get started. This is the May 18th, 2026 meeting of the Williamson County Board of Education. Board members, please record your attendance. All right. Before we begin, I'd like to thank the two sheriff's deputies who are here in attendance with us tonight.
Deputy Cutras and Deputy McGarvey. Thank you so much for being here, gentlemen. And now we're going to stand for the pledge of allegiance led by Mr. Galbreth and followed by a moment of silence. I pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. All right. Now, we're going to be moving
into um items of particular public interest. This is our public comment period. And just to remind everybody, there are well, there are eight um public speakers tonight who've signed up. And each speaker will have three minutes. I'm going to call you up two at
a time and please be mindful of the time that you're allotted. There is a timer that's counting down on the screen in front of you as you talk. All right. And with that, the first speaker is going to be Bill Barksdale, followed by Alli Liy. Ready?
>> Good evening. I'm Bill Barkstell, a Williamson County resident, a parent of a Williamson County school in student in special education. Tonight, the board is being asked to approve resolution 626 authoring authorizing $200,000 in additional funding to the OCS legal account and special education. I want to share with you this district's own
public meeting records show about this line item over the past five fiscal years. In May of 22, the board authorized $200,000. In May of 23, the board authorized $725,000 on resolution 623, the largest single legal supplement to the department in a
5-year window. In May of 24, the board approved resolution 624, supplementing the same account by 300,000, including the vote before you this evening. These four supplemental amendments total approximately 1.45 million over five fiscal years. What this pattern represents structurally is recurring
expenditure being treated as exceptional. If a budget line requires year-end supplemental funding, and four out of five years, that line is not unpredictable, it is structurally unbudgeted. The base budget the board approves each summer does not reflect what this department actually spends on legal expenses. There's also a question of
when the board sees this spending. By the time a supplemental amendment comes before the board for a vote, the underlying expenditures have already been incurred. The board's role at that point is post hawk ratification of completed spending, not authorization of decisions that have yet to be made. Whatever upstream oversight exists over
decisions to litigate happens before any of these resolutions reach this body. I want to ask the board two questions. First, if this department requires year-end supplemental funding to its legal expenses in four out of every five fiscal years, why is the original budget approved each summer not adjusted to
reflect that reality? The current presentation of the OCS legal line each year what this department actually spends. Second, what mechanism does the board have to exercise upstream oversight over to the decisions to litigate before the bills are paid? And the supplemental
amendment is the only remaining decision point. The $725,000 supplemental this board approved on May 15th, 2023 was the largest in a 5-year pattern. That fiscal year corresponds to one our family has direct experience with. Tonight, in further public comment, you will hear from someone with
that direct knowledge. I would ask the board to listen for what that case represents and what the institutional choices behind it suggest about how this department is currently operating. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Ally Lipy. I have two kids at Scales Elementary School and I'm here to share my concerns about
Chromebooks. When my now third grader started kindergarten, it took her two weeks to come off the bus and tell me that an older boy had pictures of butts on his Chromebook. She was five. I'm sorry. Separately, kids were taking
non-consenting photos of other children on the bus using their Chromebook cameras and editing them in inappropriate or unkind ways. Shortly after, I realized the Chromebooks had a browser and YouTube. I was able to access a wide variety of
inappropriate content despite filters, sexualized content, violent content, far-right and far-left political content, incel content, content about eating disorders and dieting, content mirrored off of Tik Tok and other social
media, and more. In second grade, my child told me that Legends of Learning was pushing inapp purchases to the kids despite apps with inapp purchases being supposedly prohibited. Last week, my third grader came home and told me that multiple kids were able to
run searches for inappropriate content via the media search tool in Google Slides and share it with their classmates. Williamson County schools learned about every one of these issues from me, not the other way around. Things like this are occurring in our
schools every day. At the middle school level, VPN use to circumvent content filters is rampant, and administrators have admitted that they don't have the tools to stop it. Meanwhile, research shows that the majority of apps used in schools collect and sell children's data to third parties. You can check this
yourself at appmicroscope.org, but you will find that several high use apps in Williamson County likel, Cahoot, all Google applications, Epic, and Skyward all carry critical or high-risisk safety labels. Every day, children are being
exposed to the enormous risks associated with Chromebook use and for what benefit. There is an everexpanding body of data showing that these devices actually hinder learning instead of helping it. Every day we allow them in our schools affords more opportunities for our kids to be harmed. As the adults
supplying these devices, it is the responsibility of Williamson County schools to keep them safe. And if you can't, you have to cut off access to these devices. My ask is that if Chromebooks can't be eliminated entirely at younger ages that student devices function as a portal to a small number
of evidence-based apps and a tightly whitelisted browser with Google blocked entirely. If we cannot achieve that, I will be opting my children out of virtually all Chromebook use going forward. And I believe a formal optout path should be offered to all parents.
All right, up next we have Bonnie Barkstdale and Brad Davis. Good evening. I'm Dr. Bonnie Barks Bonnie Barkstdale, a Williamson County resident and a parent of a Williamson County school student in special education. I'm also an associate professor of elementary and special ed
education at Middle Tennessee State. My husband described a pattern. I want to tell you the story behind that number, the 725,000 supplemental this board approved on May 15th of 2023. In April of 22, the month before our IEP
meeting, our son experienced 14 isolations and one physical restraint at school. It was the most acute period of his 9th grade year. A few weeks later, the district IEP team proposed reducing 2 hours of his weekly behavioral consultation services. We did not ask
the district to expand it. We only asked that the district maintain his services through the beginning of the next school year till we got to his fall IEP review. The district refused. We filed for due process on May 19th, 2022. Under federal
law, filing for due process triggers a provision called stayput, which requires the district to maintain existing services during litigation. This case was litigated over 8 days and 6 days of deposition, 14 days total across the
fiscal year of 23. The district's expert witness testified under oath that she had been paid $13,000 for her work in this case of as of trial. We estimated the district spent between $400 and $600,000
defending the proposed reduction and the services we requested were about $2,000 worth to the district. We are not here to ask whether spending an estimated half million dollars to defeat the $2,000 accommodation reflects
responsible stewardship, particularly when we when federal law requires a district to provide those services the whole time we spent in court arguing against them, which was about a year. This is not history. This is happening right now. Our son attends Nolanville High School and is being part of this
placement consideration of the transition to students being implemented without parental cons consultation. Our son is a special education student and during the last IEP on May 7th, this placement decision was made without consultation with our IEP's team and it
was confirmed on the record. We recently uh exercised our right under federal regulation to request an independent education evaluation or an E and the district's response did not comply with 34 CFR section 3502.
We are prepared to formally challenge this decision and other procedural decisions described tonight. I'm asking the board as a special education professional to consider whether this pattern you're being asked to authorize tonight, the pattern currently producing this next round of legal costs, is good
governance in special education. Thank you. Mr. Mr. Golden, two weeks ago when WKRN asked you for comments about Williamson County Schools being listed as one of the most dangerous school districts in the state of Tennessee, according to the Tennessee Department of Education, you responded by saying increased reporting
on bullying is a good thing, that you expected higher numbers of violence in the report, and that it takes a village to stop it. So tonight, I'd like to address each of those points directly. First, increased reporting. You said higher numbers of bullying and violence were expected because our district does
a good job of intentionally encouraging students to report such cases. And I'm unclear on the point you were trying to make. Was your intention to comfort parents by highlighting how easy it is to report violence that happens to our kids when they're in your care without offering a plan to keep them safe? With all due respect, that's like praising a
city for having an excellent crime reporting system while ignoring the rising crime rate itself. Good reporting without a tangible plan to address a serious issue is a hollow response. Second, you said you expected Williamson County to have higher numbers of violence and bullying. My question is,
what led you to make that prediction? What is about our student population or how our schools are administered that made you believe we would rank among the top three most dangerous school districts in the state of Tennessee? And if you anticipated those higher numbers, what measures did you take to address
the dangers our schools are facing? Finally, you said it takes a village to stop violence in our schools. And on this point, I could not agree with you more. That's exactly why I've spoken at eight of the last nine school board meetings this year about the dangers our kids face every day. Yet to this point, these concerns have been met with no
action. But Mr. Golden, since you agree it takes a village to reduce violence in our schools, you are the head of our village school. No one has more authority or influence over what happens in our schools than you. And are you aware that since you became superintendent, according to the report, and the Tennessee Department of
Education, confirmed bullying cases in our district have increased by 62%. and the bully confirmed bully rate per student has nearly doubled. But what's more concerning than that and more concerning than drastic rise in attacks, death threats, and repeated violent destruction of classroom by the
same students during your tenure is your repeated claim that your hands are tied by federal laws. Whether it's in private phone calls and emails with me or in your public statements to this board, including as recently as February of this year, your message has been consistent and clear. Federal laws must
change before our children can truly be safe. So my question for you is really entire classrooms in our district live in perpetual fear all year long because the same students can violently erupt at any moment destroying the classroom and
causing children to flee for their safety and your official position as superintendent. Your only the only real solution you offer is to wait for a literal act of Congress. I don't believe your claim, Mr. Golden because I've spoken directly with other principles in Tennessee and district
leaders in Georgia and Alabama. They face the same challenges we do. They operate on the exact same federal laws that we do and yet they they're getting significantly better results. >> Mr. Davis, >> bullying rate per student is nowhere near uh where ours is.
>> Thank you, Mr. Davis. >> Thanks. >> All right, our next public speakers are Jackie Tulamaris and Melissa Hogan. Hi there. My name is Jackie Tulumis and I'm a Brentwood Middle School parent. I am here tonight to ask this board to
please re-evaluate the role of technology in our schools. I am here specifically to advocate for strict away for the day cell phone policy and to significantly limit Chromebook usage in our classrooms. We parents work hard at home to protect our children when they
are online. I limit my child's screen time. I do not allow social media use. And I do not allow unsupervised internet access. But the moment my kid walks into our classrooms, that protection is gone. And that is not acceptable. The reality is that the techn technology
is transforming before our eyes. What was once thought to be an educational tool is now a catastrophic disaster. Students are losing the basic fundamentals of learning. They are losing sustained reading abilities, creative thinking. Their attention span
is dwindling and spelling and penmanship is completely out the window. They are spoonfed auto corrections, ideas, algorithms are telling them what to do and what to think. If that's not bad enough, during instructional time, students are using proxy websites to
bypass district filters. filters which allow them to watch HBO Max, browse YouTube shorts, which is a form of social media, shop on Amazon, stream explicit music and content. And it's not possible or fair for the teachers to have to monitor all this white noise. I
am blown away at what my kid accesses online at school. He knows all the lyrics to explicit music which he listens to on YouTube. at school when he has free time instead of being rec required to do sustained silent reading.
In the adult world, this is called stealing company time in its grounds for immediate termination. In our schools, we are actively funding and enabling this habit. The accessibility to AI in the classroom is destroying academic integrity. Just
recently, one student used AI on an ELA exam and received a 98. While the super smart, honest student wrote her essay and received an 86. This easy access to AI and tech is affecting their transcripts.
This is not okay and this is only going to get worse. The accessibility to AI in the classroom is excuse me I know some of the parents argue against a way for the day policies because they want convenience of reaching their child at lunch. This is so selfish. It's
affecting their It's It's harmful to the collective whole and everyone knows it. Just send them an email. Tell them what you need. Phones are stealing their childhood. Phones discre decrease their socialization and their good manners. They don't acknowledge a teacher or a friend arriving to school. Their noses
are in the phones. Phones increase the devious behavior. Unconsentual recordings that get shared quickly around a school snap Snapchat channel. Phones disrupt the peace in the classroom and compete for their attention span and lust for the dopamine hits. >> Mrs. Tulmer, you're out of time.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Melissa Hogan and I'm the parent of a student in the transition 2 program at Page High School. I shared my concerns last month and tonight I'm here to update the board on troubling new developments. Following recent media coverage of the district's intent to
eliminate the T2 program at Paige and Nolanville high schools, the district began scrambling, abruptly requesting bridging or emergency IEP meetings with parents. Prior to that, the district had maintained that the moves were not optional and that forcing these students to move schools was not a change of
placement and required no IE IEP team approval. In response to the backlash and emails to board members, Superintendent Golden described a new mushy version of the 18 to 22-year-old program that lacked a cohesive title, objective, location, or expectations.
When leadership's plan leaves everyone asking what the heck is transition to anyway, it proves exactly why this program requires a comprehensive, transparent, and inclusive analysis involving all affected constituencies. In January, I and other parents sat in
IEP team meetings with teachers, aids, and principles. Unbeknownst to us, the district was already hiding plans to throw the transition to program into chaos, telling teachers to keep it quiet and delay meetings until after spring break. When questioned by bo board members, Jason Golden provided a laundry
list of meetings he alleged had occurred. He failed to mention that meetings with teachers were not collaborative, but they were told the clustering would happen. And meetings with parents happened after the plans were finalized. Teachers were shocked, parents were shocked. Trust has been broken in a myriad of ways. And to be
honest, the lack of trust and confidence leaves me as a parent unable to even make an informed decision for my son. Now, in an effort to plate us, the district half-hazardly proposes to some students that they can stay at their current schools. But in a hodgepodge that looks nothing like what we have now
with less support and more isolated services. This half measure leaves five critical questions that demand answers. First, why did the district completely exclude the most impacted constituencies from evaluating the current T2 structure in its proposed options? Second, why is
this being called a pilot program when there are zero defined goals, benchmarks, or metrics for success? to not walk the talk on the basics of special education undermines all confidence in district leadership. Third, why is the district obuscating the fact that a predetermined plan to
cluster and slash the T2 program from nine schools down to four was already quietly decided and communicated to teachers? Fourth, what is the plan for future transition 2 students? Is every family forced to choose their own adventure? Um, fifth, most importantly, does the district feel entitled to
secretly consolidate and eliminate major special education programs at will with or without or without involving families or the school board? The district's recent actions regarding deaf and heart of hearing and now transition 2 suggest the administration believes they can and intend to operate entirely in the dark.
For that reason alone, I feel a profound weight of responsibility to challenge these actions, not only for my son, but for every special education family in Williamson County. And I hope as representatives of them, you do, too. >> Thank you. >> Our last two speakers are Scott Belaloo
and Christy Bailey. Thanks, Lydia. Good evening, everyone. Uh, first off, just a quick little note of thanks to all of you for serving our community, serving our schools, and ultimately serving our students. I think sometimes we forget that we're all kind of in the same boat. We're all rowing,
trying to get the same places. Uh, and I'm going to take a little tone shift here. A lot of these are amazing, worthy topics to talk about. Uh I am actually going to talk to you about the band uh at Ravenwood High School and some amazing success that we've just had. So a nice update to hopefully be a little
bit of um a little bit of of a pallet cleanser from some of the more serious things like budgets that you will have to talk about tonight. So recently the Ravenwood Indoor Percussion Program won a tremendous award, world champion, not
national champion, world champion. And if you go to our band room right now, on the band room door is a handmade sign that said World Champions Entrance. We taped it up there. My daughter made the sign. She's a seventh grader at Woodland. And we taped it up there when they came back from Dayton after their
award. They walked through it still. It is up there still. And it's a port a point of pride for them and a point of pride for Ravenwood. What's really impressive though is that this is a collaboration. Ravenwood didn't just do this by themselves. They did this with other students from Franklin High School who participated in that indoor
percussion program with them and they did an amazing job. They won over more established programs. They competed against programs that were larger and frankly had more resources than we had to bear and they did an amazing job to do it. So while I am a band parent, I've
got two kids in the Ravenwood band. I got one coming into the Ravenwood band. I'm not an indoor percussion person and their accomplishment is so extraordinary that I wanted to make sure that we highlighted it here for the board tonight and to make sure that you knew that it was a triumph of collaboration between Franklin Ravenwood and frankly
you all who enabled that to happen who created a system that allowed us to share resources to share students to share musicians and to create something extraordinary and an outcome that was unbelievable for both our organization and for the kids who participated in the organization. That's all I have for you.
If you have any questions about indoor percussion, I can talk uh three more minutes at least to uh to get you up to speed. But just a note of thanks to everyone. And again, thank you for all that you do for our communities and for my family especially, or I should say for our for our communities especially,
but for my family specifically. So, thank you all. If Williamson County Schools can fail to implement the IEP of a sitting school board member's child for nearly an entire school year, imagine what's happening to everyone else's children. A
kindergarten student, my client, went almost the entire school year without receiving his speech and language services. No one caught it. No one corrected it. No one told the family. Sadly, his story is not the exception. My name is Christy Bailey and I'm a
special education advocate. I serve hundreds of families in Williamson County schools and I can tell you that miss IEP services are happening far too often in our district. Staff report that they have sounded the alarm about impossible case loads and
overwhelming demands and those warnings continue to go ignored. This is not just a paperwork issue. This is a system failure and children are paying the price. Executive staff continue assuring board members that IEP services are being
delivered. So prove it. Mandatory service delivery logs districtwide now. Thank you. All right. Thank you. That concludes our public comment. I'd like to thank everybody, all of our public speakers
for coming tonight. All right. Now we will move on to item three, which is approval of our agenda. We will do this via voice vote. Um, all in favor? Well, I need a motion and a second. Okay. Thank you. All right.
All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? All right. We've approved the agenda. Now we are moving on to item four, approval of the consent agenda. We will also do this by voice vote. May I have a motion in a second?
Any comments or questions about the consent agenda? All right. All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? All right. And with that, we have approved um the April 20th, 2026 school
board meeting minutes, board policy for first and final reading 2.83 salary deductions and recommendation for field trip fee requests. And now we will move to item five, communications to the board. Mr. Golden. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you
folks. Uh I want to especially thank our our uh our family members who spoke to uh to us at public comment. Did want to talk about a couple of things related to that, maybe three. Uh first of all uh just as a reminder to the board of the
depth of discussion you had at the work session related to screen time. Uh you all know that about a year ago or so we initiated a screen time committee and that committee's goals included addressing really three key points that
that that we had identified in consultation with many of our family members and really in seen some research. Uh number one um speak to cell phones and our and our and our students use of cell phones. Make some recommendations to the board. Number
two, spend some time looking at at students use of devices, our Chromebooks. That that's the particular product that they use during the school year uh and during class time. And then third, have some discussions about some recommendations for some resources from
parents. And that committee went through that process uh um really a little bit more than a year. Uh that we actually I think had that first meeting in May of last year and they have made some recommendations to you. I want to point
out a a few what I uh believe are some true successes. Number one, we first uh before this before uh this year started recognized that it's wise to reduce our students screen time on devices. Uh and
we actually stopped uh providing uh those devices to our youngest students to take home. Uh you all may recall that when we started this work in late fall, we shared some data with you with respect to student usage. uh that was in
we took some snapshots of August and September. Uh as an example, the kindergarten data that we saw showed that less than 10% of our kindergarten students were logging onto the computer on a daily basis. And of that time that
they logged in it they were spending less than 15 minutes on it. Now that's just a data point. Now what we know from the work our committee has done uh is that we need some more work. Uh there is more work to do related to that and that
committee set out to set some parameters for us and one key parameter that they've set in the recommended technology use guidance is this phrase that educators and administrators make intentional decisions about technology use ensuring it is only used when it
enhances student learning. I do anticipate that our student use of devices will go down uh over this next year. Now, there is a policy coming as you all know. A little bit behind our
committee's work, the state legislature passed a law with some specifics about K5. Uh our anticipation is that we're going to make a recommendation to you uh that goes a little bit further than the state law related to re related to
student use of devices uh expands that to K12 uh and has some more specific recommendations as defined in that screen time recommendation. uh that screen time committee finished a large portion of their work uh just
about a week or so ago and I thank them for their work and I mentioned a couple of things. Number one, I thank them for disagreeing with each other uh because you all know as board members that when the discussion came on cell phones there was substantial disagreement and I very
much appreciate the process you went through. Likewise, that screen time committee went through some disagreements in their recommendation. And so I anticipate that we will have an evolution, a continuing growth of where we go from here with with our screen
time recommendations. That piece of legislation has required a policy to be in place. We're a couple of steps ahead of that. uh and and again I believe that we're going to have some some some some processes and some policies that will
put an even greater emphasis on that direct instruction that was so much a product of of the committee's work. Uh I very much appreciate again the comments that we've that we've heard. Uh some of those examples uh from two or three years ago are things that prompted the
work that we are doing now. And I think there's going to be continued work related to that. Uh again, that phrase only when it enhances student learning. I recognize that some some were are recommending zero. I think there will be some examples where we are at or
approaching zero. I will also let you all know that at the state level there is some disagreement. Uh some of our legislators introduced some bills that would have effectively eliminated computer use at the same time that the Tennessee Department of Education is in
the process of requiring uh our online testing at the elementary level to our testing at the elementary level to be online. I anticipate that those discussions will continue at the state level as well. Uh and I know that um Mr.
uh Mr. King mentioned to you at our last work session some specifics about about some of those websites about proxies etc. and the ongoing battle that we have uh to protect students from material on our on those devices as it's as it is
going through that constant battle. One of the key items that we are looking at especially in the context of making sure that that that that use of devices is only limited when there's that need for for for education is because of that uh
be because that is that ongoing battle that we all uh uh go through on a on a regular basis. So I encourage families to continue to talk. I encourage families to continue to share their experiences as we go through that process of narrowing usage uh to to
where there's an absolute need uh per that language of only being used when it enhances education. Uh second, I do want to speak to uh special education uh a bit. I want to also thank our families for for their shares. Uh let me give you
all a little bit of a scope of of of our work. Uh we serve about 7,500 students with IEPs on a on a regular basis. Somewhere around 2,000 of those IEPs include students uh who are gifted and and then maybe uh maybe about well about
5,500 of those include uh students who have other eligibilities under the state rules. In addition to that, we have about 3,500 students with what we call 504 plans. that's based on uh section 504 of the of the rehabilitation act. Uh
and and in those processes, we have a lot of good people serving students. It's a human effort. And I and I and I I want to emphasize when I talk about human effort, there's love in there, but there's also human mistakes. Uh both of
those can coexist. And when we when we when I see the work of our special education teachers, I see that low. When I see the work of our special education department leaders, they've gotten into this work out of love, too. Uh, and in
those times when their work misses the mark a bit, uh, or even sometimes more than a bit, we make sure we do we do right by students. Uh, and we will continue that effort uh, working towards perfection knowing that we will never
reach it. Uh, some comments were made related to the particular item on the agenda. uh you all know that we we have budgeted at least the last three years. I haven't looked back to the prior budgeting uh on in in four or fiveyear
increments and we have budgeted 340,000 for that particular for that particular line. Uh last year we fell below that line. This year we're over that. The year before that we were over that. Uh and so from my perspective knowing that
there is guesswork involved because you don't know what's going to come uh that it's reasonable the the budgeting that we've done and we've come to you in those years where there there needs to be an increase. I will tell you also when you look at those 7,500 students
with IEPs, those 3,500 or so students with 504s, the reality is there will be disagreements. Uh I want everyone to know that our goal and our process is every time do the right thing. Uh, I
can't tell you right now that automatically making a change is always the right thing because these issues are individually driven. But what I do know is that our special education team makes decisions, consults with parents,
follows the IEP uh process, and involves parents as teams make decisions. Uh, and we will continue to do that. we will continue every single time uh to do the right thing. You can dig into the statistics on the percentages uh and and
and how small the percentages are of those times where we have disagreements, but the reality is it's personal. Uh and when someone goes through that, it is very personal. I want you all to know, and I think you've seen it, it is also
professional work done by our folks out of care for the students. Uh and we're going to make sure uh every time that that relationship between personal and professional is handled well, knowing that statistically speaking, it can't be
perfect, but that we will always strive for that on a personal level with with everyone's students. Uh I do want to mention comments related to last month's discussion about bullying statistics. I want to make sure that that uh if there
that that those comments that you just heard are not full and accurate representations of the conversation I had with with uh with the media members who asked me questions. We were speaking about bullying data. We did not expect violence to increase. What we did
expect, and I'm going to tell you why, was that reporting would improve. And here's why. When we have and have had discussions with some of our students, the students did in the past tell us we had gotten to
the point where we have reduced or stopped reporting bullying behaviors because we didn't know the results of the reports. So, we set out to make sure students knew that there was going to be action and that you would hear about the action
that's that schools took in response to those bullying reports. I can't speak to what to to statistics about any other school system, but what I can tell you is that our experience, and I think this is probably universal, is that many
bullying behaviors occur outside the presence of teachers, outside the presence of school staff, uh, for some pretty obvious reasons because of interventions. We want to and have set up an environment where students report
and we do intervene every time we do intervene. Uh and and if and if someone has an experience that the the information hasn't been shared with the folks who can have that information, we're going to make sure that we do that and address that uh every single time.
So I appreciate folks sharing this. I think and know that those things ought to be shared every single time. But we want to make sure that we're truthful and we're genuine uh in everything that we say. And I want folks to know we
expected the reporting to increase because we created an environment for those things that often fly outside the vision of teachers uh is reported. Uh now the next step is of course intervene
and be driven by those personal needs. Also with bullying behaviors follow up because one particular discipline may not solve and cure the bullying behaviors. That is a constant effort. Uh and so folks who might be watching this
I want to emphasize to you and to your children it's important that you report those bullying behaviors so that we can intervene. We've worked hard to create an environment uh where folks can report. Uh finally, with respect to uh
transition two, uh I I want to emphasize that each one of those services, each one of those individual education plans is personal and requires a personal conversation. Uh and and and
and when we saw and I think we've alluded to this last month, when we saw the conversations from parents about the way our special education team presented their plan, uh it became apparent to us that that piece was not there and so we
made sure that that piece was there. Uh we're going to continue to work on that. That is an ongoing effort. we are not finished uh with the work related to uh the the discussions that our special ed team uh had with folks. So I I felt like
everyone who spoke deserved uh deserved that uh deserves some specific information related to that. Uh sir, I know you you spoke to the great success of of our of our I think of it as winter drum line uh uh the the great work they do there. Uh and and I appreciate that.
I want to also mention to you there's a lot of good stuff going on here. You all saw the Hillsboro uh Middle School Jazz Band perform right before right before our work. We serve about 42,000 students and we want to make sure that not only
do we do those great things, but in those times where someone has a challenge that we address those one-on-one. Uh related to that, Madame Chair, this is the last week of school. uh our our seniors have taken exams. I joked with our faculty and staff in a
Friday note uh last Friday that I had to double check the calendar uh to to make sure that that that school was out. Uh things happen fast, y'all. Uh a lot of good is happening here. We've got a lot of good professional people who are serving our students. Uh and and uh it's
been a great year. Uh we're going to continue to work on those things. Not only uh responding to those challenges, but being proactive, being proactive in communicating. I think that's always an opportunity for us to grow. Graduation ceremonies are later on this week. I
know many of you as board members have signed up for those ceremonies. I think the most you can actually attend based on logistics is three uh this year, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And I know some of you are going to to multiple graduation ceremonies as we celebrate our seniors. Uh we have a tendency
to celebrate high school achievements more often than we do some of those other achievements. And that's because that's when those awards come. That's when uh uh advanced placement numbers come out. That's when our uh our ACT
scores come. That's when national merit comes. That's when scholarship dollars are awarded. But we all know and we talk about it as a leadership team quite often. This starts early. It starts often for students before
kindergarten. Uh many folks don't know that we actually serve students with disabilities even at age three. Uh to start preparing them for that time where they are they are going to be able to celebrate those successes that we prepare for. Uh Hillsboro's
band director actually mentioned uh something along the lines of he's he's taught in other in other parts of the state and the opportunities aren't the same based on his personal experience. They're not. This is a human effort. Love will continue. Uh and at the same
time, we're going to make sure that we do what we can to be as close to perfect as we possibly can. Um with that, Madam Chair, there may be some questions, but I know Mr. Mason is waiting. Uh, but I do want to open the floor if any of you have any questions. Certainly willing to
answer them related to the superintendent's report. >> Miss Wyatt, thank you. Um, thank you so much for your comments about the narrowing our usage. I'm greatly in favor of reducing our use of screens and the access to the cell phones. Can you
speak to um what we're going to be doing as far as training and supporting our teachers as we make these big changes? >> Thank you for that. Uh we are actually working right now on the on the process of professional development. We have a meeting scheduled with our principles uh
just right after school releases to to start preparing them. Uh Dr. Allen, I'm going to turn it over to you some to share some details of uh of our journey. >> Yes, thank you for the question. So, we've actually already begun the work um
as uh the the committee was working through those final drafts and even during the work session on Thursday night, there was some word smithing and some suggestions that were made that that we think were good suggestions. But as that draft was continued out, we
we've actually already had um uh a meeting probably a month ago now with our principles to let them know that uh that guidance would be coming. Um we have ongoing prof uh principal principal professional development sessions that
are all day sessions with with our principles uh where going through the guidance and and Miss White you were were on the committee as as well as Miss Hypna um there's a lot of depth to each one of those statements when you just look and give it a cursory look it just
seems like just words on a paper but when you actually read the statements um it's actually going to significantly shift the thinking uh back to a um back to really where we wanted it to be from the very beginning which was to start
with the standard and then to to use the to use the devices to use u technology instructional technology in a way that that adds value to the lesson and and so but there's some there's some training that has to occur along those lines and so we've begun that conversation with
our principles. We're limited on the amount of time that we have uh directly with our teachers. Um but we we already have plans set aside for our districtwide professional development day with our teachers to introduce them to to what
those statements really mean and to give them an opportunity to ask questions and for us to provide provide feedback to them. We also have ongoing snippets, small pieces of ongoing professional development along the way
into next year. Um, and as you know, um, uh, part of that document also includes us monitoring our progress through the amount of time that, uh, looking at real-time data for the amount of time that that our students are on screens.
And so we'll have that opportunity to see how we're doing in August, see how we're doing in September, see how we're doing in uh all the way through the first semester of the year, getting feedback all along the way from our teachers, and then as uh Miss W, Miss Hna, you know, um we've asked that
committee to continue the work. We've asked them to stay on board with us um and to meet at least twice a year. Um and and the reason that we want that committee to to continue is really for a couple of reasons, but primarily we want
to provide feedback on how we're doing um and in looking at that data, but we also want to get feedback from that committee um as we continue to monitor that progress. What kinds of things do we need to continue to do as we look at the guidance document? And the reason
we've we've asked Mr. Golden to to keep it in guidance rather than write a a a policy that encompasses all the guidance bullets is because we see that as the beginning of the work, not the end of the work. Um, we're going to continue to take feedback, continue to monitor our
progress. Um, like I said, our our data points continue to be really high as it relates to our student outcomes. So, as we're pulling back and we agree with a with with really the document in its entirety and the direction that it's turning turning our work as a district,
we're in favor of that. But we also want to to monitor our instructional data points to make sure that we're not inadvertently pulling something away that really is enhancing the learning of our students. Um, and we also want to be respectful of the good work that our teachers are doing and listen to them
along the way in that same spirit of making sure that we're we're providing those things that really enhance the student work. Um, but really uh take away that that that passive approach that in some cases maybe we've gotten into bad habits with. So, um, just the
beginning, ongoing professional development with our principles all along the way and maximizing the the amount of time that we have with our with our teachers through through our district-wide professional development, our ongoing professional development that we have with them. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, Dr. Johnson, you're
recognized. >> Um, so obviously I'm going to talk about the T2 program. Um, I completely agree that we have amazing special ed staff and um I I think about the teachers and the TAs. You know, I've talked to people
throughout my district. I've not found anyone in favor of this pilot on April the 7th. Um, I emailed after finding some more information because the presentation was actually done while we were at the March uh board meeting.
Um, on April 7th, I just talked about how, you know, the perception is is that people were not included, stakeholders were not included in the decision-making process. I made the recommendation that we have a stakeholder meeting where, you
know, the problem trying to be solved is clearly defined and data is shared so that we can have an open dialogue. And I've talked multiple times about the technology committee. I think um that process I'd love to see that be the
culture of the way we work. Um, I also recommended some change leadership information from like John Carter, Michael Fallen, Peter Sange, and you know, I ended with I'm committed to working together in a constructive way and solutionsoriented way and I look
forward to collaborating with the next steps and I've not been invited to talk anymore about it. Um, except like when we talk about it in public, I've not been part of any conversations. I did get another email on April 23rd from Dr.
Hill at Paige High School. She was wanting to meet with me and I said I would be happy to have a meeting with all stakeholders where we discuss it and again trying to like figure out what are why is this decision being made? Um why
is there so much confusion around it? I even gave dates. Um I didn't hear back from that. Um, with all that being said, I formally am opposed to this pilot. Um, if you don't want to stop it and try to
do kind of a change management, then I respectfully ask that you choose another board member's district. Um, because I I can't support it in the way that it's been implemented. Like I said, it may be the best decision, but the way that it's
been implemented, I would propose that we take a step back. we leave things the way they are now and then next year would start some of those stakeholder meetings earlier. >> Thank you for that Dr. Johnson. Um, as as I mentioned, we're still we're still
working on this. Uh, what we did identify, especially, you know, when you talk about group meetings was there was a group meeting and obviously it was well, when we say obvious, it's obvious to us, right, for those who who are listening, they may not be aware, but it
was apparent to us that that the that the personalization of it wasn't there with those 19 students uh and their families. And that's where we're working right now. We will have another discussion about your suggestion as well,
>> Mr. Bostic. >> Yeah, I also I'm just I'm strongly am opposed to it um for the T2 as it the pilot as it's being rolled out. I talked in the last month or two with four or five different T2 teachers, four or five
different T2 aids, um a whole host of parents. Um, one of the really concerning things to me on that is that it was presented to us at the work session, I think in maybe March when we had it, um, by Miss Grigo that the
teachers were for this and it was all good and they were wanting this. And every single teacher and TA that I've talked to has said not one single T2 teacher that they know of is in favor of this. No one wants it. No parents want
it. No T2 teachers want it. no T2 AIDS want it and yet we're just plowing right forward with it and under this guise that there's more job opportunities in a different district. Well, the one is is there's five um uh when they sent out
the email there's five job sites for one and they're moving to another one that's got five job sites. So, that doesn't seem like it's any different to me. Um so, that justification doesn't seem sufficient. And um on top of that, we can say, well, there just wasn't like
the personal meeting or like a personal that's to me that's like a euphemism is that we didn't follow state law, federal law when it comes to having IEP meetings with the stakeholders involved and a change of placement. And I know that that word gets people a little squirly,
but it I don't know how we can get around the fact that it's a change of placement. I mean, it just is. Furthermore, I know that now we're trying to like talk with parents and things and saying if you want to stay, you can. But of the parents I've talked
to so far, those um what is being offered to them is not a T2 program. It's something else. It's like, well, it can be like a T1 sort of program, but maybe they can work for a certification and something like this. So then the people are like said, "Well, they're
hesitant to even accept that because it's not the program." And so I, you know, when we say like, "Well, people are taking it." I'm like, "Well, because what they're being offered is not what it's being presented as it it, you know, the idea that it's
well, you can stay at your school if you want or you can go to this new place." But that's ambiguous because staying at the school that they want is not in the program that they were supposed to have. So I I I'm right with Dr. Johnson in
this. I just feel like this whole thing has been a debacle from the beginning. And from who I've talked to, which once again has been many T2 teachers, T2 aids and parents, for someone to sit and tell us that the teachers wanted this and they're for it, to then hear that from
no one that I talked to, and they all say that every teacher that they know of is opposed to it. It just seems like a lie to me. So, I'm like, I I just don't know what the force is to move this forward in such a careless, reckless way. And I would also ask that it not be
implemented. I know it was originally was supposed to include Fairview and Brentwood as well. I believe Fair View had some really strong things to say about that when then all of a sudden they were not a part of it. But we know that it's coming and um you know to bus
a kid 40 minutes away to an area that they're never probably going to work in that they don't live in that their family's going to have to bust, you know, to take them to or whatever. It just it makes no sense. I don't think it's the spirit of what a T2 program is supposed to be and it just I'm it's just
very very sad and disheartened by the whole the whole thing. >> Mr. Galbreth, >> Mr. Jordan, would you mind? Um, I just want I want you to address I know you you you kind of addressed it. Um, but a couple of allegations were made and I
just want to um hear directly from you um to respond to these these these allegations. First, can you explain what exactly the was entailed in in this top
three danger dangerous school district? um like what were they what were they saying as far in terms of the um like what that what what was that supposed to mean like what data was it going and I'm just going to tell you all three of them. Um then there's the allegation
that the district takes no action um on against these um these bullying and I I I know that I know that not to be true based on all the data that we that we get but would like your your opinion on that. And then what I feel was a was a
bit of a misrepresentation of your words. Um, but I want to know for sure about um about waiting for um quote unquote an act of Congress um federal laws to be changed before u before you would uh be willing to take action or
you feel like your hands are tied in some way. I just don't understand the the context of that uh of that allegation. Pretty serious allegation actually. Um, I just want you to have a chance to to uh to respond. >> Thank you for that. Um, and and as often
it is the case in misrepresentations or interpretations of what someone says, uh, there's always a little nugget of of of fact in there. And I will also acknowledge that when folks sometimes hear something different from how you say it, right, and things can get lost
in translation. So, I can't speak a 100% to what you were talking about with the uh the the and what was mentioned about the top three most dangerous, but my understanding is the information that was shared with statistical information from the Department of Education for the
2023 24 school year that had a list of what we reported and other eleas um other districts reported to the state with our bullying data. that would be reported bullies uh that that each of
which we we investigate. Uh and that's what I'm speaking to when I say we actually expected an increase in those because we had had conversations with students about it. So that's so that's number one. Uh that that that uh that was statistical
reporting related to bullying. I haven't seen anything that talks about top three most dangerous school districts. And I will tell you uh common sense tells tells us that's just not the case. Uh u I have not seen any data that that
supports that. Uh we actually are quite vigorous in how we respond uh to allegations and again uh we are intervening um with those behaviors. Folks who know students uh who know children know that bullying behaviors
will never 100% go away, but they will be addressed every single time new students come in, it gets addressed. It gets addressed proactively at the beginning of the school year and it gets it gets addressed from a responsiveness standpoint and it gets addressed in followup uh with with bullying
behaviors. Uh and that I think that addresses your second one takes no action. Uh then then the third you're waiting for an act of congress. I just don't use that phrase act of congress. Um that's just that's just not how I speak. But what we did talk about is a
couple of prompts that I was given in my mind related to questions of that. And so we are governed by the federal law uh covering uh individualized education plans. And the federal law is quite detailed. We've had some discussions in bits and pieces over the past year
related to all the myriad laws. Uh there there are and there is well let me trying to figure out a way to to phrase this and make sure I'm I'm correct from a from an English language standpoint. Every
student has an individualized education plan that addresses their needs. It has goals uh after identifying their eligibility and and it has a plan to affect those goals. You all may recall that months ago much of what we heard
were complaints about students with disabilities and their behaviors. There are goals and details related to their behaviors in each student's IEP. We follow those plans with fidelity. From a federal perspective,
one piece that I have spoken to uh in in individual conversations was this question specifically related to to the law. A couple of years ago, the state of Tennessee
uh addressed threats of mass violence in our schools and they put in uh a new state law that a threat of mass mass violence was a was a zero tolerance offense that required
removal from school. At the federal level, there are some details related to to discipline uh for students with disabilities. And they actually have three particular items that that um that
allow a maximum of 45 days removal from a student services. And that includes uh bringing a firearm to school, causing substantial bodily injury, or bringing drugs to school. In other words, a student a school uh has to balance the
zero tolerance laws of the state with the federal laws regarding students with disabilities. I have wondered in the case of a of a of a threat of mass violence whether schools needed that 45
days if there truly is a threat of mass violence with evidence that that student had a plan to to to carry it out whether that needed to be addressed at the federal law to add that. I will tell you from my perspective as the as a chief
executive of a public school system, that is a bigger concern from a from a make sure everyone's safe standpoint than someone who potentially a bigger concern than someone who brings drugs if those drugs haven't gone anywhere beyond that student's possession. Threats of
mass violence are a real concern. It is something we are constantly worried about. It's the it's the kind of thing that keeps us awake at night. What we have found is that when an issue like that manifests itself with a student,
you need to go back and look at your plan. You need to go back and evaluate uh is this a new is this a a new manifestation? Do should we should we do we need to do some more testing? Are there some interventions, etc. That was
the context of the federal law. So to your point, it's going to take an act of Congress for us to change is not an accurate characterization of conversations I've had. >> All right. Um, Dr. Driggers, you're next.
>> Oh, thank you. I have several topics. I'll try to keep them short. The screen time committee met from May of 25 to May of 26. Uh I there were two board members as
participants on that committee this time and two other board members observed from the the back row. Uh if a par and this committee is going to go forward 26 to 27. If there are parents in the
audience who want to become members of the next committee who do they call? They can leave a message with us and we'll have that discussion. Andy, your office or >> Yeah, sure. They can call our office. We'll make sure Andy Davis gets the
information. Andy Davis is is leading that. >> Okay. That's Yeah, there's plenty of time, but that they just >> called the district and volunteer to serve. >> Yeah. And to your point, Dr. Driggers, uh Miss Davis actually, um shared that with a committee, uh invited them to
look at their schedules and and and ask them do they want to continue to participate. We'll probably have some spots available. Okay, next topic. When can we count on service delivery logs that parents can access directly? >> Thank you for that. Number one, that
item is actually on our agenda tonight for for policy. Uh and I'll repeat a little bit about what was shared at the at the work session. We are working on that right now. Uh Maria Grigo actually mentioned late in the meeting that she
believes we'll be able to do some of that on day one this fall, >> August or >> Yes. >> before the end of the semester. >> That's correct. >> Okay, that's fine for me. >> T2, I've heard nothing good from the people who contact me.
We really screwed that up. Maybe a good idea, but how it was marketed was not good. So, we really I with with what Tony said and others uh we really need to look out that uh that program um when
we might do it. Can the next topic can the board get a list of specific legal expenses for the last three years? >> Sure, we'll get that to you. >> By case number or resolution or something? >> Sure.
>> We don't I don't need names. I just, you know, this case cost us this amount of money. This uh this was the topic and this was the resolution and this was the cost. Just kind of like to catch that. Um
going to the other thing I was a little a lot disappointed in the negotiation that we had to have with the office of civil rights. I read it, we lost. And they're going to monitor us until they feel that we are
in full compliance with delivering services to our IEP kits. Um, that's a slap on us no matter how you do it. I I didn't even know that we were being looked at by the OCR and they're looking at us again for another
issue. So, um, I know we don't have in-house legal advice at the moment. Are we going to contract outside? Uh we do that already for the court issues and you know going before the
judge. Uh who's going to take you know Dana's place as the district's in-house legal counsel? We haven't interviewed any we we have been interviewing. We haven't made a decision yet on hiring. I do want to mention that we do contract
out when we receive complaints. Uh we have attorneys who handle our special education cases. We also um have >> other than just Lisa. So we do have >> correct >> we have a bullpen. Okay. >> That is correct. So our general counsel in that context acts as a traditional
general counsel in coordinating the work with with outside attorneys. >> Okay. Those are all the topics I had. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Miss Clemens, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um so um Superintendent Golden, you might get a
little break here because um so every month um almost every month you were kind enough to meet with me and we get to go over a lot of topics. So what I'm going to kind of be sharing is some of the things that I've shared in our last meeting. So um so I do appreciate you
taking time to do that. Um you know with the bullying I think you know you're exactly right. It's not going to go away. This is something that's been there for a long time. Um, but you know, as a parent, as a teacher, I know that
when children do not feel safe, they can't learn. That's just they have to feel safe. And so, as a district, I think we can always be doing more into reducing bullying. And one of the things I asked um was that this summer that we
take time with our teachers to ensure that because what we know what works with bullying is that there are very clear consequences and that they're consistently applied and so that if if we can do that with our district with our teachers and our principles um just
to reiterate our policies and make sure that we're clear on that. Um, as far as the T2, the one thing that, um, I do have one quick question. I'm sorry, you're back on the clock. Um, how many students do we have in the T2 program?
>> Um, I'm not sure the exact total districtwide. Uh, >> that might not have been a question. >> Yeah, I I do know that these two schools that have been an issue, there's 19. >> Okay. Okay. Um, so what what I shared with Superintendent Gon this month was
that I, you know, in 2023 we did a massive countywide resoning. And what I really appreciated about the county doing that is they had, you know, meetings at different schools um at, you know, every several weeks we'd meet at another school and and we would get
community input and I think we did a really great job at that. Um, I kind of feel like what's happening with the T2 is akin to a reasonzoning. And what I have seen us do as a district is when we reszone
a a high school especially, we grandfather these students in and so we don't force them to change and just to have that continuity. Um, and these students are our most vulnerable students, and I really want
us to take care of them. And so that's why I really would like to see us still slowly walk this out versus this year. Um, that that's just that's what I would like to see. Um, and finally, um, I added something when Dr. Driger brought
that up. Um, I met um I talked with uh Chairman Brown and um Superintendent Golden back in the fall. I'd recently learned that um some other school districts provide their
board with the litigation summary, I think every couple months. And I I think that would be something that would be really helpful for us as a board so we kind of know what's going on. And in addition to a litigation summary, some personnel reports. So, we kind of are we are an informed board because an
informed board is an effective board. So, thanks. >> Thank you for that. It and that is something we were working on making sure that we give you all um some litigation reports. There have been times over the years where we've where we've sent you some uh of course attorney client protected reports. Uh it none of the
current Well, I take that back. There may be a couple of board members who are on that and then over time, you know, the demand for that reduced. But I think certainly with this board, um it's appropriate to do that. Right, Mr. Welch, you're recognized.
>> Thank you. Um, so I want to talk about the uh the fine arts festival that we had recently. Uh, before that I I do want to add just a couple comments as well on these sort of topics. First, uh Jay, I want to say I appreciate you asking for those clarifications. Um on some of those, uh
uh accusations made uh you and I and and Dan's, you know, who've been on the board a little bit longer remember kind of when we uh really ramped up our our bullying programs and tried to put more emphasis uh on it. And I I I think fair
to say, you know, when we did that, our goal was not, you know, we want to reduce the the number of complaints. That was the goal was we want to make a safer, better community for all of our kids
where they all feel welcome and loved and value. And one of the the things we did with that, to Superintendent Golden's point, really was to to go to the kids and to these communities and say, "We want you to speak up. We want
you to say something. If you know you feel harassed and bullied, uh if you're scared, even if you're not sure, speak up, come to us. We'll we'll work through it." And when you do that, yes, it does
increase the number of complaints that you get. And and I'm not going to say, well, that's a good thing, but but I am going to say it's an outcome of trying to do a good thing and trying to improve a culture that way. um to say this is one of the three most dangerous school
districts in the state. Well, I it it just defies common sense and it destroys your credibility when you have someone saying comments like that right off the bat because no, you know, you walk over to Grassland Elementary and feel dangerous or something. I don't know.
Um, in terms of our special educations teachers and staff, I just remind everyone please, nobody got into teaching special education for the money or for the
glamour or for, you know, the the notoriety. They got into it because they have a heart for kids. Have a heart for our most vulnerable kids. And you know, like any other human and
teacher, they're not perfect. We do make mistakes. We need to correct those mistakes when they're made. Um, we don't have to agree with every decision or a policy decision or or direction, but
these are hard to find people because it's a hard job to do and it requires not just a skill set to be an educator, but it requires a skill set of the
heart. Uh, I could not do it. uh I I would not be able to do that and I know that and so I would say let's just all not calling anyone out but let's all be careful and maybe take a step back when
we start lambasting and using some pretty harsh language here about our special education teachers and administrators. Uh, the final thing I do want to say and then goes back to what I mentioned with the fine arts festival and I'll just say I wish more of you could have been
there. Uh, Drace and I were there and my goodness, these kids would have made you proud. Um the talent that comes out of this school district, the the artists, the singers, just their voice,
the actors and actresses, it's just so powerful on the stage and just short little clips almost eliciting tears with just what you're seeing. Uh the studio artists, the painters, uh the the young lady who worked behind the scenes doing
the lighting. It's it's not just lighting. It's it's art. And so I I really would encourage you all of us to really try and and attend more of these events because uh there are such great things coming out of this school
district and it is it is well worth your time to see and it was it was such an enjoyable uh event and really grateful for that. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, Mr. Cash. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Eric, I agree
with you 100%. Um, the T2 program, Jason, uh, I know this has been going on for about 18 months. Um, Maria and her staff and principles have visited different facilities, schools, uh, you
name it, trying to figure out what the best way to teach these special needs people are. And uh I too I'm like uh kind of like Eric. It's the allegations that are
coming out of people that are so untrue. And instead of trying to build up our employees, our teachers and special needs people, we're running them in the ground right here on this board. And I think it's
sad. You know, we've got a right. You you as administrators have a right to transfer people or or to move people where they're best needed and where the best
education is and the outcomes that are produced uh are amazing. So Jason, just could you explain what what went on for the last 18 months so the general public uh all out there know
and it's not just hearsay and rumors and all this other stuff going around. >> Well well sure and I may I may defer to Dr. Allen as well for some potentially some additional details and or perhaps Dr. Webb as well. uh our our special
education leadership team looked at data related to uh our our our students in those job opportunities and looked at it and said we can do better. Uh it's the
the the students experience in our transition to program and those are the students who who who who stay with us through the age of 22 or the year that they turn 22. they finish that school year. Uh many of them are are working on job skills and those job
skills include actually going out to job sites. Uh and specifically, Dr. Allen and Dr. Way, if I'm not mistaken, what our special education professionals identified was the results of of of of how they do with those jobs after
leaving us. The the the numbers were not excellent. uh their experience in the school was unbelievably good. Their experience with supports during that window of time was unbelievably good. Uh and you felt some of that in the
comments uh from from our families. Uh it it's hard to leave a particular location because of those because of the excellent work our our teachers do. But our professionals determined we can do better. It's actually consistent with
one of our strategic plan goals as well. So they were doing an analysis of that and then they set about to to look at can we combine some of our services and allow our transition to teachers to
focus a little bit more and increase the frequency and increase the time of students spending uh spending um those school hours at particular job sites. And so that's what drove them to to work on this that if
they if they had teach uh some groups of teachers together they could differentiate the work focus on you know one one one teacher focus on uh job skills that were part of that student's IEP another teacher focus on a focus on
a group of students at that same location who might be working on life skills uh and and on down the line because students IEPs are different with different goals. um some students were were not at a point where jobs where job skills were
appropriate for their work. So that's that's ultimately what drove it. And I will acknowledge that that as as I've spoken to the the communication with with individual parents wasn't there uh in those conversations. it was driven by
that look to to to evaluate we can do better for the outcomes uh for the net result. uh and and that was that that could have been handled better and we and I think I've said that, you know, repeatedly, but I think it bears uh it
it bears that repeat. But the work that they're doing being able to to to put students at a closer location and have a little bit more time support from a from a transition to teacher rather than perhaps one transition to teacher
serving all the students at one school. Having those students and and our our professional staff, our special education staff used the term cluster uh in their PowerPoint that they shared with parents back in March. that's that's that is what's driving that. Um
they spoke to a pilot uh recognizing that that there's there's some value in getting some data uh from that. With all that said, I think that the the parents concerns deserve respect as well >> w with with respect to what they've
experienced in in that in that particular school. I will share this. The worry from our special education staff is when those students hit age 22 and when that school year is done, our work is done. And so they're
driven by finding ways to improve uh those student opportunities so that when we are finished with our work, they they have a better chance uh um after after our work is done. Dr. Allen,
anything else do you need to share? I can't add anything to that. I will reiterate though, you know, if there are members of this board that want that are concerned about the process, we'll take that on completely. Um, but to your point about the the starting point and
the the the reason for u uh the look and the attempts to do it better by that special education department were what started those conversations. But in terms of process, we hear you and respect that and respect the the the voices from the families that have spoken to Right. But on on behalf of
Maria and her her uh staff, uh these are dedicated people. They're out there looking for ways. But when we come into and and have all this feedback about I mean, I've heard that uh this this staff just doesn't like them people and they're going to move them over here
where they want to go. And just all these rumors and all this stuff going around. uh it it it doesn't help the special needs program that people are waiting in line to come to the state to get into.
I mean, you just think about it. I I heard from uh four or six about eight people uh three of them were part of this program and they can't wait for this to happen. So, that's that's a positive side. Everything else I've heard from
people is nobody likes it. Can we poll the teachers? >> Would that be an idea? >> Well, it's a relatively small number of teachers. Certainly, they can ask and talk to them. >> Well, from what I understand from the last for the last six weeks, all I've
heard is the teachers hate it. The parents hate it. Uh, nobody likes it. So, can we pull them? >> We can. Sure. >> I mean, you know, we we got to work through this. We want to do it the right way.
But I I just don't think the the the allegations that are coming out are fair. Um I've I've had uh seven kids in this school system. Uh four of them had IEPs from different levels and uh speech
the whole ball of wax. And they're all they've all graduated from IEPs. and one of them's a number one student in fifth grade right now for grades. This works.
Our our special needs department is dedicated and they care. And I'll tell you, I'll throw another pitch out to principles because they are there every single day looking at the special needs and trying
to work things out. We we the impression I got from these meetings is we're just insensitive. The people are insensitive. Those principles work, especially with these 18 to 22 year olds. They probably had them for
six years already. They get rather attached to these people. But I got a lot of good positive feedback about the whole thing. And I I just I personally want to thank our staff and
Williamson County schools in general because like I say, I've had well a couple of them are graduated but eight kids in these school systems and when they needed help whether it be special needs just RTI whatever they got it and
I just don't want it to be out in the public that were failures because of this program. So, and then uh I want to talk about what Eric and uh Jay talked about. I
think we're doing wonderful with the numbers on bullying. If you look at them, the hardcore bullying is very little. And I think what this gentleman keeps alluding to is special needs kids that are, you know,
getting out of line. And that is something to look at. We've spoke about that before. That's something to really look at when other school systems finding out what they're doing uh that can help this situation. I think
that it's worth looking into. That's it. That's all I got. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Cash. >> Uh if I may, Madam Chair, mentioned a couple items. Uh Mr. Cash, to your to your to your uh to your earlier point
about our transition to program, this is my impression. Uh this is not a a hard fast um fact, but my impression is our special education professionals saw it as a positive and and and didn't
anticipate the push back. Uh and so that that's that's one. Uh second, um you uh uh you mentioned our our our uh our teachers and our and our special education students and our in our
bullying uh statistics. Thank you for that for that detail. Uh we I just want to reemphasize. We are creating an environment where we hope students will report it and then
we'll intervene. Right. Mr. Bastic, >> I just want to reiterate that I I I feel like we're kind of talking past each other a little bit here. I I've talked to teachers, the T2 teachers
specifically, four or five of them, four or five different teachers, aids in the T2 program, lots of parents. They tell a very different story. And you'll get no thanks from me at the district level for a job done poorly. So I don't I don't feel the need to say
that. There are many great things that we do here. Not belittling any of that. But when we have an issue that we actually need to work on, it's okay to point it out. We don't have to look around with our eyes closed. We can point it out. And I would love a poll of
the T2 teachers and the TAs and all of their staff to see what they think because of the ones I've talked to, they all say that not a single one that they know of across the district is in support of it. So I would love to see what the poll would look like.
Additionally, this hasn't been an 18-month process. I don't know where that came from. The first time this was brought up to the teachers was in December in a meeting and they were told that it was 95 to 98% a done deal. We're just telling you what's going to happen.
And by the way, don't tell the parents about it. So the parents went on and had their IEP meetings at the beginning of the year, kept completely in the dark, and then they transitioned into this. That is just ridiculous. And I I we don't have to sugarcoat it, but we can't
deal with it if we don't actually deal in truth. So that's, you know, I'm sorry if that's offensive to someone and maybe it's beating a dead horse, but I just, you know, that's it's sad to me and we can do better and we should do better. And to point that out is not um a bad
thing. It's actually our entire job. >> Dr. Triggers. >> Okay. Um, do all of our buses have security cameras? >> Uh, yes, they all have security cameras installed. Uh the driver's job is to
drive. Uh do we have parents as chaperones on buses? >> We do not have parents um during uh during arrivals or releases. Parents do sometimes chaperone field trips.
>> Okay. And the drivers know if they hear something or see something, they report it. >> That's correct. >> Okay. Uh secondly on our special ed teachers, what is our percent of fill?
In other words, would adding more special ed teachers to our faculty role would that help take some of the stress off of them? >> Our fill has actually improved over these last few years.
>> I think it's very high like 99%. Yeah, it's well it's 9 96 97% and of course there's a it's a snapshot. There is a relative shortage of uh special education teachers statewide. So a big part of what we do is work on recruiting and
retention. We also uh have some programs that that that opens the door for some of our special education teachers assistants to go back and either get a degree or if they have a degree already to get to get uh lure to be special
education teachers. Um we're in the we're in the high 90s right now. Uh I don't know if that fully answers your question. Is there maybe for the work session?
What is the average load for a special ed teacher? I know it would depend on the category of the disability. Um, you know, it's 1 to five or 1 to 20. Um, I'm not asking for an answer now, but if
we could see a chart maybe. >> Yeah, but you're right. It does vary based up based upon the um based upon the the estimate of how much time a particular teacher might spend uh doing that work as the file holder.
>> Thank you. >> All right, I think we're ready to hear from Mr. Mason if there are no other comments. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Yes, we have a lot of students that we want to celebrate this month. So, we are going to begin with our 19
students who earned a perfect ACT score just recently. Let's kick things off with Renwood High School's Liam Ching. He got that perfect 36 as did Gavin Nielsen, Connor Romans
from Centennial High School. We have Ruben Espiritu, Eker Rodriguez, Renone, Brandon Smith, Colin Smith, and
Khloe Tapperson. From Franklin High School, we have Adam Gallows, Abigail Horn, Yiming Wong, Izzumi Wakasuki. From Independence High School, Edwin
Chin got that perfect 36. Over at Nolanville High School, we have Stone Bell from Paige High School. David Karillo and Violet Zimmerly. Over at Ravenwood High School, Samantha
Suri got that perfect 36 as did Ethan Vargis. There he is. And last but not least, earning that perfect score on the ACT exam from Summit High School, we have Henley Davidson. Congratulations to
them. And then DECA had its international career development conference in Atlanta recently. And you may recognize this name, Violet Zimmerly from Paige High School. She earned that perfect 36, went on down to Atlanta and got herself a first place state
championship in the entrepreneurship series for DECA. But then she wasn't done because she joined forces with Sloan Armstrong and Akara Gala and they won the first place in the realworld Ready Challenge. and their teacher there at Page High School is Michael Mcnut.
Over at Ravenwood High School, Abigail Goddard and Mana Sapiti won first place in the Bell Challenge category there at DECA and they are taught by Brian Stuck and Jennifer Do. The Technology Student Association had
its state leadership conference recently and we had a number of middle school students who did really, really well at this. So, I'm excited about that. from Le Legacy Middle School, Lyanna Ward won first place in biotechnology. The trio here of Dalton Mock, Liam Trot,
and Max Penn won first place in inventions and innovations. Marcus Geon and AJ Rally won first place in microcontroller design. And then Daltton Mock and Reed Allen got first place in structural engineering.
Their teacher there at Legacy Middle is David King. Noansville High School had a team made up of Prrenav Carakian, Carolyn Renegger, Pun Praep, Paul Jwang, John Sarker, and Elgen Lenoi. And they won
first place in robotics. And their teacher is Elia Clim. From Paige High School, Samvi Kosla and Haley Berry won first place in forensic science. The group of Andrew Walker, Riley Hagenbook, Laurel Sullivan, Caitlyn
Angum, Haley Barry, and Brody Barry won first place in music production. And then last but not least from Page High School, Austin Maldonado, and Owen Wixon. They won first place in software development. And the teacher there at
Page High School is Jay Emmens. Next up, we have Brian Hong from Brentwood High School. and he won first place in humorous interpretation at the Tennessee High School Speech and Debate League. But he wasn't done because then
he went over to the National Speech and Debate Association's state championship and won first place in humorous interpretation there. Joining him was Joseph Johnson and Wally Sadikar. They won first place in public forum and the teachers there at Brenwood High School,
Harriet Medlin and Matt Grimes. Now to the Tennessee State Science Olympiad where we had students from Paige High School, Bailey Murray and Shamu Denta Kirthy won first place in Bungee Drop.
And then also from Page High School, John Hollister and Andrew Moore won first place in engineering CAD. The teacher there at Page High is Michael Duplexus at Ravenwood High School. Sinathi Naranan and Samantha Tatalovich won
first place in anatomy and physiology. Also from Ravenwood High School, Alexander Gianna Kulius and Arouch Teagora won first place in circuit lab. And then Alexander and his brother Nicholas won first place in remote
sensing. Vicky Lynn and Joanna Chi won first place in entomology and Grady Landry and Amua Sri Murahari won first place in robot tour. The teacher there at Ravenwood is Averil
Burstetta. And then we're really excited about this because this is the first in the history of Williamson County Schools. We had a couple of teams from Centennial and Franklin High School that went and competed in the esports state championship at Cumberland University.
And Centennial High won several state champions, state championships beginning with this group right here of Jonah Hes, Miles Flot, Becky Cooper, and Cameron Cameron Berdine. They won the state championship in the game Valerant.
And then you have this group of Aiden Rilo, Babadara Abigio, Jack Warwick, Canon Phillips, Jackson Resenc, and Roco Vitali won the state championship with the game Overwatch. Jackson Rosenrants, Jadice Warwick, Trey
Ingram, Clark Hooks, Mason Bryant, Darien Sinclair, Tucker Mise, and Sam Woodford then won the state championship in the game Marvel Rivals. And this guy right here, Axel Ortega Zatina, he won first place in the game
Madden. He won that state championship. The coach for the Centennial High team is Dean Frederick. So, congratulations to them. And then we have two school spotlights that I'm really excited about. This one, the first one is Sunset Elementary School. They were named the
Tennessee Outstanding Elementary School Best Buddies Chapter of the Year. The sponsor there is Kennedy Dickens. Congratulations to them. But not only did we win one, we actually won two of the Best Buddies chapters of the years.
The Legacy Middle School was named the middle school best buddies chapter of the year and their sponsor there is Laura Bartos. So congratulations to them. And then rounding it out, we have three staff spotlight winners that we want to mention tonight. Um the CMA
Foundation just named its music teachers of excellence and we had three of those beginning at Woodland Middle School school where Aurora Foster earned that honor. We're proud of her. Over at Centennial High School, Trevor Baxter was named a music teacher of excellence.
And at Paige High School, Taylor Colemire earned that honor. Congratulations to all of our spotlight winners for the month of May. >> Thank you, Mad Madam Chair. I will say I do think it's appropriate to spend a disproportionate amount of time on our challenges rather than our celebrations,
but oh my goodness, those celebrations are fun as well. That is my report. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um, moving on to board chair report. We do not have a board chair report tonight, but I would like to res recognize this boy
scout troop. I believe it's troop 747. Would you all please stand? Thank you for coming to spend your Monday night with us. Thank you. All right. Now we're moving on to item six, new business. We have several items
related to the school board, the 2526 school board budget. Um, beginning with item number one, approval of general purpose school fund amendment 05.26 TCAT donation dual enrollment in the amount of $8,278.79.
Mr. Golden. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a a donation from TCAT, which is covering part of our teachers salaries for a dual enrollment program with the Tennessee um uh um I just had a mental block on TCAT,
College of Applied Technology. Thank you. Do recommend approval. All >> right, we have a motion and a second. Any comments, questions? All right, board members, please take your votes. The vote is 10 yes, zero no.
Right. Moving on to item number two, approval of general purpose school fund amendment 05.26 MTSU donation dual enrollment in the amount of $6,500. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Likewise, this is an agreement with Middle Tennessee State University where they are funding
in part our teachers for joint uh college credit uh processes that we have. Do recommend approval of this donation as well. >> All right, we have a motion um and a second. Is there any comments or questions? >> Oh, all right. Board members, please
take your votes. The vote is 10 yes, zero no. >> Moving on to item number three, approval of general purpose school fund resolution 06.26 letter grade bonus in the amount of $4 million. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a letter
grade bonus in the current year, not next year based on a move that the legislature did to increase funding for this particular uh this particular specific funding. We had actually anticipated that we were going to receive maybe about $2.3 million from the state uh in the in late in their
budget process. They added to that uh because they actually had more schools qualify this year than in the past. Do recommend approval for us to receive those funds. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions? Right, board members, you may make your
votes. The vote is 10 yes, zero no. >> Item number four, approval of general purpose school fund resolution 06.26 trustee commission in the amount of $300,000. Mr. Golden. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a an
update uh for property tax collections uh that were above the original budgeted amount and that in and as part of that a portion of that is required to go to the county trustee and this represents that adjustment to the budget. Do recommend
approval. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Any comments? Please take your votes. The vote is nine yes, one no. Okay. Item number five, approval of general purpose school fund resolution
06.26 ESCO payment in the amount of 1,183,842.58. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. This represents this year's payment on what we call the ESCO, the energy savings program, where years ago we were able to fund improvements to our utilities based on
an engineering study that we would save a sufficient amount in our utilities to pay for those over time. The process county government goes through is funded with debt, but pay the debt with energy savings. Uh we have an obligation to take this to the county commission. I do
want to mention that in the budget committee discussion, the proposal that is coming from the budget committee to the full board to the full commission for our budget that will be discussed in late June includes forgiving this uh as a means to help budget uh to help our
budget balance for that gap that we've talked about to be narrowed. Uh but we do again have that obligation to bring that to them so that they can make a final decision in late June. Do recommend approval. >> Thank you. All right, we have a motion and a and a second. Is there any discussion?
All right, board members, please make your votes. >> The vote is 10 yes, zero no. >> All right, moving on to item six, approval of general purpose school fund resolution 06.26, additional insurance expenses in the
amount of 2,400,000. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. This this uh is is from the county risk manager's office based on uh decisions and evaluations they made I think starting in October or so where they re-evaluate insurance uh and uh and and and their claims. So this
has nothing to do since we spoken to special ed in such detail I wanted to just make sure everyone knew this has nothing to do with special education. This is the traditional liability insurance. Do recommend approval. >> We have a motion and a second. Are there any comments or questions?
Okay. Board members, please vote. >> The vote is 10 yes, zero no. >> And the final item related to budget item seven, approval of general purpose school fund resolution 06.26, additional student support services expenses in the amount of $200,000.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair. We we spoke to this in detail. This does this does include the end of year reconciliation for fund balance based on that original $340,000 budget. Uh do recommend approval of this as well. >> Right. We have a motion in a second.
Thank you. Are there any comments? All right. Seeing none, let's take our votes. >> Oh. Oh, Dr. Johnson, sorry. >> Uh so I just want clarification. So the 200,000's already been spent in addition
to the 340. >> Um, no. Rachel is shaking her head. No, it actually includes a projection through the end of the fiscal year. >> And so this is going to take usions June 30th. Is that what you're saying? >> That is correct.
>> Right. There are no other comments. Now let's vote. The vote is nine yes, one no. Okay. Now we will move on to board policies for first reading. Uh we only have one policy tonight, 4.202, child
fine and special education. Uh Mr. Galbreth, would you like to speak to this? Great. Um, yes. So, this is a um this is a policy that we we went over last year. Um, we we were at we went through the discussion process because we didn't
have any proposed edits at the uh at the work session or at the uh policy meeting this month. And so what we have is the the current policy. Um and so um up for a uh if a motion if um Tony if you want
to make one to uh to amend this policy to and we've got the we're prepared with the with the language so you don't have to read it out. We've got it all loaded. If you uh so if we just need a a motion a second we can uh we can discuss and um and vote on this. If it if it passes,
it'll go to the policy for policy committee for second reading um in the in the June meeting and they'll come back to us again. >> Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. So, now we can open it up for further
discussion. >> That that was the that was the motion just to >> bring it up for discussion. >> Motion to amend. >> Yes. Well, you you push the button to talk to be recognized. >> Okay, Mr. Bostic, you're recognized.
>> We're the procedure here. Sorry, guys. Yeah. Yeah. So, I make a motion to amend to add this language um um that we went over on at the work session and all of that. >> Is there a second, Miss Clemens? Okay.
>> Okay. >> All right. So now the um motion to amend is on the floor and we can have discussion about the proposed um language that would amend the policy if
there's any comments about that. >> All right, seeing none, then we are going to vote on the motion to amend the policy. Madam Chair, I do recommend approval based on the conversation that Miss Grigo had with the board at the work session.
>> The vote is nine yes, one no. >> All right. Thank you. Now we need a motion and a second. already motion. You just need to vote. You already have the motion. >> Oh, so now we just take another vote on on moving the policy to second reading
as amended. So that's what we're going to be voting on now. >> Is there any discussion? >> Yes. Um no. Yeah. So, we had uh just to kind of give the history, we had talked about
this last year and brought it up. Um we ended up pulling it because we weren't sure technology-wise they wanted to kind of work on that and talk with Tennessee Pulse and all the different uh aspects of that. So, we pulled it to give them time to do that. I intended to bring it
back in the fall and then just gave them more and more time and then uh it's uh coming back now. It's been about a year. So want to bring this back again. This as amended that's different from last time. This doesn't involve any special education teachers.
This is for occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech language pathologists. So this would be service delivery logs for the students who are mandated in their IEP to receive these services for a given amount of time. Um that there's just a log of service when
those are completed. Um the argument would be that it protects the district when um parents are questioning whether or not their their kids are actually getting these services and um and also uh just for parents so that they know that their kids are getting these
services. Um we heard from constituent Miss Bailey, she referenced um a student that had uh it was found out in March that they had not received a single one of their speech language services. that was that was my son. Um and so um it had
been missed all the way up to the district and central office and it was discovered when we were going into our IEP meeting for the next year. Um which is just ironic or somewhat poetic to me that you know we we brought this up last
year that it was a need and and this would have caught it like month one and we would have known. So, it it is important and I think it's once again it's it's for the parents and these students, but it's also for protection
for the district and to know if we need to get some more um of these um SLPs, OT's, PTS in here to help with these case loads. Um, Miss Grigo had mentioned at the work session, some of these uh,
speech language pathologists have 50 plus students that they files that they have. That's a lot. If you do the math on that, you know, the average, we had talked about this last year, is uh,
twice a week for 30 minutes. I mean, that's that's 50 hours of service time. Some of that's in group clustering, you know, I understand that, but it's just there's not enough hours in the week to get a lot of this done, I think. And um
we need to get those people some help. So, I I think this would be a good step forward. There are some states that have this as part of their state law as relates to um special education. And um we used to do this years ago. We used to
have service deliver. And I think it's time that we need to bring it back. All right, I'm not seeing any further requests for recognition. So, we will go ahead and take the vote. Again, we are voting to move the policy as amended to
second reading. The vote is nine yes, one no. All right. Our second to last item on the agenda is approval of school board meeting dates. Mr. Balden. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Based on the work session, we have made one change uh
to the document you had at the work session. That's uh December 7th, 2027 is the proposed policy committee meeting for the January uh meeting. Other than that, it remains the same based on our policy with a couple of holidays mixed in where we've
had to move move the the particular meetings. Do recommend approval. >> All right, I see a motion in a second. Are there any questions or comments? >> All right, let's go proceed to voting. The vote is 10 yes, zero no.
>> Okay. And the last item tonight is approval of high performing school district flexibility act. Mr. Golden. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um maybe a decade and a half ago or so, the state passed a law called the high performing school districts flexibility act and it includes uh the opportunity for us to
ask the commissioner of education for waiverss of particular laws based on her discretion. Uh and it requires us every three years if we still qualify to renew that designation for ourselves so that so that that option is available to us. We've hit that spot at the three-year
point. I do recommend approval so that we can maintain that. At the moment, uh the the key the key advantages we get to that is it it includes we don't need the county commission approval for some of our budgets that are for some elements
of our budget that are not funded by tax dollars, food service, our school age child care program. But I do anticipate there may be some things in the future that it's wise to keep this designation. Do recommend approval. >> All right. Well, I see we have a motion in a second. Are there any questions or
comments about this item? >> All right. Yes, Mr. Walch. >> Um, just real quick, I just want to, if everyone here doesn't know the history of it, the High Performing Schools Flexibility Act was was actually written right here in Williamson County uh by that individual uh right there. So, just
another example of us leading the state. >> Thank you. Okay, we are ready to vote. The vote is 10 yes, zero no. >> All right. And with that vote, we are adjourned. Thank you.