WCS Board Work Session 2022-09-15

001school board work session for September 15th to order uh we will um in keeping with past practices as we have items for discussion I'll look around the room and try to identify whoever wants to speak next and try to keep a running tally so just feel free to try to catch my eye and uh we'll let everybody speak at least once and then go around the room for the second time if need be uh but uh we will get started with uh um appreciate uh jod Cooper being here tonight uh and uh keeping us all safe and we'll begin with the uh consent agenda superintendent goldon thank thank you uh Mr Vice chair uh as you all can see we have a number of items on the on the agenda for consent I want to

002hit a couple of points um in part because I've had some questions here and there over the course of the week uh number one the collaborative conferencing uh team that's an annual agenda item we are actually going to be entering the second year of the three-year agreement per state law we do have a responsibility to talk about working conditions pay and benefits uh and so basically the team is the same group that that we had in the previous year uh the calendar committee membership we have that on there as well there's a later item on the agenda for calendar parameters that's part one of our annual agenda items and there's a there's a memo in that related to it we'll touch that um when we when we get to that uh the budget preparation calendar

003there is no substantial change for your scheduled dates compared to last year you may recall that last year the County Commission altered their schedule because the state Auditors uh asked them to actually make a vote on the annual budget before July 1 the fiscal year so we made some adjustments last year but this reflects last year's there is one change in there related to I think some information that human resources gets to finance department a little week ahead based on some issues we've had but for but for what you see generally in the public meetings this schedule's basically the same the uh fiscal year 23 Sr 2.0 and Sr 3.0 update we are not proposing any adjustments to the S plan that you approved and the state approved just as a reminder uh we receiv

004received 5.2 million in that range from the federal government through the state for sr3 there's been a lot of talk or at least some talk especially about Metro their numbers were in the 400 plus million you all remember that discussion from a couple of years ago uh the core of the spending was for interventionist mental health and Tech coaches remember to address largely address the impacts of covid um our we we we projected spending the money over the course of two years there's a three-year window uh we expected it will actually stretch into that third year because of the hiring dates for those interventionists we do not propose any adjustments there is a requirement that you have public additional public input uh if you uh propose a change um from a procedural perspective this has

005been submitted to the state they've actually preliminarily approved it pending your approval so any language related to that is there um final item I want to mention publicly there have been questions come up um related to this over the course of the past year I know at the County Commission meeting maybe six months or so I got this question there was no indication from the state at all that this funding was tied to any requirements uh related to our safety plans uh mask Etc from two three years ago there was no there was no relation between those two um but I want to make sure you guys were aware of that uh and and that really is a a longer than normal update on the consent agenda but that's my update on the consent agenda

006anyone have any questions Mr PR I wanted to ask about um the SR funding piece if if that's something we could discuss polling And discussing that the funds are being used if if we shouldn't have another public feedback comment session and see if we're using them the best way possible by Rolling them forward if it's the will of the board to make an adjustment um we'll we'll take it off and and have have an additional discussion I will tell you our thinking at the time a year ago we had a long-term plan to put interventionist in and RTI is an example of that response intervention uh we had been having some of our coaches do some of that intervention work we were able to jump a little bit ahead because of this Federal funding and

007we our plan is and was to analyze the impact of those interventionists when this Federal funding runs out and determine whether we should put it in the budget uh later and then the mental health uh supports uh that's where we are right now if it's the will of the board for us to consider changing something we we can make that request um so is now the appropriate time for me to kind of speak to that why I think it would be if if you'd like us to take it off the agenda um I mean or take it or take it off the consent agenda and put it on for an item for the voting meeting we can okay um and uh Mr chair if that's the case uh I'll leave it to you whether you

008want to discuss it now or just we'll we'll move it down to the bottom I'd say now okay it be fine okay so um basically when I was looking at the numbers that we had put in there uh it occurred to me that we were spending a lot on the interventionist which um the reason so much of it is rolling over is because we a lot of those positions weren't able to be f filled because of the stuffing shortages and it also occurred to me that based on the data that we have now it looks like the interventionists who work with um you know tier three different different General Ed population students that need that extra support have been doing their job well like the the W the teachers in the classroom and the interventionists

009that we currently have have brought our test scores back up to a to a level that are pretty impressive so we kind of have mitigated that learning loss from Co for the General Ed population but we're still having um a struggle with the student uh the student Support Services team so I was thinking that maybe there was a possibility we could shift some of that spending because there is a category there for um you like we're doing with the mental health funding Contracting out to hire people that aren't necessarily WCS teachers but are contracted employees that can do these supports and provide these things in our schools um I know we're short staffed speech therapists different therapists that work with the students with disabilities who have IEP needs and you know we're obligated if it's

010in their IEP federally to provide those services but we don't have the staff to necessarily do it so maybe we could shift some of that funding that's kind of just continuing to be rolled over because we're not spending it right away um to use towards some of those Contracting out some of those support service positions that need filling that was one thought and the other thing was in another section there was an area about teacher retention after covid so we all know we're having that that issue as well Statewide Nationwide um so I didn't know if there was a possibility of using some of that funding for a bonus for teachers just a random separate bonus to thank the ones that stayed with us through covid and encourage you know make us look like a

011very giving and generous and supportive District to our teachers so that was just another thought since it is a pretty big chunk of money that is kind of rolling over I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to do that six-month um public feed the stakeholder feedback session get information from families that are kind of seeing some areas where we could use this funding to really impact student um outcomes and maybe shift the way we're we're using it so that was it thank you um there may be some other comments yeah there are I have Eric and I have J also I wanted to note that Rick Wimberly is in attendance but via phone so he will perhaps be contributing as well um Mr wel thank you so Jason I just want to

012confirm my memory on the the uh Esser funds too as part of it it it could not be used to uh for operationally is operational issues and and could not be used to replace or or rather it could not be used to replace something where we already already have operationally in there there are a number of restrictions on it one one restriction is there was a minimum 20% to be used for um learning loss issues we actually projected that 88% of ours was for learning loss um we cannot supplant and I think that was the term you were you know the replace yeah we cannot supplant other services generally with any federal funding uh in other words if it's something we're currently doing um we're confident would not have been approved for us to to

013to add that that's what I'm um so there there there are some districts who did some Capital work and got approval for that to the operations um related to some of their schools um proportionately our numbers were so low um we really focused on the direct student services which I think is in which is in in keeping with our basic theme and everything we do U so we didn't um we didn't recommend that uh or spending directly on on on staff um because we tried to honor the the basic theme of addressing learning loss and in the spirit of it as well yes sir thank you Mr Brown Can you take us back to the original funding amount and remind us what that was and how much has been spent so far and I know

014how much we're rolling over based on this document sure and I made defer to uh or refer to to Rachel to give me some of the details of those numbers in just a minute so there's actually three essers uh Sesser one two and three obviously Sesser one was during the president Trump Administration uh and that was just within a couple of months of covid hitting back when Governor Lee had all schools closed we used that those funds for the Food Service staff to keep them paid because we anticipated we'd be back and we wanted to have that staff that's closed out that's done I've actually double checked with Rachel on that question uh and that is done then there's Sesser 2 and three uh in s Rachel I'm trying to remember how much Sr 2

015was for sure but Sr 3 was 5.2 million um 23 Sr 2 was 2.3 so so between those two the this the the rules regarding those got a lot more detailed um under the new Administration and the money was higher and there was a proportionate dist distribution of the federal funds through the state um based on uh economically disadvantaged students and so our numbers were we we do have economically disadvantaged students but our numbers were substantially lower that's why you saw that huge difference part of the requirements included having public meetings to discuss and invite members of the public to share their preferences and their thoughts for spending um we had some participation from the public uh compared compared to some of those districts that had you know instead of seven figures eight or nine

016figures uh we had a lot less flexibility um but again the focus was you had some minimum requirements for direct learning loss there's a long application process or for lack of a better term uh to show them what our plan was we were given the numbers that we would receive before we submitted our plan uh so that's the basic process uh that we went through now as to how much it remains uh Rachel if you could share that 4.2 right yeah so let me give a oh it's p on page three of the memo thank you uh and so from a hiring perspective the majority of our funding was for interventionist for that reason I described uh if we hired everybody right on day one and filled every position our projection was we would have

017spent that in two years that didn't happen some of the hiring came a little bit later there is a requirement that we give six-month updates to the state on where we are in this particular document is one of those six-month updates and if I'm not mistaken it's the second update thank you so so my concern is if we're spending this money as if it's permanent and and it goes away then we're having to find replace those dollars with our own dollars later right if we maintain the spending that we're doing so what we determined was let's get these interventionist learning loss was the focus when this is scheduled to dissolve evaluate whether whether the use of those individuals has been effective and determine whether we wanted to request it to be in the next budget

018and whether we could afford them after the window of time Royal dial so so even though the funds are temporary onetime funds for a specific purpose if we if we fund things that we think um to Jen's Point are really worthwhile and valuable that we we know probably going in we're not going to want to stop doing and we're setting ourselves up for a permanent expenditure in the budget of that amount is that a fair statement maybe but it could be another result for example uh we saw an increase in tier three and tier students come in with growth during the covid years students coming from other districts our screeners for for for those tiers it's response to intervention tiers through state approved screeners it indicates and evaluates a student's capacity to be ready to

019receive grade level instruction so some of our numbers increased in those students who are not ready to receive grade level instruction so we we are intervening with those staff members might those numbers drop substantially over these next couple of years it's possible and I know Dr Allen may want to add something to that I've caught his eye because his Department really has been focused on this yeah thank you Mr Golden and and Mr Golden was very clear when we uh began this this process with these Esser funds that we would evaluate the positions and the productivity of the positions and the data impact that we were having from the very beginning so our team has been prepared to to supply him with data make a decision at that time time whether they're worthwhile moving forward

020now I will say just why I have the opportunity here there is a trickle down effect and I just want to make sure that everybody's aware of that the interventionist work all day every day with small groups of students um who are in the the lowest tier who don't to to Jen's uh point they don't receive special education services so they're there are struggling readers they're just above the threshold to receive the special education services so it's critically important that we provide them uh the small group service um if we were to if it was the will of the board to pull those positions and and move it toward special education um we would then have to take our coaches we have an Ela coach in each of our building and our Ela coach would

021have to pick up some uh groups would have depending on the number that was needed they would have to pick up groups the small groups and then they would now not be able to or have the time in the day to do the coaching of our teachers which is a critical need right now with our with the with our new teachers that are entering and and even our veteran teachers so right now we have a model where our coaches can coach teachers on how to be effective instructors and then our interventionist work solely with the students and they're really two different skill sets if you think of it our our our coaches are um equipped and trained to work with adults and make them better teachers so that they're working on the whole tier one

022and then our interventionists are working with small groups of children so to that point they we do feel like they're critically important um those I will say from a funding perspective and we're proud of this because we we we pride ourselves on being good stewards of the money we can point to the exact number of students that a teacher that an interventionist excuse me can see in a day and we allocate that interventionist to the to the maximum number of students that they can see in a day so we let the Data Drive how many interventionists we need in a building so we don't have too few and we don't have too many it's right to the number um so that's one point the other point that I would just make is in special education

023what we see is that from a funding perspective we have the money that we need right now to provide the services that we need in special education and I may defer some time Mr Golden to miss grigo if she could add something to that we have the funding in that area we don't have the people we can't right now in term we have a hiring shortage um um uh in in qualified certified special education teachers and especially teaching assistant so we have the allocated M money if I'm looking at Mrs Gregor for approval on that we have the money it's just we can't find Qualified people to do it so if I may u Mr PRI I'm speaking for you just a little bit your idea was not to replace the interventionist but take the

024the funds that have not been spent to this point and redirect yeah I have two things so yeah exactly I don't want to get rid of who we've already currently hired through this funding but I know I being that it's Federal funding and it's one-time funding I I think we should try to spend it quickly and get rid of it and I know Jason you had talked we had talked earlier and you had said that was kind of the intent in this is to just have a plan get it approved and and spend the money which is great um and obviously what we've done so far to your point is with the interventionist we have hired has been has been working it's been it's been really good um and it doesn't necessarily and I'm I'm

025glad to hear that we have the funding for the the support staff um I know it's hard to hire um that's why I was thinking more outside the box of cont Contracting out even if it's just for the year if we can look outside of hiring someone full-time to do that but to just do hourly or what have you to just give those kids that are missing out on that right now A little extra support there um but the other thing is if you look on page three of the memo where the Educators portion is it says strategic teacher retention and so that's that's a quick and easy way if we've already paid for and hired or could just leave in the budget the rest of their pay for the next couple years for the

026interventionist and academics there's $3.1 million there like can we use some of that to give a bonus to the teachers even if it's small but that gets the money out there and it used up it's Federal funding that's just a one-time thing and it shows the appreciation to the teachers who've been with us and stuck through this difficult time and um I don't know I just I wanted to pull it off the consent agenda to just talk about it and see if there is instead of just rolling it rolling it rolling it and never having that public feedback type thing um we are able to if we so choose have a six-month uh period of stakeholder feedback and just find out if there is a better way to spend the money to make sure it

027gets spent if if if I may mention two things related to that number one uh many of you recall that I've been having conversations with the mayor about um a proposed race in January uh and the county commission's talked about that uh and and I expect that I'll be coming to you if the funds are available in the general budget uh for uh pay raise in January um we're also looking at any potential incentives that we might be able to afford um prior to that and so so in that context we are looking um second to Mr aia's last point we do six-month updates under the rules governing this uh if it's the will of the board my suggestion is approve this for September let us talk and see where we are with Staffing and

028consider something prior to March because it will take public meetings and we will have to go through that process uh before we do that we we have a responsibility to report to them every six months so my request of you would be to pass this now and give us time within this same school year to evaluate where we are and whether there's some value in US doing something different yeah that's fa um Mr Wimberly and then Mr Cash thank you and greetings from afar um um actually Jason just addressed what I was going to ask it seems like a rather significant pivot so if the board wants to do this I was just wondering what the process would be so my question is answered thank you thank you Mr Cash thank you Mr Mr Allan

029you mentioned you mentioned um the lower tier students that are just on the bubble and possibly putting them in special needs is that what you're that's not what you're saying okay all right no sir so there's a um there's a there's a a it's called response to intervention so three times a year we give a screener the the the data provided by the screener is really a a way for us to make sure that no students slip between the cracks and so if the screener shows that the student could use some skill specific intervention those interventionists Target those specific skill shortages of the children and they're working directly with with those kids on those specific skill shortages yeah I I just wanted to say I I agree with uh Mr Pria um spending some money

030for those for those kids uh can that be used as uh through learning loss so those those students being those students who don't have those skills yet right they're just they're on the bubble with reading which we've got to we've got to really look at reading because of the state law not the answer is yes and that is how we're spending the money right now um and our original plan was based on the Staffing to consume those funds within two years because we didn't fully staff 100% every single position when we started our projection is we'll still have some funding going into year three right and so as I understand Mr pria's suggestion she's talking about that difference that Delta from what we budgeted and what we've actually spent rather than extend it out for

031interventionist uh into year three use that funding for perhaps some other issues whether it's teachers or special education in other words have public meetings to discuss whether we should spend that money what that would do would put that responsibility on us at some point likely at the end of year too to determine whether whether the intervention is should be requested to be in the budget which was our original plan anyway right but one of her points was to so the money goes away and and we don't create more and more positions right uh go to subcontracting mhm yeah uh Contracting Services and uh start working these children and and get them I mean RTI does a great job and everything but there's only it's only limited to what the the teachers can do in a

032in a day you know in the hours they work and there's a shortage of teachers and it's not going away because kids aren't going into the teaching profession anymore so you know I I think that's uh that's a great idea to uh spend that money in the right way and it does go away hopefully when the kids come up to you know standard RTI will always be there because it's a state requirement there will always be students but the question for us is the volume right how many students are we going to have in the long term um we as I said my suggestion would be let's approve this for September spend some time looking at that um I'm I'm I'm a little nervous about what we might see with contractors because this is about

033people and what we hear is the people just aren't available so might there be some some higher expense at some point where um a private contractor actually has the p people generally speaking in our experience recently with contractors is they're struggling for staff just like we are but is there some some point some pay point where you could find somebody that's a possibility and that's worth looking at Mr Brown yeah I'll just come back to my earlier point and notwithstanding any of the things that Dave said and Jan and others about the the value that we're getting out of this not withstanding any of that because I don't think there's really much dispute but it's helped right that's right but I think we're setting ourselves up and I just want us to be aware of

034that we're setting ourselves up for um this becoming a permanent expenditure the more that we find Value in it the less likely we are to not do it yeah that's right and so this becomes not just a temporary spend down of one time dollars this becomes a permanent budget budget item long term and we just need to know that we're what we're setting ourselves up for well that's right and and whether this is common sense or not this has been my experience over the years often you'll get a grant regardless of the source and their hope is that you try something that you know you you you can't fund so that you will ultimately see the value and find a way to fund it right that's that's kind of the kind of the thinking it

035it is something to always be aware of and be on guard and in this case we're not we'd be adding dollars to the budget for Staffing not based on growth of our student population but but just enhancing an an existing service right that's right yeah all right no more comments so uh the plan will be to pull this from consent and intendance recommendation yes sir all right more commentary on the consent agenda than we normally got that was good I think we've arrived at some consent now we will shift to the superintendent report okay thank you Mr chair uh you see on the superintendent's report uh two items uh information regarding annual selection of board chair and math textbook adoption update I also have a short PowerPoint that I'm going to share with you just

036about the good things that have happened in the past month since you all have met uh and uh and what I would like to do first though is touch on that information regarding annual selection of board chair uh Bobby cook uh the the board counsel is prepared to discuss this but I want to make sure you all are aware of our tradition in our practice and what we plan to do related to selection of the board chair come Monday uh the the uh the state law says and I'm speaking for the state law and I want you to fill in if I miss something that school board select a board chair annually our board policy says that it's on the annual agenda for September and then after that there's a selection of a vice chair

037and then actually a legislative Le AIS on as well that's in board policy so our tradition is select the board chair the board chair takes over uh the meeting it's on the regular agenda for a vice chair select ction and then legislative uh rep representative this is our traditional practice I will call the meeting to order the superintendent calls a meeting to order ask if there are any nominations uh for chair nominations start at some point I will say are there any other nominations if there's no other nominations I will say nominations are closed I will let you know that we will call out each name nominated in the order of nomination and ask for a vote with a reminder that if you do not want that person as your board chair that you prefer

038someone else you vote no because the first nominee to get seven votes becomes the board chair and we stop uh just as a reminder every vote that the board takes takes seven uh because there's because it's a majority of the cting board members per the Tennessee law governing schools that's the basic process uh Mr cook and I have had the discussion about what if there is not uh seven votes for any of the nominees uh and that's always a possibility so Mr cook if I may turn it over to you at that point sure Robert's rules um specifically says that you are to vote until you actually appoint somebody so you elect them to that position um obviously if you've gone it five six times and it doesn't look like they're going to come to

039a consensus that we need to do something else so we're not all sitting there waiting one of the procedures Roberts permits us to do is what's called suspending the rules and what will happen is should we get to this point which I hope we don't um we'll have a motion to suspend the rules and to appoint a temp uh chairman who will just be the chairman for that meeting so that if you wanted to more discussion or or or take the action at a subsequent board meeting you can um but the first thing we would have to do is make sure that we suspend the rules which takes two3 vote and then uh a motion to elect somebody as a protemp you don't you don't elect a vice chair in this situation um it's just

040the protemp and then you move on with the business votes yes sirs that you cannot I looked at that today no and if you don't get the two3 to suspend the rules whatever well that's when we get a little tricky and and there is something in Roberts that permits us to do in without a vote um so if we ever got to the point which again I hope we don't but it would just be I would probably just turn it over to him make a ruling from the chair saying we've got our vice chair that's been sitting through these meetings so we'll have him be the protemp if there's any objections and if there's not then we will move on with him as your protemp choice and then put it back on the agenda the

041next month correct that or you can just call it a meeting and go home is that allowed under Robert no no statuto we can't move forward without chair correct well it just requires you to elect the chair to operate the meeting if you don't have the chair that's operating the meeting that's over seeing the meeting then you can't really progress with any of the business are we required to do that as the first thing well you do want to do it the first thing so there's someone that's a that's always seeing the meeting from the beginning sure no I I remember that's from a procedural and a logical sense it it's the first thing but I know in some cases like when we're uh voting on the uh renewal of the superintendent's contract state law

042requires that we we vote on that as the first agenda item MH is there that requirement for this no there's no requirement it's just practice when you do it is the very first thing you do so what happen names are put in nomination as Jason described none of them get a majority can can those names be then brought back up again absolutely absolutely what will happen is they CL out at that point no what will happen is if you nobody gets seven Jason will say there's no no election and then he'll reopen it up for nomination and you'll do it again should someone not get seven again no election reopen it up and you'll keep doing that until someone's elected or we get to a point where we're just going to go one of the

043other routes and either the same names that were previously nominated or new ones you can what's the eligibility got some members here just a member just a member okay now there is a provision in Roberts where if it's really an issue that is contentious that there's just not going to be a way for you all to come to an agreement is to elect a third party that's not a board member and oversees it the meeting but again let's not go there we have policy requirements though for for a board chair the the policy states that the board chair will be elected in September um and so that to to Mr Cook's comment if if it gets to the point where it's apparent I'm speaking for you so I'm just so I'm going to make this

044a question even though it might not sound like it if it gets to the point where there's a determination I think you told me five times or so probably yeah uh then there would need to be a motion to suspend the policy to name a pro 10 correct correct Mr Wimberly and then Mia um thank you once we get this process discussion done and it sounds like we're getting pretty close to having that done I think it would be a good idea if we talked about what a board chair really does uh by Statute by our preference etc etc so may this isn't the exact time to do that but I hope that tonight we can we can uh delve into that a bit Miss Bri that was going to be my question can you

045just talk about what the role of the board chair entails I I can speak to it from my perspective then Mr cook can fill in uh the board chair and the superintendent constitutes what the law governing School Board called the executive committee uh and so we have a responsibility to submit proposed uh agendas to the board and a responsibility to submit a proposed budget to the board the board is the final decision maker on both those item that's that's why you actually vote to approve the budget I mean vote to well budget and vote to approve the agenda annually um practically speaking uh it it has varied even in my in my fourth year it is varied a little bit depending on the board chair uh practically speaking though we talk more often than I

046talk probably with each individual one uh sometimes I'll send something to the board chairs an FYI and the board chair will choose to share it with with all the board members depending on on that um you all have lived it well I know a couple of you all are new but have seen some of the board meetings and so you have a basic idea of what the board chair does I'll tell you my experien in that Mr cook can speak to the actual Robert's Rules and the and the true you know rubber hits the road kinds of questions it's rare in my experience that the board chair requests to speak and express his opinions I think that's a that's a fairly Universal yeah that's a big not a fairly Universal standard um uh we we've

047had a number of traditions and I'm Mr uh uh Mr Anderson is here as well and he's he's he's employed by spent some years years ago on the as a board chair and I do want to invite him if something pops into his head to share uh I do want to invite him to do that but that's the basics uh board chair board chair is officially a member of the executive committee we um I got to share one other thing if there's an emergency we do have the power to to to do something quickly uh just as an executive committee if we don't have time to put something together so I I'll give you one example that I've seen uh recently the flooding in Waverly uh my understanding is that executive committee took a couple

048of actions very quickly because they needed to get help immediately so I'm not I can't remember I don't think there's been a time in my tenure where the executive committee has taken any action outside the board um but there may have been one in the past in the time I've been here but it would be something like that if there's a if there's an immediate need to do quick spending for something Mr cook sure and I'll just address from the procedural side your your Chairman's your conductor he does not express the opinions one way or the other if he wants to talk on a resolution on opinion uh one way or the other he removes himself from the seat and your Vice chair takes position um so you're there is some limitations if you're one

049that wants to talk on every issue it's probably not a seat you want to sit in um God what else um he will be the voice generally he's your voice out in the public there the ones that give the comments um there was something else and it just escapes me it'll come to me well thank you for adding that that last one that was something I hadn't remembered yeah attendance to yeah someone who can yeah and I'm not sure miss Cleveland's voice made it to the microphone but just you you you it's fine it may it may have worked just to be sure you said attendance just yeah be able to attend all the meetings and Mr chair if Mr Anderson had any Recollections kept looking over to him and just like as when he

050was board chair he is holding back on pretty much the RO of the chair meeting there was sorry there there was a case years ago where the executive committee had to make a very quick decision and spend money and that's when there was a breach of data in our system and uh we immediately took the advice of the attorneys and and at the time the superintendent and I approved spending the money to protect the data that had gone out um by accident so that does happen it's extremely rare but that's the time the executive committee had to step up very quickly and make a decision Mr Wimberly again I think I'd like to just kind of address the comment that Bob made about us being the voice of the board it it just seems to

051me that the board chair yes may be the voice of the board but the real voice of may you know speak for the board at ceremonies and openings and things like that but the real voice of the board is its vote and the board as a whole doesn't have a whole lot to say we may as individual board members in some circumstances but we don't have a whole lot to say other than what we have voted to in effect say so the the in the way I look at it really the the school system is kind of the voice of the board in reflecting what we have voted on because no one can say our board or shouldn't say our board feels this or that or the other unless we've actually voted on it or

052agreed in consensus maybe so I'd be interested in hearing other thoughts about that and it's just something that kind of um you know strikes me as something important to address and I may be off PA well let me let me address that um it's not that he's going to be your voice of your your committee where he's going to make every comment okay when I say something like when I say that I mean that he is going to be your leader um I'm trying to think of a couple instances that U he he he's not going to he's not going to be your your voice to a point where whatever he says is going to be you know what you all have done um he's your representative on the outside um if something comes up

053he's got he's got Authority for calling special called meetings um there are certain things that he's going to have control over that you all don't is what I meant when I say he's your voice I don't mean that he's going to be able to make comments for you without your permission thank you I know if I if I can say this I fall into this every once in a while by saying I know our board feels very strongly about such and such I don't say that in public but an individual conversation and then usually I catch myself I said at least that's my impression is that the board members feel strongly about that like I often say you know our board and I think I'm On Solid Ground here but I have no I have

054no really authority to to say that our board is U devoted to getting our teachers um uh better compensated is devoted to uh our special needs this and that and the other um and you know perhaps I shouldn't say those things but um I don't think a chair should say those publicly because we you know we haven't had a vote that says the boards is committed to to uh well actually I guess we have uh that we're committed to one thing or the other so that's sure and let me let me say it this way Robert's Rules provides that your chairman is like I said kind of like your voice out the questions during a meeting or addressed to your chairman sponsors are through your chairman um your chairman is the leader he's your conductor

055he does not have a he obviously has legal opinions but he's not going to have he doesn't say one way or the other he doesn't do any deliberation unless he removes himself from that seat so he is he is your voice in a matter of speaking because all of the questions everything runs through him during a meeting if that makes sense thank you any other questions one thing I will point out too is that you can refer back to the tsba materials the orientation covers some of the board chair responsibilities um they're a great resource too for any questions about um our own roles and responsibilities as board members too so feel free to use them as a resource at any time mram a question about the process another question about process um is it

056possible to change the process where it's not the process you described where it's vote on the first person then vote on the second person could we not do um like a ballot type of vote and check the person you know that we want to vote for as opposed to do this sequential thing there are some other options so Mr cook Sher Shar and one of the options what we use in for the for the County Commission is um your name is called alphabetically and you say who you want to vote for that way um secret ballots are not permitted I if you're going to use ballot your name's got to be on it so um you can't have secret votes for I mean with like whoever the nominated people are can you do that right

057absolutely and that's what we recommend is that you and I understand this is how you guys done it and that's why Jason I talked but I said if this is how you've done it go ahead and do it this way we prefer the route I just said call the names alphabetically tell them who you want to vote for in other words just to make I'm sure I'm clear call for nominations any more nominations nomination cease and then go from you said alphabetically you're talking about by by by District or or last name you can do either one so Mr PRI Mr PRI oh you said either one you can do either one does either district one or Mr PRI I guess you're the a right uh and then and then you each call out who

058of the nominees you select correct okay I'm open to that if it's the if if we get a consensus obviously we're not going to vote tonight on on that but um I don't I don't feel strongly about it I just want to make sure you all are comfortable and know the process before you get there on Monday and if you want we can actually you can actually vote on the process you want to use beforehand so the public understands what you're doing it's just a thought can you can you can you clarify what you just said so are you saying you would say Okay Sheila vote for Elliot or Sheila and then she would vote for one at that time she'd say I vote for who have right right but you have your open nominations

059your nominations are made Clos nominations there's no more Nom closed nominations and basically who do you vote for you've got two guys that are up there for who do you vote for got it got it so you're not saying okay this is your person vote Yes or no you just name name the person just be a roll call I like that better yeah I don't like the yes or no thing I like the but the person that yeah even if we do it that way they still need to get seven seven votes sure yeah I just it just feels like you're excluding someone cuz it's like kind of first come first serve thought not having to vote against somebody yeah I like that too like a but you could also under that scenario you can

060either vote for somebody I mean I guess technically you could abstain as well right that' be your sure abstain doesn't help any but Mr wiberly life is a w sorry to keep piping in I don't know that I have a strong opinion one way or the other based on um the suggestion that I think it was Angela who made I'm not sure who was speaking yes but I will point out that having gone through this many times that would be a significant departure from the way we've done it in the past and to me I I don't again I don't have an opinion one way or the other about uh how we do it but it would it would be different than what we've done uh uh in the last I don't know 10 or

06115 years and and you know maybe Eric or Gary could could check me on that try remember if we've done I can't I can't remember any anything different in the time I've been here but Gary's Gary's got me doubled up and I've been here through 17 of these no pretty much we had one night where we actually had 11 votes for oh I'm sorry I'm sorry Rick uh Gary is Gary is answering that question we we've gone through the way you've described the first time and we've done it in one time we had 11 votes uh we went around 11 times to get a chairman so Gary the question is have have how long have we done it that way I originally described far back as I can remember we followed the same process so

062so Mr wimbley you're right it it would be a departure from that Gary I don't know if you could hear him but he said that's as far back as he can remember remember the way I originally described it but again I don't like like Mr rley I don't feel strongly about it I just want to make sure that you all know the process and and know what you're what's coming I think when Gary was first elected they had to make decision because the candle was about to burn out all the way and nice well we're not not voting on this but looking for consensus of opinion does anyone have any objections to one method or the other I I'll say I was at the uh County Commission meeting and they did it this way where

063there were two people nominated and then everybody and it kind of made it I don't know a little easier to digest but um they would just say Smith or Jones they would just say Smith or Jones or you know whatever yeah they would pick a person and vote for that person they're not voting against anybody you know if I can chime in here I I have to say that well I originally said I don't have you know a strong opinion but I I really like this suggestion I've never particularly liked the way we've done it in the last 15 years you didn't come across that way brought it we elicited that out of it so Mr cook I think the consensus is we will we will uh switch that and I'll make sure I announce

064that uh if that's if that's your advice based what we've heard here it is and and when you make that statement um ask for no objections um because it is a procedure that you all it's not written down but it's still a procedure you've all accepted in the past so you just need to make sure that there's no objection deviating from your process that you used all this time thank you um Mr C so Mr cook just uh just to clarify so if there were if there were three people nominated by based on because you've done this several times over the course and and and seen a lot of iterations and we don't need to explain them all I'm just thinking of the most likely one is that you have three people um they all

065there's there's one that gets fewer votes than the rest is the is the tip C typical and customary to to remove the the lower one and go forth or how do you under Roberts no okay um the County Commission does have a rule that we've drafted for them where after the second one that the one with the lowest vote drop and you you do it um we do not have that with the Roberts is pretty clear that it's you vote until you vote um and remember again though um if if nobody gets seven it's no election and you start the process again that's F so you just so you're going to start over anyway right so you don't have to nomin correct all right anything else related to that does uh next uh we are

066going to talk about the the this month's update on our math textbook selection process you may remember that last month I committed to sharing every month until the process is done unupdate so uh Jenny Lopez is going to give you this month's update on the uh math textbook adoption process Miss Lopez here at 8 o00 [Music] good evening thank you for having me back to just give you a short update on where we are with the math um instructional materials adoption um as I promised you um okay hang on I'm going to forward because what I did was I added slides to okay there we go I added slides till the last slide so that way we just we can keep a running um one presentation and just running as we go through every month's

067update so for September just as I promised there's a timeline that that I that I gave you and I want to update you every month on any changes and then just where we are in that particular time um on the adoption so I also mention that our dates are really all the entire process and timeline comes from tdoe so these dates that I put on here I said sometimes we get changes and I just have to be aware of any updates that tdoe provides with changes so just as I said if you look up there there was a change on number one um we were supposed to have our materials it was it was published that we would have them October um now there's a firm date of November 3rd not not a big change

068because it was end of October so now it's November 3rd but there's one highlighted change we know we'll have the list November 3rd number three has has a change also I I had I had stated that we would request um the review materials in October now that we're getting the list in November I know it will not be till mid November that we can request those books another change is um number nine we were U notified by tdoe that we would have until June 30th to provide them the list of textbooks that we are adopting so that that is a requirement for from tdoe that we provide a list of whatever this board um b u votes on for for the adopted resources and so just so you see these are this is an example

069of communication that we get from tdoe on the left-and side you have the communication from July 28th um from tdoe and there's the two highlight changes that I've gone back and changed on our timeline so on the left hand side is July 28th on the right hand side is just a month later August 18th and as you see um the changes the highlighted in in yellow was October 22nd for um the adoption um the list of approved resources and on the right hand side you see there's a change on the leftand side if you look at the green highlight um we were told April 15th would be the deadline line to um to submit our our adoption um um resources to to tdoe and now on the right hand side you see that's been changed

070to June 30th so I look for these updates every single time they're released and anytime anything changes I'll change them on here and I'll Point those out to you so where we are right now the current work for September we're working on um identifying those teachers who we want to be on the committee right or who want whose principles nominate them to be on the committee so we're asking principles for one math teacher per school to represent the school the three bullets underneath that are the is the criteria for for that the teacher um has to has to be checked off for the teacher to be on that committee so the three uh points are the teacher has to be licensed to teach in Tennessee um the teacher must be endorsed in the subject matter

071so the teacher has to e either have a math license or has to be endorsed to teach in that grade level meaning for example Elementary and then the third bullet is a teacher must have three or more years of experience in public schools so teaching in a public school so once those names are submitted I take that list I um I submit that list to HR they then um make sure that all the that that they meet the criteria and once they meet the criteria then I put those names on a list and that's those are the names that you will get um next month in October to approve as our adoption committee members um to represent teachers now the next bullet big bullet is the selection of parents for the textbook adoption committee so

072what we are proposing for this adoption is that we will have each principal nominate a parent um we're asking for principles to really think deeply about a parent who's willing willing to do the work which takes a long time it starts in November and it ends in February so it it's a lot of work it's a lot of time we we're going to ask them to review the materials and then to to hang on with us until the very end where they can cast their their selection their recommendation to you so we're asking principles to to really think about a parent who's willing to to be committed that way and then those n nominations will be reviewed each principal nominates a parent the the nomin ations are reviewed by um the WCS cabinet tlaa and

073the WCS board chair um from that um from those nominations we will select six Elementary School parents three Middle School parents and three High School parents so that'll be a total of 12 parents on the committee and of course the Elementary uh parents will vote on the elementary selection the Middle School parents will vote just on the Middle School selection and the high school parents vote just on the high school selection that is true for teachers also they only vote on on the the grade band that they're representing for their school so part of our current work also is identifying the schools um where we will um display the adoption materials for review now the reason for that is Teachers the the the books that are stored at schools for review are just for teachers

074and and parents on the committee public review is done right here in this room so in a few months we'll have the books lined up against the wall and we'll push you know the tables over but that'll be stored here for public review we don't do public review at the schools but here um that's the next thing we will do we'll actually U do a selection of dates and times for public reviews um we will have mornings afternoons evenings we'll do it so that there's plenty of opportunity for um the community to come out and review the materials but as far as where this the books are stored and for our teachers to review and our committee members to review um they'll be five elementary schools five middle and five high schools we receive six

075sets uh of anything we request to review from Tennessee book company so we send five out to schools and then we keep one here at the PD Center for Public review so upcoming work um the math adoption committee nominees will will be brought to you those names will be brought to you uh at the board meeting next month and you will get to to vote on that for final approval and then in November um we'll have the list the final list of approved materials and at that point um our math Specialists our two math Specialists will meet with the tlaa leadership to narrow down the list of options that we have so I want to talk about that tdoe will provide us with a list of any approved materials but we don't review everything that's

076approved and I'm going to tell you two instances where we don't one is when it's digital only so if they approve a resource that's that's only available digitally to our students and our teachers we we don't approve we take those off the list so that we're only looking at materials where students and teachers receive the actual book and the other instance that we don't review material is when um it when the entire series is not comprehensively approved an example of that is sometimes you know the Publishers submit the entire series let's say k to five the um the the textbook commission does not have to looks at each grade level individually they do not approve the entire series as one um as one comprehensive series they actually do it by grade level so they may

077approve Kinder first second third but not approve fifth well in that case that's not something we want for our elementary schools we want a program that's comprehensive K5 so we're looking for materials that are approved in comprehensively for that grade band So for Middle School we want a series that's approved for sixth seventh and eth and doesn't leave us with any gaps so one last bit of information this is something unique that we're doing it's um we were approved we're awarded a math implementation GR an and we've had the opportunity to partner from a list of Partners we were given we interviewed several Partners um for the grant and we selected School kit School kit is going to work with us really um on implementation heavier than anything else they start already working with us

078they interview our math Specialists administrators regarding um math instruction right now and they ask us questions about the materials they ask us questions about math instruction how it's going where we could improve the things that we're doing well and the places where we want where we have areas of growth so we have those conversations so they get kind of a view of where we are and where we want to be with our adoption with our new resources what we're looking for then they help us kind of uh strategically plan uh to create a vision for our math instruction for the district after that this is a work that's really heavy for us it's really the implement impementation phase implementation of new materials is a really heavy lift uh because our teachers have been using the

079same math resources for eight years so eight years is a long time to be in one resource we normally do six years it's been eight years so making a shift to new materials will be um something we have to put a lot of emphasis and a lot of work into so School kit helps us with um working with our leadership so they'll work with our principles um our coaches so that they then turn around that that sort of those expectations and the why right like why is it important to use viable curriculum that has that has been approved that is rigorous um and so they they kind of create the vision for their own school after understanding that deeply what that how important that implementation is at the building level so this is a great

080opportunity for us that since we have that Grant to work with with folks that are going to do that lift with us and they're actually going to be presenting to our principles um about implementation and the best way to go um about that in their buildings and that is that is all I have for you unless you have any questions I had one you did a great job I answer so many questions where did with the Grant come from was that um Tennessee Department of Education tency Department of Education correct for school kid yes Mr go I'm not sure who this is I'll direct it at Jason you can kind of figure out who to who would take it so when we go back to the um to the makeup of the committee um I

081remember when we were talking about the the prior um El because we've looked at that a lot um and they talked about I just remember there was percentages of of the of the teachers that selected something percentage of the parents um and so many of the like there was only a handful of the parents that actually finished the finished the process right yes um and so when you look at the when you look at the the total vote if you will um is it done in aggregate is it weighted by the the 75% to the teachers and 25% of the parents or is it everybody kind of a vote every and and I will ask Miss Lopez to address that but I want to mention one thing we're actually recommending having more parents on the

082committee than we have in the past in part for for that reason but miss Lopez if you could speak to that sure so we um so it it is aggregate so we do take all the votes and they count equally um and when we're doing the the actual selection um to bring forward to you um as far as the number of parents you know we this is I I think this is why we're we're really trying to to request that that really we have parents that are committed to the whole process because it is a long process and it's a lot of work so I feel like in this um in the model that we are that that we're that we're going to try for for the math that we're going to actually do for

083the math adoption I think it'll give us we're going to be really clear about what those what what the work is right so it's not just come and you know and and and be part of this committee but we're going to explain the work and there's going to be a couple of meetings where parents are going to dive a little deeper uh than than we ever have into the materials and explaining what the whole process is so oh sorry you didn't finish well a couple things related to that um number one you as the board will have the power to ask those questions about parents versus other members of the committee also this committee will be hearing from as many teachers who want to share and as many parents who want to share out you

084know from from the other from the other discussions uh so our teachers all have the opportunity to share their opinion within their grade band they're not voting per se they're just sharing their opinion and and those the input from parents and teachers has the potential to to influence the recommendation of the committee I guess I was just was in favor of definitely in favor of more parents I don't know how many how many parents were on the Committees in the past I know there was 12 propos I may have gotten that wrong yeah so when we did the the ELA adoption we had a parent from every building oh okay but only but less than the 12 that I mentioned actually went through all the way which is why I think being more selective and

085then being really uh more intentional about the work of those parents I think will actually yield better results so we're hoping for 100% of parents being really involved which so I think that selection process will make it really clear what we're looking for and the commitment that we're looking for again it is in my mind when we heard that when we had the parent votes it was less than correct it was less than that amount right it was less less than the 12 we are wanting on this committee we're just hoping to get 12 that stay with us from November all the way to the end of the adoption when was when was that committee yeah Ela that would have been would wisdom for the for the K5 there were there were different selections but

086the K5 was a wh and wisdom there might be more solid commun participation now that's I think you're right I think so I hope you're right well I just wanted to make this suggestion and I don't know we'd have to vote on this aboard is be adopting policy but um but I'd love to I mean if there were if there were 12 that were that were precisely as you as you laid it out um I mean is there is there a reason I'm that's why I was asking about the waiting because I I don't want to overweight the parents Voice versus the versus the teachers um but I would love to be able to have all the board members um appoint a parent um to add I mean it it would it would let it

087would keep us more engaged in the in the process I think and understand what was going on throughout the process but um but also just provide a some more um some more eyes and ears um and perspectives I believe so um it might might not be as it might not I mean math is you would think math is math but um but it it's just I don't know it's just my perspective yeah thank you for that I will say I encourage all you all to participate a lot more than the old tradition um ask questions come to those public meetings uh you know dig through that that's I think that's got to be number one uh for you uh in a lot of ways this can be one of the most important things you do

088right but we can't I mean we're we're not really participating in the in the committee work like that that's right but you do have the you do have the same review power as as any parent and you're the ones who actually ultimately have to vote on it um so I get I get your point that you want to make sure that you can get as much information as you can can out of the committee but I think you also need need to be able to ask good questions and I believe that's going to come from you spending a little bit of time yourselves coming to those public meetings and and checking it out for yourselves you have to know enough to know what to ask of of that committee if that makes sense well particularly

089if we're if we're cutting the number of parents from yeah one from 40 plus to to 12 I been having or get better parent participation we've ever had but I mean if if we appointed somebody to the to the board and they didn't show up then that reflects poorly on on our decision so I mean it might be to to your question the board does vote on the committee that is your decision and and Miss slope has had that on the on the agenda so that is ultimately your decision you can you do appoint the committee so we'll talk about we'll talk about how uh and it you know I want you all to be comfortable when the recommendation comes up to vote uh so it may be worth some additional discussions even with with

090you all as individuals because we have these regular meetings the committee recommendations will be coming to you next month in October um and so Jenny I've got a timeline question now related to that um we're we're here midt right and by this time in October we're gonna have to have a recommendation a slate for lack of a better term that the board considers at the next work session do you have a ballpark date on when you think that's going to be ready because we're always you know prepping for the next meeting sure um I'm hoping for the very first week of October end of SE last week of September first week of October we should have the names checked out now we we do have to meet and discuss the parent nominations and then go

091from there to select parents um for for the three bands for elementary middle high but I'm hoping by the first week of October we should have that Dr Allan if I can there is just one piece that's time sensitive we we really need to get the message out um to begin getting uh recommendations for the parents so that we can have that slate available for the next meeting so any discussion or recommendations that would come from the board we would need that fairly soon yeah and regardless we're asking every principal to nominate someone um we we i i a concern I have is what if there isn't one from a particular school right we're asking them to they've got to go and ask people what if they have a hard time getting a yes from

092a school uh that's I I don't know the answer to that but that's happen that's going to happen regardless we're going to ask every principal to find someone who's willing to do it and again we want to inform them about what they're doing we don't want to run them off but we want them to know what they're committing to right it's that it's it's it's that balance so that's going to happen regardless Mr Walch um for the number of textbooks that we have I I I seem to recall and maybe I'm making this up I want to confirm that state law limits the number of of books we can actually have and distribute so there can't be we can't just correct for review correct six six of each okay so for any we request to

093review we get six copies of each okay and that was to keep the I guess the larger Publishers from having an unfair Advantage smaller Publishers for cor correct correct and I I guess just kind of quick follow we're talking about the parents thing what is the requirement for the state law for the number of parents we have to have on there if I'm not mistaken it's one that's one okay so the state only says one but we right state says we are exceeding that by 12 fold okay thank you correct Mr Mitchell thank you Mr chair um can we go back to I guess the first couple of slides with the initial timelines I guess sure um here you go so the list of approved textbooks is November 3rd that's when they're going to is

094that a waterfall type list I mean that so we don't have any or or are they going to I'm assuming they're looking at vendors now and they may have already approved a couple but they're not how do they announce them are they as they approve them or is it kind as I said kind of a they actually do two yeah they so they have two votes one has already happened so anything that's already been approved is going to stay on that list so we already have a preliminary a list of you you know of at least some that are already correct we have a preliminary list what happens now is the Publishers are are um contacted by tdoe and they're basically given that this is a list that was approved this is not the publisher

095can resubmit anything that was not approved on the first vote so if I'm a publisher and they did not approve my third grade which actually happens all the time they'll approve everything but one grade and that's hard for a publisher so they'll go back and resubmit so actually that's happening either this week or next week the Publishers are and actually I think it's both weeks they're coming in and they're presenting their resubmission so then the that the the textbook commission has very little time because November 3rd is right around actually they vote on it at the end of no at the end of October they do the final vote and then they release the list on November 3rd so they have very little time to turn around that review so they'll review anything that's resubmitted

096and then we get a final list so we already do have a preliminary list we're waiting for the final list on November 3rd and that there are not any additional tweaks or approvals after November 3rd no no there I I've never seen where something is approved after the final list is released Anything could happen but I've never seen it happen so I don't believe that um so is it our expectation that the same vendor will be used for K through 12 or do we sometimes split it up like K to 5 6 to8 could yeah we we split it so we let K we let we let K5 um cast their their selection middle school and high school so it's actually it's actually split with math we actually end up with more because you have

097the fouryear maths which are several of them so those end up with a different publish it's possible the committee might recommend a Geometry book from one vendor and an Algebra 2 book from another vendor that's is that a possibility actually algebra geometry and Algebra 2 which are called a we do that as right because we want a comprehensive curriculum uh you know that that that really takes students and especially like even for for for student use and teacher training it's it's really beneficial to have one p one Resource One series for a which is algebra geometry and Algebra 2 and is there any type of method to seek an an exemption of the of the books that the state has approved so in the past there's there's been the ability for us to submit um

098an an exemption as as as you name it but um we would only so the only way you do that is if the state and and the state changes how they do that all the time so they would have to release the instructions for us and they would have to tell us what would be acceptable and what would not be acceptable so I'm not sure where the Comm stands right now on that um because as you know in in the last adoption there were several um there were several districts that submitted those and and I think the commission has gone back and forth on whether that's going to be something they do for math or not so as of right now they're not talking about that at all we have we don't have any information

099on that and we we've actually commonly done that the Oar science social studies I mean there's you know a couple of grades Ela that has historically been pretty common but the state rules are changing so so that would be an example of I guess somewhat of an approval that occurs after November 3rd then if if there was an exemption requested and then offered correct correct correct or exemption asked for and given correct because that would because that would be requested by the district so that's something we would have to initiate not something that that that um tdoe would initiate tdoe just simply says this is this is our process for an exemption and they present it to District so they know what their options are okay thank you yes you're welcome Mr Cash uh I'm

100she's answered most of my questions thanks Miss Clemens um this was great information can we get this I was like trying to take notes and all like we actually post any any PowerPoint that we present at a work session we actually Post in the packet so you'll be able to click on it in your tspa board pack thank you any other questions thank you very well thank you so much I'll see you next month all right and Mr chair uh I I I I can't resist uh Tim if you may if you will and Brian pull up next uh next uh PowerPoint slide uh I want to give you a little bit of an update of where we are over the past month a lot has happened in the past month we've had a really

101good start in so many ways and you get those emails uh from time to time about announcements about you know when the state releases information so just relatively quickly compared to the presentation so far I want to give you a little bit of a snapshot of where we where we are State announced this week uh that U we are one of 16 exemplary districts in the in the state there 147 school districts I drilled down a little bit uh into this we are 4 and 1 half times the size of the next largest school district that was named exemplary the next largest school district has somewhere around 9,000 students the larger you get the more difficult it gets the more you you have to drill down you think about the culture with with with folks

102knowing each other and working together I'm extremely proud of that uh in the in the Metro Davidson County area you know all the counties surrounding um Nashville we're the only exemplary School District that 9,000 was one is one of the city schools in uh in the in the Memphis area super proud of that it's pretty incredible I will say I anticipated this when we when we learned that in ela we were number one in in grades 3 through eight Math Science Social Studies we anticipated that was likely but the formulas can be a little odd and I think you guys know that from from some communication I had with you there's some little you know pieces they could shift that so we're super proud of that being the only one especially uh here locally and

103by far the large school districts in Tennessee uh it's truly truly exemplary 29 reward schools this is the most we've ever had uh we continue to grow in that uh and that is largely based on achievement and growth but we do have a handful of our schools that are not in that 29 that had had very good scores in achievement and growth there's other items that are counted attendance uh graduation rate ready graduate there's some other factors in there we had so many schools right on the edge of that uh and that's another example of why we were exemplary schools very close to that line I intend to bring the principles from those 29 schools into the board meeting I've got them have a certificate we're going to take a photo opportunity congratulate them and

104their faculty on the great work last year you all it's extraordinary uh what our what our schools uh did last year yes sir before you move on what's the next most School District had uh I I double check that um uh Shelby County Schools and Metro Nashville schools actually have at or close to our number uh but their Metro somewhere around twice our size in Shelby County Schools is maybe 2 and a half to three times our size actually I was impressed with them grown a little bit uh from from what they've done in the past uh but um there are a c some of those school districts that are much larger than us do have uh about the same number or more schools comparable to us by size the the raw numbers aren't close

105thank you you don't know how many schools in the state there are either do you um total number of schools in the state I ought don't know that off the top of my head 147 school districts I'll I'll just care if you know it yeah um but that's a that's a good question too that I've known that in the past um there are somewhere around four a little over 400 high schools in the state well there's 420 427 who got this designation but to your point I I don't remember the percentage that's where I was going with the yeah um we'll find that out because that's a good curiosity question as well you all may remember that last year I said we got we had 72 National Merit semifinalist after a record 52 and I

106told you I believed it was because we stayed in school and our students really pushed compared to co and I anticipated we'd go back down we went from 72 to 79 set another record uh and uh and and Dr Allen I may I may ask you a question or maybe Dr Webb um this is because we have thoughtfully approached the PSAT with our students uh we have a great staff who works hard on this I got to give you one example that I that I that I learned um well I'm it's I'm going to make it two the University of Oklahoma and the University of Alabama give full scholarships for National Merit semifinalist or I think it's semi it's not final finalist finalists the vast majority of these semi-finalists become finalists for an out of

107State student that's going to be somewhere around $250 to $300,000 if we have a student who chooses to go to one of those schools those are just two quick examples this opens doors for these students and I'm just so impressed with our being able to increase that number after I internally predicted we're going to go back down somewhere around 50,000 students across the nation get a designation uh from from uh related to National Merit and I I I always mess up this term because I think of it as honorable mention but it's commended there's a commended level there's semifinalist and there's finalist uh in the finalist date the finalist uh names come out in a few months uh Dr Dr Allen or Dr web I'm going to let you guys um do uh rock paper

108scissors to decide who wants to speak to very quickly to to our thoughtful approach to make sure we grow our students I hit the green button first I know Dr web will jump in behind me and clean it up but um there's a lot that is a huge number y'all I mean I think we know that but that is so so impressive um there's a lot that goes into it first families parents uh sending some really good raw talent to our schools right and the commitment that the families put into um the work with with their their children at home we we have to recognize that our teachers are fantastic you all know that this does not happen happen without some really dedicated teachers um but I will tell you there is real strategy behind

109this the vertical articulation of the curriculum the intentional planning the additional support just to get those kids over the hump and I got to get I have to give a shout out to uh Steven wac we have a we have a a a staff member fully committed to doing everything that he can to support the schools the building Administration and the teachers on that vertical artic articulation of the curriculum um and and working with them on an individual School plan for both the Act and the PSAT um because this really means uh Financial Resources for these kids so we're really excited about that number and we're going to beat that number next year all right I love the commitment Dr Webb anything to add all right thank you thank you Tim I think you all

110know this already just as a reminder uh Tas which is the growth measure we uh districtwide we had all fives highest possible score TCAP grades three through eight we mentioned that already uh and and then our high school eoc's first overall among districts with high schools and you I think you all know there's a lot of k8s and k6s Scattered uh throughout the state and of course Franklin Special uh um uh feeds us as well and they do a great job um it's Sports season I I had to have a great picture of of football uh many of you attended the band uh exhibition I know Mr Cash was there Sheila uh Donna I want to make sure I get everybody Rick uh KC uh thank you guys for coming to that that was a

111great event um we had seats on the track and um we got pushed backwards a couple of times by the uh by the force of the of the wind instruments it was it was a great that's a great annual event thanks to mark kinzer for that uh our elementary schools had their next had their next uh I guess the second annual uh miniature golf tournament and Gary I'm trying to remember what school won Clover Coss cloft Elementary W so that was a lot of fun I got a couple board members there celebrating a nice putt that was just a neat event those elementary students get free rounds of golf for getting A's uh so that's a that's a fun event for us and I think we all lost about a couple of pounds before we

112went and got some water later cuz it was a what happened to Jennifer is that's J that's that's Jen so where's your where's your putter oh I was I was cheering for kid you were cading so it was it was a great time lots of good things going on around the district uh throughout this Grandparents Day fun times uh fun times at our at our elementary schools as well uh and and y'all it was a really good start we are doing school and I me I have mentioned at times maintaining Excellence is tenous it takes constant effort and I'm so proud of our faculty and staff and what we're doing I think I mentioned this previously but sometimes I forget where I say these things the the mobility of our professionals is growing teachers are

113now able to choose where they want to be more so than they ever have uh we hired more teachers this year than we ever have before teachers are choosing we've been fortunate enough blessed enough to be able to to say this year our teachers chose us it's going to take constant attention it's going to take constant Innovation for us to continue to grow that and I want to thank our WCA uh for their work as well uh and then couple of nights ago we had the college and Industry Fair uh the colleges uh it was just overwhelming I was able to pop in here and there and speak to college recruiters uh um I got to share one anecdote from Ohio State's representative she said she was amazed at the highquality question she received from

114both students and their parents she said it wasn't just about tuition it was about about money it was about supports it was about academic plans that's the kind of thought that we ultimately grow from kindergarten on up uh it was a great event um also uh we had an industry day we had someone somewhere around 5050 different businesses uh who were either planting seeds for prospective employees or doing direct recruiting for work that day HVAC systems police fire military recruiters uh we we had a picture there they're looking for counselors for the summer looking for tutors from our students just a really neat uh job fair that was mixed in and it's that was a first year I was so impressed with that first year I got to tell one story related to that there

115was a car dealer there and he had a Corvette and as you might guess it attracted some student attention they weren't trying to sell the car they had a budgeting description about the cost of that car compared to a used car and they showed the math that if you buy a used car and save the difference where you're going to be in the future so just a lot of neat things happened at that fair Becky Mitchell let it she sent a thank you note to about 50 people uh uh who who participated in making that happen but I want to specifically thank Becky Mitchell for her leadership she's been doing this for years and every year it grows we had students from private schools there was a bus from a private school who came uh

116and because we say come on any any anyone who wants to come it's a it's a public service so it just a great event great things are going on here at WCS uh um final shot that that's another shot from the band uh just a just a pretty wonderful event uh so with that Mr chair I want to give you one other quick update reminder late October we're going to be having zoning meetings so we get the fun stuff and the hard stuff as well uh and so we've tentatively put those on your calendar late October we're going to be having some discussions working on getting some Community input I've had some meetings with principles in those areas uh and Mr Welch I got to do a shout out to you because as you mentioned

117last month uh the basic theme is I don't want to leave my my school that's what we're hearing from our principles those who know that there's a potential for rezoning are saying boy I I I love where I'm at and that's been a truism in Williamson County and I think it's a it's a it's it's because of the effort of our of our folks so Mr chair that's my report thank you Mr Golden um so you're saying that zoning meetings are not fun zoning meetings are informative uh but uh the transition's hard and we respect that indeed uh next on the agenda is the operations report thank you Mr chair I've asked Mr Gary Anderson to share a quick operations report okay an operations report you received uh yesterday the capital projects that are going

118on in the district and one thing that was not on there was the Franklin High School football turf the center logo in the end zones will be completed by tomorrow at noon so that that turf field will be done uh Safety and Security report uh we are doing all the required safety drills right now for the state and the fire inspections are also happening now there are additional safety checks being conducted by the fire marshall that comes in and checks the schools and it's a a focus on keeping the doors closed and safety for for our students and staff Transportation report our staff remains uh Staffing remains an issue for us we have 200 total bus routes we have 211 drivers so we're up three from the beginning of the year uh we have 53

119first and second loads that is one of the things that why we need more drivers so we don't have to have as many second loads we have four employees in training right now to become drivers and we have uh been successful in getting some more people in the program but we we do need more Planning and Zoning as superintendent just mentioned they're working on looking at the zoning plan for two new elementary schools and the possibility of resoning some over capacity schools and and the zoning department is working on adjusting bus routes uh when we have new students who move into the district or try to change some of the double or second routes we're trying to work through that health services are fully staffed with nurses that's the one really nice point in the

120district that that department is fully staffed maintenance are learning Cottages some people call them Portables we we prefer learning Cottages uh we have eight at paage high school are currently is our highest priority three at Thompson Station Middle School and two at College Grove that are currently in the process of being finalized portable is already operational eight at Brentwood middle school as they're starting to tear down a section of that school and get ready to uh make that a brand new looking facility there and three new uh ones Long View uh Elementary School for a total of seven now Portables at Long View we have two new at College Grove for a total of four that are currently operational and we have two more that I mentioned a little while ago that are currently in

121the process to get finished so we'll have a total of six at College Grove uh we have finished or finishing up I'm sorry this week and and be ready to open up early next week the three new Westwood playground facilities which replace the outdated equipment and the drainage plan improvements for that campus will also be completed early next week school nutrition uh Staffing is still an issue but it's not as critical as last year the no cost meal program that the USDA had is now expired and that has changed the mix of our sales our full meal service has decreased and our alicart sales has increased uh we're still experiencing some food and supply shortages due to supply chain ISS issues uh that are nationwide so I went through that very quick because I was

122told I needed to be very quick about it so if you have any questions uh be glad to answer them we have uh with us Eric is here and Adam is here if you have any questions about maintenance or the uh capital outlay projects Mr Mitchell and then Mr R thank you Mr chair and maybe uh this sitting the right time to ask um open positions classes without teachers what how many of those do we have well we are staffed at about 98.5% but some of the hardto fill positions remain hard to fill um I'm going to refer to Vicki if she has any detail special education is still not 100% filled uh and uh we do have a number of teachers who uh who are who are who are with us through the uh

123through the grow your own program um you may hear that from the state um I want to mention this about grow your own grow your own has saved us in a lot of spots but it can't be the number one for us it fills in gaps and and grow your own is is so that you all have a grasp of that it is a process through which the state approves our existing staff members largely and typically teachers assistants to go back to school to get a teacher license they take the practice exam which is the threshold exam and then go to class while they are taking their teacher courses um that's been something that the state has really worked hard on um but it's going to take teachers coming out from the undergrad programs to

124really fully staff so uh Vicki if you would speak to the to Mr Mitchell's question about particular Staffing and numbers yeah thank you for the question and I could I can send y'all certainly an email to give you a little bit more detail with the exact openings it's kind of one of those things that always a rolling Target um we're still short in um some of those areas that you would expect it's a special education teachers although it is much better than it was last year um EC there there are still some openings um the other areas where um we don't have a lot of of vacancy I think we have six um secondary math teachers openings but that's out of over 200 so it's not a terrible number it's just very impactful for um

125the ones who are missing those teachers we still have um three or four science positions also in the secondary level and then we probably have about I would say five or fewer uh grade level teachers in the elementary that are left available um and some of that is just because we have had teachers that leave something comes up they end up deciding to that they're going to have to break their contract and leave for the year so we try to stay on top of that but there are there are a few so Vicki Vicki um hit something I want to mention uh she mentioned the math we have 21.5 filled secondary math positions but six vacant ones every point that we have that vacancy it's a pain point so that that's a class without a

126teacher is that correct well not without a teacher but without a license teachers so we will have substitutes we have folks filling in in those spots so everywhere there's a missing position or someone leaves in Midstream it's difficult we don't have Math teachers sitting there waiting for jobs uh as an example so it is a it is a real battle in those in those spots and we do we do try to have a licensed Sub in that room just so you know that it's not it's not always possible every single day um but we do try we do try to have one in there and we recruit our retirees to come and fill in spots so we have had some success with that just you know for for short windows of time I would appreciate

127an email detailing where these these um vacancies are at what school what class um and how long they've been vacant would be helpful okay so okay sure um when when do we think the new zones are going to get released we intend uh we intend to well let me give you a couple things number one our our projection for vote request is November uh number two uh we have had some preliminary meetings um with Allison if you can visualize those of you who' gone through it what we typically do we typically have a map with a number slide showing you the detail with some projections oneyear projections and three to fiveyear projections on what you can expect as as I sit here I will likely give you from 2 to 3 options with some recommendations

128for three main areas one is the elementary school in W wils lane two is the elementary school uh on Cox Road and three the Nolanville area and we' spoken to that where we need mil Creek and Nolanville need some relief um we know that there's not one 100% indal bill um but we are we intend for you to have close to a month's time to be thinking about the possibilities and getting Community input and one of the one of the discussions we had in this context is um the question of community input and I and I may be us I'm using my phraseology but I know Mr PRI and maybe a couple of others of you in essence ask this should we be presenting everyone with a feda comp plea and then getting feedback as

129opposed to there are a couple possibilities and here are the potential positive or negative consequences of those possibilities so that's what we're working on right now have a couple of options with a projection of what that might mean so if I if I might still have the floor um our our open our open seating I guess I'm not think open Zone Zone uh requirements now will kind of change I believe our calculus on what we're doing because it used to be we would Zone we' rezone and the school that is basically losing the students for lack of a better term would be closed and there was was an opportunity for parents or students that didn't want to be reson to to stay so I would think it would be useful for us in our meetings

130to have the projected numbers of open Zone opportunities for the school for pretty much all the schools I guess or at least the schools impacted from the from the students that will be we trying to Target to exit so because that will kind of change the the options for these parents it won't be uh you've got to not rezone me because I I don't have any op any choice but they will I believe have choices if we're still in a situation where we have 50 to 100 open zon good suggestion uh and we won't be able to to be as we can have estimates because of the time of year it is we usually come with the open zoning months from now but that's a good suggestion also related to that um uh I want

131to mention that we we are including information in our projections with a number of currently open Zone students in those areas um so that will that will give you a little bit extra Insight that we have not traditionally included and uh student numbers did you was I out student numbers I did not share that I'm um 42281 students as of September 1st and how 42 288 we're about 300 or so below projections right now uh I anticipate every day is a little bit different I anticipate we'll slowly grow that um we had a pretty conservative projection uh it was 2.24% if I remember right somewhere around there um so we're a little we're a little bit below that um uh at the end of the first four weeks and how many more students is that

132than last than than we ended with and that is then we ended with oh boy I'm going to to estimate cuz we had we did talk about this number a few weeks ago I don't have that number off the top of my head we are somewhere around I think 900 or 950 or so beyond the end of the end of the year last year but I will mention that we do have early graduates and so from the end of the year to the to the new year there's a little bit of little bit of difference there but not but that's not that's not hundreds of early graduates Maybe doz yeah that's right many that's right so we're about one one full school one full School of we grew by about a that's that's that's accurate

133yeah and I will say also mayor Anderson mentioned this at the County Commission meeting one of the one of commission meetings uh it was actually in the growth planning we have Early Childhood in prek and there's about 710 students there and for for the for the county growth projections that that doesn't really show up he pointed out that that's close to an elementary school yeah it is it is a yeah Mr Brown I've got several questions um Congress is considering um through the through their continuing resolution to fund the government putting in the USDA meal reimbursement program back then I saw an article about that today um we all know that's subject to a lot of negotiations and might not happen but were it to happen what would we do um then I I'll let

134Gary fill in some detail were it to happen we would immediately honor that uh the the reimbursements um when when the federal government started that reimbursement program it created a concern for us especially in cash flow but also at the time we didn't you know our experience was relatively small number of students getting lunch versus some of our neighbors uh that grew over time um right now James tells me he has a fund balance it would be sufficient to cover that because there is often a delay in the federal funding compared to the immediate payment we receive um so uh Gary is there any other detail you want to share related to that yes right now they're they are talking about that we have some information on it's nearly $2 billion dollar that's going into

135not just School nutrition School nutrition is only going to get about a half a million of the of the two billion and what they're looking at more is putting it towards the food as far as the purchasing to help help get the prices where we can afford it or get it to us or in increase the amount of reimbursement slightly they're not they have not talked about a full meal program like we had last year it's incr metal pieces okay all right fair enough um how many how many new seats are we expecting at paage high school when phase three is completed I'm seeing April 2023 on here for completion uh how many are we thinking that's going to open up I'm going to ask Eric to answer that I can speak in the aggregate

136that the that we're going from 1,200 to 2,000 total but phase four also includes some CTE classrooms in PE so he's you're asking about the window for phase three when it so when school starts in Fall of 23 Eric can you answer that how many additional seats will phase three open we should be I'll speak loud we should be around 1900 U when phase three is complete and do we know what we're projecting that de demand to be at that point um at that point I'll have to look at our current numbers if I'm not mistaken we're somewhere in the 1500 range at page but I'm going to have to pull up a email to get the most we can get it later it's not critical um it's it's leading me to a question though

137which is what what opportunity do we have when the zoning discussion comes up in late October early November uh to put other and I'm going to call minor zoning items on the agenda in addition to the ones that you're bringing forward you do have that opportunity I would ask that you share your thoughts um with us now so that we can project um I I I we have we have looked at some ourselves um and and we're in the process of that so if if you see what you perceive to be an anomaly somewhere uh or or a particular concern let us know and we'll project out the numbers for that um we we I I will say one thing I'm curious about Franklin Special School District has has has um dropped in enrollment by

138about 20% over the last two years I've asked Allison to look at that um because of the split between Franklin and Centennial it's worth looking at um because we haven't actually seen their raw numbers um recently um so we're we're in the process of gathering that information from Franklin Special School District um that's one example another example is new developments that are on the books uh we do have some spots here in there near a a zoning line where a developer has just purchased a farm has projected 450 new units and so there may be some spots where we re where we recommend changing that zone now before any homes come in um based on the capacities of the neighboring schools but if you're aware of anything uh related to that please share that with

139us okay final question when should we expect the first cut or first draft of the fiveyear capital plan uh we present that to you in November um we ought to get that to you a couple couple weeks ahead of time um it's going to be it's going to be a tight schedule but the numbers are going to be bigger also since you asked that I do want to mention I've I've let you all know this and I want to reiterate it in my many conversations with County Commissioners uh it is becoming more and more apparent that that it's going to be more difficult to get yeses on Capital because the costs are going up so much bonds exactly thank you for that um the the cost of bonds are growing they are shifting right now

140based on advice of bond Council to um go into bond market once a year rather than twice a year uh because of there I'm I'm estimate one one factor that was mentioned is the administrative cost of doing that um so it's just going to be cheaper for them to do to do it annually which is going to change our timetable to give them information um intent to funds for example we did that we did that last month with page highs phase four we asked for the intent to fund earlier than we would have in the past that the construction ought to complete in Fall of 25 but we're asking for money now even though we're not going to start some of that until later on this fiscal year so when would the next time they

141would go to bond market on Rachel do you know the answer to that question October a year from now so it it and another element related to that I sent you an email but just to give some clarity the commission approved all our items from last month except that they reduced the Cox Road funding by 2.15 million which was designated for some turn lanes that the Planning Commission asked us to to uh put in the County Commission is superior to the Planning Commission they were concerned that that might have been so far unrelated to the to the uh Elementary School that they want to ask some questions they've got some more work to do if they change that my only thought or request I guess would be that the sooner we can get that draft

142of the capital plan the better one thing I noticed last fall was was I was a couple months into being maybe one month into being on the board that it seemed like we got that and maybe just it's a function maybe of just the way the process works but we got it awfully quickly before we had to make a render a vote on it andain for that reason just because I wasn't fully educated on it but I so sooner we can get it the better we'll make it a we'll make it a point to try to get that to you all earlier okay any further questions or comments all right the next agenda item is something I've been wanting to have on the agenda for two years the board Vice chair report and uh I

143have nothing to report no actually um couple things um later this month we are hosting the tsba fall district meeting we are in the mid Cumberland region and that will be on Thursday September 29th at Centennial High School and there is still an opportunity to sign up for that if you haven't already it's a great opportunity to meet some other board members from around the district and the agenda is packed uh preparing for the 2023 legislative session uh Tissa is it Tissa or Tisa Lisa TSA Tissa remind rhymes with Lisa okay the new funding formula uh how boards select textbook and curriculum how districts are addressing the teacher shortage teacher tenure and evaluations Charter Schools what do board members need to know also dinner and uh Rec Rec nition for uh board members who have

144achieved boardsmy Awards as well as student recognition Awards and student volunteer recognition Awards and on the boardsmanga combination of training activities and events um and some of that has changed quite a bit so there's a lot of opportunity uh to do that and to that end uh Lydia has available the uh training courses and new board members of course are going to be taking new board member orientation but make sure that you uh review if you haven't already to sign up for the annual training the 2023 schedule is available for doing that and in November the tsba convention is the weekend of November 10th and that is a great opportunity for board members to get together that's held at at Opera land and U there are a couple seminars few days prior that you can

145attend to which I've been to a couple of and those are really good as well just to let Lydia know the board um makes that available to us and um one of the things that that happens at that is there's a delegate convention on Saturday afternoon and we have a number of delegates who that that can attend and you vote on resolution that have been brought to tsba by different boards around the state and we'll have one of those our third grade retention uh resolution that we voted on last month is going to go to tsba uh I attended the fssd board meeting on Monday and they passed one as well a resolution and it was received quite well but um Jason you had mentioned that some other boards have uh basically adopted ours uh

146yes um I've had requests for from a number of superintendant for a copy of ours uh it was shared in the list serve and that's getting a lot of legs uh also the uh the resolution related to to uh um redundant useless um requirements for teachers that's that's going to be up as well we can call that the useless requirement resolution um what's cool too is that at that at that delegate convention the the board that presents the that uh speaks to the resolution and then everybody who at the assembly uh votes on it so it's kind of a fun activity um but it also kind of gives our feedback our Collective feedback bubbles up to give to the state legislature where they of course overwhelmingly um seed to our demands um hopefully we have

147some some influence there and that's uh that's a very positive process though it's a lot of fun um that's all I have any anybody have anything else or any questions Mr chair if I may just one quick update um Rachel let me know um we are the we went up 900 we've gone up 947 students since the end of the school year I think I said 900 to 950 is 947 thank you um we will um we have some new business I think we'll we'll cover the budget items first then we'll take a a break after that so uh a new business we have 2022 23 schoolb budget items uh thank thank you Mr oh I'm sorry Rachel I'm going to leave those to Rachel farmer we have uh three amendments tonight one donation and

148two state grants the first is a $4,000 donation from Williamson Medical to be used for WP for a bus um we had one last fall about this time that was a healthy living bus this one is specifically related to heart health so please uh $4,000 except the donation any questions on that one if not the next is an SRO Grant we have gotten these in the past when we had a new school open and Creek Side we received the last three years money for that SRO uh to help offset some of the costs for the sro's uh there was money left over so the state had offered 14 4,187 48 to uh applied for this year any questions questions yeah okay if none on that the last is the state transition Grant we talked about

149this last month uh with carryovers the grant for this particular one runs from October through September and so last month we booked the remaining from last year this is booking this year's funding it's $4,175 any questions board members on those items all right uh we'll take a 10minute break we'll reconvene at 8:20 e e e [Music] and we are [Music] back next item on the work session agenda are the approval of board policies and the first ones are board policies for second reading starting with 4.41 textbooks and instructional materials uh thank you Mr chair Miss osbrook is out tonight and so I'm going to speak to that uh the policy committee went through a a pretty detailed discussion on the library materials policy just as a reminder this this proposal that's here for second reading

150includes breaking out the library materials from the textbook and instructional materials based largely on a change in state law that put the the responsibility for making a decision on the board related to library books uh and so this this first um draft policy 4.41 textbooks and instruction materials uh is is designed to recognize the board's vote for in for textbooks uh which is different from the new law governing library books so at the request of uh if I'm not mistaken um I'm trying to remember I think Mr Brown mentioned this a couple of months ago the the U the changes from the most recent policy committee are in purple and the the original proposed changes are in blue so you can see the changes that were a product of of the uh the the policy

151committee's discussion so certainly open to any questions you all have I will say this is a these two policies are significant change so this is this is a a big package uh change that um really in a lot of ways needs to be looked at as a whole related to that we have a couple items on the agenda just after this that include deletion of policies and absent these policies passing those policies should not be deleted because there're the standing policies that are in effect right now thank you Mr Golden I have Mr Wimberly thank you can I be heard yeah yes okay so uh several things about this policy um number one in sentence 8 I'm pretty sure the word should be that instead of which they mean two different things and um uh

152so I I suggest we make that change um I wasn't able to follow Senate 30 it looked like something may be missing but um I may be wrong about that and and here's probably the most um material comment about this policy I'm wondering if we should in this policy refer back to the policy somewhere that says that parents and Guardians at any time May request of their student not be EXP OS to certain materials and that such request will be honored or whatever we say uh because as this is written it seems to say that challenged materials will be made available for use during reconsideration uh and I guess generally speaking that would be true but then we have a policy that says if a parent doesn't want their kid uh their student exposed to

153uh particular textbook instructional materials or I guess anything then uh that student is not to be exposed to it U so that's my comment there and I was unclear what the last part of Senate 19 and 20 means it says the board May DET turn the applicability of its decision throughout the district and it it sounded to me or it read to me like that was stating that the board could make uh its decisions on some of these materials applicable to some schools but not applicable to others and that may need a little word missing to make it more clear thank you for that if I may um address those one at a time the which instead of that um that's actually written as which in the state regulation so there was probably a uh

154a a usage error from a from an English standpoint in that so that's why that's in there um the uh the sentence 30 you mentioned uh I did notice uh that that there was a typ typographical eror and error and it was gifs and so there's been a there's been a correction on that I think there's some wisdom in what you're saying about referring and cross referencing the other policy and you're right that's not in there uh in the intent uh of the way um Dana has written it for the question about the applicability of decision throughout the district the context of that is the supplemental materials where it may be at one particular one particular school um but if it's not readily apparent to someone who didn't sit through that hour of policy committee

155meeting I think there's some wisdom in in reviewing that and tweaking that language to make sure there's some clarity okay thank you is he referring to I didn't hear him um let's see sentence 19 and 20 is that on the last page page four page four give everybody a minute to look at that I'll read the decision of the board may be binding for up to two years and the board May determine the applicability of its decision throughout the district is the sentence and Mr chair as I'm as I'm sitting here given given those and I you you I know uh that a couple of you asked this to be put on for for uh you know taking off the consent agenda given those I actually see some wisdom in us taking this back to

156committee and just doing a double check it is a substantial change um and so that's a that's a thought I have there may this is second reading and there's a it's a lot of change and uh and if we're not 100% there I'm not sure it's wise to to pass it for second reading Mr calers Jason I was going to I was going to make the make that recommendation but in just for for this for a different reason but um I just want clarification because because it's on page three that middle sections 17 through 20 about who may make a um a reconsideration request and in both of our both of our policy committee meetings it's come up and it's and it was and it was said that based on the um age appropriate materials

157act um this is the language in there that would restrict and make it so that if we if if someone who wasn't a guardian parent teacher student um then they were un unable based on state law when I look there's no reference to to that code in in this in this policy but when I read the when I read the Pol when I read that code there is that language and it says that a procedure that the the the code actually requires a procedure for the local Board of Education to receive and evaluate feedback from a student students parent or guardian or School employee um but then it further at the the last section says that these procedures are not the exclusive means to remove material um nor and nor do they preclude an Ela

158from um from having additional procedures so I'd like clarification on that I'm not even saying that I necessarily think that the language is wrong but I I don't want us putting language in there that we thought was ba was required based on state law that isn't so um I'd like some additional clarification thank you for that I don't read it to be mandatory to your point right um I think that that's probably another reason if if if if the board's not clear on this like send it back to committee and it's fairly rare that we go through three but in complex policies I think there's some wisdom in it so I guess by definition Jason what we would we would pull all both of these and the and the deletions off off of the off

159of the agenda yes effectively yes um and but I but I'm certainly open to any more discussion related to that but given those given those points that that a number of you all have asked just in this window of time since the policy committee I think that's the wise thing to do Mr Cash yes thank you I go along with that uh Jason to take it back to committee there's a whole lot of stuff on here that needs to change and there's so many notes and you know callers now we need to really sit down and just take these and and really take them apart unpack them and uh start repacking and do this right uh I don't want to see another year like we've had in the past with reconsideration and all that stuff

160it it's just it's too much it's too much for parents it's too much for uh teachers and everyone else so we we got to get this right we've got to we've got to protect our teachers and we got to protect our kids and um you know so yeah I'm I'm all for going back and and redoing this thing I will say just as a FYI for you all if there is a library book request we will have that obligation under the state law to make you all the final decision maker regardless of when the Pol policies are finalized you may also recall that Miss osbrook told you that the state is still has still told us they're going to have some guidelines down the road and that may come in December we just don't know

161um I I will say you you saw the update on the no November 3rd move from original October I've got to give you one other one related to that we had projected to receive an estimate for our Tisa funding for next year in October and they've let us know we'll get that by the end of the calendar year um so I mean the volume of what they're doing with it they're they're facing what everyone else is facing with Staffing so I I I can't my point is I can't predict when we're going to get that guidance Mr Brown I don't disagree with taking this back to committee and bringing it back to the at the next board meeting but I want to I wonder what the consequence of that would be practically I mean I

162know we talked about this before there being some urgency I think I heard you say there were some some urgency to have something in place what would that urgency be is it simply what you just said about the in case there's a challenge to a book in the interim and we don't have a policy in place how do we handle that as I sit here I can't tell you that there's not some other small piece of it but yes that is the that is the key part that the key change is you all are the decision makers not the Appellate body for someone else to decide on library books and so practically how do you think we would handle that in the absence of a policy we would follow the we would follow the the

163the policy process but the committee would not be the decision maker you would be it would be brought to you as a recommendation it would be brought directly to us no I would we my I would follow the policy as much as I could and still comply with Tennessee law which would be appoint the committee they would review it instead of making a decision it would come to you as a recommendation under the existing policy okay Miss Clemens well I was just going to agree that I think it's a good idea to put this back to committee and and give this more time you know I talked at the policy I think we live in a community we've used the word Community a lot tonight and the community supports our schools and um we're better

164with community so I think um taking more time to look at this instead of pushing it through would be great all right um so we will we will take this back to committee the other items are still on the agenda so we want to speak to those tonight but knowing that these are I'll be going back to committee as a group uh the next one on the agenda is 4.43 Library materials thank you Mr chair we've had some discussion about that already because they do go hand inand and I mentioned that specific specifically in response to uh Mr Brown's question um and and certainly open to any questions or comments you may have especially for those of you who might not be attending the next policy committee certainly welcome any comments you might have Mr

165Mitchell thank you uh Mr chair so Jason what's the if if we're pulling back the textbooks and instructional material and the library materials are from what I understood uh at the policy meeting that is independent of it well currently the existing policy covers them both okay that's the where they're linked that's yes sir and we can't delete the existing policy until we have both ready to vote on that's right okay we couldn't bring the library materials forward and have it just supersede the existing policy and that's assuming that the will of the board isn't that we've got issues with the library material one that or not maybe that's the case too but if it if we don't have a whole lot of complaint on the on the text and the subject or or the way

166it's written then I would be fine with going ahead and passing it and having it kind of sub be subseed I supersede the um my my gut feeling just as I sit here at this moment is it would be difficult to differentiate that but depending on what else I I hear from the board members if that's the will of the board we can leave it on with a caveat that I'm going to spend tomorrow doing a double check with Miss osbrook on that question I mean I'm if I I guess I'm I'm comfortable either way but I'm would rather not kick something down the road if we don't really have a whole lot of complaints around where it is yeah I my my question regarding there Sim language in in both regarding that Ron who

167can who can file a complaint yes okay fair enough okay I have Mr Wimberly and then miss Clemens um I have some issues with the library materials um policy as well very similar to the others uh and I can bring them up now I've already communicated them to to to uh Dana Jason and you and it largely relates to to uh language uh with the exception of one and that is uh in paragraph nine I just wonder what happens if the board determines that materials are not suitable for let's say k through three but are F for four and above the way the policy seems to to be written for me to me is that basically the book is banned from the library there's a big difference in in my opinion as to what might

168be acceptable K to three and what might be acceptable you know for fourth grade and above or appropriate um and let's see I had some other language things but that was the most material one i' I'd like to see it go back to policy myself we'll go ahead and send it to policy I will speak to the intent of that if the the intent of that was those students who have access to them uh and we know that our our Librarians do um differentiate and restrict access um you know based on grade level uh with some selections but in any event it sounds like it it needs to go to go back to policy M Clemens I think I was just going to make the same kind of comments about um who is able to

169comment um I think we've seen starting to see throughout I think there's some stuff in the six District um federal court where people are saying it's a taxation without representation and I think we're just kind of opening ourselves up I I like the idea Sy this a policy thank you any other comments as as the nope I don't think I have some well I think we'll just have those at the at the time we uh review it all right then the ones for deletion second reading are kind of remot I assume no comments on that yes sir given that we would need to remove item Roman numeral 2 from the agenda as well then we'll move on to 4.2 210 credit recovery for carsus ticket in high school thank you Mr chair uh this particular

170one you all see is uh um is submitted for approval for first and final reading and it is a catchup policy um catch new word up not the uh not the condiment on page two uh changing the uh Credit Recovery grade from 70 to 60 based on the change that you all approved in response to the State Board of Education if you have any questions about that certainly be willing to answer them any questions port all right then the next one uh and that one again first and final reading is the the plan for that then the next group are for first reading and 4214 virtual education program thank you Mr chair U this is virtual education program as as opposed to a virtual school uh that uh the state has um by Statute given

171us permission to uh go virtual for up to two days per semester uh for continuity of Educational Service when there's extreme weather conditions Etc um and I mentioned at the policy committee meeting that there is a possibility say if we have an ice storm think back to those years we've had long ice storms that last a week we might want to have in our toolbox the ability to go virtual for a day or two to avoid us running out of snow days and perhaps having extend the school year uh in May uh so we do recommend approval of this policy at first reading certainly we may have some discussion about it um at the next policy committee meeting any questions board all right see then the next one is 4.64 credit for prior courses also

172for first reading thank you Mr chair uh this is another reference to uh um well it's actually reference to credit for prior courses for those who are coming into the district um the proposed change is related to the new state um Board of Education change for scores where it currently reads students must score 70 or better on the comprehensive written exam in order to get that credit to change that to proficient as determined by a particular exam Dr web spoke to this in detail that at the high school level there are many different exams for for for the varied courses and proficiency is a better descriptor than a particular number and it's appropriate to make that change now um and based on the prompt of the State Board changing uh passing grade um certainly open

173any questions you may have and Dr Webb is here as well any questions board members all right our next agenda item is approval of board parameters for the school calendar thank you Mr chair we have a uh memo in the in the packet uh for you related to board parameters our annual agenda calls for board parameters in keeping with what was on the consent agenda uh for appointment of the committee uh traditionally in the last few years you all have as a board have allowed for the calendar committee to have broad discretion you remember that the Cal calendar committee has teacher representatives and uh and representatives from our from our leadership team uh Dr Webb is proposed to continue to chair that committee we've shared in the past some of the detail with us finding

174ways to squeeze in every appropriate instructional day plus the professional development days plus the uh the parent teacher conference day um we are in the second year of fall break being a full week for students um and you may recall that uh the committee was able to find a way to do that by including a PD day and the parent teacher conference Day within that week so at this stage I anticipate on Monday recommending that you give that committee broad discretion because it does have broad representation there's also parent representation on that committee um but certainly open any discussion that you might have related to that Mr Pria we um don't add a parameter but maybe make the suggestion that when you first meet with the committee that it's brought up that there's a strong

175desire to have the first uh the fall break PD day be remote for teachers can that be included in that discussion at the first meeting well number one Dr webs listening to the discussion tonight so the short answer to that question is yes and I know you all got a um at least a few emails from members of the WCA asking that um and I'm confident they'll bring it up too because they do have representation uh in the committee I've got we've got some head nods that was something we've already had some discussion about uh that that's something to consider thanks any other questions on this one Mr Brown not necessarily a parameter but maybe a a question a broad question about a philosophical question so we had this vote recently on early release late

176start and the jury's out maybe on that at this point but is there any thought to as we plan for calendar going forward building the the planning time in as as full days versus parts of days you know parts of many days doing fewer full days in addition to the existing full days and space ing them out in a way that's consistent with the the points in time that they need to be they need to happen from a educational perspective I only I only say that because it's I can anticipate that what's going to happen is we're going to have mixed reviews when it comes time to decide whether we keep this or not and is there a way to bake that into the calendar differently uh yes uh that is a discussion that's that

177that uh we anticipate having I actually talked to our staff last spring and said I want the calendar committee to discuss this it's better for you all if you have that more you know the time to think of it ahead of time it's better for our community we do have limits on how many half days we can have in the calendar under the state rules um so there are some additional parameters but that is something that they need to discuss B Bria would adjusting school start time be a part of the calendar discussion or they just strictly talk dates historically not okay um uh I I I will tell you that well and historically there's actually a statute related to calendar and it's not addressed in that as either um we have had some discussions

178off and on and just to bring everybody up to speed there have been discussions for many years about school start times you may recall that uh we made a change I am estimating six years ago somewhere around there to move up the start times about 15 minutes or so 1520 minutes uh to no later than 750 and then no and no later for secondary no later than 850 I am of the opinion that that ought to be a prompt in our strategic planning process uh for Community input as to what they value uh those of you who've been on the board a long time know that the big a big a big argument was Secondary School extracurriculars versus Elementary School another argument was Secondary School students being at home when their younger siblings were there

179versus the research related to sleep time a lot of detail related to that I want to toss another one out we have for many years struggled with bus drivers some of our neighbors have three separate start times and bus drivers W run three routes theoretically if it was a pure math problem and things rarely are in life but if it was a pure math problem you would be adding 50% more capacity and drivers if you added a third route um that's something to discuss there's complexities to that but I think that's where that discussion ought to be had okay thanks have Mr Wimberly gosh I feel like I have spoken more from afar than I normally do when I'm there but back to the uh question about the um uh remote day for teachers it

180just seems to me that if this is something that the board wants to in effect direct the uh calendar committee to do that we've got to get that worked out between now and and Monday if indeed that is uh what what we would like and I wonder if we should talk about it a little bit more or let staff defend it publicly or or whatever oh gosh my headphones must have gone out total silence uh Mr chair Mr chair I'll speak to that I do think there's a potential for some complexities that deserve the professionals to discuss it uh the the nature of professional development um potential for interaction the impact of doing that remotely versus in teams you know physically present um I would like our teachers and our uh leadership team our representatives

181to have an indepth instructional discussion about that um I I'm not comfortable recommending that you set that as a clean parameter without those professionals having that discussion Mr Cash yeah I was just going to ask uh Jason is there is there any law that says uh teachers have to have so many days in person um anything like that there is a law about how many days but it's silent on in person and a lot of these laws predate all these new Tools in our toolbox as well right so uh I agree I think I think you and staff need to discuss that so we have a lot of those answers before we go into it m dur thank you okay um I agree with Jen and um Jason that we should be addressing the start

182time thing for the kids maybe in just strategic planning um but while these may not be necessary as parameters I I just really want to take some time during the calendar planning process to hone in on what the teachers do need because they are stretched so thin and to the max and I just think um you know in just hearing the teachers feedback I think that even if we could get solid principal feedback like super solid um focus groups at their school schools all teachers represented and really have voices heard um broadly to contribute at some aggregated level um for the calendar committee to consider on what would be most beneficial to the teachers whether it is things like I'm just recording some of the things I got from emails from teachers um their py

183and planning time not being during their vacation time that they could be spending like you know when we when our kids are on break or Christmas break or whatever um we as families or business people or whoever in the community might take that time to be with their kids or travel to be with family but the teachers are pulled back here so any way we could eliminate those barriers to them having their professional time and their breaks I would love to see that happen um just get really creative and just do things different different than anybody else does um I just think they need it they deserve that to it would deter me from teaching if I knew I couldn't spend time with my family when I really wanted to or or when my kids

184were out or something so I'm just trying to put myself in their position and understand that that's got to be something we start thinking about more and I know we think about it so no that's not what I mean that we don't think about it but I just want to make sure that we prioritize that their their needs and I'm huge advocate for anything that they can do remotely and enable it let's get it let's get it to happen there's no reason why they have to be in a building so um and then um I just recall something that Dr Looney said a couple times during calendar process that always resonated with me it was the um five day a week um keeping the weeks as solid as possible yeah yeah and I mean I

185I remember going through and Counting the Monday you know five day a week thing and that being a big deal and there was even like a summary that he gave us and he said that was evidence-based and so I just want to make sure too as we come up with these calendars we are focusing on what's research based in in the best interest for the students um if they're learning if they're distracted in shorter weeks and we do things that um inhibit their ability to really effectively learn well then we're kind of like going against what our mission is um so I think as much as we can keep to research based St too with all those other non-parameter parameters there's a lot to think about this year I know that's all thank you it's

186good charge to the committee Miss priia so that sparked another question if are the I guess Josh and Angela both brought it up for the next set of days or professional development time like we do the power Mondays and the early release Wednesdays right now is that going to be part of the calendar committee or is that I have I have asked them to discuss that yes okay um and I'm I'm hoping for a recommendation from them related to that okay and then to Rick's point I feel like I'm comfortable not setting this as a parameter and not deciding it now for the committee I think it's smart to have the committee discuss it and then when they bring it to us with their recommendation that's when we can say well what's your reason behind

187it or or vote on it or can we amend it at that point or would we just send it back to committee how does that work oh boy I'm trying to remember the rules off the top of my head I know Dr Webb was Raising her hand so I'm going to shift this over to her with that question if she can remember the answer to that and I I know I'll have an answer for you by Monday regardless thank you for that so I just kind of jotted down a few notes to really answer both of your questions so if I don't hit it all please let me know one of the first things that we do as a calendar committee is look at what the state guidance is how many instructional days are required

188to the point asked earlier there's a a requirement of five days of inservice uh or professional development for certified Personnel so we look at all those State parameters first uh and then review to see if the board has given us any parameters that we need to to seat through the last few years we haven't to your your point the next activity that we go through as a committee is to just kind of lead us through the process of determining what should be our um uh are agreed upon guidance for working through the work uh because there's so many elements to take into consideration for the last three years uh that I've been working with this committee there have been five consistent points that we've started and agreed upon um and so now I start with

189these five points to see do we still as a committee believe that these are kind of the ground rules as we start this work were there additional ground rules that we need to establish and those five have been to to the point made earlier first seek to establish the best instructional calendar possible uh with as many full instructional weeks as possible we start right there there are so many opinions so many thoughts so much research there's a lot of things that kind of go into play when you're choosing a calendar so we ground ourselves first on what is our purpose and establishing the calendar we need the strongest instructional calendar possible has been the common belief of this committee and so we ground ourselves there um second is that we look to see what is

190there to ensure that there's a balance in each quarter and semester with the greatest importance being on the first three quarters we want to ensure that there's a proper balance and that's been kind of where we've we've started uh ensuring that we have time to make sure students are are properly prepared before they start State assessments which is a focus on looking at the balance of days those first three quarters of the of the Academic Year the third Point we've discussed is when evaluating uh start dates breaks uh Etc and and making decisions about those where those breaks fall is that we review historical data including attendance for Ste uh teachers and students to see you know are we seeing that there's a common day that we have a very low attendance rate for whatever

191reason and do we need to take that into consideration is there a a religious holiday as an example that's fallen on an instructional day that many of our students are evaluating and do we need to take that into consideration as a committee uh and goes segue stri into the next point we review national holidays including religious local and national election days when are those dates that are really important to our community uh and how can we take those into consideration and the fifth is that we review feedback from schools teachers administrators parents and students and determine if there are any additional uh inputs that we need before we start our work uh and we really spent a lot of time on those Five Points particularly the last one and determining before we really get in

192deep and look at the drafts of various calendars is there additional feedback that we need especially to point one of developing the most um the most sound instructional calendar possible for a school community and we pull in uh dates and information data from our instructional department and teaching learning and assessment we look at assessment dates National Trends we pull all those things in at the beginning to make sure we're as educated as possible before we start the process so if there our our board appointed or board determined parameters certainly that's a piece of it but just because you don't establish them doesn't mean that we're out flying in the wind you know we're very structured about the work uh we feel good about the calenders that we've produced and responded to the community in the

193last few years and we feel really good about producing something that's going to make our community equally is proud and successful with this next round thank you that was helpful it that makes me think that maybe there should be at least I I feel like we need one parameter around the early release late start thing just because the way we had to put that in as like putting out a fire last year and vote on it without a whole lot of data to back it up other than like what people were emailing us or some very superficial unscientific surveys um some useless redundant stuff um we I feel like if the calendar committee since they're going to be incorporating that in this meeting if they could get some real data from teachers to say how

194effective is it to have because I know from the secondary teachers the most I hear is that the 45 minutes in the morning is just not enough so I think they see the two two hours that Elementary are getting now and see how that can be so much more powerful and effective to have that bigger chunk of time um how do we incorporate how do we get that feedback from the teachers to see what the majority think would be the most helpful I'm open to that it's letting them know that you care about it and you want a thoughtful recommendation it also is defining that you expect that to be part of the calendar that's my expectation um and you all may we we there's been a tradition of addressing late start slash early release

195in the spring I learned from last spring that that's not a good practice anymore it needs to be part of the calendar um so I'm I'm very open to that parameter and I know of course Mr Wimberly also asked well maybe a number of you asked about about the uh the question of remote PD days as well yeah Mr gber I'll ask it on the next agenda item you miss Cleveland sorry as far as the calendar this last um this this year is that going well it's really good and if I remember correctly this was the first calendar we didn't have a board discussion on in quite a few years which I'm happy contentious votes yeah contentious votes um one of the questions I have is the policy um the calendar policy predates um remote

196and so professional development days and the request to go remote does that necessarily have to be as a calendar on a calendar or can it be operational it could be just defined as PD day and then later can operationally be implemented and not as a set calendar thank you for that question my interpretation of it is it could be operational I'll give you an example the day after the day we're discussing is parent teacher conference day we found over the last few years the parent participation in the parent teacher conference day had trickled and basically shrunk almost to the point where it became an anacronismo we found an increase in parent participation so administratively we continued that and we actually told told teachers if you can schedule them remote schedule them remote if you need

197them to be in the building have them in the building so we've made that optional and that was an administrative decision of mine so it could it could be administrative so and it could be school by school class by class or however the PD is structured um my life experience is that it would be unwise for it not to be consistent okay thank you but theoretically I wouldn't do it there are parent teacher conferences scheduled during fall break break though right that Monday yes yes or Tuesday Tuesday I yeah and even though yeah even so I I so thank you for that question let me mention a couple things that I think are relevant to your question number one those days are scheduled in that week because of the many years long discussion about trying

198to find a way hey and there's value in it uh we're smiling so those who are watching don't know what we're smiling about many years discussion about trying to find a way to have a full week's fall break for students we found a way in last year's calendar this is year two it worked it worked well for students that's how we squeezed it in that's number one number two our teachers have administratively addressed that anacronismo the course of time and tracking their time to meet that state requirement so we're really addressing parent teacher conferences in multiple ways we're we're scheduling a day per the state requirement but we're also tracking time because sometimes a parent teacher conference just in time especially these days is more valuable than waiting for a particular day yeah Mr Cash

199do you have you know operational uh things have come up and uh one of the things that Jen mentioned was uh you know the the early or late starts and whatnot if if you can put them in it's a lot easier than put it in in policy but just just listen to what Lee had to say there there's not one person on this board that knows the real workings that goes on in an everyday classroom and everyday operation of our high schools middle schools and Elementary so when you start talking calendars and putting parameters on them they're thinking of every aspect of the business uh that we don't even know about half of it so I I don't I don't expect parameters um we've had this conversation several years and they always come up with

200the best ideas it's nice to hope for this it's nice to hope for that but you know we're dealing with 40 42 43,000 students 880,000 parents uh this it's huge so for us to put parameters and have something else or maybe two or three other issues for for the committee to look at and go over and try to work it in and they're going to try to do their best to satisfy us um it it's just we just need to think about how much work it really is let them bring it back and again we we generally vote on what they exactly what they say so thank you thank you Mr Cash for that wisdom Mr Brown you just said something about the the school the parent teacher conference being a requirement of the state

201that's right is it is it a state law or a state regulation state law it's actually it's actually it's actually in the laundry list of required days for school that it has to be a day yeah they call it a day but they're flexible Dr Webb it can Flex the the hours can flex and so over the years we've had that day stretched uh out over two weeks and teachers could work those hours after school on you know stay in an extra hour hour and a half each day or choosing days over the course of a couple weeks it doesn't have to be a designated day in the calendar but there has to be a a a the equivalent of a day in the calendar if that makes sense the state the state department of

202Ed approves our calendar annually and they have let us know and it's been a good long time it's been years that they have proved that day being flexible so is there a reason why we have to have that day appear on the calendar well in this example it was a way for us to get a full week of break for students and Dr web speak to that in more detail this happen Happ s to be a very Hot Topic in the calendar committee often um and it varies the the the ability to flex that day varies greatly from elementary middle to high just think about our own experiences going to parent teacher conferences as a parent it looks much different at the high school level where you're waiting to go talk to that physics teacher

203or that English teacher and you're really meeting one-on-one with that individual about the content that of that class in elementary it looks very different there's teams of people who come together often who are speaking about multiple content areas the amount of time it takes to plan and coordinate those schedules is difficult for elementary the voice of elementary teachers has been over the years having a designated day is beneficial to them because it's easier to plan our calendars if we all know this is the day versus there are four of us and we're all trying to coordinate our calendars over the course of two weeks and coordinate which hours after school and all these days works for everyone when Maybe there's a member of our team that also needs to meet with another team on um

204with another you know content area or whatever so it becomes complicated and elementary teachers have voiced over the years um the ease of having that calendar day with within the calendar uh versus having it flexed out um to the uh opposite of that uh High School teachers have shared that they enjoy having that flexibility of being able to you know I've been talking to this the these six parents of this physics uh class content I really want to go ahead and call them in and not have to wait to one designated day and spend a little extra time with those six parents because maybe I'm not I don't have every single student in my class that I'm meeting with so I don't I can spend a little extra time and maybe 30 minutes on an

205afternoon and then space it out uh and meet with that same parent again uh a week and a half from now uh versus having them all in one day and so the op opinions vary and the ease and benefit of the various strategies um you know it varies based on the bade band so it's something that we talk about if you look at calendars which we often do pull historical data of what we've done in various situations over the last decade you'll see that parent teacher conference day sometimes is flexed in sometimes it's flexed out of the calendar um it it does vary just seems I hear you totally hear you and but it seems ironic that we're we're focusing on the day one of that week being a virtual day to accommodate teachers who

206want to travel with their families and be with their families but yet day two of that week they're lined up with meetings potentially that's breaking up their vacation it just seems a little ironic that we're kind of talking out both sides of our mouth a little bit well the intent for this for for this year was the the wh holy day of working together in person was on Monday with the the more flexible day the day before the staff break right which starts on Wednesday so that was the thinking last year and it could change this coming year if there's if if if they land on remote for a PD day but in either case whether virtual or not we're saying that the teachers are having to work both of those first two days of

207that week yes and and the the current calendar yes based in that's actually this is the second straight year of that yes yes so they are working it just a matter of where they're working from is that's right with the caveat that that Tuesday is flex and there may be some teachers who have taken care of that elsewhere right okay which is backed up to that staff holiday right which gets to um Angela's Point earlier any further comments or questions on this one all right our last agenda item for tonight is the superintendent's goals and objectives for 2223 thank you Mr chair uh We've submitted to you last month uh the draft superintendent goals and objectives it's part of our annual agenda it's actually my contract described as District goals uh so uh we have

208these these drafts for you and I know you spent some time uh at least uh at least being aware that we gave them to you a month ago uh so certainly welcome to any U any comments or questions you may have uh then with a potential that we may adjust prior to the Monday night meeting based on your feedback Mr GTH so Jason this is I like these goals um there I mean the first one is is talking about the strategic planning process the next to rely on feedback from the strategic planning process um at least in part um so I think I guess that it it beged the question we have some we have some meetings on the calendar for for zoning but have you have you set any um any timeline for the

209strategic planning process U I think the first item on the agenda was to find somebody to facilitate that's right we don't have a timeline yet uh and you're right the first item is uh to to find a facilitator um I had spoken to Miss Garrett prior to her rolling off the board about creating a committee uh um with a board member and a couple of Staff members to to search out uh a facilitator um as as I sit here uh uh my intent is to ask Mr Wimberly to take that responsibility uh he and I have had some discussions in the past few weeks about about his contacts to to facilitate that that's step one and then I'd like some recommendations from that facilitator on an appropriate timeline um I don't want a hamstring a

210facilitator based on their professional experience well I guess um I mean I this the second item from a pay perspective uh I mean you're already working already working on that I don't I'm not sure that the pay is necessarily um dependent on the strategic planning process maybe more so the the other priorities on what to do with the Tissa and all the budget but um so that's that's fine I just I know you're thinking about it I I just wanted to find out what the what the Tim Lim looked like my second thing is is just a proposed change just recognizing I don't want to presume what the I don't want to have the the even part of the Strategic plan um baked in um to I don't want to have a preconceived notion of

211what that strategic plan is going to look at look like because the last time and I talked about this last time um but the last time that we did this um through the process of having a facilitator we actually came up with these three strategic commitments um you know invest in team quality improved student centered like those might very well survive and be our foundation but they might not um so I'd rather just cut off the last sentence of number one at this plan will include primary strategic priorities and supporting actions period and just delete everything else um because all those things might change and so um I just don't want to I just don't want to make look make it look like the strategic planning process is is halfway done we've got our we've

212got our priorities we're just here to to kind of trim around the edges like we could completely change all these potentially based on and if we're not willing to do that then we're not really getting feedback from the from the community I I respect that that's a good suggestion certainly open to any other comments from folks any other comments or want to see some head Mr Mr Brown feel like we ought to given the the comments you made a couple of times at recent board meetings including tonight about Capital concerns um cost going up Etc that that has the potential to drastically change our planning yeah and I feel like it deserves maybe it deserves to be part of our your goals and objectives which you said our district goals and objectives because it's it

213if it changes our planning that much it it it has a ripple effect into other things that we decide to do so I'd like to see that maybe put in here somewhere um coming up with a making this up on the on the Fly here but some kind of alternative plan alternative Capital plan if we're derailed by cost considerations from the County Commission or however however we want to word that but some recognition that we need to tackle in a different way in a more meaningful way the capital Pro Capital planning process I'll percolate on that a couple things that pop into my head you know like like you said on the Fly number one uh in the past we we have done for lack of a better term trainings for the County Commission on

214how we go through that process and I've talked about we squeeze in we uh we we add Portables we add wings uh uh and we rezone and then we ask for new facilities right uh that's that's part of that um I I'll I'll I'll percolate on that because that that's a good suggestion because I do think I do think we're changing or probably evolving back to where we were 10 years ago and maybe that's a goal that's that's written in combination with the zoning process some way I don't know yeah they kind of go hand in hand Mr wiberly I just wanted to say that I agree with Jay's thoughts about removing those three items related to the Strategic plan thank you so you agree with that recommendation yes thank you Miss Apria yeah J's

215comments about removing those three things spark something in me too that maybe because at first I started to look at C where it says we will prepare students for the future and then I thought could we add the word all to make sure we're being fully inclusive of all students and their Futures whatever that may look like but then if we if we are going to have a CommunityWide effort to develop a new strategic plan maybe we should leave it up to that process to determine what these three or what the primary strategic priorities are based on the community's needs and wants thank you all right any further questions or discussion on this Mr Mitchell so as I'm reading through here I'm thinking safety we we've talked about our strategic plan you talk about we

216talk about our budget talk about faculty and staff satisfaction do we need to say something about ensure safety of as as well or not is that given the I guess shootings in schools I mean I'm not convinced that that's not a an overarching concern of ours still frankly that we need to not take our eye off of um I'm going to think and I don't know if that needs to be a goal for you or not but as I'm looking into this that was the one thought that I thought one thing I thought was maybe missing that we talk about ensuring a safe environment for students and staff I don't know I'm gonna I'm GNA talk out think out loud uh a couple things um number one uh student safety is the base in maso's

217hierarchy of needs for schools it's it's number one it's got to be the fundamental part um number two I set three goals for our administrators to start the school year uh and we talked about it through our and during our Retreat time we talked about it uh during the administrator days before school started and it was number one celebrate faculty and staff number two grow in collaboration and number three improve student sense of safety and we had two prongs to that one was Mental Health and one was physical environmental safety so it is on our mind um you know I I set those annual Focus points for our administrators and then you all set those annual goals for me um it's on our mind and we've actually we have had some specific thoughts related to

218that I can I can structure some language related to to a goal if you all as a board feel like we need to have a goal well and i' I'd be interested in whether my colleagues agree that that ought to be a a stated goal maybe it's already a implicit implied goal right but uh I feel like it would come up in this strategic plan too that might be a priority for parents and community members that they bring inate strategic plan overall but uh but but as well you're right has it ever been specifically not for mine I'm trying to remember my predecessors um I can't remember that it ever being mentioned um as a specific annual goal but to your point it's always been the number one priority and top of mine so it's

219maybe the as Elliot said it's maybe maybe it doesn't need to be written down there I just it just we we I think it's something we easily take for granted and and heaven forbid it be something that all of a sudden blows up on us well we don't take it for granted and it's it's a daily concern and it's it's it's one of those things that we lose sleepover um because you know you can't ever be 100% you can't ever say okay everybody's safe it's a it's a daily battle and you could do everything perfect and still um have a have a problem and that's one of the reasons it's a constant worry I will tell you we've got an unbelievable team um that that works on that and so it is on our mind

220again if if I I'm opening either way um it's going to it's going to be a goal and is a focus for this year regardless we put budget money into it we put human effort um I talked to principles about it last week it just reminded them of our Focus points thank you Mr G um it's amazing I've I've looked at this over the last two months several several times and I've never thought of this point until we start talking about it but um there's something statuto is it just in your that we have to have we maybe it's part of your review process that we've got to consider um achievement but I just noticed achieve there's nothing about student achievement in in here and I just want to make sure does that need to

221be a part of the goals or is that just a part of the review well Mr galber thank you for mentioning that because I had that same thought and I actually pulled my my book off the floor because there is a list and I didn't quite find it when we were talking there's a list of items that should be in the annual evaluation right um and one of them is student achievement and but not NE not necessarily the goals these goals are something separate these goals aren't required by state law this is something that we we work out ourselves um to I guess to think strategically but if you remember the way the the um evaluation is traditionally formatted we have the goals and then the other section that other section is that right but

222I'm I'm just sitting here thinking about the the order in which we do things is is not great um so we're sitting here establishing your goals for a school year that's already started a budget that's already in place um and something something's not exactly something's not exactly right there right I mean so if we it seems like we should be setting goals now for next year because because you've got to you've got to establish your budget priorities and maybe these maybe you're establishing your budget for last year in in your goals for for this for the for the budget that we're in right now 23 24 Staffing and pay plan right right no right that's that's that's part of the budget but I'm saying he he's already we we're establishing goals now but we've already

223set the budget so like we I don't know it just seem it seems like we need to we need to be thinking a year ahead from a from a goal setting um in order to allow him to facilitate the goals and and produce a budget that that's following it so I I'm smiling because um we're doing better than in than we ever have in my recollection in the past right so we're taking baby steps towards that um actually this month calls for board goals and we admit we we we talked about well given that the superintendent goals were scheduled in August and we're really talking about them in September it's not appropriate to talk about board goals at this moment there's some artificiality in the timing no matter what because of the budget process because

224of when the commission approves um because of Staffing you got to pick a pick a time and there's there's no there's no perfect way to do it but well I'll make one more point the elections you know is was it appropriate to set his goals Pro before the new board was elected no I'm I'm thinking we're I'm thinking we're not we're not months off we're we're half a we're a year off or at least six months off right there there were times when the goals never were set for the superintendent even though it's been in the superintendent's contract for years starting on a new strategic plan yeah so it's like everybody said tonight that could all change so sit here and talk all night hopefully hopefully not um I'll add that um in last year's

225goals goal number four was to develop goals and action steps to improve student sense of safety at school so hopefully we're acting on some of those goals that we placed the uh evaluation instrument also has the areas of student achievement is one section in there another section in there our fa facilities finance and human Human Resources so um maybe there's a component in that that that could incorporate safety as well but just wanted to talk about the evaluation instrument there as well good comments well it's funny you asked about where their goals related to safety I guess last year yes so there there have been any other comments or all right um with that I look forward to Monday's meeting meeting and the swearing in of six board members including two members this meeting is

226adjourned