001All right. Good evening. The March work session of the Germantown Board of Education is called to order. We will start this evening with item number one on the agenda. Mr. Manuel. >> Miss Stratton will talk to us about the dental RFP. >> Okay. Good afternoon. In January, a request for proposal or an RFP for voluntary dental insurance was released. And dental insurance is a voluntary benefit that GMSD offers to our employees, their family members, and qualifying retirees. And this means that employees pay for the total cost of the premium to utilize this benefit. And while GSC doesn't have any financial commitments regarding the selection of our dental insurance carrier, we do have an obligation to make sure we are selecting a carrier not only with competitive rates but ample coverage for our employees as this
002helps to strengthen our overall compensation packages uh for recruitment and retainment purposes. All responders were asked to match the current dental plans offered by GMSD. And currently GMSD has two plans for employees to utilize, a base plan and a buyup plan. Both plans have options for employee only employee plus one and employee plus family coverage. And we are currently utilizing plan coverage from Metife. GMSD received three submissions by the RFP deadline and those submissions came from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Delta Dental, and GMSD's current dental insurance provider, MetLife. And the last time GMSD submitted RFPs for dental insurance was in February of 2024. All submissions included premium increases for their services. And we have provided the board with a chart that highlights our current dental premium rates and the proposed increased premium rates
003for each responder for each plan on the dental RFP summary handout. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee had the highest premium rates coming in at around a 26% increase from our current dental rates. Metife, which is our current provider, is proposing a 20% increase from our current rates. and Delta Dental is offering around a 13% increase in premium rates. In addition, MetLife has provided only a one-year rate guarantee. Blue Cross Blue Shield has provided a 2-year rate guarantee with a 5% rate cap on that third year. And Delta Dental has offered a three-year rate guarantee with a 5% rate cap on years four and five. And it's important to note that GMSD has used Delta Dental in the past for dental insurance. Uh HR has received feedback from numerous employees that their current dentists do
004not utilize the MetLife network. So they have to pay out-of- pocket network fees to continue to use their trusted dentists. Uh HR is recommending that the GMSD board of education accept the voluntary dental proposal offer with Delta Dental. And just for a quick reference, employeeonly coverage for the Delta Dental base plan is going up $2.24 per paycheck and $6.72 per paycheck for employee plus family coverage. For the buyup plan, employeeonly coverage will increase $323 more per paycheck and $9.70 per uh for employee plus family. Uh we believe that the stability of the new rates over a three-year period being proposed by Delta Dental, a dentist network that has historically been satisfactory for our employees and the lowest premium rate increase out of all of the responders justifies this switch to a new uh dental insurance
005provider. And at this time, I'm happy to answer any questions that the board may have about HR's recommendation for voluntary dental insurance. So, is this a apples to apples complete comparison done? >> Yes, for the current plans that we have. Absolutely. >> Okay. And why did we uh leave Delta Dental in the first place? >> They were just cheap. Metife was just cheaper. We actually discussed during the board meeting staying with Delta Dental because we were happy with them, but then we really talked about the fact that at that time Metife was cheaper, so we went with them. just money. I remember that conversation and um I appreciate that we received the feedback. Uh um it's unfortunate that we learned the out of pocket and the the lack of uh in in um network providers
006was one of the things that was really the miss on that. I know that we have a track record of of very good you say satisfactory and I know that's the lingo but I think that in the past it was a very promising um package that was offered and and people uh employees seemed pleased with the previous so I appreciate you pointing out the differences and also the additional um quote for perspective Yeah, I remember that discussion well and and I believe we were really well intentioned to try to do the right thing by our employees and lower the cost which we did. >> That was the right thing at the time. >> But I you know I don't think we I don't think we were able to see the you know the effects of
007that. um so much so that I was mindful of, you know, if the dentist were if we were going to run into those problems again, I may have been um maybe more leaning towards not disrupting the providers. Uh but I think in this case um we're saving our employees there. There was going to be an increase no matter what. We're saving them on the increase and uh probably getting back to the the base level they want. So, um, I appreciate the the the walk down memory lane on that. I think that was that was important to know why we made the decisions to begin with, and hopefully this will be of benefit to our employees. >> So, will it be a three-year time frame until the next RFP since there's a three-year rate lock? >>
008So, we have a three So, we have a three-year rate guarantee with Delta Dental. Then we have the option uh for years four and five and they have said that it would be a maximum of a 5% increase. So we could we can go back to Delta Dental to see what those rates were for years four and five. So the earliest could be three years, the latest could be five. >> And they have have they given guarantees that no coverage change would occur like in terms of their >> correct. Yes. So the RFP the the coverage is going to be exactly the same as what it is right now for the next three years. >> Just a [laughter] little just a little. >> It's helpful to have subject matter experts. That's for sure. >> [laughter]
009>> All right. Any uh further uh discussion on this item? >> I did just have one quick thing um to say too. The the new dental insurance carrier will take effect September 1st. That's when our our new plan year begins. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. All right, brings us to item number two on the agenda. Approval of the PE and CTE information technology and advanced manufacturing textbook. Mr. Manuel, >> Miss Ael is going to take us through this conversation. >> Can you pass those around? >> You bet. >> Good evening. I'm happy to bring to you the results of our textbook committee adoption process for CTE two programs of study information technology and advanced manufacturing and then also for lifetime wellness uh which the state calls PE. So those are the two areas that
010we're looking at and I do want to kind of review just the overall textbook process for Tennessee. So I I passed out a a handout that has the textbook review cycle. So last year, if you remember, we brought I brought to you the um science committee recommendations and that was schedule D on here. No, it's and then I brought also the before that the math do textbook adoption was in 2122. So this is the new textbook cycle that the state board of education has approved and this is an 8-year cycle. So we're now on schedule E if you just want to see where we are in the table and you can kind of see what's coming in the next few years. So we're just looking at schedule E PE and health science. They call it
011health science but it is not the CTE version of health science. That will come later on down. You can see on schedule G. Um so this lets you see what's coming up in the next few years. And each district is able to select textbooks from a state approved list of textbooks. Now, we're calling them textbooks, but they're actually just instructional materials. These are not in textbook form this year. They were all online materials for both wellness and for the CTE courses. So, everything is considered a instructional material, but a lot of times we'll use the word textbooks. And just to go through what our committee did this year, um you can see on page two, we have a committee consisting of teachers and we only had two parent volunteers and they are also staff members,
012but Mr. Sun is a first year teacher and truly served as a parent on this committee to review the CTE with the parent lens. We did put out the application for parents and we we had these two that only only applied for this. I don't think these are the the hot topics right now because the the materials were so limited. Um, and we'll get to the list of the overall state approved materials in just a minute, but you can see what each teacher actually reviewed based on the content area that they teach and also the timeline that we're going through. So January is when the committee first convened and we do administer an oath. This is all following the state process for textbook adoption and um we took the month of January and February to
013get feedback from each committee member and so they gave feedback based on those content areas there student engagement and relevance and these are based on state recommendations for the rubric that we should use also complexity of materials accessibility of materials and teacher resources. So each committee member gave feedback and you can see that the then we had community preview day on February 23rd. This is uh the first time we have not had anybody come to the community preview day. The good news is all these materials are online. If anybody wants to go look at any of these, they can simply go to the Tennessee State Tennessee Department of Education textbook page and they will see all the materials that are there. Um, also the February 27th is when the committee submitted their preferences and now
014we are bringing that to you and that those decisions are on page three. So if you look on page three of your handout, there were not very many selected as I mean submitted as we said that the state approved. So for the 10 courses that our committee reviewed, there were three that were the STEM for the middle school STEM designers, innovators, and explorers. That's sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. And then also the high school, STEM 1, 2, and three. And they only had two options to pick from for some of those. And they all agreed on the ICV um curriculum for their particular textbook adoption. So ICV is the winner there. And then for computer science foundations, coding, and cyber security, which all fall under the same program of study, the committee agreed upon the
015Tennessee version of the materials. Tennessee computer science coding one and cyber security one and then moving into lifetime wellness the committee decided on health smart by education training and research associates that was a unanimous decision uh all of these were unanimous by the committee so this is the list of the items that they would like to use for the next eight years the committee members reviewed these materials very thoroughly provided very accurate you know good feedback and I'd like to bring that to you uh I will tell you page page four has a list of all the materials the state approved for all courses that were available and we only had 10 of these courses that we had to review materials for. So you can see it's a very limited selection. So page three has
016our recommendations and I'm open to any comments, questions that you have. Um I do want to give a shout out to our committee though. First of all, let me just tell you that our um committee had five me we have to have at least five members by state board law and policy and uh we had six teachers and two parents review a total of 10 courses. They dedicated time to provide thorough reviews to all components of all the programs and um I will stop there and give my recommendation for these materials and see if you have any questions. always appreciate the work that the committees do. It's really a thankless job, but and I'm going to talk about this uh in the [clears throat] business meeting, but I'll kind of preface. [snorts] I think our
017community, they need to understand, we don't have much latitude when it comes to uh materials. And I think people think that we can just go pick and choose whatever we want to teach and the textbooks and all that. And that's just simply could not be further from the truth. um that we um again we had this menu to choose from and you get to pick off the menu and if you don't like what's on the menu you can certainly appeal to the state and then they will let you know if you're going to be able to use it or not. So I think there's always this misconception that we at the local level uh get to do whatever we want. Um and that's just simply not the case and I think that really needs to
018be um made clear. Um I know one of the things you mentioned online materials. I know that there had been a move lately. So if I think that we're supposed to be able to provide um you know physical copies upon request. So in a situation where it's online, what's the solution should someone want a physical copy? >> So we would have to look at the exact content that's being taught and find a way to get the portion that has the content in it printed to a PDF file or something like that. >> Okay. So, so it's at that point it's a local print job. >> Okay. >> And that's by request. >> Good thing we have a little print a print the [laughter] high school >> studios. It's a sounds like that's an opportunity there.
019Okay. Yeah. So, I I wasn't sure because it's online. I didn't know if the um if the publisher provided anything physical in the event. So, it it's basically download and print office. >> Some of them would have supplemental workbooks, but that would not be considered like the core curriculum. And since these are CTE courses, for the most part, they're very hands-on and research based. And then same thing with wellness, it's more hands-on. So it makes sense for these to be more online resources. Next year, we will be doing social studies textbook adoption. And I'm assuming that they will have quite a few that are in print and online. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you for the explanation. >> Any other comments or questions? Did you say um just to clarify I heard eight years that's a
020long time given that CTE while so much of it people think is just going to stay the same forever a lot of these um I mean I'm thinking between coding and >> yeah these might be obsolete by next year >> tomorrow [laughter] right uh and so with that are there in your experience or based on Um, and again, this is very CTE specific adjustments or new things that may come out or supplemental things that may come out. Um, that kind of I feel like it kind of reminds me of when they put the yearbook out and they do the little spring insert, you know, it's like, hey, by the way, also this um for these type of courses. >> Absolutely. So, the core will be there. the core is there with the curriculum but as
021things change the t the company will typically add to that uh to update their resources also that's the good thing about an online version that they can update >> recently okay >> thank you for that >> and the 8-year alignment of the uh textbooks goes with the standards adoptions so the state recently moved to an eight-year standards adoption cycle so the textbooks also followed that cycle >> that makes great sense thank I will bring the purchase also once we have the approval. I'll bring the purchase back for those materials in April. Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. Always enjoy our textbook process [snorts] and and Miss Abel's team, they really do they do a lot of hard work. the reviews. Again, I cannot stress um the, you
022know, the I guess the the tediousness of going through and reviewing all those and making sure everything's aligned and, you know, getting um you know, getting the teacher feedback, the parental feedback. That's a very again very thankless job, but I I I'll speak on behalf of the board. We're very appreciative for the efforts that you do on that. And I would expect you'll see more people for social studies. I think that'll be Yeah, I think that'll be one that's uh probably a little bit more engagement from the community. All right, that brings us to further business. Um so I'm going to bring forward an item of further business. Uh this is actually a continuation of a discussion that we were going to have or I guess we started to have in December. >> Yeah. Before
023Snowageddon. So Mr. Mr. Hendricks had brought forth a item I guess more of a question about our transfer policy. Um and I did not want that to go unressed. So um I know apologize for you know a couple months there but you know we didn't forget about you. >> No need to apologize for God right? [laughter] >> So anyway so I want to open that up to kind I guess for uh kind of where you wanted to go with that and then I think Mr. Manuel is prepared to discuss. >> Okay. Again, I just wanted to, you know, understand if there was any uh thing that we could do when it comes to the timing of uh removing uh children that have been found to not be in the district from the classroom. Um maybe
024uh stay out of certain times of the year, i.e. like the last two to four weeks of a semester uh to limit disruption to that child's uh educational experience even though we know that they shouldn't be experiencing it at Germantown uh municipal school district but um so I was hoping that you know with Miss Speakman here we might be able to have some some guidance from council on things like that. >> So I think the real challenge and Mr. Dr. Hendricks and I talked about this is when we think about children and what they experience and are children not necessarily being punished but are they having negative consequences because of bad decisions made by the parents and if I was going to sum it all up into one uh statement I think that's the discussion
025that we're having. So um as you know um we are a great school district and people want to come to Germantown. Students want to attend Germantown. Um, but sometimes people try to do that uh in inappropriate ways. Um, so we have I know Mr. Bland, you can go ahead and come up to the table because you've got you'll have to talk about this a lot. This is your department. Um, we do have transfers that we take at all of our schools. And once again, that is based on the size of the student grade level and the program that they're in. So, know that it says, you know, by the state law, and this was in the um bills that they were just trying to push through recently. Um but they always say that they're not
026going to force a school district uh to take students and we're not going to take students that require us to increase uh staff or require us to increase a program. So when we are looking at people who want to come to our district, we look at our projections, we look at our numbers, um and then we make we have some estimates and we look at our current staffing and we also look at teacher student ratios across our schools. So we're trying to hit some metrics for those numbers and then based on that uh and all of our departments are sitting together making those decisions. Um we grant transfers for non-resident people who don't live in Germantown to come to our district. Um the challenge that we have is some people choose not to go through
027that pathway. Um so what we do for all people registering for our school district, we require uh proofs of residency that they have to provide. Uh and we have teams at our schools and also with student services that are checking those proofs. Um, a lot of times we will find uh situations where people are not showing up to pick up their children and so they'll be 30 minutes late, 40 minutes late, or there are some issues with, you know, what what's happening? Why are they always late to school? Um, and why do they always have Mississippi State tags and plates on their cars? Um, so periodically and uh they spend a lot of time in student services uh verifying uh that information. And so we see everything from very fancy computer forgeries where they have
028created MLG&W bills. Uh we have seen fake leases. Um but what we do with that is we do have staff that they go out and um they are verifying where people live and confirming that once we have uh confirmed through multiple measures that the people are not residents and they did forge their residency. This is going I'm getting to the board. this is where we have the the challenge of uh we notify those parents and tell them that their their students are withdrawn. So I think the discussion that we need to have and the board needs to have is is around that timeline of with withdrawal of those individuals. Uh there are other pieces that are built in here too depending on where the students are coming from. as you know that we charge tuition
029um for people who are outside of Germantown because Germantown residents do pay in our city pays upwards of $3 million additional to our district. And so um there's a per student formula that we use to calculate our tuition. You also have people who come from outside of Shelby County. Same thing there's a a calculation there's a formula to determine uh what the different differential is for people living in county and also out of state. you can come if you're paying uh the full tuition for those individuals. So, I think uh that's kind of the premise, but we do have um large numbers. Mr. Bland, do you have some rough numbers? It doesn't have to be exact. How many people are applying for transfers um per year? What are we looking at as far as volume?
030[clears throat] >> Typically, we have between seven and 900 that will apply >> across all across all grade K12. And typically what's the number that >> what's an a what's your guess >> just this year we had I think 754 K8 uh we denied 541 of those. So the vast majority of people who apply will be denied if you don't fall within one of the categories that's specified in the policy. So as you all know based on our policy there are priorities. So, if you were previously enrolled and you move out of our um area, we do have a process for uh an eligible circumstances transfer. So, if you move during the school year after we've started, we'll allow you to finish that that year for those individuals and they have to apply for a
031regular transfer um at the end of that year. Um but then we have other categories like if they have siblings in the system or if they're coming in through one of ouries, but there are priorities that that we look at. But I think our discussion now is is really for you all to answer answer questions about the timeliness. I think that's the concern of the withdrawal. So um if I'm hearing you correctly, one of the things you'd like to discuss is is there a consideration for us to look at if you're within a distance of the break or the end of the school year that we would allow that student um to stay. I think is the discussion that we need to have. But I want to >> that is correct. And I also have
032one other question. Um, if a child has uh parents that are not married, uh, and one lives in the district and one doesn't live in the district, how does that work for them being eligible? >> It's, uh, the primary custodial parent. So, with parenting plans, there's usually a parent that's listed as primary custodial parent, >> even if they're 5050. Okay. Just to to clarify it right now as it stands determine it's someone who's not been honest about being an resident or with the transfer paperwork they're withdrawn and then the next day they are no longer in GMSD schools. Is that right? >> It's it's not necessarily the next day. Typically we do it on Fridays. So if you're caught on a Monday we'll send paperwork home. Miss Delhi will u email parents and it's that
033f that coming up Friday. >> Okay. And then my understanding is that that student is immediately eligible to go to the school that they are zoned for that district. That sort like the very next day they could show up and you know I know it's not it doesn't eliminate the issue that you're bringing up about it being tough on the child, but they do have a spot in their district that they can attend as soon as they're able to get there. Right. >> That's correct. So, so we have this with students all the time that that come to us and enroll at different times. They parents have lost a job, they've moved into the area, they've moved back in with family, but there are situations with that families experience. Uh, and we do we enroll
034them the second they walk in the doors and go through that process with them. >> I did some research on this topic. Um, there's not a lot of policies around this. Uh but I do want to highlight because I found uh the policy that MSCS has. It's their policy 6002 and I think it's probably pretty applicable given that they're in the same county. So in their policy they have a suspicion and basically they're they stay enrolled during the investigation which is what we do. So, while we're verifying uh if it's verified a student is out of zone or out of district, the letter will be sent to the parents, legal guardians or custodian advising the student must be immediately withdrawn and should be enrolled by the parent in the appropriate school or district. And then
035uh once that determination, what they do is u the school will send a standardized letter to the parents legal guardian stating the child will be withdrawn. the withdrawal date provided by the school will be no less than two days and no more than six business days from the late from the date the letter is issued. So they're they're pretty immediate there. So that's the only thing that I've seen written. Um and that so I I think that's got to be the standard procedure. And then uh there's also referrals to the general counsel. So because of I think the tuition that you mentioned if if tuition's owed you know if they're from out of county then we're looking at thousands of dollars that would be due. And I think at that point then that's where in
036our case Miss Speakum would get involved and then pursue that. But that I just want to highlight for the board that's what there's not much that I've found but that one I think was pretty applicable given MSCS in our county. And I don't think that there's any, at least on my opinion, there's not any arguing against immediate, you know, if if it's found immediate where I hear from our community uh a lot is, hey, why did we get rid of kids with two weeks left in the school year, right? when we knew all year long some this this this was coming from the community. We knew that they weren't in the district all year long. Somebody was telling them whatever blah blah blah. But why do we get rid of them two weeks before a
037school year ends, right? And that's a valid question to ask. >> Yeah. But I think there's a misunderstanding when people think that we know everything that's happening uh in our school. So, oh, we knew that they were uh so so we don't always know those things. Um but we have had um several leg legal cases uh where we had to look at this and for us and we did have a federal case that we did um were successful and thank you Miss Speakman for all your work with that case. Uh but we were successful in that case. Um but some of the challenges that we face are documenting um how they are not living in our district. So this is one of the things that we've tried to really tighten up when we look at
038what student services did. Um, so one of the things when you look at case law, Miss Speakman, you can probably talk this better than me. I forgot the case, the Martinez case, I think out of, uh, Texas area. Um, one of the challenges we talked about was what defines residency. And when we had our case, this is one of the things that the lawyers kept really questioning me about what is residency uh, for somebody. Could you have a lakehouse and say, "Hey, if you can have more than one residence, what if I have a house here in Germantown? I have a house at Pwick. Can I go to school in Pwick? Pwick and that's where I stay and my and my family goes. Uh Horsu Lake is is that c can you do that? So
039um really when we think about the legal precedent, you can help me, Miss Speakman. Um because it's been a while since I've argued this. Um is really about where you rest your head and where do you permanently plan on on living and staying. Um that was the key. It's your permanent plan of where are you residing. And so one of the challenges that we face when we think about timeline when people say, "Oh, they knew this." Well, we have to verify numerous times. It's not just a oneanddone look when we're talking about verifying that they're living somewhere else. We're talking about multiple visits um to see the people that they are living coming to and from different locations. So sometimes there's that component that student services is doing all their due diligence to verify where
040those people are um staying. Yeah. just to not give away all of our secrets. Uh but we we do confirm uh we do three visits uh before we make a determination and then we use other methods to verify what we suspect. >> Some of it is the timing of just the investigation piece that we're looking at too, but but usually like I said, these are coming from um our schools, these recommendations for us. Um so Mr. Mr. Bla, can you talk through the process that we have from verifying proofs to also to when the schools recognize that something may be fraudulent? Can you talk to us a little bit about that process? How do you all get notified? So, how I think it's important to know how do we find out that someone was not
041doing what they're supposed to do? >> Yes. So, we there are a few ways we find out. Sometimes it's an anonymous alert. Sometimes it's a school um where kids are being picked up. Uh, Dogwood called me the other day. It was 4:45. I think they still had a student on campus. So, when you have students that are picked up late continuously that'll that'll flag it. Uh, once a school is suspicious, they will email Miss Dudley uh or Miss Dodd and Miss Dodd has a running spreadsheet. She'll put the name on a spreadsheet. She shared that spreadsheet with uh Mr. Lewis who is our school safety liaison uh and he is the one conducting the um home visits. Um he'll um take notes about what he's found for each visit. Uh and and once he's finished
042with the third, we get together and say, "Hey, this is what we suspect." Um and and also I brought copies of of this. I don't know if you guys want to see it, but in registration Yeah. So, in registration, there are two uh specific instances where it says that providing false information to registered students will result in the student being withdrawn to to the correct school for which he or she is zoned to attend. Uh it's in there twice. And then the students that we have on shared residence. Um there are three instances in that packet. So, if you're a shared resident, you have three instances where you're getting the information about providing false uh documentation plus the two for registration. So, if you're a regular, let's say, transfer student or resident, you'll see it
043twice. If you are a shared resident, you'll see it five times, at least five times. Once that determination is made, we uh reach out to the parents and give them the letter. And like I said, um it's typically that coming up Friday and and we always tell them you're um you should register at the school year zone to attend. Uh if for whatever reason you move back into the or if you move into Germantown, uh we're welcome to register you then. So, M. Speakman, is there any uh I guess legal liability we could be opening ourselves up to if we did say um you know, if it's within uh the last two weeks of the school year, uh you're removed at the start of the next next school year, whatever, right? is could we open
044ourselves up from a legal uh standpoint to suits from someone that might have got, you know, removed earlier in the year. >> I I guess there's clearly not a law that says, you know, two weeks or x amount or whatever. Um I think there are several different issues that could arise. One is is that the reason that we're able to um have residency requirements generally is because the courts have observed that school districts are harmed um as a result of people falsifying their residents. And I guess a byproduct of that is inconsistency. Um I guess under your scenario that you gave, I mean my red flag was not about having the student leave. It was that, oh my gosh, what if somebody at a school's not telling us that they know somebody is not a
045resident? I mean, that's a problem. Um, [laughter] and and and because that would have some serious consequences for us in terms of consistency, in terms of being able to prove, you know, harm as a result of, you know, residency issues and that sort of thing. So, um, you know, I guess I'm my brain the way it's working is, you know, I'm seeing the problem here, not, you know, not on the on on the second piece of that as it relates to residency. But um uh you know and I guess the other piece is really more for y'all in terms of you know politics issue than it is necessarily a legal u issue is that especially in cases where you charge tuition which you do here is to say that you get a buy for two
046weeks and then I've got to pay when I'm you know I just an example I I was said to somebody the other day I was driving over to Covington Pike and there are all these charter schools over there and I'm watching these parents, you know, and they're carrying their kids across, you know, eight lanes of traffic trying to get them in these charter schools because they want a better way of life for their children, you know, and um you know, and it and it really broke my heart. But at the same time though, you know, here I'm sitting here thinking, you know, these people are they don't have two nickels to rub together. maybe, you know, like my family, for example, you know, when I was a kid. And yet, and so it would it
047would have really hurt my feelings for my parents to be paying, you know, doing everything they could to get me in this school and paying and then somebody else just because they're not very nice. You know, they get off the hook for for, [clears throat] you know, for two weeks. But, you know, I guess that's really more of a political issue than than anything. But, it's something I think, you know, that we should consider. So, Yeah. Um there is a piece that I'll get you Miss Griffith that do think we have to consider especially when we're talking about um not all students are the same and some students come with different needs and different costs and different struggles that we have to look at too. And so when we talk about um especially when I
048think about special needs students some of those students may come with a lot of services that are associated with them. So, it's not just two weeks. You're talking about speech services, OT, PT, all those things that come um with those students may be additional burdens for the district that we would gladly pay, you know, considering that they're residents, but um not if they're courting documents. I have a question regarding um maybe instances in the past where we've had families that are Germantown residents but have attended schools outside of their zone and didn't go through our intra district transfer policy where we maybe have realized they were using a grandparent address or a friend address just to go say I'm not going to whatever you know what I mean could be zone for dogwood but they're
049attending Farmington and we figured that out along the way. Do we give them more leniency? Um, or are they subject to the Okay, [laughter] >> that in in the in the effort of fairness and consistency, we treat everybody the same. Resident, non-resident, if you're caught, we do the same thing for everybody. And we we that's what we've always done. But since I I don't know if we have denied intrad district transfer, we do not deny intra district transfers often, which is something really special in Germantown. Um there's some situations where it happens, but for the most part, um you can attend any school that you want to regardless of your local. >> I'm just saying someone didn't go through the process and then use another address and [cough] [clears throat] >> I would hope they
050would not because like I said, for for the most part, >> pretty simple. Why would you not just do it that way? I do recall vividly someone was there one one day and then the next day they they went back to the school across the way. >> Okay. >> We as Mr. BL said we try to be consistent. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Ban, do you have any sort of u estimate as an average amount of time from f receiving first notification to withdrawing a student how long that may take for an average investigation? It'll it will vary be just say we had some before the snow and so that delayed that. But we typically try to do um again without giving away our secrets one or two per week um one week and then
051the next week and then have a decision. But there times that somebody's recommended and we cannot verify that sure >> they're not living at that address um or that they're living at another address. That happens happens too that somebody's reported and there is not evidence that they are living out of the district. So Callaway, I'm thinking of it as similar to the MSCS policy as if you're going to have it in a policy for example that you know it's it just needs to be applied consistently whatever that time period you know might be. Um but then I think additionally we kind of have to think through so what what is the you know what does opening that door does it create an issue where it incentivizes parents to do the wrong thing because now in
052your situation two weeks that's not going to make a but you know if it was like if you get in then you you stay through the end of the you know quarter or whatever then that would you know incentivize I think someone to do it. Um what I also don't know is you know again even in a two-eek period if uh child or family knows they will be removed does that create a discipline or other issue where you know that child is no longer invested in you know following the rules because they know they're out >> and you know again I don't know that would ever arise but I think you know that's something we need to think about you know as we kind of think through this issue. Um because I do think if
053it's too long a period of time that could be an issue at some point. Um but I I certainly uh understand I I know your heart Mr. Hendrickx is want do what's best for all of those all the kids that are here regardless of if their parents made a mistake or not. >> [clears throat] >> So, >> if I might, I I think historically the debates I've heard among boards were it was sort of an all or nothing kind of thing, you know, where they said, "Hey, um if you get um if you get found out, so to speak, you get to stay through the end of the school year." Well, that's really problematic because then if somebody found out the first day years on, you know, and then that's really really uh for the
054the points that I pointed out earlier in particular the hardship argument because it's hard to say that it's a hardship on you, but it's okay for you to stay for, you know, however many months we have in school, eight months [laughter] or whatever it is. So, but so that's where the primary debates have been that I've witnessed. >> Well, you know, I think that it's uh good for the community to to hear that this discussion has taken place uh between us because that is something that again I have heard uh it's been shared to me from other folks outside of my circle. I've heard it within my circle. So you know when these children um you know get put out of school uh to put it you know that way uh it doesn't just stay
055at the school right it comes home right and then now a whole bunch of other questions start coming from that so I think uh at the core of everything is punishing children for the sins of their parents is is a tough road to to to to go down, right? I think we can acknowledge that. But I also think that, you know, Mr. Bland, you you said it. You know, we've got to be consistent. Uh and to me, that's where the inconsistency could open up us from a legal standpoint somehow some way. I mean, people sue for everything. So, um, you know, I just wanted to to engage in this conversation with my fellow board members and with the the staff, uh, because it is something that the community is talking about and and has mentioned
056in the past. Um, and so now that we have it officially on record as a conversation, right, they can know that we um, you know, are cognizant uh, of these things and uh, are applying said policies that we have consistently across the board. So, thank you all for engaging in this. >> And if they know, there's always anonymous alerts, too, that they like Miss Bland said that because like I said, we don't I think people assume that we always know, oh, they've lived in Mississippi for years. We we don't always know that. So, um, let student services know they're working on it full-time. Well, that was going to be my my kind of last point is I mean, from this conversation, student services wants to know this information and if someone's not comfortable coming, you
057know, sending an email or making a call to Mr. Bland or anyone here, they can do it through anonymous alerts and that does get followed up on. >> And thank you, Mr. Chair, for bringing this conversation up again. >> Oh, yeah. Glad to do it. Um, yeah, I appreciate the thoughtful discussion. I think in a lot of cases, you know, there I think this was helpful to hear, you know, that you're looking it's not just uh one side or the other. just really it's a circle or you know or I guess really a globe and so you got to look around. So that's there's a lot of nuance here. Um but I I feel very confident that we are very consistent across the board, but I think again we got to know it. Um and
058so yeah, if we see, you know, a car in the parking lot that has like a Faget County tag, especially the high school, you know, we we don't know. I mean they could because who's to know that they're there on you know a transfer or um you know maybe somehow they you know you don't know all the circumstances. So like that alone is probably not a you know you know like if you see a student doing that. So anyway, but I know there's a process involved. So, I think the the thing to communicate, you know, obviously to the people that have concerns and I I think they're legitimate concerns would be to make sure it's being reported and, you know, and and make sure that we're going through the process and that, you know, I
059feel very confident in our process. And yeah, trust me, I don't I have I have compassion for a child that, you know, if they're removed, you know, three days before the end of a semester, I've got compassion for that. but then also see the duty that we have to be consistent and you know and again um you know I think we always try to do the right thing but in a case like that really I think our hands are forced and and that's really where we are. Um so yeah I appreciate the discussion on that and Mr. Strange >> one one more point I was just going because I know and again I'm not going to give away all of your secrets Mr. plan. But I know uh from just conversations I've had with Superintendent
0602 that more recently within the last year or two, you know, the investigative process has become more sophisticated even than just a we're waiting on someone to report it. That there's there's other means that the district is using to and it's you they're not just waiting for it to be brought up. Yes, the there is big brother is watching [laughter] everything you do. But but that is true. There there are systems that that look at the entire student body. They're they're big filters, not just the one-offs when we're waiting for people to report that to. So we are looking at the the entire uh student body. All right. Uh any other discussion on this item? >> All right. I've got one other item of further business and then I'll open it up to see if
061anyone, this is an easy one. Uh they are seeking volunteers for the calendar committee. And so if there is a schoolboard member that is passionate about [clears throat] the calendar, I would like to open that up as an opportunity for anyone that is interested. The dates would be Thursday, March 26th and Thursday, April 9th. Um so if anyone is very passionate about school calendar uh on the board uh the opportunity is yours. So I will uh just I will turn my mic off and let someone uh volunteer. >> Be good student position. >> Right. Right. >> He's like, "Awesome." >> I think M. Griffith may have something, but I was going to see and this is I didn't bring this up to Mr. Ellis or Mr. Curry, but I wondered if maybe one of you
062all could just give us a quick report on the board's uh trip to Nashville and just kind of how that went. >> Um, yes. So, I will let uh I will let you marinate on the calendar um offer before we do that. So, Mr. Ellis, I'll let you chime in. um on your thoughts on the trip to Nashville and I can add some context if needed. >> Yeah, all in all it was a good trip. Little little frustrating because they were working on the budget so multiple people were pulled out. We had multiple cancellations during the day, but the feedback we got across the board is it will be a limited session with not a whole lot passed. I don't believe there's much appetite for any type of voucher expansion because nobody wants to campaign
063on that throughout the year this year and financially um I know it's a huge shocker but it cost the state money last year so I'm not they don't want to expand that had a really solid meeting late in the day about the transfer policy and very open asked us to send back our thoughts to it and looks like we have that bill adjusted to where it will be a zero impact to us here. So, all all in all a positive meeting, but it is a uh it's an election year, so not a whole lot going to happen. >> Yeah. And I'll just add that um you know, we met with members of the um education committees, uh House and Senate. Uh we tried to schedule as many meetings as we could with our local legislators.
064A couple of them were not available. So, you know, we did make the effort to visit with them. Um, I was very, um, encouraged by our meeting with Representative Slater. Uh, he was very open to the feedback and I think a lot of it's the approach and we went in there just wanting to know his thoughts on this bill. Um, he had not considered our point of view. He didn't even know that what we were doing was even a thing. He really was shocked. Um and so we we but he was very open to that and he was adamant that he was not uh looking to inflict any harm upon us and so he asked me to email him at his personal email address which has never happened uh to make sure that he got
065so I sent our policies our inter and intra district transfer policies to uh representative Slater and uh the amendment that I've seen um it's encouraging a couple things that we might have to do differently. I'm not sure if it's going to pass. Everything got rolled and the K12 sub. So, they have uh they have gotten to their final calendar. I thought it was going to be heard, but it got rolled next week and something that tells me it might not be heard until the week after. That list is pretty extensive. So, um but we'll see if if it goes anywhere if if there is an appetite to move it forward. I do believe the amendment um will uh while it might add a couple of burdens to us, we're still going to be able to
066maintain our current posture, which is really all that we were looking for. Um so that I think is legislative advocacy um in action. I mean that we went up there and we spoke to a bill that was going to impact us and we got results which is a great feeling because typically we don't get that immediate um gratification of of something. So we'll see how that goes. Uh but yeah I was encouraged by the visit. Miss Griff, >> same. And um and while schedules were were real flexible, um they all the meetings were super impactful. And I've said this many times in the past and I'll say it again. We have a reputation that is uh very welcoming um receptive and and engaging. when we enter an office, regardless if it's someone that we've met
067with previously, um we've established that rapport, but we've, you know, met with a couple of new folks and and that also just speaks volumes to the efforts and the work that this board and previous boards from our district have uh conducted themselves in that advocacy in a professional manner. Um, I thought it was kind of a highlight and a fun fact. Houston High alum, Mr. Chris Tutor, who is um I want to make sure I get his title correct. He is chief of staff for the Tennessee Attorney General's Office. We were able to enjoy a visit with him during lunch and sit down with him and we just happened to run into him while we were there along with a few other uh public education uh advocates from Shelby County who were uh in the
068hallways doing similar work as we were. But it's always good just to see people from our part of the state and um make those connections. And I will say uh the work that we've done as a board, I really think we set the standard for legislative advocacy in the state. I will I will tell anyone that. Um and I'm very proud of the work that we've done. And again, while we haven't always had success, I think we've always been able to at least advance the discussion. And I think there's a lot to be said for that. um and they don't dread when we come in because again we we come in we're professional uh we [clears throat] respect the time we respect the process and you know and I think we try to reach common
069ground so I'm I'm very proud of the work that we've done um even this time I was like is it worth going up there it absolutely was if not if anything it was just for the transfer bill that alone um again if should that pass we we impacted directly uh state law there so I think Um, I think our board should be very proud of our advocacy efforts. Um, and it and it is once you get up there and you start meeting with the members, it's I always enjoy the day. It's just, you know, like this time it's like ah, you know, you got to make the drive over and do all that, but it was it was well worth it. Um, once you get in the hall there, I think to me there's an
070excitement of actually getting to meet with the lawmakers and and seeing how things get done. And so, um, I was honored to be able to do it. I understand Mr. Strain was in court. you were there uh you were there in spirit and so >> yeah and so anyway we we imagined you walking around halls with us >> um um it's likely you may mention this at the meeting when we come back from spring break but we do have a um Germantown Education Commission Youth Excellence Award winner at the table with us and Mr. Mr. Gates also had the esteemed privilege of participating in scope last week. Um, and if he has just a little bit of feedback that he'd like to share from that experience, I would love to hear it. >> It was
071a lot of fun. I didn't really know what to expect when I got there and I was totally blown away by how many kids were there, how many like really smart kids were there. Um, how many kids had been going to the event. I was in a group of seniors, so there are several kids that have been to the event the past three years. So, um, it was just really cool to see that we have so many people that really care about our, you know, education policy, high schoolers that care about that. Um, and that we have a great TSBA that puts this event on and and pays attention to our students and their opinions. And so I really uh it enlightened my perspective on like where we are as a state uh and how
072our Tennessee State Board of Education cares about our students. So that was great. And then uh on the youth excellence, I cannot thank the Germantown Education Commission enough for that. Um Dr. Fischer, you know, they're they're great. And so um I'm honored to be uh awarded that. It was great. Did you that Thank you for giving them a plug. We appreciate their support. Um all that they do. Quick question. When you were at scope, did you meet any other uh student school board members? >> There were there are a few in my group. I I think we maybe talked about >> few a few around this across the state. So that there were at least one or two >> at that event. Okay. >> In my in the room with me. We didn't really talk
073about it that much, but >> you're kind of like, we know about this. We're already doing this, right? [clears throat] Love it. Thank you for sharing. >> Yeah, congratulations on that. I I was able to watch uh last night on uh the city stream, so I I was cheering you on from my living room. So, um any other items of further business? Seeing none, we are adjourned and we will reconvene in two weeks.