Board of Education - Regular Meeting

Woo!

This is the April 20th, 2026 meeting of the Williamson County Board of Education. Board members, please record your attendance. There are 11 members present. Thank you. Let me begin by thanking our sheriff's deputies, uh, Deputy Calvani and Rutledge. Uh, thank you gentlemen for being here tonight. [snorts]

All right, we will, um, now please stand and we'll do our pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. I will now move into our items of particular public interest, our public comment period. Uh, we do have four people who are signed up to speak tonight. So, each of you will have up to 3 minutes. Uh, please be mindful that the time is on the screen at the podium. So, be checking that throughout your comments, uh, and try to stay within the 3 minutes. Uh, I will call, um, two at a time. The first two speakers are Melissa Hogan and Brad Davis. Hi, my name is Melissa Hogan. I'm an attorney and the parent of a 19-year-old student over here at Page High School's Transition 2 program. This is just a portion of his Page clothing. I'm here to address the truth the district has concealed regarding the T2 pilot program, the consequences of those plans, and what should have been done instead. The district calls this a pilot, but is actually a soft launch to eliminate Transition 2 programs at more than half the high schools in Williamson County. Currently, they propose Page and Nolensville, bussing those students to

Centennial and Ravenwood. It is not a pilot. Staff at Page and Nolensville are being forced to transfer or resign, and administrators are reallocating T2 spaces. If it moves forward, there is no backing up. There are no measurable criteria for success. Communications already assume the clustering works. The obfuscation began in December. Teachers were told clustering was going to happen across the entire district, 95% that it would happen. Moving students from Independence to Summit, Page to Centennial, Nolensville to Ravenwood, and Brentwood-Fairview to Franklin. That it was pretty much a done deal. When T2 teachers pushed back, the district ordered them to keep the plan within the team. By January, teachers submitted extensive critiques, and then they were told to delay their bridging meetings, likely to avoid lying to parents. The district finally notified parents on February 25th. I have the emails to prove this because teachers have provided them because they are so upset. Is this even legal under IDEA regs, quote, "Unless the IEP of a child with a disability requests some other arrangement, the child is educated in the school that he or she would attend if non-disabled." As Tony Bostic noted in the work session, we must meet and agree just to change a single word in an IEP. Yet, the district is changing a child's entire school and acting like it's no big deal for these kids. If they can shift T2 without parent collaboration, what about T1? What about kids with autism, Down syndrome, or even services for dyslexia? They can say, "We don't need to hear from parents. We can just make kids who need these services go to only these schools." Board member Grayson Beasley moved to the Page district intentionally, as he mentioned in the work session. I just bought a house 4 miles from Page High School for the exact same reason, only now to be told after 5 years at Page that my son must go to Centennial. Compare this to the technology and screen time committee we heard about in the work session, and include parents, teachers, coaches, and board members.

The group met monthly and reported to the board nine times. The leader noted, "I learned just as much from the parents in that process I as they learned from me." Why was this not done for T2? Suggesting parents are merely emotional is patronizing. In a Zoom call with parents, Maria Griego compared this to rezoning, but rezoning has a public and accountable process. The district should and still can follow the technology model. Bring all constituencies together, identify the problem, and reach a collaborative consensus. The needs of our most vulnerable students should not be sacrificed for convenience. I ask this board to hold the district to standards of honesty and transparency and collaboration. That is the example we should set for all children in Williamson County. Thank you. Thank you.

[clears throat]

Mr. Golden, six of the last seven board meetings I've shared with you my daughter's experience as well as those of other families in the in our district about the constant and under-addressed issue of bullying our kids are facing every day at school. I'm not the only parent who's spoken up. Many of us have come before this board, yet it seems that no matter how many times we come or how clearly we speak, our concerns and our children's experiences continue to be dismissed as if they're not valid. And maybe we're wrong. Maybe we're overbearing delusional parents with too much time on our hands, but what if we're right? What if bullying in Williamson County is a far greater problem that's being acknowledged? What if resources and support for students who repeatedly exhibit dangerous and violent behavior are simply not being provided? And what if as a result thousands of kids come to our schools each day in fear? Mr. Golden, I'm noticing a pattern in how you respond to these concerns. For example, in February I asked about therapeutic behavioral classrooms aren't being more widely used in our district. I specifically asked if repeated violence, death threats, attempted assault with a weapon, and regularly destroying classrooms don't qualify for this program, what does? You responded that night by saying that federal laws need to be changed in order you to provide these services to students who need them. So, in March I came and I shared how other districts in Tennessee, as well as districts in Georgia and Alabama, are successfully providing the same support under current federal guidelines. Once again, you dismissed those examples by saying we're already doing that in Williamson County. But the data tells a different story. According to the most recent bullying and harassment report from the Tennessee Department of Education, Williamson County had the third highest number of confirmed bullying cases in the entire state. Shelby County was number one. Knox County was number two. And to be clear, the the report defines bullying as physically harming a student, placing a student in reasonable fear of physical harm, causing emotional

distress, or creating a hostile educational environment. What's more concerning is that Metro Nashville which has double our student population had only 15 more confirmed cases. Twice the population, 15 more confirmed 50 more confirmed cases. It gets worse when you look at the rate per student. Williamson County had the highest bullying rate in Middle Tennessee at 6.2 confirmed cases per 1,000 students. Rutherford County was 1.7, Sumner County was 1.6 comparison. Mr. Golden, I got this information directly from the Tennessee Department of Education's website from data that our own district submitted. Is it wrong? Are any of my statements unfair or misleading? Cuz I'm not looking for a gotcha moment. I'm simply asking that we acknowledge this data and treat this as the growth opportunity that it is. I'm asking you to take action to get these numbers down into a more acceptable number because our children deserve to feel and be safe at school. Thank you. Thank you. Our next two speakers are Samantha Ozen, hope I'm saying that right, and Beverly Purvis.

[clears throat]

Hi and good evening. My name is Samantha Ozen and I live here in Franklin, Tennessee. I have two children. My daughter graduated from Franklin High School last year and my son Justin is a sophomore at Franklin High School. I'm here tonight to speak about the proposed changes relating to skipping school. I understand that some board members would like to increase the punishment for skipping school. I believe that the current punishment is harsh enough. There is no reason to make it more difficult on our students. A couple of months ago, my student excuse me, my son left school during his lunch period and went to lunch at Waldo's, which is very close to Franklin High School. They grabbed a quick lunch and were back at school without missing any class time. They were only gone during their lunch time and he actually arrived at his next class a few minutes early. But his actions were discovered, he met with his grade level principal, and the punishment for leaving school was to spend an entire day in in-school suspension. I'm not here to excuse his actions and rules are rules, but I did feel that for him to miss an entire day of instructional school period for missing 30 minutes of lunch was too much. But I also understand that the school has to set and implement the rules and they can't look at each individual case to determine the punishment. So, that was his punishment to spend an entire day at in-school suspension. But I strongly disagree with the idea of making the punishment for skipping class more than 1 day of in-school suspension, especially for the first offense. The punishment should fit the crime. It may already be a bit excessive, but please do not make it more than what it currently is. They are teenagers. They are developing and growing their brains and decision-making skills. School

should not be a prison. We all have to accept that they are growing up and they might make some mistakes. Should there be a punishment for skipping school? Sure, as we do want them to attend school. But this effort effort to make the punishment harsher is wrong. I've heard talk that the reason for this push for harsher punishment is because some students participated in an anti-ICE rally. We cannot change the rules simply to deter and punish the students' political actions. That's not the position for schools and the school board to take. In closing, the punishment should reflect the crime and not be overly excessive. Please do not pursue the actions of making harsher punishment for skipping school. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, chair, board members, and director. I'm Beverly Purvis, president of Williamson County Education Association, and on behalf of our educators and staff across our district, thank you for passing this year's budget. Your decision to fully fund it sends a clear message that you understand the realities facing the people who serve our students every day. This budget is more than numbers on a page. It reflects a commitment to stability, respect, and the long-term strength of our schools. By including the raises for teachers and staff, you're helping to ensure that our educators can keep up with the rising cost of living. In today's economy, that matters more than ever. Without these adjustments, many of our employees would effectively be taking a step backward as inflation continues to outpace the wages. Instead, you've chosen a different path, one that acknowledges the economic pressure that our educators face, and it works to keep our district competitive and sustainable. That decision helps us to retain experienced teachers, attract new talent, and ultimately provide a stronger, more consistent learning environment for our students. We also

recognize that this is an important step in a larger process. The next step is for the County Commission to fully fund the budget that you've passed. We're hopeful that they will continue the work that you started and follow through the with the investments that our school staff and students deserve. We know that balancing a budget is never easy. It requires difficult choices and careful consideration, and that's why it's important to recognize when those choices reflect both physical responsibility and a genuine investment in people, and this budget does both. So, tonight we simply want to say thank you for listening, for understanding, and for taking action. Your support makes a meaningful difference in the lives of those and we look forward to continuing to work together to support our students and our schools in the future Williamson County. Thank you, guys. Thank you. All right, that concludes our public comment. Thanks to our speakers. We'll now move on to item three, approval of the agenda. We'll do this by voice vote. Can I get a motion and a second? Thank you. All those in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? All right, the agenda is approved. We'll now move on to approval of our consent agenda. We'll also do this by voice vote. Can I get a motion and a second? Thank you. Any discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor, say I. I'm sorry, Dr. Johnson. Um I just wanted to talk about the school board policy member orientation. Um I just wanted to publicly thank Donna Clements for taking the lead on this so that we're getting ready to have an election and we're getting ready to have lots of new people and I'm looking forward um for this policy going forward and the orientation helping to prepare them to to join us in September.

I just wanted to say that. So, thank you, Donna. All right, any other discussion? All right, all those in favor of the consent agenda, say I. I. Any opposed? All right, the consent agenda is approved with that vote. You approve the um approval our March 23rd, 2026 school board meeting minutes. Board policies on second reading uh 1.203 and 6.300. Approval of facilities use fee schedule. Approval of scoreboard at Nolensville High School. Approval of storage shed at Page High School. And the recommendation for field trip fee requests. We will now move to our communications to the board, superintendent's report, Mr. Gold. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, board members, for for being here tonight and of course for being at the work session. I did want to mention one other item that was on the consent agenda, in part because there was a comment made in public comment related to that. Uh the misbehavior level two now includes skipping class, whereas in the past it include it was in level one. Uh that subs the substantive change is that a verbal reprimand, which was an opportunity in level one, is not included in level two. So, uh a consequence for that that behavior could include in-school suspension, detention, uh and a couple of other items depending on the level at which that uh uh that that school administrator makes a determination. I did want to also mention a housekeeping item. We took We mentioned this right at the end of our work session. The behavior modification bullet point, which is in page two of disciplinary options, was lined out. That's what you voted on per your discussion at the work session. Just felt like it was important for you all to know that from a housekeeping perspective. At the work session, we spent a large part of our time talking about the the screen time committee work. That committee work that that was working on

some items that have an impact on all 42,000 of our students. Impact on instruction at every grade level and pretty much in every class somehow, some way. Uh and that committee's doing a really good job of evaluating uh a number of items related to electronic devices. You all recall that they started with cell phones, made some recommendations to us. Now there are some recommendations related to school use of electronic devices devices for instructional purposes. As I mentioned at the work session, uh we expect that we will be putting a policy into place. We were actually maybe eight or 10 months ahead of the state legislature. Uh the the both houses passed a bill that would require school systems to put a policy in place. So, I'm very pleased with the work that the committee's done. My ask of you back at the work session was some spent was to spend some time in the next few weeks looking at that draft. Uh looking at that proposal that the committee has given to you so that we can take that and do some work as we prepare a policy and potentially a procedure to put into effect that policy over these next few months as we prepare for the coming school year. I did want to also speak to transition to our transition two students. Those are the students who uh who are uh who were who were generally speaking age 18 to 22 uh in in transition classes where they are being prepared for their next step in life. I want to tell you that I'm very proud and pleased with the work that our special education staff does in working to find ways to improve how they serve those students. At the same time, I want to make sure that we are empathetic uh to the needs and and the wishes of our families and our students in that program. I want everyone to know that we're going to continue to have some discussions about that, some detailed discussions about how we can make sure that we do right by all those students uh not just in the short term, but in

the long term as well, uh and make sure that the not only the relationships they build, but the skills that they that they develop are the best that they can be. The programs are good, and our special education staff is working on finding ways to improve it, and we're going to make sure that we do include uh folks as as best we can as we as we make those decisions and and and and work to improve those services. Also didn't want to talk a little bit about about the comments related to other special education services. One good thing about these meetings is that our voices are recorded, and uh and anything that we've said can be looked back on related to that. So, I'm not going to speak to any particular representations, but I do want to let you all know that IEP teams make decisions for students. And when we talk about having those put potential services in place or or the opportunities to be in a particular setting, it's because those opportunities are there for the IEP teams to make decisions. Uh and what we work on is giving every all the possible opportunities that we can that we can give uh that allow those all our students to have that least restrictive environment that is is not only our legal commitment, but our emotional commitment and our professional commitment uh to serve those students. Uh so, that can be hard sometimes as folks go through that process. It can be doubly hard if you're not a member of that IEP team uh and and don't know the discussions that are going on there. But I did want to also mention that we are continuing to look for additional opportunities for additional services, not just in our transition two program, uh but for all our students to make sure that we are able to provide that appropriate public education for our students with disabilities. Uh it's a human effort. Uh it and and part of that human effort means to me based on the experience I've seen in the

last 20 years that that human effort is an emotional commitment from our staff. Uh what I have seen is true emotional commitment from those from those teachers and administrators who chose to go into the profession of special education. It takes a little extra uh for them for for them to make that commitment when they're younger. We have seen a neat uh phenomenon here in Williamson County Schools where some of our teachers' assistants go back to school because they get into the work and they did they realize they love it, and they go back and get either an extra undergraduate degree, sometimes a new undergraduate degree and licensure to be able to serve students with disabilities. Uh again, it's a human effort. So, part of that human effort is that it's going to be imperfect as well. Uh and we'll work to find ways to to grow and improve as we go through that process. Finally, I did want to touch on budget just briefly because another speaker mentioned budget. We did mention at the work session a reminder of where we are with our budget. You all know that a month ago you approved our proposed budget to take to the county commission. Miss Farmer and and a number of our team members and I presented to the county commission budget and education committee a joint meeting where we where we showed them our budget. Uh we've had a lot of discussions, a lot of questions since then as the commission works towards an ultimate vote in June. So, we have a number of meetings coming up as well related to that. You all know that I told the commission when Mayor Anderson mentioned to them months ago his proposal to include a 4% raise, which meant traditionally that they would look to do that for us as well, at least fund that amount for us to decide what to do with it. Uh I let them know based on our projections, we were not going to have sufficient funding to do that. Uh and we're still in that point. Uh when we presented our budget about a

month ago, we had about a $22 million gap between what you all approved and what the what we projected revenue would cover. That gap has narrowed by about $3 million in the past month or so based on county government sharing some projections and some actual receipts from property tax and some other funds uh that have actually increased what we expected, but there is a lot more work to do. Uh and so I I my impression is many county commissioners are going through some brainstorming, asking a lot of good questions about every potential uh revenue source uh to find a way to uh to to meet the request that you all as a board voted on. I anticipate that there may be, just like there was last year, the possibility of another vote at some point. Uh we'll see. We're still a few months removed from that. Uh but there's going to be a lot of work done before we we reach that point. Uh related to that uh as I was thinking about the presentation we've given you on budget one particular slide that Rachel Farmer mentioned stands out in my mind, which is this visual snapshot, where she mentioned the difference between the inflation rate and our funding rate over the last 5 years, where we are just slightly behind inflation rate. Uh and so that's a key point that we're going to continue to to mention uh that that when when when inflation goes up, the proverbial cost of eggs aren't aren't it's not just a proverb. It's real. Uh and so we're going to continue to work on that uh to to find ways to continue to give uh our teachers and our staff members, our our classified folks uh our bus drivers, everyone who does the work here uh an opportunity to have a professional living income here in this wonderful community. Uh so, Mr. Chair, uh I'm not going to go any further about

the work session. I will encourage folks to pull that up if you if you'd like to see any details related to that. Corey Mason is here, our communica- our communications director, to share some uh student and staff spotlights just as a reminder. Here at the district level, we tend to celebrate national and state championships or state awards. Uh you all it's unbelievable what happens at the school level this time of year when when awards go out. The the the work our teachers do, the work our students do, the successes they have are pretty incredible. But for now, we will talk about our state and national awards. That's right, and we got a bunch of them tonight. We're going to start off with three students who scored perfect ACT scores on the February exam. And William Perez here at Brentwood High. Yes, he got that perfect 36. Congratulations to him. Also from Brentwood High School, Achilles Costulas got a perfect 36. And from Franklin High School, Connor Parton got that perfect 36 as well. The students you see here are from Creekside Elementary and they have big smiles on their faces because they just won the 2026 Harry D Sabine State Chess Championship. We're really proud of them. They are Arjun Savoie, Shloak Chaudhry, Gautam Carthy, Philip Bojanovsky, Boris Bourgeois, and Namasvi Nara. And their teacher there that helped them out with the chess club is Beth Wait. So, congratulations to them. From chess to robotics, from Brentwood High School or Brentwood Middle, I should say, they had several teams that competed in the VEX State Championship. And many of them did very well, but this team in particular, they won a state championship. They are made up of Weston Metzger, Liam Meskell, David Joseph, Jacob Williamson, Jonathan

Rolls, and Michael Sheng. And their coach was Jonathan Brooks. Now to DECA, which is the Distributive Education Clubs of America. They had their state conference recently, and we had many students who won state championships first places at that. This is Charlotte Willa from Brentwood High School. She won first place in apparel and accessories series. Also from Brentwood High, Anjali Babu and Akshitha Mathialagan, they won first place overall in buying and merchandising team decision making. From Brentwood High School, you have Sydney Locksmo and Molly Stallman. They won first place overall in hospitality services team decision making. Sushant Chandra you see here won Principles of Entrepreneurship first place overall.

[clears throat]

Andrew Hutcheson won Principles of Finance. And Daniel Maker won first place overall in Principles of Marketing. The teachers there DECA at Brentwood High School are Lisa Montgomery, Melissa Bashore, and Hunter Schmeiser. At Centennial High School, this duo here of Emerson Lane and Ross Phillips, they won two first place awards at DECA. First place in role play in Marketing Management team, and first place overall in Marketing Management team. Their teacher there at Centennial High School is Sharvan Johnson. From Franklin High School, Madeline Caraco, she won first place overall in Human Resource Management series. And her teacher at Franklin is Olivia Kissinger. From Page High School, Gavin Theer, you see him here. He won first place overall in business market business services marketing. And Alexander Wagnon from Page High School won first place overall in quick serve restaurant. Their teachers are Michael McNutt and Robbie Breed. And then from Ravenwood High School, the team here made up of Daksh Mood Mukerji, Saksham Varshney, and Adwaya Yasari, they won first place overall in buying and merchandising operations research. Oshrita Raj won first place in role play in food marketing series. Shaun Kumar, Vihan Boosa, and Tejas Patel won first place overall in innovation plan. Alicia Crocker, Erica Go, and Saroksha Vadlapati won first place overall in integrated marketing campaign product series. And then this duo here of Abigail Goddard and Meghana Sapedi from Ravenwood High School, they won first place overall in startup business plan.

All of those students from Ravenwood High, their teachers are Jennifer Doak and Brian Stuck. Congratulations to them. HOSA, which is the Health Occupations Students of America, they had their state conference recently, and we had a bunch of students that came in first place. This group here, Ross Phillips, Jameson Coss, Meena Rickeb, and Areeb Beg won first place in Biomedical Debate. Their teachers are Nicole Iannuccielli and Derek DeSantis. From Nolensville High School, Marley Schuster won first place in home health aid. And then also from Nolensville, Josh Ishak, Manuel Malaika, Jacob Thomy, Stephen Kamal, Abby Sebspy, and Ayham Sader won first place in creative problem solving. And then also from Nolensville High School, Walker Garant, Ethan Handa, Austin Mac Two, and Trey Walker won first place in Anat Mash tournament first place. They All of the teacher All of the students there at Nolensville High School are taught by Amy Glenn and Michael Moriarty. Doing a great job there. From Page High School, Laura Sullivan won first place in Veterinary Science. Her teachers are Susan Morrow and John Patrick Kelly. And then from Ravenwood High School, we have Nolan Meyer won first place in Medical Math. Sophia Lin from Ravenwood won first place in Medical Reading. And the group of Akila Chinta, Yashasvi Myriala, and Ridhima Singh won first place in Medical Innovation. The teachers there at Ravenwood are Danielle Drumright, Michael Gerlock, and Pam Woodside. Now to FFA, the Future Farmers of America. They had their state convention March 22nd through the 25th, and

Fairview High School did great. They were named a Tennessee FFA Superior Chapter. The teacher there, Tony Ryger. And Page High School also got that Tennessee FFA Superior Chapter title, and the teacher there is Shauna Shanna Boteller. Caroline McKenzie from Page High School, she won first place in the Ag Science Fair. Got that state championship. And then Blythe Mengel from Page High, she got the FFA State Degree, which is the highest achievement you can get in the state in the FFA. Congratulations to her. And Greer Moran also got that highest achievement with the FFA State Degree. Congratulations. Now to the Tennessee High School Press Association awards, which took place I believe in March. We had a a several winners. You see this group here from Brentwood High School, Jet Holt and Jordan Montano, Rio Seibert not pictured here, but they won best public service announcement for the PSA they did about the dangers of e-bikes. This group here of Anna Espenschied and Cocoa Payne from Brentwood High School, they won first place for the best short feature story for their story Coda, which they created. Congratulations. Jordan Montano also won first place for best video or documentary for the film he did called Iceland carved by fire and ice. And then you have Eli Price here from Brentwood High School who won best music video for uh the music video Come Down. And all of those students at Brentwood High School are taught by Sloan Ashworth. Over at Page High School, Macken Lackey, he won the award for best sports video for a video he did called Page Ball. His teacher is Dave Holt. And then over at um a competing, you have the Tennessee High

School Press Association, but then you have the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. This is the group that puts on the Emmys each year. This is such a huge deal. It's a regional conference. We have students from all over who compete. Um and we have several winners starting with Brentwood High School's Jeremy Angelis, Jet Holt, and Aiden Odum won best public affairs {slash} community service for their video that they did. And then Jeremy Angelis, Jet Holt, and now Oscar Wilhelm, they won best animation at NATAS. And of course, they are taught by Sloan Ashworth there. At Centennial High School, Riley Catina won best editor. His teacher is Chris Sheets. And then Emerson Fox and Ryan Stevens from Franklin High School, that's Emerson right there, they won best fiction. And their teacher is Carrie Thompson. From Independence High School, Waylon Weaver won best director. He is taught by Matt Bolzer. And over at Page High School, Caden Powers won best writer. And his teacher is Dave Holt. And then we have two staff spotlights to tell you all about tonight. The first one, you see her here on the left, Carolyn Hankins, the band director over at Page Middle School. She was named the 2026 Outstanding Middle School Music Educator by the Tennessee Music Education Association. Huge deal for her. Congratulations. And this Yes, this last one I'm super excited about cuz this is hot off the presses, you guys. This happened this past weekend. Dr. Bill Tongate from Woodland Middle School is our national middle school assistant principal of the year winning that award from the National Association of Secondary School Principals. A huge honor. Bill, if you know him, you love him. He's an incredible guy and doing great work there at Woodland Middle School. Congratulations to all of our spotlight winners.

[applause]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, report. Thank you. Congratulations to everyone. Thank you, Corey. Okay, we do not have a board chair report, so we'll move right into new business. And we've got several items that are budget related. Um the first one of which is approval of the general fund resolution 05 .26 buses for buses in the amount of $659,848. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is uh a fund that you actually a funding that you actually previously approved in discussions with some of county government leaders, we determined that they have the capacity to pay this uh this this amount for expansion of our special education bus fleet out of the impact fee, which if approved by the county commission would actually increase our fund balance, which would shrink that gap I mentioned earlier. Do recommend approval. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All right, we're ready to vote. The vote is 11 yes, zero no. And that resolution is approved. Next item is approval of capital projects fund intent fund 05.26 for asphalt and roofs in the amount of $5,508,000. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is our annual request for asphalt paving and roof improvements that we will be taking to the county commission. We have about 50 campuses and if you visualize that uh we we have to do maintenance work pretty much every year to to maintain what we have. I did want to let the board know when we talked about this at the work session, the request we have this year is a little bit lower than we have we have done in this in these last few years because we wanted to truly evaluate can is there anything that we can delay just a year to to acknowledge what the county commission is going

through with funding. Uh but I did want to also mention this is capital. This is actually we we do not propose to pay this out of our operational fund. We do not have sufficient funds for that. Do recommend approval for asphalt paving and roofs for this year. All right, thank you. We have a motion and a second. Do you do you happen to know roughly how many different schools this covers? Uh Brian King, would you mind speaking to that? Yes, sir. On the [clears throat] uh asphalt and uh there's one, two, three, four um five schools. Um Spring Station, Fairview Middle uh Pinewood, Brentwood High, and Nolensville High School. On the roofing projects, it's uh Grassland Elementary uh and Allendale Elementary and our support services building. Mr. Chair, I did want to mention Pinewood is actually not an operating school. It's a it it it it has some of our staffing uh and uh we we do use it for for staff. Okay. Any discussion? Okay, we're ready to vote. The vote is 11 yes, zero no. Okay, that item is approved. Item number three is approval of capital projects fund intent to fund 05.26 security technology in the amount of $15,893,000. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is our annual request of the county commission for items related to technology and safety. It you all may see at the top of that uh at the top of that proposed resolution it has some detail. Security and network technology, video cameras, classroom

door access access systems, uh etc. Do recommend approval for these uh security uh and uh technology improvements. All right, thank you. We have a motion and a second. Same question here on the number of schools. I believe this may be year three of the three-year process. Is that right, Mr. King? Yes, sir. This will finish the fobs and the intercom paging systems. Okay. Yes, sir. So, roughly a third of our schools? Yes, sir. Okay. Any discussion? Okay, we're ready to vote. The vote is 11 yes, zero no. Okay, that item is approved. Item four is approval of education capital projects fund intra category transfer 04.26 LED field lights in the amount of $2,880,000. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You all recall that a few months ago we brought one of our items that had been on our five-year capital plan for a number of years and it come up for for our planned request of the county commission to put LED lights on all our outdoor facilities that currently have lights and that that was a fairly comprehensive request. County commission made the determination that they could not fund that. Uh so we went back to the drawing board and we looked at our contingency fund, which includes some rural and some general debt. The rural would be K-8 debt that uh the commission had already funded. Uh and the contingency would be funds remaining from projects that that uh that we did not have to spend based on savings. In the discussions that we've had, we do recommend that we use some of those contingency funds to at least get a start on that programming, which would be all the high school football fields

replace the uh if I'm not mistaken metal halide lights with LED lights, which generally speaking last substantially longer and if I'm not mistaken um Mr. King also have a higher lumen rate for the for the fields. So, do recommend approval. This is one that will actually be be passed without having to go back to the commission based on their previous funding decisions. Okay. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I have a question. What is the timeline on that if it passes? We're going to try to get it done by December. Thank you. December for the for the record. record Not holding you to it, but For the record, we would try to get it done by December. Yes, sir. We're not going to hold you to that, but that's an estimate. I might, Mr. Chair.

[laughter]

Okay, Mr. Beasley. Wait a minute, I'm sorry. I didn't I just saw the red, I didn't see the yellow. Sorry. Dr. Johnson first, then you. Sorry, I was listening to Dr. Johnson. Sorry, I don't have my mic. There we go. Um I was just wanting to know an estimate on like how much do we spend a year on like the current bulbs and or at least like what the cost saving would be. I know LED is much more cost saving, but just curious. Right now we're spending about 300,000. A year? A year. On all of these athletic field lights and replacing them. Sometimes it's just the bulbs, but sometimes it's the whole unit.

Okay. So, uh it's very expensive. We actually did analysis an analysis, Dr. Johnson, year a few years ago uh related to replacing all our lighting systems. Discounting the cost of maintenance and replacing bulbs, Right. it takes longer than 20 than a 20-year window to pay for the energy because they're football lights and they're not on all the time. But when you factor in the replacement, getting a getting a boom truck out there to replace the impact of lights being out, etc. It's a lot tighter. Yeah. Mr. Beasley. Mr. Chair, yeah, I was just wondering um if it was replacing the whole unit for these lights or is it the wiring or Yes, sir. It'd be the whole unit. The whole unit?

Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Okay, any further discussion? Okay, we're ready to vote. The vote is 11 yes, zero no. Okay, that item is approved. We will now move on to item B, approval of a resolution to update the annuity plan. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you know, um Ms. Farmer and Ms. Hall brought to you a proposal to update our our annuity plan, more specifically the 457B. And uh it takes the board approval to make a request of the state of Tennessee's retirement system for us to use their 457B program. Uh you heard some details at the work session based on the the very small number, if I'm not mistaken, double digits of of both our teachers, our classified folks, and our retirees who are using the existing 457. Uh what we have found is that the that the service and the proactive communication from Empower, which is the state contractor, uh has has has from an anecdotal perspective from our from our employees have been pretty positive, so we do recommend that we go to that. I did want to mention one other nugget. Uh Rachel and Vicki, correct me if I'm wrong. This particular product, unlike the product we currently have, allows for both a Roth and a traditional uh funding plan. It's great. So, I do recommend approval of this. Okay. Can I get a motion and a second? Thank you. Any discussion? Okay, we're ready to vote. The vote is 11 yes, zero no. That resolution is approved. Our final item of the night is tenure recommendations of the

superintendent to the school board. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a really important vote for a number of our teachers. Uh somewhere around 165 or so of our teachers are eligible for tenure. The tenure process is fairly stringent. Uh the the for those who may have might have some old idea of tenure, it used to be if you stayed employed for 3 years, then you were tenured uh as a teacher. Not true anymore. You actually have to go through a process of uh of a certain number of of months worked in a 7-year period with evaluations that hit a four or five level on a scale of one to five. Uh and these teachers have gone through that entire process and they are qualified for tenure. I proudly recommend them for tenure. Uh final thing I want to mention, tenure can be lost uh if a teacher's evaluations fall to a two or a one over a course of time as well. I will tell you since this since this new structure in tenure has been in place, I'm estimating something like 14, 15 years. Uh and I'm I am talking when I say old law, it was old. Uh We have our teachers have had a lot of success uh in part because of the high expectations they have for themselves and the high expectations they have for each other. Uh so, I do proudly recommend these teachers be approved for tenure. All right. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Just as a reminder, that list of teacher recommendations was in our packet that we received uh late last week. Any discussion? Okay, we're ready to vote. The vote is 11 yes, zero no. Okay, those recommendations are approved. And with that,

we've completed our agenda and we are adjourned.