001When you put it that way, it sounds >> that way you're going. Awesome. >> Why? When I hit back, does it close the whole thing out? >> If you hit back, it closes everything out. Yeah, I have all my >> tabs open for the meeting, you know, like >> Yeah. >> have it on >> with her report. Right. I know. When is TSV in November? >> Laundry. November 5th. >> We I guess we can approve it as is, but I want you just I don't think anybody's going to want to meet the second of the night in November. What's that? >> So like this, I don't think anybody's going to want to vote those days. So we can do it like it is and then we'll bring it back to the >> next meeting too
002and and update those days. >> The 24 Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. The 25. >> Frankly, we got These pick all these off >> cuz they're all tied. >> Okay. Yep. Okay. All right. Oh, got one minute. We're in hurry up and wait mode for the one minute. >> All right, I have 5:45. I will call the meeting to order. If everyone would stand for the moment of silence and the pledge. you'd face the flag. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Madame recorder, you call the role. >> Chair Laura Harrison, >> present. Vice Chair Jeremy Bernett, >> Michelle Childs >> here, >> Keith Actton >> here, >> Deborah
003Thomas >> present. >> We do have a quorum. Dr. Horl, will you lead us through our agenda? >> I sure will. The first item on the agenda is the opportunity for public comment. >> Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? >> Hearing none. Next item. >> All right. Uh the next item is the superintendence report. And I have a number of recognitions uh for tonight. Very, very exciting things to talk about. We love these meetings where we get to recognize folks for for big milestones and other events that have happened. So, uh if the board is willing, let's step down and I'll uh walk through these with you. >> Yeah. >> I don't know why I haven't done this before, but I'm going to swing this around. It makes more sense.
004All right. Uh well, thanks everybody for being here. We got a big group here. Uh and that's because we have so many people, both faculty members and students doing amazing things in Lakeland school system. And the first group that we're going to recognize uh is our group of teachers who have achieved tenure in Lakeland school system. So, uh this actually was awarded um last month at last month's meeting. And I want to talk just a little bit about uh what tenure is and what that means before we introduce the folks who have earned it. So uh tenure is basically a process that's determined by uh oh sorry I thought those were related. You good? Uh tenure is a process that's determined by the state board of education and uh teachers have to meet certain criteria
005to be eligible for tenure. So they have to do a few things. They have to have taught with a school system for 5 years and in the most recent two years they have to have uh composite evaluations uh that exceed expectations and uh then they also and this part's critical they also have to be recommended by their principal and then recommended to the board of education by the superintendent and uh I don't recommend teachers to the board of education unless I've had those conversations with the principal and we've checked the records on the teacher and make sure that everything lines up and that they're the kind of teacher that we want to be with us uh for a very long time. We hope to have you until you retire. So that's what that means to
006achieve tenure. And we've got a group of teachers here and they all happen to be this year from Lakeland Elementary School. We didn't have a we didn't have a group sometimes we had they come in waves from Lakeland Preparatory School. Those waves where we hired like 17 or 18 teachers in a year. So, uh, we've got a couple of things. We've got a certificate for each of the tenure teachers. And then also, as is our style in Lakeland lately, we have a pin. This is a special tenure pin that's been created just for you that says in recognition of achievement of tenure. So, how we're going to do this is I'm going to call your name and everybody's gonna clap. You're gonna clap. And uh then if the teacher if you want to come up
007and bring your family with you, we'll we'll walk over here and we'll do a quick picture. Uh and we'll do that individually and then we'll get all the tenure teachers up together. And Miss Lockheart and Dr. Dooo, if you want to come up for those pictures, that would be great, too. And DJ's going to take the official picture in the back and we'll share those with everybody. But the first teacher achieving tenure is Carrie Sutton. So come on up, I come over here. >> Thank you, assistant president. Thank you. >> Come on. Yeah. >> Thank you so much. >> Everybody else got a hold. >> The next tenure teacher we want to recognize is Kimberly Monafo. Somebody in this I definitely have to get my >> It's a strong group, a strong teacher. teachers. The
008next one we want to bring up is Tammy Madden. Come on. >> This room is graduating. Thank you. All right, the next teacher we want to come on down is Casey Drillinger. at you. Here you go. Congratulations. That's why she wants >> DJ has to take 12 pictures of me in the hopes that one of them is halfway decent. All right, Jennifer Dixon, come on down. Which way? Naen Hopper. Come on. >> Congratulations. for everybody. >> Thank you. and Catherine Batson. >> I think he's going All right. And now if we can pull it off just the faculty, the newly tuned faculty members come on up and we're going to get one more picture with you. All right, everybody say happy. New Jersey. >> All right. And now, uh, I don't know if this is
009the opposite end of the scale. Well, I said our tenure teachers, we hope you stay with us until you retire. Well, we have somebody that took us up on that option to retire. And we want to honor uh our retiree tonight who is with us. And uh this is somebody that's been uh part of the school system from the right is when Lakeland school system started. I've got that right. Was it right after or >> Before I thought it was before, I'm sorry. before, including from Shelby County. And uh she has taught gifted and is uh very skilled with technology and has been a uh a big asset to us in that way and is somebody that has been flexible and hardworking in uh in in just about every space that we have asked her
010to be. And I know you've challenged your students and um you have uh adjusted as we needed you is the way I think of you as somebody that's been flexible and kind of a utility person. one of those people that uh when we said, "Can you do this?" you said, "Yes, I can. I can do that." And we appreciate that. And that is Jenny Kilpatrick. If you want to come on down. And so what we do for our retirees is we put together a shutoerie board here that says, "Enjoy retirement. Uh Jenny Kilpatrick, May 22nd, 2026, Lakeland school system." So you can put any manner of snacks on here you want to. You can grab some from in there and snack it up and take it home if you want. But um here >> awesome.
011We are grateful for All right. So, we are going to move on to our student recognitions. Um, I don't know if you heard or not, but uh we had our first graduating class uh at Lakeland School System this week. Yeah, let's have a round of applause. Just uh if we if we all started talking about what that means and what it meant to us, we'd just be here all night. But uh suffice to say uh we're really really proud of this group of students and the way they led uh and the way they accepted challenges and the way they helped us work through challenges that we had as a school system. How do we do things? What does it mean uh to be a Lakeland Lion and and these are the students that were the
012tip of the spear. We actually use that phrase a lot. These students were the tip of the spear which I know was hard uh in the ninth grade um and and hopefully became less challenging the further you went through the school. But uh we couldn't be more proud of these students and we're going to call out the names of the validictorian, the saludiatoran and then all the students that were named Sumakum Lau. Okay. So, uh we're not going to do family pictures with this one. What we are going to do is uh ask the students to come up and get in a group picture with the board as I call your name. So, I'll come out and hand you your certificate if you're here and then uh we'll do a uh we'll we'll all add
013up to a group picture with the board. So, individual pictures with me, group picture with the board. We got it. >> Okay. It took us three years to figure out our system and that's the system. So, first we want to recognize our validictorian who gave a great speech the other night, Caroline Morrison. Just head over there. Our saludiatoran who also gave an awesome speech at graduation, Colin Walker. >> All right. And these are the students that were sumakum laad. So this was the highest category determined by grade point average. And I should if I done my homework. Does anybody remember what it was? Above >> 4.5. That's above a 4.0. It can be a 4.5. No. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. 4.5 or higher for Sumakum Laad. Bryce Thomas. >> Abby Stevens. Is Abby here?
014All right. All right, we're going to clap her out anyway. Abby Matthew Norand, >> Addy Blue Manis. Thank you. Tatum Madden. Nathan Harrison, >> and these are alums. These alums came back and came to the meeting. That's amazing. >> They took an AP test today. A big a big group of these uh students. So, how raise your hand if you came to the district office and took an AP test today. Yeah. So, we've been hanging out all day. It was great. It was a real real kick, right? Uh the next member of the Sumakum La group is Aubrey Fry. Is Meline Cha here? I don't think she Oh, is she? Come on down, Meline. I'm sorry I didn't see you. >> Cooper Gallagher is up next. Cooper, no. Hayden Hughes. Hayden. No. All right. Colin
015Hutchkins. Brooklyn Norris. She's a photo bomber. You got to watch her. She's good back there. >> Alexia Norris. Jack McDaniel. Oh, right over there. Luke Baldridge. Lana Aana. Is Lana here? Not here. Sienna Dunn. I figured out why these were in a different stack. I think I think this group likely is not here. I think they indicated that they might not be here, but I'm going to call them. And in case they are here, we're going to clap them up big. Okay. Truman Hemes. Oh, you are here. Yasmin Houdani Yasmin Ben was with us earlier. Elizabeth Wen, Hunter Owen, Ella Reynolds, Elizabeth Spicer, Edward Vasilelescu, Omni Bark, Let's hear it again for these incredible students. We're going to do one more group photo and moms and dads, if you'all want to get up and take
016a picture, you can. DJ will take the official one and uh or ones. >> Everybody This is a historic photo. Thank you. >> Hey students, students, real quick. Students, you might want to hear this. I There is some food. We had a teacher tenure reception in this room right around the corner. Students, if y'all want to go there and clean it out, we'd be grateful. There's some good stuff in there. So, you can go uh go get it. Parents, too, whatever y'all want. But uh and if you were here for tenure or anything else, please don't feel obligated to stay. We're going to do our regular meeting now, but you are certainly more than welcome uh to get up and go and enjoy your evening. But we thank you. >> Oh, that's right. That's right.
017It's too late. Nice. Thank you. >> All right, Dr. Hor, will you lead us through the rest of our agenda? Uh, I will the uh, I'd like to go through a few more things with the superintendent's report if that is uh, okay with the board. >> Yes. >> All right. Give me just a second to Oh, I need to make sure we're still streaming the right way. There we go. >> I thought everybody was going to stay for my report. >> All right. Just a few things I want to share. And I think as the board knows and the public knows, it's it's hard to keep up with all the good news that's coming out of uh out of our schools right now. I wanted to note that we had three individuals, one of those
018is here uh that has advanced uh from being named either the Lakeland school system supervisor, principal, or teacher of the year. And this is a big deal. We've never had three uh I don't know that there are uh there may have I don't know that there were any other districts that had three, one in each of these categories. But Tammy Wilson has advanced as a regional uh semi-finalist for supervisor of the year. She is here tonight. Corey Martin has advanced as a regional supervisor for as a regional uh semi- finalist for principal of the year. And Catrell Robinson has advanced as a regional semi-finalist for teacher of the year. So, this is a really big deal for our school system. Uh and it just means they have to do more work um and continue to
019get evaluated. But uh they are doing that and we're grateful to them and for them. I did want to note we as I said earlier we had the pleasure of hosting some uh advanced placement students at the district office today. Uh it really felt like almost the highest and best use of the space to be able to use it for students and make sure that we're uh kind of meeting our mission and uh and having that room and making things easier on the schoolbased staff. Uh there is a uh the latest in our Cub Care series is going to be Thursday at 5:30 at the district office. It is called smooth sailing navigating the shift to the next school level. We know it's a busy time of year, but we also know that there are
020some folks that'll be able to make it. And uh we're going to continue to schedule these cubare sessions um as a reflection of the board's 5-year strategic plan, just giving parents additional opportunities um for touches with district office staff. And uh one of the things that came up was transition kind of uh feedback that they'd like to have more more guidance. So um that's one thing that'll be happening there. Uh want to thank everybody that came out for our lion reveal and community open house uh last week. It was very exciting and had a nice turnout for that. And uh the students, the AP art students that designed and painted that lion uh under Jared Parm's direction um just did an unbelievable job. So we love seeing it every day. Uh we also uh hosted
021our volunteer appreciation lunchon and uh honored specifically our volunteer of the year Pam Bter who will go on uh thanks to Deborah Thomas's uh direct sponsorship working with her on the application. We appreciate that and uh we will move her through the process there. Uh we were named for the eighth year in a row as one of the best communities for music education by the NAM Foundation. Um there are a number of elementary summer camps that are happening just so everybody's aware of them. Uh and some of them may be full. So but I'm just noting uh the breadth of events um that are happening. Camp camp invention, drama camp, kindergarten camp, and summer learning camp are all happening um there. Uh wanted to give just a a snapshot of our ACT scores. Uh for
022the class of 2026, 21 of our students had a score of 30 or above. 101 of our students had a 21 or above. So 20 uh 62.7% of the class. Uh so we're excited to to share that and see where that lands us kind of uh when the rankings come out, which will be uh I think it's it's in the fall when they actually release those. Uh we've got some Lakeland Prep summer camps. There's football camp, high school art camp, summer learning camp, middle school art camp, student council planning, volleyball camp, science camp, basketball camp, and band camp. There are probably others that we miss, but uh sometimes people say, "What happens at the schools over the summer?" Uh they continue to serve their highest and best use as well, being put to use uh
023in ways that benefit students. Um let me scroll back through here. Oh, had to call out uh the uh um uh Lake I'm sorry, it's the uh Lakeland Is it the Lakeland Theater Company? What are they called? Lakeland Prep Theater Company. >> LPS theater company. I'm sorry. The LPS theater company. Their production of Anything Goes received 20 nominations for the High School Musical Theater Awards that was tied with one other school for first of all the nominations. So, they had 20. And I do want to note this is the first year that they were eligible to be fully entered into these categories. So, uh, including outstanding overall production. I won't call out all of them, but basically it's a reflection on everybody. Anybody that had anything to do with that show, um, is to be
024lauded, um, students and staff because they did just a phenomenal job. And we knew it when we saw it, but we also knew there was some implicit bias there. But an unbiased organization said this was great, and we know it was great, and we're proud of them. We have, and I I really would leave somebody out. We have all kinds of uh athletic teams that are continuing to advance and have already qualified for state competition. Uh I really won't name them, but if you are not following our Facebook page and the Lakeland Preparatory School Facebook play page, please do that because literally every day there's a highlight of uh of folks that are doing amazing things. The big news obviously was uh the graduation uh that happened last week and uh we just want to
025express our thanks to everybody that participated in that. In particular, I want to call out Principal Corey Martin, principal elect Blake Wadell, and senior counselor uh Courtney Biddick are the three that really threw their arms around that thing. Uh things like that are harder to do for the first time as we know and Miss Martin has had a history of having to do things for the first time basically since she took the job. But but that in particular, they took a lot of uh made it special in a lot of ways. I know the feedback we've gotten was that it was meaningful. Uh it was special. Uh the attention was in the right place uh in terms of the students and um I really appreciate the board's support and presence and certainly anybody that had
026anything to do with it. So uh that was uh the big news. So that concludes my report. >> Are there any questions for the superintendent? >> Hearing none. Next item. >> Okay. Uh next item. I I will note that there is a monthly financial summary there uh that reflects the March 2026. Uh nothing in particular to report but it is available and posted to our uh agenda if anybody would like to. Uh the next item on the agenda is the legislative liaison update from Michelle Childs. >> Yes. Okay. Um I will go through a few that uh I um brought up last time. we since they have now adjourned actually it adjourned on at the end of April April 24th. So um we have some uh conclusions on some of these bills. The first one
027I will mention is there was a bus bill that was HB1 1818 and this was basically even though providing school bus transportation is actually not mandated by law. there was going to be a law that was going to mandate if you do it what your zone of proximity was. Um but that one was taken off notice so it did not pass. Um the next one was uh HB1 1888 and this would have been a waiver for an educator license without a bachelor's degree at private schools with 10 years experience but it was taken off notice so that one did not pass. Um the next one is HB 2422. This is a pilot for 10 LEAs um to pilot reducing testing. That one did pass and it was signed by the governor on May 11th. Um
028uh we're supposed to have a legislative meeting soon. So hopefully I can get a little more details about which pilot program, which schools will pilot that, what that'll look like because I do have some questions about if they're piloting, how how does the comparison then fall and what that looks like? um because of course there's lots of reports that get put out with all of the um um results for each district. Okay. Next is HB1 1785. This is a bill that um did pass overwhelmingly passed and signed by the governor on May 5th. This allows private school students who reside in the geographical boundary to play intercolastic athletics if the private school has 200 students um or less in the um 9 through 12 grade band or 200 or less in the 6 through 8
029um middle school grade band. Okay. Uh HB1 1881 um this one was uh sent to the governor on May 11th for signature. This is going back to the um uh the bill the law before the freedom scholarship vouchers was called ESA and ESA is only in three school districts across the state. Um Memphis Shelby County Schools, Metro Nashville, and Hamilton County. Um this one went through a lot of amendments, but most of them failed. Um the ones that failed was they were were that they were looking to expand it to more counties. they were looking to have to remove the participation cap which would have basically meant unlimited vouchers across the state. Um that they were looking to remove the requirement that you be zoned in to attend LEA with five or more priority or
030low performing schools. Um and I think I I'm not sure if I said it, but also they were looking to remove the income cap. Um but all those failed. The only one that did pass was that they removed the TCAP testing requirement. So, no, the students that um receive the ESA do not have to take a TECAP. Uh their private school could just administer any type of standardized test. Um part of why they are looking to do this is because there's been extremely low participation by low-income families. Um the TECAP scores were very poor. They were worse than the uh public schools. Um, and they could have as many as 15,000 students in the ESA, but they've had less than 5,000. Next is another voucher. Uh, the Freedom Scholarship um on May 7th was signed
031by the governor. It basically will increases the freedom scholarship from 20,000 to 35,000. Um, and at this point I will note that the um the original freedom scholarships, the original 20,000 that are for this school year, that's 146 million recurring. This new one that got passed that will bring it up to 35,000 freedom scholarships is another 113 recurring. the ESAs if they were to maximize them back in 2023 was 110 million recurring and then the special needs vouchers that were the uh original vouchers is 8 million. So at this point we're up to almost 400 million in vouchers. So when they got to our bill to fund preschool special education they said there's just not enough money for that. So we're spending 400 million on vouchers and we can't spend 90 million for special needs
032students with Down syndrome that are required to be and should be educated in the public school system. So HB 401 was placed behind the budget. And then lastly, we also sponsored another bill in addition to this preschool special education HB uh 1056 or rather we requested that it go through TSBA um you know at our request. And this bill would have been um state employees uh are allow able they have a benefit where their children who go to college can get a 25% college discount and teachers have that same benefit. However, full-time employees who are not educators do not get that. So, our teaching assistants, pair of professionals, uh, janitors, they they don't get the same 25% discount. That had a 45 million fiscal note, but again, they had spent 400 million recurring on, uh,
033freedom scholarship. So, there was not enough for um, those employees to have that discount. >> Any questions? >> All right. Hearing none, next item. >> All right. The next item is the approval of the agenda. >> I'll make a motion to get this item on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Dr. Horl. >> Yes. Uh before the board approves the agenda, uh I got some information from the city of Lakeland about an hour and a half prior to the meeting um that would potentially have an impact on the uh uh revenues for the budget. So, I am recommending because it impacts all of the first three items in the discussion action section, uh, I'm recommending that items one, two, and three from discussion action be
034removed from the agenda. >> Um, I'll make a motion to amend the agenda to remove items one, two, and three. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on removing items one, two, and three from the discussion hearing? None. All in favor say I. I. I. >> Any opposed? The amendment passes. We are back on the main um agenda. Um I believe there was a request, Dr. Horl, to also add the 2526 schoolboard calendar to the agenda. So I'll make that motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> So we have a motion and a second to add a number six. That is the 2526 schoolboard calendar. Any discussion on that hearing? None. All in favor of the amendment say I. I I >> any opposed? The
035amendment passes. We are back on the main agenda. Is there any other items any board member wishes to add or remove or any discussion about the agenda as amended? All right. Hearing none. All in favor of approving the amended agenda say I. I. >> Any opposed? The amended agenda is passed. >> Dr. Hor. Next item. >> Next item is approval of the consent agenda. >> I'll make a motion. I'm sorry. >> There are 20 items on the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to get the item on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there anything anybody would like to remove from the consent agenda? >> Hearing none. All in favor of approving the consent agenda say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes.
036Next item. >> Next item we move into the discussion action section of the agenda. And the first item is approval of 2627 school board calendar. >> I'll make a motion to get this item on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. any or Dr. Hall, would you speak to this item first and then we'll >> Yes, this is uh this is kind of the default uh uh agenda. I'm sorry, let me start over. This kind of the default board calendar. We go through and we compare it with uh times where we know that either I or the board will be out of town. Uh we start with a work session and a business meeting every month and kind of eliminate or adjust as we need to.
037There's at least one where we moved a Monday meeting to a Tuesday because of a holiday. Um, I will note that this is a a living document and it's not uncommon for the board to come back over the course of a year and and make amendments as we uh may do if the board chooses on the 2526 calendar. So, >> any discussion on the board calendar? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? The board calendar for 2627 is approved. Next item. >> Next item is an amendment to the 2526 school board calendar. >> I'll make a motion to get this item on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Dr. Horl, will you um speak to what the recommendation is? Sorry. >> Well,
038there's been a recommendation that we remove the work session in June uh which is currently scheduled for June 1st, 2026. >> I'll make a motion to amend the board calendar to remove the work session for June 1st, 2026. Goodness, I forgot what year it is. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say I. I. I. >> Any opposed? The board calendar for 2526 is amended and the item is approved. Dr. R. Next item. >> Next item is review of policy manual section six second half. >> Miss Thomas, is there any items? >> Nothing at this time. >> Is there any policies from this any board members would like to bring forward? All right. Hearing none. And as always, any board member
039can contact Dr. and place any policy on the agenda at any time, but this helps us stay current and go through our um policies annually. So, thank you, Miss Thomas, for you and your team for the work you're doing. We really appreciate it. All right, next item. >> Next item is announcements. >> Are there any announcements? >> Yes. >> Um, our high school boys soccer is playing in another playoff game tomorrow. It's regional semifinals at home at six o'clock. So, come out and cheer them on. Any more announcements? >> We have a plethora of students going to state. >> Yes, there's a lot. >> Yes. >> All right. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Any
040opposed? We are a jerk.