001Thank you so much. Um Chair and Abdi Mohamud um for kicking off the board finance committee meeting. Um you will hear mainly this evening from myself and um Chief um what's your name? Jorge Robles. >> [laughter] >> Is that kind of y'all forgive me? Um That was a mama moment. >> Yes, it was. What What grade are you? Um Um but we're going to go ahead and jump right in to make sure that we leave ample time for any questions um or feedback as we move forward. So, um we always like to start out our budget conversation and presentation just really grounding us um on um the again historic investments um the advocacy of this board in partnership um with other city leadership um to really realize some pretty strong outcomes on behalf of our
002students, families, and our educators. Um here on the first slide again, I just want to highlight that um we are currently um still celebrating and learning from um having the highest TCAP and EOC scores in our district um history. Um we know that our student proficiency and growth um continues um on a steady um climb across um the district. And so, I'm going to dig into a little bit of what that means, but this is um very familiar to everyone that um we're in a really historic space. And so, as we're grounding our conversations around the budget I'm just keeping in mind that continuity um of services um and outcomes that we're realizing on behalf of our students and also um the gaps we want to continue to close um so that we realize all
003of our students in every success marker for the district. Um again, just going a little bit deeper, we are a four-time level five um and advancing um school district as a reminder, um level five is the highest um growth um measure you can receive in the state of Tennessee. So, we're really proud of um our young people um our students and scholars um and our educators for the continued growth. We're also at the second highest level um designation that a school district can receive with um being acknowledged as an advancing district. We are home again to a number of award schools. We continue to outpace the state growth um in almost every tested category across every grade. We have realized double-digit increases in proficiency since um 2021. And when you are moving just outside of
004sheer percentages um we often lead the state um or at the top of the state in the numbers of students who continue to meet and exceed um their goals every year. And of course, we are celebrating um the highest and second highest um graduation rates in the history of our um great school district. Um so again, digging down a little bit deeper, um again the highest achievement in the district in all tested subjects since the adoption of our more rigorous state standards and proficiency level targets, again we have um rebounded um beyond um the impact of the pandemic several years ago. Um I've mentioned we continue to outpace the state growth in almost every tested category. We've seen significant gains um across all of our elementary tested categories. In fact, 19 of 21 grade level
005subject categories um improved um just over last year. And again, double-digit gains um but most importantly, nearly all student groups improved proficiency levels in all four tested subjects um in our three through eight grade band in both 2024 and 2025. Um and lastly, from 2024 to 2025, all student groups made proficiency proficiency gains um in tested areas like integrated math one, two, and three um and US history and almost all grades made gains in um English one, English two, and biology at the high school level. Um just to recap um and ground us again um as you dig into that individual growth measure, I've talked a lot about proficiency. Um we have realized um again a level five composite um for our grades four through eight band um and in every category, if you can
006give me one more click, um at the top of the pyramid, you can see that composite score. On the next slide, you can see our system-wide composite um for um the entire district. Um again, every um category with three level three and numeracy and um system-wide literacy and numeracy, but a composite of a level five, remember level three is what should be expected um year over year. And then lastly, um as we dig into TCAP 2025 TCAP ACT composites, um and as was just mentioned in the director's eval um conversation, we really focus on the post-secondary metrics um for our young people. So, we're really excited um as you look at the culmination um of a student's experience in taking the ACT, we continue to see students um outpacing their growth projections um for each
007of the subject areas including the overall composite. Um most importantly, I say all that to say thank you. Thank you um again to this board for your continued um support, really setting the conditions for us to keep the main thing the main thing and to keep investing um in having high-quality educators and leaders all across the district. And of course, um meeting the the the the tone and tenor of our mantra of ensuring that every student um is known. We appreciate the partnerships that you have forged um across um the city um not only with our mayor and the council, but also with our educators and our families that we serve. Um and all of this um has helped us really know where we were, right? In the past or we were, um but continuing
008to help us not stay there. We um continue with our continuous improvement work um while we're celebrating all these great successes, we still have um quite a bit of work um to do and to accomplish um on behalf of our city. So, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Chief Robles, who is going to walk us through um our budget. Um he is going to take some time to really ground us in more context around where we been, um where we are with regards to our budget, but also um as we think about continuity of operations and the innovations um that are um represented in our aspirational budget, he will um walk us through that including our timeline and next steps and ample time for discussion. Chief Robles. Thank you, Dr. Battle.
009Yep. So, so um Well, Chair, committee chair, board members, great to be here with you. It's uh it's that time of the year, so here we are. Um I will uh there's a lot of information to cover, so I'm going to try to move quickly, but really um try to emphasize some of the things that are really important for us today's discussion and then obviously try to leave as much time as possible for questions um at the end. Um so, the the presentation we're going to start with a a level setting as Dr. Battle said around our current budget. Um these are the um four priorities that uh you adopted for this year that anchor the development. Um not going to go through them, but um these are you're familiar with it um and um
010help guide the budget that we developed. Um so, in June, last June, you adopted a budget that actually provided us with the essential funding uh to support the priorities, the um the essential continuity funding um so that we can sustain the investments that we have. Um we were able to fund the high uh impact programs that uh have made such a huge difference in our students' outcomes. Um and we funded other uh initiatives such as uh uh safety priorities and and health through the um the the health department uh nurses at every school. >> [snorts] >> Then subsequently in December, you adopted an amendment to our FY26 budget, which actually reflected the changes primarily from the student-based budgeting full adjustment that schools go through. Um and some um other changes to um FTEs necessary to
011reflect um what was happening such as if you recall, we talked about shifting some positions from IDF I IDEA funding to local funding to continue to support provide support for kids as that grant um has been decreasing. Um this is a reminder of some of the key investments that are in our FY26 budget currently um and which includes the the the cola that you approved for our employees, the big investment on high-quality textbooks, and a lot of the key strategies that were previously funded um by ESSER bridge. So now, let's talk about our um proposed uh fiscal year 27 budget. Um and as Dr. Battle referenced, we'll talk about continuity of operations um which, you know, in the form of an increase over the FY26 budget, so you have the um adopted amended budget um
012copy of that, so this builds on um that budget. And then we'll talk about the aspirational uh investments that we have identified to support the priorities that this board has set out for FY27. Uh as always, um we are anchored on our focus outcomes and core tenets. And um the priorities that this board adopted have essentially um guided and anchored um the way that we have put this budget together. Um as a reminder, you know, you um prioritized continuity of operations so that we are able to maintain those foundational investments that enable the continued progress as Dr. Battle was referencing earlier. Um academic coherence and we've talked about that as ensuring the aligned teaching and learning and pathways that deliver consistent improvement and high-quality instruction for every student. Talent strategy, which is really focusing on
013ensuring that MMPs retains, attracts, and develops exceptional educators by positioning ourselves as the as an employer choice. And positive school supports, which is ensuring that students learn and thrive in safe, welcoming schools that promote well-being, belonging, and readiness to learn. Some important budget context specifically around state funding that we want to make sure that we mention for you. Um we have a growing dependency on local funding as the base grows. I think this is not a surprise to any one of you. Right now, we're sitting close to 74% of our funding actually comes from local funding, 18% from the state, and as the base grows and the way that the state funding works through the TISA formula, that the the proportion of the local funding continues to increase. Um also the state continues to authorize
014increased charter approvals, which essentially moves funding away from what MMPs receives and going to the state authorized charter schools. And the ESA voucher expansion continues to impact our funding as you we have talked about in the past. ESA is is about close to 11 million on an annual reduction. So, at the end of true up from the funds that we receive from the state. Um and an interesting note is that um as you look at the proposed bills that are going through the legislation right now, the EFS voucher expansion, the the fiscal um the fiscal bill is about 150 million dollars in uh what it would cost to actually change the definition of economically disadvantaged that we know would benefit the way that we would be able to support our students is is half that.
015So, it means 83 million dollars. So, that is the context that we're in right now and it's important to reference because that might impact essentially what is the funding that we're looking um to have access to in the future. We have talked about this in the past, but to continue to level set the what you should expect on timelines. Right now, we're we're reviewing um the proposed continuity operations increase and the aspirational budget investments. Um tomorrow we'll be sharing the same information with the community. On the 14th, this will come back for your consideration. And once the mayor submits his budget ordinance to city council and we know what the allocation for MMPs is, we'll come back to you sometime in May with the line detail budget that would essentially outline and will match the
016funds allocated to MMPs in the mayor's ordinance. Um to ultimately have this all approved and wrapped up by the end of June. And you have seen this in the past. A reminder of the roles key stakeholders play throughout this process and this board obviously has a huge and important responsibility of reviewing, considering, and adopting the MMPs operating budget. This year we're we're having these conversations. All right. So, let's get into FY27 and let's talk about continuity operations, which is the first priority. Um and here's what we are proposing for you to consider. Uh in terms of the operating budget, we're looking at a 12 million dollar increase to sustain or to provide continuity. And I will provide a little bit more detail on this on the next slide. Um [snorts] we've also included a increase
017to the student-based budgeting weight to ensure that schools essentially continue to have the purchasing power given that salaries increase, you know, with the cola and step increases as well as inflation. So, maintain that that purchasing power for our schools. Um the salary step increase that we include every year and this board prioritizes in our operating budget, um we're estimated at 10.5 million dollars for FY27. >> [snorts] >> Um and this include this excludes the roles that are funded through grants. So, that is worked through the grants itself. Um and also on the health and pension benefits, um this are estimates. These are not amounts that have been approved yet by the governing bodies for both. Um but in the case of the health insurance for our certificated employees, um the estimate is that we would
018be somewhere around 8 and 1/2 million dollars, a 7% increase if we think about keeping up with um the rise in the cost of health care based on what the experts are projecting for our portfolio. And in the in the case of support staff, which is established and approved by Metro government, um the estimate is 9 and a quarter million dollars. That is about a 16.8% increase. Now, only half of that would impact our fiscal year 27 because that takes effect in January. So, it's January to January. Our certificated is July to July. So, what we're including in our budget right now is only half of that for 27. But I wanted to give you the the estimate for the full increase as it has been proposed. So, a little bit more detail on continuity
019operations of the 12 million dollars that that I referenced, the main drivers are the usual suspects. Contractual increases, a little bit over 4 million, we have other cost increases primarily inflationary or where rates go up. You know, utilities being a big one that is going to go up and we think that that might actually be something that we have to revisit in the near future. Um and then as we work through the budget, we also >> [snorts] >> identify some savings that we factored in that caused 12 million dollar increase for next year. Um there is no increase on the number of FTEs for support hub for FY27. Um and the we don't know the changes at the school level as they're going through their budgeting process right now. So, we that information will come
020later to this board. >> [snorts] >> So, speaking of schools, on the FY27 student-based budget allocation, we increased the weight from 6,440 dollars to 600 600 6 6,655 dollars per pupil. Um as a reference to make sure that schools are set up for success. Um this is based on the enrollment projections that were done in mid-February. So, this means that as you know, we have a full adjustment process so that if enrollment changes in which ever direction, then we revisit the allocation to make sure that schools are kept whole in the process as we learn, you know, who how many students are we serving at each place. So, the total allocation that is spiral to schools, um it goes up by about half a million dollars. And that total allocation also includes an increase to
021the exceptional education allocation, which is part of the the whole allocation to account for an increase expected increase in the number of exceptional ed students as well as rising cost for the services that we provide. Sure, that we're doing right on time. All right. So, let's move to the aspirational budget and the key investments that we're considering here. Um We're going to share I'm going to share this with you in alignment with the board priorities as we thought through them in support of those board priorities. And obviously the all of these investments will be depending on funding availability. Um the approach that we took for the aspirational budget is using logic model and continuous improvement frameworks to actually anchor our decisions in our mission of every student known and making sure that what we're doing
022is focused on impact to students and deploying resources to make sure that students are set up for success and continue to increase their outcomes. So, it's an outcome-driven planning what we have gone through and the way that we thought about these investments. And it also helped us essentially understand what's most important to achieve our outcomes for each one of the priorities. This is a a list summary list of each of the key investments aligned by board priority. And I'm going to go in now and give you a high-level summary of each of this and definitely will be happy to answer questions at the end um for those that that you would like to one want to have more information. All right, so let's start with our priority on academic coherence. One of the investments is
023academic acceleration is 10.5 million and this is really strategies for tier one interventions as well as priority school impact schools and schools that are on the cusp and so that we can match targeted supports for our students and these are you know evidence-based acceleration supports. The other strategy which is $180,000 is to continue our program of providing no cost supplies to our students expanding to first grade. So great success and we want to try to continue that. The third strategy is around early learning enhancements is 1. almost 1.3 million and this is really to expand the high demand pre-K seats that through the Hillwood Early Learning Center. um And given that we had we had demand there. um The fourth key investment in academic coherence is investing on visual and performing arts supports. This is
024about $700,000 to continue to invest in our summer camps every you know every student knows summer camps have a great success educator support transportation you know resources that our kids need to continue to grow and thrive visual and performing arts. In college and career readiness and advanced academics $750,000 to strengthen our gifted and talented program. And last but not least unique learning enhancements $210,000. This is to help us improve differentiated learning strategies across the district. I'm going to move to talent strategy prior key investments of the priority of talent strategy. The first key investment will be around retention recruitment and workforce readiness. I referenced in the continuity of operations that a cola 1% cola is a 6.8 million dollar investment. And that breaks out about 4 and 1/2 million for certificated employees and 2.3 million
025support staff. So um What we're looking here is to invest in cola but also continuing the the commitment that in the exercise that we've done in previous years to review the base scales to remain competitive. We will look at a high-level approach to make differentiated investments at certain steps for teacher base scale that would help us be remain competitive for entry level or steps where we have a high volume of teachers. And um and you know and and and continue that work around making sure that they remain relevant with our teacher base scales. In this we also want to invest $350,000 on expanding recruitment strategies. um a um Invest in increasing the stipend amounts. So this is things like exception pay or the professional development stipends. That's a 1.2 estimated at 1.2 million. And also
026investing on differentiated pay at about 1.6 million dollars. Two other key strategies under the talent strategy priority. One is the classroom associate expansion at 5.8 million dollars. This is to help us enhance classroom associate expansion by doing strategic deployment and and training for this critical role that has had so much success. And to actually really excited about investing 1.3 million on grow your own program. So this is establishing an MMPS education preparation program. um This actually we can you know leverage the the pathway to train and prepare classroom associates will be one of the opportunities that we could capitalize on and strengthen permanent teacher certification programs. So let us move to the um fourth priority of positive school supports. um One we have uh facilities preventative maintenance for 7 million. Essential self-explanatory. um The second
027one is around cybersecurity of $150 million. This is a growing need in today's environment. I want to make sure that we're investing in this. um uh Third $200,000 to invest on philanthropic enhancements. This is to really help us build a dedicated philanthropic service so we can strengthen our ability to connect donors with high impact priorities and create continuity and sustainability of funding through that channel. um For via financial optimization this is near and dear to my heart $300,000 to strengthen our capabilities around forecasting resource allocation across departments and schools so we become really more sophisticated and um relevant in how we are able to do this work. um Given the size of our budget but also strengthening integration of the financial planning analysis across funding sources so we're able to help our schools and departments
028best leverage resources across the board to continue to to improve in that space. um The fifth key strategy is around school health clinics. That is a 9.2 million dollars. So this is an initiative that has been in our aspirational budget for some time. The idea of having school-based health services delivered through partnerships available to serve our kids and families. And this amount considers one site per quadrant. If we wanted to scale that out is about 2.3 million dollars per site. So we want to do you know go beyond the four that would afford us the 9.2 million is about an estimated 2.3 million which includes both the the building and the operating component of the investment. The sixth key strategy is around before and after care 2 million dollars. This would actually help us increase
029the access to high high quality before before school and after school and also the out of time programming that help us support academic enrichment improve student engagement and whole child development. um We have approximately $150,000 identified for family engagement enhancements. So this is really to help us strengthen our capacity at our schools to partner with families and have them as active contributors to the student learning and well-being but also to help us retain and recruit families through this work so that we can actually um sustain and grow enrollment by showing them the fabulous schools that we have in MMPS. The strategy the strategy key strategy is community achieves expansion. This is really expanding our in-house operations that focuses on coordinating the student support strategies and partnering with the schools helping them address potential barriers to
030learning. Successful program that we look to expand. And um the last key strategies that we want to share with you nine is environmental stewardship. This is a a little bit over uh $500,000 that would help us put in place programs to support environmental work at the schools. Number 10 is student success centers. So that is almost 11 million dollars to have locations where we can provide that short-term intervention and support for our students that are experiencing that you know the academic behavioral or social emotional challenges so we can offer that a structured setting and support for students. And last but not least 3 million dollars for security enhancements. This would be an expansion of the audio enhancement staff devices to all staff. You know with the safety feature included in those devices. As well as
031enhance our safety infrastructure in elementary school and district wise. Also importantly is to put in place centralized security support. So as we expand the systems it is important to have the capacity to manage and monitor them to be successful. All right. So, lot of information. And left some time for questions. So, I'll turn it over back to uh for Neva Mekini. Remember Neva Mekini. Thank you so much. We will now open it up for questions. Um and the easiest way to do this is just start by district. So, I'm going to start with district one. Board member Taylor. Can you get my mic on? All right. It's like I'm online. All right. Um I have a couple of questions. Um and I probably will have some more after we go through everybody else, but um
032the um first question I have is around um advocacy and peace centers. Um those were in the uh director's uh evaluation report. And I just wanted to be clear about where we can find that within the budget. Um I know I saw the student support centers are receiving about $11 million, which which may include some of that, but I wasn't sure um exactly where we would find um As you're As you're pulling it up, Chief Robles, um and you might be thinking about this differently. So, just So, the current um um advocacy centers and advocacy centers are elementary schools, peace centers are in our secondary schools, middle school and high school are in our up current operating budget. So, you don't see a aspirational um um ask for that because it's already there. It would
033be any increases compensation, things of that nature will be represented in our continuity of operations so that we can continue to operate those at the same level that we currently are. Got it. Thank you. >> if you go back to if I'm not mistaken, um I am mistaken, so I'll stop there. Um but they're already in our operating budget. And I guess I'm wondering if maybe in the budget book if there may be some place to put in the notes that these are areas where those particular staff or resources can be located um throughout the uh budget book. We we can um we can point it out, but uh Dr. Battle is right. So, the current um services that we provided at at at those centers are included in our our continuity of budget. So,
034what um when I was referencing continuity budget, the it's an increase over what we currently have and what you see in the schools today, that's already included in uh the continuity of operations. >> And as far as the budget representation, those are in school budgets. Um so, that's you'll see them in the individual school budgets. So, every school will have either an advocacy coach or a um restorative coach in their individual budgets. So, those are school-based employees. Great. Great. Thank you for clearing that up for me. Um the next question that I have is um I saw um additional funds for before and after care support. Um will that be put in place to help support the new school start time? Yeah. Um so, um I think we would all agree, even before the start
035time adjustment, there was a need to expand um before and after care. Um but definitely um in um alignment with that transition, particularly at the elementary school where we'll have that 15-minute shift. Um as much as possible, we would like to offset the need to adjust family schedules um by specifically offering um before care. But it has been a long-standing need um and we would love to be able to invest in accelerated at this point um so that families would have access at the beginning of the school year. All right. And my last question for uh this first go-round is uh our support staff have discussed with us that um during the breaks um are very difficult for them. And I wanted to know if we have any way to address that or if we
036have taken a look at doing something around uh supporting them uh during the spring and fall and winter breaks. We have um we have also um been in conversation with our support staff um around that. We've talked about um some of the tradeoffs um with regards to employee schedules and and things of that nature. And so, what you um see represented um which we are still working on some of the detail around um under our talent strategy and you see um and this conversation makes me think we might want to rename this. Um but you see um right before differentiated pay. Um thank you for Okay. Um where we have the increased um stipend amounts. So, one of the things we're trying to do is to look at our calendar um one fundamentally, and we've
037had this conversation with MNEA as well when it comes to um exception pay, PD pay. We've been at the same level for a long time. Um so, while compensation has increased, we've not increased some of the exception pay um budgets um to keep pace with compensation. So, that's one thing. The other component of that is to also address some of the feedback um we've received for support staff. Um by law, I know one of the things that was surfaced was around how we can trade out days and like if we can rename them. By law, we're unable to do that. We have dug into that um as a part of the feedback, but that's what you see represented there. Um and I've already asked my team just to go back and like check numbers to
038make sure that we that investment amount is going to be truly reflective um of the growth that we can see in other spaces um if we're able to invest in other areas. So, that's where you will see that reflected. And I'm I'm not Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you all. >> Yep. Thank you. District two. Thank you. My first question is what does an enhancement of classroom associates expansion look like? Yes, um specifically um so, we are fortunate that we currently have on staff 532. Is that right? 531. 531. Um 531 >> [laughter] >> classroom associates. And so, um the reason we're trying to be really strategic around this is that if if we're able to expand, we want to make sure that the workforce demand is able to keep up. And so,
039the prioritized areas right now, the top prioritized areas are um our priority schools, our schools with the highest um need. Um and those of you who have been part of the conversations this week um have heard us talk um pretty um intensely around that. Um but also um our high schools, which are our larger schools um in the district, just reducing their ratio um right off the bat. So, that will be the first phase um of that expansion around classroom associates. Again, we're trying to balance in a year's time workforce demands with the needs of our schools as well. So, the enhancement is an expansion. It is and See, y'all were going to get me. I told y'all. It's going to try to forget. Um and um we are working on um some pipeline development
040um where our classroom associates can essentially be trained on the job towards permits and certification. And so, that would allow us to um both enhance their skills and also their readiness to move into other positions within the district. My assumption is then that would work into the grow your own program. Ideally, Absolutely. Um which by the way, I'm glad to know that we're working on a grow your own program. I know that's something we've talked about for many years and it's just hard to get off the ground, quite frankly, it seems. Um my next question is on the philanthropic enhancements. How is this uh dedicated philanthropic services arm different from MPEF and Pencil? Would you like to take the first go at it? I'm happy to, Jorge. Um so, All right. So, we have some
041anchor partners um in the city. Pencil primarily um focuses on um strategies that support um directly our classroom teachers by way of the DG Pencil Box, um tutoring um services and supports around our Academies of Nashville. Those are some of the big buckets um Pencil, but not a um necessarily a fundraising arm, although they do um serve as kind of a pass-through around grants and other opportunities on the district's behalf given the strong partnership. Um Who was the other one you mentioned? MPEF. MPEF. Okay. So, the Nashville Public Education Foundation um here in the city um doesn't actually So, if you look across the country, typically um public school foundations serve as um the philanthropic kind of fundraising arm of the organization. Um that is not the structure that exists currently here in Nashville. Um
042it is a conversation that we've had for quite some time. Um typically what you see in those foundations is that those foundations align closely with the district um to help kind of amplify um what's happening in the district, um but also fundraising towards key priorities that may or may not be funded through the um um flows of investments we receive, i.e., federal, state, and local. Um, that is typically the role of foundations across, um, the country and we've studied them and we've had these conversations with MPEF, um, and others. And so, because we have an absence of that, there is a grand opportunity, um, for us as a district to also, um, be actively seeking out grants and fundraising, um, opportunities. I think a perfect example is that we have, um, um, some very, um,
043supportive and eager alum um, of National Public Schools from districts across the the city, um, who are coming together to form, um, an alumni, um, association across the district. Um, that is one strategy that would be housed, right, not supported, I guess I should say, under this philanthropic, um, arm. And that organization, that group wants to fundraise around key priorities of the school district. So, um, context is typically PENCIL serves, right, when it comes to direct supports to our classrooms and fundraising there. Typically, the, um, foundation, i.e., MPEF, would be a fundraising philanthropic arm. That's not currently how they function and so therefore, um, we're looking to invest in this way. Um, by the way, if if and when you do this right, we partnered with, um, Harvard University and some other folks to help
044us study this. Um, these, um, um, departments, arms, leaders, if you will, could almost, um, raise enough investments to cover their role, um, within the district as well as support, um, key priorities. And so, um, we want to make sure that we're also doing our part, um, as a district and as an administration, um, around the investments, um, that are needed. Clearly, we're seeing, um, the level of investment shift from state to local, but we also want to do our part to have, um, someone and or and or a team that's waking up every day, um, going after grants and other philanthropic opportunities to support our priorities. If If I would just add really quickly, we did a lot of research and study around this, including leveraging Harvard students and, uh, talking to districts that
045have do this successfully. This capacity helps, in addition to what Dr. Battle referenced is, um, regardless of whether you're leveraging an an existing foundation as a philanthropic arm or as a uh, as a fiscal, you know, the fundraising arm or the fiscal arm, you require capacity to actually best coordinate with them, but also you want capacity to, um, when donors come not through a foundation but directly, you want to be able to have the work ready to match strategies with donors. And that requires an ongoing work and capacity and alignment, so it becomes really, uh, another source of sustainable funding over the years. Thank you. Um, to our board members, we'll see. When we And this is just a comment, but when we were doing the work around raising the additional funds for the expansion
046of the element, like, where does the money go and who is the person on the team who helps to get that done? When we were doing this with elementary schools in, um, that was a a difficulty. This would solve some of that problem. Another great example. Thank you. Yeah, I, um, I don't disagree that there is a number of different ways that this would be helpful to us as it is understood that MPEF does not work in the typical or expected way, um, and has not for many years, um, to work in tandem within our own goals and our our growth wants, um, and needs for funding. It's my understanding, looking at different options that are out there for funding, particularly as we are becoming more and more dependent on local funding, that we're leaving
047a lot of money on the table for grants and other things cuz it's simply not the priority of those other two groups. Though PENCIL does incredible and important direct work, I know that that's just not a place that they can expand at this time, but they have as needed in certain ways, like in Aaron's example. Um, so I am glad to hear that we're doing that as I think that there is a great potential and it's quite very likely that we would raise well over the cost, um, because again, I know that there are lots of places that we're just not able to currently fundraise or access grant work because that priority just doesn't exist. I mean, I think it's a fair, um, kind of question to lead with so that it's clear that we're
048not trying to duplicate, um, services. Um, and so we don't see this as a duplication, um, of services at this point, but it is a great need for us as an organization. It's a need that I think we've had for some time. We've been trying to figure out how to not duplicate it but also create it, um, and make sure that it's a clear pathway for individual needs when they come up, whether it's somebody that wants to go to PENCIL or someone that needs to go to MPEF or if it's somebody that comes to us directly, um, so they know which highway to take to get to the destination that they desire. And so I think it's wise for us to build that highway. So, I'm happy to hear that. Um, and then my last
049question that I currently have, though admittedly just like my colleague, Mr. Taylor, um, I will also need to maybe go back and look for a few minutes. Um, the student success centers, can you, um, explain how those are different from our current advocacy or peace centers or even our ALCs? How are those different? Um, so our advocacy centers and peace centers are part of our restorative, um, plan here, um, in the district, proactive strategies embedded within in our schools, um, to eliminate or decrease any exclusionary discipline response for our students. Um, so that direct, um, response so there's no delay, um, there. The second thing, um, you mentioned is our our turn to learning centers. And part of this assist center, um, approach is to redesign, right, and transform, um, from what is traditionally known
050as, um, an alternative learning center and move it into a restorative, uh, comprehensive support space not only for students but also families, um, so that we are actually supporting and addressing whatever behavior action that might have, um, transitioned a student to an ALC. Um, and I'll say this cuz I was just in one of our ALCs last week. We have incredible students who deserve so much opportunity and access, um, based upon sometimes just one, you know, decision or or action. And so I'm really excited about this one. This strategy has been in our aspirational budget since we started, um, the aspirational budgeting, um, process. It would allow us to create, um, more of a restorative space closer to the students' community, um, school of choice, um, and just have genuine access to the resources and
051supports necessary, um, to support them on their journey moving forward. I can't tell if this is a pun. There's no light. Can you all hear me? Okay, we'll go with it. We'll just pretend like that's not always on and go along with that. Okay, I'm moving on. Uh, so yeah, the student success uh, success centers, I know that we have seen them before in our aspirational budget. Um, so I appreciate that clarification. I want to ask for one more clarification. It's not Is it only for students that are inside of an ALC currently or is it for students that also need additional supports inside their other school that they are currently a part of? >> So what it will do is create somewhat of an in-between. Okay. >> Right, so that you when you're not
052necessarily in a 180-day placement or zero tolerance, it's a short window, um, of support, um, kind of restoring, um, and getting students back on track so that they can transition, um, well prepared, um, but sooner, um, to their school of choice. All right, thank you. So before we move on to the next person, we have about 7 minutes before our board meeting starts. So I'm going to ask everyone to kind of shorten. We will go back around. We may have to extend it beyond our board meeting, um, just so the public knows, um, but I want to make sure that we get our questions out. Uh, district three. Thank you. Um, I, in the interest of time, um, excellent detail on this. This was very helpful. Um, thank you. Uh, quick things to point out
053for us to munch on, nibble on, whatever, digest. School health clinics, that makes me think of I think that would be a great way for us to be a team player with the rest of metro government and explore what that looks like with Nashville General. Um, um, and I I echo board member Taylor's, uh, raising the concern about the pay dates or the check the timing of pay cycles in the fall. And that's all for now. Thanks. Wow, thanks. Um, I want Okay, so we're going to move over to district six. Seven. Six. Okay, six. Six. Thank you. So, >> [laughter] >> So I have, um, one question that keeps coming up when I'm meeting with, um, parents, uh, and community members is related to school-based budgeting. Now, just, uh, before I ask my question,
054what I want to say is that information is available on the website, page 205 of the budget book, if you want to look it up right now. Uh, but can you briefly explain what the deadline is for school-based budgets being submitted for review and approval to the district? So, it The budgets actually were completed by the school or finalized for review this past Friday. So now we're in the review process which goes through several conversations with the ED the supervisor as well as key departments around the construction of the budget and then we are done in early April with the final approved budget for each of the schools. Fantastic. Thank you. So the buzzword these days on the street is transparency and again I'll repeat the school based budgets for this current school year are
055available in the budget book. Page 205 is where it begins if you want to look it up. It's available out there and every single school budget is available on the website and always has been. So thank you Chief Robles. Thank you Dr. Battle. District 8. I think I don't have a question as much of a comment and this is similar to what board member Young had said but you know certainly I'm looking through this and I see some places where I'm like gosh why don't we get money from X place for that. The top of mind example is this academic acceleration that talks about strategies for tier one but also interventions at priority schools impact schools cost schools. We literally just were in front of the state board of education yesterday talking about this and
056there was a question that came up about how much funding we get from the state and you know we see that um in here is 18% at this point and and that is like exactly the type of thing we should be getting funding either from the federal government or the state government for at the moment that kind of thing is not as possible because the types of things we had previously around federal grants state grants etc. don't exist but it does speak to why I think it's interesting to have someone on our team who's a who's in sort of in the position of grant writing and that type of thing because one can imagine there are a lot of other not just the ones I mean we think a lot about the foundations here in
057Nashville. And what is MPEF or someone else do pencil etc. to raise money in Nashville. We have a national profile at the moment and we should be in the position of taking advantage of that to get national grants from organizations and foundations and others who are doing these things and filling in frankly holes that have been created by the federal government and state governments in tax collection and so in some ways I see the idea of getting someone like that on staff as a way to potentially get to a whole bunch of these other things more quickly without consistently having to go back to the council. Anyway statement not question. Thank you. Again as board member Young said excellent detail and presentation. So thanks. District 9. I have a couple questions I'll try to run
058through them quickly. The early learning enhancements expanding high demand pre-K seats through the Hillwood early learning center. I'm super excited about that but also how will this work if West Meade still needs it as a swing site? Would it be two separate locations? Yes so our team has worked pretty pretty diligently that on that campus they've already been able to kind of lay out what it will look like to separate buildings so that makes sense for the ELC versus a swing space we'll need for West Meade as we work through that new site structure. Great. Moving down to the academic coherence section I would just like and you don't have to do it now but I would like to at some point get more information and more specifics about what you are hoping to do
059to strengthen the GATE program. Like what like what kind of specific details you're hoping to do so that we can know what to advocate for if that's something we're interested in. Same thing with the unique learner enhancements just kind of more specifics about what what do you mean by improving differentiated learning strategies? Can we get some more detail on that? Doesn't have to happen right now. Um and then looking at talent strategy that retention recruitment and workforce readiness competitiveness for entry level higher volume steps that I'm I'm excited to see that play out. I just wanted to ask are we considering expanding our total number of steps to help Yes that is a part of this particular plan and I'm glad you brought me back to this if I can say really quickly. Several years
060ago when we started our initial pay analysis where we were able to revamp all of our pay scales we're now at a point where we're going back to the beginning to reassess what it will take for us to continue to be the most competitive when it comes to compensation for our staff. I think you know that leads with retention of our employees also can help with recruitment as well so that's where where you see that package coming to play because we've been studying and doing a deep dive into where we've lost some traction where we can close some gaps for acceleration to remain competitive if at every space across our pay scale including this includes adding a step on the pay scale. Okay. And then I know in the past we had talked about looking
061just kind of in the little side bar where it's robust benefits packages. You talk about the paid sick parental personal leave all that. We had there had been some discussion about if we have the funds we would love to increase the number of bereavement days that we offer. Is that also on the table as a potential if it could get funded? >> It's not a part of the strategic compensation plan. The reason we included that is that is often forgotten we when we talk about compensation that our benefits package is actually probably the most competitive in the state of Tennessee as well and so that's just there just kind of as a reminder so that like as we're thinking about compensation there are additional positive benefits to working and serving in Nashville. So currently that's
062not a part of this compensation package. We've been really studying where we have where we can make the greatest benefit and pouring into our talent strategies across the district. Okay. I appreciate that. I'd like to plus one the additional bereavement day. Yeah. It gets you to a full week if you need it so it's So when we do that we have to increase classroom associates and all that. Okay yeah. Exactly. [laughter] And and the investment piece. Yeah. Right exactly. Give us the numbers. Let us advocate. Um the grow your own program I'm excited about. I feel like we've kind of already been doing that unofficially and I just want to make sure that we're not looking for this to replace existing partnerships that we have with groups that help us grow our this would be
063in addition to. This will be in addition to and just for the record I'm going to look at Dr. Bellamy here. Nashville was actually the first district in the state of Tennessee that made a huge step in the right direction around grow your own and so it is not replacing anything. We are just interested in being the strongest most transformational district in the space and it requires us to continue to invest in our people and our leaders so that we are pouring into our people and preparing them for the seats that they'll serve in. Yeah. No I'm I'm very on board with it. I just wanted to make sure we're hitting as many ways that we can do it as Absolutely. So nothing is being sunset. This is us being really strategic around what's next
064including if I don't if you don't mind our EPP program. So one of our investments here is to begin to train our educator preparation program that would allow us to train and certify our own educators here in Nashville. Okay. Okay. I'm almost done. This actually this is my last one because the other questions got asked. So the philanthropic enhancements I think that's really interesting and I just wanted to kind of put a plug in to say is it possible that these funds could just be startup funds and then they raise the funds >> Oh absolutely. And so that money then could come back to us for other uses in future operating budget. >> happens typically and we've been studying this is that you have that initial benefit and because then the capacity that's built in
065bringing in funding you tend to have to build out the team. So I just want to caution us there because once you get to X dollars right then there's some research around this you got to actually build out the team to be able to manage that level of investment coming in and properly align into the key priorities of the district. So it probably will be more of a long-term strategy than initial. There's a there's there's a way to do that just in the way that grants work you can actually even with donors you say you know there is a an indirect cost right to manage this that gets carved out of funds essentially the grants. That overhead cost I think is built into almost every grant I've ever seen so yeah that makes perfect sense.
066Last one. I am so excited to see environmental stewardship on here and I'm sure you knew I would say that but I am really excited about the potential to get a sustainability manager. Especially I love seeing this composting initiative on here. We had the mayor's pilot program that we did in conjunction with the mayor's group last year. We diverted from what only 10 schools? We diverted 51.27 tons of organic waste just from those schools. I mean just the amount of good we could do and we were also able to have the share tables where kids could take food home and we weren't just throwing it away but it was going back towards feeding our families on a larger scale, which I'm just so excited about. There's so many good things, not just environmentally, but relationally
067that I think this could be a part of. So, I'm going to be advocating heavily for this environmental stewardship, which I'm sure doesn't surprise you one bit. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Thank you. And for the audience, we are still in the budget and finance committee meeting. Um I want to take an opportunity to go back around one more time really quick before we end out. So, if you don't have questions, that's great. If you do, raise your hand so that I can call on you. Board member Taylor. If you this is your opportunity, go ahead if you need to. Okay. You're good? Anybody else? You got You're ready? You got all yours out? >> [laughter] >> Awesome. I do have um one question around technology. Um Can you kind of direct me where in
068the budget um are we talk doing any type of investments? Is that part of our continuance of operation, continuity of operation? >> technology. It's in capital. Capital. Capital budget. >> capital budget. Perfect. Um and then, given that we had to do some reallocation around exceptional ed, is there any considerations within our budget about what we may face next year around budget shortfalls and having to cover that given our reduction in federal budget? >> Yeah, so far our team has done a exceptional job um of predicting where we were, where we are currently, and where we would be. Um so, you see some of that is captured will be captured in continuity of operations, just kind of the inflationary things that go along with that. Um under academic acceleration, I believe it is. Uh excuse me,
069academic coherence, um item six where you have unique learner enhancements. We do have some strategies particularly around our English language learners um that we want to support. Um for example, we know we had a slight decline in graduation rate um for our English language language learners this past year, um and we've worked closely with um families and educators and um community leaders around some strategies we might deploy. And so, that's that's represented um in that um differentiated student needs. So, um again, some of the EE expansion from last year we'll capture in continuity of operations. Um and one that we are seeing surface is around the needs for English language learners. Thank you. Another question is around visual and performing arts across the district. What type of investments are we looking at or sustaining um
070as we go into the FY27? Um yes, you see um a strategy there um to the tune of about 700,000, which will allow us um to continue to um capture student performances. Transportation continues um to be a need. Um instrument repair um as we build out our um programming across um our clusters, um we're seeing a greater demand there. Also, compensation for um our visual performing arts teachers um and enriching um camps um are some of the key strategies there. Um as many of you know, we are looking at a larger capital um campaign around our visual performing arts. Um and this is complimentary to that work in preparation for um what we hope to be true um in space and performance opportunity for our students in the near future. Thank you. Another question was
071around um you talked about uh revisiting um compensation um and competitive compensation for our district. Will that require another pay study? No, we actually have had the capacity in-house. You all spoke of um some of the usages around AI. Um so, we've been able to kind of accelerate um our learning and our kind of number crunching around what's necessary for us to remain competitive um in that space. Okay. Thank you. And I just want to clarify there's no requi- Is there a requirement for a pay study? When When is it a requirement or when it's not? I'm sorry, say that again. You're completing study informally committee when they do benefit study on the metro government side. There's a requirement for a study informally committee do every 5 years for that. But it's not required for
072us to consider that. Thank you for that clarification. And then, one other um weapon detection systems as we begin to look at safety and security over the next um year or so in that implementation. I know we've done high school, we've done middle school. Uh what are our considerations around elementary and the type of investments that we're needing? Um I know it's written within here. Will that cover that that particular investment? >> Yes, as our review team um is studying that and leaning into it. As you could imagine, particularly in the elementary space, it is taking a lot more um communication and um getting feedback um in that space. So, our team is reviewing that um but it is representative of the strategies that um could be deployed in the next um fiscal year. Perfect.
073One more go round. No, we're good. All right. Thank you so much um Dr. Battle, I just want to thank you and your team um for your presentation, the details of your pre- presentation. Thank you for incorporating the feedback of board members, our community, our staff, um and and families across our district um and all of those different stakeholders who play a part in how we do budgeting. Um for the for the record, we have hosted uh prior to this budgeting uh session. I think Dr. Battle, you and your team have met with different groups. Our board as a whole has also um met with our teachers, our support staff, Metro Council, bus drivers, um as well as the community, and we have another community event that's coming up uh tomorrow from 5:00 to 6:00
074p.m. at the MNPS Wellness Center, which is right across from this board office. Um so, we invite the community to come out and have a conversation uh to listen more, ask questions. Uh this is your opportunity to continue to do so. One other question that I have on I'm sorry, prior to ending um there's uh and and board member Mays um uplifted it. How can um those who want to get more involved in the budget process or be more aware of the budget process at their school level get involved? So, our student-based budgeting um process um does require representation from various stakeholders um within the community. Um every school works kind of functions on the same timeline and cycle um with regards to that. Um and so, contacting the executive principal directly if um there's
075information needed or um awareness around the budgeting process. As was mentioned earlier, all of our um school-based budgets are listed on shared on our website. Um they're posted there every year. In fact, you can see multiple years um if needed. So, check out the website, um but the executive principals at every school are the primary contact for any questions or follow-up. Thank you. And then, um as a follow-up to what Dr. Battle said, um this meeting that we held today as well as any other meeting moving forward um is available on our website. If you go to MNPS budgets, you're able to pull up um the meeting. You can also pull it up on our MNPS YouTube channel. Um so, these are accessible as well as um the documents that we covered today um and
076um the budgets from this current school year and previous school years um are all publicly accessible. Uh so, if you have any other questions, uh please reach out to your school board member um uh or the district um to have any of those discussions. And uh as far as the board is concerned, if you have any other questions move moving forward, if you could please make sure you're relaying that uh to Dr. Battle and her team as well as myself so that we're incorporating this as we continue to have uh future budget discussions. Thank you. Uh we will conclude this meeting. Announcements.