00125 school board meeting for the Rutherford County School System. We will be opening the the meeting with a brief moment of silence or prayer and the pledge of allegiance to the United States flag. No one is required to participate or be present for any of these and being in this portion of the meeting is completely voluntary. Tonight we have Caleb. We just bow our heads, please. Father, you're just so good to us. Lord, I just ask that you bless uh this school system from the administrators all the way down to the teachers, custodians. Lord, everybody that's involved to help this system run well. You blessed us uh so many years before and we just ask that that continue to move forward. Thank you for all those minds and thoughts that are are helping us, Lord,
002make this one of the best in the district or best in the state. Father, we ask, Lord, that you would just continue to lead and guide us as we make decisions over the school system. He said if anyone lacks wisdom to ask of you and we're asking for that wisdom tonight and moving forward as we make these decisions and we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, Dr. Sullivan, I just have a very special guest. I'm going let him do the introductions. So this evening we have Mr. James Ashford here. James works here in our central office and James and I have gotten close I guess the last six years. Uh when I moved into curriculum instruction, we had a a lot of late nights uh dealing with COVID and then being over curriculum instruction
003after my oldest Declan was diagnosed with cancer. He would always make sure that he had at least one or two or 10 oneline jokes to make sure if you've ever talked to James, James has a lot of oneline jokes to always make sure that you uh that you're smiling or laughing. But James also has another hobby on the side. and a couple weeks ago he said uh I think it'd be neat for me to sing the national anthem at one of our board meetings and uh kind of just said it in jest and I said I'm all for anytime we want to be patriotic James that is perfectly great and I love James to death he's probably one of the most kind-hearted human beings that I've ever met he takes his job seriously and uh
004wanted to give him that kind of honor tonight so James if you'll lead us in the pledge Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. phone. [Music] Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light, what so proudly me at the twilight last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight or the ramparts we watch were so gallently streaming. And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled better. way. Or the land of the free and the home of the brave. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Ashford. That was tremendous. Great job, James.
005I know that that's nerve-wracking being in front of that many people. You're a pro. It's okay. Oh, that was wonderful. That helps us go right into Rutherford Proud. I think we got Oh, sorry. Agenda first. Agenda. We're ready to be excited. Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. I would like to entertain a motion for the approval of the agenda. Second. Thank you, Mr. Tidwell. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes and then take a look at the consent agenda. Any comments or questions? I'll entertain a motion. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Thank you, Mr. Rosales. All in favor say I. Uh, motion passes. Now, Ruford Proud. I just got so excited. One second. Yes. Also want to uh welcome Mrs. Boyette, who is here from Bedford County. She's here observing the board. So, just want to welcome
006you here. Um, and then Jason, we had the her husband, we had the pleasure of working together at Harris Middle School many, many moons ago. So, welcome both of you. Hello. Uh, so every month for this school year, Dr. Mr. Sullivan has asked me to come and give a monthly communications report and I'm going to do that again tonight, but also give some data on the year uh growth that we've seen since August. And so you should have a piece of paper there in front. We're going to start with this side first, the one that shows all the symbols on it. Um Facebook uh I'm not going to read all these numbers to you, but you can see that on every category we are trending way up. Uh including an additional 3,000 users on Facebook
007this year. uh 3,000 new subscribers for Instagram. We're up a thousand for uh Twitter or X. We're up 400 for YouTube. And then it also shows our website numbers there. I particularly want to point out the content that's been produced this year by the communications department. Um in May, we had 27 stories or or photo galleries. That does not include graduations. If you include graduations, it was actually 39. We covered all 12 of those this year. Nine videos in one month. And then there were additional 90 things shared on social media, things like that. Uh for the year, um our team has produced 200 stories and galleries, 78 videos, and 314 shares on social media. That's that's an incredible thing considering that we have 180 school days. That's easily more than one sometimes two or
008three things in a in a single day. Um I know that Miss Rosales had also talked Dr. Sullivan about wanting some information about reszoning and the type of messaging we did. So, if you'll flip your page over, I'm just going to show you some outputs first and then I will share some actual outcomes. But, uh, with resoning, uh, you'll see there that we did eight or, uh, I'm sorry, eight newsletters andor direct emails to parents about resoning, zoning, choice schools, all those categories. There it shows the dates. Pretty much um, did one once a week all through that season. We had something going out to parents. And I'll talk about open rates in just a minute. And then below that it shows our social post for those same topics about reszoning, choice seats, all those
009grandfathering, dual zones, all those things. We had six social posts during that same time. If you remember, the board voted on this on December 19th and then the deadline was January 31st, which was set by the board. Um, any questions on that part so far? And this is just district, not school communication. Absolutely. And this also doesn't include the YouTube streams that we have from the board meetings or the the traditional media news stories that were done about these those are just things that we produced in-house that were sent out. So I mean pretty frequent stuff there. So Miss Rosales also was curious to know about some of our engagement numbers and I'm happy to say that they're all well above industry standards. the industry standard for open rates for example for K12 emails uh
010which is reported by um final site which is one of the big heavyweights in the school district like communications and school zen is another one it's between 40 and 49%. Uh so I pulled five different content messages that we sent home some of them reszoning some of them not just to give you an idea of where we fall. So, the December 19th reszoning vote that the board did, we put out information that evening about the board's actions, what they had approved. And on that one, we had a 55% open rate, and that's actually one of our lowest ones. Uh, that's also that was, I believe, a Thursday night, uh, which was the Thursday before the 2-hour day before the holiday break. So, that, you know, you got a lot of people that are traveling or,
011you know, not really paying attention to school things around that time, and we still have a pretty high rate. Um, the other one is drill week. I pulled this one. This was in April, April 7th. We had a 64% open rate for those emails that went to parents. Uh the bus transportation update that we did in May. That's when we were having the some of the ongoing negotiations with the bus contractors. We sent them a message about what that might mean for parents just so they could prepare. That one we had a 67% open rate. Now, snow day, I bet you're always I bet you think that on snow days we probably have a 90% open rate. So, I pulled one just to see. So February 20th was one of the days that we closed
012for snow. Uh now we'd already been closed a couple of days. This is just one of the continuing days. We had a 65% open rate on that one. And then coming out of Christmas break, uh we put out a special newsletter that was just about resoning. It talked about all the different things the board had done, the choice seats, the grandfathering, uh dual zones, just everything about reszoning. We did a special newsletter edition for parents. uh that went out on January 9th and we had a 62% open rate. So, we're seeing really high engagement numbers compared to the rest of the industry. Uh this does not include all of our social media stuff, which you can see on that sheet I gave you shows you some of the engagement rate on there as well. But
013I'm happy to answer any questions you have. I just wanted to give you a sampling of the different types of messages. Really and truly, what drives people to open an email is the content of that email. So whatever the topic is, if it's something that they're interested in, just like at home, if you get a bill, you may not open that one right away, but if someone says you just won the sweep stakes, you're going to open that one probably a little faster. So it just depends. Or, you know, if it's something that you think affects you, you're going to open it. And so that's that's that's what we're seeing in all of our analytics questions. Thank you, James. I didn't mean to create a ton of work for everybody. Um, the reason why I
014had asked all this is because there was some chatter on social media relating to our communication and I was just curious just in general just to see how anything was performing because I I do believe that the communications department is is putting out amazing content, stellar content, professional content. Um, so I don't think it was you missed an adjective. We have award-winning content. Oh, sorry. That's right. awardw winning, you know, thinking about where all these people are watching us right now. I was thinking about that when I was making the request. I was like, you know, he won this award. Oh, no. I'm not talking about my award. I'm talking about the content. We just won three. That is very true. You awardw winning content. So, I didn't think it was an issue with that
015just the engagement. So, I was just curious. So, thank you for doing the work and getting this information. It's very I think it should be very encouraging to all of us um sitting in the seats when we're talking and communicating with parents when they're telling us the feedback. We didn't receive this and the school isn't doing this, the communication is lackluster, whatever. Well, we've got stats that we are sending them and the open rates are pretty people are opening. It's just people are not some people are just not reading the emails. It just boils down to that. So, people are busy. I mean, you probably know how much email you get in your junk mail you get at home, you know, so you got to catch their attention. Of course, we use a multi-layer approach.
016So, we send it out, not just one method, but we use a variety of platforms. And so, even if they're not opening the email, hopefully they saw it on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. Our numbers have shown growth all year. And so, we, you know, we have plans for some goals for that for next year, too. We are also looking at a new uh communications platform that will help us even more with analytics that will go into effect if we find the right one July 1st of 2026. We'll be looking for that over this next year. We have some money budgeted to do some RF and things like that. But I think it we can say that we are communicating and it's getting to the P the right folks. It's just a matter of the
017other side doing the extra steps. So it's not the school is doing their job. I think that is just a key as board members that we can promote and say that we are doing a good job of. So, thank you very much. Yes. Thank you very much. You all do a phenomenal job. Thank you. Any other questions, Mr. Tidwell? Yes, sir. Yeah. Uh, I just have a question. Have you guys considered posting any zebra memes to increase engagement? I think we did have an internal zebra meme that we did not share. Uh, it may have been a zebra out with our RCS branding on its headquarters, but we didn't push that out. Okay, but we did use it internally a little bit. So, yeah, we're having a um like a burger cookout for lunch next
018week. And I said if anybody wants zebra burgers, just bring their own meat. And is it totally a joke? Totally a joke. I took care of the zebra, didn't it? Yeah. Oh, the tala has turned. I see. Time for me to sit down. So, thank you. Communications job will be posted next week. Thank you. And next we get to the part that most of you all are here for. Yes. So, we have lots of celebrations. So, I kept the board updated. Spring fling is one of our favorite times of the year because just about all if not all of our schools at the high school level are competing for state championships. And we want to recognize of course our state champions, but we had uh an absolute abundant number of people competing for state championships.
019And that was a an amazing week. I traveled just about to see everybody. The only team I was not able to see was actually Eagleville softball because the day that I had scheduled to go see them, they defeated the team so quickly that they were done in under 30. They were done in under 35 minutes before I could get there, which was impressive, but sad, too, because I thought I could walk I thought I could walk from Star from um over there to Starlex quick enough, but they were already finished. So, congratulations to to all of them. But first, we will call the Eagleville softball 2025 class 1A girls softball state champions and Eagleville softball head coach Chad Leman. So, Chad Yeah, it's Yeah. This is our softball team. Very proud of them. From the
020from the district tournament to the state championship, we scored 116 runs to eight from the other teams combined three runs. So, it was a pretty impressive state tournament for us. So, we're very excited. Uh so uh these young ladies not only excel uh on the field but excel in the classroom which is more proud of anything excel in the classrooms. I would also like to thank the board and everybody for their uh getting us the lights and everything else taking care of all that make sure our Chris Harrison is going to do an outstanding job. Dr. Rolling as well does an outstanding job making sure everybody's taken care of and just everything like that. But uh but we're just so proud of them. they represented us like they should. And you know, me being in
021my other job as the mayor, it also bounced that uh when I'm talking about baseball, there uh with baseball coming up as well, uh going out and into different communities, I always get to talk about how positive our kids are and how uh how well-rounded they are and how much they give back to the community. They don't always just play a sport, but they give back to the community. So, we're always very proud of them for that. And I know coach Bassam does an outstanding job making sure his kids are doing that and they're always giving back and uh wonderful kids they have too. Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] And I'm not joking. Some of the parents as soon as I showed up they were like, "You already missed the game." I was blown away it was
022that quick. Next, we have the 2025 class 1A baseball state champions. And we'll introduce Eagle Coach Brandon Bassam. [Applause] First of all, thank you guys for having us again. Um, I did learn a few years ago when I got in front of this microphone to have some notes. So, I'll go with that. Again, thank you for Dr. Sullivan, the board for having us. Again, our great administration at Eagle, Mr. Pedigo, Mr. Brown, uh, again, all that take care of us. We we appreciate you so much. I think we have about 14 15 of our guys before you here tonight. Of course, some are out traveling on vacation or playing summer baseball, but we do uh again, thank you for letting us be here. You know, I could talk about these guys a long time. I
023know we have a meeting to get to, but the belief that they had in the fall that maybe I'm not sure I had myself. Uh you know, some of the terms I heard was like, you know, don't be the team to break the streak. And then John Deakons asked one of our uh players, I think in January or February basketball game, did we have enough to do it again? And Brady Burns answered quickly, "Absolutely we do." Um you know, I was nervous. If we're trying to tie a state record, uh, you know, th those things just don't come easy. So, we could talk a lot about 139 wins in four years. We could talk a lot about 43 postseason wins in a row. We could talk a lot about athletic and academic excellence. What you
024don't see is these guys work Miracle Field on a Saturday. Not just how they work it, not just working it, but how they work it. Sandlot night. The last Sunday night of the year, we like to hit BP late and turn the lights on. These guys stayed around, brought blankets, brought lawn chairs, brought a projector, and watch sunlight on on the field by themselves. uh getting out of our game after we won a big game on Friday in the semi-finals against East Robertson, a racing a 12-6 deficit in the sec seventh inning to come back to win 13-2. They were not worried about celebrating. They worried about seeing how fast they could get to the softball game. That's the kind of kids we have at Eagle and the kind of kids that believe in each
025other that believe they're just going to find a way to win. They just refuse to lose and that's why we stand before you again for the fourth consecutive year in a row. Thank you. Now we will move into TWSAA track and field state champions. And first we will move to Blackman High School and coach Jonathan Sutton. [Applause] Good evening. I'm Jonathan Sutton, uh, teach CTE. I'm an AV teacher over at Blackman High School. Um, we were here last year with the girls 4x1 and as good as last year was, this year was even better. Um, few stats. What you see here, kind of like I said last year, too, if you were around, um, what you see here is just the tip of the iceberg. Uh, we had 148 athletes. We tried to make the
026team smaller, but they just kept coming. We had 13 coaches. Um, we went to Atlanta, we went to Memphis. I mean, we we traveled. Um, at state, we had 25 state entries and we ended up with 13 medalists. Okay. Uh, one of the things the coaches we have, one of the things that we preach, I made this very much a point of emphasis the past couple years years is character. And we have a character coach. We do that every Tuesday. Uh, we kick everybody out of the cafeteria and we meet for about 20 minutes, have a team meeting. Uh, character coach. We talk about, you know, just being good person, being a good athlete, being a good student. And I think that has been this is reflective of that as well. We have here um
027well at state the boys team finished fifth, the girls team finished fourth and we had three state champions. I have here coach Doss who's with the guys. Uh the guys we had the 4x1 they were state champions. There was Emry Harris, Jude Fisa, Jaylen Dael and Jaden Guy. And then the 4x2 it was the same except for East Baker who replaced Emry Harris. And then for the girls, we had uh Coach Krosa over there. Uh they were repeat champions. Uh they broke a 25-year-old state record at the grade eight up in Nashville uh that was set by a Memphis school back in 2000. And uh this is almost total new team from last year. It's Rihanna Matthysse, Destiny McCoy, Samar Sher, and Ariana Isabel. So uh like I said, you know, this is reflective of
028the entire team that you see. And I wish they could all be here, but that is not physically possible. But yeah, thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Dr. Sullivan just gave me the honor to bring up uh a legend, a guy I really respect a lot. And this year he had some tremendous athletes and one in particular. But uh Coach Ricky Fields, could you come up to the mic please and talk about your [Applause] athletes? It's a truly honor to be here tonight. We thank you for everything our board does for our schools. All of them. All the kids, even the middle school kids, they come to Riverdale and practice. Christian middle whit I know name goes on the blackman all but tonight we want to talk about one special young man his name Dominic Taylor
029Dominique has a great story behind him freshman he got sick got co sophomore year he finished number ninth in the state junior year he was leading the race and pull a hamstring and this year he is your fastest man in the state of [Applause] Tennessee, you know, he worked extremely hard. He won 100 and the 200. He also placed in a long jump and all the kids we took to the state s one young man which PR podium. They all got on the podium which is testament to what they do. Also like coach said and said we got about 150 kids also. So, you know, we get everybody opportunity to to showcase their talent. And tonight, DJ gets rushed out of practice. Right now, he's enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University. He's going to be
030a Blue Raider next year on the football team, too. And pretty good football player, too. Oh, yeah. He's pretty good football player. So, that's what he's going to be with. Coach Mason. All right. So, I think Coach Mason and and Coach Bonner and all the other track coaches was at the state meeting along with Dr. tell them, "Mr. Maxwell, we thank you." They was they was debating know how fast can we get him out to the track. I think they worked out a some form of fashion that is maybe be seeing do both during the season. All right. Well, we thank you again. God bless all of y'all. Continue to do the great work. Thank you, sir. You got more Y and it was uh amazing. So, it'd been several years since I had gone
031to Springfield, especially with the track and field events and seeing all of our schools be able to represent Rutherford County. It was it was an awesome experience. Uh next, we have the 2025 class 3A Stewart Creek High School state champions. And I think we have Jeff Mitchell here to introduce We have Coach Mitchell. Yes. Right in front of me. [Applause] Well, I was asked to come say a couple of words tonight. I'm the new athletic director at Stewart's Creek and uh I'm certainly not going to take credit for how outstanding these athletes were tonight. Actually, I want to introduce to you the head track coach, Taffy Davenport. [Applause] Hello again. Um it's an honor to be here again this year. got to come last year with our 400 state champions. So, getting invited back a
032second time is always exciting. Um, thanks to the board, thanks to Dr. Sullivan who I actually saw at the track meet that day and told him that we were going to bring one home and we were able to. So, that was exciting. Um, Coach Harris who was the former AD and Coach Mitchell was there to support us also. And thank you, of course, to Dr. Harrell who's always supporting us. Um, my assistant coaches, uh, Mike Davis and Jesse Marryman, who is here but not up here. He's hiding. Um, are a huge help. Uh, when there's three of us and about a hundred kids, uh, we all have to share the wealth of kids. But we have four special ones up here. Um, they had the first ever mixed 4x4 at the state meet this year.
033So, we had it's the only time that you get the girls and the guys running together. And from the time that they decided they were going to have it, these guys decided that they were going to bring home the gold. Um, so they were super determined. It was fun trying to figure out who was going to run what because of the way that the place uh placement of that mixed 4x4 is. It puts it in an interesting spot. But we have freshman Emma Bratcher who led us off. Um, then we had Jeremy Smith who's a senior and then Cameron Marryman who made up some ground for us to lead it into Jaylen Barnes who finished it off and held everybody off. So, we're super excited to bring it home and um honored to be here
034and thank you for inviting us. As someone who loves track, I want to tell you I was sitting in the stands and I had never seen this before. This was awesome and the fans loved it. I hope it's here to stay because that was a I loved the mixture of the boys and the girls running together. That was cool. And then last we have Seagull High School and head coach Larry Smith. [Applause] Hello. Thanks for having us. Uh Kirsten Cochran um had a pretty good day. Uh she ended up second in the 100, second in the 200, and she won the 400 meters. Uh she holds uh all three school records for Seagull. Um and she's a big part of why this our program has taken a leap. And so uh she is a junior,
035so we have her for one more year. So we're excited to see what she can do next year. I want to make sure that this is an exciting night that we didn't forget anybody. Did we forget any teams or did we Would you come up here, sir? I can't see from there. Can I just say real quickly, you know, you hear things about everything school. Well, this just shows we're in everything county. What do we not do well at? I mean, you guys are tremendous. Yes, sir. I'm so sorry. I'm so glad we didn't miss you. Thank you. Uh thank you for having us. This is Toju Williams from Rockville High School. She is the AAA state champion in the shot put. Um she is and uh she she came to us as a state
036champion from 8th grade. She broke the uh she broke the middle school record, the Tennessee's middle school record for shot put uh throwing the shot put over 42 feet. Then in high school that shot put gains weight. Uh it's it's almost 10 lbs and she threw it almost 40 feet at the state championship and that's not even her best day. Uh she's a she's a really great kid, a junior. So we get to get one more chance at uh bringing home another state title uh next year. And she's looking to improve her craft. And uh one of the one of the great things about her is her season didn't start the way she wanted to, but she kept uh she kept her head down and kept working and uh continued to uh work through the
037adversity she had at the beginning of the year and finished the year with her her best finish of the year placewise. And uh she's she's really fired up to win the state championship. And uh she's a really great kid. And one of the things people won't see is um at the shot put area uh she'll help coach the younger kids. She'll help walk them through some drills on how to get them better because everybody's looking up to her uh physically and how to be better at their craft. So, we thank you for having us and we're really proud of TJ Williams at Rockville High School. Is that everybody? Nobody else. Oh, good. Congratulations, everybody. I think James, do you want to do a picture with everybody in the hallway like you normally do? Okay. All
038right. So, if you will, if you are a state champion in our teams, if you guys will head out into the hallway and and if you've never met James Evans, this is your chance. [Laughter] You got that thing. [Music] Okay. Sorry, I didn't have my mic on. Next, we have one speaker for tonight. in his nursing data presentation by Miss Shauna Grew. Get my clicker here. Hello. Um, I'm Sha Groom. I'm the health services coordinator and just wanted to take a few minutes of your time tonight. First of all, to thank you for all the support for school nurses from Dr. Sullivan and the school board. Um, tonight has been a lot about successes and we've had a historic year in our department. Um, last week we were able to share a success story at
039every single school. It was a wonderful meeting with all of our nurses and I'd like to share one of those stories tonight. Um, we have a student at one of our schools that has to have a urinary cath procedure every single day. He's had that since he was in kindergarten. Has to go see the nurse every single day. And this story is a a lifealtering success story. It's quiet. She worked with him every single day. And I'm happy to say that he will be going to middle school in the fall, completely independent with this procedure at school. So, he doesn't have to see the nurse anymore. He'll be able to do this procedure in the student restroom like all the other students. Um, so that's some of the success stories that we like to celebrate
040at the end of the year. Um so I'm going to go over just a little bit of data tonight. Um which also is success stories in itself. Um a little bit more about what we do. Um that first slide here is just our scheduled appointments. So you'll see this year's data is the green bar. Um last year's data is the blue bar. you'll see that we had um over 110,000 scheduled appointments that we did this school year, which is an increase of over 13,000 from last year. So that shows ex how much more scheduled procedures. So you're thinking, well, what are scheduled procedures or scheduled appointments? Um that's in a little bit of this data here. So that would be we had 19 thou over 19,000 insulin doses that we gave this school year, over
04136,000 blood glucose checks. We gave over 33,000 oral medications, over 5,000 inhaler doses, almost 10,000 tube feedings. Um we had over 3,000 caizations. We have several students that had traits and ventilator care. So, 772 procedures. And we also had 527 student code blues this year. So, then we look at the other part of our day, which is walk-in visits. So, you'll see again the green bar is this year's school data. We had 62,000 walk-in visits this year, which you'll see is down from last year, but that number is decreased when we look at our data. Um, it's because we had so many walk-in or so many scheduled appointments. We did not have as much time to see walk-in visit kids this year at a lot of our schools. And we also with the new law
042with consent, a lot of our students did not have consent on file. So, they were not able to see the school nurse for that assessment. We just had to call parents technology. Love it. Yeah, we're back. Um, in addition to students, we also take care of staff or visitors that are on our campus. Um, this is not data that we've tracked very much in the past, but we had 1731 walk-in visits for our staff members. And these walk-in visits are usually very urgent. they're feeling very unwell. Um they're having blood pressure problems or they're really sick. Um we also had 65 code blues just for staff members this year. One of the biggest successes in our district and we I mentioned it earlier when James Evans did our spotlight for our school nurses earlier is
043the nationally certified school nurses. Tennessee only has 55 in the entire state and 21 of those are here in Rutherford County schools. So huge success. Um they do not get any additional money for that. There's no stipend. They are only doing it to get the increased education and to be able to better care for the students in Rutherford County. So I always like to spotlight that success. Um, and also a huge success this school year is our Medicaid billing. We've not been doing this very many years, but we're getting better at it. Um, you'll see again in green is this school year's data. We have received $182,250 and6 in Medicaid reimbursement as of May 30th. We do have a contract with Stellar. We pay them a 20% administrative fee. So that means our total revenue
044is $145,8005. Um and then you can see last year's data, how or last year's information, how much that has increased this year just due to the increased um effort of our school nurses to make sure that we get those consents and we turn in the the Medicaid billing. We're doing a much better job of that. Let me interrupt you real quick and because she won't brag on herself, but Shana's been asked next year, it's just a proposal right now, but she's been asked um and me just as a tag along, but she's been asked to present at the um AASA, which is our superintendent association, to be a presenter next year at our national organization. So, that's a that's a big deal to so proud of you for that. Even if even if we're not
045selected, that's a huge thing to even be they reached out to us to see if we were interested. um we're doing something right here. We are lots of things. This Medicaid um billing is one of the ways that the state and it's actually federal, but that's one of the ways that they fund school nurses. Not a lot of school districts take advantage of this extra funding. Um and obviously we're doing a much better job even from last year because last year our total revenue was in the 60,000. This year it's already 145,000 and that does not include because that's reimbursements received. So that does not include reimbursements for April, May, and June because we are still billing for summer camp procedures that we're doing because we have school nurses on site. So that that number
046will only go up. Um and last of all, y'all all know Dr. Sullivan has talked a little bit about the staffing ratio, the new law that went into effect and we are getting much closer to meeting that staffing ratio with the three growth positions that we were given for next school year when the budget allows. Um, we will need a few more positions. So, any questions? I'll be glad to answer any questions. Yes, this was all okay. I didn't know who was um sorry. Um, thank you so much for this presentation. This is really good just to see what's happening, what's going on in our schools. Um, so I'm just curious. Um, couple of years ago, we made changes in our policy include which is you help me with. Thank you very much. um that
047we in every school. It was going to be consistent uh district-wide at the beginning of the school year where the nurses were going to have a time with the staff to kind of go over um procedures um and different things including safety procedures in event of an active shooter shooting training even practicing um a stop the bleed situation. So, I'm just curious to know as a quick report if you know or where if that was applied across the board. Um, did it was there an engagement with the school system or are we still needing to push the schools to get that on that alignment with the board with the policy? I'm just really curious to see how that happened. It was great this past August. Nurses did that presentation. They were all given an opportunity
048by their principal. But I'm happy to say that next year we're doing it a little different. Um just working with James Evans and his team. We're doing a video where I give that information and then so it's um consistent across the entire district. So we are in the middle of filming that right now. Oh, okay. Great. So they're going to be watching a video instead of the nurse. There will be pauses where they will practice with the tourniquet, practice with the EpiPen, go over their AEDs. So yes. Okay. Wonderful. Well, that's good to know that that is happening and is consistent throughout the school district. Thank you, Mr. Keeps mentioning my name, but actually it's Barton Henley who's done a ton of work with it this this year. So, just want to give him credit.
049He's he's done some phenomenal things to help promote what they're doing. Yes. I'd be curious if when it's done if we can get a copy of the video that's going to be shared in the district. It's all you the training. Yeah, that'll be great. Yeah, that's awesome. Mr. B. Yeah, I'd like speaking as a former principal, I'd just like to say the uh I just like for everybody to know the the amount of value that the nurses have in schools cuz a lot of the kids in the schools don't have proper health care and the nurses have provided that with so many of the kids and you know I just I certainly appreciate everything that they do because of the the work they do and they're un uh un unheralded and they have so many
050kids that just don't have proper health care. So appreciate everything y'all do. Thank you. And we need to get that one to 750. We're working on that. Mr. Tidwell, I'm just going to echo that sentiment. I'd like you to shout out to Sarah Bailey, nurse Bailey over at Barfield. Um, obviously my son went through some issues with his kidney and uh for a while he couldn't he was missing a lot of instruction but when he felt good he wanted to go to school but then he had to be the cath it had to be changed out every two hours and that just wouldn't be possible without the nurses that we have at the school and she was exceptional and uh taking care of our kids and I'm just speaking for one kid but she's also
051dealing with all the other kids that are coming in that are sick as well. Uh, so you guys do a phenomenal job and I just don't think the district would be the same without you. So I appreciate that. Miss Sharp. Thank you, Madam Chair. Miss Groom, if we pass this resolution tonight, I would like for you if you could to send us this pack that you got. And I'm going to forward it to that and any other information that you have to TSBA so they can have more information. So when we we go to the delegate assembly, they'll have their information and we'll we'll get some support next year. We also have state level level data to um that would be great. A lot of this data that's in this presentation is data that I
052had to submit to the state for the health services survey. Each district submits it and then they have like an entire state level data. It's it's very um impressive data. But what you've given us tonight is impressive and I don't think parents have any idea what services that that that's required in our school system um for the students to be able to come and get their education. So, thank you so much and your staff. Um and we appreciate y'all so much, Miss Darby. Thank you so much. Um I have a couple of questions. When a student needs to be seen as they walk in, they're not feeling well and the nurse is unable to see them due to the incredible amount of demand that we have. What happens at that point? Can you just kind
053of walk me through what that looks like for that student? Um, it's a little different setup at each school, but usually there's already a plan in place. Um, if they if it's a if it's an emergency, they'll stop what they're doing and see that student. If it's just a headache or a stomach ache, usually the front office staff will give them a time when they can come back. That's why we do try at the beginning of the year to let staff know when those scheduled appointments are so that it's very clear these are walk-in hours. These are scheduled appointments. If it's an emergency during scheduled appointments, then yes, we'll stop and we'll take care of that. if it's not an emergency and they can come back say at one o'clock then they're the first person
054they see at one o'clock. And my second question is the certification that you mentioned what kind of um time commitment does that require and cost is that certification it um time commitment they usually study three to six months before they take that exam. It's a board exam. So, um, very similar to a teacher taking an extra certification to get certified to teach in a different area. Um, costwise, $400 or $500. We we do offer a scholarship through our um professional development funds. So, I'm able to pay for a couple of those a year. Um, and that's why we have so many because it is um several hundred dollars just to take the exam. And you do have to re you do have to rednew that every five years. So, but we do have monies that
055we've set aside to help with that. That's what I was looking for. Thank you so much. Yes. I have a question. Yes, Mr. Zealous. Oh, sorry. Now that you're bringing up the whole training, um, ask how many hours do they have to have every year to keep up with their certification once they're certified? Once they're certified, they have to renew it every five years. They have to have Thank you. I knew they would keep me on track. 75 continuing education hours that they have to turn in. But to even to sit be for the board, they have to have a thousand hours. So it is a lot of you can't just be a brand new school nurse and become a nationally certified school nurse. You do have to have a lot of experience. Um and
056then my other question now that we're talking about the whole certification and I'm glad that there's some we have a budget aside for that is an issue the time commitment to take to step away from the daily duties to go to the actual school to do the continue education or is this something that can be done now virtually their continuing education is usually done it's not done during school hours it's after school that's what I was come that's what I was asking they go to like today I we have a whole group of nurses that went to Lebanon to a conference and they're getting hours there at that conference so they're doing summer stuff after school hours weekend conferences okay so the very similar to what teachers are doing okay so the barrier is not
057the time of when they it's offered it's really the money aspect and trying to get more and I don't think it's the money aspect I think it's just a it's a big test you know and we have a great very great success rate in passing. So then the pressure builds. You don't want to be the one that doesn't pass. Oh yeah. My mom took the test many many moons ago. She was a nurse. Um it's very similar to that the board exam to be a nurse. It's just that a higher one. And we have some nurses that are certified pediatric nurses. So this is just a different certification. Well, thank I was just curious, Miss Darby. Uh Dr. Sullivan, can we make a note somewhere? Obviously, our budget just went through, so it's not something
058to discuss now, but is it something we can put for future conversation among the board to maybe put a step in place for our nurses that have that certification? I'd love to see them rewarded for putting in that extra time and effort on their own. Yeah, that'd be great. I think that's a good idea. Okay, thank you. This is very impressive and I want to thank you, you and all your nurses for the wonderful, incredible work that they do across this district. You're welcome. Thank you. We have no speakers for public comments tonight, so we'll go straight into legal. All right. First, we have Town of Smyrna Parks and Recreation Yearly Lease renewal. Smrna Parks and Recreation Department currently leases 35 acres behind Smyrna Elementary School. The current lease is set to expire on 83125.
059Town of Smyrna would like to enter into a new lease agreement for one year with the option of two additional one-year terms. Recommended mo motion is to approve as presented. Any questions or comments? Motion to approve. Second. Thank you, Miss Darby. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have a disciplinary hearing. And next, we have disciplinary hearing appeal 2500501. The board's been requested to review a decision of the disciplinary hearing authority, DHA, and of the director of schools to uphold the remain of a student from Seagull Middle School. full face review of the record. The board may a affirm the decision of the DHA and the director, b overturn the decision of the DHA and the director, or c grant a hearing before the board. I'll entertain a motion. Move
060to affirm the decision of the DHA and the director. Second. Thank you, Miss Sharp. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. Motion passes. Number three. Number three is policy adoption. First reading of two readings. These are policies below recommended on the first reading. The policies will be brought for will be brought forth to the next schedule board meeting for a second and final reading. A policy 1.703 school attendance zones and exemptions. This adds language for for specific board approved programs and locations of procedures. B. Policy 1.901 charter school applications adds requirement for charter schools to use the same student information system sis as Rutherford County Schools. C. Policy 3.206 206 community use of school facilities add that users will observe facility closures in the event of inclement weather. D policy 5.302 sick
061leave as language clarified bereavement leave for classified and certified staff. E policy 6.204 attendance of non-resident students removes ruther county virtual schools and exception to residency requirements except for currently enrolled students. F policy 6.411 411 student wellness changes required meetings of the healthy school team from 4 to two meetings per year G policy 6.502 foreign exchange students as language to comply with choice seed requirements recommended approvals to adopt the above polies on the first of two readings as presented. Any comments or questions? Move to approve. Thank you Mr. Vaughn. Second. Thank you Mr. Tidwell. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next we have human resources. This is on tab four. This is the MTSU nursing clinical agreement. Ratherford County Schools partners with MTSU as a clinical rotation site for MTSU nursing
062students. MTSU nursing students spend one to two days observing RCS nurses as part of their pediatric clinical rotation. Any comments or questions? I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Second. Thank you, Miss Darby. Thank you. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number 10. This is the approval of the fiscal year 26 consolidated funding application. As we talked about on Tuesday, uh the federal government's budget timeline is different than the state and local. So this is what the state has told us. Of course, the funding cycle from federal government could change. The fiscal year 26 consolidated funding application encompasses consolidated admin title one, part A, title one, part D, title two, part A, title three, IDEID, part B, and IDEA preschool submitted to the Tennessee Department of
063Education on May 15th, 2025. These federal funds will be spent to supplement district funding in the 2526 school year. And I'll read just for the record what those amounts are. Title one is 5,563,6681. Title 1 A is zero and for the neglected. Title 1D for LEA is $19,3881. Title 2 A is1,185,21942. Title 3 is $794,336.99. And then title 4 is $393,877.95. And so motion recommended motion is to approve the tw the fiscal year 26 consolidated funding application as presented. Any comments or questions? Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Do I have a second? Thank you, Mr. Rosales. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number two, ESL curriculum purchase. ESL department's requesting permission to purchase its newcomer curriculum and high school English language development EL curriculum from National Geographic Learning Syngage.
064Cost of this purchase is $141,25218 and is funded by Title 3. Recommend motion is to approve. Any comments or questions on that? Move to approve. Thank you, Mr. Second. Thank you, Miss Sharp. Darby, so sorry. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number three, Rutherford County Schools online teaching contract. Curriculum Instruction Department's requesting permission to continue the Rutherford County Schools online teaching contract for the 2526 school year. Contract outlines an agreement between Rutherford County Schools and teachers to provide instruction through online courses. Instruction will be provided outside the regular school day for additional pay beyond the teacher's normal salary. Recommended motions to approve the use of the Rutherford County Schools online teaching contract and general purpose funds from curriculum instruction department will pay 100% of this contract. Any questions, comments? Move to
065approve. Second. Thank you, Miss Darby. Thank you, Mr. Tidwell. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. And we started this discussion. Go back and ask a question about that. I guess it's already been approved, but um does the instruction department uh approve these courses? Yes. Okay. Okay. Next, we go to board member discussion. We discussed started this discussion uh this past week and uh it's up here for discussions a little bit more tonight um regarding uh the alternative schools. Thank you. Yeah. And really what my recommendation would be and m I've talked to several of you. Do you want to make it up to Miss Sharp? We've talked about Do you want me to make Do we make a motion? I make a motion to add I think she's I think Mich's
066good. Well, I brought it up and I was going to make the motion, but I had the full. Yes. So, and you can second this if you want to. I may not have a second, but I would like to um remove the K through five from there, but but also put in the 6 through 12 for the parents to be responsible for getting them to school. I spoke with Dr. Sullivan today. I spoke with Jessica Johnson today. The 6 through 12, they're a little bit easier to get Ubers and other transportation. And y'all can disagree with me if y'all want to. I'm not going to be mad. But she did say that the younger students in the elementary grades was harder to get professional transportation other than parents or family. So um and the Simon
067Springs is on the north end of the county and we'd be having elementary students come from Christianana or Witworth Buchanan from the from the south end of the county. So I'll second that. Thank you, M. Rosales. Just for clarity, you're saying remove K through five, but do middle and high school. Okay. Can I clarify? Yes, you can. Remove middle and high but keep K5 correct transportation. Yes. Yes. Yes. Transportation will be staying for Yes. K. And any transportation that's in an IEP, anything like that is not impacted because that Okay. Yes. Mr. B. Question then. How how many students are we talking about for your middle and high schools? About um for Smyrna West and Daniel McKe up to 100 at each one, right? But I'm talking about removing the K5. That's what it could
068be up to 40 or 50 if at full capacity generally. Then what what are the what are the infractions that would put them in the alternative school at that age? threats, um, knives, a multitude of things. I'm I'm just curious about why you would remove them because I in my belief, somebody sent me an email and asked why the position I was taking about this. And I just had I had a situation this morning with I've got two 16-year-old sophomores from Oakland High School working for me this summer. And one of them messed up pretty bad and the other one had to witness it. And there was a lot of there was there was an hour of tough love that either he could have gotten hurt or a $100,000 piece of farm equipment could have
069gotten torn up. And my belief is that that tough love, if a child has made that type of infraction, that those 15 or 30 minutes or 45 minutes of alone time with that parent or other guiding adult, if it is a family member, may solidify the act uh the consequences associated with the act. Um so if you know my and and maybe I'm wrong right here, but but I'm thinking as as Barney F would say it, nip it and nip it in the bud real quick. If you're catering to the K5 cuz they are, you know, younger or it's harder on the parents. That's the whole idea here with with me is that there needs to be parent engagement. There needs to be those conversations. And sometimes, and I know when Terry and I when
070the boys were growing up, she was thrilled to have them captured in the car because they weren't watching TV. They didn't have phones then. She had her conversations with our two. And I'm thinking, would that not apply in this situation to these younger kids? I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I'm thinking, hey, if we're trying to really make this punishment stick and and parents understand it, the kids understand it, the neighbor understands it, the grandparent understands it, whoever has to end up taking them to that alternative school, I think there's valuable conversation and valuable time for a deterrent uh to drive that point home. I I don't I guess I'm crazy, but I I I would I would I'm not in favor of exempting anybody. Uh if we're going to do it,
071I think we do it, but but I'll go with the will of the board here. Miss Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Rosala. Dr. Shine, um the 40 kids that were reprimanded to the alternative school that were in K through five, were they repeated offenses or is it one time? Were they just one time? because that is one of the one of the main um concern comp really not concern complaint is that the same kids are being ripened in. I don't think that number is as high as you might think. Um let me address part of that. We didn't open that till after Christmas. And so I'm talking about 40 to 50 would be capacity. And so I don't think we have repeat offenders yet that I know of. Um but that would be total capacity. Middle and
072high school. Absolutely. We have repeat offenders. Yes. And the complaints were from middle school principles. Kindergarten. We're not allowed to have an alternative setting. It can only be first through fifth graders. It's against state law to have kindergarteners. Okay. For some reason, but um and then and then um before they're I know it depends on the discipline. I mean it it depends on the offense and what the level degree of discipline they're going to get um based on that. What will be the step if if there's a if there's a first time offense? Do we try to put them in ISS before they go to um the reprimitted to the alternative school? How many times do they have are they reprimanded to ISIS before they actually go to alternative school? And I'm and I'm talking
073about really focusing on K through five, not six or 12. It depends on the offense. It all follows our code of conduct. So, if it's a level one or two, then it's going to be ISS. Level three even could be ISS or OSS. Once you get it into level four and five, if it's a level five, it's going to require some type of zero tolerance or some is going to require zero tolerance at level five. But an expulsion or remand that can be modified. Um, but if we're dealing with weapons or mass threats, which you deal with at the elementary level too as well, then you're going to have fall into our same type of point system that we have. So, I guess the question I'm asking is that if they are reprimanded to ISIS
074even though it's level one or two and they're going like three or four or five times, do does it matter how many times they go to ISIS before we say, "Okay, I think they need to be an alternative school at that." It's a school level decision. Okay. I get okay. Well, I think we can just try with this and see how it will works out with reprimmen with removing transportation entirely for 6 through 12. If we see that that number goes down in um in kids going to alternative schools or it just works out, then we can come back and revisit adding the elementary school kids to that. But just starting out just to see how it works out with the 6 or 12 and then a year from now we can re-evaluate and see
075if we can add the elementary schools. That would be my recommendation in moving forward with Mrs. Sharp's um motion to do it that way. Just a minute. We've got Mr. Vaughn to Mr. Tidle and Mr. Darby. Mr. Again, speaking as a former principal, I can tell you that uh I believe in in order to make it stick, I think that uh the parents need to be responsible also because if Johnny's earned his way to the alternative school, it's not just a one-time thing. And I think it gives a point in time it will more or less en encourage or force parents to become more involved with their kids and let Johnny know that hey, you know, somewhere down the line he's going to have to stop his behavior. And uh I just don't feel like
076it's fair to eliminate some group and not eliminate. I think they all just we just need to require that parents provide their own transportation for the kids and I think it would just help reinforce what we're trying to do because uh um we need to do everything we can to to enforce the discipline in our schools. Mr. did well. Stan's got me thinking on this. Um because I mean if you are earning that type of offense to where you're having to be reprimanded to an alternative school, uh then we need parental buy in at that point. We got to have the school the district has so many different avenues that they can take. But at that level of offense, you really do got to have the parent buying in. And I understand I guess part
077of this that's holding me up. We have two alternative school locations for middle school and high school. So you got one at Smyrna and you got one over here toward Kitrol. So there's the distance is more centralized. Whereas you know if you got a kid that gets in trouble at Roy Waldron U he's going next door to Simon Springs and you get a kid that's out here in Christian Elementary and that's a trek. Um, but I'm almost of the opinion, I think this where I'm I'm going to land at is similar somewhat to what M. Rosales is suggesting, but just maybe a little bit of a flip, is doing the trial run, but doing the trial run with everybody going. And if for some reason we need to pull back the elementary school kids after
078the first year, then we look at, you know, whether we're having success with that, whether we're having tremendous absenteeism, whether it's making any uh differences there. So I am leaning more toward now uh after this discussion of just sending or not sending, not providing transportation for K through 12. But it put the parent, let's get some parental buy in. It's going to be some hardships. I think it's a harder hardship on where I'm representing which is the south end. So I'm not nearly as excited about that. But again, you're talking about a fraction of students and we got to have parental buy in. If that's what gets their attention, then that's where we're at. Hold on. Mr. Arby's been waiting patiently and then I'll go with back to you and then to you. Go ahead.
079I'm glad we're having this discussion. Um, if the purpose of us discussing this is because the board has decided that if a child or student has landed themselves in an alternative school situation that we feel it is the responsibility of the parent to bring that child to that school and back. I guess I don't understand the purpose of eliminating I guess it would be first through fifth technically correct Dr. Svin. Um, as well as if you look up, if we're going to talk about if parents were going to utilize Uber for teens or whatever, that starts at age 13. So, most of your sixth graders aren't going to even fall into that category either. Um, I do have the only caveat being that we do have a north and south somewhat alternative school for 6
080through 12 and we don't for the first through 5th. I'm wondering, and forgive me if this is gonna put a kink in there, but what if we provided a shuttle bus where the parents had to drive their kids to one location in the Murphy'sboro area if those first through fifth graders landed themselves in the alternative school and they then had that shuttle bus take them to Simon Springs? Because I feel like that way the parent is still having to drive them somewhere. They're not just getting to go to their home school, but they're not necessarily having to make a 40-minute drive where everyone else is typically only making a 20-minute drive max. Yes, s you're only talking about maybe 15 to 20, but whoever is that location of that one shuttle bus is got an
081extra 15 or 20 kids that they're responsible for for a while. That is tough. I know that's not a great answer, but I know we're trying to do what's best for the parents, but we've now put Yes, Mr. V. It's going to be tough at that site. Yeah. I'm sorry. Ask his I guess I'm not understanding because we currently are offering bus service. So, not at one location though. All those. So, if we're saying let's just choose Barfield. So all of students from the south end that are now going to Barfield, you've basically just made one drop off site for alternative school students at Barfield. That's going to be tough arrival on one school if it's true behavioral issues, right? But you just said we were maybe talking about 15 or 20 max, but surely
082those kids wouldn't all be from that area. I'm sure they would be some on the north end that wouldn't even be optional for that shuttle service, right? It's still going to be tough. And could we not have a dedicated aid for that shuttle? Principal still responsible for him. I tell you, doing that, let me let me just speak from a principal standpoint. You got all these kids that are that are represented to the alternative school on your campus. That's a that's a problem cuz a lot of them aren't your students and the ones that we've done that for just speaking as a principal has always been a pain because you have to deal with those kids and they're always getting into things on campus and causing problems with your students on campus. And I don't
083agree with putting these alternative student kids on any school campus. I don't think that I don't think it's fair to any school uh to do that. That's just one more headache they've got. And you're dealing with kids that aren't theirs. Um I wouldn't I wouldn't agree with putting picking up a shuttle any, you know, anywhere on any school campus. You know, if they want to do it at the bus station, something that's okay, but uh I wouldn't agree to put them on the school. I just think we need to bring the paddle back out. Who's your boy? We didn't have any trouble about the alternative schools back then. My my fellow board members here are getting tickled at some of my annex down here, but I'm sitting here thinking I hate to get I hate
084to get sidetracked by this, but the thought just popped in my mind. Let's just dump them off right here at the central office and the transportation department can deal with them right straight up. Sign us up. But I guess let me go back to to to Miss Sharp and ask her the the idea of exempting is it because of their age or you know I was sitting here thinking if it was a first offender if they're a first flyer you know if we could give them a pass on the first uh offense you know I know that's a logistic nightmare that I would be asking transportation to do you know to give them you know a free get out of jail card, so to speak, on the first offense, but the second one, they're off
085the bus, parents, transportation. If you'd highlight for me what what what your intentions were. I really I'm I'm trying to think deeper into Sure. My thing was because it's all the way up on the north end. And when I spoke with Miss Johnson, who's over our Atlas program, they have a really hard time getting transportation because, you know, we have to provide transportation for the homeless regardless where they are. um they have a really hard time getting those younger students. Um people don't want to uber a first grader, you know, there's a lot of there's a there's a lot of things. So that means if the parent can't do it, if the cra grandparents don't do it where when you have the high Kate or 6 through 12, you know, they may have a relative,
086they may have a neighbor, they may, you know, some of them may be driving or something like that. They've got other options. So that's my that was my point. So your deal was because of the logistics of it. All right. Let me ask you this, Dr. Svin. Then we have talked about rebuilding or renovating Daniel McKe or something to that nature here in the next year or so. Is there any possibility about having an elementary u alternative in the central part of the county here? You hadn't thought about it. I don't put you spot, but you know, we have it'd be at one of our school sites, but it would still be at We'd have to take a school or It'd have to be in the wing of a school. Yeah. That's not going to
087be a popular idea, right? Not comment on your Yeah. Yeah. Church Street. Okay. All right. That's Anyway, I I don't I don't know. I'm not convinced. I think pitch them out. You know, I that sounds ugly, but you know, if they going to mess up, I really think I'll go back to that Barney F. Nip it nip it in the bud early. Let's get it done. Maybe that 15minute conversation for how many weeks is it that they go? Nine to a year depending on nine weeks. Maybe that is enough to deter something going forward. I want to make one comment before I call on some other people. I my my question is how this is a new thing. We've never had this before at this younger age. How receptive were the parents when we told
088them you know your child has done this offense. Were they like I get it. I want my child to be there. I want to get get because at this age we think this could make the biggest impact by by putting them there because they're young. you we can we can mold them and try to get them so they're not there at Daniel McKe when they're in sixth grade or high school. So did we have any push back from parents or were they okay with it? I mean I still got appeals. Yes. Okay. Okay. Well, my thing is I would like the only reason why I would be cautious about removing transportations. We want them there because this is where we can we've got them and we can maybe change some change some kids and make
089sure that they're not there in sixth grade and high school. So that's my only problem with maybe we need to do everything we can to make sure we get all these kids that have been that have been sentenced. I hate to use the word sentenced but you know told that this is where they need to go. So that was what I wanted to say but yes Miss Rosales and Mr. Thank you. So did to piggy back off what Miss Darby said, instead of providing a shuttle bus, which I had some talked to Dr. Sullivan about to the school, create a location that's the hub that's not at the school property somewhere else. So, when my daughter was reprimand, and my husband doesn't like it, then I'm going to bring this up. Um when my daughter
090was reprimmended at um at her when she was represented to alternative school, we actually went to the parking lot of a shopping mall and that's where we were at and we had to wait for the bus driver. You're shaking your head like so quickly too. Like we're responsible for that site. Yep. We're responsible for that site. What mean question? When we designate a site, it becomes our site. We become responsible. Oh, well, I don't know how they were able to do it, but they were that school system had a parking lot designated that was not a school grounds where we actually parents were waiting for the bus because you had to have an adult to this to uh for drop off and pickup. So, it wasn't just for the morning time, it was also in
091the afternoon time. And that's something that can be considered for the elementary school to say how can we have parent buyin. It would be no different than a bus stop that we assign. Once we assign a bus stop, that's where our responsibility starts. So if you specify a parking lot, that becomes that bus's stop and we become responsible for the student in that lot. So I did hear you, but is it okay if we hear Mr. Mr. Tidwell and Mr. Darby and then call the question. Okay, Mr. Tidwell. Uh, a couple questions. Dr. Sullivan, how, uh, realistic is it that we are going to be potentially addressing our Daniel McKe and, you know, in the next two years, pretty realistic. Um, I hope to do our to draft a five-year plan. I've got a draft
092of a five-year plan, but bring it to the board at our July meeting. All right. What about this? Since you have North End Elementary alternative school, is it is there the potential that we could wing off another section for elementary kids where they're not I guess they're not mixing? I'm sure we don't want to be mixing elementary kids with middle and high school just but is that a potential? Are we talking about millions and millions of more dollars? Um, no, it's not millions and millions more. We have the room at two of our elementary schools right now. Both of them are in your zone though, so we can talk about it later. Yeah. Yeah. I I will say this though that still I'm telling you guys where I'm at as we're going through the conversation.
093I I definitely think that we should u not provide if we're going to prov not provide transportation for any let's just not do it for any of any of them period. Just be done. But until we have a solution for the elementary school, whether that's adding on additions or something like that to a potential build down the road, we're we're already losing or saving bus routes, right? by not having to bust these kids from their current, if it's a kid at Barfield, a kid at Christian Elementary, kid at uh John, not John Pard, uh but any of our other elementary schools, they're busing them to a certain location and then they're busing them up to Simon Springs. So, we're going to be saving routes no matter what. What Miss M Darby has proposed and which
094I like and I don't know what the antics is going to be, but let's have a spot. U hey, I'm fine with central office. We'll do it right up front. Uh but let's let's have a spot where the kids are the parents are responsible for getting the kids to buy by a specific time and then we're taking the one route from that location to the north part of the county. The the downside, let me say this, I haven't thought I'm thinking it through as we're going through it. I don't know how that would work and maybe you can explain this because at the end of school the route would take them back to the pickup zone. Correct. So if the parents are not there to pick them up the problem that would be different. Well,
095but what would it be at at one of our schools? I mean principal stays. So we would we'd have to have somebody assigned to that duty. You could, if the parents weren't there to pick them up, you could then eliminate them having the privilege of riding the shuttle bus. Realistically, we'll call the police department for abandonment. I say they meet here and Mr. Vaughn can do a class in the morning and the afternoon with the students. That would for sure make sure he's got volunteers, brother. Okay. They care. They You bring Let us bring the paddle back in. [Music] Okay, back up. Well, that's that's my final say kind of on it is Dr. Sullum. If if when we're looking at these designs, if we can conclude the possibility of building out an elementary portion
096of it, I think that resolves a lot of the conversation we're having right now and then parents are taking them straight to that. Well, in the meantime, yes, Mr. Darby, Dr. Selvin, um, is it a possibility if the board were to approve it with the shuttle bus to try it out at the start of the year? Because I mean, anything that we do, even if we even if we eliminate it across the board from from 1st through 12th, the board can always come back and amend that if if we find that partway through the year it's really just not functioning well or not working. Correct. I would rather do anything other than the shuttle bus. Well, we don't. I'm sorry. I mean, that's just my recommendation. The stress that adds to a school when you
097have, let's just say it's a weapon. A kid brings a weapon to a school, that kid is, especially first or second grade, unless they're making a threat to truly do something to a student, I'm probably going to allow them to go modify that and allow them to go to the alternative school. Now, I'm putting that student at another school that a principal is going to feel that this student was expelled, but you're putting them now at my school and risking my students. and you have a parent dropping them off and I don't know what they're doing. Could we not though? I mean, similar to how the alternative schools have the uniform and all that kind of stuff, could we could you not have procedures in place of you're to remain in your car with your
098student until X time and then they are to directly board from your vehicle to the bus so that they're really not on the campus aside from walking 15 or 20 feet to the bus. I love that in theory. In reality, they're not going to follow it. No, they're not. I love it. I mean, I do and I'm not trying to No, that's just the reality. You're gonna hear I've got work. Yes. I've got to go. I've got work. Same that parents drop their kids off every morning before we I would like to amend the motion to include 1st through 12th and we'll see how it goes. Second. Okay. What now? Bring it by. What's the motion now? To remove transportation for the alternative schools from first grade to 12th grade. and we can revisit after
099the first semester. Miss MH Sharp, do you want to withdraw your original and just go with Morby's? I was going to That's a new motion. It's not We will have to vote on this, not an amendment, right? Can we just do a roll call? Can we just do a roll? I will. Okay, we're going to go. What is the original? Can you Miss Miss Williams, can you read the original? can withdraw her motion, can't you? Yep, she could, but she didn't want to. Can I say something else about that? Okay, real quick. You got to understand these kids that are these K these uh elementary kids that are reminded to the alternative school. It hadn't been just a one-time thing. It's been a continuous um acts of breaking the school rules. And the parents need
100to be involved, need to be uh punished, if you want to call them that, need to be held accountable also because it's their responsibility to teach that kid how to behave. And if a kid doesn't behave in school, I mean, in my opinion, it falls back on the parents. Now, the longer you tolerate that, you know, the Bible says, you know, you spare the rod and spoil the child. And if you don't make him behave early on, you're going to be making him behave when he gets you have to go get him out of jail when he gets 16. And parents have a certain amount of responsibility if a kid doesn't behave in school. So, that's just Okay, let's let's go ahead. We have an original motion. Miss Williams, could you read that motion, please?
101All right. Parents must provide transportation to Smyrna West and Daniel McKe, grades 6 through 12 students. Transportation is provided for grades 1 through five Simon Spring students. And let's roll call so we know exactly what our numbers are. Mr. Va, no. Mr. Vaughn, no. Mrs. Darby, no. Miss Sharp, yes. Mr. Tidwell, no. Mrs. Rosales. Yes. Mrs. Maxwell. Yes. Motion fails. Okay. Yes. I'll make a motion toclude Maxwell. Yes. I make a motion to remove transportation entirely for K through 12. Just K through 12. I mean first grade through 12. Okay. First grade. Okay. Do we have a second? I'll second. But it's first through 12, not kindergarten. Yeah, it is. Well, I re I restated and said first through 12. So, first through 12 remove transportation. Okay. Roll call, please. Mr. Tidwell, yes. Mrs. Rosales,
102yes. Miss Sharp, yes. Mr. Vault, yes. Mr. Vaughn, yes. Mrs. Darby, yes. Mrs. Maxwell, yes. Unanimous. Miss Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Tidville. I'd like to make a motion uh that first through 5th parents are responsible for taking them to the spot uh which that spot has yet to be determined to be determined by the district. And from that from there, the district will have one spot on the south end that transports them to the north end. Second. Yes. Um, so it would be for kids that are reprimmended to the alternative school first through 5th. The district will direct them to the parents will have to provide transportation to a spot. We're use word hub um, whatever best fits that the district appoints. And then the schools of where that splits, I guess we'll need to include
103that as well. The district will decide where that will split on what is considered the south end in which parents will have to get their kids to that hub for them to be transported by the transported by the district to Simon Springs. Mr. Marsh wants to say something real quick. I think the board needs to clarify where that split is. If this is a board motion, the district staff doesn't need to determine where that split is. Okay. I got a question also. Who's going to supervise? Who's going to do the supervision? You could Could you do it by zone? Yeah. By zone? Like like if the student resided within these zones, the shuttle transportation is provided. But if you're in these zones, it's on the parent. That way, you could make it by elementary school.
104Really, students remanded to the alternative school from these elementary schools. Parents responsible for transportation at these elementary schools. Parent brings them to the shuttle stop or to the school. Yeah. again. Who's going to Because your zone is split. You got some that are You could do it by school then if not by zone. I say 8:40. 840 the interstate. Anything south of 840 that would be I almost think it would be easier if you did it by school because what if you Yes, Mr. Tidville. What if you had a student? You know, it it just it would complicate things. I do think you'd have to do it by school zone. I mean, because if you don't, then if you have a kid that's, you know, Browns Chapel or something like that, just depend on where
105they end up at. You may have one that's that's getting transportation and the other one's not. So, um, we're making a list of schools. Is that what you're asking for, Dr. a list of schools? All right. I also think we could move this decision till till July. That sounds great. Give us some time to think that over. Yeah. But Dr. Sullivan, Miss Darby's zone is split. So she's got some that's above 840. And then she We're talking about the individual schools though, not the school board member zones. The actual schools. Yeah. The actual school. Okay. Gotcha. I thought you were just bought. Thank you. I I've got a question for transportation for Trey. Um how is it now? I mean, let's say a everybody everybody's protective of their area represented, but I'm gonna say let's
106say a kid in third grade uh messes up at Last Casses right now. What happens? How's that kid get to Simon Springs? Right now, if they're at Simon Springs, it's doortodoor. So, in other words, if they're in last casses, we pick them up and they're delivered to the school. So if Jackson and Chandler messed up when they were in school, they go I pick them up. You would come straight to my house. Yes, sir. At the far end of the county and hand deliver them. Yes, sir. And I bring them back. That's too That's too good. There's that few. You remember we started the alternatives group after January. So there were that few kids in the alternative first through fifth grade group. Right. Right. I get it. I get it. But I I'm just thinking
107that that's that's that's like having a limousine. Yeah. I mean, this is not punishment. And and I'm I'm looking at you as I'm addressing this, but I need to be looking at this bud. This is not that I'm I agree. Let's put this off. July, also I'm I'm just putting out there. I don't have a staff member or a location to do this. So, it'll it'll have to be an extra supplement. C can I ask what would happen if a parent just refused? I don't He said, "I'm not I'm not sending my kid to truency." Truency. Okay. the go to court. Yep. But Miss Maxwell, even though we're putting off this particular decision of how it's going to work out the transportation, we have to have I guess we have to have a approval of
108that. So, we've had a first we've had a recommended motion. We had a second need to vote on that and then if that passes then we need to move forward. Okay. But right now what stands is no transport. No transportation. Correct. So, can I ask something? Um I don't know. Did some if someone second it. Can it be a trial? Can we put a date to test? My recommendation would be to to see how this works with K through five for the first half of the school year, no transportation. If we see that it it becomes an issue, then we can implement to where we add your piece of having that hub wherever it is. that gives time for the kinks of the transportation to be wor it out worked out and then have a
109plan brought before us that we can potentially um implement the second half of the academic year. Mr. Maxwell. Yes, Mr. T. Yeah. I mean, I'm not ex I'm not directly opposed uh to postponing it, but I do I do want to get it done. I mean, I don't I'm just thinking from logistically, you know, kids in Christian Elementary or even Plane View got a whole heck of a lot longer trek than those at Roy Waldron next door, those in Leverne, those Smur. It's it's at the top. Simon Springs at the top of the county. So, you know, at least with Smyrna West, you got a Smrna that's addressing the top and you got Daniel McKe that's addressing the south. So, I definitely want this to to move forward, but I'm totally okay with postponing it
110another month, letting us get things in order. And if I need to resend the motion, I'm okay with doing that right now. But just know that's coming. That's fine. Dr. Sullivan, logistically enough, if we're trying to punish parents to make their kids involved, that's one thing, but I almost feel like doing the hub punishes the district to take care of it. And so that that's my concern is we're going to have to create another logistical thing that creates yet another barrier for us to to mess up. Um there's more opportunities for us to have errors in this process. So I just want the board to be aware of that. Yes, Mr. Paul. Yeah. I'll promise you one thing. If we if we don't do this provide that hub, I promise you you're going to see
111the behavior of these kids that have been put in there. I promise you they'll get better. Guarantee you if uh I know mine had to get in there, I guarantee he'd behave a little bit better next time. I just think that I don't know. We we just making just making it, you know, easier. It's a limousine service. You know, it's no no accountability. Miss Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Tidville. If it's okay with Miss Sharp, I would like to just resend the motion for now. Okay. We're going to I'll bring this back up at our July meeting. We will have fresh information then. Absolutely. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. There's no more discussion. Let's move on to financial matters in number 12. First is fund 143 budget amendment. U Mr. Renie is not here. He is at the
112budget committee meeting and he is not responding to my text asking how it's going which worries me a little bit. That's not good. That's not good. Yeah. And we have nothing on the agenda which worries me even more. Um so this fiscal year 2425 centralized cafeteria fund budget amendment increases 99100 504 indirect cost and decreases 34570 restricted fund balance in the amount of $3,484,73 to budget for indirect costs. They're accumulated in fund 141 being reimbured by fund 143. Indirect costs are incurred for the benefit of multiple programs functions, excuse me, or other cost objectives and cannot be readily identified as having been incurred specially for the school food service program. Indirect costs are calculated annually by TDOE and the child nutrition programs use the unrestricted indirect cost rate. The fiscal year 2425 unrestricted indirect cost
113rate for Rutherford County schools is 11.33%. And you see the recommended motion below. So moved. Second. Thank you, Mr. B, and thank you, Mr. Bond. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number two, the fund 143 budget amendment is the year and cleanup amendment. Budget funds for the expenditure such as employee payouts, food, supplies, materials, and transportation of those items. This amendment moves money between multiple line items without increasing or decreasing revenues and expenditures. This allows several line items to have money amended in to them so they will not be over budget at the year end. Move to approve. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. VA. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number three. Three is the board recognition of the Wolverine school football support at Lever High School
114as an RCS school support organization. And we read this on Tuesday night. I just want to highlight that they do not have the IRS determination letter yet. So, they will be operating through the books of Lever High School. I'll entertain a motion. I want to speak just a minute. Um, I'm so thankful that Dr. Hatchet is allowing this now. This has been one of the things that has held um benefits to our children back. Um, I'm not sure what it what's what it was with the North End, but there were several um principles that did not allow this. Uh, and if the parents want to go out and raise the money and and and the booster clubs want to do things for our students, we we need to allow us and this this will turn
115the corner. This is tremendous. Yes, it is. And I just want to let you know, Coach Johnson put out a video. I was ready to suit up. So, they are fired up on the north end. Yeah. Go ahead. Good. Can I real quick? And I think a lot of it has to do and not necessarily just um north end. We had a internal practice to not allow any more boosters that I know and it's that was tough and we have definitely restructured and look this is not without risk. I'm not I'm not there's some risk you know because there there is some risk and we know and we we've seen you know recently but it does put our students at a disadvantage from the other the other students across our district. So I'm very thankful.
116So move Mr. V. I just wonder if we need to wait until we get that uh get that letter before we approve. I'm I'm okay with it because this is exactly what we did for Rockville High School. They actually run through our books. So there's more more protection until they get the letter. I'll second it then. Okay. Mr. Tidville took care of that too. So it's okay. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next we have engineering and construction. Blackland Middle School softball fence request. Dr. Jessica Jackson requesting to install security fence to close off the batting cages from the public. School had numerous issues trying to keep public out of the cages. Fence will protect the softball program cages from future damage. Anticipated cost is $8,100 and will be funded by
117the softball program and the Richard Seagull grant. Engineering Construction has reviewed the request and has no objections. Entertain a motion to approve. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Tidwell. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Number two, Riverdale High football scoreboard request. Principal Tamber Blair requesting to install a digital scoreboard. The anticipated cost is 300,000 is being funded by a loan in the Garinger request to remain anonymous. engineering instructions reviewed the request and has no objection. I move to approve as long as they don't light it up when they play Oakland. I'll make a motion. I will. I can't get behind that, but that's okay. Um, but yeah. Did Who did you second, Mr. B? I sure did. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All in favor say I. I.
118Any oppose? Motion passes. Number three, Buck Canon Elementary Burden butterfly garden request. Principal Ashley Whit is requesting to install a bird and butterfly garden. The project will support all grades in various academic areas. This projects being undertaken by M Mallerie Pollock as part of her Girl Scout Silver Award. All materials and labor are being covered by private donors. Troop 1193 and community business donations. Engineering Construction has reviewed the request and has no objection. Is that why you're here tonight? Yes. Well, thank you for staying this entire long time. So, and can you can you have us all out to see that? I would love to see it. Oh, yes. We'd love to. That sounds wonderful. Move to approve. Mr. Tidville. Thank you, Mr. Vault. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? And of course,
119there are none. I love your Nike Dunk shoes, too, by the way. I love her shoes, by the way. Very impressive. Number four. Number four. Riverdale High School construction project change order engineering construction with input from principal Tamara Blair. request to utilize 550,000 of available site construction funds to address additional renovation of areas inside the existing building. This work will include additional flooring, ceiling replacement, and paint. The work has been reviewed by GMC Architecture and the cost is approved. This is not a request for additional funds, but the reallocation of unused site funds to fund this project. I'll move to approve. It looks second. School looks great, too. Thank you, Miss Derby. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have the resolution. And we've read this on Tuesday night. This
120is a resolution brought by Miss Sharp, and it should have support, I would hope, um, from the not only our board, but hopefully from, um, other school boards across the state. Um, but this is a resolution requesting funding for adequate school nurse staffing. Anything you want to add, Miss Sharp? No. And just once again, thank you, Miss Groom, for all the information. And I think everything that you've collected will go a long way for us being able to get this unfunded mandate, y'all, because this is going to come back to the taxpayers. We're we're already seeing a lot of that with the TISA funding that the local uh area is having to pick up more of the cost of our school system. So, I think this is a a great resolution and I appreciate everybody's
121support, Miss Sharp. I think it's such a great resolution really that Mr. Rosales and I both would like to co-sponsor this with you. Yes, I would like to co-sponsor. I think it's a great resolution. Great. Good job. Great one. Yeah, I great resolution. We shall all co-sponsor. So, I move to approve the motion. Second, Mr. T resolution. Thank you, Mr. Sharp. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next we have financial report. I'm a combined financial report and director's update. So several things of course we have a budget meeting going on tonight. We have board meeting Thursday. That is going to be just our end of year cleanup revenue expenditures. That is about a week a week and a half earlier than normal. That is due to the county commission's meeting which
122is a week earlier than normal. Uh we cut off purchases today for central office unless it is an absolute emergency. So that is early. I like to remind people of a 500 this year $50 million budget, $550 million corporation of 6,400 employees, full-time employees that now goes a month without issuing any type of purchase orders. And so that is it's a strange strange place to run during this month, especially when you still have summer camp going on. And so that'll be June 5th through July 1st that we really are not issuing any type of checks or anything. County Commission is also June 12th. Um I have a meeting with the mayors. Um Murphy'sboro city finance director is also June 12th. You can glean into that what you need to and we can talk more about
123that. Our county commission public hearing for our budget is June 17th. Budget has their final meeting at 5:30 on June 18th to where they will hear our end ofear cleanup amendments. There is not a health and ed meeting this month because health and ed was scheduled after the full commission meeting. So budgets June 18th. Then the county commission meeting where they set the tax rate and vote on our budget amendments is June 23rd at 9:00. And then just couple overall updates. We of course budget as we talked about. We have summer camp going. Reflecting on things that went well this year, modifications that we need to make moving into next year. uh planning for next year and then just kind of working through some changes in the accountability model because it is always strange when
124you are planning accountability and trying to make sure you hit targets when you don't always know what they are and I know that is something we that I hit on and people get tired of hearing about it but when you are resultsoriented you never know what your targets are that is extremely frustrating to try to hit so very frustrating thank you Dr. Yep. And I just want to say u bear with us. There's going to be just a brief executive session after tonight's meeting in and out kind of thing, but we have to meet. There anything else anybody would like to bring forward? I'd just like to thank our county commission and all the budget thing we've been through health and ed. They've been very supportive of Dr. Sullivan and the budget. So he still
125hasn't got like full commission. Has it far so good? We just we sort the grease in the pot. We got I think they're done. I think that's why Brian's not responding to me. I think he's already home. Well, good. That's Michelle. Is he not? Oh, no. He's up there. Okay, good. That makes me feel better. They're still meeting. Oh, okay. So, speaking of the state, uh Miss Swinn was up today for her nomination. Has anybody seen anything? Oh, no. I did not. I'm not seeing the meeting started at 10 a.m. this morning, so I saw some of it, but did not see. That's going to be interesting. That's all. Miss Maxwell, Mr. Rosales, thank you. Um, we heard a lot of information about the third grade retention and the the performance for this past um
126school year. Will it possible to get a capture in an email so we can have those notes? And then and then someone had mentioned about VBK that only 5% receive RTI. If we can get those details as well included, that'd be great. We can send that to the board. That'd be awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Move to adjourn. Thank you, Miss Darby. We are adjourned.