this meeting of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Board of Education will now come to order We'll all stand say the pledge of allegiance and have 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 Luna-Vedder Yes I'd like to welcome our Chief Communications Officer Anthony Johnson to deliver tonight's points of pride Good evening board Um although it is summer break and we know lots of students are out relaxing or or doing I'm sure lots of reading and and catching up we are proud and thankful that we have students here tonight to receive some points of pride I do want to mention that at the TSSAA spring fling we actually had several winners Uh some are here tonight and some we will recognize in August based
upon scheduling conflicts But first if I could have the Clarksville High School baseball team along with their coaches and administrator representatives to please come forward As they come forward I'm going to read their names Aiden Claret, Benton Barksdale, Braden Taylor, Carter Hedrick, Christopher Abernathy, Cooper Nebben, Dalton Byrd, Dawson Smith, Drew Hawkins, Dylan Wicks, Emory Garton, Holden Lanham, Jack Wyatt, Jackson Brunner, Jackson Reese, Braxton Weatherford, Kayden Pledger, Keaton Anderson, Kirk Weatherford, Korbin Reynolds,
Mason Stuard, Michael Moore, Noah Baggett, Porter Murff their head coach Hetland and assistant coaches Hams, Hayes, Kirkland, and Robichaud As you may have seen in the news this team made history from Clarksville High School The most runs scored most wins best winning percentage and the first runner-up title for the school They were the TSSAA 4A district and region and section champions and the state runner up And if you watched the game if you
got to be there or you were on the the game changer app like me it was a great game and they played their hearts out and we're very proud of them Congratulations Clarksville High School All right And next from Kenwood High School if Marie Jones along with any coaches and admin representatives that are here could please come forward at the spring fling Marie Jones won third place in the TSSAA state track
discus competition And if you've never tried to throw a discus it's a very challenging thing to do So congratulations to Marie And next from Kirkwood High School if Kelton Cantrell along with administrators and coach representatives could please come forward Kelton was the semifinalist at the TSSAA state tennis boys singles championship Congratulations Kelton
And from Northeast High School if TaiAhna Hamilton could please come forward along with admin representatives and coaches As she makes her way up I will share that she won fourth place in the TSSAA state track high jump competition Congratulations TaiAhna
And that concludes this evening's points of pride Next will be public conversation We have two people signed up to speak tonight First speaker is Ms Rachel Susanna Butler If you would make your way to the podium If you would when you reach the podium uh hit the button on the uh silver button on the front that will turn your microphone on The timer will display It will blink again to blink whenever you uh have one minute to go It automatically close off when you're finished
Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to address the board My name is Suzanne Albright Butler I am a fifth generation Clarksvillian In fact my grandmother was raised in a home just down the street here on Gracey Ave I've seen our city grow in leaps and bounds and it continues to evolve and progress I love Clarksville I also have three children in CMCSS public schools since 2016 This is not a political stunt I'm not a woke liberal leftist as dismissive comments have suggested I'm a mom who supports and believes in public education I wanted to remind you that
you were elected to serve a diverse population of students At the April meeting a member of this board sent two cronies who quite literally stood here and trashed public schools in front of students parents and educators that you serve There are serious issues at hand plaguing our students and schools When I asked my seventh grader what challenges she faces at school she said the number one thing is fighting and bullying They've already had locker privileges removed and
now they're escorted to their classrooms in single file lines by their teachers eerily representative of a prison On a recent high school tour for my upcoming ninth grader the sophomore student who hosted us said that she avoids using the restroom all day at school due to vaping and bullying My eighth grader says that some students are so hungry they will go around the cafeteria asking people if they're finished with their lunch so that they can eat leftovers The same eighth grader has a teacher who personally door dashes food to her students over the weekend because she knows
they won't eat otherwise Several of their teachers work as servers and have night jobs to supplement their income leaving them even more exhausted and depleted the next day Their restroom at school was out of soap for days due to lack of supply or lack of custodial staff to replenish it At the graduation ceremony at Kenwood Middle the roof was leaking so badly in multiple places parents and visitors were asked to move seats As money is budgeted for more schools and new schools
are built and that is needed I am here for the often forgotten and sometimes neglected schools of North Clarksville Things are broken So how can you claim to be for public schools when you are also actively working to dismantle and disparage the very things that help our students there is more than one member on this board who has made public transphobic comments which affects the students and communities you were elected to serve Some on this board have sought to eliminate DEI
DEI is not just about color as some pundits would have you believe It includes accessibility like ramps curbs and accommodations for neurodivergent children Measures that help ensure the playing field is level and success is attainable for all students You cannot claim to be the voice of your district when you're actively marginalizing vulnerable communities such as persons of color neurodivergent children and LGBTQ persons You cannot say you're for public schools at your night job and then in your day job promote pass and prepare legislation that diverts funding and
students away from public schools This board should be an apolitical place where the needs of students and educators are prioritized The Tennessee Board of Education governance policies adopted by CMCSS It is written that members will at all times represent the entire school community and refuse to represent special interests or partisan politics Yet when confronted with this blatant conflict of interest Mr Maberry was asked on Facebook if he would resign and
he said quote "I'm simply finishing my term to make sure the seat stays Republican." End quote I am calling on this board to pass a resolution where a school board member cannot concurrently hold two publicly elected positions This is a simple way to help ensure that members on this board have Clarksville-Montgomery County students' best interest at heart I'm calling on you the board members to remember the population that you serve Even if they may not look like you talk like you or vote like you they deserve a voice too So I leave you with
the question are you for public schools or not thank you Thank you Next speaker is Amanda Frost Ms Frost again press the right front silver button will turn the mic on You'll have five minutes It will begin the light will begin to blink when you have one minute to go and will go silent when your time is up You may begin Good evening everyone My name is Amanda Frost I spoke last month
and ran out of time so I'm back and hopefully a little bit more condensed I'm a parent of three children with varying needs in our school system a professional working in behavioral intervention and a community member deeply invested in both the success and accountability of our schools Two months ago someone said our schools suck and why would they change if they don't have to to address the lack of voucher support That still sticks with me because we have some of the most incredible teachers and professionals in this district barely scraping by while the system they work in refuses to change I'm here to talk about the systemic neglect of students who need
behavioral and emotional supports I'm asking where is the investment in our kids' mental health where are the trained interventionalists the trauma-informed practices and the support for staff being asked to carry escalating needs with nothing but burnout and good intentions I'm not talking about district interventionists by the way I'm talking about the ones that stay in the classrooms and schools Too many students are being funneled out of classrooms for being disruptive when what they really need is regulation redirection and real support Too many parents
are being told their child is fine while behaviors are ignored interventions are delayed and data is manipulated in line with district training from the top down not the student's reality I have children with IEPs and 504s I've watched those protections be treated like paperwork and not lifelines I've watched teachers try their best with no real resources I've watched administrators weaponize the policy instead of using it to serve the children This isn't a speech to bash
teachers or staff I know many of them are just as frustrated This is a demand for better systems Systems where diagnosis isn't dismissed just because a child doesn't look autistic enough Systems where parents don't have to record every meeting and cross-check data to make sure we can prove that our children are struggling Systems where parents sorry systems where the response to a meltdown isn't suspicion or isolation or parent blame systems where teachers aren't forced into
roles beyond their job descriptions and where they are properly staffed and supported This isn't about my kid It's about yours It's about the kids in the back who stopped asking for help The ones who lashes out because they don't know how to ask for break It's about the kids who are already being left behind in a district that claims all means all Last month y'all heard from Megan Wise about the abuse systemic failure and the district's refusal to take it responsibility If you thought those things she described were isolated events I'm here to tell you it's not
I've witnessed some of it in my own children's school I've seen the children's children excluded instead of supported I've seen the teachers crying in classrooms terrified of what might happen next with no one behind them including the administration If this board continues to look the other way in the fact that these aren't just isolated events they're district policies in action harming students and staff every day If you keep dismissing the abuse as a training gap while
refusing to actually require the training then you are complicit You are responsible for the next injury responsible for the next exclusion responsible for the next teacher that we are already short of who walks away because they can't carry the weight of these decisions I don't want sympathy I don't want just blanket words to make me feel happy because if you can't tell I'm not going away I want action because our kids and the staff who show up for them every day deserve more than excuses and just words They deserve more than the bare minimum And I want to
be clear if it wasn't between the last two times I've spoken This isn't a teacher issue a parent issue a student issue This is a policy failure and a leadership failure at an accountability failure I am beyond tired of teachers and parents and students and staff being pitted against each other while the system continues to benefit from making each category the other and demonizing them We should be working together But I need everyone to pay attention to how this board responds to criticism to how they are handling the bullying the toxicity and abuse whether it's from a student
administrator or someone sitting at this very table Because ignoring it excusing it or doing anything other than encouraging or anything other than addressing it is the same as encouraging it When the time comes take that knowledge to the polls no matter which party line it's on Thank you Next item is approval of consent agenda I have a motion of Ms Berry and a second with Mr Maberry
All in favor wait a minute Forgot about the electronics Please cast your vote Is everyone satisfied with your vote please close your vote Passes 6-0 Next item policy monitoring Dr Luna-Vedder Board please find in your packet information on executive limitation 8 commitment to accomplishment accountability accreditation
and reporting This executive limitation has one compliance expectation to ensure the director of schools shall not fail to maintain an accountability program Specifically CMCSS has a comprehensive strategic planning process which includes using level one student achievement and level two department performance data In addition to this data administration meets regularly to formally listen to how performance is perceived by school leaders stakeholder groups and department
leaders In level one school and districts are expected to meet AMO which is annual measurable objectives identified for the district based on the ESSA baseline built from the previous year's performance This district is assessed on student performance in seven areas measured through three different pathways Each area pathways and action plans are listed in the packet Furthermore senior leadership team members design annual strategic work based on changes at the state and national
levels as well as feedback from stakeholders at all levels and other district work that needs to be implemented or improved to accomplish the level two requirements In conclusion the district is currently working on high school accreditation updates with Cognia and is due to be completed in Fall 2026 In Fall 2021 CMCSS began the transition to ISO certification for educational organization and in April 2025 was recommended for unconditional approval for
the third year in a row Chairman Griffy this concludes my update for Executive Limitation 8 Is there a motion to accept Executive Limitation 8 have one from Mr Garland Is there a second second from Ms Bryant Any discussion please open the vote Is everyone satisfied with your vote please close the vote
Passes 6-0 Next item reports I'd like to welcome the communications team of Anthony Johnson Elizabeth Vincent and Jessica Goldberg to discuss our goal nine driving academic support from families through improving our family friendly instructional resources Good evening board Uh I want to preface this with with two things One uh we're going to give a snapshot of some of this work It's it's not all inclusive but we wanted to give you a sample And in fact on your on your
uh desk in front of you you've got Jessica put together a folder She'll talk about that here in a little bit but this is just going to be a brief overview Um and I want to share that this work uh I always tell my team we only exist to serve others And so this is all in collaboration with others So although we're presenting on it we want to thank every department every teacher uh every family for their work in partnering with us on this Um and so I'm going to turn it over We're going to talk about three different things Uh but first Elizabeth's going to talk a little bit about our parent and guardian survey data from this year
All right Hello board Uh very glad to be here to talk with you all tonight a little bit about this goal for engaging the public in support of student achievement Uh which our goal for this year was driving academic support from families through improving family-friendly instructional resources And I want to share some data both that informed this goal as well as some data that we continually track as a department year after year likely will regardless of what our strategic work goal is Um so the first two questions that you'll see reflected here are some of the data that informed
uh the creation of this goal and our partnership with other departments The first question is one that we ask every year on our parent and guardian survey Uh my child is learning what he or she needs to be prepared for the future The question goes on to say whether college career or the next grade level so that all of our families are included in responding to that question You can see from our most recent iteration of the survey this spring we continue to have really strong agreement overall We're about 92 93% agreement among families that students are
learning what they need to learn to be prepared for the future Some of what we looked at that informed the way that we approached this particular strategic work goal wasn't so much about overall agreement which you know we we can definitely continue to improve and we strive for that but overall the agreement was really strong What we did see were some gaps among parents' agreement whether they had students that were elementary aged versus uh in the secondary grades We did see some gaps there So uh that's kind of what informed a lot of this work and I'll go into that a little bit more specifically momentarily but you can see
here generally about 92 to 93% agreement with that statement Another question that was really important for our work in this goal has to do with resources This question reads, "I have the resources I need to help my child be prepared for the future." In earlier versions of the parent survey this question was worded a little bit differently The question actually read um I understand my role in supporting my students education And you can see where we changed the wording of that question and how it affected the overall agreement We typically had very
high agreement with that statement that families understood their role but we didn't get a whole lot of information from that question that helped us know how to continue to make improvements And so we adjusted the wording of that question in the Spring 24 version of the survey to ask more specifically about resources Do families not only understand their role but have the resources that they need to fulfill that role and so you can see we've continued to increase were also at about 92 to 93% agreement with that statement We saw a little bit of fluctuation between the fall and
the spring but again we noticed some gaps between parents agreement at the secondary and elementary levels which informed the way that that our team approached this particular strategic work goal some other data points for you that just represent metrics that we continually track year after year and show um what we believe are some of the strong gains that result from where we put our focus as a team for the last several years Um my child's school keeps me well informed When we deployed this survey in its current form for the first time in Fall 2020 that was around 89%
agreement with that statement And we've continued to see increases all the way up to 95% agreement in the Fall 94% in the Spring among families And um we have been so impressed and encouraged by the work that we see in our schools every day to engage families to provide them with support We believe that parent square has made a huge difference in terms of the daily communication that families are receiving You'll hear a little bit more about that from Anthony momentarily But this is something that we have continued to track year after year and continue to see really strong
increases on Similarly uh the question for our work as a district the school district as a whole keeps me well informed We've also seen that particular question the agreement on that climb to around 94% agreement uh when we started this question and and I've shared this with you all before I believe but something that's important to know about this particular question when we first started deploying this survey um it was on the heels of the COVID pandemic really kind of ratcheting up in schools and we were communicating with families a lot an excessive amount sometimes
multiple times per day were we sending district messages to families and so when we first started tracking this metric for these purposes is we did see agreement with that statement start to go down which we were actually pretty happy about We wanted that to level off a little bit because typically the district won't communicate with families on a daily basis So one of our goals was to find the right balance between how much families hear from the district as a whole how much families hear directly from their school which is really who they want to hear from They
want to hear from their child's teacher they want to hear from their child's leadership um and how much they hear directly from teachers So we believe that all of these data points are signs that we're getting that balance in the right place We're continuing to see families feel well informed And regarding the resources that we've been working to provide to families through this strategic work goal I want to share a little bit of the success that we've seen with that specifically So I mentioned to you all that the thing that really drove us to work toward this particular strategic work effort had to do with the gaps that we were seeing between agreement
from elementary families versus agreement from secondary families While overall agreement was strong and you can see here on that question uh my child is learning what he or she needs to be prepared for the future Agreement from elementary families was at 93% while agreement from our secondary families our middle and high school families was at 88% So we wanted to see those gaps close For the question regarding I have the resources I need to support my child's education Again 93% overall agreement from elementary families and for secondary families it was at
89% So you will see reflected in the information that Anthony and Jessica will share with you the the way that we put our focus based on these gaps And what you can see is that in the Spring 2025 survey we uh saw elementary agreement with the question about children learning what they need rose to 94% and secondary agreement actually increased by two percentage points to close that gap a little bit So now we're seeing a four point gap rather than a five point gap Um while one
percentage point may not seem like a tremendous amount of gain when you think about the amount of families that potentially represents um you know with the survey sample size that we have of about 17,000 students being represented that could be as many as 180 families that are potentially seeing a shift in perspective or a shift in greater understanding greater resources greater support And so those those incremental changes are really important either in the positive or the negative We want to make sure that we're seeing that Um I also want to point out something that we're really
happy about which is that we're closing these gaps the right way Ideally you don't want to close gaps by seeing one group decrease and the other group increase that they're closer together You want one group to increase at the top and the other group to increase faster which is what we're seeing with this particular goal So we're very happy about that Similarly on I have the resources I need to support my child's education Elementary at 94% overall agreement secondary at 90% agreement We will continue providing updates as we do more of this work next year But you'll hear a little bit
now about parent square and the role that parent square has played in increasing our reach for families as well as some of the resources we've been working to provide to meet these particular needs So I'll turn it over to Anthony at this point Thank you And I want to give a shout out to Elizabeth and her team Dallas and Jamie In addition to the data point around that we received 17,500 a little over that survey responses we also allow parents to give open-ended responses And so that team spends a lot of time going through those and tracking and trending And that helps to inform
us too because yes we ask a a simple question but sometimes within that question being able to get some more of the information is very helpful especially when it comes to to creating resources Um I also just want to acknowledge one thing Um and I'll give a little bit of my age here by saying this but when I was in kindergarten in 1992 in Chicago I went to part-time kindergarten and I had a wonderful teacher Ms McCoy so this is not a dig at her but we had a great time We learned songs we learned to color lots of things Kindergarten is not like that anymore Uh education
has has changed quite a bit The rigor is there And so uh I want to acknowledge that while we're asking our families and our parents to partner with us um you know it's challenging and it's it's a lot different than what many of us grew up And so by providing these resources again the emphasis on family friendly so they know how to support their child at home breaking down these standards some of these complicated concepts And I think what you'll see is we've really put a lot of focus at secondary and Jessica will share that and trying to help because I mean kindergarten's
tough enough nowadays but you get into calculus and all those other things and I'm just as lost as as anyone else So as you all know this is our was our second year of implementing parent square Uh one thing that we found with school messenger which again you know worked great for us but that was a mass notification system That's what it did It sent out mass notifications there was not the ability for teachers to to send out communications It was just a send it out There wasn't a way for two-way communications Um and so that's what drove us a couple years ago to looking at a different
platform And we have been really excited uh with the growth that we've seen not just in feedback from families but in just it's been very encouraging to see the level of engagement So the next few slides actually come from Parent Square They uh they're really great They do quarterly reviews with each district they work with to kind of give us a touch point of where we're at compared to other districts So that's some of the data we're going to look at today This first slide just shows you we are using Parent Square if you can't tell The two million uh almost three million auto notices direct messages This just gives you a snapshot of of all the features that are being
used This next piece is one that we're really proud about With our previous mass notification system we had about 85% contactability That really bothered me the fact that on a regular basis there was about 15% of our families who may not be getting our communication regularly Very excited to announce that by our Spring quarter technically it was like 99.6 but the dashboard makes it look really nice and says 100% contactability And so that's that's phenomenal What you're going to see in a few of these slides there's a blue circle and that's what parent square states is a benchmark
And that's based upon averages So we've exceeded their average of 98.15% uh to 100% The other piece is that if whether or not you register for parent square you will still get the communications but the great thing about registering is that then families can customize So we talk a lot about digest which means I don't want to get 20 messages a day which we understand So I can get it all at one time or some might want it all at one So by registering you can change your features So again we're at 75% of our families who have reg or users parents and guardians who have actually
registered which is phenomenal um compared to some of the the averages The next piece is again reach and deliverability About 60% of our parents and guardians have downloaded the app Um the benchmark nationally is 40% So we're exceeding that Very grateful that lots of our families are utilizing the app And you can see by that chart that text message uh and probably not surprising to anybody in 2025 is the most preferred reach method This next piece talks about our teachers
and this was kind of going back to what Elizabeth said about you know parents at the end of the day they want to hear directly from the teacher They don't want to hear me unless it's a snow day Um and so being able to uh give our teachers with a tool that's easily integrated already with their power school rosters where they can communicate directly with families And so the benchmark based upon averages is that about 35% of teachers and this is regularly posting That's national Uh we were up to 70% So our teachers have really embraced it They're using it We're very
appreciative Now you might be noticing on this chart that it tends to taper off at the secondary level Well there's two things with that one kind of that release of control expecting students to uh take a little bit more accountability But the other piece of that is that oftentimes as you all know you know teacher can provide a syllabus you kind of know what's going on the rest of the year not as many of those weekly newsletters that sort of thing but where our secondary teachers are using parent score a lot is this is direct messages So this is again those two-way communications instantly translated into over 100 target languages And so uh you see more of a use
of that at the secondary level And um we were up from our previous quarter up to 93% of our users are messaging And then this last piece is talking about parent and guardian interactions One thing that's great about Parent Square is that it allows us you know oftentimes we send a message and we hope that it's well received by everyone but we don't always know With Parent Square it's kind of like social media Parents can click that they liked it that they appreciate the post and it lets us know that they're there So uh the benchmark nationally is that about 32% of your parents are
interacting with with parent square We are so proud of our community We are more about double uh that percentage So about 63% of our parents are interacting regularly with parent square So that was just a little data uh uh touch point to talk about our implementation of parent square Uh but next we're going to kind of revisit some of those pieces that Elizabeth talked about in the survey with creating those resources And so we'll turn it over to Jessica who is our guru on that Good evening board Don't worry I'm not going to share any more numbers with you We're going to get
into the fun part now Okay So we do have really great data We get a lot of great feedback from our parents from our teachers from our students Um how do we use that how do we take what's we've been given and then frame our messaging create uh marketing materials create resources to then communicate back to our stakeholders to say "We hear what you've asked for and this is what we've put together for you." So I'm going to show you a couple of those highlights here So as we kind
of discussed um I have the resources I need to support my child's education What we have found is that the primary uh ways that people really feel the most disjointed are when they're really entering certain grade levels So when you have a kindergartener who's entering school for the first time and maybe that family has never really had a child that's been in public education before this is their oldest child And so they don't know anything from what the heck is school cafe and how do I put money on the account or where do I find my bus stop or any of those kind of things So we
have created uh materials for our kindergarten families that really start with building those foundations and letting them feel connected to the school community where we really focused a lot of our efforts um because as Elizabeth mentioned there was that gap between elementary and secondary families feeling that they had resources that they needed to support their child's education We've really created these navigating your future brochures And so when we put marketing materials together just um and you have these in your packets that you can look at what we like to do is create one source of information that has all of our really rich content jam-packed in there
and then break those pieces out through smaller communications throughout the year as well So if you are a family who is short on time but you want to have that resource available to read and digest on your own you have that packet of information that's available to you either in print online we create videos for it Um but then we also take it and we take certain pieces and share it with you when it's necessary throughout the year So making sure we always have that multiplatform approach to communicating with our families So you'll see in your packets and you'll see on here um we have a navigating your future for middle school students So when we have our fifth grade
families who are entering middle school for the first time what what do you mean when you say my child's going to be changing classes what do you mean that I'm going to have six different teachers who are going to be communicating with me how am I going to understand band and extracurricular and co-curricular opportunities that are available to me we have those resources available in here And even at the middle school level we start talking about career and technical education as well because our middle schoolers are already starting to develop their aptitudes and interests for understanding the career and technical education opportunities that are going to be
available to them in high school Moving into the high school navigating your future And I will say speaking from experience even working in the district when my daughter started high school two years ago and someone said ready graduate I'm like okay I'm going to be honest I know I've heard those words before but I'm not 100% sure how it's going to apply to my daughter What does that mean for me when we started talking about graduation requirements I thought oh goodness I've got four more years until my daughter graduates How am I going to make sure that she is ready to graduate what are the graduate graduation requirements in Tennessee and so making sure our families
have that information when they walk through the doors the very first day of high school and even beforehand to really understand what they need to be doing to help their child prepare for the next four years Um our instruction and curriculum department has done a wonderful job creating this parent academic resource hub This is available through a link on the district website as well So even if you're not just worried about entering a different grade level you have families who kindergarten all the way through 12th grade that have the availability at their fingertips to be
able to see things like content for the entire year pacing guide scope and sequence and my personal favorite videos that are even available So maybe I haven't done third grade math in a hot minute and maybe it looks a little different than when I went to third grade but you can get on the parent academic resource hub and look up third grade look up math and there's videos that are available to say "Oh this is how we divide now." Like "This is what dividing means Okay I can help you with this." And then be able to help your child walk through their homework a little bit
easier It's giving that confidence back to the caregivers to understand that they do have the ability to help support their child's education Okay my child is learning what he or she needs to be prepared for the future Obviously depending on the age level of your child that's going to look different and mean different something different for every single family So we discussed a little bit last year about our Pre-K and our early literacy programs Um and we still have all of those resources available and continue to add to them on the district website So from birth
to Pre-K we are already providing families with the tools and resources that they need to feel confident to instilling that love of learning and that love of reading for their children And then especially as well those milestone trackers So if they think that an intervention might be necessary we want to make sure that we're providing those resources and materials as well so that we can help children from the very beginning that may need a little bit extra support Excuse me Um one that I am personally passionate about is our CTE programs that we help our students
um develop and understand So our career technical education as I mentioned already gets um introduced at the middle school level And we've created um these micro sites that are also linked to the district website you can find them um whether it be for the academies of CMCSS or the 35 different career and technical education pathways that we offer across our eight traditional high schools And so students can go in here with their parents and explore all of the different pathways that are available There's videos on there There's different career opportunities that are on there
There are universities and technical schools that offer um programs in those different career pathways So students at any point if they say you know what I might be interested in aviation they can come onto this website they can see what's available to them and we can already have those conversations at home talking with our students about what they need to be doing to be prepared for those different futures Um this is just an example again as I mentioned of the 35 different career and technical education pathways that we offer And these pathways are all listed in the
pathways brochures They're available online We share them on social media We really use again that multi-platform approach of really sharing all of that information with our students And as I said this one is the one that I'm personally passionate about because that's what we started working on first And so we have the data Oh this is numbers Sorry I I am going to share numbers with you Um so this is the data to prove that what we're communicating is working Um and so you can see um at our TCAT dual enrollment So our early technical college um is something that
we start promoting in middle school and then especially for our freshman and sophomores to make sure that they're prepared and have what they need to be um applicable and and be able to apply for the early technical college their junior and senior year And you can see that when we started um really pushing the the marketing and communication for early technical college it was in that 22-23 school year And you can see the jump in just two years of the amount of students that are applying and and joining our ETC program And I do want to say that that a large large large
part of that is really just the effort that our ETC leaders and our administration has um put into really recruiting and sharing the message of ETC as well You can see um CTE pathways versus other pathways When we really uh commit ourselves to a certain strategy and communicate regularly with our families and with our students they understand and they have an interest in what we're talking about So CTE pathways versus other pathways You can see over 50% of our students actually end up choosing a CTE pathway in high school um versus maybe an academic or fine arts pathway And so
our students are really needing to have this information shared with them because obviously a lot of them are choosing to um choose the CTE pathway Uh my school and the district keep me well informed Again we we understand from um a family level that families they do want that information like a good snow day No one's going to you know hate on a snow day message But we also want to know that what's happening inside of our schools um is keeping my child safe is helping them learn
and is keeping them engaged and preparing them for their future And so you can see um these are just several examples of what we share good what we call good news stories on our social media So keeping our parents and our caregivers informed that good things are happening in our schools You can see um our health science students are earning industry certifications so that when they graduate they are already have have certifications that they can go and take right into the workforce You can see that our um aviation students are already per performing solo flights while still
in high school And you can see that again our ETC students are already having internships with local contractors and local businesses so that they're preparing themselves um for work after graduation But not only are we sharing the good news stories we're helping our families feel better informed and have um more confidence going into the school and being able to ask questions So something like our parent teacher conferences for example Parent teacher conferences happen at every grade level So you may typically think of an elementary school parent teacher conference and you think "Okay
I'm going to go in and I'm going to see a folder full of work of my child." Well we really want to encourage families to go in at middle school and high school as well because we still want them to be involved But sometimes when the coursework is a little more rigorous and they think I don't really know if I'm going to be able to ask the right questions we even provide some of the questions um to our families to say hey if you don't know what you should ask maybe you could ask some of these questions as well Help them feel connected help them feel like they're welcome in the community in the school community to be able to stay well informed And finally of course we're
always going to talk about it PowerSchool and Parent Square Um that is the number one way that we will tell families that they can stay informed Um and we give them the resources and the tools to make sure that they're connected Um we remind new families all of the time if they haven't yet been connected to sign up for parent square to sign up for PowerSchool And um we're just really excited about going into the next school year and really continuing to grow and evolve the communication strategies that we already have and develop new ones as well So thank you so much Thank you
Yes ma'am You're allowed to ask questions already I jumped again Okay So um we just a couple questions There were seven a little over 17,000 responses How many families are represented out of that so that that one is a little challenging We've tried to get to the root of that because obviously we have many families that have more than one student And so um but the best way that we look at it is how many individual parents and guardians we have in our system which is I think right roughly around 42,000 Of course not all live at the same home
uh that sort of thing So we're we use a percentage I think we landed at was it 38% so about a 38% response rate which is exceeds industry standard and and compared to we used to have about a 10 to 15% response rate we've been really thrilled with that response rate Yeah that's that's good Um another question I have as a parent with two kids that are very active One of the things that I get really frustrated with is I feel like I have to download an app for everything Um them being in sports I've got the band app I've got the Heya app I've got the team reach app I've got
group me And so I think it the important messages get lost because I don't even know where to look for all the things So is there a reason that the schools aren't using this for the extracurricular activities I'm looking over and smiling at Dr Luna-Vedder Um so I can a little bit of context When we started Parent Square in year one our goal was just to get everybody familiar with it Year two we really pushed into more of a strongly encouraging that schools utilize it for all of
their communications So no more class dojo that sort of thing was strongly encouraged Moving into year three and with the blessing of Dr Luna-Vedder at the December principal's meeting it is the expectation next year that everybody uses parent square for all of their communications like that We totally understand that there are things and I've mentioned this before like class dojo that the points and we know that there are schools that parent square doesn't offer that yet I'm sure they'll probably buy them at some point Um but so they might want to use it for the points but we do want it to be streamlined That is the entire concept of parent square It was founded
by parents to say I don't want to download all these different apps I want it all one place So that is something we're working towards And I appreciate you bringing that that up Well that I know that some of the athletics aren't officially ran by the school I forget the correct language but if if it's not an official school program like baseball for Montgomery Central is not sanctioned is that the word yeah if it's a non-sanctioned we wouldn't be able to grant access but for anything that is sanctioned or school-based absolutely Uh parent square and even if they're not so we have volunteer coaches Even if they're volunteer coach we can add them on but it it would only be
for for ones that are sanctioned by the school Yes Okay Thank you Yes absolutely Thank you Mr Maberry Um I just want to say as a parent as well I love Parent Square You definitely do stay well informed So I just want to put that out to you guys Thank you so much You guys been doing a great job there And the participation rate is amazing Um I also want to say to give you guys some feedback the TCAT numbers man I'm real proud to see that As we've said in the past and I've I've heard said to this board and I've repeated that TCAT's the best kept secret To see the amount of people who apply
for TCAT makes my heart happy also having a nephew who's just graduated last year or the year before um from from uh Clarksville High who was in TCAT He's about to graduate this fall from TCAT And then my niece as well is there So that just makes her really happy to give that feedback Thank you Thank you And I do want to just echo what Jessica said You know kudos to Ms Brown and and Dr Bailey They are huge advocates We're just there to support them Um but I'm I'm so thrilled to hear that And I will say one of the biggest frustrations for me always is when
I hear I didn't I didn't know y'all did CTE or I don't know that you had a virtual school And so it's my campaign to make sure everybody who lives in a 500 mile radius knows that we have all these programs So we're going to keep pushing out the word and appreciate you all support See no other questions Thank you Thank you Next item Fort Campbell School liaison officer comments Don't see her tonight CMCEA representative
Good evening I'm just going to read what I was going to say last month because I wasn't here because we had tornado sirens going off in North Clarksville So I was stuck there for a while So if these seem a little late that's because of it Um so I just uh want to thank a few people and acknowledge a few people who um are very responsive during the school year and that I email numerous and numerous times to the point where I even feel bad for them But um I need to acknowledge them at the end of each year and thank them So the first one is
Dr Luna-Vedder and Dr Causey Um they meet with us monthly to address our concerns So I want to thank them for doing that We truly appreciate the opportunity to have our members concerns openly discussed and directly addressed I want to thank Melissa Izatt especially I email Melissa all the time and the director of elementary middle and high schools for always being responsive to our numerous emails and answering them as efficiently and effectively as possible Thank you to the school board members for understanding and following PECCA law and
approving a team to collaborate collaborate policy updates and changes on their behalf The PECCA law requires collaborative conferencing and we are so appreciative of the work between the board appointed team and the professional educators appointed by CMCEA We trust that these teams will keep policy running smoothly in the years to come Please keep the full plates of our educators in mind this summer as the district continues to plan for the next school year Our educators are the ones in the classroom managing numerous students with different needs and behaviors
at once while maintaining a learning environment that is conducive for all students Educators need policies and procedures to be implemented that support them and alleviate their burden not add to it And I just want to say that parent square is something that helps alleviate our burden and not adds to it I was a little apprehensive at first just because I'm old and anything new you know I'm like "Oh I don't want to do this." But after I learned Parent Square and I learned how to use it and I thought you know this is absolutely wonderful because it just makes my job so much
easier communicating with parents and parents communicate with us as well some more than others but I mean it is it's very useful And I've said it before and I will continue to say it CMCSS is a great school district with effective educators and I'm positive that with a little rest over the summer we will be more than ready to take on the 25-26 school year Thank you PET representative Good evening school board members and Dr Luna-Vedder I have to take poke fun at Anthony
because when he said he was a kindergartner in 1992 I was beginning my teaching career at Moore Magnet in 1993 So just going back to the age there Let's let's not talk about age So yes I hope everyone's having a great summer And just to let you know remind you that there will be a reading of the Declaration of Independence July 4th at the courthouse nine o'clock Don't miss that And if you're coming you might want to park your car a couple of streets over because there's a possibility that the cannons going off will set your car alarms off because that's happened before But also just to remind you Constitution Camp teachers
we never quit our learning Constitution Camp's going to be happening in Brentwood, Tennessee July 14th this summer And I think I've been drafted to teach So if you're interested in coming uh you know a class of mine you're welcome to do it Thank you Comments by county commissioners Thank you I just wanted to say um the presentation on the Parent Square app That's that's pretty pretty neat technology there My wife was a substitute teacher years ago in this school
district and I could just see the benefits of that from a teacher's perspective and from a parents perspective too Um so I really uh applaud you guys for doing that Also just wanted to um say again you know TCAT some of these other programs we have here are some really amazing programs We got some really great folks that run them I have personal experience with them Um especially Ms Brown Can't say enough good things about her She really cares about her students So anything we can do to support you guys anything y'all can do um that's that's quite an amazing program over there And I apologize I got to run out of a fire
committee meeting every time we have these so I'm going to have to walk out but thank you so much Comments by board members Mr Garland All I can say Anthony is wow that was a beautiful presentation and let your team know that I really appreciate it That's why I didn't say nothing Now I ask no questions Um you know uh over the years that I've been here you know we have seen the system grow seen the district grow and every year it seem to get stronger and
stronger and stronger no matter what people say I know everybody have their own opinions and uh we respect everyone's opinion and we don't want to just come here and be rubber stampers but we do want to know want you to know that we really I well I really believe that we have a strong system um I've been to other systems I listen to people talk about how their children are treated in their system and when I look over the years and how we have come forward forward come up Uh I can
say that I am very proud of the work that the team is doing here and I thank the board for just being um being responsible enough to allow you to do your job because see in some places you don't get a chance to do your job You got boards trying to dictate what you're supposed to be doing But I thank God that we are have a have a system here where we have a team in place that can get the job done and you do it every year and it seemed to
go higher and higher and higher Thank you Dr Luna for the work team Thank you Ms Bryant Thank you for the presentation I always love the presentations because we get insight on things that we wouldn't normally have an opportunity to learn about And I think as a as a board member a fairly new board member I'll say I have before becoming a board member I had a lot of preconceived notions about how the board runs and what happens in our schools
And you have a parent perspective and then you have a board member perspective and then the teachers and the county commissioners Everybody has their own thoughts about how things are So this this kind of um gives us insight on how things are ran So thank you Those are always very helpful I also want to thank Amanda and Suzanne for coming in and speaking It's um it's a privilege that we have to be able to come in and speak to the school board and I want to encourage you guys to you know continue encouraging others to come I think it's really important that we get involved as parents So thank you for coming Um we're we're not perfect as a
school board That's what why I ran I know that there's always things that we can do to improve and so um thank you guys for coming showing up during the summer and being engaged parents Seeing no more comments by director of schools Good evening board members Even though the traditional calendar year shows that we are out for summer the work in preparation continues across the district for students Our traditional summer learning camps and the extended school
year are all off to a great start We are also in the middle of hosting high school 101 and that's for eighth graders who are transitioning to 9th grade to give them a little bit of a jump start Last week we also had a special STEM summer camp that was held at two locations called Camp Invention and that was a huge success activities were designed around science technology engineering and math that were truly engaging for the campers Also I would be remiss to not give a
huge shout out to the teams who are currently in their busy seasons such as the building custodians facilities the landscaping crews our technology team who go above and beyond behind the scenes during the summer months to ensure that we are prepared for students in August Mr Griffy this concludes my report for this evening Thank you Dr Vedder This meeting is adjourned