00125 work session of the Rutherford County School System first up we have the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mr Caleb Tidwell we have some very special guests with us y'all y'all can hold up just one second we're not hopping up just right away um but uh I'm going to introduce Miss Judy Goodwin principal over at barford elementary we have a special guest that's going to lead us in the pledge after that she going theedge go right ahead people obviously here it's my great pleasure uh to introduce a couple of folks here and every morning we have some rituals at Barfield that we go through and one of those rituals is saying the Pledge to the flag but I need to say it in a certain way because this young man is especially talented at saying
002the Pledge to the flag his name is Ved jov and he was born in the United States but his family here lots of people to celebrate with him migrated from India and so his support tonight is uh M Jones Miss Anna Jones who is his structured setting teacher Ved is in fourth grade at Barfield would you please stand face the flag and proudly say the Pledge I pledge to the flag of the United States of [Music] America for IT stand one nation under God indivisible with Clarity and justice for all let's love I love it next I would ask you to Bow your heads for a moment of silence thank you next we have the agenda approval of the agenda let you take a look at it look it over any questions or comments then
003we move on to the approval of the consent agenda any questions or comments any additions if not we will move on to number six Rutherford proud and Dr Lindsay howford you have some special guests with us tonight good evening everyone I am very excited to be here and to have some special guests with us tonight um March is a special month because it is music in our schools month dance in our school's month theater in our school's month and so it's the fine Arts month um so before we hear our wonderful performers tonight I just wanted to give you all an update about some of the Fine Arts happenings going on around the district and celebration of this month in Rutherford County we know that the Arts are extremely important and can put a lot
004of worth into our students education and there are a lot of values and qualities that students can get out of being in the Arts and in Rutherford County we really focus on these three Excellence creativity and Community uh we talk about Excellence a lot because there is nothing that teaches a student to pursue excellence and a higher standard than learning to play an instrument preparing for a performance finalizing a piece of art you know um an analogy we make sometimes is in most classes a 90 is an A and that's great and we celebrate that but have you ever heard an orchestra play at 90 % you if you have you you remember it and so we have a high standard in the Arts and we teach students to strive for that high standard and
005for that Excellence creativity is the domain of the Arts and talent is wonderful and we have a lot of talented students but creativity isn't just about Talent it's a skill that you work at and that you develop and the more you use it the better it gets like a muscle so we are all about developing that creativity skill in our students because increasingly employers list creativity as one of the top qualities they are looking for in employees and so we know this impact students in their life and work in the future and Community um Arts programs really pour into their community and teach students to engaging Community imagine your Friday Night Football games without the marching band you know playing and cheering for those first downs the first day of school when students walk in
006the band out there celebrating that artwork in the hallways you know it's a huge part of our community and students learn to engage in community Through the Arts um and arts programs are in themselves a community they're a tether to the school if a students inquire and they have that group of people around them those teachers that they're with for three four years that they trust that keeps our students coming to school every day so creativity Community Excellence is what we're about we offer instruction in all five art forms and rather for County school that's Music Theater visual art dance and media arts media arts is the new kid um to the art scene but that includes things like film and TV studies digital media photography all of those things we offer um instruction in
007all five of those art forms so we're very proud of that a few achievements to share with you and obviously I can't list them all because there's so many um but here we have um information about Midstate and Allstate honors we have more vocal music students in Midstate and all state than anyone else in the Galaxy um or at least the state of Tennessee 132 freshman honors in Midstate choir students 36 All State honors students in instrumental music band and Orchestra that's 150 Mid-State honors 24 All State in theater we had 48 Mid-State honors and 26 All State honors this year here's a side note that I'm very proud of Tennessee as far as I can tell in my research is the only state to have an Allstate theater program the reason that program exists
008is eight years ago Rutherford County Teachers came and said you know Bandon Orchestra students can achieve Mid-State and Allstate distinction why can't theater students have that no one else does it and we don't know how to do it so I said well let's try it so we started with an all count theater program program that our teachers developed the first year we had it some things went wrong we changed it we worked on it for three or four years then some Williamson County and Metro folks were interested we started expanding and then eventually the State Theater Association has taken over that and made it into a true mid East West and all state program that they do in conjunction with the thescon program at MTSU it also is the biggest college audition for theater in
009the state because the way they set it up College professors do the audition process so students also earn scholarships and admissions through the process so I mention that because I'm a little bit proud of it um and the in our Visual Arts this year 18 students got National Gold and Silver Key Scholastic Awards so truly students doing amazing things in all areas of the Arts as a district we have been named a Community for music education for six consecutive years that's a national award yes rord county is one of 11 districts in the state of Tennessee to earn the award last year and it's given to districts that show great support for music education I love this statistic our enrollment over 70% of Rutherford County students from kindergarten through 12th grade are enrolled in at
010at least one Fine Arts course so Arts is not kind of a niche subject the Arts programs in our district impact over 70% of our students and while yes elementary students 100% of those students get music and art in high school almost 60% of students are still participating in at least one Arts course we're very proud of that uh want to let you know that every year we have some District Fine Arts events and many of you attend those and we appreciate it every year we have an all count choir um that happens in the fall to celebrate 300 choir students who have done amazing work in Midstate and all state auditions all count band takes place in February we host that at World Outreach and it's always a great um concert the art show
011is held at the Frist Museum downtown this year we had over 600 pieces of artwork that were viewed by over 2200 uh patrons who came through the museum so great exposure for our art students and of course we have JazzFest coming up in April uh the 25th and 26th and I don't think there's any other County in Tennessee that has the number of jazz and popular music programs that we do because we have a full lineup of RCs bands uh ready to play at that event and teaching students those Styles so we're very excited about that um just to mention some course offerings that are maybe outside the traditional we have very strong traditional Arch programs here in Rutherford County our bands do a fantastic job our choirs you've seen the numbers of students earning
012Midstate and All State Theater the musicals are amazing there's several this week so you should look at the calendar and go see some um but we also have learned that not all students fit into your typical band student choir student theater student mold but that doesn't mean they're not interested in the art so we have worked over the past five or so years to really expand the types of programming we're offering so in addition to those strong traditional programs we also now have most of our high schools offer guitar in some form we have several offering piano digital music programs songwriting programs that often go along with guitar we have three schools offering dance um and the middle picture there is the brand new dance studio at Smyrna High School which is beautiful you ought
013to go check it out um and we offer film and TV and those media arts courses and what we have found is by offering those types of courses our enrollment in band and choir and Orchestra has not declined but our overall enrollment has increased meaning we are offering things for students that they didn't have access to before and meeting more interests um so that is wonderful and a lot of these courses are now expanding to offer guitar to piano to Dance 2 3 4 because students want to be involved multiple years so we're very proud of that as well now time for our special performance I'm very excited tonight uh that the steuarts Creek High School guitar program is here um and I'd like to ask Miss Alexis daberry um to come on up and
014introduce them uh Miss daberry has been at Stewart's Creek High School as the guitar teacher for four years but she's been in Rutherford County for several years and interestingly she has been named teacher of the year as an elementary teacher as a middle school teacher and as a high school teacher as the district teacher of the year for elementary and uh she is a CMA Music Teacher of excellence and a past president of Tennessee music Education Association and that's all I can think of but she's a pretty big deal and so this is the caliber of uh educator that we have in Rutherford County so welcome Miss daberry [Applause] thank you so much my name is Alexis UIA daberry and I'm honored to serve as the guitar songwriting and percussion teacher at sturch Creek High
015School I want to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Sullivan to Dr hord Dr Harold at sturch Creek High School and the entire Board of Education here at Rutherford County for your unwavering support of the Arts in our schools research shows that 80% of high school students are not involved in traditional Ensemble programs like band choir or theater that means the majority of our students are missing out on the transformative power of music education by offering courses such as guitar piano and visual arts we create opportunities for these students to explore their creativity and develop a lifelong connection to the Arts tonight I'm incredibly proud to Showcase a group of dedicated and talented students who have embraced this opportunity they will introduce themselves in just a moment but first let me share what you can
016expect from their performance we will begin with a few guitar 2 students who will demonstrate a more classical approach to guitar showcasing the techn technical and musical foundations they've been developing in class then we'll transition to what I like to call the 10% a special portion of our program where students take ownership of their learning by selecting pieces they are passionate about and dedicating their individual practice time to mastering them I hope you enjoy our performance and and firsthand see the impact that music education has on these students thank you again for your support and please join me in welcoming our student performers hello my name is Tyler Shelton and I a sophomore at St streak High School good evening my name is Isaiah abson I'm also sophomore stre Creek High School hello my name
017is my name is Natalia baranovic I am a junior and I am enrolled in the guitar 2 program at Stewarts Creek hello my name is Addison Russell um I'm a sophomore and I'm also enrolled in the steart Creek High School guitar program good evening my name is Zachary Jacob and I am a singer and a member of the guitar 2 class at Stewarts Creek High School tonight members of the guitar 2 program will be playing and then there were none A Wrinkle in Time Charlotte's Web and old man in the sea following those selections we hope you enjoy Tyler and Isaiah performing their arrangement of Sultans and swings by Dire Stripes thank you so much for allowing us to perform for you tonight [Applause] [Music] [Applause] ready [Music] repat [Music] [Applause] for [Music] [Applause] [Music]
018[Applause] PE [Music] Prin [Music] all [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you thank you that was awesome we really enjoy we will Reserve give him a minute yeah that was great yeah yeah oh yeah yeah the face yes I didn't know it either I was like oh yes that is [Music] did you she's done an excellent job thank you Miss hord for putting this together thank you we will Reserve public comment for Thursday number eight instruction and then Mr Evans is going to go ahead and do the communications report excuse me during the director's update a little bit later so he's finishing up but he'll be here in just a little while okay moving on to instruction elementary middle and high school textbook committees are recommending the adoption and
019purchase of the following instruction materials for use beginning in the 2526 school year and running the course of the adoption through the TW the 3233 school year so that is a much longer period than we're used to the old textbook adoption process was a six-year period last year the state changed it to an 8-year adoption process so you'll see all the um adoption committee's recommendations below and then the next step it is required that we adopt and then the next step will be purchased and so that'll be on the April try remember what that date is April 10th I believe is our next scheduled board meeting April 10th agenda that will as we talked about in January and February that'll be request to come out of fund balance um so we have a healthy fund
020balance to go ahead and purchase those materials so that we we don't have to wait until July 1st to be able to purchase them so and I'll have a number for you on kind of what those overall what we're looking at at Thursday's meeting number two curriculum instruction CT Department would like to allocate approximately 15,000 of Perkins 2425 funds to support the Rutherford Works Ambassador School leads from middle and high school purpose of the Rutherford Works Ambassador School leads programs to develop the instructional capacity for teachers counselors career coaches and assistant principles within our school district to support the r for Works partnership the school leads to be responsible for attending meetings impl in the following opportunities at their schools work ethic distinction use science implementation work-based learning opportunities industry tours eighth grade career pathway
021fair colge and career night and assist with the implementation of act work keys assessment and then you will see the allocations each par participant receives a $500 styen for attendance participation in professional development sessions led by retherford works and the CTE curriculum and instruction department and then you see all the individuals below number nine we have legal we have a transfer student under discipline the board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline the student student was expel for possession of a THC vape according to policy 6. 318 the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system under suspension or expulsion director school's recommendation is to deny based on SP space number 10 Human Resources this is a
022supervisor of teach now specialist this is a new job description for supervisor of teach now specialist rather for teach now is requesting the approval of a new job description supervisor of teach now specialist the job of the supervisor of teach now specialist for the P purpose of Performing managerial professional and Technical and analytical duties and support the districts teacher preparation and retainment goals responsibilities include maintaining data collection for reporting compliance curriculum and program development for accreditation and the training of our specialist for Effective Teacher preparation in accordance with the state board rules policies and procedures T anything how many people do we have in teach now it's a little bit over 120 roughly yes um and we do have all of our hard to fill positions which is how we're able to fill those and
023do our signing bonuses for them as well so a little bit over 120 amazing that yeah it's really working Dr yeah Madam chair yes M sty so is this a new position or just a new job description new job description just a new description I think it moves this person from 200 days to fulltime 260 so that they can work over this repurposing the position thank you any other questions okay number 11 engineering construction and I'm very excited to have Mr Lee come up and talk to us so as the board knows we've been looking at this prop property that you got before you tonight for a number of months um we have gotten a signed contract from the sellers of the Le Road property this is for 161.5 Acres um this is being proposed
024to be we would have an inspection period on this of 180 days that would give the school system time to do the Geotech testing surveys um phase one Environmental Studies all the things you would typically do to make sure this is suitable for a School site beforehand there's two um 30-day extensions on this as well so we have basically days plus two additional extensions of 30 days each should we need those um this will be contingent on County Commission approval and funding um for the purchase of the property and this will come back to you so if you decide to vote to go forward this contract on Thursday this just puts the contract under it puts it under contract so you have control of the property can do your testing do your evaluation analysis of
025the property make sure it's suitable for your proposed needs for a School site if you determine is not you can walk away there's no obligation so long as you terminate before the end of the inspection period so um during that time you want to do all the testing you want to go a County Commission and um make sure you can get approval for funding um to purchase the property um there is the this there is one contingency on the seller side they have this is in a there's a conservative ship on the seller side that so in the end if this contract's approved by the board we will have to go to Davidson County and get this approved by the chancell court of Davidson County County um on the seller side as well which we
026think we could we should do that is a contingency on the seller side but that's something we would proceed with um if the board decides to sign this contract um we have this is property that has is a good location in the county is one of the densest growing areas of the county um one of the high highest growth areas we have in the county it has ready really good road access there with lead Road sewer is on the property water is available to it with um some some reasonably moderate changes on the water line to upssize it along Lee Road which cuds already planning to do under a participation agreement with other developers in the area so we will have sewer to the site water to the site and roads to the site um
027so it does have the essential ingredients we would need for a School site if we decide to do it so I don't know if Mr Lee wants to comment do we have any drawings of this on the pull it up I don't have them ready to pull up but they're part of the packet okay all right so they're in your package um so that'll be presented to you Thursday night yes M Rosales thank you um I have a question so um so the what is the price for the acres do have we decided on that this is $80,000 per acre $80,000 per acre and then last time when we were doing the um the property on um the batty the batty proper property um we signed the contract but then we we as a board
028decided that we were going to do the appraisal first before we enter into the 180 days so that we could see if the 80 the the $80,000 that is for the acres is a comparable to what it apprais is that an option that we can do well I don't I don't know I know we did an appraisal on the batty property I don't I thought the appraisal was done during the inspection period is what I think I recall but I don't remember I know we kind of took a pause on it we did the appraisal first and then we enter into the 100 think so I don't think so I think we it was within the yeah we was still but we did the appraisal first before we did the other testing though that's what
029I think it was we did the appraisal we did the appraisal before we continue exactly before we approv to go forward with testing yes and I would like to bring that option again for us to go through the appraisal first to see if the value of the land PHA is somewhat comparable to what the asking price is so that we can make a determination whether move forward with the other tests that's what we did with the bity property I mean we still lock in the price yeah and sign but well I mean the contract's coming you for Thursday night so if you decide to vote on the contract on Thursday night and approve the contract you will have options to undertake whatever kind of testing or examinations whatever order the board decides at that time
030so um I think it will behoof us if we do go through first doing the appraisal so we can see where we land and see if the pricing is comparable and then come back to the board to move forward with the other tasting and that's something board certainly can do I don't know if there's going to be much of a willing I I this is great a prop development property so um this is not in the middle in remote areas of the county so um I think it would appr with the purchase price I don't know the seller would sell for a lower price than this because I've been beating them up on price for several months now I think this is the floor he will have on the sales price of the property is
031my honest assessment on it but the board can do whatever it decides to do on it I understand um but I I I'm only one vote out of the seven but I would like to move forward with appraisal and see where it comes and then move forward with the testing just so that we can see where we're at that's I'm just one both Madam chair yes M Derby Mr Reed I don't know if this is better as of you or Mr Lee I know when I went to look at the property there were some weather conditions we couldn't drive further back than a certain point um are there any major elevation concerns number one and number two do we know if the property goes through on the backside so that there's a separate road that
032would be able to access the property other than leer road today there I I do you want to address that or I I will say today there's only Le Road access at Le Road there are plans for Rocky the long-term plans for Rocky Fork that the town of smna has does have Rocky Fork extending to the back end of this property so there's additional RightWay that the spal spurna would have to acquire in order to to get to that point but that's an option there also a couple other additional options that might give us a route out in the back that we could pursue once we get the property tied up under contract and can talk to neighbors and see what we can get worked out okay elevation the elevation is you know a good
033Biv there is one Hill on the property uh a good Biv is flat but there is a hill on it um is something this is we've looked at this as a two School site um if we do a smaller High School you might have three schools on it there's sufficient space on this for two schools for sure with plus stadiums and athletic field so and we're talking about doing a high school and maybe a middle school there um and depending on configuration you could very well possibly get a three- School site um on this property thank you yes M Dr Sullivan to kind of hit on Mr rosales's request is there any reason we couldn't put it under contract do the appraisal wait for the appraisal to come back and then start testing is that
034kind of what you were yes that's what I saying so you were still requesting yeah no I'm not saying we walk away from the contract I'm saying we lock in the $8,000 we sign but we start off with the appraisal I misunderstood okay I am so sorry I apologize good M Maxwell yes Mr tiw Mr Reed you said you've you've been in negotiations about this for a long time so this is not the starting price that they requested no this is not the starting price okay um he has had there's been other developers interested in buying this property sure of the 161 Acres Mr Darby kind of alluded to this a little bit but try I'm sure you've been out there as well how much of it do we think is really going to be
035useable we going to have pretty much are we buying any land we don't need in this 161 Acres because I can understand that the property owner is probably selling the lot total and not wanting to partion any of it off or anything like that there there's a creek around the front in the property that some some wetlands are around the creek but it does not impact the um the building pad for school sites and in fact you may be able to use some of that for drainage and Detention of the school but we're not looking like any flood cell type issues I mean there's no other than there are some Wetlands around the creek at the very front so if you remember I think you went to the property you know when we we cross
036the creek coming in yeah and there's some low areas around the creek as you would expect there would be um is not anything that poses any substantial development problems s with respect to the property and you may be able to incorporate the detention areas for the school into those same areas it's a great piece of property you know we just we don't need to mess around and let this land get away from us anybody else have any comments only the only observation I would give everybody is think about what you want to do execute the contract you got to you got this free look period for lack better way to do it any concerns that each one of us has there'll be several concerns out of construction trade goes through a series of evaluations uh
037elevation sewer water all that kind of stuff all that stuff can be addressed so anything particular that you want to do after the fact after it's under contract we can do you know we can hash those out so I don't don't get side was right now yes Miss shark thank you thank you madam chair um I'd be interested to know what that species was that we saw the footprint when we were there because it was snowing when we went last year and looked at it someone said it may be a bear I don't know curious to know there a deer as far fit no it was not a deer big it was as big as foot was it was big as my hands there are a lot of deer on the property I'm a bear
038on the property you interested to know that we've gone through all of this and then there's an endanger species or something that be our that would be our luck yes I think bulldozers walking around bulldozers run anything like that off so we don't have to worry about yes Mr tidle go ahead I do have a couple of exhibits for Thursday night um proposed two building layout proposed where a road could go uh there is some opportunities um once we get the property t uh I will show you the flood plane I do have the information from cud um on the waterline those kind of things so I got three or four things to show you Thursday night okay thank you Miss Madam well let Mr tid I'm so sorry oh um I was just going
039to follow up with that thank you Dr solman can you speak to we tossed around some different ideas and how this might fit into that yeah so we had a talking about the retreat what we talked so our really our plan has been to open a I hate to say a monstrosity but a big monstrosity of a high school and so that has been our kind of plan to build these 2500 site high schools I think as we continue to look at Rutherford County the desire is to not become a huge District that loses its identity and so we are going to try as hard as we can to get away from these huge giant campuses and so instead of building a 2500 student campus maybe get to the 1250 to 1500 student high school
040and so instead of building one high school maybe build two one on this campus and then one maybe towards plane view with the news that hit with the Burgess farms and so that's kind of what we're looking at now we'll have to update our 5-year plan of course to do that the other part of that is we realize that we have a lot of U Magnet School seats that are needed and so trying to get a a magnet school on the North End whether that is making Thurman Francis K12 uh that's kind of a what we tossed around and of course the board will have to officially vote to adopt all of that but we just had a a great Retreat I appreciate you guys Thursday and Friday where we discussed a lot of things
041to to truly make sure that we keep what makes Rutherford County Rutherford County and not look 15 years for now and just realize we have these huge buildings that just cycle students through like factories and don't keep us with that Community feel so is it so your opinion that this would still be useful to fit into absolutely yeah especially with that plan you could almost have like we have the Stewart Creek the Blackman those type of campuses we just can't build the 2500 student 1500 student middle school and 1200 Elementary we just have to build smaller thank you it's Mr Rosales and then miss sharp and then you Mr B okay thank you um Trey um on Thursday can you bring a list of all the different inspections that were we're going to be doing
042I know you've gone over them before but just to have the checklist again that we cover them all thank you m sh Madam chair um I know we like to stick with the same Blueprints and things like that but I would really like for us to look at M Rosales and I when we went to Kentucky there was a Jack and I call it a Jack and Gill it was a V shaped with all the common areas in the middle and it is a smaller school and I think we should look at some other layouts for our schools um I think that that would be a good one for our Junior High and our high school because the students don't co-mingle with each other and all the the um common areas are in the middle
043so I think that's another option that we should look at as far as the layout Mr V Mr Lee what's your opinion of this land and it probably is good or better than anything we bought 20 acres of it are virtually I'm going to use the term flat there there is nothing completely flat in relerford County but it's about as flat as we're going to get if you walked up on it it's very um flat which is good there's 40 acres that um is not insurmountable um it's lower than some of the property that we've dealt with in the past it's not as drastic as Rocky Fork Middle from the detention Pond to above the Lake Rocky Fork thanks um so uh that 40 acres could be utilized once we drill it and determine you
044know the type of rock that's there what's Rock there we it could be a good place to have um rock that we could mine to save us some money uh we did that at Rock Bell high and rock Bell Middle uh we created our own rock quy and save the taxpayers quite a bit of money by mining The Rock on site and it's something that we could do there there is potential um but there's 120 Acres that are basically flat there are a few acres in the front that is in the flood plane but it it it's it's not that much and I'll show you that on Thursday as well thank you any more other questions or comments thank you Mr Reed number two yeah number two is going to catch caught me off card
045so I'll try to get through it Christian Elementary playground Court request principal Chris laughry is requesting to utilize Richard seagull Foundation grant for the Asher Sol Memorial project part of this project is help can't get through it can you read it okay part the project is to stall half court on the playground with the Asher star the school has been in contact with smor Ready Mix and Summit concrete since June most of the materials have been donated the school will be funding the remaining $7,250 through the basketball account this project is at no cost to the board the engineering and construction department has reviewed the request and has no objection I knew about it just caught me off guard seeing it so I know lovely y absolutely L this is a great great awesome project
046and and really commend the Christiana school for doing that and for and thank you um SMA Ready Mix and in Summit concrete for project of love yes it is a project of love mhm I know one of several they're doing so I appreciate it number three Rockville High banded principal Steve with good and that helps get me back always anytime we can get a shed that makes me feel better principal Steve yes it's not a greenhouse no principal Steve ler is requesting to allow the band to purchase a 12 x 24 storage shed to be used to store band equipment the shed will not exceed 14,000 will be funded through the band account engineer constructions reviewed the request and has no objection any questions comments I like this we are doing a lot of we
047you sure are everywhere number four Wilson Elementary playground principal Angela Barnes is requesting to purchase additional playground equipment and install a sun shade utilizing funding from the Richard seagull Grant the cost for this project is $486 80 and fully funded by the Grant and donations the project is at no cost to the board engineering construction reviewed the request and has no objections any questions comments okay number five Riverdale High School Junior ROTC obstacle course principal Tamar Blair's requesting to allow the JROTC program obstacle course improvements no new construction will occur with this project jrtc instructure noted this upgrade will save money on future field maintenance and provid save for place for the junior RC and anyone else who uses the course construction will be completed by the jrc instructor students and parent volunteers anticipated cost
048of the project is 5,000 the funds for this project will come from the jrc fundraising so the upgrade will come at no cost of the school or the board engineering construction r request and has no objection any questions comments okay number six and new job description for custodial equipment repair Tech this position will replace the HVAC level six position as part of the current 2425 school year budget this position will make General repairs and perform preventative maintenance for the custodial equipment and Machinery such as electric buffers floor scrubber machines propane burnishers and other equipment questions okay number seven number seven is a placeholder we have our popular Hill Middle bit opening at 2:00 if anyone is interested to see how that works it'll be 2:00 on Thursday popular Hill Middle bid approval on Thursday March
04920th purching engineering will receive bids for the popular Hill Middle School project after review the bids we recommend and it'll be whatever contractor for the lowest and best bid to include the unit prices we have some of our placeholders here construction related contracts of 2 million fixtures furniture and Equipment of 4 4.5 million design 3.5 million site contracts of 1.5 and then whatever the overall Construction contract will be um that will then if the board approves our timeline will be health and Ed the next Tuesday so health and Ed on March 25th the way the calendar Works budget meets the first Thursday after the First full Monday of the month and Monday falls on the April ail 7th so it'll go to Budget on April 10th and then full commission on April 17th so that
050will be our request if we miss any of those by a month we will not open in August the 26 so that is our timeline we are trying to get a middle school open with funding in about 14 months Mr Lee um when we uh bid out for the last school how many how many architectural firms ended up submitting a bid I'm just anticipating more you're talking about contractors contractors I'm sorry yeah uh on the elementary we had five of 10 the pre-bid we had three to bid okay we had six at the middle school we already know due to the timeline three have dropped out they can't make the timeline okay so right now we're expecting two to three two to three okay any questions yes Mr T Dr Sullivan could you repeat those
051dates again I got health and aded on the 26th full yes health and aded is the 25th sorry 25th Tuesday at 5:30 health and Ed this coming Tuesday March 25th then it will be at Budget on April 10th so Dr Martin will probably be leading the board meeting on April 10th um because I anytime it's a big request like that I need to be the one presenting it um April 10th will be budget and then April 17th will be full commission perfect yes Mr Rosales thank you um so I have a question so I know the construction side is blank is it because we're not we don't have the bid yet we don't have when is that going for Thursday at two oh this is off for Thursday too okay I'm so sorry yep do
052you think that do you think pricing is going to come down is it still the same it better or it won't be approved I'm just telling you if it if it comes in high it won't be approved and we w't open a middle school oh wow how much was it for um I I mean with all the budgets yeah I mean is what it is how much do the cost for lern has what how what was the cost for per square footage for lern for the Edition you can't compare editions in new construction new conu like you know part of different animals got somebody outside yeah yeah it's part of the contractor game CU I know the contract not not bus contractor sorry bus contractors that's going to be interesting yes the um going to
053come out in the construction business you know they'll bid against each other and kind of talk against each other if it comes in too high the County Commission won't approve it because there's not Bond capacity so got how much was it for the popular Elementary School for not the bed the square footage uh it was about 315 I already know that cuz I had conversations with our finance director today it's like it comes in a certain amount just don't even it's not happening so let's stay positive B not there so we're hoping we're going to go less than 315 any other questions or comments I got a yes Mr B and and you may kick me on the table for asking this but in your statement you said three dropped out because of the timeline
054if the timeline was longer do you think they would be more inclined to participate yes you think that's going to hurt the competitive nature of the bid no because we'll have more than one and what long as you have two you have competition and what helps us is a lot of other counties aren't building right now so we are one of the only ones still building so that's that's helped Drive competition do you agree with that Troy yes sir well that will the only that's good news poker game always better than two though poker it is but this is the um timeline we had to meet for Bond capacity so it's always a you got to have the bond capacity number 12 bus contract we doing the bus contract now Mr Reed or we W
055to do it as part of the work session okay so you want to just move on yeah it's on here [Music] um bus contract will be an agenda item for Thursday night so that's why it's on this because it's on it'll be a business item so the board wants to make any kind of action in regards to bus contract on Thursday you can um you'll I know we have a work session with the bus contractors after this to ask questions so I can go ahead yeah I'll read this then and then I can make some just before we get into the work session kind of where we are um so bus contract current bus contract expires at the end of the school year negotiations has been ongoing multiple bus contractors over the last several weeks
056Jeffrey the board attorney has been engaged in extensive discussions with attorneys for an association for many of the bus contractors met with multiple other bus contractors met with the school system transportation department attached is the proposed contracts which to discuss following this um in our work session changes have been made to the initial draft contract from the Transportation Department to incorporate language to address many but not all the comments from bus contractors and effis been made to respond to the concerns of the bus contractors to the extent feasible that still allow for timely and Safe Transportation of students and operation of the school system most significant issue is in the new contracts they requested increase in the mileage and seat rates that remains an open issue for the board's consideration and determination the attached contracts
057presented for any action the board desires to take on this contract in any direction the board wants to provide um I'll go ahead and just make a a couple quick statements and then we can discuss it further um in the work session we have a placeholder is 5% rate raise I don't think that's realistic is a 5% raise what Mr Reed would you mind coming back up here because I know you have a placeholder for something else too one of the conversations we've had about was about insurance as well what do you have as insurance in there yeah we talk about we're talking more about it in the work session but as you know the state legislature last year changed the law with respect to how Insurance operates with best contractors so previously the school
058system had provided insurance coverage uh for the bus contractors and under the new law that is now prohibited and bus contractors are required to obtain their own liability insurance on their buses under state law so um what I currently have in the contract to address that is basically a payment to the contractors of $44,000 per bus route to compensate them for the bus insurance they would have to buy to comply with a new law so that 4,00 we got several quotes for insurance from several local insurance agents and that amount um seemed to be about average of what the cost would be to provide the type of coverage we're providing for in this contract um so we're thinking that that is going to be sufficient sufficient insurance for the bus contractor to purchase insurance um
059um directly with that money that we're paying them y so that is a $4,000 amount we have in the contract we talk more about this at the work session and so from a from a financial standpoint all I would ask is it's from a when we're looking at the entire raise perspective and the the percentages $4,000 what calculates to a little bit between about 1.3 million I think uh there's what 300 and something bus routes so about somewhere between another 2 and a half% and so when you're looking at these percentages if you're looking at a a 10 to 12% which is where I I feel pretty comfortable we can fund if you're doing another 4,000 then you're looking at really about a 15% and so the higher we go if we can go higher
060than that from a financial perspective then that extra 4,000 from just a budgetary perspective is about another 2.5% and so just just as we we can have more conversation I just wanted to throw that out there that I don't think it's realistic to start budgeting from 5% that that's not realistic um but I also don't feel like the other portion was realistic either so if you were to just put me on a spot and say Dr where do we go I would say somewhere between 10 and 15 um closer to probably 12 and a half would be where I feel comfortable from a budget perspective with about a $4,000 the $4,000 um and then the board can take it from there we can discuss that more during the the work session but since it's on
061the agenda I needed to throw something out there that we could at least start talking about yes Mr Madam chair just since you kind of touched on it real quick when we were at The Retreat you had talked about um several of the positions and maneuvering and things that you guys did to kind of leave space for this was that with that 10 to 15% in mind it is and it's still budget us in the deficit um so all of this still budgets Us in the deficit that's just for us to keep in mind and it's still the the County Commission at the last second could say no we're not going to let you budget into the deficit and you have to go back and cut the $7 million at the last second I would
062I would sure hope that with the good faith we've shown of being able to have a balanced budget first I would hope they would be able to keep our funding we're going to ask for the same pennies not the same amount the same pennies that we've had so the growth of the penny the same exact structure that we've had uh there's great news yesterday that we did a press release about our performance but as part of that we're per people expenditures 125 out of 143 and so there there's only so long that holds and we being in the bottom 18 of school systems in the state it hurts and there there's only so long that's going to hold and we're we're to we keep saying we're at a breaking point we're proud that we do
063more with less but you can only do more with less till your performance starts to fall and we've we're getting close we were at 117 2 years ago when I took over now we're at 125 and it's it's going the wrong direction ction and we're adding a school and so it's just a we're going to request the exact same pennies that we have this year do I think that's likely to be funded no but that's what our request needs to be we need to request what we get uh what we need and so that's just for conversation but yes it is totally part of that it t unbelievable that we do the job we do with with a so under underfunded yeah I mean well we're smart we're smart with what we do we put
064it in our people put in our funding and we don't fluff no fluff I think we need we need parents and everybody in roord County to to get on board and encourage the County Commission to we got to do something cuz I tell you it's not going to go away it's just going to get worse the part that's not mentioned in that that I do think deserves credit is what's not included in the per people expenditures the amount of funding that's gone to build new schools and so there is a it's a balance they've funded almost 30 $0000 million and in the next month I'm going to ask them to fund an additional $80 million so it is a balance they they've done a great job but we can from a per pupil truly expenditure
065we can't keep operating like we're operating but we're you know we're I'd say the best scho system in the state and you said we was 125 out of what 143 14 2,000 below the state average something doesn't balance you talking about balancing you know if you don't your parents and all don't think you're getting the big bang for your buck we're the best go system in the state and we're the bottom 25 and state funded man I tell you some of these counties that fund better than us it's just amazing to me yeah so Dr s so to put it I'm so sorry to put it on in Retros Retros to put it in perspective um the 125 out of the 143 districts per people expense is is about $10,000 per people exp on this
066state average is 11,300 oh it's 11,000 so if we're if we're at the bottom 11,000 then that means that the per people expense for everyone else for all the other districts is Way Beyond $11,000 and it's not all about you don't want to be at the highest because there's a lot of waste out there as well but you also don't want to be at the bottom but considering that we're we're pretty rather large District because we're like the number four yeah largest district and to be at 11,000 expense compared to the other ones that shows that we're being efficient with our with our money yeah and it's just um basically our funding what we're able to do is the extra 3% all we are receiving every year is the 3% Tisa increase and so the
0673% Tisa increase we are getting is not enough to cover I don't know it's not locked I have no idea the 3% the only extra Revenue we're getting without an increase in maintenance of effort is the 3% TSA increase from the governor and that is not covering inflation it's not covering electricity it's not covering the increase in liability insurance it's it's just not covering it and so we are getting further and further behind so the only option we have is to cut more programs everywhere I got one more question and then the the 3% that we got it seems like this year we got less than last year we did yeah cuz we got $22 million this extra how much did we get last year 40 something or 30 something it was I'd have to
068go pull it and look yeah I'd have to go pull and look but part of it is because of the economical disadvantage CH the governor did a whole harmless which helped tremendously even less right but then the first time we did this we got about $50 million the first time and then the second time we got around I think it's around the ballpark of $30 to $40 million and then now we're getting $22 million so we have we're getting half of what we got from the first time the sharp called it 3 years ago it's going to decrease every time yeah yep how much longer is tast going going be it'll stay they'd have to have a whole new funding model and there's nothing on the two more years that's it yeah but there's nothing
069on the agenda rep I tell you what I hope I like it better the Department of Education in Washington and all the money they spend divided up and send it to the school systems across the United States well you hope that's what they will do but we don't know what the plan is what planning to do we encourage them um of course we encourage any money that we can get okay Mr VA curious question when you said it was 3% this year what's it been the last five years three it's just maintain is that what's built into the formula 3% every year so T said that it's just been a 3% increase last two years because we didn't have anything before that what what we have before that b b that's the back end of
070the B well do you have any idea what that funding increase was I'd have to go back and look that'd be interesting to look just for Wrigley's fund fact reason I say that we've all dealt with this you know statistically if you look at it we've all dealt with approximately 25 somewhere around 25% give or take what industry it is in the last five years you know you say well inflation's average five it was eight one time you know for another so we haven't so the funding from the state hasn't even kept up with inflation either right right yeah there's no there's no way okay that's what I want you to tell me but I'd be interested to see what it actually has been so you've just done more with less till you do everything
071for nothing right y that's kind of where we are that's exactly where we are and we appreciate the new building we had to have the new buildings that had to be where our investment was but we can't keep Cuts why we had to cut textbooks and computers to balance it last year and we're just out we're in the bottom 133% in the state of Tennessee in funding yeah I feel sorry for our neighbors Wilson's the very bottom oh are they very bottom oh w i mean when you're at the bottom 13 there's not a lot further to go but they're at the be yeah they're only 20,000 and we're 52 bigger than they're I hate to say tiny compared to us but they're tiny compared to us yeah we got the best y we do
072something to give eventually I think that was enough financial and director's report other than James you ready to do your Communications report yes sir and I'm going to make it brief tonight so Dr solid asked me to do the media or the communications report tonight uh because we have so much on the agenda for Thursday I'm not going to go all over all the numbers they're all there for you to see a couple of things just to pull out would be that February is a shorter month and with snow days we only had really 17 days we normally have 20 or 22 uh but the the numbers there still show healthy numbers I want to pull up one thing specifically though the press release that we did yesterday uh the post about the pot of
073gold and all that stuff tried to be a little more clever with it all those things we've already had 24,000 views um that's twice the size of Murphy Center just to put that in context so we're we're getting a lot of traction uh on these types of things and and favorable responses so uh and then Mr Derby may want to know uh she asked me last month about the video that we're working on that's going to promote the district we had a big planning meeting about it today we have a lot of the footage already we kind of looked to see which areas we needed to get some more footage some res shoots and we're going out next week to shoot those so I think by April we'll have something to show you guys it's
074going to look really nice any questions I can answer thank you doing a great job okay you're going to do director I that was enough okay Mr VA do you have anything or you going to hold it all for on Thursday okay any general discussion yeah Miss um Maxwell yes M Rosales thank you so um this week we had career we had career day um oh I think Miss Dr Shain is career day the whole month of um March where the someu some students in the CTE programs that are offering different high schools that come to the middle schools to talk about is that throughout the whole career pathway fairs are during March yes okay awesome well I just I've attended it now this is my second year participating in the career pathway uh fair
075and I truly do enjoy it because you get to meet the eighth grade upcoming eth graders and talk about a passion of yours so I really encourage our board members to uh take get the chance and do that next year cuz it's really fun and I went to banon the first year and then this year I went to single middle so I I just wanted to say talk about how awesome this event is so go ahead no you go ahead missar than Dr okay yeah JazzFest JazzFest JazzFest yes we need to fund it um I met yesterday with a new vendor who has a sensory cabin uh who's going to be there yes a sensory cabin and they rent it out for birthday party so we're going to have that and we've got some other
076new vendors from last year but we need um funding for it so if anybody wants to reach out and ask yes for some donations to fund it we've had several come in and we're looking for some more to come in but we need we need to fund it there is no donation too small or Toge small we will not accept absolutely so thank you yes sir so I think our our board knows I let them know about it today but I was notified today that there was a an amendment filed um to TCA 49853 that would allow our local University to operate their own school system 9 through 12 and so I have reached out for a meeting with MTSU and once I know more I will find out but that was I think caught
077us all a little bit off guard today so once I know more because we have a a very robust robust uh strong partnership with MTSU and that would definitely be interesting for us to have that partnership with we did have or we do it I'm not sure I mean we do still have a great robust dual enrollment campus School partnership with MTSU but that would be having the same students with the same partnership so there's there's lots of questions that I have that I've asked to have a meeting with so could we make it an educator pathway School an educator pathway school would be awesome yes awesome that's what we need reason for us to get our yes well if that's all we're going to adjourn but I would like for us to reconvene in
07810 minutes for a work session with our bus contractors