I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next, we have the approval of the consent agenda. Any comments or questions? Miss Maxwell. Yes, mister Tidwell. Can I make a request that we move the ESL portion, to further down maybe behind instruction? Because I believe there'll be some discussion on that. Do I have a second? Second? Okay. Do you hear if we move it back? Doctor. Moore. We may not think it's second, but just in case so. Where do you what you wanna move it to? Behind instruction? Yes, please. Number three under instruction maybe. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. I'll entertain a motion for the approval of the consent agenda. Move to approve. Second. Thank you, mister, Tibble. Thank you, mister Vaughn. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next we have Rutherford Pratt. So these, we're gonna recognize our CMA music teachers of excellence. We talked about this a at our last board meeting. Meeting. We had three Rutherford County Schools music educators that were recognized as twenty twenty five CMA music teachers of excellence. Only 30 teachers nationwide were selected, which makes it even more of an honor for
three of them to be from Rutherford County. I'm supposed to be in that, but I had sent doctor Martin. I've talked to several of you why I couldn't be there. So apologize I couldn't be there because I I definitely wanted to be. We have Reggie Coleman, band director of Rocky Fork Middle School. And if you guys can come up and then doctor Boatman, how for if you wanna say anything, it's totally up to you as well. Garrett Du, choir director at Smyrna High School and then Nick F. Scott Du, band director at Riverdale High School. Nick, did I do halfway? Amazing. Great. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanna say again to reiterate what doctor Sullivan said, how proud we are
that out of 30 nationwide music teachers of excellence, three of them are right right here in Rutherford County. And it speaks to the quality of our music programs, the quality of educator we have, because of the support of our board and our leadership and, and the important space on music education here that we have these wonderful educators. So thank you all and congratulations to you. Congratulations. Thank you. Next, we have RCS Strong outstanding staff awards. Mister Evans. So we're gonna do it a little bit different differently than that.
We don't have a backdrop over here because the television is what we're gonna figure that out, but we're gonna find out in front of the board tonight. So thankful for our crew over here at Sonic, Chris Fragets and Al Chewer. They have agreed to this again all year long. Of course, we launched this last year. They came to every one of these even though we had to change some things around the last minute. So just appreciate their continued partnership with our school system and for recognizing our staff members. We also have a new category this year. We had this request because we have a lot of people in this building who are hourly employees and things like that. They said, you know, there's not really a category for for those central office employees.
And I when I say that, I'm not making the leadership team. We're we're exempt from these kinds of awards, but we have a lot of other people who serve. They serve long hours here, so we wanna make sure we recognize those. And I'm really happy with the one that was picked this year or this month. We had more than 700 nominations for the month of August when we put this out. And we'll be doing another request tomorrow for the next set, which will be October. That's, more than we had the entire year last year. So people are starting to recognize the awards and like those. We did the selection of different this year too. We picked three from every category randomly using one of those wheels that mister Moore
likes. And then and then we went through those nominations as leadership team, and And doctor Sullivan, of course, made the final call, but, everyone's concerned. I'm hoping some more of these things will come back around. So we're gonna start tonight with our administrator, our principal award. That's from mister Richard Reed, who, of course, is the principal of La Verne Middle School. I told mister Reed I was gonna ask this question. What was your growth score this year? What was the last year? How many years have you been there? Two. Two. Okay. I mean, as principal too. Yes. Okay. So the nomination for mister Reed, this is what I'm gonna read this.
I was part of the LMS family before mister Reed joined the LMS team as an assistant principal. I've never attempted to leave the school because of the dedication to the students community service, and I felt that culture mattered more than time travel, scores, or ratings. This goes on to say, I thought our school was as close to perfect as it could be, but mister Reed has elevated that reasoning even more for me. He raised the bar in Alvest, even though I didn't think that we could could get any higher. He spends countless hours devoted to the students in the building, especially ones who need
a hero the most. His compassion towards our students is like none other than I witnessed. He has sown seeds that Rutherford County area will see for decades. So that's your nomination. Alright. Next up is miss Sarah Sears, who is an instructional coach at Rockville High School. You've been in that position about seven years now, is that right? That's right. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, I did some reading. I originally started this as the nomination. I originally started as an EA and transitioned to a teaching position midway through last school year. Being in education was totally new expansionary. She has been, as miss Sears has been, an incredibly supportive teammate.
She answered every question I've had, guided me through various online programs, and helped me navigate workplace dynamics. Her mentorship and guidance has been instrumental in building my confidence and growth as an educator. And while I know I still have plenty to learn, I'm grateful for the foundation she's helped me build, and I look forward to continue to learn from me. So that's your nomination. Congratulations. Alright. Under the support staff category, miss Stephanie, and I never say your name right, but I'm gonna try to say, match a bit. Am I close? Okay. So I've known Stephanie for many, many years. She is the best, school secretary that I think I've ever met.
She is, of course, at Rockville High School with mister Luker. She's been with him at multiple schools, I believe. Is that right? K. With smart and middle? And just to go up for punishment. Is that right? Okay. Eighteen years. Miss Stephanie goes out of her way to comfort and welcome every staff member and student. She is mother of all of us teachers. She's a mother to all of us teachers and the most beloved person in our school. She's always pleasant and accommodating. No recognition would be adequate. She is a rock star. So congratulations. Alright. So our first central office, award winner is miss Renee Pope from our human resources
department. Miss Pope got miss Pope received multiple nominations, but I'm gonna read one of them. It's really cool, and I'll I'll tell you why when I get done. Renee goes above and beyond for her job. She trained me and is always a good example of what an admin assistant should be. I can go to Renee with any questions, and she will have an answer for me every time. She gave me a tour of the building that introduced me to everyone. She made sure that I had all of my logins even though it took some extra effort by constantly emailing people. She took excellent notes and set me up so that I am prepared for any issues that I may face with the job.
I even noticed some of the analysts going to her for questions as well. She is definitely one of the most knowledgeable people in the HR department. Now that comes from miss Jordan who who took your position because you got promoted that. And this was only just a few days after Tranker. She was so impressed with me. She just had to get a foundation. I thought that was extra special. Congratulations. Last but not least is miss Gail Howell, bus 243. I got the bus number right. Right? I know that means a lot. Just wanna make sure I get it right. Miss Howell always takes each, takes such great care of the student who ride her
bus. She loves on their families as well. At the beginning of the year, it's always stressful for parents and staff, and she makes sure students are well taken care of and arrive home safely every afternoon. Congratulations. And do you all see this handsome guy who's with you? What's his name? Randy. Randy. Alright. Welcome. Alright. So if I could just get the board to stand up, and we're just gonna take a photo right here. Okay, miss Maxwell. I have one more thing and then I'm done. Yes. So in front of you all is the this month's communications report is the light flow or maybe the word.
Not gonna read all this to you, of course, but we try to show you some of the highlights that we're doing each month, and we've had a big month. It comes just the the first few weeks of school. As you probably saw, La Verne High School had the big announcement this week at Northern Tool that they're they've been selected as the only high school in the country to help, repurpose this brand new Harley street bike into a dirt track bike. Those kids were giddy. It was just a great experience to see. We also highlighted Oakland High School's doctor Darren Mathis or I'm sorry, doctor Sarah Darren Mathis, who is leading their biostem biotech program over there.
And I had the opportunity to see her classroom today. It's really you'll see it Sunday. It's really incredible. It's a it's a college level laboratory there in the high school. It's the students are just gonna get so much great opportunity out of it. There's some other things that you can see. Of course, we have the, ribbon cutting for Oakland on Sunday too. On the backside of the page are some of our comparison numbers from August to August. I'm not gonna go through all days. What I like to say is all the arrows are pointing up, which is what we like. Now mister brought me his company's numbers and like to brag that his are higher
than ours. And I I said, that's great. I think his marketing budget is about four times 32. So we we can trade if he wants. So but yes. I I appreciate that. Something interesting at the bottom there of the website, we have a 109 active users this past month. Some of the top pages that are visited, which is probably no surprise with the bus route page, the academic calendar, the lunch menu, and then open jobs. And there are not too many open jobs right now. HR process is doing a great job. So, I just wanna highlight some of those. Are there any questions or any information I can write back next month?
Okay? Doing great. Thank you, miss Maxwell. Thank you. We had our guest speaker. He was here, mister, Mike Sparks. Representative Mike Sparks was here Tuesday, and he left with us a resolution of which we all have sitting by our, packets. And, he would ask for our support. Move to approve. Thank you, mister Rosales. Thank you, mister Volley. I'll just go ahead and say, I appreciate him coming and speaking. And all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Opposed. Okay. Duly noted.
K. Five to two. Resolution passes. Next, we have public comments, and we do have one person that signed up for public comments. Her name is Whitney Rudin. Hi. Did I pronounce that right? Hoffman is my last move here. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Whitney Hoffman. I have two students at Poplar Hill, which is a new elementary school. Very excited about that. I am also a Sunday school teacher at Saint Luke's Catholic Highs, Catholic school, Catholic church, in Smyrna. And I am talking today just in support of the parents ESL program.
I think it's an incredibly important initiative that we pass in Rutherford County, and I think it's really shown great improvements to school outcomes. It's shown an increase in other counties that have done it in parental engagement, which is the number one predictor of student outcomes. So the more that our parents can speak to our teachers and our staff in English, the better the outcome is for our students. There was actually a longitudinal study done on dual language learners in Miami that showed that these types of programs and early acquisition of English predicted significantly better outcomes for
individuals through fifth grade, including higher test scores, lower risk of grade retention, higher GPAs, fewer social and emotional problems, better improved student attendance, intergenerational gains, and also improvements in parent engagement within the schools. So I just wanted to briefly speak that I think this is a very important initiative. As a person who teaches a lot of children who do not have, parents that speak English, it is incredibly important that we have information and that they can gain access to English language learning that helps them engage better with their students and with
their schools to improve the outcomes within all of Rutherford County. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next up we have instruction. Number one. So we discussed in our work session the middle school rezoning and so just wanna know what was approved last time. Our timeline, we got the email today from RSP about re getting all of our files so that they can do our analysis because they we can wait until the September to do the analysis, since we are still having students. We'll have the border tree on November 4 to look at enrollment trends and possible
changes that we'll have. I believe we have a meeting at the November, have discussions for the next month of November, and then make a decision on middle school zones in December to be able to implement. I'll tell you, we are looking at posting that middle school principal position November, somewhere around that time line. So it's always good for parents to have an idea of who the principal's gonna be before you actually put the rezoning in place. We are going to have to look at changing a little bit. We talked about the the Rockville, Blackman area.
Rockville is not gonna get enough relief. So shifting some of those students towards Blackman looking into downtown area. One of the other things that there's gonna be a talking about rezoning, we talked about this in August. Stewart Street Elementary School is a little bit over their projection. They're projected just over 1,100 students there, over eleven fifty at this point. We do have over 75 student employee zone exemptions for students at that school. And so that area is projected even with RSP to be back to thirteen, fourteen
hundred in the next three years. And so we're gonna have to look at shifting that zone since there's not gonna be another elementary school in that area in that time. That's as we talked about in August, not gonna be a fun decision because it's, you know, gonna be a combination or look at moving the branch counters up back over on the railroad or looking at and looking at employee's own assumptions. So it's gonna have to be a combination of that. Thank you. Number two. This is David here in Laverne Lake Elementary requesting to partner with Better Lessons for professional development plans throughout the 2526 school year.
Expeditionary learning, ELs are current English language arts adoption for elementary schools and Better Lessons. We'll work with our administration teachers from both faculties to improve instruction using our tier one curriculum. Plan will include an in person baseline learning walk with administrators, provide in person workshops with teachers, and in person learning walks in the building. Funding for this plan will not exceed 60,500 for the two schools on cut foot title one funds. Any comments or questions? No. Thank you, mister Vaughn. Thank you, miss Sharp. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. And we go back to Yes.
ESL. Yep. And we have miss Turnbull here as well to help answer any questions if there are any. The ESL department's requesting the use of title three funds to conduct an ESL parent class at Smyrna Elementary School. Eric Aguilar, ESLEA, will be paid $25 an hour for two hours of instruction each week. Semester one, the class meets twelve weeks. Semester two, the class will meet seventeen weeks. Total payment of $1,450 for the 2526 school year. ESL departments also requesting the use of title three funds to conduct an ESL parent class at Smyrna Primary. Adisa Alvarez, ESLPA, will be paid $25 an hour for two hours of instruction each
week. Again, semester one, the class will meet for twelve weeks. For semester two, the class meets seventeen weeks, total payment of $1,450 for $25.26 school year. ESL department request to use title three funds to provide a $2,000 stipend to ESL coaches for after school professional development responsibilities, and you see the coaches listed. And then last, ESL department request to add Rachel Sanderson Campus School and here in Woodruff McFadden to list of ESL lead teachers. Receiving the lead stipend, a thousand dollars paid each teacher for their extra duties from title three. And then we got an email last night and I sent this to the board
as well, today, but you may not have had time to read it. The program's been in place since at least the twenty nineteen, twenty twenty school year, which is as far as they can make go back and look at e plan, which is the approval process. Proposed program for the 2526 school year is smaller than what we did last year. We had questions about the title three funds, what they can be used for. Title three funds for the 2526 school year, which is this year, are already approved and been sent to districts from the federal government and approved by Tennessee Department of Education.
We have to go through an application process and approval process with the Tennessee Department of Education to use our consolidated funds. That was already approved. Congress is having a lot of discussion about federal education funds, which I'm sure will impact us in the future, but those won't impact us until July 2026. The we have a, from the Tennessee Department of Education, a federal spending handbook. And so they go through and I'll just read a couple that districts are allowed to do and have to meet certain qualifications and bullet points to be able to
do. On page 31, one of the last bullet points because that's what title three is talked about. It says title three part eight of purposes are promote parental family and community participation and language instruction educational programs for the parents, families and communities of e l's. On page 32, it talks about what it can fund and that section states, providing and implementing other effective activities and strategies that enhance their four supplement language instruction educational programs for ELs. And it says which must, and this is bolding, underline for the department of education,
include in bold parent, family, and community engagement activities. On page 33, it lists the document continues with authorized sub grantee which would be a district and LEA. Those activities include providing community participation programs, family literacy services, parent and family outreach, and training activities to ELs and their families to improve language English language skills and to assist parents and families in helping their children to improve their academic achievement. And lastly, becoming active participations in the education of their children.
So I just wanna provide some background. Whatever the board decides, of course, we'll support that this has been a needed and well done activity in our school for the last five years. Miss Turnbull is here. If anyone has any questions or comments or just wants to say the same. Mister Tipple. Yes. So I knew there would be some discussion around this. I've I've received phone calls, text messages, emails, everything about this, and I've heard coming from both sides. My question is is kinda or my the discussion point I wanna have with the board is probably not what, is expected here.
But the the thought here that I have is as doctor Solon just said, there are, of course, grounds for all of this that's been operating for the past four or five years. You know? And there's there's I'm sure there's been some successful pieces to this. So I'm I'm not against it on that particular garden. Matter of fact, I have a, a good friend that went through it at one of our schools and, you know, is a citizen, definitely helped him. He's very productive in our community. So for that reason, it's not that I'm against this program.
Where I kinda ran into some, I have to say just some barriers, is well, is is this being offered anywhere else? And so my friend, he said or he was he was saying that he he chose our program, but there are other programs out there. So I did some research to see what programs there were. There's some churches that do it. The library does it. There's there's other options out there. Those options include Zoom classes in person. So so there's there's other options. They're not fully attended. They're pretty flexible.
So I thought, okay. Well, then that leads me back to a conversation we were have been having for the past year and we had a resolution on, earlier this January, is that we're going to the state asking them for more funding, and I realize it's federal funds. But we're going to ask for more funding for ESL students, EL students, while at the same time, we're using funding for something that we're technically not required to do, which is outside the k to 12 program, which is our main interest, which is students. So the discussion point that I'm trying to bring forth for today is not necessarily
against helping parents. Of course, I am for parents, and I agree with the lady that spoke that the best thing to help students is parent involvement. I agree with that 100%. So yeah. Come on up here. I'm throwing some stuff out there, but that's kinda where I'm at on it. Yeah. So Well, I'm glad you brought it up. I mean, I want there to be open transparency and open dialogue about it. One thing that and I brought this just in case y'all wanted to see it, but the allowable use of funds. Yeah. I'll wait till everybody gets it. But you can you can see, there are three things that I must budget for
or I will not be approved. And I'll wait till you can see it starts number one at the bottom. Underline, bolded, italicized the word must. And also the thing is when my title three budget is not approved, all of the budgets are not approved. They're all in that consolidated fund. So if I don't put these three things in, it's gonna be sent back to me. And you'll see number one starts at the very bottom, Required uses of title three. The first one is bolded effective language instruction educational programs.
If you flip the page, you'll see number two, effective professional development. And then you'll see number three, other effective activities and strategies. And then it goes on to bold, italicize, underline must include parent, family, and community engagement activities. And so we spend a very small amount of our title three budget. There's actually been conversation from monitors in the past that we didn't spend enough on parent engagement. So this was just one way that we really thought was cost effective.
That it wasn't taking away from the k 12 program because you're right. We have a lot of students, and we need our title three funds. But I'm also under requirements of certain things to make sure I do set aside in my budget, some community and parent outreach. And then even on the the last page, if you look in that expenditure, page six, it tells you allowable cost for English learner family support and engagement. You'll see the second bullet point, supplemental parent and family engagement for EL families including
ESL instruction for parents. So I think that the ones that we have is reasonable. You know, we're talking about maybe it's under $10,000 for out of a $1,300,000 budget. You know, so I think that's how I would answer is I've got to do some things. I do think this is a great thing for our families. It actually got started, before me, of course, with one class. But we added the Smyrna Elementary class because of request of Ms. Ritter. She's actually here tonight. Because she said it was the number one thing asked for at her spring planning
meetings. And so she came to me and said, is this an allowable use of your funds? Can we do this? And we added that one there. Then we got a big grant in the spring and we did those additional 10 locations. We didn't do those again because it was just part of the grant. I wasn't gonna use all my money. You know, I'm trying to use it wisely. But the only other one we added was the Smyrna Primary because it had the best attendance out of all of them, all the extra 10 we did with the grant. And we had a teacher that was very passionate about it. She's actually got a lot she's gonna improve the whole program honestly, with the passion
she has. And she's already made a connection with reach to succeed, to improve our curriculum. So long story short, to answer your question, we we've got to do something in our budget for that parent engagement piece. And and I felt like this was a very small amount in in the scope of our budget. Thank you for that explanation. Clarity is key, so I appreciate that. Absolutely. And that was one of my biggest hangups is just the separation of if we're having funding shortages in this.
Right. Then are we taking funding away for something else Right. That we're not required. But as I as I'm understanding what you're saying, it is a requirement. It is. Yeah. And I I think if you look through those, like the federal spending handbook, that doctor Sullivan was referencing and then, you know, when I gave you here for the allowable cost, I can't get around that word bust and for those three things. And then after that, there's a lot of wiggle room. You'll see some allowed to cost that we can do. That's up to us, but those those three, we we just can't not do it.
Now could I do something else? You know? Yes. I could. We actually do a lot of parent meetings. Those don't cost any money though. I've gotta find a way to prove that I have spent money on parent engagement. And I love the parent classes. I do think it's a it's a good way to do that. And again, it's it's very common. 10,000 and a 1,300,000.0. You know, it's a small amount in in my eyes. Mister And it hasn't taken away totally. Sorry, mister Goff, from the k twelve. Mister Walt is first and then talk. Okay. Thank you for that. Oh, you're welcome.
Let me know if you have more questions, sir. You know, a must is a must. And, I think for this this reason that communications is, so very important, but especially when if you improve the communication abilities of parents with the teachers, it's gonna benefit the kids. And, for that reason, I'd like to make a motion to approve. Second. Can we not have some more discussion?
Yeah. We can have some more discussion. Yeah. But thank you. We've got a question number. And we've got a second. And go ahead, miss Charlton. Did you Well, I think miss Resolve. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Just doing it. So, thank you. So I was at Smyrna Elementary School, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of kids and parents that had a language barrier. And if you look at the whole pie, not even the $1,300,000 that we get from the federal dollars.
Just look at the whole entire budget we get. It's 5 I think we're at $550.88 something million dollars. I did a total of this and it's $13,505,150 dollars. That's how much this is that we're getting asked to allocate just to provide ESL classes for the parents so they can learn English. It's very it's very difficult whether we like it or not. We're put in a position where we're having to communicate with people and they don't
know the language. And it's very, very hard to communicate and understand what is being said. And I don't know why we even had the discussion since we voted for this two weeks ago to have it when what we're doing is saying that we're wanting them to learn the language so that we can communicate back and forth and understand what is being said instead of scrambling with Google Translate on the phone trying to translate what people are saying what they're saying. And there's so many different languages. It's not just Spanish.
There's Arabic. And even within Spanish, there's a different dialect. So the fact that we're trying to remedy a situation that it's out of our control, I think it's a good thing. Okay. Yes. Now miss miss Sharp and miss Darby that's next. I just apologize. Okay. Thank you. Hi. Thanks for being here tonight. After looking at this and going over the history, I think this probably was shifted from our title two funds because there was some parent involvement in that. Would that do you think title one? I I know that they had shifted away and they had reduced the parental involvement.
Should have been title one. Title two is professional development. Sorry. Title one. Yeah. Title one. Because I was dismayed that they had taken the parents, participation in there. Oh, pretty much way and they they really lowered that to like a one or 2%. So really looking and talking to everybody now, this looks like they probably shifted from type one to here. And that's it's a it's a it's a minimal amount. I get what everybody's saying. It is a hard it is hard to to speak with the parents.
My concern is do we think really that there's gonna be anybody that shows up? Because I I read the Spanish pages as well to the math translator, and there was people in there that were making comments about don't do it. Well, I will say, I'm sorry. Did I No. Well, they were just saying that, you know, don't do it. It's a it's a it's a trap, basically, what they were saying. So I'm I'm fearful that people are gonna be fearful to come. Right. Do you have a lot of people that have shown up, signed up on the Well, we we're starting after fall break.
They had been working on this new curriculum with Read to Succeed, so it kinda slowed us down getting started. But the the teachers, they're returning teachers, and they've already had people reaching out saying, when are we starting back? You know, that have been with them in the spring. So I can't tell you what the attendance is going to be, but I do know there's parents planning to come as of now based on what the teachers have told me. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Darby, did you have I did. Just a couple of things. Thank you for the information you provided earlier this week when I asked.
And, miss Sharp, I have the the previous averages I can forward to you if you wanna see them. I'm just curious how many different do you know how many different languages we're teaching through this program right now? Just English. No. Well, I'm I'm I don't have any languages we're servicing? No. The majority will be Spanish because that's the majority that's represented as Smyrna primary. But I don't know the variety. Miss Redrum, do you happen to know if there's multiple language? That would be nice. Curious about that because I know Smyrna has has a pretty big Arabic population.
I was curious if they were attending as well. Mhmm. Most are not in that zone though. A lot are a little more over. Like, Stearidge Creek is a little heavier. Mhmm. Arabic, not to say there's not Arabic there too. But our what's on your the consent agenda tonight, is actually to add some bilingual staff. The the two teachers were approved August 21, and then they said to me, hey. I think we've messed up and not added a helper and assistant that is bilingual, and they're both Spanish speakers. So that would be my expectation of what we'll attend as Spanish speakers.
But, you know, even in our ESL classes in the schools, we have multiple languages sitting around the table. We're all working toward learning English. So, but what you're is on the agenda tonight is to add two bi bilingual aids, one for each school. Okay. And I meant to say, mister Tidwell, that we do advertise all those other the churches and all the Read to Succeed, the Working Mission, they're all on our website and we've already sent it out to parents too. I mean, we have not just in our English program, but when you look at
our, you know, school data, we have 16,000 families that speak another language at home. So our two classes are not gonna make a big dent. So we definitely share all those others in there on the website too. Yes, mister Tidwell. I appreciate that. Like I said, I had a friend that went through the clients and it was it was great, very useful for him. So again, I'd when there is a point of contention, I don't want to feel to the public like we swept it underneath the rug. And there's been some stuff out there as we fuck around. So I'd rather address address it all publicly as you have done it tonight.
I appreciate that clarity. So I have the clarity that I needed. The last question that that I have is the previous attendance. I mean, you are having people show up to these. Yes. And I can do you want me to read that out? I'm sorry. I put you on the spot. No. I've got it actually because miss Darby had asked for it earlier, so I brought it with me. But they had they told me it was typically for all the years 15 to 20 parents per night. And then in the spring, they went down a little bit at Smyrna Elementary and
the one that are we have a church host for us. But we also had 10 other classes operating. And so they were saying about five to seven at Smyrna Elementary and at the church. And then Cedar Grove was average of six, Rocky Fork Elementary, an average of two. So that was what, you know, was really low. Stearidge Creek Elementary, four. Smyrna Primary, 16, which is why we chose to do, this one again. Roy Waldron, nine. Laverne Lake, six. Laverne Middle, 10. Whitmer Buchanan, four. Rock Springs, six. Laverne High, six.
And that's an average. When I looked at the sign in sheets, there'd be nights, there'd be three. There'd be nights, There'd be 20. You know? It was up and down. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for miss Turnpike? Okay. We have a motion on the floor. We have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Now we move on to engineering and construction. Thank you, mister Irma and thank you board. So the next thing we have is engineering construction and mister Lee talked about this on Tuesday night. City of La Verne Walton Road realignment request.
City of La Verne's working to realign and widen Walton Road in Rock Springs Elementary. JMT Property Services represents the city of La Verne to purchase properties for the Walton Road widening. You'll see below the offer is $215,595 based on the bank for the property of 75,000 per acre. There's a bonus of signed within thirty days to add $21,560 for a total of $237,160. Engineering construction review the request and has no objections. Any comments or questions? Move to approve. Second. Thank you. Thank you so much.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Action passes. Next we have school nutrition. School nutrition job description revision. School nutrition departments that bank the current position was as a field manager to align with the current role. Position has been listed as a field manager, but has been performing the duties of a commodities and contract specialist. School nutrition has drafted a job description that's in line with the current duties assigned to the position. Again, it's not a request to add a position, change pay, change days, anything like that. Just an update job description. Any comments or questions? Thank you, mister Vaughn. Who to thank you, miss Sharp.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Now we go to directors. Yep. I think it's you all. John, if you'll go ahead and pull that up. And so if y'all just stay with me, I'm gonna do the first part of our academic scores. And so for schools, schools are held accountable for several different different things and the big ones you hear about are going to be your achievement scores, proficiency, and then the other big portion is around growth. And so we're gonna talk about TVOS just a little bit tonight and scores and so that everybody has an idea of kind of what it is.
And so first, what is TVOS? And Tennessee student growth is measured by TVOS. And so this is a huge thing for us, for a couple reasons. The first being and I've had our attendance today person run it and we had, excuse me, 5,679 kids currently enrolled with us who were not with us last year. And so part of that is kindergarten. You've got your 2,700 kindergartners, but you then still have 3,000 students who were not with Rutherford County Schools and are with Rutherford County Schools now.
And so what we always talk about is that we can't control where students come from with it. What school system but what we can focus on is that they have to get a year's growth every single year they're with us. And that is kind of our charge has been, at least when I was in instruction at doctor Chastain's continued that. Our students have to grow. And TVOS demonstrates students growth from one year of the testing history to the next no matter where they were truly at. Ultimately, you want all of your students proficient as well, but proficiency rates are changed
and controlled and different across every statement in the nation. And so when you hear people talk about forty five percent of students in Tennessee are proficient in reading compared to eighty percent in Kentucky. And I told them just made those numbers up. Just for the record made those up. Each state has their own test. We don't take the same test. Each state makes their own cut scores for what's considered proficient. What I like to talk about is that if we think back to when you or your children were in school or their kids in school, think back to what you learned. What our students are learning today is much more advanced to what we were learning
at an earlier age. Age. And so that argument doesn't go along with the our schools are performing poor than they have in the past. If our students are getting exposed and experiencing more advanced content, then something has changed the assessment. And so we truly look at TBOS to see where our students are. I talked just a little briefly about what's the difference. Achievement looks at students one, and this is proficiency. One set at a time, kids are held accountable and they get their own TCAP scores every year. Are they below? Are they approaching?
Are they meets or do they exceed expectations? And for proficiency, you're hitting those top two meets or exceeds that meet you at grade level. And then growth that measures student growth again from one year to the next. And for us, we don't again, can can't control where they came from. So we wanna make sure that they grow while they're with us. When students are compared to for growth in TVOS, they're compared to two things. One, their own past performance and I've got a little example here that the state had about a decade ago that I still think is the easiest way to understand it. And then they're also compared to others like them. And so I use me as an example.
If I scored at the forty fifth in CE, which is a a statistical term, I'm compared to all other kids in the state who also performed that way. And so I need to grow just like all those other students. If I do, then I'm considered a level three. I've got level three growth. One year is level three. That's why your law districts talk about it. If you are below that, then you would be in a level one or two. If you could more points, then you'd be a level four or five. And so it's truly comparing each kid and how they compare across the state.
Here's my favorite example. So it is an old track example. The state has a new track example. So this one I believe is easier. So this one I I like. Students all make the team by a previously taking the test. So everybody's on the track team because they took the test. Each person in here could be an individual student, a classroom, a school, or a district. And so we're talking about groups of students at this point. Every person has a different starting position based on how they work last year. So for example, I said I was in the forty fifth NCE. I'm gonna be compared to everybody across the state who also is in the forty
fifth NCE. Each kid is different starting line, but, again, they're trying to compare to their current group. The start line, as we see, everybody is going around. I love that. We had to make sure the kids still moved in the right order. The group's average performance, that's gonna be what a level three is, one year. So what did the entire student group for the entire state how much did the entire state grow? We still have now get to it just a second. Mastered and on track. So we're not saying that truly at this point would be meets or exceeds expectations.
Again this is an older slide. We trained some terminology. Every kid still we want them to get to proficiency but we can't control where they came from. We just need to make sure that they grow. So you see everybody in this green box, they've met one year's growth because the entire student group stayed together. We know that's not reality. Not all of our students perform in a great little green box. They go all over the place. And so they're gonna run again, and I hope to stay back on track most of them. You will see where most of them are clustered together. That would be what's considered a level three. The the group, they didn't get to proficiency, but they all grew and this would
have been your average gross for the state for people that were like me at the forty fifth NCE for a classroom, for a district. Those would be one of your level threes. The poor person that's labeled number four, they fell behind, and so they didn't get a year's growth. If a kid doesn't get a year's growth, there's usually a couple of reasons. One, they had a rough year something happened, or two, they had a teacher that wasn't focused on standards. And so we truly make sure that if we have a teacher or school that's not focused on standards and kids aren't performing, we need to make changes to make sure everybody gets growth.
Where we have been and where we continue to be is where that six is. And so again, there's the four that didn't meet expectations. We wanna be here that we exceeded expectations. And so we're extremely proud to be that to be there. Always trying to get to mastered on track for the highest number of students we can. And so we are proud and our school board knows this. We've announced as a district, but we are a level five district. We have been for the past six consecutive school years. We are a level five district in every single content area. You get it in numeracy, which is math, literacy, which is ELA that combine numeracy
and literacy together and give you another score that's five. In science, we're five. In social studies, we're five. We also had 32 of our 48 tested schools, 100 level five, which is a phenomenal achievement for our schools. And again, anything over a three is considered to be one year's growth, but we truly want our kids to to gain more. We expect fours and fives. There's a list of schools and I'll just read it quickly. The level five schools will do a celebration for here in the next couple months. Barfield, Blackman, Buchanan, Cedar Grove, Central, Christiana Elementary, Christiana Middle, John Coleman, Kitrell, Las Casas,
La Verne Middle, McFadden, Oakland, Oakland Middle, Oakland High, Oakland Middle, Plainview Elementary, Riverdale High, Rock Springs Middle, Rockville Elementary, Rockville High, Rockville Middle, Rocky Fork Elementary, Rockville, Rocky Fork Middle, Segal High, Segal Middle, Smyrna Elementary, Smyrna Middle, Stewards Creek Elementary, Stewards Creek High, Stewards Creek Middle, Thurman Francis, Whitworth Buchanan, and Wilson. And what's nice about growth, a lot of times achievement is gonna be tied to your school's poverty level and growth. You will see on this is a mixture of our entire county, all schools, all
doing graduates. Magnets, high poverty, low poverty, everybody's included. And you see just by looking at it, it's a little bit of a change for last year, but a lot of similar schools as well. The other thing that I've emailed the board but haven't told everyone is that if you look at evaluation, which is part of growth, Rutherford County Schools has the highest evaluation composite growth, which is TBOS of any other district in Tennessee. And so that is huge. That shows how much growth our students truly are learning. So to mister Vaughn's point, we have a great school system. For growth, we did.
So what does that look like moving forward? Oh, I forgot about this part. We will and this is important. I'm sure Tidwell is actually the one that alerted us to it last year. So schools get a performance bonus. We don't know about our performance bonuses yet because it's on your letter grade. So this is just the growth portion. The achievement portion is not calculated until the report card comes out. Rutherford and Williamson were the only two school districts in Tennessee that received the highest bonus level last year, which was 4,000,000, and we are right on track to be
a right amount here again this year. And so I I appreciate that part being included because that that definitely helps us. That was part of what we talked about, excuse me, with our insurance as well. That helps give back to our teachers and putting the work in. So congratulations to everyone that's gonna work. It truly starts with our teachers working with our students, but our administrators run small cities. And so they're happy to work with our, teachers to our students. And of course, the partnerships with our parents and our community and the vision by our school board and our central office staff. What we talk about a lot is how can we be supportive, but how can
we not just make bureaucracy to be bureaucracy? Because it's a large school system. That's where your big school systems get in trouble, is they make rules just to make rules. Don't necessarily help anything. So what's it look like for 2526? I don't necessarily wanna be Debbie Downer because we're celebrating, but I do wanna go over a couple things. TVOS is changing for next year. This is strictly at the departments, and I'm gonna be very careful. The this is at the department's discretion, not at the legislature legislators or anyone else.
So they are changing the TBOS. It is going to a multi year. So instead of one, we get a new new score every year. This isn't that big of a deal. Your score will be based on one third of the previous year and two thirds of the current year. Again, that's not that big of a a deal. The bigger deals, they're changing. So every school is still gonna get a a one through five, except they are now going to use something called effect size. I'm not gonna get too much into the statistician world here. But once the school in a district is labeled as they earn a one through
five, they are then going to break apart the ones and the twos and the fours and the fives and differentiate them. So you could have a level five earned school that it now drops to a level four because of effect size. And then talking about this with the department, Really, it comes down to the distribution. It looks like a w right now. You have a lot of ones, not very many twos, a whole lot of threes, not very many fours, a whole lot of fives. They want a bell curve, and so my argument is we're making changes just because
the narrative is gonna be schools are performing worse when it was just a new measure that was used instead. And if we're using a bell curve, they've talked about they want 20% ones, 20% fives. That's not how a bell curve works. You'd have less numbers, at the two extremes. So I think the biggest challenge that I have because my jobs advocate for resident county schools on the slides provided by the state department, it says larger schools are more likely to move towards the middle of fires. We have large schools. I I don't know a way to to say that other than that.
We have large schools. And then their second bullet is that largest schools are more than 10% less likely to be a fire. And so we're it seems like a system that is it's gonna be hard. I fully expected this. Our schools won't drop a lot down between fives to fours. And so it's again just a a statistical model. The department has all the the leeway to do that. I respect the department, but there are definitely some concerns I have what the public's gonna see when you go from 32 level five schools to 14 level five schools. And this was implemented on last year's data, and the rest of them are forced
because nothing changed. The data was still there. But I wanted to focus on the positives, but also make you all aware. This is gonna be something we have to talk about in the next couple months, because that's gonna be a a change for schools. Are the people who work at the, state department here in Nashville? Do they formally work at state department in Washington? So I Seem like they have the same characteristics. I think these are statisticians, and I I love numbers too that are just wanting And and you can argue for either thing that used one measure for a while and now they're changing. You could argue for either.
It'll help small difference what they're doing now, could have helped large districts. Just the change and how it's gonna impact big school systems and big schools when that's pretty much all we have is big schools is a is a challenge. Doctor Sullivan. Yes. Okay. So, maybe I didn't hear this. I'm capturing while you were talking. So why are they changing the the whole thing? I mean, because you're not showing the graphs, but there's two graphs. There's the current graph of all the schools and how they're laid out is kinda
staggered. And then now the new proposal with the new scores, it's more like a bell curve. So that means it'll be there'll be more people push in the middle and less people in the in the level five and level, four. I mean, level three. I mean, level two or a one. So why is there a sudden push in trying to change this? And so my second thing is, are they changing the TCAT test as well? Because No. Test will change. Because some of those scoring is dependent on what the TCAT scores are.
So if they're changing that, then shouldn't they be changing the test too? They're they're trying to impress the state legislature to, justify the standard they've taken. They're looking at trying to Well, here's the thing. There was an article that came out, and I forget who published it. But they had this particular article talked about, the how what a child will will see on a TCAT test for the ELA portion for third grade.
And I don't know how I don't don't know how many people how many educators took it. No. It was actually educators that took the test. And they came back and they found at a conclusion that these educators were were not did not do as well because of the type of questions that are being asked on the test. So my question is, if they're making all these changes, shouldn't they also reevaluate the TCAT test? Because that is what's being created on. And if they're wanting everyone to go to the middle, then shouldn't they also look
at that as well? And so you can make data do whatever you want to. And I think what's fresh what can be frustrating is that we're we're performing as gonna look like our community that we are not performing as well. It was just Exactly. What was used. The other part connected to that, we do wanna make the board aware of as a this is part of directors out there. Again, I don't wanna lose the focus of the celebration, but I do want the board to be aware. The second part and this is this is concerning for elementary school. And, again, this is not legislator and department. The, we as a board have looked at moving away from as much technology.
And so I think that's been the legislation legislator's intent as well. We went one to one in high school and then pushed two to one down to middle instead of being one to one. We're notified. There's been some conversation. We're notified last week that starting in the 2027 school year. That may seem like a little noise. Well, that's not far away. That the multiple choice, multiple answer, multiple select portion for second through fifth grade is going to be online. And so that's that's gonna be a challenge.
And so we, one, that's a fiscal impact that we're gonna have to look at computers for second or fifth graders. Two, developmentally assessing a second grader on content, but they're gonna have to be using a device. That that's a tough sell. And so just know that is it was mentioned, I think, in our director's update on this last Thursday that that decision has been made. So second through fifth grade, they're still gonna have a writing portion that was handwritten, but the other portion of the TCAP starting 2027 will be online for second through
fifth grade. That's that's a struggle. So can I put down positive and ask some questions? Yes. Now that we're all You have questions on that? Go ahead. Yeah. Actually, before we go to the positive real quick, could you go back over, the the what do you call it? How they're redoing? Forget the word that you just used. Effect size? Yes. Yes. And so effect size is another statistical measure. Right now, they use growth, and growth gives you a growth measure. Does give credit to large school systems because there's more history and you have a
larger pool to say, alright. This school is successful because you all brought a student speaking into that. Effect size looks at other things to be able to get to the standard deviation and standard error, all kinds of different things. It's just that you're still gonna use the growth measure to determine if you're a one through a five, but then they're going to apply the effect size to see if you're a four or a five or a one or a two. And so it's a it's just a different statistical analysis. I asked for the purpose and that's kind of the reason. So So doctor Sullivan, I know you may not know this answer, but the gross
measure is what we use for, for example, ESL students. When they're different tiers, that is where they're really measured on, is on the growth side. They're not really measured on the, the academic performance. So if we're changing the effective if we're moving to an effective size, how is that going to look like for the schools that have a majority? Like, Smarter Elementary School, for example, or, in that have a a the demographics of ESL students are pretty significant.
And that is a measure that really helps that school. So how is that gonna how will that barometer move? So the schools and what I've challenged and talking with the department, they were very receptive to this. They said individual teachers' scores will not change. And so how they're earning scores will not have effect size. That is true for teachers that are in a tested area. But if you're a non tested area teacher, you're earning overall level of effectiveness is determined by the school's level. So if your school is going from a five to a four, your individual score
is gonna drop as well, and they were very receptive to that too when they say the teacher scores won't change. That's not necessarily accurate. Smyrna, all of our schools that have our large schools. We talked about we may see and drop just based on the kinda what I wanna reiterate to the board is that our mission doesn't change to make sure that we want our students to grow. And so that is still our expectation. And I put a lot of faith in our teachers to be able to make sure that our groups of kids are learning and growing. And so that's what our focus is gonna be. Because I I didn't get a lot of movement.
I'm trying to change that back. Mhmm. So Mister Arnold. Thank you, madam chair. I moved down 05/1979. With new students to us this year. So from May to August, we had that many students. Yeah. But you do have to remember about 28 2,700 kids are kindergartners. Okay. The rest of them have moved in and we lost students as well. So we had students move out and these students replace them. That is just a large number of kids who we talk about mobility. We have a lot of mobility. So what is that number? Because it's usually between 1,500, 2,000.
Growth wise, we're exactly before last year. Okay. So Okay. Thank you. Any other comments? Yes. Mister Collins. You know, the, the state department changed in the way they're doing things. It shouldn't surprise anybody. I've been involved with this ever since they first began. Good point. And every two or three years, they come up with a everybody's got a better math script. And so, you know, they come up with it. Then what they do, they keep shifting numbers and doing things in different ways, for various reasons.
And, now they want to push her back to the middle in the bell curve. That's what the bell curve does. It just pushes her back to to the to the middle. And so, you know, it's just one more thing they've done and, you know, they can't they can't live well enough alone. And I guess they've talked to him about a restaurant, but I don't know. You know, it's just, it makes it difficult because you can't get comfortable in doing one thing without them chasing it and have them do it some other way.
And so, you know, and it comes at the end of the day, it's all about what kids love. It's not how much you test them. It's how much they learn. And whatever you gotta do to teach you, that's what it's all about. Because at the end of the day, it's how much kids take home. That's the reason value added is so important. This is how much the kids have learned. And, you know, that tells you that our our folks have done the best job in the state of Tennessee, literally. Yes. Yeah. We all. Yeah. Mister Maxwell, I have one more question.
Doctor Sullivan, it's September. Have we received from the states what the measures are or the new scores? Partial. So we've received the and this is where this change was. But what the cuts are gonna be between a one, two, and a four, five will be released later this fall. Later this fall. Yep. So that's something we can help is trying to get that information pushed down. That is something that I have relayed about. And it is getting quicker. It's not back to where it was five years ago, but this is we didn't get it before the school year started, but we got it close to the school
year. Okay. Just the cuts aren't there. So truly still don't know what this would be. That's good. Because that's something that I've been relating to the lawmakers and other people that we need the communication to build it more quicker. Yep. So that's that's promising. Good news. Yeah. So good news. We have our something that I wanted to go ahead and start to develop a relationship, a better relationship with the mayors in our county. And so we had our first mayor council meeting today, so we had a year off. City municipality mayors and county mayor Clark met today, so I appreciate all of them
taking their time out of their day to just kinda, one, here's an overview of the school system, but, but, two, let's look at growth. Where is growth coming from? And what are y'all's perception of the school system even though it may not be be reality, but someone's perception is to be their reality. So just trying to forge those relationships better because ultimately, for our school system to be successful and for our county to be successful, we have to have a strong public school system. And having those partnerships, it was a we only met for an hour. We could have met for a lot longer. And so it was it was a great first meeting today.
I think that's excellent. Thank you for doing that. Is there anything else? Miss Darby. I just wanted to speak a little bit on the bus resolution and why I was in opposition to it because we really didn't have discussion. And I didn't wanna pull you back to it earlier. I just wanted to say that I'm not against it if the data backs up, that it doesn't increase a risk to our students. And, unfortunately, the graph that was sent, I asked for some more information on that I never did receive. And according to TDOT, the drivers with the most accidents are between the ages of
16 and 25, and that's just in general. That's not school bus drivers specifically. To doctor Sullivan's point, we have to be careful when we look at data because you can the highest percentage of accidents could be in your drivers that range from 45 to 65, but that's where the majority of your school bus drivers fall in their age range. It's obvious that that's where the majority of the accidents are gonna come from if you only have two 25 year olds driving. So, that's what I had asked for clarification on that I hadn't received yet.
So I don't have an issue looking at that and supporting that if the data doesn't put our students at a higher risk, but that's where my concern comes from. I just wanted to let the public know why voted in opposition to that. Okay. Miss Maxwell? Yes. So I just wanna say that this is, September is the month for suicide awareness and, prevention. And then there was a conference that was that that would happen in, a week this past week this past week over in I think it was Embassy Suites Hotel.
And it was a sparking change in 90 passion, and there was some breakout sessions about, suicide prevention and how to help that with within the school system. And I hate that I missed it because I really wanted to go to that conference. Amy Baltimore, who used to work here, she had invited me to attend. And so, I hope that I can make it next year. Any other guests, Michelle? I will address the bus issue as well because I had several people call. I spoke with other representatives and representatives of, Cameron Sexton's office, and they're not gonna
change this. The state general assembly is not gonna change this. TDOT is not gonna change this, though. It's a liability for our school system to have the upper drivers and the buses. Certainly, that was my opposition to it. Thank you. Thank you. Mister Vaughn. Alright. Two things, Trey, before you go sleep on me. Can you give us just I'm teasing. I'm teasing. I'll leave you out of this. Can you give us a quick update about routes, unfilled routes, bus bus transportation, how
everything is going, and maybe doctor Sullivan, you have posted the new transportation director's job. Is that correct? Yes. It's still taking applications. I think we've posted for several weeks. We have it national. We have local, statewide. We got When when, when's the cutoff? I guess it's I don't have one now. Okay. Probably during the middle of fall break. Perfect. Schedule interviews right after fall break. Just wanna bring that to everybody's attention. But if you kindly give us an update, then I have one other thing I wanna talk about, Claire. Okay. We currently have six open routes.
We have three contractors that received the letters this week, thirty day letters because they do not currently have a driver on their Mazda. And we have two that had already received thirty day letters that they're in operating in that window. If they get to thirty days and still don't have it, we will be coming before the board requesting those routes. So there's potentially 11. Right now, there's currently six. Currently six. And and that's part of policy is to give them 30 to rectify the situation.
Generally, give them some grace. That's week or two before we even start the thirty days. So it could have been, you know, with thirty days, it could have been a couple of weeks prior to that. So it's usually a little longer. But per contract, before we can bring their route to you to this board for removal, they have to be officially done as fast that they have thirty days to rectify from. And and and that was when I represented Sparks. We had talked about, you know, getting testing done or, you know, that kind of
stuff, background checks done if there's things we could even ask for. You know, I understand. I appreciate both y'all's opinion on the age difference. You know, to me, if somebody's got a CDL license, they've been tested by the state, they've gone through the courses, I think. You know, that probably speaks volumes to something. But, anyway, thanks for the update. Second thing is and and and this kinda goes back to the discussion about testing and everything. And this is, you know, my knowledge of it's going on, what, 45 now. I remember my my mother always worried about that.
And then, you know, in my lifetime, you hear about test scores and all that. But I think what I'm what I'm getting around to say and his brain to everybody's attention, probably it ebbs and flows depending on who's at the capitol. And, you know, not casting stones about any political party or any governor or anybody like that. But I hope people consider we're going into a governor's race next year, and I hope people consider, candidates that support public education because that's, you know, that's what it's
all about. I I can remember one of our good, democratic leaders here years ago, and, highway's named after John Bragg. And he always the civic organizations I was in, Farm Bureau, he would always say this, education plus roads equals jobs. It's a real simple equation. And so we're in the business of educating. And and so I think the purpose of what I'm bringing this up is for everybody to consider the candidates that do run next year for governor that they are
gonna be a friend to public education, that they are gonna continue to give us choices. You know, I think people do need choice, but we do need support of public education and maybe not change so much. Listen to teachers. Education needs to be a bottom up business, not a top down. That would be my 2¢. So, anyway, just wanna get that off my chest. Thank you. Just to the wall. I just wanna say that this Sunday, as James mentioned, Oakland High School will be have the ribbon cutting for the annex.
We're excited to see this be the completion. That's kind of the three annex x as well. We got one coming up later on, but, this this sort of one of those through. I'm excited about it. I hope the community comes out and comes to see what this looks like. Let's see what what your tax dollars being put to use looks like and the the good use that it's doing in our community. So I just wanted to put that up there as well. I got a sneak peek this morning. It looks beautiful. It's beautiful. At at this very, very proud of what it looks like. If there's no more Move to adjourn.
We're adjourned.