##VIDEO ID:Mp1tl9S5B6c## of the Rutherford County School System first up is our Pledge of Allegiance uh Miss Frank Miss Rosales thank you uh thank you everyone for coming in spite of the weather that's happening tomorrow hope everybody's ready for it I know I am um so here today I've invited uh black man middle school and Dr Jackson is here with the Beta Club and the student council and I've asked her to graciously come up here to the Podium and introduce the CH the kids that are are going to be leading the pledge tonight for us thank you for strongest students in school so we're excited to have them tonight we have Ella aimi Zoe Diaz Carly Scott Michael Harden Claudia press and Ryan m i told for doing this we'll get the day off tomorrow [Music] Al 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 I ask you to Bow your heads for a moment of silence please thank you next up is the approval of the agenda everyone can take a look at it any comments or questions on the agenda I'll entertain a motion move to approve second second by Miss Shar Miss dar I looked right at you I'm so sorry by Miss Darby all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes next we have the approval of the consent agenda any comments or questions motion to approve thank you Mr vaugh second thank you m Rosales all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes we have no G guest speaker tonight next we have public comment and we have five speakers tonight yes go ahead real quick of the board noticed we had um Shane Wickwire who was scheduled he asked to come on the 23rd I believe at our next meeting he was signed up as the guest speaker from Springs and power and he asked to come could just the board wondered where that went or the public wondered where it went from what was published okay thank you sir each of you will be called up here separately and you have 3 minutes I think you know the drill um let me see here first we have Lindsay Schultz good evening members of the r County Schoolboard my name is Lindsay Schultz and I am not only a business owner in this community I'm also a parent and a passionate advocate um for freedom to read and learn and tonight I want to address three um troubling issues um the ongoing Banning of books in our schools how the issue is taking precedence over more important issues like how Central has a mold problem as well as not having heat right now and the lack of respect I feel that is being shown toward those who come and speak um so first let's talk about books um when books are banned it's not just pages that are being removed it's perspectives its identities its opportunity unities for growth that are being Stripped Away for example titles like I'm not your perfect Mexican daughter shiver and Looking for Alaska are more than just stories they are lifelines for students who feel unheard and unseen and by Banning those books you're essentially telling those people that these the that these books represent that they don't matter and beyond that harm caused by Banning books I find it amazing in that one of our schools is lacking heat and has a mold problem and yet here we are fighting over books um how can our kids learn when the environments that we're asking them to learn in are potentially Hazard to their health and lastly I want to address an equally troubling matter which is the way certain members of this board treat those of us who come here to speak we stand here because we care deeply about our children our schools and our community we give up time with our families to come and speak to you and we spend hours preparing our words only to see certain board members glancing at your phones playing on your watch and appearing visibly disinterested in what we have to say and it's very disheartening to say the least not to mention that it makes us feel like we're up here wasting our time and I say this very respectfully but when you dismiss us you dismiss the very people that you guys are elected to serve you undermine the trust that we place in you to listen and lead and make decisions that reflect the best interest of all the people in this community not just to select few so how can we as a community have faith into the the decisions that you guys are supposed to make if you guys can't be bothered to give us your full attention when we stand up here so I want to leave you with the thought of trust the people that you put in place to pick books like our Educators Librarians and our parents to guide our students through challenging materials respect the voices in the room and give us time and give us your attention for the 3 minutes that we're up here and remember that history is going to pay attention to every decision that you make so do you want to be remembered as Leaders who stand for intellectual Freedom critical thinking and mutual respect or do you want to turn a blind eye to the needs and voices in your community because we are watching thank you next we have Miss daffany Gamble I would like to speak to you about the books which you are deciding on today in 19773 the Supreme Court created the Miller test which is used to determine ofinity the Tennessee age appropriate materials Act is a direct violation of this ruling and thus unconstitutional and invalid since federal laws both state law the ACT is similar to the Murphy's B decency ordinance which was struck down in courts and resulted in the City paying a $500,000 settlement I do applaud the board's decision to appoint a committee of library library media specialist to review the material I would encourage I would encourage you to implement the committee's recommendations Librarians are trained professionals professionals were more qualified to determine whether or not a book should remain on shelves than the board the members of the committee have also read the text in its entirety unlike members of the board I would also like to remind you that under RCS policy book challenges are limited to one per Challenge and a single person can only challenge Five Books A year RCS policy also states that challenge materials will remain available during the review process and only removed if they have been deemed to be inappropriate we hope you will follow the recommendations of the committee and retain the books being discussed today thank you for your time thank you next we have Miss Elizabeth Shephard thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you again tonight and my teenager I'm sure would appreciate saying thanks to Dr Sullivan for the sow day tomorrow um I'm here as a Blackman High School parent and also as a public school librarian I wanted to use my time tonight to shine a spotlight on a group of teachers that often prefer to avoid it all together your elementary middle and high school librarians RCS has a phenomenal group of librarians who are the absolute best at what they do I can say this with confidence because I know many of them personally and professionally I have served with him on the board of the Tennessee Association of school librarians I have attended countless professional developments led by them and always left those sessions with pages of notes and A Renewed motivation and excitement that I can take back to my library when I need book recommendations or when I'm struggling with lesson plans or when I just want to wander around Barnes & Noble with some of my favorite people these are the ones I'm texting they love reading they love their students and they are incredibly good at what they do I want to personally thank Dr Chastain and Miss Benavides for all of their hard work and each of the Librarians in Rutherford County for the phenomenal job they do every single day and especially for their willingness and professionalism in assisting with the process that you all begin deciding on tonight on tonight's agenda 10 RCS library books are on the chopping block and the Seven of you are the ones holding the AE tonight you will decide their fate this is just the beginning of a process that will involve scores of books and take months to complete I know it's not a responsibility you take lightly I know this because you have asked for help great leaders know that in order to succeed they cannot do it alone it takes a village to make decisions like the ones you're making tonight and I'm so proud of those you have entrusted to help you the most qualified experts you could ever ask for librarians time and again I've heard you say how much you appreciate your Librarians that what they do is important and that they are valued members of RCs those same Librarians have been working hard since the moment the list of challenged books dropped and and now they have presented you with the first of many thorough and detailed recommendations I sincerely hope that you will back up your words with action and vote to stand by the recommendations your highly qualified Librarians have given you thank you thank you next we have Mr Brian Schuster thank you uh I'd like to open with a prayer so if you would please bow your heads and close your eyes with me heavenly father I thank you for the opportunity that we have to work together as a community I thank you for the freedom that we have to assemble here today in peace youve blessed us God I thank you for Dr Sullivan and his humble leadership I thank you for the way that he leads with Integrity I thank you for Miss Darby Mr vot Miss sha Miss Maxwell Mr vau Miss Rosales and Mr Tidwell thank you for our teachers custodians coaches the administrators and the Librarians who work hard each day to provide a positive and high quality education for our children God bless their homes their families and the work of their hands Lord help our community to become unified through the power of your Holy Spirit help us to give up of ourselves and to submit to you we ask for your blessing on our community and in Jesus holy name amen amen I want to take just a moment to first thank our Librarians who shared on Tuesday a comprehensive plan to review and vet the book submitted in November so thank you and I want to thank our board who are working so hard on this issue if you've learned if we've learned nothing else over the past several months disc discussing library books it is that our community is passionate about our children they're a gift they're tender and we hope for better days in their future we're sewing seeds with our kids and they will grow up becoming what we expose them to they're the seeds but we're the soil it's important for us to consider carefully the Legacy that we're leaving with them and what we want to be known for each vote etches another Mark into the granite and we the public are watching and keeping track of the records decided upon here I'm a gentle and loving person and would gladly step into traffic for anyone in this room but I won't substitute my children for anyone here I don't think you would either but because of that love I will continue to stand here and give up whatever I have to to fight for their purity and I would like to ask anyone else in this room who agrees with me to please stand now this is not about intimidation this is not this is about representation we're watching we're listening we remember how you will cast your vote when we go to cast ours please take a stand stand to protect our children from the content that is harmful to them and please use your authority to leave a legacy of good soil for our kids thank you and God bless you thank you and lastly we have Miss Heather cook o thank you for allowing me to share what is on my heart concerning the review process regarding the books to be allowed in our schools libraries I pray that we all will have open minds and hearts to receive direction to make the right choice regarding what we encourage children to read the children that will be affected by the decisions made have been entrusted to our Care by God our creator the same God that we referred to in the pledge of allegiance that I'm so thankful we all stood and said together earlier the same God of this book look that one nation under him was founded upon so as one nation under God I truly believe that we should all want what he tells us in his word that he wants for his children Luke 17 tells us that Jesus said Temptations to sin are sure to come but woe to the one through whom they come it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around their neck and cast into the sea than that they should cause one of these little ones to sin Proverbs 226 says we are to train up children in the way they should go and when they're old they will not depart from it and in Matthew and Mark we're told that Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them we're also told in Matthew that children have specific Angels assigned to them that hold Great Value in the Kingdom of Heaven needless to say he made it abundantly clear that he cares about and is very attentive to what happens to his children so concerning the books that are under review I believe that we should not endorse or encourage children to read anything that contradicts What God Says children are a gift from God and our assignment is to help shape their character with things like love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control to to equip them to pursue his purposes for their lives in closing I just want to say let them be children let's enable and encourage them to preserve their innocence they are exposed to enough evil in this Fallen world without it being endorsed and encouraged in our schools libraries let's teach and encourage them to seek after God and his eternal Kingdom this Earth will soon pass away our lives are mere Vapors in the grand scheme of things one day we all will stand before the King of Kings and the Lord of lords and answer for what we have done and I pray that we along with the children entrusted to our care will hear our father say Well done thank you for your time and God bless you thank you next we have legal all right we have one transfer student under discipline the board has been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline this student was expelled for intentional repeated harassment of school staff according to policy 6.31 18 the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system onor suspension or expulsion director of school's recommendation is to deny I'll entertain a motion motion to approve second to approve the denial to approve the denial oh approve to denial okay thank you I just want to make sure we're clear okay and uh Mr tile seconded Mr Rosales seconded okay all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes next we have human resources this is a request for one additional nursing staff due to increasing medical procedures at one of our larger high schools this is O High School the health services department is requesting one new school nurse position recommended motions to approve one additional school nurse position to cover increasing medical needs as we get a little bit more information about um fast growth funds and outcome funding you may have a couple more requests in the next month or so for a couple okay but this is one that's needed right away I'm sure on retain a motion to approve thank you Mr tidle thank you Mr vau all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes next we have the annual agenda and this is the review of the fifth section which is Personnel Tennessee school board association's board of distinction program recognizes School boards for their work school boards that seek this designation must meet specified requirements in four key areas planning policy promotion and board devel velopment one of their requirements is an annual review and maintenance of the entire policy manual as our board knows we do have policy manual and policy review by the Tennessee Schoolboard Association to make sure we meet all required laws um and rules and procedures as well so this is just the annual review of section five we'll move to section six and we do have a policy meeting next Wednesday at 5 o' so we don't need to vote on that so next we have the charter Review Committee you have a charter Review Committee that is required ired by policy we have two Charter letters of intent that are if the charter schools choose to apply their application is due by 11:59 on February 3rd and the committee is before you so the recommended motions to approve the 25 2025 Charter Review Committee as presented comments or questions I'll entertain a motion move to approve thank you Miss Rosales thank you Miss Shar all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes engineering and construction first we have poer Hill Elementary grading change order number two engineering construction is agreed to the final grading change request for demo plus construction for our later dated August 7th 2024 change order number two is to be for $35,800 this will complete the grading package contract for bid number 3711 recommended motions to approve the change order number two for demo plus as requested and presented any comments or questions move to approve thank you Mr vaugh second thank you Mr Tidwell all in favor say I I I all opposed motion passes next we have number two Eagleville soccer fieldwork request principal Tim pedigo's requesting to regrade the property adjacent to the school for a soccer field the grading Process Equipment and labor is being donated and the school will be responsible for the cost of the fuel needed estimated cost is 2,000 as part of this project the school will begin to raise funds for an irrigation system and the cost are the appropriate 2in tap meter and the 30,000 estimated for the field system this work will require to have tck approval the requested at no cost to the board engineering construction has reviewed this request and has no objection Mr Pedigo did asked um for me to let the board know that he would have been here but they have high school and middle school athletics today so he is having to cover um Middle School athletics tonight recommended motion is to approve the eagal soccer field request as presentent any comments or questions thank you m thank you m uh Derby all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes number three lever High lever High School nutrition painting project School Nutrition department has been reviewing options to upgrade the appearance of the cafeteria serving line areas for a couple of years currently they're requesting to begin a school serving line project with LHS is the first one the cost for this project is $4,275 sense and will come from the fund balance and will not require additional funds engineering construction department has reviewed the request and has no objection recommended motions to approve the school nutrition request for LHS as presented any comments or questions move to approve second thank you Mr Bon and thank you Miss Darby that was Miss sharp Miss sharp I'm so sorry I am all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes number four Daniel mcke exterior and interior interior mural paint request principal Nicole sturban is requesting to allow the experienced Community Church to clean and paint the exterior of the building and paint the entry area murals in the interior total cost for the request is 19,300 is being funded by the church it at no cost to the board engineering construction review the request and has no objection recommend motions to approve the Daniel mcke paint request presented and again as we did Tuesday I want to thank experience Community Church because I believe this the beginning of a a great partnership with absolutely and I can cannot wait to see it um any comments or questions so much thank you Mr thank you Mr vaugh all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes next we have resolutions there are two resolutions before the board for consideration tonight the first of these is relating to Tissa funding and the fast growth components of the Tisa funding we read this Tuesday night um the resolution portion of this says they were asked the board of education is resolving to request the Tennessee General Assembly consider the full funding for the fast growth typen and fast growth infrastructure components of Tissa by appropriating the amount of $50 million for the 2025 2026 fiscal year to ensure that all eligible school districts receive the full value of their calculated stiens and for their percentage of the fast growth infrastructure so that's the first resolution you have before you tonight and Mr Mr Tidwell um did a lot of work on this resolution thank you yes Mr Tidwell yeah I think the intention of this was good for a lot of the districts that simply was a first year thing they needed to figure out what the funding was um and what that ended up being I have talked to some people at the governor's office and there does appear to be an appetite for it you know that doesn't always happen when we send resolutions up there but there P appears to be some so uh hopefully this comes to fruition but we won't know until the end absolutely with that I move to approve thank you Mr tile second by Miss sharp all in favor say I I any opposed appreciate you doing that thank you thank you Mr TI motion passes the second resolution is War One pretended to a house bill which is House Bill 22 which is one which um we read Tuesday night but I'll go back to remind the board what it was but so the proposed house bill which has not yet been adop opted but is being proposed in the house of rep representatives for the state is asking to amend TCA 84412 to basically provide that a governing body shall for each public meeting reserve a period for public comment to provide the public and the opp with the opportunity to comment on number one matters that are gerain to the items on the agenda for the meeting and on any matter that gerain to the jurisdiction of the governing body regardless of whether that item is on the agenda so this proposed House Bill broadens the current law which under the current law um which we've not been following in our County because what we not we've not been violating it either um the current state law allows has allow governing bodies to restrict public comments to only items on the agenda our board here has never done that you've allowed people to come and talk about any kind of school board issues before this body that they chose to comment on during public speaking um so this really has never been a a matter that we've had a problem with here in our our system because we've always allowed people to talk about anything which pertains to education but there has been some instances in the state where this has become an issue so this new house bill is proposing to um expand the right for public comment based on the statute to to provide that people can comment on any matters that are gerain to the jurisdiction of the governing body regardless of whether it's on the agenda or not so this broadens the current statute so the proposed resolution that's got that the board is considering tonight is asking for the Board of Education to express its support for the principles and intent of house bill 0022 which aims to promote greater public participation and uphold the values of transparency and accountability in governance so that's the resolution you're being asked to act on tonight any comments or questions Mr Maxwell yes Mr Rosales um Jeff I had asked if you could look into that governing body will include their state legislator since they are a governing body and currently our state legislator you're not able to just show up and speak about anything it has to be items on the agenda and for an item to be an agenda there has to be a bill of some sort that should that needs to be debated upon and I had asked you if you had any insights to that the rules the Senate and House are different than those that govern other public bodies and they would not be squarely under the governmental body definition here in the statute so this the so because they have a different set of rules and they've got things that arise under tene state constitution that applies to them that's different than us as local County and and City type entities so a governing body is not clear that this will be a appable to state legislature if there's an intent to have this also applicable to State Legislature there needs to be some additional language thrown into the bill to make that clear then I would like I I support this but I would like to add that provision into the resolution requiring the state lawmakers since they are creating the bill and the governance for us and how we run and uh do our bit conduct our business that it will also be included so the language will be provision um there to include State lawmakers and all committees there thereof M max Mr Tidwell uh so I did a little bit of research into this as well got some feedback from uh tsba so it it is correct that the general assembly U doesn't have this same provision but they're also not considered as Mr reita just mentioned a technically a governor governing body underneath the definition of the statute um and there's some reasons for that they do create rules for the subcommittees and the Committees and those can those committees can open up and decide whether they're going to have public comment or whe you have to sign up a certain amount of time or two days before or the day of uh so there is an option there but uh also there is some case law uh and it's mayew versus Wilder uh where this was kind of debated back and forth whether or not a current General Assembly can be bound by the of a previous General Assembly which is why they have their rule Creations each year and part of that was uh dealing with this public comment so even if they wanted to they couldn't restrict it without binding the next general assembly so this is there's already some case law on this so I'm not in support of this amendment um much more so the reason that I was very concerned about this uh and is how it would affect our local Schoolboard as you mentioned earlier Jeff that uh our school board has been pretty open in making sure that as long as it's under the purview of the school board they could speak about it but it was felt to mention that the policy committee at the RF County School Board did vote to have items uh brought before uh a public comment would be restricted by this particular law before the language was added straight to items that are on the agenda and that did pass uh I think I don't know if it was there was 16 members I think it was 13 to three it just did not get carried forth after it passed the policy committee it didn't get carried forward so that was kind of the concern that I had I didn't want that to come popping back up um this strengthen the language of it and I feel like it's you know it's good where it's at it it's accomplishing the goal that we have uh for us locally so I wouldn't support the amendment and I would just ask that uh we pass it in support of this Miss Maxwell yes thank you there's going to be some clarity about what you just said yes they do allow um public comments but it's not like it's open to anyone and everyone who has any other topic if there is a dis topic that is happening within their jurisdiction which there's issues that are State matters and I'm going to say for example RL population growing I couldn't just show up in a public in a hearing today sign up the day before and try to get my name to talk to them and say hey we've got a situation happening here unless they pick up the topic in the form of a veil bail that discusses that and it makes it into the agenda so no it's not the same as us anyone here coming and speaking at all and just like Mr Reed just said that there is no no definition that says exactly what governing body is and second of all there was a lot of discussions when it came to to um allowing public comments beyond the items on the agenda when it comes to meetings like this because it was prohibiting First Amendment rights I think that it sounds like there's a little bit of a double standard in my opinion when it comes to First Amendment rights because I am a taxpayer as well and I should be able to show up to the assembly and be able to speak on topics that are not ger remaining to the agenda they created the law and now they're telling us how do we run the our meetings but then we don't want to stand and tell them that they too should do the same thing that and not limiting our first amendment rights it sounds like that's what some of us may be advocating for yes Mr Tidwell uh yeah just to get clarity on that TCA 8- 44-12 is actually the definitions and including that it describes what a governing body means and you will not find the general assembly listed in there so I'm not disagreeing and as I mentioned earlier I'm not disagreeing that they are not operating the exact same way as we are but I described as to why they came to that conclusion as far as governing bodies County commissioning County Commission School Board uh board of directors several other bodies listed here uh I think this is a a positive thing and I certainly do support it moving forward for our own personal elected body Miss Maxwell yes MREs Jeff Reed governing body will it include does will it include the state legisl ation is not clear it's not current because it's not clear it will have they will have to go back and Define what is governing body so that is not applicable what you just said M Maxwell yes Mr Tidwell so in reference to the bill it does reference what a governing body is so I'll give you I'll give you an example so they can put in a a statute they can put in a statute and they can say you can only have clear lunch boxes on uh uh brought to schools we'll just say that as an example that's a law that gets passed and in the statute it says and definitions will be described of what a clear lunchbox is through this particular statute or this definition it will be attached to the law and attached to that law it'll say clear lunch boxes are of this particular size or smaller this description and that's what the definition is but in that definition whatever it says that is how it relates and correlates to the law this TCA 8-4 -102 is directly connected to this language so I'm not making up what a governing body is it tells you what the governing body is Miss Maxwell yes Mr Rosales um no due respect to you Mr Tidwell but I've asked legal counsel which is Mr Jeff Reed he's spoken as far as I know you your credentials don't include Esquire by your name so our legal counselor spoke and said that we this or no definition when it pertains to government body that is the point that I'm trying Mr resis okay it's been a point of order Madam yes Mr B I'm sorry you're going to rule on the point yes are you going to rule on the point yes I am okay then I want to discuss after you rule okay thank you do we want to continue or do we want to stop we're not debating Mr uh tidwell's credentials here is that what the point was yes that's well now I'm going to say this right there that wasn't a true point of order if you want to rise to the point of order State the point and then let the chair rule on it well my point of order is we're not debate we're not here to debate Mr tidwell's um credentials and I believe Mr Tidwell did site tsba who is our legal council even more so often times than Mr re Miss Maxwell I understand um say one more thing yes I think what Mr Tidwell said is the same thing which I said I agree State Legislature is not within the definition of governing body for the purpose of the statute and if I correct me if I'm wrong I think Mr Tidwell said that he acknowledges and agrees that this State Legislature is not govern is not within the scope of the definition of governing body in the statute that is correct Miss Maxwell time out just a moment yes Mr B y'all keep jumping in over there y'all call timeout on that end of the table down y'all playing lawyer right now just hold on couple of questions Jeff who brought this to us Mr Tidwell propos this resolution second who is the sponsor of the billain Davis did they were require that they request us to endorse this was there a request sent from that legislator for us to vote on this I am not aware of any requests from from Miss Davis okay Miss Maxwell yes Miss Rosales I think the point is that in the statute it doesn't clearly Define as the state legislators and what I'm saying is that we need to go back to them and Define if the governor Bing does include the state legislators cuz currently with even with the definition that you read doesn't include because no one has asked them if it's included until right now we're challenging that and we're talking about first admendment rights of what we can and speak and not speak at a a a meeting where there are going to be rules being made and laws that they're going to be implementing that is going to impact the entire state of Tennessee Madam yes Mr Arby after Mr vaugh Please Mr Von yeah I we're all going to have to rush and get some bread and milk tonight but I don't understand I mean we're sitting here talking about something that they're not going to pay attention to what we say anyway we have no control of what they do it's like Mr Reed said they got their own rules and I support this thing you know but again to to be concerned about what they do or whatever when I'm not going to pay any attention to it I just don't see us spending time doing it you know Mr Arby I was just going to State um a resolution has been brought forth Mr Rosales proposed amending it the author of The Resolution has stated he does not wish to do that so can we just vote on the amendment and vote on the resolution and move on at this point bless you yes we can there has to be a motion fix ass would anyone like to make a motion I'll entertain a motion I make a motion to approve the resolution as it is second second by Mr tidel all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes next we go to the bus contract discussion there's anything else anyone is there anything else that anybody want to talk about we had okay okay next we have Max yes I'll just say can we can we do that again we can is that something that we can add on probably in February I would say because there will be a lot of changes between them oh absolutely yes I'll get with Mr Reed after he gets with their attorney to set probably one of our February board meetings after they have some time to go back forth is that all right Mr yes thank you madam chair and everyone for staying late to um listen to our bus drivers I think I think we made up some progress and between the the the two people and everything so thank you all thank you madam chair for um no problem our pleasure next we have the library books and uh they've been painstakingly gone through by our Librarians and we want to thank them so much for taking the time uh to do this over the last couple of months and uh we are going to vote on each book individually with a roll call vote okay Mr suan or can I make a uh comment yes you can Mr B uh you know it I think our Librarians are the best anywhere like we talked about they're phenomenal people and do a phenomenal job you know it really bothers me that you know I I personally just uh I've been in education for over 50 years and my whole goal mainly was to protect the kids and to make it a safe environment for them and I just can't see allowing anything in our library anywhere that could be a stumbling block to any kid and to be honest with you these books in my opinion do that and you know people say well it's there okay and not okay it's sort of like drinking a cup of water and putting a little bit of poison in it who's going to drink it and that's what I feel like these books are it's just a little bit of poison and these kids I've I've had to deal with them or that they got ideas from the book they read and caus them to do things that is really harmful to them and I just can't uh you I just want to say please consider that because if it's a stuning block to a kid and it creates an issue why take the chance there's so many great books and you know I've I've got three degrees and I've never read read never had to read any of these books and I'm really glad I didn't so I think other there's so many other books out there that can do the same thing without all this trash that uh we had to we had to look at in these books because in my opinion that's what they are so consider there when you vote please the first book is Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe it is a recommended for to be retained in the eth grade and up I have a motion Madam chair yes Mr Dr Chastain I don't know if you're the appropriate person to respond to this or not um but I did just want to ask as I went through this in some more detail um some of the additional context that was listed on this book um we had two different sources recommend for 14 and up um another one that recommended it for grades nine and up and it's currently only in our high schools so my question kind of came down [Music] to if the if the majority of what I'm seeing here is kind of pushing that high school age and that's where it currently is why the recommend wouldn't be to leave it in the high school and why we're actually moving it down to 8th grade and high school we can certainly adjust that I think everybody be I understand your point one of the things that probably I'm going to guess and and miss Ben is can correct me I believe some of these titles at were originally in middle and high and then our middle school librarians made it which is within their purview and what we would like them to do they make those decisions based on their expertise and have decided the book is best suited in high school so this you're seeing that it would be appropriate in their minds for e8th grade and up they've made the choices in their own libraries to not have it circulate in our middle schools but that is certainly something that the board could could make recommendations to have it only in high school out of an abundance of caution we can do that we can say that we just want to keep it in high school and I believe even from Williamson County said 11th and 12th grade for some too we can make that distinction um no that's okay I I was just going to read this really quick before we get on to the actual voting portion which is just to remind everyone of of the law part of what it speaks to it says a procedure for the development of a library collection at each school that is appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials and that is suitable for and consistent with the educational mission of the school and I will say for myself going back to the way the law reads and looking at some of these wondering what the educational mission is for some of these and does that align with the educational mission that Rutherford County Schools wants to present to its students and I just think it's important that we keep those things in mind because at the end of the day we are responsible for the content we are allowing access to through our school buildings what happens outside of those buildings is not my business but what happens within them is our business and we are responsible for that so I just think it's important that we keep that in mind as we look at these going forward sorry Mr thank you Mr Arby me I agree that I'd just see him I just I'd really like to see him taking out I I just don't see educational benefit and I'm like M Derby is this what we want our uh our system to be viewed as that we approve this stuff I mean if you you read this u i I don't know maybe I'm just all fashion but I can't see how the this this book or any the rest of them could be of any value and I don't want I don't want our people and our parents to think that this is uh I don't want them to view that this is the way our system is because we're above this type of thing I think and I can't believe there's not another book out there that doesn't have this trashing that would do just as good a job so can we uh can we vote to well I have to have a motion yeah Mr well that was my question how do you want do you want an individual motion on each book what is your I was going to take that's how we did it last time we were individ individual motion on each book and then Miss Williams will do aoll call I'm going to jump right in here then we're going to get this on on um I'm going to move that we retain the first book u under the recommendation of the media specialist uh high school and uh or High School long do we have a second I can second I second it Mr VA oh hang on I'm going back to discussion I just made a motion now if you get into this and you look at it Publishers Weekly recommends the book School library Journal recommends the book the book has received multiple Lord Awards including the Stonewall Award winner uh Prince Award winner Pur B PRI Award winner Lambda Award winner this book has received multiple starred professional reviews including horn book magazine Publishers Weekly and school library Journal here's my observation about all of this the world is a cruel place I'm going to state that right now I myself believe we need to do everything we can to Shield our children as best we can but it comes down to parents doing their job we have created a structure within this County that we have a K through five uh school system that and I'm G to say it this way that kind of babies nurtures and all that kind of thing then we have a middle school and I and not to drag Mr Lee into this but I'm visited with him and got an observation of of of the transportation contract that we're having to deal deal with but he he led me to a couple of conclusions there our biggest writers are Middle School writers and it made me Ponder why is that well I have to believe that parents are turning their children loose somewhat they're they're not babying them as much as they were they're not dropping them off at school they're not picking them up at school they're making them rise to being young adults and that responsibility includes possibly learning how to get on a bus and get off a bus I don't know and then the and then they fall off in high school because they are independent because they do get wheels they do get a a license and so you look at this and I and and you know we voted to allow the media specialist and there's 60 something of them in our County and I value their opinion I really do you know they've gone to school they're I think most of them if not all of them somebody correct me if I'm wrong all of them have Masters in Communications they know how to look at this stuff I'm not smart enough to do it I I'll be the first one I read a lot I'm a history buff I love history U it's one reason to read the Bible a lot it's the greatest history book that ever that was ever written but my concern from day one is when you start taking any of these books out of the library where do we end up 20 years from now you know we think we're isolated as Christians in this country but after visiting smup high school and figuring out there's 32 different languages spoke down there um most of you know some of you know that I work in auction real estate business and we go down on Nolanville Pike there's there's dozens of different religious groups down there you know we cannot simply isolate ourselves from the world and if we do that and and this is in my view the first step when you when you take the ability of young people a way to educate theirself and and and you're isolating and then they're not ready for the world we have we live in a world economy now we don't live in a Rutherford County economy they have to be prepared for bad stuff I don't like it I had to do it with my kids we had to have a lot of conversations we had to go to the barn as I called it uh those of you that know me know that I grew up on a dairy farm and there's a lot of things that get explained in the dairy barn not going to get into that right now but uh my father God Rest his soul did a good job of doing that and I think I've done that with Jackson and Chandler and for me to sit idly by and not say something about trying to educate kids I I just feel I feel at a loss right here that that we're we're creating a false narrative that that were that we protecting them for some reason I'll say this I believe this let the teachers teach and the parents need to parent if you don't want your child reading a book you put it on a list with that librarian you forbid them to bring at home that's fine I'm all for you you make that decision but don't make the decision for the other 52,000 kids in this County that's what I'm going to say about this and I'll HUD question I M [Applause] Derby respect where you're coming from Mr VA um and as a parent myself I don't want anyone telling me how to parent my kids as much as I don't want to tell anyone else how to parent theirs but I will say this we are responsible for the content we are allowing our students access to at the end of the day there is no way for a parent to know every book in a library or whether their child went during Library time sat at the table and read it and never checked it out either and there are some topics and some content that is absolutely 100% up to a parent when and how their child should be introduced to that information that is not the school's responsibility it is our responsibility to educate children on very specific subjects and not on others because that is a parents right and a parents job part of the problem is the the type of content that has become available to minors at the end of the day these are still children I do not want to be responsible for introducing certain topics and certain information to children that is up to their parents how and when that gets introduced and discussed it is more appropriate at some ages for some children because of what they may have experienced in their life than others that's not the education system's prerogative to decide when that is for each and every child that is a parents decision it belongs with that parent we should have things on our shelves and our school that are appropriate for the children without question if there is question that is when it gets kicked to the people that have been elected by the community to then make those decisions about whether or not it is appropriate I don't I think part of the narrative gets twisted here that oh well they won all these Awards and they're all these great books there's nobody disputing those those things here but because a book received an award doesn't make it appropriate for a child so the narrative that you know it's a great book and that that's what's being disputed is incorrect the question is going to fall down to is it appropriate to be providing that content to children because that is what they are and that is where the base lies and as a board we we have a responsibility to look at it from the Viewpoint of the law we are bound by that law it either meets the definitions of the law or it doesn't if it does meet the definition of the law we are bound to remove it from our shelves that that is not not that's not isolating somebody there are still a million and one ways to get that particular book this is not despite what some people want to spin it as what happened a very long time ago we're not trying to control access to it outside of the building that we are responsible for so yes Mr V and I agree with you 100% the parents don't need to do that and it's not our job to do it however we have asked our 60 Librarians and they put it on a spreadsheet and they went through the Miller test they went through all these tests and recommendations they pull some but most this one they recommended so I'm confused now if you're not going to take the recommendation of the Professionals in the deal do you do you believe our professionals have an agenda that they're trying to force something on somebody that they shouldn't is that I mean I'm confused right here you and I are in agreement on 90% of this right here I did not vote in favor of the Librarians doing this I was the one person that did not vote in favor of it number one okay number number two um I have no disrespect for our Librarians I I don't know I don't think hardly any of them personally I all I don't think I'm not up here saying that anybody has any kind of agenda either I do think and I think Dr Chain would agree that there are still some very subjective definitions within the law which means it is going to come down to I I'll say this um patently offensive means obviously offensive what is obviously offensive to me might not be obviously offensive to miss sharp or to yourself so when I look at it rather than looking at a broad patently offensive way I would look at it and say in the context of providing this material to a minor would it be found to be patently offensive in that context because that is the context in which we're speaking about it in so for me it's not about whether I trust or believe our Librarians I think we're all human and I think we all have different opinions and I think a lot of our Librarians have a true love and passion for what they do which I appreciate however we may disagree and my opinion about what is appropriate to be providing to a minor and what isn't can be different from what theirs is and just because my opinion is different doesn't doesn't mean that I'm not going to voice that because they're a librarian and I'm not miss Maxwell just Mr V yes Miss Chast I just wanted to jump in really quickly since part of our job is to make sure you have every bit of information and it's as clear as possible from our end um the educational mission of that that clause and in what a library serves to do I do want to clarify that within the selection criteria within our state rules that align with the law it goes beyond just the academic standards uh so the the space of the library includes recreational reading which I think we all agree is important uh various formats work on its entirety represent a variety of viewpoints that Foster critical thinking problem solving provide a Global Perspective demonstrate cultural relevance mirror diversity there's several things and I I don't want to I'm not trying to Cloud the statements that you've made I just want to make sure that we're in understanding of that that the library will serve Beyond just the standards uh and then I think we all agree that the diversity of thought is what makes this great so we we all are here for the kids um to make sure they have access to the materials that are appropriate and meet these these educational purposes uh but I just want to make sure we clarified the role of the library itself Beyond just the academic standards thank you Mr vaugh you know the U The Librarians commanded from a literary standpoint to understand and respect it great but you know we've got a responsibility to come at it from a from a moral standpoint um you know the U I wish I'd known and maybe next time we bring these books uh y if I'd like to read some of the excerpts this book and how in the world people can think that they're appropriate for kids uh is beyond me cuz I've had to deal with kids and I I can tell you that it's sort of like selling beer on a on the lunch line may not be too bad you know it's healthy drinking beer is pretty good for some folks but why would you why would you temp kids like that and again um I don't know I mean I've got a I've got a degree above a master's degree like Librarians I mean you're well trained but again um I just can't believe that books that we had when we went to school didn't have this type of stuff in there we didn't have to worry about this and we got whatever education the the value that these books they say they do we got the same education or better and my theory is hey if you wanton read if you if you don't want to read it in front of your mama why would you do it and that's what some of this stuff in these books is just there's no way in this world I'd let my kids read stuff like that well and I don't the motion on floor is to approve this one book and and the notes from the review there is no n nudity as defined by title 39 U the word masturbate is used on page 219 and on page 30 there's a euphan ISM used about shaking hands with your best friend so that's the the end of this one so if you want to say everybody wants to say their comments for each individual one that's what's in this one so I can I call for the question on this one book and let's yes you can let's move on let's move on please roll call vote please would you like me to repeat the motion yes please uh the motion is to retain uh Aristotle and Dante upon recommendation from our media specialist for high school and up Mr VA yes Mr vaugh no Mrs Darby no Miss sharp no Mr Tidwell I have a question are we not are we voting on the you called a question so we vote on the question first we didn't vote on the question oh so sorry I'm sorry just moving on with the vote that's my point I'll just order rule right here but I think we're voting on the book I think we just need to vote on the book Mr Tidwell Mrs Rosales yes Mrs Maxwell yes the NOS have it next we have [Music] heroin and it was um reviewed and recommended for to retain an eighth grade or up do I have a motion M Maxwell yes Mr rosalis can we start having discussion or we were going to wait for I thought we were going to have the motion first and then the discussion but Madam chair did you say heroin correct yeah I think it says retain high schools only okay I'm so sorry I turned the page and these were out of order I apologize that's right I so sorry there it is yes I'm so sorry ready for says yes retain in high schools only my apologies I would move to follow the media specialist recommendation to retain High School level only I second Mr Miss Maxwell yes M roles okay so I submitted all these books simply because in the last meeting um there was a lot of conversation and accusations that we are having pornographic material and there was even sentiments that were o echoed within this board as well so I figure this would be the time to come up with a game plan and Tackle this issue if it indeed is as important as it's being conveyed so therefore um I'm in I was in publishing for about 20 something years and I and I know the process of what a lot of things go through when it comes to Lal award Awards publishing and all that and I've done a lot of research into the public with the young adult literature and we're talking about themes that some of us are saying is not age appropriate but in the truth and reality of of it if we're talking about this particular age group it's been happening since the 1960s this is nothing new at all in fact the very first book um written by an author who has received multiple accolades and um I even had a friend who is the most godliest woman that I could ever meet very Spirit fill um told me that she had written a book for this particular author and when when I looked at the author that she was talking about because she was much younger than I spoke about themes that are relatable to students that are going into this age group and so to sit here and to say that this is not happening and this this not this is all new all of a sudden these a lot of these books were on the shelves even when I was in high school even when you were in high school and even some of us and it's come to a point where it's become a lot of um politicized and I was not my intent wasn't to to create um a political thing and getting books to people to come here um my point wasn't to try to pin a board member against another board member simply because they don't agree with the voting or or whatever and my my whole purpose of this was just to Simply say let's tackle this if this is a problem it's this issue and allow the Librarians to weigh in and as defined by the law and the definitions and that's what they did so I really appreciate all the hard work that the Librarians have done um it's very commendable I I know it was very painful and in the process but I really do pre appreciate that and so um with that being said are we discussing about the book of heroin yes okay thank you so this book particularly um i' I've read it and it may or may not fall within the definition but as a parent that is had a daughter that went through a similar situation like the um like the the off the Heron in the the protagonist in the book um it was a little bit difficult to read it for me because it drudge up a lot of um things that were happening within our our household and you may agree with me and you may not and uh and that's fine but I think what the point I'm trying to make is that some of our kids may be going through issues that they have no idea that they are going through that and I wish we had a way where if a kid were to check out something that it'll be notified to the parent to know what type of book they are reading and the and the simply because when my daughter was struggling a I mean she she struggled a lot and she dealt with this particular issue and this is about drug use our larians are we can't expect our larians to know what the heck is going on in every single child's home and what's happening but I think that what could happen is that in event like my child who was dealing with drug use it talked specifically about drug use and if this book were to be notified and told me that this was happening in her life then as a parent it will make me aware of what's really happening inside of what's really happening in her home so I feel that there should be some books that should have parental consent we should have some books that are um require that so that a parent may say what can be checked out or not checked out because there may be things that your child may be going through that you have no idea you're not aware of but you can see if they're reading something about a particular to topic that they may be struggling with right now and so I will recommend and make an amend to include did we add did we have a motion yet yes so I would like to make an amendment to include with parental consent on okay say one thing I disagree these books weren't on the shelves when I scho and that goes back a long time and it's like putting put poison in the water don't have it as it's not going to not going to matter so M eliminate them you need a second I'll second it second to M Rosales wants Amendment okay so I want to speak about the amendment um we are not allowed to do that in the law the law states the books either have to be in or out we cannot have a mature reading section we've already discussed this before Miss Maxwell I'm not asking for mature reading list I'm simply asking for parental consent Williamson County included in one of their books to include parental consent I believe we need to include parents into the discussion of what they will allow or not allow to read just for clarification this is not asking for mature reading list we're not asking to put them in a shelf we're not asking to do any of that we are simply saying let's allow our parent to decide if they're going going to allow a book that really does not meet the state standards of within the law but it does talk about a pretty um heavy topic when it comes to drug use and our kids are going through drug use my daughter got her very and I getting a little too raw at this point took her very first pill of adderal in the school building not in my home Dr Sullivan is it true that we County did have um restrictions in parent no I'd have to I don't know all the ins and outs theirs okay Miss Maxwell Mr Reed can we vote to add this caveat this this amendment to the original motion vote on that there was a motion made to um retain this book pursuant to the recommendations of the media specialist for high school yes Miss Rosales wanted to do an amendment and I think the motion to amend was basically along the lines of which would allow the book to be checked out with cons so I would think the um if the board chooses to add that to the motion that's and and that's gets a majority vote it can be added to the motion okay yes you can vote on it it's okay thank you sir Madam chair yes Miss Darby Mr zis can I ask for some clarification on what your expectation is when we attach that parental consent does that mean that it is not readily available on the shelf and that if a child finds it in the card catalog and wants to look at it that the librarian then has to get permission from the parents so it's not readily available on the Shelf Miss um Dr Shen is that something that is possible will not be read readily available on the CH shelf we we set limitations and and we have certain cataloges that are the short answer is yes I mean essentially we do this in mixed grade bands we make sure that we have that students are only able to access the books that are within the grade range as appropriate so it would it would essentially fall within something of that nature is what I'm envisioning that you mean um and we we we certainly are not afraid to invite parents to have a a say in what their students read M Maxwell yes Mr Tidwell Dr chess would that be an opt in or opt out like would you be automatically opted in inless you opt it out or would it be vice versa this is one of those things that I I'm glad we're at least discussing it um we we've talked with our Librarians we've talked internally we've talked with our provider of the software we've T talked with our information system in the last few days just seeing again we're we're trying to be honest and not over promised cuz the last thing I want to do is promise that this book is not accessible and then and then we go back on that promise somehow unintentionally um so yes we can do a number of things we can opt into entire Library collection if a parent doesn't want their student to access the library at all um you know we certainly have that parent has that right um we can set up something within Skyward that speaks with Destiny which is our software provider with fet um that allows it already allows parents to see what their students have checked out if they log in with their student logging credentials um we've done more investigating to figure out how we can send out push notifications that would make the parent aware of um you know progress or late notices all those things that are already part of Library Services we don't yet know that we would be able to send a notification to you every time your student did check a book out uh but we're looking into that if that can be available um but yes we can opt we can do either um we can we can do either there's some variants uh well I mean I wouldn't want it to be an automatically opted in and you have to opt out um I mean one of the things that was mentioned earlier is talking about parents uh they they certainly trust us to make the decision because they're not reading every word of every book They're not going through the the books that we have up here tonight they're trusting us to make that decision we're the closest ones elected officials to make that decision um so I I might be interested in that potential idea I would just prefer it to be an optin type situation I'm looking obviously I've been on this topic for quite some time and it's been fascinating to hear a lot of conversation about it um but I always read uh all the excerpts and everything that's the challenge content and try to come to a conclusion based on the law this is not a book that I'm a fan of um but I have mainly been looking when I have submitted books at uh the sexually explicit that's an umbrella term obviously specific terms are involved with that that's main what I've been looking at and I didn't see that in this particular book I'm not sure um I'm not sure by the states level and I don't know I'm speaking out loud I'm not sure it can be removed uh I think that it may be one of those situ situations where I would prefer that if it can be you know taken out of circulation but it can't be completely removed there is maybe 11th or 12th graders that might have access to it very be in an opt-in type situation thr that out there if you don't have it in the library you don't have to worry about it we can solve this problem real quick C can I say something um it's probably not a book I would pick up off the shelf either um complete disclosure had a son and he didn't make it he died and uh we didn't know what he was doing nobody knew what he was doing he HD it very very well he's probably the most popular Athlete on his team popular ath person at his school and uh I like but I have to tell his story we tell his story every year to different baseball teams football teams any church groups anybody because he's not alone these statistics don't lie and I like the fact that this author visited high schools and spoke to Children about what's going on and it's been bad for a while but it's been real bad since Co and a lot of these children feel like they don't know how to cope and they turned to things they shouldn't have I wish we'd known what Mitchell was doing but we didn't but if this book can help somebody it may not be you you may not be having the issue but your buddy might be so that's why I will be voting in favor to keep this book motion we have a motion and I believe I believe that I second it and we have an yes Mr Tidwell do you mind repeating the motion and the amendment or was it Amendment yes she motion was to approve uh heroin to retain high schools only with the amendment that it be with parental parental consent V on the amendment okay so on the amendment first we we hadn't voted on the amendment no no no we're going to vote on the the amendment now we have a second on that motion to amend second yes Maxwell Miss Maxwell M Maxwell yes I would like a point of clarification with in your motion would this be an opt in type situation where you have to opt your child in or would it be an opt out everybody's already opted in and you have to intentionally opt your child out we could do either one if you would like it to be an opt in You' be an opt in would you be open to an amendment to opt in sure okay I like can make amendment to opt in second okay so do we have two amendments or can we talk so we got two amendments and a motion okay would you like to modify your amendment to include yeah I think it would be easier if I combin the two is what I'm trying to say so I'm going to modify my amendment to say with parental consent but with op in okay and I'll second that now we will uh vote on the amendment Miss sharp Mr VA Mrs Rosales yes Mr vaugh no Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Darby yes Mrs Maxwell yes yeses have it okay now we vote on the book the book is heroin vote motion to retain motion to with parental consent with an opt and parental consent Arrangement all right Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Miss sharp Mr VA yes Mr vaugh no Mrs Darby yes Mrs Maxwell yes the yeses have it to retain the next book we have is I am not your perfect Mexican daughter and the recommendation is to retain in high schools only Madam chairman I would move that we follow the recommendation of the media specialist and retain it High School only I will second that do we have any discussion these books are so good why is it you have to have parental permission or what I I don't understand a very good quality book you don't need to have that and I just can't believe these books are necessary educational process I don't know what value they have period I may be missing something but I don't I don't know what value they are M Maxwell yes Mr Tidwell I'll just sound like there is a reference back to the previous book and I would just like to say that you know I look at stuff very much to a legal lens and as I mentioned before my studies most have been in the sexually explicit because I think that can be some of the most harmful even though I think other subjects can be as well but uh as far as what can be removed and what can't um I feel like we have threaded that needle very carefully and I would like to continue that route so I each one is very you on this list I will be multiple positions um as we go throughout I think you have to look at everyone very individually thank you entertain a motion you already sorry okay and I second it sorry so let's go ahead and let's vote on I am not your perfect Mexican daughter Mrs Darby no Mr VA yes Mrs Rosales yes Mr vaugh no Mr Tidwell that's a no Miss sharp Mrs Maxwell yes no do not retain next we have shiver it is a recommended to retain for eighth grade in high schools of course that can be modified to high school only I do want to say that uh if you read here it says it did not meet the criteria for obscenity or the terms as defined in the uh 3917 901 tier 2 review uh they believe it is age relevant for teen readers who enjoy fantasy and age appropriate romance so 8th grade in high school but it can be amended to only high school if you would like M Maxell yes Mr tiwall I would like to make the motion to put this to retain this at high school level only um that's my motion I'll second it any comments recommendation says retain 8th grade and high school no schol made a motion for just High School only higho but the recommendation is to retain 8th grade so I yes ma'am I am making the motion to retain only at the high school so not not the eth grade and I second it any comments or questions okay let's vote Mrs Rosales no Mr vaugh no Mr Tidwell we're voting to only retain at the high school level yes yes Miss sharp yes Mr VA yes Mrs Darby yes Mrs Maxwell yes yes to retain next is to all the boys I've Loved Before recommendation is for middle and high schools and a consideration for parent permission for 13 and under Madam chairman I would move that we would follow the media spe's recommendation but return High School level only High School only okay I will second that any uh com comments or discussion yes I thought this one included parental consent yes it is yes parent parent permission so Mr B has it said only for high school oh you said only for only for high school this say the recommendation is 13 and under okay um so I make make amendment to include parental consent at high school level want par yes okay okay we have to have a second on that M Maxwell yes can I get some uh Clarity uh to M ral's motion or Amendment are you making the motion that it would be retained at the high school level only by parent permission that is correct a second Mr Tidwell has seconding that so we want to vote on the amended I understand doing a great job Don you're doing great all right this is on the amendment to include parental consent excuse me Mrs Derby yes Mrs Rosales yes Mr VA yes Mr vaugh no Mr Tidwell yes Miss Shar SHP yes Mrs Maxwell yes Amendment passes now we will vote on the to all the boys I've Loved Before to retain or not miss sharp yes Mr Vault yes Mrs Rosales yes Mr vaugh no Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Derby yes Mrs Maxwell yes the yeses have it to retain next we have Looking for Alaska back to this one M Maxwell yes Mr tile I would like to make a motion that this book is removed second just ahe I'm trying to find it it is okay sorry so we have a motion to remove remove and it's been seconded by Miss Rosales a clarification this one also does not meet the definition of obscenity and does not meet the definitions listed in 3917 901 M Maxwell yes Mr tidal on page 210 I believe this does meet the definition of sexual conduct by an ultimate sexual act as listed in the definitions I'm just stating what the reviewer said I'm not playing La lawyer we have a motion in a second any more discussion okay let's vote Mrs Darby this is on the motion to remove correct motion to remove correct yes Mrs Rosales yes Mr VA no Mr vaugh yes Mr Tidwell yes Miss sharp yes Mrs Maxwell no this is yes to remove next we have concrete Concrete Rose sorry make a motion to remove second any other discussion hang on the all right on the back of the first have a motion to remove any other discussion okay all right Mr VA no Mr vaugh yes Mrs Darby yes Miss sharp yes Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Mrs Maxwell no this is yes to remove next we have Monday's not coming motion to remove Miss Maxwell yes M can we have some discussion um on this before we start jumping on motions um we'll have discussion after the motion absolutely only reason why we went ahead and voted there seemed to be no discussion okay okay so his motion is to remove do we have a second okay miss miss Maxwell we don't seem to have a second okay okay M okay um so this book in particular is just for retaining high schools only um and so um the reviewer is saying that it doesn't necessarily meet the standards of what is sexual explicit according pertaining to the law and I just want to bring to attention what this book is about because it is talks about a topic that is very prevalent amongst um a particular group and it has to do with a child that was that was just vanished Without a Trace and the author the inspiration of where this storyline came was because there were two court cases about a teenager that had been um that had disappeared and based on the demographics is where the teen the teenag lived they went to the police and the police basically it was didn't didn't do anything so um the with the author um inspiration came that to talk about a topic that was happening within her own Community um just like when again I said I've been in publishing for many years no longer in publishing just have to restate that and this particular to this particular book deals into the issues that happen in this particular community and it will be a book that in my opinion will be um read to open a worldview through the lens of a child of a a child within the ages of 13 to 18 it may not be a worldview that some teenagers may be going through at the current moment but it does speak to things that are happening in communities that are prevalent to that you may not agree with me and that's okay um but I I will be in favor to retain high schools only with parental permission well we have a motion right well I know but I'm just I'm just tting what okay thank you Mr Maxwell yes Mr Tidwell you know again I I have to and I advise everyone that's that's listening to look at uh when this these books were submitted they were submitted with excerpts uh the which is the challenged content that we're speaking of today I would certainly recommend everyone look at the challenged content I think once again uh at least from my opinion of the law I don't see how this may meet the definition at least not under sexual conduct and for that reason I would support an amendment to an opin for 11th and 12th grade I will second in that okay well we have a motion to remove but well time out I thought the Motions to remove it was so we need to vote on that and then we can do a new motion if you'd like you're going at this point he's already got he already got a second sorry we have to vote on his motion yeah first that's what I'm got a second wants to amend it do you want to amend it or do you want to just keep it as is it okay so let's vote on to remove okay motion to remove Mr Tidwell no Mrs Rosales no Miss sharp no Mr VA no Mr vaugh yes Mrs Darby no Mrs Maxwell no M Maxwell we're going to retain at this point yes at this point and now Mr tid like to make the motion to for Parental opt in 11th and 12th grade parental in 11th and 12th miss rosala seconded it so not just High School 11th and 12th just 11th and 12th just 11th and 12th oh wait a minute what he wants to he wants to exclusively make it for 11th and 12th with an opin all right any other discussion okay Mr VA Mr vaugh yes Mrs Darby yes Miss sharp yes Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Mrs Maxwell yes all right this is a yes to retain with the optin for 11th and 12th grade only next we have Vampire Academy option to remove is there a second it fails for lack of a second do we have another motion Madam chairman I move that the book be retained according to the media specialist recommendation okay sorry okay so we have a motion to retain according to the high schools only which is the recommendation of the media specialist I will second that Miss Maxwell yes M sorry um I'm going to propose an amendment to the motion to retain from um 9 through 12 with parental consent and the reason is because the topic one of the major themes that are spoke about is cutting and I believe that if children are going through certain issues in their homes and parents are aware of what's going on in their lives I'm not saying I'm against removing the book I'm saying that if they are going through that similar issue because it does kind of goes into a little bit of detail that you can actually um imagine what's happening um then parents will determine if they do want a child to read that particular book with that theme if especially if they're already going through that situation and that is why I am making the amendment to include parental consent oh wait let's vote on the amendment oh anybody got a second second I'll second it okay let's vote on the amendment okay this amendment is to retain with parental consent for grades 9 through 12 Mr Tidwell no Mrs Rosales yes Miss sharp no Mr vault Mr vaugh no Mrs Darby no Mrs Maxwell yes it's no to retain with parental consent for grades 9 through 12 okay so we just go back to the original motion Amendment failed am fail okay and the original motion was all right the original motion is retain according to the media specialist recommendation okay all right Mrs Derby yes Mr VA yes Mrs Rosales pass Mr vaugh no Mr Tidwell no Miss sharp no Mrs Maxwell yes all right we have three yes three Nos and a pass motion fails next we have Elanor and so it's removed it's removed Elanor and Park oh I got to ask a question right here so then if the board doesn't endorse a book it automatically comes off that's what that's what you're rolling we were told it would be because the books were removed okay cuz they have been removed they have been removed already we're voting really to put them back then so it have it would have to be an affirmative motion correct thank you for the clarification okay motion to remove second oh I'm sorry I thought I didn't realize we were voting on the second third book we have a motion to remove second we have a second any discussion are we on the next book now we're on the last one Elanor and Park and the motion is to remove and it's been seconded all right you ready yeah Mrs Darby yes Mr VA no Mrs Rosales no Mr vaugh yes Mr Tidwell yes Miss sharp yes Mrs Maxwell no we have four yes to [Applause] remove let's take a three minute 5 minute break please recess e e e e e e e e e e the financial report so I went over this on Tuesday but everyone has a handout that is easy to be able to read to give you an idea the part I'm going to look at first and we'll attach this to the minutes as well is the 2425 overall budget the overall budget's 538 million we do have 11 million that was in the fund balance for Charter Schools I don't have it included because it's used numbers you'll see salary and benefits is 74.5% um and I went over again these numbers it's just a handout to have and then the actual numbers beside it just wanted everyone to have an overview of where we are uh the other the 3.8% represents like special education CTE equipment board um just a little bit of hodg podge of everything but I do like to call out a couple things you'll see substitutes are about 4 million trustees commission I mentioned that the other night it's three and a half million liability insurance continues to go up so that includes liability and our property insurance so a little bit of both instruction is 1.7% of course if you include the number of teachers it's a lot higher than that and then the other is the 20 million so that gives you an idea of what our overall percentage is if you'll look over on the back this is the part that I'm probably most concerned about 2526 new expenses the reoccurring expenses are going to be the proposal for a 25% raise is about 7.5 million roughly every year that should be offset by the governor puts funding into Tissa every single year to get closer to that 50,000 we just don't know what that is yet pop Hill I mentioned 2 million it's going to be somewhere between 2 to 2 and a half depending on how many cafeteria lines I have to open how many custodians we have to hire to open that school those different types of things I fully expect utilities to go up if you've noticed your own home Bill uh it's it's gone up uh so I fully expect utilities to go up Transportation I put 3 to 10 million because that's just an unknown the minimum would be the 3 million roughly the 1.4 million for a 5% increase plus the 1.3 million for liability gets you close to that 3 million percent or number so that's kind of what we're looking at we do have extremely healthy fund balance right now over 100 million as we mentioned back last year we cut some things from the budget hoping that our fund balance would be high enough that we would be able to go back as we moved into April and May science textbooks I would like to hopefully go ahead and purch purch those once our committees make a decision in April so that we don't have to wait until July and if we wait until July that means we will get behind all the other counties and if we get behind all the other counties we will be stuck not getting all our textbooks until September once school is already well into play high school computers as well we are getting very close to that one toone rotation we added an extra year that would still leave us well into the 90 95 million into fund balance I andan I we're going to mention that to budget as well we will be asking this is not a surprise for debt to cover Middle School of around 80 million that should be covered with the adequate facilities tax increase from a dollar to $150 that the legislators passed last year and then just growth of the penny and some of our debt service the one that we don't necessarily know how to cover is 150 to 200 million for the high school New Revenue you'll see that below is Project Ed 3% Tisa base increase and it could be more than that but that just follows last year about 8 million if you take our $ 7,50 or $775 base and you multiply that out by 52,000 it comes well over 10 million but the state covers 70% of that and the local covers 30 so about 8 million would be our growth we will lose about 3 million for the coding change for economically disadvantaged however so it's about a 5,000 positive gain new students we've added about 500 that'll give us about 4 million um we do have two potential charter schools and we will have to upfront those costs as our board's a well aware so it just it depends on how many students those Charters look to and if we approve them so we are looking at a short the highest shortfall of somewhere between 15 and 20 million putting that together with what you see on the previous page there's not a whole lot of places to cut from if you go and look at our budget from the last 3 years our local funding has remained the same and it's remained the same because we have put so much funding into deferred maintenance 177 capital projects and into debt so it may be time that we have to start taking some funding out of 177 and putting it back into 141 I know that was part of the discussion with County Commission last year we put an extra penny back into 177 knowing that operating costs were going to have to come back up so any questions on all yes ma'am got one yeah Madam chair yes on uh the Stu the new students to 500 yes um is that from August that is from August to now so it is probably going to grow okay so good question because I was asking we we've got 1,700 from May to August correct yeah okay that's just what we have right now any other discussion yes it depends we have I would guess probably another 400 students between now and the end of the school year so closer to a th Califoria we could the thing that that's going to change is um we definitely are watching Trends with populations after inauguration to see what occurs so that that could change things that's why I'm not as solid on what through population may be Reas and we have been a thousand yes two years ago and we never want to be that again that's what I'm saying your your belief is that we're coming back off that high curve right now no um Rutherford Collegiate prep has about 500 students right now you think that's where the yes it is that's where the cushion is we're still right at 1,00 we beat about 1300 dep I don't know the cut between us and the city school students so we'd be in that 12 to 14400 range are don't know they don't report to us four to 500 right now yep so hopefully this helps just give everybody an idea of where we are me one question about the science textbooks yes um you know the what does the cost of electronic textbooks the same as the paper bound textbooks really yes sir they are they are a package deal now it's the only Advantage is they get updated a lot quicker than paperbacks right but they're the same price M Ma yes Mr TI uh you didn't mention the high school land I did not because I I am hoping that that will fit within the 200 million okay hopeful okay how close are we on that be a Mr Reed question we're getting there that's about all we can say right now can we get there quickly because I really want to ask for this school in September going to try to get there quickly yeah director's update uh yeah a couple quick things one of course we announced School closure central office will be closed tomorrow I think the entire world in Tennessee is closed tomorrow I just saw something that they published that every school district in the state of Tennessee is closed tomorrow so it's only the second time the last 20 years that's happened extracurriculars are off we will make a decision on weekend events but we emailed all principles and supervisors and told them go ahead and start rescheduling those on Tuesday we'll make that official decision tomorrow once it starts snowing though we will make a decision about Monday on Sunday um if we of course get 6 to 8 inches of snow regardless of how hot it is on Sunday Monday will be tough first of all do y'all have you have any influence on these weather predictions since you sell a lot of milk matter so I want to thank Dr Martin so she had to and Mr Ry had to go over and handle budget we just had one we just had one item accepting a was it accepting the Grant on the agenda and so so that helped I also want to thank um commissioner Harris and really the entire budget committee they allocated $7,500 for Stewarts Creek High School to be able to help fund with the inauguration um I don't need board approval to do but I think it would be good of us to be able to just for our board to say that we were at least matching or doing more um if board okay with us doing yes yes anybody against absolutely okay so we'll at least match that we can probably we fund every of it we probably can um we will look at all that to see what donations and because there's more from what I understand there's more donations coming in okay I'll second that motion all in favor I I was the motion to fund the rest of it fund the rest of it the rest of it how do we know what that number is they have 70,000 so right now they're at 75 what 77,500 so it's under 50,000 so we can take I can fund the rest of that wonderful purchase yeah up to yes correct yeah correct wonderful um I want to thank uh a couple things we had a a legislative dinner with our legislators and our school board on Monday I was with our delegation again on Wednesday for Moto's legislative update our board has just a quick handout that they highlighted if you've never spent a lot of time with Dr torren the president of M llo um he's an amazing guy an amazing leader he is is a yes person which is good because he will try things and the worst thing that you do is you come back and you Punt and try something different and so uh this highlights really the his leadership and our partnership Dr Chastain and Dr Martin when she was on the secondary coordinator and now Dr P and then also Patrick Wade with teat just the Partnerships that we have and it was great serving as as I mentioned on Tuesdays the CEO I spend a lot of time with numbers and data and finances and it's it's great to really see the student outcome aspect of it had some reinvigorating conversations around possibly looking it a way to do Health Sciences somewhere in the Blackman Stewart's Creek area that may be a couple years off but that is a a great sector off 840 connecting towards 96 and towards 65 that mlo tcat MTSU and us can look at partnering with to to try to figure out a way to do Health Sciences and just wanted to give them a shout out because Dr Tor does an amazing job um and I think that's all I want to H out okay um Miss Rosales and then miss sharp um are we in general comments now oh okay um I was just going to say that in regard what you the Vana thought of what you were mentioning about the stour Creek High School band uh I just want to publicly thank everyone that I've called to I've called um State House delegation and our state senators um small businesses and um I want to just want to say thank you so much for donating um making a contribution for the something that's going to be very special for stud Creek High School and and being able to go to the inauguration of the president regardless of who the president is I will have stepped up and make phone calls so that the kids will get have an honor of marching in a parade and something that's quite big and significant so I just want to say thank you very much for that and Miss sharp okay thank you Dr Sullivan back to um mlo at one time the Dillard's building there was some talk about the dealers billing since dealers is closing now not to put you on the spot but has there been any more discussion about us going in that building I know mlo has talked about and it was not a possibility right now okay from the financial aspect of it okay if there's someone who wants to try to start making that work again and I know that the tat and T R has a lot more availability with funds than we do especially with the legislative session starting that would probably be the angle to be able to do but what was being asked for was pretty astronomical and I know their leasing was so a little background on the the deard buildings deard typically owns their buildings but this was one building that they did not own and that they had leased the lease ores were wanting them to sign a multi-year contract so back when um Mr Spurlock was here when I was on the board then we were looking at it with mlo to do a joint venture with that building so now it has come to fruition that Dillard is leaving so I was hoping that we could do some kind of CTE Hub or something there in that building yeah I've toured it with mayor car and then with um Dr Torrance and that just the financials didn't work out that's been about two years before dealers was leaving again so maybe we can go back and talk to them but I also thank you I also would like to thank again spner Ready Mix they they uh they must be our 12th man because they um they sent a check for $10,000 and EXC Pizza there was a pizza U company and it wasn't Domino's or Pizza Hut it was a local pizza company that sent a $122,000 check so um thank you guys y'all y'all send thank you notes send food send send whatever to uh those that allow our students and and $120,000 is really a not a lot of money it's about $600 per student in chaperon so um in that time of this time of year when they have these events the hotels are very expensive and um so things are a lot higher than they normally would be so thank everybody for um stepping up and sending our very very talented band to DC absolutely and I love this County they find out there's a need and they they step up and I appreciate everybody doing that is there anything else anybody would like to gu Mr um if anybody any students that they're concerned about thinking about what they want to do when they get to high school really consider being in the band cuz I'm telling you um when I'm growing up my sister was in the band and I was on the football team and man in August it was awful and then come after football season over with she would go to the uh they went to California one time to the roseb parade and every year they went somewhere down in Florida somewhere and we got to go to the tobacco bowl over in Hartsville Tennessee so that's the best so if you want to weigh those out and you're looking for something that you're interested in give it give band a shot cuz uh that's a good trip those kids remember that trip forever I was in the Bandon we went to Orlando and Washington DC and was a bless more students go to college on a scholarship in the band than they do Sports absolutely absolutely I'm all for the Arts yes this Maxwell uh I appreciate this I'm looking at the doal enrollment numbers here from mlo and as somebody who went their first two years to mlo that's pretty awesome I'm glad that we had that partnership um I was also going to ask there was some mention about the central HVAC can we get an update on that or is that I know that that's been something that's going on but it would probably need to be an executive session since there's legal ramifications there okay know that it is being addressed one last one last thing um I I I said something on Tuesday uh everyone had a copy of it about the radio spots is everybody okay with them yep okay yes Mr B the uh going back to that house resolution 22 um if I understand standing the intent of it it seemed like it was a unanimous here um to to endorse that idea I would propose that on next month's agenda we put on there if we need to to vote on doing public comment during the work session uh if we do I would like to do it at a specific time like 6:30 to give parents teachers whoever wants to come opportunity that they don't R have to rush here to get here before before we start or be right at the first part of the agenda so I would request that that would be on just go ahead and circumvent it for if we're endorsing it let's do it uh but I would ask that be on the agenda next Point Don could you put that on the agenda please yes yes since that is going to be a state law change I think we need to put it on Pol just for official put it on policy committee for next week too yep I got one other thing uh thight I mention that when we did the je Zone things and we allowed certain groups to to uh be able to uh go to school they they chose in those dual zones and I just I really just like to by motion or whatever just make it fair where that all the all the DU zones have the same option just to be fair to everybody I don't believe we can change this point mm it can't be changed parents needed to know Miss Maxwell yes um I got asked about the Dual Zone the form and all that um my understanding was that there was a glitch in the form has the form been fixed okay great I was not very specific I was getting text messages saying that the form was not working I don't know exactly what that meant and when there was no specifications um of what not working meant they can reach out to us and Mr mccan and we can figure it out for okay and then the other question is um when they talk about current School are they the the field for that do they write the the the name of the high school that their child is currently enrolled for this current Academic Year okay perfect those were the questions I had that's it thank you anything else move to a journ second where's y