06/13/23 MNPS Board of Education

001let's say wait a minute we got one two three we got everybody here all right we got our Quorum so we're gonna do our Pledge of Allegiance oh goodness to do our pledge um no are there any former tiger Bells in the room oh look at this would you please do the would you mind leading Us in the Pledge of Allegiance down here if you don't want to shout but it sounds like you might be good at it come on down Tiger Bell all the tiger Bells can come all right let me see if I remember the Pledge of Allegiance all right I'm ready I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America before we Just Dance one nation under God individual with liberty and justice for all you did great thank you

002thank you you perfect all right I'd like to see a motion to either adopt the agenda as listed second all right all right the adoption agenda has been first and seconded in each discussion seeing none please raise your hand if you're in approval of the adoption of the agenda thank you that is unanimous all right that brings us to Awards and recognitions which gets us to Dr battle all right thank you chair Ward and good evening board members tonight we're going to honor some exceptional student athletes as well as some outstanding team mnps Educators who work hard every day to help our students succeed I want to start this evening with our track and field athletes who won Top honors at the recent tws double a state championships which took place in late May after

003some of these students had already graduated from their high schools these student athletes have shown not only exceptional skill talent and dedication in their track and field events but also excellent time management and self-discipline to juggle academics Athletics and their own responsibilities we are so proud of all of you for what you've accomplished and you and how you've represented MPS on and off the track so I'm going to call up each of our individual state champions and runner-ups as well as the team relay winners and runner-ups please come up and face this admiring audit audience when I call your name or your relay team and please stay up here as I go through the rest of the names then we'll get one big photo of everyone from all of the schools together and then we'll

004recognize the three schools with overall boys or girls teams that were state champions or runner-ups 4 by 200 meter relay which was the runner-up at the tws Double a state championships last month come on up [Applause] all right next up is East Nashville Magnet High School with a big Hall of trophy trophies again students come on up when I call your name we have Anaya Marshall she's a state champion in the pentathlon in high jump and runner up in the 300 meter hurdles [Applause] Isaiah shoot who is the state champion in the triple jump and runner-up and the pentathlon Adriana Beckley is a state runner-up and the triple jump and East boys are the state runner-up in the 4 by 100 meter relay come on up great job everyone and we'll be recognizing East one

005more time a little bit later but stay where you are next we have the Hume fog academic Magnet High School boys 4 by 800 meter relay team which is the state runner-up come on up if you're here with us this evening and from Maplewood high school we have Carolyn McRae who won the state McRae excuse me who won the state championship in the shot put [Applause] it we also have for Martin Luther King Jr academic Magnet High School he has the longest list of individual winners and quite a few team relay winners as well first up is Amaya Joy who won the state championship and the pentathlon [Applause] let me say that again state championship in the pentathlon it was runner-up in the 300 meter hurdles [Applause] we have a new state champion in The

006discus for Naya Roberts come on up [Applause] all right two times we also have Aaliyah Renato who won the state championship in both the 100 meters and 200 meters [Applause] Corianna Boyd who finished as a state runner-up in the 400 meters [Applause] and the state runner-up in the 100 meter hurdles Nevaeh Hyde foreign ER up in both the shot put and The discus Bianca Loveless Coleman [Applause] but that's not all y'all MLK also had three state championship winning relay teams the girls four by 200 meter relay the girls 4 by 400 meter relay and the boys for about 400 meter relay let's give them a round of applause come on [Applause] all right so great job MLK we'll have a little more to say about your achievements in a few minutes next up from John

007Overton High School we have Kimora Lee Williams who won the state championship in the 100 meters [Applause] Pearl cone High School also had a very impressive list of individual relay winners Ariana Thomas is a tws double a state champion in the 300 meter hurdles [Applause] at being in the decathlon and triple jump and the runner-up in the long jump is Donovan Higgins [Applause] these State runner-up in the girls long jump jakayla Morris and Mickey Wallace is the runner-up in the high jump now Pearl cone also had several outstanding relay teams the following teams won the state championship the girls 4 by 100 meter relay the girls 4 by 200 meter relay and the boys 4 by 100 meter relay [Applause] it's 4 by 400 meter relay team is the stage runner up let's give them

008another round of applause foreign and we'll be talking about you again shortly too finally finally last but not least we have one more individual to recognize and that is our new state champion in the 100 meter hurdles Janae Bowers from Whites Creek High School [Applause] all right y'all let's give it up for all these individual relay champions [Applause] you don't get like in this horseshoe kind of area yeah as much as you can everybody excuse me [Music] all right I'm so proud [Music] thank you um [Music] be ready thank you so you're welcome you're welcome we're proud of you here's life all right student athletes and coaches don't go too far we've got a couple more recognitions before you head out now before we move on all right so now before we move on from

009track and field there are three teams from three different schools that we want to recognize for their success at the state championships a few weeks ago first up are the East Nashville Magnet High School girls who are the runner-up as a team for their overall accomplishments the East girls are led by Coach Wayne Hines so coach hides and everyone from your team who's with you tonight please come on up for another photo so we can celebrate your team okay come on they really need to hair braided I'm just too like I haven't made an appointment yet to buy the hair goodbye [Music] we're going to school thank you [Applause] you're just too heavy yeah all right next we have the pro Con boys who were crowned as state champions as a team for their overall

010success at the tws Double A meet the Pearl cone boys team is led by coach Andre Davis coach Davis team who's ever here to represent you come on up for a team photo as we congratulate you on your state championship foreign [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] all right and finally we have another two double SWA state champion team so we would like to recognize the MLK girls team who are state champions this year let's give them a round of applause [Applause] all right congratulations coach Ronald Mosley and other coaches and administrators who are here and to our MLK girls on your state championship remember [Applause] all right congratulations again [Applause] so congrats to all of our track and field student athletes for your great success at the tws Double a state championships last month and

011since many of these students haven't graduated yet and we'll still be with us next school year have a feeling we'll be seeing some of them again here for a few years I also want to take an opportunity and just acknowledge as I mentioned track and field tends to end after the end of the school year but we will cut no corners and recognizing our student athletes many of you were celebrated a few weeks ago at our first annual Breakfast of Champions so we will we look forward to continuing to celebrate our student athletes in that way and like I told you on that day you are the best of the best of the best across this country and we always look for an opportunity to celebrate you and lift you up I'm also going to

012take a point of privilege because I see a few familiar faces in the audience we have some of our very own Sports Hall of Famers here with us tonight so if you are here you're part of the Sports Hall of Fame for Metro National Public Schools could you please stand and be recognized [Applause] all right so again thank you all for really establishing a strong Legacy and just trailblazing a path of success here for mmps and for your continued support congratulations to you all all right so I'm Switching gears just a little bit I'm proud to recognize two individual Educators and two teams of school counselors for their amazing work to making sure that every student is known in mnps Kelly Carey a steam teacher at Tusculum Elementary School who was recognized as the 2023

013technology educator of the Year by the greater Nashville Technology Council and for anyone who is unfamiliar with steam that stands for science technology engineering arts and Mathematics let's give Kelly Carey a round of a loss and and don't go too far I have a little bit more to say about you I've got a brag on you the greater Nashville Technology Council honors an outstanding educator in Middle Tennessee who and I quote has exhibited exceptional dedication to an innovation in the advancement of Technology education as identified through open nominations nominees are judged on the innovation of their Tech education curriculum or program the accessibility of the program to a broad and diverse base of students and the impact of the program on the student school and community Kelly congratulations on receiving this great honor and thank

014you for everything you do to teach and Inspire your students we would love to get a photo of you and of your support team that's here um celebrating you and thank you for a job well done thank you [Applause] and I'll give a shout out to our new principal of Tusculum Elementary Matthew Earls who is here to celebrate miss Karen [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] thank you [Applause] all right lots to celebrate today because next up we have um Lindsay kimery who is the mnps coordinator of Library services Lindsay was named a mover and Shaker for 2023 by Library Journal last month and was one of just 49 people across the nation to win that honor [Applause] thank you the trade publication honored Lindsay as a tenacious Advocate praising her work to get books in the hands

015of students during the early days of the covid-19 pandemic her championing of diversity equity and inclusion when those values were under attack by state legislation and her advocacy of Library services and Librarians and Communications with curriculum Specialists principals and other stakeholders Lindsay congratulations on this National recognition and thank you for everything you do to lead support and promote mnps's excellent libraries we appreciate everything you do and thank you so much for your Innovation and my personal support you provided me as well [Music] she comes up for a photo press the button while she's coming up Mrs Camry also joined us in DC to Advocate at a very high level for Tennessee schools for libraries and for Library services so thank you just thank you thank you you know I love you [Applause] okay all right

016[Applause] hope y'all didn't think I was done because I'm not um so just two schools in Tennessee received a national award this year for the effectiveness of their data informed School counseling programs and serving students and meeting their needs and one of those schools is our very own Dan Mills Elementary School [Laughter] the recognize ASCA model program award or ramp award from the American school counselor Association recognizes schools committed to delivering a data informed School counseling program in accordance with the national Model A excellent programs and Mills and the other women's schools showed evidence of the Direct Services to students program planning and improved student outcomes nationally 101 schools in 21 states are receiving this recognition they will be honored during a special ceremony at the American school counselor association's annual conference on July 17th

017in Atlanta this is a tremendous work this is tremendous work that exemplifies our mnps mission to make sure every student is known that they're cared for valued and supported and on a path to success thank you to the school counseling team at Dan Mills which includes school counselors Sarah Beck and Megan Bennett and School counseling interventionist Julie Hogg an advance coach Chris Summa so congratulations to each of you on this great honor and we would like to invite you up to celebrate you I'm here to take a quick photo so Dan Mills come on up yeah you can't escape sorry [Applause] all right we have one more School counseling team that is proving extremely effective at helping our students get on and stay on a path to success him fog academic Magnet High School was

018recently honored by the act as an American college application campaign School of Excellence one of just 23 schools across the country to receive this recognition School of Excellence winners are selected by this group based on their demonstrated commitment to Student Success and for serving as exemplary models for their State's college application campaign the war recognizes Hume fog school counselors for their commitment to ensuring that students receive the time space and coaching to complete their college applications with the assistance of caring adults and that combination of student talent and counselor coaching must be pretty awesome because Hume Falls class of 2023 graduates are headed to Duke Brown the University of Pennsylvania Vanderbilt Northwestern Bowdon Belmont Fisk Lipscomb Trevecca sawani Middle Tennessee State Clark Atlanta Emory Rhodes and numerous other outstanding colleges and universities they couldn't all

019be here tonight but I'd like to invite the Hume fall counseling team up to the podium to be recognized Kanika Childress Jeanetta Harper Lauren himrick Luana Knight and Catherine Sanford as well as executive principal Dr Kelly Hargis to join us up front for a photo and for a moment to celebrate your awesome work let's give it up for them [Applause] all right congratulations to all of tonight's honorees we're so proud of all of you for your accomplishments and academics and Athletics I mean with that chair a rod I will turn it back over to you and close out our Awards and recognitions thank you thank you as always our Awards and recognitions are a joyful and exciting time within the board so I appreciate everybody making the time to be here it was a big

020one oh it is um I appreciate you making the time to be here and of course spending your time with us this Summer Afternoon um I hope you've been able to catch your breath because now we're going to turn it back over to Dr battle thank you so much Sarah Ron um it's just it's always so exciting to celebrate the greatness of mnps and we don't stop it doesn't stop for us just because it's the end of the school year um and so what a what a fun time enjoy his time to celebrate um all the talents that live right here in Nashville um so all right thank you again chair erod and board members we had a strong finish to the 2022-23 school year on May 25th and we quickly moved into promising Scholars

021I wanted to give the board a quick update on a topic which is top of mind and that is the third grade retention law and the third grade ELA tea cap results that were released a few weeks ago followed by some information about Safety and Security that we are planning to share with the Metro Council along with mmpd at the meeting tomorrow at 4 pm first we saw some great progress for our students on third grade ELA TCAP results with the highest number of students testing proficients since the adoption of the 10 ready standards in 2016. I'm going to repeat that we saw some of the some great progress for our students on the third grade ELA Ela TCAP results with the highest number of students testing proficient since the adoption of the 10 ready

022standards in 2016. [Applause] grade students may be exempt from the retention law due to either meeting or exceeding expectations on the third grade ELA portion of TCAP or retake having a suspected reading disability English learner status or having previously been retained we've grown from 27.4 percent proficient last year to 29 proficient Which is higher than the record set in 2018. we also had the most students ever who scored exceeding expectations on the test an improvement of about 2.5 percent over last year's results following the release of the student level results we were able to retest students the next week focusing on those students who did not score proficient and who did not have an identified exemption in place of those students who took the text test approximately 11 percent of students score proficient meaning they

023would automatically Advance the fourth grade next school year while an additional 10 percent of test takers moved from below to approaching and were able to pursue those Pathways to promotion final determination is about exemptions promotion and retention will be made in July by school teams but approximately 34 percent of third grade students are subject to the provisions of the retention law and will require either interventions or an appeal in order to be promoted about one-third of those students are eligible for an appeal to the tdoe based on their Universal screening percentile score and receiving the approaching designation on the test overall we've registered 3653 third graders for promising Scholars this year students at all grade levels foreign so we have a fantastic team of school and District leaders who have been working to make promising

024Scholars a success and understand that students will have to show growth as determined by the state's truncated TCAP breeding tests at the end of the summer learning camps in order to be promoted using that pathway we will continue monitoring the pros the progress of appeals attendance at promising Scholars and other metrics that will determine the scope or impact of this law on students in our classrooms going into the next school year so again kudos to our promising Scholars team unfortunately not the reason for students having to be in promising Scholars but I'm really proud of the work of us being able to be responsive and continuing to provide a very enriching opportunity to all students who are enrolled so I also want to give the board a preview of the presentation will be given to

025the Metro Council for tomorrow in collaboration with mmpd we wanted to I wanted to level set about what we're here to present which is a high level overview of our district-wide and tier-based approaches to school safety in such a way that gives this board our families and our staff greater level of confidence in our plans moving forward without going into such detail specifics about phasing or locations that might give a person with ill intent a road map of how to get around our security to cause harm many of our buildings in District level security procedures are confidential under state law for this very reason and so please know that if there are details we don't get into it isn't because the work is isn't not happening or we don't know but rather because we're intentional

026about keeping certain aspects confidential in the best interests of our students and staff also the policies I'm discussing related to mnps run School are related to mnps run schools and do not apply to private or or all charter schools which may be different Opera they may have different operational systems in place so here is an is an eye of our agenda for today's discussion off with the while we are here our existing measures renew priorities for school safety and how the community can support us in these efforts as we move forward this for this current discussion was a tragic shooting that took place in our community at the Covenant School which took the lives of three young children three administrators and the shooter my heart goes out to the victims families and we stand with

027the Covenant Community in making sure they have the tools and resources needed for the long road to recovery this was the latest and closest in a long line of incidents throughout the country where an armed Intruder came into a school seeking to cause harm and it is something we have been thinking about and planning for not just since I've been director but since I was a student at mnps so many years ago so before we talk about what we're going to do next I want to ground Us in the work that taken place over a couple of decades along with the most recent measures taken after the shooting in Uvalde so I'm going to start with our continual food safety in Nashville everyone working together as a team stands to make and help make our

028schools as safe and secure as it can be through coordinated action that means having students and families understand the importance of following the rules we have set in place as well as letting us know when there are suspicious activities or threats to the safety of our students or staff they can do this by contacting the school directly the police or the family information center knowing that safe and security are not new to mnps or other school districts across the state and Country we wanted to give a broad overview of some of the key enhancements and Investments that have been made in the last few years and in some cases decades to keep our school safe you see the list of them everything from security vestibules AV intercom locks routine drills and exercises like classrooms security

029cameras interior and exterior badge Access Control we have our own established mepsk9 Division and our visitor management system as noted in the Continuum of Care everyone has a role in Safety and Security but some are specifically focused on this job as always in a system as large as ours there are vacancies that occur due to retirement or turnover and the labor shortages have affected all sectors of the economy but this represents the budgeted positions we do have there are 75 officers in the SRO budget that include both the school assigned sros at the middle and high school levels and their supervisors over the last few years there have been many vacancies in the SRO Department that has limited full Daily coverage at each of our middle and high schools starting this fall the mmpd is

030committing to filling those vacancies following the addition of a new recruitment class so that all of our high schools and middle schools will have an SRO assigned daily our Safety and Security Department includes our own mmps 39 security officers as well as those who monitor calls and dispatch 107 campus support position positions are budgeted throughout our middle and high schools campus support staff helped during drills and monitoring compliance with safety plans as well as responding to situations in classrooms and hallways where teachers or staff need additional help dealing with emergency situations that might jeopardize safety of other students or staff while they are are some non-negotiables for our principals they also have the discretion to hire more from their student-based budgeting budgets depending on the needs of their schools our safety ambassadors are based on

031the campus support model but with a focus on the difference in needs between the elementary and the middle and high school levels also something announced during the start during the start of last school year and while it took some time to identify the best funding source and get approval we started hiring earlier this year and are continuing to hire throughout the summer to fill positions safety ambassadors go through a 40-hour training program between the mnps security department police department and student Support Services on best practices when addressed everything from where just everything from an armed Intruder to a student experience and behavioral challenges and all in all elementary schools have had visibility and support from mmpd police officers this year through our partnership with mmpd that was announced at the start of last school year

032now every user typically an SRO to develop School level Emergency Operations plans to help them to know what to do in the case of several emergency scenarios that may happen in the school environment these plans lay out the roles and responsibilities of people on staff with primary and backup positions in many cases along with contact information emergency routes relocation sites and much more as it relates to the procedure that should be followed in the case of an emergency fans that sit on a shelf aren't helpful emergency which is why schools are tasked with practicing responses to emergency situations on an annual basis pursuant to Tennessee law there are several drills conducted throughout the year with multiple fire drill drills and Intruder drills CPR defibrillator drill as well as other drills are required these drills are

033meant to teach students and staff alike the proper course of actions to take in any emergency while identifying any issues that may need to be fixed as a result of the drill for example if the alarm isn't working properly or there's some impediment to Ingress or egress we also have clear plans for emergency communications and threat reporting that our district and school level staff are trained on in the case of any emergency from whether to school safety incidents our teams are ready to implement a robust Communications plan to ensure that school staff families and partners are informed through multiple channels such as email phone text or through the media so safety is not just about preventing active Shooters but it's it is about the day-to-day day in and day out safety of our students and

034staff from those who are authorized to be in the building during the school day over the last few years we have implemented or expanded advocacy centers at our elementary schools and peace centers in our middle and high schools mentioned they're meant to be or to de-escalate problems and apply restorative practices and principles in dealing with student Behavior needs we have also as a district we have we also have as a school and District level threat assessment teams who review specific incidents or potential threats to take their appropriate actions and will utilize suicide behavioral screeners in order to further protect students from self-harm when behavioral incidents occur our focus is not just on disciplinary actions but also in creating student safety plans to prevent or reduce recurrences of incidents based on individual situations and we have

035a robust disciplinary code of conduct in our student parent handbook that outlines the measures and levels of discipline that need need to happen to keep students and staff safe so before the start of the 22-23 school year we work closely with both mmpd and the mayor's office to secure funding and commitments that would work towards better school safety protocols and procedures program which was funded through the federal Esther Grant and started in January 2023. we use four million dollars in additional one-time funds provided by mayor Cooper and the Metro Council to design and Implement campus upgrades around fencing lighting and security vestibules we also use those funds to add additional security cameras and Knox boxes which are being installed at every school and will allow First Responders access to our schools in the case of

036an emergency and establish a contract with our existing security camera vendor to add a brandish weapon detection feature to our cameras which includes monitoring and alerts which are being piloted now and will be installed throughout the summer and fall we have additional mmpd Staffing and extracurricular activities and mnps access cards placed in mmpd vehicles in case of an emergency in addition to the additional police presence at our elementary schools one of our models at mmps is know where you are but don't stay there while we aren't looking to reinvent the wheel every year we are looking at gaps and opportunities that can be enhanced whether it's academics student supports or in this case Safety and Security are a few of the ways we're looking to reflect and improve upon our level of service going forward

037as discussed mmpd is looking to fill vacancies in the SRO Department to fully staff the middle and high school SRO program executing on recruitment strategies to expand Staffing in the safety ambassador program that was launched at the beginning of the calendar year with approval of Esser funds for this purpose key teams from both agencies will continue to meet regularly to identify any issues in collaboration access and protocols to ensure our joint work is being implemented to the highest standard mmpd will also offer consultation to school administrators on execution of their drills throughout the school year professional development and training is key to our successful implementation of the plans and protocols we've discussed today this summer all school-based employees will participate in intruder training offered by mmpd staff during their in-service week this summer while training

038previously occurred through our drills for school level staff this will give them more direct training from the police department the training for staff will closely resemble the content delivered to all mnps School administrators this previous summer we also as a district provide mmpd sros along with other staff at mnps training on the best practices for adhering to the social emotional needs of our students when responding to behavioral incidents now I'm sure that many of us have seen the video released by mmpd of the shooter at the Covenant School using their assault rifle to gain access through the front door while there are a few practical levels of security that can completely stop someone with a weapon of war from Gaining access to our buildings we can make it more difficult and by time for our

039staff to implement safety protocols and for the police to respond Shadow resistant film that can be added to our schools may help us do just that so we are MMP the mmps and MPD are working together to plan for and install Shadow resistant protection on glass and school buildings these facility enhancements will be made in close coordination with mmpd and NFD and in alignment with national best practices the governor announced a 140 million dollar investment in funding Statewide for school resource officers this is a funding plan for law enforcement who must apply for the grant so again the SRO Grant is for local law enforcement to apply for and receive the grant of course in consultation with the local school district also increased from 20 million dollars in one-time security grants to 40 million dollars

040following Covenant the Grant application process is months long and based on the threat assessments conducted by law enforcement and school Personnel at the school level and again just as a reminder this is a grant process and will take some time for schools to be able to apply for and their one-time security Grant funds one thing we always hear from our partners at the Metro Council and in the community and quite frankly from this board is how can we help whenever you're talking about building upon a robust plan like the one I've just discussed so what we can do is to continue to advocate for federal state and local policies that limit the risk to students in our schools and in our communities many of which are outside the control of the public school system there

041are laws that can help us get this thing under control in order to Implement our goals of Shadow resistant protection on glass and school buildings we are currently estimating five million dollars to install these at our schools which require both labor and material we also need recurring funds in order to keep in place our safety ambassador program that is currently utilizing Esser funding that expires at the end of next school year additional funding to cover the overtime for officer Presence at elementary schools and athletic events you also see that we are also in need of a 1.5 million dollar investment for mnps building upgrades to ensure seamless communication between mnps mmpd radio system I know that was a lot thank sticking with us through this presentation thank you for your continued support and advocacy I'm

042in all spaces but specifically in this space around Safety and Security I hope that I've been able to answer many of the questions that I've heard that you've heard around what our plans are as we move forward and again I will be sharing this exact Presentation tomorrow and we are planning for some additional internal external Communications to summarize where we're going moving forward I will end there chair and I will turn it back over to you is aware that's being added to our calendar but we have the dates for those meetings that we're talking about in that Series so the first one is tomorrow at 4 pm in council chambers then it's Wednesday June 21st at 6 pm at Hillsboro and then Wednesday June 28th at 4 pm and that's also in council chambers as

043well there's a press release that I'm also happy to send you that gives you some better definitions of what each meeting is and how it's a little bit different from each other but they're being added to our calendar so you have that heads up now who has questions I figure all right so we'll start with Aaron and then I'll do parthena I do have a couple of questions but I really just want to start by saying thank you um to Dr battle to all the support team that have been helpful on this I know I came soon after the Covenant shooting with a number of the things that are listed in here and and was hopeful that would be able to get them some things that constituents in my area which includes the Covenant School

044had been asking for and I'm just I'm really grateful to you all for all the work you've done and time you've put in with mmpd with the fire department to get to a place where we feel comfortable with a set of things we can move forward with and so I really just want to start with a big thank you recognize the school-based employee training I had heard from principals and assistant principals in my area that the training craze is that what you say quarries craze training that they received last year was excellent um and that they were really glad to be able to provide that to their school staff but that if there was a possibility that school staff could get it directly from the source that they would be really excited about that so

045I know they felt like that was a really really strong training so I'm glad to hear that and to know that SEL is really a focused part of this I mean I went looking for so I will get to some questions I went looking for research on sort of you know what are the things that we really need to focus on what does peer-reviewed research tell you about what to do in these situations and really you cannot unfortunately find a lot on how to harden buildings as a way to prevent school shootings or even really we know that we can buy some time but but really anything that you can find anywhere and I know Dr battle her team are well aware of this is going to talk about the need for relationship and connection

046and that prevention is really starts early on with students and so all of that work that we're doing is so important but it is also great to be able to see some of these things happen as well um I on this and then I do have a question on um third grade retention but I can wait to ask that I think I think it's interested to know what of this funding is available what do we need to be advocating for right now and sort of where are we at the moment in process if you're able to talk about any of that looking at slide 20 around the support needed all of it is needed the only thing that's right now being covered to a level is the safety ambassadors because it's a part of our

047Esser plan but of course that will end this time around this time next year but I must point out that we would have to have funding well in advance of that for employee retention sake so we can't wait until June of next year to identify and then invest in this way in order to keep the program running so everything else will require additional funding you do see representation here of both mnps and mmpd ask around that particularly for mmpd it is The mapd Presence at athletic events as well as the overtime one 2.8 million for the mmpd visibility at our elementary schools thank you and so that's part of then what we need to be doing um as part of these Council hearings that are upcoming and things we can be sharing with our constituents

048that these are areas that in order for them to occur that we're there in terms of being able to do it but um in order for that to occur we will need to make sure that we get that funding this year and in a recurring way for the recurring element that's corrected several of the mmps items are part of our aspirational budget great um I think that's probably it and I'll wait to ask my question on third grade retention until later unless you want me to go now you go ahead now okay I had um one sort of big picture question on the third grade retention um talking about the I think it's 34 of kids um who are uh impacted by the law and then looking at the number of students that are signed

049up for so it's uh that 3 600 students is something like close to 60 percent of um our third graders if I'm doing math correct yeah I'm sure we have a number of students who are not impacted by the Thurgood retention enrolled in promise and Scholars and we want that because our promising Scholars wasn't designed just for the third grade retention it is designed to be an enriching learning experience an engagement opportunity for all students so you there there are a number of third grade students who are enrolled in promising Scholars that are not impacted currently by the third grade retention loan if we've we're all of like a week and a half in and promising Scholars so you probably don't have that information um to date we do have information on the individual student

050by student um case but not um sliced if you will in that way I thinking about what does it look like for third grades in schools in the coming year I might add that fortunately for Metro national public school students we have all the measures of the law in place from tutoring um when I did the second one just slipped my mind tutoring and promising Scholars I'm available to all of our students and so we have various Pathways of support for our students that might not impact third grade enrollment if you will due to the retention law great thank you did you want to ask something Mason I'm sorry first of all I want to apologize for my tardiness I'm dealing with migraines so if I talk a little loopy I apologize in advance um

051but I do I do want to Echo um Miss O'Hara block and saying thank you um to you Dr battle and your team along with your collaboration with um Metro Nashville Police Department uh Nashville fire department and the office of emergency management and your collaboration around Safety and Security we've had a lot of discussions about it and so I really appreciate the Forward Thinking and the work that you guys are doing to really address this as well as listening to parent and communities on how we can systematically improve the the Safety and Security of students while they're in our schools um I do however um have a caveat and saying that while we are increasing safety within our schools with the increase of safety ambassadors and sros I am still concerned about the number of

052sros that will be in our school unfortunately due to the rise in gun violence and the impact it will have on students day in and day out there is a lot of while there's not a lot of research on securing buildings there is a lot of research on the impact of sros with students in school especially students who come from underserved communities and so I I would be remiss if I say if we could make sure that we are and I know that you mentioned that they that mnpd sros and our safety investors will be trained on SEO but if we could be very conscientious and mindful of that in their relationship with students and really building that component and and being mindful of the impact if any it may have on students who may

053be affected in a negative way oh thank you for that um so first with regards to fully Staffing the SRO plan program there's no expansion of the program this is filling the budgeted positions that have been there for quite um some time and yes with regards to our very own support staff as well as collaboration with mmpd we take a very collaborative approach in training we benefit from training from nmpd they benefit from training with mnps and I'm very proud of the fact that we typically don't have any attention between the two and they actually request for and ask for this training as well we were just in a planning planning session yesterday where we also made another connection about one of our partners that they also partner with and the SEL kind of mental

054health space as well and so we will continue to collaborate rate in in that manner with regards to particularly SEL practices that are expected and the diverse population of students that that we serve so again Chief Drake and his team have been very openly receptive of their trading and likewise we've been very receptive of the training that they can provide alongside us as well thank you to follow up to that on budgetary items and support that's needed of that the funding that's listed up here what is included in our aspirational budget and what are we looking for outside resources for um all of them will require additional funding and either the local state or federal level right now the only one that's covered in covered in any source of funds is the safety ambassadors through

055the Esser Grant it was also included in our aspirational budget there was also an ask around the increased athletic and extracurricular including graduations within our aspirational budget as well and then the shadow resistant protection glass and the seamless communication Radio Systems are new as based upon an additional in-depth review and collaboration with with mmpd and being responsive to the most recent tragic yes so we are we looking to expand our budget in light affirmation our sources can you help me so we need to advocate for and secure funding to have these enhancements as a part of our safenet security plan moving forward we can continue with the safety ambassadors for another year because that's been approved in our extra budget the other items are new and are either part of the aspirational budget or now

056result of our enhancement with regards to the safeness security plan okay I'm just trying to get I'm sorry I'm trying to get some so if the question is because we're in the midst of the budget cycle right now if there were additional areas of investment that the council was interested in and we highly prioritize Safety and Security as well as our other federally funded initiatives is there a way because we've had community members ask about being able to donate funding or give funding in any way what are avenues that they can do so or are there avenues that they can help support our initiatives we are currently in communication with a few Partners who are interested in kind of being the convener in that space But the one thing we have to be very mindful

057of is a lot of this is recurring so you know fundraising helps and one time efforts but it is important that either through a recurring Grant or operational budget that these Investments are represented henceforward so that we can continue these efforts as we move forward I mean the shadow resistant protection glass could be a one-time we don't know yet it could require additional maintenance and and supports of course as you have new facilities come on or Renovations happen I mean it is likely that there will be a recurring cost so that's something we have to keep in mind so the fundraising helps Kickstart may not help us in our continuity of supports and strategies that are represented here thank you Freda thank you kind of I was going to say that um kind of budget

058chairs wouldn't want the community be mindful that the Staffing is roughly about 5.6 million dollars that will be reoccurring and then also you have to understand these are people who are having this there's also a cost of living that will increase over time and so there's a natural there's a natural inflationary aspect to these funds so as we Advocate um for these that it's not just a one-time funding these are people that have jobs that will have a career and that it will cost it will continue so as we're in this current political environment please be mindful as you Lobby Council or Lobby candidates that this is a continuing effort not a one-time effort and I want parents and Community Advocates understand that that means an additional allocation to either a Metro budget our budget

059and I'll continue to team advocacy in the cost in that priorities have to be made budgets are are a finite amount of resources and so understanding as we have communication as we're going through the seasons that we have to set priorities that this board has set priorities on what we're doing and make sure that we don't have Financial Cliffs and that they come in continuous part of the content doing a budget so understanding the some of the conversation that we're going to have to have some of the difficult decisions that we're going to have to be mindful of that and we're going to place priorities over things that happen with our children and then what happens inside the classroom and outside the classroom so I just want to be mindful of the true cost and

060that it's a continuing cost it's not a one-time cost and that 5.6 million dollars is not a stagnant amount it's going to increase over time off also so I want the community to understand that and then also just a quick question about the primary Scholars are we communicating with especially first and second grader parents to understand that this is a support that's really needed to help reinforce their um contingency effort to prepare for the third grade retention proficiency yeah so in its original Inception of promising Scholars before the law required the summer programming it was a it was built the program was built and communicated in a way to avoid kind of the summer slide that happens with our students and you can address that in very enriching and engaging ways before the nature of

061this current law we actually we were providing this opportunity to our youngest Learners as well for that very reason so we'll continue to communicate what promising Scholars is and the benefits for our many mmps students including our earliest learners thank you Emily I just I want to start by saying um I appreciate what the part in the report here about how our agencies use a collaborative process for vetting because I know a lot of us had a lot of information coming at us a lot of great suggestions great meetings happening among parents but I think it is so important that mnps that mmpd are able to communicate the way that that we do to to come up with Solutions together I don't think that is the case in all areas so I think we're really

062fortunate to have that close relationship um and I just I wanted to ask about these grants specifically the school safety grants that would be applied for by the district so and you mentioned there's an application process are they actually competitive grants or are they just allocated and you have to I think we're still receiving information about the grants I know that they've been announced in dollar and intent but we've not received the details to actually get in there and and learn that information I think if there was an important takeaway we do plan and mnps mmpd plans to apply for the grants um so I'm not I'm not sure how they're going to make these determinations if it's competitive if it's based on enrollment size and certain allocations I've heard that maybe within the next

063week we might get some details and I'll be happy to pass that along uh once once we learn more determine those allocations and then back to third grade retention and I know you don't know the answer to this question yet so I might ask it and then maybe when we have it so of that 68 of the 34 of third graders for whom the intervention is the only option how many of them are currently in promising Scholars I guess that's what I'm wondering you know what's the the uptake on the part of the students that are in the most dire need of the interventions and we may not know that right now since everybody's still kind of and I'm sure there are some that showed up on the first day and there's some we've called

064great so yeah so we'll once we kind of get a stable representation there we'll share as much information that we can pull from it back looking forward great great and I do think I mean you have to have been living under a rock to not know about promising Scholars I feel like it's been coming at us from so many directions I'm really I'm appreciative of that as well um so thank you and on that on that note um the quick shout out to our school principals and assistant principals and counselors and teachers who've taken a very Hands-On approach to the students that they serve to make sure that they're informed enrolled and have the information that they need so very proud um uh Dr Bell new Chief Perry have been working closely with their school

065teams to get as many students captured as we can this summer so that we can prepare for next school year that's I think that's great and I I want to Echo that as well I have heard from parents like wow I I've gotten all the details all along the way and I and I think the fact that it has been individualized for each student I mean every student known I mean I think we really even given such a you know not enough information from the very beginning about how this is going to play out not enough information about what kind of amendments there might or might not be along the way I just think we really um we stayed in touch we communicated the whole way through so and I know it was exhausting and

066I appreciate that thank you Miss Masters and I cannot forget to give a a shout out to Tina Stinson and our magnificent research assessment and evaluation team who made all this data come alive and visible to equip our school teams with what they need um I'll start with promising scholar or third grade retention stuff and move to the since we're kind of already talking about that um have we heard from the state about what will satisfy adequate progress for the end of summer school yet and and do we know how to measure that at this point responded from their pretest to their post-tests and promising Scholars and for sure that that tests that we've administered will meet their requirement for whatever they decide is going to okay I think I figured we would we are

067always on the ball about that you are always on the ball about making sure that we're meeting those requirements so thank you for that um I appreciate that that was my only question um I think like Miss Master said you guys have been really on top of making sure our families know situation where so much is unknown and there's been a lot of anxiety and frustration on everybody's part and so thank you for the work you've done thank you so moving forward looking at the school safety I don't want too many details for the same reason that you said you were not going to share very many details but I just wanted some reassurances to know that there is information for our teachers who are importables about what to do during lockdowns and that we

068have Subs fit into our plan about how to um like making sure that they have keys and access in and out and just kind of because those I think sometimes can accidentally get overlooked yes so the Portables are part of the school plan as they're planning and running those drills that is a part of what they'll be planning for and executing on again we're going to be working closely with mmpd on I'm kind of pressure testing um that as well with regards to subs and other visitors who may be in the building I must kind of double down on why we're transitioning to the classroom Associates who will be a part of the training that we're talking about who will be a part of the drills they were talking about there will be a small

069portion of substitute teachers who will still be in our buildings and so Chief Spencer and Amber tires will be working closely on the training for substitute teachers so they understand the procedures and protocols as we move forward but the classroom associate move is also part of strengthening our Safety and Security execution in all of our school buildings and Facilities across the district thank um and then also the the new law that's allowing private schools to contract with mnpd for security that passed recently um as you have mentioned several times and we've heard from other school board members um we have had a pretty static number that we've requested every year and we've made sure that we have budgeted for that amount every year and an MPD is working hard with us and partnering with us

070to make sure that they'll be able to fill all those spots but there have been issues with filling every spot and I'm concerned about a private school wanting to come in and and kind of chip away at that number do we have any reassurances from mmpd that that you know our contract will definitely be filled um so the first thing um and I'll I'm going to look to my team and y'all correct me if I'm wrong I believe the language is armed officers that they have the ability to partner in that way does not specifically call out the local police department so I just want to clarify that there's lots of other ways to get armed officers or security guards in schools and what I have here just as late as yesterday which is why

071we're just seeing this presentation today confirmation from mmpd around their plan to prioritize mmpd in our SRO program for Staffing okay appreciate knowing that and then again I also want to just kind of um Echo Dr Nevada McKinney's comments about what the research shows about there being a fine line between feeling safe and actually being safe for students and I know you are very well versed in that research and that you know a lot about it and I just wanted to kind of publicly state that I'm also you know on your side for making sure that we're doing what's best for our students so thank you Christian Christian music form the question I know there are Community Partners who have reached out about trying to offer a community supporter um summer programming that might I

072don't know reinforce promising Scholars or take whatever Overflow what those discussions look like and should we just kind of tell those Community Partners that can continue to do the good work but that when it comes to some of the specific State policies that we continue to take the lead I just want to know any because there was also conversation at the state level about pushing out dollars to community groups to do something similar to a promising scholar to support us yeah so um two different approaches to answering that question the first one is we have plenty of Community Partners who are partnering with us through promising scholars in Richmond up operating so on and so forth and so if there is an organization nonprofit that's interested in partnering in that way we have done it

073and will continue to I mean we we actually have to have it in order for Robinson Scholars to work um the way in which it's been built the second part of the question is just hearing that and wanting to Leverage The talents and and people that we have in Nashville we're continuing to kind of think about and play in four ways in which we can expand those opportunities I mean we're thinking about it not only just for promising Scholars but also for Extended Learning opportunities we know there's a need for our families it's part of our aspirational budget ask as well and so we're thinking about how do we leverage our own internal talent but also tap into the talent of the community to make sure that our students have safe enriching thriving learning environments

074before and after school as well so we're continuing to think through that but in the meantime we already have some of those Partnerships existing specifically with promise and Scholars there's also ways and opportunities to partner with our accelerating Scholars Program and our entire Scholars portfolio so if someone has a specific question we'd be happy to kind of connect and and kind of uncover what might be possible as we continue to build out the plan I'll follow up with the accelerated Scholars because I've just heard from a number of churches in North Nashville who are looking to kind of stand back up tutoring programs that they had to try to leverage that either during the week or on the weekends fall and spring so I think there's something there we just kind of haven't quite fleshed

075it all out and so thank you for that and then of course I've got to shout out North Nashville and Robert Churchwell just continues to thrive so much so that my son is asking if he can go to church well and I'm like no baby you're a Jones baby you got it you got to stay at one school so thank you thank you Dr Gentry listen you're absolutely right about Churchwell the the this the environment the the new leadership there the entire vibe in the building has completely completely changing so I appreciate the identification of that of the leadership for that building and just in hearing the the commentary around sros in the building you know this has been a hate hate relationship for a long time in mnps and I was sitting here looking

076over Chris and Hank I think in the almost 16 years I've set here we've never had a conversation about a partnership with mnpd and so I want to not say don't be concerned I want to say that this is unlike anything that has ever happened between mmpd and mnps in the time that I've been paying attention to the board remember the extremely contentious and understanding that was about a subset of schools in our portfolio but a very contentious conversations that went on for a long time around pulling sros out of our building it was just a very hard line it was not a partnership it was a this is a we have the resource you needed and we don't want you to have it kind of a thing we don't feel comfortable giving it to

077you and it was not a conversation it wasn't a discussion it was the mayor getting involved it was all of these attempted Kumbaya conversations and to to have a a police chief and I just want to again come oh I want to publicly commend Chief Drake I try to tell him so every time I see him for just coming to the table differently and understanding that what we've always said at this table that what comes into our building started is nurtured it breeds outside of our buildings and so we put it into a confined space called a school or a classroom and hope for the best and now we've got a partner to help us to to at least within the that confined space to create relationships as you guys have pointed out which is

078what's going on in the training and going into conversations right which never happened right they sent us sros they walked into our building some with an attitude of I'm here to keep the law so I'm here to keep the peace and a handful I'm here to for the students so the and I lied and said I didn't really have a question I do have one question and as we think about that are the comment of things manifesting outside where are we have we talked about ways that that partnership can expand beyond the concept of an SRO right so that we know that it's the community that's in our buildings how do we how are we leveraging are we looking to leverage that that relationship that really good solid relationship so that you know we're viewed

079as not Partners in school safety but we're Partners in what can make have a positive impact on the lives of our students um that we are are charged to care for yeah um I looked at my team and we all had a smile on our faces we just we've been having this conversation and uh what you've heard tonight mainly represents kind of the mmps responsibility what we're doing on our side when you hear from mmpd you're going to hear about their dedicated School Safety Division that they've created and expanded over the last year you're going to hear them talk about their Chief Drake has brought another approach a community approach to mmpd and he starts with which is why we make for just such great Partners the relationship building that has to be present the

080the trust building and so he gets that um so when we talk about Navigators he's like tell me more right so he and you'll probably hear it unfortunately Chief Drake won't be at the meeting um tomorrow but Lieutenant bakanza picanza will be there and you'll hear him talk about the way in which they approach the work today um as opposed to what the way they probably approached the work um in the past and so what we're seeing here is a building out of a partnership um Beyond just the SRO program you'll probably hear them talk about their new their pal activities that they're doing which is extracurricular activities you'll likely hear them talk about their canine unit that they bring into our schools they might call this something else and the kids absolutely love and

081you're going to hear them talk about the volunteerism of his team and being out in the community building those relationships and so while we have very specific conversations about schools we also have conversations about what's happening in the community quite frankly it gives us better context as school people around everything else is happening out in the community they're also solving for so yes I think that what you just described matches Chiefs Drake's vision for his unit from top to bottom and the way in which they're trying to approach the work he is very big on relationships and building trust throughout the community I think he calls it is it a community approach I'm looking at Kenmore community policing is how he describes um it's just a super quick thing based on I think what what

082everyone has said around um the the great things that sros can bring to the buildings and the things we need to be cautious about and also the partnership approach and all that one partner or a set of Partners or that you that we maybe don't see talked about in the safety conversation but I know community policing has some sense of is mental health providers and Mental Health Partners and um it seems like a good opportunity to think about trying to bring in more of that and maybe you all are doing it it's an aspirational budget item we have expanded Mental Health providers in our schools through our Esser budgeting so our priorities are in the right place oh yeah community-wise absolutely absolutely and so it is something that we're looking to secure recurring funds for

083and you will likely hear mepd talk about that component of their work um as as well you know and I've said this before I've said it publicly before I mean it is amazing to have a partner in Chief Drake in in this work into Miss Masters Point again another kind of Envy point of districts across the country that we work so closely together we have stand-in routine meetings but I can guarantee you I don't hesitate to pick up the phone and my team doesn't hesitate to pick up the phone to call Chief Drake and his team and they don't either and so we have a a very powerful partnership in place for our schools but for overall Community Health as well so the aspirational budget is in there it's under the continuity of federally funded

084initiatives if anybody wants to take a peek at the slide so that we can continue to expand upon the mental health providers in our schools we we have definitely expanded Beyond where we were when we closed our doors in 2020 and being in the in-person learning environment we want to maintain that and we want to continue those Partnerships in our schools breathena I don't have a question I just have a comment that I forgot to say earlier about the promising Scholars Program and the great benefits of the program I have a rising fifth grader who was not in risk of retention but who has loved the promising Scholars Program for the last three three years that it has been active and he's in it again this year and absolutely loving loving it I don't have

085to fight them to get up in the morning he's really excited about going and really excited when he comes home from the programming that takes place so I again without remiss would encourage everyone to put their children into the promising Scholars Program and the benefits of that program thank you I didn't tell Dr Obama Kennedy to say that but that is like the going line like yeah like they want to be there and um please plan your vacations around promising Scholars because our students do not want to miss any opportunity thank you I should say my kids are actually jealous that your kids get to go because we did not get this out of because of some vacations and other plans so people are not going to make the attendance requirement um I like to

086say virtue Drake as well that we really appreciate is understanding that our schools are and our community our reflection of one another and that we have to be good partners together and that's not just from a policing standpoint standpoint of course but also from a support standpoint so we really appreciate that and their flexibility in listening to us and being able to meet us and have productive conversations along with Nashville fire um we all as we often don't talk about their partnership as well but particularly like with the shatter Pro I mean we do talk about their partnership because one just got married a Christian one fireman married a board member so we do talk about that but beyond that though um it is really nice that they have taken our request that we've received

087not only from ourselves but from our own research and from our constituents and it's been a let us look into it or it's been a yes and or maybe they absolutely of course are focused on the safety and the data that's behind different measures like the shatterproof glass but they are willing to take and listen to why these things are wanted or needed and kind of expand some of those conversations so we are really really appreciative that it's not just a strong arm no and that they can listen and help us as well and that's a really wonderful testimony to the relationship that's been cultivated there and so very appreciative of that I don't want to make sure we publicly recognize both groups not just mmpd though we are grateful for you but also national

088public National Fire FD in FD um for promising Scholars I just want to make sure that we take note of the significant increase of students that we are taking within promising Scholars I think that speaks a lot to not just the effect of the retention law but just how much this has been a community need and want and how it's been desired for our families we were lucky as Nashville that we already had promising Scholars started before this summer there are lots of counties inside of the state of Tennessee that had not implemented it yet because it's just so dang hard to implement you have to basically create a whole additional school system for a summer and so they hadn't done it because it was really hard or they had still practiced it and so

089we were lucky that we started practicing it in 2020 we pivoted plans and we're able to kind of get it underneath us and do it well and the exceptional and ongoing increased enrollment that we have every year I think really speaks to the need and the desire of it from our communities so I really appreciate that we are providing it not only of course to meet the needs of that law which I know we all would rather not but we are doing that part but we are still also providing that enrichment that is necessary and needed for our students and for our families and it's not just for elementary schools it's for all grade bands which I think is also oftentimes overlooked as well so I appreciate the work that it takes from all of

090our support staff and of course all of our school staff those people that suddenly become principals all the bus drivers that now work on the Summers and of course are nutrition staff it takes everybody guys it's a again it's another school system during the summer so I appreciate that you all are committed to it and that experience because I think it provides not just the tangible benefits of better scores and attendance but I think there's long-term benefits to that as well with social emotional learning our ongoing truancy that we're always trying to improve and that's a hard needle to move and I think that continuing to build our community relationships through promising Scholars and providing those benefits is exceptional so I appreciate it and the kids do love it my kids loved it in the

091past and I'm sorry I'm sorry guys I do have a data update oh yes um so I think this question was asked um two different ways two different two times two different ways so we have 3 653 students and third graders enrolled in promising Scholars of that number 1945 of them are considered below and and or approaching and only 688 third graders are below only so that determines the path um for promotion and because um chair Elrod did this I also have to give a shout out to Chief Swan as well who is a great partner in this work and is like over over and Beyond responsive to the needs of the school district so Chief Drake Chief Swan they make for a great team because I had one last question I've uh with it

092so a student is below um they are engaged in promising Scholars they meet those requirements for attendance they engage in accelerating Scholars throughout the Fallen spring they still are expected to take TCAP in the the ELA portion of TCAP in the spring and they have to at least be approaching to not be retained in fourth grade they have to show adequate progress in the fourth grade team ready I don't know that we've defined that exactly as moving from below to approaching as of yet if I would need to follow up with with Tina Stinson but I don't that exact language as of yet okay and then whatever amendment was finally passed at the state level will likely go into effect which might change or impact that anyway I believe there was some last minute amendments

093that were passed that don't take effect until next year's class yes ma'am okay all right thank you very much I know I said that was the last question but our student board member has a question and I will always prioritize that feedback so take away Elena okay bear with me so I'm trying to figure out how to ask it but will you please lean into the microphone sorry and you might have to there you go okay all right so I'm trying to think about how to wear this but I am I'm super duper like excited about all of these like safety protocols um a lot of things like I didn't even think of like oh that's a good idea you know so I that sounds really great and um I think it's really important to

094have um I think it's important for students to feel safe and I think that sros provide that and so Elena I've had great experiences with my sros however I do know that there I've gotten a lot of word from a lot of students who are a bit apprehensive about sros and then we're adding safety ambassadors and so I'm trying I'm trying to work this to alleviate some concerns but what exactly would you say like the because I think it's important that these uh these people are like interacting and building relationships with students but are these are these additional disciplinarians are they like what do we see them what is their interaction with students supposed to look like yeah the SRO roles and responsibilities change in Nashville many many years ago in that route out there

095and so is not to serve as a disciplinarian they're there to provide visibility to have a presence and to intervene essentially when there's a wall broken right but they are not sros are not part of the disciplinary process in any school okay they are there to help with planning around Safety and Security they are there to help with the drill process and provide feedback and to be a partner to the school team we're around keeping students and staff safe but they're not there as a disciplinarian that is not their role and responsibility if that helps clarify that does thank you and I'm also I'm really like happy to see more mental health support and looking and bringing those staff in because I think that that is a good collaboration I don't think you can do

096one without the other I think it's really good that we have sros as important safety ambassadors and also having that type of mental health and that type of support staff in school so I'm excited to see how those interact this school year thank you and I look forward to you sharing your experience from your gyms opportunity later in the summer because I know we still got some things coming up but I look forward to providing some feedback to us on that great thank you all so much for all your questions um especially our student board member as always so thank you everybody for your attendance and of course all those questions they were really good we're going to move on to public participation a public participation is where you have a few minutes to speak

097to us as a board you have three minutes at the end of that three minutes you will hear the ding there we go if we don't have a real one we'll make one nope we'll do it more than once maybe even um so we have two people that have signed up their names are up on the board and I hope that they're still here through and felt found a lot of information from their last report we have Deborah Thomas Deborah Thomas here just in case Deborah Thomas is out for a moment do we have Kelly and Graf come on down hi my name is kellyanne Graf I'm a former mmps teacher and I'm a constituent of free to pray um player Peters and I'm here to speak in opposition to two contracts that are on

098the consent agenda today um those are four Varsity Tutors and teachers um tutored by teachers I think it's the name of it um in total these two private companies would be receiving six million dollars a year for the next two years from our Public Schools budget to do the active teaching it's concerning to me um that we would take our public taxpayer dollars and give them to companies that are doing work that we as mnps are already doing and instead of expanding the services we already offer also six million dollars a year that's the equivalent of 92 um certified teachers Gallery salaries on the fifth pay step with a master's degree so that's 92 highly qualified highly experienced Educators that could be in our system but instead we are paying someone else to pay who

099people who might be former Educators themselves we are funding a private institution that incentivizes classroom teachers like former classroom teachers like me to get jobs like this that might be more manageable so I'm worried about this Snowball Effect that this might have on our district and both employment and in budgeting also in regards to the comments of safety um Middle School teacher after enduring a a brain injury as a result of de-escalating a violent student so safety is something that's like a really big concern to me at our schools and I'm everyone who was talking about SEL is exactly right like what we need is more Personnel we need people not necessarily Safety Research officers but people who will show up and be there for the students the student conflict was dealt with by a

100building sub where that shouldn't have been his responsibility we should have had SEL people on it those students shouldn't have been together but we didn't have the numbers to do that I love the SEL team at the school I worked at but they were not available the majority of the time that they were needed because their responsibilities are so large especially at a middle school coming to the end with eighth grade thank you very much did Deborah Thomas come thank you Kelly all right I do not see Deborah Thomas so we will close public participation and move to our consent agenda so may have a motion to approve the consent agenda as listed please keep in mind that there it is quite long because we were out so there's a number of contracts and then

101we have cd e as well so we have a motion to approve it all right all right we have a motion that's been first and seconded all right all of those in favor please raise your hand thank you all right we have done all of the work that we need to do today so that gets us to the very end which is we are going to have our announcements well no excuse me I have mistaken us we are going to do our board committee report so that gets us to Miss Masters to go over governance quickly thank you um we had a governance committee meeting before this meeting where we went over the student handbook the adjustments for next school year thanks to Dr Springer for going over those with us we had a nice

102discussion asked some questions about it um and that is the extent of the governance committee meeting so I appreciate that from my colleagues um traffic as always was fun times all right that gets us to announcements so student board member will you please go first you have any announcements to make uh I don't have any major announcements but I just want to remind students to have fun get some rest and most importantly stay safe District One thank you um I I know this seems like a lifetime ago but I want to go back to our graduations um so I got well three this time so we um Maplewood we had Whites Creek and we had Pearl cone and I want you to I just want to share that for those three schools right there was

103a time when they came they walked up they got their diploma and they went on about their business for the first time my experience because two of the schools are new for me we got to see the accomplishments of all of those students students who had received State honors State distinction District distinction with their post-graduation plans were we need to not talk about post-graduation plans for those students right it was only the human fogs and the mlks and they announced the schools they were going to everybody else's graduation was not that and this year for those schools every student was able to stand when some category was called about what their post-graduation plans were for a generation of students that has dealt with what they've dealt with especially trying just to get out of high

104school um through a pandemic and through all the other social things that we've just alluded to in the previous conversation to have a plan I don't care what that plan is to have a plan is saying a lot today so I just want to commend the principles of those buildings because that's a culture shift it's not just a thing that happens automatically it doesn't happen by osmosis it happens through intentionality and I just I tugged on Dr battle a couple of times through one of those one of those graduation celebrations just to say that this should be the reality for all of our students every day and we sit here at this table with the ability to empower not to make that happen necessarily but to empower our director of schools to make the decisions

105that are necessary so that our students get the environments and get the leadership that they need and deserve so that they too can have a plan after four years or 13 years with us so thank you thank all of those principals congratulations again to all of the students and to our student board member I hope you have some fun this summer and stay safe as well thank you thank you District three you I want to take this opportunity to brag on the district three high schools in a few different ways first I want to welcome Stratford's new head football coach Anthony law very excited to have him on board at Stratford from Whites Creek to Stratford also I want to thank well speaking of Community Partners Deloitte chose Stratford for their impact day and they

106were able to accomplish a lot of really cool things at the school they painted a used courtroom put in a garden but painted a lot of walls Spartan orange so you gotta love that so just lots of exciting things happening at Stratford High School I also wanted to mention and this happened towards the end of May and I didn't mean at the May meeting but at Hunter's Lane High School their debate team competed in Nationals for the first time ever and they were the only team from Tennessee to do so at the ncfl Grand finals in Louisville Kentucky and Jacob and Josh def defeated a Virginia High School and was very proud of them tried to get my ninth grader there to join the debate team early on and it didn't take so he's regretting

107that in a big way now so you can definitely argue so um just excited about that um also I mean I don't think it's too early to say August 7th 6 PM Hunters Lane High School freshman orientation and parent meeting go ahead and mark your calendar if you have a child everybody entering High School go ahead and figure out when that freshman orientation is put it on your calendar I mean it's so important to knowing what is about to happen because it's it's a lot I've been a kid in her High School um also want to say happy Pride and I wanted to just for a moment a remind everyone where this comes from it was the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan on a hot summer night in 1969 police raided The Stonewall Inn a

108bar in Greenwich Village in New York and it that bar was a Haven for the city's LGBT population um and they fought back they'd had enough as often happens with a lot of movements beginning so when we March in Pride we are celebrating that Uprising and we are celebrating the right of individuals to be who they are and that is under attack more than ever right now I'm so proud of the work we do in mmps to provide affirming environments and I am absolutely committed to being sure that we continue that so just as everybody puts on the rainbows and goes to Pride I just want us all to remember where this comes from happy Pride thank you District Four I'm still getting used to turning this mic on and off um once again I'd

109like to thank Dr battle and her team for all the work you have done throughout this school year with all the changes in our legislation and the update and being Forefront and leading the effort in really meeting the needs of our students and supporting our teachers and staff across the district I really appreciate all of this work and and thank you I know it's a lot it's a big overhaul but we see you we we um we thank you and we appreciate all that you have done second I'd like to um I'd like to thank Bibi Heinz of the mnps parent advisory Council for the last two years of leadership on the pack we had an election a couple of weeks ago and have new leadership on the pack so I'd like to welcome our

110new Pac leaders Don Johnson as The Chair Ashley Gish as Ed and Ashley guess as the co chair I'd also like to wish or welcome all of our new principals across the district who are leading Schools starting in July 1 as their first official start date some of them have already started in the summer but their official start date is July 1. so I want to welcome all of our new principals I want to congratulate all of our principals that retired or transitioned to other positions thank you for all your work and your leadership in leading our schools and we wish all of our new principals the best as you come into the 23-24 school year um I also want to make an announcement we are having in the McGavock cluster a back to school

111kickoff Festival that will take place Saturday July 22nd from 10 to 2 p.m at the Hermitage Park more information will be sent out as we get closer to that date but just want you to put it on the calendar and save the date again that's July 22nd Saturday July 22nd at Hermitage Park and it's a big collaboration of all Community Partners in the McGavock cluster so we really appreciate and hope you can come out and then lastly happy Juneteenth Juneteenth will be this is it Monday Monday June 19th and so we wish everyone a Happy Juneteenth and we hope you're able to attend all the festivities this weekend take care District Five thank you so much chair Elrod um Cheryl Rod I'm going to do a better job of making sure I recap some of

112the other boards that we sit on you know because we're a Metro agency so I sit on the alignment board in the pencil board I will be ready to regret recap whatever happens at the alignment board meeting Thursday and then what happens at the pencil meeting next month of August September soon in the next few months um but I also sit on the Parks Board by the time you see the Parks Board and if you visit nashvilleparks.org you will see a list of tons of free events for families for small children um at just about every park across the city please consider visiting again these are free of charge they also have different accommodating um I'm sorry different events that meet different accommodations for students that might have disabilities for students who might appreciate dance

113or music I mean they just have really tons of events and then also consider visiting the Nashville library whether it's your local branch or the downtown branch as the downtown branch has a doggone coding Academy that I am fighting and scraping to see if my baby can go to in July but there are just tons of events that I think families could and should be made more aware of and we just as a city don't typically share them out so again Nashville Parks uh the public library at npl and then please consider going to some of these forums it is election season and I hate this time of year not because I don't appreciate the candidates just because it is such a stressful time for all involved but we will be electing a new mayor

114we will certainly be electing some new council members so the Nashville Public Education Foundation has a mayor's Forum coming up Monday June 26th at five o'clock and then there are certainly others throughout the city figure out who your council member is by visiting nashville.gov finding your council person and then I'd say I'd suggest looking them up see if there's a council um Forum coming up that you could also engage with thank you so much to trick six thank you so much um really quickly uh not a lot I just want to say thank you give a huge thank you and a shout out to Dr battle I have um in welcoming our new principals to Southeast your team of your selection team knocked it out of the park with these new assignments and we're really

115so excited about them so welcome to our new principles at Cane Ridge Antioch JFK Mount View and AZ Kelly I will be posting uh meet and greet information on my social media about opportunities to meet with the principals uh pretty soon so look for that information to be posted on my social media and I'll also be sending out the information via newsletter additionally thank you uh Christian for the uh shout out about those um election season because I'm with you it's not my absolute favorite time of year but it is super important and uh in southeast Nashville we will be having one July 22nd for the mayoral candidates at large candidates and Southeast Metro Council candidates so it's important that you come out on that day it is an early voting day and it was

116intentional so that once the farm is over if you choose to you can go straight to the polls and cast your vote so it was intentionally done that way and finally happy Freedom day Monday June 19th as Dr Bettina said it is Juneteenth so uh oh and I would be remiss if I didn't I'd say thank you for allowing me to um jump in at the principal Splash I was I happened to be in Louisville this weekend for work and I got to go over and hang out with these amazing Educators it was a lot of fun I was only there for a short time but I was so excited to see them relaxing and not being driven by the bells ringing at the schools or by parents coming or by some meetings that were

117happening so they were all enjoying themselves and enjoying each other and it was absolutely amazing so thank you Dr battle for allowing me to interject myself into that time so it was it was well worth it so thank you so much that's it District Seven happy Flag Day [Music] District date we've recognized a couple of things that are happening over the summer for our students one thing that I got to attend was this strings or orchestra and Bandcamp first week after school is over uh middle and it was awesome so fun to see all of our students there having a great time learning playing their instruments meeting kids from other schools so middle school and high school students so shout out to that team for for what was a great event and a great opportunity

118to have your kids somewhere free and fun for the week speaking of forums opportunity Nashville is hosting a forum for council member council districts 18 24 25 and 34 June 21st from 6 to 7 30 at the Green Hills Library so that's like most of the council districts that are in the district 8 area and it's a casual sort of mix and mingle and opportunity to meet the candidates Point June 24th is Nashville Pride Festival parade starts at 10 A.M and the 24th and 25th from 11 to 9 on the 24th and 11 to 7 on the 25th there is a lot of party happening down downtown in front of City Hall so I hope to see people there state capital they change it that's new fun I've been there last year I missed it

119last year that's okay okay sorry here for yes everybody District nine just trying to shave me fine whatever you were there in spirit I felt it District nine um I want to recognize one final farewell to Hillwood High School and be really excited about the new opening of James Lawson High School excited and I have been getting so many questions about when can we come and see it I don't have any kids and we have so check your calendars July 29th there will be an open house for the community to come and tour and look at the new James Lawson High School it will be from 10 a.m to noon I'm really excited for you to see the school I'm extremely proud of it and I cannot wait to see what our students do there

120so thank you so much awesome I will be there um and and to your credit Aaron you were there I saw you at the parade we have a photo you were there you were there I don't want you to think that we were saying you were not I don't want you think we were ganging up on you and you didn't get credit where credit is due you were there um I at photo proof first I want to say about Overton High School Dr Jill Pittman retired after 38 years of working inside our schools so I really appreciated all of her leadership there and I know that she left it better than she found it and I am excited for the incoming principal Dr Kelby Gardner she is also an alumni of Overton so it's a

121really great kind of Full Circle she is also I have not had the pleasure of getting to meet her in person but she is from virtual school and she has a really impressive resume and I think she'll be a great fit for the school but also of course she's an alumni of it and I think that's a really great full circle moment so I look forward to meeting her which happens this month uh also I want to uh also from Overton the new executive principal at Tusculum is Mr Matthew Earls who is here this evening and so I'm excited that he stayed within District Two we're excited to of course keep our talent that is so wonderful and uh congrats again to Kelly Carey who was recognized this evening from Tusculum she is their steam

122or stream teacher she also has a steam after or before school program I her award that she won is really great because typically elementary schools are not recognized within it it's only high schools and so the two people she was up against was a high school teacher and somebody that does science programming for Williamson County I believe so it was really great that she won it and I'm really excited for her she also does not tutor on horn so as you saw she was quite embarrassed but I'm excited for Kelly so great job Kelly and then also about the pack I want to say congratulations to Laura Shipp who was listed at or voted excuse me as the PAC secretary um Pac leadership often is over to impact people and so I appreciate that we

123still have of course Dawn Johnson who comes from Overton but we also have Laura who I know from the Overton pack as well so I'm excited to see her and then last remember you have on your calendars now board members all of the upcoming safety meetings if you are interested in them as a community I know you can find them through Jeff Syracuse as he has been more organizing the most of them and then lastly I want to say a belated happy birthday to the vice chair Miss Frida player and be there no further business this meeting is adjourned thank you so much [Music] 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 [Music]