001e e [Music] oh oh [Music] he [Music] [Laughter] [Music] he [Music] m e R call chairman Smith here Mrs black she's here here Mr Connor here Mr Dy here Mr groan here Mrs Haden here Mrs Jones here here Mr Keane here Mrs schaer here Mr Slater here miss Thomas she here she did twice superintendent Dr Robertson here okay our pledge to flag and meditation uh thank you Dr res hello I'm Dr I'm Dr grez from East Ridge Middle School and I brought two wonderful students with me today first say your name my name is Kimo Martin in eth grade my name is Hazel from seventh grade both of our students are part of our student Advisory Group everybody please rise for the pledge ready I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
002America America and to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and justice for all please remain standing for a quick moment of silence you may be seated good evening chairman Smith esteemed board members District admin colleagues and community members who are definitely in attendance tonight thank you for allowing us to open an opportunity to open today's board meeting my name is Dr joez I stand before you as the proud and blessed to be the principal at East Ridge Middle School in our wonderful Missionary Ridge Community it is truly an honor to lead a school filled with dedicated educators remarkable students and a community that believes in the power of education at EAS Ridge Middle School we believe that education is more than just academics it's about shaping lives it's about
003ensuring that all every student feels seen valued and empowered to reach their full potential that belief is the core of our Hamilton Valley Hamilton County Schools commitments where every student learns every student belongs every school is equipped every employee valued and every Community is served in our Hall in our Halls at our school you'll hear Rich Blend of language and culture it makes our school one of the most diverse in Hamilton County and I I I'm proud to say and I have a lot of pride in saying that our school our diversity is our superpower every day we see students from different backgrounds coming together learning from one another engaging in deep academic conversations and pushing their thinking we're not just preparing them for a test we're preparing them for the real world as we
004work together for the portrait of a graduate we're not just focusing on grades we're focusing on creating resilient Learners effective communicators and solution oriented Future Leaders who will one day step into our community ready to contribute innovate and Inspire our teachers are embracing personalized learning ensuring that each student's path to success is unique and meaningful but success isn't found in a lesson plan it's found from relationships that we build Rita Pearson a lifelong educator and Advocate once said every child deserves a champion an adult who will never give up on them one who understands power of connection that insists that they have that person in their life to be strong for them this is what we strive to be for our students because when we feel that our students know that they belong and that
005their voice matters they're Unstoppable at East Ridge Middle we've seen incredible strides academically through student growth and emotional support because we focused on the whole child from our teachers to our support staff We are the champions for our students guiding them through challenges celebrating their victories and always pushing them to aim higher at East Ridge Middle School we understand that it takes a village to raise a child and we are proud to be part of that Village parents teachers staff community members all play a vital role in shaping the success of our students when we are come together we create an environment where all children Thrive and experience a future Without Limits thank you for your continued support of our students our teachers our staff and just cost thank you thank you Mr re thank
006you so much exemplars of Excellence we have uh this an important Mr chairman mrman excuse me I'm sorry we'll need to do the approval of the agenda thank you thank you so much uh looking our at our agenda let me let me do this and thank you for correcting me if we go over to board matters uh section B under naming of facility that's going to be we're going to strike that so eliminate that we're going to add as B item Benchmark testing and add as C item exceptional Ed Staffing now you guys help me is there anything else we need to add good okay so with that I'll ask for a motion to approve the agenda so moved second no discussion no lights roll call Mrs black Mrs black I saw her say yes
007okay I don't know if that counts yeah she's she's saying yes there you go yes we got you Mr Connor hear me yes yes yes Mr Connor yes Mr Dy yes Mr groan yes Mrs Haden yes Mrs Jones yes Mr Kean yes Mrs schaer yes Mr Slater yes Mrs Thomas yes she said yes chairman Smith yes now we're ready for Dr Stewart and that recognize our 2025 teachers of the Year Dr Robert chairman Smith before we get to that I just want to welcome a couple people that are helping us celebrate uh our teachers of the year so we've got Brad Cobb and his team from the Bowers Auto Group you guys come on up they they're the ones that have generously donated uh the year Le to our teachers of the year um chrisa
008barlay from the hamt county schools Foundation the other on want to come up DAV yeah David Sakowski from the credit union David is one of the biggest supporters of our schools and is uh contributing uh the monetary uh part of this so David appreciate it give you guys a quick minute if you if you like to say something just say we're so honored and and humbled to work with you all and the incredible work that you and your team do and uh it's just a it's a a great way we think to recognize these three teachers and just want to congratulate them and say thank you for all you all do and your team so thank you David well thank you so much for allowing us to be here our organization exists strictly for educational
009employees so this is very important to us we we hold these folks near and dear to our heart and we try to support uh Hamond County School teachers Educators as much as we can so we like to think of ourselves as a great partner with the school system uh and I said I said this last year and I'll share it with uh you all again these teachers that are being recognized today today is when they're being recognized but they're earning this like on that Tuesday night or that Wednesday night when they're working late preparing their their classroom for the for the next day or their curriculum for the next day so that's when they're earning that when they're taking time away from their family it's just that today they're being recognized for it so uh
010we're glad to be a part of that so thank you all right well we know the teachers of the year are recognized by the state of Tennessee and we have the honor of honoring them here in Hamilton County and we'll recognize them tonight and we'll also recognize them in a banquet here in about another couple of weeks or another month so I will start um with our K4 uh teacher and I'm going to ask uh Lindsay Hagen to come and give us some information on Sally War so Lindsay and Sally I will say this of the of the teachers of the year I have had the pleasure of being in Sally's classroom just this year so I've gotten to see her teach and she is exceptional so come on up here [Applause] congratulations thank you
011so much for having us this evening it is my privilege to stand before you tonight to celebrate an extraordinary educator miss Sally War as she is recognized as the Hamilton County School's elementary teacher of the year at Redbank Elementary our mission is to ensure all students learn at high levels through the provision of high quality instruction and a positive culture where Educators model and develop leadership Innovation ownership and never give up grit Miss warm doesn't just believe in this mission she lives it every single day her colleagues and students alike would wholeheartedly agree and so I have to take a moment to speak a little bit about her her leadership Miss warms serves as our first grade team chair the literacy now Lead Teacher and a member of our guiding Coalition helping shape decisions that
012impact our entire school she leads with Clarity and Care listening with empathy and humility even when she feels confident in her decisions she seeks input from her colleagues because she knows that truly effective leadership is collective and is built on trust and integrity in her innovative ways just her second year of teaching misswarm took on the challenge of expanding our pioneering Forest kindergarten program into Forest first grade she embodies problem solving at its best creatively weaving curriculum and student interest to meet standards in engaging and meaningful ways her students thrive in a learning environment where they build their most magnificent shelters they experience fire Fridays and run their own class Community with truly official elected officials and officers she uses her power as a teacher to truly Empower her students and gives them the opportunity
013to run food drives in the community meet with elected officials and advocate for what they truly believe in It's Not Unusual for her to send students with me with announcements to spread awareness about a Cause that they're very passionate about on the morning announcements ownership as our next tenant Miss worm bravely owns her thoughts actions and words and she's highly respected for her ability to acknowledge her own mistakes and continuously strive for growth she refuses to rely on Hope alone because we say hope is not a strategy although very motivating she truly takes action and she ensures that every single student receives the support and the challenges that they need to succeed she leads by example not only for her students but for her colleagues generously sharing all of her learning ideas and expertise she
014truly has never give up grit last year Miss war was honored by her peers with the superglue staff superlative a true Testament to her unwavering dedication to bring people together she has built a reputation for fostering collaboration and uniting diverse perspectives all for the sake of Student Success now I could say so much more but what truly matters are the voices of her students because they really know misswarm best so I spent some time asking her former students to share why they believe misswarm earned stu um teacher of the year Student of the Year too right we're always learning Lany said misswarm is kind and generous she made me own my choices but she was patient and caring with me she made me a better person Ellie said Miss War helped me understand what being
015a leader really meant she helped me be creative adventurous and helpful to natur's other nature others and myself she was a role model for me and she still is Ryan said Miss War taught me endurance I will always think about her when I want to give up but keep going Oliver said I thankful that Miss warm taught me self-awareness Mason or the Great Scott said he loved that she gave him a a nickname and got to use it freely Piper said Miss War knows so much about birds and she shares her knowledge I still use my bird knowledge today clouse says Miss war was so kind to me and she helped me learn how to be a nicer person and clorissa said misswarm made me feel so special she showed all of the lion tenants
016and she still does we are all better people because of her her optimism lifted us all up and helped us to never give up because of her I learned to explore and be curious she definitely deserves this award we all love her so much as a principal I have the privilege of witnessing missw worm's impact on our school and students daily but I also had the unique opportunity to see her Through The Eyes of a student my very own son who was in first grade not too long ago through his experience I got to see firsthand the warmth passion and dedication that she brings to her classroom each day she challenges her students she believes in them and she helps them believe in themselves tonight we celebrate you misswarm for this well-deserved honor and I
017could not be prouder to call you a member of our lion family on behalf of all of our students staff families and District thank you for leading like a lion congratulations [Applause] [Music] good [Applause] yes [Applause] all right representing uh fifth through eighth grade we have Jamie Petty who will be introduced by his principal Dr J Johns good evening thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening uh with the privilege of introducing Jamie Petty our normal Park teacher of the year in Hamilton County School's middle grad teacher of the year when people heard that Mr Petty was going to be named teacher of the year so many warm and supportive comments were flowing in from our school Facebook page and from our families and Community families staff members from current and past reached
018out and gave us different messages saying nobody is more deserving of this than Mr Petty he's known for his ability to build relationships to be a Storyteller and to be a steady and reflective teacher when students are asked what they love about Mr Petty they shared how much he cares about them that he helps them and that he takes some new places to learn Mr Petty has been at normal Park as a sixth grade teacher for 14 years Middle School is tough teaching for sixth grade for 14 years is tough he has incredible perseverance he also has incredible patience to work with students uh and staff for that long um he works in tirelessly to make sure that every student feels seen and heard and at normal Park where we engage explore and exhibit on
019a daily basis Mr Petty embodies this motto as he engages students in real world problems he explores in a Hands-On and meaningful way and he has an interesting approach to teaching that helps kids to be engaged in what they're doing and then he also has a way to be creative and how he exhibits and again over 14 years he's got new ways to approach the learning every year so that he can exhibit learning for kids based on who they are that year he's always considering others perspectives and situations and reflects on how he can improve situations for others whether it's students or staff he also works with families very closely he loves connecting not only with the students but also the families at community events he also is very close with his own family who
020is all here tonight to celebrate him as well when you walk in his room you might see reenactments of historical events you might see students reading and writing and thinking about historical events you also see students collaborating on projects He has the ability to make history fun and relatable to students when many of them don't have the background knowledge for ancient civilizations that he's teaching he makes learning applicable and real and he works to make meet the needs for every student in his classroom Mr Petty serves as the district social studies leadership team he also is on our school leadership team he's not afraid to challenge students he's not afraid to challenge teachers to be their best either we are so lucky at normal Park to have him at our school and we are very
021grateful for him to be named as the Hamilton County Schools teacher of the year [Applause] here's the part that you really [Applause] [Music] [Applause] last but not least our high school representative Candice Clark Smith who will be introduced by her principal Amy Manan or Myan to you all the time I'm so sorry thank you good evening I it is my privilege to introduce you and thank you for letting us spend a few minutes to talk about this wonderful teacher right here for the past eight years Miss Clark Smith has been more than a career in technical education welding instructor she has been a mentor a guide and a driving force for the future of her students our school and our welding community Miss Clarks Smith's journey is a testament to the very path she encourages
022her students to pursue as a proud graduate of skoa high school I won't say What year she discovered her passion for welding in our halls and after graduation she joined the local union where she honed her craft and became a journeyman welder she's still a journeyman welder her firsthand experience in the industry gives her a unique perspective and a deep understanding of the opportunities welding offers I was impressed by Miss Clark Smith when she interviewed for the position not just because she's a female in a male-dominated industry or because of her knowledge extensive knowledge of welding but because of her desire to impact students and her community was evident then just as it is today with her guidance and Leadership students have progressed from learning basic welding skills to fabricating impressive projects and earning dual
023enrollment college credits she has hosted an American Welding Society competitions each year for our region where students from across the area have had a chance to earn industry certifications interact with welding professionals and take steps toward meaningful careers Miss Clark's passion extends beyond the welding Booth she cares deeply about her students and the future of the trade she sees a growing need for skilled workers with a national shortage of 300,000 and counting in welding she sees it not as a challenge but as an opportunity for her students to step into vital roles in the workforce as Benjamin Franklin once said he that hath a trade hath an estate and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor Miss Clark Smith embodies this philosophy equipping her students not just with technical skills
024but with the confidence and ambition to build better futures for themselves and our community the true measure of her impact is evident in the success of her students and what they Achieve Beyond her classroom please join me in celebrating this remarkable teacher and her contributions conratulations [Applause] again congratulations to all of you chair Matt go ahead go ahead I I want just want to say thank you uh I this is such a great day to get to honor our teachers to get to do really great things to say how much they mean to uh to our students to our community uh to their families in our community it's it's such a wonderful day such a fun thing to be a part of um I will also at this time uh set a challenge out I'm
025getting really used to getting to stand up there and acknowledge the teachers so I need another person from district 6 to step up and be an amazing leader next year yeah we we have had two for yeah two in a row from noral Park and um and I also have to shout out uh to my friend Mr dhy over here uh because I I feel like with the Redbank Community leading up to the feeder program I felt like a an ancillary I got a little win there too but uh but thank you this is such a great honor such a great uh thing to be a part of I just I can't stop saying how much it's awesome thank you for being amazing okay can we thank the donors yes absolutely absolutely I reminder all
026you donors and uh we thank yall for what you do [Applause] [Music] [Applause] over I think all did did uh Miss barlay is she still back there I think she might slipped out cars do you have the list can you read off the names of everybody because that we did that out there I'd love to have it on the record you're talking about the uh the donor yeah David Sakowski and then Brad Cobb with Bowers Automotive Group and um chrisa barlay with hamilt County Schools Foundation just want to make sure we said yeah there sheor what did you say we're just saying thank you we're just thanking thanking you okay thank you so it takes us down to our uh disclaimer I I don't know that maybe one of us that applies to will start
027that very come on down here it's just me it's just me okay I declare that I have a family member who works for the school system and that the board's vote on budget policies Etc may have an effect on my relatives employment even so I hereby certifi that I will cast my vote in the best interest of the school system okay and you're you're the long Soldier right I'm okay with that okay I'm my only child you know that works out well all right entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second okay no lights roll call Mrs black yes is that a yes yeah Jackie has you devic okay Mr Connor yes might be a good time to mention that miss bch is a little under the weather but Mr Dy yes
028Mr groan yes Mrs Haden yes Mrs Jones yes Mr Keane yes Mrs Schaefer yes Mr Slater yes Mrs Thomas chairman Smith yes okay takes us down to administrative business matters uh interlocal agreement with city of Chattanooga for the end of school age homeless initiative uh so I'll entertain a motion to approve I'd like to ask a question on that one okay go ahead M go I'll make that motion to approve and then we'll take a second and then discussion second okay go ahead there um question for um Dr Stewart the um this agreement down here that uh is on administrative business matters that the chair just uh alluded to I looked through it I didn't see where the funding was coming from yeah it's being funded through our title one set aside and we have
029there's an obligation to commit funds towards homelessness efforts so we have $250,000 in our title one it's a $15 million budget so 250,000 is allocated here 150,000 of it is going towards this initiative got it thank you y and and it has to be spent there it can't it has to be spent on homelessness just the the language and the it says a reasonable amount is what is how Title One reads uh this is 1.6% of the title budget we our students we have 3.3% of our students are homeless what is that number you you gave me that number ear almost 1,00 yeah it's over 1100 I 1100 had it in front of me earlier like 1178 74 like that okay Mr Mr gr go ahead um many people don't know that uh due to
030uh assisted housing changes that I don't know how many of our students actually are considered homeless and they're living in um motels scattered throughout the city and um is anyone knows who's tried to to live in a motel U especially if it doesn't have interior you know doors is is a shady kind of thing so uh this is so necessary to help all these students that we have that are suffering this and you know I'd love to know the number other than those that are have got some housing somewhere with the roof over their head it's uh it's pretty tragic and I'm all for this okay thank you Mr gr Mr Conor thank you chair um you know outside of the fact that this is something we legally have to do um the the name
031in in the language that Dr Stewart said is a reasonable amount um I'm absolutely going to be supporting this and voting for it because it's the right thing to do it's the legal thing to do but I would challenge us to get to the point where we're using a percentage of that's equal to the amount of students we're serving we're putting in 1% and we have 3% of our students that are homeless so I challenge us to do better next time but I'm definitely going to support what we're doing now okay M Miss ad I didn't think about this earlier but do you know um what ways that the city might uh use yep thank you for asking that so this initiative actually came out of the children's cabinet which you guys are all familiar
032with so both Mayors are on that cabinet Dr Roberts and I are on that cabinet and people from all sorts of sectors including housing and so one of the things we been we've been tackling all year is chronic absenteeism and we've been tracking our homelessness population so this initiative is actually in collaboration with the city of Chattanooga the county as well as the Homeless Coalition um it was really birthed from there are vouchers that were made available through the state of Tennessee that would prioritize students in we could prioritize the students in Hamilton County to receive those vouchers earlier that particular program has been put on pause but we have people now working to figure out how to get how to utilize the resour we do have to get housing I mean this is this
033is housing that will decrease chronic absenteeism but it's those four entities that are working together okay thank you m Che have we explored other ways that we can contribute to the homelessness besides this initiative we are con yes I mean we we hire we have 3.5 people on staff that are working with homelessness all the time working with Transportation getting kids housing produ or pushing vouchers towards kids helping helping families on lists and move into housing so we're constantly moving and working um to to what uh Mr groan said the population is increasing and so there's just more of a need and I think that the children's cabinet as they're looking at Chronic absentees and the effects on the community really wanted to collaborate together and I think that's what's exciting about this is that
034we're not doing it alone the community is coming together and saying what initiatives can we take what can we do to support our kids this way and and this is directly moving them into housing okay Miss Jones oh I'm sorry go ahead Tucker I need to know from the County's perspective about this initiative I don't know enough about this initiative versus us doing more student facing from the district yes count he's part of it he he Ain cutting that check he can yeah so um as Dr Stewart said it came out of children's cabinet initiative between Dr Robertson mayor wamp mayor Kelly uh and 2.0 who convenes that and so um it's a Innovative approach we the county have matched the school system in it um so we have funds in there the city is
035using some people that they already have on staff switching them over to do this this um I think the reason we like it it's a it's a pilot it's 18 months we're going to see if it's actually working um we have put it will uh was on the agenda yesterday yesterday will be approved next week hopefully um and go from from there but we're excited about it we're using some of our opioid money um towards it uh that's in the unrestricted uh funds there so yeah we're alongside the school system um and Dr Robertson on this and hopefully you know going to make a difference thank you now M no Mr grown thank you Mr chair um I I want to emphasize that the county has been short on housing since the day Volkswagen announced
036they were going to move here and I having been on Chattanooga city council previously we were trying to get things done then there's been a lot of talk both at the city and county level and a real lack of action and I'll just give you one example there are 20 properties off of um off of East 37th Street in Alton Park and there are t there are County and City uh tax lean sales and those 18 to 20 plots have been empty for at least 20 years years why hasn't the city and the county put young men to work to work on recidivism and keep them out of prison and build affordable housing I'm tired of hearing a lot of talk and not seeing action we even had a CTE crew at one of our
037high schools build a three-bedroom two- bath home in a year if if these two Mayors would come together and Marshal their forces we need to see some action in this regard regard I I don't care if it's small homes I don't care whatever they need to do but I'm just tired of seeing a lack of action in this regard and it it it's even more exacerbated by you know our current economic situation and and how much prices have gone up so you know put your money where your mouth is and let's get something done and you folks need to put pressure on the city and the county to follow through with all these promises okay M Jones and then we'll come come to you Miss Black I just wanted to say that I'm um very
038thankful for this for this mou and for this body of work um as I can't remember who said it now I know if it was tuck or Dr Stewart um but the money that was that the city normally used to that initially the city was using the city of Chattanooga was using to support these bodies of work um and support our fit program here families in transition program here at Hamilton County that money was paused um and I just want to come back and reiterate that that money was paused in January which mean that we had which meant or means that we had children and families that were affected by that and so the children children's cabinet um had already been working on this body of work but it really went full throughout a full
039force here we are today because we have families that were impacted and uh I wasn't going to say anything but I I do want to say something because I actually saw a mom today um who when I was grabbing lunch who I was who I had connected to um the city's office for this for the voucher that they previously had and they were working with her and so I hadn't seen her or heard from her and I just assumed that they had been placed and when I saw her today I said hey how did things go with your placement and she said the day I got approved was the day they pass the money and so now her child she and her child are living in one bedroom of a family friend's home until she
040can get somewhere else and so I just want to say that that's the impact of programs like this so I know I I mean my PE is like what does this do but that is what that does because I just knew that this lady and her child had gotten somewhere for housing but when I saw her today and she said that she said I had nowhere else to go and they they let us come there um and and it was a domest I mean it was a lot and so I just that really just weighed on me and so to to for this like just it I really want to be like go back now go go back because it might be some money there but I just want to share that because this is
041real for a lot of people for 1100 plus students in their families this is real this is real and I just want to share that because I know sometimes we try to figure out other ways but we're already doing a lot the county was already doing I mean the district was doing a lot the city was doing a lot um and the housing other agency was doing a lot but this is real and this is going to become I hate to say it probably going to more real in a lot of expect so I'm in support of this kind of work thank you m Jones no more lights for roll call Mrs black yes Mr Mr Connor stepped out yes he said he was going to vote for we'll come back to him Mr Dy
042yes Mr Gro yes Mrs Haden yes Mrs Jones yes Mr Keane yes Miss Schaefer yes Mr Slater yes Mrs Thomas yes chairman Smith yes thank you Mr Connor yes thank you okay takes us down to uh constructions manager risk man uh risk memorandum or semar motion to approve motion to approve second there you can have no lights roll call Mrs black yes Mr Dy yes Mr groan yes Mrs Haden yes Mrs Jones yes Mr Keane yes Miss schaer yes Mr Slater yes Mrs Thomas yes Mr Connor yes chairman Smith yes did you have a question did did Dr Sharp just leave he might have but I I can probably answer well I was going to while we were talking about semar we've got the custodial services and ground Services it was that was improve approved
043in the right I was going to just let him announce who that was there he is okay yeah thank you Mr Kean um and uh thank you board for approving our custodial and custodial and ground Services agreement for the next four years uh we're uh pleased to U uh go into this partnership with ABM for custodial uh services and um CD green uh with our ground service so uh they're they have Representatives here tonight as well and uh we pree appreciate them being here with us uh for this event we'll start planning uh ASAP with both of them uh for uh next steps and transition with the work thank you thank you okay one time request for Community schoolyard at East Side Elementary motion to approve approved second no lights roll call Mrs black yes
044Mr Connor yes Mr Dy yes Mr groan yes Mrs Haden yes Mrs Jones yes Mr Keane yes Miss Schaefer yes Mr Slater yes M Thomas yes chairman Smith yes okay it takes us down to policies on second and final read um I think what I'd like to do here is is approve them like a consent agen all at one or if somebody wants to pull one out we can do that uh so I entertain a motion to approve collectively the second and final reads I I do have a question you have you that I want to ask on a particular policy yes you which one is that for the board I'm sorry policy 1.44 1.44 that's in first first read yeah we're doing second read second fun okay well I'm I'm fine with that I
045have a question on that so so I'll entertain a motion so moved to approve all of the policies on second and final read in one vote okay thank you Mr Connor need a second second no lights roll call Mrs black yes Mr Connor yes Mr Dy yes Mr groan yes Mrs Haden yes Mrs Jones yes Mr Keane yes Mrs Schaefer yes Mr Slater yes Mrs Thomas yes chairman Smith yes okay Mr Gro you want to you want to ask your question about that first read uh yes thank you Mr chair um either Mr Bennett um how is this policy impacted by any legislation that's been passed this year in Nashville yeah I know I'm going to have to say I I off the top of my head I where where you going Mr G well
046uh I believe I believe the legislation and Mr Connor probably knows this better than I do uh expands the right to speak beyond what might be on the agenda if if you apply three days in advance Mr gone you may be right I'm I'm going to confess I I am not aware of I'm so just partly confused as I'm sorry so please as the chair I'm confused as it what exactly are you saying that you think that our current policy is not in line with what's allowed to be um in the in the delegation or you asking if no based upon the legislation that and I don't even know if it's passed yet but I know it's moved out of committee and maybe over to the Senate and maybe even passed but it expands U
047the right to speak beyond what might be on city council County Commission or School Board in regards to you can speak on items beyond the agenda so at current our policy is in line with that if you if you uh address if you email and that's this is a great time to say all of these things so if you email the board secretary which currently Shirley is acting board secretary if you email her up to 48 hours in advance of this meeting you may speak before the board about anything you could I'm sorry 72 hours 3 days um you can speak to the board about anything U you could tell them how pretty your coatu is but but uh and that that's that's at your leisure if you come and sign up you do have
048to pick something from the agenda and then I'll take this time to Echo what uh Vice chair said uh even at the County Commission meeting you do have to say state your name and full address and I know tuck back me up with that too that's that is policy and it's actually part I could find the law and I will I was planning to do that for you C I will find the law but that you have to state name and address part of it is because they want to make sure that you're in the constituency that you're addressing correct well I just wanted to make that known U it looks like shanon has proba will add better than me if you don't mind um we will we do have a process to go through
049all the leg legislative changes at the end once everything has occurred to make sure that we're treed up at the beginning of the year with any of those um changes that actually perfectly aligns with the next quarterly session which we would vote on all those things in June so we should be able to address any of those concerns once we're sure of them than you thank you Mr Slayer thanks sir um if we are trying to do the same thing the County Commissioners do they have a 10minute limit for a group and I would like to add that in Mr Bennett for you know in case there's 10 people here that want to speak on the same thing um the County Commission doesn't allow that the the a group has 10 minutes Define what you
050mean by a group yeah uh if they want to speak on the the same thing over and over and over same topic it's just what the County Commission does yeah I I think that what they do and maybe Tucker could uh last time tuck clarify but I think if there is a topic like let's say the cell phone topic if there's a group that is against they get 10 minutes if there's a group that's four they get 10 minutes it's not necessarily that they're part of the a group or the it's just the subject and which side of the topic you're taking I believe this is also true at Chattanooga city council right so so please is the chair we we do we do Larry I'm sorry Joe did you recognize okay we do have
051that uh in our policy it if there are multiple PE people that are speaking on the same we do ask that they select a delegate to that's why we call them delegations is they should they should select a delegate to do the speech for them in our in our policy M I actually want to talk about 1.7 School District goals can we go there absolutely okay so the board knows that this is most important policy we have a new board and as we discussed on Monday we may have some different strategies that this new board wants to discuss and pass versus the last board so this is where that happens and it's on first read you've had it for a while we're going to discuss it I think at the board retreat Shannon okay so
052I just want to remind the board that this is where this board speaks the overarching strategy that they want the administration to be focused on and implementing so it's very important that we review it and you bring your feedback to Shannon please before the board retreat on April the 4th is it set surely did it get set it's not set I'm not available I'm not well we're working on a date but this Board needs to speak as to what our strategic goals are thank you okay takes us down to Benchmark testing thank you Mr chair um I'll try to be concise on this as I can um everybody on this board I would imagine has had some interaction whether it's from a teacher or a parent around their concern with the level of testing that
053we do in hand County now I know Dr Stewart you put together a little flyer here a little two-pager given the overview on on benchmarks number two I I appreciate the the uh statistics you provided in 1.6% of the school year So for anybody that can't see it uh essentially what it's stating is uh we spent around 1.6% of the school year on Benchmark testing specific now what that fails to take into account is the other tests that happen throughout the year uh primarily coming from the State now for everybody that may not be aware I've got four kids and two are in the county system and I know firsthand uh some of the challenges that are around Benchmark testing and to be clear my goal or hope is to have a collaborative discussion and
054I think that's something that we as a board need to be doing on a continual basis and also to be clear my goal is not to eliminate benchmarks okay I'll be the first to tell you I understand the value in data but I also understand that we have we have a responsibility to our constituents and our communities and particularly within our classrooms with our teachers to listen and I'd encourage anybody that hasn't already I'm sure most of you have already but if you sit down and sit with any of your teachers they're going to tell you there's a high level dissatisfaction around the amount of testing that we do in our County School System now I've also been on the board long enough to hear the word data uh where it haunts me in my
055dreams it almost seems like there's this religious like fascination with data my question is one of my questions is is at what cost are we pursuing this data because from my perspective when it comes to Benchmark testings we are asking an incredible amount of responsibility for our teachers and putting a momentous burden on our children when it comes to the expectation they complete these tests and to be clear when you take into account all of the State Testing plus the county testing our kids are roughly testing 6 weeks out of a year so put that in perspective that's almost roughly 30 days out of 18 day teaching calendar so our teachers only have 180 days to be with these kids 30 of those days is primarily spent in testing so I think it's 100% I
056know this in the board's purview to have this discussion but again my hope is to have a collaborative conversation because I think we should be on the same page on this but I think it's too big of an issue to not have a discussion about um but I'll pause there so my question is at what cost are we doing all of these tests yeah I think it's important it's an important question and I will I will answer it I do want to clarify on the 60 days I did give it to you in hours how many total hours are spent and even in the high school you can kind of see the total hours so um just to reference that is it is not 60 days but to to your question at what cost with
057the data I think for me I have to go back to when benchmarks started which was before my time um but benchmarks uh came into Hil County in 2016 at a time when the district achievement wise was really flat and year-over-year was a level one district and the administration that came in in they said there's two primary things that they did to move learning uh the first thing they did was do standards aligned instruction what they found when they got here was that there was a lot of variance classroom to classroom we didn't have common curriculum we were not directly Teaching Standards so it was standards based instruction and then a benchmark that assessed those standards and what you would see looking at our achievement year-over-year is that we have seen growth in both just
058Tas growth and achievement growth so I start there to say there's something really valuable about the about assessing kids against the standards so that we can adjust our instruction around it so your question of at what cost we are what we are accounting is what information do teachers get from these assessments that drive their instructions it supports their instructions you have heard us talk a lot about data it's really important that the kids the teachers know where the kids are so that they can tailor their instruction for it so we actually see this as a time saer not a Time waster because of the way you can tailor instruction as a result now I I see your face and you're like it's not saving time it really is saving imp planning time what what research
059would also tell you is that so often when we don't know where kids are and they're learning we start them low right we start them behind where they actually are something that this board has been really concerned about that that notion of rigor and knowing where our kids are I will say this in my time as the deputy superintendent this was brought to me from the beginning year one I did a lot of looking especially in the elementary especially in K2 um and we moved away from kindergarten benchmarks and we are now also decreasing the number of benchmarks that we're doing in K2 just announcing to our principl yesterday after a year kind of researching kind of the practice to make sure that we can get all of our data in the other assessments that
060we're utilizing So when you say other assessments can you explain what you mean by that y so you've noted that the state with the universal screeners so I'm going to stay in K2 but I can go past it if you need to so in K2 we give Ames web for literacy this is where I've been the most focused so I'll stay there with as web that's a nationally normed test so it tells us how our kids are doing against a series of standards and it tells us how our kids are doing against like Piers all over the country really important information that test though does not assess all of the standards that our kids that we need to know or our kids need to learn in K2 so the second assessment that we're doing in
061K2 is a microphase assessment which comes through the curriculum and it lets us know where they are in their learning to read journey is the best way I can say it and so that is assessed twice a or that's a test assessed three times and that is used to uh determine how they learn in their skills rotation at the teacher table and out in the out in the room and so those are the tests that are used in K in K2 and we are eliminating the third uh case Benchmark because what we found was that there was a redundancy there yeah thank thank you Deputy superintendent so Fel I see your time and I I I'll yield my time after this um there's a study from leapor and Pont from 2000 essentially they were looking
062at the overall e efficacy of standardized testing and assessments and kids they came to the conclusion this is UN quote young children are developmentally developmentally unreliable test takers they have a restricted ability to comprehend such assessment cues as verbal instructions oral stimuli and situational cues or written instructions again my intent is to have a discussion on this and there's no mystery that this is something that uh is a frustration not just with teachers but with parents and I'll yield my time after this but I want to read read a letter I had a fourth grade kid write me a handwritten letter beautiful handwriting this is what he wrote Dear Mr Dy hi my name is Cole and I'm a fourth grader at Nolan Elementary I know that students need to take tests sometimes but benchmarks
063can be a lot for teachers and kids I believe we should not have as many benchmarks so that we can learn instead of taking six tests in one week I have taken five benchmarks these past two weeks and I still have one more tomorrow benchmarks stress out teachers and give them anxiety students are afraid to get in trouble if they get a bad grade I don't have to deal with this problem but some people do this is probably scary for them when they get home I think we should only have one Benchmark after Christmas break and then teap at the end of the year thank you for listening to my letter about our benchmarks and my last thing is this if we're so focused on data I think we're missing what's most important and that's
064these kids and these teachers in the [Applause] classroom okay and I I really agree you know for the younger kids but I'll just say from a high school former High School teachers perspective it has you know the added tests have become really timec consuming and seems like it becomes almost a full-time job for some of the people who to administer the tests and so maybe reduce the number of tests but I know as a teacher too um when we have the benchmark test we're just really reorganizing going to different classes going to different settings and trying to go by the formal testing environments and that alone really takes time and planning and organization to make it a formal testing environment and I think that we could do something just more informal but have a test
065and maybe some of the same data I know the problem is that you wouldn't be able to collect it the same way the data the same way as you do uh through the benchmarks but but teachers would still have data you know that we do through testing and maybe if the system that wants to even give the teachers the certain test you'd like to use and let them just administer it in their classrooms and without the jumping through the Hoops that a benchmark requires thank you Mr King yeah so I shared my opinion with you this morning I'm going to bring it up uh I was an administrator at a high school before Benchmark started uh I was administrator at a high school when benchmarks started uh so I had input from from teachers you
066know from both I had uh administrated the benchmarks when I was principal at a school that shared students between two other schools uh in all these situations the there were never positive opinions of the benchmarks and especially when we started sharing students because not only were we required to give the benchmark to the ones that uh so we carried English and science along with the CTE classes so then we provided the benchmarks for that but then it came days that we had to change our schedule and not receive students from the schools that uh we were serving and those schedules never matched so certain days we didn't have Central High School students certain days we didn't have udwa high school students but those days didn't coincide the planning wasn't done together so at times it
067would take seven eight days that we wouldn't have either this group or this group so then our teachers could not teach what they were supposed to be doing because they were having to teach this group and then the same thing four days later teaching this group it took away from a lot of class time uh and I'll be honest that's that's been the constant every year I shared this every year since I've been on the board uh I've had calls from teachers during Benchmark time uh so it it really is something and I I don't mean to step on your toes Dr Robertson I know you truly believe in this and I know you've said that the data shows since we've had the benchmarks we've gained 10% but we've only done one way we've only
068done it with three benchmarks we have never tried anything else and my suggestion was to you this morning to go to one Benchmark at the end of the semester which would then still allow teachers to regain any lost teaching they could in the second semester and I truly believe that there would be more teaching available and that would make up possibly any loss of instruction that we had by Benchmark three you're given them more class time to recover that first semester and it would show in the test scores and students and teachers would be so much happier I really I I appreciate the comments and we did talk earlier I think what I want this board to certainly hear from me is a I'm listening to you B I've been listening to teachers and administrators
069and us spending time having these conversations is really important in the time that I've been sitting in the seat benchmarking has decreased I'm having ongoing conversations about how many times do we need to Benchmark do we need to Benchmark these content areas in the ways that we're doing them and does the duration of the test need to be what it is it is I don't take lightly making these decisions and because I was not here in 2018 I'm incredibly aware of what a lift that second order change was um for this County but I'm also incredibly aware of how important it became in the learning of our kids and so I hear what you're saying and I hear your concerns I certainly disagree with the notion that I care about data more than people that
070is that is not true I care very much about our children and our teachers um but I hear you and and you're asking me continue to review asking us continue to review the dosage continue to review the appropriateness of different grade levels and I would say hear you and and in some ways I would say I've been responsive and and I I really appreciate that the other thing that and I should have brought this up the other thing that has to be included within this is that we're testing not just for benchmarks we've got th we have to test because of the state guidelines we have Universal screeners that we have to do we have reading programs that require students to be tested to find out what they're gaining and now with third grade reading
071Law that's hugely important we've got you know as we get older acts PSS uh I we just test too much I I just have to say that so to the to the point that you're making uh I'm looking at redundancy so I think you're 100% right where we have data redundancy that's where I'm looking for reduction that's what I'm doing exactly in K2 where we see redundancy let's not do that and there has been some redundancy there and we're looking at are there other places for redundancy the universal screener has changed last year so that's an assessment that or an analysis that we're doing but I 100% hear you okay I'm let let me go to miss black and then uh then I'll get back in que here uh Miss Black can you hear me
072you're up there go ahead I have a bit of an unstable connection but I wanted to ask the question um would the shorter and less stressful quick I ready assessments help us monitor the ELA and math and progress in the younger students and younger grades give us the same picture as to where the students are um and give us similar data so that the teachers get the data that they need and make sure that the kids aren't falling behind but it's a less stressful assessment yeah so the answer is no it doesn't give us all the same information but we have been looking at the redundancies in K2 which is why we were able to eliminate a benchmark but I ready it's not we're in Ames web this year Ames web does not give us
073everything we need against the standards in really K8 neither does map but there but there have been places with our Benchmark that we are seeing redundancies with these new assessments this is this is only our second year with map and with as web so we are looking at those at those places to see are we getting this dat and what could we do to decrease what's coming through the benchmarks if there's a redundancy okay Mr Slater thanks Joe um I agree with Ben about the data I mean it it's just becoming ridiculous um every single teacher that I've talked to every single one of them say this is too much testing not not one teacher has has told me that this is great not one in addition to the benchmarks we have the map testing
074and the teaps well there's three Mount tests in addition to three Benchmark tests and then the te caps it's just way too much teachers were taught to teach not to be test givers that's all I got Mr Conor thank you chair I won't beat up too much other than saying that um I Echo what I said earlier I think we have a a perception problem if this is truly something that's doing good for us we're not seeing it and excuse me we I don't believe anybody has received a positive email about the testing uh or somebody reaching out or test or texting or any of any of the ways so I I I have to listen to that large group of people and especially Educators and stuff so I have to say that out loud
075but equally I would be remiss if I didn't share my nerdom uh if anybody is interested in following there are some bills that are progressing through the house that actually attest to this directly so House Bill 675 um addresses education as introduced it this is a litany it's almost an Omnibus of of Education ideas but one of them is reducing the amount of testing uh required in grades 3 through 12 um and a valuations the second one is House Bill 91 um that one has also had sponsors added it's it's on K12 subcommittee for next Tuesday um and that one changes the testing levels in our high school students to not have end of your assessments to allow for an act now I would be remiss if I didn't mention at current Tennesse standards don't
076line up with the ACT part of the reason that we have different testing models because we don't we don't test to that test we test to the Tennessee standards so it would take something that we would need to not just have this conversation we need to make sure have the conversation at the state level of how we are assessing our students to make sure that we're in line but these things added with with the listening to our Educators is the way that we get to the right answer of how do we truly assess our students without bombarding them and making life not and taking away instructional time and all of the reasons that my fellow members have mentioned just now okay CH I want to Echo the sentiments of my board members that the data
077is too much and I had a conversation students are not a number on a spreadsheet Dr Stewart and they're not numbers to be spread across the district and the data is too much I have two children taking benchmarks this week have a son with ADD and 18 hours for benchmarks in a year on top of everything else is too much we could focus on growth RTI during that time I agree Dr Robertson what what would be the uh the implications if we went from three benchmarks to two benchmarks or from three benchmarks to one bench mark Mark what speak to that a little bit I mean it's hard hard to tell right I mean the 2018 we went with case Benchmark and outsourced this because we were deferring to expertise it's a famous famous quote
078from Brian Johnson if you remember we deferred to expertise because we are not makers we are not experts at creating assessment and so we deferred to case uh because they are and their program is set up for three benchmarks so you're kind of asking me a question what would happen if you uh only took your medicine once a day instead of twice a day like your doctor told you to do I don't know you could be okay or we could go back to where we were in 2016 16 and 17 so it's hard hard to answer but I I would say bottom line is we we went with this and we're doing this because we're deferring to experts who prescribe a way to do it um and uh that that's why we decided to do
079it okay all right M Jones so um I mean I've said this before Sometimes some years back like I'm like like I feel like we didn't take as many tests and I turned out just fine but some days sitting here I'd be thinking did I turn out just fine um but I mean I do question my anyway but um I think having being here prior having come on to the board when we had schools that were in priority status um where we are now with schools that are no longer in priority status and how that that number has decreased um do I still think we do some assess um do assessments more than than I would like yes but I also know that um I've sat at this day with several different groups of people
080including this one as recently as today who will sit here myself included at times and look out at these individuals who work over in central office with the 3 million people over there with them and ask them for data points or what is this doing or how did we get here or what does this say or who told you that or what does this percent or how many is that percent like if it's 1.6% how many case in point just with the fit we have 1,00 students that are homeless they said 1.6 y'all said what's that number somebody did just just like 10 minutes ago and so while and I'm using that as an example but I know we do it with reading we do it with numeracy literacy attendance absenteeism all those things and
081so while I do feel like there is um assessing um sometimes more than I would like I also know that I'm held accountable to the community and they're going to ask me things and I'm not going to know unless they have a number for me and even in my day-to-day job I feel like sometimes I have to assess and pull data that I don't really you know I don't want to or I don't want to have to ask my staff to do but I know that um I need it for whatever reason that may be Council may need it a constituent may need it a delegate um a state legislator may need it and so I I guess what I'm saying what I'm trying to get to is it's kind of like a um Catch
08222 situation anybody ever read the book catch22 it's a catch22 situation because yes it is probably a lot that we're asking of of um of staff and of students and or parents and I haven't I'm just about to Embark upon that so I don't know I'm going to buy my baby a whole bunch of gum and we going to pray through it but I think we it's like do we want to know or do we not want to know and if we want to know how are we going to get the information that we want to know if we don't have a means to do that and so I hear everybody here and I concur to certain extent but I guess for me I'm not an expert in this um and so I'm a big
083believer in if I'm going to com complain and do not take offense peers to what I'm saying but if I'm going to say I don't agree with something I like to be solution focused and come with what I think would be helpful so I guess to my peers um Mr doter Mr Slater those of that have spoken like what is this what what is your proposed solution I and I did hear something about I'm forgot now it's been so much but what is the proposed solution like how do you all suggest that we get what we need if we don't get it this like what is your what is the measurement tool that you suggest or that the people because once again I'm not expert but if a principal is complaining or 30 principal are
084complaining what is the tool that they're saying we should utilize or suggesting we should utilize or what is the best practice in somewhere like Boston who has the highest the best public school system in the country like what do they do like what is the best practice because we can sit here all day long and say this but what are we asking them to do opposite this to still give be able to answer our questions and we might not know that tonight so I'm not saying that but just let's think about that y'all because I'm not saying I disagree but I don't have a solution so what does that look like and best practice though not just Tennessee homegrown tomato sauce but what does that look like best because Tennessee homegrown don't always work that's
085good Tennessee homeg grown don't always work but just I'm just saying what is the best practice there how are we suggesting that they get give us the information we need great question Mr gr thank you Mr chair um when you you make reference to um seeking the advice of expertise identify who we're seeking this advice from so in the case what Dr Robertson mentioned is that we are not trained in assessment design but case the people at case have highly qualified people with assessment design they're thinking about depth of knowledge of the questions they're thinking about the length of time they're trying to backwards map from the EOC those kind of pieces they are far more skilled in that than we are and so when this when this uh County adopted benchmarks they hired an
086organization who were experts in assessment design so that's the expertise that he was referring to okay is that the only group case that that we rely upon no I mean AMS web and map or two other assessments that we are utilizing right now that have that have come through the state of Tennessee it's only our second year with both of them um map is really interesting to us and we're looking for crosswalks but no there's other assessments that we use that are nationally that are nationally normed case we Hamilton County was one of the first districts in the state to utilize case and what happened was we started growing really quickly and achieving very quickly that now I don't know the number Shannon might number but more than half of the districts in the state
087now use case um because of our early success our do we include um Institutes of Higher Learning say school of education programs and their testing and assessment um offices to to assess whether or not case benchmarks are high quality is that what you're asking yeah I mean I I I don't know who case utilizes to assess their assessments um I think back when this District adopted that they did some research to try to determine where the highest quality product was um and because of the outcomes that we've gotten I I think that we have found that that uh they've been helpful that being said the shift we're making in K2 is is explicitly because case was never designed to assess in K2 they were designed to assess three third grade up and they made a
088a first and second grade assessment for us backwards mapping from third grade and it wasn't it wasn't developmentally appropriate for the kids and caused a lot of frustration and so part of the work that I've done while sitting in the seat is look at have my team look at those assessments and say what is developmentally appropriate things that you guys are saying what do we need to know and how do we how do we know it um and in that process have decreased the number of Assessments in kindergarten and am decreasing the number of Assessments in first and second grade for these very reasons well I I have to agree with some of what said because you know I volunteered to teach chess in schools and there is a a as uh Mr Dy referred
089to uh there's a a brain development uh issue that happens to kids around the third grade and they go from concrete thinking to abstract thinking and uh unless you're gifted usually trying to instruct children uh lower than third grade in chess doesn't work um they're they're willing to give up a queen for a pawn uh and that shift is made around you know late third grade early fourth grade fourth grade at the latest so um too much testing doesn't put emphasis for the kids on the importance in my opinion of the test being important in their mind uh and that I guess that's primarily why you know we only see most of this work and research done 3 through eight in 10th Grade and then teaps so well I we continue to want you I
090think the board continues to want you to work on this and I've got a smirk smile from the superintendent so come on I'm G I'm going to send y'all a little a little slide from 20 16 17 17 18 18 19 that I just was going down memory lane and are you making reference to that first report that came out in 2015 from the state that was yeah that was 2015 yeah I'm talking about a slide okay some context thank you go ahead I did want to bring a little bit of context into this and um maybe if it's the will of the board that I believe our teaching and learning team can can do some additional research on this um but from Quick research on what's best practice in K12 education in terms of
091Education or in terms of assessment it's to do things like formative assessments which are ongoing and embedded right part of the classroom period um it's to do benchmark assessments about three times a year to get that level of data it's to do summi of Assessments about once a year which is the teath and then it's to eliminate redundancy which I think you've heard that we're doing here so I from from best practice and it says to keep total testing time under 2% which we're at 1.6% for benchmarks so I think we can do a bit more research to see how we can eliminate redundancy as Dr Stuart was saying um as well as that testing time to look at total testing times um but it does it does appear from research we can dig into
092it more that we're doing best practice when you say 1.6% are you are you adding all the other tests and teaps all the other testing is the 1.6% is for Benchmark testing yes and so I think that is something that's warranted for us to maybe put together all of the time of the test to make sure it stays on two 2% if that's best practice now again I'm like a a side chare researcher here right so it it does need a lot more look there I am not an expert in this in any way but just to give some context to your discussion that I actually think research May indicate that we're um doing the best practices that are out there okay Mr do Mary Helen remind the board how much we spend on benchmarks
093please I think this year our budget amount with the um the the software which I know it does other stuff than benchmarks but it's it's wrapped in that plus printing it's about $788,000 $788,000 and to be fair Master connect part of that which I know teachers use is that a one-year contract or is that a multi-year contct contract with case one it is one year so we do it each year so we have an opportunity to renew it next year okay K you said something you said something that was that lens of response and and I I appreciate where you're coming from because you're you're thinking about it from a teacher's perspective and you're thinking from from a County's perspective in terms of the role we play to ensure our kids are doing better um
094you said you know what's the alternative alternative or what's the right solution the reality is is is when you look at testing overall we've got aims we've got Maps we've got the teap I ready thank you sir we've got uh field testing for writing and I think our job our primary job is to ensure that these kids in the school system are thriving and when you look at this there's a general level particularly within fourth and fifth grade of apathy towards these tests and um and I think we have a a responsibility as a board so I'd like to make the motion now to minimize Benchmark testing for next year knowing that our contract has an opportunity to be renewed next year with case reduce some of that cost of the $788,000 and look to
095explore minimizing Benchmark one time a year in the middle of the year and i' like to make that motion I'll second okay okay so you've got you got that motion motion to minimize Benchmark testing for the 25 26 School Year to one time a year okay is that correct Mr D for next year okay Mr Bennett um you need to weigh in on this the the the ability to do this is a function of the budget right well okay so it's it's two- parts so obviously there's a budgetary component so if the board wanted to take that line item out they could but also if you um I think where you're going is if you look at at your board policy uh under the instruction programs there is a specific hold on give me a
096minute uh under let's see yeah I thought I remembered it it's uh 4.70 under testing programs the board does delegate to the director the responsibility for development of procedures to govern the administration of all system testing programs um and so what the Motions is intending to do as I take it is to claw back some of that Authority um I think what you probably would need to consider here is amending that policy it's a motion to table the policy I'm sorry motion to table that policy well I I I think if I'm understanding your your question understanding me correctly okay I think and I hadn't thought about this but if you're asking um so under existing policy 4.70 the boards delegated to the director of schools the responsibility for the development of procedures to govern
097the administration of all system testing programs so to consider that motion the board would either um would probably need to to amend this policy at the appropriate time uh or the board could move to suspend this policy but you do have a policy in other words this board has made the managerial decision to delegate this aspect of the system operations to the director of schools so thank you so can I can I put something out there like before we go to a step like this that is going to strip away something that's been uh a super valuable tool for us to move forward let us come back with the proposal to look at what you're suggesting of of how might we be able to uh lower the amount and let us talk to uh k
098to see if they have some recommendations around what we could could do to lower the mount as we've already said we I mean we've already made the decision in K through two to do this right so I would ask that you give us a minute to talk with uh experts and talk with our team to come back with the proposal before we just say let's completely do away with this I think the majority of the board has made their positions pretty clear on this um and I think it's within our purview to make this decision however as a courtesy we will extend you the opportunity next board meeting to come with a recommendation that takes into account every single person's opinion you heard on this board as it pertains to this matter whether it's through
099a line item or vote U just a comment Mr chair wait a second so U so Mr doter are you willing to withdraw your your uh your motion yeah okay and who who second Mr Slater okay okay all right now uh I'll get to you uh no problem I'll get to you Miss Jones I was just going to say that I didn't feel versed enough to make a vote so I was not going to vote because I would rather I would like to talk to my the administrators in District 5 and their staffs to get a I I want to be able to speak for District 5 and I don't want to I don't and my vote would be for District 5 um and so I just I but so I'm glad it's to be
100in table because I do I would like I would like to speak to the people that work in that District teach in that District um and admin administer those buildings before I vote on anything about this because I want to I would like to know if it's the benefit or the non-benefit to the students of District 5 because I know that that it has been a great benefit for us we've come off priority list testing so I don't want want to and then I'm just and I want to say this as a kindergarten parent aims and map have kept my sanity so they assessed my kid y had kindergartens they assessed him when he got there and then they I got another one right after that and I was able to see where he was
101versus where he entered in and it it really kept helped my sanity I don't want him to always be testing but it did help my sanity because as a parent I was you know just want to make sure your kid is somewhere I'm not saying I want it to always happen but I I do want to say that it and he never complained about it but I don't know how they assess it I mean how they administer it either and he's also five so he probably don't even know what's happening but I do want to say that it was beneficial for me and my husband as parents um coming into a new space first I want to say I really believe that we have a lot of data just within our own District a lot
102of testimonials from experts who are teachers in our own system and from my own experience too uh so you know we need to listen to teachers when they talk about what's best for them in instruction and in their classroom and not just what other people tell us what's best um the other question I had is you can't you can't speak to that if you haven't had like I haven't had those that's what I'm saying like you can't I can't speak to I haven't had the same experience and so that's why I say I want to be able to talk to them well I I think that's great that you do that I do the other question is when do you have to sign the next contract me the budget would have to be approved before
103we could sign not before the summer even maybe okay I just didn't know if there was a time constraint there Mr gr I was just quickly looking over um some of the um reports that have been created by the state beginning in 2015 for probably at least seven [Music] years and some of these reports include compilations of discipline School law um and testing fatigue so I'll get back with the board on what I found out about these reports because they're extensive so I'll take a look at that if if that's okay everyone else he Mr SL um this might be directed towards Shannon what does the map testing cost us each year I mean this is in addition the state mandated test don't cost the district so map is State mandated so is amsw okay
104so we pay nothing for that right okay Mr King so first I'm going to ask Shannon a question and for those that don't know we were fortunate to steal Shannon from the southeast State Department of Education District uh so great to have you uh what does de Mo what does Iowa do do you know what they're that I don't know but I'm going to guess the Iowa Test of Basic Skills okay is that right and the AC exactly right oh okay they write the act in De Mo Iowa so that is but again that step does not have an end of course test they use the act as their end of course test but I just wanted to bring that out I didn't know if you're aware of that but uh so my my suggestion
105is that we don't know where this is going to go but besides case please start researching uh expertise testing companies that do two tests and also one test uh and you know that would give us some information that we could help thank you Miss Black I see a hand yes sir um my request is before we come back to the next meeting I would like to see um the data of where our kids were on teap prior to stating benchmarks and where they are now but also I agree with Mr Kean um I would like to see some options of twice a year or once a year um I know that once a year might not allow our teachers to make up what they need to make up um I like the idea of twice
106a year instead of three times a year but um those are my two requests thank you okay uh Dr Robertson thank you Dr Stewart for your willingness to to look at this Dr Robertson and I had this conversation today I mean I hear it all the time too many too much testing but you guys are the experts or cases the experts uh certainly not me uh but but we do hear that all the time so thank you for hearing us and your willingness to to take a look at that okay no other lights uh we're ready to go to C which is uh exceptional Ed St model okay I think I already made some points earlier um one thing that um Dr Stewart if you don't mind reiterating our conversation earlier because the public and
107the Press are all anxious to know when we're going to find out yep where the placements are for students or where the programs are so it's like not telling where students are going to go but where are these programs going to be and just if you don't mind answering what we so what we discussed earlier today was around the timeline and we talked about the timeline for alerting staff about some of the shifts after spring break is when we're starting to meet with families oneon-one and as you've heard many times tonight it is an IEP decision so we have where we believe that the programs are going to go and be able to have those conversations but we want to be able to talk to our parents because what I said earlier today is that
108sometimes if if we were just publishing where all of the programs were sometimes parents will they're in a school that has an IDs and and a DCC and the DCC is going away and they don't know if the current program will still serve their kids there's just a lot to know about the distinctions between the programs so we want to have those conversations around an IEP um table talking to parents so that they have all the information that they need as we think about the best place for their kids thank you please for asking that H Gary can go actually Mr King yes Dr Brown so as we look at these exceptional Ed positions and stuff uh this would all fall under uh internal transfers so would they all be filled by the April 15th
109cut date uh uh thanks for that question sir you know board policy states we tried to place teachers we every effort by a um our certified teachers by April the 1 but we you know we're not going to meet that deadline that's always a a goal because we got to First figure out um take care of our kids right the the IEP meanss must occur um I will attempt um to move the teachers and transfer the teachers that I know about now and I would just say that U with full transparency we're talking today um four to five teachers and so there's a good chance that that's going to occur um the other thing I would say is and I was saying this earlier is that we have to be very mindful that next week
110could be a different story um because someone might decide to go ahead and retire someone might decide to resign and that becomes another vacancy and I give you an example so one of the schools right now that um is losing a chair or a seat after spring break if someone's decide to leave that school they're probably going to stay there so it's hard to say uh it's a moving Target um but definitely before the end of school um everyone's place we also through our procedures as I Shar with Miss Haden um by June the 15th and we always share this with our teachers by June 15th they'll for sure have a know exact where their location is going to be for the next year so April 1 is board policy we always strive um but
111June 15th is definitely the deadline I just know it's it's it's tough moving in the summer changing you know didn't know if we'd be able to figure out where they were going to be before the school year was out Mr do thank you Mr chair um listen I I've said it before I'll say it again I know this is a a difficult process you've got Dr Robertson um but I think it's it's very clear here based off the overwhelming emails we got today from from community members and teachers and parents that um exceptional Ed is something that is is hugely important when I look at the budget from my perspective I think there's areas where we should have probably focused more initially and I think within the exceptional Ed realm I think we're potentially doing
112ourselves an injustice when it comes to the outcomes that could be maintained if we adjust this model as a suggestion I think we should highly consider looking at uh alternative areas which I can chat with you on that that that maybe not would be so crucial um in terms of providing such support and I'll be clear I will not be voting on a budget that um has these impacts to exceptional head and I think the majority of the board would agree with me on that and the challenge we have in a budget cycle is we don't have a lot of time we've got to get things front of the County Commission we've got to allow Zach Brown and his team to be able to make these changes and to save time I would like to
113make a motion to remove exceptional Ed out of discussions for budgetary talks maintain that entire department as a single line item so they are not impacted ultimately our kids impacted so I'd like to make a motion along that line Scott I'm thinking so let me let me go let me go to something and ask a question because you know I think we're getting two things like convoluted here are we opposed to Staffing based on service hours or headcount or are we opposed to the Staffing model regardless of which one it is kicking out less jobs than it did last year I'm opposed to losing 28 exceptional Ed okay so if we go back to the other to Staffing based on head count and it kicks out that we're going to lose 12 are we not
114going to cut those 12 with an exceptional head yes I don't think we should be looking at any cut ex okay so then let's do this let's keep the same model and and we'll hold on to the 28 positions uh and we'll hold on to the four teachers the question becomes what do we do with them like where do we place them right because they're going to be placed by student needs so we're going to have to work through where where we end up placing those teachers and those 28 staff now when we don't fill them uh it still sits on our budget line right so when we're trying to balance the budget we're going to have you know say that we're able to recruit 20 of those 28 we're going to have eight positions
115that are still filling up space on our budget so I we're willing to do that I mean that that's that's something that we can do I appreciate your willingness uh Dr Robertson I think at the heart of it is you know really the question is is it it it seems Seems like this is kind of where we started and this is kind of where the direction we were going to go and I just feel like based off the overwhelming comments we've gotten from the community and the conversations I've had personally with teachers that there's other areas that we could focus to close this budgetary Gap and you know it better than any on this board that we have been working super hard to do that and and you know how deep the cuts that we've
116made are been really clear with you of what those are so a suggestion that we're not doing that I want to clarify that we are right and we're doing it as much as we can uh the the reality is everything that we are going to have to cut there is nothing in here that's going people are going to be happy about right so so if we're if we're willing to go and and take a budget like we did last year that is asking the County commission for $21 million I'm happy to do that I'm trying to avoid this first budget with this new board having to do that so if if we're if that's what the board wants we we've got a balanced budget right now I'll give you an example we've got 89 instructional
117coaches Sal loan not including benefits Mary Helen 6.5 roughly $6.5 million so we're going to pull that out of school no I'm not saying that what I'm saying is when we talk about impacts to the students I think exceptional that is probably our most high need kids we all can agree on that whereas you take another division within within the H County Public School System I IE instructional coaches not quite as forward facing as a rol as and exceptional Ed staff and we have an opportunity to close that Gap based off the reductions you guys have already outlined and maintain the exceptional Ed division in its entirety that's my point is I think we need to be looking under other avenues to reduce these costs outside of exceptional education we can work towards it but
118if we if we C the the instructional coaches that you just said are in schools so it is coming straight out of schools right there there's going to be Cuts but I'm saying I think this is a if that's what we're willing to do like if that's where we want to go I I mean I promise you we can get there really I I'll withdraw my motion but but I I think this is this is the kind of conversation we've got to have I'd rather have these conversations now than a month and a half down the road and we don't have enough time to really work through this thing absolutely agree I've said that since day one okay asking so what yeah so what are we asking to look at I think this is part
119of and and let's put this publicly what we've said all along priorities not to impact schools to try to keep these Cuts as far away from schools but if that's on the table if we're willing to look at that we need to hear that publicly from the board if we're willing to close this budget by impacting School Staffing we can do that Justin we already were with the exceptional Ed no it's the Staffing model the Staffing model what I'm saying is if you want to pull something out of the Staffing model that's not going to generate positions because the model is what generates the positions we're not saying we're cutting 28 assistant positions that's what the model generates right based on student need and service hours but if you're saying if you want us to
120look at instructional coaches if you want us to look at Student Success coaches if you want us to look at Librarians if you want us to look at school nurses we can do those things I can't speak for the board which is why I wanted to take to vote to get the board's Direction on this but I think there's better better ways better areas that we can find some Cuts outside of exceptional that's all I'm saying simply put it's it's too too much and I'm okay with that just what I I want to know what we're recommending so that when they come back with it like if if if if you if there if their recommendations to cut Dieter I'm just saying yeah I I want to know that too because what if I don't
121like what if I want to come back with emotion and say I don't think we could you know which I wouldn't do that but I'm just saying like what happens when we do that and then we get another group like I I think and I and I I hear everything I'm just saying I want to know so that just like I'm considering the exed need I want to be able to consider whatever else may be brought forth because then I'm able to speak to my constituents and the people that are going to contact me and say hey these are the variety of things we're looking at not just this you know be able to speak to that because right you can't speak for me but I would like to know things okay it sounds like
122we need to have a a a finance committee meeting right away got one on the tent okay say Echo Ben in a way as far as the positions I don't think he's just talking about instructional coaches but I think the main thing besides just exceptional education which is extremely um a priority but any positions that are not student student facing you know we want we want to keep all the teachers in the classroom all the ones who work with students on a daily basis have classes and and as I've said before let principles have discretionary as far as which others that that could help we could eliminate certain positions or just say okay let the principal decide which and not mandate every position we we're happy to do that we remind remind the board 75%
123of our budget is people and 92% of those people are in schools okay but a quite a few of them aren't student facing in the schools though but um and those are the ones we do want to prioritize the ones working with students on a daily basis but also I wish I I wish we could have avoided a lot of this I feel like we didn't have a heads up as far as what was in the plans Miss Haden no I'm Miss Hat please do not say that we yes we we met and we had conversations okay well um I'm just saying when a lot of okay here's what caught me off guard if you're upset or really surprised about what I'm saying I had no clue a bunch of teachers one day were going
124to be told they didn't have a job there um you know so I don't you know I don't think I understand maybe I'm confused I think I'm confused I know we had the numbers I know we had the numbers yeah okay all right go ahead M Jackie I'm kind of confused about all this I think I don't think any of us want to cut exception education however when you talk about waste it could be some waste in exception of Education not towards the services for for students not towards the teaching but there could also be some way somewhere else that we can look at as long as we're making sure we're not reducing services for children and making sure they have those services that that are needed I think all of us agree to that
125I think us trying to do what we have charged Dr roon to do is a mistake it it clearly states what our role is and for me to be a new board member and try to think I understand all the aspects of special education and all of the other departments would be not e on my part because of the simple fact I'm not responsible for doing that I think I need to listen to what Dr Robertson said and what I thought I heard them say was they're in need of special education teachers more that no one is losing their job but what I also heard some board members say you're worried about somebody driving 10 miles outside of where they they live versus having a job and for me they need to have a job
126versus worried about if they got to drive 10 10 miles outside their neighborhood and I I cuz I didn't hear that these people were losing their jobs and to suggest that no one in special ed loses their jobs and someone from the other departments lose Theirs to me is ridiculous too because I think all of the staff is just as important as the other staff but the most important is that the services that are children need are being given to them and I just think we we we of getting off task as I'm listening and maybe I I missed something cuz it's been going in and out but it's so confusing to me that we're trying to do everything in haste and I don't want to do anything in haste when it comes to making
127decision about the services that children that we all are supposed to be on this board concerned about that we're making these Hast decisions not to test not to and I hear over testing as well but I just think we need to not do it in haste and that's all I'm saying okay thank you Mr Jackie okay Mr Slater okay if I understand this right Ben's motion was to he withdrew he withdrew that motion oh okay well I seconded it so I guess I'll withdraw that but it was to I thank you Mr I was trying to get some clarity on that thank you okay but it was to not touch exceptional EDS budget was that right V correct okay Mr chairman can I jump in just to add some some I guess context and Clarity
128to to respective roles so obviously if the board has a financial priority to invest in a particular line item or particular program or whatever else and we're dealing with a zero sum game that means money's got to come some come out of the budget somewhere else it's a zero sum game or you've got to get more funding that's the first point to make the second point to make is that Dr Robertson's Administration has a funding model that as I understand it has 28 fewer educational assistants and his question that he asked a minute ago is something that that the Board needs to to think about the board approves the budget but the administration staffs the positions and so to his point if the new Staffing model leaves these folks without a place to go well
129I say folks they haven't been hired yet because because they're vacant positions um if the board funds the positions and they're sitting there but but the administration doesn't have a a place to put them that that is a practical reality now those those positions would exist as placeholders should the administration decide to do something down the road with either hiring the EAS or maybe doing a budget amendment to do something else but but I make the point it remains a zero some game if those if those budget if those positions are there in the budget to his point there has to be an adjustment somewhere else and that's that's intuitively obvious but I I I felt that needed to be said make sense for me Mr King all right so I'm going to reiterate what
130Jackie said and and give some perspective from an Educator's point of view Feliz so you were an educator I was an educator for 40 years my first year I taught at Eastridge Junior High I was then told I was not going to have a job because they were going from a junior high to a middle school but they weren't going to bring sixth grade up to the middle school so I had to find another position because I was 712 certified so I ended up out at Birchwood which was a wonderful experience but two years into Birchwood the County Commission and the board decided oh we're going to close Birchwood down so now I was told again I needed to find a job because at that time tenure had a much greater weight than it does
131now and so ended up finding a job but to go back to it these people people are not looking for jobs they have jobs that's that's the main thing and I don't know how many times especially younger teachers when there were Cuts you know we're fortunate that in the last gosh the last time there was a huge number of cuts I know I I really can't remember it I was uh maybe it was 200 yeah I was going to say 2010 2011 and we had to cut a huge number of teaching positions we have not had to do that but we have to move people around at times it's not pleasant but at least there's a job waiting for them that's my com Mr chair I want to just again put this out there um
132as we consider all these decisions we have to be able to send a model to the state that does not differentiate meaning we can't just say we're going to take one of these 28 assistants and send it over here because that's what we want to do our model has to make sense of how we staff schools School a to school B to school C all the way down the line so again we're not just out here making things up throwing positions like the model has to go to the state and it has to be approved by them to be logical okay okay final thing what hits close to home to me and that I did not understand in our budget meetings about Staffing is that so many would be relocating away from The Home Zone
133school or the school in my district that I represent and that's what I did not understand yeah and that's not happening that that is an i team decision and we we've been clear about that from the beginning right so um I team decision I just I guess the part I don't understand is why you know seven employees in that one Department are you know going to have to relocate and it just seems like it was working well before and you know that's where I'm coming coming from what I'm hearing Dr Robertson is it may not just be the switch of how you're allocating but it's the movement I think it's the structure that's causing a lot of heartburn I know for me legally that's what's causing me heartburn is well that's why getting Clarity of
134if y'all want us to do headcount we'll go back and we'll look at headcount right if you want us to do service hours we'll go back and look at service hour but because our projections are going down and based on numbers I I can assure you either way we look at it there's going to be a loss of positions no matter which way we're using it right so what Miss Haden's talking about is the sore programs taken out of udal right it's being moved under the structure to another school that's what's giving the heartburn okay is that's not they just don't want that so I think that's if you could present us a staffing model and budget without that movement maybe we could come to an agreement so we're worried about somebody being moved what
135about the services for the children I'm it is frustrating and I'm sorry if I sound frustrated because I am because we're sitting here talking about teachers moving to stud assuring that those services are going to be in that schol that speci confused maybe I'm missing Jackie it's the concern of moving the student from their Zone school where they the parent could not consent so if you move a sore class and a child is currently in that sore class in their Zone School technically that parent may say I don't want that I don't want to move my kid out of their Zone school well then where are we in the budget for actually providing those services in that zone School we've budgeted for that school that's class to be in another school so that's a budgetary
136problem but it's also a continuity of placement problem of a child's been in a school around a surrounding they have a special needs they're now comfortable in the surrounding that's where the heartburn for the parents are from and even the teachers is that Contin of placement if don't move my child's class to another area it's not not so much about the teachers moving it's the students think that's where confus when you're talking about a child being because of the from that school being that's correct but a lot of those teachers have built relationships with those students so it's the students and then if the students are in that zone school you know they would still need teachers there as well I I do want to interject if I can I know that the hour is
137late but I think it's important for the board and the public to understand that that this model doesn't automatically presume that an individual child is going to be moved I want to be clear on that if if programs move and let's say let's say a child is zoned for for M schaer school aison if a program uh at that school were to move then then the team would have to decide okay what are we going to do next and and you look at the child's eligibility and you look at how that eligibility limits the child's ability to access the program of the school and so you have these services that are built into the IEP and then the team asks where can we implement the IEP and ideally you're going to implement the IEP in
138the gened environment but if the team agrees then you have a specialized program and this hypothetical that the specialized program moves in that scenario the team has a choice we can either move the child with the program but that's a team decision or if the parents say you know what I don't want West's lovely campus but I don't want to go down the road West viw the traffic's terrible I want to stay at abison well in that situation the team has to find a way to serve the child at that school and so the team would either tap into one of the district provided EAS possibly or one of the one of the ones purchased with strategic funds or whatever other resources are available but what I want this board to hear is that under
139the proposed Staffing Model A should not be relocated without parental consent except in very rare circumstances which are are too complicated to go in through today I I I I I do want to be clear about that okay I have no more lights um I I want to go back and and because I think it's important we didn't get to our committee reports but I think we need to touch on that because we got to schedule some meetings that's pretty clear uh so I'll just start with you down there uh thank you I made a note so I'll get it real quick so I can be judicious and quick so we've talked a little bit about things that have already happened so I want to remind the general public and everyone that at the end
140of session after it has come to a close I will schedule a meeting where I will discuss any bill that is passed and it's the ways that it affects uh Hy County Schools so please note that and to the general public please email me any house bills that you want me to follow or anything you're interested in being there uh that includes uh you know as we table the policy talks about cell phones because there's things that we need to look at in that and I'm glad that we are getting more information about benchmarks because it could absolutely change based on these bills that are going through um and hopefully we will have answers to those by the next meeting we should um barring anything crazy going on um so yeah that's I look for
141an update I I always enjoy getting the questions in and getting to go through what's ped and how it it pertains to us okay thank you we will have a quarterly meeting but we don't have the date yet right Shannon because we have to have a calendar set so we'll get that to the board okay Finance we'll have our next finance committee April 10th uh invitation will come from uh Shirley in the next couple days okay sties well with all these others uh first thank you uh we we've got ABM we've got City Green that was a big part of facilities uh we approved the semar uh we've got a few Architects left to go with uh we can share that at a regular board meeting we don't need to have a facility meeting for
142that uh somewhere in late April Dr Sharp will be reaching out to us uh there's an above the 32 million there's an added six7 million that are going to be used for capital projects and he'll share what those are those have not been shared with with us yet so unless it's an a needed meeting we will bypass April's meeting uh and turn it over to budget and other committees so thank you okay okay um spring break next week everybody be careful enjoy 24th professional development day and then our next board meeting is the 17th and ERS plays it's for the state championship on Wednesday at 5:30 in Murphysboro Wednesday March 19th in Murphysboro MTSU they will be playing for state championship terer boys basketball shle I put the food up for you