001our board meeting for August our first one we have a quorum and we've been called to order that gets us to the Pledge of Allegiance will our oh senior board student board member please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and please please stand to join us to the flag the United States of America to The Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all she used to be our Junior student board member and now she's big senior this year I know and we all cry have a year we do we have a full year with your with your beauty all right that gets us to the adoption of the agenda may I see a motion uh to adopt the agenda with all of the items under uh a
002because of the way it's numbered so we can do it with all the items under a motion to approve all right do we have a second second we have we have many seconds all right all those in favor of uh approving the agenda as it is thank you so much that is everyone I appreciate it all right that gets us to Awards and recognitions which is always one of our most exciting times of the board meeting and it looks like we have a full house for that reason so for that I'm going to turn it over to our director of schools Dr Adrien battle thank you so much chair errod and good evening board members um tonight I'd like to recognize a couple of our career-based learning partners for their excellent work and I mean
003excellent work to create opportunities for our students and then we'll have a special treat for everyone as we hear performance from some of our outstanding students so for the past 15 years Ascension St Thomas has partnered with the St Thomas Scholars Program to prepare students to work as medical assistants guiding them successfully to pass the ccma industry certification exam this longstanding collaboration is a testament to ascension's dedication to equipping students with the skills and credentials necessary to thrive in the healthc care industry additionally Ascension has shown an ongoing commitment to engaging with our students in various ways they hire at least 20 interns every year who participate in our career-based learning program providing them with hands-on experience and mentorship Ascension also actively participates in our schools by sending guest speakers to share their expertise hosting
004field trips that give students a real world view of the health care industry and maintaining a strong Presence at our annual freshman career fair with a dedicated Booth last spring aent further demonstrated their support by holding a job fair specifically for seniors and healthc Carey providing them with direct access to career opportunities and invaluable networking experiences this initiative further demonstrates their commitment to supporting our students career growth and ensuring their successful transition into the workforce beyond their work with the St Thomas Scholars Program internships and job fairs Ascension has played a pivotal role in prepar par students for their future careers by creating a nurturing and challenging environment their dedication to integrating handson experience with mentorship and career guidance has allowed our students to thrive and help them develop crucial skills that are highly valued
005in the workforce with us tonight from Ascension St Thomas are shereé daah derah director of Workforce Development Kristen swaer Regional director of talent market operations Donna mccardy training educator and Alicia boutwell training educator we'd like to take an opportunity want to invite them up to the podium and thank them again um for all they do for our students and also I wanted to say a special thank you to Deborah Crosby Our career-based learning coordinator for all of her great work in leading this program so at this time again I'd like to invite the Ascension team and Deborah to please come and join us us to be acknowledged and recognized and to um POS for a photo come on up please be careful still spaghetti [Music] I got excited somebody spaghetti again thank you to our
006partners at Ascension we greatly appreciate you all we know today has been an extremely busy day um for you all but we like to pause and really give thanks um for your continued partnership and for the great work that we know um that will exist ahead thank you all right next up we have the Nashville Electric Service um they've been another great um outstanding partner to the district demonstrating a strong commitment to the professional development of our students and playing a crucial role in preparing them for successful careers in the energy sector ness's commitment to our career-based learning program is evident through their active participation in various initiatives NES employees regularly visit schools as guest speakers sharing their expertise and inspiring students to explore careers in the energy industry additionally NES hosts a booth each
007year at our annual freshman career fair engaging directly with students and providing them with invaluable insights into the opportunities available within the company in 2023 NES took their commitment to the next level by hiring 12 graduates from mmps as interns this hands-on experience allowed these students to gain critical technical skills and an in-depth understanding of the energy industry the success of this initiative is highlighted by the fact that just last month 10 of these 12 interns were offered fulltime positions with NES and are now earning more than $80,000 a year a brilliant sign of the quality of the training and mentorship they received during their internships sorry so I should say that again because I was you know slightly interrupted yeah you really all right so the success of this initiative is highlighted by the
008fact that just last month 10 of these 12 interns were offered full-time positions with n and are now earning more than $80,000 A year had the honor of attending the graduation ceremony for these interns a few weeks ago um and I'll tell you I was blown away by their accomplishment and by the investment NES has made in them NES is now in the process of interviewing candidates for six new internship positions further demonstrating their ongoing commit to developing the next generation of energy professionals the impact of ness's partnership is evident in the success of our students many have gone on to pursue careers in the energy industry using the skills and knowledge they gain through their experiences with NES as a foundation for their professional growth this success speaks highly to the quality of the
009learning opportunities provided by nes and their unwavering support of our students development NES has also consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to diversity equity and inclusion ensuring that all students regardless of their background have access to these valuable learning experiences their inclusive approach has help create a welcoming environment where all students can Thrive and achieve their full potential again I'd like to pause and give a huge thank you to NES for their outstanding work with our students and their graduates we have um some of these great leaders with us um here tonight we have Tony Williams special projects coordinator Von Charles Vice President of Operations transportation and distribution and Jack Baxter vice president of power system operations we'd like to welcome them up along with our career-based learning um Lee Deborah Crosby to be recognized to
010be acknowledged and to um POS for a photo so team NES team please come on up I know we thank you so much I was here getting my CR up too thank you it saved my life I miss that being able to again thank you bour for giving me an opportunity to acknowledge the amazing Partnerships that exist um in Metro National Public Schools Ascension um NES are just shining examples um of the power of partnership and how that can transform lives for our students and our family so um thank you for giving me that wonderful opportunity now as the board and many others um here in attendance know on August 1st we release the district's every student known song which beautifully reflects our mission to know every student and as an individual with unique talents
011aspirations and dreams and to make sure every student is supported cared for and on a path to to success after last year's every student known Summit we thought about updating our every student known song so that we can have an Anthem created by and for mmps students actually I'm not sure we could have possibly known what that seed of an idea would grow into so this summer a group of our students came together to write and record this song over the course of a 4-day songwriting Summit many of them didn't know each other before they got there but they quickly bonded formed a powerful team cheered each other on and became a family you can see that over and over again in the beautiful documentary that was made about the songwriting Summit and in the
012music video which music makes us helped to make possible with their generosity I have heard this song many times now I think I know the lyrics and the Melodies and the vocal runs and the tempo changes backward and forward I listen to it in my car and in my office and at home when I'm preparing for an ending my day but I still seem to get a little teary just about every time I hear it so I might be reaching for my Kleenex in a moment and I encourage you to have yours Within Reach too so now without further Ado I'd like to introduce the every student known singers accompanied for this special performance this evening by students from Eagle viw Elementary School and Warner Arts Magnet Elementary [Music] School side see bril is our
013every student every day there's so much mine every [Music] student there's brilliant in you oh oh oh there's brilliant in you W brilliant in you [Music] every we can patient [Music] brilli in you oh brilli in you [Music] I your hand to guide me I'll keep climbing [Music] you me see [Music] there's so we St patient and you we still know we won't let go it's our commit to to w wow wow y'all give it up for one more time I I had not heard this version so y'all done it again let me give a few special um shout outs to our Scholars first of all y'all huge shout out for for our Scholars at Warner and Eagle View let's give Warner and Eagle View y'all they did they I know they didn't have a
014lot of time to rehearse but they nailed it nailed it um they've added so much to the song this evening and thank you for letting um me join you all for a photo um a few minutes ago that was so much fun so let me tell everyone a little more about our singers who came together over the summer to create this amazing song and the brilliant music educators who work with them we put an all call out um towards the end of the 23 24 school year and these students and their families stepped up and said we're in and they gave us four full days in early June not long after school not long after the school year had ended these are the 11 students who participated in the songwriting Summit which took them to
015Capitol Christian music group on Music Row and to Universal Music group's Nashville Studios just down the street here in Barry Hill and students as I call your names uh what I want you to do why don't you just give us a a wave so we know um who you are um and then just face the crowd and we'll take a group photo at the end board member Ms okay um first up let me give a shout out to Savannah Bale from Nashville School of the Arts pan Bryan from JT Moore Middle School Miss Journey Butler from Warner Arts Magnet Elementary School Leslie Hammond from the Nashville School of Art Jordan Harris from hum fog academic Magnet High School King K from Nashville School of the artah MC Yuan from the N nationville School of the
016Arts Luca mcclaflin from JT Moore Middle School Darren Sadler from Hume ful hon Smith from Nashville School of the Arts and Zoe Z Becky from hum fall let's not forget the outstanding mmps music educators who help the students create create this beautiful piece of music y'all let's give it up for Bry and Finny Bryson is a former classroom music teacher who knows who now works as learning in the learning technology as a specialist for the district thank you so much for your leader Bryson and also danana Hammond a coral music teacher at Warner Arts Magnet Elementary School and last but not least we let's give it up for Franklin Willis who is the Visual and Performing Arts director for mmps this is the man who brought it all brought all of this together after we
017said we need a song go figure it out let me just say that this group is going places literally they have been invited to sing along with the Percy Priest Elementary School choir at pencils back to school breakfast next week and they'll perform again at the Nashville public education foundation's Hall of Fame luncheon next month and I have a feeling these invitations will keep coming in and this song is going places too see all of our music programs in the district will be learning every student known our music teachers arranged the song for band Orchestra choir and Elementary music we've got a full curriculum and a teaching guide around this song every student known will be ringing through through all of our mmps schools and of course you can find it on YouTube on Spotify
018on Apple music and on other major streaming platforms so students and Educators thank you all for bringing everything that you have to this project and creating this wonderful song I could not be prouder of this entire group I could not be prouder and I still tear up every time I hear the song and watch the documentary I'm super proud and I want you to know the phone calls and emails and texts I get from Educators from everywhere I mean they're so proud and excited and want to do what you are doing so congratulations thank you all for thank you to everyone for sharing your talents um with us and I want you to know as I visited schools the first day the first week of school you should have seen the 880,000 plus students and
019Educators reacting and responding to your song as it played over intercoms everywhere across Nashville so congratulations to you all we're so proud again we'd like to get a group photo um of you before you transition y'all let's give it up for him one more time l this way three two one [Music] everything oh you don't know you can the first turn well that is quite the way to uh make sure it's known that we're the school system of Music City so I appreciate we had obviously some very talented students here um but I also appreciate all their families being here and then also from our elementary schools that were able to make it tonight um and I knew some of the song because my my own students already know it a bit so it it's
020going to get in your ear it's an earworm for sure it's great so we appreciate yall being here and us all getting to enjoy it together that gets us that gets us to the direct director's report so for that I'm going to turn it back over to our director of schools Dr Adrien battle so we can go over some back to school information all right thank you again chair Rod um and board members we are off to a strong start to the 2425 school year um after an excellent first week of schools um as I visited throughout the district I've seen students engaged in learning parents excited to see off their students for a new school year teachers getting ready and prepared for fun but rigorous learning opportunities our support staff um have been preparing
021to work with all of our students and our school administrators um have been making sure everyone has the support they need to succeed now I'm excited to show some examples of the work that has gone into making the start of the school year such a success so the week before we came back to school it was a pretty action-packed um few weeks too we celebrated our teachers with the annual together for teachers rally at our new location just down the street at geotus Park on Monday July 29th it was a great night of being together and recognizing the invaluable role our teachers play in our schools and in our community and every teacher left with lots of goodies including an mmps laun chair then on August 3rd the Saturday before school we celebrated our recent
022accomplishments and just had a lot of fun and mainly no no injuries um I'm happy to say at our m MPS and Friends Allstar celebration event at liscom University are is that still a true statement okay okay she's still that event brought together our alumni our families our elected officials and other supporters for a fun and funny and surprisingly highs scoring basketball game um school supplies musical performances giveaways food and more so I want to say a big thank thank you to all the board members um mayor oconnell council members and others who came out to celebrate our teachers and our entire mmps family um these events really set the tone for getting back to school and being proud of everything we've achieved in the last um few years and I'd be remiss if I
023didn't also um acknowledge all the back to school events that happen all over the city um the Partnerships that existed um across the city it was just tremendous um to see everyone leaning in to make sure that one our children were excited uh but most importantly that families had what they need to start the the school year so really really proud um of of that work um you know for those of us that are in this work on a day-to-day basis it can be easy to sometimes take for granted the many different improvements Investments and strategies we've implemented across the district that help metro schools stand out from our peers and have helped to exceed the state of Tennessee and TCAP growth while I don't want to take up the entire night talking about all
024of them I just briefly wanted to ground our conversation in some of the improvements we've seen since the onset of covid in 2020 leveraging a combination of federal Esser funds and Investments for Metro Government we have no cost meals for every student this is something that started during the pandemic with Federal USDA waivers but it's something we committed to um you committed to as a board continuing beyond that time and we are the leader in the state in ensuring that our students regardless of income or zip code have access to no cost breakfast and lunch every day we not only became a onetoone technology District during the pandemic to support remote learning but we have maintained that program to ensure all students and our Educators have their own device that they can that can be
025used for key instruction our advocacy advocacy centers are in the elementary schools led by Advocacy Center coaches who help students process and regulate their emotions I mean these are phenomenal spaces that I have the opportunity um of visiting almost daily our peace centers are staffed by restorative practice assistants who also help students regulate their emotions as well as restore the harm done by actions and promote the bonds for our students and our teachers the safety ambassador program has been very well received by our elementary schools modeled after the campus support role where they help to keep the building safe by walking the perimeter checking the doors monitoring the hallways ensuring compliance with safety plans and otherwise just being a great support for our school administrators our Scholars portfolio has been a great resource in giving
026students extra time to learn and more personalized learning from the accelerating Scholars high impact tutoring program which gives one onone small group tutoring support for students to enriching Scholars which extends the school week with engaging curriculum activities to our promising Scholars Program which has extended the school year for any student who wants to participate helping them to catch up or get ahead of their peers and core instructional areas coupled with fun activities throughout the day prior to the pandemic we struggled as a district in getting the resources to ensure every student and teacher had the textbooks and instructional materials they needed to keep on page with our rigorous standards now we have those resources for both students and teachers allowing for consistent educational experience across the district and ensuring no student falls behind due to
027the lack of learning resources and I I just got a plug here because our students have multiple form of instructional um materials we we have moved Beyond just just the traditional textbook um there are materials that accompany every course but there's also the ability for our students to access their instructional materials online um so we're extremely um proud um of that and finally um not not not last but one thing I want to highlight here is our student based budgeting model um which has been a strong resource for giving our School principles the flexibility they need to make important decisions based on the unique needs of their school while also allocating our dollars to meet unique student needs with an equity focused model of ensuring those who need the most supports receive the most supports
028all of these programs and more have helped us to raise our expectation and that of our families about what is possible when we have leadership that will step up when our students needed the most and ensure we're moving towards our Northstar of being the premier large school district in Tennessee and Beyond so this year we not only welcome students back to schools across the district we also welcome back one of our schools to the mmps family we have successfully launched the new and improved back and better Brick Church Middle School which had previously been under the authority of the achievement school district and the lead charter school network we tapped um internally Dr Robin beard who had previously served at The Brick Church Middle School feeder Alex Green Elementary to serve as a new principal
029of Brick Church middle this not only gives families a great mmps option in their neighborhood but appears to our philosophy of every every student known and ensures They will receive a GPA experience that's guaranteed personalized and applied experiences across the three tiers it also allows them to take part in the Weiss Creek cluster identity with a coherent and consistent through line of opportunities that will prepare them for college career and life remember we launched our early college at wh Creek a few years ago and now these students um through this feeder completion have access to um that early college model I look forward to the great things we'll be able to do at Brick Church that will accelerate the progress this cluster has experienced over the last few years well next the heart of um
030Quality education is making sure we have high quality teachers in every classroom we have made tremendous strides and filling vacancies and bringing in strong highly talented Educators to join team M MP M mmps across the district and that work will continue I appreciate the board um for your commitment um your commitment it has made the commitments you've made over the recent years to supporting our people um you've advocated with the mayor and Metro Council for higher starting pay raises um pay rates step increases cost of living adjustments um we are seeing one of the lowest vacancy rates in recent memory and our in Investments and classroom Associates help to ensure that when there is a vacancy our students have a dedicated staff member many of whom are previous certified teachers um who knows them they
031know the school and can plan for transitions between teachers so we are extremely proud um of our 98% F rate um and the tremendous work that our human resources team is doing with our School principles um to both retain and recruit um highly qualified Educators as long along with our partnership with m&a um and helping us Advocate um for what's best um in our schools creating the conditions for our Educators to thrive so again Paul it's good to see you um thank you all for your continued partnership thank you for the leadership of our human resources team um and we are off definitely off to a great start so we couldn't have our schools ready to go on day one and every day after that without a lot of tremendous work going on behind the
032scenes I was with the bus drivers last Monday the day before we started back and I love the enthusiasm I saw and felt in that Auditorium and that was a standing room only Crowd by the way um which is a testament to the work of our operations um team again around retention and recruitment um the rest of our transportation team as well as nutrition services facilities and maintenance and Safety and Security have also been ready to roll and work working hard to ensure that our schools are safe that they're cool um and working well our students are getting nutritious meals and everyone is getting to and from school safely and seeing a friendly face at every point in the day so I want to give a big thank you to these team mmps members for
033all that they do um we cannot again we cannot uplift our Educators our operations team enough because they are working um to together to make sure our students and our schools have what they need so um Chief Sullivan thank you to you and your team please continue to extend our heartfelt thanks for all that they do so the last days of summer and first days of school bring a flurry of activity for our enrollment centers and they're always up to the task y'all they get students enrolled they help with transfers and just generally make sure students and families have what they need so that they can be where they need to for the start of the school year you can see on this Slide the tremendous number of touch points that um our Enrollment Center
034um has had um actually just over the last few weeks um so we're extremely thankful for their talents for their leadership and supporting um our people and our families um to a successful start of the school year um speaking of our students and our families um as we all know we have a beautifully diverse School District that reflects the vibrancy of our our city and we are proud to be a leader in the work of teaching students how to speak read and write um the English language can we thank you this is an especially busy time of year for our eel team as well as they bring students in and get to work quickly on assessments that got instruction I want to thank our eel team um across the district for leading the way um
035in this space um and it's always good to not only support them in getting students ready and students U families ready for the start of the school year but the ongoing success um that our students our eel students um have but we definitely embrace the diversity that we have and we think it's a strength um of our district as a whole as you know we are committed to giving our Educators and support staff the time and training they need to grow in their work and get better all the time reflecting our goal of continuous Improvement in everything we do where than employee is brand new to the district or entering year 20 we want them to have consistent opportunities to learn reflect on their practice and grow as a professional I will highlight here that
036the number of Summer planning days is just phenomenal I mean it's not required um that is our Educators um just honing their Craft um and coming in over the summer planning either individually or in teams to make sure we're first day ready we're not wasting um anytime and so again I I just commend um our leaders all across the district for um maximizing um planning days summer professional development um our new Educators who are coming in who Jump Right In to orientation um and all the launch opportunities to prepare for the start of the school year some of our construction work has flown under the radar so I want to make sure everyone knows about the facilities that have come online or well underway we've talked about the three elementary schools I'm undergoing new bids
037excuse me new builds or full Renovations at Lake View Paragon Mills and Percy Priest but we also just opened important additions to Cambridge High School and Old Center Elementary to ensure we're keeping up with the needs in those communities and we have three new turf fields getting ready to make their big game debuts at Maplewood mcgavic and straford high school and this is just a reminder that last year we had our first three at Pearl cone East and Whites Creek High School um so thank you to everyone in facilities construction as well as Athletics who has worked with our construction Partners to get these projects completed and ready to go again I'm going to take a point of privilege to really highlight their work because construction projects are hard they can be complicated um they
038can be complex in many ways and when you have so many projects happening at the same time it takes tremendous leadership um so I want to give a shout out to our team thank them for all um that they do and y'all these projects have been completed on time which doesn't happen very often um so Kudos um to the team and uh just be on the lookout as we celebrate um the opening of these new schools these Renovations and the tur Fields um another shout out our family information center continue to provide key dates details documents and requirements to students and families as well as our employees as we ramped up the new school year this work is so important to ensuring a smooth transition for students and and families as well as employees and
039even graduates who need their transcript so you see those touch points over 7500 um stakeholders were assisted during the start of the school year and again this is only captured from July 29th through August 9th right so they've been busy but they have been getting it done so goes to our family information um Center that entire that small But Mighty team who gets it done um so I also know safety continues to be top of mind for so many of us and we are constantly reviewing and adding to what we do um I talked to Chief Drake regularly and our teams talk to each other just as often probably even almost daily I'm looking at more she's shaking her head in agreement and that partnership with mmpd has been and remains a strong one you
040can see on the slide some of our most recent recent Safety and Security initiatives and steps we continue to take to make students as safe as possible while in a welcoming learning um and working environment that includes moving our craze training this year from cluster Rod hubs to each School having tailored training in their very on learning spaces in their school buildings and we have an increase in SRO Staffing that will allow a phase expansion into our elementary schools while we continue to support every school with either an SRO or Community police officer in terms of physical security I want to be clear about this the state of Tennessee passed a law requiring new construction to have Shadow resistant glass and exterior portions of the building we meaning this board and our Administration decided to
041go above and beyond that and outfit all of our buildings okay so we are going above and beyond what's required by law um that work is still ongoing throughout the year but we have made significant progress and will continue until all schools are finished but I just wanted to make that note state law only requires it for those new builds but we're we're installing this in every mmps school we're also looking to further expand the installation of our audio enhancement equipment as we seek to secure funding for a full implementation across the district in the upcoming school year this equipment's primary function is to project the voice of the teachers into the classroom helping to reduce teacher fatigue um and increase educational equity which also while also offering an emergency alert feature for teachers to
042be able to quickly report incidents to the administration and request help from security and law enforcement if needed again these are just a few of the many examples of how we're working to keep our students and staff safe buildings um building on years of Investments and strategies that work together for a safe and secure um environment so as I close I want to thank you all for your support board members um as we started up another school year um this work um these photos um this video it's what it's all about um I you know for the viewing public I'll just share I have received the numerous emails and calls um just about the excitement of the start of the school year just about how well things um are going um I hear you and
043um we will continue to take that feedback about those successes um and leverage them throughout the remainder of this school year um and it's great learnings um as we move forward into school years um ahead so I'm really excited about it again the joy the excitement um y'all heard me say I've never been more excited about the start of a school year um just how our students are coming back into the year just well prepared our students are well prepared and ready to go um this year it's so exciting to see and we're up to to meeting the challenge and getting every student um what they need when they need it so that they can Thrive um regardless of the school that they're enrolled so thank you for giving me a few moments to provide
044some back to school start of school year um updates I hesitated um on this full update just simply because I knew I was going to forget something um so if I had forgotten something I I see you um I value the work that you're doing um it's it's just so much good stuff happening um I wanted to try to capture as much as I could in this update this evening so with that um chair Rod I will turn it back over to you thank you so much all right that's a lot of good updates and details but I'm sure we have some questions so comments or questions we'll start with we'll start with member ma yeah just a really quick comment Dr battle thank you thank you thank you for this this is an a
045tremendous update I get asked a lot what do you do during the summer and this truly answers that question so this is amazing and I am so proud to be associated with this District because we continue to lead the pack in excellence and it's because of great leadership and our amazing Educators and not to mention those fantastic little people that we call students so thank you so much for this update this was definitely something that we needed to see I appreciate that Vice shair player um and continue that I just want to thank your team um your Chiefs and people um that's also on the in the support Hub thank you um because I remember when I first came on the board uh four and a half years ago um the former chair Anna Shepard
046and I um really had had a had a contion that kids were in debt for lunch and remember we were talking about raising money from the community to pay off debt for kids to eat so they can learn and the fact now that you get breakfast and lunch um and we've done it within five years with after a pandemic um that that's going noce that a eight-year-old kid should not be in debt for lunch like it's it's it's absurd the fact that now that we are at this point where that is just the norm um is this the progress that we have made over a short period of time given that and even the bus drivers I remember one time having a bus driver shortage and trying to recr that and now we're at a
047place where um that's not a major issue that we have to confront and getting the call from the constituents about kids being picked up late just to see the progress particularly in operations to make sure our kids can get to school and once they're there they're actually being Service as humans as they should be so they can learn the best environment so we can have the great test scor growth that we've had over the past three years um that all of it works together and I just really want to thank the staff for doing it because you you make us look good um and you do the hard to hard day work you're solving major problems multi-million dollar problems multi complex I keep telling people we have 160 odd buildings we have 880,000 kids 10,000
048employees like we are running a city within a city we're running fortune five level um fortune five level size organization and we do it day after day month after month year after year and I just really want to acknowledge that because I know sometimes you're working 10 12 hours a day sometimes you're a little frustrated you're working on fumes and coffee and a lot of water and just know that we see you and we thank you member O'Hara block um so I just I want to um compliment in particular the um Family engagement family info team who um I know I I uh I give this answer to people all the time when they call with a question you know be in touch with your principal but anything that you need to handle or don't
049understand how to do you can call Family info you can email family info and um I had first of all very few questions come up at the beginning of this year which is fantastic um it means that things are operating as they should but when people have had questions issues ETC um that support team has been fantastic um and so uh really excited about about that and grateful for the customer service that that folks are getting myself self included actually I I call the same I call the hotline myself uh not infrequently um when I have a question uh and and then also just um uh the student outcomes committee which is one of of the standing board committees will we're going to be meeting quarterly this year uh to talk about the different um
050uh Focus outcomes and get into a little more detail on probably some of the things that we saw tonight um and other sort of academic and related things um so excited about that and just wanted to make sure that folks knew that that was coming um and I had one other thing I was going to say and then I forgot so if I remember it I will raise my hand again oh I know what it was 98% Staffing is crazy great that's all Dr NAA bti do you still have something to say no she said it okay okay I mean I too was I I was gonna say um though I don't have as much tenure as some people on the board um it does make me incredibly proud uh because there's I don't know
051when we've seen a 98% fill rate and I know that that that is not just because of the success of mmps and the culture of mmps but also because of the work of our human resources team so thank you to all of y'all and also I appreciate our board prioritizing some of the needs that they had there's been definite times when I have been on the board where we've had to make cuts and unfortunately HR and it's supporting employees or systems or fingerprinting or whatever it's been has been a quick and easy thing to find to cut and we have seen how that has hurt the enduser of our employees and so I'm so glad that we've been able to kind of right side that as much as we've been able to so that we
052can better support our employees whether they are teachers or support staff if we treat them with dignity or students are treated with dignity and having and making sure that we can employ them and onboard them is so key to not just of course having a good workplace but it's really important to retention as well so we are so grateful that that work has been beneficial to everyone inside um the mmps world that makes our world go around um I'm sure many of y'all have heard the increased talk about Universal Mills and um School meals and we call them no cost meals here at mmps because though they are free to our families they're still not free for us we still make sure that we pay for them and that has also been a big priority
053of our board and I'm proud of that I want to make sure that it's just known so that we can appropriately think that is only able to be done because of the partnership we have with our city and the shared commitment to our students and the betterment of our families that is not provided in any way by the state or by federal government and so it is really a wonderful thing that we're able to provide we were the first to provide it I know for a while we were the only ones and I think one other school system this year maybe is providing that don't quote me on that if anybody's quoting me on that we'll we'll get back to you if you need that information for sure but um we have absolutely been the
054leader and making sure that we have those no cost meals and that's because it has significant rewards not just for of course our students and our families and of course the high child poverty amount that's inside of Tennessee but it also re course rewards our employees a hungry student is not a student that can learn and that is an unreasonable request of a child so I'm so proud that we have that as well um lastly I uh really appreciate the human resources update on our classroom vacancies um I would love to know if we have that at some point about all of our other operational honestly we have so many titles of people um I think that's called codes is what I've usually I'm told by HR there's so many codes of employees I don't
055know how we could ever get that for everyone but um to uh Vice chair Players Point we've had such a difficult time in the past with keeping certain staff members particularly bus drivers or nutrition um I would love to know where we are with those fill vacancies if we can get that later I don't need that now um but like in a director's update or something I think that would be really wonderful to be able to say um anecdotally I want to be able to say I do see the hard work and that obviously has been significantly increased um and I appre appreciate that as well from Mara and of course Lisa excuse me our Chiefs our Chiefs of operation in HR I apologize um and I appreciate that yall have prioritized that it has
056been so noticeable this year with the increased satisfaction from constituents about their buses um if nothing else I'm not getting as many texts from my children's own school about the yellow stripe bus is late today or whatever its color it may be um and so it's been really lovely to see how those families are supported and they know that they can count on us our bus drivers are the first face that so many of our families and our children see every day they serve a really important part key to our school system and our culture of it and so I really appreciate that we've prioritized them and that we have a good fill rate there because not only is it good for our students it's good for our families and truly I I don't have
057a good number but I'm telling you it I've heard heard it from a handful of families and in the past it has been it's felt like buckets of families that have had some type of issue here or there and sometimes that's been family generated but for sure a massive Improvement and I'm just so appreciative of that um it really speaks to the professional level that we try to all hold to each other and so I really am so proud and then the family information center again I'm glad they're just getting their Kudos a lot of people don't realize that they're live people that work here um a lot of times people think that it's like a a call center that they're calling somewhere they work right down the hall um and it's so lovely to
058know that it's somebody that's invested inside of mmps they are very helpful they have had to help me more than once remember what my student ID number is for my children I would love to tell you I've now written that in my notes app but there's been times where I've needed them to remind me so I appreciate that and then also just I want to make sure we have on the record that we appreciate uh mmpd going to all of our schools that's been a requests from our families and mmpd just like us is a large group of employees that's a huge institution it's a big group to try to organize all of that training with all of our schools that's a lot of lift inter internally for them as well and so I appreciate
059that they prioritized that and heard that they didn't really have to do that they knew that it was a big request coming from us so I really appreciate that they took that time and prioritized it with their own Staffing cuz I know that they have a hard time Staffing as well of making sure that all of our teachers and schools could individually meet with them and go over their safety protocols so I really appreciate it I know it's been I I always call the beginning of the school year A Beautiful Disaster or a beautiful mess and it's because no matter how well you plan something happens you have suddenly there's three and there's three second graders coming every day for the full first week and you got to get a whole new second grade classroom
060whatever it is there's all always something that your best plan goes a little bit of skew um but the way that we manage that is through the best preparedness that we can have and that has really what has been kept keeping us um I I want to say the best in the state um in so many ways and so I'm so proud of how well it's run um of course our scores are important and of course the responsibilities that we have to our families are important but also of course to our employees so I really appreciate that and Dr NAA McKinny has one more thing um Rachel L has been very thorough so I'll try not to be redundant but I just want to acknowledge the fact that that Bas back to school basketball game
061y'all board member O'Hara block was the lead free thrower that she beat an Olympian a whole Olympian in throwing Bas uh free throw soccer um he was still an Olympian the back and we have video proof the the second thing is uh board member TK Fain and those defense okay she she was on the ground y'all trying to get the ball I don't see how she's here today and and our very own Dr battle she got some shots in too I got video I got proof um but yeah it was a it was a great um I really want to acknowledge all the activities between the back to school activities that we had across the city and the back to school events that was hosted by the district just the excitement of the return of
062school I haven't seen in a long time um and families um and community members were excited to get involved to be a part of it um and to participate and this is what we want for our students and our families and our community and so the more that we can do this um let's do this um and I just want to say thank you to everyone including our students and Families Our Community Partners and everyone across our district who got involved um to make this uh return back to school a su a success um I will have I do have a funny story with my son um he started Middle School this year so new school new grade um really exciting for him but the back to school song the the the new song that
063we have theme song that we have he had already heard it and we played it multiple times in the car and he was there for the opening ceremony so he already knows all the words to the song So on the first day of school it was played in his school and being a sixth grader he had to be real cool like he didn't know the words so we were asking him he was like yeah I was singing it in my head because I couldn't let the other kids know that I knew the word I was like okay welcome to sixth grade in Middle School so this is this is where we are now um but yeah I'm just real delighted about um the opportunities that our students can receive um to just shine and show
064their Brilliance and excellence and I and I really just appreciate everyone who was instrumental in making that happen as well and as we continue to do programming um across our district and provide opportunities across our districts we can let um our students shine and and see their Brilliance um and we just step out the way to make it happen um so I I really appreciate us giving our students the resources and opportunity to be successful um and everything else uh has already been said so thank you human resource and Chiefs and and everyone who made the start of this school year and all this work throughout the summer happen thank you okay it looks like there's no further questions or comments so we will move on with our agenda as planned so I appreciate all
065those updates and of course we'll continue to get them as we have our 20 year or 20 year excuse me 20-day um enrollment and all the other things that happen at the beginning of the school year um and so I look forward to us continuing to get this good information and of course if it's something we got to work on as you say know where you are but don't be afraid what is I'm sorry don't stay there started to give you a whole new I apologize all right that gets us to public participation so public participation uh for that we have three people I believe signed up for public participation yes um so you will stand up here at the front we have a new newi is timer right here on the corner for your
066two minutes thank you so much member Tyler my beautiful Vana here um it will come it will count down from two minutes when I think it gets to 30 seconds it turns a color to kind of warn you um and then it it does have an alarm I feel like I need to just MN everybody with because it's a bit jolting so there's the two-minute uh timer here you of course don't have to provide where you live uh for your own security if you can tell us what district you're within that would be great so we know for constituent services but um you're welcome to come up here and we'll start with Sonia Thomas and then we'll have Jenifer Johnson and I apologize if I have messed that up and then kindall mopin so we'll
067start with Sonia and we got the time thank you uh my name is Sonia Thomas and in the spirit of every student known and thank you for that we must make sure that every parent is in the no uh the last time we were here Nashville Propel parents distributed our white paper and I want to give you a quick synopis and uh one of the recommendations in particular I want to talk about uh we conducted conducted a parent poll uh across uh mmps where we ped 340 parents K through 12 and there was some things that stood out the frequency of updates that parents received on their child's reading progress VAR significantly report cards are misleading a substantial majority of the parents 82% report that their child's report card consists of bees or better and
068another Finding was that most parents 78% of them believe that their child was reading on grade level um and a school's focus on teaching reading is a major factor in choosing a school for specific parent groups and so there's one recommendation that we want to make uh to Dr battle and to the board that I think that would help students parents and the district and that is that we redesign our report card as we look across districts that are parallel to us such as suar willson County and Shelby County they have redesigned their report cards report cards do not tell the whole story aside from letters grades a b c and d report card should also include whether or not a child is reading on grade level and we should encourage be encouraged by our
069conversations with schools and Educators who are interested in pting with us as they see this as a gap to and so Dr battle we look forward to sitting down with you and maybe looking at a redesign of our report cards as we move things forward for kids and make sure that every student is known thank you thank you I get us to Miss Johnson Miss Johnson all right that gets us to Kindle moobin hi my name is kendle moin I'm a natural propelled proud parent of two kids Dr battle we emailed you on May 30th and June 12th of 2024 and shared our white paper and requested a meeting with you to discuss how white paper and recommendations I personally spoke with Mr Chief and staff Hank clay and he reassured me that he would
070respond and set up a meeting with n for Propel on July 23rd Mr Hanks also let Sonia Thomas know that we was going to set up a meeting when school started school had started we are looking forward to receiving an email with a date and a time for the meeting and we will be more than happy to host the location thank you okay Miss Johnson still not here okay that gets us from public participation to our governance issues as you can see they're listed all under the letter A as actions um we have one through five we can do all of them at the same time we've had a motion to approve it as listed do I have another motion to approve it now motion to approve the consent agenda that's listed second it's been
071first and seconded do we have any discussion or questions about these governance items all right seeing there's no discussion all those in favor of passing all these consent items please raise your hand all right that is unanimous thank you so much all right that gets us to board reports and for that I'm first going to turn it over to member Masters to discuss with us about the governance committee meeting we had at 4:30 thank you so we had a short governance committee meeting at 4:30 today um we we really were V revisiting two policies that we had discussed at the last meeting and we did not pass um because there were some recommendations from the floor at that time for some adjust adjustments excuse me and so um the first is um the Family Life
072curriculum um the other is the admission of suspended or expelled students and both of those um did pass during the governance committee meeting or the there was a recommendation to pass thank you so much next week we will have not next week excuse me at our next meeting before it we will also have a director's evaluation meeting so Dr nenny do we have an update for that yes thank you board member um Elrod sorry I was going to say maze for some reason she's right there the vibe um we do have an update on on um on the evaluation evaluations will be live immediately after this meeting um so you will um you should have a have received an email or will receive an email by the end of this meeting um with the evaluation
073please go in um even those that are leaving by next board meeting um to complete that evaluation process um board member Gentry and Masters we got to get that evaluation complete um and that's right um You you guys have had 100% rate of return so thank you so much um we're going to miss you um but this is um that final evaluation for the fourth quarter of the 23 24 school year um the deadline we will have a um committee meeting hearing on um a director's evaluation committee meeting hearing on August the 27th so we are asking um since it will be available tonight um to give you one week to complete it by the 20th everyone um because the longer we take the longer it will take to complete so so if you guys
074will complete it by the 20th um we need to be able to do a report um compile a report and be able to send that back out to make sure that we have everyone's input in that report um and have it available and ready um by the 23rd so if you guys again the 20th um go ahead and mark your calendars and I will also send you a calendar invite for that completion um by the 20th of August and we will um do the director evaluation uh to complete out the school uh well no not to complete out the school year but to complete out the fourth quarter on the 27th and Then followed that the uh September we will have the final evaluation or we should have we gotten all the St State data
075in yet so as soon as we get yeah as soon as we get all the state uh data then we will do the final evaluation for the 23 24 school year um early September fingers crossed um but we are tied with getting that State uh data in to complete out the evaluation process all right any questions no thank you all so much thank you so much all right that gets us to announcements so do we have any announcements district one I don't have uh an an announcement but I just want to again thank uh Dr battle as the longest serving member of board at this time um just the as has already been mentioned the opportunities that we've had over the years on day one um but I I want to just highlight something you
076did share that I think you you know kind of you didn't really gloss over it but it was the participation and the and the time you took to spend with the bus drivers you know we've had leadership uh in this District that has avoided speaking with our non-certificated employees at all costs um literally everything from ignoring their concerns to minimizing their concerns to um just not understanding the role that they play in this whole process of education and you know I've said it before here that at the when it's all said and done I would love to be able to walk up to any employee in mmps and ask them what it is that they do and they give me the exact same answer that my job is to provide a high quality education experience
077so that every student is known in mmps and I think that we're as close as to that than I could have imagine us being um and so I just want to thank you for what you do from sun up to sun down uh with two children of your own at home and a family at home uh and the the the 999,000 places you are in a day I don't think people realize uh that you're not sitting in an office sending emails and giving directions that you're there and I think that has also made the difference in at the start of this meeting at about 450 a teacher came through that swing door up here and said I'm a teacher I it's good I'm a teacher it's okay just to say hi to you and that
078just didn't happen it it just didn't happen and so I I thank you for I mean not just the work and and with the obvious outcomes that we've gotten from that work but there is an authenticity in what you do and in how you do what you do that is not it's not replicated it can't be mimicked it's it's it's a genuine push and drive and vision and belief that whatever we see today can be 10 times better tomorrow and it's it's it's amazing to me it really really is that you've been able to bring so many people along with you on that like convincing people people don't give up days in the summer um I mean our Facebook page us be running up with the teachers and all the memes and the Tik toks
079but get the B out of here I'm not coming back I can't wait for the summer and of course they enjoy the break and and the time off but to know that people have spent their time off doing the things necessary to ensure that we would have a first day of school that we had this year is truly a testament to your leadership what the leadership team you've surrounded yourself with the messaging that they repeat which gets to the district which gets to the schools which gets to the families which gets to the students and you know it's it's it gets harder and harder for people to come up here and uh and throw shade it gets harder and it's going to keep getting harder because of what you do and I appreciate it but
080what it does it allows the people sitting at this table to focus on what's important and not be distracted and and sidetracked by all kinds of other things that are not at the end of the day going to get the results that we've gotten and we'll continue to get for this District so thank you thank all of you sitting out here and pass those things on to everybody that you are leading and working with in your offices and um you appreciate it each and every last one of you so thank you District three thanks Sharon um ditto do that work no I I did I wanted to um just to distinct examples um I I'm a I'm a big fan of m&a and and enjoy working with m&a I think a lot of you know
081my father was a union organizer with Tennesseee Education Association so I always say I grew up grew up in and on public schools um and this is the first school year as a board member I received three correspondences from many a leaders early on and they were all compliments and I appreciate the um the critical eye I really do if there's something you know that that I can help bring to light but um and one of them was was from someone who's pretty straightforward fella and um sent sent a compliment um and it was it was it was just really nice to see and to feel like um that that we're we've just been in this place I think especially for the past couple of years where there's this open communication and um and everybody
082is able to voice their concerns and then they're addressed um I have to publicly call out our IH Department um because step raises took effect um uh and Cola with the first paycheck that's like not that easy to do with this many employees yeah I mean it's pretty incredible I had a a parent coming in a little hot um over a bus situation only to then email me 24 hours later saying it's taken care of I've got a bus stop now um so just it is nice to see the those things coming in and I just I really I appreciate that um and I'm in it as a mom too I mean I've been I was up at the school today messing with my kids schedule and everybody's like we'll get it taken care of
083it's going to be fine okay one more another one told me um someone from the enrollment center emailed her back at 6:10 p.m. and she's like I did not expect that I wanted that lady to go home and have her dinner but um it's just it feels like when you're working for something that you know is working for kids um that just that level of dedication and when the people at the top the people with those Chief titles are are honoring that with what they're doing to support um I just think it makes a huge difference um and I don't know if we've said this um publicly yeah I know we've had some shifts in leadership but I have to say like I want to be sure that our teachers and principls know what they
084have in Rita Perry and um and you know what an amazing leader she is and how amazing she is going to be in this role I've seen her in action and um I mean we have someone in that position who's really going to to to fight for what we need and be a champion so um I'm excited about that um so that's I'm say saving the rest for next meeting but um uh but yeah just and I did also want to mention one like thing that happened um goodlet still Middle School had an event um and I got to even cut a ribbon there's even like a confetti gun and it was like very exciting um The College and Career ready labs they worked really hard and it and you know got letters for members
085of the community and um and got this grant to put together this College and Career ready lab is the first one of its kind in mmps I'll bring you some more information so you can be jealous um and the students get to have these Hands-On experiences that relate uh to some of the different acmy in our high schools so like they're going to learn how to put in an electrical outlet which I mean like I don't know how to do that so I mean I thought that was pretty cool it's just it's everything from personal finance to occupational health and safety veterinary medicine um barber shop I mean I don't know who's going to like volunteer to get there but it'll you know it'll be great um but just just super excited about that and
086and the fact that that's what's happening in Goodletsville and hopefully in some more of our middle schools just to give the students even more reason to sort of um figure out who they are and and find more reasons to want to come to school every day I think that's really important yay Goodville Middle District Four um I do want to start out by wishing board member Gentry a early birthday her birthday is the 15th along with Christian bugs and my husband they all their birthday is all on the same day so I just want to wish you all a Happy Birthday early birthday um I do want to acknowledge we had a back to school bash in the mavic cluster this is our first time that we um with the help of the district as
087well pulled all of our elementary and middle schools together with our high school to hold a back to school bash so it was a One-Stop shop for families to meet their elementary middle and high school um and the high school mcgavic high school had all of their careeres or theirm of Nashville visible so families could see what was in each Academy um and have experience and and um uh to to kind of see what happens in each one of those acmy so that was really exciting I think we had our largest participation for back to school and back to school orientation um at mavic high school which was pretty amazing and we hope to continue to build on top of that I just want to thank all of the Community Partners as well as um
088our chief chief Roz for really helping us with the financial component um because that was that was a lot of work to put together so thank you so much for your strategic work in that um the principal principal Jackson over at mcgavic um and all of the teachers and uh families who came together for this great experience um the other thing is we're really excited about the football turf we've seen pictures and highlights of it coming in so we're really excited about um about it rolling out and having its first game on the new football field so we're really excited about that and and to Echo Dr Gentry and Miss Masters um I think I started the district here as a parent in 1997 um and then also as an employee um a little bit
089later so I have seen the change of superintendence over the years um that we have had across the district and I will say um and it's not just to to to give Dr battle a big head but I have really seen her be Student First and really focused on every student known as well as making sure that her team is focused on what we are all here for and that is about student and Student Success and so I just really appreciate all the work that you have done to lead your team um and and and your schools across the district to move the needle for kids um in our district um and the Mantra that no where we are but don't stay there um and so every year we are seeing a return on our
090investment when we as a board are working together to provide the resources um and and taking away the distractions that allows Dr battle to do her job and her team to do the job for for kids um and so I just really appreciate that and appreciate where we are and and and hopefully when these Test free results come out we have that three repeat and then we move on to that for Pete or quadruple Pete um um and really moving the needle but each year we have been able to move the needle for kids and and that is what we are here for and I just want to say thank you thank you to everyone who has played a part in that I promise we're going to get to District Five and on but I'm
091going to skip real quick to District 8 as we have a parent trying to I'm trying to make the end of myid soccer game so um I just really quickly want to say um how exciting it was to see the students do the every student known song I had to I was out of town I had to miss the initial performance um four of those kids I have known since kindergarten and so super fun to also see people who I know uh and love um and also miss Hammond and Miss Wally both um have worked with my kids over time so again that was just like personally so joyful and and joyful you know for the district as a whole um I think you all know that like one of my number one things is
092leadership broadly but specifically School leadership I wanted to take an opportunity to say thank you to Dr battle for visiting the three um new principles in uh District 8 um within the first week of school and I suspect you've done that maybe across the whole District um and it just I I know that that kind of thing really really matters um for people who you have chosen yourself which is fantastic to also see you show up and support them um when they are just starting to get used to it and it is the hardest job there is so um I just want to say thanks for doing that and and that kind of support for leaders is the type of thing that is has gotten us to uh to where we are um so uh
093with that I'm gonna bug out for my kids soccer game thank you very much what's District Five I didn't have any specific announcements um I did want to remind people that the jambes are taking place this weekend PE con plays Friday that's the only one that I can remember you know yeah but we play Friday no but I'm like that's the that's the one that I can I can um again I'm kind of biased but per home again plays Friday um but most of the Jamber does take place on Thursday and in remembrance of those jambes I want to talk about the clear bag policy cuz I needed a refresher for that so I wanted to throw that out as a refresher implementing those clear bag policies this year so I can't show up with
094my bag of goodies anymore don't I don't want y'all to see all my snacks I don't I don't want y'all to see all my snacks but um but yeah I just wanted to throw that out there and um I just plus one what everyone says cuz again I'm a newbie on the board but also been in Nashville now for eight years and my son has been a part of n nnps for six of those eight years and just and we're graduating this year so y'all check on me um but yeah I just want to you know reiterate that like I say that all the time when I first moved here I I heard all kind of negative stigma about mnps and and you know why my child should stay in private school um because he
095was at private school at that time and I was like well I turned out fine and I went to public school you know I went to Shelby County Public School in no shade but I survived you know what I mean and so I was like all right I'm sure we'll be fine but um ever since he's been a part of mmps in the program I've seen his growth over the years I've seen his Development I've seen the programs he's been a part of I've seen all the opportunities he's been blessed with and now we've been blessed you know to take it even further for for a college ride and he wouldn't be able to get there if he didn't have that um and so that's just what I wanted to say District Six yeah we're
096proud of our nephew um so really quickly um just a couple of things that I wanted to announce the main one here is there will be a health and resource Fair on August 24th at milridge Park uh that's on Saturday from 2 from 400 p.m. to 700 p.m. and that is sponsored by the Coalition for better Futures and um Mahar Medical College will have their really big large truck out there giving uh for free medical screenings and health care services so I encourage everyone who is interested in receiving those free services to come on out to milridge park on Saturday August 24th from 4: to 7:00 p.m. um also really quickly a point of personal privilege I want to say happy anniversary to my sister who is celebrating her 16th year as a Metro National
097Public Schools bus driver this month and she is super excited about it so to Marsha Martin happy anniversary on 16 years being a dedicated bus driver and she absolutely adored her baby she drives for exceptional Ed and she absolutely Ador those babies and will fight you for them trust me so uh just a quick quick shout out to her also um I will be starting up my monthly Community meetings again in September I will put the information on my socials not all the meetings will be in person we will have some virtual meetings but every single meeting will start with the every student known song being played at the beginning of that meeting I was literally back there in tears again today listening to those beautiful little voices and so I'm so proud of them
098um let's make sure I don't have anything else to cover here six oh uh and congratulations to this is an exciting time of year I was able to attend a couple of different freshman orientations one at Antioch and one at Cambridge and I have never seen students and parents so excited to get started with the school year it was amazing and full houses uh at both events you they literally standing room only it was a great opportunity and I will be sharing more information later about open houses across uh district 6 um as they start to come in and uh I'm kicking off my uh celebrate District Six schools again you see I'm Kane ridged out today W and also welcome welcome back to our now senior student School Board member Christina Tran and we
099will be joined by our new Junior School Board member in September I'm looking forward to her joining uh it's going to be a great combination so thank you for being here tonight my dear and uh I think that's it thank you District s um on September 13th from 4:00 to 7: we will have the Glen Cliff cluster bash so I invite you to come out and we're going to have a football game following so come out we'll have free food bounty houses you hear from the community um but come out and show our love for the best cluster in the whole wide world and the most beautiful cluster in the whole wide world oh yeah I'm saying it yeah the most best yes yes and the most beautiful cluster yes come out and join and
100celebrate with our neighbors and our family um and show some love to the clan Club cluster thank you and if you want to be a vendor contact me District nine um yeah I want to give a shout out to DJ Rucker at Lawson for winning The Tennessean nationville area's top preseason High School football linebacker poll so congratulations DJ um that's exciting it gives us a lot to look forward to this season um I was also going to mention the clear bag policy glad that you said that um also want to say that the Nashville after Zone Alliance is providing free after school programs across the city um in District 9 one of those programs will be at HG Hill Middle School students at HG Hill are the ones who are allowed to apply to participate
101in that free program you would need to email Lonna Harris at a ye SN gmail.com and I'm also going to share this information on all my socials so if you are um if you have a student at HG Hill who wants to participate in that free after school program you would need to apply for that um probably as soon as possible because it's going to fill up um and then also I don't really want to belabor what's already been said because I know everybody's ready to go home but I just want to make sure that Dr battle knows how deeply confident I and the rest of the board are in her leadership and in her leadership team so thank you all for what you do we appreciate you thanks I'm GNA go and then we'll
102hear from our student board member um I first want to make sure that everyone is aware that Overton is having their Title One meeting on August 26th from 5:00 to 7:00 that information inside the newsletter and if you are a part of the Overton Community you are well aware that that newsletter is prompt and thorough and so that information is there um but just in case additionally I just again want to thank all of our staff and our teachers for making sure that the back to school times have gone as smoothly as possible um we've talked about it you know quite at length today but there's also so much that we're doing outside of that um tonight is a number of open houses my kids own open houses tonight um right now and so I
103um I appreciate all that commitment to it um and making sure that our schools are available and open to our families um from a board perspective I also want to make sure that everyone's aware that the pencil back to school breakfast is happening on the 22nd um and if you are not on the board but would like to go to the pencil back to the school bash it is a great time uh in fact I've never actually ate breakfast there I'm too bus talking imagine such um and so that's usually what happens but it's a good time if you are interested you can go to the pencil Foundation they do great work inside of all of our schools and then lastly for families don't forget that all the permission slips are due we really would
104like them done as soon as you can but by August 30th um we try to make it as easy as possible I know it's a not a lot of them but that's because we want to partner with you in that education that you have with your child and we want to make sure that you're informed of everything that will come their way and so please make sure that you visit uh the portal for that and if you don't know how to do that you of course can talk to our amazing Family Center like we talked about or of course your principal and then that gets us to our senior's board member member TR um good evening everyone uh today I actually have something pretty serious to talk about which is why I kind of wanted
105to go at the end um the mnps motto is every student known I think that's very clear to everyone um and standing by that I wanted to address the fact that in the past year two lawon students have unfortunately taken their own lives um I'm keeping them Anonymous um respect to their families but I understand how difficult of a topic this is um but I'm not willing to stay silent or just let them be ignored or forgotten so um after the death of one of these students a response among some of the students at lwen was that they weren't surprised that um the student who died committed um this is obviously not okay um I think there has to be change things obviously can't remain this way um there needs to be something done to
106combat mental illnesses especially in schools um and to prevent something like this from happening again and to combat the stigma around mental illness um so I also want to remind everyone to check up on your loved ones um because you never know what they might be going through um and on a lighter note I hope everyone had a good first of school and I hope everyone knows that they are loved and cared for and when you speak up your voice can be heard thank you all right well with that there's no further business this meeting is adjourned 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