001Test test test one two test one two Well, we will begin in one minute. If everybody wants to take their seats. work session for the Williams County Board of Education. Um, first item on the agenda is the consent agenda. I'll make one note that Miss Clemens has requested that 4.43 403 library materials under board policies be removed from the consent agenda. So we will um pull that out and I don't know if Donna if you want to make any comments about that or you want to wait till Monday night as far as the as far as the request for the removal since consent agenda is first or do you want to just wait till later? We can or we can Can you do your mic? We can also wait till later if you want if
002you're not ready. I just wanted since it's on consent, I wanted to pull it off and then highlight that we were moving it. It might be in the best interest of time because it's it's I have all my notes in here because I thought it would be We'll just take it up at the on the policy section later. Thank you. Okay, that's where I put it. So, let's move that down to um let's see where's the second reading. C. Okay. Board policies for under C. We'll we'll take it up there. Okay. All right. Any other questions about the consent agenda? Okay, we will move on to superintendent's report. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, board, uh, for for your work and, uh, and the time you're putting into this. We have 45
003minutes on my on my agenda. I do want to start with, uh, an update on our open zoning. You guys may recall that a few months ago, you approved particular schools for open zoning. And if I'm not mistaken, I think it was 42 of our schools, 42 of our 50 schools that are subject to open zoning. Of course, Renaissance and Vanguard Virtual were not. And yesterday was the lottery day for Allison Nunley and her staff to go through the process of plugging in those applications and and structuring the lottery as required by state law. The day before was the deadline. So, April 15th was everyone's deadline. our staff went through through the lottery process. I want to give you some numbers. Uh this this year we had 1,690 uh out of zone applications. Last year
004we had 1,25. So it's up by about 400 applications. Now, a lot of those are duplicates uh as families actually make a request for multiple schools because they recognize that there are some limits at some of those schools uh and they they wanted to have potentially have a choice related to that. Currently, we have about 2,600 students attending WCS who are not in their zone school. So, that's about 6% of our total. Uh and again, about 1,600 made requests. Again, some of those are duplicates. Um, so what we have seen is a slight increase over the years in the percentages. Uh, but it also emphasizes to me that that choice we give still the vast majority of our families choose to attend the school where they're zoned, where their community is. But I will tell
005you, I'm pleased that we're making sure that we maximize that opportunity as as much as we possibly can. This year we have currently five schools once Miss Nunley's staff went through the process of identifying more applications than available seats. In other words, for practical purposes, five schools had the potential to have a weight list that included Creekide Elementary that happened to be two more than the than the number. So chances are somebody in that line is going to say, you know what, I decided on something else. But in any event, as of yesterday when we structured this lottery, we have two students who are on the waiting list for Creekide. Spring Station Middle, nine students on a waiting list. And then the remaining are high schools. Franklin High School, 48 on the waiting list. Independence,
00630. And Ravenwood High School, 56 on the waiting list. Again, that was as of yesterday. So far up through last year, we have not had a student through this state lottery system who has not gotten the school that they asked for because somebody rolls off ahead of them and we've been able to fill it. There's still a real possibility here that it could happen um because because of the numbers uh that you know the the 48 and 56 uh especially at those two schools. But I wanted to make you make sure you all are aware of that. We're following that structure. Miss Nullley's office is in the process of letting everyone know. If I'm not mistaken, Brian, she actually sent those email messages out today. They actually went out as soon as the lottery went
007out yesterday. It's automated. Thank you. It actually went out yesterday. Yes, sir. Um, so some of those families have have already made the decision. Um, 10 days from now, uh, April 27th, Monday, is the deadline for families to choose that. So, I just wanted you guys to be aware of that in case you hear something. Um, and uh, that's that's a nutshell of that. If you guys have any questions about that process or that or that open zoning, certainly open any questions you may have. I just thought it was important for you to hear that. And I will say, Mr. Golden, I I talked to Allison right before I came over, about a third have already accepted a slot as of today. All right. Of the out of zone request. Uh second, I want to
008mention that uh we do have on our agenda the AP psychology textbook adoption. We do have a presentation. I'm not going to give you the presentation during the superintendent report because it is a separate item. Just want to make sure you guys were aware of that. You will in just a few minutes have uh hear from Ashley Flood who is our social studies specialist for our secondary schools who will give you some detail related to that AP psychology textbook. Uh, next I wanted to give you a little bit of a heads up and a preview related to my goals that you the annual goals that you all set for me in November. I will be giving you a detailed presentation of those those goals in May. And just as a reminder to give you a
009couple of nutshells. We talked about making sure that we had a plan to improve how we address bullying and harassment in the following year. We've had a committee working on that. Uh we will bring you that in May. Uh likewise competitive compensation a couple of months ago when you all approved the the the budget. We gave you a preview of that to get feedback. We will be making a few changes um based on the feedback you gave us and again we will give you that pay uh proposal in May with that detail. Related to that. Uh tonight Rachel's going to give you a short update on budget with county government. Uh, and the the short version, Rachel, is there's not a lot of change yet. We've had one meeting, but she'll share some details related
010to that. We will have a few more meetings before the May board meeting uh so we can get a better grasp of where the county commission is uh with with budget, and I may give you some detail related to that. Finally, uh the the third goal that we'll be reporting on in May is to identify opportunities uh to to access alternate funding sources. want to give you just a little bit of of of where we are and where we're headed related to that. I'll be giving you some details about actual donations we've received from from various sources. Um, of course from our boosters who do an incredible job from for us to some commitments we have for our in innovation hub and I've touched on a little bit of that already. Also, I want to
011let you know that the foundation, the education foundation, which has been dormant since 2022, has been reactivated. Uh, and our intent and plan is for that to be the mechanism by which uh we get proactive about seeking corporate donations. Um related to that, uh uh um I'm going to be working on putting together uh not just a committee, but a but but a a group of parents who were involved in both our arts and athletics programs to to to work towards finding ways to tap our community. uh corporate donations and individual donations for some of those projects that we just can't get funded through tax money. And this is more than just the traditional donations we get from from our boosters because largely as as many of us have had discussions, the bulk of our
012of of our booster receipts are from boosters. Uh they do fundraisers, but largely it's the same folks. And so we are we are looking to to have some folks who really know our community, really know our corporate structure uh to to brainstorm over that. Um, finally, I want to mention we are in the early stages of speaking with a local college about piloting a a uh full tuition scholarship for teacher candidates who are in our teaching as a profession program to go to college tuitionfree and come back to us when they finish college. Um, we've seen a model elsewhere uh and we're working on that. I can't share any details yet because we're still we're still in that planning stage. Um, but we're very excited about that possibility. And that's one of those things that
013based on what I've seen, it takes little baby steps early. You might you might get a couple early and then it grows as people get committed. And one one thing that I've seen so often in my professional life is folks who have the capacity to help will help if something hits their heart. Uh and so that's that's something that we're hoping specifically to address uh with with what we're working on. Um and uh uh Mr. chair. Um um that's just kind of a nutshell of of of of what we're going to give you next month. There's going to be more detail next month, but I didn't want that to fall off your radar, and you'd be surprised when we present you with with my report on on my goals. If you have any questions about
014that, certainly open to any any questions that that you have. Um have just Oh, sorry. Okay. Uh uh couple things I just want to mention just about operationally where we are. Uh TCAP is going on right now. Uh and and as as you all know, tomorrow we're actually off. Tomorrow is Good Friday. It's officially on our on our calendar as a spring holiday. And uh um it's funny. I gota just got to tell one silly story. I tell these stories to our our team sometimes. Kevin Deck, our testing coordinator, uh, keeps us informed of every detail about what's going on because inevitably there's some issue from the state or, you know, some some of the tests are on paper and some of them are computerized, all that kind of stuff. And my phone rang yesterday
015afternoon and Kevin Deck's name popped up and I answered, "Oh boy, something happened with a test." And it was Dave Allen sitting at Kevin's desk. So he said, "No, I was just working on something else." And uh, so things are going great. Things are going great. uh with with testing and I and I want to give you a comment and a reminder about some discussions that you all had the the last few months. Our teachers teach the standards and they're excellent at it. They don't teach to the test, but the state measures how well our students have mastered the standards with these tests. Uh, and so I think it's just important to emphasize that that that when the when these tests come in Williamson County schools, it's not a panic in those classrooms because they've
016been preparing and ma helping those students master standards and spiraling back when it's apparent that a student hasn't uh to work their way up to it. Um, another sub issue related to that, Mr. Chair, you and I actually had this conversation maybe two or three months ago about our calendar. uh in addition to TECAP and the end of course test that are the state test this is the window of time for AP exams as well uh and the AP offices give us specific dates for each particular test and usually it's it's maybe the last few days in April to maybe 10 days or so into May Dr. web, something like that. It's usually in that in that range uh that they take those specific tests. So, we will be testing students through probably about the
017second week in May, depending on what course they're taking. In the context of what you and I talked about was we talked about after the last presidential election that we did not want to have school during an election. Well, in 2026, there are AP exams that are scheduled that very day. by the AP folks. And so it's actually scheduled as a school day for us right now. You will actually get a hint of that when we give you a presentation related to AP psychology because last year we actually had an inclement day. If I'm not mistaken, it was flooding or storms. Uh the day that we actually were scheduled to take the AP psychology exam. And so those those things can still impact us. And then we we are given an alternate makeup day uh
018for students who were sick etc. So AP psychology last year we happened to have had to use the alternate makeup day. So students were prepared and then mother nature interfered and then they had to reprepare and of course as you guys know those kinds of things can throw some people off and and have an impact on us. Um, also a couple of things for you, especially as board members. Uh, a couple of couple of really great events are happening in the next two weeks. I know Lydia, uh, Lydia Glenn has mentioned these to you. We are celebrating our volunteers through our Shining Apple Awards this coming Tuesday. It's at 5:15. Actually, you have it on my calendar, Lydia, at 5:15. Sometimes she puts my calendar a little bit ahead of the actual start time. 5:30.
019Oh, reception is 5:15. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, Carol Birdong's department puts this together. They've done a great job over the years. So, we will be celebrating representatives from every school who've done something great for for our schools, the volunteers. Uh 5:15 reception, as Carol mentioned, at Independence High School, we're going to do that in the auditorium with a reception in the atrium just outside of that. Uh it's a great opportunity for you guys to to to to thank those to thank those volunteers. It's a really great time. The next week uh if I'm not mistaken Thursday or Tuesday, May 1st, Thursday, May 1st, thank you. Thursday, May 1st, we are uh thanking our students and their parents for those students who have committed to the US military. Uh we're having a ceremony for
020that. Uh that is at five o'clock at Legacy Middle School's auditorium. Um and and I got to tell you, sometimes we have military retirees wearing their come in in their uniforms. Um it's a it's a proud time and a scary time for some of those parents as as we as we thank those. So So that's a that's a very big day. There are a lot of other celebrations going on at schools, but those two are close to my heart. And I just want to again invite you. What we typically do with a with a shining apple is take some photos with you all as we take turns telling little video stories that Carol's department puts together. It's an incredible day. Uh and uh and and then again with the recruiters uh the recruiters for each
021of the branches, they're usually represented thanking those thanking those students who make commitments. pretty impressive group of young people. And Dr. Driggers actually asked me this week um what percentage of our students commit to the US military. Last year we had 36 students notify us that they were committing to the US military. That's a little bit more than 1% of of our graduating class. I did a quick internet research and I it's hard for me to know how how much of the data is accurate, but what I found is about 0.5% of high school graduates enlist in the US military. If that's accurate, our students are are committing at twice the national average. That's accurate. Thank you. So, I'm I'm very proud of that. I'm pr very proud of our community uh and the values
022that that our teachers and our parents are instilling in in our in our students. I will say generally speaking the south tends to have a higher percentage commit than other regions of the country for whatever reason. You're nodding with that too. I don't know if you if you'd seen that data. Army. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, Mr. Welch mentioned we get a higher percentage of servicemies. Um, and we have actually had representatives from from our senator's offices, US senator's offices come to these meetings from time to time when we have a commitment to the military. So, with that, Mr. chair. Um, that's that's my uh that's my report knowing that we do have another presentation related to AP psychology in just a bit. Thank you. Any questions or comments for any of Mr. Golden's
023uh report? Mr. Gal, Jason, one thing on the do we know what happened on the the practice ACT test? I don't know if it was across the board, but I know like I don't the the computers were down, so I think they had to take it take it by on on [Music] on paper. Thank you for that. I I don't know the answer to that question. Dr. Allen, Dr. Webb, can you speak to that? I don't have any information to share on that. That may have been isolated, but we can get some follow-up on that to send out. I I was That's what I was wondering if it was isolated or if it wasn't. Yeah, I I had not heard that. Um and so so first of all, thank you on the on the athletics
024piece. Um I know we we had talked about engaging the boosters. I've been advocating that for for a while. So, I really appreciate um hearing what you um put together and I I guess I'd encourage you after talking with a couple of boosters um is to is to make sure that that is a um a forum um where where they can engage one another as well as the district and have birectional communication. um and not just pushing things down at them or even asking them questions like make it um make sure that the that the agenda and the and the forum is open to to actually solicit their um their feedback on on what's important to them, not what not what you want to ask them for. Um, and so in included in that, um,
025I think we we we missed a a big opportunity to, um, to engage them on on this apparel contract. And the more I find out about it, um, the more frustrated I am. But it was it was signed in early February, it was actually executed um, in the middle of March. um as far as technically executed by both by both parties including one of one of our final signatures. Um and so but then then we got the we got the feedback from um from the community after they found out about it like I mean a month later. Um, but then subsequent to all of that feedback, um, we we signed an addendum and and I just got it today and and and I want you to talk about um the the information that's being pushed
026out because I I was I was getting I was getting information from from our school that was being driven by the new contract, but there was there there's there there still hasn't been anything um distributed to to this effect. Um, and it's causing quite a it's a it's quite a big difference in um in operating uh our our SOPs, if you will, and our the requirements on um on our schools and our um the discretion on our schools and the requirements on our parents to to purchase um things out of their own pocket that are um you know are being driven by the by the contract now that weren't prior to um prior to the addendum. And so, um, I I am, uh, I've asked Rachel to, um, to get some information that she's, of
027course, she's already started giving me like in the last 20 minutes, but, um, so, uh, but I I want to I'm going to do a, um, a dive into, um, into how our schools all operate from these, um, these athletic funds that are funded with non on taxpayer dollars. Um, and they're I I suspect they're done quite a bit differently. There's quite a bit of discretion amongst the schools. Um, but I'm I'm going to I'm going to look into it and and get back with with maybe some some recommendations on how we uh how we how we might go forward. But they the my my biggest concern is that there's all these funds. So all the booster clubs have board representation and boards develop budgets and and dictate spending, but all the money that comes
028into the athletic fund um is distributed is collected and distributed at the at the solely at the discretion of the of the principal and the AD. Um I mean may at the principal and maybe delegated to the AD. Um but um but I think we need some I I think we need some parent oversight there. Maybe not not taking away the authority, but just some transparency and decision- making on how those funds are spent, but u that's that's one of my that's one of the things I know I'm going to look at, but um I don't know what I'm going to find. So, just letting you know that I'm looking at that. Well, thank you for that. Um I I will say first, we can always grow in communication. uh our our model is for
029our coaches and ads who have that relationship with the parents to to communicate and and uh so we've had some discussions just in the last few days about that. Uh so that's a threshold uh that we we can always grow. My hope is that when when we introduce these structured uh planned conversations, we'll be able to do a better job with that. We have had some discussions over the years about um you know how do we send messages out to so many people all at once so that everybody gets in and can have those discussions and I think I think we have room to grow uh related to that. Second, uh you you mentioned the the contract itself and the and the way it's funded and you're right that it's a substantial expense and largely
030it's funded by the boosters. Uh and so I I I did want Dr. Webb to speak to to to to our process and and how we're doing doing things related to that. Uh and and then Rachel may as well on the finance end from you know if if you would Dr. Web share a little bit operationally how we're work how we how we walk through that and then Rachel I know for example we do have audits uh outside audits of sitebased funds where and I want to just do a double check on on how those are reviewed uh by our by our auditors Dr. Webb. Absolutely. Thanks for the question. Mr. Gabriath and I had the opportunity to speak a little bit in regards to this and so thank you for summarizing some of those
031pieces. Um as we kind of start this conversation off. Uh one of the things that we can do is that we can take um the very first apparel contract, the second one and this third one and we can articulate uh the differences between them. This is our third apparel contract that we've had and they're long contracts. So we can help identify for the board u those major differences. Um there aren't substantial changes from last year to this year. Um there are when the award was given to Matthews team sports. The review uh the process of reviewing the bids uh surfaced a lot of feedback from our schools. We asked all of our uh high school representatives to to share information on behalf of their coaches, their athletic departments, their booster clubs, their students. And we
032heard a lot of feedback in the review process of those two contracts when the award was being decided. You know that that isn't the point that we can go to each of those individual people and negotiate as an example of issues that we've had with our last contract or things that we want to see different after the award was given. That's when we can go back and say to the person that Matthews Team Sports who was awarded the contract to say here are some pieces now that you've been given the award some pieces that we would like to see done differently. Let's negotiate. Let's uh take this feedback that we've received from our school communities and we've received a lot of it actually an overwhelming amount of information to see what kind of aspects that
033we could do differently in this contract even though the bones of the contract are similar to what we've had a lot of pieces the same that we've had in the past. How can we ensure that it better meets our needs uh than in prior years? So through that process, we asked our schools to uh reflect upon the feedback they had already given us um for the review and we scheduled a meeting with each athletic administration, the principal, the assistant principal and the athletic director on behalf of their school athletic community. Um and Mr. Joins, who's here this evening, who's our district athletic director sitting in the back. He, myself, or Miss Dickerson, who is our executive director of high schools. Um the three of us went and had a meeting with each high school group.
034The first half of that meeting was reviewing the feedback that we had received and changes and and aspects that they would like to see done differently. We had heard so much of those those pieces. We'd actually had a conversation with Mr. Joins being the lead voice with Matthew's team sports um to share some of those pieces we'd like to see done differently. But we wanted to go ahead and ask our schools, what else is it? You know, what else is missing? What else are you feeling? Are you hearing? What are your students telling you? The main things that we heard, one of the main things as I give you one example that we heard from the schools is that students like to choose their own shoes. You know, in our prior contracts, it's been written
035in uh and at the beginning of the contract, you know, schools were uh pretty diligent and uh enforced that contract really well and it got loose towards the end. And what they wanted to see happen with a new contract is that students even if this and this award is an Adidas contract as it has been in the prior contract years, they wanted to choose their own shoes. Um so we negotiated with Matthews team sports and that was one of the pieces that came up and an addendum. So the first half of those meetings at each of the high schools we that we completed um was just our team and the schools having honest conversations about what their schools felt. Um then the end of the meeting we brought in um Tate Matthews who is the
036owner and operator of Matthews Team Sports and we let him address those issues that that particular school had uh hear their concerns, hear the pieces that they'd like to see done differently and we repeated that process at every single one of our high schools that has athletic compet competitive teams. Some of those meetings were an hour and a half, some of them were over three hours. Uh but we took the time just to hear what their school communities uh what they had to say. And in those conversations, like I said, there was a lot of feedback from what students felt, what parents felt, what uh small sports coaches felt, what female sports coaches felt. Um it was a lot of specific information. Uh when those concluded, Mr. joins uh representing our group, compiled all that
037feedback, met with uh Tate Matthews with Matthews Team Sports, and uh then with uh Rachel Farmer's department, Kirk Elliot, who oversees our contracts um and shared all those aspects that we'd like to see done differently um and addendums that we had um gotten Matthews Team Sports to agree upon. So, that has happened in the last three weeks, I guess. last three weeks we've kind of wrapped those processes up. Um so um Mr. Elliott helped draft an addendum to the contract. Again, one of the main pieces that you'll see instead of as in the prior uh two contracts where there the expectation when you're competing in an athletic contest as an example that the your apparel is Adidas that the exception is your shoes. The school can make a choice. the teams can choose their own
038shoes if they would like. They don't have to be uh Adidas. Um another another issue would be if I um let's just say I have some type of gloves like I'm playing football and I have a certain type of glove that fits my hand better. One of the addendums is that um you can't have a logo of another competitive uh a competitor to Adidas shown on your gloves. So you'd have to be covered in order for you to wear them. it couldn't be shown the Adidas logo or the a non Adidas logo as an example. So those pieces were negotiated, put into the contract. Uh there is uh promotional dollars that each school gets um as a part of the contract. Uh and so if the school um chose not to do the full contract,
039not to do the full shoes part of the contract, their promotional dollars were slightly decreased. Uh and that was part of the addendum. In addition, uh part of the our conversations were in regards to service. We heard a lot of booster communication, a lot of school-based uh sports teams uh feedback, specifically smaller sports, uh that felt like that the service needed to improve uh and that they worried that because maybe they weren't their team wasn't spending as much money, maybe they didn't get as good service as a larger sports team. Um, so part of what was created was an order calendar. So if I'm a spring sport and it's set in and by TWS delay the first day of practice. So we backwards mapped what is the due date if you want to have things
040by the first day of practice. What is the date that you need to have your order submitted by and we did that for every sport so that the calendar is established. It's agreed upon by Matthews team sports. If an order is placed by that deadline, you will get your your materials that you need, your apparel uh that you need for practice and games. You will get it by the first day of practice. Um if if for some reason you don't um get that, then Matthews Team Sports has agreed to a discount for that um for those items, whatever those items happen to be that you don't get. So, there were pieces like that that we felt like were important uh based on the feedback that we heard um that it was important to go back
041and and negotiate with Matthews team sports to add some pieces um that really met the needs of our schools as we had those meetings and Mr. Joins was at every single one of them. I was at some, Miss Dickerson was at all but one, I think. Um the it was wellreceived. It was robust conversation. um a lot of appreciation for the time spent, the explanation. What we recognized in the implementation of this contract is that when prior contracts were rolled out, um we should have done a better job and could have done a better job in communicating with everyone, communicating with our school communities, communicating with boosters, and communication is an evolving goal of ours to continue to improve communication. So, uh, we heard that feedback and we're going to continue to work to improve.
042Uh, so, uh, as a in working with, uh, Kirk Elliot, who does these contracts and has done them for maybe over close to 30 years at this point, uh, he shared with us, you know, that's a pretty common thing that when you have a contract that um, in in our district especially, we something's not going right and you've agreed to a contract, you go back, negotiate, and you do an addendum. So, it it uh felt good to meet some of those needs and who knows, we may end up with another addendum at some point and the length of this contract. Uh, and we're certainly open to continue to grow in the process. Rachel, yeah, I'll just echo um that a little bit that Mr. Elliot does, he's been our purchasing director for 28 years and
043really has done hundreds of contracts. Um the idea of the addendum is anytime is going to be that it um in no way has a harmful repercussion on us. Most of the time and again in like this situation um we have listened listened to the feedback and thought these were ways that we could help. We could help um with the vendor. We could help with the communities again with like the shoes. And so um it's a business. The contracts are valid contract. the vendor does not have to agree to the addendum because they have the signed contract. So by agreeing to that that you do not have to fully wear our shoes. That is a concession they make. And so that's why it um pretty standard procedure that when you make a concession like that
044that there could be a deduction from what was promised on their side. Um again as far as that promo money because there has to be um with a concession that comes with the cost. And so, um, if you have questions about them, we're totally happy to answer anything. And Rachel, if you would speak to, uh, the the u the the each individual school's use of the funds that they receive. So, we have activity funds, which are all the funds that are at the schools and state uh, accounting manual for schools says you have a choice of how you treat your athletics. Um, as far as reporting the financials, you could either have a general athletic account, which would mean fees and gate money all go into a general athletic account and then that general athletic
045helps support all of your sports, or you can have each sport be self-contained. As far as I know, we've always made the decision, I mean, it was made way before I ever got here 15 years ago, that we operate under the general athletic model. So what that means is any gate money again fees at the end of the year anything left over rolls into a general one think of it as a savings account too for athletics and then they start the next year by taking the funds that are in general athletics. Normally you will have coaches make requests for items that they need um and they athletic director and a athletic um either principal assistant principal someone in the school they meet and they budget out those funds. What does that mean? Tennis generally isn't
046going to have a gate. Golf isn't generally going to have a gate, but yet we have these sports that we want to support. Football is going to have a major gate. And so that's why the gate money goes in and it helps distribute funding to make sure that all of the sports get um the items that they need. Again, it varies a little bit from school to school in that if you looked at someone's books today, one school may have um the main account, everything flowing through it, that general athletic account. Some will break it down and monitor during the year by sport, but at the end of the year, anything left over is going to roll up. Um, fundraising is different each sport because you anytime you fund raise, it's restricted for what you
047fund raise it for. So, those accounts stay. So, if soccer had a fundraiser, that account will stay with whatever balance and it rolls to the next year. But again, anything that's left in a general athletic account at the end of the year, any balances left roll up into that general athletic fund. Beginning of year when the fees are charged um and his gates occur, all of that revenue is going into that general athletic fund. And so um at any time a parent um this happens um has happened from time to time, will come to a coach and say, "Hey, we would like to know." Most of the time the coaches can pro immediately provide to you. This is a breakdown of the money that's come in for us and how we've spent it. Um you
048can do that through the public records request, but um coaches generally speaking are more than willing to I mean they'll they'll provide that information for you. And so as far as being um the feedback from the the community, you do you have that opportunity. I mean parents have the opportunity to talk with their coaches. I will tell you what comes in at the school level through the fees and through the gate money is not going to obviously it doesn't cover everything that the sports need and that's why those booster clubs are so essential because they come in and pick up um they pick up the rest of the cost for those for those items. And if I may, Mr. Galborth, you're right that it does a lot of those items do vary from school to
049school. Uh, for example, at most of our schools, the the the booster clubs or some maybe sometimes it's the band boosters, sometimes it's the PTO, sometimes it's the athletic boosters run concessions, but that's not true at every school. Uh, and then if if if you know for those funds that are booster funds, generally speaking, the principal or an assistant principal has conversations with those leaders about what their priorities are uh even before some of the fundraisers occur. and the boosters put that effort in. We we could not exist at the level we exist anywhere near the level we exist without our boosters. And so to your point, uh the the better and more we communicate with our booster leaders, uh the the better off we're all going to be and the better services our students
050are going to get. Um that's part of what I think you were alluding to, uh that there's some value in us having some discussions about that. sometimes best practices uh in and may be shared. I will tell you just uh we have had some conversations over the years with our PTO leaders. We've had a we've had a um a group that is kind of been a touchstone for questions from from PTO presidents. What we have found sometimes is they can they're really excellent at helping each other with practices and and you know best practices. Um but they're sometimes very protective about their fundraisers, right? Because they because they found they found value in what they're doing and there is competition. Uh and some of those sources for fundraisers have made a commitment to a particular
051school because their business is right next door and and that's and they want to make sure they protect that revenue source. So we want to be thoughtful about all those nuances and be respectful to our boosters um when we talk with them. But in all those context, we have room to grow and uh and I agree with you on that. So I guess to follow up with Dr. Webb, I mean with so so you all met these, you know, hour and a half to three-hour meetings with the with the school leadership, but um and so I I suspect that principal, assistant principal, ads were were there, maybe maybe some coaches, any any booster representation when you met with any of those schools? These meetings were the athletic administration. So the athletic director spoke on behalf
052of the coaches. The coaches spoke to the athletic director on behalf of their boosters. Uh we had a lot of feedback that was collected prior to these meetings. Uh and we saw themes that emerged from the feedback from all the schools. Uh there was parent feedback and student feedback reported uh through those various channels. So there weren't, you know, parents representing each one of those booster groups, but the athletic director representing all those voices. um in my opinion get did a very good job and in addition to the athletic assistant principles speaking on behalf of their school communities of what their issues have been and again they were thematic. So my what what I've what I've what I see as the as the biggest changes this year in this new contract is um unless unless
053I unless my experience is is different than than anybody else's but this is the first time that the shoes are being required um it well it's the first time that I if whether whether it's required or not um there was no there was never a penalty for not for non-compliance and so um so I get maybe that Matthews came forward and said we're hey we're going to we're going to enforce this this year even though there was no there was no penalty for defined in the contract that I could see that was um that was defined and so now now we also have to so I'll take that one first so now the decision on whether to make the whether to purchase the shoes or not is is by by school and by by team.
054And it's not all teams. It's just a select number of teams that are that are in this program. But but the decision is being made by the school and may and possibly by the school and the coach, but not by the not by the people who are buying the shoes. And so here's the here's the flow of the money. The parents buy the shoes. The sponsorship dollars go to the school. The school uses that to purchase free coaches gear. It could be used to co It could be used to purchase student gear. Um but part of it is allocated to administration. The bulk of it is is allocated to coaches. And so you've got the ads and the principles deciding whether or not they're going to get less money or not before they ask the
055parents whether they want to spend that money um in the manner that they that that that's dictated by the contract. And so I just encourage you like I think and I'm and I'm getting this feedback now because I've already purchased my Adidas shoes for for next year because like and we haven't even gotten this is this is the ink's not dry but yet the everything is going through because based on the timeline we've got to purchase everything by by April and May. Um so that's the first thing. The second thing is this had these are the this is the feedback that that we got after um after our meeting. Um and this was just at Ravenwood and I've heard from other school a couple other schools but this headto toe where you can't you know
056you can't wear another logo on your socks or your and you've got to have the right the you've got to have Adidas gloves. Um that's all new. Um so it's new to be enforced. maybe maybe they're choosing to enforce all this stuff. There's never been a penalty. Um and there's never been a requirement to be head to toe. Um and so these are I don't know what the penalty is for for that. It's not clear. Um but it's being told to the parents that they have to that they have to have these things or they've got to tape it up over like we're not getting paid by Adidas. Adidas through Matthews Team Sports gives us some of our money back, but nobody is getting nobody has an NIL deal to get paid by Adidas and
057we're treating it like that. And I think the fact that like trying to trying to dictate and make parents buy things um to fit a brand um and is and and the with the with the intent and the and the letter of the law to say you can't go out on the field in a game with something out out there or you've either got to tape it up or you're not going to be able to play like is that I think is just It's very wrong. And I think the more this gets out, we're gonna the parents are um begrudgingly they will do it because they want their kids to be able to participate. Um but it is it's reckless on behalf of um of us to to expect and demand our our parents to
058keep on shelling out this money. And I think it's wrong. Thank you for that. But I do want to speak to it a little bit um with with this caveat that we will dig in deep. Uh the the the requirement that you addressed has been the requirement of the previous contracts and you may remember Dr. Webb spoke to u that was that was complied with better in earlier years and then it changed and I'm paraphrasing what she said. So that requirement has been there. It's important to us that we don't intentionally violate our contractual obligations. Uh and what we found was when things are going fine over time the compliance wasn't as good as it should have been. So we set up a structure where all but those six sports that you're mentioning had no
059obligation ever again. it was removed from the contract for those six sports. If a student did not wear those Adidas, then there would be no impact on the parents. The parents could choose with that small reduction in the promotional items that you spoke to and you spoke to coaches, apparel, etc. Uh to your earlier point, um I believe that it varies from school to school. uh just just just like uh just like we talked about, but the bids and the proposals from the vendors who made proposals anticipated that as a commitment. Uh and so what we've been able to do is remove that as a commitment so that if there is a problem down the road, we don't have that obligation. Uh that's that's the key to it from my perspective. It was identified as
060something that had become a problem and for relatively small dollars we were able to negotiate that total removal. Uh and we Dr. Webb mentioned those other all those other sports. They don't have that obligation anymore. Parents are totally free to purchase what they want for their students. Now I get your point that there were some examples in the past and you're right about that. So, for what it's worth, and I think that's worth a lot, that was what we did in that particular example because we heard from parents. And what I also suspect, I don't know this, I suspect just over time the culture on that has changed from the last time we signed the contract with a commitment. So, but all all your points and concerns are well made. I think it's definitely worth
061a review. Um, we've had a good relationship with with our contractor. What we have found is over the years and like Dr. Webb mentioned, this is our third iteration of this contract, it's been a very much a net good uh for for for savings for cost because of the volume of purchases. Uh and it's been so many years now that it's hard to go back and compare to what each individual school was was paying for. But those examples of coaches apparel definitely are things we need to look at. [Music] So, are you saying that all the vendors considered this would have been an expectation at those for those sports? Yeah, Dr. Webb, I know you were on the team that evaluated the contracts. That's that's correct. We had uh two bids for our contract and
062both bids included uh to use Mr. Galbra's term, headtotoe implications of apparel on game day. Okay. Thank you. Can you can you remind us of the duration of that contract? Six years. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on that or any other final comment I'd like to make uh Mr. Chair is uh Dr. Webb mentioned the possibility of of other changes. We're we're going to continue to explore that because I have a suspicion things are going to continue to change over time. You mentioned NIO. We don't have NIL students could outside of us. That's actually TWWSSAA rules. But as volatile as athletics is right now, I'd be surprised if we didn't have some changes in the in the next couple years. Speaking of athletics, can you go back to the open zoning and speak
063to what that looks like for high schoolers and open zoning if they are athletes? Sure. Thank you for that. Um, with us approving open zoning, that does not eliminate the TWWSA rules related to students transferring schools. Um, right now those I'm I'm going to I'm going to use the word complex and I'm looking over at uh um Darren Joins. What we like to do with our students who are thinking about transferring is make sure that they give that detail to TWSSA because TAASSAA is a decision maker on eligibility. Um so for example a school would might have an open zone but TWSSAA might have a rule that restricts them from changing schools during their high school career. There may be some rules related to that. There could be some hardships related to that. It's not
064cut and dry that if you change based on WCS allowing it that you might not have to sit out a year. Um there's there's some details related to TWSAA rules. On the other side of the coin, there is currently some legislation pending that would in essence allow for a one-time transfer, and I'm using my phraseology without explanation, without a without a hardship. Um we don't know where that's going to land. So even as we sit today, the rules as we think they may exist could be different by the fall um based on what the TWSAA has um and the legislature are dealing with. Short version is a student should not rely on our transfer to be 100% confident they can immediately transfer and play at the next school. They need to check on that. Anything
065further? No, sir. All right, we can move on to the operations report. Mr. King. Thank you, Mr. Chair. A few uh construction updates. Brentwood Middle School phase two. Uh the brick facade is complete, the framing inspection passed and so the drywall installation has begun. All the uh window frame installation is complete and painting has begun. So that project is moving along well. Uh the transportation building phase two uh we've talked about the office space for all of uh the transportation team has been completed. They've all been moved in. Phase two is to redo some of the um parts bay and some of that area the of the bus garage. So, the demol demolition of the old office building is complete. The mezzanine has been installed and the rough in for the framing for the new
066offices in the bus garage uh has started. The innovation center, the footing installation is about 50% complete. Some foundation block is being installed. Uh the slab will be in two pores and the first pore is scheduled for the last week of April. And I do have one more. I'm going to try to channel my inner carol bird song and would like to give a shout out to Connor Sheepard. Uh he participated along with four other of our bus drivers in the first annual Tennessee school bus safety and skills region competition and won first pl first first place in his division. So he will now move on to the state competition in Pigeon Forge and I believe that's in June. So we wish him the best of luck. But that was exciting. So if he wins
067state, Carol will then Carol can do it. But I said I was gonna do it. I was gonna get my shout out tonight even if Carol couldn't do it on Monday. Hopefully Carol will get to do it as well. I can't I can't resist the joke. Did he back up without hitting a mailbox? Apparently. So I don't know if that's one of the tests, but I will say uh in in in all serious related Well, I'm smiling. We do really work hard to minimize those opportunities to go in reverse. I mean I mean it's the it's it's just the truth. Uh and I know Allison Nunley and her mapping team will work with transportation to minimize those those times. And occasionally we'll see an example of somebody's, you know, backing up. We'll say, you know
068what, let's add a quarter mile, you know, and and and have a loop. And that's my report unless anybody has any questions. So if he wins, does he get a brand new bus? Maybe. I you know, that's a great question. Surely it'll be more than that plaque. Yeah. Something. All right. Any questions for Mr. King? All right. Uh we'll move on to the board chair report. I'm going to uh talk about something that we we've been we've spent a fair amount of time talking about and I I think this is a good development um that hopefully everybody will be excited about. So, we've we've talked a number of times about the the technology committee and the desire that we have to um dig further into that and explore options as a board and as a
069district on what to do about screen time and and the use of technology and so forth. And I think there's general agreement that broad agreement that we need to need to address it. um that it's worth spending a significant amount of time and energy um talking about and getting input across a cross-section of our community about. So Jason and I have talked about this and and my suggestion to him was that in this committee that we form that we um allow the opportunity for board members to appoint uh a each of us to appoint a parent to that committee. So each of the 12 of us on the board would have an opportunity to appoint one person of our choosing um to have parent representation on the committee and then the other members of the
070committee would be appointed by Jason and his team from among teachers, principles, central office, whoever they see fit. So um I wanted to put that out there. We've we've decided that we want to go that direction and we've agreed on that. Um, we've also primarily Jason and his team have really worked hard on developing an outline um and a scope of work for what this committee would do. And I'm going to read the four objectives that we've got on paper. Now, this is subject to some edits still, but I wanted to read these to you and then we're going to email out the full document that that consists of a timeline and some objectives for what this committee would um seek to accomplish. So, four objectives. Number one, develop district-wide guidelines for the appropriate use
071of instructional technology during school hours. Number two, establish recommendations for the optimal amount of screen time for students categorized by grade level. Number three, provide families with guidance on technology use and screen time limits based on the child's grade or age outside of school hours. Then four, review current practices regarding personal device usage in schools to ensure they are they align with established screen time guidelines. So, it's really dealing with seeking to deal with both the use of our um computers, Chromebooks in the classroom during school hours, but and also personal cell phones and whe the appropriateness of um them being brought into the schools into the classrooms and the students having access to those. So the the vision here is that this would be a up to a year. The committee would meet for
072up to a year on a regular basis to talk about different um objectives, different um there'd be different session topics that are all laid out in this document. So I really appreciate you Jason and your team for putting this together. Um, you know, we've, as I said, for several months, this has been talked about and by and some of us are pretty passionate about getting to a solution on this and having having the community be engaged on this. So, um, look for that, uh, in your email and, um, we'll try to implement this. I think the intent is for the first meeting of the committee to be in May. Is that right? That is correct. So, we want to we want to get on this pretty quickly and start to take up some of these
073issues over the next 90 days or so prior to school starting in the fall. So, any any feedback or questions or comments? I mean, certainly when the email goes out, you know, we're free to have a discussion about that on email and and um ask any questions, get clarification. Uh Mr. Chair, if I may, a couple things. Um you had mentioned, we had talked about this maybe two work sessions ago. Uh we did hear from a couple of board members with some suggestions. Um and uh I I would encourage you all that if you don't have somebody that's in your mind, let us know because there may be somebody else available from another board member. Um also, Mr. Chair, uh Dr. Allen and his team, uh with with help from um both Dr. Royer and
074Dr. web really put together this draft. Um the proverbial don't reinvent the wheel was was was part of what drove them. One of our sister school districts spent some time on this. Their timeline was actually two years to make a substantial change. Um this is a draft timeline that we want to get feedback from the committee. Um but but again to your point, it's broader than just what happens with us because we've had so many discussions. Many of us have had discussions about about some of that research that shows um even students who arrive at us may have spent on average as much as three hours a day on devices before they even come to us at kindergarten. So it what we what we work on ourselves is very important, but making sure that we
075serve our community as a whole has got to be a piece of that. So, one thing we will do in the email that goes out is give a a deadline by which we'd like to have everyone submit the name of the person um that you want to nominate and just obviously make sure that that person wants to do it and agrees to do it before you submit the name so that they can compile that list and get invitations out whenever the committee is going to meet. How many? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Our our draft projection, if I'm not mistaken, Mr. is eight at this point. Eight. Yeah, we we've got some draft topics to to cover that gamut. Eight. Well, we've got it right now scheduled monthtomonth. So, effectively, yeah. Dr.
076Allen, is there any detail you want to add to that? I think they're these board members are trying to make sure they give a a potential candidate some parameters about what they what kind of commitment they're making. Yeah. And this document lays out um I'm sorry, I didn't mean to speak over you. Go ahead. No, that's okay. You have the document. Yeah, it it lays out the the various session uh proposed sessions and and some some bullet points under each one that would be covered in that session. Um and then it gives a a time a general timeline 8 to 12 month timeline. Uh so it'll all be here for you to look at and when you're talking to your person to to you know frame it up, right? I'll make sure to email that
077to you as well. I have a question. Is there going to be an opportunity for any like community type forums where we can because there's a lot of interest in this. I expect that's a real possibility uh that that that the committee may say all right we need community input on this or we need to share something with the community. I do anticipate there will be some community meetings. We did see in the model in a similarly high performing school district in another state that that was a part of it as well. uh and it's and it's input plus if there's any changes making sure the community grasp it and has you know and and and knows what that implementation means. It's both. What's the name of that school? I'm sorry. What's the name of
078that school? Uh that was um uh uh Northwestern Arkansas. Dr. Allen Bentonville. I thought of it before I before he got it out. Bentonville, Arkansas, which is outside of Fagetville. Um I'm going to be a little facicious. It's the It's the uh It's the Brentwood and Franklin of the University of Arkansas's town. One of the things that Jason and I talked about on this was that giving the committee a little bit of the flexibility to to decide what are maybe some of the tools that we want to use to gather this information. And so to his point, the the the forum or a survey might be one of the outcomes that the committee says we want to do in order to get to a conclusion or get to get to some recommendations that ultimately would
079come back before the board. Anything that's going to be a major change or a policy change would come back from the committee to the board. So it wouldn't be making final decisions per se, just recommendations. I regret not knowing this, but do do we know what has happened with the legislation on cell phone usage in schools? We do. Okay. And that would be what did it pass? Um wireless communication bill passed. Um we will there's some times in the legislation uh where and it is wireless communication. And so it's more than just cell phones where they are not allowed. Um and then there are times where they are. I anticipate um at this point working I'm working with our instructional tech and our IT department. We will be bringing a policy consistent with the state
080law. It just passed couple weeks ago. Um but it has been signed by Governor Lee. So there will be a policy coming possibly around the time the committee begins their work and and sorry we have to have a policy per the legislation and and to that point our standard has been students don't have those devices out unless directed by a teacher but the reality is enforcement has has an opportunity to grow. Okay. Um any questions or comments about that? Oh yeah. So is it on this topic or something? Okay. So um anyway, thank you to everybody who's over the last several months has brought up this topic and has weighed in on this because it all kind of led to this um this committee being formed. So thank you. All right, Eric. Thanks. No, I
081I just wanted to uh recognize looks like we have a lot of our teachers here tonight and wonderful to see you and all your your beautiful different school shirts and so glad that you're here. We appreciate you and hope that you'll always continue to participate and give us feedback. So, thank you for being here tonight. All right, that is my report. We can move on to unfinished business. um approval of the AP psychology textbook adoption committee recommendation. Um this is revisiting this from a previous meeting. Mr. McGolden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Based on feedback from the board, uh we um uh we do have a presentation for you, Ashley Flood, our secondary school social studies specialist. That's a lot of alliteration for for an amazing I'm done. Um so, uh um Miss Flood, if you
082would. Uh, and as she's walking up and preparing and Tim is getting that, I want to thank you board members who spent some time especially this past past month pulling the books and looking at those books. Uh, we very much appreciate uh your engagement in that. So, Ashley, thank you very much. Um, so I just wanted to take this opportunity to share with you just a little bit of context about the AP psychology course. um and hopefully answer uh many of your questions, but if you think of any additional questions, feel free to ask those um as we go or wait until the end, either one. Um so, the AP psychology course is an elective course that we offer to give students an opportunity to earn a college credit um in high school. For some
083of our AP courses, for example, AP US History can be substituted for a graduation requirement, US history. Um but AP psychology is not one of those courses. So it cannot be substituted in place of a graduation requirement. So it is just an elective. Um there is a course and exam description for all of our AP courses and that's provided by the college board. So essentially these are our standards, our objectives. Um and this is what our teachers follow. Um we commonly refer to it as a CED. So, if I I'm going to try to say course and exam description every time, but if I forget and say CED, that's what it means. Um, and so this course and exam description was updated and published in fall of 2024. And so, typically AP psychology, um, it's
084a social studies course and it's followed the social studies adoption cycle. Um but because of this update from the college board, the teachers approached us and asked if we could go ahead and adopt uh a new addition that aligns to the changes in the AP psychology course. Um and some of those changes were significant. Sometimes it's a small update, but this was a pretty significant change. And so I wanted to share a little bit about that. Um the one of the significant changes was to the writing portion of the exam. So the writing portion of the exam before was more concept application, short answer, free response. The writing portion now there are two essays the students have to write. One is an article analysis question um where they get a summary of a um journal
085article and they have to analyze it, form an argument around it. And then the second is an evidencebased question where they have multiple sources and they have to state a claim and they have to support that claim with evidence that's provided. So it is significantly different and I'm going to show you some examples of that in some future slides. So the writing portion changed and so our teachers are really looking for a resource that is going to support writing instruction so that our kids can perform well on that portion of the AP exam. So that's really what they're looking for in the resource is um practice writing um that uh that's going to adequately prepare our students. The second big change was this AP science practices. So you might me you might remember I mentioned
086AP psychology has typically been a social studies course and so now it is looking more and more like a science course and so the uh skills here are listed for you on this table. This is from the College Board website. The uh percentages over here show you the weight that that skill has on the exam multiplechoice. And then you'll notice uh skill four, which is brand new to this course, argumentation, that is only assessed in the free response section. And both of those um essay style questions, uh it states in the CED that they are assessing skill four, argumentation. So, the writing portion of the exam is new and it's assessing a skill in the course that is new. Um, so that's something that our teachers are looking for as well is a a resource
087that can support instruction on these AP science skills. So, these were the options that were part of our review process, part of the adoption process. And so the first three, Syngage, McGraill, and Meyers, they look like a traditional college textbook. The Amsko Perfection Learning is a smaller book. It's more of a summary. It's like a companion, a study companion guide. So, it gives summaries on topics and it has practice questions kind of like a AP exam prep book would. Um, but it doesn't have the robust resources that a full textbook does. So the first three are look like textbooks and then this other one looks like a exam review companion guide to the course. So our teachers keeping in mind the changes that are in that CED they looked at all of those resources carefully
088and these were the two that we determined are aligned to the updates. So those are the only two resources that have updated support for the writing component of the exam that has changed and that mentioned the science practices particularly argumentation which is the brand new one. And so our teachers I just wanted to share this with you because they don't start with the book with their planning. They start with that course exam description the CED. So that is what they start with planning. Um, and we can tell that a lot in the data because our AP psychology teachers are phenomenal. They do an amazing job and our students perform very well in this AP course. Um, I want to explain a little bit about what we're looking at here. I wanted to show you the
089report of how our students performed last year. And when I went looking for it, I couldn't find it because of the inclement weather day uh that was mentioned previously. So I pulled the this is typically the report that we would get from our students. And so you'll see the global average uh score on the exam versus where it says your group that's WCS. So significantly higher average score. And then the exam is scored on a scale of 1 to five. Three is considered passing. So sometimes we call this a pass rate. the percentage of scores that were three or higher in Williamson County, we had 80% in 2023 and then the global was 59%. So, students performing really well. Um, still performing well last year, but they were not able to take the AP exam
090on the designated national day because of the inclement weather. So, they had to make it up, I believe it was about two weeks later than expected, closer to graduation. And so, that made it a little bit more challenging. Um, but that gives you a little bit of data there on how our students perform. So, going back to the course and exam description, um, it's a very lengthy PDF. It's on the College Board website. Anybody can access it. You're welcome to review it if you're interested. Um, but this is the course at a glance. So, it gives you an overview of the five units of study. Previously, it was nine. So, the content was organized in a very different way. So the Syngage and McGra Hill book are still aligned to the old course and exam
091description which are the nine units of study. So the content has been reorganized into these five. And so the um Meyers book reflects this change into those units of study. And then the other thing that our teachers are looking at when they look at the course of at a glance is those science practices that you'll see in the far left side there. Um, and so they're really looking at how they can incorporate those skills into the course. And so, just to give you an idea of what this looks like, um, some things that stood out to our teachers in the Meyers book, uh, were these AP science practice boxes that show, um, ideas and ways to have students practice those skills. So, these are just a couple examples where you'll notice where it says AP
092science practice. And then the other piece is that the Myers book has practice questions for every unit and uh an item bank. So, there's a depth of practice questions with the Myers resource that the Amskow companion sort of study guide version does not have. Um, and so this question type is not found in the other options. And these questions, as you can imagine, would be very difficult for a teacher to create without a resource um because these are scientific uh journal articles, but they've been summarized and consolidated and condensed for it to be a practice question. So that's the evidence-based question. And then this is the article analysis question just to give you an idea of what that looks like. So then when our teachers were reviewing the Syngage and the McGra Hill book, the
093Syngage book did not have the practice uh writing prompts in the textbook. Um we went through the digital test bank and there were a couple short answer prompts, but nothing that really mirrored even the old exam description, let alone the new exam description. They had this one example in the front of the book. And then the McGra Hill book, it does have practice free response in it, but these are all the old free response question format which was focused on concept application. So that's what the students are being asked to do. And the new writing portion of the AP exam is focused on that argumentation skill. So that new AP science skill. Um, and it's, as you saw a moment ago, it's a very different layout to the question and what the student is being
094asked to do. Um, so that gives you an idea of the updates and really just the the thoroughess of our teachers in going through these resources and trying to find the resource that is going to best prepare our students to continue to perform exceptionally well on that AP exam. Um, we've also heard some concerns about a particular topic in the course and so, um, I'd like to go ahead and address that if that's okay. Uh, in the college, uh, the College Board's course and exam description, there is a a topic on gender and sexual orientation in the development unit. And so that's the learning objective. It's a little small, hard to see, so I wanted to make sure everybody could read it. So, anytime this topic comes up, we have a state law in Tennessee,
095uh, where parents have to be notified about this. And so, I wanted to share with you the state law and share with you, um, how we comply with the state law. So, per state law, parents must be notified 30 days prior uh, to commencing instruction on this topic. And parents must provide written permission for students to receive instruction. So this course is an elective course and then once a student chooses to take the course it is not an opt out. The student must opt in in order to receive instruction on this topic. So the parent must provide written permission. Um if the student does not consent, the student is excused from any assignment pertaining to that topic and they are not penalized in any way um for grading purposes or anything like that. And so
096we um we have a letter template that we provide our AP psychology teachers. Uh they send that home and they communicate with all the parents that this is in the course. Um they also at the beginning of the course provide a syllabus that mirrors the college board's course and exam description to make make parents aware of all the topics that are in the course. Um and then um you know they follow up to make sure that they um that everybody knows about the optin and the written permission. So that's the state law. Uh for students that do opt in. You'll notice in the college board's uh course and exam description that in addition to the learning objective, they also provide teachers with a suggested skill. So connecting back to those AP science practices that we
097mentioned a moment ago and the suggested skill for this topic is asking students to evaluate the appropriate use of research design elements in non-experimental methodologies. So the instruction around this topic is centered on evaluating. It's centered on asking students to look at it critically to look at the research method the design to uh analyze the data. And most of our teachers, well, all of our teachers report spending um a class period or less on this topic. So, this is um in terms of pacing out the whole course. Um it's a small component. Um and so that's um that's the end of my presentation, but I'm happy to answer any of your questions um if there's anything you'd like clarification on. Thank you very much. Any questions, comments? Mr. Beasley. Thank you. Yes. Thank you so
098much, Mr. Chair. I was wondering, so if the parents opt out for their children to use this curriculum, what's the alternative? It depends on the teacher. So some teachers have provided students with an alternative assignment. Some teachers have simply excused students from the assignment. Um, so there's again there's no grade penalty for the student op uh not opting in to receive instruction on the content. So related to that, I do want to just do a double check. You said usually it's that that particular topic is a class period or less. Um, correct. So from a from a timing perspective, those families who don't opt in, it's a it's a short window for the students. Thank you. And which one was your favorite again out of the four options? Which one was your favorite? Um the
099unanimous choice from all of our teachers and all of our high schools was the the Myers um BFW Meyers textbook. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? Don question. Yeah, I I appreciate this and I you know I I'm I'm glad we tabled it and had time to look because I've kind of re-evaluated things and um I do like the Myers because it does provide so much AP test prep um for the kids and um and you know when we met Superintendent Golden you know it's a prohibited concept so they have to give them the 30 days notice which really gives the parents the options instead of so there's no surprises. Um, I did I did talk to my lawmakers and there was some legislation that would have affected this a little bit,
100but it's been tabled to 2026. So, it might be on the horizon, but there's um I think the legislation was no LGBTQ concepts taught in the classroom. So, that would that's on the horizon, but it might, you know, I don't know if it's going to pass. Um, so, but that's just out there. Um, but it was moving through the legislation of the general assembly. Um and then they tabled it till 2026. Um and you know next time we go through this process you there's learning things we learn when we go through this process and it would have been helpful to know that myers was already being used because we call it the new yeah textbook adoption. So, I thought this was a new textbook, but I didn't realize that this is something they already use
101and love. And so, sometimes I think, you know, maybe it'll be helpful when we look at the proposed, you know, curricula, show us what they're using now. And so, yeah, that would that would help define some of the process. Thank you for that. Yeah, this um our teachers are currently using Myers third edition. Uh um as Miss Flood mentioned, there's been substantial changes. Uh we we did mention that, but one thing I've learned is that that one thing we need to work on, especially for next time, is to mention and repeat uh and maybe say things in a different way as well because so much volume is getting sent to you all at once. Uh there's there's some value in that. Another issue related to that, of course, is the schedule uh and the timetable.
102Uh and I'm very curious in a year or two where the state will be with that as well. Anything else? Thank you, Miss Flood. Appreciate it. Okay, we can move on. Excuse me. Move on to new business. Um, the first item is a 2526 budget status update. Miss Farmer, as Mr. Golden said, there hasn't been a whole lot of changes since we last talked. So, what has happened? Um, couple of little items. sales tax was really good. So, I'm like, okay, we may be able to increase um estimated about about let's see, I think about 300,000. Then we got the ADA um rate. So, as a reminder, ADA is average daily attendance because FSD is also in the county. We split funding between FSD and and um Williamson County Schools, and it's based on our
103average daily attendance. And so, we did get that updated rate. So that means there's a shift in the um funding that will be coming to us for property taxes. With that, we actually went down a.5 I mean a 0.1% point.1% on the split, which is about a $500,000 decrease. So those two things kind of evened out. So that's why we're still right around $12 million. What's next? We met with Education and Budget Committee jointly and basically that time you present the budget. We will then next week on the 28th meet with the education committee alone and then on the 29th with the budget committee alone. And when I say alone um it's just not joint committees but it will be the committees and we get into further discussion. Each committee will then have to vote
104on the budget itself that gives us the feedback of where those committees are and where they think that the county commission will be headed. We do not have any updates yet on um the property tax reassessment. We haven't gotten that information yet, but that um again the county's uh fully into the budgeting process as a whole at the moment. So May will be a huge month for us. Um when we come back to you in May, we'll have the feedback from each of these committees. We'll have those votes. Um and then if there are any adjustments that we need to make and there odds are there will be um just because of different things that we've mentioned that we don't know yet. Um nothing drastic. Sometimes there's not, but expect that next month. Rachel, Rachel,
105if I may, Mr. Chair, a couple things. Number one, you mentioned Franklin Special. Just as a reminder, Franklin Special, they've rebranded as FSD. I'm going to say FSSD, but they just removed school district in their in their uh on on their on their storefront. Um, do you know off the top of your head what percentage of the total is represented by Franklin Special versus us? We for 24 for the current year 23 24 um that's the updated rate and then we carry it over into next year but 93.43% is Williamson County schools 6.57% is FSD and last year it was 93.56 so 93.56 versus 93.43 43. So like I said, it's a 0.1 percentage change, but that's about half a million. Just wanted you all to get a visual of that. We have somewhere, depending
106on how it's counted with early childhood and in u and prek about 41,800 and Franklin special is somewhere around 3,000, a little over 3,000, a little over 3,000 students. So, um, also related to that, as an FYI for you all, when we are funded for capital projects by the county for what they call rural projects, which are projects for our K through8 buildings, Franklin Special receives that percentage in capital funding in addition to us receiving what is needed for our project. Um, so every time there's a million-doll project, Franklin Special would get call it $65,000 somewhere around there. Um, so in those when we've been building schools in past years, Franklin Special would receive a substantial amount. So that's that's part of that's part of the county's obligation. So they evaluate that every time they
107have rural funding. So that's part of what we have to do when we present to county government. we have to establish where it's going to be really for their purposes for that purpose. Um, final thing I wanted to mention uh related to that, you you you mentioned Rachel uh the uh tax rate. Um we've talked about it before, but I think there's value in mentioning it again. The county is going through a reappraisal this year. Uh and right now you um you will hear reference to the C to the value of a penny. Uh right now the value of a penny, which is a penny on the tax rate, is about $1.8 million here in the county. Um we expect that the value of the penny will substantially grow based on the increase in property
108values. Um which which will affect the number of pennies in the tax rate. So if you have any conversations with your county commissioners, you might hear reference to the value of a penny. Um, I believe the mayor's breakfast is going to talk about the imminent reappraisal process for Williamson County. If anybody wants to go hear the mayors talk about that, it'll be next week. Thank you for that. If I'm not mistaken, it's uh um Mayor Anderson and I think uh uh city of Franklin is represented as well. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Anderson Roh Moore and whoever the chief appraiser is for Williamson County. They'll be at that breakfast at the factory. David Coleman. No, no. Uh Rolling Hills Church. Oh, yeah. Thank you for that. And and Lydia, if you if you would give Oh, she
109stepped out. I'm going to jot down a reminder of that of that breakfast as well. Any anything else on the on that item? Okay, we can move on to item B. We got several um budget items we're going to have to vote on Monday night. We'll walk through these one by one. Uh the first one being the approval of the general fund amendment for Atmos donation. Miss Farmer, we did receive a donation from Atmos Energy of $4,000. It was to help offset uh background checks for literacy volunteer program. And so I'm very appreciative to Atmos. if you they um you just as a reminder last month I believe we had another donation from them. So they've been a great community partner and I want to I want to pitch uh and thank you Carol and
110your department. We have a community liaison who's been deeply involved in that um getting that effort to make sure that Atmos knows when those opportunities come we would love to be the recipient. Dr. Royer. Thank you. Yes sir. All right. Thank you. Item two, approval of general fund resolution for letter grade bonus $4 million. We discussed this last month um because I did include this total in the adjusted fund balance and told you I would have to bring an actual resolution to you to put it into the budget. But this was additional funding that the uh in special session that the state voted on for school systems districts that had more than 50% of their schools that achieved a letter grade A. They were to receive additional funding and our allocation was $4 million. And
111so when you see the resolation resolution, we're putting it straight into undesated fund balance for us to be able to use next year towards our budget. And Mr. Chair, if I may, related to that, um that was uh the result of Senator Johnson who spoke to you all at your meeting a few months ago where he he said he was going to try to find a way to mitigate or offset the impact of the cost differential factor. Nope. Did no, it's not cost differential factor. is actually the the fiscal capacity indicator. Sorry, there's a bunch of those. Uh and and and try to offset that that proverbial Robin Hood effect of of of uh funds leaving the county to fund other counties and he did it. So, I have made sure to publicly thank him
112and I'm doing that again. Um the the letter grade structure was originally designed to identify schools that have Fs and those schools that have Fs actually have to have specific and detailed meetings with the state board of education where they present. Um so this kind of flips that on its head uh and and allows for that. Now I will say structurally from a percentage standpoint uh the A category is less than those other categories the way the state structures it. So um we did qualify this time and I and I I can't help but believe that was by design. uh but uh constu schools are competing with each other for those grades on an annual basis because every school has to fall within the category and the category percentages don't change. Um so you know
113depending on growth in a particular year or achievement in a particular year they might move up and down that scale because somebody's got to get an F, somebody's got to get a D. You see what I'm saying? Okay. C can you remind us if that $4 million is already baked into the $12 million gap? It is. I had already included. So the $12 million gap included using fund balance and so we knew about it but had not done the resolution for it. So we were presented to the commission that $12 million gap did include accounted for this already. All right. Thank you. Item anything else on that? Item three, approval of general fund resolution reclassification due to new account code. This is another housekeeping item that I mentioned when we went through the budget process
114because we made changes in the PCR where the state um wanted reclassification of anyone that was a coach not being in the teacher line but moved them down to a separate line. And so we did it in the PCR. Um but we're doing this now. It's just again there's no budget impact on 2425. But it's just strictly a reclassification to put them in the proper accounts. Any questions on that? Item four, approval of central cafeteria fund resolution um excess fund balance. Existing members will remember we've had this the last couple of years for the new board members. Cafeteria is different. It is a self-funded zone fund and requirement for them is they can keep no more than 3% operating expenses total operating three I'm sorry three months of operating expenses in their fund balance. Anything
115above that is considered excess and they need to um spend it. And so um what has happened over the last few years is let's back up maybe four or five years through co a lot of things were put on halt related to equipment within the cafeterias and um Mr. Remedi has been able to use these funds the last couple of years in order to be able to do some needed updates in cafeterias and that's what he's asking for again for use of these funds. And Mr. Chair, if I'm not mistaken, Brian, correct me if I'm wrong. We uh our our cafeteria has not raised prices in 8 years. Is that right? 201819. 201819. And it's 375 for lunch. 220. Hold on. I just had it. That's my math. 375 for lunch, 275 for breakfast. K12.
116So, we're going to keep those as stable as we can. We always worry every year are the co is the cost of food going to affect this? Um so the last few years we've been okay. That's pretty significant when you think about over that same period of time inflation's probably gone up in in the aggregate 15%. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Item five, approval of capital projects uh intent to fund for asphalt roof and HVAC. The next um few items are actually ones that were on the five-year capital plan. And so as a reminder, that's something you all saw in November. Um it goes before the county commission as well as um part of a request that they have in order for them to be able to go to bond market. Um and so we then
117normally will come back with an intent to fund this. These are coming a month earlier, but the budget committee for the commission asked that we go ahead and bring these so they could see in total what our capital requests were going to be. So that's why you're seeing them now. But the first set um or the first resolution is related specifically to asphalt roofs and HVAC and the total for that was 12,153,000. Um I I want to mention this. We have this discussion with the county commission budget committee and and the full commission pretty much every year. We have about 50 facilities and something's got to be replaced every year because of the because of the volume. Uh, and so it's it's always a very deep detailed discussion with the county commission because rightly so
118they're being careful about about their expenditures. But as Rachel mentioned, the budget committee said, can you bring all this to us so that we have a full grasp of what we're looking at uh for this coming year? Any any questions on that? If you want, Rachel, since they're all capital projects, just the next three, you can just go through them. Yeah. Okay, great. The next is related to security technology needs also in the 5-year capital plan. Um and the total for this was 13,815,425. This includes um anything from the the door fob system, intercom system, alerts, cameras, and the infrastructure associated with all those items. Is I have one quick question. So is that across the district or do you have certain schools that you are you know doing this over time? Is it is
119across the system? There are some things that are going to every school will be affected by something but not necessarily the same thing. We did this in phases and so some schools may have already received um part of the items related to intercoms and then it would be another it's a three-year plan. Um and so um this year was phase one. We're doing 15 schools. Uh pending approval of this, we'll do 15 more this next year. And then phase three we'll ask for next year and that will finish the uh door fob intercom project. And we can get the schools to you if you need if you'd like that information. We can And I I feel like it's important at least to mention this. One of one of our primary safety goals um led by
120Mike Fletcher, we actually get some help from the state now uh is the priority of access control. And so when when Brian mentions to you door fobs, that's a key. Uh that's been a very intentional project to improve security. And we started with the outdoor which was the most critical and that is complete. All our campuses outdoors have the new access control that has been completed. So now we're moving internal. Yes sir. And I will tell you I don't anticipate our capital spending on safety will ever end. I think it's going to be a constant. We're going to be constantly working to improve. um as challenges come um we're going to constantly be adjusting to it. The next item is a K8 renovation at Hillsboro. Um the total amount that will eventually be requested is
1216.6 million. With any of our capital projects like this, we break it down um over the number of years we feel like it's going to take in order to complete the project. So the first draw on this would only be $3 million requested in this year, but anticipated total cost is 6.6 million. And then the last is um similar type renovation to Grassland Middle. Um in this case, the work's a little different and how they're going to time it out. And so the draw, the total cost is 7 million, but the draw for the first year is a million dollars. Mr. Chair. Yeah. Go ahead. Um Brian Rachel is are are these are these amounts I I didn't look back at the um at the five-year capital plan that we looked at, but are these
122are these the same amounts and y'all so Yes, they are. All right. Sounds good. I just want to make sure. Absolutely. Thank you. Any further questions on the budget items? All right, move on to item C, board policies for first reading. And we'll we'll take up these two and then we'll take up the um the one that we moved out of consent. So um item one 4.202 child fund and special education. And Dana, I'll kick it to you for this. And Jay, if you want to weigh in from a policy committee perspective, feel free. Sure. I was going to wait till it got up there. may be a little easier for me to explain the um the it's the other one the other one. Yes. So the um you'll see in this has gone through
123the policy committee you will see in on the first page and on the second page you'll see um items in blue. The items in blue are um either restatements of the law or um and the child fine is an explanation of the law um of federal law. This 6 through 18 is legislation that recently passed and was signed by Governor Lee this week. Um so the policy committee recommends approval for first reading of that language. If you keep going down, there is there you go. There is um in green some language that has been proposed. There was a um lengthy discussion during the policy meeting. Um this language is not struck through as as sometimes happens um during the policy meetings. Instead, it's offered in a different font uh because there is still discussion um
124ongoing at the policy committee and it will continue um after the first reading at the board and um at the May policy meeting. So, I wanted you to be able to see that while I explained it. All right. Any um Mr. Mr. Galbworth, anything to add from a policy committee perspective? No, I think that's um I think that that does it. I mean, most everybody was um was there. Um but I think the I mean, I'm welcome welcome to uh to hear from um from Mr. Bostik, but the I mean I think the the first two the first two items were were largely agreed upon. there was a there was a good discussion about um about the service delivery logs um and and I I don't want to put words in your mouth so I'll
125just let you I'll let you talk about like the the idea behind it and and I think we I mean we have we have some I mean we have a lot of people here to talk about so I don't mind I usually will we would kind of leave that topic to mostly to the unless there's new information or new discussion but I'm happy to have a have a conversation about it now just so We can Yeah. Because a lot of people might not have heard the uh the policy committee. Yeah. Yeah. So the idea here is just for our related services and we kind of talked in the policy meeting about maybe removing the direct instruction which I think we all kind of thought maybe that's probably a good way to move forward. But um
126the idea behind um this is that students that have their IEPs for certain services that they are mandated at in there such as like speech language pathologists or occupational therapy um um and other services like that that there's just a log kept of the dates times when they receive those services. um talked with a lot of parents and gotten a lot of feedback over the last year regarding this and it's definitely something that they would like to see and I agree just from my own personal kind of standpoint it just is a it's a measure of transparency and I think protection for the district as a whole just that those parents know that those services that are mandated in the IEP are are getting done and provided for them and uh particularly for the school
127I think is a modes of protection. When a parent might um argue that those services aren't being provided, um you have a log that you can go back and say, "No, they they were and here it is." Um and so that's kind of the the idea behind it. Sounds good. Um does anybody have any any comments? Um, I was wonder if I could ask Miss Grego if um what do you see as the the time commitment that this adding to the special education teachers schedule? And if you could talk to what benefit do you see of this being to the students from your perspective and your your special education teachers perspectives? Yeah, I think there is uh certainly an element of time that this would require for any service provider. Um it really is dependent
128upon what we're going to ask them to do. Um if if they are marking attendance, of course, that is a lot less of a time commitment than if we're asking them to document start time, stop time, summary of what is provided um those types of items. So, um I I I don't know that I can give you a number uh as far as the amount of time in addition, but I have pretty serious concerns about it taking away from student services if we're asking them to do this for every student that they touch. Um many of our related service providers like OT's and speech therapists, they have anywhere from 40 to 75 kids on their case loads. Now, they don't see all of them every day, but they typically see most of them in a
129week or at least every two weeks. Um, so I I do think that would be a large portion of time depending on what we're asking them to document. And teachers, I mean, they are seeing kids all day, every class period, usually anywhere from 1 to 15 at a time usually. Um, and that is every period of the day, all seven hours except for their duty-free lunch and their their planning period. So pretty significant. What What benefit do you see for the students from this? I I don't know that I see a benefit to students in keeping a a an attendance log, if you will. Um what I'm really concerned about for students is I want them to progress, right? So I want our teachers teaching kids and so and our related service providers for that
130matter. So, I don't know that I see a benefit to the student in keeping a service log. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I have a question. I received this Taylor's schedule. Was that from Dana or was that from Maria? Because it's really good. Well, thank you. So, it is a I I can't take any credit other than I meticulously went through and used only names in Taylor Swift's songs because it so it is a schedule that we received from an SLP. It's an actual schedule, but because it had student names in it, I changed those. So, you will see names. Um, but this is the schedule for the week for one of our speech language pathologists for this school year. Um, and I also got an email from one of the special ed teachers who actually
131broke it down hour by hour, day by day. I don't know how they're doing it. There aren't that many hours in the day. So, I would suggest everybody look at those numbers. And the last thing I would mention is can AI help in any way? I just throw that out there. I don't do AI, but I know it's out there. So, there'll be some data entry somewhere from somebody. This is my first thought, but we'll we'll have a conversation about that. Um, you know, I I I talked to parents who who who are who do get frustrated sometimes with the with the IPS and and and I think it um I guess it probably mostly revolves around when their student isn't progressing um looking for looking for this documentation. Well, are they are they getting
132what they what they what they have? In talking with Dana, at the end of the day, it doesn't if they're not progressing, it it actually doesn't matter if they were getting their services or not, then we've got a the IEP team is is is it's put upon them to to actually do something different or do something in in excess. And so I I guess I'm I'm just thinking about um I I think what I what I've heard from a from a time commitment I don't want to add I mean I think our I don't want to add a a kind of busy worker to you know to add to the teachers plate. think that's the the goal we've tried to we've tried to do for the last several years is to take things off their
133plate especially this this is what I would consider compliance like this is just a cost to compliance in terms of um in terms of dollar or in terms of time and dollars right I mean it would ultimately require us to do less less service potentially you know have more people to do the same to this to do the same job if they're if we're you know adding 10% to to everybody's plate But I'm just thinking about is there is there another way outside of a a separate log that we're filling out? Is there just is there is there just a bit of additional documentation that we can provide to within within the forms that we're already doing or maybe maybe a different way to to write an IEP to get more more data points because
134the in the IEP you just you have you have data at your at your data points but then in between um there is there isn't there isn't evidence there well there is um if you if you pull it because Dana and Maria gave us all the the different levels of of of detail that they have the golden rod and like all the different all the different schedules, the sign-in sheets that the that the um providers that have multi-sightes go through. Um, but to your point, that's not that's not really in the So, we're doing a lot of things, but those things aren't being really collected. They can be reviewed and they are reviewed from time to time, but they're not really collected um to be aggregated and shared at the at the IEP level. So,
135um I mean, I'm open to I'm open to the conversation. I I I don't know that I don't know that the logs per se are are the way to go, but I I mean, if there's if there's some bang for our buck that we can get from just a a little bit different way to to document, then I'm, you know, I'm I'm open to that. Well, I go back to this schedule. If teachers if they actually have a a schedule day by day, hour by hour of what they're doing and I'm sure their schedules are kept somewhere and if you ever had a question, you go back and pull that teacher schedule for that student. That's why I was talking about AI just it goes back and it would look at a particular case, bring
136it up and look at it. But you don't have to have a a separate report if we're already doing a teacher's schedule on the services that they're delivering every day. I I'm that must exist, right? Yeah. And Maria, could you speak to those two comments from the Yes. Um those schedules exist for all of our related service providers that will look just like that or very similar to that. Um, and then all of our special ed teachers, the whole school creates what we lovingly call a map of student services. Basically, it is a schedule that is usually colorcoded by kid by in elementary school, it's down to the minute, usually every in five minute increments. And so, it's going to show every student's IEP services for the entire day for every student and every pair
137professional that works in that building. And so that that is available in every building. Every kids services would be documented on those. I'm just having trouble seeing the benefit to the students on this. And that's that's sort of the end goal here. I mean, it almost for me it looks like this is is written for the benefit of lawyers who want to go on a fishing expedition to nitpick the services that our special education teachers are providing. I mean I get the the larger concept behind it but you know it's minuteby-minute logs responsibility for maintaining belongs to the staff member you know accurate timely completely you know maintained for a minimum of three years I mean with I I'm not getting the three years point if if the goal is to sort of progress ress
138if I got to go back and see well what did we do on such a day three years ago. Um I mean thinking through this this seems like a major time commitment. Um, and you know, it's not that alone isn't the issue, but it's a major time commitment that's pulling away from the delivery of services for kids. And and so to Jay's point, which I think was a very valid one about um, you know, student progression and getting better, if you're being pulled away from actually delivering services to kids and taking care of them because you've gota play the COA paperwork game here that you know not only do I got to do it but I got to make sure I log it and do it right or everything else or this can kind of
139come back and and bite me. it becomes less services delivered to our most needy kids. I I just I have I have major concerns about this that it's harmful to children. Okay. So, I I wonder um Dana and Maria is before before our next policy committee um and I know you all probably do this anyway, maybe already have, but um talk to talk to the special education teachers um and and get their feedback. Uh not maybe not necessarily if they if they want to go back to doing logs, but is there is there anything that that they find deficient in in the in the documentation today? And what would what would they say to address the because I think the concern is the concern is valid from parents. My my my kid's not progressing and
140I at least want to see that you're doing everything that you that you say you're going to do. And I and I don't think the data is rel relatively available to to do that. You can see the schedule um but you you can't really you can't really see can't there's no there's no confirmation that that happened every time. I I get that. I mean, I think the presumption is that it probably happens and and it probably happens more more so, but you you have to come from a place of trust to do that and sometimes um sometimes when the parents are um are at their wits end with their kid not progressing like that that kind of goes out the window and you need something concrete. So, just if they're if they have any ideas
141to as a as an alternative way to rather than and I rather than the than the logs per se. Sure. I we're happy to do that before the um I'm looking at Maria as I as I commit us to do that. Um we're happy to do that before the policy uh meeting. I do want to piggyback off of one thing that you said because I do you and I have talked about about this numerous times um as policy chair and I do understand um as a parent um frustration. I I do want to remind us though that equally as frustrated are our our staff. If there is a child not making progress. So this really should be a collaborative and I know that to your point with trust sometimes it is broken but for a
142lot of our parents this is a collaborative process. I've sat in meetings where it is just as um devastating to some of our staff if a if a student isn't making the progress that we want to see as it is to the parents. Um so I do encourage and I hear what you're saying. I do I do encourage us to continue to remember that as we're talking through this policy. Um because yes, a lot of times the process works very well. Um it's it's if it's not working, what do we need to do? Um so yeah, we'll we'll brainstorm and get some feedback. Um and from And when you say special education teacher, just so I'm clear, do you mean the special education teacher in the classroom or are you talking about SLPs, OT's, PTS?
143I think all I mean I mean just I just wanted to um add Superintendent Golden and I talked about this in our meeting last week. um you know maybe we can do this in phases but having our service providers you know have the have the service delivery logs where you know because it looks like a long list but again I said this in the policy meeting and I um you know date of service February 10th start and end time 1 to 2 o'clock duration 1 hour and then you know worked on sorting um sorting shapes and colors still needs work on blues and greens and triangles and circles location of service classroom and then then initials by the service provider and that that takes, you know, 20 seconds, 30 seconds to write while you're going
144down the hall to the next um one. And and to Jay's point, you know, because I've sat through these IEP meetings. I had two of my kids had IEPs and when you when you're in the meeting and you're not seeing goals being met, then you can say, "Oh, well, we've done this and we've done this and so now we need to change something." So there is kind of a history of chron, you know, so you can see what has been done. So you see what's not working. So that kind of gives us a little more history there. So just to I I think it would be some growth, but but again, you know, special ed teachers who are like in the classroom in the thick of it, maybe not, but maybe the service providers um
145would be a good start. Um and and again teachers when when we're in learning how to become strong teachers, we're supposed to at the end of the day take notes, evaluate how, you know, what did I do that worked? What did I do that didn't work? What are ways I can grow in teaching this? And and and I'm certain our teachers are doing that. And so if we have um just a maybe some format for them to enter in their notes, um that's helpful. And that would benefit the students. Yeah, just to the point. Yeah, I would um agree, which I think is why kind of how we talked through it at policy, why we did I could see how it could be cumbersome for the the teachers themselves, you know, the uh direct instruction.
146So totally fine to take that out. But I think for the SLPs, the OT's, the PTS, um it's I just I don't agree in with the cumbersome narrative that it's so much work. It just seems like the bad infomercial analogy like, do you have problems pouring water? And it makes it look like it's this big thing. And it it does take all but a few seconds to fill that out. And the IEPs mandate these services. They mandate them to the minute for these children. And um it's a it's a requirement and um and I think it's just a like I said, it's a level of transparency and it's a level of protection for the district as well. And um you know, I that's that's what I'll say right now. I I think that Tony the
147the way I understand it um is that it is it is mandated but the the goal the goal is progress and so if there's if there's progress and we didn't actually do the minuteby minute then there's no remedy like the like you you you made the progress. So it's not an excuse to not do it, but that's but that's the that's the remedy. So then if there's not progress, then it doesn't matter if we if we did it or not. Like we're we have to show progress. And so like we're not it's not that we're not incentivized like to the IP teams and then ultimately the our staff to schedule all the services. we have a schedule that shows that all the services are are are scheduled. Um, so I that's where that's where I'm
148struggling because when I when I learned the when I learned how how it's reported and how and what our obligations are under IDA, then I just that's where that's where I'm I can see why we stopped doing the logs because it was it it was ultimately um not beneficial for for the delivery of service um to have them um because it didn't it didn't m it didn't support an argument either way whether we were meeting the criteria or we the progression or we weren't um the logs weren't weren't helpful in a in I don't know what they call the what do they call the um if you challenge your u in a due process due process or administrative complaint any of the remedies that parents have so that's that's kind of that's where I am
149kind sitting. But that that being said, it it doesn't it doesn't mean that we can't find ways to improve our documentation to give some of the information. But yeah. Yeah, I could and I I I agree. Progress totally. Absolutely. But it it just that if it's mandated in the IEP, the services for specifics amounts of time, then it should not be hard to document when those things are provided. if it's if it's the only time it would be an issue is if it's not being provided, you know, that would that would be when the issue would come up. And if that's happening, then we have a bigger issue, you know, but um documenting the things that we're doing um to put parents at ease for transparency, for protection for the school district, I just think
150it's a it's a small step to ensure those things happening, you know, and I and I'm open to, you know, maybe ideas for that, but I I just think a log of that is, you know, that's typical in a lot of other um environments and fields. in in this nation. And and I think it is uh appropriate here. And and I do want to say one one last thing. Um just so that we're all clear, the service logs do not provide protection for Williamson County Schools. Um that is the the reason that Williamson County Schools would use a service delivery log would be to discipline a teacher. We can do that with the instruments and the documentation, the checks and balances that Maria and I have have discussed with y'all. What we look at if
151if there if we go to have an administrative complaint, have a due process, have a mediation, what we are looking at is progress. There has been case, numerous cases where it was clear, not us, not Williamson County Schools, but other schools who did not provide tens, 20, 60 hours, but the child made progress. There was no remedy given by the court. So, it I do want to kind of make that point clear. I don't know that we've talked about that and gotten into those litigation weeds, but I I don't want y'all to think it really is a protection for WCS. It would not be anything that our litigation attorneys would use to protect WCS. Are you saying so that if if a parent were to submit a complaint in an official capacity that services are
152not being provided to the student that a log of those services would not be of any benefit to the district? That is what I'm saying. And actually it's not what I'm saying. It's what the courts are saying because what the there are cases recent cases where the parent proved and the district admitted the child did not receive all of the minutes or services in the IEP. However, the child made progress on their goals and the court determined there was no reason for compensatory services, which is the remedy entitled to the child because the child made progress. So, I I did we've not talked about that, but I did want to I did want to bring that up. What What if a child did not make progress? That is a different scenario. Yeah, but we're still
153looking we're still not going to be looking at service delivery logs. The court still is not going to be the court is going to be looking at progress under the goals. So, the child could not I mean to your point the child may regress or not make progress towards the goal. The court's not going to be looking at did the child receive all of the minutes of service. They're going to be looking at the goal and what progress. And this is why one of the many reasons as a district we moved away from service logs and moved toward goal process monitoring. It allows our service providers to see based on the data points if a child is making progress and it allows if the child is not making progress some corrections, some changes, all of
154the things under IDA that we we want to ensure so that the child makes makes progress towards their goals. I'll have to do some research on that. I just we'll have to agree to disagree, I think. Yeah, I'm happy to send send the board the actual cases. I'll do the So, I think where we are on this one is that we Monday night will vote on first reading and I think the consensus is that we still need work on the part in green, but we'll our choice will be to advance it to policy committee for second reading with that caveat. Is that fair? All right. Uh, number two, 4.601, student and parent guardian rights to access tests. You want me to take this one? Yeah, I'm sure. Um, so, uh, so this I brought this
155to, um, to the attention and and I I I got I jumped I well, I didn't jump the gun. I just I just submitted it and um and Dave and and Lee didn't didn't get it in time to to make any um any edits, but we've had we had a good discussion at the uh at the work session or at the policy committee. Um and so I'm just going to I'm going to think about this as a it's it's definitely a first draft. Um we have a second draft that we haven't fully baked yet. Um, and so we're just going to speak to um to kind of the where where I am and and and I'll let um I'll let Dr. Webb talk talk through so you can hear it from her. But from my
156perspective, I'll just say my the feedback that I got from the work session and from um from a few uh a few teachers is um was wellreceived by me and and it's and it's essentially where I took this and and it was it was very prescriptive and this is what you're going to do. Um it's not really how I how I meant it. a minute to to start the conversation, but I definitely received and said where I want to land and I and I know where Dr. web wants to go. um is more so let's let's create a framework of the things that we want to accomplish and and let's let's define what we the things that are um that are [Music] definitely the grade level or the subject matter um level at the at
157the school on how they want to accomplish this Um, so we we definitely want to leave. I think I I don't want anybody to get the wrong impression that I that I was trying to take away their, you know, to force anything, but I what I what I was trying to identify is what I felt like was a um was a gap in where we where we need to be first in terms of students getting the their their test back. um as well as um parents being able to to to come home with those and see that they they can use. So that that'll be that'll be something al ultimately that we that we want to accomplish. Um and then the with the corrections, it's not necessarily test corrections has a has a specific connotation.
158it's really um more so a an opportunity for remediation, for mastery of the of the subject. And so I think I've I've taken Dr. Web's um feedback and just want to kind of open up to her so she can kind of say it from her in her words. Thank you, Mr. Galbreth. We had a great conversation about this policy and it helped to understand um from Jay's perspective of what the what the policy specifically with the problem that it's addressing and kind of our summary of the two things really that the intention of this policy is to address is one parents need an access from home to help their students uh and ensure that they have what they need to support their learning of the standards for whatever particular class or course they're in from
159home like they uh need need a little bit more access than what they currently have. And two, students need the opportunity to continue learning content so they can hopefully eventually master the content. That learning doesn't stop for a standard when I take the assessment and I don't master and I show that I don't know the content. The learning doesn't need to stop there. I need to know some essential content before I move on to the next course. So, how can we get there? So, from our our perspective collectively uh with Jay and uh Dave and I, we agree that we we can improve in that area. So, we ultimately kind of agreed on a pretty significant rewrite to this, but we weren't prepared to bring you a full rewrite tonight or for the vote on
160Monday. But since this would have implications for the upcoming school year, we felt like we needed to get this resolved by May. So, when teachers leave for the summer, uh they know what their expectations will be as they plan over the summer and prep for the upcoming school year. and uh parents can know what to expect in the upcoming school year as well. So, our recommendation is to move forward with the bones of this policy if you're willing and knowing that it's going to be completely different when we come back to you in the policy committee if that makes sense. What you'll see in the policy uh that we're working on currently are three big things. One is that you'll see language in the revised policy that indicates that prior to each test. Uh teachers
161are taking the responsibility to ensure students are prepared for the assessment. And after the students in the course have all taken the assessment, the teachers will review the test or quiz with the students specifically. That's a practice, but it's something that needs to uh from Mr. Galbbert's perspective needs to be, you know, ironed out in the policy. So that's that's a piece of it. And in instances where the test or quiz can't be released to go home due to test security, that we'll ensure that students and parents have specific feedback from the assessment to understand what was mastered and what wasn't mastered so that they know um specifically what did my student not learn in this content. And again, this is something that teachers are actively working on all the time. That's the first bucket.
162The second thing that you'll see when we bring the policy back is that teachers or teaching teams um will have methods of reteing and relearning for students who don't show mastery of the essential standards. This is something that our teacher curriculum teams that work together collaboratively. They're constantly working on this. In our professional learning communities, we call that question three. What do you do when a student demonstrates that they didn't learn the content? Then what? You taught it. you really thought you were knocking it out of the park. You assessed the student and they didn't get it. Now what? You know, that's a big question and that answer to that question looks different for every student. So what you'll see in our uh revised policy when you see it at the next policy meeting is
163addressing that concept. And the third thing uh that you'll see is the motivation factor. So Mr. Galbreth in his um original draft addressed the motivational factor uh with a numeric grade. There are pros and cons to that. So rather than being super prescriptive about what the strategy is, um our recommendation is that the policy put the decision- making of what that motivational factor is in the hands of the teacher and not be so prescriptive that we um we force them to one method when there may be something else that's working. Let them have their professional discretion to determine how do I meet the student exactly where they are to get them to mastery of the standard. How do I motivate the students in my class or this particular student or this particular group of students?
164But motivating students to be successful in the first attempt and then motivating them if they have to reassess uh or go to remediation, how do I motivate them to ensure that they give it their all that second try and give it their all their first try, right? um because it can snowball on a student if they struggle in school and they're going to have to reassess in every class after every test that mounts up. You know, we talk a lot about testing and not overassessing. But if you take a student who struggles and you're you're pushing them to reassess after every test, they can get overwhelming. So, it's a balance of motivation and using the appropriate teaching strategies to get the students where they need to be. And that's where we really want to take
165this policy. And those are pieces that work continually to work on um as teaching teams, as administrative teams um and putting that into policy um doesn't intimidate us at all. It supports the work that's already in place. I guess the question to consider is do we because it's going to be a complete rewrite essentially, do we want to have this be a um first first and final reading or single reading um as long as there's consensus from staff and the board in May rather than voting on something that we know we're going to completely change. I'll give you my initial thought. The discussion at the policy committee may answer that question. Um well I think he's I think he's saying do we pull it from this not even don't vote on Monday on having a
166having a first and final on we'll still have two more readings that the policy and and that's fine with me because we were we were debating that same thing like we don't really want to vote on this but I want to progress it to a May vote so that would work for me. I I think that's a reasonable solution. an executive committee can remove it from the board agenda, but then we'll treat it as a first and final. Um, so at the May policy agenda, I mean, I guess to your point, we might decide that we're not ready for first and final in in May after policy, which we can certainly do. We might say that it needs two more readings, but if it doesn't, then we can certainly do that. from from a from
167a procedural perspective on the policy policy that that calls for second reading since we've discussed it here. If we're fine with it then, Mr. Chair, yeah, I think that makes sense. It'll actually save us one logistical step at the voting meeting. And I was just thinking about what Lee had said about really trying to resolve this by May, ideally, because of the next school year. Okay, if everybody's good with that, we'll we'll pull it then from this agenda and vote on it one time. All right. So, now let's go to the uh 4.43 which we pulled off consent. Um, and it's a policy for second reading and Miss Clemens had a had made that request. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I I don't know if y'all had been checking your emails. Um, but on and
168I brought this up in policy meeting. Um, but on page two after the definitions, there's a brief paragraph. Um, I'm not going to read it for you guys. Y'all can see it. Um, but I I feel like this is an unnecessary paragraph because we already do this. if if the law changes or if an a an action of court or of um removes something, then we take it off. Uh I mean, we've already talked about doing that tonight in several policies. And I also looked at um multiple districts in our area. I can't find a district that has a paragraph like this. And you know, this policy is five pages long. And when you include all the attachments, you're going on eight or nine pages. I just think this is unnecessary. Um if if and
169so my first choice would just let's just remove this paragraph. Um but if that's not an option, I also sent a different paragraph that was similar. But it I think we need to be more inclusive in that paragraph and say that you know in broader language so that if if there are changes that you know make it you know more restrictive that we will follow those and I I don't know if y'all checked your emails but I sent an optional paragraph. So, and again, this is if this is the will of the board to leave it, then that's fine. But I just I I think it's an unnecessary paragraph. So, if I may, Mr. Chair, we discussed this at the policy meeting, and my um promise to y'all was that I would get with Lisa
170Carson and see if she agreed with removing the language. Um, there are attorney client uh emails from Miss Carson prior to tonight's meeting with her recommendation to and and to leave the language as written in the policy. Um, and that would be our recommendation not to not to um make any changes to the policy as it is. Of course, that's ultimately y'all's decision, but if you haven't read your emails, I wanted you to know that information is in there. Any any further comments or discussion on this? I guess is there a is there an opportunity will we have an opportunity Monday to to discuss with with our an attorney client meeting to to talk about that? Um, I just want I just want to see if that's appropriate just because it will be the final
171It's a good question. Will will questions to Miss Carson Monday night if she's there be ones that can be asked in a public meeting? Mr. Chair, that may be a Mr. Cook question. I know that he's uh he practices with Miss M. Carson. the the problem with what you're asking is that can you hear the the issue that rises with what you're asking is um with that what you asking whether the if an amendment were made at the board meeting Monday night to take out that section as Miss Clemens is outlining and we wanted to get the council and advice of Miss Carson on correct require to do that or not. Could she answer those questions in a public meeting? She could answer those questions in a public meeting. Now, the issue is going to
172be I think what you were alluding to originally was a closed session where you would be able to discuss and ask your attorney questions. The issue with that is that it has to be a filed suit or one that's contemplated. We don't have a contemplated suit here. So, that's the issue about the prohibition about going into a closed session with your attorneys. You have to have it contemplated. You have to have a suit or one that is likely contemplated. So I mean for that reason I don't think it that would reach the current situation would reach to that level because we don't have anybody saying they're going to sue us right now on this. I guess I guess so the fact that we the fact that we've have had litigation that we are are coming
173off of is not is not enough. Yes. No sir. That that matter has already been settled with the courts. So that's fine. Um, Mr. Cook or Dana, could either of you speak to what Lisa um said in her emails? I I cannot hear people. I guess I'll take that one. Um Lisa had some concerns about the language on it and you all have seen the emails I think and her her concerns uh regard removing this language and removing the effect this language has. Okay. Now, there is case law that supports her opinion and we have it we have a case that is a recent case that has come out that is directly on point with this that said that if you are going to have a policy that is going to be watch what I
174say here um challenged and the challenge is successful meaning that the policy um is found to be unconstitutional or if the state decides to change the law, the language that we have recommended or the current language is that that language goes away automatically. Now, the courts have said that if it takes discretion of the board to remove that language, then you open yourself up to liability when it comes to attorney fees and court cost. Okay? The language that is being proposed gives you discretion because it does not remove that language automatically. Okay. So, if our opinion, if you include the language that Mantes is recommending, we believe it opens this up for liability and there is a case that is directly on point that is a recent case from the middle district of Tennessee. So,
175Bobby, which said it, let me ask a question and see if I heard you correctly, but or maybe ask it in a different way. If if we get sued and and we we have this language in in place and ultimately the the the law that or or our policy is found to be to be unconstitutional because of the language that is directly because of state law. Um then then the state it's it's likely that the state would be liable for that and not us because they're going to sue both of us. Right. Correct. Um correct. And then if so then if ultimately if it were or or if the state changes their law, somebody else challenges the state law and it's struck down, then hey, we don't we're taking our hands off. Like we didn't
176we didn't create this. We're just following it. And so if it gets struck down then our discretion would be after it gets struck down this removes the language completely now we would then have the ability to go in and make whatever changes we wanted to to um after the new law was created but then absolutely so and so you're saying if if it gives us the if there was language in here that's not this that says we we may Or we or you amend right or we have to you know we we we will we may amend then then that's what leaves leaves that's the discretion issue that we haven't we have a problem with so any further question or comment so as it stands the policy will be on off would be pulled off
177consent for Monday tonight will be a single separate voting item uh as currently written uh unless there is any amendment brought up and is voted on and Mr. Chair, just from a procedural perspective, I was catching uh I was catching my assistant's eye. Lydia, we'll include that as second reading as a separate item under new business. Uh it will be Yeah, that's right. Yes, sir. Okay, let's move on to item D, approval of the 2024 25 teacher bonus from the state. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, you all know that uh part of the uh state discussion during this legislative session was to was to include a $2,000 bonus for teachers. That legislation included a requirement that the board pass a resolution saying that we will accept that money for that purpose. Uh so
178this is that uh draft proposal for us to receive those funds for teachers. You have to pass this resolution by June. We decided it's appropriate to get that knocked out. One of the reasons that we did is because the state department of education had told us they were going to give us a projection of how to expect it and some details related to it before the April meeting. They didn't actually say before your April meeting, but they gave us a date. They actually gave us that information yesterday or maybe even this today, this morning. Um, it doesn't answer all the questions, but I want to give you a brief idea of this. The idea is that in the next fiscal year, the state will fund a $2,000 bonus for those teachers who worked for us
179in this fiscal year uh for more than 120 days as full-time teachers serving students for more than half of the time of their work. So, you can see why it's starting to get a bit convoluted. So then, so we don't really know 100% who's going to get it or how that's going to be structured. But what we do know is it's going to be based on this year's teachers out of next fiscal year. So I'm saying this publicly because I want to make sure folks know the moment you pass this, we don't have the money for this. We're going to get it. We're going to get it in the next fiscal year and we'll go through that process and it will include some of our retirees who chose to retire. Uh but I I do
180expect to recommend approval because the money's available. And and just to underscore, none of that process can be initiated until we pass this resolution. Well, that's correct. We won't receive the money unless you pass this resolution. Right. Um we're actually going to have to enter a lot of data to the state and have them review it over these next few months. Any questions on that? All right. Final item for tonight, item E, tenure recommendation uh of the superintendent to the school board. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Annually, we make tenure recommendations for you all as board members. Uh um in part because many of you are are in your first full year of being in on the board. I want to make sure you are aware that we do this annually. Um, years ago,
181some of you may have known tenure as if you work here for three years and you're hired for the fourth year, you're automatically tenured. For now, I'm I'm estimating 10 plus years. The state has actually included an evaluation structure related to that. Teachers actually have to have particular scores on their evaluations for that. This list of teachers includes those teachers who have for the past five years met all the requirements of the state for tenure. Uh, and so certainly open to any questions you may have, but I do expect to recommend these fine teachers for tenure uh at the uh at the Monday board meeting. Mr. Beasel, thank you, Mr. Chair. Will these teachers be at the board meeting on Monday? Um, we actually don't intend for them to be there, but they are certainly
182welcome. Um, but that's not a, you know, um, now that you mention it, I mean, obviously it's a lot in in our district, but uh, that may be something we talk about. we we do make sure we acknowledge them uh and and we actually get fiveyear service awards to our teachers uh which is a parallel uh for that as well. But thank you for that suggestion. Any questions on that? Okay. Well, that gets us to the end of the agenda. Thanks for the great discussion. We are adjourned.