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FCPS Regular School Board Meeting, March 6, 2025

Added Mar 06, 2025 •

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Regular School Board Meeting begins at 6:00 pm

Show Transcript

bigger meeting of uh big County School Board Thursday March the 6th 2025 6 p.m. like to thank everyone for being here and at this time roll call please Dr Mike Brown present Miss Melanie Maguire Mr Mayor Mueller here Mr David reads here Mr Hal rounds here Mr Warner speaking here Becky trim here Mr James blasty here Mr Myles Wilson here all president uh stand for pledge of allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands 1 nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay before we get to uh the approval of the agenda uh I would like to make a statement as chairman I made a an error I did not broadcast our last Wednesday night uh meeting that meeting was moved from another room to hear it was scheduled as a workshop from this point forward any meeting in this room will be broadcast and we will add another camera in here so that we have a camera on the audience and I would respectfully request that the language and this room the absent of profanity we do have students and I've had complaints we have students that that listen to this and I have had complaints from parents that we have exposed some pretty nasty language so with that said uh we also have a limit of 15 minutes on public speaking I think we have more than that if we if everyone uses 3 Minutes tonight we'll exceed that so we'll hold to our policy of 15 minutes that would be 3 minutes so I have it will be 5 or whatever if there's a shortage we may get more but 15 minutes is going to be our limit and please respect that this meeting is a board meeting it is not a public uh it's a public meeting but it is for the board to do their business okay with that said approval of the agenda and the first thing if I may sir all right I need to make a motion to actually uh there is policies on our annual review for second read were which was inadvertently left off they passed the first read and I'd like to add those back into it for the there is no changes no nothing done with that and so I'd like to add those back into my consent agenda do that question sorry sir I'd like to ask a question on that all right uh is this part of your committee yes okay so you're saying to your committee agenda if uh yeah I'm adjusting my consent agenda to include the the policies 2.10 2.90 okay so you we're adjusting the consent agenda yes okay all right do we have a second no second okay any discussion motion to approve I I I okay any objection no passes okay all right uh I have want to believe uh Dr Brown you made a comment on this do you want to do anything with the school calendar yes uh I would like to pull that out of consent and talk about it a little bit I I I would like to know what the calendar dates are and uh have a little discussion about calendar yes second second okay uh discussion no discussion motion to approve I I disapprove motion passes I have 1 2 and yes sir I'd like to change the order of the the budget standing committee I'd like to have the number 7 7 to number 1 sir just just put put it number 1 and see if everything down second second discussion motion to approve I disapprove motion passes okay uh any other okay I have 1 in that our meeting tonight it's going to be quite long and I would like to make a motion that we move all new business back to committee do I have a second second okay discussion go ahead go ahead I'd like to know the purpose of doing that just a time frame yes time frame if it's time the time will be the same we either be a longer tonight or longer some other time okay any other discussion isn't it really consistent with committee structure though to do it at committee first has this been the committee of these items yes they have been yeah bye all right hold on all right the question have these items been Yeah by moving back to the committee is is that fit the structure of committees that's why we're doing it as well okay either all right we may need to modify to move to another meeting if we if we can we set a time of say 8 or 8:30 or do something because tonight's going to be long I mean I'm just pointing out I we're we're still in this 1 we're in discussion mhm do we need to close this down if we do list what go ahead most of the new business opportunities if it's a policy committee and everything has cleared the policy for my minute and a greater portion of mine is the first read on policies with 2 changes and then also the AI to set up a subcommittee I think if you take it off tonight then you just extend it policy for to now take 4 months to get a policy change okay so let's move on with discussion motion to approve what's the motion that we move this back to committee or well at this point motion and a second on that already a motion back we have to vote It Off so either we vote no or no and the question right now do we approve this and then after that there'll be a question do we disapprove it all right uh motion to approve I I I hi okay this route no no no roll call please okay roll call Mr Speakman I approve Mr Miller yes Dr Brown yes Mr Reese yes Mr rounds no Miss Maguire know Miss trim yes Mr blasty know Mr Wilson know all right now please motion carries motion carries okay that uh that covers the Zack cover that cover the agenda agenda okay next uh item okay let's approve of the agenda and uh that we have a second to approve motion to approve the agenda With The Changes recommended second discussion motion to approve I I motion passes all right uh approval of the minutes let's go with a regular school board minutes do I have a second motion to approve second discussion motion to approve vote I I I I okay any motion to disapprove motion passes okay special all right thank you I'm not okay all right the um the special call school board meeting uh okay just for clarity smaller I want to make a comment on that that was a Wednesday night meeting I have the minutes here in my hand and we have a digital recording of that meeting as well so there was a question question about whether or not we met law to all miners position on that was with minutes and with additional recording we have met law Okay so uh that 1 is do we have a second motion to approve and special call meetings for February 6th second okay discussion motion to approve I this approve motion passes committee meetings we have let's lump those hold on here now you better not no let's go let's do February 24th February Ary 24th um committee meetings motion to Mr chair motion to approve uh committee meeting for February 24th 2025 second okay have a second all discussion motion to approve I committee meetings Mr chairman make a motion to approve the committee meeting for February minutes for February 25th 2005 second okay discussion motion to approve I okay special call meeting Mr chairman make a motion to approve special call meeting for February 26th 2025 minutes second I'll give it a second discussion motion to approve I like this approved motion passes okay all right we are at the point where we have a tsba do are we at a point we want to take the tsba or want to take the honoring of this I want to honor okay so we're going to uh we'll have a call in from tsba after we have the honoring that Dr Lewis is going to do at this point evening I would like to know if Miss Patricia Hopsin is in the audience if you are could you please stand Miss Hopsin um from Big County public schools in from my heart I just want to say you're courageous acts that um you exhibited at the bus accident were phenomenal um I don't know if you got a chance to read what I wrote in the newsletter about you but I meant every word of that you know your selfless acts are um they're unparalleled and they were that day and I'm sure that they are every day as you acted steadfast to issue all the children and yourself words say so I have a little talking for you so could you give me over here okay well well all right and I I feel this without okay there's a part here but I want to reach this place it says this is presented to miss Patricia Hobson in appreciation for your heroic effort and dedicated service to big no I had asked like I hope I'm sure everyone knows that we had a kind of a bad week of experience uh we had 2 rear end collisions and this driver was our hero and uh that's the reason you would like to honor her uh and I'd like to know I understand that bus had a little fire as well so we had she had to get the students off the bus and what's the status of the bus I think kind of toasty what's its total its total okay so so we lost the bus and it's kind of toasty now yes okay so we'll address uh the fact that we don't really know well I better not say that but we really don't care because our students are okay exactly all right so thank you very much for that for your actions and and the board all of Dr Lewis thank you thank you sincerely for for taking care of our children okay all right now where are we now we are tsba okay or we waiting for that she said 6:30 6:30 where are we at now at 6:16 you have ah we are okay all right the comments let's uh let's do yes all right I'm ready the first person on the list is Mr Jeff Fisher good evening my name is Jeff Fischer from age Tennessee I was pleased to read that the board as a whole recognizes the misstep in their earlier decision chose to reverse course reinstating the live streaming of the school board meetings this decision ensures that all residents of Bay County have the opportunity to engage in the Democratic process and stay informed about decisions made and affecting our local schools transparency and accessibility our fundamentals to good governance and live streaming these meetings allow parents Educators students and community members to stay involved even if they cannot attend in person while I understand and some some may not fully support the idea of broadcasting public participation I firmly believe that an Engaged and informed Community leads to a better decision-making and stronger schools I commend the board for taking the time to re-evaluate its position and ultimately making the right choice in the interest of openness and public Trust this reversal demonstrates the willingness to listen to the community which is an essential quality for any government bodies thank you very much thank you Mr Fisher next speaker that will be um oops if I turn this down to the work Miss Williams good afternoon to the FED County School Board excuse me to Dr Lewis our director of schools and to my colleague my friends and my neighbors in the audience my name is Hattie Williams and I live at 11:30 leech Road in fed County Somerville rule right across from 702 Leach Road the fade County sand pit I'm very concerned about the following items tonight when I look at item number 8 down at beat I'm a lifelong fear countian and I do know that we have a lot of wonderful students and a lot of them have not received proper screening for vision and hearing and for other needs so that they can be the best academic students that they need to be probably since elementary school and I would like for the board to consider plans to not just look at the existing students that are in spayed but also to look at all of our students who may be recommended for needing additional services so that they can be the best academic students and in saying that I would like to say this Ecclesiastes 3 verses 1-8 talks about a time and a season for everything and we are at that juncture right now when I look at the people in this audience and I think about many of them whom I know Mr Martin Katherine and I don't want to start calling names the commitment of the men and the women that transport our students safely day in and day out with the salaries with the benefit packages that are available to them you just can't find good people like the ones we have in fed County in the transportation system everybody and I hope that this board in considering any type of Transportation reforms will take that into consideration for transparency for involving the input from them not just select individuals and look at the fact that they have to live quality lives and have living wages and I don't want to say too long but I also want to say this when we talk about unitary status and we know we've all got our commitment with that let us make sure that we're looking at it in the right way 15 seconds because if we go too far we're going to mess up real bad all right Miss Benny all right Miss Hattie uh I I want to make a comment that we are sincerely uh in step with with your comments about our transportation about our uh drivers and about our uh assistance so you'll see us continue see us conscious of that so with those words that's I can say at this point uh next is Miss Paula Gunther okay my name is Paula Gunther and I thank you for allowing me to speak it was my privilege and responsibility to evaluate the biology textbooks by Miller and LaVine and also attend the Publishers presentation of new textbooks I love the fact that there are several ways to present at material to the students and also the ability to have Hands-On labs having worked in the school system I understand the challenges that teachers face after reviewing the teacher and student textbooks I feel that the students are re receiving skewed information about showing that humans are the reason climate change is accelerating the textbook stated that cattle farming and rice growing add to climate warming because of the methane gas produced now the book never explained how they came to this conclusion how much gas is being produced compared it to any other reasons like the thousands and millions of cow of Buffalo the Easter roam the Earth or the natural warming and cooling cycles of the planet in chapter on genetics it stated that genetic information is used to solve crimes diagnose and prevent diseases and predetermine ancestry now the students asked to write a paper should parents doctors Law Enforcement Officers or research officers be able to obtain and examine your genetic information and if so under what conditions this in biology this is opinions and it should be addressed in other classes not in a biology class and after seeing the presentation of books I'm concerned that we are depending too much on computers there are apps to present the lesson apps are to observe the labs apps to give test apps and even grade the test 1 representative bragged that there's material available for students that is written 2 to 3 grade levels below for students that cannot read it grade level now that may be fine now but how's that going to work in the real world for those students the world is not going to make allowances for them now in 2013 we also had new history and geography books replaced in times of place sir time 3 minutes all right I'm going ask that everybody look at these books and thank you very much for your time thank you ma'am yes sir ma'am I had Mr Wilson do you have another textbook would like to work with me that is the only 1 that I reviewed that I was asked to review so I cannot do that sketchy stuff going on in Pittsburgh and I want to show y'all a prime example of something that happened thank you yes ma'am okay next speaker Mr Whitmore good evening my name is Whitmore the last meeting we had someone up there that already told need to talk to the print about what's going on that that Carolina f****** car I got a retired cousin a lawyer it's not my job it's my supervisor job to talk to the person and I'm not going to talk to know 1 what's going on up there y'all refused to come when I invite you all now the 1 show but I'm not going to say call Mr Leon Alison and the doctor I ain't gonna put no pressure on him I'mma wait till he come back on his job and another thing nurse she well it's a nurse up there Buckman come welcome she don't have a a parking spot reserved Park she had to park on the parking lot and walk up that to the scoop it's not right where you lack it or not I mean she need a resigns parking space the principal got 1 and a lot of people got 1 why come she don't have 1 I'll be back sir okay we have 15 minutes we 15 okay I mean time wise we are we we are ready for next speaker Mickey Wright Mr Mickey Wright I'll try to be quick let me first say that I think the current payet County School Board is doing a good job that's all I can see that you're focused and dedicated to the education of our children I urge you to stay aware of the federal powers that are against you and the state powers that want to limit board as a board the Tennessee governor has started a new focus on our state education system some good some bad but perhaps it's a start members of the board of teachers administrators parents our schools are slipping away from us centralized control is tightening its grip every classroom is controlled by a state or federal government but I say it's not enough to just complain about it we got to act we've got to fight for something better local school tools that answer to us the parents not distant bureaucrats here the truth in America the education of our children starts with us their parents the Constitution backs us up it leaves education to the states not Washington state is the highest level of government that should stand in for us but today we've let that power creep upward away from our communities away from our voices we need to pull it back back to where parents header moves imagine education like the government itself strongest when it's spread out not locked up in some Far Away capital a system with room for small human mistakes from local choices not big massive fixable blunders of a centralized machine when power stays closed its accountable it's ours it is free from being Twisted into a tool of tyranny so how do we make this real we start with Choice let parent take the tax dollars they've already been paying and pick schools or teachers that fit their kids charter schools home schools vouchers whatever works we need some way in which parents can decide to yank their kids out of a school if it's not doing the job as as long as the school has captive audience and tenure they're going to do what they want to do no matter what the public wants no matter what the board wants no matter what the parents will no matter what the taxpayers won't no matter what even the employers won't let's start let's stop forcing 1 size fits all and start trusting people to know what's best for their children it's time to cut the strings urge Congress to defund the Department of Education push the Tennessee to dismantle its own education Barack and our public schools and the money to the counties let the people run them free from federal or state meddling this isn't a Dream It's a demand start somewhere start now and take back our children's future thank you okay thanks sir all right I question do we have any more do we have time and yeah we got about 2 minutes so the next person on the list is no and I Butler JS Butler Jerry's Butler thank you and I don't like the mispronounced people's names so that's why Jarvis Butler I'm speaking on behalf of my co-workers in the transportation department um you said that we are the worst department but they can't be true with Miss Pat being an example we get up every morning we the first people the kids see last people the kids see we do all we can with what we got we can't do no more than what we have to do with I don't think we asked for it a little no appreciation we can't live out what doing with a lot of us have second jobs a lot of those moving around all the time we just come together and do what we have to do I just want to say if we can do anything we would like it done okay so I appreciation every day every day oh with that being said I just want to say you know yes sir thank you just a minute young man sir just a minute I'm not quite sure what the bus drivers and and the the age of being told this board this board has never said we want to get rid of you guys we have said we want to make the program better we want to get you better salaries we want to get better buses we want to reorganize things to make it better there has been no 1 to my knowledge it said anything other than you guys are doing the best you can with what you got but we're trying to figure a way to make it better and that battery is getting you better pay better equipment to work with and that so if if if I if I've done nothing if I can finish talking hold on audience please uh hey just stop the chat or audience please if nothing tonight please understand we just want to make it better and we're not trying to get rid of it bus drivers we're not trying to get rid of any AIDS we just want to give you better equipment and try to give you a decent raise thank you for listening to me all right hey I want to thank you all so thank you well I guess any comments we're time we're timed out we're 6:30 any board member have a comment though all right time for psba uh Zoom call uh reporting on our superintendent search this is a first Communications we've had and so we'll go from there communication with tsba presenting to the board as a board you comments let's do it okay Mr Hill has to do his magic now okay keep keep his advice Mr can you hear me now yes ma'am yes okay good afternoon email from us that kind of volume interim report which has all of the comments from the online survey we received 157 responses to the online survey if you will turn to uh your inner report on page 1 that was emailed to you we asked on the survey 3 questions the first 1 was what are the settings going on in your District that you would like to see continue and the 3 most common responses were number 1 academic and career programs programs such as the Career and Technical education to Catalan with 3 on mentioned these initiatives provide students with academic challenges and technical skills that prepare them for the future extracurricular and enrichment opportunities these for competitions as that were uh identified as beneficial to engage Beyond Omni classroom and student learning experience number 3 improved communication with the public efforts to engage with the community through through websites and social media we're positive developments keeping families and stakeholders informed appears to be a valued aspect of the district's operations the second question was what are the challenges a new superintendent will face coming into the District Number 1 teacher pay in issues many respondents decided low salaries is a major issue making it difficult to attract and retain surrounding districts offer their pay leading to teacher shortages and low morale some also questions how funds or salaries are allocated number 2 was school board challenges and governance issues concerns about micromanagement conflicts and misplaced priorities were common many believe board members interfered too much in administration focused on politics over student needs and contribute to the instability within the district number 3 Staffing shortages and retention struggles School struggle to feel teacher and staff positions in special and critical subjects like math science and special ed low pay burnout and lack of administrative support Works in retention while favoritism is in hiring uh to the problem the third question that was asked on the survey what are the personal characteristics you'd like to see in a new superintendent and the 3 most common or number 1 strong leadership the ability to Inspire God and take decisive actions to move Faith County schools for this includes being Visionary standing up for teachers students and Having the courage to make tough decisions number 2 effective communication being transparent approachable and actively listening to parents teachers students in the community many responses emphasized the need for a superintendent who is involved involved a festival and able to build strong relationships and number 3 advocacy for teachers and students they want a superintendent that supports teachers with better pay respect and resources many responses highlight importance of having someone who fights for educators refuses to let the education system Decline and ensures all students receive a quality education so that was the responses the top 3 for each of the questions then we also asked them to complete a ranking of different personal characteristics and if you'll look at the other attachment that we sent you is the vacancy brochure so from the comments of the survey and the ranking of those personal characteristics we came up with the top 10 selection criteria and they are listed in the vacancy brochure uh Mr chairman do you want me to read those out loud or does everyone have those in front of them I think we have a a need to read them out loud we have an audience here that would like to hear them okay I'll be glad to leave that sir number 1 has exceptional listening skills open door policy approachable high moral character and honest and ethical number 2 someone that speaks and writes effectively to compete communicate the successes as is the needs of the school system number 3 has the wisdom to know when change is necessary and the ability and determination to generate such change even in the face of opposition number 4 4 seeks information and ideas relative to the problem makes decisions that demonstrate fairness impartial judgment appropriate analysis and sensitivity for those affected by the decisions number 5 Foster support confidence and pride within the community for the school system through timely information sharing and providing meaningful opportunities to be involved number 6 has the ability to unify diverse groups and build and maintain High morale among employees number 7 has experience in working with students parents staff the community and the school board in De developing a Clear Vision long range goals and strategies for the system and the determination and ability to accomplish those goals number 8 experience as a teacher who understands the day-to-day operations of the class last spring and has sound knowledge of instruction curriculum and educational programs number 9 a respected instructional leader with a strong academic background understanding of the day-to-day option um operations of the classroom in a sound knowledge of instruction curriculum and educational programs number 10 proven ability to develop and administer a comprehensive school budget including allocation of resources understands federal state and local funding issues so based on um the comments like I said from the survey these are the top 10 that really cool from that report and we are proposing that you all use as a selection criteria and then also listed on your vacancy brochure is the minimum qualifications which we took directly from your board policy that states the minimum qualifications for the superintendency in fate County would be a professional Educators license a master's degree in education with a preference for a doctorate 3 years of successful experiences go Administration and other such qualification as the board Deans necessary then the other items on your vacancy brochure we put a little um paragraph about the SP County School District we provided information about the community we provided System facts about you know total number of grades served student population number employees and students we took that directly from the State Department of Education website we took a little bit about the County Board of Education um and the different things that you all provide on the next page and then the last page on the brochure is the application process all applicants will apply for this position through tsba online portal so Mr chairman that is what we are proposing as the vacancy announcement flyer that we will post for you all it it's once you have changes that you would like for us to make okay I'd like to ask the board do we know of any changes at this point I do not okay I have uh no changes from the board at this point we look forward to addressing things uh our items as we go through this process any other anything else Miss Chris now uh we will uh post this job tomorrow it will go out to all superintendents in the state we are part of a National Association of uh superintendent searchers uh several states in the country do the same thing that we do we will send that out to them we will also send this we place an ad in double a essay that's the American Association of school administrators we post the ad in that and they send it out for us and we will also you all have the um vacancy brochure that I emailed to you and Mr chairman if you all want to you can put that brochure on your school district website csba will put it also on our website but anyone that's interested in the position there's a link in the brochure that will take them directly to our online portal and that is where people that are interested in the job will apply for the position point of order yes sir we have to make a motion to agree to that if I'm stand corrected to accept what was presented okay we had we are not to that point yet but but you said okay all right and and we'll we'll go to close on this and then we'll do allow you to make the motion all right I'll make the motion um no I'm just making we have to make that motion okay what I heard you say is he agreed and we're okay with it and that's all right all right let's let's get we'll go there all right anything any other discussion all right this question do you have any else to add no sir that concludes my report okay thank you for your report uh all right so now to close this uh out we need to make a motion go ahead I make a motion to accept the presentation as in email and as presented in verbally tonight all right second any discussion I had a question yes sir will tsba eliminate down to a certain number before they come to us did you hear yes okay good yes part of the uh the plan that you all chose once the application deadline and we have March the 28th is the application deadline once the that passes we will convene a an interview screening committee and we will screen all applications and we'll bring up to 3 finalists to you all to interview that best meets the criteria that you all are about to vote on that's in the brochure so we'll bring those to you we have down at on the date is April 15th so so is that your policy and can you have more than 3 final is that the way you can um if we don't feel like that there are more than 3 I'm not going to bring you a number just to be bringing a number but based on the searches and the number of applications we've been receiving in the last few years I think 3 is appropriate but if you all are wanting more you can tell me what number and we'll try to bring that number to you but I I I'm not going to bring someone just to be bringing give me someone if we don't feel that they're yeah 3 best meet the criteria 3 cents so you won't 4 5 and we will screen accordingly I agree with Mr Wilson I think if you see that we have 4 or 5 quality candidates bring them to us if you only see 3 that's fine I think that's what you're saying aren't you Mr Wilson yes yeah I don't know 150 people I'm sure we have more than 3 people that would be highly qualified I would hope so so if we have if you see in your review process that they're more we would like to see them yes ma'am we will do and of course as you all know once we bring the finalists to you I would hope that you're going to interview those you paid us to do that job but it's up to you if you don't like who we brought then we are going to hand over all applications to the board so you all can interview whomever you like but you all asked us to screen for you and we're not making any decisions for you we're just doing a little bit of the leg work for you and we will screen those and bring to you what we think are the top candidates good enough okay Mr Wilson you okay yeah I'm fine okay all right Dr Brown you made a comment you okay I'm good thank you ma'am all right anyone else okay all right well discussion uh complete uh motion to approve I I disapprove passes okay that's uh closest that down and thank you Miss very much for the presentation yes sir thank you so much you all have a good rest of your evening thank you goodbye all right moving moving to the next item be consent agenda uh do a motion to all right let's uh let's do we have we have a motion to I make a motion to approve the consent agenda I would I would like to request that we have some discussion on the school calendar that was already moved sir yes you moved it all right so consent agenda we've had a motion we do we have a second second on the Amendments the only way amendments only yes second on amendments only so the next item would be motion to approve any oppose motion passes all right uh the report of the standing committee first uh first meeting well excuse me I need to talk about the county uh I thought we had moved that back to committee I moved it to your committee moved it back okay thank you very much all right I misunderstood no problem all right so now first committee report is from Mr Miller and budget and finance a item a 8 a okay I've got quite a long list and we got some of the motion is going to be made by other members of the committee first 1 as I moved up as a bus or the transportation bid status I think everybody knows we put that on hold it's it's a lot more complex than it looks on the surface takes more time than we really have to get it accomplished so I guess my motion would be uh to to table this to the foreseeable future until we see the the need need for second that presents us discussion motion to approve I disapprove passes next item that takes us to the label number 1 Mike you had a motion on that yes I'd like to make a motion to approve ACH payments and utilizing that as our future uh method of dealing with invoices second discussion What can you you want to expand on it Mr well Charles mackned came with with this last or at the committee meeting and talked about how we've lost some checks in the mail type of a thing and this is a way to avoid physical yeah I just didn't have that document in a shared file to review because that will impact policy I'm not sure he gave us the 1 did he did you can you can you talk to us please it was actually 2 parts to my recommendation okay introduce yourself sir um I'm I don't know you but I'm Charles McNab I'm the fat County trustee uh and I've functionally as your bank and investment agent for the county also the tax collector um the first thing I'm doing is I'm officially notifying you that we are switching from the warrant system to the checking system and that's nothing you have to make a motion on I just have to give you at least 30 days notice that we're transitioning from the warrants to checking um most people won't even know a difference because the warrants are being treated as checks right now by the Banks um and I unless you want me to go into it I'm not going to go further into that the second recommendation is that you either adopt a CH payments or positive pay which are both methods for reducing check fraud and if you don't know both the school board and the uh County Mayor's Office Accounting offices previous month had checks that were intercepted in the mail altered and then cashed out of state um that prompted the vice president for corporate security for trust Mark to give me a call and basically say we have need to do something about it or we're going to ask you to close your checking account and open a new checking account which would be an absolute nightmare because between the 3 accounting offices we have over 15 pages of outstanding checks that total over million dollars so if we had to contact every person that had a check written that hasn't received it and tell them the check you're going to receive is no good we're going to have to send you another 1 we don't want to do that so intaking steps to prevent future check altering and fraud uh trust Mark is not making us close that account the difference between positive pay and ACH positive pay is basically you are uploading a file to the bank and telling them these are the list of checks that we wrote check numbers the recipients and the amounts and then the bank's responsibility is if that check is presented with any of those altered it's their responsibility to reject that check and if they pay it it's 100% on them that costs $25 a month and 13 cents per item the other option are Aces which is basically electronic banking so if you've ever gone on done online bill pay where you go in and you enter your recipient and the account number and you upload a file to the bank saying I would like to pay whoever this amount and then you it that goes off there's no check there's no stamp you have to buy no envelope you don't have to buy check stock unless you wanted to write a paper check however paper checks and that system are not covered under the positive pay unless you also were for that service basically you should think of it as cheap insurance to prevent future altered checks any questions okay thank you sir right duck right I have a motion second oh sorry discussion uh motion to approve this approved pass all right next item grass bids yeah I like key to come up and we gave him approved a motion for him to go out and get bids because he needs to have approval tonight so yeah so every year we put out grass bids for the lawn mowing at all goes uh we had to bid opening Monday and uh we had 6 bids that bid on it uh everybody should have a copy of who was the lowest bidder at each location we uh wound up with 3 people they bid on different schools we had Willie Jackson uh Michael short and David Bryant with St Patrick landscape they were the low bids um 1 of them have 4 schools the other 1 has 4 and Mr Jackson he only been on the grains Moscow so he got Moscow and we just need approval for these lowest bids so we can let them start cutting grass 1 time so question is is this per month because it's no this is per cutting per it's not in here yeah yeah as per cutting and it's based off of 2 weeks every 2 weeks that's what I'm saying is it's not yeah site it anywhere right okay Mr Wilson yeah cause I asked a every year what what does a cut entail because they don't do the same thing at the all the schools like guess it's because you got different bidders but what are you asking for in a cut well in the beer packet that that's you know couldn't weed eating blowing the grass off the sidewalks Etc all all up so it weed eating the nails included yes sir it is what about the hedges trimming Hedges we do that in the house you don't do that they don't know sir okay we do that in house any other question all right are we at a point of uh yeah sir I would say we have I I moved to accept the proposal from I do for the grass beds all right so it's moved itself second second discussion um motion to approve all right all right just approve disapprove information okay so we have uh have 1 do we have that log man okay all right uh so motion passes next 1 uh Mr Brown I think you were I'm going to talk that oh yes I'd like to make a motion tonight to the board that we require all district employment to be processed through the HR our department this will standardize our employment process it will locate it in 1 place and give us better information on all employees as they are hired that's my motion second second okay is it not done that way already no no somebody hiring other than HR how do you how do you get the W2s and get the Patriot what you said not being processed through HR all right so that that's a discussion Point uh any further discussion I I do have a question what what is the uh expense and rigor with making a change from whatever is going on now to what is proposed all right am I you want to I I can't mention what the difference would be in terms we're not hiring staff or it's just what we're in the system was handled so the same computers and all that sort of thing oh yeah okay I think the issue is there were some some of the for consistency say the directors were hiring and firing locally as opposed to using the the system we have in place for standard procedure so Zach okay I guess they were going through what normally is HR always right all right discussion any other discussion well you know yes sir is that what you're saying so um that's what I was going to say the directors of every Department make their recommendation for employment and then it funnels through HR for background checks and other systemic things that go with employment practice law so it's still be able to make their recommendation yes oh sure all right you want to handle that yes they'll be able to make their recommendations it's standardizing it and the advertising propositions those kind of things will go through HR and if if that's all I that's my motion yeah all right any further discussion call the question all right I'm gonna repeat this 1 we're gonna standardize the start Point excuse me the start point is at HR can you do your application and then you proceed through HR process to the point of employment or not right all right so with that said if if I may yes sir and there was 1 thing that was brought up it was called an the thing was nepotism am I correct yes okay hiring so HR will handle all applicants yes and and they and they can consider the best referred to by the director but HR will handle all the applicants correct okay okay all right so any other discussion all right motion to approve this approve motion passes next yeah I was going to come with a motion to take the special education drivers and and move it to the special education department but I'm going to move tonight or actually I want a table that for till next month because I really want to develop a really good transition plan uh to do so and bring it back to the board so I just want to table that for now for bring it to the next month motion to table second discussion approve disapprove motion passes table okay the next 1 is as we went through the uh exercise last week about looking at our finances for next year 1 of the things that stood out is that we we do have the the Pre-K um service if you will for the school system uh we currently to have in budget for 1.1 68 million we get compensated from the state by a half a million so roughly 6 or 600,000 is taken out of our 141 account next year I understand it's going to be a little bit more generous with the state but nonetheless we're we're scrambling to find money to pay for the raises we talked about earlier so my you look at that particular Department I think we have 3 choices we do nothing keep the same or we go halfway in between we live within our means with a state money that we get and that's that's the cut off at the service or we eliminate the service my emotions going to be to live within our means with the state money that were given um to provide this service as part of our school system second discussion I have a clarification all right yes the Pre-K he's talking about that is just want to clarify that they're exempt from that yeah and it's actually handled a different account so all right hold on Mr Wilson no sir okay uh what does does that look like uh we're talking about eliminating Pre-K classes I like to see what what that looks like if we don't if we do it for with your recommendation does that mean cutting Pre-K classes as you see I know you're not know but I I think what the the outcome is there will be less classes I don't think there's any choice so so you're saying we were less prek yeah yes because we do not have have enough funds to cover the entire cost we're in we're in a position now we've got to find every dollar we could find to to to fund the school system okay let me let me get I I don't know we keep saying we don't have the funds but how do we know what funds we have we we haven't gotten all budget projections from the county we haven't gotten them from the state yet yeah so I think these the assumptions that we are making well John is not here tonight and and Dr list you've seen it the new the new mounting funding for next year well that's as I was stating um as I stated when we discussed this via email prec the first of all there with the numbers that you talking about the 500,000 that's 7 teachers and it's from volunteer prek it's 12 teachers all together with prek so keep in mind that that salaries materials resources training mechanism and everything they go along with that particular in that bucket of money and pre prek um as an academic person is the fabric of Early Childhood prek um is is vital to this particular community because it gives a segue to not only the third grade Community that's required by the state of Tennessee but it also embeds them with prerequisite skills that otherwise would be lost so I mean I stated that before but I just wanted to give you the numbers because I don't think that you had that so yeah that's right he he raised his hand first next in line I hate that we're looking at education ma'am ma'am no ma'am no ma'am she's saying he's excuse me all right excuse me next yes you're next if you look at what Mr Merrill has been saying it is BK is not a state requirement it should be and this legislation in the books that's going to start and we all recognize the importance of pre-K however if it is not a prerequisite then the state funds at a certain level we have used our fund balance to you know to provide that but we have to now look at saying we understand the importance of pre-K we all recognize that but if it's going to the 500 and 700 we have not seen those figures and that is what the state says on an unrequired uh class then that's what we have to live within unless the county invests in education you're the the public with the onus on us and it's not on us if we had the money absolutely but we're in a budget crisis so we have to live within our means and and I agree with with Mr Miller says I think Mike uh I'm sorry Mike had brought it up last time if it is 500 we have to do the 500 if the state wants more they can give us more right okay the next yes ma'am I'll wait till my committee no I will wait till my committee okay okay all right that's it well I yeah I think I think this is a principal decision I mean the principal is going to be we're going to live within our means and and because we're going to scramble to eliminate jobs to pay for the salary increases we've heard so much tonight about and we so we got to look at ways to really find dollars to fund that and this is the best way I could think of if I may I think you just what it does is reduce the seats and we understand that importance uh is how that structure is uh okay all right so back to you sir so my my motion is to live whatever that number is we live within means as we plan the Pre-K service for next year it will be less than what it is this year I was already I second second it's been a second off discussion it's done um approved I think he had a question all right another question yeah I had 1 my hand was up but I didn't see sometimes all right I'm sorry for vision getting I can't I didn't see I'm the same all right yes sir um I like to see the full budget we look scrambling and we're getting bits and pieces um you know I am seeing the superintendent's recommendation by these cuts so uh looking at the budget from a holistic standpoint um before we start God cutting here and cutting there and I heard heard the chairman said we had 1.7 million dollars I believe I I'm standing there correct but I haven't seen that 1 did you what you mean 1 1 Point the current what recurrent budget for pre-k is 1.168 million overall budget he's talking about the shortfall you said oh shortfall I mean it really depends what the way pay it out excuse me I saw the Tesla report just today and we're we're getting less money from the state than we did last year so the problem we talked last Wednesday about if we wanted to give raises and take care of the maintenance we need to take care of we were like the 1.7 million short these are all approximate numbers yeah the number the number got larger is my point very much larger I don't think we can get less money and we on a whole harness but 1 year back so we we'll be getting at least the same amount no no no I I'll let you argue with the state and that's not the issue the principle I want to have here is that we go into this saying that is the principle we're going to go and we're going to live within our means on the Pre-K that's the motion a second and we're ready for all right now it's time call the question correct yes all right call a question all right motion to approve disapprove all right no your roll call your roll call roll call Mr Speakman approve Mr Miller yes Dr Brown yes Mr Reese yes Mr rounds yes Ms Maguire no Miss T yes Mr velocity yes Mr Wilson know all right motion passes next item sir yeah the last 1 is 5 year maintenance uh plan that I'm going to defer to a future time once we understand the full scope of the budget it's on the on the the packet it's there what we're what we're proposing but I'm not ready to say these are the ones we got to have until uh we get further down yeah just so the the audience knows well we're we're doing a 5-year plan on maintenance it really gave me some thought to how we're going to spend our money to improve and and maintain our school system that's not been done in my opinion we you don't have playground equipment that the slides are covered with rust you can't even slide on that's that's we're trying to go to avoid that by having a plan so okay so it's being deferred is what I'm saying all right so that's deferred uh the motion to start all right next excuse me do we need to yeah let's let me I'll make a motion to table the 5-year maintenance plan all right uh discussion uh approved I this approved all right next I guess we move on we will move on to to 8 B special needs committee all right so so uh I want to revisit the hard to play sped teacher sign on bonuses previously in a meeting we voted to do a $50 sign on bonus for the hard placement positions I want to move or I do move that we change um uh make make a sign on bonus for the um self-contained classes to 7500 uh it is my understanding at this time we still have not had any hits for placement okay so we have a motion to increase from 5,000 to 7,500 and let me clarify the $5,000 that we voted on for placement for sped teachers I want to keep that 1 as it is what I am asking now and my motion is that we have a secondary 1 for the self-contained classrooms and change and make that 1 7500 all right do we are we have a motion we have a second okay I I question if we actually understand yeah the self-contained could you expand director Gillard would you come up here please hold on hold on we can't do that now do that no ma'am I I there's no second so second I'll second all right okay we have a second all right so okay well I will explain it then because I do spend a lot of my time reading and going through law so let me let me tell you what a self can contain classroom is yes ma'am okay so a self-contained classroom is a classroom in which the students and the teacher are St they stay in that classroom those teach features the AIDS they provide for that students needs whether it's a physical need whether it's a a bathroom need education need there's all kinds of needs and they are in that classroom with those students in a in a in a general education um environment you go from 1 classroom to the other classroom or if you're an elementary you stay for the most part in 1 classroom and go and maybe go to another for art or library or um recess or whatever but the point being those teachers are required to stay in that classroom that's why it's called self-contained and that's where they are through the whole day it and it's a high stress job no doubt about it okay Mr Wilson yeah I agree with you but where are we going to get the money from so we don't have any money so you got a good idea I agree with the 100% but no I I get the money from go ahead I do actually agree with Miss trims position I think that is but I would look at it if we do have a meeting on 8 Saturday for Budget that we should consolidate this into budget unless you look at the FY 255 budget not the fy20 6 I'm not sure which budget you're looking at so yes I would want this to be now now yes yes sir well isn't the alternative if we don't get somebody you're going to do a virtual teaching so let me talk to you about the alternative thank you Mr Miller so where do we get the money well we do have contracts um for outsourced uh employment or through a through a third party and what is that 000 a year so the savings you almost could get 2 teachers for that price pretty pretty good money well we have we have to go to I'm sorry yeah no go ahead we have to go job find Insurance that's the kind of commission okay you know we they the County Commission should fund the schools I don't mean they need to throw away money or anything like that but the schools are underfunded and they take take part of our money on our sales tax they let it say the same but they reduces on a property tax now I'm not in favor of raising taxes just to be raising taxes but 35 year taxes hadn't been raised 35 years and I was I was a part of that body for 28 years so I can speak for those for sure you got some of my good colleagues here tonight with us know they'll go back and try to find some money okay if I may miss trip yes the money is already in it for this fiscal year for the 7500 bonus that would have to go back to budget Finance Mr Miller well I I wish John okay careful over here but I think I think the answer is we we put money in we we for the uh virtual teachers and we just won't spend that money that we can get a real teacher well then but if we already entered in contracts that money is going to be expended if not already done and or allocated to that uh contract we may not spend it in the contract but are we utilizing that contract alrighty so are you is your question are we using virtual teachers know for the the spad we have a contract to your supplements that teachers were at Miss Vicky identified that we entered into this contract to supplement uh where we're no do not have sped teachers and I don't know how many we are currently contracted the contract is 90,000 then and we had 2 teachers already contracted through that then we don't have any money in that account unless we have an excess but we don't do this because it's there's a vacancy is that correct there are vacancies okay let's let's let's put this to rest we need to go ahead neither call for the question call for a question well call for the question it's either yay or nay so let's let's let's all right let's call for the question ma'am all right discussion second second discussion done now motion to approve I I I I motion disprove now okay roll call Mr Speakman I Mr Miller I Dr Brown hi Mr Reeves hi Mr rounds no Miss Maguire Miss trim yes Mr blasty no blacking information Mr Wilson hi okay 763 motion carries all right so uh let's see Mr do we have we completed your section 8 B so I'm on number 2 okay yes ma'am special education salary schedule I moved that the special education department be on a separate salary schedule that is my motion do we have a second question question is that for next year yes yes 26 okay all right so we have a second discussion I would recommend my my issue would be putting this on the uh budget and so we have Consolidated budget so we can picture where we're at before we approve a different schedule for pay my question would be is that legal to is that legal to do that and we gotten in legal opinions on that all right do we want to defer this to Legal okay the know before I vote on all right let's defer this I would I would agree that this should be deferred to Legal because it's very indifferent um places so yes you'll modify your motion also move no Okay so okay so I'll modify it to defer it to our attorney so approved I this approved motion passes okay yes ma'am all right the number 3 sped pay proposal this was all in your packets I'm sure you had time to to look it over and read it and my motion is to send my my sped pay proposal to the budget committee for you I'll second it I'm sorry all right go ahead do we have a second I second yeah all right so discussion all right motion to approve disapprove motion passes yes ma'am that that is all that's all okay 8 C education CTE report sir thank you Mr chairman members of the board we uh Dr Lewis myself uh commission Christian and Mr Hill have been looking at CTE and trying to come up with program that we think will benefit our students and also meet the needs of the County as well so we are I'm going to ask tonight that you consider the pro a c reprogrammed in which the clashes will be double they will be 2 blocks instead of 1 the program will be called faget county S certified technical education program it will be open to any student in this County we want to get this program going it should have been started 2 years ago when Ford first started coming in we need to get our students where they can be certified in Technical Training uh we're going to inter show you a couple of programs tonight that we would like to bring in uh 1 of them is called nc3 it is a nationwide sponsored program uh it has 233 certifications and we're we want to look at start looking at that as it applies under Tennessee law uh doc Mr Christian has also going to talk about some other certificate programs we want to make this program a program where a student goes through it gets the certifications and comes out job ready it is extremely important that we we have good students the teachers should interview these students should approve them for entering their program they should be students who are dedicated to wanting to learn ottoman mechanics welding whatever the program may be we would like to introduce this to you tonight board members and uh I'm going to start out in this introduction by asking Mr Jim Colmes who works for train train to come forward and to explain the corporate level of this program by the way members of the members of the community over on a table there are some sheets like this you can get on on your way out that will give you an production to what the program's all about thank you sir welcome thank you uh chairman Speakman uh Vice chair Dr Brown and board Dr Lewis thank you all for here tonight uh my name is Jim Crone I work with trane Corporation and what you have in front of you is what we call our placemat it's really a very nice presentation format to walk you through what I'll be talking about this evening National Coalition of certification centers as uh Dr Brown said it's a nationwide uh organization the nice thing about this is a nonprofit that is funded by national corporations this program began in East Tennessee with Snap-On Tools Snap-on Tools is based in Elizabethton Tennessee and that's where it began train was the second Corporation to come in as a global Corporation to support the programs we all AS Global corporations pay the fees we have the fee every year that we pay in an nc3 so that way when it comes back to the districts which I'm going to get to in here in just a second well certifications are at no cost your certifications are free that's the way this thing works the corporations fund nc3 and then they have the program of support you what you've got in front of you tonight you see the corporations that are listed Snap-on Tools uh Lincoln Electric for welding festo for micronics festo robotics over at uh blue oval rolling down through there there we are trained 3M these are corporations everybody knows uh it's it's a household names sterret for precision me measurement Swift for Apple coding uh Ridgid for plumbing Therma King for uh uh Refrigeration just write down the line what happens with this program is the major manufacturers we write the curriculum we train the instructor doctors and then we give the certifications the certifications are in issued through nc3 and they're housed in nc3 so that way it's easy to print out the certifications each student will get and so we as uh and and as pain in many Global corporations when so often young people come to us and they've been into whatever School they've been in now we say now let us train your way that we want to train you what we're given is instruction to be trained in the classroom so whether it's trained brain or whether it's Snap-on or whether it's festo or whether it's Lincoln Electric we train your instructors in order to be a part of this your instructors have to go to train uh train the trainer events what you've got here in front of you you see down in the bottom right Corner pictures of instructors at a train the trainer and vent these guys go through the same curriculum that they were going to be teaching their classes and they have to pass the certifications themselves so you can see these uh these men as the instructors going through this program and so it will be determined by the board by the school district what CTE curriculum you want to offer that's my 3 minutes and so promised you I'd do 3 minutes and so I'm glad to introduce this program just as kind of a citizen I've shared this with uh chairman Speakman with Dr Brown uh with Mr Miller and it is as I say a CTE program in a box we train your instructors we provide the curriculum and we provide the certifications I'll turn that over thank you Dr Brown thank you now remember the board sir appreciate it Ms board this is 1 program we do Mr Mr Christian has other programs that we're going to be looking at also what we're trying to do here is over a 3-year period of time get all our CTE program s up to grade to issue certificates to our graduating students that says their job ready and we think that this is 1 Step uh Mr Christian would you mind coming forward and completing your part of this presentation hello everybody I honestly I feel like if we introduce it first to uh Meats as well as welding because the nc3 and especially especially for free um if NC nc3 certifications are actually a part of the Tennessee promoting industry credential list under mecatronic that are listed on the Tennessee promoted industry credentials is listed for mechatronics mechatronics will be a new program that we will be offering um this fall and also for our welding program so of our teachers are certified and that's where we're trying to go ensure that all of our teachers are certified so that our students are certified as well then if they can certify our students that means that as many certifications that they offer we can certify our students Unlimited um as well as welding yes sir um have have we sat down with the with the high school people they all working together to see what this looks like in a scheduling scheduling is forced a certification yeah if the students are going to have double time over there you're dealing with the same students well even whether we have double time or not all of our teachers are required to push our certifications to ensure that our students are um ready and we're in hopes that our schedule this fall will allow us to double block our students so that our students will have additional time in our CCT GE courses that way they'll have more time for lab yeah and and I think it's a good program but I look at right now you don't have teachers for the class that you have because there are we haven't had a teacher since I don't know when I come here they tell nc3 okay what color are we absolutely do need a teacher but hey guess what we need some money too oh but I'm just asking you a question are we going to be able to find these folks we've been trying we have we have we we we we've interviewed a lot of people however because of all of that but I'm just saying we're going to be able to find people goes back to we don't have a teacher well let me let me ask you this are you asking me if we have a teacher for mechatronics what we're going to be doing a for everything that we offer well Mr whistle we we we try I mean I I do understand that we are on the same page I know you're trying everybody's trying but we still don't have a teacher what I'm trying to get at well but I'm saying I I what I'll do respect myself I just can't fool them we we interview teachers but if they don't apply you don't need to explain that to me we're on the same page thank you all right I have a good night the programs that we have teachers in Mr Wilson is what we're going to pursue and hopefully over a 3 year period of time we will have teachers in all 13 areas I sure would also but we need to get the ones that are the ones we have well that's I would think now maybe I'm looking at it wrong no you're right we're working on it we got several classes we don't have teachers I agree Mr Hill did have something you wanted to add to this just a few things my party being in involved in this CTE always been my background and I started from the fifth grade okay what I want to be as a grower grow up myself and my partner Mr Jerry Henderson which teacher at the CTE building right now we had a vision that we always want to come back and do something for our County so I I'm here born in 1962 graduated from farewell High School in 1981 my 79 through 81 I took electrons there the most Joel and time he the 1 that instill in myself and Mr Henderson whatever we do to try to do our very best to try to give back what we actually got our start at now I take this personal because ctek is my Foundation so anything we can do for our students here in this County to give them options something that I didn't have when I grew up we had to be creative now the students got it what they can be whatever they want to be but we got to be as adults be able to give that to them give them the options we we had a lot of roadblocks when I came along and most wasn't you know that you you've been here a long time you've been a teacher principal and so forth this kind of hadn't changed I left in 1981 the same year my father died and went to deviance to the technology in Atlanta Georgia I was determine to get everything I can get and my mother and my brother told me education is free I'm going to take advantage of that so I worked hard I worked for a lot of private sectors to learn outside the fair county that of future out there for us so I decided to come back home and each 1 of you you all of you got doctor degrees Masters everything but my thing is what are we doing as people working together we tearing each other down yeah but what about our students what about their future we supposed to be the role model so that's why my heart is yeah I'm part of CTE because that's why I got my foundation and that's very important but all this bigger all this who doing what and stuff like we got to put that to the side because our student we got Industrials coming here go look for workers but CTE going to be a Foundation that's going to be the start that's all I have to say thank you I got to do this he's he's my hero he said he's my hero he's my hero miss Mr chairman yes sir my motion to side is to ask the board to allow us to create a CTE program that will take will take up 3 years to fully develop we would like to start it with the megatronix and Welding next year we would like to move the double block schedule and Dr Lewis is working with the high school counselors on that and we would like to proceed in over the 3 year period of time taking this down into the elementary school with some offerings for kids there what we want to do is develop a CTE program that when students come out they are fully certified and job ready and that's my recommendation that's my uh motion tonight second have a second so we do no okay we have a second all right we've had discussion all right question question motion to approve I disapprove thank you thank you Miss Christian we got to make this work get these kids and jobs all right are you through sir yes sir that's my report yes sir what about the calendar all right no it's it goes to this committee back to his committee back to me it's going back to my committee for private discussion 17 no 17 whatever all right okay now we have let me find where I'm located here all right so we are we're down the unitary status we have uh we had no update uh we will will have an update on you and Terry status by Tom Miner probably at our next board meeting uh so that's scheduled let's just move on all right so safety and uh security Mr re all right Safety and Security uh our sro's are doing a really good job out here in these schools and they're underappreciated they're overworked and underpaid and I think it's time that this board recognizes them and the work that they're doing for our students I'd like to make a motion that uh we select an SRO of the year just like we would a teacher um and present them with an award um and we can have the the entire SRO staff come up here to the to a meeting probably in May when police week is and uh give them give that a word out that's my motion second okay uh discussion all right motion to approve I I disapprove motion passes all right next up is uh the review of policy 3 205 uh that's going to fall under security we need to make some language changes to this I would recommend that we moved this back to the policy committee uh to have those changes discussed and then bring it to the full board for the vote second do we have a second second second all right uh discussion no okay policy recommendation is being subject I think we need to change Out director of schools that we can discuss this in policy committee okay motion and second uh motion to approve I I I I hi this is motion passes that's all I got okay that uh move on to the next uh which would be curriculum and textbooks all right we got a bunch of things uh I think they can be uh processed quickly uh right now the status on the uh approval or selection actually of the science textbooks is moving along um I thought I'd show you what each of the science teachers is going through for each of the textbooks they have to file fill the answers on all these forms oops there's another page right here and so in all these textbooks uh they have turned in these forms they haven't been tabulated yet that's coming up uh by the next uh meeting um the that's the scoring actually uh the general consensus was is going to be given and presented at that time and then uh March 18th to the uh committee is 1 that is scheduled so science textbooks are moving along I think it was real useful to have uh at least 1 uh citizen uh talking to us about what uh she had uh envisioned in some of these things uh I have looked at a lot of the books there are way too many for 1 person uh and uh basically the textbooks I have looked at have most of the fundamentals there are things that I think um and I have talked with uh Mrs German about when we do choose textbooks if there are things that the teachers find are lacking or presented wrong we may want to develop supplemental materials to correct that uh which would include perhaps what uh uh Mrs Gunner said about uh over politicizing some issues all right so that's the update on the textbooks now there's also uh some resolutions I'd like to share um I uh I think just reading the resolution is going to uh make it clear anybody who wants a copy I do have them but they were just printed uh as we uh joined together here tonight the first 1 has to do with uh the um uh education Freedom Act which you've heard Governor Lee uh was in favor of so the resolution would be whereas the FED County Board of Education is charged with governing the school system so that all students receive the best educational opportunities in order to graduate prepared to enter a post-secondary institution or the workplace uh Workforce and whereas the education Freedom Act of 2025 includes a for providing 1-time bonuses of no less than dollars to public school teachers in the state and whereas section 4 of that education Freedom Act of 2025 requires that a local board of education for a local education uh agency Leah seeking to participate in section 4 of the proposed act must a firm its attention to participate via a resolution in order to receive state funds to issue these bonuses therefore be it reserved excuse me resolved that the fagg county Board of Education affirms its intention to participate in section 4 of the education Freedom Act of 2025 relative to bonuses for teachers so I would um move that we uh go ahead and resolve in those words to apply for that uh bonus second any discussion motion okay I I all right now there's another issue that uh is up for discussion it's not really ready for uh uh approval yet but I have it in terms of the uh of a resolution uh I have documentation to go with it uh it's a little more complicated but the bill has already um proceeded in the legislature so we may not want to delay too long this is a resolution to bring Tennessee public schools into compliance with Federal immigration law and that uh the way I have written the uh resolution is whereas us 8 us code 1324 entitled bringing in and harboring certain aliens is a federal statute that makes it a felony to help an alien enter the United States illegally or to help an alien enlisted ways after entering illegally and whereas the listed felonious offenses include if a person quote transports and furtherance of such violation of law conceals Harbors or Shields from detection encourages or induces an alien to come to enter or reside in the United States in violation of law or engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding Acts or Acts or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts shall be punished and whereas the ill legal act may occur in any place including any building or any means of transportation and whereas providing nutrition Transportation or other services in a school may just justify Prosecuting any person who performs such Acts and whereas providing Educational Services in itself and inducement to enter the United States illegally and to organize provision of such Services is to conspire and abet such violations and inducements and whereas the designated punishment for committing any of these acts is to find or to imprison for up to 10 years any person convicted of any of these acts and whereas the statute specifies that prosecution of these offenses can proceed quote regardless of whether such alien has received prior official authorization to come to enter or reside in the United States and regardless of any future official action which may be taken with respect to the alien and whereas providing the prohibited service adds legal risk and fiscal burdens to the already overburdened school systems across Tennessee whereas the Tennessee assembly is considering legislation under Senate Bill 836 by Watson and House Bill 793 by Lambert to amend Tennessee code annotated title 49 chapter 6 part 30 by adding the following as a new section here's what the vote would actually be uh trying to accomplish notwithstanding another law to the contrary and Leah or public charter school May enroll or refuse to enroll a student who is unlawful fully present in the United States therefore be it resolved that the FAA County Board of Education urges the Tennessee State Assembly as a whole and our state representative and state senator to aggressively support legislation now um the bill that I'm describing where did I put it here as of uh yesterday this bill was uh recommend for passage in the senate committee and uh it's on hold uh as of yesterday placed on the calendar in the house so these bills are moving along and if we are going to support this or choose not to that's current right now um it hasn't been uh shared with you I can I will share it if you want to choose beforehand I I'm going to make a motion um that we go ahead and sign that resolution now okay all so emotion has been made do we have a second a second okay question yes yes sir we do need a copy to read it yes absolutely um but as in with this it challenge the Supreme Court ruling in 1985 which is not a problem because it's a fair and aerial finding I think the state's aware of that yeah this thing is being done I'm quite sure what the uh knowledge of our attorney general scaredy uh and it is something that was likely to be challenged but it can't be challenged unless we go ahead and do it no I I I accept that what I'm saying is yes this is not something is not going to be shown but again the Supreme Court ruling in 1985 was extremely narrow based on money right other discussion call the question call question approve I I disapprove I pass pass have that log okay motion passes sir back to you and 1 more yes sir uh this 1 is also uh in motion um in fact it was placed on the calendar uh today and this is uh an act I think kind of scary um it is called the Tennessee full service Community Schools Act and uh again I'm presenting it in the term in the form of a resolution whereas the State Assembly of Tennessee is considering the Tennessee full service Community Schools Act House Bill 225 by hasten Senate Bill 364 by I put the name on twice so I'll have to fix that um whereas the T the uh full the fsca is the act uh initials that I've got here proposes to extend the authority of local Boards of Education to create quote full service Community Schools which integrate the board as education partners with a community partner to join public schools with developmental family health and other comprehensive services Under TCA 49 and whereas the other comprehensive Services include out of school time time programs and strategies family and Community engagement and supportive interventions which may include programs designed to engage and support the needs of families at home or at school and Social Health Nutrition and Mental Health Services and whereas the contemplated full service Community School is an added School entity that integrates rates the services into each of the schools operated by the board and whereas the full-service school is to provide unstated opportunities programs and service for school stakeholders and whereas the program is to be funded by a grant program administered by the University of Tennessee and whereas Grant recipients will be assigned duties regarding reporting and administration that will make them answerable to centralized State Control regarding the full span of educational and full service uh full community service duties and choices subordinate to whom the grants are administered and whereas the concluding sections of the bill call for Effective Administration by the University of Tennessee not by local committees but by quote 1 Statewide Coalition composed of practitioners administrators Advocates and other stakeholders focusing on shared governance policy and advocacy for sustainable resources Data Systems that will subordinate local schools to enlarged State dominance and whereas the fully developed system that is proposed in such prevalent terms is actually a subtle seizure of authority rights and responsibility that belong to parents and families therefore be it resolved that the FAA County Board of Education urges the Tennessee State Assembly as a whole and our state representative and state senator to firmly oppose this legislation and work with their colony colleagues to ensure that this proposed enlargement of centralized state power over local and family self determination and Liberty does not get passed now uh I'm happy to uh answer questions um motion yeah I I make a motion that we and I accept if the the fact that it's not fully developed yet but at this point in time um to Spur discussion I move that we go ahead and uh approve this resolution right can I can I be a parrot here and and repeat you your motion was my motion is to my motion is for the board to approve this resolution now second and your resolution though the resolution is what I just read is to reject that is true yes okay so the oh reject what you just read by this board yes that's your motion yes sir and if we vote Yes if vote Yes we reject this okay all right I second second okay no discussion I I do have you discussion okay 1 Thing That was not brought up in this is the that it is funding availability of funding on this whole program and at its Grant process with application and after the grant process expires the school districts pick up the tab yes so that is very important that we also understand not only the intrusion that I I get the concept pick up the cab but the authority still stays at the uh uh concept is great but we're not in that business no nor take over the parental rights that they that they should have retained any other any other okay motion to approve I I I this approved motion passes thank you all very much that is the end of my report what do you mean all righty let's go to the next uh policies committee I do have to apologize to the policy committee because how I approach I'm putting my stuff on the agenda is second read the final passage is actually old business new business I put it in the future it will be all under policy because now the policy committee will have to go to tsba to figure out how we now change entire manual uh these are actually required monthly reviews and so we're delaying the process by the decision made so I hope the board will be reconsider because we should make a decision based on time but on what actually we need to accomplish for the school district and the education so the second read there was no consent there was no um alteration to change the 3 policies with the additional annual or monthly requirement for the 2100 to the 2900 Series so in Block policy 1403160006503 and policy 2100 through 2900 make a motion to a pass second discussion motion to approve I I this motion passed okay anything else okay next uh all right the next committee is the Outreach I have a guest that uh would just like to make a statement if he would come forward hold on hold on no ma'am he's coming up behalf of a update for outreach all right do we have you can come forward well hold on hold on no ma'am I'm in charge we called our committee but overall we don't break policy Am I Wrong have I do I have a board comment you're right I'm not asking for a motion or anything he's doing an Outreach project and I just asked him to to come okay I I would I would I would I gotta put the part in any type of may I have met I have to speak please what I'm trying to solve this problem if you'll let me speak and shut your mouth no no no do not speak to me in that manner I'm not just but you're out of order know I'm talking to him well you're out of order if you will allow me I will solve this problem you better tell him to stay in order we are not your children 1 more time and 1 more time he better not speak to me like that all right let it Let It Go all right I'm gonna let it go let it go let it go are you gonna let me speak ma'am yes sir thank you if if if I understand Miss Maguire this is information from your committee is being presented by 1 of your committee members is that correct well it's not being presented by committee project and I asked him to come tonight to present because this on behalf of who he's representing it's a child and I support the children and their endeavors and it's an Outreach opportunity that he's had and would like to just come to the podium and speak just we're operating under under rules and so if we're if we're going to break the rules we're going to break it for everyone and we're not going to break the rules so now uh I let's go ahead and let him let him speak I am letting him speak as a part of the rules please thank you uh good afternoon my name is Michaela Watkins I'm a student at fairware and I'm working on my ego Scout and I'm here today to observe and learn from the school board committee for my communication mirror badge and sit in community mirror badge and basically the requirement is to come into a school board meeting or a meeting really national meeting and sit in and learn and take notes which I've been doing on my phone the entire time and I thank you for allowing me to come up to speak and letting me observe and learn yes sir thank you yes ma'am all right do we have do you have any other no I got a question yes Mr velocity asked since it we're getting that early can we do do your I heard you say that that's if I may speak I don't I think that when we put time before what we need to conduct on behalf of the school and and the children because I do have a finite amount of policy time all you're doing is delaying investing is going to build up and build up and that was my fault because I put under new business not under my entire committee I say this is the old and this is what we need to do and I think it's imperative especially when you get to the AI all right let's first off let's let's see let me communicate with the committee uh with the board not with the committee uh I see no problem in doing this uh how do we do we make that emotion that we hear this and change the amendment earlier I would make a motion that we move policies 4.400 and policy 6.300 to uh policy committee out of a new business we have a second say what I don't understand what you're asking I'm moving it to your committee do you to present as a committee committee report wait I'm saying is is the annual reviews is going to and then pause the other 2 policies that are in play whatever business you want I would I would also move that the annual review be moved to your committee report the 4214 and 1501 if it's on I didn't get to that page anything you have listed under new business now I would recommend that we move to your committee as a first read in your committee report second okay well the second no no discussion well is that does it is going to do it tonight yes yes great all right yes yes yes what I'm trying to do so motion to approve all right I no no more you know no disapproved motion passes sir yes sir yes sir I'm it's going to be very quick uh we do have policy 4.400 in policy 6.300 it was incorporated to share file uh because that's what our policy committee does is it get it out to you to review and also there's no recommendations on the annual review of the policies committed so I make a motion to uh pass the first read second okay motion to approve all right all right all right disapprove motion passes uh second thing is is the policy and Ai and this is what I really wanted to get it in tonight and I need uh we'll get with it is we need I have been reading several books and if we don't get our our our I had a good game we're going to be hopefully behind and we'll do service our children uh I thought about this we proposed it to the policy committee it's going to impact every aspect of our life I won't give you a brief overview a agreed but uh what I recommend I was thinking about a working group but is actually develop a subcommittee start working on this policy because we're so behind and the policy will incorporate all both uh professional staff teachers and all that as well as the uh we have to split up into elementary junior high and then Senior High and I also received documents from a college so we can bridge that policy from high school to the what the college is the expectation we're highly recommending the board concurred which is moving you forward and developing a subcommittee to address this issue default the policies at your motion yes sir second okay to approve no no discussion you're thinking about on the committee I when I'm reading all these books and and slashing we went to the conference of Mr and and uh my counterparts I went to this they highly suggested that we do committees and we'll have to do students with teachers principals and with parents and and I will group them well I'm not an apology but my I have land in place where we would have to do individual uh uh data input okay on that so okay I'm sorry that's good any other anyone and you may well already be using it rock is my favorite word yeah all right AI is a very complicated subject and and we're we're walking into a deep deep area but that's the recommend of of how Academia wants to address is to try to write write a policy we uh the last year the state says we have to have a policy um and I don't want to take a lot of time and however the state legislation bowed out of it and said we're tossing it to the school districts you muddle through it and muddle through the lawsuits now back to you you'll appreciate that I'm Sorry Miss trim you'll appreciate this and so how is there is currently 2 laws in where high school graduates went to college and graduated 1 and I would only take the Clarksville Tennessee case as they graduated with a 3.62 average uh he now sued the the public school district and won because he cannot read or write now in that case is 888 hours were awarded him on private tutoring that may be appealed but in both cases not only the Harper Connecticut case but also and I'm going to get Clarksville the students use chat GPT all throughout High School to create his documents in his homework and all his uh work that he had to submit then he ran it through a program called grammarly now I have to look this up I've been in deep diving into this and that changes it to his vernacular or how his speak then submitted that document as his work so AI is is extremely something that we have to get our head our hands right and unfortunately this year also if and Mr Ree and and Melanie and and how can and uh disagree with me and social superintendent we were at this conference again they're following out of it it's on you and so this is something that we have to actually look at otherwise and Pandora's Box is open there's nothing we can do complete discussion is complete all right motion to approve when this approved motion passes and only quick dial on the 1501 Melanie McGuire I'm sorry Melanie struggs we worked together on there were several policies that had attachments and involved posted on it they were cleared up they are correct and also the visitor uh policy we it was still in a draft form that was just more of administrative clean so those are correct messages and advisory and the only thing I need also advise you is there's a problem with our policy manuals are review dates are not updating so I'm going to get with it and uh Melanie and correct that and that goes back to July of last year all right item number 9 director report yes ma'am I'm kind of tired so okay so I'm gonna first I want to say I want to thank everyone who volunteered for read Across America this week in promotion of the joy of reading and um you'll those pictures and that environment was great I was um at a school with my fellow colleagues yesterday at La Grange Moscow so and I really appreciate it because we have to make sure that everyone understands the importance of reading early literacy um Pre-K and kindergarten registration will occur next week and all the elementary schools from 9:00 a.m. to 3 pm Pre-K students must be 3 or 4 by August the 15th they must be 3 or 4 by August the 15th and have all of the appropriate documentation that's required and kindergarten students that are entering must be 5 years old by the same date by August the 15th so those flyers are out of every school and they're on the website and they are will be posted on all the social media channels um I want to say before I forget that February Comprehensive High School are the champs for the Academic Decathlon and they want will be held May the 1st 2:30 in Iowa so I want to coaches uh banks in Mala but I would say do to prepare these students and I know that was 1 um of the items on that the uh tsba representative talked about how that's 1 of the strengths and the strongholds in the community March 11th we will have 4 students from be aware who will be going to um student Congress on policies and education scope and um they are 9th through 12th graders and they're going to be able to discuss and have uh read readable and I saw incredible um discussions and meetings about Mach school board meetings debates discussions and there's basically giving them a a comprehensive look on how school boards operate they were supposed to be here tonight but now uh we have basketball this is so most of some of them were participants either in the cheerleading sperm or the basketball room so they but they will be convening at a school board meeting just to see the operational to see if a school board meeting and uh last but not least on March 24th there is a local church that is going to feel the fridge of East junior high fevers of High School in Buckley Carpenter Elementary School as a gift back to the community so that's a local churches some of you who has chosen those 3 schools to fill their fridges with in their um teachers lounges with snacks and other non-perishable items oh and spring break is March the 17th I mean it's March the 17th so there will be no school for students and staff thank you okay we we're adding 1 Thing excuse me I'm going to add to the director's uh comments about reading at Legrange Moscow uh Miss Maguire uh Mrs Hummel rounds and I all read there and we had a great time and I think it was really good for the kids and I encourage other people to get involved with that it's really good thank you Mr Wilson Oh yes sir I had a question for director Osman s and you can correct me if I'm wrong that we don't have a directly submitted his resignation we're in the middle of a budget uh season here so have we posted that position that Finance director just informed me on last evening that he was his last day he put in 2 week notice so I have to get with HR to get the posting um uploaded okay and that is you are correct yeah we need to get somebody in place so uh Chris Miller the only thing I'd say when the pre-K in the what the motion was tonight we had some I don't know how we weave that into the context for the the people who apply does that make sense I mean okay well we we basically Ally are limiting the amount compared to this year of pre-K recipients or utilization that would be a state of Tennessee perimeter I don't because Pre-K that is a free program so limiting applications maybe against the actual I I just hate to put in expectations that may not be met but actually we don't have uh our Pre-K classes are not I mean they're under capacity that's why a lot of the that's the funding is based on so I don't think that we run into that problem okay okay uh report complete yes okay all right we we're going to add a new uh line item here and add the executive committee report which means the chairman report because there are 2 people on the executive committee and I'll do a better uh right now I'm on say that we met between 3:00 today had a poor a 4:15 or so and we signed a contract for 2 uh contracts with tsba so that these people and could get paid uh for their work uh that they're doing on the superintendent search and he also we we signed the contract to retain a litigation attorney to assist us in preparing for the closure of the uh consent agreement uh we've been told by legal that uh it will not automatically close we'll have to litigate uh 1 or both sides of that case so we now have an attorney retained on that subject we approved checks so we paid bills today so uh reminding the board that uh part of the policy is that we record this uh signing and the uh approval of the funds to be sent out and I understand now that will be AC uh process that is recorded and a board member can go over and watch that uh process and at any time it's it's there uh in the files yes sir comma no no comma no comma okay so that makes that's my report uh I do have a question you mentioned we paid paid the bills today yes sir didn't you mention that yes sir okay so that means we paid local vendors because a couple of vendors have called me saying they can't get paid now I just left it to the executive committee but you just said no no we paid the bills we had in front of us we have a problem we we have a we're trying to upgrade and we're trying to get our all all of our invoices submitted but if we don't get them I mean we we verify February because this is the first of the month yeah so so we verified the bills that were all the invoices I mean bills that were checks that were paid for February the 2 I'm talking about did did not get paid we have I have to see who they are I mean I don't ya if you tell I can look on so you've been submitted invoice because the invoice if it's not submitted then there's no start date hold on I'm asking if it was well if you if they didn't do his answer all right the answer is you give me invoice and we'll make sure they get paid if we verify that they did the work but we have to have an invoice and we have to verify they did the work and then at that point you know we will approve it but not until that point because we're under the controllers scrutiny and if if we can't we can't do anything until it meets checks and balances as you know you you did it for years so you saying they did not get paid I don't have an idea don't know which ones are they exactly what I'm talking about don't don't do that take up I don't know what anyway all right okay back on track all right can you can you can you can you can see uh we're down to comments by the board members non business any comments yes quick this Saturday 9:30 1:30 Public Library that book sale is going to be going on encourage anybody to go there especially people families with children children's books are like 25 cents so 9:30 to buy or to 1:30 Public Library do we have a motion to adjourn second all in favor clothes no

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FCPS Regular School Board Meeting, March 6, 2025

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