board meeting for the Rutherford County School System We will be opening the meeting with a brief moment of silence or prayer and the pledge of allegiance to the United States flag No one is required to participate or be present for any of these and being in this portion of the
meeting is completely voluntary Miss Sharp Thank you Madam Chair Heavenly Father we thank you today again today for this beautiful weather Sustain and make whole those who were touched by last week's storms As we enter TCAP testing time give our teachers supernatural energy and
strength Protest protect our testing systems and let the them perform perfectly perfectly like never before We ask for us to people to remember the Nixon family and the Blackman and their loss of their father who was the first principal at N Blackman High School We
ask for you to bless and protect student services and the central offices And last but surely not least please be with Dr Sullivan and his family tomorrow as he has a procedure in the hospital We ask for quick recovery with no
complications and so he can come back and be with the rest of us We thank you for all these things in Jesus name Amen Amen I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] First up we have the approval of the agenda Any comments or questions i'll entertain
a motion Move to approve Second Thank you Mr Rosales All in favor say I I I Any opposed motion passes Next we have the approval of the consent agenda Any comments or questions
i entertain a motion Move to approve Second Thank you Miss Sharp All in favor say I I All opposed Motion passes Next we have Rutherford Proud All right we have math specialist Dr
Kyle Prince and Melinda Fleer from the Rutherford County Schools Instruction Department They're going to present the winning entries and students from the annual Desmos math contest which includes students from both middle and high school And I believe Dr Prince what year is this for us doing this four I
thought it was four or five Yeah Before we get into Desmos competition we also wanted to honor our winners of the high school math competition yesterday Thank you Um we we have uh at MTSU every
year we we compete with the schools from around our area including uh people like Independence Nolanville things like that So uh we had a lot of winners yesterday and we wanted to honor those and we have a few here with us tonight Uh it was kind of a last second because it was
yesterday In algebra 1 we had Jaden Hang from CMS uh Central Magnet School in geometry Third place we had Saka Thermali and he is here Saka come on
[Applause] up In algebra 2 Jason Lynn from Central Magnet School In pre-calculus in first place John Gamble from Central Magnet
School And in third place Aiden Haynes from Blackman High School calculus In second place Elijah Bower from Central Magnet School And statistics we took the whole show there First place Jacob Anderson
from Central Magnet School Second place Benjamin Shu from Central Magnet School And Lucas Bevelin from Rubido High School So congratulations to all of our winners And before you keep going I became a math teacher because of that same
competition that they used to have at MTSU So it's been it's a great competition Yes it is The the middle school competition will take place tomorrow So we were hoping to be able to recognize our middle school winners if the board meeting is tomorrow night We completely understand they had
to change So we expect and anticipate to have lots of awards and winners tomorrow too Um and I'm sure our communications department will share out about both the middle school and high school students We had several middle school students in place in the top 10 for algebra 1 Middle
school kids already taking algebra 1 yesterday So that was really exciting We'll have more winners tomorrow I think And then next up and what we're most excited about is the Desmos Art Competition And we want to thank our sponsors the Redstone Federal Credit Union and MTSU for helping with our
prizes for this competition Uh every year we've done this for like the last four or five and it really just to get students to u be able to learn the calculator as well as learn how math and art can be combined to create some really beautiful things And so we want to start with our teacher winners In
second place Samantha Garcia from Stewart's Creek High School And this is her artwork that she did All of that is done with equations and math So it's really cool what she did there And in first place for the third or fourth time
fifth fifth time Jonathan Anderson from Stewart's Creek High [Applause]
School And for our student projects in um the honorable mention we have Vicky Yang from or sorry Madison Sample from Central Magnet School In sixth place Vicky Yang from Blackman High [Applause]
School Every one of those dots is a circle The equation of a circle is used to create each one of those Pretty cool In fifth place Heidi McDaniel from Central Magnet School In fourth place from Blackman High School Zanadra
Zingzong And in third place and he was this this one was our winner for the last couple years Colin Sullivan from Stewart's Creek High School was third place And this is the first one You can see it's animated where the the plane going across there and everything All that's
done with math equations Pretty cool In second place Zoe Boston from Central Magnet School And in first place please give it up for Marshall Thompson from Riverdale High School So he created a Tetris
game and he's got his Tetris shirt on but all those buttons are clickable and it rotates and flips and it's like a it's a full operational game in Desmos all using math equations So I don't know how many hours you spend on that but it's pretty awesome So
sign him up Yes And the Oh yeah And a special recognition from MTSU We have a $500 scholarship from MTSU for Marshall And he'll be attending there Thank you
That is something You ready i'm ready Good All right We've got something special for you all tonight John would you mind switching over please um one thing that's not on the agenda but still falls under Rutherford Proud I think you guys have met before Milan Raglin Hudgens and Barton Henley who are in the communications department Uh
we've been working on something for the past couple of months and they did a ton of work on this but this is a new promotional video Oh wow For Rutherford County Schools and this is the first time it's been shown to anybody except for Dr Sullivan and a few others So we want to show that tonight It's going to premiere worldwide uh in a few
days This is the soft launch So here we go Hang on a second There's no sound Programs and passionate educators who inspire success with a strong At Rutherford County Schools we're shaping
the future with cutting edge classrooms award-winning programs and passionate educators who inspire success With a strong sense of community a track record of high performance and a commitment to excellence RCS is the premier choice for preK through 12 education With a
graduation rate of 97.2% Rutherford County Schools offers a wide array of opportunities for students to gain the knowledge skills confidence and industry certifications to be prepared for college or the workforce Located in the heart of Middle Tennessee
Rutherford County Schools is a thriving and fast growing district approximately 30 mi southeast of Nashville The district's enrollment has grown by 20,000 students in more than 20 schools over the past two decades Today Ruther County Schools boasts more than 52,000
students in 52 campuses making it the fourth largest district in Tennessee As the district grows what hasn't changed is the commitment to excellence for all students Rutherford County Schools has been recognized as a level five district by the Tennessee Department of Education for student growth for five consecutive
years The district works to take an individualized approach investing in every student every day The district provides more than 220 early post-secondary opportunities and 75 industry certifications Our schools connect to
their communities with regular academic showcases and community partnerships With more than 6,000 employees educators take part in various programs designed to enhance classroom instruction and prepare them for leadership roles along with enriched educational programs
Weather County Schools students compete and frequently win state championships and national awards in athletics fine arts robotics and skill-based competitions It's just another way we provide strong schools strong students
and a strong community All right If you have any criticisms um Barton did a ton of the editing on that Uh in fact I think he did pretty much all the editing on that Milan shot a lot of the video wrote the script for that Uh and this they all did a lot of work But if you have any criticisms please direct it towards them
They're here So awesome job Yes Good job Yes Thank you so much All right Any feedback looks amazing Great That's what we want to hear Thank you Good job Thank you James Next we have public
comment First up we have Alan Youungren Yes there are 10 Ladies and gentlemen of the board thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today on my son's behalf Um for the last couple of years I've been trying to get my son down here with me
but it's been to no avail till most recently In front of you you probably got a docket with his information on it He's a transfer student from Illinois Um there was a case brought against him up there unfortunately And the fact that this type of stuff happens still today is is
appalling Um the case has been dismissed It's been thrown out Um no no evidence and there was a video that was recorded for the state's attorney that it was all in for attention So they dropped it immediately They're no longer pursuing And I have
that paper here if you want to see it just in case Um I do apologize for taking up some time of this I know everybody's got things to do Um and please forgive me a little nervous but I just I want him to have the
opportunity for that tomorrow's possibilities The investing in him He's a good kid You know he's caused a little bit of trouble What What kid has it outside of what happened up there for that it minor scrapes and burns in the
process of his education He's a smart kid He's very athletic I know he'd be a great asset to Rutherford County You guys got that video was correct You guys got to probably one of the I wouldn't even say the state probably the nation I've been around I've been in Colorado I've been in Florida I've been in
Illinois I've been here This is why I chose here You know the Constitution the people God the whole nine That's why I chose here U this is why I wanted to bring my son down here and I finally got the opportunity to do so Uh but again the case has been dismissed And when we
tried to go back in front of the board up there that he got it he expelled cuz he expelled him over that When we tried to go back up there to uh get the expulsion lifted after the case was dismissed they wouldn't even allow us to speak They didn't give us any opportunity to say anything It was closed doors We weren't allowed to say
anything and they just they just denied it across the board again So for me like it's why punish him for something that he didn't do And well I mean that's that's pretty much the case I'm pretty much what I'm trying to do is is plead to the board to to give him a shot Just
you know invest in him at least a little bit Give him a chance to prove himself Um don't let what you see on that paperwork you know decide 100% Like give give him an opportunity My name is Allan I forgot that part to introduce myself
My son's name is Jackson Um if that helps as far as what case you're going to be looking at moving forward But again you know I every I believe every father needs sorry every son needs his dad you know to teach them to be a man to to to really kind of grow as an
individual put him in the right path put in the right direction I haven't had that opportunity in the last few years and I it probably reflects on his on his report there Um but that's not him That's just that's just a lost kid So thank you Thank you
Next we have Melissa ECM Okay Next we have Hannah Falner All righty Thank you all so much uh for coming out here tonight I know there's been some comments made about the uh bill the resolution that was
passed about prayer being implemented into the school before the the the before the school board meetings And uh for all the naysayers saying that this is an infringement on the separation of church and state it's ironic that the same people saying that are the ones that uh forced us to close down our
churches and keep strip clubs and bars and casinos open Uh but nevertheless the separation of church and state which was mentioned by Thomas Jefferson uh in one of his speeches was specifically to protect the church from state influence which was the reason why we left England in the first place was to get away from
a state sponsored religion Uh but number one that is not mentioned in any of our founding documents Uh number two our nation is a nation founded on biblical principles We are a constitutional republic 26% of political quotes me mentioned in our constitution is comes directly out of scripture The three
branches of government comes from the book of Isaiah Many other agencies and parts of our government come from scripture The most quoted book from our founding fathers was the Bible by 34% I can assure you all that if the Bible if our founding fathers were not religious
were not faithfilled men uh they definitely would not make the the Bible one of their most quoted books Uh John Adams said "Our Constitution was created for a moral and religious people It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other And the reason why I think the Democratic Party and the left and many
of those here in Rutherford County that are so up in arms about prayer being implemented before schoolboard meetings is because our constitution our nation was not created for immoral people This nation is not a Muslim nation This nation is not a Hindu nation This is a
Christian nation founded upon biblical principles And if you don't want Christian prayer being uh prayed before a schoolboard meeting well then you can move to Iran you can move to another country It is very simple We will not back down And another thing that I hear mentioned uh is that if we are banning
pornographic and explicit books from the libraries and we should ban the Bible The clear difference between the pornographic books is that they are endorsing pornographic behavior The Bible does not condone sex outside of marriage The Bible does not condone incest Actually it is condemned And it
is a it is a sign of God's judgment on this nation that we are even having these conversations And I say that as a 17-year-old here today uh that is graduating with my bachelor's degree in April I've done plenty of research on this and I encourage you all to do the same about this nation's founding And we
are indeed founded upon biblical principles I hope you guys have a great day God [Applause] bless Please no clapping Uh the next speaker is Miss Heather Cook
Hello and thank you once again for allowing me to speak Um I would like to thank you all for voting to reinstate the practice of beginning these meetings with prayer and the other steps that you're taking to stand for the truth on behalf of the children As you all know I am a firm believer in and an advocate
for prayer the word of God and Jesus my Lord I want to maximize every opportunity that I'm given to invite everyone I possibly can to know him and to continue to spread the good news to everyone that you know As I said before I want to express my sincere gratitude
for your decision to bring prayer back to these meetings Prayer is simply inviting the creator of all things into whatever situation we encounter or decision we need wisdom or guidance in making And who better can we seek wisdom and guidance than the creator of the universe
the Lord tells us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that if we who are called by his name will humble ourselves and pray and turn from our wicked ways he will hear from heaven forgive our sins and heal our land If you turn on the news for just a second you recognize that our land our
nation and our world is in desperate need of healing The nation has been a blessed nation because it was founded on the our founding father's belief in the sovereignty of God our creator and the Christian principles taught in the Bible I know some may say "What about the
separation of church and state?" But that was intended to keep the government from trying to control the church not keep the church out of the government Of the 55 men who formed the Constitution 50 52 were active members in their church Just to name a few George
Washington said "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God in the Bible and that we cannot have national morality without godly principles." Patrick Henry said "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded
not by religionists but by Christians not on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ." Noah Webster who has been called the father of American scholarship and education could literally quote the Bible chapter and verse So obviously the father of
education recognized the need for God and prayer in our nation and in our schools to educate future generations in the importance of involving God in our lives There is an obvious battle between good and evil in the world in which we live and in our personal lives on a daily basis Every day we encounter
situations in which we need the wisdom of the word of God and prayer and communication with him to direct our path Every day we make decisions based on our morals It reminds me of the cartoon I'm sure we've all seen that depicts a character of an angel and a demon sitting on each side and they're whispering in your ear like which way are you going to go the depiction dates
back to 140 AD So the knowledge of good and evil influencing our choices and the existence of the battle between good and evil is not a new thing But spoiler alert I read the end of the book Good Triumphs over Evil The victory has already been won We as Christians are called to stand for the truth and
overcome evil with good So once again I thank you so much for standing for godly principles in the face of opposition God bless you all Next up we have Miss uh Barbara Dilman Good evening In the past I have come to pray for you However tonight I'm
coming to speak to you While I continue to pray for you both individually and collectively I wanted to come to thank you for your recent decision to begin these meetings with prayer You've made the best decision possible to help bring
a calm clear decision-making presence into these most important meetings This is not just my opinion On October 14th 2021 I spoke at a schoolboard meeting Some of you were there and you may
remember that If not go back into the archived meetings and watch that section It was highly charged and many speakers were arguing loudly both for and against what they believed at the time to be a life and death decision that had come
before the board One speaker refused to relinquish the lectern when her time was up and after being asked repeatedly to sit down had to be escorted by security from the room while another filmed the foray I was the last speaker who
followed that scene I began to pray and a tangible feeling of peace fell over the room A presence of calmness and yet power When I finished praying order was restored and the meeting continued The effect was
unmistakable undeniable So much so that after the meeting adjourned a reporter came to talk to me about it asking me why I would do that The next day in his news story he reported that mine was the most
powerful voice in the room He was wrong in that assessment It was not my voice It was not my persona not even my words but the power of prayer demonstrated publicly when we humbly come before an
almighty all- knowing creator God and ask him to give us wisdom guidance and direction in decisions that quite honestly are too big for us to handle on our own When we pray we're inviting the one who knows the future and is guiding
it to come into the meeting There is no resource or entity that can do that A better question would be why would we not pray i'm so grateful to you for having the insight and wisdom and courage to begin these meetings with
this amazing gift Yours is a thankless task of mammoth proportion However you've decided to access a resource that will make it much less so May God bless you strengthen you give you his wisdom
discernment and grace as you continue to make decisions for our children staff and schools Thank you Next up we have Reverend Joy Warren Good evening I'm here on behalf of our local chapter of Public School
Strong We're a national network of ordinary people working for honest equitable safe and fully funded public education so that every child can thrive in highquality public schools in their communities This legislative session
we've been following many bills that would impact public education and we're very concerned about House Bill 793 and Senate Bill 836 This bill would permit district and charter schools to disenroll students
without documentation and exempt those families from complying with truency laws Schools may charge those students tuition to be readmitted Much of the debate on this issue centers on undocumented students
being expensive to educate due to the cost of English learner education However we know that while there are an estimated 10,000 undocumented students in Tennessee schools we have more than 87,000 English learners enrolled More
than 2/3 of English learners are in Tennessee are US citizens Also we must accept the fact that all people residing in Tennessee pay taxes regardless of their status The American Immigration Council estimates
the amount undocumented immigrants pay in taxes in Tennessee is over $900 million The sponsor of this bill acknowledged that due to a provision of the voucher bill any students who are disenrolled will not result in a
decrease in funding for the LEA So the cost actually will not go down In fact he suggested it was good news that schools would receive the same amount of funding but have fewer students to spend it on As a faith leader I was in complete shock as I
watched this exchange in the committee A school can reject a student keep the money they received to educate her and charge her family $7,000 to read her This is wrong Over 200 pastors
across the state have signed a letter to our legislators declaring our opposition The logistics and cost involved in tracking down documents and employing immigration attorneys for compliance are injurious to our schools We hope you
will join Murphy'sboro City Schools and adopt a resolution or otherwise proclaim you will not eject students from our schools or charge them tuition if this bill becomes law Thank [Applause] [Music]
you Next we have Lindsay Schultz Hello school board members Once again some of you board members are allowing racist homophobic and a love of censorship to rear its ugly head in the school board I've spoken numerous times begging you not to ban books that
represent the amazingly beautiful experience called the human experience Instead you want to whitewash absolutely everything from existence unless it falls in love with your beloved Christian nationalism Every time that you ban a book you're telling people
that they don't matter and shouldn't exist You're telling the LGBTQIA community that they are not loved You're telling people of color that they are not wanted here I do not know how to get you to understand that like Jesus Christ who cared about everybody regardless
that you guys have to care about people I I don't know what to do to get you to understand that you should care about everybody even those who are different from you Trying to learn and understand the world around you and appreciate its diversity and beauty should not be this
hard And since some of you guys like to throw the Bible at us and judge us and condemn us and banish us and overall show hatred towards us let me offer these thoughts My command is this Love each other as I had loved you John 15:12 Banning books about divergent cultures
and trying to remove them from society shows hate not love What would Jesus think about your behavior love does no harm to a neighbor Therefore love is the fulfillment of law If you are following Christ's law why don't you try and love your neighbor instead of banning books
that might help you know and accept them So it seems to me that you're breaking Jesus's commandment by showing your hate and being unkind to your neighbor Also God gave you free will Why don't you use it stop removing books and just be an adult and don't read the book Parent
your child Monitor what they are reading If you don't want them to read have a discussion with them and parent them and say no I say no to my kid all the time and she's fine You don't get to tell me how I raise my kid I don't get to tell you how to raise your children We should be allowed to access whatever books we
want to read from whatever place that we can without religious zealatry interfering So just to be clear because I'm pretty sure you guys are going to ban all the books anyway Um you guys are great disappointment to us in Rutherford
County I'm not even really sure why we're all here because this is supposed to be a democratic republic in which citizens should be allowed to weigh in and make a difference when this is actually a dictatorship of you guys So when we get sued for violating civil
rights I'd like to know who's going to pay that because I don't have the money And also I know that we still have a school who has a mold problem and a heating and air conditioning problem So I would like to know why we're banning books instead of fixing school systems
No clapping please Next we have Judy Whiteall My name is Judy Whiteill retired teacher I'm so sorry White Hill Okay And I will again ask each of you to accept the recommendations of the RCS media specialists for the books you'll be considering this evening Since there are
only so many different ways to state my concern I want to spend the remainder of my time on another very important issue There's currently a bill in the Tennessee General Assembly that will give the local school board the option to refuse to enroll any child whose citizenship is in question This has to
be the most heartless and punitive legislation that's ever been promoted in our state House Bill 793 and Senate Bill 836 even go so far as to stipulate that a school system could charge tuition that would then allow these students to
be enrolled The the sponsors state that the enrollment of immigrant children is a financial drain on state resources I find it not only ironic but maddening that the very legislators who voted for a multi-million dollar voucher scheme to
transfer public school dollars to private schools have the nerve to utter words like financial drain I've already called both my state senator and representative to express my concern and yes outrage and I would like to ask each of the board members here to do the same
and I've made copies that you can look for your representative and your state senator It has their phone number You're in a unique position to personally reach out to them and while speaking with them please take the opportunity to share the Rutherford County school systems mission
which is investing in every student every day Should state funding come up while you're speaking and they use this funding as a reason remind them about a popular adage that says "If you think education is expensive consider the cost
of ignorance." You were elected to represent all constituents in your district And this is the most critical issue that will have a harmful impact on our children If this horrible bill does happen to pass I hope and pray that the Rutherford County School Board will
continue to enroll all students and refuse to consider any fee or tuition cost All students have the right to a free and appropriate public education It would be wonderful if you as a board would draft a resolution like the city did last night showing your continued
support for all students And I will conclude by asking this question How can we teach our children the importance of kindness acceptance and inclusion when we allow adults in leadership positions to promote hate and divisiveness this is
a time to show that our community believes in unity and compassion Please oppose all efforts to deny children at a as a at a public school education As caring adults parents grandparents and neighbors it's incumbent upon us to demonstrate human qualities and to
support and educate all children Amen Next we have Angela [Music] Frederick Good evening school board members My name is Angela Frederick and I'm a resident of Smyrna I have been
here several times before asking you not to remove books from our school libraries Obviously you're not concerned with violating any student or teacher first amendment rights So instead I would like to focus on how your actions violate several aspects of RCS board
policy 1.2021 which is titled Boardmanship Code of Conduct The policy states "I will seek to provide equal education opportunities for all children." You have violated this policy by removing several books that are featured on the
AP College Board exams which puts RCS students at a disadvantage compared to their peers in other counties and states The policy also states "I will represent at all times the entire school community and refuse to represent special
interests or partisan politics." You are in violation of this through your willingness to hijack the limited time that this board has to address the needs of RCS and instead wasting time and money reviewing and removing library
books because you read about them on the Moms for Liberty website Speaking of wasting taxpayer time and money let's do a word problem together To date you have either removed or reviewed approximately 140 books If we assume it
takes 10 hours total for one book to be challenged by a board member read and reviewed by a librarian and then discussed again at a board meeting then you have wasted 1,400 hours in the pursuit of censorship That is the
equivalent of 58 days That's 58 days where you haven't been focused on issues that really matter to the residents of Rutherford County like school safety academic excellence teacher retention and many more We your constituents are asking you to move on from wasting our
time and get back to work making RCS the best public school district in the state of Tennessee Thank you Lastly we have Elizabeth Shepard Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you all again tonight I'm here as a Blackman High School parent and also a school librarian As a librarian
that teaches classes all day long and also manages a collection of about 15,000 books I still spend a fair amount of time analyzing data Any educator can tell you that data is essential when charting a plan forward and invaluable when assessing past behavior If my math
is correct tonight you're set to make decisions on the last of a very long list of challenge books Unfortunately according to the trends it is highly likely that the recommendations of our librarians will continue to be ignored Instead of using my time tonight to repeat what I and many others have said
for months in support of our books at our libraries I'd like to take a look at what this book banning stunt has cost Rutherford County Schools and how we can learn from this as the board makes plans moving forward So what has this cost us countless hours lost out of their work days for librarians to track down and
remove challenged books Thousands of dollars in books removed from middle and high school libraries lowering the bookto student ratio even further than it currently is Extreme division to a level I have never witnessed in our community Tens of thousands of dollars
spent in stipens to our library experts for their book evaluations Evaluations with the majority of the board ignored over 95% of the time Board members you may have felt a sense of relief knowing that tonight was coming that the last of these books would be decided on and this frustrating
and time-consuming period would be over I hate to be the bearer of bad news but in all these months you have done nothing to prevent something like this from happening again You continue to put off amending board policy to close the loophole that allowed over 150 books to be challenged all at once by one person
and then immediately removed There's nothing stopping this very thing from happening again and again You've each spent time speaking words of support for our school librarians praising them for a job well done I would personally like to thank Mr VA and Miss Maxwell for
using uh for demonstrating that support through your voice and vote during this process As the entire board looks to the future I would ask that you each consider the following options to back up those supportive words with supportive actions Continue hiring highly qualified certified librarians
with master's degrees Provide them with the funds needed to further their training and education by attending library specific professional development and conferences Raise the amount of money per student allotted to our libraries so the bookto student ratio can continue to
trend upward and our students have adequate amounts of books to choose from and close that loophole in board policy allowing for outrageous amounts of book challenges and return to the common sense methods that have worked in our county for years Thank you Thank you
Next up we have legal And so we will start with transfer student under discipline number one and it's labeled number one in the files The board has been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline The student was expelled for making a mass threat
According to policy 6.318 the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system while under suspension or expulsion Director of schools recommendation is to deny Thank you Mr Second Thank you Mr Tidwell
All in favor say I I Any opposed motion passes Number two the board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline The student was expelled for a title 9 finding According to policy 6.318 the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state
custody when a student transfers from another school system under suspension or expulsion Director of school's recommendation is to deny Thank you Mr Madam Chair Yes Miss Darby Monica I don't know if this is a question for you or who but is it
possible to delay this and ask Miss Ridley to look into um what the gentleman spoke about with the expulsion being the reason for the expulsion being tossed any options are open so
it's my understanding the expulsion was not tossed the criminal um investigation was dismissed What would you like to do Mr Darby well I think Mr Mr Bomb put him on the floor before I Yes he did Or we called for
comment So did we did anybody was Mr Vaughn seconded okay Okay Comments Any more comments yes Mr Tipple Yeah I would like to u if there would be
a reconsideration So I mean it sounds like we have some new evidence here I know we can't talk a lot about this stuff publicly So just to postpone to the next meeting if you guys are open to that Was were you making a mo an amendment to the motion to postpone for 30 days is
that what you're saying if you would be open to that I can I wasn't sure I was just I mean make a motion if that's what you want to do That's fine We don't you don't need my permission Make the motion Okay I believe we'd have to make an amendment to We have to make it would
have to be an amendment All right I make amendment to postpone the decision for 30 days The school year will be over by then Okay Okay Then I make when is the next
next school board meeting 24th Yeah So I make amendment to postpone until the next school board meeting Second Okay I have a second So we have to vote on the amendment first All in favor say I I I Any oppose
Okay Motion passes Yeah Postpone it till we got to now vote on the original motion with the amendment Okay Wait who his original motion was He's he's withdrawing He's withdrawing No we need a new
motion Go ahead Yeah Go ahead and proceed Okay We got the vote on the amended motion Okay Okay Okay What is the amended say it back to me again Did we
just have voted to postpone it so we're talking about the original motion You both original motion as amended as amended Yeah And his original motion was he his original to deny to deny
postponing Yeah Okay He withdrew the motion You want me to just give you a whole brand new one we can't We have to vote on the motion because it's there But it doesn't She's right It doesn't make any sense Doesn't make any sense Everyone should withdraw all their motions Everybody wants a new motion
Yeah cuz when he was start Yeah wanted to post something he denied So it just kind of So are you with who made the motion to amend i did Are you withdrawing that motion yes That's passed Okay You are you're withdrawing your motion to deny
all the motions are withdrawn and the floor is open for a new motion So the new motion will be to postpone till the next Madam Chair Yes Mr Darby That was confusing I'm sorry We're all good I would like to make a motion that we postpone this until the next school
board meeting so that we can gather more information on the new evidence Second seconded by Miss We will but I will tell you that it only depends on what the school system will release And so it's it's very likely that we get very little if any more
information than what's already there Is there specific information that we're looking for here i believe the gentleman that spoke said that he had the information about the case being dismissed Well I'm I'm I'm fine with that I just want to make sure that whoever is going to look for the
information knows what we're looking for Okay Yes Mr Tibble Mr Reed the question I had uh was you can't amend a motion if it's going to be opposite of the original motion Is that correct like it can't be in conflict That's that's why I was
confused Right All right Just wanted clarity on that Thank you Thank you Mr Tipple That's why I was confused Okay Was there a second to her yes Yes All in favor for postponing till we can
gather more information at our next board meeting on April 24th All in favor say I I Any opposed no Motion passes Miss Maxwell yes Did we clarify how we're going to get that information we need to clarify how we're going to get the information I
will reach out to the school I will tell you the parent has information The school system has other information So you will be getting more than likely one side Are we allowed to get information outside of the system or all depends on what the school system releases which
will be very little Okay I guess my question still is are we able to get information outside of only from what the parent provides that the school system won't give us anymore So the parent can't provide the information and send it to us Parent will provide our to our legal team Okay So that information
needs to be provided to our legal team so that we can get the information So maybe we suggest the the parent meet Ridley afterwards or during the meetings and share that information Okay Thank you I just needed to get clarification how this was going to be
done Thank you Number three the board has been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline The student was expelled for causing an extreme disruption in the classroom According to policy 6.318 the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school
system under suspension or expulsion Director of school's recommendation is to deny Mr Bond is a motion to deny Mr Mr Rosales is seconded All in favor say I I Any opposed motion passes Madam Chair
Yes Is Mr Von's mic on i don't think it is Thank you Thank you They could Okay Number four please The board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline The student was expelled for possession of THC According to policy 6.318 the board may deny
admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system under suspension or expulsion Director of school's recommendation is to deny Can you speak up just a little bit Mr Vaughn motion to deny Thank you sir Second
Thank you Mr Tidville All in favor say I I Any opposed motion passes Number five the board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline The student is expelled from making a threat According to policy 6.318 the board may deny admissions of
any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system under suspension or expulsion Director of school's recommendations to deny Motion to deny Thank you Mr Vaughn Second Thank you Mr Sharp All in favor
say I I Any opposed motion passes Number six Number six is different This is a disciplinary hearing appeal number 2550301 The board has been requested to review a decision of the disciplinary hearing authority DHA to uphold the remainment of a student from Simon
Springs Community School Based on a review of the DHA's record the board may a affirm the decision of the DHA B overturn the decision of the DHA or C grant a hearing before the board And Madam Chair if you don't mind Yes As part of our policy this also goes to the director of schools first um after the
DHA and I chose to affirm the decision of the DHA Yes Mr Sable I'd like to make a motion to affirm the decision of the DHA Second by Miss Rosales All in favor say I I Any opposed motion passes
Number nine engineering and construction So we have several First Blackman High School video schoolboard request Principal Justin Smith is requesting to install a video scoreboard at the football stadium Cost of the project is $256,865 and will be funded with a loan to the field enhancement organization
from First American Bank Schoolboard is like one already approved by the boards of Rockfell High and during construction reviewed the request and has no objections and you see the recommended motion Any comments or questions i got I got a question about that What liability we
have any I mean I know it's guaranteed but is there any liability on the um school system for this type of thing i mean you know if uh something goes wrong with it are we
okay the loan is has nothing to do with the school system and the school system has nobody on the loan It is strictly the booster club that is on the loan It's the same booster club that was uh had the loan for the field at Blackman
They're just continuing it on Okay I got a question Yes Mr Block This just dog on me Talking about insurance Once this is on school property does our insurance kick in
correct It will kick in right i mean let's say there's a high wind damage or something I any improvement improvement or facility that's built on school property once it's completed it becomes school and
county owned and it does fall under our insurance after that Just want to make sure everybody periodically I meet OJI and uh we get together and compare notes Ed Ed and I have had some of these conversations reason I'm asking So we
want everybody aware the upkeep of the it's on them right if it gives out of gas in 5 years they they replace it not us Yes sir Okay Okay Okay All in favor say I I Any
opposed motion passes Number two Blackman High School softball outfield deck request Principal Justin Smith is requesting the construction of 16x6 pressure to deck area outside the right center field fence The area will be utilized as a fan experience area Materials and labor for the project are
being donated and this project is at no cost to the board Engineering construction department has repeat the request and has no objection And you see the recommended motions to approve I'll entertain a motion Thank you Mr Wal Second Thank you Mr Title A question I should have this last night I'm sorry
What is a fan experience area softball i I think we're adding a place area Yep All right Like I told you T whether to drink beer What Butch what Butchie and I are thinking about fan experience areas is a
different idea than you would have at a high school gathering where they will no longer be students Yeah Right So So what does that consist of so thank you for indulging me Is this parents going to be not allowed to be up
there because I mean I can see one of them jumping up in the air cuz their daughter hit one out of the park and they fall off the top of this thing That wouldn't be good No parents allowed
Liability just went up All in favor say I Any opposed motion passes Number three Smyrna High School baseball stadium naming request Principal Dr Sher Sutherland is requesting to name the baseball stadium in honor of Sunny Gray Sunny had a
decorated career at Smyrna High and Vanderbilt University is currently pitching for the St Louis Cardinals following extensive career major league baseball Engineering Construction has reviewed the request and has no objection and recommended motion to approve Make a motion to approve Thank you Mr Vaughn And thank you Miss Sharp That's a
that's a great honor and a great young man It is Y'all keep it a secret don't they surprise All in favor say I I Any opposed motion passes Number four Popler Hill Road and Sewer easements The new Popler Hill
School site requires some widening to Blackman Road to safely access the schools The Rutherford County Highway Department has kindly agreed to complete the portion of the road widening work beyond where the school contractor's responsibility stops and to also fund the cost of the construction School system needs to acquire the rightway easements along Blackman Road to enable
the county highway department to begin In addition sewer easements are needed across some properties to tie into sewer to serve the school sites Recommended motions authorize board attorney Jeffrey to negotiate with the affected land owners and to obtain the right of way and sewer easements needed for Popper Hill including using imminent domain if
necessary Any comments or questions move to approve Second Mr Rosales Thank you Mr Bond All in favor say I I'm sorry Do it again Um and I'm going to address this to you if that's okay How do we alleviate this
going forward how how did how how was this missed in the original purchase of this property did we not know can I address that during site plan it was not it was a requirement from negotiations between the city and the county That's what I'm And then the school system
often times gets stuck now having to fund the roads and and how can we alleviate that moving forward that we do we need to we don't build the roads agreement how I feel about all this I'm just trying to figure out how we get on we did have an agreement and the city
elected to change that agreement after Yes sir That was very kind of them and and I'm not throwing the city under the bus and I'm not No And it has all been negotiated since then afterwards and this was all agree done after the fact County government Well that's what I'm getting at So the taxpayers of
Rutherford County have had or subject to a renegotiation by the city officials It sounds like after there was already a bill Now this was prior to me getting here I'm ignorant to the fact I'm sorry But these are the mistakes that used to
drive us crazy on the county commission I'm just going to state it publicly And we voted to start the purchase process of new school down in the north end I I would hate for this to happen again So anything we can do to alleviate prior to
what agreements we need to execute before we do purchase land I guess I'm looking for Jeff and you to look at all that for us right we always knew there were going to be road improvements required on Blackman Road There's nothing missed There's no mistakes made going to be some improvements required along Black Blackman Road There
was always going to be a sewer line extended to the school site right this is just a mechanism to get the easements in place to extend the sewer to the site Okay as we knew from the beginning the sewer would have to be extended across some other properties to the site Right that was not a mystery It was nothing
missed no mistakes It was just normal pro de development cuz sewer was not on this property Sure So to get the easements um we have to cross some people's property to get the sewer easement in place and for the road widing that has to occur on Blackman
road there's some additional property along the width of the road we have required to widen the road So I don't think there's nothing there was really nothing missed or mistaken I don't know Was it was it built into the budget pardon was it built into the budget
u is Yeah Do we have funds available for this these costs that's what I'm getting at So there was estimated cost related to this Yes Now the road widening the county highway department has has kindly agreed to pick up the cost of the road widening which they've always been really good to do that beyond what is in
the school contract itself Okay All right I just I I just don't want these are the mistakes that just drive anybody crazy I don't think it's a mistake Yeah Yeah So I I do think I I mean I I've been dealing with the city on this I don't know the city's been bad to deal with in regards to this I think they've
been cooperative and helpful about getting the road improvement situation worked out with us out there and to get sewer extended So I can't say the city has been bad to work with So this but my I guess my real question is this was budgeted or this was not budgeted this
is budgeted This is all stuff we knew was coming to serve the school site That's what I want to make sure of that we we've got a full cost on anything we do Thank you Miss Maxwell Yes Miss Bonzalez So I just want to point out to Stan because he wasn't here but before
we went into an agreement with this situation we listed out all of the inspections that we were going to do and name all of them which included a traffic sort study and it also talked about the sewer aspect of it So I think there were about 11 inspections that we
had to do and that they that we the board um ensured that we were going to be doing all those all those um inspections and then make a decision after all the inspections were done during the due diligence process
Thank you Mr Rosales Any other questions okay we have a motion on the floor All in favor say I I I Any opposed motion passes Number 10 instruction The Rutherford County Schools academic calendar for 2526 Counter committee met
and made revisions on March 21st And this is due to the primary election date that was made for May 5th 2026 And so we need to change one of our dates You will see the date that is changed is a
teacher admin day and May 5th are basically switched And so recommended motion is to approve the 2526 academic calendar as presented Motion to approve Thank you Mr Bonnie Second Thank you Mr Tidville All in
favor say I I Any opposed motion passes Next we have number two Number two the state moved from a six-year to an 8-year textbook adoption process to balance the RCS run schools budget in GP41 Last year RCS cut the textbook line item and communicating intention to use fund
balance for the upcoming purchase of science books The cost textbooks for elementary $3,181,95 for middle school $748,55 and high school $2,724,764 and again this is for 8 years
Recommended motion is to approve the purchase of science textbooks in the amount of $6,654,414 utilizing fund balance Any comments or questions i'll entertain a motion Thank you Mr Darby Thank you Mr Vaughn All in
favor say I I Any opposed motion passes Number two safety If we need to go into executive session for any questions Anybody have any okay So we um recommended motions to
approve the purchase of metal detectors for Rutherford County Schools Motion to approve What correct Yes that is correct Correct Okay
To make a motion that we uh go with the communication technologies Second Second Okay Thank you Any other comments questions all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes
Thank you all very much Next we have financial matters under 12 So these are going to seem for the audience this is going to seem very duplicative because it's basically going back and doing exactly what we just did but now we're asking to move the money for what was just approved So number one is fund 141
fund balance amendment This budget amendments to reflect the receipt of additional state revenue not including the original budget It includes moving innovative schools model grant funding around to appropriate accounts add funding for weapon detection systems funding an additional day added to the calendar for 12-month classified hourly
employees and adding funds to maintenance contracted services for multiple projects that have increased expenditures This amendment has a net increase of both current year revenue and expenditures of $4 million with no use of fund balance There are not any reoccurring cost included in this amendment And just for the audience and
for the board this is accepting and utilizing the funds that were part of the ARF bonus that we received last month Most quick Second Second And Mr Sh's got a comment No I just think this is a great use of
that fund Okay All in favor say I I Any opposed motion passes Number two Number two is to fund the textbooks This budget amendments to reflect the state of Tennessee moving from a six-year to an 8-year textbook
adoption process to balance the RCS fund 141 general purpose budget The textbook line item was cut in fiscal year 2425 and the intention to use fund 141 unassigned fund balance was communicated previously regarding the purchase of science textbooks This amendment will decrease fund 141 unassigned fund
balance and increase expenditure account 71100430 bound textbooks in the amount of 6,654,414 Any comments or questions i'll entertain a motion to approve Thank you Mr Rosales Thank you Mr Vaughn All in favor say
"I." I Any opposed motion passes Next we go to the book review Before we begin I would like if it's all right um for Dr Chastain just to kind of review where we are what Okay No that sounds wonderful Yeah [Music]
Okay This is just to kind of summarize where we are and to conclude this part of the process You all all the board members have a copy of this in front of you So this this is brief First I have to say it's National Library Week So I wanted to make sure to
recognize our librarians Uh these are some of them It's also National Library Workers Day today So we have educational assistants in our libraries and they do a phenomenal job as well So I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to put a spotlight on them and what they
do every day To just highlight the continuing partnership we have with our parents and our community These are things that exist and will continue to exist and are focus One we highly highly encourage parent
communication with our librarians Whenever there is a doubt or something that they have that they would like to communicate please reach out Parents always maintain the right to restrict access to specific titles or even genres
that or topics uh within the catalog that they would not like their child to have access to Eligible stakeholders So that includes teachers parents students within a school maintain the right to file a formal request for reconsideration that's outlined in our
policy So all of these things remain valuable to the the entire process Just as a reminder these are the three distinct aspects of the review that our librarians uh completed and are are important aspects of any review that
will be done by the district It is also important to note that none of the materials that were brought before you were found to be obscene based on the Miller test So this is kind of where we end where we landed and this is what I wanted to make sure to communicate with
our community just for clarity There were 160 titles that were brought before were given to us for reconsideration Not all 160 have been recommended formally to the board So 99 uh
recommendations will be presented by the conclusion of tonight All 160 titles were reviewed by our committee of 22 librarians There were 61 titles that were withdrawn from the reconsideration process for various
reasons Those are kind of outlined here So there were 12 titles that had missing information of some kind in the original list that was submitted So that could either be um a a title an author a
duplicated title of some sort Uh in any of those cases we sought clarification before removing those titles from the list There were also 25 titles that were withdrawn by the original complainant There were 15 titles that were weeded
from our collection for various reasons Oftent times that was a case of there may have been one title in the district and that book may have not been checked out or circulated or was a really old title or it was lost So there were there were titles that were simply removed by
the librarian or or natural process that was still reviewed and we've still kept track of those titles but those weren't presented before you as a formal recommendation because they no longer exist in our collection And then finally on the original date of the list that was submitted there were nine titles
that as of November 14th were not in our district collection So that gives you the kind of totality of those 61 titles that were not presented before the board as of yesterday So there are 15 titles that the board will still make a decision on tonight There were two
titles that were voted to retain 15 were restricted and 59 were voted for removal You can see there is a disparity in the recommendations We we agreed on about uh 14% so far This was our original commitment and
this remains our commitment not only to the review process just to to the work we do for the students We remain committed to be transparent and honest There will never be a case where we are trying to hide something or not not make sure that our community and our parents are well aware
of what is within our collections We will provide multiple ways to communicate that information and make sure everybody is informed We will not be perfect every time but that is certainly our that's what we strive to do Some things that we are working in
many cases with our board with librarians uh with our community and our school leaders One is communication Again always always parents are encouraged to reach out directly to their school librarians
principles teachers We have uh based on legal requirements and just in in what we would do anyway the school collections are posted and available to search online for every school in a district as a whole We have since this process began we have worked with our
vendors and made sure that we have notifications that can be selected for parents to be notified of any activity by their student Uh and they can also select individual titles that they would not like their their student to have access to
Again as we kind of mentioned there are multiple feedback opportunities that makes us better We support all of those We have a yearly collection development process that occurs at each school That is where this work will continue We have
uh information about that process on our library services page that anybody can have access to One thing that is a goal for us as a district is we are below the state library standard for titles per student by a fairly drastic margin We uh
th those standards are set based on just collection size age of titles number of titles in various areas Uh so that is a that is a goal for us to make sure we are up to par for our students have access to intellectually rigorous materials as well as uh reading
for leisure So that is that is a goal for us The collection review process is is cyclical and ongoing We have prioritized based on the last few months we have asked our high school librarians we have prioritized a
review at all high school uh libraries and within those collections It's collaborative All the librarians are working together If I haven't mentioned how great they are I'm going to do it again Uh and it is inclusive of all school level stakeholders So we're
working towards a process that brings in parents teachers uh community members as a way to kind of be more open about how we purchase and review our materials Those titles are internally tracked to make sure that we are not uh
accidentally or uh incorrectly purchasing materials that have already been voted on by the board uh and to make sure that another school is not purchasing materials that school C found to not be worthy of their collection So we're tracking all those titles to make
sure we can onboard any new librarians uh and provide information across our district schools So I just wanted to take a minute to give everybody an update on kind of some ongoing work since I think it's appropriate to make sure that we kind of
close this this chapter no pun intended and move on to uh kind of the ongoing work that is serving our students So thank you for the time Madam Chair yes Miss Sharp Dr Chine can I just ask I know you said you're tracking them
internally in in the library system Is there a way that they are notated in there so that if one were to come into a school and they were going to add it to their collection they can tell when they go to do that so we we have tracked all of the the titles that have been removed
obviously formally on our website I don't want to misspeak and say that that is why we wanted to do it internally to ensure that within the system once a title gets removed it is just it doesn't exist So I don't I don't know that there is a way for that to be flagged for the
public Um but it will be flagged internally for our librarians So it is flagged in not necessarily within the vendor but it will be flagged by we will have oversight over that So the librarians will see that Correct Perfect
Um the missing information books when you reach out for more did you reach out to the original complainant yes Okay Yes More have a question if um with and it may be Dr Sullivan Um
what was the funding before with the BI and T7 what is it now for student for the library for the BEP versus now it's all controlled um internally It's all lumped together So we do it per student based on their grade band
library Is there is there a difference that's what I'm trying to I for what how we Yes We are funds We are basically what did you say about $5 per student Historically um we were allocated $3.50
per student Last year we were able to raise that by a dollar So the first time in several years we are at $4.50 per student um for library book allocation So just so everybody can hear we're roughly under just under $5 per student I know surrounding districts are closer
to seven and eight Uh so again just something to keep an eye on to make sure we're providing our students what they need Yes Miss Sharp Mr Darby sorry Darby I'm sorry I have a follow-up question The 12 that were missing information
were they ultimately withdrawn correct If they exist on that list there were some that once we got clarification you just saw them as as normal But if they were withdrawn either as a duplicated title or that there was no information on the complaint to begin with they may
have just been withdrawn by the complainant If they went back after clarification to the list to be reviewed you saw them as reviewed And what I would say is to the $4.50 all of that is it's not a state
appropriation It is our instruction funds that come down and then we as a school system just like we do for instructional supplies and materials and technology designate that to the schools Mr Bullet I've got that looked Yes you
do What would it take to get to the standard or what how many books per student do we have and what is the suggested that's what I I had a feeling you might ask that I just text Caitlyn that Um we are would you say rough the
the standard would put us closer to 14 which honestly we probably don't have enough room in our libraries for that anyway Uh but we're we're we're to hit basic standard would be about 12 Where are we and for high schools we're at
five items per student We're at five We're at five And the suggestion is 12 Correct We're half a little less than half Mhm That is why it's it's a goal Great Um Mr B it revolves around more
money Everything for this what we've been talking about for the last month It's going to get even diceier going forward Uh talking about money A couple of follow-up questions to that I noticed this whole dialogue has been related
to taking books out that are not approp Has there ever been do students ever request a genre or parents ever request some you know that we don't have like and and I'm thinking I'm going tell off myself right here that back in my good
old Oakland days there was a book called Introduction to Coding for Dummies I should have read that book I really should have Right I I would understand computers a lot better now But that was a request from my good nerd friends at the time and you know they're all
computer programmers So I'm I'm thinking about AI right now I'm thinking about the change in our demographics the change in society the movement toward technology How do we adopt to that do you have students that ask those
questions or ask for books like that that's just a curious Absolutely And they and that's one of the goals of the collection development process where we're bringing in stakeholders is to make sure we have that gobetween between our you know CTE teachers that maybe are in in it and to make sure that we are
the library works really hard to support the standards and the curriculum and what is what the students need to have that next that next job basically um or to be successful in college So that that is that is the the balance and making sure that we are staying current which
is why you see the age of the titles and age of the material as one of the standards as well as having diverse options for just leisurely reading because we know that is entertainment purposes Yes Well not just entertainment you know we are trying to make really educated students as their graduates and
that is directly tied to the success they have I make that a different It's hand in hand But yes Yes Uh and follow up one more and this is the damper question I guess Has there been any cross reference to any other district statewide
in as far as the books that have been pulled out i there is a I'm hoping we're done but something tells me we're done There's certainly a professional network of of librarians and media specialists and and district leaders that has
communicated titles of concern Okay Hesitant to exchange lists per se You know we're just Okay I get that But but be aware Correct Obviously Yeah which is what we're we're targeting those those titles within our high school review just to make sure that we are doing our
due diligence and any any title that may be flagged as young adult things that could rise to a level of concern we're trying to make sure we're ahead of the curve on the review proactive we're being proactive as much as we can be and that is ongoing um and to be done in the
high schools by the end of the year thank you for your diligence Miss Sharp thank you this will be my last one hopefully Um Dr Chastain could you put a wish list together for Amazon and let parents purchase them and send them to
the libraries and name their student can we not do something like that so here here's the thing and I so appreciate that the conversation I didn't intend for it to go here but I do appreciate this conversation Um we are again our due diligence is trying to be
super careful about the books that are being vetted and and in our collections So we can certainly look for titles within our vendor and ask for parents to support those titles and just just to make sure that we're keeping track of the the
books that are in our collection For sure You have control of that list because I don't think anybody would want I mean in honor of Easter I'm going to buy you a book Absolutely And and we have you have an Easter basket with candy in it to gently need Yes And and we've had a few discussions about
Absolutely We can put wish lists together We can we can add whatever our community is interested in that Yes Mr Darby Does Fallout have a way for people to purchase gift certificates or gift cards they have something called title wish Um and each librarian can produce a
wish list according to their own collection development parameters and um stakeholders can go into their title wish and purchase for their library So we can look into that Perfect Dr Mr I mean Yeah So um Blackman
High School recently had a um a fundraiser of some sort they were collecting funding to buy different books and they invited they they sent a flyer and sent it to various people
because I participated in that and so if we can be aware of things like that that the school is doing in trying to uh bring books in as part of the collection I think that'll be great I I think we'll have a good opportunity to have this
conversation again Uh so next board meeting on the 24th I believe we're recognizing our librarians as part of library month and I think you'll hear a little bit more about that process I again just want to as we're talking about books coming in and reviewing and development It's a it's a big job uh and
we do we are fortunate to have our librarians are master's degree holding specialists that are very attuned to this process So I am very appreciative of them and I think we can talk more about that on the 24th perhaps Any other questions or
comments Okay we're going to get right to the books Everyone has a list in front of them of each book and we will do a roll call v vote on most of majority of these but I will do a vote of acclamation when it is the recommendation is to remove by the
library committee And the first book up is A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess The media recommendation is to remove Thank you Mr B Thank you Mr Rosales All in favor say I I Okay Next we have A
Love Story starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily her The recommendation is to retain I'll make a motion to remove on the grounds that this book has sex in it al alternative Uh
please stop No no no comments and it had alternative um lifestyle and things of that nature that uh religious and social documentary that
uh creates problems I think for society and I just don't personally don't see the the benefit of of this book myself I have a second Motion dies For the lack of a second
I'll entertain another motion Move to uh follow the recommendation of the media specialist I'll second it Madam Chair I have a question Yes Mr Darby This might be for you Dr Justine Um some of these say retain and then others say retain at the high school
level However this one says there's one copy in the high school and the age relevant for high school students So when it says just retain under that it would be retain at high school Correct Can we amend the motion to retain in high schools sure
Second Second Thank you All right Any comments questions madame Chairman I would accept that just as the original motion without having to complicate this Okay
We need to restate the motion It would it would be to retain it at the high school level Is that okay with the person who made the second seconded by Maxwell right no I think and then I'm second No because he's he's
redoing the motion I'll conclude that So it is Stan seconded by Miss Maxwell Okay Okay Yes All right Hey to make this clean why don't we withdraw the motions and someone make a new motion go ahead Stan That's agreeable He just did that That's what he I did That's what I was
stating I would gladly accept that as part of the original motion Okay So are you making the motion now as amended yes No it's not as amended Not as amended It's just he made a new motion I'm restating my motion I move
that we follow the librarian's recommend the media specialist recommendation to retain only the high school level because he made the original motion Are you okay with that second and I'll second it We're good Okay Okay we'll do a roll call anyway Okay Mr
Tidwell Mrs Rosales yes Miss Sharp yes Mr Bought yes Mr Vaughn no Mrs Darby yes Mrs Maxwell yes
Yes To retain Next we have adjustment day by Chuck Palhounik I'm not sure And uh the media uh recommendation is to remove So moved Second Thank you Mr Rosales All in favor say I I Any opposed
motion passes Next we have All Boys Aren't Blue by George M Johnson Media recommendation is to remove I move Thank you Mr Second Thank you Miss Darby All in favor say I I Any opposed okay Motion is to remove Next we
have bumped by Megan McCafferty The media recommendation is to retain So moved Second Can you clarify at the high school level please for the record uh
age re relevant for high school students Is that that's their recommendation right yes Yeah She's concurred That's what it is Yes No it is It's for high school Yes And I'm seconding it We can do a roll call Can I make an amendment to the motion with parental
consent second Okay Yeah we're going have to vote We have to vote Oh I don't want to confuse anybody but I would gladly accept that amended version of that I'll restate the motion and that would be to follow the media specialist
recommendation to re retain it only at the high school level with parental consent Thank you Does that suit everybody i'll second We discuss Yes Do you want to stay with your second yes On that Okay We have discussion
Yes we can have discussion the uh this book I mean it's got sex in it child prostitution drug use uh alternative lifestyle and madam chair Yes I don't I would ask
that you please excuse the people that continue to disrupt the meeting Yes I seem to Please do no more chuckling no more cackling no more commenting or I will ask you to leave Show them the door So but you know let's
just on this book you know we need to look at both sides of it You know that's what you're voting on that you're going to put this book back in the library these kids And I promise you it these kids read this stuff and it affects the way
they think And why we put them in there is beyond me But everybody's got to vote their own opinion So that's just mine for whatever it's worth But okay any other
discussion the motion is to retain bumped in the high school level Parental consent Parental consent Okay Miss Sharp Yes Mr Va Yes Mrs Rosales Yes
Mr Vaughn Nope Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Darby Yes Mrs Maxwell Yes Yes To retain Next we have Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lucavix The recommended motion is to
retain So move Second for high school Get it out of the way in the motion Yes And Mr Rosales seconded Mr Maxwell Yes I'd like to make a amendment that we retain this at the
11th and 12th grade with parental consent Mr B I have no problem with that That's board's wishes Yeah I I You want to mention You want me to restate the restate
retain it at the uh follow the media specialist recommendation to retain it at the high school level for 11th and 12th grade only with parental consent I'm looking for a nod Yes
Are you good with the second yeah that's fine Okay All right Mrs Derby yes Mrs Rosales yes Mr Mr Ba Yes Mr Vaughn no Mr Tidwell yes Miss Sharp yes Mrs Maxwell
yes All right It's a pass for retain Okay Next we have emergency contact by Mary HK Choy The media recommendation is to retain So moved at the high school level Thank
you Mr Vault Albert seconded [Music] in discussion on this year Feel free to discuss sex nudity drugs and alcohol use That's one thing kids don't need You know it's a it's a problem
we're facing in the country and I don't want our books in the library to be part of it And again it it talks about racism in this book and uh it's definitely something we don't
need in this day and time Okay Yes Mr Tidwell I appreciate Mr Von's comments Um for me I'll just speak only for myself For me specifically uh hard topics are are going to be covered Um I'm looking strictly try to look through the eyes of the law in which
they determine what is sexual conduct and depictions of nudity and what that equates to sexually explicit Uh so that's why I'm still following that same mode of thought moving forward Um with that said I would ask that the same be
done here which is retained at the high school level with parental consent at the 11th and 12th I'll second that Any other discussion okay
With that motion amended how do you feel yes I'm fine with that Yes All right Mr Vaugh yes Mr Vaughn no Mrs Darby yes Miss Sharp
yes Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales Yes Mrs Maxwell Yes Yes To retain Thank you Next we have Fade by Lisa McMahon Media recommendation is to retain in the high school level
So moved Thank you Mr Vetain in the high school level And I will second that as well Mwell Yes Mr I do think this one does violate in in my opinion um the the law So I would
vote to remove the well there's a motion on the floor but that would be my recommendation Any other comments go ahead with the roll call vote please All right This is to retain at the high
school level Title is fade Mr Tidwell No Mrs Rosales No Miss Sharp no Mr Vaugh yes Mr Vaughn no Mrs Darby no
Mrs Maxwell yes Motion failed Maxwell Yes I'd like to make a motion to remove Second Any comments okay All right This is a motion to remove the
title fade Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Miss Sharp yes Mr Vault no Mr Vaughn yes Mrs Derby yes Mrs Maxwell no
Motion passed to remove fade Next we have Fire Force Book One by Atushi Oubo The media recommendation is to retain Mwell Yes Mr I'd like to make a motion
to remove this one as well Second Any more discussion okay Mrs Derby to remove Correct Yes Yes Mr VA No Mrs Rosales yes Mr Vaughn yes
Mr Tidwell yes Miss Sharp yes Mrs Maxwell no Mot motion passed to remove Title is Fire Force Book One Number 10 we have Gia Holik by
Carolyn Mler The recommendation is to retain in high school So move second Thank you Mr Rosales Any other comments mr Tidwell did you have your hand up i'm sorry No No Sorry So sorry
Okay We can go with the roll call Okay This is a motion to retain Giah Mrs Rosales Yes Mr Bot Yes Mr Tidwell Yes Miss Sharp Yes
Mr I'm sorry I think I Vaughn No Mrs Darby No Mrs Maxwell Yes Okay Motion to retain
Passed Okay Next we have Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera Media recommendation is to remove I'll move I'll second it Yeah All in favor say I I Any opposed
Motion passes Next we have Lady Midnight: The Dark Artififices by Cassandra Cla The media recommendation is to retain in high school So move I'll second it That's it All right This is a motion
to retain in high school Title is Lady Midnight Mrs Darby no Mrs Rosales yes Mr Vault yes Mr Vaughn no Mr Tidwell no
Miss Sharp no Mrs Maxwell yes Motion failed Next we have Lexicon by Max Barry Media recommendation is to remove So moved Second Thank you All in favor say I Any
opposed motion passes Next we have maybe now by Colleen Hoover Media recommendation is to remove So move Thank you Second Thank you Mr Rosales All in favor say I I Any opposed motion passes
Next we have Me Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews The media recommendation is to retain in the 11th and 12th grades only Miss Maxwell Yes I'd ask that we'd remove this one as well Second Okay We have a second by Miss Darby
Are we ready go ahead All right This motion is to remove the title Me Earl and the Dying Girl Mrs Darby yes Mr Vaugh uh no Mrs Rosales yes
Mr Vaughn yes Mr Tidwell yes Miss Sharp yes Mrs Maxwell no All right Title Me Earl and the Dying Girl is removed Next we have plan A by Deb Kleti Media
recommendation is to retain in the 11th and 12th grades I'll make a motion we remove Second All right This is a motion to remove title plan A Mrs Rosales
Yes Mr Vaughn Yes Mr Tidwell Yes Miss Sharp yes Mr Vaugh no Mrs Darby yes Mrs Maxwell no
Title Plan A is removed Next we have Real Live Boyfriends by E Lawart Media recommendation is to retain So move I'll second it
Miss Maxwell Yes Mr Tidwell If you guys would be open to putting this in the 11th and 12th with parental consent then that'll gain my vote Why sure We'll include that And I will second that I'm good with that
Okay So our motion is to retain uh real life boyfriends in 11th and 12th grade only with parental consent Miss Sharp Yes Mr Vault yes Mrs Rosales yes Mr Vaughn
no Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Darby yes Mrs Maxwell yes Motion to retain Next we have the detour by SA Bodin and the media recommendation is to
retain So moved I'll second it Miss Maxwell Yes Mr Rosales Okay So um this book talks about a um a pretty heavy
topic and it's in the middle schools So will it be possible to have parental consent or or just leave it in high school with parental that would be up to Mr Blet
Are you willing to amend i'm looking for a recommendation from checking to see on the spot But so we do have several titles that are like eighth grade only and we could do that with parental consent or what or just parental consent I was just making sure
we had a mechanism for them to be able to track that But wait a minute Let me restate my motion to retain in high school only Okay Retain in high school only is a motion I will second that Okay Okay All right So this is for the
title the detour to retain in high school only Mrs Darby present Mrs Rosales yes Mr Vaugh yes Mr Vaughn no Mr Tidwell no
Miss Sharp no Mrs Maxwell yes All right this one did not pass It failed Next we have the testaments by Margaret Atwood The media recommendation is to retain Move to remove Second
Okay All right Mr Va Uh no Mr Vaughn yes Mrs M Darby Yes Miss Sharp Yes Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Mrs Maxwell
no All right This title the testaments has been removed Next we have This is the kind of epic love story by Cassine Calendarer The recommendation is to retain in high school
Move to remove Yes Second Okay I think Mr Tidwell came in second to Darby Yeah he beat you Okay All right The motion is to remove this is kind of an epic love story Mr Tidwell
Yes Mrs Rosales Yes Miss Sharp Yes Mr Vaugh No Mr Vaughn yes Mrs Darby yes Mrs Maxwell
no Passed to remove Next we have you know sex bodies gender puberty and other things by Corey Silverberg The media recommendation is to retain in high school Miss Maxwell to remove Second Miss Maxwell
Yes Thank you Sorry Um I I was trying to get the floor before it was said So this particular book um we received an opinion from the district attorney and it talked about where we were um
asking the questions about in relation to pictures that are showing um genitalia or just n like frontal nudity or or or showing the back of of a of a
person Anyway so so their opinion from the uh attorney general is saying that under the state law with a library collection if there is pictures that they are to be removed And so I got the book and this
is a picture book and this was I think before we received the opinion from the state of from the general attorney That's why I will be recommending that removed because of the opinion that the general attorney gave us in regards to
what it means about nudity nudity in regards to the library books that in our library collection Okay So that's why I will be recommending to remove Okay We have a motion on the floor to remove
All right I got I got a question then Why why would it say that Kirkus reviews recommend this book for ages 11 through 18 if it are they I mean you said you got the book are there illustrations or pictures I
I'm confused so it talks about obviously the topic is about going coming of age about puberty right and it talks about in different formats not just about reproduction purposes but other things that are tied to sex in general and it
has pictures of genitalia in all various forms and according to the law that is automatic a removal that's per the state law not an assumption to make whether it's the prudent interest or the
community standards that was based on the picture the image not words on a but it goes on to say that ages that this book is recommended to middle school students ages 10 through 14 as a language and illustrations are intended
to inform a younger audience However because of health standards these covered topics are addressed in high school curriculum This book is housed in the high school I personally as an adult like I wouldn't recommend this for my child at 11 years old Okay I mean and I
understand that this is an 11 through 18 for whatever reasons but Well I think that's the reason they recommended in high school Exactly For high school Yeah Right Just curious what you knew about it That just seems
And the motion is to remove it Okay Mrs Darby yes Mr Vault yes Mrs Rosales Yes Mr Vaughn yes Mr Tidwell yes Miss Sharp yes Mrs Maxwell pass
All right This title you know sex bodies gender puberty and other things is removed Last one You two 25 voices share their meto stories Edited by Janet Girtler And the media recommendation is
to retain in the 11th and 12th grades So moved I'll second it Any discussion okay Roll call All right This motion is to retain
an 11th and 12th grades only The title is YouTube Mrs Rosales Yes Miss Mr Vaughn we're moving to remove it Is that right
this is to retain it No Mr Tidwell no Miss Sharp no Mr Vault yes Mrs Darby no Mrs Maxwell yes
Motion failed Okay that's um the end of the books Now we go on to the financial report We go ahead and pull up fund 140 the two documents I sent you earlier So this is just an overview of
what we are looking at budget-wise Um so a couple budget things to look at and I think this is good for everyone to understand kind of where we are So this is a TISA estimate Most of our funding is actually done by at the state level That is where all of our additional
funding is coming from So the board has a copy of this just to give you an idea of as we're compiling this This is for everyone to see The state funding we are looking at in our preliminary and the board has a copy of this as well It's just as our March preliminary From the
state we will get 366,123,828 as of right now Comparatively to last year we received $343,375,620 That gives us new revenue in the amount of $22,748,28 We that does include charter school enrollments and after the first
year charter schools are funded directly based on their enrollment So you will see that enrollment for the three charter schools currently Rutherford Collegiate Prep American Classical and Springs Empower is 794
students.52 We know that there's not a half of a student somewhere but that's just funded as a on the reporting periods You'll see beside that is a average of $11,000 per student uh just like us for Tissa it actually generates
per student whether it's special education ESL 11,000 is just kind of the average so you will see our three charter schools will earn $8.7 million and so that's deduction from the 22 million in Tissa there's an additional
$500 for charter school students this will used to be part of the um charter school construction grant that was allocated so it's here that subtracts 397 7,000 and again that's this is not controversial This is students that are
at our three charter schools generating funds So those funds go to them The caveat is that anytime you as a charter school adds a grade level the just as last year it's projected on that grade
level's funding Our two schools that we authorized have communicated to us they have to by March 15th American Classical is going to be adding a middle school grade level of up to 30 students at 11,000 So 330,000 Springs adding sixth grade Sixth
grade can only have 25 students in the class And so that's why that number is different between 25 and 30 That is 275,000 Rutherford Collegiate Prep is only adding 7th grade Um I have 500,000 to 2 million because it
is a little bit unknown They don't have to have our that to us until June It should be just on projected enrollment for seventh grade which would only be a couple dozen students in a couple classrooms Uh something I think the board just needs to be aware of Charter schools did not meet their enrollment
projections and so we are watching to make sure there's not just a couple hundred students added to that Um that would definitely skew that number close to 2 million But I went with the honest answer of 500,000 That gives us a remainder of 12,56,000 in additional revenue
Then I want to show real quickly what our numbers were of you guys not have a copy of it We um we got Okay guys I got another needs one No we we've got it Okay Here's what we are looking at from a budget perspective of what we are
looking at from a district a 2 and a.5% raise for our staff which is roughly $8 million Popular Hill staff and opening a brand new school is $2.5 million That includes we have transferred over 40 positions over there Is that correct Dr
Chastain 40 positions to Popular Hill I know maybe 39 counting like the behavior intervention is academic Yes So we have transferred within our district So they didn't have to hire new positions And then we do have to hire music art PE those can't transfer because already
another school You have insurance increases electricity all those different things that go into opening a new school Then you have high school computers is 2.7 million Half of it right now half of it at a fund balance you'll see in May Operations we're estimating at about 3 million Part of
that is our hazard and liability insurance went up $700,000 last year that the county gives to us Anytime property tax goes in up we have to increase how much the trustes percentage is And so three million roughly And so then transportation I have is 10 million
That is the high end of what the bus drivers kind of requested That leaves us in a deficit of $13,693,000 Um in meeting with county government and county finance director I don't envision a scenario that we have
an additional more than $2 million to put towards that And so best case scenario we're looking at about an 11 million dollar deficit We don't have anywhere to cut outside of of staff And that's that's kind of where we are as a district So I know the transportation
contract is coming up and we've talked about it That is why my recommendation has been that 10% the entire time is because from a financial standpoint of how much money do we have i feel comfortable budgeting to the deficit of about $8 million because I don't actually think we would end up in a
deficit But as we go further it goes to the county commission We have to ask permission to budget into the deficit anyways We used to budget 20 25 million to the deficit That that's not a good practice When you budget to the deficit of about 8 million we can probably cover
a lot of that with property tax sales tax coming in That that'll probably cover But as we go much further than that the county commission still has to approve us to do that to budget into the deficit They could always on June 23rd say "No you cannot go $8 million into
the deficit Go cut $9 million." And if we have a bus contract signed the only place I can go and cut $9 million is by laying people off And I would have to do that between June 23rd and June 30th And I know that's not a fun conversation to have but that's the that's the reality
Hopefully in working with our county commission it wouldn't come to that But that's something I always have to keep in the back of my mind We've never had that issue of not being able to to go into fund balance before We have a very healthy fund balance So I don't want anybody to to worry about all that kind
of stuff It's just something that I have to to think of Dr Svin you have Mr Tidwell first Oh sorry What does this number look like based off the recommendation you just gave the 10 million get shrinks down to Yeah Give me just a second And a lot of it depends
also what happens with the bill going through about insurance as well Yeah Um all I would do is pull up the transportation dock the bus contract percentages 10% is 2.7 million and then
you would add the insurance on top of that So it's about $4 million That would take that minus 10 to a minus 4 instead And then you're looking at that 78 million which is kind of what I've targeted from the beginning of stat You
said the insurance was one point 1 1.3 is what we're looking at just as kind of as an average of looking at $4,000 per route that we recover And I don't like those numbers either That's just from a financial standpoint That's where we are and
that's what I have to look at Yes Sorry So the 22 million is what we got in TIA from TISA right how many new students did we get this year because I think enrollment is down a little bit Yeah But it's increased since then Oh okay It's
gone back up Oh good We were funded at 50,000 Right now it's at 51,608 Let me pull up what last year what we ended up being funding on Actually was like 50,000 right it was
50,7 something Give me just a second So we got a funding for 1,600 students If you subtract 15 minus the 51 second I'm blowing it up
Last year we were funded on 50,751 and now this shows 51,608 but that does include 790 for charter school students So it's kind of a wash there Okay But I do anticipate this number continuing to
climb as the year Yeah So what was our enrollment the increase just for RCS not the charter schools or the state or the ones that we authorized right now 50 students just 50 students the entire year as of from
50,751 to 51608 and you take the 794 off Yep So we only increase enrollment by 50 students this year this academic year I thought it was more than that It'll continue to rise as the year goes on because we had some funding enrollment numbers that had to change from some of
our charter schools as well I'm so confused I thought we had about 400 new students that were just for RCS not counting Now I'm not counting charter schools that we authorized So this number includes an a weight and an
average So it is taking the first reporting period the second reporting period the third reporting period So it's every 20 days and this number gets averaged in So as we go grow throughout the year we don't get credit for those students who were not here in August September October November Oh wow So we
have grown as the year goes on which is traditionally what we do So I would expect this is the March estimate We get another April estimate We get another May estimate We get another June estimate So the number will continue to go up to match to where we're closer to 400 because if you look at today's
number we are at that If you look where we were in August we were not Then there was also a lot of transition between schools charter schools traditional schools public schools private schools Murphy'sboro City All that impacts that first reporting period but the state is
not going to give us an enrollment projection based on adding those 400 that we're talking about We'll get a partial credit because this number will keep going up Okay that's a little confusing Yes it is
That's why you see the 0.59 and the economically disadvantaged of a 38 of a student It all deals with how students are coded in EIS and Skyward But I thought yesterday No Yeah Yesterday we were talking about the change the state
did in coding Medicare for econom economically disadvantaged and we're getting like 75% now It'd be a lot less than that if we weren't it'd be 72 or 7,300 and we'd be in a lot worse shape than this So we're getting back money then if we're if we're getting 7 if
we're getting 75% back It's already calculated It's already calculated Okay So that's just a where we are budget wise We we've been working on this We've we had a budget retreat and these numbers are pretty pretty close to what
we discussed at the budget retreat as well And I would I would love to hope that there was extra funding available at the county level because that's really where we struggle We are we are running our district on the additional funding from the state You want me to Can I follow up go for it
You're next up anyhow Well I'm a little I'm a little reluctant because talk about a contract out loud in a public meeting but I'm going to say this I've spent and and I'm talking about the school bus drivers contract or owner operators whatever you want to call them
Um I have met with that group the association group um three different times for four hours I think we we we all originally said "Okay we're going to meet for two hours." And we kept getting a little bit more done a little bit more done everything And and so you know a
lot of it has been just listening I I hope that their perception of what I've tried to do is is just listen to everybody and see where we are But the reason I I feel obligated to say something to y'all tonight is going back to Dr Sullivan's numbers there that $13
million deficit 10 million of it is is this from the school bus contractors the the 35% increase And so the you know I had a couple meetings today I'm trying to feel my way through this I may be
doing it the right way I may be doing it the wrong way I don't know Uh because this is my first rodeo I'm going to say this but I'm trying to listen to everybody Um central office Trey's been great with his numbers trying to get it
Um Miss Darby had made a suggestion about what you call it the personal responsibility zone We we I've I've incorporated that into it and and this this thing is beyond Stan making the decision Okay I'm not doing it that way
I What I think I'll end up with in the next week probably the end of next week I think is kind of my deadline with y'all is to give you some options I I think it's the board's decision It's not my decision I have visited with our
friends at the courthouse Um short of beg bar stealing money I've suggested two or three different revenue sources Um a small tax increase possibly a will tax increase I'm just going to throw it out there I asked for everything You
know is there is there any appetite anywhere because the majority of this deficit again is going to come back to this school bus contract and there's going to be some tough decisions that's going to have to be made Um a couple of
things I'm going to advocate for personally One is I believe the insurance that we can that they can no longer uh couple to the county's insurance We've identified that number to be roughly $4,000 per bus I think there's
probably 350 buses total including the the spare buses So you know what is that a million3 that we're looking that that is a new expenditure That is that that hadn't been there That and as I've pleaded uh this morning as as late as
this morning with the courthouse uh that is an unfunded mandate The way I look at it that is the ch that the legislature has changed that That is something they have put on us as as a board as the school bus drivers as a county We got to
pick the tab up I don't think you can force that I I don't in good conscience I cannot force that on our school bus drivers I really think they would If I were them I would park all the buses if I couldn't get that money for sure I mean that's that's deficit Second thing
that that I'm going to strongly advocate for is that if you look at in the inflation index right now that that they're upside down even with their pay increases that they're almost 10% less in
2019 than where they are right now I think that's kind of what I didn't that about where I showed you and we met Yeah And we met with courthouse and commissioner today finance director to go and that was what we were kind of going through You know it's like you know heck you know we've got to get them
up to at at least zero I mean that that's got to be the starting point I mean they you know they came in asked for 35% I get that And we've been back and forth and you know there's some numbers been tossed around by by both sides of it if we could get the funding
But this is going to come down to the appetite really for our our commissioners the county commission trying to get 11 12 13 votes there to to fund this U and and I really it's going to take all of us to got to come
together really to get it done And I'm I'm speaking out loud I'm talking about this board Uh I'm talking about the school bus drivers and and the contractors And I'm talking about the county commission cuz it's we you know we can't afford to go backwards in u
instruction I don't think I want to have the conversation with uh Dr Chastain She's already shaking her head right now She's made they've made such great improvements Yeah it's just Robin Peter to pay Paul and we're paid somewhat on performance with the students anyway And
you know what is good for the students You know one possibility um not to spring this on anybody but I think we identified possibly 25 to 30 routes could be cut if we went with her idea U her her being you Miss Darby I'm sorry I
didn't mean to refer to you as her but you know that is a possibility to to look at that And that would be uh roughing that through my head about 2.7 million $2.8 million right there that would go a long way to a pay
increase for the rest of the remaining drivers Uh so those are I think everything's on the table right now is and when I get through with this y'all are going to have a cafeteria plan of choices to make But but there's there's
a couple of things I'm going to advocate strongly for and one of them is that insurance I just can't see that us not picking up the tab for that But I I don't did I say anything out of place now the only thing I'll bring up and the board has this as part of our TISA from last year part of the TISA funds is
required to go to teacher salaries And so last year as an example 6.5 million had to go to teacher salaries as designated by the governor's requirements to get to 50,000 And so when you're looking at 8 million going it's there's not a lot of room to cut
there either What kind of response did you get on the wheel tax i mean to me that's nobody M I didn't get a good response on any suggestion I made that morning I'll be I mean nobody wants to pay more taxes right but and and the reason I said the
reason it just came to me last night about the wheel tax digger I thought of course everybody hates it right but there's there you know cuz it was put on for the retirement of the debt for Oakland and Riverdale High School and that bond's been paid off years ago and we still have that I mean it's just a
revenue source But you know cuz this is transportation Th this is this is something related to transportation You know did it make sense okay there's 300 a little over 300,000 vehicles 10 bucks would get us $3 million Would would
every taxpayer in Rutherford County that's got a vehicle hell I got I got five at home and 10 at the office you know it's going to hit me as hard as anybody Uh you know is that a hard ass for for for for us i don't know I I'm just I'm looking at every angle
Everybody's going to be mad when this is over with I'm going to tell you probably You know there's no Ed Jan told me years ago when I got in politics He said "Stan," he said "A when you vote on something after about three votes you've
made everybody mad." And so I've got that behind me That happened in September So everybody's already mad Nobody's going to be happy But but the only thing we I I think we've got to be rational about it We've got to look at you know the opportunities as they
present ourselves What are they i I I don't know at this point in time I've looked at different I've asked Trey to help me analyze the cost of smaller buses and larger buses Y'all heard some of that discussion I think you know if you want hanging on somebody hanging on
me I'm looking for I'm approaching this the same way I've approached every business that Terry and I have been in and and and analyzed it from the inside out That the the drivers the owners they have been very good to me I won't say
that publicly They have shared with me their cost uh what what the what the buses are costing what the operational costs are costing Uh you know we've had a hard discussion about the insurance I will go to bat form on that I have no quorums about that That's just it's not
their fault It's not our fault But we got to have liability insurance And but but nobody's going to be happy with any kind of tax increase in the courthouse We got a lot of new commissioners that have not been around Um you know we Bob Bullen and I figured out years ago it
was easier to do two or three cents a year a nickel than it was to do 10 or 15 cents at one time and and you know that's kind of what I'm pleading for here with them But it's right now it's falling on deaf ears But we'll we'll see how this unfolds in the next 30 45 days
Our problem is Dr Sven's got to have a budget We got to vote on it to submit it to the courthouse and and then that ramification of what goes on back and forth And I don't feel for the commissioners I I really don't Nobody wants to vote for a tax increase I don't I've said it publicly I don't want to
pay any more taxes But a wise man told me in a budget committee meeting one night and I never will forget him asking that and I've told several of y'all this This is back when it cost $4,500 to educate a a child in this school system And one of one of
the best businessmen I've ever been around in this community Mr Vtor Waldron was chairman of the budget committee at the time and he asked the question uh how much does it cost to incarcerate a a prisoner at the workhouse or at the county jail and at that time it was
about $18,000 and the statement was made It's a hell of a lot cheaper to educate them than it is to lock them up I I know and that that sounds Yeah I'm being facitious I'm trying to be funny I'm really not because we as a society have
obligated ourselves to educate our young people and to make them productive citizens to help them find their way in life and and and I tease all Jackson and Chandler's buddies right now I want to make sure they get a good job because I'm going to be drawing social security for much longer I want to make sure
somebody's paying into that system right now Right But but somebody did it for us We you know we've got to do it for the next We just got to be prudent about it That's and and somehow we'll get there I know we'll get there That's my campaign Yeah we'll wait on we'll wait on fund
177 till the next meeting Um because I want this No I want this to kind of be the highlight of what we're talking about The one thing on fund 177 that is an option is that the board or the county commission could always request to use fund 177 to fund this Now that would take away our ability to do pretty
much anything with deferred maintenance um HVAC roofing paving That is an option that the board has That is also an option the county commission has on the floor at any time is to whatever we submit they could very
well say "Here are five pennies and that covers the deficit for your bus drivers." And so I had hoped we'd be able to get further ahead on fund 177 with some of that funding And eventually I we had talked about using some of that to start building high schools but in the whole
realm just know that that's a possibility that could happen as well instead of a property tax increase Yes Mr Sh What is our deferred maintenance currently [Music] $488,484,610 and that's a budget
and Miss Maxwell Yes And to thank you Stan for um all the work that you're doing and and trying to help us navigate this waters and trying to figure out what is the most
uh what is what is appropriate for us I don't know what word to say equitable or whatever Uh but thank you Um and to Dr Sullivan's point is that with that fund 177 we've taken money out of general fund
1441 to fund um 177 Like we took 10 pennies last budget and the budget before that it was 10 pennies So we've been funding that with general with our general purpose budget And we've we've stopped
the bleeding of that going up We're just not making very much progress in lowering it because of inflation And last budget the budget before last um the one that we're operating right now in 2025 2024 and 2025 we also gave money
out of general purpose budget to pay back our debt service And I think it was what eight was it $8 million or was it more than or was it $14 million no we covered the high school additions So it
was 14 or 15 million of what covered the actual debt service Yes So we and 30 million for the elementary school that we paid for and we paid half of that So we've been trying for the past since I've been on the board being fiscally
responsible by moving around panties to service both funds and to pay that service just so that we can build schools And on top of that with this budget that we have when you compare our district with other districts in the per pupil expense as big as we are we we're
not even in the top Like we're at the bottom We're about $10,000 per student which is just shows in in what we're trying to do with not as much money but yet we are able to have great results I
mean we're level five schools We're I mean we're it what I'm trying to say is that we're trying to pull a weight even though it doesn't seem like we're trying to pull a weight and some people may not see that but we have been trying to pull our weight and trying to be fiscally responsible and um and and watching the
taxpayer dollars as well And I say we have said for the last two and a half years I know since Brian and I have been doing this we could float it for two years and balance it third year was when we were and this is this is the third year and I I can't speak for the county but I think they're everybody's been under the same understanding of we could
do it for two years the third year is when we're going to struggle and in two years the maintenance of effort moratorum on not increasing it goes away so that's going to be a I know Miss Sharps you stepped out for a second has brought that up multiple times the right
now the maintenance of effort doesn't have to increase but there's going to be a a pretty big increase in a couple years when that goes away But it's mindboggling to me that it's always been close to $500 million and we do things to try to you know shave off and it just
doesn't seem to move the needle at all We still remain at almost $500 million 500 million and you're only taking 20 million off a year It doesn't do it Yeah So it's it's so it's a balancing act in trying to shuffle all of that Um so I think what I'm trying to get at is that
we need help from everyone that's here And I said that during um um when we were going through the whole resoning when we were trying to figure out the building and parents are asking what we can do we need you guys to help us advocate and go to our county
commissioners and trying to help figure out other options and to bring revenue Um it's it's very different when I've I've sat in a seat where um I managed a big budget in the millions and it wasn't
because I was handed the money It was because I had to generate the revenue to get to $15 million and to be profitable It's another thing when you're given this money and then you're still short in some aspects and you have to figure out how to do revenue We're not a business that can sell products or
increase prices to get generate more income And so it's going to require the community and since the community is here to help us in talking to our county commissioners and trying to think outside the box I appreciate what the
effort that they tried to do last year which was um trying to look at looking at impact fees Okay that's great but that was just one drop in the bucket We need more drops into the bucket to generate revenue so that we
are able to continue the effort And having $2 million extra is just difficult in trying to navigate what we have to do And like even transportation they're like waving their hands over there
So we need everyone to help So and I appreciate everyone coming because they're advocating for books but we need to advocate for revenue and funding as well Just so that the community knows per people expenditure is how much you spend per kid Rutherford County ranks 125 out
of 143 districts in the state of Tennessee And so our county does do an amazing job of funding our new buildings So I don't want to think it's just a Yes they do Taking our we have a great relation with county commission They will have approved hopefully in the next week over 300 million in new buildings But when you're funding growth your
operations hurts And we're behind Ventress County Hamlin I mean places you would never expect that Rutherford County per people expenditure Grundy County Green I you would not expect us to be behind them And we are well well well well behind them And I want to clarify the county commissioners have
been great They've been helping us in trying to figure out how to fund it and Michael Smith and you've got a great Brian Wyan has a great relationship with Michael Smith in the county um in trying to do this but it's a balancing act but we're just at a point where there's only
so much advocate advocacy that can be done and this is where the community can help with us is trying to talk to our county commissioners and think figure out other other things to think outside of the the the box in how to bring more
revenue bring more drops to the bucket and not just rely on one I appreciate their efforts but we need more drops that come to that bucket so that we can finish so we can continue providing great and amazing education to all our
kids That's why people are moving here People are moving here because of education I'm honest I'll be honest I that was the main reason why I moved to Rutherford County It was because of the schools So let's maintain the quality and let's continue to bring excellence
but we need everyone's help to do that And that's my spill Anything else Madam Chair i would like to wish board member Miss Tammy Sharp a very happy birthday Happy birthday Nope No singing tonight
Singing tonight Now I'm going to move to adjourn Thank you We're adjourned