001Welcome to the May 7th, 2025 special called meeting of 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. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. 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. I ask you to please bow your heads for an unspoken and silent prayer. Thank you. First up, we have approval of the agenda. Any comments or questions? Move to approve. Second. Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Thank you, Miss
002Sharp. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. We move on to public comment section and we have four who have signed up for public comments. First up we have Mr. Charlie Felts. Charles Felts, I'm sorry. I'd like to start tonight thanking the board for the opportunity to come here and speak tonight. Uh my name is actually go by Mike Mike Feltz. I'd like to speak about the concern of myself and several parents about the PRZ zones. I know at first glance it seems like this may uh encourage parental involvement. When you look closer at it, it raises a lot of concerns that I've heard from many members of the community I've spoke with. First, it it's going to disproportionately affect low-income families. Many many families have households where both parents work or
003parents work multiple jobs. They don't have flexible schedules. They're not going to be able to transport their kids. You expect them to meet the additional requirements and seems like an unfair unfairly punishes those that are already stretched thin. They can't get time off work. They can't flex their schedules around. Second, the second thing and the biggest concern to me is the safety. A lot of these neighborhoods don't have, you know, sidewalks. Some of these schools are on roads without sidewalks. Uh I think everybody here knows how the traffic is in Murphy'sboro. I mean, it's it's not not it's not good. I see horrible driving every day. Hate to have my child walking through that. And the third thing I I'm concerned with is it seems like it'll deepen the divide with the divide in education
004for the students. Students could arrive late or be tired from walking in or just not show up at all. If it's bad weather, kids not going to get want to get out and walk in the rain or the cold. That just it seems like there should have been more thought put into this. And I'm sure there can be a better solution found. And another thing with the safety, most children go to school for roughly 11 years before they're old enough to drive, transport themselves to school. In the last 11 years, there have been 538 pedestrians hit in Rutherford County. That's the fifth most in the state. And most of those are adults, full-sized grown adults walking down the street getting hit by cars. There was unfortunately a gentleman struck and killed last week in Leverne.
005It's just not a situation I feel comfortable putting the children in. Thank you for your time. That's all I've got. Thank you, Mr. Phelps. Our next speaker is Mr. Jason, Mayor Jason Cole. Good evening, board. Little different for me to be on this side uh compared to our meetings, but I'm here to represent the residents of Leverne. There's 42,000 residents who quite frankly many of them felt uh blindsided and betrayed with the be with the PRC. They felt like it was unplanned, unannounced, and it was thrust upon them suddenly. Um I personally reached out to everybody on the board. I got four responses back and I want to thank everyone who responded back to me with those concerns because it was a collective from our residents. I want this board to look at the PRZ
006and consider delaying it. not just for a year, but until a comprehensive safe routes to school study is done that looks at all of the schools that are impacted to see where the areas are for concern for our students because like the gentleman before mentioned, we just had a grown man hit and killed on Old Nashville Highway. One that many people have seen walking back and forth for months going to and from a bank to go out to eat. If somebody can do that to adults, our children, we don't want to put them in that situation. Um, on top of a comprehensive plan, y'all should consider doing parental meetings in each district just like y'all did with the uh school resoning. Get the parents involvement. Get their buy in. This is something that's going to
007be successful. You have to have the parents buy in. Looking at some of the maps, you have um students that have to cross multiple highways if they're going to be on foot or on bike. Uh for Leverne alone, uh the Lever Middle School, 80% of Lake Forest, which is the largest subdivision in the state of Tennessee, is is in that PRZ. You're looking at a neighborhood of 7,000 homes. Imagine that that volume for kids. that that's just that's that's very very very concerning to me. Um, and I still stand by the comment. I think that with the the PRZ, you can still have, you know, raises for our bus drivers and you can have kids going to school. It's not just one or the other. It's working through the budget process and finding those solutions.
008So we need to find something that works for parents, for schools, and most of all for the safety of our children. They are the biggest biggest investment for everyone in this whole nation. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Miss Elizabeth Atkins. Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. My name is Elizabeth Atkins and I'm here tonight as a concerned parent and community member regarding the PRZ. I understand that this policy was approved due to budget concerns, but I'm asking you to seriously consider tableabling it, at least until real safety measures are in place. In our county, many students who live within the PRZ would be forced to walk along roads with 55 to 65 mph speed limits, roads with no sidewalks, no crosswalks, and short school zones. These are
009not safe walking routes. A majority of these are on highways. My daughter is 5 years old and she weighs 35 lbs. That is who this policy is asking to walk to school along these dangerous roads. An example of this is my daughter's own school, Las Casses Elementary. It sits right on Highway 96, also known as Las Cass's Pike. I drive that road every single day and I have almost been run off it more times than I can count by drivers who have no regard for speed limits, school zones or the children nearby. This is not a safe environment for pedestrians, let alone small children walking alone. The reality is not all parents have the option of driving their children to school. Many are working jobs that don't allow them to come and go freely. Expecting
010every family to manage this without transportation support is unrealistic and unfair. And let's not forget what happens during inclement weather. Snow, ice, and tornado warnings. Children will be expected to walk in dangerous conditions, often in the dark, and we are setting them up for tragedy. This policy, in its current form, is not ready. Until sidewalks, crosswalks, and extended school zones are in place, we are putting children at serious risk. I respectfully ask you to delay the implementation of the PRZ and prioritize student safety above all else. Thank you. Thank you. Lastly, we have Miss Ashley Hail. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Ashley Hail and I'm an active member of this community and I poured hundreds of volunteer hours into my children's
011elementary school just this year, all while juggling a full-time career. I come to you not just as a concerned parent, but someone who is deeply worried about the safety and equity of our children that would be affected by the PRZ in Rutherford County Schools. While I do appreciate the board's recent intent to pause the parent responsibility zone for one year, I want to be very clear, a temporary pause is not enough. It may buy time, but it does not solve the real long-term problems this policy would create. The PRZ would limit bus transportation to children who live within 1 2 and a half miles from school. On paper, this might seem like a reasonable way to help with the budget, but in reality, it's far more dangerous. Some children will be forced to navigate high
012traffic and high-speed roads, some up to 55 mph, cross unsafe intersections, and walk along the highway and or stretches where sidewalks are inadequate or do not exist at all. PRZ is not just an inconvenience. It's a risk to some of our students lives. And even if one child is severely injured or worse because of this policy, that cost is far too high. When we say parent responsibility zone, we must remember this is not a walk zone. It's a warning zone. and a deflection of liability. And if tragedy strikes, the responsibility will not disown the parents and a grieving student body. It will rest with every decision maker who voted for this to move forward is a reasonable solution to a budgetary issue. We also cannot ignore the threat of child predators. For some of our
013youngest students, children as young as five, it would be asked of some of them to be alone, vulnerable, and unprotected. These are not hypothetical risks. This is not the world our parents grew up in. These are known dangers, and they are preventable. This policy also places heavy and unfair burden on underprivileged families as well as single parents. Not every parent can work flexible hours. Not every household has access to reliable transportation. PRZ disproportionately affects low and single inome families, punishing those who are already struggling to make ends meet. These parents often lack flexible work schedules or reliable transportation, making it nearly impossible for them to consistently take their children to school. It's a policy that unintentionally prioritizes budget convenience over compassion. And perhaps most importantly, PRZ stands in direct conflict with our county's stated commitment
014to educational equity. How can we say that every child has an equal opportunity to learn when just getting to school safely would be a challenge for so many? I urge you, please don't just table this policy for a year. Let's show our community that we are serious about student safety and equity. Let's make the bold right choice and take PRZ off the table permanently. Ruford County's children deserve better. Parents and taxpayers deserve fair and equal access to bus services that put safety first for all. Let's not kick this can down the road. Let's pick it up and deal with it. Thank you for listening and thank you for having the heart to fight for what's right. Thank you. I'm ready for some comments, questions before we vote on the We have two motions before us,
015but we're also we can also make our own motion. Yes, Mr. Tidwell. Yeah, I think that we've heard I know that we've all gotten emails and phone calls and text messages and every other form of communication possible about this. Um, and that it would only make sense at this time to rescend it. Um, take a look back, figure out how it if it if it even could work here, but what that would even look like, giving parents more time to make plans. Um, at least that's been my experience. So, that's why I'd be making a motion to resend. Second, Miss Sharp, that was a motion. Yeah. Oh, I didn't realize that was a motion. Any comments or question? I do have a comment though. I do agree that we do need to involve the parents
016and asking them questions just like we did with the reasonzoning um to get feedback from them. Um, when we had talked about this back in April, I thought we were going to have a study that we were going to look at because that was what we that was discussed back in April of 2024 that we had tabled this PRZ and that it was going to give time to come back to the board to bring in recommendations of where it made sense or didn't make sense because a lot of the board members had the same concerns that we're hearing from parents about the safety issues. So, um I understand that they're budgetary issues and this may be a cost savings, but at the same time, I I think that before we make further decisions on it
017to have a study conducted and see where the true savings and costs are. Would you like to Mr. Tidville, would you be would you like to amend the motion to call in for? You have to rescend it first. Okay. Okay. Okay. We're good. Yes, Miss Darby. Um I agree with Mr. Zalis. I do believe that that was brought up about a study. Um, I know when I've talked about this in the past, we've talked about the difference between Rock Springs Elementary School, Rock Springs Middle School, and how some of our schools have lots of sidewalks and subdivisions that are literally next door to the schools, and then we have other schools that are not in that same situation. Um, so I do think I appreciate that we heard from so much of our community because
018there were a lot of things that were raised that I think didn't get brought up and didn't get discussed. So, I think this is a smart move for our board to look into this further, do some of the study and the work, maybe identify places where it makes more sense than others. Um, so I just think it's a good idea. Okay. Any other comments? Did you add that to yours? So, if we resend the vote, does that mean we can go back to getting the study done? Yes. and to see if this is a true cost savings because I don't know. Yeah, I'm just going to leave it to that. Yes, Dr. Sen, I don't think it'll be worth um if you're only doing in targeted areas, I don't know that the it'll be worth
019instituting. Um but I already have we're working on that already, but I don't know that the recommendation would be to institute it in certain areas for a cost savings measure if you're only eliminating three or six or eight buses. Um, but yes, we can do all that. I'm just saying long term. If I'm projecting out in 8, nine, 10 months, um, what the disservice that would do to some parents in certain areas, I don't know that that would be worth $3 to $350,000 in savings to only not provide transportation in a couple targeted areas when I may still be sending a bus for high school, but not be sending it for elementary. I'd still I think Rock Springs was the one we looked at, for example, because it got brought up, we may not send
020a bus there for the elementary or the middle school, but I'm still going to be sending a bus for Leverne High School or Stewart Creek High School. That's that's going to be tough when parents see buses still going there, but their kid can't get on it. This is definitely definitely good conversations and this it's a real problem and uh I've spoken with several and we're trying to work on this in the future. um if we build a school in developers will come around and build houses. That's that's their priority. That's her right. But at some point we have to ask, hey, how about some sidewalks? How about some sidewalks throughout your entire neighborhood? And how about some sidewalks? If you're within an a mile, mile and a half, how about a sidewalk to the school?
021And I think there is quite a few quite a few people that are on board with that. Uh that's the future. Uh by delaying this and not killing it. I think that we give ourselves time to I know we have to target some of them, but I think this would help with the new schools and such. Can you also say the recommended motion to says until a later school year? It doesn't say next year. It doesn't say one year. Yep. Miss Maxwell. Yes. Um, Murphus for City Schools implemented PRZ, but it's not, it wasn't implemented to the entire city school district. It's only like four schools that have the PRZ. It's scales. Mitchell, Nielson, um, the Salem, and Kasein Lane. So, um, and it it's with the areas that had sidewalks. So, a lot of
022our schools do not have sidewalks. I know. And so, and even like for example, um, Blackman Elementary School or well, really Blackman Middle and Blackman High School. Yes, there's sidewalks leading up to the school, but on the other side of the school, there's a four-lane highway. So, we're going to have to think about if it's hypothetically being passed, we need more crossing guards. We need it's it's we're going to need a lot more resources in trying to even look at the safety aspect. So, I don't feel comfortable in just saying we're going to do a blanket PRZ through the out throughout the whole entire district when we haven't seen a study of where it does make sense, doesn't make sense, or even if it's the cost savings are there. To be honest with you, Madam
023Chair. Yes, Mr. Arby. I do think um I think Dr. hers and has a valid point that it may not bring the savings that we're thinking of if we end up having to kind of peacemail it together. But I do think we have to be cognizant that for our community, some people might be okay in some areas and some people may not. But I do think it's our responsibility. Let me first stop and say thank you for going back through the budget and finding the money in other places. Um, part of the difficulty I think of our budget is it's an everinccreasing budget because we have salaries that have raises every single year. So, we're always going to be kind of chasing that down the road. We're always going to be looking for more funding
024to make sure that we can keep up with what is automatically in the budget without adding anything. But we can, I think, have discussions and look at combinations of things. So it may be that it's only the board could decide next year, five years from now, it could be an entirely new board to implement it in certain areas and maybe they'll combine it with deciding not to service the alternative schools anymore or combinations of things that can amount to a larger budgetary item that can be put back into the budget. So it may be something where standing by itself doesn't look like a lot, but sometimes it is kind of getting those multiple smaller pieces together to find the that bigger amount. Miss Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Rosales. I do agree that the one or could
025save money is not providing transportation to the alternative schools. Um, and I'm some parents may be upset with me about saying that, but at the end of the day, if you're, and I'm speaking from experience because my daughter was recommended to the alternative school. Um, my oldest one, my other two didn't, but the parents were the ones who had to I had to take her at 6:00 in the morning and meet at a destination spot. I had to be there with her from a particular bus, came in, picked her up, and then took her to school and then be there. at two o'clock and do the same thing. So I feel as though that is the one area that I'm in agreement with that if we want to save cost that um there will be
026no transportation provided to the to the turn of schools or if there are they there are at least modify it where they have to meet at a bus destin like a bus like a destination stop and that's where their bus is going to be to collect them all but not for the kids to ride their their zone school and go to the school they're at and then another bus is waiting for them to pick them up. Um, I feel like there should be some I think that's the area that I will be 100% in favor of. Mr. Did you have something to say? This is uh a little bit off subject to that, but uh a frustration of mine. I don't think that the catch 22 and Dr. Sullivan can correct me if I'm wrong
027here is that we'll then be hit with absenteeism stuff which we have no control over. I don't understand why the school system is charged with this as if we have any control over whether or not a student can come or not. Uh but yet we are penalized. Am I on the right path here? We're penalized if they don't come. And I agree with both of the comments that have been made here on this subject. Um I absolutely don't think we should be providing transportation. Then the other side of that is then we get penalized for it. So it's it's very frustrating for me. Agree with the comments. U just wanted that on the record. Miss Sharp, did you have something? You look like you were ready to say something. Thank you. Let me go ahead
028and say uh and maybe you know we have a survey application that we can send out to our parents and say you know what what would be an alternative to having a PRZ zone? Would a community drop or something like that? Would would that would that work, you know, in in some of the areas? because obviously um Rock Springs Elementary with all the construction going on over there, there's just there's no way. I mean, there's act there there's an active construction site over there and you on Waldron Road, you're lucky if you don't get pitched over to the side where they're building the new houses because the road is so narrow. So, um I think we we've got some things that we need to look at. I definitely believe that I agree with Miss Darby.
029If we cobble together, we could do a survey with our parents. And if we cobble together the cost savings of not providing to the alternative school and targeting some of those campuses where it is okay to have the PRZ zones and then in the future, I don't know if I can say this any louder. In the future, we will make sure or we put pressure on the builders to provide these these sidewalks and away safe access within a mile and a mile and a half to the school. That is the only way we're going to be able to go forward or we're going to be stuck in this. That's why I would like to not just resend it, but to to postpone on this and but not implement it until many many years till we
030can get this done. It may be two years, maybe three years, but we're going to need the PRZ's. And I do feel like if we study this some more, talk to our parents, we could work out something and we can get some cost savings from it. I don't know. It's going to be enough. Any other comments? Okay, we have a motion on the floor. We has had it seconded by Miss Sharp. Would you like to do a roll call vote? No. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. And you don't necessarily need another motion because I bring it back unless wants me. We'll bring this back if if somebody wants to bring it back. Okay. Good. Any other questions, comments? Okay, miss move to adjourn.journ.