001to the March 22nd 2021 Williamson County school board meeting as it is necessary necessary to protect public health safety and Welfare Williamson County Schools is officially meeting electronically in light of the Corona virus pursuant to executive orders number 16 and number 78 signed by Governor Bill Lee and waiver of Williamson County School Board policy 1.400 welcome and board members will you please request W your attendance via a roll call vote Miss Glenn Madam chair this is Lydia Glenn Angela Durham Angela Durham present Dan cash Dan cash present Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell present Brad fiscus Brad fiscus present Jenna Pria sapria Jay GTH Jay grith present Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland present Kandy Emerson Miss Emerson Rick Wimberly Rick Wimberly present Eric Welch Eric Welch present casy Hall Casey Hall present Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett present madam
00210 board members in attendance tonight thank you uh and board members I want to let you know that uh Miss Pria says that she's having some internet complications right now but that she should be here when those resolve at this time um board member Angela Durham will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance which will be followed by a Moment of Silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you board members Miss Glenn I do see Miss apra in the meeting yes ma'am I have uh marked her present okay thank you so much now we move on to items of particular public interest which is our public comment portion of
003the meeting and it's my understanding that we have 16 speakers uh so speakers um if you will uh set your timers for two minutes you'll all have two minutes to speak uh we have received your addresses and those have been um compil by the central office by Miss Glenn and those those addresses will be part of our meeting minutes we are uh responding to some public input about addresses and so we have implemented that change uh as of this meeting um I want to before we before we start calling folks and I will call your name in the order that your request to speak came in um the governor's orders do not require public comment during this time of meeting virtually however um our board felt like that we did want to continue to hear
004from the public during this time so we are continuing with public comment um and as always uh people who are interested in um hearing from the board um please send us emails and also uh we're always happy if uh you want to talk on the phone as well uh but this is one way uh that your concern can be uh read into the record at the monthly meeting uh I want to make sure all the public commenters know that the board does not respond to your comments during this time it's just a place to register your comments and that the board does reserve the right uh to limit the time of any speaker and terminate remarks if that if there is any disruption or um lack of adherence to the rules that I've talked about
005um so with that we will go ahead and hear from our speakers and let me get the first name for you um speakers I should also tell you that Mr Casey Hall our vice chairman um is the person who has the duty of of timing the comments and calling time when uh when that your time has expired so Mr Hof if you'll raise your hand so that people can see you um and if you hear Mr H time it will be time to wind up your remarks so our first speaker is and again excuse me if I mispronounced your name our first speaker is Karen rail Miss ra Miss rail if you can hold your oh there you go great got it thank you sure hello board thank you my name is Karen rail I
006have two students at Ravenwood high school and tonight I wanted to talk about registration and next year goals can you hear me um I disagree with WCS requiring that we register for online or inperson um next year without a commitment from them on what next year will look like we have to do this by tomorrow you're asking us to commit our children to a year of learning but you have not committed to parents on how you're going to exit out of the current state is it at zero case that we get at back to normal is it at two cases that we get back to normal give us a realistic number to get back to normal we need an exit strategy for 2021 22 I want masks to be optional WCS needs to also stop
007the mass quarantining we have healthy kids that are begging to go to school and you acting as an arm of the health department have told them no kids first you work for them not the health department for 2021 22 we want the year to be to return to normal we want recesses lunches Sports band homecoming parades proms we want it all back everything that was taken away from students this year needs to be reinstituted we are done for those not comfortable with normal there is the online option our children are paying the price for this pandemic with their physical mental and academic Health please stop this the following people have agreed with what I have said this evening and gave me permission to speak on their behalf Amanda Elliot two children Trinity Elementary Kelly mesy
008two kids College Grove Elementary Allison Hill one child Thompson Station Middle Jonah Elmore three children Hunters Bend Elementary grassland middle Franklin High Kim Goden one student grassland middle Michelle Stutton two for this fall Creekside Elementary Marie pero thank you Miss ra and if you uh Miss ra if you have know the district that you live in uh the board is asking me to know District since we're not asking for addresses so uh Miss ra if you can tell us what district you're in and then other speakers if you can also tell us if you know and if you don't know that's perfectly fine I do not know but we're zoned for Sunset Elementary Sunset Middle and Ravenwood High all right thank you our next speaker is harmony Kennedy hello um my name is harmony Kennedy
009I live in noville in b d I am a ninth grader on noville high school during the years I have been in WCS I've experienced countless acts of racism when I was in the sixth grade A boy came over to me in the cafeteria and called me the NW word I reported it to the assisted principal she did not hold the she did hold the way accountable but she also told me that this is going to happen throughout my school career I thought to myself this response was completely unacceptable because why should I be expected to just get used to racism another incident happened in seventh grade one day in class several of my classmates called me ghetto and Ratchet because I had braids in my hair when I reported the incident the teacher tried
010to portray me as the angry black girl like I was a problem later that year a student Hold Me Back told me to go back to where I came from I didn't know why people kept coming up to me and making these racist comments I felt angry hurt and like something was wrong with me my little sister has been called a monkey by one of her classmates I never want another student to experience what my little sister and I and many of my friends experience as students of as a student of WCS I hope me speaking to you all will help bring change to this District thank you our next speaker is Jada morel uh Miss Morel I believe you're on mute okay do you hear me yes okay awesome um hi my name is
011jayen Muriel um I would just like to thank all of you all the members of the board today for allowing us this opportunity to speak to you guys to encourage change in Williamson County School um I graduated in 2015 from Franklin High School and my senior year college I received messages from girls in my soccer team basically racial slurs through this app called group meet and in these messages you know there were slurs saying like you know why doesn't she live in Cottonwood why um like slot a like just racial slurs that data back to the 1800s and I went to the principal and nothing happened after I showed her evidence of what happened and the group messages um but that's my story and there's many other stories like mine and I'm just here today
012to ask the members of the board to hopefully consider keeping the consultant past July um I see from looking at the website um of fostering healthy solutions that the consultant can help offer A New Perspective one that is not biased um where they don't have deep groups in Franklin like family um or friends that live here or children that go to high school um at many of the different schools in Williamson County they so they won't act to they won't act for their own interest they have a unbiased View and I think that important when trying to level with all the different parties involved um I also think I think it's a great first step in trying to implement change in lson County because obviously we all know now that there is a problem and
013that needs to be fixed and I think it's great to have a professional trained to that specializes in cultivating A system that will help all students um feel welcome time ma'am oh I'm so sorry no thank you um thank you our next speaker is Jessica Cordova I think I was on mute I'm sorry um my name is Jessica Cordova and I am a parent of a student in Thompson Station Elementary School and um kind of Shifting Gears a little bit um my concern is more so regarding next year and a a hope for return to some sort of normaly um now that our Active cases in Williamson County have been holding steady despite the fact that the mask mandate has been lifted um you know there really has even in the past year been no
014real large scale data that masks um are effective in um actually preventing the spread of covid um so I'm really here to Advocate to lift the mask mandate for our children in Williamson County um next year um because as of April 5th all tennesseans over the age of 16 will have access to the vaccine and you know the data is really showing that um the most recent from the CDC as of March 19th um is showing that there is no real um compounding evidence that we're seeing transmission from student to student and student to faculty in our schools um so really if we can push to make masks optional for our children next year um it to make recess um more normal so the grade levels can all go out together and don't have to
015be separated um and also so that the students can have lunch in the cafeteria um rather than in the classrooms and again being separated um my second grader has had a real hard time because she has made a lot of good friends from her class last year that she has not been able to see as frequently this year um I think it's really separating the classes um so really we're just trying to push for more normaly um so thank you our next speaker is Sharon blunt uh Nancy we do not see Miss blunt okay thank you um following Miss blunt April zenos Mr MCN do you see Miss zenos yeah she's in if she'll join audio I think she'll be able to speak Miss zenos if you would click off um click that microphone icon
016please okay I um let me see um Tim can you offer any any support or can you remove oh it looks like we have someone joining right now Madam chair this is Jason golden if if I may I'm looking at Miss zenos and it does not show she's on mute so there is apparently some additional audio problem okay given that we will move to the next speaker and then we'll see if we can come back to her and uh Mr MCN or anyone else from staff if you can try to help with that it would be much appreciated our next speaker is Rebecca Parker yes Rebecca Parker I um my name's Rebecca Parker and I have three children each at a different level of WCS Schools elementary middle and high school I've been a WCS
017parent for 11 years and I would like to speak for a minute about the protocols for next school year um um based upon the declining cases and the availability of the V vaccine I think it is time Excuse Me Miss zenos we're going we'll hear from you next uh Miss Parker is speaking now thank you okay thanks um I think it's time that the school system exit this pandemic mentality um the first thing I think that should be done is we should make mask optional next year for students and staff um the facts do not support the emphasis that's being placed on mask especially at the middle and high school levels um feel like teachers it's a distraction for them and they're actually participating in Behavior that's Unbecoming I've had incidents with my middle and
018high schoolers involving teachers that were um one yelling through a microphone in the hall I'm sorry not a microphone a megaphone in the hallway and then another time my other child was actually pulled by the backpack over a mask issue I think that this is a distraction and it's a lightning rod of controversy and I just don't think that um the facts support the maske wearing and it's also a symbol of fear the next thing I'm hoping that you will consider is um the quarantining hoping that that can be an option I know we've all gotten the dreaded Li letter in the past and um I think a shift to maybe moving to where we find out that way about covid that you've been exposed but it does not result in healthy children staying home
019and not being able to learn in the environment that was chosen by their parents for them to learn um I'd really like to know how many students that you quarantined were H tested positive from covid um from what I understand it's statistically insignificant so I think it's time that the quarantining being an OP option but not mandatory in keeping healthy students at home in the last 10 seconds oh yes I hope we can return to a normal school year I hope things like field trips lunches in the cafeteria and lunches with your parents and consistency across the schools will be considered next year thank you thank you our next speaker is April zenos uh if you'll come off mute hi can you see and hear me yes okay so thanks for letting me speak today
020um I have two kids one is a fourth grader at Perry Creek and the other one is a kindergartener at Perry Creek and I just wanted to say I agree with many of the comments already about wanting to know what next year um encompasses in terms of are there going to be restrictions are we going to still have to do the masks and is everything going to be like it was this year and I agree with that other mom that said I didn't think it was right that we had to sign up and pick virtual versus online or in person I mean before we really knew what's going to happen um and my daughters have been having a hard time just being so isolated and everything with all the fear and I wanted to hope
021that next year we can go back to being able to play on the playground like we were with all the classes and not just some of the classes or some of the equipment and being able to leave the room where their home room is and actually go to the art room for art class special music special instead of everyone coming to them and them staying in that seat the entire day um and also making masks optional for people that are comfortable not wearing it or having their kids not wear it and people um all the vaccines are now available to the teachers I thought so I was hoping by the summer um what what would the point still be of having all these restrictions um and allowing parents to come in and eat lunch with
022their kid in the cafeteria is also important especially for the little ones um and so just basically like what they said going back to normal um and then also the flex days I kind of don't feel like they're that educational for my kids my fourth grader does not like them and wishes she was there at school with her friends not at home on the computer um so I think that I think that was all the thing so thanks again for letting us um share our comments with you I'm told board members that uh Miss blunt had lost her connection she was here for her time to speak so we'll go back to her now uh Sharon blunt and she has had problems again so she's back out now okay all right moving on Amanda Ray
023I don't see Amanda Ray let's move on to Amanda white okay Amanda white Miss White's not showing that she has audio okay all right let make it star there um the next speaker is shanera Williamson good good evening thank you so much for having me thank you so much for taking time to hear my comments tonight um my name is shanira Williamson my three daughters are currently ages 19 21 and 23 they all attended Williamson County public schools in elementary school um and I'm really thankful that you all have made the decision to hire a trained professional um to provide diversity equity and inclusion training for teachers uh this is important work if we're going to prepare our kids for the world that they will one day lead our youngest daughter um had a first
024grade teacher who had pretty low expectations of her I would say um I was present in the classroom weekly as the room mom and I observed ways that implicit bias affected my child um so much so that by the time the end of that first grade year happened I made the decision to homeschool her in second grade there were things that I wanted to do to sh up um her confidence in reading and specifically um what I realize is that most parents are not able to see what's happening in the classroom in real time in the way that I was and they're not able to intervene in the ways that I had the ability to do so we need our teachers and other staff members to be trained ready to handle a variety of situations
025education is one of the systems in America I think it's most affected by bias and the results can harm everyone involved not just little um children of color but also others who see the way that that interaction happens I hope that you see the value and the hard work um that you've started and my goal tonight is just to ask that you not shortcut this work but please continue to fund the Dei consultant that um has started the school year and I would hope that you would fund it past the school year so that Williamson County Schools can have the full benefit of the expert that this consultant provides um this is just one mom's opinion and concerns and thank you so much for having me our next speaker we're going to go back to
026Sharon blunt Miss blunt Miss blunt okay we'll move on to the next speaker Kelly Hendry Miss Hendry she's joining okay looks like a slow I can see the Sharon is back um Madam Sharon Sharon Miss blunt Miss blent can you come off mute please how about now yes we can hear you miss blun thank you I am so sorry that's okay I'm sorry for the difficulty yes thank you so much um I've requested my time to speak tonight as a concern mother if three um okay thank you um I miss Blen I think we've lost audio again I am so sorry I'm not we can hear you again okay um I'm I'm calling to to to give my two cents about the mask mandates I want to piggy back on what the other mothers have
027stated and what about now we can hear you again yes and it looks like we've lost you again I'm going to go Kelly Hendry now and then um we'll see if we can get back to you Miss blunt Miss Hendry if you'll please come off mute okay can you hear me yes we can thank you hi hi so I'm Kelly Hendry first I just wanted to start off and thank my board member Dan cash um for listening responding to my emails and my calls and being a strong voice uh for district 2 and Williamson County School families I have three points first um masks I'm asking that these be optional for the remainder of this school year so yes the last nine weeks and all of next school year 20121 to 2022 two seniors I
028have a senior this year um it's been um quite the year for this graduating class I um the graduations are outside on the football field in two months therefore they're outside they're not inside we've seen active case numbers continue to steadily decline um as it continues to get warmer we're going to continue to see that right now they are limited to four tickets per family per student um so I feel like we either don't need to limit the tickets or we need to allot each student more tickets um as they can spread out it's outside it's a it's a large venue I I've I've spoken to quite a few families that have a large family and one parent is not going to be able to go or a sibling is g to or siblings will
029miss uh graduation because of this I actually have a graduate uh from the class of 2018 who graduated on the football field at Independence and there were no limited tickets and there was plenty of room to spread out um and do it safely um so I'm asking for either more tickets or don't even limit the tickets um my daughter's only set of living grandparents are devastated that they don't get to celebrate her graduation in person I mean it's been a challenging year for the class of 2021 and they've missed a lot of fun memories uh my daughter's my daughter's actually in three choirs at her high school and she's only been allotted two tickets for those Choir concerts so my parents have missed out on that um I know basketball parents were allotted uh four
030tickets per a student athlete and that's inside as well so um my parents have missed out on her solos in her Choir concerts and now they're going to miss out on her graduation so thank you ma'am two minutes than you okay thank you thank you next we'll hear from Amanda white Miss White hello can you hear me yes thank you please go ahead hi thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to speak tonight um I have a seventh grader at Woodland Middle and a fifth grader at clovercroft elementary um I am here just asking for a normal 2021 2022 school year on their behalf on many other children's behalf um I'm asking for masks off or masks optional for those who feel they need it um and I would actually love for that
031to happen for the the last nine weeks of the school year um I'm asking for the contact tracing quarantine guidelines to to change um my child was part part of the the contact tracing quarantine I saw firsthand I know firsthand it's not just a statistic you read U an article you read I have a child that went through it it is not healthy some children are okay and some children don't Thrive that way and some people definitely do not thrive in that position healthy as a horse missing the last sports games of the year uh missing out on making friends in a new school year I'd like to advocate for getting back to lockers and Cubbies um the right of passage to middle school is a locker it's everyone's Joy entering sixth grade uh also
032I would like for them to stop carrying the heavy backpacks and be able to use the lockers and Cubbies lunch in the cafeteria so they can see each other's smiling faces and hear laughter and just have that small time together lunch and recess just to let loose and be kids um this is a serious as hearing the words what is the point to this life I don't want to do this anymore um it's not just shuffle along come on kids are resilient some kids are not resilient um it's got to end this full-blown production of the opposite of normaly we've got to get these kids back to normal and consistent um 10 seconds ma'am yes let's stop stripping the joys of these children give it back to them and let them Thrive thank you so
033much our next speaker is Karen Hensley hi I'm Karen Hensley um I think I'm District Six with Jen apra um but I could be wrong on the number um I have three children in Williamson County Schools um one is a fourth grader in at Jordan Elementary one is a 7th grader at Sunset Middle and one is a 10th grader at Ravenwood high school and I'm specifically while I have I agree with all these ladies my biggest issue if I had to pick one would be quarantines um my oldest was quarantined after missing a ton of school because of other medical issues she had and the quarantine piggyback onto that just about through our entire family over the edge um as much as I don't feel that the schools are equipped to to provide that bridge
034that gap for um continuing education she both when she was sick and when she was healthy and quarantined she was doing mostly self- teing um I saw the ups and downs and the it it's very frustrating from a parent's standpoint because you're trying to help your kid and there's I felt very powerless I the question I have is have we weighed have we looked at the numbers of kids that have been quarantined who is actually tested positive of the from that contact tracing and who has had symptoms what are th what do those numbers look like and have we looked at the consequence of the quarantining and and compare that to the data of a covid which is not taking down kids the teachers are vaccinated um you know I just struggle with why are
035we doing this are we doing this because it looks good on paper are we doing this because we just don't know what we what else to do um I I just I very much both as a healthc care provider I'm a nurse and as a mom I strongly disagree with it and I'm asking you to really look at the data and really look at the consequences of quarantining these healthy kids and um and 10 seconds man thank you gonna go back to miss blunt now Sharon blunt you can come off mute Miss blunt okay third six times the charm I am so sorry about that um I've written down a few words and I'm really wanting to piggyback off of the mothers who've spoken about masks and I have a few other items to add
036um I am a very concerned mother of three masks are both harmful mentally physically and emotionally each of my children have had unique challenges with the mask mandates and here are just a few personal examples of emotional issues that we've had we've experienced sadness not wanting to go to school receiving minors for not wearing the mask properly one of my children she expr she has undue stress throughout the school day for not wanting to get into trouble and disappoint her teachers when she needs an unscheduled mask break my children have been very unmotivated to participate in after school activities because wearing a mask on all day and breathing in your own carbon dioxide is exhausting and it leaves them unmotivated some physical issues that we have faced are headaches exhaustion mask acne which is terrible
037for middle schoolers I have two middle schoolers um some additional issues that I'm concerned with that will happen to our children at some point in time if this is not alleviated some of them are bacterial Bron bronchial and lung infections gum and tongue candida which is already being reported suppressed immune systems suicide and or attempted suicide all of these things um you can look up and they're all factual and there've been several articles written about them mask wearing should be a personal choice not a mandate that's harming our children in ways we won't know until later in their development so I'm begging you to remove it and finally I think other other moms have mentioned this but the CDC has stated multiple times children are not super spreaders they have very little reaction if any
038to this virus I just am believing and hoping that you will remove all covid restrictions thank you very much our next speaker is Danielle MCO hi there thank you for giving me time tonight um I have two things that I want to talk about tonight I am um in District district 2 I have four children who will attend Thompson Station Elementary School next year um and we've been there for three years already um I have to say I um I'm excited about the diversity team coming in I think that it can be a great thing with everything going on in the world I as a parent of these four boys though I would like to ask that um that we as parents can see this curriculum before it comes out um I would like to
039know is critical race theory is will that be included um just as an example and I I'm just asking because there are so many different aspects of diversity so I want to make sure I approve of what my child is actually sing before I expose them to that so I can make the proper decision for my own children as to where I would like to place them in in school um so I I would ask for that and my second topic is our flex days I just ask that we've been in we've had a full week of school for two weeks since Christmas and this is affecting our children kids are missing out at the high school level on um say they're they're just skipping over algebra going straight to geom Geometry because there's not
040enough time um the young kids my two little kindergarteners get on Zoom for 10 minutes and that's all they do all day and then there are also children out there who have parents that both work which I and my husband do work or a single parent who can't help them with these packets so they're just not getting them done these things are are very sad and now that the numbers are coming down I just ask please that we take these flex days away I so appreciate the teachers oh my goodness so much at Thompson Station Mr bore Tina Aaron um all seconds ma'am are have been amazing and I thank you for that and I get why you've needed the days but going forward I please ask that these are taken away thank you our
041next speaker is Robin steaman hi first time here I'm District 12 um I hear you on the mask and the social distancing I have to say that my daughter's actually been going to a private school with no social distancing and no masks for the entirety of the year with no shutdown days and we've had zero covid cases so if that could be a data point point for you guys but I have a kindergartener and I have a four-year-old and a five-month-old and my main concern is the adoption of diversity equity and inclusion to include the 1619 project critical race training intersectionality um California is presenting esmc which is an ethnic studies model curriculum and that will be rolled out at the end of this month and it's going to be paraded as a blueprint for
042the rest of the country and Trauma based pedagogy which actually teaches kids with via emotional trauma um my point is I know you guys have started down this path and if you give them an inch if you give one inch to this kind of teaching then you're going to subject yourself to the whole Spectrum it's just going to keep continuing to slide and where does it stop examples in Virginia there's been blacklisting of parents for speaking out in Philadelphia and Elementary School forced fifth graders to celebrate Black communism and host a black power rally in Wake County Public Schools North Carolina parents according to teachers should be considered an impediment to social justice in Arizona they provided an equity toolkit that painted babies are racist at three months old in Ohio I have yet to
043find out the school district but CRT critical race training Theory had to be removed from the curriculum because the students were literally turning on each other in William Clark in Las Vegas a high schooler filed suit against his high school for attempting to force him to label himself as an oppressor when he has a white father and a black mother um 10 seconds ma'am in New York City the eight white identities and in California the list is too long to to read so I want to know what the plan is and is it safe for our kids because once you start down this slope you're you're going to slide the whole way down our next speaker is Allison Anderson Miss Anderson if you'll please come off mute Miss Anderson can you hear me Miss Anderson
044I believe you're still on mute Mr mcnight we seem to be having some audio issues with Miss Anderson so I'll go on to Rachel Weaver right now and then we'll see if we can get Miss Anderson back in hi my name Weaver can you hear me yes thank you please go ahead hi um I think I'm in District 11 um I'm not quite sure so I have four children in Williamson County Schools I have a senior a freshman a sixth and fourth grader we moved here in September from a different state with the sole purpose of resuming our in-person school I followed the metrics over the summer that this District was [Music] put Miss Weaver I'm sorry we've lost your a audio can you let's see if we can hear you now no we've lost
045audio okay can you hear me now yes okay sorry about that okay I followed the metrics okay these are the three things that I'd like to address tonight the first thing is the choice to wear a mask in school we we as parents take calculated risks every day when we send our kids to school we s many waivers and documents at the beginning of school and when our kids make a school sport team that we assume risk and and liability I don't see any difference in the choice to have our child wear a mask and assume all liability and risk of sickness that may come with that the second issue is the quarantine my senior in high school was quarantined five times in the fall and she has not even had so much as a
046sniffle in over a year I know in the beginning we didn't know a lot about the virus and we were all doing the best we could but now we know a lot more my senior daughter was told to go home for 14 days at a time with no instruction and then penalized with late assignments which resulted in badg grades when she's a straight A student before I have to keep I had to keep reminding myself that this was not her fault and she was sitting home learning from notes as a perfectly healthy kid in my opinion contact tracing and quarantines need to be lifted the community spread is so that is not warranted anymore as a measure to control the virus in my professional opinion I'm not going to complain without um trying to offer
047a proposed option for others that feel the same way would you as the board consider a simple waiver where parents were given the choice to assess the potential risk of attending school on mask and also assume any risk of exposure in order to be exempt from contact tracing at school there is never going to be a 0% risk so like everything else in life and more over what we are trying to teach our children at some point you have to take a calculated risk finally my lastest is would the board please consider increasing the number of tickets for graduation since it's now outside as of right now with the limit of four tickets my young children will not be able to see their sister graduate thank you for your time and consideration and our final
048speaker for this evening is Allison Anderson Miss Anderson your showing is on mute sorry now we can hear you yes okay you can hear me yes okay um I'm Allison Anderson I live in District Two with Dan cash I have a first grader at Thompson Station Elementary a sixth grader at Thompson Station Middle and the ninth grader at Summit High I am a former kindergarten and special ed public school teacher um I taught special light across all grade levels and I hold a master's degree in marriage and family counseling with many years of experience with children during this Co era my single greatest concern has been the mental and emotional well-being of Children and adolescents not just in the here and now but their well-being well into the future contrary to popular belief suicide rates
049are not the highest in the cold dark winter months or around Christmas or other holidays but the highest suicide rates um occur in the month of April May and June and it's usually two to three times higher than suicide rates in December we're quickly approaching those months we know that covid restrictions quarantines cancellation of extracurricular activities and mask mandates contribute to these increases in mental health incidents among children and Adolescence I myself have a child who begs me to switch to online school simply because because the mask causes so much anxiety and distracts them at school from focusing my husband and I really struggle with knowing which with deciding which learning environment would be best for this child simply because of of mask mandates pediatric emergency room visits from um April to October of 2020
050um we're down significantly for injuries and illnesses however emergency room visits were significantly higher for mental health incidents they increased as much as around 25% for ages 5 through 11 so even Elementary schoolers are seeing an increase and um over 30% for ages 12 and 17 and then ages 18 and up young adults is just astronomical some areas of the country have seen more than triple the amount of mental health incidences in light of this data and due to the fact that we're entering into the highest risk season for suicidal Behavior I hope you all consider getting our students lives back to normal not for the next year but as soon as possible thank you that conclud concludes our public comment for this evening we'll now move on to the approval of tonight's meeting agenda
051do we have a motion to approve our students lives motion to approve approve Mo to approve from Mr I think it was Mr Mitchell is that correct yes okay is there a second second second from Mr Welch is there any discussion I see no hands raised if not then let's move to a roll call vot Miss Glenn thank you madam chair this is Lydia Glenn Angela Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Mr Cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Jenna Pria yes Jay galberth Jay galberth yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy Emerson candy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly Rick Wimberly yes Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall Casey H yes Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett yes your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes thank you board
052members the next item on the agenda is the approval of the consent agenda do we have a motion to approve Rick Wimberly move to approve Mr Wimberly makes the motion do we have a second Elliot Mitchell seconds Mr Mitchell seconds is there any discussion I see no hands raised we can move to vote Miss bln Angela Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliott Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Jenna Pria Jenna Pria yes J GTH J GTH yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy Emerson candy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly Rick Wimberly yes Eric Welch Eric Welch yes acfi yes Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett yes your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes board members with the approval of that consent agenda you've approved the February 15 20 21
053school board meeting minutes and also the Franklin High School replacement of gymnasium floor and revised logo on the multi-purpose field our next item is Communications to the board and I'll turn this over to our superintendent Mr Jason golden Mr Golden all right thank you madam chair and thank you board members uh for being here tonight uh you all know that we just finished our spring break and I'm I'm so excited that we are in the fourth quarter and uh and this has been a pretty incredible year so far and I will tell you I'm just so impressed with the skill of our teachers and the the efforts of our students through this time and you guys know we're in a pandemic uh and it's really been impressive to to see what um our folks are
054doing uh I will tell you that uh I I still hear from time to time from families moving into the district that they've they've moved here from an area where some of their some of their children still haven't been in School actually on campus uh through the year um and I'm really proud of uh what our staff has done uh through this year and in pushing pushing pushing those efforts uh to to do what we could to keep our students on campus it hasn't been perfect uh we've had some times where we haven't been able to be on campus but uh but the but the effort uh has been there and I think it's been worth it so far um as you all know especially this year it seems like things things Change Daily uh
055since our work session last Thursday before spring break uh we have had some changes uh already and I want to give you an update on those I'm going to keep this fairly brief especially compared to our work session uh and and and tell you a little bit of what you heard uh through some through some media sources this the uh CDC uh did uh receive some research related to social distancing and we mentioned to you at the work session that that had that had occurred but there have been no changes yet from the CDC or the State Health Department Friday afternoon uh last official day of spring break at around four o'clock uh Gary Anderson received an email from the state on what they call the list serve uh where they they published some detail
056from the health department uh regarding some changes I want to give you a brief U report on those changes that they are making to their processes uh and it's going to be a nutshell it won't be the detail um but uh but um the basics of what we have learned from them is that at the elementary level the six-foot social distancing um standard is being reduced to three feet if students are wearing masks uh and at the middle and high school level it's the same standard based on whether a community transmission rate is at what they call low or I think moderate uh not high and so they have reduced uh in in many circumstances that that standard of six feet 15 minutes that we've heard for the last few months and you all may
057remember even prior to that it was 6 feet 10 minutes and so there's been another change um we're excited about that um Mr Anderson and and his staff met today with the health department with a local Health Department to talk about the uh the implementation of that state standard and and what that means uh and I want you to know of course they just had their first meeting today and and and Gary is available if you have any questions but I want you to know some of the specifics about what we're going to be working on over the next few days this is I think relevant to what um some of the questions you've actually received from some of our some of our great parents earlier today um we are going to be looking at
058how we can improve element mobility in our buildings um you you all know that many of our schools uh have been have have kept those classes together at the elementary level we believe that with this change especially at the elementary level there's some potential for us to make some changes uh this quarter uh with that mobility and I'll give you a couple of of specific things we're going to look at actually moving to an art classroom moving to moving to music um some of our some of our schools have not phys physically been in the cafeteria based on student numbers and capacity in the cafeterias we're going to go back and review those uh and that's going to be some work over these next few days to see how we can take that next step
059uh um towards um towards operating within the CDC and Health Department guidelines uh safely and still give as much uh flexibility and freedom to our students as we can at the secondary level we're going we're going to uh um analyze and see what we can do uh to to address potential change in our outdoor activities uh and there's actually a reference in the CDC well actually in the state department State Health Department guidelines related to um outdoor activities with a strong encouragement to do what you can outside uh and we're going to evaluate what we can do with uh with attendance and crowds at graduation ceremonies because as as you know we've moved those uh weather permitting uh to to outside um based on what we know um related to those the the the facilities
060that we were going we have historically been using and there need to host other things or restrictions internally where we could not um use those facilities we're going to evaluate that um the extent to which we can expand um um attendance uh based on based on those new guidelines spring Sports likewise and so we're very excited that this um that this messaging we received from the State Health Department on Friday afternoon has opened up some doors for us to take those next steps uh towards uh towards um again safely um moderating our guidelines you also know that after our board work session a week and a half ago um we did make the decision to eliminate our temperature checks and I want to thank those board members um I know many of you spoke to
061us about that um and um and convinced us to do some data collection and some research uh and and based on that and based Bas on what we learned U from from that and from from our um from our individual School communities uh it was time and so thank you for that uh I will tell you that uh just as a reminder the County government is requiring temperature checks at at the uh at their building still that includes our central office likewise tsaa is still requiring temperature checks so what we're talking about is as as students enter the building in the mornings but there may still be some events and there will still be some events where that is required because we're we're governed by uh other entities uh next thing I want to mention
062to you is related to those specific guidelines from the State Health Department they really reemphasized uh the continued need for Mas uh and we talked uh we talked you know a week and a half ago at our work session about our projections for mask and those critical dates that we were that we were seeing uh coming up with about you know a week to two weeks after a long break and then um with our students who were online coming on to campus to take uh their tecap te and ready test and end of course test because the state is requiring that on campus um but what I've seen from the information from the State Health Department uh that they published on Friday afternoon is realistically I have to project that more likely than not we
063will be um wearing masks we'll still be requiring masks per our return to school plan that you all approve back in July um through through the end of the school year but as we've discussed also if there's a change um from them in these next eight or nine weeks uh then then that is that is still a possibility but I just think I need to be frank that I just given that re-emphasis uh from the CDC uh that that I think that's extremely unlikely and the CDC still is recommending that schools require those masks and again I want to emphas size uh that reduction in the social distancing standard is dependent on all those participants actually wearing masks so not only does it reemphasize that that that need from those Health authorities uh it it
064confirms um the plan that you all approved that we're at um for this for this school year I will tell you also I think it's extremely important um for us to reemphasize as clearly as I can that we will continue to follow the CDC and State Health Department guidelines uh and listen to those Health authorities um uh as as much as we can um and and that that includes this year uh plus next year um right now you all have approved the plan for for this year I'm optimistic about next year we talked about that at the at the board work session and I know that we all have different opinions on that one of the reasons I'm optimistic is because we do see changes uh as U as uh as the health authorities um
065uh determined that changes are appropriate another uh item that makes me optimistic is what we're hearing at the federal level about the distribution of vaccines um there's a lot of talk about um phrase phraseology like her immunity and those kinds of phrases that we almost never hear and almost never heard until until this event um but I will tell you at this stage as we sit here in late March um I can't predict the future um I can be optimistic uh but I but what I can tell you is that my intent and my plan is to follow our health authorities guidelines uh as much as we can uh with a goal that we've had throughout the school year of keeping students on campus um so that's that's a really significant change for us that
066we'll be working on over these next uh these next few days as soon as we are able to make some changes uh based on that and do do our work internally uh to figure out what we can do we'll of course communicate that with you and communicate that with our families uh but we're excited about where we are um with the future um next thing I I want to specifically address is fostering Healthy Solutions you all know we've made it a point to talk about that as much as we could uh at our meetings and I very much appreciate what um we heard from members of the public in public comment uh today and it really does what we heard from just a few people really does reflect a lot of what I've heard in
067the community I've heard from some of our young alumni and you all know this uh that there were times in their careers where they were the victims of discriminatory behavior and they were either uncomfortable reporting it or they didn't see a result uh on the other side we have heard from folks that are very concerned about um curriculum and what they're seeing at at a national level and I want to make sure that we reemphasize what we've talked about uh that about what fostering healthy solutions is doing for us and what they are not they are helping us uh do a better job of making and helping our our students all our students uh feel safe in the environment that they're in when we're serving them uh at School uh all students feeling safe uh
068is is very important to us and what we've learned over this past year plus is uh that many of our young alumni and current students and parents have told us there were times when they weren't comfortable reporting that I am so gratified that we're at a point uh here in this community that they are comfortable now telling us that because just a few years ago that was a rarity in my experience uh and so I think that's a step forward you all making the decision to bring in fostering healthy solutions is is is is another step in that direction um they're going to review our policies they're going to help us set goals and action steps to help our students be more comfortable and be safer in our in our schools they are not creating
069curriculum for us uh they are Consulting with us in helping us walk on this journey uh to improve how we serve our students uh will'll also tell you that we have a small frequently asked questions section in our strategic planning web page uh that addresses uh those questions and so I would always invite folks to to go to that go to strategic planning uh and on the right hand side um there are a handful of questions that basically reiterate uh what I just talked about we'll continue to update those um as questions arise and uh I know that Miss Garrett is going to actually talk to you at least briefly about some scheduling uh issues related to that so that is my um brief update uh from a superintendent's perspective uh we're really uh excited
070about where we are this fourth quarter we see growth and change uh on the horizon uh um we're not out out of the woods yet um but uh but we're making some progress on the on the covid front uh and on something that I think is going to be a very long-term um growth um Journey for us with um how we serve our diverse student body so Madame chair of course I'm open to any questions that they that that anyone may have Madam chair you're on mute you stay ahead of myself there board members if you have any questions would you please raise your hand in the chat take a quick scroll here uh Mr galberth thank you madam chair um Jason a few a few questions um sorry j galberth here District six um
071with the with the three-foot rule versus the versus the old six-foot rule what was the old rule as defined by the CDC the the old number one I'm going to invite Gary to to to make sure I'm correct the the old rule was six F feet 15 minutes um constituted that was the minimum Baseline that constituted uh close contact which would um trigger the health department making a quarantine decision that was a threshold I will tell you also we we learned from them that uh that there were also times where they would quarantine even if someone did not meet that threshold based on the details of their investigation Gary uh yes sir that's correct that they changed it from 6 feet 15 minutes to 6 feet 15 minutes over 24hour period so it didn't have
072to be all at one time of 15 minutes it can be over an exposure period of of 24 hours so so what actually changes with this with this three-foot rule well according to the CDC documents and the information that the uh that the health department the State Health Department is following and they then send it down to the regional and the regional sends it to the local Health Department what that all entails is they are still doing close contact based on the six foot uh parameter even though the distance even though they're saying you can get closer they're still going to go through the six foot uh uh distance as their Baseline to determine close contact so so this so This guidance is really more of of what's deemed to be to be a safe
073dist to be in school right so the CDC prior said that a 6ot distance was was required six foot distance was required to uh you had to be over six foot away from a but I'm not it's not talking about quaran it's talking about just a safe distance to have school um they're saying you can you can be 3 feet apart so if you don't if you're if you're putting distance and quarantine don't come in play together on this three the distance doesn't doesn't play the same as the quarantine that's that's what that's what I'm trying to point out so the old the old CDC guidance was that that a safe distance was six feet they they did not support us the us having school the way we were having school we made a we
074made a determination that that we we had to weigh going hybrid or having less than 100% capacity with having 100% capacity and being as distanced as possible but less than probably less than six foot apart did we make that determination we made the determination uh you all think back to our discussion in you know in July we made the determination based on their recommendations uh that that well two things one they you know the the mask issue that but second in this particular context they said to be to maintain social distancing um when possible and what we determined and we're very clear with folks over the summer is it's not possible for us to have everyone on campus uh and be that six feet um at the time it was it was 10 minutes um
075so we were going to do what we could within that range but knowing that it wasn't wasn't feasible to do that all the time I so so to your point yeah the the guidelines were if feasible do it we said it's not not feasible okay so um so with respect to the temperature checks um what guidance were we following when we chose to continue the temperature checks for three months after the CDC said that they were no longer warranted well the original the original U CDC guidelines were were to do it and and you all may recall that the state bought hundreds of thermometers for districts across the the uh the state um when when that change was made the uh the CDC um included in that recommendation that parents take their children's temperatures um
076in the mornings uh we were already set up for it uh locally it was it was feasible the county had uh it you know was still doing it was was doing it and is still doing it at their buildings uh we determined that because we had it in place uh and and uh and it was feasible and doable that it still made sense for us to do that rather than put that EXP on our parents and but you said the reason that you that you discontinued that was was largely in part um was largely due to the to the data that we collected to say that that showed that that was not a worthwhile effort that that yeah that's that's right that that it was that there was no need for that um based on
077based on the data that we've learned so we had the ability to collect data and make decisions um irrespective of the CDC we we've done it we've done it with we've done it with the three-foot rule or the six foot rule we made a determination that that we couldn't we couldn't accommodate six feet but having kids in school was better than not having them in school um and then we determined based on our uh collection of data that that the temperature checks were no longer needed that's right the CDC recommendations for for uh um close contact for proximity was if feasible we determined it wasn't feasible uh to to do what they recommended and made decision made the decision to to have students on campus even though it wasn't feasible uh and we did um
078as as you point out continue the temperature checks beyond the time that they were actually recommending schools check so when so do we don't we have have enough data um over over the course of time over a half a million quarantines or so or quarantine days to to determine that that the transmission rates of um of these quarantine students is I mean I've heard anywhere from one and a half to 3% something like that um like don't we have the ability to to know to know that that that especially now that the CDC is saying that three um three feet is adequate um you know can we how how do we Implement a a threefoot limit um for quarantines because that would um that by I mean with with the combination of our teachers not
079not quarantining or our vaccinated teachers not causing our our our healthy students not to quarantine um by virtue of their vaccination and then the the three-foot rule we would we would eliminate I mean what do you what would you think 80 plus 90 plus percent of our quarantines Mr yes ma'am if I can make a Qui Point clarification here um I just I just want to remind the board that um that these guidelines have just been received and there's a lot of conversation going on right now with the health department I know that the staff has had several meetings today about you know how how can we apply these new guidelines what do these new guidelines really mean so I just want to make sure that we all realize that you know staff may not
080be able to answer all of the questions that we have for them tonight and so um Jason and staff I just want to make sure that that um as always you feel comfortable to say I don't know the answer to that right at this time because we got these guidelines at 4:00 and we've been looking at them all day but we will we will inform the board and the public when we can thank you madam chair uh I I don't know that I can answer the the the 80% question that Mr galberth asked but what I can tell you is is that what we're exploring is is the the potential increased input that we'll that we'll have when we speak to the health department about quarantine decisions um with what we're doing uh and so
081so my hope is and what we're exploring with them is that our input in individual quarantine cases may be more significant I think the next few weeks will tell um you know based on that based on that um that reduction from the CDC uh I don't know if Gary has the ability to answer the the statistical question Gary Anderson I I wouldn't know about what percentage to put on it something like that so no I don't have I don't have a good answer for that right now well the I mean the three-foot the three-foot change is worthless we haven't it's it's completely what we've been doing all along and so if we don't if we don't work with whether we work with the health department or without the health department if we if we don't
082stop quarantining people for um that are where where the um where the distance is is less is more than three feet apart less than six feet apart then we're going to continue like we the board asked you to do something to um to limit the number of quarantines and you've you've continued to say that working with the health department is um is reducing the number of quarantines and that's just not true now so we have the ability to make our own decision on whether students are allowed in school or not only the only the health department and send that letter that gives the health department backed endorsed um order to stay home by order of law but we don't have to do that all we have to do is tell the student whether they can
083and can come to school and and we can do that like one of the parents said with a lice letter to tell them that someone in their in their class within their vicinity was was found to test positive if you're asymptomatic and are comfortable with coming to school then you can still do that we have the ability to make that decision on our own do we not I'm not sure of your question but let me tell you what we do have the ability to do and and I feel better about this change than I think you may because you said this this doesn't do any good I I disagree with that in part because of where we are at this stage and timing um I my opinion and what we're working on is that we
084will have the ability to convince our local Health Department based on the based on the safety measures that we're implementing uh to to to to be um less Broad in uh in their quarantine decisions as they quaran te uh to your to your and and we're early to to miss Carr's Point um but I haven't just looked at those on Friday and said this doesn't do us any good I think it opens up another door for us to just discuss with the local Health authorities uh to talk about what we're doing to talk about some of those some of those numbers uh like you've discussed and make and make different decisions on that I think this is at this stage um a change that that is encouraging that deserves that exploration uh as as far
085as your question about um can we can we tell students that they can that they can come to school uh you were right that the health department is the quarantine body that they tell someone they can't uh they can't come to school uh as superintendent uh um when when uh when a health authority has made a decision that someone needs to quarantine um it I can't as a as an education professional say I know the health department has told you that but come on anyway no I'm not I'm not ask I'm asking the opposite so okay if you don't if the health department doesn't know right if the health department is never told about the person um and then you have the authority to allow that student in school or not because of because of
086having symptoms either tested positive or having a fever or symptoms based on based on your guidelines you can refuse a student's ability to come to school and and and request that they be sent home okay I think I know what you're I think I know what you're saying and so and hopefully this answers this question um when someone is sick we take them to the nurse or to the office and say you know call a parent or a guardian and say you need to come home and pick your child up they're sick uh um we have not quarantined or told anyone you have to go home now because we think you were in a close contact uh we haven't done that throughout this year we have told people hey it's possible you may be you
087may remember some of those early months uh um when when the health department was there but we have hav't been telling anyone you have to go home because we think you were um exposed to a positive case that that has been something that that has been an exclusive purview of the health department throughout I do know that there have been school systems who have done that on their own uh but but we have we have not done that I'm not sure I think that answerers so we have we have the ability to do that so right right now our nurses are compiling with our with our assistant principls and probably other administrative staff um they're compiling this big old long sheet of data that we're handing over to the to the health department we could
088use that same sheet of data and and determine who can and can't come to school I just want to make sure that we're we're legally I'm not I'm not asking if you want to do that but under our legal Authority allows us to do that could we tell someone we believe that you um a close contact and therefore you need to go home yes we could do that right we can't tell them that they can't go anywhere else else by order of law by order of the health department only the health department that's a quarantine we're just telling them that they have to go home and can't come back for a certain number of days right and so and and we and we could base that on what we all know based on our based
089on our data and based on what the CDC says that a three-foot distance is a safe distance like regardless of whether they're changing the quarantine determination or not we could base our decision whether to allow somebody into school based on that three-foot distance instead of a six foot distance is that correct we could do that I think what you're saying is the same thing that I just answered which is we could tell somebody we think you were close contact and therefore you can't come to school yes we can do that I don't think that's a good idea um but yes we could we could do that why do you not think why do you I think that's a good idea so so I try I'll try to be as blunt as as I can why
090would we overstep and make decisions without the health professionals doing it why would we in essence tell somebody to get out of the schools when the health department hasn't told them to I just don't understand why we would do that for the same for the for the same reason that that uh that we don't that that we haven't been that we follow the health authorities I'm not prepared to say as an education professional that quarantine makes perfect sense uh and you know that the legislature has from time to time in the last year or so argued this very question about putting that on putting that on schools um if that passes and we're the decision maker we know we know we're it we could do what you're saying but I I don't see the the
091reason for doing more than the than the health department does well right I'm not I'm not saying to do more I'm saying to follow a guideline that's different that follows the CDC guide like right right now the CDC guideline is contradictory right it's saying 3 feet is safe but we're going to quarantine you up to six feet like so we could if you if you set your if you set your desk three feet apart then and you're sitting next to each other it's safe but we're still going to quarantine you like that doesn't make any sense and we have the we have the intellect our nurses have the intellectual capacity to understand that that doesn't make any sense and all it's doing all we're we're we're basically allowing the health department to determine our educational
092ability right so we're we're allowing them to just quarantine 20 15 20 people to for every contact even though a very very small number of those ever test positive or shows any symptoms and we know that by data so why don't we I mean why can't we go back to the lice warning and and we notify the parents that they that there is a that there is a communicable disease found in their um in their classroom in close vicinity if you have if you have lice if you have U any symptoms please don't come to school but if you don't just consider it a warning and be on alert for the next two weeks to know that you might have been exposed to to that Ma Madame chair may I call a point of order
093here the off Brooks is that permissible yes it is okay please so so I I guess my point of order is this we do have an agenda to continue on and follow and and I believe Mr galbreth has had an opportunity to ask his questions to Mr golden per Mr Golden's offer of answering questions but I I guess I would make the point that it I feel like it's that that we're venturing down into a area of badgering and argument uh as opposed to just asking questions my my point is I think we we want to remind us that we have an agenda of voting tonight on items as well this is not strict just a work session may I continue so um chairman Garrett this is Dana OS Brooks I do think it is
094an appropriate time at 8 o'clock we've been going since 6:30 to take a break I would appreciate a comfort break okay we can take a break here and we'll we'll come back in 10 minutes e e e Mr Welch and Mr Mitchell at this point we'll move ahead uh we're back to Mr gal's questions and then following Mr galri Mr Mitchell Mr Wimberly uh I believe some hands have gone down since the break so we have Mr galberth then Mr Mitchell then Mr Wimberly Mr galberth thank you madam chair um Jay galberth District six so um so Jason um I mean listening to the parents um that spoke a majority of them U maybe 12 or 13 uh they they all wanted to understand the the timing of the of the registration deadline tomorrow and
095um with the you know having to have just a a vague notion of of the current plan for last year and I know I guess it's your plan to to keep with that same framework um but we are not the I guess the board is not weighing in on that we're just we're just accepting that you're not making any changes for for next year is there um I mean is there a is there anything that you can give them other than other than waiting and letting the health department determine what we're going to do um like you know right now right now it says zero cases is what we're going to look like for no mask and and until then we're it's mask and all the other restrictions until zero cases in the county so
096what else can you give them besides we're going to wait on the health department to to be comfortable uh with making their decision tomorrow well first of all thanks thanks for that question um and the framework uh was for this year for 2020 2021 uh that that you all approved uh and it gave me the flexibility to make changes um what I can tell you right now as as superintendent like I like I said in my report um I intend to follow the uh the CDC and State Health Department guidelines um I I can't predict the future in five months but what I can tell folks is that we're going to make the best decisions we can for student safety uh follow the follow the guidelines with a goal of keeping students on campus um
097and and like we talked about at the work session I'm I'm optimistic because of those those those items that I've seen but I can't predict the future other than to say we're going to do what we can do as education professionals to make sure students are safe based upon what the health authorities give us so I I guess I mean the suicide rates are are are up um as we heard somebody say the president of the APA is speaking out to return to normaly as soon as possible for for lots of reasons other than covid right so the the health department is giving us and the CDC is giving us guidance only for one little piece of the of the puzzle which is protecting us from Co um but at some point we have to
098let parents make decisions on how to protect their kids from everything else um not related to co and so the the online program was was instituted to give parents a choice um so that we weren't forcing people to go to school when they didn't feel comfortable um and so at winter winter so so you're saying the the the parents choice is to is tonight is tomorrow their choice is to determine if they trust that the CDC uh and is going to um is going to remove the mass mandate at some point um or you're you're sending two constituencies now to to online programming you're sending the students who are still scared of covid because of their health condition or one of a family member and now you're you're going to you're going to force the
099students right now to make a decision based on their estimation of whether um of whether the restrictions are going to be removed let me let me if I can um answer that U with a couple of couple of pieces number one the decision is based on a semester not a year and I know that one of the parents had mentioned a full year so I want to make sure that that's clear uh second um as we talked about at the work session ordinarily uh these decisions um related to enrollment and and classes are made in January we push that schedule as far back as we possibly can um but but finally what I can offer everyone is given that we've pushed this back as far as we can um we are going to make the
100best safety decisions we can for everyone with a goal of keeping students on campus I can't predict the future I can't make a declaration one way or the other I just can't um and and uh and and and I I understand what you're saying and I respect it uh um but but what I what I can do is tell folks that we will follow the health department um guidelines as best we can while keeping students on campus understand so but other other school districts Murray County uh Rutherford is is up for a vote on whether or not they are going to um allow mass for for next year so it it's something within our authority to do we're not we're not beholding to to anyone to make this this is a decision that we can
101make as a board correct yes sir yeah that's right quarantines are so I'm gonna this is Dana osbr I'm gonna stop you there superintendent golden because I want to make sure I understand Mr gal's question can you state that again yes so there's a couple of counties have um either have not required masks all all year or are um proposing to have votes for the from the board um to determine if they are going to make mask optional or required um next year um and so I just want to understand if that's something that's within our authorities to do so I'm happy to have that conversation with you offline um but generally my answer is going to be yes but I obviously want more specifics um so feel free to contact me offline for that
102legal advice thank you Mr galri that's fine I appreciate that um so so I guess Jason my my last my last plea um is and I know I know most of the people um on here don't have kids in school um and so I just want to give you and and Miss AIA made a a great plea for for her son and I really do um I really do appreciate that uh that perspective my perspective is coming from um coming from a senior who is waiting for this meeting to understand and having to make a decision um because he cannot um just mentally cannot cannot do another semester like um like the last two um and so we've got to make some tough choices in my household um and so I just wanted to make
103sure that everybody everybody understands the the difficult situation that um that we're putting parents in right now but my question Jason is if if the health department is going to be um so involved and setting policy for our Public School System um then I would like to propose that I would really like for you to proposed to delay the the registration deadline until we have a special session where we can invite officials from the state and local Health Department um to to discuss these things um and I'm asking to do it fairly expeditiously um but they're also public officials and and I've only I think we've only had one opportunity to uh to talk with any of the um I think there was a Dr Parish came on to the County Commission one time uh
104I wasn't able to attend but um but these are public officials that are making public policy uh we have to sit here and have public meetings and be subject to um Public public meetings and public scrutiny um and I I think that the least they could do is come and uh and answer some of these questions for us um as far as to give our our parents and students better understanding as far as what we can expect in the future this Garrett if I may yes please um Mr galberth this is Dana osbrook again um great suggestion thank you for that comment and um that's something that we can discuss offline I guess with all due respect I wanted to I want to I want to discuss I want to make the make the statement
105publicly um and I'm fine to to have the conversation offline as to as to how we do that or if we can thank you thank you for your comments Mr G our next speaker is Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair um Jason my my question is around what can we do uh towards the question on graduation tickets and the if we if if um um can we revisit that that for maximum rule possibly given the new guidance or given the fact that not all schools are the same and that uh um you know and I guess I'll remind everybody the reason we're doing this outside is because the uh facilities that we normally use are not available to us this year uh whether it be uh lipskin Belmont or the uh County County Agricultural facility
106um so anyway that would be my question uh is there an opportunity to revisit that limit thank you Mr Mitchell short answer is yes um that is something we're working on right now as a result of what we receive Friday afternoon and I guess I'll the other point I'll remind my my colleagues around the the and and parents too that the the the reason for I guess setting a a limit or a deadline on on deciding you know online versus uh in person for your for your children is the the district has has the challenge of scheduling hiring Staffing and the placement of Staff right so moving teachers from one school to the other uh determining whether they're willing to accept that movement uh and and Al and things of that nature so it really
107becomes quite a logistics battle in organizing the the staff and scheduling the staff plus I think we mentioned in the previous meeting that it becomes a um um a lot of these lot of the staffs that make this decisions are are not 12month employees they only work 10 or 11 months of the year and so their U ability our ability to have them extend beyond their contracted uh obligations is somewhat limited too so thank you for my I'm done with my comments Mr Wimberly uh thank you madam chair and I guess um what I was going to ask about uh kind of picking back on what Elliot said and um first of all as far as the the delay uh or changing the deadline for notification as to what the intentions are for next year
108I felt like I made a pretty strong case I thought it was a strong case at the work session for for that delay um but uh Mr Golden and Dr web did an outstanding job explaining it but the thing of of why it was important now but the the one sentence that stuck with me was uh when Dr web said if we delay the deadline we may need to delay the start of the next school year and to me I said all right uh I'll back off of that um but I also wanted to to make sure I heard this correctly and and to some degree it's tied to what you said Elliot that 3 to6 uh change by the CDC is not a minor thing if I heard correctly because almost everyone who spoke
109up about uh the the pandemic precautions in in live comment and certainly you know we've we hear it over and over mentioned that um uh that there was concern about kids not being able to be together in cafeteria uh that there was concern about specials uh outdoor activities and if I heard you write Mr Golden you said that this three to six and correct me if I'm wrong will allow you and staff in the coming days weeks whenever to improve Elementary element uh uh improve I think you called it Elementary m ability which means that within this quarter that some of the schools that have not been using the cafeterias um the way they did preco uh would be looking at expanding the use of the cafeterias and that uh that special instruction which has
110been restricted as far as the mobility of the kids that some of that Mobility would open and then I think he said on the secondary level that that there was um that this really opens up uh the outdoor activities which includes graduation and that you and staff would be looking that at that over some time so did I hear that correctly yes sir that's accurate I will say at the elementary level um number one uh getting to specials is is an issue number two um we're going to explore um whether whether based on on this um with the the eating um we we can expand at some of those schools that have been sitting in their classrooms yes okay thank you Mr Hall thank you chair um in addition to what Mr Wimberly brought up
111and to Mr gash's concerns about the registration deadline um if I recall from the work session if if people have specific concerns um I believe Dr Webb said to contact uh with the principal or a central office what accommodations should what what would advice would you give to somebody who's really struggling with this decision right now in in the midst of such uncertainty for tomorrow let alone this fall speak with your principal that's that's the that's the appropriate answer um we have we have spent a lot of time um going through um individ idual needs and it is very important that folks have that deep conversation with their principal about individual needs because we know every students is every student's unique that's a portion of what school counselors do as well it's a significant part
112of of a counselor's work to be very specific in councel but short answer which I struggle with speak to your principal share that okay thank you and then um I'm excited about any changes that do return us to more normaly um and as you've termed a new phrase tonight for me elementary Mobility uh that sounds like a good thing um but how will those changes be communicated and and how swiftly do you think that that we might be able to see some of those things take place well uh I'll answer the first one first uh we we're going to communicate it in multiple ways but it it will it will go directly to parents uh every parent um that's that's that's number one uh and it may be class by class and school by school
113because they're because of the the way the school facilities are structured and student numbers and Staffing it it may look a little bit different at each each school okay second how quickly uh it you know I I I struggle with a specific answer to that um I know we started those conversations today because we got the you know message on Friday afternoon um so as soon as we can make a change each time we will thank you m Durham thank you Miss Garrett um just a quick question about I have three questions one is about prom um is that also going to be Revisited like graduations as well you know with the groups of eight and staying in boxes and you know stuff like that I mean it seems like if kids can sit in
114class for several hours 3 feet apart they should be able to be be at a prom you know just that I mean and the reality is that you know I was reading emails on our break and a parent said they're going to be unmasked before at dinner they're going to be unmasked after at parties and let's just face reality it's not like we're going to reduce spread order's not going to by putting all these restrictions in place same with school don't reduce spread by you know having them wear masks and having things you know all the restrictions because they're just doing their own thing afterward you know because they're not spending the majority of their time in our building so I just I think as much as we can lift and let people make their
115own decisions overall the best it's for the best and so just with that is prom going to be addressed as well well that that's a good question and uh yes we are going to review that and and all our extracurricular activities because the standards have changed cool and and what we what we based our restrictions on was was you know a prior standard so it deserves a review awesome just want to clarify that um and then in terms of the registration I mean parents can enroll and then disenroll and then they can not enroll and then they can still enroll when they make their decision right I know it's a deadline but technically I mean we would accept them you know August 1st if they enroll right it wouldn't be easy on us to have
116to adjust and make changes but the reality is we don't we could still accept or they could just disenroll if they made the decision at a future date to go to a private school right well um we're a public school and so anytime anyone arrives we serve them um I will tell you that there are times where somebody you know might show up at a particular day when school's in session and it takes a day or two to figure out you know classes and and whether they can whether a class is made you know if there's enough students you think about how a college does does schedules whether there's room in a particular class because of pupil teacher ratios so all those factors will you know will become relevant um anytime someone comes not that
117I'm encouraging it I'm just you know making a point I mean I enrolled my kids but I'm definitely going to make a decision for you know my son's senior year and my daughter's sore year based on where they can have the most normal experience um so you know playing basketball doing dance team just all the things that they want to do I want to make sure they get the most robust unrestricted High School experience they can get so they're enrolled but they're going to go where ultimately where I feel like they're going to get the best experience so um so I just want to I guess emphasize too with the parents who joined the call today which I really appreciate everybody coming on um I don't I I I think there's a lot of discussion
118around masks but I think it's the whole again the whole experience um and from a learning and communicating perspective it's very difficult to communicate learn get to know people and whatever in a mask so I cannot wait for the mask to be gone um I don't wear them any chance I get not to wear them and so it's definitely I support as much freedom in our faces as well so but thank you I know everybody's just trying to um make the right decisions I I just feel it necessary to share my position to so I support loosening things up and giving freedoms and letting parents make choices thank you Mr Cash uh yes thank you madam chair Dan cash second district uh Angela I couldn't agree with you more that was part of what I
119wanted to say and Jay thank you for uh taking uh I mean talking about the the issues um Jason we have we have the CDC the State Health Department the local Health Department tssaa all these entities that have say and what our children do and what our parents do um I've got a real problem with some of those uh you know the tssaa um now we still have to have temperature checks well you know it's no big deal really I guess but uh uh in the case of the cheerleaders we have and kind of like referring to what Angela said we have wrestlers out there sweating on each other basketball players bumping and rubbing uh you know football face to face and yet they make a decision based on what for cheerleaders that that that's
120something that I feel this school system has the authority to say hey we're going to do this for these cheerleaders and they are going to perform that never happen there's there seems to always be some fine point some fine um uh key that's not crossed or that is crossed that keeps us from uh going to school or on how we quarantine um I mean am I right or wrong how many different entities are we dealing with six here five you you've hit the right ones and uh and Mr Cash and and that a that's an excellent point about cheerleaders and we we agreed with that and you all may recall the tsaa said we didn't want to do this either but we received a directive from the governor and it took a few weeks but
121boy I'm glad I'm glad we were able to get that changed um but you're right weeks it was six weeks their whole their whole semester I mean I don't care what the tssa they didn't want to do this or because what somebody said at the governor's office that's where I feel that this board should be more involved in these decisions and that with the board support that gives you the support you need to make a decision like that but to go on I you know about the the uh registration uh did I also hear uh that it's going to be only for one semester yes sir we're still that might help that might help some people but in the case of quarantines now my my grandson first grader I was called on last the Tuesday
122before spring break I had to go pick him up he was quarantined no date to come back course we were going to spring break so that took care of that but I asked where why haven't we I usually get a email or a text or my son does neither one of us ever got a text from the health department never heard from the health department whatsoever but we were sent home from school okay all right my uh my seventh grade grandson I was called to pick him up because he was quarantined never heard from the health department then then all of a sudden after about uh 8 days that time they started asking how he felt okay the only one out of my four that the health department did contact my son was with my
123fifth grader that was done in the process that we have set up so I don't know who's doing this or what the Health Department's doing I don't care care if they're backed up or what their problem is they want to handle all this but I'm just saying and that's my personal you know experience now there's many more like just like that so where I would like to get is I would like this board to have more say rather than sit here and and talk about this stuff till we're blue in the face which doesn't matter because this board has no say in this to continue on like we're doing I think we need to really look uh at some changes uh you know in in the process again I said it early early on that
124I didn't feel like I thought this was much too big for just a superintendent or a couple staff members to make decisions for so uh let me just look just to make sure Jay made some really good points and I agree with him uh you know on some of this the distancing and whatnot so I I think uh you know a couple of us might be if it's possible to be in a you know a session with with Dana on that uh if that's possible I don't know if it is I don't think it is but and so anyhow I see Dana on there yes sir Miss chairman Garrett if I may Mr Cash I am always happy to uh speak with you offline if there's some questions that you have about Authority or what
125um what you want to see happen or suggestions feel free to um to reach out to me and and we can have those discussions okay those discussion will be separate I will not have a discussion with both you and Mr galberth at the same time but to talk to you that's what I thought but but going forward uh these decisions um you know who had who does have the authority like a couple of school systems board members have been voting on this stuff in other school districts but we're we're dealing with one of the six six uh areas that has a health department correct uh Jason uh it's actually the uh other way around um on the health department the the big uh metropolitan areas of their own health department and the state governs us
126and most of the of the of the uh the state does govern Williamson County yes okay I thought we had our own along with that okay thanks for clarifying that okay thank you that's what I wanted to say appreciate it thank you Mr Cash real real quickly to your point you're right there are a number of entities who have their area of authority and our area of authority you know we we addressed with a with a with a board vote for our plan back in July sorry madam chair go ahead that's okay I was just gonna call on Mr Welch thank you um I guess I have a question or I guess my question is is there an action on the floor for us to be considering or voting on um chairman Garrett if I
127may to answer your question Mr Welch no there is not this has been a series of questions over the last hour uh to Mr superintendent golden regarding his report well Dana I'm going to disagree with you I don't think it has been a series of questions I think it's been a series of of statements and we were two hours into the meeting um if there is action to be taken then I would say we should have an agenda item and discuss it at a work session and vote on it at a board meeting but we're rehashing the same conversations we've had here for three six nine months uh and there's no action to be taken so if this is the will of the board or this is what individuals want then I would respectively suggest
128that it should be placed on the agenda the motion should be made and we should discuss it at that point um because we're spinning our Wheels again and again here and there's nothing that uh is being accomplished other than uh the same discussion that's already taking place again and again thank you Mr Welch Mr Mitchell I'm sorry my hand wasn't up I'll take it down okay thank you okay I believe that is our last comment um from Mr Golden's report and now we will move on to miss bird song Student staff and school spotlights and I understand that there are many many student spotlights this month so Miss B and Madam chair this is Jason G I may just preface this um I'm so excited about these because it really just does emphasize the the
129successful work that our students have been doing this year Miss Birdsong thank you Mr golden thank you chairman uh Garrett we are celebrating tonight many many students so for the third year in a row and Mr MCN is assisting me and so thank you Mr MCN for the third year in a row we are celebrating more than 50 students who are being recognized as National Merit finalist we are going to start at brenwood high school with Patrick Mo Shila chelby Joe grunberg Abby Jordan next slide thank thank you Parker C Keswick Tristan Kennedy Julia Lee and Oakley Martin Isabelle oldum Kylie Overton Michelle we Samuel Robbie also from Brentwood High School Anna Sullivan Emily blanak Steven Walter Elise Wilkins and Ron y from Centennial High School this is Jacob Williams from Fairview High School this
130is Ryan Kilgore and from Franklin High School we have Jason Amsler Connor Beav Williams Foster eileene who sue Patrick llama Daniel maton Sarah nton whoops I got ahead of myself brand Brandon vaugh Ella Watley and joy Yin from Independence High School Joshua Cannon Benjamin dondanville Amelia prous and emila sour from Nolanville High School Alex Jones from Paige High School hiy Berg Anika Kosik Logan Sava and Lee Walters from Ravenwood High School sharid abdala Chris Abram William bike and Ashley Harmon also from Ravenwood High School Amy herd Trisha mazdar Asana MAA Emma Meyer also from Ravenwood High School Peter salmon Selena Wang Christian West and Aaron woo from Summit High School NAA Bron those are your National Merit finalists now we are going to move into the Tennessee High School press Association awards and once again
131Brentwood High School has been named the best TV station in the state of Tennessee also Brentwood High School brought home the award for best sports coverage of a live event also Brentwood High School's Harrison McConnell won for the best sports show Chad Barker won first place State award for the best sports feature story and Alex Wells Cammy rhman Jack Wilson and Zack gamer won for the best public service announcement their teacher is Ronnie Adcock but Franklin High School also brought home an award this is Christian Ward best commercial his teacher is Carrie Thompson and Independence High School won for best music video Harrison Kyle and Gabe Hall and they also won at Independence for the best sports video this is Bradley Hicks and Sam wild their teacher is Matt baller and in athletics from Fairview
132High School this is Riley Bennett he won the tsaa wrestling single AA state championship in the 145 pound weight class his coach is James Derek so board members Mr Golden so many students to celebrate tonight congratulations to the all thank you Miss bird song Those are those are really nice celebrations to see during this this year that is so unique so appreciate your time and putting that information together for us moving on to the board chairs report I have a few items here uh some some brief notes and reminders first of all we've received an email to sign up to volunte here at the round two vaccine clinics for Williamson County Schools both this week and next uh please let Miss Blen know if you want to work one of those slots or one or
133more of those slots uh I think we talked about what a great experience that was to be able to see our teachers because we haven't been able to see so many of our teachers and staffs staff this year and um so if you haven't done that I'd encourage you to find some time on your calendar and get over there if possible um the second thing that I want to report is that March 29th from 6:00 to 8 is our board's meeting with fostering Healthy Solutions and we'll be discussing diversity and inclusion topics uh so please make sure you have that on your calendar also per the Tennessee School Board Association please register if you plan to attend the tsba convention in the fall we've all received an email about that um and then um just
134want to remind everyone that right now um there are three primary ways that we can stay in touch with constituents and those are our WCS emails phone calls and then uh public comment like we had tonight of course the um email and phone calls are the opportunity to have more interaction with folks uh and sometimes um you know a a much a much speedier way to talk to people and understand what their concerns are and regarding concerns we we had a lot of discussion here you know usually these monthly meetings are voting meetings and obviously um we had more discussion here than we normally have at our voting meetings um but I just want I just want to make sure that that we continue to provide this input from our constituents uh to superintendent golden
135and to our staff um because this is certainly not the only place to to give and receive that feedback we we have the opportunity to take some of these ideas that we've heard and um you know provide them to the staff and I just want to reiterate that the staff did say to us that you know they've received this information Friday when when everybody was on on spring break and they've been looking at it today so I'm confident that the staff will respond to anything that we forward to them and anything that we bring to them um during this week and I know that I'm I'm confident as well that there's an emphasis on trying to to do that and to see what we can open up quickly um so I just want to make
136sure that we we continue to do that not just in this meeting but outside of this meeting and then finally I I want to address something that that I haven't heard before this year on the board but you know it's it's a discussion of you know there's a big division you know there's a possibly a division between board members who have children in schools and board members who don't and I just I want to say that I think that every different perspective brings value and I am now one of those board members who is not a a current parent after 12 years of being a parent and 12 years of being a PTO officer and 12 years of being very engaged in what my child was doing but the the side of that that I
137want to make sure that we all appreciate and respect is that what that brings me is much more opportunity to talk to parents and to be at other students students events other than mine and much more free time to really reach out to people and engage with people and I think that's true um you know with with other people too so I just I just want to make sure that that we appreciate that we bring a variety of experiences we bring a variety of professional expertise um to this to our meetings and to our works and I appreciate that um I know that many of us have family members who are still in schools and we have we are very close to those perspectives and close to the issues of what is going on with
138our students this year so I just want to say that to everybody and also want to say that I appreciate everybody's unique perspective so thank you and that concludes my report and now we'll move on to new business and the first thing is the 2020 2021 Schoolboard budget the approval of the general purpose School fund Amendment 3.2.1 GPS private Grant award $5,000 Mr golden thank you madam chair this is a private grant for stem and we are asking for your approval for us to accept it and put it into Tech Supplies with the detail that was in the memo recommend approval is there a motion to approve uh Brad fiscus motion to approve Mr fiscus makes the motion is there a second Dan cash second Mr Cash seconds is there any discussion there's no discussion
139Miss Glenn we can move to a vote please Madam chair this is Lydia Glenn Angela Duram Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Jenna Pria yes Jay galberth Jay galberth yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy [Music] Emerson Miss serson I believe you're still on mute press the space bar and hold it down and talk thank you yes candy Emerson Wimberly Rick Wimberly yes Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall casy h yes Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett yes vote is 12 yes zero no your motion passes thank you our next item is the approval of the 2021 2022 school budget and the first item is the general purpose School fund Mr golden thank you madam chair as you know from uh the budget work
140session we had in the work session and the number of questions that you all were good enough to ask of uh of uh of our staff uh we have prepared the budget for you and I want to mention some just a small number of key points just to reemphasize this for those who who are watching uh we we've included a recommended 4% uh pay increase for next year for our for our faculty and staff uh we have added a significant amount of funding for the online program uh and uh and we have made sure that we have covered uh the the special education needs of our students uh we do recommend approval is there a motion to approve Rick Wimberly move to approve Mr Wimberly makes the motion as there a second Mar Welch second
141Mr Welch seconds is there any discussion uh Mr fiscus um Mr Golden there's always a lot of discussion about the be um and for for those listening can you help or maybe Rachel uh would let's so that we can be clear about what we fund from the county funding what B funds um and so that that would help people understand a little bit how this funding works thank you Mr fiscus that's a great question be is the basic educational program that the state funds it it is a baseline percentage of what they have determined at the state level is the basics of Education um I don't know a district in the state that doesn't fund more than be because it it it is it is clear clearly from an educational P um perspective um not
142covering everything we need especially at places like uh like Williamson County where where we offer a lot of instructional choic especially at the high school level um our our County does more um and I'm estimating Rachel correct me if I'm wrong somewhere around 59% of our total funding comes from the county um then be is next and then we get maybe about 2% or so a year from federal uh so that should give folks uh uh perspective that over the years our board has uh has has set um high standards for the services we provide and our commission has funded it to a pretty high level so this recent um uh money that was given from the state um we were we had in order to give our Stu our teachers a bonus we had
143to fund part of that bonus uh for the 2021 bonus that we just gave them correct so that that's a good question so the state put money in uh through a through a special called um uh January um legislative meeting uh they voted to to fund a particular portion of be which covered classroom teachers um some nurses and a and a handful of other specific jobs there were many jobs in the district that were not part of that piece of the be that they put money into so yes we did um um pay for um you know through through our funding through your vote and through the commission approving the expenditure those other positions that were not part of that particular element that where that where the state put money thank you Mr galberth thank
144you madam chair Jay galberth um I guess this is for um for Miss farmer and I just wanted to know if the if our Gap has gone down based on any additional information that we've received over the over the last couple of weeks since our last meeting thank you m Mr galbert this is um Rachel Farmer and the answer to your question is with us being closed last week there has not been a whole lot of change other than we do feel very strongly um that the sales tax number that we had kind of projected um well not had that we had projected um there will be a little bit more in sales tax coming in that's going to help bridge that Gap is wasn't the wasn't the Esser the Esser number the that 5.2
145million that was not in in this included in here right that is correct and that is another 5.2 million that we have um coming our way and and there was also the I thought there was a couple I thought there was 2.2 million or so that we weren't showing as um as going to be received that we plan to receive also from the federal maybe that was s to U it was from your spreadsheet um right that is from Esther 2 and that is correct so there's two there's around two million plus potentially another five million from S3 that we have yes that we have coming in that we have not accounted for the thing to keep in mind with sr3 as part of that is going to be going towards we need to allocate
146it towards learning loss which will go into next year's um fiscal budget some of the S2 is coming hitting back in this year right but this year it would either it would either contribute towards the beginning fund balance or the ending fund balance assuming that we we're we're not Jason We're not gonna we're not going to spend any more money based on whether we get federal funds or not correct that's right our plan uh is not to spend something for the sake of spending it based on federal I will tell you one example with sr2 that's actually in this this agenda um we did not include about 1.5 million in this in this budget before you for um for technology because our plan is to pay for that out of Esser so that's actually a
147reduction in the in the budget in in that sense because we did not include it in the budget um Esser 3.0 has some more restrictions so we we just got notice last week about the about the projected number the actual number actually uh that every countyy is going to get and that's the 5.2 that you're referencing it is restricted uh to miss Farmer's point they they're restricting it to what they're describing as learning loss so we're going to have some work to do uh to figure out how to address uh that knowing that those are restricted funds is that but the any any money that we spend this summer would be would would fit that bill right that's correct and and and we're and we're only getting I mean we're we're certainly not getting enough
148money so do we do we know how much money we're going to be spending this summer on those summer camps so we that's a good question we don't yet know that for sure and we also don't know how much the state's going to give they did budget some uh for this and it's based on enrollment and ratios uh of of uh of the of which students come and that's why that's one of the big reasons we don't know how much we're going to um actually spend um but yes to your point uh we can we make sure that no no money I'm confident based on that number Rachel correct me if I'm wrong that we will spend no general fund money uh out of um uh for for the for the uh summer school program
149that the legislature approved based on this because we now have this s 3.0 so for learning loss couldn't couldn't some of our RTI that's over and above um that's over and above what the what the state provides be considered towards learning loss I'm can you ask the question again our Specialists that that that are focus on RTI oh I got you thank you um one of the things we're going to have to evaluate is whether whether there's there's an allowance for what is traditionally described as supplanting with federal funds um we generally speaking they do not allow you to supplant existing programs with federal funds that's something that we've got to get an answer to okay well so so all the the sr3 outstand I mean I guess the answer to that being we'll get
150as much as we can um it seems like we're going to have plenty to to bridge the $5.5 million gap that we have my goal is still to um to get to a to a number in excess of that that we can that we can fund our our fund balance to a to an acceptable level um and I and I still have you would have you had a conversation with the mayor about that since we talked um I've I've let him know that that's something we're looking for um uh and I don't have any good answers from him at this stage uh um what I what what I believe is we're in late March they're ultimately working on their budget in July um I think there will be a lot of discussion at public meeting
151um at the commission level over the course of these of over the course of the few months that they start working on their budget um uh what what I do know is that they've worked really hard on getting alternative funding sources for us uh you all know that on the capital side especially uh and so my hope is that they see they see the the same opportunity that you've described in this right okay well thank you and I I mean I'm obviously we don't set the revenue side of the budget just setting what we think is going to come in so I'm I'm comfortable with the expense side of the general of the general purpose fund um I would just like to uh and I obviously I would I would love for for any of
152our board members to um to talk with a well talk with the County Commission about U about the revenue side to to see if it's possible for for for them to set the set the tax rate in such a way that that it that it funds the budget with without using the um the onetime increase from the sales tax that we're getting this year um and it would allow it to to increase our fund balance to give us some to give us all some flexibility go going forward I'm I'm speaking not necessarily as a board member but as a as a as a taxpayer and a citizen I would I would love to be able to to go from as a board standpoint I would love to be able to work with the commission so
153they have some flexibility when when they're short in a future future budget um over the next three years to to be able to have something to pull from rather than us having to use our entire fund balance to to balance our our budget every year so um I appreciate it thanks M farmer thank you I don't see any other questions we can move to a vote Miss Miss Glen thank you madam chair this is Lydia Glenn Angela Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Jenna Pria yes Jak GTH J GTH yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy Emerson Andy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly Rick Wimberly yes Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall casy Hall yes Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett yes your vote
154is 12 yes zero no motion passes thank you the next item is the central cafeteria fund Mr golden thank you madam chair likewise we've had this discussion about the central cafeteria fund um and I appreciate all the questions that you've asked and uh we do recommend approval of that fund or that budget rather thank you we have a motion to approve Andy Emerson move to approve Miss Emerson makes the motion do we have a second Eric Welch second Mr Welch seconds is there any discussion Mr galber thank you madam chair Jake alth um so I'm I'm sorry I just I know we we discussed this a lot at the at the work session as well um in in its current form I just I just can't I can't support this budget um I just don't
155I don't feel like it um you know the fact that we have the the fact that we've allowed the um the fund balance to to line and we put a million and a half in plus whatever we have to put in this year to um to provide solvency to a fund that we really shouldn't be uh subsidizing um I just don't support and I I don't support us providing a a loan um that's not documented and and without a without any payment terms and we're not including any any kind of repayment uh terms in the uh in this budget so I I just I don't think it's responsible and um and I just can't support it so that's my that's going to be my vote thank you Mr galberth I this is Jason go and
156definitely respect that and appreciate your sharing of your thoughts um throughout this process Mr Welch yeah just for a point of clarification I want to make sure the public understands that the loan is Williamson County Schools loaning money to Williamson County schools and the repayment would be Williamson County Schools paying back Williamson County Schools it's it's moving numbers between line items on a ledger it is not loaning money to any outside organization thank you Mr Welch for that um you are you are correct and that's something that the that the board um looked at a couple of months ago thank you I have my hand up um so regarding this approach to addressing the the fund balance um we did Benchmark what other districts were doing correct and what were those other districts doing yes
157ma'am we did Benchmark other districts I would actually like to refer to miss Farmer for that okay thank you this is Rachel farmer and yes we actually reached out to um the division of local government audit and and asked them to give us um their best recommendation on how to handle a situation where we had a fund that could potentially end with a negative fund balance which can't happen and that was the directive they gave us um it is happening all across the state um in situations that has come up and and has come to them with some with the same kind of questions um and their recommendation was to do the transfer from funds um from fund to fund with the stipulation that it should be paid back when a fund balance that was
158sufficient was there um in order to pay it back um other counties around us including I know Rutherford County um is in a similar situation have done the same thing and also um just just another question um Let me let me I've forgotten my notes here um so it is so we're we're in a we're in a very unique situation we've just we've just been in a situation um where you know the the reason you have a fund balance is basically you know things like things like what we've just gone to so that I'm I'm personally very very uh proud of our decade long um audit of no findings do we feel like using this approach uh that has been recommended by this by this outside local government entity do are there concerns that that
159we're going to get dinged about this in any way again this is Rachel farmer and no ma'am I this the local government audit for Tennessee um that is who gave us the directive and they would be who our Auditors were coming in um the assistant director actually for the state comp controller's office is who gave us the um instructions on how to handle it so this is definitely would not be an audit finding and just one more question um would the district accept donations to help um address the budget Gap we always accept donations we always accept donations for um for anything that the community is willing to help with okay and and Madam chair if I may since you asked about donations of course anyone can make restricted gift donations um but I will
160tell you one of the points of emphasis and Mr galberth actually spoke to this um week weeks ago is uh for every meal that we serve through the end of the school year and actually if I'm not mistaken it um Mark cew if I'm wrong it goes through the end of September I believe maybe October um the the uh federal government is reimbursing every meal 100% so everyone um can uh can get a school lunch uh um for for no charge and we actually ask that you do that uh let us serve your children uh this this fourth quarter um take a break from from from sending lunch if you still feel like you need to send you know an item great um but but take a lunch um and that'll actually help us as
161well thank you Mr galber thank you madam chair I also wanted to clarify so yes these are these are these are both funds that are that are both fully williamon County Schools but the reason that they're separate funds is we have a general purpose School fund that's funded by the tax rate and we have a uh we have two funds that are supposed to be self- sustaining and so I guess Rachel I've got a question um with regards to the there there was a half a million dollars that we transferred from the general purpose School fund last year uh and then there was another half a million dollars that we that we transferred um that was specifically related to the cares act so um with respect to that those two buckets of money uh roughly
162a half a million dollars a piece is were those given as a loan or were those or were we able to somehow transfer money from the general purpose to the um to the uh cafeteria fund and we we gave some also money to the uh to the to the sack fund as well but how how how are we allowed to to make those transfers if the if the guidance for this for this you know up to $2 million shortfall for this this fiscal year was determined that we should do it as a loan it's actually not a loan in technical terms it is a transfer between funds we wrote the resolution with the wording that the intent is for the funds to be paid back when a sufficient fund balance is available because the state
163of T within the state of Tennessee you can run the cafeteria funds in two different ways one is it falls under the GP and one is it is is it is its own separate fund we have traditionally kept it as its own separate fund but we can move funds between the different um we can move money between the different funds and so the state recommended that we just what would be an audit finding going back to Mrs Garrett's question would be if we ended up with a negative fund balance in one of these funds which we can't do we won't do and that's why we made the recommendation and so in answer to your question the first um 500 my understanding is that was a transfer and then the second was part of um a
164reimbursement from cares and so that was not money coming out of our pocket per se it came from additional funding that we did receive so so the only so I understand the difference between a transfer that's intended to be paid back versus a loan so I I get that um but in so from your perspective the only money that is that will that will be intended to be paid back is the money that we that we give for under this fiscal year um under the resolution that allowed for up to $2 million to be transferred correct okay thank you he I don't see any other questions Miss Glenn thank you madam chair thank you madam chair Angela Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus
165yes Pria anaia yes Jay galberth Jay galberth no Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy Emerson Cy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly Rick Wimberly yes ER Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall casy h yes Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett yes your vote is 11 yes one no motion passes thank you our next item is the extended school program fund thank you Madame chair uh Jason golden here uh this is uh our third uh fund and final fund that we are asking for your budget approval prior to bringing this to the commission for their ultimate uh uh vote um in uh in in July hopefully uh this is another one of what we call the enterprise funds the extended school program fund uh and we've had those discussions over these prior two meetings we do uh recommend approval
166of this proposed budget thank you do we have a motion to approve Rick Wimberly move to approve Mr do we have a second ellot Mitchell seconds Mr Mitchell seconds is there any discussion I see no hands up Miss Glen we can move to a vote please Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad yes n Pria Pria yes Jay galberth Jay galberth yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy Emerson candy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly Rick Wimberly yes Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall Casey Hall yes NY Garrett yes your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes thank you and the final budget related item for this evening is the approval of the E plan Sesser 2 cares act Grant and budget for fy2021 Mr
167golden thank you madam chair this is what we are calling Esser 2.0 and as Mr gab mentioned there is an Esser 3.0 uh coming down the line so this is our uh our request that you approve the specific funding based on the funds that uh are passing through the state level uh from the federal government to us recommend approval is there a motion to approve Andy Emerson motion to approve Emerson makes the motion is there a second Elliot Mitchell seconds Mr Mitchell makes the second is there any discussion scroll through here I see no hands raised so we can move to a vote Miss Glenn thank you madam chair this is Lydia Glenn Angela Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Ria yes
168Jake alth Jake alberth yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes Sheila Cleveland yes Cy Emerson Hy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly Rick Wimberly yes Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall Casey Hall yes Garrett NY Garrett yes your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes thank you board the next item on the agenda is board policies for first reading and the first one is 4.6 report cards and grading systems thank you madam chair this proposal is actually a change on the third page of the policy at issue which is to add the international backal art program uh to AP advanced placement classes for the purposes of uh of the Latin system Awards and um and valid dictorian salutatorian this is a specific request related to Franklin High School since it is our only IP program and
169uh we ask for your approval of on first reading motion to approve Andy Emerson motion to approve Emerson is there a second and C second Mr Cash seconds is there any discussion I see no hands up we can move to a vote Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Jenna priia Pria yes J GTH J GTH yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy Emerson candy Emerson yes Wimberly Rick mly yes Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall Casey H yes Garrett Nancy Garrett yes your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes the next policy for first reading is 5104 Equal Opportunity Employment Mr golden thank you madam chair this proposal comes from Miss OS Brooks and um and from our human resources
170department Department based on uh the detail of all the federal protections uh and uh we are recommending approval at first reading because these are all uh classifications of protected classes for employment purposes recommend approval do we have a motion to approve a motion motion to approve from Nancy Garrett is there a second Andy Emerson second Miss Emerson seconds any discussion I see no discussion Miss Glenn may we please vote thank you madam chair this is Lydia Glenn Angela Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus rant fiscus yes Jenna Pria Jenna Pria yes Jake alberth Jake alberth yes Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy Emerson candy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly Rick Wimberly yes Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall Casey Hall yes Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett yes
171your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes thank you the next item policy five 20 separation practices 1e teachers thank you madam chair this uh particular uh vote and the next one um actually represent a separation of one existing policy uh and um what we are working to do with this is make sure that all the detail of Separation practices for tenure teachers and and separation practices for non-tenure teachers be contained in one policy uh it it to really figure this out it takes going to multiple laws and so miss OS Brooks and again Miss Hall from our human resources department work together to put to together something where our teachers can actually get a clear understanding of uh of that process in one policy so we recommend approval you have a motion to
172approve Brad fiscus move to approve Mr fiscus makes the motion is there a second van second Mr Cash seconds any discussion I see no discussion Miss Glenn Durham Angela Durham yes danan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Jenna Pria Jenna Pria yes Jay GTH Jay GTH yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy Emerson candy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly yes Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall see high yes Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett yes your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes policy 5201 separation practice for non-tenure teachers Mr Gold thank you madam chair likewise as I mentioned for the previous item we recommend approval have a motion to approve Angela Durham yes makes the motion do we have a second is there a second Brad fiskus second Mr
173fisus second is there any discussion I see no discussion Miss Glenn thank you madam chair this is ldia Glenn Angela Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliott Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Jenna Pria Jenna Pria yes Jay galberth Jay galberth yes candy Emerson candy Emerson yes Wimberly Rick Wimberly yes and I believe you missed Miss Cleveland I'm so sorry and Sheila Cleveland's yes Sheila Cleveland yes thank you Eric Welch Eric Welch yes Paul you see H yes Garrett Nancy Garrett yes your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes next up is an annual agenda item the approval of high school for horses Mr golden thank you madam chair we have one memo in your board packet for the next two votes uh annually we uh we reques
174that you approve special High School courses uh and high school course applications and uh this year for this particular item we are asking that you approve uh African-American history exercise science pre-law social media marketing and analytics principles of Agri business and agricultural business business and finance and recommend approval of those courses board member do we have a motion board members do we have a motion to approve Rick Wimberly move to approve Mr Wimberly makes the motion is there a second Angela Durham seconds is there any discussion board members yes Mr Welch um Mr I just thought of this are any of these courses as I'm looking through it um honors or uh well I guess it wouldn't be AP but are are any of the any of them honors level uh that's a great question
175the answer to that is no at this stage they're not uh they they uh they are generally speaking electives but uh um we at this first stage of getting approval we don't have an honors curriculum structured for them okay thank you thank you any other questions if not we'll move to a vote Miss Glenn Madam chair this is Lydia Glenn Angela Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Pria benna Pria yes Jake alberth J Albert yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy erson Andy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly yes Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall Casey H yes Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett yes your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes okay and board members our final agenda item for tonight is the
176approval of the special course applications and this is also an annual agenda item Mr go thank you madam chair this year we are proposing uh World War II honors and to Mr Welch's point this one is an honors curriculum as a special course and two special courses of studies special programs of study that I'm actually excited about uh because this is right in line with our strategic plan Project Lead the Way which is uh CCT College and Career Technical education engineering and computer science U um Collective focus and Engineering by Design which Again by its description is engineering uh so we do recommend approval of the special course and the special programs of study board members is there a motion to approve Dan cash to approve cash makes the motion to approve is there a
177second second candy Emerson Miss Emerson makes the second any discussion board members I see no discussion Miss Glenn thank you madam chair this is Lydia Glenn Angela Durham Angela Durham yes Dan cash Dan cash yes Elliot Mitchell Elliot Mitchell yes Brad fiscus Brad fiscus yes Jenna Pria Jenna Pria yes Jay GTH Jay GT yes Sheila Cleveland Sheila Cleveland yes candy Emerson Hy Emerson Yes Rick Wimberly yes Welch Eric Welch yes Casey Hall casy h yes Nancy Garrett Nancy Garrett yes your vote is 12 yes zero no motion passes board members staff and those viewing this meeting uh that concludes our agenda Mr Golden do you have any closing remarks uh Madam chair just want to thank everyone uh for the robust discussion you know that when we started this about nine months ago with Co
178that we knew that there were going to be some some tough times and I really do appreciate uh the discussion as we continue to work for uh for doing what we can to keep all our students first so thank you board board members thank you for your time and attention and hope to see some of you at the vaccine clinic sometime this week or next everybody take care and have a good evening