001oober 1st board meeting for the Rutherford County School System our first manner of business is the Pledge of Allegiance Mr Dr Sullivan so we have um some guests from Kil so Mr tid will invite those he's not able to be with us tonight but I wanted to read and give a little information about them the kol rising ladies Society was founded in 2016 with a simple table manners discussion that was in conjunction with the start of the amazing shake at kitrell over the past 8 years krls has become a Sisterhood with weekly meetings and annual manners luncheon and the krol elf exchange Additionally the krol league of gentlemen was founded in 2016 when our young men were learning to properly tie a tie this also stemmed from the beginning of the amazing shank competition at
002kitro elementary school and these fifth graders are learning how to become leaders we have several students here with us from kitro and I believe we also have Miss Jill and Mr Robison here as well I see one of you for sure um if you want to come up and lead us in the pledge we greatly appreciate it to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you all for coming you all the good job next up before we uh have a moment of silence I would ask you to continue to please put Mr Caleb tid wolf for our one of our fellow board member son in your prayers um his son Kingston is still ill also
003if we could pray for the victims of Helen all that have been ravaged all across the United States bow your heads please thank you first up is the approval of the agenda give you just a moment to look it over any comments discussion Madam chair yes I forgotten she's already left but I did want to recognize um Miss yisha Campbell the principal kit Elementary School she was here and is out there with our students right now so apologize to her that I did not see her standing right there but appreciate what she does absolutely if there no comments or discussions I'll entertain a motion so move second all in favor say I I I any opposed eyes have it next we move to the consent agenda if you all will take the like a moment
004take a look at that any discussion any comments I'll entertain a motion move to approve second second second all in favor say I I any post the eyes have now we will turn over to our public comment and we have one speaker signed up tonight Miss Michelle Johnson thank you for having me thank you good evening I'm here to address a serious and important matter specifically the pornographic books God's children have access to in the school libraries I was privileged to attend the last meeting at the conclusion of that meeting it became very clear to me why I would need to speak here tonight many voices laws and positions were heard that night but the one voice that was missing the one that truly mattered that should have been heard most loud and clear was
005the voice of a child affected by this kind of Insidious influence I am that voice I was that child left unprotected and I'm now a 52-year-old woman that grapples with spiritual mental emotional and physical pain with lustful thoughts shame guilt anger deep sadness regret need I go on this devastating influence left me being sexualized at a very young age as far back as I can remember this pornography provoked sexual thinking sexual thinking begets Su susceptibility to being sexually exploited and molested by Predators which begets early promiscuity an unhealthy view of love and a devalued mindset as God's child precipitating the road of multiple sexual partners infliction with an STD harmful plastic surgery because my body didn't line with Insidious narrative subsequently ending with damage to implants in my body resulting in explantation and permanent nerve
006damage engaging in infidelity ending in an abortion that haunts me to this day and most likely contributes to three miscarriages my husband and I have endured I was robbed of my innocence early on not every child has parents that will fiercely protect them from this evil these parents are Reckless and foolish each one of you sit here tonight because you choose to take on this position and were elected by the people you all have willingly assume the role of Overseer in charge with shepherding God's children James 4:17 says so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him it is sin all of you have either knowingly or ignorantly placed yourselves in a precarious position before God and he's holding you to a higher standard of accountability if you choose
007anything less than what is right and God's sight you are robbing God's Children of innocence and hindering their ability to come to him on that note Jesus said whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble it would be better for you to have a heavy Millstone H around your neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea in the end you will have no one to blame except for yourself when God judges your actions here I'm imploring you to be more concerned about God's laws and his desires for your constituents in conjunction with upholding state and federal law some of you may be wolves and sheep's clothing and my heart aches for your Eternal existence Madam chair respectfully you had us bow our heads and pray for a
008family that lost a loved one at the last meeting and you've had us pray tonight and then you proceeded to vote all the book all of these books to remain on the shelves Jesus May some Jesus may say to some of you plainly on Judgment Day I have never I never knew you and away from me you evildoers because Jesus said whoever disowns me before others I will disown before my Father in Heaven eternity hangs in the balance and your actions on this board will have eternal consequences what the enemy meant for evil in my life God has turned it for good in this moment and for his glory you intended to harm me but God intended it for good you cannot go on cuz I can't let them go on [Applause] next we have
009number seven ruford strong so we have our list of National Merit semi-finalist so students if when I call your name if you will come and just stand in front and face that way um when I call your name and then we will go out and take a picture afterwards so these students are our National Merit semi-finalist a huge huge huge honor for them and we're beond proud of them um as they continue on to their Journey past Rutherford County um as they leave this year but we have 16 seniors named National Merit semi-finalists the National Merit Scholarship Corporation has released its list of 16,000 semi-finalists and the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship program and 16 seniors from Rutherford County Schools earn a spot on this coveted list our list of Rutherford County semi semifinalist are
010from Central Magnet School Carlos aguar Alfonso Jacob Anderson Wyatt Brown Charlotte kushingham Rebecca Jerkins if you guys if you'll come back and stay right yeah you get stay right here yeah there you go Rebecca Jerkins Ian Kelly Evan Moody Michael palowski Riley pelum miles Ritter Ryan Russell Sophia string field Samantha Warren summer Yun Megan Z so we have several of them here with us today and then we also have from Stewart's Creek High School Jacob S Jones so congratulations to these students oh we'll give you a second sorry [Applause] thank you guys and if you will U Mr Evans going to go outside and take pictures um thank you Dr Ash Dr Harold for being here to represent your schools as well [Music] we'll continue as soon as the doors are closed next up we
011have instruction number eight several items so first we have an additional Arabic parent liaison for the ESL Department the ESL Department's requesting to add an additional Arabic parently aison with the increase of Arabic speakers in the district there's a need for additional translations for school documents District documents parent communication and meetings and enrollment support this is a 10-month position that will be funded by title three recommended motions to approve from an additional Arabic parent liaison for the ESL Department that will be completely funded by title 3 funds for the 2425 school year any questions or comments a motion to approve we have second second all in favor say I I any opposed or abstain motion passes next we have number two under instruction Optimal Health for me or o4m Optimal Health for me is a
012sexual risk avoidance or Sr program promoting a holistic approach to sex and healthy relationships this program aids to provide trained speakers to classrooms then RCS align to the standards within the expectations of family life instruction this program complies with TCA 4 96301 through TCA 4961 1308 requiring a program to be age appropriate sexual risk avoidance abstinent centered evidence-based and medically accurate program is available for grades 6 through 12 and ranges from 3 to Five Lessons recommended motions to approve the memorandum of understanding between o4m and rcss presented any comments or questions M Maxwell yes M Ros I just want to stress here that um one thing that I am really really um like that they have is that they're stressing the sexual risk avoidance SL abstinence Cinder and you can call me prsh that's okay
013but I grew up in the 90s where it was a a purity culture and I'm aging myself but um it's glad to I'm really happy to see a group coming and advocating for abstinence so I just want to commend them for doing [Music] that yes M thank you uh for those of you in the audience that didn't have the benefit of being here last night or knowing the group that does this many of you have probably heard of ptico so Portico is the agency that comes in we have several different agencies that come in and do supplemented teaching so um I know this has been an issue uh but it's ptico that is behind this and you would have heard the director yesterday coming and speak and um we think that this is a good
014thing any other questions comments yes Mr bot the the question I had and I should have asked it last night how are they funded I know it doesn't cost the district anything but how is that group funded does anybody know I do not they raise money they have yeah I think raise money you have to suspend the rules if we're going to allow someone from the audience to I'm sorry you you can't sorry yeah but I do believe they are a terrible organization and they they solicit donations yeah 501 free to the county but my concern not a concern I was just curious how they employ their people how they pay for them you know was it was it a you know State Grant Federal grant charitable contribution great benefactor I was just curious that
015anybody know that was what could be all three Miss Maxwell yes M Rosales thank you I don't know specifics of this but I do know that with ptical is a donation based organization so if they're affiliated with P Portico and if anyone knows any knowledge about Portico then there should be some kind of donations that has coming in to fund this so um I can't speak to it and say that is 100% donation based but with experience of portico nor they are more of a a donation type of organization okay thank you I'll entertain a motion move to approve second thank thank you uh all in favor say I I I any opposed or abstain the eyes have it motion passes number three science curriculum the names and qualifications of the following individuals are being
016submitted for appointment to the 2425 science curriculum adoption committee upon board approval the appropriate forms education department form 2150 are attached document includes Educators parent and experts to serve on each respected committee recommend motions to approve the individual submitted to serve on the 2425 science curriculum adoption committee and this will come back to the board for approval of those um by April 15th okay any questions or comments oh could you state that again Mr VA I'll make a motion to approve second all in favor say I I I all opposed motion passes I will ask would you please say my name please I'm not catching all the fingers going up so please say my name or Madam chair next the academic calendar for 2526 and this is in tab two we discussed it our work
017session last night recommended motions to approve the 2526 academic calendar is presented any comments questions all in favor say I I a motion I'm sorry I don't have a motion Paul I'll entertain motion sorry so move second second have a second all in favor say I I I all opposed motion passes next we have legal we've got ESL we missed we still got that one sorry ESL apologize yeah we discussed these ESL positions last night so unless there's questions um the recommended motion is to approve 21 ESL positions to meet the state requirements of teacher to student ratios and that's on top of the 25 we already had earlier this year so that is 46 New SL positions it's growing yep ever growing Madam chair I'll make a motion we approve it's very very needed
018do we have a second second we have a second all in favor say I I any opposed or abstain motion passes next we have legal we have at a County transfer student the board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline the student was expelled for possession of two knives in the backpack according to policy 6. 318 the board deny missions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system while under suspension or expulsion director of school's recommendation is to deny admission um however the board can't admit or deny the admission of this out of County transfer student I'll entertain a motion move to deny second we have a second all in favor say I any opposed or abstain motion passes next number
019two use of facilities and just to clarify we discussed this last night so we've moved this to a onewe review as long as people have them one week in then we will have them on the board agenda and also just to clarify that if anyone is on the board agenda for a retro review we have all of their required information including Insurance any other comments or just questions I'll entertain a motion make a motion we approve second all in favor say I I any opposed was there a motion on that it could be to change the one week we could probably use one just to to make sure we covered our bases yep number 10 engineering and construction this is the some good news request for Lever High School annex bed 3766 on Thursday September
02026 2024 purchasing engineering Construction receive bids for the site work and construction of the annex for Lever High all bids have been reviewed in engineering construction recommends Robert S bisin and Company $36 m340 th000 base bid plus alternate number one of 90,000 for a total bid of 36,43 th000 engineering recommends motion to approve the request and moving forward to health and education with a request for funding in the amount of 43,9 30,000 that breakdowns constructions 36,400 30,000 construction related contracts 2 million Furniture fixtures and equipment 3 million design of 2.5 million that has already been funded the total request is 43,9 30,000 but again we've already funded 2.5 of that recommended motions to send to health and education for Robert S bisin and Company for 36,43 th000 and a total project request for funding at
02143,9 330,000 as presented I'm excited to get moving on this any comments or yes Mr Darby Dr suin do you anticipate um any issue funding wise because I know we've had lots of discussion about land and that we're in desperate need of a new high school as well I just don't want to go down this road and then be told later well we funded this and now we can't and my my biggest concern with that is simply that this is providing us roughly 600 extra seats was it yesterday it'll get us to 2500 yes and a new school obviously would get us much over 2000 so in every one in my conversation with the County Commission has always been both and so I've always stated we needed to have both okay I'll make a motion
022we approve second second all in favor say I I I any opposed or abstain thank you motion passes number two request for Simon Springs this is the request for Simon Springs casework and restroom renovation bid 3770 and 3771 on Tuesday September 24th purchasing and Engineering construction received bids for the case work and selected Renovations for phase two of Simon Springs all bids have been reviewed in engineering construction recommend Steve Warden Associates casework bid of $237,700 and the bid for selected renovations to Roach Incorporated for 715,000 for procurement of Furniture equipment and Technology we request the reallocation of 600,000 from Westbrooks Woods to this project recommended motions to approve the casework and selected renovation bids as presented any comments or questions so move Madam chair let me um it just seems like to me this is
023a with only good money after to bad in this building I mean it's going to cost us no telling how much to to finish it and you I don't guess we could sell it it's a different building Miss um Claire maw yes okay clarify which building this is yeah so Westbrook Woods the renovation design and Mr V hasn't been here for all the conversations so just for clarification sake this building on Church Street really is to help help us with getting more seats for an alternative but we're on we're still on Simon Springs which is in smrna we're not to the Westbrook Woods okay so he was talking that's why I I was afraid you were at the wrong one okay so let's go back this is a request for Simon Springs and this is
024the former lever primary then Roy waler hanx now Simon Springs okay do I have any motion move to approve second second okay all in favor say I I any opposed guys have it now we go to Westbrook Woods renovation design and review revie that and I think that gets to what Mr M was um mentioning I think that's something as a board will discuss as our Retreat as well what's the future for this building um I met with we go ahead and throw it out there Trey what do you think sure why not yes sir um Mr Lee came up with an idea over the last 24 hours that may be useful for us so I'll let you kind of take it real quick M urbin I apologize that you're just hearing this at the
025board meeting because it has been in the last hour so um there's been a lot of conversations around the city's requirements after we've purchased this building and they continue to grow and the cost associated with those requests continues to grow and I think U Mr Vault kind of hinted around at it last night um are we approaching that point where it's not the cost is becoming to a point where it's not a f sound financial decision for us and I said last night I think we're getting there on that I didn't sleep real well so um I was doing what I do I'm looking at what what options where can we go and uh presented Dr Sullivan today the Daniel mcke property that we currently have is 5 Acres that building was built in 1950
026it's about 9,000 square ft we currently have about 8 to 10 Portables behind that building we were never able to consider it as a option for anything else because it was on a septic system it was on its own septic system and every time it rained we couldn't flush the commodes um so the kids would not be able to use the restrooms fortunately the city was finally got sewer out there far enough about a year and a half ago and I was able to tie that building onto the city sewer which alleviated the problem in the current facility my thought was as an option something to consider we could T relocate the Portables that we have now out of the way build a twostory 12,000 Square ft buil into our liking not try and make
027something fit um for probably where we're going with these numbers in that ballpark now that we have sewer it makes it feasible I'm not saying that we have to go there I'm saying we have options in the city now that we did not previously have um with some of the demands that are being pushed to us I'm not sure that we're not ready for you all to have another conversation and we're 2 to 3 months away from getting all the things that the cities ask us or going to ask us to do from a design standpoint before we would be anywhere near putting something out for bid so that was something I brought to Dr Sullivan today and I'm sorry I didn't have a formal um presentation it just kind of came to me in
028this discussion mam chair yes Mr I think it's a whole lot better option I mean I think like I said I think we're throwing good money after bed on chur Church Street I just don't see that it's going to be worth the amount of money we're going to spend um I don't know what we can do with it maybe have a bomb shelter or something but yes Mr bot you took it away from me I had it under other business tonight been up I got up at 4:00 this morning thinking about the same thing so next time this happens I'm going to call you we just through it together seriously because I had thought you know all right that's an Antiquated building out there that could be repl you utilize that site and you don't
029go to throwing good money after bad so to speak so it it it uh it makes sense it really makes good sense but I will tell you there are parents that are going to be very excited and I've had a lot of constituents say this building is not in good shape and I know what it looks like and I think that's a great idea further discussion I think we're go ahead Miss sharp and then I'll finish yes yes Miss sharp so we're going to build on to Daniel mcke what are we going to do with the building on Church Street just make it an admin building cuz then that wouldn't put us under the the bus constraints and the other mhm there's I think there's future discussion to be had by this board I do
030think when we first purchased it for the money that we were looking at we could not build office space for that price so it still could have function for us cuz we're continuing to grow and I don't see us being able I'm sorry I'm I'm already out on this limb I'll keep going I do not see with our request for seats for students that we're going to be able to get $4 or $5 million to add on to this building for office space could we shift a couple of departments down there do some minor Remodeling and make it uh financially feasible yes but that I think there's options for the board and one of those options would be could we use it for that purpose another option would be selling I mean there I I
031don't think we should rush into anything and I don't want us to feel like we've got our arm tied behind our back either uh I think when we made that decision we did make a good decision on based on what we had and the money that we were looking at to try and go further with the alternative structure is what puts us in a different light uh from the state level and from the city level if we stay like it is with some offices and do some minor remodeling a lot of this stuff we don't have to do it's all good we can we can utilize it with less expense and still it's still a financial uh financially responsible purchase and we could lease it as well you you could do that as well I
032mean that's what I'm saying you you the board would have multiple options good thinking I'm sorry you couldn't sleep last night and you too Mr Vault but very good thinking Miss Maxwell yes M okay I just want to get clarity so some of the issues that we talked about last night night is causing some issues of us to reimagine rethinking what this used for the building originally the reason why we moved forward with this is because we were looking at adding more seats to uh in dealing with a situation with our alternative schools and and adding more seats to that does this building with the issues that were going to happen maybe you've answered this question and I missed it does that still that serve that purpose to put seats in there for kids to
033use for an an an option as alternative school cuz we had the um the Middle School's principal send us a letter and asking us to bring a solution to figure out with the problem with the alternative schools and the behaviors in their in their school that's part of the other Daniel mcke suggestion because that would add this same amount of additional seats and when we looked at that building codes were a little bit different as well and so now that to bring it to par to bring students into that building we could build our own on our own campus will that be faster will we build that faster than what's happening in all depends on funding CU we would have to go back for funding for renovations regardless and what is the cost I think
034if we're going to have to make this we got to look at from an apples to Apple situation because we bought this building with the pretenses that the number one goal outside of the administrative is to give relief to our Middle School principles particularly that we're going to give them more seats for the alternative schools because of the issues and the problems that they're having with behavioral to me that's really more of a priority than it is than the administrative offices we've lived the way with the tightness here we can continue to live it but my priority as a school board member and I'm just speaking for myself is to help the principles alleviate the problem with behavioral and this all started because we were going to give them that relief and so for me
035if that question is not resolved then we've got to go back to the drawing board and figure something out but we got to look at it from an Apples to Apples and that for me and I'm only speaking to for myself is starting at the priority as the behavioral aspect of it what number of students do you think we could if we remod or built another Daniel mcke new better 2.0 several hundred cuz that can hold up to 100 right now with all the Portables and you're looking at 12 to 13,000 s ft probably a twostory building so you'd be able to Triple its size well add two more times its size okay that's what I was thinking the the thought process to answer your I'm going to try and answer your question this will
036exceed what we were trying to do with this building because the the proposal and there again I came to me in the night so I don't have it if you built a two-story building basically we would take the Daniel mcke building and all the Portables and put them in the two-story building that leaves the older building in front what do we do with it there is your middle school alternative school we go in paint it clean it up freshen it up rehab it we have two we have a middle school in one the high school in the other and we better utilize that site we've got them all together um so the answer to your question we are providing those seats the the big question that you're asking is what is the time frame MH
037I haven't started to design really for either one that much uh unfortunately for we've been face in the city because we've been trying to figure out what they want we have a floor plan basically is all we have so so we're not that far down the road as far as drawings go so time frame wise there's probably not four to six weeks difference um from a standpoint cuz we we we would still have to go through the complete drawing process we're going to have to go through the city process we're going to have to go through the state process so from an overall time standpoint which one do I get in quicker there's it it's not like it's 6 months or a Year's difference between the two options there there is a difference and I
038would say four to six weeks based on where we currently are in design of that the the 814 building for an alternative school Miss Maxwell yes Mr Rosales I make a can I make a motion to move this conversation to add it as part of our agenda and our Retreat sure so I make a motion to move this conversation for us to um speak discuss it in detail with so to give um try and his team time to bring us with scenarios and look at things from Apples to Apples and discuss it during um uh Retreat does does not mean we're making decisions it just means we're getting the information that we need the agenda yeah move it to the agenda for the retreat do we have a second for that second all in favor
039say I I any opposed we'll move it to the agenda for the retreat I got one question yes Mr Mr Lee is that going to slow you down any sir if we put it off until the retreat is it going to slow you down any no sir I mean we don't know how long it's going to take the way it is now we don't know what the city's going to do we could be doing this kicking this can down well based on the time frame that I have currently where we are with the current project we're going through City requirements and and different zoning and planning and till the basically the end of February yes Mr Mr V Trey help me right here cuz again not being here 30 days have you had acquired any
040funding for design you hired an architect yes where are you we we do have an architect and we I've got the architect sitting on hold okay right now until we can I got to a point where I we I needed y'all's Direction and that's where we that's what started all of this conversation you got the technical information on the existing building make to to carry it in a direction yes sir you you got it to a point what will it take can you do a schematic do you have the ability does do they have the ability to do a simple schematic to give us an idea what it would look like not a fullblown set of plans obviously but give us you talking about for Daniel for Daniel at least for that site you know
041how would you maximize that footprint uh since land we keep land is scarce and land is getting high in the county I think if you do something there we owe it to ourselves to maximize that site whether that's all at one time or an addition later on or something like that do you have the ability to acquire that for us to give us something to look at it to the site's going to be fairly restrictive the Daniel mck is not like a wide open right nice big Square it's more L-shaped right so we're we're kind of limited but yes I can do something fairly simple to give you some ideas good good that's all I just want to check make sure okay he had the ability to do to give us the enough information to
042make decision thank you good question okay next we move to number four Thurman Prince Arts Academy Trail concrete requests principal Dr Mark G is requesting to have concrete installed over the gravel Arch Trail this Project's being donated by SM ready miix for the material and HMA for the labor engineering construction reviewed the request and has no objection request is at no cost to the board recommended motions to approve the Thurman francess Arts Academy request to concrete the Arts walking trail as presented any comments or questions I'd like to make a comment uh smart R mix is involved in this and you know I just like to give hats off to smart red mix I mean I saw the contribution they made at smart High School along with Dale Smith and uh I mean they about
043as good a community neighbor as you can have I just wish we had more of them so yep they really do Step Up move to approve second all in favor say I I any opposed or abstain motion passes next we have number five Wilson Elementary School requests to accept the Richard seagull Grant principal Angela Barnes requesting permission to accept the awarded Richard Richard seel grant for $897 to fund outside recreational play equipment engineering constructions reviewed the request and finds no objection this project is at no cost to the board recommended motions to approve the Wilson Elementary Seagal Grant request as presented any questions comments make a motion we approve second all in favor say I I any opposed or abstain motion passes next financial matters creation and incorporation of the County Schools Foundation request been
044made by a school board member to create and establish the County Schools foundation with a primary objective of raising and managing funds to support the educational needs of retherford County Schools Foundation would ensure additional Financial Resources for student programs teacher development classroom technology infrastructure improvements and other educational initiatives the incorporation of this Foundation would benefit rord County School's 51,000 plus pre-k through 12th grade students and serve as a venue for other foundations and corporations to make donations positively impacting the school system as a whole recommended motion is to approve the creation and establishment of the County Schools foundation with the primary purpose of raising and managing funds to support the educational needs of RA for County schools and to authorize the board attorney to proceed with incorporation of the foundation any comments or questions Miss
045Maxwell yes Miss Rosales I'm really excited to put this forward um with everyone is aware that we are working on a very tight operational budget and our educational needs exceeds far more than where we currently are operating and we're needing to look at creative ways of where we can generate some revenue and I believe this is another form of way to create to do that and for the purpose to serve not just one school but all of our schools within our County and with that I would like to make a motion to move to approve do we have a second second all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes I will say I think this is a wonderful idea the city schools have benefited for years from their foundation and it's about high
046time we have one so thank you Mr Rosales next we have two resolutions uh and uh but before we do the second one I and just a moment I'd like to call ask if it's okay we suspend the rules after uh for the second resolution and let Mr commissioner Anthony Johnson's come this way to speak with us tonight and answer any questions so uh Mr Reed could you read the first resolution and then we will have Mr Johnson step up if that's okay would you like to vote on that okay I need a motion to suspend the rules like we just do the well we're going to do the first one first and then we're going to do the second one and then we suspend the rules on the second one okay the first resolution
047you have before you um as a board tonight is one addressing um threats against schools and basically it's requesting the DA's office to fully prosecute not that they haven't done that already just we're asking for emphas is to be placed in the full prosecution of any person who makes Mass threats of violence against the school system so the first resolution is whereas the rord County board of education has experienced a concerning increase of threats by students and individuals against schools and whereas threats against schools create an atmosphere of fear among students faculty and staff causing significant disruption to teachers ability to teach and students abilities to focus on instruction and whereas the russer county school system has over 50,000 students and the disruption of school results in the loss of a valuable educational time costing
048millions of dollars to the county and whereas as an example Oakland High School recently lost a half a day of instruction due to a false threat and whereas false threats against another school recently resulted in multiple parents picking up their students from school when school has just started and whereas the state legislature has previously enacted legislation providing for the loss of driers licenses to students and individuals making threats against schools and whereas a greater deterrent is needed to curb the number of threats against schools now therefore be it resolved by the board of education on this day that the Board of Education urges the district attorney for ruford County to prosecute students and individuals making threats involving schools to the full extent Allowed by law including but not limited to criminal penalties and incarceration these
049ities would be in addition to the loss of driver's license privileges by students and individuals making such threats so that's the resolution you have before you you're urging the district attorney to fully prosecute anyone making threats against schools to the full extent Allowed by law I'll make a motion we approve second any discussion comment question um if I understood correctly last night uh Mr Reed of course the da prosecutes but the the the individual the perpetrator has to be arrested first do do we need to include the sheriff's department in this the encouragement that the sheriff would pursue that I mean it's you're I'll pass this resolution on to them if passed okay that that's the reason I said that I I don't want to leave them out of the loop because they're a critical
050part in your hands for the district is tied correct Limited in what we can do or what you can do correct okay that was clarification thank you I thought we'd have a roll call Vote for This Please Mr VA yes Miss sharp yes do Mrs Derby yes Mr vaugh yes Mrs Rosales yes Mrs Maxwell yes oh yes just to clarify I'd go back and have a motion first to make sure that it was since it was a resolution motion second he said Mr V said I moved to we yeah and I second it I didn't follow procedur okay now I'd like to suspend the rules and go ahead and vote so uh uh commissioner Anthony Johnson can speak to us before we do the second resolution so I make a motion to suspend the rules
051we have a second second all in favor say I I any opposed commissioner Johnson thank you for joining us tonight thank you madam chair board um first of all I'd like for you just remember that Public Works Med our next Public Works meeting is Tuesday October the 8th that's at 5:30 just keep that in your notes I come here tonight to humbly speak to you about a highly debated issue representa Darby said last night that we shouldn't be put in a place like this well I agree we shouldn't be place I'm in tonight is this is my 47th anniversary wedding anniversary my wife sitting home and I'm here speaking to you I've got a wonderful wife not many people's spouse would put up with that but my wife know is I have a a passion
052for what I do and that's to serve the public that's my only reason for being on the County Commission is to try to help move this County forward the best way we can how do we get started on this well mayor Cole mayor Carr and our Solid Waste director Bishop Wagner we talking about about the issues of San hill our convenience center in lne that's gone on for quite a while I don't know when but sometime during this discussion or these discussions um mayor Cole brought up the matter that we needed to vacate the property as soon as possible um we don't have a lease we haven't had a lease in two years so that's a liability for city of lever we've been looking for property I say we our County staff has been looking
053for property and I tell you there's not a lot of property in lever that's where the convenience center needs to be moved to the San Hill site is a bad site it's overrun with use it's the second largest used uh facility that we have uh smrna G Street now it was weekly but G Street is are number one and Sand Hills are number two as far as um Recycling and our our whole operation after we found out that we needed to move of course there again we've been looking for the property we had two options that were presented to us one was the um Stone River Road and the other was U Lile and uh gingham Lal and gingham property is what I'm referring to because I want to change the narrative I don't know
054why this is cutting in and out but um I want to change the narrative we're not talking about school property and we can say yeah we are but what we're talking about is the other end of the school property we will be entering or exiting from Lile and gingham we would have 200 ft buffer of trees right now it's almost solid trees we have two schools on the other end of the property it was said last night that our both these schools are Title One and these children will be looking out their door their Windows every day looking at the dump that's false it's not a dump it's a recycling facility and and a trash disposal facility it's been said that we'll have a varment um problem out there that we'll have derx uh workers
055and this has been said away from the meetings but actually uh alluded to our workers being undesirable to put it lightly and I find that offensive and I'm sure they do that's not the case we have good workers they're vetted before they're hired and they do a marvelous job out there at all of these Convenience Centers we have 15 14 at this time cuz one is down for renovation like I said we we need about five or six acres of this property the entrance and entrance and exit would be on the far side of the school property the the traffic would not intermingle the traffic that goes to San Hill most of that traffic comes right by this piece of property anyway the proposed piece of property is it just me or this is cutting
056in it doesn't cut out on this way it cuts out when you're standing in that one though okay but it'll be part of our next budget request to update and it's hot up here too could we request more air yeah um okay um like I said we we started looking for property and then this came to uh Public Public Works and uh we voted to move money that was already appropriated for a Convenience Site we're not doing that site right now we're going to move that money and and we already voted to do that move the money to pay for this site in L because there much needed this this came through this site came through purchasing and uh during that purchasing meeting we were told we were presented the plan and I asked mayor
057Carr who is I'm on the purchasing committee and mayor Carr is the uh chairman I asked May CH mayor Carr have we gone to the school board with this and what did they say his answer was we don't have to go to the school board we own the property and we're going to do it I responded that I don't work like that and the County Commission can't work like that it doesn't work and it's obvious from other things that have gone on I think all of you know things aren't running very smooth with the county it could be a lot better and it will get better and that's my intentions for being here is to have a better working relationship with this board the County Commission and this board we're the funding body we have
058to fund your budget and your request that's what we do we've never taken away from the classrooms we've always tried to to fund what you asked for we don't fund all the wants but we fund as far as I know we've always funded the needs and then some of the wants but also during that that uh person meeting after back and forth with mayor Carr and myself mayor Carr looked at me and it's it's it's on video you can look it up it's a purchasing meeting Mar Carr looked at me and said I'm not calling the school board you can call them so that's what I started doing I came to the school board you can come to you but I reached out my representative Katie Derby and asked her if she would reach out
059to all of you because I didn't have all of your your information to get a hold of you but I did start reaching out to the ones that I had your information I I did not reach out to um all the Commissioners um sorry not Commissioners but board members I did not reach out to to uh repres representative sharp because of Comm ments that she had already made that were very negative towards what we were doing before reaching out and getting the facts going on Facebook ladies and gentlemen is not the way to handle business for the county in any any means it's good to be on Facebook if you're going to have your facts and present the facts to everyone but to just go off and and start talking about something that you haven't
060been educated on you haven't taken the time to find out the facts is totally ridiculous and appalling so I have reached out to the board and that's why I'm here I had several conversations with my representative m m Derby and during first two or conversations I heard nothing about a resolution but after my first contact with with my representative she started having a resolution drawn up and that's why we're here tonight I had to find it out from someone else then when I asked my representative or it came up in in conversation she did say yes I'm behind this I have instigated this and it's not to really stop this it's just to let y'all know in a soft way that we don't want this we don't want this land used for this purpose I
061think I already said most of the traffic is already coming down that street anyway or it's or it's coming off of Murphysboro Road and just stop and shy of that that piece of property we're proposing but this is an ideal piece of property if we can develop it we don't even know if we can develop it right now how much it's going to cost but we do know land cost it's very high and it's a shortage of land especially in lever so we know it'll be even higher like I said we were we had two options there was Stones River Road and The Gingham Lile piece of property and that's the way we're looking at it get a mental asy so after all of the comments last night um I felt it was important to
062come to you and kind of just let you know the truth because the truth hasn't been put out there we're in dire need L's in dire need of a new Convenience Center there's one thing that would stop me from voting on this piece of property to be used and nobody brought it up if if the property can if the people that are going to the convenience center the new convenience center and not get in there and get out without blocking the uh Street traffic I'm talking about just sitting in line if we can't keep you inside then I'm going to be against it but that hasn't even been asked that'd be one of my first concerns down there and I'm always concerned about the schools but I know the piece of property I've been there
063I had I drove down there with my wife and I said where's the school so we came in from that side you can't see the schools you won't see the schools from our facility if it's built there 200 ft of tree right now you can pull up to that property at Lile and gingham look into that property and you see trees you can't see 30 ft in there we're talking about a 200t buffer when it's finished it's right now it looks like a win-win if it's developable if we can develop it um I had a lot more on on here but I'll I'll just ask you do you have any more questions or have I touched on them any Maxwell yes M I want to show to the commissioner something um and so that he
064can clarify for us if um and I'm going to put try to put it up on the screen that the diagram that was sent to me um about this particular location um as soon as it it connect next to I was saying they can't connect oh my goodness try one more time okay window it's saying it can't connect and I was trying to connect it it was working earlier when we tried it and it worked just fine that's but I just want to get um confirmation from the county commissioner and even from Trey Lee because I've got two different diagrams that I want to put up on the screen um in particular with this as we're getting ready to vote because is it coming okay perfect okay it's connecting now okay perfect awesome all right
065so this I thought it was okay awesome so this is the area this is a convenient Center layout that you guys are proposing to put the convenient Center layout and this Greenery stuff that is those are the trees that you're looking at correct correct okay where is the schooling look in in regards to proximity to where all these trees are at that's blocking the view of this convenience center CU in actuality you can even really see this is there unless you go into the location itself because of all the trees that are there there so where is the school in location in the property like is it over here in this area right up there right up there okay so then I want to talk to tr Lee and this is a aerial view of
066the location that we're talking about and we had a board uh meeting back in 2023 where we went over every single School in a district and we talked about um land that is not used right now and this right here is 30 plus 5 AC 30.5 acres and you can't see my notes but in that meeting I wrote that is Rocky and Limestone and I was we were told at that time that in this area it was not a good use of land because of the limestones that's cor that's there to develop anything is that correct that's what I heard that meeting I just want to get confirmation uh number one 30.5 acres is all of that property that that horseshoe around the school so that side is not 30.5 right but this whole thing
067yes yes correct but a lot of it is with it's Rocky that's what I have on my notes the whole site is Rock the whole site is Rock yes that doesn't mean you can't build on it it's just rock it's just rock so it's going to add to a lot of site development cost cuz it's rocking and it's Limestone I don't know about their development and where you know if they're coming in from the other Street it may change but yes it would be fairly expensive it'll be fairly expensive okay is this where year this is where the County Commissioners are planning to put the convenience center is in this area the 30.5 acres in this horseshoe or is it over here in the nine plus acres where if you can't really read my notes
068it says sewer and issues with Wetlands which of the is it here or here U it's where L and where he's talking about the 30.5 here yes okay so they're willing to develop and then at the time when we were look at at the 5year plan and talking about this property was not even thought of because everyone was under the impression that we were not going to do anything with it at all because of the potential cost of development with the uh with a limestone and then now all of a sudden we're talking about putting a ninth grade academ Acy I just needed to put it out there that that was never in question because it was said during this meeting that the site development and the cost for that it was going to cost
069too much and we still have three plus acres over here and 3.5 Acres on this side so if we're going to put a ninth grade academy we still have room somewhere within the vicinity of the L Lake and L mle somewhere to put that Academy so I don't think that will be an issue for us to say that we're taking up this land and putting a ninth grade academy and I just wanted to point that out any other comments or questions yes Miss sharp thank you Mr Johnson for coming I did go to Facebook to talk to my constituents that was my Schoolboard page because I heard secondhand on this and those two schools are my school I represent Zone one I do not represent Zone 7 Miss Rosales I'm not sure why you have
070a dog in the fight but we do not need to put the dump because that's what it is on school property I know that there's a need for it because I've been a 20-some year resident of lever just right down the street just right down the street so I know that there is a need for that but there's not a need for us to put it on our school property so our kids can see it and there's a little thing that comes around once a year it's called winter that all the leaves fall off of all those trees I would love to to give you some other um option for that but I put this on the desk this is our our heat map from where we need more schools and this is dated this
071was November this is almost a year we like you said there is no property up there and that's no one's fault but that's where we are we have no property and I don't see when we've got 10 ,000 people that are coming on the other side of walren road that we need to give up this property for a convenience center whatever you want to call it so I'm I'm sorry we don't want to be contentious with this but we were not contacted the board was not contacted and this is yet again another overreach from our mayor Miss Maxwell Madam chairman Madam chairman sorry yes Mr Johnson I'd have to agree with that that's another did you say overreach yes I don't know if I'd say overreach I'd say it's lack of doing a job on
072the mayor's part I'll probably hear about that but I'm sorry I just tell it like it is I'm not going to lie to you I tell I tell you the truth as I know it I do my research and I want to say commissioner but representative Vault you know me for many years back we served for I know 17 years on the County Commission now I'm back up there and I've always strived to I've always told the truth and I strive to move the county forward and that's what we're trying to do um these kids are not going to see this this dump every day like it's being said doesn't matter and also last night representative sharp of course mentioned there's other properties but she's keeps calling it a dump it's officially not a dump
073and uh it's been a fact for years that people call uh Republic U Mount Trashmore last night our school board member repres representative sharp through her research found out I guess that it's Mount Trashmore and I I watched this five times I didn't go to bed until 2:15 this morning went to sleep at 4:15 got up at 6:15 so yeah I didn't sleep last night either because of this um and I'd like to say too when I reached out to the representatives Stan Bal was in Florida in the middle of a hurricane he called me contemplating on W should we leave or not thank goodness he got home safely but he didn't know that at that time but he took time to call me that that says volumes about the representative um we do have
074options and we've been told that we don't work together well and talking about responsibility uh last night someone up here said uh it's not our responsibility as a school board to give you land or find you land well that's true but when you talk about responsibility the county is not responsible or obligated to have a convenience center in leverne the county is not obligated to pick up school trash that's Institution trash by law we don't have to pick up school trash we do it we don't complain and we're trying to improve that situation too and we will but we're not required to but we do so yes I think the county works very well the County Commission works very well and has in past even even though we've had problems and bumps in the road
075we get the job done you get the job done and we get the job done and it's through working together and eventually over the years we've always come to that conclusion we get the job done and we don't listen to a bunch of rhetoric that's just uncalled for just trying to knock something down for whatever thought is in somebody's mind because I don't know what it is thank you thank you for coming and we appreciate it so much M Maxwell yes Mr I just want to say one thing you're saying to me that I don't have a stick in the go and the bone and this because I'm in son Ze we we do have a bone and stick in this because we need to find land and we need to build a high school
076in the North End because there is a lot of overcrowding over in that area and a school today costs 200 upwards it's going to be the cost of upward $200 million to build a high school and we need to also get funding for the property to build that particular school on the North End and we're in the process of getting ready if something comes up which I hope it will be very very soon where we're going to go before the County Commissioners to ask for them to foot a bill of outwards close to $200 million for the cost of the land and to buy and for to buy the land and to put a high school there to relieve the overcrowding that is happening over in high school so yes we all have a dog
077in the bone in this absolutely yes we do Madam chair yes Miss Darby um there are there are a lot of opinions there are a lot of thoughts I think that everybody has and I don't I don't think that there's any I just kind of I want to clear the air on a few things I don't think that there's any dispute as far as lever is in need of a convenience center um the commission is looking for a place to put one I think my issue is that right next to an ele School shouldn't be the default and that's kind of what it has felt like to me um I know mayor Cole has told me that he talked about I believe it was property on David's way if I'm not mistaken I might be
078wrong on that but I could get or dick Buchanan sorry dick Buchanan um and I know that there are several acres for sale off of Old Nashville Highway not far from Sam Ridley that is within the city of lever as well um I'm also not a real estate agent but um I think if if if there was absolutely no other option I would I would be a little more open to potentially doing something with that my big biggest concern isn't even so much the traffic it's more about what we're saying to the students of leverne it's more about giving people who shouldn't be super close to an elementary or middle school a reason a legit reason to be there um the safety of our students is Paramount to me uh making sure that our students
079in lever feel valued we don't have any other Convenience Center trash receptacles dumps whatever you want my family refers to the one on weekly Lane as a dump so I've always just called it the dump um we don't have any of those next to our other schools and lever lake is not my school but I certainly don't want to start setting a precedence that we're going to start putting trash centers on our school property um I also have a concern with when funds to purchase land for school purposes are talked about publicly that we're going to spend this money out of the education budget for Rutherford County on educational things and buildings for schools and then it gets taken and used for another purpose but those dollars don't ever get put back into education then
080it starts to to to look like education is costing all this money when some of that money is actually not for education it's been used for other purposes um I am looking forward to our commission and our school board continuing with good relationships trying to work together to help solve it I will gladly go with you Mr Johnson to the people that own the property on Dick Buchanan and see if they're interested in selling I don't have an issue with that um I think it's important for all of us to work together but I also don't believe that just because from what I was told that the county didn't want to have to find money to spend on land that school property should be the default for the convenience center um I have concerns like
081I said about the safety of our students I do have concerns about the potential pest ER rodent problem that having one that close in proximity could bring um so I am just not in favor of this and to me it was if the majority of the board felt the same it was a good way to just let the County Commission know where the board sat on it again nothing more nothing less um I I Echo your sentiments that I think everybody is trying to do what's best it is your job to do what's best for the county it is our job to do what's best for our students and sometimes those are going to be hard to marry in certain situations and I think unfortunately this is one of those situations um but at the
082end of the day I have to answer for the students of our County and I don't feel that this is the best decision for them um and I and I know of some other land that is available whether it would be suitable or not I don't know but um I do think there are some other options that could be looked at before this becomes the absolute option Miss Maxwell this I just want to say one thing I want to clear up what a resolution is because last night it was said that a resolution is not a big deal well I went on Google and I typed in what does a resolution mean and I AI said a resolution is a formal way for a legislative body to express its opinion or will on a topic
083in school boards resolutions can be used to create a stand for the entire body even if the administration doesn't agree they can also be used to pressure government representatives to listen to the students to listen to the school's demands so you may think that this is not a big deal that this is not this is a soft stance a resolution is not the go about it you we've heard today that our commissioner Anthony Johnson went and spoke to his school board representative to bring to talk about the concerns in no time during the conversation was it brought up that they were going to bring a resolution if there was questions and concerns about this that's when it should have been brought because at the end of the day the county and the school board is
084supposed to be working together in other to get the needs of the county fulfilled and we've got serious demands serious ask and Big Ticket items and a resolution is not going to help the need that we still need at the end of day a high school that's going to cost us $200 million a middle school that we're yet to build that's going to cost another $70 million and there's no telling what other cost that we're going to need for construction because of the growth that is happening so this is not the way for us to work together with the county in trying to get something result so I'm totally 100% against this resolution Madam chair yes but Dr s would like to say something you need to gamble back in I'm so sorry we're back
085in session okay we're back in session sorry I just would like to say um commissioner Johnson and I did have conversations and he was very aware with how I personally felt about it so I would ask that you refrain from speaking about me and my conversation with with the commissioner um as far as the funding that we will be asking for for other projects that has absolutely nothing to do with what we are currently talking about today if we need funding to build middle schools to build another High School those stand on their own Merit for their own reasons they should have no sway at all in this particular situation this is a completely separate situation and I would ask that if we're we're going to make decisions based off of well if we do
086this then someone might not fund that what kind of a relationship do we have at that point we all have to be honest the school board has to be honest about what we need and what we're asking for and the commission has to be honest with us about how we feel like I've said it doesn't always mean that we're going to agree and it doesn't mean that the school board will always get their way and it doesn't mean that the commission will always get theirs it is about working together it is about having that convers ation I was simply trying to put together a formal way to let the commission know how the school board felt on the matter if the majority of the school board decides that they feel that way that's it to
087your point the definition of the resolution says or a way to pressure it doesn't say that it is the absolute thing that it does we write resolutions all the time the one that we spoke about previous to this was to encourage um the the the litigation going forward this resolution is to Simply State this is how the board feels about this particular situation if the board decides to vote to go that way I think it's important that we move forward working with the commission I think it's important that if we're going to seriously entertain putting a convenience center dump next to one of our school buildings that we have exhausted all other avenues and possibilities for somewhere else for that to be putting a dump there in my opinion is not in the best interest
088of our students Madam chair I want make a motion we deny this resolution second have a motion we have a second second let roll call wait a minute we're just now get to the motion okay sorry I've been waiting on somebody t we' been going on for 30 minutes apologize apologies to you Mr V I'm sorry we've had quite discussion sorry take it all in over here just see it's a strange thing to me it seems like everybody already knows the answer about what they're going to do for they get here I think we owe it to the voting public we owe it to our constituents to listen to Dialogue on this side and this side before we even make our mind up I'm almost appalled at the operation that's going on here no reflection
089on you madam chairman I'm just a little concerned that we don't listen to everything here before we make a decision Miss Derby I would concur on some of your points I would concur on some of your points I've worked with Anthony Johnson for many years we did serve on the County Commission together give y'all a little history if you'd like to know about it but I get chastised every time I talk about the olden days but years ago when the County Convenience Center started this was a grant that came from the TVA to help us police and bring everything within a fence area if some of you that are old as I am remember the old convenience boxes that set at the end of roads and people would set them on fire or drag them
090out in the road we we've come a long way had we Anthony at least we got them behind a fence we got a a tendon at each one of them the you know some of the dialogue toward the people that work there the people that visit there these are you know these are taxpayers these are constituents of our community uh they utilize the service that the county offers I I don't the derogatory comments concern me just a little bit but the history on this particular site was and I cannot remember his name Anthony you may have to help me but I think it was mayor Mike Mike Webb uh Tire on the tire shop down there right my mayor Webb came to us years ago wanted a site in L uh as the city grew
091they didn't have a place to do it the County Commission took the position I think it was mayor um who was it it would been before it might have been Nancy or Miss Allen uh that said okay if y'all provide a site we'll build if if you provide the land y'all build the site so I I you know I'm just a little concerned that we haven't heard any dialogue from the from mayor Cole which I you both have mentioned here uh is the request from the the mayor and the city council to vacate what's what's brought all that about have they looked at any options I brought this up last night of course then I I think well I'm overstepping my bounds they need negotiate theirself the the question laid before us is do we
092support this resolution or do we not I think for one as stewards of the taxpayer dollar just a little bit here if we've got a piece property speaking from the Schoolboard standpoint if we got a piece of property that we're not utilizing that is not in the 5year 10year plan that if if if the County Commission and and I like the idea we've put these um um what do they call them the health and safety buildings I call them the new Fire uh stations but yes the health and safety buildings which we were part of doing that they have been located on the school sites um I did find out last night that that property hasn't been needed back to the county I'm a little concerned about that from a liability standpoint on both entities
093here if I understand TCA 149 that operates on us it says that we any property that's under the direction of us under the local school board I say us it's not me it's this body uh is responsible for that property so that there's things there I you know if there's a form request coming I think the motion Miss Derby is premature that's my personal opinion here I'm going to get that out that's what I want to say is that I think it's just premature until uh the design hadn't even been laid out right Anthony it's this this is a possibility it's the best possibility right now but they you you said earlier you didn't even think it could be they didn't even have the design or developed or whatever but I don't know I just
094think it's premature that's my personal opinion here Dr Solomon has been wanted to say something I just um of course I follow whatever the majority of the school board does and I want to thank commissioner Johnson commissioner Oliver um thank you guys for being here we have worked the last two years to have a great relationship and so I appreciate the support that you guys have have had with us as a County so I want to thank you again for coming um I want to think uh that everyone will agree that the county kind of fumbled with this they should have come to us I do appreciate you Anthony because you took the bull by the horns and you did contact us and I do appreciate I I am one of those people that you
095did speak with and uh uh regardless of what happens tonight uh I I don't think it's a reflection on with whether we think badly of lne or not but uh passions Run High when it comes to our schools and our children so um if everyone's okay can Jeff Reed read the resolution I got one followup yes Mr B and I meant to ask this and my exercise a minute ago the um Anthony's chairman of that committee that oversees this but the commissioner from there miss Oliver right who else is from down there Miss Davidson is that right Laura Davidson yes Laura is that right have we has there been any contact and I would love to suspend the rules let you speak if you want to I I I mean if it would help any
096would you like to I would love to hear from you just as the commissioner from that area personally I would move suspend the rules have a motion make a motion to suspend the rules Madam chair there was a motion and a second already on the floor that I believe we have to vote on first yes that was to I believe can you restate your well I will let's withdraw you want to withdraw your motion to allow um the commissioner speak so I make a motion to suspend the roles to allow the Commissioners to speak you take your motion he has to he has to withdraw you have to I he is withdraw are you withdrawing your motion M Ros well he well actually I didn't do the motion are you withdrawing your motion I'm putting
097it on you have to withdraw it withraw it yeah he's withdraw you have to withdraw it okay yeah I'm going to make it again I just don't so he's withdrawn his motion I'm sorry I confused you cuz I thought I said the motion all agree do what you like to suspend the rules and have Miss Oliver speak need a motion motion yeah I already said the motion and Mr V said second there you go all in favor say hi hi any opposed Miss Oliver thank you for coming good evening thank you for having me I generally watch your meetings online um but I felt I needed to come and support my colleague uh considering that uh that is this is an area that I represent I have received complaints seemed like the whole two years
098I've been in office about the San Hill site um it was brought before us that we as my colleague said we no longer have a lease of the property lever has other things they want to do with the property and so we were in a pinch I guess and trying to figure out other options um again in the meeting commissioner Johnson was acknowledged that he would reach out to the board which he did um but it sounds like uh and then uh as far as um things that I've heard as far as Commissioners or U things I've heard from board members was that there were no uh plans for the property it was too expensive to develop if they were going to do anything about it I remember specifically having a conversation about it when
099we were when you guys were talking about the whole rezoning thing wondering okay is there any land anywhere we can do anything before we send our lever citizens to another city to go to school and again at that time I was told was nothing we could do you know there's no other property we don't have anything we can do there's no plans for anything in lne so it behooves me that now all of a sudden there's plans or um I guess an idea to make some proposed plans but anyway um for this property that is uh a way to resolve an issue for the citizens of lever because um where that San Hill um Convenience Center is now it is a very dangerous area my own daughter had an accident on that curve um and
100then it's small for the amount of citizens that lever has now because it's grown and additionally a lot of our citizens are going to Smyrna they're going to the new convenience center in Smyrna and there's trash along dick view Cannon mburo Road going to that Center because our citizens are going to that Center Z I mean that leaves trash that's floating around because of that at any rate um when we looked at various uh opportunities to develop another Center again as he mentioned Stones River next to the Senior Citizen Center that was not logistically going to work um and then the other property that you I keep mention on Dick Buchanan was not available um but the most convenient one as far as infrastructure things that nature was concern seem like this one because it
101has two roads you go go in one road to come out the other and it's off of that Sand Hill um road so anyway it seems like the the the challenge is is you felt like you needed a formal presentation of formal come before the board that didn't happen we're here now we still need to resolve the issue and as far as a resolution is concerned I'm not sure if that's going to sway us one way or another I don't know it remains to be seen but I think as uh director Sullivan stated we have had an opportunity to be able to work together to resolve some issues much needed issues as it relates to overcrowding and other things related to what our needs are for the school board and I don't see this as
102being any different than us being able to come together to resolve this issue so if there's any questions I'm happy to answer would anybody like to ask any questions of M commissioner Oliver like comment I you delivered to Mayor Co that from now on if this is not the way that we want we do business well I would not say that it's May Cole's the hus is on May Cole I would not say that I will it was brought to our attention that we were no longer under lease and so then that's when the Mee meetings happened and different things occurred so I wouldn't I wouldn't we were never we were never in the loop everybody had the loop but us and it's our property and you know if he had have come to us
103and included Us in the conversations all this could have been avoided well again as it was stated earlier that's not the position that mayor Cole is in he's the mayor of the city of lever not rther County so it would not be his position necessary neily but he's affecting our schools and our property and things that affect uh decisions we got to make I'd rather them just come to us be honest with you you know from now on well as I stated mayor Cole is the mayor of L the city of L not wetherford County this was brought to us as a resolution from our County M so and the property is is is you know County property the school board is County issu it's not a city issue so let's just make sure we
104keep those lines straight thank you Miss Oliver I appreciate it all right thank you so much thank you I will gavel back in go so we s took withdrew his motion do have any more comments or discussion and I'll entertain would actually Jeffrey could you read the motion please I I'll read read the motion this is the resolution that's on the agenda as whereas the ruford County Board of Education understands there's been some discussion of locating a trash Convenience Center to property at l Middle School and L Lake Elementary and whereas the board of education is in desperate need of property in the North End of Ru County to accommodate future growth in that area and whereas the property of l Middle School and lever Lake Elementary was acquired for school purposes and whereas it
105is difficult for the Board of Education to locate property in the North End of rre County for purchase and whereas the remaining land at lever middle school and L Lake Elementary could serve as a ninth grade academy and for other buildings to meet the critical needs of the school system in the North End of the county now now therefore be resolved by the Board of Education that the Board of Education opposes the location of a trash Convenience Center at lever middle school and L Lake Elementary so that is the resolution that's before you to decide whether you're in favor of it or against it that's the the item that's on the board agenda we have a motion I'll make a motion we deny second any other discussion motion is to deny the the resolution okay
106could you roll call please M Williams Mrs Rosales yes yes Miss sharp Mr VA yes Mr vaugh yes Mrs Darby no Mrs Maxwell yes four yes Madam chairman yes Mr VA I would move that the the that we request the County Commission to present to us the site plan and and at least let us get a bird's eye view or look at it once the full design has been done uh for any for any input if they do if they do move forward with this assuming they move forward with it that I I would like for us to take a look at it especially Mr Lee just from a drainage standpoint or anything like that so I would move to do that second second I second that all in favor say I I all opposed
107yes could you help us with that Mr commissioner Johnson thank you but he sent me a copy of what we're planning on doing next basically a clone of the G Street facility in SM so that I mean that's that's what we're trying to do that that not a an exact plan for that specific Le of property but that's what CL are doing is cloning E Street they keep some more improvements and I fail to say it will have V fence around it just like G Street nobody's complaining about it being uncy our our County Fort clerk building for SMR or north end of the county is adjacent to it we've been had no complaints and and none of our convenience centers in this County have ever had complain about garments or or people that shouldn't
108be there working like fell or whatever that hasn't happened thank you thank you thank you both thank you for coming could we I'm sorry we were going to do a 3 minute recess if that's okay in just a minute take I'd like to take a motion to uh entertain a motion for recess for three minutes I make a I so move second second all in favor say I I any opposed okay there you go we're in recess for three minutes e e e Madam chair yes I wanted to say before they left because in conversations with Miss Darby uh mayor Cole had said that he would give them another year lease on that property is that mayor Cole expressed to me that he was willing to to work with them if they had um some
109sites that they were looking at and they just needed more time to work it out I don't think he's opposed to that from my conversations with him I think he was just letting the county know that it could not remain there due to the safety concerns they had about its location and the road and stuff that it was on that he was not going to entertain any long-term leases but that he would extend a lease if they needed more time to procure an alternative site okay well thank you but it was my understanding from watching the the meetings that they have already moved money from the other project to this project so they're further down the road than what we think they are okay thank you thank you madam CH Insurance yes um no we're
110F no we we it's we're good we're good we're good uh insurance update open enrollment started today runs through October 15th um so it is a passive enrollment so if you don't make any changes then you'll stay with the same insurance that you are currently on um next is financial report so we will do this monthly so this will be fairly quick just so everyone gets used to looking at our statements I know those of you that been on the board are very used to this we are going to look at the two-page document first this is fund 141 so F we have three main funds we look at fund 141 general purpose fund 143 centralized cafeteria and fund 177 capital projects so we're looking at fund 141 we're going to look at Revenue first
111and when you are looking at Revenue the main ways that we are funded of course are locally and then the state level property tax and sales tax are our two at the local level and then Tissa is ours at the state level you'll see property tax and looking at these you have the account codes to the left the description right beside it the total estimated that was passed by the County Commission the next columns month to to date realized year to date realized what we have not received yet and the percentage we've received yet it is not surprising property taxes are not due till December January February so we are only have only received 1% of that um again that's totally normal truste collection is over the big ones I like to go down to
112is 40210 so that is our local option sales tax we have budgeted 102 million to receive so far we've received 17.9 it runs a month behind and so we're already at 177% so that is trending in the right direction is something we watch all the time the other one is Tissa 46510 towards the bottom this replaced be we estimate to bring in 334 million we are receiving 10 payments of 33,45 4,000 that next column and so far we received two payments we've received August and September we have not yet received that next big number 267 million um and this is what we will be funded on and there's always discussion of this we have added students this number will not increase we are going to be funded on this number all year long regardless of
113how many students that we enroll you'll see just a couple other quick ones as we kind of go and scroll over to the next page state revenue sharing with TVA we have not received any of that yet it's another bigger one 2.7 million um so far our total estimated revenue is 538 million we this month received 45 million uh year to date we've received 89 million so right at 16.5% so that is our Revenue next we will look at fund 14 41 are expenditures as is the case with most places um our 141 is our largest budget we just looked at the revenue of being 538 million our expenditures this year on the very last page are 549 million that does include 11.3 million transferred to our three charter schools and that's the difference um
114in your deficit 71100 is our biggest line item that is our regular education this is pretty much everything that happens in our schools the teacher line item is the biggest one of that 116 it's at 197 m790 th000 you'll see so far we have only spent 16, 67,000 it can be misleading because we're almost two months through the school year our payments for teachers are always a month behind and so we've only had one teacher payroll run and so that is just one teacher payroll it's trending in the right direction if you multiply it out it could be a little bit over that's not a surprise with the positions that we add the thing that is nice is that it is it's nice and not nice it's nice to be filling that number that means
115our positions are filled it's not nice from a money saving standpoint because means your positions are filled but it is nice that I'd much rather have classrooms filled uh that is all 71100 your numbers um I know Mr VA knows all these Mr vau we can go over all of these at are Retreat as well the numbers stay the same as you go into your different account codes and just a couple things I wanted to point out of 141 that are a concern and a challenge that we will be hopefully asking the County Commission um to improve this year is in 449 on the second page textbooks you'll see we only budgeted 1 and A5 million I mentioned this last night because of our science textbooks this will be one of the lines that we'll
116need to increase or take out a fund balance depending on what our textbook committee adoptions decide and then the other one is 722 regular instruction equipment this is our computers and so we are one to one District in middle and high school two to one in elementary um we paused middle school for one extra year so they are rolling on their fourth year of devices this year instead so that we could have tried to meet maintenance of effort this year so that line should be somewhere between four or 5 million but we cut that and had our make sure that our staff realized they had to do one extra year with those computers so those are two that we have looked at if you go over to the next couple you'll just see the across
117the pages you have 71150 alternative school again same lines skipping over two more pages we have special education this is another big line for us so on now I'm on at the top right corner page 5 of 46 and I'm not going to go through all 46 pages I promise I like it but I just we're not going to do that you'll see our special education line again's right at about 8% for our teachers and so that's where we would expect for it to be right around this time of the year if you'll flip over two other Pages 71300 I'm just pointing out the big ones Career and Technical education is another big line for us that teacher Line's 14 million um it's at 10% it is over for couple reasons right now what I
118would what we would anticipate one we have some teachers in those lines that work 12 months um whether they are in agriculture and some other CT areas that are 12 months you also have some of this that is Grant funded that we cover at the front and then 50% is funded by the state as part of the bone blank on the name yes Innovative schools model Grant thank you ISM if you'll flip over to page is at least pass page 16 oh I'm going to keep going 72410 so it's page 28 of 46 um we're at 72410 page 28 of 46 so I just wanted to point out the office of the principal this is one of our other big ones um we have you'll see the principal line we do have a large assistant
119principal pool as our schools have gotten bigger we've tried to add an assistant principal for every 500 kids so it is not abnormal to see that assistant principal line bigger than our principal line just because the number of assistant principles we have all of our comprehensive high schools now have five assistant principles just because of their size and then the last two I wanted to highlight cuz they always big lines is Page 34 of 46 72610 operation of the plant this is where our custodians are and so we've got just over 10 million in custodians uh you'll see that we have have spent about a quarter of that which would fall in line because our custodians start back on July 1st and so we're about the quarter of the way through and they are paid
120bi-weekly not like teachers that are paid once a month and don't start till September so this has been acre since July 1st and then the next one right beside it 72620 which is maintenance of plant is our maintenance personnel and how we are upholding our buildings so we'll do a much deeper dive into all of our budget and finances just wanted you to see where we were now that some of our payrolls have started to run this is um usually for Mr vaugh and Mr VA um Mr runan is our chief Financial Officer usually I do most of the finances I had advice from one person while was becoming director is make sure that you always learn finances so that someone can't hold it above you so I've always made sure I've been involved in
121finances so I know it may be strange that the director is presenting it not the finance director but if you have questions about the middle stuff I promise Brian can get it so that's all I have for financial and directors update oh I lied I have directors update with Christina penny Okay Miss penny is our new principal at Brown's Chapel um she started really back in May um when Miss goo tree retired Miss penny has done a amazing job she came from Wilson Elementary as the assistant principal not only is she had to do a good job in running a high- performing school she has also had to have an influx of students because of our enrollment cap the influx of students returning from charter schools and then if they were at Stewart's Creek and
122they unenrolled we then made them go to Brown's Chapel they could not go back to Stewart's Creek so she has added several hundred students made them all feel welcome we keep adding add more teachers to her and she's doing a fabulous job so congratulations okay um Mr V you didn't have anything Tuesday you don't have anything today either got you okay okay uh to uh General discussion Miss Maxwell Mr B Oh I thought I thought he didn't I'm so sorry you said General discussion I am so sorry uh I've got about and I know hour question five question um comment was made earlier I think M that said if that's my school or that's my school I was under the impression we're here to represent all schools is that or am I supposed to be
123territorial to just the ones in my district if if if I am I didn't know that I thought I was supposed to see all of them and and represent all of them so am I missl is it is it the way she said it is or is it or do I represent I know I represent my area but aren't I looking out for all the schools I'm getting a consensus that yes well I'm directing it to the director and the and the chairman you're the one that said it earlier so I just I just I did say it represent all schools we do represent them all but our constituents from our areas are the one that votes for us and keep us here I understand that but you you just said my school and I
124just if I needed to to say last casses was my school or Oakland was my school I was going to do that but I just want to make sure I understood that um speaking of Oakland question about uh the Egon they've been having a little trouble about getting sewer hooked up you got I I'll answer it you know you know John Marshall now he's going to call so uh on a yes sir I know Mr Marshall yeah um the the short making any head white Dr Sullivan I'll let you handle that I met with the city yesterday um originally and before going down all the when this started it was approved in January by our school board it went to zoning planning at the city council and then did not make the city council meeting
125and I don't know why and so I I questioned that yesterday okay um they are investigating that during that time um and this is this was my call we had it at for bid and the bid expires we went ahead and built it because it was nbor right right and so that has caused some um contention and so I am working with the city manager we've emailed three times today after our meeting yesterday about how do we get towards a resolution so okay and and that's reason not to pick on anybody I'm trying to figure out where the stop gaps are it are there policies we need to put in place or you know but it just sounds like a something was overlooked by somebody somewhere and we just got to figure it out right
126all right good enough I told him I'd ask so that's right y um second thing was the about the lights speaking of Oakland again the but but I know there's been money spent or allocated to replace uh lights at all the what football fields football baseball softball this particular was from coach Hawks concerned about starting the baseball season and what kind of logical okay I mean I'm sure you've got I I'll make it short sure we address we elected to address the schools that are in the darest need from a safety standpoint first sure once those are addressed we'll address the others I have heard from from both Oakland and Riverdale about Spring Fling and getting their ball fields fixed right it's not going to happen Okay it'll happen after baseball season is over okay
127part of that is the logistics at some of the fields will not allow us to get it taken care of between January and March at Riverdale we're literally going to have to deconstruct bleachers and all kinds of things they've built so many things in there you can't get to the polls now that they've put Turf and some other things down which is nothing wrong with the turf we can't get the equipment sure on it so we have to approach it from a different standpoint so there's a logical method to the madness that's been accounted for both with the the the schedules for the teams related to the work with the contract then so everybody's kind of thought through this it's just not I didn't get out my IGI board and try to figure it out
128no sir it it there that was really for my benefit as much to understand and and we I wish I could make everybody first I yes I I wish we could too but it's there is a logical progression to all of this to add to to add to that we also looked at because Oakland and Riverdale fall right along with that L smna is but when you're addressing Eagleville banon and Las castas it's all South in/ Murphy's Boro so we need to go then to the North in l smna oh everybody's got to be included and so it was a we could have fit them into that category sure the other part is a lot of this is funded 177 so we need property tax to come in before we can start on this we
129don't want to get accused of playing favorites I get absolutely perfect so there was a logic to that and then the other phone call and I think somebody said we'd all gotten an email off this was about some bus issues or assignment of routes or something like that is that I assume that's being addressed and probably would be from and I'll leave the contractor out sure they have uh been addressed they do not like the resolution that they have been given okay they filed a formal complaint today to the director okay that complaint will be addressed in the m in the time frame that meets the contract okay so that so actually the contract addresses those issues that it's not a board policy it's contract it's a contract and and that's all CU help me
130get me educated here there's a new contract coming up next year correct is that right so those types of issues are outlined within the bus contract it's been outlined for years okay all right thank you for helping me there and I will be sending to Dr Sullivan this week my recommendations for the changes to the contract all to updates better flow or whatever it is yes sir great U last but not least I like all y'all but there's other things going on why do we meet four times a month I'm just got a curious question right there is that policy is it always been again years ago there was two meetings a month and now it seems like we're out here four times a month is there a particular reason I just assumed it was
131because the number of students that we had and when I first came on the board they had just dro the work sessions and uh that did not work well they were only going they did limit them and we needed those work sessions uh to get the information that we needed uh but I to you all well I I didn't I mean it's an hour for me to get here not that that's a big inconvenience but you know if we could you know instead of having an hour long meeting I'd rather have a twoh hour long meeting or two and a half hour long meeting and have it yeah well yeah we are to tonight whatever um I I I'm just I I know there's got to be a lot of bandwidth used with this group
132getting ready for these meetings and it doesn't appear to me right now that it's an efficient use of time for especially for them when when if we stayed here another hour took a break had supper brought in I don't know I'm kind of being funny right there but I'm just saying could we start earlier I don't know this is there an opportunity to explore that maybe at the uh Retreat could we talk about that could absolutely that be an appropriate time to bring that up okay that's all I have thank you for indulging me Miss sharp thank you um would like to thank Mr vaugh and Mr Vault for visiting L high school today and remind everybody I believe it's at 9:00 on October 2 first they're going to have the welding open house um
133and so I got a call today and said they were excited about the new school board members coming out and to make sure that everybody put on their schedule to come out to the open house so they're very excited they're thank you they're very excited about it and I hear there's going to be some good food there Mr Vault so so y'all don't forget about it because they're very excited um Mr V said that you know we've got some Talent out there I've talked before about um the students that we have the talent that's coming through uh our schools and the talent that they're doing with the welding so everybody be ready very exciting very exciting anything else guess I have Ros thank you sorry I didn't mean to jump the gun earlier sorry about
134that so um Jeff Reed I I want to implore upon Jeffrey to draft up two resolutions one to go before the Federal we do a lot with the state and we bring the resolutions and last year we were very successful in getting bills that were crafted and they actually got in front of committee whether they passed or not that's to be to be said but we did a lot of work to present um bills to go before the state legislature but I think that we also need to work to present bills to go in front of our federal legislation so one particularly that I would like to propose is to and I've got my numbers I was hoping Dr suan was going to speak into this but tonight we voted on 21 New Growth decisions
135for ESL but to give a perspective of where we're at um last in September of last year we were at um six well actually um in May of 2023 we were 6,214 ESL student those are students that are English or second language and then from May to September of last year we had a huge increase of that went up towards 6,912 and then right now as of last week um we are at 8,222 ESL students as of today in my understanding Dr s you can correct me if I'm wrong but these students require services and these these services are not cheap it's a cost to us so I would like to implore upon the board to look at a resolution to bring to um ask our federal government to bring to give us funding through
136the title three funds right now I think the title three funds are $1.3 million um and I know that we're using some of the cost to um pay that to go towards teaching prisions and other add-ons but as you can see and everyone is aware growth is a factor it's a contributing factor to What's um adding to our overcrowding in our schools and so um we required by law to serve these kids that's what we're mandated we're doing doing that and we're happy to do that and we're doing a phenomenal job doing that by the way but we do need funding um because it requires services I don't know exactly the extra I had asked um Megan turbo to give us the cost of what that will look like so if she can get us
137numbers of that look like so that we can use it in the resolution and pass it and it's time that we start working with our federal Representatives whether they're senate or uh our our Senators or house repres representatives to for them to also advocate for us on that side um and then on the other side on the state legislature I would like to propose the idea and we've talked about it with Dr Chine um Mar gulan and Megan that that their need and their ask is for translators we need funding for translators I know last year I worked very hard to get volunteers but it's but we need them in a consistent basis it's almost like we've got to hire them so I would like to um create another resolution that we go before the
138state legislators we're asking for funding for uh uh um um translators thank you sorry so if we can get cost for that as well from your from Megan as well that would be great so we can add it to the resolution so I would like to propose those two resolutions and hopefully we can have them on the agenda in October whether is the well in October in November if this if it's the first week of October that will be I mean of November that will be great and that's all I have to say thank you okay I got two things uh on a good note STS Creek uh choir uh Brian Russell is one of the co-directors there there uh Athens treble choir received an invitation to perform as a demonstr ation choir at the
139National Convention of the American C director society and a second choir from Stewart's Creek was the Apollo Contra Ensemble will perform at the 66th annual uh professional development Conference of the uh Tennessee music associ iation uh Education Association and Apollo was the only uh High School Bass ensemble in Tennessee to receive their exclusive honor so I mean that's uh uh that's quite an honor I mean when you I think the scope of that and for them to be recognized shows you the caliber of their program and I'd just like to give him and again like Miss sharp said we visited Vern high school today and I just I just tell you it was uh it was an amazing visit uh Dr Hatchet uh the job she's done there and the people I mean the kids
140were so so disciplined and I was impressed because when you get high school kids when they get through eating lunch if they saw something on on the floor they picked it up they didn't depend on somebody else to pick it up and I just thought that you know that showed that these students at Le bur have taken ownership in that building and I think that's because of Dr Hatchet and she's a No Nonsense woman but I mean I'm telling you she's the type of principle that teachers would go to the wall for and I tell you she she really made a difference and I we were really impressed with it today very much so so congratulations to you know it's beyond me why anybody would want to opt out to go to our schools I
141I just as great as they are uh I don't know I just I realize that we got the best school system anywhere and uh why you want to try something that's not approving entity is beyond me but I just I just want to congratulate everybody in the system and the director for the job everybody's doing so I'm glad to be part of it any other business I'll entertain a motion Mr Arby move to adjourn second we are adjourned e