001[Music] [Applause] I was hungry because I ordered four boxes the song good evening everybody and welcome to this wonderful school board meeting nine if you were fortunate enough to hear the hillsborough choir just singing you did see the best part of meeting for tonight they were absolutely amazing and I hope that you got to hear them they actually gave me chills they were they were so good they were wonderful so we all call this meeting to order we have a quorum and I think I saw council lady delecia Porterfield [Music] [Applause] thank you so much for this opportunity I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God so we're under the end the good news is portion of our agenda
002tonight and first we have the high school ambassadors from high school if you would like to address come to the podium and share with us your experiences all right hi sorry took a little little prompting there first time at the board but I would just like to say first thank you for allowing me to speak I'm really excited to be here and of course thank you for everything that you do for our schools and by extension for me personally so I'm really excited to tell you about my experience with the academies today and I know my friend Anu here has some really cool things to say to you too so my name is Katherine right I have attended MNPs schools for my entire life and experience I have wholeheartedly enjoyed I've gained a strong academic
003foundation from the multitude of absolutely outstanding teachers I've had over the past almost 13 years in MNPs classrooms at Harpeth Valley Elementary School Bellevue middle school and now hillwood high school as a senior at hillwood I will graduate with 45 credits 23 of which are AP courses or AP level courses when I'm not in the classroom I can be found as the captain of the varsity soccer team president of National Honor Society a student ambassador and often times accidentally spending an hour talking to my teachers after school accident really like you just look up and it's 3:00 and I'm like what when did that happen we need to go anyway I also attend the school for science and math at Vanderbilt or SS MB I know you heard from my good friend Mert last or
004two weeks ago I guess he's pretty cool or whatever and I can fully attest to his statements about how significant that the opportunities given to us by the SS MB have been in developing skills as a scientist but also in developing a perspective on how to make a difference in the world I'm the one that did the solar oven project that you might have heard about from our director dr. EADS a few weeks ago and that project was really the first one that made me consider a career in stem however of all my academic and extracurricular involvement the single aspect of my high school education which has been most formative in figuring out what I want to do with my life has been through the academies so I'm gonna ask you to rewind a little
005bit imagine me as a little eighth ninth grader so there I was a timid freshman with a love for learning but no serious idea of what I wanted to pursue in life but when the time came to choose the Academy that I would join starting my sophomore year a choice to be made so I was not strongly drawn to any Academy and quite frankly not excited about the prospect of choosing a path for myself at such a young age don't worry there's a twist but at the time I joined the Health Science Academy because I thought it would be the most rigorous but as I learned about the body systems in my health science education class I was to my surprise fascinated following tenth grade I took two classes per year within my Academy as
006a junior in my diagnostic services class I learned about the process of a visit to a health care facility from the doctors perspective from inquiring about the patient's chief complaint to knowing which test order from the lab I also took dual enrollment anatomy and physiology / medical terminology where we dove into body systems in greater depth on par with a college class with these classes I began to form a picture of what career may be in store for me beyond high school and because of the opportunities given to me within the Health Science Academy this picture has already started coming to life during my your year I'm taking two classes this year for which I will test for industry certifications my cardiovascular services class which involves a mixture of lectures and hands-on practice doing EKGs
007on my classmates in who would simulation medical clinic is preparing me to be a certified EKG technician with my clinical internship class in which students are placed in a local healthcare facility to shadow healthcare professionals I'm bridging the gap between textbook learning and real-life experiences I personally am stationed in the pediatric emergency room at Centennial Medical Center and getting to witness the intricacies of the diagnostic process for myself has only solidified my interest in pursuing medicine for this class I'll be Tet I will test to be a certified clinical medical assistant so as a senior in the thick of the college process I feel like I've done literally a million college interviews in the last few months but one unifying factor among all these interviews is the discussion of my experiences in the Health Science
008Academy in discussing what I'm interested in pursuing I have experiences that illustrate my commitment to and passion for my interests this level of direction and experience within a specific career field during high school is something I consider relatively unique and something for which I'm extremely grateful so thanks to the academies you'll be able to call me Catherine Wright certified EKG tech and certified clinical medical assistant before I even receive my diploma and later when I become Catherine Wright MD I'll never forget where it all started in the hillwood Academy of Health Sciences shaken and dismayed by a brand new school surrounded by unfamiliar faces I walked into the first day of high school frightened by the uncertainty of my own future for the first couple of weeks my class failed to eat to catch my
009interest leave me today dream and doze off throughout the day without any clear goals in mind I like to drive I lacked motivation I lacked purpose but little did I know the hill would high school home of the hill Topher toppers offered each and every one of its students endless opportunities of constant support from teachers and mentors who are deeply invested in the growth and success of their students good afternoon my name is Anu Edo and I'm here this evening to talk about my experience at Hillwood High School and the Metro Nashville school system each morning I am greeted by the welcoming glowing smiles of each of my teachers whether it be in the wide variety of AP classes Hill it has to offer or the extracurricular programs the school proudly invests in to my
010teachers ensure that I understand what's going on and that I am prepared beginning my freshman year I joined the Model United Nations and youth and government teams a completely brand-new program at Hill wood Model UN and youth in government our conference is held every year by the Tennessee YMCA Center for civic engagement to encourage political participation in civic civic awareness among students I along with my advisor miss Alexa Claremont worked to build the program encouraging the Hillwood student body to be active within their communities and understand that their voices matter we all know that you voter turnout is an issue with an our state and across the nation and I deeply analyzed and commentated on this problem in my piece published in The Tennessean in it I wrote it will be democracy that allows for
011today's youth to bring about a revolution of new leaders with the hope and ambition to go head-on with society's greatest threats these four years constantly working with my advisor on what we can do to improve and better our work I grew to realize that my advisor was ingrained with a passion to empower and amplify the voice of youth she knew the importance and the issues of our time and worked her hardest to ensure each and every student a part of the program was learning to think independently and develop their own opinions and ideas this was my first glimpse into the dedication inherently found among my teachers last semester I had an opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Chengdu China for an international debate tournament although an overseas trip to a foreign country seemed daunting
012I took my chances and joined along with my debate partner in debate coach therapies that not only Hill with for our city of Nashville on a trip to build crucial diplomatic relations between international cities I was awestruck by the unimaginable beauty of the city of Chengdu rich in its culture and its history I developed long lasting and unforgettable relationships with my host family as well as the Chinese debaters and if it were not for my teachers diligence to fill out paperwork help me prepare for the tournament stay after school to help me catch up on missing assignments or email me homework from thousands of miles away while I was in China I strongly believe that the trip would never have happened nor what I've been able to finish off the semester with good grades and
013what high school will always be a home to me one known for its diversity and its strong community what has completely defined my high school experience was the dedication and investment my teachers have put into my own success and well-being however our government continues to neglect and disregard our public school teachers by failing to recognize teachers important role in our society I hope that my experience is able to illustrate the impact that teachers have on students lives because of my teachers were to be uncommitted to my future I would not stand here before you today having found my drive my motivation my purpose to amplify the voices of those who need it most public education gave young people like me the gift of passion and individuality and this is why we must continue to support
014our teachers and our public schools my high school experience has shaped me into Who I am today and to my future teachers and to the good ol hillwood high I am forever grateful thank you I'm sorry as dr. Schaefer comes up I just have to shout him out because he was my high school basketball coach and unbeknownst to him he really did pour into me so good job to the gentleman I was a youth in government sir I'm the YMCA Youth in dortmund alum I was used to Governor Pennsylvania so this is where to leave you so 20 years ago you could be in my seat so I'd love to see your wife say you thought you think I'm alone because it's why I'm in politics so Hilltopper graduate go Hilltoppers I just want to
015say really quick so I have these are both obviously two extraordinary students and I they probably don't know this but I have followed their careers both my children and on social media and news releases and I just can't wait to see where they go but they're there representative of what you know what our schools can provide for our kids also wanted to commend the parents at katha see Katherine's parents out there mom had a little tear in her eye and but the but you know the the Ricci's obviously her parents are a big part of who she is but what's really great about her family is that they really have advocated for all kids in our cluster they are they're so trying to support work that you know that for the children that don't have
016the support she has at home so anyway that that kind of that kind of community and parent involvement really makes a difference in our school finally I just want to say thank you to dr. Schaefer who has just done extraordinary things at Hill wood and has provided great leadership so anyway I'm so proud to be part of this group here and thank you for coming tonight and sharing your stories these people Walker do you want to come in on we were fortunate tonight to hear the Hillsborough high school chorus who under the direction of Miss Janelle ganske they performed dream of the city in honor of Black History Month and they were a delight to see tonight so thank you to Hillsborough for sending your talented students to us we have the Margaret Allen Miller
017School artwork they were post embossing so before you leave I hope you have chance to see the posters in the artwork on the easel about the Margaret Allen students and they created these wonderful emboss works and students were asked to create original line design and they began by creating plenary sketch of their design and then sketch was transferred to a sheet by metal retracting the sketch and then creating an impression on to metal students reinforce the lines other designed by retaining posts or embossing effect after hearing the designs of paper the students extended the design on the paper and their art teacher is Toby green dr. battle thank you madam chair and now we would like to recognize an MMPs student who did an amazing and wonderful thing taylor Mbale a sophomore in army JROTC
018membrane antioch high school was playing with her sister at a community pool around 1:30 on Labor Day last year when she saw a young boy's arms flailing at his head bobbed under the water at first Taylor wasn't sure if the boy needed help or was just playing but when she saw him gasp for air Taylor went in to act she immediately jumped in the water picked up the boy laid him over her arm and patted his back when he coughed up water she got him out of the pool and set him set with him until he started breathing normally again and his father rushed over to be with him Taylor didn't panic at a challenging moment she didn't scream for someone else to take charge of the situation instead she calmly got to work and
019save this young child from drowning she saved his life for her cool head her quick action and her bravery Taylor has been honored by the United States Army Cadet Command with its ROTC medal of heroes and I can't think think of a better word to describe what Taylor did that day Taylor you are a hero and I want to thank you on behalf of Metro Nashville Public Schools for what you did that Labor Day afternoon thank you for the way you represent antioch high school your Junior ROTC program and our entire school district thank you and at this time Taylor hi good evening thank you for this this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Wow not once would I ever think I would be here Wow okay um hi good afternoon my name is first lieutenant Belle
020I would like to say thank you for this honestly this has been crazy Wow okay hi when I did this I didn't even think about myself I was like I need to help this kid this kid is more important you know I saw him and I was like wow he's I don't know if he needs help or if you know he's just playing and he needed help and that's when I sprung into action I was like mind over matter you have to do it there's no time every second counts I myself am planning on going into the u.s. army and becoming a combat medic so I think that was you know one step towards that helping people and things like that but I would like to say thank you for everything and thank you for
021presenting this award to me and the awards rehash Department of Army several great US Army Cadet Command the metal heroism is awarded to cadet Taylor M bill for exceptional he wrote at and preventing a young child from drowning while at Mountain View community pool miss Belle acted swiftly and courageously to remove the drowning child out of the water providing assistance I decided to pull her quick thinking in heroic actions saved the young boy's life reflecting great credit upon her self and young high school in United States Army [Applause] I don't know about y'all but I love these first meetings of the month because we get to hear from our witness the talents of all the students so just a cross-section of the students in our schools the first meeting of every month and you know
022I think that just reaffirms this is what we do and this is why we do it so hopefully that you and the viewing audience enjoys you know witnessing these students and their aspirations and their accomplishments as much as I do and thank you for being here to hear that next we'll move on to public participation we will hit the board for we'll hear from those persons who have requested to appear at this board meeting in the interest of time speakers are requested to limit their remarks to three minutes or less comments will be timed the names are on the monitors across the room so as you see your name approaching please approach the podium so we can keep the line moving steadily please and the first person on the list is Lea Eliza our March
023good evening board members my name is Liza Ramage I live at 1,400 Roselle Parks Boulevard in Nashville and I'm a member of the education task force of Noah I think all of us here agree that every National that we want every Nashville child to receive a top quality education we know K through 12 education is one of the most important formative factors in any person's life but there are special barriers for our black and brown children and all children who live in poverty from what I hear you have included in your budget many of the programs I came to advocate for so I've had to change my speech on our agenda have been the care centers and specially trained care center specialists perhaps these have morphed into advocacy centers at every elementary school which is
024wonderful we would want to be sure that the specialists at each of the schools is trained in trauma-informed care and de-escalation and all the things that a person needs in that position we want to thank you for budgeting an additional restorative specialist if that's true that will bring this specialist back to four which will put one in each cluster and I hope that's the case and we thank you we also thank you for restorative practice assistance in every middle and high school I hope that that's what has been budgeted this would be an important step in providing training coaching and support for restorative practices in our middle schools in high school which really need that with your full support for these positions and this training we will stop shoving our students into the school to
025Prison Pipeline we will instead educate them and the important skills they need to become productive adults and engaged citizens in our growing city thank you so much yes my name is Doug Lucas address is 1325 5th Avenue North Civic Oh 37 208 and I'm on NOAA's education task force our concerns about socio emotional socio emotional learning and restorative practices fit into the larger concern about racial equity in our schools we as Noah recognized as the chamber does that all children deserve access to a high-quality education regardless of racial barriers but in order to achieve this ideal we have to focus on racial equity this does not mean that we just treat every child the same even as we recognize that every child is special but that we recognize the unique struggles children face because of
026racism we must provide the extra support their african-american children need because both of a legacy of and a persistence of institutional and systemic racism also many teachers relate to african-american students differently than other students due to subconscious implicit bias and this needs to be overcome MNPs should prioritize programs that seek equity and diversity this would among other things ensure equitable distribution of resources across schools and programs understanding the students demographic and economic profiles and allocating funding where is most needed regarding equity please consider children who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods cannot rely on their parent teacher organization to raise funds to provide school supplies textbooks or even teachers and so are left to struggle with not many of these resources other children living in affluent neighborhoods attend schools with a vibrant PTO and essential education resources
027that other children are missing children in disadvantaged neighborhoods have schools where often their classes have a teacher that is among the least experienced teachers in the district or various administrators counselors and substitute teachers serve as temporary teachers for their classes rather than them having the continuity of a single teacher throughout the year these are two different systems school systems within the same district to challenge to the challenges I've identified add the reality that these children often have significant adverse childhood experiences and require trauma-informed socioeconomic learning support social-emotional learning supports right are we serious about equity per pupil spending and MNPs is 19th among 20 similar sized districts so members of the Board of Education please aggressively seek equity won by supporting a budget that has enough money to address the concerns we have presented here
028it's evening and to allocating the funds that come to you even if they do not meet your standards for a fully funded budget using equity as your guide to prioritization process we look forward to staying in relationship with you on these critical matters thank you for your time deeming to the chair and to the board members and the staff and faculty of all the schools the great schools of Nashville I'm Reverend Troy mayor and I'm the presiding elder for the national district African Methodist Episcopal Church and also a member of the Noah Education Committee and we know it represents 67 organizations faith-based community organizations and unions so tonight I want to talk about thank you and commend you for the work progress that has been made over the over the last few years ProPublica the
029organization that produces findings in the public interest has indicated that african-american students are five times more likely than white students to be suspended yet progress has been made in addressing some of the issues as it relates to incidents but we still have a problem with the num percentages of brown students who wind up being punished the same source shows that Davidson County in Davidson County black students are three times as likely as white students to be suspended basically the same infractions I district is 42 percent of African American 30 percent white we applaud you in men PS for in stating the Disciplinary policy in 2019 that puts a stop to suspensions and police officer involvement with children in K through four classrooms I thought some concern that we want to see that the support needed
030the training training of people the frontline people who work with the students is in place we need to ensure that this policy continues to have the decide effect so tonight has already been announced that you have looked at the budget and have prioritized some of the approaches that will help eliminate not only discipline problems for African American and brown students but all students by using some of the approaches of positive orientation and class management allows a child to get back into the graces of the classroom we believe there's a commitment and we applaud you for the commitment we all here tonight to work together to collaborate and making it again this the greatest city school system around thank you thank you good evening dr. battle and members of the board my name is Amanda kale
031I am the president of the Metro Nashville Education Association I'm also a teacher and five years at Margaret Allen Middle School so I'm happy to see their artwork here I am here first of all to say thank you for being advocates for our children and for Nashville's public schools I am greatly heartened by this budget I see a sincere commitment to making the ass of what our schools really need and I I'm just I'm thrilled to see that and what I want to say is that we here as teachers I have a lot of folks in red behind me we're here to fight with you for this budget and so I just wanted to say you know MEA we have launched a campaign called dignity in the classroom the things that we are fighting for
032in that campaign is that every student has a certified teacher in every classroom that certificated educator salary averages move to meet the averages of other professionals in Nashville of similar years of experience and a degree that there is a $15 an hour minimum wage for all MNPs employees that there are mandatory annual step raises in longevity pay to prevent wage stagnation that we have the social and emotional supports that truly meet our students needs and that we provide all required instructional material for all students these are things I see in this budget and so as said I am greatly heartened we are asking you not only to pass a budget that ensures these needs but we are asking also that you advocate for the funding that will ensure that it happens and it needs to
033be funding that is recurring and sustainable and you know I'm going to say it we need a tax rate adjustment here in this city we need it we have heard from city leaders who insist that property tax rate is increase will harm vulnerable homeowners but failure to fund public schools perpetuates poverty in our city years of chronic underfunding of our public schools have got have caused great harm to our students and their ability to achieve academic success low stagnant wages and a lack of resources have driven many educators from their profession which results in thousands of students who can no longer expect to find a teacher let alone a textbook in every classroom educators struggled to provide classroom resources out of their own pockets while also struggling to make ends meet and while so many
034of our students live in poverty current levels of funding can no longer guarantee even the basic requirements of education let alone a path to a better life we find this situation we the teachers find the situation unacceptable so we call on you our elected board to take bold action in passing a 2021 budget that includes all of what is really necessary to meet our students needs and then we're asking that you use your voice to lobby for the funding thank you scat flying jack wall-e here tonight right here okay Kristen Locker no quickster Blachford okay moving down Susan Norwood okay hello school board members and dr. battle my name is Susan Norwood I've been teaching for 13 years and 12 of those 13 have been in MMPs I'm an English teacher McGavock High School where
035I've been for eight years now I want to talk about dignity in the classroom dignity is defined as the state or quality of being worthy of respect teachers are not respected in regard to our pay and we endure a lot of stress to be paid so little just last week a student told me that he had another job for me meaning a second job and he handled me a crumpled up piece of paper well there have been recruiters at the school recruit hoping to hire students I UNCHR humble the little piece of paper and saw that it was about a job as a lifeguard at sound waves that paid eleven to twelve dollars an hour and I said no that doesn't pay enough and it's too hard work to watch you know keep people from
036drowning and he said to me well I'd rather be a lifeguard than a teacher even if it pays less because you all aren't paid enough to put up with all the stuff you have to put up with according to an article in yesterday's tennessean a front-page article Metro teachers have failed to get raises tied to the cost of living in seven of the past twelve years or as long as I've been in Metro this year the mayor was proud to give teachers a 3% cost-of-living adjustment that began in late January well this did not adjust my pay to the cost of living in Nashville my paycheck was twenty seven dollars more or two dollars and 70 cents a day which is not even enough to buy a school lunch at the same time in January
037my rent went out for my two-bedroom apartment it went up two hundred and seventy five dollars and my water bills going up and I just I can't make it on this salary am i doing given my education which includes a master's degree in reading and the number of hours that I work a week I should be financially secure but I am NOT I work at least 10 extra hours a week in order to plan lessons for three different classes and grade the papers of a hundred and sixty students I would not mind working the extra hours if I had a salary upon which I could live comfortably the effect of financial stress is driving teachers out of the classroom teachers are taking frequent sick days ask students who is teaching them is it a sub
038or a certificated teacher in my school as in others we can't even get enough subs so teachers are asked to give up planning time to cover for absent teachers which adds to our stress I looked at the number of job openings for certificated teachers and MMPs yesterday on the website and it shows 173 openings and to me that's a lot of classrooms that are potentially being watched my subs and thousands of kids who don't have a certificated teacher in the classroom given that our job is so important our city needs to show us that we are valued by substantially raising our salaries thank you [Applause] [Music] I'm Cassie Norton I live at 3600 Hillsboro pike I'm a first year teacher and sorry I'm upset because I had kind of a rough day as I'm sure
039many of us who came here straight from school did I don't know if I can stay teaching forever and that makes me really sad because this is not my first career I came back to school to be a teacher and I really loved the students that I work with and sorry I thought I would have time to prepare a statement today but I woke up early to work on grading and then I got to school early because I host a club before school for LGBTQ students which I love but it's hard is they often don't feel loved by the adults know hi so my days start off wouldn't rough sometimes with them and then I'm planning I had two different meetings and then at lunch I had a student in my room we were registering
040for high school classes today and he had an anxiety attack about the transition to high school and so I was sitting with him at lunch so I didn't have time to plan statements but I just think about how much was put on us and I know a lot of other new teachers some of them do not have other like career experiences like I have where they've gotten training in aces or de-escalation and they're struggling even more than I am because we're not given any social emotional support really I was so proud when I heard that Nashville is a city that embraces restorative practice that was something really important to me when I was looking for a job as a new teacher and I think that it's good that we're looking for we're looking for funding
041for more of those positions but we don't do enough a lot of the teachers I've talked to who have been teaching much longer than me are frustrated by the restorative practice because they feel like they're not given no support to make it happen they've never actually been trained to do it there's nobody in the building that can help and so we're all kind of struggling through something that we believe in but don't know how to put in place and haven't been given support for and then on top of that we're going home and we're working more or we have a second job I don't have a second job I'm really lucky that I don't but I also don't have kids or a house and I don't know that I could have those things and that
042makes me sad it makes me sad that I have to go home and order a whole bunch more pencils and journals on Amazon tonight because I have students that have like run out of spaces and their journals and are coming to class and saying I can't do any more work because my mom can't buy me another journal or I don't have anything to write with today and that's just basic materials I also don't have enough copies of textbooks I never have technology access in my classroom my projector doesn't always work so I don't even have that and so I just think of someone who is new to this who went back to school to do this and I want to tell other people you should be a teacher I glanced how many students you should
043be a teacher but how can I do that when I feel like I can't keep doing it thank you [Applause] Lord eater okay very crammed hello dr. battle and members of the board my name is Mary Jo cram I'm MMPs teacher and parent one of my subjects is US history so I'd like to give you a little history lesson tonight before about 1850 most teachers in America were men but by the late 1880s the majority became women what happened to change that what kind of discussions did school board's have about that time here's a quote from the school committee of Littleton Massachusetts in 18-49 it seems a very poor policy to pay a man 20 or 22 dollars a month for teaching children the ABCs when a female could do the work fairs more successfully
044at one-third the price isn't that infuriating of course this was not a lie isolated incident across the country in the mid nineteenth century school board's hired women teachers at low salaries as a cost-saving measure so that taxes could remain low even as the number of students increased a hundred and seventy years later 89% of elementary school teachers are women and they earn about 33% less than comparable college graduates history shows that teachers are underpaid because we are women and this low pay ensures that men continue to avoid the profession depriving our students of positive male role models now it's your job to correct this historical injustice I know it sounds like a lot to adjust our salary schedule with raises over 30% but really all it would mean because we teachers would be earning no
045more and no less than we would have been earning all along if we were met I couldn't confirm this with historical research but it's a fair assumption that this 18-49 Littleton School Committee was all a bunch of men luckily we have a very different situation here in Nashville in wouldn't it be inspiring if our first woman superintendent and our all-female school board voted to end the pay gap between men and women by uplifting our feminized underpaid profession with a historic pay increase the bold women leaders of MNPs have an amazing opportunity this year to support and promote and in just in other women I'd like to end with a quote from Michelle Obama as women we must stand up for ourselves as women we must stand up for each other and as women we must
046stand up for justice for all thank you [Applause] are you good-evening chair dr. battle and members of the board I'm Andrew record and I live at to 804 Belmont Boulevard I just moved to Nashville last fall Ashley so this is my first year in Metro I teach at Apollo middle school and I wish I could stand up here and tell you that things that are perfect I wish I could tell you that teachers at Apollo have all the resources we need to teach I wish I could tell you that we're all well rested and well paid and that because of this we're a tight-knit group who have deep roots in our school community I really really wish this was a story I could tell you tonight about my first year in Metro the truth though
047is more familiar Apollo is hurting and my eighth grade team alone we started the year with two teacher vacancies and we're on track now to end with more vacancies than we began we have so many vacancies that our dean and two of our instructional coaches have been pulled to teach core subject classes it's not that these teachers didn't care about their students it's that they found it impossible to do their jobs they were working multiple jobs to make ends meet school responsibilities keep growing and the time we have to do it all shrinks oftentimes there's one working printer in the whole building right now we have three working bathrooms for 600 students teachers stay 45 minutes to an hour after school every day waiting with students for their bus to come because their drivers have
048had to double up on routes are these the conditions that our district wants for our students I know y'all don't I know y'all don't and please trust teachers when we tell you we want to do our jobs well and we know what we need to be able to do our jobs well this is what we mean when we demand dignity in the classroom we fight for public education because we believe that everyone regardless of what zip code they live in regardless of their family's wealth or income level previous education no matter their race their ethnicity their language their gender identity sexual orientation documentation ability regardless of their housing situation where they've been or what they've done in the past literally everyone by virtue of their humanity deserves a free and freeing education that models and
049prepares them for full democratic participation in all areas of their lives a budget is a moral document because it shows us where our priorities are it declares to the city what matters to us for those of us who say we fight for public education the budget is our chance to put our money where our mouth is and that's why we're here tonight because the people who are affected most by this budget our students they don't get to vote on this budget the ten of y'all do so until the people affected most by these issues get to make the decisions we're gonna keep showing up here asking you to do the moral thing thank you for your time and for all your work [Applause] Isaac Isaac what are you here tonight okay Sonya Thomas is mr.
050Thomas here thank you good evening how y'all doing today my name is Sonya Thomas my zip code is 370 207 I am a parent of nashville propel and the propel stands for parents requiring our public education system to lead and I want to ask my propel parents to please stand with me this week I received a phone call from a parent I was in the middle of a meeting and was getting multiple texts I stopped my meeting and called the parent and the parent was devastated she had a nephew who went to Waverly Belmont and the child had received a lesson and the lessons title was let's make a slave and so today I want to rewind the tape and I want to ask you guys to pretend like you're fourth graders in a classroom
051and so I'm gonna miss educate you on black history today and I'm going to go over how to make a slave and I'm gonna read this to you and at one thing I want you to remember is this not only impacted african-american students but also Caucasian students let's make a slave let us make a slave what do we need first of all we need a black man a pregnant woman and her baby boy second we will use the same basic principle that we use in breaking a horse combined with some sustaining factors what we do with horses is that we break them for one form of life to another that is we reduce them from their natural state in nature for fear that our future generations may not understand the present a breaking both of
052the beasts together the black and the horse accordingly both a wild horse in a wild or natural black it's dangerous even if captured so they will have the tendency to seek their customary freedom and in doing so might kill you in your sleep you cannot rest they sleep while you're awake in our wake while you asleep they are dangerous near the family house and it requires too much labour to which to wish them away from the house above all you cannot get them to work in this natural state this was the lesson given to fourth graders they were told that they didn't have to participate because it was violent and it was vulgar yet they did so I say to you everyone in this room do you think that this is an appropriate assignment for
0534th graders this is not black history this is a stain on America's history [Applause] who's Nina Lockhart here thank you good evening dr. battle Madame chair and board members my name is Nina C la Kurt I live in a zip code 370 207 I'm a Nashville native I come from a family of long educators I'm a very proud mother of three african-american boys my middle son attended Waverly Belmont from first through fourth grade and my youngest son is currently a fourth grader at Waverly Belmont I stand before you today as a concerned parent about a social studies lesson on how to make a slave this content from an alleged speech by Willie Lynch in the 1800s I stand here in 2022 presenting this lesson as if it's just the recipe of gathering ingredients that's the
054humor on dehumanizing especially for the african-american community I am deeply saddened by this lesson was presented insult with no oversight from teachers or administration I'm highly disappointed that this lesson was presented as a history lesson during Black History Month this month February is a time to celebrate and honor our African Americans our great African Americans that have made things accomplished 'men the United States for African American students data along with society's attitudes and stereotypes often present a negative picture how did the lesson of how to make a slave promote positive self-esteem and create positive diversity within a widely diverse school my hope is that this content will never be a part of any MMPs curriculum and this issue will not be desensitized thank you for your time mr. Thomas my name is chaos I'm an
055astral writer port actor activist historian and a Vietnam veteran and I'm also an affiliate of Gideon's army for the defense of cure I'm also the son of weights Thomas senior a Tuskegee Airman he was the founder of NASA's first minority accounting firm and political action committee my concern here today is that the schools stop trying to make our children slaves as it was instigated and a reason we would be aligned after that instead I'd like to see this body instigators tell in ways to make the study lesson more inclusive and culturally sensitive in ways to make more great students and not just good slaves [Applause] Jared where good evening my name is Sarah Duran and my zip code is 370 to 0-7 I'm a middle school English teacher here it is also my first year
056in Metro Nashville Public Schools but it is actually my eighth year of teaching teaching is my passion it's my life but like many of my colleagues have said I don't really know how much longer I can continue to be a teacher here in Nashville what it comes down to like they have said is dignity the salary that I take home is not one that allows me to live with dignity the lack of materials in my classroom is not does not allow my students to learn with dignity and the deficiency and the resources that are in our school system doesn't allow our communities to exist with dignity the message that national sends out to the world is that the city is thriving but how can we really say that when our schools and the people in
057them are not the reality is that the system that we work in and that we live in is one of oppression and marginalization obviously very directly like we have just heard but indirectly through many of the things that we have spoken about tonight first the wages that we pay our teachers and support staff disproportionately affect women and our black and brown workers this perpetuates the system of racialized and gendered poverty we can't invest in the communities that we're serving and I believe the term for that is defect de facto segregation and it doesn't just stop at our teachers today one of my students introduced me to a new hashtag that's hashtag Nashville so white because they know that the funding that is coming into their school looks very different than the funding that's going into
058the schools that are predominantly white our students are very very smart they are watching they can see what's happening and we are sending them the wrong message the message that they're getting is that they're not worth it that they're not worth investment in the teachers who are gonna help shape their love that they're not worth actually having enough materials for all of them to go around and that the investment it is not worth it for the supports they need to navigate the difficulties that they are going to experience our teachers and our students and our communities deserve the dignity that we stand for and ultimately what we're asking is that we can't allow this problem to be written off yet again as one of not enough money because really what it comes down to is
059that that ignores the systems of oppression and marginalization that are perpetuated by underfunding our public schools virtually every other system in our society presents challenges that will keep our students down Metro can't continue to be one of those systems and you can't allow much opportunity thank you [Applause] next we have counsel Wylie - naked virgin Thank You chair doctor dawdle school board members I am Councilwoman today coverture and I am here to speak on the matter that made national news the Black History Month assignment at Waverly Belmont I was back in the back with some families and playing with the kids and heard a lot of comments as it related to dignity but I want to stand before you and also with the propell parents that we are advocating and speaking on a different kind
060of dignity and that's dignity in the classroom it's without singing enslavement of people specifically people of African descent what's politically socially and economically central to the founding of these United States of America and we all know that I don't have to stand before you and give you a history lesson but as a district and as a city it is on us to make sure that we are culturally competent I believe I said before you on another matter and use those same words and I use those same words because the NEA uses those same words as it relates to educators closing the achievement gap so it was in a council members words it's by one of your your organization's that leads to competencies and goals that you set forth as it relates to educating our children
061it is all on us to ensure that the school environment cultivates learning of inquisitiveness motivation nurtures self-confidence but more importantly safe and welcoming I know that sounds elementary but in my research nowhere on MMPs website do we use those words Google several other districts and they do why is that important now because of the assignment and it's much more larger than the assignment as a councilmember I'm here because of what that assignment says to the city what that assignment says to parents will there be an assignment on how to make an immigrant detention center would there be an assignment after pause cause it's just I can't believe I'm here having having to speak on this would there be an assignment to talk about how to make a concentration camp I think we all would agree
062that in any environment of learning that those topics are highly highly hurtful and doesn't aid to the learning environment for anyone's child if we're going to provide instruction about oppression and resistance it has to be inhumane context and nothing about enslaving people is in a in a humane context we failed we failed there are no proper checks and balances as it relates to this assignment and please please again and I think I said this before when I came down here about cultural competence on another matter for Black History Month let's keep it to focusing on the strengths and humanity of the culture of those that were enslaved we can't perpetuate ideas of systems that hurts us all thank you for your time pass away deletion deletion porkchop thank you so much thank you dr. battle
063into the school board members thank you for your service and to my school board member Frieda thank you all friend thank you guys so much I'm also here to speak about the assignment on let's make a slave and I'm sure like all of you I was heard frustrated and very angry when I first found out about this before I speak on it though I want to tell you a little bit about an experience that I had I remember when I was a little girl and my grandmother worked in the mall and one day she gave me some money and said that I could go next door to the cookie store to buy some cookies and there's a child being able to go and buy something with money that you were giving and not having something
064given to you it's a really exciting experience and I stood in line with my money and I was excited and I was ready to make my purchase and when it was my turn at the counter the person who was working told me to wait put up her finger and say wait and a white woman that walked up behind me she told her to come up and she helped that woman before she helped me and I remembered that as a small child and I remember thinking did she tell her to come up because she was an adult and I'm a child did she tell her to come up because she's white and I'm black and it was such a confusing and frustrating moment and it was a moment in which a piece of my innocence was
065taken away from me and you can ask any African American and I can guarantee they can tell you the first time that they experienced blatant racism because that is a moment that you never forget that is a moment that she will never get back and now we have a classroom full of fourth-grade students 10 years old that have experienced this trauma and we do not have a way to rectify that I was going to read a part of that speech using that assignment that was given but son you're already read it I sent my twelve-year-old who's a seventh grader I sent her out because I did not want her to hear it because I didn't want her to experience that same trauma that those fourth graders experienced the question is how do we make those
066through this whole now what can we do to go back and rectify their situation because we can't change it it's already happened but what can we do to provide support to those students I've have a few suggestions here for you guys and there may be suggestions that you've already thought of and I trust your judgment that you guys will move forward with the best thing to help those students but can we look at getting more counselors or social-emotional counselors at that school to work with the students that experience their trauma as well as the other students in that school because as we know students talk so now you have a situation where some students who experience this may be saying other things to other students when I was a teacher at Williamson County I had
067an experience where a young man called one of the african-american students a slave and said hey pick my pencil up slave and I know how upset that african-americans there was and how quickly they spread through the school so we have to make sure that we're providing support to the whole school and not just that grade level I know that from being a former educator that we do have great level planning's I know that there should be a supervising teacher from what I read the supervising teacher was there there does need to be a better policy on making sure that our supervising teachers are working with our student teachers and that they're following any policy that MMPs has in place there needs to be a better policy on parents being notified on issues like this because
068it's unacceptable for parents to find out in the media when these things happen there needs to be a better policy on MNPs being notified when these things happen so that you all are not blindsided and also we need to make sure that we're working with the universities who are sending us students teachers to find soon the policies of what they were teaching are because not only was that lesson damaging if you research the Willie Lynch letter it's fake it was a hoax and it has been debunked by multiple historians so you cannot teach that as a factual document it was age it was not appropriate for the age level but it is also not factual and you all may have some of these policies in place but I asked that she worked with our schools
069and our teachers on a better implementation of these policies thank you for your time [Applause] moving to our governance issues our organization and will do consent agenda as we have in the past it will be approved will not read it out loud it's available online and we will i just wanted to pull D and E off of the consent agenda all right so can I get a show of hands to approve the consent agenda as printed with the accepts and exception of items D and E please okay so we will discuss some item D first tonight I brought a resolution regarding where as the Metropolitan Nashville Board of Education is responsible for the expenditure of funds academic programming and learning outcomes of public schools under its jurisdiction and whereas Tennessee schools and students are in
070high learning results and lead the region and graduation rates and statewide AC T scores and whereas these successes occur despite education funding in the bottom 10 states in our nation and whereas the state of Tennessee fails to fund public education consistent with our neighboring states investing less per student than all states in the region except Mississippi and whereas Tennessee nationally ranks 45th in per student funding far below neighboring states such as Alabama Kentucky and Arkansas and whereas it is universally understood that competitive teacher salaries are critical at a time when attracting and retaining teachers is increasingly difficult and whereas Tennessee ranks in the middle of southern states for teacher salary but is still in the bottom third nationally and whereas the lack of state education funding has a negative impact on teaching and learning and
071meeting the needs of Tennessee students and whereas most southeastern states fund K through 12 primarily through state investment while Tennessee pays and 50% of the funding required to run our schools and whereas while the state has made some increases to k-12 funding in recent years our public schools continue to lack the resources necessary for students to succeed with more than half of Tennessee schools lacking full-time positions such as librarians art or music teachers reading or math specialists counselors or school nurses therefore be it resolved that we the Metropolitan Nashville Board of Education respectfully ask the governor and General Assembly to increase state funding necessary to move Tennessee to the southeast average of per student investment and lift Tennessee out of the bottom 10 states nationally and in public school funding and I would just like
072to move that we adopt this resolution as read so this is this is the next in our in several sexual harassment lawsuits that have been brought against a district and I felt that we should say something at this point because it pains me to pay out this this amount of money that we are now spending on these sexual harassment lawsuits which are now in the millions but I want to say that we really don't have a history of this at MMPs we've had several sexual harassment lawsuits that happened and it within a two and a half year period of the prior administration I've been on the board eight years other than that time period we've had zero and we've got to do better I know dr. battle is committed to this as well but you
073know we have high expectations we don't want to see this to continue happening but in the meantime we are addressing lingering issues and so I am going to vote to approve this tonight but I do I do want to comment that I take sexual harassment very seriously and we don't expect to see this going forward thank you okay yes I'm sorry alright so we're going to go ahead and vote on item e on the consent agenda I move to approve the settlement at 425 okay okay thank you very much we all have a board committee reports miss Perry Nauticus Tony today we had our teaching and learning committee meeting which was a great hour of discussion about two topics one was what we previously called MNPs next and which is now called MNPs reimagined I
074love that and the second one was schools of innovation and dr. Norris and dr. Griffin outlined extraordinary plans that are multifaceted and focused on academics and student achievement some aspects of the plan include moving five schools off the priority list offering extended learning time to districts and the first is this will be done to various clusters but the first three priorities for the extended learning time will be maple wood pearl cone and whites creek and this external extended learning time will also be contingent and will build on the existing strengths of the school also plans include consolidation of gray bar and Jerry bankers school and what will be exciting to so many of our parents is moving 5th grade back to elementary school and again it's a process it won't happen overnight but but these
075are the plans that were presented to us tonight that were very great to hear how do we get there we get there through talent management with focus on outstanding teachers and community support personalized strategies including a commitment to third-grade an extended day with focus on climate and culture and our next teaching and learning committee meeting is scheduled for March 24th when we will talk about steam thank you okay thank you talk about budget so we were fortunate that mayor Cooper stopped by at the very beginning of our budget finance committee meeting to signal to us his dedication to partnering with us and to working collaboratively to develop a budget together so we that was super encouraging and then dr. battle laid out a really comprehensive overview of their strategy our strategy around fully funding all
076of the really important pieces to our budget and so if you're interested in hearing more about those that presentation in more detail we have community meetings that are on the website February 17th 24th 26 and 27 there's more of that on online but and we'll revisit that in the announcements but it's really important for folks to engage and ask questions and stay involved but very encouraging first step in talking about our budget tonight thank you very much we will go on to announcement yes there will be a roundtable discussion at Maplewood on February the 17th from 1 to 2 o'clock and I really appreciate all of the teachers that are here tonight would you stand up and and let us acknowledge you and [Applause] we appreciate hearing from you and we we think that you
077have I mean this is not easy to work a hard long day and then come in to a board meeting and stay till 6:30 at night so thank you for expressing your concerns and letting us know what you think that's important to us I want to I'm just going to mention real quickly that these bags came from Donna Gilley and and also David Hines contributed and it is a way of saying happy Valentine's Day to everyone and with appreciation for the work that you do so I hope that everyone has a great Valentine's Day Thanks last week I had an opportunity to go to the school of math and science so it's kind of a pro that our student Catherine right the student there and it was a great program I thoroughly enjoyed my experience
078there seeing the kids come with these very complex science experiments they were very unique and innovative in their own right and working with professors and graduate students from Vanderbilt assisting and doing the program so I just wanted to acknowledge that program with dr. Leeds and mrs. Nixon and dr. Nora I don't know about your name sorry for about that and so I was really impressed by that also on what it means I was impressed by that it's not a gifted program and they want diverse students and the application and ended this week so if their students out there you have a passion an interest in science or in stem or engineering this is a great program if it's for eighth grader so this is a squared apart so it's not too late to apply to
079the program please do and you do not have to be a gift to students to be a part of the program and to learn so hopefully you'll take advantage of one of the unique programs that we have here at Metro Schools and then to the second part I think there's ongoing theme of dignity and respect and this assailant speak on behalf of myself that all work has dignity all work deserves respect and it doesn't cost money and I know from this platform I will say that every chance that I have no matter of your support staff if you're a teacher for central office your director of schools uses our level of dignity and respect and I know this from my point that's when the moral compasses that I use as this platform as an elected
080leader so I do hear you we hopefully that we will come together and let other levels of government understand that dignity and respect and that's shown in many different ways financial is one other thing but also creating an atmosphere for you to work and it's for you to thrive and understand where you're coming from as teachers from the matter if you're a first year teacher or a veteran teacher of 30-plus years that we hear you we are working hard towards that there's always a struggle finite resources and we plan to advocate for that but dignity and respect is not a finite resource it can always be given you know always be preached you can always be given and doesn't cost anything so at least from my perspective hopefully we can do that as a board
081and as me personally to the students and to the parents who have come to this difficult issue with the Willie Lynch letter I know that dr. battle has worked as that I understand that students also have didn't any respect it's a difficult issue race relations here in Nashville has long history as a complex history we're still working through that history and we still current it and even in a national level that has seeped down to local level and so knowing that we do hear you it's a complex issue and hopefully we can learn from this experience and learn how to deal with the race relations race issue race history in the way that should be done and that's done with with delicacy with foundation and done in a way that that students can still learn
082from our nation's history but learning the way that's appropriate at the right time at the right age and at the right level thank you thank you I'm gonna say two serious things and I'm gonna end it with something very happy teachers if you don't mind we'll just stand again for me please just stand for me and I ask you to stand because you are standing up for what you believe in and you do it every single day and I want to tell you how much I appreciate you because it hit home it hits home for me on a daily basis with my own children because I still have kids in Metro schools all of my kids have attended Metro Schools I am a product of Metro Nashville Public Schools and I know how he looked
083back then and I know how it looks now and I want you to know I feel your pain I have a son who's come home not once but twice once mom my chemistry treats are less left she's no longer with us my chemistry teacher that I love is no longer with us and when he got his progress report there was no grade no great because he had no teacher second he came home again over the break when we had our snow day and he said mom I didn't get a chance to tell my math teacher goodbye I said what do you mean he said he too left I have no math teacher I looked at his progress report and he said don't look at that grade mom it's not a true grade he just didn't
084have time to put his grades in before he left us so I feel you I understand my kids understand and our kids are watching and they need you and we need you and we want to tell you how much we appreciate you and we are listening and we're gonna get this right we're gonna get it right you may take a little time but we're gonna get this right so just trust and believe me that this board is committed to making sure we take care of you because if you leave us our kids are without education and my son is living that now so I appreciate you we thank you we love you and we do we are gonna do right by you so I just wanted to tell you thank you for all that you
085do please don't leave a please please please we need you and I promise you we're gonna continue to do we have to do dr. battle has committed this board has committed to making sure that we can do everything we can now power in this next budget season the mayor is listening to you keep being loud and proud about what you do and how you every single day so thank you we thank you thank you guys the second thing I want to talk about is the assignment that was given to our fourth waiver right fourth graders over it Waverly Belmont this is the second assignment that has been assigned to our students and it was racially insulting and like Amy said when it comes to our sexual harassment or harassment policy this will be the last
086time we'll have an assignment like that the very last time we understand how critical it is and her our young minds are definitely devastated by these type of assignments and it is no place and it is in is no room to be in Metro National Public Schools so you do have our commitment you have dr. battles commitment that we're going to make sure we have the conversations if it's with student teachers if it's with our teachers that we need to make sure we send a message that we have to be very very careful about the assignments that we give our students especially when it comes to history because history is sensitive and we need to respect history and on the third thing I told you guys I don't say something happy right so on the
08717th of February we're gonna have out of the Cambridge our budget hearing and it's my birthday so come out and give me a hug and I would love to give you one back so you guys have a wonderful night happy Valentine's Day and you guys take care so last week I had several speaking opportunities at community meetings and I used the chance to talk a lot about funding and the need for greater funding and about equity and those kinds of things so last and so I just want to say teachers we are with you principals we with you we are we're gonna do everything we can to support and support you so last week I spoke with Frieda player Peters I had the League of Women Voters about just we sort of gave an update
088on local education issues I had I spoke at a Bellevue community meeting and also got to participate on a panel with Lynn Hoyt she did a wonderful presentation on community schools and wraparound services and the great impact they're having overall and particularly on Hg Hill which is my children's school so those are good opportunities and if you all want to come to a repeat performance with me and Frida we're gonna be speaking again tomorrow night the 12th Wednesday the 12th at the Green Hills library from 6 to 7 p.m. so we would invite you to join us yes so I would like to thank all the teachers that came out to the egg camp Nash event this past Saturday if you're not familiar with it the educators cooperative is just a bringing together of different
089teachers from around Nashville no matter where they work and they share best practices Greg oh greg has just really built this space for teachers to share their best practices to share their stories to ask their questions so please feel free to reach out to me or just Google educators cooperative if you have any questions about it I would like to send a special shout-out to Councilman Jeff Syracuse and all of the central office staff and downtown park community partners who visited with us to have a conversation about Hulme fall parking if you've ever visited Hugh fog if you've ever attended Hume fog you know what that's like I'll just say I didn't realize police were in there to help talk through this with us and I may or may not have parked illegally so it
090was eh I mean it was a real I mean it was it was it was real people's made real for me any time I go there for a basketball game or anything it is like I'm not gonna say what it's like it's just hard to find parking so thank you for at least talking through some of those issues with us we don't have the clear next steps but we'll continue to partner with the downtown community continue to take the advice of central office staff so thank you all Werner oh my gosh of course I love Warner I love all of my schools but Werner is having a career week not a career day again that'll be in March I don't have the exact date so if you have any questions or want to participate please
091feel free to reach out but I highlight them because they their esteem magnet schools they do a combination of highlighting the arts and the STEM you know the stem community so we'll have dancers from TPAC but you'll also have music technicians you'll have songwriters and guitar players but you will also have physicists and doctors and know those things are not mutually exclusive that's the beauty of all of this so I just appreciate the work that they're doing all of our esteem magnet schools are just ratcheting up the their involvement with the community and the supports that they're offering so thank you for the work that you do and I am really really excited to tell you all that February 26 will be MNPs day on the hill now before you groan because we will be
092doing it in the middle of the day the only reason we are not doing it during spring break is because if you are watching the legislature many of those legislators are anxious to close out their season the legislative season and the legislative season will be over before our Spring Break meaning they will have stopped their education subcommittee meetings they will likely still be meeting with the constituents here and there but we've decided to try to catch as many of those Davidson County delegates or just really any legislature that we can on February 26 we'll put out more information about that as we we have it thank you I just want to reiterate that the community meetings of the budget are at cane Ridge High School on February 17th McGavock High School on February 24th I
093cheat Creswell on 26th and Hill wood on the 27th kindergarten applications opened yesterday and so it's an exciting time for families registering kindergarteners if you remember that feeling so encourage folks to register last week with school counselor week and it's you can't it can't overstate the value that counselors bring excited to hear that we hope to and to decrease the counselors of student ratio here and to show more love to her counselors so Thank You counselors and the other thing I want to say is for the first time MNPs has posted all of the Charter applications that are coming have come to us as well as a timeline and what the process is like I appreciate the transparency and I'm hoping people will take a look and understand what this process entails it's a constant
094conversation here but I think the more people that are engaged and understand what what what the process looks like what the criteria is then we can have a fuller discussion so I think it's great to have that up and transparent that's all I have thank you so thank you so much for minding everybody of what the community meetings are of course I also want you to be aware that there's going to be additional community meetings that are hosted by councilman Mendez and Vice Mayor Jim Shulman those community meetings will be about the budget as a city so of course we want you to attend our MMPs meetings so you can give us feedback on what we're saying is our budget proposal but we also are going to need your advocacy with our city leaders to
095make sure that we have those better we have the avenues for better funding and we have full you know collaboration and better conversations about that so those will be coming up and I hope that we'll be able to provide those dates and the locations for them but they're going to be starting on February the 5th and ending on March 10th additionally I want to make sure that everyone's aware that the size family meeting is going to be happening for the district at glencliff and it's gonna be on Saturday April 18th from 1:00 to 3:00 safe does exceptional work and they work so incredibly hard and it's I'm very proud that they're having a family meeting and I think it's really important that we are supportive to not just those students but those families and then
096additionally at Haywood Elementary they're having their winter partner meeting this week on the 13th from 12:00 to 1:00 and at Heywood elementary there's the Read Across America that's gonna be happening and they're still needing volunteers and that's gonna be on Monday March the second and it's gonna be between 10 and 8 and if you can't commit to the full two hours that's ok we can work with you on that so please feel free to volunteer for those things thank you so much so we had a lot of great reports tonight this afternoon and this evening and I just want to give a shout out to touch about on her team for these great reports a lot of great news was shared we have a lot of deep diving to do a lot of room for
097thought so I thought this might be this is actually in light of the reports that we that received from teaching and learning and Budget and Finance that it's a time for us as a board to commit or recommit to supporting dr. battle and her team to help them make it through these difficult changes consolidation changes are not for the faint of heart they are very political they are very personal they're difficult changes to make if we have to do it with community support so we have to do it with you know bringing communities together and having discussions about why this would be a better arrangement for you for you then the prior arrangement so hopefully we as board members can you know lend that support learn to stay you know where we need to stay
098and you know not get into the weeds on it but just you know be supportive and you know if we have ideas maybe off for them but know that ultimately the work boils down to dr. Bell and her team so just want to you know give you my support in that and I know it's difficult but it's something that we have to talk about and it's you know the elephant in the room so I hope that you know as a board we come together and commit to doing this I do want to say thank you to Donna Gilley and David hands for our Valentine's Day bags they were really nice and please come join me on well listen everybody know February 24th that we gathered high school for our budget meeting we'd enough for the
099business this meeting is adjourned this has been a service of the Metro national network if you would like to see this presentation again or for more information about this and other programs visit nashville dot