001County Board work session we're going to go ahead and call the meeting to order now and I want to acknowledge Deputy Phil hunt thank you so much for being here with us tonight our first item on the agenda is our superintendent contract review and extension this is an annual agenda item and we're required to discuss this first so I will open the floor for questions but first want to ask Jason your thoughts on the extension and just before that too um note that each year we do typically vote as a board and we have traditionally extended Jason's contract for one year and we do have the addendums in the packet as well so that you can see what's um happened in previous years to date Jason thank you madam chair just as a reminder um
002K La thank you madam chair thank you just as a reminder Tennessee law says that superintendents can have a maximum of four years on their contract uh and uh if if you choose to extend my contract from three years as it will be at the end of this month to four years I will accept I think we're doing a lot of good work and uh and I'm I'm really excited about where we're headed and uh and so um I'm looking forward to the discussion great and board members I will open the floor or if you have any comments or questions okay good to go well we'll move on to the super okay move on to the consent agenda um any questions on the consent agenda thank you madam chair just one quick one um the
003code of ethics is in board policy for second reading there is a change and it's based on the discussion that the board had about the implication in the original Lang from tsba that the board had the power to remove board members and so a number of you spoke to that uh and so there there is a change there okay all right thank you Mr Golden next item is the superintendent's report thank you madam chair there is 45 minutes on the agenda for my superintendent's report uh I do it's June y'all and I I do not have a PowerPoint to present to you so I'm going to I'm going to touch on three three key areas I'm going to talk about some just a couple of examples of of some successes we've had this past year
004give you a little bit of an update on the summer program and then tell you just a little bit of hints about where we're headed just a couple of nuggets of information for you uh as we're here in the summer uh so number one t a lot of our teap data is already back uh the the state is doing the online testing for grade six and up and even as you know at third grade they gave us some some preliminary data some quick scores and we have started our data meetings with our with our building principles and their administrative team for the earliest at the earliest time we've ever done it a lot of that discussion we have with those data meetings is drilled down and we talk about their successes and and what their
005professional development plans are to continue to grow their students Etc and if I'm not mistaken um Dr oer and uh and Dr Webb we've maybe met already with 12 to 15 of those schools something like that of our 50 uh about that data we've had some really good conversations through that uh so there there always seems to be kind of unintended consequences of particular decisions the state made this is I think a positive unintended consequence that we're actually getting data back a little bit earlier it used to be October uh and now we don't have Tas yet we don't have the growth scores but we do have the achievement scores uh for for our school schs uh as as part of that you all I think you know we had 61 students this year get
006a perfect composite score in the ACT that's 15 more than I think our record up to this point a lot of success uh in that context from our from our students and you may remember we've been celebrating those as they happen over the course of the year it's pretty amazing uh also uh we have a reported total scholarship accepted from our students this past year of 106,7 3,25 that is also the largest we've ever seen uh and I know I'm thinking uh Mr galberth you and I I caught your eye I remember a few years ago you would ask why are we not reporting the accepted dollars and in in reporting the offered dollars because our reality is accepted is what really matters so we actually have on our website WC by the numbers in
007the main section and that's one of the items that we have so you can see some longitudinal information I know Miss Cleveland you've looked at that recently um you were you were doing some share outs uh through your electronic communications um with your constituents we're really excited about that I want to point this out also when a student goes to a state school their numbers might not be as high as going to a private school right because tuition is traditionally less especially for instate uh schools uh but what we do know is that every time a student gets a scholarship it's that much more discounted um college experience so we're very excited about that um also related to that uh I I have to mention this one of our data meetings we met uh with
008Allison Fischer the principal of Vanguard virtual high school they had 100% graduation right and we are super excited about that you remember a few years years ago we created that online school and there was a gap in some of the needs that our students had and our ability to meet them and I'm really proud of that one example of the Vanguard students um having 100% graduation rate that Personal Touch with those students who who needed something different from the Traditional School is that it was a really good step and Dr Webb I appreciate your leadership and and helping that school meet a need that just a few years ago was left unaddressed so thank you for that uh so let me talk a little bit about our summer program you guys got some emails from
009me uh we had 3,045 total third graders this year who were on the state roles for uh for TCAP of that number after all was said and done adjustments from the state on the requirements for that third grade retention law that's actually listed in the code as the promotion law uh we had 26 students who needed to go to the summer school and do the tutoring next year in order to advance to the next grade level of those 26 uh 23 are in that program right now two of them have let us know they're withdrawing and a third we don't know for sure we think they may have already moved because we can't we we can't find the family uh so uh so every student who we know is going to be back is in
010the program right now so because they're doing that we project that we will have zero students retained under the law uh we also have 28 elementary schools 26 students out of 28 elementary schools 345 I'm really proud of our students I'm proud of our parents support I'm proud of the work our team has done um I will tell you the summer program we are actually as of tonight halfway through that summer program already it's pretty amazing uh I do worry about our staff uh it felt like the first day of school the second time during the year Transportation had to set new new uh bus routes you think about all those variables those F that first day of school where somebody gets on the wrong bus a parent it um drops the child off in
011the morning but thinks their child's riding the bus home but they haven't registered for the bus route uh cafeteria ordering all those items that uh the state has n't funded but just adds that extra extra work on our staff uh ultimately uh I'm I I I we I am convinced and our team is convinced that it's going to be a net good for our students but we have yet to see the full long-term impact of what that extra work means going to toss in one other example maintenance department does a lot of really serious cleaning of our buildings during the summer uh we do some repairs during the summer and so that puts it that extra burden for scheduling and stretching stretching some of those maintenance issues out as we become more of a year
012round every single day there's something going on in the building kind of system with that but again uh I'm I'm proud of the proud of the work we're doing and and we do know that it's going to be a net positive for our students who are in that program 23 had to go to the summer school program a little over 1,200 Rising kindergart gardeners through Rising n9th graders are participating uh at our elementary and middle schools uh at the high schools you you all know we've done summer school programs for years uh at the at those schools Credit Recovery is a program that our students are going through so those programs are continuing at the high school level so that's kind of where we are in the summertime I do want to give you a
013couple of just nuggets of of about the future I already mentioned our planning for the future with our with our with our administrative team County Commission is voting their final vote on our budget on Monday June 26th and that's going to be in the evening they traditionally have a dinner beforehand uh you all are invited to that dinner I think it's at 5 o'clock Lydia I'm trying to remember have they actually set a location yet they have not they're still having a hard time finding so they're working on a location for that and uh and we've actually said hey if you need to use one of our places a cafeteria some of our cafeterias are in action right now so so we can transition pretty easily uh we'll let you know when they set that
014actual location traditionally they'll have a dinner they'll do their annual photograph uh and uh and then they'll move back to the County Commission room for the actual vote on on June 26th they actually had their final preliminary meeting earlier this week night before last they actually have to have a public hearing on their tax rate the tax rate is not changed uh that's the proposal they have that the tax rate will stay the same I actually did a little double checking on the Williamson County property tax rate compared to the rest of the State uh right now if I did my math right Williamson County's property tax rate is in the 22nd pertile Statewide uh there's 95 counties uh and if I'm not mistaken if if I looked at the Statewide data this year correctly
015uh there are 20 counties most of them rural counties that have a low tax rate than Williamson County uh there's a news report and mayor Anderson mentioned this at the County Commission meeting on Monday night that Rutherford County is proposing to increase their tax rate by 15% this year to address their needs uh so 155 15% and you know and you know this Mr galberth from knowing how the tax rate is structured it's not clear in those reports if that is 15 cents on the tax rate or is that 15% meaning it's probably about 24 to 25 cents on the tax rate we we don't have enough information directly from them but the mayor did mention that significant increase and he mentioned that we are doing what they asked us to do and I'll tell
016you the reason that we're able to do it you may recall when you all passed our budget we had a deficit at the time and we were depending on that state increase in in Tisa and when that projection finally came Rachel came really close to nailing what we what really happened uh based on based on her research and so we are projected to be in the black uh with budgets so I I I feel good about the meetings we've had with the County Commission Rachel I'm estimating we might have had 12 meetings 10 something like that uh with with the County Commission so thanks to Rachel for that but we still have to wait for that vote on the 26th I also didn't want to mention one one little nugget about our PTO and boosters
017in WCS by the Numbers we always include the total annual revenue we don't have that number yet because boosters and PTO do get their financials to us at the end of the year um but uh one key item that you may notice in the next year or two at our football fields our boosters are starting to go through the process of creating um and paying for large video boards started a few years ago at Fairview High School the Fairview boosters created an advertising board at one end of the field paage high school uh booster club has uh has made a purchase of a of a video board brentwoods boosters and ravenwoods boosters are working that on that as well the projections they have are that it will increase their ability to gather Revenue to support
018the schools with advertising on those video boards it's also going to include uh some some opportunities for our students to create content uh during the ball games so be looking for that I know some of you have seen some examples I know at Paige they've had they have the structure uh set up at the end of one of the fields uh I do anticipate that over time our boosters are all going to be looking for that it's starting to become a national Trend uh with those with those video boards at the high school level uh so so be aware of that also we gave you some bullying information just in the last last couple of hours uh Vicki Hall and her team gathered up the annual information on bullying by category uh and so that's
019that's raw data right now we're going to drill down a little bit more differentiate from grade level to grade level but I did want to emphasize that in preparing for next year we have a committee of school administrators working on improving the standardization of discipline consequences for behaviors you all know that we've been working towards that uh and we took that first step this year uh in that and a number of our administrators uh are working on that to prepare for next year as we work thoughtfully on improving um on improving those numbers I will tell you and I've mentioned this before when I became superintendent y'all I'm already I've already started my fifth year it's hard to believe isn't it at least it is for me you I don't know how y'all feel about
020it but uh but when when I first had conversations with with our students a commonality I often heard was we stopped reporting issues because we felt like we weren't getting anything done it wasn't helping uh and so it's I've become convinced that we're on that road uh towards improving student safety I know in our strategic plan uh we had some element of that in our old plan and in this proposal that you're going to be considering tonight and voting on on Monday there are some elements there with some Focus points on that as well and we know that what gets attention improves think about our act we we put attention to that our team put attention to National Merit Scholars with a PSAT and we've seen some results uh what we focus on gets results
021so I'm excited about where we're headed uh I hope I'm not anywhere near 45 minutes um but certainly open any questions you all may have about where we are in June Mr Wimberly has a question thanks Jason a lot of stuff covered in that short amount of time uh my questions are easy how many students graduated from Vanguard I know it was 100% how many was that 50 50 okay why do students go to summer school if they're not required to do it by State law well so state law requires us to offer it and I think everybody has their own reasons um sometimes our principles Rec recommend it they know a child uh really needs that they don't need that two-month Gap and so some of its recommendations um we've heard from some parents
022sometimes it's Child Care gives them a little bit uh I even had one parent tell tell me kind of feels a little bit like Camp uh that was not my reaction when I when I observed the students in class but so it it varies from from family to family uh and you know 1,200 students out of 42,000 you know that's not a huge percentage but it's a service that does our families and our students some good I got to mention one other thing we also do early childhood programming for students with disabilities and their IEP teams make those decisions and I ask one more question on the final vote on the budget refresh our memories if you don't mind on pay increases that are before the commission thank you uh we have a 6% pay
023increase uh across the board for all our staff full-time and part-time uh County Commission they have a 5% scheduled with a projection that the mayor will probably ask for a 2% in January which if you do the math on that is a 6% except our plan gets the money to our to our staff a little quicker so considering all these meetings that have been held on the budget what's the prognosis for that pay increase surviving I feel really good about it thank you and it's because of the tax rate sounds good thank you Mr Brown thank you somewhat related question to Rick's about summer school how many or what percentage of our teachers are also teaching during summer school um that's a good question I may have to look over to Dr Allen or Dr
024oyer can you all give me an estimate or maybe even a raw number I can I can eventually I can look small I mean in comparison to the number that we have for certain um but I I'd be happy to look and be able to pin it down for you so to give you a little bit of perspective uh we have we have 12 locations nine at the elementary in three at the middle school um go ahead I'm going to continue to look to be able to it actually came up in conversation earlier today but one of the challenges that we faced this summer specifically that we hadn't in the past was as you know we had a moving Target in terms of the number of students that were going to be there and so
025there's no question that the ratios will be a little bit smaller this year I believe in terms of the number the adult to student ratio um but that was another kind of piece that we were planning right up until the last week to determine who was going to be there so I'll continue to look and let you know and if I may you you trigged one extra thought the state is this year paying for that every everything that every actual dollar expense that we can attribute to this program we can submit to the state for payment the 12 month salaried folks it's you know we won't be able to to dollar value that um but the teachers who were there it's a combination of those who wanted to do it for that extra summertime job
026and there's a few who the principal said hey I need you I've got a I've got a gap and for the ones who are not being paid by the state from through the promotion law just the ones who are just teaching ordinary summer school if you will are they on a 12-month contract or they just paid a supplement for that extra time uh they are not on a 12-month contract it is supplements so uh the the best example of that is credit recovery at the high school uh they're on a supplements Rachel Dr Webb can you give the give the specifics of how those folks are paid yes so at with credit recovery teachers who um teach the or serve as the teacher in Credit Recovery are paid by the hour $30 an hour um
027high school algebra 1 teachers who are teaching Algebra 1 summer school are paid a supplement by semester $3,500 a supplement uh that also goes for our act teachers we have act summer school and that's for credit on the students transcript and that's uh $3,500 a semester as well okay oh miss Clemens [Music] so forgive me you may have said this but um when should the parents expect the TCAP result results would that be in August or anytime sooner um Dr Allen do you have that we've gotten we've gotten some information do we know when parents can expect T they've not indicated when they will submit the parent reports or put make it available but you typically they're it's in August right now all we have is summited school data that we're using in currently at
028this point so it'll probably be uh Miss CL right at the beginning of next school late summer early next school year so the only student specific data we've received is the third grade ELA results thank you um so in talking with your peers across the state how I mean obviously we didn't we've got those the three students that didn't go to summer school School how is everybody else doing I haven't heard much about the actual results of people who didn't show up to to summer school that needed to we we haven't seen any of that and I haven't had any conversations um with our peers yet we have not had any meetings uh we do have some State data on how by by School District how many students fit each category uh the uh that
029exceeds meets approaching and below so we've got some data there uh of the County School Systems we had the lowest percentage of approaching and Below Statewide there were a couple of city school districts that were a percentage to ahead of us I got a shout give a shout out to Alamo School District which is a small City School District in West Tennessee they had the highest percentage I think they were at 75% even uh who met or exceeded and we were at 71 point something so I don't know how many students they had but it just made us smile uh that that that little school district was at 75% and I guess you don't have to have an answer now but from uh Lessons Learned and having gone through this once and we I think
030I don't I don't know how many changes will be made between now and I mean no nothing between now and next school year maybe something between now and next legislative session but um how do we how do we approach this year differently than we did last year with the recognizing that there's there's more than one pathway as far as the screeners and things to to measure against well one lesson learned is if you all and others across the state hadn't been talking to the legislature we wouldn't be at that number because they made a decision in this most recent legislative session to recognize it shouldn't be just one measure uh so that's one lesson that your voice when you've got time for it is valuable um another and I don't know if there's a lesson
031here yet but another issue we have is the screeners were not designed for what they're being used for so you use the word utilize instead of use right because utilize is using something for an unintended purpose they utilize utilize the screener the purpose of the screener is to help Drive uh um interventions RTI during the school year for those younger students uh there was actually one memo that came out from from this from tdoe late in the year that said please do not retest your students on the screener which implied that some of the school districts might have been thinking about scoring you know doing the screen screener a second time to help qualify uh the screener is designed to be that snapshot to help guide interventions so we we are concerned about what does
032that mean long term we don't study for the screeners we just we we we know we we give the students the screeners to help guide instruction during the school year there's always some unintended consequences Dr Royer just to follow up on the numbers question it's approximately 10% of our elementary teachers specific to Elementary we have about 108 teachers teaching um across the grade band so yes sir Mr Golden can I just add one thing to the last comment on the screen in in in response to Mr Gabbert's question I I just think it's important for everyone to know for the board especially to know that without changes to the legislation we're still going to be in a real bind and working right up to the 12th hour um to to establish summer school get bus
033routes together yeah the the idea that the the majority of our students fall in the approaching category and therefore have a choice of either going to summer school or doing the tutoring um we have to start planning in January and this year they didn't really have to tell us until June 2nd when summer school started June six I believe it was um so it's impossible for us to plan what was pulled off this year was it it was it was a miracle it really was I mean um just our teachers being available but it inherently requires us to over staff because we have to plan for the max number of kids that would come we can't just make a random guess so we need some help in some better uh an opportunity to to more
034efficiently plan on the front end for students that may come it's real it's a real challenge okay any additional questions for Mr Golden all right I'm going to move to the board chair report and I just have two items first item is quick there's no July board meeting so don't show up and um so enjoy your summer off but then also we don't have on the agenda to um to vote on our annual item of board goals because we traditionally really haven't established them but I wanted to bring something up for you guys to consider this year we have two board members who've reached a tier status in the boardsmood program does everybody know what that is with the tsba okay I'm going to just talk through it really quick because I've got some yeses
035and some NOS it's the um so it's the boards ship award program through the tsba of which we are members and tsba is where we get all of our meeting materials and they keep track of our policies Etc and you have the opportunity to earn level one two 3 four or five and we have one board member at a level one and one board member at a level three um and to achieve those various levels across the awards uh have to have categories of achievement the first category is Schoolboard Academy modules so for the newest board members that would be orientation so you received seven hours for the orientation and then for the rest of us we have to um earn seven credits per year to maintain our board position that's just one of those
036levels that you have to achieve to get through the various tiers another other um section is experiences and those are three credits each and and I can send this to you so you guys so you have a reference but there's a lot in the experiences category um for instance attending a County Commission meeting and I know several people do that and have done that or attending another school board meeting um participate in a board self evaluation so you would get three credits if you did a board self- evaluation some of us may have three credits sitting on our boardsmy and just need maybe three credits there to get us to the next level just as an example so I asked Lydia to send me a blinded version of the report so that I could just
037take a look and give us an idea of what it would take to get even half of our board to tier one level I just think it would say something for our board we don't have to do that and set a goal for that but if we want to it would be quantifiable it would be something that we could work toward achieving and measurable we could track where we are with achieving these um levels of either modules experiences events is the third category and I didn't talk through that that would be attending the leadership conference I'm I'm sorry the Schoolboard conference in November or some other events like that um but maybe think about that and I don't know if we would need to vote on that Dana since it is technically on the agenda
038as an annual um agenda item to vote on and approve goals typically in the past when the board has had goals we have voted just to approve the goals got it what are your thoughts on doing something like that any interest we don't have to have interest at all just want to open the floor for discussion on that go ahead Mr Brown I'm assuming that you talk about the classes and the modules and things like that I mean those it the ones I have done I think they take maybe an hour roughly an hour a piece or a couple hours a piece maybe yeah um so it seems like a very reasonable over the course of a year the very a very reasonable thing to do yeah yeah you can to some of them are
039a lot of them are offered online now which is nice we used to have to drive to the TS ba office um which so they're offered online makes it more achievable go ahead Sheila so you're just about um talking about just achieving level one yeah even as a goal for half the board and some people are just maybe three or four three or six credits away from a level three it's like jumping from a nothing to a level three interestingly if you just examine your profile you might see that you're not far away from even just getting to a level one myself included yeah it wouldn't take much how many without mentioning names how many board members would have to achieve that level one um well only one is at a level one and one
040is at a level three so we would need to be 50% at a level one we would need four more board members to work toward getting that level one okay thank you and I can give you more details once I look through the reports too m i individual reports and send them to each individual board member if you like your individual report shows everything you need to do and you know and the little packs you some of you are are fairly close yeah yeah like I'll just use my own personal one as an example I've gotten everything to achieve a tier three except for the experiences one which there's only two let's see here two required to achieve a level one two experiences and there were three points a piece I've just not done that
041so I just have to do a self- evaluation and go to a County Commission meeting so it's simple things that we could do to earn that tier status and it just um elevates I think our position on the board and shows our commitment to our boardsmy go ahead Angela you mentioned self- evaluation is there a distinction between that and evaluating another school board yes yeah so to get the good question to earn the level four you have to evaluate another school board a meeting of another school board yeah to achieve level three you have to complete a self- evaluation anybody willing to say who's the level three board member here it's level two level two okay I I can't read very small who's the level two okay got you so level two so got you
042got you do yourself evaluation if you go to the convention a few times and then keep track in your transcript of things you do like each year like if you know okay I went on a kind commission meeting this time or whatever and just submit that as an update to Lydia then I mean you may already be there for sure think about it and do we have to vote on it Monday if we okay so let's just think about it as a potential goal and if we want to establish that we don't meet in July we could always put it on for August um if we decide that that's something that we want to commit to as a board feels like a unifying goal um in something that would help us have good experiences increase
043our engagement as board members and yes Rick so I guess I'm a little bit confused annually we have to set board goals correct and you're pitching in effect one potential goal so when do we deal with any other goals we actually don't have to set them we have to approve them if we have established goals goals we haven't been establishing goals in I think we've established goals one year is that right histo go ahead well I I in board policy Dan you may have some specifics on this in board policy it calls for the board to set goals for itself most years it hasn't happened um I think it's been two years since the board set some goals for itself uh in the annual agenda actually this month was called for a review of how
044the board did on those goals which didn't exist um and then if I'm not mistaken there may be something in the annual agenda that sets a a proposed date to set those goals and it may be August or or September it's one of the two months maybe um so I think I'm speaking for you a little bit what what uh what the chair is suggesting that that that this coming year you all do set some some goals for yourself and is she's recommending that one as as a goal for you to consider so in order us in order for us to set goals we're going to have to have a work session or something yeah to talk about them right yeah yeah it's September it's SE okay so the annual agenda calls for setting the
045goal in September and you know the the annual agenda is a guide it's it's not it's not a 100% obligation for some of those items in the annual agenda so you could discuss it in August if you all choose okay thank you for clarifying that so I'm wondering if it might be possible for someone to put together a little packet that shows what the goals have been in the past and provide some Forum so we could begin at least communicating to Lydia or Jason any ideas that we as individuals have so that we'll have a starting point if indeed we want to discuss this in August sure we'll be happy to do that we can go back and look it's a good suggestion good thanks okay okay thank you and if you have any thoughts
046in the meantime happy to to take them to but should the thoughts go to you yeah will this be and I would say include Lydia as well um but this wouldn't be deliberation as long as you don't well Dana why don't you answer that as long as you are saying this is a goal but you're not discussing the merits of it um if you would rather send them to Lydia they're going to end up in front of the executive committee one way or the other okay thank you oh miss Clemens just to just for clarification um because I've looked on the tsba site and been interested in some of the courses but most of them there's a cost so if we're interested in taking some is there a reimbursement or does that just come out
047of our pocket how does that work we do have a budget um and Rachel I don't know if you remember the number of that budget off the top of your head but there there is a have a only I ask I do have to have a before okay can do something so that you know I standel good sounds good to me yeah thank you yeah Lydia is great about that um so definitely please go to her when you're ready to register for something and there are we still able to register for the fall district meeting in the leadership conference absolutely keep a spreadsheet on that once we get um our 23 24 M money then I'll do a PO and I'll start doing that but I do have a spreadsheet if you want to okay
048and the fall District meeting is in Dixon this year I believe and that's where local school boards in our region come together and discuss happenings across the district and um accomplishments and it's a good networking opportunity and then the of course leadership conference is the one that's held at Gaylord Opry Land resort every around Thanksgiving week and that's also where we are a able to participate as a delegate and vote on amendments that are put forth or a not Amendment why I always want to call them amendments what are they called Rick is that resolutions thank you resolutions thank you we get that big packet like aund and something page packet that we review and then sit together as a board and vote and we can have like up to seven or something people just
049a quick quick FYI our our district is uh it's called the mid Cumberland and it stretches from Stewart County to Wilson and then down to Williamson and Rutherford just to get you a little Geographic idea of it yeah Casey where did we drive that one year way far away Houston maybe Houston County is that what yeah Dixon's a great idea so I I don't recall exactly when the deadline is for submitting resolutions to tsba but I think now would be the time for staff and us to be thinking about any that we may want to introduce and what Dave was saying uh might be a timely thing for us to consider and that is that okay all of us around the state we've gotten through this first year and fortunately some changes were made at
050the 11th Hour but still some other changes need to be made and maybe we could take a leadership on on proposing something to that effect okay yeah good idea good suggestion I know Dana has a lot of contact with I know Dana has a lot of contact with the tsba attorneys and actually if I'm not mistaken we're going for the tsba legal summer legal update in Jackson in two weeks yes June 30th so we'll talk to them about their timetable as well awesome all right thank you thank you for your suggestions Rick and we'll we'll do that we'll gather the previous four goals and come prepared with the discussion in August all right thank you the next item on the agenda is if I get I every time every time Mr Fortney why why do
051I skip you every time okay it's going backward Mr Fortney it's time for the operations report thank you madam chair out of sight out of mine you know but anyway uh since I probably won't be with you in August uh I want to touch base on a couple things one of them of course is the how busy all of our folks are doing to give you an example I know the Technology Group is busy working with our contractors and getting the two new schools ready uh along with paage high school maintenance has got a workload this Summer that is every day is filled with something trying to work in between summer schools and other activities within our buildings that they are extremely busy so I want to thank them for the work that they do
052they also have several capital projects going roofs they're they're doing some internal work on on gymnasium floors resurfacing floors uh just a multitude of tasks that they have to get done so touch I I thank them for that also touching on uh uh the projects that's been that have been gone if you haven't seen the columns out in front of Franklin High School they look so much better Adams folks got coats of paint on those that hadn't been done in a long long time and refreshed the exterior of that building and uh it looks so much better I got to interrupt those are not marble those are fiberglass right that's correct uh the EIC uh is in that planning stage of course and Jeremy and Eric Gardner and his group and an architect they're working
053toward getting that up and running well the planning stage up and running and moving forward for design of that building Creekside Elementary School we've stripped the old playground materials off laser graded it uh we're working to get water supply back to that area of the school which will be done tomorrow and we'll be placing the Bermuda side in that field uh to establish that new playground uh probably Tuesday or Wednesday of next week it'll take about two to three weeks for that to take root and and be suitable to put children back on on that field there is a sack program out there so the kids are anxious to to get out there but they have enjoyed watching the work going on uh the uh paig high school phase three is basically complete we've got
054every certification from the fire marshal to the from the county and the State Fire Marshall and also state electrical they're installing Furniture in that building now uh they are are finishing up site work so we'll have that in time for the start of the school year plenty of time for that uh mil Creek I think I told you last month that the softball field was complete uh so we've turned that over to the school it will be up to them to maintain it from this point forward uh the two big ones on our list right now are Amanda North Amanda H North Elementary and Arrington Elementary uh they continue to make good progress uh we always want better and more uh we're going to be down to the very last day but the before the
055start of school I mean it's just been a real Challenge from you know Supply issu to uh Personnel uh available construction workers we're trying to figure out where they all went uh but those are progressing and I'm confident that the groups are going to have them all together uh in time for that school year so we'll keep a a close close eye on the next 40 what two or 43 days and uh we look for the successful completion on those we have put some containers out on those sites some storage containers that are the airtight weatherproof containers for our deliveries of school stocking items the items that the principls and teachers need to have to operate the building so we've got Personnel on site that are inventorying that material and it goes into a container
056and it's we're going to have to handle it twice but we need to get that stuff on the site to be able to have have it in time for the buildings uh furniture will start next week in parts of both buildings so very slowly it's all coming together and uh that's about all I can say and you know I've enjoyed this last year to be of a bit of help and uh confident that this district has some fantastic leadership with the different directors and assistant superintendent going forward so I'll miss everybody but uh it's time to hang it up y'all u i I want to thank Kevin and you know he retired a couple of years ago and couldn't take it and uh and came back and he made a commitment well about a year
057ago that he he was going to work through the end of the school year and then he modified that a little bit to say I'm going to make sure that that I work till those two new schools open uh on paper right now we have July 3 first um if I'm not mistaken and it's funny I smile at him and keep on stretching it but uh he will he will be officially retired he's committed to me that for for good we'll see might do a little project here and there uh he's been pretty wonderful uh and I got to say in my professional experience and you I think you get many of you know I had a lot of professional experience in the past with construction projects and I've lived those school projects for 18
058years I've never seen seen anybody better than Kevin and making sure something gets done uh and and and he's put a lot of energy this past year into our staff into our leadership staff um Brian King as you know is going to take over uh when Kevin retires as assistant superintendent for operations we are recombining all those operations departments when Kevin came when Mark retired and Kevin came back uh we we we split those responsibilities between Kevin and Gary we're bringing them all under one roof and Brian and Gary will work as a team with Brian as as Gary's immediate supervisor to lead those operations departments I'm very excited about where we're going uh and uh Brian has already started speaking with those department leaders and and Kevin you don't know this and I know
059Eric is not here but Eric is the is the director of facilities and construction who took Kevin's position when Kevin retired uh and Brian actually said Eric really knows what he's doing uh with with his first conversations with Eric and so that's a that's a credit to Eric it's also a credit to Kevin um so we're looking forward to the future and boy I'm gonna miss [Applause] Kevin we do have a couple board members who would like to say something Mr Cash yeah Kevin I just uh uh working with you over the past years uh you work well under pressure so with 40 with with 43 days left um are you going to have any uh prints for the CT e building Hub and uh get all that laid out for us for when we
060get the goahead you know you're you're talking about the one on the Franklin High campus or the do the yes sir Animal Control property that as I said that's underway and Eric's handling that Eric Gardner is handling that uh he's got an architect uh that that we've selected that we feel very confident same one that did Legacy uh Middle School uh so we we're working our our contracts and getting those prepared and Eric will take that he's running with that already we've got surveys done and uh geotechnical studies and so forth but uh I have to drive past it a lot so I'll either give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down as I'm out and about well I was just uh being a little sarcastic but obviously you've got it under control too
061Mr Cash Mr Cash I'm glad you asked that question actually Monday night the County Commission voted to approve a long-term lease uh uh for for that property the reason it's a long-term lease actually my history mind thinks this is like Hong Kong right where the British British had had a long-term lease of Hong Kong but uh the reason it's a long-term lease is because the National Park Service had actually uh given some grants to parks and wreck decades ago with a requirement that it stay as a park so we're actually going to have occupancy on that Park long term that's the mechanism that that the County Commission approved we're going to tear down the animal shelter building I've been I've been trying to convince the County government we're doing them a favor uh by by
062tearing down that old building 15.5 million uh from the from the state that's already in place it it is a reimbursement structure I I'm very excited about it Dr quals is leading that and I'm catching Dr web's Eye Dr qus and I went down and visited probably the closest thing to this that's actually in Cleveland Tennessee um they had taken an old factory and renovated it one key component I got out of this that really shifted my thinking a little bit is it needs to look like Williamson County needs to look like Franklin it needs to look cool it needs to look Innovative and we can do that with with a with a tight budget uh you think about the EIC and kind of that eclectic look that attracts students there needs to be an
063element of that involved in it as well well you just added several million dollars to a project we'll still do it on the cheap yeah thank you Kevin it's been a real pleasure thank you very much following you around the schools and stuff thank you I left one very important project out that I need to give you an update drive by Brentwood Middle School they are making excellent progress on that building uh that's under Gary Hall he's the project manager for it they're on schedule I'll never tell you they're ahead of schedule but they are on schedule so far and uh that's going to be a a really really good project when it when it's open it's going to serve the County students well in the Brentwood area thanks thank you Mr GTH I'm afraid
064to say anything I've heard the microphone out there um so just want to thank Kevin and and Jason too Jason mentioned the um the video boards coming in um at I guess Fairview first but Paige is the most recent and then Brentwood and Ravenwood will be installed this summer um hopefully I think both of them before football season starts but um if you if you haven't um talked with your um with the boosters in your in your area um and or or if they've asked you about it and have any questions I mean I've I've been doing this for uh and this is a six six-year-old Pro project for me with u with the boosters um when it first came up with the boosters from um from Ravenwood and uh Brentwood just kind of started
065about it was about 18 months ago um and so it was we found out Lots during the during the process of what we're willing to do about how these things are being purchased um and uh and what what procedures we we learned along the way the procedures that required um with the when the when the school is funding it versus when boosters are funding it so lotss of lessons learned so people don't have to do it by themselves or with if you so if you if anybody if anybody ask you um come to me come to Jason we we can um I would say come to Kevin within the next 60 days um but uh or 45 maybe and um but uh but it's a it's a it's a good opportunity I mean in addition
066to the fundraising opportunities um the the student engagement the the there ability to I mean ravenwood's got a class around the putting content on it's part of their media operations and doing content for this stuff and they've they've already done it in their indoor um board at the for the basketball but the um football kind of takes it to the to the next level but it's not just football um it's in use for for all the other things track there's a whole software package for for each individual Sport and it's kind of pretty easy to use but uh so anyway just to really really excited about that thanks to Kevin and to everybody on the on the team I know Tim um helped a lot on the running cables and getting I mean it was
067a it's not a not a simple operation nor cheap nor is it cheap but um it's in going to be done and looking forward to a couple of fun Friday nights so thanks and to to your point Mr galberth what we are finding is that that the process that a booster group goes through is unique to that group and unique to what what you know how their structure is so it it it does take some detailed conversations to help them out okay all right thank you Mr Fortney next on the agenda is unfinished business Mr golden thank thank you madam chair you see item A and B for unfinished business uh and I'm going to go ahead and read each one and then speak to them together and then we may have some discussion on
068on on it in that way as well approval of the reconsideration committee's recommendation for the following library books speak Perks of Being a Wallflower of the Field Guide to the North American teenager and where the cwad sing and then Item B approval of the reconsideration committee's recommendation for the following library book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close now you all know that this was on the agenda on I think two months ago uh if I'm not mistaken uh you all received prior to that recommendations from the respective uh review committees and just as a quick reminder Dana I invite you to correct me if I'm wrong the current legal structure has changed from what was in place just a couple of years ago the legal structure is that if that if someone makes uh uh submits
069a a challenge or request to reconsider curriculum then the committee is set up to review that and make a decision that could be appealable that is appealable to the board but if they make a request reconsideration of a library book the committee reviews and makes a recommendation to the board and there is no decision until the board makes a decision so one or more of these two items included a some questions related to curriculum those decisions were made and presented to the to the uh uh to the requestor and those decisions were not appealed in the example of item a that included removing Perks of Being a Wallflower from from the curriculum uh and and left the others in place but again that's not a decision that's before the board the decision that is before
070the board is a decision on those library books now a couple of months ago uh I know the uh the the chairs of those respective committees presented to you Miss Willie Dickerson presented and lorett Carl presented for those two committees uh I do encourage you as you prepare for Monday to go back and review uh what they prepared we've included included the the uh the writings from those committees in the packet uh also related to that we had a lot of discussion two months ago at the voting meeting about the state legislator's requirement that the state textbook commission that has a long title that I can't remember that the state textbook commission um prepare guidance and there was a lot of questions about well when's the guidance coming might the guidance help us especially on
071the question of how do you evaluate age appropriate materials under that newer Tennessee law uh and I specifically remember that uhu um Mr Brown asked the question is there a possibility that we're not going to get any substantial I'm paraphrasing any substantial Insight from that committee and we said well yes that's a real possibility and that's actually what happened uh so the guidance has come out we provided that to you by email um weeks ago and that guidance largely restates what was in the tsba guidelines and what was in our policy especially related to that evaluation of age appropriateness so those committees applied the same standards that the guidance subsequently recommended you consider and that includes those items uh materials are suitable for and consistent with the educational mission of the School evaluate that materials
072are appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access them the determining factors will be based on an assessment of any mature themes or content I.E violence sexual content vulgar language substance abuse materials contain literary historical and or artistic value and Merit and the collection as a whole offers a variety of viewpoints so you have those before you uh we have our staff here uh ready to answer any questions and on top of that Mr cook sent you um some information uh the the attorney for the for the board sent some additional information to you I'm estimating a week ago or so so you've got a lot of information uh to consider as you prepare for for that Monday vote open to any questions you may have Mr Brown thank you
073Jason is it fair to say that based on what you just read and described that it's telling you more about the why you might the why behind why you might make a choice but really not telling you how to go about it that's I in my opinion that's a fair that's a fair description Miss Clemens thank you madam chair um I was thankful for the extension because it gave me a time to read or listen to all the books um and um for the most part I really enjoyed the books um but I'm going to you know and I tried to read them from from a perspective of being not only a teacher a former teacher um a mom but also being a teen you know trying to remember back and being in high school
074and um you know and and they cover a lot of heavy duty material you know rape um for stal sex which is rape um abortion drug use alcohol the effects of you know sexual child molestation and how it affects a child growing up um and and if we're being honest with ourselves we know with 40 what is it 42,000 students stats stats are going to dictate data is going to just dictate that we have children in our school systems that have been who experienced these things um and and I think that's that's important to note um but I also want to look at the fact that we can ruin a good book if it is introduced to a child when they're developmentally not ready emotionally um mentally intellectually you can ruin a good book by
075introducing it too soon um and I also want to note just being a teacher knowing that parents know their children best they know their experiences from birth um or when they are adopted um they know their low points they know their their hard struggles through life um as a parent know this too um and teachers get to know their their students over the year they have you know 25ish students um libraries Librarians have hundreds of students um they know the students but not like the parent um when I when I was listening to speak I listened to the 20th anniversary um Edition and I'm so glad I listened to this book and um to this Edition because what was interesting and I don't know if any of y'all heard this but at then end of
076the book there was two afterwards um the second afterward was an interview with the author and I thought this was really interesting they asked her um basically speak is on the band book list what would you say to wishing to ban this book and this is what she said she said I would ask them why are they afraid to talk to their kids about sexual violence parents must face up to the responsibilities to prepare their children for the dangers of the world they must get over their own squeamishness about discussing human sexuality in order to do so if more boys were taught by their parents what sexual consent is and in that it is required always we we would have less sexual violence if girls and women felt safer to speak up after sexual assault
077and the judicial judicial system was prepared to consistently prosecute and punish rapists then we would see these horrible numbers go down I totally agree with her um a powerful words um and just the former English teacher and me every sentence or most every sentence parents parents parents need to be involved in this conversation cuz parents know their children um you know and I was thinking back to when my kids were in kindergarten in first grade um I sometimes knew their library book because they' bring it home their little you know satue and um we'd read them at bedtime but as the kids get older as it's supposed to be they become more independent and that's how it's supposed to be um and I just couldn't help but think what a travesty it would be if
078a child checked out one of these books and there could be a conversation had between the parents and the child about consent about rape and it might be that the parents say I know what my child has experienced they're not ready to to handle this heavy topic this is important to this is important to know and to recognize um and this is why I firmly believe and we might have to change things with the state law but for right now I really firmly believe that these books need to be on a parental approval so we can make sure these conversations are had um because again it would be a travesty for a child to read this book on drug use or abortion that their parents didn't know about um or rape and these conversations didn't
079happen just I firmly believe that we need to have the parental approval thank you Miss Clemens Miss Cleveland thank you Mrs Clemens I agree with you and I believe um parental consent is good and if you remember the board did vote on that policy which gives us exactly that that these particular books should they remain on the shelf or not but the parents are going to be advised of all these books and they have now or have knowledge of these books and at that time they can decide whether or not their kid is able to read them or not and um so if if they they as you said they can um go on the maturity level of Their Own Child whether they're able to handle the content or not but that was the whole
080basis of the policy is to put the the um decision back in the parental the parents lab to make those decisions to engage their kids in reading and um and I think it's a really good policy that does um help that you know the those decision-making and and it also prevents us making decisions my view is making decisions on books for everybody when everybody is different every child is different every parent is different and this policy provides to give the individual respect to each IND you know individual parent and individual student so thank you thank thank you Miss Cleveland Mr Cash thank you yeah I I agree with both of you GS uh Sheila the the only problem is is and we went back and forth back and forth so much on this with the
081grade band when it should be instituted uh but a time it gets to this is only if there's reconsideration okay there's a lot of these books sitting on the shelves kids are checking out on a regular basis I'm still for parental um approval but they have to have time to learn what's in these books and they don't have that time under our current policy the other thing is is I still think we need to look at these I think we're back at square one with what uh uh Bobby sent us um this board still hasn't established what's vulgar what's uh you know uh sexual content what's uh what is violence the drugs that are involved in them we've not established what's okay or what's not okay so we're back at square one so I'm still
082for a rating scale um have a an adult section for the schools maybe 16 and older um that would be my point of view thank you thank you Mr Cash Mr gber thank you madam chair u i Dan said pretty much what I was going to as far as I like the framework of of giving parents the ability to um to preemptively kind of make sure that they're they're allowed to um to approve before the before the student I think the the policy is a great start um but but it only it only addresses those things that have come up for reconsideration and so um not to not to get more reconsiderations but there's there's got to be a way to to review the books in our library and see what else fits in that
083mature category um and if and if it if that if the if if there was a category and and whether it's a rating system or just flagged or whatever um and then and the parent could say I want to I want to to be safe I want to review anything that's on this list um I think that would give a um that would give more more control to the parent and then it would it would kind of take away the the the thought that I was going to my kid's going to get you know check out a book that I don't agree with or that I would have rather have had some input on before um right now they're going to have to go L you know Title by title which is really just not
084conceivable so it'd be a lot easier if there was a um if there was a a flag or a rating on it so otherwise we're we're back to you know how do we how do we deal with this on a on an overall basis I I don't I think some of these to just personal opinion a couple of these books probably shouldn't I don't I still don't think they should be in our library um but based on the based on the law and how the courts have read I don't think we um I don't know that we have a a good basis to pull them out but I I still go back to I want to make sure that we're um that we have some standards on by which the books are reviewed to be
085put in the library in the first place so that hopefully going forward we don't U we can kind of cut some of some of the new books off but thank you Mr galberth Mr Haw thank you madam chair um I appreciate Mrs clemens's comments I that's afterwards are really powerful and I I had uh I was thinking about sharing some of that too because of what it talks about as far as you know having those difficult conversations and it really resonates with the power of a book to give you a view into an idea like you know for for a kid you know I'm not going through this alone you know there may be some very very difficult subject matter and the these books show characters who are going through some of the same struggles
086I mean they're based in in reality uh real real situations that are difficult and unfortunately as the author says parents may not be ready to have these conversations and the kids know that too you know I remember reading things that my parents probably would have freaked out about and thinking that I wasn't ready to have those conversations with them but what was the benefit of those books to me was to just be able to connect to things that were coming down the pike and being aware of some of those things and uh knowing that you're not the only kid who struggles with with some things so I I I would really be concerned about the unintended consequence of making those books somewhat less available to kids because they would have to have that uncomfortable conversation
087with their parents saying hey I don't really know what this book is about but I heard something about it and I want to read it for the puant aspects of it or something but they're not going to do that unfortunately and I I I think that there are different ways to achieve the same goal and have maybe parents participate in library presentations where the Librarians can speak to the parents and let them know what Avenues are available to limit content that they that they may not want their kids exposed to and because that's a perfectly reasonable um concern that that I would want to respect for the the parents as well um so maybe they can have encourage them to have those conversations um and I think that uh I I would be concerned that
088this makes it tough could make it tougher for every kid so you'd want to have par parents give the op the complete optin and say Hey you know I'm good with my kid reading whatever I just want them to read and hopefully encouraging conversations but I'd like to see if there are ways to um encourage that dialogue without limiting the rights of those students who want to be able to just go into a library and explore and find out things um and then hopefully many of those kids will have conversations with their parents thank you Mr ha Mr Welch thank you um Mr Golden we had a lengthy meeting with with legal counsel uh a few weeks back about the topic of the First Amendment and banning books and and case law and obviously since
089then I think we've seen um more States which have uh well more school districts which have um received lawsuits and and states where legislation has been overruled um given the changes that we have and and the additional direction from um the state has there been any changes in the advice from our legal councel on this or or what was recommended Ed to us in our actions or cautioned to us in our actions has any of that changed based upon updates no I have received no change from that attorney client discussion okay so the recommendations they were given then are remain the same okay thank you um just to refresh all the books that we're talking about these are all optional books in the library none of these are required curriculum where a a student is
090being given the book and and directed to to read it is that correct well the the the challenge the request for reconsideration is related to that um some of these books may also be used in a in a class uh in in the particular example of that of item a there was a request that some of those be reconsidered for curriculum and the committee actually did make a decision to remove Perks of Being a Wallflower from curriculum correct that's part of the recommendation though well actually the way the the way the curriculum is structured and the way the policy is structured that's a decision uh as opposed to a recommendation to the board because of the way that because of the way state law is so the library book uh re Review Committee is a
091recommendation on library books got it okay and and and so the the uh the curriculum mhm this decision of the committee is appealable to the board within a window of time and in this case the parent who made the request did not appeal that decision so that decision is final on curriculum okay thank you and then we for the library books we have the processes process processes and software in place so that parents can monitor what books are being checked out as well as uh block their individual student from checking out a particular book yes sir and if I may give a little bit of detail of that uh on each of our schools websites you can go to the media center web page and you can actually in the fet destiny uh uh um
092click you can do a word search for the synopses of the books the book titles and synopses can be picked uh and so as an example you could type in the the ual term profanity and you can pull up any book that describes in its thumbnail description of the book whether it is a discussion of profanity okay now it's not you know it's it's not a a full review of every single word in every single book but it does have thumbnails so maybe not a rating scale but it's it's a in place currently existing a way to see the content of the book yes sir thank you um how long have these books been in the libraries or or if we don't know from that do you know if any of them are new books
093relatively speaking it varies a little bit I'm going to look to uh Miss Dickerson if if she can recall I I know of course uh um that uh that some of them are a few decades old but I can't speak off the top of my head to how long each individual book has been in our library a few decades some of these books are yes okay as Miss Clemens mentioned it was the 20th anniversary of the of the book Speak sure that she listen to most of them are in the ones that uh my committee looked at or have been in the library since 2010 one was 2011 2018 2019 they've been in the library and uh I think the other book from the other committee has been in the library since I think the
09480s okay so five to 10 plus years they've been in the libraries yes sir okay um and then the complaints we've received on this I know one was from a a parent who said he had not read the books but was satisfied with the conclusion of the committee correct well Mr erson I don't want to misspeak on his behalf so if you could answer that yes these books were all books of choice they went along with an assignment but kids had an opportunity to choose a book and those teachers went through a process of letting parents know and uh what their book what their child had Chosen and so yes he was satisfied the fact and I think he was actually impressed that we had taken the time to read the books and everything so
095he sent back a reply email thanking the committee okay thank you and then the other complaint if I recall was not a parent a grandparent had any relation to the school district anyway but had heard secondhand from a group in Florida that didn't like the book and so that's what the complaint was based upon and not actually having read the material Mr Dickerson that is correct from understanding they had not read the book and just heard it appeared on a a list of books that should be banned in Florida and uh so she came to the nearest high school and they had the book but it was my understand the book hadn't been checked out in several years anyway but okay in the five to 10 plus years that we've had these books already in
096our libraries have we ever received a complaint from a parent or student prior or any issue of trauma or a KN or or anything to any of our guidance counselors or teachers do we do we have any documentation or record at all of any complaint being raised prior to to these where the individuals had had not actually read the book um but before this no we don't have a record of any other complaint none at all okay all right thank you much thank you Mr Welch Miss Clemens thanks I just wanted to kind of sum up um just a couple of questions that we had out there or comments um and I agree with you I think that I I do like our system and I I just feel like this having the parent approval
097it's still available but it it provides um just a greater sense of protection over our children um and and it and and it Williamson County School library is not the only place they can get this I know that um but I but I think there's some unintended consequences by making it more available um and that is just that once you expose once somebody is exposed or a child is exposed to something that again maybe they should have waited till they were older you can't unexpo you can't you can't unexposed of um like a library tutorial um and I'm aware how our library system works where parents can flag you know they don't want their child reading these certain books but I just want I know parents are so busy especially in those years those high
098school years there's so much going on and I want to take some of the burden off of the parents um so that's I just wanted to finish up with that thank you Miss Clemens Miss sapria thank you um Eric kind of hid on a lot of the stuff I was gonna just reiterate about this is we're discussing library books not curriculum so this is all optional reading um and then I had pulled up the complaint the complaintants uh the little section about who filed for this um reconsideration because to Dan's point you were saying it would be challenging for parents to know which books ahead of time to opt out of for our new policy um and this parent or this Community member said the well I just wanted to read this part the committee
099learned that the complaintant first became concerned with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close um upon receiving a list of 44 books from a Citizens group based in Florida who had flagged certain pages of each book on their own template to ask for reconsideration of books in Florida so basically it sounds like there's this pretty heavily circulated list out there already so if we have this opt out and this transparency available to families and this this email goes out once one book is flagged the parents could then take that list that's obviously out there there and say I'd like my kid not to read all all of these and and the Librarians would accommodate that so I I just really feel like we've gotten to a point where we've been discussing this for so long and we
100have the recommendation I do understand the concern for for parents being heavily involved in this and as a parent myself I would like that opportunity as well but I I do feel it is important for the sake of our students and and for the parents that would like their students to have this easily available if like my daughter may feel like she can't come to me about a certain topic but would feel safe going to her librarian or a teacher or someone else who could recommend a book to her and I want her to be able to do that I want her to take whatever method she feels the most safe to to get the information or the the the topic covered that she needs and if she wants to come talk to me after
101then she should you know do that um so I I don't feel I feel like I want to just support the recommendation of the committee at this point and and I really appreciate the fact that we've updated our policy so that parents will become aware of how to very easily opt out of any of the books that they don't want their parent their children reading um before a certain age and I think that to in my opinion that does enough to to make sure the parents are aware of how that works and and can make the decision for their s and their students or their children um on what they want their kids kids to be exposed to so that's it thank you Miss Pria Mr Cash thank you madam chair you know we we
102speak a lot about uh different issues and through these books uh children learn different things but you know every one of the issues out there whether it be sex whether it be drugs uh rape incest there is a way to uh tell that story without gross introductory acts of sex descriptive and everything else uh there's ways to do that without the vulgarness and I think that's where we need as a board to make to draw a line somewhere thank you thank you Mr Cash okay um Mr Golden any other comments about this topic uh one just uh and I'm speaking a little bit for Mr cook who's actually out this week but it will be at the board meeting and for Miss osbrook and invite Miss OS Brooks to fill in if you all are
103thinking about a particular motion do ask that you consult with one of the attorneys just so there can be some little bit of prep time on the on the terminology of the motion to make sure it actually would achieve what you intend because I don't want there to be any any uh any confusion uh uh well I want to minimize the confusion at the board meeting if if I may okay um it's been requested that we take a brief break so if we could come back at 745 that would be great and we'll finish up shouldn't take long to get through the rest of the business thanks e e e okay thanks guys for coming back on time we're going to go ahead and get started again next item on the agenda will be new
104business and Miss farmer will lead us through these items thank you madam chair um we have the first item tonight is an annual item where our auditor actually gives us a number to adjust for Commodities it's a revenue and expense line there's nothing to it other than being an audit adjustment um I'll will also tell yall that we actually talked with our auditor this afternoon and she has another way of um wanting to do the calculation so this number will change before Monday night I'll email it to you tomorrow we're going to meet tomorrow morning to go over probably will change it may not change but it'll probably change but again this is just a for USDA Commodities a revenue and expense adjustment for both lines okay next are our final year end intra category
105adjustments you'll have three votes on Monday for each fund general purpose Central cafeteria and then extended school program program again we come to you each month if we are making amendments or resolutions that are affecting the budget um that are in category or if they're moving from an operational expense to a payroll expense within a category this is just um the ones accumulation from year end um for each fund if it is within a major category we do can make adjustments if one Line's over um we may have unexpected when we're estim for instance on um retirement different kinds of retirement um those are estimates until we get the actual numbers in there we don't know what those are so this is just actually putting the final numbers in all the right categories and and
106Madam chair if I may I want to do a double check on this um the title of the item is intra category that's correct purpose inra category we bring to you intra category meaning it's within the same intra I mean in the same major category we bring at your end okay okay and then our final item related to um finances is if you recall when we presented the budget to you the capital budget um was part of that presentation and the County Commission when they vote on our budget on the 26th they do not include capital in that vote the way they vote on it is if we bring it back through resolution um in July and so this is just actually the resolution you've are you all have board voted on the amount um
107but then this puts it in resolution form for the commission to actually vote on so Madam chair if I may add a little bit of detail to that I've let you know that in the committee process the budget committee has reduced our request to 13 million so at that I anticipate that they are going to stick to that recommendation uh we would still need to submit a resolution to them with our request I don't want to Simply drop our request by 3 point 6 million I want us to actually make the request of them uh what I have talked to our um operational leadership team about is look at the items that we had in our budget for the for the capital identify those that we have to get out uh to Market early and
108let's have a discussion about what might be the timing Gap with that 3.6 million that we anticipate the commission might not immediately fund us with and I will add this to to this I would this comment when the commission heard about our projections from Tissa it triggered that reduction that was one of the items that they actually discussed at the public meeting so the implication they gave us was well you you might have some operational money so we're not going to make that decision quite yet um but again I'm not prepared to Simply cut my requests from you all because it we need we need to go through the process and make a request for for our needs Mr Welch Mr go even with that Tissa money we can't use operational money for capital budget
109can we it's the other way around uh we can't use Capital well well we could if we let me let me speak in extremes if we had an extra100 million we would be making Capital requests got it so we can use operational money if it fits within the budget if we have enough Revenue to do it fair enough thank you Mr Hall thank you Mr Golden I appreciate that you know we need to express the need for for what we've identified because um you we know and I know that the County Commission appreciates that it's not padded it's these are the needs that have been already vetted and reduced to some extent before you even bring it to um did they provide any um rationale or or explanation for the 3.2 million that they don't
110think is needed uh concern over the total debt load was the was the main theme got it so they I mean they're aware of what all of the details of this are yes they just want to reduce it and then have us decide what doesn't get funded essentially yes or if there happens to be more Revenue later on in the budget year use operational money rather than increase the debt load that was in essence the theme okay thank you Mr Brown but to be clear they wouldn't reduce it and then Laine item Laine item the budget they would just reduce the amount and let us figure it out that is correct okay they actually don't have the power to line item okay that is y'all's decisions okay Miss farmer any other comments that's it okay
111super and Mr Golden next on the agenda agenda is the approval of the Strategic plan thank you madam chair uh as you know we presented our draft proposed strategic plan to you last month after Myriad uh and really valuable stakeholder meetings uh and Laura inlad from from uh lipom University actually did a presentation last month and I let you all know that we wanted to give you time to think about it ask questions and allow us to make some adjustments because it just wasn't wise for us to drop something so important on you and ask you for a vote just in a couple of days so over the course of that month we've had a number of comments and questions from you and we have made a a few adjustments uh to that document that
112was before you at the time and Lydia actually put together uh two versions one a highlight with a change and then a clean copy uh for presentation and sent you an email with with uh highlights and we actually added one specific objective related to students with disabilities and as our steering Comm committee met and as our leadership team met to talk about that one recurring theme in our discussion was students with disabilities uh we are very proud of the work we do in serving our students with disabilities and I think we all know that Williamson County's schools is attractive to many parents of students with disabilities because many of their peers share their children's experiences it's a work in progress we're never perfect with it but we are emotionally and professionally committed to serving those
113students in the current strategic plan students with disabilities weren't specifically mentioned everywhere so the steering committee had a lot of discussion about that given the given the stakeholder input how do we find some way to include students with disabilities and we never really landed on a perfect answer but we included in one of our objectives that language from the federal government that included race color religion age St national origin disability status uh and and and that was actually in section three uh and that actually extrapolated into additional discussions about well what about students with economic disadvantages Etc and so you got last month's proposed language uh well miss priia actually in response to my prompt for you all to share um started asking specifically about what we think of as smart goals those measurable achievable
114goals in the context of students with disabilities for for for post completion success and so we have added a uh a a goal related to that and that was increase the opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in pre-employment transition services in middle and high schools uh so as a result we made some adjustments to the language beyond that those two substantive changes I mentioned there were some typographical changes some wording changes that don't change the substance of it we're excited about it hope Nordstrom and laori and colad are both here uh and I I mentioned this and hope you weren't here last month so I'm going to say it again I am so pleased with the process you led us through uh you you you did an excellent job uh the experience of our
115stakeholder meetings under under your facilitation was very valuable for me and I'm convinced it's going to be valuable to us for years to come so thank you guys for your work certainly open any questions I I'll I'll try to answer those or we may ask uh hope or lore to answer those depending on the nature of your questions as we prepare for a vote I take I was about to hand it over to you madam chair I got I want to mention one more thing some of the questions centered around where do we go from here if we pass this when we pass this uh strategic plan where do we go from here we've been spending many months talking about action steps about us developing action steps for achieving these objectives there was a lot
116of discussion about do we put measurements into the plan or do we establish measurements in in in our action steps uh and so ultimately our our plan and my plan for this is when you all pass the this our leadership team uh is going to get to get together and start working on action steps I anticipate that many of these may include creating some stakeholder committees to make recommendations um and I don't know where we're going to land quite yet but I want to give you a couple of examples of things we're thinking about uh one example that was discussed a lot in our stakeholder meetings was do we change school start times we don't have a objective related to that but what we do have is objectives that might be influenced by how schedules
117are so we're brainstorming over starting a stakeholder committee to evaluate our objectives for example might are the the times that our schools start have an impact on how many students participate in extracurricular activities for good or bad analyze those objectives in the context of some of those discussions uh so I anticipate that one potential product out of this is that we have some committees that help us establish action steps based on the goals and objectives that you all established for us thank you if no comments or questions I definitely want to thank you for your your work having been through now two of these it was a really well done pro process and lots of community engagement and feedback and I'm excited to see how the next 5 years goes so thank you both Mr
118Pria I I want to Echo that and thank you Jason too for being so open to our feedback and really taking a lot of feedback from the community um I really appreciated the addition of a very specific um objective for students with disabilities and I know we kind of had a discussion on the Break about the next steps and the Committees and things like that that may come out of this um and as you're doing like training with schools and districts I think the main goal is that there's just this consistency across the district with how we're mindfully considering all students and how we're implementing these objectives districtwide so I'm really excited I think it's come a long way and it looks amazing and it's going to do so well for our students and our
119families um and yeah that was it thank you Mr priia Mr Brown thank you I've got maybe two or three comments slash questions um I I too agree the process was really good it was thoughtful it was inclusive all of that so um well done by everyone um you brought up the issue Jason of calendar start times and I had raised this with you um earlier um you know it seems to me that we that's certainly something that came up in in the sessions um quite a bit it was you know on the the sheets that we had on the wall I mean you saw that repeatedly brought up as a as a concern I know I've heard it I'm sure all of us have heard it from constituents we had the discussion you know
120six months ago or however long it was that was um quite intense about start times and um so I for one I mean would like to see something specific in the objectives particularly around strategic commitment three that addresses in a broad sense calendar and start times and I don't not suggesting we necessarily need to get granular on that that can work itself out in the process but I do think it's in my opinion been something that's on people's minds enough that it's worth calling it out specifically as an objective just so that's just want to put that out there on the table the other um the other thing I wanted to mention was on back to I think it's on um yeah it's number two strategic commitment two on the issue of Workforce housing so
121objective number three I understand the um the rationale for wanting to address Workforce housing from the standpoint of our our teachers and our employees I worry a little bit that putting something in here that we it's really outside of our purview um whether that makes sense and I I understand the spirit of it but in a strategic plan you typically want to put things in at least in my experience that you have control over um and that you can make decisions about I'm not sure that we're in a position as a board or as a district to really make any decisions that are meaningful when it comes to Workforce housing so I just would worry about hold holding ourselves to Leading an effort it says support and Lead leading an effort for attainable Workforce housing
122um doesn't mean we can't have you or somebody from the district be on a committee that the county or the city puts together or it doesn't mean that there can't be we we can't have input about that but having it as a goal that we own or an objective that we own I would I would be maybe a little hesitant about and then I guess the only the third comment I'd make is just on the you how we how we get to the granularity or the how of all these things and you just mentioned a minute ago that you you you're likely to form committees you're likely to um put to put groups together to work on outcomes and and metrics um I'm not suggesting we need to put any of that in this document
123but I I do I do suggest Maybe think about is there a time frame in which or a method by which we we see you know for lack of a better term to meat on the bone yeah um like by by a certain date or you know in a certain format or having that brought back before the board to so so that we can see um you know tactics tied to each objective suggested tactics um and again I'm not even suggesting that we need to approve that but having some having a view of that or having some opportunity to put in provide input into that I think would be useful just kind of gets back to the doubles in the details sure you know but overall I think it's really good yeah thank you for
124that if I may address those maybe in in backwards uh format so that that last item that I think back to our current strategic plan and we had we had those monthly rep reports that ended up in the board packet with progress on the on the particular goals as they were termed back then those had varying value I think so we're going to talk about that as in our leadership team and put together a method by which we communicate that with you and so I do want to talk with our with our team uh to to address that because I agree with you we need we need specific dates we need specific items that that will vary depending on the on the goal and I don't want this to become a let's prepare some memo
125two days before the board packet goes out uh on the on on the particular goals so that's a that's a really good suggestion I'll make sure in the next couple of months we actually get you all some some recommendations and some information on on where we go from here on the housing uh attainable Workforce housing options um I do know that there is some discussion among some of the governments about concern over that and and there's been talk at at the Williamson Inc the chamber about that uh the city of Franklin has uh has has if I'm not mistaken done one uh small project um to to start towards that my perspective on that was that we that I intended based on this to get involved in those discussions I see what you're saying about
126lead um I think about this Old Coach line that that that I heard back when I was a teenager if it is to be it is up to me in other words if you just wait for somebody else to do it it may it may never happen and I in and applying that concept to this it's hard to know where this will lead it may lead to us concluding look the cost of housing for a blank home is blank and we need to put more money towards our youngest professionals to get them to give them an opportunity but it may be something that some municipality decides we're going to we're going to do some Workforce housing so I viewed this goal language as broad enough um that that we could make some progress even if
127it might not be us establishing attainable Workforce housing but I get what you're saying I don't want this to not be achievable right if you think about the the acronym smart goals um so we'll have another discussion and talk to Hope and Laur about that as well and get their advice on on that language uh and then the uh the first comment you made you made about um let's see uh the Strategic commitment three uh the school start times we'll talk about that too as well because it we might be able to create an objective that says we will analyze it and make recommendations if that's kind of in the same con you know using different terminology but same concept that Jen mentioned about students with disabilities if you all as a board believe it
128needs to be specifically mentioned we can we can create an objective related to that thank you Mr Cash thank you madam chair um I had some of the same concerns Josh did um but I do have a question for the uh the disability issue uh are we falling short in that area I mean with with the Ada and all the language around uh disability and you know special needs uh I mean are we falling short in that area or are they not getting what they need to get I don't know that I would describe it as falling short but it's something that's very important to us and we have some struggles Staffing is a struggle it's a middle Tennessee struggle it's a Tennessee struggle it's a na it's a nationwide struggle the demands continue to
129grow uh and having an objective that's specific to students with disabilities so it's on our mind that we set a goal to improve their opport opportunities I I think is valuable um every Maria GGO is here and she she leads that work and Maria I'm estimating we maybe have 5,000 students who who who between five and 6000 so between five and 6,000 students between students who have a IEP and a 504 more if you're counting 5 more if I'm counting 504 which which of course we have more at the high school level um so it's a it's a it's a portion of our student population that deserves for us to be thinking specifically about them okay the pre-employment transition service in middle and high school what is that um setting them up for a job
130or potentially potentially yes so um we we we sometimes talk about transition students transition one and transition two we have some students with disabilities who actually are still being served by us until the year that they turn 22 that's right and that's transition to and the state actually has a measure uh for those transition Services um Dr Allen or Dr web I I don't want to give a I don't want to give a a misstatement of that objective would you all mind speaking to that or maybe actually miss grigo may be the best person for that so I'll turn it over to her yeah thank you so that objective really is focusing on all students with disabilities so it's really looking at how are we preparing them for Life After High high school so for
131some students that's college for some students that's vocational training for some that's going to a day program uh for some that's going right into the workforce so we really start young in in middle and high school um as we're preparing students it could be anything from soft skills so how I interact with other people how I initiate tasks all the way to more complex things like preparing for the AC so it's just a wide gamut of services that we we provide to students thank you Maria thanks Jason Mr galberth thank you um yeah my my three things um of course I was the last but um we're asking the same question about the workforce housing I think the key there is is the action items um and what what could those what could those be
132to to say that we accomplished that um I'm not sure not sure I'm not I'm not sure what's going to be attainable that to to make this to make this true but um I mean it's just go in with that in mind um I'd be open I I wrote down if we didn't have a a specific objective um that it should it should the start time should at least be addressed under under an item an action item under these but i' I'd actually prefer the it was it was a big enough it was noted enough times I think I'd like to come out of this with something approved by the board to oh excuse me to um to say that and and so I'd support that um and and then I'd love to hear from
133um from the lipsum folks um or you talk to them about best practices on reporting out of out of something like this because I feel like we need some kind of dashboard versus the me the memos are fine read through but you you can't you can't collect the sum of all the of all the memos and and so I'm sure you've talked about that that you look like you're um so that would be that'd be my thing I I would love a I would love a dashboard and then I mean if we if we can collect the memos are great to to codify and to you know show the progress on an individual basis but not great on on overall reporting so thanks thank you Miss Clemens did you need to respond to okay Miss
134Clemens oh sorry um I emailed um superintendent golden this week because one of the things I and I loved this process let me go backwards for a second I I loved hearing I love going to the community meetings and hearing from families and that I love just the collective experience to it really felt like a community um and that was really fun um and one of the just for an action step going forward um or action item I would love just a almost a continuance of that just to have not those necessarily meetings and get togethers but um would it be possible to have a short parent survey at the end of the year and and to kind of better ourselves to hear from the the community um and it's like when I was in
135the 90s I was a Dem my student teaching at brenwood middle and I love that the principal there really encourage the teachers they said view your students and the student families as clients as clients to build a good client relationship with your families um and to perfect that and and better um because we can always be better and do better um and then along the same line just for the teachers to build morale among them to have a short survey or an opportunity for them to you know hear how we can better their experience so thank you Mr Wimberly thank you um I just wanted to comment on some of the things that have come up from perspective of someone who was on the committee and I will tell you that everything that's been mentioned
136here most of what's been mentioned here was discussed very thoroughly and and uh but however you know there's still still questions like we talked about whether or not to put start times specifically in there and I think I agree with with you Josh that and and Jay that it needs to be mentioned in the Strategic plan somewhere uh if for no other reason to acknowledge that and we talked about that but it just didn't make the cut but I'd like personally to see it mentioned there with with a lot of detail but if it's you know a a goal of of uh considering it and we talked about that and it was um I agree that would be nice uh to go in there now on the workforce housing we talked about that extensively and
137what's and I had some of the same reservations that you folks have had um but when it came down to it there were a number of real good points made not only in the committee and subcommittee discussions and I was on the subcommittee that that included that but also I've had some discussions with others in the community um who are leaders in the community about the fact that we had put this in there and the most consistent comment I got was there there is no place in this County where this particular item is more important than to us and our and our Workforce and so I like the fact uh that that that particularly made the cut but I was skeptical at first but then when I was uh some convincing arguments were made with
138you you've got to deal with this you need to have it in your strategic plan because and these are more of my words we're headed for a serious serious situation down the road uh when we can't hire people and it'd be nice if they came locally we're going to have to cut back we're going to have to cut back on services and we've seen a little bit of that and the way I've kind of said it to some is it's been a challenge but it's going to go from a challenge to in my opinion it's going to be a crisis and a lot of it has to do with things that we have no control over and I'm not sure we will have any control over affordable housing or maybe that's not even the right
139word to use I don't know but I do know that it's that we need to be in the mix and we need to encourage encourage the community at all levels to have this type of discussion and we need to provide leadership and that's kind of what the language is here so I would encourage us to um to leave that as it is there was also a good bit of discussion about accountability once the plan is approved and I think staff agreed and others on the committee agreed that that we need to do better and I don't know that we use the word dashboard but I sure like that and you know even the discipline of developing that will give you will put pressure on you to apply measurements and I think throughout our committee discussions
140measurements were mentioned uh quite often I see nodding heads back there very much so how do we do this well perhaps the Strategic plan is not the proper place to do this but I think we as a board need to hold our staff our superintendent accountable for coming up with measurements that we can review which he's already said he's going to do and was there anything else that you'd like my input and the that that wasn't a joke and and the special needs discussion that I mean that that was I mean I think you folks have nailed where we spent more time than and I always say we didn't spend time on anything but it's where there was the least amount of clarity about what we should do is that a faar s yeah I
141would say that's fair yeah it it was it it was a lot of talk and discussion and recognition of the need for it with the difficulty of finding a specific measurable objective and we I I think we found one I think so too I think it I'm pleased with with it but I would think that we ought to um mention start time somewhere in the Strategic plan okay Miss sapria I just wanted to go back to Dan's comment about um whether or not we're hitting the mark and whatnot um I just we do what we need to do federally legally for our students of course but um there's always an opportunity for growth and with such a large population of students with disabilities in our district because it is a draw like I'm I moved
142here because I have a kid with significant disabilities and this was the place to be these are the schools that serve them well and I think there's just this part of this plan the life after WCS was just the perfect spot to put that objective because that's kind of where I mean in elementary they get so many supports and services and then they get up to that oh we're looking at adulthood my kid's about to turn 21 22 and then they're going to be on their own and a lot of the objectives that we had in there were very academic oriented there were there was like one thing about C e and those types of things but this just really hit the mark on making sure that when we're mindfully considering all of the students
143that we serve we're preparing them all for a a good successful life a meaningful Life After High School and so this just really felt significant and important so that was why I want to add one little U element to Mr PRI comments it's emotional to me um I had one set of parents this year whose child had turned 22 asking if we could extend the services an EXT can you give us an extra year and it was because there's such a drop off from our services to Adult Services now the Department of Human Services is there and they do have some services so I don't want to disparage that but we we don't have the capacity to do that but we do have the capacity to grow those tools students and parents have for when
144that transition time time comes and I think this this goal this objective gives us a a point to aim Mr Hall thank you madam chair and I just want to coign on the idea to have start times addressed in here just knowing that that was the first example you cited I think it's worth at least uh countering an impression that might be out there that it's not being addressed in the Strategic plan so I think it's good to have a prompt in there at least especially when we're talking about five years we want to try to anticipate everything that could happen and be more of a pronounced concern over that period of time so I like I like the flexibility that's in the plan but I think that would be a good one to be
145slightly prescriptive um to Mrs clemens's point about the surveys I think it'd be great to have some stakeholder check-ins of some sort along the way um one benefit of that I think would be to promote the efforts that have being that are being done and for those people that maybe weren't part of the stakeholder discussions to to share the awareness of the fact that hey we are listening we've solicited input from the community you know I think over the last few years with many different factors that's been a concern is how responsive are we to parents and the community in general and this is a good way to tout those efforts and to find out if we're falling short in the minds of those stakeholders who have participated in this but also so as we
146have new families entering the district they may not be aware that any of this has been done they're just trying to get their kids right in the right classes of the right teachers and navigate the system in that respect without having an awareness of the Strategic components that have led to the success that may have brought them here so I think anything we can do I think we do we do it a lot you know we the memos and the work sessions updating the Strategic plan progress have been helpful those are the sort of things that kind of keep you honest and have the eye on the ball uh I think the dashboard's be a great idea but if there's an opportunity for additional Outreach throughout this to have not just a broadcast like we
147do within Focus but also an engagement with the community to just see do they agree with our our measurements and is that the perception on the ground have you experienced the benefits of these things where could we do more I think that continuous dialogue into what you've said you know we're not just creating me and a binder that's going to sit on a shelf somewhere we want to have this act of living and breathing and have have that kind of fuel to support this along the way thank you Mr Brown thank you one one other thought I had about um and maybe this was a question for the facilitators um is how do you make the determination about what goes in as a measurable goal versus something that's aspirational and so I I'll tell you
148where where I'm getting that question from is you look at the goals in each of the Strategic commitments and they're all what I would call measurable goals that you could you could put metrics around them except for the first goal in strategic commitment two which is work worthier than all the other ones um which kind of lends itself to the idea that it's aspirational it's like we're putting a a vision statement out there versus a goal teachers and staff salaries will be reflective of a livable Williamson County Income sufficient and appropriate to attract and retain High performing faculty and staff no one argues with that that's a that's a a good goal I'm not sure how you measure that and I'm not sure it's realistic if depending on most people's definition of a livable Williamson
149County income based on what our pay charts say in pay chart we're about to vote on I think Monday night so I just maybe asked that question somewhat to get the the theory behind aspirational versus practical but that goal in particular bothers me a little bit because I'm just not sure that it's measurable and I'm not sure it's something that we can hold our that we can really accomplish the way that it's worded maybe you word it differently and it's something more measurable I think do Dr Nordstrom was nodding she either she or Miss and CAD May respond to that you guys can go ahead I'm sorry I missed that last part we were getting instructions on our microphone Mr Brown will you repeat that last part of your comments yeah so goal number two
150well first goal in strategic commitment to deals with livable um salaries being reflective of a livable Williamson County Income and that just strikes me as being more of an aspirational goal than a practical measurable goal and all the other goals seem to be legitimately measurable so it was the the overarching question is maybe the theory behind how you put how you balance aspirational versus practical achievable goals into a plan and then maybe more specifically do we do we need to reward that goal to be more I guess narrowed down some so that it's really more specific to what something something that we can actually achieve yeah wonderful questions and we can talk a lot about the conversation we had about that goal um but generally speaking we we had some conversations with the steering committee
151just overall as was mentioned earlier there was a focus on wanting to make sure that things were measurable um and so that was really a focus we wanted to bring into the goals and so that's what I I'm glad that you see that reflected is to make sure that those goals were measurable um for really this to be a document that can be used to not only update you all um provide ongoing accountability but but provide the type of community and stakeholder updates that you were speaking about and um our belief was in this process that measurable was the way to go and that there are other ways to um incorporate some aspirational elements but the document itself should represent measurable goals that goal in particular under um commitment to is one that we had
152a lot of conversation about with not only the steering committee but also the leadership team and you know quite frankly it's one that we really struggled with to think about the right language and knew that there would have to be if the language is remain as it is currently written there would have to be a process of kind of going in and being able to figure out what data sources do we have available um to be able to measure that and and really to figure out what are the right comparison points because we didn't want to make it just compared to other districts because that might not be um truly representative of what the need is but we did talk about the difficulty in trying to find some of the right data um to capture
153the spirit of um really trying to make sure that the the the salaries can support um individuals and the Community I appreciate that I guess what Jason I would just say that maybe it's a suggestion that we think about rewarding that one so that it's more tied to something we can control like a goal of having regular meaningful salary increases for our teachers and staff that that keeps Pace because as long as we're tying it to the language of a of a liable Williamson County and income I'm just not sure that's specific enough or really achievable Mr Wimberly is gonna make some comments I think I'd make a suggestion that we strike um reflective of a livable Williamson County Income so it reads teacher and staff salaries will be sufficient and appropriate to attract and
154retain High performing faculty and staff the I mean that's what we're trying to do that's that's fairly measurable we just can ask Vicky and that what what what do you guys lipsum guys think of that I don't think it's I don't think it's contrary to to what the committee and the subcommittee suggested no I don't think it's contra and I but I do think even that we would have to probably work to figure out well what are the exact measures is it looking at specific um you know Recruitment and Retention numbers is it drawing upon survey data about why people might leave is it due to you know the wages or is it due to something else I still think even within that there's probably a level of detail that goes into a bit more
155detail to figure out well I for the whole document yes yes well and the this the second goal there is increas in teacher retention right so the the thought at the time was differentiating Recruitment and Retention from retention alone uh trying to get a a broader scope and also one of the reasons they're separate is we wanted to specifically include pay that's right as a standalone item and the increase in teacher retention could be a variety of things well and I in in in Mr wimble's suggestion of a change it does take a little bit of the subjectivity out of it right a livable Williamson County wage sufficient and appropriate to attract I and and I'm looking over at Vicky to get her thoughts on this as well we do have those annual measures of
156how many faculty and staff members we recruit how many how many we lose on an annual basis we have that data and this has that data has a potential to drive us we have been doing some exit interviews but the exit interviews could increase in in detail uh plus the gallop study could be used Gallop study could be used uh Vicki any any thoughts on this because I know you participated as we were nailing down the gold language I think I think part of it had to do with um as we work on our salary schedule and kind of compare it to our competitors keeping in mind that it does cost more to live here um in in housing our housing costs are higher gas was gas is higher um I think that that was
157part of the concern now our reality is if I'm not mistaken at the moment I haven't seen this year's numbers but somewhere around 60% % of our faculty lives in the county and 40% out last the last numbers I saw and we believe that shifting the younger ones generally speaking or are out of County um so there there's there's an element of that too but if our goal is to have staff doesn't matter where they are right as long as they want to be here and stay right I think the I think the issue with it is it's it makes it very hard to compete when you can make more in a close County salary-wise and it costs less to live in that county we're kind of it's a it's a bit of a double
158whamming Mr galberth thank you madam chair I I think the the the remedy and how we how we do this from a from a a wording standpoint um I don't know that we I mean I I agree with I agree with striking the the livable income but we're we're already like Jason you said we're already measuring retention in another um in the in the next two right for staff and um and teachers um so I don't know that but and I'd really like to see the the numbers Vicki um historically if we just whatever we have um as far as the percentage of our of our teachers and then staff that have um that live in County um because I know 60% sounds about right for for teachers I bet that number is is much
159lower for for staff yes um and that probably and that fits with just our overall greater Nashville area where you know where 50% of of all of our our County works outside the county and about 50% kind of comes in so we've got this really Dynamic you know multi multicounty metropolitan area where you know you get to choose where you live and you you know you're going to live in the in the cheapest place that you can or you're you're going to you're going to live where you where can where you can afford you're making value judgments as a family so um but that's the that's that's what I'd really like to see uh so I think we want but I think one of the action items um could could very well be as you're
160as you're talking about attaining Workforce options as I as I read that I like that that objective number three don't really mind it as much it's not it's not geared towards it's not geared towards necessarily having to provide those options in um in the county it's looking I mean it's taking more of a global view of it could um and as well um I mean if we if we did um continue to Lobby the legislature to to bring back the the cost um cost of living factor to the um to the formula like that would impact us greatly because we're really being disadvantaged by by not having that um and it's putting more and more pressure on on the local taxes to to make up for what the state's not not providing so used to
161be here and it and it got eliminated but it I was I thought it was being brought back with with Tissa but maybe maybe maybe it only got brought back from the growth perspective but not from the cost of living it is not in the Tisa formula to your point Mr Brown yeah just just a final comment about this and I I think you know Rick said something about the the goal in this one was to deal with pay um more or less and a couple other folks have talked about the fact that that pay is is a factor that we've got to deal with and that that kind of goes back to what I was saying before about making this goal be something that's really specifically tied to pay um and just call it
162out just to specifically go there rather than kind of dancing around it just just go to the go to the issue of doing something meaningful about salaries and compensation and again I understand the concept of why the language is there I just think it's still even with striking what Rick suggested it still leaves it very subjective more subjective than I think you know hearing from from them from Laura about um the idea of these being measurable goals I I still would be in favor of that being something worded in such a way that it's measurable relative to pay I'm not I don't have anything in mind specifically about the wording but throwing that out there as a concept well conceptually you did talk about meaningful salary increases that helps keep pace so I I understand
163the concept that yeah I think I think that we're I mean realistically we're Bound by what the County Commission will approve we're Bound by tax rates we're Bound by Revenue I mean we have limitations on what we can do in that regard which is why is part of why we have to be realistic about it yeah but within a certain framework we we do have the ability to be intentional about that okay Mr Hall thank you madam chair um as we talk about this I I think it's I'm very concerned about the message that it would send if we struck the words a livable withon County income that is not a high bar we're talking about a living wage um and that's a measurable objective there are analyses that Define that I don't think that
164that is entirely subjective I think you can look and see what that boils down to and whether it's aspirational or not we should be the ones that are driving that I mean we can't count on anybody other than Williamson County Schools to say hey this is what Williamson County Schools teachers need to make and staff as well and I think it's been something that has come up a lot in our internal Retreat and in the strategic planning sessions I would be I would be concerned with watering down the impact of this statement even if we think that it may be difficult to achieve we won't get there if we don't make it a uh a stretch goal Mr Welch I I think maybe the only thing worse than if we don't get there because we
165don't do anything is is if we do get there because we don't do anything and by that I mean our driver of high home prices is is a very strong economy a very desirable community and that's being driven by the quality of our schools um if we can't continue to attract a Workforce because of you know this Hall's double whammy our our cost of living and our income that's going to impact our ability to to provide those high quality schools losing that going to impact the ability to to have our thriving economy and then it becomes a self-correcting solution but it's not a solution that we want if we don't take the leadership um so I think it's been some great debate but listening back and forth I I I I don't think it's it's
166as I think you said a high hurdle to have a statement in there that says if you work as a Williamson County school teacher in this community you should be able to support yourself in in this community um and you're right we don't have direct access ESS of that but this is an opportunity for us to take some leadership to of all these silly little details that we get sidetracked on here's kind of the big rock and and what we really should be focused on taking attention putting our attention on and and so I worry if if we start pulling those things out because we say you know it's it's I say because it's difficult but um but because it's it's somewhat aspirational um I think it's a good thing to have it in there
167then we have those action steps that we add later on that sort of add the definition defined actions to take the measurable uh but this is really sort of a a statement of vision and belief that that we think that you know this is where we want to go and have that direction okay thank you everybody for your input and thank you for weighing in Mr Golden any other comments on strategic plans we'll have some discussions uh with our facilitators and and uh come come to you with a recommendation I really appreciate this discussion it just reemphasizes to me the the depth of thought that you all U have and projecting out where we need to be um I'm encouraged about it we we may make a couple of adjustments um and I will say
168we now have a history for our faculty and staff to recognize what you all value here tonight because of what you talked about uh and it's very apparent to me that you do value them uh and in where we go from here so we'll work on it all right great oh Mr wimbley sorry okay Jason that sounds good but when are we going to see the language again we're the ones who this is our strategic plan well I let me let me let me be as practical as I can I don't know that all y'all are going to agree on a on on particular language as as we hit um so so let me be let me be very specific uh we're going to talk about that first goal in Team quality and see if
169we can come up with some simple simple straightforward language that addresses the pay issue number one well if I can respond to that I didn't hear any great disagreement amongst us uh on that first goal uh we have made some points about the language and the livability and the measurability but I didn't hear I mean conceptually you like the goal the the the word the word smithing is is a concern but am I correct in that does anybody have now I'm sure that might not be a lot of help to you but maybe it'll speed you up and making a recommendation so we can look at it so thank you before mon Monday okay m m Mr Cash has a comment thank you madam chair you know we're talking about salaries and everything I I
170think the board and Jason and this staff has done a fantastic job over the last couple years uh few years with raises for our teachers I think I think uh honestly they know where our hearts are and what we're striving for but this that whole paragraph up there or the the bullet point is about the economy if this economy goes and it's going it's slowing down right now house prices have dropped land prices have dropped uh if the tax base for our school system drops then that makes it very unachievable to quote a living wage for a Williamson County person now whatever that is so I I think what Rick's suggesting on that is is perfectly fine we can't we can't possibly promise people a living livable wage in Williamson County because we don't know
171which way it's going to go to begin with I think where we're headed is for some simpler language in that first in that first goal um second simp simpler simpler language s i m p l e r uh uh second um we'll we're I think we're going to add an objective related to analizing the value of school start times uh third the attainable work attainable Workforce housing as I sit here at this moment I don't I I don't think I don't want to give that up uh and and but I'll have a conversation with our facilitators about it um the continuance of stakeholder meetings uh dashboard to measure progress I think those are all action steps so as I cycle through the comments that you all shared tonight over laying with the questions that you
172asked you know a month ago and and on into even just this afternoon I'm thinking that we're going to add an objective and adjust uh a some goal language that's probably where I'm headed okay super all right let's move to our second to last item which is the approval of the differentiated pay plan Mr golden thank you madam chair this is a compliance issue uh with the state uh and the differentiated play P pay plan you see that attached we actually just have to report out any diff any pay differentiated items we have um signing bonuses hard to fill positions Etc so we'll ask for your approval on that that just U the law requires you all to actually officially approve this report okay no comments on that one so we can move to our
173final item which is the Schoolboard meeting dates thank you madam chair uh our standard in our board policy for meetings is that you all have your voting meeting on the third Monday of each month with the work session the prior Thursday and the policy committee usually uh um prior to that um a Monday and a half past that if that makes sense however there's some holidays that mess that up uh so this uh uh schedule reflects that standard plus the adjustments I do know that uh Miss Durham our chair actually made a specific um comment related to February if I'm not mistaken uh based on the way the holiday season is set up and you can see that in on that month and perhaps one other there is a schedule where the policy committee and
174the work session could would be will be in the same week because of the way the holidays fall so check your calendars I yeah I I did recommend to Jason or request that we avoid having meetings on as much as possible on school closures or holidays like Monday for instance is juneth a lot of organizations are closed and um I think the County Commission just voted to recognize juneth and maybe Monday will be closed for County offices right so that shifted a couple days around thank you thank you for mentioning that um Monday Monday night the County Commission voted to immediately um apply on juneth June 19th as a holiday uh because of our state obligations we don't have the capacity to do that this year but we may we do anticipate we'll be discussing
175it in the coming year for uh um in in policy committee okay Mr gab so does it does it make sense on those two on um March and um February where there's where we're going to meet on on the Thursday and then not and then take a week off and then we meet back on the Monday or Tuesday following does it would it make more sense especially given the fact that the we've got policy and work session right together does it make more sense to to delay the board meeting till the next week and um and give and have that Thursday Monday and then that would give us that two weeks because like for the ones that we're just going to talk about policy there's not going to be any time to change anything between
176Works between policy and the work session and then it's like you're having to produce it like a week and two weeks before in isolation it does our difficulty is the County Commission schedule is well so to to to get we the the the um the voting meeting day is directly related to the County Commission review of our items that go before them so we have more flexibility in the meetings before the voting meeting day than we do moving the voting meeting day well maybe maybe then move move the policy meeting I don't know maybe maybe think about moving the policy meeting back a week yeah so that that that's that that is something that is a possibility we even talked about the possibility in those couple of examples of having the policy committee meeting and
177the work session on the same day yeah that's fair um but and one of the things that we have talked about with those few times is have second readings not put something on for first reading if we aren't going to have policy that would be you know that that we know is going to be a lengthy discussion um so we have toyed with that um it concerns me a little bit that quick to your point um with policy Monday and then that's a quick turnaround if we've got changes to be more intentional about what alls well I I mean I think you're intentional I think we're we're we just got some the calendar is not our friend on on the on a couple of these yeah oh but be more intentional about what's on the
178policy agenda so that it's um editorial or things that aren't well Mr gabber to your point um February and March are those times when there's a larger gap between the work session actually the Thanksgiving Thanksgiving week it's not quite it's not quite that long but there's there's a little bit um and that that's because of the Thanksgiving holiday it doesn't push P the policy at least in November at least the policy committee there there's still a week and a half break in between the two so it might just mean that I I like the I like the thought of putting making the policy Committee just let's just start it I mean if we could start at 5 or 5:30 and just do policy committee it's going to take up a portion of the agenda anyway
179so just and I again I I think for those two months that is definitely something we can do and and I will be purposeful with the agenda um so we're not putting something that we need a lengthy discussion on that evening well to that point M Madam chair we we may make an adjustment to those February and March dates for the um for the policy committee okay so Madam chair just to point out also in January the policy meeting is scheduled for Monday because of a system and then the I I don't so I don't know what you my recommendation board members would not be to move that we're going to have a lengthy time between November and January I'm not where I'm more concerned is when we are January February March and I'm comfortable
180leaving January exactly like it is okay so Mr Brown yeah go ahead yeah maybe I'm a little confused I mean on March I get it because the the week of March 11th the spring break but in February what's the reason why we're not doing the work session on February 15th before the the week before the school board meeting if I'm not mistaken Madam chair uh you pointed out that um that uh February Monday February 19th was actually a student holiday it was a staff work day but a student holiday Friday the 16 but I'm referring to the work session on which would be ordinarily would be February 15th and I'm looking at our calendar and don't see any conflict there right yeah I I ask them not to bookend holidays like that for people who
181want to make a long weekend or you know just to be courteous for staff US anybody who's trying to take advantage of those that's a four- day weekend um just being thoughtful of those little Windows of downtime okay is the Wednesday the is that a possibility is an excuse not to go to [Laughter] dinner take a take a look at the dates that and see what you guys think and if and think about what what we were just talking about what Dana mentioned was pushing the policy meeting to the same as work session since they're so close together anyway and making those agendas for those two months that would be February and March less discussion based um policy so they would just be more editorial in nature or blanket changes that we need to make
182Mr [Music] Welch so give give it some thought um take a look at the dates make sure there's no big things that we're missing in in the schedule CU once we lay it out it's locked in and we got to put it on our calendars for a year and just just to make sure we're we're clear um one of the things Miss dur mentioned was ordinarily in February the work session would be on Thursday the 15th because Friday is a site-based professional development day and so I think if I'm not mistaken what you shared was families might be leaving for a 4-day weekend and you had a concern with us having a work session that night even though our staff is working on Friday that's right so it's more it it was largely about the
183families in the community in our in our meeting and many of us have family members and may want to you know so it's just consideration of that we'll do whatever you guys want we'll do whatever you decide though it's a voting matter so we will do whatever you vote on yeah Rick makes the vote all right okay meeting adjourned than thanks guys