WCS Board Work Session 2024-06-13

001Works William County Schoolboard work session thank you so much for being here tonight we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order um our first item on the agenda this evening per annual agenda item policy is the superintendent contract review and extension so we'll go ahead and open the floor to board members for discussion about Mr Golden's contract an extension Mr I can't hear you can't hear I'm adjusting my hearing made if you turn so do any board members have questions or comments about Mr Golden's contract okay this will be the first item we vote on Monday night as well okay I have I have one question yes Miss CL hear yes um I was looking at this and it looks like we've just continued to just add addendums each year we extend it and

002I was wondering why we don't have the salary because the salary has changed since the original contract I do know that the uh original contract has it in there that uh IT addresses the salary and I think it was maybe 279 if I'm not mistaken that's that's correct so Donna this is Dana osbrook that's correct the contract itself has the starting salary as well as how um any increases are determined since that term since those terms have not changed since the original contract the motion that has changed every year in the term is to extend it therefore that is what's in the addendum so have we thought just in the spirit of transparency having the adjusted salary on the addendum we have not because that's not been the vote of the board the addendum changes

003the original contract and historically with superintendent Golden's contract the only thing that has changed is the term limit therefore that is the only thing that has been added to the addendum well I understand what the addendum does I just was I just thought in the spirit of transparency it might be good to have the adjusted salary at some point or somewhere I certainly don't mind speaking to it you know from from my perspective uh you know when you know when we when we when there's a vote on it uh for from my perspective on the on the term we haven't ever negotiated any changes to any term other than the other other than the time and so it just hasn't ever come up to my to my recollection we just extended it have extended it

004one year each year but I'm certainly I'm certainly open to talking about that at the voting meeting okay that was my only question so to to perhaps State the obvious the underlying assumption is that when the am the addendums have been done to only extend the term that whatever the raise has been for County School Employees that's also applied to your salary on a rolling basis that's correct that's the underlying assumption that's correct yes sir okay um in years past there have been negotiations prior to superintendent golden where the addendum did change salary um so historically that has happened but it has not happened as long as superintendent golden has been the superintendent yeah I do remember one year my predecessor I think they increased the salary even more than the than the contract term

005correct and that that was not in the contract it was in the addendum because that's the part of the contract that changed that voting Year Mr Wimberly Jason if you offered an extension of one year would you accept it I will accept it and just to make sure we're clear um right now my contract is at three years um and the that the answer is yes right now my contract is at 3 years uh the state uh only allows up to a 4 year contract for a superintendent so yes sir I would accept if you offered that okay if no further questions or comments on Mr Golden's contract we will um now move over to the consent agenda first um want to mention that the board policy for second reading Library materials is going to

006come off the cons consent agenda um and we're going to go ahead and discuss this if anyone does wish to discuss this tonight because Miss Carson is here with us and then we'll actually vote separately on this at the Monday night meeting as well so we'll open the floor for discussion um on the library materials policy now so that we can excuse Miss Carson so she doesn't have to sit through the whole meeting if anybody has any questions well can you just walk us through the latest the latest revisions per the last policy committee meeting sure um at the last policy committee meeting there was recommendation there's been some discussion back and forth about kind of the introductory language and and some concerns from you yeah you need closer that' be great thank you my

007husband would never agree with y'all saying I speak too softly um so so he has that selective hearing I've always suggested to him that he needs a Miracle Ear for selective hearing um so the some of the board members had expressed concern about the policy kind of starting with addressing removal of books other board members had expressed some concern about not having the policy start with kind of editorial comments because y'all have gotten away from that and so the latest revisions don't don't change the meaning or really the content much at all but they change the order of that introductory piece so that it starts with the responsibility for school librarians in um maintaining the library collection then goes on to affirm their duties to comply with state and federal law and and then discusses

008the First Amendment limitations on removal of books prior to then going into the very detailed Provisions that relate to the um the changes to the age appropriate materials act under state law so so those are the first changes they really are not substantive the next changes and and the newest changes are in orange um the next changes uh start at the bottom of page two at U line 44 and essentially this arose out of a a lot of thoughtful discussion by both the board members at prior meetings and and then the board members on the policy committee as well at the most recent policy committee about the burden that was being placed on on Librarians and Library staff with with trying to assign a particular percentage after some research was done into just how many

009books we were talking about and so ultimately the The Proposal um with some some language proposed I think initially by Mr Brown was that each School librarian would review a reasonable number of unique titles from the books in line with the criteria under the age appropriate materials act using the library materials uh decision tree and then um giving attention to selection of material that may include content described in those categories that are listed above which are the new categor under the age appropriate materials act so the idea is not that Librarians in review of the books would focus only on mature content because of course they are obligated um just as part of their jobs to do an ongoing review of library books but that they will give some special attention to reviewing those materials

010that they know may be problematic under the ACT using their professional judgment um in addition if anyone informally advises a librarian of a concern whether it be a parent a a student or a staff member the librarian will go ahead even if that person doesn't decide to go through the feedback process that's provided to come to the board the librarian will undertake a review of that particular material as well so there and then in addition of course they'll be reviewing all new material that's coming in so it's a fairly robust process but it doesn't have the rigidity of just an artificial percentage number that was in the last draft um and it seems uh I think it seemed to some of the board members and and I certainly think it's a reasonable conclusion that it's

011fairer to the Librarians gives them a little more discretion within their professional judgment but still requires a good faith effort to to do a fairly robust review um I think that those are the only changes to the policy itself but let me make sure I'm correct about that before I say it yes um then the library decision tree which I usually have to get out my reading glasses for but Lydia has given me a bigger version so maybe I won't have to um just really two changes there um one one is a change that's in more than one place but it's more or less cosmetic not cosmetic but um for for consistency of appearance it's got all the Nos and yeses in their own boxes to make the tree clearer about where um things are

012being directed instead of having some of them incorporated into the boxes and then the one substantive change is in question 8 um there was a lot of concern about the um when giving the example of how to consider age appropriateness there was a lot of concern around the criteria of what students would encounter outside the classroom outside of school and while that is a long-standing criteria that Librarians have used under some of the First Amendment Juris Prudence as we talked about at the policy committee it's it's criteria that was developed in around 1972 when you didn't have kids having access to social media the internet and things um that you probably wouldn't want U kids looking at and so um the feeling was that there were enough other factors for consideration here um to to

013do a robust review and consideration in addition to the factors that are laid out in the First Amendment analysis that will already have been conducted by the time you get to that level um that that that provision that was considered problematic by several board members really didn't legally need to be included um so it it was taken out uh everything else I think substantively is the same Dana did I miss anything okay no that's that's correct we did um update obviously making it a little more um I think easier to follow do we have any comments or questions about this policy Mr Wimberly I honestly believe the policy committee and our attorneys have done an outstanding job drafting this policy I still don't know how I'm going to vote on it but I do say

014that the process has worked and I'm real pleased uh to have been a little part of it but thank you policy committee and attorneys for for um doing what you've done Mr Welch so the decision tree I I know that we have it refer within the policy but it's not in the policy itself that's right that's that's correct it is a standard operating procedure but since it's referenced in the policy we wanted board members to see what that was and it's also the tool that board members would be using if there is a reconsideration so if it's the tool that we're using I I get the SOP part but the procedures are are typically written by District staff we put the policy in place and the District staff writes the procedures um that comply with

015that policy and it's because it's operational in nature she nodding so agreement here yes I agree in this case there's two things going on one is is staff is not writing this policy or at least passing this policy it's it's the board it's board it's a board created document and the second thing is is where it's also referencing that it's not just the library materials decision tree but it's the board's decision tree as well so it feels like this is what we're saying we're going to use this is our policy in that case that we're setting this is policy this is the decision process that it should actually be there in the policy can can someone maybe help me understand what's sort of the rationale for not having it in there sure so um while

016it has been a piece because like I said it was referenced in the policy from the beginning we wanted board members feedback from Librarians feedback from lots of different people but it's not an item that the board will be voting on what you will be voting on is the policy like you always do um but since it is part of that policy we wanted board members to see it um one of the reasons that it is an sop instead of policy is if we need to make changes um the majority of this document was drafted by the attorneys to be consistent with federal and state law if we need to make some changes or some tweaks as we use it the thought behind it was that could happen with staff instead of bringing the decision

017tree back to the board every time for two readings and so that's that's the piece of it and Lisa may want to add on to that well a little historical context kind of because this has been going on for a while when we started developing the library materials decision tree it was in the context of this board asking for a tool to use along with your existing policy that you had previously in the middle of that the law changed and so the the discussion the board has engaged most in with regard to the the tree is actually the language around the age appropriate materials act we really haven't changed what was developed the the First Amendment piece which was developed certainly from a legal perspective but but Dana had quite a bit of consultation with

018lead Librarians and staff um about how that would work and and that really was intended as a rubric for the board to use the the age appropriate materials act piece got the board got much more engaged I think in the particular of that and on the front end I think that's appropriate if it's going to be used as a tool for the board as well but this is really a it's a it's a tool that's a guide and and I see that differently from what's mandatory in policy not not to say that you shouldn't follow it but this is really a guide to help you get to what's required in the policy okay I'll Meander on that a bit I appreciate the [Music] explanation Mr H thank you um I think the decision tree is

019really good and easy to follow but as I walk through it with some examples like an art history book or some um young adult fiction of that would have mature topics um the decision tree seems to arrive at a good place the policy as stated doesn't get you there and it to me says you can't have an art history book that has any nudity clearly in the policy well and and that is solely because that is what is stated clearly in the state law as you know um and and of course the decision tree refers back to the law and so it it is contained in the decision tree although I agree it isn't spelled out because you'd have a decision tree that was quite the Mighty Oak at that point but but I I

020agree and that's one of the reasons why at the last board meeting I suggested that if and when you all are presented with a request to remove a a book such as that rather than a book that has adult content that is clearly inappropriate um something like that something like the roots example that Mr Welch gave last time then there is a mechanism under Tennessee law that's separate from this statute that allows you to request a declaratory order from the state textbook commission allows you as a board to do that and that's something that I will recommend that you consider if you get that kind of request um but but yes you're absolutely right the if if the statute means what it very clearly says you're exactly right a an art history book with a

021photograph of the Statue of David is out right and there's no there's no constitutional argument that says that that should be banned like I I don't know if anybody who says that yeah the first amendment doesn't protect that speech well the I mean the question in in general you're right if this were a public library we were talking about it would be clearly unconstitutional in the school setting the focus is a little more specific and it's about making sure that material isn't removed because of particular viewpoints because of it's exposing um folks to different cultures that kind of thing um but it's just almost impos I mean that's a real hazy line and so it it almost is easier to say it's not unconstitutional to remove an art history book well depending on what's contained

022in it though because what if that art history is from a culture um that involves individuals who have historically uh been mistreated in this country then is that Viewpoint discrimination um it probably um the statue of David is an example that probably wouldn't be unconstitutional remove I might argue that it would be stupid to do that because we want to expose kids at a certain age to uh you know a rich panoply of art but it probably wouldn't be unconstitutional but but to remove something like roots or something like art of only indigenous peoples because there's nudity in it that that becomes a huge concern I mean there's I don't think I've made any bones about the fact that I have grave concerns about this law yeah and and also in that context too the

023law is not making any distinction about grade level like 18-year-old that's right everybody at every gr grade level it's inappropriate that's right okay if if I may speak to that question 8 we had some discussion policy committee about really in that context that you raised that that portion of the law uh and if you apply that question on that decision tree factors for consideration may include rating systems age recommendations on Down the Line including the Tennessee age appropriate materials act and and correct me if I'm wrong Miss Carson because that's in there because that nudity law is so straightforward and explicit the answer would be if it's nud toity yes it's out it's out so the so the the protocol does address that okay in that context Mr Brown yeah I would just you know

024thinking back to some of the comments that have been made in previous meetings um and we're we seem to kind of still be talking about some of the same things and I guess I just would remind us again that we have to have this policy in place by July 1 because the statute goes into effect July 1 I don't think we have the luxury of debating some of these things that we wish weren't in the state law I don't think it's our place to be debating the state law we can have our opinions about it but for the purpose of doing what we're called to do and required to do we have to do this you are legally obligated to presume and I just don't you know I I'd like for for at least my

025part I'd like for us to get past the the things that are personal preference or personal beefs with aspects of the state law we have no control over and move ahead with the things that we have to do and then I think you've talked about this Lisa where and even put language in the policy about if something were declared unconstitutional in the state law with in particularly related to those specific Provisions about what is acceptable and what isn't right then that part goes away that part comes out of our policy that's right and the remaining policy stands so I feel like we've done all the safeguards we can do given the constraints we have and yeah there's some difficult things that we're going to be forced into and I think it's unfortunate but I don't

026think there's it serves a great purpose for us to debate some of those things that we have no control over considering the timeline that we're on and I think just going Case by case basis too like you said you know we don't we don't want to sit there and you know dissect the worst possible case scenario it's just if the topic comes up or a book comes up and that's the time we you know discuss it but until that happens I think we pretty much beating a dead horse right now yeah and I think that goes back to the you know the discussion that we had had previously and I can't remember if it was policy committee I think it was um that the I I believe that the policy as as drafted is constitutional

027on its face there's just a lot of peril in in implementing it but you have to implement it because uh Mr Brown's right you don't have the luxury of declaring it unconstitutional that's a separation of powers thing that the courts get to do so yeah and that is actually some of my misgiving is that we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and we have good reason to believe something is constitutionally suspect the tire hits the road on this vote say that again I'm sorry we have as we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and and I'm hearing a lot that makes me question the constitutionality of this that gives me pause and yes we have to have this in place because of state law but also we have to abide by the Constitution

028as individuals and office holders well and again I think to M Cleveland's point if you get a challenge to a particular book and you feel that you're put in that position that that that now as applied we're being called upon to do an unconstitutional Act that that is when I think one tool that's available to you is to ask for that declaratory order so that you have so that you're basically taking it to a higher authority and saying we we know we have to presume this is constitutional but tell us tell us how that can be how we can do that okay that's very helpful thanks okay the um declaratory judgment that you're referencing to the state textbook commission that would be on a book by- book case the the declaratory request for declaratory order

029to the textbook commission would be in the face of a particular challenge it it wouldn't necessarily have to be one book but it would have to be in the face of a particular challenge we cannot ask the state textbook commission to declare this policy unconstitutional I this law unconstitutional but we can ask them to interpret it and they are obligated just like we are to try to interpret it in a way that's constitutional I I have looked at whether this board would have standing just to ask a court tell us whether it's constitutional and I don't think we have standing in an as applied situation to do that and so I I recognize that it's an untenable situation but it is a the the the mandate to governmental entities and governmental officials in Tennessee is

030very clear that we are obligated to to presume that the statute is constitutional until the court declares it otherwise so if we got one of these challenges um to roots or an art book with with the Statue of David in it at that point would we be able to to ask the courts to interpret for us or is that I know You' you've talked about going the state textbook commission but um that seems more of a if I'm understand properly in that case that would be this specific book as opposed to the law itself well it would be an interpret ation of the law in the context of looking at a specific book or or or set of books you're right um but that would also be the case if you were I I think

031I think we have a better argument for standing to go to court on a declaratory judgment action if there's a specific challenge that we think puts us in the position that you're talking about but it's it's less clear that we have that standing than we we obviously in my mind under the statute have standing to ask the state textbook commission but the question is different because the state textbook commission can only inter it only only a court can decide is it constitutional or not okay um just getting feedback from Donna and Jay if everybody can speak into their microphones that would be great because they're trying to listen through the phones I'm sorry okay um any more comments on this okay all right thank you Miss Carson and just as a reminder Madam chair we

032are going to place this on on the uh on as a separate item on the agenda based on the request from board members thank you all right Mr Golden it is your turn superintendent report thank you madam chair uh we have my superintendent's report uh it's 45 minutes you know what I typically say I don't intend for it to be that long uh I do not have a PowerPoint presentation we're at the end of the school year I did want to address uh really three small categories of items first I'm going to um mention a couple of examples of of of where we've been I'm going to talk about where we are this summer and I'm going to give you a couple little examples of of where we're going so where we've been uh Vicki

033Hall gave you uh late earlier today uh end of the year bullying data and I don't know that all of you have had an opportunity to look at it I invite you to look at that and give us calls over the course of the summer uh about where we are and and you all know that for the last two years really in Earnest and in three years before that we've been looking at bullying data uh in in the context first of making sure that we've created a culture where students know it's unacceptable and a culture where they can be comfortable reporting bullying behaviors and then where we take appropriate action and address it the data that Vicki provided you for end of year also included the last two years uh just at a quick glance

034uh couple of things jumped out at me one uh of course the reporting jumped up last year uh and I'm I spoke to to you last year about this that I was actually encouraged by that because I had heard from some students when I first became superintendent that that they had often felt like well nothing's going to happen when I report it uh so we we really worked hard on creating that culture uh and we and so we we saw that increase as we look at this year's data we've seen a very um mild decrease a a a very small decrease in in those bullying behaviors uh and frankly I'm I'm hoping for a little bit more uh than that over time if you look at the data as Broken Out by grade bands you

035can see that we did have uh an improvement in Elementary and high school but a slight increase in Middle School uh and we're aware of that and it's been a focus point for for us uh this summer we're going to include it as a focus Point uh for our for our Middle School administrators uh and we know that there's nothing new Under the Sun uh and we anybody who's been in school knows that that's a particular challenge at the middle school level and I want you all to know that that that uh we're we're putting considerable effort into it especially at the start of the year we're going to reemphasize to our school administrators how important it is to to include that the expectations for their students when middle school starts uh I certainly again

036invite you to to share Thoughts with us uh and we're going to be talking about that over the summer especially with with our school administrators as we continue this effort uh and and we will be discussing this regularly uh across th this uh this coming year and it will be a priority for us I mention uh the small increases the or the small improvements the modest uh improvements um I spent more time this past year speaking with parents uh and students because I am ultimately the final appeal uh for a student who receives uh who receives suspension over over 10 days uh and I tell you I have been encouraged by conversations with our students who've engaged in some of those behaviors by and large it hasn't been 100% hasn't been perfect uh but what

037I do see is that the work that the alc is doing has been a net positive for our students uh when I have conversations with Mr Holland and I know Dr web has these two I'm going to I'm going to Nutshell the conversations we talk about a consequence and tools to make better decisions the next time uh and there's a lot more detail uh in there um but but we've got a lot of work to do uh so we're trying to be open with that data uh and it's it's it's it's it's not where we want it to be but it just reemphasizes does it's going to be an ongoing constant battle uh I I didn't I did not give Dr Webb uh a prompt on this but I did want to ask you Dr

038we is there anything else you'd like to add to that thank you Mr goldon I can't tell you all the reasons why middle school has an increase or what we have more in middle school but I can speak broadly we're certainly emphasizing and educating all grade bands about what bullying is about what's appropriate behavior what's not appropriate behavior uh we've had a concentrated effort on reporting and the ease of reporting for students and taking away that stigma if I say something I'm G to be targeted even more it's an ongoing process for students who kind of inner adolescence and inner Middle School you know there's this time where they're positioning for power they're understanding like socially how to interact with one another um they're learning testing boundaries with each other what's funny versus what is

039uh inappropriate and so all of those pieces are taught at all grade bands I would say the Middle School levels where the boundaries are tested the most and I don't think that that's necessarily unique to Williamson County um but certainly we continue to have an emphasis on it continue to to evaluate how we educate how we respond how we communicate with students and families especially those who are victims of bullying of how to report in a way where they don't feel like they're going to be targeted even further um and it will it's continues to be a conversation of ours in fact we meet next week with a a focused group of Administrators diving deep into uh this is one of the the topics that we're talking about in regards to discipline behavior and how

040we respond Mr Wimberly thank you Dr web I I guess I'm a little bit confused by this I see that we've had um a moderate decrease but if you look at the items like race color sex and sexual orientation the increases are rather material and I guess that could come from what we had last year classified as 137 being redistributed is there any way we can go back to that 137 of last year and identify okay and if we can't do that why can't we do that I'm going to ask Miss Hall to respond to that just as a reminder our human resource department actually monitors this is that extra check we have on uh on these investigations Miss Hall so I I get your confusion with that and that's why I put that note

041in there even though that probably doesn't really clear it up a whole lot but we had a form and we had the various reasons why a student may have been bullied or it could have been harassment and part of those were the the items that you see there the disability national origin Etc we also had an other category sometimes I think they would get confused about the other an incident would happened where maybe a racial slur came into play but they still would not call it racial harassment when you say they who is I'm talking about administrators administrators they we so we we spent some time doing a lot of conversation and training um with them about that and kind of getting our language normed and getting everybody on the same page about what it

042looks like and if something like that happens if if one student calls another student a racial slur or if there's something that's sex related we've got to classify it as what it is so that's why you see the difference there those have been um distributed out in the appropriate categories I've got noted down there there were really only three incidents of bullying activity um behavior that Rose to the level of bullying that didn't involve one of these protected classes it doesn't mean there wasn't other discipline like there's tons of things that happen that don't that are not um bullying or harassment but that's just for these specific incidents I think you lost me on that last sentence or two okay um which which part in particular like the the part about so like there could

043be like something could happen Rachel and I could get in into an argument or and do something we might receive discipline for that but it wouldn't be bullying and it wouldn't be harassment so if it's not bullying or harassment it doesn't show up on this report that's correct that's right that's why they'll fill out a report we get that's why you see the reported incidents number is much higher than what is actually concluded as bullying and harassment a lot of times they'll go ahead and fill out a form um and say you know what's happened and that they're investigating it to determine whether it's bullying Andor harassment and so they determine those are not that doesn't mean there's not potentially some discipline for that but it's just not bullying or harassment so if I may

044have put some numbers on that there were 1,111 total incidents reported that were investigated for the possibility of being bullying or harassment of that the investigations concluded 243 incidents across the school year across our 52 schools actually were bullying a harassment that fit one of these categories is that what you were saying Miss Hall yes that's what I was saying all right Rick's question though was can we go back to last year and look at the detail and classifi them she said no we we can't because they they checked other on those forms and we don't have any wayed to dig down into that to see exactly what happened can't read the comments the if they they may not describe it they they may not just go into that much description of it this is

045a rather odd sounding question but what's the difference between sex and sexual orientation sex would be I'm discriminating against you because you're male okay um sexual orientation would be discriminating against someone because of their sexual orientation and if I'm not mistaken the we are required to differentiate our records related to those we do yes for like state and federal reporting purposes Jason if I may um what what do you make of the fact that just roughly you know maybe only 20 to 30% of the of the bullying claims or complaints result in in a bullying guess diagnosis or or conclusion maybe um does that mean could that mean that we're that we're over we're getting we're encouraging people to complain and there's nothing there or or I guess describe the describe describe for me those

04680% how you how we kind of look at those and how we what is communicated back to the complaint because I think if we if we continue that and people complain but only you know 25% get get deemed bullying um are we are we kind of living up to the to the criticism necessarily or or the feeling before where okay well I complain but nothing nothing is done about it thank you for that question um and I'm gonna I'm going to invite Miss Hall or Dr Webb to to add to this so let me let me address it in a couple of categories a couple of main differentiations um one if we look at the bullying policy One Core piece of it is there is a difference in power uh and so if you have

047a a disagreement between equals and the investigation concludes that there's no difference in power it may not be categorized is bullan it may be an altercation of another sort so that's one big core chunk of that difference and somebody might perceive it to be bullying and it has to be investigated because the claims there another piece of it is there's there's an element of of persistency persistence for for bullying behaviors that has to be investigated so much of this is about fitting the categories and the definition that we are obliged to evaluate so the discipline might not may or may not be substantially different based on the incidents that occur but we have an obligation to reach those conclusions because of the data that we have to collect um on the other side of that

048uh harassment we have an obligation to differentiate that as well in those in those categories um so Dr web um Miss Hall any any other large pieces that would that would address that question sometimes frankly nothing happened right sometimes it's that I think you kind of nailed it I think from my perspective on it's it's the it's the bullying by definition is it's got to be rep it's repetitious it's happening over and over or it has to be severe and there are probably some of these where you know students are reporting I'm being bullied then there's investigation about it it may not have been a severe thing it may have only happened a couple of times and the administration is addressing it so I I do think to um to answer one of the things

049that was one of the questions that was raised I don't think that that number that um 1111 number is not addressed I just think that it didn't meet the definitions for bullying or harassment and if I may ask who makes that determination typically the principal or the AP will make that determination and they'll do it in consultation cuz we we filled a lot of calls I know okay Dr web and Julie do too and the other piece to that is they're looking at board policy for those definitions that are in federal Andor state law so there is a guiding document to apply the facts that they investigate to call it what it is call what the behavior is the only thing that I would add is that we're certainly in the process of teaching and

050educating students what what qualifies what is defined as bullying and what isn't our encouragement is regardless of what you call it if someone's mistreating you report it to the office call it whatever you want to call it if someone's mistreating you bring it to the office and a student who doesn't know how to classify it may say I feel like I'm being bullied or I feel like my friend is being bullied and that student who's 12 years old isn't going to a board policy necessarily to read the definition they just know someone is is mistreating someone else and the gist of that is what we want students to do report it Call It Whatever we're going to try to educate them but if you don't know what it is just report it and students will

051often call something bullying because they don't know what else to call it we investigate it's inappropriate behavior it's given a consequence but it might not meet this threshold and on the surface I think right now that's that's okay because we want to know what's happening that's wrong so that we can fix it and if a student recognizes its bad behavior whether it's happening to them or someone else and they call it the wrong name that's okay the main thing is they're reporting it to us and we can do something about it m Mr Brown thank you I three things one is um obviously it's encouraging the numbers went down so let's let's focus on the positive um second thing is I think there's a fine line between wanting people to feel like they can come

052forward with if if they have a concern but not encouraging people to come forward with frivolous concerns um because as we know that's taking up staff time it's taking up administrators teachers time um if they're frivolous and so I'm wondering if there's anything in the policy which we haven't looked at in a while but is there anything in the policy that either encourages that might encourage frivolous claims or things that we could do to the policy to tighten it up so that it's clear or what warrants a claim versus what doesn't I don't know that I can answer that off the top of my head I think it's worth us reviewing that but I will say to Dr web's point about students you might have a parent review it in that context uh I don't

053know that a student necessarily would um on the substantive piece of that about a student put potentially reporting something that isn't a misbehavior I do know that when our administrators have those beginning of the school year conversations with the students they they speak to that whole scope of their expectations uh and Dr Webb can you speak a little bit to that and maybe you know it's possible that in the context of those expectations it it's it's addressed to that point the beginning of every school year we do do an in-depth review with students that's kind of ongoing through the first semester and and repeated and reviewed in the second semester just general expectations and so those are the types of points outside of policy that Administration addresses with students um but certainly it's something that

054we can review to see if we need more be more explicit about it I would say that the number of frivolous complaints um that would just quote just be you know way off base or for no merit whatsoever someone just made it up those are exceptionally small what happens more often is that something inappropriate is happening and it's misclassified as bullying or harassment when it's first reported because whoever reports it doesn't have the whole story or they don't understand the definition necessarily my experience with secondary is that the frivolous just to be causing Mischief um types of things are it's a super small number okay thank you and then the final thing is I think I may have asked about this last year and there and it was difficult to to find this perhaps but

055I want to bring it up again because I still think there's some Merit to it if there's a way to do it and that is to get at the number of unique students that this involves in terms of um if that can be captured I know there's some work involved in that but I'd love to know deidentified obviously but just to know how many of these 1111 from this from this year complaints are reported in ents how many unique students did that involve I mean are we are we talking about obviously we're not talking about 1111 different kids we're probably talking about some number smaller than that but how much smaller of a number is it you know is it you know one kid doing doing it 25 times is it you know that's what

056I'm I'm trying to figure out how deep this how deep rooted the problem is um because I think that would probably be somewhat encouraging if we found out that this is actually a much smaller number of kids that this involves and it's not it's not more widespread than than it's it's not as widespread as some people are may be making it out to be thank you for that we we we did not add that but you you did mention it so I'll make sure we go back and and get that information that probably will take a little bit of individual looks so I don't I don't usually like to say things aren't possible but it but there's a good chance that might not be possible and I'll tell you why we don't get like on

057the report that we take in where um Administration is submitting those to us we don't get students full names or you we we get like maybe a first name on that um we do we do probably get their names but we have to we would have to line all of that up like probably in Skyward I'm just going to say that might be a big a big project just to just to let you I know I do remember you asking for that last year it's just that may be more challenging than it seems like it should be it is a it is a pretty big lift and the reason I'm echoing in is twofold we've had records requests that my office handles for that kind of information without the student personally identifiable information and in

058looking we don't have the capability um of running a report like that the other thing I did want to point out going to your other question is in our code of conduct we do have um making a false report as an offense um that you would receive punishment for so while it's not in our discrimination and and harassment policy it is in our code of conduct and that is something that could be investigated if it was determined you're making a frivolous claim um just like an adult filing a false report so I I kind of wanted to put that out there for you in in the code of conduct policy pertaining to students correct in um 6.30 it is actually a level three um which is um against with code of conduct for students yes

059is there any value in copying P copying and pasting that language into the bullying harassment policy or into the other policies pertaining to discipline I'll double check I think we reference I'll double check um there may be something that we want to do but I so Dana and Josh it there is actually in the policy where it says false reports um it's in that discipline policy yes it's in the it's in the it's in the bullying policy okay there's a section in the bullying policy it says false accusations accusing another person of having committed an act prohibit other's policy or prohibited consequences for the person to found to do that and it just it gives the range and it's a broad range it's from positive behavioral interventions up to an including expulsion well I guess

060I would then add maybe one more question which is is there any value in the future adding a line in this chart to address people who got I'm sorry I missed that okay no problem is there any value in the future then based on what you just said in having a line a row in this in this chart that captures the number of students who who were violated who violated that particular policy or confirmed were confirmed to have violated that aspect of it so we can kind of compare as a percentage of the total it's a possibility we can look at it I know that there's it's a it's an electronic form uh we we can look at that at the possibility of adding that okay I think too that the principles and Le chime

061in if I I think maybe they're able to weed some of those out before they even get report Ed into to us because the the requirement is that bullying or harassment is reported within 48 hours they may be able to make a determination that this isn't going to rise to that level before they even fill out the report yeah I just just I I want to stress I'm not trying to minimize the the fact that bullying goes on because we know it does I I'm just trying to put this all in context because I think that's important too because I think the vast vast majority of our kids are doing the right thing yeah uh and behaving appropriately well thank you for that and and those are things that are worth double-checking too and I

062will say also um we have a tier discipline model as well right so when a student when a student engages in a behavior a second time the discipline traditionally increases you you good oh Mr Beasley yeah Mr Beasley hang on I'm sorry Mr Beasley I got you oh yeah no problem Miss Hall thank you so much for for putting this together when I got the email today I thought it was wonderful it was a great transparent look um into what's going on in our schools I know a lot of parents are curious and wondering um you know what steps that you all take in making sure these kids feel good in school and safe and safe and healthy um there is one thing that jumped out at me that I wanted to know um I

063saw the number of the confirmed cases are down so that's a positive note again that's really good um there's one thing I wanted to know and we don't have to talk about it now maybe you can send us the information later is which um particular schools do we have the most confirmed reports because if we can identify that then maybe we can increase maybe the training that we have we offer to those particular schools so that's a good suggestion we we do have that information available so I can I can share that and I and just for the interest of in in the interest of those who are who are watching uh the total for um all those reported bullying or harassment claims districtwide was 243 out of our out of our schools uh and

064and uh 121 of those were at the middle schools 65 at the elementary 57 at the high schools okay Mr rmly you're up yeah I don't want to imply that anything that's been said here tonight seeks to um diminish the the severity in the nature of this problem but I do want to point out uh again that when we did the strategic planning and when we did those 20 public meetings and gathered in put in so many different ways without exception one of the main things that was brought up in these meetings because I confirmed this with lipom is that people said they want a safe and in Secure environment for all students and then usually it was followed by we're not just talking about physical safety we're talking about Safety and Security for all

065students so the the community believe feels that this is a problem that they want address in fact you know sometimes with the fact that the whole world is is is it sometimes seems like it's fighting I use that as an example to say to people hey we're Williamson County and yep we do have things that hit the news and we do have our controversies but I just believe that the people in this community want Safety and Security for all students this is important to them that's what they've told us and I think that's what we see in in everyday uh interactions and yes most of our students do the right thing but still the community feels like for for whatever reason that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed which we are

066doing um uh better than we have in the past and but it it's something that will never end uh in the battle to to eliminate this so I just wanted to make that point Thank you Mr Welch thank you um something Dr web said uh kind of caught my ear uh mentioned whoever reported it and and I guess I've initially been thinking about that the people reporting it are those being bullied or harassed but I guess it could also be someone who observed it and is reporting it as a third party do you have any gauge on on how much of of that we're getting just anecdotal at this moment um sometimes that happens uh we don't have any numbers on that that that's another good suggestion you know one of the challenges with data

067is it it it triggers a a need for information right because you just have data but then you need that information we'll include that in in our discussion about how we can drill in I mean anecdotally is fine I I I wouldn't I don't expect you to have reporting on that how much you know sort of breaking down into sometimes that happens yeah and you know the we you you all have heard the phrase if you see something say something right and uh and so we sometimes do get those reports from somebody who has observed another event okay okay another question Madam chair that was asked was uh you I mentioned the balance of power I want to read the parts of the definition of bullying uh that would that give indicators of that um

068bullying intimidation harassment is an act that substantially interferes with the students's educational benefits opportunities or performance and that has the effect of physically harming a student uh and I'm just I'm going to jump to another piece knowingly placing a student in a reasonable fear of physical harm uh so and the third one is causing emotional distress to a student or fourth creating a hosle ed ational environment um so that's just a piece of it uh certainly encourage you all to read uh or reread that policy that that uh that we put in place awesome thank you okay no further discussion on this item we will move on to our well Dr well I I was I I was hitting I was hitting three things uh but um uh I I know um some of you

069have asked about uh about Title 9 and where we are I I had intended on talking mentioning that briefly about where we're going you may recall that last month Dana OS Brooks mentioned that that uh the the federal office for civil rights Department of Education uh um uh dropped or published uh some some regulations Tennessee is going through a lawsuit process related to those regulations that are that are scheduled to take effect if I'm not mistaken on September 1st August August 1st thank you for that um we've re red those what we have found in our in our first review they create a much more substantial procedure uh in investigation uh and and that's that's that first look that we have of the biggest difference it's going to make for us uh and it's designed

070to to increase the number of individuals in the school system who look at things to to ensure that the that all claims are investigated uh and Dana if you would give a little bit more detail related to that so yes so um we are working on and you may be aware there's several lawsuits um pending at this point none of those have been decided as to the proposed 2024 uh regulations there was a decision reached yesterday in Texas but that is actually dealing with the 202 won Title 9 UM contrary to some of the Constitutional Scholars on social media um but I wanted to point that out there was uh June 10th a um Hearing in the case that Tennessee is involved in actually in the state of Kentucky um there was an injunction hearing

071that has not been ruled on I'm obviously following that so at this point we are um proceeding with having a policy um that we um consistent with the new 2024 regulations um and that will of course come to the board um prior to it being enacted so I did want to kind of update y'all there have been some chatter yesterday on social media after the Texas ruling so a couple things related to that just as a reminder um the Department of Education has notified us that that they have not published the Athletics policies yet uh so so that we don't know what what might result from that uh second piece it really gets to what Dr web spoke to earlier regardless of the reason for the behavior our goal is to keep students safe and

072we will investigate all claims of bullying behaviors or harassment or intimidation no matter what they are and take appropriate action um so I just wanted to make sure that we gave that reminder out as well Mr Welch thank you so Jason or or Dana whomever sort of get to the the meat of the social media constitutional Scholars um that said is there anything right now out there to Ed that would require us to allow boys to play on girls sports teams or allow boys to use girls bathrooms so right now there is a Tennessee state law that has been the law for um several years and we have a policy um that we use the birth gender on the birth certificate or adoption papers um there has not been anything at this point that would

073change that policy all right so when we start school again on July whatever there August sorry thank you um right that biological boys will will not be able to use a girls bathroom and biological boys will not be able to go out for girl sports teams that has not changed despite what anyone says in Facebook or anywhere else correct the that portion of our policy our intercol actic Athletics policy will remain I have no I'm going through um all of the laws and updating our policies right now and that is not which which is our current policy already correct and it has been um the law changed one or two years ago yes we are consistent with Tennessee state law awesome we've had that long-standing practice and now it's in policy yes thank you I

074appreciate it Mr Cash yes thank you madam chair um Eric asked my question but uh is there a lawsuit has the state of Tennessee filed a lawsuit with the federal government yes sir the state of Tennessee has filed um a lawsuit with several other states in the state of Kentucky okay okay that's in the six circuit right and are um the attorney general for the state of Kentucky and the attorney general for the state of Tennessee they argued a um hearing on on the 10th of this month basically saying that um they're asking the court that title the the new Title Nine regulations that go into effect August 1st not go into effect in Tennessee I don't have we don't have that ruling yet they've argued it the judge has heard it but the judge

075has not ruled as soon as I know that ruling I will share it with this this group um okay thank you Mr Brown oh sorry oh no you're good okay Mr Brown thank you U one comment and then a question the comment is that um while we don't have guidance right now about the Athletics that Eric just referred to um I think we should prepare ourselves that that guidance might come and be realistic that that is a possibility that we may have to deal with and so I think we should just start getting that in our heads that um we may have to take some kind of action or otherwise to address that the question is um what what will the guidance as we understand it right now what if the guidance is not enjoined

076um what will it require us to do differently than we currently do in terms of our day-to-day practice in the school buildings in the class rooms um what will it require us to change any policies um and and if so in what way I'm going to speak briefly to it and then Dana if you would give some detail um at a glance I think for us my projection is it it will extend some of the investigations such as we just described um because there may be some additional elements uh to what needs to be investigated with that Dana can you give some detail I can and I'm pulling up a document so that I do not misspeak um so the scope of Title 9 UM has changed and here's what I mean by that the

077the um regulations if they are not enjoined um would also include discrimination on the basis of basis of sex which would include pregnancy and related conditions regarding pregnancy that is new while there are other federal and state laws regarding pregnancy if that has not been under Title Nine um there will be a um another change will be that any disc any sex discrimination that occurs under the school's education program or activity in the United States or outside of the United States would be investigated previously it was only within our borders um so that is a change procedurally um let me also State this there are additional training requirements every board member every employee of Williams County Schools will be trained um in addition every new employee has to be trained prior to beginning so that's

078while they're definitely was Title 9 training board members you were not included in that mandatory training um the role of the title n coordinator has expanded significantly um number one because I believe there'll be more potentially there will be more things that must be investigated and all investigations are going and and any complaints would go through the T 9 coordinator um not necessarily that has not been um the case under the previous regulations and the grievance procedure will look very different um here's what I mean by that the 2020 I do that every time the 2020 regulations Title 9 that came out the um were very specific as to the grievance procedure that must be followed the scope was narrower that has flip-flopped the district has much more um control over the procedures um the

079grievance procedure and the scope is larger so there will be a completely different Title Nine policy um before the board so because because it is it's going to look very different so we will have to change the policy uh to to to to do a synopsis of this this discussion there's nothing in there that requires us to to uh to to Mr Welch's question uh have have uh boys use girls group bathrooms or locker rooms but we will have to change our policy to address this but help me understand what's going to drive you mentioned pregnancy but what what else is in that in that new title 9 policy or or in the rugs is going to drive that what potentially significant number of additional complaints so previously there well let me tell you the

080biggest one there's some definition changes um and I'm condensing about 1500 pages down to just a few minutes um but right now one of the definitions of sexual harassment is severe persistent or pervasive and no I'm sorry and the new one is going to be severe persistent or pervasive that's a pretty big difference with just a conjunction change um where some items would not have been sexual harassment because they did not meet that threshold they now will so so there will be additional investigations um additionally some um if it was a fact pattern that or some facts that the school could investigate such as it didn't me the definition those are not necessarily going to go back to the school they're going to go through the title n office um and we had double digits

081of Investigations the last couple of years with uh sexual assaults and then sexual harassment all right I'd let you know you let you all know that uh I was going to tell you where we were where we are and where we're going that was that transition Title 9 was where we're going so I I jumped the gun a little bit um speaking of jumping the gun we had some real successes in athletics and uh the the willos are this coming Tuesday uh so pretty pretty impressive track results um I just did the jump the gun thing so that's why I had to say that um for where we are right now our summer school y'all has been really good uh right now uh we have 1,00 641 students in summer school but of those 22

082third graders are attending because they had to do that plus do the tutoring so let me say say that again of our of our well we have just slightly over 3,000 second gr third graders 22 of them fit that category of having to do summer school plus tutoring uh in order to progress to the to the fourth grade so that's a substantial improvement over last year um and I I told you that summer school is going really well uh Dr Allen was actually bragging about the not bragging but just really proud of the visits that he had the impact we're having on those students who who uh who are getting that extra help in June is significant uh there's a lot of good focus on those student deficits that were identified through our screeners and

083and through our testing Dr Allen if you would just give a 30 30 second overview of what's going on at summer school thank you for the opportunity first of all I know other districts are working hard to provide a good summer school but there is no way possible that any other district is preparing as hard as our teachers do for the students over the summer I mean um first of all thank you to our teachers that are wanting to do it they do get paid a little bit of money um but they're not doing it for the money they're doing it because they know that they have students that really need the help and we need them to be there for our students so all of our teachers we don't have to go outside of

084our district to do anything creative our teachers are willing to do it and we can get the Staffing for the need that comes to us um we we work hard on the curriculum and in identifying uh areas that we see Trends across their grade levels where we can provide tailored instruction as well as individualization for the students and the feedback that we have gotten the last couple of years is that the students like it that's somewhat that's great I don't I I don't know that I would have necessarily fallen into that category when I was in school and coming to summer school but that's what kind of environment our teachers are providing for our students so we spend uh as a team we have a team that puts it puts uh puts kind of the

085organization behind it uh we're reflective at the end of every summer school season uh to try to make it better for the following year so just really proud really proud of the work that our that our teachers are doing in the classroom when you go in the schools over the summer um it's just like a a regular school day there's there's a lot of learning taking place and and some fun along with it so uh just really proud of what we're able to offer our students and um we do see we do see value it's hard to to tag exactly a quantitative number on the value because we're uh doing two things we're progressing students from where they are to where we can get them but we're also eliminating some summer slide that may occur

086with some of our students so it's hard to really nail that down in a quantitative measure uh but anecdotally we are seeing real gains for our students so super proud thanks for the opportunity to speak to it so it's a it's a 4-week program we're halfway through as of today they don't actually go on Fridays uh it it's funded by the state there's some subtle things that may not be funded such as utilities and that kind of thing but so far the state has been has been um um funding it but it's like the first day of school two weeks ago bus routes had to it was the whole ball game and so so uh so I worry sometimes about our staff and the the the extra volume of work um but but for the

087students who who go it's been good final thing Madam chair I wanted to mention uh Dr Snowden oh I'm sorry there's question Mr Cash has a question uh yeah I had a question was there U um any graph on the amount of children that failed the teap test yes sir uh we'll get you some some detailed data on it uh we had 22 students who who fit that um below non-exempt um category you remember last year we talked about 134 third graders this year there were 22 who who had to attend summer school and do tutoring this year to to to to not be retained in third grade right um and there are there are 144 students who fit the approaching category who had a choice of summer school or or tutoring this year okay

088but getting back to the teap test yeah that's that's teap third grade I I understand that the question I'm asking is reports are coming back that children are failing that and happening to retest oh the retest thank you one of the options that the state offers is a is a retest and that was we took TCAP a few weeks before school started back and then um students could choose to retest Dr could you speak to that yeah to put and Mr Cash I think I know the question you're asking we had a 70% pass rate with our third graders were you looking for the specific number our pass rate um so that is very close to what it has been in the past State average we we learned this week um was right at 40%

08939 40% so you see the the difference so we we were statistically in the same rage that we have been to Mr Golden's point every student that does not meet expect expectations on that third grade ELA portion is offered an opportunity to retake it they don't have to retake it they're offered an opportunity if they retake and they meet expectations they don't have to jump through the additional Hoops to progress to fourth grade like the summer school and the tutoring which is required of students based on where they would fall if they don't meet expectations does that answer the question that you were asking uh yeah that does but my I'm more concerned at the children and I know one school in specific I don't and I've talked to Jason about it 50% uh of

090the third grade class failed the first teap and again many of them failed the second teap but you know they're going to go uh I think they ended up in tutoring which you know it's tutoring's fine but the thing is is what does that do to that child when they fail especially I think I think we build these tests up way way too much you got to get a lot of sleep get eat a lot of food before you come to school uh two weeks from now is the teac cap go home and study and I think by the time these kids get in front of the teac cap they're like this I mean I think it would be better just to hand them the test one day and say go through this and see

091what happens yeah I think feedback that's the feedback I'm getting because people are you know cuz a lot of these kids I mean they're trying their best and boom they take this test and I know it's a state law you know but they take this test and they fail it twice it's like well now what am I you know Mr Cash I think you bring up a good point I I I personally um really dislike the pressure that some of our students feel like that they're under um what I can share with you as a as a result of just those feelings is I know our principles feel that same way and what I hear and see in our buildings is more of a communication of this is an opportunity for you to show us

092what you know and they do our I think our teachers do to your point I think our teachers do a really good job of trying to to Tamp down some of those uh some of that anxiety of our students they certain don't do the opposite they want them to give their they're balancing that hey I want you to give your best effort uh but certainly to your point and we can we can reiterate and continue those conversations with our with our principes and with our teachers but by and large I think what I can report to you is that they typically um the feedback that we get is that it's um do your best but it's it's not the end of the world right it's a show us what you know I know that that

093little Dave Allen in third grade regardless of what they would have told me I would have put put a lot of pressure on myself to do well I would you know so we have some of those students that feel that way uh but I can assure you that that stress and that pressure is not coming from our teachers and administrators they're doing the opposite give us your best um but it's going to it's going to be okay well I'm I'm not I'm not I'm not blaming teachers before before somebody jumps on that that one I'm not blaming the teachers for any of that what I'm saying this is feedback from parents and then we they see these numbers and then they think what what do you mean my child failed twice and got to go

094to tutoring now and and besides that they feel terrible about himself uh what's the school not doing and you know I've had it blamed on curriculum everything you know we've been doing the same curriculum for three years now three four years now yeah okay so I mean what changed all of a sudden this year you see what I'm saying and those are the that's the feedback I'm getting well so what I would say is traditionally we rank number one or two in the state I think that we don't have those numbers yet but I would I would venture to Guess that we'll be in that ballpark again so um each of those eocc and those TCAP assessments they're no joke they are backward mapped from um The College and Career Readiness expectations to enter college

095and be successful in in college and so I think we would all be a little bit surprised and shocked about what the accountability looks like on some of those tests um so you know that's not making excuses uh we look at every single student that doesn't meet expectations and we have a plan for those individual students um and we have schoolwide plans so there's work to be done on our part whenever we're one student short of 100% there's work for us to do um but I would put put the work that our that that our students are doing up against anybody in the state in terms of those results but yeah when you hear 70% what we hear and what our principals here and what our teachers hear are they hear 30% right they don't

096hear the 70% they hear the 30% because the 30% um is is a real area of focus because we want every one of those students to meet grade level expectations but you're you know I I hear you and I I share those those concerns and appreciate the feedback and and we certainly hear some of that feedback as well you know we've been 've been offering tutoring tutoring for years and it's it's it's been handled through those personal conversations between administrators and parents with some recommendations uh the state did create that high stakes nature right uh and I remember last year um I I heard one third grader who who uh I jotted this down you triggered this memory in my mind my oral reading fluency isn't good right and it's you know for a third

097grader to even identify that right it was that it was that pressure of of that test and we don't want it to be high stakes I will tell you a couple things we're doing to mitigate that we offered TCAP this year to second graders um we haven't had it's not required but we did that to familiarize just give a familiarization at very low stakes very low pressure to try to reduce the impact of that that very first time for third grade uh and and we'll also have that conversation with Dr oror about what you've talked about Trad Al our principles do kind of make it a fun yay it's teap they might go out and March in the little circle around the you know around the parking lot or something to you know sing a

098song that you know that that kind of thing uh we we we are concerned about the high stakes part of it and and I think it's definitely worth us going back and reviewing that in addition to those structures we put in place to try to mitigate that impact on those children Mr wimble Dan I understand where you're coming from I agree it's been my observation just my personal observation that over the years that at least from this level and from our seniors that we're exposed to and from what I hearing about the schools that that there's been a noticeable difference in the pressure applied for teaps um in fact um I think we used to have that in the um superintendent's evaluation that teaps would have to you know that part of the superintendent's goals

099what would be to get teap scores up and we we don't do that anymore um I don't think and so I just feel like and I'm sure it's through you know uh examples set by leadership that we are doing a better job of it but still I get it I know you know we're experiencing that in our family and I know it it's it's hard it hurts and you have to work real hard to to overcome some of those negative feelings but I think it's just been my observation that we do a better job of that than we did some years ago and I will tell you also the state actually has improved their approach as well uh assuming that those students who have to do summer school in third grade uh do that and

100take the tutoring uh last year you remember the law said if if at fourth grade they don't they don't show adequate growth which got defined for us well after the decision could be made by the parents uh the students need to be held back that law has changed now the requirement is at fourth grade that the principles and parents talk about it and make a decision which surprisingly was what we we've been doing for decades uh so I Dr Allen you want to share a little bit more detail Mr Gold I'm so thankful that you brought that up first of all I am very thankful for the change in the legislation but I want to I want to reiterate that because I think that speaks to your point Mr Cash um how students perform on

101third grade the ELA portion of third grade TCAP could trigger additional interventions that's right the summer school and the tutoring but no student has to be retained if they meet those additional interventions I think that's really important for our entire Community to hear now because that can lower the shoulders a little bit there's a lot of research to indicate that students need to be on track to read at grade level by third grade so I understand the research behind the importance of third grade but I also want our entire Community our legislators listened to us and they made that adjustment no student has to be retained they may have to meet additional interventions but no student has to be retained simply because of their teap school and for 22 of our students this year it

102was a 10 summer school and duter during next year right yep I think I think we're on the same page Dave what what I'm getting back is you know the child Brin from Ames web we look at that every all the time and they're doing fine it might be a little marginal and it go up a little bit and it goes down a little bit but they do just fine but fail this TCAP test you know is is the test realistic you is some some brain surgeon writing it up in Nashville or you know what I mean how difficult is this we we've had we've had those discussions the state requires in essence two types of test at those grade levels the am web is a screener and it and Dave I'm nut shelling it

103right I'm not giving the professional research the that test basically tests Readiness for that grade level work so we don't study for those tests it's just to identify potential deficits so that we can intervene at appropriate spots the TCAP test that grade level standards the Tennessee standards at that grade level and and so there it's two very different things so it tests the Mastery of the Tennessee standards you all may remember when this law was passed two 3 years ago we talked about the research that indicated if a student doesn't know how doesn't know how to read by third grade there's a lot of research that indicates that by the time they're an adult you know their opportunities are going to be greatly reduced and then Tennessee applied no how that that research to the

104Tennessee standards and there was not the re those two research points did not align um and so there what we see with the screeners is that gives us an an opportunity to identify where we need to intervene and how we teach those standards that ultimately get get tested at TCAP and by the way one last little bit the ELA standards from grade level to grade level have a lot of overlap in them uh because it's it's it's it's it's it's increased sophistication in Mastery of the standards as they get slightly more complicated as they go up from grade level to grade level we know that we've had success over the course of years with our students who Who start in kindergarten and graduate high school you know think about our graduation rates you think about

105our AP the students who who who uh who get industry certifications Etc some of them may have started out in third grade not doing well on those tests because we've been intervening throughout their career uh I mentioned that where we were going Title Nine was going to be part of that final thing I wanted to mention uh this coming Tuesday Dr Snowden of Franklin Special School District and I are going to be at Frank talks uh sharing um sharing where we are Monday is it Monday okay sorry I've been putting it off Lydia tells me it's Monday so we'll be Monday morning at at uh Frank talks uh he and I each have 15 minutes to to to share a little bit and then we're going to do a Q&A and so it's the um

106we're looking forward to continuing our conversations with our community okay that's my that's my report thank you okay next on our agenda is the operations report Mr King thank you madam chair uh just brief updates on our uh some of our construction projects uh the transportation building all the utilities have been moved so uh the footings have begun there phase uh four for paage high school the gym uh all the walls are complete now and the interior framework has uh began on that building as well as the bricking of the outside that Pro is going really well uh Brentwood middle the asbest abatement was done toward the end of the school year so once school was out they have uh started the physical demolition of the old building soon as they get that complete and

107uh the uh material hauled off they'll start with the building of the phase two of Brentwood middle school and that is my report unless anybody has any questions Mr Pria I just wanted to ask again um we had another email come through asking about the Portables being placed at Nolanville Elementary um can you just clarify the facts about that and any um maybe alleviate any safety concerns that parents may have sure thank you for the for the question yeah we treat uh any Portables that we have at any of our school buildings which we have them almost every year just as an extension of our building they have all the same safety um devices or whatever uh for instance the Portables will have the uh laminate on the whe on the uh glass just like

108they do at the um the regular building all the doors will be locked just like the classroom doors will be locked when kids are in there uh we'll have cameras on the Portables that'll be visible by Administration the sro's um there's one more thing I was going to say say yeah cameras yeah and oh yeah and they'll have all the same technology that that they have in the building they have phones two-way radios all the same technology where they can get a hold of anybody uh the same technology in the Portables as they do in the classrooms so we do have a long history of of Portables from time to time in our community and where there's growth our safety team including our Sheriff's Office coordinate that uh it is something that they monitor aggressively

109and they are careful about those and as far as logistical questions um parents have had about like if lunch times will have to be adjusted for um the number of students in the school or uh I think there was a question about the car rider line situation since the Portables are going to end up in that part of the do they back of the parking lot right do they address that with the school site principal or um can we provide that information tonight or should we put this on an agenda item future meeting I I don't I don't have sorry go ahead Bri I don't have it with me but somebody else has emailed that and Gary Anderson with Transportation has sent that information over so if you'll send me an email Jen I uh

110Miss PR I'll try to uh forward you that tomorrow so you'll have that information perfect thank you Mr Hall on that topic we have Portables more often than not right I mean like pretty much most I'm trying to think I'm in my 19th year we've never been without Portables somewhere somewhere that is correct okay thank you okay all right next item on the agenda is the board chair report just a reminder that we do not meet in July watch out for flying water um we do not meet in July and by the time we do meet again in August we will have our next six board members elected but that doesn't mean we can't show up for those of us who are rolling off so we do have to show up because we'll have another

111meeting and then in September those members will be sworn in okay so just logistical stuff all right that's all I have for board chair report so we'll move to new business the first item under new business is the evaluation of the superintendent which is an annual agenda item everyone um did take the or did complete the evaluation so thank you very much for doing that um the aggregated scores are in the board packet up here um so you can see those you probably already reviewed those and then Lydia also sent the individual board member reviews out to us as well so you should have everything you need but we can open the floor to any questions or comments you want to make about Mr Golden's evaluation yes Mr wly I think I've said this every

112year I've been on the board that I don't like the evaluation uh instrument that the state obligates us to for a variety of reasons uh but however so I tend to look at it a little bit differently than than than the scores that are given there which are good scores so what I did is I went through and I counted the ATS at expectation above expectation and significantly above expectation marks that um that Jason received and 91% of the marks which meant 11 marks for every category since there are 11 of us who did the evaluation 91% of the marks he received were uh at above or significantly above with the largest percentage of them all being 40% above uh expectations and then only 9% below and significantly below I think that's pretty good evaluation

113congratulations thank you if any if there's anyone else has something to say I'll certainly allow them and I'll speak to it at the end okay Mr Welch well kind of echo what reck said um I think even an that expectations are our expectations are for you and for the district are extremely high so to exceed that um with our with our aggate score there we just want to say congratulations and thank you for your hard work and you know we we appreciate all that you put in thank you Mr Hall thank you madam chair um we have some discretion over the instrument right I mean and how it's formatted and way if I'm not mistaken like yeah I I think it's getting better all the time I this year is the first time where I

114thought I don't know if the performance goals should be weighted 8020 versus the other ones you know as I was looking at an academic achievement and student student achievement for one um you know that's one of five components of 20% waiting um which I think is a pretty important one but uh if we want to have the performance goals weighted as heavily as they are uh I just would continue to encourage us as a the board and future boards to work collaboratively with the superintendent these are superintendent goals but the Board needs to work with them and there should be no surprises I think getting the updates frequently is pretty helpful but um you know mid interim um progress reports I think would be helpful so that if anybody says you know if you say

115superintendent and if you say you know this is 100% complete in my estimation and it's mid year um you know maybe put that eye to the board and say speak now if anybody hold your or forever hold your peace if anybody has any objections let's align and make sure that we understand the goals the same I think we do a lot of uh planning up front to make sure that the goals align with board expectations so it would be helpful to continue to have the discussions throughout the year I know you've provided a lot of updates on those uh but I think that that'll be important going forward as well okay thank you all right Mr Golden did you want to say something well I want to thank you for the for the for the

116evaluation I will tell you you know the way the numbers are structured three is meets expectations and four is exceeds and five is greatly exceeds I I I focus more on your comments uh and I focus more on the conversations that we have over the course of the year the numbers are do have some importance to me but really it's it's a matter of us as a team and when I talk about us as a team I'm talking about our leadership team our faculty our staff you all as a board uh and and I I appreciate the work we're doing I'm I'm proud of the work we're doing in so many ways we're better than we've ever been uh and I and I'm proud of the progress we've made we know that this is a

117human effort and it it's always going to take effort uh we actually have some Commissioners sitting here tonight and they're part of that team as well and we're going to speak to that in just an item or two um and and so for me it's an it's a full community effort uh and it's a good effort it's very it's difficult work you all uh but it is it is work worth doing I'm proud of where we are final piece related to that success is tenuous uh and we've been successful for a long time and if we if if we take our eye off that ball then we could lose it and it takes that entire community so I I appreciate you all uh in your leadership um as we continue to strive to do the

118best we can for these students super okay thank you board next item on the agenda is the approval of the 2 2024 25 revised budget thank you madam chair this is actually the item I mentioned we have some Commissioners here thank you all Commissioners for being here uh as you know back in March you approved our budget and we knew inch March that uh that based on the numbers we had we didn't have enough money to make ends meet when it came to getting the 6% raise that we and County government uh set out to to to uh to to achieve uh so we've been going through the process we've had multiple meetings you all have as well uh Rachel's been doing her work uh we've been able to refine our projections uh based on

119based on our fund balance uh and and uh and and go through that process and you all know that process I'm not going to spend a lot more time uh drilling down on that but let me tell you where we are since our last meeting uh number one uh Rachel has closed out the final payroll for for this fiscal year the June 15th payroll that included every single item and ultimately Rachel I'm estimating that gained us about a half a percent of of of what we had based on her projections which is about $2.5 million uh and and and so that dropped our projected Gap to actually fund uh the uh the budget that included a 6% raise for all staff to about $7.5 million this Monday the County Commission uh discussed at at the

120prompt of the county mayor mayor Anderson uh the the possibility of of um not requiring us to pay an item that you all actually approved last month the Esco uh Capital payment uh towards towards debt that we use to to fund uh Energy savings improvements in the school buildings a few years ago that's about $1.1 million if that passes the County Commission at their Thursday their their vote next Thursday a week from today that would reduce our Gap to fund that 6% pay increase by well basically to somewhere between 6.4 and $6.5 million so we saw that prompt from the County Commission that they're looking to to meet us partway and we had some discussions about what originally started out from County government as the possibility of a property tax increase to cover that Gap

121and we had the discussions about what other tools do we have in our toolbox uh and we touched on one of those last month when we talked about putting some of our technology in in some contingent capital and ultimately after some discussions um we've come up with a recommendation for three specific items that if passed by you all and if the commission passes that recommendation from the county mayor will balance our budget for this year uh it will take care of this year for us to be able to get a six uh 6% pay increase for everyone without a property tax increase this year and those three items are given that we would be at $6.5 million deficit number one move about $4 million of technology to contingent Capital uh we have about $5.2 million

122left in contingent I'm sorry four 5.4 thank you not 5.2 about $5.4 million left in contingent Capital uh move that move that 4 million out uh that would drop the deficit to about 2.5 million um and we also talked about um in in the course of all those discussions with the accy commission uh the uh the the Staffing request we had and ultimately I decided given what we saw with County government's departments with our projected with our projected student numbers the right thing for us to do was to find a way to present them with a zero net Staffing increase budget what that means for us is reducing our our position request by 10.4 positions uh so we have that in our plan as well our recommendation to you is to cover those 10.4 positions

123in this way number one the state's required uh computer science now is a high school graduation requirement we had five FTE full-time equivalents um presented in the budget uh Dr webs told me that when the F when the rising freshman signed up for classes there were so few that signed up to take that their first year that we can get by without having that position in this coming year those freshmen have to take the class by the end of their career but we can cover those few sections that we need to put in this year and we will need those those positions a little bit later on as those requirements cycle up to the grades that's five positions we also asked for seven secretary positions scattered around in 05s and 1.0s between middle and elementary

124schools we had a discussion about where are the biggest pain points at the schools we concluded that number one it's a paage high school that has about 300 students more than any other I'm sorry paig middle school that has about 300 more students in any other middle school and at Nolanville Elementary uh where they are right at uh capacity so if we if we gave a 0.5 to Nolanville and a 1.0 to Page Middle we could cut 5.5 secretary positions out of our request that's the 10.5 so so we're we we propose that we present the County Commission with a re revised budget that has a zero net increase staff it's actually going to be a tenth of a full-time equivalent less than last year but it's in essence a zero budget that drops us

125down by about 900,000 900 or so uh which leaves a deficit at about 1.5 million our final proposal to use another tool that we have that we've used from time to time is reduce our requests for funding for for science textbooks uh by that Gap amount and if the need and when if and when the need comes during the budget year make your request to pay for that Gap out of fund balance so in essence our proposal is to cover that Gap with the tools that we have one use the some Capital money that we have two make some cuts and three I'm just going to use that line that we use Kick the Can a little bit managing all three three of those hitting that that funding that we have and will have in

126the budget that's not available currently to us uh we're convinced it's going to meet the need it's a short-term solution uh it it it is that it's longterm we will still have some of these issues uh because it will reduce opportunities in the future but from a fiscal fiscally conservative process it helps us avoid a property tax increase that ultimately the county might have to fund this coming year so certainly open any questions um I know Rachel's here obviously uh and we'll answer any questions that you have okay we have a couple questions missia um can you can you share which schools you mentioned that Paige middle and Nolanville Elementary will be keeping a 1.0 and a 0.5 secretary but which schools will not be receiving the 5.5 now sure Rachel I know that was

127in the budget document that we published can you pull that up we'll race and we'll see who gets there first well they're getting it I want to know who's not getting it so um Thompson Station Elementary School Scales Elementary mil Creek Elementary kenrose elementary and then Brentwood middle grassland middle Heritage Middle um mil Creek Middle Sun set middle Spring Station midle and Wood Middle so that that will be painful for them because we had made that request there there will still be some administrative duties that will keep that pressure on at those schools and those positions in the PCR when we talked about it were based on student enrollment numbers and the the required number of positions to fill to meet those student needs and that's correct and need we actually we actually made a

128modification to the position control report the PCR based on feedback we'd received and we bumped actually bumped up the the position numbers as a proposed change to theing the PCR the Staffing thank you not the PCR but the Staffing standard that was a proposed change to our staffing standard so it would delay that change to the Staffing standard okay and then my second question was about the contingent Capital to move the the Chromebook expenses into there what you said there were $5.4 million in that right fund what does that normally go toward so I'll I'll speak I'll speak first to where it comes from and and then Brian if you would speak to where the where where it where it goes um those contingent funds usually come from the completion of projects for money we

129didn't spend obviously we're as conservative as we can be we bid them out we keep contingent funds in case of something unexpected over the years we might hit rock that was not projected that would have increase the cost of particular projects so we've gathered up the projects in this case it's the rural projects if I'm not mistaken Rachel It's a combination of both um and we're looking at at and Sh it's technology that will be purchased through this and so in almost every major project you have there is technology that's built into those budgets because if you're opening a new school you're obviously going to have technology and so we have really taken every project and pieced this together to pull whatever was left into technology line so that we can we will be able

130to do that and so um not necessarily Chromebooks but it can be any of our technology and so we can shift things um around in that way so how it's been used over time over the over these last 20 years that we've been growing uh sometimes it's been used to fund in part the next Capital project uh sometimes if there's something that comes up a capital Improvement that's needed in midyear U we might bring some of that to you for approval sometimes if we get turned down on Capital annual Capital funding or if it gets reduced by the County Commission we've used a portion of that to to cover that that was kind of what I was thinking about was the 5-year Capital plan and the next big projects being two schools in Nolanville area

131that are very desperately needed for the growth we're experiencing and I just wanted to make sure that by these millions of dollars being kicked down the kicking the can down the road that we're not putting future asks at risk and having to then continue to kick those down the road because those were originally slated for 2025 opening which obviously isn't going to happen now they're 2027 that's right and I would hate to continue to see them get pushed if we can't we can't the funding for this so um okay thank you Mr Wimberly Jason I think it'd be helpful if you went through all five of these items and and I know You' you've talked about the secretaries and the contingency capital and just give us a brief explanation of what deferring these items because

132they're look to me that they're all deferrals what what the impact of each of these items would be on us and I am correct and there well with the exception of the the number one is that a deferral and one is the Esco debt payment okay so thank you so number one the Esco debt payment is the County Commission committing to in essence covering that cost with County funds um that the that's the net result because last month you voted on annually to fulfill our commitment to the Esco so that would add that back to our fund balance and that would actually just increase increase our fund balance so that's a that's a commitment from the county and that's a one-year deal that's a one-year deal that's right thank you um and then the second

133item uh the Chromebooks as we just discussed with Miss pria's question that's taking money out of capital uh that money's available now the potential negative effect is it reduces our flexibility to make quicker decisions on Capital now I will tell you for Capital most of our quick decisions or annual decisions as opposed to strategic longer term decisions so it reduces that flexibility it gives us less flexibility if we do have a project that goes over budget because we'll have about $1.4 million available to cover overages uh rather than what we've had now to mitigate that uh the the the bond money actually has what's called Arbitrage that you have you actually have to spend Each Bond money Each Bond Fund within a particular window of time to avoid interest charges uh so we will use

134the old disc Bond money first which is a tradition we've been doing anyway but it will it will reduce flexibility and the third one is the high school computer science teachers correct and you Dr Webb explained that but it seems like if it's now a state requirement that they take it sometime before graduation that you know they're going to start taking it in in subsequent years they going to have to they will that that will come at a at a later year uh and we're going to have that detailed conversation I I do know that from a enrollment standpoint I know I've had a conversation I think with Miss Apria about world language that a lot of students and and Dr Webb I think as well a lot of students chose to knock out their

135World Language earlier in part because they were many of them were taking that course in middle school but that will come but we will we will eliminate that expense for this year and then the final one uh removing the cost of science textbooks textbook adoptions adoption we've included in our budget our projection for cost um we will know for sure how much that science textbook expense will be um I'm estimating Dr Allen am I correct somewhere around January when will we actually know the actual cost I maybe shouldn't speculate based on my Bas on my I'm not sure that it'll be that soon okay I think it may maybe a little bit later than that and and and so we anticipate that we may and probably will have to come back to the County Commission

136to ask to fund that Gap out of fund balance that particular line item was $5.5 Million 5.7 5.7 sorry I'm always estimating that that particular Lineum is 5.7 so that will be a fund balance likely we'll we'll ask um to pull some out of fund balance and will any students go without science test textbooks no no assuming the County Commission approves that request when it comes they will not and the last question would be have we ever had a year where we were Net Zero for new positions in recent not not in my professional lifetime now we have talked about our our student numbers stabilizing the last two years which is a good thing right because we are we are now talking about well talking less about dealing with growth and talking about the the

137instructional more spending more time talking about the instructional issues that we've discussed today we're spending more talking time talking about taking care of our people I've talked about the 99% Staffing for our teachers this past year we we've been able to focus more on those hard-to-fill positions uh and by the way we do know that we're fighting that Mar market right and so this actually is a good time that our numbers are stabilizing because the teacher Market is getting more difficult um so I guess one a point to make and I could have made it the first time we approved it because I think it was true then um this budget has no new initiatives other than things that are required uh by the state so we're not doing new creative things things that cost

138any money well we are doing two two items that are that the cost is actually fairly minimal on we are adding girls flag football and Lacrosse and those are not required um by the state um but Rachel 230,000 $230,000 so other than that you're right now to your point we have a strategic plan we presented action steps to to you uh a couple of months ago we are going to be spending a lot of time this coming year talking about how to achieve those objectives uh and so for us to continue to grow and continue to improve to continue to to address Market changes the demands aren't going to stop and continue to do what the Public's told us they want us to do thank you for that that's right thank you Mr basley yes

139with all the adjustments on the budget that have we gone through um could you speak to and be confident that no one has lost their position or their job um related to the cuts thank you for that question short answer you are correct we are not cutting anyone's position we will not be laying anybody off over this it's a way to serve the people who are serving our students now perfect thank you Mr Hall thank you madam chair um Mr Golden apologize you probably said this four different ways but we're still buying the Chromebooks we're just funding it that is correct and let me emphasize those are high school Chromebooks uh next year uh we do have a projection to replace the elementary Chromebooks as you know we're in the process of reviewing that to

140see how many we need you actually triggered something um that I want to mention the Chromebook cycle may be a little the the pricing will be not well the total cost would likely be different next year compared to this year we had a plan a few years ago to create a stable budget for devices we did that through a lease purchase agreement the comp Controllers Office has told us we can't do that anymore because that includes an interest rate for a lease purchase uh and and in essence Rachel I'm paraphrasing that that that would be a finding because the interest rate in market for that actually ex see exceeds the bond market interest rate and therefore we would be choosing something that costs more did I appropriately speak to that mostly um the state would

141approve a lease if the interest rate was less than what the bond rate was currently for an item like Chromebooks the interest rate has not been that so there are other things there are other leases that have occurred that have been approved it's just not the Chrome books with who our vendors are or um notebooks whatever we're looking at and so we then also looked at going through a bank and the interest rates were exactly the same as what they were through the um computer companies and so that's why the state um they don't reject all leases but that's why they had rejected the lease um options that we had tried so we will see some year-to-year budgets be different in that category also this this is a science textbook adoption year next year we

142don't have any large adoption the year after that it will be social studies so the budget will fluctuate in that context as well from year to year thanks that is interesting about the the options to purchase and I'm glad we're going through with that I I think it was a reasonable question that a lot of people ask about just deferring them in general but the reality is that are already overworked and continually uh burden um you know technology staff and Librarians spend a lot of time dealing with things that are getting long in the tooth and and need to be repaired so um it did prompt the question like the specs for high school Chromebooks same as Elementary are they the same Bri yes sir they're the same yes sir got it all right thanks

143um so okay glad we doing that and then what what can we do sorry what can we do uh kind of to you improve or lean into the feedback loop on the secretary positions and kind of find out okay what can what can we do to address the need or backfill this I don't know if that there is any opportunity or increased um support that could be brought from the community or something like that and I know these are positions we need somebody's going to be stressed and overworked as a result of this what can we do to kind of get feedback and support for those folks thank you for that a lot of our schools do depend on volunteers um and we're careful about access to private student information with the volunteer work so

144that that is a possibility we've had some early brainstorms over over uh over how to how to how to minimize the the volume of work with technology improvements that's part of what what we have discussed as part of our strategic goal uh that's probably not going to give an immediate immediate solution but that is it you know one of our objectives um that we've discussed uh Dr Webb I know you've had some conversations with your with your principles and you and Dr orer brought this brought this request ultimately to us um when we started that can you speak to that a little bit I can thank you for the question um this may mean an additional requests for parent volunteers to help us with um front office um jobs that need to be completed it

145does mean that we'll continue to um need to really um maximize the staff that we currently have and uh work to make sure that those items are are completed but I think the uh individuals in those schools will probably see an increase for U requests for parent volunteers to help us with what they can help us with and one other thing is if there's a if there's a big project at a school uh we may do some brainstorm and over finding some some temporary help and is it possible to shift staff at times too and have flexibility there I'm just you know trying to I don't know if that's something I will say it's it's worth looking at but generally no because every minute of every day is consumed with those staff members who are

146at that school yeah um uh we we do have our Super Subs they're spending time in the classroom uh so we'll we'll we'll do a little brainstorming and again if it's a if it's a if it's a spike because of a particular project we might be able to find some additional Solutions yeah when you said projects that's a prompted the thought oh yeah oh I yeah I see what you're saying yeah okay thank you very much really helpful okay Mr galberth thank you madam chair uh Jason did you were you able to get the numbers of the um what we're spending on the Arts stiens today or in this next budget thank you for that question I um Miss Hall is looking uh well I don't I think the short answer is no I'll make

147sure we email that to you you're talking about the total amount that we spent for the Arts uh last last year no I do not have that number I'm sorry okay and then the um the classified you you had told us that the amount of um what the classified raise was going to cost um and I was there and it sounds like they're there some of that may have been double counted um so breaking out the the ones that are over $120,000 um because we you had given us those numbers did you um did you get that number you're talking about the difference in the the classified employees who were who were in that let me let me step back just to make sure everybody understands um we had get we had told you all

148I think in an email that for those staff members who earned 120,000 or more the pay raise would be about half a million dollars of the uh of the 18 or so and the question you had was how many of those positions are classified versus the classified Rays um right because the a hand a handful of those employees the 11 so Rachel said 11 employees of that uh 11 employees are classified who make over $120,000 and the estimate the estimate for that cost for the 6% she's pulling she's pulling it back up okay by the way while we're waiting of the hund of the WCS employees making over 120,000 um principles assistant principles are the largest group uh in our in our pay chart a firste Elementary assistant principal makes would makes less than 100,000

149and then then fairly fairly soon they move up over that right it it's rough but it's right at um $75,000 [Music] $75,000 okay thank you um so my the I guess we can I can get the we can get the actual numbers before Monday night but my my um I guess my proposal um I'd like to get some i' like to get some feedback on actually once we get the numbers but even without the numbers um I want to I would like to address at least take a step in the right direction towards addressing the the difference between the Arts and the Athletics and we've had um had lots of U discussion on that some some speakers come and some emails plenty of plenty of discussion around uh around this topic but my my thought

150would be not to necessar change the I think it'd be pretty pretty tough in a short amount of time to to gross change the um the amounts from Flat fees to percentages I think the only percentage of salary is the band director today um but but maybe to to increase to provide some increase as a percentage of what's in the of what's in the um the mou chart today um and I mean I was just I threw out a number of 25 to 30% increase um as an interim step until um Jason you and your team can can do the do the assessment and and hopefully uh make a proposal to us to um to make a change for for next year that or or it might be a a series of changes but uh

151but I think that would be that's that's ultimately what the my first request is is to see what that percent you know what what that amount is and therefore what what percentage can we uh can we make work all right we'll make sure we get that to you before the Monday night meeting sounds good and um and then the second the second thing will will be um you know I had mentioned that um that I would like to to um I would like to see the um the classified staff particularly the ones that are that are making that are on the lower end of the of the pay scale and I don't I don't think that I don't think I have these those numbers either just because it's all classified staff today that where the

1526% raise is 4 million of the of the roughly 16 and A5 million of the of the total rate so if my goal would be to um to give those at the lower end uh of the scale um slightly more than uh than 6% just to because it's such a a small number and and we've got that ends up being especially those Tas um the special ed Tas the ones that are um that are our toughest to to fill in our our highest vacancy rates um I'd like to to see to make a proposal to uh to increase that and to and to take that out of um of another uh bucket of the of the salaries and ultimately will'll pay other people slightly less than 6% but I'll if we can get those numbers

153I'm happy to work on that with with you and um and Rachel and Vicky Jason all right thank you okay thank you Mr Brown thanks Madam chair a few uh comments and questions um I'll start by saying I think it's worth pointing out how how much work has gone into this over the past gosh going back how long Rachel February January uh November November um and and just to say thank you for that because we've gone through so many iterations of this um so lots of work lots of edits um but that's also true for the County Commission a lot of they've done a lot of work and put a lot of time in I know that Commissioners tonic Cliffe and Morton and Torres I don't know if anybody else walked in but they're in

154the room so thank you know appreciate them being here and having interest in this um it's it's been a process for sure um but I think the the one of the takeaways for me is this has this has become in some circles adversarial between us and the County Commission probably didn't need to be um and you know I think it's been stated by all of us and certainly by most most of the County Commissioners if not all that the priority of teacher raises the priority of the 6% protecting that we've done that um and that's that's something worth pointing out is in spite of all these changes one change we don't see is anything to the raises I think we need to underscore that um it's also worth pointing out that um everything on that

155and I think Rick and others may even alluded to this but everything on the list that's being cut out of the original 555 down to the 548 is still going to get funded maybe save some of these positions but we all believe they're going to get worked back into the budget at some point next year or Beyond but at some point so everything's going to get funded right I mean I think it's fair to say that um you know we're we're going to fund the Chromebooks we're just going to fund them a different way that's right we're going to fund textbooks just going to fund it a different way um and so really all that's left is the 900,000 roughly for the staffing positions that M might not get funded or might not get filled

156but but probably will at some point so I think it's you know I think it is important to say that we we as a as a board voted on the 555 we believe that was the right number but you know the reality is that we we don't operate in a vacuum and there's lots of things lots of Dynamics out there property tax issues other um expectations from the public and and from the commission that we have to face reality and deal with um but I think the reality is that we can walk away saying if we support this we can walk away saying everything that we were going to fund with the 555 we're going to fund with this more or less is that fair yes of course the the the new secretary positions the

1575.5 of the new secretary positions you know won't be there we've hit we've hit the so there is a little bit of pain there so but other than that yes but that's not to say that in a in a future year that's correct that might not get dealt with that is correct okay um question now Rachel I guess for you what amount will we start the year with in fund balance I know I'm guessing roughly 156 million is that right um 16 650 okay and then do you have a projection as to what we would end the year with at the end of the fiscal year inance next year yes um I don't at this point it will just totally depend on um revenues and expenses as we go normally I mean we're in the

158last several years we've um not spent the budget you know we've had left over like um from the salaries where we had unfilled positions that's gone back in and so until the the year progress say we don't know how any of that plays out so if I may um Mr Brown let me mention some categories that would answer your question of course is that 3% fun balance right also County government budgets the property tax revenue at 92% usually they receive in that one year somewhere around 98 yeah somewhere around there 98% so that'd be a category of money that should that ends up in our fund balance at the end uh it would be uh we estimate the cost per teacher and so there's a little bit of an impact depending on the experience level

159of a teacher how much we spend out of those large those large items and and then if we don't fill a particular position or or fill it during a portion of the year we might have some leftover funds from that um and then there might be potentially unprojected revenue from sales tax uh that might sales tax property tax um donations that come in there could be any number and So based on what Mr Golden was just saying with the property tax um that does put in so you could say roughly 30 million but we do normally come back at the end of the year like we just did last month with things that we pull from fund balance to cover the unforeseen um changes within expenditures but and I think you told me recently that

160the the 1% of property tax revenue is about $1.8 million is that right a little bit under that 1.69 I think is where the last one I saw so the the difference between the 92 that we budget for spending and the and what we and What flows to us is if you assume 7% Delta there that's about $13 million right yeah okay and then we we also have the um my favorite topic the trustee commission that would would be in fund balance as well right kind of restricted five a half million dollars that will that will be in there we can't but it's it's not available to us that's correct and and then we we actually have to return that to to the county that's it shows up in the revenue and expense so it

161passes through so to your point our budget is inflated by that much it's not really ours to spend so I guess my last question is on the number five on the textbooks we say we're going to get that from fund balance and we're going to go to the County Commission with a request for that at some point so technically speaking speak for the for the audience is benefit where is that 1.5 65311 going to come from it'll come from that fund balance from our budget from from our budget yes sir can I say one thing about those textbooks too that I don't think was mentioned just yet right now we don't even know which textbooks the state's going to be offering as options so when we estimate we're estimating based off of just past experience

162with textbooks so that was another reason why we were like okay we could come back we can come back because um the expenditure may not be as much as what we have estimated a budget again y'all is an estimate of anything and so we may not need that full amount but yes um to your point it would be essentially that Revenue that additional property tax revenue that goes in we know that we can't budget for to fund balance that we have some expenditures in the past things like buses have come out of fund balance and it's that money okay well just for so I think that's important as a Clarity point is that we we wouldn't be at whatever point in time that happens we wouldn't be asking the County Commission to give us $1.5

163million of it extra money we'd be asking for authorization to spend money that's already in our budget that's correct the money's available the money is there it will be there it's just not accessible without the vote got it thank you very much I want to mention one other item that just popped into my head because I I I noticed commissioner Torres there he he actually mentioned in the conversation that um that uh there's a golf tourn this year this the first time this year and and they're actually wondering what the what sales tax revenue might result from it of course now we haven't budgeted for that so so you know it's just an example of you never really know until the event actually happens which golf tournament are we talking about D the live golf

164tournament live golf tournament that yeah waiting for my ticket you got to shop now cuz it's next weekend I think all right Mr Golden I think that's all the questions we have about the budget so we can move on now to the um to more budget so this is the 2023 2024 Schoolboard budget um jump straight to miss farmer yes ma'am okay okay so we just have a few items tonight the first is uh we did have some Ida carryover funds it is all of $25.20 but we do need to um approve being able to spend those monies into into next year so $25.20 on that um the next one last month we brought you summer learning camps after we had already submitted the state came back and requested a reclassification for librarians specifically so

165all this is is moving from the teacher line down to a separate line that they've now given us um within the chart of accounts for Summer Schools specifically related to Librarians no additional cost it's just again a a clean up of of which funds I mean which account to allocate to and that totaled $1,079 no questions on that one next is we've talked about paid parental leave we've talked with our um State Auditors now it was not in our budget last year as a reminder the state said as long as they had funds they would help reimburse the expense for that required paid parental leave and so we are just bringing to you um based off of the auditor's recommendation to say we potentially have we're estimating at this point that we'll receive right around

166a million dollar that has been included in any calculation we looked at in projecting our fund balance already it was just not put on the books as a revenue item um in the budget and so that particular million dollars um is the next item that you see no questions on that um next is an annual item we always bring related to USDA commodity money again this has got no um true ramification because it is a revenue and expenditure it's related to the actual um USDA money that is received and we have to book it accordingly um and so it's just an adjustment again based off of actual received monies for revenue and expenditure nothing else there um our next section are all of our year end and category transfers as a reminder um we bring

167to you when we transfer from one major category to another throughout the year or if we are moving from a payroll item to a non-payroll item um this will require three separate votes for each of our funds general purpose cafeteria and extended school and so that's the next um items you have and I believe that's all I've got okay thank you Miss farmer next item on the agenda is the approval of the different differentiated pay plan I'm sorry Angela I'm I missed one thing I do apologize Capal yes Capital um you all approved I'm sorry about that you all approved the capital budget um as part of the budget back in March and what we traditionally do then is have to actually submit a resolution in resolution form to um the County Commission and so

168that's what this resolution is is again something you've already approved but it is in resolution form for them to vote on and it will go to them and as part of the budget they will have that discussion um next week and then if they make any modifications to it we would have to then bring it back to you um for those modifications but this again is just putting it in resolution form and as a reminder that actually has already gone through the County Education committee and County budget committee uh the this is the annual Capital that they that they typically vote on Mr Brown so the intent to fund resolution says in that last um tile uh County May fund this so in the event that they don't I mean I know the the votes

169in the committee were majority you know four to1 5 to one but so it's unlikely that they wouldn't but any event they didn't technically speaking what would happen I know it come back comes back to us but when does it come back since we don't meet in July well it would come back to us in August and I will say often if for what they do approve they usually go to bond market sometime around November okay um so for us if they if they reduce it or don't approve it we will have to go back for us as an administrative team evaluate whether we'd make a recommendation to to fund it elsewhere for example last year it was reduced and we had um money out of our general operating fund and we closed that Gap

170we we're confident we won't have that this year uh we'll have to go back and review at the administration level and bring it back to you okay but that doing it in August doesn't create a a time cren that is correct okay okay super we can move on to the approval of the differentiated pay plan thank you madam chair uh the state requires us to provide them our differentiated pay plan annually the state form is actually attached uh it includes our hardto fill signing bonuses uh and retention bonuses Etc that that constitute are hard to fill so we will I do intend to recommend approval to uh to cover this compliance issue with the state come Monday okay no no comments there next item is the approval of the Pekka memorandum of understanding thank you

171madam chair as you all know uh per state law we meet with a a leadership team of teachers uh LED um from led by the Williamson County Education Association to create our memorandum of understanding some of those acronyms the pekou uh professional Educators collaborative conferencing act uh this these are our annual proposed changes Dr web leads our team and we have actually included the in highlights the proposed changes for this year we do have an obligation every year to talk about um pay benefits and working conditions uh and so that discussion happened with our with our team also if we make any changes to pay we do have that obligation to go back and talk with our with that Pekka team uh before we bring them to you uh Dr Webb is available if you

172have any questions about the proposed uh the small number of proposed changes in theou this year Mr Pria so I know we've had a lot of discussion recently from the community about improving the the Arts supplement versus Athletics or we don't even need to put them against each other we just want to improve what what we have going on for the Arts here so I think one of the things they brought up was making it a percentage of the salary as in the same way that the they're doing it for the coaches so is there a reason you all discussed why you're going to just adjust some it looks like we're having two adjustments to the stiped amount thank you for that should have mentioned this again we we talked about this in general terms

173last month we've had a discussion with the WCA leadership about spending this coming fall evaluating all the art supplements in the athletic supplements and looking to see what kind of structure we we would would be ideal and fits the market and our and U and our teacher needs as well Mr GTH actually alluded to that um when he was suggesting that he might bring a request to make some changes now we talked about that very thing with with Pekka um with the WCA um members who represent all the teachers in that Pekka process uh and those two examples drama there's a recommendation to increase the High School drama now because it became apparent to the team that that that that was justified now they and we didn't need to spend that time studying it likewise

174assistant band director High School uh part of that was driven by the by the marching well by the band director supplement that includes marching plus some additional work that is on that percentage scale along with a high school football coach and the and the scale of the assistance we recognized immediately that it needs a change uh you also see that we included three more uh uh proposed supplements for uh for some academic supplements Library leads uh middle and high Deca and HOSA at high school and FFA at the middle school because we saw some needs um to that point the results of that discussion did not lead to any other recommended immediate changes instead a study one of the things we know is that when we make an adjustment it has the potential to impact

175other positions uh and so making a just a one-time change unless you've thoughtfully considered it could have a negative impact on on the relationship between between pay so that's why it's just these couple right now with a plan to discuss discuss it as a reminder our budget process really starts in Earnest in November uh and so we know that that's our deadline for our discussions with with uh with our pack of leadership team Dr web you're nodding your head but you may have some additional items to add that was a beautiful summary Mr Golden I have nothing to add I I Madam chair I do want to mention one other thing related to this vote on Monday attached to thiso you are the pay scales that are contingent on County Commission funding the commission will

176not vote on our budget until three days after your vote I am going to recommend that you vote to approve the Pekka mou pending budget approval to make sure we cover that possibility Mr Cash yeah Mr Golden have we uh have we heard any uh thing about uh more fundraisers other than PTO uh like talking about tax deductions for corporate and whatnot uh we have a number of entities that do fundraisers uh and we've gotten donations from corporate um you may have noticed that Mr Wimberly raised his hand uh the Education Foundation has from time to time donated uh to us as well and so I would i' like to turn that over to Mr wimbley to speak to that just a little bit thank you sir Dan when I saw your note on the

177evaluation I said you know I am overdue and providing a report to the board um about the Education Foundation now it's it's a separate entity and uh I just happen to be on the board of that um but there are some things to report uh the Education Foundation even though we took a big hit during co uh we have done some real interesting things that that I'll report to the board uh during that time through some generous donations uh like um an act Improvement program that uh we worked on and there's something that we're working on now that will be a significant donation that will come through the Education Foundation but the um I've got a synopsis of what the Education Foundation has done and who's been involved since the beginning of time and it's

178it's pretty interesting and even impressive however as I said we took a hit during covid and um we need some new life given to the foundation um I think we need to uh change uh you know to add some board members and I think we need to this is a perfect time for us to give it some some Gusto and so I'll put together something for the board that will I'll share probably in the next few weeks that doesn't I I don't think you know that foundations such as that can't be a replacement for tax-funded things right by law or certainly by uh the um the the charter that we have however we have been able to add some things and you know one of the been able to do some things that brought some

179new and creative things in and and you know one of them uh you know because you were such a supporter or are such a supporter is the mechatronics program because there was a time when we lost the funding for mechatronics and the foundation raised the money to bridge it into we could get that funding back underway so uh uh and that was some time ago but but it still had an impact so give me an opportunity to pull that together for you well I I appreciate the foundation believe me or anyone else that can donate uh I believe Jay and and Josh have had ideas on different ways to raise raise funds a lot of funds and uh you know with all this said tonight I think we need to really start looking into this

180and and moving on it uh because you know these problems are going to be here every year and again the Arts they haven't been really well a band leader up there I guess Orchestra but uh nothing's changed with that at all and I hate to lose those folks too yeah got a lot of hard workers out there I I know that Miss Hall has some some comps some comparables for for our Arts supplements uh and we'll make sure we send you that an email with some of that detail I will say compared to our neighbors we're in pretty good shape on a lot of those art supplements um we've had that discussion we want to make sure we pay them more uh um so it's a combination of finding a way to support them with

181their work and making sure that we're competitive in the market Mr Brown thanks Rick you mentioned the the board or the foundation I was just curious is there what's in the bylaws of the of the foundation relative to who has to be on that board or who can be on that board or is is it prescriptive or is it open-ended it's fairly open-ended and not difficult to change um there is a designated position on the board that's a non-voting position for someone from this board and the fssd board and I've served D there and it's it's really as a separate entity it's really the foundation board's decision who that person is but uh obviously that position will certainly come open because uh I can't hold it anymore after August um the um one of the

182things I would ask is is that you as individuals think about who would be some good people to get on that board the way the board of the foundation was originally created back it was it really resulted from something in uh the WCS strategic plan saying that we will work to have a foundation by I think it was I don't remember what the year was but 2007 and we beat that expectation by a couple of years but the way it was created was that um we asked the foundation there was a charter group for the foundation and we asked the uh Boards of WCS and fssd to make recommendations to to um to place on that board and some of these people still are on the board so um while it is a separate entity

183uh I would encourage you uh to to think about who some of these people in the community would be who would who could help add um energy to the board and and some of the candidates in fact have talked uh to me about their interest in the foundation and I've given them the same message you know regardless of whether you win or not um we're going to be recruiting and and U the the list of people who have been involved in the foundation either as advisers or board members is pretty dadgum impressive um and um and and we need to do that because I'm I mean Co just really took a lot of our energy out um and we definitely need um we need some new energy so bring it on okay what you had

184your hand raised did you want to say anything else uh I think that what I'm going to say oh I was going to say one of the favorite things that the art that the uh the foundation did it wasn't a lot of money but we gave money uh grants to Arts teachers and basically we said you know we've got this pot of money and tell us what you need and why and fill out this form and we we granted everybody who asked want a lot of money it was hundreds of dollars each but we granted everybody who asked uh that money and and these were clearly things that the school the county the taxpayers weren't paying for but we raised sufficient money uh from donors to be able to do that and that's that as

185I said wasn't a big deal but it was one of my fav that was popular I will say with our Arts teachers that was popular yeah Mr priia oh and we'll take checks too Dan I have one more thing um is Middle School drama do they not get a supplement Middle School drama does get a supplement uh Dr web I know that that was part of the discussion with the uh with the teachers yes so theou supplements that you find listed there are those that are required for an educator um the Middle School drama is not uh on that list but they receive the same supplement as the middle school band Middle School orchestra um they're just not listed on this sheet because uh they are not required to be an educator gota that's serving

186in the building so so to that point just in just in general we have an obligation to talk to the WCA about any position that requires a teacher's license okay all right Mr Golden any final remarks no ma'am look forward to seeing you all Ang quick question just had one go ahead Jay sorry Jason the so it was along the same line of the Middle School um b or mid School drama um some people would ask about the elementary school um I guess the um the chorus those that have the elementary school course is that the same explanation uh no the uh Elementary School course is not listed as one um and I'm if I'm not mistaken oh Vicki you were going to speak to that yeah it's it's my understanding that's included like as

187part of their teacher obligation that there's not that's part of music teacher responsibility um me and I Dr wein the time I was with u i participated and led the Pekka team I don't know that that particular item was discussed me the time you've been leading it has it been discussed okay yeah her answer was no she doesn't recall that either that might be something for us to have a have just a double check conversation as we prepare this fall uh for uh for for that total review so if I may Jason on this um on this memo um it appears that that everything that all the supplements under 5.3 are included under this memo except for the the band director the high School band director uh I think it was just left off as

188a it was on the second page um so you might want to just add that back I know there's no change being made um and then it's also included in the um in the larger document but um you might just go ahead and include all of the 5.3 supplements including that band director go it looks like maybe a typo in the memo right the memo itself is based on the changes yes so only only the sections that had changes that that portion that's a screenshot of that portion of the memo just as the window where changes are reflected um but yes the uh additional band supplements all of those are available to you still in your packet still in theou that's where the band director um is listed as well this is just capturing the

189changes so M Mr galber did you hear that I did yeah that particular screenshot in the memo covered the window where all the changes were and that band director was below that window so it just happened not to be included in the memo um no I understand that but it just it just so happens that to be also the only one it's the only one below so it just makes it makes it a it's just can I mean I think it would be clearer if you just included it and show that there's no change because all the other ones are included I see what you're saying okay okay I think we are adjourned thank you thank you