001Welcome to the April 9th, 2026 school board for the Rutherford County schools. We'll be opening the meeting with a brief moment of silence and prayer and a pledge of allegiance to the United States flag. No one is required to participate or be present for any of these and being in this portion of the meeting is completely voluntary. Tonight's prayer and pledge will be led by Ms. Katie Darby. Thank you, Madam Chair. If you would all bow your heads. Dear heavenly Father Lord, we thank you for this beautiful day and I pray that you would give us um wisdom and discernment and encourage us to make the decisions that are in the best interest of this district, these staff the staff and these students. Lord, I pray that you would give us all traveling mercies as
002we travel the rest of this week and just be with us, Lord. It is in your name I pray. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. First step, we have the approval of the agenda. Do I have any comments or questions? Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Second. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. All in favor, say I. I. Motion passes. Next, we have the approval of the consent agenda. Any comments or questions? Thank you, Ms. Sharp. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. All in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. We have one public comment this morning. It's uh Erica Roberts. We don't have one. Okay. Next, we have the RCS difference. And so
003tonight, this is something that I don't know what year this is in its iteration. Um but we have our math specialist, Dr. Kyle Prince and Ms. Melinda Fleischer going to present this year's winners of the Desmos math competition. It's always one of my favorite nights and I believe that took place partially today, too, didn't it? And so what year of this is this for us? Five, six, seven? Fifth for the competition? Awesome. Always love watching them see what they created. And then we did some Desmos art competition in just a little bit, but first we're going to start with our tissue math competitions. Um we'll start with high school and then we'll get to Ms. Melinda Fleischer, who's the middle school math specialist and she'll Middle school. Um something different this year, we had a
004lot of a lot more schools competing this year at our high school competition including schools like Brentwood Academy, BGA, Nolensville, Independence, Summit, Ravenwood, Hume-Fogg, MTCS, like a lot of different schools, but we still did uh wonderful and you'll see that here in just a moment. Uh so in algebra one, um we had uh six students place in the top 10 including first place from Rockvale High School. Uh we had seven in geometry, so quite a few there. And several middle school The Thurman Francis kids are middle schoolers. Yeah, some were even sixth, seventh grade uh and competing in these as well. Uh we had four in algebra two. All from Central Magnet. Only one in in precalculus from Riverdale High School, so congratulations to him. We had three in calculus. And five in statistics including
005the winner from Central Magnet School. So uh overall, we did really, really well at the high school competition this year at MTSU uh and some of these um winners will go on to the state competition as well, so it's really exciting for them. Uh now I'll turn it over to middle uh middle school for Melinda Fleischer. So the the middle school math contest was today at MTSU. It was this morning. Um slightly different for the grade 6-8 contest, they announced team awards. So I've captured the the winning teams up here. We had students in the the top 10 in middle school, too, but again, it was this morning, so I don't quite have all their names on there. Um but for sixth grade, we came in second place overall, Central Magnet School was the winning
006team and we had five students in the top 10 that came from both Blackman Middle and Central Magnet. In seventh grade, we had two winning teams. First place, Central Magnet and second place was the seventh grade math team from Oakland Middle School. Um and four students in the top 10 for seventh grade math from Central, Oakland and Thurman Francis. And in eighth grade, Central Magnet first place overall, Thurman Francis was the third place team. Um and five students in the top 10 from Central Magnet, Thurman Francis and also a student from La Vergne Middle School was in the top 10 for eighth grade math. So both middle and high school math students did an awesome job competing against not just kids within our own district, but other districts, private schools, anyone who chose to participate
007at MTSU this week, they did awesome. We're really proud of them and their teachers. And now we'll get to the Desmos art competition, which we're all um you know, excited about each year to present to you. Uh we had a teacher division and we had a student division and so uh we'll we'll first start out with the teacher division and um these these competitions are based on a rubric of creativity, visual composition, math and detail. So it's not just based on what you see, it's also based on the math that they use uh to to create these. So for our teacher division, uh for the I think fifth year in a row, um we have Jonathan Anderson. did on this one and and create a safe that you have to unlock by using uh some
008problem-solving skills and trying to figure out the the missing code there, so that was really cool. Uh and I I don't want to go further without recognizing our uh sponsors as well, the Redstone Federal Credit Union, MTSU and Desmos, who also provided t-shirts for all of our winners as well. Uh so that was really cool. All right, so to the student competition. Uh we have three honorable mentions. Uh Amaya Ferguson, Zahara Albadran, and Peyton Hulsey. If you'll come up. That's pretty cool. And all every bit of that is is math, so it's it's quite amazing. All right, and then in fifth place, uh from Blackman High School, we have Santiago Oviedo Mendez. And then in fourth place, we have Kate Smith, also from Blackman High School. Blackman had a lot of submissions this year, so
009you'll see a reoccurring theme. Uh in third place though, from Stewarts Creek, is Austin Baker. He created a game um in which you have to move the line and then you have to make the ball go through the star and there's nine different levels. Uh so it's it's pretty amazing that he could do all that in one basically calculator screen, so it's pretty cool. All right, and then in second place, Marianne Hill Fairness Carpio from Blackman High School. >> [applause] >> And the detail on this one was was quite amazing, as you can see. And then in first place, also from Blackman High School, Audrey Mangrum. And she got extra points for making the little things move around, so that was pretty cool. Uh so let's give one more round of applause for our winners.
010Thank you. Can I say one more thing? Sure can. >> to mention Audrey also got a $500 scholarship from MTSU, so Oh, that's wonderful. Awesome. That's great. That's awesome. Yes. Yeah. Okay, next we go on to instruction. Yeah, first we have the charter amendment petition submitted by American Classical Rutherford. And so we had this discussion on Tuesday and so I give me just a second to kind of go over a little bit of where we are. So we and Dr. McAnally, you here? Can you kind of go over here and we received an email. I don't I don't think I've received it, but I think you guys on the board received the email request from American Classical's board chair requesting a delay. Um Can you go over that part first and then I'll go over
011the information we received from the Tennessee Department of Education less than an hour ago. >> Sure. If you remember, she originally the board chair, Trisha Cagle, originally said offered to grant us uh an extension of that 60-day window where we we to vote by April 17th or it would automatically be passed. She said, "We're willing to wait till the May meeting if you need more time." Um and and we did not agree to do that on Tuesday. However, she has come back today and said, "Well, their school has a performance tonight." And I'm aware of that. We did We had our annual site visit at at A Carr today. Um and yes, we did know they have a major school-wide performance tonight. I think it's out at Belle Aire Baptist. So, she repeated her request
012saying, "We really would like to be at the board meeting when you talk about this and when you vote on it." So, um again, we're offering to grant you a a a a reprieve to wait until the May meeting. So, after that, you know, through the several emails with our folks at the state, I finally got through to the general counsel and the executive director of the charter commission, public charter commission. And their response was, "Yes, um you can delay a vote, but in order to do that, you must have a signed legal brief showing that both sides agree to that extension." So, that's where we stand at this point. So, that is an That is an option and I talked to Tricia Stickel on the phone after that, and she said, "Absolutely, send it
013send it over and I'll sign it." So, and she's on board with that and and that's where we are. And so, the board um chose to go that route, the legal brief. Um probably need to be signed by Mr. Reed, I guess, or Dr. Reed about that. He's going to work that out. And so, that would need to be done before What's the 60-day deadline? The 17th, next Friday. Okay. I will have to say that I think it's questionable whether that can be extended by just a an agreement cuz the statutes are adopted by the state legislature. And that's a framework adopted by the state legislature. So, there's not currently a statutory mechanism that says that it can be waived or this is something that can be changed. So, so there's so we'll be going
014into uncharted waters if we do this agreement and depending counting on the fact that that's going to be something that you they honor and something we're not going to be hung with. So, it's far from certain that this is something we can do. So, I know the charter commission legal people said they're willing to do it. They're But this is not what the statutes are set up to do cuz the statutes do not allow for an exception. The statute says, um if we don't take action, it's deemed to be approved. But it's April 17th date. So, so I do have to point that out. But the board of course is a board decision what you want to do on it. Um but it is not clear that this can be extended. And then the other
015part of that is and I we I emailed the Tennessee Department of Education yesterday, school nutrition, um charter commission, state Board of Education, all of them to get guidance. I've got a response at 4:32 and I greatly appreciate that response cuz I know this is a nuanced um topic. And so, the board has a copy of that email. I did just email that to um the A Carr's board chairs as well while we were sitting here just so that they would be aware of that. Um basically, my recommendation based on this information, of course, I'll do whatever the will of the board is. Um there's no way as the director of schools I can recommend that There would be my recommendation that we grant a waiver based on these different analysis because this is the
016group that our waiver request would go to. Yes, Mr. Wallace. Mr. Reed. >> [clears throat] >> So, you're saying that we're going into uncharted territory because of the statutes, there's nothing that is verbage that talks about the framework for extending this type of request. What in your opinion and what your know your knowledge of what you understand, what will be the implications if we were to go into the uncharted waters? What are we risking? If you if you do the extension and for some reason it does not it's not found to be legally valid, then the statute says if you go past that April 17th date, that you will have deemed to approve the waiver. Okay. So, you'd be basically would have deemed to have approved it if you have taken action not you know,
017no action on it whatsoever. So, this will have to go to the Department of Education if we if there's a legal brief that's signed by both parties, where does it go to next? Who gets it? >> think they're talking about a legal They so you They say brief. I think they're talking about a legal agreement. Is that both sides agree on an extension and that this statute does not would not be applicable because you're agreeing to extend additional time to evaluate the request. That's something the charter school apparently their counsel apparently said they thought they could do. That is not consistent with what the statutory framework is. There's no mechanism in the statute that says, you know, that there's that the charter school can agree to give you more time and if the if the
018school system agrees to get get more time, then you are allowed to do that. That's not anything in the statutory framework today. So, um so you'll be going doing something that's not in statute. Right. So, later on, if someone wanted to challenge the court's what the board does in this about giving additional time, and they say, "Well, the board's action was invalid because there's no statutory basis to take this action." Then what you What does the statute say? It says, "Well, if you not taken If you haven't taken action on this by April 17th, you will be be deemed to have approved it." So, someone has to challenge it in order for it to be for it to see if it can stand. Uh it would be >> not going to go anywhere unless someone
019else challenges it. Going anywhere? >> it won't go anywhere. In the sense that this piece of paper, is it going to go to the Department of Education? Are they Is it going to go to the charter commission? They're going to The agreement would not have to go to anyone at the to the state. So, it would not be presented to the state. So, there's an agreement entered with the charter school, it would be with with the Rutherford County School System and that charter school. And that is not going to There's no one at the state to approve it. Um there's no one to submit it to. Um there's no mechanism for that. So, um you're relying on the agreement to to be honored by both sides and to be deemed to be legally [clears throat]
020enforceable. But I would tell you there's no statutory basis for doing that agreement cuz the statutes do not provide a mechanism for that type of agreement to be entered. The state laws in our state are made by the state legislature. So, you're required to comply with those laws unless it's a provision thing where you can go around them, you can escape this provision by doing X, Y, or Z. Um and that's not the case with this. So, I don't know I I would also point out I don't know if you guys saw the email that came in late this afternoon from Christie Bellard, who's a state Department of Education attorney. It was a very long narrative. It was pretty crystal clear saying this cannot be legally waived and they are required to provide food service
021complying with the minimum federal requirements that every other school is required to do. It's a very lengthy and pretty thorough um email, but it says, you know, under TCA 49-6-2302A1, each LEA is required to establish a school lunch and breakfast program in every school under its jurisdiction. And that includes charter schools. And um it goes on several pages, but you see here in the end the definitely the state the opinion of the general counsel of the state Department of Education was that this is something the the requirements for this type of meal program cannot be waived. And who who is the ones Who can In your definition, who can challenge it? Who's the challenger? If it's not going to the state the state isn't agreement upon us and the charter. So, who can Who's Who's
022able to challenge the agreement? I I don't I mean, a disgruntled person could challenge it if they wanted Anybody can challenge it. Anyone to challenge it, the >> A constituent can challenge it. The federal programs for food service could challenge it. So, it could be challenged from lose out. I don't know that they would, but conceivably they could. Okay, thank you. Thank Thank you, Mr. Mr. Bond. I'd just like to make a motion we decline this amendment request. I don't see any way that we can approve it after reading this email today and uh all the way up and down the line, you know, it's uh we've been informed that it's just not something that uh is recommended to be done. And no other schools in states have been allowed to do this and I
023guarantee the state Department is not going to make an exception in this case. And I guess one thing I guess that another thing on this amendment, you know, this is something probably should have been done back uh few weeks ago or a few months ago and uh I recommended A Carr get with There's other schools in this state that have overcome this uh this challenge. And I just like to see them do it cuz I want to see them make it, but this is something that I can't feel comfortable about approving. So, I just make the motion we decline this amendment. Do I have any second to that? Second. Thank you, Mr. Bond. Any more discussion? Okay, both of y'all saw I'll go with Mr. Bond and >> Who's going first? I'll go with Mr.
024Ball first and then Mr. Mr. Sharp and then Mr. Darby. All right. This would be a a little bit high and I'm I guess I'm asking a question, Jeff, but put it in my simple feeble-minded terms. Trying to do this agreement kind of back door, it's like the statute of frauds in real estate, right? We can't do something illegal just because both parties agree to it. Would that be a fair >> be viewed that way, yes. Would that be a fair assumption that statute of frauds would kind of pick in here? And so anybody in the county could challenge it if we did this wrong. So if you don't take if you don't take action tonight, you're taking action by allowing it become through fruition. If you and if you don't vote it down, then
025you don't squash it or whatever. I'm I'm not willing to and I hate to say it this way, but I am kind of roll the dice on bucking the state legislature. The the guidelines for for charter schools are very specific in my in my mind. I've read since I've been here tried to catch up to the rest of y'all is that they are an extension of this district. They have to operate the same way our schools do. So you know, if you approve this request, I kind of got to thinking about it this way. Well, what if last case is decided? What if one of the schools that we're administer to every day? I don't know that everybody could have an opinion, right? But it's not necessarily a right opinion about it. We have to
026follow statute and the statute's pretty clear on charter schools in my mind. So that would I concur with Mr. Vaughn. Mr. Sharp. Madam Chair, I was going to ask about this. The the budget um this is this is pretty low. Did did Trish give this to us? Did that come from you? From the chairman. Um because I think this is a budget that's very low. I I spoke with um yeah. I think this is really on the low side by like a whole lot of money because I spoke to several of my friends that were in the food service business um and some of their budgets were over $500,000 for 440 kids because of the overhead and everything else that has to go with that. Um I wish we would have known about this sooner
027and had more time to really kind of work through this and try to find something that we could do and something that they could do to try to work something out because the vendors are not going to is not going to be an option for them because the vendors have their own overhead services and everything and so I know that they're thinking going with the vendor will be less expensive, but it's not and they're not going to be able to find vendors. So um I wish they would have brought this to us earlier and we could have had some time to work through it because when we get it on Friday and then we have our meeting on Tuesday to be able to talk to people and dig in and get more due diligence, it's
028just not enough time to be able to really make a decision. Yeah, remember the the the budget submission is a required component with the the application and I've asked for that repeatedly. And I will just to clarify, is that the budget that that that she submitted for us to check out? >> to be, yeah. I I talked to her today and it is it is based loosely on what another charter school in Cincinnati is doing, the cost and and other than that, she admitted it was just it's a guestimate as to what their total expenses would be. At this point it is, but without them being in the USDA program and not getting the subsidies and the half price when they buy the the bulk at bulk, um they're left at basically almost over-the-counter pricing.
029So um it's pretty expensive. Thank you. Dr. Sullivan. And then Mr. Lee and our team has done um they've spent I don't know how many hours working on it the last day and a half, I guess. And you can go over as much detail as you want. Uh maybe it was close to a million dollars roughly to be able I think yours was close to $700,000 and this that included the equipment um though for ours and staffing and all those. You can go over to as much detail as you want, just brief overview. >> [clears throat] >> We looked at this as if we were going to be running it to get up and running. Our schools are able to operate because we have the equipment we've had the equipment for some time. The equipment
030that's currently in that facility the vast majority of it will not work to serve the food like we would need to be able to serve it. The nutrition staff really diligently looked at comparable satellite sites that we have and what equipment we have there, which would be what equipment they would need, how we could staff it and then how we could operate it. They're in the $600,000 range just to get the equipment to get started. We're probably in the $150,000 range in equipment, which is not a lot. The big the biggest majority of that would be for two vans to transport the food. And then we would need four staff members to take care of it. The one thing and I'm not advocating for this at all. But if we were to just provide food
031and drop it off and leave it for them to manpower-wise to serve, if those people are not trained correctly and the food temperatures and those kind of things are not maintained and they get out of compliance and let's say the health department came in, which they do. We get spot inspections all the time. If they came in and that food is out of compliance, it goes on us. And I would not feel comfortable operating in that manner without our staff being over it all, which would increase our cost to them. I think there's some additional items that we would need to look at, but this is a day and a half and they've really done a wonderful job piece by piece exactly what pieces of equipment they would need and what pieces we would need.
032And and we're we're over $800,000 just to get the game started. Um and and I don't know that they're ready nor are we. Um and there was some discussion about we even went so far as what facility do we have that we could get operational as quickly as possible and it would be Cedar Grove. That's where we would that's where we would satellite from. But we've looked at it very extensively. There's some other things that I won't go into tonight, but but but it then it we get into how much per meal do we charge and you know, there again, that's on top of the the close to a million dollars to get everybody started. Yeah, so there may be potential at some point, but that's conversations that I think we have to have with
033them to see how much do they want to And what And and I may be speaking out of turn, but if we offer it to one, Agreed. are we opening that door to then providing the same services to everybody else and I don't know that we want to we want to get in that business. I mean we want to help, but it's a slippery slope. Mr. Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, we could start another CTE program, but um if we were let's just say in the perfect world everything rolled together and we were to be able to supplement their meals, would we be able to count them because it is a public school. Would would we be able to count them in our counts? They do already. They are already. >> Is like for economically
034disadvantaged and those type of things or >> I'm talking about for us for the USDA, the food and the supplement, yeah. Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Yes, Mr. Tidwell. Yeah, I'm just going to try to recap kind of cuz all this is hot off the press, right? A lot of stuff coming in fast. Um So, Mr. Reed, you had said that even if we entered into some type of legally binding agreement for postponement, that doesn't necessarily mean that we have the authority or right to do so. Is that a fair assumption? >> Under current statutes, yes. Yes. So we we could do this, but it may just not even be better than the piece of paper that it's written on. Maybe yeah, maybe meaningless. Maybe meaningless. And then if that
035were to be the case, then the waiver because the date would then expire before our next coming board meeting, then the waiver would then just go into effect. Correct? All right. And then as far as the ideas that we talked about the other day, Mr. Lee, about partnering, you just went over that. You're saying it's about a million dollars to kind of get going off the floor, then we start talking about cost per meal. Okay. Yes, sir. They can't see me nod. Yes, sir, you're correct. He is answering. Um All right. So that really just leaves them with applying in the summer for another vendor with the national school lunch program when it's more likely that they could pick up someone. I mean there are charter schools figuring this out. Anybody under our jurisdiction, all
036of the charters that are under their jurisdiction as well as the schools, I want to see them all be successful. Also, I think we have to think through this legally and soundly and we know we've getting a lot of different opinions on this. I imagine the weight of the general counsel of the Department of Education is pretty significant and knowledgeable. So, even though I did it hot off the press, um I would love more time to postpone it and think about it and give A car a chance to do it, but that don't even seem like an option at this point. So, anyways, I'll just recap and see where I'm at. Um, make sure I understood everything that's being played out and it seems like the best route at this current point without some new
037generated idea is that they're going to have to go to the summer and try to find a vendor themselves. Mr. Bond. Well, I think too, I think the Charter School Commission is on board against this also. So, you know, I There's nobody that really recommends we do this. Everybody recommends we don't do it. So, I'm not real smart guy, but when everybody tells you the one thing, you know, and you don't do it, uh, you sort of fell off the turnip truck. Is there any other more discussion? Okay. Well, I don't think we need a roll call. All in favor say what the motion to to, um, deny. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion denied. Next, we have number two. All right, number two is the spring 2026 Health Adoption Committee and
038you have those members before you and recommended motion is to approve. Thank you, Mr. Bond. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Darby. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. All right, next we have transfer student under discipline one. The board has been requested to admit a transfer student from another from under discipline. A student was expelled for threat of mass violence. According to policy 6.318, the board may deny admission of any student except those in state custody. When a student transfers from another school system while under suspension or expulsion, Director of Schools' recommendation is to deny. Move to deny. Thank you, Ms. Sharp. Second. Thank you, Mr. Bond. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have engineering and construction. Rockvale High CTE building request. Rutherford County Schools Career and
039Technical Education Department is proposing the purchase and installation of 130 by 40-ft metal storage building for the Rockvale High School Emergency Services programs. CTE Department will pay for the project using a Tennessee Innovative Schools Models grant. Cost of this project is approximately 60,000. The storage building will be used to store a 2,000 Freightliner LaFrance fire apparatus that was recently donated to the RCS CTE Department by Rutherford County [clears throat] Commissioner and Chief Farley, as well as additional emergency and first responder equipment for the fire management and law enforcement CTE programs. Engineering and Construction has reviewed the request and has no objections and again, I want to thank Chief Farley for thanking for agreeing to our crazy idea last June. Move to approve. Um, that was that Mr. Tidwell that And then Mr. Bond. >> Yes,
040sir. Thank you, Mr. Bond. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next. Rockvale High concrete request. Principal Steve Luker is requesting to partner with MTSU concrete program to place additional concrete around the football stadium and middle school baseball softball area. Cost for this project is 8 to 10,000 for materials and will be utilizing capital projects funds. Engineering and Construction has reviewed the request and has no objection. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Bond. Thank you, Mr. Bond. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, number three. Mr. Lee, do you need to go over transportation summer camp? I do not. We went over it the other night and if there's any questions, we'll be glad to answer it. If not, it's going in the mail tomorrow.
041Okay. Yes, ma'am. Any comments or questions? I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next. Eagleville football, softball, baseball, and soccer request. Principal Tim Pedigo is requesting to enter into a partnership with Smyrna Ready Mix to install a synthetic turf field on the football field, softball infield, and baseball infield. Project will be completed by Warner Athletic at a cost of $1.1 million. Warner Athletic will acquire all T deck permits as part of this project. Craig Souls has agreed to move the excavated materials to complete the soccer field previously approved by the board. The Souls will also install irrigation for the soccer field and the middle school practice field at a cost of 81,500. The Souls are doing this work through donation. The soccer field project
042is still under T deck permit and this project cannot exceed the elevation shown on those drawings. All projects are at no cost to the board. Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Bond. Thank you, Mr. Rosales. All in fav- All in fav- Go ahead. Well, I hope other stakeholders in this county recognize the contribution that Smyrna Ready Mix and the, uh, Smyrna Ready Mix and the the families involved, the Souls family now, to get this done at Eagleville. You know, it just goes to show you that everybody in this county has benefited from the education program. And this is just giving back cuz I know these folks involved and that's what they're doing. So, I just think it's a it's pretty awesome thing. I second that. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next,
043we have financial update. >> All right, so financial update, we're looking at fund 143 and so you have two pages. Fund 143 is our centralized cafeteria. And so, first page, if you will look at, has, um, fund 143. It's got a highlighted column. And again, this is just a draft because we don't necessarily know revenues yet. And so, you'll see we keep our revenues pretty similar year to year. Uh, we are dropping. We dropped from fiscal year 25 to 26 to 27, you'll see the USDA is 47111. Lunch program, we did drop it a little bit over half a million from 2 years ago and so, we still may adjust some of these. This is just our our draft budget of what we're looking at right now. Uh, overall looking at trying to our fund
044balance going from 16 to 14 to 11 million dollars. Again, trying to get some of our newer programs you guys have seen. We've renovated Royal Waldron, we've renovated LaVergne, we've renovated some of our older schools that needed their cafeterias to be upgraded since they were built. Um, on the next, so that's our revenue page. On the next handout that you have, uh, this is the easiest budget that we have, is our expenditure side. The total increase to this budget is $400,000 and that is largely due to, we have five and a half, it may be six growth positions. I'd have to go back and look. I know that, um, Mr. Runyon and Mr. Lee didn't have a chance to talk today because they were, it may be eight. So, we may have to go back
045and look at a couple of these. Again, this is a draft because Mr. Lee and his team were working on the charter school stuff, so they weren't able to to get together today. But, the increases are going to be for Poplar Hill Middle School. And so, that's why you're going to have an increase in staff. We may be able to right-size some of those positions as the year goes on and we see how many students grandfathered and how many students didn't grandfather to the school. This does have a 2% COLA increase into it and then we, again, depending will be two to two and a half. We started with two to be conservative and then we will, again, need to look, um, medical insurance, we went from 1.2 to 1.3. We're probably going to do
046more than that, but we want to see how the rest of the, um, funding comes in before we start adjusting this. Um, but everything else is pretty much on par except you'll see food supplies went up. It's 422 towards the bottom. With inflation, that goes up. So, went from 14 million to 14 and a half to 14 and a half this year. So, that's pretty easy budget cuz it's centralized cafeteria and most of those prices are set and we don't We do have quite a few staff in that. We have 306.5 cafeteria staff members. So, it is a pretty large operation that Trey also oversees. So, Trey oversees a lot of those departments. And again, we will go over this much more as we get closer, but this is just a kind of an overview
047for you all to have. I don't expect a whole lot of changes to this. Okay. Director's update. Two things in Director's update. First, I'm going to go to Mr. Lee cuz he's got, uh, McFadden update, I believe. Mr. Reed, now, we're talking yesterday about the McFadden properties and I know it's probably going to be a little while before we actually get around to the construction part of McFadden. But, y'all voted last week to to purchase the properties. That being said, they all have structures on them. And they're going to be there for a while. Which is going to create a real liability for us as a district. So, my recommendation at our next board meeting there will be a motion for you all to authorize myself and the purchasing department to put out an RFP
048to demolish all of these structures. We would then at that point just level the ground, make it to where it will drain, seed and straw it where we can maintain it and remove that liability from us. Once we get that bid back, then we will come back before the board, uh, for y'all to approve the bid, but I did want to just briefly bring that up tonight so that you when you see it next week, you'll know what we're talking about. Okay. And then Dr. Gastineau. I'm going to try to be brief, but this is a big topic, so we'll we'll see. Um, in this year curriculum instruction we've spent a great deal of time kind of balancing or thinking about how to balance preparedness of our students when it comes to technology AI included
049with safety. So we've spent I don't know 6 months actually a year and a half on an AI framework for our teachers. We have put out guidelines age appropriate recommendations I've spent a I've spent a great deal of thoughtful consideration on how to ensure we are giving our kids access to tools in a in an appropriate way. That is a heavy heavy burden in a lot of ways since there's it's a a very evolving landscape. One of the big pieces that is missing however is taking kind of ownership of the student portion of that. So we have there's I'm not sure how many people are aware of the the law the teen social media and internet safety guidance law. So that's a state law that was put into effect in the fall of 2025. And
050most of those standards are covered currently within health classes 6-12. And that that's fine but we're trying to take a little bit more of a guided role in bringing in parents and community members. So we have we we are interested in piloting a curriculum by a group called Wired Human. I don't know if anybody's heard of them. But they have a nine module middle school curriculum that we are we are hoping to pilot. Our principals are currently looking into that. Our instruction team is looking at that. I've met with them several times. It covers the law goes into a little more detail on including parents. Very excited about it. We'd be happy to give more information as as deemed appropriate. Right now that is mainly just in middle school. We're thinking you know teacher training
051student student led discussions on screen time appropriateness dangers opportunities. There's there's a lot but that is the goal is to kind of blend and dovetail exposing our kids the tools that are part of their future with also making sure our adults are prepared to guide them through that. So you tell me what else we need to do in terms of Next steps of course any curriculum we use the board has to approve. And so curriculum wise How many sets do we have right now? >> So we we've got plenty of sets. The what we're working on right now is working with Christine Bryant in our counseling department. We've got a team of principals obviously our instructional folks but we are are looking at what the the best use of that may look like within our
052context. There are some very obvious modules that deal with screen time that the replacement of one to one interactions and interpersonal skills that get replaced by using a screen so making students aware of of those trade-offs and how to how to kind of break that cycle. So some of that's very kind of obvious and straightforward in those first modules. It gets into some of the you know heavier topics in terms of content photos videos exploitation that that is a very real reality for our kids. That's where we're partnering with you know counselors having parent information community information to make sure that is appropriate. It is age appropriate. Obviously parents can opt out of this like they do many other portions of the law. But as a district we are required to follow this law and
053as a district these are the standards that are the law. This is just a way for us to have a unified message in approaching how we responsibly address the portions of this law in a way that makes sense for us. Miss Maxwell Yes Miss Rosales. So I just I think that's awesome that we're doing AI is definitely is the future. We can't control it. It's here. We're going to have to face it anyways. But I have a concern in the sense that as our students are learning how to navigate navigate in this new world in era of AI. And as a school district we're also complying with what the state is saying the standards and they're getting exposed to that. My concern is when you're trying to teach them something good how it can turn
054into something bad. >> Sure. In the sense that if they if the kids start doing something that they take a picture of someone alter it and then almost use it like a form of a harassment type of point. So that is a concern as a parent with children in the school system and a state I don't know which state it was but they actually have a policy where if if if someone's photograph has been altered and used in a very inappropriate way it's almost used as zero tolerance. Sure. >> So I don't know if that's something that the board wants to do to look at as we're navigating this world in this world if there's something that we need to do to kind of put as a safeguards around for the intention of it to
055being good. >> I can tell you right now that that's exactly why we're doing this. Kids are doing that right now whether parents want to accept it or not. One of the reflections we've had internally is man we missed it with cell phones. We all knew that that these were problematic and we just kind of let it happen and it's taken how many years to get get that back. Kids are doing this. The data on how students and children of young ages are already utilizing technology such as AI is astounding when compared to how many parents think their kids are using it. So it's already happening. That's why our first step was how are we going to create users of this technology within the adults because we felt like that was a big missing piece
056was we have to use it so that we can instruct our students how to appropriately use it. That's from academic misconduct. That's from maintaining the ability to critically think. Those are big academic concerns that we've spent a lot of time teasing apart. As you can imagine our high school English teachers had a lot to say about that. I mean so we've really really tried to balance the role of bringing back the authority of the adults in the room to say this is what is acceptable. The the portions that you are concerned about are the exact reason why even though this is so uncomfortable to talk about you know when you when you look at those scary pieces about exploitation and content kids are being exposed to it regardless. It feels inappropriate to do it absent
057of parents or absent of our community being involved. I I think the more information parents have the more they will want this information in front of mind of the adults that are that are instructing their students. There are there's too much out there. This feels incredibly urgent. In terms of how to how to navigate this together to make sure that we don't keep making the same mistakes as the adults. Can I ask a question? Oh go ahead Mr. You go ahead. I'll be after you. Let me just say they can opt out. Yes there's a a form that the state provides as a sample form for parents to opt their students out. I'll be the post that I think everybody ought to have to And and the Let me tell you what. The ones that
058need it the most are the ones whose parents are not going are going to let them opt out. I don't think you need to let them opt out at all. You know it's just part of it. Mr. Tipton I know we do you mentioned it's a hard subject and that's true and there's some other hard subjects that we do like Aaron's Law we do stuff like that. The national we had the national anti-human trafficking program up here. It's these are tough subjects but they are real problems. It sounds like we're being more proactive than reactive on on this particular move which I appreciate that. So I appreciate you guys putting this together. My question would be how long is the program? Is it was it is it or how long is the curriculum last? Is
059it like nine weeks eight weeks six weeks three weeks? >> It's nine modules that are designed to be 45 minutes. Looking at them from a teacher lens I don't think they necessarily will take that long. And then two of those modules are the ones that to me as an educator I don't know that I feel comfortable leading a discussion. I don't know that I would have the expertise. That's where we're partnering with our counselors to do very similar to what you're talking about the way we handle Aaron's Law and some of and the human trafficking standards things like that. That that's where Christine Bryant and I are and our team is kind of working together to figure out the best approach to those those modules. And this may be a question for Dr. Tipton but
060would the the curriculum as you know I guess you're weeding through how you're going to actually implement it here but would that be available online to parents so parents can look at it and see what what is it? I don't want to misspeak. I mean I'm I'm absolutely for that but since it's a we are looking to partner with a group to have a grant to provide the materials to us for free. I don't know what is available. I'm happy to ask to see if we can just have that available to everybody. Yeah I'm just I'm curious. You know my kids at Barfield there's especially as the Aaron Wallace stuff, they all send out something to say, "Hey, you know, if you're interested, you can see what your kids are seeing." Just so there's no
061questions, there's no concerns. I think the intent here is great. I would just like to get more participation, as much participation as possible without you know, the the anybody saying, "Well, it's questionable or suspicious or whatever." Let's just be open transparent and say, "Hey, this is a good thing, so let's get involved." >> We've talked to about mirroring this alongside parent series nights, so that depending on there's a lot of different ways we can organize this, whether we organize it into a related art related arts rotation. Again, this is 6-12, so this isn't within the elementary schools, we're just dealing with the appropriate use of what is this technology and how do this is not real, you know, that kind of thing. Here's where we get into the the more emotional, mental, social aspects. Um
062but it absolutely would include parent nights. There's there's letters sample letters within the curriculum that I mean, the whole intent is to bring parents in. So, whether the curriculum is put out there as is for parents to see, I don't know, but I do know that it it absolutely would be appropriate to communicate widely and broadly about what's included. I wish we could get passports or something like we did with access or something. I have a question regard Could you You said something about academic integrity and that's the problem that I alarm bells go off. Um back in our day, wasn't computers write your papers on. And I've had some I have some friends of mine who teach at the college and it's getting harder and harder to know if chat GPT did this or
063did you do this. Are we encouraging more writing in class versus turning in your three to five pages that you worked on at home? One of our big pushes this year, which was led by Dr. Keaton, our our high school ELA specialist, he he ended up taking a huge role in creating this entire framework because that's who that's who we were mainly hearing from. Um it it's it's tough because again, our job is to make sure they use the tools and use them appropriately. They're going to use them in their workplace, they're going to use them when they go to college, but the key is to understand clearly what the parameters are. So, what we're trying to help our educators with is here's an assignment, this is how you appropriately use these these options for
064this assignment. If I'm sending it home with you, sure, use chat GPT, use your use that to create an outline. That's fine, but then we're going to come back, we're going to write this together or vice versa. It could be an assignment that says you're not to use anything on this. We're going to write it in class. It's it's a matter of us crafting our assignments in a way that aren't oblivious and naive to the realities. I mean, for us just to bang our head against the wall and be like, "These kids." You know, we did the same thing with calculators. I mean, so it's like again, we have to be comfortable to use it enough to put our minds around how to assign something that makes it like makes sense in 2026. I've just
065seen the articles where these college professors are saying these kids they have great grades, but they can't do some basic skills that the kids 20 years ago could do and because it was masked by And and that's that's why for us, we've also it seems kind of counterintuitive, but we're pushing we're pushing this as a big big portion of our summer training, teacher development, all this for next year, while also minim going backwards in the number of devices we're providing. Like we we are not about just like throwing devices and asking our kids to stay on a computer. If it's not increasing their access to more educa- educationally appropriate material, how they use it, is it making that instruction better? What are we doing? Um so that that's where our the adults have to take
066the lead in this. My nephew, who's 18 now, told me four years ago, I got to be honest, if you're not using chat GPT, you're just not trying. I was like, to his parents and like, "Check his work now." >> [laughter] >> Um but I mean, so the kids know. It's about us getting ahead of it and not not not putting our head in the sand cuz we're we're terrified. Okay. Thank you. Miss Bunton. I I concur with that because in the tech world, they're to use in that. And so if we don't teach our kids how to use it and apply it to make the work efficiency, it's going to be required at the workforce. So, um as much as we may not like it or admit to it, it's becoming a part of
067their daily routine. So, it's just figuring out how to use it for the positive of it. Yes. Yes, Dr. Sullivan. Just a couple quick things with our calendar upcoming. T cap testing starts April 20th through May 4th. And so we don't have to love T cap testing, but as long as students' opportunities in the future are tied to that, we have to respect it and that's always been kind of my viewpoint. I don't have to love it, but kids' opportunities are tied to it, so we got to respect it. Graduations then start May 12th. Speaking of graduations, this year we have 18 students who earned a perfect ACT score of 36. We had 16 at Central, one at Siegel and one at Eagleville. So, congratulations to those students. We'll probably recognize those students upcoming soon.
068And then for the board and the public, just a reminder, we have weird board meeting schedules coming up. I think the board requested to move the next one, so it is on Monday, April 20th instead of Tuesday. So, our next one is Monday, April 20th and then the that's the work session. Then we have our board meetings Thursday. Then we have a budget workshop where we kind of present and at that we'll have all of our revenues then, but it'll be the best that we can on May 7th. Then we have our next board meetings after April 23rd are Monday, May 11th. And then we have our statutory requirement to approve our budget before May 15th and our board meeting for that one is on May 14th and that time is 3:30. And so the
069board requested that last year because of graduation that afternoon. And so that's May 14th at 3:30. So, just go over our calendar. That's all I've got. Thank you. Does anybody have anything else they'd like to discuss? Yes, Miss Sharp. Yeah yes yes, I'm sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, um Jazz Fest, May 1st and 2nd, Friday night 6:30-ish, uh some deserving citizen is going to receive a car from two ministries that are coming from Godspeed and Mechanics With a Mission. Um and I'm told that Christian Broadcasting Network is going to be there filming it for a series. Um so it's going to be a lot of exposure for us um in the media. So, that and also would like to thank Dr. Sullivan, Dr. Anthony, and Mr. Runyon today cuz I received a phone call
070from a fellow board member in Wilson County and they're looking at moving their insurance to the state. And so um I gave them the information and brought Dr. Anthony, Dr. Sullivan, and a bunch of people in and they literally gave them a master class in moving to the state insurance. So, thank you guys for helping them. I know it's Mr. Luttrell's already gone. He's gone. He's still there, but he's announced his retirement. Yes, he's announced his retirement and they also Dr. um Myers. Yes. Um Elizabeth, she announced her retirement Tuesday night cuz she's she's leaving and going to East Tennessee. I know there's a lot of us that know her. Um and that's a that's a bad thing for education cuz she's going to East Tennessee. So, that's all I have for now. There'll probably
071be more next time for Jazz Fest. Yes. We got a celebrity in our midst. Very few people I've ever known that appeared in the Murfreesboro Magazine. I mean, all the buddies I know have appeared on the wall of the post office, but Mr. Barton Henley has made has graced the pages of Murfreesboro Magazine. And if you haven't seen it, it's pretty awesome. I left it I don't want to tell him that. He must wrote it himself, but it was really good, [laughter] Barton. It's really good, really good. I think great. 40 under 40. That's awesome. Okay, Mr. Darby and then Dr. Brenda Evans must have rubbed off on you, Barton. Go ahead, Mr. Darby. I just wanted to wish Miss Sharp a very happy birthday before we adjourn. Happy birthday. >> [applause] >> Dr. Sullivan.
072Yeah, last thing I would say and I would have been really remiss and he would kill me for doing it, but can't believe it's been six years. April 9th, 2020 is when my son Decklan was diagnosed with cancer. It's I can't believe I thought of April 9th. April 9th and May 8th are the two days I hate. And so extremely proud of him because he will He's technically still not in remission. He's not in remission till he's five years off of his last treatment day, which will be April 6th, 2027. Um but extremely proud of that kid for how much he's gone through. So, yep. Well, if there's nothing else, move to adjourn. We're adjourned. >> Hey.