WCS Board Work Session 2021-06-17

001[Music] h e e e [Music] good evening and welcome to the June 17th 2021 Williamson County School Board work session um we have with us tonight um I'm glad to see this Deputy he's he has served us many times in the past and it's good to see him again Deputy Ron Hooper hello Deputy speech speech uh we have we have lots of items on the agenda tonight uh so board members we will observe our rules of um making sure that everybody has a turn to speak before we go around a second time and we ask that everyone keep their comments um um show courtesy and and abide by our code of ethics just as we always strive to do um so the first first item on the agenda is uh the superintendent contract extension which

002is an annual agenda item and just board members so you'll be aware um there we there will be the opportunity to make a motion to extend Mr Golden's contract on Monday night uh the extension does not change the terms of the contract it just extends the current contract and I've asked um attorney OS Brooks to take us through that the original term um so miss OS Brooks yes so originally board members you entered into this contract in June of 2019 for a 4-year contract and then it was extended last June um with an end date of June 17 2024 so under Tennessee state law superintendent contracts can be a up to 4-year contract so if you choose to extend this would be a one-year extension for still a four-year term board members are there any

003questions or any discussion if so please raise your hand yes Mr Bri I just being the new person on the board I just wondered if you could explain um is this is this typical to have a fouryear contract what you know how how does this normally look across other districts in the state um what's what's normal here I I did ask I did ask that in case that question came up um and we did consult the Tennessee uh school superintendent Association um so the approximate contracts in the state of Tennessee for all districts in the state of Tennessee it's 3.42 years is the average contract but for the the top districts by population and we're number six so at the top 10 by population which we're number six of the average contact trct link is

0043.75 years and those are approximations and in the past we've always done this one year going out a year this is normal yeah yes no that's a great question so yes that this is um as long as I've been with the district what we have done previously with Dr Looney's contract and now with superintendent gon's contract okay I will say there was there was a time where the months kind of varied and then a few years ago the board put it on for the annual agenda and for for June and I can't remember the year that that was placed on the annual agenda thanks any other questions board members okay I see no other questions then we will move to our next item on the agenda board members if you'll take a look at the

005items on the consent agenda and let me know if you have any questions I don't see any questions y'all ready to move to the next item okay we are um next going to we're going to make a change in our agenda we're going to go down to new business and we're going to discuss all of the items under a um because we have a we uh have a situation where we want to make sure that um that one of our employees can get out of here because they've got a a trip to make tonight so we did make that change so um the first item all of these items relate to the 2020 2021 Schoolboard budget uh the first item is the approval of the general purpose fund Amendment 621 Bridge camps Grant so uh

006so Madam chair Rachel farmer is listed on the agenda for these um I will let you know that these first three are related to the state funding for for the summer the new summer school program so miss farmer the first one is the bridge camps Grant that's specifically 4 six grade this one um sorry I can talk really loud Brian are you getting it okay I'll just talk really loud the first there are three um related specifically to the summer learning loss camps the first one is the Bridge Camp Grant um it's specifically for 6 through 8 frade and we were allocated 1,1 121,700 91 cents on that one we will use funds to pay for the camps that are currently going on now this whatever is remaining will be cared over for the summer

007of 202 yes M this meting being streamed yes then you really ought to be talking into a mic I think those uh staff members near Rachel if you could see if any of your microphones work and hand your [Music] microphone okay [Music] any Madam chair if I'm if I may I'll just go ahead and walk through these items okay great uh so just as a threshold I mentioned the summer camp we are actually in the second week of the four-week summer camp today was our last day of that of the of the first half of it this particular particular item is the state funding for the sixth through eth grade portion of that summer school program uh we will recommend approval on Monday to accept those State funds board members any questions yes Mr Wimberly

008I know we've got several items that are related to the the camps but just kind of a uh an overall question is are we getting enough funding through these grants to pay for it or is their District expense as well so this year the state is funding the uh summer programs fully uh and they were very clear with us and every other District in the state make sure you you know check and double check every possible expense you might have they have sufficient funding they're using a portion of their federal funds um it's my understanding Rachel give me an OD do they project they'll be able to do this for two three years they the intent with this particular the intent with the funding was that it would go for two years that's okay so

009so the the state projects that they will have sufficient funds for the next two years the law actually does not have an indate to these summer school programs so there is a possibility that after the federal funding that is being funnel through the state ends this has a potential in a couple years to be something we'll be discussing in our general budget thank you any other questions Mr Golden if we can go to the next item all right thank you madam chair Rachel is your microphone working I think it's working number two okay so the second one is is the summer learning camps Grant this one was specifically targeting first through coming in Rising first through fifth graders um and the allocation for that one was 2,710 76872 same thing um just a different um

010group that way they were targeting but the same purpose any questions board members I see no questions and then the third is the stream mini camps Grant um this specifically is targeting um again first through fifth grade but it is an additional hour that runs after the learning camps are completed in the during the day so it's adjacent to but it is a separate Grant so we have to allocate it um and account for it separately and for that one we receive [Music] $774,500 was the maximum amount that could be granted per qualifying location we had four locations that did qualify Allandale Bethesda Chapman's Retreat and uh it's my w and Westwood those are the four sorry and so the total amount was $56,000 the intent of these funds was to be used for any

011additional cleaning or sanitation as well as maintaining operating the programs um to get us continued going into um summer it can be used for summer and in then into the fall and Madam chair if I may Rachel just spoke to one on her Memo that's actually not on our agenda as I as as I'm reading the agenda um the fourth one um oh okay I I I have I don't have the update agenda I apologize for that so we're good any questions board members no questions Rachel okay and then um the last item is our general annual housekeeping um where we bring to you all of the intra category uh adjustments that have been made throughout the year intra category we bring to you as those come along intras are within a category and there're

012the minor changes um anything from where when we do the budget prepare the budget you may have lines um related to payroll for instance where we don't know actual people in those jobs and how much um the co it will cost them because of their years of experience and so adjustments have to be made there's a little bit of fluctuations in between um there are three separate the um because of three separate funds so the general purpose is the first it's the first um item that you will look at and we will need three separate votes come Monday on each one of the funds for these ENT category transfers board members any questions yes Mr galberth M farmer um not not specifically related to to this but just overall after um when all is set

013and done from an actual standpoint can not necessarily tonight but at least on on Monday night can you just bring us a um an updated budget um the the difference between our um our Gap that we're trying to fill and and our our actual Surplus from this fiscal year compared to what we thought I can and we are working really hard we've got two more weeks of just trying to close out everybody all the Departments have been so good about closing out open POs to get us there where we can give you a real number I will tell you we're going to close the gap it'll be closed sounds great and so Mr gab also we'll make sure we get we have a projection um Rachel and I have had a preliminary conversation about that

014she mentioned that we'll close the gap I I I feel pretty good about it and I have a suspicion that some of it was related to us not having quite as many expenses over the course of the the past year correct um things like workers cop we did not have that particular expense I know that off because we talked about employees weren't necessarily on job site so that was there was a lot less there so when we projected we didn't know where it would fall out and now we're seeing the actual numbers Jason we talked about um the the cafeteria and the sack do we have have we made a decision on on if or how much we needed to transfer over there yes we have and that that uh so number one you all

015recall that um months ago we projected a potenti potential deficit in both uh the cafeteria and Sack um and Rachel I'm going to paraphrase so you're the accountant you you make sure you correct me uh number one the uh the cafeteria fund is projected at at coming out about $7,000 in the Black based on their actual expenditures however um the the uh parent uh prepays uh had not up to this point been booked over the course of the previous I suppose decades uh and so Rachel Rachel had a conversation with the Auditors they recommended that they do be booked and you you recall that conversation and so uh um of that two million she projects uh 800 850,000 850,000 be put towards the cafeteria fund out of that again for um for the cafeteria fund

016to repay as quickly as possible um we actually are increasing our cash flow related to that because of the summer program um and so uh um I've asked her to keep an eye on the quickest possible we could pay that back uh into the general fund and so we'll keep you all updated on that I anticipate will will we be able to give an update on in August at the next board meeting yes once everything yes we'll have it all closed out we'll not so and I guess I I would just request that at our August meeting if we could have have a report about the um about food surface and what what that looks like for the year um if in fact the foods is going to be free again and and and a

017and a plan for how we're going to Market that and kind of take advantage of of that over the year because that has the potential to to really pay back some of that money really quickly for sure and the uh the regular cafeteria meals next year are going to be free according to the USDA next year uh and uh and Mark Samuels James ridi and Gary Anderson are actually working on that marketing plan so we'll make sure to provide that to you uh for the for the uh SAC the school a child school age Child Care Program uh Rachel projects we will not need to transfer any of the money that you approved a few months ago they ended up they ended up uh in the black as well am I using the proper accounting

018terms into black is that still good okay thank you yes Ellie Mr V thank you uh Jason or or Rachel the um expenses that we had during the uh initial covid shutdown I guess back in March last year and through the summer where we were helping facilitate um food drives and things of that nature and we were providing uh meals to students even though we were not in school um and we were I guess also providing um um income I believe we we continued to to keep staff on uh on the payroll as well that's correct um do we have an accounting of what those costs were and and I think we did that with the expectation that that was going to be reimbursed through uh grants as well if I remember correctly and that

019did not happen well we used Sr one uh to pay for the cafeteria staff's um salaries that last quarter of the previous fiscal year okay um so in this current fiscal year Rachel can you give uh an update on that related to Mr Mitchell's question the only other expenses that were done for that food distribution are ones that we are appealing currently with thema um related to processing taking a flat of strawberries and we needed containers to wash and put it in the food was donated we did not have food costs we worked with one gen away they donated the food but then we were responsible for the distribution and so there were costs associated with that and that we are um in the process of appealing um again I think we we've heard it

020now several times but FEMA did not really give us anything back right even though we kind of anticipated anti they but all of those all of those Community oriented costs came out of the Food Services budget as well or not related to food distribution they did okay thank you so we'll get you a number on that yes thank you any other questions board [Music] members I think we can move to the next item the next um for me would have been the the different Cate the different um funds sorry um with the in category transfers so it was general purpose then the next was Central cafeteria and then the final was for the extended school program so that we' we've covered all yeah okay any any final questions group I don't see any then we

021will flip back over then uh and move to the superintendent report Mr golden thank you madam chair um I want to give you all some quick uh bullet point items on on the superintendent report and then remind you that I made a commitment to you uh last month that Dr Allen and his staff would have a detailed report related to uh reading and the adoption of wit and wisdom and uh and their adjustments so uh with that in mind I do want to let you know that that is coming but first I want to hit a couple of points just you know uh this uh this month's superintendent report number one we had a great willco event uh earlier this week the willos are our athletic awards and I want to thank uh um I

022I don't think I can name everyone on the staff I if you haven't gotten a program everyone's thank there but Darren joins and his uh staff and a lot of other people helped out and and provided a wonderful event for our students and for the parents of those students and it was a lot of fun uh I had the privilege of announcing the coach of the year the girls coach of the year and the boys coach of the year and uh and and that was that was just a small microcosm of the great event we had so we're so excited for our for our students and I have to mention one item specifically mayor Builders uh awarded a $5,000 scholarship uh to the winner of the sportsmanship award and I thought it was especially neat

023because the sportsmanship award was intentionally given to a a member of a sports team who was not scheduled to get an athletic scholarship someone who supported their teammates and that student uh was able to receive that that $5,000 scholarship from mayor mayor Builder it was just a great event um next I want to let you know that Esser 3.0 is coming we talked about that briefly at The Retreat uh I mentioned to you at the retreat that the uh that the commissioner of Education had notified the districts across the state that August 1st was the deadline to submit our application for Sr 3.0 because of the complexities of Sr 3.0 for so many other districts the numbers were so high for so many other districts there is a much more complex planning process which includes

024getting community community input uh and and and so they created a much more complex reporting uh process however the commissioner has since since we had our meeting last week announced that they're extending the deadline to August 27th so we are not going to need a special called meeting sometime in July to get that approved that will be on the regular August agenda so I really appreciate the commissioner uh listening to the school districts who who spoke about the theme of doing that all that in the summer is a is a little tough uh so so that August 27th so be looking for that at our August meeting our proposal for you related to our spending uh just as a reminder we have about 5.2 million uh earmarked from Sr 3.0 from the state to give

025you a quick comparison Metro Davidson countyy is a little around 270 million so we're at 5.2 they're at 270 uh many of our neighbors that are smaller than us have have larger numbers as well and they uh they base that on economically disadvantaged numbers that they uh that they um derive from uh from some statistics so we've got a lot of reporting for a relatively small amount amount of money with uh with Esser um they do have that requirement that a portion of that be dedicated to what they've described as learning loss and so most of our Focus has been on how we can serve those students uh who who need that extra help uh and so just be prepared for that as we come uh into August we are also going to be soliciting

026your thoughts we talked about that briefly at The Retreat uh as well Mr galberth I guess are those money so thatone is not budgeted correct that's correct and so are we are we going to be using that towards does it have to be spent on things that were not in the budget or can it be spent on RTI and things that are already in the budget so short answer is we cannot suppliant so if we already have budgeted as I understand it we cannot use it to replace existing plans we could use it for additional RTI support that we haven't used up to this point Etc um and the spending Windows three years so it's possible that we may be able to to get Personnel over the course of three years but they give us

027the money up front or do they give us the money in reimbursement for the as over the three year period Rachel can you speak to oh Rachel's left I don't know the answer to that about how we're actually going to receive it uh Dr alen I you've been sitting in on some of those does does do you have that detail or lorett I don't think um Mrs farmer has left she we may be able to ask her she get back in if I may there it would be a reimbursement process so we get a budget approved and then once we spent there's going to be monthly reports and reimbursements so so it's possible that that next year in next year's budget we don't budget for something and then we and then we exceed our budget

028and apply for reimbursement like if we if we're we all we're always adding RTI staff and so it's possible I'm trying to think of a way that we we don't necessarily have to spend incremental dollars this year to get that money and we can use next year and the year after um to to basically pay for for Budget increases that we don't have to that we're funding through that but if we ever include it in a budget then now it's not supplanting or it is supplanting and so we've got to not budget for it and do it anyway and then ask for reimbursement which is really weird yeah so so to your point as as I understand it we have a budget now with what we've committed to if we commit to through the Esser

029plan to additional positions we can fund those through Esser if we instead said we were going to pre-plan for growth as an example and and already commit to those positions we could not retroactively fund those through Esser makes sense yes Mr Mitchell so um to that point are there any other than the supplanting are there any other uh prohibitions so is it um I mean you talk we've talked mentioned Staffing so if we needed gu RTI Staffing or counseling Staffing or or ta Staffing things of that nature um additional nursing staffing that would be that would be okay generally speaking yes the way you describe it they there are there are pages and pages of rules related to this um 20% has to be um definable and reportable as learning loss uh we so we'll

030need to have that data to back that up uh for so potentially interventionist as an example U mental health is something something that's on the table is a possibility um so thank you any other questions Madam chair have a couple other quick ones for you um oh I'm sorry I was just gonna ask I could have asked after um is there anything in the budget currently for compensatory education for students with disabilities who missed um learning during Co and could that be included so Dr Allen if you would speak to that budgeted compensatory services am I on yes okay so yeah as part of our normal process our normal budgeting process Maria grego and her team review that um and and take into account you know how that applies and and and how they have

031to budget they do it annually it's probably going to be a little more this year based on what we've experienced um but yes it is to answer your questions specifically yes Madam chair I also mentioned that we're finished up the second of a 4-we summer school program do want to let you know that the commissioner is doing a Statewide tour of uh of these summer programs she's actually coming by here in Franklin Special School District uh the on June 29th so she has a half hour stop in at one of our schools and then she'll she's moving from Murray to us to Franklin special about a half hour stop at a time uh so just wanted you guys to be aware of that um she'll be at Allandale from noon to 12:30 on if I'm

032not mistaken June 29th so just uh just want you to be aware of that um also I sent it oh yes sir Mr W just wondering Jason I mean is there anything you can tell us about how it's going I love that you ask that question it's been good uh the summer school program has been good uh um I you know it's we may be able to give you some details um in August uh but uh I'm excited that we've been able to serve those students about 1,600 students they've been able to eat lunch which is a neat thing um we've been running buses and they've gotten a little bit extra instruction and so I think for those students who participated it's uh it's been a good thing I will tell you it's a long

033day uh for especially for those Elementary School students it's a half hour longer than a normal school day um but uh but from everything I hear it's been good another neat thing that is something that we really didn't intend out of this direct service to students is we have uh Deans at each of our 10 sites and and they are being filled those positions are being filled by prospective administrators and so we've got some some good folks getting a little bit of administrative experience through this four-week program as well Mr since we're on that topic um I've been wondering does the state provide like a benchmark or before and after assessment to see yeah or is Williams County doing one yes they do Dr Allan could you speak to that yes yes they do is

034the answer uh we will administer a pre-test and a post test to each student um specifically in math and Ela they are standards based um they are short assessments so what we can glean from those assessments regarding growth will be minimal but they do have a pre-imposed test um Tagg to them y um also uh Madam chair just a quick uh update the tsaa did uh vote to approve online students participating in athletics at their own school I sent you all an email about that Dr Webb and her staff are working out the details because as I mentioned every time twsa sets a rule they have a lot of detail uh to make sure that there's uh there's compliance and there no nobody gets around the structure so starting uh first of July or so

035they'll be communicating with those students uh who have eligibility to make sure that uh that we we help them out uh to participate if they would like to um also finally fostering Healthy Solutions I've made it a point this past year or so to give you an update every month on their work and um I have asked Miss Vicki Hall to give you all an update on their work can y'all hear me okay good deal so fostering healthy solutions is working on completing um the the work that was assigned to them through our contract they are completing uh recommendations based on the review of our handbooks our student handbooks and procedures as well as uh completing the reports on the data that they gathered through listen and learns and also through the surveys and will

036be uh providing us with a draft of a culture strategy plan they have until uh the end of July to uh provide us with all of that information and then we will uh present what we receive from them to you as the board in August so administratively Madam chair um through through the month of July will be working with them and as we discussed at The Retreat my plan my vision is to prevent you all with present you all with a with a strategic proposal from me from our Administration for your review in August Mr Cash thank you um will we be able to view the the surveys and whatnot we will have the raw data uh so uh um it is something that we will actually own uh and so you all as board

037members if you need access to it we'll make sure you get access to it okay thank you um I will say some of it has a potential to be personally identifiable and so um you all as board members can look but if we have a request for for you know beyond that we may have to do some work to check on that sure okay Mr galin and and Jason to to that point at at what point will we will we see the The Fosters um The Fosters report so they're they're going to give you a report and you're going to present to us the the your recommendation um just want to set expectations for um because it's due at the end of July right um and when like are you going to release that before

038after early that's a great question early August okay um and I will tell you that uh it um any Vote or any approval is going to be driven by you and uh and your questions and what you're looking for uh so without me seeing the presentation yet I don't know as I sit here am I going to be asking for a vote in August versus uh versus you know a presentation and so once we get that we'll be able to Define that and let you all know but at the least we do plan to present uh it to you at the August meeting I'd just like to see i' just like to see the report when when you get it sure and then because it that should that shouldn't have any personal identifiable information it'll

039be very generic right that's correct thank you any other questions and just as a reminder it's two buckets it's the it's their review of our materials our policies procedures student and teacher handbooks and then the second part the Strategic part all all right so Madam chair to fulfill the commitment we talked about at last uh month's board meeting and work session uh Dr Allen and his staff have prepared a presentation and um I want to let you know that uh there's three main sections The Lion Share of it is related to our work within that work uh we have it broken up into three sections one the nature of reading and the uh the uh the the uh the science of uh of of how we teach reading two the adoption process and three our

040administration's review uh of the uh of the selection over the course of this year and proposed uh changes based on our administrative work administration's work second we'll do a brief description of of uh the request for reconsideration process and finally we will talk about the state and where they are with their process so Dr Allen thank you Mr Golden Madam chair members of the board it's great to be in person with you all again so we appreciate uh having the opportunity happy to be here tonight and Report out on our Ela adoption and our first year implementation you all heard me speak for probably an hour and a half at our last meeting as we went back and forth with some questions and answers I'm excited to have my team here today to go into

041more specific detail and answer any other questions that you have so I want to take the opportunity uh to introduce them but before I do that I just I want to compliment my team Mr Gold had an opportunity to work more closely with them here recently um our entire TLA staff I could not be more proud of them I could not be more proud of our instructional coaches in the building our administrators and I really could not be more proud of our teachers in Williamson County and what they accomplished this last year uh with what they were facing so every opportunity that I get to speak publicly about our teachers and what we were able to accomplish last year I want to do that because I I believe it was uh I believe it was

042extraordinary so uh to to my left here I have lorett Carl lorett is our executive director for teaching learning and assessment uh immediately to her left is Jenny Lopez she's our director of curriculum and MaryAnn Gilbert who's going to start off our presentation tonight she's our elementary curriculum specialist that focuses on English and language arts maranne has been here for over a decade and that is important because Maryann was here with our last adoption when we brought in wonders and so she's been through a couple of adoptions with Williamson County and she's been through several like I have uh over the course of her career so I want to start out with Maryann to talk a little bit about what has changed um in how we teach students to read so Maran right thanks Dave

043um if you guys are okay I'll just stand right here um so I want to start with what's changed with this adoption why is this adoption a little bit different than the adoptions we've done previously so the materials that we're using now are different than the materials we've used in the past so I want to talk about why they're different and why it was important for us to shift in the way that we do our instruction so it really starts with the standards so in 2010 the state of Tennessee uh began adopting new standards when we got the final version it was 2016 and so the materials that we're using now were designed to meet those new standards that we started using in 2016 and there were three big shifts in ela that we had

044to make in order to meet those standards so I want to talk about those so here are the three big shifts so the first shift is that we had to have regular uh practice with complex text and their academic language so what that means is the text had to get harder the second part um really deals with writing so the Reading Writing and speaking had to be grounded in evidence from text both literary and informational so the way we taught writing or the way we teach writing had to change based on these new standards so kids aren't um they're no longer just writing stories like once upon a time I did this now they read text and respond to a text based prompt and they cite evidence within that text to support uh what they're

045saying and then finally and this one is really important um the shifts required that uh building knowledge through content Rich non-fiction so we really wanted to focus on that because some of the newer research and I'll talk about that um in just a minute so as I said the text had to change it had to get harder we had to change the way we were teaching writing and then we have to build content knowledge so I want to talk about um how the text changed as far as how hard or how rigorous the text is that we we were using so if you look down in the bottom um right hand side so Lexile levels are just a way that you measure the readability of a piece of text so the higher the number the

046harder the text and if you see that little bubble in the right hand corner of this slide it says that Research indicates that materials students will first encounter in um in college and in careers they have to read about a 1300 Lexile level so that's that's pretty high and what we found through some research studies was that the texts that kids were encountering in their elementary middle and high school um experiences were not high enough to meet that 1300 level so this chart basically shows you what the old X Lexile ranges were before the change in standards and those are those light gray boxes so for example in second and third grade uh before the standards changed we were recommending that students read between a 450 and a 725 Lexile range now we bumped that

047up to 450 to 790 and you can see that it gradually increases so that by the time that students get into 11th and 12th grade they're reading text at those higher levels so that they'll be ready to go into college and careers like St R in Lay's terms that's that's complexity or the yes so it's the length of the sentences it is the the complexity of the vocabulary um the length of the passages all of that yeah is it's there's they metrics that they use so this company called metametrics um owns lexiles and so they developed this uh readability formula so that you could have the numbers so that it would just tell you how hard the text is okay so now I'm a reading nerd so I'm I'm going to go through this pretty

048quick because I know you're all not reading nerds but this slide is really important so in 2001 there was a researcher called Hollis scarbro that came up with what we call scarra's rope now the reason that I wanted to show this to you is because this really in one slide tells you everything that you need to be able to do in order to be a proficient reader so if you look at that orange strand it's about word recognition that just means can you read the words so you'll notice over there that the strands are connected to some some words so you have um if you're going to be able to lift the words off the page you've got to have phonological awareness so you've got to be able to hear and discriminate sounds you've got

049to be able to decode and you've got to recognize words by sight so we need a strong phic program in order to meet the needs of that orange part of this rope now the green part of the Rope is the other side of reading it's the part that once you know how to get the words off the page you have to be able to think about what you're reading and so you'll notice that here are the things that we have to be able to do as a reader in order to read and comp uh read and comprehend text you have to have some literary knowledge so you have to know about genres you have to know uh verbal reasoning so you have to be able to infer and and do some thinking while you're reading

050you have to understand language structures vocabulary and then that top bullet is really important because you also have to have back background knowledge you have to know about the world and know about a little bit about what you're reading in order to understand it so this is a good example what I'd like you to do is just read this really quick and see if you can figure out what we're talking about okay so I know everybody in here can read those words but unless you know about Cricket if you're like me I had no idea what they were saying because I don't know what an opener is I don't know what uh act two fours meant I don't really understand this because I don't have the background knowledge necessary to understand it because I don't

051know cricet so this is just a a good example of why it's important that you bring a little bit of background knowledge to the table anytime that you're reading something because without it it's just meaningless words on the page so I'm going to close out this part of the presentation with a quote from Natalie Wexler she wrote the book the knowledge Gap um she she is a a researcher and a writer that was looking into this topic about the importance of background knowledge and um actually we got a chance to see her the the Tennessee Department of Education brought her here to Tennessee to speak uh to some Educators in suar county and we were able to see her and so this quote just says the most important factor in determining whether readers can understand

052a text is how much relevant vocabulary or background knowledge that they have so I say all this to say that these are things that impacted the adoption because there were new standards and there's new research that said that our reading programs needed to change in order to get the best um out of our students so Madam chair we we felt it important to kind of give you just a just a a dipstick a little bit of why it has changed and why it looks a little bit different so if we can we'd like to pause now and answer any specific questions related to um how we're teaching our students to read right now with this new implement Miss Cleveland um so the previous um curriculum was wonders yes did that not have that potential of

053um that standard is that the reason why it had to change so there were a couple of problems with wonders so the timing in that last adoption was a little wonky because the standards had just come out and then the reading so big Publishers like McGraw Hill who publishes wonders had to hurry up and Rush that version of their um program out and so there were a few problems so for example yes it doesn't do a great job of building background knowledge so that program doesn't really meet the criteria of building a great deal of background knowledge um another problem with wonders was that the it didn't align very tightly with the new standards so it for example it did some old skill work like cause and effect okay it teaches cause and effect that's

054a skill but under the new standards that particular thing was under a big umbrella of a large standard and they were kind of teaching it in the old way and we and so teachers were saying ah this doesn't really align with our new standards so that was the feedback from teachers there were some issues with wonders as far as alignment and then also building background knowledge thank you Mr galri it's been it's been over a decade since i' since we've kind of had these adjustments in the standers so can you can you help help um help revive our memories around around kind of the progress from from the Common Core when when it came out and then and then we adjusted our Tennessee standards to to kind of be common cord like but not common

055core and then we had to adjust all of our testing to to that I it's a blur and I I honestly don't have a real good Rec elction of the timing but I figur and I'll be honest with you you know it it it was a while ago so I I'll kind of give my best effort at that so in 2010 that's when the common core standards came out and if you remember t uh Tennessee was a state that adopted those standards and then we came back and said no we'd like to have our own Tennessee standards so between 2010 and 2016 those uh standards were revised by Tennessee Educators and so they are a bit different that you know I mean I could go into detail about the differences some of them are the

056same some of them are are a little different so yeah it took six years to kind of for that process to take so that was the 2010 to 2016 adoption so but most of the but the curriculum that we're that we're doing I mean none of them are really aligned to Tennessee standards necessarily so are they are they all would would you say that they're that they're all still predominantly aligned to common core standards I saw a lot of a lot of those ref so I'll tell you if they're not different enough the standards to be honest the Tennessee standards and common core standards are not different enough that they don't align um the the the newer standards all of the new materials align better to these new standards because Publishers had time to kind

057of catch up to them so I would say that all of our choices that we had during this adoption process address those standards better than the materials that we had in the past the new wonders standard the new wonders curriculum then address probably address some of the deficiencies that you saw yeah so they change they did change their program a little bit they did didn't do what I would call an a complete overhaul but they did make some changes based on those new standards that were more in depth than uh than they did when they did that rush job with the last adoption so the new wonders was one of the choices that the state ultimately put up and that is one of the ones that our teachers consider and we actually have a slide

058describing that a little bit later but I do want to also make sure that that we're as clear as we can be on Common Core there are some states doing Common Core Tennessee is not in fact our legislature was very clear that Tennessee is not um so so Marian mentioned that there may be some some particular standards that parallel But ultimately tennessy did their own standards so I want to make sure that we're we're absolutely clear on that this particular year the the uh State Legislature even went to the to the extent of saying we will not um um if if I'm not mistaken Dave I'm trying to remember the exact terminology use um I'm using my word use any materials from any publisher that that is designed to be aligned to Common Core yeah

059just to add a piece instructional materials or supplementary materials that are solely aligned to Common Core we cannot use yeah so we have a question from Mr Wimberly and then Mr Cash first of all Maran thank you this is interesting I like the the uh the cricket analogy I'm not sure I really got it so how do you teach young kids background knowledge help me understand that a little bit better yeah that's a great question so you do it in a lot of different ways so background knowledge by independent reading is one way that you do that so of course we're going to um encourage independent reading for students the other is teaching history and teaching geography and teaching uh about you know um pieces of literature that are kind of common you know uh

060common reading um so teaching about the world so if we can the more we can teach kids about the world the more they'll have something to hang their hat on when they're reading about a topic that maybe is a little unfamiliar and and if I may marann add one thing jump back one slide if you guys would my I had background knowledge to know that that's a cricket bat and so I said okay that's about Cricket so photos right there there are multimedia that can help as well not just reading thank you did that answer it yes it did very well thank you Mr Cash uh yes uh am I got to understand that no Jason answered the question wanders was one of the options yes and wanders did do a u kind of an

061update on their curriculum yes but it doesn't meet the standards as well as wit and wisdom well that's that's kind of subjective so we left that up to teachers wonders was one of the things that we put you know before teachers to look at and possibly choose as were the other choices on the adoption list so I would say that if it's on the adoption list then it meets it it is aligned to the standards so we would but that was one of the things that we put before teachers to as a possibility to choose it it was a possible choice that that the majority of our teachers did not select Maran I just I just have a question and I think you've already answered this but I just want to make sure I understand

062because I had an aha moment not not with the cricket match because I know a lot about Cricket uh including the fact that sometimes you it lasts so long that you have tea in the middle of a match um but thing I wanted to ask is on that slide the quotation slide um yes yes so how much relevant vocabulary or background knowledge they have does background knowledge um have a greater correlation with non-fiction yes it does so ABS absolutely but it also can correlate to literature because for example if a if a piece of literature is set in a different country the more you know about that country the more you'll understand understand uh it so there are a lot of factors but a lot of the background go knowledge that we gain is going

063to be through Reading non-fiction yesk you any other questions we we're this we're through the first third of this presentation Mr Wimberly how do you know about Cricket because I've worked for the past 15 years with a wonderful team in India I've been in India four times thank you you're welcome so Mr Cash offered a good segue that segue was to what materials were we able to adopt what materials did the state approve and put on the list and we were able to to take a look at and who actually made the selection and how we ended up with the materials that we have now so uh Miss Lopez is going to take us through that adoption process and how we ended up where we are good evening board members um so just as Dave

064mentioned I'm going to walk through the adoption process I have put some slides together to talk f through Tennessee code so anytime we do an adoption we follow First Tennessee code and then we follow more specific guidelines which are wucs board policy that is specifically for adoption so in this slide I'm not going to read everything that's on here there's a lot of writing on there I really did it for your reading pleasure later um because there's a lot of detail here but I wanted to point out some things from this particular slide one is that um Tennessee code tells us who can be on a Review Committee so it isn't left up to to districts it actually mentions right there on C1 that we need to appoint teachers or teachers and supervisors and parents

065with children enrolled in the Lea so we definitely do that now something just just as a point of Interest we do not appoint supervisors to our committee just historically in Williamson County we only appoint teachers and parents so we don't have anyone from central office that sits on an adoption committee um and that's the way we've done it for the last several adoptions so there is more detail here about the criteria that a teacher has to meet in order to be on this committee and and that all of that is outline there the next two slides really talk about how we follow WCS board policy when we walk through an adoption process so this is a timeline I did this in Timeline form so you you can see what happens beginning in October and the

066timeline goes all the way through May in the next um slide one yes this actually is the timeline that was used for the ELA adoption this is a timeline for the ELA adoption and this one uh and and in here I want to talk specifically about wooden wisdom and this adoption because as you remember this adoption is really K through 12 but this this presentation specifically um goes into into detail about some points about the Wen wisdom adoption so something I want to point out here is we start in October with principal submitting teacher um nominees for the committee and I just want to mention there were 26 uh parents on this committee and 28 teachers on this committee um again nominated by principles and then they they they're on the committee as that panel

067that finally makes the recommendation to the board as to what um what we want to use um K through 12 for the following year 26 parents and 28 teachers 26 and 28 yes next slide picks up with the review the actual review process we have review process in schools and and open to the community I want to highlight in this particular slide where Wht and wisdom came into the adoption process when um whenever we go into an adoption uh we look we're only looking at what the state what tdoe um approves as a resource so we only review those that are approved now Whitten wisdom was on that list for grades three through five they were excluded from that list for grades K through two because they were missing that orange part of the rope

068that Maran walked you through that's the foundational skills the decoding the phonics that part part was missing it was absent from Whitten wisdom so it was not approved due to its lack of foundational skills instruction now I attended along with Maryann and and our team we attended lots of informational meetings uh by tdoe and in one of those meetings we learned that there were districts that were actually piloting Whitten wisdom and had been using it for a year and so this uh tdoe continued to email us information and we learned that if we um added a found found AAL skills component to Whitten wisdom we could adopt it so at that moment we went ahead and decided to add that to the list we only had three um series that we were looking at in

069this adoption so we decided to add a fourth to give our teachers another option to look at so we added a fourth and at that point we added another Community um review opportunity and we put that um in front of teachers so teachers were looking at all of it they had one job embedded day to look at all of different series all the different curricula that was up for adoption and they were able to look at that one along with the others and so this kind of walks you through that process at that point teachers make a recommendation to the committee so teachers make a recommendation to the committee the committee gets to look at what teachers recommend and then the committee makes a final recommendation so I want to show you what that looked

070like when teachers made their recommendation if you look at the red 369 teachers or 64.5% um recommended wit and wisdom 125 teachers that's approximately 22% recommended wonders and then there was a small portion 8% and 5.6% that recommended eel by open up and CK which were the other two so that that is really representative this this graph is representative of all four uh of the selection of all four um series that teachers had to review so Miss if I can just add a piece here so when you look back through um the previous three slides nowhere in the slides does the state or WCS policy require us to get a vote from every teacher but historically predating uh Miss Lopez predating me um as far back as as as we can dig we've always asked

071our teachers um after you've reviewed all the materials which do you feel is the best product uh to to teach our students how to read and so this information is then shared with our textbook adoption committee and Miss Lopez is going to go into that on the next Slide the textbook adoption committee is the one who actually makes the formal recommendation to you for what they believe what materials we should use they don't have to go with the teachers they historically as long far back as we can we can recall uh they have aligned with what the teachers have selected uh but I just want to highlight that this is a step that that I'm proud that we it wasn't my idea to include it um but it's something that I'm proud that we do

072because we get the feedback of all of our our teachers in what they feel like after they've reviewed the materials of the best product for them yes I think I have two questions Mr Welch are go ahead we're trying yeah we're trying to keep our questions end but okay okay mind okay I'll do one more actually just have SL yeah this slide shows the textbook adoption committee vote so this was the final this is the final recommendation that's made to the board so um as you can see 88.2% of our committee um recommended Whitten and wisdom um that those were 30 members and then four members recommended wonders okay Mr Welch I'm just trying to get the the order here down so the committee that you said there's there was 28 teachers on it and

07326 parents they make the recommendation to the Board of Education that's that's the recommendation that we get and that we approved unanimously the no or is it correct they go to the textbook adoption committee is that correct the teacher recommendations go to the textbook adoption committee the textbook adoption commit saying I got it I'm good the the committee makes our recommendation correct right that's correct but the teachers before that committee does the teachers all get to make their recommendation first to the committee or is it the committee and then the teachers that's that's what does that order okay so the teachers uh make a recommendation and when the committee shows up they show up in person to vote I hand them the results from their school so for example an Oakview parent would be handed

074the results of what the teachers at Oakview want now that Committee Member could make a recommendation outside of what those teachers want normally they want to respect what their teachers want and they've been a lot of them have been in contact with the teachers to kind of gauge what they want what they like so that that's did that explain what you were asking so basically te the the committee has the choices of the teachers so if we go back one slide the teacher choice is presented to the committee which ultimately need leads to the next slide which is the committee recommendation sure it's almost if if I'm it's like an elector to yes exactly exactly okay yes and so wonders was the the current uh curriculum that we had how long did we have that

075in place seven years 7 years okay so the the teachers had seven years with wonders experience with with it and then all of our teachers which was um might go back to the other slide was it 3 369 so by a 3:1 margin they wanted to switch to wit and wisdom and then the committee uh if you can go forward to that slide almost nine and recommended switching from w to wit and wisdom after the review process that's correct okay thank you Mr galbert and then Mr Mitchell so last meeting and this is the first time I'd heard this so I'm just trying to keep everything straight but and understand the criteria by which we narrow down the the curricula that we are going to use and so it was it was stated that our

076criteria was we wanted a K through five curricul um but then later I've I heard and I I apologize I don't I don't know where this was from is have had a bunch of different conversations but um later was it was determined that we preferred what the whole the content base versus whole language and I don't know if you can talk about the difference between that and curriculum and is that the difference between wit and wisdom and and wonders is there a difference there or definitely yes there definitely differences between Wht and wisdom and wonders um definitely marann if I say anything that's off base I want you to correct me or if you need to add something to what I'm saying Whitten wisdom definitely is more knowledge-based as far as the conversation Maryann had

077about building background knowledge because students are reading all types of literature um they're exposed to Art um different media sources um so it definitely aligns more with that but that doesn't mean that wonders is not aligned to our state standards it is because it made it through the review process through the state process and was approved as a resource that we could use so it doesn't mean that it wasn't aligned but when we talk about um specifically related to the knowledge part whiten wisdm definitely does more um in terms of building background knowledge did I get that right maryan okay but I guess it was I guess and it might be something you I think believe Dave said this but um but there I was told that there were three that we were that and

078that what you said that there were three that we were looking at um that were that were only three that were K through five and that's how we narrowed down um yeah good question and and so um there were a couple of guard rails that we tried to work within one of them was we definitely wanted the same program K through five um and the reason for that is um in in any of the the the the materials the the package itself they they intertwine and so it it it kind of it's a similar program K through five because the kids in first grade know what to experience based on what they experienced in kindergarten second grade so on and so forth so one of our guard rails was we really want the same curriculum

079the publisher the content uh to be the same K through five um that was one the other so there was there were some that were on the list that that weren't comprehensive of that for example one and I don't recall the name of the publisher they were approved K through 2 and four and five and so if we would have put that on the list we would have had to find a third grade um curriculum which that so it just makes it wonky and and it makes it difficult for professional development and it makes it difficult on the kids so we wanted a k- through five program that was one another one of the programs that we looked at initially I believe the name was learn zillion was only offered online like we had no

080textbook no materials nothing to put in the kids' hands we didn't put that in front of our teachers because we didn't feel like that our community our parents our teachers wanted something that was completely online so we took that off but by and large what those were the two big parameters that if it was K through five we wanted the maximum number of options that we could put in front of our teachers so initially when we looked at the list Wht and wisdom said three through five we didn't include it and so as as Miss Lopez mentioned they go to these informational sessions and I correct me if I'm wrong we learn from other districts hey we are piloting wit and wisdom this year not from the state we learned from other districts and we

081said well how are you doing that when it's not approved K through2 and their response to us was the K through 5 curriculum content instructional materials are all approved K through2 is not approved because it's missing that required foundational skills component and if you add whatever foundational skills component you want then it can be approved we contacted the state and said is that true they said that is true we will approve a waiver if you add a a foundational skills component they didn't care which one really they just said as long as they're a foundational skills component and when we submitted the way at that point here's here's our thinking let's put it in front of our teachers and see what they think right let's let's give them an opportunity we feel obligated at that

082point knowing that that content K through five would be approved we felt obligated at that point let's put it in front of our teachers and see what they think when Miss Lopez submitted the waiver to the state we didn't know which which foundational skills program we were going to use we were looking at fundations and the state said we're also this is separate of the textbook adoption process the state had said part of the reading 360 program every school has to teach a systemic phonics program and as a result of that we're going to offer everyone in the state regardless of what they use for instructional materials we're going to offer them one free of charge if they want to use it no obligation but you all can use it we didn't want to make

083that decision right there we said we want to see it and we want to put it up against fundations which we know to be a good product and when we looked at the state approve or the state what the state offered for their foundational skills program and we looked at fundation the ELA team looked at the state the state provided and said this is a good product and then that's when we made the decision after we had submitted the waiver that the state uh provided foundational skills was the one that we would use if I may when you hear foundational skills thank phonics thank you yeah thank you Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair um first off thank all of you folks Dr Allen your team for taking the time to come and educate us

084on this process tonight I appreciate the work that you do for our children and I know that it is it is detailed and and and probably very laborious at work but I wanted to thank you for your time taking the time tonight to come and talk we're excited to be talking about curriculum again so couple of points uh on your presentation it was I I thought it was interesting that the state of Tennessee defines the stakeholders of this process as being teachers supervisors and parents with students in the district so somebody who is just a taxpayer I say just a taxpayer that's a resident in the county and a taxpayer but doesn't have students enrolled in the district could not be part of the of the committee to to review that's correct second point I

085was wanted to ask is what percentage of our English English and language arts teachers voted or reviewed it looked like on the large you know we had at least what there's over um 500 or close to 500 right there I don't know what the other pieces are but but what percentage or or how many ELA teachers about 85% 85% yes there's there's over 500 teachers about 85% of teachers voted okay and every English every Ela teacher had the right or the opportunity to vote whether they were a k or kindergarten or a high school teacher is that correct the only thing we asked is that if you you could only vote for an elementary program Ela program if you were an elementary Ela teacher in other words we don't want a sixth grade teacher voting

086on an elementary program we want teachers who were going to utilize the program to be the ones to vote on the program or to make their recommendation so the only voters represented in this pie chart we were K5 ELA teachers correct Okay so I want to add just some detail to that to bore you all to death but when you start adding the numbers up just so we're all clear all kindergarten teachers teach Ela all first grade teachers teach Ela in second grade some schools will start teaming and you'll have a second grade teacher that teaches math and science one that teaches Ela and social studies and they flip to kids so you can't simply look and count the number of elementary teachers because in second grade they start teaming but they have the option

087at the building whether they want to do that or not in third grade most schools team and in fourth and fifth grade most schools team so it's not a onetoone here's how many elementary teachers we have here's how many e teach Ela so the numbers are heavy in the youngest grades yeah correct I get that okay um so you had 52 committee members go back to the committee vote I guess is where I'm at here you had 52 committee members right so we had 26 parents and 26 teachers that made up our committee is that did I understand that's correct it was actually 28 teachers and 26 parents okay I had 2 okay so so we had 54 I or I guess is where if I'm my math is is right but we only had

08834 that actually voted is there a reason that that the others the other committee members did not take the time to vote um there is no one particular reason as with anything you know some people drop off I mean this process begins in October so in October you say yes sign me up and they kind of start dropping so by the end we had seven parents who were still involved in the process and came and voted and 23 teachers okay and we don't we don't 10 parents we don't when a when a parent drops or a teacher drops we don't we don't backfill that in in the no you have to have you you have to be a member of that committee from the beginning and go through that process so we don't just substitute

089people in because if we do that then you're missing all the different don't have any alternate jur is what we don't have alternate jurors um I'm sorry I thought when you're done well I was going to say is that is that a is there a reason that we don't you know cover cover for that or is that just kind of a historic practice or is that St it's it's really a historic practice now to just to be clear there there are no required numbers so state code doesn't have doesn't doesn't Define a number so we could have one parent and meet Tennessee code um so we we don't have a required number in fact other years we have not had a parent from every school we've only asked for a a parent from different parts

090of of the district this year because it was Ela and and we were just walking through an adoption that was so large I wanted to make sure everyone had an opportunity to be involved so we did request one parent per school and and again we had 26 when we started but only seven at the end who actually came and I had parents come to the office to vote cuz they couldn't make it 10 I guess 10 10 I'm sorry 10 sorry about that 10 we had 10 that ended up voting and I had some come to the office because I couldn't make it the night that we voted and they came up to central office and and they had the opportunity to vote and I I communicated you know pretty frequently with them through email

091and that's so I finally had 10 and 24 teachers so and actually we started with what 28 teachers so even you know we even lost what 14 teachers along the way who never came in to cast their their vote okay thank you very much for for that Miss Emerson can I get a copy of these slides there's a lot of information here and I'm having a hard time I'd like to spend some time with it they they're in our board packet thank you yeah we're posting this on the board packet so much and I will tell you also we've actually we actually had some slides at the end I was going to mention later for your review just some examples of some things'll a to get that you'll be able to get that too the

092Lord thank you lots of information any other questions Mr Cash thank you I've just got a couple of questions um I had a question on uh let's see what what is the criteria for teachers and parents uh when they are to uh investigate a curriculum what what's required of them so teachers and and parents when when they first meet for the very first meeting that we have they're given um advice on how to review the material where is it going to be what are the things you're you're looking for then there's also a form that walks them through different parts like ask them about different parts of the curriculum so there is a form that they're given that that really it's not required that they fill it out but it kind of walks them through

093look fors um so there is no they're they're not required to turn anything in they're basically um asked to review the material and to make a recommendation at the end but but as far as if you're asking if there's something required of them to do there is nothing that that's formally required that they do to turn back into me um we just have meetings about what to look for and and what where the curriculum is going to be um held so that they can come and look at it what are the different dates that they can come so it's very informational in nature but they are given some some something to walk them through look Force if you would so so if I pick up a book and I just read through the table of

094contents and see a few highlights from the book you can make a determination from that that's up to each Committee Member when I mean as far as the depth of what they're doing that's really left to up each Committee Member um there there is no time that we sit down and we review the curriculum together um these are all as you can imagine parents who who commit their time so it is up to them to and and they have a lot of opportunities to look through it so it's really up to them to look through the series a lot of them actually meet with teachers and ask questions of teachers because they're not Educators themselves so they'll call me and they'll ask questions plenty of them call me and ask me questions um some talk

095directly to the teachers in their building and ask questions about what am I looking for what what what should that and ask questions directly related to the curriculum um hey this curriculum is different than this I noticed tell me about that so they talk to teachers to to administrators um a lot of what they do is is really raising questions because they themselves are not Educators so a lot of them raise a lot of questions and and that's what we want we want the questions we want to to educate um our community in any way now some some um parents happen to be Educators so they have an easier time walking through a curriculum uh but most of them are not and so they just ask a lot of questions as they review the curriculum

096well well I guess my question is is how much time do does this committee put into the curriculum before making a decision are they looking at what uh comments are coming from the state level from the intermediate levels all the other levels I mean how do they uh you know like the wit and wisdom curriculum you like it because you have to do background information to learn how to read what background information do these folks get into and that that's what I'm asking is it a a two-hour process or you know how much how much time you understand I'm saying so there is no required amount of time that we tell parents they have to spend on it nor teachers it is really it's really a commitment it's a volunteer commitment to look through the

097curriculum so I at so some spend a lot of time some probably don't spend as much time and some probably don't spend any time which is why maybe they don't feel good about voting at the end because they didn't commit the amount of time I'm glad Mr Mitchell brought that up too but uh but still this is we're we're choosing a curriculum uh over and above something we're really familiar with um and I'm just not you're not answering a question as just how much time is really put into this so to to try to if I may to try to to try to work towards an answer to that question Jenny if you would go back to the timeline and and and talk about your meetings first and then take steps through that um as

098I understand it from what Jenny's saying is she can't Define what each individ how much time each individual spent but could you at least talk about the group time in in in in your work and then take some steps from there Mr Golden if I could miss Carl I wanted to add just a a a specific point about the commitment that we ask each uh member to make and I was just going to speak to the teachers and Jenny was probably about to get this uh going back through that timeline but on that February date we thoroughly went through what the teachers should be looking for in their curricula when they for all the teachers um on that date and giving that whole day to what to look for and G giving them time to

099look at each of the four options that day to get started with that work so we did devote that whole entire day for all of our teachers our current teachers of ela some of whom were on this committee but all of whom eventually had the choice to vote their their I their best choice they got a really thorough description of what to look for in that day and Jenny shared some of that she's going to say in that first committee with the the parents but I also wanted to add that when they do come in for that final vote um it is a very formal process according to Tennessee code and they have to sign off and have a notorized signature on their vote to state that they spent time thoroughly looking at this before

100they cast their vote thank you uh I just have one more thing uh was wonders was that um a K through five or did we have to buy yes sir wonders is a k through 5 and on that pie chart where the where it chose the uh the teacher selection with four entries if I'm not mistaken Dr Allen all four of those were K5 programs that show up on that pie chart Jenny if you would hit Jason what I what I'm asking I guess is was did wonders require a waiver also uh no sir wonders did not require a waiver so just um just to come back to the kind of time that that we provide because we can provide time but there is no again there's no required amount of time but the count

101of time we provide is we're actually given the list in November we received the materials it's right here January is when we receive the materials actually late December they start coming in uh Publishers have to have materials To Us by early January so we have five review opportunities provided to the public beginning January 15th so on January 15th all the materials were available with the exception of wit and wisdom which became available February 6 um actually I take that back it really became available February 17th because we had it available for teachers on that um job embedded PD day where teachers had a full day like lorett was mentioning with very specific rubrics to to take time to look through all of their curricula but um so on the 17th they had written wisdom available

102um the other curricula was available January 15th and they finally uh cast their votes on March 2nd so I hope that kind of helps to frame the amount of time um that parents and teachers are given to review this Mr Welch then Mr galber then Mr Hall sure real quick so it began January 15th and what was the end date again the end date of the adoption process of the adoption process um they well they cast votes March 2nd and then it um it gets final board approval in April okay so that's that is it there gotcha thank you sure um thank you so that was just kind of a quick one off there the the question I had so being brought up want to talk about the parents that are on the committee and

103who those are and I was say I've I know parents who' have done this before and I know it's it's a very heavy lift that they do it's it's an extensive amount of time so I I I hope certainly hope we're not suggesting that this is something that they take lightly or or don't put a lot of effort into because these are you know our parents talking about their own children's curriculum um but the parents it's one per school for every Elementary School yes sir so everyone has the opportunity to be represented yes sir and how is that parent chosen um it's Nom that parent is nominated by the principal of that school okay uh Mr Golden if with your permission I I wouldn't mind ask asking Dr web and maybe Dr roer if have

104you have you nominated parents before for textbook committees yourself do you mind kind of talking about how you've gone about this what I'm trying to get out of this is is what's the typical if if you will uh you know characteristic or or who do you look for or involved when you know saying this is apparent one on the techbook adoption committee sure um I'm I made the face at Dr wub because I'm like it's been a while but let me think think through it I mean generally it's somebody who's involved in our school Community pretty actively and that I know will take it seriously um there are some parents that we worked with that I knew were very much more interested in the Athletics or the Arts because that's where they spent their time

105with their children um and then there were folks who either because of their engagement through parent groups on our campus or just in conversation with maybe things they did outside of you know in their own professional careers or um just in conversation with me that I knew that they would take it serious or could bring something to to the adoption process I don't want to use the word expert because I I certainly was never looking for that but it was about engagement um service to the school and knowing that they would take it seriously as they were going through that process with with whatever the topic was because it sometimes is not Ela right so it may be a math adoption or a CTE adoption um so focusing on somebody who would engage in that

106way so both a a level of previous involvement engagement uh a demonstrated commitment I guess a stick tutiven I I would imagine PTO president's probably a big one of that because you certainly know the hours that they do and then uh a certain level of of you said may not expertise but ability to handle the work and to you know in your judgment would make good choices and decisions yes sir okay and then Dr web I concur with what Dr orer has shared um conversations with our PTO leadership board oftentimes that U communication and discussion uh at a PTO meeting would generate names and and nominations um of people that we should consider or have conversations with and then after that it's a a convers conversation with each of those individuals whose names present themselves

107uh in times where there may not be um immediate recognition of names of of individuals who would be up for the challenge you know um perhaps a communic in a newsletter to say if you're interested in this we're looking for a nomination reach out to me um but most often times those conversations with the parent leadership board already have individuals who are active in the school community and and interested in serving in such a role okay so it's it's you're saying not even necessarily just the principle too A lot of times it's a a community engagement with the the PTO which really are the parent Representatives absolutely you know it's it's kind of a theme in everything that we do really and and our district leadership is we're collaborative and so it's collaborating with with

108our PTO leadership and um with our um building leadership teams of of especially if it's it's secondary if it's a Content area that uh our um Department chairs and and leaders in those content areas may have communication with parents who are engaged in conversations with about curriculum with them as well okay so super parents absolutely super we're always looking for great super parents super parents and we've got quite we've got quite a few absolutely and I think it was me 70% of the parents on the committee voted for wit and wisdom um let me go back it was 10 it was 10 so 70% yeah okay thank you yes okay we have a number of questions in the queue next is Mr galberth are they just reviewing the text or do they have the supplemental

109materials and the teachers additions and everything no we do not get everything from Publishers we get a sampling from Publishers they never send you the entire curriculum to look at they send samples to look at okay so we had all teacher manuals every teacher manual was there um every student workbook was there um but then there's a bunch of supplementary material with any series you adopt there's going to be tons of supplementary the supplementary is is usually not included in an adoption review um but definitely student workbooks and teach teacher manuals are included and would you say most most people are reviewing their age their their grade for the majority I mean they're not reviewing everything so it's not going to take correct teachers usually will will be drawn to what grade level they teach

110because that's what they know best so they kind of picture themselves okay if I'm teaching the same grade next year what is that curriculum going to look like so teachers are usually drawn to a grade level I would tell you parents are usually drawn to the grade level that their student is in because just from conversations with parents who come into review they'll say I have a second grad or can I look at the second grade curriculum which makes sense because they they have they have a place right of knowledge to draw from um so that's normally the way that parents review now some people some teachers like anything right some teachers go and review everything because they they they like to look at the whole progression just as some parents are are you know

111look at the whole progression but most of the time people spend time in in the curriculum or the grade level they know best and so did we um I guess when we got the February 11th if when we when we get the W wisdom and get it now we add it to the list and then you know a week or you know up to two and a half weeks later all the all the teachers are voting I guess did was there a I mean I guess I've heard an allegation that the state was pushing wit and wisdom I don't um and so I guess it seems like a pretty quick turnaround for for this all all of a sudden to catch fire and everybody loves it and and they and they just got introduced to

112it um a week ago you heard the allegation no I just I no I have no idea I'm I'm just saying so I but I but I guess from so I just wonder I was wondering if there was anything that was that was provided by the state to to show like in in writing because just seems like a quick turn around so I can answer that Mr Golden no no so we actually had to ask the state will you approve this if we provide the waiver and provide the so there was there was never anything that came from the state that said you ought to take a look at this so we we've heard questions about that too um we've heard questions that you if you chose that you got something else um that that's

113that's just false it really is um we like I said we asked the state if they would approve it um and then the the idea of the state provided phonic program was a conversation that was happening before any of the textbook adoption conversations were taking place and if I one one interesting thing if you think about that this was officially a waiver right we asked if you know will this be approved like those districts that we've heard were were getting approved the answer was yes if if you have a foundational skills component or phonic component um they did not package the state did not package this um and ultimately 34 districts received that waiver for Wht wisdom 70 total districts are on the state's list for a an official waiver of some sort or another

114for the ELA adoption 34 Whit and wisdom um and then there's a little bit overlap with some of those so uh 70 districts got a got a waiver of some sort um that our experience is that's that the state does give some discretion to the leas uh to make those decisions um and uh and so we did not experience a push from the state thank you I do want to address the of the to Mr galt's question I think it's a fair question how did we get a curriculum on the 11th and have teachers so quickly make make a choice I want to bring up that February 17th that job embeded PD day that is the first time we ever do that it was so important to us for teachers to have job in bed

115at time because teachers normally review I've I've reviewed math materials as a math teacher you know I did that a couple of times and it you know you kind of have to make your own time I got to stay after school so I can review I got to go during my planning period or come before school and it or I we're not holding the materials at my school so I have to go to another school to find those materials so it's it's usually teachers have to get out of their way to review materials Ela adoption was so was so important right that I we found it our team found it really beneficial to say we want to give you job in bed at time we don't want you to have to run around to another

116school after work or or find that you just don't have the time right cuz because teachers are really busy they have all these things grading to do and in families so we so this is the first time ever so on February 17th um we you know I I was part of that PD I went out to a school and and and I helped out with that PD it was incredible we spent one entire day on curriculum conversations very powerful day because teachers were asking all kinds of questions they had rubrics that they walked around with and they opened all the manuals and they looked through it and they asked questions and Mary and and Karen our other um curriculum Specialists put together slideshows and all kinds of presentations and videos of each and every single

117each of the four curricula teachers were looking at so that they found value in that day in looking at it so to answer I think that's a very valid point but teachers actually had more time than they've ever had to really look at materials that's I mean that's a great idea for for the future but one last question Jason from a just from a from a policy standpoint so we we added a another date on the 26 for Community review that's right but does that did that meet so for the for the purposes of reviewing wit and wisdom do we feel like we met the obligation to allow those reviews because several of those reviews came before the point in time where we added Whit and wisdom to the list that they were going to

118yes because we also called everyone who signed in at those previous ones to let them know we had another day and we added something okay thank you say that again yes because we called every um every member of the community who signed in at those previous ones to let them know we had an additional day with additional materials to look at Mr h i I appreciate all this information and full transparency of the process it's very very thorough and um the fact that we even have any questions this is uh surprising in some ways but um since we were part of that process this board voted on this after all of that happened and I don't want that to to be missed in this but when this was um presented to the teachers and committee

119members it wasn't like here's you know we have a preference for anything it's it's very open-ended is that correct there's no n it is very open-ended um to the degree that we don't put anyone from central office on that committee for that purpose um we don't want someone from central office sitting on the committee saying I really like this and giving people the idea that that's what we want to adopt we try to be completely neutral from central office in fact we go out of our way to be very neutral uh because we don't want to ever um we this is teacher teachers use the curriculum they should be the ones really involved in selecting that curriculum so we purposely stay out of that and we try to make it very very you know just

120factual so we actually give teachers information and say look for this across all the curriculum and we just give them like rubrics for best practice in in with with the reading with the um science of reading okay and then in in evaluating this as you like at this as as the teachers and U parents do are they looking at just the content of it or are they looking for the educational benefits or is it a combination of both and how do you how do you kind of wear those or how do how do you think that the committee members assess that because ultimately the goal is not here we want to push this these texts on you we want to get you to learn how to read right so how does that weigh in because

121that doesn't seem to be as much of the discussion as we're having in recent weeks about the effectiveness of of these different curriculums so that goes back to we we share with them um rubrics that are used um when Tennessee reviews books right because that has a very balanced approach we look at the content from the standpoint of actual reading right like volume of reading um what alignment to standards so we actually Point um the committee and teachers as a whole we point them to the things that make a curriculum a strong curriculum and we start with alignment to standards is it align to standards does it meet the standards is it to the depth and and breadth of the standards because our our standards are are are very rigorous so are you looking at

122material that does that look look at the types of um of assignments that students are are going to be looking at does that meet um the level of rigor the level of questioning that students are expected to respond when they're taking an assessment whether that's an act in high school or an elementary the the TCAP test um so so we there are certain look fors as far as alignment and rigor okay so and I appreciate the question so set aside the conversation that we're going to get into just a minute about the content and some of the concerns that we've heard and some of the adjustments that we've made um we have set that aside just for a second um we've received really good feedback from our teachers about uh the ability if you will

123of the curriculum to help students learn to read some specific feedback that we've received is that they're seeing the volume of reading for our students at a higher level than than they ever have like students are reading more they're engaged more the types of questions that are being asked are higher level questions the discussions among our students in class are at a higher level than they've ever been so if you set aside the content which is a good conversation to have really our team when you get back to our involvement we could care less what the name of the product is could care less all we're hopeful for is that our teachers choose a program that is the best program to help our students learn to read and some of the feedback that we're hearing

124from our staff right now even through through the most recent um survey that we provided for him is that it is it is a really good program conversations to be had about the content but teaching students to read it's it's doing an effective job Elliot then Rick then Dan I forgot what I was going to add let me look at my notes um so talk to me a little bit about the public review review that you have up here and uh what is what was the participation in that I'm going to give the short version then Jenny you give details we had multiple public reviews very little participation and that's quite common over the years Jenny to be exact three we had three parents um review the elementary curriculum and those five opportunities from January

125to February 6 so that's not abnormal I I also was present for the the last the the adoption before that which was our social studies adoption it it was about the same rate um but so there was um Elementary we had three uh reviews and for secondary we had about another three or four reviews okay and uh were the parent committee members invited to the um oh was the day I guess that the teachers went through the curricul okay maybe that I would suggest that maybe that might be an addition to our process going forward that if you if you're going to spend a a a full day with the teachers to review the curriculum maybe you ought to include the parents they're going to vote on it as well great suggestion thank you yeah

126Mr Wimberly I may be jumping the gun here but uh based on what Dave just said but when do we start talking about age appropriateness it's the section three and we're doing questions on section two okay thank you I have no further question Mr Cash Mr Cash thank you uh I just wanted to go uh back to my question about you know the criteria um I understand that this is a huge undertaking we've got uh what 100 to 125 texts for K through five so I don't want anybody to get the impression that I'm undermining what was being done but it's it's a huge task for parents and teachers to really get involved in these manuals and all these assessments and all this the the issues that go into this uh and even that many

127people it seems like it you know like like Elliot said you know more involvement um so I just wanted to say that you know that I know people really work hard at this and you know what comes out comes out but it's not it's not taken lightly yes I appreciate that I think it's I think it's a huge commitment it's a huge process and there is a lot to consider so I I can appreciate that any any other questions I'll just I'll just add one quick note I was I was involved in selecting the parents for the math curriculum um at Centennial High School and we had one Belmont math professor who served on the committee and we had one vanderbild math professor so that's that is kind of the caliber I've seen and and

128I saw I saw there what they wrote too and you know it was it was it was professional it was focused it was it was what you would expect someone who had um you know um curriculum knowledge base or education knowledge base yeah um Let me let me take a minute here um we are at we're at 10 till 8 and we normally take a break at 8 would we like to take a break before we go into this last section yes okay we'll take a 10-minute break e e e e e e e e e yes um Madam chair one of the questions that came up um in our in our break was a question about how do we advertise uh the the community review sessions um so I wish Carol was here I

129think Carol's on vacation right now but we communicate actually miss Lopez communicates uh when those Community review s sessions are going to be held to um our Communications department and they use the same communication chain that they use for all other major events that we have I know it's in Focus I think channel 3 website all the major uh ways that we do everything else but our Communications Department leads that so I wanted to to share that with the group because that was a question that came up okay so I want to move into our last section and this really is all right we talked about the the science of reading that impacted the adoption we talked about the adoption process so now I'm going to talk about uh what happened in year one implementation

130so I want to start with this slide and basically it is just you know anytime that you adopt new materials it's not just Ela but math or science or social studies whatever you're going to give some general advice to teachers about how to use the materials so I want to start there with the general recommendations that we made and we made these primarily we communicated them through our literacy coaches because we meet with them once a month and then we also communicated this to principles so the first thing that we ask of teachers is always read every text before instruction right so never just crack open a book in the you know middle of class and and start using it you want to make sure that you read the text prior to instruction we also

131asked them to for the most part stick to the teachers addition questions that were there simply because in other words don't go bird walking off into lots of different topics because then you stray from what we're really trying to focus on um and then if there is a concern because if a teacher has a concern about some of the materials what we wanted them to know is first of all they have the autonomy in their classroom to decide how the material is read so for example if if I'm not comfortable with children reading something independently because I think they might misinterpret it then I might read that aloud as a teacher so that I can guide the conversation to make sure that they understand what we're talking about and we stay within the kind of

132put guard rails on it um and so they have some autonomy about how they want to read the text and so we wanted to make sure that teachers knew about these General like just some general advice um and so now I want to talk about though I want to get into Wht and wisdom and I this slide really just shows first of all the the modules that they go through for each grade level so you can see the title uh or the the overall big idea of each module that they study in each grade level and so anytime that you adopt new materials um in that first year you're going to have some adjustments and changes that you want to make and so when we were looking at these modules one thing that we really

133hit home was we wanted the teachers there's a family Tip Sheet that goes along with each one of these modules and we wanted to make sure the teachers sent home that family Tip Sheet because it explained it explains the topic that they're going to be reading about and explains the text that they're going to be using and so now I'm going to talk about how concerns were shared with us Maran excuse me just a second I think we're having some technical difficulties with the visibility of the slides for people viewing at home so we we had actually heard that the slides aren't visible to the public um guys are as these slides are going up and being discussed are they showing up on the uh on the live stream okay so this shot this slide

134just basically shows how we uh or how the the concerns were communicated to us so we had um we heard concerns and different questions from parents from teachers from administrators from different people through phone calls through emails in-person visits social media school board members and word of mouth so now I want to talk about after we heard these concerns what is it that we did about it so I I want to make sure that you guys know that once we heard major concerns that we did make some adjustments during this previous school year to the materials and so right now what I want to do is just go through and show you some examples some specific examples of some of the changes and adjustments that we made so for example in fifth grade in module

1353 which is a a war between us which really covers uh the Civil War there's a book that we use called the boys war in that book there were some pictures that we felt like were not really appropriate it it was basically there were pictures of dead soldiers so we said we don't think that's appropriate so what we did was we said that the teachers should read that aloud and then they can put the photographs they wanted to use into a slide deck and show only the photos that we want to share with children so we can we do have opportunity ities to control how we use the material and so that was one adjustment we made the river between us was uh another example of where we made um an adjustment we had concerns

136brought to us and because of the timing of those concerns and it was right before we were supposed to start using the book we decided to pause that instruction and we wanted to do um we wanted to look at that book book further and study it to see if we felt like it was appropriate so we pressed pause on that instru instruction and we did provide alternate lessons so we did not leave teachers hanging you know like okay you can't use that book and you can't use those lessons you just got to figure it out we did give them appropriate lessons that went back and and met the the theme of the module and then um we also moved up module 4 so that there wouldn't be a gap we started module four a little

137bit earlier usually we do just one module per nine weeks but we moved that up so that there wouldn't be a gap in instruction another adjustment that we made in fifth grade in module 4 and the title of that module is breaking barriers um the one of the projects that was listed in the um in the teachers Edition was a research project and they gave some links in wit and wisdom to some different sites that students could use to gather their own information and then do the uh write a paper after um having one of actually one of our teachers brought to our attention that that if you went into those links you could get to some things that we felt like it were not appropriate for students to have access to so what we

138decided to do was we went through those links ourselves pulled out the relevant articles and then put them in a Google site a WCS Google site so that we could control uh the material that students were exposed to and put some guard rails on that so that students wouldn't be exposed to material that we felt like was not appropriate so in fourth grade uh the in module two extreme settings um for the book Hatchet um so first of all we reminded teachers of best practices and how they had control over how the text was read we did create an extended family Tip Sheet remember that I told you we we encouraged teachers to send those out prior to starting a module so we added some additional information so that parents would be aware of some

139of the content that would be covered in this module we did modify the lessons for chapters 1 through 7 and um and then we also in some cases we suggested that instead of students reading independently that the teacher would read aloud and then modify it that way and then we also made a modification too it's called it's a survival guide um that book is really thick I mean it's probably two inches thick there's so much information in there and it's all about survival in different um you know different situations and so we streamlined that because you know some of it um well for example like you know how you skin a deer or whatever some kids might be a little freaked out by that so what we decided to do was PDF just the pages

140that we were going to uh concentrate on in the curriculum and then used it that way so that kids are not going to go flipping through that twoin book we just gave them the information that was relevant to the lessons and then finally in fourth grade in module 4 which is um the title of that module is mythmaking and they read the book walk to moons um we did create another extended family Tip Sheet with additional information during our prior to doing this module um in our coaches meeting in our monthly coaches meeting we did a module study so that all of the coaches would feel comfortable with helping teachers to look at this and decide how they were going to teach it and then um they brainstormed a list of concerns that might arise

141and then we tried to talk through those and see how we would respond to them ultimately we decided to have three choices for the path for this particular module so teachers could use it as is if they felt comfortable with that or we had some additional texts some additional myths that we supplemented with so that they could do a very Abridged um reading of just a few chapters of walk to moons and then move into some of those other texts so we did offer some choices about how they could do that module based on feedback from teachers and then finally we did send a questionnaire out to our K5 teachers and we had approximately 70% that responded and so here are the big concerns that we gleaned from this survey so first of all in

142second grade um there were some module three concerns expressed about the time spent on specific people and the repetitiveness of that module so we're going to do something to address that um and I'll show you that in the next slide in fourth grade there were concerns over the heaviness of the text as a whole and then in fifth grade there were some concerns expressed over a text and the and the theme of breaking barriers so those were the the big things that we pulled from the survey so now interrupt just a tiny bit I know there was a question about um was that Anonymous and so it was not uh teachers had that opportunity to share and one thing that I found encouraging was we had about 85% of our teachers um select back at

143the beginning at during the selection time and in this in this survey that we did after our last meeting um we had 70% so um I was pleased with the uh with the response to that questionnaire and those teachers who had concerns didn't hold back and so I I was I was really pleased and proud of our Professionals for sharing their thoughts and and Mr Golden if I could just add a piece to that as well um we really want to use that feedback right so if it what what uh Maryann is speaking to right now are the big themes that came across uh but in each grade level there may have been a singular teacher that had an issue with something and they shared that with us or there may have been three or

144four teachers that had an issue with something and they shared that with us we don't minimize those concerns those are real concerns that those teachers have and so our team is going to go back to those teachers and try to assist them with those issues that they're having so we needed the names of the people to be able to do that we wanted to use the survey from a constructive standpoint um and so you know sometimes you know we we we can't make an adjustment to every single concern but we certainly want to accommodate and support those teachers where they're saying I need some support with this particular issue right and this really did help us quantify the issue was it a big concern or was it just a maybe concerned with a couple of

145people and so now I want to talk about what changes we are planning on making in the next school year so one thing that we're going to do we're going to continue this cycle of feedback observation and input so we're going to keep our eye on this we're going to go to classrooms and watch instruction we're going to keep talking to teachers seeking their feedback and see how things are going in this upcoming school year um the other adjustments that we're going to make in K2 based on the feedback from teachers um because remember we're using a separate foundational skills a separate phonics program and so overwhelmingly K2 teachers felt like they needed more time to teach phonics um they really wanted more time to teach everything but you know we only have a certain

146amount of time during the day and so what we decided to do is so we previously we had 90 minutes to teach the what we call the knowledge block and that's where we use Wht and wisdom we have 60 Minutes to teach phonics in K2 we decided to flip those times so next year we'll be doing phonics for 90 minutes in K2 and 60 Minutes in the knowledge block because of the overwhelming feedback to teachers and that is their critical content and so we felt like that was appropriate they're also going to do the grammar from the phonics program rather than wit and wisdom because they felt like it met their needs more and so we're going to adjust that as well based again based on teacher feedback in second grade um we due to

147those concerns about module three we're going to provide some additional text to broaden that lens and the the name of the module it's it's about civil rights Heroes so we're going to adjust that to include the women's suffrage movement so that we can broaden that lens and because the teachers felt like it kind of went on and on and on too long on you know a couple of people we felt like needed to broaden that and pull in some more perspectives in fourth grade um we did get feedback that Woods Runner uh some people were very concerned about the the content of that book and so we talked to Wht and wisdom about that they are going to provide us uh they're going to rewrite 11 lessons based on a new text so next year

148we're not going to use woodsrunner we're going to replace it with a different text and Whitten wisdom is going to um write some additional letter lessons for us because we said we really don't feel comfortable with this book we'd like something different and so they're going to do that for us and so Maran if I can just add that that's uncharacteristic of a publisher to respond to a request from us um to say we really want you to re rewrite this here's why that is critical um so I my team is very good you've heard him speak you know they know what they're talking about I would consider them experts in the field of reading they will be the first to tell you that they are not curriculum writing experts so we've had a couple

149of people say well we've created an oar for social studies and science what about Ela they'll be the first to tell you that that's different that it takes a curriculum team that has the expertise on how to write curriculum to teach students to read so as we make modifications and we make changes we always have our eye on the whole program and how does it impact the whole program because I sh as we shared with you earlier what we're really now we're not minimizing these concerns these are real concerns we just have to modify and be careful that we don't uh take the whole program apart and lose what the program has to offer so we were thrilled to hear them respond to us and say we're going to rewrite this because the overwhelming uh

150feedback that we got was man can't we just read something uplifting in fourth grade and we felt the same way right and so um this is an example but I wanted to speak to to why my team just doesn't feel like they're the experts and they're they're capable of rewriting that curriculum so we have to be cautious in the modifications that we make and then finally uh in fifth grade a river between us that uh text that we did get feedback on that several people had concerns about um we're going to base what we do uh on the recommendations of a committee that is looking at that book and taking it and studying it and see and so we're going to go by the committee's recommendations as far as what we're going to do with

151a river between us so if I may put a little bit more detail on that we pulled that ourselves just to make sure you all hear that clearly and are reviewing it administratively um and so we we had they that that work has not been completed so we don't have a conclusion yet but it was not taught um uh this year so in just recently we've had some specific requests for reconsideration of if I may Dr Allen um I think that is a great place to stop and ask questions about our work and the review of wit and wisdom this particular piece uh it it touches on the the another step the reconsideration of instructional materials we have question from Mr Welch then miss Apria and then miss Cleveland and I'll add some other people

152after that another way another way Mr Welch thank you so the curriculum adjustments that we're going through now is this typical for a first year uh adoption process did did we go through something similar with wonders do we have we ever had curriculum adoptions where we haven't had to uh make adoptions and that's a great question so yes we have had to make adjustments in the past so with wonders there were lots of adjustments there were things like um there was too much to do so we had to sit down and and talk about how are you going to go through that teachers manual and select exactly what part of the lessons you're going to do because there was way too much to fit into a reading block um there were some concerns shared with

153specific texts then and so we had to address those uh I'll give you an example there was a um a selection about um climate change and it was in the context of they they were going to write an opinion paper well if you're going to write an opinion paper you've got to have something that has some pros and cons and something that people differ on right you want want some different opinions and so that was one case where um you know we did get some questions and some concerns from parents um and teachers about that particular selection so we had to work through that issue thank you Mr briia did you click back to the feedback slide um so you kind of touched on this Dave about how this was basically showing the major themes

154and the concerns would you say that overall of the 70% of the teachers that responded that they were mostly concerned about it or are these just like small pieces of that what was the overall feel of the the feedback from teachers thank you for the question so it's hard to quantify a qualitative survey I'll say it that way I don't know if I'm statis basically using the right information but we asked the teachers really two questions tell us what you like um and and and what you want to make sure that we don't change and tell us what you have concerns about um so we wanted every we we really structured it so everybody told us a concern um I would even say in structuring it that way those are the major themes in looking

155at positive comments versus negative comments the positives outweighed even in these areas second four and fifth which is where the content was most concerning to our teachers for various reasons um they were still smaller than I don't have any concerns or don't make any changes um so it was not it was not overwhelming um it was in fourth grade was the largest and I would say we got close to probably 50 50 and I feel so uncomfortable in trying to quantify that um but in my reading of it and trying to decipher what what is a real concern of something that you don't feel like you can move forward with I would still say in fourth grade it was still less than half of our teachers that that commented I need additional modifications beyond what

156we've already done is that helpful yeah so it's overwhelming it seemed like the majority of teachers were happy with the curriculum they didn't have concerns I would say that well again but the way we structured it pretty much everybody gave some things they liked and some things that they were not okay crazy we were trying hard to solicit criticism if that makes sense yeah we structured it so that we would get that okay honestly yeah that makes sense thank you so and and so what I want you guys to know also is all of the changes that we made for this school year those changes will roll over into the upcoming school year we'll still do the modifications that we did for this year and then we're also looking at modifications that we'll need to

157make certainly we said to the second grade module to the fourth grade module and possibly to a module in fifth M Cleveland yes um first of all thank you so much this has been really enlightening and I'm happy to hear that this is as far as my view that it's not about CRT but about content which I'm really relieved to see um because we have a very engaged parent group that has brought to our potential the potential and appropriate grade level materials and I really appreciate the parent input and but I've also with superintendent golden and staff they have done a great job of listening and fixing the problem and on the path of fixing problem and I really appreciate that too um just through working with W Whitten wisdom and um making the necessary

158alterations um you know and everybody has their own opinion we have 40,000 students and the parents that have their own opinions of the children's education and WCS is known for exceptional education throughout the years with numerous past um um National recogn recognitions to support this and um and we understand it's not possible to um satisfy 100% of the students or parents but parents are Educators also and but on a different subject matter they're Educators for family history religion values personal experiences and Views and because we can't satisfy what their children read or hear everybody I hope that education will continue at the home and elicit a positive discussion on how this does or not fit into their family beliefs because I think at that point once they leave the school doors whether it's bullying or

159well that's a zero tolerance that's a bad example um but if it's something kids say you know based on the books they read If the child doesn't understand or doesn't agree with it that's when it's the home I really believe that that's where the parents say listen we don't agree with it in this family and this is why but in a positive because we can't be expected to be everything for everybody it's just too much of a chore for the teachers for administration and I think the parents do a great job educating their kids and they're just as important Educators as our teachers so with thank you Mr Hall thank you um one question I have too is you know it seems like of course wit and wisdom has gotten a lot of scrutiny um

160but other uh curriculum has texts as well is the curriculum text foundation in wit and wisdom vastly different from the other offerings that we had you want me to okay um well it depends on so for example another choice on the list of uh adopted materials that we voted on was ckla so it is very similar to Whitten and wisdom in that it has anchor novels the difference between something like wonders that's a basil so it's just a collection of excerpts of stories in most cases and the Whitten wisdom cka some of the other newer programs actually have full novels so you read the full text as opposed to reading an excerpt so that's one difference but but cka was certainly and elel or open up was another um program that takes the same approach

161use novels and whole pieces of text rather than excerpts and not a basal if I could just add to that and maybe answer in a different way and I think maybe she answered specifically what you're asking for but um many of these texts were being used across our district prior to us implementing wit and wisdom um what was different was in wonders teachers by and large and i' i' ask you guys to correct me if I'm saying something that's inaccurate but in wonders our teachers were looking to supplement additional higher level text to offset what they felt in some cases where wonders was falling short that was the feedback that we got so often times they would pull for example fourth grade Hatchet when I was principal of Heritage Elementary my fourth grade team fifth

162grade it was fifth grade team at the time used Hatchet um so fast forward to this increase in Lexile level um that really is what I believe is stirring the conversation now and it's a good conversation to have if we're reading higher level Lexile text is it putting content in front of students that's appropriate and that's where our answer to that from a TLA perspective from day one has been to make modif modifications and accommodations to those texts as we moved along but I think that's really what it comes down to and honestly it puts us in a very difficult position from our T Department we're hearing both sides of it right so we hear some people that say I love the fact that they're reading the higher level text that when they come home

163we have some conversations about it my kid's more engaged in Reading than they ever have we also hear the other side that say this is inappropriate it's too high of a level for our students well I can't look at that person and say you're wrong that's their opinion and I you know so we're put in a very difficult position um but we're excited about the increased Lexile level we're excited about what we're hearing from our students and from our parents as it relates to putting more challenging content in front of our kids um but that conversation about is this appropriate for the students is in just fairness is is a challenging conversation for us to have because I don't want to ever look at anyone and say your opinion is not accurate that's their opinion

164right y so that that really answers my question and then some and I know this some of this was touched on last month but it it really resonates a little more now to hear that you're comp kind of comparing reading from excerpts versus reading from Full texts and if that's a question presented to parents would you rather have your kids read passages or full books um I think I know how I would answer that and as far as you're talking about the engagement and the fact that the kids are plowing through the readings I would have to compare this to you know reading a book for the first time or getting exposed to some interesting ideas that you've not seen before versus taking an act or an SAT and re having a reading passage and

165then answering questions or working off of that I which is more engaging I mean if that's part of what you were you were considering I can see why the vast majority would have chosen this as an option and if and if I may um piggy back on that a little bit and I'm not going to use your terminology Miss Gilbert so I invite you to to fill in with the basil or the excerpts there are a number of students who will do well but when you add those full length passages when you treat it as a knowledge base there are e there are more students who might not have done as well in a basil setting who were be or who you can pick up uh with with reading uh when when you when you

166switch to that that's that's a big element of what has been discussed um through through the signs of reading maryan yeah I would agree and also one thing that kind of plays into this conversation that I personally witnessed it was really exciting to go into classrooms and see that because there was such Rich discussion and they were going so deeply into a topic that many of our kids uh with IEPs um were even more engaged in the class in in the discussion of the literature than they ever have been before and and I got that feedback from teachers and I actually actually got to witness it myself and that was really exciting um you know as a as a parent who has three kids and two of them have dyslexia it was pretty exciting to

167see kids who had an IEP I couldn't tell who in the classroom did that that's really exciting that's what you want you want to be able to walk into a classroom and say hey there are three kids who have reading needs in this classroom but I don't know who they are at the same time the content needs review right the constant the content needs constant attention we' giving you the examples of what our staff has done up to this point with that it's interesting that you mention weather because you all may remember that um module one I think first quarter for second grade actually talks about weather right and so we even had that example of weather has the potential to be disputed uh because of um theories on climate change Etc and so from

168a Content perspective it is a constant it is a constant challenge to look at to look at um just about every item yeah and I will say I don't want to get through this presentation without stating this publicly um we listen to every concern when they come in we evaluate those concerns um and and and try to do the best that we can to accommodate where we can um but I think that's important for the public to hear um we listen and we evaluate every single concern that comes in regardless of whether it's a student a teacher a parent Community member whoever it is next Mr gal thank you I guess to piggy back on on Eric's question about the normal normal process I guess uh I mean I really appreciate you responding to our

169requests to solicit feedback uh but that doesn't sound like it's necessarily part of the process so in an ordinary curriculum like how would you have gotten how would you have gotten the feedback to know what things are are being changed so previously it it would be brought to my attention usually by A literacy coach so usually if teachers had a concern they would either go to their principle or their literacy coach and then they would share that with TLA and then we would look at how we wanted to address that concern so we never did a formal survey previously under our previous materials but we did do one with this but that is not a normal process that we usually go through but by soliciting the feedback you're get you're you're getting a much broader

170absolutely I mean of course you asked for hey what do you like what do you dislike so you're going to get a little bit of both right but it was really good feedback because what we could see is where there was a really Stark Trend we need to address that if if it was something that maybe just a oneoff then no but if there was an overwhelming Trend then we know we need to address it well I I appreciate I appreciate you doing it and I appreciate your openness to to make changes um and not just you know not just hide behind well our teachers wanted it so we did it and let's do Mr galbert if I could just add something we do appreciate the feedback hey ask your teachers again we wouldn't to

171that point we wouldn't have done that heard by and large it told us what we what we believed to be true throughout the year but a good example of why that did provide us benefit was at this point in the year excuse me when we were going through module 3 in 2 grade we didn't hear a lot of feedback of concerns with that particular module the yearin feedback and I think maybe stirred by some of the conversation that's been going on now there was a higher level of concern which has which has um pushed us to to make some accommodations to that particular module so we appreciate the the the the asking us to do it and um it's also going to be a part of the process moving forward so Karen's not here but

172Karen would speak to how we're going to do that more frequently I think she said I don't want to speak for her cuz she's on vacation right now but I thought she said quarterly we were going to yes okay we so yes moving forward we are going to ask for feedback quarterly so that we can make sure that we stay on top of concerns and need to make that we need to make those adjustments in a timely manner thank you and I so one one more question and it goes back to the Lexile levels but with the with lexiles being pushed and and challenged how do you deal deal with I mean I know the hope is that you're you're dragging some some people up on you know a high with you but how what's

173your experience now of of the students on the on the lower end who just got left and now we're remediating and we're having to go like what I know I know RTI is a big piece of what we do yes absolutely and so so what's interesting all right so now I got to like get in touch with my inner reading or just a little bit to answer your question so May I'm going to try not to but if I if I do just give me a signal and tell me to cut off but so so one of the things that we previously did um and this was a wide practice across the United States was using what we call leveled text right so we might have three different sets of readers and they might one

174might be at a below grade level one might be on grade level and one might be above grade level well okay that that's one of those things that sounds reasonable like okay everybody's getting to read something they can read but in reality what happened was if I if I'm a student in third grade and I'm reading that lowlevel reader that below leveled reader I never can it I never close the gap so if I start off third grade reading on second grade level maybe by the end I might be reading toward the end of second grade but I'm not reading on third grade level so what some of the newer research suggests is that you want to expose all students to a to grade level appropriate text and then you want to do some things

175like repeated reading and kind of backfilling like giving them the background knowledge so that they'll understand what they read so there are several things we can do build background knowledge uh prior to reading the text do repeated reading of the text so that they will be a little more fluent with it and then we also want to do what you guys were you know are very well aware of and that's in RTI we want to close that gap of being able to read the words so our goal in K2 and through the RTI process is to make sure that kids can read the words then we want that grade level content to close the gap and help them be able to comprehend what they read so it's kind of a three-pronged approach to to make

176sure that we get every child we can to read on grade level thank you any other questions uh Mr Cash and then miss Cleveland had another comment thank you madam chair um I've got a couple of questions uh you know links links on the web how much are they vetted I mean how much can we even vet with the information on them I guess well and and that's a really good question too and I apologize that I don't know this for sure right off the top of my head but I'm thinking about all of the modules that that fifth grade research project was the only one that I'm aware of where they had to actually go to other websites um there are some things that teachers can reach links that we have that are in

177the program that teachers can reach to use in in the direct instruction but as far as kids going on websites that that was that research project is the only one that I'm aware of and we will continue to use that Google site with the vetted articles to make sure that you know kids don't go down an inappropriate rabbit Hool and I I can speak to that we have a we have the substantial protections on our filtering system through our filtering system for profanity pornography um for for those items um what what uh what is a bigger challenge is is things promoting theories that might be um and this you know the the new the new legislation you know we need to be more careful of that that's going to take more constant attention on the

178sites uh because sipa and Capa the children's internet protection act uh and the children's online protection act um are at the federal level are addressing in essence pornography and profanity um so uh the one example we have just you know just over the course of this I the one I have in my mind is an example of what we've been going through through this process as well um we had a um one of our one of our uh links one of our um it sites one of our apps uh has had a lot of content on it and and a particular video was pointed out to us and I think I mentioned this last month that that if when you clicked play it said please watch with an adult but there was no popup there

179was nothing to stop that from happening it just scrolled on and so when we found that we eliminated direct student access to that app uh to to you know to teacher only so that they could vet those materials I believe that's going to be a constant battle from this point forward uh for the rest of our professional lives and for those behind us um because of the volume of materials that are available uh these days so Dr Allen or or Maryann if you could you know I don't know if you have anything to add to that but that is a challenge you're right right um you know we we had a teacher survey and I I personally requested it that that it be anonymous yeah and um you know I don't know what the feedback

180was you know 50/50 or whatever you know but uh as we discussed the other day I I think it'd be a good idea to try an anonymous uh survey and uh let people just talk and uh you know see what you think then um there's a lot of positive a lot of negative feedback and everything but I I think really that'd be a good way to get an honest judgment on on this issue um on the second grade curriculum uh there's been a lot of complaints about nine weeks of drilling children on the definition of words uh you know the whole civil rights uh issue um and now now to fix that we're going to cut back on that and go to uh women's suffrage um my whole problem with the second C second grade

181curriculum third module is age appropriateness so to go from civil rights to women's suffrage what's the difference I mean there's going to be a lot of of different things in there that aren't age appropriate well sorry go ahead can you give an example of one one of your concerns well for instance and I've said it before uh uh for instance with Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream speech oh I mean about women's sufferage I'll I'll get there hang on a minute um that's one of the greatest speeches ever written I I was raised that way you know and under that the guidance of that speech my children were grandchildren are okay but does a second grader understand if the the teachers are reading it to them do they understand that a man had a

182dream or a women's suffrage they wanted the right to vote are kids going to understand the right to vote I mean the the the social study standards for the state of Tennessee gradually get you into this it seems like with this this Ela program we've taken a lot of nonfictional or fictional history and whatnot and placed it over it at a younger age that's my issue how much can a second grader understand and I know I I talked to Mr Allen and he said I'd be surprised that uh you know the the the reports that they write and all this stuff but the average child and it may cause some some uh conversation across the dinner table how many people are having dinner these days I'm just saying and and they're they're allowable not to

183come home and say anything at all it's just not age appropriate I mean I we can get into all this other stuff uh if you want but that's that's my issue women suffrage first you're going to have to give the definition of suffrage I I guess I could go on from there if I wanted but I won't uh but uh and then um Dave did you did you say that we that wit and wisdom is not a curriculum writer or did I misunderstand oh he was referring to us we don't have curriculum Ela curriculum writers on staff we don't have that's right well I believe we've got we've got staff members and teachers that could probably do a better job than than Wht and wisdom I really do we got one of the best workforces

184in the country um let's see there was one other thing age appropriate okay who will be on this committee to decide whether or not we're going to use the river between us so Dr Allen and marann if you would speak to that and and and MaryAnn used the the term committee our staff is reviewing it because we determined we needed to review it so Dr Allen so that that decision was made months ago now I guess um and so we internally said we want to pause we want to broaden the number of people that are looking at this so we uh solicited a teacher uh a principal a parent uh am I literacy coach A literacy coach and a historian to be a part of that team that that looked at that material um I

185do believe was that one of the books that's now part of the reconsideration of instructional materials so that that that is also going to go through the reconsideration process which will be more formalized and Mr Golden will talk to you about that process after the questions oh that's coming up yeah okay yes sir okay thank you well and Mr Cash I do want to make sure I know we've in our in our Retreat we talked about you know responses and so I want to make sure I do uh speak to what you've said and I res I respect what what you've said and I think you touched on what Dr Allen talked about and that is opinions right that you have a very strong opinion on on the on the grade level appropriateness of that

186and that's where that's where it's a real challenge for for our work because that can vary so so much and it deserves respect and it deserves an examination um you know that and we've heard we've heard the whole scope of it so from from from a review process what we've walked through so far is our professionals our teachers that feedback and what they've shared and the work that we're doing to improve it and the example of of module three the third quarter for for uh for second graders what we envision from this is is that that the that the time spent on the individual readings is is shrunken uh be by by doing that you're not doing it over and over again you're altering the content uh you're shrinking the time spent on a particular

187on a particular uh um read uh and so that's that's part of our thinking that's part of our our Ela professionals thinking and and shrinking that the over and over again uh that that you've shared I will tell you that um from from a from a Content perspective you know you you can get into the opinions of well you know Ruby Bridges experienced this in first grade right you've heard all those you've heard all those things and I think those are examples of how opinions can differ on that um uh I appreciate uh you're talking about social study standards uh you and I have talked about that you know weeks ago and I really do encourage uh our our our leadership to look at um the the the information that we have on our website

188with respect to the state standards and what's taught uh kindergarteners when they first enter School learned citizenship Basics uh the Constitutions mentioned Etc and you've asked the question can and I'm I'm speaking for you so correct me if I've misinterpreted this we do those things in social studies so why are we adding content to ELA you've asked that question uh and I hope that in our presentation today you've got you all have gotten a vision of why that additional content is added I will tell you there's there's a lot of discussion uh on um about about science and and social studies content in ela you may recall that there have been pushes here and there in Tennessee to shrink the amount of time that students study science and social studies and replace it with Ela

189I'm happy that that hasn't hit us yet but there have been bills in our legislature to try to do that um it's my opinion that we still need that at the same time I hope that you've seen through this presentation that there's value in that content uh being there for for our students to read that content needs constant attention it has that professional review from our folks and then of course we have that additional request for reconsideration of instruction materials that we haven't given the detail on yet I just i' just like to say that you know it even the content right right through fourth grade what what happened to kids having fun at school and I know you want to bring up current events to them in in first second third grade that they

190don't possibly understand but place that burden on them and so much of the content and the textbooks that that just degrades the family those are things I look at I I understand current events I understand kids want to read something that maybe they've heard about but now when we start introducing what they are going to learn about so that they know what we're talking about before they even read it there there's some conflict in there I mean it's it's a it's a huge undertaking but that's that's my my whole issue for bringing this up is age appropriateness let these kids be kids you know they're not walking around hating each other let them be kids teach them the elementary education that has brought so many millions of kids in this country to graduation and end

191college and to the success in their life that's what I that's what I look at yeah I get what you're saying so it's not just an opinion it's just it's fact it's happened over and over down Through the Ages Elementary education if they get it they're going a long way well to make sure I'm clear on what I'm talking what I'm talking about when I talk about opinion we have heard from others that say this content's been great for my child we've had heard from some that say it hasn't and that's what I'm referring to when I'm I'm talking about when I'm talking about that and it deserves review and I hope that you all have seen that review we're doing here uh um and uh and it's going to continue and I I think

192I hope that Miss Gilbert's presentation was clear on that Mr Welch I didn't hear an answer though to Jas to uh Dan's core question though with that do they understand the content so after a year of teaching the kids these do they understand it our experience is yes now I will like I I will ask uh those professionals who are having conversations with our teachers and our literacy coaches about that uh to to answer that question on that knowledge that content here we go okay so let me give the example of that second grade unit that we've been talking about so two of the books are written from the perspective of Elementary AED children so we're not reading so of course Martin Luther King was an adult so there is an adult perspective in that

193particular piece of text but the other two pieces of text that are currently in that module are written from the perspective of a six or seven-year-old child so so yes yes well that's a so the Civil Rights Movement is is a big topic it's a broad topic but if if you look at it from the perspective of two children that puts it in the context of it's a little more child friendly so there are certainly parts of the Civil Right Movement civil rights movement that are not touched in that particular module but I did want to say that two of the books were written from the perspective of children okay and and in that case you know and obviously it's everyone comprehends it every child comprehends at different levels what have you but uh across

194the board generally speaking you know are they understanding that content yes or no yes and the evidence to support that would be uh the writing that we that the children did for that end of module task so they had a writing prompt and then they had to write to answer the question and so that's the evidence that we used to see that they it okay okay so not only do they do it they actually putting in writing that they understand and getting it and then uh these are historical figures yes have we had any issues with historical inaccuracies in the the text or there was a question about that in the river between us and so that's why we wanted a historian to look at that to make sure that it was historically accurate and

195yes it is okay so to to give you that detail the river between it is is set up as historical fiction um it's a story about someone in a factual historical setting and so that was that was the discussion in that fifth grade novel um were some of the depictions factually accurate uh in the Ruby Bridges example that that was not structured that particular those particular readings are not structured as historical fiction those are those are those are facts that's correct and was there anything that was historically inaccurate in those the brid's example or the other one which presented through the child's perspective we have found nothing everything we found is factually ACC right andur yes because for example one of the books they read is written by Ruby Bridges herself so and there it's

196all like fact checked so there are um it's cited the the so if they reference a historical um document then it is fact checked so yes okay and are the kids reading the I Have a Dream speech in second grade I mean that's so what they do the the teacher does read it and then actually they listen some some of the classes chose to listen to a recording of it so that they could actually hear his voice and inflection so and to kind of get the experience of being there yes okay thank you Miss Cleveland this is kind of a hard question I was so wrapped up into my little Spiel that I forgot to ask the question but it's very hard for me because I love our teachers but as a representative got to

197ask this question with the new curriculum we have for the younger kids this might be for you Jason uh we all have our biases and whether consciously or subconsciously so with this new curriculum are we are the teachers going to in a professional development day or somehow teach them how to convey this information without putting their biases in it I know that's very hard and I know some teachers don't mean to do it but because it is a sensitive subject to be able to teach what we're trying to teach without personal opinions in there thanks for that question that that is a very important piece of it uh yes uh the professional development um includes that um and you know uh our teachers reflect our community right the scope of thought in our community is

198likely reflected in our teach teachers um and so Miss Gilbert I know you want to speak to this more specifically I did okay I did because we actually we were very um intentional about how we wanted to do that so Whitten and wisdom has a protocol it's called a module study and in it you go through and and you as a teacher ask yourself questions like how would I want to say this what are some possible roadblocks or some possible concerns that I have with this how am I going to address those those concerns and so when teachers so we do module studies with coaches they turn around and do the module studies with teachers so we feel it's really important to get teachers around the table with the content with the teachers manual going

199through and thinking about everything that could happen will happen did happen last year and talk about how we want to present the material so we we're we will continue to do those module studies and that's kind of how we address it thank you Mr Paul um thank you uh Mr chair uh I was actually pulling up the Tennessee state standards for history and um because I was kind of curious about you know the age of propor and like kids kids are only kids once and you don't want to have to unring a bell and and so I was curious about the topics with the laa and then this discussion prompted me to look at it second grade students will learn about culture economics geograph geography government Civics and history by studying their identity as American

200citizens and how our nation operates third grade um part two early American Tennessee History thir third grade students will learn about the indigenous people of North America European exploration early American and Tennessee settlements and the founding of the 13 13 colonies fourth grade students will learn about the events that led to the US Independence the American Revolution growth and development of the US through Manifest Destiny and the causes and effects of the Civil War and reconstruction um so it sounds like some of this stuff is certainly in that bracket um so some of the concerns that I've had last month about this uh have been addressed with with some of this discussion um and and I just kind of wanted to share that but is that does that kind of inform when you talk about

201teaching the standards obviously you're looking at Ela do you look at this to and make sure that okay these are things that kids are prepared for or do you think okay we need to hold off on this particular topic because it doesn't align with what they've been using we do look at that and so we have curriculum Specialists for example my the person I work closely with who works with me in ela and she also does social studies our curriculum specialist for social studies so she works really hard to to see where the ELA and social studies align and so we want to so for for example there have been some things that we've moved around in social studies so that they'll line up with where we teach that in ela and then also in

202science our curriculum specialist for science has done the same thing so we try to make sure that those two things mesh where they can um but one thing I know is that um for example if I read about a topic in second grade and I learn a great deal of information even if it's not in the standards for that grade I might encounter that standard in third grade but already I have so much background knowledge from talking about it in second grade that now I'm able to go even deeper into that topic when I move to third so none of that background knowledge is going to be lost even if they you know study it in a different grade level than maybe they see the standard in science or social studies but we do try

203to align those two things and history is messy and there is conflict right throughout it um so I can appreciate that Mr Cash I I think I got my question answered okay I don't see any other questions I just have one comment um like Mr Cash I thought that the survey would be anonymous I mean it was just an assumption I made I do understand why the choice was made not to make it Anonymous and um you know to to be able to provide additional help and the the reconsideration and request for materials process isn't Anonymous either so you know there's both of those processes asked for your name but having said that I receive a good bit of anonymous feedback that I passed on uh or I encouraged people you know to to work

204the the chain of command with their concerns so I'm I'm just wondering did any other board members receive feedback so so lots of us okay so pardon oh yeah so so I I just I'm just saying from our teachers you know I I think all of us had the opportunity to receive feedback and many of us did and and did pass it on and um as as board members I think that that's something that we that we hold dear and that we try to respect and and try to do so just wanted to acknowledge that so I think we are moving to the next set of slides thank you madam chair uh and these these slides are a lot shorter because up to this point we've talked about what we've done uh and I want

205to add now uh since our last meeting uh we have had uh requests for reconsideration of instructional materials I had a conversation uh with a representative of moms for Liberty and um and and as a result of that conversation it became very apparent that that uh that's what um she was looking for um for the reconsideration of instruction materials so they so uh so we have had some requests submitted uh on behalf of that organization and you all may notice if you look at that form that it actually has a spot for which organization you're with um because there's nothing new Under the Sun uh that that we that you know these these things come up and we have a really good process for reviewing that so um we talked about our staff's professional judgment

206well what we've done with this re request for reconsideration of instruction materials policy is added the overlay of of of a of a different group that includes staff representation plus Community representation plus teacher representation uh so that it can be looked at from a different perspective um I've participated in this in years past uh chairing uh uh committee looking this over and uh in my experience it's been a robust valuable experience and I am very pleased that uh that that request has been made for us to review when you look at instructional materials when you look at books you need a thoughtful reasoned approach and one individual should not be making those decisions y'all it needs to be more than one person and so uh we're starting that process um officially the committee under the

207board policy timeline is to be set by this Tuesday I believe we'll probably have it done with a little bit earlier if you haven't read that policy or if you if you have read it uh that uh the the uh the representatives are selected by different folks board chair selects a board representative the WCA uh selects a teacher representative we have a principal representative uh and so um I will get that to you within the next few days um and let you know that the committee has been established uh and we will start that process the timeline is there to get the process started there is a timeline after the work is done for a an appeal from anyone who participated once the committee makes a decision and the board is the ultimate decision maker

208that anyone has the power to appeal uh whether it's a whether it's a teacher who felt like the decision was wrong or somebody who made the request and felt like the decision wrong doesn't matter anybody body who's participated in that process has that power to appeal to the board um so I also want to let you know finally uh that that in addition to what Dr Allen and his excellent staff presented today with their review and those changes that we showed you today there may be some additional changes as a result of this process uh so U so that's an that's an important aspect of this as well because again it has that different perspective so that's that's the that's the conclusion of of that review process the the the detail of the Wht and

209wisdom that I know was at really the heart of uh so many concerns that we've that we've had from from folks uh next slide additional next step two now we talked about I've talked about buckets from time to time bucket one is US bucket two is this review process bucket three is the state the state is having similar discussions to our discussions uh about curriculum about instructional issues about selection Etc and you all know and we've we've mentioned this that they that there's been an amendment to one of the bills in this most recent legislative session uh that people are describing as critical race Theory but the but the legislation actually has more detailed language more substance to what uh our legislature uh has has uh has stated and so I've asked Dana osbrook to

210speak to this but I want start if I may at the very first bullet data and then turn it over to you the way this law is structured is the commissioner of education is the ultimate decision maker on whether school districts are complying with this law so it's not up to us to just make a declaration hey we're good that ultimately it may be the commissioner of Education evaluating that so we have the power to evaluate this our ourselves and see how we're doing but ultimately that burden will fall on the commissioner so Dana thank you superintendent golden so superintendent golden did not bury the lead on this particular uh slide and your key Takeaway on this slide for public chapter 493 is that the commissioner of education is the decision maker so this law

211becomes effective July 1 of 2021 um we have received information from the Department of Education that around August first the commissioner of Education will be providing additional information to districts so be board members once we receive that information of course we will provide that to you but at this point we do not have um other than the legislation itself any additional information from um the commissioner of education so one other piece on this particular slide there are four Concepts that are not prohibited three of those four are included on this slide with this new legislation again public chapter 493 there are 14 Concepts that should that shall not be included or promoted a few of those three of those 14 concepts are um included on this slide just for your information and then the last

212piece of this legislation does set out that the commissioner of Education would have the power to withhold State funds and then the last thing that we will um remind you of is that currently there is approval from the Department of Education to use our adopted Ela curriculum materials um but as superintendent golden mentioned this is a piece um a step that may change again as we get guidance from the Department of Education we will share that with you any questions board members Mr galbert Jason I'm I'm looking at the at the 4.43 and and um it's a question for you maybe oh sorry sorry for you and maybe for Dana um around the 4.43 I'm I'm trying to understand I've read it several times trying to understand um what kind of recommendations is the committee

213able to to make um it seems like this is a request for reconsideration of the materials for my child um as it says that no parent group of parents or non-school group has the right to determine that instructional materials for students other than their own children um and then it goes back and say that but the board does however recognize the right of an individual parent to request that his his child not have to use a given instructional material so I'm I'm trying to understand what what they are authorized under this policy to recommend or is it limited so as I read it this committee has broad scope to make a decision that ref reference you had to parents asking for their child is is is separate from the review of this committee because a

214parent has the power to say I don't want my child to participate in this and and we honor that and I know Mr Cash mentioned this last last month and one of the concerns uh that that he expressed as I understood it was well that may be tough for an individual parent because you might feel isolated Etc uh and so this particular ular policy has a committee review where their scope of authority is Broad they could say everything's fine we we we we don't recommend any change they could recommend modifications they could say blank needs to go they could say an entire read needs to go they have broad they have broad Authority as I read this policy now this is me you know speaking as the chief executive as the as the uh as

215a superintendent um I know enough to know that I always got to you know am I using proper proper English I always have to uh speak to the lawyer and uh and get her interpretation as well so miss OS Brooks yes thank you superintendent golden I will agree the policy sets out the steps that the Review Committee has to take on page two of the policy and in the language of the policy to superintendent Golden's point it is Broad discretion um there is nothing in here that sets out that that limits their authority of what they review or what decisions they would make as a Review Committee and then obviously um the next section on page two of the policy does also set out that appeal of the committee decision um and if there is

216not an appeal it is also clear that a determin is final so board members and and Mr galberth to your question there is also broad scope as to what the board could do if in fact this decision was appealed and and if I may uh she's referring to paragraphs 7 and 8 of the uh of the policy that committee reads views or listens to the material in its entirety uh we have received um whether it's in a spreadsheet form or a list uh the the concerns the the items that that are of concern and the reasons why it also calls for a hearing including the complainant and any affected School employee so uh so the the complainant will have that opportunity to share their concerns specifically uh with this committee it's a very thorough review

217okay well that's I appreciate I'm I'm glad I asked because that um I guess I don't read it that way but I mean I guess you're you will I guess whoever is informing the committee about their about their role yes will essentially be be told exactly what you and I mean you and Dana agree and yall are going to communicate to the communicate to the committee what their role is and what their um recommendation may or may not includ and more specifically it actually talks about a decision and then a decision is appealed so as I read it it's a decision and so so I I think I may have used the word recommendation from time to time I think I did but you're right they do they do make a decision they do make

218a decision and and to the point it is also clear in the policy that that decision is final if there is not an appeal great thank you Mr Cash then Mr Welch yeah I'd like to go back to what Jason was saying our conversation was about children being opted out of the class yes that that's correct right um I mean since you brought that up what what happens if you opt a child out of a class and number two what would happen if 10 or 20 parents came up and said I'm opting a child out what what would that do to the the teachers the classrooms and whatnot well number one this policy does allow for that op out uh and we have not experienced that if a you know if a large number uh

219decides to opt out so I don't know that I can answer your question right now uh we would we would cross that bridge if if we needed to okay and uh you know my my comment with that has always been you know you can opt your child out but then you know first second third graders they're going to be sitting in a different space or whatever's given to them you know the accommodation and they're going to wonder what they did wrong you know again the you know everything about this stuff the burden goes back to the child you know that's that's the way I look at it yeah so I mean those are things that we have to look at too and if it is a big large group of people that do opt out

220I mean that's going to disrupt classrooms and everything else it's just Mr Allen did you want to Dr Allen did you want to address that I I'm sorry I saw him out of the corner of my eyes right good yeah class or subject so I was just going to add that um my M's dead um I I agree with what Mr Cash is saying I agree with what Mr Gold said we will do everything possible to avoid that we don't want any kid that doesn't sit in the classroom with the materials if we got to a point where we had multiple then that's the feedback that's telling us that it may be something that we have to make adjustments for but here's what I want the group to say we don't want any kid not

221being a part of that instructional material someone said it earlier U it's impossible for us to provide materials where everyone says this is perfect we're going to do everything we can so that we don't have a child that's that has an alternate assignment Mr I'm sorry Mr Cash were you were you done no I'm done okay Mr Welch thank you so not really a question I just want to say um say Express appreciation for the presentation tonight obviously uh a lot of work uh went into this great information um have been looking at this for a while and even learned a lot of uh new things tonight that that I wasn't aware of and and uh you know clearly it's been well thought through I don't think we stumped you once uh tonight with a

222lot of different questions as they came up and I would say big takeaway for me on it was we had a a very detailed specific exact very involved process that's very transparent and involves a lot of uh eyeballs and uh it sounds like there was a clear winner too among you know our our uh professional Educators uh you know Mr Cash compliment him said we have the the best Educators around I agree and um appreciate that uh you know they they chose what they did thank you I I have a question um during during the the review the public reviews of the materials um when when we had committee members looking at the materials and when the public was around to look at the materials did any concerns come up about the concept of critical

223race Theory no okay I I looked through my emails today because I wanted to kind of see you know when when this topic started coming up so uh we had a vendor inquiry in January and you know it's just one of those emails we get from vendors you know saying hey do you want to work with us that we always basically delete um then we had a a the unsolicited jum mail I call them cold call emails right cold call emails then we had a parent have a question on 226 then we had another parent have a question on on March 3rd then we got the email from commissioner Lawrence on the 11th of March asking us questions and asking us to look into this this concept and expressing concern about it and then after

224that the week of the 23rd of March we got a number of emails about this so I I just are you saying CRT or CRT yeah so I I'm I'm I guess I'm you know I'm wondering what what happened you know you know did this become an issue more recently um and Mr Cash you had your hand raised well I I'm going to try to answer your your question it module 3 in second grade came up and commissioner Lawrence's email uh discussed a child that went through the curriculum that now hates to be American and wants to be Thai and over the period of time there have been more folks come forward that are having problems with their seven and eighty olds that go through this uh about their their color their skin color why

225are why are white people so mean now and they're white themselves uh there's a lot of the the critical race Theory uh let's put it this way if if we're not we're not teaching it right now but you're standing on the threshold of it okay and there's there's many many examples but again I'm I'm more about age of appropriateness than getting into the critical race Theory it's going to take somebody bigger than me and you and and other folks to determine and hopefully our our state legislature and Governor understands that our teachers need to know what's going on with this legally because I I don't know how much more they can take you know I mean all this stuff all the stuff different things were teaching and whatnot and you know you don't know what

226whether to teach or not teach but but going back to the question is that's what triggered all of this Nancy every bit of this and you know and and that young boy and I I talked to both parents um they were told to opt him out I believe they pulled him from school I believe there's been a lot of people that have already pulled their kids from schools that won't say anything and and we don't want that either we don't want that but there's kids and it's been from uh uh fssd there's been several parents email and say that their child's in in therapy why coming home crying and why do people hate me you you know it's it's the it's the flip side of all this the the social injustice and all this stuff

227does fssd use wooden wison no they don't here's what n they don't use I was asking if does fssd FSD K5 is wonders yeah well I I don't know I'm just saying they're they're they're calling about this I mean I've I've gotten and I've gotten feedback from a lot of different people it's not just one or two so we don't want to disregard that either right well every every parent who who brings an a concern to us deserves Fair consideration and and we hear from uh like like superintendent golden has said we hear from people who are concerned about this curriculum we hear from people who who really enjoy it and we we don't hear from a lot of people about it at all so everyone everyone deserves Fair consideration right exactly and that's and

228that's what we're doing with this you know looking at the curriculum and whatnot okay but the the CRT end of it it's out there and it's it's going to come around eventually one way or the other so we need to watch out for that too and and well and Madam chair if I may I know Dana um had those slides I just want to give you some examples of what that legis ation says um that uh that Lea um shall not include or promote the following concepts as a course of instruction or in a curriculum instruction program it includes things like One race or sex is inherently Superior to another race or sex number two an individual by virtue of the individual's race or sex is inherently privileged racist sexist or oppressive whether consciously or

229subconsciously those are the con those are the concepts that the legislature uh discuss in its most recent session um and you know you mentioned I've heard those examples from Franklin special as well uh in you know and from us here as well and and it and it just reemphasizes to me that we do reflect the world but we have to look to serve our children to serve our students and serve them as individuals and do what's best for our children in our community even knowing that that impact is is uh is still coming from the world it's going to take constant attention mentioned quite a bit here yeah that's right about how they were a pilot and everything's wonderful and we've all gotten emails that are saying different so I mean I'm just I'm I'm

230just saying as a whole that you know there's kids being affected by some of this teaching whether it's from a pamphlet uh a picture book that teachers are showing and then assessments the assessments that about what they're the questions they're asking children uh you know all this comes together it's not just uh Ruby Bridge's book or not just one it's some of the the other uh information that's given out that is causing some issues so I mean but we're we're we're looking at that Mr galbert thank you mam chair uh just as a looking at the looking at this process um been on the board seven years and this is a it's been a really interesting learning process for for me and probably all of the board members so I guess I want to I

231want to thank Dan for for for bringing this up and and obviously we want to we want to follow the process and let the parents have their um have their hearing with the with the reconsideration um and but I guess at the end of this um my my request to to KC as as the policy chair is to um is to look and see if there's if there's anything that we want to do um from a policy standpoint with the with the adoption process necessarily um it seems like we um seems like I don't know we just I just want to make sure that we that we think about this that at the conclusion of this no no reason to do it now let's wait till the whole process plays out but I want to

232just put a bug in your ear to that we might might just I know it's we're not we're not accepting policy at all um to do this but it might just change our mind of what maybe some things that we might want to put in place to to uh to do things differently thank you okay I believe that's it Madam chair final FYI we are posting this this PowerPoint that you saw after the thank you there are a number of examples U using um uh a loving Elementary vernacular which is help me y'all it's the literation glows and grows glows and grows we weren't going to go through all those slides but but it's it it it includes a compilation of examples of things that went well and challenges uh that that have been shared

233with our staff over the past year so um so we do invite you to go back and look at that we didn't want to take your time up with those glows and grows thank you thank you everyone great discussion and now without further Ado our operations Report with Mr Mark Samuel thank you madam chair good evening board um once again my dear colleague Dr Allen and his outstanding professionals have taken us down a journey that I find rather fascinating but also has reaffirmed for me wisdom of my decision to pursue degrees in engineering and not not primary or secondary education so thank you very much all right back to Summer Camps bus transportation it's only the second week of the semester if you if you will but all that stuff has settled out we went

234through a what would normally see a first week of of school with with buses but but between Jeff's group and Allison's group they've made adjustments and things are going pretty smooth now that also has allowed Allison's team to get to uh bus routes for next year which we going to be more than what we had this past year because we don't have as many students doing online so so we're happy about that I sent you the construction report update last night or yesterday afternoon um as as I said in there most projects continue to be on a on a on a good progress uh the page middle and Page High phases um we're we're in final stages there but we are we are still going to make sure that the those classrooms are ready for

235the staff to move in and students to start for the first semester are coming up and uh so we got a real good put push on that also the turf field conversions have started particularly at Centennial and Ravenwood right now Fairview will start next week um some significant challenges at the uh former Phosphate Mine that is now the football stadium at Centennial High School but Kevin is working through those and you'll be happy to know that's one of the Kevin it's one of the projects that U that I've asked Kevin to uh come back from retirement and help walk us through cuz he's the only one around here who really has experience doing that we've talked a bit about Food Services before I will say that summer camp Food Services going strong and we're seeing

23670% participation in the no cost meals based on the advertising we've done that's better than about the 50% or so that we you that we see throughout the the year so we're pretty excited about that we want to capitalize on that with some of the some of the brainstorming we we've done um even allart sales are kind of up but mil kit demand is down and I don't I don't know if there's a correlation between the no cost USA meals uh and and and that but but along the line of some of the brainstorming we've done just today Carol's crew was at Allendale today filming the food line and filming folks go in and we're going to pull a bunch of videos from that that that we'll put out in in Focus we'll put out

237in various things throughout the rest of the summer um principles can use that particularly teaching the PTF I don't know about you all but I never went through the lunch line that my kids went through through through you know school and it's our observation that not too many parents actually gone through the lunch line and see what the what the meals look like in the lunch line and how attractive they are it doesn't look like it did in the 80s y'all or the '90s yeah I mean I learned how to make my own peanut butter and jell sandwich and put in the bag and that's what I had most in my career but that's one thing we've noticed and it's a focus area there so more to follow in in August um and the last

238thing I want to talk about real quickly is um our Esco plan Mr galberth asked last month about um the return on investment that we're getting there in energy conservation return on investment is is simply looked at in terms of simple payback of the project which basically is how quickly do does the the Energy savings um amount and pay back whatever financing was necessary for that okay so far we're we're approaching the the end of year three of the first phase of this and we're almost $300,000 above the guarantee from a Roi standpoint or for for a um simple payback we've already achieved an incremental decrease in the payback year which is basically 16.3 years for the first phase the second phase is 16.8 um but it doesn't start until November cuz we're doing construction

239there but in the construction period we've already we've already saved almost $1.4 million which is not part of the guarantee so we've already saved money there to again incrementally decrease that simple payback period from an Roi standpoint so short of course the short answer is yeah we're exceeding we're exceeding the Energy savings guarantee and shortening up the simple payback there the nice thing about all that stuff most of that savings goes right now to pay the terms of the financing but as soon as that simple payback is done then all that money continues to go that savings we get which in the first phase is almost a million dollars a year after that and the second phase it's about $1.8 million a year that we'll see in perpetuity until some other good energy Gizmo Gadget

240comes up so pending your questions that's my report Mr Mitchell Mr Samuels thank you thank you for your uh energized [Laughter] [Music] report Qui quick question for you is you're talking about is we're talking about the conservation savings and a lot of that's around lighting and I believe it's also H as well but it occurred to me is there an LED option for sport build light yes sir there is and that's one that's a potential other phase of an Esco that I've been in Sation with train about they're doing a fair fair amount of it in Murray County right now the problem is the the the vapor sodium I'm for sod VAP yeah the sodium vapor lights that we currently use at our athletic fields we don't have them on long so we're not using

241a lot of electricity so from a savings standpoint a savings that would pay for the terms and pay for the stuff it's kind of tough but led is getting down I have visited a couple other schools that have done LED conversions um we have it at at um um the Franklin High soccer field and baseball field and softball field and the summit um soccer field and tennis court so we have some of that in our because we funded out of capital you to do that new lights make sense right now I thought is we were I'm sure there's a replacement rotation on these well there is but but but but to pay for to cash flow a project we're not quite there yet so we might have to put some Capital that I also in

242conversation with u um Ferb about some solar farm opportunities and we may want to enter here shortly with a little side agreement to to to look really serious at a couple locations I got to interject there I'm nervous about solar Farms because we're taking up pieces of land and uh and so we're going to be very careful about solar farms and make sure it makes sense for us long term absolutely but there's at least one spot I think we got a good opportunity there so we find so does that answer your question sir okay last question I do have one more Jason what are we looking at from a central office space uh plan against solution expansion that's on our plate to discuss this year um one of the things and you've actually mentioned that

243before and I I very much appreciate it you know we felt like we were shoulder-to-shoulder year and a half two years ago we're going through the process right now with human resources to determine um how we can balance uh the the work from home the transition working from school sites and our next step then is to Define what we need and project for the future uh We've looked at some potential for rentals uh we won't be doing anything this year but that's on our plate to discuss as well thank you uh Miss Miss AIA and then Mr Cash um my question is about the Aro Road pedestrian crosswalk between page middle and Page High um it mentions in the report that the signal polls are going to be the long lead item that will drive

244the completion date do you anticipate the lead time going putting you past the fall reopening of school uh it will not be ready by the time of school the the final the final project not keep in mind what we have designed and what we have on contract now is not just a crosswalk it's a full signalization of the traffic to control traffic on Arnold Road and do it at the point where the Ingress and egress in the Page Middle School takes place on the the Eastern end it includes a crosswalk facility that's set up and and and it's integrated with that signalization traffic lights okay and if that um if that won't be open by the time School reopens do you have any temporary plans for something that will signalize the C the safe Crossing

245of students between those campuses what we are doing right now is we're taking out the pieces that that contractor can get done now primarily sidewalks um and and and the signage and potentially a temporary um solar powered push button cross line there and it doesn't take up a lot of real estate Mr Golden um but we we have our Traffic Safety engineer folks looking at that to make sure that that level alone is safe because sometimes these things you throw something in you can make it worse right yep so if it's safe and we can get that in before the school starts yes we'll do that if not we won't we'll wait for the full signalization okay thank you Mr Mr Cash thank you Mr Mark we got uh how about lighting let's go back

246there real quick I wanted to interject something isn't the uh aren't the LEDs way too bright isn't there complaints about the brightness of those lights inside the buildings no outside for outside lighting have you heard anything about that uh no sir I haven't it designed correctly one of the advantages of LED is you don't get a lot of overs spash okay okay like you do with what we have right now um the other thing is designing correctly you have an upward looking or upward projecting light so you can see the bottom of the baseball or the football or whatever right and the second thing is is to go along with Mr Pria uh you know Arnold Road I believe is the busiest cut through Road in the county dangerous in the world you know um

247I understand what you're talking about by stopping traffic and you know kids randomly wanting to Cross or whatever and I'm just I'm sure it's going to be at different times but what are we doing about that issue because man you start stopping traffic at 8:00 in the morning for kids to cross and it's going to back up all the way to the interstate One Way well I I'm I'm glad you asked that question and I want to address it first and then I may invite um Dr Webb to address it as well so you know those schools have been there for 40 plus years and we've never had a Crossing um during school there are occasions where they cross um School administrators go out there and and manage that and they get help from the

248sro's uh as well for those times where they take groups of students across um and during those times there's typically less it's not the rush hour times right um so so they do that they've been doing that for years with that help from law enforcement um the when the Planning Commission was looking at our improvements to both campuses um one of the items that they discussed was hey this is a great opportunity to create a crosswalk so our plan and our design is in compliance with a County Planning Commission requirements for this um I think you've got a really good point about about that traffic and traffic flow County highway department widen that road right and uh and so so we took on the responsibility of the crosswalk to comply with the Planning Commission request

249um I think the timing of that's going to be critical uh to make sure that that uh we are we are helping the county in its traffic flow plan uh um in combination with ours um we do have some examples where um where uh there are some times that that are crossing on busy roads even during rush hour times from other neighborhoods the good thing is we won't have to deal with that at Arno Road it's just between the two schools Clover coft some of those other examples where where heavy traffic flows do get held up by schools where families are choosing well maybe not even families but just commuters are choosing different rounds to avoid the school zones Mark just to add another layer of approval on this particular Crossing is the T dot

250cuz we've had SA T do concern so it's it's gotten a lot of attention and approval process which is one reason why it's taken a bit of time another advantage to this is Mark if I'm not mistaken the design includes somebody pushing a button and having the lights come on so if something's happening at night if you ever been to to a page high ball game people are parking and paage because they Page Middle because they think they can get out quicker my experience has been you can't get out quicker anywhere no you know regardless of where you go nowh to go yeah I I I would suspect for a for a football game we might have some traffic control there but but but again the nature of this is signalization controlling traffic on the

251road and coming to In and Out of Page Middle School in connection with a sidewalk that then that s the you know the stop lights respond to to stop traffic while people cross which is which is unique to the highway department uh at this point in the interest of stretching this out Dr Webb anything else to add yes okay Mr Cash yeah yeah that's it you didn't question oh it was Mr galri I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm just Mark it's been a it's been a while since we built a a new school so and I've got some people in Brentwood who are kind of excited about uh britlyn middle school so um is there a timeline or a process at which point they're going to be able to to kind of see the the Renditions

252and all the funds stuff that goes along with that yes sir in a couple months it'll be sometime in the fall early I hope okay sounds great thank you thank you for that inspiring report uh next up is the board chair report and um I just have one quick item I want to thank everybody um who was at the board retreat for your attendance and the hard work that you did and I don't know if you've looked at the compiled notes that Lydia put together for us but that that is just a huge body of work I think for us to um look at strategically and also look at in terms of our own board goals that we will be um discussing in in August um and so I'm going to spend July looking at

253the retreat notes and the board evaluation policy which is related to developing board goals and I will come back uh with some some suggested goals for our review at the August meeting so just a little you know that's right that's right and also you know just to peque your excitement about that August meeting um I do sincerely appreciate all of your work this year um and you know not just this year but you know we we have not we traditionally not met in July and we have we skipped last year year we did meet in July last year um I know this year has taken lots of preparation and lots of additional time that it normally doesn't so just want to say thank you and looking forward to moving to um next academic year with

254lots of lessons learned so and with that we have a few more items here on um our new business uh the approval of the Pekka memorandum and understanding pek a memorandum of understanding in salary charts Mr golden thank you madam chair we are in year two of a three-year mou with uh with the WCA their leadership team uh traditionally we don't have a lot of changes on those years and that's true here we are adding a uh CTE Child Care director supplement that's for those high schools that have the Child Care Program that takes extra work and the wcea brought that to us and we agreed and so that will be on there um that's really the main substantive change in this midyear very little change uh this this year the other the other substantive

255change is we are of course adding the new pay charts which reflect the budget approvals that you had the 4% increase uh we and we are making sure that the athletic supplements and the band director supplement reflects this current Year's pay chart rather than a year and a rear so we're making that change as well Mr Wimberly uh Jason I wonder if it's not time that we did another comparison of our pay scales because I think we are becoming less and less competitive I hear that Metro is looking that some significant increases over uh what they've been paying and um they're already significantly higher than we are7 million huh I said they're 270 million from theed it's like that so we're we're not well on that so so thank you for that and actually Vicki

256I think started nodding her head because we've been talking about their that very thing um and and Metro jumped a lot uh in the 270 million I have a suspicion that's going to be more positions so I think they'll be hiring as well uh because because of the nature of the supplanting versus adding Services uh Vicky anything you want to say to speak to that no just I I appreciate you mentioning it because it's always something that we're looking at we have to keep our eye on it especially for those hardto fill areas that are so competitive and you all know how expensive it is to live here and it is just unbelievable right now it's it's so it's always a factor that that we have to keep considering and stay on top of so

257I appreciate that sorry was just I think when we when we did the when we've done raises and and we did the market adjustment um I mean I remember remember speaking to the fact that we're always going we can't ever keep up with the people that are getting paid at you know getting 60 70% of their of their funding paid by the state um and we're not um and so we're all we're going to be fighting this I mean we're always going to be comparing to everybody else cuz it's our talent pool um but I I don't have any expectation that we're ever going to pay better than Metro we just got to keep it in a in a in a Range that's not so far back that we got because there's some there's some

258intangibles that that make it a great place to work and so we we got a we can I know you do a great job of selling Williamson County Schools so any other comments Madam chair final thing if I may related it to that I want Laura claim is sitting over there and Leanne white um is here just stepped so Laura actually just rolled off uh um as president of WCA and there's Leanne she's our new president of WCA um I want entrance I I I want to thank them they're they're a great group to work oh my a great group to work with um and we we meet regularly as a leadership team and the building leaders as well on a monthly basis um and I got to say that basic basically they flipped roles

259Leanne was the vice president last year and Laura is the president they just flipped uh so uh so thanks thanks to them and their leadership team thank you uh next is uh where are we here approval of differentiated pay plan which is also an annual agenda item Mr golden thank you madam chair the item that's on your agenda in the packet is the diff proposed differentiated pay plan that we submit to the state it is a detail of in essence all the the extras we offer to uh to recruit um and uh and and give uh give uh an opportunity for hard to fill positions so each year we required to submit that to the state after your approval any questions board members no questions the next item is the approval of the Schoolboard meeting

260dates for 2021 202 to another annual agenda item thank you madam chair I see this as a team effort uh um it starts with uh the standards that the board is set in policy which is the board meetings will be on the third Monday of every month uh but for um July and guess July thank you thank you July and December uh and then the work session uh and the policy committee work back from that third Monday so we take the calendar uh Nancy and I look at it and uh and and there are always a small number of of uh dates that we can't do it that way because of holidays so I do encourage you to check your calendars if you have any questions about that before Monday ask uh uh chairperson um

261uh or me and we will do our best to answer your questions Lydia is also a resource for you Mr Hall I want to kick off what I hope is a likely and robust discussion on this topic right now um I see that there are a couple days where meetings where the policy is 3 days prior to the work session does that present any problem that you see Dana um thank you for that no okay and and the I have reviewed it and we'll make it work all Mr Mitchell so I'm trying to engage in this long and Rob lengthy robust discussion um anybody can do it so I'm glad appreciate that confidence here um so I would like to make a recommendation that we put in a tentative work session in December uh that

262we can vote whether to keep or not in November at least to have it on and and be able to have that potential we discovered this past year we needed a December work session and uh I'm not convinced we won't in years past I think we've kind of needed some discussion as we're ending a semester and starting a new one and uh uh I'm not looking for a voting meeting but maybe at least a work session to that that we can cut we can cut it if we don't want it but at least have it on the list it's a great idea thank you we even have a work session before and a voting session scheduled for the same day to make it've done efficient right right tomor this one hadn't been long enough okay

263and then um the next item is uh 2019 2020 additional tenure recommendation for D Moore thank you madam chair um uh Mr Moore actually I'm trying to remember his rank because he's one of our Joc teachers his number of months in the system for 2015 was not accurate so when when the tenure rolled in uh his name did not come through the system we have since gone back and double checked and his months and re his months include that he should get tenure so asking you to vote for him specifically any questions see some uh they they are under the same standards for for tenure as any other as any other teacher okay and they are in essence a CTE teacher so um any any anything else I miss on that I mean they are

264army as well um and I don't I don't want to I was going to say they might there may be some funding from the Army but I'm scared to say that we have historically gotten some funding from the Army I think that's correct maybe a portion maybe half of this the base salary or something it's it's a portion of it and is it is he an active Duty Soldier no he's retired officially retired right right gotcha oh just curious thank you it's a it's an interesting thing I think we lost the funding our final agenda item for tonight is uh board policy for first reading board policy 51082 Tork yes off thank you so telor policy for first reading uh you will see um in your board packet some additions to this this was a

265policy that we enacted in um June of last year because of the pandemic and um determined that it was a policy that we wanted to keep so there are um working through this policy this last year there are some um changes that we are recommending um and you will you'll see those in um in blue but again first reading there was a robust discussion at policy I anticipate um additional uh discussion at um the next policy meeting Mr Welch I we talked at at policy about um why why we couldn't have someone working out of state A lot it was the payrolls and the uh legal structure and insurance insurance and and all of that um would it be possible though and I didn't think about it then but kind of a question came up

266to have someone whose uh home residen is here they've established it you know this is where the payroll Insurance everything would go but to be able to travel and work remote on occasions but still be set up here um I would use analogy I work remote for my office but I've also gone to the Tak extra trips extra yes yes to Montrose Virginia extravagant um but you know and I've worked at like my folks riverhouse for for a week and you know no one knew well for for those moments we know that's not an issue I know that Dana and and Vicky have both been exploring that possibility of multiple homes speak so so the question is going to come down to risk management as well as our insurance policy and whether or not it's

267going to depend upon how many days um somebody may be out um and whether they're actual while they may have a legal residence here whether or not their primary residence is actually here in Williamson County so that is an option I am still exploring and we'll be able to give you with the county and we'll be able to give you some more information about what we can or cannot do at the next policy meeting okay thank you Mr Mitchell thank you so um couple of things Dana can you explain the sentence that starts online 9 10 and 11 and how that works on on which page one maybe um I really employ employee shall notify his or her supervisor in the uh at least 30 days prior to relocating to another state that seems to

268be kind of a strange requirement when we're prohibiting them from relocating in the first place and and so I don't understand how if I'm going to move and I'm going to lose my job if I move why are you requiring me to I mean how how does that work so I'm not sure how we would know if you don't tell us that you're moving if you are working remotely so you're basically saying I need to I'm requiring you to give me a 30-day notice that you're quitting basically and that kind of I I I don't understand that seems to be kind of odd I see what you're saying we'll talk about that but my my point is we've just had a long conversation about the difficulty of hiring employees and all the districts that are

269that are paying more than us and the and and yet we're tying our hands here on on employees that that can work for us logistically work for us in other states so um the insurance policy that retirees carry in from Williamson County allows them to live anywhere they want to live and it's the same insurance policy that our that our employees have so I don't buy the argument on insurance policies I don't bu the argument that it's a that it's a burden on the payroll department and I and and the last time I checked I don't think the risk management team determines who we hire so I I'm I won't support this policy if it if it if it restricts Jason's ability to hire somebody to work remotely and they have to live in the

270state of Tennessee because I think we've got you know JY gave an example during our I guess it was during the uh policy meeting of her daughter's teacher who who is moving because of her spouse's job relocation but would love to continue to be an online teacher for Williamson County and we and we've got experience with the person doing a good job and so why would we why why on Earth would we would we give up a a teacher who's willing to work for us if just because they're out of state so that's my position and I'll thank you I will I will be prepared to make an amendment to this got uh at the meeting if if it stays the same as it is thank you for that and and we and we talked

271about some of these items at at policy and we are working on it um I want to make sure that we have that flexibility but I also want to make sure we can get the work done and so it it is that combin that we're working on so I appreciate you sharing that because it does deserve some more study so so I'll make the point that your concerns are absolutely valid concerns on remote employees and and I manage a I live in Nashville and I have one employee out of 200 and 50 that lives in Nashville so I manage an entire Team all over the world of remote employees and and it takes it's a whole different ball game and you got to you got to pay attention to what they're doing and and basically

272set goals so you're right I mean it does it does add management responsibilities to you uh and and to you and to our assistant superintendent as well if you've got people outside and also the problem with the hiccup if it's hiccup with the teacher that's out of state it affects the child that's the one thing you got to be careful I I don't follow well hiccup when they're online if you got a teacher out of state that's online if there's a problem with that teacher there's 's no way to physically meet with the teacher or if for some reason they're undone that that those students are affected by whatever happens out of state it's be being that far is a little bit harder to manage and with employees that's fine corporate world we're big people

273but with kids you're dealing with kids and that's the only kind of problem I see is if there's a a problem with an online and the teachers out of state you're affecting kids and and and I get that and and I think we can we can there's you can bring people in if you need to and you can code in requirements that you've got to come in to to the office or something you know but but but but we were talking about online teaching in particular yeah right and we're going to continue to have an online program so so I I I anyway my point is it it gives us flexibility to hire staff and it's not just always it's not just just 100% teachers either there you go right so I I'll make that

274point anyway I I made my point I I personally think that one of the bigger issues is the tax jurisdiction and that's why we don't do it at my employer because you you know you have to have the the information about the taxes for that particular area where that person is residing so I would just ask that that be checked into as well and we get a little bit more detail about that so anything else well as Casey would say we've had a robust meeting and uh thank everybody for staying till the end here and everybody have a good July and I'm sure we'll be in touch great discussion you all thank you can't remember who I told