001Mhm. All right, colleagues. We're going to start our MNPS department hearing. I will give the same instructions since each hearing is recorded separately. Um Dr. Battle and her team will give their presentation. Once they conclude their presentation, I will open it up to Vice Chair Spain for any questions that he has. And then I will open it up to the body prioritizing members of the Budget and Finance Committee for any questions that you all have. So, Dr. Battle, if you can introduce yourself and your team, and you have the floor. All right, thank you so much, Chair Toombs, to the entire Council and Budget Committee. We appreciate your time and support this evening. Before you, you have myself, of course, Dr. Battle, the Superintendent of National Public Schools. To my left, we have our Board
002Chair, Freda Player, also Board Member and Budget Chair, Dr. Berthena To my right, you have our Chief Financial Officer, Jorge Robles. So, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to our Budget Chair, Dr. Berthena Nabaa McKinney, to kick us off. Is this working? All right. Good evening, Chair Toombs, Vice Chair Spain, and members of the Metro Council Budget Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to present the proposed 2026 and 2027 MNPS budget. As Dr. Battle mentioned, I'm Dr. Berthena Nabaa McKinney, Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Board's Budget and Finance Committee. I want to begin by expressing appreciation to the mayor Metro Council our district leadership and the entire MNPS community and community stakeholders who help inform this budget process throughout the budget process development process. We also hosted eight
003budget one-on-one and stakeholder engagement meetings with key groups across our district and community to gather feedback answer questions and help inform our budget priorities. Those conversations were critical in ensuring that this proposal reflects both the needs and values of the communities we serve. This proposed budget reflects our continued commitment to student centered outcomes driven investments that support academic achievement student well-being safe learning environments and the dedicated educators and staff who serve more than 80,000 students across Metro Nashville public schools each day even within a challenging fiscal environment. We have worked to prioritize transparency responsibility and alignment with our focused outcomes and strategic priorities. At this time I'm going to turn it over to our director of schools again Dr. Battle who will walk us through the proposed budget in greater detail. Thank you so much.
004I'll go ahead and jump right in before you you see our slide deck presented on the screens. We'll move through them and once we get through the deck will be happy to answer any questions you may have. I think it's important given the roles and responsibilities of this committee that you get to celebrate the return on investment. You all have continually supported and invested in our young people here in Nashville. We greatly appreciate that also our educators from our classroom teachers to our pre-professionals to our bus drivers nutrition services. You name it. We are all educators and leaning in every day to support all of the 80,000 plus students that we serve in Nashville public schools. So the results speak for themselves. Um, quite frankly, I don't have to say a whole lot um here
005because right now Nashville Public Schools is celebrating our highest um TCAP and end of school end of course scores in MNPS history. Um, we are really, really excited um about this because we have seen continual improvements over the last 4 years giving um quite frankly all of our tested grade levels and every content area across um our system. We have exceeded pre-pandemic um results for our students um academically and um growth. Um, in fact, not only are we beyond pre-pandemic, we are celebrating again in the history of our school district um the highest growth and achievement scores that we've seen and we've been celebrating that for several years in a row. So, that continual improvement is what we are um aiming for year after after year. So, again, it's been rising across Nashville. We have
006realized double-digit gains um in achievement um since 2021. We are a four-time level five advancing school district. Um, just to reorient everyone around this language, level five is the highest um growth score that is awarded through the Tennessee Department of Education. Um, it shows that our students are not only meeting what is expected in growth year over year, they're actually exceeding it. Um, I think the term they use is significantly exceeding um what they are projected to um see in growth year over year and this in comparison to their peers across the state of Tennessee. So, we're really excited about that level of growth. Um, we're also recognized as an advancing school district. That is the second highest tier um from the top. So, really excited about being recognized there. That is a measure of
007all of our accountability measures um academic and non-academic. So, we continue to celebrate um our young people and our educators across the district for um achieving that 4 years in a row. Um, again, we're also celebrating not only as we compare ourselves to ourselves, but as we think about what's happening across the state, our students and our educators have continued to outpace state growth um, in all of the tested areas, including math, ELA, social studies, biology, US history, and integrated maths 1, 2, and 3. So, um, that means in maths at the levels that are tested in high school, 9th, 10th, and 11th is usually what that is associated with. Um, again, we are seeing double-digit increases in proficiency since 2021 in all four of the tested categories, and we are celebrating both our highest
008and second highest graduation rates in our district um, history. And so, really proud um, of not only the growth and academic achievements of our students, but our students um, meeting and exceeding the standard when it comes to meeting their high school graduation requirements. Um, so, a lot to be celebrated um, across the district. And quite frankly, we know um, and we recognize in public education particularly that there is power in partnership. So, we appreciate um, the partnerships that we um, are fortunate to have right here in Nashville um, with our Board of Education, um, with the mayor's office, with Mayor O'Connell, of course, this Metro Council, um, all of our educators and our families. Thank you so much for supporting us, helping us in our in our terms within the school district. We have a
009continuous improvement mindset, which is know where you are, but don't stay there. And so, it's helped us to really um, be able to assess where we are and really put some key strategies and innovation in place to help us to continue to move um, the needle forward. So, um, with that, I am going to turn it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Jorge Jorge Robles, who is going to kind of ground us in our logic model, our focused outcomes as a district, and how we have arrived at our proposed um, FY27 budget. Jorge. Thank you, Dr. Battle. Good evening, everybody. Great to be here. So, as Dr. Battle mentioned, I'm going to try to walk you through um high-level overview of um our proposed uh fiscal year '27 budget um the detailed line item budget
010has been provided. It's also posted on our website um that you can reference there as well. So, um every year in this process um our budget development um is anchored in our focus outcomes, and that's really connected to our focus on really improving student outcomes and making investments that help us achieve that. And in our approach um we build an aspirational budget that reflects potential investments by the Board of Education, the mayor, and our Metro Council for a wide variety of program enhancements or improvements that work together with other funded items to improve conditions for teaching and learning. So, that approach of the aspirational item is um aligned with and in support of the priorities set by our Board of Education. Uh and for this coming fiscal year, the four priorities that the board established
011um that drove the design of the budget are continuity of operations, academic coherence, talent strategy, and positive school supports. And we'll reference those a little bit as we discuss the the budget. But also um in our approach, we use uh logic model and continuous improvement frameworks to drive a student outcome-based budget development um that it really help us stay anchored um in anchored our budget decisions and key strategic investments in what matters most for advancing student outcomes. So, here's just a high-level summary of uh the budget and um investment strategies that have been identified in our aspirational budget. And this is a series of key strategic investments um that are aligned in support of the priorities set by the board. So, we'll we'll uh zoom in a little bit in on on this. I'm not
012going to spend in the interest of time going to review every single item, but you can reference this um in in the presentation. Uh but for our first priority um under academic coherence, we identify six six key um strategic investments that are described in in this slide and the next >> [snorts] >> um that will help ensure high-quality instruction for every student and ensuring that they graduate ready for um to succeed in a rapidly changing world. So, we have um first three um strategies listed here um and you can see the additional three um that were developed to support this priority. The priority regarding talent strategy, um we had identified three key investments um that are aimed to ensure that MNPS retains, develops, and attracts exceptional educators by positioning the district as an employer of
013choice and a state-wide leader in teacher compensation. Um so, we have uh an investment around retention, recruitment, and workforce readiness, and um two more that were identified as part of the initiatives to support this priority. And um on the priority uh around positive school supports um we identified uh diverse set of 11 key strategic investments to ensure that the students learn and thrive in safe, welcoming schools that promote well-being, belonging and readiness to learn. Um so again, um we um list the initiatives as well as with the description and the investments that were identified to support this priority anywhere from facility prevention maintenance um to before and after care um and community chief expansions and security enhancements. So you can see um all of the initiatives that were identified. Oop. There you go. Thank you.
014So let's talk about um the proposed budget based on the ordinance allocation. Um the preliminary FY27 operating budget proposal that um we're um sharing and discussing with you today uh reflects the mayor's proposal location in the ordinance. Um this is a budget that will be uh revisit um and brought to for approval and consideration and approval to our Board of Education after Metro Council adopts the final ordinance. Um and it provides a clear line item budget uh anchored on the mayor's proposal. And what this budget includes is uh essentially supporting the investments needed for continuity of operations, which is one of the priorities that the board set out. And in that continuity of operations, we considered all of the inflationary and contractual increases identified in the exercise to build the budget. Um the annual salary
015step increases um that we include in our operating budget for our educators. Um the changes to the student based budgeting um allocations based on um the increase to the base weight that happens every year. Um and the estimated health and pension benefit increases based on um what the governing body has approved um as an increase for next year. It also includes um the metro government across the board cola adjustment of 1.7%. And it provides approximately 5.8 million for key investments from the aspirational budget initiatives that I just referenced as a brief brief overview. So, we'll go a little bit more in detail around this. So, [snorts] what I was referencing what you can see in this slide is the total for continuity of operations is 38.6 million. And that includes 12.3 million related to what
016we identified in terms of inflationary contractual increases. The salary step increase for our educators in our pay plan is estimated at 10.4 10.5 million dollars. The allocation of our student-based budgeting for next year is about 500,000 dollars. And the cost of the associated with the health and pension benefit increases to the employer is estimated at 5 15.4 million dollars. So, that adds up to 38.6 million dollars. We also support the the 1.7 increase in cola which is estimated at 1.7 million dollars. And that leaves that roughly 1 5.9 million dollars for aspirational investments which adds up to the 50 56.2 million that are included in the mayor's ordinance for next year's budget for MNPS. Um >> [snorts] >> And in the 5.9 million dollars for aspirational investments what we have proposed as investments to our
017board um, the um, the priorities is to invest $1.1 million, um, on pre-K seats, uh, to meet the high demand, uh, for pre-K seats, um, at at the Hillwood Early Learning Center. Um, around talent strategy, um, we propose to extend the support staff calendar, um, two days valued at $2 million. Um, this is in response to feedback from our team, um, and so this investment adds days to the work schedule for support staff who are not in the 260-day schedule, and that includes our, um, child nutrition team members, transportation, and school-based support employees. And in support of the positive school support priorities, um, we have prioritized investing on the before-and-after care, uh, initiative, which is helping us expand, uh, programming and as key to support our start start time initiative. And also, um, building a
018dedicated philanthropic service arm, uh, $200,000. This will help us, um, essentially build, um, begin to build the philanthropic function to attract and go after, um, funding, um, that will help us support some of the initiatives, um, given, you know, some of the growing instability at the federal level, um, going after, um, number of grants and things that are available that can help us create a sustainable alternative funding source. Um, in the proposed operating budget, um, we, um, continue to prioritize investments in our educators, uh, through the salary step increase, the extension of the support staff work schedule, and, um, increase in stipend amounts rates that needed to be updated, um, as well as the across-the-board COLA supported by the metro government of 1.7%. What you will see also um, in the line item budget is
019as I mentioned before, we listed out and identified all of the inflationary contractual increases by department and noted the contracts that are increasing or the where there's an inflationary increase. Um we identified also all the costs that are we label as pass-through charges that come from Metro services that that we um that we support or that we benefit from. Um and the amount that we are required to transfer to charter schools MMPHS authorized charter schools. What you will also see is approximately $3.6 million on saving savings across expenses that we're working through identifying to balance the budget. So those essentially are um $3.6 million we need to reduce um to be able to cover the cost associated with the Metro pass-through charges. Um and I didn't want to miss an opportunity to provide also some
020additional context that is relevant to schools um which is um you know in terms of the the the state investment of funds there's a increase in the local share. What this means is that as you look at year over year proportionally we're getting less money from the state and there is higher responsibility or for local government to shoulder the funds needed. Um additionally the expansion of the ESA bills or vouchers as well as the growing number of charters approved by the state, do have or can have a growing negative impact. So, it provides some uncertainty and instability in the future around some of the funds that we receive from the state. And on the federal side, although Congress, thankfully, maintained the current FY27 funding for K-12, was not adjusted for inflation, and certainly it provides
021temporary stability stabilization. However, there is still programs that continue to face risks of not being funded, particularly programs that are serving low-income students, multilingual learners, nutrition, and Medicaid. So, this is something that we're closely monitoring, but I think it's a perspective that we need to take into consideration when we think about budget is there is instability on some of the funding sources that support our school district. And this is the last slide. This is just a snapshot of the summary page of the line item budget. There are 15 additional pages that um go through all of the detail. We provided a link and this is on our website where you can see exactly where the dollars were allocated and that I just summarized for you. Right now, there are no personnel increases budgeted for support
022hub, so our central office. We're still working through the budgets at our schools. The transfer window still open. So, the number that you see there is a 3.6 net reduction is still something that can change slightly as there's movement across personnel in our schools as they're making sure that they have the right personnel to support the needs of the students that they serve. And with that, I'm going to turn it over back to Dr. Battle. Thank you so much, Jorge. Thank you so much, Budget chair Toms, I'll turn it back over to you. Alrighty. Vice Chair Spain. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Dr. Battle and and everyone for being here. I have two MNP students at home tonight who are very excited about the start of summer. So, congratulations on on making it to
023that milestone. But, I it's fair to say I definitely have a vested interest in your success. So, I appreciate all of your work. Can you talk to us a little bit about the trend in enrollment, about where we are, and and how that number's gone over the past 5-10 years? I can talk briefly to it, and Jorge, if you want to bring up any additional specifics that'll be helpful. So, of course, just like every other district in the country right before the pandemic, we were trending in a positive direction throughout the response and the disruptions caused by the pandemic. We did see a slight decline in enrollment. However, the last couple of years, we've been really stable. And our enrollment, in fact, for this upcoming 2026-2027 school year, we're anticipating we're projected to have a
024flat enrollment again for this upcoming year. And so, that stability has helped us with planning a bit better. Of course, there are some state moving pieces this year with expansion, particularly as Jorge has already mentioned with ESA and vouchers that we cannot predict. But, right now we are projected to be at a stable level with enrollment. Okay, thank you for that. So, I'm I'm looking at I'm looking at a chart of your budget going back over the last 10 years that was in Director Reed's presentation to us on the overall budget, and it looks like it goes up by let's say basically 50% little more than that since FY17 to this current recommended budget from about 928 million to about 1.57 billion. So, am I am I safe in assuming that that means that our
025our per pupil spending has gone up by about that same percentage over that time? Um it it has definitely gone up. The per pupil spending in the budget and what has also happened over the last several years is as you're aware the cost of serving many students has gone up significantly. The population of exceptional students, those who have a special needs, the cost of serving the students, the number of students that each of the schools are serving has increased dramatically. That's one of the areas that we have seen our budget needing to grow to support that population as well as multilingual learners. And and those services are you know and and they're necessary and they're important and in some cases they're not scalable. Like if you have to put a one-to-one paraprofessional because of the
026IEP, that's what needs to happen and that just increases not necessarily indexed to the per pupil or enrollment growth. It is it depends on the type of unique learning needs and the type of supports they need to deploy. Okay, thank you for that. Um in the questionnaire that you submitted somewhere in there I think I saw that you were projecting salary savings for this year of 1.8%. What is that amount? Dollar amount? Is that it also says that you're you're able to use those those extra funds not extra funds but unused funds for various one-time expenses like unforeseen repairs and that sort of thing. Does that Is that 1.8% after that or or is that what's used? Um thank you for I was I was trying to remember which question was that. Um yeah, that
027was a reference to um to this current year um which is true every year. There's some There's a uh a a dollar amount that we estimate when we're building the budget that is associated with the expected vacancies. You know, we plan to try to fill every position because they're needed um to support our work. However, we know that that doesn't um happen and there are positions that are really hard to um to fill. Um so we look at historical data and we calibrate year over year as to what that vacancy rate is and and then essentially we estimate what that amount is and how do we uh leverage it to cover, you know, expenses throughout the year that um that are um that are essentially needed for to support the budget. So do you know
028what that amount is for the current year, what that dollar amount is, and how much of it is left over after you cover the unforeseen stuff? Um it it varies because it depends on where we end up with revenue. And as you may know, sometimes we don't know what our especially from the state side the revenue, we don't know it until after the year's closed because there's a true up especially in the money that goes to voucher schools. Um for for um the upcoming year is approximately estimated around um almost uh 80 million dollars. It's like a one 1.5% I think. Thank you for that. Um so I want to try to equate some of the information in finance's presentation on the budget to the one that you just gave us cuz I'm not sure
029how things match up. Um I'm looking at a slide that talks about what the 4% increase um included in the mayor's budget is for. And two of the items are for Let's see, one is for pay restructure plan for teachers. And can you tell us a little bit bit more about what that one means? And also support for new start times. What what goes into making those new start times happen? Yes. Um so that the amount that was included that was I think named on the on the overall budget for um pay restructuring increase was one item that we had included in our initiative for recruiting and retention of our employees. Um it's a um item that we essentially wanted to pursue the pay differential scale, but um given the total amount that we uh
030that was an aspirational item. Given the amount um ultimately allocated in the ordinance, um the items prioritized are the ones are the items listed um in the bottom half of the slide. So, around talent strategy, um we prioritize extending the support staff calendar as well as the um updating the the stipend amounts for um for for for educators. For the Okay, so so there's there are no funds attached to either one of those items in the current budget that you're that you're looking at. >> The um the item for supporting start times is the I believe there was references of before and after care that is 2 million that is there. Got you. Um so it's it's doesn't just support start times, but it's definitely critical um and helpful to support the change in start
031times. I'm a big fan of the aftercare program, so I I I get it. Thank you. Um just a couple more uh a couple of things on the aspirational budget that are not included. The um I think it was 580,000 for environmental stewardship. Can you tell us a little bit about that one? And also the 3 million for security enhancements. Um I'll um assist with the environmental stewardship. Um as you um see here it's about $580,000, which of course is less than um a 0.01% of our total budget. Um that investment would cover um a sustainability manager for MNPS, um certification programs for our educators as well as composting in our schools. I'll start first with the composting. It is um an initiative we've had in the district in the past, but due to um
032funding sunsetting, we've not been able to maintain. So, we would be bringing that back. We had lots of success um with the original um pilot um across several of our schools, but we were not able to take it to scale. And so, having um a sustainability manager will help us go to scale um with a lot of our um environmental stewardship um initiatives. Um of course, I know this is a uh position that has been dedicated for Metro Government. Uh we just want to come alongside and be good stewards um in the work in really educating our young people and giving our educators the tools that they need. Um so, those are the main three investments. Um they're around um the sustainability manager, the the certification program so that we can educate um our staff
033around smart moves we can make and how we can continue to um create programs and innovative ways for our students um as well as composting. Great. And and the uh security enhancements? What about that one? Yes. Um yes, so I'll talk to you um each one of these. Um the first um enhancement is around expanding um AE staff devices for all of our students. Our current equipment allow for our classroom teachers um to have the AE devices being able to be able to notify someone >> me what Tell me what AE is. Audio enhancement devices. Um it helps in two ways. Um one, it actually does this. It it it a teacher really um project and connect with students um based upon um um the content that is being um learned in classrooms. In fact,
034we've gotten a lot There's a lot of research that supports this. We have a lot of feedback from our educators just from an instructional standpoint on how the AE devices you might um have seen some of our educators with them around their necks. It helps project their voices to connect with students wherever they are in the classroom. It also serves um as a security um mechanism. So, in the event of an emergency, they can notify and it's connected to all the right and proper tools um not only in the district but across the city um in the event of an emergency. Um we also have the enhanced safety infrastructure for our elementary um schools and district-wide. As we all know, we have implemented some additional security measures across um our schools and district for a
035number of years. Most recently, we included the um Evolv systems in our high schools and our middle schools. This would allow us to move into the next phase for our elementary schools, which would look a bit different um from middle school and high school. And then for our district-wide um facilities as well where our teachers um are engaged in professional learning, um our support hubs, so on and so forth. And then the last one is around our centralized um security support. Um and this is mainly as you beef up your systems and create this comprehensive multi-layered support, you also have to have the oversight and management um in order to keep them operating um in an optimal state as intended. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am chair. Thank you. Council member Porterfield. Thank
036you, chair. And thank y'all so much for being here. Uh big fan of MNPS as a former teacher, former MNEA member, and a former parent of a MN MNPS graduate who is thriving in college now. Um big big fan of all the work that y'all do. Was really impressed to hear about um the at those beginning slides about all the growth. So, thank y'all for everything. I love to see the two calendar days for the support staff. I know that's something we've been trying to get to for a long time. Really excited to see the increase in pre-K and before and after care. So, thank y'all for all those wonderful things. I did have a few questions. For the before and after care, is that through an organization or is that how are y'all What
037is that money going to? Yeah, it would be likely a combination. Our before and after care programs, we have a lot of success with our before and after care programs that are led by our own educators. So, pairing our young people with adults that they already know who understand the instructional thrust within their schools and other social emotional learning needs of our students has always been a benefit. And so, one of the approaches will be to expand opportunity for our own educators to stand up, serve, and innovate around our before and after care programs. And of course, we believe in the power of partnership. So, we have incredible partners who are already partnering with us in many of our schools, and we will be looking at scaling some of those partnerships across the board. And
038we've already been looking at and studying where there's the greatest need and demand. We have places where there've been waitlists for a long time. We know that particularly in the elementary space with the slight delay in their start time that before care is also very critical for us now. We want to not interrupt the work lives and careers of our parents and families and guardians as much as possible. So, we definitely need to expand in that way as well as the before care. So, we're looking at both internal external partnerships to stand up that expansion. Thank you. And for the sake of the viewing audience who can't always like read the numbers on the screen and they don't always know where to dig into the files, what is the increase from y'all's budget from last
039year to this year, the actual number amount, not the percentage, but the dollar amount. is 56.249. So, now that is um essentially a combination of what's in the Make sure I get the the exact amount. In the ordinance, um the increase is exactly One second. In the ordinance, the um increase is exactly 55 million 807,900, um but there's a a reduction on the property tax increment, so that adds up to then the 56 um million 243,000. Thank you. And how much goes to charters? Um in general Not all the revenue streams qualify for charter, but it's about a 17% 16 to Yeah, 16 [snorts] to 17% that actually gets transferred. Now, that is um going to be um less this coming year, not because we're transferring less, it's because the portion of the state funds
040is going to go directly to them. Now, however, we do have to recognize in our books entire amount. Um but the revenue that we receive from the state is going to take out that portion that we would in the past uh pass through to the charters um directly. Thank you. And I know previously there was about uh for most municipalities, the state was funding about 70 to 75%, the local municipality was funding like 30 to 25 to 30%. That was flipped for Metro uh National Davidson County, where we um provide the lion's share of you all's uh budget. Is that still the case, or what's kind of the split now between the the portion of your budget funded by the city versus what's funded by the state? About 74% from the city uh and 18%
041from the state and then the rest is federal. Okay, thank you. And then my last question was um Council member Spain lifted up in the increase and I forgot the exact language he used but in the increase for the mayor's budget it included the compensation the the compensation that was included in the mayor's budget and I know y'all have to make the decisions that y'all make but I just want to get a good understanding. Is the compensation that the mayor included was that the 1.7% or was the compensation the 3.7% but you all are using 1.7% and then using the other 2% for other things? So what's included is the 1.7% and we also funded what we called a salary step increase. The salary step increase mean the pay plans between the schools and metro
042the rest of metro government are very different. But if you had to equate right for for schools the salary step increase is sort of the equivalent to the merit increase in metro government and then in both cases we have plus a 1.7 across the board. Um when you look at the different pay plans but if you look at the averages of the increase eight average step increase salary step increase allocation for for schools is approximately 1.5% and when you compare that to an average of a 2.2% for the merit increase in the pay plan for metro government. Okay, so they're getting the steps which is a average of 1.5 and then they're also getting 1.7 on top of that. Okay, that's really helpful. I'm sure y'all know like uh folks come to us every year
043and they want us to do the increases and I think um like year after year we've been focused on like historic investment in Metro schools. So, it's like we're giving more and more money and y'all are doing a great job with that money as we've seen from the results. Um y'all do a really great job with that and I think um uh a lot of times like the public kind of expects us to then give more money so that we can pay teachers and support staff more and I think sometimes people don't um fully understand that uh we are continuing to increase and you all are continuing to make the decisions that y'all believe are in the best interest of everybody, the students, the parents, and the staff and there are always like really tough
044decisions to make. So, I know people have already been reaching out like we need more money to pay the teachers and I just want to make sure that it's like really clear of like the breakdown of what y'all are doing to pay teachers. So, um thank you for that and I also wanted to acknowledge that we have school board uh member Maze with us and school board member Taylor. They were said Oh, and um and uh Block Aaron, sorry. I mess up your last name all the time. Um who's also with us. So, I just want to make sure that they got acknowledged over in the corner as well. Council member Allen. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just want to circle back to the environmental stewardship. I think that's such a great thing that kids have
045had the opportunity to do and my understanding is that uh composting program was successful and actually saved money in in landfill fees. Is there the possibility of bringing that back in uh at least in some amount that could be equal to what you're not going to be spending on dumpsters because you're diverting it to to could uh you know, to be in reused and turned back into the environment while teaching kids an an amazing lesson as well. So, the original when we piloted the composting um program, it was all grant funded. So, it it wasn't a kind of apples apples trade-off. We know, however, that there is an opportunity for savings if we can implement using the investments that we have, but the original program was all grant-funded. Right. And the the grant is gone.
046>> is gone. Um so so this 5.8 million 0.58 million would be to to do the full program as compared to I mean that's and that's a county-wide composting which would >> That's correct. Also. Yes. That would be correct to start back the pilot and then begin to scale. >> And then begin to scale. >> to scale. And that is important because as you think about a large organization like Metro Public Schools, when you're scaling, you want to maintain the integrity of the programming or the initiative and so we want to be deliberate, very strategic, I mean really protect what we know on the impact can be. >> We start where we know it works. Okay, I would I would love to see that come back. So, I mean if and and you know, as
047as I think everyone knows we can wish for things in this budget and we can give y'all money, but we can't ultimately y'all will decide how to use it. Um so I just want to go on record saying I think that's a great program and I hope we can find some funding for to make it happen. Thank you. And I also want to say that I'm a proud parent of an MNPS graduate and a grandparent of an MNPS student now. He's having a great experience. Thank you. Council member Webb. Okay. Hey. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. Thank y'all for being here. I'm going to ask my question first and then a couple other council people had sent me questions to ask. Um so we we received a lot of emails from the teachers about
048the recommended cola and that the rising cost but the rising cost of health insurance is eliminating that. Where are you going from that and how are you considering the insurance going forward? >> So, the um the health insurance uh plan that our teachers are in so it's part of the insurance trust. Uh the recommended um and approved by the trust board, recommend the rate increase is uh 7.95%. So, that essentially um for the employer cost is what I showed before. Um in terms of what it um it means for um our teachers in terms of the increase per paycheck, um it varies depending on what the plan is that they're in and they choose, but that increases can go anywhere from um $13 to approximately $31 additional per paycheck that it would this increase would
049would translate to. Okay. Uh my second question, can you share where you are in MNPS is with the additional security measures that MNPD recommended? What has been implemented and what has not been implemented or funded? Um so, um if we were going back through this um deck, you will see in our continuity of operations budget, it actually includes funding to continue um the implementation of our evolve weapons detection units in our middle schools. So, we are we are just this semester towards the end of the school year um getting those implemented in all of our middle schools including two of our K-8 schools that we have. So, we are um in the pilot um phase of that. Um we've also seen a significant um as a result of that, we've seen a significant reduction in
050um firearms being recovered um at our schools as a result of that. So, um we're we're extremely um proud of the progress that's been um, made there. Um, we are waiting for the details on the state grant for safety um, funding which is half of what um, we used last year um, as well. So, we've got some early indications that they may be coming in potentially um, some funding we can use. Um, as far as the MNPD report, um, we have expanded and convened our district safety team um, to review our current practices and recommendations and we'll continue to share um, new ideas that will explore best practices and how we can use the last funding in the future. But, that team has been expanded and they're reviewing that report. So, we have metal detectors
051in every high school and middle school right now? We don't have metal detectors. We do have weapons detection systems. Does it just detect weapons? Yes. Okay. I didn't know that. That wasn't my question, but you brought that up. So, I wanted to clarify that. Okay. Uh, do you have information on the cost of back-to-school bashes? The person's understanding is some were poorly intended and they are Are you looking to scale them back? Oh, actually um, I don't know if we have it um, a strategy cost um, in there. So, um, last year we um, um, began to implement the cluster bashes across every cluster. So, we did not have the standard process um, in the past. We had great partnerships and great experiences um, in some parts um, of the city. Um, and so, our
052student support services team, family engagement team um, have worked closely with partners over the course of the year. So, we'll be bringing those cluster um, bashes back. Um, we need to let's see if we can find um, the investment dollar there. A lot of those resources um, are um, leveraged through our partnership with PENCIL. Um, the PENCIL Foundation helps with a lot of those. A lot of our partners donate things through the cluster bashes. What has been pretty efficient is working closely with partners on items that students actually need. Um, and so, instead of just like all things school supplies, we're trying to really curate um those backpacks and school supplies that our educators um are saying that our students need. In addition to that, um one thing that might go along with a Cluster
053Bash question was we launched our Kinderboxes um last year. This year because we're expanding K1, we're they're called Every Student Known Boxes. I got it. My team's like, "Do you Do you remember this?" Um Every Student Known Boxes. So, our goal ultimately um and in a very aspirational way is to reduce that burden on families um and being able to provide the school supplies um to all of our students. And we're going to be continue to do that through our Cluster Bash um partnerships. Um do you Do we have a line item for that? We might have to um send that back that actual dollar amount. Do you have the dates for that yet? And do y'all send that out to the council people cuz I don't remember getting anything on that. >> We will
054make sure that happens. >> Okay, so it come to mind. Okay, we did Okay. How much money is budgeted to cover lawsuits and settlements for MNPS? There is a There's a liability fund uh for all of Metro government that um essentially every year in the budget, MNPS contributes to that fund. Uh it's approximately $1 million that gets added every year to to that fund. And obviously, depending on the needs etc., we work closely with Metro Finance to ensure that that fund remains at a certain level um and we work through our budget to make sure that that happens. Council member Allen. Thank you, chair. I'm going to use my black woman privilege here and go through a list of questions that I have, and you all can decide which ones to answer and which ones
055to follow up. Um so one, I wanted to understand I'm still trying to catch up on how that voucher payment works. I know, um, especially, um, Ms. Frieda, when it comes to that charter payment, right? That follows the the kid to the school. But, when that kid, or if that kid gets, you know, kicked out of that charter school because they can't meet that requirement, does that money follow them back to the Metro public school? And does the Metro, or does the state's voucher program work like that? Um, and the second question is, is there an average spin per child, or an average spin per school, uh, that you all work through when you're allocating the budget? Um, and then the last question is, I'm not going to identify the school, but there's a school
056in my area that has the, uh, portals because the school is overcrowded with them having retained the fifth graders. And so, I wonder if the security enhancement covers those portals. And that's all. Yeah, there's two. You you want to go in that order? We can go in that order. Thank you for the questions. Um, so I'm going to, um, try to, uh, be brief on the answer to the first part. So, when it comes to, um, the charter schools funds, uh, if they're MMPS authorized charter schools, those funds, essentially, we budget and they're allocated and distributed to the charters based on their average daily membership. The state does adjustments, three adjustments over the year, based on the average ADM. So, if the student moved, you know, you would hope to see that adjusted in, you
057know, the state driven adjustment because the student moved back, and then the dollars that we would get get adjusted on the payments that we receive from the state. So, the state takes care of trueing that back up. Um for and similarly that happens with the uh state-authorized charters. Now, the difference is that we we don't we don't the money essentially for state-authorized charters is taken out up front out of what is allocated to MPS and then they adjust throughout the year if the enrollment grows or decreases. It's kind of complicated, but um with vouchers is different. We don't have visibility well for the ESA legislation, the voucher program that has been in place. Um we don't see the numbers of students that actually take advantage of the vouchers and leave. All we see is at
058the end of the year the state in the final payment at the end of, you know, in June 30th, they say this much money was sent for vouchers and they take it out of our true up amount. Um the new bill, the ESF, um is funded um so they don't technically take money out of us, but if we lose enrollment, there's a hold harmless provision that really doesn't keep us um doesn't hold us harmless, um but it's, you know, it is is part of the legislation. The average per child um amount per school, so we have a student-based budgeting and that has a base amount for students um that is uh this year I think it's close to $6,600 and then we apply weights um for the specific student needs. So, if the student has
059is an exceptional student has a unique learning disability that needs additional support, the school gets additional money for that student. If there are multilingual learners, similarly. So, we based on the specific school population that they're serving, we multiply the the weights per per the base and then that the results in a total budget um that is allocated to the school to serve the specific needs of the population they're serving. And regarding the portables, everyone is required um both students and um staff to leverage the Evolv system. Um and so, even if a student is transitioning on campus through the facility to a portable, they must also go through the Evolv system. Okay, I'm looking around before I start asking questions. All right. Uh looking at I'm looking at your budget at at a glance, the
060public education general fund, it's the 1.4 billion that lines up with the spreadsheet that we have. And then there's special purpose funds, 430 million 905,500. Can you explain what those funds are and what they're used for? I'm going to look towards finance cuz it it Yeah, look at the Metro finance. I I I think those are the um related to to the capital uh Oh. Nutrition, child nutrition. So those those are okay, those are nutrition funds. Okay. Um I want to go back and and talk a little bit cuz we hear a lot um in the news and on social media and I know you got to take what you see on social media with a grain of salt, but council members were most of us are pretty active on social media and looking at
061um the advancements that MNPS uh is making and I I want to step back a little uh for a moment. I am the proud parent of three MNPS students. Uh so I'm a strong supporter of MNPS. Um So looking at the the gains that the district has um made over the last four years, which lines up with the city making uh appropriate investments in our schools, some historic investments in our teachers and in a lot of different programs, uh historic investment last year to uh handle the funding cliff from ARPA funds to make sure that all this uh innovative programming that you all have put in in place could continue, um but looking at those gains that you've realized, can you >> [clears throat] >> address what that looks like in in terms of like
062reading levels? Cuz we hear that a lot in the public about the reading levels of MNPS students. Can you talk a little bit about that and what gains uh you're seeing specifically for reading levels and and how is that Is that reflected in TCAP score TCAP scores? Can you talk a little bit about that? Um yes, I'm happy to do so. It's a little tricky cuz we're in the we just tested again. Um and we're excited about the progress that we're starting to see early on with our student learning. But if you look at our state assessment First of all, this is not very well known, but the state of Tennessee has the most rigorous standards and assessment in the country. So that's the first thing that should should be realized. But what we have
063seen is our student proficiency in reading continued to on average increase two to three percentage points year over year, which equates to thousands of students meeting or exceeding their English language arts and reading standards. For example, we've seen in third grade alone, we started out about 20 mid-20% of our students in proficiency and we are climbing pretty quickly towards 40% so pretty significant increases. That is in some ways unheard of to be able to make that kind of steady progress year after year. The average the state average for ELA and reading across the state is about 40%. And I think sometimes it gets lost in the sauce. We're not on a 100% scale. So across the entire state the average is around 40%. So what we've been able to project share to your question is
064if we're able to maintain that steady increase year after year in just a short couple of years our students should be meeting or exceeding the state average given the progress. You might remember our slide um, in the deck, um, that I mentioned that our students are outpacing the growth that we're seeing across the state. And that's because the state has kind of plateaued at this point while our MNPS students continue to climb. So, it is positive in that regard and I hope that percentage, as an example, um, helps demonstrate, um, the continued progress that our educators, families, and students continue to make. Any additional Oh, yes. And I can share one other. Cuz we do we do a lot of comparison, um, here to ourselves, but also to the state. Another, um, strong data point
065is for the fourth year in the row, um, Metro Public Schools has been highlighted in, um, the education recovery scorecard that is commissioned by professors and researchers at Harvard and Stanford University. Um, we may be Last year we were the only, um, we've not had an opportunity to dig into it as much this year because it was just released about a year ago. Um, we may be the only district in the country that has showed up in their report in the top 10, um, for four years in a row for both English, um, proficiency growth and math, um, growth as well. ELA and math. And Councilwoman [clears throat] Allen is Yep, sorry. I just got one more question and longer as we keep sitting here, I'll keep keep coming up with questions. Just joking. Um,
066so I want to understand the, uh, on Councilmember Porterfield's question, she was saying that it's 1.7% step increase and then only some folks were getting the additional 1.5% merit increase. Or did I misunderstand that? Um, no, the the the step increase, which is sort of the our adjustment to, um, our pay plan that is equivalent to the merit increase is, um, everybody's impacted by the step increase and on average that increase in our pay plan is about a 1.5%. Got it. Okay. And so the And so I'm trying to make sense of was there a conversation that was had between the board deciding on the 1.7% versus the 5% that MNEA requested? Um so, yes. Um as uh budget uh chair Dr. Nkenge Kenny mentioned, um the board actually engaged in a lot of pre-work
067um with regards um to the budget. They've held eight to 10 um stakeholder engagement um sessions. They've had much board discussion and deliberation um about this. And what that comes down to is the amount that we're um we were allocated. And so, um making it make sense there. You could probably see on our slide deck how much every 1% COLA um would equate to. And so, we pushed that as far um as we could um to get to the 1.7% and that's been part of the conversation um with our board members. But of course, I mean, their desire um myself and my team's desire is always to make sure that we're compensating our valuable um and quite frankly effective educators um in a way that um is respectable and and valued and represents um what
068they offer to our city. All right, doing one last sweep. Seeing no additional questions, that concludes our MNPS department budget hearing. Thank you, Dr. Battle and everyone. Uh colleagues, just reminders, wish lists are due Monday, which is Memorial Day, but it's not due till 11:59 p.m. So, you can enjoy your day and then get those wish lists in. Uh we will have our first budget work session at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 26th in the jury room. If you submit a wish list item, please plan to attend the budget work sessions, especially the first two cuz we're going to completely go through uh those wish list items and then begin to prioritize them as a collective on the 28th. So again, wish lists are due 11:59 p.m. on Monday the 25th. First work session is
069Tuesday 4:30 p.m. in the jury room in this building on the ground floor, uh May 26th. If you have submitted a wish list item, please come so that you can talk about your item and give a rationale for it. Have a good evening and a great weekend. This has been a service of the Metro Nashville network. If you would like to see this presentation again or for more information on this and other programs, visit nashville.gov.