Board of Education Work Session - November 12, 2024

001welcome to the Tuesday November 12th 2024 work session for the Rutherford County School Board first up we have the Pledge of Allegiance Miss Darby do you have special guest we do I'm excited to introduce Cub Scout Pack 320 of Browns Chapel Elementary proudly chartered since 2009 over the years pack 320 has made a strong commitment to serving our community each year they conduct multiple service projects for Browns Chapel Elementary and partner with the SM Alliance Club to support their annual Thanksgiving meal initiatives thanks to pack 320 over 20 Thanksgiving meals are delivered to families each holiday season tonight we are joined by cub master Richard Hibbs and leader Chris Spurgeon and committee chair Mike Eden who lead this outstanding team of Scouts and families and let's give them a welcome as they come up to

002lead us in the pledge 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 Cub Scouts if you wouldn't mind going in the lobby Mr Evans would like oh I lied we're going up here to the new logo screen we're going to take a quick picture before you guys leave thank you guys thank you next up we have a moment of silence could you please bow your heads thank you first we have the agenda should I take a look at that any questions I'll make a motion approve the agenda is well and we will do that we'll do that in two nights I promise you in practice and uh if there are no questions how

003about the consent agenda there's no questions uh I Believe Miss Darby have a special guest we do I going to ask the principal of Rockville High School Mr lucer to come up please all right thank y'all for inviting me thank you uh Mr Arby um I'm Steve ler I'm the principal at rootville high school and uh we have have our rooc with us tonight uh to just talk a little bit about what they do and many of you know that rock Bell shut down in 1972 when two other schools opened up and we opened back up in 2019 and this program has been going strong ever since um I I always like to say that you know we're very proud of our Cadets we're proud of our leadership and U we have very strong leaders

004and uh that lead our program and they're involved in a whole lot of things so I won't take much of your time I am going to introduce Sergeant Degan who is one of our leaders for our jrc and he'll introduce our Cadets and let them talk a little bit about what they're doing good evening Dr Sullivan and the members of the board U we appreciate the opportunity to uh kind of brag about our program at Rockville High School um so tonight I'm going to show a quick video um kind of represents our history and the history of our culture um being Veterans Day yesterday we celebrated over we had about over a 100 Veterans at our program yesterday and um this kind of just gives you a nutshell of what what the foundation of what

005Rockville High School is built on in our community I think it gets left out because I think a lot of people think that are new to our area they think the oldest high schools are Riverdale and Oakland um but there's a traditional history of Rockville that you'll see in this video hopefully the volume how did we become the rock Veil Rockets during World War II many of the men and women from Rockvale High School chose to leave their classmates before graduating to serve our great country the remaining students voted at that time to be called the Rockvale High Rockets to honor their classmates service and their return home to continue honoring the men and women who served their country we have placed a rocket in front of the high school the rocket was donated by

006Colonel Ferris who was a veteran of 30 years and one of the original Rockville graduates our field has the watermark of the American flag to serve as a permanent Memorial and to honor our veterans both past and present Rockvale is proud to continue to integrate our past current and future Partnerships with all military branches it is our privilege to share the history of how we became the rock Veil Rockets [Music] and the reason I wanted to show you all that video just to show that tradition um I think it's one of the biggest and um I think personally being from from New York I've been here since 2011 and I just think the traditions of ruford County um are on matched in this country um especially with seeing things of that nature and our JT

007program Embraces that and so if you look at our screen um first thing the kids do when they come into our program they do the kadc Creed every morning it's just that reminder of kind of a foundation of standards and expectations we have as a program with building a self-development leaders uh our program is leadership development program a lot of times people think it's a discipline program um we're the farthest thing from a discipline program it's about developing leadership and uh it's this is a kind of just that reminding Foundation of what we do every morning with our kids or every before every class our motto is to motivate young people to become better citizens it's a program like I said to teach leadership and with many others values such as responsibility and integrity through

008our program we educate young citizens on how to better serve their community and a typical week in our program is Monday we learn lessons on our Cadet portfolio topics First Aid Service personal finance life skills anger management history self-awareness conflict resolution and many others um and on Thursday we have our uniform day um where it teaches self-discipline um attention to detail and we teach marching um drill and uh drill drill U execution movements in that capacity now Friday is our physical fitness day um we have a fit physical component um Cadet challenge preparation that consists of five different exercises that each kid is trained up throughout the year to help on the mental St because we believe on our program physical is connected to mental and so the physical aspect of that is also in

009that program for leadership now here's my favorite part um I don't like talk about the program itself a little unracking but I do love talking about our students um and I brought two with me today Cadet Olsen and Cadet Neil um these are both seniors they're two of my favorite have been with them for the last three years um just to brag on them before I bring them up here and take over this presentation um Cadet Neil who just competed for a board um for for the top Cadet in the county and um he has been been noticed as the top Cadet in the county as the Brigade Commander um and so that should give you a clue to his leadership ability um Cadet Olsen she is the Battalion Commander at Rock high school she

010competed in a board that consists of um it consists of five topics um five items the kids have to compete to for their leadership positions throughout the years it's academics academics physical fitness discipline um teams being involved in in the curriculum and the fifth one yeah I thought of I remember at some point um but there's there's a there's a Competitive Edge to it they got to compete in these five things to get promotion points to to get to those positions so these two young people have worked their tows off to uh achieve those great successes in our program and in our County um the neat thing about both of them academically one has a 32 Act one has a 31 act um both have 4.0 GPA one of them's headed to the Air Force

011Academy probably most likely the other one's headed to ETS ETSU um for the ROTC program um and yeah I can't speak highly enough about both of those individuals who represent our program in a very amazing way so I'm going to get out of the way and I'm going to introduce our Brigade Commander Cadet Jackson Neil good evening Dr svin members of the board I'm KC Colonel Neil and today I'm going to talk about some of our programs teams and what we provide we have four teams here we have Raiders drill rifle and jayab first up we have our Raider team this is our competitive physical te team they compete in County events through physical training oour or obstacle course which is our longest course that we cover with all the obstacles in it we have

012our 5K run before every event we have a special event which depends on the school it's normally a more academic covero it could be map reading it could be a surprise physical challenge and then we have rope bridge this team also has the opportunity to go to Nationals at Fort Knox last this year's host at Fort Knox they cover this this is our biggest competition they do it is a lot of fun and it covers a lot of very helpful leadership abilities like scheduling and timing and how to properly manage your team next up we have our drill team this is also another competitive team with the squad Splatoon color guard and exhibition this drill team covers very meticulous details on how to remain disciplined at all times especially on the drill floor we compete

013all across Tennessee county and at other events outside of County our exhibition team covers rifle throwing and is more unique in our sequences but it still covers the same discipline and more explorative practices that we can do our rifle team is our competitive air rifle team they shoot at a meter of 10 distances this is going to cover more of our County competitions that we do and this is a huge discipline team it's very precise you have to be very careful it covers a lot about safety as well last up we have our jlab team jrtc leadership and academic ball this covers two teams our leadership and our academics leadership covers military questions and current event questions while academics cover math English science this is mostly a sophomore and Junior Team so this this is

014bettering our younger Cadets teaching them more about leadership how to participate before they get to their senior Years big events we cover we do a homecoming parade we do Service Learning we do a vet day Ceremony this was yesterday as first H said we had over 100 Veterans show up big event we have our vets Day Parade which is going to be Saturday which we do for again veterans our military ball this is a big event we do for the end of the year towards where we throw it for our own Cadets and this is another about discipline males wear uniforms they come let them kind of have some fun but we still cover the same military traditions we cover a lot of leadership and service at the event for the formal portion our jpa

015which is our end ofe inspection this is the biggest thing we do this covers our accreditation and how well of a program we do last year we scored a 99 out of 100 and then we do jclc which I'll cover more soon our service learning project annually we do a project to the Stones River Battlefield where we work with learning about the history and Hands-On EXP experience as well as we do invasive species removal and maintain the property to ensure that the history of our area stays alive we learn a lot about the Civil War and the importance of it the importance of our veterans and the service that they had and how that helps us today and then this year we're also doing the H2O for Life project where we fundraise money for a

016country in need and this year we're raising money for clean bathrooms and this covered a lot about education for clean water practices and how we can better communities in need our tutoring program our annual continuous Improvement project is a year-long tutoring program this program annually we will tutor any Cadets with subpar academics to ensure our Cadets are academically achieving standards and on track to graduate this is some of our data last year we had a total of 59 students get tutored and change from 59 failing to 52 passing this is a success rate of 93% because we want to ensure that all of our Cadets are achieving what they need to be achieving jclc and typically in the first week of June this is a Leadership Camp HED at for wend Ford Kentucky where we

017take a group of cadets to go do some more advanced leadership training to ensure that they're better prepared and that they can become the best leaders they are at this time I'm going to introduce our batan commander Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Olson good evening Dr suven and aboard in JTC there's a bunch of ways that it helps with future your career your leadership abilities and many different experiences one of the ways that it has helped is over just six years of existence we have had five individuals seniors that graduate to serve in the Army and the reserves active in guard we have had a student go as in as a Navy Medic One in the Marine Corps one was accepted to West Point and one is currently in a West Point Prep School to attend West

018Point the next fall and we have three currently in college Roc to prep for leadership and to commission after college currently our seniors we have individuals who aspire to go one to J MTSU RTC one to the Coast Guard two into the army one to EMS and one into two into the Air Force Academy this is wonderful as it helps teach other individuals the different career opportunities that come and the experience through Roc that we develop as we recognize that many people view ROTC they think that you only go into the military afterwards but it opens the door and shows that there is more opportunity that you learn more than just military knowledge in the RC program and you really just learn how to better your skills with individuals in teaching and leadership as each

019year we always as the senior class we always try and figure out what our senior Legacy should be to help the future so that we leave a watermark on the on the program so that we have a benefit two years ago they their legacy was beginning the tutoring program which helped better individuals with not just helping students with their grades but it also helped teach kids how to teach others so that they would understand how different people need different kinds of help last year one of the big legacies we left they left was they we did our first drill comp at Rockville which really increased skills in planning and other leadership attributes as we had to organize for weeks before the competition delegating tasks to many different individuals so that it would run smoothly and

020it would all execute well on the day of the competition this year one thing that's really stuck out as it's been continuous throughout the whole year is our fundraising has increased and so not only have by the end of the year with increased fundraising we will leave greater opportunities for the following years but we are also reaching our goal to get an obstacle course so that we can provide another opportunity to host another competition to learn more planning and managing and Leadership and that is our JTC program at Rockville thank [Applause] you Mr ler just a little more history uh Homer Brown and I used to play baseball at the old Rockville school and I hit a ball up on top of the old school building and it was so hot every day we played

021every fourth of July but the food was great but man it was uh it was really competive baseball so wow oh my gosh wow that's tremendous if y'all wouldn't mind coming up for Mr Evans to get a quick photo please thank you thank you so much thank you so much want in your picture as well he's going to be here Thursday to present and I know he doesn't like it to be about him but he leads the program and we'll hear about his data on Thursday about our entire outstanding they've also done a new job with branding what are we the Stones River Brigade now is that our name Colonel Gaylord Stones River Brigade isn't that our new branding sir Stones River Brigade isn't that our new branding yes sir yeah I thought so it's

022pretty neat to have its own branded name for our I give you $20 to do [Music] that thank you so much you're so serious so we're going to do public comment on Thursday Rutherford strong on Thursday yes and we have a guest speaker Thursday as well we'll go we'll go ahead and let Mr Evans do his so that um Colonel Gaylord can have the floor on Thursday okay so wonderful so um good evening thanks for having me up here again uh Communications report is in front of you we've been doing monthly um this is from October you'll notice that the numbers are down that's mainly because we had a shorter month because of fall break that's really a 3-we month instead of a 4-we uh but we like to give these things and uh also

023talk a little bit about some of the upcoming Communications um focuses that we'll have so of course the board is looking at rezoning uh in December and so on and so we'll be helping make sure parents get that information so they can stay informed uh our school choice offerings will be opening up soon and we're working with the instruction Department to make sure parents know where we have seats available so they can apply for those and then a lot of our elementary schools right now are involved in the amazing shake some of you all have been judging and seeing those kinds of things that goes on throughout November December and into the end of January so we'll be helping publicize those events to it's really amazing if you haven't seen those just seeing what the

024elementary kids do uh some of our most popular pieces of uh post and information we put out of course the 2526 C the board approved in October is one of our most visited things parents like to plan some some parents have to put in for time off of course or year early the information meetings that our magnet schools and choice schools are having that's been a very popular post our staff awards from last month our first ones those that was very popular uh and then some others there we did a national custodians day and got a lot of great feedback there too and it's one of those groups that we don't always get to recognize as much now any questions about the communications report I do want to stick in one of the things so

025tonight miss Santana Mayu who's the attendant secretary at Rockville um she's actually here tonight for the staff award ws and so while she's here we're going to go ahead and do that one tonight Dr Sullivan if you don't mind doing a picture with her but miss mayew was nominated uh and we did a drawing earlier and we have three others being recognized on Thursday night as well and she would love to sing their schools of Alma moer is that what I understood you guys could do a duet that'd be great so we're going to do a quick photo of that real quick if there's no other questions I know we have a long agenda so I'll shut up so okay thank you all thank you congratulations [Applause] so next we go to 10 legal so

026we have two transfer students under discipline the first one the board's been admitted to request to transfer student from another school system under discipline student was remanded for possession of a THC product according to policy 6. 318 the board may deny admission of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system while under suspension or expulsion this case the director of school's recommendation is to admit and place into alternative school and then M Ridley has sent the information and you have both files with you you go to the second one go on we have a second one board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline um this student was expelled for possession of a th product according to policy 6.38 the board may

027deny admissions of any student except those in state custody one student transfers from another school system while under suspension or expulsion director of school's recommendations to deny there I know those are look like similar offenses but there are other previous discipline as well and where the um occurrence took place so that's the reason for the different recommendation okay thank you next we go to policy adoption first sorry first reading of two readings the policies below recommended on the first reading these policies be brought at the next schedule board meeting for a second and final reading policy changes policy 1.82 Section 504 and ada8 grievance procedur streamlines language and policy to differentiate the grievance process under Section 504 and Ada B policy 5.32 sick leave as language to comply with agreement mou with Rea C policy

0285.38 sabatical leave adds language to comply with the agreement mou with Rea D policy 6313 Spectators ads language for adult supervision at middle school games and E policy 6308 bus safety and conduct extends time for recordings to 5 days and adds language for reporting excuse me and tracking of discipline on buses I know we had questions about two of these at least okay yes Mr we talked about on policy 1.82 uh the language difference I think you said you was going to reference it's the language from the state do we have that language do you have it I don't I'm sorry I don't recall that Mr Tido at the policy committee is that looking at I thought that was 5302 and 308 what's that I think it was 302 and 308 the sick leave and

029sabatical 504 and Ada I believe was just to bring it under one person oh that's right that's right sorry about that um as far as the SI CLE goes the the change on there wouldn't that an inclusion of mental health as an option for sick leave wasn't that one that part of the recommendation hang on just a second let me bring that one up all right the addition was mental health I mean I'm just going to say from my opinion on that I think that was still more of a personal uh day rather than sick leave day um you know especially out in the private sector so just sharing my opinion on that thank you Mell yes M Rosalez so um I disagree with that I think that mental health is something that should be

030taken into consideration right now since you're in a corporate setting I am 100% aware of someone who is having who's going through a severe severe situation and it's a family member of mine I not going to go into details of all what but it's it's CAU to the point where it's it's it's it's the she's not able to in the circumstances in her personal life that of cour she's not able to um work and so her employer has offered her to take seek leave with a note from a qualified Prof professional a psychologist reason with the reason stated due to her circumstances so I believe we should be giving our employees the option to take sick leave sick leave when they are severe circumstances beyond their control that impacts their mental health M Maxwell yes

031Mr Dr Sullivan what would happen typically if we were to have a circumstance like Mr Rosales just described how would that typically play out before this policy adoption I think it would depend on what the exact situation is but they have multiple options FMLA is an option extended leaves an option without pay that the director has to approve their options for that okay that's what I thought thank you any other questions comments okay we will look at these again on Thursday all right the next one is an annual policy Review tsba Board of distinction program recognizes school boards for their work school boards that seek this designation must meet specified requirements in four key areas planning policy promotion and board development one of the requirement is an annual review and maintenance of the entire policy

032manual we received Board of Distinction a little over a year ago and if we want to continue with that board of Distinction it's time for us to start reviewing our annual portion and so you'll start seeing one section um per board meeting again this is just a a review if we can take any Pol or any policy and send it back to the policy committee you don't Envision a lot of changes of these because it's just an annual review of things we've already looked at but just want everyone to know that's what you'll start seeing okay thank you next engineering and construction Smyrna Middle School sports request principal Dr Teisha Ferguson requesting to renovate the outdoor concession restroom build softball dugouts seal the stadium replace the softball scoreboard and add soccer scoreboards all work will

033be performed and funded by D Smith at no cost to the board engineering construction reviewed this request and has no objection and while we're talking about jior construction U Mr Lee is not here tonight he is at the town of L's planning meeting to discuss um some of the things that we potentially discuss with the city of Murphysboro with the city of lever so and I'll leave it at [Music] that number two Smyrna Middle Fieldhouse naming request drisha Ferguson requesting to name the current football Fieldhouse the Allen Fieldhouse Mike and Ronda Allen are lifelong residents Rutherford County and attended Smyrna Middle and Smyrna High their sons attended the schools as well the Allen family have contributed endless amounts of time money and resources of for County and especially smna middle in the junior pro football

034league Mike coached in the league for 25 years and has held multiple board positions Ronda has held several positions in public service and has had been a vital part of Education process in our County including serving as our chair of health and education um previously Mike's father red Allen was one of the original football club parents on the design and construction of the the Smur middle Fieldhouse through Mike and ronda's business Allen's Air Care they generously donated thousands of dollars to the upkeeping Improvement of the Fieldhouse Mike is currently a volunteer coach for this Mur middle football team that's outstanding I got to know um Rhonda when she was on the County Commission and this is very fitting tribute to both of them yes it's it's um wonderful because um there wasn't a time that

035I went to a meeting at one of our schools that she wasn't there so this is this is wonderful wonderful number three mcfaden School hammock reading Garden request principal Clark players requesting to install a hammock reading Garden in the outdoor recreation area that estimated cost for this project is not to exceed $800 and will be funded by the PTO engineering construction review this request and has no objection okay any questions okay number 12 all right next um you're going to see several middle schools so this is CTE multi school health science request C department is proposing the renovation of kitchenet spaces for Blackman Middle School at the cost of 20,000 eagal school with a cost of 45,000 Rocky Fork Middle with a cost of 50,000 Smyrna Middle with a cost of 47,000 seagull Middle with

036a cost of 20,500 and L Middle with a cost of 72,000 the rcct department will be paying for construction and installation costs of the kitchenet renovations using funds made available through the Tennessee Innovative schools model Grant these Renovations will eliminate a barrier and adequately preparing comping students with basic life skills are expected of all independent individuals when who go into society engineering construction reviewed the request and has no objections and just some background we had a teen Life Class probably two two and a half decades ago that teen Life Class went away um so we start stopped putting some of the kitchenet spaces into schools um and with the how we're continue to look at just career and also just livelihood that huge career pathway portions coming back so this should hopefully help be able

037to lead into our culinary Pathways at the high schools as well so that's a little more information of what that is like why are we putting kitchens into the middle schools they were there we took them out now it's coming back very similar old very similar yes Mr V well what I was going to ask what is the difference I mean there's difference in cost to each one of them yeah briefly why depending on what's currently in that facility so you're going to see Rocky forks I can speak to that one because I opened that school we didn't put one in at all um so it was not we did a stem lab instead and so L vers is a little bit more I would imagine because that's going to be a little bit more

038demolition involving what that building would have been at the other ones I would say kept part of their programs without removing every aspect a lot of times you have some connection with your structured setting or CDC students who can use some of these um things as well yeah Oh yes any other questions next week go to the number 12 mission statement so new mission statement was discussed at the fall border treat October 18th 2024 uh we wanted a mission statement that really just was easy for everyone to know what we were talking about and what we LED with and so it's investing in every student every day okay yes Mr V I sure would like to add it to the very end whatever it takes whatever days absolutely [Music] okay 13 um we something we

039started two and a half years ago was having an annual agenda just so everybody had an idea of what we're looking at each month that's part of where the annual review of our policies comes through just to give everybody an idea of what's happening and so that is just the annual agenda that we are looking at if anybody wants to make modifications and of course is not all-encompassing but just gives us an idea of where we're going okay and number 14 number 14 the last two years our central office has closed the Wednesday before Thanksgiving um we try to keep our days equal with County government so County government is closed on Veterans Day School System is not closed on Veterans Day that is always a topic for conversation is does the school system close

040or not close on Veterans Day uh we lose either way so if we close then we get told that we are disrespectful for veterans not having the programs um if we don't close we were told multiple times over the weekend we are disrespectful for not closing and so traditionally we have been open on Veterans Day to have Veterans Day programs that has been um our tradition the county courthouse normally closes part of the day if not all of the day but we have a policy that says that in order for us to close and it's not severe weather it has to be board approved and so if it's not a national or state holiday so it's the same request we've had the last two years one of my neighbors what why why are you not

041Clos we hear it either way e yeah either way we never win that one you're not going to win okay number 15 um and I will take that one um I asked him to put this on here it's been on my mind because you know just because we've always done it this way doesn't mean that we have to continue to do it this way and I very mindful of our staff and the fact that we meet two meetings a month minimum and two work work sessions usually on average and knowing that city council meets and has a work session at lunchtime Mr Vault had a great idea about a month ago and said have we ever thought about having a work session at lunch so I have asked Mr Dr Sullivan to look into uh

042January and our first work session in January and making that a lunch date instead of a dinner and just trying to see instead of meeting in the evenings and just see how it goes uh I'd like to try it and I'm giving everybody a time to you know rearrange I know I know Mr tible that you do work but I was hoping that you could make arrangements to try to meet meet meet us at the work session can I speak Max Max can uh no I would totally be against this I mean when I ran for office obviously that was a consideration of going to as far as the work schedule goes um we moveed you know plus our parents one of the reasons we moved the time back it used to be at 5:00

043moved it back to 5:30 so the parents can be here doing stuff in the middle of the day is even more challenging for parents and the work session it's where where most of the work gets done generally speaking and we typically just vote at the board meeting so for me I understand but they can't speak at our work sessions they can watch them online live actually they can speak that's that was a change in public comment not in work no not in we haven't changed our policy they cannot speak at work sessions so I really feel like we need to try this we we've asked our staff and everyone to come for a minimum about at least four meetings in the evenings and I want to just try it mix well can I yes Mr

044T um I mean again it it don't it don't even work for parents that's that's where most of our work gets done is during the work session so for me this absolutely isn't true and and I will find out about the public comment I if I'm mistaken I'll correct the record but I'm pretty sure they can speak at work sessions as well either way um I know I would not be in support of this yes uh I to work so um a middle of the day work session would not work for me and I have to Echo the sentiment as far as our parents um these meetings are public for a reason giving people the opportunity to speak and as far as the policy goes um the floor is that we have to allow people

045to speak at meetings where we vote that is the minimum required we as a board can choose to allow people to speak at our work sessions so if we are not allowing that that is by our choice not dictated by any kind of we have never had people speak at did uh when Miss sharp was was chair she allowed it I don't know that we ever did but she allowed it um and I don't think it was until we had a new chair that it actually started being addressed as we didn't do it so it is it's absolutely a board choice that the board can choose whether to do or not but we can that can be brought up at another time but as far as meeting in the middle of the workday I appreciate

046you wanting to give the central office staff an opportunity to do the work session during their regular working hours but again you're then asking board members to take off their jobs that they get paid to do to come here I I know I can't do it I just recently started this job so I can't take that time off to be here for a work session Mr bot well now I'll have a discussion um cuz I kind of instigated this after being here a month and y'all give me a little Grace cuz I have not you know I've been out of the public eye for almost 30 years now but two things um why do we even have a work session we're we're rolling through this tonight we start at 5:30 we're going to be out

047of here in probably 10 more minutes 45 minutes it appears to me that we could have possibly a longer meeting Thursday night to have plenty of time for discussion and cut us back to two meetings a month I like all y'all and everything but it takes a I mean it's a it's an hour and a half for me to get here now with the traffic but it's not about me this is not about me this this is about the central office staff and parents having the opportunity to come and speak so if they're you know we're not speaking on the work session nights why are we even here you're asking somewhere between 15 and 20 people to to to to spend time away from their family I know they're on salary and I'm not going

048to point at Dr s right now I don't know what he does about comp time or anything but I know with my employees when I ask them to do something outside of normal business hours there's a fringe benefit but I think we're asking these individuals an awful lot you know four nights a month out of 20 to to be out here for us we could be uh respectful of them and and try to get this done in two meetings uh maybe save the taxpayers a few bucks save them some personal time because on top of this some of these individuals with central office staff have to attend a couple of County Commission meetings they've got to go to health and Ed they got to go to budget and they got to go to full commission

049so you get to counting all that they're spending half their nights with County government so if if if if you don't want to meet during the middle of the day that's fine I mean I work too but let's don't meet let's cut it back to two two meetings a month that's the only thing I want to bring up I'm just trying to treat every body fairly I don't I don't see that we get a lot done here on work session nights that's my two cents M Maxwell just a moment yes Miss Shar thank you um we have a very short agenda this is a we probably will be out of here by 6:30 barring no uh other controversy uh but typically our meetings are much much longer and I will tell you I have attended

050Wilson County who does their work session and their school board meeting together and it is a long night they've gone to midnight before and we're here because of the public the public put us here and we're here to do a job those staff members as wonderful as they are they knew when they took the job that they were going to have to attend some meetings so I'm completely against this I still have um constituents who asked for us to move the meeting to 6:00 because it is very difficult to get anywhere at 5:30 from anywhere in Nashville or anywhere in Murphy's sporo you got kids that get off the bus at 3:30 4:00 sometimes 5:00 and it's very difficult for them to get here so we're here for the constituents and nothing else yes Mr

051V well I agree with that 100% we're here but my point is why are we having work sessions that that I wish that is a new new tradition that was not out here 20 years a go that's something new to this board I get it if you're in the middle of budget I get it if you got to do some extra work and put in the budget together having hearings or whatever however y'all formulate the budget out here we did that on the County Commission we had that a few extra meetings but we didn't have you know what is this uh 12 * 4 is that right 48 meetings to to to be advisors to the school board you got a capable staff to run this place every day during the day I think Dawn

052can handle this place pretty good sorry to call you out but you're the first smiling face I see about this but anyway not to drag them into it I just don't know why we have work sessions I agree with Caleb if you can't make it you can't make it so uh you know back the meetings up to six I'm all for that let's just have two a month yes Miss Shar well one of the reasons and we've done the work sessions as long as I've been on here and constituents always ask because one of the things that we have the opportunity to do is we're all seven of us don't really want to call Dr Chastain and ask her about one question because we've been asked really not to interfere with their workday so while

053they're here when we do our work session that's where we get to ask all the questions if our constituents call us and we have more questions then we have Wednesday to do more due diligence and then we vote on it on Thursday we also are not set up like the County Commission where they have different committees health and Ed there's seven on health and Ed there's seven on them so they probably have just as many meetings as we have it's just different amounts of people that go to them I I can't understand someone coming in the door and want to change everything M Rosales is next and then talk get to Mr thank you so um I understand that there's some people here that have work and they're schedule aiz allow doesn't allow it however

054it is a yes we were elected but it's also a service job so um I am a proponent of cutting back I'd rather just have two meetings and if they're longer they're longer there's been multiple times when we've gone and did some agendas that were so short and I kept thinking why we're having a work session and a board meeting and then another work session and a board meeting when some of these agend items could be condensed and put into one and so um I've asked Dr Sullivan in the past to look into if we can cut back on the meetings because I felt like we were meeting too much so I'm in favor of cutting back so if we can eliminate a work session and add add more items to an agenda and then

055we just have a longer meeting I'm good with it so yes Mr s Dr real quick it's not my role to determine board meetings so just want of that out there no but I'm here regardless but there is a reason that we have the work meeting the the meetings when they are scheduled so that if there is something on the agenda because what's going to happen is if we change this to two meetings and we don't have four meetings every month it's usually two meetings in November two meetings in December and sometimes during the summer we we only have two meetings a month but what's going to happen is we're going to have to start calling special school board meetings and then then we're going to have to work around the schedule because there's going

056to need to be something to be approved by the County Commissioners and we're going to be up because we've done this before that when Dr Sullivan came in he made us to do on the second week and then the fourth week so so we if we have something that has to go to the County Commissioners that's one of the reasons that our schedules are set up like this yes M derby um just to bring some some clarity you're asking about why the work sessions um I think it's beneficial when we have them because we get to hear other board members perspectives as well and then it gives us a couple of days to digest some of that stuff go back and do some more research before we have to come and vote on topics um

057so I'm definitely not in favor of going to solely board meetings and no work sessions because I doesn't I don't think that allows for a lot of discussion and then thinking about the points that were brought up and then going back and doing any research and then need to vote in terms of the amount of meetings um I'm pretty sure that the last two years we've had I think about three months where we only had two meetings and I think the rest of them were four um and I think that's usually determine between the chair and Dr Sullivan as far as the load of things that are on the agenda the dates with the commission and all of those types of things so I think when they have felt it reasonable to only go down

058to the two meetings we've done that in terms of talking about you know you didn't do this 20 years ago the district wasn't the size it is now 20 years ago either so I don't think you had the volume of things that you're having to go into and to talk about and those are things to consider too so I think that's pretty much at the discretion of the chair and Dr Sullivan as far as determining the meetings and how many and I think so far it's worked out well have we had a couple where they ended up being fairly quick yes I don't know that anybody expected it but that is going to happen probably every now and then um and in terms of how long it takes any of us to drive here we

059ran for these positions we asked for them we knew how many meetings were going on at the time so I mean that that is what it is okay yes Mr V I remember when we had board meetings that lasted to midnight and later at the old uh in back that's back when we had 15 20,000 students now we got 52,000 and all the stuff that we having to deal with now most of it was never on the rise never on the agenda and uh I think I I'm just in favor of doing the work session because there's things that come up on the agenda that I like to investigate to be informed that um to be able to to uh to make a a more conscientious vote myself okay M Maxwell yes Mr Rosales I

060want to go in the record that the reason why we cut back in some of those board meetings is because I asked Dr solivan if we can cut back and he recommended we can cut back in July and December and that's when the schedule came out so this was because I was asking if we can cut back that's what we had shorter some of those months we only had two meetings in a month so I want to go and record and M let it be known thank you always meetings Sumer well I wanted this on the agenda so we could discuss it and we have discussed it um I don't know this will be the last time we discuss it but I'm always looking for ways that we can help our staff and maybe streamline

061some things and maybe we can cut down onto a meeting here and there but uh thank you for the debate next we have financial report so this is our it's November 12th but we haven't had a payroll run um yet this month so just want everybody to have a copy of our expense report um if you see anything that is way over lines for example on that first page 71100 116 teachers contracts with private agencies this is where we do a a lot of our work with some of our vendors to provide services that our school system can't uh you're going to see a lot of that in special education type areas and as you go through some of these you'll see some areas that are a little bit over um and some of it

062just depends on what how they're paid so where they're over we are July August September October sorry I'm doing counting on my hands we're 33% of the year in and so we're looking for things to be around 33% payroll always falls behind that because payroll runs um two months behind as far as for our summer so we when we're looking at payroll you're going to see teachers and EA a little bit further behind that 33% because we pay them in July and August and we do it in a rear so they go ahead and take that funding in June so you'll start seeing those numbers go way up in June but just want everybody to have a copy of where we are nothing that's of major concern right now whatsoever director's update just a couple

063quick points you have a demographic profile of our student enrollment so just want everybody to have a a copy of this we're sitting at 5286 as of right now first page has your overall demographics so you can see English language Learners all the way through and then you can see looking on the other ones the number of students per grade level you'll see grade that second page the First Column third and fourth the three and four the first two columns those are preschool age students so you've got 239 threey olds and 584 four-year-olds a lot of those we are required to serve as part of um idea and special education so just want everybody to have a copy of our enrollment report of where we are we have another Staffing report due tomorrow so I'll

064know if there's any staff members that we need to look at adding positions for we are already Dr Chastain was it 3 yesterday I think we're not going to go back and add any new positions but even in the last month we are to the point where we need more additional ESL positions already even though we just approved more last month and so that is a continuing Trend that we are seeing a couple things just to bring up these next few months are going to be um extremely tough and I just wanted that on everybody's radar so rezoning we have the board last year made a motion to revisit all board approved zones at least six months before implementation and so we have a scheduled resoning meeting on December 12th I meet with Rob from

065RSP on November 18th to have new enrollment totals and as soon as I get all that if he has it finalized then I'll forward that to the board so we can look at it at our first December meeting and then December 12th is the rezoning meeting I don't Envision much 10th sorry December 10th not the 12th December 10th um it's the 12th County Commission is that a Thursday yep I was thinking County Commission meeting sorry December 10th is a Tuesday so elementary school and middle school I don't anticipate much needed change if any Middle School doesn't go into effect until the new Middle School is built Elementary we moved a little bit of that last year high school just so that everyone knows the board last year voted to grandfather what would be Juniors and

066seniors next year so that's this year's current sophomores and juniors with no siblings that is what the board voted on last year another thing we're going to have to deal with over the winter and then into the spring is transportation so we are in the middle of starting negotiations with our current bus Contra contractor model we are unique in our contractor model in that we contract with multiple contractors and so there's a group that represents some of our contractors there's a group that doesn't represent some of our contractors there's some contractors who are all by themselves and so it is very strange to negotiate when everybody when you're trying to negotiate with hundreds of different people uh the board knows this and I've communicated to all of our contractors we released a RFP for transportation

067services last week that is for additional routes or routes we cannot fill and so part of that RFP and I just want to make sure everyone knows it's not to replace current contractors uh we designed it yes we designed it so that it had to be 10 buses or more for them to bid on the contract that protects some of our one two 3 four people bus contracts but as we continue to grow we've talked about a parent respons responsibility Zone a little bit and I'm meeting for a final report on that November 14th to our team stby and so we have to look at ways to make sure we can provide the transportation services we are and so with hard to fill routes and as we continue to grow we're going to need other

068services the other part of that is it's a price point for us to see what type of services provided as we enter negotiations so any contractor that wants to keep their contract they are not being replaced whatsoever so I wanted that on record to make sure everybody knew that was not part of the conversation it is part of the convers ation to give us a fair price point and to see who can pick up other routes for hard to fill routes we have had some interests from a couple of our contractors who have large Contracting companies who can pick up some of these routes and so that's that's been helpful and then library books you all have an email I received 150 library books today so really what we're kind of looking at I met

069with our media specialist at 2:30 is that that's a lot of books and we just need some Direction um from the board because ultimately it comes down to final board approval some of those I'm not sure would meet definitions of sexually explicit and so we just need some guidance because right now they're being pulled off the shelves and we need a process to be able to put them back on the shelves that they don't qualify and so that is just my concern is I want to make sure that I'm doing as required by policy and state law but also being aware of what happens when we have that large of a number so oh I've got are there any that are on that list and I Bree through there today are there any on that

070list that came in on the mature reading list do you know because I know that happens I has happened what do you mean about a mature reading list because we don't have one right now we don't officially have one but there are some books I'm told that parents have to get permission for that would be school specific yeah it' be school specific so anything that that came in like that to me would be automatically yeah Dr Selvin yes Mr but I thought we were told we didn't have a mature reading list that parents don't have we don't have an official mature reading list so we're that we so we were there was a there was trying to get a policy to put a restrictive list and we were told that that was pornography we're creating

071a section y y y but then you're saying that there are books a parent can request their kid their child not to check out any book at any time so there can be parental consent for these books then to that degree yes but an official districtwide restricted list no that would be like me calling school but I think the point I'm making is that there are books where parents are making the decision whether they can H check the book or not that's the point I'm making so we are doing some type of parental consent right now whether we have a district policy or not where parent where parents can't make a decision whether they can um decide yes I want this book no I don't but now we're now we're saying that we're going to

072remove these books out of the list that have parental consent and before it was no the district decides so that's interesting to hear this today let me clarify there are books that came into the library to our system that have warnings on them when they come in it doesn't have anything to do with the parents calling in there and saying they can't read it it already has a warning and it already has a label that says with permission only so it doesn't have anything to do with Susie's mom coming down here and saying she can't read Wicked there are books that have already come into our system and to me that's a mature reading material and those are the ones that should be removed along with the other ones that we review if they come

073in and they've come in over the years this is not something that our Librarians have done this they come in this way and if they're already marked adult content mature reading they need to be gone anyone else make a motion we adjourn wait wait we cannot make he's making motions wait a minute Mr y'all have really picked my interest here so you've been on the board longer than anybody right yes and so you've been aware that there's been books with warning labels on them then yes how did they get here they just send them in or they're they're they s yeah there's a little bit let let me hold on Dr chain and them now have a procedure because of the law historically that books were sent and I had spok on this before some

074some of the publish send the books for free because they ordered so many books or something like that so through no fault of someone here at the district there have been books that have been sent in that are already on a mature reading list are they restricted when they come in I am unaware of anything that would be labeled explicitly mature or sexually explicit I think we've done our due diligence to ensure that is not happening however um it is an integral part of our process that parents can see what their kids are checking out at any time um they can call their Librarians their principal I mean that that is that is part of the process today is we're tired I mean I think we're trying to figure out how best to maneuver the

075new law our board our Librarians the the process we already have in place in good faith and trying to do our due diligence and this is a lot um and and some of the books are books that we've kind of reviewed before and so so truly like Dr Sullivan said like some direction on H how to move forward would be helpful for our Librarians the uh question the average and I don't know that there's an average um High School library how many books are in each one of the schools I mean if you got any idea I mean is it 5,000 is it 3,000 is it 10,000 does anybody know it's 150 something less today less seven or eight less thousand there are thousands and I know we do have and I in my book

076in there where we have tried to put in a um a much more specific thorough research and collection procedure and we do have collection logs of of numbers and ages of books and so we can get that pretty quickly for you you have you have some kind of inventory control correct yes and I and I'm going to assume something right here and tell me if I'm wrong that you in that inventory control you could probably share with us how many times absolutely certain book could has been checked out you could tell us how many times at Riverdale it was checked out versus how many times at Stewart's Creek yes right yes so if and everybody keeps throwing up this 400 book list I wish somebody help me with where that list came from it's like

077this magical list that's dropped from the air I don't nobody puts their name on it but there would be a way to actually see how often those books are being used and I think this leads to a question that we have and I hope that if I say anything that doesn't feel again we really are just seeking answ tr get Grace here cuz I really don't understand the process we're all everybody's tired and and y'all are frazzled and after being at the convention this weekend there's 144 other districts that are similar to us but I've gathered from them and I think Caleb and Katie both asked some questions of the attorneys down there related to this that specifically probably there's five or six counties that are that are targeted right now we're in the crosshairs

078and we have Librarians that are willing and able to do whatever is asked they are they have reached a level of professionalism and beyond that then what is warranted at this point probably for for how they feel today our main ask is how how do we move forward how do how do we review how if there are books on lists that have come through in this type of process how do we how do we give any recommendations to you if you want them I mean I I I think there are just just what is the next step in terms of do you want our Librarians to do any any notations collect on kind of the the stats that you're mentioned right and I and I gathered from some of the other districts and I think

079that was one of the reason I asked Jeff to get the Attorney General's opinion for us is that you know I think a specific question came up in the discussion was well if if say Rutherford County bans it does that mean it's banned Statewide or if it goes to the book review whoever the powers it be are in Nashville and it's banned is it banned Statewide you know what there's some there's some moving parts to this thing right now and I can see why you and your staff or the Librarians media specialist right that new title media specialist all of those people have a degree a Masters or something in that subject matter correct correct and and I'm referring to them as Librarians because because right now that is the job that they're doing they're

080unable ble to do the other jobs which I know is not the intent of our board I'm not but it is they are singularly focused on books and trying to review books we have the ability and the platforms that that we currently use to track you know Collections and when they're checked out how often they're checked out any parent we have the ability to do all that um we have the ability to tag books to miss Sharp's point if they if they are intended for maybe it's a young adult like we that that is the process we were already undergoing trying to make sure we had the information and I'm not re forgive me if I put words in your mouth because I'm not trying to if I read between the lines right now it

081sound it sounds like it's a Time issue you you need time the staff needs time is that right correct okay M thank you thank you I'm sorry yes Mr the starby after oh can I speak yes okay so it sounds like because of time that we need to give our Librarians time and I believe that this was not this was given to us um well I believe the law came into effect in July and then we didn't have kids or staff in the libraries in July then they came in a August of August 1st that's when the Librarians came and then August 8th is when the kids came into the building so really to be on Fair in good faith they the liberians have not had any time whatsoever to go through these books and

082I know cuz they've told me they're just as concerned about the books as we are they don't want to be known that the school with pornographic books because that has been the word of the day it's porn pornographic books so it sounds like to me that we should as Dr chestin is saying and and also Dr suvan that we should give direction to them in how to move forward so I know today is not a a time that we can vote on it but it probably seems like we should put something on the agenda that says should we look at compensating our librarian to give them time to come through the library collections until the academic year that will be at the end of May 2025 they can give us recommendations of like what you're

083saying if they are um sexual explicit if there are recommendations whatever age group and then after that year we can come together we can come back and vote on that decision of what that is and today's not a voting day but maybe we can put this on the agenda as a voting to say this is a decision that the um that the that the school board is making and I would like to actually I would like to add this to the agenda for December to add to us to go move in forward to um allowing the Librarians time to um to come through the library collection and compensate them for that time okay we can do that yes Mr Arvey couple things I know previously is it fallet the system that we use can I

084ask you to find out from them why at one time we could search all of the school libraries but now it seems like you have to go school by school you can you can we checked as of last week I know we can still search all libraries you have to you can can you let me know I guess what that process looks like or if we need to change something on the website or whatever yes and and I'll put some screenshots together so and send it to Dr Sullivan so that way if anybody needs to to search all libraries everybody will have that access to do so um secondly it keeps getting brought up so it it it's worrisome to me I just I can't speak speak for everyone on the board but I would

085like to think we all no one is holding our Librarians responsible for any of this and I just want to go out publicly to say that and to say that no one is is thinking they're responsible or accusing them in any way and I can imagine how stressful the whole process has been for them so I'm looking forward to us getting some clarification putting some clarity on our policy so that they have some specific direction to go in that they can follow but please reiterate for me that that that's that's not a thing at least it's not for me and I don't think it is for our entire board I think everyone appreciates the work that they've been doing and and no one here has ever thought they were responsible for these books coming or

086any of that information um the other question I have though is I'm a little conflicted because our last policy committee meeting when this policy was brought up and there was a lot of confusion about the new law and all the different ways and all of the things it was voted on and postponed so that we could get the AG's opinion so I'm unclear and forgive me because like I said I have not been home I have not been at my email so I did not see the email that's referencing the hund and something books that were turned in I guess I'm confused as to how just a couple weeks ago like 10 books were challenged and we were told that we had to decide on those by a certain date and now this email has

087come in and it's 10 and some books and now those have just automatically been pulled I'm all kinds of confused about what exactly has gone on any books that gets challenged through that are pulled automatically and so the previous 10 books that has to be decided on by December 5th I believe is the date those books were pulled as well okay maybe a much larger number I thought our policy said they stayed until that proc great question if it is through the age appropriate materials act where one person is challenging up to five a year yes that has not been and in talking with lots of people if something violated the law there should have been on July 1st a magic wand that got rid of any books that violated the law that of course

088isn't practical and doesn't exist so we are left with the age appropriate materials act which is the way that I believe the legislature intended for books to be challenged is not the way that we are getting book challenges instead it's these books are inappropriate that on July first should have gone away and the way our policy is there to be removed immediately so the age appropriate they stay until the decision is made but the other processes they get pulled and it's very confusing for our Librarians because our Librarians follow the guidance from the state and the state guidance is when books are challenged that you leave them on the shelves and so that is that is conflicting um guidance but they're going at it from the state is the age appropriate materials act so thank

089you for clarifying now I have wrapped my head around it better but I guess my next question is going to be I don't understand if we don't have the opinion back from the AG I'm not sure aside from just pulling the books that have been challenged what good discussion is going to be if we still aren't don't have that opinion and that's the whole reason we postponed everything to begin with was to receive that opinion I think the only other option would be if the original complaint felt like the board needed to act quicker they could challenge it to the state textbook commission that would be the only other option that I know of and that could be for the 10 or the 150 or any combination of all the above well I'll just say

090I'm I'm not in favor of discussing it at the next agenda the next meeting unless we have the AG opinion because it was the whole reason it got postponed in the first place was to prevent us from changing the policy and then changing it again and changing it again and changing it again um that's just my 2 cents yes Mr V well now you asked something about policy at the convention what was that you asked that that you and cayb both asked but I couldn't where I was sitting I think I asked the one attorney how they did not adopt the state the state law into their policy and what was his response my general summation of of that was we'll wait till somebody sues us is pretty much what I would what was it

091you asked that was the gist I got you you had asked a question related to the books also yeah I did um that's Maxell yes Mr Tidwell sorry no uh my question was that there are really and I kind of explained this back at the previous board meeting I just had so many legal opinion sitting up there in the education system I was trying to make use of that as well uh but is it there's there's really three different Pathways here when you when you're talking about books you got age appropriateness that deals with does it go in sixth grade middle school uh does it go in high school where is it appropriate for so that's age appropriateness then you have obscenity which has a summation of the what is formly known or commonly called

092the Miller test um and then you have the newest part of the law which is written in in whole or in part deals with sexual nudity sexual depictions those types of things and it is the lower threshold to reach so I was asking in my is my understanding clear that there are really three different Pathways and the answer I got back was yes that is correct there is age appropriates so where where does it belong in the great band maybe it's super violent a certain book it's not good for elementary but it's good or fine for High School uh then you have obscenity which has very specific definitions and follows typically the Miller test so you go through these three different questions when it deals with that you're you're coming to a conclusion based on

093how you answer those questions I should say questions and statements and then the last part is what the general assembly done recently which was dealing with u mainly sexually explicit content uh but it removes some of the qualification so it's an easier threshold to cross that was my question and he brought up the the statue of David didn't he yes in his response to you yes so the my understanding of that is if it is curriculum based then that is separate from than School libraries as it understands right now I'm okay with having an ask I have asked for the state legislator to uh legislation to clarify that into law it's fine to say it but I'd rather there be more clarity there um but to to switch topics a little bit I was waiting

094to speak here too about guidance right Librarians than need guidance uh I would just say out front that when I've submitted a book I've reviewed the content myself I have never done blanket submissions um so with that being said uh I understand well how why they need guidance I think there's a couple different things need to happen here so whenever when whenever I sat down with Librarians and talked to them they went through the review process with me they the process that they're currently using is it is an option but it it I don't think they're ever going to get to the the place where it's thorough enough to catch everything I just don't think so because it's based off other librarian journals and they're reading the reviews on the books and they have some

095qualifying factors there um so that's why I don't blame the Librarians uh that's that's part of that giving them some guidance if we were to have which I this to um mentioned it to Sullivan about a flowchart that kind of follows the law and kind of sends them you know if it has this then this if it has this then this and it kind of follows out to either estay or remove potentially at least helps them in the recommendation process uh but they would have to have the content right so if they order uh 400 books say 300 of them are no question really but the other hundred maybe there's 50 or 75 there that has some question they would need the content to go through that they're still not going to be able to

096read front to back 50 pages which is why I've always used this particular site that just pulls the content straight out so they can see the content that was in question and make a recommendation I think that's the fastest way to do that uh without and just hours and hours and hours and hours and hours upon the librarians I also think it's necessary that there is a uh a law dealing with Publishers uh that the AG has to be involved with where I think there should be some push back and I've had conversations about this to get the AG involved to push back on the Publishers to strengthen their screening process so that it isn't the librarian's fault that a lot of that is caught at the top because they the Publishers are reading all

097the content they're obviously they're publishing it and figuring out by state St statue whether it's through this blow chart or something similar what that would allow and should be appropriate for school districts um that is very lenient currently uh and so that's where we end up with did the Librarians do something wrong no they did their typical review process that they did a fair Pro they think they're doing a great job um did some stuff flip through the crack apparently it did I blame more of the publisher on that end so it's it's kind of a multitude of ways to actually address this and I think that really ends with I'll end with this a three-prong deal one if we're going to ask our Librarians to thoroughly review the content then if there's a way

098that we can provide that content to them that's in question Etc I think that would be a ton less off their stress off their back and for making recommendations two I think that go dealing with the Publishers is going to have to be a thing to stop the flow and even if there's a gray area well they can they can tell our Librarians hey this is this is a gray area what do you think about and then the Librarians can make that decision and then three if we can get some further guidance from the state uh of any additional Clarity if needed I I think we're fine as is but for the sake of others if Clarity is needed I think there's your three prong deal in order how to deal with this um if

099I can ask you specifically some clarifying questions on those three points yes ma'am and again this is just cuz as we're going through these trying to where the questions arise there are portions of all those Pathways that you mentioned that are very black and white we use nudity as an example there's a strict definition whether you agree with it as being patently offensive or not it's a definition it is black and white a librarian can make a decision or we as a district can make a decision quickly on that and therefore remove retain and there's not a whole lot of follow-up needed um when it comes to the term that gets thrown around a lot about sexually explicit there are some let's take some of the excerpts that we received today there are some those

100are varying levels of what in the members of our own Community here that that don't meet the bar of how we are currently reading even with a really strict lens on whether that is sexually explicit or not so now that we've received these books and we're we're going through that content as well um where it is just in those excerpts if that is an easy call for a librarian or for someone up here at our office as we're reviewing them let's put that aside let's look at one that maybe doesn't have any of those definitions as listed in title 39 in the obscenity definitions and it is it doesn't meet that threshold for sexually uh you know all all excitement all those things right now that we've received a list that has lots of those

101excerpts on them and there are some that have already been identified as not meeting that criteria what is our next step as a district and with Librarians and how we would like is there is that part of a review process that then comes to you where we say Okay Book 15 7 10 we've reviewed these here the excerpts that were provided we've gone beyond that and read the entire text this doesn't appear to us as a if we put together a Review Committee because we don't have one right now but if we were to do that these don't meet that threshold we've now removed them what what do you suggest and how we respond you know so those are just some of the questions that are coming up J you're asking me not well just

102because no no no no I appreciate that I'm just I'm just saying that to say that I'm going to give you my opinion right um so yes in those situations like for instance I think there's just 400 book list or whatever it's came out of Wilson County or uh that that's the thing that I can't I think keeps getting referenced now I have not seen the full list just like I haven't seen the full list of these 150 books um but I will just say that I could be misunderstood I'm just going off the information I heard uh but there was a Dr Seuss book that was removed I don't know if that's true or not in the Wilson County in the yeah the 400 book list or whatever um and so and I've had

103conversations with the director about this I I personally think that is a complete misinterpretation an absurd interpretation of the law um now whether that what the intent of that is that's for others to decide however in in our County if you're asking my opinion if there is if it doesn't reach the level then the way that is as my conversations with the state has been the way that it is determined is yet the board is actually the final say so if you found something that you felt me met the level or the Librarians not you but you know what I mean um General you if you found something that met the definitions and they removed it then that's one less thing that's arriving up here uh because we we would likely be all in agreeance

104on that if the Librarians agreed if it doesn't meet then I think you compile a separate list and then board members in general would have the option whether or not they would like to take from that list to remove a book after it's been reviewed it's not to say whether or not uh it it's to kill the gray area basically it takes the gray area off the Librarians and puts it back on the board to say you know what you've asked us for this responsibility here's the decisions that we've came up with the rest is your responsibility and I think that's fair and then it doesn't mean that it comes straight up here to us it just means that we have the list board members can review it at their own like I said I

105have never submitted book that I have not read the content and and came to the conclusion that I did I've looked through many books that didn't reach the definition that were sent to me so that being said I think that's the best way to do it yes I was going to yeah and I think that that is good clarifying information because that is not the way that we've interpreted policy um our policy says for final determination by the board so our Librarians are not reviewing books when we pull them because ultimately it is final determination by the board and in policy there is no review process for them and so there are some of those books that were mentioned back in September that I have no doubt our media Specialists would have thought that's inappropriate

106to be in a school we didn't feel like we had the mechanism to do that because of the way it's worded for final decision by the board can I say something I don't say much anymore being chair but it sounds to me just from listening to everyone that they do need some clarification they need some clarity they need some kind of road map to help them and and then if we end up having to decide yay or nay on a book after it's gone through the library system then we need to do that for them and we need and I agree with M Rosales we also need to compensate them um but I would like to um make sure that our Librarians know that you know this is not an easy thing for you all

107to have to go through and you know but the state law is the law and we're just want to make it as easy as we can on you guys cuz you are do you're The Gatekeepers of the books you've got the books go ahead yes Miss sharp um thank you madam chair um two things one um Dr Sullivan were there any more books up to the point of the ones that we're going to review in December were there more that you had in the pipe before the 150 came just those 10 okay um thank you and then secondly um email let clarify that real quick we are looking at books that were removed previous counties to make sure that we are is that an official list no is it something that I met with media

108Specialists to discuss this is not an exhaustive list but I think is a good place for us to look to make sure that we're doing our due diligence so officially no but are we reviewing yes okay thank you um maybe that we can look at some of the ones that were pulled from the other ones not the Dr Seuss book but you know that we can kind of compare what the other ones are doing instead of recreating a lot of work for for the Librarians secondly what was the name of the book that you sent out today that was part of the curriculum St Castle Glass Castle castle castle so I'm going on memory and I've read some of that book but I also know I have friends that were on the textbook committee when

109those people in the textbook committee they review for standards only so they review those books to make sure that they be the standards but they are not reviewing them to look at the content if it's sexually explicit or not so yeah and that's a completely separate review process yes but I did screenshot that and S it to one of the state reps and said we need to look at this because obviously there's some contradictions there because they've already approved that book and it's in state approved yeah the state approved it but I would say that it's not a back in what 20 when was the ELA adoption was that 2019 that seems like ites right before 2019 so wouldn't been and and look we understand a lot of this is retro and that's what people

110need to people understand we on the board understand that we're retro we're going back through the books and everything and the and the community needs to realize that too so there there's not anyone saying the Librarians allowed this you know um I really think Mr um Tidwell is right we do need to go and Lobby the state at this Federal level because they need to just like we had music lyrics We need to put some kind of uh labeling on on those books that the the Publishers need to be responsible for that because I don't think that they all I mean you can read the back of some of those books and think oh this sounds like it's a great book and then when you get deep into it you're going oh well this is

111sort of a misrepresentation of what they said on the back of the book so it's kind of hard just to be able to look at it and then and make a decision so but thank you for all your work and please we we all want them to know we're just trying to get this and that's it and they just want something clear and and fair and the reason that this hurts them personally is because they are so good at their job so I just you know it is they take it very seriously which is exactly what you should want and our community wants but it they want to do it well and that in in lack of clarity that becomes more stressful and connected to that I think the part that's hard is they've all

112been trying to use the Miller test for removal of books and so when they hear from various people they varying attorney opinions who have a different opinion on whether that applies and So based on which attorney you talk to depends on whether or not they feel like the Miller test applies and so that is where our Librarians get stuck is that they have been told in school and through all their trainings to do this and then they're told differently and so that's if you hear push back that's where the push back is is they want to make sure they're following the law and not held liable for not following a federal law yes Mr B the at the conference this past week during the legal session that Mr Vault M Mr tid and Mr AR

113is talking about they made a statement in there that if the book was uh curriculum related one of the books that we banned is on the one AP um reading list now does that mean that we've got to go back and revisit and undo that since it is curriculum related it can be changed it's not in our it is on the AP test it is not part of our current curriculum guide but since it is allowed by AP we absolutely can still teach that okay that that is a review process that is completely separate that goes through the state department and the textbook commission and is not up to the local board Dr Sullivan yes M Rosal I Mr R yeah thank you well that means since we already are having some kind of parental

114consent then I would think at that point we will allow parents to make a decision whether or not they will allow their kids to read that book if it's a book that has been approved by this textbook committee and if there is whatever sexual explicit or whatever then I believe we should have give parents the decision I mean it just seems like there there's going to be some areas where parents can make the decision whether they will allow their child to read the book or not that's we had we've we've always had that opportunity haven't we if if a parent did not like the book suggested they they could choose another book yes Mr Arvey can I ask a really quick clarifying question today and like right now the Librarians are just pulling those books

115on that list is that correct they're not I know they're looking for clarity for as we go forward down this road but they're currently just taking those off the shelf because in ourr policy those would come before the board correct so we have the time to wait on the AG opinion like we requested at the policy committee meeting yes our librarian stance is we've may have removed books that had no business being removed from kids hands like we some of these books because the policy says immediately we're removing them from kids that have checked them out so that's that's where the Librarians are going to come from okay um and I think my next statement is simply just just um I think we have to remember that the policy in which we're talking about speaks

116specifically to the library books it's not talking about curriculum books it's simply it's strictly talking about the books that are available in the library so I just don't want us to get like way off topic on the curriculum conversations because when we're talking about removing books we're talking about removing them from the school library and the school library 100% agree thank you yes Mr Tidwell Dr ches just to finalize that guidance um would do you feel let me ask you if this this would be helpful with the definitions described in the law using as that as guidance on this I guess any books that that have been submitted but specifically I guess this 150 books that have come through and you said it's a mixed bag apparently with that being said could the guidance from

117The Librarians be since Dr has mentioned the final decision lies with the board could there be three levels of recommendation one the level for to remove two somewhat and then three not recommended for removal would that be sufficient and then they're not making any decisions they're just sending it to the board and if the board I would say that if if books come up here from The Librarians that said they need to be removed I don't think we're going to be revisiting those absolutely so would that be useful that would require us to enter into a review phase which I think we would all be happy to do um and then that I mean we can then go into all the logistics about how do we we've got some ideas maybe in how we prioritize

118the review process and then how that would come to you but we would need kind of permission from the board to enter into that phase the only thing I would caution is one of my jobs is to protect our staff and I am not comfortable having public comment at a public review meeting with our Librarians being attacked um what occurred at that September board meeting our staff needs no part of that and so that is what the requirement is for the the review um I'd be strongly against that for that reason because any public meeting has to have public comment ma' uh M Maxwell yes Mr Tidwell question and Clarity on that and I don't know so I want to ask but I think my understanding was if it is a staff only meeting that

119it would not be subject if it's appointed by the so if the board says each School level staff has to do that then it's open so great question what if it was uh we have ad hoc committees at every school right now it's established through procedure by the director of schools gee it would just be interesting if there was an ad hoc committee formed I don't know if this board should approve it or not but just thinking it's in procedure that is outlined in policy the director of schools can have and we have one at each school well miss Maxwell yes Miss Rosales Dr chest can can you provide your opinion if we as a board were to vote that we were going to give the Librarians the entire Academic Year all the way through

120May 2025 to review the library cataloges based on recommendations will that give them enough time sufficient time to make decisions and come back to the board and tell us including the 150 books that we're talking about and any other books that have been challenged will that give them enough time with all of the responsibilities that they have to come up with decisions that they can make recommendations to the board and the board makes the final decision at that point and I'm I'm pausing to think through I don't think it's fair to ask Librarians to work Beyond hours even if we're compensating they have families there's other things so I'm you know we've got a list of things we would have to navigate I think at also the external factors of how many additional lists we

121get is is important to consider as well um but if if all things remain constant and we were just left with that kind of directive from the board we could do that I I I feel like we could do that very well and have information that would help all of us moving forward and that is if we keep what we have right now as far as challenge books and then allow you the The Librarians or staff time to go through the process and try to look at what is inappropriate not appro and recommendations as long as provided that the what we have challenged is what we challenge at this moment what I can promise is that we can review all of those materials and do it in a way that is responsible thorough and intelligent

122I think until to miss Darby's point until we have strict clarification on what patently offensive means in some cases then there will be some there will still be some gray area but that would be noted in our reviews that that we could then work with Dr Sullivan and the board with Dr Sullivan I think one part of this as well and I'm I'm the um guilty party so in 2019 I moved our instructional Tech coaches to instructional coaches and put devices on our media Specialists um in 2019 and so that was not of course did not intend this to be part of that in 2019 um I don't know how we pay for in the budget but I do think it's going to be a priority that we add especially at the high schools and

123probably our large Middle School some position back to allow our Librarians to focus strictly on their libraries and not on devices um the state rubric follows devices to be part of the media center but with this level of scrutiny and this level of important dialogue that needs to occur their focus needs to be on kids and books and not device inventory I agree M Arvey I'm not an IT person so this might be a really silly question but if there even if there is isn't a committee formed is it possible that we can take like that list of 150 of the titles give our Librarians those three options and a space for notes if they wanted to leave notes and some kind of system that averaged it out so when it's presented to the board

124you know 70% of your Librarians say remove or 70% say retain and that way they don't have to spend extra time going to some committee meeting and on their T their time when available they're able to just click some buttons based off of what they've reviewed and close the book on it so to speak good one glad I made you laugh no um with that are we in general discussion did that ever get called we're definitely in general discussion um I'm going to say I'm going to totally change our topic um thank you we uh the board uh attended the TS conference over the weekend um and the latter part of last week and I love to give credit where credit is doing Dr Sullivan I wanted to give you a shout out um I

125attended along with some other board members a meeting on the Tisa funding and I have to say I don't know how y'all felt but I felt like Rutherford County was some of the most knowledgeable board members on how the Tissa funding worked and I know when all of that started that was in large part due to you I know we've all had lots of conversations with Board of Education all that as well but you really made that a priority to make sure that our board understood how that new funding was going to work and I really just wanted to give you a lot of credit for that thank you thank you I appreciate it yes Mr Tidwell yeah we were bored in that conference because you already told us that's correct um I just want

126to say uh thank you to many of you who have reached out and many members in the community have reached out and been praying for my son um that was the first board meeting that I ever missed uh when he was having an emergency surgery but he is back home and had his last surgery today so thank you for for all your love and support that you guys have reached out I really do appreciate that glad to hear he's home any yes Miss sharp um tomorrow morning early early about 7:30 7:45 uh they're going to have a flag raising at acar so anybody that wants to go it's their first flag they're putting it in the ground and they're raising the first flag so that's a um oh my gosh Ingram 2 building so they're

127having that tomorrow so they pass that invitation if anybody wants to join us early in the morning I got one Speaking of invitation was December 12th Smyrna was that what I was thinking what December the date that we put on the calendar because we're going to have a ribbon cutting for smyna high school um we'll do an official big announcement and all that they're going to start moving their stuff in in the next week week and a half it won't be perfectly ready um but we are going to have a ribbon cutting during the day in December James you know the date by chance I don't off the top of my head I think we were flirting with the 12th the 11th it's the 11th December 11th wnes 11th I hope we can all be

128there that's a that's a huge thing and we're going to work with Smyrna um I failed that part of the leadership meeting I was supposed to call Sher Sutherland I just realized I didn't so I spoke to miss souland today and said way to pick it up James thank you very much it's a good team right there team work yes yes Miss Shar and please um send Mr D Smith another thank you card for um absorbing the cost at um our school that we had earlier on the agenda he he does a lot for this community and along with smar Ready Mix so um I'll I'll send him one every time but if other board members would send one as well that would be great wonderful anything else we need to recognize Mr D Smith

129and sper red mix for all everything they've done yes this County I mean uh I don't know what hero of the year we can invent one but these people have really stepped up from the community their stakeholders that's what a true stakeholder is so we can't we can't do it without them we definitely need our our businesses and our stakeholders anything else meeting is adjourned