001e e e check check one two three I've always wanted to say that're record you good I don't have here good evening the Germantown Municipal School District Board of Education work session March 11th 2025 is now called to order it is 5:36 p.m. M this evening on the agenda the first item is the um bid I'm let's see yes uh for the Houston high ceiling tile grid light replacement phase one Mr Kathy good evening what's before you for consideration uh first item is the replacement of Houston high ceiling tile grid and lighting phase one uh phase one will cover four areas in the building it will cover the second floor in the main building it will cover the main entry area and office administrative offices main office space it will cover the uh Lobby outside
002the gym and Auditorium and it will cover the an the entire NX building uh so those are the four areas that we'll cover that's a complete replacement of the ceiling til and grid above ceiling cabling all with the exception of one cabling item which is actually the second item on the agenda uh this will be a great Improvement as much needed as Houston High School as the board knows and we did receive four bids for this project and am construction was the low lowest and best bidder we do have history with amb construction they have done previous projects for us including bathroom Renovations and they completed the Farmington ceiling TI and grid renovation as well so they have done this exact project at a different school for us uh so we they are qualified and
003capable and we recommend them for the bid ALS o do want to uh thank the board for being willing to consider the consider this for a voting item tonight as at the special called session uh we're it's March 11th if I think and um we would we would start the day that school is out which is in about two and a half month so voting tonight will get give us an extra half a month which may not seem like a lot of time but on projects like this that's a wealth of time to give the contractor the ability to mobilize secure labor order materials and there's also Al a wealth of work on the staff's part to do to get ready for this project this is not like painting where we can just move everything
004to the middle of the room work around the walls and move everything back uh imagine a bomb going off in a building it destroys the building I mean it is like Night of the Living Dead ceiling tile and grid inside the building there are wires and cables hanging lighting doesn't work when they're doing the electrical portion and things get torn up so there's a lot of work on our part to move things out make things safe and get things back all in time for school to take place so on this project especially we're always right up against the timeline to get it completed so just want to say thank you for your consideration as a voting item this evening I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have about about this project just
005one or maybe just confirmation none of these spaces where we would be working on it based on this would be something we'd need to tear up at a later date if we were making Renovations as other parts of the master plan right that's correct any other questions from Mr Kathy on this particular bid thank you that takes us to agenda item number two Houston High School cat 6A upgrade this is the one portion of the project that is not included in the bid and this is to do the technology recabling above ceiling and it's the perfect time to do it when the ceiling til and grid is demoed out because you have space to get above ceiling and and complete the work um and when we get up there there's a lot of cleanup that
006needs to be done but we get a chance to recable from scratch this cabling has a better speed and while we've replaced the wireless access points at Houston High School we're not getting the full benefit of that because the cabling is still the original cabling and as you know Houston High School has our most traffic uh on the internet and so this will improve uh performance at the high school and uh this is something that we've done at every other school when we've done the ceiling tile and grip project we've gone ahead and done this as well so this is recommended to award to Datacom Services Corporation uh the amount is $150,500 and this was done through our tips purchasing Cooperative I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have is that
007the latest uh techn ology for that I'm just wondering um guess yeah I don't know what else because I remember C five so we've gone to cat six now so um I mean we think that we're going to get at least you know a decade or more hopefully yes yes we are not we are not doing this project regularly yeah um I guess the only other question I know some of the other schools um I don't remember I think at Farmington in particular there was sprinkler considerations when we did this um I don't know like Houston High is there anything that has to be considered or has that already been done at some point yeah all of our buildings are sprinklered now with the exception of Farmington so Houston H already has an existing sprinkler
008system okay thanks I couldn't remember where and that's why at Farmington you have the windows that are that second point of egress when you have that the tall windows in all the classrooms will there need to be any upgrades to the Chromebooks uh to work with with this cat 6 technology no this will only improve the performance of the Chromebooks but there won't be any additional work that needs to be done to the Chromebooks themselves any other questions or further discussion on item number two very well um item number three Finance um item miscellaneous fiscal year 2024 25 budget amendment number number 21 and this budget amendment would be basically to fund this project um to move $1 million from Reserve into the cap general fund uh capital budget and I'm sure you've noticed that's
009not the full amount for the project but we we would plan to use existing funds that the board has already approved in this year's capital budget to supplement uh the remainder of the amount and we should expect just based on our discussion at the last um work session that any any of the items that were on the list we'll just have these budget amendments coming to pay for each of them as we pay out a reserves that's correct or as we recognize additional funding from the Shelby County Commission and has the uh budget for the project already included any potential overrides and um cost additions yeah so we always put in a little bit of a contingency for change there's never been a project we've been a part of that doesn't have a change order
010with it so we've already included that contingency as part of this okay thank you thank you so much any other questions or discussion uh around the budget amendment transferring the funds from Reserve um for this project all right thank you all so much agenda excuse me agenda item number four resolution to meet requirement for Teacher bonuses under education Freedom Act we have a attached for consideration and if it's okay I'm going to start with um Miss Speakman since we last were here at this table I think there's been a little uh guidance well I use that term really Loosely um from the standpoint that I think she could speak to before we get into our discussion if that's okay with everyone um I sent you guys um what the latest guidance is as to who
011will be covered so um I don't know that that was particularly elucidating although at least they gave us you know something uh to tell us that they're working on it further I mean that's kind of what it told me um and then uh in terms of the language um there's no pride and authorship here I was trying to capture kind of the gener what I thought I felt like was the General consensus of our last disc discussion um while also you know kind of not going as as far as maybe we would would would like but yet you know trying to capture some uh General thoughts so again you know there's no pride in authorship it's just a starting Place chairman uh for for your discussion thank you so much um I'm going to open
012it up I I have some thoughts but uh I'd like to be cordial to the table so if if there's a particular point if you would like to start maybe at the top because I think that's one that we really hit on previously I'm just going to go out there and say um I for One support keeping the passage of and it being um a special session in the in the language I don't have any issue with pointing that out um and quite frankly I think it's I think it's notable so I'm going to go on record as saying I I like I like the first whereas who who's next uh I mean you know I was the one of course who had the most additions to the last one um I I think uh
013and I mean I I'd be I don't have a problem adding other things to but I'm I'm I think this encapsulates what we discussed and expresses our opposition to the ACT uh generally and um so I'm I'm fine with everything that's in here and I mean if people want to add more stuff I'm happy to but it's okay with me section four of said law also provides that an order to receive funds from the Department for purposes of awarding the teachers bonuses described in subsection a the local board of education for the Lea must first adopt a resolution affirming that the Lea would like to participate in the section four of the education Freedom Act of 2025 every time I read that I'm just like okay um I do appreciate the final whereas whereas although
014the Germantown Municipal Schools Board of Education opposes vouchers it does not not wish for its opposition to vouchers to prevent gmsd teachers in quotes as a result of determining who that exactly entails from receiving the AFF forementioned $22,000 bonus yeah I think it is important I think for you know all of our people understand that not every one of our employees is going to receive this $2,000 bonus and um it is tied to some pretty specific spe ific language but um hopefully it will go to most of our employees I am very mindful of the comments at the uh previous work session by board members who are um really thoughtful as to not um put a finger in the eye of the general assembly and as somebody who likes to really work well with others
015I value that uh point and I think that if we can be professionally courteous but also um acknowledge our board's thoughts on not only the requirement of the resolution but just how we came to have to do this for the uh bonuses that it um basically allows for um we're not you know we're not going scorched Earth We're not you know we're we're I feel like we're we're kind of uh staying at on the table top top level um saying our peace but also being remaining you know the professional decorum as it could be at least in a piece of uh in a in a written material because I'm mindful of that as well I mean you know I don't want to go and upset everybody but I also think that we owe it to
016our community our constituency and our staff that this is impacting to say our peace and you know move along if you will um so that there's no confusions as as um Vice chair strange just said you know making sure that the people because whether it be the staff themselves from an HR standpoint as we talked about last month or you know just people in the community that could be confused about it I it's confusing um when someone says teachers but it doesn't necessarily cover all the people that we would maybe otherwise think of as that or that the Greater Community considers as such I think that that's going to be something we're going to have to to be prepared for and I know that we are um I don't want to you know frankly take
017up too much energy talking about this because that's how I don't feel like it worth a lot of energy to discuss it not that part of it the the staff impact but I'm talking about this actual resolution for all the reasons mentioned just because it's unfortunate that in my opinion that this is part of the process in order to achieve um that type of compensation and what I'm G to kind of refer to as a reward um any questions or discussion further I think it's appropriate I mean I think we've got to have in there that we are opposed to it but we're also we're not going to stand in the way of our teachers in quote uh and that's going to be the state's definition of receiving the bonus um I did look at
018the Department's guidance they're actually going to pay the taxes on that which is nice so they're going to receive the actual full amount which is so I think that's noteworthy so appreciate to the state for that um I do think and I don't see a strat in here uh I know we kind of talked last month but I think whenever this comes up and assuming it's passed I think communication probably to the staff needs to be shortly thereafter maybe even you know around there because again I think there's probably going to be some that maybe expect to receive and they're not and I don't want there to be any you know I don't want anyone to think they're going to get something that the state says or not um and I also think it's important
019and I might say this in the remarks that this is not coming from us this money is not coming from the board this is coming directly from the state the state makes the uh determination who's getting who's getting this and who's not we don't have anything to do with that um and so as long as you know they know that that we're just basically enabling the state through this resolution and enabling the payment to occur as at at the local level that's really all we have control over here um do I wish that every single one of our staff we getting this absolutely do I have control over that I don't um and so I just you know as just timing of messages I think from a staff standpoint I think that would be good
020however you know we've got a couple weeks but if that's something we could do I think that would probably be to the benefit of our staff just everyone's on the same page yeah and and it won't be I think this fiscal year the way they were made making it sound so uh we're talking about July and and the other challenge that you face even they could fit the definition of a teacher but if they new hires for us those individuals will not be receiving that funding so it's existing in that category right now but we will make sure uh so we're really looking at um start of this or middle of the summer July or start of next school year that we're talking about I was one who had uh reservation about the scorched Earth
021resolution um and I would and Speakman I think that this hits on every point that we definitely all would have no problem uh reading this resolution in front of the general assembly uh which is important to me uh to maintain that level of uh civility for us yet letting them know that we do oppose the vouchers so thank you for this thank you and um I really did take to heart your um uh input that we we should really start with the positive and so I even reworked the title because I thought your point was well taken that we'll start with and we're GNA comply you know so but anyway that I appreciate your comment Speakman is the angel on my shoulder helping me to that be the first last time you probably that we
022appreciate you too um and all your hard work and efforts on the resolution writing Vice chairman um is there any additional questions or comments around uh agenda item number four well then now we are on to further business oh one other thing on that one as I no is I think uh I knew I was thinking something as I was reading through this I like that we've used the word voucher and that we're not using scholarship or whatever term that the state wanted to apply to this so I think that also in a way is our is our way of um you know calling it what it is um again you know they would uh I'm sure the general assembly would prefer us refer to miss scholarships or whatever um but they're not um and
023so I like that we're using the term voucher there um you know I think I think we're respectful about it we're we're calling it what it is and so um I think just having that in there um I think it should get the point across hopefully when they were esas I thought voucher was appropriate now I'm I'm as good with the word coupon um if no further comments or discussion on agenda item number four that takes us to further business all right so as we do this time of year do a little bit of a legislative walkthr just uh to keep you appris of some bills that are out there that will impact us here uh in Germantown I'll try to be pretty brief but I do want to there we go uh so the
024first bill that we are going to look at um this was a bill that we talked about last time we were together it is uh Senate Bill 1020 let me get the house bill Senate Bill 1020 this was the bill that dealt with the charter schools so this bill has uh it has gone through the Senate education committee and as you can see over the house side it has been rolled a few times and so there is an amendment uh that representative Stevens has um tied to this bill um I was looking here I was on the house dashboard I think it's here yeah there we go uh so this uh this will have to go back to the Senate with this amendment I sent this to miss Speakman earlier today um I guess um
025I don't know Miss Speakman since you've since you're here and you're uh more eloquent than I am at articulating would you mind kind of just providing a high level summary of what this amendment is going to do for us uh yes sir it uh and again I a reserve judgment on it because I just got it so uh but uh of what I've analyzed so far it literally rewrites the whole bill the the original bill so you can't really compare the two um I I literally took a pen um to the original version and there's only one section that's not you know read it out and um I I think it's fortuitous for the sponsor because um I think on their further analysis they had some of the sections incorrect which they've now corrected in
026this bill but um there is I think the most important piece is to look how they've Rewritten um and it's at the end uh TCA 4913 138 um and that was the area that that CA caused us the most angst um and so essentially what they've done is they've carved out um the this bill to apply only to counties in which only one city school system operates and so um on my initial review um I said you know I wanted to make sure there was more than one county in the state that had uh a city school system because obviously that would call taint or otherwise call into question the bill but uh board member Curry uh has Allied my fears about that saying that they're naming off rattling off multiples um so um in
027any event uh at at least at this point we'd be carved out of that um application yeah so that was one that was going to directly impact us so looks like assuming this amendment passes and it has been rolled the next week assuming this amendment passes then we should be in good shape on this one and we won't see the negative effects yeah we had St so Stevens is the bill sponsor so my understanding is that um because the um because this would have directly impacted the germatown high school bill that I think the city um helped I think there was some good communication uh with the bill sponsor and I think there wasn't any intent to undo the legislation that impacted us directly here in Germantown and so I think this is going to
028um I think it'll take care of but so I I would expect the dis Amendment hopefully next week uh it just depends on how things are going in the subcommittee but I would expect next week if not the week after for sure that this will to go through but again it will have to go back to the Senate um because uh the bill is going to be substantially different then so they'll have to go back to Senate Ed and we'll see where it goes in there we're we're kind of getting to the point in the calendar where things are starting to really back up and they're only getting to a handful of bills each calendar and stuff is rolling from week to week to week so I would assume this one although this one is
029the chair um chairman white on the Senate side this is her bill so I would assume that she'll probably move it up a little bit in the order but we are you know we're we're getting up uh we're getting that time of year but anyway that one was one that we had can can I interrupt you because I think you're being very humbl to say and not take credit for the fact that you're the one who called this to the attention so credit where credits due I just thank you Mr Curry to note that so anyway I couldn't have done it without you so anyway it takes a team uh the next one that I want to talk about this is going to be House Bill 675 this is the Cochran Bill uh so this
030is one that we went and advocated for uh when we went and did our visit on the hill uh even just later on today there have been two new amendments that have been added so um essentially the bill that we saw the first time uh the bill included health insurance funding well as we know that right now that's not happening so they have um they have removed the parts that the First Amendment uh eliminates the health insurance funding then it looks like uh representative haston has included an amendment but I don't know this hasn't been heard yet so I don't know exactly how these are going to marry up but haston has an amendment that's pretty lengthy and then if I go back uh then there's another amendment uh let's see got my a little
031display there that out way uh so there was another amendment that was just filed late today and that's Cochran and what he's saying that this should take effect uh immediately after the plan um you can see basically the Department of Education assuming it even exists I heard on the news before I came in that they're cutting the US Department of Education Staffing in half um so I I don't know that how much longer there's going to be a department of education but it's that's where they are for now um so I guess let me go I think it will help for this one to pull up the supplemental so they had the original fiscal note which included all of the health insurance they went back and did another fiscal note on it um that excluded
032the health insurance so as Amendment as amended I'm just again that was off of the main Amendment then haston got another one but I don't know I haven't looked at them side by side um but you can see so the 180 day um basically allowing us to uh meet that you know by creating the equivalent number that nothing changes there uh apparently there is um I don't know of any teachers Lo at least locally that are on this but there currently is a teacher evaluation advisory committee that consists of I think well it says 15 another place I saw said 16 members um this bill would do away with that advisory committee and just put all of that on the state board and and cut out the committee you'll see here it makes various revisions
033to evaluations and tenure and graduation requirements uh all of these I think when we've when we looked at these these are all good things um so um we're starting to use screeners um you know no standardized testing K through two uh we see here where it's authorizing the State Board to allow student who is working towards a Career and Technical elective Focus to substitute for Career and Technical course credits for other subjects so that's more specifics there in the bill but I think that's a positive uh for those students we've heard over the years like he why why does someone have to take Algebra 2 well have to take Algebra 2 because the state says you have to so I I hope that the state will give us some flexibility there I see requires the
034department to use student performance on Career ESS assessments as part of the grading system requires the State Board to approve at least one universal screener for prek to be used as alternative growth model to generate the growth scores for prek teachers pursuant to the evaluation guidelines and I don't I don't think we've got any concerns there if we do let me know but I I think we're good um requires um us and charter schools that provide a voluntary prek program to allow the prek teachers to use the results of such Universal screeners approved by the [Music] SB requires the RTI to framework manual and allows uh charter schools and US to meet the intervention requirements by providing high dosage low ratio tutoring services and then going on here prohibits the state from requiring students in
035any of the grades from being inmin the Statewide assessment which again I think that's I think the goal the whole goal here is to reduce the amount of standardized testing so I think this uh reduces the amount of Statewide assessments required to be administered 3 through2 requires a standardized assessment that's approved by the commissioner to be administered in each of the grades 9 through 12 to assess the student math English language arts and science I'm hopeful that we're going to be able to use the act for that that but uh I guess that that remains to be seen um it will require us to develop a policy by which students scores on Statewide standardized assessments must comprise a percentage of the students final grade now the fine uh the fine uh print on that they
036would have to have the grades to us I think five days before the end of school and if they and if they didn't have that then we could basically zero it out so I think that puts pressure on the state to turn test scores around which they are seemingly incapable of doing uh let see requires the department to submit a request uh so with the Essa plan for and then we just saw that with the amendment and then requires the commissioner to notify the executive secretary of the uh Tennessee code Commission in writing so uh that's there's more specifics there um I think as part of the bill if I've read it correctly for teachers that were highly successful let me go look at that real quick because now I want to make sure that
037I'm I'm looking correct uh let's see here we go um so if a teacher or principal receives a final evaluation significantly above expectations then uh we would not evaluate them again for three years above expectations would give us two years expectations would give us one year so I don't know the breakdown but I would assume it's going to give us some immediate administrative relief so I think I think these are all good things so where this bill is currently and you're seeing the house amendments it looks like to me that the house is going to take the lead on this first so let me go and pull this up back here so House Bill 675 because I think it's important to know who's um who's sponsoring this so the Senate hasn't done anything which tells
038me the house is taking the lead so I feel like there's some orchestration going on here because normally the Senate would take this up so I think I think the house is going to do whatever the house is going to do with it and then they're going to send it on to the Senate and then hopefully they'll it'll get by there but when we see the co-prime sponsors we see Cochran so we met with him uh speaker seon that is a very um key name that's a sponsor uh Majority Leader Lamberth all right fison he's uh he's um can't remember his anyway he's in leadership haston sepii and then Clark Boyd from Wilson County signed on as a co-sponsor and then currently on the Senate side it's low and Bailey Bailey's not on Senate ad
039but Bailey was at one point rumored to be a potential candidate for lieutenant governor mcnall got it but Bailey's got some influence so I feel pretty good about this this bill though it has to make it out of subcommittee so it did not uh it was not heard today so just to show you who's on the house K12 sub and we met with low as well we met with low you sure did y um so on the house K12 subcommittee you see Hon's the chair and then you see the members there Balo hakee Mayberry McKenzie Reeves Slater and white um I think I think we need to make it clear to Chairman white that we expect his full support for this bill um that this is something that will benefit us and regardless of what
040outside agencies might feel uh is necessary I think chairman white needs to hear from the constituents that we need this bill to pass um because we're going to talk about another bill coming up that is piling things on us so even in light of the vouchers being P the the playing field is not the same between us and our private counter parts and so I think our message when we were visiting I think we were pretty clear that hey we're not looking to add to the private uh schools we're looking to take administrative burdens off of us to allow us to compete now Senator love disagreed with that which is fine um you know we can agree to disagree U but we but we this is something we need to have happen so I think
041um I think um for our board and our staff and members of the community I think uh I think chairman white needs to hear from us that we we um would appreciate and expect his full support on this as we've said all along that the biggest challenge for us is if you're going to be providing the same funding to private schools um and you do not want to provide accountability to them then for us where we are in a competitive market with private schools you have to take off the bureaucracy you have to to take off um the evaluations you have to take all these things that take so much of our time so that we can focus more on educating children and that was my message when we met with representative white uh too
042but we'll make sure that we communicate again once we are you're going to hit on you said board member Curry on this other bill that is basically the opposite of this it's going to add it's going to add to us so I'm talk yeah I talk about that because I have I have a request about how we might address these committee members oh yeah and so I want to hear the other one before I suggest my well the other one's not directly related to this but it does add burdens to us so I go ahead and talk about that first while I pull up this other one depending on kind of what that says that might factor into how we say it but I think that it would be prudent to send something to all
043the committee members just short and sweet you know explaining exactly what the superintendent just said and um saying you know while we've met with many of you uh personally and you know have local ties to committee leadership we just wanted to be on record as as telling you that we support this and these are the reasons you know a couple of bullet points like I say short and sweet very succinct reasons why and the fact that we are a high achieving District that are surrounded by private schools um if we're going to do the thing let's make it is you know agreed so here's the one that uh we talk about adding things to us that are not going to be encountered by our private school counterparts this is House Bill 85 Senate Bill 158
044uh this is the recess bill you can see the recess bill has passed the Senate it is passed the floor of the Senate it is on its way to the house it was supposed to be heard in House Ed today they ended up rolling it just due to the nature of the calendar I would expect this to come up here pretty soon this bill has been amended and I do want to go over this amendment with you so for elementary students uh the original Bill was 60 Minutes um but they have now amended it down to 40 minutes so for elementary school students a minimum of 40 minutes of recess is required per school day and the current law is 130 minutes per week and so we are now going to take this to 200
045minutes per week of uh recess so I don't know doing the math it's adding on what about an extra 15 or 16 minutes per day I think compared to the current so again we are being mandated here and it's saying that physical so it defines what the physical activity is and what it must include um so it must include unstructured play outside unless the weather conditions negatively impact this uh does not include time during which a student is permitted to use an electronic device time spent by student in PE and um and we can't withhold them from participating in recess apparently now is a form of punishment so this is going to present problems for us because we only no no minute at the elementary school is wasted right there's there's no I don't see
046time I'm my both my kids went through our schools every minute is accounted for but now the state has come in and mandated that we are going to have to spend an extra well we'll just round up we'll say we're going to have to spend an extra 20 minutes per day probably 50 you know we'll just give worst case so the 20 minutes has to come from somewhere and I think at some point we're going to have to discuss this I've talked to the superintendent about it just give him food for thought but this this is going to create a challenge for us because if you stay within the current window of our day then 20 minutes are going to have to come from somewhere but the state says you have to spend this much
047time here and this much time here and this much time here so where does it come from right you're that that's your you at the fork in the road there's there's only two paths you can take here either you take away from something we're already doing or we're going tack onto the day and if we have to tack onto the day our families need to know who did this and so anyway I you know like said I Shar some thoughts with the superintendent I don't know if you've got but this this bill they just added a a burden on us because again and we all agree recess is great um and I watched the parents and I again yeah we've seen it at the middle school the difference what Mustang move makes so we we've
048seen it it's made a huge difference but to come in and say you've got to add when for yeah so 40 minutes um so it's going to be 40 minutes per day which I'm assuming is gonna it's going to totally change everything with the school they're going have to redo the logistics because I would assume you're going to do 20 minutes in the morning maybe 20 minutes in the afternoon maybe try to break it up evenly but it's it's going to create a logistical challenge at every one of our elementary schools and I think for people to think that it's just going to be the status quo and we're just going to keep doing everything and fit this 20 it's one thing if it's five minutes you can make it work 20 minutes I think
049is going to really have uh I think there's G have to be some discussions and I think there's going to be a real impact yeah I think the challenge for us and we we talked to them about this I think when we went and talked to our repres representatives and legislators um the fact that they already have so much time carved out whether we're talking about uh the math block that has to occur or the U the English Ela block that we have to have of instruction how we have to provide response to intervention and intervention time for those students and um I think Miss Huffman can talk about what does that do to all of our IEPs and the amount of time for services that we're providing for students and required to provide those
050students how do you balance all of those things um it is going to have a a big impact on the district and we'll have to work through all the logistics once we see how it shakes out board member Curry what is your personal thought on the likelihood of this bill passing oh it's going to pass you can look at the Senate and that's why I talked to the superintendent the other day I'd let him know that because this was one that I didn't know it had come up as quickly as it did uh when so it's already passed the Senate uh it passed 28 to1 in the Senate so when when you see that it it's it's happening uh Gardenhire was the only no vote but look at your house sponsors so it's always good
051to see your house sponsors so you've got not necessarily leadership but you've got a number of the members lined up ready to go so I I don't see any reason that this won't slide right through it already passed the subcommittee six to zero uh everyone because what the people there like I forgot the group what they were called um any yes okay and and again I yeah anyway I mean they they were they were like hey this you know and nothing they said I I didn't have a disagreement with anything they said like I agree like yes the physical activity I it's all good but um I don't know just arbitrarily had had they had their way we would have had 60 minutes per day so fortunately it got back down to to 40 I
052don't know what we would have done at 60 minutes today um but anyway so we're we're back down to 40 on this but no I think it's this is one that we need to go ahead and we need to act like it's already passed and and probably start making the plans and starting to discuss that now you all know outside of US history and lunch recess is my favorite class but um we've talked about this and and there is a strong move movement and we B member Curry points out the addition of Mustang move and um at the middle school I mean they saw I mean were able to document the benefit the you know reduction and um and behavioral discipline situations and and the academic uh I guess benefits of you know just getting
053out and about little exercise little outside activity and so it' be great I'm all for this in theory and I can tell you the reason why it was 20 to1 is because who does who can argue with recess a bunch of people that have never had to plan an instructional day of you know State mandates um I would hope that maybe they would have thought about and I didn't listen to the discussion here but about where that time's going to come from otherwise I mean we're gonna again it's so structured and so laid out of what we have to do every single day every single moment of every single day how in the world can you make that happen and then I'm mindful of that breakup especially at at the uh Elementary you know if
054you do a little 20 minutes here 20 minutes there and you're walking to and from and it says walk and to does not count it makes it very clear to point that out which I was like okay wow I'm getting my steps in and I include that and when I'm getting my steps um this is this this is a this is a logistical issue every which way you look at it I I I don't um I appreciate you asking board member Hendrick about like well how do we feel this is really gonna shake out I agree with board member Curry I think this is about to be a done deal and again while I'm all for everybody getting their wiggles out and physical activity um I I have a lot of pause and how in
055the world we're going to make that happen and they did discuss in the video they did discuss um about or it came up about the amount of time so I guess they had a they had a chart of the amount of time required I think it was 90 minutes of they said 90 minutes consecutive of ela or so and I don't think that was right I think they may have looked there was a document that came out about they published about the summer school the summer camp guidelines and so they had built in and I think that may have been the chart that they were referencing because I couldn't find it anywhere else on the department site where there's the what what's required on a normal day but they they had uh published a document
056for for the upcoming summer camps and they've got their day the suggested scenario they have it planned from 8 AM to 3:30 p.m so they've got a seven they're suggested with you know 90 minutes here break you know anyway so theyve they're planing it for an hour they call it play time but I think they're building in an hour of play time there so that's that's seven and a half hours that's what their suggestion is um now I guess for us for the bill I think they this would not okay so this wouldn't impact our summer camp this would this would be after so we could have business as usual up until July one but then after that then we're under the new law oh so just my comments my understanding is 90 minutes for
057ELA 60 minutes for math 45 for RTI and the other thing I was pointing out in there I was like what does that look like for midal high I saw that was 90 minutes a week and so I'm like okay I see how you're able to do that at the middle school but what does that look like for high school I that yeah I also because apparently going back to the amendment apparently you can't be uh you can't can be when you're on a device and so what do you think they're doing at the high school when they have idle time we know what they're doing for you know four of us here we've got high school kids so we know you know you know you know we know so yeah that's um anyway that's
058that's another I think you would see the no none well it's 90 minutes per week so I guess you yeah um but anyway so yes this is this is one that I think out of all the legislation that's going to pass this year and there's going to be a number of bills actually this one's going to have really significant impacts on our district um I just don't see any way around it and I think they're also not taking it into account the there is a fiscal note for this and the fiscal note is we have hourly staff in our district and so if you're talking about additional time of supervision um especially if we're talking about one to ones or people that are with students during time where um that's going to be problematic and
059if you're talking about having more time during the school day the other issue they don't take into account is that a lot of the way that we have snow days and inclement weather days is is by the extra time that we go so if they're gobbling all that up with uh their chart uh then I don't know where the inclement weather days come from yeah they're showing it's not significant but yeah that's their that's the fiscal note so anyway are all of our elementary school class periods equal time each School builds their own schedule based around how they're doing their Maps uh they're they're very similar uh and when you look at the core classes they they have those core times where they've got the uninterrupted Ela and they have the math instructions they have
060that are required they all have those components but every school and every schedule is different based on the the Staffing so we couldn't just say all right we're just going to take three minutes from each class and you you could do that except for the classes that are required yeah so we could so things we could do like they would impact our uh fine arts classes they would impact our Maps classes you could change those types of schedules where you're not tight but that's what Mr Curry and I talked about the fact that those are valuable classes for our students U that they enjoy and so we're cutting programs for unstructured recess um just a concern yeah so what the state thinks here and they they say um an increase in the amount of time
061dedicated physical AC activity will reduce the total amount of time during the school day that may be available for classroom instruction lunch and other activities however there is no change in the length of the school day well again that's a I don't know how they came up with that and then um it's assumed that leas will be able to absorb the increased duration of physical activity time for elementary students each week with existing staff and resources such that any fiscal impact is estimated to be not significant so again but anyway so that's uh I would expect at some point we'll probably have more discussion about this but um given that it's uh this is a reality it's going to happen uh I wanted us to you know make sure that this was something that you
062know for all of our elementaries it's it's definitely going to it's going to be impactful some in in some form all right then the go ahead Mr I'm sure we don't have to still cover all the same standards for each of our subjects then the last uh one I wanted to talk about this was I mean I guess it's a little bit of a a light-hearted bill uh let me find it here uh he's amended it but it is and I've closed out the dashboard I'm not going to go back and open it up but let me find representative Kumar uh he has a bill that is going to to require us again they've changed it actually this is education committee hang on let me go back real quick I'll pull it up so we'll
063look at the amendment because it did pass and I expect it's also going to P pass the house as well so this was education committee there we go oh this was this was an education okay hang on there was the afternoon session sorry they're they're all meeting on the same day right now so it does uh make things a little tricky so let me go back so this is going to be education Administration sub there we go okay so this bill has been amended so we'll take a look at this one it is going to uh require us to adopt and Implement a policy to authorize a high school student to serve as an advisory non- voting representative on the board all so I'll just point this out that uh the state now thinks it's
064such a good idea that uh they're going to codify this uh I'm glad we've been I'm glad we've been doing this for a number of years um so obviously this is good for us but they are going to put it into law uh fiscal notes said I think 31 districts across the state did it so we're one of the few we're probably one of the few in the area I don't I'm not aware of any other districts in the area that utilize a student board member so I think it's I think it's something cool that we've been doing and I think we've gotten some really valuable feedback over the years so I'm grateful to our student board members but um it is uh at some point coming up we will uh or Miss Speakman will
065be uh delivering to us a policy that she will yeah but this this this will be one that I'll be happy to vote for um that uh anyway but I didn't want to point out that this is the state does think it's um important enough to U codify this so you know I did out of all the laws I wish they would pass more like this um than some of the other ones but I did want to u i I saw this one earlier and I I thought it was kind of cool that they were doing this and yeah it looks like it's going to pass again why would why would you not do this now tsba I think tsba had some concerns with this one for some reason but I think maybe whatever concerns
066they had I think they um they've um I'm assuming that they're addressed here uh but I I would also expect this one to pass uh I think we're going to keep doing what we're doing now the amendment I think they were saying junior or senior and maybe districts wanted the flexibility for some reason there was a sophomore or whatever but I think in our case um what we're going to or what we're doing I think we'll keep doing and you know we we can obviously do above and beyond but you know the minimum will have uh at least one High School uh or districts to authorize a high school student so it doesn't even give the number just you can have one or you could have a whole committee but anyway so this one a
067little positive so thought I'd share that one and that's all I have is there any further business um following board member Curry's legislative update okay seeing none then I will call the work session as closed we are adjourned no it's not a formal meeting but it's officially we're going to move on to the next thing do you want to take a little quick break or you'all want to roll okay okay so fast forward to Germantown Municipal School District Board of Education special called meeting March 11th 2025 is called to order at 6:30 p.m. going to go ahead and throw out the fact that if there's anyone that wishes to speak at tonight's meeting there are forms that you may fill out uh right here in the lobby outside the entrance and coming in to the
068multi-purpose room those items are on the table and if you wish to speak would you please bring those up to the board secretary here miss Jinger who's at the end the south end of the table at this time Mr linger have you received any forms or anyone has presented themselves that wish is to speak no mind seeing none that takes us to agenda item number three board action items first item on the agenda is item 3A 3A is the Houston high ceiling tile and grid light replacement phase one is there a motion I move to approve bid number FY 2025 003 for the Houston high ceiling tile grid and light replacement phase one in the the amount of 1,168 n71 and award the bid to A and B Construction second moved by or motion made
069by board member Curry seconded by Vice chair strain uh are there any is there any discussion I normally try not to read out bids that have uh lengthy dollar amounts and and length the uh bids um but I did so on this one because uh this is desperately needed at the high school and it's going to make a huge difference for our students in the building and our faculty and obviously we're doing this tonight in order for everything to be done probably right after school is let out for this work to commence and to be done in time uh for school to be back in session so um this is going to make a huge difference inside the building obviously there's other physical needs that need to take place but I think this is a
070huge project for Houston High and I can't wait to see it next fall uh when we go in there for a schedule pickup and all the fun um back to school activities I can't wait to see how it looks thank you to Mr Kathy and your staff and for uh getting this going and the quick turnaround and I am very happy uh that we're able to proceed with this I'm excited about it too and I was also going to comment on the fact that Mr Curry read it out so he must have been very in favor of it uh I concur with everything board member Curry said what we have found um doing this project at other schools is is an immediate benefit to our students I think it improves not only the um instructional
071environment for the students but also for the staff it um it's been a long time coming and I'm very excited that we have prioritized it thanks to operations and finance for the bid process bringing that to us thanks to the board members here this evening who were able to be present for this special call for the purpose of um listening and and uh considering the items uh board action items 3 a 3B and 3C to get the ball rolling if you will on these projects I certainly do approve um and support it any other comments at this time Mr Jinger would you please call the role Mr strin I yes Mr Hendrick yes Mr Curry yes Mr Ellis yes chair griffi yes motion uh approved agenda item 3B Houston High School cat 6A upgrade I
072move to approve the proposal from Datacom Services Corporation in the amount of 1 15,5 00 to upgrade technology cabling at Houston High second motion made by Vice chair strain and seconded by board member Hendrick are there any questions or comments for discussion again I'm thankful uh to have the opportunity to take care of this and um make these much needed upgrades if we're going to be up there I say let's get it done uh any any further discussion if none Mr linger would you please call the role Mr Hendrick yes Mr Curry yes Mr Ellis yes Mr strain I miss Griffin yes motion passes now on to agenda item 3C miscellaneous fiscal year 2425 budget amendment number 21 I move to approve miscellaneous fiscal year 2425 budget amendment number 21 motion made by Vice chair
073strange seconded by board member Ellis the rationale of this budget amendment is to move $1 million from the reserve to the to account for building excuse me the building improvements of the capital outlay um of the project that we were we've just approved so um are there any questions on this amendment or discussion I shouldn't say questions comments or discussion seeing none Mr linger would you please call the role Mr Curry yes Mr Ellis yes Mr strain affirmative Mr Hendrick yes sh gria yes motion is has been approved announcements I believe that there is a production going on as we are easing into spring break at Houston Middle School there are tickets available and as soon as we get back we will be having um the enjoyment of the High School production uh as well
074so keeping those artistic opportunities um always getting me excited I did see we got a they uh received an invite today about the Fine Arts um event coming up at Forest Hill Elementary School I'm really excited about that I see them promoting that very heavily always a great time and uh I just would like to wish everyone a very happy and safe and fun spring break it'll be here in just a moment we're almost there thank you all for your time and this meeting is adjourned at 6:38 p.m. yes poor Paul Ross is coaching