001Welcome to the December 11th, 2025 board meeting for the Rutherford County School System. We will be opening the meeting with a brief moment of silence or prayer and a pledge of allegiance to the United States flag. No one is required to participate or be in present for any of these and being in this portion of the meeting is completely voluntary. Ms. Darby, you're in charge of this this evening. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we ask that you would be with us tonight. I want to thank you for this crowd of people here. I am super excited to see all these beautiful faces with us this evening. I ask that you would give everybody traveling mercies and please, Lord, be with this board. Help us to make sound decisions. Help us to make decisions based on what
002is best for our students, our staff and our community. And I just ask that you would be with us all during this holiday season. Help us to remember the reason for the season. It is in your name I pray. Amen. Amen. I have asked some special guests here this evening to lead us in the pledge. Um, and something I'd like to say before I introduce the principal of Thurman Francis, this is just it's so exciting to me when we find teachers who are stepping outside of the box a little bit and their passion just shines through and I really just wanted to shine a light on someone that I was introduced to as a teacher this year, um, who has really made a change in one of my children's lives and so I just wanted
003to celebrate something that he's doing getting these kids excited and passionate. And Dr. Gagne Okay. So, we're going to go ahead and have them do the pledge first. Um, you'll notice the way that they're dressed. Uh, it'll make sense here in a few minutes. Um, but the thing is that it's it's really awesome to you know, in a world where education is constantly getting a bad publicity and stuff, it we have shining lights through our teachers throughout the school. We know our teachers love students and we know they love their content. Mr. Shelton is the perfect storm. It is amazing when kids get disappointed that he's not there at school. Most students will go, "Oh, good. We got a sub." They're like, "Oh, what do you mean Mr. Shelton's not here today?" But he has
004taken the passion of science and not only has he, uh, gotten kids excited about it, he's inspired them to continue learning at higher levels and you're going to get to see a little glimpse of how he treats his classroom and you'll understand the smiles on these kids' faces for the wonderful work that he does with them. I'm a proud principal and proud to have him at Thurman Francis with us. [Music] AND ALL LIVING THINGS. [Music] IT'S ALL ABOUT HEREDITY. IT'S ALL ABOUT HEREDITY. IT'S ALL ABOUT HEREDITY. DOMINANT ARE STRONGER, STRONGER. DOMINANT ARE STRONGER, RECESSIVE. They're always dominant, RECESSIVE. RECESSIVE RECESSIVE RECESSIVE RECESSIVE But what do you have to multiply? In science We call everything a punnett square. Are your eyes brown or blue? Are your eyes brown or blue? We call everything a punnett square.
005What's your mom? What's your dad? KNOW WHAT'S RUNNING. WHAT AM I FOR? IT'S ALL ABOUT heredity running. [Music] It's all ABOUT HEREDITY. IT'S ALL ABOUT HEREDITY. Everything's the same. Everything's different. You might think it's complicated. OH, I BELIEVE TRAITS. [Music] THAT SONG WILL BE DONE IN A SECOND. [Applause] UH, THIS IS A DIFFERENT STANDARD, so it's different lyrics. All right. Okay, you ready? All right. [Music] And all living things. [Music] All living things. All living things. All living things react to stimuli. All living things. All living things. All living things react to stimuli in four ways. Four ways. All living things react in four ways. Four ways. All living things react in four ways. Three. All living things. All living things. All living things react to stimuli. All living things. All living things. All living
006things react to stimuli in four ways. All living things react in four ways. [Applause] While they're exiting, I'm just going to share something with y'all. Um Mr. Shelton's saying to the students is if you know the song, you know the science. And so he's trying to help them remember all of that stuff by putting it to music. He wrote the lyrics to those two songs, um, and he's encouraging the kids to wear science merch. I think it's Mondays are like science merch Mondays and I just think it's really cool that he's he's you can tell he's got them really hyped up about science and it's just really cool to see. So, I really love celebrating our amazing teachers. That was awesome. [Applause] Thank you, Ms. Darby. And thank you, Thurman Francis. That was That was
007exciting. Next, we have the approval of the agenda. Second. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tidwell. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have the approval of the consent agenda. Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Bott. Thank you, Mr. Bott. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next up our favorite segment, Rutherford Proud. All right. Now, we're going to move into our recognition section, which is our favorite of the night. First, we have our Rutherford County Schools Teach Now and Grow Your Own Teacher Graduates. Rutherford County Schools is proud to celebrate nine paraprofessional apprentices who have earned the opportunity to complete their bachelor's degrees and obtain teacher licensure through partnerships with MTSU and the University of Tennessee Southern's Grow Your Own programs. Over the past two years,
008these dedicated individuals have transitioned from educational assistants to teachers of record helping RCS meet critical staffing needs in elementary and special education classrooms. In addition, Rutherford Teach Now is proud to recognize its fifth graduating cohort of 91 teacher candidates who have successfully completed an 18-month 141-hour program leading to initial licensure and endorsements in math, science, English, social studies, world languages, English as a second language and special education. Through their hard work and perseverance and dedication to students, these educators exemplify the mission of RCS and we're honored to recognize their achievements before the Board of Education and district leaders with a token of appreciation and celebration. So, two different things. So, Flannery, thank you very much for being here. You do a great job leading our programs, both for Teach Now and I think it's amazing
009when you see the number of completers that we have in both programs, but we are one of the largest licensing educator licensing program. So, not only are we running a school district, we're also running somewhat of a college of education here and so kudos to you and your team. So, all yours. Well, my name is Janet Flannery, coordinator of new teacher programs and recruitment. Rutherford County Schools is proud to recognize an exceptional group of educators whose journey has reflected both their commitment and perseverance. So, tonight we have celebrate two groups of educators. Our first is like you mentioned, nine paraprofessional apprentices who have completed their program either at MTSU or UT Southern to go through Grow Your Own. They have either earned their initial bachelor's degree or a master's degree and we would like them
010to stand right now if you're in the Grow Your Own program and just recognize them. [Applause] Additionally, we are honored to recognize our fifth graduating cohort with 91 teacher candidates. With this graduating cohort, we're up to 512 teachers that we have created or through the Teach Now pathway. So, we're super excited about that. But, these programs are more than just preparing our teachers, but creating legacies and so we'd like to have our Teach Now candidates, if you'll stand if you are a part of the cohort that is graduating this December. So, like I mentioned, we are trying to create a legacy with retention. I'm pleased to announce that we have like a 96.1% three-year retention rate for our teacher candidates that we produce. So, that's great job to our team. Great job to our mentors,
011to our administration, to our instructional coaches and of course our EPP specialists that are here with us that help prepare these candidates. But again, the legacy doesn't just stop there. It's for people like Carley Preston who is our a first-generation college graduate, so great job Carley. We're also some of our former Rutherford County Schools students who have actually returned to serve their community. It's been truly humbling for me to see former students of my own come now through Teach Now and that just kind of ages me a little bit. So, I'm not really happy about that, but we also have several children and spouses from current teachers who are now giving back to the legacy of service that their family has started and also we have even a married couple in our program that has
012decided to choose this demanding journey together and they are still happily married. So, that is really great thing. But, these educators represent the future of Rutherford County Schools and on behalf of behalf of our board, our district, our students and our Teach Now faculty, we are so thankful that they chose a profession with Rutherford County Schools and we're proud to celebrate them tonight. So, thank you guys for allowing us to be here. So, thank you. WE'RE GOING TO TAKE THEM AND AND PARTY WITH them in another room. >> And before you leave, I do think it's important. So, just doing some quick math, we've got about 3,600 certified teachers in our district and to have 500 or so go through our program, so we're at about 14% of our overall teaching force has gone through
013this program of our own and so to continue to have the success that we have with non-traditional licensed educators goes to our program, the support that our principals, our instructional coaches are giving them because we're achieving the most success that we have as a district and so kudos to you all and our entire team. So. Thank you guys. We're going to Yeah, it's a little loud. [Music] Coach Creasy, you clean up pretty well, buddy. Start saying. Sorry. While we're waiting, Coach Creasy was named today as the coach of the year for 3 6A the coach of the year for state of Tennessee. And if he's not If he's not coach of the year for the state of Tennessee, then everybody's something wrong because there's not anyone not any any better. So. Coach Watson is locally
014bred, too. He's one of these Grow Your Own, so he's one of the best assistant coaches around and great teacher, so. All right. So, it is my honor to congratulate the Oakland High School Patriots for capturing its ninth state title with a 6A championship win over Ravenwood on Saturday, December 6th. Patriots have won five state championships in the past six years. My wife's birthday is December 2nd and the first Saturday of every December, I always tell her that we have to eat dinner with your family first because every Saturday that I've been in this role, the first Saturday we always spend it together, Coach Creasy. And so it's always my my trip down to Chattanooga, but it was an honor to to watch you lead and watch our young men present themselves and get get
015another state championship and it's always an honor being a Oakland High School graduate to watch Oakland High School. And so Coach Creasy, I'll turn over to you and we're proud of you for the program. If you want to introduce some of your players and go from there. Congratulations. Thank you very much. [Applause] Who's this here? That's good. That's good stuff. I do want to thank school board for the invite getting us here. I want to thank our Lord and Savior for also getting us here. I think they play he played a great role in getting us here and we went through some long trials and tribulations, but came out the other side victorious and we're really grateful for that. We have a lot of our seniors here, but I I do want to point out
016two early graduates before they go to college because of our school system allowing for early graduates, they're going to be enrolled and playing in SEC. One is Joel Wyatt. Joel, raise your hand. He's going to UT and [Applause] Greg Todd is going to Ole Miss, also in SEC. Then like I said, I'm really impressed with everything that you've done for this growing county and for our school system and our players and as a act of gratitude, I want every one of us including myself to come guy and make sure that we shake every one of your hands and tell you thank you before we leave. Thank you. [Applause] You're going to UT Vols. That's my alma mater. I graduated in '99 when they were state champions. I was a former high school kid. Congratulations. Congratulations.
017Congratulations. [Laughter] Congratulations. It's amazing. Yes. It's amazing. And as they're coming up, we did not jinx it because we didn't publish it. Every year we always do this in January, but our early graduates can never be here. So, we may or may not have called last week and said, "Hey, can you be here on Thursday?" But we're not publishing it. But we were confident that they were going to win anyways. But we already had it lined up. So, glad they didn't make us look bad on that portion. So, all right. Now, we are going to turn it over to Bridget Vaughn, who we're going to recognize more Oakland um success. Our Oakland FFA national winners, eight students from Oakland High School placed in the top 10 at the recent national FFA convention were recognized on
018stage for their accomplishments. Teacher and sponsor, Gina Stewart, and was mentioned Ms. Vaughn are going to be sharing more information about our students. Good evening. I just wanted to start by thanking you all for inviting us to come here and celebrate the success of our students. Um I work alongside with five with four other co-teachers, Gina Stewart, Caitlin Law Liberty, James Scott, and Seth Deerdon. And we're um honored to recognize several outstanding Oakland FFA members who again um represented us at the national level, which is no easy feat. For these students to get to this point, they completed a research project or an SAE project or supervised agriculture experience that spanned over several years. They completed an application, research papers, and interviews to be selected as the state winners. Um their paperwork was then sent
019on to the national level, where they were determined to be national finalists and they re-interviewed to get their final national placings. So, a huge honor for them to make it across that national stage. Um so, we'll start off with I'm just going to announce our national finalists and those that are here with me today, I'll give them an opportunity to explain their projects. Emma Golf was a national winner in social systems division three. Sarah Wheaton, national runner-up plant systems division five. Christopher Gann, national runner-up sheep production proficiency. Mary Redman and Kennedy Lewis, national runner-up social systems division four. Annabeth Cruz, environmental systems division five, fourth in the nation. Madison Rich, plant systems division three, fifth in the nation. And Lydia Moore, food products and processing division three, seventh in the nation. I would like to
020um before I turn it over to my students, I would really like to thank uh our principal, Mr. Marshall, and our entire administrative team at Oakland High School for being so supportive of our program um and really contributing to this overall success of our students. These recognitions reflect months and often years of research, data collection, and personal dedication. And the achievements that these students have won show not only academic excellence, but their strong commitment to addressing real-world problems in the agriculture industry. So, without further ado, I'm going to hand it over to some of our national finalists. My name is Emma Golf, and I won first place in my category, social systems division three, with my project on balancing innovation and regulation. With increasing legislation on alternative proteins, I sought to understand the consumer's opinion
021on regulating the production, purchasing, consumption, and misleading marketing of alternative proteins. I truly enjoyed participating in the national agriscience fair, and I hope to do it again this year and win multiple opportunities. Hello, I am Sarah Wheaton from Oakland High School, and I got the opportunity to research floral preservative methods, and I tested four different preservative methods on the effects of flower longevity. And I really want to talk about the opportunities that this research project has opened up for me. As a senior in high school, I started my college applications, and one thing that this has done for me is it really gave me a leg up in applying for honors college scholarships and general scholarship applications. And I really hope that I have the opportunity to do another research project this year on microbial
022inoculants degrading pesticide pollution, and hopefully I get the same opportunities that I have this year. [Applause] Good afternoon and every everyone. My name is Chris Gann, and I did a 100% placement sheep production proficiency. Uh I started um my proficiency would have been back in third grade whenever I lived in the great state of Texas. We started running sheep. And then uh we've just been running sheep ever since uh I moved back to Tennessee and uh my advisers came to me and they gave me the opportunity to be able to um uh present that what all we've done on a national level and I was um competed and I was a national finalist. Um there's been countless skills I've learned and just overall work ethic and um I would just like to thank my advisers
023for uh helping me be here. [Applause] Thank you. I'd also like to mention we had several other national competitors that didn't make that top 10. Um but they were ranked either silver or gold national competitors, and those are our food science team, our livestock evaluation team, and our prepared public speaker. So, Oakland has had more national finalists and national competitors than any other program in the state of Tennessee. Wow. Thank you. And very very quickly, because we're used to seeing winners here, just to point out, there's over 9,000 schools that have FFA programs and over 1 million FFA members, and these kids were in the top 10 or won their division. So, it is a really big deal and we're extremely proud of the job that they've done and the time they put in for
024that. I'd like to thank John Marshall for the job he's done. You know, he we talked before the meeting. I don't know how smart he is, but he does a good job in hiring coaches and and teachers. So, he's done a good job. So, >> John Marshall? No, but we set for set the stage, you know, we set Yeah, we opened the doors, you know. [Laughter] Yeah, I Yes, ma'am. But you know that I know that we have a really packed agenda tonight, but it still just amazes me that we have spent the first half hour recognizing these students on the have achieved on the local, the state, national levels, and we have so many others that we could recognize, and we had to save the agenda's too packed, we'll do some more of those
025next month. But just incredible the way we're able to do that. Uh I'm happy to end this section of the agenda uh celebrating some of our employees. And so, again, want to thank our partners at Sonic Drive-Ins of Overton County, um Mr. uh Chris Spraggins and Alan Squeak Squeak Squeers. Got it, right? Um Mr. Squeers uh finally told me after 18 months that I'd been pronouncing his name wrong for a year and a half. So, I try to get it right every time now. Did I get it right tonight? Getting closer. Okay. All right. So, our first tonight, the way this works is that we take nominations from the public, of course, and from other employees, and and then we review those nominations and and pick winners in one of five categories. Our first tonight
026is for uh someone in our maintenance department here at the central office, Mason Lynch. Mr. Lynch. [Applause] Come in. What I try to do is then embarrass them with by heaping on the praise from their nominations. So, Mr. Lynch, I'm going to read to you your nomination. I've known Mason for several years, and he previously worked for me. I still chat with him and can tell he loves his job, the organization, and the work he does to make each school as best as it can be. He's a dedicated, honest, and hard-working man. He is a Christ follower and shows it with his his and helpful attitude. Even guys who drive trucks and fix things need recognition. Thanks. So, we agree. Next up is one of our bus drivers, Ben Hiers. I hope I pronounced your
027last name correctly. Did I say that right? Well, it's important. Your bus 186, right? All right, bus 186. His nomination says, "He has been the most amazing, consistent, and caring bus driver over the past few years. I was so nervous about putting my baby on the bus when we first moved here 5 years ago, but from the first time we met Mr. Ben, we were at ease. He is patient with us and dedicated to his job, and we love you, Mr. Ben." So, that's from one of your parents. [Applause] Next up is Emily I'm sorry. Next up is Ms. Emily Cravey, who's a teacher at Blackman High School. All right. Her nomination says, "We are new to Blackman this year, and my daughter was nervous and she was complete but she completely felt welcomed by
028Mrs. Cravey first in soccer and then as her biology teacher. She's been amazing, and I feel so much more at ease in all of this transition thanks to how much uh she has thrived at Blackman due to teachers like Ms. Cravey. Congratulations. [Applause] All right, our next is our administration category, Mr. Eaton from Poplar Hill Elementary School. I'm sorry. Say that again, Dr. Eaton. My bad, Dr. Dr. Eaton has worked extremely hard to get Poplar Hill Elementary open and ready for kids this school year. Even after the opening of the school, he has made efforts to be present with issues as they occur. He has been open to suggestions from staff members. He is very supportive of his teachers, and he's really set a great community at Poplar Hill and making it great for all.
029So, congratulations. [Applause] And our final one tonight, it's uh Ms. Heather Stanley from Oakland High School, but she notified me and said she was not going to be able to make it tonight, but I'm still going to read her nomination. Uh I'm a first-year teacher this year, and I was very nervous about becoming a structured settings special education teacher knowing that I would be working with many EAs who were old enough to be my parents. I was worried about working with these individuals and being able to ask them to do things while maintaining mutual respect. With that being said, uh Ms. Stanley has gone above and beyond in her job. Uh she is so incredibly helpful and does everything I ask with pride. So, congratulations to her. And In case you didn't catch that, that's
030an EA who was so supportive of the first-year teacher. The teacher really respects that relationship, so that's a great two to see them mentoring both ways. So, congratulations. We're going to do a quick photo. I know we've got a busy agenda, and then we will move on. Thank you all. And thank you again, Sonic. Okay, here we go. And we're doing a roundup, too, of all the awards that have been given out this semester that's going on social media and the website next week. So, there you go. Thank you all. [Applause] I'd like to say a special thank you to the Sonic folks who have supported the program and it's just great to have stakeholders to support everything we're doing. So, thank you all for everything. Next we have two very special people tonight as
031our guest speaker. We have Mr. Wayne Blair and Sheila Bratton, and they're going to presenting an overview of the Rutherford County Schools Foundation. And as both of them as former board chairs, I think they volunteered to help us with the zoning tonight. They should They should stay all night. Yes. Watch us as we leave. Good evening, Mr. Director, Madam Chair, and school board members. Thank you for this opportunity for former Rutherford County School Board Chair, Sheila Bratton, and myself to share the progress that we've made in the formation of the 501c3 nonprofit Rutherford County Schools Foundation. We would like to thank the Murfreesboro City Schools Foundation for sharing their bylaws. We used them as a template for ours. So, it saved us hours of work. We would also like to recognize and give a shout-out
032to Emil Hassan, whose Nissan Business Education Partnership awarded over $3 million in teacher mini grants from 1989 to 2019. Our foundation, we we've got some big shoes to fill. To the best of my recollection, our efforts started around the end of February or maybe the 1st of March. And uh there's been many hours of meetings, uh conversations, brainstorming, thoughts, and a lot of effort in getting this foundation formed. Thanks also to Jeff Reed. It took a minute and a lot of paperwork to form a 501c3. I had no idea. So, Mr. Reed, again, thank you so much for your time and your expertise. Uh my part of the presentation is uh to introduce you to our foundation board, and Ms. Bratton will go over some timelines and procedures. At your seats are a copy of
033our logo and um partner levels, which she will address, and our mission statement. Um We thank Laura Smith, who basically developed the logo. She did ex- excellent job. And we also are grateful to Mr. Evans for developing the RCS uh Rutherford Schools at a glance, which is very attractive. Um we believe this will help us get our foot in the door to a lot of businesses. Um if you don't mind, Ms. Bratton has told me that I need to read the mission statement, and I think she's going to read it again as well. But uh it's to provide resources and innovative support to Rutherford County Schools, securing funding beyond budget to bridge gaps, inspire creativity, and expand learning opportunities for our students and educators. And the bottom line of that is to, like I said,
034enhance academic opportunities in the classroom, but the opportunity to stay out of our educators' pockets, which is, I think, if you've been an engaged parent, PTO president, or you've served on the school board, that's been a concern of ours for for quite some time. So, if I may, I'll introduce you to our 15-member board. Uh Ms. Bratton and I will serve as the chair. Ms. Bratton is a former school board member, chair, central office coordinator, instructional coach, and an educator for 48 years. I'm also a former school board member, chair, and a county commissioner and a small business owner. Current school board chair, Clara Maxwell, board members Francis Rosales and board member Butch Vaughn, and board attorney Jeff Reed are also presently on our foundation. Uh Mr. Vaughn, congratulations for being inducted into the Oakland
035uh athletic Hall of Fame. Quite the honor. Uh Oakland just rings them out tonight, I guess. So. Um also, Yaz Hassan, son of Emil Hassan, he's the managing direct- managing director of the Hassan Odum Group and possesses a wealth of informa- of knowledge in regard to the O BEP. Gordon Ferguson, long-time president and CEO of Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital. He also has a history with the O BEP. Harry Gill, former teacher, coach, principal, former director of Rutherford County Schools, and former town manager for the town of Smyrna. Kelly Goostree, former teacher and RCS principal, 28 years in education. Jackie Williams, former teacher, assistant principal, and presently a realtor. Laura Smith, marketing director for Smyrna Ready Mix. She will be critical in our marketing opportunities with the foundation. And Dr. Jason Pollock, OBGYN, president of
036the Murfreesboro Medical Center. So, Did I miss two? I sure did. I apologize. Good thing you're up here. Also, Elena Burgess is our secretary and recently retired kindergarten teacher of 25 years. And Jenny Williams is our treasurer. And she's former town of Smyrna council member and business owner. So, we've got a really good foundation uh group right now. And uh looking forward to hitting the road and uh getting some funds so we can we can share with our teachers and our students. Again, thank you for letting us be here and I'll turn it over to Mr. Brett. My doctor just told me I'm now 4'11". So, I'm lowering the mic. Thank you to the Rutherford County School Board for allowing us to come before you tonight with this endeavor, which has become so near and
037dear to the hearts of the Foundation Board. You have just heard from Mr. Blair the history of the establishment of this exciting foundation and what we have done to reach our goals up to now. Let's look towards the future. How are we planning to meet these important milestones? First, a brief timeline. December and January of 2026, we will announce the establishment of the Rutherford County Schools Foundation and its mission. We will begin publicity for the foundation in our schools and in our community. Board members will begin asking for donations in January after your approval of our SSO. Each board member has a list of donor prospects to begin the process. This stage will continue throughout the spring as we make sure our teachers know about the grant process. September 2026, grant applications will be distributed
038to schools to be given to teachers. These applications are being developed by a small subcommittee within our board. They will follow the basic template that we have received from the old Nissan Business Education Partnership known as the BEP. They will be due by the middle of October for judging. Previously, grants were graded by the central office coordinators. How well I know. However, we're going to do things a little differently. As before, these grants will be totally anonymous. The committee grading these applications will be comprised of both educators and community members appointed by the foundation. There will be a rubric to grade them fairly. Again, I stress to you, these applications will be totally anonymous and the graders will be totally unaware of the teacher, the grade level, or the school that is receiving the grant.
039November 2026, grant recipients will be announced. December 2026, grant recipients will attend a foundation celebration honoring our winners. And in January 2027, fundraising will begin again with grant applications being reissued in September 2027. I would now like to direct your attention to the second handout we gave you. It's the one that's got the pale blue on it. These are levels that we have established for donation recognition. We'll just briefly look at those to establish some background for this. Um again, at the top is our mission statement and I would like to repeat it. To provide resources and innovative support to Rutherford County Schools, securing funding beyond budget to bridge gaps, inspire creativity, and expand learning opportunities for students and educators. Uh took us a while to come up with these. We wanted to do something
040that related to education. So, we came up with some different levels and some different names for these levels. Any organization giving us $250,000 will be in the Chancellor's Circle. That will be our top tier of donations. The Dean's Society will be any donation $249,999 to $100,000. The Principal's Guild, 50 to $99,999. An Educator's Circle, $25 to $49,999. The Mentor's Club, $10,000 to $24,999. Now, we all know there's going to be people who are going to say, "Let me give you $100. Let me give you $1,000." Something a little less than that, but we want to honor them also. So, we have the Honor Roll and the Alumni Hall. $5,000 to $10,000 and $1,000 to $4,999. We want to thank you for your attention tonight. We hope you will be as enthusiastic as we are to
041provide our amazing teachers the opportunity to receive needed monies for special classroom needs and projects. They certainly deserve all the accolades we can give them in our outstanding level five district. Questions? Any questions or comments? Wow, we did a great job. We did. Good. Thank you. Thank you so much. We are very, very excited about this. Anybody Anybody like sending checks going to send them to me and we'll find a way to put them in the bank. So. Thank you for all your hard work. I will entertain a motion. A motion till after we do public comment. We have Back to the board items. You're right. So sorry. I apologize. No, we're not. No, I didn't think we needed to. >> I was so excited and so eager to do that. I'm so sorry. >>
042till January. January. No, it's next. I was like, "What motion is this?" I jumped the gun. Okay. Next we have public comments. And we have uh 10 uh speakers this evening. First, we have Ms. Rebecca Tran. Good evening and thank you for letting me speak this evening. Over the next 3 minutes, my goal is to change your view in regard to rezoning from just seats to actual children. We have nine middle schoolers in our neighborhood, Gazebo Park. Gazebo Park is a subdivision that was built in the 1990s, located behind McDonald's and Main Event. We are in the county, not the city. We do not have any new construction. Gazebo Park is located 3 miles from Blackman Middle and High School and 10 miles from the new Poplar Hill Middle School. Developments happening around us have
043caused us to lose our school choices. My son is a member of the Blackman Cast Masters Fishing Club. He loves helping other middle schoolers become confident in their fishing abilities. A mother and a teacher who decided to send her son to Blackman so he would be in a stable school environment for 3 years. Ashley, who is already spread thin, when she had a daughter at Brown's Chapel and a daughter at Blackman Middle, gets to experience being spread thin again with this rezoning. Roxanne is concerned about putting her autistic high schooler on the bus since she cannot get her other child to middle school 10 miles away from our home and get to work on time. Sherice, who is concerned about her daughter's disruptions in education and social relationships that come from starting a new school.
044I am requesting that the area of Gazebo Park um be I'm requesting that the that the area that Gazebo Park is located in be dual zoned or have 10 seats are added to the 10 open seats at Blackman Middle to increase the chance that these nine middle schoolers will be able to remain in their current school. We have 150 homes and 110 signatures validating our children's desire to stay in their school. If you can make room for the possibility of 400 middle schoolers being grandfathered so they can stay their eighth grade year, I find it hard to believe you can't make room for the possibility of nine more students. Maybe if we would stop looking at us as a seat and instead as children, then maybe being more creative in your zoning approaches could be
045a possibility. Any other day, I would be happy to have my child go to the newest middle school. Seeing the shocking reaction of the children in my neighborhood after being blindsided by this rezoning is what led me on this path. None of us are blind to the enormous amounts of growth that are going on in Rutherford County. I asked the board, "Why aren't you seeing the need to communicate that rezoning is crucial to parents? Why aren't you being proactive in your approaches?" Parents are the ones that are left with drying the tears of our children when they find out they're being rezoned. Parents are the ones with transportation disruptions when all along we thought Blackman was our permanent home. I ask the EB productive in these matters and do better when we know that there
046are more changes to come. Announcing these changes less than 30 days ago and then pushing through a vote after we assumed we were staying at our schools is misleading to all parents of Rutherford County. I ensure you that our fight does not stop here. Addressing the city regarding developments that is stressing our resources will be our next stop. We ask that you consider these resolutions as they are presented to you as not just seats, but children. Thank you. [Applause] Next we have Ms. Jill Bottoms. I'm going to raise this up. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I am Jill Bottoms. I am the parent of Joshua Ortman. He goes to Rockvale Middle. He's a seventh grader and a rising eighth grader. And I am here on his behalf. He wrote a
047little note. I'm going to read that real quickly. He was too nervous to come tonight. So, I am reading this on his behalf. So, he said, "I want to stay at Rockvale for my last year. I have made so many friends this year and have done so much that I just want to stay and finish my last year at Rockvale. If I switch schools, I would not know what to do and it would seriously damage my mental health to leave Rockvale behind. I have done and accomplished so much and I feel truly myself when I am at Rockvale. So, I really hope I can stay." So, I don't want to get emotional with that. Um but, he had a rough transition going into sixth grade. Sixth grade was rough coming from elementary school. And he's
048finally getting in his groove in seventh grade and the fear of ripping him to a brand new school, then to go to high school, which is another big change. So, this is my final plea to grandfather the rising eighth graders to stay at their current school with the notion, of course, that parents provide transportation and all of those kind of things. There are so many reasons why, but one is kind of what Joshua mentioned, mental health stability, consistency. That it's such a vulnerable age. I was thinking to myself, "Close your eyes. Remember when you were walking down the halls of middle school? You don't know who you are, who your friends are going to be, where you fit in." And kind of right through the middle of middle school, you start to feel like, "Okay,
049you know, I'm joining this club. I'm on this team." And he's on the swim team. He's on the Rockvale swim team for the second year varsity and it's his dream to make regionals this year and to finish at Rockvale. Um not just to swim for Rockvale, but to be part of Rockvale. And from a personal note, uh we are dealing with stuff at home. My husband is battling cancer right now. My son has ADHD. He has anxiety. So, sometimes school is that only stable force where you have friends, you have an outlet, you have sports. So, from that standpoint, I am just pleading that we can at least give these rising eighth graders that stability for 1 year before they transition into high school, which we know is another another big change. And I know
050you guys have the power to to make that vote tonight and I think it would just show compassion, that human side of things. And also, we did it for the high schoolers for, you know, the rezoning. And I think we can do that for these middle schoolers to allow that last year to to be a good one of comfort and not anxiety. So, thank you guys tonight. Thank you. [Applause] Next we have Ms. Sierra Gamble. Good evening. My name is Sierra Gamble and I'm a resident and a parent who lives just over a mile from Stewarts Creek Elementary in Cedar neighborhood. This past May, my husband and I were out for a walk in our neighborhood with our daughter when we saw cars lining the streets of our neighborhood. It was more cars than I'd
051ever seen for a typical house party, so I was naturally curious. Um and we finally came to realize that people were actually parking in our neighborhood and walking to the graduation at Stewarts Creek. And that's how close our neighborhood is to Stewarts Creek Elementary, Middle, and High. I understand that the area route around Stewarts Creek is growing. New homes are popping up. The growth is beyond your control. But, what is in your control is ensuring that the zoning decisions made tonight are based on sound logistics and real financial impact. Tonight, I'm asking you to vote no on concept one because the financial and transportation analysis has not been completed. And the numbers we do have are concerning. I'm asking you to support concept two or go back to the drawing board to reduce overcrowding at
052Stewarts Creek Elementary. As we all know, funding is not abundant to our school system. And as a board, I know you all understand that how every single decision that it must be made in a manner that spends the money that we do have wisely. When I requested the financial comparison between concept one and concept two, I was told that it doesn't exist yet. And this means that the board is being asked to make a vote on a major costly costly change affecting elementary age children without the full picture. So, let's look at the numbers that we do know. Under concept one, the average student's travel distance jumps from 1 and 1/2 miles to 5 and 1/2 miles, which is a 266% increase in transportation costs per student. Under concept two, the average student's travel distance
053drops from 10 miles to 8.2, an 18% reduction. So, concept one increases costs dramatically while concept two actually reduces them. The idea of bussing our kids out of their community into a different one to go to school and kids further south in Smyrna into our community to go to school simply just doesn't make sense. My family, like many, bought our home in this school zone with this school zone in mind. But, I'm not asking for a decision tonight based on emotion. I'm asking for a decision based on data. Please vote against concept one and ensure we make the best long-term decision for our kids, our taxpayers, and for our schools. Thank you all. Thank you. Next we have Ms. Lindsey Hebden. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for allowing me to speak again
054tonight. My name is Lindsey Hebden and I am here in support of concept two for the elementary rezoning. While I truly understand that rezoning is never easy and that the decisions are difficult for all parties involved, we must ensure that taking care of our students is our number one priority. In voting for concept two, you will be providing many benefits to the current students at Stewarts Creek Elementary. First and foremost, you will be protecting and providing stability to current students, some of which were just rezoned this school year, by allowing them to stay at Stewarts Creek Elementary. Providing our students with consistency is critical for their development as it helps build a solid foundation for the rest of their school days. This concept also addresses future concerns and growth as it implements a zoning structure
055that will send new students to a different school and allow those families to be aware of and plan for this change. I would also like to see further discussion on implementing an enrollment cap as it would help prevent the builders from using our school zone as a selling feature and hopefully slow some of the growth in our area. Second, you will help maintain a positive community environment for those of us located within such close proximity to the school. We have specifically chosen to live within a mere mile or mile and a half of the school to create our lives in this community. This is a value that is important to all of us as you may have seen via our recent petition. As of earlier today, over 350 people have signed our petition in support
056of our kids staying at Stewarts Creek Elementary. Not to mention, we also have two current PTO board members that live in our neighborhood and support our school every day. Third, you will help prevent additional travel time and expenses for both students and parents. This includes bus transit times to and from school, facilitating drop-off for families who have students in multiple schools, and also allowing our students to be involved in sports and extracurricular activities. Lastly, you will be protecting investments that families have made to provide their children the ability to attend Stewarts Creek Elementary and create an educational community that we all call home. We have also heard your suggestions over the last weeks about addressing the root cause of this dilemma. I know that myself and many other individuals have already been in contact with
057our mayor, our town council, and our county commissioner. We are committed to help with addressing the overdevelopment in our community in our community in hopes that these situations can improve moving forward. Please help keep our close-knit community of Cedar Hills at Stewarts Creek Elementary by voting for concept two this evening. Thank you. [Applause] Next we have Ms. Deanna Osborne. Good evening, members of the board and the school community. As we come to the close of another calendar year, um I just wanted to come and join together to take a minute to consider where we are. December brings with it reflection and gratitude and hope. And in our public schools, these themes are alive and well every day um through the work of dedicated educators and the students whom they serve. Tonight, on behalf of the
058associate associations educators, I want to begin with gratitude. I want to say thank you for the work you do, the dedicated uh efforts you give every day to listen and hear, and for the steady leadership you provide, for the difficult decisions, and for the long hours you spend considering all the things we ask of you. This year has brought challenges that none of us anticipated, and yet our schools remain places of stability and possibility for Rutherford County's children. And that happens specifically because of everyone around this room, board members, administrators, teachers, support staff, families, who choose day after day to put students first. And as we look toward the new year, I want to reaffirm what educators in this district are committed to. Committed to strong relationships with students and families, committed to respect for
059the expertise of teachers and support professionals, c- um committed to ensuring that classrooms have the resources they need, and also building the kind of work environment that retains the excellent staff that our students deserve. We are also not just These are not talking points only. They're the building blocks of the strong schools that our community has come to expect from Rutherford County. Um these building blocks need to be reinforced especially now. I'm 7% there, apparently. Our educators are doing extraordinary work, but they are stretched thin, many navigating increasing responsibilities with fewer hands to share the load. As you consider the decisions ahead, in including budget, staffing, student supports, instructional priorities, we ask that you continue to center the voices of the people doing the daily work with students. When educators are supported, students thrive. When
060educator well-being is prioritized, student success follows. December is also a month of anticipation. Students will soon return, even though they're not gone yet, from winter break with new energy and new needs. And the choices we make now set the tone for the second half of the school year. Let's use this moment to recommit ourselves to partnership, ongoing partnership, and invite educators to the table early, listen to their expertise, collaborate with them on solutions, continue to collaborate. Because every lasting improvement in a school begins with the people inside it. And as we look ahead to a new year, our shared opportunity is this: to invest in educators, to trust their professional judgment, and to strengthen the foundation that makes learning possible. Together, we ensure that every classroom is a place where students feel valued, supported, and
061challenged, and where educators feel the same. From all of those who serve and work in public schools, we wish you a peaceful holiday season and a hopeful start to the year ahead. Thank you. Next, we have Ms. Sarah Harper. Hello. My name is Sarah Harper, and I have two children who attend Walter Hill school. I'm not talking about rezoning, just so there's no confusion. Um my youngest son attends the VPK program with an IEP. My oldest also attended this program with an IEP as well. Since that time, a change has been made. Now, students with an IEP are not allowed to attend on Wednesdays. When I inquired about this, I was told that teachers cannot attend meetings and receive trainings when they have children with disabilities in their classrooms. Which seems odd considering kindergarten and
062up students with IEPs get to attend on Wednesdays. My son does not understand why he cannot attend on Wednesdays, but he is smart enough to realize he's being left out. He knows his older sister goes to school on Wednesdays, and that his typical peers also attend, but he doesn't know why he is being left out. He becomes very upset about this as he wants to be in school. He is being denied 20% of his education only because he has an IEP with an identified disability. From my perspective, this seems very unfair to my son and students like him. Having an IEP is supposed to help you receive an education with accommodations or goals for your disability. How is receiving 20% less of an education accomplishing any goal? They are also losing out on what their
063peers are learning on those Wednesdays. There is no makeup time for that 20% of education that is lost. They just are not taught. I hope you can see from a parent's perspective how frustrating it can be when your child is not allowed to attend school one day a week while typical peers are. When I further inquired why it is only IEP students and not typical students as well who do not attend on Wednesdays, I was told that IEP students can ride the bus, as if bus transportation somehow makes up for that 20% loss in education. Not allowing IEP students to attend on Wednesdays is preventing children with disabilities full access to their education. If you as a board did not know this information before, you do now, and I urge you to please look into
064this matter, and please resolve this issue so all students can attend on Wednesdays. These children deserve to be in school just as much as their typical peers. And since I have a few more seconds, I'd like to say I'm a widow and single mom to two special needs children. It's a hard job, but it's my job to advocate for them, and when there is something amiss, I need to stand up and say something. This wasn't something that went on before. This is new, and it's not right. They should be attending school with their typical peers, and I'd like to leave this with my contact information with the board so that I can be contacted so we can further discuss this and come up with a solution together. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next speaker is
065Thomas Atwood. Good evening, members of the board, and thank you for giving me the chance to to speak. Tonight, I'm here not to debate maps or projections or long-range plans. I'm here to talk about children, our children, and the very real human impact this rezoning decision will have on them. Our seventh graders have finally found their footing in middle school. They've built friendships, meaningful connections with teachers, and a sense of belonging that does not come easily at this age. Middle school is already an emotionally challenging and vulnerable stage. These students are navigating who they are, and they rely heavily on the stability of the environment they've grown comfortable in. To uproot them now for a single year, only to uproot them again when they move on to high school, serves no developmental or academic purpose.
066It does not support their mental well-being, their confidence, or their progress. In fact, it risks undoing the growth they've worked so hard to achieve. We also want to acknowledge uh something important. Some families may prefer to move their children to Poplar Hill, and they should absolutely have that choice. But just as their preference deserves respect, our children deserve the option to remain where they built their foundation. A one-size-fits-all solution simply doesn't reflect the diverse needs and circumstances of our community. We recognize the district's logistical challenges. We understand the pressures of planning and capacity, but the needs of a system should never outweigh the immediate needs of the children within it. And in this moment, these students need stability, not another transition. These students are deeply invested in their sports teams, their clubs, their fine arts
067programs, and leadership roles. Many have just found their stride, earning spots on teams, discovering passions, connecting with mentors, forcing them into a brand new school with brand new social dynamics and expectations, only to do it again next year in high school is unnecessary and harmful. Grandfathering this single class of seventh graders is not just reasonable, it's compassionate, responsible, and aligned with child-centered decision-making. It provides continuity during a critical developmental year and avoids needless disruption. We're not here to oppose Poplar Hill Middle School. It will no doubt become a wonderful community, but new students will have time to prepare for that transition. Our seventh graders do not. Taking away their final year of middle school in the environment where they've worked to succeed feels unfair and avoidable. So, I ask you, please, choose the option that
068truly puts kids first. Allow our seventh graders to be grandfathered into their existing schools, and finish middle school with dignity, stability, and the support systems they've earned. Thank you for your time and for remembering that your decisions echo through the lives of real children who trust us Thank you. to protect their well-being. >> Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Next, we have Courtney Holshoe. I hope I pronounced that correctly. Hello. Good evening. Uh my name is Courtney Holshoe, and I'm a I'm a two girls in the district, one at Walter Hill Elementary and one at Siegel Middle School. I'm here tonight because our neighborhood and both of their schools are included in the rezoning proposal and I'd like to request that the existing proposal be adjusted to allow current fourth and seventh graders to finish their
069last year at their schools before the new zoning takes effect. My 10-year-old has been at Walter Hill since kindergarten. Next year is supposed to be her big fifth-grade year, the year she gets to be the oldest in the school. Instead, she would be moved to Wilson for just that one year, only to move again the following year to transition to middle school. My older daughter is in seventh grade. Her sixth-grade year, her first year of middle school, was very hard on her and on us as her parents. Uh it took that entire year for her to adjust socially and academically. This year has been a million times better and she's finally settled and thriving. Moving her to Oakland for just one year, especially right before she starts at Siegel High, feels like a disruption that
070could set her back again. I'm not asking the board to undo the whole rezoning plan. I understand why the district needs to make changes. I'm simply asking that the students who are already at the finish line, the rising fifth and eighth graders, be allowed to finish where they spent their entire school experience or their recent school experience. Grandfathering these two grades is a small change that I expect would make a huge difference for many families. Thank you for listening and thank you for everything you do for our schools. Thank you. [Applause] We have Laura Martinez Miller. Good evening and thank you for listening to me again. My name is Laura Miller and I want to speak about the very real impacts that this rezoning would have on children and families specifically in the Cedar Hills
071neighborhood. A 45-plus minute bus ride each way is not a small inconvenience for an elementary child. It affects their sleep, their focus, their behavior, and their ability to learn. Last year when my kids went to Browns Chapel Elementary, they woke up before sunrise and came home nearly an hour after dismissal, exhausted before the evening even began. By the time we handled homework, dinner, and bedtime, there was no time left for them to just be kids. Those long rides also take away precious family time, time for rest, play, and connecting with the friends in their own neighborhood. It disconnects children from the community that they live in. And they did feel disconnected last year. And this impact reaches beyond our homes. Parent involvement is one of the strongest supports that a school can have. In the
072Cedar Hills alone, three moms or sorry, two moms currently serve on the Stewarts Creek PTO. They volunteer weekly, support teachers, organize events, and strengthen the culture of the school. If we're rezoned back to Browns Chapel, that involvement disappears overnight. We simply cannot volunteer 20 minutes away with long bus schedules and younger children at home. This isn't just shifting boundaries, it's removing active, committed parents from a school that depends on them. Our neighborhood intentionally built our homes near Stewarts Creek so that our kids could attend the school closest to where they live. We accepted a very difficult year last year at Browns Chapel because we were told it was temporary. Our children did their part and they endured it with the promise of stability this year. And what is especially hard is this, we are already
073here. Our homes are built. Our children are enrolled. We're already a part of this community. Yet we're being asked to step aside step aside for families whose homes aren't even built yet. Families who may not may or may not move in for years while the ones living this reality right now are the ones being displaced. There is also a strategic benefit to keeping zones as they are. If Stewarts Creek enrollment is capped with its current neighborhoods current zoning and all new construction is directed to Browns Chapel, builders can no longer advertise their developments as being zoned for Stewarts Creek. That removes a major selling point and could slow down the influx of young families that is contributing to the overcrowding in the first place. The board gains leverage and protects families that are already here.
074I'm asking you to please choose the children who have already endured this hardship. Choose the parents who are already volunteering and choose the families who have already lived in this school and in this community. If you must choose tonight, please choose uh concept two. But I do ask you to reconsider the zoning altogether. Thank you. And lastly, we have Reverend Joy Warren. Good evening. My name's Reverend Joy Warren. I'm a local pastor and parent of children who graduated from Rutherford County Schools. I volunteer with a community-based organization, Public Schools Strong. We advocate for honest, equitable, fully funded, and safe public schools. I love community building. And one thing I've learned during my time as a pastor and organizer of people is that it's very important, beautiful, and rich to include the voices of everyone in
075the community, especially if you're going to be making decisions that impact them. For the past 12 years, I have served on the board of National Farm Worker Ministry. I visit communities around the country where farm workers are hard at work planting and harvesting the food that we eat. They are often left out of labor protections and other human rights that any of us think we ought to have. And yet if they do not do their vital work, we would starve. I have listened to their stories and heard about times they had agreements with their employers regarding work conditions that were not upheld. The workers had no recourse and some suffered dire consequences, including death. In other places, the agreements were upheld and all the parties benefited. Sexual abuse was eliminated. Fear of retaliation for reporting
076violations eliminated. Improvements to processes occurred. In other places, there were no agreements at all. Just the continual using up and dehumanization of workers as parts of a machine that are broken, discarded, and replaced. And then we purchase that food at a discount ignorant of the human cost. We are blessed with amazing teachers and staff in Rutherford County. They are busy working and reworking lesson plans and trying to learn new methods and adapt to change at lightning speed. They have creative and wonderful ideas about education and life together in the workplace. Their voices are essential to the district's vision, collaborative culture, successful students, empowered educators, proactive planning. I hope we will never stop inviting their participation when decisions are made that impact them and their classrooms. Thank you all for all that you do to collaborate
077with all the stakeholders in Rutherford County Schools. Thank you. [Applause] That's the end of public comment and now we move on to board items. All right, you all heard from the Rutherford County Schools Foundation. So this first item is board recognition of the Rutherford County Schools Foundation as an RCS School Support Organization. Rutherford County Schools Foundation has been created to provide a charitable foundation to support projects and programs benefiting the Rutherford County School System and its students. Foundation will provide a mechanism to raise significant contributions for projects beyond what's capable of being funded through tax revenues. The foundation will involve the participation of local businesses and business leaders who will seek charitable contributions. Per RCS Board Policy 2.404, only a group or organization that has cooperative agreement with the board may use the name or
078logo of the school district to solicit or raise money, materials, property, security, services, or other things of value. The Rutherford County Schools Foundation has provided some information requested in the board's written cooperative agreement can be recognized as an RCS SSO. It is noted that this SSO has not received an IRS determination letter to be recognized as a 501c3 nonprofit entity that's in compliance with the BOE written cooperative agreement. The IRS letter would allow the SSO to operate out of a checking account that's separate from the Rutherford County Schools District funds. Until the letter of determination is received, the SSO will utilize Rutherford County Schools District funds for all of its financial activities and be subject to the BOE financial policies and procedures. Also, approval is contingent upon the organization providing a detailed financial policy, list
079of officers with titles, training acknowledgement, and annual cooperative agreement, all of which the board attorney board attorney has been notified. Recommended motion is to approve. Ms. Marsh will Yes, Mr. Sallis. I move to approve. Second. >> Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Shaw. It's uh this is off to a really good start. These are some really good board members we have on our in in civic leaders in our community. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next. All right, next we have elementary school rezoning. Recommended motion is to adopt either concept one or concept two excluding the Walter Hill and Wilson areas. Thank you. Motion. >> Madam Chair. Yes. I'd like to make a motion to cap Stewarts Creek Elementary School, effective January 1st. And to move to adopt concept two for anyone
080coming into the district after that date, and exclude the Walter Hill and Wilson areas. We have a motion on the floor. Miss Maxwell. Yes, Miss Rozell. Dr. Sullivan. If we cap um Stewart's Creek Elementary School, it is going to impact the zone that is going to be approved for it to be at Stewart's Creek, correct? I would need a clarifying comment first from Mr. Darby. Are you um you talk about January 1st in the motion and concept two after that date? Does that include grandfathering all current students? Meaning anyone that is currently at the school can stay. Anyone moving into the district after January 1st, 2026 would go to Brown's Chapel. Okay. It would not impact the zone, but the school would probably stay overcrowded. And so I I don't know a solution at that
081point. Okay. We have a motion, and we have a second. Well, I will say to the board that I spoke to the principal, and I want to be fair with families, but she is concerned about the overcrowding. >> Yeah. Because even last week they had 10 kids that came and were registered. So, when does the new concept map begin? If we if everyone that's here stays January 1st. 2026. >> Right. So, if you move into the Stewart's Creek zone after after December 31st, 2025, you would then have to go to Brown's Chapel if you are in the Stewart's Creek zone. So, in other words, we don't need to vote for concept map freedom or cuz I'm getting a little confused here. >> Kindergarten classes, you would have concept two for kindergarten classes because every year
082your kindergarten class is going to move to first grade. So, your incoming kindergartners would be from concept two. I think I'm confused. So, if you're in concept one, and you're and you're moving into the area, and we're capping it, are they going to Stewart's Creek? Are they going to Brown's Chapel? My motion doesn't have concept one in >> mean, concept two. If you're No, you can't. Can I ask you both to recognize the chair first before you start talking? >> I apologize. I apologize. I just Miss Maxwell. Yes, Miss Rozell. >> I'm just very confused about the capping because here's how I interpret it. The way I interpret it is that if we are capping if we're voting for concept two, and we're capping, that's for kids that are coming into the area in concept
083one. So, that means in concept one, they're not going to be going into Stewart's Creek. Cuz we we're voting in favor of zoning concept one. So, anyone that moves in that concept will be moved to Brown's Chapel. That's how I interpret it. Miss Maxwell. Um Mr. Vaughn, if I his hand up. Yeah, you know I'm not going to support anything that's not fair to everybody. We let one school do that, then it's not fair to other schools that want to do the same thing and can't. So, you know, my recommendation is uh to approve the the concept two without all the capping and just leave it as it is. Um I think that's like I said, I can't be supporting anything that's not fair to every school. We let some do it and not let
084the others, it's just totally unfair. Mr. Darby, and then Mr. Tidwell. He had his hand up before I did, so. >> Uh yes. So, all of everything's here is as I understand it, we're if I'm getting the motion correct here, we are going to abide by concept two for the incoming kindergartners, but everyone else would be capped at Roma, and that would last four four years, basically. Fifth year, I guess it would be each year you have kindergarten class coming in, they'd all fall under concept two. Uh the issue that I have with that is that doesn't solve the issue today. Like if this is the hybrid of what I would like to see as far as capping enrollment, but I would like to fix the problem, and then cap enrollment. Uh so, I'm a
085little bit different on the outcome here. I would I would still like to move forward with concept two. I would like to start the enrollment cap currently because of the numbers of where we're at. I I think the the policy or the suggestions been put forth by RSP based on the data, it would give us a little bit more breathing room, and then we can start talking about caps and stuff. I've clearly brought it up to the work session. I am for capping some enroll- I'm for the There was a lady that spoke, Miss Miller, tonight. I am for the ideas of of capping off some of the enrollment when we reach certain levels. I think we have to put pressure on the developments that are happening around the school. I'm for that. My take
086on it is a little bit different in this this particular scenario in that I think we should address it, give give some breathing room to Stewart's Creek, and then look at the cap at a later point if we continue to see the trends. Now, Miss Darby. I want to remind everybody that this board told parents they had to go to Brown's Chapel for 1 year, and then they could come back to the zone. And now you're talking about sending them back again. So, you're talking about taking some kids and yanking them back and forth two, three times within three or four years. That does not provide stability. It is not in the best interest of those students. I think every parent that got up and spoke about Stewart's Creek area talked about the unfairness of
087making them move to accommodate room for the new people coming in. Um I don't know that there is a fix for this. Stewart's Creek has been overcrowded I think almost as long as it's been there, probably. Um the elementary school, I think worse than the other two. RSP said we would be back at this table again in 2 years to rezone it again. So, there is a desperate need for another elementary school in that area. And until we get there, I think the honorable thing to do, and the in the best interest of our students, if if the community is okay with the school where it is now capacity-wise, let them stay there. And let the new people take up the spots at Brown's Chapel. And just to clarify, it's concept two that I was
088making the motion for, not concept one. And it was anyone moving into the Stewart's Creek zone effective January 1st, 2026 would have to go to Brown's Chapel. Incoming kindergarten classes would fall into concept two. Okay, Miss Maxwell. >> Yes, Dr. Sullivan. Would transportation be provided with the cap? For the current students? >> For anybody that moves after January 1st, and we >> To Brown's Chapel? >> Yes. I think we'd have to. I think that's what we did before. It was. That's an unbudgeted expense, so everyone just needs to be aware of that. We did it in the pre- in the past, but this was an unbudgeted expense. Um second is siblings. So, we're always going to run across the siblings. What are we going to do with siblings? I would just need direction. Miss Maxwell.
089Yes. Can I just say something? I want to be fair with everyone. But I will tell you what happened the year that we capped Brown's Chapel. My daughter was zoned in Brown's Chapel. And because we took all the kids from Stewart's Creek, it was overcrowded. And guess what? As her first year in kindergarten at Brown's Chapel, I didn't get to to her lunches because they didn't have room for them in the cafeteria. Um There was a lot of things that I was I did with my other three kids when they different grade levels that we weren't able to do at Brown's Chapel because it was so overcrowded that all they were doing is just feeding lunches with the cap. So, if we're going to do something, I'm not in favor of capping, I'm just going
090to be honest with you, because of the challenge that I felt I struggled with and saw when it moved to um when it moved to Brown's Chapel. So, if we're going to do this, I've I I do not like back-to-back rezoning at all, cuz it's not fair to the families that saw a map thinking this is where they're going to stay, and the school was still um overcrowded. So, if we're going to do a rezoning, then I want to do a a solution in one of the concept maps that will fix it for the four years. So, I'm leaning towards moving towards adoption concept two with no cap at Stewart's Creek. Mr. Vaughn. Can I make a motion on a motion? No, we have a motion on the floor. We can discuss it or you
091can >> Can I amend it? I'd like to amend it to where we just go approve to go to option concept two without capping. That's my modification. That's a change. Whatever it is. Well, let's let's vote on Mr. Darby's motion first and then you're welcome to make another motion. Okay. Yes, Miss Sharp. So, if we don't cap enrollment at Stewart's Creek, it's just going to exacerbate the overcrowdingness. Right? So, I mean, because we're we're literally in they just Miss Rosales just said they enrolled 10 people. We're literally still enrolling students up until the last day. I guess it'll be the 19th is the last day. We're so, today's the 11th, we got to the 19th to enroll more students. Why would we do that? Why would we let them stay when people are more already
092overcrowded? We we have to cap enrollment. It doesn't make sense to continue to allow the students to come there. Yes, Mr. Vaught. I just I want a little clarification. I'm trying to look at the difference between one and two. You You worked with Robert a lot closer than I have, so If If I'm reading Stewart's Creek right, which seems to be the primary focus. I think all of us would concur with that statement. That under concept one, you create more breathing room than you do with concept two. Yet, you upset more parents. >> Correct. Mhm. So, if we if we go with concept one, you rip the band-aid off, so to speak, but you're better off 5 years down the road, 4 years down the road. If I'm reading that correct, there's about a 50
093student difference. Right? So, if you go with concept two, there's 50 less people that are upset, I guess, if I'm reading this correctly. And And you assume I have to assume there's, you know, maybe they've got two kids, so I I In my view, concept two is kind of the compromise of really utilizing space and needs right now. Am Am I interpreting that correctly? Not wanting to put words in your mouth, but that's how I I'm just a numbers guy. >> Right. Right. And I think that is. I just want the board to be aware of where we're grandfathering. I definitely respect where Mr. Darby's coming from. I'm very concerned we'll be right back here again next year. Our projected with grandfathering next year is at 1199. Um and then the next is 1231, 1279,
0941336. Outside of providing more portables there. Okay. >> I I have another option. >> Yeah, right. That's I just want >> need guidance. If that's what we want to do with portables, we're about to list 40 and so I need to move them. I just want to make sure I'm reading the numbers the way everybody else is reading the numbers and I've never not lived through a capping before, so anyway, thank you for that. Yes, Mr. Tidwell. All right, I'm looking at concept two here and at Stewart's Creek, if we go with concept two, it doesn't look like it's going to be overcrowded 27 28 28 29, it's it's over capacity by about 10 and then obviously it starts moving up from there, but that's 29 29 30 20 I'm sorry, excuse me. 2029 2020
09530 2030 e-school year that particular year we would hopefully have something on the ground. That's you know, 4 years out. Obviously, we've had a lot of conversations about middle schools, high schools and all these different things in the funds in the county and I understand that. But that would kind of be more idealistic in the way and it relieves it does something now. So, that's still where I'm at. Okay. I've got one Yes, Mr. Dr. Sullivan. I think one thing just to keep in mind this does not include employees on exemptions, so the number very well could be just a little bit higher. We had 20 something we discussed, so be aware of that. We also have more school choice options with our charter schools in the Smyrna area with some more openings, so looking
096out 4 to 5 years that there's there's a couple options out there that I'm just we just don't know yet. Could you read Mr. Darby's motion and we're going to go ahead and vote. Roll call vote on Mr. Darby's motion. Okay. The motion is to cap Stewart's Creek Elementary School beginning January 1, 2026 adopting concept two to any student moving into the zone after January 1, 2026 to Brown's Chapel Elementary. Correct. All right, Mrs. Darby. Mrs. Rosales. No. Mr. Vaught. No. Mr. Vaughn. No. Mr. Tidwell. No. Miss Sharp. Yes. Mrs. Maxwell. >> No. Motion fails. Now, we will entertain a new motion. I'd like to make a new motion we approve concept two. Second. Thank you, Mrs. Rosales. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Any comments or questions? You'll read the motion. Okay. Motion to approve concept
097two. Um Miss Sharp. Yes. Mr. Vaught. Yes. Mrs. Rosales. Yes. Mr. Vaughn. Yes. Mr. Tidwell. Yes. Mrs. Darby. Yes. Mrs. Maxwell. Yes. Unanimous. Next, we move to middle school rezoning. Wait a minute. Quick question. Point of clarification, that did exempt Walter Hill, right? >> Correct. >> Yes. Okay. Sorry. Miss Maxwell. Have we moved to the middle? Were there Were there anything else around capping or anything else with Stewart's Creek currently before we move on? I just want to make sure. No. I would like that for that to be a discussion at some point maybe that we can look at the beginning of the year. I I'd like to seriously consider that, but I'm not going to make one at this moment. >> Okay. Thank you. Can we clarify with the motion just to make sure
098it excludes Walter Hill and Wilson? I think that's safe to writing. So, is everyone okay with that? I think we Yes. Yes. Recommendation that was on there. Perfect. Okay. Okay. All right, next we get to middle school rezoning. Recommended motion is to adopt concept two as presented and allow current seventh graders, so next year's eighth graders to be grandfathered into their current middle school with parents guardians providing transportation. To qualify for the grandfather option, parents or guardians must submit the RCS form by Friday, January 16th, 2026. We're meeting tomorrow. We'll have that launched ready to go ASAP. Move to approve. Wait, Miss Miss Maxwell. Um Miss Maxwell. I would like to make a motion to move to approve concept two while grandfathering in current seventh graders, rising eighth graders um within these parameters. To qualify
099for the grandfather option by January 16th. Second. Miss Maxwell, I would like to make an amendment to the motion. And to the amendment, I want to include a way for us to also expand um choice seats for our students that are in that um zone, but that would impact all the seats all of the everyone in the school will have um more choice seats. Right now, we have 10 choice seats. I would like to add more choice seats into the um current 10 seats because to be fair, we did these um constant maps 2 years in advance. A lot of parents were confused about what that meant that decision 2 years ago. Not all of them did not capture and realize that we were going to revisit this 9 months prior to rezoning and there
100are parents that thought they were going to be in that zone and now they were completely zoned out. I have a parent who's taking a kid who family has been in Blackman Middle School and they got zoned to Eagleville and they're driving 22 miles. So, for those reasons, I would like to expand the choice seats instead of 10, add either 5 or 10 more. So, it'll be 15 or 20 more choice seats. Dr. Sullivan, how many seats can we add? Dr. Sullivan. Uh we haven't discussed it, so um we have our choice application going on right now. I think anything we can do to increase choice would be okay. I would to 15 would be okay total. I wouldn't want to go much above that because you start working with class size averages. Um 20
101would be if you get to 20 choice seats at K through three, that's an additional teaching position. If you get to 25 four through six, it's an additional teaching position. So, we try to operate within, so that five additional seats to make it 15 total. At But I wouldn't want to do just one. It needs to be everybody. >> Exactly. Every school. Yeah. And this this motion is to open to add five more choice seats to all the schools, but I want to add it that to the amended motion that is as part of the the rezoning aspect. That we open up choice seats and add five more. Do you got Yeah, I got it. >> Okay, we're going to we're going to vote on the amendment first. Yeah. So, do y'all understand the amendment
102that Miss Rosales just spoke having 15 choice seats But, at 15 bucks, total. Yes, 15. total. The compromise is the five seats. If we add 20, we have to add new teachers, and that's not a budgeted item. I get that. So, to the conference, we have 15 seats, and that would give more chances for students to get a seat at Blackman Middle School. So, I'd like to add that. Okay. Let's vote on the amendment. Could you Madam chair, we don't have Yeah. Do I have a second? Can someone have a second on my amendment? I'll I'll second it. Mr. Tidwell, I thought you were. Are you seconding? I I didn't have I just I was going to do a point of order to make sure we get a second before we move forward. Mr. Volner,
103are you seconding? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Could you do a roll call on adding five extra choice seats? I at all the middle schools. >> Woah, woah, hang on. This seems like a curveball right here. This seems like a huge budgetary item, and I'm a little nervous about it. I'm I'm looking at staff, and I'm looking back and forth. I think I appreciate what Ms. Rosales is trying to do, but I almost think we're jumping in pretty deep right here, pretty quick. Is there any way we could postpone this and get some feedback data or something? You know, I I don't You do this across the district. We're talking about five You're talking about 50 schools, right? >> Correct. Five seats in each school, that's that's 250 kids. Correct. Right? Yes. That's a lot of teachers.
104It appears to me. We cannot delay. Unfortunately, we have to publish open seats for 30 days. Oh, okay. That's That's the delay. Our deadline is January 31st, and so we This is our next meeting before that. >> Do we have to do the same thing at every school? I would recommend it cuz it's fair. Okay. That's the way we have always >> doctrine. It's the way we've operated every seats. Now, not all of our schools utilize all of their seats. And I appreciate what Ms. Rosales is doing cuz I think it's imperative there for the Blackman Middle School to do it, but is it necessary to do it everywhere else? That's the reason I'm kind of questioning this just a little bit. That that it seems like we're kind of throwing the baby out with
105the bathwater, if that makes any sense, to try to accomplish this. >> Right. Okay. I would recommend everybody compared to nobody or just one or two. >> I I get it. I Yeah, I can see that. You You're daddy to everybody, so to speak. We just want to make it where this if needed. Is that the way we want to add that to it? Are the choice seats always used up? No. So, they will not be equally distributed once the applications come in. Not every school It won't It won't wash out equally. Um point of clarification, I'm looking at Dr. Sullivan. Uh these would be 6th, 7th, and 8th or just 6th and 7th? >> I think it needs to be K through 12, everybody. Additional five seats for every school. So, an 8th grader
106could be grandfathered in somewhere, but go somewhere else. Yeah. I think it needs to be 15 total seats at all schools. We have 10 total seats at every school right now. It needs to be 15 would be mine. >> Including Stewarts Creek Elementary. Yep, including Stewarts Creek Elementary. Yep. Okay. Dr. Sullivan, just just on the timeline portion. Mr. McCann and Dr. McCann and I discussed this just a second ago. The law requires that we So, just so you all understand the timeline, we have to advertise the number of open seats for a minimum of two weeks and then take applications for 30 days. So, you're looking at 45 days total. So, the board would need to take action tonight if they if it wants to do this, so that we have we can change the
107advertising tomorrow on our website and things like that, so that they have those 15 day or 14 days plus the 30 for application. Correct, Dr. McCann? Yeah. Cuz we already have the 10 posted. I just I'm bringing that up because someone mentioned possibly delaying it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But, I'm not not criticizing that. Just want to make sure you know about the the two weeks. Yep. Sharp. I'm sorry, Ms. Sharp had her hand up. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Mr. >> Arby, then Mr. Tidwell, and then Mr. Volner, if you have something to say, you'll be third. I may have just jumped to ahead of Ms. Arby, but she's probably going to say cuz I think we had asked for some more choice seats for Stewarts Creek because we had some students that wanted to
108be in the choir and they were being rezoned. So, um I'll leave the rest of it out there because you can address it. I'll respond. Yes. These have to be completely um lottery driven, so they can't be any type We have looked at that for choir and band and those different types of things, but those are completely separate. This has to be lottery driven by state law. So, we would need to open them up as a fine arts type academy. Which I would definitely not recommend. Please do not do tonight. Please. Ms. Arby, and Hold that thought, Mr. Volner. Ms. Arby. Dr. Sullivan, um I'm going to ask you about Eagleville. Yes. Our sweet little outlier that's in in its world all by itself, um tends to have more seats available than other schools and
109also is K through 12. Correct. Can we extend the 15 seats to each K through 5, 6 through 8, 9 through 12, each grade band as if it was three separate schools? And the only reason I'm asking that at that school is because they tend to have seats anyhow. Um and I know when we originally started the choice seats, I did get a couple phone calls and emails about the fact that they only had 10, but they served K through 12. That one I'm not against that at all cuz the more choice that we have, definitely the better. But, that one probably will have some teacher positions moved to it because it is so small. Dr. James, is that kind of what you were thinking? >> We're already meeting next week to look at some
110middle school scheduling issues because of enrollment. So, you know, each grade is very different in terms of capacity when you're looking at teaching positions, the way the lottery is run, we're not distinguishing by grade. Um so, it's open to any grade, even if we were to do grade bands, and the the openings just don't exist always where you would like them to in terms of efficiency for positions. And class size Ultimately, that's a student-driven decision for class size. It just feels like if we're if we're doing it across the board to be fair, it is like three schools in one. So, if it's 15 seats per school, for me, it makes sense to give it 15 per the three schools that are within the one building. They may not all get filled. I don't know,
111but They'll get filled. Mr. Tidwell. Uh yes. So, I would only support this amendment if we did include all schools. Obviously, we all have been getting emails about different zones, different people saying, "Why can't you cut out me? Why can't you cut out us?" We have tried to be fair and upfront and transparent through this entire process, and it's just it's a just challenging process. Um so, I will support the amendment of five uh as long as, you know, we do it for all the schools. So, I I think you raised a great point. If we have capacity over there, I certainly would support that as well. Um what are would it be a Would only it go up to up to up to five? We're not really talking about teacher teacher placement changes other
112than maybe adding a position at Eagleville with That's more significant with transfers than anything else. Okay. Okay, so we're not talking about a huge budgetary item. Logistically, parents are providing transportation for it. So, that's not an added cost. Okay. Well, Ms. Mr. Volner, did you have something you wanted to say a minute ago? I had a couple of thoughts, but I I Okay. Yes, Mr. Volner. I just I just like to say that I've opened a middle school, and I can tell you parents if if you're involved in these rezoning, uh it's going to be a great opportunity for your child to experience something brand new. And every one of these schools are going to be offering the same things. So, don't be concerned if your child is in the choir or the uh swim
113team or whatever. Every school is going to All of them middle schools and everything will have the same thing, and just the opportunity to be involved in something brand new is a great experience for kids. And I can tell you from experience that uh the kids once they're into it, they really be excited about it. Just need to give them a chance. Thank you. Thank you. I need to Yes, Mr. Dr. Sullivan. >> I know this is a strange thing, but I try to be aware of all of it. If we're including Eagleville 9-12, just be aware that those 15 seats very well could jump them in T W S double A classification. That is a That is a huge deal. Yes, it is. They'll go from 1A to 2A. They don't want to Potentially.
114And that is that is not something I would imagine Eagleville would want. No. But, it's just just something to consider. It may not that the current cutoffs are for four years. Right now, they are the 42nd largest in 1A at 338 students. That cutoff for 2A is at 354 351. So, this would on the next classification jump them to 2A if everybody else stayed where they were. [Music] With just the five seats that they currently have? >> Shouldn't. Do they spread them that way? Is it five seats per right currently? Mhm. It's across the school K-12. And so, they just do the lottery for the 10 across the whole school. ma'am. Yep. Give me just a second. Let me see where basketball, baseball, and softball is. Sorry, I am it's important. They definitely wouldn't want
115to make that change. They'd be okay in the other sports. They're 338 in the classification for 2A in softball. Baseball is at 383, but football is looks like it would jump. Okay. That's all the discussion we have. Let's go ahead. Could you read Miss Rosales' amendment? Yes, Mr. Tidwell. Uh just for clarity, I know you're about to read the amendment, but is Eagleville inside this amendment with 10 for each grade band or are we just doing Eagleville still at 10? Is that Are you about to clarify that? My understanding is all schools are 15 total. Is that correct, no matter what? >> Do we want to exempt Eagleville? I think we need to find out the parents if they want to be the vision, whatever that is, because they're very particular. >> They don't You
116don't have Yeah, so I think we just need to leave it the way it is. 10 15 seats. One point. Uh Dr. Sullivan, you're not saying that the 15 across the K-12 would change. No, only high school. So, if we keep it >> It's high school related. 15 across the board for all schools. Yeah, we're good. We're not even having this secondary conversation. >> They're flirting with it anyways, and it's something they always watch, but it's it's something we watch consistently. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So, we want to exempt them, is that right? Do we want to exempt Eagleville? That's 15 total for all schools. >> All schools. 15 additional. Okay. Yep. Yes. All right. So, the amended motion is to offer five choice seats in addition, making it a total of 15 seats for
117all schools. Yes. Correct. Yep. Mr. Boyd. Yes. Mr. Vaughn. Yes. Mrs. Darby. Yes. Miss Sharp. Yes. Mr. Tidwell. >> Yes. Mrs. Rosales. Yes. Mrs. Maxwell. Yes. Motion passes. Who's going to take the heat for this if you're in Eagleville and you have to go to 2A? Now we need to get back to the middle school. >> need to go back to the middle school, and I believe we had a motion from Mr. Vaughn. Second. >> Motion by Mr. Tidwell. Okay. Second. And Thank you. And seconded by Miss Rosales. Could you read that motion, please? Yes, this is the one that's on the agenda, correct? Yes. Okay. Yes, that is correct. >> So, it's the motion to adopt concept two as presented and allow current seventh graders to be grandfathered into their current middle school with
118parent parent or guardian providing transportation. To qualify for the grandfather option, parents or guardians must submit the RCS form by Friday, January 16th, 2026. Okay. Thank you. Do you want to I don't think we did a roll call for this. All in favor, say I. I. I. Any opposed or abstaining? Motion passes. Miss Maxwell. Yes. Are we moving to number D now? Yes, we are. Can we go ahead and talk about it? Sure. Yes, we are. And Mr. Reed, would you mind coming up here, please? Only time to floor is in. I didn't know if we could speak or not. So, this is a resolution we just discussed Tuesday night. This is a proposed resolution I was proposed by Mr. Tidwell. Is a proposed resolution recommending to the Tennessee General Assembly to um to repeal
119the Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act, which is otherwise known as PECCA. So, that's the resolution you got before you tonight. Okay. Yes, Miss Rosales. >> Thank you. I want to go ahead and move forward with the board not taking action on this board item. Um the reasons are this is something that the state gave to the local boards. Um Miss JC Bowman spoke and I misspoke. He called me and he wrote me a letter and he sent it and I asked Miss Dawn to make a copy of it and kind of explaining what this is. What PECCA is and what that is meant and given the history and the context of how PECCA even came into fruition and it was born. First of all, I just want to say that as far as NEA teachers
120union, I am not for the NEA. I don't agree with the NEA. I don't There's things about the NEA that I'm not in favor of, but this PECCA was a result of in It's in this letter as well that in 2011 when they the General Assembly that was a Republican led, it was initiated by a Republican to dissolve the collective bargaining. And so, in turn, they created this framework for um for employees who speak to the employers. It's a way to give them a voice. It's no different than we work in any other setting or capacity and they enter into an MOU and then that MOU is what's drafted within the contract. If we do if we take a motion to dissolve this, we're going to be sending a message that we are taking our
121teachers' voices away and not giving them the chance to come to the table and share with us what the working conditions are. If there are issues within the framework of how that was even um became however it it turned it became, then that should be given to the legislators to go back and fix. But as far as Rutherford County Schools, we haven't had any issues in terms of how that relationship worked. Not a single issue. So, for us to take a stand on something that has been beneficial to our teachers, and by the way, I've actually and I'm going to bring a little bit of politics. I've had Republican um teachers that have called me and said, "Don't take away PECCA. That is my my voice and my way to speak to our employers." And
122the way this framework PECCA is, it involves all teachers and it doesn't have to be a particular group to um to represent. They can choose within the members who they want to be represented. And also, um the state of Tennessee does not forbid teachers unions to be involved in the state of Tennessee. So, this is not a union issue. So, therefore, I'm making the case for this board to take no action on this matter. That's my motion. Thank you. And Mr. I'll second. seconded. I will let Mr. Tidwell speak, though. Yes, I Absolutely will not be voting uh in favor of postponing this whatsoever. So, let's just give a rundown. We should have did this uh last time this stuff came up, but now we got a resolution here. And I brought it here for
123a reason. So, uh let's do a quick rundown on what that looks like. These members, these organizations, which they are unions. They're not unionized, but they just transferred the name to association. So, I'm only interested in what it looks like in practice. When you talk about collaborative conferencing, it sounds really nice, but everyone has our phone number, our emails. I talked to teachers, librarians, those who agreed, who disagreed. We are able to still have those conversations. It's not required to have this. But let me tell you what this does. So, these organizations uh as Miss Rosales had just said that she's not in favor of the NEA, but the NEA doesn't exist without organizations like the TEA, which is Tennessee Education or Educators Association, which doesn't exist without the REA. So, the money gets funneled
124straight up there. Uh so, if you are not in favor of these particular organizations, then they're still going to be able to exist outside of this, but we don't have to coordinate through this collaborative conferencing. I wanted to and I I a statement was made, "Well, this is not changed anything for us or this had no effect on us." Let me just tell you what happened. So, in October 15th at in this board room, we had a policy committee meeting. At that meeting, that's October 15th, 2024, REA under an under the MOU, so the actual language I'm going to read you the language, adds language to comply with the agreement, the MOU with REA, which we were told previously that this agreement would have zero effect. Here's what they decided to add. Under the MOU,
125they suggested to include mental health under excuses for a sick day. Of course, I voted no against that. That is a very vague answer. We have plenty of options for sick days. It's meant for your sickness. Mental health is very vague. Secondly, and and I would like to put some emphasis on this one. The REA wanted to add gender to our discrimination policy. Sex is already included. So, what is gender? So, when I asked that question to our lawyer, uh we didn't get a straight forward answer. Dr. Sullivan stepped in and said this we're going to go with the state's recommendations on discrimination policy. The REA, the TEA, and the NEA are not only inherently political, that is a core function of what they do. They are lobbyists. That's what they do. So, if you
126agree with them, support them, and they'll lobby for what you agree with. But I not for and never will be for collaborating with a political strictly political organization at this board room. I I'm not doing it on one side of the aisle or the other side of the aisle. And so, for that reason, I would urge the board members here to look at the actual facts. Look at what was brought forth. Not the talks, not the soft words. Look at the action of what was going on and then make your decision. Because right after, as I would hope that this motion would fail, I will be making a motion to approve the resolution. And I'll add one last little fact in there. You said, "Go to the state." We already have state-level support on this.
127So, just like what we had a similar reaction to this in the past of another resolution that I got that got brought forth and then got voted up and turned around had a recess and got voted down. It still passed. It's still going to happen. But, I think it's important that this board think through this process. Look at the facts. Uh look, I know JC Bowman. I've talked to him about different things. I don't have the the professional educators uh of Tennessee that had it has a place. They're not nearly to the same level as others. But, in irregardless, anyone, any teacher, any person can contact any of these board members and their voice will be heard. And so, that avenue is not closing with a uh with a push for this resolution to pass.
128Mr. Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Before we vote, I have to say something. First of all, when I ran on the seat, I had a different perspective of what education and our teachers did. I was not expecting my job situation to change. That was not even my peripheral. When I When things changed, the very first thing I did with the first the very first thing that changed was that I was I was brought into the classroom. When I went to the classroom, it opened my eyes to see what the teachers actually do on a day-to-day basis. And I'm going to tell you right now, the state laws and the federal laws that we have are setting our teachers to failure. Why? Because when you have a room full of 20 kids and you got one kid that
129is yelling like crazy with throwing a fit while you're trying to teach them and you have two other kids that don't speak the language and you have all of these things trying to keep behavior, it says a lot of what they have to go through day in and day out and they're showing up to work every single day. They're not giving up on our kids. I went last week. I was this close to saying, "I give up. I'm not going." Because I had a very hard day. The teacher took a day off because she needed a mental day off. Thank God she had a day that she could take off. Because if she didn't take that day off and she came back to that school the next day and she wasn't refreshed, would she take
130out all her frustrations out on that child? Probably so. And you know what? We will end up in a lawsuit because she did something that was not the right way because she was fed up. That's what our teachers go through. And you're bringing all this stuff about the NEA and the REA and all that. I'm going to challenge every single board member to go and step into the classroom and be a teacher for a whole entire day. And then when you come back, you tell me if they're indoctrinating our kids. You tell me if they're even talking about sexuality. And you tell me what they're doing. Because you know what I've seen? I've seen teachers pray for our kids in front of them and say, "They're having an issue." They come, "Hey, let me pray
131for this kid." And you know what? They're putting themselves on the line when they're praying because they're not even supposed to be doing that. But, they do that. Why? Because they see this as a ministry. They see this as something that they can give back to our kids because they they love the profession and we don't pay them enough to take all the crap that they have to. Kids cussing at them. Desks being thrown at them. Kids that don't want to do the work. That's what they have to go through. And we're going to fight and argue because we gave them a mental health day so they can come back and snap on our kids because they couldn't take a break. I'm sorry. And you can run as you want and do direct mails and
132whatever you want to do and say that I'm supporting a teachers union. But, what I do support is our educators. All of our teachers. And I will not be voting for something like that unless we have something that we can give them a voice to speak. >> Rosales. Yes. Yeah, I mean that was a great speech. My thing is it I have the the facts are here. I've told you the dates. Go look up the dates. I'm not asking you to believe me. I'm just telling you look this up yourself. So, everything that I have pointed out is factual. So, I'm asking this board not to to talk to worry about, you know, the perception. Just look at this from a logical standpoint and make your decision from that. That's all I'm asking for. I'm
133not asking for anything other than that and I'll leave it at that. Okay. We have a motion on the floor. Ms. Rosales' motion was to take no action. Mr. Vaughn has seconded it. Roll call, please. Mrs. Rosales. Yes. Mr. Vaughn. Yes. Mr. Tidwell. No. Ms. Sharp. Mr. Vaughn. Yes. Mrs. Darby. Mrs. Maxwell. Yes. Four yes passes. We will take no action on this. Thank you. Next we move. Actually, let's take a 5-minute break, please. Uh we've been here quite a while and I think there's some people that could use a 5-minute break. Thank you. We'll convene at 7:00 30 40. Yeah. 6 minutes. Can I get one, too? That's all right. Never mind. I'm good. You have a minute and a half. Hey, how y'all doing? Yeah. >> Sorry Mr. Arby, that took a 30
134seconds. Although we are missing our esteemed leader, we'll give him 30 seconds to get back in his chair. And agenda item E. So, we talked about this some of the work session on Tuesday. This is a This is this is a potential contract for a property in Smyrna for a transition academy. The school system's been looking to potentially add a transition academy on north end of the county. A house and parcel, which appears to be suitable for this, has been located at 300 Maple Street in Smyrna, and a contract has been negotiated for the purchase of the property of the boarding likes to adopt it. The purchase price is 750,000. The contract has a 60-day inspection period and is contingent on approval of funding by the county commission. The contract terminates unless the board gives
135the seller written notice it is electing to proceed with the purchase of the property. The house would need to be inspected to during the inspection period to confirm its suitability for the proposed use. So, this property is brought to you cuz there was some interest by some board members in potentially buying this for a transition academy. That's why it comes to you um for consideration. So, um it is it's is on the market. It will be sold to us or someone else. Um we do have it under contract, so we um if we elect to um approve this contract tonight, you will have a um binding right to purchase this property for a period of 60 days should you like to do it. So, it doesn't obligate you to purchase the property, but it gives
136you the right to examine it for the next 60 days and determine whether or not you want to purchase it or not. Miss Mr. Vaughn. And then Mr. On this house, then it's a two-story house, and the kids is going to be using this house. A one concern I have is the second floor is not accessible to those kids unless you put an elevator in this house. Um Mr. Lee, I don't know how much an elevator costs, but I'd say we're going to be close to getting to a million dollars on this property if to get this accessible, you know, for suitable for all the kids that are going to be utilizing it. Um I just wanted, you know, just uh from my own perspective, you know, I just I truly believe we can build
137something that for the same amount of money to be exactly what uh Dr. Ralston needs for the program there. And uh I don't know, I may be incorrect, but I just uh second floor of that home would not be couldn't be utilized by the kids unless you put an elevator in. Okay. Mr. Tipple. Uh similar line of questioning. Uh Trey, could you go over with us uh I know you said you were going to look into the numbers about what it would cost to buy new I'm sorry, what it would cost to build new versus buy this property. As with all property that you purchase, whether you're buying a If you buy a home that's in a subdivision, you're paying for the local infrastructure and you're also paying for the lot. Uh so, there is
138some cost in here that we would not have to incur if we built on the properties that we currently own. Um my expertise is is commercial construction. So, I've but I've got a lot of friends that are residential builders, and I've reached out to them in the last couple of days and um I've got a couple of framers that work for me, and and we've looked through the numbers, and we're pretty confident that we can build uh what Dr. Ralston and I've talked about, and I did go see her. I Two years ago, she and I sat down when we had this conversation about the two pieces of property and whether, you know, when we had that conversation with Transition Academy. So, went back to see her again yesterday just to make sure she and
139I were on the kind of on the same page. And and I feel like we can build something for somewhere between 100 and 125 dollars a square foot. Um with what by owning the property. Um so So, that's I I think that's where we would be. I I like that a lot better. Um Dr. Ralston, a question for you. I don't know we kind of mentioned this briefly at the the work session, but um and this I want to involve you with this, too, Trey. Now, we had talked about possibly split There's two properties that we could put it on. I think it was Smyrna and Whitworth, right? Those are the two. Is there a need to have one at both places? And if there is, what about build instead of building a large So,
140if we're matching what we currently are looking at, which is like 4,000 a little bit over 4,000 square foot, instead of having two 4,000 square foot buildings, maybe we have sticking with this budget, roughly 750,000, we build the largest two homes that we can build for that budget. Would that be more beneficial, or would a one particular location be better than the other? The two locations would serve more kids in Rutherford County. Um just because having one on the north end and the south end, um it is we do transport our students from their school of zone to the Transition Academy. So, if we are transporting to one location, the students that live the furthest away or attend, like say, La Vergne to then go to the one in Murfreesboro, they're missing out on part
141of their day and their services through transportation. So, we could serve more students if we built the smaller. Smaller on both sides. And Trey, does that Are we within range? Yes. Um it We would we would work backwards, as I call it. I back into it. We would take this budget, and then we would take the designs, and then we would back into it to something that functions for both places that stays inside this budget. Yeah, and look, if it's like another 50,000 dollars more, I think we to split them up and get more students involved, I think that would be something maybe this board could be open to, but that's the motion that I would lead with is that we build in each place, so in Smyrna and Whitworth with these numbers currently. Mr.
142Arby. Mr. Lee, do you have a rough idea of what additional expenses would have run if we buy that house? Cuz I know they there was talk that a ramp would have to be put in and some other things. Just a rough I know it's not exactly, just a rough idea. The the the property is it's a nice property. The the the house itself is not very elevated, so the the ramp that would be needed for there would not be, you know, 5 to 10,000 dollars. I did like I said, I didn't get up under it. The home does look structurally sound. Uh it is in good shape. It's a very nice home. There's some elevation difference between the addition that was put on and the main building, but the um there is fairly level
143access from the exterior to get to it. Um you know, I I think the improve that part of it would be minimal, and then after that, it would be whatever is found during the inspection, if there is any. For the neighborhood of 750 to 800,000, do you think that would be appropriate to do the two locations? >> It It's very possible. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Ms. Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Salas. Thank you. Um I just wanted get clarification because this is the first time I've seen this property for sale. I didn't know we were looking for property for a Transition Academy. Second of all, to my knowledge, the board hasn't gone on a tour to look at it. I could have sworn or I remember I collect I remember that not two meetings ago there
144were board members saying they couldn't vote on something unless we have been we have taken a tour of it. We haven't been invited to take a tour of this property. I don't know what this property looks like. Um I'm not sure who negotiated this price either, $750,000. I also don't know how who brought this property to us, how it came into being, who the owners are. I heard that the owners wanted to give it to the schools, but but I'm like, well, if they want to give it, why can't they just donate it? That can save us money. Um so I have a lot of questions and concerns about this. So I just want to know more information of how this came into being, why am I seeing this right now, why we haven't been
145asked to go take a tour of the house if we couldn't vote on five houses for McFadden a few weeks ago, why are we voting on something we haven't even looked? I have I personally have not been asked to come and tour the school or been invited to tour the school. I mean to the school and I didn't even know this school this this I'm sorry. I didn't even know this house was something that the board was even going to entertain to buy. What you taking the tour? I was going to First of all, you had Tuesday night to ask for a tour. And we talked recently about we've we've talked the last five years about finding something for Transition Academy. We'd already voted to build something on the existing land. When this property became
146available, I called Madam Chair. She came out and looked at it. She loved it. She called Dr. Ralston. She came out and loved it. And then she called Trey Lee. The thing about this property is it really is turnkey because it was a school before and there's no issue with the elevator, Mr. Vaughn, because they're going to use the upstairs for if the board approves, they're going to use the upstairs for administrative offices. So it's going to give us some more room here in the central office for for other people to move in the central office or expand more room. Um Mr. Reed, from what I understand, is the one that negotiated the contract because it was listed for more. Uh sometimes property just comes available and they reach out to you. It was my
147our understanding this gentleman his he wanted this property in memory of his wife to be a school and they reached out to us. And I appreciate going out and looking at it and it is a great property, obviously. I have been it's something very important to me. I have been on this board since 2020 talking about we need another location. I'm not exactly sure that when we negotiated the lease at MTSU that anybody on the board ever went out and looked at that property before they did that. No. Nobody. So if you don't want to do it, I understand, but we need to do something because too many kids every year are being denied this opportunity and our sped population is only growing and getting larger. And my enthusiasm in this property was when Ms.
148Ralston and Mr. Lee said, yeah, this looks like it's in pretty good shape. I knew it could it could work for us very quickly. We could turn we this is almost turnkey. With some minor improvements to it, we could be up and running and have a North End Transition Academy this fall. Any other way we do this, we're not going to be that ready. If we can go build two schools, that's great. But I don't know nothing in this climate having to work with the County Commission and what all the asks that we have out there, I don't know if that's realistic. I I prefer this location. It's perfect, this building, but I'll do what the will of the board is, but I I urge you to to take a look at this property and
149see if we can make this work because I don't know if we'll ever get this opportunity again. Ms. Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Vaughn. Who who authorized the contract be negotiated? Mr. Reed. But I mean did We we property is brought to us and we take it to Mr. Reed. Exactly what we did. Madam Chair. Yes, Mr. Darby. >> my understanding it needs to be board approved before it's negotiated, correct? Well, they needed to have a price. And that's why But I mean the board board didn't approve the negotiations to be done. We did it with the McFadden property. If you don't like this price, we we can always go back. That's that's what he's doing. This is the price that that it was given to Mr. Reed. No, I'm not talking about that. I'm just talking
150about who authorized the negotiations of the contract. I did. As Chair. I did. Yes, Mr. Darby. Just a point of clarification. The board voted to allow Mr. Reed to do negotiations on the McFadden properties, which is where that whole issue went sideways. Second point of clarification, we are not supposed to be taking action unless the board votes on something. So the chair can't take action on their own. It has to be a board vote. Regardless, this was something we talked about with the land. Um Mr. Lee and I had met a couple years ago and went over all of our properties and what extra land we had and what we could possibly use them for, which is I believe how the conversation came about for Smyrna and Whitworth for the Transition Academies. We were just
151waiting. I kept being told we didn't have funding to build them. So if we're saying we now feel it's a good time, which it probably is cuz I don't know that things are getting any less expensive. I think it's a it will probably look better to the commission and a better use of our funds to be able to build two of these and eliminate the lease in Murfreesboro cuz then we'll be saving that money. So with that, I would like to make a motion to approve the $750,000 to begin building both a North and South Transition Academy on Smyrna and Whitworth. Do I have a second? I would like to second the motion I made earlier. Oh, sorry. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Yes, Mr. Sharp. First of all, we if we want to go
152back to who's authorized things, uh Madam Chair authorized Mr. Vaughn here to negotiate the contracts with the with our bus drivers. She also we the board voted to have Mr. Reed to negotiate the contracts of the McFadden properties, but Mr. Vaughn negotiated those. So there's precedent here with but with both sides. And we're not going to be able to find and or build I don't Mr. Lee, no disrespect to you, but you can't even buy a house these days for what this house is selling for. This over 4,000 square foot. It's less than 2,000 excuse me, it's less than $200 a square foot. You can't buy you can't buy a house that's already ADA compliant. Go look at Smyrna Middle School where they had to rip the stoves out because they weren't ADA compliant and
153how much that cost for the architects to draw. Ms. Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Rosales. I just wanted to make a point that this property the board has not been asked to go look at the property. There were some board members that spoke during the McFadden said they could not vote on something if they had not taken a tour. And now we're asked to vote on something where the board has not been asked to tour the location of what we're about to say we're going to enter into contract agreement for $750,000. Since I've been on the board, the way that we've done this is that we we authori- we as a board collective board authorized Mr. Reed to be our talking person representation to talk to the owner and then he comes before us and brings us
154a a contract. This hasn't happened. The McFadden um conversation that everyone's bringing up, the board already had voted and authorized Mr. Reed. Mr. Reed also has the authority to also make a decision on the board if he wants to give the work to someone else. He does that all the time when it comes for his cases when he represent us >> Madam Chair. um for for work. You know what? I know you're going to do a point of order because you don't want me to give this information to say that we are not we're being hypocritical in doing this type of transaction of this voting knowingly that when we did the McFadden there were board members that couldn't vote on this. Point of order. But I don't doesn't matter, but it it's stated and clear.
155Listen, you can say that all you want to, but Stan Vaughn does not work for Jeff Reed. Stan- Jeff Reed does have authority to give people in his law firm other cases. He does not have the authority to give it to Stan Vaughn. Stan Vaughn was the one that negotiated that contract at McFadden. I I I I listen, this is ridiculous. I I vote right now just to rescind it. Just pull it. We don't deserve a nice piece of property like this. Can can I just say we need to not fight amongst ourselves and fight over the way something was done last time or what happened last year. While we sit here and fight over this, we could lose a property or we could build a property that takes care of two times the number
156of kids we've been able to service. The special needs community seems to always be last. I want to make them first. And we need to do something tonight. I pray that we can come to a resolution, but let's not fight amongst ourselves. This isn't about how Mr. We did things the best way that we knew. And I did things the proper way, I believe. I gave the the property information to Mr. Reed. Mr. Reed spoke to the sellers and he negotiated. This is what the price. If you don't like it, vote it down. But let's not quibble with squabble with one another, okay? Because these kids are waiting for an opportunity and we need to find an opportunity for them. That's right. >> Yes, Mr. Tidwell. All right. So, it seems like we do have
157consensus on something, which is that we want to do something we want to do something for the Transition Academy. The the pathways we have before us are obviously to purchase this home or to possibly look at splitting it up in two different areas, but the the goal being the same as we're providing uh expansion of this. So, I think the least the board's consensus is together on that. And here's here's the reason why I think it's best to split the property split this funding into two properties to serve more students. I have an older home and I'm having a lot of problems with my older home and it's a lot more to maintain. Now, if you go build a new property, if I could build a new property for cheaper or the same price of
158similar square foot size similar footprint of a house that I could go purchase that's older, the difference is the time frame. Like like Miss Maxwell has mentioned, it gets the students in there quicker. I can see that ground. Um over the long term, I still think it's going to be more beneficial to do it our way if we can do it since we have the ability to do so. If we were having to go out and spend a lot more money to make that happen in in a new construction way, that would be different. But the use land that we have use use the funds that we are potentially approving tonight, then I think the better option is what we have on the table, which is to build a property in Smyrna area on land
159we already have and then on the Whitworth area. I I just that makes more sense to me. I would take that option as a homeowner. So, that's that's the way I'm looking at it. I'm not against I'm not even against the house per se. Um I looked at this from an efficiency standpoint the whole time. So, I didn't feel a need to go check out the house when I know based on the footage we can do it better our way and split it in two under the same funds. So, that's that's kind of where I'm at. Just wanted to kind of share that. Okay. I agree. >> Mr. Bone. I agree. Okay. So, Yes, Mr. Vault. I'm going to try to isolate all this or get us maybe focus just a little bit. Um the
160the question the biggest question I've got is what is the potential? In other words, how many students in an ideal world do you think we could serve? What what what is our population? I know you have been limited and I know that's what Claire has been concerned about and I appreciate her passion in all of this. But realistically in our population of 52,000 kids, how many could we serve? Or do we need to serve? Um yes, we need to serve lots. >> Or could we serve, I guess. >> Right, sure. Um so, if we build two properties at roughly about 2500, is that right? 2500 square feet, we could serve um 16 to 20 kids at each property. Um we could go up to say 25, we just have to add an extra staff member
161um to assist with that. Um at the property that that you guys are looking at at Smyrna because we would use mostly the bottom the first floor, it would be um roughly about that 20-person limit on there. So, the the program ideally is is built for 20 to 25 students, no more. Currently, we have 12 because the property we're renting off MTSU's campus has very small rooms. Right. Um and so, it's just too much. When you get close to um 15, it becomes just an overcrowded mess. >> That that's a limitation of that building. Yes, sir. Okay. So, if if you were in the wildest dreams here, um want to do something that would really function well for the students you're going to serve, is that a is that a house structure? Is it laid
162out like a house or is it laid out more like a school or or is it a combination? I can remember uh when Oakland and Riverdale were built and actually when Central was here, my mother was a home economics teacher and there was a there was a kitchen, you know, and there was a planning area and you know, there was a sewing area and I can remember those distinct uh qualities that were built into that program in that area that helped those teachers be able to function better. And I know this is a very specific Yeah. um student population. So, that that's really I'm trying to get my my head around this and see if I can't if we can't come to some kind of compromise as Claire said, what is the best avenue forward?
163Does it need to be laid out like a house or is it or is it a combination of a house and a and a classroom? It's exactly what you're talking about as far as what you experienced with home economics and things like that. It would be a larger kitchen so you could get four to five students and a teacher in the kitchen to do meal prep. Um it's large spaces for meetings, for classrooms. They do a lot of budgeting. Um so, we'd need to have places for that. Um and then large eating areas where the kids can actually meet together, eat, learn how to sit around a table. Um and then large space outside in order to pull um our smaller buses and our vans up to where we're not having to park, drop our
164kids off and park off site. We can actually park in there. So, I in ideal world a new construction would work good. I think and I'm going to go back and say this. I think Claire's passion is she sees that this is a very underserved um student population and we could get there pretty fast. Here would be a suggestion and I think it goes along with yours, Caleb, is that you know, let's take a time out for 30 days or something, see if Mr. Reed could even see if the possibility might be that we could lease the property for a year. They may not want to. Question I don't I hadn't asked the question, don't know if he if he asked the question, but at least the two if they would consider leasing it for
165a year, you could function two programs, the one here in Murfreesboro, the one in Smyrna. And then at the same time give Mr. Lee and his department time to construct uh two stand-alone buildings at at facilities. I I'm just kind of throwing that out there. Kind of we kind of get on with the program and that way we're not turning our backs on this student population, but yet we get new construction out of it as Caleb said that we don't have a lot of maintenance and upkeep with. That's just a thought. >> I have two things. >> Thank you, Mr. Vault. I have two things and yes, I am very passionate about this. But in sitting here and thinking about this, I think that ideally, it would be awesome if we could go ahead and
166purchase this property for the north end and then get out of that lease at at MTSU, which has gone from 1,500 to what, 2,200 now? And perhaps build on the Buchanan Whitworth Buchanan site. That way, we own our buildings and we're not leasing from anybody and we're not renting anymore. But I do want you to explain to them cuz they may not realize this. You all heard that it's 12 students. It's a two-year program. It's not 12 students per year. I just talked to Dyson Massengill yesterday. Guess how many kids get to come next year? Five. Out of all of our high schools, five. So, could you explain how that works to them, please? Sure. So, right now the Transition Academy functions as a two-year program. Um students have to go through a work-based learning
167um class in their high school. They have to complete that successfully for a year, then they can apply for that program. Um several of our kids go to Transition Academy for one year and then will um go to Project Search, which is our um our program at the Embassy. But some kids decide to stay at Transition Academy um just to learn more about the community, um how to function in the community, things like that was open to them there. And going to Project Search and where the focus is really getting that job is just not for them at this point. Um and so, when we open up spaces at Transition Academy, we do take all the referrals. We will interview everybody, look at everybody's application, and then that certain few are are chosen uh for
168the Transition Academy, and then we have students who are chosen. Project Search is a 1-year program. Thank you. Yes, Ms. Sharp. So, a little bit explanation, what's at this property? There are four big rooms. There are two kitchens, one of them a commercial kitchen. There's also a room on the commercial kitchen that's probably about the size of a double car garage. It's just a big space, so that could be used for the lunches, that could be used for for the classrooms and everything. Listen, I wasn't looking for this. We weren't we we've had that on the back burner, but when this came up, it it's it's truly perfect for Transition Academy, and it will allow us to get more students in the program. Okay. Okay. How many teachers are going to be down there? At
169the property and Yeah, how many would you need How many would you need down there? For For 20-ish students, we would need one teacher and three EAs, um, possibly four if we added um some you know, students with some higher needs. Would you need that whole second floor just for administrative offices? That's That's what we talked about using it for because it wouldn't be accessible as far as that classroom goes, I mean, to me, it just seems like it'd make a lot more sense to use this money to be able to build two as to buy something like this and not be able to use but half of it for the kids. You know, I mean, I don't know how much room I wouldn't think you'd need a whole second floor for administrative offices. Yes,
170Mr. Just so everyone's aware, we do not have money budgeted for this. So, the process and timeline, so everyone knows, regardless if we buy this property or choose to build it ourselves, we would need to do an amendment to take funding out of and any It can be separate from I believe it was Ms. Darby's motion. It can be separate, but at some point we'll need a motion to It'll probably be in January. Motion to put $750,000 or this funding for this property out of unassigned fund balance and put it into fund 189 for the purchase because this is not budget. So, we would have to take from our board to health and net to budget to the full commission. So, you're looking at February before funding could be approved. Either way. Ms. Maxwell. Yes,
171Mr. Tidwell. What's the timeline on building? Say Trey, this board moves forward with building two new buildings. Design, time frame, what are you thinking? 18 months, 12 months of this, yeah, how's that work? It's different obviously than commercial and some of the requirements, but >> It'd be between the 12 and the 18. Okay. Well, I I thank you. I support the motion. I'm still good with going forward with two buildings separately, giving Trey the freedom to start working on those designs under this funding. And of course, the process has it has to happen no matter what the way that it's designed, um, but I would support that for these students. Okay. So, we have a motion to and then we did did stand Did you have a motion as well or did you just second?
172Oh, okay. Okay. Mr. Tidwell made the motion first, which was the same one that Mrs. Darby made, so it would I'll second hers, yeah. Okay, thank you. Okay. Just go ahead and roll call, please. Can we read >> want me to read it again? >> Please read it. Yeah, okay. The motion is to build a Transition Academy on current properties at both Is that Smyrna High? Middle. Smyrna Middle. And Whitworth-Buchanan with a budget of $750,000. [Music] Once approved, do you want me to add that? Once approved, yeah. Once approved. All right. Mrs. Darby. Yes. Mr. Bott. Yes. Mrs. Rosales. Yes. Mr. Vaughn. Yes. Mr. Tidwell. Yes. Ms. Sharp. Yes. Mrs. Maxwell. Yes, and I pray we can get it approved. All right, passes. All right. Can we go ahead and make a motion to put
173that money in that account tonight? I will need a lot of accounting codes before we can do that. Okay. Next, we move on to safety. So, the board went into executive session to discuss this the other day. So, this is a mapping project to meet the requirements of TCA 49-6-8054. Um, motion to approve the mapping project request as presented. It'll be funded out of safe schools. So moved. Second. All in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, instruction. This is Orton-Gillingham training for Title 1 schools for the spring, and this motion is to utilize Title 1 funds for Orton-Gillingham training in the fall at a cost not to exceed $89,112.50. The cost is inclusive of training materials, on-site consultant, and travel costs. So moved. Second. >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Bott. Thank you,
174Ms. Darby. All in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have Novus Smart Academy. This is the Novus Smart Academy K-3 agreement in accordance with board policy 1.902. An agreement's been drafted between Rutherford County Schools and Novus Smart Academy. The agreement exhibits of this agreement include the RCS performance framework, pre-opening checklist detailing the schools' responsibilities prior to their first year serving students, and a list of approved waivers in the Tennessee Department of Education. And just as note, this charter application is previously approved by the school board to be viewed in its entirety on our website. So, we need a motion to hopefully approve their agreement. Thank you, Ms. Sharp. Do you have second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Darby. Quick question. Don, when you sent out the agenda, that was a lot of
175it, wasn't it? That whole application. I I kind of Yeah, I put me to sleep one night, but anyway, that's I mean, there's a ton of information there. I'd never really studied one Dr. Yeah, you know, I There's a lot to it. Anyway, thank you. Okay. All in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we go to legal and So, these are the policy adoption second reading of two readings. So, they're already approved on the first reading on November 20th. Now, if it's all right, I'll just read the policy numbers since these have already >> Yes, I would say just do the numbers. All right. A, policy 1.703. B, policy 3.206. C, policy 4.601. D, policy 4.605. E, policy 6.204. And F, policy 6.701. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Bott. Thank you, Ms.
176Darby. All in favor, say I. I. I'm sorry, was it Ms. Sharp? I'm so sorry. I I apologize. Any opposed? Motion passes. I do want to go ahead cuz there's always a lot of chatter on this on B. Um, this does formally require anyone applying for our seats, choice seats through application, they have to live in the zones of their primary domicile by the time they apply, not by the start of next school year. And so, that is a change. It's got some social media chatter again today that I saw. And so, they have to live here before they apply. Yes. Dr. Sullivan. Madam Chair, sorry. Yes, yes, Ms. Darby. Can you speak a little bit, I guess, to what that is Is it similar to when they register for school that they're having to
177bring utility bill or >> So, they have to submit that with the application? >> No. Dr. McCann. Okay, thank you. So, Ms. Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Tidwell. Just for clarity, anybody that's watching, if they if you move in after the choice seats are already been it they're gone. Yeah, it has to be done They got to be living in in the zone, the area before you apply for those, which that is going to end on what we said the 16th or 3rd March, sorry. Thank you. Yes, because we had people applying >> applying who weren't even living here, and that did infuriate a lot of our citizens, and as as it should. So, rightly so. Next, financial matters. All right. First, we have fund 141 budget amendment. This amendment to increase charter purpose funds 141 budgeted
178expenditures and decrease fund balance in the amount of $175,154 to account for the fiscal year 24-25 charter schools' final true-up. This was not a budgeted amount in the fiscal year 24-25 budget due to not being able to determine the increase in ADM and actual revenues and expenditures for that fiscal year. We talked about Tuesday, this is potentially recurring budget amendment every fiscal year, um, because difficult to determine the actual numbers for for charter school in developing the budget. It is required to be amended from fund balance because this payment to charter schools from previous year's student revenue and expenditure only work through the comptroller's office to make sure that these are worded the right way. I'll entertain >> move. Second. >> Mr. Ball. Thank you, Mr. Tidwell. All in favor, say I. I. Any opposed?
179Motion passes. Next. Fund 141 budget amendment. This amendment is to increase general purpose fund 141 budgeted expenditures and decrease fund balance in the amount of $65,000 to fund the deposits of earnest money and appraisals of five McFadden properties. This amendment will transfer money by decreasing fund 141-39000 unassigned fund balance and increasing Board of Education account 72310-715 land and the account in the amount of $65,000. So moved to approve. Thank you, Mr. Ball and thank you, Mr. Potts. All in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next. Next, I don't believe we need, so we can Mr. Reed, what would be the appropriate motion if there's something we don't need on this? Nope. No action. No action. Next, engineering and construction. Transportation contract termination, bus 220 and 130 pursuant to section 8.1 of the Rutherford
180County Board of Education bus contract, transportation department received an email notification on December 3rd, 2025 from Brenda Stem, the daughter of James Stem, for bus routes 220 and 130 requesting voluntary termination of the contracts with the board based on previous board approval. There would be a return of insurance stipend funding for insurance to RCS for both routes. The board attorney will request you notify the estate of this requirement. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Ball. Second. Thank you, Mr. Ball. But let me I want to clarify something there. I I'm I know we probably should, but I'm a little reluctant to pile that on that estate. Anytime you go through that, we're we're talking probably less than $4,000. So and and I probably should have included this in my original motion, so I I I hate
181to put that burden back on the Stem family. I really do. I don't know if that's fair or that's right. I just feel like you know, they have he's been a contractor here an extremely long time and you know, clawing back that money at this time in their life, I don't I don't feel good about it. So I I kind of want to amend my motion right now to say that we don't go after the insurance money cuz we're halfway through, but I'm reluctant because does that set precedent with everybody else? If you understand what I mean, so it could be the fact that Mr. Reed didn't you know, if he negotiates with the estate with the estate doesn't have the money, then we can't claw it back. So it may be better handled that
182way as opposed to I'm thinking out loud if y'all are not following me right now. >> Miss Maxwell. Okay. Miss Maxwell. I'm I'm trying to get the rest of you engaged here just a second. Yes, Mr. Tidwell. I think this is obviously an extremely sad, but unique situation. Uh I don't know if there's a carve out in there for such a circumstance, but certainly I I understand where Mr. Potts is coming from. Um and I'm in agreement with the position. Uh we wouldn't want it to set precedent for other situations, but if we were comparing the situation another situation that would set precedent for is someone passing away during the service. So if that is a parameter or something that we can talk about in this board without violating anything that we have already set
183up, I'm in agreement with the thought here. I think that is not a a good look or good move from the board to to go after someone who has spent so many years of service in our communities. Yes, Mr. Dr. Sloan. From an audit standpoint, I just need an official motion from the board to send to the county finance director because that's not something I'm not I think they're going to love. So we'll need it specifically later. Yes, Mr. Arvin. I think Mr. Lee has the actual amount. $6,043.84. Yes, Mr. Arvin. I think it's possible to probably put something I know it's in there that they have to pay it back if they end early, but could we not put the caveat in there unless due to death or extreme sickness. I mean, I'm sure
184there's a way legally, Mr. Reed, maybe that we could word it that would be appropriate, but not set precedents for any and every little scenario. It's the board's right whether or not to collect the money or not. If the board votes to not try to collect the money, then the board does not have to collect the money that point. Um contractually, if we add language to the contract, it has to be amended. All the contractors have to approve it. It's a big ordeal to amend the contract. So if the board if this if the will of the board is to not collect it, the board needs to vote to not pursue collection of the prorated insurance in this case. Miss Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Tidwell. So for clarity's sake, you're saying there's there's not really a
185route without having precedent for every other contract to without adjust this particular certain circumstance. If you're you would have to amend the contract if you're trying to carve out these exceptions. If you amend the contract, it requires all the bus contractors to agree to that, so which requires all these to be re-executed again, uh which is a big deal. Okay. Thank you. I think I want to rescind my motion and restate it. Who seconded? Butch did. I'd like to restate it by saying this, that we accept the termination of those two contracts, but do not um go after the insurance stipend in this particular case. I'll second that. Thank you, Mr. Ball. Can we legally do that? Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay, Miss Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Tidwell. Just based off what you just said, would we
186in other cases where we are going after the insurance money, are we setting ourselves up for some type of situation? The contract says if you if you deem to to not enforce your rights with respect to particular contractor for whatever reason, it does not deem itself to be in a duty of the board to do that in other cases. So from a fairness standpoint, you will have people say, "Well, you treat did this person this way, you have to do me the same way if I have the same situation." So from a legal standpoint, it does not create problems. From a fairness standpoint, you could have someone saying who's in a similar situation asking for the same benefit that you've afforded this family. What I mean is for our board to determine. Sure. So there's
187some discretion there and that's kind of where where we're at now. I just wanted to make sure there would be no legal issues because obviously if somebody made the argument separately, I'd be well, this person has passed away. So the argument would be void unless you have a similar circumstance in which the board probably react the same way. So I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Okay, Madam Chair. Yes, Mr. Sharp. Mr. Reed, when someone passes away and they owe credit cards that are just in their name, does that company have the right to come back to the estate or does it die with with the person? They can't they can come after the estate. Okay. Yes. So this is a unique circumstance. So we have a motion from Mr. Ball and the changes
188that we do not pursue or claw back the money. Yes, please. And what's that? $6,043.84 and that is for the total of both routes together. [Music] Okay. Could you read the motion one more time? Yes. Okay. Motion to approve the voluntary contract termination of bus 220 and 130, but do not go after the stipend of $6,043.84 in this particular case. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Can we say um pursue reimbursement? Yes. Pursue reimbursement. Pursuing. Yes. Okay. All right. Okay. I think we can just do a All in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? Abstain? Okay. Motion passes. Thank y'all. That's level It's the right thing to do. understanding and kindness. Okay. All right, we have a Central Magnet bench request and so engineering and construction reviewed the request and it has no objection. The project's being
189donated by MTSU School of Concrete Construction. Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Ball. Second. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Ball. Mr. Arvin. All in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next. We have Rocky Fork Elementary's gaga ball pit request. Principal Scott Bolin requests to install a gaga ball pit. The cost is $9,513.75. It will be at no cost to the Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Darby. Thank you, Mr. Sharp. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next we have Mr. Johnson. He'll be part of my director's update. I know it's late, but we have several other quick things to go over. We asked Mr. Johnson to go over the route awarding. Just a quick overview of how that's going to work. Mr. Johnson, this is all yours. Good evening, everyone.
190I For the sake of time, I want to first of all answer a question that was asked last night. Not last night, but the first I were Tuesday. Question was, how many open routes do we have? Zero. The sped route that had been open since August was picked up, so we have zero open routes. Um I have all of the documents that I needed to receive from those two drivers on the route updates. So, that is taken care of as well. So, we don't have to worry about closing any, you know, not providing any checks to those folks. Want to state that first of all. Secondly, I've given you all some handouts. And so, I'm not going to go through the bubble chart step by step, but I do want to say this, that the
191system is designed for three things. Equal opportunity, transparent documentation, consistent decision making. There was perception by many of the drivers, and that perception was that we weren't spinning the wheel, we were deciding who we wanted to give it to. We were kind of throwing mud against the wall, and if it stuck and someone's name came up, that's who we would award it to. That is not true. Everybody has an opportunity, equal, fair opportunity to compete for these routes. So, without going through the This is the policy 3.400 and the student transportation management. I put that up on pages three and four, so you might want to read it. You probably already know it, but I want to highlight a couple of things. You want to put it up. About this. When the notification when a
192route is announced to be open, a notification goes out to the public, all of the drivers, our drivers. And those drivers give an intent. They have to submit an application saying, I would like to compete for that particular route. Their names added to the picker wheel. And then their name is randomly selected. Once their name is selected, they have a choice to make. Do I want to accept the route, or do I not want to accept the route? If they decide to not accept the route, their name is removed from the list, and we go back to the wheel again and spin it again. If they decide to accept the route, they must provide us two things within 24 hours. They must provide us with a VIN number of a bus, so that we know
193that they have a vehicle, and they must have an active driver. They cannot come and say, "Hey, Mr. Johnson, I have a driver who's interested, but his background investigation has not been completed. Can you give me time?" My answer will always be no. No, I cannot do that. Why? Because we don't know how long a background investigation would last. And secondly, every day that that route is open is a day that we've got to find ways to make up for it, and it causes chaos. So, we're very, very particular about making sure that they have a van and a driver. How do we make sure of that? We call them first and ask before we even put them on the spin. Because it doesn't make sense to put them on and they don't have it.
194And then if they say they do, then we put them on the spin, but once they accept it, we still want them to come in and sign an affidavit saying, "I have a VIN and I have a driver." Once that has been done and they've accepted it, they can come in and start the route and activate it. Those are the key elements of that. Any questions, comments, concerns? Yes, ma'am. Yes. Mr. Edwards. No. Mr. Sorry. Mr. Sharp. Sorry. Who I don't know who did first, so thank you, Mr. Johnson, for this. Is there any way that we can notify because before when we operated from a list, they kind of knew that they were going to come up and might possibly have an opportunity for another route. Is there a way when they have Can
195we have a list or put out a list that says, "Here's the people that are going to be spinning for this wheel?" Yes, ma'am. We do that. We Once we spin, we can send out a list saying these are all of the people that were selected for the spin. And then once we finish, we can also send out a list and say that these are the people that were selected for these particular routes. Why that is important is important because if they are in a particular geographical area, a location where other buses are, and those buses know that you've accepted that route and they need help, they know who to call. And one more thing. Because they I had a couple of calls from bus drivers about spinning the wheel and everything when when no
196one's there. And I understand everybody can't come here to the central office. Is there any way that you can do a Zoom? Yes, ma'am. The way that we're going to do that I For security, again, there was no trust There was distrust in the drivers about spinning the wheel. So, what we would do is we have assigned this task to one of our lead routers. Someone will always be in the room with her. Whether it would be myself, it might be the super superintendent, and take a picture once the wheel stop, a picture is taken of who that driver is. So, if anybody wants to know if it was fair, we would send them that picture or send them the video the video. And they'll be time stamped. Yes, ma'am. Time stamped. >> Thank you
197so much. And we're logging all of that. Time, place, witnesses, and with the photo. Okay, thank you. Mr. Johnson, I appreciate this. This is very clear, straightforward. I love the flow chart. It's easy for us to send back cuz we get a lot of questions about that. Um so, I appreciate all this information. Just want to say that. But also, I've heard that you are out riding with some of these contractors on these buses. Is that true? Yes, sir. I My desire is to build relationships. And by doing that, I go out and ride with at least three to four drivers a week. I try to visit at least three to four principals every week. And I try to talk to as many drivers as I can. Why that's important to me is because we
198hear drivers talking about things going on, and we might assume that they're complaining, but when you actually get on a bus and ride and you see how they have to negotiate these tight streets and some of the locations where they're dropping these kids and safety issues they're in. When we are talking about rezoning, I need to be hip to hip with the guy that's creating that so that we can talk to him about the reality of those zones that they are talking about putting in. So, yes, I do. That's awesome. For the next 120 days, that's my plan is to visit all principals and all drivers. Already off to a great start. Thank you, sir. Sir. Yes. Appreciate Any other questions or comments? >> questions or comments? That was very impressive. If you you have
199the desire Really, if you have any questions, call me and I will personally come up and sit down and talk it over with you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Glad you're here, Mr. Johnson. Thank you. Yeah. All right, I do have a couple things. I'll be as quick as possible. I did email you all. We do have It's financial season's about to start for us even though it's December. We start our budget season, which is typical for us that we had our school internal account funds, which that account So, just so I can go over kind of how our audits work. We have two different audits. We have an audit that is conducted by the comptroller's office. Those are the funds that our board approves. Fund 141, 142, 143, 177. That report is not yet
200published, but once it is, it should have good news. And that's that's all I can say till it's published. We do have our school internal accounts. Those had eight findings last year. It had nine. You never want findings, but we do hire a third-party CPA to try and find anything and everything they can. That's what their job is. They are auditing our schools, auditing our books to make sure that the things at the school level. So, if you look at those documents as published at the comptroller's website, it's things that is not signing, the wrong person signed a packing slip. But it's a 52 schools. There's there's a wide range of things. But we'll work with our principals on correcting those. Budget season again starts soon. We will meet with our principals at our meeting
201next Wednesday. Nothing starts the Christmas season like discussing budget season. And so, they will start working on their budget requests next as soon as they get back. We'll we go over it at our meeting with them next Wednesday. We will more than likely need to operate with less funding, and so need to be aware of what our priorities are. The reason we'll operate with less funding, couple reasons. One, we have just a little bit less students. So, 140-ish less students than we had. Less TISA funding. Second, there was a hold harmless last year for economically disadvantaged students. If you recall, we talked about there was a huge change with what qualified as economically disadvantaged with Medicare. That went away. The governor held harmless for 1 year. And so, that that's several million dollars. And so,
202we've already started looking at ways to to cut costs, but we will have to do a budget. TISA should increase the percentage as part of the governor's budget, but we're looking at ways that we can move positions around as much as possible. But we'll start that. Next thing is health and education. We talked about it Tuesday. Last Tuesday, this coming Tuesday, December 16th at 5:30, it is at the county commission, so the historic courthouse. We'll have our budget amendment, but then we will have our enrollment analysis and future planning meeting with health and net and budget just to discuss where we're heading. State report card will be released next week. We'll have great news on that, but the official release will come with TDOE and that should make us eligible for some things like we
203got last year as well. And then last is had a really a a great week with the community. So we met with Jennings Jones Foundation this week, Courtney Brown and I, who's our gifted supervisor, and we secured funding for 3 more years for our gifted academy, so we appreciate them doing that. Then Ms. Maxwell and I met with the Christy Houston Foundation and the Scarlett Family Foundation to look at some future funding opportunities for post-secondary for our kids, and so that was a good initial meeting yesterday. And then I'm serving on the Williamson Family Farm Education Foundation, so that is a a way along with the Commissioner Pettus Read to try to enhance opportunities for students around agriculture. And so our first meeting was today. Last one is we always have to be moving forward,
204so we're going to talk a lot more about this in the next couple months, really years, but we know that we have really tried to do a lot with career and technical education. We looked at having CT centers across our county, so we are embarking and have really embarked on a partnership with us, TCAT Murfreesboro Smyrna, and also with Motlow. And so we've had some initial meetings with them. It's going to take some time because it's going to involve our board, our county commission, Tennessee Board of Regents, to where our conversations have been around land use from Rutherford County at three different areas. Cedar Grove or La Vergne Middle, probably Cedar Grove. We have a lot of land behind it. Kittrell Elementary School potentially, that could serve the Rutherford, but for TCAT Motlow, it also
205helps them serve Cannon County. That's their issue. Kittrell. Cedar Grove or La Vergne Middle, but Cedar Grove makes more sense. And then also the land we have beside Blackman Elementary for a health sciences type thing. And so it's it's just starting kind of our initial conversations or we have land, but we don't have the ability to build buildings. We don't have that funding capital. TBR has invested a lot in TCAT centers recently. They did the Smyrna where we had our board retreat. They've also just recently completely redone TCAT Shelbyville, and so there may be some partnerships that we're exploring. I don't want to go too far down that, but it was an exciting time for us to look to see how can we really enhance some opportunities for our high school students and partner with
206them. So long process, it's a little bit of a risk, but it it helps us kind of see if there's a partnership way for us with Motlow and TCAT, so I appreciate Mr. Way with TCAT, Dr. Torrence with Motlow, and it's been some good meetings to start. We've been trying to get this off the ground for a while, but I'll bring you all the next step because the we have to see what Motlow and their Board of Regents is interested in, then I'll bring you all more information on it, but excited. Mr. Ball, do you have anything legislative-wise? Okay. Okay, thank you, sir. Now to general discussion, does anyone have anything? Yes, Mr. Ball. You know, I know it's late, but I just like to you know, this is the end of college football season,
207and you read about it, you see all about TV about coaches getting fired and these coaches getting extended contracts, and uh you know, our school system is the best school system in the state of Tennessee. We've had what, 32 levels five schools and you know, we've got a director of schools that brought has brought everybody together. Um every school principal that we've talked to has supported Dr. Sullivan and says, you know, they they really appreciate he said he's shown great leadership uh as for our system and for all the people that work with him. Very few people can do the job uh that he's done. Most superintendents don't survive very long. But very few people can do what he's done. Um you know, if if superintendents don't perform well, uh they get fired. And you
208know, it it uh the ones that have lower-achieving systems and schools, they don't last very long. They blame the leaders. So to be fair, in my opinion, uh we need to reward uh our coach whenever they receive these higher achievement. And Dr. Sullivan's salary is seventh in the state. We're the fourth largest third largest school system in the state. We've got highest performance standard. So I'd like to make a motion that we extend Dr. Sullivan's contract 1 year and to raise his salary by $10,000 to get him where he is more um reward him for the job that he's done for us. Because if things don't go very well, we may be on the other side. But I'd like to make that motion. Can I run quick? Yes. I appreciate that, Mr. Ball, but there
209are certain things that have to follow for any type of contract extension. And Mr. Read can can attest to that. It's an honor to serve in this district each and every day, but it's not about me, it's about the people that I get the the vision to and the opportunity to start with every day. We have a great central office staff, great teachers, and they're the ones that make the impact, but I do appreciate that. But Mr. Mr. Read can can talk more to that some other day. Okay, sounds good. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Uh I just like to say we are in the season of amazing shake competitions. So I'm sure you guys are probably getting invites too. If you haven't went and been a judge at one of these things, they are awesome. It
210really just shows what's going on in the in these lessons that these life lessons these kids are learning. Uh I will be We got a lot of invites to different ones, but I'll be at one of my schools tomorrow and I encourage you to do it. It's awesome. It's a lot of fun. Dr. Sullivan, I think he's done it. I think most of the board members have done it up here anyways. But it's really fun, it's a great time. Encourage your students by showing up and judging if you can. I got my own shake, too, but it's it's because my stomach not good. My only suggestion is it's also sickness season, so please wash your hands when you're done. Mr. Ball. One thing, and I hate to end on a this kind of a sour
211note. I know for the last three or four weeks we've been getting emails from one of the bus contractors about the uh power hour deal, and I don't know that anybody's ever addressed it or ever happened, but I'm going to ask the question here. The the and this may take a community effort between Trey and and Mr. Read to answer. Those contracts that were issued back at the beginning of the semester that said it was going to be for the entire year, and now the board elected to change that, is there any liability on our part for for for that? I mean, it's kind of And I cuz I know it's it you've either drawn for the spring routes or you have or you're right here fixing to, so anyway, if you can kind of
212highlight that just a minute. Sure. There was no contract that stated a year. There was a request for the contractors to submit their application. The what's been floating around is an application. It's not a contract. And I'm not minimizing this contractor's argument in the least. Um I've sent Mr. Read a timeline of events. There was a request for application. There was the drawing that you were at. And the next board meeting or work session, there was a lot of conversation about whether we did one or whether we did two. At that point, the contractors had begun to sign their contracts. But they signed them, we did not fill in the end date. We left it blank because the board had taken up the conversation. At the conclusion of the board's conversations, when you all voted
213to change what was on the application, the following day that information was included, and the board chairwoman and Dr. Sullivan signed those contracts. So we had a open-ended, not complete contract until the board voted. Now Mr. Read can speak to the legalities. We did not have a valid contract until after the board took action. And I'll leave it at that. And that was mine. That was what I was hoping for. What I was afraid that it happened is that there was an end date that because that was the impression most of them had, I think the day of that I was here and saw the picker wheel, but because of the board the board's inaction, I would state it that away. We had not instructed you or transportation on what to award. And so until
214we voted on that to do two drawings there was it was really not a valid contract then at that point in time. Right? I did not there was not a fully executed contract. >> Right. If that if that makes sense. >> It was only an application until the school board signed it. Yeah. So they they were really operating without a contract up until that point. Once power out. >> signed it and we were paying them. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> But but we did not have a fully executed >> I I just want to make sure we weren't fixing to double pay. That's you know, there's a there's there would be a huge liability on our part if that was the case. It's just we need to outline it better next time if that's what we're
215going to do, whichever way we're going to do it. Anyway, I just wanted to like I said, I hate to end on a sour note, but nobody had responded back to her and I felt like that needed to be addressed here before too long. Thank you. Is there anything else? If not, Mr. Darby. Move to adjourn.