Visions to the proposed policies for November because they may need to roll over into, 2026. Could you provide us with your suggested revisions? To which one? You said you we may need to make November? To November. Yeah. Okay. We don't have we only have one meeting scheduled in November and that's the board, work session and then the business meeting is the first week in December. We try not to bring policy, related work to you all during specific times of
the year, like at the beginning of the school year because there are so many things that are going on. At the end of the school year, when people are trying to wrap up and around the holidays, around the, Christmas holidays, we try not to bring policies to you as well, but we we can. It we just haven't done so as a general practice. Well, you all are doing a phenomenal job of keeping us on track with our original policy calendar, so, I would say keep doing what you gotta do, keep us on track.
The question, the observation I wanna make is that I really, appreciate this because it serves as keeping us accountable to what we said we were gonna do, when we adopted the policy calendar initially. So thank you, to the policy office under the leadership of miss Stewart, of making sure that we're staying on track with this. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. I do under the November section that I'm proposing that we move to 2026, I do have two that I will need board input on.
We're holding on the real estate policy, which is 07/00/2002 until the completion of the ad hoc facilities committee. We're also working on our charter school policy. We're meeting with them them, and this this policy isn't on here. I'm sorry. I omitted that policy. But we've been meeting with the, charter leaders over the past few months, and we're drafting, several policies around the charter schools. But I will need your input around strategic allocations.
I know I brought this up in a previous meeting, where we're currently operating on an outdated, resolution, a resolution that was approved in 2018, and it has not been updated since. So I would just need your direction in terms of whether or not you want to us to bring a resolution forward or if you all want a policy. That was our last conversation a few months ago. I recall that, and I would like to, ask board members to give some thought
about what we're our intent is around strategic allocations. I'm just thinking about the language, strategic. And I'm also wondering, if we need to think about the parameters of what we can actually allocate things to, and that might need to get some input from general counsel to ensure and from, finance as well, because I know that, board member Hubert Garcia had brought up some things about rollover.
And you wanna? Yeah. I think one of the things we highlighted, there were over 300,000 not spent that we had to roll forward. So I think, one, I think we do need a policy that has a a philosophy attached to it with, you know, tactical things like you don't allocate additional dollars when schools have not spent the prior or if there has been a pattern of not allocating it. I think we do have, we've done, even in the course of the last three
years, adjusted the coding so it's more specific. I think we have created stronger internal controls, but I think there's an equity piece to it where, in my opinion, there we establish a baseline around that vision and then also look at need around whatever that strategy is. And so there are some districts that may have more school buildings or more staff. And if we're primarily using it for incentives, then we need to adjust that. So, all of us I'm not giving any money back. But some of us may need more than others because of the need around whatever
we decide that strategy is. And then I would still like to see what the last few years have been in terms of where we've spent our dollars so we can add some of those big buckets to our budget. So if we're all putting student incentives or teacher incentives in our strategic allocations, let's just fund it, and then figure out what is what are the gaps that we really can fill, to meet student and teacher needs. Go ahead, Tawana. This is just a clarity question.
Now with the strategic, with the funding, they are supposed to hold it for one year to carry over for one year, and then they have to spend it after that. I'm not sure how that's supposed to work, because I know a lot of them are supposed to are holding, holding, holding, but I thought that they ain't supposed to hold it. So, okay. Because I know that some of the principals are holding money and then they let it carry over to the next year. So I don't know what the policy says about that. So currently, we'd we do not have a policy to say anything about that, but it is some language that we could consider adding into a policy or incorporating into
a policy. I like the policy because I've had certain principals and school leaders that, Tito and I spoke about this last week. The money that I sent them I sent them in the summertime, they didn't spend the money in a timely fashion. But Tito promised me that he will send it back. Another thing, I like the policy and what, Amber Hubert Garcia said because it's some
of us that have more schools than others. And I spend the bulk of my money on athletics in my district. Go ahead, Amber. I had a question about, the real estate policy. You said 7002. Were you referencing 7001 that's on the chart? Yes. Yes. Sorry about that. I'm curious what we think will be different about a policy that we update based on the ad hoc facilities committee input. Like, what aspects of the policy do you think will will change based on committee
input as we are we have a lot of experts we have convened, but they are not policy experts. So what is it what is it that we are holding us back till potentially 2026? I think just the the overall input that we're receiving from that particular group. Nothing may change in the policy, but there may be some instances where we do need to change maybe about, things around the rental, how we rent facilities, how we sell facilities.
Currently, we do not have any rules and regulations attached to our policy. Under legacy MCS, we had rules and regulations that were attached to the policy. So it could be that we develop a set of of strong rules and regulations to accompany, policy number seven zero zero one based on the conversations that you're having with the ad hoc committee. I think I'm of the opinion that we can do a lot of that work and have a draft and not finalize it until we get input from the ad
hoc committee. But the need for a comprehensive facilities plan and a real estate policy as is urgent. And we we have we've been talking about it for years. We've we've passed a resolution saying we're gonna have it this fall. I don't I don't know I don't think we have time to waste between now and legislative session. I'm very concerned that if we do not create a real estate policy, someone will create a real estate policy for us. So this need for a comprehensive plan, the time is now. I do not wanna wait until 2026 for a real estate policy.
So she's Yeah. I don't think she's saying we're gonna wait till, 2026. I think she's I think what's happening, for the committee is that we're asking for input and these things are not mutually exclusive. So we have a current policy that we can currently operate under. And as we move through this process, there may be things that the committee may come up with that would require us to say, okay, yeah, we want to include that because they're gonna they're going to give us a set of recommendations, I believe, in October. Is that right? Yep. Is that October?
They're gonna give us a set of recommendations, and it may be a may include policy, it may not. So I don't it does not stop the, process. I I think one comment was would be that it actually is holding us up for making a decision on a current property. So we are waiting on the policy to change. I think we've talked about parameters and things that we need to consider with sales or, donation. There's a lot of things that we need to talk about in terms of process, but I do think we are I'm not with them.
Delaying decisions. What are we talking about that's delayed? I'm just I'm not I'm curious. I'm not I mean, I think we've talked about, I mean, it's on the agenda today, and we'll talk at length. But we have Hume's, and we have talked about the policy not being clear on the parameters for, you know, adjusting prices or donation of buildings. And I think Mhmm. I wanna make sure that we are making decisions, that it's not paralyzing us. We still it is still our prerogative of what we wanna do. Like, all those things need to move together.
Right. I don't think it stops us. I just think what we said, if you want donation, we don't have that. Anything for purchasing, we do have it. So, so I I'm thinking stopping us. But go ahead, Michelle. I'm actually I think it was I'm sorry. Joanna and then Michelle. Okay. I have a question. Whether we do a resolution or policy when it comes to, allocation funding, I wanted to make sure that we add that they do give us a physical receipt of what they spent it on because we need to know what they're spending it on, how they're spending it because they're not giving us the receipts that we need to,
to say what they spend it on. They can tell us anything, but they haven't. Like, example, I'm not gonna say what school, but, like, example, I had a allocation request for soccer uniforms, but that school don't even have a soccer team. But I thought that the school had a soccer team, but school does does not have a soccer team. And so I did follow-up with doctor Richmond about that. So I just wanted to make sure that they're spending the money on what it is, and we we can see it. And we have a physical receipt. Thank thank you. I just wanted to comment regarding the, our facilities policy and what have you.
I think a little apples and oranges in terms of whatever we had before us now in terms of some decisions that need to be made immediately and as opposed to a policy that's going to impact, moving forward. I think we're gonna have to work in tandem on that because, as we know, policies take multiple readings and, I don't it it's putting the cart before the egg, so to speak. And and we still have business that is current right now that I think that
we can address without having that policy in place because it is very serious. We wanna make sure we take time with that. So, so yes. Thank you. Okay. Got it. Alright. Any other comments around? We were on strategic allocations. Any more around strategic allocations? Alright. I just have one comment or, I guess, question or suggestion. In the policy for the strategic allocations, it doesn't specifically list what those allocations can be used for? So right now, we do not have a policy.
So it doesn't list anything, but we can draft a a policy. Okay. And it'll list what okay. What's the We can. We'll look at we'll look at other entities, may not be school districts. It may be universities. It may be governmental entities, but we will try to find some other policies that may be in place. And we'll meet with staff and others to try to determine the best type of language that needs to be incorporated into if we go with the policy, with the
strategic allocation policy, we'll make sure that it's aligned with with the law as well as best practices. If we go with the resolution, we'll draft a resolution that's based, I guess, basically around your needs, but we may need to do both. We may need to have a resolution as well as a policy that provides more guidelines around, what's required. Yeah. I think, the boast I think a happy medium so that we can continue the
strategic allocations in a strategic way is to possibly think about a resolution and then you can bring us a policy that will on a later date. Okay. Okay. I have a suggestion. In the policy, can you include the only employee that asks us for funds is the principal. The principal is the head leader in charge. Got it. No. Oh, okay. So did you have something to say?
Then it would be an awful mistake to give that authority all into a principal because principals don't teach children. It is my philosophy that in my district, I only give to things that would enhance the knowledge and skills of students. Whatever it's going to if there's a program that is successful, I will fund that for students who the ACT. And we have made tremendous progress in Whitehaven because the ACT program that we have in that area has strengthened the scores up to almost perfect. So and the students, if if that's what you want to do, I am willing
to pay for that because it gives this if they get the score that they are desirous of of getting scholarships and getting into these universities and so forth, and it has worked well for me. And this year, as a matter of fact, today, I gave to the high schools in my district those grads to participate in that program so that I can see the strengthening of their ACT scores and they can get into these colleges. So it has to be some kind of what you could see and what the results on what you know. And to leave it up to a person would be a full mistake because not
all children would be served. So would it be fair if we just bring a resolution back for now? And we will work towards, drafting a policy. We can bring the policy language back in pieces if that's the will of the board so you can give us feedback on, the type of information that you want in it. And it may need to be a a meeting that's outside of our regular policy, meeting like this. We may need to meet like we did with our, policy retreats to to review
our policy manual. I don't know. But I can tell that this is gonna be a detailed discussion around what's needed, what's not, so we can start the research. But if we can just bring back a resolution for now to get us aligned for now, and then we can start working on the policy piece if that's fair. I think that anybody have any problems with that? No. Okay. Alright. Okay. Thank you. I think we do we have a policy update? We have one more item. And if it's okay with the superintendent, I will ask Alicia Green to come up.
Good afternoon, everyone. We have six policies and two points of information for your review today. The first policy is policy 1001. It's on page red page number one. It's the soup the school superintendent. The proposed revisions incorporate the purpose, scope, and responsibility sections. It includes language authorizing the superintendent to delegate duties and responsibilities, in accordance with applicable law. And it also clarifies that the superintendent is authorized to establish administrative rules and regulations,
to, implement district policies. The next policy is policy two zero zero two on red page three. It's a one line policy. There we go. It's a one line policy. We're this was recommended during the biennial review as a repeal. This information is included in the, policy on annual operating budget. The next policy on red page four, policy two zero zero four is internal accounting manual. This is a statutory revision just changing the name of the document in the policy
to match the name of the document as it is reflected in law. The next policy is policy two zero two zero, travel expense policy, also recommended during the biennial review. On red page five, there is language now that would allow the district to provide reasonable accommodation for employees of size, when they're authorized on travel. This is just for safety purposes as well as comfort level for those, employees who may be traveling that need just a a little additional space.
If you would also move to red page 13 for the next policy, which is policy two zero two one, employee additional pay. The revision here has gone through, administrative, review and the recommendation is to remove language from the definition section related to volunteers, and this would align it with the scope of the policy. The next policy is policy six zero two seven, searches and interrogations.
This is a recommendation. This is a statutory revision recommendation. It's on red page 21. There we go. The major revision first of all, the revision is to, change the name of the policy from searches and interrogations to searches and questioning of students. That revision would be made throughout the policy document as well as the administrative rule and regulation. The major revision, outlines that searches may be conducted on staff, students, visitors, and their personal belongings for entry as well as for calls, and it outlines how those searches
will be conducted. The statutory revision clarifies that a search for calls may only be conducted completed the mandatory training required by the state. If you move to page, 24, these are changes to the administrative rules and reg read page 24. These are, changes to the administrative rules and regulations. The policy has been reorganized for clarity as well as to remove procedural items.
It also outlines the parameters of when conducting searches for entry, including metal detector searches. It outlines the parameters for conducting searches for cause. It also if you move to page read page 32, it includes an exception for searches of individuals with a medical condition, a medical device, or another issue that might prevent them from going through a metal detector search. And that would require official documentation from a physician or in an IEP. And it may, so that individual may be subject to a pat down search if
necessary. Finally, the revisions clarify on red page 34 that law that law enforcement initiated questioning. That's questioning that's initiated by outside law enforcement, would be done in accordance with the law and would not occur at on school would not occur at the school. So those are the policies for review. We also have two points of information, in for administrative rules and regulations on red page 39 and red page 40. This is the policy regarding professional learning.
The revisions would clarify specific professional learning requirements. I'll give you a little time to get there. It's read page thirty nine and forty. And if you scroll up a little bit more to the red portion or down just a little bit more. Okay. So these these revisions would, specify professional learning opportunities for certified, staff and this is includes teachers. Clarifies that teachers must complete, just a little bit more. If you go up just a little bit more.
Right here. It's clarifies that teachers must complete the minimum number of district developed or approved professional learning in accordance with outlined or identified professional learning tracks. And so it will remove the twenty the sixty four hour requirement, and it requires teachers who are novice or focused to complete a total of 60 professional learning hours. And that's 45 district or school based, five choice, 10 summer 10 summer hours, which are optional. And then for teachers for teachers who are on the proficient track, they would need
to complete forty professional learning hours, and that includes 25 district school based, five choice, and 10 summer hours which are also optional. So those are the revisions to the professional learning, policy. If you move down to, regulation on page 43, read page 43. Okay. I have a question about novice and focus tracks. I just wanna be clear that novice track, that includes just first year teachers because the assumption is after they have their first year and they're evaluated, they would get evaluations score.
It includes first year teachers, teachers, from out of state, as well as those who are missing an evaluation component. Okay. So after your first after your first year, you go into proficient track as long as you're not a one or a two. I think that's correct. Is that right? It depends on your track. So it depends on your level of effective overall effectiveness score. That's correct. Okay. And I'm looking at, director who's, who does that policy, but it depends on your level of effectiveness score. So if you score at the appropriate level, that would determine your, the number of
hours that you complete for professional development. Thank you. K. And finally, our our last regulation, is on page on red page 43. This is a parenting leave policy. It's a statutory revision that I'll that revises revised to align, with the state law that allows state paid parenting leave, for adoption, which it expands the definition of adoption to include the period of filing of the petition and the child's initial placement until
the final adoption order. And it establishes eligibility criteria, those persons who would be able to qualify, for the state paid, parenting leave must possess a valid license or an emergency credential from the, Department of Education, have that with the school district with the same school district for twelve consecutive, months and maintain that for twelve consecutive months. And also the revision, we revised the reinstatement letter to now read letter of clearance
from the doctor. So those are the revisions, proposed for September. Are there any additional questions? Yeah. Anyone have any questions about these? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. I wanna go back up to the top of the agenda. I believe that the, youth Action Center folks are here to do, 2.01 adult and youth equity training presentation. Thank you. And FYI, I wanna let everyone know that, just so there is no appearance of conflict, and I need to let everyone know, my son, Iona McKinney, works with Youth
Action Center. Right? Okay. Youth Action Center. So Thank you. And thank you everyone, for your patience. We had a meeting heavy, day today, so appreciate y'all waiting on us. But we have some handouts for y'all as well. I'm Not sure, like, who should give it to. So good afternoon, everyone. My name is Eritrea or Eritrea Tzemeskin, and I am the Learning and Facilitation Manager at the Bridges Youth Action Center. I'm a first generation Memphian, born and raised here after my family immigrated from East Africa.
And I grew up attending both Memphis City and Shelby County Schools and continued after the MSCS merger until my high school graduation in 2017. Education was always emphasized in my household and I was grateful to have access to opportunities my my parents never had back home. However, as a young person, I often felt like my voice wasn't valued outside of how well I could perform as a student. That is until I was 15 years old and walked into Bridges for the first time. Starting as a bridge builder, then working for two years as a paid youth organizer through Bridge Builders Change, I suddenly found my voice and my why, which was to
build power with my peers to create the world we wanted to live in. Not waiting until we turned 18, but in the present as young change makers. Now as an adult and staff member at Bridges, I'm grateful for the opportunity to work in partnership with our youth leaders, as well as the MSCS school board to actualize this vision within our Memphis Shelby County School System. Hi. Thank you all, and thank you to everyone in this room for being actively engaged in our changing world by leading the charge in the most imperative system, the youth. Our new change makers must engage in, the education system.
My name is Asia Alexander, and I'm the youth specialist at the Youth Action Center or the YAC at Bridges USA. And we are here today as a part of a youth led campaign working to support your goal of building stronger and more equitable schools. I found my personhood and the autonomy and responsibility that my scholastic education gave me. That systems and cycles don't define me. The act deviates from the potential oppressiveness systems like schools can fall into. Through my lived experience, we recognize that students need the support beyond the straps of their backpack that they carry to school because often, there is so much more on
the backs of our students that is not addressed equitably in decision making processes. It takes shared training, intentional design, and intergenerational partnership. We believe that together, youth and adults, we can model what authentic collaboration looks like. That's why we've put together key considerations to help us move forward in a just and sustainable way. One of those considerations is for key leaders in the MSCS school system to be trained in youth and adult equity, which is a training designed and facilitated by Intercorp. Intercorp is the intergenerational core of the youth action center.
We are a team made up of youth and adults that not only drive the creation of intergenerational systems and decision making within these action center, but we also train and consult youth leadership groups and organizations on how to do this work as well. We have supported the coordination of youth led groups like SCYC, the Shelby County Youth Council, and WIJAC, the Youth Justice Action Coalition. And we have trained local community partners like the Memphis public Memphis public libraries and more from Memphis on how to equitably partner with the youth and the communities that they were aiming to serve.
Our work to build more capacity for authentic youth and adult partnerships has extended to national community partners as well, including our participation for the last two years as technical assistance to organizations in Mississippi, Virginia, Maryland, and California to pilot a toolkit for intergenerational partnerships through the Annie Casey Foundation. So as you've heard, we've done a lot of trainings for many groups. But for the school board, it would be slightly different. Testimonies have named that this training gave us a new perspective, not just about age, but about power, empathy, and communication.
This training primarily focuses on best practices, youth and adults collaborating respectfully and sincerely, shared experiences that bridge generational gaps, challenging youth tokenization to build real partnership, training to equip youth and adults for real world problem solving together, and creating an environment where youth feel heard and not just managed. We know that learning is a shared journey that both youth and adults can grow from, and we are currently working with our intergenerational facilitation team to to make this training intentional with clear next steps and follow ups for you all.
Unfortunately, most of our youth couldn't make it, besides London back there, due to school and extracurriculars. And, his capacity was a bit low due to all of that. So we're up here making our, making the speech. But yesterday, they wanted to leave a little message, from you guy, to you guys from Intercore with some of their wise. So if you could play that video. It's done on that document. There's a Google Drive link that has the video on it. Yeah. It was in the email that we sent this afternoon. Yeah. We'll be sure to email it to you all because it's our youth speaking about
this since they couldn't be present today, and we think that's pretty important for you guys to hear from them directly. But yeah. Carol. Yes. So hopefully, y'all take, it's a three and a half minute video, but, they they were part of Intercore as a whole. Like, Shot recorded that video to share with you all why it's important to hear from youth voices directly. And actually part of the reason that they weren't able to make it is because of the timing of this meeting. And so just in general, like, when we have Youth and Adult Partnership, we're also to make able to make sure that, like, the times of important decisions are made when youth and adults are both available. So that's another reason why I wanted to make sure that video was shown.
But one thing that our youth emphasized in this training, that they want to have as a part of this training is that, the emphasis on the difference in perspectives between youth and adults and how that can lead to both generative conflict and transformative dialogue. We wanna make sure that this youth equity training is as informational as it is actionable, but we don't want to stray from who we are. So you can expect to both have fun and also work with an emphasis on the why behind it all. We will try to put you all in the shoes of youth today to help you understand the depths of adultism. You will engage in honest dialogue with our inner core youth facilitators as well as
other young people who are in the MSCS school system right now who will also be participating in the training. We will have real life audio, video, and physical displays of the systems that youth endure day in and day out with the entire training curated by their own influence. There will be case studies as well as a solid who, why, and how that will allow you to operationalize these tools and resources to be able to collaborate with youth effectively throughout the school system. We ask that you all come with an open mind so that you'll be able to connect with youth on commonalities that would that wouldn't usually come up, without this
equitable framework. So we wanna emphasize again that learning is a continuous journey and unlearning systems like adultism that have often, you know, pervaded all of our lives, is what's gonna truly change our city and our schools. Yeah. And when you guys watch the video of our young people, y'all have a better concept of, what adultism is. But we just wanna let you know that this part is truly only one part of the youth led campaign by our education justice intern and his collaborators. Ultimately, we want more MSCS staff and teachers to be trained if you all find this one helpful. We recognize that you all are following Senate Bill one six one, House Bill eleven
ninety nine with student congress. And these young people also intend to face the civic engagement crisis by amending student congress policies to include a different selection process as well as promote greater democracy in schools by advocating directly in schools to address the diverse socioeconomic and academic need. From Maryland, California, Massachusetts, we plan to share best practices and the youth also intend to advocate for having a representative for each grade level as one youth is not typically best practice due to tokenization. And for them to be a part of the school board with voting power.
And for them to be selected and elected through established student congress members and through just means over the next year. Because at the youth action center, we aren't just asking for a seat, we are asking for a system. And the youth and adult equity training is just one part. We recognize when digging to the root, it all comes down to systems. A system centering young people and their own lived experiences and their stories instead of youth as headlines and statistics is the new cycle we want to create. With your attendance at our youth and adult equity training, we can do that together. Thank Thank you all for your time.
Thank you. And please send the m email to the whole board. Thanks. I have a couple of questions. Where do your youth come from? All over the city? Yes, ma'am. There, it depends on the the group that's coming out of the youth action center, but Integor is from all around the city. And Shelby County Youth Council, for example, represents the MSCS districts as well as the municipalities. So y'all went to the municipal school districts to advocate for a youth council? We intend to pilot our youth because the this campaign came out from a MSCS
student. Yeah. So we intend to start it here and then eventually, if we find this helpful and that kind of stuff, move it to the municipalities. But in terms of the youth action center in and of itself, it's full of everybody from everywhere, all different socioeconomic needs and academic levels. The last question. Charter schools, their students are included in this? In this specific campaign, it's mostly MSCS students. But at the youth action center in Bridges in general, we do have some who attend charter schools. The reason I asked it be because all of us educate a lot of children.
And I, thank you for your time, and I am very interested in this. But it takes all of us. Mhmm. We can't do it by ourselves, and the students come from array of different school systems. I just want to be clear, you are not just targeting us. No. I got that now. Okay. Because it takes all of us. We can't, require a school system who we're not the board members of to do
the, training and facilitation and everything else. I just want to be clear on that. Thank you for your time and presentation. And I also want to add to your point, Asia was mentioned that we also have students from charter schools and, you know, outside of MS MSCS. And, actually, they got really excited when they heard about our plan with MSCS, and they were like, we need to bring this to the municipalities. We need to bring this to our schools too. Like or they were like, it's not fair if it's only MSCS. Right? So I think, if anything, MSCS, like, this board has the power to be the
trendsetter, right, in our in our communities, in our city, in our county. And so if we're able to pilot this and show it as a success, then I think that will help us even more be able to have the evidence to show, like, this can actually happen locally to the municipalities and charter systems as well. Say that one more time. Is there a physical note for you all, putting on this workshop, this training? Is it a cost? Oh, this so this initial, training, we wanna able we are we wanna offer it free of charge to you all just as like a good faith, partnership.
And if you all want to continue to partner with us in creating, like, the intergenerational school board, etcetera, then, you know, we would talk about that later. But this training is free of charge. Okay. I have one quick question. Is there a criteria for being part of, yak? No, ma'am. It's all kinds of students from everywhere. And Bridges very much has a come as you are, pay as you can type system. And the YAC specifically, all of our young people get paid. So for a lot of them, it's a job because that's the only equitable that's a best practice for, youth and adult equity.
Thank you. I like that. Thank you. Alright. There's no other further business for this session. We are adjourned. We'll get started. Are there any additions to the procurement committee meeting or takeaways? Yes, ma'am. Chair Coleman, if it pleases the board, would like to add, item 2.06, which is health care services, RFP and extension. 2.06 health care services RFP proposed timeline and extension will be added.
Any others? We'll go right into it. We'll start with the sale of Hymn School. I understand that new ballet is back with us today, and they wanted to do another presentation, and board members had questions. Is okay. Miss we'll start with miss Stewart and then we'll move to new ballet. Thank you, board chair. What you will see here, what you have in front of you is simply the data sheet that you've seen before. There are two entities that have made offers for the former Humes Middle School property. You'll see the square footage and the acreage there. It's a 100 years old.
It's on the historic register. The ten year maintenance costs 4,700,000.0. Again, it was closed in 2024 after ten years of operation by the ASD. The appraisal is $1,420,000. The offer from MLGW is $1,400,000 to construct a stub substation. The offer from New Ballet Ensemble is $257,000 to develop a performing arts school. At the request of the board, I did invite representatives from both entities. They are both here so that you can, ask them any questions you would like.
Board members, if you have questions or comments or if you want both either or to come up and say something, I will give them each a small time to come up and say what they have to say and then the questions will follow from that. Is MLGW here? A representative or come on up, sir. Good afternoon. I'm I'm Alonzo Weaver, senior vice president, chief operating officer, Memphis Light Gas and Water. I can go into a prepared statement if you like.
Okay. MLGW request authorization to purchase Humes Middle School at Manassas 659 North Manassas as a site for a future electric substation. This location is strategically important because it can support both a 12 kV and 23 kV dual voltage station, giving us flexibility for distribution load transfers. You know, in a nutshell, we can move load around, remove load on some of our other substations and and facilitate growth in that area. This is a great engine close to the mine, sir.
Sure. Thank you. This location is, important for us strategically. Our demand, electric demand is continuing to grow. As you notice, Saint Jude is busy building additional facilities in that area. There's been more interest in developing in that area. So this will give us a lot of opportunity to expand. It's the dual voltage station, if possible, to build in that in that area. It gives us, the capability to get to critical facilities such as, schools, hospitals, clinics, community centers.
If you think about how substations work, you need to build substations near where the load is. And and it by having that shorter distance, it gives us a more reliable network. City resilience, it builds capacity so we can withstand, extreme weather events, so we can fight up the load a lot better and transfer load when needed. And it relieves a multiple number of substations. Substation that's located at Firestone. The substation that's located, at, Front Street. Substation could be located on University.
The one that's located in in the Harris Street property. So it's it's all a a system that we're trying to grow and develop. So it aligns with our goals. It will give us a fifty year strategic asset for growth, provides capacity, reliability, and lowers our outage risk. It it creates infrastructure for development such as schools, health care, businesses, and housing. It it helps with economic development because we can attract new industry and additional development in the Pinch Ditch District and other parts of that area and expands our network.
So we recommend that you that we that you approve this purchase. We're prepared to go forward and start developing that substation. I believe it will give us a reliable system in the future. So thank you for your consideration. I'm open to your questions. Quick quick question. Yes. Who put the initial bid in for Humes first? I have no idea that. Okay. Because I believe it was, New Ballet. I'm just saying, I believe. So I'm just asking that question because it just came up recently. I just got it recently, so I don't know about the other board members, but
I just recently got it. So I was confused on, who had it first because now it's a battle of it when it wasn't a battle at first. So one of my colleagues wanna elaborate on it, I'd appreciate it. I I don't know, miss Stewart, if you wanted to respond to that. I've got a We got the first bid from New Valley on top of. Okay. Okay. Thank you, mister Reaver, for coming down. So a a few questions just from your presentation When you said that this is something that you'd like to, build or MLUW, in the future, what's the general, like,
time frame that we're talking about here? Our time frame would be between now and 2030, I believe. 2030? Yes. Mhmm. Okay. So, another question I have. Have you spoken with people in the community of that area on their thoughts on this? And the reason why I ask is that, you know, a substation, I pass by the one on Front Street pretty much every single day. So, that area is a little bit more residential than, say, that location there on Front Street. So what are what are your what kind of feedback are you getting from We
have not talked to the community, but I know that we have substations that are in the community all over the our system. So such station 6, which is located on Mullet in Central Gardens. We have station one, which is located down in Bunker Hill. We have substations to 2, which is located at Firestone. We have Substation 5 that's located at Binghamton. So, we have several substations that are in communities. That's part of what you have to do is build a substation where the load is is and we would conserve the load in most efficient manner. Do you have other sites that you were taking into consideration for?
Yes. We did. We looked at other sites. This site has some particular advantages because of the large amount of land that's available. So it gives us the flexibility and opportunity to do more than one voltage which is not typically what we do in a substation. In that area, we have both 23 kV and 12 kV distribution circuits in that area and as well as a network system which serves downtown. So we wanted to get something that was pretty flexible, and this, this property provides
a lot of flexibility. What was the last most recent substation that MLGW built? The last station we built was actually in Collierville. Yes. Collierville. Yes. Where is that located at Collierville? I mean, generally speaking. Like, is it near the mall? That's all I know. It's right off of 3 85. It's right off of 385. So do you typically get input from communities before you build a site? Does that ever take place where you we typically do not. Okay. Alright. Thank you. Yes.
We are aware. You have to tear the school down? We have, explored various possibilities which include keeping the school, tearing it down. It just depends. An electric substation. Electric substation. Electric substation that would be open a lot of the air. It is for electric services throughout the area. It's just it is true to leave. Just to be clear, we have we do a ten year plan on our substations. We look at where overloading occurs. And in this area, our substations on Front Street, our substation at Station 2 on
Firestone are all becoming overloaded. They're getting into that 95 load factor. Yeah. You know, we try to be, friendly to the neighborhood, but we also understand you gotta build the substation where the load is. Our most recent station in that area, Station 76, which is located on the Ayres, is right next to the pumping station. It's right in the middle of the neighborhood. We build substations. We'll split build substations out east. How much time are you prepared to pay for this? We offered a bid of $1,400,000. 1,400,000.0?
Mhmm. I have, Yeah. Yes. Yes. How much of the property do you actually need? This is a large lot, large building. What is the At the bare minimum, it would be three to four acres, and
the optimum will be the entire property. Okay. Thank you. Hey. My question is, since this is the first time it's before this body, I haven't seen any, like, the safety impacts on the community before building a substation. And the substation usually, devalue the properties that surround it. I don't know what's, what substations do to value of properties around it. I do know that, the lack of of, infrastructure can constrain growth. Okay. So I would love to see, the safety impacts as well on getting a substation.
And, yeah, certainly, there are studies around that. We can get you information if you like. Because, if it's if it's any potential neck, environmental impact, I would rather educate than potentially have a biobenal impact. Thank you. I have a couple of questions. I'm trying to picture where this would go if you did not tear down the building because you said that was one of the options. So where exactly would it go? Because I know There's a field property next to the to the school. Right. And so it's right there on, Jackson facing Jackson on the corner of Manassas.
Yes. Jackson and then the Salvation Army Right. Housing is right there. So it would be on the front of the property. Is that what you're saying? That is correct. Okay. There's a there is a, just asking. There is a, piece of property that's right across the street from it. Right? That's vacant. That lot right across the street, Jackson Where Jackson and North Parkway come together? Yeah. Jackson is it's literally right across the street from from the field on Jackson.
The the challenge may be acreage. Let me check. Yes. Not it is not large enough. Okay. So I'm remembering the email that we received as a board that it said you all were offering $1,400,000 in with adaptive reuse. So I wanna explore what do you mean by adaptive reuse in terms of the building? What we need in our our initial discussion around all of this was the was the land involved. It was not necessarily around the building itself. But the property and the the land that we were interested in in and the
building work to So we had to offer make an offer of it together. So if we make an adaptive reuse, we will probably, not do anything to the building and then build on the land. But that is, that constrains us to some extent, but not not to a great extent. We have to do some things differently. Does adaptive reuse and thinking out the box possibly mean that we could still work out a deal, maybe lease back to us or to or to someone who wants
to do something with the school building? That's an interesting discussion. We can probably take that back and and discuss that and see what we can work with. But it it does, add some complication once it lays back. And then my next question about these, substations. I've seen substations that are sort of hidden. They're just not all of this. So they all have walls or something. So Right. Especially when it's in a neighbor in a neighborhood. Is that something that you all are contemplating? We would be open to that. Okay. Thank you.
Hello. Thank you for your presentation. Did I hear you correctly? You have never done a community meeting when you built substations in a neighborhood? We have not. No. Why is that? You were coming to a neighborhood. Mhmm. Understand that. The neighbors, you don't value their input? No. I didn't say we didn't listen to their input. I said we don't have a community meeting. What do you have? So we at times, we do listen to there are customers that may have certain
requests around our substation or certain things we wanna do, and they may ask for certain things to be done to make sure that, they're shielding or whatever the case may be. And we try to work work with communities on that. And the final question, I have two questions. What is your job title? Senior vice president, chief operating officer. And you don't, you were not opposed to having a community meeting. I'm sorry? You were not opposed to having a community meeting. No. What about you call today?
No? We can have a community meeting. Yeah. Yeah. We can have a community meeting. It'll be a new step for us, but we we we could do that. What do you wanna smile about? I disagree with MLGW not having a community meeting. Do you watch the city council and the county commission meetings? We attend the city council committee meetings and in the city council meetings every council meeting. So you know community is involved? Absolutely. But you don't care about the community. That is not true.
I have a serious problem. Based on the conversation that I just heard, You don't care to receive their input before you build in their community. They pay taxes, live there, and work there. They deserve to have a meeting and you can get their input whether you agree with it or not. Certainly. Thank you. Sir, I think what troubles me is that you stated that it is a new step with meeting with the community.
That shouldn't even be a new step because you need to make sure that the community knows about it. So my one of my suggestions would be for you to pick a poll between a new ballet and yourself and let the people decide what they want in their community. They have a right to decide what they want, whether they want the the new ballet and the school there or whether they want MLGW. We need to let the people make the decision on what they want in that community instead of shoving something on them. That is that that's unacceptable to me, and it's probably unacceptable to the community to say, hey.
MLGW is gonna come in here. Never met with the people. Don't know if the people are going to accept it or not. So I'm thinking that we need to do a poll whether we want the school there, new ballet, because I know for one I know for sure that is a historical site. We all know it is a historical site, and we wanna keep that historical site, and we wanna flourish that. We don't wanna just let it give it to you and you say, hey. Well, we may think about saving it, and then we get if we give it to you, you you shut it down and you tear it down. That's not what we want. We wanna be able to preserve the history of Humes, so I suggest that we
do a poll. We talk to the community, and we let them decide what we wanna do with this. Thank you. This is the board's decision. I I thank you for your presentation and the context for why you're interested in the property. I do not believe that MLGW cannot find another location. As a school board member, and my first priority is educating the children in Memphis, and providing educational opportunities that we can't we can't meet. It's it's about innovation, exposure. I'm I'm just not interested in selling it to MLGW.
I am interested in in it being an educational institution for children. So I think you have answered all my questions sufficiently. I am not concerned about you changing your processes. I'm I'm concerned about what is the alternative that we can provide. And I I I have made my decision of what I would I would wanna do with those two properties, And I will remind the board that we don't need to pull the we don't need to pull the community how they do their business. We can provide suggestions, but we make this decision about what we want to do
with this real estate. So I would suggest that we let ArtsMemphis, make their presentation now. Thank you, mister Weaver. Thank you. Thank you. We hear from New Ballet. Good evening, and thank you board members. Just as a for a point of levity and celebration, I do know that my friend Alonzo Weaver is an opera singer. And so I also know that he cares about community, and I know that he can sing. He sings with the opera Memphis Chorus, and we've collaborated with them a lot.
And there are so many children like Alonzo and me in the city who need a platform to be able to spring forward to a professional career. In your packets, you see students from Dunbar Elementary, Kingsbury Middle, Grace Saint Luke's, and other schools dancing with Yo Yo Ma. That doesn't just happen by accident. It takes a lot of planning, a lot of collaboration, and that means collaboration with the community because without community, the children have no way to get to us.
They have no way to achieve their dreams because the community surrounds them with support just as the students in Orange Mound surrounded those students when they went to the Kennedy Center to perform with the National Symphony Orchestra, when they performed here with mister Ma. He said he'd never seen a happier program than one than the one we presented at Colonial Middle. And when we presented at Colonial Middle with Yo Yo And the students from Orange Mound and elsewhere, Kingsbury was one of the schools. He looked at me and he said, you know, you have a duty to the
city, Katie. You hold this in the palm of your hand. And I took that very seriously because I was a Hogwarts kid and I'm just so lucky that Central High gave me a platform to pursue my dream. I couldn't have done it without Florence Loeffler. And I did it because I had relationships, because I'm privileged. And there are children in the city who are not, as you know very well, the majority of our students. They're children who can't get to after school programs. They're children who need this intertwined in their curriculum throughout the day and between the
hours of eight and five so their parents don't have to leave work to pick them up and take them to an after school program if they can access it, if they can afford it. And that's what these schools do throughout the country. Baltimore School of the Arts has implemented an equitable auditions process. They went to all the redlined communities throughout Baltimore, and they said, these children need access to our school. And so they created a free after school program just like new ballets, and they brought those students in from the redlined districts and made them ready for high school
auditions in grade nine. This is what we want to do at Humes. I can't answer the question about whether or not we can do it next to a substation. I know there are safety issues. My son went to Berkeley and studied, engineering and environmental science and all of these things. And he told me, mom, it's basically a giant transformer. And, yeah, sometimes they blow up. So I know there would have to be emergency preparedness that went into it for the community surrounding it and the school, but I'm not the expert on that. Mr. Weaver is. I'm an expert on arts education, and I'm leaving tomorrow morning to join my friends
and my colleagues at Denver, Denver School of the Arts, the Arts Education Project. And it's been funded by the DOE and the NEA, the National Endowment for the Arts. Y'alls is National Education Association. Ours is National Endowment for the Arts. And it's running out of funding because those programs are being cut by the government. This school will be a lifeline for those children who dream of dancing on the Great Wall Of China, just like little Buck, who went to Carver. Then he went to he lived in Westside. He went to Carver. He went to Yale Academy.
That school was closed. He only had the resource of new ballet to make his dream come true, but he didn't have the education he needed to go to college. These schools do both. We have two kids on full rides at Howard University right now. One from this zip code, 38107. And I do know that miss Louella Scott lives on the property. The CRA funded the renovation of her home. So I don't know what would happen to her home if a substation were to go on that lot. Miss Scott doesn't know. We have spoken to community. We visited with community members in Klondike, Smoky City, Uptown.
We've been to all the national nights out. We sat with Norman Redwing. He was meant to join us. I think he's not feeling well. I don't see mister Redwing. We met with him for an hour the other day, and he was a volunteer. You you must know him now. I see. Oh, yeah. Oh, he was. Oh, alright. Okay. Well, you then you know too he was a volunteer with Urban Youth Initiative and volunteered at Humes as a youth mentor and went to Humes as a child. And, we talked about all the great alumni that have come from that school. So, I'm open to any questions you have to ask.
Yeah. Ensemble and all the good it does in the community. I want to focus a little bit on the academic aspect of it. You know, read through many of your presentations over the last several months, have gone to visit the site that you currently have, And you mentioned that there's no, academic threshold, which is, I think, a good thing so the students can be focused on their academics. But in the same breath, you know, the state of Tennessee does require that you meet certain academic metrics to graduate no matter what school you are.
And how do you speak to that? Well, we have a plan for that. Oh, got louder all of a sudden. We have a plan for that. We because we are going to be six through 12 and not just to high school, our goal is to get kids as close as possible to grade level in grades six through eight, which means they won't have as many hours of arts practice as those students once they get to high school. And there will be a way to make sure children are focused on their academics through arts integration. I'm gonna be learning a lot more about that.
I've gone to many conferences on it, but I have another one tomorrow, because children are often stigmatized. Children like me in a regular school environment? They don't all look like me, but we're all very, very much the same. And we're stigmatized because our head is in the clouds. We're dreaming. We're writing the next story. We're thinking of the next picture, the next choreography. And our attention needs to be grabbed to pull us into the curriculum. Chicago High School of the Arts, for example, has a very robust facing history in ourselves program because they bring students into current issues, and then they write plays and
produce projects around that curriculum. So that's one of the curricula I know best because we plan on that same partnership. Let me jump back in there really quickly and then, because I can see, you know, have a maximum capacity of 600 students. And this is a public school or will be a public school if it Yes. Comes to fruition as far as in this building. What is this addressing then that because, you know, we have what we have always considered our performing art school, Overton High School. Roselle Elementary is one of our top performing elementary schools, our only performing arts elementary school in this district.
So what are you saying that is not being served that's in those schools? Well, we actually supplement the work at Overton and have for years. I'm not sure that we're engaged yet this year. Matthew can answer that. And those students perform with us. So we're very familiar. That's a short day. We need, just like I zone schools, which was so brilliant because it was eight to five. That's what these schools provide. So there can be three hours of consecutive arts. So we're getting kids ready for BFA programs And then they can go home and
babysit their siblings, do their homework, work on their academics, and not be at New Ballet Ensemble in school, for example, until 10:00 at night after school. Yes. So, thank you. And that that's good. My last question, because I'm gonna I know others have questions out there. In my PM, MSCS is is not in the business of trying to be making money. I mean, yes, we need money, but to educate children, that's the thing first and foremost. So, I'm very much in support of of this school. Last question, then, what LEA, as a public school, what LEA would you be associated
with? I mean, I think I put this in your fact sheet that I sent to everyone a little while back, but we are right now very agnostic about that. We are open, but we have to make a real estate decision now because there's $14,000,000 on the table. And if we aren't ready to be presented to the multiple CDs that can support this tax credit program, we're gonna lose the building. We know our noncompromisable, and and we're willing to compromise on so many things, especially programmatically, but we need to own the building.
Okay. And that's the way we're gonna raise the money, and that's our first priority. We have no agreement with any LEA. I think there are rumors to a different effect. We've talked to everybody. We're even considering a governor's school of the art in the model of Alabama School of Fine Arts. I don't know if I can push that rock up a hill, but I might try because that way it takes it depoliticizes it. The last thing we want to be in the middle of is a political kerfuffle. We're here for kids. So anything we can do to negate the rumors. Well, thank you.
And as I step away here, thank you for your presentation. I I believe, you know, this school to have it come full circle and and breathe new life into it because, quite honestly, to my colleagues, the building was closed for a reason because we did not have the funding in which to shore up, the shortcomings. I know the the Top Floor of that building has been closed for some years when even when there was a charter school operating in there. And, yeah, I would love to see this happen. And I would love to see us, by whatever means, and not getting caught up
in, like, who's LEA, that this is serving children. This is unique to this community. So I would be in support of this, and I hope that we can get this taken care of this month. Thank you. Thank you. So, thank you. Katie, thanks for the presentation again. We've had several conversations, and I have said publicly and I've said privately to you that I am absolutely supportive of the what. Absolutely supportive of the what. It's the how. So my concern is in as I sit here on this board, we are responsible for the Memphis Shelby County School students.
So So I'm gonna be asking my questions in the context of the responsibility that I have. My hope is that we get we could have them all, but we don't. We have eight school systems sitting in our county. And so, it is important that we think about, the partnership and that we think about if we're if we're here about our students, Memphis Shelby County School students, we wanna make sure that our Memphis Shelby County students school students have absolute access to
that performing arts. So what I do know is that you have to be you all are not academicians. You you've got to have a because that's the other part. I have not I haven't seen I hear I have a plan, but I haven't seen the plan for what's the academic plan? Who is going to be teaching the students the reading, writing, math, and arithmetic that that we are required to do. I think as we said, we have standards that the schools have to meet. So I don't know that we've seen that, and I'm gonna at the end, I'll tell you why I'm concerned about all of those.
Okay. And I'll happy to answer any of those questions. So that's the the first thing. Like, I don't know who the academic partner is. Right. And right now, we can't go on. You have to go up to Nashville, and maybe you have some kind of magic that somebody else doesn't have that you can change what the governor schools allow you to do. But right now, that's not in existence. No. Not in the state of Tennessee. Okay. So then my question becomes based on what we've got right now, you have to be affiliated with one of the school systems. You have to be a contract school. So Yes. Partnership that I'm asking you all to consider, and I'm just gonna say it straight,
I think I have in so many different ways, but I'll be very clear, the partnership with Memphis Shelby County Schools. That is what I think I am looking for, in terms of this particular, endeavor. And because our students are the ones who are the most needy, and I think we're we've got some of the most talented students sitting here. Without a doubt. And you can attest to that because you've been in our schools for many, many years. So I wanna that's what I wanna make sure that that that we are doing that. So that's that's one thing.
Well, that's actually two things. So the academic program, and those are two are connected because I don't know who your academic folks are that haven't done that. Then I think I sent some questions about, we just had a situation where we sold a piece of property and we have it's in the we had to vote to revert back because they couldn't do what they said they were gonna do. You event said that this is a $50,000,000 project. 14,000,000 of it, you're trying to get the new market tax credits. Now I say, you know, because, you know, we're being, like I said, to free
our mind and we're being innovative and, the board is being innovative. We've got that where we could help partner with you. And we've got that sitting from selling other buildings, put it back into another building would be great for a performing arts school. So that's something we we could put on the table there that takes that new market tax credit off the table. So that's one thing. Pause possible. We're gonna take $14,000,000 off the table? We could. We've got 12 sitting over there. So that I will say the 50 was before tariffs. So So and so then that brings up my my issue.
Yeah. So that brings up my my other question about being able to actually raise that amount. Because it's another 36 that's $36,000,000 that you then have to raise. And anything that we would do because we because we couldn't we would have to do this, our responsibility as a board for that piece of property in that community is to ensure that it doesn't remain in that situation. So if for some reason we put tie a time limit, because that's what we do in our reversion clause, we give you a time limit, and you can't raise
the additional $36,000,000 it comes back to us. Yeah. So my thought is, as we think about this and have this conversation with the board, as a whole, is let's be creative. And let's think about how can we partner in raising the funds for that additional, dollars 36,000,000? I'm just putting things out on the table. I'm, like, I'm putting it out there. We've never done it. Maybe we have. I'm not sure. But there's ways for us to do that too. So academics, ensuring that our students have access to that.
And that means you have to be that that there would be a need to be a contract school with Memphis Shelby County Schools. Because I think that's the only way that we can ensure the academics is is is done as well. We're just not giving a building over and hope for hope that, you know, something happens. So I'm I'm putting those things out out there as potential ways for us to get this done. And I want us to get this done. And I want us to get it done so that it benefits our students to
the utmost and it benefits that community. Because I am one of the people that say, you know, have you talked to the community about what they want this to look like? And I wanna thank you for going and having those conversations, and getting that input. And I will challenge you one more time with some of the partners that you you have. You know, there's Collage, there's, I know Angel Street, I know Hattie Lou. This is performing arts. Yeah. So you have all of these other potential partners that could be a part of
this as well. And we want them to partner. We've And we could this could be something phenomenal. So again, I am all for the what. I want us to figure out the how. And in order for us to be partners, we have to be willing to talk about what that looks like and figure it out. So I appreciate that. Thank you. I have a, question. Correct me if I'm wrong. Did you say you don't get the money until you own the building? We have to raise 80% of the funds for the tax credits to come to
fruition. What is the timeline? Well, one never knows when one is running a capital campaign. So based on the capital stack, we'll need a lead gift of $15,000,000 So we know that much. And the timeline our our goal to open the school, sixth grade, grade twenty twenty seven, even if it's not on-site. So that grade six can get started even if we use our own facility, and maybe perhaps discuss with you a place in empty classrooms and existing Memphis Shelby County Schools where we can do the academics close by.
Do you have the $15,000,000? No. We do not yet have that $15,000,000. But we you know, we're actively cultivating prospects Yeah. With excellent prospects, without owning a building. And that really puts us in a bind because folks are telling me, get the building, and then I'm gonna fund your theater. I mean, after the Daily Memphian op ed came out, I got phone calls from donors who I hadn't heard from in quite a while, quite frankly. I'm sorry? Phone call?
Yes. Yes. Yeah. And not not the usual suspects, I'll say. Yes, ma'am. I I can't I can't raise money for a building I don't own. You can own it in partnership. Correct? Yeah. We want to own the building outright. We want to partner. I've I've been trying to partner with miss Shelby County Schools on a contract school for ten years. I never thought I'd stand it has been a very long time. I mean, I would I would have jumped for joy after we met with doctor Barker and and doctor Whitelaw.
And if she had just said there wasn't a process for it. Right? I know that's what you're discussing with real estate. There wasn't a process. And had she said we have a process for that, I would have been, like, crying and, running out to raise money for a building I didn't even identify yet. So, but we have to own the building. We're open to a contract school. Absolutely. There are certain advantages to being a Memphis Shelby County, and you've named some of them. Memphis Shelby County Schools contract school, certainly first year operational funding, to be honest, you
know, which is something we're gonna have to raise 30% of our budget every year. So fundraisers need to sit where I'll be sitting, and academicians and executive directors will take the lead on academics. The final question. I have some of the same concerns as Natalie McKinney about the academics. Mhmm. I will say, Denver School of the Arts, where we're going to be meeting tomorrow, has some of the highest scores in the state. Alabama School of Fine Arts has some of the highest scores in the state as
a public school, highest ACT scores. So those are things that you can find. And if you can't find them, I'm happy to bring those materials to you. It's the magic of putting all these kids who are really see no future for themselves other than arts in one building. And with AI on the horizon, and I know we can incorporate some of that. And we're talking to Rhodes College to Natalie Person about how could we incorporate AI into a creative writing curriculum for sixth grade and still meet the blueprint. And we think we can. She's doing the research on it right now.
So but this connection, they will get jobs. They will have the jobs. They will be adaptable. They'll be a critical thinkers. They'll be able to switch on a dime. They'll be able to stand up here and talk to you because they've been on stage their whole lives. They're gonna work. And that's that is the differential between these schools and our wonderful capa program at Overton and Peabody and Roselle and all these other schools, these are career and technical education in the arts. And doctor Richmond and I discussed that. Thank you, madam chair.
I really don't have any questions because I think Michelle answered, asked majority of the questions that I wanted to, ask you, but she had already done that. But I do wanna specify to to say that I am a product of a performing arts school, and we had that conversation. And not too many people get the opportunities that I had at 16 in order to go at at 16, have a summer camp with Alvin Ailey. And so I had those opportunities. I had those opportunities to travel to China and to Africa because I was at
a performing arts school. And so academics was there, the skills were there, music was there. I had music training. We had all of those trainings in a performing arts school. And so it is, profitable for our kids to have it. And and I think that it will push our kids to the next level because we have to give them something that they're interested in, and the arts is one of them. So thank you so much. Thank you. I wanna clarify with the administration. Do we have a reversion clause as part of this? Yes. We do. If you don't receive it. In the latest offer. Yes.
In the okay. Great. I I feel like we're overcomplicating the like, not you all. I think the I think that I feel like the discussion is the same one over and over again. You and any you have nothing to sell right now. So that is that is that we are a hindrance to your capital campaign, to the the tax benefits. Is my other question for the administration, why it seems there is there is a willingness and a desire to be a contract school. Can we not make that happen? Is that what?
No. This is not the first time we've heard this. We've mentioned that in meetings here. I don't know if it was in front of the board, though. I mean, you and I didn't happen to have Yes. It it's been in a public meeting. It was? Okay. No. It's a serious question. If the board seems amenable to this plan, we I'm sorry? Okay. Thank you, superintendent. Yes. Thank you, board. I've always said that the district and the administration is wanting to partner. I offered that we could partner as a contract school. I offered that we could partner as a school of innovation.
I suggest that we could partner as a charter school. The sticking point is, do we or do we not want to sell the school at the price that has been offered? That's what has to be decided. But I've always said since our first initial meeting that the administration wants to partner with New Ballet, and we will partner with them as a charter, innovative school, and or contract school are the three based on legislation that we can partner with them.
The sticking point again is, does the district want to sell the school? We were the imposed with two different situations. One is that we had a counter offer that was higher that we had to decide upon. The second was, did we want to accept the offer that had been made by new ballet, which in turn would give them complete ownership of the school. That's the decision that rests now with the board.
But administration has been clear about the three ways that we can partner. And Yeah. Willing to partner. You're willing to be a contract school? Yes. We can't be a charter school because we audition for creative aptitude. So that's against the So the only other option is a contract school. Okay. So you are willing to be a contract school with the district. And we took away all the remediation contingencies. So in essence, we've started raising money for a building we don't own, and we got a grant from the CRA to start the phase one study and the ESA
phase two study. And then we've been into conversations with Edge about the cleanup. And miss Stewart has all of that documentation. We do have to get authorization from Memphis Shelby County Schools for them to start the phase one study because that and that benefits both parties. So at that point, you all know what's in the building. We know what's in the building. There's no charge to Memphis Shelby County Schools. It's completely gratis. It's a grant that we earned from community members. Help me to understand how it went from 850 to 257. We removed all the contingencies.
So and one of the board members I believe, board member McKinney, you were one of the board members who said, well, we essentially are gonna if we keep all these contingencies in here, we're donating the building and we're developing a criteria for that. And, and then the new market tax credit opportunity, came up and we had to push it. So we thought, let's make an offer based on precedent per square foot accounting for core inflation compared to the North Side sale. And so we did that precisely to the dollar. And that's where we got the $2.57.
But then then it was just manna from the community that we were able to get the remediation, study. That was incredible. So I think the Which has a value. The question I have is the $2.57. Yes. Is that what we would say it's worth? I mean, this is negotiation, so I'm, like, I'm asking. The land itself is worth $500,000 according to the appraisal. Okay. And and we are a small nonprofit. And as miss Stewart educated me from the very beginning, we're not required to offer fair market value and charter schools are, and a public utility company is as well
by their own policy. But, Mary Claire Boris, if you don't mind, might be able to help me address that. Is that accurate? That was not me that said that. I seek appraised value from everybody. Oh, you did tell you were very clear you wanted the appraised value. Absolutely. But as a nonprofit, we're not required to pay fair market value and corporate charters are So nobody's required. At a public utility. We just seek the board seeks appraisement. Right. Absolutely. Yes. So, yeah, nobody's required. Even MLGW wouldn't be required to pay an appraisal value. The board I heard that. Can sell the property for $10 or $10,000,000 because Okay.
It's really clear. Thank you. Yeah. The and the appraisal did come before the building was vacant and before the assessment for 26,000,000 in deferred maintenance. So But I was gonna follow-up on Board member Hugo Garcia has a follow-up question. It's more of a I was going to mention the $26,000,000 in deferred maintenance. Mhmm. And quite honestly, like, I I understand the value of money, and we have a $2,000,000,000 budget. But holding up this for a few $100,000 when you are a nonprofit with a
plan, with a aggressive fundraising plan as well, the academics, I believe that you've been supplementing the programming in our schools. Yeah. I I would love you all as a contract school. If the the the way that it was presented today was not my understanding of what a sticking point was, if this is about whether $257,000 is a fair price, I am ready to move on with this and recommend voting on this immediately with I'd if we can have a contingency on a contract school, I would love to
be partners with the district. If we can get that taken care of, let's just wrap it up. I what I hear from my colleagues is we want you to have this space. We've we've shared concerns. I I really feel like we are talking in circles here. So I wanna get it done, and I want you to have access to the capital that you need to get the benefits, that you're put putting in front of us. So if my colleagues wanna chime in and someone is still on the fence, let let's get it out there now. But my recommendation is that we vote on this.
Is this a September 30 board meeting September 30. Sufficient? Mhmm. Yes. It is. And, my colleagues from Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Denver School of the Arts are willing to come talk to you all about how the academics work. I've been in touch with them. So if you if you request that and want that, I'm I'm more than happy to let them talk to you about the ASN model schools art schools network. Okay. Well, if they're They're saving the date. Yeah. Okay. Well, Well, that's my recommendation if anybody has additional questions that they need answered.
Let's let's have it out while they're here, and thank you for your time. Thank you so much. I appreciate that, and thank you, Amber, for that. Because I I thought that we were done the last meeting with this. I thought we had moved forward to move on with it. And because at at this point, it's still repetitive. We're repeating the same things. You're answering the same questions that you answered the last time you were here. So I just think that we need to move forward. Let's vote on it and let's go let's move to the next level so they can move on. As I look at this picture, it brings tears to my eyes because I know these two young men in the black neckties.
I transported them for seven, eight at least seven or eight years. And fed them. And fed them, as miss Katie said. It was a life changing experience for these young men. They went to Italy. They had never been on an airplane before. I mean, when we there's no dollar amount is what I'm trying to get to, that you put on a child to save them. Our young men are being lost to the streets every day, and it hurts. So when we look at yeah.
We could do a lot with $1,400,000 but we also can do a lot with 257,000 because we're saving our kids. So I have been quiet about this, just answering the questions that have been presented to me. But I think board member Hill Garcia summed it up. Let's just do this. I don't know why you won't tell that you all have been educate children. You have. Y'all have done lunch buddies. Y'all have you set up a whole room for tutoring.
We have an education resource center with tutors. You you pay for resource rooms, family engagement rooms. You you're doing the work. So we got to stop holding your hand and let you do the work. That's my 2¢. That's just how I feel. We thank you for this opportunity. Yeah. I Thank you. Yeah. I, again, I appreciate and I I hear all of my fellow board members, and I appreciate it. And I think we're all on the same page. Today was the first time that I heard that you all were willing to be
a contract school. That's the first time I heard that. So I wanna make sure that's that's clear. Because that was one of my sticking points when you came the last time. And so because I remember you want you said you wanted to keep your options open. Mhmm. And and that's what I heard. So I appreciate you coming and now this is what negotiation and partnership looks like. We're willing to move. Each of us is willing to move. I, believe again that we're all on the same page about the what. Now we have gotten closer to the how, with you being a partnership school and
being a contract school. I am and I'm just one. I just I'm trying to figure out the two fifty seven, but I'm not gonna be the holdup for that if the majority of the board wants to go because I as I always say, I'm one of nine, and we we vote as a unit. And so while I may not agree with that, that is what the board but I also wanna know let the board know that we have obligations for all of the district. We have obligations around the students, and we have obligations around the things that support
our students. And so wherever we can maximize that, that is our job. And so that is why I I'm I push on what we can actually do because ultimately this is going to make our district better and stronger as long as we are doing what we need to be fiscally responsible and responsible to our students because it's the money that makes our stew it's the resources, and that's just plain simple. It's the resources. And you all have bought resources in many different ways for many different years.
And so I am happy that we're gonna be able to get to the end of this, and in a way that's gonna be supportive for our students. And so I I thank you for moving on the on the contract part, and I and thank you very much for that. And I am looking forward to seeing this, particularly in that community where I have been working for the last nine years. That will- it will be a beautiful thing. And I- And the ribbon cutting. And I wanna make sure that we- you stay in that community, connected to that
community around things that, you know, that happen. You guys are about to put a big facility there. And that sometimes can- that'll drive things up. And I don't want us to dis- when we're trying to support a community, I don't want to displace it. And so I want us to be partners in that as well. To make sure that we're we're getting kids to move into that community and then they're going to your school. That would be great. Thanks. Awesome. Thank you so much, miss Katie, for this presentation. It was for the seventh, eighth time. I'm just kidding. No. Seriously. Thank you. And I'm just going to thank you all for coming out, and I appreciate the
information. Hopefully, we can potentially find some other land frame that you information. Hopefully, we can potentially find some other land for MLGW if they wanna do further business with us. But I'm gonna respectfully ask that we can move to the next thing on the list, please. And, hopefully, we don't have to have a bunch of questions the next couple meetings. We can just move this off to the September 30 meeting if possible. If my colleagues could do that. Thank you. Thank you. 2.02, set of thirty thirty Jackson Administration Building to New Day, Tennessee. Say it ain't so, Michelle. Say it ain't so Alright.
I'll talk really fast. Take your time because I'm excited about this. A lot of information I put in this presentation, so you'd have everything in front of you. So New Day, Tennessee seeks to purchase the entire campus. There are five parcels. You see the parcel numbers there. This is the former Bayer Building. The buildings are a six story administration building, a two story administration building with a warehouse, a high bay warehouse, which was that building if y'all ever saw with a Coppertone baby on it. The large warehouse that we currently use for nutrition, dry food, and our IT and
security technology operations, the former Bayer Day Care Center, the Generator And Maintenance building, two guard shacks, a fire pump building, and three parking lots on the Southern Side Of Jackson. If you look at the next page, you'll see a map. The parcels in blue, the ones that are numbered two, three, and four are the parking lots I was talking about that are on the Southern Side Of Jackson. The one that's blue, number one, that's the tall building, the admin building that most of you, if not all of you, have been into, the six story. The building the larger building is the huge warehouse that has an office building in
front of it. The one that's in yellow over there with the number five, that's where our CNC, our nutrition center dry storage operation is, our dry food and dry goods. Also in there are our IT teams, I I guess, where they image devices and work on devices in one bay and then another bay is our where our security team works on their, technology equipment. So, that's just the math of it with Jackson Avenue running right in between. If you flip to the next page, you'll see from our facility condition assessment study,
I did the bottom chart with the yellow header, lists the costs by building. You'll see those are all the buildings and then the site, but that top chart gives you, the ten year maintenance needs, over time. So with the next couple of years, there's $22,300,000 of maintenance needs in that building. The ten year maintenance cost of that property is $119,400,000 The next slide is about
New Day, Tennessee. So they, in coordination with School Seed, proposed to use this property to provide support for children who age out of the foster care system. They say that approximately 800 children age out every year in the state of Tennessee, and about 50% of those have nowhere to go when they age out. So they have no family or they can't stay with their foster family, and they, give statistics on how that increases rates of homelessness, incarceration, and unemployment amongst these young people. So the project they're proposing is to take this whole campus at Bayer and provide
those teens with, housing and workforce training and employment, mental care, or mental health care, life skills training, and they're gonna do this with seven different companies. So they use part of the part of the property for housing so kids can live there, and then they can work there too at the warehouses on the property. And the companies they already have on the hook are listed here. One will manufacture affordable housing. Number two will manufacture electric school buses. A third will manufacture vans and other types of vehicles.
Number four will manufacture drones for use in agriculture and military. Number five, for medical gowns for the US government. The sixth one, will process Asian carp from the Mississippi River, and the seventh will manufacture bottled water. So that's all of that would be on that one campus according to these folks. And then they'll use lease payments, from those companies and other revenue from those companies to content to pay for the expenses and the housing and the program to service these students. Or not students sorry, young adults.
The final slide shows you again that $1,119,400,000.0 ten year maintenance tag. The appraisal is 7.95. So their original offer was $4,000,000 on that basically $8,000,000 appraisal. But we do not if you remember that map, the yellow parcel that had a number five where we have our CNC dry operations and our IT and our security, we don't have any space in the district to relocate those functions. If you remember, I know some of you remember when the CNC started to cave
in and we had to relocate quick, we had to relocate some of that stuff to Jackson, Tennessee. So this company has found us a warehouse that's about a mile and a half from our current nutrition center, and their offer for the whole Bayer property is to lease that property, the new warehouse for us for ten years, To upgrade it to all the FDA and USDA regulations, which are, you know, their temperature regulations and dock doors have to be sealable, and there are all these things the USDA requires.
So they'll retrofit that. They'll also make retrofit it for our IT and security operations. They will move everything out of our Building 7, the yellow building on the map, from where it currently is to this new warehouse, And then the maintenance and utilities for the new warehouse, they're gonna pay all that too. So everything we don't have to spend a dime to relocate all of our current operations to this new warehouse, ten years paid. And then in the mean in those ten years, we can work with the USDA,
FDA, whomever, whatever the funding regulated regulations are to find something different if that's what we so choose. If we don't sell this property to this buyer, then we'll have to look for another buyer, and I have had interest and no offers. It's crickets. Once people come look, they go away and they never talk to me again. So, we will be I'll be back here asking y'all for about at least $7,000,000
to put into that property next year for the fire system because we can't insure the building anymore with that fire system that's in it. For the boiler, it's a steam boiler, which is an especially expensive kind of boiler that someone has to monitor twenty four hours a day. And if we don't have heat in that building this winter then pipes will burst and we will have more damage. So that's the gap analysis. And then the very last point down there was the $33,200,000 that we have already put into the facilities on this campus.
And that's the end of my presentation. I think this is a no brainer, but I do have, on the it it's essentially a trade. Is there a maximum cost of completion so over ten years, cost of things could go up. Is there a maximum completion or value to that ten year warehouse upgrades, etcetera? So the way we're working it out right now, they are trying to understand all the costs to renovate that warehouse, so we'll have a real dollar amount there.
The moving expenses will have a real dollar amount. The lease, we're gonna work it out in the contract so they are responsible for that lease for the ten years, and they are responsible if the lease rate increases or the maintenance raising increases. That's all on them. So we are guaranteed the ten years, and they are responsible for all those payments. Yeah. I think my the risk seems to be I mean, your response, my worry was, are we gonna be left holding the bag after we give them our property? But it sounds like we're gonna contractually work that out so that we are they
are paying those directly, which is this is awesome. Thanks. 32,000,000,000? 33. Where is the other departments that's currently in the Bear Building going to go? So there are about six or seven departments in there and I have different locations that I haven't even talked to them about. I haven't talked to doctor Richmond about. I wanted to get through this first, but I have kind of talked to some of their leaders. They are aware that they'll be moving, but it'll be space that we have in other administration buildings or in schools with vacant space.
New Day, are they locally? So there are a few people, in New Day, Tennessee that I have met. One is Patrice Jordan Robinson. One is Sydney Chisholm. One is Arthur Anderson. David Lensing was a Memphian. He's moved out of Memphis now, but he was I think either he or his wife was a attorney at FedEx. So after we had this conversation, if y'all wanted to speak to them about their project, they're gonna be he David will be in town next week, and I could ask them to come to the work session, all of them, if you want, if
you want more information specifically about their project. I think this is a no brainer. But why are they giving us so much? So they tried to do this project at the old Fred's location off of GetWell. There's a big tall Fred's building. It has a big warehouse behind it. And at the last minute, they had it all ready to roll, I guess. And it got pulled out from under them, and Fred's went a different direction. And so they were kinda stuck It sounds too good to be concerned. Know, miss I promise. I've been working on this since March, and it's been a lot of work.
But, they're in, and it's somehow tied into governor Lee's, the new day Tennessee, and the foster programming has to do with financing from the governor. So the financing piece would be I can get them to explain that part. It's good on paper. Right. It's good that we're finally getting rid of the building. It's good for our students that are aging out of foster care. It's good for the community. But it sounds too good to be true.
I hear you. But we'll have a contract. And we'll have a contract warehouse leased over there a mile away from the CNC. I have a question similar to what vice chair Love was asking. Right now, it says it's 800 kids. The we're having less babies born. So when that number starts to decrease or possibly decrease, will that have an effect on contract?
So once they I don't know about their contract and their funding, but they have the seven companies manufacturing companies on the hook to come to the to the Bayer warehouses. How their funding works with the state or any other funding they have, I can't answer, but we can have them answer that that work session if you want. So if we say no to this in a next month or the month after, you're gonna come and ask us for $7,000,000? Or more. We don't have estimates yet on the like, true estimates on the fire repairs, but
I know they're gonna be at least 6 and a half million dollars. So, yes, ma'am. That we gonna have to spin out before December 31. If Right? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. That just made it so easy. Thank you. So this is called New Day Tennessee. Is the yes. There's the program. Now what they wanna call themselves in the legal document, we don't have the legal document created yet, so it could end up being some some LLC. Yes, sir. Who's a former chair of this board? Yes, sir. And my next door neighbor, I had no idea that she was doing this.
But I love to see. You. Thank you. We'll move on to 2.03 district wide HVAC filter system services, I'm sorry. So this is recommended the Shelby County Board of Education approve the contract with National Filter Solutions for $932,937 for district wide, You'll be purchasing the filters and paying them to install the filters. And just so you know, that is 1,064 or 164,940 filters that we have to
purchase so that we can change filters three times a year just like your house. That's so that's the the cost of that and install installation. Any questions? This is athletic field preparation services. Total contract amount is $478,617, and this is to ensure that we have high quality field services for all of our outdoor athletic fields. This year we are we've included baseball, softball, soccer, and football where in previous years sometimes it's only been about football.
That amount of money only gets us about 17 locations, but we worked with, s or MSCI AA to understand, first and foremost, the safety, the fields that have safety concerns, and then, we'll make sure they're all competition ready. And then finally, if there's money left over, then it'd be, you know, aesthetics. But I imagine we'll eat it all up with the safety and the and the striping and whatnot. I have a question related to f, athletics.
Is there any reason we don't have the resource officers at soccer games? I'm gonna need somebody else to answer that question. Yes. Normally, we don't have them at soccer games because of the number of people who attend. But if principals request them, we can send them, but we also have limited limited, officers. But, again, if schools request that we'll send it, we mainly send officers, per, t double s double a. We normally have to secure the basketball and football games are the ones that we
secure versus all of them. But, again, if there's a school that requested for an issue that's going on, we will. Asking that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One zero five contract Approval request, Holland and Knight LLP. Thank you, madam chair. Good evening, board. This is the recommendation, that the Shelby County Board of Education approve the contract with the Holland and Knight LLP LLP for legislative consulting services in the amount of $108,000. The contract period will be from 10/01/2025 to September 2026.
Essentially, this is a renewal of our, contract with our lobbyist, Holland and Knight, and, primarily office out of Nashville. As you all know, we've worked with Holland and Knight, for a couple of years now. And so this is just a continuation of their services, for legislative support. Any questions? Debbie, you got a question? Back when Tony Thompson was the, board, legislative. The lobbyist? Lobbyist. Yes, ma'am. Tony Thompson along with TSBA came and presented to us after each legislative session.
If my memory serves me correct, Holland Knight didn't last year. They did I'm sorry. They did not? They did not come in, and do a presentation after the session was over. That's something I'd be happy to to talk to them about and see if they'd be willing to provide as part of their services. Yeah. Because I liked it. Yeah. And they need to get to know us. Understood. Yeah. Other questions? Procurement committee meeting is adjourned. We'll move on. 2 oh, I'm sorry.
206. I do apologize. I'm I apologize. I apologize. We'll turn it over to the one and only. The Tito Langston. Thank you, Cherry Coleman. Doctor Richmond, board members, this is a both a timeline for an RP, for health insurance as well as, a one year extension for a Cigna contract. So the recommendation is to, for the Shelby County Board of Education to approve the contract, extension for Cigna. This is for the administration of the district's self insured and fully coverages.
The purpose of this is for Cigna to provide administrative services only, and services for group sponsored self insured health insurance programs. That's medical and dental, as well as offering fully insured coverages for vision, stop loss, as well as retiree coverages. A little bit of a background is these services are necessary, and the district currently has a, with our active employees, a seventy thirty split. That means 70, percent, from the district and 30 from the employees, 50% for the
cost of retiree participants, and then 70% for the cost of Medicare Advantage participants. Next slide. The total estimated annual cost is $41,900,000 even though that's the just the administrative piece. Again, we are self insured. So, those, claims depending on, how many claims that are, accrued through the year. Next slide. So board members, that's the extension for signal. We've been talking about this for some time. One of the things that came out of collaborative conversant is that we wanted to
have a joint effort with our teacher groups. And one of the things that we agree is that we would have teacher voice on the RFP committee for employee benefits. What we agreed to, and I see some of my colleagues in the in the audience today. What we agreed to is that we would have four teacher teacher type employees listed on the committee. Both association president presidents will be included in the committee. And to be equitable, one, we would split the group and do a zero to six for, a teacher type in zero to six years, a teacher type in seven
to fourteen years, a teacher type in fifteen to twenty one years, and a teacher type in twenty two and above. Again, we wanted to be equitable, around, the RFP committee. It's not the only people that'll be on the committee, but we did want to be in in joint partnership with our Change in the podcast. Is this better? A little better? Okay. Gotcha. We wanted to be equitable across, in the committee. So, again, one of the things that we agreed to with our teacher groups is
that they will be, they will be involved in the process as being the largest group that, insurance affects. Next slide. So, board members, if you can see, this is a detailed timeline of what it would looks like to get us through. After the extension is done, our health care insurance, contract is on a calendar year while we do fiscal years. And by calendar years, I mean that it it'll start this extension will start 01/01/2026
and go through, 12/31/2026. Then the next contract, after the RFP is done will start 01/01/2027. And, again, this is a timeline. I'll go quickly through this timeline or briefly hitting some of the the high points, but I will say, I made with procurement today. And one of the things that I'm proposing is to even move this timeline up even further, possibly into October. But this timeline gets us through into open enrollment in 2027. So first, the thing we wanna do is finalize the RFP and do data collection.
That means we wanna look at the participants that are involved in our health insurance programs as well as, insurance, dental, and things of that nature. And then again, we wanna final finalize the RFP review committee members. As I mentioned before, we'll have teacher groups that'll be involved as, being members of the committee. Then we wanna look at, vendors for consideration as of 01/06, which is the Tuesday that we come back from, the Christmas holiday. As you can see, unlike any other RFP, we will allow a little more time
for this RFP to be out on the street. It will be posted approximately for a full month, obviously, because this is our largest RFP. It'll give time for vendors to, ask questions as well as we'll post publicly those answers for every vendor who is going to, participate, or give a proposal. And then their submissions will be due roughly four weeks from posting, which is, this, 02/03/2026. Next slide. Mercer is our health care consultant. They'll be heavily involved with helping, our HR team kinda develop the proposals and reviewing
the proposals. So they'll start reviewing the proposals and they'll prepare an analysis, for consideration for the administration. They also look at some preliminary analysis, for the review committee. So helping the review committee to get through a lot of the language around what the RFP, is considering as they get to make their decision on who would be the health care provider. As you can see, it'll we'll go through multiple rounds, and that'll take roughly about three months just to ensure that we've done a detailed process around what it looks like. Right now, we're expecting to bring a fully, executed contract for consider well, a, contract
for consideration in the, in the June 2026 board meeting. And what it does, it it allows us to get, to open enrollment again in 2026 in hopes of it started in 2027. Next slide. Again, this is, just, implementation, guidelines. So this is how we will implement whether or not whoever that vendor is, we'll start implement implementing. It'll take a six months process. Again, it'll start on 07/01. Again, one of one of the things that I'm hoping that we can do is to start it earlier and maybe started in May.
But, again, our goal is to get to open enrollment in 2026, implementing a new, process around insurance. One of the one a couple of things that will be really important, is that we'll need to design new, health care plans no matter who the provider is, as well as, engage our employees to consider how we do, insurance for the district. So, I think that's my last slide. I'll take any questions around this. Is it on? You can go first.
Go ahead. You go first. Yes. And I understand you, Tito, to say. As a retired employee district that our insurance is going to go up, we're getting less benefits. I just say that, mister Williams. What is what what what is the cost? I know that when I looked at what you had on the screen, it didn't stay very long. But for retirees, it did not check. It just for what I have for retirees, it's just a split that we have. So as of the past, I wanna say, four years, we haven't increased any cost to any active or retiree employees, for the district.
What this process, again, would do is, help us pick a new provider or see what the market, is entails for an RFP. We hadn't done an RFP process in, I wanna say, the last, four years. So, again, what this would do is help us to see what's in the open marketplace and give us an opportunity to redesign our rate plans to, essentially, do get get the best product for, our employees in open market. So is there an increase in the premium for for retirees?
There's not. There's currently, right now, we don't know what the market is gonna say, but that's not what this proposal is. It's not it's not considering an increase. I'm I'm hoping that it'll be a decrease for all employees from a, a premium as well as a out of, pocket cost. And I think it would do you well to place at least the president of the Retirees Association on that committee as well because this is our insurance too. You say our as in you you get some of this insurance. Well, I'm retired. I don't wanna pay all the money.
I paid for fifty years, and that'll be free. I have two questions. What percentage of our employees are not affiliated with the teacher's union? So, oh, with with a teacher association group? That's a really good question. Well, I will say that my proposal isn't necessarily saying that it'll come from, teacher association. It's just a teacher group is what I'm saying. The only promise that I've made is that both association presidents will take part of
it but, Yolanda, if you can go back to this slide, you'll see that what I'm proposing is that we'll take a, experience, group based on this level. Again, this whether or not they're in a association or not, this is just a teacher type group. Again, trying to be equitable and get a zero to six year teacher type, a seven to fourteen teacher type, a fifteen to twenty one year teacher type, and anyone above twenty two years of experience for teachers. Yeah. Does that answer your question?
Not really. But I like it. When you asked you asked I like it. You like it, though? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Teacher associations represent all teachers even if they're not a due paying member. So when they poll teachers, they don't just say who's getting their payroll deducted. It is they reach out to all teachers. They represent all teachers regardless of their membership status. Correct? The next question. Correct me if I'm wrong. We do the co pays, not the insurance company. It's a so it's all a part of the the design rate plan.
So it's an it's an agreement. So, when you design your rate plan, that determines what the co pay is. So, again, when we look at this new RFP, we'll be looking at what co pay it will be as detailed as looking at what the co pays look like as we design our rate plans. I hope they go down. I've been waiting for this. I actually think last year year I told you I wasn't gonna vote for an extension again, so I may I may just have to stay present just to stick to my word here. I in the timeline, are we planning to do any education, with employees about choosing
a health plan that is that fits their projected health care costs? So I I'm a high I'm a high health care consumer. I use a lot of I see eight different doctors or whatever. I go to the doctor a lot. But for people who don't, do they understand which plan based on their prescriptions or, you know, life events? Do they know which one is best for them, which would also maybe save them money and us? Do we have that service? That's a really good question. So one of the things that I proposed to Mercer three, about three months ago
is that we actually do that education. Because from the data that I look at in our analysis, what you see is that and again, for it's it's well within the employee's choice. But, I what what I wanted to allude to is and I talked to her about to the teachers association groups about this. But if I'm a 22 year old healthy, teacher, single teacher, the education I want us to give them is that they don't have to pick the highest plan if you're healthy. Correct. It's gonna save you if you don't. If you're just doing an annual appointment, you're fairly healthy.
You don't need to pick the highest plan. So that's the thing that I'm asking Mercer as our health care consultant in conjunction with the HR team will be, educating our employees because in a condition in conjunction with designing health care plans, it'll be there that'll help us, help employees. When we are presented with options, I'm gonna use this as an example, and I know it's because of my public advocacy that people have have come to me about this particular piece of coverage, but I am using as an example, is GLP ones, the anti obesity medications.
At least a dozen teachers have asked me why we don't cover it. It's over a thousand dollars if they can't. When we get presented with options for expanding the coverage we currently have, will we be able to say see, like, differentiated cost to the district if we add certain types of coverage that don't exist, or how will we be will we be presented with coverage that is going where being added? Yes, ma'am. So, again, in conjunction with our, health care consultant, one of the things that has one of the most two of the most important things is, one, everybody wants to
lower the cost for co pays and out of pocket expenses. The next thing is people want to take advantage, and they want our health care provider to, pay for things like GLP ones and things of that nature. So, again, as we're going through this RFP process, we're gonna design rate plans and ask anybody who responds to it to be able to, offer some of those things that our employees have asked. So, one of the things that's going to be doing as we analyze and collect data, we're gonna be asking employees what do they want out of their, their health
care provider. And those are the things we're gonna put in RFP to be able to have a detailed respond, response from their vendors who propose us. Do we I know we have family plans, so an employee can cover their family or, employees who have spouses who may have access to health insurance. Have we explored the cost of just paying the premiums for employees who have access to health care, like a sort of hybrid structure of we're essentially subsidizing families to
get health care separately? Like, is that something that we could do to look at lowering your costs? We I think everything is on the table for now. But to answer your question, no. We haven't explored it before. We haven't. One of the things that, I've also asked them to do is do an audit of what our participants have. And, and one of the things that they considers is that for myself about I have a the family plan that I pay for for my family. My wife has a family plan as well. It it it I mean, she has the option for a plan at her, place
of business as well. So one of the things that I'm asking the participants again is that what it look what does it look like? So, again, everything is on the table. And, one of the the things that, I wanna be heavily involved with is making sure that anybody who responds to this RFP give us the best deal that money can buy for us. Okay. And then I have one question one other question. What about supplemental benefits? Will that be part of the RFP? And can you share what examples of supplemental benefits for listening public?
Yes, ma'am. So, it's not listed here, but we also do supplemental, as well. It's not as extensive as this, but, we'll do it on the same timeline. So supplemental benefits is, short term disabilities. It is, outside, counseling insurance policies and things of that nature that doesn't include your regular health. So we'll be looking at all of those supplemental insurance and just for the listening public. Those things they're not here is because they're employee deduct deducted.
Again, as a employee of the district, if you participate in health care pro program, you have the option to take advantage of those supplemental programs. And, again, one of the things that I agree to with the teacher group is that we'll do supplemental insurance as well because a lot of people are taking advantage of that as well. Yeah. I mean, I think, we're looking at keeping as much money in pockets of our employees as possible. Those add up. I have a short term disability policy. If I it's if our employees may start missing work after a certain amount of
time, they get a certain percentage of their pay. It's it's it's good insurance to have, and it's also quite expensive. And I think we we are in a negotiating position. So I wanna see the total I wanna see both of those things on total compensation. So Yes, ma'am. So, again, what this does for us is that, I think everybody a lot of people think about compensation in way of salary, and then, obviously, that's the biggest way we compensate employees. But this benefit package also is a way that we can recruit and retain our district employees.
So if we get this right, we it'll help us, with that metric as well. People stay in jobs for benefits. So thank you. Stephen Shuid. Is there a number that comes back? It used two years ago. We know how much we took it and how much we spent because it comes out of the salaries income, the the the employees. And at that time, they would gauge whether or not we would get raises. So can you tell me how much money did we collect last year for insurance policy and how much did we spend? That's a really good question, mister Williams. It's I remember when I came back to the district, you was you would always
hop on us having a prop running a profit in in the insurance fund. And you were correct. We actually did in those days. Pre COVID, we were running about a $1,415,000,000 dollar profit. And if you've been around here long enough, you'll remember that we used to do benefit holidays, which what that meant is that if because we ran a profiting, in the insurance funds that employees wouldn't have to pay for, insurance for that Mhmm. Their particular pay period. What what we've seen now post COVID is that we've been running a deficit, if
you will, in insurance fund. And it's because our, claims have been more than we brought in in revenues. But as a district, we've been supplementing the deficit as not to pass along those, increasing cost to our employees. So again, what this RFP would do is help us redesign rate plans so we can get back in line with what the market has. And we could be as a self insured employee employer, rather, we can be can our revenues can be closer to our expenditures, and our employees can be satisfied. Chito. I have a question. The, children can stay on to what age?
I believe the new law is around 26, I think. 2026. '26. Yeah. It's '26. Yeah. Procurement committee meeting is here, adjourned. We now move on to the academic committee meeting. Doctor Whitelaw? Yeah. I was ready, doctor Richard and board members. I was ready. Tonight, on the next, I think, four or five items, doctor director, Devlin will be going over she's gonna go over the overview. Then she's gonna go straight to the contracts.
Did I get that right, miss Gordon? So I kick it off to you. Good evening, superintendent of Richmond, chair Coleman, and the board members. I'll go through this briefly, quickly as possible. Our current just to kinda level set, the current enrollment for pre k right now is 3,340 students funded through the district's fund one, first aid and voluntary pre k. This is our annual first aid contracts that I have been bringing before the board since 2019. This year is a little different, because this year, first aid has expanded its partnership
now with Porta Lipp to enhance and expand the early childhood opportunities within the district. First Aid is now serving as the 20% non federal match for the Porta Leith, teams head start grant. And so as you'll see as I present, there's some changes in our partnership. So if you'll go to the next slide. So the next slide I will be bringing to you is now the first day Porta Leath, head start contract services that we have. What has happened this school year that Porta Lease first aid normally funds us at
50 classrooms. This year, they're now reducing that support to 37 classrooms. 13 of those classrooms will now be funded under the Porta Lease grant. So it's recommended that the Shelby County School Board approves the agreement between Porta Lease in the amount of $2,041,000 to continue managing the preschool services, the wrap around, and the structure support, through this contractual agreement for the 13 classrooms serving three and four year old students. Thank you. The contract allows the early childhood department to provide services for 260 students across these
particular, classrooms. These schools will include Alsea, Chimney Rock, Highland Oaks, Peabody, White Station, and Whitehaven Elementary School. Next slide. The gap analysis, we will, this agreement would allow us to continue the support of these two hundred second, two hundred and sixty students. In the absence of this, the district would have to provide that particular support for those particular students, in those classrooms. Each classroom will receive a total of a $150,000 which will result in that $2,041,000
I'll take any questions for this particular item. Yeah. I'm gonna hold this. I'm gonna send you an email because I gotta read this and think through. I have the question, but I can't I need to really look at it. It's Okay. And then I'll send you an email. No problem. I have a question. I saw on the news yesterday that, universal pre k was in effect. How many, seats do we have? We only have 3,340. The district did not get any increase on the city and the county's pre k
for all, nor did we receive any increase from the VPK. We have to make sure that with VPK that we have an extensive wait list this school year to petition to the state to receive additional classes. Did they give you a reason why we didn't receive an increase? No, ma'am. They did not. We are the largest school district. How many kids do we have on the waiting list? Currently, right now from last I saw, we had over 1,500, but most of those students are three year olds because a lot of parents applied prior to us receiving
our notice that we will not be the the head start grantee. And so we have been working with the Porta Leath team to provide those opportunities through the First State, through Porta Leath or through the other First State Memphis partners. How many of our parents don't qualify for head start because of their income? On the three year old list, the last I I can remember, and I can see you those numbers specific, but I do remember the last we looked, it was like 09/1963 year olds because most of the parents who apply for the three year
old program are over income. For four year olds, I think it was like maybe $4.37. Did all of the city council, vote on that? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. City council the city council and the county commission both voted on this new pre k for all expansion. What did they give the seats to? The municipalities? No, ma'am. They did not. So they're they're right now, the priority is to expand within our childcare providers within the city. So most of the new seats went to the childcare providers, but I can send
you specifically the total number and then I can send you what those expansion totals would be for the next five years because they have the projections for those. Mhmm. Thank you. You're welcome. So the next item is the first day wrap around contract. So as, first state has adopted most of the head start regulations, which means that we provide that still that comprehensive wrap around support for all of our students with a one to 41 one to 40, ratio, which means the family engagement specialist supports
those 40 students. So this agreement allows us to use the wrap around services in a total amount of $100,000,348,650, dollars for us to support those 37 classrooms that are funded under First Aid, which is a total of 760 students that will be served. Gap analysis without this contract, the 760 students, we will use lose those essential services that wrap around support, which is that hearing vision, height, weight and screenings and then the comprehensive support that we provide our families through the family engagement specialist.
Next slide. Of course, this goes through the same thing. Our focus will be the student achievement and then for us to continue that wrap around support with those family engagement specialists assigned to those students to provide those services. Any questions around this item? Okay. A question. Yes, ma'am. How much resources are we losing? $30,000,000 worth. But we are still sustaining the formula with First State, which was one to 40. The district did it with some some investment. We're gonna continue our educational support.
We're continuing the family engagement special support. Today, I did look at the budget. I did send, director Franny an email to see if we can increase the number of twelve month family engagement specialists. So when we look at our formula to provide that extensive recruitment and enrollment and looking at the team and looking at all our numbers and the number of families that we have supported throughout the summer, it was not gonna be enough with the three individuals. So I have petitioned to see if we can make some wiggle room with that,
looking at our budget. But the academic team, the health services team, the, let me see what else we we included. All of those things will still operate as the same. I am going to send an email tonight to doctor Whitelaw and the regional superintendents to see how we can work together to manage some of the behaviors in the school. Looking at the existing staff, I've I kinda outlined how we can bridge the gap and work together to make sure that teachers are still receiving that as that essential
support that we provided, under Head Start. The last question. Do you have everything that you need? Comfortably. Right now, we are level setting. Let me say that. In the absence of we're now first full week working without having the whole staff because we've been in transition mode. So as we transition this grant to Porta Leith and we level set, I will then now know what we truly need because we will be in full operations. And so right now, we're in transition mode.
So we're kinda all over the place right now because we're trying to work with all the different departments and teams to make sure that we have a trim seamless transition with this grant. Thank you. You're welcome. So if you'll go to the next slide. The next slide is the first aid direct services. This covers the 37 classrooms, the full funding for the teachers and all the resources and support. That's a total of $5,000,000 $49,511 This would allow us to continue providing that, educational support within those, 37 classroom serving those seven sixty students.
Questions around this one. Next one is the last one, which is no, I'm sorry, we have two more. This is a community car partners contract. We do a subcontract inside of this first aid grant working with two community partners. Their agreement is a $100,000, and that is with Cadazzle and Hope House. Those particular individuals were under our original VPK grant, but we moved those, two sub two, community partners under our first day contract because they struggled with having, certified staff.
So in order to keep them as a community partner, making sure that we're continue to buy those services, we move them under our heads. There are grants. I mean, not a head start. Our first aid grant serving them, within those community partner centers. Questions around this one. Last one is our coaching. This is to continue to provide coaching and instructional support for our classroom teachers. That agreement amount gives us is $259,000 Right now, we have a total of three coaches that will be working, going inside those classrooms, supporting those particular teachers with any
instructional gaps or any, anything that's related to the day to day, operations of academics within their classrooms. Any questions related to this particular one? Thank you so very much. Greetings. Miss Goings is going to present to you, an agreement with University of Tennessee, Knoxville with their social worker department. Good afternoon. Interim superintendent, doctor Richmond, and school board members. This evening. I'm asking that the board is recommended that the Shelby County Board of Education approved
the University of Tennessee, not Knoxville College of Social Work affiliation agreement for the twenty five-twenty twenty eight school years. The purpose is to provide the University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work MSW graduate students with supervised field instruction and practicum placements within Memphis Shelby County Schools, which will enhance social emotional and mental health supports for students at no cost to the
district. Description and background. The University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work affiliation agreement is a partnership that allows graduate students in the MSSW program to gain supervised field experience within Memphis Shelby County Schools. Students will engage in activities such as counseling, case management, family engagement and crisis support under the supervision of licensed MSCS social work professionals. Gap analysis. If the agreement is not approved, the district would lose no cost graduate students support
for mental health services and it will reduce the pipeline for future school social workers. Previous outcomes. Through the University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work affiliation agreement, two graduate students were placed in MSCS during the twenty three-twenty four school year and one student during the twenty four twenty twenty four-twenty five school year. To provide supervised social work services such as counseling, case management and crisis support.
All students successfully completed their field placement requirements. Expected outcomes. We will increase access to school based mental health services through supervised graduate level support, improve early identification and intervention for students behavioral and social emotional needs. We'll strengthen the pipeline for future social workers trained in MSCS practices and culture. Strategic priority, inclusive excellence, procurement method, this is Tennessee state contract, financial impact, there is
no cost to the district. And students provide supervised mental health support as part of their training. Do we have any questions? She's just gonna have a little conference call today. No cost. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the academic committee. This meeting is adjourned.