001Welcome to the March 3rd, 2026 work session for the Rutherford County School Board. We'll be opening the meeting with a brief moment of silence or prayer and the 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. Tammy Sharp. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um dear Lord, we thank you for today. It was such a beautiful day. I saw the daffodils blooming and we thank you for those. We We know that this is a a fake spring and we'll have some more winter, but we thank you, Lord, that you're going to protect us, protect our children, protect our staff and our teachers. Please um be
002with us tonight as we discuss and make decisions. We thank you for your son, Jesus. 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. >> [clears throat] >> I'll give everyone just a moment to look over the agenda. If there's any changes that need to be made or any questions or comments. Next we can move on to the consent agenda. There's any changes you would like to make or any comments or questions? Okay. Uh there will be no public comments tonight and uh we're going to do RCS difference on Thursday as well. So, the first thing up is instruction. Yeah, just so you know, that was um RCS proud we've rebranded it
003to RCS difference. So, we'll talk a little bit more about that here in just a little while with our our marketing stuff. So, first we have instruction. So, this is visual and performing arts distinction graduate program. Instruction department's requesting to implement a graduate distinction program to prepare and recognize students seeking future studies and careers in creative arts industries. Students completing all requirements will receive a medal to wear at graduation and have the distinction printed on their high school transcripts. The program will be managed by the fine arts department under the supervision of Dr. Lindsey Halford. It'll be offered to students beginning in this upcoming 26-27 school year. Three credits in fine arts, the student must complete at least three fine arts credit hours in a single artistic discipline, dance, music, theater, visual arts or media
004arts. They must be on track to graduate, so meet all our graduation requirements. They must have active participation, present evidence of active participation in their school arts program. They must have must have teacher recommendations. They must have arts-related community or industry service, so 20 hours of unpaid arts-related community service and then they must finish with a signature arts project. So, complete a major project in the chosen arts discipline demonstrating artistic skill growth and readiness for further study and or careers in the arts. I think this is a great idea, Dr. Halford. Anything else you want to say, add to that? You want to You want to come up here? Yeah. I think it's great. I think it's fantastic, actually. Yes, we're very excited about this program. Um this came about by looking across um the
005country and seeing that program like this exists at a state level in many states. Florida, Arizona, Kentucky, uh Georgia all have state seals for fine arts. Um and we've kind of been talking with um some of our TDOE folks over the last few years and saying this would be a great thing for us to have in Tennessee and there's not been any traction. Uh and here in Rutherford County, we just don't really wait around for someone to do the work for us. We just go ahead and do it. So, we figured we'd do it at the district level um and we have lots of resources built out to support students through the process and we're very excited. Are there any questions from you all? Questions or anything? Yes, Mr. Bott. You have blown my mind,
006so I've got to run with this just a second. Is there a national accreditation program or something like this? Will this help these students be able to apply for certain scholarships or internships during the summer or something like that later on? That's a great question. There's no national accreditation in arts, but what we envision with this is that students will be preparing for further study or their career. So, fine arts is a pathway or an elective focus in our high schools right now. Uh but right now a student might choose that as their elective focus because they really love band and they want to be in band for 4 years and that's fine. But there are some students choosing this as an elective focus because they plan to go on. We want to support those
007students in their future goals. So, we're envisioning students preparing a college audition, a college level study. We're envisioning students uh writing and performing their own songs. Um and we we developed the criteria you see today with some industry partners. We had folks from the CMA Foundation, folks from the Center for the Arts, folks from MTSU and higher education institutions coming in and saying, "This is what we want to see from students." And what we hope to see moving forward is that we start matching students with industry partners that can help and support them through this program. Uh so, we envision that becoming more and more of a focus as we uh move through the process. Thank you. Thank you. This is amazing. I would have been all over this in high school. Yes, Ms. Sharp.
008Thank you for this. I've long said we can do arts and athletics and we do both well. Uh we just have to build that foundation for the arts and this is a great step. Thank you so much for your work on this. Absolutely. Any other questions? Well, thank you and thank you for always being innovative. We appreciate it. Thank you all so much. >> Thank you. Next up we have legal. So, we have transfer student under discipline number one. The board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another system under discipline. The student was expelled for possession of a weapon other than a firearm. According to a policy 6.318, the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system under suspension or expulsion.
009Director of Schools' recommendation is to deny admission. And of course, you all have a folder in front of you. Okay. Number nine. All right, next um going to just so everybody can write cuz I've got a list for you that I don't think it's on here. So, I'm going to read to you the first that was requested was a list of bus drivers who have successfully trans- transitioned from Ursa Major Logistics by securing private insurance and bus leasing or a new company or bus ownership. And I believe we have seven. Is that correct? Yes, sir. So, these bus numbers are 160 and so they're not on here. Right. >> Yeah, that is correct. >> Yeah, so I'm going to read these to you and I'll email them to you. So, it's bus 160, bus 84,
010237, 244, 211, and 320. So, again, 160, 84, 237, 244, 211, 129 and 320. So, that'll be the first recommendation um to re-establish those. Anything else you want to add to those? They're being verified or have they already been verified? >> We have. Yes, sir. Any other questions on that part? Okay. All right, then the second part and I'll give you an update to this. So, this is a hybrid model. So, transportation bus purchase request. Transportation department's requesting to begin the purchase of buses to supplement the transportation system. These buses will be utilized to replace unfilled contracts and provide coverage for added transportation needs. So, uh we have a couple steps here. First, um it was great today. We started at 10:00 and so we had How many routes do we have open? 30 41.
011Okay. And so, we drew a a ton um and we as of right now have five open routes that will will have a all call for. Sorry, go ahead, Trey. You have still have two. >> Um the drivers that selected routes will uh they haven't They have 24 hours to provide a bus with a van, their insurance and their driver. If they cannot at that point, then that route would revert back to us. After the 24 hours tomorrow night, we will send out an email to all con- all contractors. It's called all call. Whether you were on the list that wanted to take a route or you were not on the list, everyone is allowed that is qualified to get back in the game with all call. They will be asked to provide the bus
012number that they are interested in. Once we receive that information tomorrow, I mean on Thursday, we will on Friday take the all the dri- all the contractors that listed and I'm just going to pick a number cuz it's on here, 114. If there's 10 contractors that want 114, they will be put into our random selection computer program and they then a a person will be randomly selected and they will get that route. Then we'll move to the next list. So, right now we have five. It would not surprise me if we have a route turned back in tomorrow. They thought they had everything secured. They're not able to pull it together and they basically have to give us the route back. Um so I wouldn't be surprised if we get one or two of those.
013If that's the case, then we'll they'll be offered up at all call just like all the rest. And so just to kind of follow up what our first steps are going to be see how many open routes that we have for Thursday. So this is going to be a multiple kind of weeks request. So see how many open routes we have. We have contacted our two vendors to see what type of bus availability they have. So we have used and new bus availability. Then we would have to look at funding. Um one of the things that I know we talked about last year just to ease concerns. We would park them and I would imagine between five and 10. My first thought would be special education. Those are usually our hardest to fill and we
014really struggle to put aids, special education aids in our buses. I think it'd be easier for us if it was a special education bus and it was a bus aid. They could also then be a special education EA and we could fill that same position in one. And if it's a Rutherford County employee, I think that would be easier. Those are the ones that we're really struggling the most. So that would be my my first priority. We would start if this was the direction the board wanted to go with part-time and keep driver pay. Talk to a couple contractors cuz I don't want to be in competition with our contractors. Keep the pay somewhere in the middle after talking to a couple of them. But again, sped would be my special education buses would be
015my preference cuz those are the be where the priority and where we really struggle to fill. I've been I was going to bring this up at our retreat, but this kind of gave us an opening cuz of what happened. I would like to eventually see us take sped. Just take over it. Uh I think our families would appreciate it. I know our our teachers I've I've I've asked a couple of teacher friends of mine. I We're we're obligated, federally mandated to to take care of these kids. And I really feel like going forward it's not going to be something we could adopt overnight, but a few here, a few there and I would like to see us eventually just take over sped because I really feel like that's something that we can do and like
016Dr. Sullivan said, we can get the bus aids, they can work for us. I think it could be mutually uh beneficial. Yes, Butch. You know, I agree with that, Claire, that especially it you know, it takes a special person to do that. And these kids are special kids and they really need special help. And if we could work out a way to get these people, you know, whether we can let them come in and be a EA part of the day or whatever and get benefits. Uh you know, if we can hire them, put them on our payroll, I think that would benefit all of us cuz I can tell you from experience uh those are the buses that are uh those kids need the most care. And these people that that bring them to
017school and the aids on the buses are just special people. Yes, they are. And I admire them, so Mr. Tidwell, I'll get right with you, Ms. Rosales. Yes. Uh so we have right now we have out of these 41 routes, we only have five open currently. Yes, sir. Okay. And you're expecting that to increase tomorrow because people Yes. They think they're going to get it together. They were you know, sent numerous emails if you're interested. Part of the deal was you had to provide us with a that you can provide a bus and a driver and the insurance. Tomorrow's the deadline to put up. Yeah. Um but you're not expecting that to be a high number, right? >> No, sir, I'm not. Okay, that's good. Um Dr. Sullivan, how many buses do we have? Do
018we have any buses covering alternative schools or magnet routes? We have You would have special education would be a kid by kid basis. If it's in their IEP, then that'd be the only way a special education [clears throat] bus would go to an alternative school. For magnet, there are 30 shuttle buses from the north end because Central is the only from my understanding it was established a while ago and Trey can correct me if I'm wrong. It's the only magnet high school that we have. So there are three shuttle buses. Those are not operational or they operational again? They are not, but I believe those routes got picked up today, at least two of them. Two of them got picked up, yes. All right. I'm just making sure we're we're being efficient with what we
019need to do, have to do before we go to make make decisions to go buy buses. But I'm not uh totally against this. I would just rather see our contractors bail us out last week. That's just the truth of the matter. So I would rather them have first opportunity. I'm not super excited to see this uh particular item out so early uh hoping that maybe this is something that we could look at a little bit later this month as we can see what we have need of. I mean, I think one of the concerns was early on is there are routes that people don't really want. Uh they're not sought after routes after the all co- all call goes out. We're still going to not going to have a few routes to get picked up.
020I think that is where we start looking at the hybrid model and deciding whether or not we want to move forward with that. Um I would like to see our contractors who have serviced us for so many years uh have first opportunity here. Uh but if if this were to move forward how many I know you said sped buses. How many buses are you talking about, thinking about? What's the number that we're looking at here? Yeah. I would think between five and 10, maybe. Just depending on how many open routes are there. We're a little bit too early to see how many Poplar Hill Middle's going to need cuz that's going to be a a need next year and what that rezoning looks like. We do have one special education bus, so that is not
021unheard of. We do own one bus. Um so that is not just going out to to be rogue. I do like having that option of having a few cuz it would have been able to to help. One of the things that of course whatever the board decides this is on here early because I wanted to show to our community and to our public that was one of the things how that we kept getting is how come there isn't any movement on the board um looking and the director looking to buy buses. So this is one of those things to supplement and that's not a direction I would much rather our contractors have it too. But I do think it is would be my recommendation we at least look down that to have a few. Yeah.
022Okay. Well, I mean, that I'm not again, I would rather us have a little bit more opportunity. I mean, we we did the pick-a-will what yesterday or today? Today. Today. Did the pick-a-will today. We're going to have some come back. We're going to send about it all call. We're supposed to vote on this on Thursday. I don't [snorts] know. I just wish we had a little bit more time to make sure that these aren't being filled. If they're not being filled with and it's constant, then I don't think there's another option out there and I'm not against the hybrid model. I would rather see first opportunities to those that were helping us out. Ms. Rosales and then Mr. Bond. Thank you. Um it's out of curiosity, how many contractors put the bid to bid? How
023many people put their names in the hat to If you'll give me a minute, I'll count them up. Okay, that'd be great to know. Um if we were to hypothetically buy these buses, um you said we were going to you were thinking about five to 10 buses. Were these buses were uh in the event that something would happen with the buses, with the contractor, are they able to use that bus? Like let's say their bus breaks down or let's say that um they've gotten to a situation where they need a spare bus and they're not able to find a spare bus and they're having to shuffle through whatever. Are they able to use the Do they have access to the bus to these buses for these emergencies? Those are things we're going to have to
024work through because then you wouldn't be paying that contractor for the bus because they'd be using our bus and under our insurance. So those are different contracts we'd have to put in place if they utilize a Rutherford County bus. At the same point depending on how many routes are open, we could be using those buses. And we're putting this now because it takes a while for us to buy the bus the buses? At least with the funding. I know that um we've got some some small funding options. Um I know I don't want to necessarily use fund 177, but a bus can be considered capital projects. And talking it's going to require talking with um finance director, the county, our county commissioners, of course the board on where those fund where that funding needs to
025come from. Roughly your special education buses and I'm just looking at the quote we got today or they're on state source well contracts. So the brand new ones are 137,000 a piece of what they're quoted. And then the new ones that I have the new 90 passenger mid south bus are 185. And I don't know I don't This is just the part I have to go through and really read the specs and everything. So that's just the kind of overview and they do have used ones right now as well. But [snorts] when you're looking at the warranties and all that, those are things we'd have to weigh. I'd have to get with our purchasing agent and also purchasing at the courthouse to make sure all those rules are followed cuz buying used you can get
026under Kelly Blue Book and you don't have to get bids. There's all kinds of things we would need Michael's help with as well. Okay. Did we Do you have those numbers for 59 Thank you. Mr. Vaughn, do you want to say something? >> I really like to first select to buy and uh I think we need to take over I'm like Ms. Maxwell. I think I'd feel a lot better if we took over the special day at uh buses septic calls we're under mandates and IEPs get these kids to school and whether it was aboard a uh you know, I think we wouldn't have to worry about not being able to approve it like the situation we in the other day and um I think we bought nine of them >> [clears throat] >> and
027I think you said we had a spare. Uh that gives us nine of these buses now. I don't think we'd have to buy new ones. I think that the local bus company may have some come back on the repossessions. And if it happens then I would have pay office just what is owed on. So it could be a good possibility we can get them for a reasonable price and I just think that's a that's a route we really need to look at going just protect ourselves cuz uh we've got an obligation to get these kids. We don't have any choice. We've got to get them to school. So Any other Yes, Dr. Sullivan. That's um bus prices we've been getting are pretty close to what was at least um owed on them. So there's not
028like a a foreclosure price or anything like that. So that's why if a a bus was a used bus that's 2 years old at 120,000 to get a 3-year warranty at 137,000, I would probably look towards the 137,000 just because you get a 3-year warranty with the maintenance included. I would like I'd recommend at least I know we're looking at special education. It would be beneficial for us to at least have one or two big buses just so that in the event of an emergency we at least had one or two to at least have. These Mr. Lee these are big buses the routes that are these routes that are not covered or I mean are they being covered now every day? Yes, sir. They are. Every route that we gave out today is being
029covered currently by multiple contractors to get our students to school. Hats off to the contractors for doing that. Mhm. Ms. Maxwell >> Yes, Ms. >> I have one more question. What is your recommend If we were to move forward buying buses, what is your recommendation for what we need? Let me see how many we still have open on Thursday. Okay. Originally I didn't anticipate this many being picked up this quick. I'm curious of how many are are still that come back. So this makes me feel good. I was originally thinking 10. I'd maybe think eight at this point. Okay. More of but we already have one of those. So that probably be seven. Two general ed and the rest special education. So it'll be two general ed and the rest will be sped. Yep. Okay.
030>> [snorts] >> Yeah, Mr. Tidwell. Uh little bit uh same topic but uh different direction. County insurance. Yep. We have an update on that. I know it was included. I met with um them about just the insurance in general on Friday. I haven't heard whether or not those came back. I know nothing came back this year. So we'll see. I don't know when their bids come back. I know their bids for health insurance go out in March. So I'll get a date on when their new ones come back. Okay, so no final word just yet. No. All right. I don't believe this situation helped us in any way. Mr. Mr. Vaughn Yeah. The uh did the state didn't the state clear up that we could put these people on put our on the county insurance
031if we employed them? I think it depends on who you talk to. Uh I know that who you talk to I know that TASN TSBA different attorneys think different things. I know this county has put it on their bids but I know there's some reluctance as well to put that liability back on the county. If it does come back on the county, I do know that they will request some additional money to go fund the liability portion of it which I I don't have a preference because there's a a pro and a con to both of it. I understand too there's a piece of legislation in the legislature national that is going to mandate that we provide bus student bus service for any kid that's over a mile and a half away. So it's not
032my choice now. It'll be by mandate. So that puts a new monkey wrench in it because now we got to provide it. It's not a choice. that Yes, Mr. Dr. Sullivan. We um are still doing that. The difference there's an amendment to that. Uh text back and forth with one of our representatives today that they originally it was all schools. Now it's assigned school. So that will not include alternative schools or choice schools because that is the director's concern is that if it's an alternative school choice school then it would include everybody and right now what's your um zoned school. I can't remember the word assigned school I think is the way it's worded your assigned school. Okay. Yes, Mr. Darby. Dr. Sullivan, do you have um a range or idea of on what you're
033thinking of salary-wise for the drivers if we were to buy buses? I know we did last year. Let me pull it up. I don't know. Do you I know you've got that you were the one that created that last year. It would probably have to be adjusted to current market but last year we did. And also do we Are you anticipating hiring like a part-time or full-time maintenance type person to service the buses or >> Depends on how many we bought or we could also contract that portion out. I know some other districts contract the repair portion and inspection portion out too. So it just depends. Like if we only bought one or two, I don't think we need to to implement that. But if we bought eight, we'd probably need to do something like
034that. Yeah, we got enough shade tree mechanics around here that we >> [laughter] >> we can work on these buses. How much money do we have in 1 count 177? Trey is begging us not to use it because that's what we use for our H-back repairs. That's why I would much rather not use that in the >> We're not allowed to buy equipment out of 177 and a bus would be considered equipment. Mhm. Mr. Vaughn I'm I'm going to follow up with three or four comments here. Uh I came today and watched it but hats off to transportation, the ladies up here. They ran it as efficient as they could. Um a lot of it was I don't know. It reminded me of some of my Saturday Saturday morning auctions, you know, there was a
035lot of anticipation in the air. Who was going to be the first to pick? And what the funny thing about the whole morning was the very first guy that got picked he wasn't here. Everybody almost everybody else was here but he wasn't here and then he turned it down. He did he didn't even want a route. So he was on the list but it was very interesting to work through the the ladies worked it very fast, very efficient. The the contractors that weren't here um I think everybody kind of knew what was going on. So I left at 12 I think and they were about half done. I was a little surprised. I'm like you that this many of them got picked up. Um to kind of follow back up a little bit on on
036talking about buying I think um see where we end up. Maybe something we talk about you know, reiterate again cuz I know my phone is going to ring off the hook tonight that when they're body these contractors 185 contractors free catch y'all are going to put us out of business. Y'all are going to put us out of business. I had three phone calls walking in this just this afternoon cuz the word had gotten out. So you know, preface that again Dr. Sullivan only maybe 10 and it would probably related 80% of it would be sped related and it's to those contracts that have been a little bit hard to fill. Couple of things too and I don't know if I'll let say anything about this but I I've also there's I think there's three or
037four policies that we need to kind of get in place uh between now and the end of the year uh that doesn't doesn't put us back in this same shape. And for the rest of my fellow board members to let you know where my brain has been the last 10 days is like the the one instead of just showing us you've got a insurance policy show us you've paid for the insurance policy for the whole year. If we if we're going to advance you $4,000 stipend, don't use that to operate off of. If it if it's not enough to cover it, you know, go ahead and put your money with it. But that way we're not you know, transportation would have to It'd be a nightmare over there for y'all to check insurance statements and
038cards every month. I guess I I'm I'm looking at you to comment but that's just kind of nuts I think. That that's a simple policy that would ensure that all the insurance is paid for a year. So there's two or three things I'm going to kick around with y'all over the next two or three weeks Dr. Sullivan and Trey. Not that I'm trying to be a know-it-all. I don't mean that but I have gotten in knee-deep with all of this in the last six eight months between the contract and then watching this go down that that we we've got we've got some deficiencies but we've got a dang good transportation department and I'm on I've told Trey this day I'm going to tell all the rest of y'all this. There was some smart aleck on
039Facebook that I saw comment. He said it was to the tune of "Well, we needed to do something different. Hamilton County's budget was 15 million cheaper than ours." And y'all know how much I studied it last year. I think our budget is like $32 million. I said, "Well, there ain't no way it's half what ours is. I know they have less students." So, I pulled up their budget this weekend. Looked at the number of students. Uh this is a pat on everybody's back here. Look at the number of students. Looked at their hybrid model, what their cost per student was. It was $600 What I tell you? $633 per student per year to run their transportation company or their transportation department. Ours is 625. I compared it to another district east of us that has
0404,500 students in their district and they're facing changing contractors right now. They private bid it out every 3 years. And their cost per student was over 1,500 per student per year. So, we're doing pretty good and if we can I would say this to my RLR contractors. Don't want to kick anybody out of business. Don't want to take it away from you. But if we can start into the the the the sped department and help with these aids and require aids it it's going to be easier for us to put an aid on a bus that we're running than somebody not. I I don't want to wholesale take it over, you know. This is this would be a 10-year process and something we might want to think about. If somebody's got a sped bus, they're
041having trouble with an aid, maybe let them turn it in at the end of the year and trade it for a uh a big bus if they want to stay in the contracting business. I don't I don't know why why do I always look at you? I don't know why. Just it these are ideas that we really need to think through over the next and I'm hoping we can talk about some of this at the retreat. But anyway, that's my two cents. Mr. Vaughn, you had something else you wanted to say. Yeah, I just wondered if talking about the the stoppages, you know, we paid the insurance company and we were you know, they would show us on the insurance policy as co-owners so that we'd be notified instead of depending on the drivers to
042notify us. If that's possible. Um Also, too, you know, the uh I really I just I just can't get I just think we really need to look at getting all these sped buses, you know, I think we need to the buses that Mr. Leggett, let me ask you if we the people that have the buses on the special ed routes and can we buy what's owed on that? I mean, I don't know who's the lessee and the lessor and all. Let me say this and and I don't want to interject into We're under contract with all of these contractors for 3 more years. >> Correct. I think anything that the board decides to do, whether it's 2 weeks from now or 3 weeks from now is supplemental to fill in. It's to cover us in
043the event that we have one-zy, two-zies, three-zies contractors that are and and and and the biggest conversation with the special education buses is there's not a lot of spare buses out there for these contractors to share, rent, lease, whatever term you want to use. So, when we lose one or two of those, it's very difficult to fill. Those routes are very student specific. They're one-offs. That student their their routes are very it's different than being able to take a general education bus that has a route in neighborhoods and they've got friends that run routes in the other neighborhood next door. They can it's more flexible to be able to fill in and pick up those routes when a route is down. That's where I think we're looking at Mr. Vaughn long-term, 5 years, 10 years
044down the road and it's a few buses a year and you do it by attrition. But currently, we're under contract for 3 years. Any contractor that maintains their bus and does a good job Mhm. they're not going anywhere for at least 3 years unless they turn their route in. So, I think anything the board's looking at right now is kind of supplemental fill in, help out. Madam Chair. Yes, Ms. Darby. Mr. Lee, do you know how many sped routes we have in total currently? I'd have I'll I'll have that for you Thursday cuz it does fluctuate and I I don't I don't want to give you wrong information. But I can have it Thursday. Okay. Thank you. Did you get the salary number? >> Yes, I do. And so, we last year had it as
045an R107. So, that goes from $22.78 to $34.16 for current employees. Comparable to others so I just pulled up so I don't know how accurate their information is. Like the city part-time is 24 across the board. City schools, their full-time is 2150 to 2755. Williamson's 2412 to 3315. Clarksville-Montgomery is 2192. So, kind of right there in the middle. But I also want to make sure we're fair to our contractors so I want to see where that kind of ranks with some of them. That'll tell us. Yeah, I think it warrants definitely some more thought in getting all of those figures together and all that kind of stuff. I mean, our contractors have done a really great job and I did speak with TSBA today just to kind of we hear a lot of things about
046different districts having trouble finding drivers, other districts who've contracted with people and those those companies when their drivers call out don't have backups and so, I don't know that there's a transportation system that doesn't have its issues and I would say by and large ours has functioned extremely well. So, I will say I'm while I don't have an issue with having some spare, especially on the sped side because we're definitely at least at the moment required for those um and possibly more later depending on what the law is and up doing. But I definitely want to make sure we're not putting the message out there that that this is I know my intention is not to overhaul and replace this transportation department in that manner because it's been working really well and those contractors a
047lot of them it's been a generational thing. They come together and cover for each other when people have issues and it's it's hard to find that kind of thing today. So, 100% agree. Yeah. Ms. Sharp. This uh R107, is that based on like 2,000 hours of that full-time Probably 1780 is usually the way we do. I know that's crazy, but that's usually the the number Brian and I use for like a office assistant, 1780 or 1760. And that's the same hours as a transport or the same R107 as a transportation router, maintenance level three, account clerk, um payroll clerk, purchasing tech. So, it's kind of right there. And they take benefits? If it was part-time, no. Full-time, yes, cuz that's what I know our drivers with our contractors, most of them don't. So, I would
048recommend we start off part-time because then we would really be in competition with some of our driver or court coordinators, our contractors, if we went full-time. Ms. Ms. Darby. Just some out-of-the-box thinking and I don't even know if it would be possible, but is it it might be worth just looking at to see what it looks like, maybe doing a daily rate versus an hourly cuz I know especially um do a lot of the sped routes have to do like a midday? The vast majority of them are running additional routes during the middle of the day. So, >> There are a few that don't, but the vast majority do. Even at a part-time, it would be hard for that person to probably find any other additional income if they needed to. So, it might be
049worth just seeing what that would look like if it was just a flat daily rate. Yeah, a lot of what I've talked to the other directors, a lot of them take their special education drivers and use them as a special ed aide three or something throughout the rest of the day so that they're able to be there. So, agree completely. Any other questions or comments? Mr. Vaughn, did you have anything you wanted to say add or anything? Okay. Okay. Okay, then we're just going to move on then. Next, 10. Engineering and construction. Whitworth-Buchanan Middle Softball Request. Principal Chris Buttner is requesting to add gravel paths and spectator seating areas around the girls softball field. The cost of this request is $1,000 and will be funded through the softball account. It is at no cost to
050the board. Engineering and Construction reviewed the request and has no objections. Any questions or comments? Next. Client Sweeney Transition Academy Fee Proposal. Client Sweeney Associates has submitted a proposal design to Transition Academy facility based on the proposal dated January 1st, 2026. This proposal is for an estimated construction budget of 350,000. The fee proposal is 30,000 for the first building and 15,000 for the second. Engineering and Construction reviewed the request and has no objections. Again, any construction costs or any actually starting the project, any of that would come back before the board. This is just a design. And do we have a location? It would be what the board previously approved at Sango Middle and >> Sango Middle and Whitworth. Yeah, okay. Any other point questions or comments? Next. Central Magnet Baseball Field Upgrade Request. Dr.
051John Askew is requesting to improve the baseball field at Las Casas Elementary to include concrete new dugouts and a turf infield. Warner Construction has provided quotes that include dugouts at $39,885, backstop netting at $39,599, and infield turf at $374,555. Funding for this project is an unsecured loan by the baseball booster club. Engineering Construction reviewed the request and has no objection with no spoils, dirt, rock, etc. being left on site and any damage that exists existing paved area will be repaired at school's expense. One of the things I talked to Dr. Ash about was to make sure since that is a unique thing is that we make sure we incorporate Las Casas, whether that is in the the turf, what is visible, whether it's at the in front of the dugout or in the outfield, just
052depending on when they actually start moving on that is to incorporate Las Casas somehow, whether it's the L or the Panthers somehow into the to the field turf to since it is kind of a shared, but uh that's been nice. Yeah. Just to pay homage to the history. It's going to It's going to be really good. Very nice. Great community thing. Mr. Tidwell. Yes. Uh Dr. Sullivan, in this type of scenario, can you explain Sure, we're going to get a lot of questions about this about how booster clubs work and especially with these amounts here. Um talked to the president uh of the booster club and they have a plan and they have funds and they have agreements and they've worked out some deals that done really good job. Actually, the total amount that we're
053seeing here today, I think it's going to be significantly less and uh if you include some of their in-kind donations and such. But for those wondering how this funnels through the school system, who's going to be left on this loan if something were to go south, what that looks like for the school system. >> Yeah, it's it's not on the school system whatsoever. It's all on the booster club and those people who are are listed on the booster club. So, it's a a heck of a um risk on those individuals, so that's why it's so important that they have real financial backing, so we appreciate their their support in doing that, especially because they are putting their name out there and the second that it's put on school property, it's property of Rutherford County Schools.
054So, they are really putting a lot of investment into something that is for the school system and for our students. So, they are responsible for getting the loans, getting security of the loans, and there's no risk to the school system. And I will tell you for most of your major products projects at the schools, this is how it's done. The field house at Riverdale, the field house at uh Rock uh well, Rockvale's trying to get one. That's how it's done. You get you get you have small donations, but you have people that are willing to have some skin in the game and they put their name on the dotted line. And so, if something goes wrong, it's on them, but it's not on the school. That's right. And hats off to Ms. Gamble for all
055the work that's been done here. I think it's quite amazing uh what's going on, so. Okay. Ms. Maxwell. Yeah. Thank you so much. Uh yeah, so I wanted I think this is a good thing that the parents and the booster club are getting together to do something. Someone's saying uh you know, getting a skin in the game and there's there's a proof that they've worked out skin in the game. Um and trying to do something that's good, so commending the booster club for doing something good for the students. Um I have a few questions. Um I had a question from someone in the Las Casas community and wanting to understand what was the $150,000 that was set out for the to do some fixes for the using this field. And I think that also was
056to be used for that other field in Kittrell. Or was it 150 just for the one in Las Casas? Just Las Casas. Each one had a different amount. 150 doesn't go very far when you have to put lights on the field. And so, it was lights, they did quite a bit of work even though it wouldn't look like it. A lot of work had to go into grading even though it still had some grading issues. All of the fields still did because Warner it just cost a lot to laser grade those fields. They were trying to get grass to grow on the infield this winter and that's why they had to go ahead and move forward with kind of looking at turf instead. But I know that the softball team has less just to kind
057of put it to example, softball has less square footage they have to cover because it's a shorter field, so they were able to go ahead and start taking care of some of their dugouts to where the baseball money doesn't go as far cuz it's a lot more field to laser grade. Uh we also had to put up nets at Las Casas and the fence had to be a little bit higher and a little bit different because of the school in the background and to make it so that even though we want a home run launch park, we didn't want one that was so easy they were knocking out the windows of Las Casas Elementary School. It would just be the fun knock the window. >> It would be fun. It'd be a yeah, price of
058admission. Yeah. >> Well, thank you for that report and that rundown of things that was covered for the $150,000. I'm hoping they're hearing and got to hear everything that you just said. Um and I also spoke to a few community members in Las Casas um just out of respect and courtesy and they're really happy and pleased that the boosters club is providing something really nice for the field. So, they're really happy about that. So. It's going to be very nice. Yes, Mr. Bond. The people carrying that unsecured loan, they're pretty uh they got pretty deep pockets. So, I think the first [laughter] last name's about I >> Is that yours? Your pockets? No, I wish. But I understand, yeah, they uh the people that are got the loan is pretty pretty reliable. So, it's a
059great thing. It is. Yes, Mr. Tidwell. Even though it breaks my wife and I's heart, just for the record, my kid doesn't play baseball anymore at Central, so I I disclosed that last year, but he gave it up. I hope he goes back to it in high school, >> [laughter] >> I'm so sorry. He gave it up, so. Teenagers, yeah. So, yeah. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Is there any other questions or comments regarding the baseball field? Okay. Let's move on, please. Number four. Blackman Middle storage barn request. Dr. Jessica Jackson is requesting purchase of a 15 by 28 storage shed to be used as part of the STEM program. Shed cost is $12,605 and will be funded by the CTE ISM grant. Engineering Construction reviewed the request and has no objections. Any questions or comments?
060Okay. Next, we have the resolution. So, this is a resolution brought by Mr. Tidwell and I greatly appreciate this. This is a resolution in support of fully funding our high-performing local education LEA bonuses. So, as the board and most of our community, we haven't made as big of a deal about this year, but we will. Rutherford County received the it's a called a high-performance bonus. It's a $4 million bonus. We were one of two school systems last year to earn it, us and Williamson. I don't know how many districts earned it this year, um but I do know that this year last year we received the full $4 million. This year we earned the four full $4 million, but that entire amount of money wasn't budgeted. And so, it was prorated pretty heavily at about
061a 40% rate and so, we only received a little bit close to 2 and 1/2 million. And so, that's where this resolution came from. So, appreciate that, Mr. Tidwell. >> [snorts] >> for high-performance local education agency bonuses. Whereas, the Rutherford County Board of Board of Education is the local government body responsible for providing a high-quality public education to the students and families of Rutherford County. And whereas, the Tennessee General Assembly and the governor's office have established merit-based incentives to recognize and reward school districts that demonstrate strong academic performance. And whereas, one such incentive is the high-performing local education agency bonus, which provides financial rewards to school districts in which at least 50% of schools earn an A letter grade. And whereas, for the 2025-2026 school year, the state of Tennessee appropriated a recurring total of
062$17 million statewide for high-performing LEA bonuses. And whereas, the established funding tiers generated $28 million in earned high-performing LEA LEA bonuses for qualifying districts statewide. And whereas, because the statewide appropriation was insufficient to fully fund un award bonuses, um bonuses were prorated and Rutherford County Schools received $2,428,571.43, which is well below the amount earned. And whereas, proration weakens the purpose of a merit-based incentive by reducing the full benefit earned by high-performing districts and diminishing the link between strong results and meaningful financial reward. And whereas, merit-based incentive incentives encourage excellence, recognize the work of students and educators, and provide districts with flexible flexible resources to reinvest in successful academic strategies. And whereas, the governor has proposed an additional one-time appropriation to fully fund the high-performing LEA bonus for the 2025-2026 fiscal year so that call of
063qualifying districts receive the full amounts generated by the funding tiers. And whereas, fully funding this program aligns with the intent of the General Assembly and reinforces Tennessee's commitment to accountability and performance in public education. And whereas, the high-performing LEA bonus is a recurring merit-based incentive intended to provide predictable and reliable financial recognition for sustained academic excellence and recurring full funding is necessary to ensure that qualifying districts can reasonably plan for and reinvest these earned resources. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Rutherford County Board of Education expresses its appreciation to the Tennessee General Assembly and the Governor's office for establishing merit-based appropriations for high-performing school districts. Supports the Governor's proposal to fully fund the high-performing LAA bonus for the 2025-26 fiscal year and respectfully urges that this program be fully funded in future years so
064that districts receive the full benefit of the incentive earned through strong academic academic performance. So, that is the resolution that will be presented on Thursday night. Thank you, Mr. Tidwell. This is an excellent resolution. Well, I'd just like to thank some of our legislators for going to bat as well as some of those in the Governor's office. It does have a lot of legs. It does look like it's going to get passed and appropriated this year. We'll see what happens in following years as they like to do their appropriations after they see what the final results are, but uh it does look very promising this year for that $1.6 million. Thank Thank you. Yes. And I think something that would be good for our board to just kind of really, if you can help champion
065behind it as we talked to the State Board of Education about this last Thursday, I guess, when we presented that it's it's great that these things come to us, but when they come to us, just like fast growth last year, our final TISA amount, when these come to us after July 1st, they roll into our fund balance and you all know that we sometimes have a hard time utilizing our fund balance. And so, we talked about our the State Board how high our fund balance was and that being an accounting principle and really tried to to talk about when it comes after June 30th, you know, it's it's tough for school districts to be able to utilize some of that funding that was was earned rightfully. And so, really just encourage all of us to
066kind of talk around some of those things. Yes, Mr. Rosales. So, um does what you shared with us [clears throat] about the whole getting the funding in July 1st because at that point it rolls into fund balance? Yes. So, what would be the the proposed change that you you think we should do? Is it that if the if you if the the state decides to fund something for that particular academic year, but it happens to be funded after the year's over, then then are you is the is the the solution and recommendation is for whenever that the time stamp or whatever is that if it's meant for the year prior, that those funds don't go into fund balance, but can be held and be used for the upcoming budgets. That would be great or even
067if it's just an accounting code with the comptroller's office so that those funds can be used and counted as revenue for that coming year. Cuz that would help us you know, I'm thinking of this if this comes to us July 1st and instead of rolling into fund balance, we could use this $1.6 million to try to offset some of the insurance cost. If it runs into fund balance, I don't think I'm going to get a whole lot of support and say, "Hey, I would like to use $1.6 million to offset insurance cost." because the I anticipate the argument saying, "Well, we're not being able to do that for the county." Well, this should have been part of our budget last year, but it never came to us and out of any of our problem. And
068that's last year we received over $7 million that came this way. We're not going to get that much this year, but $7 million could do a lot during a budget cycle. So, you're you're proposing that this funds that are coming for after the the fiscal year, the end of fiscal year, June 30th, comes in June July 1st, that was supposed to go for that that budget season to be looked at considered as revenue for the upcoming school year. >> That'd be one way to do it. Yep. Okay. Yep. And again, I that may be a comptroller argument. I'm I'm not an accountant, but but just it's just I just wanted to hear what the recommendation we will be cuz they will be asking us, "Well, what do is the recommendation? What we would how we
069like to see it fixed?" So, Mr. Sharp and then Mr. Tidwell, please. Oh, was it okay? So, Uh uh just a quick question. So, on that same line, is it funding that comes in after July 1st? So, if it had just beat the date of June 30th, Yeah. June 30th. >> After June 30th and I don't know how they would do it because they're funding this in next fiscal year. So, I I don't know how they would have to work >> have to be coded differently. >> It'd have to be the code. It's not necessarily the date. It'd have to be coded differently cuz the money's not coming no matter what. It'd have to be approved by General Assembly this year in order to go into next year. All right. Mr. Sharp. Thank you, Madam
070Chair. Uh Mr. Tidwell, this is this is a great resolution. And if you don't get any legs on this, I would brush it up and send it back through TSBA's Delegate Assembly and see if they'll pick it up for the next year's lobbying effort. >> Excellent idea. >> Yes. Yes. And you guys have heard me and I've tried to champion this with my superintendent group. My only, and this is not connected to this legislation, my my biggest concern is next [clears throat] year there's not going to be as many districts that receive this. We talked about this in September. Um the the state uh accountability model is just changing which data they're using. So, instead of using um growth level, they're going to be goodness gracious, I've gone blank. Looking at you, Dr. Chastain. Instead
071of using growth level, what are we moving to? Away from index, TVOS. Away from TVOS, we could do level four and five instead of growth model. Now, what are we using? Ms. Maxwell. Yes. I I think you're talking about the bell curve, how they're trying to everybody back TVOS level four, we're using growth index and now we're using and I've gone completely blank on what they're going to be using. I jumped in with the difference between the standard error and the standard deviation. Yeah, but what's that? Just including the fours and fives. Yes, and what's the other thing they're using as the differentiator between that? And I've gone blank on what that terminology is, but I'm going to pull it up in TVOS real quick while everybody's Yeah, I'm going to pull it up in
072TVOS real quick while you keep talking. Keep going. I can multitask. We [snorts] will not have as many fives. We will not have as We will not have as many fives, which is def All districts are not going to have as many fives, which is going to limit your ability to earn A's, which is going to limit your pool of districts that can earn this. And so, that is coming from straight from the state department's slide that they send everybody. So, that hurts. Yeah. Yeah, it moves. Uh Dr. Sullivan. Yes. I since we're in a work session, it kind of started opening up the TVOS new scoring. So, um so, the academic growth, that is also where our ESL um if you're if you're ESL tier one, two or two tier three, that's where they
073really are counted more weighted because they're not in the academic side. So, if they're not accounting for the growth, how are they counting for those that are in tiers tier one, tier two through tier three? A little bit different. So, with um without going too far down with ESL students, it's a ELPA assessment and they have a different growth measure for just that ELPA assessment to measure what their growth is. So, for us, now let me go back to TVOS. So, TVOS is still going to give you an effect size, which for us that's where we were the number one in the state this year, our effectiveness level. Everybody's going to be level four or five like we would have been this year. Then, to differentiate between that, they are then going to use something
074called the effect size instead. That's the words I couldn't use, the effect size. And that's going to break between fours and fives. And so, they're going to break you between a four and a five based on your effect size instead of just using your growth measure instead. And what what is what how do they find effect size? We've asked for it for this year and still haven't received We don't know what that means. No. Without getting you want to go into the nerdy termination standard deviation I mean, they they did slide some of the determination stuff into our accountability documentation over Christmas break. So, we do have some information on that. Um but essentially, it is just trying to not In the past, the more students you had, the more confidence they had in that
075true effect size. So, they would we got some benefit in that and that we were confidently more effective. They are trying to give some sort of um they're trying to remove that benefit and give some of that benefit back to smaller districts, which is mathematically a little more squishy in our in our opinion. So, um it it it removes that confidence level for larger districts and larger numbers, which is mathematically appropriate and and and shifts it back to smaller schools and smaller districts can receive a higher number with less of a effect determination just in terms of the math. It's the good old state department. Yep. So, we would go from >> You get things good and they mess it up. Yep. Just for reference, we would have gone from 30 level five schools last
076year to 12. And so, that's that's they would have been We would have had 18 fours. But they wouldn't have been fives. And so, that that's a huge impact. So, instead of the $4 million, we may earn the $2 million next year because it would have been cut in half. And then we put back 50,000. Yes. Yep, so. And just to reiterate, our students will have scored exactly the same. Correct. Our teachers are still doing the the job they were doing before. Our students are still performing at the same exact level. Our schools are still performing at the same level. It's just a a slight change in the math shifts it from one district or school to another. So, I just want to reiterate like the work continues. Our focus is teaching students, teaching the
077standards. It's just a change in calculation, which is frustrating. Very frustrating. It's a shame because the recognition's not going to be there. And that's what's that's what's bad. I fully expect us to kill it like we did this past year. Our schools are great. Our teachers are great. And I'm afraid our families are going to say, "Oh my gosh, what happened? They really slipped." And we didn't slip. It's just the way you evaluated has changed. That's not it. When I brought that up in September, I was told to start working on messaging and I was like, "Well, that's not going to help." And if you ever if you ever lose your job, you can go apply for the state department. So. All right. Okay. Next section is insurance update. So, this is pretty important, so
078I want to go over this. We, of course, are on state insurance. I fully anticipate we'll stay on state. But it is my job to look at all options. And so, Dr. Martin and I did meet with the county Friday. And so, we are going to do bids to see with the county to see is it a better price if the county includes us. I don't anticipate that. I can't ever decide what a bid's going to be, but we would bring I hate to say we're the the better deal, but the educators I guess our educator pool has a more marketable insurance group than the county employees do. So, we would bring the county insurance down and that's the way it was historically just because of the age group of our employees. And so, we
079would bring the county rates down. I still don't think it's going to be enough that it would really make it advantageous for us to move, but I wouldn't be doing I don't feel like I'd be doing my job for our employees if I didn't look. And so, we are at least going to to see what those bids come up with. There are issues if we go back to the county as far as retirement, people losing their retirement credit. We don't have a lot of power with the state, but we really don't have a lot of control when it comes to the to the county. You know, at the last we had insurance committees. I think we at one time had two voting members, then we got down to one even though we were the largest
080majority of the insurance people. So, I'm I'm hopeful that the bids come in good, but I'm not realistic that even if they if the state aggregate right now looks like 12%, that's the state increase. That's a one-year aggregate and that is across again, that's the aggregate, so not everybody. When you look at the county, even if the county were to come in 10%, I don't know that it makes a lot of sense to move for a 2% change because historically the state when they have a big increase, the next year it's a lower increase. Once you move from the state plan, you have to wait for 2 more years so you can come back. And so, state when you're looking at retirees, retirees have to have a certain amount of time that if they're looking
081to retire once we remove from the state plan, they may risk losing their insurance when they retire to come back on the county and vice versa. If we go back to the state in 2 years, let's just say, they're going to have to have some more time before they could get back on state insurance. So, we've only been there 3 years going on 4. I probably would recommend that we stay with the state insurance just to see, but I do think it's beneficial. We're one of the two biggest insurance pools that the state has and I don't think it's bad for us for them to know that we're looking to just see what how competitive the rates are. The other thing to kind of look at that is that one change I do envision and
082this wouldn't impact us much, our dental insurance with the state, they change vendors, is not great. And so, we probably will look at doing vision and dental ourselves self-insured. And so, there are some benefits there that may be able to save our employees money and be able to to offer better benefits as well. They changed to MetLife, I believe, and there's there've been some issues, but you all will see all of that information in the next couple months. But I just wanted you all to know that if you hear rumors like Dr. Sullivan's talked to the county insurance, I've talked to him just to see what would happen with pricing, but that is all up to the board to decide. There's a huge timeline with TCA and all kinds of decisions. 51% of your eligible
083employees, so 51% of your employees have to vote to even move from the state in a timely manner. So, there are all kinds of things that have to happen. I don't envision that even occurring this year. But I do think it's best for me to at least to look to see what prices bids look like. National average looks like it's going to be an 18% increase this year. So, 12% aggregate, hopefully it'll drop a little bit the next year. And if it continues 12%, 12%, 12%, then I think we have a different discussion. It may be beneficial for us at that point instead of joining the county to maybe be self-insured ourselves. There are some county school systems that are big that are self-insured themselves. But that's that's a little much later on discussion, but
084we're looking at all kinds of different options. So, any questions about insurance? I know that was a lot. >> I had someone reach out to me who was getting ready to retire. Yeah. And when she came in and she came with us, it was because everything was good. >> Right. Then we went to the state and apparently now her insurance is not is not what it needs to be or she may be even losing it when she retires. And so, uh I have to reach out to our benefits people. >> cuz I didn't really know what to tell her, but I said I would I would inquire to them. >> needs to reach out to our benefits people. Okay. You know, speaking for retirees, our insurance is great. Yeah. We just want to leave it
085alone. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. And we [snorts] don't want nobody bothering us. Yeah. Mr. Bot. Good question. I Give me the What What is the employee total here? Uh that's our number. >> Yeah, the total number. And then what is it for the entire county? We're at 6,600. That's what I thought I remembered. What's the county employee? I don't know. It's about a third. Yeah, I'm not sure. I can look it up in the budget document, but I I haven't looked at it in about 6 months. I should. >> Well, the reason the reason I said that if there's a cost, you know, it could be a significant cost saving to the rest of the county employees that you could horse trade with the county commission a little bit to, you know, if it saved
086them money to get more of the benefit [snorts] back here. I don't I don't You know me and numbers. I'm running numbers in my head, so. And county's been great to work with to at least talk about. I just am looking long-term. >> think I think we owe it to everybody. You always got to look. You got to look at benefits. You got to look at cost savings. You got to look at all of it. Any other questions? Okay. Moving along to financial update. Yeah, I'll have a We got our first TISA update. T N Ed U Foundation, well, Brian Brian's here. Brian's just walked away in his office with the door closed budgeting. So, that's that's where he is. I haven't seen him all day, but I know he's back there, so. >> [snorts]
087>> I'll have a TISA update on Thursday. The You mind if I go ahead to director's update? >> Uh couple things director's update. I sit on the Southeast Superintendent Council for American Heart Association, so we had our quarterly meeting today and that is a a pretty big group. It's Marietta Superintendent, Mobile, Jackson, Miami, Fort Myers, Tuscaloosa, White County. So, it's a big group. So, I know that that's pretty important to several of you all. So, we're kind of lunching to see what we are looking forward to to next year. So, we're working on that impact. And then we I emailed you all This is a little bit different that we are thinking about, but we are very much a business. And so, kind of looking at rate of return. And so, we've dropped in enrollment
088a little bit. And when you drop in enrollment, you do one, it helps. I was fine if we were stagnant for a little while, but you don't want to drop in enrollment for for too long because that's going to impact some things. And so, we are in the middle of school choice season and you will see all kinds of advertisements for school choice. And so, looking at rate of return, I wanted us to get involved with that. And so, we have been in some magazines in the past, but there's some other areas that we can do. So, we have our first billboard that I know of that you will see and we tried to target those areas that people were going to sit and look at all day long when they were sitting on I-24
089going into morning traffic. >> [laughter] >> And the the way that I looked at it was um they're about three or four thousand dollars a month. And so, we're just doing it for a couple months. It's under the $50,000 And so, that allows us if we were able to then they more than have paid for themselves our entire marketing strategy. And so, that's kind of what I'm looking at it from rate of return is to see [clears throat] what happens with our enrollment. It's going to be hard to quantify if the billboard actually keep anybody. We talked about putting a QR code up there, but that's not going to be safe. Somebody's driving down the road scanning a QR code. So, I got that idea next pretty quickly. But Mr. Evans, you want to come
090up and give us some ideas on this? >> [laughter] >> Button asked us to put together a marketing plan. This is a paid marketing plan. What we traditionally rely on is our earned marketing plan, social media, freshers things, those kinds of things. And so, billboards are obviously a piece of that and we have secured two along I-24. One is right as you're entering I-24 from Waldron Road headed toward Nashville. There's a digital board there. We're we're really excited about that. I'll talk about that in just another minute. And then we have a static board, which means it doesn't change, going back toward Murfreesboro just as you pass Sam Ridley going up that hill. You'll see it. It'll be up later this week. They're working on that cuz they have to print that one and actually
091put it up there. And I'm going to show you what those look like in just a second. But the digital billboard has some really cool things that we can do with it. We can change that message throughout the day, different times of hour. And so, for example, we have kindergarten registration coming up on April 15th. We plan on having one of the slides that comes up on there to say, "Hey, don't forget kindergarten registration is April 15th." And what's so important about kindergarten registration is that that's the one grade that it's hard for us to predict how many kids we're going to get and where we need teachers, how many resources, all those kinds of things. So, the more that we can get parents to register early, the more we can start, you know, forming
092those classes and placing students because we hate having to move kindergarten teachers around when parents think they already know what their child's going to do. So, uh Miss Haley and I were on the radio this morning and she was really pushing that. But we can also in graduation season, which is just a couple months away, each day that we have graduation, we can say, "Congratulations to La Vergne High School who are students who are graduating tonight, but don't forget that we have a 96 or 95 whatever our graduation 97.2% graduation rate." We can have one of those unique to the graduation ceremonies happening that day and change it just like we're changing the website. We're also doing um additional >> on a day that we're out of school and um another district to our north
093is not? Can we put something up there? Uh sure, we can say uh Teachers, we're closed. >> location? Just remember that we are out of school today in Rutherford County. We could also have Dr. Sullivan and I uh faking a snowball fight when we get close to snow season just to remind people to sign up for that snow call. We got all kinds of ideas, but uh seriously, we we are really excited about the messaging that we can do there. And as Mr. or as Dr. Sullivan said, the slogan that we are focusing on and there's an example here is the RCS difference because our schools are the premier provider of K-12 education in this county and we want to make sure that is is people understand that distinction of that. Um we're also expanding
094our print advertising into uh we're already doing Live a Little Magazine. That's the magazine that comes out annually that the Chamber of Commerce gives to all newcomers, new businesses, things like that when they're moving here so they learn about us. We've been in there for several years. We're expanding to VIP Magazine, too. They have an issue once a year that is uh education focused, but if you look at the magazine, you'll notice there are a lot of other schools that are outside of our district that are advertising in that and so we we will now be advertising in there as well. Um broadcasting, WGNS has a huge following, especially in the mornings, but also during uh sports coverage. They are very affordable. Uh we So, we have uh secured uh some broadcast advertising with them
095and also on their on their website. We've uh like I said, they're they're one of the premier places right now for daily news coverage in this county is WGNS and so uh they were excited to do that as well. And then we're also going to be pushing some social media advertising. Some of the posts that we're doing, we can actually uh target certain demographics, those families who have children who are school aged in this zip code to make sure they see all the things that we're doing as well. We'll be paying for those as well. This is the billboard though, if you'll scroll up a little bit more, Mr. Bergazzi, please. The top here is the billboard that is That's the digital one. Barton Henley and on my team actually went out and took that
096this morning. It's very attractive. It It It stays up for 8 seconds and then we get 8 seconds a minute, basically. But this is one of those prime areas, like Dr. Sullivan said, that traffic stops nearly every morning and people are sitting there. So, hopefully they don't take their anger out on us, but might as well give them some great content to view while they're sitting there. But you'll see that we are pushing that RCS difference uh in that advertising. If you'll go up a little bit more. This second one is the um what we sent for the billboard for the static billboard, but it's not up yet. This is what the second billboard is. These are our students from one of our schools. We do have permission from the parents to use them for
097advertising. Uh but you'll see there that um we really want to start pushing what I you know, make sure people know the opportunities that we provide. And if you'll go down one more. This is an example of one of our other ads that shows some of our uh you know, great um metrics that we're using, the net percentage of A's and B's schools that we have, the number of reward schools at level five that we have, and then our graduation rate of 97.2%. When when I go to state conferences and we talk about these things with some of our other districts, we are the envy of so many in this state that wish that they had the kind of performance that we're having and also just the resources we have to spread the word. So,
098what questions do you have? It's a little bit different of a communications report this month, but what questions do you have? Can we you know, where with the normal performing academic growth from in the state? I mentioned that on the radio this morning just to make sure they knew that. That we can't What Dr. Sullivan always says is that we can't do anything about students where they came from, what what they learned then, but once they get here, we we get to get to them and see what we can help them grow and we are known for that and we are the highest performing in the state that has that. This looks great. Good job. Yeah, it looks beautiful and I would like to attest to every time I go somewhere with TSBA and they
099see Rutherford County, I get peppered with questions. How did you do this and how did you from CTE to just uh just our academic performance, they we really are setting the standard. >> Now you can say that's the RCS difference. RCS difference. You just say that. >> [laughter] >> There you go. That's it. Dr. Sullivan went and presented to the state legislature. Did you teach him how to move that pencil a little bit? State Board of Education. >> Mhm. Did you teach him how to write with a pencil? I had a great time. I did. >> And he slipped in the slogan. I don't know if he was supposed to do it, but the last slide he put this in there last week. Good. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. I have a question. So, on
100the print ads for the magazines, sometimes they the advertisers give you as part of the package the editorial articles. Where they Is that something that we can look into to do an article Uh they haven't given us a direct editorial article. I I will tell you that Barton Henley on my team, as I mentioned, has been selected as a 40 under 40 and they have made his feature now a half page. You found that out today. Uh we've given him a hard time, but they also take submissions. Our VIP Magazine is real big about taking photo submissions. So, for example, next week's uh celebration we're doing for Teacher of the Year and retirement, we plan on sending them a write-up for that and I think that we'll get consideration for that. Okay, good. Wonderful. Yes,
101Mr. Tidwell. I know you mentioned that or Dr. Sullivan mentioned that if we get two two students a month, it it pays for itself. Do we have any metrics to kind of I know you mentioned the QR or Dr. Sullivan mentioned the QR code. Is there any way that we can measure that? It should be something nice to take back and say, "Hey, this isn't just extra money that's being spent, but we are actually seeing the the fruit of this growth." Uh well, I mean, one way we'll measure that, of course, will be what our enrollment numbers do next year. You can't necessarily directly tie it to these paid ads, but that will be at least some indication. We also have things like the number of impressions, circulation, all those things, but it's it's really
102hard to tie that they saw this ad and so they enrolled their child, but um we're going to be looking for ways to do that, but we don't have a clear way to do that yet. Yeah, and I don't know much about this particular space, but I know that we do well in the or you do well in the social media space. Uh is there any funds that come through that? It that that don't generate money, it's just uh the like the amount of impressions, the amount of people that see it, the content. I know there's a lot of content creators out there and we're competing to RCS has a ton of followers, but there's no way to monetize that and I don't even know if that's a line that could be crossed. And that
103is a nonprofit, we can't. Um great idea though. James could definitely I would I would If you >> [laughter] >> you guys will let me sell advertising for the website to support the communications department, we would love to do that. And and academics, of course. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Yes, Miss Sharp. Um thank you for this. This is great and I think everybody already knows that this is the case here in Rutherford County. We better hurry and build some more schools cuz I think it's going to be very successful and we're going to be back in the position before of being Right. >> overcrowded. And like what Dr. Sullivan said, you know, you would think that if we if we reduce enrollment that we would save money, but the students don't leave necessarily in little packets
104of perfect 20 or 25. And so, you may have if you lose 20 kindergarteners, it may be over several schools. And so, all we're losing are resources. We're not be able to replace or reduce by a teacher unless it happens in one location and that's pretty rare. So, we we are in a position where we have to compete for resources and that that's what we're doing. Any other questions? Okay. What I'm hearing is you guys are going to approve the communications budget for next year. >> [laughter] >> Check. I haven't even approved the communications budget for next year. Okay, just thought I'd slide that in there. Thank you. Is that everything? Okay. General discussion, does anybody have anything they want to bring up? Okay. Okay, first Miss Sharp. Just wanted to do do three shout-outs
105to Cline Sweeney, Old South, and TDK for sending in checks for Jazz Fest. My first and second. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Bott. The The other thing I forgot to you you All the bus routes are going well, not all of them, but a lot of the bus routes are going to get redesigned or recalculated because of rezoning, right? Yes, sir. So, see, there may be some efficiency gained with our route numbers and stuff like that. I I left that out a while ago that there there's going to be some changes. I don't know how significant, but there's going to give us those opportunities to slide in and do some things maybe with sped buses. So, that I want to remind everybody about that. So, next
106fall may be interesting. Any other questions? Yes, Mr. Azales. >> Yes. Um I just wanted to say that um I went and visited A CAR um I think a week ago, yeah, a week ago. And I want to share with the board and and everyone that's listening that they're working really really hard. Um they've made some major improvements. Obviously, one of them was the the change the director and executive director and the principal over there. And since then, there's they've um they're seeing some of those changes as a result of change in the leadership. And they're um and I told them that I was going to come back and share with the board that they're extremely um committed and dedicated to um doing things that that um that is required of them, whether the state
107or or by us. And that they're committed to that work. And they're not wanting to do things um half-heartedly by any means. And that they're seeing that they're turning a new leaf and moving forward. And they really want to have a a partnership at between Rutherford County Schools and um and and A Carr. And I believe that, you know, I Springs Empowerment will probably say the same. But right now, I can just attest to what A Carr said um because I visit them. And I hope that we can build that more of a partnership where there's a more open communication on both ends. Um and that they see I know Jeff McCann does a great job and the team that's with him. Um but that they can feel that they have access to Rutherford County
108Schools staff as well. So, that's what I want to share. Mr. Tidwell. Trey, I've got a question for you. The LED lighting, uh how's that going? I know we started with the athletics and we had this this 5-year, 4-year plan. How are things moving in that direction? We we've been very successful with TVA in our partnership with them. Um we've um we've with the uh sports lighting, we're somewhere around $400,000 in energy credits that we've earned back. Um or we will earn back over a period of a year. There's been a few and I can't make heads or tails out of TVA's reasonings why this one they give us a check and the next one it's over 12 months on the energy bill credits. I I don't I've asked Middle Tennessee Electric and and they
109Middle Tennessee Electric's been great uh at helping us achieve some of these things. We found out this week um we got $400,000 back or we're going to get it back for Popular Hill Elementary for our geothermal. Some things there. I'm going after every dime that I can get. Uh it's a lot of work and it's a lot of paperwork. Um but we feel like it's beneficial to the district. Uh our LED lighting we have for the elementaries, we've the first phase, we decided that we were going to do all elementaries cuz they don't seem to get a whole lot of things. We felt like we'd get a really good feel for how things go. We've worked with the contractor. Uh we have a kickoff meeting Thursday. They will be starting to work probably in about
1102 to 3 weeks. Uh takes about a month to 6 weeks to do uh a school. Uh and we will be rotating through a large number of the elementaries. Uh that program is generating somewhere around $150,000 back from TVA. Um but it those pro pro all the sports fields are finished and we're starting with the interior lighting in the campuses. And I hope that probably by midsummer we'll have eight to 10 of them completed and it's something that the board could go see. So, our top line's looking pretty good. I mean, things are moving along. No major issues so far. No surprises. >> No, sir. Everything's going well. Perfect. Love to hear it. Um Dr. Dr. Sullen, can I ask you about the Somebody asked me this week about this program. Remember the the retiree
111program where they could still get 70% of their pay? When does Do you know when that expires? Does this expire the end of this year? Cuz I was told two different things. End of this year and then I was told end of 2027. Let me check. I know it was '26 originally, but I believe it's ex- extended through '27 at this point. Um I would hate to lose that because that that that would help or that does help. And so, I'll get you the date on that for Thursday, for sure. Great. Thank you. Mr. Sullen. Um going back to the LED cuz that was something that I was really um uh really advocating [clears throat] for. And I remember that we were going to work with the sports uh comp- the sports area first changing
112the lights. We did that. And then we were moving in the interior um changing lights there. How many schools have we changed the interior? We have not done any yet. >> Any of them yet. >> in about 2 weeks. We will start >> with the elementary with the the the elementary schools. Yes, ma'am. And so, we're hoping to do at that point you said eight schools? No, it'd be 12. Eight to 12. And then, when do you think we'll get done with all of the elementary schools and then move with middle school and high school? Funding. I thought when we voted a while back >> gave me three We we we are utilizing 3 million of 177 this year. I will be budgeting another 3 million for 177 next year. And then that will leave
113us probably a balance of a third year between 4 and 5 million. So, it's either going to be 3 or 4 years depending on how our funding works. Okay. Can I look at what Okay. I got to look I thought we had voted to put money into this for the program so that we can go for one phase being the sports and then moving into the interior lights. That's exactly what we did. We're doing all of it through 177. Okay. So, all right. Okay, I think I All right, I'm just confused. I thought that was a I thought we just voted for a lump sum of money so that we can keep going forward with it. Can I Okay, and I have a question about this, too. >> You all did, but it was it's
114out of fund 177. It's based where allowed us to go ahead and budget multiple years. So, it's between 3 and 5 million every year that we're able to do. The problem with 177 it's based on property tax. And so, people just paid it in January and February. So, we just got all our funding. And so, you all really approved it. That fund 177 we'd love to start in July, but we don't get the money till February. So, just just now starting it for this year. So, it'll continue 3 or 4 million dollars until we do all of these As long as as long as fund 177 does not get cut. Right. As long as fund 177 exists, >> [clears throat] >> the board voted a long time ago, I think 3 years ago, two or
115three years, um to approve 3 to 4 million dollars every year until all of the schools get the LED lights. Or 177. >> For out of 177. I provided that the funding is there. Unless it dries up. Right. Okay. I just want to be clear that's what we I have a question specifically about a school. A school that I came to you about, Central. And we And we found when we we spoke with the city, they have a unique situation. They're in the middle of town. They found out that some of the lights, the big lights were out. And the city promised that they would help us with that. >> It's not the city. It's Middle Tennessee Electric. >> Okay. And I have spoken with Middle Tennessee Electric. They are in the process of getting
116those lights fixed. Okay. >> That will help us on the perimeter. I have completed a photometrics, which is a lighting study of the campus. Um and it is underlit. Uh I have been talking with the city. They are have admitted they do not have special lighting for the historic district. It's the same as all the rest of the neighborhoods. Uh that was They were um kind of keeping that quiet. Um we are looking at two different proposals and it will have to go to the city for their approval um to uh relight the campus to add more lights to the campus. But we have a couple of proposals and we are working with the city on that now. Thank you, Trey. I appreciate it. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, Dr. Sullen. Mr. Tidwell, the one I'm
117looking at from last year, the Senate Bill 251, looks like it sunsets this year unless there's the new amendment to it. So, I'm going to ask Tols tomorrow to make sure that there's not another one that I missed somewhere. But I just Senate Bill 251 and it was became public chapter 159 and it was passed May 2nd, 2025. So, I don't imagine there's a newer one, but there could be an amendment that I just haven't read through. Well, no amendments. So, it looks like it could be this year. I'm not sure I hope that's not. So, but I'll I'll go do some more digging, too. If you don't mind, please. >> [clears throat] >> I just want to say right before we adjourn here, I just want to say yesterday I had the opportunity I
118didn't get to do this last year, but I had the opportunity to go to Simon Springs and read to fourth and fifth graders. And it was wonderful. I enjoyed myself out there with them. They have a wonderful faculty out there. It's a wonderful school. And I'm so glad that we created that school. Any other comments? Okay. We're adjourned. Mr. Tidwell. It looks like beginning July 1st Here, I'll bring it around. I'll bring it around to you.