001welcome everyone Hi um to the discipline working group um I thought I would start tonight by just um having a more uh conversational style review of what our approach to discipline is and then um maybe touching on where some of the disconnect is and and I know that we've been tasked with reviewing our discipline uh policy um and figuring out how it's going to affect our budget and making some recommendations for budgetary implications so welcome um first I want to start off with um kind of getting like referring to the committee and seeing um you know after reviewing the materials and our current approach to discipline um what your impression is and and hearing some um feedback that you've gotten from your conversations in the community and what we've heard here at previous meetings um
002I know for me um when I read through um the materials uh our integrated student supports framework um I was very impressed with how thorough it is um it's a bit complicated and I see how um maybe the implementation varies from from uh building to building within our school system and how maybe um we can figuring out how maybe we can address um the disconnect um what do you all see as um I guess the varying experiences across the county when it comes to discipline so I would kind of echo what you're talking about with um the integrated student support uh co-ab I think is uh we're in fourth or fifth year of utilizing the co-ab this is the first year that we put it in a document that also has our expectations around tier
003one tier two tier three and how we really set schools up for environments that support student learning my concern with co-ab we first started using it is that number one there was an expectation that somehow the co-ab would keep kids from acting out that's not going to happen and number two that it would immediately like created to where everybody was in line and interacting with it the same way it's a document of guidance speaking to a board member through text message earlier I think the big issue is just there are there is still a lot of variability across 76 campuses of how we interpret how we execute and consistently implement it I remember Dr Stewart if you would that I would just reinforce is is the co-op is really designed to say win a specific
004behavior occurs this is the consequence it can receive and there's a range with integrated student supports is intended to do is is to really support schools and their ability to create the conditions that in fact lead to fewer behaviors okay classroom level at the school level and so on and so forth and so sometimes when we spend too much time thinking about the right consequence for said Behavior we missed the boat on making sure that we're doing what we need to be doing on the front end and so we this is a very intentional move on our ends to kind of say schools that step back let's make sure we have the expectations you know kids are understand what they are we're communicating them clearly we're reinforcing them regularly about who we are as a
005school and then when the kids aren't able to meet those expectations then we need to take a Next Step but I think I think that's why it's in this kind of continue but I think it was a really important move you know for us to make I agree um I was very impressed with um the approach like what I consider Solutions based approach to discipline um going at the the root of what's going on um either in the classroom or with a particular student um and in addressing the root of the behavior instead of just punishing the behavior um so I was really impressed like I said I'm this is an excellent document and it it's it is very thorough um I'm wondering where where the disconnect is as far as why we see such
006different discipline experiences across campuses is it implementation is it understanding is it resources is it a combination of those things um but I'd also like to hear from the other board members about you know what they think about having all of this in one place as far as our approach to student Behavior well I'll tell you the the main thing that I hear um from teachers basically they don't feel like they're getting enough support in the uh from the administration whether it's most of the time in in their own buildings and and since I'm getting this from so many different uh schools some of them a lot of them not even in my district I'm wondering if that's coming from of the district I don't know what do we call them anymore we've called them
007so many things different things Community superintendent as it is now and uh they're getting at if they're getting it from the central offices this is why we're handling things or whatever but teachers just do not feel like that they that they have complained and complained about certain instances and uh that the kids do not respect them at all because they send them for punishment we say we don't we want to try to uh do all of these other things to make it conducive to where kids won't misbehave and you've already said there's nothing we can do to keep kids from misbehaving they're going to misbehave and there has to be some kind of punishment and I think we have swung the pendulum has swung so far the other way that when you don't punish kids
008that are doing things bad it's not fair to the good kids and I think this is where we are uh that we're so worried that we're going to punish someone too much or um that the teachers say they send kids to be disciplined and they send them right back to the class and they say it undermines them and so sometimes they say they don't even send them anymore they just allow them just to go ahead and misbehave in class and they just try to do the best they can to struggle through the class because if they go if they continue to send them to the office and the office continues to send them back to the classroom they say that makes them look like a it makes them look foolish and they're just tired of
009dealing with it and so a lot of people just say that they're just going to uh keep on till they buy their time till they can retire that we do not need teachers that are just waiting to retire and uh and I've said it I've said it ever since I've been on this board teachers would rather have a well-disciplined classroom than a raise they can teach they'd rather have a well-disciplined classroom than a smaller classroom and and I think the more we monkey around with this and try to figure out ways that to pacify kids and let them cool down and all this well you know there's some kids in class that don't need don't want to give your kid time to cool down you know they're there to get an education and they're not
010there to try to work through whatever social ills you have or whatever the kids get a One-Shot in an education one shot and while we're monkeying around with all this trying to do all this social engineering and making sure get b b encounters and being sure we do all the things that we're supposed to do the state says it's not coming from them we say it's not coming from us it's like a circular firing squad you know I've called the state representatives and said well we're being told the state sends us this stuff and we have to abide by these rules and regulations in the state are saying hey that stuff didn't come from us well it's coming from somebody nobody really wants to take ownership of it but I'm telling you we have teachers
011who are my friends who have said they have never seen the classrooms in the disarray that they are now and if they want something done and a lot of them are going to either private schools or some other kind of school to keep from dealing with this because in private schools they don't put up with this nonsense and uh because their parents have vested interest in the schools and I wish the parents would see that they have a vested interest and I think some of them do and are demanding a change but uh we're going to have to get a handle on discipline because I've heard stories that I won't go in here now because I don't want to throw any of these teachers under the bus but I've heard some situations this year that
012I am just absolutely Blown Away by and things that we're doing to make concessions to keep children in the classrooms and I still say another one of the big problems I see that we have is I brought it up at a school board meeting a couple of months ago if a kid is 19 years old and they are not on track to graduate they do not need to be in our school building they need to go away they need to go to adult high school they need to get a GED they need to go do whatever they need to do we have so many 19 year old kids causing problems in our schools and they do not need to be there and I think at the first of the year that's one one place that
013we can really get a handle on discipline right from the beginning class if you started senior year you're 19 years old or even a junior at 19 years old you do not need to be in the schoolhouse you are now an adult because in one on one hand you have to treat them like an adult but on another hand they're in there with a bunch of minors and you can't have different rules for them as everybody else uh but that's one thing I think that the principles need to be clear on sure that that you need that they they just need to be I don't even think they even need to get a have a choice if they turn 19 during the year maybe but starting at 19 no way um so I'll go back
014to um a couple things you know question is that important implementation understanding resources I think it's all three um into you know Miss Thurman's uh comments I think it's important for us to learn lessons from across the district thinking every single one of your districts you probably have examples of where practices aren't going well and examples of where they're going very well we have some tools that are really well run that they're where they need to be they handle things appropriately and then we have some that aren't quite where they need to be um and to your to the last point and and I'll link this to the resources comment about 19 year olds I think in that same meeting two months ago if it wasn't in that meeting was another one I talked about
015in the years I've been in Hamilton County one of the big issues is there is a lack of options for schools I mean you kind of have right now we've got ISS monitors from there you can go to out-of-school suspension then it's all the way to Washington where we need options for I would argue before the kid turned 19 you know if we see a kid that's 16 and a half that is under credited we need to intervene then in a different setting to allow that student to get back on track and I'm not saying the student can't get back on track and come back to school but we don't want 19 year olds that aren't graduating in schools we need to have other options for them so one of the things we're looking at
016and and I think you'll see it um coming this throughout the spring and budget conversations and then uh individual conversations with you guys about Staffing and other things that we're looking to invest a lot of money uh into school-based options um some of them will will obviously provide the flexibility to opt in to a program but a lot of them are focused on things that you're talking about in terms of providing support to teachers in the classroom and making sure that we are able to quickly and appropriately deal with discipline issues when they happen um comment about you know can't can't do some kids are going to act out I mean you can ask my parents I was one of those kids for about four years but you can set up structures for for what
017we would say I mean even in the uh integrated student support to talks about it I mean there there's going to be a small percentage of kids that in a typical school won't function well and we do need to have other options besides just Washington available to schools and so a big thing of it in in my opinion in terms of at the school level is the resourcing that we've provided to schools to make decisions that better support kids um I agree Glu these are beautiful documents and we we do this a lot yet such a talented team out here puts this information stuff together for us and it just looks so good and it's beautiful and we never do anything with it and you know I was telling Jill just a few minutes ago
018I've been working with behavior problem kids for 35 years now and uh the the bottom line is we I think is a as a school system and not just a school system but the world have become tolerant of the intolerant and we just seemingly uh put up with things that they're just not acceptable and you know we we talk a lot Justin about facilities and what a crisis it is and where we're at with that I don't think facilities is near the crisis of the the behavior culture that that has percolated and has been allowed to be birthed in our school system kind of push back on that first not yet okay um I've got uh I've got twin granddaughters over at East Hamilton they're great kids great students I mean they're Straight A's they
019got that from Mimi they didn't get it from me you'd have to agree but what's interesting I was having a conversation with them over the holidays and and they were telling me that they're just they don't even want to go to school because one or two kids in in their various classes are being allowed to disrupt the entire melu and yeah you know I think we when you look at at Behavior holistically I bet less than 10 percent of our students are causing 99 of our problems and we we talk a lot about disproportionate share of numbers of discipline referrals and we talk about that a lot around here and and what's troubling to me I've asked for the numbers and have never been able to get them last multiple times I do know that
020one of my principals in the month of November had 30 something uh discipline episodes in those 30-something discipline episodes about 26 of them were created by two kids but it's still counted as a discipline episode so I think that that number when we talk about disproportionate suspension for minorities I think that number is skewed because of that um and I won't pretend to have the answer uh I I don't uh uh but it's complicated it's multi-faceted and very complex but if we don't get a handle on it uh I mean we're uh we can't educate kids and that's heartbreaking I I said from the beginning and I'll hush and let you push back a little bit Justin but I I said from the beginning that the code of acceptable behavior I think is a good
021document I think it is but I think the problem is is it's never it's never been consistent with regard to what somebody maybe even you mentioned a minute ago without different principles uh use it in different ways and kids aren't stupid they know and I've talked to many of them they'll say well I I'm suspended for three days because I did such and such and and another kid over here would say really well I got suspended for a month or 10 days or so it's it's all different and kids know it tolerant of the intolerant that's where we are as a society and that's what's happening in our schools so go ahead Justin push back made me forget what I was going to say y'all keep going I can't remember sorry so I met with
022each school and uh specifically asked them what their budgetary needs for discipline would be all three elementary schools gave the same exact answer and I'm gonna mirror what Joe said they talked about in all three cases Harrison Snow Hill and Wallace Smith that one individual was completely disrupting the culture of not just one class but usually a couple classes because with the practice that they had if that student was misbehaving or that in one then they would have to oftentimes place them in another class in another grade level to get him away from his peers which I couldn't believe that was going on but all of them said they needed the same thing the first thing they needed was fewer steps to get them a part of the bridge program uh which I hadn't heard
023of the bridge program so then I met with uh Miss Russell to have her kind of go over that with me so right now all three of those schools are sharing the same uh facility over at uh Ooltewah Elementary so so there's oodle Elementary Harrison Elementary Snow Hill Elementary and Wallace Smith all using the same facility so one need might be to get that to be fewer schools sharing one facility they also said that they would love and this is Elementary I'm going to move my way up and I'm going to finish talking about the adult high school which was a passion of mine I mean very successful thank you Joe and they said that they needed at least one of two things besides the bridge and they said one of their concerns about the
024bridge was the number of documentated episodes 40 40 episodes they said one young man it took before they could get him to be put into the bridge and I mean that so I I don't understand the bridge completely yet uh but I'm I'm getting there but anyway so they need either an ISS Monitor and they'd be happy to share that between two schools where one of them gets it Monday Wednesday Friday one week and Tuesday Thursday the next uh or they said they every single school that I talked to Central uh not Harrison Bay Central Brown uh and the three elementaries they all needed uh inclusion teachers and they needed these inclusion teachers not because of the numbers but because they have a couple extreme students that are marked as inclusion but are would have
025been years ago marked to have behaviorally disordered so they almost need an educational assistant to be with them to kind of keep them in line the other thing that the upper levels asked for and I will share a concern that you know I knew it was on its way it's hitting this country I've been to three funerals in the last three months of ex-students of mine that either played for me or were friends with my children and they all died of Fentanyl and right now fentanyl has made it into vaping and there's also a fentanyl candy out there now which uh has the sros very concerned uh but you know uh marijuana gummies has become very popular and is being sold what might be considered legally or not legally I don't know yet across the
026counter in certain areas but right now The Vaping is the one that the middle schools and the high schools had their biggest concern because they said it didn't have enough teeth into what's you know for first offenses and stuff and they're not sure if they don't have a SRO they don't have the kits to check the vaping to see if it's something other than just vape and not something more serious so they were asking and I guess from what the SRO that I talked to uh told me they're roughly about 28 to 35 dollars a kit they get them free with the sheriff's department but if they're an so not an SRO then the school's responsible for buying those kids uh so as far as uh most of the main concerns uh the one that
027the high schools had was their concern is and it's it's been there as long as I can remember uh I didn't have to use Washington School very often but when I did I remember it was almost like you had to get a calendar and figure out how you could get a couple students in and I remember right at the end of my administrative career to use Washington School you had a certain number of spots and you couldn't go over those spots and if you did need to go over those spots you had to kind of talk to another administrator to borrow one of theirs if and you had to kind of work out a thing and that's you know that part of it uh it's I know Washington school has changed some just like the
028adult high schools changed but the concern of the high schools especially was that certain level of discipline has students coming back after a quarter or after a semester when they really would like them out of the school for the whole year you know that doesn't mean they don't have to be educated they just don't want them back in their building disrupting again so I shared with them that I would bring this up the last thing uh one of the biggest mistakes I in again uh you know I had uh discussions and what's what's funny I will tell you this we used to do something for the adult high school we always provided a holiday meal for the kids turkey ham everything and Ronda always contributed to it so I appreciate that uh it was free
029to them the uh the adult high school dropping it and making it what's called the graduation success program was a mistake that's just my opinion I'm going to share my opinion amen uh dropping the adult high school and replacing it with the graduation success program uh the students that come to the graduation success program need more uh one-on-one or more teacher time than what this program can allow uh the adult high school met a community responsibility it met the need of many communities by keeping kids in school and yes I agree with Rhonda if they are 19 years old that's where we came in when it was the adult high school and never had an SRO I was principal at that adult high school for 15 years and never had a police officer there and
030had gangs from two and three different Communities going to school there but they knew it was their last chance so they knew and we didn't follow the same rules and guidelines because it was an adult high school they knew if they got in trouble they were done we often gave them a second chance and let them do it online at home and many of them were okay you know and successful with that but as we sold the adult high school back in 2004 the board meeting right before that the comparison that I gave and and if you don't know where it came from it came from San Antonio Texas they were the first ones to really open it up I was a part of the uh Pub pef uh leadership fellows and we had to
031do a project and that was my project the adult high school so three times if I'm not mistaken I presented the adult high school to the school board not always in person but with documents the area that it helped the two most important areas it was proven that if you have an alternative education for that particular age group your prison system has fewer participants and then the second thing your welfare system has fewer participants so that's where the adult high school was brought in and I think should be considered to do it again it's right now when I visited the graduation success program a month month and a half ago uh I think uh Miss Young maybe is now had come back out of retirement Martell young am I wrong she's at Washington but she's
032not okay but so is it still Renee Lynn that's okay so uh you know they've got a few teachers involved there but it it's not the same as having the kids in class in front of a teacher instead of always in front of the computer and a teacher sitting with them in front of the computer trying to talk them through the problems especially math-wise and science but again I think you know uh if we had an alternative education program for even the 18 year olds that are not on Pace to graduate but for sure the 19 year olds that you know need to do it so again that's what those were the budgetary disciplinary concerns that my district had thank you thanks Gary um I heard some of the same feedback about the bridge classrooms
033and really um for students who we're really really struggling and this is one student in a school or like the very the very edge of of really needing a lot of help um but not not qualifying for an alternative placement yet um still needing to be in the school that there there was a need for these inclusion teachers for for someone to be with that child to help them regulate so that they can continue participating in learning in in their um in their school environment um because they they haven't they haven't qualified for the bridge program or Dawn school or any sort of alternative placement but really needing a lot more help regulating behaviorally um I I got some of the same feedback what is the difference between the bridge program and Dawn school is
034that the ridge is before you go to Dawn what what exactly Bridges an elementary program that's essentially an alternative setting for students and and again as I mean we talked through this I'll kind of let uh Dr Seward talk through some of the options that we're talking about but it's it's for elementary of course Don can take some younger students but it goes all the way up and it's you know directly related to students with disabilities so uh the bridge there are some programs there's some classrooms that are specific to students with disabilities but then there are also classrooms that can take any kid that's just struggling you know with with how to interact with other other students in elementary I mean we're so I don't want to jump ahead I mean we we in
035terms of thinking about budget and what we need to do and again what resources we need to offer uh we're putting some plans in place to up not only the options at secondary but also the options at Elementary including increasing the number of those Bridge seats um there's six Bridge seats per learning community so there's 30. um for the whole district and it's a 45-day placement so just to give you a shift and I'll go back and then go forward but so we're talking about no increasing the number of bridge classrooms in each learning community and increase the number of seats in the classroom and then also creating some systems where a child who's moved to bridge has to demonstrate some success in Bridge before transitioning back and building stronger transition supports back so it's
036not a hard course these days yeah and it could be either way it could be 20 days because the kid is demonstrating what they need and they're ready to go back or or it could be it could be longer the real challenge here is that bridges in lieu of expulsion at the elementary level that's really what it's functioning at and the challenge with Dawn the reason why it's so hard to see an elementary school child at dawn is because typically those kids end up there for their entire Continuum once they're there often they never they never leave and so it really should be very we should have have exhausted all of our supports before May making that specific determination and so Bridge the exceptional Ed bridge is something that's in lieu of those things for
037that very reason it's very very hard you only got five seats per learning community and it's what some of my principals tell me is it she's very very very very very very very very Harvard yeah we're changing some of that process as well what we don't want to do is we don't want to we do expect I mean it really goes to the way this is laid out we really do expect schools to say so I'm just having some problems let's build a plan for Sonia and let's execute on her plan and check it regularly and see how it's doing and that is part of what we want them to do to to be able to say a plan that works or you put in place for a kid if it's not working let's change
038it and try again and then and keep assessing and seeing if there's a way to help them be successful in in the space so that's some of that challenge of the time that you guys are talking about but one of the things we are talking about and we will do is that right now we think there's too much gatekeeping in a single space it needs to be more of a collaborative decision and we're gonna we're going to do that I think the threat to the expansion though is we go from six to now 16 in every Learning Community it's very easy for us to be here here in a year asking for 32 and that's where we have to continue on the front end to say it really is our job to continue to create
039these environments building supports assess our assess our supportive plans so on and so forth but we are extending the seats and we're extending changing sort of the criteria for getting under making a more collaborative decisions then it could take if I'm gonna have I'm gonna have that plan and it's not working so I'm going to change it and it's not working I'm going to change it well during that period of time that you're making tweaks and you're changing and we're still disrupting the whole school and that's far I mean to your point and to Sonia's point about like sometimes the gate's been too tight that's what we're looking at at the process of how do we how do we make it more user friendly but again to be clear um we don't want to make
040it so easy that it just ends up being a Floodgate Of kids it's sometimes sometimes that we spend so much time energy money discussion whatever on meeting the needs of those kids that have real needs real needs that the normal kids are getting ignored right I think that that acceptance huh I do want to add that one of the things that we're talking with the principals about just this week is essentially allowing them to establish we're calling it a connect classroom but it'll have it and it stays in the school where it can be used much more flexibly a child could be placed in there for a certain period of time with their their teacher coming in for supports with seed supports coming in different places where they don't have to leave necessarily the building
041so you could have it's kind of like in lieu of classroom to bridge maybe there's something even in between that schools can do with the flexibility that's coming from the Staffing model we feel like that's a real option for them to do and at the secondary space it comes in it's the same kind of thing where we bring in some of our kids in lieu of expulsion they come to school from 2 to 6 30 right and have the same sort of experience it's outside of the school day and so schools are going to have some of that opportunity and I think that's that's important I know there's lots of principles who would rather keep them there with a different system than send them out of their school because especially if they're coming back to
042them and they have to transition back in I think all these options are are things that people would be willing to do and it would help I mean when you're hearing from teachers saying kids tearing up the classroom and we don't have anywhere for them to go these will help they'll give options it's more of a Continuum of supports uh it's a it's a lot of money like I mean we've talked to a couple of you about where it is and what it's going to take it's going to take a large investment to do this and it's not all I mean some of the things that you've seen some things we're talking about aren't just about this it's more you've heard us say we've heard from teachers I know you've heard from teachers that we
043need to Resource schools differently I mean that's what we're looking at and as we resource schools differently it open opens up options for a connect Academy you know at school a b or c so the the under this new model principle will have the economy to be building and I like that they've got to have the autonomy but again if they don't have the resources it doesn't matter if they have the time I mean if they don't have the funds to to do it yeah we're hoping to give them sort of some ideas on what these can look like so in a connect Academy could look this way and kind of get them brainstorming and we our principals are they're good at this right they'll include them since they're teachers or staffs yeah on their
044building level and some of those conversations because those boots on the ground they're they're the ones that know what the issues are but I I mean I I've talked to a lot of teachers on my district that are saying Mr Joe I'm not coming back this year I'm going I need another job about a lot of teachers tell me that well why are you leaving anything about money I mean money's the three or four down the list number one is student behavior and number two is feeling the lack of support whether it's really a lack of support or a perception of a lack of support I don't know but that that's what scares me is that we're just going to be able to lose some really good Educators if we don't get this under control
045one thing that nobody's mentioned so far is cell phones okay Miss Jones so I unders I mean we all understand that there are children that have um situations and that take us to where we need to do uh connected classrooms the bridges the ssps I mean we know that those things are in place however and I'm probably um we also know that there are children that are obstinate defiant bullies probably disrespectful for no other reason and just I mean I shouldn't say to know what the reason but I mean we had our Academy school me I had a middle school job I mean there are some kids that are just I don't like about children day but they exhibit baby head okay and for those children that do that um I personally from being in
046this position for now eight and a half years doing what I do what I've done for the last 15 years I mean I I know that is the case I mean I have kids in my family that are just bad they're just bad it's all right so they just banging at what point I mean how do we figure that piece out and I know I jokingly have been saying this for about a year now with my peers and my family my husband they're like you know people just got to be right there's just too many rights too many rights they've got too many rights he has got too many rights adults have too many rights when I was in school I'm going back to school everybody everybody loves us here at school everybody loves to
047see us I went to CFA is from second to 12th grade 10th grade I'll never forget it probably what I'm about to say they probably can't do now and who at this point can't do that to the people that was dead because they retired but when I was in the 10th grade and I'm an adult and my parents permitted but when I was in the 10th grade I can name you three working very well-known professional individuals in this community right now one of them is myself we got in trouble not for being in a food fight because there was a food fight examples but not because we were in the food fight we got in trouble because we was eating our food while the fight was going on but we everybody had to sign the
048paper like when Mr Rina Walton came she still the Arts and Science because I got something when she came and said all y'all was at this table I need everybody signed the paper and line up you going to the office and I me and two other peers was like I ain't signing that paper I was eating my food I signed this paper that means I was in a food fight I was not in a food fight that was full of I was behaving one wrong right but then we was mouthing off that was Behavior too we got sent to the president the kid that was in the food fight got in trouble for whatever their punishment was I know for a fact that I did three days of ISS in arts and science today wasn't
049sitting in a classroom listening to nobody teach me it wouldn't sit in the classroom why I could say I don't want to do this whatever call my mama what it wasn't none of that y'all know how they do joking they next and grabbing there and talking back I didn't get to do that you know on my three days as well as y'all know my three days I says I cleaned Arts and Sciences I put on a hair net I wore clothes and my mama didn't mind me probably getting Clorox on when I took them trades when my friends walked by me and made fun of me because I was cleaning in the kitchen with Miss Allison and her Circle or sweeping into this red Wells with Mr Olin and Miss Diane and Mr Hester who
050I still see to this day those were like the worst three days of my life but I tell you what I knew after that third day that I was gonna pick and choose how I responded even if what I was doing was based on what my parents had taught me and my mama and daddy said yes we taught her not to sign things because they're legal documents she's being punished for being for the way she did it and for being then we all understand we're not gonna accept the punishment for her agreeing not to sign a document but she was disrespectful okay and they looked me in my face and said you were disrespectful this is your punishment and I did that punishment and he didn't kill me but what he did do was tell
051me they taught me a couple things one I better be going to college or something God won't do this every day because my fears are there two there's an accountability for what I do no matter what I do and three my mama and daddy are gonna hold me accountable just as what I like to say at that time and I still comment at my school day and Mr Bill Kennedy was holding me accountable I didn't get to tell me again oh I can't wait to do my mama get up and she gonna push you out I wish I hadn't said that Mama probably knocked my teeth down my throat when she got to the school and so I think I'm saying all that to say that oftentimes now once again if y'all came and said
052today oh my God the school this room will fill up and oh you can't do that oh my gosh but it didn't kill me is sitting in the classroom Listen to Somebody teach you is effective because half of the time they cussing the teachers back out or they're getting up and walking out we have got to figure out and and I hear this from so many people and I feel like this in my world some days we have got to figure out what is the line like where is the Line in the Sand and at what point is it just an accountability piece and I'm saying that not to you all because it will be a matter of us being able to support you and whatever you came back and see but we have got
053to figure out as a governing board for the school system what is the Line in the Sand because some of these children are coming from homes well that's okay now keep in mind I just told you I wouldn't have been allowed to do that but in some homes that's allowed yeah I've seen it yeah I've seen it like I've had a mom tell me in my face with a singer from a high school I told her I told her to lay hands on her she told me that me and the principal in front of the other child Mom and Daddy she told her daughter too late which fight the other girl and I said there's a Schoolboy member standing there today it was a principal she touch her if she touches her she won't graduate
054in two weeks I promise you if she touched her she won't I'll make sure that the people administration at the district knows that you just told her to fight her so when it comes up nobody did I wrong you told her to fight her I heard it with my own years and I got weeded so I think there has to be a level of accountability our kids can't have basketball games or adult and children problems just being honest we have got to figure out y'all as peers how what are we gonna do because I don't know my baby's gonna go to pre-k next show I'm scared I'm really concerned now he's going into Hamilton County school that we can get him in one because it is income eligible just putting that out there we'll be
055going down but I am concerned because it's getting younger and younger so we have to figure this out now because I know that there are plans y'all and I get it I know there's a population of children that need that but I also we all know that there's a population of kids it's just unrolling and it ain't we gotta figure out an accountability piece for that with the parent like we got to figure that piece out because we have to figure out at what point is the parent accountable for this at what point I mean we recently had an incident at what point is enough enough when you bucking principles you're trying to fight well you'll fight your principal at what point is enough and and that kid might have had every kind of plan
056but at what point is that enough and it and it is affecting us and I don't think we're ever going to get academics right I'm just being honest I really don't think we're ever gonna get academics right if we do not get this discipline right and it's not to be singling kids out it's just and you you know your kid yeah so correct me if I'm wrong I was reading through this and that there's the individual plan comes in at tier three four can but not necessarily they're also use that for a five-day suspension you have to have a behavior plan okay a lot of things kind of going around in my head I I I have heard a lot of the needs for morsi's in Bridge um and it's I I don't want to
057be one of those folks that says like what's the uh the most um uh cost efficient way to do this um because ultimately we have to do what's best for kids I agree with you I think that it's probably more expensive to put the resources in every single School building so that principals can use some sort of like flex and therapeutic model to address kids in their school but I think there's much more consistency and there's more accountability around the academics than when you send a kid completely out of your school building to a bridge classroom because I I'm interested in is there a cohesive curriculum or or set of supports that happens in Bridge or is it just 45 days somewhere else to give the teacher a break and then they come back and
058they haven't like none of their they haven't received like the the behavioral stuff that they need or the therapy that they need or or whatever was going on with that kid um it's definitely the more expensive thing to do to put one of those spaces in every single school building but I think it's the most efficient way to serve the needs of the kids academically and behaviorally because you're not disrupting like they still have the people around them that they that they need and there's more accountability with the academics there's more there's more um I guess communication between the classroom teacher that they're going to be coming back to um so I mean I I agree I mean to my point about hopefully in a year we're not asking for more shortly in a year
059we're saying we use the bridge classrooms less because schools were able to build these connect classrooms in ways that really really made a difference in their building that's where I'm hoping we are that there's some flexibility um there and that when they're able to keep them more I mean we're hopeful that they'll make some of these choices for the resources that we're rolling out towards them and they'll be able to staff some of these some of these spaces I think we are in a year of um exploration I think once they start to see it they're going to start to imagine together and when will they find out what their allocation is Wednesday p.m they won't get it at the principal's meeting they're going to want to let them lead the principal's meeting they'll be
060emailed it but Wednesday evening they're going to get their their allocations and there's basically five weeks six weeks of them collaborating with their calm soups getting other information from different places building their teams talking to their teachers talking to of parents and then making making some decisions they're going to get some of these alternative models that we're talking about around discipline they're going to get those on Wednesday I'm I'm leading a session where I say here's some here's some ideas essentially this cost of resource this doesn't this happens in your buildings outside of your building and so that they're going to start to kind of imagine what some of those spaces could be in their building to your question about curriculum there is a curriculum with bridge and it's both academic and some of those
061social supports but in a bridge classroom you can have kids first to fifth grade it's really long yeah and so in that school-based space yeah you could change that you could say we're doing first through third in the mornings and we're doing for you know they they're going to have a little bit more ability to be flexible they can push that classroom teacher in even if it's just for a high five I saw you got that done today so proud of you can't wait to have you back you know I think there's a lot of opportunities there I think it's just kind of positioning our principles to to reimagine what this could look like and I do think that with the resources that we're pushing towards the schools they they they could make some of
062these choices sure is there at one more question it is there the second layer of that is there a need for a therapeutic location for the elementary age level um to where there is not necessarily A Washington but a space where kids can receive really intensive therapy for the handful of kids the one or two kids in each building that really cannot function we have we have a therapist that 90 of his time has been spent with Bridge Club Bridge kids right okay so I'll be honest it's not enough time you know what I mean even with those 30 kids he needs we probably could use three of him but we do have a full-time therapist that works almost entirely with Rich Kids okay no it's on staff so one therapist for 30 years costs
063money it is I just want to know do the other principles empowered because we have wonderful policies in place for behavior and discipline are they empowered and are there races affected by the number of uh students that are sent to their office no there I mean there's nothing in there's nothing Associated retired teacher tell me that no man that's it could could just be hey he wanted he or she wanted a free afternoon but to Carissa's like she said every home is so different and every home allows different uh well you know acceptability and behavior but how well do we allow that when children get in uh trouble are the parents or Guardian uh May or is it made clear to them that what they do at your house you have your rules these are
064the rules that we have and we we must demand that your child adheres to these rules because when these kids go out in the real world if they choose to have a job they can't act this way in the real world yeah I I mean we in conferences with parents we obviously discussed that um I think it's really important for us to uh consider like these are our kids regardless of where they're coming from you know I was me all heard me talk about I was lucky enough to have two parents and one of them happened to be a marine that knew how to handle me right and not everybody has that and so as we've talked about these things I'm you know I struggle because I lean on the same way I mean when
065I was a principal probably some people would say he's too heavy-handed or maybe someone say he's too soft but there's so many different factors that kids are bringing in to our schools and I'm not saying that we're making excuses for any of them but we also want to support them in a way that gives them an opportunity so that when they do graduate hopefully they do enter you know the real world um so I think it's important for for us to consider that as as we continue this conversation um to your to your question about I mean I said beginning I think we've got a consistency issue um you know I think that I don't think it's the code's fault that that we're going through these things we talk about a lot like in any
066implementation quality Fidelity intensity and consistency if you get off with any of those you're going to have you know variation and and that's what we've we've got right now um I remembered what I was going to say earlier to you Joe uh I what I hope that this board does and will will help us with though is that when you hear these conversations many of these are community issues right these are issues that you know are not they're they're not starting in the school they're starting somewhere else in the community and then finding their way and manifesting themselves in the school and so I think elevating this conversation to talk about what role does our community play in it whether that's a role that parents play the role that organizations the the Housing Authority sheriffs
067all these groups play a part in where we are um and and so I think bringing that into the conversation is important as well sure so Mr King was talking about the adult high school and I remember adult high school but he was talking about the adult high school um and I know that um a lot they allowed them to complete program they completed their um performance their credits yeah their credit to get their graduation their life Baseline yeah winter uh December graduation was Bayside and made graduation was right so they had regular graduation um thinking a little like fast forward to now thinking about that concept is that something that we could reconsider and um other people doing something to say it so marijuana is talking about a high school downtown a career high
068school downtown right a technical situation some of course I don't know um what it all entails but I mean it's their opportunity to have a discussion because I don't feel like we've really been I if I miss you can tell me I don't feel like he is really been a part of that conversation so considering what's going on is there um maybe possibility to have not uh opportunity to have a conversation with him like about maybe marrying the two like maybe making that a high school um an adult high school where people can go and learn um trades to go out into the world once they get their um that's what I'm trying to say certification certificate diplomas and certifications then they've been put on the track um what we've done I feel like our
069due diligence at that point even with the 19 or 20 year old to say you know we can let you recover your credits because that's what you wanted to do we put you on you know you've got in your cosmetology license or you gotten your coding certification or you got your CNA or MMA now it's okay medical assistant certification or whatever this is what you need to go out into Hamilton County and be successful for whatever you want to do maybe that's something to maybe present to him to maybe kind of kill two birds like my grandma when I said it would kill two birds with one stone because you are able to allow individuals who may be disrupting for whatever reason ironde and uh Gary and Joe are talking about um because of their
070age or whatever whether they might also just desire I mean like remember job was a Job Corps so there was Job Corps back in the day when I was in school a lot today so maybe looking and making that school one of those places where I want to say what a One-Stop shop maybe you want to do Job Corps if you're 16 and you don't want to go back to school you might be a new job our version of job for I don't know being Innovative but thinking about that because yes we probably do need a new high school down here but in hindsight we have these needs that maybe need to be addressed too that would honestly free space in some of our other schools where there may be some overcrowding and other issues
071I don't know just trying to think outside of the box I mean a lot about that concept of what that's what that's whether it's downtown I mean we're just we're looking at options and and talking about what that might look like um you know I've got it obviously a little bit more understanding of adult high school and what what it was um you know one of the things that that I feel strongly about is that the students need to stay connected to their regular school where the adult high school kid transferred out of Red Bank and would be a student enrolled at the adult high school where I think they need to stay connected at Red Bank go to another location that does the same thing as the adult high school it's just a matter
072of finding that location and then Staffing it wasn't a ton of Staff but it was I think eight or nine teachers something like that so English to math on social studies I'm hoping I'm just trying to think of something out of the box because clearly we know there's a need okay I do want to just continue to put on the table though that you know to some extent we as a society have done this before and when we've sorted children certain kids get sorted into certain spaces and others get invited into others and it is our job to ensure that every single kid has access to that high quality opportunity and so I just want to caution us as we start to think about these these alternative spaces and I think there's I think it's
073the it's a good conversation for us to be having but we do have to have guardrails for ourselves because we do know you know the 30 40 50 years ago there were certain kids that got certain opportunities and others that didn't get the same right and I think we want to be really um clear-eyed and diligent and wise about how we do those things because it's important are you responding to it yeah I won't speak today I agree with you but if if you if you got a certain number of kids that are disrupting it for another child then I I hear what you're saying you you want to make sure that that a small group of children don't take from a larger group of children that's right and I hear that at the same
074time I would contend that in some ways our schools haven't been best designed for all kids and I'll just use my kits as an example I have three girls and a boy which child had the hardest time in school my son schools aren't actually made as well for boys girls do better in school because they don't need to be as active they're a little more willing to be compliant so on and so forth that's not that's qualitative in my house but it's also research would say that our schools are better I mean we were at the top 10 what was it the top 10 graduates the the we were all there in the spring the superintendent's thing and if you guys I was just ticking off the number of boys versus the number of girls
075I've been doing that for years it's been going down down and a lot of that is our fault we made the adult male or we have made the white male the boogie man in the room and and we've done that in school I mean I'm glad that girls are the most valedictorians and all that kind of but it really bothers me that we don't have the boys that we need strong male leadership in this country and it's very lacking and that's one of the things we're seeing wrong in the school system in my opinion as well I mean I think I think that's our job as Educators how do we create environments where our boys are equally successful that's why my colleague's so successful you know and that's that's what I mean it's it's not
076I'm not talking about leaving kids that are having a hard time being not being disruptive in a room in a room I'm saying we do need to think about how we set up our schools so that every every child can have success and I use that gender example because I've just seen it play out in our house I don't think you can see it play out you know nationally I was just gonna say I've listened to all of you I've been kind of jotting to know which my faults around um this I could I could talk literally um for hours about this this is um something I'm very passionate about and uh I fully know that most people don't don't really see it the way I see it so I'm okay with that but um
077there there are a lot of disconnects uh when we talk about the culture that currently exists and I don't I don't necessarily like to when we frame the discussion say that the the culture that currently exists in our schools because what exists in our school buildings is what is existing in our in our culture period And so what what you see right now uh and there's always been an element to it it's just it's it's now um it seems to just be more prevalent maybe it's just because we have so much more access to information so we're more aware than we've ever been before but we live in a culture that is resistant to discipline it just is um we could we could all talk about areas in our lives where we're resistant to do
078what we ought to do or what we need to do we don't we don't want to do that and um I think the the conversations that I've had um with uh employees here in the system at times is that um as as we've already noted you know we could go around this room right now and spend the next five hours and you would get as many people in this because they're in this room you're probably not going to have more than a couple on the same page when it comes to discipline you're not I mean I'm in social groups with people ball fields Church wherever that see the way their kids behave and or the way that they interact with their kids and that's not how I'm going to interact with mine and it doesn't
079make them bad people it just helps me to understand as an educator dealing with human nature every day that there are people walking in the building every day that just they're not on the same page that I'm on they're just not now that doesn't make it okay because I if I'm teaching in a building I gotta work there every day so the culture it's one of the things I loved about being a teacher was I was given my standards given my expectations from Administration but when I shut the door I was King of the Kingdom and the culture in that room for the next seven and a half hours was going to be what I wanted it to be and I had the opportunity to do that now I also knew that I had some
080support now I didn't have unconditional support and here's where some of the disconnects are Jill where I see disconnects in school systems not this one but all over the place so you've got teachers who are trained and licensed Professionals in content and they're trained and licensed Professionals in best practices when it comes to instruction and The Limited bit of classroom management training that they get typically in the last decade the decade and a half has been focused squarely on academic rigor raising the challenging curriculum and then trying to teach to as many learning styles as you can and that philosophy has permeated education that if we do that that limits a lot of your problems and anybody that's been in the classroom knows that obviously a well-planned lesson goes a long way but you're going
081to have any number of students walk into your room every day it doesn't matter how good the lesson is they're not there for the lesson they're not there to comply and they have a hard time functioning in that structure they just do and one of the things I've communicated to teachers and administrators um a little bit in the past couple three years is that um teachers need to know that an administrator supports them but they also need to know that that administrator is going to have an expectation that when you either fill out that referral or you pick up the phone and call me if you pick up the phone and call me it it probably needs to have bypassed any other attempt you've made right I'm going to ask you what steps have you
082taken to address this Behavior as administrator and I want to hear that and it doesn't have to be what this sixth grade English teacher is doing doesn't have to be the same as what the eighth grade science teacher as long as it's consistent every day with every kid and then when they explain to me here was the undesired Behavior here's how I addressed it the first time the second time however many times whatever that process is I'm not able to make any progress and as an administrator now it's my job to take over we don't have that process very much now there are places in this County where people do it well there are um and when they do it well they're knocking it out of the park but there are plenty of places where
083there is a disconnect there's dysfunction there you have teachers that either don't want to put the effort into discipline don't know how to discipline or they really want to do it and they need some guidance and then you have administrators who haven't communicated that on the front end what the expectation is and so you've got frustrated teachers and principals you got teachers frustrated can't seem to get a handle on class you got administrators frustrated because they got the same teachers always picking up the phone and calling them expecting them to drop whatever they're doing to come down take care of a problem that either the teacher should have taken care of or a process should have taken care of and it just doesn't happen um I will push back on some of what's been said
084a little bit in saying that it's a complicated issue and it's complex I don't think it's complex I think it's hard I think it's hard work it requires effort consistent effort every day but it's not rocket science just not here are the expectations when you don't meet those expectations here is going to be the reaction from the teacher from the administration whatever here's the response and at some level you can phrase it however you want to phrase it there are a number of kids and families in our community that walk into our schools every day that we don't have their attention and when they walk in the building they don't know that a somebody is in charge B they don't know who it is that's in charge and we just don't have their attention um
085and we've got to find a way to do that how we're in there are a number of ways to do it but we've got to put the effort in to do that and that's where I struggle um Rhonda I will tell you you mentioned earlier you talked about not if that was a you know coming down from wherever if it was coming from the district level or whatever my opinion where it comes from is um because everything is so test score driven now uh and this is not every administrator it's not but too many Educators or administrators across the country are too worried about putting good test scores down on or two two data down for a couple years so that it makes them attractive and desirable for whatever the next job is I think
086you're right and so as opposed to understanding where my feet are in this space and to try to create culture which when I do that academics are going to go up that's right as opposed to focusing backwardly and always pressing on teachers to raise academic rigor and to meet learning styles because if we don't have good culture we don't have good structure in order it doesn't matter how good the lesson is and I just think that's where a lot of that comes from and again it's not complicated it's not rocket science but it is it's very hard work it's one of the reasons why I greatly appreciate the job I have now as opposed to the one I did teach trying to teach biology for eight years it's tough you know freshmen come in every
087day and most of them had no desire to learn about photosynthesis or animal and plant cells and the cell I just didn't in my job every day was to grab as many of them as I could around the collar drag them through the mud and hope something was sticking because yeah we got a test coming at the end of the term right and their scores are going to be I'm going to be evaluated on their scores and on top of that this is going to sound terrible but it's just I had to keep my thumb on them too you know and I again I'm thankful I'm at a place right now when I start talking people start writing you know it doesn't always happen that way you know in a middle school classroom so we've
088got about 11 more minutes um obviously this is going to be the first of a few meetings um I appreciate um your words I did get some feet I have gotten a lot of feedback in the community talking to teachers knocking doors having conversations um and I feel like that classroom management piece um and the teacher mentoring piece is um a place where we can make some investment and keep some of those teachers that leave in those first five years um for sure I think it can play a big role in teacher retention but also know um in my own household with my own kids when a discipline issue arises um I'm a much better parent um when I'm rested or supported or I've been taken care of not stress and and I'm a less
089excellent parent when I am completely frazzled and I feel like a lot of our staff is is the latter um and I think it's this self-fulfilling stuff like it's this this cycle spiral downward um the the teachers don't feel supported they feel stressed out they're stretched then and then the the classroom management piece isn't going well um and and can investing in um some teacher supports also be part of this recommendation that we make from the disciplinary well I mean if what just to remind board we've invested heavily in the first three years of any new teacher that comes to us and actually have some really good retention data around those first three years I would take it a step further and Echo like what Joe is talking about is steps we're trying to make
090towards personalization right so that we're supporting kids well and supporting teachers well we'll also go to this sometimes as Educators we we don't even see in the mirror what we need and and I'm not saying this for new teachers or new principals I'm talking about those of us that have been around for a while sometimes we think that we're good at classroom management or we think that we're good at setting up tier one supports and being consistent and that we don't need retraining is a system we need to invest in training I mean I wrote down understanding is something that you said at the very beginning but sometimes we think we understand it all right and as a district we don't we've got to invest in the training and the time to sit down and
091really dig into what we mean by personalization what we mean by setting up good systems and structures routines and procedures and get back to square one so that we can have good test scores and so I I she was like are you going to say something's like I can't say any better than Joe just said it I wouldn't I wouldn't put my stamp on it yeah Mr King excuse me I'm sorry oh one thing to keep in mind too just so it's clear disciplining is teaching yeah the punishments come after that and I I hope that you know parents and especially teachers realize that when they're referring to the discipline there's a process that you do with that student before it ever gets to the administration and uh and I can reflect back so used
092to have a referral slip when it was the adult high school about what steps they had done which later on came came with the most recent which I was glad to see what have you already done with this student but something that we had there was what's your recommendation for this student for this action and when it was the adult high school that was they had gotten to that point where they had already been through the teaching process with that student a couple times before they sent them to me and then I looked at what the recommendation was and stuff but I think sometimes we lose the idea that discipline is the teaching of appropriate behavior and then the first word is disciple yeah so we just need to remember and sometimes teachers say they
093don't want to be involved in that discipline they they want central office or they want the office the administration to take care of it but they're the first step in you know still teaching that student what the expectations are so and ideally they're the one with the relationship so they're the ones that are going to be most effective before we that this in the integrated student supports tier one plan is exactly what you're talking about it is explicitly what is your plan as a school to teach behaviors and to continually reinforce expectations like I think about like that is literally exactly this and I'll be just quite Frank we talked about this this summer had every school designed a tier one plan we got together early in the fall and said bring your plan and
094not everybody not everybody has plans what Dr Robertson is saying and some sometimes we're not as explicit as we think we are and so we're really trying to cultivate and what are those supposed to be turned into the community superintendent they all have them they are they're all in yeah they're alternating and let's be fair some of them to some point that I've made are really strong they're real explicit real specific and some have have opportunity for us to continue to grow but like you guys have heard academic pressing personalization in the personalization goal and every single one of our schools this year is the only that we're like everyone has to have tier one plan as part of their goal where they're explicitly saying how they're teaching behaviors and re and communicating those regularly
095in schools it's to your point um you know but it there's a lot of development still to do as a series I know I don't want to I don't want to ignore Larry we have five minutes on November 30th um the two of you and Mr Wingate and I were at East Hamilton Middle School where where it was so bad Dr Robinson how many how many parents do you think we're at that meeting yeah I'm terrible at this I'd say 125 maybe okay I agree with that so it was so bad that that many parents showed up because of the tier one discipline plan that was in place that would actually allow a student at the very minimum very minimum to be assaulted or physically attacked one two or three times to be assaulted three
096times and to be attacked one two or three times before they were even supposed to be referred to an assistant principle or a principal uh so I I know you mentioned this in meeting right after that and I didn't address it I regretted that I I really I do think there are some issues with that tier one plan and with consistently implemented but that statement that you're making I think you're misinterpreting what was in that point I'm just okay we can we can discuss that but based upon the black and white of the consequences that's what I get out of it yeah and but so what changed what did you do what has been done since November 31st for that father who stood up when you said and I don't what hmm when you say
097you are going to be personally responsible for the safety of his daughter what was done he said to you what are you going to do tonight or tomorrow where I can go home and tell my 12 year old daughter who has been attacked bullied assaulted that it's safe for her to go to school and what does what is your definition of the principle and you both saying that you will be held personally responsible and this is just one example of what's been going on for years in our schools and what we have allowed to take place in my opinion we are bending over backwards for diversity equity and inclusion into a firm kids and allow them to stay in classrooms it's just about all of us sitting up on this Deus would say are negatively
098impacting the majority of students who are only there as you said and for most females which goes all the way up all the research says that females are more compliant to Authority and therefore they're more successful in educational environment they're also more successful in the work environment after they get out of their education so what does it mean Justin and what has been done to change things we sit here we talk you know we give our opinions we have separate Communications with you um I told you why I'm getting called from parents in District 7. there's a reason for that but why am I getting calls from teachers in Red Bank and Ottawa and Harrison Bay and you know there's a reason for this you know I I spoke to a teacher just a couple
099of days ago who claimed that she resigned because of of an affirmation policy for a student at Red Bank Middle School this spring she just said that's nine years of experience of a teacher that left I have spoke personally spoken to four other teachers that have quit in the last year or two for the exact same reasons or left our district for other districts my wife won't substitute in Hamilton County Public Schools anymore because of her experience in feeling unsafe in our schools think about that a retired army nurse who is a war veteran is afraid to go into one of our Public Schools to me that's reprehensible so when we sit here and say we're going to do something about this and I say that the direction of discipline in our district comes straight
100from YouTube that's what I mean when I Define personal responsibility so with that being said I am going to put forth at the next school board meeting a policy which 90 of the 95 school districts County school districts in the state of Tennessee has on student owned wireless devices we can't have a system to where we don't have a district-wide policy and schools are allowed to determine their own policy some of our schools have no policy at all some of our schools have very restrictive policies some are somewhere in between some have different consequences and as I mentioned to you today in a text message we're getting ready to rezone Hixson and Brainerd and East Ridge and those schools have different cell phone policies Eastridge has no policy and what I've heard from teachers at
101that school is that that's been part of the problem of some of the discipline issues there because students are using their cell phones to communicate and cause disruptions in the school so something has to change and and how we take this huge ship it's traveling trying to travel in One Direction and get it to turn around is not going to be easy as as Mr Wingate said it's going to be very very hard it's going to be very stressful but if we don't do it what's going to happen is even worse and that's what's happening right now thank you okay he asked a lot of questions do you want yeah there are just a couple things that I can't but pass to be honest with you I think it's uh we're mixing and and this
102is happening we're talking about culture coming into our schools this is happening politically the conversation around diversity and Equity is not what the issue was at East Hamilton and and when we talk about me being personally responsible um I carry heavyweight I mean I tell you I do if I told you last year wasn't uh stressful I'd be lying to it'd carry a heavy weight there are a number of things we've done at East Hamilton I was at East Hamilton that night till almost 11 o'clock I was meeting with the principal two days later for four hours I've been back to that school and the what eight days that it's been in session or maybe not even eight days it may have only been six days I've been over there probably four hours over two
103different visits met with teachers spoken to teachers on the phone we we worked on their tier one plan worked on their expectations teachers had input parents had input on changes to their school codes we've done quite a bit at East Hamilton um I added staff at East Hamilton so we've we've done quite a bit uh there and and I appreciate you bringing up like I'm responsible when I I take that burden and I'm excited about what we're doing to move forward it's a big ship you're right it's hard it's hard it's hard to move I think you're going to see and some other you've seen in the one-on-one meetings that we've had that this conversation the things that we've heard over the last year the things that we've heard from the community will show up
104and what you know all people say show me your checkbook I'll that's what you've you're going to see and what we present to you as a in a budget that we've heard and that were moving in that direction um I would love to talk to you about that policy before we put it out there we can out of one side of our mouth say that we want uh schools to have defined autonomy and others say we've got to have a district policy to address an issue so before we move in that direction I'd love to talk to you about that sorry I couldn't couldn't let that pass no absolutely I appreciate everybody um joining us tonight I know that our goal for this committee is to um look at this issue and come up with
105some recommendations around um how this is going to affect our budget and and where we want to put where we feel like the most effective way um or a place to put our money is um when addressing uh discipline I appreciate the reminder um from Mr Keane that discipline is is teaching uh the root of the word discipline is disciple I used to teach that all the time in my parenting classes for foster parents um and so it is it is a type of teaching and all of it is is important um we're gonna um get together uh via email find another date for the second meeting for this committee uh I appreciate those in attendance thanks so much have a good night