Board of Education - Regular Meeting

What's the Wonder.

March 23rd, 2026 meeting of the Williamson County Board of Education. Board members, let's begin, if you haven't already, by um marking your presence on the uh device.

There are 12 members present or I'm sorry, 11 members present. Thank you.

We'll now have our pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. Please stand. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. Thank you. You may be seated. Next item on our agenda is our items of particular public interest. Our public comment period. We have six individuals who have signed up to speak this evening. So each of you will have up to three minutes for your comments. Uh I will call um I will call you by name. Um I'm this time I'm going to call the first person first and then I'm going to call the next three together and you'll understand why. Um you'll just please pay attention to the monitor on the podium for your time. Please be mindful of that. And um we'll start. Our first speaker will be Brad Davis. Over the past few months, I've reached out to former colleagues and longtime friends who each have spent decades in education in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. And unfortunately, they're seeing the same rising trends of violence in their elementary schools

that we're seeing here. Dangerous assaults or attempted assaults with scissors or metal water bottles are becoming more common. Death threats from students with documented histories of violence are increasing. And more and more students are getting angry, destroying classes, destroying classrooms in explosive ways, forcing students to evacuate for their safety. But what sets them apart from us is they seem to be better able to navigate federal laws in ways that put all students in a best position to succeed. And here's how they do it. Suppose a student with or without special needs has repeatedly shown the kinds of behaviors we've discussed over an extended period. And suppose the school's already tried multiple interventions and modifications to help the child succeed, but nothing has worked. In that case, assuming the school carefully documented every attempt and its failure, they hold a meeting to discuss next steps. When no other options remain that can help the child succeed in the current setting, a recommendation is made to place the student in a separate classroom, one designed to provide targeted therapeutic support. If everyone involved, including parents, agrees, the move happens. But even if parents disagree, the school can still proceed with a recommendation because parents have the right to appeal this decision as they should. If they appeal, it goes to mediation where is reviewed by a neutral third party to determine whether the changes are truly in the child's best interest. If mediation supports the recommendation, parents are given the option to accept the plan or choose online schooling. Mr. Golden, at last month's board meeting, you said that disciplining students with special needs is governed by federal law and those laws are preventing students in our district from receiving access to behavioral modification services and programs. So my question is, what

federal law would be violated by following this exact process, the one Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama are successfully using for all students? And who would lose if we did? Would students who act out in these extreme and violent ways whose actions are often cries for help be better served by therapeutic interventional settings that teach them to regulate their emotions? Would the many children in those classrooms who come to school each day afraid finally feel safe and be able to focus on learning? And what about our teachers? What if they could come to work each day without having to worry about whether or not the child will destroy the classroom or seriously injure another student? Let me be clear. My goal is not to remove bad kids. It's to put all our students in in the best position to succeed. My hope is that you will actively pursue these programs so we can share the same success stories other districts and states are seeing

time. None of the educators I spoke with claimed this is a magic fix that guarantees success, but each said it's common for students who once showed violent, threatening, or destructive behaviors to successfully reenter and perform well in regular classrooms. Thank you.

Our next our next three speakers are Amy Cook, Eden Cook, and Vivian Cook. Each of you would have up to three minutes. Hey everybody. Uh, my name is Amy Cook and I am both a parent of a theater kid, a wrestling mom. I'm a football mom. I am also a PTO board member. I've served in various capacities on the PTO for over 10 years. And so I've l looked at a lot of budgets. Okay. Um, actually this is the first year I've been on Mil Creek Musical Theat's PTO board. I'm the secretary and I can honestly say this is the first time that I have seen uh us seen a line item that we are to pay the director's salaries. So just wanted to like first of all thank you because last year you guys really did help. You really did help. um you voted to help make athletics and uh theater supplements somewhat um equitable, but it's still unfortunately not. So the PTO currently this year were paid they paid for one show. That means the parents PTO has paid for JTF and and that was the show you just saw and the they're not Williamson County is not paying for the teachers this spring for newsies. So here's what the process looks like when WCS can't pay for it. Parents pay the PTO. I'm broke. You'll hear from it from them because of this. Parents pay the PTO. The PTO then pays Williamson County and then Williamson County pays the supplements. And I just find that a

little backwards. And so what I'm asking for you Oh, good. I have a minute left. Okay. So, what I'm just want to say is as a mother of pe of children that also do sports, I can say I have never had to pay a the coaching fees ever. that's never been a line item on the PTO budget or anything. And that's just not fair. I want to say they work just as hard, but they it's just not equitable. And so, uh, we aren't having to ask who's going to afford this football coach this year or anything like that. So, right now, we have a thriving, nationally recognized program that is giving students opportunities that many wouldn't have otherwise. There is real potential to continue to growing growing something ex exponential for the fine arts across the district, but that won't happen without consistent and reliable funding. So, we didn't even know until after the budget was sent in to y'all that they were even going to get paid for this year. So, my recommendation would be every summer this principal meets with the directors. We they tell you how many shows because some schools might just do one and that's fine. They'll get paid for it. But if they're going to be as awesome as our school and do three, then we can ask for funds to support that instead of the parents having to pay for it and then the PTO's doing it. So, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. All right, Eden and then Vivian. Uh hello, my name is Eden Cook and I'm a seventh grader who's been a part of seven productions in the Mil Creek Middle School theater program. I'm here today not just to speak about one teacher or one program, but about the importance of the arts as a whole. Um our theater program is something really special. It's not just about putting on shows. It's about giving students the chance to grow in confidence, creativity, and teamwork. Some of the opportunities I have already had, many don't get into a college or outside programs. Um, right now our program is thriving and even gaining national recognition. Recently, the JTF team, you just saw won the JTF competition and got to perform in front of 7,000 people. I was Kitty and it was definitely one of the top highlights of my life. Um, programs like this don't grow or even continue without support. You all have an opportunity to build something truly exceptional in fine arts across the district, but that can only happen with consistent funding of teachers and zeppelins. Uh, my parents are broke. Uh, can can you please help us? And thank thank you for your time and come see Newsies next month. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Vivian Cook and I go to Mil Creek Elementary School and I'm a fifth grader. I'm really excited because next year I get to be part of the Cedar program. I've been watch I've watched the older kids perform and it looks amazing. They're confident, creative, and they work together like a team. It makes me feel excited and a little brave just thinking about being a part of it. Um, the arts are important because they give kids a place to belong and a ways to express themselves. Not Not every kid plays sports and that's okay because I'm way better at memorizing lines than running laps. I also hope we can support our teachers the way that they deserve. They work really hard to make these programs possible. It would mean a lot if they could be paid at by the school so families don't have to carry that responsibility. I hope that whenever I get to middle school, this program is still strong and growing so me and other students can have the same opportunities the older kids have now. Um, please continue to support the arts. Thank you for listening and please pay the directors.

Thank you. Our final two speakers are Jason Greathouse and Beverly Pervvis. Think I'm going to need to raise this up a little bit. Right. Ready. Hi, my name is Jason Greathouse. I'm a proud parent of two Williamson County School graduates and a candidate for school board in District 2. I'm here tonight to oppose the changes to policy 6.30 that are on the agenda. It's clear from previous board meetings that these changes are in a direct reaction to discipline problems arising from students organizing or participating in walkout protests. I believe WCS made their policies and stances clear in the February 17th article published to the WCS website. principles proactively met with organizers, informed students of the consequences, and suggested alternatives to skipping school and disrupting school activities. And yet, still some students chose to walk out and accept the consequences. Why? Because sometimes you need to get in good trouble so people will pay attention. There are three proposed changes that I'm concerned about. Number one, removing skipping class from the level one offense, which effectively elevates to a level two offense. Number two, leaving campus without permission from parent, guardian or student or school administrator as a level two offense. And three, urging other students to engage in skipping class, leaving campus without permission from parent, guardian, school administrator as a level two offense. Regarding skipping class is a level one offense and adding leaving campus without permissions level two offense. I understand the need for discipline, but there are multiple there are multitude of reasons why a student may choose to leave campus. The board should allow principles to have discretion when assigning punishments. Punishing a student for urging others is not a discipline policy. It is a targeted attempt to chill student organizing and political speech. Talking about it, talking about doing something is not an offense. Organizing is not an

offense. If a student chooses to skip class, that is on them. But rejecting these changes are not enough. What this board has not addressed is why students walked out in the first place. In the weeks before our students protested, ICE agents detained four children from one Minnesota school district. A 5-year-old was taken from his driveway when he was returning home from preschool. A 17-year-old was taken by armed mask agents while on his way to school. This is just the start. I could go on. Our students see this. This isn't hypothetical. This isn't an excuse to get out of class. They walked out because we have done something right. We have raised educated, concerned citizens who will speak out to protect their community. It is informed and relevant. This board's own foundational document commits to WCS to equal educational opportunity for every child without regard to national origin. If that promise means anything, this board needs to act on it. Instead of adding policies to further punish our students, I am asking this board to develop a policy to protect them. a formal policy that requires valid targeted judicial warrants before any federal officer may access our schools, our students or our student records. Several districts across the county country have already done have already done exactly this. Now it is our turn. Instead of punishing, we should let our students know that we see you, we hear you, and we will protect you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good evening board members, Superintendent Golden, and district staff. I'm Beverly Pervvis, president of the Williamson County Education Association. I want to begin by thanking you for prioritizing the people who make our schools work. Your decision to include funding for a 4% cost of living raise for teachers and staff sends a clear and important message that Williamson County values its educators and understands the realities realities that they are facing. This adjustment is not about keeping getting ahead. It's

about keeping up. Rising costs continue to impact every employee in our district and this investment helps ensure that our teachers and staff can remain in the communities that they serve. More importantly, this decision strengthens our schools. When we support educators, we improve retention, we remain competitive with surrounding districts, and we provide stability for our students. Consistency in the classroom matters and that starts with keeping great educators here in our county. Williamson County has long been recognized for excellence and that reputation depends on the people in our buildings every day. By including this funding, you're protecting that standard and investing directly in that student success. We know that there are always competing priorities in a budget and that makes this decision even more meaningful. It reflects a commitment not just to programs but to our people. On behalf of our educators and staff, thank you for making this a priority. We appreciate your leadership and your support.

Thank you. All right, that concludes our public comment period. Uh thanks to all of our speakers u in particular Eden and Vivian. You did a great job. Thank you. All right, we will proceed with our agenda. U we next item is approval of the agenda. We'll do this by voice vote. Can I get a motion in a second? I make the motion. All right. Have a motion in a second. Any discussion? All right. All in favor say I.

Any opposed? Okay. The agenda is approved. Our next item on the agenda is approval of our consent agenda. Get a motion in a second. Thank you. You'll recall that at the work session we um agreed to move these two policies um 1.203 203 and 6.30 onto the consent agenda. Um, is there any discussion of the consent agenda? Hearing none. All in favor say I.

Any opposed? Okay. The consent agenda is approved. And with that vote, we approve the February 17th, 2026 school board meeting minutes. We approve on first reading policies 1.203 and 6.30. 3000 and we approve recommendation for field trip fee requests. Okay. Our next item on the agenda is communications to the board and our superintendent report. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you board members. I want to especially echo, Mr. Chair, what you've said about the public speakers. I know that our students just left uh those who spoke. They are middle school students. So, so uh we're we're very happy to to hear from them. did want to make a couple of uh comments with respect to our students with disabilities. We do have multiple placement opportunities for those students that our teams work through uh to find that most appropriate uh lo uh local and services for the for a particular student. Uh we are constantly working on that and I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that that is a daily conversation uh somewhere in the district for every student who has disabilities who receive services. uh and we continue to look for opportunities to to find ways to better serve them with that baseline fundamental importance that we actually mentioned at our work session to keep students safe. Uh which has to be which has to be our our first priority. Uh second, uh you did hear some comments board members about some of our some of our professionals who work work technically on supplements but more fundamentally more substantively on giving extracurricular services to our students across the district. Uh in in some sports there are opportunities for booster clubs or PTOs to support additional coaches and that does happen from time to time in in some sports. Also, we have expectations for those extracurricular activities that sets that that standard expectation for what a professional does in that time they they are serving students in an extracurricular activity. And sometimes, quite often actually, our teachers go over and above uh over and above that standard. And so uh my interpretation of what was shared with you by some of the students and and their mom was an example of one of those wonderful teachers who goes over and above. Uh and that is something that we are regularly

working on as well. Uh and sometimes that over and above raises the standard. Uh when more people go over and above it becomes that expectation and it's ultimately a good thing. That's one of the reasons we continue to look at our supplements. Uh and in addition to our salaries, uh we as you all know we are currently in a in a salary study uh where we're going to be uh looking at every single uh payment uh structure that we have whether it's hourly hourly rates for some folks to salaries for others to supplemented positions. uh to especially with a market focus to make sure that what we're doing from a market perspective is appropriate for the environment that we're in. Uh we also know that we live in one of the most uh uh expensive communities uh to live and that many of our folks uh live out of county and drive into the county to serve. So we we're we're aware of those things. But I got to tell you, the professionalism of our teachers and what they do are story after story after story of the wonderful things our our our teachers do. You all know it. You've been to many of our activities uh just in in school and in extracurricular time. But I wanted to make sure everyone knew again that uh we continue to focus on that and find opportunities when they arise uh for us to grow. Also did want to mention that uh the two policies that were on for first reading were placed on the consent agenda. So they've already been approved to move to the next policy committee meeting. uh and the board will have some continu continued discussions related to those two policies uh that were mentioned tonight. As you all know, we spent the bulk of our discussion at our work session last Thursday night talking about budget. Spent a few hours discussing that. We actually decided to forego a few of our regular reports because of that because we knew uh that that was going to be a long and detailed discussion. Uh so I often will give a

very short thumbnail sketch of what we talked about at our work session in this report. Uh but we talked about budget largely uh and so I'm I don't have any additional information to share with you related to our discussions. Uh I do want to let you all know that we will be preparing for April with more discussions from our from our screen time committee. uh also with some information that some of our board members have asked about related to an update on on where we are with the library with the library policy that was instituted at the beginning of this year uh and some other items. And so with that, Mr. Chair, uh you all may notice that Corey Mason is standing in the back. We had, if I'm not mistaken, Corey, zero student and staff spotlights last month.

That's right. And we're going to make up for it tonight.

Yes, that's what I thought. the the positive warning that more was coming. Lot of success. This is the time of year where you start hearing about our student successes and the wonderful work that's going on in Williamson County Schools as we continue to grow. Cory Mason, thank you. Yes, you guys. We are going to start with our 56 National Merit finalists. You guys, 56. Incredible. This is actually the eighth consecutive year that Williamson County Schools has had more than 50 national merit finalists, which is just absolutely unbelievable. So, we're going to begin at Brentwood High School with Melinda Kai is one of the National Merit finalists there, as is Zachary Carpenter, Ella Christopher, Chaplain Clower, William Culum, Grady Deon, Ryan Gardi, Hudson Hill, Male Jacobson, Reed Loel, Walker Schul, Wally Sadikar, Young Ju Yi, and Claire Jiang. From Centennial High School, we have Turner Hannah, Elise Marlo, Noah Saxs, Ardan Smith, and Adriana Yokum. Over at Franklin High School, we have Mary Francis Brekie, Maline Carico, Liam Hatley, James Spruel, Edwin Thomas, Benjamin Xiao, and Anna Zone. Now to Independence High School. Carter Harrington is representing there as is Joe Kirby, Asher O'Neal, Owens Sauer, Aiden Turpin, and Nora Utsie at Noansville High School. Stone Bell is

a national merit finalist as is Sarah Brafield, Charles Jerel, James Jenkins, Sombra Mcconan, Caroline Caroline Renegger, Hayden Stewart, and Junade Usman. Then we have Paige High School where Everett Borie, Alan Brown, Evan Moore, Bailey Murray, and Huntley Peek are all national merit finalists. And over at Ravenwood High School, we have Vihan Busa, Alexander Yion, Yanukulius, Ruhi, Gupta, Kathleen Guillian, Nun, Hun, Varun, Teha, Kilaru, Nolan, Meyer, Varsini, Moana, Sakarin, Janie, Norwood, Priti, Patel, Abduazim, Rakmanov, and Arouch Tia Yagura. Now to athletics, and we have four state champions in the sport of wrestling. This face here you might recognize from just a little while ago. He's a well-rounded student, Reed Loel, also a National Merit finalist. Well, he is also the TWSAA class 2A state wrestling champion in the 138 pound class. So, congratulations to him. Then over at Nolanville High School, you have Brody Melzone, who is also a state wrestling champion, but he is in the 175B class, and his coach there is actually his father, Johnny Melzone. Over at Ravenwood High School, you have JD Longley, who is the state wrestling champion in the 144 pound class. His coach is Josh Peek. And over at Summit High School, Zachary

Little. He is the wrestling champion in the 157 pound class and his coach there is Pete Miller. All right, now on to the arts. We did aca academics, athletics, now the arts. And we're going to begin with All State Choir. We have from Brentwood High School, Jackson Campbell, Dorothy Romans, and Reagan Schmicker. Marcus Dilling over at Centennial High School, Sarah Holland, Jack Ives, and Anna Mrick are all representing All State Choir at CHS. Over at Franklin High School, Roman Sterski. From Paige High School, we have Jesse Bray, Abigail Coochuba, and Isaac Mobley. Then over at Independence High School, we have Megan McMullen is all state choir. From Nolanville High School, we have Bella Barnes, Phoebe Bowen, Kristen Dunn, Jacob Gray, Campbell Johnson, Cooper McDonald, Ellia Piper, Sophia Scribner, and Anna Ross Wetszel. And then at Ravenwood High School, Samuel Botulac, Addie Dempsey, Eli Miller, Estebon Pedes, and Drew Porter are your all state choir members. And then over at Summit High School in the south, we have Cadence Aurora, Bella Rose Dunlap, Nathan Hoggard, Aiden Lee Johnson, Aninssley Emanuel, and Cody Maize. Let's go to All State Band. Starting at Brenwood High School, Regina Choy, and Natalie Cow. Then over at Centennial High School, we have Helena Bailey. From Franklin, James Vincent, Judah Phillips, Lydia Smith, and Zoe Sailor are representing. And then at Independence High School, you have Daniel Kim. Over in Noansville, Karen Arnett, Katie Shaw, London Flugal, Holden Prior, and Cohen Rutland. Paige High School, you have Eli Wallace,

Murphy Ivy, Libby Greeno, and Violet Zimmerly. Then from Ravenwood High School, we have Ashwath Propoo, and Eastston Markham. Over at Summit High School, a Adam pard purin, Ethan Johnson, Saurin McDaniel, who's not pictured in this photo, Nicholas Edwards, and Euan Bar. Now to all state orchestra. Starting with Brentwood High School, Oscar Zu, Jude Lee, Aaron Kim, Gordon Shing, Ununice Young, Joanna Lee, and Violet Rocher. From Franklin High School, we have Valentina Vilchess. Over at Independence, Brody Batinelli. Noansville High School, you have Livia Huggin, London Huggin, and then right there in the middle is Jason Lim. At Ravenwood High School, we have Maven Adam, Vib Vibha Catalia, Rodrigo Bishop, Evan Brown, Claire Quan, Evelyn Zadell, and Zach Mcatee. Now to all state theater acting. We're going to start at Brenwood High School, London Fair, Cameron McClean. Cameron is not pictured in this photo. Uh, Celite Schmicker and Reagan Schmicker. At Independence High School, Meredith Hollands, Annabelle Kirby, and Anna Claire Wodssworth won that honor. Over at Nolanville, we have Kristen Dunn, Ellia Piper, and Sophia Scribner. And from Paige High School, representing is Benjamin Allen. Now to All State Musical Theater where at Brentwood High School we have Cameron McClean, not pictured but Claire Perry and Reagan Schmicker you see there celebrating. Over at Centennial High School, Claire Billingsley and Olivia Russell from Independence High School. We have Elliot Child, Meredith Hollands, and

Annabelle Kirby. from Nolanville High School. Phoebe Bowen, Isabella Claudefelter, Emma Claire Elen, Izzy Ford, Francesco Giodano, JT McCoy, and Natalie Rogers. Then at Page High School, we have Emma Bayz, Jesse Bray, and Visaya Chanapa. And from Summit High School, Cadence Aurora. Now to All State Design and Tech from Brenwood High School, Alexander Dillard and Wy Donald. Kick things off. Centennial High School, we have Charlotte Anne Bennett, Matteline Fleming, Jackson Ives, Olivia Russell, Kate Simmons, and Jameson Whitlock. Over at Noansville High School, we have Kristen Dunn, and Reese Plank. Now to all state playwriting. We kick things off with Noville High School. Lauren Dowling earned that honor. Congratulations to her. And then over at Paige High School, you already saw him once. Benjamin Allen and Cameron Burbeck also got that honor. And then last but not least, we have one staff spotlight that we are celebrating tonight. You see her here, Laura Parker from Noansville High School. She was named your allstate theater teacher of the year. So, we're super proud of her and we're proud of all of our student spotlight award winners for the month of March. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is my report. All right. Thank you, Mr. Golden. Um, there is no board chair report tonight, so we will move right into new business. And that will uh we'll start off with our approval of our 202627 fiscal year proposed budget. Um and we'll begin first with our general purpose school fund budget. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh as I mentioned in my superintendent report, the board spent a few hours going through our budget. Uh I wanted to just give you a couple of highlights from that uh rather than rehash that entire discussion. Number one, when county government had a discussion about their budget, there were two key proposals from Mayor Anderson to his his departments. Number one, cut 5% of their operations budget uh and to have a conversation. Number two, to have a conversation about any positions, any new positions that they were asking for. uh when we went through our budget well and and then on the revenue side, they had a plan to have a 4% pay increase uh for county government. When that was announced a few months ago, I let the county commission budget committee know that we knew on the front end that we did not have sufficient funding to do that without additional help from county government. And that's where we are. So when we presented to you all our preliminary budget in February at our work session, uh we let you know that we were projecting at that time a a gap uh between revenue and and our our our projected expenses of about $39 million. Over the course of that month, we learned some things, a little bit more information related to our revenue side and we worked hard on reducing our budget on the expense side to to the point of uh we eliminated a little over $4 million in our operational expenses and we went through every position that we had uh including some of our open positions and asked the question especially in the context of open positions. If if uh if that position has been open in essence from a vernacular, can we get by without it? Uh ultimately uh in in being able to increase the revenue a little bit more because we

were able to look at our projected fund balance by being careful with our expenses these last few months, getting a little bit more information on some sales tax revenue that's come in over the past month or so. Uh, and we were we were able to move that projected revenue up close to about $9 million if if I'm if I'm right, Rachel. On the expense side, we did something very similar uh in cutting operational expenses plus we ended up ultimately cutting about 5.65.7 million in personnel cost. uh we do project that that does not include any individual employees but it is a matter of addressing where we are uh with uh with with that budget plan. So the net result is we we have presented to you a budget that is that has a gap now of about 20.1 million. Uh we uh we have included uh in honoring county government's recommendation for their pay raise of a proposed 4% to fund a pay raise for our staff members. That cost is about $12.5 million. So, the $20 million gap represents about $12.5 million in that in that proposed pay to match what county government is proposing for their employees, plus another gap of about $7.5 million uh based on um based on our cuts. We went through additional detail related to how county government projects their revenue, especially uh their revenue based on property taxes and how they actually funded a portion of this year's pay increase with a change in how they projected revenue. In other words, not any additional funds, but they changed they changed their projected revenue receipts on property tax from 92% to 94%. uh they actually um did did increase funding a bit last year to help

cover a portion of that pay increase as well. But for us uh what we've done with this budget is done what county the county mayor asked of his departments and more. Uh we've met his expectations for his departments and we've done more. Uh but we are still left with that gap. One of the one of the comments I gave you in when we finished the detail related to that proposal was that we have in our cuts impacted efficiencies and how we support schools. Uh but we know that in all the work that we did line item by line item if we go any further we are convinced based on our work of many many days uh that it will have an impact on our services. So we stopped short of impacting our services. We've created some inconveniences, some reductions in efficiencies uh based on the financial need. Uh but we can still get the work done with what we have. So we've concluded in the presentation we gave you that this is a reasonable and appropriate budget and we've done what we can to meet county government uh uh to to their standards and their expectations. I know that there's likely to be some questions, Mr. chair. Uh that obviously there were a lot at the work session, but I felt like it was important again for you all to have that to have that nutshell. From a procedural standpoint, we have a responsibility to get the budget to the county commission by April 1st. Uh then they start their discussions. Uh education committee looks at it, budget committee looks at it. Uh they they will vote on these budgets uh and make recommendations to county commission and ultimately the county commission is scheduled to vote on our final budget in June. So, we will have a number of meetings uh through that time and get a better feel for what capacity the county has and what decisions they make related to what we're proposing in keeping with the parameters that have been set.

All right. Thank you for that explanation. We have a motion and a second on the budget as presented. Um do we have any discussion, Mr. Cash?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, thank you, Jason, and uh, thank you, Miss Farmer, and the staff for working so hard to try to make this budget work. Um, I' I'd really like to take a minute here and just kind of go over a little history that I personally have lived and had the privilege to be part of uh, this school system for 36 years. And, uh, uh, it's it's awesome. I I've got three graduates. Two of them have college degrees, successful business owner. I've watched eight grandchildren get started here in Williamson County, and now they're from fifth to the second year in college. I've seen Williamson County grow from 11,500 students in 1990 to 270 today. I've seen or to for 41,300 today. I've seen our schools grow uh with the ACT scores. 19 in 1990 was average to this date. Ours is 25.3 in 2025, the highest in the state of Tennessee. That's just one accomplishment. And as we go on, we have more. In 1990, the the uh population was 82,000 in this county. It's 270,000 today. And through all this growth in the pace that it happened, this school system buckled down and never missed a lick. We stayed on it and we continued to

grow. And the best part is is we had support from our staffs, our teachers, our principles, and even the local government and the public. So, we've always had that support. Now, a huge part of this growth can can really be contributed to the great success of Williamson County Schools uh due to their student outcome. That's been one theme that I've heard for 36 years because we really got involved with the schools because we were moving here. We wanted the best for our kids. But that theme from from day one was always Williamson County puts students first and their outcomes are the most important. And they and we still feel that way and have that priority today. And our record proves it. All you've got to do is just listen to some of the awards going on right now. I mean, every time we turn around, our students are performing top-notch, the best in the state. Uh this SEC success rate has been accomplished through dedicated parents, teachers, principles, um staffs, members of our community government, and by the general public. Again, we've had support all this time. I have seen so many programs be created to help kids that are a little bit behind uh that need a little extra help here and there. Uh programs like RTI, special tutoring programs, summer camps, TAs in every classroom, uh front office help. We don't we don't we don't look at that as so much for uh

student support, but that's where it comes from. Office help. uh counselors, um attendance coordinators. These are all things that have to be done. These are support services for this school system. Last year's budget, the board was left with a huge g dollar gap. Our staffs made cuts and moved items around, leaving $12 million for teachers raises back to the commission. Who found the money? Again, we made cuts then and this year we're left with $39 million gap. We gave them our budget. We were told about a raise. We're going to do all this stuff. We give them the budget and they'd send it back and say, you know, cut 5.3%. I can see tightening your belt. but a $39 million gap. Our staff did cut 5.33. As Mr. Golden said, some funds uh are we're they've moved around so we can kind of spread them out a little bit. I you know, you can go into detail with the budget. We've cut operational budget to the core without cutting direct student services. We are st still stuck with $20 million gap which are actually our teachers raises 13 million and $7 million increase over last year's budget. And I have to ask you has anything went up this year? Are the prices is it more expensive to buy things? Is it more expensive to build? $7 million isn't a lot to ask for a budget over last year.

We can no longer to continue to make cuts that provide that have provided our students and teachers the tools that they need for this continued great success that our students and teachers have achieved. Williamson County Schools is the benchmark school for the state of Tennessee. So many school systems in the state look at us for guidance whether we know it or not. We're number one. This right was not handed to us, handed down to us through the years. It was earned. It was earned from dedicated people from day one, 35, 40 years ago and building this school system upon that. And again with support from our local government staffs, everyone involved and including the public, I don't see why there needs to be a change at this point. Williamson, the Williamson County workforce and our county commissioners collectively have have supported us. We need this combined effort to continue. I encourage everyone involved in the public especially take a look at the awards that that uh our students earn number one spots in everything arts you know sciences tech everything all our education our children are right at the top the outcome is awesome you can't deny it it's fact um we've set goals that uh seemed unattainable uh for many years. But look at look again at the accomplishments of our students

and our teachers and our staffs. I'm I'm voting to send the two $20 million gap back to the commission to find the money to fund the teachers raises of about 13 million and give the schools $7 million to cover inflation and whatever else happened this last year. Uh give it back to us. We have the money. This county has got the money to pay for this. We've got an education fund that sits there. I don't last time I heard $97 million. We've had special tax uh taxes for education. I know impact fees on the average house are 14 to $18,000. There's money out there for education. It's time we used it rather than turn it around and put us in a bind like this proposed budget is doing. Um, we have come too far uh in growing WCS into the first class educational organization it is today with major cuts that will affect direct student support systems that are all involved with the student outcomes. Let's not try to fix what's not broke with major budget cuts for this system. THANK YOU. ONE ONE CLARIFYING QUESTION BEFORE I get to Mr. Galbreth. Um when you talked about the operational cuts, can you can you just reiterate the the number of positions you made

that were being that are we are proposing to reduce this year over last year or next year over this year rather. I think I'm going to ask uh Miss Farmer to give that just to make sure we get the exact number. 28.9 in this fiscal 28.9. Thank you, Mr. Gworth.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, Rachel, would you mind um I think you have these numbers because we talked about it, but in your presentation, um I didn't ask on Thursday night, but then we followed up. When we talk about the preK and EC enrollment, um the numbers show the preK and EC enrollment at a our current enrollment is 7:30 and a but the projected enrollment is 555 and then we have the total current and then the total projected. So can you just explain the numbers for the like apples to apples either the projected end of first month and projected end of end of year and how specifically the EC program works and how the budget kind of includes just because we pick them up as soon as they turn three. Just we talked through all those details.

We did. So in September into first month in 2024 um the actual enrollment was 651 into first month in 25 was 607 and so what we're projecting um is the 555 and so what the question um that Mr. Galborth is asking is EC particularly students come in they enroll as soon as they turn three and so the projected number at the beginning the end of first month is going to be less than where we ended and so when I told you our current enrollment for prek and EC is currently 730 that's higher than that projected number but it's because we will end the year with a higher number just as children hit that three-year-old age mark

so what are we projecting are we we're projecting 550 55 for the beginning of the first month, the end of the first month. But then, but then what do we project the end to be? It'll be right they generally end somewhere right around 700. Um, and so we don't have a true projection of the end of the year next year. I can just tell you currently we have 730. But the but our budget is actually based it unlike unlike other things. Our budget's actually based on on the ending number, not the beginning number because we do anticipate we always have that growth every year as the as the students enroll.

So, if I may, Mr. Galla, put put a little detail on that just to make sure everybody grasp this. Um, we have an obligation and responsibility to serve students with disabilities who are age three and four before they reach kindergarten. Uh, to Rachel's point, the moment they reach the age of three, that's when they can enroll. So we we have an we need to staff the teachers based on where we're going to be at the end of the year because it's impossible to find teachers virtually impossible to find teachers mid year. So I just wanted to put that piece in there as well.

Right. No, I I I completely appreciate the the feedback. And so I guess it's just important um to understand where does the what kind of funding do we get for the EC program? TISA does not address the early childhood program at all. It's not mentioned in TISA. Uh so what we get from the state is the body of funds from TISA but there's nothing specifically designated in it for students with for for age three and four students with disabilities um in the in in the base amount. Now Rachel there's

we do get some we do get state um one state grant related specifically to EC and one related to prek um both of which are around $600,000 each. Right. So, there's a state grant and then sometimes we were able to use some of our federal funds for for a particular students with disability programs. Uh I'm not sure off the top of my head, Rachel. There is there we didn't get any this year. Last year it was about $100,000. Okay. And then um and I know you don't know you don't have the EC necessarily broken out, but what about what about prek? Like how is that how is that funded?

Same thing. prek. We do get a state grant for it and it was around $600,000 um last year was about $550,000 um this year. So we get we get a a small amount of federal funds, a couple of grants, no state funds. Um and so we But are we we're are we mandated to do these programs? Yes. By whom? Federal law. PreK and EC.

Oh. Okay. So early childhood only. Uh so so at the state level you will hear this phrase phraseology voluntary prek and then maybe prek or prek for students with disabilities. The early childhood is our terminology that you're not going to see typically at the state level. Uh voluntary prek is just that it's voluntary. We do not have an obligation to provide that. We do have a responsibility, a legal obligation to provide those services to age three and four students with disabilities. But does everybody provide these? I mean, is there anybody who doesn't provide prek across the state?

There are some school systems that do not provide voluntary prek. Yes. But every public school has a responsibility to serve the three and four year olds with disabilities. But you'd serve the three and four year olds and then you would say that they that they can't come to school for the then they take a year or possibly two off before um I guess how much of the how much of the EC population moves into prek? Um none. Those are two separate programs. They're they're

No, I get that. But but it's the the So they So your EC population, your three and foury old population are they're not participating in in prek at all? They are not participating in voluntary prek. They are receive it's a two different programs that that are run concurrently. Oh, so but they but it ends at three and four. It doesn't continue or it's not continuing to kindergarten. Those students will metriculate into kindergarten when they finish those programs. Okay. So there's not a there's not a break. There's those EC goes straight in. That's correct. But the fact is the fact is we're we're paying all these out of I mean largely a vast majority of the funds are coming from local dollars. That's correct.

Um and we're not getting any money from the state. Not very very little. That's correct. Thank you,

Dr. Driggers. Um to the board and the public, I'd like a shout out to Rachel Farmer. I do not have a finance background. And I asked her once if we could roll it off to the millions. Round it off. She said, "No, sir. We have to count for every penny." Think about that. Every penny in more than a half billion dollar budget. Every day, every week, every year, she gets new data and she always has the answer for us. So, thank you. Thank you. That's all. Thank you.

Well said, Dr. Johnson.

Thank you. Um I just want to take some time because I need to clarify a narrative that I felt was being played out on Thursday that um accusing me of not supporting teachers. Um I want to start by reading an excerpt. You know, think back thinking back to when I was in school. I never remember a school fundraiser at the beginning of the school year. While I did participate in a few school fundraisers, it was because I sold items to raise money to participate in an extracurricular activity um such as I was in orchestra and um my parents just didn't have the funding to send me on the trip so we could sell I think those candy bars. You remember those candy bars? um today. Um I don't know of any schools that don't begin the year with not one but two, three, four, however many fundraisers they're doing. I I can't keep count how many times I get asked for money. Not just at the beginning of the school year, but throughout the school year. Um I also want to share, you know, if you all don't know my background, I have almost 30 years of experience in education. I taught in Kentucky, North Carolina, and been here in Tennessee for a while. Um, I want to share that, you know, as more and more money since I started in the late 90s has been put into education, it seems like we have less and less. And one of the reasons for that is, if you're not aware, education has become a very big business. In 2021, it was ranked the eighth largest industry in the United States with an estimated 790 billion in revenue. Well, what happened when people realized they could start making money off of

education is they start coming up with like creative little programs or um ways to get that money in my opinion as far away from the classroom as they can so they can make money on it. you know, with the amount of money we've pumped into education. I mean, our teachers should be making six figures by now if you think about it. Uh, just some things I've seen over my career. I was a middle school science teacher and the first time I heard the word STEM, I was like, "What's that STEM? What I got to go?" Because people started pumping money into that. I was like, "Well, I got to go find out what that is." Well, guess what? That was just good teaching. Somebody packaged it into a nice little bowl and started marketing it as STEM. So that pulled money away from teachers in the classroom. Technology, you know, we've had a lot of discussions about technology. I mean, this country has spent billions of dollars on technology and now we're trying to actually get away from it, right? Because we're finding the detrimental effects that it's having on our students. Um, another big one is, you know, the assessment field. Again, you know, this country has spent, I have a quote here, in 2021, states across the US spent 1.7 billion a year on standardized tests. We're, you know, the standardized tests don't really do much to support student success. Um, for me it's almost like an autopsy, especially like the TECAP. Um, the state of Tennessee I think spend spends about 85 million over I don't remember three or four years. I don't have the exact quote. Um, and so like I said, education has become a big business. Fancy curriculums came out. I

think Witten Wisdom is a good example. again they got people at the commission level to buy into it and then that led to school districts paying for it. So the reason why I talk about the coaches is because my dissertation work is in teacher professional development. Um I did you know a lot of study in that area. I think instructional coaches are great. I just proposed that we could do it for less than 11.3 million. And you know, I'm not here to not support teachers. I would love to reallocate that. If we if we re reallocated that money, we could give almost $3 to $5,000 raise to our teachers on top, you know, on top of the 4% raise. Um, you know, I was elected to this position to hold C central leadership accountable and making sure that we're doing what we can and spending taxpayer being good stewards of taxpayer money. So, with all that being said, I would like to make a motion to cut the the instructional coaches and I guess the SSS instructional coaches because that's about 11.3 million uh from the budget.

So, the the motion is to cut the entire 11.3 million. Yes. Is that correct?

Mhm. That is a proper motion. Is there a second? Motion fails for lack of a second. So, we're back on the original motion uh which is the budget as presented. Any further comments or questions? So, I am going to uh in my role as an individual board member uh not as chair, I'm going to make a comment and a and then a motion. The first of all, the comment is to say how much I appreciate Mr. gold and you and your team going through the exercise that you did to try to be responsive to the commission um and to the to the mayor um in making the cuts that the county government is is being asked to make. Um you've gone above and beyond, your team has gone above and beyond to do that. Um and I know I think all of us are grateful for that exercise. We, as we just heard, we've got a budget in front of us that's reducing our FTEEs by 28.9. Uh we are actually uh spending less money operationally, proposing to spend less money operationally next school year than we are this year. Um and I believe that's the second year in a row that that's happened. Is that right?

That's right.

So, and I think all of that is appropriate given the the flat growth that we've had the last two years. So, I think kudos to you. One of the things that we talked about at the work session the other night was that one of the things you brought forward in your plan for the cuts was to not fully fund the the social studies textbook adoption and to to only um to not fund the uh elementary school portion of that. And we talked through some of the logistical challenges of that, some of the the pros and cons, if you will. And I think, you know, one of the things I took away from that discussion was that it's not actually in the best interest of the students and the teachers to kick the can down the road on that, that it's better to have the entire curriculum uh in our hands when school starts with everyone trained on it. Um I think that's really the the the more wise approach. Um so I want to make sure I got the number right. the the the reduction or the amount of money that we would save off the 9.7 million for textbooks would be is it 2.1 million to not adopt it for elementary school?

2.2 million. Okay. So, we're we're looking at a $20.1 million gap with what you propose. Um I'm I'm proposing making a motion that we restore $2.2 2 million in funding in order to fully fund the textbook adoption, which would take our gap to 22.3 million. And I'll just say as a side note, if you look at the amount of money that we were asked that we're saying for 4% for teacher raises is 12 12.5 million. Is that right? Yes, sir. And somewhere in between my number and

12.6 million 12.6 in between mine and Mr. cash is number. So if you think about 12.6 million and then 9.7 million for textbook adoption, those two items are what essentially what constitutes the gap. So, we're saying in order to give our teachers a 4% raise and our staff 4% raise and to fund a textbook adoption completely, um that is what represents the gap that we would be voting for if this motion were to pass and that's what we would be taking to the county commission. So, that is my motion. Is there a second? Second.

Okay, we have a we have a second. Is there any discussion on the motion? I was just gonna ask if could you repeat the numbers again just Yeah. So I got lost in translation. The motion is to restore $2.2 million. 22 2 million. Is that right? Make sure 2.2 million back to the budget request in order to fully fund the textbook adoption. So that would leave our that would create a gap that is as proposed by the Jason and his leadership team of 20.1 the gap would actually end up being 22.3

and I and I realized that there was some uh discussion at the um at the work session about whether to do this midyear and come back and take it out of fund balance. Um it's my view that either way we're going to be asking the county commission for approval um whether we do it now or whether we do it then. And I think if we know that it's in the best interest if we believe it's in the best interest of the teachers and the students to have it already in place and funded and then um so they can plan and prepare for that then I think we should in my opinion uh address it. Now Dr. Reeves, is this on the motion on the Okay. Um, yes, I um agree and I wanted maybe Dr. Allen or um Miss Sour to speak to what what they already told us at the work session, but I wanted it repeated at this meeting about the changes particularly at the elementary level related to the social studies standards because that's what this affects. You're on.

You're on. If I may, if I may, I would I would uh call Miss Sauer up to speak to that. She did a great job of explaining that last week and uh has all that information ready to go for you.

I'm going to say the same thing that I said to you guys when I got asked the question about the uh social study standards. Give me one second to pull that up because if you remember it was kind of a complicated slide puzzle and I don't want to misrepresent accidentally some of those changes that are happening. Okay, so the question was about what do we anticipate and probably anticipate isn't even quite the right word because the state has already released to us here's what the upcoming social study standards are going to be. So we know in secondary so sixth grade through 12th grade the standards changes are relatively minimal in those social studies courses. So, there's going to be some small changes in wording. They're going to be some small changes in content, but relatively minor. Elementary school is where we're seeing some really big shifts in standards, and particularly third grade through fifth grade. So, if you don't mind, I'm just going to read you this quick summary that our social studies specialist gave me to be able to report out to you all so that you have the information. So in third grade, their semester of geography standards is moving to fifth grade. In its place, grade three will receive several US history standards from fourth grade up to the 1850s. In grade four, their semester of US history is moving to third grade. In its place, grade four will receive several 20th century US history standards from fifth grade. Grade five, their semester of 20th century US history is moving to fourth grade. In its place, grade five will receive the geography standards from third grade. So, I hope that gives you kind of a summary of that slide puzzle of standards that our elementary

social studies teachers will be navigating as we move into both that standards adoption and the curriculum adoption that goes along with it. So, I appreciate the board seeing the connection between our social studies elementary teachers having access to that curriculum as they're also navigating those instructional changes for their students. And if I may just add a bit just from a timing perspective, these will apply in fall of 2027 as I think through what year are we in right now? Yes, that is correct. So in our in our budget, we include in the 26 27 budget the cost so that we can prepare for the next school year. Correct.

Thank you. Do you guys have anything else for me? Mr. Garber, this on the amendment. Okay. Okay. But it's for um it's for Miss Farmer. Um, so on your on your slide, Rachel, you say we've got the net reduction in operation cost or 4.2 million. Is is that the 5.1% decrease? It is. Okay. But we actually we actually cut um 8.5 million of expenses. We did. We and then we had um what makes up the the and then we had to add in we added they had to added in textbooks and then there were some other operational expenses

well like insurance the building content insurance adding the IC

the new IC right and so these are these are decisions that we made prior that have that have costs but but I think it's it's important because if you take if you if you deduct the $2.2 2 million that that this amendment is supposed to do. And that means we made gross cuts of 6.3 million, which is well in excess of $5 million. It's 7 something million, right? So, I think Mr. Golden, we can we can honor Mr. Brown's request here. Um, and I I just think you need to you you can tell them how much how much we cut and how many operating expenses that weren't in last year's budget are in this year because of a change in timing. So, we actually cut more than 5% even without this shifting to shifting this between years and making them do a a fund fund balance adjustment. So, I think we've more than honored the commission's request and the mayor's request to um to reduce the the operating budget by 5% even netted this.

Thank you for that. We were looking at it as a as an aggregate. Um this budget includes a spike in the cost for textbooks. U because the current year we are we are replacing um college some some college and career tech and then health, right? And that's actually on the agenda as well. We had about 2 million or so budgeted for that. But the social studies purchase is about 9 million. But then so that's the $7 million gap. So that gets to what you were talking about. But this is not an ongoing expense because the next year the cycle is not is another CTE cycle. That's correct.

Um and so it's not it's not math or social studies or science again. It's it's another off cycle. So our So we're going to go we went from we went from roughly two something million dollars to nine and down to three or four whatever the whatever the number is. It's not because we cut $6 million out of the budget two years from now. It's because we're on a cycle and not everything gets purchased every single year. That's right. Yeah. So you're right. We cut 8 million plus in operation in operations expenses knowing that our textbook cost was going to go up.

Yeah. And so I'm just not I I'm I'm going to agree with Mr. Brown on this one. I I was I was going to play the game and um and I and I just don't think I don't think it's worth it. I I don't think it's worth the risk that the commission says no to to moving and to allowing us to use the fund balance um and and risk us not having textbooks ready for the kids. That just doesn't make it based on a decision that we're making right now in 27. our kids might not have textbooks until like September, October and and there's that's no way to run a school district. So, I'm I'm in support of this one. Thanks.

To your point, I I I do want to emphasize we project the next year's budget will not have this large textbook purchase. It won't it's it will probably be in the 2 to3 million range compared to nine this year. Any other comments on the amendment? And I'll just before we vote, I'll just reiterate you you and your team have done what you were asked to do and I think it's needs to be on the record that you've done that. Um so um you know we this is hard stuff. This is hard work and you guys have done it. So thank you for doing that. Um all right, we're ready to vote on the amendment. Um

recommendation what's your recommendation? Uh based on this discussion I do recommend approval. All right. Thank you.

The vote is 11 yes zero no. I'm sorry, one stayain. I'm sorry. That's an absent person. I'm gonna start over. The vote is 11. Yes. Zero no. All right. Thank you. The motion is approved. So, we're now back on the original motion, which is the general fund budget as amended. Any further questions or comments? Would you please, Mr. Golden um restate the the ultimate budget number that we're voting on here. Uh thank you. Before we proceed to a vote.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'm actually going to turn that over to Rachel just to make sure we get the numbers exactly right to u to uh Mr. Dr. Driger's point. 571,684,432. So, one more time, 571,684,432. Mr. Welch, what will the new funding gap be with this amendment? 23.3 million. I'm sorry. Is that I'm sorry. 22 22.2 million. Is that correct? 2.3, I believe. That's again why I'd usually turn to Rachel. I should guess.

Yeah. I want to hear Rachel say I'm pulling my calculator up. I have I'm just being thrown out here. Okay, hang on. 1 3 4 6. Okay, it's 22,334,686. So 22.3 rounding. Correct.

Okay. Um, so we voted for it. So, the county commission says no. Do we roll over like normal or are we going to put our sword in the ground and sort of fight for this? All right. Any further comments on the motion as amended? Mr. Golden, your recommendation. I do recommend approval. All right, let's proceed to a vote.

The vote is 11. Yes. Zero no. Okay. The 2026 27 budget is approved. Next item is our 2026 27 central cafeteria fund budget. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we discussed and as you all know from our many years of discussion, the central cafeteria budget does not include any local taxes. It does have some federal funding plus uh purchasing from our families. So based on the the budget that we presented, I do recommend approval for that budget. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Seeing none, we're ready to vote. The vote is 11 yes, zero no. Okay. The cap central cafeteria fund budget is approved. Next item is the approval of the 202627 fiscal year extended school program fund budget. Mr. Golden. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is our SAC budget. This is a self-funding um uh service that we provide our parents uh at the elementary school. do recommend approval of uh this budget proposal. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Seeing none, we're ready to vote.

The vote is 11 yes, zero no. Okay. The 2627 extended school program fund budget is approved. Next item is approval of the 20 2627 fiscal year capital outlay request. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This year's capital outlay request uh it's a total of 13,665,250 which represents uh about $470,000 less than last year's. These capital requests long represent long-term uh improvements uh and repairs largely repairs to our school facilities for our 52 schools. I think we have, if I'm not mistaken, about 48 49 campuses uh for those 52 schools. Uh do recommend approval of this capital request budget for those capital uh repairs.

Okay, we have a motion in a second. Any discussion, Mr. Galborth? I hate it that our county commissioner left right before we get to talk about capital, but um the um Rachel are I know there's approximately $92.5 million in the education impact fee um bank account reserve um on the commission side. Um, but do any of these amounts would any of these amounts qualify? There there's nothing growth about these. These are all replacements or maintenance.

Um, and we're Can you Can you remind us on our on our five-year capital plan like the timing of when we're going to be asking for um for the for the money for the two schools that are up next? So, the current year, the the year we're in currently 2526, we will be coming with an intent to fund um that you all uh agreed to add to the 5-year capital plan specifically for uh property middle school on split log road. And so, that would be this this year. And in that total, 17 million of it was request would be we will be requesting for this year. Um the next projects then we're looking at or an elementary school in

Do you do you have that do you have that do you have the five-year capital plan handy? I will pull the

I'd love I'd love to just I just want to see the I would like to see what um so that's in that's in this current year but then in the fiscal year that we're talking about 26 27 I just want to know what our what the fir the 20 26 27 um first year number for those for those next two schools would be. I I just want to demonstrate the fact that we um we're able to fully fund those um out of the education funding. It doesn't. So they'll they would be able but in in order to in order to con in order to start that project where there will have to be an intent to fund by the commission um and that intent to fund is going to be for the middle school um is going to beund plusund some odd thousand million dollars u which is in excess of the of what's in there today. But that but then that construction will be funded over the next couple fiscal years. So conceivably that entire middle school could be paid from the education impact fee. I just want to just want to kind of prepare what's what what's going before. I just want to make everybody aware that not only before the county commission funds our budget. They're going to see the they're going to see the operating budget. They're going to see this and they're going to see our intent to fund for for the middle school. Um but but that middle we're in really good shape on that. Um I just I know that we're going to be facing some there's a lot of speculation. Well, you know, we're here. I mean, you see the numbers. We're we're down 20 students next year. So, we can't possibly have the need to to fund and we there but there are needs that we need to continue to fund even though we don't have growth. And if we're going to continue to charge the education impact fee, um, we we can't rack up hundreds of millions of dollars that is intended to

to fund the growth. So, we still do have growth in pockets that requires and I'm not going to be on the board to um to to participate in the in the future resoning, but I I just I warn I guess admonish the board to um to not try to to solve the the lack of growth and the pockets of growth um solely by moving people around and and it's it's not a like I all the work that we've done to get um to get feeder patterns and commun keep communities together, keep high schools and and middle schools um in a in a tight geog tightest geographic region as we can. It's not perfect by any means and there's lots of growth in in the south that and it it's still in flux and that's just the way the communities work. But for the ones that that have really solid feeder patterns over the last, you know, 6 8 10 12 years, um it's such a sense of stability for those communities. And if you out of out of a desire to to keep from borrowing money only um decide to to kind of domino resone people um and you're touching people 10 15 miles away, 20 30 40 miles away. Um because we won't build a school and we will end up building the school. um it'll just be years later and then we have to domino rebound them back and I I just I I just don't like that mentality especially when we've got almost $100 million of of capital left. So

thank you for that. So from a number perspective we do project right now that middle school cost is $103 million. That's the number in our five-year capital plan which is actually very close to what is in that impact fee fund right now as I understand it. Uh and thank you for your comments related to to zoning. There are practical limits on how far a student can get bust within the window of time. Uh and so that's that's that's on our minds as well. Uh we do expect to recommend some resoning uh this fall. Some we'll go we propose to go through the resoning process this fall with a plan for that to take effect in fall of 27. But again, we will be limited. you can't fully domino effect uh students across the across the district especially when we have some growth in some regions that you mentioned. Any further discussion?

Okay, we are ready to vote on the capital outlay request.

The vote is 11 yes zero no. Okay, that request is approved. We will now move on to approval of high school courses and special course applications. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Annually, we have a responsibility to uh get your approval for the high school courses. We've included that document um in there for you. This year, we do not have any new special courses that we're proposing. So, this document reflects existing courses uh that you have a responsibility to approve annually. Uh as Dr. Allan mentioned at our work session, we do have, if I'm not mistaken, three, maybe four particular classes that we have made adjustments uh for honors versus standard uh based on the demands of those courses. Do recommend approval of uh those high school courses.

All right, thank you. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Okay, we're ready to vote. The vote is 11 yes, zero no. That item is approved. Our final item of the evening is approval of health and career and technical education textbook adoption committee recommendation. Mr. Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh as you all know from many months of discussions and many of you actually observing some of the some of the discussions among the textbook committees uh we have included in this board packet the recommendations for this year's adoption of health and many of our college and career technical program uh textbooks. Uh so with that uh we also had a discussion about the uh uh about the uh the the nature of of uh of these adoptions. Certainly here to answer any questions you have, but I do recommend approval of the package that was presented to you by the committees.

Okay, we have a motion in a second. Mr. Cash.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd just I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Jennifer Sauer and her group of people uh and the presentations that the board was invited to. I I feel that was a great move on uh everyone's part here. Uh it just shows the work and the ethics behind what they do. our teachers asking questions, Jennifer's group and Dave, uh I just I applaud them. They were there for every answer that the vendors didn't have. And it was just nice to sit there and go over some of the engineering and and technical training stuff and hear the questions and seeing those answered so that teachers can go back to their groups and report back. Um I I just felt like it was it was great to be a part of that. Thank you so much.

And Mr. Cash, thank you for those comments. I want to add a thank you to the board for um helping us make the decision to to add the wise of those adoptions. That was helpful. Uh so I hope it I hope it helped you all as well. And as you know, we had in our document the the raw comments um raw meaning we didn't edit them uh from our from our teachers. Dr. triggers.

It's been a year since last March and I would just compliment everyone that the board and the staff have come together and I just I say thank you to everyone. I enjoy going to the meetings talking to people. Um, as M to piggyback on what Dan said, it's uh there's been a lot of growth in the last year and I think it shows. That's all. Just for um the benefit of reminding us and reminding the public, can you reflect back on who was on that committee? um if not by name just in terms of the the con the the makeup of that committee.

Sure. Uh and I'm I'm I'm Dr. Allen. I think I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to call on Miss Sour to make sure that she gives the detail related to that because I would I would give a generalization and I think there's value in her speaking to each one. uh generally speaking because the size of the adoption and the number of teachers uh in these in these adoption cycles with the college and career technical programs and health every teacher was uh was a participant. Uh that that may be a practical impossibility when you have 1,200 teachers at the next adoption. Uh but uh I'll turn it over to Miss Sour.

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm actually glad that you alluded to that that I think it's come up in a few different contexts. This is a very small adoption for us. The state does set our textbook adoption cycle and the state has settled into an eight-year adoption cycle where it's every other year we do a core content area. So in math, an ELA, a science, a social studies, and then the off years are these smaller adoptions like health and PE, foreign language, world language that we have coming up soon. Um, CTE is kind of scattered all the way through because there are so many CTE courses. So, what this year's adoption cycle looked like in the CTE world, we often had on the committee the only teacher in the district who taught the courses that were up for adoption. In some cases, there would be a single committee member who taught several of the courses that were up for adoption. So, I think that at one point we counted in the CTE world and we had somewhere between three and five teachers out in our school buildings who were not represented on the committee officially as a voting member, but they were invited into all of those opportunities to participate with the publishers to do their own review opportunities in their school buildings and on their own time. And then I'll speak in just a minute about how all teachers get the opportunity to make their recommendation to the committee before the committee votes. Our health and PE and our lifetime wellness, which was our middle school and our high school adoption this year, reflected more like what our typical process looks like. So each school nominates one teacher to serve on the committee to represent that content area. So each middle school nominated a teacher to represent their middle school health and PE. Each high school nominated a teacher to represent their high school lifetime wellness. So I would say our committee and this

adoption, which again is a pretty small adoption, probably accounted for somewhere between 20 to 30% of the teachers who teach the course. What happens then is that the committee brings the information back to their buildings. They share with all the other teachers of the course the things they've learned, the experiences they've had, the conversations that they had as a committee together. The teachers in the building have the opportunity to review materials, to meet with publishers, to ask questions. They submit their recommendation by an electronic form to the committee. The committee receives all that recommendation information from across the district and then the committee makes their recommendation which is then what comes to you all as the board.

Can you also speak to the involvement of parents in that committee?

Yes, thank you. It was in my head and then I forgot to say it. I appreciate you reminding me. In addition to teachers, we also have community members and parents. So we uh allow schools to nominate interested parents and community members as part of their own school community and then the board also had the opportunity to nominate a parent or a community member. So we also have parents and community members reflected on that committee and I do actually want to take the opportunity even though I don't think any of them are here present to thank them for their time. They often have jobs and responsibilities outside of the work they do with our committee. And I know that several of them took time outside of their day, whether it's time at their home or at their workplace to spend with our committee. So, we really appreciate the time they give to the process as well.

And we actually, if I'm not mistaken, increased the number of parent participants from what had been done in the past. I don't want to speak to, am I sure that we increased? I know we didn't decrease. Okay. I'd have to go back and check and see if we actually added to the total number. In any event, there there were recommendations from every school. Correct. Yes. Thank you very much. And Mr. Chair, I want to since since Miss Sauer's up here, you all may have noticed the name Sour in the National Merit List. Uh her her son. Thanks. I'll let him know. He'll be embarrassed. That's worthwhile. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, any other questions or comments? All right, we're ready to vote.

The vote is 11 yes, zero no. Okay, that committee recommendation is approved. And with that we've reached the end of our agenda. Thanks everyone for your participation. We are adjourned.