Welcome to the March 3rd, 2026 work session for the Rutherford County School Board. We'll 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. Tonight's prayer and pledge will be led by Miss Tammy Sharp. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, dear Lord, we thank you for today. It was such a beautiful day. I've saw the daffodils bloom and we thank you for those. We We
know that this is a a fake spring and we'll have some more winter, but we thank you, Lord, that you're going to protect us, protect our children, protect our staff and our uh teachers. Please um be with us tonight as we discuss and make decisions. And we thank
you for your son, Jesus. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I'll give everyone just a moment to look over the agenda if there's any changes that need to be made or any questions or comments. Next, we can move on to the consent agenda. there's any changes you would like to make or any comments or questions.
Okay. Uh there will be no public comments tonight and uh we're going to do RCS difference on Thursday as well. So the first thing up is instruction. >> Yeah, just so you know that was um RCS proud. We've rebranded it to RCS difference. So we'll talk a little bit
more about that here in just a little while with our our marketing stuff. So first we have instruction. So this is visual and performing arts distinguished graduate program. Instruction departments requesting to implement a graduate distinction program to prepare and recognize students seeking future studies and careers in creative arts
industries. Students completing all requirements will receive a medal to wear graduation and have the distinction printed on their high school transcripts. The program will be managed by the fine arts department under the supervision of Dr. Lindseay Halford. It'll be offered to students beginning in this upcoming 2627 school year. Three
credits in fine arts. The student must complete at least three fine arts credit hours in a single artistic discipline. dance, music, theater, visual arts, or media arts. They must be on track to graduate, so meet all our graduation requirements. They must have active participation, present evidence of active participation in their school
arts program. They must have must have teacher recommendations. They must have arts related community or industry service, so 20 hours of unpaid arts related community service. And then they must finish with a signature arts project. So complete a major project in the chosen arts discipline demonstrating
artistic skill growth and readiness for further study and/or careers in the arts. I think it is a great idea. Dr. Hoffer, anything else you want to say add to that? >> You want to come up here? >> Yeah, I think it's great. >> I think it's fantastic actually.
>> Yes, we're very excited about this program. Um this came about by looking across um the country and seeing that programs like this exist at the state level in many states. Florida, Arizona, Kentucky, uh Georgia all have state seals for fine arts. Um and we've kind
of been talking with um some of our TDOE folks over the last few years and saying this would be a great thing for us to have in Tennessee and there's not been any traction. Uh and here in Rutherford County, we just don't really wait around for someone to do the work for us. We just go ahead and do it. So, we figured we'd do it at the district level. Um,
and we have lots of resources built out to support students through the process and we're very excited. Are there any questions from you all? >> Questions or anything? >> Yes, Mr. Vault. >> You have blown my mind, so I've got to run with this just a second. Is there a
national accreditation program or something like this? Will will this help these students be able to apply for certain scholarships or internships during the summer or something like that later on? >> That's a great question. There's no national accreditation in arts, but what
we envision with this is that students will be preparing for further study or their career. So, fine arts is a pathway or an elective focus in our high schools right now. Uh but right now a student might choose that as their elective focus because they really love band and they want to be in band for four years
and that's fine. But there are some students choosing this as an elective focus because they plan to go on. We want to support those students in their future goals. So we're envisioning students preparing a college audition, a college level study. We're envisioning students uh writing and performing their
own songs. Um and we we developed the criteria you see today with some industry partners. We had folks from the CMA Foundation, folks from the Center for the Arts, folks from MTSU and higher education institutions coming in and saying this is what we want to see from students. And what we hope to see moving
forward is that we start matching students with industry partners that can help and support them through this program. Uh so we envision that becoming more and more of a focus as we uh move through the process. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. This is amazing. I would have
been all over this in high school. >> Yes, Miss Shark, >> thank you for this. I've long said we can do arts and athletics and we do both well. Um, we just have to build that foundation for the arts and this is a great step. Thank you so much for your work on this. >> Absolutely. Any other questions? Well,
thank you and thank you for always being innovative. We appreciate it. >> Thank you all so much. >> Thank you. >> Next up, we have legal. >> So, we have transfer student under discipline number one. The board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another system under discipline.
The student was expelled for possession of a weapon other than a firearm. According to a 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 admission.
And of course, you all have a folder in front of you. >> Okay. Number nine. >> All right. Next, I'm gonna just so if everybody can write it because I've got a list for you. I don't think it's on here. So, I'm going to read to you. The first that was requested was a list of
bus drivers who have successfully trans transitioned from Ursa Major Logist Logistics by securing private insurance and bus lease under a new company or bus ownership. And I believe we have seven. Is that correct? >> Yes, sir. >> So, these bus numbers are 160 and so
they're not on here, right? Yeah, >> that is correct. >> Yep. So, I'm going to read these to you and I'll email them to So it's bus 160, bus 84, 237, 244, 211,
129, and 320. So again, 160, 84, 237, 244, 211, 129, and 320. So that'll be the first recommendation um to reestablish those.
Anything else you want to add to those? They're being verified or have they already been verified? >> We have. Yes, sir. Any other questions on that part? >> Okay. >> All right. Then the second part and I'll give you an update to this. So, this is
a hybrid model. So, transportation bus purchase request. Transportation departments requesting to begin the purchase of buses to supplement the transportation system. These buses will be utilized to replace unfilled contracts and provide coverage for added transportation needs. So, uh we have a
couple steps here. First, uh it was great today. We started at 10:00 and so we had how many routes do we have open? 30 >> 41. Okay. And so we drew a ton. Um and
we as of right now have five open routes that we will have a all call for. Sorry. Go ahead, Trey. you know, still. >> Yes, sir. >> Um, the drivers that selected routes will uh they have they have 24 hours to provide a bus with a VIN, their
insurance, and their driver. If they cannot at that point, then that route would revert back to us. After the 24 hours tomorrow night, we will send out an email to all con all contractors. It's called all call. Whether you were
on the list that wanted to take a route or you were not on the list, everyone is allowed that is qualified to get back in the game with all call. They will be asked to provide the bus number that they are interested in. Once we receive that
information tomorrow, I mean on Thursday, we will on Friday take the all the d all the contractors that listed and I'm just going to pick a number because it's on here. 114. If there's 10 contractors that want 114, they will be
put into our random selection computer program and they then a person will be randomly selected and they will get that route. Then we'll move to the next one. So, right now we have five. It would not surprise me if we have a
route turned back in tomorrow. They thought they had everything secured. they're not able to pull it together and they basically have to give us the route back. Um, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get one or two of those. If that's the case, then we'll they'll be offered
up at all call just like all the rest. And so just to kind of follow up what our first steps are going to be, see how many open routes that we have for Thursday. So this is going to be a multiple kind of weeks request. So see how many open routes we have. We have contacted our two vendors to see what
type of bus availability they have. So, we have used and new bus availability. Then we would have to look at funding. Um, one of the things that I know we talked about last year just to ease concerns, we would park them and I would imagine between five and 10. My first
thought would be special education. Those are usually our hardest to fill and we really struggle to put aids, special education aids in our buses. I think it'd be easier for us if it was a special education bus and it was a bus aid. They could also then be a special
education EA and we could fill that same position in one. And if it's a Rutherford County employee, I think that would be easier. Those are the ones that were really struggling the most. So that would be my my first priority. We would start if this was the direction the board wanted to go with part-time and
keep driver pay. Talk to a couple contractors because I don't want to be in competition with our contractors. keep the pace somewhere in the middle after talking to a couple of them. But again, sped would be my um special education buses would be my preference because those are the be where the priority and where we really struggle to
fill. >> I've been I was going to bring this up at our retreat, but this kind of gave us an opening because of what happened. I would like to eventually see us take just take over it. Uh I think our families would appreciate it. I know our teachers. I've I've asked a couple
teacher friends of mine. I we we're obligated, federally mandated to to take care of these kids. And I really feel like going forward, it's not going to be something we could adopt overnight, but a few here, a few there. And I would
like to see us eventually just take over sped because I really feel like that's something that we can do. And like Dr. Sullivan said, "We can get the bus aids. They can work for us. I think it could be mutually uh beneficial."
Yes, Butch. >> You know, I agree with that, Claire, that the special ed, you know, it takes a special person to do that and these kids are special kids and they really need special help. And if we could work
out a way to get these people, you know, whether we can let them come in and be a EA part of the day or whatever and get benefits, uh, you know, if we can hire and put them on our payroll, I think that would
benefit all of us because I can tell you from experience, those are the buses that are those kids need the most care and these people that that bring them to school And the aids
on the buses are just special people. >> Yes, they are. >> And I admire them. So, >> Mr. Tidwell, I'll get right with you, Mr. Rosales. >> Yes. Uh, so we have right now we have out of these 41 routes, we only have five open currently. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. And you're expecting that to
increase tomorrow because people Yes. Think think they're going to get it together >> for a week. They were, you know, sent numerous emails if you're interested. Part of the deal was you had to provide us with a that you can provide a bus and a driver and the insurance. Tomorrow's
the deadline to put up. >> Yeah. Um but you're not expecting that to be a high number, right? >> No, sir. I'm not. >> Okay, that's good. Um Dr. Solomon, how many buses do we have? Do we have any buses covering alternative schools or magnet routes? We
have you would have special education would be a kid bykid basis. If it's in their IEP, then that'd be the only way a special education bus would go to an alternative school. For magnet, there are three shuttle buses from the north end because central is the only from my
understanding it was established a while ago and Trey can correct me if I'm wrong. It's the only magnet high school that we have. So there are three shuttle buses. Those are not operational. Are they operational again? They are not. But I believe those routes got picked up today. At least two of them. >> Two of them got picked up. Yes.
>> High schools. >> All right. I'm just making sure we're we're being efficient with what we need to do, have to do before we go to move make decisions to go buy buses. >> But I'm not a totally against this. I would just rather see our contractors
bailed us out last week. That's just the truth of the matter. So I would rather them have first opportunity. I'm not super excited to see this uh particular item out so early. Uh hoping that maybe this is something that we can look at a
little bit later this month as we can see what we have need of. I mean, I think one of the concerns was early on is there are routes that people don't really want. Uh they're not sought after routes. After the all co all all call goes out, we're still going to not going to have a few routes to get picked up. I
think that is where we start looking at the hybrid model and deciding whether or not we want to move forward with that. Um I would like to see our contractors who have serviced us for so many years uh have first opportunity here. Uh but
if if this were to move forward, how many I know you said sped buses. How many buses are you talking about thinking about? What's the number that we're looking at here? >> Yep. I would think between five and 10 maybe just depending on how many open
routes are there. We're a little bit too early to see how many Popler Hill Middle's going to need because that's going to be a need next year and what that resoning looks like. We do have one special education bus so that is not unheard of. We do own one bus. So that is not just going out to to be rogue. I
do like having that option of having a few because it would have been able to to help. One of the things that of course whatever the board decides this is on here early because I wanted to show to our community and to our public that was one of the things how that we kept getting is how come there isn't any movement on the board um looking and the
director looking to buy buses. So this is one of those things to supplement that's not a direction I would much rather our contractors have it too but I do think it is would be my recommendation we at least look down that to have a few. >> Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, my I'm not
Again, I would rather us have a little bit more opportunity. I mean, we we did the picker will what? Yesterday, >> or today? >> Today? >> Today. Did the picker wheel today. We're going to have some come back. We're going to send out an all call. We're supposed to vote on this on Thursday. I don't know. I just wish we had a little
bit more time to make sure that these aren't being fil they're not being filled with and it's constant, then I don't think there's another option out there. And I'm not against the hybrid model. I just rather see first opportunity to those that were helping us out. Mr. Rosales and then Mr. Vaughn. >> Thank you. Um, just out of curiosity,
how many contractors put the bid to bid? How many people put their names in the hat to If >> you'll give me a minute, I'll count them up. >> Okay, that'd be great to know. Um, if we were to hypothetically buy these buses, um, you said we were going to, you were
thinking about five to 10 buses. Were these buses were uh in the event that something would happen with the buses with a contractor, are they able to use that bus? Like let's say their bus breaks down or let's say that um they've
gotten to a situation where they need a spare bus and they're not able to find a spare bus and they're having to shuffle through whatever. Are they able to use the do they have access to the bus to these buses for these emergencies? Those are things we're going to have to work through because then you wouldn't be
paying that contractor for the bus because they'd be using our bus and not an R insurance. So those are different contracts we're have to put in place. If they utilize a Rford County bus at the same point, depending on how many routes are open, we could be using those buses
>> and we're putting this now because it takes a while for us to buy the bus the buses >> at least with the funding. I know that um we've got some some small funding options. Um I know I don't want to necessarily use fund 177, but a bus can
be considered capital projects and talking it's going to require talking with um finance director at the county our county commissioners of course the board on where those fund where that funding needs to come from. roughly your um
special education buses and I'm just looking at the quote we got today are they're on state source well contracts. So, the brand new ones are 137,000 a piece of what they're quoted. And then the new ones that I have,
the new 90 passenger Midsouth bus are 185. And I don't know, I this is just the go through and really read the specs and everything. So, that's just the kind of the overview and they do have used ones right now as well. But when you're
looking at the warranties and all that, those are things that we'd have to weigh. I'd have to get with our purchasing agent and also purchasing at the courthouse to make sure all those rules are followed because buying used can get under Kelly Blue Book and you don't have to get bids. So, there's all kinds of things we
would need Michael's help with as well. >> Okay. Did we Do you have those numbers for >> 59? >> 59. Thank you, >> Mr. B. I'd really like us to look to buy
U. I think we need to take over. I'm like, "Maxel, I think I'd feel a lot better if we took over the special ed uh buses simply because we're under mandates and IEPs get these kids to school where
they have a a board a uh you know, I think we wouldn't have to worry about not being able to approve it like the situation we were in the other day." And um I think we bought nine of
them. And I think you said we had a spare. That'd give us nine of these buses. Now, I don't think we'd have to buy new ones. I think that the local bus company may have some come
back on the repossessions. And if that happens, then all would that pay off is just what is owed on. So, it could be a good possibility that we can get them for a reasonable price. And I just think that's a that's a route we
really need to look at going just protect ourselves cuz we got obligation to get these kids. We don't have any choice. We've got to get them to school. So, >> any other Yes, Dr. S. the um bus prices
we've been getting are pretty close to what was at least um owed on them. So there's not like a a foreclosure price or anything like that. So that's why if a a bus was a used bus that's 2 years old at 120,000 to get a three-year warranty at 137,000. I would probably
look towards the 137,000 just because you get a three-year warranty with maintenance included. I would like recommend at least I know we're looking at special education. It would be beneficial for us to at least have one or two big buses just so that in the event of emergency we at least
had one or two to at least have >> these Mr. Lee these big buses the routes are are these routes that are not covered I mean are they being covered now every day?
>> Yes sir they are. Every route that we gave out today is being covered currently by multiple contractors to get our students to school. >> Hats off to the contractors for doing that. >> Miss Maxwell. Yes, sir.
>> I have one more question. What is your recommend if we were to move forward with buying businesses? What is your recommendation for what we need? >> Let me see how many we still have open on Thursday. >> Okay. Originally, I didn't anticipate this many being picked up this quick.
I'm curious of how many are are still that come back. So, this makes me feel good. I was originally thinking 10. I'd maybe think eight at this point. So, >> more of But we already have one of those. >> So, that'd probably be seven. Two general ed and the rest special education.
>> So, it'll be two general ed and the rest will be spat. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Mr. said more >> uh a little bit same topic but uh different direction county insurance. Yep. Do we have an update on that? >> I know it was included. I met with um
them about just insurance in general on Friday. I haven't heard whether or not those came back. I know nothing came back this year. So, we'll see. I don't know when their bids come back. I know their bids for health insurance go out in March. So, I'll get a date on when their new ones come back. >> Okay. So, no final word just yet. No,
>> I don't believe this situation helped us in any way. >> Mr. Mr. Bond. >> Yeah. The U did the state didn't the state flip that we could put these people on the put our on the county insurance if we employed them?
>> I think it depends on who you talk to. Uh I know that who you talk to. I know that Toss and TSBA different attorneys think different things. Um, I know this county has put it on their bids, but I know there's some reluctance as well to
put that liability back on the county. If it does come back on the county, I do know that they will request some additional money to go fund the liability portion of it, which I I don't have a preference because there's a a pro and a con to both of it.
I understand too there's a piece of legislation in the legislature in Nashville that is going to mandate that we provide bus student bus service any kid over a mile and a half away so it's
not by choice now it' be by mandate so that puts a new monkey wrench in it because now we got to provide it it's not a choice that >> yes m svin >> we um are still doing that. The difference there is an amendment to
that. Um text back and forth with one of our representatives today that they originally it was all schools. Now it's assigned school. So that will not include alternative schools or choice schools because that is the director's concern is that if it's an alternative school, choice school, then it would
include everybody. And right now it's your um zone school or I can't remember the word assigned school I think is the way it's word is your assigned school. >> Okay. Yes, Matty. >> Dr. Sullivan, do you have um a range or
idea on what you're thinking of salary wise for the drivers if we were to buy buses? >> I know we did last year. Let me pull it up. Do you I know you've got that. You were the one that created that last year. It would probably have to be adjusted to current market, but last year we did.
And also, do we are you anticipating hiring like a part-time or full-time maintenance type person to service the buses or >> depends on how many we bought or we could also contract that portion out. I know some other districts contract the repair portion and inspection portion out too. So, it just depends. Like we
only bought one or two, I don't think we need to to implement that, but if we bought eight, we'd probably need to do something like that. Yeah, we got enough shade tree mechanics around here that we we can work on that bus.
>> How much money we have in one count? 177. >> Trey is begging us not to use it because that's what we use for our HVAC repairs. That's why I would much rather not use that. >> We're not allowed to buy equipment out of 177 and a bus would be considered
equipment. Mr. VA, >> I'm I'm gonna follow up with three or four comments here. Uh I I came today and watched it. Hats off to transportation. The ladies up here, they ran it as efficient as they could. U a
lot of it was I don't know. It reminded me of some of my sat Saturday morning auctions. You know, there was a lot of anticipation in the air. Who was going to be the first to pick? And what the funny thing about the whole morning was the very first guy that got picked, he
wasn't here. Everybody almost everybody else was here, but he wasn't here. And then he turned it down. He didn't he didn't even want to route. So he was on the list, but it was very interesting to work through it. The group, the ladies worked through it very fast, very efficient. The the contractors that
weren't here, um I think everybody kind of knew what was going on. So I left at 12, I think, and they were about half done. I was a little surprised. I'm like you that this many of them got picked up. Um to kind of follow back up a little bit on on talking about buying. I
think um see where we end up maybe something we talk about you know reiterate again because I know my phone is going to ring off the hook tonight that when everybody these contractors 185 contractors freak out. Y'all are going to put us out of business. Y'all
going to put us out of business. I had three phone calls walking in this just this afternoon because the word had gotten out. So, you know, preface that again, Dr. Sullivan, only maybe 10 correct and it will probably related 80%
of it would be sped related and it's to those contracts that have been a little bit hard to feel. couple of things too and I don't know if I'll let say anything about this but I I've also there there's I think there's three or four policies that we need to kind of
get in place uh between now and the end of the year uh that doesn't doesn't put us back in this same shape and for the rest of my fellow board members to let you know where my brain has been the last 10 days is like the the one instead of just showing us you've got an
insurance policy show us you've paid for the insurance policy for the whole year. If we're if we're going to advance you $4,000 stipen, don't use that to operate off of. If it if it's not enough to cover it, you know, go ahead and put your money with it. But that way, we're not,
you know, transportation would have to It'd be a nightmare over there for y'all to check insurance statements and cards every month. I guess I I'm I'm looking to you to comment, but that's just kind of nuts. I think that that's a simple policy that would ensure that all the
insurance is paid for a year. So, there's two or three things I'm going to kick around with y'all over the next two or three weeks. Dr. Svin and Trey, not that I'm trying to be a know-it-all. I don't mean that. But I have gotten in knee deep with all of this in the last 6, eight months between the contract and
then watching this go down that that we we've got we've got some deficiencies, but we've got a dang good transportation department. And I'm going I told Trey this day, I'm going to tell all the rest of y'all this. There was some smart Alec on Facebook that I saw comment. He said
it was to the tune of, "Well, we needed to do something different. Hamilton County's budget was 15 million cheaper than ours." And y'all know how much I studied it last year. I think our budget is like $32 million. I said, "They ain't no way it's half what ours is. I know
they have less students." So, I pulled up their budget this weekend, looked at the number of students, u, this is a pat on everybody's back here. Looked at the number of students, looked at their hybrid model, what their cost per student was. It was 600. What' I tell
you? $633 per student per year to run their transportation company or their transportation department. Ours is 625. I compared it to another district east of us that has 4,500 students in their
district and they're facing changing contractors right now. They private bid it out every 3 years and their cost per student was over 1,500 per student per year. So, we're doing pretty good. And if we can I would say
this to my RLR contractors, don't want to kick anybody out of business. don't want to take it away from you, but if we can start into the the the the sped department and help with these aids and require aids, it it's going to be easier for us to put an aid on a bus that we're
running than somebody not. I I don't want to wholesale take it over. You know, this is this would be a 10 to 15 year process. Something we may want to think about if somebody's got a sped bus, they're having trouble with an aid, maybe let them turn it in at the end of the year
and trade it for a uh a big bus if they want to stay in the contracting business. I I don't why why do I always look at you? I don't know why. I just these are ideas that we really need to think through over the next and I'm hoping we can talk about some of this at
the retreat. But anyway, that's my two cents. >> Mr. Vaughn, you had something else you wanted to say? I just wondered if talk about the the stipens, you know, if we paid the insurance company and we were, you know,
they would show us on the insurance policy as co-owners of that, we'd be notified instead of dependent on the drivers to notify us if that's possible. Um, also too, you know, the uh
I really I just I just can't I just think we really need to look at getting all these sped buses, you know. I think we need to the buses that Mr. Lee, let me administer you. We the people that have the buses on the
special ed routes and can we buy what's owed on that? I mean, I don't know who's the lease and the lease and all. >> Let me say this and and I don't want to
interject into we're under contract with all of these contractors for three more years. >> Correct. I think anything that the board decides to do, whether it's two weeks from now or three weeks from now, is supplemental to fill in. It's to cover us in the
event that we have onesie, twzies, threes, contractors that are and and the and and the biggest conversation with the special education buses is there's not a lot of spare buses out there for these contractors to share, rent, lease,
whatever term you want to use. So, when we lose one or two of those, it's very difficult to fill. Those routes are very student specific. They're oneoffs that student their their routes are very it's
different than being able to take a general education bus that has a route in neighborhoods and they've got friends that run routes in the other neighborhood next door. They can it's more flexible to be able to fill in and
pick up those routes when a route is down. That's where I think we're looking at Mr. all long-term, five years, 10 years down the road, and it's a few buses a year, and you do it by attrition.
But currently, we're under contract for three years. Any contractor that maintains their bus and does a good job, >> they're not going anywhere for at least three years unless they turn their route in. So, I think anything the board's looking at right now is kind of supplemental
fill in, help out. >> Madam Chair. Yes, Mr. Darby. >> Mr. Lee, do you know how many sped routes we have in total currently? >> I'd have I I'll have that for you Thursday because it does fluctuate and I I don't I don't want to give you wrong
information, but I can have it Thursday. >> Okay. Thank you. Did you get the salary number? >> Yes, I do. And so we last year had it as an R107. So that goes from $22.78 to $34.16 for current employees.
Comparable to others. So I just pulled up. So I don't know how accurate their information is. Like the city part-time's 24 across the board. City schools their fulltimes 2150 to 2755. Williamson's 2412 to 3315. Clarksville
Montgomery is 2192. So kind of right there in the middle. But I also want to make sure we're fair to our contractors. So I want to see where that kind of ranks with some of them. That'll tell us. Yeah, I think it warrants definitely some more
thought and getting all of those figures together and all that kind of I mean our contractors have done a really great job and I did speak with TSBA today just to kind of we hear a lot of things about different districts having trouble finding drivers other districts who've contracted with people and those those
companies when their drivers call out don't have backups and so I don't know that there's a transportation system that doesn't have as issues and I would say by and large ours has functioned extremely well. So I will say I'm while
I don't have an issue with having some spare especially on sped side because we're definitely at least at the moment required for those um and possibly more later depending on what the laws end up doing. But I definitely want to make sure we're not
putting the message out there that that this is I know my intention is not to overhaul and replace this transportation department in that manner because it's been working really well and those contractors a lot of them it's been a generational thing. They come together and cover for each other when people
have issues and it's it's hard to find that kind of thing today. So >> 100% agree. Yeah, >> Miss Sharp. R 107 is that based on like 2,000 hours of that fulltime work >> probably 1780 is usually the way we do I
know that's crazy but that's usually the the number Brian and I use for like a office assistant 1780 or 1760 and that's the same hours as a transport or the same R107 as a transportation router maintenance level three account clerk um payroll clerk purchasing tech so it's
kind of right there >> if it was part-time no full-time yes because that's one I know our drivers with our contractors. Most of them don't. So, I would recommend we start off part-time because then we would really be in competition with some of our driver, our co coordinators, our
contractors if we went full-time. >> M Miss Darby, >> just some out of the box thinking and I don't even know if it would be possible, but is it it might be worth just looking at to see what it looks like maybe doing a daily rate. Yeah. versus an hourly because I know especially um do a lot of
the sped routes have to do like a midday? >> The vast majority of them are running additional routes during the middle of the day. >> So >> there are a few that don't, but the vast majority do. >> Even at a part-time, it would be hard for that person to probably find any
other additional income if they needed to. So it might be worth >> just seeing what that would look like if it was just a flat daily rate. >> Yeah. A lot of what I've talked to the other directors, a lot of them take their special education drivers and use them as a special ADA through or something throughout the rest of the day
so that they're able to be there. So, agree completely. >> Any other questions or comments? Mr. Ba, did you have anything you wanted to add or anything? Okay. Okay. >> Okay. Then we're just going to move on then.
Next 10. Engineering and construction. >> Whitworth Buchanan Middle softball request. Principal Chris Butner is requesting to add gravel paths and spectator seating areas around the girls softball field. The cost of this request is $1,000 and will be funded through the softball account and is at no cost to the board. Engineering Construction reviewed the request and has no
objections. >> Any questions or comments? Next. >> Klein Sweeney transition academy fee proposal. Klein Sweeney Associates submitted proposal to design the transition academy facility based on the proposal dated January 1st, 2026. This proposal is for an estimated
construction budget of 350,000. The fee proposal is 30,000 for the first building and 15,000 for the second. Engineering construction reviewed the request and has no objections. Again, any construction costs or any actually starting the project, any of that would come back before the board. This is just a design.
>> And do we have a location? >> It would be what the board previously approved at Smart and Middle and >> Smart Middle Whit. Yeah. Okay. >> Any other point, questions or comments? Next, >> Central Magnet baseball field upgrade request. Dr. John Ash is requesting to
improve the baseball field at Lascases Elementary to include concrete new dugouts and a turf infield. Warren Construction has provided quotes that include dugouts at $39,885, backs stop netting at $39,599, and infield turf at $374,555.
Funding for this project is an unsecured loan by the baseball booster club. Engineering Construction reviewed the request and has no objection with no spoils, dirt, rock, etc. being left on site and any damage to the exist existing paved area will be repaired at the school's expense. One of the things I talked to Dr. Ash about was to make
sure since that is a unique thing is that we make sure we incorporate last castas whether that is in the the turf what is visible whether it's at the in front of the dugout or in the outfield just depending on when they actually start moving on that is to incorporate last castes somehow whether it's the L
or the Panthers some way into the to the field turf to since it is kind of a shared but a space. Yeah, just to pay homage to the history. >> That's going that's going to be really good. That's nice. Great community thing. >> Mr. Tidwell.
>> Yes. Uh Dr. Sullivan, in this type of scenario, can you explain? I'm sure we're going to get a lot of questions about this about how booster clubs work and especially with these amounts here. Um talked to the president uh of the booster club and they have a plan and they have funds and they have agreements
and they've worked out some deals. They've done really good job. Actually, the total amount that we're seeing here today, I think it's going to be significantly less. And uh if you include some of their inind donations and such, but for those wondering how this funnels through the school system,
who's going to be left on this loan if something were to go south, what that looks like for the school system, >> it's it's not on the school system whatsoever. It's all in the booster club and those people who are are listed on the booster club. So, it's a a heck of a um risk on those individuals. So that's why it's so important that they have
real financial backing. So we appreciate their their support in doing that, especially because they're putting their name out there and the second that it's put on school property, it's property of Rutherford County Schools. So they are really putting a lot of investment into something that is for the school system
and for our students. So they are responsible for getting the loans, getting security of the loans, and there's no risk to the school system. And I will tell you for most of your major products projects at the schools, this is how it's done. The fieldhouse at Riverdale, the fieldhouse at Rock, well,
Rockville's trying to get one. That's how it's done. You get you get you have small donations, but you have people that are willing to have some skin in the game and they put their name on the dotted line. And so if something goes wrong, it's on them, but it's not on the school. >> That's right. And hats off to Miss
Gamble for all the work that's been done here. I think it's quite amazing what's going on. So, >> Mwell, thank you. >> Uh, yeah. So, I want to I think this is a good thing that the parents and the booster club are getting together to do something.
Someone's saying, you know, getting a skin in the game and there's there's proof that we're got skin in the game. I mean, trying to do something that's good. So, commending the booster club for doing something good for the students. Um, I have a few questions.
Um, I had a question from someone in the Lasasses community in wanting to understand what was the $150,000 that was set out for the to do some fixes for the using this field and I think that
also was to be used for that other field in Kitrol or was it 150 just for the one in Las? >> Just last gases. Each one had a different amount. 150 doesn't go very far when you have to put lights on the field. And so it was lights. They did quite a bit of work. Even though it
wouldn't look like it, a lot of work had to go into grading. Even though it still had some grading issues, all of the fields still did because Warner, it just cost a lot to laser grade those fields. They were trying to get grass to grow on the infield this winter
and that's why they're had to go ahead and move forward with kind of looking at turf instead. But I know that the softball team has less just to kind of put it to example. Softball has less trying square footage they have to cover because it's a shorter field. So they
were able to go ahead and start taking care of some of their dugouts to where the baseball money doesn't go as far because it's a lot more field to laser grade. But we also had to put up nets at Las Casses and the fence had to be a little bit higher and a little bit different because of the school in the
background and to make it so that even though we want a home run launch park, we didn't want one that was so easy they were knocking out the windows of Lasass Elementary School. So >> you need to be the fun out the window. >> It would be fun. It'd be a Yeah. >> price of admission. >> Well, thank you for that report and that rundown of things that was covered for
the $150,000 and hoping they're hearing and got to hear everything that you just said. Um and I also spoke to a few community members in last gases um just out of respect and courtesy and they're really happy and pleased that the boosters club is providing something really nice for the field. So they're
really happy about that. >> So it's going to be very nice. >> Yes, Mr. Bond. >> The people carrying the unscured loan, they're pretty uh I got pretty deep pockets. So I think the last name is B.
>> Is that yours? your pockets. >> Yeah, I wish. But I understand. Yeah. The uh the people that are got the loan is pretty pretty reliable. So, it's a great thing. >> It is. >> Yes. Dr. S.
>> Even though it breaks my wife and I's heart, just for the record, my kid doesn't play baseball anymore at Central. So, I I disclosed that last year, but he gave it up. I hope he goes back to it in high school. But >> I'm so sorry. >> He gave it up. So, teenagers. Yeah. So,
>> okay. Is there any other questions or comments regarding the baseball field? >> Okay, let's move on, please. Number four, >> Blackman Middle Storage Barn Request. Dr. Jessica Jackson's requesting purchase of a 15 by 28 storage shed to be used as part of the STEM program.
Shed cost is $12,65 and will be funded by the CTE ISM grant. Engineering Construction the request and has no objections. >> Any questions or comments? Okay, next we have the resolution. >> So, this is a resolution brought by Mr.
Tidwell and I greatly appreciate this. This is a resolution in support of fully funding our high performance local education LEA bonuses. So, as the board and most of our community, we haven't made as big of a deal about this year, but we will. Rutherford County received the it's called a high performance
bonus. It's a $4 million bonus. We were one of two school systems last year to earn it. Us and Williamson. I don't know how many districts earned it this year. Um, but I do know that this year, last year we received the full four million. This year we earned the four full four million, but that entire amount of money
wasn't budgeted. And so it was prorated pretty heavily at about a 40% rate. And so we only received a little bit close to 2 and a.5 million. And so that's where this resolution came from. So appreciate that, Mr. Tidwell. >> Mr.
Resolution. full funding for high performance local education agency bonuses. Whereas the ru county board of education is the local government body responsible for providing a highquality public education to the students and families of Ruford County. And whereas the Tennessee
general assembly and the governor's office have established merit-based incentives to recognize and reward school districts that demonstrate strong academic performance. And whereas one such incentive is the high-erforming local education agency bonus which
provides financial rewards to school districts in which at least 50% of schools earn an A letter grade. And whereas for the 202526 school year, the state of Tennessee appropriated a recurring total of $17
million statewide for high performing LEA bonuses. And whereas the established funding tiers generated $28 million in earned high performing LEA LEA bonuses for qualifying districts statewide. And
whereas because the statewide appropriation was insufficient to fully fund UN award bonuses um bonuses were prrated and Ruford County Schools received 2 million 428 571.4.43
43, which is well below the amount earned. And whereas proration weakens the purpose of a merit-based incentive by reducing the full benefit earned by high performing districts and diminishing the link between strong results and meaningful financial reward.
And whereas merit-based incentive incentives encourage excellence, recognize the work of students and educators, and provide districts with flexib flexible resources to reinvest in successful academic strategies. And whereas the governor has proposed an
additional one-time appropriation to fully fund the high performing LA bonus for the 202526 fiscal year so that qualif qualifying districts receive the full amounts generated by the funding tiers. And whereas fully funding this program
aligns with the intent of the general assembly and reinforces Tennessee's commitment to accountability and performance in public education. And whereas the high performing LA bonus is a recurring merit-based incentive intended to pro provide predictable and
reliable financial recognition for sustained academic excellence and recurring full funding as necessary to ensure that qualifying districts can reasonably plan for and reinvest these earned resources. Now therefore, be it resolved that the
Rutherford County Board of Education expresses its appreciation to the Tennessee Assemb General Assembly and the Governor's Office for establishing merit-based appropriations for high-erforming school districts. supports the governor's proposal to fully fund the high performing LEA bonus
for the 202526 fiscal year and respectfully urges that this program be fully funded in future years so that districts receive the full benefit of the incentive earned through strong acade academic performance. So that is the resolution that would be
presented on Thursday night. >> Thank you Mr. Tidwell. This is an excellent resolution. Well, I'd just like to thank uh some of our legislators for going to bat as well as some of those in the governor's office. It does have a lot of legs. It does look like it's going to get passed and appropriated this year. We'll see
what happens in following years as they like to do their appropriations after they see what the final results are, but uh it does look very promising this year for that $1.6 million. So, >> thank you. >> Okay. >> Yes. I think something that' be good for our board to just kind of really if you
can help champion behind it is we talked to the state board of education about this um last Thursday I guess when we presented that it's it's great that these things come to us but when they come to us just like fast growth last year our final TISA amount when these
come to us after July 1 they roll into our fund balance and you all know that we sometimes have a hard time utilizing our fund balance and so we talked about our the state board, how high our fund balance was and that being an accounting principle and really tried to to talk
about when it comes after June 30th, you know, it's tough for school districts to be able to utilize some of that funding that was was earned rightfully. And so really just encourage all of us to kind of talk around some of those things. >> Yes, Mr. Rosales. So um just what you
shared with that is about the whole getting the funding in July 1 and because at that point it rolls into fund balance. Yes. >> So what will be the the proposed change that you you think we should do? Is it that if the f if you if the the the state decides to fund something for that
particular academic year but it happens to be funded after the year's over then then are is the is the the solution and the recommendation is for whenever that that time stamp or whatever is that if it's meant for the year prior that those
funds don't go into fund balance but can be held and be used for the upcoming budgets. That would be great. Or even if it's just an accounting code with the comprollers's office so that those funds can be used and counted as revenue for that coming year because that would help
us. You know, I'm thinking of this. If this comes to us July 1st and instead of rolling into fund balance, we could use this 1.6 million to try to offset some of the insurance cost. If it runs into fund balance, I don't think I'm going to get a whole lot of support and say, "Hey, I would like to use $1.6 $6
million to offset insurance cost because the I anticipate the argument saying, "Well, we're not being able to do that for the county." Well, this should have been part of our budget last year, but it never came to us out of any of our problem. And that's last year we received over $7 million that came this
way. We're not going to get that much this year, but $7 million can do a lot during a budget cycle. So you're you're proposing that this funds that are coming for after the the fiscal year the end of fiscal year June 30 comes in June
July 1st that we're supposed to go for that that budget season to be looked at consider as revenue for the upcoming school year. >> That would be one way to do it. Yep. >> Okay. >> Yep. And again that may be a comproller >> argument. I'm not >> that's to figure out but just it's just
I just wanted to hear what the recommendation will be because they will be asking us well what is the recommendation >> what we how we like to see it fixed so sharp and then Mr. Tidwell please >> oh was he okay so Mr. Um, just a quick
question. So, uh, on that same line, is it funding that comes in after July 1st? So, if it had just beat the date >> after June 30th. Yeah. June 30th. After June 30th. And I don't know how they would do it because they're funding this in next fiscal year. >> So, I don't know how they would have it
have to be coded differently. >> It's not necessarily the date. It'd have to be coded differently because the money is not coming no matter what. It be approved by general assembly this year in order to go into next year. >> All right. >> Miss Sharp. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Tidwell, this is this is a great resolution and
if you don't get any legs on this, I would brush it up and send it back through TSBA's delegate assembly and see if they'll pick it up for the next year's lobbying effort. >> Excellent. >> Yes. >> Can I? >> Yes. >> And you guys have heard me and I've
tried to champion this with my superintendent group. My only and this is not connected to this legislation. My my biggest concern is next year there's not going to be as many districts that receive this. We talked about this in September. Um this the state accountability model is just changing
which data they are using. So instead of using um growth level they're going to be goodness gracious I've gone blank which I'm looking at you Dr. chastain instead of using growth level what are we moving to away from index to boss
away from we do level four and five instead of growth model now what are we using >> miss maximum >> yes >> I I think you're talking about the bell curve how they're trying to everybody level four we're using growth index and now we're using and I've gone completely blank on what they're going to be using
are >> you talking about with the difference between the standard error and the deviation >> yeah but what's >> just including the fours and fives Yes. And what's the other thing they're using as the differentiator between that? And I've gone blank on what that terminology is, but I'm going to pull it up in TBOS real quick while everybody's
>> Yeah, I'mma pull it up in Toss while we keep talking. >> Keep going. I can multitask. >> Okay. We will not have as many fives. >> We will not have as we will not have as many fives, which is def all districts are not going to have as many fives, which is going to limit your ability to
earn A's, which is going to limit your pool of districts that can earn this. And so that is coming from straight from the state department's uh slide that they send to everybody. So that hurts. Yeah. >> Yeah. It moves. >> Dr. Svin. >> Yes.
>> I since we're in a work session, it kind of start opening up the TAS new scoring. So, um, so academic growth, that is also where our ESL, um, if you're, if you're ESL tier one, tier two, tier three, that's where they really are counted
more weighted because they're not in the academic side. So, if they're not accounting for the growth, how are they counting for those that are in tiers, tier one, tier two, through tier three? >> A little bit different. So with um without going too far down with ESL
students, it's a ELPA assessment and they have a different growth measure for just that ELPA assessment to measure what their growth is. So for us, now let me go back to Tivos. So Tivos is still going to give you an effect size, which for us that's where we were the number one in the state this year, our effectiveness level. Everybody's going
to be uh level four or five like we would have been this year. Then to differentiate between that, they are then going to use something called the effect size instead. That's the words I couldn't use the effect size. And that's going to break between fours and fives. And so they're going to break you between a four and a five based on your
effect size instead of just using your growth measure instead. >> And what what is what how do they find effect size? >> We've asked for it for this year and still haven't received. >> We don't know what that means. >> No, without getting you want to go into the nerd determination standard deviation.
they and they did slide um some of the determination stuff into our accountability documentation over Christmas break. So we do have some information on that. Um but essentially it is just trying to not in the past the
more students you had the more confidence they had in that true effect size. So they would we got some benefit in that and that we were confidently more effective. they are trying to give some sort of um they're trying to remove
that benefit and give some of that benefit back to smaller districts which is mathematically a little more squishy in our in our opinion. So, um, it it it removes that confidence level for larger districts and larger numbers, which is
mathematically appropriate and and and shifts it back to smaller schools and smaller districts can receive a higher number with less of a effect determination just in terms of the math. >> It's good old state department. >> Yeah. >> So, we would go for >> things you get things good and they mess it up.
>> Yeah. >> Just for reference, we would have gone from 30 level five schools last year to 12. And so, that's that's they would have been fours. we would at 18 fours, but they wouldn't have been fives. And so that that's a huge impact. So instead of the 4 million, we may earn the 2 million next year because it would have
been cut in half. >> We put back 50,000. >> Yes. Yep. So, >> and just to reiterate, our students will have scored exactly the same. >> Correct. >> So our teachers are still doing the the job they were doing before. Our students are still performing at the same exact
level. Our schools are still performing at the same level. It's just a a slight change in the math shifts it from one district or school to another. So I just want to reiterate like the work continues. Our focus is teaching students, teaching the standards. It's just a change in calculation which is
frustrating. >> Very frustrating. >> It's a shame because the recognition's not going to be there >> and that's what's that's what's bad. >> I fully expect us to kill it like we did this past year. Our schools are great. Our teachers are great. And I'm afraid our families are going to say, "Oh my
gosh, what happened? They really slipped." And we didn't slip. It's just the way you evaluate it has changed. >> When I when I brought that up in September, I was told to uh start working on messaging. And I was like, "That's not going to help." >> You know, if you ever if you have a job,
you can go apply for the state department. >> So, >> all right. Next section's insurance update. So, this is pretty important. So, I want to go over this. We of course are on state insurance. I fully
anticipate we'll stay on state, but it is my job to look at all options. And so Dr. Martin and I did meet with the county Friday. And so we are going to do bids to with the county to see is it a
better price if the county includes us. I don't anticipate that. I can't ever decide what a bid's going to be, but we would bring hate to say we're the the better deal, but the educators,
I guess our educator pool has a more marketable insurance group than the county employees do. So, we would bring the county insurance down and that's the way it was historically just because of the age group of our employees. And so, we would bring the county rates down. I still don't think it's going to be
enough that would really make it advantageous for us to move, but I wouldn't be doing I don't feel like I'd be doing my job for our employees if I didn't look. And so, we are at least gonna to see what those bids come up with. There are issues if we go back to the county as far as retirement, people
losing their retirement credit. We don't have a lot of power with the state, but we really don't have a lot of control when it comes to the to the county. You know, at the last we had insurance committees. I think we at one time had two voting members, then we got down to one, even though we were the largest majority of the insured people. So, I'm
I'm hopeful that the bids come in good, but I'm not realistic that even if they if the state aggregate right now looks at like 12%. That's the state increase. That's a one-year aggregate, and that is across again, that's the aggregate, so not everybody.
When you look at the county, even if the county were to come in 10%. I don't know that it makes a lot of sense to move for a 2% change because historically the state when they have a big increase the next year it's a lower increase. Once you move from the state plan you have to wait for two more years
so you can come back. And so state when you're looking at retirees retirees have to have a certain amount of time that if they're looking to retire once we remove from the state plan they may risk losing their insurance when they retire to come back on the county. And vice versa, if we go
back to the state in two years, let's just say, they're going to have to have some more time before they could get back on state insurance. So, we've only been there three years going on four. I probably would recommend that we stay with the state insurance just to see. But, I do think it's beneficial. We're
one of the two biggest insurance pools that the state has. And I don't think it's bad for us for them to know that we're looking to just see what how competitive the rates are. The other thing to kind of look at that is that one change I do envision and this
wouldn't impact us much. Our dental insurance with the state, they change vendors is not great. And so we probably will look at doing vision and dental ourselves, self-insured. And so there are some benefits there that may be able to save our employees money and be able
to to offer better benefits as well. They changed to MetLife, I believe, and there's there have been some issues, but you all will see all of that information in the next couple months. But I just wanted you all to know that if you hear rumors like Dr. Sullivan's talked to the county insurance, I've talked to them
just to see what would happen with pricing, but that is all up to the board to decide. There's a huge timeline with TCA and all kinds of decisions. 51% of your eligible employees, so 51% of your employees have to vote to even remove from the state in a timely manner. So,
there are all kinds of things that have to happen. I don't envision that even occurring this year. Um, but I do think it's best for me to at least to look to see what prices uh bids look like. National average looks like it's going to be an 18% increase this year. So, 12%
aggregate, hopefully it'll drop a little bit the next year. And if it continues 12% 12% 12%, then I think we have a different discussion. It may be beneficial for us at that point instead of joining the county to maybe be self-insured ourselves. There are some county school systems that are big that are self-insured themselves, but that's
that's a much later on discussion, but we're looking at all kinds of different options. So, any questions about insurance? I know that was a lot. >> I had someone reach out to me who was getting ready to retire. >> Yeah. >> And when she came in and she came with us, it was because everything was good.
>> Correct. >> Then we went to the state and apparently now her insurance is not is not what it needs to be or she may be even losing it when she retires. And so I >> to reach out to our benefits people. >> Yes. So because I didn't really know what to tell her, but I said I would I would quietly
>> She needs to reach out to our benefits people. >> Okay. >> You know, speaking from retirees, our insurance is great. >> Yep. >> We just want you to leave it alone. >> Yeah. >> And we don't want nobody bother. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Bot,
>> good question. I give me the to what what is the employee total here? >> Uh that's on Yeah, the total number. And then what is it for the entire county? >> We're at 6600. >> That's what I thought I remembered. What's the county employee? >> I don't know.
>> It's about a third. >> Yeah, I'm not sure. I can look it up in the budget document, but I I haven't looked at it in about six months. I should. Well, the reason the reason I said that if there's a cost, you know, it could be a significant cost saving to the rest of
the county employees that you could horse trade with the county commission a little bit to, you know, if it saved them money to get more of the benefit back here. I I you know me in numbers, I'm running numbers in my head. So, >> and county has been great to work with
to at least talk about. I just am looking long term. >> No, I think I I think we owe it to everybody. You always got to look, you got to look at benefits, you got to look at cost savings, you got to look at all of it. >> Any other questions? Okay, moving along to financial update.
>> Yeah, I'll have a we got our first Tissa update TNG fun. That's where Brian Brian's here. Brian's just walked away in his office with the door closed budgeting. So, that's that's where he is. I haven't seen him all day, but I know he's back there. So, I'll have a Tissa update on Thursday. The You mind if I go ahead to director's update?
>> Go ahead. >> Couple things. Director's update. I sit on the Southeast Superintendent Council for American Heart Association. So, we had our quarterly meeting today and that is a a pretty big group. It's um Marietta Superintendent, Mobile, Jackson, Miami, Fort Myers, Tuscaloosa,
Wake County. So, it's a big group. So, I know that that's pretty important to several of you all. So, we're kind of launching to see what we are looking forward to to next year. So, we're working on that impact. And then we I emailed you all. This is a little bit different that we are thinking about,
but we are very much a business. And so kind of looking at rate of uh return and so we've dropped an enrollment a little bit and when you drop an enrollment you do one it helps I was fine if we were stagnant for a little while but you don't want to drop an enrollment for for too long because that's going to impact
some things and so we are in the middle of school choice season and you will see all kinds of advertisements for school choice and so looking at rate of return I wanted us to get involved with that and so we have been in some magazines in
the past. Uh but there's some other areas that we can do. So we have our first billboard that I know of that you will see and we tried to target those areas that people were going to sit and look at all day long when they were sitting on I24 going into morning traffic.
And the uh the way that I looked at it was um they're about three or $4,000 a month and so we're just doing it for a couple of months. it's under the $50,000 threshold. And so that allows us if we were able to pick up or keep four or five students, then they more than have
paid for themselves our entire marketing strategy. And so that's kind of what I'm looking at it from rate of return is to see what happens with our enrollment. It's going to be hard to quantify a billboard actually keep anybody. We talked about putting a QR code up there, but that's not going to be safe if somebody's driving down the road and
scanning a QR code. So I got that idea nixed pretty quickly. But uh Mr. Mr. Evans, you want to come up and give us some ideas on this? >> Asked us to put together a marketing plan. Uh this is a paid marketing plan. What we traditionally rely on is a
earned marketing plan. Social media, grassroots things, those kinds of things. And so billboards are obviously a piece of that and we have um secured two along I24. One is right as you're entering I24 from Waldron Road headed toward Nashville. There's a digital
board there. We're we're really excited about that. I'll talk about that in just another minute. And then we have a static board which means it doesn't change going back toward Murphy'sboro just as you pass Sam Ridley going up that hill. Um you'll see it. It'll be up later this week. They're working on the
because they have to print that one and actually put it up there. Uh, and I'm going to show you what those look like in just a second. But the digital billboard uh has some really cool things that we can do with it. We can change that message throughout the day, different times of hour. And so, for
example, we have kindergarten registration coming up on April 15th. We plan on having one of the slides that comes up on there to say uh, hey, don't forget kindergarten registration is April 15th. And what's so important about kindergarten registration is that that's the one grade that it's hard for
us to predict how many kids we're going to get and where we need teachers, how many resources, all those kinds of things. So, the more that we can get parents to register early, the more we can start, you know, forming those classes and placing students because we hate having to move kindergarten teachers around when parents think they already know what their child's going to
do. So, uh, Miss Haley and I were on the radio this morning and she's really pushing that. But we can also in graduation season, which is just a couple of months away, Each day that we have graduation, we can say congratulations to Leverne High School who are gra, you know, students who are graduating tonight, but don't
forget that we have a 96 or 95 whatever our graduation rate, 97.2% graduation rate. We can have one of those unique to the graduation ceremonies happening that day and change it just like we're changing a website. We're also doing um addition. >> Can we on a day that we're out of school
and um another district to our north is not, can we put something up there? Uh, sure. We can say, uh, >> teachers, we're closed. >> But, are you questioning your location? Yeah. Just remember that we are out of school today in other Canada. We could also have Dr. Sull and I, uh, faking a snowball fight when we get close to snow
season just to remind people to sign up for that snow call. We got all kinds of ideas. But, uh, seriously, we we are really excited about the messaging that we can do there. And as do Mr. or as Dr. Sullivan said the slogan that we are focusing on and there's an example here is the RCS difference because our
schools are the premier provider of K12 education in this county and we want to make sure that is is people understand that distinction of that. Um we're also expanding our print advertising into we're already doing livability magazine. That's the magazine that comes out
annually that the Chamber of Commerce gives to all newcomers, new businesses, things like that when they're moving here so they learn about us. We've been in there for several years. We're expanding to VIP magazine, too. They have an issue once a year that is uh education focused, but if you look at the magazine, you'll notice there are a
lot of other schools that are outside of our district that are advertising in that. And so, we we will now be advertising in there as well. Um broadcasting, WGNS has a huge following, especially the mornings, but also during uh sports coverage. They are very
affordable. Uh we so we have uh secured uh some broadcast advertising with them and also on their on their website. We've uh like I said they're they're one of the premier places right now for daily news coverage in this county is
WGNS. And so uh they were excited to do that as well. And then we're also going to be pushing some social media advertising. Some of the posts that we're doing we can actually uh target certain demographics. those families who have children who are school-aged in
this zip code to make sure they see all the things that we're doing as well. We'll be paying for those as well. This is the billboard though. If you'll scroll up a little bit more, Mr. Bati, please. The top here is the billboard that is that's the digital one. Barton Henley and on my team um actually went out and took that this morning. It's
very attractive. It change it stays up for 8 seconds and then we get 8 seconds a minute basically. But this is one of those prime areas like Dr. Sullivan said that traffic stops nearly every morning and people are sitting there and so hopefully they don't take their anger out on us, but might as well give them
some great content to view while they're sitting there. But you'll see that we are pushing that RCS difference uh in that advertising. If you'll go up a little bit more, this second one is the u what we sent for the billboard for the static billboard, but it's not up yet. This is what the second billboard is.
These are our students for one of our schools. We do have permission from the parents to use them for advertising. Uh but you'll see there that um we really want to start pushing what our you know make sure people know the opportunities that we provide. And if you go down one more this is an example of one of our
other ads that shows some of our uh you know great um metrics that we're using the percentage of A's and B schools that we have the number of reward schools and level five that we have and then our graduation rate of 97.2%. When when I go to state conferences and
we talk about these things with some of our other districts, we are the envy of so many in this state that wish that they had the kind of performance that we're having and also just the resources we have to spread the word. So, what questions do you have? It's a little bit different of a communications report this month, but what questions do you
have? >> We uh, you know, we're we're the number one performing academic growth system in the state. >> I mentioned that on the radio this morning just to make sure they knew that that we can't like What Dr. Sullivan always says is that we can't do anything about students where they came from,
what they learn then, but once they get here, we we get to get >> to them and see what we can help them grow. And we are known for that. And we are the highest performing in the state that does that. >> I will. >> This looks great. Good job. >> Yeah, it looks beautiful. And I will attest to every time I go somewhere with
TSBA and they see Rutherford County, I get peppered with questions. How'd you do this? had to from CTE to just uh just our academic performance. They we really are setting the standard >> and now you can say that's the RCS difference. >> RCS say that.
>> There you go. That's it. Dr. Southern went and presented to the state legislature. Did you teach them how to move that pencil a little bit? >> State board of education. >> Mhm. Did >> you teach me pencil? >> I had a great time. >> I did. >> And he slipped in this slogan to do it.
the last slide he put this in there last week. >> That's great. Yeah. >> I have a question. So on the print ads for the magazines, sometimes the the advertisers give you as part of the package the editorial articles where they is that something that we can look into to do an article
>> they haven't given us a direct editorial article. I will tell you that Barton Henley on my team as I mentioned has been selected as a 40 under 40 and they have made his feature now a half page. He found that out today. >> Really? >> Wow. we've g a hard time, but they also
take submissions. VIP magazine is real big about uh taking photo submissions. So, for example, next week's uh celebration we're doing for teacher of the year and retirement, we plan on sending them a write up for that and I think that we'll get consideration for that. >> Okay, good. >> Wonderful. >> Yes, Mr. Tidville,
>> I know you mentioned that or Dr. Svin mentioned that if we get to it two students a month, it it pays for itself. Do we have any metrics to kind of I know you mentioned the QR or Dr. mentioned the QR code. Is there any way that we can measure that? It just be something
nice to take back and say, "Hey, this isn't just extra money that's being spent, but we're actually seeing the the fruit of this growth." >> Uh well, I mean, one way we measure that of course will be what our enrollment numbers do next year. You can't necessarily directly tie it to these paid ads, but that will be at least some indication. We also have things like the
number of impressions, circulation, all those things, but it's really hard to tie that they saw this ad and so they enrolled their child. But um we're going to be looking for ways to do that, but we don't have a clear way to do that yet. >> Yeah. And I don't know much about this particular space, but I know that we do well in or you do well in the social
media space. Is there any funds that come through that that don't generate money? It's just uh the like the amount of impressions, the amount of people that see it, the content. I know there's a lot of content creators out there and we're competing. The RCS has a ton of followers, but there's no way to
monetize that and I don't even know if that's a line that could be crossed. >> Not as a nonprofit, we can't um >> Great idea though. James could definitely >> I would I would if you guys will let me sell advertising for the website to support the communications department, we would love to do that. And and academics, of course. Of course.
>> Yes. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, Miss Sharp. >> Um, thank you for this. This is great. And I think everybody already knows that this is the case here in Rutherford County. We better hurry and build some more schools because I think it's going to be very successful and we're going to be back in the position before of being
>> right >> overcrowded. And like what Dr. Ser said, you know, you would think that if we if we reduce enrollment that we would save money, but the students don't leave necessarily little packets of perfect 20 or 25. And so you may have if you lose 20 kindergartens, it may be over several
schools. And so all we're losing are resources. We're not be able to replace or reduce by a teacher unless it happens in one location. And that's pretty rare. So we we are in a position where we have to compete for resources and that that's what we're doing. >> Okay. Any other questions?
>> Okay. >> What I'm hearing is you guys are going to approve the communications budget for next year. Check. Right. >> I haven't even approved the communications budget for next year. Didn't even look. Okay. Just thought I'd slide that in there. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Okay. Is that everything? Okay. General
discussion. Does anybody have anything they want to bring up? >> Okay. Okay. First, Miss Sharp. >> Just wanted to do uh three shout outs to Klein Sweeney, Old South, and TDK for sending in checks for Jazzfest. Excellent. >> May 1st and second.
>> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> It's Mr. B. The other thing I forgot all the bus routes are going well not all of them but a lot of the bus routes are going to get redesigned or recalculated because of reasonzoning right >> yes sir
>> so see we there may be some efficiency gained with our route numbers and stuff like that I left that out a while ago that there there's going to be some changes I don't know how significant but there's going to give us those opportunities to slide in and do some
things maybe with sped buses So that I want to remind everybody about that. So next fall may be interesting. >> Other questions? Yes, Mr. Rosales. >> Yes. Um I just wanted to say that um I went and visited AAR
um I think a week ago. Yeah, a week ago. And I want to share with the board and and everyone that's listening that they're working really really hard. Um they've made some major improvements. Obviously, one of them was the they changed the director and executive
director and the principal over there. And since then, there's they've um they're seeing some of those changes as a result of change in the leadership. and they're um and I told them that I was going to come back and share with the board that they're extremely
um committed and dedicated to um doing things that that um that is required of them whether they're state or or by us and that they're committed to that work and they're not wanting to do things um
half-heartedly by any means and that they're seeing that they've turned a new leaf and moving forward and they really want to have a a partnership with between Rutherford County Schools and um and and AAR and I believe that you know
Springs Empowerment will probably say the same but right now I can just attest to what AAR said um because I I visit them and I hope that we can build that more of a partnership where there's a more open communication on both ends um
and that they see I know Jeff McCann does a great job and the team that's with him uh but that they can feel that they have access to Weatherford County School staff as well. So that's what I want to share. Mr. Tidville
Trey, I got a question for you. The LED lighting, uh how's that going? I know we started with the athletics and we had this this fiveyear four-year plan. How are things moving in that direction? We we've been very successful with TVA
and our partnership with them. Um we've um we've with the u sports lighting we're somewhere around $400,000 in energy credits that we've earned back
um or we will earn back over a period of a year. There's been a few and I can't make heads or tails out of TVA's reasonings why this one they give us a check and the next one it's over 12 months on an energy bill credits. I I
don't I've asked Middle Tennessee Electric and they Middle Tennessee Electric's been great uh at helping us achieve some of these things. We found out this week um we got $400,000 back
or we're going to get it back for Popular Hill Elementary for our geothermal some things there. I'm going after every dime that I can get. Uh it's a lot of work and it's a lot of paperwork. Um but we feel like it's beneficial to the district.
uh our LED lighting we have for the elementaryaries. We the first phase we decided that we were going to do all elementary because they don't seem to get a whole lot of things. We felt like we get a really good feel for how things go. We've worked with the contractor. Uh
we have a kickoff meeting Thursday. They will be starting to work probably in about two to three weeks. uh takes about a month to six weeks to do uh a school. Uh and we will be rotating through a large number of the
elementarymentaries. Uh that program is generating somewhere around $150,000 back from TVA. Um, but it those pro pro all the sports fields are finished and we're starting with the interior lighting in the
campuses and I hope that probably by midsummer we'll have 8 to 10 of them completed and it's something that the board could go see. >> So, our timeline is looking pretty good. I mean, things are moving along. No major issues so far. No surprises. >> No, sir. Everything's going well.
>> Perfect. Love to hear it. Um, Dr. Dr. Solen, can I ask you about the somebody asked me this week about this program? Remember the the retiree program where they could still get 70% of their pay. When does do you know when that expires? Does it expire? The end of this year? Because I was told two
different things. End of this year and then I was told end of 2027. >> Let me check. I know it was 26 originally, but I believe it's been extended through 27 at this point. Um, I would hate to lose that because that that that would help or that does help. And so I'll get you a date on that for
Thursday for sure. Great. Thank you, >> Mr. Um going back to the LED because that was something that I was um um really advocating for and I remember that we were going to work with the sports uh comp the sports area first, changing the lights, we did that and then we were moving in the interior um
changing lights there. How many schools have we changed the interior? >> We have not done any yet. It starts in about two weeks. We will start >> with some with the elementary with the the the elementary schools. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And so we're hoping to do at that point,
you said >> eight schools. >> That' be 12. >> 8 to 12. And then when do you think we'll get done with all of the elementary schools and then move with middle school and high school >> funding? >> I thought when we I thought when we
voted a while back, >> you gave me three. We we we are utilizing 3 million of 177 this year. I will be budgeting another three million for 177 next year. And then that will leave us probably a balance of a third
year between four and 5 million. So it's either going to be three or four years depending on how our funding works. >> Okay. >> Can I real quick? >> Okay. I got I thought we had voted to
put money into this for the program so that we can go for one phase being the sports and then moving into the interior lights. >> That's exactly what we did. We're doing all of it through 177. >> Okay. So, all right.
I think I All right. I'm just confused. I thought that was a I thought we just voted for a lump sump of money so that we can keep going forward with it. >> Okay. And I have a question too. >> You all did, but it was it's out of fund 177. It basically allowed us to go ahead and budget multiple years. So it's
between three and five million every year that we're able to do. The problem with 177, it's based on property tax. And so people just paid it in January and February. So we just got all our funding. And so you all really approved it. That fund 177 we'd love to start in July, but we don't get the money till
February. So right just just now starting it for this year. So it'll continue three or4 million until we do all of the >> as long as as long as fund 177 does not get cut, >> right? As long as fund 177 exists.
The board voted a long time ago, I think three years ago, two or three years, um to approve three to$4 million every year until all of the schools get the LED lights >> or 177
>> for out of 177. I provided that the funding is there >> unless it dries up, >> right? >> Okay. I just want to be clear that's what we >> I have a question specifically about a school a school that I came to you about central and was and we found when we we
spoke with the city. They have a unique situation. They were in the middle of town. They found out that some of the lights the big lights were out and the city promised that they would help us with it. >> It's not the city. It's Middle Tennessee Electric. >> Okay. And I have spoken with Middle Tennessee Electric. They are in the
process of getting those lights fixed. >> Okay, >> that will help us on the perimeter. I have completed a phototrics which is a lighting study of the campus um and it is under lit. I have been
talking with the city. They are have admitted they do not have special lighting for the historic district. It's the same as all the rest of the neighborhoods. Uh that was they were um kind of keeping that quiet. Um we are
looking at two different proposals and it will have to go to the city for their approval um to uh relight the campus to add more lights to the campus. But we have a couple of proposals and we are working with the city on that now. >> Thank you Trey. I appreciate it.
>> Yes ma'am. >> Yes Dr. S. Tid. Well, the one I'm looking at from last year, the Senate Bill 251 looks like it sunsets this year, unless there's the new amendment to it. So, I'm going to ask toss tomorrow to make sure that there's not another one that I missed somewhere.
But, I just Senate Bill 251 and it was became public chapter 159 and it was passed May 2nd, 2025. So, I don't imagine there's a newer one, but there could be an amendment that I just haven't read through. No amendments. So,
it looks like it could be this year, and I sure hope that's not. So, but I I'll go do some more digging, too. >> If you don't mind, please. >> I just want to say right before we uh journ here, I just want to say yesterday I had the opportunity I didn't get to do
this last year, but I had the opportunity to go to Simon Springs and read to fourth and fifth graders, and it was wonderful. I enjoyed myself out there. They have wonderful faculty out there. It's a wonderful school and uh I am so glad that we created that school.
Any other comments? Okay, >> we're Mr. Tidwell. Mr. did well. >> It looks like beginning July 1st. >> I'll bring it around. I'll bring it around over here.