Board of Education - Regular Meeting

night and he needed to walk This is the January 20th, 2026 meeting of the Williams County Board of Education. U welcome everyone. Uh our first item is our recording attendance. Board members, please record your attendance on the devices. There are 10 members present.

Thank you. We will now have our pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. Please stand. 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. May be seated. All right. Next item on our agenda is um our public comment period. Uh we have three individuals who've signed up to speak tonight. Uh each of you will have up to three minutes for your comments. Um, I will name I'll read off the names now and just be prepared to come up when it's your turn. I'll remind you when you get to the podium that there's a monitor there with the time on it. So, be mindful of your where you are with your three minutes uh as you're speaking. Um, our three speakers are Joshua Griffinamp, Beverly Pervvis, and Becca Ripley. So, please come up in that order. Uh, good evening. Uh, my name is Josh Griffinamp and I'm a parent at Fairview Elementary. I'm here to address the reinstatement of Mrs. Kirk after she threw a book in her classroom that struck a student in the head. The justification given to the family was that HR found no history of previous incidents and therefore no grounds for termination. And that claim is not only misleading, but it's factually false. I personally have documented history of

major classroom issues with this same teacher. In January of 24, my son Reed was in her second grade class. Uh we encountered significant behavioral and safety concerns that led us to coordinate a meeting with the school administration. I have email correspondence between myself and Dr. Murray, the principal, coordinating the meeting that directly contradicts the claim that there was no past history. Uh and ours wasn't the only issue. During that same time, another family friends of ours in that class also pulled their child uh completely out of Fairview Elementary due to the same emotional distress and safety concerns caused by Mrs. Kirk's behavior. Uh my family and theirs both faced the same patterns of problems that clearly shows that there is in fact a history. Now, looking at a bigger picture, what happened at Fairview Elementary isn't just about one teacher and it's administrative issue. When facts are omitted and concerns are minimized, trust breaks down. and that trust has been broken in Fair View. Now, this isn't the first time families have removed their children from her classroom either. There are other multiple cases in our community, including instances of both emotional and physical abuse that have led families to pull their kids from the school and the district. So, tonight isn't simply about disciplining one teacher. It's about holding the administration accountable to their decision-making and lack lack of transparency on uh uh the lack of transparency that's on the leadership here. Uh, culture reflects leadership. Superintendent Golden, you're responsible for ensuring that students are protected, that teachers are supported, and that parents are kept informed with the truth. On all accounts, you failed at that. [snorts] I've asked for the board to investigate now why this teacher was reinstated, why your history was hidden, and why parents had to connect the dots themselves. Our children deserve better. They deserve to be protected, and they certainly shouldn't pay the price for the failings of adults. I'll leave you with a quote from CS Lewis. He said, "Children are not a distraction from more important work. There are more. They are the most

important work. In the end, the legacy that matters won't be what you built in the world. It'll be who you raised and whether they felt safe, seen, and loved in your presence. Thanks. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board and our school community. January gives us something valuable, a fresh start. It's a moment to reset, refocus, and recommmit to the work ahead. As students and educators return from winter break, there is renewed energy in our classrooms and also very real needs that require thoughtful leadership and collaboration. On behalf of the educators in this district, I want to begin by thanking you for your service. The role you play as board members carries enormous responsibility and the decisions you make shape our not only our policy and budgets, but the day-to-day experiences of students and educators across our schools. We appreciate the time and care and commitment you bring to this work. As the new year begins, educators are focused on what they do best, building strong relationships, meeting students where they are, and helping every child grow. That work is most effective when it's supported by trust, respect, and often communication, open communication between educators, administrators, and this board. Strong schools are built on strong relationships, and those relationships matter now more than ever. At the same time, many educators are navigating increasing demands with limited capacity. They're doing extraordinary work, but they are stretched thin. As you consider decisions in the months ahead around staffing, resources, student support, and priorities, we ask that educator voices continue to be included early and meaningfully, the people closest to this work bring insight that helps decisions land better, and last longer. January is also a time for setting direction. The choices made now will shape the rest of the school year and influence whether educators feel supported, respected, and

able to remain remain in the profession. When working conditions are strong, students benefit. When educators well-being is pri prioritized, student success follows. We believe deeply in partnership and that means inviting educators to the table, listening to their expertise, and collaborating on solutions that serve both students and staff. Every lasting improvement in a school begins with the people inside it. And when those people are trusted and supported, schools thrive. As we move forward together in this new year, we look forward to continuing collaboration, grounded in shared goals and mutual respect. By working together, we can ensure our schools remain places where students feel supported and challenged, and where educators are able to do their best work. Thank you for your leadership, your willingness to listen, and your continued commitment to our school communities. We look forward to a building a strong and successful 2026 together. Thank you guys.

Thank you. Good evening, y'all. I'm Becca Ripley, District 8, Brassland Middle, and Franklin High parents. Tonight, I hope to encourage all of us to support and protect to the absolute best of our abilities the right of all Williamson County students to safely, confidently, and consistently access their education. We do not know if or when immigration and customs enforcement will show up at or near our Williamson County schools. I understand that Superintendent Golden assured us last fall that no one has access to anyone at school and that it will remain so going forward. However, given our updated dynamic and intensifying situation fraught with miss and disinformation in competition with actual constitutional law, it feels imperative that we articulate this reassuring promise again. Please keep our students and their families safe.

Thank you. Okay. Uh that is u our speakers for the night. Thanks you to each of you for uh being here. We'll now move on to approval of our agenda. We will do this by voice vote. Do I have a motion? A motion and a second. All those in favor of approval of the agenda say I. I. Any opposed? Agenda is approved. We'll now move to approval of our consent agenda. Do I have a motion? Motion and a second. Thank you. We'll do this by voice vote as well. All those in favor of the consent agenda say I.

Any oppose? Consent agenda is approved. And with that vote, uh, you have approved the following. Um, approval of November 17th, 2025 school board meeting minutes, board policies 3.210, naming of facilities, and 4.6000 report cards and grading systems, both on second reading. Report of annual review and of board policies. Approval of Encore summer enrichment program fees. Approval of easement from the town of Thompson Station for storm water damage. I'm sorry, discharge access at Independence High School. Approval of town of Nolanville rightway request on Rocky Fork Road and Newsome Lane. Approval of building modification Westwood Elementary entrance sign replacement. Approval of building modification. Centennial High School exterior sign request. Recommendation for field trip fee requests. We will now move to communications to the board. Uh superintendent report. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you board members for being here. I also want to thank our public speakers. Uh we make sure every month to have uh an opportunity for members of the public to speak. I do want to address just briefly a couple of the comments at public comment. You know, we often talk about our obligation to to protect the privacy of students. When we investigate issues related to our employees, they do not have that same protection. Uh uh and so the one good thing about this is we can present findings related to our investigations. And so uh we I do want to make sure uh we'll have some discussions at our HR uh with our HR staff uh related to make sure that we share uh the details with those who've raised complaints with us related related to whatever the issue may be. Uh also when there is a new allegation we'll make sure to investigate those issues as well. I do want to also thank Miss Pervvis for her comments. You know, uh, Beverly Pervvis is the president of the Williamson County Education Association. And Beverly, if I'm not mistaken, we had a discussion just a couple of weeks ago related to that renewal time, uh, where our students get that time, uh, to to to spend, you know, during the break, during the winter break, during Christmas time, often with their families and come back refreshed. And likewise, our teachers uh, can do the same thing and build that energy back uh, in their students uh, for that second semester. It's and I and I told our faculty and staff as we closed out last semester what a great semester it was and what a great opportunity we have uh for this coming semester. Uh so with that uh I am going to well I take that back. I got one more thing Carol. I was about to turn it over to y'all but one more thing. Uh this is not an afterthought. Uh annually uh Tennessee celebrates school board appreciation week. It happens to be next week. Uh

there is a small chance that we might be out for snow during school board uh appreciation week. Uh I don't know I don't know that for sure. But I did want to publicly thank you all as board members. School boards elected school boards in this country in my opinion are the closest elected officials to people. Uh and I appreciate you all for spending that time with people. Uh when you when you know you hear stories about when elected officials get get up to serving uh more folks as they go into other political other political appointments. Uh you hear stories about folks being detached uh from the people they serve. Uh I want to thank you specifically for not being detached from those you serve uh and spending that time. It's basically volunteer work in the community and so I very much appreciate it. So with that uh I we are going to celebrate our student and staff spotlights. Just as a reminder and especially for folks who who don't come here regularly, we celebrate state and national awards for our students uh and our faculty and Miss Carol Birdong and Corey Mason are here to present our student and staff spotlights.

Thank you, Superintendent Golden. board members. Uh Corey has a long list um of folks to celebrate, but as this is my last school board meeting, I wanted to officially pass the clicker. [laughter] So to Corey, so that there will be no question as to who is in charge of spotlights from now on. And I know he's going to do a fabulous job. I'm just going to wa stand here and and watch and observe supervise Thank you. How he does. Excellent. Thank you, Carol. [laughter]

Well, we do have a great list of student spotlight and school spotlight, staff spotlight award winners for the month of January. So, let's dive right in, shall we? We're going to begin out at Fairview High School where we have this group right here. They are in the TV film program there at Fairview High and they just won a national award. This is Fairview High School's second national award for this program this school year. This group is Cody Jenkins, Adam McCormack, Charlie Cool, Ava Schuster, and Ben McCormack. And they won first place in the short film Division 2 category at the 2025 Student Television Network Challenge Competition for the film that they made called Mixed Signals. And their TV teacher there at Fairview High School is Rob Gregory. Over at Page High School, we have this group of Ansley Alberico, Brley Nolan, Sterling Warden, and Ben Hawksworth. And they just won the 20125 Future Farmers of America State Meat Evaluation Championship. And they are taught by Tommy Green. And also at Fairview High School, you have here Anderson Wright Meyer, Paley Doyle, Izzy Melton, and Mia Clement. They are also in FFA and they won the Future Farmers of America State Horse Judging Championship. Again, Tommy Green is their teacher.

Page High

at Page High, I'm sorry. At Brentwood High School, we have Lauren Banavac. And you'll recall in November, we honored the teams that won cross country state championships. Lauren Banavac won the TWSAA Girls Class 3A cross country championship, and she is coached by Christopher Ditra. And of course, Paige High School, this happened in December and um they won the class 5A state football championship. Incredible year for them. Their coach is Charles Wthbone. Congratulations. We have two staff spotlight award winners that we want to recognize. From Brenwood High School, we have Dr. KP KP Mole who won the Tennessee uh T TNSP high school assistant principal of the year for the Middle Tennessee region. And Dr. Bill Tunga from Woodland Middle School won the Tennessee uh Association of Secondary School Principles Middle School assistant principal of the year for the state of Tennessee. He is actually moving on to the national competition. So best of luck to him. And of course, now this is my favorite part here. We have our reward schools. And if you don't remember, back in November, we announced that we set a new district record for the number of reward schools with 35. These schools are being recognized for achievement growth uh by the Tennessee Department of Education. And so, as you see here in the audience, we have administrators from all of those schools here tonight to be recognized. So, we're so excited. We're going to go through one by one. Administrators, if you would please stand when I say your school's name and then we'll hold our applause until after we finish and we'll recognize each one. We're going to begin with Allenale Elementary. Please stand. Cindy Davis. Then we're going on to Arrington Elementary, also named a reward school for the 202425 school year. Bethesda Elementary.

Chapman's Retreat Elementary is also a reward school. Clovercraftoft Elementary, College Grove Elementary, Creekide Elementary, Crockett Elementary, Hunter Bend Elementary. Jordan Elementary was named a reward school as was Kenrose Elementary, Libcom Elementary, Long View Elementary, Mil Creek Elementary, Nolanville Elementary School, Oak View Elementary, Sunset Elementary, Thompson Station Elementary School, Trinity Elementary, Walnut Grove Elementary, Winstead Elementary, and let's give it up for the elementary schools named award schools. Congratulations to them. [applause] All right, y'all can be seated now and we'll move on to our middle schools and we're going to start off with our only K- through8 school, which is Hillsboro School. Please stand. [applause]

Also, Brentwood Middle School can go ahead and stand, followed by Sunset Middle School and Woodland Middle School. Let's give it up for them, our middle schools. [applause] Congratulations. [cheering] And at the high school level, let's begin with Brentwood High School, Centennial High School, Fairview High School, Franklin High School, Independence High School, Nolanville High, Paige High, Ravenwood High, Renaissance High School, and Summit High School. Let's give a round of applause to our high schools. CONGRATULATIONS. [applause] NOW, while that concludes our student, staff, and school spotlight award winners, uh I'd be remiss if we didn't take a moment now to just say thank you. Thank you, Carol, for your 29 years of service to the students, families, and staff of Williamson County Schools. We appreciate you. THANKS FOR [applause] [applause] [applause] COREY, if I may, Carol, I'm gonna speak before you do. I'm gonna let you have the last word.

Okay. Uh fir first uh I did want to congratulate our our schools for the reward school status. As Corey mentioned, it's the largest number of schools we've ever had with a reward school status. The state measures academic achievement and growth. uh and the way the formula is structured because of the way the growth formula is structured to some degree our schools are actually competing with each other sometimes for that reward status because they measure similarly performing students against each other. Uh so it's doubly impressive, triply impressive uh that that you all have that reward status. So many of you have that reward status. Congratulations for your good work. And I want to emphasize that that reflects both student mastery and growth of students. Uh and and we have made it a focus this past year to grow our students with unique learning needs. And those faces, board members that you see out there in our audience are the ones who drive that work. Uh and I know many of you all know the teachers who are actually in those proverbial trenches every day doing that work. So thank you all for that. Uh with that, Mr. Chair, I also want to, if I may, Carol uh congratulate Carol on a uh a career well well done. Uh she's she's retiring after 29 years. Her last day is next Friday. Uh and this is, as we mentioned, her last board meeting. I jotted myself a couple of notes and it I was tempted to pull out a thesaurus because the word iconic uh popped into my head. The work Carol has done has made her iconic in the community. 29 years uh in this position means that some of our parents were students when Carol was making those snow calls. And maybe I don't know about the math, but

yeah. So I'm GOING TO HAVE LEFT [laughter] THAT ONE OUT. JUST SAYING. OKAY. WELL, wi with that um I'm I'm finishing up my 20th year. Carol's close to her 29th. I've had the privilege of being her colleague for a long time and Carol, if I'm not mistaken, at least on paper, I have been your immediate supervisor more than anybody else. So, I'm very proud of that. Right. Yeah. Uh but when when we speak of her being iconic, uh the community knows her for her snow day calls and loves her for her snow day calls. She started maybe on day five they don't. We may deal with that next week. We'll see.

That's right. [laughter] Uh but but she has become iconic in the community for us. She built the communications department from the ground up. Uh and she taught us uh the value in communicating and with our families. As our community's needs and expectations have grown over those three decades, Carol has helped us to grow and I want to thank you for that. Not only has she made a difference for our community and made a difference for us as professionals, but she's been a state leader. Uh she was instrumental in getting the state comm communications professional uh association put together. She has taught many other districts across the state what a communications department can be. Uh and I appreciate your state leadership uh for that. uh finally and I she she mentioned that she was going to turn this over to Corey and uh and watch him. She's done an excellent job training Corey and it it's it makes me smile. Corey, is this your 17th year with the district? 18th year with the district.

Uh so it's taken longer than the full metriculation time from kindergarten to high school. [laughter] Uh but but that long professional relationship uh of Corey, our leadership team knew that Corey was wellprepared uh and we've known it for years. The the interview that we had with Corey uh after Carol announced just reinforced that to our leadership team and I see some nods from our from our team. Uh Corey, thank you for being so professional through that time. Uh and I know that you all actually grew each other uh through that time. So congratulations for that. Finally, I think it's fitting that as Carol is scheduled to retire next Friday and this is her last board meeting, we're getting threats of snow. The National Weather Service has told us that they project um I the numbers are crazy, Carol.

3 to 20 or something. Yeah. Somewhere between Yeah. [laughter] Uh why not?

At the moment, at the per at the moment, the projection is the snow is scheduled to arrive on Saturday. As you all know, I think you know, we monitor this regularly. Uh I can't guarantee the weather, uh but I will tell you that it would be fitting if the very last week of Carol's long career, uh we have some snow days. Uh uh I I I don't like snow days. I don't want to be off. I know that the vast majority of our faculty and staff disagree with me on that, but uh uh we'll we'll see how that goes. Uh but Carol, thank you. Thank you for being um uh empathetic. Uh thank you for being a leader and thank you for doing it uh through service. So, and I know Chair Chairman Brown, you actually stood up. I would ask that this this uh the the folks here present do that one more time

and give Carol one more standing ovation. Thank [applause] you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[applause] You don't get to I You said I could say something.

Okay. All right. Just um I want to say thank you to you, Jason. Um to the board, to my friends, my leadership team friends, to all you people. I love you. I love I love them so much. Oh my gosh, I've gotten a tear. Uh, I've been smiling the whole time. Um, that is what I will miss. Um, is is everybody the people um because these people, oh my goodness, they're if y'all don't they're the they're they're wonderful humans. They work hard every day. They um they have so many good things going on in their buildings. Um, we can't there's no time to tell all the stories, right, Corey? I mean, we could not, if we wanted to, share all the great things going on in our buildings. Um, our students are great, our parents are great, our teachers and staff are are great, and that's what makes this district what it is. It was wonderful when I got here. It's wonderful now. And people just continue to grow, develop, evolve. We've evolved. H, and you have to. But I could not be more proud uh to say that I am able to retire from Williamson County Schools um after what's been just a wonderful career that not many people can say that they've had. And um thank you. I'm gonna thank you one more time publicly for letting me leave

THE WAY NOT [laughter] FOR letting me for letting me um leave the way that I asked to be able to leave. and that was to um be able to um announce my retirement and then announce Corey um as my successor because that is was so important to me um that the transition be seamless and with Corey it will be seamless and I am so proud of you and I'm so proud proud that you are going to be leading the communications department, y'all. He's great. He's wonderful. And uh you will love him as much as I do. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank y'all. Love you. [applause] Well, she slipped out of the room before I could say this, but I know I speak for all current and former board members when I say thank you to Carol for uh all of her work and for her career. Um in many ways she you Carol if you're listening to me um have been the face and the voice of Williamson County Schools. So we appreciate you.

Um anything else Jason? No sir, that is my report. All right. Uh we will dispense with the board chair report and move right into new business. First item is uh we have a few u budget related items. First one is approval of capital projects fund uh intent to fund 02.26 Hillsboro K through8 renovation in the amount of 1,800,000 for the current fiscal year. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is actually year two of funding for the Hillsboro renovation project. I do recommend approval and upon your approval, we will then take it to the county commission for that request.

All right. Do we have a motion and a second? Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we're ready to vote. The vote is 10 yes, zero no. Right, that item is approved. Next item is approval of capital projects fund intent to fund 02.26 Grassland Middle renovation in the amount of $4 million for the current fiscal year. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Likewise, this is year two of a three-year project uh to do some renovations to Grassland Middle uh which opened a little over 40 years ago. So, do recommend approval on that one as well. All right. Thank you. We have a motion, a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we're ready to vote.

The vote is 10 yes, zero no. That item is approved. Next item is approval of capital projects fund intent to fund 02.26 sports field LED lighting in the amount of $12 million for the current fiscal year. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We've had on our five-year capital plan uh the replacement of the current lights at the high school football fields. You all may have gotten requests u over the years related to the the burnouts uh on those lights and it's hard to replace them. Uh we've let the commission know via the five-year capital plan that this request is coming. This request is actually timely because right now there is a window of time where we uh we have an opportunity to apply for TVA rebates uh that may actually be close to 10% of uh of the total cost. We really won't know that until we go through the full project, but we do recommend approval so that we can take this request to the commission.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Okay, seeing none, we're ready to vote. The vote is 10 yes, zero no. The item is approved. The next item is approval of capital projects fund 01.26 intracategory transfer split log middle in the amount of $700,000. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh as the board knows last [clears throat] at the most recent meeting two two months ago uh we had a fairly detailed discussion about the next project for split log middle. This is a request for funding the engineering and preliminary work so that we can project out uh uh towards our construction project that's defined in the five-year capital plan. This particular item does not need to go to the commission because it is out of contingency uh rural contingency K8 funding that we have uh for capital projects from from prior projects. So I do recommend approval uh tonight for that early engineering work.

All right. Thank you. We do have a motion in a second and I'll just underscore what Mr. Golden said. This was as a reminder to the board. was the result of our vote as a board to move this project up a year from the um from the recommendation that was originally in the five-year plan. So, that's what triggered this. Um Dr. Johnson.

Um, I just wanted to reiterate that thanks to the board for voting to move that up and thank you for moving it forward because I know Woodland, Paige, Mil Creek Middle, if you look at the numbers, we can't wait to alleviate some of the crowding. So, just wanted to say thank you. All right. Thank you. Any other discussion? Okay, we're ready to vote.

The vote is 10 yes, zero no. All right, that item is approved. Next item uh is approval of the salary study contract. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our board policy actually requires uh the board to approve any consulting contract of $10,000 or more. Uh so that is one reason that this is on for uh for board approval. Uh the other reason is that we had set a goal an annual goal for us to conduct conduct a professional uh salary study. So we have the uh the uh the lowest and best bidder uh through that uh request for proposal project that we do ask for your approval for us to uh to fund that contract. Certainly open to any questions you all may have.

All right. Thank you. We have a motion in a second. Miss Clemens, thank you.

Um, I was thinking about this over the weekend and realized that, you know, we've been wanting a study like this and we're thankful for it. Um, and I know it'll set a precedent for years to come, you know, going forward to understand the salary study. Um, I had some questions, um, that I wanted to ask. Um, I think I've got four here. Um, how many consulting firms were considered? Um, and then what rubric or criteria was used? Um, or did we just pick the lowest bidder? Um, wanted to know the location of Leaprog um, Business Solutions. I believe that's who was awarded the contract. And then, um, what conversations have been had about what the study will include? I think we've gotten some things. Um, I can ask more about that after.

Thank you for that. But I'll give you I'll give you the start of that and then I'll turn it over to um Miss Vicky Hall to give you some other detail. Uh we set a a uh uh through the RFP the request for proposal the detail of what we were asking for and it was related to every one of our salaries. Uh and and and I'm going to turn it over to uh to Miss Hall to share some of the detail related to the location, how many consulting firms and the lo um and uh and any conversations they've had. I know our HR staff has has had some detailed conversations with LeanFrog related to our schedule uh because we do want to make sure that we have some preliminary information by May. The company has said we will get you the the the the the outline of our proposals for May but we believe we will actually be working beyond that uh to make sure we have uh the entire detail uh related to that. I will tell you also I do know from our discussions as our leadership team uh after after the committee uh the administrative committee reviewed the proposals some of the proposals actually included additional services that were not part of the RFP with a substantially higher cost. Uh so so with that Miss Hall if you would answer the detail of that those questions.

Sure and thank you for asking. Um we did have four um companies that put out a proposal and um there was an evaluation process that was um that was entered into there were 13 members of the evaluation team that were district um district people and part of that was um the dollar amount that was assigned to their their offer. Um but there was also um a little less than half was more of that that qualitative um factors that were that were weighed in. We broke into four different groups so that we got kind of four different perspectives to review the proposals and uh LeanFrog was able to offer everything we asked for in the RFP and we did get some very good references for them and they scored the highest overall score. So, not not just from a dollars bound, their their total was was the highest for us. And um they are from Huntsville, Alabama, and they've done several districts in Tennessee. I think about 90% of their business is actually public school districts. I may not have answered everything, Miss Clemens.

Yeah, I think you did. Um, it was funny because I looked up that group and like Australia came up and I'm like, well, I know that's not it. So, and Huntsville didn't. So, I'm I'm thankful for that and and to know that they've had several districts in our area. Um, and then one of the things that was talked about at work session, I just wanted to double check on this that they're going to be it's going to be all employees. Yes. Okay.

If if I may, Mr. Chair, one other one other item. Uh, and I've had this discussion with some of the WCA leadership. Uh, this group will analyze recommended salaries. This has nothing to do with the revenue side of our budget, right? And so when we get this information, we're going to have to do some work related to our revenue with with recommendations that they have. So we'll we'll have a lot of work to do once we receive uh the the final product as well. And I project that this has a potential to be a multi-year uh project. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Any other discussion?

Okay. Seeing none, we are ready to vote.

The vote is 10 yes, zero no. All right, that contract is approved. Next item on the agenda is approval of open zone schools for 202627 school year. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh we have a a memo with a lot of good information that Allison Nunley prepared for you that's in our board packet. I definitely encourage parents who are going to be looking uh to the future for the potential of open zoning to look at that memo that's in the board packet. Uh so the state actually has set up a structure uh requiring annual recommendations and uh votes for uh open zone schools. I used to talk about and so I'm going to mention it again. The irony of this is much of what was included in that state law was a reflection of a longstanding process and policy that we had in place for open zoning. They added a little bit to it, but the basic format was based on how uh how we open zone. So presented to you as our recommendation for open zoning, part of the detail uh for our families who might be watching or uh or interested in this is that there is actually a requirement after a vote for a two-eek delay before the window opens under state law. Uh so under our board policy, uh we've we've uh structured that based on the state. Upon your approval uh of the open zone schools, if you approve it tonight, the out of zone uh portal will open on February 4th. Parents will have the opportunity to electronically make their request. Uh um that window will stay open until April 16th. And if enough students fill up the request for the open zone seats that are a particular school, we are required to have a lottery for the remaining seats. If I'm not mistaken, last year we had somewhere around 42 of our schools open zoned. And I think if I'm not mistaken, Brian, we had uh maybe two waiting list for schools. Is that right? I'm sorry, I had that wrong. Originally there were four but then all seats filled for for

all but two or have I still got that wrong? Three. Thank you. Uh so so the vast majority of our students who do choose open zone do have that opportunity but we can't give an answer until after that April 16th because of the state structure. So I felt like it was important for families to hear the basics of a of the calendar as you all approve that.

Okay. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? I do have one question. Um that roughly two-month period of time when the portal is open, is there um any preference given based on getting in first versus getting in last in that period? In other words, if if there are 50 open slots for a school and 40 people apply for it, if you were first or 40th, you're you're treated equally in terms of preference. That is correct. If you're first of 40th, you're treat you're treated equally. Now, I will tell you, I would recommend if a family's interested in doing it, get it in early. Just basic human sense, right? Uh just so as so that you don't forget. I will tell you our experience is we have a large flurry at the very beginning and traditionally a flurry at the very end uh with little in between. Uh so I do encourage encourage folks to get it get in. Uh because of that lottery requirement of the state. uh we we we do have a a system where we put the names in and uh uh it's it's to the extent computers can randomize it's randomized

and the ones who don't make it after the lottery process is done or on a wait list. That is correct. And I will tell you also sometimes families will will put two schools in and so they might be on a waiting list uh a family might be on a waiting list and someone who was ahead of them changes their mind. uh because there is that window. All right. Thank you. Any other discussion? Okay, seeing none, we're ready to vote.

The vote is 10 yes, one abstain. All right, the zone schools are approved. Our final item for tonight is a resolution celebrating the USA's 250th anniversary. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned at the work session, as Tanya Hiba mentioned a few months ago, uh the the possibility of uh of the board um uh voting on a resolution celebrating our nation's 250th anniversary. I know many of you have seen that as soon as January 1 hit, discussion started. uh our team had already been having discussions about finding opportunities at all grade bands uh to celebrate. One of the one of the key items that we focused on is recognizing that July 4th comes at a time when students aren't in school. Uh but but we wanted to make sure that we laid an appropriate groundwork for our students to to know what's coming uh when the when the summer comes. Uh so we do have this recommendation that the board pass a resolution celebrating the 250th anniversary. Uh Dr. Zoyer and Webb are here and uh can share if you all have any questions some of the processes they've gone through with their administrators uh to make sure that we recognize that and help our students even a little bit more than the state standards and curriculum where patriotism is even taught at kindergarten uh from the very beginning to their very last year when they're taking US government uh that to to know and respect and love our nation.

All right. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Miss HMA, I don't know if you have any thoughts or want comments you want to share this since you brought this forward. Yeah. Um I Yeah. I just as a school board, I just wanted to support our our district, the administrators and um and the principles and and the and the staff and just um and just give our our school an opportunity to to share in this celebration and just be uh just to support them in that in that. And I'm excited to hear some of the things that are um you know being uh considered and so it should be an exciting um 2026. Thanks.

Thank you. Thanks for bringing it forward. Any other discussion? Okay, we're ready to vote.

The vote is 11 yes, zero no. All right, the resolution is adopted. With that, we have reached the end of our agenda. We are adjourned. Thank you.