001Attention. Salute. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> You guys can turn around. It gives me great privilege to introduce you to some of the finest at Greener Elementary School. I think they were a little overwhelmed by the size of the crowd. I told them only to expect one million. Okay. And so tonight, I want to introduce you some students from Greenbryer. and they're under the direction of Miss Call who's the principal and Miss Connor who is the assistant principal who's here tonight. And so tonight I have with us we have Arya Dean who is going to be a cheer coach and help her mother who be the best is what she tells
002me. Jameson Johnson who is going to be a police officer when he grows up. I have Corbin Arnold who is going to be a professional baseball player. I have Wyatt Arnold, the brother who's going to be a pilot Monday. And then Kaden Franklin, a future firefighter. >> Mala Brown wants to be a veterinarian. >> Kayn Fowler, who wants to be a babysitter and will run the best daycare system one day. Mr. Wesley Balor who wants to join the United States Air Force. >> Elliot Curry, who is going to be all things builder, wants to build homes and businesses. Poppy Vickers, cosmetologist. Paxton Vickers, another future MLB baseball player. And last but not least, Miss Sibly Brley, who wants to be a doctor. Please give me give them a big round. I do not know where
003>> you guys can please read our mission and vision statements, please. Our mission is to ensure that each student is prepared to succeed in life. And our vision is that Robertson County Schools will enable all students to reach and achieve high academic standards and career standards while empowering them to succeed in a technologically advanced and culturally diverse society. >> Thank you, sir. Tonight, we do not have any items for public comment. Uh but board members, you do have before you a consent agenda. Uh I trust you got a chance to look over that prior to the meeting. Uh at this time I will open it up for any discussion or action. >> Second, can I make a couple of adjustments please? Yes, sir. >> One is editorial elementary school doing the pledge of allegiance. We'll
004correct that for the record. And item 7B, if you would strike that from tonight's uh discussion. We need to postpone that until March, please. >> And then if you would add item 7 C uh calendar adjustments and waiver approval, please. We're correcting item 1B 7B adding 7C calendar adjustments. uh with the amendments to the consent agenda. I know we had a a motion in a second. Motion from Miss Scott, second from Mr. Scott Rice. Uh all those in favor, please make it be known by saying I >> opposed. Motion passes 6. Look like we got some recognitions tonight. >> Yes, we do. Dr. Hollings, can you please >> Mr. Mr. Chad? Good evening. It is um my name is Emily Hollingsworth and I'm the supervisor of federal programs for Robertson County. Um one of the
005programs that we support in our department is the English learner program. Um and it's my pleasure to introduce two people who are instrumental in that work. Um our EL coordinator, Miss Lindy Pepper, and um Mr. Jason Chadam, our EL academic coach. I'm truly proud of the work they do and all the ways they support teachers and administrators in meeting the needs of our students. Their dedication and creativity and care make a real difference every day. I'm honored to work with them, our EL students and their families. Tonight, I'm especially excited to recognize the first annual writing contest winners, an initiative that began with Jason's idea and became a wonderful celebration of our students voices and talents. So now I'm going to turn it over to him to tell you about the contest and introduce our
006winners. >> So good evening everyone. My name is Jason. I am the district English learners academic coach. Robertson County has over 15,500 English learners in our schools. These students aren't just learning grade level subjects. They're learning them in English, which for some is their second language, for others their third, sometimes even their fourth language. So imagine that you're learning biology or algebra or poetry for the first time in a completely different language. Last November, we had a writing contest to both recognize and celebrate the hard work these students put in each day. The contest was given to or was open to English learners in grades 2 through 8. And there were two categories for each grade. Emerging for students who are still learning the basics of English and progressing for students that are moving closer
007to English proficiency. Students used a visual story board to write a narrative based on a topic they were learning in their English language arts class. And these topics range from light and sound to Norse mythology to Romeo and Juliet. For each grade, a team from curriculum and instruction and federal programs judged the entries using a writing rubric from the English language exam that students take each February. We're excited to recognize and congratulate these students, and many of our winners are present tonight. students, thank you for excuse me, thank you for the hard work you put in each day. Families, thank you for the support and the encouragement that you give them. And to our EL teachers and interpreters and our school teams, thank you for the advocacy and the instruction that you give each day.
008Miss Pepper, our EL coordinator, is going to present each winner with a trophy and a certificate. So students, when I call your name, please accept your trophy and we'll line up at the front here. Our first winner isn't here tonight, but we're going to celebrate him at his school tomorrow from Waga Elementary. Our second grade progressing winner is Adrien Leaz Velasquez >> from Chetm Park Elementary. Our third grade emerging champion is Amaya Ruiz MEDINA from Heritage Elementary. Our third great progressing champion is Annalie RODRIGUEZ from Chrysole Elementary. Our fourth grade emerging champion is Genesis Miguel Sakaru. from Heritage Elementary. Our fourth rate progressing champion is Juan Castro Alaro. Both of our fifth grade winners are from Waga Elementary. Our fifth grade emerging winner is Carlos Lucas Garcia. Our fifth grade progressing winner is Karim Molina
009Ferman. FROM Coopertown Middle School. Our sixth grade emerging champion is Javier Diaz Aendano. And from Heritage Elementary, our sixth grade progressing champion is Eileen Lu Pinña. FROM Innovation Academy. Our seventh grade progressing champion is Gel Ortega ESCALANTE from Innovation Academy. Our eighth grade progressing champion is Britney Andrade Kabagn. And our sixth grade champion has now arrived. So once again from Coopertown Middle School, our sixth grade emerging champion is Javier Diaz Abendano. Congratulations to all of our students. >> Thank you again to all of our families and congratulations students. Um if you will come through this door over here uh we can get a picture and families you can come out this door as well so you can get pictures with your uh children. All right, moving on in the agenda to item 5A, personnel reports.
010>> Board members, item 5 A is on page 24 in your packets. You will see the certified and classified personnel reports. Uh you see the uh we have the resation, leaves of absences and new hires. And you can see that both for uh classified and certified retirement and special education assistant from Green Elementary School, Miss Patricia Williams. I would remind you along with the personnel report, we are having a job fair in Robinson County in March and we will share some more details of that uh for you as we start looking forward to the new school year coming up. >> Moving on to item 6A, expense comparison report. Members, on page 26, you'll find our expense comparison report for the month. This is the time period ending December 31st. Uh you will see that our
011revenues are at 71.3 million and our expenditures are at $73.1 million. So again, that's uh that is good news for us as we start approaching that time. Do you remember we budgeted some dollars uh uh out of our fund balance uh anticipating more revenues to come in than we uh expected to spend. And so you'll see uh as of December 31st, we're anticipating right at breaking even. And so as revenues continue to come in and the majority of our uh one-time expenses have already been paid out for the year, we hope to see that number grow and grow back to the point that our fund balance is not impacted. So I think we had some discussion of that last week, I'm sorry, over the weekend at our planning retreat. Uh you'll see our revenues mainly
012coming from property taxes at 52% property taxes at $10.2 million uh similarly to last year and our sales taxes uh a little bit higher than we expected actually 9.0 million or 49% of our budget. Proud to see those numbers coming back up a little bit. The expenditures we track regularly, electricity, diesel, fuel, gasoline, salaries, and insurance uh are all um in the the 30 to 40% with the exception of electricity. And again, I think that's uh we'll continue to monitor that as we move along. uh don't really know how that's going to be impacted the rest of the year because uh we did u run heat and air heat and air conditioned our buildings during the the time frame that we were out of school. So I know there would be some savings for that
013but uh not a lot. We wanted to keep our buildings as warm as possible uh so that we didn't have interior damage from that. So, uh maybe there'll be some savings from from not being in school every day from other lights and things like that. We're pretty efficient with what we're doing with lights, so it may not be as as much as we would anticipate. The detailed reports are found in your consent agenda. So, anytime you have questions about those, we'll be glad to get answers to any questions you might have. >> Thank you, sir. Uh item 6B. Uh we have a budget amendment. First >> have a budget amendment. Uh you'll see that starting on page 28. Uh we received uh approximately a million dollars in revenues uh from various sources. You'll see those
014across the top. Uh contributions and gifts totaling $29.5,000. Uh raise your hand is a grant that we receive a rebate through the uh USDA department of a rebates $50,000. And then our tea uh increase was $850,000. So that totals right over a million dollars. You'll see that we've distributed that. And Miss Kleiner has also done some some budget cleanups here where maybe some categories are a little shorter than we anticipated, some are a little over. Uh so you'll see a distribution. Uh top half of page 28 has places that we have added dollars. And then page 28 carried over to page 29. uh some places that we've moved some dollars and again uh at the bottom of page 29 you'll see some other places that we've added and distributed that it is a balanced budget
015amendment at 1.003434 million >> motion to approve >> motion by Mr. Jeff White. Do I have a second? >> Second by Miss Demetro White. All those in favor of approving the balance budget amendment, please make a note by saying I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes 6. Next item 7A, school attendance report. Members, on page 30, you'll see the school attendance report for the month of January. Uh we'd like to highlight that our district attendance for the month was 94.9%. You'll see that compared to 92.8% previous year. So that's a good increase in uh good habits there. We've not heard of a lot of sickness or illness in their buildings during the month of January. And again, so that's been positive. We like to highlight Coopertown Elementary School with our highest elementary school attendance at 95.7%.
016And uh Heritage High School has maintained their uh lead and uh and 98.3% leading our district with attendance there. Uh you will see as you look down through that column again uh all of our all of our attendance rates I think the lowest one I see is about 92 uh 92.6 93% and again all the way to a high of 98.3. So our students and our staff are our students are doing an excellent job of being in school. That is a part of being encouraged to be there by our staff as well. In the far right column, you'll see the number of students that have 20 or more absences, and you'll see that by school. Again, I think we took a detailed look at that over the weekend at your retreat. We have any additional
017questions or discussion on the attendance report. We'll move on to item 7B. >> 7B we have postponed until our March meeting. And so 7 C I do not have a handout for you, but I know through discussion um I think it's been the topic that's been on everybody's mind for the last uh at least the last 10 or 11 days is where are we with snow days? with employment days. Uh, officially the state calls them stockpile days. And as you'll recall, we uh are allowed to stockpile or bank snow day snow days by going an additional 30 minutes over and above what the state requires. That's instructional time. So, it's almost like uh going to school, putting in an extra 30 minutes, and it builds up that we call stockpile days or an insurance for
018days like the last uh days when we've had to make decisions about closing school. Uh we typically end up at about 10 stockpile days that we use for stockpile days. We use two or three of those for professional development. And uh I told one reporter last week, this is the first time in uh the history of me working that we missed 10 days. I remember that happening as a as a student back in high school or I guess middle school at the time. And we missed a long period of time, but uh again, I think this is an abnormality that um not just us, but everybody in northern Middle Tennessee and I think Eastern Tennessee have experienced. So, uh, we are over on our stockpile days. We've used a total of 12 days at this
019point. And so, um, with your approval tonight, I will ask for a waiver of some of those days from the state department of education, the commission does have the authority to grant such waivers if we uh, show that we're being judicious in how we use those, if there's documented evidence of uh, of reasons why we could not go to school. And I think If anybody's there already with that at all, uh we have to submit some video or pictures of what we've seen and decisions we we've done there. And uh it also helps that uh we have a declared state of emergency from the governor's office through FEMA. So we will compile all that put that together in our our waiver request with your approval and submit that uh so that we do not have
020to make up our hope would we would not have to make up the extra days that we have missed nor if there were any more inclement weather through the rest of the year. We would not have to make that up would be our hope. So, uh, we know winter's not over and we know springtime sometimes brings spring storms and, uh, flooding or dangerous conditions there and sometimes we've had to use days up in the spring. Uh, as a part of that, we are supposed to make every effort that we can, particularly if we're banking snow days, uh, to use as professional development. And so you'll recall at one of our last meetings, we adjusted our calendar uh because of the um the elections that have taken place and all the things that have gone on.
021And so on our most recent calendar, we had adjusted March the 2nd to be a professional development day and an administrative day for our staff to take care of some professional learning and uh other administrative tasks. Uh I believe it is prudent for me to to ask this board to approve uh changing March 2nd to an instructional day. I think that shows good effort on our part as we request a waiver uh that we are not u just uh using those you know fruitlessly. I know it would be a good use of time for for staff uh and for planning. Uh I've asked my staff that have planned those events for that day to think about other alternatives and they were um very understanding of that and they uh they understood that challenge and we'll
022have a plan to to deliver the information that teachers would otherwise receive on that second. Uh but we would ask again that we change that to an instructional day so that we can um at least show that we're making that effort. that will keep us and provide some consistency uh in what we're doing. So, uh I guess we could entertain a motion to do all that in one action. That would be to change March 2nd to an instructional day and to approve the request of a waiver of mint weather days. Do we have any discussion or a motion? >> So move by Mr. Jeff White, second by Mr. Scott. All those in favor make amend by saying I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes 6. >> As a matter of semi-related discussion, uh can we
023get a list of all the schools that are used for election sites? Um I I'm proud to partner with the county wherever we can, but it seems like we're getting more and more elections every year, you know, especially with the special to Congressman Green seat last year and we had what three days out for elections this after the one in May. We're three days out for elections this year, right? >> Yes, sir. Um, I think I'd like to look into that if you know, I mean, if there's no better polling sites than our schools, maybe there's no option. But I I if we're having to use three stockpile days for elections, that's not really what they were intended for. So, if there's some other sites in the community that might be better, we might look
024into that. >> I'll get that to you sometime early tomorrow. >> I believe there are nine of those sites if I'm not Mr. Wallen. normally coordinates with the election commission, but >> nine nine of our schools are use >> and that's a choice. >> Yes. >> That we partner with. Is there yearly agreement or is there a I've never that's never come across since I've been here, but never was an issue till we decided to have 15 different elections for That's a whole different subject. >> Different different. >> Yeah. Now it's an issue. >> It is. >> I'll leave a lot of comments. Go >> ahead. That's right. That's right. >> Well, and I I will add as we look at calendars, you know, the the the law requires that we not be in school
025on those days so that students would not be here. Uh there's nothing that prohibits us from having a professional development day. and whether or not it's at one of those nine sites or whether we could gather in another site. Um, state law would now allow us to use remote architect one of those days. So, if we um obviously those are dates that are should be scheduled in advance and so we know that's a remote learning day. Um, we can sign those we make those assignments. Teachers will make those assignments. students would carry their devices home, complete those device, complete the work on their devices, and then it would load back up to the teacher when when they return to school. Again, I know there's sometimes a question about that and people, you know, what what
026if I don't have internet at home and our procedures now would allow the students to download that on their device without internet. So, they wouldn't need internet to complete that assignment at home. So, think about working offline on your computer. And then when that student comes back in network, it loads up to the teachers. So that is an option that we did not have in the fall and we challenged our staff to come up with a plan for that. And so we'll we'll talk some more about that as we go along. Any further discussion calendar? Hearing? None. We'll move on to item A, transportation facilities. Oh, >> sorry. There are none but communications none. >> Director of schools report uh board members. I just want to thank you. Uh I know you you had scheduled
027a retreat over the weekend and uh I think uh Saturday was a very productive day and allowed us to uh uh take a look in depth at some topics that you had asked us to pull together and I appreciate it. I think we have uh had a great time of discussion this weekend and talked about a variety of topics that are of interest to you. I did have some communication with Mr. James Spencer this afternoon as a followup and he is uh uh he he is very hopeful after one of the discussions we had on Friday about u possibility of a a land search. So we might need a special call meeting sometime uh to do something related to land. um we'll reserve that after he makes a couple more phone calls to us. We'd
028go back and say this uh last two weeks has been a very unique time and uh it was something that uh to be out of school 10 solid days has been something as I said I've never experienced as a as a staff member. Uh certainly never as a director of schools I don't think we've ever run out of snow days as a director of schools and so this is an unusual time. Uh our staff have dealt with that very well as we came back today. I think everything's very positive and a lot of positive smiles, but we have stressed to our administrators who are stressing that to teachers. There is a sense of urgency now that we've got to make up time. We got to get busy about that. And so some of those activities
029um that you know might be on the side. We we're kind of pushing those to the side so we can make up some instructional time that we have missed. We'd also like to remind our community that um it sometimes it's easy to pick up the phone and call a school or call a central office and ask are we going to school or are we not. Um we've had the privilege. I mean it's been easy the decision the last few days has not been hard at all look out your window and see lots of ice all over the roads. Uh but it it has been an easy decision not to uh to go to school whether we're going to school or not. And uh So, we've been able to make decisions most of the times early
030in the morning by 10 or 11 o'clock by noon at least and we tried to announce that and I know that's a convenience for families but also remind our community that is not always the case. There's sometimes we have to make decisions as late as 5, six, seven at night. And so, um, you know, as families plan for babysitters and daycarees and things like that, uh, things that they need to do, we just remind them that this, uh, this this is not always, um, the easiest thing that we do, making those decisions. Uh, as that information, as those decisions are made, it goes out to our Twitter accounts, our social media accounts. It then goes to local news, uh, our national news stations, our community news partners here in Springfield. Uh then it goes to
031the school reach messaging system which if a family is not receiving those messages, they need to uh check their information in our power school so that they would receive that uh through telephone calls that go to their houses and um uh that message is sent to them there and posted on our district website as well. So it's it's posted in several several places. Uh next thing for calendaring a little bit on February 18th our office will hold host education day for the Robertson County Chamber of Commerce leadership class. And uh I think I put some of those uh bullets for you and you have an beside your desk. If you'd like to join us for uh the entire day or any part of that day, you were certainly welcome to be a part of that.
032And uh let us price if you'd like to attend, then we will uh get you in. Uh particularly if you're coming for lunch, if you let us know so we can make plans for that as well. And then finally, uh our state of the schools event. It's going to be on March the 11th. That will be at Springfield High School. It will start early that morning and then we'll finish up around 10 or 10:30. Uh that is a report from our office on where we stand in terms of accountability. uh highlight some of the great things that are going Robertson County schools. And then finally, I think u most of you know we we'd like to express sympathy uh to the family of Shane Burton. Shane was a u a non-faculty coach at Greenar Middle
033School uh who had a massive heart attack this morning. His wife is a special ed consultant. um uh she's a retired teacher from uh the Green area, taught special ed for for 30 plus years and uh she did some consulting work for us in special department. So um our hearts go out to that panel. >> Thank you. Uh item 11, any old business to discuss? Have any new business? Hearing none, we'll move on to comments by board members. Uh, Miss Connie, you want to lead us off? >> I know you all are always accusing me of being that first grade school teacher. It does get ingrained in you, and this is proof. This morning, my husband and I were sitting there at breakfast and I said, "You know, we saw the weather." And I said,
034"Hey, at least it's going to be a pretty day and they can get out on the playground." And his mind went to where other people's minds go. And he said, "The playground. Why would they need to go to the playground? How many days have they been off?" You know, and I said, "Wait a minute. One of the, you know, that's that's a really important part of our first graders play." And so I hope the kids got to get out on the playground today. Okay. I was happy they got to go back, but >> we'll have the recess law makes them that. See, that's what I told him, too. So, yeah. But anyway, I just thought y'all would enjoy that little story from the first perspective. They needed to be on the playground today. >> No
035doubt. No doubt. >> Mr. White. >> Thank you, sir. Mr. Maker. >> Oh, wait a second. If anybody wants to see snow, even though it was 70 degrees today, if you look on the north side of my subdivision of all the houses are still snowing, >> just in case anybody anybody already missed it. >> Yeah. >> No thanks. >> Well, and if you want to see some ice, there's still some in the back. I almost fell from >> my first. >> Me, too. My foot started sliding. So y'all y'all be careful when you go to your cards. And I just want to say what? Well, first of all, I I didn't know that about Shane Burton. And so anyway, I hate to hear that. Thoughts and prayers are sure with with that family. And but
036want to say a special thank you for some of our TV celebrities during all this snow. Both of y'all down there. Good job. >> I promise we didn't plan. It just happened. Yeah, we did a very good job. I was very proud to see y'all there. Y'all did did a great job and that that's really all I got. >> Mr. Ed, uh just uh a lot of work I know getting back started. That's an unexpected two week break like that. Um that was only a fun snow for like a day and just turned into sick concrete. Yeah, it's been tough and like that. They're not joking. I almost slipped in the back u back parking lot, too. It's still icy, but uh thank y'all for all the work that to get us back going. Uh
037thank you for the calls to keep our kids safe. I appreciate that during that time and uh just look forward to the rest of the year. >> Right. And you know that I can see a lot of parents smiling today with their kids back off today. So >> not teachers smiling parents. >> Lots of parents. >> I don't have anything tonight. Uh I will point out that when we meet in March, the clocks will have sprung forward. I know everybody's looking forward to that. I know I am at least ready for spring. So that's a step in the right direction. Anyway, so um unless anybody's got anything else, we stand in >> I don't know yet. We will see. Please.