Coffee County School Board Fall Retreat Part A

001in YouTube land. We we appreciate you tuning in for our uh work session here, our fall retreat actually. So it is September 23rd, 2025. We got a pretty full agenda today. So we're going to be here all day and uh uh we have Miss Matthews is probably going to be running a little late, so her penalty is she has to sit next to me. So that's just the way it is. All right. Uh, Miss Beth, would you lead us in a prayer, please? >> Sure. >> Father, we come before you today and we thank you for this opportunity to bless our county, to bless our teachers and our students. And that's what we want to be. We want to be a blessing. So, give us wisdom and understanding on how we should vote on every

002issue. Help us to see the issues through your eyes. And father, we just dedicate this meeting to you in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. >> You do the best prayer. >> All right. So, we got a pretty full agenda. We're going to start off with uh Mr. West Morland. And I will say that we have I think in the last year we've gone through a lot of the different programs in the uh um in the uh school district. But the one thing we haven't covered is is a sped program and it really takes up well I don't want to say takes up but but really a big part of our budget goes to special education programs. And so we thought it would be good to uh have Mr. West Morland come in and enlighten us

003on the program so it's not such a black box. And so uh Mr. West Morland. >> All right. Well, thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to stand before y'all this morning. And I hope I'm a whole lot more entertaining than Dr. Blessing. So you gota you gota gota remember too that I'm a teacher at heart. So jump in anytime if you have any questions any any any any at any place through this. I'm going to give you a lot of information. We're going to talk about personnel. We're going to talk about numbers as far as students. Um, and we're going to talk about where all the money goes. You're going to see a list of where uh every well give or take every nickel is spent in special education for the past three

004years and this year. Um, so again, jump in at any time and let's see if this works. Okay, first off, I want to just go through these slides real quick with our personnel so you know who who uh each person is. Of course, I'm there. We have Miss Christina Dawson. She's my administrative assistant. She's back in the office. Um does a great job. And then as you look down through there, you can see each title, each person's name, the schools that they pretty much represent. And um if you have any questions about any of those people, let me know. Um notice the number in bold. That number in bold is the number of cases that those people are responsible for. And when I say cases, that means individual specialed files. They're not only responsible for,

005like Miss Greer is not only responsible for FBAs, VIPs, and things along those lines, but she has 47, she has 47 students in our district. She's currently managing as far as FBAs and VIPs and behavior plans. Um, not to mention a multitude of other people that work with her on those. Then you have uh Dr. Autumn Bab. She's our lead coordinating elementary, fourth, and fifth grade teacher. She's holding all the files for fourth and fifth grade uh students at those four individual schools. And right now, she's responsible for 49 individual files. To make that number make sense, that's an IEP meeting. That's one student per meeting, and it takes anywhere from two to four hours to complete a process in an IEP meeting. And that's all the pre-prep, all the the um data research, the

006actual meeting, creating all the documents, finalizing all the documents. So, you know, 50 files are >> don't know, can you explain what an IEP is? >> An IEP is an individualized education plan. Students who qualify with a disability that has an eligibility uh that meet an eligibility criteria have an IEP. And in that IEP, we have to develop, we're required by federal and state law to develop a plan for their educ for their educational purposes. Now, the IEP is solely designed for them to access the curriculum. It's solely designed. So, we don't want to give them extra we don't want to give them a better uh opportunity than a general peer. We want to make the field even. We want them to have the even opportunities. Okay? You'll hear us say least restrictive environment. The

007least restrictive environment is the gened classroom. Okay. And if you hear people say tier one, tier one is GED classroom. Okay. All right. Okay. Speech and language pathologist. These are SLPs that work at our different schools throughout the district. And notice the case loads. Now, Brenda Hodgej, Miss Brenda Hodgej, notice she has 13. This is speech and language files. the 171, she's our dyslexia coordinator. Right now, she has 171 students in our district that have active dyslexia paperwork being processed right now. So, she's covering, she's got multiple hats there. Um, Britney Kill, notice Britney Kill, 93 students. Those are 93 students that she is over their files, plus she's also serving them and providing some therapy to them as well. Um, and you have to put that number, like I said earlier, in perspective because

008that number equates to a lot of time um, developing those plans. Okay. Cali Williams is new and she's at uh, East Coffee. Yes, ma'am. >> How often do you meet? >> Well, >> just the one time I meeting or do they meet during the year? >> We're required to meet annually to update the plan annually, but a team member can call a meeting at any time. A parent can call a meeting, a teacher can call a meeting at any time to discuss um and we call that an addendum. There's there's no limit. You know, of course, we don't want to have meetings for the sake of having meetings, but uh but there's if if a needs to be called, we'll have them. On average, these numbers represent probably at least in a school year two

009meetings at a minimum. Some three to four, sometimes five meetings in a school year. So if you think about that basically you can double those numbers plus sever several of those kids may have multiple three four meetings we have transportation meetings if we change transportation if we anything that has to do with that educational plan we have to meet okay now we have therapist speech and language therapist we have two uh occupational therapist we have uh those and notice I have some that are contract we we have some contract services that come in and do those things. Then we have physical therapy of course and those are students that of course they have the case load number just like all the teachers even though they're contract. Now we're at the central high school. Now these

010are our teachers at the central high school. Uh the number in the first set of parentheses the first group that is their certification. These are special education certified teachers. And notice the case load numbers for those two ladies at the top, 109 and 113. Now, Katie Loe's is a little bit higher because she serves the Raider Academy as well. Mr. Larry London is our BMOD teacher. Okay. Miss Hannah Harmon and uh Rachel Jones, they're our comprehensive teachers. our comprehensive setting which we call it CDC. Some call it highly modified instruction. These are our educational assistants at that's just at central high school. So you get a pretty good p, you know, pretty good perspective of how many special ed faculty and staff are at the high school. So that's just at central high school. Total

011enrollment. Now these numbers are a little off. They change seems like from day to day. Total enrollment at the high school is right at about 1,200 students. Sped enrollment is 159. It's 13%. And there's you a breakdown of sped versus gened at that. That's the central high school. Anybody have any questions about that. Now, we do have CDC. We have two CDC classes at the high school as well. Change. There we go. Raider Academy. >> I have a question. Some of those uh special ed students at the high school, are they still allowed to stay there after their four years? >> They can they can go up to their 22nd birthday. >> Do we have? >> Yep. Yep. I think we have four right now that are carryovers. Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Who pays that?

012>> We do. >> I mean, is it the special ed from from the federal government or >> We still get TISA funding. It's is still part of the funding base. Yes. So we still receive our funding for that, but they they can stay. Students with special needs can stay up to their 22nd birthday if they're in that comprehensive setting. >> Yeah. >> So not not all the 13% will stay, but the majority of the students who are in the comprehensive setting, they get work-based learning. They get, you know, work skills, life skills, and things like that. >> Charlie? >> Yes, sir. >> Didn't you tell me about a year ago that you don't you have about 110 people in your department >> right now? Right. Right now we're at 124 faculty and staff. >> Okay.

013>> Yeah. And and I'll have some more of that as we get on that in here. >> Okay. Did I answer your question, Miss Freda? >> Yes. Well, well, I'll ask something later about the same. >> Yeah. This is the Raider Academy. We have our teachers and we have our educational assistants here at the Raider Academy. Um they have their license, of course, um their license certification there in parenthesis. This is their breakdown. 421 14% special education. Where the rubber is going to meet the road is here in a few minutes. We're going to see a slide that we can I compare us to about 12 other districts and we can see where we're at. >> Charlie, could you tell me what all qualifies them to be considered special? >> There's a whole list of

014dis dis um of disability categories, you know, and I want to say there's like 20 or 30. I don't have them listed, but I can get you that list. You know, we have autism, we have which under OI, we have ADHD, both types. We have LD in reading, LD in math, uh um into um uh intellectually disabled, you know, there's there's a whole list. I can get you that that entire list and a and a description of what each one are. Yeah. Do you have any any questions in specifically? >> The um English language learners, do they come under >> fall under a different category? Now, they can have an English language learner can have uh ELLL services and and an IEP, too. >> It just, you know, they you can have multiple and we'll

015get into that a little bit later here, too. That's a great question. Virtual Academy. There's our special ed faculty at at virtual academy. Oh, I'm sorry. Cost cause coffee county middle. These are just the teachers. And of course there's your your case load numbers in in bold. >> What does the 460 stand for? >> 460 is mild moderate special ed certification you have. And then the 461 is the comprehensive. Yes. >> The 460 mild moderate. That's what my my license is. >> That's certification. >> Yeah. Certification. >> Yeah. >> Oh, you're talking about the certification of the teacher. >> Yes. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. And you can look and see, you know, we've got some comprehensive and mild moderate. These are all special ed endorsements. Sue Hall's a unicorn at 105 endorsement is is is

016an old endorsement, but it's it's still an active endorsement. >> What about on the occupational therapist? Are they they have to be certified? >> Yes, ma'am. They have a professional license. >> How long does it take to get that? >> I I have I don't know, but I'm I'm sure it's through a master's program. >> Really? Yeah. Now you've got two different things. You've got occupational therapist and then you have an occup someone who actually writes reports. That's a master's level. And then someone who actually provides therapy that is a bachelor's level. >> Okay. >> It's two different pay scales as well. >> Yeah. >> And then these are the assistants at the middle school. And then there's our middle school enrollment 21.8%. 8%. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Miss Beth, you you pointed

017that out. I mean, we're you see a trend. Our high school is our our smallest population. Ninth grade Raider Academy. You see an uptick. Our middle school even more. >> Yep. >> And then I'm sure he'll reveal the elementary here. >> Yeah. Yeah. We're going to go through each school. You'll see each school. >> Mr. Uh, West Moy, I don't want to jump in the middle of it, but I'm going to jump in the middle of it. Do you mind describing to our board what a typical day looks like for an educational assistant? >> Yes. >> That is not in a CDC class. >> Typical day for an educational assistant, uh, of course, they they're going to be providing inclusion services for students with special needs. And what inclusion services are is where the students

018in the gened classroom and they go in and provide support based on that IEP. So an educational assistant may go from period to period to period and serve kids in different grade levels, different subject areas, and we focus on reading and math. They may go in there with one kid, they may go in there with six kids. And what they're doing is they're monitoring, they're supporting, they're giving them extra time if they need extra time. um they're doing a readaloud forum, just whatever their IEP dictates. Um I educational assistants will start the day providing services. They'll have their lunch break. They'll come in the day providing services. Okay, that's in a nutshell. But they're they're active with students all day long. >> So it allows our students a least restrictive environment. And there are a

019ton of acronyms in special ed department and he's weled through them pretty pretty quickly. But that's what L re LE is and we try to push for our students to have a least restricted. They're in a gened setting may have support and those educational assistants are the ones uh providing that. >> And I want to say that my push and my philosophy and the special eds model is temporary. The whole purpose of special education is to provide interventions and provide supports so that as time goes on the supports can be whittleled away because we we don't want students to be receiving the extent of everything they can possibly receive for their entire career. I do not agree with a student being in a program for 10 years and not having any progress. So if if

020I've got a student in my class, if I've got a student in my class today, by the end of the school year, I want to see progress. >> I don't like the word lifer. And some of these students, bless their hearts, are considered lifers because they're locked in special education. They're their whole 12, 13, 14 year career in in in public schools. And I I totally reject that. So when I'm talking to teachers and assistants and that's my philosophy, you know, we an IEP doesn't mean an A adequate progress there. Not every student's going to make A's, not every student going to make B's, not every student's going to make C's, but we want to provide them the opportunity to have success in life. And sometimes that means pushing them beyond what we think they

021can handle. So our our whole mission is our whole goal is to provide interventions early so we can pull interventions away later. Does that does that make sense? Does that resonate a little? Okay. >> Basically, you going to give them the tools that they need to be successful. >> There you go. There you go. Because what do we want? >> We want them to be happy and successful. Right. >> Right. Hillsboro Elementary. There's teachers and assistants. Notice Samantha Thompson 35. She's in prek. Now notice this. Notice these number this number. She is a a prek integrated prek teacher and she has nine students but she also has general typical peers in her class as well. Nine is not how many kids she has all day. She has 20 seats and we try to fill 10

022of those seats with gened peers. Okay. Yes ma'am. I have a question about the prek. >> Uh what is the age that we start serving this? >> Three years old. So if you know of a child in the community, we have we serve them. >> Hey, now that's sped. >> Yes. Said prek. >> Yes. Yes. >> Talk about prek sped. >> Yeah. Prek sped we do. Yeah. >> No, I'm not talking about >> and and in and in VPK there's guidelines for three-year-olds to to join VPK as well, but there's a difference. VPK and IPK. BPK is our general voluntary prek, >> right? >> IPK is our integrated prek, which includes sped kids. Now, that doesn't mean that a student with an IEP can't join a VPK class. They can, but the IP the IPK

023classes are for students with the most advanced needs developmentally. >> How do you how do you find those children? >> We do parents don't know that this is available to them. >> We do child find. We put flyers out and we have, you know, the pre even though regardless of what the process is, they have to go through the uh application process. Yeah. Well, yes. And then we have the TEIS. It says on here TEIS somewhere, but um the TEIS is the Tennessee Early Intervention System. So, a lot of our students will come through that process through TDOE and do what? >> Birth to three. Well, TEIS is from birth to three, but once they turn three, they can qualify for services through the school system. And um what I do is I get a

024list of students and typically we're Coffee County. We have three schools in our district. So, a lot of times I get students and I get this list of seven students and I send the addresses over to the transportation department and they say, "Okay, these are zoned for us and these are zoned for, these are zoned for Franklin County." And then I send those kids to those respective schools and then we set up the process for the students who are zoned for us. And it's a process and um any parent in Coffee County can walk into their zone school and ask the questions about preK >> and it's very important that we serve them. >> Absolutely. I will not deny service to any student in Coffee County. That's zone for Coffee County. Now, if it's Taloma,

025if it's Franklin County, if it's um Manchester City, we collaborate, but I make sure that that information gets sent to them as as as quickly as I can. >> Miss Jones, our VPK is funded through state funds. >> Yeah. >> Um and the 619 is what I call the federally funded the sped split between special ed students and uh general ed typical peers that is funded through federal dollars. Yes. >> So, there's two different funding sources >> and I'm going to show that here in just a little bit. Have break all that down just a little bit. But preK is something that we are, you know, prek it's it's interesting. When I came into this position, I had no idea I was going to be doing so much with prek. But probably to today probably

02660% of my time is dedicated to the prek programming, the teachers, the transportation piece, just you know the the TEIS meetings, the transition meetings, the IEP meetings. We have certain guidelines we have to follow for every bit of that. And um there's three grants right now that I've written that we're receiving funding through prek. And it's just it's it's time, you know, it takes a lot of time to do all that. I don't think, you know, that early intervention is going to be important to get them on the right track, you know. >> Absolutely. And we're seeing an uptick in, you know, developmental behaviors and and things to where students are really struggling at younger ages now than they used to. All right. And we were at Hillsboro. Here's our numbers at Hillsboro. And again,

027those numbers may be off one or two kids, just depending. >> Charlie, what was what was numbers 10 years ago? Were we looking at numbers like that? >> I'm going to I I'm going to show you a three-year trend here in just a moment. We're seeing an uptick of about, you know, eight, seven, eight, nine% each year. And I'm going to now you go back. I don't have the numbers all the way back to 10 years, but if I look at that trend, it it kind of tells me that it should have been holding holding. >> Do you think that might be also we get more funding and more kids are being certified, not just here, but >> I think that's definitely a problem because I have discussions with all of the case managers throughout

028the district every year about overidentifying students. >> Like I said earlier, an IEP doesn't equal A's. If a student's making adequate progress and a student is Ames Webb benchmarked and if they fall at a certain percentage and their classroom performance and there's a couple of data variables, if they don't need special education services, why would we provide special education services? And all of our decisions are data driven. If a if the data supports this student receiving an intervention and an IEP, 100%. But if the data is not supporting it, then it it's hard to get me to sign off on. Now, sometimes parents will come in and it it seems like that they think that some some think that the IEP will equal uh success. Oh, they the third grade retention. If I have if

029my student has an IEP, we won't have to worry about them being retained or anything like that. Well, if your students making adequate progress, you don't have anything to worry about anyway, you know. So, those are discussions. And sometimes guys, these IEP meetings that should last 45 minutes last two hours because sometimes I have to go in as the mediator to to to help a team come to consensus. Okay, great question. North Coffee and there's the numbers at North Coffee Hickerson Elementary. Now, Megan Sain, notice the seven. That is another one of those IPK integrated preK classes. She has seven students with IEPs, but she also has 10 students that don't have IEPs that are not represented in that number. There's their percentages at Hickerson Deerfield Elementary, large school. We have two comprehensive teachers there.

030Uh that's the Miss Kennington, Miss Stevens. That's why their numbers are low. Comprehensive is those highest, those greatest need students. Um those numbers fluctuate from year to year. Courtney Stevens number has changed since I did that number. I want to say she's at eight now, but uh those numbers typically hover around that 10. I'm a 1:5 ratio guy. I love the 1:5 ratio. So, Miss Miss Kennington's class has 10 students. She's got an assistant in there with her to support those kids. Now, those kids don't go to that class and sit there all day. They go out, they go to inclusion. They We want them blended in with typical peers. Uh that's the whole mode. That's the whole model. Um, and uh, if there's any students who are attending Deerfield that actually are home, their

031home school is a different campus, our whole goal is to get them back to their home school. But the number one goal for these classes is to get these kids prepared for middle school because it seems like those first five years go by that quick and then here we are at middle school. Okay? And then here's Deerfield's percentages. Now, one of the reasons you see an uptick in percentages is because there are more specialed classes on a campus. That's going to change that percentage a little bit. Okay. East Coffee Elementary, Stacy Valentine is another comprehensive teacher. And then there's their percentages. I don't know if you noticed, but the campuses that had the comprehensive settings had the larger percentage of the sped, which that's going to stand a reason. New Union Elementary, Kirsten Shu is

032our behavior modification teacher. That's why you see the number four out there. I tell K Kirsten Shu every day, if you work hard, you're going to have zero kids because all your kids will have all the interventions they need and they're going to have all the support they need. We're going to solve their problems behaviorally and they're going to be out with the general pu the general population. There's their enrollment. >> Does that include the Isn't there a behavior mod class at New Union? >> That that that was New Union, I'm sorry. >> Okay. Yeah. And they have a behavior mod class. >> Yes, ma'am. That's Miss >> and that comes from all over the county. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. >> So, that's included in that 17%. >> Yes. Yes. >> Um, >> yeah.

033>> Charlie, is that adequate one behavior mod for what we see in our all of our schools? >> Well, here's the thing. There's a process to get there's a process for behavior modification. Guys, you got to remember when you're talking about behavior modification, comprehensive setting, that's called a change of placement. And whenever we make a change of placement for a student, that means we're taking them from the least restrictive environment and putting them in a more restrictive environment. So there are guidelines we have to follow legally to ensure that the data is supporting that change. Back in the day, a student was acting up, decisions could be made in a moment's notice to send them to alternative school or send them to BOD or whatever. But over the years, that's been abused across the country.

034So rules have guidelines have been changed. So now for a student to receive a change of placement, we have to have behavioral plans in place. We have to have interventions in place. We have to have things in place to try to show our due diligence that we've done everything we could do to keep that student from going to a change of placement. So that's why, you know, sometimes we'll get students in our classes that have severe behaviors and you're like, "Oh my goodness." We can have emergency situations to where we have to kind of jump through a few of the steps, but in most situations, a lot of situations, I can't tell you every detail, but a lot of situations, we've made a few interventions here and there, and it's changed. It's supported the behavior,

035and the students are doing better. I tell teachers all the time when they're having behavioral issues said, "This is just your year. We're going to support you. We're going to do everything we can do, but last year it was the third grade teacher. Now this year, it's your turn. You know, you're going to have ups and downs behaviorally with students." But guys, we cannot just send the student out of the room because they're disrupted. We have to ensure that we're following guidelines. It's same with transportation. And I treat them like they're my kids and I want my kids to have all the interventions they can have um before we change their placement because when you change a student's placement sometimes you're you're setting them up for a lot of issues in their lives because Bod's

036a big deal if you get sent to Bod. >> They don't like change do they? >> What's that? >> They don't like change at all. When you say they people in general. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> On on the behavior mod, I know one time it's at Deerfield and I didn't think it was fair that it stayed out there so long. Now it's at New Union. Will you be moving it around or No, >> ma'am. How do you determine who which school has the behavior body class? >> Logistically, we when we were discussing the BMOD moving from Deerfield to New Union, I was really thinking about transportation. New Union is kind of the hub. That's kind of where every bus in our district will cross by. We have a lot of students who have half day

037schedules who are going from school from like 8:00 in the morning till lunchtime. So those routes were being changed and adjusted. And when you have to go to Deerfield, it totally it totally disrupts. It's like a domino effect of routes for the buses. >> North Coffee doesn't have uh you know a specialty special education setting at North Coffee. One of the reasons is not that they're not capable, but that's a long way for a bus to have to run out there at lunch and pick up one kid and transport them to Hickerson or out in that area. Um, I just when I came into this position, I just felt like that every principal, every campus in our in our district uh needs to work with special needs students as much as possible. And >> so

038the behavior mod's been at two schools, it's been at >> Deerfield and New Union. So it won't be going to any other school >> if if if there's if Go ahead. >> And before that it was at North Coffee. >> It was at North. Yes. And then there was a comprehensive class >> At East Coffee at East Coffee at one time. >> And I know that it's it puts a lot of pressure and more onto that principal and school. So yeah, >> but that's just part of >> that's part that's part of it. And um you know it's there's no there there's no real rhyme or reason. It's just we want to put the stu I hate for students to be on buses for two hours, you know. I don't want students to be on

039buses for more than an hour if at all possible, you know. So, >> so you don't have a special ed bus or anything? >> Yes, ma'am. We do. Yes, we do have We have We have four, I think, don't we, Mr. Shores? Right now, >> it's either two or four. >> Yeah, I think it's four. >> But yes, but we have routes. We have midday routes going all over the all over the county. And um >> No, I see one going to my house. >> Yeah. and that may only have one kid on it, you know, it's just that that IEP team decided that this was the best thing for this student. So, that student gets picked up and gets to school at 8 or so and then they may get picked up right after

040lunch. It just depends on what their needs are. >> And philosophically, I mean, you've got our most needy students. We don't want them their bus rides need to be short and because it's a challenge >> for transporting them as well. That's a long time to >> and a lot a lot of them are younger students, kindergarten, first grade, second grade. >> Now, how do when it comes time for standardized testing, are those kids included in that school's profile? >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Now, they're under demographics. You have, you know, you have ELLL, you have special needs, >> it's still set to that school. >> Yes. Yes, it sure is. Um, even if even if they're out of zone, say for instance, a student is zone. >> I'm sure a lot of them are out

041of zone because you come from all over the county. >> Yes. Like if you have a student who is zoned for Hickerson and they're attending New Union Bod, >> they will test at New New >> it goes to that school that they're attending. >> Yes. Yes. Perfect. Yes, ma'am. Um so >> that would be interesting to see what's you know how because where where they're where the demographics are. >> Yeah. Well, when Mr. blessing when we talk about data, we talk about um the things that typically he reviews as far as the students with special needs, the ELLL students and all those numbers are broken down. I'm not sure if that comes out per school or not. >> I think it does come out per school. Yeah. So, you can see that you know how

042it Yeah. >> Um but as far as your question about BOD, >> my plan is for BMOD to stay where it is. If anything happens down the road, it will be adding another VM mod. So, you know, and where that'll go, you know, time will just have to take >> and there's a lot of other things looked at. It's look Oh, yeah. space that you have >> uh within the building, like I said, location, >> access to the bathrooms that are closed. There's a lot of lot of things that >> All right. Now, total students with an IEP by district. I broke down Coffee, Franklin, Beford, Warren, To Grundy, Lincoln, and White County. And if you look, you see their total number and then you see their number of students with IEPs. Bedford County, of

043course, one high school in a big county. If we had one high school in Coffee County, our numbers would look like that as well. That just kind of gives you an insight of kind of what our numbers are looking like. But I think I think the next slide is a little more telling if I can get to it. That's our percentages per county. It's pretty flat really. 17% White County is at 21%. Um Bedford's at 12%. I thought that was a little low considering their number of students. Um the average the ten the average is 13% statewide. The national average is 19%. So what happens is if you get if if you're up over 22 23 24% you have to really start watching the overidentification. Now we're watching the overidentification now. You know I think

04417%'s a little lofty. Um, but you know, our county is growing and that that number is going to change from year to year. But, uh, but that just gives you a breakdown of what each district around us for >> Manchester City. >> Uh, did I not put Manchester City on there? I thought I had Manchester City. >> Yeah, >> on that one either. Well, it could be because the city does not have a high >> Well, that's true. >> There was a reason why I didn't put them on there and and that's probably along the thinking I was >> I thought that was districtwide, not just the high scope. >> Yeah, that is districtwide. That's the entire Coffee County district is 17%. >> And then we got Toma entire district 15%. Ma'am, but we don't

045have Manchester. >> Yeah, I don't have Manchester City on there, but but this includes K12. Every one of these >> districts have K12. Manchester City is only >> K, >> but the percentage can still >> it work out. The percentage of students that are attending. >> I would be surprised if they weren't hovering in the, you know, the 15 16 18%. Based on I mean that's a trend. You know, we're all kind of hovering. I was surprised that White County was at 21%. Um they're not one of the larger districts. >> Got seven buses. Yep. >> I could remember how many I knew more than two. >> Do what? >> Oh, you're saying if we had one high school in our district. Yeah, it's it's kind of different the way data is way percentages and

046things are figured, but you know, if we had one county, if we had Coffee County had all the the schools in our district, Bedford County with the number they have, that's pretty good. >> Oh boy. >> That's I think that's pretty good. I do. Um >> and you look at the demographics of that county, too. Yes. You would be s I'm surprised that it's not more than >> Yeah. And they have a lot of students with EL the ELLL population. Yes. And again, you can have ELLL services and sped services together. >> Kelly, do you have a chart that shows elementary numbers and how progressively they go less as you'll work with them? >> No, I do not. But over time, I can I can generate those things. Um the in the interesting thing about

047this number this you see this number 912 IEPs that is um based on an entire year. Some of those students are no longer here. They came enrolled they were here a month or two and left. That's an unduplicated count. Every one of those numbers are not actual today numbers in the schools. So right now we're around probably 700 725 somewhere in that neighborhood because we have kids come and go just like districts all over the country or state. >> Manchester City they us >> so when you're talking about us showing our district you are incorporating some of >> Yeah. Yep. Once they come to here once they come here we start counting them. Okay. So, now kind of where the rubber meets the road. This is this is the sped report that I've actually turned

048in this year. And that's where some of the dollars go. 2.2 million for teachers. You can kind of see medical insurance, $83,000. This is from the general sped fund and it's that all totals to about 5.1 million. And if and if I move on and you want me to go back, just let me know. >> What part of that is general funded by general schools? >> All of this is general funding through sped. None of this comes through general schools. Can you can you elaborate on that? >> When I sent you that, I combined all of So this I'm not sure if you included federal and general in this total. >> I don't think I have in this, but anyway. Yeah, >> I sent you the report. I sent you total. Well, I sent it

049by fun. So I don't know. I have I have to go back and look and see it. >> Yeah. >> But those are the actual numbers that I've reported to TDOE. >> What I'm thinking is in the future if this pro if we're not getting federal funding, you know, what are we're going to have to pick up? That's >> well, we've already got to think of that in terms of that. >> Last year we picked up two positions that we moved out of federal into general because of of federal funding. And we, you know, because here's the thing, when we do raises, when we and it's all great and I'm 100% excited about it, but it changes all of these um uh benefits, social security, state retirement, not to mention the salary, but all these

050numbers go up. And when all those numbers go up, what happened is in our federal line, April came to me and said, "Charlie, we're we're going to have to move some positions from federal because the money is just not there." So, that's what we end up having to do. uh with our cut this past year of $60,000 from federal, we may end up having to do that again this next year or this this year, this present year. It just depends on how expenditures look throughout the year. Next year, federal could go up. I I don't know. It's just it's like Miss Christa has said, it's just all these es and flows with federal. We just don't know. It could go completely away. If federal goes away, we've got over a million dollars we're going to

051have to absorb in general or we start cutting positions. So, our federal dollars is a little over a million dollars. Um, this is the next line. This is the the next part of this year's expenditures. Um, and I, you know, I just wanted to be as transparent as I could be with all this because I think it's what y'all want to know where the dollars go. And this is all reported to TDOE every year. Miss April and I work together and we put all these reports in. >> What does communication mean? >> That's for students who potentially may need we may need to purchase a communication device or support that a data box or something. We put a little money aside. Now, the thing about this is as the year winds down, if we we

052need to move money around, we can do those kind of things. We can do amendments. We can take some money from here to put here depending on how the the budget rolls out as the year rolls on. Okay. Transportation. This is the money that goes to our transportation department. >> Does this include the um assistance on the buses we just voted for? you talking about the the the we've got a few assistants who are getting overtime now that that that's part of this budget. Um we've not filled the part-time positions yet. We've not filled any of those attendance positions yet. >> Okay. All right. And you you notice it all adds up at the bottom. That's the problem with all these numbers. They all add up at the bottom. All right. So that's some totals

053there. 2026 total GP budget for special education is 6.4 and that includes $81,000 of the state prek money that we received. And that's how each is is initially broken down. >> So roughly around 12% 13% of our total budget. >> Yeah. That is if you're at 55 thou or 55 million 54 million. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good chunk of it. I um the VPK number has not risen much more than a tick in probably a decade. That's the same monies that we received. >> Started in this position that state prek money did didn't even exist. My second year we got 24 20 for for prek. Well, Dr. Cornelius and I had some information on how to code students and and the state wanted us to change the way that things were being coded. Well, then

054we started actually keeping a real solid running record of students in preK receiving special education. This year the funding in at 81,000 and I'm I pray every day that that we'll continue to receive this. And this money goes directly to personnel, directly to prek sped pre when we start moving people around. Okay. Actual expenditures by year. Here's some 425. And you can see we meet maintenance of effort through our student So that kind of gives you an idea of that uptick. Uh Miss Yench, >> yeah, but it kind of if I'm just figuring in my head, you're having a little less money per student, >> you you are. >> Beth, can you take that microphone? Move it a little closer. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. The the main thing the main thing is and this is

055what I really watch is we want to be good stewards. As long as our students with disability enrollment is going up, this number just about has to go up. I just it's just it just stands to reason. If this number drops down in the 700s, then we're going to have a problem with maintenance of effort because then we're going to have to start looking at personnel. We can't continue to spend $6 million if this number here is going down because that's where we come in as a supervisory group to say, "Okay, this intervention teacher's only got one kid per class. So, what can we, you know, that just it doesn't work with that." So, that's that's the numbers we really watch and I work through the finance department with Miss April and we really watch

056that close. Okay. Federal grants IDA part B was a little over 1 million. We had 33,000 a little over 33,000 carryover this past year into this year gave us that total. Federal grants right now federal funding is 33 employees and benefits right now. The idea preschool that is federal preschool money that reoccurs every year. We had a little about 20,000 carryover. Right now that's a total of 55. that's covering one employee in benefits. And then there's a few there's what money's left we use for supplies, materials, and things like that for prek. Um, I wrote a grant, preK systemic change grant this year's 50,000. We were awarded it and we've got that money budgeted right now. Uh, that systemic change prek grant is paying for a brand new assistant, prek assistant at Hillsboro Elementary. That

057job's posted now. Now, the interesting thing about this grant is I was told this is a three-year grant, but this grant may be going away after this year because of federal the federal government. So, for me to get this approved to pay for an assistant, I had to turn in a plan for um uh sustainability. So, I plan on sustaining this position through um the state prek money. You remember the 81,000 I showed you before? I plan on sustaining that position with that state prek money when this money goes away. So, that's my sustainability plan. PreK access for all grant. It was a three-year grant. We're in the third year. Uh this year it's $10,000. So, those are the three, you know, that's just the extra funding. Every time I get something sent to me

058from TDOE for grant opportunities, I jump on them and try to try to get them for us. >> And there's is there a chance to get that again or is that >> Yes, there there's always a like a lull like after you go through a three-year grant cycle, sometimes you have to wait a year, then you can reapply the next year. So, I'm constantly as they come in and here's what TDOE does that I like. When we're eligible for it, they send me an email. Hey, Charlie, you're eligible for this. You might want to look at this. And then I jump into it and see. Now I've talked to Christa. Sometimes you got to be careful though. You have to look at what the requirements for the grant are. >> If I have to do

059a million dollars worth of work for $20,000 or you know what? It's just not worth it. If I've got to be out of district three days a week, if I've got to be in Atlanta for meetings and I've got to do all this, I got to jump through all these hoops. We have to really evaluate is it really worth it? There are some grants and they'll say, "Well, you need to have a team of teachers and they need to be able to be able to go once a month to a training in Nashville." Well, depending on what the amount of the grant is, it's just not worth it because we, you know, it's just it's it's a lot of paperwork. And I just do not want I just don't like the idea of doing a

060half a million dollars worth of work for $20,000. You know, this year we have the three-year UT retention and recruitment grant. You guys approved this at the last board meeting. It's uh we received $25,000 for project raise for recruitment and retention of school psychologists. It also covers social workers and counselors, but the caveat here is for you to receive that money, you have to have an open position and you you have to have a posted open position. So right now the only open position we have is school psychologist. So any questions about that? I will say I really appreciate, you know, all the work you guys do for identifying the grant, you know, you and Miss Gardner and, you know, and everybody that's working for these grants. You know, I mean, that's a lot of

061work to keep track of these things and apply and, you know, get that money coming in. So, I really appreciate >> Oh, you're welcome. >> work you do on that. >> You know, the easy part is for me to sit down and put together the the narrative. You know, everybody around me that I have to collaborate with to make sure it all works. That's that's where the rubber meets the road. You know, I can sit down and I can I can write a narrative all day long. But when it's all the other pieces you have to pull together to get these things approved and let me tell you, I have never sent in a grant that was approved first first reading. They always send it back. I have to do edits. I have to do

062this. I have to do that. And that's when I start collaborating with all the other people to help me. Yeah. Right now, this also counts contracted services. Mr. Cordell, we have 124 total employees and benefits. Um, there's our GP, IDA, part B, IDA, preschool, state preK, systemic change, preK. That is just personnel. That's the reason those numbers look a little lower. Those other numbers you saw had supplies, materials, had a lot of other little things in it. This is just personnel. So, we're almost at 6 million in just personnel, just people. give you kind of an idea of where we so you're looking at give or take a million dollar or $6 million in people. You're almost a million dollars in all the other stuff that goes along with it. So that's where your your

063six to7 million budget's going to come from. And of course IDA is federal. an idea of sped funding. There's our GP funding, our IDEIDA funding, preschool, state preK, systemic change, preK. Uh so you can see your GP sped funding is is the bulk of your budget. Okay. This is where this funding comes from. And I know you guys have heard Tissa until you're blue in the face, but but I tried to really water it down. Um, it's the, you know, the, um, the way we receive funding in the state of Tennessee is all based on TISA and it's all based on how these students are coded. And I'm going to show you that here in just a sec. Your base fun, you have base funding. Every public school student has base funding. You have weighted

064funding. The weighted funding is is is for that individual need. You have direct funding. It's for uh key priorities such as CTE and then you have outcomes funding. You guys have heard of the TISA outcome money that we have. That's what that is. This is how it's calculated. Your base $7,200 depending on your districts. You each student gets a certain percentage above that base depending on what how your school is classified. Now you see these uln unique learning codes 1 through 10. This student unique learning one gets the base plus 15% if they fall into that category. If a student down here at 10 and guys this is homebound students. If we have a student who's on homebound they get unit 10. It's 150% over the base. So that student's bringing in almost $11,000. So

065we have you talked earlier about 20ome different classifications. >> So how do you and I imagine this is something that you and April have to do to reconcile to get fit into these ULNs. >> What happens is is a student's code is based on the services they're receiving. So when an IEP team meeting when an IEP meeting takes place, it depends on the special ed unique service the students receiving. If the student's receiving services in a gened setting, it doesn't affect this. But if a student's receiving services in a special ed setting, then their codes change. Typically, your resource kids, your kids who have maybe two intervention classes a day are your option threes and fours. Your comprehensive kids, they're going to fall some of those kids if they're receiving speech, OT, PT, and are

066spending the majority of the their day in a comprehensive setting, they're going to be eight nines, 78s, nines. It all depends on what that IEP meeting and where that service is being provided. >> Charlie, what what exactly do we provide to homebound students? >> We provide any instruction that they require based on the IEP team decision. we got to it's required we spend a minimum of three hours per week serving that student in the home. Now, we don't just always just go in the home like sometimes we'll have the student come to the the school in the afternoon after after business hours if you will. Um it could be academics, it could be behavioral, it could be developmental, it just depends on what the team team agrees on. Um we have some medically fragile students

067who have had surgeries and have to be at home. We provide those. Okay. So, that could be a temporary thing. >> It's temporary. Homebound is temporary. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. >> But if they're receiving homebound services, they're going to be classified as an option 10. So, we do get increased funding. We're not going out and trying to get that. We want the students here, but that's just how the funding is. >> Okay. Do you get it for the entire year? >> No, ma'am. Just while they're >> while they're in the homebound program. >> Because every time a homebound student gets a review every 30 days. So at the end of that 30 days, if the team decides they're coming back to school, the option changes. >> It's it's a process we go through. The codes

068change, it updates. Any IEP that's finalized, it updates at midnight that night. So if I finalize, >> coordinate with Dr. Cornelius. >> Very much so. >> Yeah. He's the one that turns in all this data. >> Yes. Well, Dr. Cornelius and I every 20 school days do an ADM report average daily average daily membership and that's where all this we make sure that his his numbers and my numbers are are where they need to be >> and those TISA updates are provided monthly for 10 months. >> Yep. >> And then this is all based off like so right now we're working towards next year's TISA funding. So this these are b what we get this year is based on last year's numbers. >> Yeah. So, how does our TISA allocation reconcile against actual cost providing

069these services? Is Tissa adequate to or do we have to basically >> take whatever the Department of Education is willing to give us? Um, we're we're above water right now and as long as our funding our funding and we can meet maintenance of effort, we can stay above water. >> Okay? >> We're not getting rich by any means though. So, our TISA allocation does cover our actual costs for providing especially on the >> I'm gonna I'm gonna say so far. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And you know, Tissa is one of those things we don't really know how it's going to go through. You know, they may change this they may change these percentages and when they start adjusting these percentages, then we have to really pay close attention to that maintenance of effort. Yeah. We

070have guys and it's just the the elephant in the room is personnel. you know, when you're spending 95% of your budget on personnel and our goal is not to remove personnel. Our goal is to serve students. You know, >> Miss Freddy, you asked a question a while ago. Um, Manchester City has roughly 17%. >> So, it mirrors our number. >> Yeah. >> In those three schools. >> And April, jump in anytime if you need to clarify anything else because you're you're you're the expert. I'm just I follow your I follow her lead when it comes to financial pieces. You know, I can do the reports. I can put the numbers in, but you know, it's it's a process and we all work together to do it. >> And you think about our system and all

071the complexity, his is like a whole different world within the world. I mean, there are a ton of moving parts. >> Um, and I'm proud of the job Mr. West Morland does. You know, the one thing I appreciate philosophically about him that I'm behind wholeheartedly is there's a continuum. We're gonna start >> and we're gonna there we're we're moving children down the line. It's not a condemnation. Uh it's we're working with kids, helping them grow academically, socially, and emotionally >> and uh he's a pretty good juggler. He gets after it. I appreciate his hard work. >> My whole goal is to serve the families and students of this county. That's all I'm here for. And and that's what I think we all should be in that same mindset. average daily average daily membership. You know,

072I mentioned this a while ago. This is how this is this is counted. Um Dr. Cory Nelis runs this every 20 instructional days. I run this same schedule. I print off a report from TN pulse which is our um platform for special needs students. He takes that report, I deliver it to him, and then he pulls his report and then he compares if there's a problem, if it's off, if it's skewed, we get together and we figure it out. Sometimes it's skewed just simply because an IEP meeting took place and the student wasn't coded right. Maybe their IEP wasn't finalized at the proper time or whatever. And then that's where I step in as far as compliance is concerned. Okay. And I don't know, but if you see the trend, it's collaborative. We're all just

073in it. We're constantly communicating back and forth. Then there's that unique learning need. And this talks about the levels. Um, depending on their needs, they may generate up to four codes. Special education, special education, secondary, English learner, and or characteristics of dyslexia. We could have students with multiple levels of multiple codes. In other words, typically though, if a student has characteristics of dyslexia, if that student carries a 504 or an IEP, typically that will take care of the dyslexia. Um, you can have both though. You can have an IEP and dyslexia. Um, which we call that an ILPD is what that's called. You can receive services for both, but typically the IEP would would cover would cover that. Okay, then there's the calculation base funding and and the the asterisk of course, Dr. Blessing, correct

074me if I'm wrong, that means multiplication equals the unique learning. So, I want to throw that math reference in there for Dr. Bless. >> Math is hard. >> So, that's how each student's funding is calculated. Okay, so that's that in a nutshell. I've got a few other little things I want to cover because that's just a small piece of everything that goes on in the district with special education. >> He could spend three days, I promise. And eat up here, >> that was a lot. Yeah, >> I wanted you to see personnel. I wanted you to see kind of the funding, kind of where the money is and where it goes. Um, all that's public information, transparent. You know, of course, with special education, we got a lot of things we have to keep confidential,

075but but that's all public record. >> I can see where if 95% of it goes to teachers and personnel and we do a raise, I can see where that blows your budget really. >> Oh, it it's just it >> not that we don't get me wrong, I love it. I love RA. I mean, I think that people desire I think we need to invest our money in personnel and people. >> Um, but it's a domino effect. Every change here, every change there affects two or three different categories. >> Yeah. >> And we make it work. We figure out a way to make it work. >> And there are these huge puzzles within each school because you have a certain number of age, you have a certain number of children you're trying to serve. Those are

076split within grade level. That's a puzzle within itself that he does a good job of orchestrating with our school staffs to figure out. >> You're welcome. >> How to best serve our children. >> I'm glad you got your bucket up. >> Okay, guys. This this I'm passing out is is our grade card >> and it's >> for special education. It's called an APR uh annual prevent percentage >> rating and this is always a little behind. It's a little behind. I think I got one for you and I got one for >> look at I didn't I guys I didn't want to use all that color ink. Somebody's got to pay for it. Okay. So, every year we're graded And at the top, I want you to notice at the top in the blue, it says

077total weighted score, total max score, your score, and then the determination needs assistance. Each one of those indicators, the case managers in this district are held accountable for compliance. So each one of those indicators um that we did not meet the target on I'm having extensive trainings for those people and I do it every year. We get these every year. Some of the indicators are are really hard to meet. It's just the way the dynamic of the way the data is collected and and the way we do things. But ultimately, you know, you can see and this is only with students with disabilities. Now you see graduation rate, dropout rate, you see all those things. But if you see over there to the far right where it says complete state assigned trainings, myself and whoever

078I designate goes to these uh state conferences and we have to actually set in required sessions to get trainings on this. Then we bring that information back and I roll that out to the actual teachers that are responsible for that. It is every Monday we send out compliance emails. We're checking compliance on every special ed student in this district and anyone who has an IP that's not in compliance, they receive an email and essentially are told, "Get it get it done." And sometimes they've already started the process. Sometimes students transfer in here from other districts that are out of compliance already. So, we're having to kind of clean that up as well. So that that is one of those report cards and I spend a lot of time developing trainings around and I have to

079report every bit of this to TDOE each individual session. I have to turn in signin sheets um everything. >> So tell us what what kind of things would take them out of compliance. >> Um IEPs not get like the annual IEP if it runs over. Uh, for instance, we're supposed to do a prior written notice after each meeting and we have to have that done within 10 days of that meeting if it happens after that meeting. And there's a whole lot of APR data that's pulled from TN pulse that reflects in this. Okay. >> It's it's the state department's way of holding each district accountable for serving students with special needs. And if we ever if if a student if a district ever gets in hot water over overidentification that's where this is initially going

080to come from. You'll start seeing it here. Now the needs assistance that is like if you're a okay teachers can be scored from a level one to a level five. The needs assistance are about a level three. Needs assistance just simply means that we have areas areas of improvement. U last year we were needs assistant. the year before last, we were met expectations. Um, but if you notice some of those indicators, I mean, we're just we're really close. We're really close. Um, but, uh, I just wanted you guys to kind of see some of the method behind the madness when it comes to how we have how we have to hold each other accountable to make sure everybody is following through with with every piece of information that they're they're handling. That's why it's so

081important to understand these case managers who hold these files. They're not only teaching classes and serving kids, but they're having to to make sure these are correct as well. And it's it's a lot when you have, you know, 50, 60, 70, 80 files. Um, that's a lot of work on a teacher. Um, and I will say there are several special ed teachers in the district that don't even eat lunch. >> That's what I was fixing to say. A lot of those are your uh assistants that does a lot of that paperwork that I've you know I've talked to in a lot of the sped you know these ladies that you're talking about that's a lot of the work that they do is >> yes >> paperwork >> educational assistants go into classrooms >> very important

082>> and yes that 100% it can't happen without them >> that's >> and they go into the classroom and they collect data on the students that they see >> that data goes to that case manager and then that case manager takes that data to help support the development of that IEP. >> Y >> it and if it's not there can't be a weak link in that chain >> and and I've told educational assistants that you're not going to be collecting data just to be collecting data. It's not going to just go into a folder and throw it in a desk somewhere. If your data is not being reviewed that you're collecting at a meeting, I need to know, >> right? >> Because I'm going to ask why. Because if it's important enough for them to

083collect it, it's important enough for us to review it. >> Yeah. I want to commend you on this presentation. This is the most comprehensive >> and I feel like I've left so much stuff out. >> I appreciate that. >> We could spend all day on it. Yeah. >> On this indicator child find I guess. What does that mean? Uh that is in non-compliance. Is that >> let's see that is on which which indic Oh indicator 11. >> Uhhuh. >> Yeah. a child find >> be hard to >> that is I'm trying to remember that's see that's 100%. So what that is is when a TEIS student which is a Tennessee early intervention prek student comes to us >> we have to go through a process and we have to have everything completed and they have

084to have the IEP written by their third birthday. >> If we miss that by a day >> it dings here. So, it's not saying that you didn't find the child that needed help. It's just the >> right >> the child is there. It's just one little thing. >> We missed it by one day and here's some things that caused that. Couldn't get the parent, >> right? >> Maybe it was they turned three on a a Friday. We had fall break and then there was that big break and then we came back and we finished everything after fall break or whatever. Now, that's not an excuse because I've already sent out information to everybody at the beginning of this year that we're going to go ahead in those situations. We're going to go ahead and complete

085the IEP. We're going to have the IEP in place. Even if it's before Christmas break or fall break, we can have that done prior to their third birthday. We just have to have services provided on their third birthday. So, they say, "Well, what if a student's third birthday is on a Saturday? The IEP is finalized on a Friday. services begin on Monday. You see what I'm saying? So, it was just it was a learning it was a learning moment for me and it was a training moment for them. And you know, so that was something I had to learn when I first came into this is is how to saw that because it didn't make sense to me to do an IEP on a Friday when they weren't going to start until a Monday. So,

086we've we fixed that. We So, I hope we see better on that. >> I I just hope the general public can see what public schools do. starts at birth with these children. Y >> and I don't know what America would do if we did not have this. I mean, just think of all these children >> that would get thrown to the wayside. >> Y >> and u u just amazing what what the schools do that nobody really understands. >> Yesterday I had a district reach out to me. They have a student who's moving here from another district and they were concerned about cuz they're turning three like next week and they're worried, you know, schools are worried about these indicators. And I was like, she said, "Charlie, you're probably going to get dinged on it

087because of, you know, the I said, "Send them. Let them show up. Get them registered. We're going to serve them." You know, guys, I'm concerned about these numbers, but my priority is serving kids and doing what's best for kids. If I miss this indicator by a percent or two every so often, we're going to work really hard not to do that, but sometimes it's just going to happen. >> But this is good because Oh, absolutely. It's like a a plan. you you know what you need to work on >> and I know exactly who to talk to and who to train and who to give advice to and you know it's it's really good. I can go to these trainings and I can learn something myself, learn a new procedure. Maybe this district is doing

088something a little better than I'm doing. I can hear that and I come back and we put things in mot every district is going to have a certain area that they need to >> Yeah. Coffee County is not the only district that has to go to trainings. >> Right. Right. And uh uh but but I wanted you guys just to see this other piece to this >> um because that can be stressful. >> I have a question on indicator 13, the the secondary. Yep. >> You know, we're at 0%, the goal's 100%. What's the secondary transition? >> Those are kids who are 16 years or older and it's postsecary like job. Uh what are they going to do when they get out of high school? Those kind of things. Those IEPs are pulled. They they

089pull four IEPs. If they look at one and it's it's not, it's only 20. Each one's 25%. So out of the four, if one of them's not, you're already at 75%. If there's something wrong with the second one, you're at 50%. Some And we had 10 pulled. I've got a teacher working on them right now, and 10 were pulled for compliance. The things that they missed were using the word will in a goal. Instead of Johnny may participate in military service, state requires you to have Johnny will participate in the military service. >> Some some is as simple as that. >> So it's even follow up past high school with these kids. >> Yeah, that's what indicator 13 and 14 are for. Indicator 14 on there. Uh did indicator 14 show? No. No. >> Yeah.

090first page it post post post school outcomes >> right >> those those are students we have to do a survey every year we have to contact every graduating senior that had an IEP and ask them what they're doing and we have to report that to the state department and we have to follow their guideline and if we miss it we have to show contacts we have to show it's a whole document we have to fill out to send in to them and if we miss it by one little piece that's 100 you know that's 100 is that a 100% one no we got to be at greater than or equal to 28% and we were at 26% but look there enrolled in higher education 26.19% of our graduating seniors were enrolled in either CCAT or

091CEC or college guys a lot of that we don't have control over >> that's one of those indicators is hard you know >> and you spend a lot of time chasing >> yeah yeah we have a lady at the high school she's one of our educational assistants and we've set time out in her day when this comes through for her to contact and call and try to connect with all these because you have to call. There was 40 I think there were 46 this year had to be contacted and we had to show three forms of contact on every one of them. >> Do we ever have anybody Charlie to contact us wanting somebody like this for a job? >> Do say again. Do we ever have anybody contact us that's that for you know

092when they get seniors or that you know for a job like this or is it pretty much they on their own or >> Well, we we try to provide them opportunities you know they go through the workbased learning and they go through the supported employment and we try to there's some agencies that we work with we try to put them in contact with but once they graduate our our only thing we're doing is followup to see but we try to lay out all the options. I didn't know if we ever had anybody to contact this warning somebody for like for these type. >> No one no one has contacted me directly and said hey I've got this job is you have anybody you know but now I can't speak for the high school now Miss

093Naomi Miss Katie they may be getting calls periodically but I'm not hearing it >> but listen we're wide open if anybody's listening to us now that feels like they have something that students can participate >> absolutely >> wide open. Yeah. >> Yeah. Door's wide open. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Morland and Mr. West Morland, thank you very much for your presentation. Any other questions? Um, you know, for demystifying, you know, and hopefully the people out there watching on the YouTube video are going to get a great understanding of what goes on here, too. And and you know, so, >> well, you know, my uh my door is open. All you got to do is, you know, of course, >> if if there's something confidential I can't speak to, I always say, "Well, that's I can't speak

094to that." But, um, but other than that, >> you know, my door's open. I'm transparent. You know, you have any questions, just let me know. >> And yeah, we know where you are. >> That's right. >> Charlie, thank you for your vision. >> All these meetings, just keep talking. >> Again, I mean, if you guys need tassel credit or something, keep going. And Charlie, thank you for your vision and your heart and your passion and your service. Thank you. Wow. >> All right. Thank you very much. That was a great presentation. >> Learned a lot. So, well, while Dr. Blessing sets up for his presentation, if anybody needs any drinks or anything, you know, uh, feel free. I think I'm going to step out for a real quick apple cider in here. There's Thank you,

095Jen. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> We got So, Mr. Harrove, I I know you've been bursting at the seams to see this data presented. So, >> give a quick intro. >> It's all right. >> First of all, Dr. blessing is going to give us his best but he's uh feeling a little bit under the weather and he what he's going to do is uh share our TV to growth data which this is all public now it's not embargoed anymore and uh kind of coordinate and connect it with our TCAP or end of course performance data so this pertains to the 2425 school year >> right well thank you for taking time to be here this morning. I know that you've been through similar data presentations, but as we go through and you

096have questions, feel free to ask. Be glad to try to answer them. Uh, a reminder when we look at our growth data, which is first, everything's going to be expressed on a scale of 1 to five and that was determined with by this growth model. who knows back from 1992. So uh one is sh means that there is significant evidence that the growth was not what was expected. Five is the other end which means there's significant evidence that the growth was more than what was expected. And then in between you have the two, the three and the four. Now, you'll see systemwide for this uh spring 2025 that we were a composite of five. And that's great that we have that. But we have these other categories. We have literacy which is a three, a

097numeracy of four, literacy and numeracy of four, science is a five, and social studies is a five. And that's all the testing that was given. When you start going down these other rows, when it just says TCAP, that would be grades uh the depending on the category from 3 through 8. Now, when you get over here to science, it's more like grades 5 through 8 and social studies is 6 through 8. When you see the letters EOC, that's end of course. And that's just your secondary subjects. And it's not all secondary students. It's just certain subjects. For instance, in math, there are three. There's algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2. For English, there's English one and English two. For science, there's biology. And there's the social studies is US history. And then if you combine

098those, the testing is here. These two are blank. The state hasn't released those yet. CTE students as a subcategory. The career and technical education, they'll be populated as soon as the state releases it to everybody. So again, you'll see that we have a a mix of numbers ranging from 3 to five this year. And again, it changes from one year to the next, so it's never always consistent. But some years we've had ones, some years we've had fives. So this year, I think, is or this last year was a fairly good year by school. And again, the state they released things in waves. First, they released the district, but this was still embargoed. Then they released this. Well, this again the embargo has been lifted. Um, I do not know any pattern. I think it's

099just when they've got it prepared and they have presented it to the state board of education, that's when the embargo is lifted. So, you can see these. I want to point out a few uh to you. Uh we didn't have any that were just all fives, but we did have a couple that were almost all fives. Hillsboro, we see here they had a foreign literacy and the Raider Academy, again, very similar, a foreign literacy, but I really want to point out two schools to you. One of them is middle school. They went from a one to a four. They've been a one for a couple years. They have really made some efforts and I think we're seeing some fruit of that. We see a four, a three, three numerous see three here, five in science

100and five in social studies. So they've really made some some difference. I think the other is virtual academy. They've been ones and this year they scored three. So I think those were both commendable for those schools and for the administration and the teachers and especially the students. The students are the ones taking the test. So >> it's interesting to see that Hillsboro and Deerfield have a five in numeracy. >> So >> yes, >> you need to see what they're doing. >> Well, you have to remember too that this is one aspect of data. You really have to see both the growth and the performance to get a whole picture because you can have high growth and low performance. >> Okay. And this is the performance. >> No, this is growth. That's right. >> Yeah. So

101again, >> and that is a good start. You say, okay, look at their growth. How can we see how does that pair up with their performance? Yeah. So, so good growth should translate down the road to better performance. >> It should. And that's the whole idea of the model is that if students wherever they are, if they are making expected growth, well, they're going to stay where they are. If they're making less than expected growth, then they're that's not a good situation. But if they are doing higher that and it's always based on their testing history. So if they are achieving significantly more growth then they it should follow that their performance would be coming up but again does it come up in one year maybe not may take a span of time but that's

102a good point. But also too, if you had a class that was 90, most of them average 98 percentile. Their growth is not it's going to be flat. >> Not necessarily. >> Can they go to 100? >> You can't go to 100% on a growth. How could they? Unless they stayed if they're 98% already. >> Well, >> how could they show growth? >> Okay, you're mixing two different things. >> No, I'm I'm talking about just growth. >> I know, but percentile is different from growth. percentile is a comparison to the rest of the group. If you say you're in the 98th percentile, 98% of the students scored below you. >> Okay. How do you determine growth then? >> Growth is based on how the group compares to with a mean score to >> the group

103that you have to your your overall group of the same peers. >> Yeah. >> Same. Well, not necessarily. Percentile is more to toward performance. Percentile lends itself more to performance. >> I'm saying if you have a high mean score, then you're not going to grow. It's not going to show a lot of growth. >> There's only one situation in which you cannot show growth. And that's two years >> of perfect scores on every content test. And that's >> I mean, you're not going to show a lot of growth. Yeah, it's possible. Yeah, it's possible. But again, >> it's not impossible to grow even for high achievers. High achievers can also exhibit growth. Low achievers can exhibit growth, but again, it varies from group to group. You can have a group that scores really well in

104growth not scoring as high performance-wise. There's like four different combinations. I could spell them out for you, but you probably say, "Please don't." So, okay. But other questions as we go through, certainly feel free to ask. >> The the high school >> Mhm. >> was it a three last year? And so, it's >> Well, it it varies. We've had the high school as high as fives. So it it's really based here on you can't really even say cohort cuz when you're looking at elementary schools every elementary student in grade three, grade four, grade five, they take the same tests. >> But when you go to the EOC category, not every student takes algebra one at the same in the same year. So when you're looking at this group, that's you can't really compare it to

105the previous group in terms of tracking them and saying, "Oh, well, they were a four last year." Could be that potential. The group from previous again had um more potential for growth, if that's an acceptable phrase. But this group coming in for whatever reason just did not exhibit the growth. Now again that's like when we look at performance data uh for the high school the English one literacy is only based on one test and that's sophomore English. So for that sophomore English group in pardon me for this uh category I do not I'd have we can dig back and see how were they doing in English one how are they doing in that and it could be again that for whatever again we have to dig and see why we could do that that's called

106root cause analysis say why did they not grow as much. And then we could start looking at hopefully that doesn't put hormone levels in there, but sometimes things go a little wild and wacky and there could be other issues interfering that we have no control over. Well, you could also look at, well, did we have some change of materials? Do we have change of staff? Did we have change of I mean, there's so many factors that we can control. That's what we'd want to look at to try to figure out perhaps you see and that's a the thing about data. I think Mr. West Morland mentioned when they gather data from the educational assistant if they just take that data put it in a pretty red folder and file it away and don't do anything

107with it wasn't really much purpose in gathering it. If you look at this and again, you'd want to look at your performance as well as your growth and say, "Oh, wow. That's good." And then do nothing with it doesn't really help. But the purpose of data is really to just inform. I mean, you can have good data, bad data, ugly data, but it's telling you something. and you have to try to figure out what it's saying and then make some decisions based on it. >> Dr. Blessing, can I hold you up right there? Give you a >> Do I have to raise my hand? >> Yes. Um, principal meeting, we take the our data provided to us. Dr. Blessing, do you mind sharing with the board our activity we had at our PR principal meeting

108uh analyzing our data? Yeah. Um, our data comes from uh different sources. For instance, performance data comes from Pearson. It's a company that has the state contract and they provide to us reports. And one of the kind of reports that we get is called a standards analysis report. And all the tests that are given are based upon these standards. And the state is really very generous. They don't keep us in the dark when it comes to test time. They used to years ago. You had no idea what was coming on the test. But then uh again, I'd have to go back to see when the Truth and Advertising Act came out when they they were saying that Tennessee was an F that they said we're going to have to change some things. and they started

109providing the standards that we're going to have. And they provided blueprints to say when this test is built, this category of standards will be 10 to 15% of the test. This next category is going to be 5 to 8% of the test. And they would they wouldn't give us test questions, but they would tell us the standards. But then they also provide practice test materials. they provide and we now have it online which is convenient. So when we get the standards analysis report everything is keyed to the standards that were on that particular version of the test and it would tell us how many questions there were that how many points were possible to be earned. what percentage of points that we earn and depending on the level it would be by teacher, it would

110be by school, it would be by district and it will always tell us how the state compared. Well, we could go through then and start digging and see, okay, this standard we were ahead of the state. This standard we were right with the state. This stand, oh no, we weren't with the state. And we identified those and we use I mean we all love to to take highlighters and highlight things. So they would do one side in green if we were above they would make it in yellow if we were below. and it would help give an idea of okay this group from last year these are the areas they need to improve for this next year or if they are they're not going to be the same standards from one grade to the other

111but they may be prerequisite standards. So if you can identify areas that need to improve, then you're you're leg. Or if you know that something's strong, we might say, "Oh, wow. How did we really do well on that standard?" And we can dig and say, "Oh, well, this teacher was doing this or they were doing that." So, so we do really do get some good resources from the state. So, it allows us to that drives our instruction on how we alter or may adjust how we do things, how we provide PD. If we've got a teacher that's achieving well in these three standards, we may have them serve as a coach or provide professional development for other folks in other buildings that may struggle with those standards. >> It just it kind of gives us

112a direction. And um what was interesting we have a a partnership with a company called Net with our uh English language arts ele younger elementary been working and we did our activity in the principal meeting and they and they were uh pleased that because they were also trying to tie in standards with what they were doing with us. So I'm thinking hey so we're just not out there on some limb. Yeah, >> that's good to know. >> Mhm. Uh by grade level, you'll notice that here's from third to 8th grade science. There's nothing here. Even though they tested in science, they say there's not enough uh length in the test or not enough elasticity to determine a growth. So that's why it's starting here in grade five. And they don't test social studies at all

113in grades three, four, and five. That's been They say paused. I say frozen solid cuz I don't see it ever thawing cuz that that's more money, you know. Wow. So, you can see here if you look at ELA, you can see some patterns and you say, "Okay, they're not Wow, how do we have that third grade of one or how do we have this sixth grade of one?" Or you can go things and say, "Okay, how did we get a five here in grade four or any of these?" And you could go through and compare and you can see. So even though you say like, "Well, social studies for the district was a a five." Say, "But if I have a three and a five and a four, don't I add them all together and

114divide by three?" No, that's statistically not valid. That's not how you do those things. And I don't really know if it's a good idea to start talking about how they do it, but I'll be glad to try. >> I know it's been quite a while, but are we still seeing any lingering effects from the COVID shutdowns? I know I know it really affected math and there was a long tale on that, but ELA seemed to bounce back. So, >> yeah. Um yeah, I think you will you will probably see effects that can be attributed to CO cuz right now people are getting still getting CO right >> it's just not as as severe perhaps or nationwide and at the same time >> well we saw material effects in our test scores you did >> which

115was you know the whole shutdown thing was a big mistake but you know we recognize that now but but we saw effects but I thought that ELA bounced back much, but math had a very lingering effect in those shutdowns. And it's kind of an interesting study, I guess, seeing how that really impacted long-term scores and growth, you know. >> Yeah. And again, I think it would be challenging to isolate just to the co effect, but yeah, there certainly was an impact. I don't think there's anyone who would deny that >> the third grade retention law probably has a little bit to do with why English language arts >> the focus has bounced back a little >> right >> better than the than the math >> but never fear the state's going to try to >>

116fail people because of math as well equal opportunity employer sort of well actually that's just somewhat they seriously they were talking about that adding math into the mix. I hope they don't not yet at least for um the EOCC's. These are the subjects I mentioned. You can see and again this is part of thing Miss Freda was talking about algebra one's a five but if you look at the performance data it's definitely not the highest. So but again we see a three here with algebra 2 three with geometry four with English one three with English two biology a three this is the act they even provide growth for us with this a composite again we see mostly threes across the board a four here in reading >> the blessing yes threes would be we expect

117this >> it would be expected growth >> and you have to remember to me we don't I do not do this here simply because I don't want to cause more headaches than I already do and that is there's a history behind all these numbers when I see these threes all threes are not created equal the scale that maps onto an overall of three goes from a negative one two up to a positive one. So if someone has an in it's called an index. If someone has an index of negative 1.2 that's a three. But if they have a 0.99 that's also a three. So you have to dig a little bit deeper to get what I call the strength of the three or some um Freda also mentioned about percentiles. They've now introduced a new

118measure to talk about the strength of these numbers in percentiles and they say what percentile is this group in. And it could be which again I don't have here in this presentation. It could be here with this math on ACT that that final group the juniors the testing group that they could have been in the 20th percentile. Well, that's not really where you want to be in percentile world. You'd want to be at least at 50 percentile or higher. So, as I say, not all these numbers are created equally, which may come up in this next slide. What a segue for doing that. Um, these are the 16 system and I put them in order on their overall composite. again there's a lot of focus on the overall composite and um I don't want to

119make sure my talking interferes with them but is there and u as I said I put them in order so you can see basically how we compare to our districts in our core region and we Whenever we get this going, we can see that um and I don't think we compare too badly, but you have to remember there are eight core regions in the state and the South Central Core region is not always in the the top region. So, um I'm I do it just for comparison to give an idea of of everything. It's not that oh look, we're so much better because we if you look at the data, the numbers, there's so much room for improvement. I'd say anything and you again, you don't want to to rest on your laurels and say,

120"Oh, we were a level five." Well, that's great. You have to realize too data like this is already stale. It's the freshest data we have that's called sumitative but then there's formative data. Formative is what's gathered along the way. So we get an idea about it but we can't just stop and say oh this percentage of students they were uh met or exceeded expectations. doesn't mean they're going to meet or exceed expectations for this next year or down the road. You have to always consider going through and looking at the current instruction. and teachers they they especially teachers who are are um more effective. They can go through and tell if they're teaching a certain standard, a certain lesson, and if they see glazed overlooks, they say something's not connecting here. Some people would go

121through them. Maybe you you've seen teachers do exit tickets. An exit ticket is not just a wasted activity or it shouldn't be. maybe just one or two questions and they say, "Wow, uh, of the 20 students in this room, two of them got this right. Is it a bad question or is it that I didn't get something across to these people?" Or if it tells you the other end, say, "Wow, of the 20 students, 17 of them are right on it." Well, that means you don't want to spend two more weeks on that same thing. So, you gather this along the way. And if it's standardsbased then you you are preparing them then for that big old summitative assessment. >> How relevant are trends looking at this? I know you have different cohorts. >> We're

122going to look at some trend data. >> Okay. >> And again there's trend data that's available to everybody uh in the world if they just go to the right place. And I'm going to show that to you here. Uh, just keep trying to keep a track of time because I don't want Miss West War West Morland to be on the war path with me. >> You sure? Okay. >> Okay. >> We got some adjustments. So, you're >> I'm good. Well, >> let's see. First I'm going to change that >> one of our highlight presentations. >> Oh boy. >> Charlie and you are starting the show. >> Well, but I think you'll find Charlie's rates are higher than mine. So, >> yeah. So, he's got to have that money for that six that big old budget.

123So, and I apologize on behalf of the storm or storms or whatever because I think the rain stops. It just said, "Let's get to this slide and then we'll turn the power off." So, I apologize to everybody out there. The power went off. didn't have any control that folks out back because we were in the dark If you like, I can give you a proof to work on while I'm booting up. No. Okay. Oh, not another two step. Where are we getting it from today? Thank you. You made it. >> Yeah. >> All righty. >> Congratulations. >> Yeah. >> Well, you can see in our core region, we had four systems who were fives. Marshall County, us county, we had several threes, couple of one, two, it's all I see, but a few ones. So

124again, if I was in one of these counties, I would go through and say, okay, how do we improve and take it from there? You don't live here. You don't say, oh, boohoo, I'm a one. I think I'll go paint houses for a living, you know. Or if you're here like us, we're not going to say, "Oh, we're fives. We've reached the top." No, >> this is transitional. Now, we're now shifting. >> That is growth. >> This is growth. That's right. >> So, you know, >> you could have growth and still not be achieving. >> That's right. And again, what a good segue because we're now changing over to performance data. >> And that that was my point is that don't sit on that five because >> that's right. >> And that's awesome though. I

125think it's great. >> It is. But again, that's just one half of it. You really want to look at the these numbers. Now, for instance, this is ELA. ELA talks about our grades three through grade eight testing. when it gets to the EOC test, it'll give a subject. So, we can see here that of the systems and I've put the state of Tennessee average as well and I've put us in orange here that you can see in our district it ranged from a 40.9 at Manchester down to 27.3 for Wayne County. And if you're looking for for uh statements to take away from that, at least for this year, we were in the top half in every category of testing for our region, which it's good because there's been times when we weren't, but we're

126not quite the state average yet with this or at least this year's 38.9 because you have to remember this number is affected by the performance of all the other districts across the Right. >> And what is the state of Tennessee goal? Because they're setting goals for us on on I'm assuming this is >> is this ELA overall or third grade? >> This is third to eth. >> Okay. So they're setting goals for us for third grade ELA. So yeah, that probably isn't relevant to this. >> Yeah. Again, I really haven't seen statements where they said for the state of Tennessee for spring of 2026 testing, we want the state average in ELA to be this or to improve by such percentage. I haven't seen such a state. >> I think Dr. Cornelius when he comes

127in and does our his quarterly report to us, he talks about that. >> Yeah. And that's really more with like third grade specifically. >> Specifically third grade. Yeah. So this is all Okay. Got Our state average went up. >> It did. >> Okay. >> For this one. >> Okay. For math, it ranged from a 45.2% met or exceeded for Lawrence County down to 22.3 for Wayne County. The average was 42.2. We were a little below that at 39.9. So you were talking about co effect and we about English spring but we were 34.2 here and our math was actually 39.9. So it it varies from year to year. It really does. >> Yeah. That's bounced back, you know, a little. >> But again, it's not like we bounced from 39.9 up to 72.3. That'd be

128quite a bounce. >> Yeah. Unfortunately, it happen like to see those bounces for science. It was 54.2 for Moore County down to 34.6 for Wayne County. And some of you saying I think I'm picking up on a pattern for Wayne County. Well, but it's not it doesn't hold. If you see some some more slides down the road, it's not always Wayne County. No, it's not true. You know, I'm picking up a pattern for Lawrence County because they're in the top three so far. >> So far. Yeah. >> And the state average here. >> Yeah. We see 46.1. That's a higher average in the category of science. And we're 43.7. >> I think was high last year, too. >> Yeah. >> Yep. You sure can see all that. Social studies, more county 61.2. 2 and we

129were actually at state average in this category at 49%. All the way down to 33.6 for Bedford County. See, Wayne County is a little higher here. So, don't pick on poor Wayne County. And uh you will see here you talk about Lawrence County and Lincoln County, >> they're still here in the top half. Yes, they are. There we go. That's I never see it do that before. Now, this is we've switched over. Notice it says a subject. That means it's an EOC test. And you'll look and say Manchester was 94.7. Yeah. But you have to realize that's one honors class of 16 students. We also have one honors class at the same grade level. We had 100% of ours were met or exceeded this year. doesn't always happen, but it did this year. All the

130way. And again, this is all the algebra testing that includes the honor students in eighth grade, the regular students in ninth grade, the special ed students in 10th grade or higher, and ours you can see was 28.1%. The state average was 29.4. >> You know, that's kind of bad because that's not apples to apples when you've got 10 kids in honor. I'm honors class and everybody else has got >> that's not Apple's class. >> That's true. It's not. And when I give this for the district to the principles, I do break it down to try to make it more aptly. >> Yeah. >> Because if if we had on excluded if if we only used our be 100% then you said >> for eighth grade. That's right. >> Right. So we would be 100%. And

131I bet you there would be several districts in the state, >> right, >> who are like that in the same boat we are. Yeah. >> Um the low here and don't guess 3.9%. For Hickman County again, say where's Wayne County? Well, Wayne County is up here. Where's Lincoln County? Lincoln County is over here. So they were actually were like onetenth alone there with us. Lawrence County was up here 38.5. Say why is this so low? I you know that would be a root cause analysis issue. Why? Well, when you start getting up to algebra 1, you start getting students who are um neither eighth grade, the honors, ninth grade, 10th grade, whatever grade there may be. I had I don't want algebra one. To some people, you'd say you went through school, you all loved

132your math classes. I know. I don't want to ask you to pick a favorite, but some people Yeah. Yeah. You You picked a favorite, didn't you? In your mind. >> No, I didn't. I hated them all. >> Oh, >> sorry. >> Okay. I say >> the teachers, the classes. >> I say that what happened is you're in that kind of that group I call I say everyone loves math, but some people hide it better than others. >> You hit it. Very nice way to hit it well. You hit it well. I continue to hide it very well. >> You continue to hide it very well. But regard when you start getting to these math classes, the higherups, it's going to start getting more differentiated. Um, and this is one of the first biggies I think.

133I mean, there's psychological theory and gestaltism and things like that. So, please don't talk about things like that. I won't. So algebra 2 you'll see more county 47.2 and Moore County is not a huge county is it? >> No >> it has two schools one school in which they teach algebra 2. So we don't know how many this is. I mean if when we look at trend data you can tell but you see 47.2 down to a 6.3 in fail state average of 34.6. Ours was 28.1. That was a slight drop for us from the previous cohort. Uh geometry, you can see Lawrence County 40.1 is the high, 11.9 the low in faithful. State of Tennessee 36.8. We're at 27.2. >> Dr. Blessing, you tal you mentioned several times this root cause analysis. >> Yes.

134Do you do root cause analysis routinely on these different subjects? >> Every school as part of their school improvement plan, which they do annually, it's they're supposed to do a root cause analysis to dig to say why. Well, some and depending upon what goal they're looking at, it could be for instance if you were doing chronic absenteeism and if you were doing say why do we have chronic absenteeism and they may look and say we have a large health impaired population. If you have a large health impaired population there's likelihood they're going to miss law school. Yeah. So you would do the same sort of thing for instance with geometry again really your favorite of the maths I know um geometry why is it at 272 >> shape >> you say yeah it just ties

135in um and you want to dig well and you can dig at different levels the school can look at the whole geometry set of teachers. A teacher can dig for one class or they can look at all five classes cuz you know you remember when you were in school that you may have had uh English first thing in the morning and you loved it when you had English first thing in the morning cuz you were a morning person and then the next year you had English fifth period sleep. know that you're learning by osmosis. Then I take let it creep on in. Yeah. But in um if it the next year, let's say it was fifth period, let's say, and again, not that the teacher has anything to do with it, but you were saying

136that maybe I didn't jaw quite with that. Maybe there and there's you could look for things like that. But again, looking for it is really just the first part. What you going to do with it? Just like any data, what you gonna do with it? >> All our schools um improvement plans are found on e plan. You can look at any school out of any one of those districts, >> but I'm not sure if they can see that aspect of their plan. >> Okay. >> They might only be able to see the goals and the actions and strategies. >> Yeah. But I'm not sure if they can see the root cause. >> Would still find your I mean those things are derived from the root cause. You would be able to discern what the goals

137were, where the challenges were. >> Mr. Blessing, you know, each year we go through this and you know, we see these fluctuations that are are met or exceeded. >> Uhhuh. >> Two to three to 4%. >> Uhhuh. >> Bouncing through which usually is around 25 to 30%. >> Pretty close, right? Is that your percentage? That's your percentage. >> You're talking about percentage of fluctuation. Well, no. I'm talking about our average scores of Okay, I got exceeded. >> Yeah. >> Which ultimately results in 70 70 some odd percent of the rest of our students are either in approaching approaching >> or below. >> Mhm. >> That's a bigger number to me. That's the bigger volume of our students. >> We're going to see just what you're talking about. >> Good deal. >> In just a just

138a few minutes. >> Tell me to be quiet. Wait. No, >> I'll see it. No, I it's just an earlier segue. >> Leading it into things. Yeah. >> English one, you see 42.4% for Lawrence County down to 20.7 here. We were actually above state average slightly here. 41.4. State average was 39.2 for English 2. See? Wow. 65.8% here. 36.9% here. 54.3% 48.9. So why are those higher? Well, I can tell you one reason. English one and English 2 have exactly the same standards. They go through it's like a 2year package. So when they take English two, it's not a brand new set of standards, brand new test, but it's not a new set of standards. So it's her second rodeo time in that rodeo. I think that probably has something to do with that. Biology,

139uh, 55.6 here. Let me see. Lincoln 22.2 here. Harry state average 45.7. We're a little lower than that. 40.4. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Now, let's get to I think what y'all been alluding to. This is called the state report card [Music] and this is available to everybody. All you have to do is Google Tennessee State Report Card. You'll get a link and you'll go here. I know it says 2324. The state is lazy. They haven't updated the number yet, but the data that we're going to look at is U. Let me do this. These are all the districts. Let's see if I can find us. >> You know, on that other >> Yeah, I found it. >> On that other part we were looking at to me it' be a simple goal to meet state

140average that that could be our first step up and hopefully go on to 60 and 70%. >> There's only one problem with that. We have no control over state average because we have no >> I mean we could we could look at what the state average was this year >> the previous year and and make that our goal that we're going to >> meet that or exceed that for the next year. >> You could but it would be based on the previous year. That's right. >> That again >> starting point. >> Okay. >> Something to shoot for notable. >> Now this gives you a lot of information about >> the system. We want to look at 25 data and this is Mr. Gilly was talking about what you were asking about with trends. You have

141all the way back to 2021 on this particular graph and you have the ability to change and filter this report card at your leisure. For instance, overall ELA is every ELA test in the district. If you just want ELA, you have to change it. And you can see trends like with approaching for instance, you can see back in 2021, this again COVID was real still that effect is going in place. You can see 50.9% and you see it starts to drop. Well, if approaching drops here and then it started going up just slightly here, where can they go? They either have to go back to below or they go up to Matt or even to exceed it. So, you can see all this, you can see the overall proficiency rate here on the side. And

142also if you were to, you know, when you have time and you go and you hover over a graph, up pops information about the whole year. You see the number below, you see the percent number approaching the percent. You have all of that information available. So that means that anyone I mean I picked Coffee County. I could just as well gone to Trousdale or I could have gone to Davidson or I could gone anywhere because it's all there. It's transparent. >> Just just just worried about us. >> Yeah, I will. Let me if I'm reading this wrong from from what I see here when I start talking about other 70 some odd percent or 50% of students and stuff of that nature below >> the meeting expectations are exceeding >> looking at a three four

143year trend there and looking at those percentage numbers we're growing our below from our approaching we're holding pretty steady with our meeting and exceeding there. There's less percentage fluctuations between the meeting or exceeding versus our approaching and below and that contains the majority of our students >> in those two areas of meeting and below. >> Yeah, you really had a lot of you got a lot of meat in that statement because I mean that that's a lot. But am I interpreting that that information properly? >> Well, for instance, >> I see those over the last three or four years are below expectations growing just a few percentages and our me approaching growing. >> Hey, >> we're coming down but it grew in our >> I'll disagree with parts. >> Okay, >> for instance, the below.

144>> Look, come on in. I'm going to start the whole data presentation off. You know, just kidding. Um, for instance, back in 2021, it was 23%. And again, we're looking at this. I don't know what color that is, whatever that pretty color is, and then it did go up here, but it's going down, going down, going down. So, we're not growing the below. We're not >> okay. I got my colors. >> Yeah, that's the bottom of your >> You have to be very careful with the colors. That's true. >> But that's like again the approaching 50.9 started going down. But here it we don't want it to go up. We want if and if it does go up, we're want them to go upward, not backward. Um the green, this whatever that lime color is

145seems to be more steady. >> Well, that's the one that needs to move. >> That one >> because it'll move all the other three. >> Well, we won't have. >> You see what I'm saying? If if we meet expectations, if we grow in that area, >> that's good. >> Then the other three are going to go, you're not going to have as hard a percentage in the other areas because we're going up where we're supposed to. This is just >> and we certainly that would be a larger pool of students >> but we also want to consider whatever color aqua I don't know >> 2.1 5.2 6.0 6.0 6.8 tonight. >> Don't get me wrong, I love the above expectations. >> Oh, yeah. >> Don't get me wrong, but I also worry about those 65%

146of our students that are >> right >> below or approaching. >> And that's where >> I'd rather have a great big meeting number. >> Yeah. So, and the thing is what you're saying, >> y'all. >> We got a large group. We got a large group of approaching. What we going to do about it? >> Yeah. and the what we're going to do about it. That's why we have tutoring. Yep. >> We have especially with third grade, you know, with the retention issue. And that's something else I want to show you. Notice this says all grades. So, this is three through eight. >> We want to flip the orange and the green, right, Robert? >> We want to flip the orange and the green, right? >> If you move, like I said, if you move the

147green up, you're going to flip it. >> Yeah. Exactly. Notice how you you can focus in just on grade four or grade six or grade whichever. >> Yeah. Okay. I'm following your colors. I can finally there. >> Yeah. It is it is hard to read. I I apologize on behalf of the state. >> So So Miss Freda, as we look at our afterchool programming and uh the our tutoring program, we're going to target >> that grade four chart right there. >> Yeah. We're going to target those children that are in the orange. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> And you can see here, remember for overall it was 34 something%, it's 42.7% for grade four. So their behavior is a little bit different. And again, you can look at this as following one cohort to the

148next. >> What about grade three since that's the the pivotal grade? >> Let's look at grade three. What's happening? Oh boy. >> It went 32.9 here. 21. It dropped. It dropped. Went up a little then stayed about the same. And you can see again it's just it >> fourth grade. When you go to fourth grade, you see a large amount of success. >> You see more. That's right. And again, is that the same picture? Would I say that's across the state? No. It's going to vary from district to district. And I say it's going to vary from school to school. It's going to vary from fourth grade teacher to fourth grade teacher cuz you've got, you know, can we can we say this honestly? We have effective teachers, but some seem to be more effective

149than others. And that's again why you would want to go and say, "What's your secret?" Cuz some people, some of them do have secrets. Some of them don't want to share their secrets. They want us to be but most do most are they want their schools to be success. >> Dr. Blessing, you also go from county to county on those that that are so high and say what is your secret in your county? >> Well, there is it's not on this particular website. It's called the Tivos website. They have a feature called a scatter plot and it puts them all there in this big old uh conglomeration of dots and you can go through and you can use it to help identify schools that are similar to you who are maybe higher in growth or

150higher in performance and that can help then okay there's no use for me to reach out to Williamson County to this someone who's doing 92.3% if I'm down at 28.1%. But maybe I can reach out to someone who's doing 40%. Or someone who's doing closer to that cuz otherwise it can be very discouraging for teachers say you mean you want me to jump from 27.2% to 94.3%. eventually. Yes, we would love for you to be there, but let's take steps to get there. But yeah, there's so but you would want to look at a program that's doing 98%. That doesn't mean that >> but it may not be a program. And see, that's what would be interesting to me is let's say you do identify these schools that are using the same program you are

151and say, "Okay." and then maybe collaborate and come up with some ideas like can we come and see >> if they're 98% >> and see what's going on. You want you want to go to the schools that are really performing >> and some and some of the schools that are really performing if you see that they're doing things because they're more affluent cuz some if you look at your higher performing data schools with performance data >> expectations >> they they're usually more affluent and again the expectations may be higher. the parents are saying, >> "Well, we got to have that high expectations, too." >> Yeah. That's right. >> But the high expectations can't just be. >> In other words, we you I don't agree with you. >> Do you don't agree with high expectations? >>

152I don't agree with you saying that we should go to a school that's affluent and has got good programs. >> No, I'm saying we shouldn't do it right away. We should build. I mean, we can't just necessarily jump because what if we go to that and the people who said we can't afford what they're doing, >> but then I don't agree with that. >> Okay. Well, maybe we can. >> Miss Fredo, I mean, Miss Jones, I will let you know that Dr. Atkins is the superintendent of schools in Lawrence County and I'm in the next 2 or 3 weeks we're supposed to gather and but their their school system is is a a lot like ours. >> Right. >> So we'll have a little share time. I don't know whether he's coming here. I'm probably

153going there. So >> right. And I know what you're saying, but that that's limiting us saying we can't do any better. You know, we're going to go do a mediocre schooling. But anyway, but I do I did see this the other day, which I believe is a lot of truth to it. Uh test scores. Look at how big the houses are around that school >> and and a lot of times that correlates with high test scores. I mean, it's just and that's sad, >> but uh and it kind of goes along with what you're saying, but we can't we've got to get beyond that. We've got to expect our kids to be just as affluent as kids that live in an area with the huge homes. not as affluent but as successful. >> We can't

154change successful. >> Yeah. So, yeah. But and the thing is you you said high expectations. You almost have to to set the taste of the student, the parent, the school, everything for this is what we >> it doesn't have to be that that complicated, you know. No, it's not complicated, but it's it's hard to turn a ship. But it you turn ships. Ships turn all the time. But you got to figure out where you're going. I mean, you got to have a goal. >> And you got to, okay, how am I going to get there, and that's what you you have to go through that process. And again, nothing wrong with aspiring to to being just like or just as high as some of those more fluent districts, but that's what studies show with with

155respect to performance that more affluent districts have higher performing, but with growth has no correlation. You can have just as much growth with economically disadvantaged as you can >> because they're at the bottom. >> Yeah. So that's why all this data we've been looking at has been um it's important to look at both sets. You just don't want to focus on one or the other. Um but you can go through as I say I'm going to try to make people dizzy. There's nothing here under the schools yet. They haven't updated that. They only have the districts, but you can go to the state report card. You can take time. You can investigate any of those different trends that you want to see cuz it's there for every subject that we've talked about today with the

156exception of I don't see ACT on this yet. But if you want it to I'll pick you 97.6% of our 9th grade students were met or exceeded. And the reason why you don't see some of these graphs, they say if you have really really high or really really low in one category, they can't they won't display any of it. It's called suppression. It's a business rule they use. They say that because you can identify it may be easy to go in and identify students who didn't make the 97.6%. So, okay. If there are other questions, I'll be glad to answer them. But I think Are they I don't know what time it is. It's 11:31. I see by this convenient laptop in front of me. I think Melissa's probably going to be ready for y'all

157to to uh enjoy lunch here soon. >> You taking any questions? >> I Oh, I I think I've taken one or two. >> Okay. >> Any other questions for Dr. I'll be glad as I said I'd be glad to answer any questions. >> So really, you know, I mean, as Spida and and Robert have pointed out is we're kind of the numbers aren't changing much and we got to kind of flip the the orange and the green, you know, in most categories. Obviously, here we're doing okay. Well, back to 22. We don't have current data on that. So, that's probably not a good one to look at. But, but how do we get there? Because we're not, it looks like overall in the trends, we're not moving the needle much >> and I know we're

158talking about some different programs to flip those numbers. And that's really where we need to >> put our budget dollars, I guess. >> Yeah. >> I think be proud of being a five. Huh? >> We can be proud of being in that fight. >> Yes, we can there. And just like with any that I think we have, we want to celebrate our successes >> and we want to recognize areas that we want to improve. >> But the question is how? How are we going to get there? Well, that takes, you know, we say we just work harder. Ever tell students work harder. >> Some of them they don't know how to work harder. >> You have to support them. >> We have to support. And again, what does that support look like? Well, monetarily, we're

159supporting them as the state has released high quality instructional materials. Don't you like? And they call it HQIM. Sounds like a radio station to me. Thanks for tuning in to HQIM. This is Dr. Blessing. I'll be your host for the next three hours. But high quality instructional materials, that's a foundation. Well, what are teachers going to do with it? That's why it would be important if someone is using the same choice we made and if they're being more successful, how are they being more successful? What are they doing? So, that's where we need to do. And like you were talking about pairing up with or doing some visit with Lawrence County. We're picking their brain because we saw Lawrence County's data or part of their data. There isn't just what I'd call a single key

160to success in this. Every district's going to have to to answer that for themselves. Otherwise, the state would come in and answer it for us. And they can't. But we can. But we just have to figure out what that is. Now that now that the preaching's over, we'll pass the plate. The choir's going to sing. Nothing number. >> This this is office records. It's not anything to do with what we're talking. But every time I see you, I think about years ago when Chanel was in your math class >> and uh they uh they rolled your yard. >> No. >> And I think know this. I didn't know this for years later. And I found out they rode your yard. And uh this is when she was up here working with with you and she

161was telling us what they did. She said, "I can't believe we dressed her." He came out after and I roll. But she tried to get in the car and they drove her and I'm thinking, "Oh my time I see you, I think of them. I think of Chanel rolling your yard." >> Okay. >> They loved you as a math teacher. >> Yeah. Nothing expresses love like I mean, you really nobody gets through their yard road unless they're light. >> Really? Oh, I must have been adore. >> I'm not sure that's true. >> Dr. Blessing is outstanding at uh explaining data and um some of these graphs and how we performed and areas of need. We appreciate his uh his dedication and stories. I think he had several of our board members in class. No, but

162thank you, Dr. Blessing. No, I won't. What's what's >> the shame is when I go to the high school and people who were my students, I have retired. >> I'm still here. Thank you, Dr. Blessing. That was informative. >> They're quite welcome. And again, anytime you have question about two days, >> I'll be glad to try to address. >> You always do. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We're all miss. >> Well, while we wait for Melissa to get back, and I'm assuming she's going to be back shortly, is that uh the next item on the agenda is Ms. Matthews. And I'm, you know, hopefully we can get through this >> in the next uh 20 30 minutes. So >> Okay. Well, >> the floor is yours. >> Okay. I'm totally unprepared. I've had a

163crazy morning. Um but uh I guess where I'll start is um we probably have all seen how much fundraising is going on here in the district. And um I get a lot of questions and a lot of calls and text messages of people asking why or what is this fundraiser, what is that, what is it going to, uh who does this benefit, what do they need this for, you know, that kind of thing. And um well, I'm a parent uh of an athlete and so I'm involved in some of the fundraising myself and and support it. Um and but so I can kind of see, you know, the different sides of it. Uh and there's I think there's there's a lot to it. I mean, a whole lot. And I know Chris and I think

164Scott have worked on a lot of this and probably have at this point a lot more knowledge on it than I do. So, we can open up the floor to them. But the what I see is we have we have some we have revenue and non-revenue sports. Robert, you I know know a lot about that. Um, and from what I can tell, our non-revenue sports, a couple of them do not charge player fees, and maybe one or two do charge player fees. Um, so but but that's that's all because they're generating revenue through gates and tickets and stuff like that. But um we've also got we've got some sports that are participating in those um those revenue events that aren't included in the funding side of it. They don't re for instance cheerleaders I don't

165believe are getting unless it's out of general athletics a portion of that anything from any of their gates at football and basketball games. Well, a lot of a lot of people come just to watch cheerleaders or dance team or band, but I you know I don't I'm not aware of any of the the revenue from the gates going to those. All that to say that we've got we've got player fees up to $900 a player or a participant. On top of that, we're asking our parents and our kids to fund raise between seven and 10 fundraisers a season. It's almost never you're almost never without a fundraiser. So, I guess what I'm asking is for us to dig in and see is our district supporting our programs like we should. I've got a little bit

166of data on it, a little bit of apparently there's a certain amount of money set aside for all those non-revenue sports around $45,000. More than half of that is eaten up by gym floor maintenance and football helmet reconditioning. Two things we can't not do. Um so only about 20ish,000 is divided among about three 13 sports that are non-revenue. That leaves about anywhere from 1,100 to maybe 1,500 total per sport, which is crumbs. Honestly, it's crumbs. It's It comes down to if for in I'm using cheerleading and I'm not targeting cheerleading at all. It's just I happen to know uh I know that that this this is happening across the board for non-revenue sports. If you've got 30 cheerleaders and you and the district has given $1,100 towards cheerleading, that comes out to about $35 a

167cheerleader. And then we ask our parents to each pay $900 each. And our entire district has only given 30 $35$36 per cheerleader. That's hard on parents. It's real hard on them. It's hard on grandparents. I know I I know parents who have taken second jobs to help their kids participate in extracurricular. So, we've got a lot of fundraising going on. The question is, do we need as much fundraising as we're doing? And why are we doing that much fundraising? Are we doing it because our district isn't supporting the teams? Do we really need that much fundraising or do we not? Do we want to cap how many fundraisers can can be put on parents and students? Do we want to say no more than two or three per year per group or organization? And I'm

168not picking on athletics. This would be for any club or organization. Do we want to cap it? Do we not want to cap it? Do we want to contribute more money so that we don't have as much fundraising? I don't know. I just want to explore it and see where we are. Do we need to continue it? Do we need to cap it or do we as a district need to support these programs to where we're not having to run eight, nine fundraisers a year per program? There's more to it. There's uh a whole lot more to it. That's just one one piece of it. And there's a lot of financial uh info that could go along. I've looked at some of it. It's what I've received is fairly vague. It doesn't give me a

169whole picture of transaction line items with what's coming in, what's going out. If you've got a a group uh that's got a $15,000 balance, uh and you know, why are we charging $900 a player a participant if you're sitting on $15,000? If you're sitting on $27,000, why are we continuing to fund raise and and and ask for more? Like, I wouldn't think that we would want those balances to be huge because we would want to cycle it through. What we take up is going back to those players and those families and those people who donated. Why would we want to build a big balance and not use it? So, there's a lot more to it, a lot more to fundraising than just that. Um, that was really the point that I wanted to address, but

170I know there's more to it. There's a lot of questions about the type of fundraisers that we have. Um, if raffle drawings, raffle ticket drawings are okay or not. There's a lot of legality behind all that. Uh, I I'm not the expert on it at all. Um, but I'll just open the floor to questions and comments right now. Oh, and there's even stuff like banned. I I hear banned people all the time too about >> Yes. And they are underfunded. You know, what can we do to help? >> Right. And how many You might know Miss April just from word high school age. Do we have any accounts or athletic accounts or these other accounts that basically at the end of the year have any money left over? >> Very. Um, so I would I

171would have to like look at that. I don't So the auditor usually like looks at that and we'll say, okay, um, this balance will have to be spent on these children. So we try I mean, I'll speak and say I haven't looked, but we try to keep minimal balances to roll over unless there's a large expenditure that we're expecting >> in the next school year. Like I know as an SSO football tries to hold on to enough money to start the next year >> and that's usually around three to3 to $5,000 the quarterback club. Now I don't know about what football coach and what inside the school accounts and all that good stuff. I don't know about all that. I don't know what they do, but I know the quarterback club tried to hold some

172money on hand because we try to come into the spring and start some things and be able to go buy some food and feed them in spring practice, you know, and feed the boys and things of that nature. I agree with Holly 150%. But I'm going to be a pro advocate here that direct funding needs to step up. That's the reason we're squeezing our community so hard is because regardless of the fact it still cost around the same amount of money just like the cheerleaders to get $35 a kid, but then it cost 900 just to transport them, get them there, feed them during games, every all this kind of stuff. Football players, you're talking about 85 to 130 kids. Well, we're gonna we're gonna load them on a bus. They're gonna have lunch at

17312 o'clock. We're just expect them to jump on a bus, go to Franklin, Tennessee or wherever, be back at 11:00 at night, and then we're not going to try to feed those those kids. I mean, that's that ain't that just ain't hardly right anyway. So, that's where the quarterback club comes in. They buy their food, stuff of that nature, and it cost about roughly $1,000. Even if you done the cheapest of meal that's $10 per player, it's 1,00 to500 bucks every time we feel. That's,500 bucks before a game. That's,500 bucks six hours later at 11:00 just to get some pizza at them or something so the kids can go home and not just be dead after playing a football game, you know. And and I'm just speaking because football was one I was just right

174up in the middle of. Uh, I learned every bit about it and and and the money's and she's exactly right with the amount of cost is. It sounds astronomic, but it's not. It's I mean, we're talking this $900 is bare minimum and requiring I'll have to check, but I don't believe our policy allows. I I I know it certain I don't know that it cuts it out the requirement for fundraising or the wish to, but you certainly can't hold it against a child for participation or anything else. >> Actually, on that I asked about that because I did it didn't sound right to me that any coach could hold it against a child. No. >> According to Ben Torres at T TSBA, >> it can. >> No, that's title nine and that's straight up discrimination.

175our athletic department and I've spoke to our >> I'm not nobody does at all but I was >> I hope not. >> Yeah, I was kind of shocked for >> Yeah, it's I do know it's in our policy and I do know with Title N rules and laws and everything else you you're not you don't discriminate over >> My question was to him anything. can can a a student or an athlete be withheld from participating if they did not do do make the fundraiser requirements? And he said yes that they could be. Well, according to the >> according to the state statute on it and the internal >> financial guide, I don't remember exactly the full name on that, but >> it's against the law if they're discriminated against. My my question is, >> do

176we know of any student that has been withheld from being able to participate in coffee in Coffee County schools to because they could not afford to to pay or do I don't know of any and and if there are any, they need to be going talking to the the principal. If it if that's a problem for Coffee County Schools, then we need to take care of it. But if that's not a problem, then we need to move to the other things that is a problem that that we need to discuss. But I've not known of anybody being >> pulled from being able to be part of. Now, there could be some that I just don't know about. I'm asking, does anybody know of any? >> I don't know of anybody, but I can say that

177I'm sure there's several students that would like to participate that no, they cannot come up with that money. So, they're not even in the program. So, that's the issue. Yeah, >> there may be kids that could participate in some of these things that don't even try because they know that their parents can't afford it. >> And it may, you know, that's definitely something we probably look at plugging in policy is some sort of plan of how to attack those kind of things. Like football, we never had a mandatory mandatory fee. However, we would love and gave every player about six months and they had plenty of tools to try to raise up to $1,000. Well, we only find sponsorship. >> Kids, huh? >> Find sponsorships. >> Yeah, we only had very few kids that ever

178actually >> did it. >> Was you ever able, Miss Matthews, to get that information on what we had asked for, what you had asked for about >> the uh how many participation, how many groups was was, you know, was asking for money and >> what that were. >> No, I I think I had asked Mr. Harrow for >> athletics >> list. Well, a list of fundraisers that you're talking about. Yeah. A just a list of of fundraisers for the calendar year so that we could see how many we've had >> and how they were approved. That's another question I get a lot. How what is the level of approval required and and I just, you know, it's just I guess a matter of me knowing the policy. >> Well, I thought at one time, maybe

179it's not in place anymore, but that a school couldn't have so many fundraisers. Well, and I thought that too, but I could be wrong. And that that's just I mean, do it's just coming up to me. How many fundraisers are y'all going to have? >> Four years ago, about four years ago in a work session, we brought that up and it was discussed, but I don't think anything would ever change. >> Well, and it's it's it's hard and I think there was a limit, wasn't there, 12 months out. >> You know, there's pressure on the community, too. you know, small businesses are being terrible just nailed constantly, parents, uh, community, grandparents, and everybody feels obligated. And it's gotten so saturated in fundraisers that people say, "Forget it. I'm not donating to anything because about the

180time I say yes to this girl, this boy next week is going to show up on my doorstep on something else." >> And I don't want to tell anybody no. So, I just don't do it at all. And then everybody suffers. I I want to throw Can I throw a monkey wrench in too? >> Sure, why not? >> Been there, did done this, and it was the same way 20 years ago. We wear we have a tendency to wear our same contributors out and and and ride that. >> My point uh in my mind, my struggle, what are we going to drive? >> Because you're going to get what you pay for. >> And I'm playing this is the devil's advocate. It's not not that I don't I disagree or agree, but with what's been

181said, we're going to drive a Raptor or we going to pay and drive a Hugo? What do we want our children in? >> Well, on on on that thought there, let me be your devil's advocate on that. >> Come on. >> All right. >> Devil's advocate. >> One, devil's advocate. >> We're in the business of education. >> Correct. >> All right. First and foremost, our mission statement says, you know, to provide the best education for our children. >> But that being said, >> we can educate without sports, without a lot of the other group, outside groups. >> Mhm. >> High school football cannot exist without education. >> Correct. >> You know, or high school baseball. I mean we can educate without sports but they cannot have the sports without the education. So you know >>

182I I am right in that pit. That's why student comes first in student athlete >> right >> because your athleticism is only going to carry you so far in life. >> Exactly. >> Your education. Nobody's questioning that. My question is if we are going to have take sports out of it. If we're going to have clubs at school, we're going to have and and fund these things. What is our level of funding? Do we want to do a great job of fund level of raising so we have a great this or are we okay with just that? It >> It's complicated. It is very very complicated. >> Well, I I look at it this way. you're going to we educate the kids, but we got to keep them in school. They've got to be motivated.

183They got to want be there. And a lot of kids stay in school because of uh extracurricular activities, because of sports. >> And so, it works. It's a It's a >> Yes, ma'am. >> works together. You got you you almost have to have both. But I hate to see some kids left out >> because they don't have the money to do it. That's where that's where it's sad is that >> if we know about it that I mean that's not something we're okay with, >> right? And also too, I have a a concern about uh teachers not having the the supplies or whatever they think they need in or they need in the classroom and they're on uh they're on Facebook, you know, asking for to me that that needs to go >> they need

184to be going to their principal. >> Yes, ma'am. because we've got money for those things and and and that needs to be >> Yes, ma'am. >> communicated that look, don't be asking the community. We're we need to fund you. If you don't have the funds, we need to come up with it. If you need that in your classroom, that should be a priority for us as a school board >> to make sure that those teachers have what they need, whether it's Kleenex or whatever. Uh, I just think that's a bad image for our school system >> for that to go on >> wholeheartedly. >> Well, I have a question what you brought up, Polly. Um, >> just in fairness, if we've got cheerleaders, if we've got band, if we have these various groups supporting the

185foot football team, the basketball team, why isn't there a split done? Why don't we go? We've got we've got 80 football players. We've got 35 these. >> So each group will split whatever comes in the gates. >> They do. They do. Like I know for a fact football games certain percentage of the gate fees go into the general. >> Hey Robert, can you move >> broken amongst all these? >> I know your voice projects, but can you move the mic a little closer? >> You want me to say it again? I know I know for a fact that like football gates at at football games when we have home football games certain percentage of all the gate fees are put into the main athletic budget or >> account there at the high school and it's

186split for the other organizations that don't have a lot of fundraising don't have gates and stuff like that >> where the the breakdown on the on the 45,000 is coming into where it shows baseball gets 1,500 cheerleading gets 1100 dance team gets Yes, ma'am. Yes. >> Okay. So, nothing on top of that. >> The gates because that's the only thing that I know. >> That's the gates. >> Okay. >> I don't know if that system you've got system pass. You got system pass for football, system pass for the athletic. You got two different ones that are split at the high school. Correct. It goes out there from the board. >> I'm asking Amy because I don't know how the split I think that was just I think the splits were decided like years ago. You

187got a you got a middle school you got a middle school pass and you got a high school pass and that's the uh I think 20 or 11,000 and then 25,000. >> It's not much >> cuz I remember the last time I tried I tried to get system pass just >> 45,000 for high school and 33 I think for middle I think is what it >> 45 Yeah, we did raise it a little bit. I think I come in here wanting 150 >> two or three years ago has increased. Yeah. >> Mhm. >> It was increased and that's the only direct that I think can be just here it is in a pot of money if cheer needs something or blah blah blah you know stuff like that. Now obviously there's other fundings of field

188parts and maintenances and supplements and things of that nature for the coaches but as far as just direct monies that I think they could spend on whatever. But another question I had, >> I know what it was >> when that did go to 45 and 35, >> the rule changed to where the schools and everyone is required to do all of the sanding of their gym floors and all of that on their own and not from the other pot anymore because that's where we got into it about swapping wallets. >> There was >> remember when we done that and we was just swapping wallets. I don't remember >> we had the we had the uh Thomas you were here when we was when we raised the system class for athletics >> for the kind of

189got presented and kind of got done that way but the end result we had to turn around and those teams and athletic departments had to start refinishing their own gyms >> right yeah when >> so it just swapped they just added the money to do that over here to system pass to make it look like we was getting more money but we had to do more work >> when when this was looked at this this is Whenever uh we were taking care of the uh scuff and coats for the high school and also the middle school, the schools were actually their ads was taking care of getting it lined up. Then we would have to get it approved doing going through this whole process. So yes, that amount of money was given to the schools

190to take care of that part as well. At the same time, the amount that they were receiving was increased at the same time. So, it wasn't just swapping like what you're you're saying. Was the money from up here given to the schools to take care of those parts? Yes, it was. Plus more money and and that's how it was handled at that time. Yes. >> So, the gate Amy sent me the gate information. So, 8% of basketball gates go between the minor sports. So, 8% and I assume it'd be at the end of the season >> when basketball season's over. 8% of that will be split between the minor sports and then 10% of football is split between the minor sports. >> So 8% split between 13 other sports programs. >> Yeah. Whatever them I

191don't know how many minors there are. >> How much could that be >> if you're splitting it 13 ways? >> Very little. >> Yeah. Not much. >> Split 13 ways. >> Right. >> I mean I don't know who that was. >> That's a no crime >> years and go years and like that number not been it could have changed by now. I'm just the whole point is and like you said, do how do how well do we want to do? >> I I got and that does factor in I mean what what is acceptable cuz I struggled as a former coach. Yeah. >> I struggled with fees. >> I would much rather fund raise than fees. I really I don't know why that bothered my heart so much that some people would just soon write

192and and that makes sense but it bothered me a little bit >> that some of our programs have huge huge player fees and still fund raise eight nine 10 times a year and these parents do not feel any benefit whatsoever from the fund raise if it might be maybe a 5% cut you know but you're still paying 8 $900,000 for your child to participate. Uh >> the parent >> and you're still fundraising 12 months out of the year. You're just spinning your wheels. You know, >> Holly, the the parents or the child don't feel no benefit. I mean, what? >> Well, the child because the child's responsible. >> That's what it's for. It's for the child. >> For for paying it, the parent >> the parent Well, the parent is usually the one that pays

193it, but not all the time. I mean, >> well, I did. I mean, I love the fact some of some of them I've run across over the years and in baseball and recreation here in Manchester, the buyout where you could just go ahead and pay like 500 bucks and they'll leave you alone for the rest of the year. I love >> Oh, listen. I'll do that right now. >> Write that check for that deal all day long, >> but it's never offered that I'm aware. >> It is ins $500. Leave me alone. probably not going to get rid of program. I believe our softball program offers things like >> you need to turn in $1,000, but here are ways that you can come off of that $1,000. And I thought this was really innovative. Um

194you can attend the uh oh, what is that one night thing that they do for the special needs kids, the dance? You can attend that and that will take a $100 off your a thousand, you know, or volunteer for this thing in the community and that will decrease your total amount that you need, which is getting kids out there doing community service type things, lowering their player fee. Or you can just straight up fund raise all of it by this fundraiser or that fundraiser. Or you can just pay the $1,000. >> That's what that's what Shelbyville does. They do >> and that gives you some flexibility. They do the 12 for 12 program over there. And that's what most do is you go back and you you >> do stuff for your program for the

195community. You know, the players go and do they read books. They do, >> you know, that whole kind a whole lot of different things that they do. >> Yeah. And that that gives you some flexibility if you can't write the big check. M you're probably never going to get rid of fundraisers, but I like the idea of limiting the number you can do because it's otherwise it's it's a Oh my gosh, Holly's at the door again. Everybody pretend they're not home >> again. Begging again, you know, and and everybody is just swamped. >> Yeah. Between me and Miss Freda, I'm sure that because I know that last year I filed taxes on $47,000 that I donated to this school system via athletics. $47,000. That was last year. This year is probably going to be more.

196I agree 150%. We need to limit fundraising, but we've got to do it smart. We've got that. On the flip side, we need to look and see what these groups are using and actually needing annually and see if there ain't a way to come in with the school system and try to make up that difference. >> This is not to take away from our programs. This is to figure out how we get it. We just we figure out a happy median here to start backing off. >> Figure something a better way >> along with limit. >> Go ahead. >> Oh, go ahead. >> I think another issue is when the kids don't fund raise and there's not money. My son's on the middle school football team and they got a pretty big talking to because

197only three or four of them actually did their calendar fundraiser. >> I didn't like asking people for that money, but I did it. And not everyone wants to do that. And I get it because you don't want to ask people for money, but they're not getting anything because nobody did it. There is no money. They had to use the bare minimum of money that they got for the food that they ate before the games, I guess. and there's no t-shirt for them to wear or whatever to represent their team. So, >> you can't punish the kids for not fundraising, but >> also, I mean, you can't only reward the kids that did fund raise. It's just a problem. The money should come from somewhere else sometimes. >> Yeah, >> it's a big two-way street, right?

198>> It is. I see it. >> Parent participation is just as bad as the issue of too much fundraising. >> Yeah. You know, speaking of limiting fundraising, you know, I think, you know, one thing that we could do that would tremendously help would be spread the fundraising out. You know, maybe come up with a calendar that, you know, you only got two fundraisers districtwide going on at any given time or three or or four, you know, whatever. Just say that. Take the high school up here. You know, we got 15 sports, 16, 17 sports. Well, we don't need all 17 of them having a fundraiser going on the same dagum week or >> the same two weeks. >> Yeah. You know, so it's like, okay, well, if you want to do this, you know, here's

199the fundraising calendar, you go in here and mark your slot off >> and that way >> I think that way you're not on top of each other. >> Exactly. Because, you know, if you got baseball, football, basketball, golf, cheerleading, dance team, they're all got a fundraiser going on, you know, you're really limiting your resources to get the fundraising, get the dollars from, >> you know, whereas if it's, you know, somebody every month's got something going on, you're more likely to to obtain those dollars, you know, from the same people than you are, you all of them hitting the same people every month cuz you know everybody lives on a budget whether they want to or admit it or not. I mean you have x amount of dollars that you can do something with at the

200end of the day. >> Tell we we keep talking about sports. There's also all your clubs. >> Yeah. I mean the clubs go in there. >> Part of what I spoke of while ago was sponsoring the FBA >> people to go to their have their money to go to their trips. >> Right. >> I love it. Just don't forget those as well because it's I mean one when one out the door another walks in. >> Yeah. I mean I agree >> everybody agree wholeheartedly. Mr. >> need to be left out. >> I mean you know it's it's all clubs whether it's the DECA club or FA or FFA or you know >> any of them. I mean, all the fundraisers, like I say, a calendar I think would really help in not, you know, not

201just burdening the community with, you know, 16 fundraisers going on at the same time for 16 different groups. >> We don't know how many groups >> happened in a long time. >> It has. It has a long time. bad if I don't answer it. >> Maybe the first thing we need need to do is look at look at adding money to the to that >> fund for athletics cuz I think we're behind most school systems as far as the total amount we're budgeting for >> for athletics >> conversation that me and Mr. Arrove head. But what what do we do whenever that money runs out? You know, when we have that money and some and the federal government starts taking away some of that money, you know, it it's going to be hard to budget

202that, too. So, you know, >> it's not doing away with fundraisers. I mean, I don't >> No, no, you're not going to do away with them. But, you know, in in your instance, like you spoke of, you know, if that money starts to to to dwindle down, run, you know, go away. Well, like everything else, you cut you cut your funding to your non-essential items, you know, to maintain the the funding that we need for education. Well, then the funding to the, you know, to the secondary programs would have to go first, you know, and I'm, you know, I'm sorry. And then at that point, we'd be revisiting the whole fundraising thing again >> because your fundraising would have to increase. >> So, you know, I mean, it's a it's a double-edged sword anyway you

203look at it, but, you know, to help alleviate some of the um burden that the community feels from all the fundraising. I think it's something that we need to look at. How can we lessen that burden? you know, even if it's just stretching the fundraising out where they're not inudated all the time. You know, you got three three different groups every week walking in your front door asking for money from businesses >> and study shortfalls. >> A lot of times it's large amounts of money. It's $500 a pop. It's $200. >> 15,000. >> Yeah. I'm out. >> You won't be on Dumbotron. So if we if we limited the number of fundraisers say like to two per year per uh group and you did a fundraising count that would have to be a policy change

204I'm assuming. Yes. >> Well, it would just be it would be an excerpt in there of limiting, you know, we would just set a precedence of limiting how many >> by speaking of >> Yeah. >> I'd asked TSBA for some examples and the way that they've um they sent me some examples um Williamson County, Murphy'sboro City, and >> Jackson County, >> Jackson Madison County school system. um they put a limit on but they've you look at them and I mean they've done many different things. Some do a limit per school in the district. Some put a limit on you know just certain types of fundraisers like whether it's a um a fundraiser that the whole school participates in versus an individual sport or club. um you know so I mean it's kind of that area

205is open in their policies is I mean as far as how you'd want to approach that um so you know it's kind of well I look at it it you know that would be up for for all of us to decide and in order to decide that I think we're going to need a whole lot of information beforehand >> right >> you know >> like what what's you know what what does each sport need to maintain it for the year, you know, and go from there. >> Sure. >> And one of the things you said was >> between need and want. >> Yeah. >> And and because that won't once you hit those needs, then you start jumping into the the wants. You start doing those wants. Sometimes that price just it it gets up.

206Hey, I I now can afford. I'm going to keep on it. Just keeps on rising. And and that's going to be a hard one to to determine. Where do you stop it and say, "Whoa, >> that that was my Raptor comment. We gonna drive a Hugo or we gonna drive a Raptor?" >> Well, you can start with our with our annual budget. Our annual budget that we shoot toward that we pay towards athletics. The national average is 1 and a half to 2% of your annual budget as a school system. So 1 and a half to 2% of $55 million, $54 million is the national average of what is spent towards athletics or extracurriculars. And we're sitting at I think it was 0.04 a year ago. That's all we spend. >> And in saying that,

207I've never heard the the national average and that part of it. But don't don't forget the part of us paying for our coaches and those other parts. Did that include with it? And I don't know. I'm just bringing it up. >> But it doesn't. It doesn't. When you do the national average of what is spent towards your athletic programs, your extracurricular programs from a district as direct funding, >> it's the average is around 1.6 actually. >> So some schools is up around 2% in Tennessee. Some are around 1.4 1.3, but the average and national average is 1.6. >> I think the first thing it would >> 004 that's the best we could figure out last year. I agree with Robert. I think the first thing we need to up it. >> Yeah. So, when you

208see things like that in comparison with the communities around us, now you're just exposed why we have so much fundraising >> because we're trying to keep up with that trend that seems to be painted in picture of being this is the national average about what a school system spends. >> So, our fundraisers are trying to make up the difference. >> They're trying to make up the difference to be competitive because it's it's all about competitive. It's from taking care of the students to being competitive, >> right? But and I think that the first thing we need to do is find out. I bet if each school made a list of all their fundraisers and we looked at the whole system as a whole, >> we would be surprised as what's going on out there as

209far as >> I mean I mean down to individual teachers >> and uh there's a lot going on and u it's it gets it gets hectic >> whether they call it a fundraiser or not. If you're asking outside sources for money, >> we just need to know because maybe that's something we can provide. >> Because sometimes if you don't if you're not really in control or not, if there's no limit to what you can do, it gets really out of hand. And when you sit down and look at what's going on, >> you can think, "Oh my, that is too much. >> How do we compile that information?" >> I can gather that. Give me a few days. >> We're probably going to have to wrap up this conversation. But I think the teacher part

210>> But I think the part on teachers having having to get on Facebook or whatever. >> I mean, they we need to look at the individual school budgets for for teacher supplies and classroom supplies cuz I think that that money is budgeted. Maybe it's not being used properly or not being used. Maybe teachers don't know to ask their principal, "Hey, I need this in my classroom." And they just think, "Well, I've got to get it somewhere else." >> Yeah. Mhm. >> So, >> I I've got one other thing while we're on fundraising, and that's on the the lotteryies, the raffle tickets and whatnot. According to our policy, it states no fundraising activity shall be conducted which distributes prizes or makes awards to winners from among purchase purchasers of chance by means of ticket or otherwise

211through a random drawing or other random selection process. So B, I mean a raffle, cakewalk, what, whatever. They're all according to the to the state, the uh general attorney for the state, you know, that's all gambling. Even if you I know there's a a misconception even if you attach a skill >> to it, it is still legal. >> Is that written in that part of the law? the skill attachment. Is that not >> the best way to answer him is it's a game of chance. If it's a game of chance, >> the thing it's not it's not in the policy about adding skill. You know, it just says no fundraising activity shall be conducted, you know. And the thing is even if you add a skill to it, it still goes against policy because policy

212states no fundraising activity will be done where it's a random draw, you know. So even if you add a a a skill to it and you're drawing out participants for that skill, >> Mhm. >> it's still gambling. According to the state laws, Tennessee state law, it is still gambling no matter how you look at it. And if the, you know, I mean, it's, you know, and I'm, you know, I guess what I'm getting at is, you know, we don't need clubs and groups and, you know, fundraisers associated with us that are still illegal >> even by adding a so-called skill to it because I mean, that's just >> I mean, it's in our policy. I mean, you know, we're not to do any type of lottery. >> We can't do that. Okay. The only way

213the only way you can do is if you can come to the board and ask for an exception to the policy if you are a 501c3 true 501c3 registered with the state of Tennessee >> and apply 6 months before ahead of time with the Tennessee Gaming Commission. >> Yes. You have to be authorized by the gaming commission to to be able to do it >> because I I know quarterback club submitted that about six months ago, but I hadn't heard if they actually got it or not. >> Yeah. So, we need to follow Yeah. Can we get I mean is it can we start compiling >> sure >> all the fundraisers out there so we can make you know and I know when you and I talked about it we just we knew we weren't

214going to decide anything here today but it's getting the conversation going but if we can start by compiling a list of all the fundraisers we're doing then we can start looking at that and then decide you know do we want to change policy and Mr. And if you could kind of get those example policies out to everybody too >> so we can kind of see what what that is then I think that would >> probably be >> you know a good start and then we're we'll bring it up again. So >> and that would include booster clubs too you know what their fundraising is. >> Yeah that's you know school support organization everything that's coming on the >> public associated with the school system. >> You're two you're two different ones. You have a school

215support organization that fall under controller rules, different rules and laws and different policy even in our policy book. >> Then you have the booster clubs that are still associated with our schools and actually operate under the umbrella of the schools, >> right? >> You have those two different ones. >> Bunch's getting cold. So, >> yes, sir. >> Thank you all for listening to me on that. >> No worries. >> No, it's a good conversation and I think you're right. Yeah, >> I think everybody in the community is wondering.