Board Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good evening. The board meeting for August 11, 2026 has been called to order. We will start this evening by asking Dr. Cotton if he will come and offer us a few words of encouragement through prayer, followed by our Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you, Dr. Cotton, for stepping in.

Bless this school district. Bless the students, the staff, the teachers. And bless this board. In your name we pray, Jesus. Amen.

Now if you'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. All right. We have established that there is a quorum present. Now I need a motion to approve the agenda as printed.

Madam President, I move that we approve the agenda as printed. I second.

It has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda as printed. May I see a show of hands of all those in favor? It is unanimous.

Thank you.

We will now have Board President remarks. You all bear with me a little. I think my blood pressure medicine is wearing off. So I don't feel that good, but I'm going to wing it anyway. Good evening. Have you ever watched a flock of birds moving across the sky? Dozens, even hundreds, moving together with purpose. They shift directions as one adjusts to changing winds, the others do. And they continue forward together, a shared destination. There's a powerful lesson in that image for those of us entrusted with educating children. Every bird in the flock matters. Some lead, some follow. Some need the protection of the group while others don't, but all are moving forward together. Our children are much the same. They do not all learn at the same pace, and they do not all arrive with the same experiences or needs. Yet every child deserves the opportunity to grow, to progress, and to succeed. And just as a flock adjusts to the wind, we must be willing to adjust to the needs of our students. Tradition or convenience can never outweigh what is best for today's child. Educating children requires all of us moving together. Our board, our administration, our educators, our staff, our families, and our communities. There will be headwinds. There will be challenges. and there will be students who need more from us at different times. That is when unity matters most. Our responsibility is not only to suggest to support those who move easily forward, but to notice the child who is struggling, strengthen the child who is falling behind, and challenge the child who is ready to soar, never accepting that any child be left behind. When one child succeeds, we all succeed. When one child struggles, we respond together. And when we stay aligned in purpose, our entire district grows stronger. So I leave you with this. Are we moving in the same direction? Are we adjusting when our children need us to adjust? Are we supporting one another through the challenges? And above all, are we ensuring every child has the opportunity to soar? Because excellence in education is not the work of one person, one classroom, one school, one administration, or one board. It is the result of all of us moving as one. Let us move forward together. Let us lift one another. Let us ensure every child entrusted to us has the chance to spread their wings and soar. Thank you. Next, we will have remarks from the superintendent.

Good evening, President Portis, Vice President Smith, board members, employees, families, and community members. I am pleased to provide my superintendent's remarks as we begin the 2026-2027 school year and our new era of excellence. First, I want to thank our teachers, principals, support staff, district leaders, parents, and community partners for helping us to welcome our students back to school. Opening a district this size takes tremendous teamwork. There is nothing quite like the joy of the first day of school. It was wonderful to see our students arrive with joy, excitement, and gladness and to see our teachers and employees ready to welcome, support, and encourage them. While we experienced a few challenges, as expected, our schools opened successfully and teaching and learning began. This year, we are offering more opportunities for students through three new magnet programs, academic dean academies, expanded virtual learning, additional athletics and extracurricular activities, and plans to add two more IB schools. We are also excited about our new Workforce Development Center at Trenton State's Westside Campus. This center will connect students to high-demand careers, industry credentials, dual enrollment, apprenticeships, and employment opportunities. At Park Crossing High School, our new Cyber Intelligence Academy will introduce students to cybersecurity, digital forensics, cyber law, and artificial intelligence. This program will help prepare students for opportunities connected to the military, state government, and our defense industry. Attendance also remains a priority. We continue to remind our families that students must be present and prepared in order to be productive. Every day in school matters. Finally, I want to thank our parents for entrusting Montgomery Public Schools with what matters most, their children. We do not take this responsibility lightly. I also thank our employees, families, and community partners for helping us to begin this school year successfully. The first day of school was only the beginning. Together, we are building a new era of excellence for Montgomery Public Schools. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Dr. Bird. Next, we will have our board recognitions by Ms. Rosanna Brewton.

Good evening, Madam President, Dr. Bird, and board members. We are here to celebrate the dedication, achievements, and contributions of our MPS community members Tonight we will recognize many individuals and it is a privilege to be able to highlight them. At this time I'm going to welcome you all to the front for photos. I would like to bring up our Booker T. Washington Magnet High School scholar, Carson French. Carson recently completed the prestigious Alabama Governor's School, where he distinguished himself among students from across the state. During the program, Carson was nominated as the most outstanding male student, and as a result of his achievement, received a $20,000 scholarship to Samford University. We are incredibly proud to see one of our scholars continue to excel at such a high level, and it is our privilege to congratulate Carson once again. At this time, I would like to bring up Brubaker Middle School Band Director Tavares Marlowe. Mr. Marlow was recently selected to serve as the clinician for Alabama State University's Middle School Honor Band. The annual honor band gives middle school musicians an opportunity to strengthen their musicianship through rehearsals, master classes, and performances while experiencing the rich musical traditions of ASU. As a clinician, Mr. Marlowe will share his expertise with aspiring young musicians as they prepare and perform an exciting musical program. His selection is not only a reflection of his talent as a music educator, but also the outstanding educators we have throughout Montgomery Public Schools. Help us in congratulating Mr. Marlowe. Last but certainly not least, I would like to bring up the NPS logistics team. This recognition is for a team whose work often happens behind the scenes, but is essential to the success of our schools. We recognize the MPS Logistics Department for its tremendous work over the summer in preparing our schools and departments for the start of the school year. While many were enjoying summer break, our logistics team was hard at work moving, delivering, organizing, preparing, and responding to school's needs across our district. Their commitment helped ensure that our students and employees could walk through the doors on the first day ready. Help us in congratulating the MPS logistics team. That wraps up this evening's recognitions. Thank you so much. And as always, don't forget to follow us on social media.

Thank you, Ms. Brewton.

That was wonderful. Congratulations to all again. At this time, there's no scheduled public comments and no citizen comment. At this time, we are scheduled to go into an executive session for personnel conference. I will need a motion to go into that executive session and a second, board members.

Madam chair. I move that we go into executive session for a personnel conference. I second it.

It has been moved and seconded to go into executive session. May I see a show of hands of all of those in favor? We are estimating this. Thank you. It was unanimous. We are estimating this executive session to be about 45 minutes. During the executive session, no votes will be taken.

Ladies. Don't leave. We'll be right back.

Before the first bell rings, before attendance is taken, before a single lesson is taught, there is a teacher preparing, planning, hoping, believing. Because teaching isn't simply what you do, it's who you are. Every August, you begin again with new names, new faces, new stories, new possibilities. Knowing that every student who walks through your classroom doors carries a future waiting to be discovered. Some children will arrive full of confidence. Others will arrive carrying burdens no one else can see. Some will remember every lesson. Others will remember something far greater, the teacher who believed in them, who listened, who encouraged them, who never gave up on them. Because sometimes one teacher can change the course of an entire life. Think about it. Every doctor, every nurse, every engineer, every entrepreneur, every first responder, Every elected leader, every artist, every business owner, every person making a difference in our community was first shaped by someone who chose to teach.

Someone just like you. To every Montgomery Public School teacher, thank you. Your commitment reaches far beyond the classroom. Every lesson you teach, every student you encourage, every life you influence strengthens our community. We are deeply grateful for all that you do.

As you begin this new school year, Know that your work matters. We wish you a year filled with purpose, inspiration, and the joy that comes from watching your students grow. We are proud to stand behind you and celebrate everything that you represent.

So as another school year begins, remember this. The future of Montgomery will walk through your classroom this year. The next innovator, the next teacher, the next scientist, the next entrepreneur, the next community leader, the next world changer. And they may never remember every worksheet, every quiz or every assignment. but they'll remember the teacher who made them believe they could. Never underestimate the power of your words, the strength of your kindness, or the lasting impact of simply showing up day after day with a heart to serve. Because education doesn't just change minds, it changes lives, and the lives changed change communities. From everyone at Division 12 Consulting, thank you for answering one of life's greatest callings, Thank you for believing in the next generation before they believe in themselves. And thank you for making Montgomery stronger. One student, one classroom, one school year at a time. Have an incredible school year. We'll be cheering you on every step of the way.

We will now convene our regular board meeting. No votes were taken during the executive session. At this time, we will receive as information the naming of NPS Virtual School, Vantage Point.

Is Sidney Sneed here? Okay.

We will skip her until we find out what happened. And let's go on to our financial statement by Ms. Watkins.

Good evening, Superintendent Byrd, Board President Portis, Smith, and board members. You should have before you your financials for the month of June. June represents the end of the third quarter of the fiscal year, so we are moving right along into the last quarter of fiscal year 2026. In your packet is the explanation of financial data provided by the CSFO, snapshot analysis. The snapshot analysis, of course, is a high-level summary of the district's financial position as of June 2026. You also have the general fund balance recap. The monthly percentages, which represents the ninth month of the fiscal year, that kind of indicates where we should be as it relates to expenditures. We also have a monthly and annual comparative statement of revenues and expenditures. That compares your revenues and your expenditures for fiscal year 2026 to fiscal year 2025. Additionally, you have the statement of cash flow, which provides the current revenues and expenditures through the month of June. We have a visual of that same information for the inflows and the outflows of cash for the month of June. And then you also have a donation section that we've added most recently, and it will show the donations or the community support provided for our schools during the month of June. And then you have the F reports, which represents the information that is uploaded to the State Department. Going to go back to the snapshot analysis where you're able to see the actual revenues and expenditures through June of 2026. You'll see also our ending fund balance as of June is $106.4 million. That does represent a decrease from the same point in time in June of 2025. I will say that the grand majority of that decrease in fund balance is due to the expenditures incurred for the building of Percy Julian as we're still in the process of closing that bond out. You also will notice our local revenue comparison. As you can see, our local taxes received as of June, the same point in time as of June 2025 compared to June of 2026. As previously shared, those numbers do fluctuate from year to year based on timing. As we recap that general fund balance, although, as I always state, the general fund balance is $106.4 million, there are other funding sources that are represented where those funds can only be spent on the funding source that's indicated. Our discretionary local general fund balance is down to $64.6 million. Again, those funds are also being used to supplement with the build of Percy Julian until the bond closes out. And that's your June financial report.

Thank you, ma'am. Any questions or comments? Thank you, Ms. White. All right, Mr. Anderson, if you'll come and give us an... Information on the bid.

Yes, ma'am. Good evening, Dr. Bird, Ms. Portis, and Ms. Watkins-Smith, and members of the board. This is for concrete treatment services. Several years ago, we utilized this product. It utilizes the sun and rain to help us with maintaining the concrete and kills the mold and mildew that you see on typical concrete sidewalks here in Alabama with our heat and humidity. and it maintains the surface for approximately three to four years. So much more effective, cost-effective than pressure washing, plus it doesn't eat your concrete up with that heavy water pressure washing with that. So that's what this bid is for, is for those services to continue that and be able to work on those things.

Very good. Thank you so much. Any questions or comments for Chad at this time? Okay, thank you, Chad. All right, we'll go back. to the naming of NPS Virtual School, Vantage Point. Dr. Lashley.

Good afternoon, Madam President. Dr. Bird and esteemed board members, we want to go back to the naming of the virtual academy. We would like to give information out on this. We are very optimistic about what's going to happen with our virtual academy because we anticipate that this will become a cost center. one day, soon, we would like to go ahead and get a naming of that, of our virtual academy because I know that there has been moves made to apply for this for the State Department. We want to be ahead of the game in having that name so that when we actually come up with those numbers, which we are very, very close, we will be in position to have that as a cost center. So at this time, we would like to ask that we are just letting you know that the name of that will be the MPS virtual school called the Vantage Point.

That's a nice name. Thank you. All right. All right. We'll move on now to our consent agenda. Dr. Burns.

Thank you, Madam President. Superintendent asks for your approval of the consent agenda, action items 11A through 11L.

Madam President, I move that we approve items 11A through E. I second.

Items A through, repeat your motion, Dr. Keith. I am moving that we accept the recommendation on item 11A through E. Oh, A through F. I'm sorry, F. It has been moved and seconded to accept the superintendent's recommendation to accept our consent agenda items 11A through 11F. May I see a show of hands of all those in favor? It is unanimous. Thank you. Dr. Burke, consider for approval.

Thank you. Superintendent requests your approval of action item 12A, Personnel Report, Certified Personnel.

Superintendent has made a recommendation to accept item 12A, Personnel Reports, Certified Personnel. May I hear a motion?

Madam President, I move that we accept the superintendent's recommendation for Item A, Personnel Reports, Certified Personnel. I second it.

Thank you, Ms. Mitchell. It's been moved and seconded by Ms. Cloud. Any discussion on this item? Hearing or seeing no discussion, may I see a show of hands of all of those in favor? Okay.

Okay.

All right. That motion passes. Dr. Byrd.

Okay.

Thank you. Superintendent requests your approval of action item 12B, Personnel Report Certified Addendum.

I move that we accept the superintendent's recommendation for item 12B, Personnel Report Certified Addendum.

Thank you, Ms. Clark. May I hear a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Mitchell. It has been moved and seconded to accept the superintendent's recommendation to accept recommendation for item 12B, personnel report certified addendum. Any discussion on that item? Hearing or seeing no discussion, may I see a show of hands of all of those in favor? Unanimous. It is unanimous. Thank you, Dr. Burke.

Thank you. Superintendent requests your approval of Action Item 12C, Personnel Report, Classified Personnel.

Superintendent has made a recommendation to accept Item 12C, Personnel Report, Classified Personnel. May I hear a motion on that item?

Madam President, I move that we accept Item 12C, Personnel Report, Classified.

Thank you, Dr. Keith. May I hear a second?

I second it.

It has been moved and second to accept the superintendent's recommendation. Any discussion on that item? Hearing or seeing no discussion, may I see a show of hands of all of those in favor? It is unanimous. Thank you. Dr. Burke.

Thank you. Superintendent requests your approval of action item 12D, Personnel Report Classified Addendum.

Superintendent has made a recommendation to except item 12d, personnel report classified addendum.

I make the motion to accept Dr. Byrd's recommendation for 12d personnel report classified addendum.

Sorry, I got.

That's it.

Okay. It has been motioned and seconded to accept the superintendent's recommendation. Any discussion on that item? Hearing or seeing no discussion, may I see a show of hands of all of those in favor? Okay, that item is unanimous. Dr. Byrd.

Thank you. Superintendent requests your approval of action item 12E, supplemental personnel minutes.

Madam President, I move that we Approve Item 12E, Supplemental Personnel Minute.

I second.

It has been moved and seconded to accept the superintendent's recommendation for Item 12E, Supplemental Personnel Minute. Any discussion on that item? Hearing or seeing no discussion, may I see a show of hands of all of those in favor? It is unanimous. Dr. Byrd.

Thank you. Superintendent requests your approval of Action Item 12F, Personnel Report, Teams.

Madam President, I move we accept the superintendent's recommendation for item F, personnel report teams. I second it.

It has been moved and seconded to accept the superintendent's recommendation for item 12F, personnel report teams. Any discussion on that item? May I see a show of hands of all those in favor? It is unanimous. Okay. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We at this time have completed the children's business in our regular scheduled board meeting. The next board meeting will be September 10th, 2026, 4 p.m. There will be a budget meeting in this very room on that September 10th at 4 o'clock. Immediately following the budget hearing will be the regular scheduled board meeting. Immediately following that will be the work session. This meeting is now adjourned. And as always, if you're leaving, run, because we are going into work. At this time, we will call our work session to order, and a quorum has been established. At this time, board members, I would like to amend the agenda, adding item G, CMP recruitment and retention allocation that will be presented by Ms. Watkins. Would you please amend your agenda to add item G? Madam President? I'm going to ask them. I want to make a motion to... What was the name that we're adding?

CMT. CMT, okay.

I move to add the CMT report to item F, I mean, of the received information.

I second.

It has been moved in second. Ms. Brown, let me get all the way through. She's so patient. And then she's going to tell me, you need a motion, ma'am, while you're doing all that adding. Thank you all so much. So, so much. All right. At this time, we will receive. Oh, I'm sorry. There's been a motion. It's been moved in second to add item G. Any discussion on the item? Hearing no discussion, may I see a show of hands of all of those in favor? It is unanimous. Thank you, ladies, so much. All right. Now we will receive this information. Item A, NPS Organizational Structure Review. Dr. Sherry? Oh, okay. Now I've been told I need to approve the whole agenda.

I love this on-the-job training.

See? Never stop learning. Remember that, people.

Madam President, I move that we approve the agenda with the addition of item 4G.

I second it. It has been moved and seconded to accept the agenda, the amended agenda. May I see a show of hands of all those in favor?

Unanimous.

One thing you can't say is they don't know their job.

Mighty proud of that.

All right, now we can go to item four, a receiver's information. Dr. Sherry Hedrick's lean fraud. Did I say it right? Yes. Okay.

Well, no, that's the husband.

Oh, that's the husband. Okay.

I'm not Sherry, but I'm not the lean one either. I'm not Dr. Hedrick, and I'm not the lean one.

I appreciate.

Well, welcome.

And let me give Mr. Hendricks a little introduction. Board members, as you know, we engaged Lean Fraud to conduct an independent compensation and organizational review for MPS. The purpose of this work is to identify opportunities to improve our organization and, of course, to help our district move forward. Tonight, representatives from Lean Fraud will present a summary of the organizational review DISTRICT LEADERSHIP HAS ALREADY RECEIVED THE FINDINGS, SO TONIGHT'S PRESENTATION WILL JUST BASICALLY PROVIDE THE BOARD WITH A GENERAL OVERVIEW. A MORE DETAILED REPORT WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO EACH OF YOU AFTER TONIGHT'S MEETING. MR. HENDRIX?

GOOD EVENING, DR. BURD, MADAM PRESIDENT, AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE BOARD. IT'S A PLEASURE TO BE HERE THIS EVENING AND GET TO SHARE WITH YOU. WE ARE COVERED, THOUGH. DR. HENDRIX IS IN THE AUDIENCE, SO IF I GET STUNKED, SHE CAN PARTICIPATE. I'll try not to talk your ears off. I do like to talk a lot, though, and I like data. So if you start asking me questions, I'm probably going to share a lot with you. I'll just start by giving you a little bit of information of what we reviewed and where we stand right now with the review. So we looked at all 24 departments within the district. We conducted 47 leader interviews, and we walked through the core processes of each of those departments. We also compared the district performance to 11 peers, and those were both a combination of size-based peers that were similar to you and also the top performing peers in the state. And we looked at an analysis of the entire workforce, about 3,200, a little over 3,200 people. Now, what we saw is how the district is organized, how it compares. We saw how mature your systems and processes are. We looked at supervisory workload. We looked at role clarity. And we looked at your retirement exposure, what's going to be coming up over the next five years. We did not evaluate any single person's performance. This is not about an individual. It's really about the organization as a whole. how it's structured, how it's performing, and how there could be some improvement. The second phase of this work is the compensation piece, that it will be coming. We typically do this first because it may affect the compensation piece. Now, a couple things to know. As Dr. Bird said, we have shared the findings with the cabinet back in July. You guys may be aware of that. People may already be discussing things with you. The full report is about 196 pages, so it's good bedtime reading if you want to see it. And then, like I said, Dr. Bird will provide that to you tonight. Fortunately, I'm not going to do 196 slides, so you will get out early. But the key to this is that at this point in time, the district leadership has already begun to implement several of the improvements and things that we pointed out. There's been a lot of excitement about getting things changed and making things move forward. So that's a great place to be. Now, and that's kind of where I'd like to start is where you're at today. So right now, when we look at the district as a whole, what we saw was you have sound finances, but you're really heavily person-dependent when it comes to operations. Now, what that means is your people are capable, but there is a lack of written, measured processes, and that means that work may not be repeatable when changes are made with people. A large shift in the workforce is coming, especially over the next five years when we look at retirement eligibility. That means when that happens, if we don't fix some of these other things regarding having processes and systems in place, there could be an issue. You're in a good place now, but it's really heavily dependent on your hardworking people, not the system. When it comes down to, you have a good starting point. You have real fiscal strength. Your operating cost per student is second to lowest among your comparable peers. You have reserve that has been growing. This work that we're going to show you and the improvements, we're not talking about having to put new money or make heavy investments in the district. Just changes to how we do work. The gap that we're seeing though is that out of the 24 departments, only five of those departments had documented processes and had good measurements in place. Everywhere else, the work is really being driven by the individual knowledge of the leaders inside those departments and their teams. So the results depend heavily on who those people are. So the issue is the third point there that you've got a clock ticking because you've got a pretty significant wave of retirement eligibility coming into the district. Right now, one in five career employees can retire right now. That's not in five years. That's current eligibility, one in five. A third of your staff will be eligible within the next five years. So when that happens, if we aren't addressing these issues, those departures will end up taking all that undocumented knowledge with them. All the good things you've been doing will have an opportunity to be fractured when those people leave if we don't fix this. So that's kind of the current state, the headline state of the district, if you will. Now, there are good things going on. And when we start making fixes, we don't want to break any of those good things. As my grandfather used to say, you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. So I wanted to note, before we get into some of the opportunities and some of the recommendations, I did want to note those good things that need to be protected as we make improvements inside the district. So the first, again, we've already spoke about your fiscal strength. We want to make sure we protect that fiscal discipline and we protect your reserves. We don't want to be in a situation where we're creating an issue there in any of our recommendations. The next piece is that you have a very good functioning compliance engine, both in federal programs and special education. You receive a lot of federal funding because of those things, and we don't want to break anything there or cause any noncompliance as we address change. Also, you have very capable people right now. They're just carrying the system. And the leaders are very experienced, and much of the work is being done well. The issue isn't about ability, it's that the work depends on their individual knowledge. So we don't want to run off your capable people either when we start fixing things. And then the fourth thing, and this is kind of good, is that the leadership team is already starting to fix things. Sometimes when we do this work, we go into a district, and sometimes it's something that the board has requested for us to come in, and the leadership's not really interested in the changes. That's not what the situation you're You have a very progressive, forward-looking superintendent. His team is the same, and you guys are starting to make those improvements, and that's very encouraging. So I want to talk a little bit deeper about that operating model running on people and not systems. So what it looks like today is the people, if one of your people is out or unavailable, work can stop or slow, or the quality of the work could be diminished. Because the steps are inside that person and what they know, there's not a document that someone else could even refer to. And that's true. Only five departments have processes documented. And there's other gaps too, such as all 18 of your director level job descriptions don't really record who they supervise. So what this does is without having these written routines, you don't really have anything to train against, you don't really have anything to measure, and you really don't have anything to improve against. I'll illustrate that if I could. It's not on the slide, but I used to refer to this as a kind of a sawtooth effect. I want you to think about this. You guys, I'm not saying you're old, but you're my age at least, and we've seen a few things, right? So what you've seen, I guarantee you've seen this in your careers outside of Montgomery schools, is you'll see someone come into a position, maybe at your job, They do a fabulous job. They do great. And as that person's there working, things are improving, everything's going good, and then all of a sudden that person gets promoted. And someone new comes in, and since nothing was documented, it's almost like you lose everything good that was created, and you're starting all over from the base. And as that person starts figuring out, oh, well, we need to do it this way, you're going to hear people say, well, we used to do that years ago. I don't know why we stopped. The reason you stopped is because nothing was documented, nothing was captured. You had a good person, you had a capable people working together, but then you had a change in the people. Not bad people, just different people, and that knowledge didn't transfer. I call that the saw tooth. Like a saw, it's up and down, right? And just like a saw, it cuts an organization. Now, what is much better is something I call the stair effect. And what that is, is we take our good people, we take knowledge that they have, we document that. We put some systems in place to measure performance so we can know when things are working well and we know how to drive improvement. As we learn, we change the documentation to drive that improvement. And then when that person leaves, a new person comes in, it's kind of stable. So it comes up, it's stable, and that person figures it out and says, hey, we can make some improvements and make this better. They change the documentation, start making the improvements, it comes up again. And as your people leave, it's a stair effect, progressing forward, moving the district ahead. What you're faced with right now is that salt. And you're also faced with the fact that you have a high retirement eligibility, which we're going to be talking about in a minute. So that pain of that saw, you may feel sooner than later. That's the concern. And as I was just saying, on your retirement window right now, 19% can retire right now if they chose to. I'm not saying they should. Let's be thankful they're not. 35% become eligible within five years. Now, here's the real solve. 62% of your principals are eligible to retire in five years. Over half of your school leaders could leave. That will affect things if we don't have good systems and good procedures in place. to maintain the good things we're doing and to grow. Now, the fact is, this is a double-edged sword in that it could hurt the district, but also it gives us an opportunity where we can restructure and right-size the district to meet the demographics that are coming into the district and really do that without causing pain with our current staff and not creating an uproar of change. In other words, now is a perfect time, as attrition takes place, for you to put people in the right positions. Maybe you're not replacing that exact position. You're replacing a position you need for what you're faced with today. This is a great opportunity for that. At the same time, though, if we're not documenting those processes, getting the structure in place, and getting the systems in place, it's an opportunity for us to end up getting in trouble too. So you're right on that preface of being able to make change, or if you don't, you're going to feel the pressure when you start losing folk over the next five years. So the first thing we saw is the control of the money and the position. So right now, you as a district, you have a significant federal funding set up. And that's not bad. That's good. You were the second highest among all the peers we looked at. Now, there is something to note, though. When you have a lot of federal funding, it means that you have to meet compliance. And it also means you have to provide certain levels of support That's what that money's coming to you for, for those students. There's 114, probably a little more. That's my estimate. I'm not a federal programs manager. Somebody may correct me and say, oh, there's more. But there's at least 114 federal and state compliance components that's tied to those funds. And that can change as every year the government does some stuff. But you have to manage that compliance. Now, when you compare yourself to other districts and staff ratios, This is one area where I see lots of times people don't connect the dots, and that is if you have high federal funding, you have high compliance requirements, you have to provide certain levels of supports because of receiving those funds, your staff level is going to be higher than a district that does not receive those levels of federal funding. It's a requirement of receiving the funding. So when we look at your staffing analysis, we have to take into consideration the level of funding you have from the federal government and the compliance pieces that are required for you to maintain. That's not two separate things. It all has to be looked at together. So that's one area that we looked at. Now, the concern we had was that we don't really have a single owner of the position record, or what I call position control. Now, since we've started this work, Human Resources and Finance, they're kind of working together and they're trying to dial this in, but there's not a formal system in place for that. And the district is working on it, but that is an area, and you're going to see that show up in our recommendations, is something that we think needs to be addressed. And the next piece is, I was speaking earlier to some folk, and I said, my wife gets on to me, and she says sometimes I speak in my own language. I like to talk about themes, and what I mean by that, it's where stuff comes together. you know, like a seam on your pants is where the two sides are sewn together. Where we have seams, if we don't have processes and systems, that's usually where the issue occurs. Instead of being a good, strong fit, unified, working together, we're more close, but we're not as good as we could be. But what we're seeing in the organization is that there's a lot of unclear boundaries inside the organization where we just expect people to work together and to understand how they should work together. And what that creates is because there's not designated ownership, what happens is you get two good people trying to do the right thing, take care of your kids, guess what happens? They step on each other's toes because both of them are trying to do the right thing and they're not sure where to stop and start. So those seams, those boundaries, that's important. An example, and I'm not picking on this group, but if you looked right now at your structure, your special education department is separate from your general education group. It's under student support. It ties better, and they have to work together with general ed. There's one curriculum. You're not changing the curriculum between the two. You're just making sure those students are being accommodated. That group would be better suited and tied to academics so that they could have that clear boundary and work together better for students. That's just one example. There's some others inside the district. Both of those groups are working hard for student teaching and learning, yet the structure drives a little bit of disjointness in the system. And I'm not picking on those departments. Speaking about SPED, because I just told you they're one of the best documented, well-performing departments. So I'm not trying, I figured I should start there versus throw out a bunch of other departments. But that's just one example of that disjointedness, of where the boundaries aren't clear and there's not a structure or a formal means for those to be working together or tied together. The other thing that we saw is that coordination right now is running based on relationships more so than processes or structure. It's really work being moved between departments because people know each other and they follow up personally to make sure things get done. And that holds until someone It comes in new. It holds until someone has new roles or new duties assigned to them that keeps them from being able to do what they used to do. And that sits right on the edge of compliance exposure. That's where some of that exposure to compliance could break down. The other piece of this is not just your structure, your processes, your people. When you actually look at the systems, the software systems that you use to help run the district, they don't really talk to each other. So what that creates is a layer of double entry, a layer of having to check. It invites errors, and it actually increases the cost of the work being done. So when I talk about those themes, I want you to think of it from a process perspective. I want you to think of it from a structure perspective. And then I want you to think of it from an actual software systems perspective inside the district. Now, our recommendations, we have recommendations around the structural fixes. We have recommendations around those high-cost handoffs and what processes should be standardized first to ensure those connections are better. And then we also have some recommendations around how to integrate those or address those integration gaps that we've put together. Now, one thing, and we use a method of analyzing departments, and it's called process and performance management maturity. PPM, if you will. I should have warned you. I'm an engineer, so I like a bunch of acronyms.

So what we look at with that is what we want to see.

We rate departments on a scale ranging from ad hoc, meaning the department's just kind of running on its own, kind of bouncing from one issue to the next, to a optimization level. In between those levels, we have fragmented, we have fragmented, defined, managed, and optimizing. Most school systems have a hard time being above defined just because of the level of change that has to happen in schools and the size of the organizations. What we saw in your organization, out of those 24 departments, five of those departments were defined. And what that means is they had processes in place, they had some form of measurement, and they were using that measurement to try to drive improvement. Okay? That's kind of where you want the minimum to be. You had Another three departments that were kind of fragmented, but they were moving to being defined. In other words, they were in the middle of creating processes. They had some. They may not have had it complete. They had some measurement, and they were trying to improve. And then we had 16 departments that were kind of fragmented. They weren't ad hoc. They weren't just running it off the cuff, but it was really only tied to that leader and those department individuals' knowledge. So what we want to see is we want to have departments that have defined standard operating procedures. We want to see that they have some sort of measurement of performance, what I call key performance indicators, to know if they're doing a good job or not and how they can improve. And we want to see them driving improvement versus being reactive, trying to fix things if they break. And we want to see things connecting. We want to see cooperation between the departments. We want to see technology being integrated. That's that optimized level. That's the highest level. So structure follows the work. So what we've talked about is we've seen that there's some things that need to be fixed. Most of those things aren't necessarily we need to add or subtract a box on your org chart. Most of these are things where we're looking at optimizing those connections, those themes, and those standard operating processes, getting clear ownership, getting the pieces in place to move the district as a whole to that defined level. Where there are structure issues, it's specific and we're already starting to take some means to address. So some of those things are We would recommend special education set inside of the academic side of the district. Right now, no of the district peers we looked at has separated your general ed and special education. There's a reason for that. So we would recommend those groups working together. Right now, your communication activities are split, and there's a lack of unification. Most of your peers do not have a chief of strategic partnerships. Your chief academic officer right now is carrying more direct reports than one role can supervise well. I'm not saying they're not trying, but it's hard because of the the level of responsibility we've put on a single individual. So these are all is that your supervisors are managing by doing. In other words, they're spending more time actually doing the work than doing the supervision. And that's what not having processes, not having measurement leads to. They have to. They have to go out there and make sure people are doing it and that they have to participate. All of these items, we're addressing with our recommendations. Now, before I get to those recommendations, I want to be clear that right now, you've got three windows open to you that make this really the perfect time to do this work. Not fun. It's hard. It's heavy lifting. getting the structure right, getting processes set up. None of that is work that people just love to do. It takes effort. But here's the deal. If you delay, you might miss these windows. And right now, you've got a good starting point because of your funding level. And none of the things we're recommending are increasing funding. We're not trying to drive costs up with any of these. So now's a good time to do this. That retirement wave we talked about, it hasn't hit yet, so you have time to react before it comes. And, again, that allows you to do some of this restructuring without having to lay off people or do anything ugly. You can do it through attrition and changes. And, again, the other window is you've already seen that the leadership has an appetite to make these changes and to drive that improvement. I'm hoping that Dr. Byrd hangs out a while. That appetite won't go away. We want to keep him driving for excellence. But these are the three things you've got on your side that says you need to be doing this now. You don't really need to wait another year. If you wait another year, there could be changes in federal funding levels that are unexpected. There's always some rumors around that happening since last year, right? That retirement wave, we don't know when it's going to hit, right? There's a good chunk right now, 19%. And, of course, we don't want to burn out Dr. Bird. So we've got three good places to go right now to start doing this work. So I encourage you to take action now, not to be waiting. So there's eight recommendations. Behind every one of these recommendations, we, in our assessment document, We have a detailed recommendation that talks about why you should do this. We talk about what the benefit of doing it is. We lay out the how to do it. We lay out the timing and cost or savings associated with doing it. Tonight, due to time, again, so those recommendations, in some cases, we even give examples. Like here's a way. I'll show you. When I cover it, I'll talk about some of those. Some of those recommendations are four, eight pages. So if I was to show all of those in detail to you tonight, I'd put you to sleep. And I don't have the time for that. But if you want to see those, you would request that report from Dr. Byrd. He'll get it to you. That's part of that 196 pages. I'm just going to run down this very quickly. I'm not going to read off every one of them, but the key is we suggest starting with aligning the organization to the work, getting that piece, which has already started going, getting federal grants and compliance controls rebuilt in place, routing every, this is a significant one because of the retirement wave, we should be routing every vacancy through a decision process. determine if it's a position that should be replaced absorbed redesigned or eliminated meaning uh is this the right position for us and that shouldn't be a haphazard thing inside the recommendation we actually lay out a process that you can look at or consider you may tweak it for your their own district but it's a starting place it's not a blanket we rehire everyone at least We do want you to write and document those core processes. We lay those out for you. We want you to set up the measurement inside those departments to know if they're doing well or not. We want you to set in place a succession plan to build some bench strength. You want to particularly not just fix those core processes, but we want to fix those, what I call again, those same processes, those processes that cross departments or connect departments. And then we want to connect the systems. Those are the integration gaps we talked about earlier. And then the last one on here is something that you don't have to address right now, but if you continue to see the same demographic decline that we're seeing across the U.S., just because our birth rates have dropped. We're seeing enrollment not come down. At some point, you may need to commission a facility and configuration study based on what the next five to 10 years look like with student enrollment. Again, that's not something you have to start. Of these recommendations, that's the one that isn't that pressing. I do have these recommendations laid out, We have them defined as being immediate, things that should be done very quickly, maybe over the first 90 days. Near term, things that we should do over the next six months. Building would be things that may take up to a year. And then there are some things that are really up to the district discretion. That timing doesn't matter. It's more what's best for the district and the district leadership to determine. For details on that inside those recommendations, we have that. There is one principle we did when we laid out the timeline and we laid out these recommendations, and that is that nothing should require extra spending. We should try to maintain our spending as far as implementing these recommendations to be kind of a net zero effect on the district. The sequence that we laid out is deliberate. We're going to fix structure and processes, and the structure may have to be something phased that's done through attrition rather than any form of reduction. That's all I have. None of you went to sleep on me, I think. I think everyone of you looked at me. That's good. You guys have questions for me? I'd be happy to answer. It was really good. Questions, Ms. Brown?

Thank you for the information. What you described is what I do every day, plan, do, check, act, the ISO standard, going back and making sure that you're doing what you're saying you're doing, and you have systems in place and you have analysis to check everything that you are, it's a cycle. Exactly. It's a cycle. And some of the information that you talked about, COULD BE INTEGRATED INTO AN ENTERPRISE SYSTEM THAT FINANCE FEEDS TO HR, THAT FEEDS TO THE CURRICULUM. SO ALL OF THAT COULD BE INTERCONNECTED. YES, MA'AM. YES. AND SO THE ISO SYSTEM IS LAID OUT VERY NICE AND NEATLY, AND IT EVEN INCLUDES Because you are an engineer, it even includes process improvement planning and risk analysis, though.

Very similar. You got to be careful, because I was a certified quality engineer. Yeah, and I am, too.

And I am, too.

You mean you're going to start talking, and everybody else is going to go to sleep. But that PPM analysis I talked about, you should look at that in the assessment, because I kind of based that off of that focus area. Again, I came from I've been in education now for 17 years, but before education, I was in manufacturing, and I was an OPEX person and quality person where I had to go fix plants, fix call centers, fix engineering departments. So you're exactly right. Everything I'm recommending are kind of foundational ISO requirements, and that's the gap that you have.

Any other comments? Madam Chair. It would be more of a comment than a question. Mike, final question before I shut up. I was taking notes here looking at those things that as a governance body we might be concerned about seeing results immediately. And then I'm happy that you went back to the immediate, you sort of summarized it for us. I guess, would we not recommend the fixed seams to move up there in the immediate with the protection against the losses and things of that sort? Do the seams need to not be looked at sort of immediately?

The reason I have it where it's at is because if we do some of the organizational changes that we're talking about on that first recommendation, That's going to address some of the bigger themes. Okay. And then the next one was federal programs and finance, right? Those are your two big themes, right? Your compliance and your money. Making sure we get all that straight, right? So by the time we get to that one down below, we should have already incorporated some of the fixing in those first couple of recommendations of the significant items. Does that make sense? If you saw the detailed recommendation, it may be more clear. I'm sorry, I try to, it's hard to be high level, but at the same time not give you all this information, and I like to give you the information, but you need to look at that report. And again, if you have questions after the report, go through the superintendent, I'll be happy to answer them for you. Sometimes the superintendent says, hey, I need you to get on a phone call with somebody and answer their questions. I'll do it. I'm not a lawyer. You don't get charged by the minute. I want to make sure you understand what we're recommending. I want you to understand why we're recommending it. I want to remove all the roadblocks so you guys can be successful. That's really our goal. We want you to succeed, and we're trying to do the right thing for your kids. That's our North Star is we want to do the right thing for your kids. And we'll take care of your staff, too, but it starts with the kids first. Well, we certainly do thank you, Ann.

Dr. Byrd is going to get this report to all of us, and I'm sure there will be many conversations about it. I think one of the things that it helps us do is see the vision, while I'm sure that's why you were called, because somebody knew that there were, and we know that there are some disconnect. So, we thank you for helping us get there, and I'm sure the board members will get your number. and you will be called. Not a problem. I look forward to talking to you guys. Well, thank you so much. Thank you, guys.

Can we please have a hard copy? You know me, I like to take notes. I like to read and take notes. Yes, we'll get you both. Thank you.

All right.

Yes, sir. I'm going to be stepping out. It's not because I'm trying to be rude. I'm going back to Huntsville tonight.

Okay, okay. Well, safe travels.

I'm going to be stepping out. I don't want you to think, oh, he just walked out the door after he spoke. So don't think that, but we do have a three-hour car ride. Well, you've been here a long time.

You endure executive session and everything.

I just wanted you guys to know. Well, you guys have a good night. It's been a pleasure. You too. Safe travels to you all now.

All right. Our next presenter is Ms. Penn is with us tonight from Volcker. Ms.

Yes, ma'am. Good evening, Dr. Byrd, President Portis, and board members. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come and report on our two projects. I'm going to dive right on in. Percy Julian High School, we are currently at 48 percent complete. There has been no movement, still standing as anticipated substantial completion for January of 2020-28. There's a lot going on right now on the job site. It's really starting to take shape. We've got a lot of work that has transpired in the brick as well as the stone being installed along the front side. of the building in Area A, which is the two-story instructional building, as well as Area B to the right, two-story instructional area. We are looking towards brick starting to be installed. Again, contractors working from the north down to the south on the building. So really start taking shape with exterior components, kind of closing in that building. We've also got two working in, again, Progress Area A, that two-story building. We've got HVAC duct work. still being installed overhead as well as the fire sprinkler pipe. We do have our first application of block filler on the first floor in the classroom area, so that's starting to take shape. Rolling into just progress at area B, we've got the drywall ceiling that's actually started on the second floor as well as the insulation, overhead insulation that's being installed too. And then we're really trying to hone in there on the middle entry in that cupola, making sure that we get the brick and the block buttoned up so that we can finish the roof connection there so that it'll be 100% dried in. Again, just another aerial view, kind of shooting back towards progress areas of E and F, which is your athletic, those competition as well as practice gymnasium areas. And then for your area G, which is in the front, that's the fine arts wing, auditorium, choral, band. Again, just trying to finish up CMU block, overhead, structural components, and then next will be roof system. that'll start being installed. This is a view from the backside of the campus, kind of looking towards Lagoon Park. We've got TPO completed in that area C, which is your lower level instructional academic classrooms. Progress in area D, which is your cafeteria area. We've got, again, just interior CMU block that's still ongoing, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, rough ends, that's still ongoing. And the TPO roof is complete on the high. It's actually completed on the high roof, and then we're actually starting to work on the TPO roof at that low roof. I hope you guys can kind of tell where I'm at on that. Okay, good. And then this is really just highlighting, hey, what we've got going on on the athletic field house. The main focus has been on the school, making sure the building is really coming up out of the ground, getting it closed in, instructional area as well as athletics. And then our focus is then on the backside of the campus for the athletic field house. And so we've got electrical underground rough in still ongoing. One thing I do want to note, if you drive by, we've got the concrete curb for your parking lot and the binder, asphalt binder, that has been applied on the backside parking area. So all of our crews, job site crews, are now parking on that back parking lot. So if you drive by and you're like, hey, where's everybody at? I don't see any vehicles. Just know they've all, they're utilizing that parking lot on the backside of the building. Again, just another aerial view facing north. So this is down. What you're seeing in kind of that middle of the line of the picture is the fine arts wing, which is on the left. That's the auditorium area. And then your gymnasiums, competition and practice gymnasiums are on the right. And then I just threw in just some close-up pictures of just how nice the brick and the stonework are coming together. This is in area A and B. A view of interior, typical classroom, restroom. This is that first application of the block feel that's going, that's being applied on the first floor of area A. view typical second floor corridor, and then just our mechanical duct work that's still being put up, actually installed on the second floor. And then rolling into the new Capitol Heights Middle School, we're reporting right now 5% on project completion, and we're still, our goal is for that phase one summer turnover of 2028. And just mainly site work is going on there, still cut and fill. We've got some stormwater pipe that's being installed. We've had demolition of that retention pond. It's completed at the existing football field. It's a temporary detention pond, and that's just to use for runoff during construction. Again, just another aerial view. You've got the existing Percy Julian campus on the left, and then where our new Capitol Heights Middle School building will be on the right. No changes in our MBE, DBE participation from last month. That was reported. And so, questions and comments from anyone?

Okay, any questions or comments? Thank you so much, as always, Mr. King.

Thank you.

Mr. Anderson, facilities update.

Good evening, Dr. Bird, Ms. Portis, Ms. Watkins-Smith, and members of the board. Going through our list of capital projects within the district. The Davis Elementary HVAC project is phase two has completed. We're beginning phase three on that. That is the front six classrooms that you see if you're going down Rosa Parks. So windows have been installed there in their beginning. They've done the demolition in those classrooms and they're beginning to hang the ductwork and start to work on those processes in Davis. The Forest Avenue roof replacements were actually a little bit further than this. We're about 90% and they're wrapping that project up as well as South Lawn Elementary. We're very close to wrapping those roof replacements up. The JAG athletic improvements, your curb and gutter is 95% in. They kept a little bit out to be able to get the concrete cement trucks in for the curb that goes around the football field area and soccer field area in the back and track. We have had extensive rain over the last several weeks. I know they reported three inches this past Saturday. And that limits us when that happens, being able to get a cement truck out to that area. So we've got most of the grading done for the baseball and softball field. So we have to be very careful not to tear that up. The Danley Elementary HVAC renovation, we completed phase two. Phase two was much larger than Davis's phase two. We completed the older part of the building, that L section, the front and the leg that goes to the back, the cafeteria area. well and phase three and four will be the back annex three would consist of the bottom four classrooms four would consist of the top ten classrooms and two bathrooms it's not nearly as extensive as the the front part because that is a newer wing so there's not as much in there as to rip out, demolish. There's already drop ceilings in those areas, so we would just replace the drop ceiling with a new drop ceiling. We're using some of the existing duct work. The windows are not nearly as difficult to pull out in that area. The windows up front are actually welded to the structure so you have to cut those out the newer section in that back it's just really just like glue and materials there that you take out and pop the new windows in so not nearly as extensive all the equipment is set for that area they anticipate three to four weeks to complete the phase three that's the bottom four classrooms and about four weeks to complete the upper phase with those ten classrooms and two bathrooms and didn't mention to the two bathrooms they're already ADA compliant with spacing. So really that's just really replacing fixtures and the partitions and putting the epoxy floors just kind of finishes in those areas. So it's not, again, not a total rework like the main part of the building was. The jag painting and flooring project is complete. They're doing punch list items to finish that out. And, um, have cleaned everything out of that area. The Goodwin painting and flooring project is complete with the exception of the stair treads. We're working on finishing those up. They completed about roughly 40,000 square feet of epoxy flooring in two weeks. So it was pretty amazing how much they were able to knock out that quickly and just to really appreciate their efforts and pushing that forward to get that done before the students came back into the classrooms. the JAG elevator renovation. We have a pre-conference or pre-construction conference this Friday for that to begin working on that. I've notified them too that we must minimize any disruption to the classroom with that project. It is isolated in some areas. There's two elevators and the main thing of this is it's going to upgrade the fire alarm system in the entire building. Right now, we only have a fire alarm in the ninth grade wing of that building. This will pull the fire alarm to the entire area or the entire school, so much needed upgrade for that piece, and it'll go right along with the field house bid that'll be coming along pretty soon, and that leads us into the JAG field house bid. We did get pushed a little bit to the first of September for that bid. There was a detail on the electrical that the electrical engineer had to upgrade or update, I'm sorry, to be able to submit to DCM and finish that piece. The Flowers HVA renovation pre-bid was held today. We have three contractors that are qualified on that pre-bid. And we typically have had two with our bids. We added a third one with this. And the bid for that will be next week. This is the same similar scope as what we're doing at Danley and Davis. moving that along, but we are going to go ahead and add the epoxy floors into this project. That's something we've kind of gone along the way in adding pieces of the phase in there. So, again, we'll come back on Davis and Danley and do the epoxy floors next summer, but we're putting that into this bid with this as well as a front canopy for arrival and pickup in the afternoons for dismissal with this project as well. The Bayer HVAC project, they're currently finishing up the design on that. We have a lot of those details. We're just fine-tuning those things, so it'll be a few months down the road when we have the pre-bid and bid for that. I'll keep you posted on that as we go along through the next several board meetings. The Baldwin roof replacement, we have a pre-construction meeting scheduled for that for next week. The DCM inspector has really had a difficult time with all the projects around the state that he is involved with, ours as well as the prisons, and they want to make sure that They got those projects that are currently going into place so that the students could be able to occupy any of these buildings and structures. So we were pushed a little bit on this pre-construction conference with the Baldwin roof replacement. The transportation renovation is underway. They've done the advertising for that. We look for a bid late this month or early next month for that as well.

All right, any questions or comments for Chad? Chad, one question I had for flowers HVAC. We're replacing that unit?

It's going to be a total renovation just like we're doing at Danley now with new windows, new HVAC, new drop ceiling, new lighting, new restrooms. We'll totally renovate the restrooms. But we're also going to add the epoxy floors into this so that it's in one bid and help maximize pricing on that as well. And then there's going to be a front canopy They were doing there for arrival and dismissal as well.

Good. Thank you, sir. Because I was going to tell you where the air was going to go if you weren't going to do the window.

Yes, ma'am.

All right. Thank you, Chad. All right. Next, we'll have Teach Town Curriculum. Ms. Katrina Jackson.

Good evening, Dr. Byrd, board members. I'm proud to share the outstanding academic progress of our special education students using Teach Town's Encore curriculum. This curriculum is utilized by our students in self-contained classrooms. When we look at our baseline pretest scores, our students started slightly below the national benchmark group. However, by the end of the year, They achieved an incredible 147% average improvement on academic assessments, landing a strong post-test score of 64.9. Our Montgomery students actually outperformed similarly-sized benchmark districts by 3%, so we're really proud of that. So our students aren't just growing, they are setting a pace for our peer districts. Our classroom teachers are successfully utilizing all three levels of specialized instruction to differentiate learning, which is important. Because of this, our students have mastered 4,065 lessons and gained critical exposure to over 10,121 academic skills, as highlighted on the previous slide. Most importantly, this progress spans all four four core domains, ELA, math, science, and social studies. Even when a student hasn't fully reached the 80% mastery threshold, they are showing measurable growth. Our classrooms are actively moving students out of in progress and straight towards mastery, which we're very proud of. On the assessment side, we completed 1,077 benchmark assessments, led primarily by our elementary schools. While our secondary benchmark numbers were lower, there is a clear reason for this. These licenses were added mid-year in December, with training starting after the winter break in January. So now that we have the infrastructure in place, we are poised to scale this baseline testing to 100% of our middle and high schools from day one next term. This progress is fueled by massive engagement. Our classrooms logged 114,219 total minutes of instruction, blending student-led technology and teacher-led instruction. So there is a computer-based component as well as paper-pencil work with this program. Notice the massive usage spikes in January and February. And so that was not by accident. It aligns directly with the targeted professional development training our teachers received. So we have realized that when we invest in training our teachers, student engagement and learning definitely soars. However, while our elementary schools are heavily leveraging this, we have identified a major opportunity to scale this exact same success in our middle and high schools. Academic growth is vital, but academics alone do not make a student independent, particularly with this population of students. A student who can read at grade level but struggles to self-advocate or navigate transitions still faces immense barriers to life after school. To support the whole student, we would like to upgrade to the Encore whole child license. This adds three highly critical teacher-approved intervention programs, the basics, social skills, and transition to adulthood. Our teachers already spent time exploring these in October, and they really loved them. So we did have a couple of teachers to pilot these additional components. This upgrade would provide a streamlined, one-stop shop for teachers to support academic standards, drive IEP goals, and successfully prepare our alternate assessment students for district report card standards. To bring this holistic support to all 335 students in our program, we do have two options. We have a one-year option, which would be a one-year contract at $375 per student, totaling $125,625. However, this option of a one-year renewal only guarantees the pricing for that year, but not for multiple years. The option I would like for the board to consider for approval for next board meeting is recommending the three-year contract. While our historical base license was $309, this upgrade increases our investment to $375 per student. So choosing the three-year agreement locks in this rate. It keeps our annual costs flat at $125,625 per year through 2029. So this would shield MPS from future inflation. It guarantees budget predictability and ensures our students receive interrupted support. Thank you. I beg your pardon. Finally, our summary is Montgomery's commitment to professional development and the expansion to high school supported academic improvement in the 25-26 school year while utilizing student-led and teacher-led lessons paired with pre- and post-test unit assessments will drive students toward mastery of all the alternate standards, which is really important since we know that our students who are assessed using the AAA also count towards the school's report cards. Aligning benchmarks and tech lessons with IEP goals will support in that progress. And we'd like to continue to provide those professional development opportunities so that we see that increased engagement, so that we have a correlation between what the students are learning and what their student growth potential ends up being.

Okay, Ms. Jackson. Thank you so much. Questions, Ms. Clare? One source.

IDEA is the fund source. Yes, ma'am.

It was mentioned in our presentation a few minutes ago. Is this software able to talk to the other software that we're using? We're spending a lot on technology, and we want to make sure that they're able to talk to each other. Would this program be suitable for that?

Well, I think that that was for a different area in talking about the software that payroll and finance and other departments utilize.

I'm talking about the software that we're currently using, the different programs that we use in the schools. Is it possible, the educational software that we're using, will this be able to integrate with any of that software that we're already using?

This particular program, licensed software, is only for students who are working towards alternate achievement standards, but it is aligned to the state standards. So the software itself doesn't integrate with another platform, but it aligns to the state standards.

Okay. Ms. Smith?

Well, you know I got something to say. Oh, yes, ma'am. It's been a long time coming. I wish I had this. For those who don't know my background, it's special education. So I understand the importance of it. I will say it's money well spent. I wanted to say that. I like your attention to the details and the advocacy behind it, and the commitment to PD, and it's shown in the data. And thank you, by the way, for the data. And that's it.

I do have the complete The next slide, if you would like to have that, it's like 161 pages. But if you want to see the expanded version, I can send it to Dr. Bird to distribute if you like.

Okay.

Okay. Anyone else? Thank you so much. All right. Dr. Williams, GPR update.

Good evening, Madam President, Superintendent Dr. Byrd, and board members. Thank you. So before I start, I want to state that the presentation has a left and right side, and on the left side it states the current GPR for 2526, and on the right side it is the changes that we are proposing. Most of it is a play of words that needed to be corrected in the GPR. So the first, and I'm gonna try my best to get through these slides as fast as I can. On the first, the previous language states the assigned grade level elementary or courses secondary content standard. And on the right hand side, the proposed change is all grades must be based on Alabama course of study aligned to students enrolled grade level elementary and secondary. The current GPR states the teacher must document that a review of the student's performance on major assessments when a student has not mastered the standards with a score of, sorry, with a score of 59 or below in accordance with the district's remediation plan. So on the updated GPR following reteaching, because we wanted to make sure we stated that reteaching the student will be reassessed once on the non-master standards to support student learning and accurately reflect mastery the higher of the two grades or the original assessment will be recorded. So again, a play of words. We want to make sure that this would benefit the students as far as having the higher of the two grades and that not just reteaching and reassessing. It said before that it may take place. Now it will take place. Current GPR states all assignments may not have a due date and time outside of normal school hours. This has to do with the virtual hours. Now that we have virtual school, the updated terminology discusses that this excludes students enrolled in Evening Academy, which takes place outside of the traditional school or the virtual school program, and they may operate outside of the traditional school day. Current GPR states with the exception of elementary elective courses, all teachers in all subject areas are expected to administer three different major and six different minor grades. The new GPR specifies specifically in the four by four classes, all teachers in all subject areas are expected to administer a minimum of four different major and eight different minor grades in a grading period for the overall indication of the student's performance. Also states that major grades are defined as test projects, essays, research papers. In grades two through fifth grade, specifically in ELA classes, at least two of the three required major grades must be district level assessments. We stated that because last month when we presented, we talked about common assessments district-wide, and so this will support and be aligned to common assessments district-wide. Current GPR states a student will have the opportunity to make up exams, tests, or work that occurred during the absence or supervision of full credit. In the new GPR statement, it says a student will have the opportunity to make up exams, tests, or work which occurred during an excused absence or suspension. The final yearly grade will be an average of the two semester grades for one year courses. New GPR states for courses earning a Carnegie unit, please refer to the middle, see page 35, and high school section C37 of this document. This is a slide about alignment specifically. In the event of controversial records, transcripts, or absences of records, students in grades 9-12 shall take placement tests consisting of the school's previous semester test for core courses. New GPR states specifically for K-8 English language students enrolling in absence of records and their previous language of instruction was Not English grade replacement should be based on the following enrollment guidelines for high school age students with an absence of records. Students must enroll in the ninth grade to begin and earn their credit. So it's just stating that the cohort begins the first day of ninth grade. I don't have my class. So in the previous GPR, the student changes may occur throughout the school year. This new terminology states the schedule changes may occur at any time throughout the year to accommodate the needs of school and students. However, timelines for schedule changes involve in courses. So what this states is that if a student needs a schedule change or transfer that we ask that we get the grades, like we have a four by four block we have modified blocks to ensure that that quarter or that semester is over so we can obtain good records. Previous GPR states major grades may include chapter tests and unit tests, teacher-made tests, and the new GPR in grades specifically, as I stated before, two through fifth grade ELA classes, at least two of the three required major grades must be district created, and this is to balance our common assessments district-wide. Same with minor grades may include daily classroom work quizzes checklist, the new GPR state standards based classroom assessments, progress monitoring using rubrics and quizzes. MTSS, the previous GPR just outlined what you see on the left-hand side. In the new GPR, it is outlined specifically to define Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 and what each tier means specifically. We also created parent MTSS guides for this year and how to help parents at home understand MTSS as well as the schools. A semester final examination is to be given in all courses. Each student will receive a numerical grade. In the new GPR, the semester final examination are required in all courses, and each student will receive a numerical grade on the examination. So this breaks down. We had to do this because we have four by four block at three of our high schools, and we also have modified block at some of our, so we wanted to specify what this looks like as far as final examinations and the weighting of it. Any senior whose class averages at least the 80 when the two quarters grades are averaged and has five or fewer excused or unexcused absences in the new GPR specifically it says that in a specific class for that specific class is exempt. Before it was all of your classes determine if you were exempt. Now it's specific to a class. Attendance is calculated by the individual class period and not by the school day. Here, as I just stated, we have different schedules based on our high schools. And so what this is here, this is our GPR chart that we put in every year. And it's usually just one chart. But this first chart here is grades one through 12th grade, magnet high schools, and Park Crossing High School as well, because they're on a modified block. So this means specifically that when we have progress reports and report cards week to week, how many major, how many minor grades, are schools supposed to have that are on the quarter system? That means first, second, third, fourth, nine weeks. The second GPR chart we had to do for our 4x4 high school specifically, which talks about the semester one and semester two, how many grades you would need because it is different. They're on 90 minutes five days a week versus modified every other day. And so they have a different requirement, yet the district will still put out progress reports and report cards at the same time. But they are in these 4x4 classes from August until December.

All right, thank you so much. I have just one question. As the students go back to school and some of them are still getting schedules and getting adapted, those absences for exemption won't count against them No, ma'am, not specifically.

I know that the schools have been working with the principals and the attendants, and they have to report their enrollment daily. When they report their enrollment daily, they also have to identify if students are a no-show. And I can't speak specifically, but I know student support is coming up afterwards to state how many days is it after that they are withdrawn and therefore. Okay, good. Thank you so much.

August 17th?

Thank you.

She said August 17th. Thank you, Ms. Johnson.

Okay, any other questions, comments?

Thank you, Dr. Williams. Okay, Dr. King, before this group comes, I would like them to all turn around and look to see it's daylight out there. We could almost walk home. So when your group gets finished, thanks.

Yes, ma'am. Good evening. We want to hear the information.

We want to hear, but...

Yes, ma'am. Yes, I'm sure they want to.

We got G, C, and P also. We added. That's right. We added. Okay.

Yes, sir. Understood. Understood. But thank you, Madam President. Good evening. Also, Dr. Byrd and also board members. Tonight was... IS TO PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW OF WHAT OUR STUDENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT HAS DONE IN SUPPORT OF OUR SCHOOLS FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE NOT ONLY YESTERDAY BUT ALSO MOVING FORWARD. SO TONIGHT I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO THOSE LEADERS IN OUR DEPARTMENT TO PUT FACES WITH THE WORK AND THEN ALSO TO ALLOW THEM TO SHARE WHAT I HAVE LEARNED SINCE I'VE TRANSITIONED OVER. SO WITHOUT ANY FURTHER ADO, GIVEN THE TIME, I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE MY TEAM, IF Y'ALL CAN MOVE OVER HERE, AND I WILL START WITH JANIKA MITCHELL, WHO HAS BEEN PROMOTED TO THE LEAD BEHAVIOR INTERVENTIONS POSITION.

GOOD EVENING, SUPERINTENDENT BYRD AND BOARD MEMBERS. I am Janika Mitchell and I am the lead behavior interventionist for the district. Currently I have myself and two other behavior interventionists that are serving the district and we service all grade levels at this time. The three areas that we're focusing on as the school year opens and some of the things that we have been doing in the weeks prior have been to provide reinforcement through co-teaching and observing classrooms to ensure students are understanding daily procedures and expectations from their teachers with the goal of decreasing negative behaviors in those classrooms. We have also been providing low effort behavior intervention tools that the teachers can use right away. One of those things is that all elementary schools have been provided a sensory toolkit, which includes a weighted stuffed animal, fidget toys, noise reduction headphones, a wiggle cushion for the chair, and a chair fidget for their feet. We're also assisting with transitions. Those transitions could be class changes, going to breakfast, going to lunch, or their elective classes. We are modeling those behaviors that they should be exhibiting in the hallways so that we ensure that teachers feel proactively supported when they're moving through the hallway with their students. Any questions?

I just have one. These children that you see, how do you know they need your services? at the beginning of the year, is it from they're already in the system and you come to support or how does it work?

Yes, a lot of them have been identified last school year. So we try to basically, you know, support those first because we know that prior to this year, they've had issues. So That's kind of where we are with that. But we also honestly just support any way that we can right now, because some issues that we see in classrooms, it could be just a myriad of things. But if we're just supporting right then, you know, you could you possibly could deter behaviors increasing before they become a real issue.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Nurse Miles. I'm the nurse coordinator for Montgomery Public Schools. Currently on my staff, we have 83 staff members in total, 11 of those being health aides. So for us to start off the year, We've been providing support to students and staff, trying to make sure we have health care plans created, getting medications in, and making sure we're collaborating with families, teachers, and administrators to make sure everyone is on one accord for those students to receive their services at school. The next thing we've done to support safe and supportive inclusive environments making sure that our health aides have been strategically placed. Our health aides have been a big role this year because we have students who have toileting needs coming in and being enrolled into school. And those students are being aligned with special education services. They're going to receive their services. So our health aides are there to make sure those students can remain in school and work towards receiving those services while still getting their education in the classroom. Our nurses have also prepared clinics, ensuring that we have emergency equipment on all campuses. All campuses have AEDs, Narcan, as well as epinephrine auto-injectable pens in case those anaphylaxis emergencies arise. And then to encourage our staff development and organizational readiness, all of our staff had to go through professional developments, new staff and returning staff. to ensure everyone was prepared for school health procedures, policies, and emergency protocols that we have to stay in alignment with Alabama State Department of Education compliance.

Any questions for me?

Any questions or comments? Thank you, Nurse Miles. Thank you. Good.

And I would just like to give an overview of the McIntyre Tentative School. We have three programs at McIntyre, the Rise Academy, THE STAR ACADEMY AND THE PRIDE ACADEMY. AND SO THE PRIDE ACADEMY, OF COURSE, THOSE STUDENTS THAT ARE PLACED IN AN ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL, THE STAR ACADEMY IS FOR ACCELERATED ACADEMY FOR 8TH AND 9TH GRADE WHO ARE TWO GRADE LEVELS BEHIND. IT'S THE EQUIVALENT OF OUR OVERAGE PROGRAM. AND THEN THE RAS ACADEMY SUPPORTS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THAT ARE SIGNIFICANTLY UNDERCREDITED AND AT RISK OF DROPPING OUT. AND SO THAT'S AN OVERVIEW OF OUR McIntyre-Turner School and students normally roll over from last year if they didn't complete the program. So there are some, we do occasionally get new students that are enrolling for the first time that are over age and for some reason they hadn't been in school and so those are some of the great candidates for those programs.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, Superintendent Dr. Bird and our Montgomery magnificent board members here with us today. I'm the other Erica. I'm Erica Tyler. And I have Sarah Pair with me, who is one of our, we've been fortunate enough to have three social workers to work with us with the Homeless Migrant Program, McKinney-Vento. And listed on the screen, we have some of the activities that, because of us having three social workers aligned with us now, that Ms. Davenport and Ms. Sankey We're able to make sure that we are not missing our families. They are able to do, I think you all do surveys with the families. That was one of the areas when we do our needs assessment, families were stating that once we've serviced them through our office, we sort of miss some of our families because of that transition. So what we're doing now, we have social workers that help us make sure we have referrals for our families to meet their needs. This past weekend, we had our third annual resource fair, and we were able to see about 200 families there alongside having several to come to see us during the summer so that we can service them with school uniforms, school supplies, personal items. We have snack bags from True Divine Church. They're partnering with us to just try to make sure the students can start the school year off and being able to work with our social workers, we're able to make sure we're not missing any of our families because, again, a lot of times they come in contact with them a lot quicker than we do, and we want to make sure that all of our families here in Montgomery County have been served from our office.

Do you have any questions for me?

That's great. That's great. And family engagement, we're going to do a better job of getting with you all so we can help you get the word out. We just missed it.

Yes, ma'am. That's one of the reasons why with our social workers, they've been able to go out to the school sites and we've been able to give flyers and posters with all of our information. Because it's hard for me to really go to all of the schools, they've been helping me out with that. That's great. And also with our local communities, we've been putting silence out in the community as well. Yes, ma'am. That's great.

We had a situation at Wilson and Carr and Park Crossing last year. You did an excellent job in getting those students taken care of very quickly.

Thank you.

And I appreciate that.

Thank you. That's our goal, to make sure our children are being served. Thank you. Thank you.

I just wanted to say, I've been looking so forward to you getting up there, you know, all night. I didn't see your name on here, and I was like, no, I was waiting for you. Yes, ma'am. I appreciate, I think we all appreciate everything you do.

Again, like I said, now we're fortunate to have social workers with us, so we're going to be able to expand our services to reach our families.

I just wanted to say, are you working with the parent liaisons at the school?

Well, I work closer with the counselors. because they are normally the ones that will send me a referral, but we can reach out to them as well. Yes, ma'am. Some of them will reach out to us, but I've not worked along with all of them yet.

Because I got some information from one of our parent liaisons. They combined with the Salvation Army, and they're having a giveaway for... people to have their light bills paid for $450. So this is for JAG students that the Salvation Army is working with. So you might want to look into that.

Yes, ma'am. I will check with them on that. But yes, ma'am, about the FERPA law, we do try to make sure we keep our families YOU KNOW, PRIVATE WITH INFORMATION. THAT'S WHY THE COUNSELORS HAVE TO BE THERE. EXACTLY. YES, MA'AM.

AND APPARENTLY, AZON CAN SUPPORT, BUT THE COUNSELORS ARE THE ONE WITH ALL THAT CRUCIAL INFORMATION. PERSONALLY, YES, MA'AM. THANK YOU.

YES, MA'AM.

OKAY.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. THANK YOU. AND AGAIN, TO MS. MITCHELL'S POINT, TOO, THAT'S PART OF THAT EVERYBODY ON ONE TEAM. YES, MA'AM. SO THEY, COUNSELORS HAVE A LOT TO DO, TOO, SO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT. I mean, parent liaisons can assist. But thank you. Thank you. Keep up the good work.

Good evening, Madam Chair, Superintendent Byrd, and members of the board. I am Ashley Hardy, the director of school counseling for Montgomery Public Schools. In preparation to ensure that our students were ready for day one, the counseling department, we conducted individual scheduling readiness conferences with all of our high schools. We were able to identify barriers and concerns, and we were able to provide targeted support to those schools with the greatest need. Additionally, during our counselor in-service, we established clear accountability and compliance expectations for our school counselors. One of the things that we are working to improve is our customer service expectations. So, just to highlight a couple of those things that were shared with our school counselors, we want counselors to acknowledge parent emails and student emails within 24 hours, even if additional time is needed To address the concern, we need to at least acknowledge that, hey, we received your email. We're working on the task. Also, we want to make sure that our counselors are accessible to students and families. Therefore, counselors must have published office hours in the event that parents would like to schedule a conference or students need to come in and have a conference. Our counselors are accessible and are ready to meet the needs of our students and families. Additionally, we outlined the key performance indicators. One of the things that we're working on again is to ensure students receive consistent documented counseling services. So it is recommended that counselors push into those classrooms to provide their core group guidance lessons. And so the state approved curriculum for those lessons is the PATH curriculum. So all of our counselors on September the 3rd will undergo have curriculum training so that they are able to deliver those services efficiently. Another key performance, as I stated, was student and family accessibility. And so we will be providing surveys. We'll be pushing surveys out to the schools just to see how our counselors are responsive to our students and families as well. And then college and career readiness. We want to ensure that every student has access to meaningful college and career readiness experiences. So 100% of our seniors will receive graduation and post-secondary planning. And so my office has already been in contact with our respective colleges and institutions. We are updating our recruitment contact information. We're going to schedule dates so that those colleges are able to push into those schools. As well as targeted intervention, we want to make sure that our counselors are delivering the small group counseling instruction based upon the needs of our students. And so normally that's conducted by a student survey, or if we see that a need is, a great need is, if it's a great need, we're gonna make sure that they provide those intervention services. Additionally, we highlighted our academic and foundational wellness goals. Those are quite extensive. So I'll move on from there. And lastly, we expanded student access to counseling services. All of our schools have a counselor. With the exception of McKee Middle School, their counselor retired, but we do have support available. We have a retired school counselor that's there at that school providing support until we're able to hire a counselor.

I just have one question.

Yes, ma'am.

I'm wondering, for high school children, have we, could we put a survey in place for those children who do not have finalized schedules at the beginning of the year. Because my thinking is you get one opportunity to make a first impression. Some of those children are going to high school for the first time or whatever. I'd like to see their take on what they thought we could have done a little bit better to get them ready for the beginning of the year. and that might speak well to the counselor. They may not, I know they have a lot to do, they may not see it as so serious, but maybe if they look at it from the other side, they may understand. Yes, ma'am.

The mental toll that it takes. Yes, ma'am, we can do that. Good, thank you. No problem. Thank you.

Part of also in our department is safety and security, so Dr. Custaday couldn't be with us today, but AS ADDITION, WE DO HAVE A DISTRICT SAFETY COORDINATOR. SO PART OF ALSO SAFETY AND SECURITY IS A PART OF A COMPLIANCE MONITORING PIECE. SO WITH THAT, THE Safety and Security Department did strengthen emergency procedures and planning to ensure all high schools, I mean all schools, not just high schools, have that in place. They also expanded safety training capacity and then enhanced safety communication and resources. So that's what the Safety and Security Department was responsible for at the beginning of the year. They did train the principals at first. couple of days back and making sure they have the emergency operation plans and then making sure that they are prepared to get the drills that are required by the state. And so all of these things are part of the compliance monitoring that the state will actually be looking for. Any questions?

No. Thank you, Dr. King.

Good evening to President Portis, Dr. Bird, and the rest of our Board of Education. My name is Natasha Scipio, and I'm a social worker with Montgomery Public Schools. I would like to say thank you for allowing us this opportunity to tell you a little bit about what we do and how we've helped prepare schools for the school year. This year, I'm excited to announce we have 13 social workers on staff. And some of the services that we provide include family support. We link students and families to school and community resources. We also provide crisis intervention services, and we've actually had to do some of that already this school year. So if there's anything that a student or family needs, whether it's a financial assistance, whether they're in need of to be linked to any type of resource in the community, parenting skills, job skills courses. We try to make it our business to know all the resources or as much as we can so that we can link families to those services. This summer, we've done a few things in terms of professional development. We presented an overview of mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect, and we did that at the new teacher orientation on July 21st. We also provided professional development to school counselors. We worked very closely with Ms. Hardy to ensure that the counselors received an overview, again, not new information, but just reminding them of their obligation to report child abuse or neglect to Montgomery County DHR. We also went over protocol for suicide prevention, protocol for non-suicidal self-injury, That's one of our concerns as well. And we also just gave them an overview of how to access social work services. We were also able to engage with students and parents at the back-to-school bash on Saturday. And I apologize for that date. It should be August the 1st. It was at the Crampton Bowl Multiplex. And we were able to provide them with information, students and families, parents, about what we do, how they can access those services that we provide, and we also gave them information, handouts and pamphlets related to mental health services, as well as suicide prevention. Are there any questions?

No, ma'am. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Good evening again. The Department of Special Education consists of approximately 52 central office staff members that provide coaching, modeling, training, feedback, support to over 200 special education teachers and more than 200 paraprofessionals who provide the specially designed instruction for our students and related services. And we have had approximately 2,800 sped students on our child count last year. I foresee that number growing as we have done over 100 evaluations this summer. We also have about 2,200 students who are identified as gifted that we serve. So our recent projects have included the establishment of two new multi-needs classrooms, one at Nixon Elementary and one at T.S. Morris Elementary, where we were able to outfit the classrooms, provide the sensory equipment, set up professional development for the teachers and the paraprofessionals. Also, we're going to be installing video cameras, or not us, but operations. So in collaboration with Dr. King and Mr. Anderson, we have, we are going to be implementing what the law for video cameras and the self-contained special education classrooms. And so we'll be starting in the elementary classrooms to ensure our students are safe as they are learning. Finally, The K-12 Bloom Bucks initiative that you all voted for a couple of months ago is off to a good start. We do have a central office implementation team that includes 504 personnel, MTSS, behavior interventionists, and IT, and also executive leadership, so that we can go ahead and get this started. And the goal is to reduce chronic absenteeism and reduce the number of behavior incidents across the district. And we've decided to do grade spans three through eight this year. So we hope to see some great results with this initiative. Questions? I have a comment.

Y'all are going to think this is crazy. But, you know, I was looking at your bloom bucks from K through eight for absenteeism. And, you know, we keep saying we're going to do something and we're going to talk about it. And I was just sitting here thinking, and you're going to go because she's losing it. But this is what I'm thinking. You know what? When you look at grades, like say you have the three, like what Dr. Williams said, you have the three and the six, you know, the core grades and then your, you know, little grades. But if you gave a grade for absenteeism, no grade, like if it was, listen, if they did miss, okay, they don't get a grade. But the fact that they did come as an incentive, they get a grade like 100. Do you see what I'm saying? Whatever. And when it gets down to the ninth grade, they have two extra grades.

It costs us nothing.

It's a grade. And you would divide, you know, the normal kids divide by nine. The ones that actually made it earned a 100 or whatever, and now you divide by 11. You see what I'm saying? It's just a way to me that you could look at, it's not going to cost us any money. It helps with their grade, and it also gives them an incentive to stay in school. I mean, if not that, something that's going to help our at least 9th through 12th graders.

Is that legal?

Well, okay, all right, okay. I knew you'd go. I'm just thinking if we could do something. I mean, I don't know that they're going to buy into Bloom Bucks.

Okay, okay, okay. Listen.

I haven't said much.

You sure haven't, and that is a wonderful idea. We will mull that over and come back.

Well, it is a program designed, and there's a bloom book store that students can earn items that they purchase with their bloom books. And it is age appropriate. It's things that are high interest to students in those grade levels. And so it's an incentive program for them. We are going to schedule a kickoff. There have been some really great results. with districts across the state who have utilized this program and they've seen a decrease in their most serious incidents of behavior as well as an increase in their student attendance. So we're excited about it.

Good, thank you. Remind me, send me an email and remind me of the kickoff, because we have partners that will, you know, and we will contribute little items we get to give to you all so you can distribute them. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Would you tell us who you are, please, ma'am? Yes, ma'am. Good evening, Dr. Bird, members of the board. I'm Jennifer Adams, the Specialized Treatment Center Coordinator. First, I want to give you a definition of what a Specialized Treatment Center is. A Specialized Treatment Center is a facility, whether it's residential, treatment, or detention, and that facility enters into an MOA with the LEA, where the LEA ensures that the students in those facilities still receive their educational services. So you may hear me refer to it as STC because it's easier for me to, instead of spelling out the whole name. Montgomery Public Schools supports six STCs, which is the Montgomery County Youth Facility, the Maxim Butler Detention Facility, Jay Walker Wood Facility, which is for a girls' facility, and Brentwood Children's Home. And it also includes two psychiatric facilities, Brighter Path and Safety Net. So one of the things that we did to expand and strengthen the support for students, we added a 12-month counselor for the Montgomery County Youth Facility and Maximum Butler Detention Facility. So now those students can receive year-round supports for intake, transitions, enrollment and records. One key accomplishment that I did want to note is that Montgomery County Youth Facility successfully earned its Alabama Department of Education educational endorsement from April 26 to May 2029, and that is just a reflection of Montgomery Public Schools' commitment to ensure these students still receive high-level quality educational services while placed in those two facilities. Another thing that we did to strengthen the transition and compliance component is that the State Department is now implementing new requirements due to a settlement with the Department of Justice. So we have to now have set team. A set team is a student educational team meetings every nine weeks for students who are placed in these facilities for 30 days or longer. The focus has been on the PRTFs, which are the psychiatric facilities. So we did meet that deadline that the State Department set for June the 30th to have all of those set team meetings. And so now they're focusing on the other facilities to make sure that students who are in those facilities 30 days or longer receive these meetings. And those meetings just include social workers, the parent, representative from the LEA, and sometimes it may be myself or it may be Ms. Jackson, if I can't make it, and her team to just discuss the student's least restricted environment because now, due to the settlement, the students that are in the PRTFs now have the option to say, hey, I want to go to Park Crossing. And so we'll come together as a team to decide if that placement is necessary and applicable for that student. Any questions?

That's interesting. You all have done a great job. We came from a deficit to really, and we can hear your excitement that you enjoy it. Yes, ma'am. We hope that continues so you keep your job. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Okay. Dr. King. Oh, yeah. Ms. Johns.

Good evening, Dr. Byrd, Madam President, and board members. I want to officially say I have not been up this late in a long, long time. However, student support services, you know I have one social worker, I have four hearing officers, I have five district resource officers, I have one data manager. We do an array of things in student support, but some of the things I want to talk to you about tonight is the Alabama State Department of Education has revamped the way every school in the state of Alabama has to enter their discipline into power school. How this affects us is it affects our serve report. So we want to make sure that we get that right. So what we did was we conducted training for all principals and all APs. We did get 100% participation in how the new discipline referral goes into power school. It may not seem like a big deal, but it really is at the end of the year when we have to get that serve report because we don't want to look bad comparatively. Next thing we did was they've also changed the way we do attendance, but what we found in MPS is that A lot of our chronic absenteeism is not necessarily the students being absent. It is the way we are entering our attendance, our data entry. A lot of times we're just making simple mistakes, and that affects us at the end of the year. Well, I want to say it again and go on record. I want to thank Ms. Watkins because we have a scanning system now for all of our secondary schools. And what this does is, if I'm a student and I get to school late, many of us do, now I can scan my badge. Once I scan my badge, I get there at 9.16. It sends an email directly to my homeroom teacher or wherever I'm supposed to be at 9.16, and it says, Sophia Johnson just checked in. She should be in your classroom by 9.19. And then that means no one has to stop, enter that student, the teacher doesn't have to stop, and it interacts with PowerSchool. So then that means everything is working together, and it's accurate information. And it also does the same thing if a student is checking out. They'll just scan their badge now, and it says what type of checkout it is, and we have accurate information. We don't have to worry about anyone making a mistake when they do data entry. So that's real big, and I think we're going to see a significant change in our chronic absenteeism for next year. You may not remember, but it's a nightmare for me, so I'll remember. But this is an OCR reporting year. So up under the Office of Civil Rights, Section 504 training is mandatory. So we've completed 99% of our training already for MPS, which is a real big deal. And now we're just waiting until we get all the new employees in. That have to be trained. So we'll probably have another one around October or November. So we'll have a hundred percent Two more things that I want to mention, you know, I my office does the student conduct manual We collaborate with all departments across NPS. So we're real excited about that and I Last but not least is the vacation planner. That was actually a brainstorm of Dr. Bird's. And we put it to life. And what we're going to do is you should see one of these at every school where the parents check in or check out. And it actually tells them the best time that you should take your vacation if you have to take it during the school year. So I want to thank Rosanna also because she helped put that together. But it's great. Thanksgiving is a nine-day opportunity if you take your vacation then.

And I love that 21-day, no, 17-day opportunity around winter break.

And we're just hoping that y'all will give the employees a 17-day opportunity. Now, any questions? Opportunity to come back, come to work.

So you can get a check. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for hanging in here with us. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you all.

And that concludes our part.

Thank you so much. I think for the board members, that information and what we're doing so many times, we're hit with, you know, you all aren't doing that, you aren't doing that. Well, we're doing something, though. We're doing a lot. And I think to hear it, I'm going to ask that a department will present to us at every meeting. And that's just for accountability. We lead and we have to know what we're leading and why we're leading. So when your raise comes up, I'd say, I don't know what Dr. King does. But now I see evidence, so thank you all so much.

One more position we do have is a mental health coordinator, but that's a single, so we can give later. Okay, very good. Thank you so much.

I just want to say it's so nice to put faces with the names to actually see who's doing what, because there have been a lot of changes, and thank you. I'm really excited about what's to come.

Very good. Thank you so much. We have, ooh, we're getting down to the bottom.

Okay, Ms. Watkins, I think it's... Good evening again, Dr. Byrd, Board President Portis, board members. I'm going to talk very briefly, and I'll make this pretty quick. The last few weeks you have seen in the board connections communication regarding the CNP retention and recruitment allocation update. And so I want to publicly present that to you this evening. Two years ago and around this same time in 2024, previous CSFO came to you along with the support of CMP and operations requesting an allocation for CMP recruitment and retention That was due to the fact that we have, CMP is considered one of our critical needs departments. We still have a high demand of personnel and CMP with managers and personnel as well. So what we're requesting in the previous information, the recruitment amount was $1,500 with a retention amount of $750. We're asking that the workers be allocated a $2,000 retention allocation for the CMP workers that are in the schools and that the managers and the central office staff be allocated a $3,000 retention allocation. This is also, they would have to commit to 24 months or two years where the previous document had that they committed to 18 months. How this will be funded is out of CNP funds. CNP has an abundance of funds right now. And in their instance, where we and the general fund, our reserve is looked at very positively, and over-reserve and C&P funds causes issues for them. They've had to submit a plan to the State Department of how they will spend those funds down, and they're doing so by some capital improvements in some of their lunch rooms. some incentives for some of their staff, and then also one of the options that we looked at was this retention allocation for those employees under CMP as well. We're hoping that this will help with the recruitment of CMP workers, as well as help retain the CMP workers that we currently have, since there continues to be a turnover of personnel there, as well as a hard time recruiting staff in that area as well. Again, I want it to be clear that this is completely funded out of CNP funds, that it's required by the State Department that we spend those funds down. They have also requested, I think we actually had a deadline to do that, By September 30 of this year, however, they did request an extension of that, so we have until September of 2027 to try to get those reserves down. Ms. Beard has done a good job of submitting a plan to the State Department of how we will do that, and this will help with that as well. We also reached out to the state again because this was not on the original plan, but there was communication again with the State Department CMP to make sure that this would be allowable, and it is. And so in your connection this week, the communication will be there again, along with a copy of the document being reviewed by Attorney Powell that the employees would receive. We're asking that this be dispersed to them in two payments. They will receive the first with the August payroll and the second at the end of the school year in May. So they will receive half in August and the other half in May. Again, I'll state again, this is completely funded by C&P overage of funds that we have got to spend down.

Thank you, Ms. Watkins. So much. All right, we're moving on to, is there any unfinished business that anyone can think about? I know the hour is getting late, so we're going to move some of this stuff, but... New business, remember, board members, August the 17th at 6 o'clock. We're supposed to be at AASB, so make sure that's on your calendar. 17th is next Monday, right? Okay. At 6. Very good. And Ms. Smith? All right, real quick.

The... All right, in working with Ms. Portis and Ms. Mitchell with the family and community engagement, we have reached out to the Montgomery Neighborhood Services who will be working with us to bring people together along with the Ministerial Alliance who will also be participating. This event will take place August 27th at 5 o'clock p.m. in this room. And we hope that board members can come out and we're going to work and the city will be publicizing it and we'll get with Rosanna once we get the flyer created to also put that out and hopefully send it out into the schools. And that's my new business.

Great. Thank you so much. We're calling this a resource roundup. Anybody with resources to help our district, we want them to have a seat at the table. So when we start offering resources to parents, we'll know what we're offering. All right. September 10th, you all please come out for budget hearing meeting to hear more about the budget. Four o'clock. September 10th. Immediately following will be regular board meeting. Immediately following that will be the work session. This meeting... Wait. Yes, ma'am.

So, our regular scheduled board meeting is the second Tuesday, which is the 8th. So, we're not doing a regular board meeting on September the 8th, the second Tuesday of the month. We're going the Thursday after that? Um...

That's what it says. That's what was voted on. Okay, okay. That's right, when we redid the calendar. So, yes, you're right. September the 10th, that board meeting won't be that Tuesday, it'll be that Thursday. Okay, thank you. Very good. It's September 10th. Keep your paper. This meeting is now adjourned.