I'm wondering if if the if the law had allowed us to go if it used to be 10 to 25%, would we have chosen 10 and and gone to the lowest or we would have or or do

165you think 15 is better than is better than 10 and that's why that's why I actually remember those discussions back then for whatever reason and of course we had different leaders in in the departments. The discussion was at the time 15% from a value judgment standpoint was they they they concluded was appropriate. Um if I'm not mistaken, the old rule before it went to that range was higher than 15%. And so I don't know that there is any discussion at that time beyond that. It was just that 15% made sense. Uh, and so that's that's that's the memory I have of it. And I know you all are thinking about kind of bringing it up to current times. I know you all had a you had some additional thought related to that, Dr. Yeah. I

166can just add one thing and and I could be completely missing the boat on this because it's been a minute, but for some reason I'm thinking there was discussion at putting it at the minimum when this policy was created because there was a fear that um we didn't really know what the cut score would do to the students grade and it may hurt kids more than what we wanted. So we didn't want the the weight of the EOC to be so negative on the students that it really hurt them. And for there we had a lot of board members at the policy meeting but not everyone. And so so that everyone hears kind of the impact and and why we feel that it's going really well and we kind of don't want to mess with

167it is because when we look at our data we found that the EOC scores uh didn't impact 93% of our kids. So, whatever they had going into the EOCC is what their grade ended up being. Uh, we had 2% drop a letter grade and we had 5% increase a letter grade. The biggest swing was from B's to A's and then we had 100 fewer D's and Fs when the EOC was calculated. So, to us, it's a net positive. But for some reason, I remember conversation being, let's just take it to the lowest percent allowed at that time because we don't want it to negatively impact our students in a in a in a wider range. But to but to your question, I don't know that anybody had any specific discussion of 10% or 5% at

168the time. One question I have is don't don't I would I would think that you all will will load the cut scores at the district level. the teachers may not ever really see the cut scores, right? So, they wouldn't really have the ability to manipulate the percentage. That is I mean, is that correct? I think that's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. So, I would recommend keeping it standard everywhere. Eric, do you have a point? Yeah. I would say too I I think above and beyond just the impact of of the EOC on on the specific course I I think it's also good training for for kids in in life as they move out especially at the high school level of you know there's big exams um in life whether you want to go to college

169or pass the bar you want to get a professional certification or just your work whether it's putting together a big proposal and and you you know, this is having it being a weighty enough where it matters is, you know, training for big boy, big boy, girl, girl life, you know, out there to get ready. Um, and if we do it too small, I I worry that kids are like, it can't hurt me and sort of blow it off a little bit and not get that experience. Okay. Any other feedback? So, that'll be up for first and final vote on Monday night. Uh item D, a policy for first reading that will then come back for a second reading and student 6.411 student wellness. Dana So on [Music] the be the lines 34 on page two

170and then at the top of um page three there, as many of y'all probably know, there was legislation that passed this last legislative session regarding uh primarily elementary and their um physical education uh program and and some changes. So the elementary school students pursuant to the updated law will receive a minimum the law says 40 minutes. Um we were able to provide a minimum of 45 minutes and that's going to be unstructured uh physical activity. Um it would also be outside if weather permitted. Middle and high school students receive um a minimum of 90 minutes of physical activity each full school week. Um there are some additions on the next page regarding what is not considered physical activity towards that unstructured play. Um and then we moved what was in line three down to line

171six just because it read better. And then there was some discussion at the policy meeting um regarding four lines four and five. Um physical activity shall not be withheld from a student. That is what was in our um No, I'm sorry. That's what's in the new law. what was in our previous policy um was that it should not be employed during the school day as a form of discipline or punishment. So um there were two sentences that when you read them were not as um as effective providing the new legal withheld versus employed. So little bit of change there. questions on that one. What does this look like? I'm trying to wrap my head around this. It's at the elementary level, you know, obviously it's well, it's recess, so that's pretty easy, but [Music] um

172middle and especially high school, you know, 90 minutes if if you're not taking a are you required to take a gym class [Music] every semester? How how are we handling this? So, uh I'm going to ask Dr. Webb to speak to that related to high school and middle. So, it is not a gym class. And if I'm not mistaken, Dana, the requirement is actually unstructured for Well, this is interesting. And one of the reasons I like waiting until the public chapter and the Tennessee code annotated is actually published, which has not it has not yet been. Well, the public chapter has just been released. Um, I went to a training today um which was great. the Tennessee um Association of School Superintendent. So um the unstructured now that it is a public chapter, the unstructured

173is only for elementary. So you will um see some changes now that I have um new law to work with. Okay. So number one, to answer your question, this is first reading, correct? Uh number two, Dr. Web, can you speak to the the plan for secondary? Yes. First and foremost, we welcome the conversation about the unstructured versus structured time at the secondary level based on our my sharing at the policy meeting. Um, and so to answer Mr. Welch's question specifically, at the high school level, we still have freshman year typically is when students take it. A full year of required lifetime wellness that has a physical activity component. Students also have a high school requirement of a 0.5 uh physical education course uh that they're required to take at some point during their high school

174career. They can get a waiver from that if they participate in extracurricular activities. Uh so there's a waiver process for that as well. So those those activities um um have have somewhat counted even though we have in the past continued to allow 90 minutes just for the structure of high school allow 90 minutes for all students even though we know that those freshmen and those students um who are taking that course are getting that time. In addition at the middle school level we do have some uh middle schools that offer um that rotation pretty regularly. I mentioned in our policy meeting, we have a couple of middle schools that offer a structured uh PE time in addition to the unstructured time. Um actually in place of the unstructured time for those two schools specifically. Um

175and we would like to continue that. Um as as I mentioned in our policy meeting, the more structure you can kind of put around the older students, the more actual activity they're they participate in. Um, so we are currently and have been currently meeting the 90 minutes at the middle and at the high school level if I may. So well go ahead. Sorry. I thought you were so I'm sorry I'm still not getting it though. What are what are they doing? That's the actual physical activity 90 minutes. It's unstructured time and so the students can uh participate going into the gym. The gym is open during that unstructured time. Uh they can choose to participate in activities. The courtyards are open. They can go outside. Um they can they can walk. They can um throw

176a Frisbee. Page High School as an example. They have that big courtyard in the back. They'll throw a Frisbee. They'll throw a football around. Uh it's just unstructured time where physical activity is an option for them. In middle schools, um we have some outdoor space that during that time, some middle schools take if it's nice, they'll go outside to that area and let students like literally play. Uh there's not the equipment that you would get at the elementary level. Um like PE equipment necessarily or playground equipment if you want to call it that. Uh but students have the opportunity to get some movement in. All right. I'll talk to you about a little more offline. I don't need to portion is unstructured. I I got you. But the structured time comes in the PE classes

177and the rotations at the middle school level where students are in structured PE as a rotation in their related arts period. No, I I I don't I don't understand how it's actually I don't I don't get how we're actually doing it now. I I don't I've never heard I've never heard of this time as as being anything anything with unstructured physical activity. Um it's it's largely it's largely free time, but I'm but I'm looking and this is this is part for the for this our screen time discussion, but but it says that that unstructured physical physical activity does not include time spent on electric electronic device. And so if we're if we're I just know if we're if we're telling our teens that they've got 15 minutes a day, um the likelihood that they're not

178on their electronic device is extremely low. Um and so if we're telling them that they have to go, hey, we the the goal of this time is for you to get off your devices and go if you if you got them off their devices, they're much more likely to go do something physical. If you give them an option to do whatever you want to for the next 15 minutes, then I know what they're going to do. So, um, but it's I I I wonder I mean, how do So, we don't I mean, it's not like we're mandating that. So, we're just giving we're giving them the option to to do physical activity, but they can also sit there and do nothing. Well, as Dr. Web mentioned I and I know that that was mentioned at

179the policy committee. Ensuring that every secondary student gets up and moves is is really only going to work with structured physical activity. Um younger children much are much much more likely to run and play, you know, when they have that unstructured time. So there is a practical element to it and I think that's what Dr. Web was was alluding to and you guys and there's nothing new under the sun. Think to think back to your time in school. This is one of those examples where it is apples to apples when there was time inevitably you would see somebody sitting when somebody else is is quite active. I summer camp you you that those kinds of things happened and so that is a challenge at the at the secondary level. Yeah, I was something I'd like

180to say. Um, on also to to play off of that is it's also a time for them just to socialize. So, if they're not doing a physical activity, they're having that one-on-one engagement. And that is also very important. So, they're off their phones and they learn to socialize and interact, have eye contact, and all those other skills that they need to have when they get out into the workforce. Um and then the other thing is um we had parents who've worked really really hard to get this um recess policy updated and I want to thank them for all the work that they did. Um and so to get that extra um 15 minutes and then we added the extra five. So, um just just a shout out to all of them and um based upon

181the data, I still would like to see I'm excited for this uh this coming school year and I like to see um how it how it all plays out, but I would still like to know if um we can go forward um looking at this and seeing how it works and then move towards evaluating it um in 2026 and see if we can make it to 60 minutes as was proposed by the parents of the recess um the recess group. So that's what I'd like to um consider as a board and then so in you know January February look how it's going and see if we can make it into 60 minutes for the following school year. Thank you for that. The original legislation, if I'm not mistaken, mentioned 60 and if I think it

182came out of Clarksville, if I'm not mistaken, but there were some conversations districtwide and then it was amended to 40 and and and you've shared that with me in other context. So, thank you for that. Uh, and so I very much appreciate you, you know, letting us know that that's what you're looking towards. Uh, I do know that Dr. Dr. Royer and her team when when they saw the legislation go to 40 started working on what would a 45minute um window look like and uh and so to your point I know you've had a detailed discussion with Dr. Rory about this as well. We do want to see how it goes. Um, and I think that's prudent and um I you know I just I I should be thanking the um the staff as well

183for all the work they did to make to make this possible and and just to be working on it already early on in this in the uh in the year when the um recess policy hadn't even been um adopted yet. So um yeah, they did a great job. Thank you. Can you speak to Go ahead. Sorry. Go ahead, Claire. Sorry. I just I I know we talked about those two lines and and you combined obain them. Thank you. Um and I just wanted to reiterate what I shared at the policy meeting which is the piece about um it shall not the uh it say okay physical activity shall not be withheld from a student or employed during the school day as a form of discipline or punishment. And so that piece of it, the the

184form of discipline or punishment, is that part of the law or I'm getting at I can see it being beneficial for elementary teachers to say, "Hey, you're going to walk some laps around at the start of recess before you go have your free time to play." So the piece that is um in the law is that physical activi activity shall not be withheld from a student as a form of punishment that that is that was already in our policy. It is not in the proposed change in the law or the previous law. To your point, the the old law or the the old um the old language was it it combined discipline or punishment. And so what what you're saying is separating and saying, "Hey, we want to we don't want to withhold as a

185form of discipline and punishment, but we're going to but you want it to be silent on on using physical activity as as a form of sure with parameters, I suppose. I don't I don't know if there needs to be parameters, but all I'm aiming at is like if a teacher wants to send a kid to walk a few laps, they have that option to do it. you know, we can have corporal punishment in Tennessee, too, but we don't do that either. Um, it it just it it seems like there's other ways that we can discipline kids without having to go down the road of making them do physical activity. Um, that I know we've had some coaches get in trouble with that in the context of practices where physical activity is uh appropriate and overdone

186it. And so when you then take it out of the context of even athletics into academics and it's not a coach, it's a it's a teacher and it it just that that seems the the juice isn't worth the squeeze at that point. So, um I just think at the elementary school level, I'm I'm I'm imagining um what Claire is getting at, um where maybe a young boy or young girl just really needs to get out and run around or something like that because he's being naughty because he hasn't been active. Um, I know my my husband, his mother said, "You go run around the house a couple time outside of the house because he needed to get his energy out because, you know, so that's where I I make that comparison that maybe uh and

187I think that's where you're kind of going with that. Um, it it would be actually good for the child to just get out and run because that's what they that's what they need and it's not really it's not really a form of punishment. It's it's to help that child do better when they do get back in the classroom. And that might be the key that that we pro we prohibit its use as discipline or as punishment. But there are times and Dr. Royer, I know you see it where where a student might need a break and and and teachers do have that tool in their toolbox, but not for discipline purposes. I mean, I will say I know I've seen a lot of IEPs where where breaks like that are actually written into the IEP

188because of a student's particular needs as well. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. Well, and if I may add, if if you spend time in any of our elementary classrooms and certainly even into the secondary level in some spaces, um many student desks have have things that allow them to move in their own space, whether it's in an IEP or not. Um you'll often see, you know, rubber bands on the bottom of the desk or fidgets and hands. um or things that students can use. And so teachers, the phrase having it in their toolbox, it it is for all students in a classroom to be able to do that or to stand as many of us have done tonight in a long meeting, just being able to get up and then also in our classrooms. In

189many of our elementary classrooms, we have those kind of brain breaks that sometimes include movement um of students doing things individually or doing things together. They might choose to do the jumping jacks to, you know, kind of be silly and be fun, but we certainly um do not want folks using it in that form of of discipline. But that suggestion and that tool to help students when they're in a particular attention space or just needing to move, we support that 100%. Right. So, could we say that we could keep this language here and that would still what we're talking about now would still be um um approved, right? None of those none of those practices that I just mentioned should go away. That's correct. This language would not prohibit any of those actions being able

190to be used by a teacher or by a student self- selecting that because we understand that it's not punishment. It's a way for them to function better in class. Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. Dana, just to be clear on the elementary the elementary school language is in the statute. Is the is the middle and high school language also in the statute or is that something we added ourselves in lines 34 through 39 on page two? 38 and 39. Lines 34 through 39 when it talks about unstructured physical activity elementary for 45 minutes a day, middle school and high school 90 minutes a week that I know the elementary part is in the law for 40 minutes. We're doing 45. is the middle and high school 90minute requirement weekly and also in the law. Correct. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

191Thank you. So, if I may, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask a followup based on my understanding. So, number one, the the the law as it came out of the legislature included unstructured for both a and outside if weather permits if I'm not mistaken for both elementary and secondary. And you said that when it went to conferencing committee there has been a change when it became a public chapter. Okay. So when it became a public chapter there what is that difference? The difference is the um public chapter now only refers to the unstructured piece and the outside weather permitting piece under A1. A1 is spec of a previous section A1 specifically talks about elementary. Then there is a AB or A2 that um is the middle and high schools. So I I just there may be

192some changes because of the way that the public chapter is showing the law as written as opposed to the amendment that was Thank you. So Mr. around. In answer to your question, this blue language does not exactly reflect the public chapter. Is that because they they then factored in legislative intent into that or is that what's the reason why that would change? I can't okay I can't answer that. I can just say this is not necessarily unusual. Okay. Um which is often times why we want to see the public chapter so that we see these kinds of things. So, we'll have revised language back before us for second reading. Oh, absolutely. Yes. All right, let's move on. And now we're at we modified the agenda as we said at the outset. So, now we're on

193the new E, which is um the board policies for second reading that were in consent agenda. First one being the um four 4.202 202 on child find and special education and that request um Mr. Bostik, you made the request to move that off consent. So, do you want to speak to that? Yeah, I just um I know that it was um decided in policy to remove the language for service delivery logs. Um but I do plan to amend for that. So, I wanted to just kind of bring that forward for kind of discussion again. Do you want to speak to what your thoughts are on the amendment? Yeah. Yeah. So, I know we kind of had talked about um the service delivery logs and their implementation. We'd had it in the past um and then

194it kind of had gone away now. Um there was discussion about it being for special ed teachers and and service providers. Um the new language that I would propose would not have it included for any teachers just the service providers u which would be speech language pathologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists. Um just a couple points that it is the standard industry practice to have service delivery logs um across the the nation. That is the standard industry practice. Um there are several states who actually have it in law that they have to be implemented like Illinois for example. Um Texas, I think Louisiana, maybe Pennsylvania as well. Um some of the benefits to those and we kind of talked about these were that you know it it it does offer a level of protection for

195the schools and the district. Um it provides transparency for the parents um to want to know just that those services are being provided per the details out in the students IEPs um also would help to give us data um for budgetary concerns I would argue um as far as do we need to hire more service providers um what are the case loads like how is that working um pieces there also gives data and it talked with several um parents throughout the district who mentioned that when the service one in particular when the service delivery logs were in place that they were able to pinpoint times of day that was really helpful for them to kind of adjust the schedule for when some of the services were provided and data collection was done. Um they did

196better with certain things in the morning or in the afternoon. Um but without that data we we don't have it. Um, and just, you know, um, it was characterized at one point that this was, you know, as like a gotcha to some of our service providers in some way. And that's not the the intention behind it at all for me at least. Um, it's would be to like for the reasons I kind of laid out here now. Um, but also like I said with the budgetary concerns, it be like if if there are places where we're struggling with this, um, to be able to argue for budgetary increases for those providers, we need the data for that, um, to get these people some help. Um, so those are kind of the the things and I

197know we had talked about in policy um, uh, I believe it was stated that, you know, average case load is somewhere between 60 and 70. Um and just you know ASHA themselves states that case loads over 40 can compromise service quality for speech pathologists. Um so that's a concerning point to me. Um I got some data and thank you Maria so much for providing some data for how many um SLPs and different different um therapists that we have employed in the county versus how many students are receiving the services. And I believe off the top of my head just for speech language alone it was I think 3,519 students that receive speech and language services um in the district. Um and that's one to three times per week and average of 30 minutes per session.

198And we have I think it was 76 and a half um speech and language pathologists on on staff currently. uh that kind of details out to about 40 46 I believe um per SLP. Uh if you do an average of two sessions right in the middle, that's 46 hours a week of service. Um there's not 46 hours a week of available school time to provide those services. Now, I know some of those are done in group settings, but it's just a piece of it that's concerning and without the data, I don't think we can make any good decisions regarding that. Um, I also I had talked um in conversations and some emails with some of the different providers um two in particular that had reached out and they might have emailed the whole board as

199well. I'm not sure. I can't recall, but one of them had mentioned that she wrote a very thoughtful long email and stated that she was told that it would take between 30 to 40 minutes per student per day to complete the service logs. And we had a little back and forth and I was like, I don't understand at all how you're coming to that conclusion because literally what I'm proposing should take no more than 10 to 15 seconds. Um, and as we went back and forth, she said, "Well, I I didn't realize that that's what actually was proposed, and I wouldn't have sent this email had it had that been communicated to me." And another one that said she was told that it would take 10 minutes per student per day. Once again, I'm not

200sure where that's coming from. Um, but that's that's not at all what I'm proposing. um once again exempting the teachers from this because they do have those large group settings. It would be hard to kind of detail out the services they're providing through that. But the service providers, I just think it's it's something that's needed. Um and it would be be helpful. And I actually I had a talk with a special education teacher today actually right before this meeting in our district uh who informed me she knows of at least one speech language pathologist that has a case load of nearly a hundred which is concerning to me. Um so for all those reasons I just I think it's needed. Like I said it's standard industry practice. There are several states who have it in

201law that they have to be provided and um and I think there's a a great benefit to doing it. All right. Thanks for that. Any comments? Just said if you're going to make this amendment, do you have the actual language? Yes. Yes, I did actually bring copies. Thank you. You will notice on here that some of these items won't change. So, it's not like they would be putting this out every time necessarily. Student name, name of service provider, location of services, type of service. Um, those would all be things that would just be standard on every time. So really what we're asking them to fill out would just be the date of the service, the start time, the end time, just the duration of minutes. And um I know that notes or comments was kind

202of a concern that that might be too laborious, but we can make that optional. I would be up to just making that optional. If they want to put a note in there, they can. Um, and then just a notation of if it was missed or if it was a makeup session or something like that. Can I get a copy of that language, please? Yeah, there should there should be Thank you. So, have you not submitted this to staff then? Not yet. No, I'm told to bring in tonight. Nope. For context, can you speak to how this differs from the language that was proposed in the previous iteration? Yes. So, I think the the previous iteration had a little bit more detail in there. It also had language for the teachers themselves. Um, and it had

203some more um descriptions. They could possibly pull it up from a the previous work session if they wanted to. So, I tried to pair it down and kind of compromise down on some of that language. I also agree like with the teachers that it's that would be that would be time consuming and a bit difficult since they're dealing with, you know, an entire class and and they do so many different things with each student throughout it. So, that could make it difficult. So Tony, I've um thought about this a lot since the policy meeting and some of our discussions since then and um I'd like to thank Dr. Driggger for bringing up the the calendar idea. my strong preference because I I believe that um parents should have visibility into the times when their children

204are are are receiving these services and all of that, but my strong preference would be to utilize the Tennessee Pulse program that is in place. I appreciate that other states may have laws that require service delivery logs, but Tennessee does not. Tennessee monitors progress. And so I think we can create a situation where we are combining the best of both worlds and getting that Tennessee pulse program modified, updated to include some sort of a a a better usable parent dashboard that includes a calendar where service providers would input the child's schedule. that gives the parents visibility. It provides some of that um ability to say, "Oh, I see that they received um speech therapy in the morning and you know, maybe that wasn't working for that child." And so then the parent could call a

205meeting with the IEP team. So that is my strong preference. this going I expressed at the policy meeting that going back to um paper logs feels a bit antiquated and I would like to find a way to utilize a tool that providers are having to go into anyway to to update progress and provide you know there's quarterly reports that are provided and and and improving that tool and working through that system um versus this policy. Yeah. The issue the issue with that though is it's a state-run system and so the districts have very limited ability to make any changes to it and pretty much all you can do is upload documents into it and it's my understanding there's no like parent dashboard at all. So well so I I mean I'm so serious about pursuing

206this that I did give Dana I had a conversation with her and I asked them to reach out. So I don't know if you want Yes. and and thank you for doing that because it did give us an opportunity to find out some things prior to tonight's meeting. So, I'll let Maria jump in when if I if and when I say something incorrectly. Um her team, Rachel Seagroves with her team is our TN pulse person and she reached out to our TN pulse representative. You might remember I'm going to mention two things. You might remember during one of our policy meetings we talked about there was a platform for parents. Unfortunately um called TN connect most of the time it is not working. So that's not how we um are communicating with our parents um

207because that would just be an extra layer of frustration. But there is in TN pulse a calendar um a district-wide calendar that would pull that that currently is there. Rachel has reached out to our TN pulse um representative and expressed the that we would like a calendar um the reason behind it being a tool to communicate with families. um her name is Emma and Emma was um has has there's been some correspondence back and forth. She is looking at something that could be specific to um maybe not a calendar like what we have right now, but something that the district could use as a tool um to communicate with parents proactively that we in in answering um Claire's questions, Maria and her team have looked at this as well and I think we're committed to

208to come up with a solution. I'm not going to tell you right now. It is a calendar, but um we are waiting to hear back. um she's checking with T and Pulse and then we've got some action steps to make sure this the ball doesn't get dropped um that we've communicated with Claire and I I they were very I mean if this is this a quote I love love in all capital letters the idea for the future. So, I think that they will have to push, you know, but where there's a will, there is a way, and we just can't drop the ball on it. But do we do we have to have it in policy to make the push or or will it continue to be done? Right now, there's not a way to

209put it into policy because I can't tell you exactly what the final product is going to look like. Um that's kind of that piece is out of our hands. Happy to um provide continue you know as we know things pro happy to provide that information. We'd like to come up with something whether it's that or something else um that is implemented by next yeah beginning of next school year not two years from now not a year from now. I the the issue with putting it in policy right this moment is I can't tell you what that is. Um but you actually uh if if I may triggered a triggered a thought on some experiences I've had in different context. Uh sometimes I have seen opportunities for state department of education folks to make changes when

210different people in different departments hear the same ask from different people, right? So, so, so hit multiple multiple uh multiple targets with multiple people to let those different departments know basically to help them get get you know avoid the risk of it siloing uh so that so that they can work together. Um I don't know enough yet to to know who to contact. You know, I think I I think we need to work a little bit on the specific ask, but I think that's a technique we can use as well. And I think that's something we can um provide to all of y'all. I'm I'm happy to share what what we shared what I shared with Claire was the email that Rachel received back from our T pulse representative where that she just read with

211the caps. I love this idea. Um, there are people at the department that we can also tap. Happy to provide that information to y'all so that you can help us push. Actually already reached out and got some names. One of them is going to be Christy Brown that I'm planning to email. So, who's the chief academic officer? My I I agree. I I mean it doesn't have to be on paper. I I'm I'm not saying that it has to be a paper. Um from what I've researched, there's different apps, different kinds of programs. Um I know that you can log the data entries into TM Pulse. Now, that's how they do the data progress. I believe you could just do it as a as a an upload to that as well. You don't have to

212have all the language. you can pair it down. Um, I don't really care how it gets done. I I I just I feel like we talk a long way around that we want that we need the data but we just don't want to commit to a log and um we did have them in the past and like I said it is a standard industry practice. So there are many places across this nation where this is employed and somehow they figured it out. Um but I think it's needed data for the parents, for the district um for several reasons, but um that's my thoughts on it. So I have a question for you. So if what I've proposed, does that not satisfy you? If if it functions as a log, sure. If it's a calendar, a

213calendar is, you know, a best idea. We have calendar now. I don't see where a calendar is going to provide the data. But doesn't a calendar allow a parent to follow up with the the team and the service providers and say, "Hey, I asked my kid today if they had speech therapy and they said no and can we Well, you're assuming one that all of these students have the ability to communicate that, you know, like in the case of my son, I can't ask him and get that. Um, there are other parents with the same thing. Um, but even in that smaller minority of that, I just I I I guess I would What What do you that would a calendar just be that it's a standing calendar that's on there or would it or

214or do you think it would be like an entry that they would make on a calendar? It gives a view into um into the schedule for the services and I'm unclear if parents have that right right now at this moment um on a monthly or weekly basis. Right. And just having that additional transparency then allows parents to ask more questions or call for a meeting or you know maybe there's even a way for the service provider to go in and check it off like indicate that it was completed right on that. Yeah like a something like that. See, that would function as like a log to me in that sense. That I'd be fine with. What I would fear is that it just ends up being a calendar that doesn't really tell us any data

215at all that we can use from the parent standpoint um or from budgetary standpoint. Um well I think as a school board we can if we're all in agreement that that this is we want certain features on it then that's as a school board we can request that to the to the board of education you know right I mean that's we're asking them for their assistance because I think the biggest issue that I had was that um you know you have a separate app and you have you know and to log into that and and when you can combine it all in one feature um it it's much more um reasonable and to to be able to to accomplish um adding that service log. Yeah, I would say it's great if it can be combined

216into the feature. Awesome. So, I just think but if it can't, I'm not willing to let it die there. Sure. That's what that's my whole point. Well, and I think now is we need to step up and just um need to work with the state and see what they can do for us in Tennessee Pulse. That's a great idea. I have a question for Miss Osbrooks. you talked about, you know, some action steps going forward to kind of research how we can make this work through Tennessee Pulse. Can you kind of fill us in on what what that looks like on y'all's end? Sure. Let me pull it up if you got it. I bet you can. One of us is gonna find it. You got it. That's not what I need. No. Keep going

217up. I'm going to the bottom. Okay. So, the communication and I'm happy to forward this to y'all after the meeting. Um, this is a back and forth with with Claire, myself, Maria, and Jason Golden. um about what information we found out from Tennessee Pulse. Um our commitment was to um continue to press Tennessee Pulse to see what we can have, what we can make happen before the beginning of next school year. also look at other options in case it's determined we can't utilize Tennessee Pulse the way that we think that we can. Um was my email to Claire and then Claire has responded with encouraging us to continue exploring both of those paths. Number one, is there some Tennessee specific tweak that can occur? and if not um is there a platform um that meets

218some proactive communication um is what we have talked about. So that's kind of the I was looking for that language but that's that was our commitment R being right here. Okay. um to Claire and then Claire's response and I had also asked for a clear user friendly dashboard. So and I would say I also know that their TM pulse has created certain features in the platform for districts in the past. I don't know for a fee of course. Um I don't know if this is one that they would be willing or able to but that's where we are is to see if if that is something they would would add. I appreciate that and and I appreciate Mr. Bosik's intent. Um, and I I kind of feel like it we kind of owe it to

219ourselves to explore this um to kind of see if we can get the state to work with this. I know I've reached out to board members in other districts to find out what they're doing and they were in the thick of it with budget and those things. So, they I haven't heard back from them. So I'm almost wondering being at the end of the school year, could we think about this and make the right decision knowing that they're what they're you know just to ensure but I I understand your intent to want to have the data there for the parents and to ensure that we don't need we might need to hire more speech therapists and I want to be all all about that so we can understand their loads. Um, but being that what

220we have four days left of school, you know, I mean, maybe we could kind of take the time to make sure we do this and look what other districts around us do, especially in Tennessee. And also what you guys said about if we can get more districts asking Tennessee Pulse to give us a dashboard to give us that tool. Um, and and if we could pull it back in August and still mid year even implement this, we don't have to wait a whole year. But just thinking out loud. Yeah, I could. I I mean I could be open to that. I think I I feel like the question is kind of separate from the the amendment language because it's either we agree that the data is needed or not. How it gets there can be

221worked out. Who's going to compile this data? There would be it's well it says right down here it's the responsibility of the service provider, right? it's a responsibility of the service provider to log it. I'm saying who's going to compile it because you've you've said one of the big at least as what I understood you I don't want to put words in your mouth but one of the big benefits was to use this data for decision making at the district level whether to okay so in order to do that the data has to be compiled and analyzed and be usable. And so who's actually compiling it? And that if I go in and and say [Music] from 121 17 and 30 seconds to 12 50 and whatever seconds we worked on this specific exercise and

222is and I'm I'm not actually requiring that level of detail. It's requiring what the service was. So if you're providing a speech language service and you're going twice a week, the duration of the total minutes is in here. So it has to be so it would be like if you started at 12:01 and it has the start and end time of the service. And it says accurate, timely, and complete. So e either way, whatever that's that's specific. So what I'm saying is it's it's individualized to the student daily. I don't know how multiple services during a given session. No, it would be one service in a session. Are you Yes. Are how many services? It would depend upon the child's IEP. Okay. So there could be multiple students. There could also be multiple services depending

223upon the goals for each child. So there could even be multiple students in the classroom at the same time from from getting services in a small group setting from the SLP and it could be different services to the children simultaneously. It could be they could be working on multiple goals at the same time. We're not talking about goals. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. I'm getting my clarification over here. So with this and each of those individually would have to be logged for the students. So as as I'm the teacher, I'm I'm stopping and saying, "Okay, this student we did this, we started here and this student three months later we I got to stop and do it here." And then we've stopped that activity and now we have to log it and this one

224or this was a group. And so all of those going on, those individual activities, all of which have to be logged compiling all of that. Yeah. But that's that's not actually how it works though, really. So when you have when you are mandating your IEP to receive twice a week a speech and language service for 30 minutes each time, then you have that speech and language service for that 30 minutes. That's your session. I'm not asking about all the different goals. that's done in progress. This is very different from a progress report. This is a base level service log that they received that service which is that 30 minute session. What they worked on in the session can be whatever they need to work on. It's just that the service was provided. And I would

225also just reiterate that the minutes are detailed and mandated by the IEP. I don't think that that's what this says. It is what it says. Well, I I don't think so. And I our executive director of student support services who has I know, but I'm the one who wrote it and I'm telling you what it says. Well, I mean, we can actually see what it says. Yeah, I I did. But is there any is there anywhere that talks about the all the different thing the gold? That's not the implication. There's nothing here. the implication of what this this has nothing to do with goals. This is just that the service was provided. I didn't say goals. What I talked about was actually what's being written, what's required to be logged. Yeah. The date of service,

226the start time, the end time, the duration, and if they want to put a note. Okay. That's what it is. Gentlemen, can I interject because it's pertinent to this? So on Monday I went to a um an elementary school and I saw a kindergart a kind garden class of students um and they it was during their wind time and um that was exactly to what to what your point is because I asked about because I decided to ask her after the um the class was done um what um about service logs and how would that work. And so I just want to make clear that t I mean because when she was working that day there was four kids but there's usually seven kindergartens working on um um material. These these were gifted students so

227they were working on um um stuff on a computer, right? And you know she went back back and forth with the different kids. And so in that kind of scenario, it would be difficult or impossible to, you know, to go and and log exactly how much time you gave to those individual students because you're letting them work and then you're going back and checking their work and and and so forth. So again, we you need to make sure that if you want to do a service log for in that um uh scenario that it's just a general time. It's going to be that 30 minutes, but you're not actually working 30 minutes with that child. You're working 30 minutes with that group of children on something. Well, once again, this is this is not for

228the teachers. This is for the service providers. So teachers teachers, this is the service provider who has 40 students and would be doing would be is required to do this. Yeah. And so she would have to go into, you know, into Tennessee Pulse and and and it, you know, you can't it has to be very, you know, like we said, a few me, you know, a short a short adding up because she's already spending a lot of time um already putting in documentation into Tennessee Pulse. And so this additional thing, it needs to be very simple. um you know the date and the time just a general so she can get in and out and then if there is anything to add because they're already they're already putting time into that and we don't want

229to take away time from the classroom time to do that because then you're losing instructional time for these students and then and then the other thing is this this group of students that I happen to observe um they um only one of them had an IEP but but that that group of kids may be be um especially at the kindergarten level, they may through uh be determined to to get an IEP as a gifted student. And so if you take up so much time from the um the the providers uh you know think like like what you were talking about where they can't what I'm trying to get at is they would have to eliminate that 30 minutes of wind time for these students because they would need to use that time during their day

230to um update other uh service logs for the other kits. So, what I'm just saying is not that it can't be done, but it has to be done um in a very efficient way. And that's why I like the idea of just using Tennessee Pulse because if you had another another um avenue of doing it with an app, then you have to open up, you know, Tennessee Pulse and then again you have to open up this one and you have to toggle from student to student and that does add up to more than 15 seconds a student. Well, so I would just two things to what you said. One, if there was only one student with an IEP, then there's only one student that would be required to have the service log. Well, no, because

231per this this is per their IEP. That's all we're talking about, right? But these students here, if you're you're they do give data for these students because they're well, I could be but we're not talking but we're not talking about progress data. Once again, this is a this is a separate thing. Also, if if the implication is that you've got five students that and you're doing their 30 minutes all at one time, those students would have to all be working on the same type of service. If you have if So, it would be the same log for all of them. If you've got students individually, you can't just put it on one log because Yeah. No, but you would have you would have the same thing. It would just be 30 minutes for each one.

232You're not detailing out, well, I spent five minutes with this kid and 10 minutes with this kid and five minutes with that. We have to make sure that it works in all different scenarios because you do have these scenarios. This but this would work in that scenario. That's what I'm telling you. And that's what I just want to reiterate that we need to be aware of the different scenarios that paint comes up. I think Maria can speak to those different situations and she'll know that when you know they're creating that to make sure it works and it doesn't take up too much of the provers's time because again the um you know when I was talking to providers um they have gone from 50 students to 60 plus students and like you said too we

233we can see that eventually their you know their work workday is is is not it's not doable and you're going to end up cutting out services for students. And I would I just disagree with the premise on that. I'm sorry. I just No, because I' I've talked to providers and I have too I the the lady I talked to right before this meeting, she was like that wouldn't be a problem at all what you're actually what you're proposing. She's like they were already used to do that. She's like I don't see where that would be a problem at all. It's I feel like we try and really really muddy this up to make it sound like it's way more than it is and that it's like way more difficult. I don't want it to be

234way more than it is. I want it to work because I I do like you know my my my my cousin you know says it's a it's a great road map. We have parents who say you know I I love that word a roadmap because it does for those kids who can't speak. it tells you, you know, when is when is a good time to to provide services in the morning or the afternoon and and things like that. So, um but we just have to make sure that whatever medium we use that that it works and it doesn't um overly burden these providers. Um because I mean, and that's the other thing, too. You're asking you're asking providers who have who have more education than the other other ones to provide this information when um

235you're not asking it from from the other special ed teachers and things like that. And why is that? Um there's there's an element of trust in mandated in their the students IEP to get that service at those minutes. Right. Right. But I'm just saying you can ask for I'm playing both sides in to this on this conversation. But you can ask for communication sheets. You can ask for their their daily work. These are all sources of information that the parents can see that the students services have been provided. So if we can make this work with Tennessee Pulse, I'm in agreement. But if it's going to take an excess amount of time, then I think it's it's giving an excess burden to our providers and they are our professionals. So, um yeah, let's see if

236we can make it work. If if I may inter interject here, um I think for the sake of time, I I I don't want to short circuit a discussion, but I think um we've had a healthy conversation about this. I think kind of the ball's in your court. Um, I do intend to bring you. Okay. So, if you want to um get with Dana or the staff to have that drafted up so that it can be loaded in for um into the system or bring that up on the floor um uh but have the exact language that you can read out so that we can document it or better yet have it something like this that can be passed around. Yeah. and then we'll just have to, you know, make a determination about where we

237want to go as a board on that. Obviously, there have been a lot of ideas discussed about different solutions, different ways of getting more information and, you know, being better at this whole process. So, um, you know, but go ahead and do what you need to do there. Um, the next one is uh for policy 4.601 601 student and parent/guardian rights to access tests. Um, this one was, I think, requested by both Tony and Claire to be pulled off consent. So, either of you are welcome to speak to that. Okay. We're the problem children tonight. Um, yeah. I so I expressed at the policy meeting that I I had concerns with um line 19 which states uh students may review and when appropriate retain copies of their tests and quizzes after all assessments for a

238class section have been administered. And it's just those two words when appropriate that I feel like completely um dilutes the policy to the point that it it really is the same as not having a policy because it leaves it to the discretion of the of the teachers. Um, and I think that we can, if we're going to bring forward a policy about tests and quizzes, that um, it should be written from the standpoint of the the expectation is that students are going to get their quizzes and tests back after um, everyone has taken them. Um, and and that's the that's the expectation, not the rule. And the rule is the there can be exceptions to that and those can be clearly defined and in cases where and because I understand that you know this can

239vary by grade by course um that there is a need for certain courses to have that rely heavily on test banks and CFAs that are legit legitimate reasons for test security. Um, but I think we can define those. And in the cases where we can't define those because we can't think of every scenario, then it's subject to um, principal approval and it's communicated to the parents maybe at the start of even at the start of a unit. It doesn't have to be at the start of a course. It might pop up later in the year where a teacher needs to a test needs to be secure for whatever reason. And so then that gets, you know, approved and communicated. So I had submitted language to Dana, but I know you were at a meeting. So

240I don't know if it got incorporated. It did not. Okay. I have it. Okay. Um, so do you should I read it or I don't know if that's helpful. Please I would recommend reading it if unless it's just super lengthy. Um, okay. It's okay. So the I said I was basically saying from line 19 where students may review this is replacing that with a line that was further down. I think parents and students sorry teachers must clearly communicate their classroom assessment policies to students and parents/guardians at the beginning of each course or in the course syllabus. Students may review and retain copies of their tests and quizzes after all assessments for a class section have been administered, except in cases where test security concerns justify restricting access under the conditions outlined in this policy. This

241access supports learning through error analysis, parental/guardian engagement, and promoting effective prep preparation for future assessments. In cases where a test or quiz contains secure reusable items necessary for maintaining test integrity, teachers may restrict the return of that test or quiz. In such cases, teachers should take the following steps. Provide students with an opportunity to review their graded assessments, receive feedback, and ask questions. Feedback methods may include, but are not limited to test corrections, general review sessions, individual conferences, or other formats determined by the teacher. The feedback should be sufficient to inform students of their errors and guide improvement. For assessments not already exempt under this policy, any restriction must be approved by the principal and clearly communicated in writing to students and families at the beginning of the course or unit. The following are exempt

242from this policy. Common informative assessments, CFAs, final exams, and performance-based assessments. So, so some of that is new language, but the beginning and the end is basically what's already in the policy. Correct. Okay. Or in the draft, I should say. Is this in writing anywhere besides here? We did receive an email from uh from Dr. Reeds with it. What is that? We did receive an email. So, we do have it in writing by via email. Now, I'm talking about we it's um doctors uh Drs. Allen and uh and Web and I think I think Dana and I received an email from We could share that with everybody. Did the board receive a copy of this? Not to my knowledge. No. And so this is for voting to be considered for second reading Monday night. Yes.

243Well, it was it was it was discussed at we discussed it at length and didn't have a solution at the at the last policy meeting and we and we had unresolved we had we had quite a bit of discussion around it but was it in writing anywhere again for the board to review and to as a whole to have a conversation at the work session? I'm not you're asking a question and I was going to answer it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You're right. So please, please, we we discussed it and what we and and Claire came back to me and said that she wanted to have an amendment. I instructed her to send it to Dana um to to do just that. And it just Dana was out this afternoon, so she was at a

244conference, so that's why I didn't make it in. I I actually haven't committed to an amendment. I just wanted further discussion about it, which is why I pulled it from the consent agenda. And um I did email language to Jason and Dana and Dr. Allen and Dr. Oyer and Dr. Webb last week and received a response from you on Tuesday and thought about it further and we arrived it today and I pulled it from consent so we could discuss it. But I have not made it up my mind to amend. I wanted to discuss as a board. Well, I think it's fair to say Well, hang on. I'm I'm still We'll finish up. Well, I don't I don't know that you had the floor. I think Claire had the floor. You know, you're right. I'm

245sorry. I was not recognized. Apologize. Go ahead, Donna. Um I was just going to kind of note the history of this policy. We had it at first reading and then there were massive changes for second reading and then I mean it's almost like we might need a third reading on this and I've seen this before because we've made so many changes because after the second I mean I made I made a request on page one line 19 to add parents and guardians may review um because that's what the law says and we just have students and you know the more I was looking at this before work session. We don't have anything that states about in agreement with state law which we have on a lot of policies. And then I just one more note

246on the page three or page two where it talks about teachers and teaching teams. I don't like the verb shall have. I think we should make it more permissive and allow the parents I mean the teachers um their decision to do retaching and assessment reassessment. Um, so I just think there was massive changes between first reading and second reading. And so that that's why there's this huge shift which you're feeling, but I I think it was a totally different policy at second. I'm not I'm not opposed to just pulling it. We don't have to do a third reading. We just don't have to do a second one. So I mean we could we could pull it take it back to policy um in June and come and bring it back. I I'm not I'm totally

247not opposed to uh to that. Um that's probably wise. Jason, I wanted to raise a I had a had one um individual who's a teacher send an email that I thought had a really thoughtful comment. I wanted to get you to speak to it or or your anybody on your team. One con, this was the quote from the email. One major concern is that if this becomes policy, all teachers, regardless of their effectiveness or classroom efficiency, would be required to implement retakes. This could unintentionally undermine professional autonomy and create additional burdens without clear evidence of improved student mastery. Teacher scores from the state are wholly based on mastery and student growth. Can you speak to the that comment and just how that fits into the the the uh premise of this policy change? Sure. And

248I'm going to ask u our our our instructional team to speak to it as well. Yeah. At at this stage we don't have a expectation for retakes for everything. We do have an expectation for uh for spiraling back to help students master the standards and and and and of course those PLC that professional learning community work that our teachers that our teachers do. Um, so there's there's a piece of that in that in that detail that you gave me that that is accurate, but but the core of it is there is an expectation to identify what students what what what standards the student hasn't mastered and spiral back to help to help increase the likelihood that those students master it. So you all um Julie, Lee, Dave, can you give me can can you share

249some additional detail related to that? I think it's a great question. It's something that we talk about quite a bit. One of one of the things that we talk about instructionally is what do we do when a student doesn't learn the content and it looks a lot of different ways. Um so as an example, um a math teacher may say that on this assessment you have multiple attempts on the on the same uh question. So I while you're taking the the the assessment digitally, you uh get the wrong answer and then you get a second attempt to try to get the right answer. So it looks a lot of different ways for for all of our teachers. Um and I do agree with uh what we said earlier about giving teachers the autonomy to figure

250out what's the best strategy to ensure that the student learns the material. What what we emphasize from teaching learning and assessment and through our departments in elementary and secondary is that when a student doesn't learn it the first time, we don't stop. And so what happens after that varies greatly from content to content, grade level to grade level, but we don't stop there. So the essence of this policy is and from our viewpoint is reinforcing that aspect of it. It looks different, but we don't give up. Right? So that may be small group. It may be that our whole class and when we review the the assessment data from from the unit test that we just took that a lot of us missed questions five, seven, and eight and that all aligns to the same

251standard. So the reassessment is I'm going to continue teaching that and the bell ringers for the next two weeks and then I'm going to have problems on our our um assessment items and our next assessment reassessing that particular concept. And it isn't a full retake of the full test. I'm just reassessing those items on the next assessment to make sure that you got it the second time. We're not leaving it behind. And so, uh, our read and our ongoing conversations as we've been talking about this policy and what Mr. Dr. Allen and Dr. Orier and I have been saying is that this isn't foreign to the practice of great teaching. What we want to be careful in this policy and our caution has been and uh, we appreciate Miss Reeves's updates that she sent today.

252We actually thought it was good clarifying language in today's version. Um there were some pieces in last week's that we still had questions about, but we were waiting to talk tonight. But but you actually addressed some of those things in your next edit. But we are careful and cautious. I love the recommendation slowing down and making sure we think about all aspects because it is a rewrite. Um and we do just need to be cautious to that teacher's email. I thought it was a great email. She made very valid points. We just have to be cautious that we're getting to the the core of best practice. And that's what we're continuing to emphasize, the core of best practice and not being so prescriptive that a teacher doesn't have the autonomy to hit that spot of

253where we need to hit to make sure the student gets the content learned. So, um, we're all for let's wait, let's get it right because this is essential work and this is the body of our work, right, of ensuring that teaching and learning is taking place at a high level and we continue to grow. So, we we agree we'll take this back to policy. We'll put the new language in into the body of the next draft to have that in front of us. All right. The next item is approval of the school board meeting dates for 202526. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh our standard is as you know that we have our board meetings the third Monday of every month with a work session the Thursday before and the board policy committee meeting

25410 days before that or two Mondays before that. So you have these dates in front of you. You can see those references with the asterisks that show either due to a holiday well actually I think it may be just because of a holiday. Uh we have some asterisks with with proposed changes. One key change that we're recommending compared to this current year is for the spring break week, which would happen to fall with a work session and then spring break and then the uh board meeting to push that to push that work session after spring break and that board meeting the next week. Um the calendar will actually work based on county commission meetings as well. Um, so we do expect to recommend approval, but I do encourage you all to look at your calendars

255u and and and double check some of those. I I made a note after our after our last policy meeting in January and that I was going to propose to to move the January policy meeting to December and we could make it anytime we wanted to in December. Um but but that January 5th policy meeting just didn't didn't work. We we we didn't even have anything on the I think we canceled it because in order to in order to get something on the agenda for the policy committee, we actually have to staff's got to work the week before Christmas to to get it on. And given the fact that we don't have a meeting, I' if any if nobody's opposed, I'd rather have I'd rather have it the and it could be anytime. It could

256I mean it could be the second week of of December. It's just one day. It's not like it's a and it's not a whole meeting that involves all the stuff policy committee. Yeah, I know. So, but everybody else does. What What do y'all think? So, I would I would agree. Yeah, totally. the city of Franklin is now using our building and I just want to make sure we're not to to that point. Um my assistant Lydia just mentioned that city of Franklin's using the building some but but what we can do is look at some dates in in December, have a discussion about it. Um and and if we if we can find a date, we'll make a recommendation. Of course, we'll talk to you first because you're the chair of the policy committee. Sure.

257Um, and then if we can make a recommendation before Monday night's meeting on that particular date, the January 5th date, we'll bring that to you all. But just as a reminder, the March meeting as proposed actually moves the Monday meeting one week later, the fourth Monday, that March meeting. Remind me. So that's when the budget comes through. Will we have the budget before March 19th or Thank you. Thank Thank you. Yes. Our our intent is to to bring that that draft budget to you ahead of that. If I'm not mistaken, we did that in February this year. So that is that is still our plan to have that to you for multiple looks. Okay. Good. All right. So, we will vote on those dates Monday night with the possibility of there being a a different

258recommendation on the January 5th policy. All right. Next item is approval of the PEKA memorandum of understanding. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh we have a uh a PEKA process, professional educators collaborative conferencing act process uh that's laid out by state law that includes us meeting with our um with our our teachers via their association. There's a lot of detail related to that process, but it includes uh a memorandum of understanding that hits some mandatory discussion points uh and then potentially some other discussion points. Uh we have a long history with uh with our teacher leaders through the Williamson County Education Association. There's another organization that does have some membership and there's a formal process to give them an opportunity for a seat at a table at the table based on how many individual

259teachers choose them. Uh we went through that process and the WCA is the only entity that does have a seat at the table based on percentages. Um but that's the process from a substantive standpoint. Dr. Dr. web as the leader of uh of the management team for lack of a better phrase uh put together a memo with a summary of the changes uh from the from the existing one and I'd like to turn that over to Dr. Webb to hit those items. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Golden. And so those specific items that is are reviewed and allowed to be in theou um for conversation are salary, grievance procedures, insurance and benefits, working conditions, leave and payroll. Uh so this is the year that we look at a complete potentially rewrite for the entireou. Um we

260started our conversations by our reference to TCA. TCA gives pretty clear guidance of what this process and what theou can look like. Um we started with review of what TCA says in this in these conversations and then we start with our most recentou and you'll see we have very few edits. We feel like that um the last few years we've made some pretty good changes and we deleted some some items from the oldou several years ago. Uh we feel pretty good about the document that we currently have. So, you're going to see primarily some uh editorial um changes uh in the summary, but you'll also see the sub the the meat of the changes or in regards to supplements, which I know that we've spent some time talking about uh in this group as well.

261So, you'll see um attached I believe to um your board packet the full 38 page uhou, but the short of it are the changes that you'll see in the board memo. and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have about those questions or comments. Mr. Chair, I'm going to make one last comment. I have found thisou to be good for us over the years because it defines the relationship and minimizes the opportunities for confusion. All right, we will move on to approval of the 20 2526 paycharts. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, as you all know from a couple of months ago, maybe February, we gave you a draft uh proposal. I want to speak in with some general terms related to related to pay increase funding and then drill down to a little

262bit of specifics then invite uh Miss Hall uh to to to speak to it as well. So number one the parameter that we were given by county government is that they were looking to do a 4% raise uh across the board for all county employees and the practice has been a commitment to give us similar funding. Uh related to that, you all recall that ultimately we let them know if we're going to be able to do that, that creates about a $12 million gap in our projected funding from state and county revenue. That's basically where we still are. And that that reference that I gave you when when Rachel spoke to the budget is that aggregate number. uh to do an aggregate total 4% pay increase is about $16 million uh for us for next

263year. We let the county commission and the mayor know on the front end of this before well before the budget process even started. We did not anticipate making a recommendation for a 4% pay increase across the board because we had set this goal. We had had detailed discussions about about supplements and about other issues. So we went about the process of analyzing market and and and and our and analyzing our staffing and then analyzing some practicalities of some of the work as well. Uh the net result of this is that we are recommending that the focus the bulk of our funding go to teachers. Uh so number one the pay chart for teachers includes a 2% increase on every cell of the paychart except Vicki if I'm not mistaken line 21 which is actually a

264more substantial increase. So what that means is that paychart for say year three experience goes up 2%. So that somebody who's currently at year two and moves to year three is not just getting that 2% increase. It would be based on what they had the previous year. Most every cell in that paychart really is a 4% pay increase. The line 21 pay increase is a lot more than that because we have identified those teachers who come to us with 21 years or more experience are are sent to that paychart. not to something off the paychart like our long-term employees who have been getting raises from time to time. So, I want you to to specifically recognize that the line 21 increase goes from in this proposal goes from 69,344 to 76578. That's a substantial increase

265and that's intentional for that recruiting purpose and to be respectful of those more experienced teachers who come in. Um, so that's that's the basic paychart. uh and and and um Vicki, I'm going to hit some other elements and then open the door for you to fill in some gaps. The next big piece that we talked about uh was making sure that uh we addressed supplements. Uh we have done some some major changes to our supplement paychart. Number one, we have increased the total aggregate budgeting for our our supplements by a little over $1.1 million. So, when you see all these numbers, I want you to know we've increased funding uh by over $1.1 million in our budget for for for those supplements. Number two, we have placed the arts supplements on percentage schedules similar to

266the athletic schedules and the and the detail of that is based on some analysis that we did on on market etc. Uh I know well I certainly welcome any specific details but what we do know is that no matter what we have done questions will come. Uh but that's that's those are the key points that we've done with those numbers. I will tell you also we did not factor this in based on an hourly rate because we know that this work is within the judgment of those coaches and and uh arts directors and it varies from from from person to person related to to that. So we didn't focus on an hourly rate. We focused on the professional work with a projection of what's that what's that baseline amount that it's going to take to

267get that work done. And you guys know from what you've heard from so many folks uh that you know some people just pour pour themselves into that. And frankly in my experience that's what I've seen with everyone. Uh it's it's done out of love. And so we we're trying to give a respectful increase within that parameter that we have. Um, next piece uh uh on that uh with respect to substantial changes and this is a product of of uh of that hard to fill. We are doubling the uh retention bonus for our special education teachers from $600 to $1,200. Next piece, we are adding two days holiday pay for our 10 and 11month classified employees. Uh you you all may recall some discussion related to that. Um we are also based on the feedback we

268received from you in February increasing the daily rate on substitutes by $10. Uh and and you can see that you can see that chart uh that shows those numbers. Each one of those numbers have gone up $10 compared to last year. Uh and I think now Vicki, I'm ready to turn that over to you for some additional detail after I hit those those uh those spots. Well, I think you covered pretty much all, but I I'm happy to answer any questions about anything. Um, I I do think we we covered pretty much everything. I'm going to do one more. Okay, maybe I missed them. Leadership, etc. We have included a 2% pay increase. Uh, and and so so some of the funding for that for those extras are coming out. And I will say also

269most classified positions, we do have a role uh for for most classified positions. We've done a market analysis. We're we're competitive if I'm not mistaken on in those classified positions. Uh and our staffing's pretty good, so we're sticking to that as well. Sorry, I interrupted. No, that's okay. The role for classified is more is about every five years. We go from entry level to one. They roll then and then after that it's every five years. So that is a a much more substantial increase than a 2%. It ranges somewhere between like four and 10% in those fiveyear increments. Um I do think that's I think we you did cover though all of the major changes, but if anybody has any questions about anything specific, I'm happy to answer. Yeah, I was curious with the salaries

270back at the top. Can you scroll back up to the top? Was the salaries the teacher salaries that they were we were referencing is it the gross salary or is it a is it net it's gross but gross like benefits included not benefits included okay no that's there so and I I will do a little bit of explaining um about about the teacher chart because it can get a little bit confusing what we did was we increased the starting pay that BSNH by 2%. After that every between there the if you let's say you were a teacher in your fifth year this year between what you make your fifth year this year current year and sixth year next year that will be about 4%. Does that make sense? And you said that is gross right?

271If if I that's that's their that's their gross salary. Okay. Yes. So before if you mean like before taxes. Yeah. So they're this is not their take-home. That's correct. Okay. All right. This would be traditionally when when a proposed employer posts salary. It's the it's that same structure. What was it? I mean I guess I could do the math but so last year was it here I have it. Oh, thank you. That's but this is what I thought might be. Um I have a question. How many teachers do we have with 21 years of experience? Like how many 21 or more? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll have to get that. I'm going to estimate based on data that's probably a couple of years old. If I'm not mistaken, it was it was it was over 400

272a few years ago. I I definitely would need to look. I I I don't want to try to give you a number off the top of my head. I'm just not sure because when I compare the you know the chart to last year, most teachers are only getting about $1,000. And I know you say the steps. So maybe 2,000 at most until you hit year 21 and then it's a I mean it's a pretty substantial and you know I've said it along all along that I'm committed to getting this teacher salary to number one in the state because we're in the business of educating students and I want the best teachers and the way one of the ways to do that is um by salary because we already have great culture in most of our

273schools. And you know, we used to not have a teacher shortage, but you know, we we do a really good job of paying teachers until about year five or six and then the other counties just z, you know, and I just again I think about the instructional coaching program. If we're investing that much money into that, what if we put that money into this pay scale? How much of a raise would each teacher get? I I think it's probably about3 to $4,000 a teacher, give or take the math. It may be more or less. The other concern I have, again going back to the fact that we're in the business of educating, you know, our behavior specialists, our school psychologists, the extra act, the extra services that we provide students, they all start at a

274substantially higher rate than our teachers. And that's a concern for my for me. Um I would also want to know how much money for the for people who make $100,000 and up. Like how much money is that and can we reallocate that? And then the last thing is I do really appreciate the two extra days for our lowest paid people because when you look at the pay scale, they're only getting about 40 cents a raise an hour a raise. when I did the math. I mean, they're not going to see any difference to be honest. Thank you for that. I can answer I we can answer some of your questions right now. Um and I'll work my way backwards. Uh so the 100,000 Rachel had actually pulled that uh for and can you can you

275share that Rachel? The total cost for 2% on all of that would be 590,000. 590,000 and and that's out of a total pot of what that's being attributed to raises across the board 12 million. Well, the 12 million not counting the role. So we we the including the role we already committed to at 16. So the 500,000 almost 600,000 out of 16 million basically. So, one one a couple of things I will say is you're right about that around the five-year mark. We we definitely have at some point have got to focus on those middle years. The the year 21 we that's really factored on what if they had their step increase with the um with the with the 2% increase down to year 25. What we really do is pull year 25 up to

276year 21 because our chart only goes through year 21. And we're also we're hoping that helps to incentivize some teachers to stay because if they get that big jump at year 21, maybe instead of choosing to go ahead and retire or do something else, they'll stay with us. So that's the motivation behind that. And then you also mentioned um the behavior specialist. That's that is market. they are very hard to come by and they make u they make a pretty good salary out in the private sector. So that's that's just something we've had to do to in order to keep those people employed. But how many teachers are we hiring a year on average the last couple years? I think you said 400 last year. Yes. No, you're that's that's correct. Um, and then one

277other thing I did forget because I think we all got emailed that the middle school baseball head coach was getting less of a stipen than like the middle school football coach. So, there were I think there were some concerns about, you know, e just equity around that. That's right. Uh, that that's an example of market driving that. um for for whatever reason, the market for middle school basketball coaches in the in the Middle Tennessee region pays more. So when we did that analysis, we compared the middle school basketball to our neighbors, compared middle school baseball to our neighbors, uh and and that's that's why that one's increased in the middle school baseball. It's pretty universal that football and basketball pay more than than baseball. And we do that in the high school level. We do.

278Okay. I just he emailed us. I told him I'd bring it up. So, yeah. And we we certainly welcome all those questions and and that's tough and that's I think that's an example of there's never going to be a plan that satisfies everyone on everything and it's and and it is tough. Um what we do I'll give you an example related to the school psychologist if I'm not mistaken is the school psychologist pay is 1.05 05 times. Am I correct about that? It's 10% over.1 times the teachers and and that's in Yeah. And that's that's that's based on on market issues as well. Um I will tell you that uh our staffing has improved this year for our general education teachers. We've been staffed at a little over 99%. Um, we do have some hard

279to fill spots and of course people will leave in mid year and those are those are challenges every single spot that's that's open. Our special education teachers I think we're staffed at 97% this year. Our special definitely been better. I'm sorry. It it's definitely been a lot better about and I'll tell you my differential diagnosis more likely than not it's because our numbers have stabilized, right? So we're not facing that growth issue. I'm moving my hands with growth. we're not facing that growth issue that we're having to, you know, hire extra teachers over and above that annual turnover. But to your point, we agree with you, teachers need to be the focus. Um, we've talked about this a little bit. I think it's worth us talking about publicly again. Our per pupil expenditure is very

280close to the state average. Uh, and Rachel, if I'm not mistaken, we're 79th in the state this year out of, it depends on how they count the number of school districts. 148 148 school districts. There's a couple of state districts that I'm never sure who they're, you know, how they're counting them. The achievement school district, that's our per pupil expenditure. Uh, our teachers rank based on the TSBA numbers. And it's hard to tell because they talk about ranges, but it's up in the 20s and 30s, somewhere in somewhere in that range. We're doing what we can with the funding we receive to put money towards our teachers. Um, some of that's because of less staffing perhaps than some others, but but some of it is because we are putting that focus on it. Ultimately, if

281we're going to get to that point you're talking about, it's going to take a combination of things, right? It's not just one solution, but one of those has to be increasing funding and that's been talked about, right? That's right. That's been talked about a lot uh at the state level. Um and and so anyway, it's it I think it'll be a work in progress on an annual basis. Jason, if I if I may on the um I guess I totally agree on the low end of the scale that that we I mean and we've we've made some market adjustments historically and we probably I mean I'd like to do it do it more often, but the percentage raises don't really make a make much of a much of an impact there. Um the but I

282don't want to I mean I hate that every time we bring this up it's it's like we demonize our our principles and our leadership that we also want to make um I know you like you're they're they're at the at the at the higher end on the on the scale and that should not be something that we should be ashamed of and it and when you when you look at and I did these numbers last year I didn't do them this year but I did the numbers and the the impact of a raise on on that small group of people that does that does make a a living wage here um in and and looks looks more like the Williamson County community than than the teachers do as far as on on average. Um I

283mean I don't I don't begrudge them to increase if we're giving a if we're if the if the county wants to give a 4% raise to everybody. I don't think we say everybody but all the leaders who are making this thing run and doing doing all the work. Not that teachers don't do the work, but the but the administrators are doing are doing their jobs too. And I don't I don't see why we um why we need to say we can't do both. um when you look at the numbers and you and you spread out the that small amount of money over over the 3,000 teachers or however many like it's it's a it's a relatively small amount of money but it I know it makes a point and we've got to you know we

284want to give it all the teachers but we we got to have leadership too. So my point thank you for that. I'll give you the I'll give you the number answer to that. Um one of our goals was to increase supplements and has to come from somewhere based on the funding we we have available. Um, so that 590,000 for two 2% for those over a h 100red,000, $1.1 million increase in supplements, that's that's a large chunk of where that came from, but I got, you know, I I know it's getting late, but we've talked about this. I think it's worth reiterating as well. Leadership matters. uh and those building leaders matter and so to your point we we agree with you on that. So both Dr. Johnson and you have made good points about about

285that need. I have just one quick question. Um, I uh had a conversation with a a TA this week and she was and we might have talked about this previously, but um she had brought up about how it's hard for them when they have to go those twoish two and a half months without pay. Um, and she had mentioned that there I think some time ago she said they they used to offer it where they could stretch that pay out over 12 months. And she was like that is extremely helpful because for for her in particular just for their family. She has to then try and find part-time work, some type of work in those two and a half months to try and make up that budget shortfall for their family. And she was like

286that would help tremendously. Is that an option at all through us? It's not. And here's why. The ra the wage and hour laws do not allow us to delay giving pay for work that long. The teachers have that. Um, and our structure for them is it's it's annual pay for 10 months for a 10-month contract and we stretch that through the summer. For those hourly staff members, we do not have that option through WCS because of the federal rate wage and hour laws. Now, I have heard from of stories about certain banks that will structure that uh and help and help individuals plan that and stretch it through the through those summer months. That might be worth us reexploring. I know we haven't had that conversation in in recent years. Is it like a change?

287She just mentioned that it was something that they used to do. It we used to, but I'm ballparking. It's been a dozen years. It's been a long time. Yeah, maybe maybe whatever we could do, I would appreciate that looked into just because I know she she talked about how it it makes it a real struggle for them and you know they already make I mean pretty little to begin with and so anyway to kind of help them you know it I think that would be great if we could somehow. And had you said the two extra days would be like spring break for them? Yes. Yes, it's spring break. We did we did Christmas time the winter break they already have five days there. That's right. So we we decided on spring break for that.

288And and one of those days was what? 400,000. Is that what it cost? Rachel, do you remember? I'm think I was thinking the number um Oh, so the two days was 400 something thousand. Any other comments, questions on that? Well, I just want to say on behalf of all of us, thanks for that work. And I I know that was a substantial amount of work. Um, a lot of adjustments and uh was laid out early in the year, early in the fiscal year, the school year that that was a priority. So really appreciate all the effort to try to make make those adjustments and be responsive. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to since you since you thank me, I want to specifically thank uh Vicki and her team, Rachel. I know our instructional leaders

289worked on this. The WCA was deeply involved in this as well. Those are the ones who should take credit for that, especially the the work that was done on the supplements. Um okay. We have three um items that were brought as by board members as topics for discussion. Um one of those being screen time committee schedule. Um one being a booster leadership council, one being athletic fund advisory committee uh at each high school. So let's take these one by one. And I I I'll say on the screen time committee um it might be helpful to start um with a little bit of a recap. So we all know that we established the committee about a month ago. We set it up so that intentionally so that each of us as board members could appoint someone

290to that committee. We have Tanya and Melissa serving on there representing the board. Um and I the committee met on Monday. So it'd be good I think to give a brief readout of that meeting. Um and then if you two want to weigh in, feel free. Um and then maybe from that kind of go into some of the thoughts that you and others had about the schedule and um how to go forward with that. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll start it and then I certainly welcome um either of the board members who participated. Dr. Allen is here. He observed and participated kind of like I did in and out. Uh and I know Jenny Lopez who is here. of course you all know her. She she led the discussion uh to start. I I

291was there for the first hour and a half or so, then I had to go to the county commission meeting. Um and so there were some conclusions reached that I'm going to need y'all's help on. I've heard it secondhand. Um so they got started, of course, did some icebreaker shares about who who they were and what they were interested in. I got to tell one quick story about a dad who said, "And I'm against cell phones." He said, "Well, what I mean is I'm against social media." Uh, and so some of some of some of those discussions were had there. Uh, um, I'm going to give this nutshell to you all and you all fill in. One theme that we heard repeatedly from the participants, which included parents, uh, um, teachers, administrators, schoolboard members, was

292a substantial focus on cell phone usage. Um that that was a big piece that came out of the of the initial meeting. Uh Jenny and her team set up a structure to help prioritize uh with a with a pretty with a pretty detailed structure of really four main areas of focus uh with with their thoughts on it. And so with that very small nutshell, uh I want to turn it over to um Dr. Allen or Miss Lopez or Miss H or Miss Wyatt to share any details. If it's okay, I'd like uh Miss Lopez and and Miss Davis, our instructional technology director, Andy and Jenny kind of led that, set it up great, uh really established kind of what the work of the committee was and then really allowed the committee to give feedback on,

293you know, the objectives and the timeline as well. So, lots of good discussion. and we thought it was a great first meeting. Surfaced a lot of conversation, but Jenny and Andy, if you want to go through a little bit more specifics, that'd be great. Thank you. Um, the committee really was um provided what the work would be in terms of the structure of the meetings and how that how that will be laid out for for the entire time that that we'll meet. We also discussed um deeply uh what the four topics are and again I'll just go through those four topics. The four topics that we're going to explore are integrating technology uh and that's really like how we integrate technology in the classroom for instructional purposes. Screen time. So how much screen time our

294students are exposed to during the day. Personal devices and that's like the cell phone conversation about how students are using cell phones in school. And the last one is parent resources. And that's just allowing the the the committee to provide resources to the community about cell phone use and all these topics. Um, so Andy provided an opportunity for the committee to walk around the room and actually explore each topic deeply and then provide feedback um on that topic and what kind of resources they wanted for that topic, what questions they had about the topic. Um, what other questions did we did we explore? Data and information that they wanted to have in order to make informed decisions. That's right. And then if was there anything that needed to be edited or added to that particular

295topic? That's right. So we had lots of feedback and so we did that for all four of the buckets of work that we're going to do. So we had lots of feedback on that and then we provided kind of the layout of the meetings. We also provided like the order that we're hoping to tackle these four these four buckets of work um and the dates for next year. So there was actually lots of feedback on that. There was great interest. We were going to start with instructional technology because that's actually the work of like using technology for instructional purposes which is what Andy's department is all about. It's it's the work that we have been wanting to do. So we were going to start with that. There's lots of um feedback on interest actually from

296the committee uh about starting with cell phone use first. Um, so we are ready to to Andy's already put together all of the feedback we have and she separated it into the four pieces. So we are taking our time our our our group Dr. Allen and Andy and I have time set aside to look at all of the feedback and then um return back to the committee with some next steps. So the committee did ask for um some information, some research, some policies, laws related to technology use that was emailed out today to the whole committee. So the committee has a lot of homework if they want to dig in. It's it's certainly not we told them it's certainly not required. It's several hours of work if they get in and start looking at everything

297we emailed, but we provided lots of information as background just to level set where we are. Um, so anyways, we'll be emailing the committee back uh by May 22nd to let them know where their feedback what their feedback was collectively and then how that's going to adjust maybe our timeline or maybe even move around the topics that they're interested in. And of course, it it gave us a lot of information on what they want to be provided with. So that's going to help us um set the course for the work. You know, if I can just add some specifics on the cell phone. It was an interesting conversation and and the sense that I think we got from what we heard from the committee was a sense of urgency to address the cell phones um

298in part because of the new state law requiring you as a board to adopt a policy related. And so they felt like that we needed to rush to get that information and to to to meet and provide feedback and and and work toward uh having something in place for a policy. Um our take on that is uh the state law requires kind of a baseline that we have to have. It's restricting it during instructional time, allowing students to use it in a case of emergency. Uh the policy that that Dana will be working with us on. So there's a baseline to that and then our take is there's probably an area where as staff we could uh make some recommendations that we could bring to you that may even go above that uh baseline a

299little bit. But then there's an area that's above that that that committee wants to talk about that we feel strongly that it would be of our interest to make sure that we're including our larger community in on that conversation with our committee. So when you start talking about some larger restrictions and things that maybe some other districts have done that that we're reviewing with the committee, for example, restricting complete access at the middle school, which a district, one of our benchmarking districts did in the middle school. I think that's an area where our our advisement would be we need to open that up to the community at large to make sure that we're getting a broad range of opinion on that. Our small sample size is that opinions vary greatly on that. um that some

300people want complete restriction from cell phones during the school day and other parents feel like that they want the opportunity to have their parent rights or to be able to send their phone to school with their children so that they can communicate with them for rides and different things that happen during the day or be able to get in touch with them in an emergency situation. Um but it was enlightening to us and we're happy to take on that conversation um at the beginning. Part of what we were setting up uh as part of the process and starting with in instructional technology was to update our committee on what we actually do, what our philosophy is on in u uh integrating instructional technology into our curriculum. But there's a real sense for let's start with

301the cell phones. And so we're happy to do that and adjust the just the uh the the outlet of the committee to do that. Um but I think I just want to reiterate I think part of the rush was in regards to the policy. Do you mind if I ask a question? Do you all have yet a projected date of when of when that committee might potentially make recommendations for cell phones alone? because I know what the one of the concerns that was brought for this topic was the timeline. Our first meeting is August 12th and then our second meeting is in September. It's the second Tuesday of September. Um I think by that time if the committee has come to consensus on what it is that they want to recommend, it would be at

302the earliest in September. But that would be for the higher level detail of policy, not the baseline policy, right? Because that's due sooner than that. Yeah, I would refer to Miss Osbrooks on that and making my understanding is we have to have a policy in place by July 1st. The law goes into effect. Um July 1. I will say this, and I know you'll know it, but it's 10:35, so I'm probably going to state the obvious. We we look at policies often. Um there are baselines that have to be in the policy. There are also um we can go we can do more than what's allowed in the policy. Um but I I do recommend and and I will be recommending something at the June meeting to be in comp. So, um, just so y'all

303kind of keep that in mind as we're looking at a timeline. And remember, we can change policy with two readings at any point. Yeah. I just want us to have the expectation that we'll have a baseline per the law and then we'll add based on the meetings in August and September, potentially add more to it. What what why don't we hear from Melissa or Tanya and then we can go to some of the particular issues that were raised by board members about the process and the schedule. I'll just elab elaborate a little bit on the meeting. Um I felt like there was great interaction. We all came in, it was kind of free seating and then we were divided into grade bands. So that let us meet the people just at our table that we

304happen to sit with and then within our grade band that we'll be working with. So, we traveled around, like they said earlier, to the four different stations. So, and I thought that that was um like I said, just a great way to to meet other people on the committee. Um I think that y'all did a really nice job asking for feedback. I know you said you're still going through all of that, but I think that that was whether written or spoken feedback. I feel like that was helpful. And then also just explaining the way the meetings are going to go. Like they said earlier of the four topics, we'll meet twice. So the first meeting there will be like guest speakers, information presented, all of that kind of stuff. And then the and then you'll

305be doing homework in the middle, come back for the second meeting ready for discussions and decisions. So I thought that that made it clear what the expectations were on the committee and then if you can't be there again back to getting to know the other people in your grade band that you're going to facilitate communication within that grade band um to represent uh the opinion of the group. So, I thought that it went really well. I I agree with the thoughts that I do think there is a really um big interest in our community and just what can we do to help students separate themselves from their phones, you know, what can how can we help teachers? Um I just think that back to like mental health, like Dr. Driger said earlier, that I just

306think that it's really important and people are are read, you know, there's more information out there now. There's more science. these kids have had phones for many years now, you know, and um I think this is a great opportunity for us. So, yeah, it was a it was a very good meeting. I enjoyed um meeting all those new people and uh we had some really good discussions. When I was over at the um station for the cell phones, um you know, in my group there was of course uh parents and teachers and principles and um they were talking about you know the policy coming up for the cell phones. And so I kind of explained that a little bit to them and and then I I asked them point blank because I was hearing different

307things and I says, "Well, are you guys saying that you want the school board to create a policy for, you know, cell phones?" I mean, I'm we have to anyway, but I'm saying they I think they were saying they wanted some they wanted the school board to take the initiative because um as teachers or principles, they didn't want to be the ones to say no to the parents. Um and from all the research and well, it's true. uh because from all the research is that it you're going to get the most uh uh argue ar not I wouldn't say arguments but just push back yeah push yeah push back from the parents because again they you know they want to make sure they can get a hold of their child during an emergency or like

308for the rides and and and then like one of the principles says you know if there's an emergency those children should not be on the phone um they should be listening to me you know the principal and I'm going to give them instructions and things like that um so they they do want our our guidance um and so I want you guys to all to know that that that I think is um you know what I what I got from the group and from other people uh at the meeting um and um I'm interested in knowing and I don't know how we go about this um Josh but finding out to what degree the school board is interested in um how far we want to go so that when we have that first meeting in

309June about the cell phones. Um, you know, what are we looking at? Are we just looking at the floor or do we want to limit it more like, you know, during the hallways and um during their free time, you know, for example, especially like at high school so that they have um phone free days. Um, and how would we go about getting a consensus to what the board's interested in? My initial reaction to that is that in the June meeting when we adopt an initial policy, it really may just only be able to say what the state law says and then we're not going to it may not be good for us to go beyond that until the committee meets. I think I heard it was August and September. Did I hear that correctly? So

310until that discussion happens with the committee, it may not we may not have enough to go on to add more substance to it. That's just my initial thought. Yeah. What questions? I know a couple board members at least had raised a question about the schedule and other aspects of the committee. You want to speak to those um those of you who raised those? Well, I certainly raised that and I'm curious if there parents on the committee had raised that issue. I know that I received an email from a parent who serving on the committee who it was like he read my mind. Um I I did not appoint him. Um and he also wanted to reduce the timeline. I think that a year and I understand wanting to be um diligent and and gather feedback.

311But I also think that there's a happy medium somewhere and that devoting a full year to this when when at least for my constituents it's been very clearly expressed that tech use in the classrooms and it's not just cell phones it's it's Chromebooks as well um is a high priority for them. I hear a lot of I get calls from parents about instructional time and the amount of time on Chromebooks. So, I feel like that data could be starting to be pulled now. Um, and we talked about while or or at least shared with the committee while the conversations about cell phone usage is happening, but I'm I don't know what you you guys were there. I don't know what other parents on the committee said for the timeline. I can speak to that a

312little bit. I I did let them know when I gave my introductory comments that we did want them to be empowered, that the committee to be empowered if to to alter the timeline if they felt like it was appropriate. My opinion is that committee ought to be the driver of it because they know the work they're doing. Uh to your question about gathering data, um um we are in the process of doing that. We had given you some preliminary data. I think we we had pulled some snapshots if I'm not mistaken, Dr. Allen from October. We gave that to you maybe January or February. And um it's so we're in the process of getting some more data to see if those snapshots those if I think it was weekly snapshots to see if we get

313see if we can get some more data that gives a you know a a picture that might not be isolated to just that time. Um so for what it's worth that was that was my thinking. I do believe that the committee and you all of course participated did give some direction that they that especially for personal devices they're going to be ready to make some recommendations quick much quicker than that 12 months. I think that's what you all iterated. Uh the other side of that coin is we definitely need we know we're going to need to communicate um with families if in fact the recommendations are sub are substantial. theoretically, uh, a parent can manage their child's cell phone use themselves, but maybe they need that help, too, right? And so that's part of what's

314got to be explored, uh, as well. So, so as you were saying, Josh, um, in if we in in June, if we set up a a a base uh policy for cell phones, but then like say down the road in two, you know, two months once school gets in, then we can update that policy immediately. That's right. If we choose to. That's right. Okay. So, my my thought is is is a little bit broader. I mean, stepping stepping back a little bit and and just understanding how we how we got here. Um, the board expressed its collective interest just from a consensus that we that we addressed this thing. Um, and Jason kind of took the took the lead and and and did it. Um, in doing so, the board really didn't do anything more

315than say we want to we want to look at this. Um, and so what I see in this process is that that's all we did. Um, and Jason went and then when when Jason came back and he gave us the he gave us the year-long timeline, me and and I think I think others were like, "That's what that's not what I was thinking." I was like, "Jason didn't read my mind. He didn't read it collective mind. He didn't really not that I mean he he talked to people u but he did it I mean just took it on himself and and that's fine. It's what he does. Um, but if the board chooses to say we want to we we'd like to we'd like to compress that timeline and and and get a recommendation so

316that we can make a make a suggestion or do whatever board action we want to um by November or January or whatever the whatever the date is. Um I mean that's in our pro that's in our prerogative, right? And so we we don't have to we don't have to just accept that or or maybe maybe we maybe we we think okay well we like your thought process and and that and that makes sense but we don't have to. So um so I just as I was thinking about this I I came up with a I came up with a concept just called a a board directive. I was thinking I was like these are these are not policies right? They're not resolutions that are virtually meaningless and and kind of go non-binding. Um there there

317are opportunities for us to clarify what our wishes are. Um and I've I've heard a couple of times tonight of things that that might be clear on. One one would be the um the start times thing. If if consensus is enough and that's all the detail that we need, then we can just be okay with, okay, yeah, we all agree. Yeah, let's let's move on. But if we want to if we want to put parameters on it, if we want to be specific in any way, then then we only lead by by a vote of the board. And so I'm I'm all in favor and just wanted to throw it out there to see what you guys think about potentially kind of codifying that and and whatever even if it were just hey we we

318want you to do this. We like the direction everything that you said just do it by November. Um so just want to get everybody's thought process on on that. That's just kind of a concept I was thinking about. Yes. [Laughter] Yeah. Yeah. I spoke to the gentleman I uh recommended to come and he was very satisfied with the committee. He thought it was a wonderful thing. Uh he said you could probably speed up the process some, but um we've still got to uh give staff time to, you know, get in involved with it and get all the issues taken care of. Uh and you know, because it you can't just pull the Chromebooks out period and you know, pitch them or whatever. It's going to take time. There's got to be a time frame to

319do that. So just consider all that. But I I'd like to see it go a little faster. Also, one thing I'll add, and I was going to talk about this, is because I've asked for like a district technology plan a couple of times, and I know I got a spreadsheet with like when Chromebooks are going to be purchased. Um, so the the screen time I was a little concerned about the narrow scope, but it sounds like you are at least trying to take a broader scope of like instructional technology and what do we want that to look like in the classroom, not just screen time. So, I'm excited to hear that. And that will take a little more time than But I think maybe we do, you know, you can do it in chunks like

320this. I mean, I think the cell phone's going to be first, then screen time, and then I would love to see come out of this committee. What What is it that we want to see happening in the different classrooms around instructional technology integration? So, that brings up another question of like work product of the committee. And so related to instructional tech, would it be a a formal instructional tech plan for the district by school type, elementary, middle, and high? Um, and does that does something like that exist? Yeah. Uh, I I don't know that that there will be that kind of detail out of this committee, but I think there will be enough detail to allow us to use their recommendations to create that. You all fill in any saying if you'd like to. So,

321we we've had one committee meeting so far and seems to be some confusion on what the scope is. Um, we're not sure what the work product is, but we need to speed it up and and make a decision on it quicker. Um, seems a little disconnect on that. Um, also I think there needs to be some more teacher involvement too when we're talking about screen time in in the classrooms. Um, that's that's not a well, first let me say I haven't I haven't sat in a classroom in a while. So to be able to say I have firsthand knowledge of what that actually is. I don't have that myself. Maybe someone here has um but I don't know. I haven't sat in a classroom with kids in a while and watched during an actual school

322day. And and I don't think it's my hunch is it's not a straight line number either that the screen time in a middle school art class versus a high school physics classroom. there's there's probably a different amount of screen time given the material. So, if we've already got an end in mind and a goal that we want to see accomplished, then frankly, I feel like the committee is a bit of a sham and we're doing a disservice to people to ask them to to sit on it if we're just going to ignore the recommendations and just do whatever we want. Again, So perhaps it would be better to sort of define what we're looking for first and then what we're trying to accomplish and and then be able to sort of set the the timeline

323on it without instead setting a timeline and figuring out what it is we want to accomplish at the end of that timeline. So I have a question for both of you ladies. As I was listening to um Jay's recommendation, um one of the one of the components of the the four different sections is one week we discuss um we discuss technology and the next week or the next month we decide on the the guidance for that the guidelines. So my question is can we um bump that up so that we have those two meetings instead of over two months we make it in one month. So we have the meet meeting on the technology and then two weeks later we discuss what the guidelines could be um just as I'm just throwing that out from

324this discussion. Sure. That's that's a great question. Thank you for that. Um so part of the plan of that is that gathering a lot of that because it is some instruction and one of the things that we learned from the committee is that we have some teaching to do as well. We have some teaching of vocabulary like passive and active um technology use. Um we have some um teaching to do around different types of federal and state laws that we have to be in compliance with. we need to teach around our framework for blended blended learning and instructional technology use in the classroom. And so part of that thinking is that you have time that first session to really come in and learn and ask questions. And that's why we asked for what data do

325you need? What information do you need us to provide for you and able to be able to make that informed decision? So we wanted to really spend some deep time with that, allow those gradeband committees to really discuss what we talk about during that session and then give any additional research because there's a lot of research and you all have shared a lot of research and we're really trying to curate it in such a way where we're showing all sides of the research and where it's not biased. And so we want everyone to have time to go away, sit with that research, really think about it, and then come back and and with guiding questions, right? So it's not just here, go read this. It really is about here's some things to think about. Here's

326the outcomes that we want you to be able to start working on when you come back to us. So can we shorten it? Yes, we could. But I am concerned that maybe it would minimize the deep thinking that we want to have around these conversations. The other thing I I I just want to mention, I know that it's a full year, but we're making recommendations along the way. So, it's a full year, but by September, you're going to have a recommendation from the committee on um on personal devices. And then by November, you're going to have some some recommendations on on guidelines perhaps for educational technology, instructional technology in the classroom. So although it's a full year, it's not going to take us a year to come back. Uh that's going to be something that

327we can deliver every couple of months. So we are concerned about rushing this timeline. If that's the wish of of the of the board, we'll certainly work with it. We are concerned about the amount of work that we're going to be asking everyone to do. All all every everyone in the committee is going to have um reading to do. They're going to have some research, some discussion questions with their groups. So, it c it can happen and we can rush this and do it in a shorter timeline. But the deep level of questions and discussions, this is a really really heavy topic uh with a lot of opinions and a lot of research um to to read a lot of laws to get into. So although we can rush it, we really are then asking

328people to do a lot in a very short period of time and we may not get the extensive amount of work that this is going to require. And I just want to add one piece too through the conversations that I heard at the screen time committee. There are some things that are taking place that may be getting communicated to you that maybe not necess that aren't necessarily getting communicated to us that's lowhanging fruit that we don't need to wait on a screen time committee to address. If we have people saying get your work done early and then you could use your cell phone in class, those are types of things that we want to address immediately. We don't need a screen time committee to say that that's not good practice. Um students taking Chromebooks out

329on recess instead of being active on recess. Now there may be an individual reading reason for that particular student that that's happening but I as a principal would certainly want to know that or I and us in the positions that we're in. So there are some things there are some of these one-offs that I think that some people may believe are common practice that are not common practice for us. So those are good conversations for us to continue to have and know about outside of the screen time committee work too. table, will those will all those things could all those things be be included in that baseline July one policy? Well, or in some form or Well, I I kind of started to go down that road and then I'm good at reading the room

330and I think Dana may have been a little nervous with that and even Mr. Brown kind of a little ner said, "Hey, we probably just in June might just have the the baseline policy." But some of those examples are what that new law says, right? And it's not just that that new law, it's also the the recess law, right? So, the combination of the new laws will do some of that baseline stuff. There there's definitely conversation that staff could have that we could make some recommendations that may go a little bit beyond that we feel would not be disruptive to our community without having a conversation with our community at large to answer your question. Now, whether we get there or not for a June policy, that's for Dana and Mr. Brown and Mr. Golden

331to determine. I would like to encourage you to have those conversations that would be really helpful to have the policy suggestions in June. Yeah. And uh another thought was um that that I got from the principles and the teachers in our group is they would like cons to have consistency across the district. um because right now some schools like um Oak View does the kindergarteners do not use um Chromebooks and another school they they do. So I just just want to throw that out as just another thing that um whatever when when we're making all these things that that that's what they really want. They want the board to make these decisions and they want it to be across the district. And I think that's really important because um there's consistency and then the kids

332aren't confused. why does this school get to do this and why not at this school? Um, so that's just another little fact I wanted to put out there. Speaking to the point about the um the directive, a couple of thoughts about that just from my perspective is that there's there needs to be to me a built-in level of accountability by the by the mere fact that the board is talking about it and by the mere fact that we've set up a committee to look at it and we've been serious enough to to set that up and establish who's going to be on it. deliberately put parents on there for their their engagement and and involvement. So, to me, there's a there's an aspect of accountability that comes with that that we need to, in my

333opinion, trust. Um, I think there's probably going to the time where the board will get specific about what it wants to do will come when the re when the committee does some of its work and comes back with recommendations. Um, that's when I think we get to say this is what we want or or we don't want. that becomes a you know a matter of how the district functions. Um I also think that because we have two board members sitting on the committee that it's an opportunity for us if we have issues or questions to feed that through them and say make sure the committee takes this up or make sure that you know that's being voiced. So, I mean, I know where you're going with the spirit of that and we've talked about it,

334but I don't I don't know that I want to get so prescriptive personally um that we don't let the process play out. Well, I guess I I guess part of it part of it comes from like I mean I've heard Margie say a couple of times like, "Hey, I've asked for this a couple of times and I haven't gotten it." And so like staff has to I mean we we asked Jason for I mean if if all if all of us asked for Jason Jason for our wish list like he wouldn't have get to do I mean he'd delegate it all day. Jason wouldn't pull anything. He he'd tell but everybody would be not totally true stuff but everybody would uh I mean they they'd all be running around. Whereas if we really want something

335done, the only way for us to ensure that something gets done is that we we bring it to the board. If it's more if it's important enough to the board, then we all vote on it. And that's and that's our because otherwise we don't have any we don't have a way to make Jason do do anything like we can he a lot of times he's responsive and he does stuff because because he's I mean he wants to be he wants to be helpful and if it if we have good ideas, he wants to do things to to the extent that he can. But if but but otherwise it's it's our only voice. And I think we I think we go around and we like we harbor ill will sometimes if we if if we talk

336about something and then Jason doesn't do it or Jason doesn't do it like we like we want. But we never actually had a had a board conversation about it. So if if I may, Mr. Chair, you um couple thoughts I have related to this and and Jay, you give me a couple of prompts. Uh so number one I do get multiple requests from multiple board members and sometimes your requests conflict with each other. All right so phil philosophically well another piece is sometimes to use Adam's line there's more work than there is summer right that he mentioned a few hours ago. So philosophically I agree with that but I I from my perspective as the chief executive I I I also want to make sure that there's a balance because yes if the if it's

337the will of the board I want to honor that. But it's it's difficult when I'm when I'm told we want you to do this and this is exactly how we want you to do it. Uh, and so there's there's got to be a balance in giving us the professional discretion to determine how to get something done that's that's the will of this legislative body. Um, and and I think more strategic discussions like Josh suggested, you know, we have late this summer, th those those kinds of things will help. For example, we made a commitment to the to to the board eight, nine months ago that we were going to present information on the on the uh on on the I'm having a mental block because it's late. Thank you. Start times. Uh and that I

338had a couple board members afterwards say, "Why do we why do we talk about that?" Well, because months before even some of you were on the board, that strategic plan was developed. So, I think there's value in continuing those strategic discussions. I think that will answer some of those questions. It's a little bit like since you brought up the goals and we already talked about goals tonight, it's a little bit like that. I mean, we gave him goal, we give Jason goals, but we don't necessarily say in those goals how to do it. we just say this is what we want you to do. Um so that's kind of how I would my my analogy would be that I think we've made it clear in the case of the screen time issue. We made it

339clear that we want this to be addressed and we think it's high priority and one of the tactics we've used is to set the committee up and we've gotten to have parent and board input on that which is somewhat unprecedented. Um, so I think anyway, I don't need to say anything else about it, but just my viewpoint. Well, and just to wrap up, I'm I'm I'm help I'm very pleased that I heard the different I guess the different scope or or timing of the committee will be to to provide kind of thing feedback and and work work product along the way that that that changes a lot for me. I mean, if and if they're doing the things in priority and if we all I mean, but what I would well what I would ask

340if if we largely disagreed with that priority, we would step up and say no, we don't agree. So, if we can get consensus, like I'm not it's not bad. It's just when we if it if it gets off the rails to to Eric's point, like I don't want to I don't want to let the committee go too far without and and we're checking in. I don't want them to get to go to a place where we didn't really want them to go or or they get off the track from our expectations to the point that we we we discount the the work that they've done. And I'm I'm not saying that we actually have to implement whatever exact strategy they have. they're going to they're they're providing us with feedback and data that we're going

341to have to make a final decision um that has more that has that has more parameters than than maybe that they're even being given in their in their in their work. But u so I but I do I I like I like the I like that gate to to get feedback on personal devices then technology in the classroom. Yeah, that's one of that was really encouraging and maybe one of the best things I heard all night was that the committee adapted itself already to prioritizing cell phones over everything else. I mean, that that alone tells me that at least in personally speaking, that it's accomplishing what I hoped it would, which is that the committee is actually driving driving the uh conversation rather than it being driven for them. All right. Anything else on that?

342So, after all this conversation, I understand they're going to be prioritizing cell phone or personal device usage and we're going to be getting feedback along the way on that. Um, can we set an expectation for when? So, so that would be September, October. I did notice that the um August, September, August, September. I did notice that. What is it? Your first goal, bullying. The task force on bullying is meeting over the summer, June and July, and it has parents on it. So, I guess one question I would ask is if there's an appetite among the committee members to meet to tackle that first objective in June and July, could that be proposed to them and and just see if it could be scheduled? We had some conversations about that. I think it was pretty I

343think there were people that had an appetite for it. I think lots of people in the room knew there would not be available depending on when I think it's really hard to get this full committee um during the summer when there are going to be no matter what date we select, you're probably going to miss about 50% of the committee. I think if this is going to affect policy and policy has to be written in June anyway, we're gonna have a hard time getting those recommendations in front of the board in time for that policy. So, we might as well take our time and really have the full committee there because I do I do suspect that if we do it over the summer, we will be missing a lot of the committee members. And

344I I'd hate for somebody who's really passionate about the topic to not be there because they've scheduled vacation or whatever the situation may be. Also, a lot of our teachers are working over the summer uh because we have summer camps and a lot of them work over the summer. So, some of them may not be available over the summer as well. And to be real clear, the wireless communication policy is going to be written in May because remember policy will be the first Monday in June. So it's almost finished and that will be a because it has to be by timeline a first and final reading, will it not? It it will be because I anticipate well at least my draft will be um the floor of the of the law what we have to

345have and then like I mentioned it later you can add to it later. All right. Anything else on that? All right. Good discussion. Thank you. um booster leadership council. Um I know that was generally your idea, so you want to start with it and see? It'll be real quick. I mean, so this is this is one of those things that um that I've been talking with Jason about for the last six years and we finally I don't recall all six years, but I'll I'll give you maybe five. Um but the um the but I I think I mean his his comments earlier um about the PTO and um and and just my my thoughts behind it are are essentially I mean part of it is is in helping to accomplish one of Jason's goals about

346about broadening the scope of of of fundraising and work with outside parties and and our um our fund our our boosters are are highly engaged and know that there are um that there are capital items that need to be that that they want to be purchased that aren't going to be purchased by the district and they and the only the only way to do that is is to is to join forces with with each other. Um and they they're going to they're all they're going to be having um the vehicles of the of the video boards to to facilitate that. Um but uh it's really really clear having talked to multiple um PTO presidents and and members uh I mean booster club presidents and members that there's little to no communication between they're they're out

347there on an island. they take over as president and they're like, man, what do I do? They're I mean, so it just they need they need that structure that um the PTO's have had and have been good for them. Um but they also need the collaboration and and they and we need to be seeking their ideas um as a district to to say what do what do you guys need? Um so it's a it's that bilateral communication. Um and um and so I just I mean Jason set for set it forth okay to to go I'm hope I'm hopeful I can I can help facilitate them wanting to to do that. I know Jason wants to kind of put it in their core. And I'll I'll piggyback on that. I think I think it's time

348to do it. Like I mentioned the the athletics issues have some similarities but they also have some differences. the PTO leadership has grown out of it, but we had it we had that process in for 11 years somewhere around there. Uh, and so I I I do think it's time for that. So just um in the spirit of kind of thinking about more of the tactics of that, what what what do you where do you think that goes next? Well, I I don't need a directive um you know in in in that context because I'm I've already made the commitment. Um, so my my plan is to to get access and communication with the with all the all the presidents and put something together at at a date that works with them and give them

349our our basic vision for that and get their vision as well. One thing I know that Mr. Chair, you and I have talked about, I think in this context is uh that the participants need to want it, right? It needs to not just be a directive for me. So, so my plan is to to invite them for discussions, tell them what this has the potential to be. Uh, and that's kind of how we handled the the PTO leadership a dozen years ago. I was involved in that as well. Yep. Any any other comments on that? We could drag this out to midnight if we wanted to set a record. Well, it's not we would it's not a record. Maybe maybe on topics brought up, but not on not on time. We've had some late nights.

350Um, but no, this this one this one came up um for for me and I worked with Rachel and she was great pulling some u pulling some data. Um, but it um I mean it comes from personal experience but also just in general. Um what we what we figured out was we we all know that the PTO's and boosters provide about $14.5 million last year to um to our to our schools. Um but what would what gets lost is all the other um all the other non- taxpayer fund those those are obviously all non-t taxpayer funds but all the other non-taxpayer funds that flow through our schools. Um, and the biggest the biggest pot of unrestricted dollar, well, it's restricted but discretionary um, for athletics is there's about $5.5 million that flows through the athletics

351funds and and a lot of that is just gate tickets, um, athletic fees, like all concessions in some in some cases that all goes into this bucket. And and I just realized that um that all those other so our budget is overseen by Jason and and and Rachel. Um so that that $550 million is all is all directed by the board and and then you know has a has a name to all where all those dollars are be to be spent. Um the PTO's and boosters all are directed by boards and and and they tell those dollars where to be spent. the the general athletic fund gets administered by the by the principal um and their designate, the AD or whomever, and they do they can do what with it what they want. Um but

352there's no oversight um for for where that money gets spent. It's spent in conjunction with a with with some things. I'm sure different schools have different ways of communicating that. Um, but it's the only it's the only fund that I can that I can find that that's not designated by a club or something where where somebody else is dictating where that goes. And it's a lot of money. Um, and so I'm just asking I wanted to bring everybody's attention. Um, and then and then hopefully um I mean I don't I mean this is I mean it's Jason's ultimately Jason's decision, but I would I would love I mean it could be a policy thing, but I don't want it to be a policy thing. I'd love to just bring it to bring it to the

353attention, but I would love to to see that solved. Um and and just require some some oversight. My my proposal would be that the that the booster organization at each school would either serve as or appoint um a a committee to to work with the principal and and advise them like not not to have any discretion over it necessarily, but just to be just to be a another set of eyes to to look at it. So that they have to create a budget and they have to share with with what they do and and so there's there's just eyes on it is all and it's more of a partnership because to to reflect the fact that that it's it's I mean it's ultimately their money. It's the parents money that's going in here. Um and

354they need to have a they need to have a little bit of voice in how it's spent. Uh there there are also sightbased funds where parent where principles have discretion and we do see some oversight and it's from the the grade level directors and the executive directors. It might not be the oversight that you're envisioning. I think it's worth us having a detailed discussion uh to to compare what we're doing with the discretion we give principles related to that and and some of it some of its parents money some of its visitors money to your point about gate uh that kind of thing. Um, so I I think it deserves a deeper discussion. Um, in part to make sure that you guys have a grasp of exactly how that's managed and have a discussion on

355given that parameter, what's the next step? Well, I I guess to that sidebased funds are taxpayer dollars and so the the these other funds are not and and so like they they need to have somebody who's not on the taxpayer payroll. um who's more of a more of a booster and and a and a a giver of these dollars that are that's running than than I mean I get that that Lee and her team are are are providing oversight, but that's not exactly the oversight that I'm looking for, but so can take it with what you will. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Anything else? Dan, you got anything else? All right. Thanks for the good discussion. And we're