Call this meeting to order the Montgomery County Board of Education first. Item B, a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. First item tonight is Point of Pride Awards. Dr. Vetter. I'd like to ask our chief communications officer,
Anthony Johnson, to share our points of pride this evening. Good evening. Board. First, I want to apologize. We let a couple of departments borrow our step and repeats. And so Jessica and I are going old school with just the blank wall tonight. But we'll get those up for the next meeting. But tonight we have several points of pride. The first one is one that's very unique. Our first time ever. If Miss Erica Gaines and anyone from the transportation department that's here with her could please come forward. So Miss Erica Gaines is a bus driver.
In June, after winning at the regional and state competitions, Miss Gaines earned international acclaim at the National School Transportation Association Safety Competition in Austin, Texas, competing against drivers across the United States and Canada. Erica secured the third place award in the nation in the class A bus category. Congratulations, Miss Gaines. All right. And the next ones are all from Ross Hughes. We're excited. So Ross night here tonight.
So if Miss Gillian Smart, along with her administration, could please come forward. So this is a rare one. But every once in a while, we have a student who earns a perfect score on the act. Gillian is a Rossview High School student who made a perfect score on the Act exam. The perfect composite score is 36. This score is an average of the four section scores for English, math, reading and science. Getting a perfect score on the act is very rare. Out of the nearly 2 million students across the nation who take the act,
only around a 0.3% earn a perfect score. Congratulations, Gillian. All right. You might remember from June that I shared that we would have two more TSSAA recognitions that we are going to celebrate in August. So if I first could have the Rossview High school baseball team to please come forward, members of this team include Ethan Pickett, Caden Slaughter, Ashton Kemp, C.J. Lattimore, Aiden Smith,
Aiden Cano, Avery Van Rickley, Liam Stable, Johnny Caballero, Evan Frederick Cole, Joe PJ Parayko, Carter Friend, Jaden *******, Keegan Slaughter, Houston Herbert, Andrew Anderson, Matthew. Simpson Jackson Perry Coleman Padgett Beckett Haslam Max. Rogers, Leighton. Washer, Tanner. Herbeck Gabriel. Michelina Jonathan. Flager. Hudson. Blake, Alec. Hale, Isaiah. Havel. Corbin, James. Keegan. Evick, Kason. Kibler. Jackson. Croak,
Julian. Richards, Elliot. Stevens, Jordan. Akins, Dakota. Adcock, Finnegan. Hair, and Bryson Bouchard, along with their head coach, Coach Holman, and assistant coaches slaughter, Montjoy Averroes and Isaac and this team. At the 2025 AA for a district, was the runner up in section champions for the state tournament. Congratulations. And for both the baseball and in fact, if the softball team could make their way up from Rossview High School,
the Rossview High School softball team. I want to acknowledge that we do have several of those student athletes who are now off to college competing, and so we're proud of them. They couldn't join us tonight. And then also, our student athletes are always busy. So we did have several that couldn't make it here tonight. But they send their apologies. All right. So from Rossview High School, the softball team Ariana Dolan Evan Dolan, Quinlan Epting, Madeline fillers, Kylie Gillette, Layla Greer, Peyton McKenzie. Havens. Chloe Hernandez, Taylin. Huskey. Aniston. Lee. Emily and Martinez,
Mackenzie. Quick, Avery. Rauscher. Kennedy. Scott. Melody. Chapman, Maddox. Svaboda Caitlin. Thompson Addison. Waller, Kayla. Webb. Their head coach. Gillette, and assistant coaches Dolan and Shane Waller. And at the 2025. AA for a district region. They were also the runner up. Champions of the state tournament. Congratulations. And that completes this evening's points of pride. Thank you. Thank you. Our next item is public conversations.
We have several tonight. Let's give them a second for the room to settle before we begin. And I get the names on my screen. All right. Our first speaker is Mr. Bradley Warren. Mr. Warren, as you make your way to the microphone, there, you may push the right front silver button. It will turn it on. The timer will display the microphone will light and will will light up. When it's on, it will begin to flash when you have one minute left.
And it will go mute when your time is up. Good evening, board members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Brad Warren. I am a PE teacher at Kirkwood Middle School and current head coach of the Kirkwood High School and Cobra Wrestling Club. I have right at 20 years of experience in the sport of wrestling as an athlete, coach and as a TSSAA official. All of this experience and time has been spent here in Clarksville, Montgomery County area. Today, I want to talk to you about why middle school wrestling
is not just a sport, it's a necessity. First, wrestling builds discipline and confidence. At this age, students are learning who they are and wrestling gives them a structured, challenging environment to grow. Every match teaches resilience. Win or lose, wrestlers walk off the mat knowing they gave their all, and that mindset carries into the classroom. In life. Second, wrestling is one of the most inclusive sports out there. It doesn't matter if you're tall or short, big or small. There's a weight class for everyone, boy or girl.
No one rides the bench. In wrestling, every student gets a chance to compete, learn, and improve the kind of equal opportunity builds self-worth and team unity. Third, it teaches accountability, accountability, and work ethic. Unlike team sports, where mistakes can get lost in the crowd, wrestling puts responsibility squarely on the individual. If you want to succeed, you have to show up, work hard, and push yourself. These lessons don't fade after the season ends. They stick for life. Finally, middle school is a critical time for emotional and physical development.
Wrestling gives students a healthy outlet for energy and emotion. It promotes fitness, focus, and goal setting all things that help young people stay on the right path. In short, wrestling teaches kids how to fight not with their fists, but with the heart, grit and discipline. This is why middle school wrestling isn't just a good idea. It's something our schools need. Now let me refocus your attention for middle school wrestling to succeed, we need proper facilities. Wrestling can't happen safely in a regular gym. It requires specialized mats, training equipment,
and space to prevent injuries and allow students to practice effectively without proper facilities. We're not just limiting athletic opportunities, we're risking safety and undermining student development. If we want to give our students every chance to succeed in sports and in life, we need to invest in spaces that make their training possible. Let's support wrestling in our schools not just with words, but with action. By providing facilities our students deserve. I am here, I am here to strongly advocate for the inclusion of dedicated wrestling facilities in our schools,
not as an extra, but as an essential investment in our students success. Wrestling is one of the fastest growing sports at the youth and high school levels. The support success to support success in wrestling, students need more than just sanctioning of the sport. They need a proper place to train. Right now, in many schools, wrestlers are forced to practice in gyms, cafeterias or unsafe spaces with little to no proper equipment. This not only puts their safety at risk, but also sends a message that their sport and their effort matters less.
A dedicated wrestling facility provides much more than just mats. It offers a safe, hygienic environment that meets the unique needs of the sport. It gives students consistency, structure and a space they can take pride in. Just like the athletes of other well-supported programs. More importantly, it creates opportunity if we want to offer equitable opportunities to all student athletes, we must ensure they have the resources to succeed by investing in wrestling facilities. We're not just building a room, we're building discipline,
determination, determination, and future leaders. In closing, I say yes to middle school wrestling, but with the understanding to support the future of wrestling. Our school campuses need an equitable place to grow, train and lastly, a place they can call theirs and empower culture. They can take pride in considerations as you move to sanction facilities for each campus. Clarksville high currently has a two story facility with over 8000ftÂ², knowledgeable boys and wrestling coaches with assistance.
It's hard enough to get high school coaches. Currently, we have three open positions. As of now, at least two wrestling mats with adequate space to safely train enough uniforms to accommodate schools with the most amount of participation. Kirkwood Middle Schools Middle School Club currently has 65 athletes in it. Now, if you can't support our teams, you take away opportunity and understanding that wrestling and CMCSS is growing and we will need to be accommodated for us to continue success at all levels. I personally believe the budget needs to be a little bit larger
and for facilities for wrestling to make this a success story. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Mr. David Johnson. Well good evening board. My name is David Johnson. I am like a my former schoolmate. We went to Ross together. I'm also a coach. At Clarksville High for the girls wrestling team. For the past three years, I've been running. I guess unofficially, the Ross Middle School wrestling program. And with that being said, I mean, just number one, you need to vote yes on this.
Our kids need this. You know, I'm a father of six. I got siblings that are still in high school. I get half of them that are still wrestling two at Kirkwood, one at Clarksville High, and I got a middle school almost. I guess he's fifth grade. He's about to be. But, you know, these kids need it. It's great. It's character building. You know, Brad did a lovely job explaining why benefits our kids, how it disciplines them, how it instills all the good, all the good qualities that we actually need. When it comes down to it, just, you know, support it.
We need the budget. Now, what he was illuminating to, though is, you know, facilities would be great. You know, Clarksville High was blessed getting their building. They have a ample you know, they got a great space for it. You know, I enjoy coaching over there because of it. Ross view you know I started Ross View Middle School. I started the high school. We've wrestled up in the gym. You roll the mats out, you're up against the wall. You know, we've been doing that for decades. My middle school, when we were allowed in there, you know, we would do the same thing. You know, it would be great to have a designated facility for us to be able to do this.
I understand we got a lot of schools. I don't know if, you know, you designate locations, have satellites, let everybody use it. I mean, we can come up with lots of opportunities and ideas, but we have, you know, we have great success. We have many members. I mean, you just all members from the Ross View baseball team that got acknowledged. I had two of those. Those were my middle schoolers. They wrestled for us. You know, they're obviously doing great things. You can do multi sports. You know, this is it's for everybody. In all honesty, I didn't get to prepare or print out a pretty little sheet, but you know I'm just we're appealing to you.
You know, if we have the funds and the money is available, why not use it? I understand there's tons of other sports, you know, support them all. Anything the high school does, the middle school should do. We should provide feeders if we want to be successful and we want to continue recognizing athletes for their achievements. We need to support them and give them these opportunities. You know, like myself, you know, I've come out of pocket many times trying to get uniforms custom made and throw just the name Ross on there out of our own pocket to fund these kids using previous headgear,
shoes, anything we can find to put them out there and get them opportunities to, you know, be able to compete and to succeed. Fortunately, you know, Clarksville and Ross, you are in Richview. You know, they've been good to us. We use those facilities. We do the best that we can. I don't know exactly what we're planning to do this year. So, you know, if you vote yes, we can at least have a better future going forward. And that's all I got. Thank you. Megan Wise Mr. Wiseman,
the button on the right hand side, silver button turns it on. Red light will come on. Your mic is hot. It begins to blink. You have one minute left. Good evening, members of the board. I want to begin by recognizing the value that athletics have in our district. Wrestling specifically, is a sport that teaches discipline, teamwork, and perseverance. However, unlike programs that serve all students, wrestling does have strict participation limits. Only students who are physically healthy able to pass a physical exam,
and to meet the academic eligibility requirements can join by design. This does exclude many of our students with disabilities. Students who make up a growing percentage of our district and who already struggle to access equitable opportunities. At the same time, we cannot ignore the reality of special education funding. Federal dollars currently cover less than 13% of special education costs nationwide, and Tennessee contributes only about 15 to 16% of the additional costs for K through 12 special education.
That's compared to a national average closer to 25%. This leaves CMCSS responsible for more than two thirds. Our district of the cost, providing federally required services. These costs will only grow as student identification numbers increase each year, and federal appropriations remain flat or even reduced further. With the changes proposed by the current administration. With this funding picture in mind, I do ask that you carefully consider how we use our limited dollars instead of creating a new sport with narrow access,
our district could invest in programs that would benefit all students, such as after school, social emotional learning groups. These can include peer mentoring, small group counseling, coping on emotional regulation, and inclusive group activities that foster belonging across all areas of the district. Research shows that SEL programing directly improves academic performance, reduces discipline incidents, and builds long term resilience in students. Unlike wrestling, where only a few select students can join a cell, programing reaches every student and strengthens the overall learning environment.
Special education impacts every metric that we use to measure district success, underfunded or unsupported special education programs contribute directly to employee retention challenges. Because general education teachers often leave when they do not have the support or training needed to manage a diverse classroom. Academic performance suffers when students with disabilities do not receive timely or adequate services, and overall achievement scores drop unmet behavioral needs. Currently in our district spill over into the school climate, resulting in higher discipline rates and disrupted learning for everyone.
Even graduation rates in post-secondary readiness are impacted because inadequate support in the early grades compounds into lower outcomes later. This is not just a special education issue, it's a system wide issue that affects the students. All of us and staff. As board members, you are tasked with more than passing budgets and reviewing policies created by this district. You are responsible for ensuring the district remains in compliance with federal and state special education law. That responsibility requires a working knowledge of Ida and Tennessee Special education statutes,
and an understanding of how these laws intersect with staffing, compliance, academic growth, and school climate. Without that depth of knowledge, it is difficult to see the full consequences of district decisions. To fully understand how these decisions impact every learner, not just those with disabilities. It's time for this board to openly discuss special education at meetings, and to treat it as a central issue that it truly is. Every budget decision, including tonight's, must be made with the knowledge that our district cannot succeed without a strong, sustainable foundation for everyone.
James Lewis. Mr. Lewis, once again, Silver Button turns it on. Lights. Read your hot flashes. You have one minute left. Good evening, members of the board. Let me start by saying this very clearly. I am not against middle school wrestling. In fact, I've been around the sport for many years right here in Montgomery County in many different roles. I've seen firsthand how wrestling shapes young people into disciplined, resilient leaders.
And I've seen how our athletes succeed at both state and national levels. Wrestling is one of the fastest growing sports in the country, and our kids deserve support. But the proposal to sanction middle school wrestling is CMCSS right now is quite simply, putting the cart before the horse. Let me explain why. First, the logistics needed for this program to even have a chance at success. You know, where will students practice, right? Wrestling requires large mats and a safe,
or a safe, consistent space during wrestling seasons, gyms are already full with basketball and cheerleading practices or games. Where will the mats be stored? A regulation mat weighs several hundred pounds and takes up massive storage space that most middle schools simply can't support. What happens when practice space isn't available until late at night? That means students leave campus, go home, then return for practice. That kind of complexity doesn't increase participation.
It decreases it. Many families won't be able to support or manage that schedule. Second, we can't ignore the shortage of qualified coaches. This is not unique to wrestling. It's challenging across all sports, sanctioning middle school wrestling without a plan to recruit, develop and retain quality coaches risks putting programs on paper that can't be properly staffed. Third, if the school board really wants to support wrestling,
then let's have the right conversation. We should be talking about a plan to put designated wrestling facilities on school campuses, spaces that can support wrestling for elementary, middle and high schools. That would not only strengthen our programs, it would send a message to incoming families and businesses that this school system is serious about investing in student athletes. Now, I know that some of you are thinking facilities are expensive, and you're right, the cost is significantly higher than what's currently being proposed.
But here's the reality. Trying to cover that cost through fundraising or calling in a favor is nearly impossible. However, if we as a district commit to a long term plan, spreading the investment over a couple of years and applying it fairly across schools, we can absolutely make it reasonable and achievable. That's the kind of planning that sets our programs and our athletes up for real success. I also understand that some believe sanctioning middle school wrestling is the answer.
For select schools, they already have a facility. It may feel like a great idea because they don't face the same challenges that the rest of the district does, but the most, but most of the schools, the reality is very different. And those coaches who believe that this will automatically guarantee growth for their high school programs, I say that it's not that this is not a magic beam. Growth doesn't happen just because something is sanctioned. It still requires hard work. Fundraising recruiting
and building a culture that brings kids in and keeps them engaged. Some might also argue that sanctioning would finally open the door for kids who couldn't afford a club program. I want to be clear on this point. In all my years in wrestling, in the in the Montgomery County area, I've never once seen a coach turn an athlete away because they couldn't afford it. Wrestling coaches do everything they can to make sure every single kid who wants to wrestle has a way to do so. So to summarize, the logistics are not in place.
The facilities don't exist. The coaching shortage is real, and sanctioning, sanctioning, sanctioning alone will not magically solve these challenges. What it will do, however, is create frustration and division and potentially limit the opportunities for these student athletes. Wrestling deserves better than that. Our student athletes deserve better than that. I urge this board to consider all the points I mentioned tonight, and let's continue this conversation in a way that truly builds a sense of community for our schools,
provides the facilities for our that our kids need, and creates a foundation for wrestling that will last for decades to come. Thank you. Charles Uffelman. The instructions with a silver button. Do I have to repeat that again in the flashing light? One minute to go. Okay. Good evening. I'm Charles Uffelman. I am the leader of Clarksville. Q we are a funding board for the LGBTQ plus community in Clarksville, Montgomery County.
We have five areas of focus, and I did try to email all of you the slides before. I know I can't put them on the screen, but you should have them on your screens if you want to look at them now or later. But this was a project formed with leaders from the city, from nonprofit leaders across Montgomery County. We identified with the Healing Trust, which is a, a large pocket of money from the sale of Baptist Hospital in Nashville. They fund lots of community and health initiatives across Middle Tennessee.
So it was identified here in Clarksville that we needed more resources for the queer community here in Montgomery County. So since then, we've identified five key areas that we are working in community advocacy, education health and then support, as in community support support groups. This year, our big project was the commissioning with in bold research of an LGBTQ plus needs assessment. What do our neighbors who are LGBTQ plus need out of our county?
Full disclosure I'm bisexual, so I'm part of this community. We are here tonight as we go through all the governing bodies. We did county commission a couple of weeks ago. But for y'all specifically we surveyed parents of LGBTQ plus youth. So the students that you serve as school board members, their parents, and how they feel about the community we did interviews with, I think, ten different individuals of various ethnicities, demographics. But then we also did a survey of around 500 people.
They were all registered and voters in Montgomery County. This was a weighted survey that, like you'd see in any major poll done by like, Vanderbilt or in bold, has worked with a lot of these major institutions to conduct studies like this before. So we were very confident with the results we have. They've got some key findings here that LGBTQ, LGBTQ, plus youth and their parents are picking up on heightened vulnerability, that this year. I'm sure some of you have noticed there is a strong rejection
of LGBTQ folks in the public media. In in those identities. They're not wanting it centered in media. They're not wanting it talked about in public spaces. The kids are feeling that and the parents are feeling that, and they're getting nervous. Number two is, a school environment. Barriers. Now, Clarksville, Montgomery County schools scored really well. And that folks generally saw schools as safe spaces for their kids. So a parent of a trans or queer youth felt
like generally that their school has been safe. But here lately, because of the news media, because of targeting of queer folks with legislation in the state capital, with commentary from our city council that they are feeling less safe, their children are feeling less safe in the public school environment. Three is a lack of critical resources. There there is a perception that there's less room for queer kids to gather and understand and talk with each other.
And then there's an urgent need for safe and inclusive youth spaces, specifically on one of these slides, we've got a map of where the concentration of a lot of the queer and parents live in the county, the highest, ZIP codes are 37 04237040 and 37043. They were all between 20 and 40%. Were either LGBTQ or a parent of a child that was LGBTQ. Their lived experiences with
accessibility are we find that there's a higher percentage of LGBTQ folks who have a harder time accessing health care, transportation and housing? I'm sure you all are seeing that there's a growing number of kids at risk in housing that the LGBT community is right in there with the rest of the community and struggling to find good housing. We've got a couple other presenters that are going to walk through the other sections of this report, but we're going to have an extended town hall on
September 6th that Michelle will invite you to. So thank you so much. Thank you. Rod Mills. Hi. I'm Rod Mills I'm a citizen in district six. And also I am an educator and professor at Austin Peay State University and have been for the last 14 years. I'm also a member of the Clarksville board. And I'd like to share with you some of the important findings that we got from our needs assessment.
I'm not going to talk about all of these points. But just highlight some of the ones that stuck out at us. Is accessibility to employment. The mission of this board, in this school system, is to have folks college and or career ready. But 41% of our respondents indicated that they don't have access to employment opportunities here in Clarksville and Montgomery County. The biggest needs,
however, were safe community spaces. For LGBTQ adults and youth, 59% of our participants disagree that there is access to safe community spaces here. Mental health support, 48% said that they have, disagree that there's good access to mental health support. And I know that the school systems have, school counselors.
And so this is an indication of the mental health of not only LGBTQ youth, but also LGBTQ plus, adults. And 51% say they disagree that there is protection from discrimination here in Clarksville and Montgomery County, as far as perceived safe spaces as Mr. Uffelman already shared with you all, the school system is one of those where folks do feel safe as well as the local
colleges and universities coffee shops and cafes and libraries. So these are venues that you may consider, if you choose to support some of the recommendations that we have coming later on for extracurricular activities and or mentorship programs for LGBTQ plus youth. As far as public schools go 43% of our respondents said that
they feel that the school system is supportive place for LGBTQ people in our communities. Perceived challenges. And, for LGBTQ youth and needed resources. Those that are closest to these young people have growing concerns about the lack of youth spaces. And changing support from adults in the school systems. For those respondents, we ask,
do you believe that younger LGBTQ individuals in Clarksville face more, fewer or the same challenges today as young people did ten years ago? And 71% of our respondents said that the challenges are about the same or have increased in the last ten years. So we're fighting an uphill battle here to help some of our most vulnerable students in Montgomery County less than half of respondents believe that,
some of these resources are available to youth in the community. 34% said supportive school environments. Only 27% said that there was good access to youth specific community events that address the needs of, LGBTQ youth. 24% said that there was good support for mentorship programs, which means there's 76% who don't see that as a supportive program.
And 20 only 23% saw inclusive extracurricular programs as being, accessible to their youth and students. With that, I will wrap up my section. Thank you all for your time and attention. Michelle Lucier. If I pronounce it correctly. Thank you. My name is Michelle Lucier and I live in school district number two.
I'm also a member of Clarksville Q I'm here to present the recommendations from the survey that Clarksville CU commissioned. One of the questions asked on the survey was if you were given $1 million to invest, what would you do? Some of the top answers were after school programs, mentorship programs, youth centers, school funding and alternative educational pathways. Some of the recommendations from the report deal with the community as a whole,
but others deal with the youth in our community. These recommendations include a community center for to support the LGBTQ adults, as well as our youth. This needs to be a whole community effort, including the school system. Another recommendation was to expand safe spaces for youth support, recognizing that the school system are increasingly constrained by legislation. We should we should invest in community centers, libraries and other public spaces to host inclusion confidential and affirming
programs where LGBTQ youth can safely connect with peers and trusted adults. Most of all, our LGBTQ youth can feel safe. Teachers and administrators need to recognize the differences of LGBTQ youth community and ensure the health and welfare of them. They need the same opportunities as those youth that are not members of the LGBTQ community. We will be having a town hall on September 6th at 6 p.m. At the Clarksville,
Montgomery County Library to discuss this research in more depth and would like to invite the school board to this as well. Thank you. Christopher Carbin. Okay. Don't think he is here tonight. So that concludes our public comments. Next item is approval of consent agenda. Have a. Have a motion. Mr. Lanier. Second second.
Mr. Nelson. All in favor? I'm sorry about that. Discussion is now closed. Open the vote. Is everyone satisfied with your. Vote? Please close the. Vote. Passes seven. Zero. Next item. Board. Discussion and conclusion. Budget amendment. Middle school wrestling. Mr. Mabry,
ask that to be on the agenda. Turn it over to. Him. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to make a motion to put on the in the budget and begin the process of funding for boys and girls wrestling for the 2026 season. I want to make the comment that coaches match uniforms will go through the normal process, and I want to turn it over to Anthony Johnson, who has some comments, and I would like to come back afterwards and make some more comments. Thank you. Okay.
All right. Back again. So, I'm going to start by saying that, when this was presented we had some questions from board members, from the community, from the media. And so you know, my job, do some fact finding. And so that's what I did. I spoke to a lot of people, and I want to say, first and foremost that there's not a single middle school principal, there's not a single district leader that I spoke to who is not in support of continuing to expand athletic offerings at the middle school level. Every single person resounding yes.
We would like to continue to see that expanded. This is a very short presentation, but what I would like to do is just give you a little bit of history. Some of you joked with me a few months ago when I told you the year I was in kindergarten. So I'm just going to say in the late 1900s when I was in middle school in a different county, I had the opportunity to play soccer and band in middle school. And many of the points I want to steal Coach Warren's, form there. But many of the points he made and others about middle school is a difficult time.
And so the more opportunities we can provide students to be engaged, the better. So when I moved to Clarksville about 15 years ago, I did think it was kind of interesting that there weren't as many offerings. And so in speaking with Mr. Miller, which he's here tonight too, if there are any questions, we did a little bit of a history on middle school athletics in Clarksville. Montgomery County School system. So in the 1980s, and I think not to date you, Mr. Nolan, but in speaking with him a little bit ago, we think it was specifically 1980,
because he remembers it when he was in a middle school after when junior high, was changed. So in the 1980s, CMCSS moved from a junior high model to a middle school model. At that time, the only offering was basketball. It was first offered as an intramural, and although we couldn't determine the exact timing, somewhere in those 40 years between when we started adding more athletics, it changed to a sanctioned sport. So each of those dots you see there, I'm a visual person represents a decade.
And so for about 40 years, the only offering we had at middle school was basketball. I can't answer why I didn't speak any leaders at that time, but that was the reality. Now there are two people in this room that would probably not like the attention or the recognition, but in everybody that I spoke to, there seemed to be a turning point. In 2017, two things happened. Dr. Luna-Vedder was selected as the director of high schools, and John Miller was selected as the director of the Coordinator of District Programs and Activities. And what you'll see is they both had
a drive to continue to increase our offerings at the middle school level, one for our middle school students, but also it does nothing but help strengthen our high school programs as well. So in 2018, CMCSS added volleyball and cross country to the offerings. After 40 years of just having basketball, you might remember something happened around 2020. A little bit of a difficult time, budget wise. And so there was a little bit of a delay. But in 2022, funding was allocated by the board and county commission, for the next,
which was probably one of the bigger moves that we've made as far as adding athletics, which was football programs and cheerleading and all of our middle schools. As you know, that was costly. It took a lot of coordination. And many of the speakers mentioned this, but I want to remind you, our middle schools, all but one, were built after 1980, so they did not come with facilities that were planned in those buildings. So took a lot of coordination and still does with our high schools. But either way we had football implemented and cheerleading in 2023.
That 2022 year was funding for equipment some facilities upgrades, that sort of thing. So that brings us to where we are right now, the current state of middle school athletics. So this is just, again, a visual to kind of show you where our offerings are. So we do have football. We have cross country and we have volleyball that are you know, our, our summer sports going into fall. And then we have basketball November, December January February. We don't have necessarily any sanctioned spring sports at the middle school level right now.
The graphics below show you all of the teams sanctioned athletics that we do not currently offer in CMCSS. Those are girls flag football, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls tennis, boys and girls wrestling. And I'm going to not just say boys and girls each time, but you'll know what I mean. Golf, softball, baseball and track. So those are the athletics that are not currently offered. Again, looking at the picture of this district going nearly 40 years with just one, but knowing that we want to continue expanding and how do we do that sustainably? And again, echoing many of the points from the speakers today,
there are a lot of competing priorities for the district. There's a lot of facilities needs that need to be addressed. And so, I just want to make sure that the public that you all know, that is a drive from all of us to continue expanding, but you know, some have asked, well, why wasn't this in the presented in the budget in April? And quite frankly, when you're dipping 15 million into the fund balance? And then there was uncertainty around federal dollars this, this there were cuts that had to be made from what we would like to bring forth. And so that's why it was not included.
I do want to acknowledge our county commissioners here who have been extremely supportive the last few years. You probably know if you didn't. I want to make sure, you know, we've had historic, capital project funding. And so that's been very helpful. But as you look at those projects, you'll see $10 million or I can't remember the exact figure, but, you know, 3 million of that might be an HVAC renovation at one school. So very supportive of us. But again, these things cost money. So that brings us to after speaking with district Leaders Middle School, our recommendations,
and it kind of echoes Mr. Nelson, I forgot your last name. Lewis. Mr. Kind of echoes what Mr. Lewis was talking about. And that's creating a plan. So our recommendation is the district is that we continue planning in next year's budget and future budgets to sustainably expand middle school offerings, balancing fall, winter and spring. And that's something that we did here again, middle school principals, very supportive of continuing to expand, but with limited facilities. Most of our middle schools just have a gym and an auxiliary gym. If we have all of our sports pretty much at the same time,
that's very difficult for scheduling. So they were definitely interested in looking at, what spring sports we might be able to like, track. For example, addressing facility needs with current offerings and future expansion. You heard that from speakers. We hear that all the time. The current high school and middle school offerings have needs, needs that we have not been able to address, needs that are very expensive. And so how do we create a plan for that for the future? And that goes into, again, addressing the financial needs of current athletic offerings. In addition, you all know this. Once we implement something, you've got to sustain equipment where it's out, uniform wears out.
So how do we continue to address those needs. And then also addressing the competitive pay for all coaches through the collaborative conferencing and budget considerations? I've never had a coach tell me that they are you know, they're doing it for the money. They do it for the heart. They do it because they know what those students. But at the same time, we are not competitive. When you look at local our competing districts, who are sometimes three, four times what our supplements are, and that's something we would have also have liked to address in this year's budget. But again, dipping into the fund balance, we were only able to do a 2%.
Our alternative request, and this is what we'll say if the board feels compelled to go ahead and implement allocate some funding for middle school wrestling. And I think Mr. Mayberry mentioned this or is going to mention there's just not feasible. Nobody I've spoken to, even the most optimistic, think that it's feasible to actually implement that. The if I remember the date correctly, it's December 13th is the sectional tournament for middle school wrestling. So by the time this if it's approved today and then approved by the county commission, and then having to go through the hiring process and
uniforms and figuring out the logistics, it's just nobody feels like it's feasible. But if there is a if you feel compelled to move forward, then what we've come to is a cost of about 260,000 for our eight middle schools. And that's basically the bare minimum, which would be the mats that were discussed which which are expensive. The uniforms and then also and this was addressed by one of the speakers, even when we implemented football there's just not enough storage facilities at our, at our middle schools.
And so that includes some temporary storage facilities until we can look at some long term solutions. So essentially that's the history where we are and our recommendation moving forward. If you have any questions, like I said, Mr. Miller is here. Mr. Sleight with middle school is here, and Mr. Feldman. But let me know if there's any questions. Not at time from anybody. Else. Mr. Garland. How many children in middle school would this affect?
The possibility of how many kids do we have in the middle schools that might be interested in doing the sport? Yeah, I will say, and I think someone had mentioned one of one of our club teams. I think there's maybe 65 students. Is that. 65 plus boys and girls in our middle school club. Currently? Yeah, about 250in our elementary, middle and high. School club. Yeah, 50 students. Yeah. That's where the district. That is just for. Yeah. Similar. Yeah. So and you might remember, Mr. Garland,
because oftentimes we have our high schools here for, because they're constantly winning state and national competitions and that they can be rather large teams. So yeah, about you know, I would say in those in those numbers. But it's really hard to give a, you know, speculative because we just don't know exactly how many would. But I feel like that's a pretty accurate representation. I also want to acknowledge and I failed to do this. And so if you'll just give me one moment when I showed those other athletic offerings to that, we don't currently offer, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the clubs,
the Montgomery County Soccer Association, these other organizations who, however you want to look at it, they're either, you know, filling a gap or they're kind of complementing what we're already doing, but they do a great job. And so us saying our desire to continue expanding athletics is not to say that they aren't doing a great job or that we it's just something that we would like to continue to expand and, and know that several of those organizations have also spoken to us about their desire to have those athletics offered as well. And we have been able to do some creative things. So, for example, John Miller worked last year,
to get I think there's five middle school club teams. They were eligible to compete in the Tesla. We actually had one who made it and was eligible to compete in the in the tournament. They chose that it was a competing tournament. There was another tournament that same day, so they chose that one, but they were actually eligible. So again, I think not only is there the desire, there's the talent. They're definitely. What would our kids if participated in this sport on the TSA TSSAA?
Whatever it is, I don't know what it is. I'm old. Y'all forgive me. Would that give them an opportunity to get scholarships to go as they go higher into the educational process? Absolutely. But those kids that are in this what's called the mural, they don't get that, that option most of the time. Right. That. Helped me. You said the rural. The mural. I mean, they have my grandson was in track his last year of high school, but that was outside of the school system.
Got it. Yeah. I mean, you know. Yes. But obviously it's it's ideal when you've got a school sanctioned activity and you have that coach who's then able to, you know, work with their partnerships with college coaches, you've got recruiters. So I mean, obviously students can still get scholarships for those other activities. But I do want to just clarify in this, we are talking specifically middle school, which we want them to start thinking about that that early. But our high schools typically. But what I will say is it doesn't matter what athletic team it is at the middle school level,
if you are starting earlier. I mean, I was a music guy in a soccer guy. The earlier you start, the better you'll be. And so certainly we encourage as soon as we can start students in in these. You. Mr. Mayor, you asked to be activated. Give us make some additional statements. Yeah. Thank you. I got several statements. You said there. What would you like to do? All right. Yes, sir. So I made my initial, motion, and, of course Anthony had those thoughts to share as well.
So I wanted to go through some points here, and I'd love to have discussion tonight about this middle school programs matter. It gives students an opportunity, as you saw tonight, there was a large gap of time where we didn't have the opportunities when I was in our schools here, I went to Richview Middle School. I believe we had a basketball club that had just started when when I was there, it wasn't a lot of opportunity. These middle school programs give our students an opportunity. I've run an after school program in our community for five years.
Six years now. Work with about 150 students. It gives them an opportunity to be around trusted adults. We help them with homework that's in the category of what we're doing here. When students join sports programs, their grades typically go up, their behavior in school is typically better, which in our our county state, nation. We've been talking about for the last couple years about behavior it grounds them to a community within that school.
Wrestling is a sport of discipline. I wrestled in high school, actually wrestled for Russell High School. David Johnson, who's back here, is our,. Are you the only state champ? You have to acknowledge? No. Yes. He said he's the. If you go into the high school, you walk into by the cafeteria, you get to see a big picture of David Johnson there from his high school glory days. You do not see me. But he he wrestled. We wrestled together. He's he's a great coach here in the community. My daughter, as many of you guys know, wrestled here in Clarksville High.
Coach Bradley Warren on the front row there. He, had the pleasure to coach my daughter, Coach Bowden, back there as well. My daughter wrestled. The reason we got into wrestling for my daughter is because her attitude was so poor at home, and I say this out loud, so I throw my daughter in the bus who just graduated high school, and she's currently subbing in our school. So she's she's old now. But she knows that I talk about the story, but her attitude was poor towards her mother, and I told her, I said,
you're going to be joining a sport in her freshman year. I said, you're going to enjoy sports. You need discipline, pick a sport. She didn't. So sophomore year, I said, okay, I'm picking the sport now. And I text Coach Cobb, who was the coach at the time, and I said, hey my daughter showing up to practice today dropped her off there hours later, pick her back up over at Clarksville High. We're driving down the road. I said, what'd you think of practice? She looks to me sideways. She says, I guess it was okay. She ended up loving it. Ended up becoming the JV state champion that year.
At Clarksville High and the girls program, it makes them into student athletes. And I can't tell you again, I know, Coach Bowden. If you had the opportunity tonight, he could tell you how many scholar athletes he has, the amount of girls team I know in particular because my daughter was a part of it. They have high grades. At the Clarksville high team in particular. It's the entire team have high grades. It's about legacy building teams and programs for our future. If we get our students to have these programs at a younger age,
in particular wrestling, it's something that if you're starting off as a freshman, you may be a David Johnson one day. But you're more likely to be an Aron Maberry in wrestling. You're you're more likely to not be able to succeed as as time goes along. A lot of these guys have dedicated their lives to this out here tonight. I got Melissa over here from Kenwood. Hunter Stapp here. And Jason Pinson I went to high school with these guys. When I went to Clarksville High, I got I got transferred to Ross. When I opened up Jason and I have been friends since middle school.
Jason and Hunter were on the Clarksville high 2000 state championship team. Back there in the glory days. Those guys are incredible. Both, place and state twice. Jason went on to go to University of Tennessee, Chattanooga and wrestled for them. We have David Johnson as a as I mentioned, Coach Brad, Coach Doug Bowden over here as well. Coach Chris Carbon and Jerry Haywood would have been here tonight, but they they couldn't because Jerry wood emailed you guys tonight.
The community is strong. They're all from different schools, but they're here tonight. United that we need these programs. And a lot to I know to the guys here tonight, they they run the clubs. They run these clubs. Coach Jason back. There run and and I believe Hunter is involved. But they run these clubs. I've seen David there. How do I know? Because my son at eight years old was in this club. And when they say it's it's very true that elementary students and middle school students by a ton are in
these clubs by how much better can our high school programs be if we develop these students at a younger age? That's what we're talking about. We're talking about the legacy. We're talking about going back the glory days of the 2000 Clarksville high state championship team. The other schools of the state that are winning year after year. They are developing way younger than we are. We could be there. That's what I see. I also want to say community, prosperity. Our CEOs that look at coming into this area, people that are trying to bring, jobs and high paying jobs into this area, talk to Joshua.
Ward today from and he, he said to me that they look for higher wage these people that bring higher wages and these opportunities are looking for what can my kids do, and in particular in middle school sports, we have a low bench of the amount of amount of opportunities. They've been weak. So why today? Why am I bringing this up today? Well, two years ago I asked for this. As you know, finances is part of our purview here at the board. I was asked two years ago to hold off for one year and we would get in the budget.
I was sure it would be in the budget. For whatever reason, it wasn't in the budget this year. That's why I'm bringing this budget amendment. I don't want to mess up the the county commissions and the school districts approval. A couple of weeks ago, on the federal level, they froze some funds which now have been released. If you don't know, they have been released. So that's why you saw on the agenda and I didn't say anything about it because I would not not trying to do a budget amendment when they're they're freezing $12 million. Right. But those funds have been released. But that's why it's on today.
I fully believe we need to develop it. And yes, as some people have spoken today, have said, well, there's more out there. Yeah, there's more opportunities, more sports, more things we need to do. But you gotta start somewhere. And this is something that can greatly impact with great participation. These programs that they're talking about, these elementary and middle school people, they have coaches. They're involved with this wholeheartedly. The people are there, the the the participation. The community is there.
I'm asking that we approve this so that we can continue the legacy of what culture can be with wrestling. Thank you. Is a motion yet on this? You've talked about I need to hear a motion. You did okay. Is there a second? I'll second. Second. Mr. Garland, any discussion? Seeing none. I'm sorry,
I'm looking at hands and Kacie Bryant. Sorry. Thank you. I so can you explain exactly what the motion is? Are we. Go ahead. Thank you. The motion is to bring to put in the budget and to begin the process for boys and girls wrestling for the 2026 season. And the reason I said it like that, my intention was to be earlier in the year, but because I, as I said, things happen that prevented it from being there. And, and when it wasn't in the budget,
that's kind of where it started. So I wanted to be early year for this year, but I'm also practical. It's it's unrealistic to say that we're really going to be able to be prepared with buying mats, with logos and buying uniforms with logos, you know, it's unrealistic finding the coaches in time. So what we would do is the fund budget. I'm glad you said this because the fund budget is where I would say this is coming from. It's currently around $70 million. There's ample room in there to pull the resources necessary to get the,
mats to get the uniforms, to get those things in place for next season. Have plenty of time to hire the coaches, plenty of time to get the infrastructure in place. So the motion is to get it into the budget to begin this process for boys and girls wrestling for the 2026 season. Thank you. Going. Okay. Thank you. So we that chart, by the way, was very helpful. Thank you. Because my children are both in sports in the school system.
And I'm always so confused about sanctioned versus not sanctioned. And I get phone calls and emails about it all the time. I think it might be a good this is off subject, but a good thing to put on the website. I think we need some sort of education for the community about that because again, I'm still confused and I'm on the board. So the the other question I have, so it's not sanctioned for high school. Correct. This is it is sanctioned for high school. Okay. So we have it sanctioned for high school. And we're asking to get sanctioned for middle school.
I am a big proponent of this. This is proponent for right. This is a hits my heart closely because my daughter started wrestling last year, her freshman year of high school, and I just saw such a big change in her attitude. She went, just like Aaron. I can relate. She's always been a great girl, but had, some laziness going on. She went into wrestling. She started as a little 111 pound string bean, and now she's she would be so mad if I told her wait,
but she's way more than that and so strong. And it has helped her mentally and physically and not just with wrestling, but it has also helped her in the other sports that she competes in. So big difference. I've seen it personally, and she's not the most athletic child either, and she's able to go in and have fun and compete. So I think wrestling is a great sport to start with. Chris Lanier I have a couple questions. If anybody can figure out how to answer. These. Do we have a club at each middle school that there's already available to students?
Mr. Miller, do you mind coming up to speak? I think most of these you can probably address. I know last year they had five of the seven. Excuse me, five of the eight middle schools that had a club. Okay. What's the three that didn't. I don't recall, but I think I found out afterwards. After after I met with the clubs to, get with them to help schedule
these student athletes to be able to compete in a postseason, which it was the first year they had postseason for middle school. I found out that Kenwood had a club, but I wasn't aware of that at the time. What? The information I got sent to me, only it was only five. That that or maybe it was six that showed up, but then one did not end up not having a club at the time. But then I think Kenwood does. And. Oh, you don't. Okay. They did last year. I guess they don't now.
Okay. I thought so Kenwood and West Creek and Northeast were the, middle schools last year that I did not get any information from as far as club participation and them wanting to compete in the TSSAA, sectional and state tournament. The other five I did. , and now we have a, we have a staff shortage problem. Do we at the high school level?
I mean, in terms of coaches. Yeah. Well, there's always a lot of turnover with coaches. And in every sport, throughout the, throughout the year. And I think somebody mentioned there's three openings that would be across the eight high schools. I'm not sure if that is correct or not, but we do have open positions, I'm sure of that. And, I mean, my my worry would be how do we staff if we're already working with this shortage? And then what's going to happen to the clubs to do,
do the clubs still function? I mean, are they going to dissolve. Are they going to roll into middle school? I couldn't answer that. One of them would have to. Be gone. What's this mean? The club will continue. And accessories for the all season plays during the summer. How many? How many elementary school wrestlers do you have. In the county? Hundreds. Okay. I didn't I didn't know of one.
And I'm good friends with Chris Corbin. I didn't know anything about that one. Okay. I may have something in a minute as I think. But. Thank you. Mr. Garland. If we purchase that equipment is it $320,000 worth of equipment, 260,000 worth of equipment? What would we put it? Well, that's a good question, because, putting the equipment in in the middle schools is going to be problematic,
just like we had with football. We had to buy storage facilities for them to store the equipment in the off season. We would have to do the same for wrestling. And it would probably be a bigger building than what we bought for the football teams in the. Middle school. My question. I asked that question because if we can't get the equipment to where the students are and if we can, they cannot practice year round. Would they would that be a disadvantage for our teams,
or would it be a plus? I mean, how would that affect the team sport if they couldn't practice year round, just like all the other sports? They'll have capacity. Wrestling has no restrictions by on practice. They can practice year round at the high school level and at the middle school level. So not having the opportunity to practice if we didn't have the space or the facility to do that would be a problem. So you're asking so the community is asking the board to obligate.
Millions of dollars, really, not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Millions of dollars for a sport that we don't know where we're going to put the equipment and we don't know where and how the kids are going to be able to practice, to actually become experts in that field. Not that I'm against it. I just want to I just want the answers before we actually vote. Because the bottom line, if we vote to spend $20 million to fund those eight schools, then we need to know that when the equipment come in,
that those students are ready to go, ready to go to the fields, ready to go to practice and ready to be able to participate at the level that they're supposed to be participating. That is why I asked my question. Not that I'm against. I don't think I'm against it. Thank you. Those are all obstacles, and we faced all of those obstacles with middle school football as well, and continue to face them on a daily basis with, with practice space and, and storage for equipment and those types of things. So, I mean, there are obstacles that can be overcome.
But they are definitely problems because over the years, as Anthony pointed out, the, the the schools, the middle schools have been built without athletics in mind. And so we don't have the space or the facilities to accommodate a lot of those. And I say this also because we right now at North West High School, they are still crying about the fact that they don't have space to adequately expand their football program. And if we go out and invest millions of dollars in this sport and they don't get theirs,
and we still it's still going to be a it would be a compounding problem. What I'm trying to say. Yeah. Well, I mean, we we're we're always facing challenges with our facilities. You know, in the last 2 or 3 years we've had to replace tracks at Ross View and at Kenwood. And we need to replace the track at West Creek. Tennis courts are always, you know, it's upgrading and keeping the facilities that we already have in good working order is always a challenge.
As well. But northwest has a nice space now, at the school for their, for their football program. Very nice space. Thank you. Mr. Nelson. Good evening. And well, I see that there's actually a lot of enthusiasm and support behind the middle school wrestling. And I stand behind that. Haven't been to school athlete, student athlete growing up as well. But what?
I want to ask the board is that when a decision comes before the board for funding special education, that we see the same level of enthusiasm to support those kids in special and special education, and not just for the sports, for those who have the ability to go out there and play, but those who have those disabilities that need the money and the funding to support themselves. That's all I'd like to say. Thank you. Mr. Mabry.
Yeah. Thank you. And Mr. Nelson and I believe every time we've had one of those come before the board, we have supported it. So I absolutely. I appreciate that comment. Mr. Garland appreciate the comment. Bringing up some of these these comments as well. Just for clarity, it's $260,000. It's not in the millions, hundred and $60,000 wrestling practicing year round. I mean, some some of you guys do, I'm sure because you do. But most sports in any sport, you're going to have your season. You're have a little bit before, a little after.
And then they're going to have their time off until they come back to the next season. So when I wrestle in high school, I wrestled in the season. Probably a little bit before, a little bit, after. And then we were done through the summer, coming back the next school year. So, that's typically like that equipment storage. It's actually in the, in the $260,000 to provide the facilities to store the equipment. So, I do want to put that on the record that this, that was encompassed within that. And by the way, Ross Middle School, David Johnson back here, Coach Johnson he ran a one of his clubs in that school.
And these clubs are in support of this. So I want to put that out there. So appreciate you guys. Mr. Lanier. So what storage things are we looking at. Are they going to be concrete or something out out back. Or are they going to be. How are the student I mean, high school level. They drag the mats out. Who's going to bring these things in? I mean, if they're smaller kids, I mean, how are they going to drag these big mats? But it's I kind of alluded to it.
It's it's temporary. It's it's it's not ideal, but it, it provides something. So it'd be temporary. But John, you could probably give some more. Yeah. So I think, you know, during season and, and probably preseason, they could possibly be stored in the schools. I'm not sure where in the middle schools that we would be able to do that. Possibly the auxiliary gyms, but not I don't believe all of the middle schools have auxiliary gyms. And so that would be problematic. Possibly the cafeteria,
but then but then you're looking at them getting damaged. You know, when, when you have access there, but the, the where we put the football storage facility sheds essentially is what they are. We placed them. I work with Chris Jackson on that. We placed them in the best possible location that we could. That we could run electricity to it. So I we'd have to. I'd have to work with him on that in terms of where we would place those. But yeah
the mats would have to be at, you know, some occasions would have to be brought in from, from those areas into, into the building, I would suppose. What is the season. The season for middle school wrestling? It is a winter sport. So technically the official start of that is the last week of September. Every year. And that is when middle school basketball starts. Now, but as I mentioned previously wrestling at the middle school
and the high school level with the state athletic Association has no restrictions on practice, so they can pretty much practice year round. Their season ends, as it stands now, the sectionals are the first week of December, and the state tournament is the second week of December, right before, we get out for Christmas. Break. Whereas basketball continues on goes it doesn't end in middle school until late February.
Are we going to be in a in a space problem with both of those sports, trying to use the same gym facility? Yes, sir, we probably would like I said previously, it's an obstacle. You know, we could we could figure out ways to overcome it, but it would be difficult, because you've also got cheerleaders during basketball season practicing, and so space is a problem in terms of of finding, available space for them to practice.
You talked about storing the mats in the cafeteria is a cafeteria in okay. Space for them to practice wrestling? I it could be I'm going off past experience. I spent the 1990s at Clarksville Academy, and I started wrestling there as athletic director, and that's what we had to do. For the first few years of that program was take the tables out of the cafeteria. At the end of the day and pull the wrestling mats in and, and wrestle.
Of course, they had their matches in our gym, but that's where they had to practice then. So I don't know if it's it's an ideal situation. Probably not. But, it's it's something that we could look at doing. I know a lot of things get done with football with, you know, booster club and stuff like that. This is booster club come into play in middle school sports. It is not that prevalent in our middle schools at the present time. It never really has been, for basketball,
with the advent of the new sports that we've brought on in the last few years, haven't seen much in terms of booster clubs. Developing, there there's there's a sprinkling of them, but, and I think over time, they probably will, but also at the high school, to be honest with you, it it depends on the school as to and the sport as to whether we have strong booster clubs. Okay. Thank you.
Yes. Mr. Perry. Thank you. I'm for wrestling in middle schools, but at this time, I don't think it's feasible. I think we need to table this pending more research and development of wrestling so that we can meet the needs of the students. It's not about us. It's not about how we were the champions. It's about the students and their futures. And we don't want to blunder this.
And then is it fair to the children that participate in tennis in middle school, or the ones that participate in football in middle school or golf or wrestling or tennis and softball and baseball? I think we have to be equitable, treat everyone equal. I know that most parents in elementary and middle schools fund their children's athletics,
and the sports that they participate in. I'm not saying that this will not work, but right now, we're not ready for a vote. I'm not ready to put my vote to something that has not been fully developed, and that's best for students. I think staff would be frustrated. I think students would be frustrated because we have to have ourselves together and our ducks in a row. We cannot just throw anything at the students.
We have to have a program that is organized, that is staffed and ready to roll. So they know that we have their best interests at heart. Thank you. Mr. Garland. I have one last question. How many, auxiliary gyms do we have to build? Is it eight? Auxiliary gyms for the wrestling team? So I'll say this and you probably know better than I.
Although I go out and visit schools often, I do believe that almost all of our middle schools, all the new construction, have an auxiliary gym. Okay, with them and I but you know, to to answer your question on a broader level, I absolutely think that we've got to take a comprehensive look at our at our across the board, for our athletic facilities. And again, I keep echoing what Mr. Lewis said, but and other comments. But I mean, I don't know that to answer your question that they're
they're equipped right now to continue adding as many athletics as we desire. And so, yeah, absolutely. We've got to take a look at that. But I think, Norm don't do you know the answer to that? The, the two newest schools have proper auxiliary gyms at the middle school. We renovate. Excuse me. Renovated. Another one several years ago. It's got a proper auxiliary gym. Many of them have a space that we call an auxiliary gym,
but it's more of a glorified large classroom. I believe that's four. And then one does not have even have that large classroom. So we're sort of behind the curve in terms of just general space that can be utilized. So you're talking about five auxiliary gyms that we probably going to have to build to make sure that they will be able to incorporate and save and store equipment, as well as allow them to practice. Now, my follow on question is how much do one of those facilities cost to build?
This is where we're going to get into the millions of dollars. Ladies and gentlemen. I think I think what what we're. I think there are alternatives that we can consider. In terms of space utilization, for instance, was used as an example. They, they wrestle inside the building in spaces all over that building. But they do have a separate facility for storage,
for practice and for, for team meetings. So I think I think there's different ways that we can look at this. If we really put our put our minds to. It. But ultimately, we're going to have to build those spaces, though. Am I right? Ideally, in order for this to be able to work properly, we're going to have to build a spaces. And this is a good conversation. Don't get me wrong, this is a good conversation. We need to make sure that our kids that want to do the sport, they can do the sport,
but we also need to make sure that once we get it started, that we can sustain it. As somebody said, and that we can support it financially as well as space wise. And as we're talking about safe space, and like I say, you know, I am not against anything, not against any program that will make our children better citizens of this nation. I am not against any of it. But the bottom line is we need to make sure that when we make a decision that the decision is based on sound premises.
And I think there's a lot of questions that we have here tonight that we need to go back and actually come up with a with some solutions to them and come back and have this question, have this conversation again. What would I vote for us? What would I vote for it? Yes, I would vote for it. But right now, if I voted yes, that means I'm saying that we have what we need to make sure that those children, that's once we say that we we we we ordain or we support wrestling for,
middle school, we have what we need to make sure that they are going to be successful. And I don't think we're there yet. But the bottom line is I'm whatever the board decide to do. Is there any additional questions before I call on the next speaker? Okay. Mr. Mabry. I just want to start going back through some of these things that I know the answers to is my understanding. New Providence is the only school on oxygen within our county. We're not talking about building.
New currently does not have one. New Providence is the only one that I am aware of. I've asked that question in the past. There's a difference between storing equipment and an oxygen. So oxygen would be a potential place where they would wrestle. They can wrestle in a cafeteria. We did, we we did. I mean, these guys know, we definitely did all over these schools. And I'm sure the high school programs do that now. They I've run I've literally I was on the Clarksville high team for a short amount of time. And we ran through that school all the time when it was raining outside.
There's, there's so within the schools, there's opportunity. I'm also very for expanding as, as Mr. Lewis said today and he's, he's a proud parent of a kid on the Kirkwood team. I'm very, very for expanding that. But that, that is going down the road. And we have a lot of children right now in front of us. You hear hundreds in the elementary. We have a ton of middle schoolers in these in these club programs. And this could benefit them today.
By the way, for Mr. Lanier, our mats today are far lighter than you may remember them in the past. Two, two students can pick up the mats and go. Now, just just to have that acknowledgment as well. So the facilities that we would have on the outside to store is within the 260,000. It's not additional money, it's not millions of dollars. We're not talking about going to the county commission and asking them to, right now adding an oxygen to all these schools. They have they have facilities I would love to see in the future for wrestling buildings,
but that's going to be a multi year approach that doesn't change that. We could, we could, we could launch this. We this beautiful thing about wrestling is because we have you get match, you get a coach, you get the uniforms. It's beautiful. You can go there and we can go forward with wrestling. I do want to say something was brought about booster clubs. These parents are paying for these clubs. I believe we would have booster clubs support. All these parents are doing that. Miss Berry brought up. You mentioned bringing up the success of the past.
I bring that I bring that up because it's the success of the future that we could have. That's the reason I bring that up. I'm not mentioning it. Just to mention the great accolades of our state champions out here. I do that because these guys have devoted their lives to this, and they're pouring into these kids. These kids, these guys are touching far more kids than than, you know, any of us are on that individual level week in and week out. They're pouring into that generation. And I believe this program's, in the middle school will help that you you asked, is it fair?
I just want to make the comment back to you is if we never do anything to expand a program, then we'll never have any new programs. You're going to have to do it one at a time. We're not going to just overnight have all the programs at once. We got to start as we did in 2017. Start with the program and go on from there. And we can pick these up as we go over the next several years. We got middle school flag football, I'm sorry, middle school football at the ground, which is the reason, by the way, I made a comment that I was asked to delay a year. That was the reason I was asked to delay your
two years ago was they wanted to continue to make that successful and I, I said that was totally fine. You also mentioned is not fully developed. We have a year ahead of us. This is the 2026 season. I just want to make sure the board understands that, the 2026 season, it's a full year. We have plenty of time to develop, and we have if we allocate the budget today, we'll have the resources to make sure that these are, going to be successful. And the last thing I thought would be important to mention and these guys know it,
the tournaments that these kids would go to they like club programs, utilize the high school sets with their mats on Fridays. They have their club, I'm sorry. They have their matches. They go into Saturday morning and then Saturday afternoon. Guess what? Middle school. They jump into the already established, tournament there. And guess what happens Sunday morning? The elementary kids come over and use the same setup already. So that's already kind of built in in the high schools. And I'm sure they would continue to have that same trend. So when they have tournaments, they kind of help and depend on each other.
And a lot of those high schoolers come and help out those middle schoolers and elementary schoolers, and they help mentor them along the way as. Well. Mr. Bryant. I have a couple questions. I don't know who to ask this to. What is the cost that the parents pay for club right now? Do you guys know about the cost? $300 per kid for club. 150 three scholarships. Okay. And then where where do you guys currently store the mats and wrestle for the club?
Okay, so there, it's already happening in the schools. It's just a matter of making it sanctioned versus non sanctioned. Okay. Another thing I also wanted to note that I think is really important that hasn't been mentioned is the cool thing about wrestling is that many kids can participate. So we're looking at, you know, this budget and it's not like basketball where only five kids play at once, or 10 or 15 kids make the team. I mean, you guys have 65 kids in your program. Plus, and I noticed that with Montgomery Central, too.
I mean, there's 70. I was amazed, I'm like, what do you how do you how do you work with all of these kids at once? But they do and it's awesome. So I think that's another great thing about the wrestling program is kids at all levels can can participate, which doesn't happen in other sports. Chris Lanier. So I was in Hopkinsville this week and they were talking about theirs is they're sanctioning different than ours because in their middle school, they can only have 14. Is that going the state level or something?
I think that. We have more. Okay. I was just wondering if it limited because they're doing different stuff with their district. I know for Tennessee was the same. Mm. Aspect. Whole thing. Their. Gotcha. Okay. Boys and girls, two things. Right.
What time frame do we need to implement a wrestling program in 2026? Does this need to be voted on now with little information? I mean, we just heard about this two weeks ago. I mean, I know Aaron's been talking about it for a while. I don't know who can answer that question. I mean, does it need to be voted tonight or can we find any more information? And yeah, me ask my big questions. John Miller, do you have an answer to that? Are you asking in terms of getting equipment and hiring coaches and all the aspects.
All the stuff? I mean, does it need to be tonight so we're ready to go in 26, or can we vote on this in December? I mean, does it have to be in August of 25? I think I mean, I think you could take more time to, to study. And get more information., you know, with, and I'm thinking back to how we did middle school football and we budgeted one year for the equipment but that wasn't really purchased until,
like the, the probably after Christmas that we got it. And because we had to develop places to store it and that kind of thing. So it wasn't until spring or summer that we got that equipment in. And then the next year we implemented it. Once we had the equipment. So I would say based on that experience that you have, time to to look at it further, if you would like. How many months do you. Need? , with equipment, we we would probably need to get
stuff starting in terms of order. This spring. Okay. Yeah. To have it ready for next school year. Right? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Miss Berry. You're on. You're on. You're good. Okay. I just want to say my logic is making sure that we're ready.
I'm not saying not have wrestling in the middle school. And of course, I know we can't do it all. At once. Miss Mayberry, that's not logical. However, I do say that we need to research it. Plan it out, and have it organized in a way that it is effective for the children, you know, and I guess it's a part of being an educator for 35 years. You know, you plan, then you execute the plan.
And so I think that's what we need to do. And we have the staff to do that. And I believe that it can be a reality. I'm not saying close the door on middle school wrestling, but I am saying we need to plan it out and roll it out in a way that it will be beneficial to the children of this community. Thank you. Before I call you Mr. Mayberry, two points that I want to make.
Based on conversations I've heard. First of all, I am all in favor of wrestling. Jerry Taylor was my wrestling coach in Northwest High School back when the first original paint on the door was still damp and Matt Slight was my son's wrestling coach at Northwest High School. When he already replaced one of the doors. My question to you, mister. Maybe you've asked for a budget amendment, but then you stated this program. You're asking for for the following school year,
not the current school year, then there's no need for a budget amendment for a current budget. If your motion is for it to begin in the next school year. My understanding was you want it funded now to get the wrestling program started now. But you just stated it's for the following school year, so there's no need of a budget amendment. You're wrong. Okay. The reason for that Mr. Griffy,
is I was I've done this. I've, I've got two years now. I've done this, and it didn't get in the budget, so I'm bringing that up now. Okay. So that that's that's the why there. Okay. Would you like to which this is for the next school year. Would you like to withdraw your motion and make a different one that the board would like for the wrestling program to begin in the following school year, which would not require a budget amendment? So, Mr. Nolan can I do a motion
to direct the district to put it in the budget next year? How would that work? Well. The budget we just approved runs through. What, end of June? You're right. So if we're going to have to order the mats, as Mr. Miller said, to be arrive in the spring, you're going to have to do a budget amendment because it's not in the budget currently. As the motion stands currently, it would be to modify the budget currently to add it so you could buy the equipment next year, you would be funding for the coaches because that would be in the next school year.
So that wouldn't require a budget amendment for that. That would just be in the next year's budget. How long would it take to get the equipment once it's ordered? A couple of months, I think. Yes sir. And the budget is the budget for the following school year is approved in the spring, so there's plenty of time to order as long as it's in the budget. So. So the the budget runs through the end of June. Right? Right. So the new budget wouldn't start until July 1st. So if you're going to order equipment to be here in the spring,
you'll have to modify the current budget. Which we do by monthly modify the budget for different reasons. . Mr. Maybe that was my question. You had your mic you were asking for. I'm sorry, I was I was waiting for it to come on. I do want to point out that the, the schools that don't have these clubs, you know, most of them are in North Clarksville. So Kenwood doesn't have the club. No. New Providence does not have a club. I don't. Does West Creek out there, guys, they do. A lot of these clubs in North Clarksville have,
have had these clubs. They don't have these opportunities, is what I'm saying. There. My school program is a new Providence. Those kids don't have this opportunity. We're trying to create opportunities across the district. For for this, that where they don't have to potentially pay,. The reason I brought up tonight, I want to keep kicking it down the road. But, Mr. Lanier, I am willing to say, let's table this for a month or so to get you more information, if that's what you're needing. I would also ask what? What's been answered?
I don't think there's a lot more to get answered, you know. So if you think that there is more information to receive, then I'm willing to table it for a month and we can come back and have this conversation again. So up to you on. That. I want to let you all know that, I mean, I support middle school wrestling. I mean, wrestling as a whole. The thing is, is, I mean, my big question with this is two weeks ago, we talk about it. I've asked a bunch of people questions in my free time,
and then I don't want to make a decision tonight that forces us to go down a path that we have to get it done. We need to make sure we have the space. I don't want to sound like I'm just repeating everything Miss Berry said, but it kind of sounds the same way. You know, we there's a lot of people that ask questions. You just can't throw something at a wall and hope it sticks. So, I mean, I think there is a reason to not do it tonight because I don't think it's that pressing.
So yes. Is there a call for a vote or a motion for table? I don't think I need to do a motion if it's my my if it's my movement, I can just say next month. Right. Postponed. Yes. Yeah. So let's do that. Let's postpone this till next month. Give you an opportunity to ask more questions to community members. And I would encourage you encourage the community members, the wrestling coaches all you out there come and email us, speak back to us.
You've heard a lot of these questions. Speak to them. Parents of all these hundreds of kids, speak to us, email us. Come to the next meeting. Because I believe this is definitely worth the conversation. Thank you. My suggestion is we ask Dr. Vetter to make a presentation at our next work session concerning logistics and the number of coaches necessary to make this program successful. When we begin. It. And the time frames necessary to make
to order things and when exactly the amendment would need to be made. All right. Anything else? Comments by Fort Campbell School Liaison Officer. Thank you. CMCEA representative. I'll be brief tonight. That was a rather lengthy conversation, but I do know more about wrestling than I did before. I'll tell you that, I would like to take time tonight to acknowledge the CMCSS back to school kickoff events.
They were a lot of fun, and they created a great atmosphere that made educators and school employees feel excited about the new school year. And I'm not just saying that because Northeast High School won the Spirit Trophy. We really did deserve that this year. I also want to acknowledge that it did not go unnoticed that our school board members came to the event, especially Chris Lanier. I saw him, I think, well, I didn't go to all of them, but the camera found you at all of them and I thank you for showing up and you definitely did show up to Northeast High School. I think it's very important to see our board members at
the schools and out in the community and just not here on Tuesday nights. CMCEA looks forward to working with the board members this year through collaborative conferencing. And I know that with mutual respect, shared purpose, and a clear focus on doing what is best for educators and students, we can make Clarksville-Montgomery County the very best place to live, teach my voice and learn. Thank you. Thank you pet representative. Yeah.
Well, I'm going to be even shorter than she was. I just want you to know, we've kicked off the year. We're in the third full week of school, and we have hit the ground running. So I also want to tell you, education wise, September 17th is our Constitution Day. So if you have not dusted off your Constitution and read through, I have quizzed some of my adult colleagues and they are sadly lacking in Constitution knowledge. So dust off your Constitution. Thank you. Mr. County Commissioners.
Thank first. First of. All, I'd like to point out a little history lesson in my previous term on this committee, 20 1617. I asked Mr. House, who was in our Director of schools, to add volleyball to our school system. I asked him over a period of two years, I think essentially the reason volleyball was added was that he was tired of talking to me about it. I'm glad that we added volleyball,
but volleyball as a sport was a very inexpensive sport. To add. But but what I'm looking at, at these things, we've just approved a budget very shortly ago, and now we're looking at adding tremendous amount to that budget. What I would ask you to consider is for middle school, let's not be haphazard in adding sports one at a time. It was hard to get volleyball added.
I'm one of those people that supports volleyball. I have a daughter that played five years in high school volleyball. Even as a middle schooler and also as a club coach who's deeply involved. I was at a volleyball match last night, Clarksville High and Montgomery Central. I go to quite a lot of them. Let's not favor one sport over another, I think wrestling is great. My basketball coach in high school suggested I wrestle.
May have been my basketball ability. There, but let's not add one sport at the detriment of others. When we looked at that list, there were a tremendous amount of sports that were not being participated at the middle school level. The one thing we know about sports is whether it's an individual or a team atmosphere. The big advantage of sports are they aid in academic achievement. They help us learn to work together as as a team to accomplish things,
because that's the kind of skills we need for the future. I think my colleague here has a little bit to add as well. I do. I'm not against expanding athletics at all. Mr. Garland, I appreciate your comment. Anything that has to do with enriching the lives of children, count me in. That's just the way I am. My fellow commissioners will tell you the same thing. That's how I am.
But I would ask you this question. What are we doing to expand the education of our children? That's just one. Next thing. It wasn't in this year's budget right? So why don't we just wait till next year? And the reason why I say that if you did not get one penny more other than for cost of living raises for your teachers,
bus drivers, school administrators, what are you willing to cut to fund this? Because at the end of the day, we are going to have to go back to the citizens of Montgomery County and raise their taxes. That's not going to be an easy sell for us. So please keep that in mind when you start asking for this money on top of money, on top of money. We are not a bottomless pit.
We answer to our constituents and people going to come and say, you want to do this for volleyball? I mean for wrestling. What are you going to do for volleyball? What are you going to do for the condition of our schools? Keep these things in mind. This is not a bottomless pit. And if this was voted on right now, I would have to vote against it. Because somewhere down the line, I'm going to have to go. Look, these people that voted for me in the face, hey, look, we're raising your taxes. That's all I got to say.
Thank you. Comments by board members. Mr. Mabry. Yeah, I'm thankful for the conversation tonight. I'm doing this because of hundreds, literally of children out there entering middle school are in middle school that this will impact I do want to respectfully push back in this county. Commissioners, we're not adding to the budget. We have $70 million in our fund budget. This will not change the budget. It's just say you guys pass amendments all the time that we do internally, and that's all this would be.
So we're not asking you for more money. We're not asking you to fund more for this to happen. We have the money in the budget. It'd be a budget amendment from the fund budget. So just be very clear on that. Which also means we're not cutting anything. We have $70 million in our fund budget. We're not cutting a thing, and we're not going to raise taxes. That's. I know that's not at all. Also, this is not expensive. This is a one time cost for all these schools.
This is not expensive. So this is the better. Hundreds of children. That's what this is for. Not raising taxes, not cutting anything. And we already have the money. So. So, also just the comment, for everyone over another. Again, we gotta start somewhere. That's what the conversation is about. I'm for adding more sports and we will do that as time goes along. We've done that previously, but if we didn't start somewhere, we wouldn't have basketball. We wouldn't have football,
we wouldn't have cross country. We start somewhere and this is the next step that I'm proposing tonight. But again, board, thank you for the conversation. Look forward to having the conversation again next month. Mr. Lanier. I just want to thank Miss Outlaw for those comments. I was at every one of the back to school kickoffs and everyone that the senior leadership team went to to start the kids off with the half days. So, I mean, I think it's just as much as important to support your teachers as it is your students.
And then, had a question for Kent. Do you still have your onesie? Yes. Okay. Singlet singlet whatever. It's called. Singlet. Yeah. Mr. Berry. Whatever it's called. I just want to say that the priorities should be academic improvement. And of course that is our main focus to make sure that
students are academically sound and they reach their potential and their college and career ready when they finish our schools and graduate from CMCSS. I love athletics, all sports. However, if we had the same enthusiasm about academic improvement, a miracle would take place in our classrooms.
Also, the mental health of our students, if we had that same enthusiasm about making sure that all our students are mentally sound and getting the help that they need, we need to keep our priorities in order. And I pray that we don't lose our focus on why we're here. Thank you. Mr. Garland. Dr. Luna, what is the purpose of the Rainy Day Fund?
The $260,000. Do you do you mean the fund balance? Fund balance, right? Yeah. So. And Jeff Taylor can obviously answer this better than I can, but essentially the fund balance is is in place. There's a certain amount that is a minimum amount and that we are historically far above that as we should be to be fiscally responsible. But essentially the idea is that we would dip into that as needed. Which we did have to a little bit this year. But we, we did try to come in as balanced as possible this year,
knowing it might be a tight fiscal year. How many children left the school system and go to private school, public charter. Schools. We continue to to actually look at those numbers. And we are not given that information from the state. We have pulled some initial data from our power school. And right now it continues to look like we have actually received more children coming from private school than we have lost this year.
That's not the question I asked. How many children do we have? Leave public schools, go to private charter schools? We don't have any charter schools, but private schools. We currently, when we pulled the power school data, again, we cannot account for kindergartners. So we don't know. But students who had been enrolled in this district the last time we pulled the data, it's actually less than 100 students currently.
Okay, great. So because I was wondering how many actually sign up for that, because I wanted to know what impact that those dollars amount at seven $7,000 per copy, I believe. The district has not released that information or does not release that information. So we may never get that. But but. But I, I can I can ask the question though, right. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. So so my thing is that I really do believe that wrestling is coming to our middle schools don't don't take anything that's been said up here.
For those that are actually advocating even you, Mr. Mayberry, that we are advocating against wrestling. But as the leaders for this district, as the school board members for this district, we need to make sound decisions and decisions that we make need to be done with all of the information that we partial information. And I think I thank each of you for the come for the comments that you made, because all of them, they were pertinent that was needed for me to actually be able to make a decision. I don't know how I would have voted tonight,
but I believe after we get all the information, I believe that we're being in the queue to actually work with you and each one of you brought something to the table that made us think, about what it is that we're doing. Even the the queue, made us think about what it is we're doing as a district. And I appreciate the district for the work that you do for your for your leadership and for your desire to make sure that all of our children are actually educated to the highest potential that we can possibly do. Thank you.
Mr. Nelson. All right. Good evening everyone. I don't know if some of you may know. Some of you may not know that the seat I currently hold was held by Pastor Willie J. Freeman. Who was my pastor for many years. And he said if he wasn't a pastor, he would have been a comedian. So he passed away last month. But in his spirit, I want to tell one of his jokes. He said when he was a little boy,
he went to school for the first day. And when he got home, his grandfather said, how was school? And he says, well, I didn't learn too much. I had to go back tomorrow. So you get that on on the way home. Okay. But anyway, if you ever see a turtle on a fence, you know, he didn't get there by himself. And you know I say that to say this, my time on the board is coming to an end.
This would be my last official board meeting. I submitted my notice about two weeks ago. I've had some personal health issues. I'd just like to say that my time on the board has been very fulfilling. And I've got to thank many of you who've supported me. And, I thank you for all the support that I did receive. Of course, Mr. Garland has been there. Miss Berry has been there for me. Mr. Lanier and Mr. Griffy down in Atlanta.
I think we were able to really get together and bond as a board. You know while we may not always totally agree, we all have our own reasons for what we do. And one of one of the things that I've come to is, you know, I've spent over 24 years as an analyst. And so whether I want to do it or not, anytime anyone says anything to me, I think about it later to see what context it was set in and what they meant and what their ultimate goal was.
And that was something that I can't turn off. And so each board member and the director, as well as Mr. Nolan, after I have conversations with them, I, I kind of go through that. But I thank you for that. And I understand where they all come from. And everyone here has a good heart and has the best intentions for the students. Okay. Our main goal here is to educate our students and to take care of our teachers. And and that's one of the things that we tend to try to do very well.
As the board goes on without me, I just ask that you be very careful about the things that we bring before the board, and let's not usurp the board power any, any way or any fashion. Let's keep the people of Clarksville and our students at the top of our mind at the forefront. And I just want to say also thank you to our Stefi Outlaw and and Chaz and all those other people who've helped me. Mrs. Long, thank you for the support.
Dr. Luna-Vedder. Norm. All right. Thank you, Anthony and many others. Okay. Thank you for that support that you've given me over the years. And with that also, I have to tip my hat to our county commissioners because as we go to some of these conferences, nationwide conferences, we see that all boards do not get along with the county commissioners. And it's a difficult process. So I thank you for your support and helping us and and funding our budget.
And I do reflect back on the time that I've had here, as when I was able to serve as chair. We went through a, a Rezoning, we went through a search for a new director. We went through opening a new school and we won board of the year. So thank God for that. And all of you take care and God bless you. Mr. Mabry. I will say that my final comment, but I do want to say, Mr. Nelson, I highly respect you, sir.
You are such a great man. You you've just been a great colleague to work on this board, and I just just thank you. And we'll be praying for you. Thank you. Should call on director of schools now, but instead, I'm going to ask that they pass the gavel down to Mr. Nelson and let him finish his meeting out as he finishes out his stay here. Amen. We hereby conclude this board meeting. Oh, I'm sorry.
Okay. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Director of schools, doctor Luna-Vedder. He just doesn't want me to talk about him. So. Good evening, board members. As was mentioned, this does mark the the third full week of school for the 2526 school year. I would like to thank the administrators, faculty staff parents students and school board for an extremely smooth start to the school year. We're continuing to fine tune bus routes and training for bus drivers to fill all of our open routes in the coming weeks. Next, I want to personally thank Mr. Nelson for his years of
service as a school board member for Clarksville Montgomery County School System. After working with you very closely the past couple of years, I can attest that you have always had the best interest of students, educators, and the system at heart in all of your decision making. You ask the best questions. I thank you for your continued support. You will be missed and I don't know what I'm going to do at 6:30 a.m. Every Monday. When I always called you on my drive to work and you were driving to yours.
So please excuse me if I happen to call you accidentally. 630 on some Monday morning in the future. Mr. Griffy, this concludes my report for the evening. Thank so. I will go through some withdrawals on those Monday morning. And that concludes our meeting.