Nelson County Board of Education Meeting March 4th, 2025

001I [Music] Beau [Music] you [Music] got [Music] I [Music] got [Music] you [Music] you [Music] keep [Music] I [Music] you [Music] keep [Music] for [Music] got [Music] keep got to keep [Music] r [Music] across the whole state seves your pamas we're gon get you over in fifth grader that's right so when she calls you up there all right call this meeting of the Nelson County Board of Education to order on March 4th 2025 at 5:30 we're going to welcome Miss Aurora fifth grade student at Cox Creek she's going to lead us in the BL i al to the flag of the United States of America theic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you so much all right tonight we are um hosting a working session to really

002talk about um looking at the winter 2025 academic progress evaluating our employee salary and benefit packages and goals and to discuss the priorities around the local planning committee so we're going to welcome um Miss to and Miss Newton as they talk about academic update all right so I'll get the conversation started tonight we um as we look back over the past eight months we've built our work this year around three key priorities the first one uh is focus on class and culture and the study that everyone's a wingman for all students in all classrooms uh the second priority has been about alignment to standard and rigor and that work has come across in the conversation on Rising Tides lift all students and then finally the third priority has been focused around measuring what matters and

003academic proficiency so as we look at the awards that teachers have received over the past few months and as we look at some of the work coming today from our team you'll see some of those pieces and parts driving that work additionally we're we're embedding into this conversation the relationship between academic update and future Staffing conversations so I will be looking at benefits and Staffing as a separate conversation we're also integrating it here as a relation ship to Elementary and secondary Staffing conversations with that I'll turn it over to our uh director of 622 schools Miss courney Newton and she'll talk a little bit about that work that's going on well we want to start with some celebrations so as Mr Bradley said we've had a lot of momentum around our priorities so we've also

004been trying to look for opportunities to celebrate our teachers that have beening up students and kind of building our academic success know that's so important in our teachers ofal part of that growth um so what you see here is uh the teachers who have received Awards we align them to our priorities so we have teachers who received the rising tith award which is really about raising academic cultural expectations for our students so most of the ones that you'll see here are Middle School ELA teachers and they've been piloting e for ELA um this school year starting mid year at our middle school so we wanted to recognize them for Rising times and the other award that we gave out is measuring what matters um and so this came through in our plc process these teachers

005identify not only the data that they can see from their former assessments but the intentional next steps that they were going to take so you'll see lots of great teachers here that we've been celebrating again we're just so lucky to have um the teachers that we have at our middle schools and high schools so um part of academic updates you've seen some examples of this last week when we talked to Thomas Nelson um but we have Middle School here this is the winter I already compared to how we scor with KSA last May so right now we're predicting a 6% growth in ela for middle school and a 16% growth in math in Middle School um comparing winter already to where we were in May for KSA and then looking at high school we're predicting

006a 1% growth right now from the win 25 math and then 15% growth for math on high school level you mean reading the first one was reading 1% reading math right you said Ma so is this I'm trying to we know that we have typically like anticipated or projected growth like targets of what a student who's making a normal growth progression would reach so when we look at this is this the percent that we are above the expected targets or is this like just how much better we're doing since then may we grown six% or we above like where we would want to be so both of these charge represent per distinguished and then the light blue is where we ended up with KSA last year may and then the darker blue is what we

007projected to have proficient distinguish school year okay so that's a a growth and Improvement in the percentage of students who would be proficient and distinguished not talking individual student growth okay thank you I appreciate that so what this growth allows us to see and also looking at the data allows us to see priorities thinking about the end of this school year going school year how we need to prepare for summer Etc um so we look at where we're at we know we've seen lots of growth across the board but our focus is still going to be on our tier one instruction for ELA for math we know that we had a lot of growth but there's a lot to be strengthened as well fora fora that is a curriculum correct that you're using and I

008think one more thing maybe defined tier one for everybody yes so tier one is that instruction that everybody inial instruction so that's a priority for the alignment within that generalized clroom construction so right now we've got some pilot happening with fora see lot success that we' also seen that success at the elementary level so we want to expand that is that ath of the to succeed push in that legislation that came across from the state and some of those initiatives connect quity aot talk about high quality instructional resources at the state level and so I'm glad to see that that's coming here ahead of requirement to so and also High School so um identifying some the practices they can start to Pilot um this spring and then we'll do some professional development around that curriculum

009this summer and then start to roll that out um in the next school year so tier one is our Focus for ELA tier one is also our continued Focus for math as well we've had some um lots of gains in using I which is also what our elementary school uses too so you think about the continuity as well you have kindergarten middle school high school using the same kind of curriculum is g to be beneficial for students um to have that continuity there ustra math um so for Middle School we did a full implementation of I am at the middle school level so what that looks like for us next year within that tier one format is really focusing on discourse which is how students talk about math and can explain their thinking with math

010um and then application of that math for River problems so that'll be our Focus for middle school and then for high school um we're extending that implementation well we have a professional development plan that's happening this summer um but before that right now we're right now going through the curriculum we're picking out maybe some things that they can pilot and try out and then discuss in the PLC setting or Design Lab is what we call that um so they can talk about what worked what didn't work and then we also have folks like Lan she's our instructional design Le for Math and she's taking that curriculum going piece by piece doing some piling helping to codesign those lessons so they can experience some success prior to that really deep professional learning this summer um this

011summer we'll be spending a week just focused on how do you do this curriculum really well how isign to the standards how do we respond to the data that we see this and what do we need to do to be ready for August and I'm looking back at the the slide on the test results that middle SCH high school with those blue graphs and when we look at that what what do we attribute the significant gains in math to what do you feel like or what is the evidence showing well she's support every and that's middle and high school that she's in and I think sometimes um it's it's easy to overlook the importance of having people who are specialists in a Content area because as a principle you can't use a one siiz fits

012all you can recognize good pedagogy and instructional practices but you may not know what specifically could be done for math for language arts so I'm appreciative of um having her is coach and the work she's doing thank you what program are we using for the math program and reading programs do you so can you tell us a bit about the process for how curriculum was chosen in Nelson County because I know legislation changed a couple years ago and it can be a districtwide initiative which is very important for professional learning and I think maybe we clity on what that is yeah BAS and I hope it's all right to CH in on this because there's a deeper piece to that when something becomes rated green on one of those um external validation sites that means

013that there are specific types of um full study designs to look to see how that that there's a correlation between this help kids become proficient that's what we mean by high quality when we hear those terms and stuff it's green it's because it's proven to work across dozens of schools and groups of students and they've measured that scientifically and used about to determine that in a full study design all also helps start and then from that process we build in some for instructional leaders to also these companies we talk about pros and cons we get the Middle School level for for all schools yeah and but I think it's important to say there's always teachers have always used in especially in elementary schools a curriculum it just wasn't the same curriculum in every school right

014I'm always wanting to stay with the same curriculum because we jump around I think it really confuses teacher confuses the student and I think we can get to a fun Foundation where we same using the same curriculum I think we'll see positive impact from that you also have the ability to actually collaborate about that curriculum people are not isolated and they're able to actually build on that and just like you're doing with the state you're calling around you're not Reinventing the wheel you're actually saying how do we make this work what are you using and how are you incorporating it well my favorite thing is where we we're reaching out to other districts and find out what what is working and we're using it that's what I want to see also as a board member

015thank youit other schools andul to ask instru leers what went well when you and were mistakes how can weid Mak so that's part there's a there's always been a tension at the middle school and high school level around common curriculum because the teachers Middle School and High School are certified in that specific content area and with that comes a LEL of expertise often that Demands a level of autonomy so I I will say this we can sit here and talk about the curriculum and common curriculum but this is not a transition that's easily accepted in all places and spaces in education so in elementary school because of the the complexity of multiple subject areas it has been more traditionally accepted in high schools especially the teachers are experts in the cont area and they uh

016often see the need for autonomy I share that just as some context I think however our teachers are embracing much of that because the standards mapping and common curriculum work that's occurred leading up to it if we just said hey here you go it would not work near as functionally and if you didn't have people that are also allowing people to still own within that curriculum some layers of that very importantly and grow with it so I share that just as some context to say you know it's it's not as simple as we might make it to to sound tonight that's not unique to just Nelson County that's also a conversation State and and nationally um because it looks different with older um students because teachers do have that major in that content area typically

017well and I would think like with the number of uncertified teachers we have which is born by necessity as a result of like the shortage that this common curriculum is even more valuable maybe then it would have been a decade ago or whatever you know when you're dealing with people new to the profession I think there's I think there's always been a lot of uncertified teachers I think the the conversation about certification has been really just another weapon against public education and I'll say that publicly because I think that's just reality I was a uncertified teacher Miss Newton was an uncertified teacher Miss Tucker was an uncertified teacher Miss case were you certified well by I was like everybody's getting a little nervous he's calling wasn't as a c i mean again that wasn't meant

018as a cut on teachers at all but just I just miss Arnold was definitely an uncertified teacher so I share that to say I I I do want to know this has been a especially in certain content areas there's always been attenion when I talked to John Snyder who was the principal in the 70s and ' 80s at Nelson County High School he says we had a teacher shortage in the 70s and 80s in math and science it's been around forever um so the difference is now we have the internet and we can talk about it well I think that the the difference and I don't think that we're the only ones but I think the beauty of what you all are doing isn't just about a common curriculum it's also about supporting that common

019common Curriculum by your summer pathway programs getting together and connecting not isolating not just handing that to them like you said and saying here you go good luck you're actually building that with them alongside them and so are so is everyone else across the district and that's why there's strength in that that's why you're going to see growth when you're doing it the correct way so so we said we purchased this so how long do we have this purchase like my daughter's a fourth grade when she gets to 12th grade is she going to are we like committed to this curriculum or is there going to be some fill stops if we're not gr gotcha and that's frustrating for teachers I mean a great teacher told me one time if you don't like what we're

020teaching this year just wait around a couple years to return back what you want to teach the right way and and it's always stuck with me and that's a great she'll probably know I'm not going to mention her name but she's I put her on pedestal by the way but she's a great one but uh thank you all well I just wanted to clarify the the uncertified conversation uh I I don't I think more than anything it's just a everybody was certified you can't teach if you're not certified but it's it's really about traditional versus non-traditional Pathways and I think the future is going to be mostly non-traditional if we look at the universities that exist every year for the past decade it's gone down every year so it's I mean I think we're probably

021moving closer towards most classrooms will be non-traditional Pathways so you know I share that just as a context you know Miss Newton wasn't able to teach until she was certified however she went a non-traditional path and Nelson County truly does have Innovative programs and is considered a leader across the state in relation to recognizing that the traditional preparation of going to college for four years and getting your teaching certificate had to turn turned into five and six years for most people and that's a lot of time and money and so we've had some very high quality programs and I will also celebrate that I have seen on the websites the results of the students that we've had there if you use the pratice scores which is that qualifying exam to become a teacher um the

022pass rate's 100% for students who come through our program that is remarkable that we have adults and individuals coming through this that is the highest in the state of any Preparatory program and so what's being done here is work that's why it's being looked at and we're growing our own that you know we talk about that and that value of of helping keep our students in the local community and I appreciate that work and your leadership in that thank you just an idea I told Corney if she went first it would be it take her longer there you go 17 minutes oh he we're learning all kinds of she's covering for everybody a little bit I a lot of that you have already had thinking about man support of teachers thinking about curriculum implementation as

023Mr Bradley said it's not just an easy process it's not like here book everybody let go there's a lot that goes into making sure everybody feels comfortable with the curriculum instructional expectations um and then also thinking about teachers that might come into that so one of our goals is have access to cont and something talked about talked about d as well had lots of success with that model having that instructional coach or backpack leader be a Content expert and work specifically with those cont so one thing that we are excited looking at is have having an Ela instructional design Le be think about middle school and high school culum for next year having really thatc focus these these aren't new positions these aren't you know additional positions they're really just a restructuring the positions that

024already exist okay so Ela of course is English language arts um and I'm glad to see that there's recognition for the need to support Sciences well so as we think about students having a strong foundation in reading and math know as our students High School expanded demate SKS in addition to demonstrating other knowledge and devel so one of the ways we do this in Kentucky is through the countability system so every high school and every district schil and looking at our current cohort of 25 98% of our students in this year's graduating class have been identified as transition last year it was around that 9394 way students get to this level is through meeting a benchmark on act exam so obviously students can achieve a SE high in a dual credit so let me give

025you an example of some of our data here in Aus County last semester we had around 530 students take a dual credit course around 250 of those students were doing online dual credit course work with kccs or on site instructure and 89% of our students who credit class so at one board meeting I was sharing some that you an idea of how students are are our students also have industry certific through a lot of programs also through appren like our teacher appren students are identified not just for taking the credit course work as transition ready but also doing that on the job training and then students who complete who successfully complete a based experience can also be identified and this year we have around 300 students doing the profession based experi but many of those

026are doing du credit that obing certific and that's all part of that transition Mission journey really aligned to our College pathway through our this is the this would be the highest uh we've ever had as a district well and we're still we still have students that we're supporting and we take course assessments through their CTE Fields next couple weeks we also have a few who are going to be entering where does this fall how many districts in the state are will have this type of transition Readiness rate um we saw there was an increase in it last year because with accountability we all know there is a game that is played and districts figure out how to play that game better better each year so districts are figuring out ways to get their students access

027to different opportunities that would that so you did see it as a jump year the thing is if students complete an industry certification high demand field the district gets additional points so for example in heavy equipment that's a high we add there's still there would still be very few districts that are at the same level that we are currently I'd say there's a few no sorry okay it's working for the side so but I think too this is a byproduct you know we were doing professions based experience before profession based experience was cool you know we did it because it was the right thing to do for kids we did it before the accountability system re rewarded it we did it because we know it's the most important thing for kids as they transition Beyond

028high school is to have a relationship with their community and places of work the other work has expanded especially the Dual credit course work has massive expansion across Kentucky and Nelson County and imag with we do have district is supporting half of that that's not and the state now connects funding to this correct like the funding model that comes into CTE so the current Tech education yes this past year we received over $700,000 te education that is just the fulltime equivalent attendance bodies like students coming into our techn education but they added a performance funding that so if you have students that get a dual credit St a work whole pathway you get additional dollars for that the first year when it was just based on enrollment I think we received 500,000 last year we

029received 750,000 and part of that is because the way we designed our community collabs our prip models we're encompassing credit certific that's allowing us to receive additional funds again we did that because the right that's a good turn on investment too and having that kind of foresight to think about students being able to complete programs we're generating about $1.5 million today that we didn't generate in 2018 when we started and that's the a few if you had adult education in there we're probably at about $2.2 million so since 2018 2019 really the work that Laura has been able to lead is generating about $2.2 million to the local school district that wouldn't otherwise be received uh we think she's worth it well think she's worth it and I think what you know when we're hiring

030teachers and adding programs ultimately we do think about first of all the benefit to the students but also the cost because these are taxpayer dollars and can we make this sustainable and we having to choose between programs sometimes so it's good to know there's more than enough to cover um the cost associated with that program and you're also putting kids in positions where there already is demand before they ever get out of high school much that I think that speaks volumes too look at the industry that's involved you guys have great Partnerships here locally because they understand the quality of students that's coming out of the programs yeahor we have yeah it is it's awesome kudos to the leaders on that all right so we're gonna flip back to Elementary world for just a minute

031so first starting with our level up Awards Courtney said um we have been identifying teachers that are really um outstanding in our priorities around ringen and every measure what matters so these are a few of our people who have gotten so and we do try to spread those out of schools and preschool diverse learning and all those things so really ad helped these the directors help these and like always I piure and you know have their pajamas on they're all excited about their award that's um the next thing we've done is we as we're going into classrooms um and leaving feedback and just talking to teachers and having conversations about what's working and what's not working we're really celebrating in different ways through one pagers or handouts and this is just a quick way we

032wanted to celebrate with teachers who had top typical growth percent met on already so when when kids take the test in the fall they based on what they score they are given a typical growth that they should meet at the end of the year they're also given a stretch growth gold so what this says this is the number of kids who already met their typical growth goal in December so that goal is for the year so this is just showing the percentage of kids who've already met so for example fourth grade Miss 71% of her kids in ela met their yearly grow growth goal in December so so now they're working on that stretch goal that's just one another way we celebrated um we've also celebrated by school so it's just like hey what are

033we doing what's going on let's Cate we're excited about that um some other things that we really excited about just thinking about I ready they give you a matrix to based on National I ready so where do you fall amongst like the grow so are you high growth high performance low growth low performance SE those so our two in Reading F in high growth and high performance and that is with Nationwide first third fourth of this they scored high growth on The Matrix um not high performance same thing with math K first and fourth had high growth plus high performance and second third and fourth had high growth so all of our grades had high growth really um and then high performance and I will ask you the same question what do you attribute the

034growth to I would say overall systems bringing our um the curriculum of course I think has been a good base but also we've done a lot of work with um our signal leag so when Tracy you said we're bringing people together across the district for example um I'll use the uh New Haven kindergart teer for Jesse Lille she's a kindergarten signal lead for the district so for math so she helps support I am math implementation across the district even though she's just that New Haven um so that team building we have signal lead meetings um every quarter so they're able to come together also backpack days they're able to come together so we've really brought those teams together instead of them being on those islands where right now Jesse is the only K teacher at

035new P so she does ELA and math but now she's able to connect with him I think I've talked about that before with their Google chats they're always in there like hey what do you think about this I'm going to in this lesson what does this look like so theyve really built this um partnership across the district through e and that they've been able to have something common to talk about where before they all had their curriculum but it was I'm teaching this right now and you're teaching that and I don't really have anything to talk to you about um so it wasn't that they didn't want to it's just this has kind of forced them to do that so that I think the other thing um we think about training so like the literacy

036micro credential before we do have our literacy Specialists who are great but they're we're building the whole system so we had 50 people in our literacy micr credential who's earned the same training as our literacy specialist and we say they're all specialists in teaching reading and that's what we need so just like you'll hear me in a minute we're talking about math that's coming um there's a Kentucky numery counts um program getting ready to start in June um so we'll have teachers sign up for that too so really what we're doing is bettering the whole system instead of like you know these people these people these people like who how can we help all and that's really that tier one support was helps that so again we had high growth in that priorities when we

037think about that in a minute it'll be around high growth but how do we get high performance across the board this is just again projected Proficiency in each trade level and then overall that kind of all comes together we think about the Nelson County District third fourth and fifth growth we're projected at a 6% growth for um I will say that last year between winter and spring that number went up about five more percent so that's not guaranteed but we're hopeful that that that grows when we take it elementary schools are actually taking that some right before spring break and some the week right after spring break so we'll have that data pretty quick for end of the year planning getting math kind of same thing you will see fifth grade um here so that

038is something we're looking at I've been working with the signal Le anding through that math when you think about tier one in fifth grade tier one is rigorous high level standards but if they had some of those gaps along the way it's harder to push them to get there where they're working on it they're still um where they were last year or close to it but as far as that profic thing that's one of our blinds our parties that we're thinking about how do we continue to have the rigor of the standard when maybe they have some gaps from third grade grade like how does tier two come in and how do we do that small group so that's something we're working on with them and they have a good plan and this was from

039December so they they've already been working for through Eary literacy skills I we talk about that a lot um we've seen a lot of growth so you'll see like when I say early literacy skills we talk about FAL awareness phonics and high frequency words a lot those are where our high bars are that's where you'll hear me say like youly when we do that um when they're doing letters training or when they're doing science of reading type things those things are one of our big Focus so we've seen a lot of growth in that e coming in is helping with these areas vocab and comprehension so you'll see those are not as high yet and that's just something that we're working on so we have different um these are different components and different programs that

040are working on and different trainings for teachers so in this world different because they all do come together but they're also very separate too so we're just learning how to bring those together and bridge the gap so those are individual skill sets that come together to form for good reading okay and because that doesn't all come together until typically by third grade you break it down into different areas at different levels yes you're right so the this is like you know this is easy this is like hearing sounds and things like that but what happen sometimes when we were low on these they can't possibly do these things so we had to get this right so then they can start doing it better so that's kind and so again the numbers in green are the

041the basically the increase in the rate of students who would be proficient or Mastery of skills so so I ready only does proficiency Ford up so for two it's reallys on grade level M so like skills that are on their grade level so this would be for them it's not comparing it to last year this is comparing to the fall SC to like how much could they do on kindergarten level in the fall versus now because they're not taking a test they're not taking a test right already is right right right their last KSA in May so we think about priorities um really tier one proficiency third gr fifth grade like I said we have good growth we have good momentum we're doing a lot of great things but we're still our proficiency level is

042still lower than we wanted so that's just something we know um we think about I know you mentioned tier one earlier I like use the analogy of like a river all in the river um we're trying to not get kids to fall out of the boat right we're all just like we're in the boat we're learning we're going and we're moving um and then tier two and tier three would be like oh you slipped out I got to help you put you back in so that's like those supports right um or Inflatables or however you want to put it also just to go back to the one conversation if you think a lot of times you'll see a triangle really tier one should need 80% of your kids so whatever I'm doing in tier one

043when I'm in the classroom I should be able to meet 80% of my kids with that quality instruction then we have tier two sometimes there's going to be 15 10% of kids that just don't get it then I'm going have to provide these tier two supports as a little bit extra usually teachers do that in their small group or whatever that looks like so then I can put you back into tier one and you're going again sometimes then there's like tier two we did that we still didn't get it now there's that tier three that's at the very top of your triangle that's like 5 10% of my kids that just didn't get it didn't get it didn't they need more intensive support and that's where we use our lery specialist usually with those that

044that are just so when iici one that's why we're working on that I don't know that there's a school district anywhere that has 80% War but um that's the also pay through to vocabulary comprehension like I just showed you our phonic awareness is high they in those areas but it's just not as high as and then kindergarten rating is a conversation we've been having across the board that's the kids that we have in our current preschool and kids that we don't have in current like how do we get more kids into our preschool what are we doing in our preschool how's that design thinking through all those that is also um we're currently around 45 50% ready so that just getting that number up so ready so thinking about that we think about our priorities

045and Staffing and what the data tells us we think about tier one proficiency what do we need um kind of the same thing we need Ela and social studies content support expert support Math and Science instructional design Le thinking about that support and having help tier one instruction and the E and I IM implementation and working hand on hand with teachers similar what Le is doing with 6 through 12 um what would that look like at the only world and then also thinking about enhancing literacy and math intervention for kids in tier two and three so when I say that like kids that falling out of the boat put them back in or fell on the river we're trying to Pi them back out but really our goal is to not ever let them fall

046in the river right so but we had this small percentage of kids down here this has gotten less and less because here one's gotten better right so this this need and this support is less just because we don't have as many kids that need that intensive instruction um so but still these people have been very vital and very important that specialist role with the Kentucky reced act that's been um a lot of their work the numer act like I said is coming out so it's like what do we we need to evaluate and think about what that look like for a math specialist um and how we support K students or teachers and school through that that's just currently kind of what we're evaluating what we're thinking about based on the current data and what

047we need as board members what do we need to be thinking about what do you need us to be thinking about in terms of supports that you may be asking for the tops I know you don't know exactly because you're in that needs process right now needs assessment but what are some of the supports I think really just listen openly to like what the data tells us what our current roles are and what we what we've seen success out of and how we might need to reimagine those um being open to that and thinking about that and then also looking at individual School need I don't know that there's a model that says this and like every school needs this or every school needs that because it's different based on the number of kids based

048on their Proficiency in tier one so it's going to be different based on that so I think just being open to that and thinking about um are and what we might be asking are I'm hearing a lot of talk about the 325 early early literacy and stuff math uh what are we doing for our middle school and high school I have big concern with that is there anything you can talk to talk to us about and educate us on that thank you are you referring to two supports for middle school middle school and high school I see some kids might need some intervention absolutely so we feel really strongly that we're doing some really good things with ti two and three School level especially this year so the day where students who are ready to

049accelerate have acceleration opportunities they're already at grade level or above and so we're allowing them to continue on um and then we have students who need additional support like we speaking about so we have curriculum that we've invested in um that really pinpoints on what exactly those skills are so we use their I ready data and from that we can see this student maybe is not on grade level we look another layer deeper into that data this student really needs to hone in and master um fractions and decimals so they have Fuller time specifically focus and that directr on that they're essentially getting more time that is really specified they our high schools are also implementing a version that's more adaptive so more technology involved in that partially that's because but they do have access

050Thomas is their time that two days week where they're meeting with or Reading Coach who able to go along with that process and that Nelson County is so we do have those supports thank you all I'm always impressed how much knowledge you all have about the reading of math and it's just amazing you all can talk about it all day long and I appreciate you all thank you that me to you all four thank you so I do think it's important to acknowledge in this conversation about alignment of Staffing of priorities when we think about diverse learning I just want to make sure that diverse learning is integrated into these current systems and priorities that our students that have been identified as diverse Learners as special education students as a student with an IEP or

051an individualized educational program are getting really high quality instruction as well as building the capacity of leaders who are certified in LD or MSE or a Special Education certification so just making sure that as we think about aligning our priorities that we're continuing to build the capacity of identified students of need as well as the leaders to make sure that they are also with high quality instruction matal so I just want to make sure that that you all know that we're also thinking through divers also thank you all for this update um youve spent a lot of time and thought into it and I it was important I think for all of us as board members to have understanding of the systems that are in place across the district and I hope our community is

052listening to this conversation too because there are oftentimes questions about what are we doing to address literacy and math and um sounds like in the past couple of years there's been more intentional efforts to bring people together and and working and professionally because strong teachers iron sharpens iron and um and building that skill and and creating space for our teachers to do that thank you guys consistency all right moving on we have Mr Martin M Rogers and Miss Hogan so this conversation is going to focus on some work going on right now with Benefits teaming which is something this is the first year that's ever occurred that I'm well at least since I I've been working with the team here uh this is the first year I do want to remind everyone big picture conversations

053as we think about benefits they fit into a larger hole of the employe experience um it's something that traditionally has been kind of under regulation and government systems and very few systems kind of tend to very few systems tend to uh stray from the norm the status quo has ruled the benefit system because most of the funding is is is Rel is tight and systems don't want to vary too fast because it can create some Financial uh challenges with that said big picture our goal here is to continue to embed opportunities for teachers to grow their Professional Network to be a part of a community and fill a sense of belonging and support and to be successful in impacting student achievement those are the three larger benefits we've been focused on for staff so you

054think about the work we just said uh our most recent staff survey uh in December 90% positive engagement in that work from staff members around opportunities to learn and grow 85% in terms of strong Rel relationships with others within my school Community obviously uh we want all those to be uh at 100% we feel like that that data has contined to improve over the last three years each year and anything over 80% has really seen as a very positive moment for our district did the counts of the people who responded with each of these ratings these are teachers in in the schools during the December we have more data it was a part of the was it December we shared that data the needs assessment in January maybe but that needs assessment data generally it

055was an 85 to 90% positivity bias um and that's um I think the big feedback we got from a few schools was really just about continuing to strengthen Design Lab time um in general the the overall positivity rate was around 85% with that said I think you know we've continued to level up in the way we're talking about salaries and compensation and career growth but I think tonight we're going to be talking about both benefits additional benefits to being a part of the district Community as well as compensation and salary conversations that will occur over the next six weeks as we move towards our salary conversation for 2025 2026 so I spoke you Allan and so um January we talked about fact that the HR department has created aers group of professionals across the district

056in the to come together look at the benefits that we're offering to our continue make so those people have committed to at least three meeting uh virtual and in person where they're getting together reviewing our current benefits and uh talking about other benefits they would like to see us offer in the district and um how we strengthen those off so um I put some information up here it's a lot I'm not going to be able to go through all of it but I put it up here because I wanted you be able to see the feedback that we received from our staff so um during our first round of meetings we had um we' had a total of 20 meetings so far plus we sent out an email to all staff and said listen if

057you're not a part of the EM employee benefits team we want you to talk to some of the people who are or we want you to email us your feedback and let us know some of the benefits that you're interested in so everyone had an opportunity us so during the first round of meetings we really focused on what are some of the benefits that we offer now how do they work and how well do people truly understand them or do they even know exist what do we need to do to do a better job on communicating those understand theit that they have and then we move into what are some of the things you would like to see as an employee or did your staff provide you as ideas they like to see as an

058employe so we got this list from all of the people who were in the first round of meetings in the second round of meetings we had everyone take this list go back to their staff ask else they wanted to include and then bring that to the second meeting and then start to talk about what are some of the things that were most important to them how do we pair that down and then what did all of these groups talk about as far as most common benefits that they were interested in so when we got to this point people really started saying oh well this thing is really important to all five groups or this is something that everybody really interested in so then we came up with a group of um benefits that were that

059came out of every single team that met and then these are the uh benefits that were provided from staff by email so we took all of those we posted them on the wall we had everyone go around and start to help us car it down to the things that were most and this is what we came so um these are four of the things that were most common that people were most interested in and this is what we're starting to focus on first that does not mean we're not going to come back and look at some of these other ones we're just trying to get some of the things that we're going to look at first so bement leave is something that folks were really interested in right now if an employee has death in

060the family they take sickly for that and they were interested in having days where they could take off to be their family when there was a death of a loved one so we're looking at bement from the standpoint of people can have either one or two days depending on the relationship of the person who passed away those days are days that they would be given each year but they do not carry over they're just there for them to use if they have a death of someone in the family so P paid maternity leave I know Miss Lee asked about this as well this is something that sta was very interested in so um we've been looking at what does it look like to uh provide up to six weeks of P for any staff member

061where there's a bir for adoption of a child and we're also talking about paternity le as well and what that might look like that's the standard amount of time that someone would be given by a position after they had a baby or um we also had gymm membership um come up a lot in our groups and they talked about either having discounts at a local gym here in town where they could go on their own on their own time and several people also mentioned having an onsite location uh within the district that they could go to and have somebody on staff to help them weightlifting ideas or training ideas and several people mentioned um the fac at Thomas Nelson and Nelson County because we already have a lot of equipment there in the fil house

062where our student another thing that came out of the group sta child so three specific things were requested under staff Child Care morning and afternoon Child Care before and after school so if I'm a teacher and I have to get to school early I'd like to have a place where I can take my kids before um school starts so I can go ahead and get to school to receive my students then staff Child Care on non-school day so like black Ty days and that kind of thing staff need to come and report to school but their children aren't in school so they need child care for their children during those days and then all day child care for children and grandchildren of stag so that we're looking at for uh children who are birth to

063three years old 4 years old up until the time that they would actually enroll in the Early Learning Center or preschool program so these are some of the things that the team is working on now and we'll be getting back together with this group again um I think in the next couple of weeks to start looking at what do these look like and what are the cost so do you all have questions about any of these these CS were some very initial numbers we looked at not knowing the full staff Child Care uh design so this was our initial conversation much of this was uh in the maternity leave yes so we took um we typically when somebody has a in the family we send a car from the district um to show care for

064them during that time so we looked at that list that we had we s cards to we were able to get an estimate of what might look like based on thator of we have those numbers anyway on those people who away or adoption of child these membership andain so on the maternity leave is that is the figure here inclusive of paternity leave as well or is that just based on maternity only okay does not include paternity in that estimate but we have been looking at other districts and talking to them about what they're offering seems like most people are doing somewhere around okay on the gym membership and the staff's child care would that be a shared cost where staff are are paying for some portion thereof that when I see discounts what makes me

065think of that so um we' started talking to some of the gyms in town about what a discount like for our staff because we're a very large and they're very and that we already have on the child care is that going to be centralized if it's something that we go through so right now we're looking at a central yeah I just because yeah I mean it would you know we have a lot of schools out there with yes okay big County very good yeah I like the looks of that so we'll be updating more in this conversation in on March 18th and again in April as we continue to evaluate um potential fincial planning well I think it's important that you know it's not just about salary it's about creating a package that really draws

066people into the district and then really encourages them to stay because it's not just always about the pay it's about all the um the other what we supportive measures that we can put in place yeah I just want to celebrate the team there's about 30ish people yeah that's awesome 30-ish people that are engaged conversations there's every person on the HR team is leading some of these meetings um and have autonomy in that conversation and there's there's just great diversity at the table um great team members giv feedback and you know you think about putting people first you guys are doing a great job of just listening and learning about what that looks like to find that and these would be available to certified and classified staff correct okay thank you all all good well I

067think the beauty of having that group together is you actually have the stakeholders there um it's not just the board looking at what can we offer it's about talking to the people and saying what do you need how can we better support you in your daily life so I appreciate that you're actually getting people to the table to have those conversations thank you on that one of this compensation folks salary so I was asked to kind of take a look at our salary ranks on the certified side across the state so actually this is pretty easy to obtain it's on the Department of Education um I haven't been involved in this process but I'm assuming just Finance different districts enter this information or it's collected throughout the state in house inside the spreadsheet for reference

068um these numbers are certified I did ask about classified currently there's no system that information Statewide standpoint certified only thisly this data does not include Summer Leadership Pathways or micr credentials or additional stiens so I think just as a reference point if we included some of those things it would probably be even quite a bit higher yeah so really this is most call this salary schedule right so if I have a bachelor's degree this is my first year teaching how muchy would I make also part of that is some districts on different of days of contracts consider we're currently on6 day contract there's a few others that are around that but obviously your day contract may this is the salary schedule across the so I have a bachelor's degree coming out of college whatever program

069I had it's my first year teaching our rank in terms of salary that salary SCH 16th out of 17 and then rank two would be your first master program once I got that completed um if you see year one my first teaching 15,71 my year 27 that's where most the P or top out for sale salary 18 then rank one will be your double master you're just kind of seeing those salar right so one thing that's looking at the data um you know a few hundred moved quite a bit in terms of ranks I really studied say our bachelor's degree year one uh we really kind of up to aning I think the last five years particularly at that level trying to attract people in currently that starting pay for us is over $25,000 around

07049,000 so really a few hundred that R they're all pretty close together um also I was asked to take a look at our enrollment uh there are different ways to measure enrollment um generally speaking you know how many kids you have in your schools we about 30th currently I will say I don't necessarily think I didn't study but my assumption is there not necessarily correlation between how many kids you have in your school district how much te there there's there' be some correlation but there be just because Jefferson fed are so big however there's outliers all over the place but that's a good way to look at Apples to Apples because when you're looking at districts of similar size that's kind of the frame of reference you don't compare yourself to typically to a very

071small District or very large District specifically some place that may be more urban where cost of living is higher and so that that gives to me that's a good frame of reference if we're 30th in size then we would expect that our salary it's to somewhere in that frame it's a especially it's a red flag if you're I don't think those two things are correlated based on what we're saying there may be some only because of just fed and Jefferson but beyond that I'm not going to see a lot of correlation I don't think we could do the data but so I think you know just refle on the conversation had around salary my time here I really up five years getting salary spot really I think for us though as you think about the

072state 171 districts are all across the state of Kentucky really each area has a bit of a different story for obviously for us think about region we're a great location um and I guess on the downside of that is it's a competitive market right so gu think for us it important study these ranks and salaries District across the so quickly I guess part of that question is who's in your region quickly I just gathered these 12 schools this is just an app order um did include Jefferson hard Mar Shelby but I think you would say here we're probably in the running the top 10 to 15 percentile per say across the state um among the region kind of more middle of the p a little above that per se again these ranks say five out

073of 12 a few hundred right I think it's important for us to stud Sal [Music] I would personally like to see our salary and benefit package come into the top 10 you know and I think you know if we if we are talking a few hundred variance from District to District I think benefits certainly can bake up for some of that too I mean if you're if we're offering things that no one else offers that it's certainly greater value sometimes for those pieces maternity leaves in particular and access to things and one of the things we've done and want to continue to do is offer those opportunities also because what we've learned is some people are want to work 185 days some people want to work more days some people want to do spend more

074time in the summer doing things and some of those teachers that are spending the two three four weeks in the summer are generating an additional four or $5,000 in some cases on top of these salaries so this is just a salary schedule it doesn't include all the modifications that exist to those stiens that uh we engage in um so I do think a differentiated model long term is still going to be a healthy model knowing that we also if you think about new teachers they need additional time and we think about compensation packages for new teachers connecting that to additional supports is going to be important well I think even going back to the stiens I know you you classify that as a stien I still look at that as part of a Ben benefit

075package um not everyone's paid to do work study you know I don't get paid when I go to continue education you know that's on me so I think part of that and not all districts do that I don't think that a lot of districts are paying their teachers to go to professional development so I think when we look at that I I agree with Dr Lee we want to rank in the top 10% only because when you look at who surrounds us you're right just a few thousand dollar you can go to Jefferson County but what is Jefferson County offering that that we can't beat we can beat just about everything that they can offer with the benefits package with the Clash sizes with our our culture and our climate and our schools and that's

076nothing against Jefferson County but we can do better so I think that's really what I would like to see is what do we need to do to get us in the top 10% what is it that we as a board need to look at how can we better support that cause and when I look at this County list Harden bullet and Jefferson are three of the 10 largest districts in the state and we're right behind some of that but I do think we should look at the regional rankings more yeah well um it's good data for us to reference it's not something we've talked about publicly and I appreciate the board pushing us to provide this data takes Alex about three minutes to figure that out um just as a I was like oh thanks

077uh uh the regional data I was like you know that would be useful he's able to put that together I think um it's it's a as you know it's a it's a combination of factors that make all this happen so you know Tim represents districts across the state he sees all these different pieces and parts and in Nelson County we're very fortunate we're very fortunate to be where we are financially we're very fortunate to be able to H level up over the past four or five years to for career and compensation growth and we want to continue to put ourselves in a position to be fortunate to do that more the on that slide there were numbers in blue 9724 and 111 what are those oh yeah sorry so this would be the part of

078the question is like how many people fall into certain categories so of our certified roles which include teachers counselors administrators approximately 97 of those are in a rank three and 124 have their rank two so I have my first Masters complet yeah all right thank you so that just as a reference we do generally set the salary schedule in April I think it's like April 15th or something this year um we also meet meet again March 18th we'll be talking about these things and opportunity costs um in March and April so some context all right so moving on we're going to be talking about the um local planning committee setting board goals um I had emailed the board I don't know it could have been a couple days ago I feel like I email you

079guys all the time um about just sort of writing down some lists of really looking at what our priorities are as a board and what we really want the LPC to focus on so I'll let the superintendent take this from here just as a reminder this is a very generic uh overview of the process the LPC convenes we our original goal was to start that tomorrow we're not starting it tomorrow because we had everything set back a week from the storm um our goal is to start next Wednesday that team of people develop a draft facility plan a facility plan already exists as a draft facility plan they're just evaluating modifying revising creating a new from that plan KDE then um reviews that plan gives feedback on it back and forth between the LPC and

080then eventually the board reviews it however the reality is it's very important and I think local healthy local plan planning committee oh come on is uh is in a conversation with the Board of Education that the the board and the local planning committee are not totally independent of each other right they they exist in relationship to each other and with that this is a four-year process the people that are part of this planning committee are on the planning committee unless they choose otherwise for four years with that in mind it's really important that as modifications I think a healthy school district is looking at the facility plan more often than every four years in fact it's got to be an ongoing conversation as you think about the future when you wait years and years to

081have those conversations uh it often times put you in situations where you're not thinking a long term so with that said really the goal of tonight is thinking about as the facilitator begins the process process over the course of the next couple of weeks with the local planning committee that there is some board guidance around priorities uh for that conversation that it's not people aren't sitting there in these meetings saying well what's the board think right and um I think with that with that in mind we have working with Tracy generated three general areas for priorities so it wasn't just a total blank canvas and those priorities were operational in nature Staffing because we know that that is the the heart of the work is the staff and the in the buildings and then student

082priorities and whether that's student outcome student learning just a student experience right so we've given just a a blank um slate here for that conversation to begin the idea is that this conversation can continue to be shaped by the board but it helps to have something to reference for the local planning committee process so that's that's I guess just an intro to this conversation tonight so with that said um would anyone like to share um we can start at any of those categories if you want to talk about operational priorities or Staffing priorities to me student priorities are probably number one since that should be our number one goal um anyone would like to open discussion not everybody at once everybody just calm down anyone well I think academics of course okay I mean we

083want our students to do well and um be prepared for the future so I guess that what do we quantify that as that's um I'm trying to go broader we talk a lot about literacy and math recently so that's all part of academics right so academic success and with high schoolers we also consider that College and Career readiness so it's probably an easy one that should be their number one goal and it's and no matter what U building we build or don't build that that doesn't dictate our academics you know there's some very old schools that are turning out great products out of these buildings so you know that's that's my thoughts and I think that's a good point um because you're you're not talking just about brick and mortar you're talking about it's not

084about what the building looks like and I think going back to something that Miss Arnold said earlier is building programs you know whether they're academic or CTE they have to align to to student needs what's going on in our district and what the demand is um so building those programs um to offer an array of options for students in the space whether it's dual credit college is one like I said what um Miss Arnold was talking about earlier it's really just creating Pathways okay anyone else all right let see what else I have underneath there I I want to talk a little bit about you know building um having highly engaging student clubs and Athletics um whether it's sports or Arts you know I look at the work that's going on in our schools right

085now and I think of um only because my son was unbaned I kind of think about what's going on there with Mr Fletcher you know he spends some of his Day at Thomas Nelson but I believe he's also at Bloomfield and maybe OK or is it just Bloomfield no he's serving servicing oh okay so I knew he was not at the in the building all the time so I think it's looking at you know how can we improve that how can we build access to these clubs and opportunities um in the spaces so that is something that that I think about when I'm looking at um priorities around students I think that's so important because we know that that becomes the driving Factor by which a lot of students are motivated to come to school

086and do well especially as they get older we need every student to be connected in some way to the school and that having something for everyone yeah and I yeah thank you for PR extracurriculars CU I know it's not just that I mean it's it's every Club out there whether it's drama or FFA you know all of those things Drive our students in a different Manner and give them different experiences so thanks for adding that part I think a lot about belong when I said belonging in Min makes me think of like the culture and tradition and being part of something um and you do part of that you have good relationships with your classmates with your school staff um that because we talk a lot now about mental health and well-rounded children and so

087a big piece of that this is kind of like the the social aspect of it um yeah sense of belonging so I go out on limb and start talking about safety I mean I think school safety is that's good going to be one thing that I think that's obviously I think that's mandated by KD and everybody else but I mean school safy but I think it goes in a little bit to what your the what Dr Lee said about belonging relationships if you feel connected to your school there there's a sense of safety with that if and something the superintendent has always said since I've been on this board is striving that every student has an adult in the building so that they know someone in the space that's not just another student but they

088know an adult that they can go to if they're if they're having an issue or if they just need to talk and I think that goes back to that belonging and relationship building it does sense it does build that sense of safety so that's a good point I think staff is the next easiest place to move toward you know what do we want for staff what are our priorities there we want to keep them you know good staff um you know I think that's be a place where people work their whole career would be awesome I agree I think it goes back to what we were talking about earlier let's be the top 10 let's be in that top 10% group let's make sure that we're competitive when we're looking at benefits and salary how

089can we compete with you know again I'm not looking to compete with Jefferson County but I do I wouldn't mind competing with Bargetown a little bit or competing with you know where people can drive I mean I drive to Louisville every day to go to work I you know I don't want people to do that I want them to stay here and work and live and grow their communities here so um I really want to see us think about being extremely competitive in that area and Miss Dayton I think you're on on to the the right thought they like what can we do to recruit and retain so maybe that's how we come about the other two circles yeah yeah highly competitive sour that's good um well and again going back one of the things

090I've written down is the professional growth opportunities I like I've probably not said enough I so appreciate the opportunities for people to come together for two weeks out of the summer and work and grow their profession together that there is not enough time in the day to do that I know we work to do that but it really comes together I think in those summer programs and if we are you know giving them those opportunities to do that um it also benefits our students because they're learning together and they're working together so I believe in my opinion that's a strong Staffing priority I think that but comes back to culture as well because we got to have good moral um good happiness with the job because I mean in my previous profession you usually wouldn't

091leave unless you leaving for a lot of money you know you're not going to uproot your family to leave for 20 cents an hour that you've got to have good leadership and I know it's what kept me in my job for 24 years is is retirement you know dealing with politics is was horrible but you know but the the the benefits health insurance and and the pay was competitive m and and and that's what we got to do and customer service even for our teachers we have to teach to treat everybody respectful and hate to say but barstown has got it rocking on a customer service we do too I mean we got some I was just talking about they're really close to us so it makes it easy for somebody to choose just drive

092over there I know I know it's it's but you're right everything that we do should be to strive to to beat out the competition the word that comes to me is feeling valued you know in being part of the community that this becomes your community this is where you fit and you're part of things so yeah I mean I just generically wrote that as strong culture and community in the schools I think that would I think yeah you could write that in a lot of ways you know they're part of something that matters I would say that you know one of the things that's also impactful as we think about the future is the people are part of uh something that brings them larger Purp purp and meaning um and you know having uh career

093opportunities for people that allow them to grow and and be challenged is really important um I use that as an example to say you know most teachers aren't interested in doing the same thing for 25 26 27 years um they I don't think they were necessarily not all people were cut out for doing that type of same thing some people are cut out for it um and I I share that to say we do expect to see lots of variability in career opportunities continue to expand like we've seen over the past three four years I think it's important to know that we have that it's it's important to know that that we don't expect someone who has the ambition to grow and has the capacity to grow we want them to grow we want them

094to to continue to strive to be more so I I think that that's a given for sure so how do we Define op operations in general um I think it's yeah I would say there's a there's a layer of uh efficiency in terms of finances there's a um systemness to it in the way um pieces and parts of the system work together um practicality what's that practicality well then I think effective of local tax dollars is right yeah i' see consideration yeah the primary fun of our school system is local you know efficient use of to loal local tax dollars is the what we have the facilities we have but also thinking about ways we're using those and aligning students you know that that maximize those dollars to where we're getting the the most benefit

095for our students in relation to the money I have some Well mine's probably not not as eloquently as written as yours mine just says feeder patterns but I want to kind of go back to the tax dollar thing a little bit um something that Miss Arnold was talking about earlier when she was talking about the um CTE program and the benefits of students taking the Dual credits and the pathways and sort of staying in that long term and how that benefits us financially I think it goes back to increasing our state and federal tax dollars how can we do that I know we're not going to do it by decreasing our property values nor do we want to do that but what are the other mechanisms that we can put in place that allow us

096to build on programs like that so that we're increasing our funds not just on the local tax dollar so like other state and federal dollars like the way we we've done with grants yes or maximizing what we're getting out of the CTE funding yeah that's the unique thing so so if you were to ask the KD what's the purpose of the facility plan they would say that's the purpose of it it's to access restricted State funding which we know that's that's not really the purpose of it but that's the per the purpose of it is is to increase the overall Effectiveness and efficiency of the district right that's generally how you could summarize why allocate funds to do something you can't just say to get more money but from a legislative standpoint you can't access

097the money to anything if you don't have a facility planning process that meets the regulation I'm going back to to some things like that that Mr Norman was saying you can learn without certain you know put a kid put a kid with a good teacher you can learn the building it is important but it is not the most important thing there makes me think then within that like what how are operations or buildings and Facilities set up to make to benefit kids in the best way you know like what are we doing to to make sure that our students have access to Opportunities you know so that we're we're not busing across County to the extent that you know it becomes a challenge for families and for our students or reduces what they can do

098well and I would go a little bit fur I was going to say why not aligning access and opportunities to facilities how do we how do we make sure that we're doing that how do we make sure that we're um because it it is about program building and when I think of of facility funds and it's about how do we increase our programs along that along with our with the actual facility itself maybe that's not as our as you said it no that's good yeah because I think about I've heard conversations sometimes about moving kids in the middle of the day from one place to another and that can be some lost time so what are ways that we can look at facilities to maximize that so when they come in and start their day

099they're there and and getting the most out of every minute and Mr O'Brien I have to say y'all do a great job with Transportation so not a knock on that but that was that was my notification say I should start getting ready for bed 7:00 wow I mean you it's the process I guess just just just going public with that I don't think there's anything else so I do have we have more space rer I um typed in the general summary in here so you know it's interesting you think about facility planning and what its purpose is from a KD standpoint it's very it's very much about financial efficiencies it's about long-term sustainable approaches to the work um and it's it's also just about ensuring that what you invest in you're able to maintain conditions

100over the long Hall so you you guys have had a good starter conversation here I think we can continue to add to this um but it does provide a pretty healthy starting point to the conversation I like this better than what we came up with in January um to me I like the idea of being able to say with any decision I make does this decision provide access to State and CTE funding you know like I can frame all of these is does this a decision support this because that you know is it the best or if I'm weighing two different things which option supports these things okay well we can add to this we can revisit it in two weeks it's a starting point to the conversation I want to sit with it she

101wants to study on it a little bit all right that was pretty good I was to get that much out but you know I think it goes back to the conversations we've been having and I think that um it it feeds into that and where our priorities are and I like the fact that you're bringing up that it is a two-way conversation it's not just the local planning committee coming to us with um their recommendation we are part of that conversation and you know we should be working together we're not micromanaging it but we are part of the conversation so um just to kind of update we are we finished with that conversation I don't want to move on if you guys are still on that one Wes is getting sleepy so we better move

102on I B time so the next thing we're going to talk about is board attorney um just to update everyone we have received the the um resignation for one of our board attorneys Mr Thompson last week um just because that portion of um Nelson County School Board is um finalized at this point so we're talking about a board attorney Mr Crawford is here he is our current board attorney and he has done a great job and this conversation has not reflection of Mr Crawford this conversation is because he comes from nearly two hours away and last year he sort of came in and really came in at a really good time for us as a board when we needed someone um and because like Miss Eon said a few U meetings back Schoolboard attorneys are

103unique they are unique to school boards because they have to know a lot of about what we do um the the state law make sure that we're doing everything appropriately um and it's been nice the last few meetings with Mr Crawford here absolutely so we would like to throw out a net just to see if there is anyone that's a little closer um that we can have at more of our meetings and even incorporate them at the local planning committee meetings if possible um they work closely with our district so anything that's going on um at the central office that has to do with students you know they are needed way more than just coming once a month so um I'm asking the board if if you guys are ready to just throw a net

104out to see if there's anyone that's a little closer um and then like I said it may be that Mr Crawford is still going to be our board attorney because there's not many of his people out there I would he's just a small too he L it I would like to acknowledge that Mr Crawford is known throughout the state as a highly respected board attorney and serves a large number of districts and we've been fortunate to have him willing to do that um over the course of the past year and I hope the record will reflect that this is not any kind of um reflection on his work knowledge or skill set yeah I think we've been really satisfied with his work thank you so um with that if we can get a motion to

105begin the public process of accepting applications for legal counsel for Board of representation I'll make a motion thank you thank you Mr Norman get a second I'll second thank you Mr Gilead so all in favor I I any opposed all right motion passes 5 to zero so moving on we do have um just a review of our upcoming um Board calendar right now we do not have any additional working session scheduled since um April is sort of a short month if you guys will look at your calendar if there's anything else that you all will start want to look at um look at what the big discussions are going to be in the coming months if that's something we need to dive a little bit deeper on I know policy has been one we've talked

106about in the past um breaking down some you know our policy discussions if there's any of those that we really want to dive deeper around so that we're not trying to do all that at once throw some emails at me and we can um get that worked out like I said I probably would not recommend doing one in April since it's a short month with Spring Break um maybe we can look into May uh plus the LPC will be going at that point maybe we could just do a conversation about reviewing those priorities um and just like I said one or two subjects keep it kind of short as much as we can so think about that um no changes to the upcoming calendar um at this point I did I did want to shout

107out our transportation team this morning we got a call from the county that there was a emergency at the local nursing home and our bus drivers took from dropping off kids to go to the nursing home and transporting equipment and working to potentially transport some of the um clients at the nursing home to Louisville ended up they just end up mostly mostly transporting the all the equipment to Louisville to support the nursing home um but that was um April Boswell and Dwight Vio took the trip to l after it was all said and done but we had Colton Todd Casey Dunn Scott White Jennifer Burman Ashley call and Devin as a part of that team that responded within really just 10 to 15 minutes to that call from the county to support the nursing home

108this morning so against those little things the team uh did so without hesitation and just a another good example of the type of people that do the work in schools so thank you guys and supporting the community that's awesome I think that deserves an [Applause] Applause so um before we do have an executive session so typically we do take a moment to sort of share something share something good our celebration so if anyone would like to do that before we go into close session that way people can sort of hear that before we go out I'll give a shout out to thas Nelson's boys volleyball or men's volleyball exced I know it's it's a new one and exciting and Good Times yeah now kind of girls basketball probably ready to tip off so exciting were

109they starting at seven I thought it was 8 8 o' oh okay okay I'd like to celebrate some of the the music programs that I've seen in some of the schools and um in particular we have that at elementary and middle school level and high school and I would like to hope that continues to grow and develop in addition to the collab the the Arts collab I think that um students are enjoying being very engaged and involved in that and I hear that from my grandchildren fantastic so David just want to re say big thank you to our teachers without them we can't we're we're nothing we got we wouldn't need us would need us I mean that's we're the last people on the list here but you know but you know it goes back

110to my thoughts you know Mr kle you know U we can build all the bills we want to but without staff we have nothing we got to keep those keep good quality people teaching our students um recruit and retain yeah keep them happy yeah I don't if we can compete with Jeffers County but we'll try and yeah so so last um Wednesday the Art Collective was at um so students from Nelson County High School and Thomas Nelson High School will be displaying some of their art pieces at the uh in the emergency room at FL it was a great event um seeing the talent these kids have also Mr Fletcher was there with his jazz band so that was incredible it was just a really great night to celebrate then um we actually I want

111shout out to Bargetown City Schools um their poly Technic Center opened last week or what didn't open they did their ribbon cutting and what an incredible space that is I'm so excited for when we get to celebrate the up Center um a lot of great things are happening in Nelson County and that includes Bargetown um for students and so we can celebrate them hopefully will be there to celebrate us and find a way that we can work together and make sure that students of Nelson County get to continue to grow and work in these incredibly Innovative um spaces so it was it was a great week for celebrating students last week so anything additional and good luck cards tonight um so when we go for the girls girls basketb yeah the girls basketball yeah so

112so have play I need a recommendation to um go into executive session I'll make a motion all right thank you Dr Lee I need a second I'll second all right thank you Mr Norman all in favor I any opposed all right it passes [Music] you [Music] keep [Music] you [Music] keep keep [Music] oh [Music] you [Music] keep [Music] R keep it rain [Music] I [Music] oh [Music] you [Music] for [Music] you [Music] I [Music] you are [Music] you [Music] I [Music] you [Music] are [Music] r [Music] you [Music] la [Music] Beau [Music] you [Music] 3 4 5 [Music] I [Music] got keep [Music] R keep r [Music] Beau [Music] you for [Music] you [Music] keep [Music] keep [Music] you [Music] to [Music] he [Music] keep [Music] all [Music] you [Music] 3 4 [Music] keep [Music]

113it keep it r [Music] I [Music] oh [Music] you [Music] for [Music] you [Music] I [Music] 1 2 4 3 [Music] so let me turn this back on so I need a motion to reconvene the regular session of the Nelson County Board of Education a motion thank you Miss Deon I need a second I'll second all right thank you are all in favor I I all right oh that yes that passed um before we um end the meeting uh you do say there are no actions taken there was no action sorry there was no action taken um as a result of the executive session yeah so um Dr Lee had mentioned at the last meeting that um she would like to see some Sumer for survey to go out to parents in regards to um

114the local planning committee she submitted a few questions to Mr Martin um and he was going to work on building that so you want to talk a little bit about that um what i' reflected back on is um thinking about how can we engage our community and get valuable feedback that will help us it's it's not really the key data that we use to make the decisions but um Miss B you said something the other day and I'm um in an email that you felt like that survey data could be useful to confirm um choices is that correct right I mean I look at I look at surveys as it's never going to drive my decision but it is going to um give me confidence in my discussion that's good and so when we look

115at those when we look at the information that comes from a survey it shouldn't be like okay well whatever's on that survey that's the direction I'm going it shouldn't be about that my opinion and I've I've had a lot of experience and training and developing surveys for the for validity and reliability and so I thought about the purposes of what we're doing and drafting up some questions and I also thought about the many conversations in our community because when I was visiting homes back in the fall hundreds of homes there was a lot of feedback about this process and I feel like we need to get valuable real thoughts from family members and I'd like to see those surveys structured in such a way that it's one per child and um the for me knowing

116that Alex Martin is kind of the um grandm of putting together surveys and some of this is sounds like he just got a nickname he's not here so he just got a name you got grandm okay the he is our DPP for our district and our DPP is in charge of data and the person responsible for furpa and family VI you know family data because some of that that came back comes back may have some of those ties I felt like he's probably a good person to be doing that and we want to make sure we have clean data that comes back so um protected data protected data yes and that's when you're doing surveys you know you thinking about that because not that there will be personal personally identifiable information but it you know

117potential if there's an open records request that column has to be blacked out you know making sure it's done correctly so um but I would like to see a survey okay so what are so did you get any feedback have you gotten feedback from Alex regarding what you know I think what Miss Lee shared was really solid it's difficult to create surveys especially difficult to do it with with a diverse population um and I can say that Miss Le got us much further along than uh I would have been able to do our team because of her experiences so that's an advantage sometimes you know you have a board member that's able to share some of those ideas in this case I think Miss Lee has two benefits one was she was in the homes

118listening and two being a part of the her experiences thinking about data collection so um the goal would be we would share that with you guys as a reference point over the next few days and then sometime over the next week and a half begin to employ that as a tool to support the LPC with conversation it's it's really a discuss it's a matter of discussion if there's anything there that stands out and provides value you know surveys can provide value and they cannot they can create more confusion so I do think the design of that important well I think giving people time to actually feel like you I don't want it to be like you know two days you have to fill the survey I would like to give people a you know at

119least five days to get that information back oh yeah and then good good and adequate promotion at the school level yes multiple it's a way people can be involved without coming to a meeting you know and driving and I I just think that it's an opportunity to get involv and one of the questions I put on there was how would you like to be involved you know is it the public comments at the forums is it some kind of small group is it through in writing so that we have awareness and I I I want to come out and just say that if anyone's watching this that I hope our community will realizes this is the time to be involved you know if if you have confusion around when that is this is this is

120it now is the time this is the process that makes the facility plan decisions and people need to be aware and engaged and and if it's about and I'm going to talk to those same people you just talked if it's about questions and you're not comfortable coming to a board meeting or an LPC meeting um email us you know we have our emails are on the website email us share that feedback with us share it with you know the teacher tell someone so that so that we're aware of what um your thought process what your perspectives are that's only going to help us in this decision-making process and definitely come if you if you're comfortable come to the meetings come to the LPC meetings when they start these are opportunities for you to engage in

121the process same thing with the the um Community forums that I hope each board member um takes to incorporate those in your districts um host those and let people come and give you feedback on what's going on in their community and what they want to see out of this process so any further discussion guys all right with that um we need a motion to adjourn the regular session of Nelson County Board of Education I'll make a motion all right thank you Mr Norman need a second all second all right thank you Dr Lee all in favor any opposed we all pass thank you