001M check. M check. One, two, two. Check. M check. One, two. M check. One, two. Mic check. One, two. My check. One, two. My check. Mic check. My check. Two. Check. My check. Might check. One, two. Check. Check. My check. One, two. Good afternoon. >> Calling all board members. Calling all board members. All right. Good afternoon everyone. Um I wanted us get us started as soon as possible and close to the agenda time [music] as possible. Um I want to say on the front end I appreciate all of you being here. It will be a long evening. Um 3 to 5 are the board committee meetings. Then 5:30 to uh 7:30 is the board work session and then we have the 7:30 special call. So, I appreciate on the front end and I will appreciate
002you on the back end, too. So, um, so let's start out with the board committee meetings. Mr. Jenkins, will you please take roll call with board committee meetings? Oh, just announced. I'm sorry. I'm starting new rules. New rules. All right. [sighs] Natalie McKenna here. Roderick Richmond, interim superintendent, [music] present. >> George Doris Coleman, District 9, vice chair. >> Stephanie Love, District 3. >> And I believe um that board member Otay is here. She's here. All right. Cabinet, could you please introduce yourselves? >> Jermaine Johnson, communications. >> I move fast, bro. Michelle Stewart, facilities. >> Shante Broadway, Student Support Services. Kimberly Chandler, Northeast Regional Superintendent. >> Licia Brooks, Southwest Regional Superintendent. >> Michael O. Southeast. >> Chino Lus operations. >> Angela Whitaw, academics. >> Crystal Oliver, human resources. Bill White research >> and Jackson safety and
003security. >> Harland Parker charter schools. >> Stacy Davis, enrollment and attendance. >> Michael Bates, discipline and attendance. >> Dave Gordon, early childhood. >> Thomas Perry, Office of General Counsel. >> Monica Jordan, Office of the Chief of Staff. Rachel Addison, Performance and Leadership Development. >> Cedric Smith, school operations. Kevin Malone, operations. >> Amber Huitt Garcia, District 8 board member. >> All right, we're all present and accounted for. Can we begin with the um policy, governance, and legislation committee meeting? Are there any changes to the agenda? Okay, >> we're adding >> Did we add teacher vacancies to the academic committee? >> No, >> I'm just want some policy. I just want to ask at [music] the beginning of the meeting. >> No, we don't have >> I sent an email. >> Okay. Academics. [music] >> Yeah. You
004want me to add it now letter? Okay. Teacher vacancies. [music] Are we We're going to go agenda by agenda. So when we get to that, [music] we can just to make sure that everybody has what they need. >> Okay. Thanks. >> All right. We're going to start with a policy, governance, and legislation committee meeting. Any changes to that particular agenda? >> All right. Um call to order, opening discussion. Then number two is policy 2.0. 01 is revised policy. Thank you, Miss Stewart. Good afternoon. We only have one policy before you uh today for your consideration and that's policy [music] number 10005, superintendent evaluation. We're asking for um a suspension of section A1 of the policy until January 26, [music] 2026. And that will align with the suspension that you all approved on the data dashboard
005policy during our last meeting which is policy number 0028. >> Are there any questions? >> Questions? All right. Do you want to um go briefly through what the you just told us it's just the date, right? >> Yes. So, if Yes. If you go to go down a little bit under [music] section A, go to number one, you will see that the board and the superintendent [music] were required to um approve an annual the annual evaluation performance objectives by October of this year. and those objectives are not in place. So that's the part that we want to temporarily suspend >> to ensure I think to ensure that everybody understands why we're suspending [music] that is because we need to um and we'll be talking about this in the sup the superintendent [music] evaluation committee meeting.
006But we need to get some data before we can set those specific performance objectives. And some of that data is just coming in in November. Dr. enrichment. There's some data that just coming in just came in. >> Just came in. >> Okay. Um so that's one of the reasons that we're you're we're suspending it. Is that right? >> That's correct. >> Okay. Thank you. Any questions, board members? >> All right, Miss Stewart. Thank you. Next thing is policy discussion. During our last meeting, um one of the board members had a question regarding social media. um the social media policy for [music] employees. So, it's open for discussion. >> What was his how is this policy being monitored? Now >> I will have to defer because our office does not actually monitor um the employees actions
007around this policy. So I will have to defer to our superintendent. >> Thank you, Miss Stewart. Um currently, [clears throat] uh board member love to answer that question. uh it's probably not being monitored with the level of fidelity uh that it needs to be monitored uh in regards to uh administration monitoring it. I'm sure there are situations that arise uh that if things are brought to our attention uh we then take a look at it if there's anything that we feel is [music] disrupting uh the workplace and so forth and so on. Uh I have had conversations with staff as well as general counsel and HR uh to start looking at how we would go about if we wanted to go about uh implementing it with uh more fidelity because I looked [music] at the
008policies of the municipal school districts and they have social media policies and theirs is very strict, very strict. Um, anything we can do to make our policy stricter, I am all for that. Um, I don't want to infringe upon rights, uh, free speech. That is not what I'm talking about. But disrespecting the district who pays your bills is a no-go for me. Uh thank you board member love uh for that. Uh what the team and I will do with our communications department uh is we will start to look at uh sending out messages uh to staff along with [music] uh briefing them uh on this policy uh communicating the policy out so that when we come back in the new year uh people can know uh staff can know in [music] particular that we're going
009to start to pay special attention to this policy uh to ensure that it's being adhered to. If I might, um, >> thank you. >> I think board member Love may be thinking about taking a review of the policy itself to ensure that it's it's strong enough given this age of um, social media. And I would also um ask the administration to think about administrative rules and regulations to ensure that employees are very clear about [music] processes and what is expected. So, I think maybe just taking a really good look at our policy and and as I think board member Love said, the contents and substance of um the policy as [music] it relates to looking at other districts and seeing what they do. Is that is that what I'm hearing, Board Member Love? >> That
010should be for all employees and board members. >> Yes. as we take a look at it, Miss Stewart and Miss Green, can we also uh ensure that we have um I don't want to call it a task force, but a cross functional team of staff across the district to be part of um putting in place the administrative uh rules and rigs. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. I was just going to add uh there could be some clarification [music] on chain of command is probably not the right term but the protocol for expressing concerns and getting them remedied whether first going to a a principal or supervisor and then how to escalate that or if it is something they don't feel safe or protected or are whistleblower policies or what is anonymous what is not
011like how you communicate [music] concerns. We don't want employees not to have concerns, but we want them to be communicated in a way that we can actually remedy them as well. So, a reminder on where to go when um when you have concerns about working within the district. Any other comments? All righty. I think we're moving on to the next one. Graduation requirements. >> Thank you. Additionally, I think one of our board members brought this to [music] our attention and this policy is also open for discussion. >> So, I want to um get clear this past weekend the board attended [music] the TSBA um fall convention and in the T during that time it was introduced of um some [music] very creative ways of allowing our students [music] to meet their graduation requirements but also
012making sure that they have multiple pathways. And I think this resonated for um particularly for me and I think for other board members that this Dr. Richmond has been talking about that quite a bit about how do you create these multiple pathways where [music] you have students who are um situated and have options meaning that they can have c they'll have certifications and or have all the requirements that they [music] need to move on to to uh post-secary opportunities including career andor college. So, um, we wanted to make sure that we shared this information with the, um, with Dr. Richmond and, um, I have I think I sent it, Miss Stewart, I think. Did you get the document, but I also have the hard copy if you need the hard copy? Do you need the
013hard copy? >> We have the copy. >> You have it? Okay. So, um I think one of the things that that I know that I saw is that we have an opportunity [music] to align our 5As in our curriculum and our academic plan um and and ensure that that is [music] aligned with the graduation requirements that gives these multiple pathways. So, I think that's what we would like for um [music] Dr. Mitchman, you and your team to take a look at. Um, it's very robust and I think we have um I think it's right in line with what you've been talking about. >> Thank you. >> That was it. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> Um, I agree with Natalie. It resonated with me, too. I was super excited. [music] Um, I
014can't wait for the administration to implement those things. >> Thank you. Um, as a point of clarification, our team will tell you we uh start to look at what would it look like first of all, we set the goal of at least 10% of our students [music] at some point graduating uh with an associates degree. Uh and so uh that's one thing we'd like to start seeing [music] uh students graduate with their high school diploma and much like we did at medical district high students also being [music] able to graduate as concentrators with an associates degree by the time they leave school here. >> We appreciate that. Thank you. And we look forward to seeing you. >> I think with policy discussion that was it. Is there any? Yeah, that was it on the policy.
015So, we're going to 3.01 legislative agenda draft review. Okay. So, as we gear up for the upcoming legislative session, we have several proposals for your consideration for the board's [music] 2026 legislative agenda. So the first item is preser preserving parental rights through optional firearm safety instruction in public schools. This item is in response to a [music] law that was enacted in 2024 and it went into effect this school year and it requires all LEAs and public charter schools to provide firearms safety instruction to students in grades [music] K through 12. With this prop proposal, we are asking that the law be amended to include a parental optout out provision for parents who do not want their child to participate in the instruction. Any questions? Okay. The next item, clarifying due process rights for per for
016um our permitted teachers. This proposal is [music] simply seeking to explicitly clarify that due process rights under the law do not apply to permitted teachers. The next item, extending 5 to 10year charter renewal authority to local authorizers. Under the current law, initial and renewal charter agreements are for um 10 [music] years. However, under a recently enacted law, if the state charter commission upholds a charter school's appeal to renew its [music] contract after the local um school board has denied it, the charter agreement with the commission can in the charter agreement that the commission can enter into can be between 5 to 10 years. This proposal is simply asking um to give local boards the same authority currently reserved for [music] the commission. Um, and this would just give us an opportunity to have some time
017for corrective action instead of just going straight into a 10-year um, renewal contract. >> I have a question for you. Was there any rationale given at the time that this was enacted for the um, Shelby County Commission as to why they gave them more leeway than they would give to the the LEAs >> with the state board? >> Yes. Um, I can't remember any specific rationale behind it. The only [music] thing that I can possibly come up with is for corrective action purposes. Maybe you have a charter school who's not performing as well. And instead of just automatically denying them, you would have this five-year period where you could extend [music] a contract for them. But I would defer to um maybe yeah Alandra for that. All right. [music] Um I would agree with uh
018what Miss Stewart has shared. There was not a definitive rationale as to this. Um but if the commission is allowed um to have this autonomy to determine years uh we also would like um to have that option as the LEA. >> The other question I have have we is this has this been part of the discussion or brought with the charter um the charter advisory policy? >> No, we haven't shared this with the um charter advisory. >> Okay. Um, I I would like for um I would like for you all to consider having a conversation with them about this as well to get their input and feedback about it because it would be a great thing if that's something we could jointly possibly support >> support. Okay. Okay. The next item is school social workers
019exemption. [music] I'm sorry question. I I was also going to add in our um budget audit and finance committee today, we'll see a charter map presentation as well and I think it was we're thinking about facilities and you know we create 5 10 [music] 15 year plan um where maybe a school is meeting the same outcomes of a neighborhood but there is some sort of reorganization that needs to help that might help with the phasing of facilities. So I think that it's a helpful tool and not necessarily [music] I think that they're not performing but maybe the like I think it's a tool we could probably use when we're thinking about reorganization or needs of communities looking at percent to enrollment academic achievement as well as we think about our whole footprint. So I think
020this is great >> and again I just want to clarify that it is specific to the renewals and not the initial application. >> Correct. And today on the map we will see how much time is left in a 10-year renewal too. So that'll also help. I think that it will help us with the planning. So that's clear. Thanks. The next item is school social workers exemption [music] from parental consent for counseling. Um the family rights and responsibilities act generally requires parental consent before a minor can receive [music] certain types of care and services. The law was amended last year to include an exemption for school counselors [music] as well as psychologists um who are now able to provide preventative or developmental counseling without the requirement of prior parental consent. This proposal is simply [music] asking
021to add school social workers to ensure that the exemption covers all three primary mental health and support staff who are licensed in Tennessee. Does anybody have any questions? >> Okay. The next item is statewide school resource officer or your SRO program grant. Currently, the state covers the cost for one SRO to be in each of our schools up to, I believe, is $70,000 [music] um per year. SRO's are those sworn law enforcement officers who meet all post training requirements and they are employed by a local law enforcement agency. In our [music] case, it's um they are actually employed by the sheriff's department. To access the state funds, the district has to enter into anou with the local law enforcement agency and the funds for the SRO are provided to that law enforcement agency. Our district
022has a combination of SRO's as [music] well as SSOs. SRO's again are employed by the local law enforcement agency and the SSOs [music] are employed by us. They are not considered as local law enforcement. So, what we're asking for is for that same $70,000 coverage to be provi that's currently provided for SRO's to be provided by the state for our SSOs because we know that there's currently a shortage of SRO's or sheriffs um with the local sheriff department. So, we're [music] just asking that those funds be made available to the school districts to hire SSOS. And I would like to point out again, I think we've talked about it before, our SSOs in our [music] school district are postcertifiable. Um, I think they would only have to take maybe a couple of more classes in
023order to actually be postcertified, but again, they are not employed by the local law enforcement agency. >> Any questions? I have um chair Um, we got to get permission from the general assembly to make this a reality. >> Yes, we would. We would because the funds were established through the general through the general assembly for the SRO's to be able to receive the funding. So, that entire funding program was set up through the general assembly. How much money would the district save if the general assembly uh passed this law? >> If they provided $70,000, I don't know how many SSOs we currently have, but it would be $70,000 up to $70,000 times the number of SSOs that we [music] currently employ. With our count of officers, the district would save anywhere between8 and $10 million.
024>> Sweet. >> Any other questions? >> How many That woke Tito all the way up, y'all. Y'all should have seen him. How many SSOs do we currently have that can become SRO's? And what would it take? It will require us to be a law enforcement agency >> for our officers to become SRO's. >> And have we ever thought about the cost of doing that? It would really be just the state having approved it and us going [music] through some mo some legal contractual agreement with the other agencies that are here in Shelby County, but the cost would be the same because we're already functioning the same purposes in our schools. I would like to also add in order for us to become our own police um have our own police agency kind of like what
025you see at the University of Memphis or um the University of Tennessee. It would require um a law to be passed in Nashville. And I do believe that we would also have to have permission [music] from the county commission in order to move forward with that. I think the question you may be asking is if we have 10 SSOs, how could we assist them in becoming basically sheriff's deputies so they can become SRLs? Is that what you're asking? Okay, you want to try again? Okay, that's another question too is just thinking about it a different way is I know that the sheriff's department is having a a hard o a hard time recruiting. Is that something that we could possibly enter into, just thinking about it, entering into an agreement with the sheriff's department that
026we let them recruit, we help them recruit them for them to work for us, but they probably wouldn't do that. And we probably don't want that, do we? Okay. Gotcha. Thank you. Oh, and just to be clear, there would be a fiscal note of 8 to$10 million for the state is what you're saying. >> Okay. >> That would just be for our school district. But again, remember that the state has already stated in law that they are willing [music] to pay for one SRO in each school. So, I don't know if the fiscal impact hasn't already been considered, but the fiscal reality is not in place because all school [music] districts don't have SRO's because we can't, you know, we just can't find them. We don't have enough available. >> Thank you. >> If I
027may, to kind of clear things up, the way the state reads is to receive this grant, [music] these grant funds, you must be an SRO, which requires [music] you to file for that grant application as a law enforcement agency only. The next item is economically disadvantaged student certification [music] flexibility. And this proposal is asking the general assembly to require [music] the office of research and education accountability or OEA [music] to conduct a study on how other states define and capture their count for economically disadvantaged students and to provide the general assembly with recommendations on how Tennessee can better identify all students facing [music] educational barriers due to economic hardship. Um we think that this is crucial for accurately [music] account allocating funding under the TISA formula. Just to give um context, Miss Stewart, our currently
028the we get federal um data and we get state data around our student performance and around our economically disadvantaged and the federal government does not recognize our economically Tennessee's economically disadvantaged does it because we [music] don't it doesn't align with their their definition. Is that right? I think states are doing it differently. Um, and I would I'm going to need some help from the superintendent or staff, but I know in Tennessee that the description or the definition for your economically disadvantaged student um is kind of is drawn more tightly than it is in in other states. [music] And I see Bill with the mic. So, Bill, if you want to if it's okay with the superintendent for Bill to jump in. Uh good afternoon board members, superintendent. Um basically the state has to uh define
029it and then the federal government has to approve that definition. And the way it currently works in the state of Tennessee is a student has to be receiving SNAP or TANNIF or they have to be a foster student, a foster child. Um there are also homeless are considered um migrants, runaways and basically um we get a file from DHS about the SNAP and TANIF recipients and then we get a file from DCS about the students who are in foster care. I I think the concern is that sometimes it's difficult to do the matching on those files and then also does it really include all the students who are truly economically disadvantaged. I mean if you're receiving one of those services then you probably are but we have some families who don't necessarily qualify for SNAP
030and Tana for example but are still struggling financially. So I I think this is a good way to go about it to have um the office of research and education accountability which is part of the controllers's office for the state of Tennessee to actually look at this and how well are we able to implement it in Tennessee but also how does it compare to other states chair I think Bill Wright answered my question. Um, for those of us who were here when Dorsy was here, he started his speech [music] off 40,000 students um have income to less than $10,000. I know that like the back of my hand. How much would the district uh if we uh got this bill set, how much would the district get in federal dollars and state dollars? Do you
031have a uh estimate [music] of how many kids um their parents are working working poor in the district including the SNAP recipients? I don't um I think what we would have to do is we would have to look at some other data sets because we actually as a district no longer collect income information about our families. We just collect or we just receive again like who's on SNAP and who's on Tannif um who's homeless so on and so forth. Um, but that's something that I do think uh we need to emphasize as part of this study >> because it would it would depend on well how do we define economically disadvantaged and obviously um I think what you're getting at is that like I said we have a lot of families who aren't necessarily recipients
032of some of these programs but yet they are struggling. Yes. >> So we would want the definition to include those families. Um, so there's not a real easy way to get at what you're talking about right now, but I do think um, perhaps we need to push that as part of this study. >> Tito, would you like to comment? only if you don't hold me to this number. But I did just do some calculations and so you you don't think my number is arbitrary. What I did was um for for the state portion of it is you get the um the base rate and economically disadvantage you get a bonus of 0.25. So what I did was normally we hover around about 55 58%. If you add another 10% of our students who aren't in
033that 55% that will be close to another about 7500 students is what I'm I'm doing. Um so if I take the base rate of 79 72.95 excuse me for being a nerd um multiplies time 025 that gives me about 1823. I times it times about 7,500 students. That's about 15.6 million additional money from the state. And then on top of that, we get about $95 million of title$1 for that 55% that's direct certified. So you'll be looking at another probably 7 to8 million. So we standing gain upwards of about 22 $23 million. Again, don't hold me to that. That's rough calculations on this great iPhone 15. I would um I appreciate your calculation but I would say to you that it's probably higher than that Tito because in 2015 when they changed the that they
034were at 80% and the very next year we were at 50%. So I would posit to you in today's math right now in economics we probably get more than that. Okay. Well, I'm going to ask for what we want and deserve. Okay. All right. Any other questions around this one? >> Okay. The next item >> I'm sorry. I just want to recognize that board member Porter, board member Murphy, and board member Williams are now present. Welcome. >> Our next item, voluntary prek funding for teachers um voluntary prek funding and teachers child eligibility. So, with this item, we're asking to amend the voluntary prek um priority placement placement criteria to include dependent children of classroom teachers who are employed [music] in the same public school district regardless to that teacher's income. >> Any questions? All right,
035next one, please. >> Tissa funding inclusion for special education prek. We are proposing that the Tennessee General general assembly amend the law to include preK students with special education [music] needs and their peer models as categories that generate education funding through the TISA model just like other um K through 12 students. >> Any questions? Okay. Did you have one? >> Okay. The next item, facilities overhead reduction. This item is asking the state to create a matched grant program specifically for building infrastructure within the TISA framework. Recognizing that deferred maintenance [music] and high utility costs directly impact the resources available for instructional purposes. Any other questions? Okay. The next item, designated TISA allocations for adult education funding. This item is intended to [music] address the funding lag that we currently have for our our adult education
036programs. and we are proposing that the state allocate funds based on the [music] current or actual enrollment count or through a growth funding mechanism. So I just want to say with this we have a partner in this one I believe Goodwill is it Goodwill Excel that indicated that they would be a partner with us in advocating for this legislation. And so just want to make sure you contact them. >> I think this also helps us. We have over 500 people on the wait list for our adult virtual high school as well. Um for for me this is I think what we were facing about the the capacity um for the the jailbased um location that we approved for Excel. Um, I think we have 120,000 adults without a high school diploma. This seems like an
037easy request to make to the state. Um, and expand our adult education. >> Any more questions? >> Okay. Um the next item is um based on [music] teacher recruitment and retention and we're asking the general assembly to commission a feasibility study by the office of research and education accountability again oa on the feasibility of implementing a state fun on the feasibility of implementing state funded programs for our [music] K12 educators and these type of programs would be specific to like housing down payment or home loan assistance programs or subsidies as well as [music] stipens for food or groceries. We have seen that in other states that um [music] in state law it's codified where states will actually pay into um housing for um educators. So something along those lines. But again, this is just asking
038the state to do research around the feasibility for for those type of programs to be implemented in Tennessee. Any questions? I do have um an observation. I believe that the city of Memphis has a program and if this is something we could potentially partner with the city and the county on um asking for this, that would be great. this. So, when I think this came up to go beyond that, but I know when I was in the mayor's office of education, we contacted the city about this. The teacher home buyer assistance program exhaust their funds in the first 30 days it's open. It's not meeting the demand and there was a request, I know at the time, to expand that fund just to add dollars to it and there was an administrative burden on it.
039So, I think the beyond home buying, what are the total benefits? And I think that goes back to also the, you know, the voluntary prek, too. We lose um teachers out of our workforce because they stay home with children um or don't meet the income requirements and can't [music] afford to send them to prek. So, I think it's part of an overall we we want to increase our salaries, but are what are other things that are that we could do? So, I think there are things the state may be able to offer us as well. So, Okay, the next item is TCCTE funding alignment to the 10 scores credential impact [music] framework. We want to hold on this particular item for now. We need to do some additional research around it. Um, I think what
040we can do is just support if if schools like TCAT [music] or Southwest Community College have something on their legislative um agendas around this item, we can support them in that. [music] But for now, I think as a school district, we just want to hold on this particular item. I would also like to um ask if it's okay with the superintendent and with the board if additional items come forward to our office if we can just submit those items to you individually and then move forward um without you having to vote on. >> We can do a resolution on um Tuesday that will authorize that if you'll prepare that. Um because one of the things I would like to um add that came about because of um Speaker [music] Ston talking about the two-year getting
041associates degree and then being able to credential um bringing back the permit >> um um legislative item that we had last year and can you give a brief up update on what that was? >> Do you recall it? >> Yes. I'm trying to it was um that particular item I believe we were [music] asking for I can't recall right now. >> I think it had to do with um allowing permitted teacher permit teachers who are level four and fives to give them to to give them additional sort of points towards the practices. So if it's like one, I'm just throwing out a number. I have no idea. [music] 140. If they're four or five, they get 10 20 points towards the the practice. >> Right. Right. Thank you. >> Which would help us because that's
042one of the issues that our our teachers are not passing the practices within that time period. Is that right? >> That's that's correct. >> Any other additions, comments? [music] >> If I may, I just wanted to say thank you, Miss Maria. she got on a Zoom call with myself and board member Garcia just to go through these legislative items. So, I appreciate your time and effort and everything you're doing to help make sure we push this push these items forward. So, thank you. >> Thank you. All right. If there are no other Do you have any other items? >> That's it. >> All righty. Then, um this is this policy meeting is adjourned. we can move on to um community outreach and engagement committee meeting. Is there anything Madam Chair, I can't see >> the
043who? Oh, oh, oh, I had something else going on. Oh, so I wanted to um talk about the district choir. Uh, Mr. Armstrong [music] has come on board with me with the district choir. We will have auditions December 1st from 5 to 8:00 p.m. which will be in a TLA building. Um, and we wanted to get more advertising on that to the community. Um, we have a over 43,000 views as of right now, but we wanted to push that a little bit further to getting interviews and making sure that we get the children out here that want to audition for the choir. And so, we've been working on that for the last six months. And so, um, okay, that's mine. So, uh, Germaine and the comm communications crew, if we can push that a little
044bit more this week, I would appreciate it. Thank you, Madam Chair. That concludes item one. Now we're gonna go to 2 2.2. Good afternoon. I'm going to give an update on the most recent uh community listening session. [music] And so, uh, the board hosted their third listening session last Thursday, November 12th. Uh, this meeting was a virtual, uh, listening session to [music] support those, uh, community members as well as families who would or may not have transportation [music] to attend our in-person meetings. Uh, we had over 60 attendees, uh, who were able to provide feedback and [music] participate in breakout uh, sessions. Also, participants got a chance to learn more about the roles and responsibilities of our board as well as hear about the historical context of the state takeover. Our next listening session is
045scheduled for Wednesday, December 3rd at 5:30 p.m. at the White Haven Community Center. Are there any questions or comments or concern? Oh, I do have a just pop in this inform. Just just real quick. Just a just a question. Is out of all the the community feedback we re we received, have we implemented anything or [music] something say, oh, you know, hey, we haven't thought about that yet or that's a good great idea. Is there anything like that that we can try to implement right now? Um so uh throughout our listening sessions we have been gathering that feedback and so we hope to uh take that feedback and be able to uh implement things that may be different. [music] Uh of course working with uh the board things that may be new or different maybe
046implement that uh in the upcoming months. if I can help with that. I was at the last one and one of the things that they did is that they the administration did was responsive to some of the feedback and they were they gave update about what they were doing around that. So a lot of it is we're working on it and some of the things [music] have been but to your point we need to highlight what those things are is what you're saying. Okay, I got you. I think um anybody else? I have a question of the you said we had about 60 [music] attendees. How many were community members and how many of them were district employees? >> I can get that information uh to you uh in the next couple of days. I'll
047work with the community partners to um be able to uh disagregate who was employees versus who were actual community members or families. >> Okay. and of the community members are they people that are coming to each one of our sessions? I mean I when you get your information if you don't mind >> I feel like Okay, sure. >> Thank you. >> I have a question. Um when you get that um do you know if the community is a parent in our [music] system? Um, how do you sign them in? >> So, we can pull that information from the signup sheets. We do ask whether or not you are a community member or community partner or if you are a parent. So, I can pull that information as well. >> Thank you. >> I have a
048question. Um, is it possible that we can have someone sit at the front at our community me because of I think the last event when we were in Frraasier, we had that mishap and I don't think we need to have that mishap again. So, we can have somebody at the front to turn them around before it before they get inside so that we won't have that happen again. >> Sure. We typically have uh safety and security there. They're usually at every last one of them, but Yeah. And they're usually there at the front. So, >> yeah. Yeah, cuz he slipped through. He slipped through the cracks. We don't need that to happen again. Thank you. >> No other questions. Thank you. >> This meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you. We'll move on to um I
049just want to let board members know that the facilities meeting I was trying to I'm going to if I have to stop us in the middle of one so because we have um outside guest um partners coming in to do the presentation so I want to be respectful of their their time. So I'm going to go ahead and start the budget finance and audit committee. Cool. Okay. We'll call order the budget finance and audit committee. Um I do want to add item 2.02 um FY26 budget amendment. Um you'll see it on the screen and you'll see it reflected on our work session as well. Just wanted the TM opportunity to present that. Um are there any other additions to the agenda? Uh item 2.01 01 uh charter school map report. Uh this is something that
050we talked about I think now uh maybe 6 weeks ago, eight weeks ago. Uh as we're going into the uh budget planning season, we see we often see that really big number of how much comes off the top for um charter school allocations out the door. We make decisions in sort of sometimes silos, one at a time, two at a time about whether we continue um to renew um or approve new charter schools. And as we work on our comprehensive facilities plan, I wanted the board to be able to see outside of MSCS traditional schools, our public charter schools that are part part of our portfolio, how are they performing academically? how are what percentage are they to the enrollment they said they were going to be at and how much time do they have
051left on that 10 years. Um and so we could see that in sort of a saturation as we as we make decisions about what the future of Memphis Shelby County Schools footprint looks like. So um I'm going to hand it over to Michelle Stewart to present the data. >> Thank you board member Huitt Garcia. Um Yolanda we hit the next slide. So, as board member Hua Garcia was just saying, these are the data variables that we were um tasked with uh laying out on the map and my team and Orlando Parker's charter school team worked together on this and you'll see so you'll see the name of the charter school, the grade configuration, the enrollment and that's at the [music] 20th day and the utilization and normally when we talk about utilization we're talking about
052a building utilization. So that's enrollment to capacity. [music] This is a charter school utilization. So that's their total enrollment against their board approved charter enrollment. So their maximum every charter agreement has a maximum enrollment that a charter school can have. So in this [music] instance that is their utilization. Then the years remaining and then finally the proficiency rates. So I put this slide in here just to show you the difficulty we have putting this into a presentation. Um, the district is large and when you put this on a map, all those little white boxes, I'm going to zoom into them for you in a minute, but those are basically all the charters distributed around the district, the maroon lines are the regional lines. So, [music] northwest, southwest, northeast, southeast, and the colors, the different colors
053are your different board districts. Um, I can print you each your own district map or a large map where you'll be able to see all of this really clearly, but I just wanted to explain [music] it to you so that when you make that request, you'll know what you're looking at. So, this is board member McKistics district and I'm not going to go into it. We'll go to a clearer one where you can see the data on the screen, but just so you know how it's laid out, this is board district 1. The white boxes are the data variables and the little purple diamonds are the school locations. So, board district one has [music] eight charter schools. You'll wonder if you'll hit the next one. Again, board district 2 is a large geographic area, so
054it's hard to zoom in and show the whole district all at once, but board district 2 has the eight charter schools. Now, Yolanda, hit the next one. So, board district 3 is a little bit easier to see because they're it's just stretched out um along the the line. And so if you start over at the left, you see that Westside Middle School is a charter school. The great configuration is 68. It's a middle school. Um its current enrollment is 232 students, which is 54% of its approved charter enrollment. So it's half full. Um it has eight years remaining on its charter and then its proficiency rates are there. The ELA is 5.5% and the math is 3.5%. And this just carries across to each [music] charter school. When you see um if you look at
055those business academy uh blurbs, that's two schools in one building. So you see the arrows pointing to that one [music] diamond, that just means that MBA's high school and middle school are in that same [music] building. And you just see the data um there for each one of them. Um then the following board districts, Yolanda, if you'll just roll through them real quick. You see board district four. >> [music] >> We go back one has five charter schools laid out there for district five has one charter [music] school or district six has 10, seven has 10, eight has zero charter schools and nine has four. So for each one of these board districts, [music] you get the same data for each charter school. Um, and again, if you would like to be able to see
056this for your district or the whole district, I'm more than willing to print it out with you and I can sit with you and go through it if you'd like. Oh, I also forgot to mention, you can see the little gray, those are district directrun schools. So, like board member Garcia was talking about, you you can see the charter schools next to our schools. So we can talk about the whole picture when we're talking about um any resonings or consolidations whatnot. Is there a way to see just all of this data in an Excel sheet too? Like do you was that generated from an Excel sheet? That would be helpful for me just to see absolutely like if we're thinking about these entrances like approvals and >> overlaying that with phases of ambitious and feasible
057um decisions on our buildings. I think that would be helpful to know which buildings we would be considering in those phases like realistically fully funded. Um, and I think seeing these together also helps us ask questions about, you know, what could be true about supporting charters if we are seeing opportunities or how we're thinking about our building utilization as well. I think thinking innovative about our um charter engagement in our strategy. So we are and are they doing the thing they said they were going to do then? And this is a really great way, I think, to summarize it. Um, so I appreciate all the work that you and Miss Parker put into this. Thank you. >> And I'll send you the the spreadsheet of all the day. >> Thank you very much. I have
058a question. Oh, I think a whole bunch of I'll go last. I think you have um Murphy and Love. I'll go last. Um Michelle um the elementary schools are they in um are the prek numbers included in the numbers >> if the charter school I'll let Orlando talk speak to the charter school data. >> Thank you. That's a great question love. So um charter schools uh prek is not approved under the charter school capacity. So it's only kindergarten through 12th grade uh for charter schools. So prek numbers are not included in this capacity. >> Can I ask you why? Um the prek department is located inside [music] the schools. Um let's just say MBA has 100 prek students. The capacity is a 100 students over what we're being assessed to. >> Yes, ma'am. So, as
059it pertains to the charter school capacity, it is the approved number that the application was approved for. So by state law, charter schools do not include prek for their approved capacity for their application or contract. I do understand that those students are actually taking up space in that particular uh school building, but the utilization for charter schools for this particular map is different than when we look at a utilization uh for our other schools. >> Um next question. Do we include our prek numbers when we're closing a school down? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> I have a Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Board member Murphy. Go ahead. >> Um, mine's just a simple question. I just wanted to uh sit down with you and go through my list cuz I have 10
060in my district and so if me you can go sit down and go through it and we can move from there. >> Yes ma'am. >> Thank you chair McKenna. >> So I really appreciate this. Can we go back to that first page where it says data included and when we think about facilities and we think about the work that we're currently doing in the facilities ad hoc committee and the charge that we want them to also include the academics thinking about the academic programming one of the things that I think we need to think about is how are we um possibly looking at our um partnerships around education ational programming because when I look at the charter policy, we have the um we have some things in there around deciding on whether we're going to
061partner with charter schools or or or to um approve or authorize charter schools that are aligned with our educational priorities. And so we really need to put that into the configuration when we're thinking about our facilities as well. And I think you sort of alluded to it, board member um Huitt Garcia, that um where they're doing well and doing something that um is a need, then how do we how do we leverage that relationship or where we need something, how do we ask someone to shift so we get what we need? So, I just want us to also include that that in our assessment when we're thinking about our charter school relationships and also thinking about our facilities. A great point, board chair McKenna, uh I will share as early as I want to say
062yesterday, uh I met with uh Terrence Patterson uh from Memphis Education Fund and he and I had uh just that conversation. If you go to the next slide, um we had a conversation about as a district right sizes uh having a conversation around uh charter schools right sizing as well. Uh and what I found to be interesting is that uh our conversation focused just like you can see on this [music] map when you look at Northwest and Southwest that's where the highest uh concentration initially uh of charters were and that's where we know there has to be a lot of right sizing just like we're right sizing our district looking at the north and south uh because in many of those areas you don't have the same density [music] uh as once existed. Now, what
063I think we have to be careful of, if you look eastward, particularly in uh I think it was district 9, when you look at district 9, we have very few charters, but we've noticed charter applications wanting [music] to move into uh the Cordova area. Uh and mainly because the Cordova area as well as the Hickory Hill area is where there's a lot of density. Uh but there's not a lot of uh properties. So you notice a lot of office spaces and things like that that will probably be need to be converted. But I think we have to be careful about again closing in those areas and then doing what we can see here. then oversaturating in those areas where we know we have density, but are we putting uh high quality uh charter schools in
064those areas as well as is there a need as you all have said? I think maybe and I'll revisit our our charter specific policies, but it's it's making me think this conversation there there needs to be maybe a maybe this is for our charter group uh or committee as a portfolio management policy about the ways that we support um having more regular checks with the board or public about progress towards the things they were saying they're going to do. So we don't hear from them just once every 10 years. [music] So we can keep a pulse on, you know, if you were a um career development focused school, what let's hear from you at year three. How is it going? How can we help you improve? What what do you how can we support you
065as a district? Um because they're charters are meant to be doing something that are different from what Shelby County Schools are doing. So I think having regular presentations and how we support [music] and manage that portfolio so it's maximized for our our kids educational outcomes but also our our budget that we're funding the things that are most impactful um for kids. Oh, was it love board member love? >> Um, I would like to see the um the um elementary schools enrollment on prek. I can't in order for me to create a clear picture, I have to have the number of students going inside the building. Thank you. Um Michelle, I would I I I know I want to see how each of the charter schools are performing um right now in real time. Uh what
066it look like? Are are they soaring high or are they failing schools? I would like to have that data. >> Um, so the proficiency rates are on there for ELA. >> I can't see that. >> Look on your Did you hand out? >> We'll put these all We'll put this in a spreadsheet, too, so you can filter by >> your district. Yeah, I as I asked the same thing. >> See, she can't see it either. >> When I give you a bigger printed out map, you'll be able to see it. It's just when we squish it down this small, you can't see it very well. But I'll give you the spreadsheet and the the printed map so you can see it. And if you want to meet with us, then our lander and I can
067meet with you and go through the data. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And I wanted to correct I said district 9, but I really meant district five where uh there's only one charter currently in that area, but we know we receive applications to move uh eastward. Any more questions? Okay. Item 2.02, FY26, budget amendment. Uh, this is going to be Chief Langston. Okay. Cool. I'm going to hand it over to you, Chief Langston. Go to the next slide. Um, Dr. Richmond, members of the board. Um, tonight I present to you a November 2025 budget amendment. So, what we like to do is do a budget amendment every quarter if it plans out that way. And then obviously if something comes up, we can do it monthly if needed. But, um, by policy, if we do
068it every quarter, um, we're in alignment um, if something changes with the budget. So this budget, not to alarm anybody, is going to decrease the entire budget by 177,615,7 is going to amend the budget from 2 bill18,542,823 to1 [music] bill840,927,816. Uh first with the general fund um the general fund is decreasing by 155,57,936. And the reason behind that is now if you'll remember that the state portion of TISA is going directly to charter schools. When we initially did the budget that hadn't been finished yet, so that was included in our budget. So now we're um decreasing the revenues and expenditures for the direct um payment that goes to charter schools, not as a pastor anymore. It's only the state portion that's going directly to charter schools. So we're decreasing the budget by that amount um
069in our general fund. Our capital improvement fund is decre is increasing slightly by $140,000 $140,279. And this is us um increasing our plan use of fund balance. um we use in fund seven for any emergency projects. So um when we sell property, get insurance proceeds um what we usually do is um move the money to fund seven for unforeseen damages. A lot of times we get asked how do we fix buildings? A lot of the times in our general [music] fund, we set aside roughly about $1.2 million per zone to fix buildings. It's not enough money. The other money that we use is in fund seven. outside of the money that we received from the county commission um for when we sell buildings and or we receive insurance proceeds. So, we're slightly increasing that about
070$140,000 to do a few projects. Next slide. The next our next major fund is our non-federal special revenue fund. Um it's decreasing by 5,17,378. um some notable increases um um net to that decrease. Um board members, you'll remember that you approved Porter Leaf [music] Head Start um last year for our 13 for those 13 classrooms. Now we're adding those funds to the budget so that we can um align the payment with the approved contract. Um we have a special uh state special education preschool grant um for $2.5 million. One of the things that we just discussed in our legislative um agenda is that we don't get funding for um pre prek spread students in TISA, but we do get some grants um like this and IDEIDA. Um some decreases we have is first aid Memphis
071grant, not to be confused with the first a grants that we're going to bring to the board later this month. This is one that was lingering from last year that we are decreasing now um because um of trueing up to what the spin was from last year's first day grant and then um you'll see that we're chewing up prior year. So one of the things that happens um in our district um is that when we do our budget in June, we have to align our grants to um the state. the state requires us to in um by October the 1st to finish final expenditure reports for last year. So when we do our budget, we're estimating what our grants are going to be at that time. Then after October, we now know the true amount
072of what our grants are and now we're um chewing up those grants to ex to be exactly what we have um in accounting for the state. So we [music] spent a little bit more than we u estimated for this innovative school model grant as well as the state school [music] improvement grant. So that's why you see us decreasing the um uh money for those grants. Next slide. Our federal revenue um fund grant or fund 12 is decreasing by 17,643,972. The same exact thing as I explained with fund um 8 is the same thing with fund 12. Now that we know what these grants um h how how well we did with spending these grants last year as well as this year um the state we received more title one grants and just for reference of
073this $16 million million extra that we received from title one we rolled about 13.5 million out directly to schools so they can use to improve things like technology um and do software and things of that nature. Title two, we received an increase of about $3 million and title four, we received an increase of about $5.9 million. Um, some notable decreases is $2.7 million for IDA part B. Again, it doesn't mean that we received less money. It just remains means that we estimated that um we was a little conservative with how much we would spend last year. We actually spent a little bit more. So now we're decreasing our budget to reflect such. Um um same with 3.0. 0. As you remember, we had the $55 million. We spent um $19 million after we received it
074back. We did the reimbursement. So, we're reducing answer 3.0 by this $19 million because we spent it in the prior year. Then lastly, you remember um at the time of doing the the budget, we didn't know if we received the Head Start grant. Now, we've had notification that we did we didn't we did receive about $5 [music] million for transition, but the rest that we didn't receive, we're reducing the uh budget for [music] about $24.8 million to reflect us not receiving a Head Start grant. Next slide. Um we do have some um positions that were added to the uh budget via the general fund andor federal funds. In a general fund, we added a attendance and discipline advisor. We added a data analyst. And we added safety uh 10 safety [music] and security monitors to
075support our um some of our schools who didn't have safety and security monitors. As you'll see, board members, I believe you have um an invite for our real-time safety center to to view later uh this week. We're adding a supervisor for our real time safety center. We have another data analyst that we're doing for our exceptional children. We have uh three social emotional u learning advisors now that we've truded up title 4 to add to that grant. Um and then we also have an uh 20 associates for the real time safety center. Then [music] lastly, as a part of our title one set aside, it allows us to do um some um some homeless or house assistance work. We're adding three budgets um three liaons in our houseless department to support with their work. Um
076these are the um positions that you'll see behind your budget amendment. We want to be transparent that we're adding these things outside of what the board approved for the budget. Next slide. Um and this I won't go through this, but this is just showing that we reduced the revenues as well as the [music] expenditures one point from$2 billion dollars to$ 1.8 $8 billion. Now, I'll take any questions that you have around the budget meeting. >> Two questions. Um, we still get the charter authorization fee. >> Yes, ma'am. We [music] get 35,000 or 3% whichever is the lesser. >> And the next question, how many grant writers do we have on staff? >> Really good question. Uh we actually have just one grant writer right now. Um and one of the things that you'll see I
077give you a preview of my business system review. You'll see me discussing us doing an RFP around getting some help around grant writing for the entire district. >> Thank you. >> Were there lights? I was like I have questions. So board member Williams. >> Yes. It appears to me Tito that when the state allocates funds for charters of whomever now that fund will go directly to the charters. Is that my understanding? Instead of coming through the district because it appears that they are competing now with district employees and the district curriculum and so forth. [music] If they're going to be the keepers of their own house and their own money and their own curriculum, then they need because when we look at the data, they are not performing as well as they think that they
078are performing. And now that they're going to be a bypass, I don't know why we still have to act as if we're so kind and dice to them and they're doing us damage and harm to this district. And there has to be a way to know that if we're going to lose the kind of money uh that you're saying in this budget, how do we make up how do we cover those holes? >> Thank you, board member. Really good questions. I'll answer them in the order that you asked. First, I want to explain that um for years, we've been just a pass through agent for charter schools, [music] which means that based on their enrollment, we received the money here and we just paid paid it to them via their enrollment. So we still true
079up their enrollment based on the state and local portion. This amendment is only saying by new state statutes that the based on their state portion only what they get from TISA the state is sending that money directly to the charters instead of it being a pass through for us. You'll see we still have about $ 109 million under the general fund where we have the local portion which is the money that we get from the county that we are still passing on to charter schools. Again, charters are roughly around 19,000 in enrollment. And anytime that number either increases or decreases, uh we true them up on uh usually about once a quarter, we'll true them up and then determine if we need to send more money to them based on their enrollment or if we
080need to bag back any money. Your next dang at all for their the lack of performance on the state test. They're not doing any better than the public [music] schools in many cases. In most cases, their schools are lower. So, do they have any consequences for that? >> So, the money that they receive here is purely based on their number of enrolled. those consequences, how um they are affected um um academically or instructionally, if you will, that will come via the board from anywhere from their scorecard of a performance matter. But what you see before you is strictly based on the number of students that they have and that's how they generate the dollars that they receive. I I uh with the TISA portion of the charter school dollars going directly to them and our
081dollars being based on prior enrollment in the event that a charter school closes do we get the TISA portion back in the in the following year funding is there a mechanism that we still get paid since we've >> does that the question make sense >> it does and the answer is yes I think we kind of talked about it too even when we talked about goodwill excel earlier like the only how we recoup our money from paying up front is if a charter school andor a contract school closes. So yes, to answer your question, if they're in our data this year >> for we receive it next year, even though this school wouldn't be open for us to pass anything along to them, if that makes sense. >> And then my second question was around
082staffing. Um how did we not anticipate staffing the real-time safety center, the 20 employees? Were were we not planning to open it this fiscal year? >> That's that's a really good question to answer is we we did anticipate it. So, but uh me and my good buddy um Mor Jackson, I always like have to like to have a tug of war if you will, but but but pardon my commentary. Seriously, I was wait just simply waiting on our title four dollars. If you remember, I just explained that we were waiting to [music] true up Title 4 because it's on an October basis. What we know is that we were going to staff the real time safety center, but I wanted to be um smart, if you will, knowing that it was a student support effort
083and title 4 is used directly for student support. And now that it's chewed up, we can now um staff the real time safety center. If that answers your question, >> are there other positions that are funded by special funds of which are not ted up that we still project in our budget? >> Not at this time. I think we're um >> is this the practice we follow all the time? >> No, not not particularly. Um when we do the budget at the time, I know what the question you're asking. When we do the budget at the time, um we are I feel confident that we have the the staff in place. Now, do as we go along, the reason why we have a budget amendment is for us to identify any gaps that we may
084have and bring it to the board in a transparent [music] way to say that we need these positions. And we are as my job as the uh CFO in my role is to be able to identify funds in a way that we can use that we can balance the budget in such a such a way. >> Certainly I think needing one more attendance and discipline advisor, another data analyst like one or we're we're seeing increasing you know numbers of students experiencing homelessness that those are things that you learn in real time and you should adjust your budget. But that one stood out to me because that seems like something we could have planned for. We need them. I'm in support of adding those positions to the budget. But just knowing that we are going to
085plan even in the budget narrative or conversations explaining that um some of the things coming down the pipeline that that we are not including in the budget because we have the ability to designate special funds I think is helpful just for understanding by the public and and board. So thank you. >> Thank you for that question. uh we we've been committed uh to doing what the board uh asks uh us as an administration to do. I want to say that there was a resolution passed that said that any additional fund one positions would be brought before the board before we would add them to the budget and we've also included uh some of the title positions uh just so we will show good faith and a sense of transparency. I've told my team uh we
086don't want to be adding any positions. This is a part of uh internal controls as we go through uh our forensic audit and other audits. We want to ensure that we have internal controls in place to ensure that every single position within this organization is accounted for. >> Absolutely. That's not I think I may have been misheard. >> No, I'm thanking you for the question. We do we do need to approve every every new headcount. My it it felt like something we could have anticipated and that was my question. Was there an anticipatory or were we trying to avoid adding 20 positions at the budget? the the explanation made sense but I yes the board does need to approve all new roles and this should be the process and this is clear but that my
087question was more >> anticipation anticipating our needs. Yes, ma'am. It was it was anticipated, but we still wanted to also be good stewards uh and not over uh identify the number of positions. We wanted to ensure the number of positions that we were adding were commensurate with the scope of work that we were expecting from uh the real time safety center. Uh and Mr. U Langston as well as Miss Jackson have worked closely together to ensure that that occurred. >> [cough] >> I I appreciate that um board member Hua Garcia and Dr. Richmond and Tito clearing that up. I think probably another thing might have been the case that uh we're going through a very interesting fiscal time with our federal dollars. Um so I appreciate you all taking that under consideration as well. And
088yet I also appreciate board member Huitt Garcia um saying that if we we are anticipating we going to do this and we're waiting for money let us know during the the budget season is what you're I appreciate that. So my next my question is and I think you the true up if if we do it every quarter and we're not getting the the dollars directly in how do we call back how do we we aren't going to get our money until the following year. Is that what even though we may have that student back in in to the district? Is that what I'm hearing? >> So I don't want to confuse the two. So, in the general fund, obviously, we receive money from the state um based on prior years enrollment. >> Oh, no. I'm
089talking about charter schools. >> Oh, charter school. >> Charter schools. Yes. Now that they're getting their money directly to the charter schools, there's no way for us to claw back it. >> So, charter schools, much like um adult education, they get paid on current year's numbers, which is always the the rub. So we tr them up on current year. But what I'll say what's different between charter schools and adult high schools is that the money follows the students. So what is perceived or it makes sense is that if a student is leaving a charter schools more than likely they're going to come to us. So the money is going to follow us in their trueup. Likewise if a student is leaving us and going to a charter if their enrollment increases the money is going
090to follow them. So >> So the true up happens at the state level not at the district level. >> Yes ma'am. So now with the TISA portion of it, the true up now we we watch them for accountability. Uh we get to file I get to file every month Dr. Richmond and myself from the state of Tennessee's uh CFO telling us the movement that's between charter schools now that they're directly sending the money to charter schools. >> Okay. My um other my other um observation is that um you said that $13.5 million went directly to schools from title one dollars. >> Yes, ma'am. So what we do in the budget is we we estimate where Title One is going to land at um by the time the budget is approved in June. Then we know
091exactly what the state is going to allocate it roughly around August, September. [music] They wrote we got an additional about $16 million of this $16 million. We rolled out an additional about $13.5 million out directly to schools. So doing staffing adjustment they were able to utilize those dollars for things positions andor now they can also do other purchases as it aligns to their school improvement plan. >> Great. So they saw so just in layman's terms they saw additional dollars in their title one accounts. >> Schools the schools are sitting pretty. >> All right. [laughter] That's all I had. Any other questions? Tito, answer this for me. If a school gets 10 students uh next week, do is the school allocated all that that money? >> It's a really good question, Miss Love. >> Yeah, >>
092the the answer is is is no. Unfortunately, we only do staff adjustment once based on the 20day uh period. So, um, if a student was to get an additional 10 students, um, they wouldn't necessarily see it from their staffing adjustment. But what we try to do is forecast a bit, if you will, when we're doing staffing adjustment. Um, now if schools do also understand if they get an extra amount of principles, they know me well enough to know if they get an extra amount of influx of students, we're going to give them an additional teacher, even if it's during the period, if that makes sense. So, while it's not something that is um that we do every month for staffing adjustment, if if an additional amount of students show up that requires an additional teachers,
093principles know [music] to reach out and we're going to support them. >> You didn't answer my question. >> I did answer. You just I I answered it to say that no, we we're not going to give them anything. >> You didn't answer my question. Do the schools get more money added to their budget? >> I I said no. The money follows a child. >> Well, so but it not in a in a sense of how we do staffing. And I welcome any board members to explain how we do staffing in the district and how the money is generated. What I explain is that there is a per pupil basis based on how we send money to schools. However, in a in a perfect world, every we get 72.95 base amount for every student that walks
094through the door. In a perfect world, we could pass that on to every school of 72.95. We can't because the reason is that in addition to that 72.95 has to pay [music] for electricity, bus, so on and so forth, and all of the things that we have to pay for as a district. So, it is a unique formula that we use to determine how we get money to schools. And as I mentioned before, one of the things that we rolled out was an additional $13.5 million that had nothing to do with enrollment, but we wanted to um impress upon schools in a additional amount of money in case something happens. If that makes sense. But to answer your question, no ma'am, if they get 10 students next week, we're not going to directly give them
095any additional amount of money. Any other questions? >> One last one. Tito, could you provide the board with a list of all the things that Title One dollars can pay for? Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, with no further business, that convenes the budget, finance, and audit committee. >> All right. Thank you. We're going to um go to the facilities ad hoc committee meeting. Chair Otech. Thank you board chair McKinn. Can we have uh Mr. Cardell, you here? Facilities ad hoc uh recommendation. So Mr. Um Cardell is going he's a liaison between ourselves and the committee so he's going to give us a recommendations. >> Okay great good evening >> uh inter superintendent Richmond board members uh happy to be here serving as liaison uh for facilities ad hoc committee. Uh I want to recognize
096I do see some of the members of the committee in the audience uh Rashidita Liz anybody else? Oh, ran it back there. Uh, yeah. Stand up. I don't know if you saw it by the way. All right. Great. The committee did some great work to come together. I want to uh I think one of the most notable quotes we got at the end was from Ernest Strickland uh CEO at the uh Black Business Chamber who said, "I've been through this about I think he said three or four times. This the first time we've gotten to the end and gotten recommendations to the board." So he was happy to see that. So appreciate the board allowing these to come through as a start of the committee's work as we work through this process with you all.
097Uh next slide. The committee separated out into uh actually four uh committees. We had the data and asset strategy committee or work group, the community engagement and equity work group, facilities funding partnership work group and the implementation and partnerships work group to pull together uh these recommendations uh for this framework to you all. Next slide. from the data and asset strategy workg group. Uh we had the data and uh them bringing together a data and asset strategy and the recommendation is adopting the framework that they brought together for the facility plan metrics. This included the enrollment, utilization, facility condition, facility investments, demographics, community development, uh educational configuration, access, transportation, financial impact, uh to be considered uh as the district is looking at the facilities and as uh Miss Stewart and her team pulled together the
098comprehensive facilities plan. Next slide. I think we have community engagement and [music] equity came with a very detailed plan and I think they'd want me to say and budget about being able to roll out to our community uh a real engagement plan around uh what the facilities plan [music] uh is uh as it's as the draft comes out. uh what it looks like, what input and feedback from the community looks like, and how we get a real uh sense of equity uh in our community in terms of input, feedback, and engagement uh for this plan. Do [music] we have some of those recommendations? I'm not sure if we uh some of those included just to read off a few of those uh having a foundation. So, uh, making sure to have a p a point
099of contact with a directory of all the stakeholders, uh, as part of the the, uh, community, having neighborhood anchor meetings, student and youth sessions, stakeholder roundts, uh, going out and doing popups, uh, having a full communications plan, uh, to engage the media, uh, and then ensuring that as we go [music] through this, uh, we're we're doing, uh, meetings in a in a regular way so that we're getting good feedback from those and that there's [music] transparency and accountability uh to make sure that we're getting full engagement that uh folks who speak [music] other languages are taken care of and able to give their input. Uh and then there's a full plan around uh thinking about messaging, marketing and how you roll all of this out. Next slide, facilities, funding and partnership work group. Uh so
100this group really looked at uh how do we as we have a a plan how do we make sure that we can fund it and how do we all come together as stakeholders and make sure that [music] uh this great plan gets the funding that we've needed so much for decades if not a century or more. Um so uh first collaborating with Shelby County government to explore full facilities funding over the seven to 10 years of the plan. uh making sure that we got the total ask including uh what would be needed for the ADA amount out to the municipal the municipal school districts developing a capital campaign for philanthropic and corporate investments. So making sure that as we ask for public dollars we're also going out to our community and looking to raise uh
101private funds to invest in our schools asset reuse strategies that leverage the highest and best re uses for surplus facilities. Uh that more on that with the partnerships group. uh the other partnerships group and exploring uh and developing a plan for a joint construction authority. So, thinking about this, and this been a a conversation over the years, thinking about uh bringing together the county, the school board, uh other stakeholders, uh the city, potentially private funders to come together to build uh an accountability body for the county uh government and their investment, for the school board, and for the community to make sure that we're really managing and and building towards the great facilities our our students need. uh thinking about accountability that was another component and having a clear narrative for the assets and investment.
102So as we go out to the community uh again as you you heard in the engagement plan making a having a clear message about the absolute need uh for better facilities and quality future uh focused facilities for our students. The next uh slide implementation and partnerships. So great uh components in this around input and improvements for district community partnerships and the partnership process and communications uh capitalize on the role for the district as a community partner uh in developing the community support for development of housing stability framework. So uh components of this are that generally we're making decisions around our facilities based on the current population trends and we know that uh Memphis Shelby County have been losing population but we also know we have an affordable housing crisis. So as we think about the
103process, there's also opportunity to think about housing and affordable housing so that the the population the current population trend doesn't have to be the destiny that we could come together build housing around schools and increase the population thereby changing the trajectory for a school in a community. Uh developmental framework for facilities partnerships. So bringing together a framework that says what as the finance uh the funding committee said what's the highest and best use [music] for these facilities. So bringing together partners to think about that and multiple uh aspects of or types of of of partnerships that could come together for the district um uh to to build the best things for the community with these surplus properties reviewing and ident and identifying opportunities for pilots of framework applications. So even as we look towards [music]
104the current school closures on the uh on the recommendations from the administration, thinking about how can we use this time uh frame to pilot the framework around partnerships and uh uh and an application around uh what do we do with these buildings uh as we move kids to to better facilities and then support for continued development of facilities trades workforce pipeline strategy. As we think about this huge hopefully over a billion dollar investment in our community, this becomes a workforce development opportunity. So, how do we ensure that a pipeline that's already uh uh challenged uh in terms of our housing and commercial development uh pipeline for trades that we also can leverage this opportunity and this investment to make sure that we're thinking about uh the the district's CCTE program and opportunities around internships, apprenticeships,
105and how all of that factors into this overall facilities plan and investment. And I think that gets us to the end. I'd ask my friends on the committee if there's anything anybody would want to add. Okay. If there's any questions, we're happy to address as we can. So, I thought we was going to see actual recommendations. >> What do you mean by that? as I see a lot of you know high level overview of what the facilities committ now granted I haven't attended all the meetings but uh I see a high level overview overview of everything that will discuss but uh I just thought we was going to see some extra recommendations but I would just inform this in my folder >> yeah that there is uh in inside of your folder there are recommendations
106from each work group so you have the opportunity to take a look at that he did give a high level overview of each each work group >> right appreciate it cool >> and And just to to note that this of course is an ongoing ad hoc committee. So this is the beginning of this and so we hope to continue this partnership with the community. >> Awesome. Does anyone have any questions? >> You do. >> So I'm going to spend more time looking through all of the Well, thank you for this Cardell. Um I think this is extremely thoughtful. um we think about the uh all things being equal in terms of deferred maintenance and enrollment. How are we making decisions? And I think this gives us a lot more guidance and I think the focus
107areas um of what needs to be true in our community to support families not just in MSCS but in Shelby County are coming out here. What is the plan for all of these work group [music] group plans in terms of implementation and execution applying these frameworks to our schools? Who who will lead that work? Is that like how are we executing on this? >> So, thank you for that question. Um, one of the things you'll see a resolution that we're going to have today during the special call meeting and this is about us accepting these as guideposts um, these recommendations because if you recall we are asking the administration to come up with a draft preliminary comprehensive plan. We wanted to give them enough and we want that's going to be provided to us by
108December 6th and we want we're asking the administration to use these recommendations as guideposts to create the compre the draft preliminary comprehensive plan. So that is they'll take the time to look at these things and figure out how do they incorporate these and use them as guideposts. Uh, and we need more than a billion dollars. That's just a comment. Thanks. >> I think I think on that thing it says ask for what you need. >> That's [laughter] right. >> So, yeah, absolutely. So, thank you for that question and getting that cleared. Uh, love. >> Yeah. >> Um, are we voting on this tonight? >> No, we're not. Wait. Uh, special call meeting. Uh, we're we're voting on the resolution. There's a resolution tonight. >> Yeah. >> On special calling to accept the recommendations as guidepost.
109>> It was posted >> only. >> I'm sorry. >> Only. >> Yes. >> Accept them as guideposts. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Guidelines. Guide post. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> I want to make sure. >> Thank you. Board member Murphy. Oh, okay. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Okay. Yeah, there's a little packet here with all the different work groups and the topics. So, we here to merely of course use this information to show a collaboration, a true collaboration and teamwork between what you guys are doing, the ad hoc committee and what we're doing um with the Memphis Shelby County School. So, I'm very thankful for the information that you are providing everybody that's spearheading this work. You guys are doing an amazing job and so I'm just very thankful for that and thank thank you for your uh
110liaison capacity what you're doing and um delivering this information. So, we're just wanting to make sure we're doing what's best for our facilities and what's best what's going to be best for our students and our uh our teachers and staff moving forward. So, thank you for that. Mr. uh Mr. Cardell, does anybody have anything else? >> If I might just talk about next steps in Absolutely. >> So, just to be clear, next steps with our committee me members. We made clear that our committee is an ongoing um committee. So, next steps is as I said before that the administration Dr. Richmond will take these once we accept them as guideposts if that's what we choose to do during the special call meeting and we'll use these to create the draft prelim preliminary comprehensive plan. We
111will get that we will receive that by mid December. Then we will um we will provide a copy of that for discussion to our facilities ad hoc committee for them to give us input and feedback around it. And then we will have a a a preliminary comprehensive facilities plan to come before the board at the end of January. Correct? >> That is that is the current >> plan. So does anybody have any questions about that timeline? >> I want to say thank you board members for for the commitment that we have made to getting this done. I want to say thank you to the community members and and advisory council members who committed to getting it done and got it done. This is some good work. Y'all take some time to really really delve into
112it and um I'm looking forward to continuing to work. Thank you, Chair. >> Awesome. Uh any additional questions, any feedback, comments? Awesome. The ad hoc facilities committee uh committee meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you. Moving to the next one. Let's go to the evaluation committee. Going back here, call the evaluation committee uh to order. Um does anybody have anything to add to this agenda? Okay. So, board colleagues, you have uh two pieces of paper. They are in board docs as well. Um they're actually stapled in reverse order of which I'm going to discuss them with uh co-chair Coleman here. Um but we have a the superintendent's informal review proposed timeline for us to discuss and just and also share with the public about what we're planning to do over the next 7 weeks and hear
113any input if this feels like an ambitious and and feasible timeline and quality input for the informal evaluation. So on this second page on the on the screen on the right hand side you'll see the the dates and weeks um we have drafted evaluation questions um for anonymous surveys. So these are going to go out to our teacher teachers VR associations principles via our principal association and all central office staff you know acknowledging that we are uh a board of nine and and Dr. Richmond sits up here as our our employee. Um, but we have 13,000 employees and making sure that our staff feel safe to share their experience uh on in Memphis Shelby County Schools and making that part of the evaluation. Uh the superintendent is going to do a self-reflection um really focus
114on that 100 day plan and those uh surfacing those key strengths, wins, contributions um so that we could also review that. We do know we have a holiday week so we're going to send out reminders uh to complete the surveys and we will close it on December 5th. um when we the week of the 8th we will get uh all the survey feedback synthesized for us and the superintendent's self-reflection um and then board members we will all complete our own reflection the week of December 15th so making sure we get all nine of us including input on what what's going well and key challenges areas of focus um and then in a public meeting the week of January 5th we will share these results results uh the survey results the self-reflection um and those individual
115assessments um in this evaluation committee um I think this board is focused on stability getting key functions um really solid focused on our our staff I think the lowest teacher vacancy rate we've had in many years thinking about how our schools opened and what needs to be true um going into our second semester and how we support our superintendent. Um, and then really continue to to work on those areas for growth by leveraging the strengths that we also surface as well. Um the second part of this I want to make sure before we go to the survey questions that Warmer Coleman is going to share with us. Are there any questions on the timeline feedback here or does this feel this feel like enough time? >> Um who was going to do the surveys? >>
116Who who is actually going to send them out? >> Yeah, >> I believe it's our communications team. But we are we are using our teacher associations and principal association to help get push that out as well. >> Who um who is going to collect the surveys? >> What like what platform we are we using? >> Yeah. >> I don't know the platform. Can I what? Uh we worked with general counsel and is Maria still here? >> Communications and we communications. communicate. What what platform do we input the questions into? >> Um we are going to do the surveys ourselves or we're going to connect with a third party. >> Yeah, we usually uh collaborate with data to our data department to collect surveys. But if you're asking which software I don't need to know the
117software. We're going to do it inhouse. >> Yes. >> But they will be anonymous. >> Any other questions about the timeline comments? >> Board member Otai. >> No, she I was just want to make sure on the record that they know that this is these are anonymous. So that she already said it. >> Yep. >> Okay. Board Coleman is going to share. We'll flip back to that first page or if you're on board board docs, you'll see that um the categories and questions that we came up with. We wanted to have some >> we won't questions, but we have four categories that we came up [music] with that we are will be um on the survey that will be >> part of the evaluation for interim superintendent. The first one is leadership and strategic vision,
118student achievement, staff relations and capacity and operations and finance. Those are the four areas that the questionnaires will be surrounded about and the questions will come from those and these are some of the key questions. And if you something else you would like for us to add or [snorts] is repetitive, please let us know as soon as possible so we can let it go as soon as we can. We wanted to go live so we can uh get this done. >> And I'll just add these are going to be in a lighter scale of one to five. >> Yes. >> So one, five being the highest. >> And we cannot thank you board member Otay for emphasizing this will be completely anonymous. You don't have to you won't have to have your name or role
119on the surveys. And board members, please, please let us do our reflection and do our part [music] also. >> And I'll take owner ownership with board member Coleman to make sure that we remind you all because we are approaching our Christmas holiday, our winter break >> um for that. But I do want to keep us on track so we hit the ground running in 2026. So all right, >> remember >> only one survey per employee. Oh, only one survey per employee. >> Yeah, >> I don't I can't think of any communication >> anytime they would get both of those. >> Yeah, he's they're going to make a way is only answered one time per employee. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Well, if anything comes up, let board member Coleman
120and myself know. And I appreciate the board's dedication to this. And I appreciate interim superintendent for proactively seeking out feedback, not just from us, but from all employees. I think that's a um that's a culture we want to continue to nurture. So, thank you. That concludes the evaluation committee. >> Thank you. The last one we have is Charter Schools Committee. Is that That's Michelle. So I'll I'll call that to order. Um so we have discussion items 2.01 fall charter amendments. >> Yes. Thank you. The second one, please, Miss Timberlake. >> All right. Uh good evening uh commissioners, Dr. Richmond. My name is Alandra Parker, director of charter school development in the office of charter schools, and I'll be bringing forward the fall charter amendment recommendation for today. Next slide, please. So, for this fall cycle,
121we had one petition that was eligible for review, which was City University School Girls Preparatory. Now, this school is located in the White Haven neighborhood in the southwest region. It currently serves a population of 75 girls in middle grades 6 through 8. Now the school opened in the 20134 academic year. That was its first charter term and it was renewed uh to begin a second charter term in 2023 2024. Next slide please. It is recommended that the Shelby County Board of Education adopt the approval of the amendment petition from City University School Girls Preparatory for a material modification of the school's charter term to enroll boys thereafter changing the name of the school to city university school girls and boys preparatory. Now, when we look at our purpose, uh Tennessee state law and charter rule
122allow the governing body of a charter school to uh petition the authorizer for any uh particular amendments. All of this information uh commissioners I would like to note is in your folder as well on the left side of your folder as we have a second item um for tonight as well. So, it's on the left side. Now commission uh rule allows us 60 days calendar days that is for us to approve or deny this particular petition. Now this applicant did submit their letter of intent and the application by the uh state board of education's uh respective dates. Uh the recommendation tonight was based on the material submitted. It was based on the uh Tennessee State Board's characteristics of a strong response as well as the authorizers's independent due diligence as outlined in the amendment application
123requirements. Looking at the background, this particular network operates three schools, two high schools and one middle school, single gender girls, which is the school that we are discussing tonight. It previously operated a middle school for boys. Uh and that school was nonrenewed at the end of his charter term in 1819. Now, Tennessee uh code annotated and rule does allow if denied at the local level an applicant to be able to appeal to the Tennessee public charter school commission and that commission decision whatever it may be is uh final and is not subject to further appeal. Next slide please. So our gap analysis is that we know across all of our processes that charter uh agreements. They are binding documents on the sponsor uh and the school and the district used for continued monitoring and oversight
124of a school's performance. The performance is in those three main areas of academics, operations, and finance. Uh again, uh we must make a decision before that 60th day as the 60th calendar day concludes on November the 30th. some previous outcomes. Uh again, we talked about when the school opened, when it was renewed, uh and the school currently uh has an approved [clears throat] capacity of 125 students for this academic year, but [snorts] it has a maximum approved capacity at the end of the 10-year charter term uh for 300 students. Now, as a reminder, most charter schools their uh enrollment when they are renewed or when they are approved, it increases incrementally. So, even though their uh capacity for this school year is 125, their capacity for next school year is going to be 150, but
125their final total capacity is 300 students. Uh this particular uh petition as well, they are not asking for an enrollment increase. they are asking for the uh same enrollment that they are already approved for for just to uh adjust their charter to enroll boys. Now our expected outcomes um the expected outcome for this particular petition is just to allow charter schools meeting the criteria to adjust in the areas in which the uh state board allows them to adjust and this is a material modification. It also creates relevant and equitable academic choices and learning environments for our students across the district. Uh the financial impact there is not a fiscal impact connected to this particular petition again is they are not seeking to enroll or increase their enrollment or their capacity but is to remain the
126same. Next slide please. City University uh school girls preparatory has met the requirements for approval based on the Tennessee State Board of Education's approval criteria as well as board policy 1011. The school as well as their overall network of schools have met that 3.0 standard in all areas of academics, operations, and finance, thus supporting a recommendation for approval for this petition. This concludes my presentation. If you have any questions, definitely I'm available to answer those. >> Yes. What is the performance level of the school as we speak? >> Thank you for that question, uh, Commissioner Williams. So the letter grades that we have are for the 23 24 school year because those letter grades for this most recent year have not been released uh by the state department. So um if you look on slide
12716 of your presentation uh the girls preparatory did have a letter grade of C uh for the most uh recent term as well as the liberal arts had a letter grade of F. uh it is not uh eligible for the independent school. They did not have a letter grade. Now what I will say is that the SPS level when we look at the most recent 2425 SPS, Miss Timberlake, if you would turn to slide 17. Yes, thank you. Perfect. So that is our school performance scorecard for all three of the schools and as you can see they are above the 3.0 threshold. So that is the most recent SPS school performance for academics for the school network. Any more questions? All right, seeing no questions. That's it. You didn't have anything else. Okay. All right.
128Seeing no questions, this committee meeting is adjourned and board members, we will um reconvene at 5:30 for a board work session. >> Then the academic committee will be on the next one, right? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, let me do it now. Don't go anywhere. Um we added academic committee and um so go right ahead. >> Okay. Do we have any additions? I know we needed to talk about the teacher vacancies. Um any other additions to the academic committee and anything else that any of our board members want to discuss? Any other additions? Are we going to talk about it at the committee meeting? I'm sorry. >> Okay. So, we're going to talk about during this meeting and not the next meeting. Correct. >> Oh, you want to do the work session or now? No,
129we can talk about it now. We added it when we started the board committee meetings. We added it. We added the academic committee. >> All right. >> To it. So, I think Dr. Richmond, are you all ready? Okay. >> All right. So, one of the questions, and I know we've talked about this a few times, was uh concerning the teacher vacancies. Um doing an amazing job as far as making sure our teachers have what they need. I had a a robust conversation with our president here of the UEA, Miss Liz, and our president, MSEA, and um we were wanting to ask you about bringing forth some sort of recommendation to help fill some of these vacancies that we actually have and also bring to bring forth uh and highlight the longerterm plan that we have
130uh to ensure that our teachers that are in permit are um have a plan in place and have that support that they need to make sure that they're getting licensed. Um, do we have any current recommendations or anything you want to kind of bring forth or speak about uh as it concerns this matter? >> Yes, board member Otay, thank you for those questions. Uh, what I'm going to do at this point, I want to start off with Miss uh Addison. Would you share I'd like for Miss Addison to just kind of share what we have in place uh for our permit teachers. And then when I finish with Miss Addison, what I'd like would be for Miss Oliver to give the status on our vacancies, but also the number of certificated non-scertificated teachers. When Miss
131Oliver finishes, uh we have two other sets of teachers, ESL as well as sped. I'd like for Dr. Whitaw to touch on ESL and sped and what we're doing about those vacancies. and then uh we'll take any other questions. But if you would, Miss Addison, would you share what we're doing for our permit teachers [music] up until now and the communications plan uh that we have in place? >> Yes, sir. Good afternoon, everyone. Uh so there are a couple of things that we do to support our permit teachers. Uh it starts with um mentoring. So one of the things uh we do is provide a mentor for our permit teachers. is a 1 one for firstear teachers and 1:3 um ratio for teachers uh in year 2 and three. Additionally, we provide professional learning opportunities
132around content. We understand that a lot of the reason that our teachers are unable to pass the practice is really uh founded in understanding the content. So we have content specific professional learning opportunities. Uh we also have practis tutors. So that's something that we had a year ago. We were able to bring it back this year. And so there are practice uh tutors who actually support teachers in [music] passing the tests. In addition to that, we have a study.com and that is a practice practice test [music] platform that we um provide to our permit teachers and they're able to access it um and they're able to take as many practice test uh um inside of that platform that's helping them to prep before they have to take the real [music] test. And then finally, we
133have what's known as milestone checks. And this is a monthly uh milestone checks that we have with our permit teachers where we're checking in around uh their testing where they are in terms of uh meeting the requirements for practice. We also ensure that there's active um participation in the EP as we know that that is a requirement. And then we also um ask if there are any other supports [music] that we can offer them um as they are journeying towards lensure full lensure. >> Thank you Miss Addison and and also board member Otay. Uh I will also add that I spoke with Miss Addison as well as Mr. Johnson and I've spoken to them about uh a comprehensive communications plan around communicating these things out so that regardless if you're first, second or third year
134permit teachers, you understand what the expectations are of you. Uh I've also asked Mrs. Addison as early as I want to say yesterday to schedule a meeting for me to address all permit teachers whether they're in their first, second, or third year as well. At this time, we'll pivot to Miss Oliver. And Miss Oliver, if you would uh share the demographic data, unless I'll pause unless there's a question. Yeah. I'm I'm sorry, Miss Love. I'm sorry. Thank you, >> Miss Addison. What is different um last year versus this year in the uh PRI test? And um >> so, one thing that's different is the practice tutors themselves. So we have teachers who are actually sitting down with the teachers and walking through the the tests and so the platform allows them as the teacher to
135just go on and go into the platform and you're just testing. It gives you real time questions that will support [music] you when you take the actual practice. This year what's different is that we also have a tutor that's um supporting the teachers. >> Uh any data on that? Is it working or do we need to pivot? >> So, um the data is coming in slowly around study.com because again teachers are engaging at at at their time. We should have um I will say that it's working. >> We know that it's working because the teachers who are engaging in study.com regularly, they are actually passing [music] the test and we have multiple uh data points to support that. But we also the since the practice tutors is is new well bringing it back uh we'll
136be able to tell what that looks like in the spring semester. [music] >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next I'd like to pivot to Miss Oliver. Miss Oliver, I'd like for you to give uh the demographic information uh as well as we know we're still going school by school to verify specific uh staffing shortages at specific schools. [music] But if you would give the other data. >> Okay. Good afternoon. Currently, we have 169 teacher vacancies. Of those vacancies, 96 are in the elementary K through 8, 26 in the middle school, and 47 are high school and CCT. Uh we have 4,375 certified teachers, 1,261 non-certified. Of those in the high schools, 1,249 are certified, 216 are non-certified. Middle school, 779 certified, 78 non-certified. Elementary, middle school certified is 98. Non-certified is 78. Then the elementary school
137certified is 2197, non-certified is 700. Any questions? >> Yes. I' I'd like to point out uh I know there's been a number of questions in regards to remote learning. Uh if you listen to the data that was just shared uh by Miss Oliver, the majority of our vacancies are in elementary school. [music] And uh what we've looked at is it would be extremely challenging for us to provide a remote option uh for elementary uh age students. >> May I have an email of those numbers, please? And how many of those uh the permitted teachers uh you can include that in the email are in their final year and also the high school vacancies that we have. Understand um maybe a recommendation would not come from administration as far as elementary students but maybe we can
138look at potentially a recommendation for the high school students for the certified virtual educators. Can you repeat the la your last question? The last piece of information that you need >> the as far as the teachers, the vac the teachers are on their last year. >> I got that. But the high school and the virtual >> interim superintendent just mentioned about the elementary students maybe the virtual learning might not be a good option for them. So what high schools what high school vacancies do we have? Maybe we could utilize just to get those vacancies down. Uh a virtual option for those those students >> certified teachers actually. can send you these numbers tonight. I need some time to get the number what we can do with the high schools and the virtual and who's in
139the final year. >> I can gather that tomorrow, but tonight I can send you what I just >> to add to that question, Dr. Oliver, if you have that many uh vacancies in the high school and you have fewer in the middle school, a middle school teacher can't teach high school. And it would appear to me that you would track high schools first and the middle schools would have the greater openings. But you stated in your statement that there are more open or more vacancies in the high school than in the middle school for teachers. So has that been have has there been any consideration? A middle school teacher is certified to teach high school as well. >> Um we have not to my knowledge looked at moving any teachers from middle school to high
140school. Um because we don't have any schools without someone in front of the students teaching. That has not been a consideration. If we get to the point and that's necessary, I'm sure that we will put that on the table. But to answer your question, no, we have not moved any middle school teachers to high school. >> Has it been a consideration? >> As far as I know, since I've been here, I have not known that to be a consideration. >> But I would just think that high school students are preparing to leave and they would probably certainly need the greater stress on the test than middle school students who are coming out of elementary and you can do more with them. But high school students who in 10 9 through 12 certainly need to be
141in full throgg. And if we had teachers who can go there and who would go there and that their certifications allow them to do so, it would be a wise thing to consider. >> Yes, sir. Thank you, board member Williams. Again, when we say uh vacancy, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's not a teacher in front of those students. It could very much be a certificated sub. Again, what we're trying to do is to state uh factually uh if there's a vacancy or not. And so we're stating actual vacancies even though there could be a live body teacher or substitute certificated teacher reporting each and every day to deliver instruction to those uh students. So again, as far as we know, unless they're uh oneoffs, as far as we know, most of our classes have
142a teacher at this point in juncture of the school year. Uh next, I'd like for Dr. Whitaw if there >> Wait, we have a couple more questions on uh board member love and then board member Okay. And then are you next board member reporter? >> Picking backing off of Uh, Superintendent Rod Richmond, how many subs do we have in the classrooms? That's a um a high school sub in the classroom that teaches our core subjects. I don't have that information right now, but I will be glad to get you that information by tomorrow and how many subs we have in classrooms that are teaching core subjects. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Board member Murphy. >> Thank you, Commissioner Ot. I would um I think I asked it before, but I'm going to ask again. Um,
143I would like a um a list of schools that's using the virtual learning. >> I I res Yeah, I want to say but proximity. Yeah, >> I sent that uh to board members. All board members should have I sent that information. There's a list. I resend it. Okay. >> Uh so it'll be at the top of your emails, but I sent that about I want to say two or three weeks ago. Okay. >> Any other reporter? >> Yeah. I just want to say, you know, I think overall the conversation the conversation overall is that, you know, we want to do see highly certified teachers within the classroom, whether it's in person or virtual. I think right now probably the best option would be virtual. I know even last year um Germantown Middle School had one
144math teacher for the whole grade level. you know, and that was disheartening for me. And so, um, just coming with these options and and hearing all the dialogue, whatever, I think I would like to see the district bring forth some sort of recommendation so we can just calm down on the the vacancy talk and say, "Hey, at least our students not in the gym when they should be they're in the gym where they should be in the classroom versus some of these high subject areas." >> Yes, board me. I appreciate that. What what would really be incredibly helpful for the team and I would be for uh you all to share with us those exact schools where principles are saying they have vacancies and they need a teacher. Uh today I pled principles at principal
145meeting and asked that any of them want or need uh any type of remote option. I may have had three to four hands uh to be raised. Uh I've also shared with the board what the team and I will do is we'll resend the process for them to uh secure a virtual uh teacher if that's what they're choosing to do. Uh but again at this point share with me the school where there is no teacher and we can address that specific school grade level uh and and course. Uh but at this time uh schools haven't shared that information uh with us. We still have several sections of proximity remaining that if schools request them, we can give those to them. Uh, and as I shared earlier today, I'll send out communication telling schools that as
146we wrap up the semester, if you want uh a virtual or a remote option, now is the time as we close out the semester to let us know so when we come back in January, we can provide that option. But again, I I pled the principles today. The team will tell you, principles will tell you, very few raised their hand. I asked uh did they or did they want a remote option and maybe four or five people raised their hands. >> Okay. And I I don't know if the question already been asked, but I I do want to see a list of all certified subs that currently that's teaching our class. I don't know if that question been asked already or the data has been out there. And um and I do have a survey
147as well about the effectiveness of our virtual um learning curriculum as well. Yes sir. I I'll have to see how we can provide the list of all certificated subs. Um but but but we'll do what we can which is in line with with policy or the law in regards to sharing that specific data. >> Do you have any board member? Can we do board member Williams and then you want to go next? love >> and they love as Dr. Is there is there an effort of front to use certified teachers uh as proximal proximity teachers in the high school especially where you have teacher assistance or [music] someone is there to monitor the behavior but we do have a huge I'm told a huge collection of teachers who will virtually teach who are certified at
148because they might be teaching in California somewhere living in Memphis. Do are we using any of those people here who could fill the vacancies in the high schools? >> Yes, sir. Mr. Williams, we're currently uh using I want to say approximately uh sections of proximity or 374. I think we have 26 remaining sections uh where uh schools are using uh proximity and they're using the virtual format but also the virtual format requires us to go and hire um >> a full-time equivalent monitor. uh as we hire more monitors, uh that also comes with uh a price tag uh that we'll have to cover. Uh so we'll we'll be looking at that, but uh it will be extremely helpful for us. Uh I see Miss Marble in the audience. um for our associations as well as
149board members, let us know where these specific classes are that people are uh raising attention to. Uh because at this time uh we're not aware of some of these things. So, if you all share the schools andor ask the principles to reach out to their regional superintendent or myself uh sharing with us that they need uh instructional support, we'd be more than happy to accommodate it. board member love. >> Miss Addison, how many um teachers do you have in the um portal now that's getting their uh practice test? >> How many Ask me the question one more time. >> How many teachers do you have registered that's getting um assessed on their pass? How many teachers do you have? >> Let me let me try to help you. Let me try to help you, Miss
150Addison. So, board members, we normally have roughly about 1,200 teachers uh who are on permit. Of those 1,200 teachers, you could basically break it down into thirds where you may have one-third uh that is in year one, one-third that is in year two, one-third that is in year three. So, let's roughly say 400 teachers are in each cohort. Each of those teachers that are in those cohorts either have to pass their practice andor they have to be in an educational preparation program where they have to complete the coursework. Now, what's within and not within our control, what's what's within our control is continuing to share with teachers what they need in order for them to become certificated and for us to provide tutoring and touch points for those uh permit teachers. What's not within our
151control is helping them to pass a test. Now we can provide tutoring, we can provide resources, we can do all of that, but in the end they have to take and pass the test that's commensurate with their particular content area. What also is not within our control is them enrolling in an educational preparation program, them showing up to class every day, them taking the courses that are required for that EP program, for them to pass those classes, and for them to graduate from that educational preparation program. Those things are not within our control. And then once they complete for them to submit that information to the state and for the state to approve that they met the cut score that's commensurate with that practice exam and for them to have gone to an approved accredited
152university where they've completed and the state accepting that educational preparation program. So when we hear teachers or people saying what is the district doing? We can provide tutoring support engagement of continuing to let them know but when we hire every single teacher within this district they know that they are not certificated. They know that we're hiring them conditionally and they know that that conditional hiring is based on them completing an educational preparation program, passing their practice so that they can become fully certificated and we got to start in three minutes. So, um >> Okay. Any other board members have anything? And then I'll close it out. All right. So, what I would like to see is um definitely I would like to see a recommendation showing that we are at least exhausting all the resources
153that we have whether that be virtual in person to at least fill some more of those our teacher vacancies. We have that at the at our fingertips too. I would also like to see a pathway forward as to what we're doing to enhance our lensure department to ensure that our teachers that are coming on permitted teachers making sure that they're actually getting the support that they need to get their lensure and then also lastly I would like to uh um have information to see is this information easily found I received a message from a teacher where is this information that can be found um is easily found on the website as far as u them getting you know the the resources to them getting their lenses. So that will be my my ask if I
154could have that uh we can have that for the next [music] board meeting >> if before you adjourn. Thank you um chair Otay for that. Um I think our when we ask for that we have to be prepared for the policy that may need to be supporting that and the resources that we may need to support that. So I just want to make sure that that we're working in synergy with that. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Thank you. >> No further questions or comments. Uh academic committee meeting is reserved. >> Thank you.