001one we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order we're going to start this evening with review of our consent agenda does anyone have any discussion items around our consent agenda tonight miss Clemens so um board member sorry I brought this up last month and uh there hasn't been a change but I think there needs to be one on the board member conflict of interest there's language in there about a board member can be expelled um I don't think the board has that authority to find someone guilty of a conflict of interest and this is our policy and I understand this is what tsba recommended but I think we need to clarify that uh the board does not do that the board doesn't expel it's probably a DA or someone like that and then there's
002uh a clause in there about losing compensation and since it refer refers to a conflict of interest it's a little unclear the way it's written uh what compensation it's talking about is it the board compensation or is it compensation that could have resulted from the conflict of interest I don't think these are big issues it's just some language that I think needs to be cleared up thank you for that uh I had a conversation with um Dana OS Brooks about that and you're right it is the tsba recommended language uh that La that very last paragraph in there is that penalty language it is word for word the entire code section of that 12- whatever d102 but I can see how it's not clear when you just look at it in isolation without looking at
003the whole code um my suggestion is I think the wise thing would be to take it back to the policy committee for that for that deeper discussion uh you're right the board does not have the power to expel each other and and we we did talk about that last last month um and when we're creating a policy that's a restatement of the law I think there is a lot of wisdom in making sure that that there aren't any potential implications that aren't accurate thank so so with that um uh uh we'll have a discussion as executive committee on on removing it but that'll be my recommendation to send it back toy well and with that said my recommendation because the two the next one deals the code of ethics I would recommend we take them
004both back to policy not for changes um to the code of ethics but that's removing some language from the code of ethics and placing it in the board member conflict of interest and I don't I don't want to see one move forward without the other um but I will remind y'all as we talked about last month and as I have emailed you um and for those who are listening it's judicial aler um the you are correct the board cannot remove other board members it would be the attorney general and reporter of the state of Tennessee a district attorney County attorney or city attorneys um could Institute such actions there doesn't even have to be a complaint um there can be a complaint but it doesn't have to be they are the ones authorized to um
005oust someone and um the accused is entitled to a demand and a trial by jury if an aler judicial aler um proceeding is brought forth um and then the other uh superintendent golden is correct the um last paragraph is a restatement of a different section from the judicial aler of Tennessee law um this has been the law for some time while it may not have been in board policy this is um the penalty for board members as well as other elected officials so um it's not just board members it would be the same penalty for unlawful interest um would be the same for say our County Commission and other states yeah I don't have any officials questions concerns or issues with that with the exception that this is the board policy so if we're quoting
006from someone else we need to make that clear because it is our policy and we really don't have the authority to make policy for someone else within our policy so you assume that whatever's in here is ours yeah yeah one thought I had when you when you and I had this conversation was maybe we had tennessy code requires that sure something like that Miss Clemens did you have comments I just wanted I I I agree with what Rick says and I I think for me there was so many question marks around this um because the penalty is so egregious and I just I think making it really clear um will really be helpful and so I like the idea of taking it back and we probably just need to chew on this a little bit
007more and make it real definitive so we all know because I think it is good to have a code of ethics of course but to but to have something like this and and agreeing with state law but for us to be really clear what it says so I support that I wouldn't be surprised if tsba doesn't relook at the way that they've suggested the policy okay and Madam chair if I may on the uh on the consent agenda I want to point out a couple of other items uh number one the policy committee made a a small number of changes of the dress code and that is in purple as opposed to Blue so I encourage you all to look at that uh and that includes uh all students must ensure that their clothes fully
008cover there and then the list it was in there already uh and then there was a a a slight change to the language uh in in page two of three uh that that we made sure that the uh that the language was that that the dress Cod be enforced in a way that does not discriminate against any age group you know age group and all those protected classes so uh again encourage you to double check that language final item I know I had a question from one of the board members about the uh growth plan Coordinating Committee which is item 2E two years ago you all appointed me to the growth planning committee uh that body has gone through the urban growth boundaries of Al the municipal ities in the counties uh and that the
009work we've done the last two years we've come to a coales plan for a recommendation to the municipalities and the County government for their most for the new iteration of their Urban growth boundaries the map is in the packet uh the next step for this committee is we actually have to vote a clean clear vote to recommend to the municipalities in the county that they adopt it so that's that's this requires um one more vote for you all to appoint me to that committee the code requires the school representative that body will in turn make a recommendation to all the municipalities and every single one of those municipalities and the county have to approve it for the new Urban growth boundaries to go into effect so for schools the key point is it helps us
010figure out where our growth's going to occur where we can project that we're going that we may need new new schools down the road one quick example under the Maps uh grassland the grassland Community the county is substantially changing if it is approved by the commission the the planned Urban growth boundary in that area creating a hamlet in the grassland Community with with with a plan ultimately to leave more of that rural than they had intended 20 years ago there's some other examples of that but that's the most noticeable one uh on the county side yeah go ahead um one more thing on the um consent agenda we talked about at the policy meeting um about adding an email to be sent at the beginning of a reconsideration committee when we know we're going through
011that and and sending it to all the parents in that grade band letting them know and I did not see that in the language that added and I I really like that idea um maybe Mr Mitchell would you like to clarify cuz I I love this idea and I didn't see it there but I think I didn't I didn't look for it specifically I thought we I figured we would talk about that policy again tonight um in our agenda is that do you can you tell me if that's it's on consent so it's on consent can we pull that out then I guess or do we want to talk about it now whatever everybody wants to do can we pull that you can um that that piece was not shared with me um so if
012that is something happy to add that yeah go ahead Miss cland I think yeah push that button this is the button pushing the button in in policy um it was U Mr cook that actually took the notes for this and um it and what it basically is is it's the same policy but rather than waiting until there's a rather than waiting until the reconsideration committee gets together and then between that time in the vote like for instance what's been going on this last time it's it's a few months before it even goes to a vote and so that um the Recon there's a time period where parents don't know what's going on and so at the policy committee we just decided Well it'd be a good idea to actually do that same notification at the
013time it hits the reconsideration committee a notification the same process but doing it at the time of the reconsideration committee it goes out to that grade band and then again notify what the the um results of the vote but this way parents know right away what is being reconsidered and then you know there's not any confusion and then the followup and so it was just it's basically the same process but it's that we added that same process at the beginning and also at the end so just a clarify and I can add that language for um before the board meeting on Monday you would want that to go um I'll give an example School X has the request for reconsideration you would want that information to go out within X number of days when the
014bo when the reconsideration committee is formed and it actually happens so if the parent check we didn't the thought the thought was that if the parent reconsiders and pulls their request as we then as we had in exam ex Le this way we wouldn't want to notify until after the we would wouldn't want to notify until the committee is a is a real thing and actually reviewing the books are actually being reconsidered okay okay that is a um that make sense it does so once the committee has been formed and a book is being reconsider reconsidered the or yes then um we would notify all grade bands not just the school where the reconsideration is that that was my question I think it was just that grade band just at that school just at that
015school because when the board votes we were recommend we're sending it out to all that grade yes then it's the same process same process okay yeah I got a question um Mr Wimberly one sec yeah are the names of the cons the committee made public so typically no that is they're not hidden but it is not um a it's an ad hoc committee so it does not require a board vote and that's typically um when we have a committee if it's not ad hoc those names so S Brooks if I'm not mistaken it is it is a it is a it is public information but we don't typically announce it correct when it when it does become public is once the committee has done their work um pursuant to this policy we have a form
016that is signed by all committee members so at that point yes um the recommendation would have everyone's signature it so so I guess what I'm wondering is if we release the names of the committee members before they've had an opportunity to do their work and deliberate and we've notified everyone in the great band that this is ongoing wouldn't that kind of set them up to get um a lot of input from a lot of various sources and it seems like that input should come when we have it not during the process I do think that's a valid point um I will say that the form per our policy that has been developed for the request for reconsideration would not um that's not a consideration public information so we're looking at the um educational mission of
017the school does this match the educational mission of the school is it age appropriate those are the factors that the committee is looking at um you as elected board members may be looking at some additional things so I think I think your point is valid um Mr Cash and then we got you yes I was just wondering there's there's a new law that came out about uh eliminating the the Clause um let me see I've seen books regarding obscene books have has anybody heard anything or seen anything about that um I think the law that you were speaking of is a book publisher um if they were to sell to a school district could then be for with a a book that is deemed obscene they could then be arrested that is that's what has
018come out of the latest legislature session so that didn't that didn't include books that are in the library now well it didn't from the school standpoint there they there is not a punishment additional criminal punishment for an obscene book in the library their the new law allows for uh Publishers to be criminal Le the da could bring charges against them for selling that to a district all right I guess my question is um will this policy change due to that no sir okay Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair so um Rick what what we were thinking of and it wasn't about identifying who the committee members would be and I wouldn't be in support of sending out a message with with their names I the intent of the notification at the time the committee is
019formed is basically to let the parents of that grade band know that these books have been requested for review and so they would know that these are the books that are being reviewed and and also but it would include the same language that said if you decide you want to opt out your child to not read those books or not be allowed to read those books this is the process to do so so it would basically give the parents an opportunity to to one know what books are being called into question and two give let them know again how they can keep their childrens from being allowed to check them out if if they so desire and but I the intent of of identifying the committee members was not that wasn't discussed and considered at
020all so I would I would be against us communicating something like that um can you want to just respond to that really quick we got a couple okay Miss Cleveland you want to go I got you down I'll okay and and then Mr Welch grab you Mr W the okay there we go um I actually want to jump back to uh the conflict of interest real quick if I can so unless there's other conversation on this I can defer if anyone else has any convers about the um Library materials right you want to go ahead Mr Wimberly on the library materials okay go ahead I think I understand that you didn't intend for this to say that you would uh publicize the name of the committee members but de facto they would be publicized and
021I would also question what the benefit of this is because I mean we could get a challenge on anything but it's not actionable until the committee has done something and it comes to the board so I'm not sure that I see the benefit the the the fact that we would um uh be aggressive about notifying the disposition of it I don't have any problem with that but this just seems um unnecessary to me and perhaps counterproductive um and I understand part of it is you want to remind everyone that if you don't want your kids to read books in the library you've got the right the ability and a process for making sure that your kids don't get these books but it just seems to me that it's unnecessary and um you know I'd like
022to see us not do that okay Miss Cleveland I think the bottom line is transparency that's all I mean if if the the book's been challenged somewhere I think it's it should be transparency that the kid the parents should know that there has been a dispute over library books and these are the books and again it's like what we just recently um are going through right now these the reconsideration committee has already recommended but because of the St waiting on the state laws and the outcome it's already been four months and um during those four months I believe parents have the right to know what those books are because you know if there's a long period because we have no stive limitations of when we have to do this you know when we have to
023make a decision and so if it was at the reconsideration committee it could be we could do it right after the reconsideration committee finds it does the finding we could do that so in other words maybe just delay it not when the committee is formed but when they have their findings and then do it at that point but I don't think it should wait all the way into the vote because we never know when that vote's going to happen oh I I I I agree with that latter part once they've done their work then then it's clearly public record because it has to come to us yeah and I I don't have a problem with that it's just before the committee has had a chance to do its work and and it's not that we're
024there's a lack of transparency because it is transparent I think we talk about it it's a public record right um so you know if if we want to adjust it to what you're suggesting that that would suit me fine Madam chair if I may uh we're we're talking about the consent agenda and as you know right longest we've ever talked about right exactly so you know the intent of the consent agenda if is if there's no no need for any further debate my suggestion to the board is you I think you have two reasonable choices at this point either set it set it on the agenda as a separate item that we can debate at the at the voting meeting or uh have the policy committee re review it again and I happen to have
025been in the County Commission budget committee meeting during the policy committee so I I'm I'm curious Mr Pria given given that and the the will of the of the policy committee I hate to put you on the spot but I'm just wondering would we be better off Place placing this placing this on the agenda was there was there a clear indication from the policy committee meeting what they were recommending I think there was a clear indication that night but it was only four or five of us that were there so I think the goal was to bring it to the work session and have this discussion and since there is so much discussion about it I think it makes sense to have an another policy meeting to to word to worksmith word Smith that little
026section and if anyone wanted to come to that to participate in the discussion that would be open okay thank you with that then if I may let's let's send that back to the policy committee along with those uh along with those ethics policies as well okay knowing that Mr Cash and Mr Mitchell do you guys want to make any more comments I'd like to yeah go ahead Mr Cash go ahead you were next up thank you madam chair uh yeah I agree with Elliott 100% And I felt a whole lot better about this uh transparency is a big deal now whether those parents will take advantage of it being on the gray band when it starts I don't know maybe there'll be a few as far as knowing the names word gets out real quick
027when there's a reconsideration so I'd rather I'd rather put it on the front end and have parents know on the front end so when they come back and they can say hey this has been out there this has been out there you know so at least we've got something to go on at least we can say hey it's been out there it's on the gray band right now go look at it so uh I agree it needs to go back uh thank you okay Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair so so I'll push back on the idea of it going back to the to the policy committee because the we've already I thought we were all in consensus that we like the idea of of the communication that once the once the disposition of the
028committee has been determined I mean I think we were all in agreement on that that we needed to communicate out that this is what the committee has decided and this is how as a parent you have the right to to opt out or if you know or or that these books are going to be removed completely the only the only change that we were talking about was whether we do a communication at the beginning and I think we can debate that Monday night and come to make a determination I'll be glad to make an amendment on that and we can discuss that specific Amendment well and I don't know that you'll need to I can update based upon the conversation tonight I'm comfortable updating the language if you want if you want to leave it
029on not the consent agenda but as a regular voting item under new business um and then if I know there's a couple members not here tonight if if the debate continues and we don't have resolution you still have the option of sending it back to policy Monday night but given this discussion I'm I can take care of some language tomorrow morning and get that so that that's that I'll throw that out out there that we could I think we can we can up or down the the second the early communication or not and if and if we down it then I think everybody's in agreement that we do at least the one communication so that was that maybe everybody it's not in agreement that we do but but we did prove it through first reading
030with that language in it so I I just don't think it's that big of a difference to the policy to make us push it out another month I guess where I'm at missia so I just kind of had a follow-up question about procedurally if we were to have if Dana was to put the language the way I guess with the the communication going out at the beginning when the reconsideration committee is formed and that does not pass then we could vote again on Monday night to pass it this way so um what I think I will do is come up with two versions okay I will not be presenting to y'all two versions I'll be presenting the first but I will um also have additional language if the first does not pass that Mr Mitchell
031or Miss Cleveland or Mr Wimberly that someone could then okay amend I just wanted to make sure could still we could put something in place Monday if we're not I think that'd be two or three word change if the first one didn't pass okay thank you okay all right thank you all and Mr Welch would you like to make some comments about the code of ethics or conflict of interest excuse I'm sorry should done that before I hit the button um if we could go back to Lord I'm a try wreck if we could go back to board member conflict of interest please if if if you don't mind pulling that up thank you um under line 17 there direct conflict of interest I'm wondering if we can and should add a line that a
032board me a board member shall not apply for direct employment with the Williamson County School District I think doing that puts the uh superintendent or or other manager in a difficult position and something that we should clarify I I will say as I'm sitting here I was I was thinking about that I see some wisdom in that I'm trying to decide would it be most appropriate in the conflict of interest policy or the code of ethics I went back and forth on the same and and this is sort of where I landed but but I'm not married to that if if the feeling was it would be better in the other so that was my same thought and that's why you saw my frown um since both of those are going back to policy if
033you don't mind me looking at both and getting with you prior to the June policy meeting and adding that language to one or the other absolutely okay thank you okay thank you board members all right let's move now to the superintendent report Mr golden thank you madam chair uh you see on the on the agenda the uh superintendent report includes a strategic Plan update want to give you a little bit of PR ERS of where I'm going over the next few minutes in my superintendent report we're going to walk through our proposed strategic plan and uh I am very excited about where we are and where we're headed after we present that I have a couple of just in time items for you just to give you a little bit of update on where we
034are in the middle of May uh and that includes a little bit update on the third grade retention law and some other smaller things but as we get started we have a PowerPoint we want to share with you related to the Strategic plan uh and so Tim if you would go ahead and pull that pull that up you all know that we spent the last few months and if I'm not mistaken six seven months working on our strategic plan just as a quick review we officially under our existing plan would continue through the entire following school year on our seven-year strategic plan but we talked about this year year and a half ago that really it was about time for us to go back and look at it again uh and I I can't count
035the number of people who have told me that the process we've gone through has been refreshing has been exciting uh the uh the number of opportunities for individuals to can to contribute their thoughts for our stakeholders to contribute their thoughts has has been great and so we're very excited to present this have a PowerPoint here Laura includ from uh from litum University our our facilitator is here here as well she's got a microphone in front of her she's going to be available for questions or lur anything you'd like to pitch in when I present this uh something that jumps into your head as a as a key Point through our process uh so we're going to give a little bit of look back I'm going to I'm going to introduce the strap plan that you
036all have have seen and is in your board packet uh we're going to talk about the planning process and our community engagement and we're going to give you an overview of the plan at we get started our Communications Department produced about a three minute video that gives us a reminder of what we went through in uh in our stakeholder meetings and uh I would like you all to get that just as a reminder a visual a reminder of what we've gone through these last few months so if you would do I click let me give it a shot I'm going to click for [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] all right so I I heard some some uh some Chuckles and I saw some smiles from that
037and I think we all noticed the number of stickers right over over 9,000 stickers I got to ask y'all raise your hand did including those others in the room who actually placed the sticker on something sitting in this room right so somebody placed some stickers on something it was a great process y'all uh it was it was an enjoyable process it was an informing process one neat thing I saw about the process was as we progressed more and more people started coming to every meeting uh word got out you know we published it but until that Community word got out uh it it wasn't as robust as it could it could be so I want to specifically Laura thank lipom University for for leading that uh the the the the quality of the process you
038all set up uh was was very valuable to us so thank you for that I want to also thank the steering committee Rick you participated in in that steering committee that steering committee gathered up all the input and uh and and and and put helped us put this into a coherent form so we have a lot of data a lot of information here on this on this uh slideshow that I'm going to give you I'm not going to read every word from it but uh Laura included this quote from Pablo Picasso and I love the irony of this if you remember Picasso Picasso I thought he was a guy who just just crazily drew some things that didn't make sense with different triangles and and other geometric form forms uh but even he said he
039needed a plan uh when he when he created art and I I thought that was a pretty neat neat example from somebody who just on the face of it probably you wouldn't have thought he was a planner but even the people that don't look like they plan if you're going to create something of value uh it takes a plan so I thought that was a neat quote so you all remember our goals for the strp plan to create a 5-year plan to guide our priorities and our resources to Envision those actions needed to achieve our Miss in our vision and you all know in our meetings when we talk to the public we constantly talk about our vision that we will provide a supportive environment where students are challenged to pursue excellence in academics Athletics
040and the Arts and that drove us as we went through this process and then number three oh my goodness we really hit this to robustly engage the community in providing input and feedback uh and and it it was just a it was a really good experience so you all know our facilitation partners lium University thank you again uh Laura for the work you all have done in leading this was a great experience so our planning process and our community engagement uh this was our timeline that we went through uh and and this is what lipom university set up for us to begin with and I want to speak specifically uh to the final element of that they they finalized the plan uh through the course of this and the conversations I had with many of
041you we decided to make a little bit of an adjustment in the in the final piece of the timeline we're presenting to you a draft plan in may we want you to have some time to think about it so we're presenting it now at this work session we will have another discussion at the June work session and ask you to vote at the June meeting so take some time this month we're going to hit all the all the objectives in this in this in this PowerPoint but I want you all to deeply think about it over the next few weeks as you contemplate where we're headed uh for the for the next 5 years I want it to be a thoughtful process you all have shared that we want to make sure you have time
042to do that so input and feedbacks uh you saw the video that that evidences uh a lot of those discussions uh and and one item that wasn't in a video for obvious reasons the individual board member calls and so I wanted to point that out you all had that opportunity to have those deep discussions about what you value in in Your Vision as individual board members that uh that hope and Laura helped the the steering committee put together and as a reminder uh um Angela you actually included a a SWAT analysis just a few months before we started this process and so your chair LED you in that as well and so the thoughts that you all shared I think served two valuable purposes one got you starting to think on the strategically and also
043shared some input uh that you you were able to think about and refine as we progress through this so you know about the feedback meetings we all smiled about the about the red dots we work through a sore analysis I want to thank you again Laura for that we did the SWAT analysis strings weaknesses opportunities and threats the sore analysis was new for me uh the uh strengths opportunities and aspirations and hearing those aspirations from so many of our stakeholders y'all especially our students was is very very powerful for me where where do we want Williamson County Schools to be in five years so I mentioned the steering committee and thanked Rick uh for participation in that you all had an email a couple of months ago with a list of those steering committee members
044where they compiled all the information from our stakeholders and they helped us draft uh that that uh initial plan and here's the plan Northstar goals those long-term highest level aspirational goals that we believe motivate Inspire and guide our actions and you see our vision and mission statement U repeated uh in in that so we committed to three strategic commitments that our stakeholders brought to us and uh and number one is preparation for Life After WCS uh focus on our students and a commitment to them and we have those goals there and we're going to show you goals and then objectives related to to those goals goal number one increase uh an increase in the percentage of students meeting College ready benchmarks on the ACT increase in a percentage of students reaching the ready graduate bmark
045benchmarks act epod which are early postsecondary opportunities and asab which is the military which is the military test and then an increase in the percentage of students participating in at least one extracurricular activity in athletics arts or academics I'm very excited about where we go with our action steps especially related to this goal um and Mr Beasley I think about the work you and I uh have done over the years especially with the juvenile court one of the common questions judge Guffy asked students who for one reason or another appear in front of her is do you participate in an extracurricular activity that's a common question she asks because because we know that there's value in that the sense of belonging something to focus on something to enjoy so here here here are our strategic
046commitments in in in our objectives related to that increase the percentage of students exceeding State expectations on T and ready uh extracurricular activities at all grade levels all grade levels y'all so we're going to have goals related to that CCT program reference and adjust offerings to align with relevant job Trends connect to college and Technical Pathways and you know we're doing some of those things right now and with a focus on this I think it's going to give us an opportunity to thoughtfully make that even Ro more robust over the next few years um there was a there's a significant focus on item five in our steering committee discussions about the personal finance course it's the idea that students need to be life ready uh when they leave us and so that's a significant objective
047for our plan and then um drill down to an earlier student awareness about their opportunities after school which is potentially from a from an action step perspective going to focus a lot on our counselor work next strategic commitment two team quality invest in time expertise and resources to attract retain and provide ongoing development and training to ensure highquality team members in all roles and I think you all know now more than ever uh we need this Focus Middle Tennessee continues to grow the pool of teacher candidates continues to to shrink and that is a tough combination and so it's very important for us to have a strategic commitment there it's not just teachers it's support staff Etc especially in our community uh where the cost of living continues to increase and you see that very
048first goal a livable Williamson County Income uh and so it's Unique to us uh that um as we focus on this teacher retention employee overall employee retention faculty and staff job satisfaction and you can see those those uh objectives um here related to our team quality I want to especially thank our teachers I know we have some WCA representatives in the audience really good feedback from our from our teacher groups uh as we went through our stakeholder Communications process and I will add you all know it because you saw it in those meetings our parents spoke to this over and over again uh that this was very important to them we know why so many folks have have come to our community and this is a key component of that I'm not going to read
049each one of those um those objectives related to this particular uh this particular strategic commitment um but I do want you to study those and uh and and think about those as you process through this over these next few weeks strategic commitment three learning environment so just to rehash we talked about preparing students for the future taking care of the people who take care of our students and then let's talk about students in school now while we have them and while we can make a difference in their life so you see the goals that the discipline data reflects consistency of implementation districtwide we had a lot of detailed discussions about that uh reduction in instances of threats bullying harassment and discrimination you all know that in the last few months we've had discussions about that
050that we had some pretty low numbers but we heard from so many of our students students that they had stopped reporting we've had an increase in those numbers so we've thoughtfully set some some goals related to improving that reduction and repeat discipline discipline infractions uh improving continue to implement safety our Safety and Security plan and do the same with bre practices in supporting mental health and then finally reduction in chronic absenteeism those are our goals and then our objectives related to those goals uh and it's interesting uh that one of the one of the language changes for this month's consideration in the dress code policy referenced non-discrimination and uh and um I know that Miss Clemens you actually spoke to that at the uh at the policy committee meeting our language in number one includes
051similar language to what you all just are considering to be put in the dress code uh in in on down the line you see a lot of training uh resources and Technologies to to improve security uh educating students uh family members WCS team members about bullying harassment and non-discrimination expectations of course we've got those Federal parameters but we have a lot of good work we can do within those guardrails and parameters that the federal government gave us so that's it y'all I'm excited about it I'm I'm excited about the work we've done I'm excited about our future and I ask that you thoughtfully consider the the language if at any time in the next few weeks you have some questions uh let me know uh let Laura know let Hope know uh as we go
052through that we spent time tweaking the language but the depth of our time was really about the content of those objectives and those goals finally I want to let you know when you all approve this plan our next steps from a timeline perspective it includes our leadership team our senior staff is going to start working on action steps to achieve those goals and we will be doing some regular reviews once we put those action steps together so my next share with you will probably come if you vote on this in June we'll work through the summer and into the early fall for some action steps you'll see some some plans some of these may be Finance issues that we come to you in the budget some of these may be policy changes uh some of
053these may be your approvals to to to get other stakeholders uh in involved with us additional Partnerships Etc who knows where we're going to go with this those action steps will drive us in the how to achieve these goals so certainly open any questions you all may have right now uh as as as we prepare for this and as you contemplate this excellent process and excellent strategic plan that we presented to you madam chair Super Mr HW did you have some comments thank you madam chair um and and thank you for this I think it's a really good draft that we uh have a lot of great feedback to work from one thing that I just comes to mind right now and I I wanted to bring it up because I'll probably forget it before
054we talk about this again is if we can do something to measure the efficacy of the training and not just have it be training check the box but whatever the training components in this are pretty high stakes when we're talking about safety and and bullying awareness so I I really like for example the IT training the security training that is required where there's a a pretty effective um self check at the end of those the post test that's helpful but I want to make sure that whatever we're doing for training is continually refined and you're going to a good feedback loop to make sure that it's effective thank you for that okay Mr Pria button yes thanks um so I I'm excited about the draft I'm excited about this whole process I think it's been
055really well done um I just had two specific questions and maybe this is something that is going to come out when you do those fine details operationally of how these things are going to be accomplished but um two things that I feel were pretty relevant in the community discussions and just things I've heard from other stakeholders it it was brought up a lot during the planning process and it didn't see it reflected in any part of this draft outright um the first one is from number one um preparing students for Life After WCS I think it we're just missing that clarifying piece that says that we're also being mindful of students with disabilities and those transition kids and making sure that they're given the same opportunities for uh Life After High School this very much
056seems I mean it's not all College Bound prep but there's some opportunities but those students with disabilities are are I feel not called out specifically there and then the other thing would be under number three with with uh learning environment there is a bullet under goals that says improve and continue to implement best practices in supporting Mental Health and maybe that's somewhere where we can start to see this come to life but um mentioning the school start times and figuring out if that is something that we can tweak in the Strategic plan to to make sure that our older students our secondary kids are getting enough sleep to support their their development and mental health so those are the two thank you for those two thoughts I do want to briefly touch on both of
057those because in the steering committee discussions both those both those issues came up um number one not well that's actually it's going to be in in in three the her second comment is going to be in the in the third section um number one was students with disabilities an earlier iteration of some of the goals had specific reference to students with disabilities and some of that was shifted to the word all uh and so to your point I think it is important for us to continue to speak to that that all truly means all so extracurricular activities as an example uh and that and that was that was that was part of the discussion at the steering committee uh the learning environment the best best practices and mental health uh we did talk about um
058the comments that um some parents especially made about school start times it is very possible some of the action steps are going to include that I anticipate that our team may put together some study groups some subcommittees to to study and that example's one of them what impact might a change in start times have and how could it impact some of these goals extracurricular activities are another example there right because there there's there's a potential so I I I I'll give another example that I anticipate we may have some committee study when we talk about recruiting and retaining our our faculty and staff some outside the box thinking uh for example um what might it take to have some some attainable housing for early career teachers uh then so we I expect we'll have some
059study groups put together to De to develop feasibility but thank you for that reference to to to to start times that did come up quite often in our stakeholder meetings Mr Wimberly to KC's point about uh establishing measurements for training one of the things that we talked about I think in the steering committee meetings was that perhaps a weakness in the current strategic plan is that we did not establish sufficient measurements for some of the so for part of the work plan so one of the things I think that that will be important for us as the board is to when we see these work plans to to hold staff's feet to the fire and to make sure that there are measurable goals does that sound familiar Laura thank you so that was a good
060point I'm just making it bigger okay okay Mr Golden any other comments on not related to the Strategic plan all right look forward to where we're headed Laura uh you you you're free to go if you want to hang out and and listen some more to learn more about about the operations of schools I certainly invite you to um but thank you again uh for the work you and hope did I'm going to kind of miss you when this is over we'll have to we'll have to all right so uh next in my in my superintendent report I want to give you a handful of quick views about where we are and so um Brian Tim if you don't mind I've created two slides to give you a glimpse of the from this point forward
061timeline on our third grade retention law and if that looks overwhelming it is uh I'm I'm not trying to get you to fully grasp all the content of this I want you to to see and I want our our families to know where we go from here with this new third grade law so TCAP has been taken we are told that on May 19th we're going to get a report from the state on which third graders quote unquote passed or failed TCAP and you know that's a new term y'all for TCAP it never used to be pass or fail just evaluation that's exactly right so it's a substantial change we will not yet at this time based on what they've told us know whether a student is approaching or below basic we're just going to
062know who was in one of those top two categories or bottom two categories without knowing which category they're in what that means for our students is they don't know if they're going to have to take summer school or they're going to have to take summer school or tutoring when May 19th hits so that's Friday we're getting that list Monday the very next business day our our principles are going to share with their families whether their child passed or failed third grade the third grade teap um the very next day Tuesday the retak start we're going to strongly encourage all students who fell in that quote unquote fail category to retake why would you not absent being sick that day let's retake the let's retake it give yourself a chance potentially to uh to to move
063uh to to get out of one of those categories the state has told us that we should have the results of that in 48 hours after they take that retake it's online third graders did paper teap they're going to do an online retake if they fell in one of those two categories of approaching or below expectations what this means is after the retake if they re if they if they are if they met expectations or exceeded they don't have any summer obligation if they fell below they have to attend the summer program to be promoted to fourth grade and if they hit the approaching category now they have another appeal that they can submit and that is based on two grounds one the new law that was just passed recently by our legislature states that
064if a student scored over the 40th percentile on our screener which is Ams web and you've heard us talk about that then they should be able and are and they should their their appeal should be approved so that has the potential to screen out a few more of our students from having to take the summer school that's that tweak in the law our legislature just passed I will tell you today we got an email from the state that said uh schools don't have your students take that spring screener over and over again visualize that so there apparently was all already some discussion at some different school districts where they've done the screener a second time obvious I presume in the hopes that the students would score over the 40th percentile uh now nobody has TCAP
065results yet um so just it's it's going to be an interesting time as this new law is implemented or second a catastrophic event um and and we don't know ultimately what that is if I was a decision maker if someone was sick if someone had the flu whatever I would consider in that window of time as a third grader that's catastrophic on the days you're supposed to take the test but I don't know uh what the state will ultimately do on those appeals but those in the approaching category can appeal uh and then those appeals are scheduled to be approved by June 30th so when does the summer school program start well it does not start on June 30th in fact it's done by June 30th so what that means is those students in the
066approaching category that that appeal may or may not the appeal answer may or may not come while they're in the summer program we're going to have a lot of challenges this year y'all with this new implementation because this is very complex uh next June 2 and let me let me just remind you I'm going to go backwards May 23rd through the 26th are the retakes the last school day is May 25th so the next week June 2nd the principles our principles will be working on creating the list of the non-exempt students remember you can exempt if you have a a disabling condition that affects reading so we'll be able to screen out some of those where they won't have the requirement but those non-exempt students who didn't pass the the TCAP or the retake will
067have conversations with our principles and they'll have a list by June 2nd so they'll basically have a week or so Dr Allen to put those to put those lists together um and I'm going to jump a little bit June 23d uh we will send a retention letter to those families of the students who remained below expectations and did not attend summer school and by the by the time June 23rd hits we're going to know who fits in that category we'll send them that notice in in late June um now if you do take summer school and you're below expectations the state says you still have to show growth to not be held back and that's that window there June 27th through 29th the state has told us there's a post test for adequate growth they
068haven't told us yet when we're going to hear about those results Dr I know you you had you know some more detail about that test you all if you have any questions about that after I finished certainly o o open uh to discussions related to that the law also requires the students to attend at least 90% of the summer school and if they miss that we have added to take care of our students we have added some makeup days what if a student has a two-day stomach bug they're Dro below 90% so we want to have some makeup days just in case so you can see the makeup days that we've added if I'm not mistaken the law does not require the makeup days but we chose to add that as a fail safe uh
069for our students and then finally you see July 14th is a projected date for those final promotion retention decisions and Communications we are proverbially crossing our fingers because we really don't know exactly when the adequate growth decisions are going to come in from the state I wanted you all to get an intellectual and emotional grasp of what we're looking at this summer um I am so impressed and so proud of our team many of those who worked on this are represented here um I know Jenny Lopez lorett Carl Dr Allen uh and Dr Royer and their team spent a lot of time working on this the secondary folks Dr Webb and her team have been assets for that group too as they as they work through this so I want to thank them for that
070work I want to open this up to you all for questions because y'all I anticipate you might get some emails from parents yeah uh through this process ultimately we're going to recommend that you refer them to us or their principal but I want you all to have some grasp so with that are there any other any questions related to this process yeah we have some questions start with Mr Wimberly well perfect segue to my question and that is what is it that we need to let parents know right now uh because obviously this is a bit of an understatement when you say this is very complex yes and I have a feeling these dates won't all STI just saying so what is it what's the headline now for parents uh Dr Allen um I'm gonna
071I'm going to pitch that to you for the number one based on what your team is discussed the headline thank you m Mr Gold I think the headline is teap results will be back on that date that that May 22nd I believe the May 19th I think that's when the May 19th we will know pass or fail the headline is parents communication will be coming from your administrators on next steps I think that's the headline so the the there's going to be back and forth communication beginning on on May 19th and our principales will be able to direct student by student what pathway they have to take if they need to meet additional requirements uh Mr wiberly to your point that Mr Golden's done a great job of summarizing this it's overwhelming it's overwhelming to
072our team and we look at it we have ongoing planning meetings every two weeks with work in between those those those planning meetings and it's overwhelming to us so the best advice I have for parents is on May 19th we're going to get those test get those results back by May 22nd you will know whether your students were um below that threshold I hate to refer to it as a past fail but if they were below that threshold and then they will be given explicit directions from their principles on the next steps I think that's the headline and I'd also want to to add that an additional headline is no student will have to be retained as a result of TCAP this year so students may have to uh take on additional responsibilities through summer
073school Andor tutoring the following year but regardless of their result as long as they meet the additional requirements set forth by the legislation no kid will have to be retained in third grade everyone should know where they where they stand before school lets out and they'll need to have conversations with their administrators that last week of school I guess I'm a little bit confused by the point that no student will be held back that's correct because of TCAP that's correct yeah no student has to be retained in third grade if a student is below expectations or approaching expectations on the ELA portion of TCAP in 2023 they have to meet additional requirements to be promoted to fourth grade if they don't meet those additional requirements they don't go to summer school or they don't attend
074the tutoring then they'll be retained but as long as they follow the appropriate path every student taking the third grade portion of the elat cap can be promoted Dr Allen in that context can you speak to the adequate growth test that students have to take at the end of the summer program yes sir so adequate growth will aide will apply to students that are in the approaching category who go to summer school the adequate growth will be a measure um uh determined by the students preest and by their post test if they do not meet adequate growth and they're in the approaching category they'll have to attend the tutoring sessions to be promoted to fourth grade now we'll have a different conversation this time next year because currently in the legislation it says that students
075that were promoted as a result of one of these Pathways that we're discussing those students will have to show growth on the ELA portion of their fourth grade TCAP to be promoted to fifth grade that one is the bar that really we have not been able to find a pathway forward if they don't if they if they've had if they were promoted to fourth grade as a result of one of these Pathways some school or Andor tutoring now they're sitting down and they're taking fourth grade teap the current legislation says they have to show growth on their fourth grade portion of the TCAP or Ela portion of the TCAP in relation to their third grade ELA score or they will be retained in fourth grade without an additional pathway Mr Hall we're good Mr H
076and how many can we go to the next slide I just wanted to make sure I understood that growth okay so when is the the tutoring then is in in the next following school year school year okay that's right the the the tutoring that is potentially a choice for the approaching or requirement for below for the below students extends throughout the following school year okay and so in the the timeline here I didn't add it up but is it like 20 days of summer school of Summer that's correct 20 days of summer school I'm sorry thank you it's it's four weeks but we're doing it four days a week for four weeks okay so 16 days yes so the state and I guess another headline I would add and I appreciate the um the objective
077and somewhat positive approach that has been taken to this is that this is not a WCS idea this is a state requirement to address a need and we've had multiple discussions with our legislators and uh I presume that the state at some point sought the input of professionals and superintendents um we definitely shared we definitely gave them input right and I would without asking I would say that this probably does not reflect much of that input but the idea of of 16 days getting someone over a huge hurdle seems to me um yeah not probably not proven out in research-based evidence well a couple a couple things related to that this is actually going to be the third year we've done Elementary summer school uh the this law was passed back then and we've been
078implementing this without the for lack of a better word the whammy at the end uh it's actually been for many of our students a good program uh I I have lit I have seen students build confidence that they might not have had during the regular school year with just the few weeks at the end also our students with disabilities for many years have through their IEP processes had extended school year where they spend some time in the summer our extended school year program is going to run concurrently with with this program Staffing's part of the part of the issue related to that uh to make sure that we have enough uh folks to do that another piece of this is it's not just third grade summer school we are still providing summer school for um
079the the younger the younger grades the new state law I mentioned the 40th percentile add-on that they added as one more potential option for the approaching category they also added a requirement that we provide summer school to Rising kindergarteners Rising kindergarteners so think about introducing your child to kindergarten uh and the process teachers go through to help students get comfortable in that new setting um we have if I'm not mistaken Dr Allen um somewhere around I think maybe 23 families have said they would like their Rising kindergarteners so far to have maybe in the 40s I can't remember exactly I'm looking at the right now we have 35 35 thank you so I split the difference between my 23 and our 40 um 35 now we do have students in our prek programs who do
080have some familiarity with the school buildings uh and our students in our East in our Early Childhood Program so maybe it's going to be some of those students but it's it's it's it's interesting that they've added that um the the premium in our opinion needs to be on those early grades reading the the foundational skills that so many people call phonics uh making sure that we we do our best to maximize those youngest students Lexile levels to grow them the the research that triggered much of these laws is related to if a student hasn't learned to read by third grade blank will happen statistically so we've talked about this before this law it's a crisis Point our the importance of our work starts at the very beginning thank you Mr Beasley yeah mine's real simple
081is it possible that you can send us those slides these two slides because I want to be able to process this I want a timeline in the way I see it opposed to the way it's laid out for sure and actually we actually have this in a different format with a lot more detail I I told uh I told Dr Allen um I want some bullet points and he came in he said I can't give you bullet points let's let's sit down and and walk through this so we've we've got something with a with a lot actually a lot more dates in detail Dr Allen and I just want to also to that point it is really hard to kind of wrap your brain around all this what what I would encourage uh you as
082a board to do is if you get questions that are specific to individual children refer those parents to the principal they'll have the best information about where the individual child stands if you have questions about what happens if and when and the timeline and those sorts of things just feel free to pick up the phone and give me a call and if I'm not the right person to answer it I'll I'll make sure that I get you to the right person and the other thing I just just want to add is that first Domino falls on May 19th if that Domino doesn't fall the rest of the dominoes don't fall so we're really relying heavily on tdoe to come through with what they have told us because we have such a tight timeline to turn
083it around for that's Mr wi's point he's not you know he said I I suspect these dates may change yeah yeah so this is a a working document for us to hold ourselves accountable to backward map to make sure that and I and I just to make sure that summer school starts on time but Mr Golden you know mentioned uh the team and A Team working hard on this um I'm I'm super proud of the work that that our district is doing to get kids ready I'm just thinking about Information Technology like our instructional technology and so every one of these students that were just getting the names of up to June 2nd have to be loaded and have programs ready for them we're not just bringing kids in off the bus and sitting them
084down and and having a fun day with them there's instruction high quality instruction that's been thoughtfully prepared by Miss Lopez's team um uh by teachers that have been trained to understand the individual needs of each individual child that is in their classroom there's a lot of effort going into making this really meaningful and will we over 16 days be able to grow a child in their ability to read more than likely not the research just does not support that but what it will do what we believe that we can do is that we can reduce that what sometimes is referred to as the summer slide right so there's going to be high quality instruction and a lot of times the kids over the summer when they disengage from instructional uh materials they start to slide
085back and then they really pick it back up they're starting point the starting point of these students in August will be further down the road than where it would have been if they hadn't attended summer school so as much as we don't like what we're having to do we really don't like it and I appreciate Mr Hall's point that this is not us doing this um but we're going to make the most of it and and our teachers are committed uh to making it high quality for the students that are there miss Apria yeah thank you I was just going to ask um they you mentioned something and I wanted to just make sure I understood it correctly we we studying this law a lot in my my day job and I just learned something
086brand new so you said that even if they do the summer school if they don't show growth on the end of summer assessment or what have you then they would still be required to do the second part of tutoring even if they were approaching okay thank you and then um the other question was was you said that they would going to they were going to be retested in fourth grade and they would need to show growth to avoid retention automatic retention at that point do they have a definition is it a full band like no definition they've not given Clarity on that yeah and and Mr PRI if I can just clarify the Nuance about this legislation is if you fall into the approaching category the message has always been you have to go to
087summer school the reality is it's an ore it is summer school or the uh tutoring which the tutoring is two days a week 30 minutes each session outside of the typical school day so it's two days a week 30 minutes each session so the approaching category really is an or but to your point Mr Pria if they choose the summer school and then they don't show growth which we're just starting to get information on what that growth could be then they still have to do the tutoring anyway so follow-up question would would it make sense to encourage parents to choose the tutoring in the first go because then they don't have to worry about it they that's their or option and they'd only have to do one I don't feel comfortable making that recommendation what
088what I will say is um we have parents who have kids that will be in the meeting expectations category and they will still want their children Le to attend summer school because they found they' found value in it got it okay so we'll have some that want to come regardless and so I wouldn't want to get into the recommendation I just want to stay clean with what what the legislation is requiring us and let the parents make those choices okay and then but but it is important I'm sorry but it is important that they that they really know exactly what it is and what it isn't and what they're allowed to do right exactly and then you triggered one more question in my mind um the tutoring that's offered twice a week 30 minutes outside
089of school is that funded by us or the state I may need to ask Rachel that question I don't know that I know the answer to that because it was not to my knowledge what was in the budget was not it did not include that so if I can add currently summer school is a reimbursement to us every penny they've reimbursed so far um and so we we actually you know do everything pay for for the the teachers and those sorts of things and then we submit and we we get reimbursed we we've set aside uh WCS money for the tutoring for next year we've not gotten information that that that there's that'll be part of reimbursement that we'll get reimbursed for those cost so we have to be prepared for it I do know
090a lot of nonprofits across Middle Tennessee are working on on finding tutors um I believe the state has said that they will provide the tutors if we need them that's why was wondering who's funding it but what I heard today was that the the tutors that they would be providing were mostly online and I thought we all know how that goes yeah so take that for what you will well they they it they're likely still working on some of that detail for the for the fall Dr Allen I'm not aware that State's willing to provide us any tutors um and we're going to try to do ours all inhouse we'd rather have our teachers with our students and we'd rather have it face to face in person three students to one teacher 30 minute sessions
091all year long and that's a state ratio as well three to one and I agree I think that's way better um it just it was something the department of Ed it was reported in the Tennessee and that the Tennessee Department of Education is to contract with up to three qualified tutoring agencies to ensure enough tutors are available so if other districts don't have the resources I guess that's that's just why but anyways other questions related to yeah we have a oh I'm sorry so you're good Mr Cash thank you um mine was about tutoring can they get outside tutoring can they just go out and hire their own tutors no good question thank you for the question there are requirements that the teacher the the providers have to go through um specific training and that
092training has to be approved through us or through the training excuse me has to be approved through Tennessee Department of Education but we're held accountable to provide it for the students okay okay prek is not offered to everyone there's just a certain amount of children that get into that every year there's a waiting list that is correct yes sir so now with the state mandate here we are going to have to work with Rising kindergarteners yes are they going to pay for for this uh they will cover the C the tutoring cost this year they are committed to covering for the for the Summer's School for Rising kindergartens the state is paying for that this year as I understand it it's going to be an annual it's you know just just like so many other
093things with the state budget they'll have to pass the budget annually but we know for this year the state is paying for that okay one other thing and you've heard it before we got a nine-week block in second grade that I feel is not age appropriate kids just don't understand it I've seen my own go through it um would it be more it would be better for the kids to be continually reading from kid to Garden all the way through rather than have these interruptions that we're going to we're going to be teaching in I think third and fifth grade again the same curriculum well we do have a 90-minute reading block uh for for for students what the curriculum focuses on is research-based reading practices that challenge students to increase their Lexile level and
094grow uh and so you know if you're talking about the content of one of those quarters of the Whitten wisdom curriculum right uh the the the they will they are also receiving fonics instruction uh during during that second grade as well so it's a combination of research face reading plus phonics instruction they do get phonics they do get phonics I know that but some of the some of the the work that they're required to look at is just over their head and the the words that they have to learn or that they're learning aren't even on their spelling tests so what I'm saying is if they can't really retain this in second grade what is the use of it when we're going to teach it in the next year or two anyhow well what what
095we have found is and what the Research indicates with with reading is if you challenge students with more complex terms than they have up to up to the point they are they will continue to grow and that that their growth will be at a faster rate than if they weren't challenged with those higher Lexile with a with a higher with a higher Lexile um vocabulary um Dr Allen anything You' like to add to that well I I hope it proves out yeah I do but I just think you know that well and it's interesting you mention that because the the screeners um the screeners the the screeners that the state requires and that we use and we use as web right uh that is designed to measure a student's Readiness to receive that grade level
096instruction if a student falls tier two or tier three they receive extra interventions in the middle of the school year in the middle of the school day uh during during during those reading times uh that is different from TCAP which measur measures particular Mastery of particular standards that the state has tested Now with an adjustment to the law there's a little bit of an element of both in this in this third grade retention law with that if your score above the 40th percentile uh on the screeners and you're in the approaching category so there is a there is a little bit of a mixing of those two issues which which is different but ultimately TCAP is testing Mastery of the standards so at the at the second grade level we work on Mastery of the
097second grade standards which in turn should prepare students for the third grade standards for which they're ultimately going to be tested um and Dr Allen I know that's a it's there's those those don't quite parallel each other and they're not completely different either it's just it's just a it's it's they're measuring two different things but ultimately both of those could lead to a student having a higher likelihood of actually mastering those standards that's correct and I missed part of the question because I was checking with Miss Carl about some of the particular data sources that I was asking for but um yes so the the screener specifically measures uh the students ability to access grade level curriculum and um and and we look closely at oral reading fluency to make sure that as a students
098oral reading fluency um increases they spend less time thinking about breaking apart the word and how to say the word and then their mind automatically shifts to um responding to what the passage is that they're reading rather than spending their time on breaking apart the word so um we just had meetings the last couple of weeks reviewing our screener data this year uh it's higher than it's ever been um our curriculum Specialists are are extremely excited um about what they're seeing as it relates to skills-based data we do have some historic teap data now using our wit and wisdom curriculum we look very closely at that um interestingly enough several of the top districts like we were the top District but several that were right behind us also used the Whitten and wisdom curriculum so
099it's something that we constantly have our eye on we're not looking at it necessarily holistically we're looking at the grade band data third grade fourth grade fifth grade looking for specific parts of the TCAP data that give us an idea where our kids are being really successful or not being as successful and look to make curriculum adjustments if we see any gaps but the returns that we've seen so far are actually very promising um both in our skill specific data and our knowledge block which is um our students comprehension of what they read based on the curriculum but to your to your point Mr Cash it's something that we constantly have our eye on and don't take for granted um and and we drill down to the specific standard to say okay this is the
100area where we feel like we can make the most growth what can we do to enhance our curriculum if anything to give our kids the best the best shot at it but we will absolutely certainly break that apart again this year um uh just to make sure that that if there's a if there's an area where we can improve we will certainly make adjustments and a final comment related to that um when our teacher teams get together they look at their how how well their students did on formative tests where is just trying to check on their Mastery of individual standards uh and and go back and adjust their pacing if it's apparent that their students haven't mastered a standard so that's that's a big chunk of what they're working on during those early release
101days those 11 early release days that um that we've initiated in in element elentary school as well Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair um is it possible to flowchart this as a way for parents to identify um decision points and because because that for me that would make sense so you know your first point question pass or fail teap pass you're done you know fail then you go and then kind of because there's decision points here and it ways to get out of the race thank you for that we do have a flowchart we created the state um I don't know a month after we created one um published one as well uh I don't know that it has this detail about the specific dates in fact I I don't know that you need the
102dates in the flowchart I think it's all about because the dates to Rick's Point could change but the decision and the information the decision point and what to do with a no will not change Mr mitell it's like you're in our planning meetings so the flowchart uh that we have is is kind of prior to this these are the big buckets of what happens if you don't pass so the next I don't know if I want to call it a flowchart but it'll be directed uh toward the parents that will help guide them that that's where who needs a flowchart I think is to make let them because you throw this out I mean throw this out to us and we're kind of trying to figure it out parents are not going to know this
103at all but uh that's right we we will absolutely do that um that is in our plans but I still think I want to encourage our parents to stay tight with the principle and have their ear to the ground and listen to Communications coming out of that building because it's going to be it's going to be as specific as um okay um little Tai didn't pass teap um he uh took a retake he didn't pass that retake but Dave Kim I want to let you know that I went back and looked at Tai's am web data for the spring administration of the am web test and Tai got was in the 47th percentile so even though he didn't pass here's the link where you can appeal that says all you have to be is in
104the 4 first percentile that's going to be really hard to even explain through some sort of flowchart I think it's going to take and our our principles are they're ready to do that uh Dr orer has already been communicating with them what that would look like but we think it's going to require that depth of conversation so we will certainly put something and cify in writing and have that available to the parents but I really want to encourage them to to expect that communication and reach out if they feel like they haven't gotten it in response to a date that they feel like they should have gotten it by right now we're just kind of all on hold right we're just all on hold until so really the the the parents will really be on
105hold to that Monday May 22nd that's when the communication will really ramp up so um and I I know we've had a couple of people ask about funding on this it would be I'm I'm not clear on what we're getting paid what the state's covering this year and what the state is not covering this year and I realize follow up following years is is you know unknown so that would be they all all of su school is being covered including Transportation including food okay um and that's actually the first two items on your the finance portion of this agenda actually include that okay the tutoring we we don't have any clear indication that that that we're going to get that state funding for that um so if a student decides to enroll let's say that
106they're in the fail section and they're not wanting to do some school so they're at a risk of of being of not or not being promoted can they then opt to go to a private school and and just basically jump out of all this I don't believe this is this is a requirement for private school or homeschoolers correct you're correct about that latter part uh and your question about can they jump out gets back to the comment about the uh the screener right my life experience is when when when rules are set the creative folks are going to say well I I'm going to operate within the rules and I'm going to do blank that's still within the rules that's a possibility and and so with my next thought is that if you have a
107I'll take the homeschool example but it kind of goes to the private school too so I have a a family who was fa that failed in teap but passed you know all all through the the school year basically and they decided that they would homeschool they would pull the student out in homeschool and then January comes back to uh reenroll are they going to be where would we reenroll them at at that point and and this may ultimately be a uh Dana os's question but my interpretation based on my reading of it is if they come back in that mid year we will not have the power to place them in the next next grade level we have an obligation so so if they've gone to a private school and they did promote into the
108so they went from third and they did half a year at at BGA for for fourth grade what do you going to do when they come in January and say well we're ready to reenroll yeah so I think each one of those are going to be fact specific and it's going there's not going to be a here's your answer um each we have already had some facts specific um scenarios and again I'm going to Echo what Dave Allen has said reach out to the principal when we get those fact specific questions we reach out to the school because they have all of the information and so with enrollment or re-enrollment again it will be um the principales or assistant principles reaching out um with fact specific questions so that we can provide answers you know
109it's interesting also um the state expectation is that homeschooled families do take teap and so we make teap available to our homeschool families uh and those who we know we do have some come in um and that's that's a decision that they make so we may have some some data if someone enrolls from homeschool so so my point I guess thought was that that parents potentially could just jump out for a year yeah and then jump back back in and just kind of Leap Frog over the whole third third grade retention I I think the decision point that the state's put in place for public schools if they in most cases if they would bring back a let's say they went to BGA for a year and came back you would probably not evaluate it
110based upon data year prior from accredited we do test students who are are coming from a non-accredited school but in that example that Mr Mitchell gave it's an accredited school home home school yeah we do test we do test the home home school students yeah I think I think that those are some identified boy we don't really have the answers to those questions yet and they're probably a lot more out there uh that fit that category the this this first year of actual implementation and and Lee I guess you can I'll throw this at you cuz you you live this daily too that when a parent comes in and they've said I've been homeschooling them for a year and this is the grade that they're ready to go into it's a very hard conversation to
111say no we're not going to put your child in the grade that you're telling us that they need to be in even if they don't even if they don't test for that grade it's it's a well that's right we kind of accommodate parent parents if they yell and scream enough and the Middle School example is a classic example in that in in in your scenario for the high school we often test for credits right right and so it's a it's it's a different game in the high school and middle school but Elementary School will Elementary is more like middle in that sense Mr wiberly you're good okay okay all right thank thank you madam chair um have we hit everybody yeah we okay just just let me give you some some quick ones uh uh
112um on our on our budget just want to make sure everyone knows last week we did receive the uh the projection from the State Department of Education for Tissa the state share uh and Rachel Pro projects that as of now we are actually in the black uh to the good uh on our budget so we don't um in we don't expect to bring the budget back to you prior to the commission voting on it in late June so we're optimistic about where we are our budget our operational budget has passed all the appropriate County Commission committees uh and then so the next step for them is to actually vote on it uh on June 29th if I'm not mistaken after your June meeting they have not made any decisions at the committee level on our
113Capital request um that we part of our budget so of the four budgets uh the our our main operational budget our food service budget our school age child care budget and the capital budget three of those four have passed all the committee hurdles the capital budget has been deferred for the board as a whole and the the commission as a whole to make a decision um which is actually fairly common in in their practice what I've heard from the County Commission is generally they're going to evaluate the capital in the context of everything else they're having to make decisions on uh and in the context of their debt so that'll be the biggest hurdle for for us to jump over on the budget side but from operational perspective I'm I'm I'm optimistic about where we
114are it includes that 6%% raise that we talked about uh a couple other quick things uh this is a time for celebrations many of you were at our celebration for the for the military for the enlistments and those making a commitment to serving the ROC programs uh it was a really good turnout I want to thank you board members who were there as well good good turnout from the board good good turnout from the students uh and um and it again it did my heart good to see where our country is with our students who are graduating from WCS uh we we celebrated just a week and a half ago uh our annual art celebration Mark Kender and his team put on a great program uh with so many evidences of Excellence from our from
115our students especially our seniors a lot of neat things came out of that program for example the CMA Foundation president was there and spoke uh and I believe that has opened up some doors for some of our theater programs and for individual students who made some connections uh with the CMA foundation and Dr web I don't know how much we can share right now probably shouldn't share something publicly we may have to bite our tongue on okay we'll wait we'll wait on that sorry sorry to ask a question like that now you don't know what I'm talking about uh um uh next uh a really neat thing happened for the first time just a couple of weeks ago when our our Athletics programs uh um Darren joins our Athletics director put together an event that
116we called the workout and uh it was it was a program for prospective high school students to do a workout for colleges where they where they look at at their performance football recruiting is unique when it comes to athletic recruiting uh because there really aren't AA type programs there really aren't travel programs for football it's just a little different so we conducted a workout and Dr web I'm putting you on the spot because I didn't mention to you I was going to mention this can you talk about the number of colleges who came absolutely it was a wonderful event uh we had over 20 colleges and universities that were present uh multiple coaches from those universities that were represented uh each High School had 10 football athletes that uh could come and and work out
117and go through the workouts we had over uh 50 coaches football coaches volunteer their time on Saturday to spend a half day to come work out the students and it's not necessarily a spectator event you know it might be a little drab for the individuals who came to watch in the stands but the true purpose is for students to show their strengths uh in front of the University uh coaches and so each drill is individual so that every coach who's there can rotate to the different sections and see every athlete from every position um the students were very excited it was well intended great media coverage and uh I know for certain we had uh individuals at least one that I spoke to spoke to his to his family who received a college offer on
118the spot so we have all the way from Clemson University to our local universities and um individuals from all over the country that showed interest uh this is a unique event a lot of processes had to be followed with NCAA to ensure that we could have this um uh sanctioned event and we know that uh proving ourselves and our uh process of justification with NCAA in this year is absolutely going to open the door for more universities to feel even more confident to come to our event next year so very excited for this opportunity for our students many athletes have to pay thousands of dollars uh to have this kind of access and even um those contracted kind of uh uh private entities in our community don't have the access or the authority to hold
119these events our football coaches gave up one of their days of spring practice to be able to to sanction this and and uh it was an actual practice event for them so a lot of lot of choices were made to give the kind of showcase that our athletes deserve uh free in a public school setting without having to pay it individually so super proud of that it's been years in the making for our athletic departments years to make this event occur nice very cool uh and on top of that we had a student named a presidential scholar this year I think if I'm not mistaken two in every state uh and that that student will be announced at our at our board meeting as well uh as as we celebrate that so we talked about
120our vision statement excellence in academics Athletics and the Arts and I just wanted to touch on just one quick anecdote from each of those I am so impressed uh with the work Mark kinzer our Arts coordinator and Darren joins our Athletics coordinators is the work they're doing uh they continue to brainstorm they continue to work for work for new opportunities for our students uh so with that graduations are in about two weeks y'all You' signed up for some of them those of you who uh who are going to be in town uh and uh and and Lydia I know is going to give us reminders of those so look forward to seeing you all at those graduations I think the max you can actually physically make it to is maybe four uh because of the
121because of their schedules uh so so look forward to those excited for our students and it's my long report Madam chair I'm finished that's a good one Mr Mitchell has a comment thank you madam chair uh Jason one of the back to the budgets again are three we've received some um emails from constituents around the sack budget and what can we do around that budget to help grow that program in the sense that it there's a need for it is that something we're able to look at before the year begins and and if uh you know because I I agree with the Bel with the comments that it's a valuable enough program that maybe we need to figure out a way to increase the salaries I I realize it's a self-funded uh situation but uh
122maybe we if increasing the cost is increase is uh our ability to grow it and and provide more availability for it and then kind of maybe look to the to to the community for ways of back filling for folks that you know I'm use the term scholarship opportunities if you can't afford it or need help thank you for that and uh I'm I'm going to give Vicky Hall a just a a quick prep um as I speak to ask her to fill in as well so we holistically look at our our our staffing and our salaries the sacka uh the sack worker hourly rate is similar to some of our other positions districtwide it's a tough thing to make sure that we don't have those those positions sometimes compete with each other I'm going to
123choose this one instead of this one the sack program is a very valuable program uh that we have added to try to give that additional service to our to our community uh generally speaking I think it's below Market on the charges we have our community pay but when I did a little bit of research on the market for child care workers in Middle Tennessee it looks like we're probably about a dollar an hour above the market for child care workers uh we're still struggling for Staffing uh so we've started a little bit of research related to that we're going to continue that the timing of the work is odd you work a couple hours in the morning couple hours in the afternoon and you don't work in between and so finding somebody to fill in
124those those Gap times is is difficult college students are often good candidates for the work uh and some of our staff members who work during the day might say I'm going to commit to doing the morning program at sack and then transition into the regular school day or the afternoon if you're doing the whole thing it's a lot uh for for the day uh so short answer to your question is we're we're still working on it before the school year starts uh the human resources department is going to continue to recruit it's possible we may be able to make some adjustments Miss Hall could could you ask what was your specific question about the STA about sack so there was a I think the email that that caught my attention was was about uh the
125the number of parents that are unable to get into the sac program because there's not availability for it and would be willing to pay more just to even get in it and so the thought was that the pricing of it is appreciated but if we're pricing it at a point to where we can't hire enough staff at that price point what can we do to one maybe pay the staff more more to grow our our staffing numbers so it can actually be more available gotcha and I realize the cost is you get a point to where you can price some families out potentially but maybe there's opportunities within our community to to work around that that situation gotcha and I I will tell you that um Dr oyer is not here tonight but we have
126been talking with Leslie Weaver the director of the sack program quite a bit about Staffing and um we've made some recommendations for some potential tweaks to how they staff um they're like group associate uh wages hourly wages are they are pretty competitive with daycares around one thing we're doing this year is we are moving those site leaders to salaried so we're hoping that will help by getting salaried site leaders that that will help help to keep um those group associate positions filled in each of the buildings and then I know that um Dr orer is speaking with um Leslie Weaver about you know possibilities for whether there needs to be a a tuition adjustment for that go ahead Miss Cleveland just a quick question on that is the waiting list due to the ratio um
127with the staff to students or is it um because of space availability it's really all that and it depends site by site some of it's Staffing some of it is the ratio some of it is available space it's really it's really that combination and there there are some locations that don't have a waiting list and others that have a large waiting list so it really is site by site there's some issues that sometimes come up to with the ability of parents to do drop-ins where they're not committed like to 5 days a week and I think that's an important service too so it's trying to figure out how to balance the dropin with those that are every day a week and then so some days you may have many more students than you do on
128another day there there are some sites when where there were just simply no drop-ins because we can't staff that because of the state ratios it's very difficult to just have somebody waiting just in case especially with our staffing and I'll make a point too that a lot of corporate workday now are going to a flexible day where you're you have a Tuesday Wednesday Thursday in office requirement and a flex on Monday and Friday so if our sack program is not flexible for that then then that's that kind of is missing that office paradigm shift that that a lot of corporate America has implemented coming out of Co and it makes it doubly difficult to staff say all right so somebody only want your service two days a week so we're only offering you a job
129two hours in the afternoon for two two days a week and we want you to drive yourself to the location right so it that that makes Staffing all that all that more difficult if if it's a if it's an unusual schedule but there are some college students where that works depending on there well I think you pay a premium pay a premium for I think you're willing you have to look again at the what we're paying if we have a if we're if it's just a single price for the for the employee regardless of yeah what our flexibility or inflexibility ask are maybe we pay a premium again to try to expand that program okay um we have hit the end of our operations report um we've been going for about two hours so we're
130going to take a break and come back at 810 okay okay thank you e e e okay we're going to call back to order next item on the agenda is the board chair report and right after that is the evaluation of the superintendent under new business I'm going to tackle both of those at the same time one item I wanted to mention to you guys is the email we we received from Lydia um earlier I think it was yesterday about annual training hours so everybody's required to have seven hours a year if you have not yet submitted those or received those hours Lydia does have a list and she gave us the last three remaining opportunities to gather those hours so make sure you did those for sure so you don't get a nasty gram
131about missing your hours but there's a session on May 16th May 19th and June 9th and they are offered remotely so maybe take advantage of that if you have not yet been able to do your hours so that's oh yeah per the earlier discussion okay then the next item on the agenda is our superintendent evaluation this is an annual agenda item and the goal of this uh superintendent evaluation is is for Jason to receive a three and for anybody who is not familiar with the evaluation all 12 of us do complete this for Mr Golden he provides us with some input prior to us completing the evaluation um then the individual board members assessments are sent to an external firm for tallying and aggregation and then circulated to the board for review and then we
132will vote Monday night on the results um those were uploaded to our board packet at about 5:30 today so you can see those now in your board packet you might not have had a chance to look at those yet but so definitely take some time over the next couple days to take a look at that and um Jason I don't know if you've had a chance to look at them but would welcome your comments but before I um open that to you I just want to explain the parts of the evaluation they do it is in two parts the first part is comprised of three annual goals um those goals were strategic plan Staffing and pay plan and satisfaction and retention then this and that is weighted at 80% so we decided as a board
133that that section should be weighted greater than the other section which I'll discuss in a second but those are um three annual goals the total rating for that section came in at 3.67 so exceeded the goal of a three the second section is a um demonstratable characteristics and these are um also aligned with the state's required or recommended evaluation items and those are there's five of those there's student achievement board relations community relations staff relations facilities finance and HR and that represents 20% of the overall score and that came in at 3.97 so thank you all for your participation in the evaluation the feedback is um invaluable I'm sure to Mr Golden as he thinks through next year and hopefully you know you guys are welcome to talk to Mr Golden throughout the year and
134provide him feedback along the way so definitely do that he welcomes that feedback as well so that nothing's a surprise because he does have 12 lovely bosses so that can become fun and challenging so Mr Golden would you like to um offer any comments or questions about the evaluation well sure thank you madam chair you made me smile when you say I have 12 lovely bosses it's it's good working with you all it it it is and you're you're elected officials and you have a responsibility to do you know to do the best you can with the with the information you have and I tell you there's always room for growth and I really do appreciate the conversations for what it's worth uh I I look at it all but the comments are important to
135me um I don't know if this is human nature or just me but I tend to focus on the opportunities for growth rather than the praise and that's just me but I do appreciate the the praise for our team this is hard work and I'm not talking about my work I'm talking about the team uh the the work that our teachers do the work that our support staff does the work that our leaders do is hard work and I'm really proud of our team uh and I appreciate you all making the decision that you're going to step up and and do this public service uh so certainly we study the uh the suggestions for improvement and um uh if I may also miss Durham you mentioned specifically ongoing conversations certainly welcome those I know I
136have meetings with many of you all on a periodic basis or on an as needed basis depending on uh your needs and the conversations I welcome those so thank you all for the conversations we've had over the year I feel like we can we're continuing to grow in so many ways we're better than we've ever been and in so many ways we've got more opportunities to grow than we ever have so I look forward to the coming year Super Mr Hall thank you thank you madam chair um one thing I'd like to see for next year is a little bit more lead time between having the opportunity the the just to fill out the survey I think that the comments are really helpful and having a little more time to for everybody to participate in
137that I think is important I I don't see much Insight from just the numeric grades and if we really want to make an evaluation effective for the superintendent for the district as a whole I think it's really important to provide specific feedback and and have the opportunity to spend a lot of time on this and um I do appreciate that we get feedback throughout the year I think that's been very helpful to um show the progress of those goals so that we all have a speak now or forever hold your peace moment as we go through it and no evaluation should be a surprise too so if if you have feedback for us that you think hey I would have preferred a heads up on these things or this isn't something that I was expecting
138to hear I think that would be good for the board to know about as well whatever Forum you choose gotcha um I'll make sure we talk to berser mosleen Carson about that about getting more time for feedback um one interesting Dynamic is and this is true for most any evaluation but when there's specific goals it's that snapshot in time you know at that moment uh and that's a I think that's something that is worth us talking about um when we have the the board goals versus the state require ired elements uh and I'll be thinking about that as we work on a as we work on an instrument for next year Mr Welch um so in a way kind of the same thing but I would say a little bit more on the front end
139uh one thing as we consider this going forward that'd be helpful is is perhaps a self-evaluation um being submitted on on the front end and I don't think giving yourself the point totals necessarily but maybe some short bullet points on where where you've seen it with the direction and thoughts I think that would be help for us too to to sort of jog the memory and put it in as as we're putting it Forward I think it' be beneficial to you as well as us thank you for that Miss Cleveland asked um did he do that and he did send some summary um summary document of the goal that and some some feedback on how he had accomplished those goals and the strategic planning information Etc so that was helpful to look back on yeah
140I I know in in a in a traditional employer employee setting where you have a supervisor and and one who's supervised there's often a 360 kind of kind of evaluation um and we haven't done it in that in that context and I I my impression was that's what you were talking about me doing it full self- evaluation I I I do and have given you evidences of the of the goals you set for me I haven't spent time giving evidence of the state those five State Standards I've focused on the goals that you all have set for me um so there's there's some opportunity to expand that any other comments from the board all right and did did you um well uh the the question is we I did not cover the operations report that
141uh that Mr Fortney had on the on the agenda uh my bad Mr Fortney let's go back to you for some reason I was thinking the slides about the third I thought I grade was the operations report okay I'll give you a short version uh our projects are on track but we're nervous about them till they get done is that is that a good synopsis first of all thank you madam chair good evening board MERS H actually I'm going to preface one thing I've watched this curriculum group over the last few months and the energy and effort that they've had to put in to satisfy our Tennessee Department of Education and the amount of work is incredible and I don't know how they do it but kudos to all of them I mean they've really
142worked hard to get this accomplish in my opinion so it was a new insight for me well thank you uh let's talk about the two new projects one's Amanda Northwest or uh H North and of course Arrington Elementary uh I'm really excited and impressed with the way our whole design team has really kicked it in gear in the last 30 days from when I last spoke to you well we're finish in I will say we're going to be into the end of June before we occupy the the buildings but that said they've really kicked it into gear with all the hurdles that they've had to jump through on supplies labor you name it they've had the issues uh but they're coming along well now uh I'm encouraged by the additional effort that everybody's made so
143so on on those two buildings particularly uh they've got to open and they will uh the next school we've got of course is Brentwood middle that is right on track uh with our original schedule we hope to have this first phase completed by January of 2024 and that will allow us to move into that building and then destroy the rest of the old building and begin the next phase paig high school is going extremely well uh the building has turned out just it's it's it's really a neat facility uh we will have that building in June the first part of June I would say somewhere around we'll move furniture in uh the second week of June so that's that's winding down there'll be some site work that we have to complete over the summer months
144uh but that's coming in on time and within budget as are the other two um mil Creek Elementary Middle School uh there's a softball field I think it'll be complete by next Friday and uh theyve they've done an outstanding job and and uh brought it in with a reasonable budget we I understand that the coaches are in the Middle School are very happy that that it's gone as well as it has uh I think Jason mentioned uh at the commission meeting we were funded for about 14 million in security and maintenance Capital So Adam Christopher was pleased to see that so we've got some projects that he's already gearing up for for Preparation and bid and so forth so we'll get those underway uh the lease long-term lease for the cheek Park property the commission
145approved on Monday so that gives us the the go-ahead once we get the final lease agreement signed gives us to go ahead to bring our design teams back in our staff and everybody involved with that for the new CCT building uh that we got the $155 million for from the state uh Paige High School back to it real quick phase four the Final Phase bids this coming a week from today next Thursday uh we have our fingers crossed on the budget uh things are starting to level out they're not declining but some things are leveling out with the exception of electrical work and it's still going Skyhigh uh the maintenance building we've got a small addition to the not the maintenance but the transportation building uh the drawings for that have been through the city
146of Franklin uh and they're at their planning stage right now and we should hear something on that in the next couple weeks to where we can get started on that building around August and the wastewater treatment plant for Hillsboro Adam Christophers got that you know that was some of the funding that we received to where he's got to go ahead with that building and that about brings us up to date and if I may Madam chair add a couple things the county commit approved some of our 5year Capital plan funding requests and I sent you all an email with that detail um that's those are intent to funds and then they will make a decision later on on how they fund that uh and and next um Kevin mentioned the the long-term lease for the
147location for for off Cheek Park we talked about this last month and we talked about this potentially be a game being a game changer the county is all in uh they're very excited about it just as we are Dr quals Jeremy quals is our CCT executive director he and I are actually going tomorrow to Cleveland Tennessee to look at what we think is the state's closest version of this in Bradley County Schools so we're meeting in Independence parking lot at 6:30 uh we are splitting the difference in how long we think it takes us it will take us to get to Cleveland hour four hours is it four hours well no let me back up it's about two and a half okay good so so I we're shooting for two and a half but we're
148excited about that because we're making sure that we've got the best practices uh in this new building with the money we have so we're excited about it oh he's gonna want another FL do Dr qus does want another floor uh we have given him we told him what the budget is but if he can get some massive Don corporate donations before Kevin's deadlines then we'll talk about it thank you madam chair uh Mr Fortney I I was have had this thought for a while and I don't think I've expressed it but to you and Mr Gardner um I love the format of this report it is so you know helpful to have the pictures and I'm sure it takes a lot of time to put together but it gives us a lot of insight and
149probably prevents a lot of questions so it's very effective even if you don't get a lot of questions I think that's mission accomplished because I mean it's just so helpful to see the very stages of these things I feel like we get a bit of an education every time we get this report so thank you great thank you I'll pass that on thank you and thank you Mr Haw for bringing us back to that okay next on the agenda is Miss oh no sorry sorry Mr breasley no uh hey Mr Forney thank you so much for following back up with me about the creek side Fields not a problem um I'm very grateful for that thank for the email and just um keeping me updated I'm so hopeful that those kids are going to have
150a better place to so I'm grateful thank you and by the way I want to mention that too Mr Fortney um uh Mr Beasley mentioned Creekside there there was the old worn down dilapidated Farmhouse that we just tore down just this past week about two weeks ago two weeks ago so go ahead speak to that whatever you wanted to share sure the I think most of you aware when we acquired that property we acquired 63 Acres so we have quite a bit of property to the West I'll say uh that that I'm sure down the road there'll be a use found for it it is currently it it had a uh that was the old dairy farm the 3bs dairy farm uh the the sellers had a a house on the property it originally came
151was was constructed in the late 1800s the walls were 3 foot thick uh solid brick uh and all the brick was made on site we did do a historical analysis had it done uh but it didn't have much significant value to the historical nature of the property but we we had the house taken down because it had asbestos materials in it uh there was just nothing that we could do the foundation was learn leaning in three or four directions and uh it was in bad shape so we have hired a or put out for bid a demolition contract and had that removed from the site I've got some cleanup work around that site where the foundations were that the highway department Eddie hood has volunteered to help us get that all smoothed out and back
152into shape and and then we want to look at how we can utilize some of the grass areas for additional playgrounds uh play Fields I should say uh there there's a lot of green space out there of course uh at the present moment uh we do have a farmer that houses equipment on the site in one of the old pole barns and also a landscaper uh so with those Folks up there it's difficult to allow children up there until we get it secured and and safe uh don't need any of the children climbing up towards the silos or the old milking Barns and that sort of thing uh but there's a lot of green area that we could put to some good use and so we're going to try to figure out you know what
153wooden fences still need to come down and then uh uh take it from there and see how our funding goes and so forth I will say that uh we have an agreement with the farmer that maintains that portion of the site that 40 some Acres uh with hay crop uh and the landscape guy he keeps his equipment there in exchange for mowing all of the Farm property you know that we don't have to pay to to deal with so it keeps the side in good shape and they've been doing a great great job and they would love to stay so uh we're we've got agreements and insurance certificates in place with them and uh that's about what I can add to that thank you Mr thank okay I think we are ready to move on
154to the budget items Miss farmer would you like to take it thank you madam chair we have a long laundry list tonight of just housekeeping items that occur at this time of year where we're we're trying to wrap up the year and make sure we have funding in the proper accounts um and the first two items tonight are ones that have already been mentioned with the summer learning camps Grant the first um the first one is the actual Grant itself for the summer learning camps is 3 mil 680,000 this um is the bulk of all salaries uh cafeteria janitorial all of those um line items no questions on it the second one um is related specifically to summer camps and transportation and um this one is for $667,500 no questions on that um legal is
155a line that we budget for but we never know each year exactly how much it's going to cost us because it depends on how many um due processes that we have each year and so we need to place additional fun fing into our legal line um for SE we're adding $725,000 to the line do not know that we will necessarily need all of that but we'd rather have it in place we still have um what seven seven pending um due processes at the moment and so this would take care of if those were to to be finalized by year end questions on that one going on the next next is um trustees commission um again we budget based on our estimate but then as actual Revenue comes in both property tax and sales tax um
156we are charged the trustees commission and so we have sufficient property tax collections over what we budgeted so we would just take it from that line but $900,000 added no questions on that one the next is related to um an agreement we entered into in 2017 for our Energy Systems conservation Esco agreement and this is the debt payment the county issued bonds to pay for um the improvements for Energy Efficiency and then we agreed to pay back that those the principal and interest and so our payment this year is $1,120 18927 to cents and if I may very quickly mention related to the Esco this is the this is the program where we're able to do some Capital Improvements for Energy Efficiency and we do an analysis to ensure that it pays for itself and
157if not then um the company that did the work has some responsibility this is paying for itself um just want to make sure everyone had that next um is another couple of lines that we budget for but you don't know until you have claims and that's insurance and so so we are looking to increase three Insurance lines um liability for 150,000 workers comp for 375,000 and then building and content insurance for 100,000 for a total of 625,000 nothing there um next up is the midyear raise when you approved it um we put it all again into one line until you approved it and so this particular resolution is just spreading it then out between all of the uh salary accounts the next um is related to special ed school sites we were not able to
158fund all those positions but we needed to um Carry On the work and so we use contracted Services instead and so we need to move money out of the payroll line for psychologists into contracted service line just putting the funds in the proper line next we have a few lines that needed additional operational um additional operational expenses that needed additional funding put into them total of 488,000 um and the breakdown of that was 370,000 for Portables copy paper for 100,000 and then janitorial services for 18 no questions there next up is fuel cost we had hoped that um the cost of fuel was going to go maybe level back out but we it has kind of maintained a higher the diesel cost has and so um we're looking to add $580,000 to that line to
159finish out through June 30th if I may make one question have one ask one question related to that what's an estimate of the total fuel expense we have so that the board has a IDE of the increase it's a good question that I thought I had printed out and I don't we started out um with almost $2 million in the line and then we'll be adding um 580 so it's a substantial yeah thank you the last two um the next one is related specifically to Food Services um and it is the 2% midyear raise we told you that they had sufficient fund balance to be able to cover um but we had not accounted for it and so it's putting in the the raise plus the um paid holidays that we also agreed to and
160so again they have a fund balance C the central cafeteria fund does that's sufficient to cover it there were also two operational lines that they needed small adjustments to Communications for $1,444 and then Bank charges for 13,490 so total $66,900 raise in paid holidays and the total there is 10735 to put the funds in the correct L and that's it thank you Miss farmer great um M Mr Hall just real quick where does this leave the fund balance and as compared to previous years at this time we're actually still pretty good we've had some things come in that have offset some of the these expenditures and so we reminder you have to have 3% fund balance and this puts us right at just right over that minimum 3% which is around $14 million and that's
161remind me if that's typical for where we in the previous year the year before that it was about 12 th12 million and the year before that was about 11 million so we're we're pretty good so the net is we're actually a little bit ahead of some previous years there are a lot of years where we end up below the 3% this time of year this year we're just slightly above in other words we've been able to maintain that 3% balance and I I'll tell you why it's sales tax it is is that a safe it is and so when we close the books out that number will will go up even more but where where we're looking at the actual fund balance account right now with the adjustments that we're hitting directly to that account
162we're still okay okay thank you all right Mr Golden next item on the agenda is the approval of the Pekka memorandum understanding thank you madam chair as you all know annually we meet with leaders from the wcea uh Dr Lee Webb actually leads what's officially called the management team in that discussion every three years we start in essence start from scratch but in those mid years we have discussions about particular items including working conditions uh pay and uh benefits uh I'm going to turn this over to Dr Webb in case she has anything to add um I'm G I'm going to let you speak to the quality of the discussion Dr Webb since you were there but the the as I read it the most significant change is there's some detailed discussion that this evidenced
163in page 23 of the uh mou uh about balancing teacher time uh at during IEP and 504 meetings to ensure that all teachers get that dutyfree time that we have an obligation to give them Dr Webb thank you Mr Golden uh yes the conversation was robust we do take that annual opportunity to go through each section of theou I will say that there was generally much satisfaction in regards to theou that we drafted in its full entirety a new version this past year with many edits uh in this cycle however this year in our annual review you'll see quite few edits because of the strength that uh we felt the the previous mou was um we really pull in uh feedback from from teachers and from our buildings uh we collect feedback on an ongoing
164basis members of the the Pekka team um several have been on um this team for many years and we collect feedback from princi principl from teachers all year long about what's working what isn't working our departments within central office also collect that feedback and so we keep kind of a running list of what those conversation points need to be and we and we'll say that those conversation points were much fewer in this past year than they have been previously I think that speaks to the strength of the of the document um as Mr Golden mentioned the the changes were minimal in this past year uh and uh we feel feel good about making this recommendation to you will say a majority of our conversation was surrounding pay and uh that those conversations really moved Beyond
165theou conversations and of course we're part of our budget and and our lunch and learns and our ongoing conversations throughout the entire year you good okay thank you next item is the approval of the certified and classified pay schedules thank you madam chair um the uh the pay schedules include that 6% raise that are part of that that that is part of the budget that you all approved uh at at uh at your meetings at your meeting in March or April I've lost track now uh and and just as a reminder we made some substantial changes in the previous year where we put a heavy heavy emphasis on the earliest career lines this year when we compared ourselves to our neighbors uh we concluded that the appropriate thing was to give that percentage raise so
166from a raw number perspective some of the more experien staff members get a get a higher raise by virtue of it being the the the same percent um we continue to have pain points pressure points uh Rachel mentioned psychologist uh in our in our in our uh PID charts psychologists are paid at 1.1 of a of a teacher for for pay so 10% more uh for a psychologist just because of Market that in turn has its impacts you I think about teachers I think about um speech language Pathologists who are also on that scale uh uh OTS occupational therapists and physical therapists have a different license and they're not on the scale and so every time we make an adjustment in a particular in a particular payline it has some kind of a impact uh
167on on other pay lines but ultimately The Proposal we have for you is that 6% for everyone this year um based on what we can afford I'm very curious about ultimately what Pekka brings in the in the not Pekka but what Tisa brings in the following year uh and if there are market conditions that come up in the middle of this year we may come to you with some adjustments um because sometimes you can't predict those okay and uh and of course I'm uh if uh if you have any particular questions Vicki Hall is here to answer as well okay looks like we don't have questions so we can move on to our final item which is a board member request for resolution regarding extreme risk protection laws Mr Golden uh thank you madam chair
168um Mr Welch I mentioned to you last month that he intended to bring a uh a draft resolution uh that he was discussing with uh with Mr cook and they got that to that draft to us um I'm thinking maybe Monday over the weekend and so that's been placed on the agenda i' like to turn it over to Mr Welch for the board member request uh for an item sure um thank you so I think those of you been on the the board for a little while know that this is something that's been concerned about for a while I I first brought this up um five years ago uh at at one of our strategic Retreats is something I wanted to to do was after the the incident at Parkland then um and I think
169it's it's very unfortunate that I think events and now bring it up after here at at covenant um less than seven miles away from one of our own schools a 10 12 minute drive where three children and three adults were you know tragically murdered um and so it's it's something that I I felt very convicted uh about for a while and I I hate that it's it's something like that that that drives these things um but I would hate even more to to think that something like that would not make any changes um what are what are the differences that that we do based upon that to uh not only deal with something like that when it happens but but more importantly try and make sure that it it never happens um I I assume
170all of you have watched the the body camera footage uh from the the officers of of that day I know I watched it several times um watched it again recently and one of the I guess I would ask you to to think of three things uh maybe go back and watch that consider three things and and the first thing was just the the absolute professionalism of the officers and and the uh Covenant staff as as well um just being so quickly on site springing into action being very coordinated um all the you know so many things handling it just very well the the Covenant staff themselves uh there was an individual who was outside you know in front of Windows who met the officers to to guide them in the the staff locked down quickly
171they had they had active shooter training before and recognized the the sound of the the gunfire they did so many things right and you give them credit for that um the other thing that really was striking me from that is as you watch them going through the classrooms to me I just thought this this could easily be a Williamson County Schools classroom it it doesn't scream different from us and with the the sirens going off the gunfire everything it just it tore me up thinking of those uh you know those poor kids the terror that they must have gone through that day and then third and the final thing that that really struck me with this is even with all those things done right there were still six people who died that day everything that
172that they went right and they had the plan in place and so many things worked there were still six lives lost um we've we've said ever since we've started doing our our threat assessments putting our heavy plans together since putting SRO it it has always been the WCS belief that if we get to that point we've already lost that that we need to prepare for for the worst we need to have the SRO in place we we need to fortify but it's more important that you know if you see something say something um stop these things from from even happening because anytime it starts it's it's we've already lost it's just a matter of how bad we've lost so I I say that to sort of set the stage here um as you know the
173the governor has provided some framework for a plan that that he wants to put in place and I don't want to get into the specific details of it and you know shaping legislation that's that's certainly not our role um but I do think it's it's very important for us to take a leadership role on this and I know this is a hot button topic and it's very challenging and I'm sure a lot of you had wished I would leave let sleeping dog lie but I think there's just some things that are are just so crucially important that there's for our role in the board of education for our leadership that it it it requires us to take a stand to lead or or else why are we here um what what's the point if we
174can't take a stand speak up for the safety of our students I I can't think of anything more important that we have as one of duties other than to make sure that when one of our one of our kids set foots on our campus at the start of the school day at at the end of that school day they go home safely it it overrides everything um I hope everyone here has had a chance to to actually read the resolution it's up here on the screen um I think it's very straightforward uh I know a lot of the emails that we got today both Pro and against uh both sort of misstated a lot of things that were the point here and what it's it's actually doing uh the short answer is it's advocating for
175a concept and it's a very simple concept um and that concept is and I'm going to kind of restate what governor Lee said about it is that right now today in Tennessee if a husband physically threaten his wife the courts can go in and put a protective order in place for that spouse that restricts that man from his weapons for the protection of the spouse that exists today if that same individual though threatens to shoot up a school those protections aren't in place for the children and I strongly believe that that's something that needs to change this doesn't change who has access to guns it doesn't change any age limits it doesn't talk about the type of weapon the caliber uh how many bullets are in the magazine none of that all it says is
176an individual who is under mental duress that is making threats against the lives of either themselves or the public like the children in our schools that there is a process in place that the same thing that can be done with with an abusive spouse we can do with that individual um if you read it it talks about due process that that's a part of it that that we support so again I I I realize this is a a tough issue you can certainly tell by the silence in the room um that way you can he hear the air conditioning running all of a sudden but it's not something that I I can shy away from I I will say just speaking individually I I hope we never ever come to a day where something like
177this happens in Williamson County Schools I I you know pray to God it never is but if if the worst happens I I know I personally I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering if in my leadership role I did all I could I I don't want to um I don't want to go before my maker and have to answer the question did you do all that you should and give the answer no it was politically hard it was difficult I didn't want to take a stand um so this is this is is something that I believe in and and I hope you'll believe in it as well and and join me in in supporting this and encouraging our our legislature to be brave themselves and and take some very reasonable at
178responsible action thank you Miss Cleveland thank you m Mr Welch I agree totally agree with everything you've said and my same sentiments um the only the one part though is you know we should take a stand and I really think our school district has taken a stand and shown that just by how diligent we've been with our security measures and how we're it's been been ongoing um we all agree that the safety of the safety is a priority and I know Mr Golden and staff um have made it a priority and it to me it's been very evident not just in our actions this last year but over the last several years and um so I can really appreciate it the only and I I agree that we all need to take take a stand
179and have a voice this is where I get hung up on and this is a scenario I ran through my head number one we know how we feel about resolutions being you know we should all come into agreement but unfortunately we're a partisan board now which still to this day GRS on me um but this is the scenario that keeps going through my head let's say we decide to bring this to a vote on Monday and the majority of the vote passes the resolution the part that I'm having a difficulty with is we're sending the state a resolution that is speaking for the entire board that's what the resolution is doing and basically giving the perception of the board has taken a political position so we are all Diversified in our political thoughts and the
180resolution is basically telling the state and the perception that we all agree on this political position because it is a political position I know your sentiment I my sentiments are exactly the same as yours but for us as a board to go and present because the people that voted no on the resolution even though it passes you're still as collectively we are speaking for the board and so now you're just giving those those no votes basically saying that they agree with it because it's speaking for that's what a resolution does am I correct you speak for the board and so my feeling is yes we need to take a stand but my feeling is is individual board members should be the one going to the legislator not just as a board but individually we should
181all and I agree with you the board should go to our legislators give their opinion what we feel but it's our opinions that we're giving individually and I believe all the citizens should be doing that same thing I know we've gotten a lot of emails from um citizens asking pros and cons like you were saying but go that extra step because they can do more by going straight to the legislators and I really feel that's that scenario is what makes me feel very uncomfortable because I don't want to be the one to stifle a boards vote because we are collectively represented you understand what I'm saying and that's what a resolution is doing so if you have just one vote that doesn't want to do it you're still speaking for that one vote as a
182resolution going to the state saying this is what we all agree on and if we don't all agree on it if that's the case so unless you feel you're going to get a unanimous vote on this that's that's my worry thank you thank you missia I agree with everything you said I I think I want to talk to what Sheila was just saying um throughout the three years I've served on this board I've seen so many things in the world of education and the world in the world in general become politicized that should not be this is just another example of something that should not be you shouldn't have feeling on this based on whether you have a certain letter behind your name on a ballot this is something that if you PLL people from
183various political parties and affiliations the majority of people in our society agree that some sort of Common Sense legislation like this should be in place so I think we should put this forward I do think that Williamson County as a district across the state is viewed very highly for Obviously good reason and districts will look to us as a leader in this sort of a statement like they have another legislation and other resolutions that we've put forward to the state I think it sends a strong message and I don't think that this type of law does anything to restrict a person's rights to owning a gun legally and safely and it doesn't um get rid of due process because this the the determination of the order the protection order would have to be deemed worthy
184by a judge so there's still due process I think there are enough safeguards in place that this is something that should not be politicized and should be one step towards our society as a whole coming together and and avoiding the politicization of everything so I support it thank you okay Mr Hall thank you madam chair and thank you Mr Welch for bringing up this for discussion um part a part that resonates with me too is that you mentioned is the see if you see something say something and as much as we share that Mantra and and have for years and and I remember when um we we uh canceled school one day to have a whole safety review as many districts did and I thought that that was an appropriate response I think everybody just
185needed a data process process the tragedy and we've had so many since then and so little has changed um and I remember at the time that the Mantra was if you see something say something and I'm really worried that that doesn't have the effect that you hope it does I mean what what actionable what action can you take on that can you always do something that prevents someone from doing harm um I've heard we've heard feedback from people that say you know School District should be focused on Mental Health I think this addresses that concern school districts should be focused on what happens within the four walls of the school unfortunately this is something that does happen within the four walls of the schools and I hate that we are always the last line of
186defense so the proposals from adding more funding additional SRO um additional fortification I mean that is still mitigation it's not prevention you're you're not going to be able to prevent this with just those measures as as important as those are um i' I'd like to think that this supports the SRO is an effort like this um I would ask Mr Welch if if safety resources have been consulted in this and subject matter experts because I do want to know you know do we feel like something like this could be effective and and believe me it's not like this is going to take effect we pass a resolution we're sharing our feedback but we're providing some support for the leadership that cares about student safety and I feel like everybody does and we've had pre many
187resolutions that are putting students wellbeing at the Forefront and this is consistent with that and I I would hate to be on the side of a vote or a discussion and have have something happen and and think could we have had some positive influence to prevent that um it's a lot and and that's the part that I think that we need to really consider is that you know this isn't for many this is not a popular topic you know yes there's polling that shows a lot of support for this but in individual areas including this one there may not be but we are the ones that have to put the safety and the wellbe of students first and and we need to give that really heavy weight and if if the feedback we're hearing from
188our safety professionals is that we need more resources we need more help then we should come up with a damn resolution that does something like that whether it's this or whether it's other things like what can we agree on to address this horrible problem so I I don't want to reject anything out of hand because of political concerns I'd like to see us work collectively to come up with something that can help lead the way and provide some bolstering of those who do want to make a positive impact instead of just hoping that it goes away Miss Clemens thank you madam chair um I just recent I'd learned about this not too long ago about the um the resolution and I do appreciate your efforts and I can completely understand your sentiment um and and
189like you said this is really raw we're all raw and it is it just recently happened um but we can't look away from the fact that this is very it's highly charged this topic this is um is very divisive it's people we're we're getting inundated with emails on both sides and and it's and and it it's the community is very charged about it and very split and that breaks my heart um but but this is not our decision to make this is this is a decision that the state is going to be voting on and in and in issues like this I I I I keep thinking we need to stay in our lane this is if if all this resolution does is just say here's where we stand on this I mean I I
190just don't think this is we need to focus on Williamson County School schools and we do Mike Fletcher has done an amazing job in keeping us you know essed on everything that's going on but I just keep going back to this is this is not this is not our decision to make this is for the Tennessee General Assembly I would be interested to say look let's table this and if the Tennessee General Assembly says hey what does the Williamson County School Board think about this then okay maybe then we can make it decision but I just I just don't think this is in our frame to make a statement on this um in this resolution I just and I appreciate what you have to say because I think we're all kind of conflicted and it's
191coming at us fast and it's new and it's and we're it's raw because it it's it's hit close to home and um I would definitely want more time than Monday for sure to vote on this but that's me that's where I stand Mr Cash thank you madam chair a couple of uh I I agree with pretty much everything's been said in some way shape or form but I I also agree that this is not our purview to do this the the governor's asked for a special meeting in August there are all kinds of legal matter matters to consider when you you put something like this into effect we elect officials to do this um I believe that Mike fetcher and the team has done a fantastic job and I would just I would like to
192ask Jason real quick uh what more is Michael uh in the sheriff's asking for from Williamson County well let me let me answer that more broadly um this is this is deep deeply on our minds every day we know we can not ever guarantee someone's safety but we know that that that we must constantly work on everything we can and and to Mr Welch's point so that we can know in our heart that we've done everything we can for student safety um you asked a question about what what we need uh the governor signed a bill just a few days ago I can't remember exactly what day a a a new safety bill that was a product of both the house and the Senate working on opportunities to improve school safety Statewide and we've just
193now started to review it because they got together to create a a joint draft and I'm looking at Gary because we had a we had a pretty detailed conversation about this Mr Fletcher and his team have been looking through that legislation comparing those re recommendations and requirements to what we've been doing uh with that legislation that added requirements what he has told me is just as a threshold all the requirements that have been added are things that we have been working on one example is threat protoc OLS up to this point it's been you can do threat protocols I have I have given you all some examples of how quickly those teams work with threats that Sunday night threat where they were able to determine where it came from so quickly uh how how you
194know the juvenile court just gets involved over overnight how the sheriff's department does um so we constantly go through the analysis of what more do we need what more can we do uh in the context of that piece of legislation there's one element that we're doing a a double check on related to requirements for new construction that the state has placed that's the one variable that we're not sure that we've included in everything but it's vestibules and you know all all the detail that the state has included um so as when when we when we bring to you budget requests capital budget requests those are the requests we're making of you for the next thing I don't believe those requests will ever end I think we will constantly be working on improving that safety uh
195so so that's that's where we are we make those requests proactively based on our research uh when when when our professionals make that determination so over the years we've spent millions in millions of dollars in the last 10 years on safety which has proven us to be a pretty hard target and I I feel comfortable with that and I think like I say Mike Pletcher and the sheriffs has has done a good job what I worry about with this is what does ex what exactly does extreme risk protection order mean can can I get a definition of that as we sit here I don't know that I you can I'm not asking you to give can can anybody Give a definition of that I mean I can answer it in terms of this resolution in
196terms of what uh the governor and the legislature is going to do you're you're asking me to give you a definition of what the governor and the legislature is going to do yeah if I because we're not giving him a chance with this if I may Mr Welch let me let me answer that as best I know um I I can't def Define the extrem RIS description but I've seen from the news reports that the governor has asked for a special legislative session in August um I watched a an interview with him today where I'm paraphrasing he knows that they need to do some work but they haven't yet defined exactly what's going to come out out of that legislative session uh so I I don't know that we can tell you where where they're
197headed that's my point Jason that's my point I'd like to respond to that if I could in in the context of this resolution of what I'm asking the board to consider if you look up there and you right in there it's extreme protection laws provide the ability of a family member or law enforcement agent to seek a petition to a court of law to remove any Firearms should it be determined that the individual possessing the firearm is a danger to themselves or to anyone else that's that's the definition right there if you're asking well Define what it is that the legislature is going to do I I think this is an unrealistic standard that you're asking for it's an impossible standard I can't answer that and it's not I don't don't see that as our
198role that is the general assembly's role that exactly that's what I'm trying to say it's their role what what will they come up with they're going to come up they're going to sit down and have a discussion on this and they're going to they're going to put laws into effect I don't I don't see why we're we're jumping the gun I mean I can't put my name on something and have it be uh totally different when they talk about this Dan I'm not asking you to I'm not asking you to sign up for a specific piece of legislation what this is talking about is a concept for it to go forward to to do that specific Bill to have that in place now if if you don't agree with that concept that concept again being
199that someone who makes a threat against a school District should should have their access to weapons temporarily removed then I then I would encourage you to not support it Eric I to I said I agree with a whole lot of things that have been said here I agree that there's something that needs to be done especially in in the mental uh Health area but I don't know what's going to be done and I don't think it's my place to say what should be done because I don't know the laws that's what we have have a legislature for so I can't I won't I'm not going to sit here and go back and forth with you I can't support this thank you Miss Cleveland yes um got to get my train of thought here um this
200doesn't specifically say about schools for one thing it just says in general for the state and I don't see where it specifically says you know for schools but that being said Eric putting piggybacking off what you did and what Casey has said bringing a resolution any resolution when you have your personal feelings which like I said I I really know where your heart is because that's my place too but if we collectively did a resolution I'd like that idea Casey that has some me to it that we can actually put into policy so for instance something like this we deal with policy and budget and something like this it goes the state but at some point I don't even whatever's been voted on it will never reach as far as I can tell at this
201point probably may not be adopted in any policy we have okay so we're just making a statement and I agree with you we're just making a statement but what I like about KC's idea is collectively get together and put a resolution together if we feel collectively that we all agree on that maybe focuses on money for mental health or you know just the things you were rambling off I can't remember all of them but collectively putting a resolution together that we can all agree on instead of just one opinion and I don't know if we've ever done that today before actually gotten together put together a resolution and I think that's an idea we can think about because I think that's a great idea there's something we strongly feel about we all strongly feel about
202the safety of children you know in our schools and I don't know what that would look like but I think we've got enough good brain power here to put something together that we can all agree on so that's just a thought Mr Wimberly yeah can I just say one thing I'm what I'm hearing is if you don't go along with I I just asked the chair is it in followup isand Eric I just ask the chair if I could say something real quick yeah are you following up on Miss Cleveland go ahead it's good if you're following up on Miss Cleveland's I thought she was we got Mr Wimberly and then um missia and the Mr Welch I'm gonna put you on Dan okay go ahead Mr Wimberly thank you um as we sit here
203tonight Rick w the individual is in favor of tougher laws uh whether it's called Extreme risk protection uh red flag or whatever it's called I I I don't know uh but certainly tougher laws that basically address uh the whereas laws provide the ability upon petition to the courts Etc that's something that personally appeals to me um I have concerns about the resolution though and several of you have said it uh but I don't think it addresses why we are doing this resolution we as a Williamson County School Board uh it talks about a lot about the justification of these laws which to me is a little bit Superfluous information um if we could tie it more to how this applies to us then I think you've got a stronger resolution um and perhaps that can
204be done I don't know that's what would make me more comfortable with it personally um to to Sheila's point about a unanimous resolution I think it's better when we have a unanimous resolution however uh the board takes actions based on majority vote everything we do uh is based on majority vote and um if and we have had I won't say it's a standard but I I I don't recall a time when we have passed a resolution with anything other than a unanimous vote but I there's there's nothing set in stone on that and again we're a majority I if if I vote no on a resolution it's still a good board resolution and it's not that I have to go out and do a lot it's a resolution but I don't have any problem if
205we don't get um um unanimous vote myself but that's just me speaking it sounds like we need to address whether that is the will of the board because already it sounds like we've got at least as the resolution is written we've got some no votes um and so I think to me that's fine but that's that's just Rick uh but I do feel like if we take another look at it whether we do it by Monday um then and and and just talk about how it relates to us even if it's as simple as saying you know as part of our um never ending quest to make our schools safe we believe this type of legislation or this type of law would help us in that effort so perhaps some word Chang es could be
206made to do that um and then we can vote on if it passes it passes if it doesn't pass it doesn't pass but I certainly am not comfortable with it as it is I can't tell you that I would vote no but I think we can do better than this Mr [Music] Pria I put my name down a while ago and so now a couple new things have come up but um originally I put my name down to um respond to what Dan had asked about what these laws are what they entail and um there are 19 States in DC that have laws like this in place already so they're going to vary just based on what the state legislator actually comes up with um and in addition to the whereas where it says laws
207provide the ability of a family member law enforcement etc etc I was doing a little research earlier today and there was something that I read that reassured me that this was something that I felt could be a bipartisan or nonpartisan issue um it said though they vary in their particulars extreme risk laws contain several important procedural safeguards that as the Supreme Court has recognized help to Forstall abuse and ensure due process they impose the burden on the petitioner to convince an independent third party they guarantee active judicial oversight and provide a prompt hearing focusing on degree of risk and many states impose criminal penalties for filing false or harassing extreme risk petitions in addition to existing punishments for perjury so there are some good safeguards in place for that I know that's a a concern
208we hear a lot about um that was the original reason I raised my hand and then to to go off of what you guys were saying or suggesting that that we reward this a little bit um I remember a retreat or something they it was mentioned that the board chair can create a committee um I was going to originally suggest could we bring this to policy but since this isn't really a policy it might not make sense for that but maybe we could form a committee of people willing to come together and discuss this even though it is a Hot Topic um and try to find ways to work something that would put that me message out there because even though it's not in our lane to to tell the state what to do I
209think it does send a strong message if we say these are how we feel and this is what we support and we would really encourage you to consider this um especially coming from Williamson County so I would I would really love to do that if we could okay okay um Mr Welch you sorry um I think Rick said what one of the big things I was going to is that the unanimous vote is not necessary for the will of the board there's there's been several votes I've had where it's been the will of the board and I've voted against it but it's still the board's will um and I respect what you say but but I'm going to also respectfully disagree that that individually voices are more powerful it it's not the board's voice when
210we do it individually since only collectively do we have that voice but that said um I would very much want it to be the the board's voice I very much want it to be something that ideally all of us could get behind and feel comfortable with and so if there are edits or changes as as you said Sheila something uh more specific School focused I I I I think there is in the second line where it talks about the um you know in the wake of the recent mass shooting in Nashville I think that sort of sets the description of of why but if you would be more comfortable something more I'm certainly open to that um for for me I ask myself if this had been in place already would the shooting have even
211occurred we look at these shootings and just about every darn one of them valde Parkland Coline Covenant after the event happens and we find out who the shooter is invariably we find out as we did in this case that the shooter's parents had concerns that they were trying to get mental help for the individual that they wanted the shooters guns to be taken away but they didn't have that Authority or power or that judicial process to do it and so I'm not saying that this would have stopped it there's there's no way to tell that it's it's an impossible standard but there's also no way to say that had it been there it might not have and so that's the driver for me is how it impacts our schools is is this a way that
212potentially something stops that we we never know and that would be wonderful um the other thing I want to address is is talking about you know not in our pure view or staying in our lane I can't think of anything more in our lane than the safety of our children um not not wanting to speak up and take a stand on issues that talk about the safety of our kids it's what is more in our lane than that I mean we talk about wanting to you look at the history of the resolutions that we've passed even tonight we had high performing schools on it we've talked about third grade retention we took stands on that resolutions we put our voice out there and there wasn't necessarily complete legislation in place Mr Golden talked about our
213threat assessments I would remind you that the threat assessments that is current state law right now were developed right here that we developed those as our own State assessments and then we took a stand and we took leadership on it we took it up to tsba and then it became law we wrote the existing law based out of here so this statement that we can't voice an opinion in the development of policy of state level policy and state legislation that that just really runs counter to dozens of years of of history of this board that the majority of us have been involved in already um I would tell you I am not willing to drop this um I am I'm I am convicted of this as as I've never been more convicted of of anything
214that we've done in my my 13 years on the board I feel very strongly uh about this as I've said I I'll say it again I I don't I don't want to ever have to live my life wondering in the wake of a tragedy if there was something more that I should have done um I'm I'm not that I don't want to live like that and I think this is reasonable that said I I think it's a reasonable request uh that a couple of you have made of I I would like a little more input a little more time um I will say I I did give notice of this a month ago so this was not something that just came up over the weekend I announced that the our work session sitting right there
215and told all of you I plan on doing a resolution about this I notified our our board share that I was working on this I notified all of you that I was working with our attorney I'm sorry if you missed that but this should not be a surprise that done this and again for those of youve been here on the board for a little while you also know that this is something that I've I've talked about for five years in the works so this is by no means new um I would be willing to defer a month um if if there was an agreement that collaboratively uh we would would work on something in order to take action on um I'm I'm not willing to push it off inde definitely and I think there is
216a a hard timeline with the legislature being called back into session in in August that I think we need to take action on it and if that action at the end of the day is you disagree you vote no I respect that but I'm unwilling to um I I don't care that it's highly divisive I'll just be honest with you I don't I don't care um if you're unwilling to take a stand on an issue to fight for something because it's highly divisive respectfully I think you're in the wrong place these highly divisive issues are the important ones the things that everyone just goes along and agrees with are tend to not be as important and in this role sometimes you you you have to say things that people don't like to hear but if
217you're doing them for the betterment of our students and whether you agree or disagree again I respect that but I think sometimes we just need to make our voices heard on it and Madam chairman if I may I just wanted to since we're talking about the possibility of a special committee that's not something we've we talk a lot about but we do have that in policy um board you can have a um special committee um it would be appointed by the chair at the direction of the board that special committee would be must be um less than a quorum of board members they would serve this committee would serve in an advisory capacity only obviously board you would have the final vote on any resolution um issues must be approved in advanced by the entire
218board they um would also all of these meetings would be held in accordance with open meetings law the reason I'm bringing this up is if we if this is something that you want to do I would recommend that it be placed on the agenda as a voting item by the board to create or give um your chairman direction to create a special committee um is that any questions on on that thank you Dana appreciate it okay Mr Cash thank you madam chair you know Eric I agree with you on on what you said about you know when you take the shootings and whatnot in into consideration the people that have cried out for mental health the signs were there people have spoken up nothing being done I agree with that and I agree uh with
219Rick um that uh something by law needs to be done but we can't do that here and what I don't like is basically what you're saying is if you don't agree with this you don't care about the kids I have eight grandchild in these schools I care deeply about the safety of these schools I feel our school has done a fantastic job the governor's got things in the works right now excuse me SRO Statewide including private schools new construction mandates bulletproof glass he's doing a lot of things to get going on this all I'm saying is let our legislature come to us with some kind of with with the issues at hand with laws to cover them that's all I'm saying thank you thank you Mr Hall thank you madam chair and I Madam chair
220since I was address in that statement I would like to respond to a point okay Dan I I appreciate that we agree on the majority of it and and I want to focus on where we agree rather than we disagree but I'm going to have to ask you to please not misquote me at no point I have I ever said or have I ever indicated that if you don't agree with me on this you don't care about kids I've never said about the safety of the kids either I never stated that I have not indicated that and that is not my belief so if you m Cas I'm I'm speaking so if you interpreted it that way I'm sorry that you interpret it that way but that is not what I said and I would
221appreciate if you didn't misquote me on that because it's definitely not what I believe or what I said I think I think you know I mean I'm not going to keep going back and forth on this I I know what I heard and you know I'm going to stick with that we can go through the record or the the tape or whatever you want to do but I'm just just saying I don't think it's the right time for for this I think we need to let our legislative body work thank you Mr Golden were you well I was just wondering how many how many more speakers we have Mr Haw and then miss Cleveland and Miss Clemens um I I I have a I have a proposal for you but I want to make sure
222that that everyone has had the opportunity to to speak so I I'll I'll I'll I'll defer to the board um and then then then uh you it's possible you may adjust my proposal but with Mr Welch's comment about about the deferral I have a proposed plan for where we go from here why don't you go ahead and share if it's okay the bo continue um I I I got to preface it by saying there's not I can't imagine anything more important than than talking about what we're talking about right now um the seriousness of it and we all feel it emotions run High when we talk about students safety there's nothing more important to us than taking care of the children that we're responsible for um a lot of a lot of discussion has come
223about where we go from here and and given what Mr welt said about a deferral I suggest that we as an Administration do those things that you all have already talked about in pieces that we consult our safety resources that we talk to our subject matter experts that we talk to our legislators about where they're headed to talk to them about what they need and that we as an administrative team come to you with a recommendation uh based on where you all are as a board it may be Madam chair that we need a special called meeting to just talk about this but uh given that we know the governor's timeline of August we know where we know that it's going to take them putting together some legislation that's going to come before that and
224back mapap that to us making a recommendation to them uh and I also want to talk to our peers um tsba the organization of school superintendents uh and and make sure that what we recommend is appropriate for the State uh from the from the perspective of schools as a whole we've got a window of time to be a leader in this knowing that our legislature is looking through the same concern that we have they know it's important to protect our our children so with that given that Mr Welch just said he can you know he can he can accept a deferral to June my recommendation is let us as Administration do some work um and it's possible the the the work May ultimately call for a special called meeting where we talk about nothing but
225this I don't again I don't know where where where we'll head with that I think I think our work will tell uh what you all need all right that's that's my suggestion let us let us get to work because the governor said he he he needs he needs to present something to the legislature um so we do have Mr Haw Miss Cleveland and Miss Clemens up for speaking would you like to go ahead and sure and it won't I I I don't think I'll be long we'll see um I appreciate that Mr goldon I think that is a good idea um and again I I think this is a good discussion I hope we can take the temperature down a little bit this is not about us this is not about differences of of personal
226ities or you know um I think we all are unanimous in caring about kids our own kids the kids of the community I mean we wouldn't do this otherwise so there's there's no disagreement in in caring about school safety I think there is a disagreement about latching on to potentially polarizing issues and and um you know words and and and uh names for laws that that tend to be a lightning rod for a heated discussion and I think that there's opportunity with this maybe with what you're suggesting Mr Golden to have not extreme not not as prescriptive of of resolution but to highlight the components of this that are important that I think we can all agree on and have some consensus with without necessarily saying that this this is the bill that we need
227or whatever but I will say that just as a general like expectation setting or whatever we pass resolutions all the time we try to tell the legislature what to do we that's part of our our Charter and um for not generally but every year we we work on resolutions that go to tsba we go to the tsba convention we vote on those things in an attempt to give the legislature the perspective of the school district and we can't count on them to come to us with their finished body of work and say what do you think I think we need to provide that that bit of influence such as it is and and have and lead for this community and I know that there may be certainly differences about how we do that but I
228hope that we can drive to a consensus on this topic where we take say okay what are the premises we agree on school safety we agree that you know we we have background checks we have IDs we have lots of protective measures in place that are not you know that anybody could look at and say well you know that that infringes my my rights sure it does but there are reasonable safety measures that we take and and put up with every day um that that you know there is consensus around so there's opportunity for that discussion I think and to to drive some of this with um with I think something that we can agree on and hopefully be somewhat influential so I like the direction you're headed with this Mr Golden and I again
229appreciate the discussion and the topic being brought up thank you thank you Miss Cleveland okay I'll be really quick on this one um I just want to reiterate you know we're not it's I don't think it's about being indecisive or making the hard choices but I do agree with Mr Wimberly is about the how it's written and I like the idea to continue your passion because I really you do have a voice I mean you want to make a difference I think you just speaking out now is making a difference so I appreciate that um I do like the idea of a committee and because this is a very important topic but I would like to see the if we do a resolution I would like to see it more about what we like to
230achieve not necessarily how we dictating how we want the law to be but what we how we want the the results of the law to be so you know mental health you know protections and how we want to see the results but not dictating how they should go about it because it's still too new because legislation hasn't even started so uh Miss priya's um suggestion of a committee I'm okay with that I mean if we want to have a resolution that shows our stance and how we feel about what's going on in school safety I think there is a way to devise a resolution that we can agree on that gets the point as from WCS of how we feel in the topics of the areas and it's just throwing it out there but I'm
231I'm all for it if we want to do it Miss Clemens oh sorry um I'll make this as short as I can um which I think will be short um I don't mind decisive or hot button issues um but I see a community that is just so split over this and and I like the idea of waiting a month to kind of let this breathe and let us see where we stand and um I think also we've gotten so many emails just in the last 24 hours over this because the community is processing this and um so I do like the idea of tabling this I like the idea of the community um I mean the committee meeting um and and I've just today I've talked to two of my state representatives about this I
232mean I think us communicating with our state lawmakers is really important in understanding their process um so I think I like the idea of the committee and um and tabling this for mon I think letting us all breathe I personally feel like it's premature there's not a law yet I I don't want to speak to something that's not even out there we have no idea what it's going to say we have no idea what we be resolving to support um I think we need to focus on what we can control and what we can action against and we can't action against somebody's Firearms being removed um so if we are going to put any resolution forward I think it needs to be something that we have control over directly and not something we have an
233opinion on um um I quoted you when you said safety of our kids a little while ago interestingly that Dan brought it up too because I wrote down safety of our kids versus how we advocate for safety of our kids and how we approach that topic I wouldn't approach it like this I would approach it as how do we as a district enact things that we can control and put forth a resolution that says I want three SRO instead of two or something that we can go advocate for push with our legislators that we actually can then go action against sure maybe there's a good way to control gun a access or whatever by people with mental blah blah that's not our jurisdiction that's not what I want to have any opinion on or anything
234I don't want to touch people's constitutional rights or anything that's in an amendment or in a I just don't want to go there been there done that as a board member not interested in going back um that's for our non-school board members to do I can safely say I care nothing I care only about the safety of our kids and their education um I I would have to support only a resolution that is something that we can actively control um and do something about as a board specifically that we can go develop policy on and I like what one of our constituents emailed us um that just highlights what our role is it's policy oversite educational planning fiscal planning and promotion and I think we've got a lot to be focused on right now not
235to get distracted with things that are being focused on at a very high level we can support that and we can individually go and back our legislators and we can provide input and do as all the constituents have done with us for the past you know 24 hours since they caught wind of this but otherwise we got to stick to our business and allow our security team and our professionals to continue doing what they're doing which is do excellent safety measures for our students and our staff and our faculty so that's have to State my my stance on it too I wouldn't be supporting it right now go ahead I just want one clarification on this to say that there's nothing out there right now the governor has presented a plan to the legislature right
236there's not a law yet there's not a law yet no but there there is a proposal in place that we can all get I I'll be happy to send it yeah there's not enough details like like who would how long would the guns be taken away what are there's a lot of stuff I wouldn't the history of when we've done our resolutions as a board as often as not has not been when there is a specific bill in place again I'm gonna point to what we have on our agenda tonight well Angela it's it's I'm sorry but it's not factually correct look at our agenda tonight and there is high performing schools act there was not a a bill for that that was something that we pushed to to create there there became a bill
237because of that the threat assessment there was not a bill for that we pushed that and there became legislation from that so we have a long history of Board of not just being reactive to uh what the process comes out with but attempting to shape that process to to get a positive outcome for our our kids I get you it the difference is that it directly impacts us directly like we have to go action against it and it's something that we can we then have to go and deal with as a board this one is not this is something that happens you know in the state and could it have impact yeah but it's it's not directed to the schools and this this particular resolution doesn't even mention Williamson County schools and what we will
238do to Sheila's point it doesn't you know so I again I'm open to changes on that if if you would like but to say that it doesn't directly impact our schools a a an individual who who threatens our our schools do armed it doesn't say an individual who threatens our schools it says me find it here sorry it says to remove firearms from the individual's possession should the court determine the individual is a danger to itself or to the public danger to themselves or anyone else correct so if you want to add language in there that speaks specifically like Williamson County Schools I certainly open to that but but that's yeah I still just don't want to tell the government you know or the law enforcement how to do their jobs so when it comes
239to schools I I I do want to have a voice in that I I don't want them to I want them to develop legisl security at those schools that's I think the third grade retention law is a wonderful example of what happens when they don't have our our input on these things okay cool thank you thank you for taking the time to put it together though so I I guess we want to talk about next steps again I'm open to a deferral if there's something else but if not then I said I do want to move forward with with this as is unless there's changes I'm I'm what I'm unwilling to do is to let it die on the vine Madam chair I think there's a couple possibilities um one uh set up set the
240re agree to set this on the agenda for um June to put it put an item on the agenda to set up a committee I think those are the two possibilities logistically for y'all um regardless we're going to do the work um that I talked about um and and if you set up a committee we'll will'll prepare that and report to the committee and help the committee work on some language if if it's determined that the resolution is the way to go we have had times for example we've written letters uh that the board's reviewed and and we something specifically legisl legislators in the form of a letter uh and it's possible the committee could make a recommendation on the form uh of of that as well as the substance I do believe that the
241administrative work that that that um that I want us to do as a result of this discussion is going to get to the substance of the best thing we can do to to affect growth in in making sure our students are safer cool thank you oh Dan you trying to speak okay go ahead yeah I just wanted to say I I think Jason Jason's suggestion uh is is the best one of the night it bring it encompasses everyone involved including legislator uh it would be nice for us to say to a legislator how can we support you rather than us tell them what to do and I so I think what what Jason mentioned is get all this information together and have a special call meeting okay thank you okay thank you all right we
242are adjourned