##VIDEO ID:wawdrvr0MGY## welcome to the January 23rd 2025 regular uh called board meeting for the Rutherford County School System first up we have our Pledge of Allegiance Miss Katie Darby I I understand you have some guests I do I would like to welcome uh from Rocky Fork Middle Mr Reggie Coleman and he's brought with him tonight Danica arita Bailey Elie Sebastian n Vasquez Brandon Gabriel Garcia Cohen man Mason WIlliams and Riley Johnson to lead us in the pledge tonight Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and Madam chair Mr Coleman is just going to share a few little bit about these ex these extraordinary students with us thank you oh sorry good evening everybody again my name is Reggie Coleman and along with Philip K we are the band directors at Rocky Fork Middle School and I just want to thank Dr Sullivan the rest of the board and of course our wonderful principal Mrs Jennifer Clark who's here um for giving us this opportunity to recognize our amazing students for their incredible hard work um over the semester and the year uh so the students that are here with us this evening uh are here because they were either named to the all Midstate bands or the all count band uh in order to earn a spot in the all Midstate band They audition against about 2,000 mil students from Mil Tennessee area uh the auditions happened at Wilson uh County uh Wilson uh Central High School and we had four of those students who made that band and then we had eight students who were slep to the allc county band and through that process they have to learn two difficult prepared pieces they have to learn six scales and they have to site read which means they have to read music they never seen before and um just for the board and the principal to want to recognize them means a lot to us and we could not be prouder and we just again are lucky to teach at a school in a in a county that recognizes Fine Arts and Performing Arts and again I just thank you for allowing us to be here this evening and I'm just very thankful for these students and because without them um none this would be possible so again thank you so much to Mrs Clark and to Rocky Fork Administration to the board Dr Sullivan for recognizing us tonight and inviting us here thank you everybody thank you before we have our moment of silence I will ask everyone to please pray for the families the students and the administration of Antioch high school and Metro Nashville after the horrific shooting bow your heads please thank you first up we have the approval of the agenda I'll give you a amendment to take take a look at it any I've got two recommendations okay I would recommend that we switch num seven and eight which is Rutherford proud and public comment we have a lot of students here to be recognized and quite a few speakers and then I would also recommend that we move number 12 which is security software to the close to the end of the agenda number 20 uh move it to number 20 so that'd be my recommendation switch number seven and eight and then move number 12 to number 20 so move second all in favor say I I I now I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda move to approve the agenda second second all in favor say I I motion passes next we have the consent agenda got some changes there too I have two new uh nepotism requests one is that came in today so i' requested the board go ahead and review these Nicholas Smith is a custodian at Riverdale and then Katie Armstrong a sped EA at Browns Chapel Elementary School again neither one of those will have supervisory roles with whatever their nepotism reason is questions comments entertain a motion move to approve second second by Mr vau all in favor say I I I motion passes next we come to our guest speaker portion we have Mr Shane Wickwire the executive director for Springs Empower Academy to update us all right well thank you very much uh it's an honor to be here in front of the board today I Am Shane wiu I'm the executive director of Springs Charter School we are the small Charter that's new this year in ruford County we're at the Boys and Girls Club in Smyrna so I know you got a lot on your agenda tonight I'm not going to take up too much of your time I just want to share some of the good news at our little charter school and I've got a few speakers here who just want to share real brief what's going on at our school and what they love about it so you can hear from them uh like I said we're at the Boys and Girls Club in Smyrna we're a free public school our teachers are State Certified and they're evaluated in the same process as the district teachers we are K5 this year we'll be adding sixth grade next year and eventually we be K through 8 we just completed our first semester this year we have about 180 students class sizes are about 18 to 20 and uh some of the highlights this year so far we have our student leadership and I have a couple of students who made it out here this evening to share their evening announcements they do the morning announcements for leadership so they'll be cute and brief and I think you'll like them uh we have a parent booster club they're very involved they' started a lot of fundraisers already we had a big Festival in December with uh jumpers an obstacle course a barbecue you may have seen us if you were at the Smyrna Christmas parade maybe a lot of you were at the Murphy's Boro parade but we had a float there and we had our cheerleaders on there that our booster club helped make happen and next month we're going to have a fatherdaughter dance like I said we have a cheer squad and that's kindergarten through fifth grade and they're adorable maybe they'll perform for you one of these days before your meeting gets going uh we're going to have our first basketball team starting in a few weeks we're going to be at a chess club and soccer team this semester and finally I wanted to share some of the good news on our I ready growth we grew nine percentage points from the first window to the second and 10 percentage points in ela so we're excited about that growth all right I am going to turn the microphone over to a couple of young ladies at my school that do the morning announcements they're amazing and they're really nervous I told them we probably have more students at our school than are here so they're used to a big crowd okay ready good evening wonderer County today is Thursday January the 23rd 2025 this is tah and I'm the empow Academy school president here you go and this is kala and I am the Empower Academy school secretary as part of the student leadership team we get to plan School bear days special events and fundraising we also had the opportunity to organize and vote for our school mascot gu what our mascot is we are the Empower jaget go oh and today is National pie day I hope you have I hope you have I hope you have some yummy pie today thank you thank you thank you have a great night and we'll talk to you again next time go dragons so we're building leaders so it's great to see them learning how to be comfortable in front of an audience so that was a big deal for them I've got a parent coming up here Liz Hobson she just wants to share her experience with Empower Academy hi my name is Elizabeth Hopson I am a parent of three children at Springs empowerment Academy um I have a kindergartener a second grader and a third grader my experience with springs empowerment has been beyond um grateful uh they have helped one of my children go from absolutely hating School dreading to go to school every day to crying because he doesn't get to go to school um and that's my second grader who they've the the school has tremendously helped improve so much with him I am incredibly grateful to the school the staff and the the teachers that take their time every day to teach our students um they my kindergartner she loves school she cries because she doesn't get to go and my third grader he has been through so much already in his whole entire life and he loves going to school he loves being able to go and learn and he's gone from uh now he's got a fourth grade reading level and being in the third grade so thank you so much for allowing this school to be open allowing the school to be a part of rther for County schools because I want to say that this is probably the best decision to send my children to this school ever thank you Evelyn Wade is our booster club president you hey guys um so my name is Evelyn Wade I have a fifth grader and a kindergartner so a son and a daughter both in Springs and power Academy we came from homeschooling um back into this we did try Traditional School at first um I will say that I am heavily involved in the school because I saw how much they poured into the school so the beginning of the year I was weary about it they talked to me for probably a good six months to convince me that this would be a great transition and it was they've gone above and beyond for the kids I love that they have the flexibility to explore different learning styles as every child does learn completely different our son's happy with school for the first time ever and we were struggling even with home school Traditional School like we finally found a fit and seeing his confidence even personally and educationally Thrive and grow every day has been absolutely amazing my daughter with her wonderful personality um they are able to accommodate that and they do so much for the kids they genuinely care um so that's really important to me as a parent right and being able to adapt to them um because trust me they're two completely different children so that's been um a blessing and disguise as well but they're able to express their personalities while still productively learning um in an environment right in our learning environment so I will say I'm extremely grateful for Springs and for with choir and everything that they've been doing um we've worked together really closely to pour as much as we can into the kids because I believe that they succeed the schools succeed and that's what we have been doing thank you I just got a couple more Amber Mitchell is on our board and she's also a parent hi like Shane said my name is Amber Mitchell and I'm a parent and a board member there at Springs and Power in Smyrna and my daughter Stevie she is in first grade and she has grown so much in just the short time that Springs has been open she is above grade level in her reading she's excelling at site words uh math is still a little bit of a struggle but the personalized learning approach that they take in the classroom um Miss Becky sto is her first grade teacher and we have an aid in there miss Maria and they are doing a great job helping tailor the curriculum to match where my daughter is in math and I think that is just amazing um because as you know teachers are an extension of the support that we deliver to our kids at home and so that's just another layer of support and they're so important and to me the greatest gift that we can give to the next generation is a love of learning and that creates resilience especially when there are subjects or topics or situations in life that are challenging to get through and so the skills at Springs is not just academic in nature but also very social um the teachers in the AIDS they collaborate to make sure that every student is met where they are planted and we Thrive and grow where we are planted Springs is a gem a fresh much-needed addition to our community of excellent public schools in Rutherford County and with the continued support and care of Rutherford County we can continue making a meaningful difference of the children and families like mine thank you thank you and lastly I had a lot of folks who wanted to speak and share the good news but I have one of our teachers this cayb Bley she teaches third grade hi I'm Kayla Bagley and I teach teach third grade at Springs EMP power Academy and in my first semester at Springs I've learned that it is not a school of Conformity but it is a school of opportunity as a teacher I have the opportunity to learn and grow while also feeling heard and appreciated we have the amazing opportunity to take management courses as we know management is probably one of the most important things you can do in the classroom and there's always an Open Door Mr requires office to come for advice whenever you need it without fear of judgment or anger I have the opportunity to honestly share my thoughts and I also have the opportunity most importantly to advocate for my students can I make a fun game they need to be entertained yes of course can I do teap prep all year yes build their test taking skills can I give them ice cream to teach them about the states of matter in melting save some for me but much more important than my own opportunities my students have amazing opportunities at Springs the students that need a little more guidance have the opportunity to spend more time with their teacher in a small group setting my students that want to challenge themselves have the opportunity to work on problems that are one to two grades above their level so that they have the opportunity to get ahead my students that have trouble focusing have the opportunity to advocate for themselves Miss Kayla can I go to the bathroom to splash water on my f my face I can't focus yes thank you for telling me what you need my students that have never felt comfortable in the classroom have the opportunity to be somewhere where they know above all else that they are loved and accepted one of my favorite quotes from a student this year so far is I I used to hate school now I like it about a quarter I think it'll go up though I hope it will and a quarter might not seem like much but when that parent has told you that their kid used to scream and cry before going to school every day and now they like it that's what we're all here for when I was at my last school I cried and sobbed when I didn't get the corporate job that I applied to at the end of the year I couldn't imagine staying in education now after just one semester at Springs I know I wasn't meant to get that corporate job because I was meant to be here at Springs and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else thank you thank you so they said it way better than I could thank you again ruford County it's an amazing County doing wonderful things we're just another choice in the area and I just wanted to share a little bit about what we're doing this little Charter School in Smyrna so thanks again for your time truly appreciate it thank you we're going to go on and pass over public comment just for the moment and go to Rutherford proud all right we have our rord County Schools Communications Department is here to recognize the winners of the strong outstanding staff awards for November and December representatives from Sonic driving will be on hand to help recognize award winners we want to thank Sonic again James I'll turn over to you yeah now let me start out by saying this one of our administrators came to me before the meeting and said hey do you think we could fit some more kids in this room to honor tonight and so let's give a big round of applause for everybody that we're about to recognize it's a it's a good problem to have I think we need a bigger boardroom so we can get some more kids in here uh but we're going to start out tonight with our staff Awards and these like Dr suan said are brought to us they're sponsored by uh the Sonic Drive-Ins rber County and Mr spragens are you here I know there's a lot of people here okayy uh Mr spragin is here and um I'm sorry Mr Spraggins and Mr Allan here here they are both supervising partners for the Sonic brother County um I'm not going to try to say Allan's last name I'm sorry uh it's it's a it's a long one but we have four wonderful employees tonight to recognize one's a bus contractor we're going to start with that Mr Gary Carter are you here all right Mr Evans excuse me I've got a letter that I would that I've been sent if I can read that one sure Mr Carter thank you go ahead come on up Gary so it says Dear Gary I hate that we couldn't be there to support you tonight we love you and we are so thankful we work for you the students principls drivers and School Board of Rutherford County are blessed to have you you are loyal you are kind the knowledge the knowledge that you have with Logistics and how you manage to make it all work and still help others out is astonishing you don't ever get the recognition that you deserve today is your day and you deserve everything that has been said about you thank you for being the best boss and we are blessed to have you we love you natashaa and Robert Brooks okay so don't run off cuz when we get done recognizes we're going to do a photo over here with the board behind at this backdrop but Mr Carter was nominated by principal Monica wilker David Yuri and this is what she had to say about him he works with the school and uh and the drivers to make sure all students are safe and provided Safe Transportation to and from school he recently worked with us to help a student that was struggling on the bus to follow the rules but his dedication not only helped the student it helped the driver and many others so thank you for your service uh Miss Shannon Ingram is a sixth grade teacher at Rockville Middle School hold on up Miss Ingram was nominated by one of her students who said that Miss Ingram is very helpful uh she helps us take notes and she always breaks down lessons so that we can understand them more easily and I also hear that you love public recognition right all right now Steven Wayne is our administrator he's with Rock Springs Middle School and I hate to really read this one because it's going to just make his ego just explode we're not going to uh but Mr Wayne is the best school leader oh my gosh he is the best School leader I have ever had the pleasure of working for he is personable cares about his staff their lives and families he has a strong love for our school and our students he is very involved with our plc's data meetings and is present in the hallways and classrooms always Mr Wayne is respected and loved because of his high expectations and high level of support for our staff and students we are very thankful to have him as our school administrator so thank you Mr Wayne I heard him I okay and then last but not least Jesse gesley from Rockell elementary school custodian there is Mr gesley with us okay apparently you are the most popular custodian in the county Mr gley I'm going to give you data to support that Mr gesley received 55 nominations I thank every teacher at the school so I'm not read all of those nominations of course but it says that Mr gesley goes above and beyond the Call of Duty as head of our custodial crew he takes such pride in our school and always has a smile for everyone you can see him each morning blowing leaves from the sidewalks picking up Bits of Paper that blow out of cars and he even adds a Personal Touch by folding the toilet paper like a fancy hotel to start the day he is genuinely so kind to students and teachers and is always ready to lend a hand so thank you very grateful okay so I know we have a lot on the agenda tonight so we're going to move over here uh to take uh this photo real quick and then we will move on if you guys want to join us please between not if you miss anybody okay and so the next thing on we're going to recognize a lot of athletes tonight uh and I'm going to turn that over to coach Harris to do that in just a second uh I do want to say though one person though there's a lot of coaches in this room and they do so much for kids and I would be remiss if I didn't think coach wendam and Coach now's probably here too coach leech and where's Mrs coach is she here she's okay so they coached my son through cross country at Central and I mean it's like having another set of parents they just do so much to help and it's just grateful for all the coaches in the room but especially those who I know personally so thank you for your service all right now coach Harris you going to do this you want me to do no you're more than welcome to no I'll do it good I can do it co chairs if you want me to you can first of all it's it's great to be here tonight uh just to honor all of our uh great outstanding athletes and coaches that we have here tonight and a lot of our state champions uh but we're presenting several athletic teams which have won state champion Champions during The Fall season uh we're going to start tonight with Oakland High uh Oakland High School the 20 2024 blue cars uh blue uh B state champions and head coach Kevin crey will come up introduce his players and he will say something about his team and coaches and Kevin had you're coming up I hate to interrupt you but I did I talked to you last week you did I did and so I wanted to just start it by saying of course first congratulations thank um but I made a comment during rezoning about recruiting and anytime you mention the the ugly r word that was not a reflection of of you or your program um as a director of schools one of the things that I have to do is make sure that none of our schools by anything our district does has a unfair Advantage by policies that we put in place um and so to you I apologize because that was not a reflection on anything you do or oakin does as a program that was just to make sure that our district was running with a fair program to everybody so if that was misconstrued that way I apologize to you uh I'm an Oakland high school graduate and a proud Oakland high school graduate and we have spent the last since I've been the director of schools last three first Saturdays in December together two of those have been my wife's birthday and so I appreciate her letting me spend those with you and so congratulations and I I owed you that apology so well thank you thank you very much I appreciate it and uh we're here with a bunch of our our seniors our older guys I counted up 16 of the 19 I think went to Oakland Middle School so uh we're very proud of that glad of our freedom program and uh glad that we're represented with our managers I've got three three hardworking female managers and I've got my assistant coaches some of the hardest working guys I know uh can't do it without good help you know that yourself Dr Su you're only as good as your help uh so we appreciate everything that you guys do uh we definitely want to give a shout out uh to the good Lord he's been with us uh a long time you know he's helped us out we wouldn't be where we are right now without him and uh we went through some struggles this year some trials and tribulations but I came out on top and we're very happy for the invitation that you gave us and uh maybe we'll see you again next year uh real quick uh guys if you would uh just come up say your name and uh we want to recognize you real fast just the players and then we'll get out of your way uh my name is Preston Rose my name is Maran woods and I play safety I'm Darion Adams play offensive line my name is Kyler Cy and I play quarterback my name cullin Williams and I play outside linebacker my name is k Stewart and I play center my name is Ree Smith and I play offensive line my name is Will milap and I play running back my name my name is cor Norfolk I play o line and dline my name is tamari Hill and I play running back my name is cayb Bellis and I play linebacker my name is Avery hanworth and I play HB and last but not least I had a guy come by looking at uh one of our players uh coach Clark Lee and he wanted to uh leave a present for Dr s we want to make sure you get this before we leave I appreciate it thank you sir thank you hey one thing I'd like to say um Coach G and his coaches they won five out of seven of last state championships these young men have won three out of four and if it had to poured down rain like gutter uh uh Gully washers would one uh y'all would won four in a row cuz we showed them this year that we were the better football team so that's off to everybody and uh you know at Oakland uh we don't recruit we just have programs where kids want to come and play so thank you coach appreciate that coach greasy next we have uh the central magnet boys high school state championship cross country team with head coach J Jay wendham and also the central Magnet boyss Middle School state championship team uh with head coach Stuart leech they won the cross country State Championship uh and had an outstanding year they're going to come up and talk about their team as well hey my name is Jay Windham thank you so much for having us um uh I'm the head coach for the guys cross country team uh also have our assistant coaches here Lacy now and Clay Dyer and we wanted to recognize the uh division one AAA uh State boys Champions so uh our seven guys who raced uh at the championship were Ty Brown Blake Nutter Henry Nance Aiden Walker Harrison Hami and Nate Dyer and uh our four alternates we have with us here tonight as well are Luca gu uh Ben Hogan Jaden Yoder and Miles Ritter so these 11 guys made up our Siberian tigers training group uh they trained together uh the entire season um from June to November uh cross country is similar to golf if you're not sure uh you want to have the lowest score possible uh and your five fastest Runners uh are the ones who score for you um so uh competition was uh really tough uh All Season we had a lot of ups and downs um and everybody had a role to play and we were really proud to see that uh that happen uh it was not a blowout uh every everybody had their Mark um and stuck to that um for several of our scoring Runners uh they all run a 5k or 3.1 miles um and all of them ran between uh 16008 uh and 1715 so this is not a Sprint uh but for several of them uh running a mirr five uh or even 10 seconds slower uh would have been the difference between finishing first and second so I really proud of them for um making a plan sticking to it and uh and executing well just a few uh highlights from the season uh was our guys fourth consecutive region Championship uh this is the third boys state championship um this is the 14th uh consecutive state meet Champion uh excuse me appearance for the guys uh Henry Nance one of our seniors uh was also a runner in the or excuse me a uh a yeah a runner um in our top seven for the 2021 state championship team um Blake Nutter sophomore earned All State recognition for finishing the top 15 uh as did Ty Brown for his his third consecutive season so wanted to congratulate them for that uh we have four seniors up here uh our theme for the season was Legacy and we really think that they have helped to uh establish a legacy and look forward to uh the next um the future in general but especially the next few years uh with a with the young team uh finally uh just wanted to emphasize that these guys are uh more than just athletes they're great athletes but more than just athletes uh they're impressive uh as much uh in some is even more off the cross country course as they are own uh up here represented we have a National Merit finalist uh perfect 36 on the ACT uh we have others uh Tai has composed literally hundreds of uh original new uh music pieces uh and each one of them is uh in possession of a incredible character so uh finally just wanted to say thank you uh to you uh to District staff to the board uh for supporting us uh thank you to our school administration Dr Ash is here but I thank Miss Huffman uh Dr Guthrie uh and especially Mr Nichols who helped to establish this program spent 10 years uh coaching the cross country team uh and has mentored me um also want to thank Mr leech uh who is here tonight uh he has coached I can't even count uh the number of championship teams he's coached for our Middle School team uh and coached uh most of these guys standing up here uh some of them to a championship when they were in Middle School uh as well uh thank you to our parents uh and then also the team members uh who uh did not race with us but train with us the entire season and help to uh make a fun and positive team culture so thank you so much for having us uh we hope to uh see you again here next year not voting all right and yes I'm Stuart leech also from Central magnet school and these are the uh tmsaa uh Class A boys champions of 2024 it's a small group tonight but realize that there is a a group of over 40 Runners Behind these guys that helped make them better as well so truly thank you to RCS Dr Sullivan coach Harris for letting athletic programs like this exist uh truly I do think that it enriches the lives of the participants and the families um the parents thank you so much for bringing these guys and and their teammates to practices throughout the summer and uh making that possible and to Mrs coach who you know is the great motivator uh behind any of you and um if I can let me introduce my Runners here Philip Smith just give them away philli miles penson Joe penson and miles rafis and again realize there's another 25 or more boys that have have sharpened these these fellas uh as wonderful as it is to win win state championships if I can just share one anecdote uh about cross country something that we do as as much tradition as it is a safety protocol a lot of times when my fastest Runners get back and they've done their job for the day they've done the distance and usually this is a long run of many miles I will ask them to go back and and we call it run sweep and what run sweep is is going back and just making sure that everybody has gotten back safely and I tell you what it's it's a reflection of their character and their work ethic and uh as much fun it is as it is to win when they do that for me and and they cheer their teammates in with great enthusiasm that touches my heart so um I truly appreciate uh the opportunity to be a coach and and I just wanted to say I am thankful to God for the opportunity to coach such a fine group of uh boys and girls so thank you so much next we're going to recognize and uh also want to Echo or just emphasize we've got sometimes we hear a lot about the negative about our students about schools and we've got some great kids in Rutherford County and we've got some great student athletes and I want emphasize student athletes but uh we've got some great kids here and they work hard and uh I just want to emphasize that uh we've got some great teachers and coaches who are doing going Far and Beyond to help our kids and uh and parents who are very supportive uh the next uh awards that are going to be recognized tonight uh it's the first ever uh girls wrestling state champions middle school and these young ladies are and this is nationally I want to emphasize National State uh Middle School champions in this in the country and these young ladies from Blackman and also we have a young lady from uh Stewarts Creek middle so we're going to have the Blackman uh State Middle School Champions come up first with their coach Dalton P Cantrell if you will come up and bring your team up first and bring your young ladies up here as well hopefully y'all can hear me um so good evening everyone um these are the girls they're fantastic I'm missing a few of them um but it's an absolute honor to stand here in front of you guys and be able to brag on them um also to be a coach at Blackman Middle School has been a dream for quite some time um my former principal Dr Amy conife Marlin and my current principal Dr Jackson uh blessed me with this job I was able to transfer from Le bur to Blackman and uh it pretty much supported me through all the hiccups and everything that it took to get here before we were tmsa um state for wrestling was run by aaou and so although we have the success that we had this year with tmsa um our boys and girls teams have placed in the top three in State for the last three years so we've been building the success even before we were tmsa certified um so it's definitely been happening it wasn't luck um we have about 65 kids on our team uh we have a full roster of girls and then we have a slew of boys about 40 of them um so the support and the commitment that we' have got from our school is the reason why we are Elite and I also wanted to take a second to thank our parents I wouldn't be able to do any of this without the support that I get from our parents uh we talk a lot about family in our program and that's truly what we are we go out to eat together after we win tournaments and we do the things that we've got to do to stay close and support these kids in all that we do whether that's academics or Athletics um our female wrestlers are not just extraordinary wrestlers on the mat but they're extraordinary people and champions off of the mat most of our girls up here are academically in the top of their class and they're doing pretty well I have some that are going to be returning to us next year um that are not just eighth graders going on to the high school uh which is impressive they're going to be joining a pretty good team there too uh They just won region so they're Paving the way as not just the first group in Tennessee but one of the first groups in the country for female wrestling which is the fastest growing female sport in the whole country so to be able to be a part of something like that is astounding to me um and I hope that we can continue to inspire people not just in this County but in the state and in the country as a whole to jump into something that's a little different a little new um when I first joined this program at three years ago I was a brand new teacher and I was also a brand new coach in the sense of that position um and it means a lot to me cuz I'm actually an alumni of Blackman so I graduated from Blackman Middle and Blackman High and I was a part of program before it was official so when I got the call to come back and be able to do this I I took it I was I felt Extremely Blessed the Lord has given me all kinds of opportunity to be able to be here um so from the beginning I saw incredible Talent with these ladies and potential um through commitment countless hours of practice which they probably dislike me for um the running that they definitely dislike that we did on Friday even in the cold weather uh and the unwavering belief that we have in our guys and in our girls has definitely grown into something and is truly special here at Blackman um and this success definitely would not happen overnight this is something we've paved away for um this is a result of dedication and a culture and a belief in that culture that values hard work perseverance and team unity so I could not be proud to introduce you guys to these athletes not just for what they've accomplished but for who they are um they have shown uh what it what it means to work hard support one another and believe in yourself um and they have also continued to do remarkable things in their life so I'm blessed to be able to introduce you guys to them today thank you I have and I'm going to introduce them to you I have Sky Hancock who was a state champion at 155 PBS I'm supposed to announc did she did wrestle up she did wrestle up so I actually have a and I will brag on this I apologize but I'm so used to these numbers I just say them but but hear me out on this most of the girls up here did not wrestle at their weight they did wrestle up I did not want to put that in here um our guys and girls team both did that often they did everything they needed to help us win so they would wrestle up so we would not lose points for those of you that don't know how wrestling Works um you want to have the highest score but you also don't want to give up certain positions because it gives up team points so everybody up here understood that I apologize for not saying that correctly okay we have Miss Ava Weston barer she is at 8 four we have Kenzie Grove you want me to say it or not no okay keny Grove is at 128 we also have oh I don't have your name up there oh my gosh I'm so sorry oh do I only have the Champions up there okay well then I apologize to you guys I'm sorry I thought we had everybody else up there she also got fourth place and I'm Eevee Brian I'm sorry about that Eevee I'm lapsing of all these people we have Evee Bryant we have Brooklyn shacket this is Marina C excuse me we have uh moroi is it tari tfairy I always mess up I'm sorry and then we have Juliet uh you have a Flores Rubio gosh I'm so bad at these names I apologize you'd think if I taught all these kids I don't remember them um but anywh who guys I just wanted to introduce you all let you know Blackman's here to stay um and I really appreciate the opportunity to be here and introduce them to you guys um I hate I wasn't able to bring all my guys my guys got second place this year in States all the boys in school know that these girls are wrestlers I to be to be honest I don't catch a lot of grief from guys with any of these girls they handle their business bet so most of these girls also built a season record wrestling guys most of the time as girls wrestling is growing they often times have to catch many of their matches in order to qualify against guys so a lot of these girls that you see have already beat those Middle School boys so I love that and I love bragging about that too so love him with all my heart but I appreciate it girls do you'all have anything you want to say no you're all nervous you're all nervous I apologize thank you guys I appreciate it congratulations young lady you sure don't look like 155 lounds not at all okay our our next Award winner our last award winner is uh state champion uh is from Stewart's Creek middle and Coach Philip now would come up and present uh that award all right so I have the Hardwick sisters here um Alana is the state champion and Addie her younger sister actually finished third she actually had to go up against I think the toughest wrestler in the entire tournament so she probably would have went first if she had had to do that so but then she uh broke her leg last week so hopefully she'll be ready to come back for next year at the rehab um but I just want to thank Dr Sullivan coach haris uh the parents um that sport but this is um like Coach K tril said the middle the girls Middle School wrestling is or all the girls wrestling is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and we're just so proud that we were able to have a state championship and be the first in the nation to do it and super proud that Alana was one of the state champions um but you want me to tell them the weight class she wrested it's up on the board anyway anyway she's at 155 and her sister's 130 45 my bad 1455 yeah anyway but um but thank you guys and I appreciate everything you all do from the board and all the workers that that help out Dr solivan run this County well hello everyone uh I am really excited to be part of the Rutherford proud and I Tyra Pilgrim Rutherford County School CTU director and I get the privilege and honor of working with the best teachers and students in the entire world and so I would like to introduce Emily Marshall she is our CTE specialist and former act teacher and we are tonight going to recognize our national National did you get that National FFA award winnner so Emily come on up hey good evening I'm honored to introduce this exceptional group so many of these students standing behind me made history at the 2024 National FFA convention FFA boasts over a million members 73,000 of them were present at convention and Redford County schools had eight high schools in attendance with students earning recognition at the convention to even reach this stage these students embarked on a rigorous journey of competition beginning here at the local level going through multiple rounds of challenging events and then ultimately they have all secured state championships this journey often involved countless hours of dedicated practice working alongside their advisers and teammates the culmination of their efforts represents months and even years of hard work and unwavering commitment so just to paint the picture you can think of this as the Super Bowl of FFA our members uh one member attributed a first for this whole District Garen Hy of eille and he's not here cuz he's actually pursuing Agro science studies at Texas Tech right now he was named an American Star in Agro science a distinction bestowed upon only four students in the nation which recognized his work and accomplishments of seven years of membership students from Stewart's Creek and Oakland earned national titles in areas of agroscience presenting groundbreaking research projects comparable to Dr level dissertations Oakland and Riverdale members demonstrated exceptional knowledge and teamwork in leadership development events securing National ranks some first for their schools and then 14 Tennessee members were selected as National voting delegates and our district proudly secured two of those positions where students were actively participating in the Democratic process they were writing and voting on motions and these motions will shape the future of FFA FFA members learned to navigate complex leadership situations conduct Advanced scientific research and develop critical thinking and problemsolving abilities that are necessary for success in any career path not just agriculture I've been fortunate to be involved in FFA for nearly 30 years as both a member and a teacher witnessing the accomplishments of these students behind me is truly all inspiring and speaks Testament to the programs that we have and the teachers here in our district I know I'm biased um but we easily have some of the best programs um not only in Tennessee but in the nation uh periodically we are fortunate to have an administrator attend convention allowing them to gain a deeper insight and hopefully a greater appreciation for what this organizations and others like it contribute to students the district and the community this year Mr Shane Martin assistant principal at Oakland High School had the opportunity to experience this process and observe several events so we're going to start out with Mr Martin we'd like to invite him to share his insights and help begin with the recognition of Oakland FFA thank you Mr Marshall um good evening everybody I I wanted to take a moment and uh thank you guys and your uh support of these extracurriculars not just this one but the one we had previously um when I went on this uh trip Mr Marshall um allowed me to go and I thank him for that and I would encourage more administrators to take part in such things um you know she mentioned it was the Super Bowl the magnitude of this event was truly impressive it really truly was um and myself growing up in athletics um and then eventually becoming a teacher and coach and then an administrator um I have an appreciation for the dedication and the discipline it takes to achieve Excellence um but I had no experience in FFA um in the moment that I walked in to watch our agricultural issues team compete um immediately it was an eye-opening experience the amount of time um the care that they took and the dedication and energy they put forth in that they did a 15minute skit defending a dissertation counter points and counter points um or points and counter points um and then filled questions from judges um unknown questions that they had to um scramble and have answers for um and to finish second the nation is is really truly remarkable um and as I watched all the competitors all week um I Tred to reflect on my experience as a student and as a teacher and try to um you know draw parallels in the appreciation that I could have for this and some things came to mind first off the countless hours of hard work and guidance from the coaches the teachers just like we had the previous state champions um all of those are unmatched um the cultivation of teamwork to build a team to be able to achieve success is top-notch and truly I think most what I gained from it it was really the embodiment of what a comprehensive public high school can offer kids something to latch on to and to really pour into themselves pour themselves into and RCS continues to lead the region in that um and so with that I think all extracurricular activities should be celebrated for their commitment to Excellence especially when Excellence is achieved um and then all levels of dedication are aligned regardless of the sport or the extracurricular activity they're all aligned in just a different Arena of a competition so for the students I was inspired by the courage you pour yourself into that something you love you chased your dreams and on the way you're forming lasting relationships and probably future um opportunities at the Collegiate level so congratulations to each of you and thank you good evening I Emma milikin and Oakland FFA was recognized as a three- Star National chapter award this is one of the highest Honors that a FFA chapter can have and this was this was made possible by our advisers and we couldn't have done anything in our communities and in our chapter without them Miss Gina Stewart Miss Bridget vaugh Dr James Scott Mr Blake mormac and Mrs La Liberty are the reason that not only as chapter members but as people in our community we are able to be so successful good evening my name is Annabelle Alexis and I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of our agricultural issues team I would like to also introduce other members of the team includ including Emma milikin Abby DeBerry Julian Floyd Anna Grace Wells and two members who could unfortunately not be here tonight Lily Amstead and kir cleric to tell yall a little bit about what we did we had the opportunity to Deep dive into a situation or legislation called the children's act for responsible employment and farm safety act of 2023 also known as the Care Act which truly focused on child labor laws we got to have a deep dive and insightful information given to us by members who have worked with this legislation or or have very detailed insight about what that would happen to them if this legislation were to pass we had many different forums including a forum with Miss Christy Boswell Farm Credit and young farmers and ranchers it was an incredible opportunity to grow my knowledge in agriculture and I can speak for my team in saying that I will never forget this opportunity that I had had in our opportunity to be able to compete in this particular leadership development event we got to compete on the local the state and the national level when we got to Nationals we competed against 39 different teams from 39 different states we went through three very rigorous um levels of competition that allowed us to be able to move on every time slowly but surely we made it to the final stage and as a team we got to all experience for the first time a national contest and the feeling that you get being able to be announced second in the nation in front of everyone who attended that National FFA convention and getting to have that opportunity we have all grown as leaders and as teammates and also agriculturalists being able to find a brighter future in our organization and in agriculture as an industry my name is Emma goof and I had the opportunity to serve as one of the 14 delegates at National Convention where we sat in on meetings such as committee meetings and also business sessions where we would vote on changes and improvements to National FFA I'm also one of the youngest delegates that was chosen to to go and have this amazing opportunity and I will never forget it I'm Bridget vaugh one of five agriculture teachers at Oakland High School and we had several students that were able to compete in the National AG um National agroscience Fair contest this year um one student Ezra Hall was unable to be here tonight but she partnered with professors at Middle Tennessee State University to conduct Collegiate level research on cover props and their impact on soil health and soil fertility um she won the state agroscience division 5 for environmental systems and went on to place seventh in the nation overall our last recognition tonight I'm Gina Stewart one of the FF advisers at Oakland High School and our final recognition tonight is for Lily Amad she was unable to be here she is a college student at MTSU majoring in concrete and she had a class that went on until 6:30 so um she she's very academic so that took priority but uh she did research with Middle Tennessee State University working with the concrete Department there uh she completed hundreds of hours with them running tests and trials and I'm proud to say that she is the first national winner for Oakland High School in Oakland FFA so we are very proud of her and her accomplishments we could not do what we do as FFA advisers without the support of our Administration it takes a team of hardworking FFA advisers but at the end of the day no matter how much we want to do something we can't achieve that without the support of our administrators and so to have Mr Martin go with us and really get to witness that um and to have just great administrators like Mr Marshall who really pour into our program is something that we we can't put a value on so thank you for supporting us and allowing us to travel across the country and take kids everywhere um and we are proud to bring back those titles to Rutherford County so thank you good evening my name is Mandy King and I'm one of the three uh agricultural education teachers FFA advisers at Stewart's Creek um while we appreciate the opportunity to be here and recognize our students we also wish to thank our principal Dr Clark Carroll the uh staff Administration and all the support staff that also assist us working with all of you to be able to attend uh these different competitions and have the opportunities uh they truly help us to experience the and our students the concept of one team each day um we are so very proud of our three National finalists uh two of those could not be here this evening because they are college students uh that either have classes much like Oakland or for uh one of our students is at the University of Tennessee at Martin so to recognize them first and foremost National winner Carly Dunn she emerged as the national winner in plant science agroscience research um this proficiency award really uh showed her remarkable achievements and reflects her Innovative research that she conducted um for the advancing of plant science and so Carly's work um she also competed just to show you how dedicated she is to excuse me um showing the potential in the Horticulture industry for young leaders she also partnered with Harley Huber and they were the national Runner UPS in plant systems agroscience uh Fair competition and it's it's worthy to note that both of these ladies were National finalists last year and have been National finalist all four years in high school so a lot of hard work and dedication we also have one of our other national uh finalist here and I'd like for him to speak about his work in agroscience hey guys my name is Daniel light and I proudly represent the Stewarts Creek FFA chapter and I had the opportunity of being a national finalist for the food products and processing systems division in agroscience Fair my project mainly researched and analyzed the effectiveness of different food packages for different fruits to see how well we could keep fruits rip for longer amounts of time in order to eliminate food waste so again we we appreciate all of the support as Miss Stewart said being able to travel across the nation uh to assist our students uh we really appreciate that and uh we congratulate all of the winners from Rutherford County hi I'm paig Jones from the Riverdale FFA chapter and this past year I had the opportunity of participating in the Creed speaking lde competition I was able to go in wi State and then I received bronze Nationals and it was such an amazing experience and I was able to grow so much um in like so much of my knowledge and I'm so grateful for that opportunity and I'm grateful for being here tonight so thank you all for having me so one of the things that P oh I'm Ashley Shaw one of the ACT teachers at Riverdale one of the things that Paige didn't mention is that the Creed speaking LD is a freshman only competition so for a freshman FFA member to not only compete at state but also on the national level um and do so well is something that was really exciting for us the other cool thing about Paige is her mom was actually a state Wier in the Creed speaking LD so it was kind of a family affair which is something that was really cool for us thank you guys for having us here tonight thank you and then I'm Chad Lewis I teach a mechanics of Riverdale um thank you all for letting us be here tonight and thank you to our Administration and our faculty at rivol high school especially Miss Blair who's with us here tonight support us we want to be able to do what we can if was for the support of her and the rest of the staff at Riverdale so thank you good evening my name is Sarah Marshall and I proudly represent the eagle bille FFA chapter and during the week of National FFA convention I had the opportunity to serve as one of the two out of the 14 delegates as a National FFA voting delegate I got to sit in different committees and learn about parliamentary procedure and not only that but make friends from all across the state and just really learn about all the differences we have in and out the organization I'm beyond grateful for this opportunity to travel to Indianapolis and this was truly a once in a-lifetime experience that I will never forget hello I'm Katie Parks one of the agriculture teachers and FFA advisers at Eagleville we are incredibly proud of Sarah and all of her accomplishments but I also want to bring attention one more time to Garen h in his outstanding accomplishment by earning an American Star finalist in Agro science he put countless hours and years of work into this and uh we are extremely proud of him I would also like to extend our gratitude and thankfulness to uh our administrators and especially Mr Pedigo for being here tonight and supporting our FFA members I'm Bruce Haley FFA advisor at eagal school agriculture teacher been at eagal school for 42 years and uh in all those years we've had many state winners many national winners but this year we had a first with Sarah she's our first delegate to the National FFA convention voting delegate there's 475 picked each year from Across the Nation out of 1, 227,000 students and she was one of those out of a, 27,000 students so a great honor for evil School great honor for ruford County and we're we're so appreciative of what you do Dr Sullivan and and this board Mr Pedigo uh we appreciate you coming tonight we appreciate Tyra Pilgrim as our director of CTE and again many many times we've won many many things but this is the first and Sarah is a great FFA student but she's even a better person thank you you know um let me say one more one more thing I would like to for her parents to stand there here tonight one was already standing come up Emily she Tau with us for 10 years as my co-teacher at eagil school and Mr John are you you're in the back somewhere we appreciate these two because they have raised one outstanding human being and one one thing I'd like to say before Bruce gets white Bruce has been a man that has uh taken the 4 program and the a program in ruford County to new heights and whatever ex success this County's had it's because of this man he do gets enough thanks and recognition but he has had a phenomenal program at eagal and uh when I was teaching that MTSU the teachers we had they wanted to go teach school at eal high school because of Bruce but he's a phenomenal person he's a phenomenal guy and he's he's taken this program to new heights and just thank you for everything you've done Bruce U I just want to express sincere gratitude again for allowing us to honor these members and their advisers and their programs as our County continues to experience growth traditional AGG may not be as prevalent uh but the importance of AGG education remains crucial these students are involved in every aspect of this vital sector and they will be the leaders to face challenges related to issues like food security environmental sustainability and the appropriate use of our resources these programs will not only ensure the continued success of our country's greatest industry but they will also make significant contributions to the well-being of our community and our nation and again none of this would be possible without your support and our district support so thank you once again for allowing us here tonight okay I still have my FFA coat do you really I could never get any but I could bring it up here and lay it on the desk you know 42 years is very impressive we need to buy some popcorn machine CS sell it I think we can make some money pay for a school we'll get right on that a bu exactly diet diet Mountain Dew okay thank you all we're going to go back to our um go back to public comment next and uh they're each going to be given three minutes and first up we have Miss Hannah stromgren we have 10 hello ladies and gentlemen of the board my name is Hannah um I stand here before you as a wife a mother an advanced EMT who has worked in a Pediatric ER and ICU um and a graduate from Stewarts Creek High School and I am here to speak about the book band children want to be understood valued and listened to parents and I speak from experience don't always have the time or the patience to do this unfortunately also some parents like the desire and compassion to give their children a safe environment to grow and Thrive and the this is where you come in children our students especially need a way to understand themselves challenge themselves and allow them even if just for a moment to focus on the a book of their choosing rather than the world around them these books provide Comfort to young adults in a chaotic world and help explain parts of the world their CH their parents might not be willing to discuss but ignoring it does not make it go away people want to take that away because they don't like it because their God might disapprove that is very self selfish I might not read every one of these books but if it helps just one child isn't that the point I also wonder of all these people here who have seen a child who attempted to commit suicide lying in an ICU searching frantically for the parents and this 11-year-old boy successfully ending his life or the countless teenagers who overdose on whatever they can find just me have seen that and my question is this these children who are so unhappy in the world they feel they can't continue living in it if just one of these books provide comfort for them help them answer a question about themselves make them feel safe in a chaotic world and momentarily at peace why are we taking it away from them people making this about Jesus and God about threatening not to reelect you disliking books about race gender identity Coming of Age stories because it's not what they would read and they find it uncomfortable that is between them and whatever God they serve and if making it about God helps them sleep at night I hope they're sleeping tight and their narrow-minded bed because the parents of children that have killed themselves sure aren't and the children struggling with their identity feeling lost and confused sure aren't but maybe the kids that get a choice and read something that gives them Comfort maybe they're sleeping a little better I sincerely ask you to look at this from a misunderstood child's point of view or just a child who wants to expand their love of reading and not from your Decades of life experience it is not about you or me a mega Church's desire or reelection it's about children I can't not remember the things I've seen the wailings and screams of parents that have lost their babies no matter the age I can't bring those kids back no matter how much I've tried in the moment but we can prevent it you have that power not me please use it for giving these kids a choice and not taking away what little they already have thank you next we have Miss daffany Gamble okay next we have Miss Ellen Myrick thank you thank you for the opportunity to speak before you this evening I am delighted that you agree that books have power that power is celebrated by the asterid lingren memorial award you may know it because uh pippy Long's talking you all read that right yeah his name for her and kind of like the Nobel it is an award given to somebody internationally from a small Scandinavian country without size influence every two years delegates from more than 80 countries submit one author to be considered for this ultimate honor that recognizes the author's very real impact on the lives of young people the current winner is lri Hall serson whose speak is on your list tonight this is from the astd lingin memorial award she is one of America's foremost writers for young adults her breakthrough novel speak was published in 1999 has been translated into numerous languages her richly expressive novels for young people she gives voice to the Adolescent experience was sometimes brutal honesty the yearning for love and belonging is a recurring theme for La lar H Anderson she delivered her acceptance speech for this at the United States Borderland books for young people conference in 2023 and I was on the programming committee for that she shared during that that she had received literally thousands of letters o that's going in and out isn't it thousands of letters from people from young people whose whose lives have been touched by her the thing about this is that you're deciding the fate of that book and it comes down to this speak has saved countless young lives like Hannah just talked about out young women who felt violated and alone found that they were not alone after all that they could survive rape that they could survive in an Ideal World they could talk to parents or counsellors or pastors but not everyone can or will do that to continue its important work speak needs to be accessible so yes books have power young lives can can literally be saved speak can show a path out of Darkness to life and hope now you have the power to keep this book on Library shelves please do not silence speak next we have Brian Schuster you guys hear me okay M uh good evening we've heard a lot of positive things tonight which is wonderful and I'm sorry that I have to change that tone but I must I'm frustrated because this board doesn't appear to have clear direction for how to apply what Tennessee state law demands that we adhere to the law says sexually explicit content is prohibited in school libraries full stop it also provides specific definitions and qualifying language for what sexually explicit content is yet here we are voting on books one at a time instead of Simply auditing what's in our libraries against this standard and removing the books that apply we are not the only County under this legal precedent and other Counties have completed this work and did it in a quick fashion Miss Rosales you've said you don't want books in our libraries with sexual content if that's true I recommend you propose an action here tonight to do what I've just said you're in a seed of power and you're empowered to do so we should not be asking our librarian for their recommendations for whether they think content is explicit or not we should direct them to inspect the books in our libraries and where explicit content is found as defined by law those books are removed where there is uncertainty those few titles should be brought to this board for their ultimate review and decisions and yes I'm suggesting we conduct this exercise with every single book in our libraries 99% of them will very easily be determined as not sexually explicit this is not A Hard Exercise for us to do and allow me to demonstrate with our audience if I could audience if you hear sexually explicit content please raise your hand this is from Forever by Judy Bloom page 139 this time Michael made it last much longer and I got scared or I'm sorry I got so carried away I grabbed his backside with both hands trying to push him deeper and deeper into me as I spread my legs as far apart as I could and I raised my hips off the bed and I moved with him again and again and again and At Last I came sound explicit to anyone furthermore we should work back with our state leaders to stop this content Upstream we have laws prohibiting it and it should be illegal for Publishers to send it across state lines the same way it's illegal for marijuana manufacturers to ship their products to our state because we prohibit recreational marijuana use Mr vot though he is not here today has said over and over that he does not like this content but he casts votes to keep books because of what other people have recommended I would urge him to stop abdicating his responsibility and stand for truth and goodness he was not elected to take an apathetic or complacent position on this issue Miss Maxwell I disagree with your opinion that providing books with this content might help someone openly exposing a child to a drug that gives them a high is not a pathway to sobriety it's one that leads to hurt trauma abuse and addiction when you vote to keep books with explicit content in our schools that is the path that you're Paving for our children thank you for your time thank you please no no talking no yooing nothing in the gallery or I'll ask you to be removed next book person coming up is U Matt Fe thank you everybody when a law is unjust civil disobedience is required uh tonight instead of addressing the board I'm going to address anyone who is watching the meeting live or later on um it is become abundantly clear that the majority of this board has zero respect or trust for the professionals that have worked so hard on these reviews to produce recommendations that meet the needs of the students in our schools instead they will twist themselves into pretzels make multiple arguments that contradict each other on why they want to do this or that and end up Banning or placing obstacles in front of the books this is where we are right now in ruri County a very loud minority of the community brandishing Bibles claiming to protect children and banishing people they consider their enemy even though we are actually neighbors have come with their tor is to ban books and threaten anyone on the school board Who Dares stand in their way and if they don't they will try to get you thrown out of office don't let anyone here fool you they will say they are not Banning it but if the book is no longer available in the school it's banned in the school two weeks ago the first book that was on the list to be voted by this board the title was Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe really the only thing in the book that was pointed out in the review was that the word masturbate was used once and yet in the infinite wisdom that is before us today they chose to ban this book I am still dumbfounded by this decision really it's not just about that one there is no consistency except for Mr vaugh who just said last time he wanted them all gone while admitting he read none of them I have no doubt that the book Speak will be removed tonight it is a title about a child who finds her voice to speak out about an abuser after she is raped it is a book that teaches an age appropriate way to tell an adult when abuse occurs but since the book Banners are celebrating a rapist in the white house I guess the book will be banned because it's more important to protect them than it is to provide info that might actually help a child that might be in this situation I hope anyone that is watching will take my advice we can't just sit back and hope that everything will be okay we must be active in our community or things like this will continue to erode our civil liberties join a group speak out do not comply in advance we're in this together peace I love you next we have Gary Carter not here to talk about books good evening my name is Gary Carter and I'm a bus contractor here in Rutherford County I'm coming before you tonight to speak of what is becoming a dirty subject in this County besides books money the busz contractors are asking for a 34.8% raise but I want to share with you why we're asking for that amount if you look at the cost analysis that was provided for you you will see that being a bus contractor in this county has went up almost 50% over the last four years in that same time frame we were given a 14.7% increase so 14.7% increase to cover 50% increase in cost that doesn't also include the cost of living and inflation that have went up over these last few years I've also provided you a minimum pay stub for the last decade there should be a 2014 minimum pay stub and a 2024 minimum pay stub you can see the difference in those pay stubs is $2,035 for 10 years that equals $113 per day a13 won't even buy us a gallon of diesel in our buses it was brought up at Tuesday's work session that our minimum mileage did go up and our last contract it went from 50 Mi to 60 Mi that increase was included as a way for us to actually get the 53 33% rise that we got last contract just to clarify those are for loaded miles at no time have we ever been paid for our dead head miles we must fill out an affidavit at the beginning of every school year I've attached a copy of that for you to see that shows we are only paid for loaded miles we understand that we are asking for a lot of money but this is what is desperately needed for us to survive and still provide the service that we do for our students here in Rutherford County thank you for your time and I appreciate your help in this matter thank you next we have Elizabeth Shephard thanks again for the opportunity to speak with you all tonight I'm here as a Blackman High School parent and also as a school librarian author Lori Hall Anderson said you can tell a book is real when your heart beats faster real books make you sweat cry if no one is looking real books help you make sense of your crazy life real books tell it true don't hold back and make you stronger but most of all real books give you hope because it's not always going to be like this and books the good ones the real ones show you how to make it better now Anderson's book Speak is set to have its fate decided here tonight the main character Melinda has a special space carved in my heart she's nestled in there with Meg from a wrinkle and time and attakus Finch from tequilla Mockingbird and Elizabeth from The paperbag Princess the power of the book Speak is ironically difficult for me to put into words but what I can tell you is that when I first read it I immediately wished it was required reading for teenagers everywhere what happened to Melinda in the book is heartbreaking with ripples that continue to affect her and those around her for months after the incident I wanted to scream at everyone in the book to pay attention to listen to what she isn't saying to help her when she was forced to confront her attacker I held my breath until that last moment when she took back control of her life and her voice this book and her experience is now a part of who I am today and I'm so thankful for it speak has nearly a thousand circulations in your life libraries that is extraordinarily significant for a school library book students are reading it they are gaining knowledge and strength and Hope from Melinda's Story please don't take that experience away from them please put more faith in your school librarians and their assessment of not only a book's content but also the audience who needs to read it before my time runs out I'd be remiss if I didn't also use my voice to speak out against the resolution on the agenda tonight while I agree that our students need adequate funding from the the federal government I cannot support a resolution that basically says hurry up and close those borders so we can keep all those non-english speakers where they belong over 8,000 of your students qualify for ESL Services that's 16% of the total enrollment and you're telling each one of them with this resolution that you never wanted them here in the first place every student matters how can you possibly be okay with the resolution declaring otherwise I never know if the words I share with you are going to change your minds but I hope I at least have given you a different perspective to think about thank you thank you next we have Barbara Donnell hello my name is Barbara Donell I am a trustee with the Rutherford County bus organization ation and I'm also a contractor in the email that we received it was stated that the RFP was put out to get a market analysis there were two bids one offered 25 buses at a rate of $1,541 188 per month the other offered 10 buses which was a Rutherford County contract RoR the company that offered 25 buses wants more than the 34.8% were asking for we cannot continue to operate these buses without a raise in good faith we are willing to negotiate with a reasonable offer from the Rutherford County School Board it was also stated that the Rutherford County School System could buy their own home buses and take the bus service over it was stated that the county could get the buses financed at a much cheaper rate than individual contractors could that would mean purchasing at the very minimum 325 buses and hiring at least 325 drivers a place to park said buses a maintenance building mechanics and you would have to provide all of the benefits to all of these new employees by Ren our contracts by renewing our contracts the insurance on employees we we hire would be the contractor's responsibility not the counties the contractors also provide comping Collision on their buses if the county purchased buses that would be an additional expense for for the county with this being said it would be a lot more economical to the citizens of Rutherford County to negotiate a good faith contract with the Rutherford County Contractors at the board's work session on Tuesday January the 21st it was mentioned that the parent resp responsibility Zone could be put into effect the last time this was voted on it was stated that sidewalks would need to be built and it would be safer and more coste efficient to the citizens of Rutherford County to continue doing what we have what we are doing which is busing all of the children to school all Rutherford County buses are 90 passenger buses it Al also States this in our contract with the exception of the special ed buses thank you so much thank you next we have Jeffrey M wiek RCS board members as elected officials it is essential that you hear what your constituents think those voices are not always aligned with what I would say or someone else would but it's important that you are listening because we are listening we are watching and we will act accordingly as a community that elects people Seated on this board if you are not hearing what we a people as majority say your actions will have consequential subsequence thank you for the honor of speaking during the public speaking segments I've been so blessed to live here since 2002 and seen substantial growth as a part of the community and working with high school students I have seen them grow into outstanding young people and valuable parts of our community it is with this perspective that I've been watching the process of this application of lawful reviews of some books that are clearly in conflict with state law and indeed harmful to our children for debate deflected deferred and therefore not dealt with recently I've seen some progress in regard to this issue that is good speaking for myself and align with our community who is concerned about about the exposure of rther County children as obscenity and non-age appropriate sexualization in violation with Tennessee state code books like these being voted on tonight need to be removed from graduate from grade school libraries used by minors as miners children are not fully emotionally mature or aware of their sexuality they are vulnerable to suggestive materials that they are not able to process with their immature brains books by their own covers as example Target children in the age range of 4 to 8 years old age is not yet able to comprehend what puberty is so I'm presenting them with the idea that they should irreversibly and unnaturally block puberty and physically mutilate themselves I am encouraged by recent actions of the board to stand up for the protection of our community's children and hope to see more action like this tonight God has made himself clear regarding children who trust in him and in whom we are entrusted as rord County Community therefore by extension you as the representation we have we have a responsibility to protect them this is God speaking to us but if you cause one of these little ones to trust in me to fall in the Sin it would be better that you be thrown into the sea with a large millstone around your neck therefore we will not stop listening we will not tolerate harmful obscene content is not that is not appropriate to remain in the libraries we will vote and encourage the community to vote accordingly we expect you as our elected representatives to stand with the Rutherford County to protect the children we will not stop standing up for the children thank you for your attention thank you next we have James Alexa hello Madam chair um I here to address the book in light of some progress the board has made with some additional uh recommendations I did want to point out uh that the board and the residents would likely benefit from a notice that any complaints or disagreements with State Legislature should be directed towards the state government um in other words if there is such hate for a book ban should be directed at the lawmakers of the state level and not the executiv of the laws sitting on this board moving on it does certainly seem that the board is heading in the right direction um regarding the retention of these books in question but pending parental consent which in my opinion is a good middle ground if the book is questionable material but the board keeps it then the decision goes to the parents at the end of the day which at the end of the day I find to be the best middle ground for both sides of the aisle however this still seems to be concern over the over certain board members who are consist consistently voting to retain books or abstaining from voting Madam chair I hope that the entirety of the board recognizes that they are directed to act in the best interest of their children and that their voices reflect their respective zones and its constituents board members who are consistently choosing to retain books are being recognized um by constituents who do not agree with these choices especially those who run as Republican or conservative furthermore when board members abstain from or pass a vote this is equally is damaging if not more damaging than any yes or no vote because those board members have been chosen by constituents to represent their voices and so abstaining from that is on the border of disrespectful is they're declining declining to use their power to vote that we've bestowed upon them so Madam chair I'd highly Rec encourage you to press your fellow chair members to not abstain from voting especially in this highly charged matter of the books the constituents deserve to know what the motives of the people what the motives are of the people they have elected to these positions and there's no room for ambiguity on this topic so I will close with this uh tough to decisions need to be made and I think that the board members knew that knew that going into this and I would urge the board remember at the end of the day their decisions should be in the best interest of the children and their constituents that they represent and that that um that pertains to decision-making when it comes to any topic and not just these books so I would urge this board to continue pressing onward progress is being made and middle ground is Within Reach but if midd ground means that all books in question are sub are subject to parental consent then I'm happy to support that motion and I would urge this board to find unity in doing so because it's obvious that neither side of the aisle is willing to concede which Wyatt which is why it's so crucial that this board to implement policies that strike this Middle Ground as soon as possible thank you for your time thank you our last speaker will be Miss Heather cook hello and thank you again for allowing me to share what is on my heart regarding the books to be allowed in our children's libraries let's pray for guidance to make decisions that are in the best interest of our children heavenly father thank you that your holy spirit is with us we pray that our minds and our hearts will be open to receive your wisdom and direction in Jesus name I pray amen I'm so thankful that we still Proclaim to be one nation under God with the freedom to publicly seek his guidance many places in this world do not have that freedom and that's why I'm here to stand for our children and their future and future generations to come before prayer and God was taken out of schools the major problems we had were chewing gum and talking in class now as we are all very well aware evil is running rampant in our schools and whether we choose it to to choose to believe it or not this is a spiritual battle for the souls of our children when libraries welcome drag queen's study hour to teach children sexual immorality but oppose having Godly men and women teach them biblical values we are in a spiritual battle when schools and organizations encourage children to come to their Afterschool Satan clubs we're in a spiritual battle just as a decision to remove prayer affected many generations and the choices many generations the choices here made here tonight will also affect Untold generations to come as Christ followers we must stand for biblical values and stop capitulating to this demonic agenda from hell as I said before we will answer to almighty God for everything we do including the decisions made here tonight that will affect the greatly affect our children's Futures and generations to come children are a gift from God he's entrusted us to train in the way that they should go so that when they grow they will remain grounded in his love the only Firm Foundation we must teach them to seek Him the God of all creation we're to teach them to seek his ways his purpose and his plan not to be led by their flesh but to be led by their Spirit man our life is but a vapor in the grand scheme of things the choices that we make determine what our future brings in the end all that matters is Jesus Christ your lord our answer will determine a consequence or a reward in order to yield a harvest we must plant a crop we're sewing seeds for the kingdom of God and we will not stop thank you for your time God bless you next we're moving to number nine we reviewed our new strategic plan on Tuesday so recommended motion is to approve the RCs strategic plan for the 25 through 30 school year any questions or comments if not I'll entertain a motion motion to approve second second thank you Miss Rosales all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes next we go to Human Resources one new job descriptions for junior r2c senior Army instructor and army instructor job descriptions recommended motion is to approve the two new job descriptions for jroc as presented any questions or comment motion to approve thank you Mr vaugh second thank you Mr Tidwell all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes next we have tenure the following teachers meet the criteria for tenure in accordance with the tenure law the they hold a v a valid Tennessee teaching license have served rord County schools for 5 years 45 months minimum within a 7-year period the last two in a regular not entering position have demonstrated an overall performance of above expectations or significantly above expectations on the team evaluation during the last two consecutive years of the 5-year period or if held tenure under the previous guidelines and return to R County Schools meets the 2-year probationary period and tenure is reactivated as mentioned Tuesday night if somebody is on here in a leadership role uh they do not hold tenure as a school administrator or District Personnel they just hold tenure as a classroom teacher and recommended motions to approve the recommendation of the director of schools to award tenure to the teachers who meet the criteria for 2425 as presented any questions or comments I'll make a motion to approve it's a very period um these people it's a great honor so it's glad we're glad to have them second thank you Miss Rosales all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes next we go to legal legal the first one transfer student under discipline number one the board's been requested to Adit a transfer student from another school system under discipline the student was remained for assault of another student according to policy 6.31 a 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 I entertain a motion motion to approve thank you Mr Bon and thank you m sharp for seconding all in favor say I that one was hard to tell sorry I thought he had the second the second Mr tiell had the second okay Miss Miss Maxwell I do have a question is he approving the denial or is he approving motion to approve the denial okay then I second motion to approve the denial okay okay and I'm sorry I I couldn't see you got in there all all are quick sometimes number two BL you number two the board has been requested to transfer student from another school system under discipline this student was expelled for reckless endangerment bringing and using a taser at school according to policy 6318 the the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system under dis while under suspension or discipline director of schools recommendation is to deny admission recommend to deny thank you Mr vaugh do I have a second second thank you Miss sharp all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes and we're going to move that one so we're going to go to financial matters Tab four so this is fund 141 fund balance Amendment this budget amendment cleans up expenditure line items at midye on the revenue side the budget is amended to reflect State Grant allocations not including the original Budget on the expenditure side the larger items of this cleanup Amendment reflect the increase in cost of school maintenance supplies and parts instructional support supplies and materials security cyber security maintenance contracted Services equipment Transportation equipment Elementary School startup funds amendment has a net increase of both current year revenue and expenditures of 1, 370,000 with no use of fund balance recom motions to amend amend fund 141 to clean up expenditure line items for a net increase of 1, 370,000 in both revenue and expenditure line items and again this is just a mid-year cleanup we will have an end of the year cleanup as well any questions or comments I'll entertain a motion move to approve thank you Mr Tidwell thank you Mr vaugh for seconding all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes number two this is fund 177 fund balance and expenditure approval this amendment moves funds from account 34685 committed for capital projects to account 91300 335 maintenance and repair services buildings in the amount of 200,000 the movement of this money from fund balance will go to replace Stewart's Creek High auxiliary gym which was damaged due to a break and a water remaining the adjacent mechanical room it was determined by engineering department the floor was not repairable and will need to be replaced recommended motion is to amend the 2425 capital projects budget fund 177 by reducing amount 34685 committed for capital projects um by increasing account 91300 335 maintenance and repair services buildings the amount of 200,000 as presented and just for the audience our insurance deductible is 250,000 so this is cheaper than our insurance deductible any questions or comments motion to approve second thank you m uh Derby all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes next we go to engineering and construction and it may seem redundant we mve the money now it's to approve the actual project Stewart's Creek High auxiliary gym floor replacement on October 19th 20124 uh 6 in Main in the mechanical room of ss fail the water made its way to the auxiliary gym since that time engineering maintenance has been working to dry out that area to determine if the floor can be saved this time has been determined the floor cannot be saved engine and construction requesting to utilize 200,000 from fund 177 fund balance to replace the floor recommended motion to approve the use of 200,000 for fund 177 fund balance to replace the SCS auxiliary gym floor as presented any mo any questions or comment move to approve thank you Miss uh Derby thank you Mr vau for seconding all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes next Whitworth panon basketball locker room request Prince April sge requesting to replace the existing basketball lockers cost for the project is 2,800 for materials only with the labor being donated the request is at no cost to the board engineering constructions reviewed this request and has no objection recommended motions to approve the locker replacement request as presented any questions I'll entertain a motion to approve thank you Miss U Rosales and thank you Miss sharp for seconding all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes now we have number three number three we did on Tuesday unless there's any other questions for Mr Lee any questions we'll move on to 15 resolution tab six Mr Reed already on his way U this was a resolution proposed Rosales we read the resolution on Tuesday night uh this is a resolution to expedite the closure of the borders and to increase title 3 funds for ESL services so the resolution is um asking for the Board of Education to urge our state legis lators and Governor to advocate for the current Administration to expedite the closure of a nation's borders and for the federal government to provide additional funding for the title 3 program to fund the services the federal government requires school assistance to provide to ESL students so that's the resolution being proposed tonight gu um all this does really is just identifies the problem to bring it before a state delegation and our governor to uh Advocate on our behalf for not just feather for County but really to advocate for the entire state of Tennessee because we need more federal dollars um and so with that I make a motion to uh move to approve the resolution as written I'll second it thank you Mr vau all in favor say I I any opposed opposed Miss Shar this this is a federal this should be addressed at the federal level not here we don't have anything to do with this um this this is a federal level issue and we should not be doing this our board should not be we're we're on the local level and we don't have any authority over our general assembly and we don't have any authority over our federals our Federal rep should be talking to our federal liaison at the at the fa at the DC level th this this is going to send a message to our children and I'm not a good one did it pass I'm take a rooa okay all right Mrs Darby yes uh Stan vaal is absent Mrs Rosales yes Mr vaugh yes Mr Tidwell yes Miss sharp no Mrs Maxwell yes passed next we have the book review and just as we've done in the past we are going to take a roll call vote and take each book at a time and I will read the name of the book and the recommendation from the library committee and if there's any questions yall are right there to I just wanted to make the board and the public aware of a couple changes okay um so first of all want to go back to the first hour how great it is to serve those kids and those teachers and remember that's why we're here um so on the reviews and the recommendations that are available for the public you will notice that we tried to add a bit of additional information that might make the review a little easier to align to the original complaint so since the original complaint uh specifically dealt with sexually explicit uh as the main cause for the complaint that is now written specifically in each review uh some people may also wonder why we have made the decision to add uh book looks within the additional context and that's because those attachments were included with the original complaint so all of that is in the review um and I wanted to mention one more thing we have continued our efforts to be honest and transparent and informative and have tested several additional options for parents so we have been working with our current vendor on ways to link with Skyward to allow parent notifications for Anytime a book is checked out so that is one thing that I think is a tool for the board to use we have also looked at additional vendors that would um allow parents to choose titles they don't want their kids to have access to uh another reminder is parents still have the ability to view every single book in their child's School collection as well as the district collection and we always welcome parents to contact Librarians if they have any concerns that is that is all I have to add thank you madam chair yes Mr Tidwell Dr Chain could you kind of explain we we had selected on a few books uh at the prior meeting think January 9th about what the opt-in policy looks like in that 11th and 12th uh because and the reason I'm asking the question is because I saw some information that came through that the books are still being retained on the shelves I guess I was under the impression that if it was an opt in it would be maybe still on the catalog but not necessarily retained on the Shelf they are still on the Shelf but only able to be checked out it with the parent consent Madam chair yes Mr Derby I would have to go back and look at the footage of our last meeting where we discussed that because I would not have voted for the parental consent opt in if they were left on the Shelf because we have no control over when the kids are spending time in the library just sitting at the table reading the book there's no way for their parents to know that they're accessing that material so if we've deemed that it requires parental consent to me that you have to have your parents permission to look at this so if it's sitting out here then the the parental consent is like basically nonexistent or not necessary and again our Librarians are we we were trying to just follow the motion we are more than willing to work with the board and parents and in no way want to to twist the words and the Motions of the board but the way we inferred parental consent was that in order for a child to check the book out they had to have a parent agree to allow them to do that so there is a they must consent to the book being checked out we removed the we would have us problem yes Mr tidal uh before we even start this vote then I would like to to add Clarity to that thank you for the the some clarity that was provided I'd like to go ahead and make a motion that if a book is and put into an opt in for parental consent that it would be removed from the shelves and it can remain in the catalog that way we don't have situation as Miss Darby described um where students may still be having access to these books where their parents may not want them to be that was kind of the the way I understood it uh whenever I voted on it earlier this month but I would like to make that clear now so that is the motion that I'm putting on the floor second second Mr Ary do a roll call please so as our motion can we can you repeat the entire motion we're making yes so if a book is set to be an opt-in for parental permission M and I think we even picked 11th and 12th grade I think was the way it was last time but if if the grades are specified uh then that would be included as well but if it's an optin book then it is no longer sitting on the shelves it is in the catalog and that would the access point that a student could reach that all right Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Miss sharp yes Mr VA is absent Mr vaugh yes Mrs Darby yes Mrs Maxwell yes passes our first book Is Forever by Judy Bloom and the REM recommendation it does not um meet the definition on the on tier one but it does in tier two and it is no longer age relevant considering its publication date and the recommendation is to remove from school collections move to approve second Mr Vault roll call please Mr vault is absent Mr I'll vot for him if you want me too close you vote by proxy Mr vau yes Mrs Darby yes Miss sharp yes Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Mrs Maxwell yes passes the second book is Glass by Ellen Hopkins and the recommendation is to retain in high school only motion to remove second second sharp seconded Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Miss sharp yes vault is absent Mr vaugh yes Mrs Derby yes Mrs Maxwell no motion to remove passes next we have groan by Tiffany Jackson and the recommendation is for eighth grade and up motion to remove second Miss Sharp seconded Mrs Darby yes Mr bot is absent Mrs Rosales yes Mr vaugh yes Mr Tidwell yes Miss sharp yes Mrs Maxwell no it passes to remove next we have ready player one and the recommendation was to detain in high school motion to remove second Mrs Rosales yes Mr vaugh yes Mr Tidwell yes Miss sharp yes VA is absent Mrs Darby yes Mrs Maxwell no passes to remove next we have Smoke by Ellen Hopkins and the recommendation is to retain in high school M Maxwell yes I'd like to make a motion to retain this uh at high school only in 11th and 12th with a parental optin as always I uh have been very involved in the book removal I look at each book individually and as I have looked through this one um there is a scene that is is hard but it is not described explicitly so in the nature of following the law and and I'll be the first one to say that I am not a fan of this author I have removed many of her books uh but I look at each one individually and with that being said that's why my motion stands to parental permission at 11th and 12th with opt in at the high school L I'll second it Miss sharp yes Mr bot is absent Mrs Rosales yes Mr vaugh no Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Darby no Mrs Maxwell yes yeses have it to retain next we have speak and uh the recommendation is to retain for middle and high schools Miss Maxwell yes M rales uh so I was the one who brought all these books and I just to challenge them and my again I just want to emphasize that it wasn't to pin board members against each other I have not gone out of the way to rile up crowds I'm not creating websites to share how people are voting this was simply to come up with a game plan of the based on the accusations that we are carrying this so that we can all together as a board collectively work together um and be part of the solution and not be part of the problem if whoever wishes to um engage um and so and right now we are following the policy as it is written and that's the way why that is why we are doing this so with that I want to say that with the book speak I would like to recommend that we keep this book it is a a very heavy topic that is um is addressed and um I when something I did work on with the sros um with the curriculum and one of the things that we are going to be requiring with which I thought it was very very important is that they're going to be um doing a class on date rate and that's something that is um very prevalent and that it happens and so I believe this is a topic that should be discussed in high school um because of the severity of it and so I would like to make a motion to keep this book in high schools with parental consent I'll second it i' like to Second it also just because that I don't agree with everything in the book but I think the good outweighs the bad so Mr Maxwell yes Mr Tidwell uh I would also like to add this again covers a a hard topic but as I've reviewed it I don't believe that it ever gets explicit in its nature um and my decisions made tonight aren't reflective of public comment all my decisions were made before I got here uh so I am in favor of an opt in are you saying at the 11th and 12th level high school high school9 12th I this is a topic that happens um and I for me it's personal and I believe it should be brought up and spoken with families devot yeah go ahead take the vote okay I just want to clarify the motion was made by Rosales Mr v seconded motion to retain in high school with parental consent Miss stby no Mrs Rosales yes Mr VA is absent Mr VN yes Mr Tidwell no Miss sharp no Mrs Maxwell yes it's tied so doesn't pass we flip a corn now Mr Maxwell yes I'd like to make a motion that this be retained in the 11th and 12th grade with parental opt in I will second that okay Miss sharp yes VA is absent Mrs Rosales yes Mr vaugh yes Mr Tidwell yes M Darby yes Mrs Maxwell yes okay this passes to retain for 11th and 12th grade opt in with parental consent okay the seventh one is the female of the species by Mindy mcginness and the recommendation is to retain in high school move to remove motion to remove second seconded by Mr Tidwell Mr VA is absent Mr vaugh yes Mrs Darby yes Miss sharp yes Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Mrs Maxwell no the motion passes to remove next we have The Kite Runner the graphic novel and I do want to say I have read The Kite Runner the book my husband served in Afghanistan bravely and I wanted to know more about that country and I recommend The Kite Runner is a good book sadly this graphic novel is not the same as the book the recommendation is to retain in high school only motion to remove second Mr vaugh motion seconded by Mr Tidal Mr Tidwell yes Mrs Rosales yes Miss sharp yes Mr vot is absent Mr vaugh yes Mrs Derby yes Mrs Maxwell yes motion is to remove passes the next book is 13 Reasons Why and the recommendation is to retain in high school to remove miss masswell this book is about suicide awareness and um and whether we like it or not um this is very prevalent in our high schoolers um I had a teacher contact me because in her school alone there had been two kids that had committed suicide and that emotional um had an emotional impact and it was a ripple effect amongst the the peers and we've talked about mental health in the past um there was a study that just came out from I forget who who who did the study but anyways the study showed that in the state of Tennessee one in four students have contemplated committing suicide and so um I would like to see if there is some and that's what we have this so we can have discussions to talk about certain things and what I believe what's been happening with these books is that it's showing that within this genre that we go back to on young adult literature is that it talks about very topics that are prevalent within this age group and it this is one of those topics so I just want to bring it up for discussion and to see if there is a way that we can work together to see if with parental consent is something that we can keep I mean if if it's even at least 11th and 12th grade motion to remove Mr Maxwell yes Mr tiwall I I appreciate the comments from uh M Rosales I think that there are uh two different violations of sexual excitement and sexual conduct and for that reason I would support removal okay this is a motion to remove Mrs Darby Mr vault is absent Mrs Rosales yes Mr vaugh yes Mr Tidwell yes Miss sharp yes Mrs Maxwell no passes to remove okay that's the last of our books we are going to the financial report enter financial report and directorate all right next we are going to move to financial report John Miss Maxwell yes M before I I want to say something quickly okay I I just there was a comment that was made I just want to know I just want people to be aware especially parents I appreciate people coming and there's a lot of things that are happening but in our County we're very very fortunate that we live in a county where we are all respected and we do not have show like we don't have Librarians that are bringing drag queens or drags whatever into our schools we we don't have satanic programs I mean we're just very very fortunate and I just want to reate that that that is not happening in wetherford county and so I just wanted to make that address that and say that thank you thank you thank you yeah I'd like to say one thing too that you know when we vote we have to vote um I'm responsible for my vote that's all I can answer for and I respect our Librarians opinions and all like that but at the end of the day uh I'm the one that's got to put my stamp on it so um I'm I'm voting for myself so I love the Librarians and they do a great job but uh these votes were on us okay yep yep uh we looked at our Revenue the other night and so today we're looking at expenditures yeah this is going to be really boring so you may not want to stay for this so we'll give everybody a couple you want to give everybody a minute or two yes we'll give you a minute or two got time for You' to leave I'm not offended I promise I would leave too we all tell them that early on e e all right so we went over our revenue and again this is focused on this year's school budget and not next year's so and we are only focused on 141 today and this is just going to be a quick overview because we'll do a bigger dive into this next month this does not have on it our budget amendments yet it's and that'll give us a truer picture just to give the board an idea of kind of where we are in the school year we are roughly 56% through with the school year from a budgetary standpoint teachers are a little bit different so when you look at our teacher accounts we are at about 43 or 44% of the school year with teachers teachers are having a cruel so teachers actually get paid this coming July and August out of last year's budget our board members who have been here are familiar with that they always have to take out July and August from this year's budget so that's why you see the teacher account a little bit less than 50% it still has two months that have to come out of it you were going to see medical insurance is a little bit higher than 50% medical insurance premiums stop for us in May and so you're going to see that amount no June yes they stop in June for our employees so you're going to see that amount pretty close to where that school year is again we're not going to go through all these amounts but you'll see that we're pretty much in line the only ones that are concerns are contracts with private agencies you're going to see those higher as we have to pay those a little bit more up front if you'll flip to page was going to call out a couple of them page three it's alternative education you'll see that one's a little bit less teachers that reflects us not opening 814 South Church Street and so that's one that will'll probably move some funds around throughout some of the Year special education that one is a little bit higher if you look on page five contracts with private agencies so I'm on page 5 71200 312 1.5 million you'll see that we're over so we're having to clean that part up with one of our budget amendments that is coming through that is where Rutherford Academy and some of our other ones um come through so those contracts continue to rise as some of our students who have extreme special needs and new Services we we have to continually increase that cost moving on to page seven Career and Technical education you'll see pretty much these percentages are all in line between that teachers between 42 and 44% CER technical education is a little bit higher some of those teachers are paid 12 months especially your agriculture teachers that you see they have the green houses they have to keep up within the summer so they're more 12 months uh EAS are going to be a little bit higher than 40% because they are actually paid for the months that they work and so they're not paid during June July August until they actually start working again attendance I'm kind of just flipping through to page nine if anything just kind of hits your attention again the biggest ones you're going to see on page nine other contracted Services is high 86% because we've already paid for um Skyward for the year yes ma'am I'm sorry back on page seven yep the maintenance and repair that's at 97% did we have something they probably just paid their contracts up front for that whatever that service was I would have to go look and see what that exact thing is okay I can look I'll look and get a note for that so again on page 9 399 that one's at 86% because we pay Skyward up front for the year so that's why that cost is already at 86% for the year flipping over to page 11 Health Services this is where we pay our contracted vendor for our health service provider up at the very beginning of the year at 98% in service and staff development you'll see that right now we have 15,000 it's 121% we've actually only spent 12,000 we have an outstanding PO for 5,000 so we will liquidate some of that so that they don't actually go over and so that's what we have to do a lot of times for those or we'll have to put more money into it as we do a cleanup Amendment just kind of flipping through to see if anything else hits 72130 other student support contracts with government agencies I know that is one we are having an additional amendment to that the board just passed in 309 you'll see it's at 179.2 five% right off top of your head you know that is that's what we pay for security gotcha so that's what our um gotcha so what we are doing this is with our security with our SRO we started two years ago paying for schools middle schools and high schools we changed the funding we sent down at the school level we lowered per pupil that we sent down let's say it was $30 per student that we sent down for each kid they had to the school level we lowered it to $25 I'm just using that number per kid but instead we sent them $10,000 to pay for security that's where that number is we did the same thing for graduation so if the board will recall we gave them $10,000 for graduation for our high schools that is that amount where we're paying for their security fees y just to clarify so this is when they're doing extra outside of school services for the district okay it is mainly it's athletic events uh and we feel like we needed to cover that because we require them to have the number of sro's we tell them how many to have so you have something gay I thought Dr Martin was ready to talk I was like okay just kind of going on through moving over to 72210 and for our new board members once we hit the 72s anything under 71 is direct instruction with students once you hit 72 that's Support Services so now we're moving into Support Services you'll see everything for the most part in the 40s into the 50% range just see if anything really stuck out uh you will see one if you'll look on page 17 this was just a clerical error we had 72215 207 medical insurance uh we're 572 over that budget that's supposed to be 100,00 ,000 not 10,000 so we are cleaning that portion up but on a small number the percentage looks extremely high but that is a clerical era we will we will fix on our budget we noticed it last May but at that point the budget already been passed and we so we can fix it with clean up Amendment but if you look at that overall line item look on page 18 you'll see we've only spent 29% of that budget flipping through special education everything is in line there going through on page 21 Career and Technical education these are a lot smaller accounts you'll see this entire account $712,000 technology 72250 you'll see in everything for the most part in the 40s and 50s except some of the contracted services that again we pay Upfront for the year Dr Solin yes I don't know if it's another clerical error or not on page 23 you've got a 9% yeah that's supposed to be in technology sometimes we will have something our instruction department does and it'll get coded to technology when it needs to be coded to instruction okay and so that is a journal error it's a journal entry that we do different all the time okay y yeah I saw that one earlier 9% so again that's a $155,000 at 76,000 that it's been expended but we'll go through and fix those nothing on Brian that's just a typical accounting journal entry thing you'll see Board of Education that's not one person's salary that is two she was like I sure wish but as you kind of go through you'll see Legal Services dues and memberships medical insurance as you see dues and memberships both under Board of Education and under director of schools you'll see those numbers will be off a little bit where we'll probably have to amend a couple hundred or thousand those fees are based on our enrollment and as our enrollment goes up every single year they add a couple thousand dollar every single year to those fees and I was trying to find under director of schools where that was if you look under on page 26 320 dues and memberships so that is for toss for example we budgeted 15,700 we have added students throughout the year so they have built us 17842 and so we will go through and clean that portion up I'm sorry can you back up to page 24 yep and look at 3.99 yep any idea what that is Brian yes we'll discuss that in executive session okay yep that's what that is well the percentage is missing over there too I wasn't sure because there's no money in that account right okay okay why that's what we're discussing in executive got it thank you you'll see Office of the principal is a big account because that holds principles assistant principal secretaries and bookkeepers on page 28 again in that typical 40 to 50% range of where we would expect expect it to be this time of the school year again accept other contracted Services then moving to page 30 fiscal Services again everything in that 40 to 50% range largely we had new accountants this year and that's the administrative equipment computers and those different types of things so that money gets spent when we have our new staff at the beginning of the school year on page 32 we're going through human resources personnel and you'll see everything the 30 to 50% I know it's kind of redundant not the most exciting but it's it's a budget Dr svan yes uh page 32 399 page which page 32 yep 399 is that our ident is that our Iden y application system um so it's our software as well as for benefits because benefits fingerprinting through that or not I think fingerprint fingerprinting somewhere else so it's uh it's our insurance software as well as application software as well as on boarding so is that kind of a upfront thing like you mentioned before yep and some of that runs through the county as well and operation of plant is one that is always high that we unfortunately have to put money into with the cost of custodial Plies the custodial supplies operation of plant and then you'll see the next one the maintenance of plant we consistently have to to put funds into this um I don't know a better way to do that we just consistently try to have to put additional funds into these to to try to maintain with the price of inflation or cost of inflation Dr suvin 502 on page 34 building and contents Insurance that's paid UPF front and the county sets that rate we don't set it they tell us what we pay okay all right I Envision that going up at least a million this year as well so it went up 700,000 last year I envisioned it going up a million this year wow yep it was 200,000 last year 2.7 if you've seen your home insurance rates we expect it to go up at least at least a million so it takes away your Tissa funding very quickly unfortunately we're going have to get M yep well no we don't have any funding to get them some help so I mean we going to have to next budget so that's when we talk about I hate to bring it up but when we talk about teacher raises bus contract it is everything together it's every portion of it that has to come together if you will look at the next one we're looking at page 36 maintenance of plant that one is a little bit higher again because that one does cost higher throughout the school year uh to maintain I expect if you look next at transportation that one's going to be higher Dr yeah sorry page 36 what happened with the laundry service Tre what are you guys doing back there more laundry I'd like to personally get rid of it but yeah we've had more Personnel sign up to get in and we're looking at additional companies to provide our services next year that's for our maintenance staff so yep it's the percentage is high it's not a big monetary item but the percentage is high well yeah that's why I was just wondering is there a difference and forgive me because I'm just looking at this when some some of the money is on the same line and then there's more money underneath it yes great question the money on top has already been spent the money below is a PO so they have spent 15,000 we have a PO for 25,000 and you would hope that throughout the year they're not actually going to spend that 25,000 so that you're not actually going to spend the entire 35 and so when we get into the middle of April we usually say stop spending um and that help helps save funding as well thank you yep great questions if you look at Transportation transportation is going to be closer to that 50% because we're 50% through the school year as far as Transportation goes um unemployment compensation is higher we'll have to put and this was will be with bus AIDS and so we'll have to put additional funding into into that line yes I'm going to back you again I'm so sorry um 511 on page 37 yep I know we got some new vehicles with some of the grant money mhm is that already included in this one or is this going to increase again that's already included because it would be with CTE okay is that maybe why it's also higher okay and it's up front so yes okay you'll see Transportation um we have spent and this does not include January yet you'll see we have spent 12.7 million we have 14.4 left once January rolls we right at about half at half of the year and so it is allocated to spend exactly what it should then the last one is early childhood educ our last yeah last one's early childhood education um 2.7 million and again those are between 30 and 40% and then we have our I guess our real last one regular capital outlay A lot of this is CTE grant that we have to move money between with the governor CTE money that he spent through we have to have somewhere for that money to land so again sorry I know that's boring there's no way for me to make that exting so that's our financial report nothing additional on the director's report other than we had a message to go home to parents today about school safety school safety of course is always top of mind that is about as close as it can possibly get um so we are constantly reviewing our procedures our as Miss Maxwell said our our thoughts and prayers definitely continue to go out for Antioch um Metro Nashville it's something you never want and that's as close as it can get to our community we asked our parents to please talk to their kids we have our stop it app talk to their kids about not circulating rumors but make sure that they take every rumor they're here serious so that we are addressing everything that we can Mr va's not here for the Tennessee legislative Network or the federal relations so I'm going to ask that we uh recess for just a bit Madam chair yes would you mind if I just say something while cuz I'm not sure how many people are going to leave while we're in that um I know I said it Tuesday but we've had another lovely meal provided and another table full of just amazing things that our schools have provided to this board um thank you is really not enough I'm always very humbled this week um it's it's kind of hard sometimes to accept stuff like that but please know that this board appreciates y'all showing your appreciation the way you do you really do spoil us thank you thank you miss m yes M are we in general discussion right now or we coming back for General discussion I think technically we are coming back to we're coming back for General General discussion there nobody here but technically we're going well I'm going to say that real quick so um I would like to add to the next time that we meet in the policy committee it's going to be a while to have discussion um in how we bring some parameters to possibly um I know we talked about an optin for the parental consent but if there's an Avenue option to uh for parents to give consent to even something as simple as um getting a notification I know that there's some technicalities that that that can be looked at but um consent as to what they're looking at or something in that nature so um so we can have a discussion in that regard when it comes to the library books and how we can involve the parents in that regard okay just quick clarification cuz I was thinking about this after the first discussion point of clarification for now we will have any book that requires parental consent I'm going to Advocate to have those behind the librarian desk that still require a parent opt in digitally or via a phone call does that sound that that is can I ask you a question when there and I know you may not have this yet so we may need to come back to it but I'm a parent I get a notification that says hey your child requested to check out this book are we just listing the book are we telling them like are we providing the sheet with the librarian's recommendations along with that we are not so we have two options right now as of today we have an integration with Skyward that will send an automatic email to whatever is listed in Skyward of notification that your child has checked out a book we can do that right now we're testing that right now that's not a perfect system because obviously some parents as we know don't check emails I but again this isn't top of mind for every single parent either which is why I advocate for the the phone call to the librarian however that's an option we can do right now um the second option is an additional vendor that we looking at what those different systems may look like where you as a parent at the beginning of the year could even go as minute as selecting individual titles so I want my student to have access to the entire Library however these are some books I'm aware of I can select these titles my child will never be able to check those books out unless I call and change those titles um that is one option we're looking at that would require us to go to a different vendor although we're looking at our we're asking if our current vendor can provide something similar we can't do that right this second but that's something that I think would help meet the need um obviously there's a proximity question that I don't I I wish we could that that's just a level of control that I don't know how we get around a possibility of a student going and and if we're worried about a student taking a book and hiding in a corner and reading it although I advocate for students reading all the time so in in so many ways I'm all for that uh but that that's a different level of proximity that I trust our Librarians to do um so for now what we can do we can take any of these books that require parental consent we can put them on a shelf behind the librarian desk anytime a student student requests to check that book out there would need to be confirmation either in writing or via phone call not those are the only two options we have discussed currently that that is what we're doing today um we are also testing the email system I since I have the mic on I would ask I I have one other ask I support our Librarians and they are they are doing so much I cannot in good conscious continue to have two readers on every single title um that where right now we we've only agreed on one would it be okay if we move forward to get through this more quickly and just do one reader same process yes I I think I think we had the Liberty in our process regardless but I that is something I'm asking for some to to shift our Focus I'd much rather them be you know addressing the needs of the students that are sitting in front of them so that's that is probably a move that we will make after tonight we need do we need a motion no cuz the procedure we have we're able to set the procedure okay yeah I think that's fine cuz it's going to come back on us anyway I want to thank you I think you guys have moved Heaven and Earth to try to meet us in the middle ground and I can't thank you enough and uh we really do value you all you guys thank you so much I ech miss missk too since everybody's going to be gone uh in the vein of Miss Darby in the school board appreciation I would like to send a thank you for us for the lunch today at Holloway and M M trayon and her wonderful students and the parents that came and spoke today so um that's always a treat to go to Holloway and see the students that's out there it's a special school and uh everybody should check it out thank you for lunch Miss Maxwell one thing in that what you were talking about so Monica can can we get together with the um with you Dr chastin and Caitlyn can you bring us a policy recommendation for the next time that we meet that we can as options that we can um look at discuss and possibly um vote to adopt absolutely and I expect that we could have close to 90 books on the next uh board meeting so we're just going to keep we're going to move them okay beakfast we are going into close session there are some things we need to to talk about and so ex executive session so we're going to go out to the side here so I ask the board to uh exit now please yep and then we so we will go to Cle we'll go to e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e some things regarding school security we are now back in session quick Madam chair yes did we call for oh well we can't discuss that's no we can't so mind he made a motion I'll second to approve and uh Mr tiul second it all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes is there anything else if not M Arby move to Jour okay thank you we are for