Elizabethton City Schools Board Meeting 3-20-25

001[Music] like to welcome everyone to the March and February uh board meeting of the Lisbetan Board of Education. Um at this time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Van Hus for the moment of silence and pledge to the flag. Please stand for a moment of silence. Thank you. Attention. Salute. Pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. It's time to approve the consent agenda and the regular agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion to approve and a second. Second. Second. All right. Any issues with the consent or regular agenda? I know Mr. I I would like to make a request items F and G. That's three board policies. There's some things

002that we want to we'd like to look at with Miss Owen on those. So, we're going to pull those. If we could pull those two items off the agenda, I would appreciate that. Okay. Any comments or questions. The item is to approve the consent and regular agenda as amended. I think someone needs to make a motion before. Okay. Excuse me. I'll make a motion that we um remove F and G from the regular agenda. Um and we will be able to vote on that now that we have a motion. So all those in favor of approving the consent agenda and regular agenda as it's amended, please say I. I. Any opposed? And there are none. Uh time for citizens to speak. We did not have anyone uh request permission to speak. So, we will move

003on to uh special recognitions. And as we normally do before I turn it over to Mr. Van Hus, um if you will, if you'll stay through the uh recognitions, we will give you a chance. If you do need to leave before we get into the regular business, we'll let you do that. Uh but you are welcome to stay as long as you wish. So this time I'll turn it over to Mr. Vanhus. Thank you, Mr. Ples. Uh to to start with our recognitions, we would like to start by recognizing the SRO's within the city school system. Uh February the 15th was National SRO appreciation day and obviously we had issues with weather last year or last month and did not have a February meeting. So we uh we had them scheduled to come last month

004and so we moved that to now. So, if the SRO's will go ahead and come up, uh, I just want to tell you from a school system standpoint how blessed we are to have all these officers stationed throughout our schools. Uh, they've really become part of the school family. Um, extremely professional. They've really added to not only the safety, but again, just uh the entire school atmosphere. Uh, again, we're just very blessed to have them. I'd like to recognize each one of them there. So, when I call your name, you just kind of wave because you kind of all look the same. So, uh, Harold McCormack is Doug Combmes. Elizabeth and High School, Jordan Baker, East Side Elementary, Aaron Franklin, TA Duggar, Brian Smith Peters, and Westside, Samuel Woodby. Again, we're just uh the the

005commitment these officers have to not only safety, but just the care that they show our children. And I know the principles could talk days and days about that, but again, we just appreciate them so much for all they do. And uh if you'd be willing to give them a round of applause and we'll try to snap a picture here if this more. There you go. Thank you all very much for all you do. Appreciate it. Okay. So, for the next um let's see the next four, I'll call on Mr. Colbert, the CTE director, to come up and do a little introduction for the next four recognitions. And again, thank you for letting us do this. Obviously, we tried last month to get some of these here. And just so you know, there's even other kids

006that couldn't be here for different reasons tonight. So, we were happy to have the ones that are able to be here. Mock trial, by the way, they're on the road as they head to Nashville to compete this week. FFA leave Sunday to go to their state convention next week, etc., etc. There's several good things going on. The robot drone kids were on the original list, I think. Not be able to be here tonight, but hopefully by the time we have another meeting, they're going to have another competition, mostly the same group of kids. So, we'll get even more here at some point in time. But first things first, let's get to Mr. Cole who is here and he has a demonstration. We're going to do show and tell if you don't mind. Uh so for

007a battle of the build it got started with the Johnson City Homeowners Association several years ago and so forth and these kids worked really hard. And I'm going to let Mr. Cole explain what that is over there. This is actually what they work for. That's their first place. What they want uh If you can't, can you hear me? Okay. I usually talk above S, so I really uh Battle of the Bill is something that's been going on for the last nine years. I've actually been a participant in the last eight years. Uh it's really good. It gets the kids working on more than just one craft. Uh and they have to actually design this out. So they go from a planning stage to a layout stage to a final assembly stage. Uh They worked really

008hard at this when we started this young lady you're going to see in a minute, Anna Blackwell. She said, "This is what I want to build, Mr. Cole." And I said, "Give me a day or two. We got to figure this out." So, uh, we started messing around and our lumber at the time was actually you could lay it down and go around the corner with it. So, we actually started stripping it, built it butcher block style. That was something they didn't know. So, we they learned how to do that. And if you notice, you have some nice butcher blocks in front of you, some cutting boards. Those are made by the kids. Thank you. Thank you. But, uh, this group that we're going to be coming up here, that's the same group that presented

009that day. Uh, that's the same group that stayed after school with me to work on this. And they see out rolling behind me right there. But, uh, I want to let them come up and present what they built, what they, uh, showed. So, Rowan Townsen, Anna Blackwell, Bella Blackwell, Taylor Penn, Caleb Dillow, and David Roland. That was our competing team. Y'all just go over and just give your presentation, guys. I know you're loud enough. Here we have right worry about. And so this is people as well. People together This allows for extremely easy storage. All the project is entirely out of sold to one of the judges for it was also people too. That's pretty cool. after that. Awesome. If y'all will go back, let's get a picture with all of you around the table.

010Be great. That's amazing. Super cool. So, I think you can see why they won first place. It's pretty obvious, right? Thank you. uh Rowan when we had to present this over they got invited us for a uh dinner at the home association and when it comes back to the chair port of sporting a significant amount of weight. Uh Rowan looked at one of the guys and he said well it holds him up and he was pointing at me. We've had a lot of fun. Thank you for the opportunity to get to go places with these kids. I appreciate it. Uh, I look forward to more of these in the future. Thank you. Thank you. And by the way, when they presented to the John City Home Builder Association, they actually did have food and drinks

011on it as they converted it up and down to show you that it stays level. Since we've sold it for $900, I don't think we're going to put that on there now in case something goes wrong. But anyway, uh, speaking of food though, let's transition to the U culinary quest challenge for Okay. I think that's what it's called. Bristol Motor Speedway. This is his second or third year we've done it. Mr. Shirts has scared off a lot of the competition in the past with all the cool things he's done. And I'll let him come up and explain what they made. I know I tasted it before they left, but they had to prepare it again once they went to Bristol. So, multiple award winner, I guess, here with Taylor. so we can sit here. We

012have a few people that actually have jobs and so they're working tonight and stuff, but uh we had six people that were on the team and uh this is the third year we've had it and we're the only school that has placed in the top three every time. So that's kind of good. Uh we were a little bit disappointed this year. We lost by we got second place by uh 610 of a point. So we're trying to figure out what could have we've done. you know, we shouldn't have itched her nose at one point or something. And so, so anyway, there's different things like that. Uh, do you want to explain the food or you want me to explain? Yeah. Yeah. All right. And then very And then So the the the competition every year

013has four or five. I think last year was six. They had six items you have to use during the competition. I don't think you have to use it in every course. The first year we left a couple, you know, like we didn't we used them all, but we felt like the winners used it in every single course. We're like, do we have to do this? Do we need to go? So then last year we we we attempted to use a little more, but anyway. So, this year's uh ingredients were purple potatoes. They're purple flesh, like you peel it and it's purple on the inside. Uh Brussels sprouts, so that's why you kept hearing Brussels sprouts, pork tenderloin because the last two years have been chicken. Uh felo dough and ricotta cheese. So, we're like, okay,

014European, kind of Indian. We were trying to do something. We usually have a theme. We kind of plan on a theme. So we get there, everything's going great. We get checked in, it's good. We go in the the teachers and no, you can't be around. So then we leave and so it's like the easiest day of the year. And I just upstairs, we hang out, talk with other teachers. We're at the Bristol Motor Speedway. So we're up in the the the box boxes and stuff. And then we come up later and like, hey, how how did you know people? How they they did great. There's a little snafu. It's like, what? It's like they the people who provided the ingredients provided puff pastry which maybe doesn't matter to you guys but the the ingredient was

015fil dough. So felo dough can bake in like four minutes, three minutes. It's like super flaky and fine and you just sear it. So we had everything based on that. And so they had puff and it's like how did they do? Great. They wrapped one of their water bottles in plastic wrap and they used it as a rolling pin and they rolled everything out and stuff. Huh. It's really thin. It's crazy. But anyway, it was a good experience. I think this is Chloe's third time Taylor's done this. So, all the people on the team, well, we had we picked up an extra girl at the end to kind of we had we something happened and we had to fill a dishwashing position. So, we had two people that were only they were non- seniors. So,

016it was good senior senior. We had a couple other seniors that good. So, I thought we did really well for the snow days and everything practicing. So, anyway, that's it. You'll slide over for a picture. Uh, speaking of the culinary challenge, kind of got started by Lahi Ryan. She also got started a business version of this. And so I'll let Miss Lor Lee start baking her way up here. And in case anybody's getting tired of board, let's do an interactive thing here. Laura Lai. Sorry, I pronounced it wrong. How many of you remember the stick song Lura? Jamie Sha, please raise your hand, but I don't remember. Her name is Laura, but she was not named after the song, so I'm finding out. It is a good song. Sticks is pretty cool. Miss Walker, we

017went to school together. Please tell me you remember Lauraai. Okay, thank you. Uh, sorry. Here's another one. Shamefully, I missed. So, two of the biggest events we've had here lately, I missed this. So, I did not see her actual presentation, but she described it for me in the back. But it' be a lot more fun as she described it to you all because she also has some show and tell. I think what's up to you. You don't have to. Never mind. This was not show and tell. Be nice if the food had been Mr. Shar, but that's okay. But Laura Law will explain what she had to do for the business challenge at Northeast State. And again, several other high schools doing this stuff. Shout out to all of our competition. We didn't just beat

018anybody. We were beating some really good kids from some really good other schools. Miss Laura, I'll let you. So, I went to a competition and I presented my business, the Lucky Duck. And so, it's basically a business where I have a curated collection of little resin things, rubber ducks, basically anything rubber duck you can think of, I probably sell it in my store. And I presented to six judges in a room by myself with a presentation board. And then I had some of all of my items set out on the table. And I explained to them, I gave them a pitch and explained to them what my business was, how it got started. Then they asked me questions about it, and then they gave me five minutes of advice time. Um, most of that time

019was them spent uh gaping at my age because they could not believe how young I was, which, you know, um, and hang on to that. And um and then we went to I did mock interviews. So I got to sit down with someone who was in a in a business profession and they explained to me what they did. They gave me pointers on interview tips and then they gave me a mock interview based on some a basic position. Um, for awards, we went up there and we were go we had an award based off of our interview and we were awarded top three for the people who competed in the business challenge. I won third place and um there were 19 other people competing so it was top 20 finalists. Uh, one of our school,

020one of the schools didn't get to come, so we didn't get to see everyone up there, but it was really awesome seeing everyone who competed. The girl who won first place had a whole business where like she would go and set up events and then like 24 hours later she'd come back and take them all down and she had some really pretty table sets. But it was a really fun day and I learned a lot about what I need to improve and I'm definitely going to go back next year with um improvements to my business. So that's great. You'll come up. We're We'll take a picture real quick. I'm gonna stand up here just so I can look around the room. Did any of the robot kids show up because again, at one time you're

021on the agenda. Okay. Did Did any of you all want to mention that or you just gonna wait till the next competition? Explain all of it. They're gonna wait. Okay. They're gonna win another one. They're gonna win another one. But they're still doing more robot competition. But thank you all for letting us do this tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Barry. Oh, excuse me. Mr. Smith deal. Good evening. Uh thank you for having us. Uh my name is Travis Smithdale. I teach uh a few few different classes at TA Duggar Junior High. Uh the reason I'm here tonight is uh on behalf of my TAD lead class and TDA TA AD elevate. Um these are kids uh who want to help make things better. That's a big goal of the class. And the way the

022class is designed, it's all about opportunity uh opportunity to grow, opportunity to help and think creatively about it. how to help our school be better, how to help our community be better, how to help themselves as they grow up just kind of be better. Uh and um this is the third year in a row that you all have allowed us to take them on a trip. Um and this year uh we were able to go to um Camp Bahamas. Uh the first year we went to Arizona three years ago. Uh last year we went to Kentucky um and this year um Camp Bahamas in the island of Alra in the Bahamas. And I know this is really weird and it didn't have to take much convincing to get people to want to go uh on

023the trip as you can imagine. But uh when we were thinking about and dreaming about places we wanted to go, uh Mr. Barry spent some time there in college and over a couple summers uh with a ministry there uh a Methodist ministry on the island. So when we were dreaming, this started two two and a half years ago. Uh just kind of dreaming about it and talking about it and um we've connected with this organization, a 501c3 nonprofit. Um and I'm going to let the kids tell you more about it, but I just want to say thank you so much. It was a tremendous opportunity. Uh I think a lot of growth happened, a lot of good happened. um when we this is the first time you let us leave the country. I don't and

024I I can't tell you parents, board members, uh just what a blessing it is. Nobody in our area does this uh and the fact that you believe in us and enable us and encourage us and empower us to be able to do things like this uh speaks volumes uh for what you all believe. And um I'm going to quit talking. I kind of gave the kids prompts, so I'd rather them tell you about the trip than me. But it was wonderful and uh we look forward to dreaming for the next one. Um when the flood happened, I was like, "Mr. Barry, do we need to not go to the Bahamas and just focus?" He's like, "No, no, let's go to the Bahamas." Um so next year, I think we're already kind of working on a

025more local focusing on some of the needs in our own area. Um and I would love to talk to you all more about that if you would like. So, um I will let them introduce themselves when they come up and then they can just kind of share the what I asked them to or whatever else they wanted to. But sincerely, thank you to the board, the superintendent, uh parents again for for allowing us to take your kids out of the country and uh doing that in a with a public school is just phenomenal. And thanks again. My name is Caroline Bentley and as you know, we had the opportunity of spending a week at Camp Bahamas, a summer camp on the island of Aluthra. The camp's primary mission is to provide a traditional summer camp

026experience for children from low-income families, not only on the island of Alra, but from other neighboring islands in the Bahamas. Some of the fun things they get to do include kaying, paintball, sports, among other activities. To the kids, their camp, their time at Camp Bahamas is a much welcomed escape from their everyday lives. During the offseason, the camp invites service teams like ours to spend a week serving the camp and the community. We split our time between working on camp facilities and getting to know children from the community. These same kids get to visit the camp during their summer break, and we quick we quickly learned how much of an impact Camp Bahamas has on their life. Uh my name is Carson Thompson. I will be talking about the work we did at Camp Bahamas.

027Uh surprisingly, they gave a group of eighth graders machetes and they let it and they took us to the paintball field at the camp and uh we cleared out uh a large amount of brush. That way it would make playing paintball easier for the campers at camp. And then another day uh the girls cleaned cabins while the boys organized uh storage containers at camp that contained all the activities. And then finally uh we were working inside the only indoor gymnasium on the island. So boys um organized storage contain or storage closets um bleached the wrestling mats and fixed the basketball hoops while girls made hygiene bags to send to the school. That's awesome. Thank you. Hi, my name is Addy Tyler and I will be talking about the kids that we got to um interact

028with at the Bahamas. Excuse me, my allergies are getting to me today. Mhm. Um, so it was a really amazing opportunity to um be able to work at the Camp Bahamas, but the other half was even more special cuz we got to see kids um who um don't have like the best home life as we were told. And just to play with them and see them um smile, that smile was everything. Um, some of the it was really hard to keep up because they talk really really fast. Um, so, uh, some of the names were Diamond, Rashad, Sheniqua, and Adam. Um, and there was a ton more. I wish I could remember, but it's a little difficult. Um but yes, thank you so much for allowing us to have this opportunity uh to connect and

029have letting us uh experience these different scenarios for um our future lives. Thank you. Um, hi. My name is Annabelle Light and I'm gonna just talk about the sheer amount of work that we did on this trip because I feel like whenever people say, "Oh yeah, we just went to the Bahamas." They think we went on a vacation. They think that we were tanning in the sun drinking a pinina colada. Really going to drop that. Um, no, we Um, we weren't. Um, like Carson said, we were given machetes and we just for three days during the rain sometimes and in the like 75 80 degree heat, we were just chopping away trees in a forest with a bunch of thorns and we had to wear pants during that and that was pleasant. Um, it was

030just incredible to see how much a small group of students could do for such a large community and just a really good time to connect with people I don't think we would have connected to any other way. Hi, I'm Barnes Hofflin and I'm talking about the vacation and tanning and drinking out of a lot. Uh so we uh some of the fun things we got to do in the at the camp and throughout the island, we were would kayak in the bay and like snorkel and just like get to see all the stuff there. Uh, one day we went out and went swimming in like a huge sinkhole uh like south of the camp and uh hiked out to like a huge like tree and like probably spanned like a hundred yards and uh just

031playing at the park in the school honestly is a ton of fun and just all this made our group bond and helped us learn about the culture and the island. It was great time. Thank you. My name is Ryland Garland and I'm talking about what I learned from the trip and I just really like learned and just realized how much our work can like impact the community and the camp in the future and just like realizing what I have and to take stuff not to take stuff for granted and just like being there with the kids and playing with them really brighten their day and like showed them just Yeah. My name is Wy Stephie and some of the things I took away are learning how to serve others and how important it is. We

032cleaned and fixed the camp for future campers to enjoy later this summer and get the best experience possible. I figured out how much I enjoy working with kids and being there with them and how grateful they are for just me being with them. I feel like I want to continue to do more service projects and work with kids in my future career. I am beyond grateful I got this opportunity to go on this trip and experience the different perspectives on how people live. I learned how important teamwork is since we did not know each other that well before the trip. But by the end of the trip, we did great and became a great team. And I'm Chris Barry. I'm the principal at T8. Uh guys, we mixing the pin. There were no pina coladas.

033No pin coladas. And the and the machetes were supervised. So guys, this was just a when we we envisioned this uh we we started this three years ago and it was just that connection to service, connection to kids and getting to meet another culture, see something different uh that they can relate to and just create those experiences and it's it's just been an amazing process. These are your future leaders. These are these kids are going to do awesome things at the high school and it's just set them up for different experiences. But it's just just the ability to go with them to work with them. I've done a lot of trips. Uh Mr. Smith, I can't say enough. I think I asked what time we leaving like this is a couple days out. I used

034to do all the planning of the trips. He's got it and it's just he's done such a good job with this group and this has been one of the best groups I've ever taken anywhere. I mean, they worked hard the entire time. What they didn't say is we had six inches of rain on one day. Uh it was a monsoon and they went into the gym, they worked hard, everything was just positive and they just enjoyed fellowshipping and this is not a group of people maybe that were friends maybe going into this but they've made lifelong friends with each other and they've learned a lot about just a lot of different things. So thank you for that experience and again what were the qualifications to to get to go on this trip? Again, this is

035it's a Todd leadership class. So, anybody can sign up for this class, but there is that expectation. They're going to be talk I mean, it's not just the trip, uh, but they're working throughout the entire semester on building those leadership skills. Just like Mr. Smith said, we'll pivot next year and really look at something more local. Um, because our community needs that assistance. Um but it's kind of catering to those things but again trying to keep that same connection to kids, connection to service and just giving them opportunities to learn to lead and just learn you know learn about the communities. So you guys will be connected for the rest of your lives, people that you normally wouldn't be with. No pressure, Dr. Mitt. They want to recreate this senior year. Okay. I just make

036sure. Uh thank you all. And I would love to talk more about this program or other trips or if the board wants to volunteer for the next one in a couple years. I thought I would not have we'd love to have you as well. So thank you all and thanks to the parents again. Also, Miss Derer was clipping through. I can't thank Mr. Smith and Miss Der. They give up an entire week and this sounds like a vacation, but it's a lot of work. And again, I can't thank them enough. They were excellent in this process and they're always fun to travel with. I mean, we put teenagers in planes by themselves, so the Bahamas seem like pretty it's pretty easy. So, thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. and thank you for

037all of that. Again, this is the time that we normally uh let you leave. If you need to go, uh you're welcome to stay, but we'll take a couple of minutes until people clear out and then we'll continue on. Let's see. Well, I just Yeah, I just got that uh email today. So, I pro I mean I have not mentioned it to my wife the dates. Let me put it in my phone and then I'll talk with her. How soon? We need to let you know. Okay. And delete it. Tell me one more time. It's July. Oh, that's what it said. Even in the the email from you said July 17th. Okay. True. All right. Okay. All right. We'll go ahead and move forward. Uh, next it's time for the director's update. So, I'll turn

038it over again to Mr. Van Hus. Thank you. And thanks to the board again for allowing us to recognize these U students. There's just so many incredible things going on. Mr. Isaac and I were just talking. you know, we didn't have these opportunities when we were in school. Um, but that's what it's all about to me right there. That's that's what it's all about. All the the work that you do as a board collectively and our staff. I mean, they they come up with these ideas because they care so much and love our kids and so we're just very thankful for you and the board that you that you support those activities. Just a quick update on a couple of capital projects items. Capital project items. Uh the Dave Ryder Center for Athletic Performance uh

039continues to move along. All the concrete has been finished there with the exception of sidewalks which will come a little later in the project. So Tuesday the plan is to start with the construction of the building itself. So you'll see a lot of metal and beams and things going up over the next two weeks. It'll take about two weeks to put the roof on and then about another a week and a half to two weeks to put the metal on the sides. You know, then it'll look like a building at that point. then they'll start with a lot of the interior things. Still on pace to have it have they would turn it over to us by the start of the school year uh in the fall. So again, it's just moving right along and

040looking forward to, as you know, the uh city council and school board tour of schools. We had to reschedu because of snow last month. That is Friday, April the 4th, and we'll start at C the C deck. will have a ribbon cutting there as well as a ribbon cutting later on that morning at Harold McCormack for that renovation project. And so we'll have an opportunity to go around to the different schools. Principles will be able to share some information with you and council. Just a great opportunity again for you to see the investments that you have approved and city council's been so gracious to to support us uh over the years. This be great for you to get to see those. many of you have, but as a group to get to see how those

041dollars that you've invested in the school system and in our schools, exactly how we've used those. So, looking forward to that endeavor as well. Again, Harold McCormack has finished up uh and also the Cdeck is obviously finished. We've had several meetings there now. Uh so again, we'll look look forward to that opportunity to share with all of you then. Uh I'm sure as you heard Monday we had a bus accident and uh we're just so thankful that no one was hurt seriously including the driver of the other vehicle uh sore you know a few few issues there but but but getting along well. Um I just wanted to tell you how uh blessed we are with the people that we have in the school system. Again I'm going to run down some names of some

042individuals. is the second that we heard there was a bus accident, people from all over the school system converged on the on the scene. U Dr. Boatman, John Hutchkins, uh Dr. Tom Hopson, Chris Barry, Dr. Rachel Darnell, Ryan Presnel. Ryan was on the way home after school. He was the first car that pulled up to the accident. He was at the intersection of Mill Street and South Lynn Avenue just down from McDonald's heading toward uh the Builtmore area. That was the first car that he was the first one that pulled up and I don't think that was an accident. I think that was a a divine appointment there with with his skill. That was uh the first first person on the scene. Uh Sam Ellis is a spare bus driver. He was just driving by,

043saw what happened, pulled over, stopped, got out. Paul Lindberg brought another bus to transport the students that were were on the bus. Again, they all walked away. We had one student that understandably, you know, had a panic attack. And it was, you know, it was, but we have the the video of the bus and again to see the vehicle hit the side of the bus and you you really get an appreciation for the way they're constructed and why they're constructed the way they are. Uh, as a matter of fact, the impact, the immediate impact happened right below a student sitting on the lefthand side of the bus, right behind the driver. Um, and to see the impact and the bus shakes, but it doesn't tip up on its wheels or anything. Again, it just really

044makes you appreciate the design and engineering that goes into those. And so when we approve those buses and you you approved those buses for us to purchase, that's why the driver uh Mr. Tim Dyer did a great job, a fantastic job. Uh you know, was was operating the buses he should have been. Uh the accident happened. He checked on students, did exactly what what he was supposed to. So we're just blessed uh for him and his professionalism as well. And then you you start talking about the police department, highway patrol, the rescue squad, the fire department, all of those groups uh just again just did a fantastic job. All concerned about the health and safety of of all those that were involved. Also, Kelly Whitney here at the office and Nicole Moore, they were involved

045as well. Uh again, Mr. Barry, Dr. Darnell, they jumped right in and started taking information from students that we're required to to turn over. But again, just all those people didn't have to show up. They they showed up because they care. So again, we're just very thankful and we're so blessed that no one was uh hurt any more seriously and uh and and everyone was able to walk off the bus. So um on a happy note, as you know, next week is spring break. So uh we're excited about that. I think everyone's ready. It's been, you know, it's kind of a a long trek from Christmas to to spring break sometimes. And uh so once we get back from spring break, it's going to be testing season. Obviously, they'll have a a week or a

046week or two there to continue to review and get ready for those those exams. Um so so lots lots going on. When we come back from spring break, you know, it's eight weeks and we'll we'll hit the ground running and it'll be over before you know it. There's all kinds of activities. We'll share more uh at our April meeting to get you up to date on some of those things coming up in May. Uh uh myself and Miss Shaff had the opportunity to attend the TSBA summer law institute a couple of weeks ago and appreciate the opportunity to do that. TSBA does a great job advocating for not only you as board members but school systems across the country. They do a great job, their staff did a great job of presenting the different pieces

047of legislation that were out there and helping explain that and how that could potentially impact uh the you know education across the state. So, just thank you for the opportunity to go to that and thank you, Miss Sha, for being willing to go as well. I don't know if you have anything that you'd like to mention about that or not. Now, yes, absolutely. U well, we had the a gentleman come that really gave an in-depth view of what SRO officers actually do on a day-to-day basis, and I really didn't wasn't aware of everything they're responsible for and the commitment that they have to have to the students and the safety of the school. And it was just amazing and I was glad that we got to recognize those. And then uh artificial intelligence was discussed.

048Scary and amazing at the same time. Kind of wish I had it when I was in high school. I get a paper, but Wanda Bass was my AI that back then. She checked all my papers and rewrote them for me. Now that I'm out of school, I can say that. But um it is just so dangerous of what can they can use AI to do to I mean It's just scary that somebody has that much intelligence to sit down and they can get your voice on a device and they can harass people with your voice. I mean, it's just it really opened my eyes. And then it had we had a attorney come in and talk about social media, what you are allowed to say and what you're not, what freedom of speech and things

049like that was very insightful. So, I appreciate going. But I have to I have to mention for my husband Mark the seven finger pork chop. that Richard Van Hus ate. He still hasn't recovered from it because he didn't order it, but didn't eat the whole thing. I ate I ate a portion, but I did not. He didn't eat. And Dr. Bowman, I got to have dinner with Dr. Bman, which I had he and I had never had to a chance to get to know one another. But it was a very insightful trip and I enjoy every minute of it. Yeah. Thank you for allowing us to go. Absolutely. And not to talk about the pork chop, but the the the the whole discussion about AI, you're exactly right. It's very scary. We've formed an AI

050committee, an artificial intelligence committee here at the a district level team and we're looking at ways to how we can roll out things, tools that are helpful for teachers and students as well as training and then the training component on helping students understand how to use that appropriately and safely. So, there'll be more that I can report on that in the future, but it is certainly something that we need to try our best. uh it's very hard to stay ahead of that technology because it changes so rapidly. Yeah. As soon as you come out with a plan, it's obsolete because of the next uh advancement in in technology. So, so again, thank you for the opportunity to go. Um and appreciate very much. That's my report. All right. And it's time for board members report.

051And I I appreciate Miss Chef already um sharing there. anything else from you about that? Um I know it's I know people are signing up for this year's summer law institute for those that can go and um Dr. Lewis I you may have gotten you may remember this. Do you still have to do seven after you did the first So when I was at the training uh in January, I talked with Massie that does presentation. There's Jennifer White's one of them. At any rate, yeah, she seemed to think that since we submitted um the It's from the what you did at the count that that that should be that that should be fine. She said, "Did you submit? Did you fill up?" I said, "I did." And she said, "Awesome." I think that as a

052board then we're we're in really good shape. I am going to mention there is something called Camp TSBA. You may have gotten a notice. Um it's basically six one-hour sessions about different things. They're encouraging as many board members do it and you can actually do it live or you can do it on a recording. Um, and all you have to do is contact them and then that actually will get you um seven credits towards one of those fields. So if you have questions, holler at me. Is that Bahamas? That's not in the Bahamas. No. So, but it may be from the luxury of your home. So, um, and I wish I'd done this when Mr. Colbert was here. Um actually maybe I'm not glad I made I'm glad he's gone but February we missed this

053because it was um CTE month and he did something that I don't know a director ever doing but he sent out a daily report about CT activities. Um um I thought I understood knew a lot of what went on, but I got um uh it was unbelievable what our students are doing. I appreciate his leadership. Appreciate our instructors and our students. And obviously we've seen some results of that. But I I really I want to thank him. I'll give him a shout because that was very informative. I really appreciate the fact that he send that to all the board members. So um it was it's a lot of work. So, I'm trying to figure out who his AI is. Um, so it's artificial. Okay. But, um, anyway, I do appreciate him. Uh, Mr. Simmerly, city

054council liaison report. Thank you. Good evening. I really don't have that much for the first thing, the most important thing. My wife said to make sure I ask when our mulch cell will start because I've been told I need to be working the yard. John, do you do you know that what he is? Just make sure I'm on your list. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Um well, I tell you what, these kids nowadays, that right there, I was say I couldn't believe that. Wow. That's incredible the the talent that our children have, but more importantly, the instruction at that level that they're getting. These kids went to Bahamas. Look at that. I mean, it's going to be a lifetime. They'll remember things like that. And maybe one or two of them it's

055going to impact them so much. I think one little girl said that she wanted to work with children now. But think I mean what we're doing with our children, how we're impacting their minds. Well, not only that, but the impact they had on those kids that they interacted with down there. Exactly. You know, that's what I kept thinking like, God. Oh, it's cool. I mean, that's why we do what we do and it just makes you proud to be part of the system and part of these children's lives to like this young man sitting right here. I mean, just you're so proud, you know. what they're going to do in life, where they're going to go, what they what they can do, but it's how we're enabling these children to do that through the education

056we're giving. I'll get off my soap box. I know just so proud of these kids. So proud of what they do every day. Mel mentioned that tour schools. We're excited about that. Looking forward to that. I love riding school bus. That's so exciting. Budget be a treat. We are starting our budget planning as we know. Apologies we didn't have the money that we we all need. Uh it is going to be a difficult year this year. the the storm. We we really we don't really know where we stand at the moment. We've just got a lot of expenditures. We just as a city, you know, our our our funds are kind of set. You know, our taxes, I don't know about the rest of you, but we don't want to pay any more taxes than

057we're currently paying. So, our funding and our income is somewhat set and that's where the majority of our funds come from is from when we pay our taxes. So, you know, that that is what it is. We've got a set amount of money that we work with each year. And it seems like every year we have, you know, hundred projects to work on. We want to get funding for 20 or 30 of them. And uh and it seems every year too that you know the the buildings are getting older, they need more work. You know how it is. We're running the school system. It's the same with running the city. We need more police cars. We need more fire trucks. We need a matter of fact, we're we've got a four-year plan to buy a

058new ladder fire truck. I'm sure you've read about that or heard about that. But it's just the expense of running everything. But again, you know, we hope to be able to to help you guys in the future. what your your future needs would be. Interesting. You're talking about artificial intelligence. We were at our Nashville workshop. We go down once a year for the Tennessee Municipal League and we have training down there and it was on artificial intelligence. So, we had it as well. And just like Mr. Anhus said, soon as you're trained on it, you turn around, it's obsolete that quick. I really think the people that are writing these programs are some of the people that are, you know, keeping their job, you know, keeping jobs going. I did hear uh something about a

059Murphy bed. Uh if these kids build a Murphy bed, put me on the list. I am in the market for seriously, I'm in the market for a Murphy bed, so I'd love to purchase that if that's a possibility. But again, just uh thank you for your time. Thank you for all that you guys do. I'm just so excited. I mean, every time I turn around, I went to my first softball game this uh last week, girls softball. I was impressed. One of our girls hits a home run. I'm like, "Wow." I guess that's like a regular thing that goes on. You hit a home run. One hits a grand slam. Well, the one that hit the home run, the first one over the the left field, the ball hits the top of the fence and

060that it's kind of like aluminum siding like it bends the fence and the ball disappears. Well, this the opponent coach is fussing about the girl hitting the ball that it's not a home run. They go running down there. Our coach goes running down. The referee goes running down. Well, the ball if it was stuck in the fence, it's a double. If it went over and through and disappeared, it's a home run. No ball is a home run. I I just love our sports. Love our program. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hudson. Thank you. Um, first I'd like to kind of brag on our music department real quick. So, two weeks ago, our ensembles, our choir groups, we went to JB L and we got a superior for our

061mixed and our men's ensembles. And so, we're all very proud of all the work that all those people put in. Also a week ago um the concert and symphonic band went to their competition and got straight superiors as well. And also recently our winter guard traveled to Atlanta and took place in NA national uh competition and so from schools from all over the country to take this very seriously. Law schools are way bigger than us and we got third in the entire nation. And I just know I mean I'd be playing basketball and after practice I'd see them rolling that mat out on our floor and they'd be practicing for way longer than we ever did. So all the work that they put into that as well. I think um there's a lot of pride

062throughout the school for all all the uh all the work that these people have put in and all the success that they've had so far. Also, I'd like to talk about the March Madness um in our school, not the actual one that the SJ is putting on right now. So basically it's a 33 basketball tournament that's happening in uh fourth period and students could sign up to take place in this and they play for the entire period against other teams that are set up against them and the other school other uh classrooms they can come in and watch them if they don't have anything to do in that period and I can say it's definitely been the main topic of conversation at all the lunch tables so far. Uh just excitement about you know who's

063playing who today and seeing your friends play basketball. It's definitely lifted the spirit and um on top of the fact that spring break is next week. I say there's a lot of excitement in the school right now. Um lastly, I just want to talk about how we have elected a new student leaison for next year. Um Miss Helen Hackett and I just wanted to say that she is a great friend of mine and amazing person. I sing with her. So um I know she's going to be perfect for this role as well. So that's all I have to talk about today. So, at this time in conjunction with with Hudson right here, he may have something he wants to share. But Miss Alisa Alicia Jarrett, she's our nurse at Elizabeth and High School and she

064came to us a few months ago about a project that she would like to do in conjunction with the F FRC, Family Resource Center at the Ced. And so, I would ask her at this time if she'll come up. She's going to share a little information with you um about that. Uh it's it's very exciting project. It's going to be a great addition to the F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F FRC and another opportunity to support uh people in our community. So, thank you, Miss Jerry. I want to read just a little bit of a backstory on what actually started all this. So, my dad, Carl Clark, he was born on November 24th, 1954. And he wasn't born in 12. And

065with seven kids, including himself, it was it's very hard times. From what I've been told, dad's mom worked really hard and was a good mother. But I never met her. She died when I was very, very young. But with dad's father being very abusive, alcoholic man, they endured hardships which included food on the table at times. Dad was always a quiet person at a young age. He had friends though that seemed to be his saving grace, though they were very mischievous when they were together. As dad grew up, he dropped out of high school during his freshman year and started his career and block. He was really his job. Not just saying that because he's my dad, but if you were to ask people, they would always brag about his work. He was kind of

066a jack of all trades because he had to. He didn't have the funds to pay for things to be done. So, he knew how to do everything from wiring a house for electricity to any plumbing issue that was brought to his attention. I don't know if it was luck or just one of those meant to be situations, but he was in Kentucky working with Scout in 1979. And while in town building, he went to lunch where my mom and they were together from that day on until his death in May of 24. My mom suffered struggles worse than my dad did as far as food and beings go. Just like that, she had an abusive alcoholic father. He would rather spend his money on his liquor and women than his family at home. And I

067would say they preferred that though because the beatings were pretty horrible to their their mother. Mom's dad was well known by everyone. So he would go in the jail house and walk out the back door without getting into trouble. So when mom and dad They were both in situations where they knew they had to do better than the future they had ahead of. And since they both dropped out of school, dad decided to work harder with this construction work. And mom got her GED and went to technical school. She now works in the finance department at the city of Johnson City. And I'm glad to say that her and dad finally knew how it felt after having kids to never have to struggle for food on the table again. They didn't have to steal a

068loaf of bread and baloney to feed themselves, let alone my sister and me. Even to this day, I have never known what it's like to go to bed hungry or worry about my next meal was coming from because of how hard my parents worked. Once dad got older, he did get to work at Snap-On through a contracted company. Even though the work was just as hard, he didn't have to be outside in the changing weather all the time, which was good because the heat and severe cold affected him. I sat and watched my dad so strong his whole life slowly slowly be drained of energy to where he couldn't take a few steps from the couch to the bed without gasing for air even while on oxygen. I'm sorry. So when dad finally retired it

069killed him kind of stay at home. He was always up and moving around and working on something. He would always say after school, you better feed my kids. If I told him they were fine, they could wait for supper. Kids, grandkids, by the way. If I told him they were fine, they could wait for supper, he would go behind my back to get them something because they would call them calling them acting like they were starving to death. Once he would call my mom and make sure that it was okay to give him food, if he come rolling up in his car with food in hand, then like they'd go out running smiling. And uh but once he got progressively worse, we finally made the decision to place him on hospital. Even as a grownup

070and a nurse who had worked in the field for almost 18 years, no decision, and it's very hard to accept. To make dad's day though, I would go home after work and say, "You wouldn't believe what these are doing these days. They did a good whooping and make work in the garden a few hours and put in and get some character. He would just laugh or, you know, smile with his little freaking smile. We always love to sit on the porch and listen to music together and tell stories of when we were younger, when he was younger, or just talk about silly stuff. Mom and dad both knew what it was like to have pains and what it was like to quit school, to take care of themselves, to make ends meet, and put food

071on the table. They never wanted their daughters or their grandkids to know those pains either. And since they became more comfortable in life while he was here and came into After he had passed away, they both agreed to try to help kids in need. A child should never have to worry about where their next meal will come from or if they will even get food that day. Unfortunately, it happens though. So, they wanted to make a box that is open to any city school student and their family to come pick up some basic food needs whenever they need it. If it is embarrassing for them, they must get help from us. They can always come at a time when it's not as busy around the area surrounding the balls. They can also contact will be

072provided at the box for further assistance if needed. We always wanted to provide a student that fought past any adversities when it came to having food and hard times during school a scholarship at $500 for their first semester of college, technical school, or whatever educational path they had chosen to follow. If you ask his past co-workers and friends, they would tell you he was such a giving man and one of the hardest workers they knew. I hope this shows Carl's pantry even though he is no longer with us. He hid his imperfections but just like all of us nobody's perfect but I will tell you it can save my dad forever. I would like to say this though. My parents loved each other deeply. They loved each other so much they work through any trials

073and tribulations they faced. I hope that everyone like and the love in their hearts be so giving and caring to others even strangers. Every time I hear the quote, I love you without knowing how or when. I love you straight forward without complexities right. I love you because I know other way know no other way than this. So close that your hand on my chest is my hand. So close that when you close your eyes I fall asleep. I imagine my parents on the back porch just enjoying the I know one day I won't have my mom but until that day she and I want to make sure that the kids in this area are taken care of and when she's gone my sister and I will keep their memory alive by providing as much

074as we can to Smith did come to me asking if he could be part of it so I'm let you hear from him on so the main reason I want to do This is because I was actually taking part in a food drive recently for the um basketball games called Dupes Against Hunger and I really wanted to make that something that could last after I graduated high school as well. And so I had the idea to bring Carl's pantry inside the school into the nurse's office so that kids can go in there and talk to her if they need food because I don't know about you guys, but whenever I'm hungry, I can't think about anything except when my next meal is going to come from. And for a lot of that go to our

075school. It's that's a constant thought for them. And I think that having a place they they can go to to have food and to know where the next meal is going to come from, I think it's going to really benefit how they can focus on their own school and just the overall education within the school as well. So, that was why I wanted to be part of this as well. Thank you. And and one other thing, uh Chelsea Isaac with F FRC uh provided a plaque. Hudson, if you don't care to step over here with Mrs. Jarrett right here, and if you'll uh maybe hold up the plaque, and you can see a picture there on the board as well. And here's the actual plaque down here in front of the um in front of

076the podium here. So, this will this uh tells Carl's story, and we will place this with the box at the F FRC outside in an area again as she said where anyone can pull up if they need a food item, a non-p perishable food item, they can get it out of this box. And again, they're going to continue to keep this uh keep this filled. So, uh we just appreciate you very much for your heart, for your keeping this your dad's memory alive through this. I mean, what a real tribute to him and your mom as well and to you. And thank you, Hudson, for your willingness to partner uh as well to make sure that that it stays stocked. So, uh we're really excited. The box is finished, I believe. Do you need some

077paint? Is that right? Okay. Just got Yeah. And then, uh do you want to talk about who made the box for you? Do you want to tell them? Yes. So Jonathan actually Yeah. Awesome. Cole, you want to you if you if both of you if you'll bring that and maybe slide slide over here and we'll take a couple pictures. Awesome. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. All right. It's time to move on to the regular agenda. The first item, discussion of partnership between Elizabeth and City Schools and Northeast State Community College to establish a middle college program for students at Elizabethan High School. So, don't have to have a motion. Yes. So, I'll ask Dr. intermittent to come up as well as anyone else staff-wise there that that you want. He's going to

078share this with you. Again, the reason this is a discussion item is once we get theou from um Northeast State, that will be later on toward the summer. Is that right? Yes, that's correct. So, but we wanted to share with you exactly what this looks like as well as something else that you have there. So, I'll let them share with you, but we're really excited about this opportunity for students. And I can tell you that there's several students, they're extremely excited about it as well as they've started the registration process. So, thank you. Um, one of the things I gave you before the meeting, you have a color copy. This is a draft copy. We're working with Appalachin Printing to produce multiple copies of this conversation we've had over the last really year and a

079half. um as we've continued to add more offerings and opportunities, not just things that are our own ideas, but uh funding that has been generated from at the state level, at the local level, uh new opportunities through CTE, workbased learning, dual enrollment. Um it's a it's a real challenge for all of us to continue to keep up with all that we do and be able to thoroughly explain it and put it in front of someone to be able to explain to a parent or even a student. Like now, right now is registration season and one of the things we wanted to work on was having a centralized location for all this information. And so we brainstormed a little bit over the last year or so as a team and came up with the the topic

080or the the thought of Cyclone U. And you can see on the cover page um the the YO and the U are black together u basically indicating that what's at the bottom is it's a journey to a student's future or your future as we're talking to a student or to to a family. But it also is a little bit of a play on words as well. Um Cyclone University in some ways because there's so many opportunities for students to earn post-secary credit now uh more than ever. And so all these things together make it again a challenge at times to be able to u explain and both show parents and students and even prospective students uh who come to our school. Uh now that we've entered the era and time of school choice, we feel

081like it's important to be able to to have marketing material uh so that when students come to our school, we can show them things and families as they move into the area. Uh so if you open up the page, I'll just briefly cover it and we'll talk about Middle College because it's in here. Um, as you flip through it, um, there's some really good graphic information, um, that will tell you a little bit about and anyone coming to our school about the registration process and about graduation requirements. Um, the second opening of pages, you can see our our new school board leaison um, is pictured in the middle with our academic course offerings. And it it was really um, a surprise, not a surprise, but it really kind of opened our eyes as we put

082this together how much we really offer for the size of our school. I mean, I've always said it since I've been in this position. I believe it that for the size of our school, we offer more bang for the buck than anybody. We really do. And so, this kind of lays out all of our course offerings. And there's a small key down in the bottom lefthand side. All of these QR codes are active so that if you scan the QR codes, they'll take you to a link of a location online where you can view things or save them. Um there's also some information on the next page about early post-secondary opportunities for college and career readiness, ways that students, we'll talk about one of those here in just a second. I'll let our counselors talk

083about that. Um the next page is Middle College and of course you we're going to talk about that and hopefully um have an opportunity to enter an agreement with Northeast State to offer that. Um as Mr. Van said, it's very popular so far in discussion with students during registration season. And then to wrap it up on the back, um there's some details about college and career readiness for students, how they access information about registering for the ACT, industry 4.0, and then financial aid. Just a snapshot about what our last year has looked like, and just so how students can access um funding and how they can access money for college and life after high school. Uh it wraps up with student life, clubs, fine arts, and athletics. So, uh, this started with a lot of

084notes and a lot of pages, and the goal is to try to condense it down with some graphics and up-to-date information as much as possible, and I really appreciate everybody's work. Uh, the two ladies standing behind me put a ton of work into it. They're going to talk to you a little bit about, uh, Middle College and to be able to explain that, but we wanted to get a draft copy in front of you just to let you know that this will be released soon and be available to to people online and also in print as soon as we get those available to us in the main office and also in the student center. So, we're proud of it. So, I'll let them talk a little bit about the middle college and what Northeast State

085has proposed to us as far as our agreement and let them give you the details. Thank you. All right. I believe all of you have a copy of the dual enrollment opportunities um from Northeast State. There's a ton of information in it. Um but what we're talking about specifically um to add is the middle college program. Um Carter County schools have been doing it for three years. I think they're in their third year now. Um, and so they are seeing a lot of um, success with students who are enrolling as juniors and completing their associates degree prior to graduating high school. Um, and it's an associates of applied science degree with a general TBR transfer. So that implies that they will be going on to receive a bachelor's degree after they complete um, that associates

086degree. uh we have already identified about 15 students who are interested in enrolling enrolling in the program. Um and it fits very nicely into a regular schedule anyways. Um a lot of these students are dual enrollment students um anyways that would be taking a lot of these classes. They are just on an accelerated path. Um so they are taught um sort of a hybrid uh between in the high school online and some of them later on will be at offered at Northeast State um if if they choose to do that. They have um options to hold some of the classes um online or at Northeast and Elizabeth. So using the campus in Elizabethton. Um so that will be determined later once uh we get to that second year of for this first cohort. Um so

087they will be completing uh composition one and two, computer apps, public speaking, American government, um early and modern US history, introduction to psychology, college and lifelong learning, intro to theater, um early or modern humanities, biology 1 and two, uh economics and society, introduction to sociology, introduction to service learning, British literature, introductory to statistics, intro to music and science in the modern world. So, those are all of the classes. That's 60 credit hours. So, 60 credit hours to complete that degree. Any questions? And all that for the requirements for a regular high school grad, all that fits together. They get their mass, all their Yeah. So, it really depends on their major also. So, we're having to have some of those preliminary conversations. Um, some of these courses uh are different at schools like UT and

088Knoxville. Um, some of the more stringent colleges um like BYU, we have a couple of students planning to go there. This isn't going to help them at all. Um, so we're trying to have those preliminary conversations about where do you see yourself attending college? Um, and and we're working with them because there are some substitutions that we can put in there. But for the general student that's going to be getting a bachelor's degree, this is what they they need. They'll graduate high school as a junior in college. You all want to know what schedule? I got great. So the students junior year um their one period would be composition one and two. Another period would be public speaking and computer apps paired together. Another period would be uh US history one and two paired together.

089And then another period would be the intro to psychology. And then the college and lifelong learning will be what personal finance would be for the graduation requirement. The only high school class we have to fit in junior year that they have to have would be the algebra 2. That's the only math requirement that northeast state didn't have. So, um, they would do one, two, three, four of the class periods with dual enrollment classes and then five class periods we would have to deal with algebra 2 and then the electives. So, if they're in band, no problem. If you're in drama, no problem. We still have those classes to go. And then their senior year, they will have three class periods of dual enrollment classes. And then they would have six class periods to deal with

090electives to do what they need to do. We we've wanted to do this for a long time. It was trying to find a way to fit it within the school day because there are so many students that we have, as you know, that participate in so many other activities, whether it's sports, band, uh these different clubs or whatever. So, we wanted a program that would fit within the school day, you know, and that's a challenge. We want to, you know, attract students that are in the band. So we had to work around that schedule so that it would be in a spot that wouldn't conflict with that. Now what I would say is this program won't be for everyone. Okay? It's not intended to be. But to me the advantage there will be a little

091financial uh impact. You know there there's a there's a cost to this that that the student and their family will have to incur. But if if you have a student for instance that knows they want to you know whatever field they know that they want to go to ETSU in business let's say. Okay, they jump into this, they get those first two years taken care of. When they go out, they're maybe two years away. So, there's two extra years of earning power that they have that they wouldn't have beforehand. So, for the for the right kid in the right situation, this is a great opportunity. Just like Miss Ellis said, it's not for everyone, but I I was really we were hoping maybe fiveish, you know, the first year and to have 15 already that

092are interested. It just tells us that we're on the right track in my opinion. So, are there any scholarships available like to kids that can't afford? Yes. Well, the the state so if a student right now has access to six dual enrollment courses through that the dual enrollment grant will pay for. So, if you take 18 hours of dual enrollment credit, um, you don't pay anything out of pocket. Unless that's changed. That hasn't changed, has it? Well, there's also a middle college scholarship that's going to pay $2,000. So, the only outship will cover all that. If students do decide to do this, they are foregoing their Tennessee, they'll go straight into their fouryear scholarship. It's really a nice balance because if you want to take dual enrollment courses and not overload yourself, you can do

093that. No cost, low risk in the building, no online courses. If you want to p pursue something in addition like middle college, like Miss Hartley said, that scholarship comes into play. There's a little bit of out-of- pocket cost, but long term even earning power for a student to be able to get ahead. Not all students want to do that, but if if in fact they want to, it could push them into, you know, as early as a couple years or even more and getting out of school and pursuing maybe an advanced degree, they're pursuing a career that requires that or, you know, get into the workforce and and start making money earlier in life if that's what they want to do. So, um, any other questions? Just another pathway. Another pathway. Yeah. And to wrap

094all that up, you know, that that that's what this was designed for because we continue to add those and we're happy to do that. We want to do that and have opportunities for students to be able to take different pathways to whatever the future looks like. But to have it organized in a living document that we continue to edit every year, um it's a real game changer. So proud of these ladies behind me and and people in the student center. Everybody contributed to it. Anybody that's on that back sheet sat in a room together and we all contributed to it. just try to make sure that we're sharing the right information and then also promoting our school the way it should be. So, so, so it's roughly $2,500 would be the total cost of this

095would be the investment and they graduate as the same in college. Yeah. So, the state graduation will be before their high school graduation. And if we have students whose um parents are faculty members, they can actually apply for that 25% state discount. Oh yeah. Um and so there's the first page that's in the has the cost about 475 ines for each semester for their junior year and about 545 year. So roughly $2,000 total. Does that include books as well? Is that it? It depends on like the different classes have different formats of books. Um so generally they will have book books maybe an additional out of pocket expense but um I think it also depends on the class too. Right. That's impressive. Any other questions? That's good stuff. Thank you all very much. Thank you

096for your work on it. All right, that is exciting for our students. The next item, approve the nomination of Helen Hackett, a junior at Elizabeth and High School to be submitted to the office of the governor for the position of student representative on the state board of education for the 2025 2026 school year. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion and a second. Second. A second. Any questions? We've already heard her name, seen her picture. She's a Harold McCormack kid. Okay. All right. A hurricane. A hurricane. So, yes. Basically, in your packet, there's a resolution that we'll ask if this is approved, all of you to sign at the end, and then we'll forward this on to TS or to the governor's office to officially nominate her for that role. Since uh you know,

097she was selected by her peers uh for this role next year, she'll have big shoes to to fill for down there. But she's since she's been selected, we thought it was appropriate to nominate her for that as well. The high school hasn't let us down yet. Those we've had really good people. So, all right. No questions. Items to approve the nomination of Helen Hackett, a junior at Elizabeth and High School to be submitted to the office of the governor for the position of student representative on the state board of education for the 2025 2026 school year. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? And there are none. Next item, approve contract between Elizabeth and City Schools and Hapara for the 2025 2026 school year. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion to

098approve. A motion and a second. Second. Second. Thank you, Phil. So, uh, Hapara is a program that we have that we started using toward the, uh, tail end of, uh, the pandemic. And basically it's software that is on all of our district devices and it has several different purposes. One is uh it can look for anything that may be questionable or concerning activity on the device by the student that can be monitored uh that sends alerts and things to staff members. It can also be used by teachers in the classroom. They can log on and see what every student's doing on their device. So there's even educational use there as well, different things that they could be doing in the classroom of which that would be of benefit. So we again we did a three-year

099contract on this before and and we used some of our ESSER dollars for that. So this is a one-year quote to continue using this and again it's been extremely helpful in in several different situations for our students. So I'd appreciate your consideration approval of this item. Anybody have any questions? The items to approve a contract between Elizabeth and City Schools and Hapara for the 2025 2026 school year. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? There are none. Next item, approve the suspension of board policy 1.400 school board meetings for the month of February 2025. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion to approve and a second. Second. Thank you. So, uh, as you know, we had inclement weather last month at our meeting and we had to had to postpone that

100meeting. Uh, in talking with Miss Owen, our board attorney, we asked her some information about is it possible for the board to cancel a meeting? And she said that at this point, based on our policy, uh, 1.400, 400. It doesn't necessarily give you that option, but you do have in board policy 1.6000, the ability to suspend a policy. And so that's essentially what this item is, is to suspend that policy. Then if I can jump ahead, the next item, we're going to look at 1.400 and add some language that in the future, if that's needed, it will give the board the ability to postpone or cancel a meeting. Uh again, right now by by board policy, it says you will have a meeting every month. So that's the necessity for this action is for you

101to suspend that policy for the month of February to alleviate you from having a meeting that month. Okay. So we'll hear more about that in just a minute, I'm sure. Any questions? Items to approve suspension of board policy 1.400 schoolboard meetings for the month of February 2025. All those in favor say I I and any opposed. And there are none. And again, uh then next item is to approve first reading of board policy 1.400 school board meetings. Can I get a a motion? Motion to approve. And a second. Second. Okay. Okay. So if you look there on uh in your packet online on lines 9 through 12. So we're going to add that we're proposing to add this language. A meeting may be cancelled for unusual circumstances such as but not limited to weather conditions,

102natural disasters or safety emergencies. Local news media shall be notified and requested to publicize any such cancellation. So that's the language that we would add that in the future would allow us to cancel a meeting if needed. Any comments or questions? All right. Items to approve first reading of board policy 1.400 school board meetings. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? And there are none. We will now move down to H. uh approve Elizabeth and City Schools resolution to approve section 4 of the Education Freedom Act of 2025. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion to and a second. Second. All right. You can just tell by that motion and that second you just kind of feel dirty by making that motion. And I understand that. Believe me, I understand that. that

103just briefly to uh to make sure that you're aware of what this resolution says. This resolution is approving again section four of the voucher bill. And if you look at the legislation, section four is the portion that it talks about this one-time $2,000 bonus for uh the state's definition of a teacher. Uh so in order to receive those funds from the state, the board is required to do this resolution. Uh you are not you are not this resolution does not say you're supporting that act. Okay? It does not say that. So I want you uh to know that and be assured that's not what it says. And in my mind, we've made our stance pretty clear on vouchers and what we think about those and we think it's going to be a detriment to public

104education. The general assembly have taken their action and so now this is in law. But in spite of that, I wouldn't want to see us turn down an opportunity for a bonus for our teachers. They deserve a lot more than that. They deserve additional funds, certainly for a recurring raise. Um, but this this action will allow us to collect those funds and get them to the teachers. I'll just have one comment. We all know we're not a fan of the Belure program, but I'm thankful that our teachers are getting a well-deserved bonus. The only thing that I don't agree with. I think all of our employees deserve a bonus. I don't think our teachers are wonderful and they deserve that. We have a lot of support staff people, our cooks, our janitors, the folks here

105at central office that are welldeserved employees also. So that's the only catch to it. I think all employees should get and I will tell you that Miss Wilson and I had a conversation. Well, we've had multiple conversations about it, but what we would propose is let us go throughout the budget process here and and close out the year and see where we are. Maybe there's an opportunity that that we can do that. But I can tell you that and we'll we'll talk more about this in our other other budget workshops, but we're working very very hard to find a way to give a raise to all of our staff starting next year. And so I will be honest with you, that's our number one focus. How are we able to do that? So morale. Yeah.

106And that that that to me is number one. Then if there is some uh dollars in fund balance that we can designate after we've closed out the year, uh we can go back and do that with others. Just to make sure that you understand, you are right. Everyone's not getting it. But by this definition, I want you to make sure administrators won't get this. No principal will get this. No supervisor, me, no one no one gets this because we don't meet that definition of the state. So, you know, we're in that same boat with with others that that won't be receiving that either. So, I wanted to make sure you know that. But, um, as we've talked before, the budget process has been very difficult. We're very thankful for the state giving us some additional

107money for uh raises and it's certainly from the teacher aspect trying to get to that $50,000 minimum. We think we have a a path forward hopefully within this budget cycle to to get us toward that goal. But each year what they provide for that and what we need there's a gap and so you can imagine over five years if there's a gap every year that gap gets bigger and bigger. So all the extra funding that they've talked about being in in the TISA formula, that's gone. And we have this year and another year that we're required to do that. And you as a board and us as a school system, we have traditionally when we give a raise, we give it to everyone, something to everyone. And we're continuing to try to do that. But

108it's it's it's very very difficult. And just like all these students that we saw here today, you know, there's someone, as you saw, we have some incredible people working with our students and, you know, we have to be able to compensate them to keep them or or things will go south in a hurry. So, that's my soap box on on that on that item. So, we we hope to see what we can do once the year closes out about possibly coming back and and and doing something for some others. I just hope the state legislators through their budget process consider the teachers and everyone for a raise and not come back and say, "Oh, we gave them a bonus, so therefore we're not going to look at possibly giving them a raise." And I just

109hope that they don't ignore that fact and continue to give them some raises because like Mr. B has said, we tie a lot of that to the raises that our other employees that aren't getting the bonus, some kind of a raise or get something moving forward. So, we could always just be hopeful. It has been a lesson in politics. It sure has. um and just how certain things do. And I thought it was interesting listening to the new director for Johnson City Schools who came from a state that had vouchers talk about the effect that it's had. So, it's it's interesting to pay attention. We all need to pay attention. But again, I was glad this was not a tax. It was a hard pill to swallow when we first saw that. It'll be hard

110to put your name on there. I'm sure it will, but my wife will make sure that um All right. All right. So, the item is to approve Elizabeth City School's resolution to approve section 4 of the Education Freedom Act of 2025. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? And there are none. Last item, approve contract with Elizabeth and City Schools and UDT for the purchase of managed internet access and telecommunication services as part of the Anderson County School Consortium. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion to approve and a second. Second. Thank you. Okay. So, this is a I'll try to explain a little bit about this, but we've used one particular company for several years. I mean, maybe since the I don't know, Mr. Lancaster, maybe since the inception of Yeah.

111for at least 20. We've used a a certain company that through a state contract um for internet services, internet and telecommunications both. So, uh the state recently went through another process. Uh there's this Anderson County Consortium, there's uh Metro Nashville also went through the same process and a new vendor was selected and we as school systems could tag on to these two systems uh or Anderson County or Nashville Metro. I will tell you that the company that we currently use has challenged um the well actually both of these contracts as to their validity. Um that that happened a few years ago. I don't know if you remember it was probably maybe 15 years ago. I think another company uh received the award of someone protested. So this seems to be kind of a standard practice

112when this is awarded. Uh what uh the information that Mr. Lancaster's received as well as myself. Uh there are I I would say the overwhelming majority majority of districts in northeast Tennessee are doing exactly what you're considering today. Uh the good news about the the the the new service, we get better service, some some uh some speed, um bandwidth, things like that are expanded. uh some features that we don't currently have we will have in this and it's cheaper. Okay. So it could save us anywhere from you know 15 to$1600 somewhere between 15 and $2,000 a month. So this process if if you approve this it won't happen overnight. You know it could take up to a year to transition over. So what would happen is we would stay on the current provider that we

113have UDT the company we're considering would start working and building the new system and then when it's ready we would switch over. So you know we we get we get funds back from the federal government funds you may be you may have heard that term before. So the what we have submitted or will submit will cover us for the maximum. The higher amount that's that would cover our current provider. But once we switch then that's fine. The amount that they give us will be less because we're paying less. But it's really a no-brainer when you look at the services that we'll be getting the additional services and the fact that it's it's cheaper. So any to be renewed like annually or u Mr. Lancaster. This one is is it five years? Yes. Okay. Any other

114questions? Anything else? Okay. The items to approve contract with Lisbon City Schools and UDT for the purchase of managed internet access and telecommunication services as part of the Anderson County School Consortium. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? And there were none. All right. The other reminder, we are doing quick budget workshop immediately following this. And if I can get a motion to adjurnn. All right. Thank you all for being here. All right. We'll wait two or three minutes and we'll start right into the budget workshop.