okay thank you for everyone coming tonight mr me roll call please please say present call your name walden present shane Barn present jason Compton present andre Darnell present kenny G
present glenn G present james Johnson present thank you ma'am and Miss Melissa we going please rise for the presentation of colors by the Liberty Technology Navy Jr roc core
cadetses are Tamar Bowers Kennedy Taylor Kamaya Sales Janiah Thaxton these students are under the direction of their teacher retired Air Force Major Christopher Honeyut [Music] march time left
light Hawk present colors 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 order colors march time march march time
right four march mr coffee for a word of prayer please bow in reverence with me father we thank you today to be able to gather together as a public as a board and conduct the business of this school
district we pray that your grace and your wisdom will be upon us to do all according to your will lord we pray that we can hear and be heard and seek you in all things uh let us counsel together Lord and do all according to your will we give you the praise and glory for all
that is about to happen in Jesus name amen amen next we have student and staff recognition and I'll ask Miss Spurgeon to do this please thank you chairman liberty Technology High School students if you'll come forward promise Jefferson
Zamarian Carter Kennedy Taylor and Cruz Martinez they recently participated in the Tennessee School Board Association Student Congress on Policies and Education at Belmont University scope is designed to give students a voice where public education issues are concerned
participating in mock board sessions students discuss an array of current topics like school uniform requirements and year-round school board member Andre Darnell served as group leader for a third consecutive year while fellow board members Harvey Walden and Andrea Given Moore accompanied the student
student delegates congratulations students for representing Jackson Madison County Schools so well are they not here now it's time for our star teacher grants it's It's time to recognize the Jackson Madison County Education
Foundation Star Teacher Grant recipients please help me welcome the president of the foundation board Marcus Love to help with the presentation through the foundation support more teachers are providing innovative resources and opportunities for their students the acronym STAR
stands for supporting teachers academic resources after a competitive application process reviewed by the committee we are pleased to introduce the latest cohort of star teacher grant recipients each teacher called tonight will receive funding to support an
exciting student focused activity please come forward when I call your name stephanie Lewis JCM Early College High [Applause]
jasmine Parks Denmark Elementary [Applause] melissa Harden Community Monastery Kayla Graham Pope School sarah Goodman South
Elementary heather Smith Community [Applause] Monastery edward Grammar Jackson Career and Technology joanna Willingham Denmark
[Applause] Elementary amy Pulk Northeast Middle School ava Wit Jack Jackson Academic Steam Academy michael Young Community
[Applause] Monastery sheila Houston South Elementary Ashley Woods Community Monastery [Applause]
jessica Harden Rose Hill School alexandra Williams East Elementary rachel Wright North Side High School [Applause] karen Herrian Rose Hill School katherine King Denmark
Elementary lori Posto Pope School carol Moore Rose Hill School [Applause] chantel Barnes Nova Early Learning [Applause]
Center joshua Hayes Rose Hill School hannah Severs Rose Hill School steven Watson Thelma Barker Elementary paula Broomfield North Parkway Middle [Applause]
School katherine Lewis Pope School cheryl Curry Rose Hill [Applause] School mary Puit Jackson Central Mary High School
[Applause] stephanie Williams Jackson Career in [Applause] Technology brooke Jones East Elementary
[Applause] robin Ferguson Denmark Elementary jennifer Burkehead Denmark Elementary ashton Canada Nova Early Learning Center salanthia Transo North Parkway
Middle [Applause] School denise Tucker Arlington Elementary jennifer Malfris Arlington Elementary ashley
Harris ashley Harris Arlington Elementary tamara Forner Arlington Elementary [Applause] and Rkila Reid Arlington Elementary let's give a one more round
of applause to all of these teachers tight enough one two Thanks [Applause] one more celebration congratulations to our very own Mr david Westberry if
you'll come forward mr westberry was named the National Association of Secondary School Principles 2025 Tennessee High School Assistant Principal of the Year last weekend he was recognized at the NASSP
conference in Washington Tennessee DC mr westberry is assistant principal of JCM Early College High School previously he served as algebra 1 and two teacher for six years and won teacher of the year in 2021 he leads our workforce development center which serves four different
schools with classes in welding mechatronics and health science during his time as an administrator Early College High has been recognized three times as a Tennessee reward school he can be found leading PLC serving as testing coordinator coaching teachers leading student clubs and he even
teaches one block of algebra 1 the students absolutely love him and he's a gift for connecting with them congratulations Mr westberry you make JMCS proud at this time we have a presentation from the positive living group if a representative will come to the podium
for the presentation good afternoon everyone well evening I do believe um it is a great pleasure to be here not only as an employee of an a wonderful district at Liberty Tech High School but also as the vice president of
the mental health advisory board of the positive living group along with our executive chair Taylor and our marketing director Sarah so we are here to do a simple little surprise so everyone listen up on behalf of the positive living group
and our esteemed mental health advisory board it is our privilege to recognize you Dr marlon King for your dedication determination and compassion have not gone unnoticed we see you working beyond your 40 hours and going the extra mile and consistently exceeding expectations
we see the light that and the anointing that God has placed upon your life your values morals and standards are a guiding example across Jackson Tennessee and in the many organizations that you serve our community has watched listened and come to know you as both a role model and mentor with a heart of grace
and a spirit driven by love you are a true agent of change and your good deeds were not done for recognition but as a vessel of hope led by God in faithful obedience we see you Dr marlon King as a beacon of light and an example of Dr martin Luther King's vision in his words
life's most persistent and urgent question is "What are you doing for others?" We proudly recognize all that you have done for others in our community as a giraffe hero award recipient the positive living group looks forward to honoring you and your
family a giraffe hero is someone who's always sticking their neck out countless times to help others and we know that there are many giraffes in our community who deserve more recognition we will be honoring you as a 25 2025 giraffe hero recipient at our dinner and auction gala
on August the 9th of 2025 hebrews 10 and 24 verse well Hebrews chapter 10 vers 24 and 25 says and let us consider how we may spur on one another on toward love and good deeds not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing but encouraging one another and
all the more as you see the day approaching sincerely to Wana Miller executive clinical director and owner of PLG and the mental health advisory board dr king congratulations
[Applause] no he gets his award at the gala of the night it's a trophy [Applause]
thank you Melissa moving on uh we are on our agenda do I have a motion to approve our agenda so moved do I have a second second is there any discussion
all in favor say yay yes all in oppos say nay motion passes the next is a consent agenda do I have a motion to approve it mr chairman make a motion we approve the consent agenda do we have a second second any discussion
all in favor say yay yay okay all oppose say nay motion passes the next is our out of state travel that was in our um docket that we went through four hours by the way on Monday just to let y'all know we spent a lot of time going through all of
this on Monday and got a lot accomplished but do we have a motion to approve our out of state travel chairman I make a motion to approve the out of state travel do we have a second second all in favor say i all oppose say
nay motion passes the next is our March board meeting minutes do I have a motion to approve i'm going to make a motion to approve the minutes a second second any discussion all in favor say yay yay all
oppose say nay motion passes the next is our public comments tonight we have several signed up um so we will start with you have um we got 10 that wrote
down beside what they're going to be talking about we have some on the back page five that they didn't put anything down what's going to be talking about so it was a star teacher signed in so we're good great okay we're going to start you
have two minutes to speak on things that are on the agenda uh the first is Mr willie Azer please come forward school board members i'm Willie Oer with the new Jackson Medicine County Voters Council i'll get right to it new construction student enrollment
increasing a student a strong prek program that's been growing since 2021 district-wide improvements in English language arts level five designation in in its remarkable academic growth four-year high in high
school graduation rate rising to 93% named Southwest Region Superintendent of the Year by Tennessee School Board Association in 2024 a distinction that brought our district pride and this is nowhere near the sum
of accomplishments seen in this district under the leadership of Dr marlon King since 2020 of J July of 2020 the new Jackson Medicine County Voters Council sees this as a great success a success that transitions to the
well-being of our students and yet this board decided not to reward excellence with a full bonus rounding metric numbers became a problem this was petty petty considering the numbers uh
uh petty considering the tremendous strides our district has seen under this superintendent the question becomes why why was it difficult to give the full bonus was it really performance oh one
second Mr doer yes that that that's your statement is not on the agenda that we're speaking about the bonus you can only speak about Well this is this is in lie of um my support of the superintendent which is an item that is
is a part of this schedule okay so um all of this is working towards supporting him right but the only thing that the comments can be spoken on is actually something that's on the agenda speaking about the Well I I'll just uh make it
short then i'll make it short was it partisan and I'm going to be bold what is Was it racial sir whatever the reason it was detrimental to our students and that's what we all should be concerned with here we should be concerned with
our students our students and community need a school board that works well with his superintendent to meet the challenges of the day one other thing that uh I think is important uh that I think that uh our
superintendent and and and others in the audience support and that's education for all okay um Tennessee Education Association Civic Tennessee Ed Trust NAACP and Public School Strong to name a few believe that
we should be uh supporting all students education regardless of legal status thank you thank you Mr do thank you sir king I will say this as I take my seat i obviously didn't get a chance to finish i actually thought this was a three minute um comment not a
twominut you really are doing a fabulous job and the community needs a school board and a superintendent that are working together to address the issues of the day and all other uh concerns should be put to the side when it when we're dealing with our students who
deserve the best education thank you sir thank you thank you for the work that you're Miss Doris Black as Miss Doris is coming up we gonna we've got to be fair and the policy is we only speak which was on the agenda now if someone wants
to talk about something else they can contact contact me and then we will see if we can put on the agenda so you can talk about that at the next meeting we 100% for uh freedom of speech i promise you and we support Dr king 100% every
person on this board me go ahead thank you good evening i'm standing here as well as a I did not uh contact you
and I do know the rules but this month is a month that all organizations in strong schools are urging us to come before you and urge
you to craft a resolution against House Bill 0793 three oh Miss uh Miss Black i know i know this this is not an on the agenda attention everyone i know that no well then you
cannot speak if it's not on the agenda you you have to add it for the next next time it would be too late the next time uh and we need everyone to call your representatives i mean you I will not this is actually
actually out of protocol mr please if you believe in Mr jeremy Mr please come forward right if you believe in Mr jeremy Mcril please come forward please call your representative i'm going to
move to the next one mr har Carter please come forward thank you and we urge you to do a resolution as well to join us and 60 other organizations in the state thank you how you doing sir good evening first of
all I want to say I appreciate the job that that you do i know sometimes it can get her i'm going to talk about the resolution for Jackson Museum charter that you all look at tonight naacp does not support charter schools we support
public schools public schools in this country over 95% of the students that will graduate from high school will graduate from a public school setting we know that for every dollar that you put into a public school student you're going to get 13 to$14 back as an
investment we are lacking in terms of a lot of things and which is one includes making sure that we have good paid staff and teachers our teachers tell we should start no less than $60,000 a year to get our best and our brightest but what we have now is
situation to where we're giving welfare to the wealthy we're taking money resources and the best students out of the public venue and putting them into private
sectors again charter schools I have no problem with what they're trying to do i know their heart is in the right place for the most part not all but for the most part but charter schools is not going to save the public school system and I would appreciate a a vote
of no on this uh this item on your agenda thank you thank you sir thanks Miss uh Davia Swacker the item that I was going to speak on is one that you all have already said that I need to contact you yes ma'am next
time so I'll defer to the next meeting okay thank you thank you so much uh the next is U Miss Barnes i also want to speak against uh the money going to charter schools schools
that are not held to ho to keeping the um agenda of learning that is is in the public schools they can modify that as a science and math teacher I really am
concerned about um schools where the agenda may not include really strong training in those things which our students need and so I also would um hope that you would
consider when you look at a charter school is it going to be anything like what the public schools can provide please support the public schools and vote no for the charter schools
thank you Mr poke mr ernest Poke I believe pastor Poke yes sir to God be the glory yes sir for all the things he have done uh to this board and
to Dr king we certainly want to say we appreciate the job you all are doing and I want to say from on the behalf of Cold Rig Ministerial Coalition and the Faithbase we say to you congratulations
and we here to support you in whatever you do you're doing a great job stay on the wall and don't come down come on get this envelope if you don't mind it's Yeah it's heavy dr
recognize all thank you all so very much thank you yes sir yes sir yes i believe our next is Miss Little Jean Little [Applause] good afternoon members of the Jackson Madison County School Board my name is
Dr jean Little and I am the CEO and lead founder of the proposed Jackson Museum School i'm here today just to introduce myself and put a face with the almost 300page application in case you haven't met me um and and to also express our
enthusiasm to possibly partner with your district i am a public school teacher of almost 30 years i am licensed in Kentucky and Tennessee as um a teacher a guidance counselor a principal um a
supervisor of administration a supervisor of instruction um there's several so you can tell I'm a professional student um our goal at Jackson Museum School is to become a valuable part of the educational landscape in Jackson and if authorized
it will be a free public school charter schools are actually public schools they are not part of the voucher program they are not private schools so we would be a K6 public school um and we would be aligned with Tennessee i'm Am I speaking
sorry you're good okay sorry uh we would be aligned with Tennessee um standards procedures laws and the best practices um research indicates that when a district allows a high performing charter school into its district oftent
times the performance metrics of the entire district go up we want to be that high quality charter school if allowed um by partnering with JMCSS we aim to offer enhanced educational opportunities to students who are not just in public school but we've had a lot of people
from homeschooling and private schools to reach out to us as well um the vision of JMS will be to develop literal uh literate critical thinkers and problem solvers these students will transition to
JMCSS junior highs and high schools so that will only enhance your educational pipeline additionally to give a little bit of context about the model the museum school model which is innovative is that my time yes ma'am thank you thank you for your time and thank you
for your consideration we ask that you vote yes that we can be a part of your your district and your uh partnership thank you ma'am next is our board action items on the first tonight will be the resolution to affirm the participation of the
education freedom act this is the scholarship yes sir what had his name on the agenda it on here he mentioned that he's going to talk about the grant the grant is not on the uh Did I miss it parker as well oh
number three i'm sorry sir yes please come up i I I called your name but you didn't come and I moved on i'm sorry good afternoon can you hear all hear me good afternoon i am Jeremiah McIll i am a student in the Jackson Madison County
School System president of the NAACP Youth Council and statewide youth secretary i am here to speak out against Jackson Museum Charter as a district we are already
having problems with keeping staff but charter schools will only drain that drain funding staff resources from our public schools our schools are already working hard with limited support instead of strengthening strengthening
what we have charter schools take away from the students and teachers who need it most public schools should not have to compete for survival they deserve full investment support and the opportunity to thrive for every student
not just a few i ask you for your vote now thank you sir okay board action items on a resolution on education freedom act sabrina Parker
i don't see your name on here um you didn't put a topic next to your name museum um ahead good afternoon members of the school board Dr king educators and community members i'm
honored to address you today as the president of the Jackson Tennessee chapter of the National Action Network the Jackson chapter of the National Action Network stands firmly in support of Dr martin Lu Dr martin King's leadership our community holds him in
the utmost respect for the positive transformations that he has implemented within the school district we have monitored this progress closely and are encouraged by the direction of our schools are taking under his guidance our chapter is particularly focused on
supporting marginalized children within Madison County we advocate for increasing funding to schools serving these communities additional teaching positions and enhanced support for our dedicated educ educators who work
tirelessly every single day we also recognize innovative educational programs like the Jackson Madison School or Jackson I'm sorry Museum School we support any educational model that aims to enhance opportunities
for marginalized youth while working collaboratively with Dr king and this board the thoughtful consideration of this board gives to diverse educational approaches it demonstrates your commitment to excellence and we
appreciate your diligence in evaluating what will serve our children best the Jackson Tennessee chapter of the National Action Network works across Madison Haywood and Hardman counties with two primary focus areas which is economic stability and mental health we
are committed to reducing mental health trauma and stigma and increasing resources through strategic planning and through community partnerships as we move forward we look forward to providing meaningful input recommendations and suggestions to
strengthen our educational system we stand ready to collaborate with Dr king this board and all the stakeholders to ensure every child in our district receives the quality education that they deserve thank you thank you thank you ma'am is your Deion Thornton i
don't I didn't have anything to say okay all right hey thank you thank you ma'am all right moving on again on the resolution to affirm the participation in the education freedom act do I have a motion to approve do I have a motion mr
chairman make a motion to approve the participation in the bonus money for our teachers from the Education Freedom Act second second all in favor say yay yay and all oppose say nay motion passes the next motion is a resolution for the
Jackson Museum Charter School mr chairman yes sir i'd like to make a motion that we table um action on this item until our call meeting on April the 30th do I have a second second second all in favor say yay
all oppose say nay motion passes the next is the TSBA volunteer award we're just voting mr chairman I'll make a motion to approve out the nominee for TSBA volunteer award we have a second
second second all in favor say yay yay all oppose say nay motion passes uh the next is the TSBA student achievement award nominee chairman make a motion that we approve our nominee for the TSBA student achievement award this year i
have a second second all in favor I say yay yay all oppose say nay i better say something you all sh you better say something you know I um it is going on six next year will be
my sixth year as superintendent um and this probably my longest one when I think about other systems uh Haywood and Fed and so that should tell you what I think about this
community uh the work that we've done I'm going I I see in the audience that people I just couldn't do without i see students on the front row i see students over on this side and I'm very humbled uh by the support
um the love uh that you all have shown me um I I'm I'm speechless and I just want to do the right thing and and do what we can for kids and be able to leave a legacy that we help people and uh you all are making it happen i shared
with the board during our board work session there are two ways there's a way and there's a JMCSS way and I enjoy being able to be a part of doing it the JMCSS way so I'm very
grateful for this board and for this community thank you all for your continued support i also I'd like to say it's been a pleasure working with Dr king we it just it's amazing things normally don't happen
quick that's just part of and a lot of times that's that's good but we have seen so many improvements in our district and I appreciate him this board his staff and we support him 100% we support him with bonuses and we have to
stick to what the board voted votes on that's very important to to show our integrity and like I said tonight that we voted on Dr king's that's the hardest vote I had to make since I've been on this board it was but it was the right
thing and since then things have worked out and things will work out in the future any other comments from other board members i have one uh Mr chairman I'd like also uh reiterate what you just said some of the others said about uh Dr king's leadership you know there's several type of leaders there's visionary leaders and there's millions
of those i mean millions of visionary leaders and there's transformational leaders there's millions of those but there's not as many generational leaders and this guy's a generational leaders leaders that don't uh occur very very
often and he's one of those and and I'm glad he's in Jackson Mascara School District thank you sir anybody else any comments well I have a motion to adjourn second we are ajourned