00125 work session for the Rutherford County School System. We will be opening the meeting with a brief moment of silence or prayer and the pledge of allegiance to the United States flag. No one is required to participate or be present for any of these and being in this portion of the meeting is completely voluntary. Caleb, I believe this is your week. All right. Thank you. Let's bow our heads. We're just so thankful for another safe and successful year here in Rutherford County. We ask Lord that you would be with those that have recently graduated, that you'd bless their endeavors, that you'd guide them on their future career paths and what their family would look like. As we humbly serve, I just ask that you would grant us wisdom to make decisions that are in the
002best interest of the students that we serve. be with us here this day, this evening, and the future decisions we have before us in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Uh I would like to introduce some fellow friends from Christianana Elementary. Uh we have our the principal, Mr. Laferty here, and I would like to point him out as well. But specifically, I'd like for uh the head coach along with the assistant coaches to come up uh for the Christian archery team. Uh Mr. Tyler Mingle will be introducing his team along with Tara Pollsome, James Steiner, and Aaron Dwire. Uh part of the team isn't here because they are at the Worlds uh or headed to the Worlds in Myrtle Beach. Uh so we're very thankful for that. So with that, Tyler, take it away. All right.
003Um first off, I just want to thank you all so much for letting us be able to come and and say the pledge and just recognize us again. We just got done with our national tournament in Louisville and we came in third um in the eastern part of the United States um for um the 3D portion of the competition. Um and we are the first team in Rutherford County to place nationally for uh archery. So I just um I'm really proud of the kids and they've done they've done so well this year. And then our uh and on our bullseye side we came in fourth. Um and then for 3D we came in um out we came in third out of 93 schools and and our bullseye side we came in fourth out of 184
004and so um I'm just I'm proud of all of them and I know that some of them are are watching in Myrtle Beach right now and we'll see you all tomorrow. All right. Um but I'm gonna call up the team um and then um we'll we'll get we'll say the pledge. So, first up is uh Leila Lackey. Come on up, Leila. All right. Next up is uh Tiffany uh Pamala. president right now. Eris Redmond, Payton Jones, Blake Whitman, Emit Henry, Daniel Daniel Dwire, Ellie Llewellyn, Ava George, Charles Connley. And last but not least, Gideon [Music] Lymphable. And Gideon Gideon came in third overall for Bullseye for elementary boys. Um he shot a 286, which is 14 per uh points from perfect um of shooting a 300. So great job, Gideon. All right. So, let us
005stand as we say the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you guys so much for doing that. That's fantastic. Thank you. Very proud of you guys. Thank you. Next up, we have the agenda to look over. See anything any questions or comments. Then we have the uh consent agenda. that time of the year where all the lots of them taking care of things. Okay, next we have legal. All right, first we have Town of Smyrna Parks and Recreation Yearly Lease Renewal. Smyrna Park and Recreation Department currently leases 35 acres behind Smyrna Elementary School. Current lease is set to expire on 83125. Town of Smyrna would like
006to enter into a new lease agreement for one year with the option of two additional one-year terms. Is everyone clear on that or questions? Okay. Number two. Next, we have a disciplinary hearing appeal 25501. The board's been requested to review a decision of the disciplinary hearing authority DHA and the director of schools to uphold the remaining of a student from Seagull Middle School. Based on our view of the record, the board may affirm the decision of the DHA and the director, b over return the decision of the DHA and of the director or grant a hearing before the board. If anyone has any questions between now and Thursday, please just ask talk to Monica. Number three. Three is policy adoption first reading of two readings. So these policies below are recommended on the first reading.
007These policies will also be brought to the next schedule board meeting for a second and final reading. A policy 1.703 school attendance zones and exemptions. B policy 1.901 charter school applications. C policy 3.206 206 community use of facilities. D policy 5.302 sick leave. E policy 6.204 attendance and non-resident students. F policy 6.411 student wellness. And then G policy 6.502 foreign exchange students. And again, that'll just be the first reading. Questions or comments? Next. Nine. Human resources. This is the MTSU nursing clinical agreement. RCS partners with MTSU as a clinical rotation site for MTSU nursing students. MTSU nursing students spend one to two days observing RCS nurses as part of their pediatric clinical rotation. Shame we can't use any questions. Next we have instruction. Next is the approval of fiscal year 26 consolidated funding application. Um
008and this is as of right now. So federal budget calendar is different than the state and local. So this is approving what the state has granted what they know of right now based on the federal um budget cycle. The fiscal year consolidated funding application that encompasses consolidated admin title one part A, title one part D, title two part A, title three, IDEIDA part B, and IDA preschool was submitted to the Tennessee Department of Education on May 15th, 2025. These federal funds will be spent to supplement district funding in the 2526 school year. And you have a copy of that as well. And you can see what our projected funding levels are. Um ones that we have talked a little bit about. You'll see title one uh does have a decrease and that is still continuing.
009A little bit of decrease that we knew was coming um because of being over spent from state department. than just some other adjustments. And then title two is one that we've talked has some potential with federal funds that is in jeopardy as time moves forward. And so that's one that we're watching and title three is one that we're watching as well, but we are moving forward as is until we know any different. But we have plans in place in case those were to go away. Okay. Any questions, comments? Okay. Number two. And then next is ESL curriculum purchase. ESL department's requesting permission to purchase its newcomer curriculum and high school English language development from National Geographic Learning Syngage. The cost of this purchase is $135,200.88 and is funded by Title 3. questions. Okay. Number three,
010curriculum instruction departments 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 provide instruction through online courses. Instructional provided outside the regular school day for additional pay beyond the teacher's normal salary. I think this is our third year continuing that again that we brought back. Any questions? Okay, number 11. Next, we had a board member asked to add this to the agenda. Bus transportation option for alternative school students. There have been discussions regarding transportation for students assigned to alternative schools. Concerns about student behavior and discipline if prompted changes to discipline. Currently, students ride the bus to their zone school and then transfer to a different bus to the alternative school. The proposed option is to remove transportation entirely, requiring
011parents to provide transportation. This option along with other alternative options will be discussed, explored, and considered the 2526 school year. And the board of course since it's on the agenda can make any motion on Thursday as they wish on the floor. Miss Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Ros. Thank you so much. So, I'm the one I'm the board member who asked to put this on the agenda tonight so that we can have discussions about it um and kind of see where we can look at an option for discipline in the regards of the trans alternative and that being uh the parents being held responsible for the bus transportation to the alternative schools. I spoke with TSBA. Um they're saying that there's other districts that are doing this currently where the parents are responsible for the uh the
012bus transportation if their child is reprimanded to the turn of school. I also discuss with them the possibility if there's an issue with transportation with the parents because of uh jobs or whatever if we were allowed to charge a nominal fee for bus transportation and that is not something that we're able to do as an option because of the stance of uh providing free and public education. So, I looked at that alternative, but this is just something that we've talked about and I thought it would be good for us to have a discussion on and and see where it can lead. And if there's motion to be made on Thursday, then I my recommendation will be I'm for dissol making the um bus interpretation be responsible by the parent if the child is recommended to
013the alternative. So, it's open to for discussion. Mr. on. I I can speak from a principal standpoint. Uh this has always been an issue. These kids at the alternative school coming back to the school and waiting for the bus and uh it's always been an issue, always been a problem. And these kids have always created a problem when they come back. So uh I'm like Mr. Rosales, my my recommendation is going to be that needs to be the uh responsibility of the parents or buy them a bicycle one too. Any other questions, comments, max? Yeah, Mr. P. Um, yeah, initially I'm not I'm not against it. I do just have some questions about how it would work. So, Dr. Solvent is how would this affect uh is it the certain amount of days that they
014have to go and if they didn't show up three or four of those days and those would just be added on it would just continue. Correct. For state accountability, chronic absenteeism has been removed from school report card. The problem is for federal accountability and we do still have federal accountability. That's where your schools still get on the the list if you will. And so when we talk about not having accountability for chronic absenteeism, schools absolutely still do. And so you still have that portion to be concerned about. And so students can only miss 18 days to be considered if they're here enrolled the entire school year. Um to not be considered chronically absent. And so that's a component that we worry about. And then if students aren't attending then it's going to be hard for
015them to earn their time to be able to go back away from the alternative setting. What have been the repercussions to the parents when their child is consistently tardy or absent truency their truency plan which eventually gets to the court system if the court chooses and then we file on the parent. Okay. It will definitely increase that. I I would be I think I'd be remiss if I didn't say that if we aren't providing transportation to the alternative school that we don't see an increase on filing against parents for their kids not being in school with the alternative setting. So, as long as we're aware of that, um we just need to need to know that that's going to be a consequence. What's the what's the penalty uh behind Mwell's question here, but the penalty
016to the school system? I understand the penalty of truency. Does that have an effect if we have so many try issues? Did that come back on the school system? Are they you mentioned us being put on the like a federal list? But schools, can you talk to the accountability the federal portion? Because it's really just the schools necessarily as of what we know right now. That is true. The the other thing that is something to consider is obviously if they're not in school, they're not learning and that compounds in accountability across the board. Um, so, so that from the instruction side has always been the concern. If we are putting a barrier in place that prevents them from getting the education we know they need, that's just something to consider. So, he's correct. Federal accountability,
017chronically absent, plus just the accountability of them not getting instruction. The federal accountability has been removed from the department's website as of today. So, well, there you go. As of today, I mean, it's just it's not there. So, it's that's that's a whole different argument. it's difficult to know what your targets are when it changes when it changes so much. Yeah. I mean I look I grew the concept that you know at some point um there needs to be a focus on instruction. So I'm more of a law and order individual. I think some of this falls back on could potentially and some of these cases fall back on the parents where they just say well then I want the school to deal with it. Um and we only have so much that we can
018deal with it with. So anyways, uh I I I just have questions a little bit about how it could be implemented, but I'm not necessarily against the idea in general. Just making sure that we're not stepping on anything. Do Miss Sharp Miss Darpie have anything? M Okay. Okay. Miss Okay. All right. I'm going to ask um help me with this. How how many students are in alternative school? What's the population we're talking about? The there's roughly their capacity is around 125. And when we're we're only talking about 612 when I say about 125. We obviously have an elementary alternative. It's a totally different situation because there's only one is in the north end of the county. That that's going to be an interesting problem too with transportation. um something to discuss. But um this year
019we either remanded as a district, remanded, expelled, zero toleranced 796 students. Not all those ended up at the alternative school, but that gives you an idea of collectively how many were in alternative school. What' you say 796? So let and those are different, you know, obviously that's that's a number that includes multipliers that isn't a true count of students, right? Um lot of different situations involved in there but they anywhere from 100 to 150 is how many would be sitting in an alternative school at any one time. Uh 1% of the student population very very small percent deal with 1% of the student population. Why are they there for violating level four level or zero tolerance policy and that would be help me with that help violence threats um consistent violations of school rules. those
020are the ones that end up those are your major and and that's generally the the principal's decision right principles but then they level fives they usually get appealed to me um and we've put a lot of emphasis on making sure that our schools are safe and so those numbers are much higher than they have been in previous years at least the last three which they should be should be y I I mean yep since I've been here there's been several instances that I don't think any of us want to talk about or think about or anything like that. So, I'm I'm sitting here listening to the discussion and thinking about this out loud. Correct me if I'm wrong, any one of y'all, cuz y'all got a lot more experiences than I do, but if you've
021been remanded to the alternative school, you've messed up pretty bad, right? And and so I know there are going to be those situations where and I'm turn around looking at you because you probably got a better who's got a better handle on it, you or her? But these two we deal with the um and this one appeal appeals more than anybody else. So I'm really looking for dialogue I guess as much as anything. Help me with this. you know that you you have the situations where I guess single parent households you know and they so if they're going to stay in school we got to provide transportation okay is there not an opportunity to use the virtual school online can't do that you can but your problem with the virtual school is so we do
022the 20-day program still um if it's a a first time drug offense but if you assign a student to the virtual school the virtual school then becomes their school record and they have accountability and our virtual school accountability wise is small enough that if you start assigning students who have had behavior issues then your virtual school accountability is going to struggle mightily. It's going to crash and burn. Yes. I'm going to put it in my terms. Correct. Okay. Yes. So, you don't want to so you don't want to sacrifice the virtual school by saying I'm I'm still trying to figure out how to get them an education, but at some point in time the parents have got to engage in this. Well, maybe a little tough love right here where they've got to haul their
023rear ends there yourself. I I'm pretty plain spoken when it comes to discipline. Yep. Um and I don't power to it a whole lot. And I'm sitting here thinking after the fight that at on on the bus, it's like, whoa, these bus drivers got a bad enough problem anyway. And I I know that's a designated route and that driver probably or contractor probably asked for it, but still are we subjecting our employees ourselves to something to cater to less than 1%. We don't want them falling through the cracks, but at some point in time there's tough love in life. you know, we we we either administer it or their parents get involved or they end up in juvie as they all like to say or they end up down here at the workhouse. And so
024if there's a little bit of inconvenience for some of the parents, I don't know that that's too much to ask. Is it Caleb? I I'm I'm kind of looking you I mean you and I kind of got similar views when it comes to this, I think. So, I'm I'm just trying to get a handle on it before I speak too much to the to the issue. Thank you. And can I sharp? Did you have something you wanted to say? Okay. Um I'm not sure that uh if this is I mean when they changed the law about the phones, we thought it was going to be really bad and there was going to be a lot of crying and nashing of teeth. Um and we didn't see we didn't see that. I think everybody kind of
025welcomed that. And you know, we looked at cutting some services and everything and where this is not going to give us a large amount of money. It would free up some of the buses to do some other things. So, I think, you know, if you're in good standing, we should take care of the students, but um if they're not in good standing and they're they're a discipline problem to the bus drivers or to the classrooms or to the principles, um then their their parents need to step in. And I think the sooner that we do some of those things, it will cut it'll nip it in the bud. And you know, we we have to get back to going to school to get an education and not to not to be mischievous. I agree. Go
026ahead, M. Dr. S. I think you'll see that in our expulsion numbers. They're they're high. Not high because our kids are bad or they're high because after COVID, we wanted to make sure we got control of our schools again. So what we've done the last three years is really got control of our schools compared to what was happening the year after CO. So they're definitely higher than they were. We used to have a couple dozen and now it's high. So Mr. Darby, what previously was the repercussion for us federally for the absenteeism? I know you're saying it's not just what it's been historically 10% roughly of a school's overall accountability score. And that has fluctuated to matching what the department's overall before they had letter grades, what their number grade was. Right now, you have
027the letter grade system from the state and then just an overall reward priority type status with the federal government. Um, and that's kind of where it is right now. Is that your understanding as well? It's still just part of the reward priority. So, for example, we had a couple schools, Riverdale, Smyrna, a couple of our elementary schools as well who can get put on the list when you look at the state report card for being targeted support assistants or assisted um intervention and support for a certain subgroup or for an entire school and part of it is chronic absenteeism. So when our general public looks at a school and sees that they're on a failing school list, it very well could be because of a certain subgroup in chronic absenteeism. Thank you. So that that's
028the only that's the tough part is that the state may not care, but we still have federal accountability that the state publishes on our on our report card. Miss Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Rosella. Sorry. I understand all the this is why I brought it up for discussion so that we can talk about the good, bad, and the ugly. Um but I also spoke to some principles and one of the complaints that I heard is that um it seems like the same troublemakers end up being reprimmended over and over again and then because of the seats each depending on the grade band they're only limit they're only allowed so many seats in that in the in the alternative school. So when it comes time to making a decision for a principal to reprimmend a child, if their
029seats already full, they're having to negotiate and trying to bring a child back so that they can free that seat up to bring him bring him back to bring that other person in there. So, it's it just continues to become this pattern of the kids just over and over and over again getting um reprimanded to the alternative school and then creating issues at the school level because they're not mining authority. And then second of all, secondly, I understand the whole chronic absentism and the whole subgroup and that's something why I think as a board we can work collectively together in unity and speaking to our lawmakers and trying to make changes to the statues of the chronic absentism so that they it will be a you so that the tool that can be used is
030that we can expel the child. is not going to hurt our scores because we're not going to be graded on that and it'll be it'll fall back on the parent for the education of their child because they were acting a fool in school and they're not mining authority. So that is why I was proposing the whole thing of trying to think of something that we can do in trying to bring parent accountability into the equation when it comes to child discipline. Mr. B, you've brought up something here and my mind is running 100 miles an hour right now. So, I'm sitting here thinking about this that we we as the school system if if we're trying to cater to a discipline problem and and I and I may be sound like I'm throwing the baby
031out with the bath bath water, but a little bit of this to me or a lot of it goes back on the parents and I'm thinking, well, okay, we're doing this. We're going to still provide transportation to them. And I was telling Miss Dartby this during the discussion. Here's where my mind went. It's a $15 Uber ride. Okay. So, how many days? How many days are we talking about, Dr. Sullivan? Well, well, I mean, what's the average 45? 45. So, that'd be 9 weeks, right? Am I doing my math right? Right there. And so, 14 bucks times that's to Smyrna. That would be from here to Smyrna. That's an average ride, I guess. I don't know. I'm sitting here thinking out loud. at 75 bucks, you know, and I know that's a lot of money,
032but but sometimes you got to get people's attention. I mean, there are o there are other alternatives. There would be the the the parent the working parent would have to leave home earlier, get home later. The they everybody's got to be engaged in this, not just the school system. that I guess that's what I'm getting at here is is and and sometimes you got to hit people where the where it hurts and that's the pocketbook wallet. I don't mean to be I sound cold but but the other side of it is you've got we've got to back you've got to back your principles and your teachers and and that's the reason I'm saying it that way. There are other alternatives to to to get the kids to school anyway. Yes, Mr. Derby, am I remembering
033correctly that some of it is like a pointbased system as well? So, do some of them have It's still We met on Monday. So, that's why I'm saying it still is as of today and I haven't heard the summary yet as of Monday, but it still is as of today. It's still a point system. Um, but students, unless they're first offenders for the drug, the 20 online program, it's a minimum of nine weeks that they stay. Um, and so regardless of the points, the points and those those both match one another. Okay. So, if we go down this road and we find it to be an issue with absenteeism like really bad, could we not look at looking at a point system where they have the ability to earn points and get out faster potentially?
034Possibly. I mean, I'm just saying I don't I don't know how much of of an issue the absenteem is going to be, but but I do think there does have to be buy in when it gets to that level um from everybody, from the family members as well. I mean, I it's it's we have to do something. Um I've never had an issue with us looking at removing the transportation from there. I did want to ask Miss Rosales, are you talking about uh Smyrna West, Daniel McKe, and the elementary? It's all the schools, all three of those. I'd like I'd like to say one thing, you know, about that. Um, these kids go to alternative school. Um, I don't think they ought to earn their way. I mean, I don't think they ought to be
035released early. I mean, they are they've earned it. So, uh, they've earned the right to stay there every every one of those days. And, um, I I really like to see us one day just have an intermediate alternative school where we can we don't have to send kids back because of lack of room. I mean, if a if a kid has earned the right to stay there for nine weeks, he needs to stay there for nine weeks. And we don't need to soften up. We don't need to soften up what we're doing because uh that's one of the reasons I think we're in the shape we're in now. We've made it uh too easy. I guess softening up. But you know, we need to need to it is what it is. He had earned his
036right to stay there. I know I know good and well what my daddy and Mr. V's daddy would have done if if if we didn't have a way if we got to alternative school. that said, "Hey, you got a good pair of shoes, buddy. You ride your bike or you can take a hike and walk." And Dr. Sullivan, then Mr. One thing I do want to add is we do not permit alternative school students to drive to campus. And so that's something just to keep in mind. Um, one, we don't have parking space, and two, safety reasons and everything else, they are not allowed to drive. They would have to be they would have to be dropped off by somebody. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Mr. Tidwell. Yeah. And I understand that. I mean, it's a loss
037of privilege. We're talking about something that they have earned the consequences in which they're getting and is if we're going to prepare kids for real life, then that accountability is going to have to follow them, too. It needs to follow them in the school system. Uh otherwise, we're setting them up for failure anyways. Anybody else? This was a very good discussion. Okay. Next, we have number 12, financial matters. All right. So, we're starting to move into our endofear close. So, this is fund 143 budget amendment. This fiscal year 2425 centralized cafeteria fund amendment increases 991504 indirect cost and decreases 34570 restricted fund balance in the amount of 3,484,173 to budget for indirect costs that are accumulated in fund 141 being reimbursed by fund 143. Indirect costs are incurred for the benefit of multiple programs, functions,
038or other cost objectives that cannot be readily identified as having been incurred specifically or specially for the school fund service program. Indirect cost rates are calculated annually by the Tennessee Department of Education and Child Nutrition programs use the unrestricted indirect cost rate. The fiscal year 2425 unrestricted indirect cost rate for RCS is 11.33%. Brian, can you put that in English? Other than we're allowed other than we're allowed to take uh funds from 143 to cover things in 141 such as indirect costs like electricity, water, sewer, utilities, all of all anything that's indirectly related to the cost of running the cafeteria program that you know would potentially come out of 141 and not being paid for out of 143. Perfect. So, so all of our school sites have their own cafeteria. We pay for it out
039of 141. We're allowed to reimburse it at 11.33% to put funds back into 141 out of 143. So, it's one way to be able to to increase the funds available for 141 and decrease some of the funds fund balance of 143. So, thank you. Number three is a good thing. Number two, we get to number two first. Yep. This fund 140 centralized cafeteria year and cleanup amendment budgets funds for expenditures such as employee payouts, food supplies and materials and the 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 into them so they will not be over budgeted at year end. Yeah, sorry. Number three, this is the board recognition of the Wolverine Football Support at Lever
040High School as an RCS school support organization. Per RCS board policy 2.404, only a group or organization that's entered into a written cooperative agreement with the board may use the name, mascot, or logo of a school or the school district to solicit or raise money, materials, property, security, services, or other things of value. Wolverine football support is provided all information requested from the board certain cooperative agreement can be recognized as an RCSSO. It's noted this SSO has not received an IRS determination letter yet to be recognized as a 501c3 nonprofit entity that is in compliance with the BOE written cooperative agreement. The IRS letter will allow the SSO to open and operate out of a checking account that is separate from Lever High School student activity funds. Until the determination letter is received, the booster
041club will utilize Leverne High School student activity funds for all its financial activities and be subject to the board of education financial policies and procedures. Also, the approval is contingent upon the organization providing a detailed financial policy which they have been notified about. It's very similar to what we did with Rockville opening theirs last year as they were moving their process through. Number 13, Blackman Middle School softball fence request. Dr. Jessica Jackson is requesting to install a security fence to close off the batting cages from the public. School had numerous issues trying to keep the public out of the cages. The fence will protect the softball program cages from future damage. Anticipated cost is $8,100 will be funded by the softball program and the Richard Seagull grant. Engineering construction has reviewed the request and has
042no objections. Number two, Riverdale High football scoreboard request. Principal Tamar Blair is requesting to install a digital scoreboard. The anticipated cost is 300,000 is being funded by a loan and the guarantee request to remain anonymous. Engineering Construction has reviewed the request and has no objection. Number three, Buck Canon Elementary Burden butterfly garden request. Principal Ashley Wit is requesting to install a burden butterfly garden. The request will support all grades in various academic areas. This project is being undertaken by Mallerie Pollock as part of our Girl Scout Silver Award. All materials and labors are being covered by private donors, Troop 1193, and community business donations. Engineering Construction request and has no objection. I think that's number four. Riverdale High School construction project change order engineering construction with input from principal Tamber Blair request to utilize 150,000
043of available site construction funds to address additional renovation of areas inside the ex 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. And I know both just like with Smyrna, Riverdale and Oakland, all three want more projects to be done than can actually be done with those funds. Um but Riverdale and Oakland especially with the movement of utilities and those projects cost more. That's why the cost when we went to the bond market was more um we're going to get through as much as we possibly can. And Riverdale is further ahead than Oakland is. So that's why you got your
044ribbon cutting announcement for Riverdale yesterday. Oaklands will not be much further after that. Any questions? Absolutely. Yes, Mr. Tidwell. Yeah. As far as that goes, is unrelated to the the motion in direct order, but is Oakland still on timeline to open. All classrooms will be open in August. The auditorium is what is lagging behind, but it will be ready by the end of September. That's excellent news. Okay, number 14. So, this is a resolution brought by Miss um Sharp. So, there was a change in state law last year that changed the ratio for nurses to students. Um but as often times happens when we have a change in state law, there was no new funding that was provided. And so this we are addressing it as quickly as we can. We've added three new nursing
045positions this year. Um, but we are not where we need to be with the ratio. And just as a reference, we added four new teaching positions this year. And so we're we're adding them as quickly as we possibly can. Sharp, do you want to read the resolution? You want me to? How do you want me to do? You want me to please? Oh boy. I'm not a good whereazer, but here we go. All right. This is a resolution requesting funding for adequate school nurse staffing levels. Whereas the Rutherford County Schools Board of Education is a local government body responsible for providing a public education to the students and families of Rutherford County. And whereas school nurses play a vital role in Rutherford County's public schools from thoughtfully managing students various health conditions to administering care
046in emergency situations. And whereas school nurses are crucial for identifying and addressing students health issues that if left unressed can negatively affect student attendance, behavior, and academics. And whereas the presence of qualified school nurses provides reassur assurances to families about the health and safety of their children during a school day. And whereas Rutherford County schools is one of the fastest growing districts in Tennessee. and with rising student enrollment increasing the demand for school-based health services and exacerbating the strain on existing nursing staff. And whereas pursuant to TCA 493 359 359 director of schools from an LEA that does not employ or contract for at least one school nurse for every 750 students must report to the department among other relevant data reasons behind the LEA's inability to staff nurses at 1 to 750 ratio. And
047whereas Cincy school districts currently receive no dedicated or direct funding strength through teaser or otherwise to support the hiring and retention of adequate number of school nurses making it difficult to meet the student health needs consistently across campuses. Now for their now therefore be it resolved that the county board of education calls on the Tennessee General Assembly to appropriate sufficient funds either through the Tennessee student investment in student achievement or TISA funding formula or through some alternative funding mechanism to ensure that every public school district in Tennessee has the resources necessary to staff an adequate number of licensed school nurses to meet the health needs of students. Thank you Dr. Sullivan. So I um worked with Mr. Torres to do this because our uh Mr. Reed was working on the bus contracts and everything. Figured
048he had his plate full. So, um, my reasoning in doing this now is that if we pass it here on this level in November, we can go to the delegate assembly and set this up as a resolution for them to uh, lobby next year for this. And so, that's so finally I've got one I got a resolution and I got it in in time. So, that's my um plan behind this is that then TSBA will lobby for the other schools across the state of Tennessee. And since everybody gets a little piece of the pie, everybody's going to want to support this. Right. Right. So, that's my thing with this. Um um Miss Groom is going to come Thursday and speak uh more to what our nurses and everything are doing. And I think that that's
049going to give us a lot of information and a lot of food for thought for our um representatives because I don't think that they have any idea what all our nurses are doing and and what services that they are um asking. And it was at the county commissioners meeting the other night that I realized that our um psychologist they have a smaller ratio and there is a little bit of money for that. But, you know, this is an this is what we call an unfunded mandate and they need to help us with this because when they don't help us with this, then it goes to the local taxpayers to help with this. So, this is excellent. Thank you. And you're spot on. They passed it last year after our budget was already just about finished.
050And so, my reasoning this last year was this was signed into law after the budget was already passed. And so I I didn't know another way to type that reasoning in, but and I couldn't imagine this doesn't get a lot of support because it hurts local or it hurts rural school districts quite a bit too. Um so resolution. Thank you, Miss Maxwell. What was the ratio before? Do you know, Miss Groom, what the ratio was before? 1 to 3,000. Yeah. Oh, wow. Just ridiculous. You can imagine how that's a lot of students. You can imagine how a small district may have two nurses and then all of a sudden they have to have one to seven which is needed but that doesn't come with any extra funding. Well, one thing I had sent an email
051and I sent to Shane as well is looking into um hiring retired nurses with RN credentials with experience. They can be brought in a different pay scale, but they could even be hired as part-time. I mean there's just different options in trying to alleviate any shortages and the and the benefit I would think is that some of the a lot of the majority will have acute care critical experience which is a added plus because it's different than hiring LPNs that will need direct supervision that can help with kids that have feeding tubes or administer LPNs and epipens and whatever. So my mom is a is a retired nur nurse. Um that was her field and that's someone I think of mine that would love to do so to come back and help in one way
052and but not but in a different setting. So just different idea. Yeah. You know, one thing the nurses, it's a great program, but one thing I think that is overlooked. Uh they help a lot of the students that are especially the lower socioeconomic group that doesn't have real good health care. And these nurses help those students more than people realize. And uh boy, they're valuable. They really are. They're they're really good. That's one of the best things they ever did to put nurses in schools. I agree. Any others? Okay, we have a financial report. Financial report um budget process. So last Tuesday and Thursday, of course, our budget was heard by HealthNeted and budget committee passed unanimously. Um but it is not finished yet. So our next steps June 5th, so Thursday is a budget
053committee and so Brian if you can go to that as well. So it is their normal budget meeting but any it is regular budget committee and so anytime the budget committee is meeting they can take the tax levy and resolutions up for consideration. So Brian and I are at every meeting until they gavvel out. Um, last one was four hours. It was It was four hours and 15 minutes. It was And a comment said, "Why are you still here?" And I said, "We're just here just to make sure." Just in case. Just in case. Uh, then the next meeting is June 12th. That's at the full commission. And I'll get to our June 12th meeting in just a second. Then the public hearing is June 17th. There's not a tax rate increase. So, usually when
054there's not a tax rate increase, there's not a lot at the public hearing. Um there may be a lot of the public hearing for other items, but I don't anticipate a lot for the school system. Then June 18th is the last budget meeting of the year to where they will hear our end ofear cleanup amendments. There is no health and education meeting. And so our endofear meeting or our last cleanup on the 12th will not go to health and net. Health and Ed will not meet. It'll go straight to the June 18th budget meeting. And then June 23rd at 9:00 is the last commission meeting. So, our process is a little bit different. We normally have a school board meeting, then it goes to health and ed, and then goes to budget. Our year-end cleanup
055amendments are early this year because the county commission's last meeting is June 23rd, which is early this year. So, our year-end cleanup meeting is next Thursday to meet their turnaround for the next Wednesday. So we have 143's cleanup amendments on this Thursday agenda. We will have 141 that will be all new revenue we have. So we have additional TISA revenue that is not budgeted. We will have our yearend expenditures. Uh we had talked about previously with the board using fund balance to purchase high school computers. We're going to be able to do that out of additional revenue that we've received instead of having to go to fund balance. But then we always throw any additional money that we have into salary line items so that nothing goes over. So you're going to see money thrown
056into salary line items to make sure that we don't go over line items. And so county commission or the county general is usually a 20 or $25 million budget amendment. Ours will be less than that. Do you have any idea roughly what it's going to be? I know you've started working on it. I know we have at least 8 million in revenue, I believe, that we have to know it's more than that. We have about 12 13 about 12 or 13 in revenue. Uh it's probably going to be a difference of about 8 to 9 million. Okay. Currently and so and part of that is our our books as well. So just know that'll be our year end cleanup. We are proportionally much less than what county general's overall budget amendment is, but that's because
057we are so tight on where our numbers are all year long. Uh that'll be Thursday and then instead of going to health and ed that will go straight to budget that next Wednesday instead and then to the full commission. Can I move on to director's update next? Go right ahead. I've asked Dr. Chastain to give an update on riveting third grade um retention information just so everybody has an idea. Okay. So I'm going to give my obligatory statement on what this is and is not first. So remember that third grade ELA TCAP is not a measurement of whether students can read. It's a measurement on how they perform on standards that the law just kind of uses as a proxy. So I think that's important um to remember as we talk about percentages and proficiencies
058and and all that. So the good news is um we are slightly ahead of where we were this time last year. Uh with retakes considered, we are sitting at uh roughly 46% of our students being proficient on the third grade ELA TCAP. We have about 47% that are exempt. So remember the exemptions are for students with disabilities, a suspected disability in reading, uh, learning English. So those are the the reasons for exemption if they've been previously retained. Um, so about 47% of our third graders actually qualified for exemptions this year. That is that is up from last year. Can you stop there? I think that is a huge number for everybody to realize the the reality of our district to be 47% of students. It's almost halfion. Yes. Correct. Yep. qualify for an exemption for
059reading disability being retained or learning English. So almost half of our third graders are close to half. Correct. Where So okay, how many of these are I mean I really I'm interested to know how many will be ELA the disability and disability with reading and I have all that broken down and we can get into the weeds if you would like. Um I you know one thing to point out that is a bit of a concern that has been a concern from the beginning is the number of exemptions has steadily crept up each year. I think that is a response to parents uh perhaps there's there's there's some that like a assurance that their student doesn't have the stress of the retention law. Um it it is also worth noting that not all those that
060are exempt are not proficient. So there there's some overlap there. Uh but the numbers that as we see increasing numbers of students that qualify perhaps for an IEP or have a reading disability or have um you know evidence of some sort of reading disability, those numbers have increased over the last three years. And I think that you just can't ignore that that that has added weight on our our teachers, our principles, you know, as we provide those services. Um so again with all that being said with the increase in that number whatever that number may mean and I'm happy to break down how many are in each category. Uh but to think that with that we're still increasing and it's a steady it's a small increase. So we're we're just we're hanging steady we're less
061than a percent above where we where we were last year. I think the you know the thing that's always important to remember is again this is not an indicator of whether the student can read. This is how they are meeting these standards. That is a really difficult conversation to have with parents that it this feels like a failure. It feels like the student has failed their grade. It feels like they can't read. They know they have evidence at home to see that that's not the case. Uh so that that is an incredibly difficult part of this time of year. I'm sure you guys get calls as well. Uh so that is that is something that just we need to keep talking about so that our community realizes this is one measure. We take it for
062what it is. We want to see that number continue to increase. We pour a ton of resources into making sure that number increases. It this is one of those moments where we're we should be really proud of the work our third grade teachers do and and our support staff. Um, but it it it makes 9year-olds feel like they they failed. So, we we have to make sure we continue to hammer that home. I will say that we're using uh Ames Web. So, everybody's using Ames Web as the universal screener. Not at all intended to be a high stakes assessment or to replace any kind of assessment like TECAP. Uh but it is used to monitor throughout the year and into fourth grade and fifth grade and sixth grade uh to see where they are on
063those fundamental reading skills. We have with all students that are exempt, with every single student in third grade included, uh about 46% of our students are above the 50th percentile nationally. Uh which I just think is an impressive number that all all things included. Uh we are we are basically right where we need to be in terms of students reading. We have uh over 800 third graders signed up for summer camp already. That starts tomorrow. we have uh just 2,870 enrolled, you know, rising K through five. So, that's that's something to put on the radar. Uh but even even with those, you know, 800 students that are in third grade are signed up for summer camp. There really only around 130 that were at risk of retention if they didn't go to summer camp. So,
064those are additionally students that are looking for those extra supports that we offer. So, a lot of reasons to be excited. Um, excited may be a strong word. A lot of reasons to be pleased with the work that we're doing. Um, just kind of steady. Uh, but that that's where we are currently. Yes, Mr. Vaughn. You know, the state did a terrible job when they brought this out and about educating parents as to why. What are something we could do to educate the parents to let them understand it doesn't mean your child can't read? It's all about reading comprehension somewhere down the line. If you don't, you've got to develop that skill and that's all we're trying to do. The state made it sound like that these kids were failures and they're really not. It
065means that, you know, I just felt like I just wish there something we could do to help the parents understand this is not a punishment for your kid. This is something that a skill that's got to be developed and we want to help you develop it. And I I don't know what we can do, but I wish there something we could do from a communication standpoint to help them understand that. Well, and and you know, each of our schools communicate that throughout the year. You more and more schools are doing third grade meetings throughout the year to help parents understand what the the progress monitoring looks like, what it means. It's it's it's so convoluted if you haven't ever seen it before. Uh so the teachers in the schools do a lot of that work.
066This is also the time of year where I'm going to have to say the name Elizabeth Davis because she's the one that uh is our learning loss coordinator or supervisor and I mean has the patience to talk to every single parent that calls that is concerned they you know they might start at the school but they they get sent to her and she tells them over and over and over again like this this is just an indicator that we're going to provide more support. This is not an indicator that your student is can't read or is a failure. I mean, over and over we repeat that message and and I think it's getting through, but it just it it feels feels heavy obviously for a third third grader and their their families. You know, I
067just gosh, if we could just get the parents to let the kids know that, hey, this is this is in no way a failure. This is just something we need to get a little better at. That's all. And uh you know if they could get kids to understand that because you know kids at that age I know so many of them just felt like it was a failure and that's where the state made a huge mistake I feel like. So hopefully we can overcome that but we will miss. Yeah Mr. Go ahead. Uh yes. I mean I would just like to say just from personal experience uh we have our kids read every day and I have a great reader. She is not a great test taker. And so I had a long conversation with
068our principal Miss Goodwin about how it focuses more on comprehension than it does on reading. Um and so she's doing some RTI, you know, moving forward. And that was from last year's law. But that that's just the feeling is having an understanding of what is actually being said. Now, that's that may not be the news headline and that may not be the way that it's put out to the public, but in reality, you could have someone that understands what they're reading great and is really good at understanding the words and the phonetics and all that, but if they don't test well and and I have one that just doesn't that uh that's going to that's the way it's going to show up. But my uh my question behind that is the 47% that are exempt
069the ELLL and disability. You don't have to give it to me right now, but at some point could we get you mentioned that a lot of those are proficient in reading. And you know what I feel like from a media standpoint, they like to take the 46% number and just hammer it down. Well, if they're going to come in take the 46 just say, "Oh, only 46% of Rutherford County students can read." Let's go and give them the whole number then if we have that. if we have access to that data. I'm not sure. Well, the 46 includes everybody. So that it would include anybody that was also exempt exempt that is proficient. So that is that is inclusive. I got of that number. All right. But that's still a percent up. Is that what
070you say? Roughly close to a percent. We're just under a percent higher than last year. Okay. And with different kids and different, you know, it's totally different measures, but obviously we love to see it continue to go up. What what happens when you have two a contrast happening between your progress that you're making with proficiency and then also your exemptions are climbing and you're almost to the peak. You're at 46 and 47%. Yeah. What I mean you're going to you're going to make a ceiling. Well, so I can tell you what we're thinking in terms of that is where we really want to start making a push for prek through two. Uh really focusing in on, you know, doing that monitor. We're already monitoring those students as well, but really focusing early on the monitoring
071of those students for where they are on that progress. Um really putting extra supports in those grades. you know, hope hopefully with with parents help and as as we see students struggle in certain ways, you know, is this a skills gap and a standards gap that we can address early that maybe maybe can get out of that um that that idea that maybe they they have a disability. I mean, and there's so many things to consider. So, these students and there there are a lot of reasons that they're exempt and a lot of reasons that um I'm so glad that piece of the law is in there. Obviously, if we're trying to get the supports to the students that will assist them with what they have to get to the next level. Um, but our
072our focus is really on prek through two moving moving into next year. Can I ask a follow-up question about that as well? This around summer camp you said is around 800 for third grade. 802 as of this afternoon is but it's open to all elementary. Yes, we have uh 2,870 across rising K through five. Is there anything that we can do to potentially encourage because you said you're going to start doing more testing in the K through two to start encouraging some of those that are showing in the testing maybe some weakness as they're heading toward third grade. Sure. And I mean we I don't know that it's going to be an increase in testing. I think it's just going to be an more intentional focus on the data that we already have. Um but
073yes, absolutely. We would love to get students the supports early. I mean, that that that is the part of the law that I think we can all agree on, like the let's focus in on the early supports, continue to do after school, continue to do summer. Um, we plan for around 3,100 about 3,50 students each year. We're close to that in terms of summer camp attendance. So, that's that's good. That means parents continuously want their students uh receiving those services. So, that that's awesome. Um but yeah, we can certainly try to bolster the the early grades in in attendance too. And do we have the data that for those that are attending summer camp showing the progress that they've made? So this that's a tricky thing and and we'll talk more about that at the
074end of June when we give those post tests. We we've talked about this before in terms of the adequate growth that's needed to get if if that's the only pathway they're using to try to get from third grade to fourth grade. One of the options is to go to summer camp and show adequate growth on the post test. It is nearly stat it feels statistically negligent to me to have that few days and have a measurement of whether they they maintained ad they got adequate growth that we use the same formula to say they got adequate growth over a whole year. So that we do not see tremendous results by that measure alone. Um, so we're we're kind of playing around with some other ways to measure growth and impact on our side that's not
075that measure, but it it's tough to really measure what those, you know, less than 20 days does for a student's ability to read. I understand I understand that com comparison against the whole, but certainly there is value. Oh, absolutely. Days. Yeah. Do we offer prek at every school? We do not. How much what would it take to do that money? $1 billion. Hey, by the way, by the way, I'd be willing to take those numbers and I'd be interested to see how many of these kids are proficient that had prek compared to the ones that didn't have prek. Cuz I'm going to tell you, I I have seen it. And I'm telling you, every kid needs to have the opportunity to have prek. If they want success in schools, if that's what people want, then
076then, you know, we'll find the money to do it. But I tell you, I think that's the best thing we could do is give every kid the opportunity to have prek. Miss Rosalis, thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Shaine, um, for providing that information. and I had sent an email and you were out of vacation. But um wish I was there where you were at but anyways um I have a couple questions. I remember last year we were presented plan of action and the district had individual goals that they wanted to meet certain metrics and I'm just curious to know where we're at with that. I because I I believe one metric that I'm really curious to see and interested is that there was a particular percentage that we were going to target and
077we were going to do it incrementally every year up until I don't I don't know how long how far into the plan of action was or is. And then that's one thing and then number two I'm curious to see what these standards are. I don't think I've ever seen the standards for which the kids are being measured. And the reason why I'm curious to know is that I had read an article not too long ago, maybe a couple months ago. I don't know if you had sent me there. I don't know. I don't know how I got hold of the article, but this article basically had was talking about how educators who were actually adults in the profession did not pass the third grade ELA portion of the TECAP. And the whole reason is because
078it's designed around the standards, not necessarily designed around whether proficiency in reading in the sense of they can actually read. So if the adults who are educators who are in the school in the in the school system are not didn't didn't pass this test, I'm really curious to see what these standards are. You're looking at me when you say that. Yes, I am. I'm looking at you. Um, and so I'm just really curious to to know what that is. Um, and I do agree that if we can do more um involvement in early intervention earlier in prek that will h hopefully help. And then and I think the question why I'm bringing the standards if there's I think this is we talk about how we're teaching to a test and how we should get a
079lawmakers to remove some of these standards. Maybe this is the the the start is to look at where they're being measured in the third grade and review that to see if there are standards that really don't make sense. But shouldn't be a part of the testing. Dr. S the first um to answer the first question that a teaser review we will have that once all scores are finalized. So that we do in October once we get final test scores. So that'll be in October roughly once we know final scores. Okay. Second, we'll be happy to send you all the standards. They are currently in ELA standard review and so the current standards don't change until the 3031 school year, but they have already been reviewed. Is the review process over? I think it is. Yes,
080it's in review. The standard review process is already over. So, in 2037 38, you'll have your opportunity again. And we miss it. Y miss it. A lot of our people help produce. We have a lot of people. We have a lot of people involved. Okay. And you know, we try the the standards build on each other. So the standards make sense in the in the context that they exist. Um so and and yes, I will and real quick to the incremental changes that the goal was to have like 70% of our students proficient by seven by 2030 statewide. Um, so that was that is a a very lofty goal. And uh, one other thing to add, we did actually pull those numbers on just trying to get a feel for the impact of VPK. Um,
081and of the students that have been in VPK, only 5% of them have been referred to for RTI. So that gives you kind of a an a little bit of a idea of the impact that that that does have. So my daughter was in prek and she was in prek too when she was 2, three, four, five and and going into uh kinderg after before kindergarten and they had awards um assembly last the last week of school and she got awarded master reader. Oh, I'm really proud of her. Um, that was a goal that we had as a family was for her to read and she is reading above grade level. I'm really really proud of her and I I'm sure parents are proud of their kids too, but it's excellent. Miss Sharp. No, I'm
082okay. Thank you. Um, Dr. Mr. Sullivan and I had spoken about Miss Rosales had brought up the town halls again and I think this third grade if we could start like in August of September and and do some of the elementary schools this next year and get in early with the parents then and capture their attention. And I know y'all do Yeah. Listen, we're two years into this now, right? This our second this our third year. Okay. I think you know with more kids coming in, people having kids, I think we're going to get to a certain point where everybody's like, "Oh, okay. a third grade retention, you know, because there's not as much I don't receive as many emails this year and I'm hoping people are kind of settling into the fact that like
083Mr. Vaughn said, we are trying to help the students and it is something that we're trying to set them up for their future. But I think this is definitely something maybe Miss Haley can do some of the town hall starting out early in August or September and start with the third grade retention. and she's really good about telling the parents, "Your kids need to go to bed and they need to get sleep, you know." So, I think that that that would be a great thing for us for us to do in the new season. Yes. Yes. Miss Sharp Dart rather. Sorry. Dr. Chain, you said that the 46% included the exempt students that were also proficient. Correct. Do we know what the percentage is without the exempt students? Like if I what percent is proficient?
084I can tell you in just a second. Thank you. My caveat is that these are very this is not clean data in terms of there are students that haven't been removed that will eventually be removed. This is doesn't include all those but just with that being said. Yeah. So it's 66.5% proficient of those students that are not exempt. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. I have one more question. Yes, Mel. I'm c I'm curious. um after the change in the state law, were there students that we that the school um advocated for for the retake or for them not not that we could for them not to be um held back? Sorry, repeat that question one more time. There was a piece of there was piece of legisl that the school was able to advocate or or
085make the appeal for the Yeah. on behalf of the parents. Yes. Yes. Have we How many of those Why we have to do? We uh My computer has frozen, but we've done hundreds. Oh, I have it. There were 436 that were eligible that were above 40 percentile. So, the the So, 436 is how many appeals that are out there. The ones over the 50th percentile got done automatically, just pulled based on the Ames web. So there are fewer actual tangible appeals that were made on behalf of parents. Um but yes, we kind of opened up some more pathways for schools to work with parents to to handle those appeals. Okay, good. So we saw do we have to do more of that ourselves or are they It's total partnership with parents. So I I think
086that part is you know it's a it's a lot but I think it's work. It's it's better and the link is open. So you know one the first year the link wasn't open so that was yeah was an issue progress I remember it was not yeah exactly first year but you guys handle that very well the first year so okay anything else thank you very much for getting gathering all this data one other thing on director's update so I want to thank our principles assistant principles um instructional coaches um coordinators so the last two days we did not take any time off um as far as our leadership. So, we had elementary principles, assistant principles, instructional coaches with Dr. Susan Levless yesterday and then our middle school and high school principles, assistant principles, instructional coaches
087with Dr. His today and met and looked at our just plans already for next year and figured out where our teams were and just going ahead and figuring out make sure we're all on the same page as we were moving forward for a long seven-hour training um today. And so that's that's a lot when you don't even take one day to reflect back on the successes you've had of this year and are already planning for next year. So we'll get to that point, but we wanted to make sure we hit the ground running right afterwards. And so that was a long seven-hour trainings for each different group. So thank thank you for them and uh just overall looking at our effectiveness to see. So now they can they still have a couple weeks left. Our
088coaches work a couple through this week. Our assistant principles work through the end of next week and our principles are here three more weeks after this week. And so that's kind of how their calendars work. Then they get a couple weeks off and then we put it back into gear in that opposite direction. assistant principal start back. Assistant principal start back coaches start back. So awesome. Anybody else have anything? Yes. Any um so the board was invited to attend the first uh Latin dance group club that showcased our talent at uh from Leverne High School at the dance national dance club in Murphy'sboro. So I went there and it was pretty neat to have the first uh Latin dance club. They did the um salsasa and bachata. So those were um typical uh Latin flavor
089Caribbean type dances. And then also got to see a uh a dance ensemble that showcased the the the series of enchantments. So you got to see cha chaacha cha um typical ballroom dances that you can think of. I don't know their names but it was very neat and it's a new program is still in its infasy stages and my understanding the teacher is wanting to have this uh club to be in all the different schools so there could be competitions and so anyways I'm really excited. I think it's a good opportunity for kids to get a different culture and experience. this dance. That's all right. But I'm sure there's going to be others. But it was really nice. Anybody else have anything to add? Mr. Darby move to adjourn.