We will be opening the meeting with a brief moment of silence or prayer and the pledge of allegiance to The United States flag. No one is required to participate or be in present for any of these and being in this portion of the meeting is completely voluntary. Board member, miss Rosales, I believe you have special guest for us tonight. Thank you, madam chair. Tonight, we have the pleasure and honor to have the Black men youth football and cheerleading organization to come and lead the the pledge. They've been in our the black community for many years now, supporting our young boys
and girls with football programs. So I would like to welcome Nate to the podium to lead us to the with the pledge. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Will you bow your heads with me and join me in a prayer? Dear lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for giving us one more chance to be together.
And at this present moment, we are getting ready to make decisions. I pray, lord, that you give us all each board member that is here to make decisions. I pray that you give us wisdom and discernment and that we also be reminded of why we were appointed by you to be in these positions. Lord, we thank you for that you do you're doing, you're about to do. Thank you for protecting every single one of us. I pray that when we leave here, I pray that you give us safe and tribal mercies and that we can come back again and do this all over again.
Thank you, Lord, for all that you do in the name of Jesus. Amen. Next up, we have the approval of the agenda. You wanna take just a second? I'll take look over the agenda and then I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Second. Second. Thank you, mister Tidwell. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have the, approval of the consent agenda. And I do want to mention as I did, Tuesday, you will see a name there that looks kind of familiar, but it is my son, Michael Maxwell, who is taking a position at La Verne High School.
But I wanted to be full disclosure and let you all know that. Madam chair. Yes. I too need to get full disclosure that in the on the consent agenda, breakthrough Tennessee is also mentioned in the facility use section, that we did request to utilize the Blackmun High School for a specific event. Move to approve. Yeah. Thank oh, you're sorry. Okay. Just a moment, mister Vaughn. We have one late breaking nepotism hire. So, Eagleville, we would like to add Tiffany Lamb for a cafeteria monitor position.
Michael McLaren is her uncle and Jennifer Cooper is her cousin. They both teach but they're at the school but there is no supervisor. And that name is Tiffany Lamb. Okay. Mister Vaughn, you had a motion to approve. Second. Thank you, mister Rosales. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. We have no guest speaker tonight. And next up is public comment, and we have nine speakers this evening. And when I say your name I ask you to come forward and, they'll explain how it works. First up we have Chelsea Bennett. Yes. Good evening. As a Rutherford County native and a 2011 graduate of Riverdale High School, I'm honored
to stand before you today. After receiving my high school diploma, I attended the University of Tennessee where I studied English and secondary education. Upon returning home, I taught middle school literacy in Nashville Charter Schools, serving students with similar demographics and cultural upbringings as many of my peers during my years at the original Central Middle School before it was Central Magnet here in Murfreesboro. During my time in Nashville schools, I had the privilege of being guided by Jeremy Sager, executive director of NOVA Smart Academy. Once as a teacher and he, my instructional coach and assistant principal, and the second
time when I served as instructional coach in AP and he as my principal. During both times under his leadership, I witnessed test scores skyrocket in two different school districts in two parts of the city achieving TVA's level five reward school status. One reason for this reward school achievement is the high number of students who are able to transition out of receiving EL services due to their WIDA scores. Understand that investing in charter schools here in Rutherford County is a newer venture, but it's a promising one. The vision behind Nova Smart Academy school innovations, particularly the structured English immersion program, isn't
merely an idea. It's a viable method that can be executed again if given the chance to put the right people in the right positions to serve our kids well. This county is my home, and it's the place that instilled my value system in education. And that all started with my elementary schooling at Cason Lane Academy. At that time in the nineties, Cason Lane was a new holistic k through eight paideia option that provided an alternative to what my parents, who were also graduates of Riverdale High School, were accustomed to. The school's focus didn't detract from what the county offered educationally. It added to it and made me more equipped to handle the rigor of my
AP and honors classes and expansive social structure once I matriculated into county schools. It's the reason I stand here before you today. Novus Smart Academy can be that same asset in preparation for incoming students of all backgrounds if given the chance by the county. Voting positively for Novus supports the growing infrastructure in Rutherford and grants us a proper hand in serving our students versus relinquishing control to the state. Thus far, Novus has shown up and served the community, and I believe that the right people are committed to seeing those kids through just as each of you sitting
on this board is. Thirty years ago, my parents viewed my new elementary school as an alternative option and a prime educational opportunity for their children to be prepared for the world. In 2025, I ask that you take a chance on investing in the possibilities of the student and parent population that Novus is already serving and will continue serving in 2026 and beyond. Thank you for your time. God bless. Thank you. Our next speaker is miss Nikaria Guy. I hope I pronounced that right. Okay. Could you please speak up? We're having a hard time hearing you.
Thank you. Alright. My name is Nikaria Guy, and I'm honored to speak with you today in support of Novus Smart Academy, a proposed k through a charter school that I believe can make a lasting impact on our community. As someone who has served as a registered behavior technician, I've had the privilege of working closely with children who have special needs. I've seen firsthand how powerful the right environment can be. One that not only provides access, but also tailors to the ways that children learn, communicate, and thrive. Unfortunately, I've also seen the gaps, places where children are misunderstood, overlooked, or underserved because
the system wasn't built to meet them where they are. Novus Smart Academy stands out because it is rooted in a forward thinking model. It's not just another school. It's a program built on the belief that every child deserves a personalized, high quality education, especially those who are often left behind in traditional settings. This includes children with learning disabilities, children who need a different pace, and children who simply need more support and intention in how they're taught. I know the vision of doctor Sager and his team is bold, but it's also personal. They are not just creating another school. They are creating another school choice option with access to a better future, not just
for one type of student, but for all students and for for families like mine. And for the students, I've served as an RBT, and that means everything. When you support Novus Smart Academy, you're not just approving the school. You're opening the door to possibility, to innovation, and most importantly, to access. I hope you all vote yes. Our kids deserve nothing less. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Erica Roberts. Good evening board members. My name is Erica Roberts, the proposed board member and academic committee member of Novus Smart Academy. I bring twenty years of experience in elementary education, which includes being on founding teams
of other brand new charter schools and working with diverse student populations. I've also led initiatives that close achievement gaps and elevate instructional quality in schools. I choose to serve because I believe in our mission, college and career begin in kindergarten. Our vision also aligns closely with the Rutherford County School's strategic plan, particularly its focus on early intervention and ensuring that every scholar thrives, both academically and personally. I want to assure you that we have families invested in the success of our
school. At the June 14 Smyrna celebration, we added an additional 21 new families to our previously confirmed 19. Our focus has been intentional on community service and engagement. So that post authorization, NOVA Smart Academy isn't just another school option, but the desired school choice for students and families in our community. We will continue to build on that momentum. I want to respectfully address any notion that we are not prepared to serve our special education population. For example, our application is aligned with the latest ESL guidance and current terminology from
the Department of Ed. Page 26 of the current ESL manual highlights both pull out and co teaching instruction models and reinforces that ESL services must be individualized and further states that ESL is considered a unique learning need. And LEAs are required to provide the student, individualized services, interventions, scaffolds, accommodations, and modifications that are written within an ILP. This approach ensures students are supported without being removed from rigorous academic content.
Let me be clear. Doctor Sayer cannot and will not leave this school alone. While dual roles are common in most new charter schools, we're planning ahead. In year zero, three assistant principals will be hired to support academics, culture, and operations. In year one, we'll add three additional support staff already included in our budget. This structure ensures a strong sustainable start. We've seen this model succeed. Purpose Prep in Nashville, one of our models, still has its ED serving as principal, and they perform at the top 5% of schools across Tennessee.
That consistency has been essential to their success. Similarly, doctor Zager's record taking a school from level one to level five and earning a reward school status in just one year proves he's ready to lead with sustainable excellence. And we believe in our team, our community, and most of all, the scholars we are committed to serve. Novus Smart Academy is ready to be a beacon of joy and opportunity in Rutherford County. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Charles Fraser. Good evening, madam chair. My name is Charles Fraser, attorney Charles Fraser.
I serve as the proposed board chair for Nova Smart Academy. I'm here to strongly encourage, your vote in favor of our application. I'll start with, assurance that our team, our founding team has been responses to the critical feedback provided by doctor, McCanns and the RCS review committee. We have taken that feedback seriously, made actionable and thoughtful adjustments to strengthen our plan. Please do not overlook, that we remain committed to both transparency, and improvement because we
believe this work in this community deserve nothing less. Our school based leadership team is designed to ensure strong oversight and shared responsibility during our launch phase. Doctor Seager will serve as the executive founding, director and school principal in the early years to provide stable and consistent leadership. Do not disregard that we he will be supported by three full time school leaders in the launch phase to oversee operation school culture and academics. Be mindful that this leadership team will be supported by an office manager, office secretary,
school counselor, ensuring that we have the capacity to serve the proposed a 192,000 students in our year one without overextending any one individual. A strong walk a a walk through of our short term incubation facility confirmed that while targeted upgrades will be required, the core infrastructure is for to run a safe school, a safe and functional school is already in place. This allows us to minimize preopening costs while still prioritizing student safety. It's critical to remember that we budgeted for a for storm shelter boxes in our
startup facility. Our request for a three year variance reflects our plan to build a fully integrated, code compliant storm shelter at our long term facility. Lastly, what we what has been identified as narrow margins are actually conservative planning. Isn't that what Tennessee is all about? We've intentionally inflated cost productions above current market rates to ensure more realistic expenditures. We did when we did not receive the new SCOOPs venture fund, we made immediate adjustments to include, delaying the start date for our executive record director, which aligns with,
our approval timeline. Tonight, you can vote yes to relieve school overcrowding, expand opportunity, and show every child in Rutherford County that you believe in their potential. We will never waver in our commitment to this community. Our mission is clear. Our approach is authentic. Please, please give our charter application your full consideration and vote of support today. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Alejandra Beltran. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
My name is Alejandra Bezan. I'm here to support Rockship Charter School application. I live in Rutherford County, now for over six years and currently residing in Smyrna. This is my fifth year traveling to South Nashville to teach kindergarten humanities at Rock Ship United Academy, which just got approved for another ten years. We are more than a building of staff and students. Rock Ship schools build strong communities, and we welcome you like family. At Rockship, we believe that every child deserves a high quality education regardless of their zip code. I know firsthand how important that is.
I come from a working class family. And even in the low income area, I was able to receive a strong academic foundation for my academic journey. I am a proud first generation Latina college graduate. I earned my bachelor's degree in sociology from Cal State Northridge, all through Pell Grants based off my grade. While in college and working as a teacher's assistant, I witnessed the direct impact I could make in my students' progress and realized the power I had behind teaching children in my own community. I am currently working on my master's degree and teacher certification while gaining valuable experience
by teaching on a state permit. Rocketship has provided me with the path to building a strong academic foundation for my students, and I would love to do the same for students in my own community. I love providing students with intentional tailored instruction to meet them where they are through the emphasis on data driven small group instruction. In the twenty four, twenty five school year, kindergarten, reading, and math, we more than doubled the number of students scoring above average on NWEA map assessments. We've consistently received a TVOS level four or five. And Rockship United has beat the state and district with multilingual learners exiting services in
every grade. In addition to growing our students, we grow our community. I truly enjoy the relationships I get to build with families, especially the Spanish speaking parents who feel an immediate sense of relief when they realize they have someone to help them. They know their children feel seen, understood, and supported. If Rocketship opens a school here in Rutherford, I would love to be a part of it. It would be extremely meaningful to be a part of opening a school that reflects the diversity in the area, not just amongst the students, but amongst the teachers and staff as well. Thank you again for this opportunity, and I respectfully ask that you approve Rocketship's charter
school application. We would love to have you aboard the Rocketship. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Dominique Smith. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Dominique Smith, and I live in Smyrna with my husband and our kids. Our twin girls will be starting kindergarten this year. The last time I stood before you, I spoke as a parent and as a principal. Today, I return in a new role as a head of schools for another district overseeing both middle and elementary schools and still as a deeply invested parent in Rutherford County. My daughters will be attending Stewart's Creek Elementary next month, a wonderful school and one
of the reasons we chose our neighborhood. But if Rocketship Tennessee were approved to open a school in Rutherford County, it would absolutely be my top choice for their elementary education. I say that not just based on belief, but on experience. I was a founding teacher at a Rocketship school in California. It was the first place I felt deeply coached, supported, and challenged to grow. That experience shaped the educator and leader I am today. Rocketship's model is rooted in strong academics, but also in community, connection, and joy.
Teachers build real relationships with families. Students receive personalized support, parents are true partners in the learning process, and kids love the school. I still find myself doing morning dance moves from rocket ship with my daughters in the kitchen. Now in my role overseeing schools, including working alongside Rocketship leaders, I've seen how seriously they take partnership. Whether it's with families, other school systems, or this very board, Rocketship shows up with
transparency, humility, and a deep commitment to doing what's best for kids. I hope you've experienced that partnership firsthand throughout this process. As Rutherford County continues to grow, the need for strong community centered options becomes even more urgent. Rocketship is not only ready to meet that need, they're eager to partner with you in doing so. Tonight, I respectfully ask that you vote to approve Rocketship Tennessee's application. I believe our children, our families, and our broader educational ecosystem will be better for
it. Thank you for your time and your service to our community. Thank you. Next, we have Claudia Vasquez. I will be translating for miss Vasquez. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Claudia Vasquez, and I'm a mother of three and a proud resident of Bloodborne. I'm also a small business owner. I own a barbershop here in our community. I'm here because as a mother, my greatest dream is for my children to receive a high quality education, one that prepares them to be independent, responsible, and caring members
of society. That's also the dream of many families who couldn't be here today, and I'm here on their behalf too. Our country's our county is growing quickly, and with that growth comes new opportunities. Rocket ship is a school that values collaboration between families and teachers, encourages strong communication, and offers personalized learning so that each child can grow at their own pace and reach their full potential. I love living in La Verne. It's a peaceful, safe place with so much promise. That's why I'm excited of the idea of welcoming a new school like Rocket Ship to our community, a public school option that expands educational opportunities for all families.
With deep respect, I kindly ask you to consider voting in favor of this application. With your support, we can build a brighter future for our children together. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next, we have Lakeia Covington. Good evening. My name is Lakia Covington, and I've been an educator for sixteen years. I joined Rock the Ship Dream Community Prep in the Antioch area as a founding teacher when the school opened in 2022, and I now serve serve as the assistant principal for humanities. I'm also part of the Rocket Ships Rising Principal Program, preparing to lead a school
of my own in the near future, and nothing will make me more proud of than founding a school right here in my own community. I own a home in La Verne. My daughter attends La Verne Middle School, and I know firsthand how much our community would benefit from a Rocketship Elementary School. Rocketship is unlike any other school in Rutherford County. What first drew me to Rocketship was their commitment to parent power. As a parent, I've always believed in being actively involved in my daughter's education. And as an educator, I believe every parent should have the opportunity to do the same. At Rocket Shield, we invite our parents to be a part of their child's learning
journey. We show families how they can support learning at home, and we welcome them into our school community. This kind of partnership has a real impact on student achievement. Another thing I love is our approach to individualized learning. Our humanities block is one hundred and seventy minutes long, giving us time for rich, targeted instruction. We run, small groups every day, and we meet students exactly where they are, whether they are closing gaps or ready to accelerate. Every child is supported to reach their full potential. And even though our classrooms are structured and focused, they're also full of joy. As a teacher, I love bringing joy into my classroom.
Now as a leader, I get to help our teachers do the same. Rocket Ship Schools are designed to serve high needed high need students, including English language learners and students from low income backgrounds. That's why I believe rocket ship would be such a strong fit for La Verne and Smyrna. These communities are diverse, and our model can provide families with these resources and support the children, need to succeed. We already see the demand because rocket ship journey is so close to Rutherford County Line. We regularly have families from this community reaching out to enroll.
Sadly, we've had to turn them away because they live in the wrong county. That that's hard for us and even harder for the families. And although we did have some to attend our school our first year, we had to turn them away our second year. So tonight, I ask you vote yes on Rocketship Charter School application because our community deserves this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Our last speaker is doctor Courtney Covington. Alright. Good evening. My name is doctor Courtney Covington. I'm a proud resident here in La Verne in Rutherford County for nearly over past three years.
It's a growing vibrant community with new restaurants and families coming in, and without a doubt, there's a need for a high quality school. There's no question we need more effective student center options. I know families who are driving across county to find a great school to meet their child's needs. Rocket ship can be that school right there in that community, not far away. That's where we're proposing a neighborhood school built to built to support, uplift the children and families in Surrender and Laverne. This is my seventh year in education, and I've been with Rocketship for four years.
I've joined Rocketship as a founding first grade teacher and have had the passion to continue to support through these years. And not just focus on academics, but also the holistic child, but their behavior and mental health as well. At Rocketship, I started a gentleman's group, a mentor circle for young men who have been flagged through our different behavior screenings for extra support. We've worked we worked on confidence. We've worked on kindness, hygiene, extra whatever things that they needed that was they say for that child.
I feel good about knowing that I have started them off with something like this to carry them on. As a male educator, I know that's rare for young men, especially boys of color, to have a male teacher at an elementary level. Most have to wait until middle or high school, and of course they're probably their coach. It's often it's often not everyday they even see a male at home as well. I didn't have a male teacher growing up either until PE and eventually a principal. My parents were amazing, but they worked very long hours to provide for our family.
That's the story for many of our students too. Sometimes you just need a male, you just need a role model to talk to, and this group was just that for them. We met a girl week we met week after week, breakfast over breakfast sometimes. Even going out of my pocket to provide these things for my students, and it worked. I've seen real improvements including fewer behavior incidents. The boys were excited to come to school. That's the kind of work we're doing at Rocketship. And that's the kind of impact we could bring to Rutherford County if given the chance. I respectfully ask for you to vote yes on rocket ship application.
Let's give more families access to the kind of school that meets meets them where they are and it's lift them to where they want to go. Thank you. Thank you. That is the end of our public comment time. Next we go to number seven, federal funding updates. So we discussed our federal funding updates and kind of where we are. Ask doctor Gollient to be here, just to kinda reiterate where we are. We met with principals today and discussed that. Again, the sky is not falling. We're in good shape compared to everybody else, and thanks to doctor Gollient's leadership.
But he's here answering questions to get a quick synopsis again too. Yes, sir. So fortunately and I know, you guys discussed it a little bit on Tuesday night, but our kind of three largest federal funds, title one, well, goodness, CTE and then IDEA, Those three areas, seem to be safe at the current moment. So we're looking at two, three, and four. And then within the last couple of weeks, we found out that we did not, receive the three year grant of McKinney Vento. So that's the big concern.
But what you guys are going to be voting on here in just a moment is, we've done a really great job under your guidance and your help over the last few years of being able to shift a lot of our federally funded staff members over to, GP funded. So there's a few more that are left, that will be able to do this. There may be an opportunity the fiscal year at the federal level starts October 1. A lot of times we operate, of course, at July 1 date. But October 1, there may be an opportunity to receive some of these funding back. So we'll keep you posted as we find out that information.
I talked to the principals this morning like doctor Sullivan mentioned. I know our goal and especially my goal moving forward, we currently have 29 of our 52 schools who are title one eligible. Meaning, they have more than 40% of their student population qualifying for free or reduced lunch. So my hope in the future is to continue to gain schools. Supposed to find out by tomorrow afternoon, what our title one allocation is. We have been notified by USED that Tennessee is getting the largest increase of all 50 states, for title one.
So hopefully, that will mean good news to Rutherford County schools. But at the current moment, title two, three, and four are frozen. We did find out about McKinney Vento, and that adds up to about 2 and a half million for our school district. Okay. Can I ask can I ask Yes? Doctor Salt. Just we discussed this on Tuesday night, but also I think that McKinney Vento was the one that surprised us the most. And I mentioned that the only time it was discussed was during office hours. Can you reiterate that that it was wasn't in commissioner's updates? Kinda caught all districts by surprise. Correct. And of course, miss Johnson serves as our Atlas specialist.
She's done a fantastic job of creating partnerships within the community. It's a three year competitive grant. The state department did change the rubric this year. She did attend the office hours that the state provided, but a lot of times there wasn't any information. They were just there to answer questions. And if there was no questions asked, it was just dead air. So that was a lot of the information that she got, which was very little. But she did write the application. To our knowledge, several school districts did not receive, this grant again, including us. And then there were several districts across the state that were cut.
The only explanation that we got from TDOE is that there were several other districts that applied for this that had not previously, and I think there was less funding available. Okay. Yes. Mister Tidwell. Yeah. I concur with miss Johnson. She's doing a great job, over there. The 228,000 in the work session, is that each year or is that Yes, sir. I went back the last eleven years. We started out probably about a 110,000, but each year we've actually increased. This past year, we were 273,000. Mhmm. Yeah. And there's no way and for the next three years, there's no way to reapply
for that I talked to the assistant commissioner by phone. This was last week early and she said no. There was no appeal. There was no revision, that would be allowed. So at the current moment, that's that's what we know. Yes. Doctor Sullivan. I think directors are talking to legislators across the state about this process. So that was not that would be perfectly fine for us to talk to as board members if you all wanna talk to legislators about it too. That would that'd be completely appropriate. Yeah. Because it's the first time it's been competitive. Correct. I I I was shocked that homelessness became competitive. Wow. I don't know another way to say it.
I'm not trying to be And my comment to our assistant commissioner was, you know, I thought this funding was available for homeless and display students, not on how well you write an application. With all of our other federal funds, we're allowed to do revisions and resubmit, but that with this one being a competitive, the answer was no. Yes. I can get you all. I'm just gonna restate what I said Tuesday night again because there was like nobody here in the audience. Yes, ma'am. Miss Johnson is often the safety net between a lot of our kids and homelessness.
And I I know that she was called in on a situation where there's a domestic violence earlier this year and it was in the news, and basically both parents were essentially gone. It was a murder suicide. And we don't really think about our school handling situations like that. So she sees some of the worst of the worst and and but she also gets in there and takes care of business. And I wouldn't normally say let's fund some a payroll out of of a that's
reoccurring. But I do believe that this is one one exception to the rule, so I move to approve. Yeah. And that was a comment that we made to the principals today. You know, so many times in education, there's a lot of unfunded mandates, and that's one of these issues here. You know, we talked to the principals about we're still gonna have homeless and displaced students. We're still under the McKinney Vento law, so we still have to abide by that. We're just not receiving that funding for this upcoming year. Year. I second her motion. She moved to approve. Okay. Thank you. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.
Thank you, doctor Gulli. Next, we have number two. Alright. Next, we have the request to move six title three positions to general purpose school funds from fund 01/1942 due to the freeze of title three funds currently impacting districts across the nation. These positions are vital to our operations and academic success. Additional funding is not needed as funds realized from pre open ESL teaching positions that are no longer needed or will be utilized. These positions are no longer needed. The teaching position is due to academic success experienced by our students and teachers required less ESL staff, and we talked about the number of students we have exiting on Tuesday. And I wanna commend Megan Turnbow who is the head of, our ELL system and
all of our many ELL teachers across the district. They have done a sensational job. You don't get thanked enough. So thank you. Kudos. Move to approve. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Thank you, mister Vaughn. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have instruction and rocket ship. So next, we have rocket ship Tennessee number four's application. Doctor McCann, are you here? I think mister Reed, you probably have the resolutions as well because these have to be voted on by resolution. And if you have questions, doctor McCann's here as well. You you had the presentation at the work session on Tuesday.
So you have got two, charter school applications before you tonight. You do have to vote by resolution whether you want to approve them or not. If you approve them, you simply we vote to approve the application. If you do deny the application, you have to state the reasons for the denial. You can't say we we vote to deny this based on the, conclusions of the committee report. If you choose to do that, if there's other reasons that you want to base the denial on, you would need to state those, in your motion tonight. Any comments or question?
Okay. I'll entertain the motion. Miss Maxwell. You did? Yeah. I have a comment. So unfortunately, I was not able to be at the work session this Tuesday, so I didn't get to ask them my questions. But I didn't watch and able to, gather some information here. There's a few things I wanted to go over, specifically with Rocketship. I am for school choice, so that's always been a platform thing for me. And but I look at each school individually. It's not just, a carpet decision. For rocket ships specifically, there was a mention they've been rejected by Metro Nashville public
schools. If I'm I may not be a 100% correct on this, but from the research that I found so far, the last four years, Metro has not has denied anybody that's applied at the chart. So I don't think that should be, part of this denial recommendation. I'd also like to point out the funding impact. So I I definitely have issue with this. I brought it up before. I brought it we've debated it here many times, but I just wanna bring it up against it was listed as part of the recommendation for denial. The the funding impact, they're talking about 2,000,000 the first year, at 6,000,000.
I may be, I don't know if I had the numbers here for a rocket ship. I think that was for novice. But I just like to point out the same needs context, which is this is the mountain given for students that are educated. Rutherford County Schools would not be educating these students nor having to pay for extra facilities to hold these students. That means no new school costs, overcapacity classrooms are not continuing to fill up. District wide reason was something we just did to address that. So clearly, it's a continuing issue. And one can't argue that growth doesn't pay for itself and then portray funding funding
for students we are not educating as a funding loss. We have debated this many times about the funding stuff, so I won't go into much more on that. But I do wanna point out some of the other positives for rocket ships specifically, which is, these these things were mentioned as well. Their authorizers had great things to say about them, and said they were one of the better charter schools. They have a great finance history. They have no debt. They have cash on hand. And at the end of year five, and I'm quoting directly from the work session, they'd have thirty days of operating funds at the end of year five.
I think that's that's pretty good. I I'm looking at it when I'm looking at charter schools specifically for me, so you're hearing my opinion. When I'm looking at charter schools, I'm looking at readiness and whether there is, a a demand there, and how that fits in with the growth that we're having here. So, I I do think that there are individuals that will fill up, the Rocketship School. As far as their academics, I know that was mentioned as well, but Rocketship Dream achieved stronger results than most of the RCS elementary schools in the Smyrna, La Verne
area serving a larger population of high needs students. Rocketship Ship Dream outperformed six of 10 Rutherford County elementary schools in the Smyrna, La Verne area. So I guess my point here is we have to put everything in context. And for me, I feel like, you know, while no school is perfect and while they didn't pass every single thing, I I I'm not sure that every school or that we have would pass everything on if they had to go through a charter application. There's no perfect school.
Are they ready? I think that they financially are probably the most ready of the ones that we have had. Their academic record is is pretty solid. And so for that, I make a recommendation that we do approve rocketship. Miss Maxwell Bishore. Yes. Mister Phyllis. I think that this was a hard decision with two charter schools all at once. I Rocketship I went I visited Rocketship. It's a beautiful school. I do think that they have something special with their parents and the and the
dynamics. I think they will provide something unique, but I also have to consider that I was part of the community as well. And the committee really took this very seriously and was very very thorough. And they had a robust conversation. They had positive things to say, but but, unfortunately, the the committee came to the conclusion to not recommend. And considering how all of this works, once we become the authorizer, whatever it's on
the, the the application is what becomes part of our contract. And right now, I believe there's just a couple things that need to be addressed and be brought back before the committee to review because there are some discrepancies which within the instruction of RCS and and and with with RCS. I think that again, I am for parental choice. I believe parents should have the decision to make what's best for their child in
terms of education, but I also understand that we only have one shot to get this right, to make it right because of the experience that we're having. And we're getting ready to have to make some waivers and make change and and and make changes with another, charter school and we're see I know that not a single charter school or traditional school or or, a private school will ever be perfect. I do agree that on the financial standpoint, they will be the best to have
a better footing for it. But because of those discrepancies between RCS and Rocketship, I feel that it behooves us to allow Rocketship, now that they can understand what their differences are, to, make those changes and then and elaborate on on those. Mister Bowen. Yes, ma'am. You know, my responsibility, I was elected to support the Rutherford County Schools. Irregardless of the finances and the doggy pony show and all, the thing that I've
got to support our, the committee, doctor McCann and, the committee and what they did. And, you know, we have high performance students here in Rutherford County. I cannot in good faith, and I don't think it's fair to other schools to bring in schools that don't perform at the level that we have. I think it's unfair that, I just I I can't in good conscience approve any
skill. This is not going, not equal to what we have already. And I'm not gonna bring any in that I think may, the track record could bring us down. And, the committee was so thorough and very thorough. And and, you know, when they can't recommend, there were reasons for that. And again, if we're not gonna support that and we're not gonna support our committee,
then we're wasting their time. And I've just got an obligation to our schools to, I'm not gonna prove anybody that's not equal to or greater than what we have already. Anyone else like to comment? Okay. The motion? Yes. Miss Sibyl. I'd like to make one last comment. If you think just to put this in the back of your mind as well. If you think that this is gonna get approved at the state level, so irregardless of your your everyone's feelings, about charge in general, if you think it will get approved at the state level, then they will still be in our backyard. They will still be in our county, except we will have no partnership with them.
So that's what we had with one of the chart schools, that's already been approved. That has not been a great relationship. It will be better if that's just another point. If you think they're gonna get approved at state level, then, having a partnership with them is certainly more beneficial than not. So Yes, mister Vaughn. I agree with what mister Taylor said. Except the fact that if we approve them, it's on us. If the state approves them, it's on them. And I just I I can't get faith to be responsible for a school that
I just don't feel like it's gonna support and be be as effective in what we have now. I think it'd be unfair to our schools. Okay. Miss Maxwell. Yes, mister Zaza. Okay. I just wanna clarify that what I'm saying is not because I'm thinking they're gonna go straight to the state and they're gonna get approved. I do believe they will make a great partner. I do believe that they provide something very unique to the county that will serve our students. My the reasons where I'm coming from is just the discrepancies that there are in
the application. And because of the experience that we've had with the other two charter schools, and we're and we're getting ready to have to make some exceptions with one of the charter schools based upon what was on the application. And because of that, as an authorizer, I want to, give them opportunity to make those changes so that RCS understands what their intent is because the the question was that the intent was not understood.
And I wanna be a good partner and honor the committee that represented many years of, of expertise and knowledge. But, again, I believe this school will make a great addition to Rutherford County Schools. Okay. Any other comments? We have a motion on the floor. Yes. I've got one. I have a Yes, mister Voss. I just might. Well, I'm sorry. The because I've maybe in you, I really don't have my arms around charter schools. Ken and I don't know if this comes from doctor Sullivan or or doctor Kan,
either one. But what okay. We authorize it or the state authorize it. What what happens? Where where's the difference there? I think there's a couple. First is funding, although all funding now is going to go straight from the state to the the charter schools. But that's gonna be different. We haven't seen that in actuality yet, but the state law changed. But that did change this year. So they get direct funding, not through us. State funding, not local. And so our finance department is still gonna be involved in that. The other aspect of it is performance. Just as a director, it's extremely difficult for our district and me.
I'm responsible for our performance to have no oversight yet. I'm that's on our state report card. Of course, that's something that's up to the board. I respect the board's decision. But that is that's a unique part that if it's approved by the Charter Commission, it is the Charter Commission's its own district. If our board approves it, then it is listed under Rutherford County Schools performance. So their test scores will be included in ours, but if the state sanctions it Correct. The the they're on the state then. Yep. So there's the difference. Yep. Okay. But good because there's alright. Let me ask this question then.
And I don't wish anybody bad luck, so don't y'all read anything into my comments. But let's say either, you know, funding doesn't play out. Somebody embezzled some money or whatever. I don't know. I don't mean to talk bad about somebody. But four years from now, you know, these kids have gotta find the home. Their test scores come back and and are reflective of us, probably. If we're the authorizer, they always under the county. If if if but if those schools close in four years, five years Students will come back, hopefully. The the students will come back. Will their test scores come back?
The the test scores will follow the student. The the next school. That that's what I was trying to get back to. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? We have a motion on the floor. We recommend to approve rocketship application. Could we do a roll call vote, please? Missus Rosales? No. Mister Vaughn? No. Mister Tidwell? Yes. Miss Sharp? Yes. Mister Vaught? Aye. Missus Darby? Yes. Missus Maxwell? No. It's split. Where's mister Reid at? So Yep. Where'd mister Reid go out? Yeah. Mister Reid, do we need to, Do not pass.
I mean, if someone wants to make a motion to deny, you you can make a motion to deny, but but you have to state the reasons why you you deny, which could be the committee report or some other reason that the board believes that the application should not be approved. You do have to get majority vote to take action one way or the other. Anybody wanna make a motion? I make the motion to deny the rocket ship based on the committee's report to give time for rocket ship to make changes. Do I have a second? If they wanna play again, they can't.
They don't like to choose to do so. So then so then the question I've got is that if we deny, they can still appeal to the state. Right? They could or they can, submit to us. See, again, as well. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you, mister Vaughn. So we have a motion on the floor to deny. Could we have a roll call vote, please? Motion is to deny. Miss Sharp? No. Mister Vaught? Yes. Missus Rosales? Yes. Mister Vaughn? Yes. Mister Tidwell? No. Missus Darby?
No. Missus Maxwell? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Next up, we have Novus Smart Academy. Someone like to make a motion please. Miss Maxwell. Yes. Okay. So, again I was on this committee as well. Again, the committee went through very thorough. Again, they said positive things about it, both schools, really. But I I think the major concern, with this one outside of the recommendations was just the funding. But doctor Sanger has said that they will do whatever possible to get the funding
of what they need to for the start up cost. The unique position that they're in is that they're gonna be a k through eight. So that's a little that's different. And so for that, I'm gonna move to approve the school. Second. Thank you, miss Sharp. Motion to motion. To approve the school. To approve the charter application. Do we have any more comments or questions regarding this? We have a motion to approve Novus Smart Academy. Miss Maxwell. Mister Tidwell. Make mister McCann or or doctor McCann, doctor Sullivan know who this is for, but why did the state deny them last year? Doctor McCann probably be the best person to answer that one.
Yeah. Yes. Thank you, mister McCann. The state, denied their their appeal the last year for a couple of reasons. Number one, we're we're thin financial margins. And number two, they felt it was a, a great deal of responsibility to place on a relative few number of people, to start up the school. And I I will have to say that that that they've made improvements in both areas this year when they came back. Yes. What was the committee's recommendation last year? It was we we recommended they be approved, but the board denied them due to, financial impact, which which the state, charter commission did not agree with.
Okay. Yes, mister Also, I'll point out there's a different committee every single year so it would not be abnormal for a different committee to find different eyeballs, different different thoughts. Any other comments or questions? Yes, mister Tidwell? You know, as I was looking at the budget for this one it says because they lost the new school venture fund grant. Which how much was that? It was $250,000 in their initial year zero budget fine. What does that leave them at the end of the first year? I don't remember the figure off the top of my head. Their, facilities renovation budget, they increased $850,000 before the loss of that, which would have
brought it down to, $5.50. But whereas before, I think, in their initial application, if I remember correctly, it was only, like, 500,000, and they bumped it up to $8.50. But now they've lost that new school venture fund, but it's still a little higher than what it was initially. But, again, like like mister Rosales said, they that doctor Sager's committed to to raising the funds to doing whatever necessary to do that. Yes, mister Vaughn. Again, this the committee did a very thorough job. And, you know, if we can't support the committee, I don't know why we're putting
them through all this work. I mean, it, the criteria for being approved, is pretty stringent. It's very thorough. And it's, I think to be only fair to our existing schools. These people, you know, they they just didn't, for lack of better words, it didn't make the cut because this criteria that we gathered was formulated by people outside of
us. And they just didn't didn't qualify and, you know, they can it showed the mayors that need to improve on. And if they did that, you know, they can come back at a later date and reapply. But as of right now, the the committee, didn't approve them, and I I have to support our committee. Yes, miss Sharp. Madam chair. So, both of these schools are in my area, and it's not a secret that
we're overcrowded on the North End. It's not a secret. There's 11 plus thousand permits that have been pulled from Waldron Road to Sam Ridley, and they're filling in those houses, every day. When we authorize a charter school under Rutherford County Schools, we do not have to pay to build that building. Y'all know we're paying a $160,000,000 to build a building. We cannot tax our seniors and our residents of this county enough to build the
schools that we need. We have two companies and other companies that have come in here, businesses, whatever you want to call them, they come in here put skin in the game. They're either buying the building or they're leasing the building, and that's something that we as taxpayers don't have to do. It just makes financial sense for our county to support something like this. Now are those students going to come back to our school after the fifth or sixth grade if they're in that grade band that they haven't risen to the level of the students? Yes. And there are those students that are going to these schools, they're taxpayers as well.
The parents should have the choice to do this, and we should look at this as a fiscal responsibility and not have to pay to build $160,000,000 school or build all the annexes. Y'all the the rush is coming. I mean our numbers have slowed slightly, but we're gonna be in trouble. The only school that's on the North End that is not overcrowded, that doesn't have portables outside lined up and down the driveway is Cedar Grove, and that's it's coming.
So that's one of the this is my area, and this is one of the reasons that I've been supportive of the charter schools coming in here, So there's more things to think about other than, we can't support them because it's not a Rutherford County school. If we approve them, it is a Rutherford County school. Thank you, madam chair. Madam chair. Yes, mister Vaughn. You know, the thing about it is it's more than finances. I think a parent would be willing to pay taxes if the kid got a good education. These kids go to these schools where they are being taught by non certified teachers, which is gonna be the case in most of them.
It'd be tolerant of ways. And those kids aren't educated. They come back to our school system. Where are they gonna be? They're gonna be struggling and behind. And, you know, our job is to prepare them for the workforce in Rutherford County. And we've got to give them a good education. And, again, the the criteria that the committee used, evaluated their performance based in what what they've done and what they projected to do. And again, it you know, I'm just looking at it from the education of the
kids. I'm not I'm not looking at it from the from the financing part of it. If that's the case, we'll just put up circus tents around every community and teach them that way. And, so I don't think finances is I think parents would rather have their kids educated just to not pay a little more taxes. Okay. Yes, miss Darby. I think we have to be cognizant that education looks different for different families and among students. I myself know a few families who have gone to some of our new charter
schools who have had a phenomenal experience. Not all students thrive in the size schools that we tend to have partially because of our growth. Some of them need that smaller environment. So I don't I don't think it's fair to get out here and blast them and say because their charters at the education level isn't the same. I think that remains to be seen as they grow. I know my idea of what I think would work for my kids is gonna be different from someone else's idea of what's gonna work for their children. And it's my job to try to be open to what our community wants, not
just what I want for my own kids. So I have approved charter schools that that go about education in a way that I don't think would fit my kids, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work for someone else's child. With that being said, I do have to say, I think both of the charters have done a good job of responding to what our committees asked them to. I think it kinda proves a little bit of a point that last year, the committee approved Novus, and this year, they're denying them even though they made improvements on
the application. So that that right there shows you how subjective it can be depending on who's looking at it. I think with our overgradding and to miss Sharpe's point financially, it it is a good way to relieve some of the overgradding in some of our schools. It is a good way to provide a different style of education for those students that are needing that. So I'm in favor of this motion. Okay. Just a reminder. 80% of the people that were opposed charter schools. So Okay.
Just a reminder, in case everybody's wondering about getting their elected Oh, madam chair. Yes. I would just like to state that those surveys were, like, 600 people out of a county of over 50,000 students. It was a very small portion of people that even responded to that survey, which is part of the problem, quite honestly, that we as elected officials deal with. We don't hear from enough of our community about what they're looking for and what they want. So please tell your friends and neighbors to start communicating with their elected officials. Good point.
Good point. So do we have a motion? Yeah. Doctor. McCain, I got another question. Sorry. You had mentioned I found that found the figures from the other night. You said that'd be, in the red $45,000 the first year. 40 that's that's what was important. That's if they don't increase their funding after the loss of that new schools ventures fund. Okay. Do you feel like they are in a better financial position than they were the prior year then? I do because they've increased their initial years enrollment. They they doubled the number of kids basically basically, that they're gonna start with. And that was that was a big part of the reason why I think they got denied by the state last year because because their very small number, of of
students to start with was not gonna provide a a tremendous amount of funding. Okay. Yeah. Because back and it basically just doubled their their enrollment projections. Yeah. I remember you mentioned that would be in a little bit of a hesitation there for the amount of students. Okay. That's that's information I need. Okay. My other question is for, miss Rosales. So you had denied rocket ship because you had said you'd sat on the committee and you had said that you you know, you really invested it. They really took their time. I believe they did the same amount of time work with Novus and they recommended
denial. I'm just wondering what the difference in between the two. Sure. So there's some differences in the rocket ship obligation with what RCA says and what rocket ship says, rebuttaled or or whatever you wanna call it. So we all got an email recently about a fact sheet that was rebuttaling all of the comments that were made in the application including comments that doctor McCann has
said. And I under I I really appreciate Rokoship bringing that to our attention and trying to explain their intent. However, that information was not provided in the application itself. So when the committee is reviewing information, that can only be reviewed by what's in the application. So when there's quite a bit of discrepancies like that, I believe it behooves us to allow rocket ship and in good faith because I I do support your school.
I think this school will be a great addition to our county, But it behooves us to allow them to see to allow, Rutherford County committee to read those comments and to weigh it in. And if they come back as denial, well, then that's up to us to figure out. But we allow rocket ship to better give explanations of why their model is a little bit different, so that in the event something were to go awry, Rutherford County
schools are the ones who are gonna be held responsible for that. If there's a waiver for whatever reason, we will understand what all these implications are. That's the reason behind. Why'd you why'd you support the committee on what what decision is knocked out? Well, mister Vaughn, as elected board member, I ran on parental school choice to allow parents to make a decision. I have not deviated from that. And like other board members are saying, this is based on a case by case
application, and every school is different. I denied Novus last time because of concerns of of, financial reasons, but then the state said dash that that that that wasn't why they denied it. It was totally different. But then Novus came back to us and then made changes to the application. Really, the May the biggest hurdle that the committee had was the financing on the starter cut cost. If we approve, the school to be allowed in our county, it'll be up to
them to figure the start up cost. We're a capital system, and they're able to, it's a free market and figure that out. And I can't I'm not holding Novus' hand when it comes to the start up cost. So I hope I'd explained that, and, that's why. Committee denied. I'm sorry? The committee approved Novus last year. Not this year. But they did not this year because, again, because of the starter cost. Yeah. But that was largely largely the main reason why they were hesitant about approving that.
I don't see why you supported one and not the other. That's what I Madam chair, I call the question. Yes. Miss Stark. Yes. Miss in discussion, we have a motion on the floor. Okay. Can we have a roll call please? And then would you repeat the motion is to recommend Novus Smart Academy. Yes. Alright. Missus Darby. Yes. Missus Rosales? Yes. Mister Vaught? Yes. Mister Vaughn? No. Mister Tidwell? For financial reasons, no. Miss Sharp? Yes. And missus Maxwell?
No. Motion passes. Okay. Thank you. Next, we have number three, curriculum and instruction CTE department. Next, you have curriculum instruction CTE department likes to allocate approximately 9,000 of the ISM grant funds for 2526 to support OSHA trainers for our high school CTE students. The purpose of this in house OSHA trainers is to eliminate barriers for students obtaining OSHA TDOE approved industry certifications. The OSHA trainers will be responsible for completing the OSHA train the trainer course set for July 2025. You'll see each participant receives a $500 stipend and we are recommending approval.
Any comments or questions? Thank you, miss Darby. Second. Thank you, miss Darby. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, number four. This is the governor's early literacy foundation book delivery and caregiver engagement programs. And so we discussed this on Tuesday night. This requested item is to support implementation that allows RCS to share student names, grade levels, home addresses, media specialist names, and appropriate teacher names with GELF, g e l f. Any comments or questions? I'll entertain a motion. Thank you, mister.
Second. Thank you, miss Darby. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next. This is the Carl d Perkins basic grant. As doctor Gohi had mentioned, this was one that is not frozen currently. The Carl d the Carl d Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2018 known as Perkins five is presented for approval for the funding period of 07/01/2025 through 06/30/2026. The grant is $754,876.90, and it provides funding for program improvement, equipment, travel, staff development for a career in that technical education teachers.
Move to approve. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Thank you, mister Vaughn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next. Next is the reserve grants competitive portion. Carl d Perkins reserve grant is presented for approval for the funding period of 07/01/2025 through 06/30/2026. This competitive grant is 50,000, and the reserve grant will provide funding for the welding booth training simulator for the agricultural mechanic CTE program study at Riverdale High School. Move for approval. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Thank you, mister Vaughn. All in favor say aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next is special education. We have a couple job description updates. Special education boards requesting that be a job description for speech language pathologist position provide more clarity in the job description. Proposed job description does not contain a change in pay scale or days in the contract. I'll obtain a motion. Move to approve. Thank you, Michelle. Thank Darby rather. I'm sorry. Thank you, mister Vaughn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next. Special education department is requesting an updated job description for the general education student service specialist position to provide more clarity to the job description.
Again, this proposed job description does not contain the change in pay scale or days in contract. Entertain a motion. Move to approve. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Thank you, miss Darby. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Moving to human resources. RCS athletics and coordinated school health are partnered with Perry weather to monitor weather conditions in the district and make sure we stay compliant with state safety guidelines. Perry Weathers on-site stations provide precise lightning, precipitation, wind, and air quality data updating every five minutes in the mobile app and the dashboard. Recommended motions to approve. So moved. Thank you, mister Vaught. Is there a cost with this?
There is. It was in our budget last year. It's over a $100,000 because of the installation of the, weather stations at each site. Okay. Mister Vaught made a motion to I didn't do you have a second? Oh, thank you, mister Vaught. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, legal. First, we have twenty five twenty six approved fees per policy 6.709 prior to the beginning of each school year. The board upon the recommendation of principals and director of school shall approve all student fees for the upcoming school year. Additional fees may be approved during the year as presented.
Recommended motion is to approve as presented. Entertain a motion. So moved. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Second. Thank you, mister Vaughn. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. And I wanna point out just real quick on that one. The big change was if a fan is or a student's parent, somebody is ejected by TSS double a, then the fine will be assessed to them and not to the school. So that is good. People understand that behavior if an official ejects you, then that fine gets levied to the school and we in turn are gonna levy that to the student, to the parent. That's excellent. Could you repeat that? We couldn't hear you then.
I'm sorry. Yeah. If a, someone is ejected by an official with TSSAA and that fine will is levied to the school and turn the schools going to them, levy that to the parent or to the student that's ejected. If a school's if a coach is ejected, is it called a coach? Yes. It is. Alright. Next, we have records clerk job description. Legal departments requesting the approval of a new job description for the 2526 school year. New position will assist the legal department with managing and fulfilling student staff and administrative records requests. So moved. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Thank you, mister Tidwell. All in favor, say aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next. Next is campus school agreement. MTSU has renewed the agreement between RCS and MTSU regarding campus school. This agreement will be in effect for five years. Entertain a motion. So moved. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Second. Thank you, mister Vaughn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Alright. Next, we have policy adoption first and final reading. And so we have two requests of policies that we would like to go ahead and read on first reading and pass tonight. So you will see on the back page of that, the recommended approvals of two motions.
First, the board would is being asked to entertain to suspend board policy 1.6 to specifically waive the two readings requirement for the above policy as presented and if that passes we'll come back and discuss the two. Okay. So moved. Second. Thank you. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Alright. First, we have policy 3.4, student transportation management. This revises language for awarding and renewing contracts and updates language consistent with the current contract. Move for approval. Yes. Second. Thank you. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. No. Maybe we need discussion. First, miss Sharp and then miss Darby. Okay. So I had several people email about on page six of seven, line 33, the 10 contracts. I do believe we we might be cutting our nose off to spite our face because I know we've grandfathered some in, but, I think this needs to be at least 20 or more or no limit on the contracts. Because we we I mean, we could end up like Davidson County and some of the other surrounding counties that have limits on their contracts and they have double digit
bus routes that are not being filled. Madam chair, my question pertains to that if miss Sharp would allow me to ask mister Reeves. Sure. I guess my question on this is typically when we go into policy, it's, you know, for the board to set policy and then for us to have procedures by the director of schools. My biggest question on this is why why is this not part of the actual contract? It I'm just gonna be honest. It doesn't feel good to me that we spent all this time on a contract and went back and forth and did all of this stuff, agreed on a contract. And now we're sitting at the policy table putting something in place that to me
feels like it should have been part of the discussion in contract with our contractors. Yeah. You speak to to, like, whether this should really be in that contract. Been negotiated. So we've got contracts signed with contractors already. And this was not part of it. And so now we're coming to the table after it was agreed upon. I think it's from a school system standpoint, they're looking for a mechanism to control the award of of how bus routes are awarded to deal with kind of concerns that they have in respect to too high of a concentration of buses in the
hands of, one or a handful of contractors. So those from a system level, I think that's what's driving the policy that they've been requesting this the board to to adopt. Now, I heard the statement about 20 buses. He goes, This this this this came up a policy committee meeting this week, so it's relatively new. I do wanna point out the language here that's in that here is a little bit different than what we talked about on Monday, because it started out to be
a limitation, in the policy to no more than 20 contracts, what the initial draft was. There was discussion of the policy committee. It got reduced to maybe a discussion of maybe 10 routes, 10 count contracts. And the grandfathering came up because we do have people who have more than 10 routes then. Because it it would be against the contract at this point. Correct? Well, what the language I have plugged in here is for contractors and so if you have a current contract and you have I know about the language here, but part of the reason we changed this language was because it would be in violation
of their contract. Correct. Okay. So I'm just gonna talk to the board. I think that doing this now is a mistake. I think it makes the board look like we negotiated a contract, and now after the fact, we're trying to change something. If this is something that the board and transportation wanna do, then this is something that should be talked about when the contract comes up for negotiation in the next round, personally. I did speak with transportation as well. I think it would be different if we had more routes than we had drivers
because then you are running into the issue of maybe some monopolizing or getting more than others. To my knowledge, we're not in that space, and and I would recommend that this be stricken and it can be addressed when the contract is brought back up for renewal. I think it's I think it's really misleading. I don't think it makes us look good to negotiate spend all that time negotiating contract and then come back with something like this. It's a read. The contract is not up until four more four more years. Right? Correct. I mean, the way this I'll just I do want the board to know what
this says. So let me read this section because this was discussed just Monday night, a policy, and there's been so it's a pretty recent development. But what this says now in this draft that you have, so and this can be changed as the board decides if you decide to change it or propose something different or not do it altogether. So if you don't want to do this provision, we don't have to have that provision in this policy. But what this says is no contractor shall have more than 10 contracts during any school year unless specifically approved by the board when unfilled routes exist.
Any contractors holding more than 10 routes shall be grandfathered and be allowed to continue their routes through the 02/2829 school year. That's the current contract we have. No contractor with more than 10 routes shall be eligible for new routes unless expressly approved by the board. For purposes of determining the number of routes assigned to a contractor, any partnerships, corporations, limited liability companies, or other entities which have any common principal owners shall be considered a single contractor.
So that is there to basically say if you're a contractor, you can't form x y z corporation one, x y z corporation two, x y z corporation three, and and say those are all three different entities and are entitled to 50 contracts. So the spirit of this is to support the small business owner and to support people or kind of family owned buses. So we I think the purpose of this is to support that because that's been the backbone of our transportation department for decades.
And we I think to the extent we can allow that to continue and foster that from a system level, that's something the system wants to do. So, so this and whether it be 10 contracts or 20 contracts, it's up for the board to debate and determine. But just so you know, what language is in here, is currently is is you can't have any more than 10 contracts, but that really doesn't kick in until the next contract term, the way this thing reads. Because for the existing contract term, whatever contracts have been signed have been signed already.
And if someone has 12 routes or 15 routes or whatever they have, that's what they have because that those contracts have already been approved. That's intended. The policy committee the other night was that. So that's what this says. What the board wants to do with it is up to the board to decide Whether you want limit to ten, twenty I'd like to say not have this in here altogether. You don't have to have that section in this. I'll get Correct. I will I do wanna make sure mister Lee can voice what he needs to have done for this board tonight because he has five I think he thinks he'll have five unfilled routes that he's gonna have to be able to do something about.
So that's the kinda one of the pressing things to get this policy done tonight for. But, mister Lee, could you address that? In the past, there was a six route limit prior to our last contract. That, however many it was, was part of policy. The policy was created as a mechanism on how we do business. The contract is the contract, and it's been this way. This policy and the contract have always been there.
We have never had a problem with our existing contractors taking the routes. The problem with the current policy is if you go to page four of seven, the only way a new contract can be issued is you have to drive for Rutherford County for two years. So if you're a contractor in Metro or wherever and we do not have enough contractors to come up our routes, we have no mechanism to allow us to bring
in an outside contract that has not driven for us. That's what started this process as a way to allow a contractor or someone who wants to become a contractor that's driven in another county an opportunity to get in. Now and I think we discussed all the how we got there and all that kind of stuff. The limitation on the numbers, we currently and I sent this to you all earlier.
We currently have four contractors that have more than 10. That's it. Everybody the vast majority have one. The others have two, three, four. So whether it's 10 or 15 is not gonna affect 95% of our contractors. It's only gonna affect a few. So that number for me, I have a personal opinion, but whatever it is is what y'all decide. I'll make the most of them. No. The problem is if we don't do something and these five routes continue to sit
there, I have no mechanism to fill them if our people don't want. Can I Okay? Yes. Miss Sharp was first and then miss Darby. Well, but this on page six, line 33 to 39, that doesn't even kick in until this current contract is up. Doesn't have anything to do with you filling our routes this week. And I told mister Reed prior to the meeting, that doesn't work for me. It needs to be now. This language needs to be from 2526 through the '29 contract.
And I don't know that it needs Miss Quarrel. Any time frame in it. If we make it part of the policy, you just take the time frame out and it goes in effect in effect and it goes through the next contract and the next contract until we decide that somebody decides they wanna change it. I'll go back to my original point. I'm 61 years old. We just lost three or four people today, famous people. The those Us bus drivers the bus drivers, we're not getting any younger, and we cannot limit ourselves on this.
This is gonna cut our nose off to spider face. Sorry. And then I've got mister Vaughn, and then I've got mister Vaughn. I've got you. I guess I guess I'm not really even understanding what's going on right now because mister Lee is saying he can't have it the way it's written. He needs it to take effect now. My understanding is if if we tried to make this take effect now, it would be in breach of contract. Is that not correct? If we have signed contracts with people who have more than 10 buses, we're bound for those contracts for the next four years. So for the routes that we have signed.
If there are new routes, I don't think the new routes are really effective in the language we have here, and they are controlled by the other language in this policy there. So but for the contracts that have already been signed, they've been signed. They're in place for four years. And if someone has more than 10 buses under those contracts, there's no way you can you can't undo that without breaching the contract. So I see what you're saying. I too am in faith. I I don't know that any of the people that drive for us would really be considered not a small business.
To my knowledge, I think they're all or at least close to all Rutherford County residents. I think we can probably address by the way we award routes, making sure that our smaller contractors are getting that route first. Almost like you go through let's just say we have 200 contractors. You go through and give everybody a route, and then you go back. And the people with two buses then get another one, and then the people with three then get another one. Because not everybody wants to own eight buses.
Some people do, and I don't know why we care who does and who doesn't. We can control how we award them, making sure that the smaller people are taken care of first. I think that limiting how many buses someone has when we're in a position where we have more routes than drivers makes absolutely no sense to me at all. Because that's like saying, well, we still need more people to run routes, but we're not gonna use you because for some reason, 10 is the magic number and you
have 10 buses. So now we can't give you you have 12 buses. Now we can't give you the routes we need covered because you got 10. Like, I if there's no one else to drive it, who cares? I I'm having trouble reconciling it. I think I think this should be stricken, and it can be addressed when the contract renews next year, and we can give whoever wants the con the next contract comes up in four years. We can give whatever contractors want the routes to routes. If we need to address the driving two years for Rutherford County, I'm fine addressing
that if it needs to be addressed. I don't know if that's part of the contract and if that's gonna be an issue as well. Do you know, mister Reed? I'm sorry. What was the question? The piece that mister Lee is talking about where it says they have to drive for Rutherford County for two years before they can be a contractor. It's not part of the contract. It's part of policy. Okay. So if we need to affect that in the policy to make life easier, if we need to allow people from other districts to come in. I think we can address that, but I don't think that has anything to do
with the number of buses for our contractors. Okay. Mister Vaughn? You know, if, I don't know. You know, we don't we don't put a number on these things, you know, if husband gets 20, wife gets 20, Bubba gets 20, And, you know, before long, they got a monopoly and they hold, hold us hostage. And I wanna protect the small business on the road drive for the for the right reasons.
And, I will make I'll make a motion we approve that just like it was written by the policy committee the Monday night, it was in agreement, by the entire policy committee. And I'll make a motion. We we, we approve it as written and, with ten ten ten contract 10 rights. Second. Okay. Now mister Walt pushing in a second on the floor. There was one. Oh, there was one? Mister Walt and mister Vaughn.
We we Yeah. We're good. We're good. We're good with the money to every food. I appreciate it. Thank you. Mister Walt and everybody don't understand. I'm gonna yield to Caleb down there first. K. Go ahead. I'll have final thoughts here. A couple of different things. So when when I was on the the bus committee, the number one accusation that flies is favoritism. So I understand that I mean, I obviously wanna protect the mom and pops, but to make sure that we're taken care of, I don't know what that would look like other than having something in policy so they're not accused of favoritism.
Because that's that's what I heard all the time. I got I got the phone on and they're calling me, they're saying, oh, well, they're giving them these routes and they're trying it's all buddy buddy and because we're not buddy buddy, they're not giving it to us. So we gotta make sure there's no favoritism involved, which I think is why we should stick to policy. But, I thought that we added this into the policy changes the other night. If we have open routes, you're at I thought we had language there that doctor Solon's at discretion to open those routes up to go past the tent when it Actually, it comes to the board the way it's written. Oh, comes to the board. But but there's an avenue for that to happen.
Yeah. But so that's that's my thoughts on that. But the other thing that I was ear I brought up the priority list thing and asked for a change on that. Now it looks like the priority list just got gutted. Was I I was thinking we could, you know, work around some of the loopholes that people are trying to cut. Is there a new plan for what that would look like as far as the priority list? You know, we used to have the one, the two, you gotta drop for two years, all that stuff. With this, this mirror images other counties that do business kinda sorta similar to us.
It's it's the responsibility of the transportation department to review. And at that point, we would probably if there's any discrepancy, you know, you bring it to the board. But but this makes it, I don't want to use the term less buddy buddy or less manipulative. Well, I certain Then the priority one, priority two, priority three. I can certainly see the less there wouldn't be a chance for a loophole if they don't have an avenue to work around. I get that.
But that favoritism comment that is made earlier that everybody complains about, that's gonna be hot and heavy if there's not something in policy on a priority list. Mister Tidwell Yeah. I've been in business a long time, and you're gonna no matter what you do, 70% of the people are not gonna like it. I I can Gonna complain that somebody else is doing it. I mean, it it it and it's been that way if you I know you got phone calls. The other people are calling me telling me the same thing. I get emails and calls from this driver's skirting this, and this driver's doing that.
And you don't discipline this one, and you don't discipline that one. Every single one of them. And I'm sorry. They're listening tonight, and they can get over it. My my whole point is, I'm gonna follow the contract and the policy, and I don't care who you are. Well, I mean, I appreciate that. I would just like to be But you're sitting here going, how do you guarantee that there's no favoritism? People are human. I you can write every policy in the world. Somebody's not gonna like it, and I don't know how to fix that. I'm not yeah. I'm not saying you can get rid of it completely as an opinion. What I'm saying is that there was a loophole clear loophole that we discussed.
And right. That was taken out completely because there's no more priority list. However, that that's only gonna make it seem like there's more favoritism in general. I mean, I know it's an opinion, but at least you have a policy to point to when there's a discrepancy. So I don't know. I don't I don't necessarily like not having a priority list, but that's me. So maybe I'll rethink that. Go ahead. What about a lottery? I don't know. I'm just trying to think on the fly here. Since there's nothing, I agree. There probably needs to be something. Yeah. I agree. There needs to be something. Lottery is is kind of more minimalistic, but it's possible.
If you let's if you did the lottery system, then once you hit a route, then it just falls out to next person next. But you can't recycle the lottery system every single time. I mean, that's something. And and we do that now. We we have a computerized thing that everybody, like, for the, summer school routes. Everybody that applies that is approved, their name gets put in the computer and it's a random draw. I'm okay. We could do a random draw no different than that, which I'm fine with because the way this is this policy is written, we're asking them to apply in the
summer so that we know everybody that wants a route. We just put everybody's name in the computer, and then once you've gotten a route till we extend go through everybody gets a route, then you would everybody's name go goes back in and you started drawing all over again. I like that better. I'm just because I mean, you get you get a route, then your name comes out of the hat because you've gotten a route. The problem becomes they wanna pick their route. So if you want a route and your name comes up, whatever route that is,
you you're you're taking it. If you pass, then I think it's just like accepting your name comes out. But wouldn't this be just for new routes? Like, they're already set. Yes. New routes. So don't do new routes. They still have the opportunity in June per the contract. They still have the opportunity to swap. So if you got a route and you drove it for the rest of the year and you decided you didn't like it, you had a buddy on the other end of the county that wants your route and you want his, y'all can swap in June. Yeah. But you have to keep that route till the till that school year is over.
Yeah. And I I think that I'm fine with the random draw. If you wanna take favoritism out of it, everybody who applies goes in the hat and we draw. Everybody's got an equal opportunity. I'm fine with that. And there'll be an all call after that probably. Yeah. Yeah. If some if nobody except for that. If you run through all the numbers If somebody's gonna get an opportunity. Right. Everybody's gonna get an opportunity. Okay. We typically don't let we if you look at that list that you that's in the agenda tonight, there's twenty, twenty five people on it. We typically don't have 25 new routes.
Yeah. We'll we'll have five to 10. But throughout the year, you have people turn in routes. At the end of the year, twenty, twenty five, maybe, 30 at the most for a year that either swap, get turned in, or get added. It's not a huge number. And that's what you're saying that our summer, school program works. Right? We do we do a computerized random draw for summer school. We did the same thing for the power hour. You want it, you apply, you get approved, your name just put in the hat,
and we let the computer draw. And that's the order they go. I think they need to throw horseshoes. And I'm fine. That that's the fairest day. It takes it. You if you've applied, you're on the list and we let the computer make the draw. Yeah. They still have some say as what they want to route because they can apply or not apply. Yep. Right. I said we mirrored that. I'm okay if you guys I'm fine with a complete random draw then there is no favoritism. It can be. If you guys are paid with an amendment once you get through I think that's completely fair. Gives everybody an equal the same equal opportunity. Alright. Appreciate that. And I'm willing with I I think that's a great, that's a great way to
do it. It works for the other two. Sweet. Good. Okay. Do you wanna Yeah. And and that's fine. I mean I would accept that in in the motion that that you make it completely right. Can can I just say this? I I don't usually hear from a lot of the bus drivers, but I had a couple of calls and the calls I got were thank you. Thank you. Thank you for addressing this. Because there has been some unfairness going on. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go down a rabbit hole just a little bit and I'm fixing to tell y'all I'm fixing to tell y'all some things maybe you don't
wanna hear. Well, I'm sorry, miss Sharp. It's 08:00, but you're gonna listen. You don't have to listen. You can get your tail up and go out the door. If you don't wanna listen to it, that's fine. But Claire asked me to be the liaison between the bus drivers and and this committee, and I have tried to do the best I can. Now most of the time I have spent the last four months is trying to get a reasonable price, on their pay increase, both for mileage and contracts and all that kind of stuff. But in my due diligence, just like I would approach a real estate deal, I
have discovered a lot of discrepancies. There are a lot of discrepancies. Not by the transportation department, nothing intentional. I will say that Trey and Wanda do an excellent job over there. Yes. They take a lot of heat. Yes. There's been, accusations of favoritism. Can I prove it? Can I not prove it? No. I can't. But what I have discovered throughout my due diligence and studying some of these contracts, studying some of these routes, we've had a we've had some fraud in this county
by some of our contractors. I'm gonna state it very specific right now. And I have, and along with doctor Sullivan, have turned this over to the state comptroller's office. There will be an investigation, throughout the following this next year with some of our contractors that have falsified records, that have cut the system, that have done things that they're not supposed to do. They deviated from the contract. They've broken the contract. And short of, and I hate to use this word, steal from the county.
Some of them have done that by falsifying these records. That's awful stiff wording right there. And I'm sure there are several of them listening to me right now, and there may be two or three of them shaking in their boots, and I hope they are. And I hope the state comptroller calls it all out. But it was out of my hands. It was out of doctor Sullivan's hands. And I have to put doctor Sullivan on the spot right here, but he and I were both given information about two months ago, three months ago now, right in the middle of the negotiation, and we had to turn it immediately over to the
state. Now, out of that, there are some observations that I have made throughout this. Yes, I will fight for our individual contractors. I think the system we have in place right now works really good, but there is becoming a monopoly in this county. And after the threat was made to this board, to this school district, that the buses were going to be parked, it made me pause to think that if you
allow one, two, five of these contractors have 30 routes, 40 routes, this whole system shuts down. They've got us over a barrel. Now, I'm all for the small guy, I'm all for the guy that's got two routes, three routes, five routes, 10 routes. I think 10 is a reasonable number, and I'll tell you how I kind of came to that. Is if you're managing a transportation system for this county, and that's essentially what you're doing, the odds are one of your buses is not going to cry, maybe two
of them, maybe somebody's going to lay out drunk one night and show up and not show up the next day, and you've got to drive. You've got to have a system in place to make these buses run. When you've got twenty, thirty, 40, it's a big I was fixing to say something ugly, Claire. It's a big big it could be a big big mess and and we're the ones who are going to take the heat on it. So as long as we can work with our small independent operators, as long as we can work and and I've pulled my budget home and, you know, several others,
you know, the the five to 10 is the sweet spot. My good friend James Campbell and I talked about it today. He has a concern that if a route came up that was closer to him than one of his other routes, would he be penalized? And I think that's the reason the provision is in there for the director and the transportation director and the director of schools to bring it to us and ask for a waiver from that. We can waive any of these policies, but there will be more policies, more policy
changes coming over the next two or three years before this next board gets in, having to deal with the next transportation contract. We're gonna level the playing field. I I I can assure you that. Long as I'm your liaison between us and the bus drivers, I'm gonna level the playing field. But I beg you, I implore you to leave this at ten to adopt the policies that Trey and doctor Sullivan have and the policy committee have come up with. I think they're reasonable. Nobody's getting penalized here right now, but I I I felt obligated to tell y'all
why this is all coming up right now. And there were and again, I'm on this is not the end of it. There will be some more policies come out of it. Y'all heard me state one on the other night. I feel very strongly that anybody that's got a a CDL license, an a or b endorsement on it right now, that there's a provision that they can come in and drive for us. I would trust them, if they wanna buy a bus. But I didn't want us to bring I didn't want us to get down into weeks too far with something like that. We'll bring that up in six months or before the next school year.
I don't know what I left out, Trey. But, anyway, that's that's my 2¢ worth. So I've, yes, Caleb. I would take your the lottery system. If I'm I'm good with that. I'm good with that. Yes, mister Tidwell. I'd like to make a motion that we adopt the lottery system similar to what we do for the summer school as an as an amendment. You want to add it too? Yeah. Amendment. He agrees to that. You can if somebody seconds it. Do we have a second? Mister Vaught just seconded. So we have a second. Now could you read the entire amendment now?
Madam chair. Yes. Can we address mister Lee? Do we need to change the two year thing? If you if we stay with all the other things, we've struck all of if you look at page four and five, all of that is gone. Okay. So that's no longer an issue? That's gone. Okay. Okay. Gone, we no longer have an issue. We take in place what's on six And it's not back in there. It's not back in there. Okay. Never know. Okay. I just wanted to make sure we didn't have to address that. We draw. That gets rid of the two year the two year goes away to it.
That's correct. Okay. Okay. Could you what's the motion? Could you did you get all that? I mean, if this is correct. Alright. Motion to use a lottery system for new or unfilled bus routes. That's the amendment. Sound good? That's the amendment. Yes. Yes. But he's willing to to can we vote for one motion? Jury. Yeah. Can we vote for all of it together? I'll just roll. I'll vote. Okay. We'll vote for the amendment. Okay. Okay. Can we do a roll call, please? Don't tell. Go ahead. Mister Vaught? Yes. Mister Vaughn? Yes.
Missus Darby? Yes. Miss Sharp? Yes. Mister Tidwell? Yes. Missus Rosales? Yes. Missus Maxwell? Yes. Unanimous. And now we need to, the original motion which was, I believe, miss mister Vaughn and then was seconded by mister Vaught. Vice versa. Okay. Vice versa. A motion to approve. It's been a long night. Yes. Yes. Alright. This was motion to adopt with the amendment. Do you want a roll call? Yes, please. Mister Tidwell? I'm sorry. Trey? Sorry. I wanna make sure that line 36 were if the number of buses, it goes
into effect in thirty days, which is what our contract says. They have to be given thirty days. Real quick. Yeah. Go ahead doctor Sullivan. The current contracts, the way I would understand is the current contracts already signed would be perfectly fine. But for any new contracts that are signed with open routes or new routes then this would go into effect. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Now we can start the roll call. Thank you. Mister Tidwell? Yes. Missus Rosales? Yes. Miss Sharp? No. Mister Vaught? Yes. Mister Vaughn? Yes. Missus Darby? No. Missus Maxwell? Yes.
Motion passes. Thank you all. Alright. Let's move to the second one. Yes. Adds language for the use of personal communication devices for students pursuant to a change in state law. We discussed this with principals today. The expectation is that we all follow this and hold them students accountable. And then we're gonna discuss it again tomorrow morning. So they we discussed it in June with them, discussed it again today, and then they had questions they can ask and then it comes back again tomorrow. Do we have a Thank you. Second. Yep. I didn't think we had a motion on the floor.
All in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Alright. Moving to engineering. First, we have Oakland Middle School's concrete pad request and you'll see this is a donation from Smyrna Ready Mix. Construction is reviewed and has no objections. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Thank you, mister Tipple. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Alright. Second, we have Daniel McKee cafeteria mural request. Principal Nicole Sturbin is requesting to allow the experience church to paint a mural on the cafeteria. You'll see it's being anticipated cost of 2,075. It's being donated to by the experience church. Move for approval.
Second. Everybody. I think we had three of them. Okay. Let's go. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next is Poplar Hill Elementary and CUD cost reimbursement agreement and you'll see this is work from CUD that they will then reimburse Rutherford County Schools in the amount of $50,395 Move to approve. Thank you, miss Darby. Thank you, mister Vaughn. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. And then last is our energy efficient lighting program. So, of course, you guys are aware we started, with our athletic fields last year.
Now we're moving into our school buildings. You'll see this anticipated cost is 8,400,000.0 roughly as mister Lee talked about. Could go up to $1,314,000,000 over the next couple of years. This request, though, is just for us to be able to move forward in use fund January for the $4,000,000 currently for this year. That's all that we have in January. If we get extra funds, we'll come back and adopt or, amend our budget, hopefully, and tax more of this stuff. Move to approve. Second. Thank you very much. All in favor, say aye. Yes. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Sorry. I missed it.
Trying to snag him. You did last thing. So I heard some discussion about this. This is just to get the ball rolling. The the decision on Housing and whatnot with the housing. That is separate from this. I wanna do a little research on that and come back and tell you where we're gonna land. But we're gonna we've got 4,000,000 allocated. This gets the ball rolling. And I'll come back and give you a recommendation and tell you what we think, how many how that affects the numbers. Okay. Okay. Let me make sure Let me try this again. Good. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Alright.
Couple updated job description. First is recommended updated job description for the ISA accountant. Entertain a motion? Move to approve. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Thank you, mister Darby. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hey. Question. What about the Murshboro Water and Sewer? Did I miss that one? We skipped it. The what? CUD. We did CUD. No. We did. Yeah. That's the one I made a motion to approve. Poplar Hill? No. No. Murshboro Water and Sewer. Is it not on I'm looking online. Is it not on here tonight? It's not. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'm looking at the one Online.
The county requested that to be moved to be taken off. Sorry. Yep. Next. Alright. Next is an updated job description request for the payroll accounting specialist number one. Move to approve. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Second. Thank you, miss Short. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next is an updated job description request for payroll accounting specialists too. Move to approve. Thank you mister Vaught. On sorry. Second. Thank you mister Vaught. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next we have a sponsorship request from Dunkin Donuts for $2,000 for six years, so
that Smyrna can run on Dunkin'. I just want to try to say that again. That is great. I got to say it Tuesday. I want to figure out a way way to say it. Move to approve. Second. There you go. Park Nature's gone. Can we get can we get Dunkin' Donuts to bring us some right now? Because I could. I think they should've been done. We've been here since 03:30. So if anybody done. We got a I don't close to Domino's or Dunkin' Donuts or Somehow somebody ordered pizza. Chick fil a. Yeah. Or Sonic. We'll take anything. We're not bigger. Where is Sonic to buy? Any other night?
Those guys would be here for sure. I thought there's a Sonic on Main Street. Yeah. Anybody close. Bell? We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passed. We'll take anything. Alright. Next, we had just a discussion on our open positions. Well, there's any motion or anything needs to be done there. I don't think so. Okay. Okay. Quick financial report. Our teacher checks, so we talked about this in April and May. Teachers have traditionally not been paid when they started until September. Now they are going to be paid in August.
And so our teachers who were on that pay structure should have received their second check yesterday or today. And so Hallelujah. All of our new teachers now will be paid. I think it's August 19 or maybe the twentieth. I can't remember. It's usually the twentieth. I don't remember where that date falls. I wanna give a special shout out because that is on the county finance department and our payroll department. And so Karen Ladd, Bonnie Cox, Terry Reisner, Chrissy Carruthers, of course, Michael Smith, and then Brian Ruggett, that that took a huge lift of getting 3,000 people extra checks. The next part of that is our HR department is working on the $2,000 teacher
bonuses stipends from last year's teachers. So reminder, not for new teachers this year, last year's teachers. We are adding employee numbers to that spreadsheet and once that is done, then payroll will start hand entering all of those. So you're probably looking at August. Like, we've kind of been our target in the beginning, but I thank all of them for their work on that. So that's our financial. Miss Madison? Yes. Mister Tipple. Teachers having a good August. They are. Good July too. Yeah. So once this groundwork is is laid, is it something that we can revisit next year for possibly by month?
Possibly. And so it's, of course, the county controls finance proceed or payroll procedures, but this was the first step in that direction. Oh, good. Awesome. So Okay. Couple quick director's updates. I wanna thank our instruction team and, Marcy Lehman, who is our professional development specialist. So years ago, we used to spend $3,400,000 for our DI conference, what we call it differentiated instruction. And that was great, but I guess in 2018 when I was in curriculum instruction, we started doing it ourselves. And so this year, we had 1,286 teachers go for training the last two days
plus 233 of our own teachers there that were presenters. And the total cost was less than $500. And so we our our team does a great job, so they deserve the shout out. Also, we've had principals meetings yesterday and today. I do this a lot with him, but he's very supportive. So doctor, Michael Torrance, Motlow appreciated them giving and Gary went and giving us that space the last two days. And I did not expect it, but doctor Torrance running, I mean, three sites, he showed up and was a member of our, principal meeting today and then came back
for the secondary portion with our high school principal. So for a president of a university, college and university to come to our meetings to be with our principals, says a whole lot. So we really appreciate him. Last thing to discuss is TOA. So we appreciate all of our partnerships we've had with Tennessee Orthopedic Alliance. The board has this for them. There's no action that's needed right now. So this is no actions needed, but we've had a contract with TOA, Ascension Saint Thomas, and, Results Physiotherapy. I know for sure Ascension Saint Thomas is not interested in renewing.
They don't get enough business, from us, so they're not interested. TOA has made some changes that the board has here. The the changes are pretty tough for us to accept. You'll see it's a $100,000 less. It goes from one year to a three year, but the big caveat for for me as the director was not having free physicals for our students. And so the other portion that our schools struggle with is that in order for them to have any type of sponsorship, there's an exclusivity agreement with TOA and you will see kind of the two thirds of the way down, TOA receives marketing exclusivity
as the official provider of sports medicine, but and then we can't advertise or promote anything like orthopedic, sports medicine, physical therapy, chiropractic or MRI, where that we definitely understand that for them. The money they provide, where we get stuck is that just because a walk in clinic may be able to do x rays, we have a difference of opinion about whether or not we can, advertise for that. And they need to give us this money, will not allow us to do those things. And so, we're probably going to be moving away.
It's gonna be my recommendation from this agreement. So we have already talked to our physician that signs off on all of our nurses and they're willing to sign off on all of our, athletic training standing orders. So just know that that's going. It'll open up some things for our schools to get more sponsorships. Yes. Because I know of three schools that had that were very upset when they found out that three chiropractors who do not offer the same services that TOA does, it's not even the same thing, we're not allowed to give to these schools and they
lost out valuable funding because it was gonna violate the current TOA contract. So I agree. I think it's time to And we still love our partnership with TOA. This this portion doesn't But This portion doesn't work for us. No. Very last thing, transportation. I think we have, appreciate the work of all of our contractors, transportation department, all of you all because that has taken a, huge lift to get that going. And so right now, we have five open routes, four without insurance, but we believe two will have insurance in the next couple days. So that's gonna only leave us two other open routes and O'Trey's meeting with that
individual contractor, or Juan Diaz. So where we were worried about being, we're we're in good shape. Okay. Miss Sharp. Anybody else have anything? Anybody else? I think, Victoria. Okay. I'm gonna can you put her picture on the board? I'm gonna rise so I can read a little bit easier. I know it's it's a long night, but There she is.
Okay. So I rise tonight and to honor the the life and the legacy of a beloved catering business owner here in Smyrna, Jane Holmes, who recently passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. Jane was not only a gifted chef, baker, and businesswoman, but also a tireless supporter of youth education in the culinary arts in Rutherford County. In her memory, the Holmes family has generously donated many professional grade items both to Smyrna High School's culinary program and the soon to be launched state of the art culinary program at La Verne High School.
These contributions reflect Jane's passion for mentoring the next generation of chefs and leaders in the hospitality industry. So, they called us and said, Y'all can come and get whatever you want to. Their business was ran out of the home. Nobody knew what the professional steamers were. So I called Doctor. Hatchett and said, Come get these steamers. So including this, and this is not an extensive list, there were chef jackets, aprons, tuxedo shirts. There was an entire room of nothing but linens. So Smyrna got purple linens, and La Verne High School got blue and silver or
any other color that they wanted for their for events. In addition to supporting culinary education, Jane's love for the arts lives on through a heartfelt donation to La Verne's high school drama department. The family provided volts of high quality fabric and professional streamer to help enhance costume design and stage production efforts. Jane Holmes built a thriving catering business known for excellence, hospitality, and heartfelt service. Her warm talent, y'all can't get this done, and generosity made her a cherished figure across Middle Tennessee.
I originally met Jane when I moved here as an orphan from Memphis at Christ Church, and they put me in the kitchen, because I'd work for Kraft. She may be gone, but her influence will continue to nourish minds and hearts for years to come. A special thank you goes to, some ladies at our schools. This effort would not have been possible without the help of without the help of several incredible individuals. A heartfelt thank you goes out to the ladies at both Smyrna and La Verne High School, who selfishly gave up their part of their summer, pray to help prepare
spaces and coordinate logistics for these generous donations. So y'all know when when I call, I got something good for you. Something good's coming somewhere. Additionally, a huge thank you goes to the LHS girls who came with energy, enthusiasm, working together like a NASCAR pit crew to load, sort, and pack every item with care and speed. Your teamwork and dedication ensure that Jane's legacy would be honored with excellence. Together, we celebrate the lasting impact of a woman who believed deeply in the power of this of service and education and love for the community.
And last but not least, I would like to make a clarifying statement. When I spoke to mister Vaught about being 08:00, we have a family that's out in the foyer that's been here since 03:30. It was not my concern. I'll be here till four or 05:00 in the morning if y'all needed me to, but don't speak to me like that again ever. Again. Thank you. Miss Maxwell. Before oh. Hold on. I'm so sorry. But, I failed at the beginning of our meeting to recognize, someone who has recently passed away. And she meant a lot to this community, and that is my dear friend Robert
p, commissioner Robert p's wife, Patricia, who just so happened to teach when she was at Central Middle School, my my, oldest son. She was a lovely lady and she will be missed and my condolences go out to the family. I was principal there and she was a very special teacher, very well respected. So yep. I'm sorry. Now mister Tittle, I apologize. You took the words out of my mouth. I went to school with, his daughter their daughter and I'm sure that I didn't get to meet the wife, but I'm sure it was a reflection. Wonderful.
I'm just wanting to keep them in our prayers moving forward. She survived the eighth grade trip with those central kids, to New York and Boston and, my son still talks about it. But, kudos to her and You know, when she was when I was principal there, she was always great because, you split your bridges, she'd sew them up in home ec department. So it was great. Move to adjourn. We're adjourned.