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 Darby Thank you Madam Chair Dear heavenly father Lord I just ask that you would be with us this evening I would ask that you give us open ears open eyes open hearts and I ask that you would just help us to do what is best for the district of Rutherford County Schools for these
students and staff and parents and just be with us In your name I pray Amen I would like to welcome our house ambassadors from Rocky Fork Elementary to come forward and lead us in the pledge please
I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all Next up we have the agenda I'll let
everyone take a look at the agenda Any questions or comments on the agenda next up we have the consent agenda Any questions or comments on the consent agenda if not we will move right into
Rutherford Proud And we've got two different uh entities that we're going to be recognized this evening Dr Halford first Dr Halford please There you are Lost you Blended
Good evening everyone and we are just trying to figure out exactly how many people can be in this building at one time So thanks for bearing with us on that Uh it is a tradition in Rutherford County uh to celebrate youth art month which happened last month by displaying works of students from every school at
the central office and it is a huge part of our c culture here at central office You can tell when we take the artwork down people just get upset and they wait until the artwork comes back up And some of them try to bribe me for you know putting specific artworks near their
office Uh it it gets crazy but it really um helps our morale here at the office to have reminders of the students that we work for every day Um in January we had a district art show at the Frist Art Museum along with Murphreey'sboro City Schools from
Rutherford County There were over 600 artworks shown It's the largest show school show that they have at the Fris So they love having us there Brings in lots of people We have chosen one piece from every school from that show to come here and be displayed at the central
office So this one piece from every school is representing the thousands of students who take part in art instruction every day So we want to thank all our student artists for sharing their artwork with us Uh we'll recognize the students tonight who have artwork hanging in the building Um I'll
call their name out Uh we will see their work on the screen and after that we will release all the students parents uh uh faculty members who are here to support to go into the hallways and look at the work We have a clicker Thank you so much
We would like to recognize Kaani Pziola Barfield Elementary School And you know what while all of these are worthy of applause on their own let's hold our applause to the end just so we can make sure we get through everyone and everyone has their moment
at the end for all of us to applaud Ellie Nigan Blackman Elementary School Isabelle Winters Blackman High School Jacob France Blackman Middle School Fasil Al- Nwami Browns Chapel
Elementary School Rayan Row Buchanan Elementary School Maen Cedar Grove Elementary School Maline Parker Central Magnet School Joel Warner Christiana Elementary
School Emma Robinson Christianana Middle School Jaden Bailey David Yuri Elementary School Casey Wilson Eagleville School Micah Young Holloway High
School Belle Green Homer Pitter Campus School Oakley James John Coleman Elementary School Eden Roberson Kitrol Elementary School Ellie Beasley Lascases Elementary
School Brad Misk and Tegan Madison Leverne High School Fourth grade class project from Leverne Lake Elementary School Ronnie Ratzong Leverne Middle
School Becket Reeves McFaten School of Excellence Khloe Ericson Oakland High School Allison Norbert Oakland Middle School Faith Richardson Plain View
Elementary School Haley Settles Riverdale High School Oliver McCoy Rock Springs Elementary School Nicole Skates Rock Springs Middle
School Jude Miller Rockville Elementary School Natalie Jones Rockville High School April Chin Rockville Middle School Lena White Rocky Fork Elementary
School Olivia Christopher Rocky Fork Middle School Ariana Deserio Roy Waldron School Abby Howard Ratherford County Virtual School
Lillian Bunny Seagull High School Olivia Festerind Seagull Middle School Jared Garcia Bonitez Smyrna Elementary School Amelia Johnson Smyrna High
School Nester Corales Nlesco Smyrna Middle School Hannah Agangaphor Stewart's Creek Elementary School Brianna Frell Stewart's Creek High School Taylor Gova Stewart's Creek
Middle School Indie Surles Stewartsboro Elementary School Sylvia Jarnell Thurman Francis Arts Academy Camila Via Ugaldi Walter Hill Elementary
School Jolie Mloud Witworth Buchanan Middle School Daniel Carvajalo Wilson Elementary School Let's all applaud these wonderful student artists At this time parents administrators teachers and students who are here for the artwork you can go out
through these doors go into the hallway find your artwork take pictures and enjoy Thank you all for being here Thank you You got a nice Let's give the rest of the archery students time to come in here
and try to find a seat if there is one I think we'll go ahead and get started Yes Um I see we made a small dent in the crowd I think um as they start to fill in Um the board members and Dr Sullivan it's an honor for me to be here as
athletic director Um just to recognize the archery students and uh these young athletes I want to let the parents know how I'm proud of them and uh sometimes you don't get recognized for the efforts that you
do I just want to let you know that we do recognize you We're proud of you and uh just to have this opportunity to recognize you for the efforts that you do and for the accomplish accomplishments you've made this year And this is just an opportunity for us
to let you know that we're very proud of you and like to give you all a some applause right now for all your efforts this year Sometimes a lot of the other sports get more recognition Uh football basketball baseball softball some of the other sports soccer but I just want to let you
know that we recognize what you do and we're very proud of you What I'm going to do is uh I'm just going to tell you I have a basketball background I'm not an expert on archery So I'm going to have uh each one of the uh coaches and the schools come up and let them talk about your
team and the accomp accomplishments that you made this year And uh I'm going to start with Cristiana Coach Mingle will you come up and talk about your team first off thank you so much for um recognizing all of the archery um kids
that are here uh today Um for for for a lot of us we start in August and we are still going when school's out in June if we go to the national championship um or national championship which is next month in May and then the world's championship which is in Myrtle Beach in June So we appreciate it because it's
probably the longest season Um cuz I start normally the second the second week of August and we're still going strong Um but for the for Christian Elementary School um we won the we won first place in the in the state for the elementary division for the second year
in a row So great job you all Um we also had several individuals that won awards as well And when I call your name if you will go ahead and stand up um we would appreciate that as well Um for first place for bullseye so there's two different um two different like
areas There's bullseye and then there's 3D which bullseye you're shooting at a target 3D you're shooting at at fake animals Um so for the Bullseye Awards in first place um was Gideon and he shot a 283 Next up was Tabler Murray He came in
second place with a 282 And then in fourth place um was Aerys with a 259 in in 3D We in first place with a 269 was Tabler In in second place with a 268 was Gideon
In fourth place with a 264 was Christian And then in second place was Everly Once again we thank you so much for um your time We appreciate it so much Thank y'all Thank you coach Next we'll have uh Coach Greg Lucricia Greg and the Blackman uh
team They're going to come up So I'll pretty much just say the same thing that uh Coach Mingle said Um it is the longest season We have devoted students devoted parents Um most of our archers are academic archers and I would
say that probably in all the teams They're very focused academically and for their sport and they devote a lot of time parents devote a lot of time Um as far as Blackman this is our first year ever to win state So we were so proud of
this team Um we had a lot of major firsts this year for us Uh they won at Mossio They also won the Rollover County Championship And again things that we didn't really when we started this year off we really didn't think was possible Uh and they've really really worked hard this year and we're super proud of them
and all they've accomplished Uh we had several individuals that meddled at um state So in Bullseye Liam Walters he meddled in he got second place Lamborghini took fifth place for males in bullseye
Also Jazzy Belly took fifth place for females in Bullseye And then our team also has a 3D team We have currently 14 that are going to be competing at nationals Uh and of course we're going to take this bullseye team to nationals and we are worldbound We
already know we're going We've got it set in our mind Um but the Bullseye team this year came in third at state which was a major accomplishment for them also and then Boone Honey took third in 3D for state So so we do truly appreciate y'all
recognizing the sport and um the amount of time that these kids and these parents devote to this this activity Thank you and Lricia and Tyler I just want to say thank you guys because I noticed of course on your sleeves you have the Asher and where um Christian elementary is where Asher attended and
Blackman Middle where I started my career and there may be other schools as well So I just I noticed so thank you Thank you And next we'll have uh Coach Eric Banano I hope I'm saying that correctly from Central High School Again I want to reiterate the thanks
that uh the other coaches have said because it is a long season and and we do appreciate that you all have recognized us u today So um this uh this team has uh won two back-to-back state
champions Um this this is Central's fourth state title um in my tenure there So uh not only did we win the state title in bullseye but we finished second in 3D
Um we just missed first place by five points So we were that close to uh being a double champion in this year's state championship So um but uh individually Ethan uh was third place Uh E was
F Phillips was uh fifth place and Jesse Blanall was the first place female Jesse was also the overall female champion and she shot a 292 out of 300 Um she didn't do as well in 3D but she
still placed in 3D as well She got fifth place in 3D and Rachel Benfield Rachel Benfield was our second place uh archer in 3D as well So thank you again And next we'll have Coach Pitman
from Buchanan Thanks for having us up here Um we really appreciate it Our uh archers work really hard all year long and um we missed third place by one point for Bullseye but we did have two place Um
Lillian Hayes shot a 269 and got first and Haley Lton shot a 265 and got I'd also like to just commend uh Principal Wit from Buchanan cuz she's the one who has a lot of passion for archery and she keeps after me about the
supplements that she kept asking for the for the coach too Yes very high school staff members were getting elementary not and so we appreciate the board funding that so
that there was equity among we appreci we're glad we were able to do that So now we'll have uh Coach Gray from Seagull Middle Yes I just want to talk about the uh we had a great season at Seagull Middle this year Uh but I want to specifically talk about two young ladies
on our team They had an amazing season Uh not only are they good archers but they're good students Their work ethic is impeccable and I'm so proud of them So I just want to acknowledge them tonight I want to start with Millie Humphre
She she placed uh first in every tournament we shot in individually for middle school girls except three So phenomenal season at the state tournament She placed third overall for middle school girls with a
283 Second I'd like to acknowledge Brent Hill She placed she placed third individually overall in 3D with a 277 And she was the individual state champ
for middle school girls with a bullseye score of 284 Thank you very much And the next one up is uh Oakland Middle School and Coach Watts Hi good afternoon and Raquel Vega representing Oakland Middle School And
we have first place James Staltz with a 285 in from uh plane view Coach Hopkins will introduce her uh team and champions I just want a second third whatever it
is Um thank you for recognizing these kids They work so hard day in and day out not only with academics but also on the range And that's putting in practice time at home as well as practice at school and some of these high school kids they compete on multiple teams So
um it's means a lot to the whole community that you are recognizing us So thank you Um at Plain View our uh motto is excellences in Plane View And this is just a small sample of that excellence Um they're an amazing amazing group of
kiddos I'm going to highlight a couple of our students who um placed at state in bullseye Brooks Patterson placed third with a 277 He wasn't able to be with us tonight Our team placed in fifth place
And then in 3D Libby Hammond placed first place with a 263 Brooks placed third with a 263 And our team placed third in state So again thank you so much And our final recognition is to
Eagle and it's uh Coach Jennifer Ricks Coach Jennifer is not a public speaker So um so thank you guys We struggle being K being the only K- through2 school at Eagle We really struggle with our participation And uh we're right here I would say Rutherford County has
probably the most competitive county in the country for archery When we go to nationals we see every one of these schools every time Um Harley Whisner uh stand up please There you go First place overall Thank you guys
Yes Mr Short Thank you Madam Chair Um I I'm going to call somebody out because he started this back in the day and my memory is telling me that Mr Banano uh started back when I was new to the board in 2018 Uh I think we had two teams How
many do we have then christian 28 Yes So coach was saying I was leader to try to get the coaches right so coaches thank y'all so much because there's a lot of time put into this Parents thank y'all I know
how expensive the equipment is It's very very expensive You wouldn't think that it's that expensive but I'm thrilled to see this program grow And thank thank the coaches Thank y'all so much Absolutely Okay I would I would like to ask all the uh
students and winners to go out into the hallway Uh James Evans would like to get a picture Thank you Yep It will get quiet They all going to sit in there My I was like
Hallelujah Mr McCann you cleared out the room Yes They must have read what was next on the agenda How's your time doing okay now that I think we we're ready to go next up we have Dr Jeff McCann to
present the Charter Applications Review Committee's Recommendation Report Take it away Here we go Ready to roll All right Good evening everybody Thanks for your time today and and for the opportunity to present the findings of the charter application review committee for 2025
It's been a very busy 90 days and I can assure you we did not take our responsibilities lightly and thoroughly analyze both of the uh um the applications presented Um you have received the full written report My job tonight is to present a summary of that report to you and for the public uh and
to get on record with that and to answer any questions that you may have over the the report or the the the scoring rubrics that I've I have sent to you already So we'll get started with that Um tonight we're going to look at the initial um applications presented from
Nova Smart Academy K8 and Rocket Ship Tennessee number four I'd like to start out with just a reminder of that Tennessee code annotated has outlined the six purposes for charter schools We've been over this before but I think it's important that we look at these because um to be eligible to be approved
a charter must be deemed as meeting at least three of those six purposes And we have seen with both applications that both did a great job of addressing all six purposes in their application And just as a reminder I think it's important to review this information
that what is a charter school just a couple of things to draw your attention to um is that um local boards of education that's you ensure that only those charter schools that meet the needs of students shall be open to begin with and remain open throughout their
10-year charter term In Tennessee charters are granted a term of 10 years It's not the same in every state Most states are five In Tennessee it's a 10-year term And you do this as a board through a rigorous authorization process starting with what we're doing tonight
Um reviewing and analyzing the submitted applications and continuing that for approved charters with ongoing monitoring Okay And when necessary sometimes we have to proceed through the revocation or non-renewal process That does happen from time to time So here we
are in the timeline We're within that 90-day window um to vote on the initial applications If we don't vote within 90 days remember they're automatically deemed approved And that 90-day deadline is May the 1st but this is the f last meeting we have before that deadline So
um well that's why we're talking about it this week And just remember if you do um whether you approve or deny if you do deny um they can come back and submit an amended application within 30 days And then we have another 60 days to review
those amendments and then you will vote again and that will get us approximately to July 25th So just kind of thinking ahead Um um if that happens we'll we'll be revisiting this in in July And then if again you can approve or if you deny
they can then appeal to the charter commission for approval Uh here's an overview of the process that we've gone through We've trained the committee We've met in several several times to review different components of the application uh they submitted initial scoring
rubrics to me in March and then we met to review those and determine and to narrow down our chief concerns to address during the capacity interviews On March 19th and 27th we had capacity interviews with representatives from both charter schools that were here present for an in-person interview to
answer some of those questions for us Then after that the committee had to submit their final rubrics to me I compiled them into a summary report which you have Um and then we met um to determine our consensus recommendation to present to you which is what I'm
doing here tonight Remember our deadline to vote is February is May the 1st Okay here's the the a review of just who's on the application team You'll notice we had two parents two local principles a board member Miss Rosales was a great
member of the team um and multiple central office staff of various areas of expertise We have finance people facilities people transportations federal programs special populations um all kinds of expertise on that particular review team And we got
together to review our two submitted applications from Nova Smart Academy K8 Those of you that were on the board last year remember them They um applied last year as well were ultimately denied by us and appealed to the charter commission who denied them as well but they're back this year with a revamped
application And then a new application for us this year came from Rocket Ship Public Schools which which is a current operator of of of other charter schools in Tennessee and nationwide So let's start with a review of that Nova Smart application Again the
full name of that school is Nova Smart Academy K through8 They have no sponsor no charter management organization They are a true New Start charter school that and they're their own sole entity Their proposed location is Smyrna Lever
the north end of the county Number of schools currently in operation again none They have no other schools in operation This will be their only school if we approve it What are they all about well their mission says that they are focused on preparing kids for colleges and careers
and they start that in kindergarten at an early age and where they emphasize early intervention and equitable education for all of their students Here's a look at what their proposed enrollment looks like It's a little different than last year When they
submitted last year they only plan to start with kindergarten which caused some concerns with the budget margins with the state charter commission So this year they came back and are um proposing to start with kindergarten and first grade 192 students in their first in their first year adding a grade level
at a time until they hit 8th grade in year 8 where their full capacity will be 864 students The summary of the evaluation from the committee was that we recommend denial of the initial application because we determined that
they failed to meet or exceed the criteria in all three of their areas academics operations and finance You can see that we rated them as only partially meeting the standard which is good But requirements from the state of Tennessee
say for us to recommend them to you we have to deem that they either meet or exceed the standards in all three areas not just one or two They have to meet or exceed in all three before we can recommend them for approval Now that doesn't mean that you can't approve them
All that simply means is that we can't recommend them to be approved unless we determine that they meet or exceed all three of those areas Okay So let's talk about what our concerns are and what the what their strengths are in their AC in their submitted application Starting with
section one the academic plan and design Our concerns are number one that they do indicate a use of culturally sensitive materials as part of their curriculum We felt like there was an insufficient description of what those materials were
and what that truly meant what materials they were going to use how they were to determine what is culturally sensitive and what is not And the concern there is that will it comply with TCA 4961019 which is the state law that
talks about concepts that are prohibited from inclusion or promotion in the course of instruction uh penalties for which would be the withholding of state funding Another concern we had was the instructional time allotted to science and social studies Uh their current plan
only calls for teaching those subjects two times per week each for a total of 30 minutes which adds up to about 12 minutes a day Now we realize that in the early grades elementary science and social studies are not accountable subjects They're not assessed but they do begin to be
assessed in fifth grade for science and sixth grade for social studies Uh but if you don't address those standards in the lower grades there are definitely going to be some learning gaps for those students then when it comes time for testing we're concerned that there will be enough gaps that they will not be
able to to test successfully Uh another thought on that is if they do start at the school and then they leave and return to Rutherford County um there will be some significant gaps in science and social studies we feel like because we address those standards uh in a lot
more depth um than just 12 minutes a day Okay and feel free to stop me if you have questions along the way by the way All right Their plan for special populations is a concern Um if you remember last year's submitted plan they
had some some uh some significant errors in their ELLL plan with outdated terminology Um they revised that in their amended application and it was better and this year it's even better than it was with their initial submission last year but still there's a lot of inaccurate and incorrect
terminology in their plan For instance the term pushin for ELLL services that is no longer allowed in Tennessee Their plan calls for pushin services detailed specifically as that also they indicate that students that enter their school will be screened within the first 30
days Well that's only accurate for the beginning of the year brand new students Once students start the school or once the school year starts if an ELLL student um enters um the school they only have 10 days and the and before they screen them and the plan does not
allow for that Okay students with disabilities Um they're plan they do plan to utilize a service provider which we've seen that model in our two operating current charter schools They plan to utilize that same company Project Play Therapy which is a great
company But as we have seen they can't always provide the necessary support personnel that the school might think they are going to get from that service provider which could result in services not being provided by someone licensed and certified in special ed which we
have run into already And their plan for gifted services does not meet near the standards for Rutherford County School gifted services to to the same level Um it's it's very um lacking in that area as well and they don't plan to hire a school psychologist We do realize that
um with a small population you may not need a full-time school psychologist and I think they do plan to utilize their service provider for that But we feel like um a school psychologist is important enough that the school needs to pursue hiring their own at least on a
part-time basis to begin with moving into full-time Not only do school psychologists have to to oversee the evaluation process for services but they also participate um in in in those uh um uh what's the word just popped out of my
head Those threat assessments There we go The threat assessments that have to be conducted on a regular basis at our schools They are a key person in that process And then lastly their use of a school counselor as an MTSS coordinator MTSS stands for multi-tiered system of
supports You might know that as RTI That's what we call it in Rutherford County RTI Um yes our counselors are used for RTI support for behavior in our district but their plan calls for them to oversee the
entire instructional RTI program and system of supports School counselors are not necessarily trained in instructional techniques Most of them are not licensed teachers they're just licensed to be counselors So that kind of steps beyond the boundaries we think of a school
counselor role And then finally um with that academic plan and design there appears to be a lack of community support and demand for the school Our survey this year went out um midFebruary ran through April Um we received f 532 respondents
which is about double what we got last year Um which is good But you'll notice that um 82% of the respondents um said no to the question do you fully support the approval of the new charter school application submitted by Nova Smart
Academy 82% said no But their academic plan and design does have some strengths to it And here they are Their mission and vision that we looked at at the very beginning drives everything that they do And everything in their plan is tied closely to that mission and vision
We've always been a fan of their two educator model that they that they brought out last year They changed the term Last year was called a two-teer model which was a bit um misleading They've renamed it two educator model but basically what it does is it guarantees two adults in every classroom
One adult being a licensed certified teacher the other adult being basically a pair professional who ideally we would be working towards their own lure similar to our teach now program or or our grow your own programs that we have for some of our personnel in this
district Okay But it does guarantee two adults in every classroom Their whole climate is driven by their identified set of values They call them noble core values but it really does a good job of setting a tone for a positive climate at the school The passion and vision of the
governing board We've always been a fan of the Novas board Their hearts in the right place They're in it for the right reasons Um they're in it for students and students in Rutherford County And they've done a great job of improving their board composition this year over
last year They've increased the number of people with significant educational expertise particularly in special areas Okay It does address all six charter school purposes like we said and they do plan to provide an extended school day 8 hours There will be a 7:30 to 3:30
school which is an hour long than hour longer than our schools are right now Um 4 days a week On Wednesdays they plan early release days uh to to devote time for their staff to analyze data collaborate and and receive professional
development which we think is a great plan Okay let's go on to section two the operations plan and capacity Our concerns there are the executive director and principal is one person We are fans of Dr Jeremy Sager We really
are and we do not doubt his abilities But we have seen firsthand what happens when you have one person who's responsible for all of these things That's a great deal of responsibility and action placed on one man's shoulders It's not a sustainable model as we have
seen with our two operating charters Now that facilities improvement budget right now they have budgeted $500,000 for upgrades to the to to a facility Um we don't think that's
enough Although I will say this that they did indicate to us in the capacity interview that uh the building hope group has committed to funding all of their startup costs but that has not been verified We don't know that that's a fact The letter from them that was
included in the application does not say that Another concern for that facilities improvement budget is the new required storm shelter You may be aware of this you may not but the state now requires that any charter school that's converting a facility to an educational facility
constructs an adequate storm shelter that will house the entire population of the school in the event of a storm emergency Um in their plan Novas indicates that they plan to uh um request a three-year variance for that which you can do You can request a
three-year variance but our fear there is what if something happens during those initial three years and they have nowhere to evacuate to they do not have a safe place in those three years And after those three years will they just keep requesting a
variance again that's a concern that we have Another a big concern of ours is there even though we like their board we like their director they have no track record They have no experience of operating charter schools or opening charter schools So that's a concern for
us I don't know in Rutherford County schools do we want to take that risk and then finally their transportation budget and their forecast While transportation is a hallmark of their plan we think it's great to provide transportation for the kids
They're forecasting wrership at 35% in their plan They're budgeting for only 25% But if you if you know the the ridership patterns for the north end of the county we're looking at more of a 70% ridership number for that area of the county So
we're feared we fear that if they don't budget sufficient funds for that all their kids will not be able to take advantage of it We're not sure that's not an equity issue So what are the strengths of the or operations planning capacity first of all like we mentioned the board is very
strong a lot of expertise They have a plan for ongoing recruitment of local people to be on that board That transportation possibility even though the budget is a concern we do think that is a key recruiting factor for the school is that they can provide
transportation Staff demographics The plan calls for the demographics of the staff to match the demographics of the community which we think is important in a charter school setting And they've already located possible facilities One of which is a church on
Ridley Street in Smyrna which they have had extensive negotiations with really for over a year now They've identified this facility They've already engaged with architects and engineers um to explore the renovations needed to bring that facility up to up to capacity So in
that sense they're really a bit ahead of the game for most from from where most charter schools would be at this point in time All right let's take a look at the third part for them The financial planning capacity Our concerns is their contingency model for enrollment
deficits Their their plan says that they can operate fiscally sound with enrollment deficits of up to 25% Which means it if they only hit 75% of their projected enrollment they feel like they can still operate fiscally
soundly Um however both of the charter schools that that that opened in Rutherford County this year faced deficits that were higher than that Anywhere from 27 to 35% deficits in enrollment for both of those schools You add a third charter to that same area
And then the fourth charter that we're going to look at in a minute also intends to locate in that area Four charter schools in that area we were afraid will have a definite negative impact on their potential to hit their enrollment targets especially if it if it matches what our
current charter schools have done so far So that is a major concern for us Their budget for teacher compensation their starting salary of 55,000 which is very competitive It's more than what starting teachers make right now and other districts around here including
ours But according to their budget every teacher will get paid that much And as a result they they they did admit in the ch in the capacity interview that their budget is going to force them to look for level one teachers to be hired So in essence you're going to have a building
full of brand new teachers with no experienced teachers as support there So that's a concern Uh and the performance incentives they call for to retain their most effective staff year after year plan calls for it The budget does not
It's not in the budget And we all know if it doesn't get in the budget it's not going to get funded So that's a concern You can plan that but if you don't budget it it's it's not going to happen Strengths in the financial plan and there are some the budget allotss
for full staffing necessary including all special populations classrooms needs that is in the budget which is great And their financial monitoring plan is stronger than what our current charter schools have They have a monthly analyses planned with a finance committee and a
treasurer Every month they're going to sit down and look at the books which we like a lot So ultimately here's our consensus that we reached We recommend that you deny this initial application And here are the main reasons why lack of community support possible
oversaturation of charter schools in the north end of the county their facilities budget the all the responsibilities that lay on one man's shoulders to get the school open and running Again they have no track
record They're a brand new organization That's quite a leap of faith for us to take those budget contingency models what if they don't hit their enrollment targets and their enrollment ends up deficits end up larger than 25% Can they still make a go
of it and just an FYI for you their year one fiscal impact if you'll take note is almost $2 million in state and local funds that will go their way Charter schools as you know are in their first year are funded on what their projected enrollment is So that's the budgeted
number that we would have to um plan for almost $2 million in the first year Year six it could be as high as $9 million That's with current levels of TISA funding which is bound to change between now and then but that's based on current levels of teacher of of TISA
funding Okay Questions about the NOVA Smart Academy application or do you want to go on to the next one okay Yes Yes Mr Tidwell I got a question about the building hope that you mentioned earlier Could you explain a little bit about that that is an
organization they're partnering with for the that that new hope Yes That is a that is an independent organization that supports charter schools Okay They provide support to charter schools That's all they do And you mentioned that they had talked about a partnership of helping fund that But you didn't see
that in writing per se We've not gotten that verified in writing They just mentioned it in the capacity interview that hey building hope says they're willing to fund whatever we need to start and I have no reason to doubt them but it's just not been validated or verified The letter that they submitted
did said up to 250,000 Okay And and you mentioned the oversaturation as well Do did they choose the north end or are we recommending the north end no this was their choice They choose the location they they wish to and it's part of their
application So they are bound to locate in that area Okay Yes Mr Y Um okay So if my memory serves me correct last year it was just kindergarten and yes that is correct We
conditionally approved them and they came back and met the conditions Correct Okay they did So tell me what the difference is That's a great question Michelle between last year and I was ready for that too Great Great Their their plan is somewhat different
Uh the main thing there's a couple of things that influenced this year Number one it's a totally different committee who looked at it with different eyes and saw different things than the committee last year saw including me Um the feedback that we got from the state charter commission on why they
denied them opened our eyes to a few things that we missed quite honestly Um can you elaborate on that the budget margins We didn't notice how short the budget margins were going to be and and and that the the amount of responsibilities that fell on the director's shoulders on one person or a
small group of people's shoulders that was indicated by the the charter commission as well And we didn't know what we didn't know We had never opened a charter school We didn't know Well now we know because we've opened two and we see what that model looks like where one person um is responsible for so many
things Thank you Thank you Any other questions yes Mr B Follow that up The budget margin What What did the state say what what is the what is the rule of thumb i don't know that there's a rule of thumb They just felt like the the margins were too slim
and in other words they didn't they didn't list a percentage They really didn't And they don't indicate that Did the committee not you did the committee our committee have an opinion about the about the amount yeah they felt like it was a little a little slim
too But uh it's it's better than it was last year How much is it i'd have to look that up I have to pull their budget up It's If you come across send it to me I I will look that up I don't remember off the top of my head though That's a great question But I will say this that that last year
uh in their their overall budget by the end of I by the end of that first I I guess it's six years when they get or five years they have to submit a budget for the first five years um the amount of money that they had budgeted to have in on hand I think it was over $2
million last year dropped significantly this year Their budget is a lot more conservative So they're they they're not for forecasting to have near that amount of money at the end of five years Any other questions i'd just like to make a statement Uh that committee did
about as thorough a job as I think you could ever do in evaluating potential charter schools using this model And uh I'd just like to thank Dr McCann and committee because they really worked
hard I mean they really uh evaluated uh this charter school with uh you know a lot of effort a lot of expertise and I will say that honestly
this year the committee took a much keener eye in looking at the the applications just because we have a greater knowledge base now um at this point uh in time So that they did take a very keen eye and very were scrutinized
every piece of that um that application thoroughly Yes Mr T did you have something yeah I just want to ask another question about the the 500,000 in facilities you mentioned probably wasn't enough Uh are you basing that on including the storm shelter or is that separate from the storm shelter as well
a little bit of both I mean the that storm shelter could cost anywhere in and talking to one of our schools that is trying to put one in now It could be a million dollars could be a million dollars just to put in a storm shelter And that's a significant struggle for a charter school to to fund that kind of
construction Gota thank you Mr Rosales And that that and the fact I will say I'm sorry that and the fact that the facility they have chosen is a rather older facility church and they've indicated some issues with um how to secure the school part of it separate
from the church part of it Um so it does appear that it's going to need some pretty significant um security upgrades I was just going to say that um I think that having charters we want them to be set up for success And so having gone
through two that already started I think the the board the committee sorry not the board the committee that was there had that experience and brought into it as we were talking through all of the questions and and having a a dialogue
that was more rounded robust more scrutinized Um I mean it and I learned a lot going through it cuz I'm not an educator so I don't know the ins and outs of things And so I think I think we want our these charter schools to be set
up for success And I just want to remind the board members that whatever is signed on the contract that is the binding agreement and so um I particularly want them to be successful Great point Thank you Me too Because we
are fans honestly of Dr Sager and his committee He's a good man He's a good man and his committee is it's a good committee too It's a great committee We are fans of theirs but we want them to be successful as well And there's a lot writing on that All right So let's take a look at the summary of the application
for Rocket Ship TN4 School name Right now they're known as Rocket Ship TN4 because they've not picked a name Their process typically is upon approval they form a committee of parents um community members staff and sometimes students to develop a name For
instance in Metro one of the schools is named um Rocket Ship Dream Community Prep They came up with that name on their own and Rocket Ship North Noutheast Nashville I think North something like that But they created those names on their own They they do have a sponsor a charter management
organization This is the first one we've had under a charter management organization and that's Rocket Ship Education Tennessee which is a branch of the National Rocket Ship Education Group Their proposed location again they also wish to locate in Smyrna and
Leverne Right now they have three schools that are currently in operation Um there are all three in Metro Nashville public schools They have applied to open a fourth one in Metro Nashville in that same school year 2627 which if we're are if you approve
this one and Metro approves that one they will be up to five schools in operations in Tennessee but they also operate in several other states under the national umbrella But Rocket Ship Education Tennessee is kind of their own governing body They do work with under
the support and umbrella of Rocket Chip Education National but Tennessee has their own group What are they all about well um their mission statement says that you know their goal is to transform change in lowincome communities That's probably
why they picked where they picked um and create a world with equal access to opportunity for all Their goal is to close opportunity gaps that students sometimes not saying that's the case in Rutherford County but sometimes face um in in lowincome communities
Okay here's their proposed enrollment what it looks like They are only going to be kindergarten through fifth grade They're not going any higher than elementary They're going to start though with K4 uh with 240 students in year 1
When they hit full capacity in year six they should be they forecast to be at 576 students and don't plan to grow above that Okay here's the summary of the evaluation from the committee Again we recommend denial and found that they
only partially met the standard and in their case in four areas As an existing charter management organization run school they do have a track record and performance record So they have to complete the fourth section of that application the portfolio review and
performance record And again we rated them as partially meets in all four State says they have to meet or exceed in all four for us to recommend them to you So what are our concerns for the academic plan and design right now they
operate under what they call a four content block schedule Even as low as kindergarten they departmentalize students rotate through four blocks during the day A humanities block a STEM block um an intervention block and a related arts block That humanities block
is basically ELA um and social studies STEM block is math and science and technology and some other things And then they have a full block for intervention time of which enrichment is a part and a full block of related arts time But the result is once again
reduced time for science and social studies If you look at the way they've written the plan there's only 9 to 18 minutes no more a day for science and social studies Only 9 to 18 minutes And they are integrated within those blocks Like we said science is integrated into
STEM Social studies is integrated into humanities And they do not have a curriculum for social studies They plan to use the ELA curriculum to teach social studies standards Again we're concerned about the gaps in learning that that might create once the student
leaves their school and goes to middle school where they become accountable for those social studies and science scores Same thing here with the plan for ELLL services It contains errors like the term pushin some inaccurate criteria for those ELLL students and how they're
measured uh we would expect that a school that's already operating u under a charter management organization would have a a flawless application without these type of errors Now granted the ELLL terminology changes a lot and the requirements for ELLL
change a lot but we would expect our schools for us to approve them to have it right from the get-go and they don't And we did and one thing that we did do she was not a part of the committee but I had a member
of the the ELLL team the ESL department comb through the plan for ELLL services um and and and to to let us know hey are they compliant and she identified several errors and inconsistencies and inaccuracies in both of the plans So
that is a concern for us is especially on that end of the county the high number of ELLL students that they are going to have You might be interested or concerned to know that they plan to focus on social emotional learning SEAL and you know
we're concerned that that may not align with uh your our board's goals um and policies They do have their own curriculum for that that Rocket Ship Schools developed It's called um the shortest distance um that basically aims to integrate storytelling with
pro-social skill building to help students understand their lives and share their personal stories This curriculum is designed to be culturally responsive and aligned with Rocket Ship's core values Again you've got some culturally responsive uh materials just to think
about but there is a large focus on that social emotional learning in their plan their success rates for their schools While they may comp they may be comparable with the district that they're in right now they do not match RCS data They're not as high as our
success rates typically are I'll give you an example or two Um uh according to the state report card success rates for for rocket ship schools um in ELA um last year was approximately 21 to 26%
depending on which school you're at of their students that met or exceeded um the standards in ELA 21 to 26% Compare that to RCS schools in the Smyrna Lever area not across the district but just in the Smyrna Lever area where they intend to
locate are approximately 38% So that's that's 12 to 16 12 to 17% higher than what um rocket ship schools are reporting And in math um rocket ship schools uh they had schools as low as
10% proficient Um but it they did have a school that was 40% proficient Um Ruther County schools in math in that same area Smyrna and Leverne are typically average 40% uh meets or exceeds And then just an example of a subgroup the black Hispanic and Native
American subgroup um for um their success rate for all subjects from rocket ship um was 25% Our schools in the last two year in in 22 and 23 were at 34 and 36% meets or
exceeds social emotional learning Well basically it you spend time addressing students emotional needs and their so not a better way to explain it I don't think that their social and needs and um you know who they are
coming to terms with who they are Yes we're concerned that that would take time away from instruction Any other questions okay I I think historically especially recently we we have um tried to turn our focus away from
social emotional learning in our schools That's why that's why I'm mentioning that to the board Okay Again this school has a lack of community support as evidenced by our survey that you'll see um only 80% of respondents support the approval of
rocket ships application and I'll give you some more details on that survey as we as we as we get to the end of this but there are a lot of strengths in their academic plan and design and they are their whole mission takes a very whole child approach they want to address the needs
of the whole child and they incorporate STEM positive behavior supports again those multi-tered system of supports inclusion services for all of their special populations Enrichment is a key part of that intervention block and they really focus on parent engagement to try
to meet the needs of all their children They do indicate the use of best practice instructional strategies in their plan uh including those scientific principles of reading Uh their goal is to to build fluent accurate readers that read on grade
level which is what you have to do to pass third grade We all know they do have a a a pretty rigorous plan how they're going to track and analyze student data And data is going to drive everything in that school It'll be a highly data-driven school And
because they have a um a a charter management group to support them their recruiting and marketing plan is is strong It's very strong And it's continual It doesn't stop once the doors open on day one They continue to recruit and market throughout the community and
and get students and they're really focusing right now on students that have left Rocket Ship Schools in Metro and moved to Rutherford County They have they they have reached out to many of those Okay So operations plan and capacity What are
our concerns there leadership qualifications They've not named the principal which which is is not surprising because they've not even been approved yet And they already have a management group to run things They have a team set aside to to run the opening process They plan to hire a principal
probably in December but the qualifications uh for that um that person that they've listed in their application really lacks some significant educational leadership experience um training and administrative lure Matter of fact what they're requiring now is three years of
teaching experience two years as an AP or similar leadership role uh a bachelor's degree and Tennessee teaching credential no administrative lure That's significantly less than what we require in Rutherford County for a principal to
have significantly less that safety and security of the intended facility Um if if you looked at the application initi initially it appeared to be written towards the construction of a new facility on land that they were looking at Well they have
changed that um to pursuing a facility that they can lease and they have located a facility in the Smyrna Lever area that they think would be a suitable one It's one Mr Mr Lee and I have have both toured uh at one time um and we it
could be turned into an educational facility is not large Um but their plan does not address the needs of renovating an existing facility and what doesn't say what they're going to do to make sure it's set up for a school it's safe
and it's secure So we have concerns there Throughout their application they indicate aligning with Common Core standards As you know in Tennessee we don't teach Common Core standards we teach Tennessee state standards And they admitted in the uh um
in the capacity interview that hey that's just an obvious oversight on our part Sorry we missed that But what that tells me is number one they probably just copied and pasted an existing application from another state if they're going to use Common
Core and submitted it or at least portions of it without revising it and addressing the need specific to Rutherford County So that has us concerned that their application was not written to meet the needs of up Rutherford County And remember if you
approve this charter school whatever you approve in the application you have approved So in essence you would be approving Common Core standards being taught in Rutherford County at least with the initial application that they submitted Okay
We're also concerned about recent denials of two schools in in in MNS Last year they had a new start application that was denied by Metro Nashville And they had one charter school that was reaching the end of its 10-year agreement that Metro denied the renewal
of Now both of those went on to appeal to the state charter commission and the charter commission approved them But the fact that Metro Nashville denied them to begin with is a concern of ours And as in my discussion um with Metro Nashville that um um the non nonrenewal of that
one charter school they felt like was due to some low performance issues due to some changing leadership But we'll talk about what Metro Nashville had to say in a little bit because it was by and large positive So what are the strengths of that operations plan of capacity well
obviously they have a history of operating charter schools some quite well The charter management organization comes they're bringing in a wealth of experience where we've not had that in a charter school so far Their staffing plans are very robust
just like the last group They plan to fill every position that they need and they're only going to hire licensed certified teachers which that's what state law says you have to do But they don't plan to even seek permits and waiverss and they already have recruited several staff members that are within
their organization that they feel like are are interested in coming and really want to come to Rutherford County Their transportation provision is definitely a bonus Again they're going to offer transportation and they've done it before so they know what they're doing They already have a transportation
company Grey Line um that they work with um for their for their schools in Metro Nashville um successfully Um there is some concern that it's different in a rural county like ours than it is in an urban setting like Metro Nashville That there's some considerations there that they need to think about and the
distance some kids will need to travel and how far they'll have to go to pick them up But they've done it and they have a company already in their back pocket that has done this They're strong in the procurement of facilities Um and like I say they've located a suitable facility and will not
need to construct as originally intended And that's going to save a ton of money because the properties they were looking at were all commercially zoned which was going to cost a fortune but they have you know luckily located a suitable facility Okay Part three the financial
plan What are our concerns with that well the budgeted staff numbers they did promise in the capacity interview even and in the if you look at their application that their uh uh pupil toteer ratios will be 25 to1 and no higher But when you look at the budget
the number of teachers that they have for their full-time equivalent budget and the number of students that they are forecasting in year one you do the math and it comes out to 30 to1 and in year two 31 to1 So that's
higher than what they're saying 25 to1 Um my guess and this is what I believe they're doing is they're counting their related arts teachers and support teachers in their in their teacher ratios to bring it down to 25 to1 where we don't do that We we base it on home
room teachers the general core classroom teachers to reach those ratios Uh this is rather minor They're questionable revenue numbers I think um their initial budget um allotted for TISA budgeted funds of $10,522 a student Um current TISA funds
are only 10,27453 right now That's today Um now that can be easily fixed by adjusting the budget as needed Um and we think they can do that pretty easily Uh but the concern there is um that's
$60,000 in in revenue that they budgeted that they would not be receiving That's a teacher That's a teacher And they're also forecasting ESSA an idea funding of $1,000 per student We think that's pretty uh pretty robust We don't think
their uh their number of IDEIDA students will will be high enough um to generate that kind of income It's not in either one of our current charter schools and we don't feel like it will be that way here So the strengths again and there are
many for this group in finances They have strong network support who who indicate at least $7 million cash on hand for their network The result is there's going to be no debt They don't need to borrow money They weren't going to borrow money when they were going to build the school but they've they're
they're promising that there will be no debt no debt services Uh the national organization and the Tennessee organization um have a lot of experience opening and operating new charter schools We see that as a positive They have a history of sound
fiscal performance None of their schools have had audit findings and no noted negative or questionable financial practices have been noted in their authorizer annual reports
Definitely some strengths there Finally the last section that portfolio review and performance record This is an area of concern for us in that number one if you look at their authorizer annual reports there are some concerns over performance from their current schools They have fluctuating success rates for
ELA math and science Up and down up and down Um chronic absenteeism appears to be a concern for many of their schools Credentiing is a concern And what that tells me is that there have been instances where they've had to hire non-licensed non-certified personnel and
put them in positions where that is needed That's what credentiing stands for Their student suspension rates are high higher than Rutherford County And then there were concerns over other obligations in isolated settings like food service transportation health
services things like that Uh I will say this though and and we'll look at that on the next page that um overall the feedback from their um um annual authorizer reports was generally positive It was generally positive But when we see isolated concerns like this
um that raises a red flag for us And then finally the ownership of underperformance A couple of schools that have been closed we asked them specifically about or they notated in their in their application And in both instances they tended to point to the community as the cause for that That's
not what we'd like to see We'd like to see some ownership of that of that underperformance matter Now I'll give you a specific example in the capacity interview when we ask about why one of their um why their charter schools had been denied this past year They felt like it was the it was a charter school
climate of of MNPS That was what they they they they put that finger on and then another school in another state was closed and they in their application says that um it was a challenging community to operate in Well ideally that's where charter schools are set up
to operate and should operate as in challenging communities Okay Okay But strengths of the portfolio record and performance review their annual authorizer reports like I said indicated overall positive rankings and that's supported by the due diligence
that we did I interviewed the uh um um representatives from the authorizing office of both MNPS and the state public charter school commission Both of them had positive things to say about Rocket Ship Matter of fact both said that Rocket Ship schools are some of our better charter
schools Both groups said that and their growth rates We saw their success rates not being comparable to our uh to to RC RCS schools but they do have some generally positive growth rates for most of their school They offer that their schools are all fours and fives That's not the case everywhere
and it's not the case in every subject They do have a few ones or twos here but generally they're positive growth rates um across the board for the for for their schools Now Rocket Ship United has earned reward status from TDOE several times and they're a relatively new
school and uh there's a a report on charter school effectiveness um done by Stanford in university in 23 called the Credo report um and it gave them the label of gapbuster which which they give to schools who who have shown the propensity to close achievement gaps for
groups of students So a lot of positive things there as well But ultimately we do recommend you deny their initial application And here's the reasons why Their success rates are not on par with RCS Lack of community support possible oversaturation in that end of the county
which could affect recruitment and enrollment for all of the charter schools in that area The qualifications that they require of a leader we don't feel like they're very strong those recent denials by MNPS those staff numbers that result in a 30 to1 ratio the underperformance
of some schools and their lack of ownership for that that focus on Common Core and SEAL And just FYI their fiscal impact for year one would need to be budgeted at almost 2.5 million and year five it
will reach $6 million questions about rocket ship before we wrap it all up Any questions i want to thank you It's very thorough Let me wrap it up Let me let me give you leave you with some final thoughts The
the visiting I'm sorry Revisiting the public opinion survey Um uh just wanted you to know that these were the respondents 71% were parents or guardians of the RCS students 20% were community stakeholders 7% were other and
then there were a few isolated parents of current charter school students and even a couple of students that responded to the survey But just a reminder 82% from Novvice did not support and 80% do not support rocket ship And I did ask a final question What
do you think about charter schools as a viable school choice option for families in Rutherford County in general and to this question 76 um% responded that they do not support charter schools as a viable option 19%
said yes 5% maybe Okay just uh some more on the fiscal impact because you need this is something that you need to know um um in that um if you'll look at the the the column on the left current schools for 2526 that's for next year
what we need to budget That first number is the number um that we need to budget for the first couple of months It is based on in your second year starting in your second year of operation your funding is based on prior year enrollment which comes from that June
ADM pull from the state plus your forecasted numbers for any added grades And all three Ru County charter schools are adding a grade next year So for AAR we need to budget 2.64 64 million Springs 2.1 million and
according to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission who authorizes RCP Rutherford Collegiate Prep we'll need to budget $7.8 million Now keep in mind that that will be all this will be tred up with the October
ADM pool And if you go on what both our charter schools our authorized charter schools are forecasting as their enrollment total enrollment AAR's number could go up to oh sorry 3.7 million springs up to 2.57
million It's it's impossible to predict what their impact is going to be in 2627 when we if we approve these two new schools Um but if you go on those current levels of funds add the two new schools in with Novvice at
1.97 Rocket Ship at 2.47 that's a possible total budget impact of 18.5 million in state and local funding beginning in the 2627 school year I just think that's important for you to know Finally reminders for you Like I
said before the committee was very scrutinous with the submitted applications RCS wants wants applications with no major concerns I do not think we want to go down that road of opening a charter school that has major concerns in their
application If denied again we must indicate specific reasons why we're denying that And then they would have 30 days if they choose to submit an amended application And but remember if approved the Rutherford County Board of Education
is legally liable for anything in that agreement it becomes part the application becomes part of the agreement So anything in the application we we are liable for we're also liable for whatever practices the charter schools engage in which is why
monitoring is so important Finally quality authorizer makes decisions to approve or deny based on what's best for students families and the local education association regardless of political or other external pressures and ideals We've got
to do what's best for the students and families and the board So what are your next steps you don't have much time I know but you got to carefully consider the application submitted and the reports that I've provided
you You will need to vote by resolution on Thursday night's meeting Approve or deny And whatever that resolution says we need we have to provide it immediately to the charter school applicant I think we have 10 days to do that We're pretty good about providing
it I think quicker than that Again if denied you have to give specific reasons and they can submit it an amended application within 30 days and then we have 60 more days to review and vote again But if you approve we simply begin the agreement negotiation
process We carefully write an agreement with the charter schools and we begin we begin the negotiation process questions Miss Max Miss Mr Ros I thought there was three
options I I thought Well there's that Last year I did I did and and yes it's still an option is that you can you can vote to deny with stipulations for resubmission You don't have to do that but you can give them specific
stipulations that they have to meet to submit an amended application And that's what we did last year What yeah What what was the mot what what did the board I know we voted to deny with some kind based on stipulations You voted to deny with
stipulations for resubmission which you can do but you have to provide those stipulations specific stipulations what we said last year There were several things basically uh and again I I don't think this is typical to do but we did it last year um
because we really like Novas um and we're hoping they could be successful So I gave I outlined specifically what they needed to change in the application this year I don't intend to do that this year Gotcha Okay Thank you Okay Any other
questions yes Mr What Jeff it kind of and help bring me up speed just a little bit about this but looking looking at numbers you've got a parent response rate of roughly 20% that says this kind
of works Yep All right We we've got three schools operating already right is there enough demand if you go off that number is there enough demand in the north end of the county let's say you had a 10% participation rate Could could
we could we ever fill up all five and what my concern here where I'm getting around to saying this is you know approving both of these are we going to hurt the other three that are already in business and put them
subject to failure that sounds cruel but but that's the that's a reality for me I don't want that is an accurate that is an accurate uh assumption Yes I because if you go off the the enrollment patterns of the three charter schools that opened this year not none of them
met their target None of them And like I like I showed before that they had anywhere they had up to a 37 35% enrollment deficit And that's my fear is if we add two additional charter schools to that end of the county not only are they going to struggle to meet their
enrollment projections but how is that going to affect the two that we're trying to get up and running correctly now who who are struggling to to make budget and who are struggling to receive enough funds to to hire sufficient personnel and operate And you know there's a
national movement you know for more parent choice do whatever you know for whatever reason you know whatever leads a parent to do that but I I just that is a great concern right there I don't I don't want to limit parents choices
obviously you know private school they got the vouchers now we've got three do we need two more those are critical questions that are entering my mind right now and I you can't answer that for me but I they are definitely legitimate questions they are I show
that same concern okay so I'm not off bait because you know I don't want to deny like I said I don't want to deny a parent being able to do what they think is in their best needs needs But obviously with a voucher being in play now versus last year that kind of
changes things doesn't it i mean doesn't that open up a lot of options for a lot of families to go to other schools now it does It does And like you said options are great We do want We want parents to have a lot of options Um but
when you start affecting the enrollment of a school that is funded based on their enrollment numbers and and they rely on that funding to come in to be able to hire special ed teachers and ESL teachers um to to be compliant with
state regulations um it becomes difficult Did you have an indication of either one of them and I the only way I know how to say this is there a sweet spot they're looking for you know is there a demographic is there a type of child type of family that that they're
marketing to that that would they they market typically to to what are known as historically underserved populations Um economically disadvantaged kids um um multiple language families um um you
know very diverse populations If you look at the populations of our two charter schools now they're very diverse which which they really love Um both of them and the one in Leverne um was was really surprised by the high number of English language learners they have
enrolled and they do they have a large number there Miss Maxwell just a moment Mr Yeah actually uh Stan touched on what I was going to touch on too which another question I'd asked at the previous uh for Novas was that oversaturation If if we come back with
something that has a denial with stipulations is there any interest in these charters looking at other areas rather than building on top of the same areas where charters already exist and and are going to be fighting over the same students they have not indicated that Matter of fact I recommended to
Novvice last year that they consider applying to Murphersboro City because there are some inner city needs in the Murphy'sboro City system which to me fit their profile very well for what the kind of community and kids they wanted to serve but they were not interested in
that They were dead set on Smyrna Lever Both of them are And I do think Rocket Ship um really and they kind of indicated this in the capacity interview um knows that there are a large number of students who have have migrated from um Metro Nashville Davidson County to
the north end of the county Um many of which had gone previously to charter schools namely Rocket Ship Schools Um that they're hoping to capitalize on that to to get some of those kids back into their fold Yeah And that that makes sense from a marketing standpoint
Um I guess we'll this would be a maybe a question down the road but my next my continuing question is going to be what is the likelihood of the state approving it because as we've seen with RCP if we feel that the state's going to improve
it then we we are basically cut off and lose control Um but also there is a lot of red flags here This was I've talked to both of these charters um multiple times rocket ship and there are some things in here that was presented
differently Sure We felt that way too Miss Mr Zeales I just want to make a distinction Mr Vine because you weren't here One of the charter schools we didn't the board did not approve So we didn't have control of a say so of how
many enrolles we were going to approve And so the bulk of the funding comes from a approved state And honestly I feel like if the state is going to approve the charter school just like they have a money pot that's separate for the charter schools I mean for the
vouchers they should also have a separate pot for the um the charter schools because where it really gets us and hits us the local funding and um they have to receive the same dollars that come out of our local funding And
we only have just enough local funding that is based on a maintenance of effort and we will have to if we approve all these schools we will have to it will obligate us to ask for more funding and raise the maintenance of effort just from that alone So I am from pro-choice
and I'm for school choice for parents to receive whatever But um the financing aspect of it plays a important role in the decision-m on how we're going to operate on this and and whatever is on this contract is what we're seeing
that is okay and there's just some things right now that need to be changed in my opinion We want it to be perfect I know Well nothing is going to be perfect Nothing's ever perfect but we want it free of the oversight that we're going to be held responsible for If I'm if
we're asking the board to vote on something and Rutherford County is gonna have the name on it and the face of it it has to be in a mutual agreement and understanding on what's on the contract and right now it's just not there in my opinion Mr Ver
you know the u I don't know First of all I think we got the best school system anywhere in the state of Tennessee And I just it's beyond me why any parent would want to leave and take a chance on these charter
schools I'm just going to have a real hard time proving anything that you know we were all elected to do what's best for the kids of Rutherford County And uh until somebody shows me that they can do something better than what we're doing
uh it's going to be hard for me to ever approve them And uh uh you know the uh they have an option letting the state do it and you know I just I don't know I
just uh I don't I just uh we take if we take approval of it we're responsible for them and I'm not sure that's the road we want to go down But we can vote on that Thursday night So we all need to do what
we think is right on Thursday and vote with our heart Um and I don't know what the state's going to do Uh I I'm confounded Uh we have voted down a school and the state has confirmed and also voted down the school We have voted
down a school and the state has charter has said "Nope nope nope We want them We want them right here." So I I really don't know what what they're looking at sometimes the same data that we are but you just all we can do is do what we think is the right thing to do Miss Mr
Zalis I will say that out of the two school well actually I don't know about RCP so I can't speak for RCP but out of the two charter schools and compared to this one the one positive thing is that they will be providing transportation So even if they're located in a specific location there's potential for kids to
come from various parts of the county I don't know where the bill is at There is a bill that's right now circulating in the legisl and I think legislation closed today So I don't know if it came out of committee that will allow charter schools to be able to find location in a
different spot of county So that could be a potential option for one of them or both of them to be in a different location So that changes the game a little bit I have to go back and see if that bill passed or not But um so there's a little
bit of a plus just to I want I don't want to be too much of a doubt Back to the transportation thing I just thought of something I know they want to be in the Smyrna Lever area Okay Next Okay Promise Are they prepared to go all over the county to take they
are okay both of them indicate the possibility of having to create hubs so to speak where kids have to travel to a hub okay for the bus to come pick them up But but yes they're well aware that they would have to serve uh the entire district Okay Thank you Yes Miss Sharp
Thank you Um I'm sorry Um Dr McCann do my memory telling me that there was a law last year maybe this year I'm not sure if it passed or not but after the initial year that the funding was going to go straight to the charter school that it was not going to come through
the LEA It wouldn't be a pass through That passed It passed Okay So that that money it does but it's deducted from Artisa funding but we don't have the students right but it's still deducted Is that correct do you get because you get the
true up every month correct yes it's they send out a whenever they send out the true up it shows what's being deducted from every every month that um of course we get 10 payments from from the state for Tesus So when
they do the true up it's either I if the charter school loses or or their ADMs are not correct we get that money back to an extent Um but if we don't if they have more then we lose that money in our TISA payment in the next upcoming months
until they true up again Thank you I've got one more question If it's Go ahead Um Dr McCann are we asking them to use our same systems because I know that that's been an issue that we've had with some of the charter school Yes we actually approach that subject with with
um with Novvice because their application specifically says P school um if they were will if they would be willing to to utilize our same SIS um Skyward and that their response was a bit reluctant in that it said well if if
it's in the best interest of our school we would consider that but I think what our goal would be to make it a part of the written charter agreement um and that would be a negotiable thing obviously but that's what we would put in our agreement where they have to use our same I know that's what they do in
MNS um which uses powers school So I understand why a lot of charter schools use power schools well but we saw how that work Are we staying with Skyward for one more year one more year and it's your request It's on the policy committee Yes Thank you Yeah
Whatever system we're using if we approve they need to be using it as well I think it's less work on everybody It's on the policy meeting Tuesday Thank you You know we that's what I was talking Okay Yeah Yes sir You know we can't control what the state does but thing
about it is we got to if we approve the these uh I'm not going to approve a charter school unless they can show me that their performance is equal to what we do in Rother County And so far
um I haven't seen it from any any of the schools that have come in even the the ones in Nashville Um so you know I may be wrong but I just hadn't seen any charter school performance that's equal to Ro County
schools So and you know if the kids if the school doesn't make it or the kid comes back and they haven't had the performance level that we do then those kids are going to be behind and we're going to be charged
with catching them up So that's an issue that I guess we all need to consider Any other questions thank you Mr McCann Thank you Thank you
guys Good job Thank you Thank you Next we have summer literacy and math camp materials So this is with an emphasis on science and reading and math best practices literacy camp and math camp curriculum combines high-quality literacy math instruction and foundational skills development with an
engaging summer camp format The instruction department is requesting to purchase these kits that include a leader guide lit camp or notebook highquality connected text sets family guides and access to additional resources available online The cost to provide this in the math camp curriculum will be
$165,876.20 and training will be $7,992 which will come from the summer camp fund funds from the Tennessee Department of Education We haven't received an allocation for that yet have we because it comes after the expecting it soon but not yet Just curious how many weeks would this be four weeks Four
weeks Okay Okay Next weekend legal Yeah I'm sorry Mr Darby No I was just asking I know we had Uh you had touched on speakers for tonight Do we have public speakers this evening at the end after we get through our agenda they're going to be all the way at the end Yes
Next we have legal So first we have disciplinary hearing appeal 2550401 The board's been requested to review decision of disciplinary hearing authority DHA and the director of schools to uphold their amendment of a student from Rockville Middle School Based on the review of the DHA's record the board may affirm the decision of the
DHA overturn the decision of the DHA or grant a hearing before the board Um and just for the board's reference um I affirmed the decision of the DHA when it was appealed to me Okay Number two this is a transfer student under discipline Number one the
board's been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline The student was expelled for 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 while under suspension or expulsion Director of school's recommendation is
to deny Questions dr Sullivan this is the one that was continued or postponed from the last meeting There is new information that we received both from the school district and from the parent and that's in the front of your packet probably the
first six seven eight pages Thank you Mr Reed do you want to hit on the next part uh the next item is um engagement of ACLJ The board of education has received a demand letter to cease the implementation of prayer at the
commencement of its meetings The ACLJ has off the ACLJ has offered to provide labor at no cost to the board to assist in the defense of any challenges to the implementation of prayer The ACLJ will not be responsible for any cost or awards against the board but would
provide legal labor support at no cost to the board Their engagement letter was attached to your materials So a possible motion is appro is to approve the board of education engaging the ACLJ to defend the board of education in regards to any challenges to the practice of prayer at
board meetings As you know the ACLJ is a nonprofit organization that um provides basically free legal labor services for legal matters u with respect to certain constitutional issues Um they offer if there's a judgment rendered in against
the board of education that will still be an obligation of the board to pay But the ACLJ would provide basically free legal labor to defend any challenges to the practice of prayer Any questions Miss Maxwell yes Mr Solves
Okay So I read the I read the letter and um I I know we went into executive session with them and we had the conversation but this was not brought up because I guess it wasn't thought of So there is there is there I don't know if
we were able to can we talk about this out in you talk about the ACLJ engagement letter yes it is part of the engagement So can we be specific about what's in the engagement letter or is that something we have to go through executive meeting executive it's a legal matter we need to deal with if there's a
legal question we need to deal with it with an executive session executive session question about engagement I don't know what your question is yeah so I know because I don't know whether I can ask it because I don't know if it's a legal question what is your question it's it's is okay so it's specifically
to something that was said in the letter that to me I feel like we should know understand what that means if we desire the board desires to and what is your question about what's in the letter okay so in the letter it stated that they have the right to withdraw from
representing based upon a disagreement so I just want to understand what could possibly be a disagreement between ACLJ and the board that we are at risk of losing representation um at some point with as is the case with any lawyer if you dec if the board
decides that they have in disagreement with their lawyer or don't like how they're handling the case or maybe if they on their end don't like how the board is directing them to to push the matter either side could withdraw from the engagement letter and go your separate ways and get other counsel to
represent you in regards to the matter Yeah I guess we should I feel like because they have that clause in there I feel like we should have discussed a little bit more more about what that understanding of a disagreement could be
that we could walk away and I feel like I feel I feel like we need to discuss that Is there a possibility that we can have executive session to talk about that yes that'll be great Thank you Any other questions yes Mr Vault I have two
Um I mean I'm assuming you've researched them How How much experience do they have related to this well they've I I did check I think they do have some six circuit cases that they've worked on because we're in the federal the court system we're in is in the sixth circuit
of the federal court system and they have had cases in the sixth circuit before that they've handled in regards to constitutional issues Um so were they were they lead counsel or Yes they were Okay Um second question and this is a
monetary question How much money do we have budgeted for uh extra legal services is that finger wait a minute You're not going to ask um all the above Give me just a second And
and the reason I bring this up just briefly talk about if you're going if you're going to court you you you need to take the best that you can get And I and I'm not denying I I I just don't know them I don't know anything about them Hadn't researched them And I
just know if you're going to court you better have the best people on your side that you can get We only have 400,000 extra budgeted for next year Okay that includes our overall legal services for everything So we would should I almost believe I'm gonna
make this statement right now I think that number needs to be increased significantly for the next I know you haven't planned on that because our budget is extremely tight but wait till I give you an update when we get to the coating Okay All right I mean if you since we've gotten slapped in the face
with a case I mean we know we're going to court you you got a budget for it right i mean I'm looking to you and I don't know you can't wave a magic wand and find a million dollars or something like that but I mean it
Yeah No I mean to be prudent right i mean we've got to set it aside or it's got to be accounted for We're going forward with this That that's only just an observation I mean I do feel good about the ACLJ I think the the um attorney we talked to seemed very capable and and competent and I think
yes I I did too So I did feel good about her representing the school board in regards to this matter This is the area they specialize in because they are there to kind of handle these type of constitutional issues as they come up That's kind of their forte So I think um
and they are a national organization They have other other offices as well So right um so I do I so I do feel like we would get competent repres representation from this group and they are providing it at no cost to the board So I think which is great a good thing
for the board in that case but if they did withdraw should we have money set aside for other legal counsel I mean we my office would end up defending it at that point if we they withdraw So I don't anticipate that happening but um you know I guess anything could happen
Thank you Any other questions yes Mr City Just be clear this is for uh this is kind of getting out in front the cart in front of the horse here and the fact that we have not entered into any kind of litigation revol resolve or revolving around prayer opening up prayer This is
simply to get in front because we had a demand letter Correct They would help helped us in the event we do get sued about it and also to address any kind of demand letters we receive which we have received one Yes All right Thank you Okay next we have engineering and
construction Several items here First Rockville High School synthetic turf request Principal Steve Lucer requesting to have synthetic turf installed adjacent to the wait room The request is being donated by Warner's Athletics with an estimated value of 25,000 Engineering construction review the request and has no objection
Any questions next we have number two in engineering construction This is a request to increase RG Anderson's contract for Smyrna High School Engineering Construction is requesting to increase the contract for R.G Anderson in the amount of 200,171,000
$2,17120 These funds will be utilized to replace the remaining corridor ceiling tile and grid in the existing building These funds will be shifted from remaining balances in the overall pro project No additional funds are needed So this is just a shift within our funding that we have already received um
within the project Once we get closer finished with Riverdale and Oakland you'll probably see something similar as well if there's additional funds but those are a lot tighter because of the items you all know about in within the city limits Okay Number three smart and
middle Wait I got a question back on that other um you said we're going to probably do the same thing for Riverdale and Oakland There'll be a lot less money available for Riverdale and Oakland So this this money is taken out of the
smart account not correct Yes Which was already how many million less 20 million le 20 25 million less Yes sir But our budget is what we get So So we can only it is what we get and we try to use it
as best we can And I guess what I'm saying is we came in under budget but we only have the money that we actually requested to utilize So we do have a few of those funds and and and if you look and I'm going kind of off the path but
if you look when we always when we've asked for funds we've asked for the money that the contractor's bid was the architect's fees FF and then we have other contracts and responsibilities That's a good educated
guess from history on what those things cost that covers Middle Tennessee electric tap fees transformers cud meter fees all these kind of things And sometimes we don't have to do all of those So there's a little bit of money
left and we do have a little bit of that money left at Smyrna and we're trying to get a few other things accomplished that what is not in the original scope of work So that's where the funds come from Thank you Yes And connected to that um
on the IT budget and then at the commission we asked for a full 70 roughly $5 million for the middle school It was approved for 67 million instead utilizing some of the funds that we know
that are going to be left over for some of our projects So I appreciate the effort in trying and trying to get those funds back that we paid up front Uh but they do have an arbitrage issue that so we've borrowed so much money and we haven't paid down enough of those because we have so many projects going
at once So just an update Thank you Next we have the Lee Road property I think we got Smyrna Middle gym first You can go ahead and middle gym Yeah Mr Reed you can go ahead and come up This will be quick The Smyrna Middle Gym scoreboard request Dr Tesha Ferguson requesting to enter a contract with Wilson Bank and Trust to fund the
installation of a new scoreboard in the gym The donation cost is 8,695 and will be at no cost to the board Miss Ridley has reviewed the agreement and has no objection Engineering construction has reviewed the request and has no objection Any questions okay Now Mr Reed I'm so
sorry Now Lee Road property The Lee Road property we have that we put in our contract the appraisal come in Um as you may remember we offered in the contract we have is to buy the land at $80,000 an acre The appraisal came in at 8 over 88,000 an acre for pri from a
price standpoint So the appraisal justifies the purchase price we have in the contract So we want to move forward with the next stage The next thing would be to approve testing for the property to see if it's suitable for a school So that would be your geotech testing too
testing environmental testing surveys all the things you would typically do to make sure that the property is suitable for a school site So that is um the item that's on the agenda for Thursday Any questions thank you That is good news
Next we have the bus contract So next we have bus contract So tab five First um and these are just kind of all the the options to consider as we look at uh the financial aspect but also the transportation aspect First one is a
consideration of a parent responsibility zone And so just so the board has some ideas we looked at this last year Um looking at this kind of this year as well Mr Lee do you want to go over the the numbers you you ran it could
probably talk to it better and this is just running it looking at it from a business perspective Um nothing more Um when we were requested to look at the parent responsibility zone we looked at
two different um requests One was a half a mile radius one was a onem radius and then we were asked to look at a 1 and a half mile radius as a district
uh and as um part of my oversight I do not recommend the third option being a full-blown one and a half mile across the district There's no districts of our size that attempting to do what we do or
if they run their own buses does a across the board mile and a half What is typically done is one mile for K6 a mile and a half for 612 They don't do a they don't jump from a one to a one and a half for everybody
That there are districts that do a onem radius for all grades The ones that go beyond that do one mile for K5 and one and a half for 612 So that's the way we've looked at our numbers Um when we ran this in March
of 24 that was that would have been based on num the contract at that time for 2324 I've taken the same numbers of buses Um it it's still fairly close and
similar We've looked at it in an average route rate for this year 24 25 I'm not speculating for next year So if you look at a onem radius for all
grades without title schools meaning the title schools still have complete bus service that would be 15 buses a little over a million dollars It's a million50 if you were to Will you email
this to everybody as soon as we're done tonight yes sir be glad to If you were to include the title schools that would be 23 bus routes Million6 ma'am
23 And what was the 15 buses how what was the amount a million Uh for 15 is a million50 Million50 And for 20 for the 23 is 20 is 6 1,610 And I will email this to y'all
soon as the meeting's over Did you run I'm sorry Madam Chair Go ahead Did you run a half a mile i did A half a mile is three buses without title Four buses with
title It's not much you and give those amounts Uh I forgot it If you don't 210,000 for three miles 280,000 for four buses I said
miles buses Three buses or four buses That's the half mile So go ahead and start may uh I'm not going to name the school but you know the school that I'm talking about that has an apartment complex on the premises and they're busing the children across
the parking lot They would be out So that's not a title school In one scenario they are In one scenario they are a title school Yes So in one scenario with three buses they still get
full busing With four buses they do not I think the kids need to walk across the parking lot The the next the third option is the one mile for K5 a mile and a half for
612 Without title schools it's 33 buses 2,310 If we include the title it's 44 buses and it's 3,80,000 Now I don't want to muddy the water so
so I'm just telling you we didn't do it There is a reasonzoning next year for all elementary I do believe these numbers are still fairly close but we have not we've built a few of the routes We don't typically
build all those routes till we get closer to the end of the year because we have one basically two people One does regular buses and one does sped So we'll be building those routes but I don't expect these numbers to be like huge swings Instead of being you know if the
number is 15 buses I don't expect it to become 25 It'll be two or three one way or the other So I'm pretty comfortable that with the number of buses that would no longer be needed for the parent
responsibility zones Okay Any other questions comments okay Want to go to the second part actually sorry Madam Chair Yes Mr
Lee would it be terribly difficult to see what the numbers would look like if you did a half mile K through five and then a mile for 6 through 12 it would be somewhere between 3 and
15 So it's going to be somewhere in that 8 to 10 range And it would be somewhere between 4 and 23 Sure Go ahead The of course y'all know I've talked with the bus drivers off and
on three or four times Trey's been very helpful to me when I dove off in this two months ago I guess trying to educate myself about how this all operates and how it works Um and and and Trey and I
have talked about this back and forth you know what what does this look like what does this look like where can we save some money can we save some money when when Miss Darby when you brought that up and you know I thought you know we got to we've got to pursue everything
before we wait off in this too far cuz we got a lot of people that not only students but we got a lot of contractors that are dependent on this And so you know this is their livelihood So this is not something you know I thought I can't be flipping about I've got to really
know what's going on Where are these routes how do they operate um been very gracious to meet with or the bus committee's been very gracious Outside of that I have talked to probably 25 or 30 what I would say group different
contractors that are not part of the group So I've tried to get an overall feeling of this Um on top of that uh I have had five meetings with different commissioners the budget office uptown
um trying to figure out where the pain tolerance is going to land That's the only way I know how to explain this Uh you've got several commissioners that say they're not going to do any type of tax increase You got several commissioners that say they
support the bus drivers We know what our budget looks like Dr Svin has been very upfront with that We've known that since the retreat and and depending on where this thing lands So I realize this is more than you know Stan's decision It's
not my It's not my place to make this So as I've gone through this methodically I want y'all to know I've really done the best job I knew how to both educate myself to understand the bus uh contractors and their drivers what their concerns was also the transportation
department also budget finance what we're getting into here And what this really came down to I think they've been real good to work with us to cut out There were some in the initial contract that Jeff had sent over there were some concerns about a lot of stuff Uh and
we've worked through most of what I would call the they're all a little they've all got a little issue to them You know they're in there for a reason but I think we have they've been very good that we've worked through it Transportation's worked through it It
comes down to these three topics here It really does And the the insurance first and foremost and that's still I don't want to say up in the air but I think there's still some confusion over the insurance I felt very very strongly
um that since the we you know they cannot be included on our on the county insurance that they you know that's a big burden for them to take on by theirel and so that's how this has kind of all come about is to look at you know
can we save some money by cutting a few routes out we know uh Dr Southern not put you on spot or or Trey I think we discussed there's probably eight or 10 new routes with the new school maybe either reassignment or
reconfiguration or something So um that's kind of how we've gotten to and and so what I what I have proposed with everybody or on the agenda that's the reason it's in this kind of order cuz I think it's you know if if you answer the
first question then we answer the second question then it leads us to the third question And it and it comes down to money It really does But it's not going to do any good to answer the question about money if the first two questions aren't answered I I guess to give y'all
an explanation about how we got to this point tonight So if you got any questions I'll try to field them right now If not we'll move on But but Trey I just want to thank him and his staff for running these numbers and us trying to figure out where where is there an
opening here to make this as palatable as we can to take care of the kids to to be you know as equitable to the drivers and contractors as we can and to and and to you know be respectful of the taxpayers of the county So that was kind
of the angle Thank you Mr V Anybody got any questions miss um when you send us the spreadsheet with the routes and stuff and can you put the students the number of students
or the seats that are going to be impacted is it okay not by Thursday No Yeah Not by Thursday night Okay You're just able to give us just the money aspect of it I we can I can attempt to Yes Okay All right Thank you I can tell
you the schools that'll be most impacted would be Barfield Blackman Leverne Smyrna Those are going to be your like zone Anywhere you have higher density is going to be the bigger impact So it's going to be Barfield Blackman Smyrna
Lever Lever like Lever Lake Roy Well and of course if you do if you continue to have tidal transportation then that pretty much Lever and Smyrna would still have transportation and then would be more of your Blackman Barfield or your most
dense areas where we have transportation in the county So the four areas are going to be impacted the most are going to be Barfield Blackmiss Mona and Leverne Thank you Madam Chair Okay just a moment Mr Uh Stan I got a question about the
insurance I know you kind of mentioned it's kind of still up in the air but where where are we at in that the best that we Let me update you on insurance Yeah I'm going to let Jeff We've had some recent developments here just as as of yesterday in fact But um as you know the law got changed a couple years ago
that said that said basically contractors would have to get their own insurance The county could no longer provide insurance for the bus um contractors There was a and that has been the that has been the law this year so far There was new legislation
introduced this year to with basically effectively would change that would allow the language of it would allow it to go back to the way it was with the county providing being able to provide in insurance for uh bus contractors That
has passed the Senate as of just a week ago and um I'm not sure what happened in the legislature today You guys may know So yeah it was scheduled to go through the the House and get passed today So I think everyone's thinking the new law will allow will change the language of
the statute to make it feasible again for counties to provide insurance coverage for bus contractors Now that's one aspect of this So that's what that's the how the legislation has happened has changed this year Each year our county
risk management department which is in charge of obtaining the insurance for the county they do it for the countywide including the school board's insurance They have they by law they have to issue a RFP for insurance every year They did that several weeks ago as they normally
do And they did that based on the current law which says basically which which did not provide coverage for buses because that's what the law was at the time that they issued the RFP not knowing whether this legislation is going to be passed or not or what would happen here So the RFP was issued not
including the coverage for buses That RFP came in Um there was only one responder to that RFP which is Princeton They're the current insurance provider for the county Now uh we are a very large county So it's hard for a lot
of companies to even write the insurance for the county because we have we're very we're a large county that has pretty demanding insurance requirements Um not u just because we're a large entity So we had the one Princeton was the one um responder to the RFP We have
I asked the risk management department to go back to them and ask them to provide coverage for bus contractors and they are not willing to do that I've asked them to go back a second time again to see if they tell them we need them to require to provide coverage for
the bus contractors They are not willing to do that under any terms So they basically told us they are not willing to write coverage for the bus contractors They said the last year they did it was going to be the last year they've done it which is this year and they're not they're not willing to
continue it anymore So the county does not we have so we have one responder to the RFP and that one responder um is not willing to provide insurance for the contractors So basically that leaves us in position of of still even if this legislation has gotten a change of
having to provide have the bus contractors get their own insurance for this upcoming year And in the event we're able to get it in next year's package or try to see what other options are available in the coming years of the bus contract go out then and see if we get can get insurance
through the county that's feasible That's something that's that is a number that we can pay for at that point But given um the stance that Princeton has taken with respect to the buses this year um really we don't have any choice but to go with the
um the $4,000 stipen and the bus contractors getting their own insurance this this coming year So the bus so the the latest iteration of this bus contract which I sent to their council and I talked to their council yesterday about this because risk management their entire leadership
team from risk management came to see me about this yesterday and they're basically were somewhat you know saying we're just unable to we have tried we have tried we've tried to get insurance for the bus contractors but we're not able to get coverage for the bus
contractors So so given where we are with respect to where the budgetary time we need to have this in this whole policy in place by July the contract in place by July 1 We've got summer school buses We have insurance coverage for to have coverage
for the school buses in the summer as well from a timing standpoint from a practical matter we need to let this if we if we're going to do the bus um insurance thing with the contractors and provide them with a stipen we need to give them time to be able to get their insurance in place before July 1 and get
the contract figured out to allow them to do that So um so the last version of contract that you've got that that's in the package with the agenda this week provides for the school board to basically pay each bus contractor $4,000
per bus for insurance for that bus And we made I've also included language for substitute buses in there I did put a cap on it that we would have to have some kind of limit on the number of substitute buses that we have in the school system that the transportation department would approve But I would
envision basically us providing insurance coverage for all the people who have existing subst substitute buses now in the system So that would get us through this next two 256 school year and then we have to go out and go
fishing in the insurance markets out there to see what kind of coverage if any we can find for the best contractors in the 26 27 school year we can find That's that's quite unfortunate because I think there was it's certainly better for both groups when the county was covering it But just under the
circumstances you're saying that there's not really an option for that to happen this year I think you know I think the the RFP was based on what the law was at the time So and that's how they have to issue the RFPs and insurance companies of course they go through a very extensive study to quote these insurance
packages to counties They look at what the law is at the time that they quote these packages Just miss Mr Arby first and then I've got you Mr Vot Mr Lee on the PRZ did you just do that AC am I understanding correctly you did it across all schools
right the non-title and the title but it's all it's the whole district But there was no identifying some that the PRZ would be better suited for versus one I'm sorry I couldn't I'm couldn't hear part of that question There was no like identifying certain
schools that were better suited for a PRZ than No ma'am There was not It's a blanket across Mr Bot and go back and and I left this out of the first iteration Um I've
actually had three meetings with risk management In fact I just came from there I've been up there for an hour and a half this afternoon trying to strategize trying to figure out is there an angle to this you know those of you that know me personally know I I'm a
negotiator I I'm just trying to figure out an opening Is there an opening somewhere where we could get this done and we even talked about us creating just an RFP for the
school district you know and put it out on bids But the likelihood of being able to even formulate that to get it out for bids even if somebody did respond to it the insurance probably would couldn't be in place by July 1 And that would put
the board in a very very pre precarious situation of trying to fund something we don't even know what it is uh at this point in time And I don't know that legally we could even do it You know that that would drag him into the you
know can we even do an RFP separate you know from the county because it's actually the county's insurance It's not school board's insurance right you know but could we stand alone on our own policy and that that brings in a whole another set of circumstances as far as
tort liabilities concerned and and several factors there And I don't want to bore everybody in the room with that But that this this keeps getting you know one thing leads to another Where we have gotten to um in in my opinion and
this is my opinion only is that the the the fairest thing to do was to put a line item in the contract and and compensate them for this cost of insurance That that's bottom line That's where I got to and that's the reason
it's in there Uh so hang me for it if you want to but I do know this you know we we we can't ask contractors We can't ask students We can't ask anybody to get on a bus that doesn't have insurance That's just not I mean we're asking for trouble That's and and
by law we couldn't do it anyway Uh so then anyway that's that's I wanted y'all to know I have sat down with risk management Jeff's talked to him Trey's t everybody's talked to everybody in this thing for the last two months and we've tried to figure every angle and I bring
up some hypotheticals and they look at me and think I'm absolutely crazy but I from my experience being in the real estate business there's and farm and you know there's always another way to skin the cat so to speak and that's what I've tried to do here but this is this is where we're going to I think this is
where we're going to land I just think this is where we're going to land So methodically working through the PRZ then the insurance then the pay raise Thank you Stan You can add one more thing about the insurance thing because I know there was some emails going
around today by bus contractors maybe not from the association but some um saying well they were concerned about having personal liability in the event that they have to get their own insurance on buses um which um obviously if they have their own insurance they're going to be insured in their insurance
policies but there are things like limited liability company compan companies LLC's corporations can be done to own buses that limits people's ability to get to their personal assets So if there bus contractors out there operating without the benefit of an LLC
or corporation that's something they should probably seek legal counsel about and discuss because there are options out there that will limit their personal exposure for liabilities when they operate their bus for school purposes Miss I just say that for the benefit of anybody's watching this on TV who may
not be here tonight and just know there are things out there that can be done to limit their personal exposures Miss Maxwell Mr Zos Oh okay Sorry Go ahead You had a hand up before I did Sorry Are y'all able to get insurance
i mean if we give $4,000 to you you know is that going to be Are you going to be able to get insurance on your buses well good evening Good to see everybody again the ability to get insurance is tied up with
the liability concerns that my clients are concerned about I believe that each of these contractors are in different positions when it comes to you know the coverages they may they may be able to get to get and we're talking about many many different contractors And if you
know one of the primary insurers for the county is having trouble getting this type of insurance I'm not sure how much better luck that my clients are going to have getting dozens if not hundreds of policies across however many insurers And so it just is going to create you
know a web of liability that you know is going to be really hard to decipher in the event that there is an incident and there's a claim I think that it is possible but with respect to how this contract is proposed even with you know what the what I think is a generous
consideration of the stipen to cover that cost you know the contractors will be in you know seat number one when it comes to responsibility for uh managing a claim and inclusion of the the indimnification claim brings up the
question of you know the contractors are now required to indimnify the board for anything beyond what you know a jury verdict would be that's beyond the policy limits And so it's it's a
huge burden that is separate entirely from compensation It you know it ties into you know their livelihood and their ability to you know operate safely So I mean not safely operate without this cloud of you know a potential uh
financial ruining event on top of them for a small business and one that is an independent contractor after all You know I'm sure that I'm sure they checked with uh insurance carriers to find out
what's the response been from the carriers that you checked out I I'm not sure I know that they've gotten quotes Yeah Yeah liability on the bus It's covering a liability on the Well I think it's the
the comprehensive uh it's the the it's not liability and comprehensive It's just the comprehensive it's as as proposed in the current contract at the the 3 million and 1 million $1 million figures Gotcha
Missales Okay So I just want to understand this whole insurance thing So thank you Stan for all the work you've done I know you put a lot of time into invested So right now as the way it stands we threw out an RFP even though the state law has changed and we don't
have a carrier currently that is willing to take this out Correct Correct Okay So I haven't seen the law and have you seen the law that's been passed i've seen the bills I have not seen what got passed today the same as the bills I've seen
Okay And I do agree the language in in the bill does appear to allow the county to provide insurance coverage for buses Okay So I don't know h I haven't so the contract as it seems if it's hypothetically I'm only saying
hypothetically So hypothetically it was voted the way it is with the current insurance Is there any wiggle room to make a a amendment to the contract to say that this year we're going to go this route but we the board can
re-evaluate the insurance based upon the new year So that mean that there is potential hypothetically that they could give they could have to they're given the sipen but then the following year they may not be given a sip because the
county is able to carry the insurance how that's how I've written the contract now Okay great So I left the contract in there with the stipen for now but provided in there that in the event we are able to get insurance coverage through the county for the buses that that can be changed um later on So there
is flexibility in this where we can come back as a board to say let's change it for make sure and then if that's the case how soon does the board need to or what action is needed to be done or taken so that the board can direct Dr
Sullivan or Trey Lee to start the process of the RFP like if we go this if if there's no time to do that I think before July 1 We need to have insurance in place by July 1 Our current policies expire June 30th Okay But we will have
no insurance coverage starting July 1 right with the existing county policies What's this i'm not done State law requires insurance to have buses buses to have insurance So you don't have an option of not having insurance for buses No I I'm
not disagreeing that What I'm trying to understand is how does Tley and Dr yourself and know that we're think about the contract to say can we re I don't even know who's going to do it and I'm just throwing your name out there and it may not even be you It'd be the county
Huh it would be the county It's risk management It's risk management It's not us Yeah Okay So they will do that automatically We have to go to them and ask them to do that Okay Under whatever standards we want and direction we want to give them
we would need to direct them to do that So is that something that the board has to Let me let me follow up with that Let me Maybe I wasn't clear earlier No let me follow up with that That That's the reason I was up there this afternoon As a f as a favor to me risk
management is already writing the RFP Okay But realistically it is not going to get in place right there's no way to get it in place Yeah And and that's the reason I said earlier I didn't want to even if by a small miracle they could
get it written get it out for bids one bid comes back it would put this board and the county commission in a very very precarious situation because we would have to accept that one bid right if we
box oursel so it's they're already working toward that in case we want to do that Okay I guess I'm I Okay so let me clarify If they decide if they because of the issue that we are with the the the count with the way because
of where we're at they have to take this type But when will the their policy expire is it a year term limit or two year term limit i guess I just understand how long these policies all these are generally written for a year term Okay But then if you cast them
early you got a refund of certain your premium that's for the un unearned portion of the year right so if it expires in July of 20 26 the following year before it expires how will will risk mass management automatically just
go out for bid for RFP to see if we can if they can carry the bid for the carry the insurance for the 2026 2027 school year I I think we my personal opinion is we would have to instruct them to do that As I said as a personal favor to me
they're already pulling it together A lot of work for next year for the Well there you know we looked at each other a while ago and and and came to the conclusion there's no way to get it enforced by July 1 There's just no way to do it And and and a couple of ladies
up there I said "Thank you for your time." And and I've got a stack of emails here with with that that and I'll be glad to forward all this to y'all if you want to read it It's pretty it kind of chronologically builds this case of how we've ended up at this point But
realistically there's there's no way to to to get it this year No I Yeah and that's I said that But but I think we would have to take some kind of action you know this summer or this fall or something like that to include it You know if they could do it by itself include it next year's policy As they've
said the the insurer that is carrying the county and I forgive me I think it's $2.8 billion in coverage 900 vehicles I mean it's a huge policy plus their 350 odd buses It's a huge policy and and
nobody cover no you know they didn't they didn't want to come back so I I want everybody to understand we have tried every angle possible to get this and I know there's a lot of the contractors have told me and I hate this for them that they're not willing to
risk their personal liability to continue doing this and some of these people are you know lifelong drivers contractors for the county and and I can't say as I blame them I understand as a small business owner if it's cost prohibitive it's cost
prohibitive I hate it but that's this is where we are yeah no and I get that and understand I'm not can I take question in that just a moment I have been asked that we've been up here it is a little after 8 and I've been asked to take a 5m minute break please and then we'll come back and we'll finish this I promise
okay five minutes Hey how are you good to see you Very good to see you seat please We want to finish this up I think we're all back now Okay I think uh did you say you needed something yes
Mr Vaughn had a question We got What is the solution what's the recommendation you know cuz I mean we're getting down to where the rubber meets the road and we're going to have to do something We're going to have to get on the stick
I I don't know what the solution is I'll be honest with you I'm not smart enough to know cuz they might have a recommendation Yes please No we had to get Oh we can't get the insurance Yeah let me just
You go Uh do you really want to know what it is the solution yes Well you got to understand within reason Well in reason for a hundred years Rutherford County has had the
insurance and so that's what we think the solution will be for y'all to take it back Now schools don't start till August the 7th If we do another RFP that'll give us three
months I'm I don't know I'm not a lawyer I'm not So that's right I I I think that a possible solution that I would hope we can run through risk management I understand that the difficulty in having this done in a rush and having it in
place by July 1 may not be feasible but we're talking about extending insurance coverage to private individuals and contractors who my understanding is don't operate in
July Does summer school end in June or are they operating in July okay So if there is a lapse in coverage for extension of private insurance risk management might be able to weigh in on that Do we have a little extra time to get a contract in place i'm sorry a
standalone RFP in place and then a contract in place through the county for this specific p purpose Uh the the risk being to the board and as Mr Reed has pointed out you know the board has to budget for that now and we don't know
what the bid response to a standalone RFP for bus insurance might be but at this point you know on behalf of 70% of the driver or the contractors you know we just can't agree to taking that on And I understand we're trying to build
flexibility into it and cover the insurance through the stipen but the added potential personal liability on top of that as proposed is really too great for us to agree to at this time Mr Tidwell
uh yes Uh speaking on the personal liability so an LLC would that protect individuals m Maxwell I'm sorry Go I'm sorry Let Mr Tidwell finish speaking please Would that would that protect I mean that that is isn't that
the limited liability corporation That's kind of how it's described Yes that would be a route that a contractor can pursue to protect themselves personally you know for liability Sure Um there's all sorts of uh techniques you can play in
the litigation field One of which in this circumstance would be bail piercing So if you are a contractor that doesn't follow certain formalities you can try to go over the personal assets Happens all the time LLC's don't necessarily have assets They could come and take the
buses as an asset but that may be the only asset that the LLC owns And if that doesn't satisfy the judgment you can pursue the principles of the LLC for the remaining sum of a claim against them or a verdict against them So it does provide protection to be to be clear but
you know sure if it if it doesn't satisfy a judgment then plaintiffs may not stop there So right and I don't think there's any hey hey please please please uh Mr Ragdale is also going to be speaking during public comment and so if you have
any questions that you want to give to Mr Ragdale he can but for right now the conversation should be between Mr Tidville and Mr Gradale Thank you Uh it seems like there's not going to be any perfect solutions So it it sounds like to me that what I'm hearing from
from Stan and Mr Reid is that we're not going to be able to get this RFP in time and Dr Sullivan can you speak to the timeline of like is Thursday the day from a budgetary standpoint we have to have a budget passed by May 15th to the
county commission And so our next board meeting we have a work session on May 6th Um we can of course add a meeting at any time that we need to add a meeting We have one scheduled for um I believe we moved that meeting
to May 15th at 3:30 instead but I have to get it to to the county commission before the end of that day from a June or summer school ends We do have bus transportation that occurs with
athletics and that type of thing that I know that's extra but that is from an operational standpoint We do have um field trips extracurriculars athletics that do occur in July Um that would be my concern My other concern about waiting till July would just
be not knowing and then all of a sudden we don't get an RFP back and then we have which I know is a potential anyways We have no transportation option at all for our parents right now If bus contractors choose not to sign we at least have a couple months to decide
what our next best option is um with our contract to where right now you have somebody has to drive under somebody else for 2 years We have other options um with the contract if we can't fill our routes July we don't Okay come So
I'm trying to put all the the pieces of the puzzle together to see what options are really on the table I know this is a 4-year contract I'm just wondering if there is uh potential in which if the RFP does come back in time if this can be potentially even looked at again in
the very very short term um to make a decision that would better reflect what we had before because I mean essentially if it was better for the county and there was a uh due to the size of the county's insurance the addition was
better for the county financially and it was better for the contractors than the law that was written last year or passed last year and then it's being last year and then amended this year to revert back to what was before just
wasted all this time in the middle of this contract made things a lot more difficult for us Um now I again I guess there's a question and Stan may know more to this than than I would I have no idea but Mr You're telling us that our
current insurance company uh with the county I say the county's company is not interested in doing this this bus thing So this RFP's chances have decreased out of the gate as to what our options are U
so I I don't know if you can speak to that if there's a if that's going to be a limiting factor It will be a limiting factor Yeah it will be a limiting factor for sure Okay I mean go ahead Go ahead Mr Dr S you also have and just I have to mention
it because it's I hear a lot of noise sitting in this position So there's a lot of things that I just hear chatter of There's there's definitely chatter in the political realm of you're offering insurance to private contractors that not make them employees And so that's something
that gets mentioned that we've we've make sure that employees and contractors because of IRS requirements we keep that line very clear Um that's being mentioned So we just we have to make sure we are very careful and I wish
those conversations didn't occur but we have people doing that Sure And I'm just thinking trying to think about any options It just I wish the law was never passed Wish we weren't sitting here right now Now I think we wouldn't be spending so much time on this particular item
Madam Chair yes Mr Harvey Um I have a question that's kind of off of that specific topic but if with the insurance renewing we do have some buses that we own If those are covered under the policy I believe if I'm understanding
correct those are usually operated by our contractors Our buses are operated by our employees on some extents like our coaches those type of things So let's just say it's 50/50 just for
argument sake Does the insurance cover a non-emp employee operating one of our buses because that would be another thing we would have to think about and would be a concern moving forward as well I know it's maybe not part of the contract per se but it is a question I'
I'd like to get an answer to because that's a very good point that that can create challenges for us transporting our students in other capacities as well Insurance coverage coverage follows the bus So the for the buses which are owned by the school system they are under the
li the county liability policy So those and the coverages we have there follow the bus So um are you saying it doesn't matter who drives it um it really does I mean so long as they're a licensed driver with a CDL
license with a a legal ability to drive the bus Yes Okay Yes Mr Sharp So can we just not rent the buses from the contractors put them all under our buses The buses
that we that we have coverage for are owned by Ru County So if you rent buses from I mean we our insurance the we've asked for insurance coverage for the contractor's buses I think trying to ask if we rent them is not going to work with the insurance
carrier because they're going to see that's a runaround on their unwillingness to provide coverage on it So I don't think you're going to be able to rent those and get insurance on that basis Okay Yes So if in a perfect world Mr Ragdale Um the bus drivers did want
to set up an LLC How long does that take to set up and how much does it cost to file those doesn't take that much time but there are you know there are legal fees
associated with it and you'll have individualized you know parameters for each one Some people have one bus some people have more than 10 Um and with the added uh question of you know who is responsible for the drivers you know it
would it would cost some money I don't know exactly how much it would cost but it would be an added expense that they would have to take on Yeah Filing fee for L to to file for LLC is $300 with Secretary of State That's the filing fee with Secretary of State or an LLC for
and that's an annual fee you have to pay every year But to follow you know other formalities it would it's always helpful to have an operating agreement that sets forth the you know the the rules by which the LLC operates They can be
standardized but you know they each take some individual attention So it's not only the filing fee you would have some legal expenses beyond that but yes that's the administrative fee associated with it Thank you Okay Mr I guess I'm not smart enough to figure
it out but sounds like to me we're not going to insurance companies want to insure buses the way it is now The $4,000 is not good enough
U I really don't know what the solution is I mean there there are insurance agents we talked to who said they would write insurance coverage on an individual basis for contractors each indiv we we got a number of quotes together to determine what a fair amount of a stipen
would be that would be more than adequate to pay for insurance coverage with the limits that we proposed in the contract we were proposing limits of $1 million for primary coverage and $2 million umbrella So you have what So each bus will have a $3 million coverage amount for insurance total The cost of
the umbrella policies are not much because most of your premiums associated with the primary policy you buy So and looking at those quotes $4,000 was an ample amount to pay for insurance coverage from the the agents we talked to with respect to for comp Is it
comprehensive and liability or just comprehensive comprehensive Comprehensive Yes Okay And I can understand the concerns from a liability standpoint You know that u I got an insurance company Mr V You
want to start an insurance company well you got this in I don't want I know we're late here at night So you have this insurance issue So you not you the board knows kind of where we stand I think with respect to the insurance Um so we the county will not be able to provide insurance coverage on the buses
under the current policy we have that the county is looking at renewing So we have to look at doing something here starting July 1 And that's for you you can talk about your options or discuss that as you want to tonight or Thursday night but that will be an issue you've got to deal with here coming up soon
Beyond that we also have the remaining issue with a big which the big issue here about the compensation rates in the bus contract and you needed probably start considering what you want to do as far as an increase um or with respect to
the bus contractors Um obviously costs no doubt have increased for them what they were four years ago as we've talked about Um there's been a lot of discussion what would be fair what you're able to pay the budgetary constraints the school systems under this year Uh the proposed number I threw
in the bus contract just to get put a placeholder on it was a $10,000 increase for um this year with two and a half% annual increases thereafter Um that's not anything I binding on the board You can as a board decide what you think the number should be Uh but that will be a
determination the board needs to make because that is a may be the ma the largest issue 10% or 10,000 10% I mean 10% Yeah So I'm sorry 10% was the increas I proposed in the in the contract with annual increases of two
and a half% per year Um the um but ultimately that's a decision you're going to have to make and kind of discuss and talk about because that is the big bear in the room Um that's probably the largest issue that the bus contractors have understand And I guess let me go back
and reframe this a little bit I think I hope all of you understand this or the other six of you kind of see why it's laid out in a three-part issue you know the parent responsibility zone If if if that's a possibility or some combination
of it that affects the number of routes the insurance that affects everything Then the compensation can you you know can you drop a few routes and increase the compensation that way do you you know
put pressure on the county commission and I and I may have told y'all this I don't know if I've said this or not You know I one of my meetings with a couple of the commissioners I tried everything I asked for a nickel I asked for 4 cents I said "Give me a penny At least a
penny." Because a penny is $1.3 million That's the insurance You know at $4,000 on 350 buses You see where I got that number it's really 1.4 million but just a penny And there was no budget And I said you know that is not the county
commission's fault That's not the school board's fault That's definitely not these people's fault We lay that flat on at the foot of the state legislature And there was no budget And I even got so creative and I'm sure the people listening online are going to hate me for this I said "Hell put $10 on the
wheel tax sticker There's 330,000 vehicles in the county That's $3.3 million That goes a long way in this deal you know and it's for transportation But it I'm just trying to be as creative and think outside the box to get everybody where they can maybe
sleep sleep halfway good at night You know I know everybody's you know the the the bus drivers realize they're not going to get everything they want We know we can't keep asking them to drive for no increase I don't think the taxpayers believe that either I I I
think they understand that that incrementally taxes have to go up I I don't like it uh you know my brother and I mean we pay anyway I don't want to get into that but I mean it's going to hurt us all but it's just part of being in this society
We've got to do what is in the best interest for the education of our 52,000 kids in this county Period So we'll figure it out Thursday night I'm sure we'll come up with something and it'll get sent to budget and you know that's where we'll go right that's the only
thing I know how to do I hadn't played this game on this side I've been on the other side for 12 years but I had been on this side Which one's more fun i told my wife the other night this is the hardest job I've ever had cuz I have really educated myself in this Being a county commissioner was easy I don't
mean to take it away from 21 This is a budget meeting This is a tough rout cuz there is a lot of moving parts out here guys There's a lot of moving parts Anyway said that all in good humor I hope nobody gets mad about that Miss Maxwell so Mr
Stan said something about the will tax Williamson County has a will tax and they pay like well I don't know how much that is now but four years ago it was about $79 um per person cuz I paid it once when I had to get my license plate cuz I
bought a car in Mosman County and so $10 and you have 300,000 people that that can definitely raise the coffers but wasn't there a wheel tacking the sting is back in 1972 they built Riverdale down in
Oakland and they put on a wheel tax What was it $24 I think Okay And it it was supposed to retire the bond and they moved it to something else That's not that's not on the school system That just happened So every time old-timers
every time and I'm an old-timer every time you say wheel tax because it makes a lot of sense to me too Makes Well some people see red I I would love to see them call it like a transportation tax or something like that I think the
citizens of Rutherford County know the budgetary restraints that we the school system are under and $10 I've even consulted with people I don't think $10 is going to keep people from getting tags in Rutherford County on their cars So this is for local taxes So it'll help
with the maintenance of effort So um the other thing I was going to say is that there was a bill that was passed last year as they were trying to get more drops into the B bucket and they were wanting to do the um the impact fee but something else was passed and we're
supposed to be getting extra funding for that when and it was with new houses So adequate schools facility tax going to 177 and that can that funding be used no that's only for construction only school Nope Okay So we really need something
that can fund education purposes beyond property taxes Yeah Well not just I mean the whole county needs money There's a forensic center There is a uh a uh transfer
station that's coming There's a lot of things coming So you want to Miss Maxwell yes Mr Table So just to be clear as we're considering these different options um and looking through all the different options we have here that a
consideration at this point a consideration of the insurance is what 1.2 million 1.3 million 1.4 4 million 1.3 in round dollars So is that what would that be percentage-wise any you work numbers
more than anybody else um what I came up with 5.65% If you do it and and that is an option we could do it in the pay raise One one thing they were gracious enough to agree to is is I looked at the
mileage rate and the seat rate and we all kind of came to the conclusion the mileage rate was okay You know if you if you buy into the fact of they drive x amount of miles a day and they're going to burn so much fuel cuz most of them
are diesel you know and they burn we determine uh $1,200 a month roughly in in fuel cost The mileage rate kind of takes care of that So then the the the seat rate needs to take care of labor
the cost of the bus and return to profit I think is how I kind of we broke it down They were good as gold This bunch sitting on the front row they disclosed everything to me I I know I know a whole lot more about their operations probably than I should but they were very
forthcoming in in in helping me understand their what their plight is and what the thing is So that's they were I back up and say this So that's the reason I've got it down to just dealing with the seat rate increase So we've got I've tried to get it as simple
as I could for the seven of us to to make some type of proposal to the county commission And again I'll go back to that Hey we're not the funding body They've got to do it You know we've got to advocate for schools They've got to fund it somehow We're going to meet
somewhere wherever that is Don't know yet We'll find out July 1st right okay That good that was good I know y'all are tired of having me talk about the buses I'm sorry No you've done tremendous Okay Do you want to move on
to number 11 more discussion So number 11 you have the 2526 um COLA increase salary table So we have built in a 2.5% increase um to the table We are
under the governor's mandate to get to 50,000 by the 2627 school year Um working on some numbers So if and you have a copy of this as well It's on the tab The 2526 starting teacher salary
would be $49,564.80 in the 2627 school year So here are the numbers to get to where we need cuz we're trying to hit that 2627 target if we did another 2.5% raise next year Um
50,8003 would be the total So 50,83 that's 2 and 1/2 and 2 and 1/2 Um and I don't see any way we do more than that across our salary increases If we did 2 and a half and then 2% next year that's
50,556 If we did 2 and 1/2 then 1 and a2 next year it's 50,308 And then 2 1/2 and 1 gets us to 50,60 So somehow we've got to get to roughly four 3 and 1 half to 4% over the
next um two years And that's why the recommendation this is 2 and a half for this year Um because I seems like until we have an increase in funding to our operational budget this is going to get worse and worse and worse every year Um
I just I hate to say that but it it will Okay Do you have a dollar amount for that 2 and a half% what that equates to as far as total budget for you've probably got close How much
is 2 and a half% rough idea 2 and a2% is $ 8.7 million Thank you That's on Yes Yeah That's classified and certified That's everything Correct Correct Yes And then for classified staff it goes from the R101 which is our starting
level Um 1699 currently is our starting salary and it would move to 1741 with 2.5% Um Brian and I are going to meet tomorrow I've got some concerns about our just overall looking at our numbers Um we're going to look at a 2% this year
um as well So I hate to just throw that into the world but looking at where we are financially I may have to propose 2% instead or potentially move number 11 to the May 13th 15th Um so we're going to look and run quite a bit
of numbers tomorrow and Thursday as well So I'm just more concerned about even what next year looks like after that So we're going to run that too though But I'm also trying to make sure we match our sister districts who some of them are already at that $50,000
threshold So we want to make sure that we're competitive and don't start having teacher openings to where right now we No no Y I want to stay where we are Um number 12 and 13 Tennessee legislative and federal I know there's one thing in
Tennessee that I think is ridiculous and I'm going to call all of my legislature dissolving the TWSAA It's the stupidest thing that I have ever ever heard Please stay in your lane Thank you That's my PSA
Uh general discussion I've got just one thing real quick Yes Um Tuesday next week we have a policy meeting at 5 We also have health and education And so we've got a couple items on there that um cell phone policy example that we'll
need to discuss I have a we asked TSBA today for a like it's hot for a sample of their model policy with the law change They don't have it yet and so we're going to talk to principles tomorrow about cell phone policy to just kind of get input with the law change
Our policy covers a lot of it but we we need to make some tweaks to it I'll probably request next week that we kind of table that go ahead and start discussion but also start looking at what that looks like once we get TSBA's model discussion There'll be anytime you discuss cell phones that gets everybody riled up Um but as soon as we're done
with policy either Dr Martin or myself and we both are on policy one of us is going to have to fly to health and ed because we have our textbook amendment on that Okay So Miss Maxwell Miss Rosales Okay So to on Thursday we're supposed to be voting in and engaging
with ACLJ Will it be possible that we can have an executive session before we vote we can have it on the same day on Thursday with ACLJ We can do that Are you wanting the attorney from ACLJ to be here yes we can probably do that I don't know their
availability but I can check and see Yeah I think that for me I would like to ask questions what that means as far as if there's a parting of ways Okay I'll check Thank you Yep that'll be great
Anything yes Miss Sharp Jazz Fest Jazzfest Jazzfest Friday and Saturday And and we're gonna pray the rain away We're not having any rain All these people talking about rain We're not having any rain Uh and also uh would like to extend happy birthday wishes to
Miss Darby Yes Yes I have a little I have a little something for you and Miss Darby So after this is over with uh but next we go to public comment And I'm sorry we put you all at the end but there was several things on our
agenda that we needed to get to Say thank you everybody Go ahead Just once I meant to hit it that was an appropriate time because this really will be the end of our public comment Thank you to the board and everyone else for thoughts prayers gifts all that kind of stuff meals during the last guess 12 days since I had surgery So thank you I hope
to be You're welcome out of this at some point but you guys can tell as the night goes on my voice goes away So it's just part of it Okay Thank you First up we have Tosh I'm not going to say the Tasha Tasha Brooks
Sorry My name is Tasha Brooks and I've served Rutherford County as a driver for the past eight years I'm here to bring truth about bus contractors and their devotion to the care and keeping of Rutherford County They often portray they're often portrayed as greedy and
moneyhungry but that couldn't be further from the truth They've served this county for a hundred years faithfully These contractors are loyal dedicated and committed to our children and their families Let's talk about what that means Loyalty is being faithful and devoted to someone or something even
when times are challenging Dedication means being committed to a cause or devoting yourself to a purpose that matters And commitment is being dedicated Commitment is being both dedicated and loyal or showing up every day wholeheartedly without fail
Rutherford counties have Rutherford County contractors have a deep history with our county 1924 uh WR Frasier Rockville was the first contract 1963 Paulie Paulie Sweder was the first African-American woman
contractor in Rutherford County and her son Henry still drives to this day 1973 James Campbell Roy Dice Senior was recently honored in the Hall of Fame for 60 years of service Linda Ingram 47 her granddaughter drives Doug Stevens 45 His
granddaughter drove his grandfather drove um back I don't have the date Jackie Espie 43 years Janet Johnson over 40 years Her daughter is a contractor Betsy Jernigan 40 years Kathy Lane 40 years and her uncle has driven for 16 Renee Dean 30
years Her mother Marlene Marryman drove before her Sally Brown 36 years now Her children hold contracts as well The list goes on Cheryl Benfield Audrey Oip Ben uh Brenda Blancet Sandra Davis Brenda Hall Brian and Melody Fischer Joanne
White Philip um Aloise Tyler Black Gary Carter Carrie Irwin Patty Riggsby Don Lamb Roy Gosset Mike and Cindy Deumbreum and their Sun Drive Carrie Bobby Boyce Thurman Williams Tara Harris These names
reveal and there's many others that I don't even have This is not even half Their names reveal the passion of the contractors This is a legacy This is a family heritage We aren't just drivers We are the first people that see your children every morning and the last to make sure that they make it home In 1970
Rutherford County decided that they could do it on their own and purchase five buses 66 passengers along with the m a place to maintenance And within two years you found out that didn't boast well This is not about money It's about praying It's about paying your people what they're worth Respect and
consideration on their knowledge These contractors are invaluable Let's not end this legacy Let's protect it invest it and carry it forward Pay your contractors what they're worth not just for them but for our community and our
children Thank you so much Thank you Our next our next speaker is Robert Brooks Jr Thank you board Um first I just want to give honor to my wife who this is her first time speaking and she absolutely
blew it out the water Madame Chair esteemed board you know I'm not here with pitchfork and fire today I'm here to do something real simple I just want to read you a couple things Okay i notice you notice here this is my school bus Well first let me do this I am
Robert Brooks and I am a proud school bus driver for Rutherford County This school bus represents my bus I have a ton of students who get on my bus They listen They do what they're asked to do and on Friday they get to
reach in the treasure box and they get to pull out whatever they want and they get to go home and that's fully funded by the community that I have just what it is Um this week I was
gifted by a parent um a a basket and um God I said I wasn't going to do that And she ran to the bus and she said "Mr Robert Mr Robert here happy Easter I just didn't want this day to go by without you getting this basket." And
this bunny was in it right and I read the card when I got home and it says this Hello Mr Robert We don't want to miss the opport the opportunity to let you know that we are very grateful for your responsibility and the love you give my daughter every moment Your
patience your sensitivity and the security that we feel to know that she is accompanied by someone who cares about her Thank you very much for taking care of E A student left me a note the other day She stuffed it in the pouch at the front
of my bus and I didn't know I found it today Dear Mr Robert you're the best bus driver I ever had because I love when you help me when I have a problem and cheer me on You always give me a good mood when I'm down I really love when
you let me help you out and make me laugh Also love when we talk One of my favorite things is when you tell me what you did in your day and I feel like I'm special because you care about me and it makes me happy when you buy us
things with your own money By the way I was told I was rich the other day I said "Girl please stop." She said "You are so kind and a good baddie I don't even know what that means but I don't you know you just go with it Thank you for everything." And then she said "I'm sorry that I didn't
get you a gift." Cuz she was on the bus when I received the basket But she said "I don't have any money." And I said "Girl please stop." But then she drew me these pictures right something was said tonight okay i appreciate you and the work you've done
for this but you said this too We have to do what's in the best interest of our kids And if we say we're going to do what's in the best interest of the kids listen to their voices Talk to them Go see
them Approve this It's not about the money It's about the babies Thank you Hey Miss Miss Darby It's been a long night U been a very Oh yes Did you still need to talk i'm sorry I thought Can we
reach in the basket okay we've reached in the bus I got you Okay go ahead I'm so sorry Go ahead I'm going to make this pretty quick because we spent a lot of time on the bus contract and I just want to kind of let the board know kind of where the organization is at this point with the
proposed contract just so that we're all on the same page going into Thursday I want to thank Mr Reid and the board and particularly Mr involved with and all the attentive questions and their you know attention to this ongoing process as we've been in for the last several
months Um but obviously the two primary issues or you know three as we discussed but two uh that have been the focal point of our negotiations are the compensation rate and insurance Spent a lot of time on insurance I appreciate that we're
trying to work towards a solution but right now our response to the proposed you know $4,000 stipend is it is still not agreeable We want to continue that discussion to find a way to make it work but right now the concern on our side by
imposing these uh you know private contractors with this burden is just disagreeable at this time The second the second thing is the compensation rates uh as Mr Reed uh mentioned the board is not tied to the 10% and 2.5% in the
subsequent years that he's proposed but you are tied in by the budgetary constraints of the board For our purposes we brought the original number we started with at 35% down to 30 We're happy to keep negotiating over what a
agreeable compromise is but it is not 10% and 2.5 All that to be said is as proposed at this point the contract uh provided to the board the contractors will not sign
it They will not sign it this month They will not sign it in July We want to stay open to dialogue and I understand that there are budgetary issues involved with getting the budget approved getting it sent to the commission and having it in place in accordance with the laws you have to you know abide by But on behalf
of my clients which are 70% of the contractors as proposed we are not going to sign this contract Full stop We want to continue the discussions to the extent that we have time allowed If the board decides it is their
prerogative to find another solution but if this is the final contract and there are buses running in August of this year these contractors won't be driving them happy to answer further questions and continue the dialogue but I just wanted
the board to be in no uncertain terms where at least the organization's drivers and contractors stand So thank you for your time and I hope that we continue the discussion Mr Darby move to adjourn Move
to adjourn